POV Moiraine
Moiraine departed Tar Valon much the same way she did it three years ago, on a river boat, with nary a word to anyone else except Siuan.
The Blue Wind is a typical trade ship of its kind, with a room only for the Captain and everyone else sharing a common space with hammocks, the Captain gave up his room for Moiraine and Lan without being asked, and Moiraine rewarded him for his consideration by doubling their fare, paid upfront and half again in silver for sailors to distribute among themselves as a bonus.
Moiraine initially planned to visit Stedding Jentoine, the Stedding nearest to Tar Valon, to familiarize herself with present Ogier situation, to plant seeds for a future alliance, to inquire about their greatest scholars and as a test for her and Siuans unusual bond, yet decided against it, since Stedding Jentoine is still in the immediate sphere of influence for Moiraine to feel truly comfortable and in a small way because Moiraine wanted to postpone experiencing that feeling of sheer loss and despair that comes with losing the access to One Power while inside a Stedding.
There are some inhabited Steddings in Mountains of Mist anyway, even though traveling to them takes some exertion, and her new destination of Aringill, serves her purposes better. Aringill being a crucial port on River Erinin on the side of Andor, it is a very bustling port town for its moderate size, by the time they dock, Moiraine and Lan would disguise themselves as a Lady and her Guardsman, the Captain and sailors knows better than talking about Moiraine, at least while Moiraine is in the same town, then Lan and Moiraine would lose themselves in the Town for a day or two, then leave some false trails, each harder to find than the last and the last one pointing them towards Cairhein. When Lan is sure their real trail won't be found they will disappear into Andoran countryside and wilderness.
Moiraine decided that they will be best served by caution, not to mean they weren't cautious before in their search for Dragon Reborn, but this time Moiraine decided to give her paranoia full reign when planning this particular journey. When thinking of this journey Moiraine almost felt a sense of not exactly urgency, but that there is something of a timetable, like there will be sweets if she arrived before a fixed time, but any later than that they will be gone. Yet at the same time she felt this journey just had to be completely untraceable. This feeling almost felt like a Foretelling, but it cannot be, Moiraine never had even an inkling of that Talent, even in its lesser form of predicting weather and conflict like some Aes Sedai and Wise Womans, Readers or whatever else such woman are called claim to have. This in turn made her even more paranoid. While they are stuck on the ship Moiraine started working on color shifting cloth that Siuan gifted, Siuan, ever the wisest between them added abundant rolls of thread made of same material and finest steel needles to work on the cloth, Moiraine decided on making something herself first before she made anything else and discussed on what she should make with both Siuan and Lan.
Lan is of two minds when Moiraine finally told him about the double bond, on one hand he is excited about having a new tool in accomplishing their mission, yet on the other hand he is very very worried about Moiraine literally tying her life to Siuans and the obvious vulnerability this bond is to Moiraine, a vulnerability that he cannot defend, a warder does not survive if his Aes Sedai dies, learning just how tightly bound Moiraine and Siuan are by this double bond, he is completely convinced one will not survive the other by even minutes and that situation will come about any minute, completely ignoring the fact that what Moiraine did is equally dangerous to himself, all of his worry completely focused on Moiraine. He is perpetually on the edge since Moiraine told him.
Their double bond continued to function with no discernable decline in efficacy, they can Send to each other with no loss, Automatic Linking and Simultaneous Channeling still happens, even as Moiraine sailed farther and farther away. That left only tests with Shielding and Stedding, one of which Moiraine will get to sooner than later.
After much discussion, which perhaps should be more accurately described as Lan battering Moiraine and Siuan to submission, they settled on Moiraine making riding breeches, a modified mid thigh tunic with a large hood that could be pulled down to cover the forehead with a bit left over and an attached half mask that could be pulled up to bridge of the nose and could be tied tight by string on the back of the head over the ears, and a cloth belt. All of them made to be pulled on directly, with no buttons and as form fitting as possible. When Moiraine protested the immodesty of the design, Lan countered by pointing out that the purpose of using this particular cloth is the cloths ability to blend into surroundings, since they have surplus material, they might as well make a set of clothing that makes Moiraine effectively invisible when in use and easy to get into. Since the entire purpose of this set is to be effectively invisible worrying about modesty is not only redundant but asinine.
Even though Lan, was completely calm, sincere and rational when he made this argument Moiraine is certain he did this as petty revenge for pulling what she pulled with the double bond without consulting him. After all it is as much as custom as basic courtesy that an Aes Sedai consult her Warder and get his agreement before bonding another Warder, not that a Warder ever truly opposes his Aes Sedais decisions, but it is expected that he be at least told about Aes Sedai bonding another.
