Two hours later, Lan and Moiraine re-entered the throne room, where the Emondsfelder were already preparing the diner. Moiraine hesitated when Nynaeve threw her an angry look, but Lan put his hand on her small back and pushed her forward.
Perrin had brought a table. This way, they were able to sit comfortably, while they were eating. Egwene had helped with the chairs, and Nynaeve had taken care of the soup. Meanwhile, the ogier was resting on the floor.
The wisdom filled six bowls, and Egwene placed four of them in front of every chair. "It felt wrong to rob the kitchen, so, we have to stick to the soup.", the young girl explained apologetically to the Aes Sedai.
Moiraine gave her a small smile. "It smells delicious."
"We could get you something else if you…", Egwene stopped when Moiraine held up her hand.
"There is no need for that. Thank you, Egwene." The eyes of the Aes Sedai fell on Loial. "How is he doing?"
"He is healing.", Perrin explained. He took two bowls, then he moved to the big ogier and sat down on the stairs. He had done this the last few days, although Loial hadn't eaten much, while he had been unconscious. "But it will take time."
"Moiraine Sedai."
The Aes Sedai was by the side of the ogier as soon as she heard him speak. "Builder. You are awake."
"Thanks to Nynaeve's help. She, Egwene, and Perrin helped me, while I was regaining some of my strength."
"I'm glad to hear that. I would like to heal you, but I'm afraid I can't. I can't touch the source anymore, and… I'm not sure if this will ever change."
Loial's eyes widen at her words. "How did this happen?"
Moiraine opened her mouth, but then she just smiled at him and laid her hand on his chest. "This is a story for another day. Eat something and then rest." She stood up and turned to the table, where Nynaeve was staring at her.
"If you think this story doesn't fit today, how about you tell us a different story? How about you tell us what happened to Rand?"
"Rand?" Loial sounded confused, then he checked the room and realized that the redhead wasn't there. "Where is he?"
Moiraine watched Nynaeve with an evil eye, who was returning the favor. The wisdom wasn't giving up that easily. She grinned and said sweetly: "Why don't you tell Loial what happened? After all, he got stabbed here and nearly died. The least he deserves is to know what happened to his friend."
"Rand is gone.", Moiraine said with gritted teeth.
"Gone? What does that mean?" Loial was obviously not sensing the tension between the two women, since he continued to ask: "Where did he go? Did he leave Fal Dara? Or did he leave us? Or do you mean…?"
Nynaeve's smile grew: "Would you please answer Loial's question, Aes Sedai? We all would love to hear where Rand did go. So, could you please be more specific?"
"If you think that you can make me talk, you are surely mistaken, child." Moiraine answered coldly, and Nynaeve's smile faded when Moiraine called her 'child'.
"Alright, you two.", Lan interrupted "We all have some long days behind us. Could we please just eat this soup without fighting?" His head turned from Nynaeve to Moiraine and back.
Finally, it was Egwene, who broke the ice by making Nynaeve sit down. "Lan is right, Nynaeve. It was a long day and we all need to eat."
The warder sighed thankfully, then he waved at his Aes Sedai to join them at the table. Moiraine hesitated again, but in the end, she gave up and moved away from Loial and Perrin. She made three steps when she suddenly started to sway.
"Lan?", she whispered and touched her head with a shaking hand.
The warder heard her weak voice, but when he turned towards his Aes Sedai it was already too late. Moiraine's feet gave up and she collapsed to the floor.
"MOIRAINE!" Lan sprinted to her side and even Nynaeve jumped to her feet to help. "Come on! Open your eyes!" He brushed her brown locks out of her face, but her eyes stayed closed. Lan patted her cheek lightly until Nynaeve swatted his hand away when she kneeled on Moiraine's other side.
"This isn't helping.", she said harshly, while she checked on the Aes Sedai.
"I don't know what else I'm supposed to do, Nynaeve! She was fine and suddenly, she…!" Desperately, the warder laid his hand on Moiraine's hair. What did just happen?
Nynaeve looked at him angrily, but at least this time, she didn't slap him. "The good thing is that she is breathing. I don't see anything that could explain her sudden unconsciousness, but maybe she will have a terrible headache tomorrow."
"Why isn't she waking up?", Egwene asked scared.
"Maybe it's the exhaustion. She walked to the eye of the world on foot. Or it is the loss of her power. I don't know. I've never seen anything like it before."
"I'll get her back to bed." Lan pulled the unconscious woman in his arms, then he left the throne room quickly.
