A/N: Much love to the Grammarian for reviewing and pestering me about updating. –blows kiss- Also thanks to the WoT FAQ page for info on heights and ages, along with numerous other reference stuff. Kisses to y'all too. Enjoy:

I thought I was done with Aes Sedai, but trouble came in only a few days later.

It came with six strangers, and walked in through the gates straight to the Stag and the Lion. I was sweeping the aisles when they came in, but when I recognized the blue of the Aes Sedai's cloak, I swiftly ducked through the door into the kitchens. I dodged in between cooks, wooden spoons, and maids, ignoring the protests that followed me, until I reached the small cranny I had discovered from which I could see the back door of the inn. I peeked around the corner and kept my eyes on the doorway until Master Fitch backed through, dry-washing his hands. "Yes, milady Alys, milord Andra. Of course I have rooms. Of course. And your guests? What are they doing here? I am very surprised to see you traveling with…downcountry folk. He had been about to say "country oafs," I knew.

Mistress Alys – the Aes Sedai – smiled slightly. "My business is my own, Master Fitch," she said sternly. "Thank you for your hospitality. But I think the first order of business should be a meal, and then a bath. For all of us," she added, eying the grime caked on her Warder and the men behind her – the ones that I could not see as of yet. The images flickering around Mistress Alys were giving me a headache, they were so frequent. Then she stepped inside, her and her Warder; Lan, I remembered; and the others followed her. I caught my breath. First was a man with long, white mustaches, wearing the patched cloak of a gleeman. I caught glimpses of a few images: a man, not him, juggling fire, and the White Tower – but it was not him that caught my eye.

As he stepped through, looking around warily, a girl followed him, rather small and slightly shorter than me, her hair long, dark and in a braid. Around her head images flickered – not constantly, like Mistress Alys, but still far more commonly than most people I viewed. I wondered what the connection was between her, Lan, and the Aes Sedai. Why were their viewings so frequent? Did it have something to do with channeling? I wondered, but before I could think on it more, three more surprises stepped in after the girl. Three boys, rather younger than I was but two of them head and shoulders much taller than me, and the third about my height. The shortest had dark hair and a rather (I thought) shifty and mischievous look, but he didn't look to be cruel or unkind, just a little bit of a trickster. He carried a tall bow and a quiver of arrows. The next tallest was a boy that was much taller than the dark haired boy, whom I thought of as Trickster. His hair was brown, slightly shaggy, and he was muscular, like the blacksmiths I saw sometimes. He was wearing a long cloak, slightly too short for him, but I glimpsed for a moment an axe, gleaming in the inn's light. Blacksmith.

The final boy was the one that interested me most, though. He was taller than either other boy, his hair red, much unlike any of the other's hair. He also wore a long, shabby cloak that was too short for him. His eyes, as I glimpsed them when he looked warily around the inn, were gray. All in all, he looked very different from the others, his height aside. And underneath his cloak, as he peered over his shoulder, I glimpsed the outline of a sword. It, strangely enough, didn't look awkward him as it should have on a country boy. Swordsman, perhaps?

But what fascinated me most were the viewings – well, not so much the viewings themselves as their numbers. Around Trickster and Blacksmith, they were almost as numerous as the young girl's. Stranger, and stranger. Sometimes the viewings confused me more than they helped me understand. Around the Swordsman, they were more numerous, swirling and flickering around his head more even than the dark haired girl, nearly as much as the Aes Sedai. I pulled a few from the mess of visions, falling over each other and changing so fast it was difficult to see anything. A red hot iron, him pouring water on sand, a black funeral bier with him lying on it. Lightning, both striking at him and coming from him. I shook my head to clear my muddled thoughts, trying to make sense of it all. I saw the Aes Sedai glance in my direction, and I quickly ducked back behind the alcove. When I dared to look again, they were gone, and Master Fitch was wiping his brow anxiously. He noticed me before I could duck out of sight. "Min!" he called. Reluctantly, I moved out of my hiding place and trotted across the room to him.

