[pfsb] the mirrors of the wheel

[blue_ajah]

The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, and all things are part of the Pattern. There is little that she can do now but wait, guard against events worsening as best she can, and watch.

As a result, Moiraine is in the bar this evening, musing over her thoughts with a cup of tea at hand and a slender, leather-bound journal open to a blank page before her.

Comments

[bialy_wilk]

He snorts at that, but there's an amused glint in his golden eyes. "Pretty sure the real magicians I know would say that's not a factor with me."

Yen would, anyway. Even if she doesn't mean it.

[blue_ajah]

Moiraine takes another sip of her wine, then smiles at him over the glass. “Oh?” she asks, her tone inviting him to elaborate. “Why is that?”

[bialy_wilk]

Sorceresses and their smiles. "The Signs we use require different skills," he tells her. "Meant to be quick. Easy to use in battle."

He lifts a hand, makes the sign of Igni, allowing a small flame to bloom in his hand, flickering like a tiny heart. "Can't, for example, heal up gashes from a werewolf's claws."

His yellow eyes are steady on her. "Or affect old scars."

[blue_ajah]

“Would that I could heal such an old injury permanently,” she says, watching the flame dance in his hand the way the stylized flame of Tar Valon does in its renditions. Coincidence, that he should have chosen such an example, or something more?

All things are part of the Pattern. Moiraine glances up at him, meeting his steady golden gaze without hesitation or evasion. “But that lies beyond my skill, I am afraid, although I can relieve discomfort for a time. Newer wounds are easier.”

[bialy_wilk]

He drops the Sign, allowing the little flame to burn out, and lowers his hand. "Appreciated the help with the gashes," he says. "I'm used to the knee."

If the Isle of Avalon couldn't heal it, what could? "So where do your skills lie?"

[blue_ajah]

She gives a very slight shrug. “I am not at my strongest when working with Earth and Fire. Beyond that, it is a matter of the weave.”

[bialy_wilk]

He has no context for what her strongest looks like, and suspects that's why she'd answered how she had.

"Weave. That's what you call your magic?"

[blue_ajah]

“It might be better to say that is how I use it,” she explains. “I am Aes Sedai. I channel saidar, the One Power, drawn from the True Source, which is the very force of Creation itself. There are five powers that comprise the One Power - earth, air, fire, water, and spirit. To combine these in useful configurations is to weave. Some might call these configurations spells, I suppose, instead of weaves.”

[bialy_wilk]

Sorceresses. Always getting caught in the details. Pedants, every one of them. He listens, logging it all away and trying not to think about how Yen would latch right onto all of this. Magic and weaving. Sources of power.

Except Moiraine had said the true Source. His eyes narrow, thoughtful. "This Source," he says. "It ever take human form?"

[blue_ajah]

Absolute, stunned shock flashes in the depth of her eyes before she lowers her gaze to the wineglass, thinking as quickly as she can. It will be too much to hope that he will have missed her surprise. So be it.

“Why do you ask?”

[bialy_wilk]

Seems he's struck a nerve. "Just sounds familiar."

Familiar enough, anyway. Wearyingly so. For a second, he spares some pity for whatever poor sap the people in her world might be chasing. "I take it there's something to the question, for you."

[blue_ajah]

“It is complicated to answer, you see,” she murmurs. “And I may speak no word that is not true. What do you mean, familiar?”

[bialy_wilk]

Sorceresses. He leans forward, elbow on his knee, and stares at her, unblinking.

"I'll tell you if you tell me," he says, blunt. "'It's complicated' is an excuse. Simplify it."

[blue_ajah]

She neither flinches nor quails under that intent stare. Dark eyes meet gold ones, and hold.

Rand deserves peace. He had paid the highest price of all for it, for all their sakes. She will not be the one to see it undone.

“Tell me why it matters, first,” she says, letting the flat directness of her words match his.

[bialy_wilk]

He stares at her for a long moment, his breath coming slow and even. She doesn't back down, not that he fully expects her too.

But it would have been nice. "Because it would be nice to know if there's another world out there full of people trying to suck power out of someone whose only crime was to be born full of it," he says, finally. "So. Simplify it."

[blue_ajah]

“I see,” she murmurs, and is quiet for a moment as she considers, weighing risks and possibilities.

Finally—-

“Yes. It is possible for a person to be imbued with such power.”

[bialy_wilk]

He sighs, lifts a hand to rub at a head suddenly spiking with pain. "Wonderful."

Even if Ciri somehow escapes the Hunt, could they find this world, another Source there? What if she runs there, only to be hunted all over again?

[blue_ajah]

Considering him, she shifts her next remark. “Although it is not a thing that is commonly known,” she says, instead.

[bialy_wilk]

"What does that matter, if the people who do know it are the ones who can do something with that knowledge?"

And she can, clearly. Whether she would or not he has no idea, but it doesn't matter.

[blue_ajah]

“That assumes that they are,” she counters, crisply.

[bialy_wilk]

"It's always the case, in my experience. Because only the people who can do something with it are even looking for it."

He meets her glance levelly. "Am I wrong?"

[blue_ajah]

“Perhaps this is a difference between our worlds,” she murmurs, holding his gaze. “Although I grant that what you have said is true for most forms of power and those that seek to acquire it.”

[bialy_wilk]

"Didn't say I was wrong."

Which is all that really matters to him. He hopes Ciri never finds her way to this world of Aes Sedai and magic weaves. Of human Sources. He leans back in his chair. "Plenty of those wielding power who'd like a handy battery they can bring around with them."

[blue_ajah]

The only sign of her surprise is in the way she blinks at that. “That is something else entirely, and does not require a person.”

Dark eyes narrow as she studies him. “I do not know of any person who could be used as an angreal as you describe.”

[bialy_wilk]

"No? Not even your human Source?"

So maybe it is different. But if it is, it isn't by much. "Lucky you."