POV Moiraine
Moiraine came awake to a thunderous "Burn me! I am going to be late" , the sentence seemingly originating in her own mind than something that came in via her ears. The curse was vehement enough and the fact that it seemed to have directly conjured itself in her mind on its own is odd enough that Moiraine came awake and was already sitting up in a snap only to see Siuan frantically gathering their dresses, yanking her rather rumpled dress from right under Moiraines bare bottom.
Moiraine growing more incredulous at the theory growing in mind by the second, decided to take a chance, and formed a thought as distinctly as she could and tried to project it at Siuan, "Siuan, did you just curse out loud?"
"Of course, I didn't, we had the same training", Siuan answered absently while dusting her dress, when her movements slowed and she slowly turned to Moiraine, in her sheer surprise at the same realization that Moiraine had, Siuans lips parted, eyes widened until they seemed to be all pupil and at the pole-axed look on Siuans face Moiraine burst out laughing.
Moiraines laughter seemed to have snapped Siuan out of her shock, "What are you laughing at? I said it was madness, look at what happened now? We don't know what other side effects will manifest because of what we did!"
However much effort Siuan put into scolding Moiraine out loud, Moiraine could feel Siuans true emotions and so she could feel Siuans glee as her mind raced with possibilities just how this new facet of their bond could be put to use. So Moiraine added her own thoughts to Siuans, and it is adding of 'thoughts', Moiraines thoughts are conveyed at thought speed, "We need to test this out more, is there a range limit? Are there any other side effects? Can we mask our bonds like normal bonds?"
"Yes, yes we will, but not now, I have duties I need to see to at the Tower! The Continent spanning spy network does not run on its own, I need to check upon my handlers and collect the missives they received, hear some reports in person, decode those reports and sift through all of then and make a report to the First Selector in person before she has her mid morning tea and write up a report for the Amyrlin herself, not all of us can go on adventures and visit the Tower once in three years, you know. I will leave first, you follow after an hour or two. The Sun will be up in an hour , I am amazed that I even woke up this early after the night we had. Clean up here as best as you can. We probably won't meet again in person in next two days. Fill me up on the details on your journey and your any future plans", Siuans reply came just a fast as Moiraines and via the same means, Siuan hurriedly donned her dark blue dress in record time and she came closer to still sitting and unashamedly naked Moiraine, who thoroughly enjoyed Siuans efforts of dressing up and straightening her sex mussed up hair and placed a soft peck on Moiraines lips before turning around and briskly walked away in that rolling gait suitable for a deck of a ship that Siuan reverted into whenever she was in a too much of a hurry for the Aes Sedai stately walk.
Siuan almost stumbled when Moiraine teasingly sent the thought filled with her genuine emotion of admiration tinged with lust, "You have a magnificent rump".
"Hush you, you are incorrigible", Siuan admonished, yet the sway of her hips became more pronounced, and Moiraines enjoyment of the sight only grew.
When Siuan was out of sight, Moiraine started to fill her in the details she left out and topics she did not have the chance to speak of. When Moiraine finished with her interpretation of the prophecy and her intention to search for remnants of Menetheren, Siuan slipped into deep thought and asked for some time to consider all of it on her own.
Since Siuan asked for some time, Moiraine got onto the process of cleaning up, their poor shifts are a lost cause, Moiraine would have preferred to leave them be or bury them in a shallow ditch and forget about it, but the Tairen fishergirl buried under Siuans Aes Sedai training would squirm at the sheer noble stupidity of wasting good silk. So Moiraine, gathered all of it and cut it apart so that smaller strips of silk could be dropped off it at a healing house to make bandages, even in Tar Valon where Yellow Sisters could Heal anything short of death with One Power for free, there are still people who would prefer to heal the mundane way, so good bandage materials are always welcome and larger sheets are to be dropped off at some poor tailors shop.
Once Moiraine dusted off her dark grey dress and donned it, Moiraine embraced the Source to weave a Weave of Water to gather moisture from the air to wash her face and sate her thirst, but just as she embraced the Source, Siuans bewildered thought of "WHAT?!" slammed into Moiraines mind and another thought howled after it, "Blood and Bloody Ashes! We are LINKED, HOW?!"
Forgetting her plans to weave anything, Moiraine released the Source and sent to Siuan, "Calm down Siuan, this seems to be another facet of our unusual bond. Thats why I said we need to test it more! Where are you know?"
"Outside the Tower, talking to one of my contacts, an innkeeper. This could become very inconvenient Moiraine, you know the Tower etiquette regarding holding the Source among Aes Sedai as well as I do. If the other Sisters sees us holding the Source for no apparent reason, it could be seen as anything between Obscene and Threatening, especially with our Strength in One Power. It would be like a well endowed man taking out his member in public, shouting how his is the biggest around. Or it could be perceived as a show of force. Or a complete lack of self control and we will be mocked because Aes Sedai are the epitome of Control. Or.."
