POV Moiraine
"How exactly are we going to cross the Taren without going through Taren Ferry, Moiraine?", Lan asked in a deadpan voice, with the air of a man who already knows he is not going to like what he is about to hear.
"We are going to swim across it", Moiraine replied in her most confident tone.
"In this season?! Waters going to be ice cold, Moiraine Sedai, true it isn't the time for the melt yet, so flow won't be as fast as it could be. That just means we won't be washed away downriver and drown, it doesn't stop us from dying of hypothermia. What are we going to do about the horses, they are not as dumb as humans to ever willingly enter a deep river, especially an ice cold one. For the love of Light, think of a better idea!", Lan growled out.
"Fine, fine! Let me think", Moiraine grumbled.
"How about we build a raft", Moiraine threw out the idea.
"With what skills?", Lan ground out.
"I will use Saidar. I know the Weave to make iron hard bands of air, I will need to fiddle with it a bit to make the bands bigger. And little bit of manipulation with Water Flow, we will be across Taren in minutes", Moiraine answered with palpable excitement that Lan could probably feel through the Bond.
"Very well, Moiraine Sedai. Your wish is my command", Lan sighed out.
"My command is your command, Lan Gaidin", Moiraine snapped out.
After one wobbly and sometimes precarious raft ride later, they are across Taren.
"Someones in a chipper mood", Lan observed in deadpan.
"I have a really good feeling about this, Lan", Moiraine replied, finally letting herself feel the relief and sheer giddiness that the possible end to her quest is near invoked in her.
"You do realize, all of this could come to nothing right? You have built a tangled web of connections out of gossamer thin thread of assumptions Moiraine. We were doing a steady search with actual information, when after three years of tireless effort, you suddenly decide that you have a better understanding of a prophecy that eluded the grasp of scholars and Aes Sedai alike for three thousand years. I am not saying this to purposefully discourage you Moiraine, but I am genuinely concerned that you will lose your spirit of pursuit if this doesn't pan out as you hope it will", Lan said somberly.
"Oh Lan, I am not ignorant of the possibility of failure, my friend. I have faith, the Wheel will provide a way forward, even if this path isn't the one I hope it is", Moiraine replied gently.
And they continued on their way to Al'Thor farm in silence through forest of Westwood for another hour before the forest gave way to sprawling farmland waiting to be tilled and a sturdy looking farmhouse with a lit candle still showing in a window with a sizable barn beside it.
They made their way to farmhouse and knocked on the door, expecting to be greeted by the face of Tam al'Thor, but got surprised by the irate face of perhaps the oldest woman Moiraine has ever seen, with a full head of white hair braided in a single braid, sharp eyes and the face already forming a fearsome scowl, the woman already made Moiraine feel like a child caught with a stolen pie in her hand without saying a word, just as the woman was about to open her mouth, obviously to question them, a despondent and harried looking Tam al'Thor hurried into their sight and called out, "Mistress Alys, Master Andra, I am glad you could make it", after nearing the woman and trying to get in front of her and failing, he continued from over the womans shoulder, "Wisdom, Mistress Alys is a healer, I asked her to come to try to help Kari, they told me that they would come after taking care of something else. Mistress Alys this is our village Wisdom, Mistress Doral Barran. Please come in, come in."
Even though Tam invited them inside, the woman, Doral Barran, continued to stand in the doorway, barring the way inside and continued to study Moiraine and barked out, "Mistress Alys, is it? Boy, it seems I raised a fool, because either you don't know this is an Aes Sedai or you know and you just lied to me about it. So which kind of fool are you, the oblivious one or the one which knows enough yet isn't wise enough to not to get tangled with Aes Sedai?"
"Mistress Barran, I can Heal, and I am here to try to do that on invitation by Master Al'Thor", Moiraine said withall the Aes Sedai authority that she could muster and got interrupted before she could finish speaking.
