"Do you know if what it shows is inevitable?" Moiraine asks, once she has had enough time to change and wash her face. She doesn't have her things with her, but Aviendha has scrounged shift, stockings, skirt, and blouse for her. They are all made for a taller woman, and the blouse keeps slipping off one shoulder, but Moiraine supposes it could be worse.

Bair hands her tea as Aviendha says, "Neither Elayne nor I can tell."

"Was what you saw so terrible?" Sorilea asks.

"Yes," Moiraine says flatly.

"We believe it shows us warnings," Aviendha says. "But I was the first to walk back through, that we know of. We simply do not know. I, too, saw things."

The Al'Rand the pillar-version of herself spoke of would be Lan and Nynaeve's son. Kana would be their granddaughter.

"How do we stop them?" Moiraine demands.

Aviendha shrugs, as do Bair and Sorilea.

"We think - we hope - even changing little things will help," Sorilea says. "Names, or places."

"We can control only our actions," Aviendha adds. "As you are so fond of reminding us, the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills."

Moiraine considers. She knows of at least one thing she can do. "Why did you ask me to come?"

Bair and Sorilea look pointedly away, but Aviendha says, "I wanted to."


Aviendha returns her to Tar Valon, where Thom waits.

"One day you will stop haring off into danger without me," he says.

"Probably not," she replies, "but I will usually be sorry about it."

He shakes his head, but he falls in at her heels.

Iseult has a different warder with her when Moiraine arrives in the Amyrlin's antechamber. He and Thom exchange nods.

"The Amyrlin is busy," Iseult says. She sounds as if she has said it many times today. Undoubtedly she has.

Moiraine smiles politely. "The Amyrlin is a busy woman," she says. "All I need to do is send on a message."

Iseult's eyes flick up - another Aes Sedai enters. Moiraine can feel how much stronger she is, and that should give her precedence. She is about to grit her teeth and defer, but Iseult looks back at Moiraine.

"Would you like paper, Moiraine, or would a verbal message suffice?"

"Verbal will do," Moiraine says. "I must decline her offer, but I was honored to receive it. I will be returning to Malkier this evening."

Iseult nods, but the door to the study itself swings open.

"Get in here," Cadsuane snaps.

Moiraine gestures for Thom to remain, and obeys.

"You must decline?" Cadsuane demands even as she slams up a ward against eavesdropping.

"And I will be returning to Malkier this evening," Moiraine says.

Cadsuane glares.

"I am not suited," Moiraine says.

"You're suited if I say you are, girl."

"No," Moiraine says, hearing herself say, I'm going to kill them all, but it is quiet. Mostly it is drowned out by, Al'Rand Mandragoran and his children are dead.

Moiraine is not often afraid, not this bone-deep shuddery feeling, but she is now. She needs to be in Malkier. She knows it.

Cadsuane must hear some of it in her voice, because she leans back against the desk and crosses her arms. Moiraine looks out the window, where she saw herself stand wearing a white kesiera as if it was a widow's ki'sain.

"I cannot be objective," Moiraine says. "I cannot be unbiased, and the Amyrlin Seat must be, even more than any other Aes Sedai."

"None of us are unbiased, girl," Cadsuane says. "All we can do is try."

Moiraine drags her gaze from the window to meet Cadsuane's eyes straight on. "I do not want to try," she says.

Cadsuane's glare falters, and she searches Moiraine's face.

"You know something," she says.

"I know all sorts of things," Moiraine replies, ignoring Cadsuane's snort. "Myself best, probably. I promise you - now, later, a century in the future - me in the Amyrlin Seat leads only to ruin."

Cadsuane says nothing.

"Find someone else," Moiraine says, and she knows she sounds pleading. She can't even be sorry for it. "Let me go home."

Cadsuane, after a long moment, sighs. "I have seen women aplenty with their heads turned by pretty boys and pretty girls. I'm not sure it is a comfort that yours was turned by an ugly country."

Malkier is not an ugly country, Moiraine thinks fiercely. Malkier is strong, and Malkier will endure, and that is more beautiful than anything she can think to name except perhaps Lan and Nynaeve sitting beside a fire, light gilding the edges of their faces as Nynaeve laughs and Lan looks down, all fake modesty. More than that, Malkier is her country, and she is… what?

"I belong there," she says instead of any of that.

There isn't much to say after that. She takes her leave with an appropriately respectful curtsey and leaves to collect Thom.

Iseult has three warders with her this time, including the one from earlier but not the one with the hadori. How many does the woman have?

"If it pleases you, Moiraine, I will send you back," Iseult says. "Around dusk?"

Moiraine shoots a glance at Thom. He nods.

"I would be honored," Moiraine replies. Thom says nothing when they return to her rooms, though she keeps trying to prod him.


Moiraine arrives at the Travelling ground before dusk, still without having changed from the blouse and skirt the Wise Ones gave her. She could have, but Thom had dared her to play Snakes and Foxes and she had something she wanted to try out.

She had won Snakes and Foxes all five times.

Thom had sat back and frowned at her, chewing at an unlit pipe.

"It isn't all I brought back," she had said.

Thom's crooked grin matched the sudden wry humor she felt in her head. "That, Moiraine Sedai," he had said, "is nothing less than I expected."

Now, she waits. It is Thom that alerts her to the Aes Sedai who approaches.

Moshein Pendanon is a brown and one of the few Malkieri Aes Sedai left, if not the only one. She is close to Moiraine's height, has iron grey hair, wears a blue ki'sain and dresses Moiraine knows to be the high fashions of Malkier before it was overrun, and she has not bonded another warder since her last one died twenty years ago.

Moiraine knows all of this because when Lan had met her on one of their rare visits to the tower, she had felt his shock at seeing her, and had done his best to hide behind Moiraine when Moshein curtseyed shallowly in his direction. Moiraine knows it, because anyone that has the kind of power to make Lan sad and relieved all at once was someone she wanted to know about, just in case he wanted the information.

Moshein says, "They call you Moiraine of Malkier, now."

Moiraine does not quite scramble to her feet, but it is close. Moshein is not that much more powerful than she is, but Moshein is considerably older, and Moshein is a Malkieri survivor. She curtseys, the exact depth that Moshein gave to Lan a decade ago, and says nothing.

Moshein shakes her head and sits, gesturing for Moiraine to do the same. "You do not bow to me, Moiraine. You have kept him safe and sane, and delivered him home."

"Nynaeve and Myrelle had something to do with that," Moiraine says.

"Malkier," Moshein whispers, and Moiraine pretends not to notice the tear that Moshein wipes away. "I tried, you know. We all did. When Malkier fell and we were called back, those of us sent, we Malkieri kept on anyway. Some of us died then. Most of us died later, because we could not let it go."

Moshein has more tears than she can wipe away now, and Moiraine can no longer ignore them. She gently pries the handkerchief that Moshein holds clenched in a fist free, and tries to dab at the other woman's face, settling on her knees to better reach. Moshein watches her face with uncomfortable intensity.

"I went to the edge of the blight so many times," Moshein says. "I lost four warders. I nearly followed more times than I can count. And I never did. I could never seem to win, and I could never seem to die either. Eventually I stopped trying. You never stopped, did you?"

"Malkier was not my goal," Moiraine confesses, sitting back. "The world was my goal, and if I could keep Lan safe while I did it - well. I paid a price, but it was a small price to pay."

Moshein slides from her chair to her knees as well, reaching to clasp Moiraine's in her own. "Maybe this is why I could not die," she says. "Maybe I am here to aid Malkier, and you. Take me with you, Moiraine. I would like to see the golden crane flying again, where it should be."

And, well. Moiraine cannot deny her that.