Disclaimer: Same as before.
Apology: Please, please, anyone who was reading my story before, forgive me for taking so long to update. SAT's, AP exams, pre-finals, finals, projects, and just junior year in general got in my way, but I promise I'll be better. Sorry, sorry, sorry.
General Note: If anyone knows how to make text in bold, italics, centered, or any other formatting type stuff show up on ff.net, I'd really appreciate the tips, just posted in a review. Thank You.
Thanx:
Squilo Sedai: I'm glad you liked it. I wasn't really intending the Eye of the World in this story, but you might have inspired a sequel. Ooh, a sequel-prequel. It rhymes.
Data: Thank you. I'm going to try to keep writing to the end of the story.
CassSpaz: Just the kinda review I was hoping for. I hope this new chapter is as much to your liking.
Tsukinorei: Thanx. Eres says thanx too. And you're right, Elaida became Advisor 3 years before NS took place. Sorry. I tried. Just pretend Elaida came back for a visit or something.
Eres: What can I say to you Eres, my muse? Besides "Pleez don't hurt me"? Well, your inspirational presence/existence/trippy cards you get from that store probably helped in this story, but I also have to say that LOTR3, KOD, and my new shoes are truly responsible. You have to see the shoes. They're so pretty. AND LOTR. AND back away from my $3 Amazon KOD prequel. It's mine.
Chapter 2 – A Woman Just Missed
The first rays of the sun painted the high stone walls a gleaming silver and gold. All along its length, proud, red banners snapped in the morning breeze, making the white lions upon them seem to be crouching and ready to spring. Towers could be seen behind the walls, ascending to the stars that were just now fading in the west, and beyond the towers, a domed palace, seated upon its hill, just as its queen might soon be seated upon her throne for the morning.
Neither Moiraine nor Lan paid any notice to the grandeur displayed before them. They were far more concerned with keeping Mandarb and Starlight away from the merchants' wagons that were just beginning to clutter the road, impeding Moiraine's progress. Moiraine was eager to spur her mare forward, to reach the city she had been waiting for. She sighed in frustration, one of her most extravagant displays of emotion. Caemlyn is so close I could reach out and touch it on the horizon with my hand. I have spent weeks of hard riding just to be sitting behind this merchant's load of cherries, while the world is at stake. Lan, sensing her impatience, had to rein in his new warhorse, Mandarb, before the creature cut a path for his master, and consequently, his master's mistress. Moiraine had to admire their faithfulness.
They reached the giant, arched gates, after what seemed like days to Moiraine. Lan would have said it had taken less than an hour. Carefully out of his Aes Sedai's hearing, of course. The guards at the gate waved them through, seeing only a slightly travel-stained lady and her bodyguard. Inside, the wide street, split down the middle with a divider of trees and grass, was filled with people, making it difficult for Moiraine to make any progress. Moving Starlight closer to Lan, she found she needed to weave a ward just to make herself heard over the noise of the crowd.
"We are looking for an inn called The Grey Haven, in the Inner City. Sheriam recommended it to me based on her last trip here. The woman isn't an agent, but she has been found trustworthy nonetheless." It was funny. Moiraine hadn't thought that Sheriam liked those adventure stories. She herself preferred romances and historical novels.
Within a few minutes of winding through the throngs of people, Moiraine and Lan reached the gates that opened onto the Inner City, with its broader streets and fewer crowds. It didn't take long for Lan to sight an inn with a grey ship facing the Aryth Ocean, grandly proclaiming itself The Grey Haven. Moiraine simply hoped that no Grey Sisters were there. Or any other Sisters, for that matter. It takes only a single pigeon and the whole Tower would know where I am.
The inn seemed comfortable enough, with a good number of patrons sitting down to what smelled like a delicious breakfast. The rumble in Moiraine's stomach reminded her that she had forgone dinner last night to reach the city more quickly.
"I am Mistress Bethani, my lady. May I be of service to you?" A voice from behind asked. Moiraine turned to see the innkeeper, a plump, graying- haired woman. Now Moiraine understood why her friend had said to come to this inn. The woman had a kind look in her eyes, reminding Moiraine of Sheriam herself. She took an instant liking to her.
Lan answered, "I'm Master Andra, Mistress. Lady Alys and I require rooms for" with a slight pause he glanced at Moiraine out of the corner of his eye "at least a few days time. And some of whatever delicious food I smell from your kitchens. We have not yet eaten."
"Of course, good master." And with that, the woman led them to a table in the back as serving maids came to collect their things and take them up to their rooms. Almost just as they sat down, Mistress Bethani was back with plates of hot omelets, sausages, fresh bread, and fruits in cream. Moiraine thought that it tasted better than it smelled. She had not felt this hungry since she was a Novice, she thought, and, with that, dug into her food enthusiastically.
Moiraine could never forget why she was in Caemlyn, though. The Wheel was turning while she sat and enjoyed breakfast, each moment bringing the world closer to what was now inevitable. There had not been enough time for the last ten years, she recalled. As soon as she finished eating, she signaled the innkeeper to come over. Moiraine thought she could trust her just a little.