Mistress Barran snorted derisively and spoke ,"I am old enough to be your grandmothers grandmothers grandmothers grandmother, girl. You would do well to keep your tongue civil and your Aes Sedai condescension and half truths out of it or I will take a birch to your bottom and your Warder and One Power won't be enough to stop me, I assure you."
Moiraine rocked back on her heels and finally recognized that feeling of kinship that she has been feeling as soon as Mistress Barran showed herself, and wondered aloud, "You are a channeler!", and a very very weak one, is left unsaid, Mistress Barran is one of weakest channelers Moiraine has ever seen, only a little above Morgase Trakand in strength in One Power, who has the weakest possible strength in One Power and could barely manage to light a candle with Saidar.
"The last Aes Sedai I met called me a Wilder. Now I know of the Three Oaths, Aes Sedai, What is your name? Why are you truly here? Answer explicitly me, Aes Sedai", Mistress Barran all but commanded. Light these people are stubborn and fearless.
Moiraine sighed out and said, "My name is Moiraine, I am in the region because I am searching for remnants of Manetheren, one of the nations of Ten Nations of the Second Covenant. I have come to this farm specifically because Master Al'Thor met and identified me as Aes Sedai at my camp by the roadside a day away from Baerlon and asked for my help in healing his wife. I agreed to help because I can and before you ask, my only payment for helping is his and his wifes silence about my presence, I expect or want nothing else, we just do not want our presence known. Is that explicit enough for you, Wisdom?"
Mistress Barran snorted again and said in commanding tones , "Come in. Boy, put on the kettle for some tea. And you, Moiraine, how exactly is this healing going to be done."
As they, Moiraine and Wisdom, seated themselves at a modest dining table with four chairs and Lan stood beside and a little behind Moiraine, Moiraine asked, "I will do one better and show you, but before that can I ask Mistress Barran, how old you are?"
"Hmm, somewhere above two hundred and fifty, I stopped counting after that and I forgot the year of my birth over the years". Mistress Barran answered dismissively.
Moiraines eyes popped at the number before she could control her reaction, Mistress Barran looked like normal albeit an extremely old woman, she did not have the Aes Sedai Ageless look. While it is generally known in the White Tower that greater strength in One Power means a longer lifespan, Moiraine personally knew sisters with more strength in Saidar than Mistress Barran who died in shorter time due to old age.
"You are sure?", Moiraine asked before she could stop herself, it is a Tower custom as strong as any Tower law to not ask about a sisters age, if Moiraines first question would have got a birching by Mistress of Novices, then second question would have got Moiraine a penance at a farm for years, forbidden from touching the Source and back breaking work as punishment.
Mistress Barran snorted again and said, "You are surprised and disbelieving. Of course, I am sure. What need do I have to lie. I was born in Emond's Field and married Levin Barran in my eighteenth year. I bore him twelve children in thirty years of our married life, when the Light took him in his fifty second year, I still looked like a twenty five year old woman, with my eldest looking older than me, I couldn't stay in Emonds Field any longer and left my youngest, a ten year old girl in his wifes care and went out in to the world. I wandered for a long long time, and found my self in Tar Valon in my eightieth year, where an Aes Sedai dragged me to White Tower, telling me I am a Wilder and should join the Tower as a Novice without even giving me a chance to get a word edgewise. Then took me to some other Aes Sedai who took a long look at me and declared me too old and too weak in the One Power to become an Aes Sedai. And shoved a pouch with a gold mark and twenty silver in my hand and commanded I leave Tar Valon and not to channel. I wandered some more, saw most of the continent and returned home to Emond's Field. All the people from my generation were dead, so were most of my children, my youngest was a old woman by then, her eyes too far gone to even see me clearly, the grandchildren I know of did not remember my face and had children of their own by that time, those born after I left did not even know me, yet I still looked like a woman in her thirty fifth year. I learnt the healing arts in my travels as much as to earn coin as to stave of boredom, when the Village Wisdom died without an apprentice, I took over from her and have been here since. Half the people of this village have my blood in their veins Aes Sedai, Tam al'Thor among them, these are my people, my blood and they are in my care. If any of them get hurt because of Aes Sedai and White Tower machinations, I will exact a price of thousandfold of the hurt caused, this I swear by the Light and my hope of salvation and rebirth".