He looked at me closely, his eyes narrowed slightly. "What were you doing watching our guests so intently over there, child?" he asked me. His tone was disapproving.

"I'm sorry, Master Fitch," I said innocently. "I was only curious." I would not mention the viewings to him, ever. I had not forgotten my aunt Rana's warning.

Master Fitch harrumphed suspiciously. "Well…" he searched for some sort of reply for several moments. He glared at the innocent expression on my face. "Oh, stop that," he said sharply. "I'll think you're up to something, child. Go and find some work with Mutch, or something. Don't be sticking your nose into the business of your betters, or you'll get your nose burnt."

I curtseyed, rather awkwardly without the skirts. "I will do as you say, Master Fitch," I said, so meekly that he shot me a surprised look before hurrying off. I smiled fondly after him and moved off to the stables, my mind whirling. Clearly, Master Fitch had no idea of exactly the strangeness of his guests. He would have commented, had he known that Mistress Alys, as she called herself, was an Aes Sedai. And been more frightened, too, with all of the rumors flying about – Whitecloaks stirring up trouble, causing riots and mobs to form in the streets. To Whitecloaks, every Aes Sedai was a Darkfriend or worse. It was a strange time, indeed. Very strange, but exciting, too. Perhaps a change was coming, and I might have a chance at that adventure I had dreamed about for years.

I walked into the stables and almost immediately, Mutch grabbed the collar of my shirt and swung me at a stall. "No idling, girl," he growled. "It's a busy night tonight, and there's plenty of work to be done. Where have you been, anyway?"

"Speaking to Master Fitch," I said challengingly. Mutch rubbed his ear, but couldn't find fault with that, and hurried off to harangue someone else. I looked at the stall that I had almost run into, and found a tall, lean, well built black stallion there, the kind of horse a nobleman might ride, but stronger. A warhorse, maybe. Lan's horse, most likely, I decided. It looked like the kind of horse that stone-faced man might ride.

I opened the stall door and slipped in carefully, eying the stallion warily. He rolled his eyes at me and cocked a hoof. I pulled the grooming box and a lead rope over the tall stall door and grabbed the curry comb, moving over to him clutching it like a weapon. He sidled away from me and snorted, his lip curling back from his teeth as I had seen stallions do before they attacked. I stopped, quickly, watching his hooves and his teeth at the same time and trying to control my nervousness. I had handled difficult horses before. I could handle this one.

His eyes rolled again, and he kicked out with a hind hoof. The stall clattered, and the horse next to him whickered uneasily. "Easy," I murmured, as much for my benefit as the horses. He looked sideways at me, his eyes seeming to say, "Try me." A challenge. I scowled. He blew out some air and lowered his head. I sprang.

Moving too swiftly across the stall, for him to react, I looped the nosepiece of the halter over his nose and the headpiece over his ears, and scrambled to buckle it. Before I got far, his head swung down and grabbed the back of my shirt in his teeth, then dragged his head upwards. I wasn't short, but I found myself dangling a foot off the ground. Yelping, I swung my hand upwards clumsily until it connected with a furry nose. He snorted and released my shirt, stepping back. I fell heavily to the floor and slumped into a heap.

Rubbing the back of my neck, I scowled at the stallion, who I would have said to be amused – though his stance was as impassive as his owner's. I grumbled and suddenly realized that I heard laughter from the front of the stall. I whirled, my mouth opening to tell off the stableboy. I snapped it shut as I recognized Trickster, from earlier. I planted my fists on my hips and scowled as best I could with him grinning at me impudently. Grins are extraordinarily infectious, and his was even more so. I deepened my scowl and opened my mouth again. "Oh, shut up," I said. "You couldn't do any better." He didn't stop grinning. I felt my mouth twitch. "Who are you, anyway?" I asked grumpily. "Traveling with an Aes –" I cut myself off quickly, but his grin had vanished.

"What are you talking about?" he said warily. "I'm not traveling with an…whatever you said."

"Ah…" I looked for a way out of this. I leaned my arms on the stall door. "She came through Baerlon earlier. I spoke with her, that's all."