"Siuan, listen to me, stop spiraling and take a hold of yourself", Moiraine sent the mental equivalent of a shout and shaking someone, before continuing, "Ask for a private room at the inn, once you took the report and take a seat and Send to me when you do. And I decided to call this, us talking with our thoughts ,Sending, by the way. Take a seat, take a breath, calm down and Send to me."
Moiraine took her own advice and sat down to center herself, in a couple of minutes Siuan sent, "Very Well, I am calm. Lets do this. I will now try to embrace the Source, you do not do anything, only observe"
Moiraine did just that, she observed, and what she observed is completely baffling, as soon as Siuan touched the Source, Siuan and Moiraine are in a Circle, no preparation needed on Moiraines part and Siuan did not reach out to the Source through Moiraine, as needed when forming a Circle. There needs to be the Intention of forming a Circle, a Requirement of line of sight with who one wants to form a circle with and a Willingness from the other party, but this Circle between Siuan and Moiraine broke all those rules, which are thought and taught to be unbreakable . Moiraine sent to Siuan half musingly, "This is remarkable, the Whites will give up their favorite foot for this knowledge."
Just as Yellow Ajah is devoted to Healing and as such has first claim over any matters regarding Healing, the Green Ajah chose Battle in Preparation for Last Battle, the Blue Ajah chose Just Causes to fight for and Guide the World on a more Just Path, Gray chose Peaceful Negotiation to Promote Unity of Humanity, Red chose Nuetralization of Threats to the World from Irresponsible/Insane Channelers, not just Male Channelers, a distinction most seemed to forget, Brown chose Preservation of all Knowledge, the White Ajah chose to be devoted to Logic, Philosophy, the Pursuit of Truth and Unravelling the Mysteries of One Power. Officially it is the White Towers directive that no Aes Sedai should experiment with One Power, deeming it too dangerous, Aes Sedai are only supposed to use Weaves they are taught and aren't supposed to fiddle with even those. Of course that isn't a directive that can be enforced, especially when use of One Power is very intuitive and every Aes Sedai discovered at least one Weave on accident when Saidar seemed almost weave itself to accomplish some desire of the Channeler. Moiraine herself discovered several such weaves, of which her favorite weave for eavesdropping is one. So the Tower issued another directive, permitting White Ajah to conduct experiments using Saidar, in a very controlled and safe environment under the direction of several experienced Aes Sedai. Experiments that haven't produced any great breakthroughs, hence why this duty of White Ajah is not much known, even within the Tower.
Yet now Moiraine and Siuans bond broke several rules of One Power that are thought to be Ironclad, perhaps even during Age of Legends, an age when Aes Sedai are thought to be at their peak in every field, since Moiraine is sure Warder Bond is an invention of Third Age.
"Moiraine Focus!", Siuan sent irritably, "What do we do?!"
"Do you want me to release the bond?" Moiraine asked, even as she felt Siuans and her own absolute revulsion and loathing at the mere idea of it. For only the short time that they had this bond it had become too intrinsic to their sense of self, that even the idea of losing it provoked such strong reaction.
"Very well, that idea is out. What else? Its already known that range of a Circle once formed is functionally limitless, we can assume it will be same for us, at least for now. We will put a system in place, one should need to warn the other before embracing the Source. It is not a perfect solution and depends entirely too much on the range from which we can Send to each other, but it is a workable for now. For today I will beg tiredness from the journey and stick to my rooms, and ask Lan to ward off any visitors. And tonight when most of our sisters are asleep we will experiment more. What do you think?", Moiraine sent to Siuan, who acquiesced grumbling all the while.
The night seemed to have come somehow both too fast and too slow, Moiraine and Siuan decided to stay in their own rooms, not every sister in Blue Ajah quarters is asleep, but it is Tower etiquette to generally ignore any channeling a sister does in her own room, a surprising bit of human decency, given that even Aes Sedai training is not enough to overcome that human need for privacy especially when they are scrutinized for every second of every day when in public. With the exception of the Amyrlin, every other sister needs explicit permission to even enter another Aes Sedais quarters, yet even then that protection doesn't stop Aes Sedai from keeping an eye out to observe comings and goings of guests to their sisters rooms, hence why Siuan and Moiraine deciding to keep to their own rooms and why they met in the Grove instead of their rooms.
Siuan and Moiraine tested several things which yielded two very interesting results. When Two Aes Sedai join in a Circle the resulting strength is not the sum of their individual strengths but the quantity of Saidar that could be drawn by the leader is more than the capaticty of the strongest of the twos strengths, just how much of increase in capacity seem to vary between two people but it is always substantially less than sum of their strengths, first half of this seemed to hold true for Moiraine and Siuans automatic Circle, but the second half less so. When linked Siuan and Moiraine now have only a little less than sum of their strengths, which has definitely not been the case when the two Linked before the bond. When channeling Siuan and Moiraine now effectively have double their previous strength.
