After lunch, they were no closer to a solution than before. Mother Fiosä allowed Rand to leave the cottage to see Egwene, Perrin, and Loial, but it was Nynaeve's assignment to watch over him.

Even Moiraine was allowed to leave with Lan following her every move. The warder was surprised when his Aes Sedai didn't wander through the little village. Instead, she moved to a hill, which lay behind the last cottages and gave a beautiful view over the landscape. There she sat down cross-legged and closed her eyes, while she tried to find her connection to the source.

Lan needed a moment to realize what she was doing, then he stepped behind her. "You have to stop doing this, Moiraine."

"I won't get my access back by doing nothing."

"And you won't get better if you keep pushing yourself."

Moiraine decided to ignore Lan. He would give up soon when she… Suddenly, she felt Lan's fingers on the back of her head. He pushed her just a little bit forward before his fingers disappeared again. The Aes Sedai bit her tongue. She needed to concentrate. It was a waste of time to fight with… His fingers were back and pushed her again.

"Stop that.", Moiraine said in her best warning tone, and his fingers retracted.

"As soon as you stop pushing yourself."

Again, they turned silent, then Lan's fingers appeared a third time, but now, the push was harder than the other two.

"Lan!" Moiraine's nerves were really thin. "Leave me alone!"

"Not gonna happen." Lan didn't sound anxious at all. He was enjoying the view, while his fingers reached out… This time, Moiraine slapped his hand away and jumped to her feet. She was pissed and gave him a hard shove against the chest – well, at least the best she was able to do.

"Go and find Nynaeve!" The warder smiled, but otherwise, he stayed where he was. "I mean it, Lan! Leave me alone!"

"I know that you want me to leave. But you also should know by now, that I won't do this."

A frustrated scream escaped Moiraine's lips and she gave him another shove, which was as useless as the first one. Then a third and a fourth, while Lan waited. He watched how she was letting go of her anger and felt how every shove became weaker until her arms gave in and she stumbled against him. Immediately, he put his arms around her and held her close to him.

"Are you done now?", he asked softly.

"How am I supposed to help Rand when I can't use the One Power, Lan?"

"You don't need the One Power to guide him. Everything he needs is in your head, Moiraine. You just have to tell him."

"He doesn't listen. This is something he has in common with Nynaeve."

Lan chuckled before he answered: "Then you have to keep telling him until he listens. It's a good thing that you have some experience in being persistent."

Moiraine mumbled something, which even Lan didn't understand, but it wasn't necessary. All that mattered to him was that he had succeeded in distracting her.

Meanwhile, Rand was walking back to Mother Fiosä's cottage with his friends by his side. Loial was the only one, who had stayed at Perrin's and his' cottage. The others had insisted to walk him back to the wisdom of the Aiel. Especially, Egwene was using the opportunity to be close to Rand.

But when they reached the cottage, a small group of the redheads had formed at the door and was arguing with Mother Fiosä. One man stood in front of the old woman and was obviously the speaker, while the others were only cheering at his words. His blue eyes were sparkling, while he argued with the old woman.

"Isn't it enough that we took the boy in?! If we keep going on like this, then we can open our paths and invite everyone over to our land!"

"Don't be silly, Virko. Those people are friends of Rand and not just some random strangers." Mother Fiosä tried her best to stay calm, but it was obvious that she was losing ground there.

"I don't care if they are his family or just some people he met on the street! I want them gone!"

"What is going on?" Egwene tried to pull Rand back, but the redheaded man freed his hand and moved to Mother Fiosä and Virko.

"Rand, go inside.", the old woman ordered, but Rand had only eyes for Virko, who was looking at him with hate. Virko was older than Rand and a scar went from his forehead over his left temple and down to his chin.

"Is there a problem?"

"Your friends need to leave! They don't belong here!"

Angry, Rand made another step towards Virko. "They belong to me, and I want them to stay!"

The Aiel man shook his head and pointed at his people, who were still standing behind him, although they weren't cheering anymore. "This land belongs to the Aiel! Your friends shouldn't have been able to come this far! Our people are killed over there, and what do we do in return?! We invite them into our homes!"

"They were searching for me!"

"Then maybe you should leave with them!"

"Virko!", Mother Fiosä scolded the man in front of her "Rand belongs to our folk. Don't forget that."

"At least, that's what he says. Who knows if that's…?"

"You have eyes, idiot! So, I suggest you start using them!" Virko opened his mouth, but Mother Fiosä stopped him by simply waving her hands. "I don't want to hear about this nonsense anymore. Rand, go inside the cottage. Your friends should return to theirs as well."

Nynaeve stepped closer, but the old woman held up her hand to stop her. "No more discussion. Go with your friends and stay in your cottage. Later, I will come and pay you a visit." Rand was still staring at Virko, but Mother Fiosä grabbed his arm and pulled him to the door. A quick glance at his friends showed him that Nynaeve was arguing with Perrin and Egwene, who tried their best to move the wisdom away from the angry group. Then he was inside the building and Mother Fiosä closed the door behind them.

"Those idiots!" Rand knew that she wasn't talking to him, but still, he quickly moved to his bed to be out of sight. He didn't want her to throw something at him, because she was angry at her own people.

Sighing he lay down, but his thoughts were racing. How long would the Aiel accept his friends among them? They hadn't been here for even a day and there was already a big group against them. It would only be a matter of time until Nynaeve would start a fight, and then this could end pretty badly. He had to tell them that they needed to cross the spine of the world again.

