[pfsb] investigations and explorations

[blue_ajah]

Two days after Moiraine brought Wei Wuxian's talismans back to Twin Peaks, after she has taken the time necessary to review all of her notes as well as the histories she has been collecting, she calls Dale Cooper, who is still in Olympia, now, rather than Seattle.

All things considered, the conversation could have gone much, much worse.

She is well aware that they are going to have a much longer discussion after he returns in a few weeks, but he had agreed not to ask her to wait. She, in turn, had agreed, as before, not to go to Glastonbury Grove alone, or at night. She also agrees not to approach the pool closer than necessary to place the talismans, or to test it with her own weaving - not at present, anyway.

Hawk had been her next call.

A few days later, after he has had time to consider and to consult with the Bookhouse Boys, Hawk knocks on her apartment door and agrees to her request.

* * * * * * *
When Moiraine returns to Milliways, she leaves a sealed note with Bar, addressed to Wei Wuxian.

Master Wei--

I made the trial of your talismans according to your instructions. When I activated the one at the northernmost point, glowing red energy swept inward from the circle in a wave focused on the pool at its center.

The pool absorbed it all. It vanished into the depths without a ripple, and without a trace.

Nothing else has happened. Yet.

--Moiraine Sedai

That task completed, she settles at her preferred table with tea and begins sketching something in a notebook.

Comments

[blue_ajah]

Although she does not outwardly react, she is pleased to observe how quick Gideon Nav is to seize upon the key distinction, even if it will make conversation slightly more challenging.

(Given what Harrow had said about her, she is not particularly surprised, either.)

"A brief visit," she says. "Although not one that others there were aware of."

[blue_ajah]

Her dark-eyed gaze sharpens, at that.

"When you touched the True Source? What did she say?"

[we_bring_hell]

"'For a moment you went where I cannot follow'," she says soberly. "But she was proud."

[we_do_bones]

Gideon huffs out a breath through her nose and drums her fingers on the table, exasperated and worried.

The problem, of course, is Harrow. Against all possible expectations, Harrow has proved herself to be...not completely the worst. She'd been alarmingly forthcoming after the death of the Fifth and after the avulsion field trial. She'd agreed to work together.

Harrow doesn't trust anyone, least of all Gideon. But she trusts this woman from another world? Gideon doesn't know why that thought progression makes something in her chest feel like a crumpled piece of flimsy, and she's not interested in interrogating it.

There is only one rule, Teacher had said. And that one didn't say anything about bringing visitors from other universes through a portal to stroll around Canaan House while adepts and cavaliers slowly move closer and closer to all-out war.

I need you to trust me, says Harrow again in her memory.

She did ask. So maybe...maybe Gideon can try.

"It's creepy, right?" she says, making up her mind. "Even aside from the growing likelihood that we'll all die horribly, that place just gives me the creeps."

[blue_ajah]

"It is certainly different," the Aes Sedai allows.

She has no intention of telling Gideon Nav the reason she was there in the first place, of course, or all of what she saw and learned.

"And sparsely populated."

[blue_ajah]

"I see."

She taps a forefinger against the table and absently tests the texture of its surface as she thinks.

"Secrets and salt water, you said. Is that why, then, if there is no other salt water on the Ninth?"

[we_bring_hell]

"I believe it must be," she says. "The tradition was my mother's, and I am certain she did not know the origin, but it is the only thing that makes sense."

"She maintained a salt water baptismal font we used when we discussed my origins or anything else that she considered a secret of the Reverend Family."

"She was Novenarius, descended from Samael Novenary, who served Anastasia the First; two hundredth Nova- in her line. It may have been passed down from those who remembered when the Rock was laid down."

[blue_ajah]

"I have heard," she says, slowly, "through this place, of traditions and spells that rely heavily on herbs and other ingredients."

She can almost see the look that Nynaeve Sedai would have given her, immediately prior to launching into a lecture about the importance of tools beyond power to accomplish desired goals.

(Nynaeve had been right, and the world saved because of it.)

"Salt is often used in them for purification and protection, and in some cases to encircle as a barrier."

[we_do_bones]

And getting sparser by the day, it seems.

"Not if you count the constructs," Gideon points out. She doesn't. But maybe someone who has the right combination of temperament and interests to gain Harrow's attention would. "A population of mostly bones is something it shares with the Ninth."

And both places suck a lot.