And a suffocating silence ensued in the wake the Wisdoms Oath, thats not an oath made lightly and Moiraine dipped her head in silent acknowledgment of the Wisdoms conviction.
"How long are you going to stand there with your mouth hanging, Boy, that kettle in your hand already lost its heat, pour its contents out, the tea would grow bitter if you reheat it. And brew a fresh pot", the Wisdom snapped at a still stunned looking Tam al'Thor.
Tam emptied the kettle and carefully brewed a fresh pot before saying softly, "You never told me you were my blood, Wisdom."
"Didn't you hear me talking just now, boy, half this village is descended from me. And all of you brats called me Granma before you learned call to me Wisdom anyway, that is enough for me. Let me think a bit, hmmm, you grandfather married my great granddaughter through my first son, thats how we are related", Wisdom answered absently.
Tam al'Thor carried the piping hot kettle and four cups to the table and poured them each, after handing Moiraine and Lan their cups, Tam took a cup towards Wisdom yet placed it before her on the table instead of handing it to her, went down on a knee beside her and took her hand extended for the cup in his own hand and kissed her knuckles before saying in a voice choked with emotion, "Thank you, Granma "
"Oh hush you silly boy, you will make an old woman cry", she reprimanded gently with watering eyes.
Moiraine and Lan studiously drank their tea and tried to blend into background, so that they won't disturb this heartwarming sight of a family reconnecting.
After everyone is dry eyed, Moiraine asked to see the patient in question, Kari al'Thor.
Kari was in the main bedroom of the house, Mistress Barran apparently stayed the night and she was the one who took care of Kari while Tam went to Baerlon in search for any new venues to cure whats afflicting Kari, the Wisdom apparently dumped all her duties on her apprentice saying that it is a practice run for when she would need to replace the aged Wisdom, an eighteen year old she has high hopes for, so that Mistress Barran herself could care for Kari.
Kari is beautiful woman in her early thirties, with red hair and central Andoran pale skin, and currently she is deathly pale and in a restless sleep. And there is cot besides the bed she is sleeping in, an occupied cot, whose occupant made a whimper while obviously asleep.
When Moiraine titled her head towards the cot hearing the whimper, Tam answered the unasked question, "Our son, Rand."
"Perhaps it would be for the best if the boy is moved, cot and all, as I go about my work, Master Al'Thor", Moiraine said to Tam, before turning to Mistress Barran, "Wisdom, I will now embrace the Source, will you please tell me what you observe".
Moiraine embraced the Source.
"You are glowing", the Wisdom answered, with a note of wonder in her tone, which Moiraine only heard with half an ear, because, as soon as she embraced the Source, Moiraine saw a glow around the young boy in the cot that Tam al'Thor is in the process of moving, the glow that surrounded the boy is faint, yet it is noticeable all the same, the glow that surrounded the boy child is different from the glow that surrounds a woman who is channeling, Moiraine could not articulate what is the difference between the two is, but she knows down to her bones that there is a difference. It took all of her control to not jump out her skin since noticing the glow around the boy and tear her eyes away from him, so as not to give away anything odd happened.
I did not notice any glow around the boy until I started channeling. Later, Moiraine, think on it later.
"Good", Moiraine said addressing the Wisdom, "Every woman who could channel sees that glow around a woman who is channeling. Now the first Weave I going to use is called Delving. It is the Weave of Spirit, Sipirit is one of the Five Flows of One Power, the remaining four being, Water, Air, Fire and Earth. It is the Weave that determines what exactly is wrong with the patient. I could use the Healing Weave without Delving the patient, it is often done so upon the battlefield, but it is preferable to Delve the patient beforehand if we have the time, especially when treating illnesses, because that will let me know exactly how much of the One Power I will need to use while forming the Healing Weave. Now observe carefully as I Delve the patient."