The young wisdom sighed heavily. This woman was always finding a way to escape her questions! But Nynaeve wouldn't give up that easily. She took two bowls from the table and two spoons.
"Where are you going?" Egwene looked at her questioning.
"You two stay with Loial and make sure that he eats something from the soup."
"And where are you going?" Perrin repeated Egwene's question, while Nynaeve was already walking to the door.
"I'll make sure that Lan eats something as well. And if I'm lucky, maybe Moiraine wakes up and she will finally answer my questions. This damn woman can't get away with this every time!"
Perrin just shook his head, then he helped the weak ogier to eat the soup. Egwene, who didn't want to sit at the table on her own, walked over to him and told Loial what he had missed since he had gotten stabbed by Padan Fain.
Nynaeve entered Moiraine's room with the two bowls of soup. Lan had laid Moiraine on her bed. She wasn't wearing her cloak anymore, and right now he was taking her boots off.
"I hope that you don't take off all of her clothes." It was supposed to be a joke, but Lan just looked at her with cold eyes before he continued with the boots. "At least, you can't say that it's my fault. I didn't touch her."
Lan threw the second boot on the floor, then he pulled the blanket over the small woman and tugged her in. "I wish you would have slapped her. At least then, I would know why she isn't responding." A lock had fallen over Moiraine's eyes, and Lan brushed it softly behind her ear.
Nynaeve held a bowl in front of his face. "I brought you soup."
"I'm not hungry."
"You need to eat."
"So does she, but she can't."
Nynaeve growled, then she stepped in front of him. This way, he couldn't ignore her. "Listen. I know that you feel miserable right now. You care for her, but you can't help her if you starve yourself to death."
"I don't starve that…"
"And you will get weak if you don't take care of yourself." Nynaeve acted as if he hadn't said anything at all. "And a weak man can't carry her anymore if anything should happen to her again. Do you really want Perrin to take over for you?"
"Fine.", Lan growled and took the bowl out of her hands "Has anyone ever told you that you can be really persistent?"
"A few." The wisdom shrugged with her shoulders, while she walked to the little table, which had two chairs. Lan followed her and they both sat down. They ate in quiet, while Lan was always having an eye on the unconscious woman in the bed.
"Will you tell her about what has happened between us?"
Lan looked at the wisdom, who was studying her soup as if it was the most interesting thing she has ever seen. A small smile appeared on his lips. "I don't need to. She already knows."
Surprised, Nynaeve's head shot up and she looked at him in horror. "How does she know? I mean… when did you have time to… she left in the middle of the night!"
The warder chuckled and looked at her with a smile. "She is my Aes Sedai, Nynaeve. And before she had left Fal Dara, our bond had been intact. It's not just me, who can feel what she feels. She can feel me too." Then his eyes fell on Moiraine again and his smile faded. "At least, she used to."
Gently, the wisdom put her hand over his. "You miss her." It wasn't a question, but Lan nodded anyway. Nynaeve squeezed his hand, then she said: "I would like to say that I can understand you. But we both know that it would be a lie. Seriously, I don't know how you can keep your calm around her."
"That's because you don't know her."
"I know her for over a month now!"
"No, you hated her from the first moment, she had walked into the tavern in the Two Rivers." Nynaeve opened her mouth to protest, but Lan wasn't done. "You hate the Aes Sedai, and since she is one, you never gave her a chance. Instead, you go against everything she says and if you could, you would strangle her."
The young woman didn't like his accusations. She took a deep breath. "That is…!" Then she saw Lan's raised eyebrow and her anger faded quickly. She pulled back her hand and returned her eyes to her soup. "Maybe it's true." At least, Lan wasn't the type of man, who took comfort in being right, although she saw his smile out of the corner of her eye, while he was eating his soup.
For a few minutes, they sat in silence and ate their soup. Sadly, Nynaeve still had questions, and she wasn't good at holding them back. "Alright. Tell me. Did you trust her from the first moment you met her?"
"I didn't."
Now, the wisdom was surprised. "You… didn't?"
"No, when I met her… I was kind of like you. I didn't trust the Aes Sedai and thought they were the enemy."
"What changed your mind?"
"She did. Even back then, she had been stubborn and persistent. Some friends of mine and I escorted her to Chachin, but then I got stuck in some fights and intrigues and suddenly, I found out that she wasn't like the others. The more time, I spent with her, the more I got to know about her personality and in the end, I didn't have to think about it when she asked me to be her warder."
Lan put his empty bowl on the table, then he stood up and moved back to Moiraine's bed. Sighing, he leaned against one of the bedposts and looked down on his Aes Sedai. Nynaeve finished her soup, then she put it on the table as well.
