Book 1: Ripples from a mountain
Chapter 1: The Dragon is reborn
"The best place to start a story is the beginning"
Blinking the darkness out of his eyes Rand looked at his surroundings disoriented, as everything became less fuzzy he started to remembered what happened which caused him to start laughing at the absurdity of the entire situation. Stopping quickly as to avoid alarming Tam he gathered his wits and started to think. Right now he was in his bedroom on his fathers farm, not even a day away from the Bel Tine which drove him from away Edmonds Field after a fist of Trollocs and a Myrddraal attacked Edmonds field looking for him. He would not let that battle cause so much damage this time around. Whether he would stop them by his own hand or get the townsfolk to arm themselves isn't important, he would limit the destruction.
As Rand continued to think about the situation he was realizing that any planning would be wasteful if he didn't do it with Egwene. She was rather opinionated and quite competent herself, so any plans he made had the very real chance of being thrown out the minute the two of them started discussing what should be done. Rand sighed when he realized that there was nothing productive to be done just yet and went to sleep once more.
A moment later Rand woke up in Tel'aran'rhiod, usually he would leave as soon as possible and spend his night in a dreamshard of his own making where he would wander around either thinking or relaxing. Tonight however he decided to stick around and refamiliarise himself with the Two Rivers since it had been a while since he was last here and it would not do to be unfamiliar with the place he was expected to know by heart. After he had walked around Tam's farm and was wandering around Edmonds Field reminiscing about all the happy days he spent here Rand realized something, the entire world had gone two years back, not just the Two Rivers. Everything was still mostly stable, Caemlyn wasn't in ruins, nobody had even heard of the Seanchan or Masema, the borderlands hadn't fallen. None of the destruction his arrival brought had happened yet.
The next hour or two saw Rand wandering around the world seeing every place at its height instead of gazing upon their ruins. Cairhien hadn't changed much since he last saw it, the destruction wreaked by the Shaido was already mostly rebuilt when he left, Caemlyn was looking as magnificent as it was when he first saw it. The borderlands were still in good shape, Illian was still peaceful. He debated going to Rhuidean but decided against it given the Wise ones lived in the waste and he had no desire to come across them just yet. As he stepped away from Seanchan free Ebou Dar Rand traveled to the one place he had yet to visit.
Arriving in the streets of Tear Rand looked up at the Stone of Tear, barely a year from now the Aiel would be first to break through the fortress which for now was still considered unbreakable during their search for him. He wondered if that was going to happen this time around. As imposing as the Stone is it wasn't the reason he was here, Callandor should still stand in the same place where it was placed in the Age of Legends. One thought later he was inside the Heart of the Stone, only upon arriving he saw that he wasn't alone. Fifty feet from Callandor stood a figure dressed in white with a multitude of differently coloured stripes adorning their robes. The figure looked as startled to see Rand as he was startled to see them.
Before he could leave however the figure shook themselves out of their stupor and called "Rand?"
after recognizing the voice he hesitantly called back "Egwene?".
Egwene sighed "You almost gave me a bloody heart attack Rand, what are you even doing here. Nevermind that, how are you even here, are you a dreamwalker?" "Any man or woman who can channel can learn to come to Tel'aran'rhiod Egwene. As for what I am doing here, ...well I wanted to see the world again before everything changed"
Looking at Callandor with a slightly wistful expression Egwene said "I suppose that is understandable, I came for similar reasons. This is where I used to coordinate with Nynaeve and Elayne about our actions"
Rand suddenly realized something and snorted, when Egwene looked at him in askance he said
"Just a few hours ago we were the most powerful man and woman on the planet and now, now we are just a sheepherder and an innkeepers daughter." "That is a good point actually"
"No need to sound so surprised"
As Egwene was looking at Rand with exasperation she continued "We need to regain our influence somehow, as it stands no one will listen to anything we have to say. I don't think I need to tell you that that isn't good if you want to change the world"
Considering their options Rand replied "I don't think we will have much issue if we play our cards right. I am the Dragon Reborn after all and your skill in weave-making is unparalleled. Even if you don't invent something new you already know several weaves thought lost to time, if you time it well those can be used to raise your standing. I think our main issue is that right now we don't actually have the ability to play our cards"
Egwene looked at him with equal parts curiosity and apprehension "I assume you have a proposal that is completely hare-brained that you are going to go through with whether I agree or not"
"We are partners in this endeavour Egwene I won't do something as big as what I'm planning without discussing it first"
"I notice you did not say that I need to agree to it"
Rand chuckled "I won't go through with this plan unless you agree Egwene. I think that our main problem going forward will be our own arrogance, as such I think it would be beneficial to tell certain people about our situation"
"Who did you have in mind?"
Surprise rippled through Rand "You agree? Just like that?"
Egwene sighed " I am not a fool Rand I know that both of us need people that can ground us"
Rand hesitated before speaking again "I was thinking about Moiraine, Nynaeve, Tam and the Amyrlin seat when we meet her."
Egwene looked like she was considering his picks " I understand Moiraine and Siuan but why Tam and Nynaeve?"
"Nynaeve is responsible enough to hold our secret and she was incredibly important last time around. My father has travelled the world and would help us with Perrin, Mat and Nynaeve during our travels"
"You want your father to come with us?" Egwene interrupted
"If you would let me finish talking" Rand said irritably "My father is a familiar presence and knowledgeable about the world, not to mention an excellent blade-master and an incredible marksman"
Egwene was silent for a few moments before saying "That all sounds reasonable enough, how are you planning to tell them?"
"To be honest I hadn't gotten that far yet"
Egwene chuckled "Well if you can get a room for you and your father I can get Nynaeve and Moiraine there"
"Alright, do you have anything else that needs discussing?" Rand said
"Nothing urgent, besides it's about time to wake up" Egwene replied.
Rand nodded "Yes it is" After a few moments of silence he hesitantly said "I've missed you Egwene"
Egwene looked surprised for a moment before her face became blank again. "I've missed you too Rand, I will see you this afternoon"
Although her face was devoid of emotion her words gave him hope they could renew their friendship. Barely a moment later she disappeared and Rand decided it was well past time to wake up.
A/N
Well this is a proper sized chapter isn't it? Ill try to keep the chapters generally around this length although the finales will probably be quite a bit longer since so much shit happens during them. While writing this I discovered that I like writing a lot more than I thought. It stops my thoughts from wandering and is generally relaxing. Both of which are welcome sometimes. So unless life gets busy again I don't think there will be any month long pauses between chapters.
I was reading up on some character bios on fandom dot com and holy shit Tam is a fucking badass. I will talk about this a bit more in the story itself but he is on the same level of badass as Lan. Also Cadsuane's antics are hilarious, the woman kidnapped an Amyrlin and just vanishes when the tower wants to give her a promotion. Thom's a fucking menace, dude assasinated two kings.
Thank you GrandSpaceWizard for your kind words, ill try to stick with it and let the story live up to its potential. And LvcivsSvlla thank you as well.
I hope you enjoyed, please review and until next time
-Rallar
A/N/N
A bit of an issue with uploading this chapter it didn't take the last version of it. Thanks tankuser for helping me realise