And another thing, the thing that changed everything is that they can both Channel while Linked, whatever other rules that their unusual bond broke, the rule that with the exception of the one who leads the Link nobody else in the Circle can channel has always been the most dangerous vulnerability of a Circle, to sidestep that restriction, "...its as though as long as we embrace the Source, we are effectively One Soul in Two bodies."
"THAT'S exactly what I thought when you bonded me!", Siuan replied to Moiraines stray musing before continuing, "If that is how this functions, do you think we won't have the protection a Circle awards against Shielding, necessitating Shielding everyone thats part of the Circle at the same time?"
"I don't know, and we don't have another sister we trust completely enough to ask to experiment and find out. Haa, our lack of allies is concerning Siuan. Suppose I find the Dragon Reborn, what then? Bring him to the Tower, where Black Ajah are so influential that they got away with murder of our most powerful Aes Sedai? They most probably got away with murder of Amyrlins, Siuan, Amyrlin! Where Red Ajah will be chomping at the bit to Gentle him, if not outright murder him? Leave the Reds aside, can we even say White Tower won't collectively lose their minds if they even knew the Dragon is Reborn?", Moiraine sent dispiritedly.
After a moment of quiet, Siuan replied, "The Wheel Weaves as the Wheel Wills, aren't those the words you live by? Are you losing Faith, Moiraine?"
"No, I am not", Moiraine sent with a blazing determination strong enough to ground mountains to dust before continuing, "But we need a better plan, The Dragon Reborn is a toddler yet, and the Black Ajah don't know that, based on their indiscriminate actions of killing any male of any age they deem likely to be a channeler or Ta'veren. Thats an opportunity, we have time, we need solutions to our problems and less problems before the Wheel deems the Dragon is ready enough to unveil him before the World."
"I might have a new direction in my investigation of Black Ajah and a way to accurately identify a Black Sister", Siuan sent her own determination in response to Moiraines, as the seed of an idea long germinating finally seemed to sprout in Siuans mind.
"Really?", Moiraine sent her own amazement as a question.
"Its the Oath Rod, answer to both of those problems. Black Sisters are obviously circumventing the Three Oaths, which we know is quite impossible, if we even think of it trying to do so we are assaulted by debilitating waves of psychic pain, so the only way Black Sisters can do what they do is because they are released from the the Three Oaths, which only Oath Rod can do. Unless Black Ajah has another Oath Rod, which is entirely possible, they must be using the one Tower has. Tower really doesn't keep that good a track of Ter'angreal as it does with Angreal and Sa'angreal. Most Ter'angreal we regularly use like the ones used to raise Accepted and Aes Sedai or the one that makes cloth for Warder Cloaks or the one we use to punish petty criminals are big and difficult to move, so, easy to keep track of and every other Ter'angreal is left in a dusty room and only checked upon once in a decade or so, it is only the Oath Rod thats a Ter'angreal thats both in somewhat frequent use yet easy to conceal. If I can manage to keep a better track of it and who exactly has easy access to it or has the ability to take it and return it without notice, I might have new suspects. As for accurately identifying Black Sisters, if I can get my hands on the Oath Rod I can force my suspects to reswear the Three Oaths and interrogate them using the First Oath", Siuan sent.
"Thats ingenious, Siuan, you are brilliant!", Moiraine gushed in praise and awe.
"Lets not celebrate the catch before the net is even thrown, especially when I am not entirely sure this net doesn't have holes the size of the Stone of Tear. For all our claims of knowledge and wisdom, us Aes Sedai are not half as clever or as wise as we like to think. I will try to navigate these treacherous shallows as best as I can. Yet between us yours is the more important task, I thought long and hard on your interpretation of prophecy, it seemed to be true, seemed being the key word. Interpreting Prophecy is more dangerous business than catching a school of silverpike in a tiff, never assume anything as a sure thing when it comes to prophecy, Moiraine. Even so, your interpretation resonated as more Right than any other I ever read, if there is no catch its better to eat clams than go hungry. Find those remnants of Manetheren, Moiraine. Its as good as an idea as any and as you said we have a bit of time yet", Siuan sent with both hope and tiredness.
"Very well, Siuan, lets sleep for this night. Warder bond only enhances whats already there, even with your Tairen hardiness, we were upto rather strenuous activity last night and you did more than your fair share of it too," Moiraine sent with a salacious smirk. And ignoring Siuans rather embarrassed grumbles in the back of her mind Moiraine went to sleep.
