She tried to stop grinning, really she did, but it was difficult. Elayne always tried to put the best face on things, but now that was all but impossible, it was hard to put the best face on being tied to your own horse. Min simply shook her head and looked ahead at the three women standing further down the road ahead of them.

It was a strange set of circumstance that lead them here, she and Rand had returned to Caemlyn for a short stop. Elayne was busy with her duties, and Aviendha had found them first, Min knew that Rand wished to spend some time with her too, and she was more than willing to allow it. While they went for a walk she found Elayne busy with her chief clerk, and sat with her while she received her reports, and information. After what felt to be two hours of reports, they were finally able to find Rand and Aviendha seated on the floor of Elaynes' sitting room, talking. It was an emotional reunion, especially when Rand found out that Elayne was pregnant. The talk of names came up, and such things, and then later on, Elayne mentioned Rand staying.
It turned for the worst. Rand simply said he could not, he had his own duty to attend to, and he can't abandon that, no matter what he wished. This time however, Elayne chose to be stubborn, and to try and talk him out of the nonsense of his words. Min knew where it was coming from; it was the same line of thought that would make Rand start to talk about his coming death. She shuddered slightly at the thought, it was unsettling how easily he had accepted it already, she knew even Aviendha felt a pang of sorrow for Rand. Eventually, the argument veered off course from that, and the next thing anyone knew...
"Burn me Elayne, if you keep this up, I swear, I'll tie you to your own horse and have you sent to the Two Rivers to be taught how a real good wife is supposed to act." Rand said quite calmly, but his voice was edged with seriousness.
"You wouldn't dare." Replied Elayne Icily.
Then it happened quickly, Rand immediately took control of Saidin and shielded Elayne, swept her up into her arms and carried her out of the room, Min and Aviendha trailing after. Rand could be insufferably fast when he wanted to be, keeping ahead of them all the way to the stable where he had Elaynes' horse saddled and he sat her upon it, immediately lashing her hands to the pommel.
"You can't do this Rand!" Min said as she reached him, placing her hands onto his arm, "It's..."
"Insane?" Rand finished for her.
Min blushed looked away, and Elayne looked directly at Aviendha.
"Why are you letting him do this to me?" she demanded
"You chose your battle first-sister, you must accept defeat when it's given to you." Aviendha wore a mysterious smile as she spoke, and said nothing more.
Before much else could happen, a familiar woman with a long golden braid stepped into the stables, "What in the pit of doom is going on here?"
Min gave a quick re-cap of events, and Birgitte gave Elayne a long gaze, and nodded, "Oh, she'll probably be safe there, but I'll keep an eye on her for you. I'll be back in a moment." And with that she turned and left, a moment later laughter could be heard coming from the halls. Elaynes' face would have made a glacier shudder, but it might as well have been a puff of fog for all the attention Rand paid.
Rand finished tying Elaynes' Hands and turned, "Aviendha, will you shield Elayne until you reach the Two Rivers, and keep her there for me?"
Aviendha looked at Rand and then Elayne for a moment "I will."
Rand smiled, "Thank you, shade of my heart." and he softly touched two fingers to her cheek.
Aviendha let out a soft shuddering breath and savoured the moment. Returning the gesture she then moved towards Elaynes' horse and climbed up behind her.
Min simply shook her head, she knew what he was up to, he was trying to send them away again, only this time, he was winning. She wouldn't let Rand do such a thing to her, not by force, and not by coercion, not like the others. Or so she thought, until he looked at her and said quietly, "Min, will you go with them and keep them out of trouble?"
"Of course I will wool-head, since you don't want to take responsibility yourself." She never was able to deny him what he asked of her, she hated that sometimes. Birgitte soon returned with her bow, and a full quiver, and they were on their way through a gateway into the Two Rivers.

Min simply shook her head again, "I'm so weak sometimes, burn him..." She tried to brood over her thoughts of him, but without fail they turned into thoughts of his gorgeous smile, and strong hands... She immediately cut off her thoughts and looked ahead, she didn't want to start blushing for no reason, and explaining why would be more than awkward if she kept going on with them. One of the women began to approach them, her hair was a dark brown, with a few greys showing through the braid, she looked like a kind woman, and there was something very familiar about her face, it however had a stern, yet calm look, almost analytical as it swept over them, the sort of look her aunts used to give her as if they could check when you last bathed, and the last three lies you spoke.