[we_bring_hell]

"I was not aware of that," she says. "Very possible, then."

[blue_ajah]

"Indeed."

The Aes Sedai sits silently for a second, thinking, then meets Harrow's gaze with her own.

"There are examples from my own birth world of those who were imprisoned because of the danger they carried, who would have seen the world destroyed. There are also examples of those whose return was awaited, for the saving of the world; and whose foretold return brought destruction and salvation both. I cannot tell you which she will be, but I will help you to find out."

And then, once the answer is known, a path will likely become clear.

[blue_ajah]

"There is a difference between a construct and a being capable of independent thought," she observes.

"I have not seen the Ninth, but I am curious. Would you tell me of it?"

[we_bring_hell]

She nods, and her face is troubled. Torn. "What all accounts agree on is that she is an enemy of the Emperor. Certainly now, if not before he imprisoned her."

"If she kills him, Dominicus will be snuffed out and the Houses will die. I do not desire that. I pray she sleeps a long, long time. But I--" She swallows.

I am her creature.

"I cannot hate her. Perhaps there is a death appointed for us all, even God."

[blue_ajah]

"All things are part of the Pattern," she murmurs.

[we_bring_hell]

For the first time, Harrow begins to understands the manifold ways in which Moiraine uses that phrase.

In this case: How God takes, and takes, and takes.

"I confess I have dreaded this confession," she says. "It has not gone as... as I imagined."

[we_do_bones]

Without her sunglasses on, Gideon's expression, even under a thick coat of ebony and alabaster paint, very clearly reads why, though.

"It's furthest from Dominicus in the system. The whole House is in one big shaft that got drilled down a myriad ago. Try to walk on the surface and you'll kick it pretty quickly. Uh..."

What do you say about the place you've been trying to escape since you could walk? "It's the worst. All I ever wanted to do was leave."

[blue_ajah]

A small, wry smile curves her lips.

"I have been known to surprise people, from time to time."

The Aes Sedai regards her thoughtfully for a moment, then adds,

"Of course, there is much in my own past that informs the present moment. Someday, perhaps, I will tell you more of it, should you be interested."

[blue_ajah]

"And now you have," she observes.

She finds it interesting what Gideon has not said, as much as what she has.

[we_bring_hell]

She inclines her head. "I would be honored. I would also be glad to learn more about how you mastered the art of composure, some time."

"Did you have more questions you wished to ask?"

[blue_ajah]

"It was part of my training in the White Tower," she says. "I would be glad to share certain techniques with you."

"I do not think there is a need to ask additional questions at present. There will be, in the future, I believe. Between now and then we may consider various possibilities."

She gestures gracefully at the wards around them.

"Shall I remove these, then?"

[we_bring_hell]

She nods. "Thank you for honoring my mother's superstition. I... Even before their deaths, I was a symbol to them of their moral nadir. We were never close, and after seven years of... it is hard to remember them as they were."

"But they were my parents once, and it is... a small thing."

[we_do_bones]

Gideon shakes her head, conscious that she's probably said too much and uncomfortable with it. The last thing a true cavalier would do is admit they hate their House and would do anything, anything at all to escape it.

Besides, she hasn't escaped it. Not yet. Not until Harrow ascends to whatever Lyctorhood has in store for her and Gideon is free to head to the Cohort, paid commission in hand.

"Harrow can tell you all about it," she says, sliding her dark glasses back on. Her eyes – those golden, nothing-like-Ninth eyes – disappear behind their smoked lenses. "She's the head of the House. I'm sure she's memorized all ten thousand years of Ninth history and anything else you might want to know."

[blue_ajah]

"I understand," Moiraine says. "It is difficult, when one's family is less than one might desire, but the connections can still matter. Sometimes more than they might otherwise."

She embraces saidar and unties the ward's weave, allowing it to dissipate, then releases her connection to the True Source.

[blue_ajah]

"I have found in the past that the viewpoint of a Warder may reveal different aspects of the thing observed than that of an Aes Sedai," she says.

"But I shall not press you. You have just met me, and I am well aware that this place can be overwhelming, at times."

[we_bring_hell]

She slides the portal weave diagram into her journal. "I think I will retire for now," she says. "I have taken a great deal of your time, and I think we both have much to consider."

She rises, and a long beat passes; Harrow can hear every beat of her rotten necromancer's heart, measuring the time out slowly. "I wish you," she stumbles, "every good thing. Until we meet again."