"So, you stayed with her since then?"
"Yes, and I've never regretted it."
"For how long are you bonded to her?"
"She is my Aes Sedai for over twenty years now."
This time, Nynaeve didn't say anything. Twenty years was a very long time to get used to someone. Lan had been in Moiraine's head for such a long time and now, this connection was gone. The Aes Sedai was a part of him.
"A part of you is missing." She hadn't meant to speak it out loud, but Lan heard it and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Now that your bond is masked, you probably feel like a part of you is missing."
Lan turned his head to the side as if he was listening to something, then he nodded slowly. "I think your description is correct." His eyes returned to Moiraine's face. "I would do anything to get our bond back. To feel her again. But right now, I just want her to wake up."
Carefully, he sat down beside the unconscious woman and touched her cheek with his fingers. "Please, wake up, Moiraine.", he whispered "I need you to wake up."
Nynaeve felt the weird feeling of jealousy running through her veins, and she angrily pushed her fingernails into her palm. There was no need to be jealous. Lan loved Moiraine in a different kind of way.
Suddenly, Moiraine's body started to shake uncontrollably. "Moiraine!", Lan yelled, but the woman wasn't waking up. Nynaeve ran to the other side of the bed. Helpless, she watched how Lan tried to press his Aes Sedai on the bed, but it didn't stop the shaking. "Moiraine, wake up! MOIRAINE!"
The Aes Sedai opened her eyes and gasped for air. Immediately, Nynaeve and Lan went into action, by pulling the woman into an upright position. While Moiraine was trying to catch her breath, Lan was brushing her hair out of her face and finally cupped her cheek in his hand.
"Talk to me, Moiraine. What happened? What did you…?"
"Lan! She needs to breathe!", Nynaeve interrupted him harshly.
"I just wanna know…!"
"Don't you see that she is exhausted?" This time, the warder took a closer look at his Aes Sedai and noticed that Nynaeve was right. Moiraine was still trying to calm her breathing, while her skin looked terribly pale. He should have seen this. He pressed his lips on Moiraine's temple.
"I'm sorry. I'm just worried."
"I'd like to have some answers too, but not while she is like that.", the wisdom explained "She needs to rest."
"SHE can hear you.", Moiraine entered their conversation, but her voice was nothing more than a whisper.
"I'll get you some water." Lan poured water into a glass and handed it to Moiraine. She reached out her hand, but it was still shaking. So, Lan held the glass to her lips and helped her to drink, although it wasn't much she could gulp. "Do you think you can eat something?"
Moiraine shook her head. It had been hard to take those small gulps. Her body wasn't ready to take more. "I think Nynaeve is right. I just need to rest a little and then I will be fine."
"Did she just say that I'm right?" Nynaeve was shocked, and even Moiraine gave her a small smile.
"Don't get used to it, wisdom." Lan chuckled at Moiraine's words, while he put down the glass, then he took off his tunic and his boots. Both women watched him confused, but it was Moiraine, who finally asked: "And what are you doing?"
"I will stay with you." The warder shoved his Aes Sedai into the middle of the bed, then he moved in as well. Moiraine tried to protest, but Lan ignored it. It wasn't the first time that they had shared a bed, and after the last few days, he needed to have her close to him. Otherwise, he wouldn't find any sleep, he was sure of that.
Of course, Moiraine tried to escape him by fleeing on Nynaeve's side of the bed, but Lan pulled her back in his arms before he lay down with her. "I don't want you to stay here." Her weak attempts to fight him off made him almost laugh. Sadly, for her, he knew how to handle her, so, he grabbed her right arm and pulled her to his side until her arm laid over his stomach and her head was resting on his chest. At first, Moiraine tried to get up, but his hand on the back of her head made it impossible for her to move.
Meanwhile, Nynaeve went to the table and got the two empty bowls. Lan threw a glance at her when she walked to the door, but she didn't look at them. "Call me if anything happens again. I'm in my room." He wanted to say something, but he knew that she was pissed. Why couldn't she understand the relationship between Moiraine and him? Why did it always have to be so complicated?
"Go after her." Surprised, the warder noticed that his Aes Sedai had stopped fighting against his embrace. Gently, he stroked over her hair.
"Rest. You need to sleep."
"I will, as soon as you leave this room."
"This won't happen. You collapsed and were unconscious for quite a while. I won't let you out of my sight."
Moiraine groaned annoyed, but otherwise, she made no further attempts to get him out of her bed. Lan pulled the blanket over her, then he closed his eyes and listened to her breathing until sleep finally took over.