POV Lan
Lan is perpetually surprised by Moiraines sheer willpower. He should not be, he has been her Warder for nigh on three years now, in that time he has seen her go hungry for days on end when situation demanded, suffer indignities no village woman much less an Aes Sedai would willingly endure, he has seen her wreck such devastation against Trollocs in the Blight by drawing so deeply on One Power that she was unable to lift a finger after and rub shoulders with Royalty and play Daes De'maar like an old hand. He has seen her Heal soldiers, dragging them back from Dark Ones maw when there was no hope and soothe a child with skinned knee as a mother might. Even with all this she never once took a day of rest from their search of Dragon Reborn. Lan has seen her single handedly restore Borderlanders faith in White Tower and Aes Sedai, when that faith was damaged when Aes Sedai failed Malkier in its time of need.
For all that every Aes Sedai claims that they are waging a perpetual war against Shadow, it is only Moiraine who has actually shown that claim to be true in Lans memory. Because questions were raised after Malkiers Fall, if Aes Sedai were truly committed to the fight against Shadow then why was there no Aes Sedai contingent stationed in Borderlands, as it was said to have been in Artur Hawkwings time, before relations between Hawkwing and Tower soured, if not Aes Sedai from every Ajah, why didn't the Green Ajah, Ajah which claims to be Battle Ajah, station their Sisters in borderland forts, a single Aes Sedai could overturn the outcome of a Trolloc raid and change the tide of a battle in humanities favor, yet every Aes Sedai that stays in Borderlands stays only at Courts of Kings and Queens in an Advisory role and any other Aes Sedai that visits, visits for their political agenda, even Green Sisters who come to Borderlands come as though on a vacation, fight a band of Trollocs if any happen to cross their path and go on their way back to southlands. Perhaps the Tower did not know or they did not care but the unspoken accusations lingered for nigh on thirty years after Malkiers Fall. It is Moiraines efforts that restored Aes Sedai reputation to its pristine heights in Borderlands. In these three years Moiraines exploits in the Blight has grown so large that she is as much a legend in Borderlands as Lan is. Lan personally knows hundreds of soldiers through out Borderlands who would come running if Moiraine ever called, while Aes Sedai are always respected in Borderlands , Moiraine is revered.
And this journey to the Two Rivers region is one more deed in her long line of acts that exemplify her sheer willpower, Moiraine decided against travel by the horse even while they were at Tar Valon, they left their mounts at the White Tower before they boarded the Blue Wind, they would be well cared for in Tower stables and they did not have the horses for long enough for Lan and Moiraine to get too attached anyway, after their last mounts died against a Trolloc raid in Saldea these were given as replacements by the grateful soldiers who got to the place of attack late by hours.
Lan was categorically against the idea of Moiraine making this journey on foot, he even offered to forgo a mount of his own if she feared making tracks for any followers, so that he could follow on foot behind her and erase any tracks, yet she still insisted this journey needs to be as untraceable as possible.
And her paranoia seems to have been well deserved, because after they left Aringill the day after they docked at the town, Lan laid several false trails, yet even so a band of thugs managed to stumble upon their hiding place outside Aringill, the place they hid and lingered at exactly because Moiraine feared there could be someone who can find their real trail, when that worst case scenario occurred, it would be an understatement to say that Lan was surprised, Lan is one of the best in wilderness survival, he can say that without it being hubris, he was taught by the best teachers in the continent, he is Warder trained even if he never went to White Tower for that training and has his own extensive experience. When Lan dealt with their attackers and left one alive for questioning, what he learnt was even more surprising, those thugs were Darkfriends and they stumbled on Lan and Moiraines real trail by dumb luck, no, not dumb luck, the Dark Ones Own Luck. Even though the phrase itself is a common one, it is an ancient one and there is a profound wisdom in it, because Dark Ones servants seem to be unusually lucky in whatever they endeavored to do, after all a single Darkfriend brought down Malkier, yes, that single Darkfriend was a Great Lord of Malkier and a legitimate candidate for the Throne of Malkier, even so, a nation died by the actions of one man.
That incident pushed Lan from the edge to full blown paranoia, Lan laid even more false trails, mainly leading towards cities of Caemlyn and Cairhein and a few towards various other prominent towns in both countries, once his paranoia settled down a little, they circled Aringill twice more before entering Bream Wood northwest and fifteen miles from Aringill and they haven't returned to civilization since. They traversed through the forest for a month before exiting out of westernmost edge of Bream Wood, ten miles north from town of Arien, Lan almost thought that Moiraine would want to visit the town after a month of eating travel rations, barely cooked meat when Lan could hunt some game, drinking water gathered out of air moisture by One Power, bathing only once and sleeping on hard ground, yet Moiraine insisted on trekking through cross country and avoiding even a dirt path much less a road and civilization.
Even with all of that, they made good time for two people burdened with heavy saddlebags trekking cross country on foot. It is in this arduous journey that Moiraines new Warder status showed its worth, the journey that would have been near impossible before Moiraines double bonding became merely extremely difficult. Even with Lan carrying majority of the weight Moiraine still insisted on carrying her fair share and as the journey progressed Moiraine became more vigorous, where initially she was too tired to even make her bedroll to sleep after a day of walking, three months into the journey, now she can lope besides Lan for half a day at a steady pace, work on color changing clothes by fireside once the sun went down and even learn some knife work from Lan most evenings once they stop for the day, they walked, jogged, loped and trekked through the length of Andor form east to west of near twelve hundred miles for three months and they are finally near their destination.