"Mistress Bethani, I am looking for a friend of mine I lost touch with a few years back, and I believe she settled in Caemlyn after the Aiel War. Perhaps you would know of her, a Mistress Nicci Allaine, or maybe her son, Jonan, a boy of about ten?"
Lan nearly choked on his food, seeing Moiraine be so bold. The Aes Sedai was watching the innkeeper's face, though. Her obliging smile had turned to an unhappy frown.
"I'm sorry, my lady, but it seems you just missed finding who you're looking for. There was a dreadful fire a few months ago, and poor Jonan was trapped inside. Nicci couldn't stand it here after her son's death. She ran off and I haven't seen hide nor hair of her since."
"I'm terribly sorry to hear it," Moiraine replied. She thought that was the end of the conversation, but the woman went on chatting. "It was just like how my daughter Kari ran off a good number of years ago with some man she said was from Illian. He didn't look like an Illianer to me. But they settled out West somewhere by the Mountains of Mist and I haven't heard from her in nearly five years...."
The woman kept talking, but Moiraine had stopped listening after hearing about Jonan, making appropriate utterances now and again to make the woman think she was listening. Could Jonan have been the one? Moiraine prayed he wasn't. She prayed everyday that the Pattern took care of its savior. Perhaps its destroyer as well. She had to put it out of her mind. If Jonan was dead, then he couldn't be who she wanted, she convinced herself. One day, the Light was going to take pity on her and just drop his name into her lap, and she would find him and be overjoyed. But it was not this day, it seemed.
One thing is done in Caemlyn, she thought, if not how I would have it. Now I must know what the Red is up to. By this time, Lan had finished eating his breakfast too, and she asked the innkeeper to show them up to their rooms. They should probably rest before trying to find out about Elaida.
Lan, still mirroring the tense excitement she had felt, wanted to know what they would do now.
"The Wheel will weave us all into its Pattern, Lan. We can only be patient and wait." With that, she went into her rooms, threw herself on the bed, and slept dreamlessly.
POV SHIFT
Larelle Tarsi (A/N: Nobody ever SAID this woman was dead, as far as I know. Moiraine just assumed. And you know what they say about assumed. Please correct me if I'm wrong.) hated waiting. Once, as a Novice, an Aes Sedai had caught her trying to go ahead in her lessons. The Sister had had the audacity to forbid her from touching the Power for a month! She had wanted to play a trick on the Aes Sedai to make Her never touch the Power again—or anything else for that matter—but Galina had intervened for the time being. Galina claimed that death was not a becoming practice for one so young—she still didn't know how she had found the patience to wait 12 years.
And here she was waiting now, across from some inn that that Blue had gone in, ready to report. She didn't see why Liandrin didn't have to wait out here. But she was under the orders of Liandrin, who was under the orders of Galina, who was under the orders of...someone higher. Who could be higher than the head of the Supreme Council of the Black Ajah? She shuddered at the thought, and decided that waiting had its good side.
Nevertheless, she still couldn't figure out what the Black Ajah wanted with those two little brats—and royalty did not go quietly into the night, making her job difficult. Sisters were also hard to make disappear. And now she had two of them to deal with, and one had a warder. A very impressive warder. A hundred years earlier, she would have asked the Light why her life could not be easy. Now, it would not hear her prayers. She just had to keep telling herself that she Definitely did not want to fail. She scurried off to tell Liandrin that her letter could be delivered now.
POV SHIFT
Moiraine woke to Lan's knocking on her door. She got up to let him in and saw that he held a letter in his hands. He handed it to her wordlessly. Sometimes she wondered if Lan knew everything. Before breaking the seal, Moiraine saw emblazoned in the red wax a silver keystone. It was addressed to "The Blue Lady at The Gray Haven Inn" in what Moiraine could now recognize as Elaida's flowery scrawl. Moiraine marveled that Elaida had the brains to know that she might be traveling under a pseudonym. She opened the letter and read silently:
Moiraine Sedai
On behalf of her majesty, Queen Morgase of Andor, you and your warder are invited to attend the festival of High Chasaline, tomorrow night, on the twelfth day of Taisham.
Elaida do Avriny a'Roihan
Aes Sedai of the Red Ajah
Advisor to Queen Morgase of Andor
oo{{REDS}};;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Moiraine would have found it funny if it did not terrify her. The way Elaida pressed so hard as the word "warder", the paper tore. And the period at the end of the sentence was pressed so hard it made a giant ink splotch. Elaida certainly did not want to write this. But then why did she? Why would Elaida tell Morgase of her presence at all, let alone have her invited to this party? Moiraine had completely forgotten High Chasaline was tomorrow.
"I told you all we had to do was wait Lan, and a way would be presented to us. I wanted to know what Elaida was doing and here she invites me with open arms. News flies faster than Cairhein here. Be on your guard." Moiraine almost wanted to faint news flew so fast. There was no time.
To Be Continued
Please, please, please, please review! REVIEWERS are nice! They make me happy. And I promise to update sooner.
People got my symbolism and allusions, right? Starlight? The Grey Haven?
My muse will torture any flamers, though, so no flames. She has two brothers, so she knows how to fight like a rabid wombat.