Marin walked towards the group of four women, and began to look them over, a part of her mind began listing off small details, working in the inn had given her such skills, but the first thing she came to mull over was that the woman carrying they bow was their guardian most likely. The second, and rather more prominent, detail was that these women were in no way sisters by blood. They certainly seemed comfortable with each other, and shared a few odd glances that obviously spoke volumes between them, their eyes are what spoke differently, all three had different sets of eyes. However, she had known many women in her time that would call their closest friend sister, and she had no reason to discourage these three from doing it, better they had someone to support them, it would make their time away from home easier. Though making them begin to feel the Two Rivers as home would be best. She affixed her sight onto the oldest woman, with her hair in a braid and asked, "I take it you were set to look after these young women?"
Birgitte nodded, "Yes, I am."
Marin gave her a sterner look, "Well, I don't know why you let them cause this such nonsense," indicating to Elaynes' tied hands, "but I would think you'd be more responsible than that."
Birgitte was about to protest but she was cut off, "I'll take no excuses, I am simply making a point, I'll be teaching these young women how to behave, but light help me, if I need to, I'll have your hair un-braided so quickly you'll think you were twelve again."

Now, Birgitte was never one to care much for threats, but this woman was clearly set in her own mind, quite clearly serious, and having spent enough time with Nynaeve to learn some small customs of the Two Rivers she thought it best to simply nod, and smile wryly. It had been a long time since anyone had chastised her in such a manner however, and she did feel like she was a child again. A formidable woman this, most definitely worthy of Aemons blood.
"Well, untie her and follow me, its getting late in the day, and I don't mean to spend it here." Marin said calmly as she began to lead the party towards the Inn.
Aviendha reached around Elaynes' waist and untied her hands from the pommel, and Elayne finally spoke, "You can release me fully. I promise I won't do anything rash, and we'll discuss anything about... Travel, before hand." Aviendha paused for a moment and nodded, releasing the shield she wove around Elayne, she had no reason to mistrust her first-sister.
Elayne reached for the source tentatively, and embraced it for only a moment, to re-assure herself it was there. She couldn't hold onto her calm for too long, her emotions were a mess, she had Rand Al'Thor to blame for that. Not only because of what he did to her, but because her pregnancy had been purely rife on her emotions, which were becoming harder to contain at times. Part of her began to cycle through her store of curses at Rands behaviour, but for the most part, she was excited, truly excited. She would actually get to see where Rand grew up, yes, it was a little childish, but perhaps learning more about this place would help her learn more about him. Oh she knew much, but Rand had so many ways of surprising her, perhaps her time here would give her something to surprise him with. She began to smile quite happily, as something just clicked; the familiar looking woman told Birgitte that she would be teaching them all. She began to giggle softly, Min and Aviendha shared a curious look, firstly at Elayne, then each other in synchronous behaviour, and then shrugged at the same time. Realising that they had mimicked each other so, they immediately snapped their heads back to the largest building in the Town to which they were headed.

It lay next to the bridge over the wide stream which divided the green, The building was made on a stone foundation which rose to fill the first floor, but the second was whitewashed wood which jutted over the lower floor all the way around. The red roof tiles gleamed brightly as the late afternoon sun reflected from it, smoke rose gently from only a few of the dozen chimneys. At the south end, stretched the remains of a larger stone foundation, which long in the past may have been part of the inn itself, within this small courtyard grew a great oak tree, its great trunk easily thirty paces around, and branches as thick as a person. It was the Winespring inn.

Two men took their horses, and helped them with their saddle bags. Marin had them lined up in fast order in the common room, which, at this time was empty. Her husband, Bran, would currently be busy checking the hay and oats for the horses, and a dozen other small detailswhich he busied himself with during the day. She began to look them all over in turn, Elayne seemed more relaxed now, and that was good, but as if her dress wasn't indication enough, she indeed carried herself like a lady. Marin let out a small sigh, and decided it would be best to take on the advice given to Alsbhet regarding Faile, in that she should ignore whatever status she may have, she nodded in her resolve and began.
"Alright now, I don't intend to stand you here all day, there's plenty to be done before supper, and much more to do in the morning, I'll allow you tonight to rest because of your journey, but tomorrow will be when it all begins."
Marin had had five daughters, four of which were now married, and her youngest, Egwene, currently in Tar Valon learning to channel, to become an Aes Sedai. She kept them all in line, and made sure they did as they were told, she was a little glad to have some helping hands around the Inn again, but she made no illusion to expect much from them, and she would make sure they paid attention, and learned quickly.
"Now, tell me your names." Marin said gently, she wasn't a mean woman, but she did keep a stern eye on them, tying Elayne to her saddle was hardly something to get them into her good graces. She was focused on Elayne first, but another spoke first.
"My name is Min." Marin fixed her attention onto Min, who then stepped back a little under her scrutiny, "Well, it's actually Elmindreda, but everyone calls me Min."
Min finished her explanation with a tiny smile, there was that same look again, just like her Aunts.
Marin gave a short nod, and turned her attention to the next young woman who simply said, "My name is Aviendha." This was shortly followed by, "and my name is Elayne." Marin simply smiled at her and nodded, she was aware of this from the start, but things were far more relaxed now. A short silence filled the air before Marin finally affixed her gaze upon the last woman, who appeared to be amused by something, until she looked back at Marins' face, she gave a start, and said, "My name is Birgitte Trahelion."
She nodded, and replied, "And I am Marin Al'Vere, I'm not quite sure what manners you were taught where you came from, but you will call me Mistress Al'Vere as appropriate. The two women with me on the green were Mistress Luhhan, and Mistress Cauthon, there will be other names to learn, but that's not for now. Follow me, you'll each be staying in the rooms my daughters occupied before they all moved out, get your belongings and move now, I can't spend my time giving you girls a tour, I need to find you some proper dresses."
"What's wrong with our clothes?" Spoke out Elayne.
Marin fixed her with a flat stare, the kind to make even a stone look as if it were slow, "Child, your dress is lovely, and I am sure you have more, but if you intend to ruin such pretty skirts in dust and flour, you'll be cleaning them yourself. And don't get me started on what Min and Birgitte are wearing. Quite Frankly, Aviendha is the only one between you to be properly dressed in my eyes. Now hop to it I wont have you cluttering my common room with your presence, get along now move." With a shooing motion of her hands, she sent them on their way towards the rooms in the back of the Inn.