'You're an idiot, Rand al'Thor. They will never leave without you. But I can't leave. Mother Fiosä could help me with the madness. I would never return to the Two Rivers, but at least I wouldn't kill anyone I care about. And what do you do about the Dark One? He is still haunting you in your dreams, although you killed him at the eye of the world. Only Moiraine's presence keeps him away. Well, you can survive it.'

The door of the cottage opened and Rand's eyes fell on the Aes Sedai, who entered the building with her warder. He remembered last night when they had arrived in this village. Moiraine had been extremely pale and weak. A condition, he had only seen her once after she had been hurt by the Trollocs at Bel Tine. She had been asleep as soon as her head had come in contact with the pillow. Today, she looked way better, but she was still not back to her former self.

'Because she is bonded to me. She can feel my pain when the Dark One is torturing me. Maybe, I can survive it, but in the end, she will die. We have to break this stupid bond! But she can't do it. We need her sisters, which means that I have to leave.'

"There is a group of people outside your door, Mother Fiosä, and they seemed angry.", Lan informed the old woman.

"Don't mention it!"

Moiraine's brown eyes found Rand and she tilted her head to the side. "What happened?"

Rand turned his head, so, he couldn't see her anymore. He didn't want to answer. How was he supposed to explain that the Aiel wanted them gone?

Luckily, Mother Fiosä decided to explain the situation. "Virko and a few of his closest friends, are not happy about strangers being in our village. They want you to leave."

"And you want to stay." It wasn't a question from Moiraine. The Aes Sedai knew Rand too well.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, but before someone could react, it opened and Nynaeve sneaked inside. Mother Fiosä took a wooden spoon and threw it at the young woman, but Lan was faster and grabbed it out of the air. "Stupid girl! Do you ever listen?!"

"Not often.", the wisdom replied dryly "I wanted to talk about the situation outside. We can't stay here any longer if your people want to kill us."

"Lan and I will leave tomorrow." Surprised, Rand looked at Moiraine. Was she serious? She knew that he wanted to stay and that she would be pulled back into his nightmares, which would kill her eventually.

"Moiraine." Lan didn't look happy about her sudden announcement. "Can we talk?"

"We can't force Rand to come with us. And we can't stay here or this will end in a fight against the Aiel."

Lan grabbed Moiraine's arm and turned her to him. "You need to be close to Rand or the Dark One will appear in his dreams again. How do you wanna do this if you're on the other side of the spine of the world, while he is here?"

"I can't."

The warder waited for his Aes Sedai to continue, but realized quickly that she wouldn't explain anything further. His voice turned threatening when he said: "Your bond is still intact. You will get sick and I don't know how long your body can take this anymore."

"What do you suggest? Rand already said that he wouldn't come with us to find my sisters, and I can't break it."

Nynaeve passed the Aes Sedai and her warder, who continued their conversation by gazing at each other and moved to Rand's bed. "You can't be serious, Rand. Please tell me, that she isn't right. You know how much I hate it when she is right."

Sighing, Rand got himself in an upright position. He needed a solution, but whatever he would choose, there was a possibility that people would get hurt. Either it was Moiraine, who would suffer from the dreams, or it would be his friends, who could suffer from his own hands. No matter what he would choose, he would feel guilty.

"I don't know what I should do, Nynaeve. I don't want to hurt anyone."

"We are your friends. How often do we have to tell you this until it reaches your brain?"

Mother Fiosä appeared beside the young wisdom. "Don't get me wrong, Rand. I believe that you belong with us. You are an Aiel, but at the moment, I think you don't have a choice. This bond between you and the Aes Sedai will kill you both if you don't get help. And this is something I really don't want."

The young man noticed that Moiraine and Lan had their attention on him as well. The Aes Sedai was calm as always, while Lan couldn't hide his anger this time. Everyone expected an answer from him and they expected it now.

Rand's eyes found Moiraine's, then he said: "I will come with you under one condition." Her only response was to raise her eyebrows in surprise, while she waited for him to continue. "We return to Tar Valon to break this bond between us. But I won't put one foot into the White Tower. You can ask your sisters to meet us somewhere outside, but nothing more."

"Alright."

"Oh." Surprised, Rand didn't know what he was supposed to answer. This had been easy. Too easy. Apparently, Nynaeve had the same opinion, because she looked at Moiraine and furrowed her forehead. Why didn't she…?

"Why don't you argue with him?"

Moiraine sighed heavily. "Nynaeve, he is agreeing to come with us. Why can't you just…?"

"Because you always have a plan. Earlier this day, you and Rand almost killed each other because he didn't want to go to Tar Valon. After you heard about the trouble with the Aiel group outside, you wanted to leave this place without him. And now, he agrees to come with us on his own conditions, and there is no complaint from you?" Nynaeve looked at Lan, who didn't give anything away. He wouldn't spill the secrets of his Aes Sedai. "This just doesn't sound like you."

The Aes Sedai took a deep breath before she answered: "I can't enter the White Tower."

Nynaeve narrowed her eyes to a slot. "Why?"

"I was exiled by the Amyrlin Seat. I can't return until she asks me to." Moiraine's face didn't give away how she felt about her exile, but her hand was shaken a little bit. "Now, that you know the reason, can we prepare our departure? We need to inform your friends that Rand is coming with us and that we will be leaving soon."

We have reached half of the story. Nineteen chapters, 45.000 words, but I still don't know what you guys think about the story. Do you like it? Do you hate it? Do you have a different opinion on something? I would really love to hear your thoughts. Please, please, please. Leave me a comment.