Saying so Moiraine wove an intricate weave of Spirit and laid it across sleeping Kari al'Thor and Delved deep, the illness necessitated a deep Delve, because it was hidden deep. And once Moiraine discovered what exactly afflicting Kari al'Thor, she unwittingly let out a curse as blood drained out of her face, "Blood and Bloody Ashes".
I am more off balanced by the glow around the boy than I thought, I would have never cursed if I was in as control of myself as I usually am.
"What? What did you find?", the Wisdom demanded with barely there concern in her voice.
"She has Cancer, its in her bone marrow", Moiraine replied quietly before continuing her explanation, "The Healing Weave we Aes Sedai use, it fixes everything thats wrong with the body at the time it is used, of course, there is nothing it could do about lost limbs and anything related to mind, the Weave won't even touch the mind itself, it is a far too delicate thing to meddle with. But it fixes everything else, it just requires a channeler deft enough with it to weave it, sufficient Saidar to do its work and some measure of strength from the patient themselves. The thing with Cancer is this, our body is made up of tiny, tiny things, they all work together to form everything in us, those tiny things form us, my yellow sisters can explain this better I am sure, anyway, Cancer is what happens if those tiny things stop functioning as they should and start adversely affecting us. Healing Weave fixes those tiny things too, Kari is in the only beginning stages of Cancer, she should be strong enough to survive the Healing and she will recover. But the problem with Cancer, that mass of malfunctioning tiny things, is this, they may malfunction again after this Healing session is done or they may not. It is one of the diseases that are not completely curable by Aes Sedai in this Age, Aes Sedai in the Age of Legends could do it, but we lost knowledge of those methods. After I Heal Kari, someone needs to Delve her at least once every three months for the rest of her life to make sure the cancer is not resurgent. If it is, they would need to Heal her."
"Thats a lot of air you used up Aes Sedai, and not much of it that I understand. What I understood is this, Kari could be Healed, at least for a time. Then Heal her, we will talk about everything else, after", the Wisdom snapped.
Lan who started grinding his teeth as soon as the Wisdom opened her mouth, tightened his hold on his swords hilt and was about to open his mouth, no doubt to chide the Wisdom, when Moiraine waved her hand to signal him to take a hold of his temper, as Lan backed down, Moiraine turned to the Wisdom and looked her in the eye and spoke firmly, "I have kept a civil tongue in my mouth as you asked Wisdom, it does not take much for you to return the courtesy. Now, Tam bring a wad of clean cloth to put between Karis teeth, so that she won't bite her tongue and put the fluffiest pillow underneath her head and neck, then hold her head steady. Lan, Wisdom, take a hold of patients hands so that they won't flail around, no need to do anything about the legs", as the three followed her instructions, Moiraine explained what she was weaving, "the Healing Weave is one of the most complex Weaves known to modern day Aes Sedai. It uses Three Flows of One Power, Spirit, Water and Air, almost equally, I am powering this Weave with every scrap of One Power that I can safely access. Now, be ready, I am placing the Weave on her."
The rush of One Power that flowed through Moiraine and Siuan, who was following everything that has been happening since the Wisdom opened Tams door through their double bond, is a glorious, ecstatic and intoxicating thing, because, in the months Moiraine has been gone, Siuan gained access to an Angreal, the amount of One Power they have now access to is four times their combined might. No wonder One Power is addictive.
As soon as the Weave of Healing touched her Kari released a keening scream muffled by the cloth wad in her mouth and started bucking wildly, her heels drummed with such force that Moiraine worried for the bed and all of it stopped in less than a minute the healing complete and Kari lost consciousness. Moiraine almost toppled due the sheer exhaustion of using so much Saidar that hit her like brick and Lan is suddenly there to catch and steady her.
Moiraine grew light headed from the exhaustion, but willed her self to stay awake for a bit to say, "She will wake ravenous from the Healing, and she would eat a lot in the next two weeks. Perpare a feast with meats and milk, she can eat everything and she will."
After that last bit of instruction, Moiraine lost consciousness and slipped into a deep sleep.
