POV Moiraine

The initial step of the expedition went about the same way Moiraine expected, the mountain on which the Waygate was located held only traces of civilization. The effort took some extensive channeling, especially Earth Flows of the Five Powers of Saidar, a Flow that Moiraine has neither practice in nor affinity for. While all Five Powers are equal in strength, the saying that right tool for the right job held true and the excavation effort was particularly demanding in usage of Earth Flows to manipulate and move tons upon tons of hard rock, dirt and occasional worked stone. It was slow going work, very slow going, if she was not careful with it Moiraine might have destabilized the very ground she was standing on or caused collapse of the very holes she so painstakingly dug.

Female channelers were generally strong in Flows of Air and Water and weak in Flows of Fire and Earth, which is true for Moiraine, the inverse generally holds true for men, with both genders holding equal strength in Flows of Spirit, exceptions exist as with most things regarding One Power. Even so, there is an increase in efficiency that comes with experience before the gains plateaus, and Moiraine is hopeful that her proficiency in weaving Earth Flows will increase due to the all the practice she is getting. And she sent an apology to Siuan, after all Moiraine was not just expending her own strength but Siuans too and Moiraines sometimes hours of channeling must surely cause Siuan some trouble.

But the excavation effort was not a complete waste of time though, three weeks into the excavation effort, still stuck on the mountain she started on, she managed to uncover a rusted iron strongbox buried under worked stone and cracking it open revealed three pigeon egg sized uncut emeralds and several tarnished silver and gold coins, the coins weighed twice as much as a standard Tar Valon Mark, while the emeralds are valuable, the coins were the real prize, Moiraine would have to find a discrete goldsmith because there are definite inscriptions and a face of a person stamped on the coins, even scraps of information these coins could provide is much too valuable for the historic record to risk them on home made recipes usually used to get rid of tarnish. The Brown Sisters would drool at the prospect of surviving coinage from before the Trolloc Wars. So much of history was lost during that time, Moiraine heard whispers that even the Tower Library was burned at some point in those three hundred years when Trolloc Wars raged.


After the discovery of the strongbox though, Moiraine moved onto the mountain left to the one she started on and continued the effort, Lan was very much bored with the entire thing, he had very little do except watch Moiraine channeling, which to him looked like she was just standing and stared very hard at the ground as the rocks and dirt moved. But at least the work was an effective training, Flows of Earth only take half the strength they took in the beginning and weaving those flows became faster. Not just Flows of Earth, the experience was good exercise for whole of her channeling ability, while she already hit the ceiling for her maximum strength in Saidar long ago in her Accepted days, her endurance in just how long she can channel has increased by leaps and bounds, while she did not use every bit of Saidar she has available, after a month of practice she can use full half of her original strength or quarter of what she has available after her bond with Siuan, for six continuous hours every day without being exhausted, she can essentially throw unending bolts of lightning for Six hours a day sleep for the night, wake up and do it again the next day. Even half of that kind of effort would have knocked her out for a day or two just a month ago. True, that kind of endurance is not really relevant when fighting another channeler, any duel between channelers usually ended in minutes if not seconds, from what she experienced in her one fight with the Black Sister Merean and, her and Siuans efforts to shield each other as practice when they learnt the Shielding Weave as Accepted, but when fighting a large group of Trollocs though, this endurance would come in very handy, especially since those kind of fights are definitely coming her way, soon.

A night after a week into her excavation of the second mountain, Siuan tentatively sent, "Moiraine, I have some news."

Siuan had been feeling low level sorrow since the morning, from around the time she usually received reports from Blue Ajah eyes and ears that arrived in the night via pigeon, when Moiraine asked about it she side stepped, now that sorrow spiked as Siuan sent, "Taringail Damodred is dead, I received the first report of it this morning, I was waiting for confirmation, a second report arrived in the afternoon, still I hoped it was a false one, but a bird just arrived from Morgase herself with the Royal Seal of Andor for the Amyrlin Seat. He is dead. Supposedly in a hunting accident. I am so sorry, dear heart."

Moiraine just felt numb, she hasn't seen Taringail in years, not since she went to the White Tower and they haven't been close in years before that, there were faint memories of the brother who snuck sweets in for her from her childhood, but that was so long ago that she half wondered whether they were even real, because the brother she knew while growing was a distant and cold one, who had no time for his fathers youngest daughter from a second marriage after his own mother died. Just as her thoughts were about to spiral, something Siuan said snagged her mind, "What do you mean, supposed hunting accident?"

Siuan seemed to mentally sigh and sent, "There have been some whispers that Taringail has been looking to make himself first king of Andor. After Elayne was born Taringail had apparently lost the last shreds of his influence on Morgase, it might be, he was planning on killing Morgase and ascending the Lion Throne himself or more realistically be Elaynes Regent until she comes of age."

"Ambition," Moiraine sent with bitterness and disgust, "the bane of House Damodred."

"Moiraine, I know you two weren't close, even so he was your brother. Please know that I am here for you", Siuan sent pleadingly.

"I know, Siuan. Thank you, but I think I need some time alone. I don't know what I am feeling. We will talk later", Moiraine sent and masked her two bonds, both with Siuan and Lan.

When Lan looked up sharply at that, sitting up from his pallet, Moiraine shared the news and asked for some time alone, Lan nodded understandingly, squeezed her shoulder once and got back to his bedroll. Moiraine knew he was still awake, but pretended to sleep to give her the illusion of privacy.

Moiraine stared at stars as a tear rolled down cheek, Oh Taringail..

After some time Moiraine laid down her bedroll besides Lans and snuggled into the crook of his arm and laid her head down on his chest, she wanted to hear his heartbeat as she tried to sleep.