The rooms themselves were certainly cosy, and all shared a small private sitting room, after deciding who would take which, they all met in the sitting room to discuss the situation at hand.
"This has certainly been an interesting day." Min commented, she smiled a little as she took one of the seats along the walls of the sitting room.
"Interesting? Is that all you have to say!" Elayne demanded, "Rand has sent us all packing off here as if we were sacks of oats, and none of us, none of you, tried to stop him!"
"We were not the ones who angered him Elayne." Aviendha tried to reason.
"He toted me off to the stables for all the palace to see, and you say that it's my fault we're here?" Elayne was still mortified from the experience, she was in a half daze, being taken up into Rands arms as she was made her giddy, that she didn't even try to fend him off, light knows how many servants saw them.
"Well, I for one think this is a fine thing, much harder for people to plant a knife in your back with you in a place most people have forgotten, including its ruler." Birgitte mentioned, much too smartly.
Elayne was about to launch into another tirade, but she was cut off, "I told you before, I'd keep you from harm, but if you put yourself in the pickling jar, then you'll have to deal with it."
"There is one good thing about this though." Min interrupted, all eyes switched to her,
"What do you mean Min?" Queried Aviendha.
"He hasn't left Camelyn, I thought for a moment he'd sent us away because he intended to do something dangerous, I think, he's relaxing a little." Min finished.
Elayne however felt a great deal of hurt and anger, her emotions were acting on their own again, burn Rand for doing this to her. "Relaxing? burn him, I spend half the day in the palace worrying over him, bond or no, and I see him for the shortest time, and he does this to me, as if I didn't matter to him at all, well, burn him I say! I should Travel back there now and give him a piece of my mind!"

Before anything else could be said there was a quiet knock on the door, and everyone became still as it opened. A portly man, who has only a few wisps of grey hairs on his head entered, he nodded to them all, and said "Hello to you, my name is Brandelwyn, Brandelwyn Al'Vere, but people around here call me Bran."
Each of the women said hello in turn and introduced themselves, when Elayne introduced herself lastly, he interrupted, "Ah, young Elayne, so good to meet you at last. Tam will be eager to see you too."
She found herself a little bewildered and asked, "Will he?"
He smiled widely. "Oh, but of course, he's been waiting to meet his sons wife ever since Marin received the letter from him. And your sisters of course, since you're all a family now I suppose."
It was then any resignation Elayne had on the matter disappeared, the fact that rand labelled her his wife was enough to make her float on the spot, she turned to Aviendha who was almost as much pleased as she was, and Min who was grinning too. She cleared her throat a little and said with her best smile,
"Thank you Master Al'Vere, and thank you for having us all here."
"Oh think nothing of it, pleasure to have you, now, if you'll excuse me, I think Marin will want to have you all washed and changed before supper. Your pardon."
And with a short bow, he was out the door quite nimbly, leaving the women once again to speak alone.

"Well, you certainly changed your tune quickly Elayne." Birgitte said wearing a most satisfied smirk.
"I don't ever know what you mean Birgitte." With that Elayne took a seat.
Aviendha shared a significant look with Elayne and Min, they knew what each other was thinking. Rand was certainly willing to discuss marriage if he would say one was his wife, which, by default of Aeil customs made them all his wife. If wanted to marry one, he had to accept all three, because, they were first-sisters, and no man could come between them. Oh, Min and she had never spoke the words to formally make them first-sisters, but denying it was pointless, and their shared bond to Rand was far more special than any marriage ceremony.

Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad, as it originally seemed...

To be continued