"Okay," he said, but his guard stayed up.

"Where are you from, anyway?" I asked after a pause.

"The Two Rivers," he said shortly.

"I've never heard of that," I said. "Where is it."

"South. I've got to go now. Bye."

"What's your name, anyway?"

He hesitated, looking over his shoulder at me, his eyes narrowed, and opened his mouth to say something, when Lan appeared in the doorway, his cold eyes on me. "I hope you have not been saying too much," he said in a flat voice. "You have to be careful what ears you speak to – here and everywhere. Go back to the inn, Mat." Mat turned quickly and walked out of the stables, looking over his shoulder at me. The horse behind me pushed me out of the way and snorted at the man, leaning his head over the door. I nearly fell over, catching myself on the wall. Lan stroked the stallion's nose absently.

We were both silent for a long time, but I couldn't hold his gaze for long. I dropped it to the shavings and scuffed at them with my feet. "Mistress Alys wishes to speak to you," he said at last.

"Oh?" I said. "Why?"

I think he must have shrugged. "She didn't tell me. Come along, girl."

"I'm supposed to take care of this horse," I protested, scowling up at the stallion.

Lan snorted. "Right. I'll take care of him later. He won't let anyone else near him. Come on."

I sighed, but slipped out through the stall door and trotted after the Warder into the back door of the inn, then upstairs. I struggled to keep up, even at almost a run. I scowled the whole time. Finally he opened the door of the room I remembered the Aes Sedai staying in last time. He opened the door and let me through, then closed it firmly. I shivered, feeling uncomfortably like a prisoner.

"What do you want?" I asked, rather rudely.

She was looking at me over the tips of her fingers, her mouth twitching in a slight smile. "Sit down," she said politely. "I only wanted to talk to you some more about this strange ability of yours."

"I can't tell you anything," I said, not moving toward the chair. "I don't understand it, anyway."

"Oh, not that kind of question, for the most part," she said. "Please, sit down. Tea?"

I shook my head, but she poured me a cup anyway, and pushed it across the table to me. I moved reluctantly over to the chair and sat down. I cupped the warm cup in my hands and stared at her.

"My name is Moiraine," she said. "You saw my companions, I presume? Well, I'm curious – what did you see around them? Anything… different?"

"What companions?" I said innocently. She laughed and stared me down until I flushed and looked at the floor. "Well…" I began hesitantly. "Sort of. I mean, it was strange that there were images at all, really…"

"What do you mean?" Moiraine interrupted. "These…viewings…they aren't around everyone?"

I hesitated, then spoke slowly, every word dragged out of me. I tapped my feet on the floor nervously. "Well…no. Like with you, and Lan, they're always there, but with ordinary people, they're only there sometimes."

"Ah. So what were the images like around my companions?" Moiraine pressed.

"Well, around the man with the mustaches, they were normal, sometimes there, sometimes not. But all the others…" I furrowed my brows, trying to understand also. "They were like you. There all the time. Especially…the tall boy. The one with the sword. And the dark-haired girl."

Moiraine nodded, seeming to be affirming her own suspicions. "Interesting," she said. "And what, exactly, do you see?"

I related my viewings that I remembered, nervously, while she nodded, her expression speculative. I remembered another one, suddenly. "And around all of you was this big black cloud," I said slowly, "And there were white specks, like fireflies, flying into it. Only they were getting swallowed by the blackness. I don't know what it means," I added before she could ask. "None of it."

She nodded slowly. "That's all, Min. Thank you. You know," she added after a moment, "I think, if it is all right with you, I would like to send you to the White Tower. The Aes Sedai there would be interested in learning about your ability…it would be much more comfortable than this inn…?"

I shook my head vigorously. "No thanks. I don't want to get – excuse me – stuck in Aes Sedai webs." Moiraine laughed.

"You are a brave girl, Min. Very brave. You may go now."

"Thank you," I said hesitantly. "Goodbye, Moiraine Sedai." I hurried out the door uneasily past Lan."