[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]

"You will know, because if you cannot reach that far, you will not be able to stabilize the arrival point. It may not be impossible."

[we_bring_hell]

"I suppose not, if it can bridge the unmeasurable gap between Milliways and other worlds."

She holds up the diagrammed weave. "May I keep this?"

[blue_ajah]

Moiraine smiles.

"Yes. I made it here today for you."

She continues,

"But I would ask you to not try it alone for the first time."

[we_bring_hell]

She nods. "I will not. But I will work to memorize it. I would be pleased to practice with you, as well."

"If the location and destination are integral to the weave, transferring control of the finished weave would not work, is that so? I would need to complete the weave as you channel the energy to me?"

[blue_ajah]

She nods.

"To weave a gateway, the channeler needs to know their location, and then build the weave upon it. I am uncertain if you would be the one who needs to know it or if I would, if I am feeding you the energy through a link, but I would presume that it would be you if it works as other links have."

[we_bring_hell]

"You have said it can be exceptionally dangerous if it goes awry," she says. "What are the dangers?"

[blue_ajah]

"Among other things, death of the channeler or of someone attempting to pass through the gateway," Moiraine tells her.

"Or if they do not die, the channeler may be burned out, and lose their ability entirely, forever."

She pins Harrow with a level look.

"I do not think you would appreciate experiencing that."

[we_bring_hell]

"Indeed I would not," she says mildly. "It is well to be aware of risk."

She lets her eyes drift back to the evergreens. "As I know you are quite aware." Her lips thin as she seems to come to a decision.

[blue_ajah]

"I will not say that no risk is necessary, but it would be well to be wise about them."

Moiraine watches Harrow as she watches the trees through the gateway, and her eyebrows rise slightly.

[we_bring_hell]

"But how can one be wise without the truth?" she says in a low voice.

She looks away, and without looking back at Moiraine, says more clearly: "You are a collector of histories. There is--a secret history of the Ninth House. I would share it with you, that you may judge wisely who to trust."

"My pride will brook nothing else."

[blue_ajah]

"Very well," she says.

Moiraine releases the gateway and lets it dissolve into nothing, and gestures for Harrow to take a seat at the table.

"Then join me, and I will make us private, so that we shall not be overheard."

[we_bring_hell]

"My mother," she says wretchedly, "told me that if such things must be spoken, it should be done in salt water."

"Or I can put it in writing. Only it must be destroyed after you read it."

[blue_ajah]

The Aes Sedai raises her eyebrows.

"Although I am not unwilling to wait for you to scribe this, I suspect that reading it so would limit the ability for us to discuss matters."

A beat of silence.

"If you insist on surrounding us with salt water, we can find a way to do so. If you prefer me to create a ward with water, I can do that as well. The ward I had intended to create prevents eavesdropping; no sound can pass within or without, and certain weaves that allow others to listen at a distance cannot be so used within such a shield."

She waits, then, for Harrow to make her decision.

[we_bring_hell]

She exhales. "A ward of water - that should satisfy tradition. I don't know that it has any intrinsic power otherwise, anyway."

She takes a seat, pressing her hands together so she doesn't fidget.

[blue_ajah]

The glow around her has not faded while she held saidar after releasing the gateway. Moiraine inclines her head, and silver threads of spirit, shot through with a latticed weave of water, form themselves around them both in a pliable, veritable fortress.

She ties the weaves and leaves them in place, then allows the corona of light around her to fade.

[we_bring_hell]

Harrow sips the tea, her throat suddenly dry.

"More than ten thousand years ago,"she begins. "Before Resurrection. On the third planet of the star now called Dominicus. The human race grew and prospered. This was the age of the ten billion, when humanity outgrew it's ancestral home and spread outward. Their home world became the first of nine Houses, across the planets of the system."

"And then they grew further, to the myraid stars, to colony worlds. But Dominicus remained the seat of Empire."

[blue_ajah]

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend....

She nods, listening, carefully comparing the description that Harrow lays before them to other worlds and other planets that she is familiar with.

[we_bring_hell]

"Then tragedy struck," she says. "Enemies from the colony worlds used a weapon that snuffed out Dominicus. All the planets of the system were stripped of life."

This is the easy part; history. Dogma.

"But on the First House was the man who would become God. The titanic thanergetic bloom of ten billion souls awakened in him necromantic power beyond compare."

"He restored the star, and the other eight Houses, and their populations. But the First House remained a grave. And there he gathered his disciples, one from each House."

"Seven became Lyctors. And one... Anastasia... became the first Tombkeeper of the Ninth House, the Reverend Mother of the Black Vestals. My ancestor."

[blue_ajah]

For a moment, she thinks of the crew of Serenity, of Malcolm Reynolds and River Tam, and of Earth-that-Was--

--but as Harrow describes the mechanism by which thanergy took rise over thalergy, by which necromantic power became ascendant, dark eyes suddenly narrow with intent focus.

She says nothing, but nods again, in response to Harrow's mention of her ancestor, silently urging her to continue.

[we_bring_hell]

"There was a being. Something God could put down once but not twice. Something so feared that... That he set it in a Tomb in the Ninth, under spells to keep it between life and death."

"That he established the Black Vestals and the line of Tombkeepers, that there would always be voices to pray that the rock be not rolled away; what slept would remain sleeping, insensate."

"And a myriad passed. The Ninth House remained small, always waning, until in the nine thousand, nine hundred and eighty second year of our Lord, only two necromancers remained to guard the tomb. Hundreds of nuns and priests and lay dedicats, but all ancient, and none of them adepts."

"Only the Reverend Mother and Reverend Father. And in all of Drearburh, only two hundred children to be the next generation."

She pauses now to steel herself. It's easier if she thinks of it as history. As nothing to do with her.

[blue_ajah]

"A very long time," she murmurs. "And a very heavy charge to bear."

[we_bring_hell]

"I have told you," she says carefully, "of the arrival of Gideon Nav. Two hundred and first. I will pass over it."

"The Reverend Mother and Father could not concieve a viable fetus. They were both necromancers and that makes it... Difficult." Despite her best intentions she begins to fidget, hands restless.

"They conceived a necromantic ritual to ensure they... kindled. And that the child would be a necromancer, a once in a generation genius who could save the House and the line of Tombkeepers."

"A... ritual," she falters.

[blue_ajah]

"A difficult one, I must presume," the Aes Sedai says.

The expression on the ageless face is still, and her tone composed, but her dark eyes remain clear and focused on Harrow.

[we_bring_hell]

"In 9982 there were two hundred children on the Ninth House. In 9983 there were two. Gideon Nav and... and the Reverend Daughter."

"They used a gas," she says faintly, colorlessly. "Wei Wuxian saw it on me the moment we met. The traces of two hundred souls."

[blue_ajah]

She is silent for some time.

"They sacrificed a generation to ensure your birth," she says, finally. "Because they believed none of the others would do, I must presume."

And Wei Wuxian had seen it. She makes note of that, and sets it aside.

"And raised you to your perceived destiny."