POV Moiraine
The first week of their return to al'Thors farm was spent mostly in getting used to the farm life and continuing the education of the Wisdom and her apprentice in One Power, Moiraine has no plans of teaching any of the offensive Weaves to either of them, the Wisdom because she does not have the strength in the One Power to weave them and while the apprentice Ella does have enough strength for some, Moiraine was taking large enough risks as it is and she is not yet willing to teach a woman who is not going to be bound by the Three Oaths to throw fireballs. But Moiraine did teach them one defensive Weave though, the Weave to make Bands of Air, one of the simplest Weaves there is, requiring only manipulation of Air Flows of the Five Flows, most useful in binding someone and with some utility, moving lighter objects around, giving an extra push when physically moving heavier objects. Of course Moiraine herself could use Bands of Air to lift up to three, four hundred kilos after her bond with Siuan, but neither the Wisdom nor Ella has that capacity. The Wisdom can at most make someone stumble or bind a mans hands, Ella could do more, capable of making a full body bind, perhaps even lift a man of middling weight a few inches off the ground. If they learn the trick to generate enough torque to break a mans neck, well, they could just as well decide to stick someone with a knife, some measure of trust needs to be extended. Its in the name itself, One Power is power, perhaps the rawest form of power intrinsic to a person who has it, alongside the power of ones own muscles, as with any type of power an avenue for abuse exists, one just have to trust people for any sort of civilization to function. And they are good people.
And Moiraine taught the Weaves for making Ball of Light and Gathering Water, the first is self explanatory and the second is useful for gathering moisture out of air for drinking. Moiraine put them to hours of practice so they could make those three Weaves as fast they could, for purpose of raising their dexterity in making Weaves and their efficiency in using the One Power. They are improving but it is going to take months of work for either of them to be at a satisfactory level, teaching them more complex Weaves would have spurred their growth forward, One Power is odd in that way, while the more complex Weaves take longer to learn, once that learning happened though Weaves with lesser complexity become much easier to Weave. But that would have gone against Moiraines objective, she is going to milk this teaching opportunity for as long as she can. She would find as many believable reasons as she could have for sticking around.
Progressing in that direction Moiraine subtly suggested an expansion to the al'Thor home, just a little one, an additional bedroom, a suggestion that Tam and Kari embraced with enthusiasm even proposed to make that two rooms, one for Moiraine and Lan each, once again stunning Moiraine with the trust they are extending to her, Moiraine could read most people as easy as a children's book, manipulate people with barest exertion, yet she needed no manipulation to get that additional bedroom, a subtle sign of permanence, whether they consciously knew it or not they are agreeing to Moiraine, an Aes Sedai, being a permanent fixture in their lives. That acceptance once again stirred an unwanted emotion in her breast, Joy, not for achieving her objective but because these people allowed, even wanted her in their lives when her own family grew distant at the knowledge that she could wield Saidar, that she would become Aes Sedai. Her family has never been a close one, very affectionate one, yet only her father wrote to her once she went to the White Tower, after his death, nothing, not a word, not even to inform her when her nieces and nephews were born, her own blood.
But you didn't reach out to them either, did you? You were all too eager to leave your old life behind, eager to embrace everything Aes Sedai, a small part of her admonished harshly.
True, perhaps a visit would not be such a bad thing, Moiraine thought. But only after she finished firmly tying threads here.
Tam, it seemed, is a man who thinks ahead, because he already laid foundations to support a much bigger house once he returned to Emond's Field with Kari and Rand, a thing he paid for by selling a more fertile farmland of his parents much nearer Emond's Field proper, just why he chose to build his new home in hard to farm, often stony and obviously less fertile Westwood is not something he explained, but if Moiraine had to guess, she would say it is probably to keep a small distance from often far too nosy and intrusive neighbors, not far often to be excluded from the community, but far enough that his private life is private and not village gossip. And Kari probably agreed with Tams choice, Kari herself is a city girl, used to the anonymity and privacy provided by being just one face in hundreds of thousands. But they apparently took Rand to Emond's Field at least once a week, if not more, to make friends, to maintain friendships already made. And they are thinking of letting Rand stay at his friends home for a week every month once he is grown a year or two and hosting his friends at their own home in return, all to make sure he can have a healthy childhood. Once they hoped for more children of their own, mostly because they wanted more but also because Tam wanted Rand to have what he didn't and Kari wanted Rand to have what she shared with her own sibling, even so, they have given up on that hope now.
Since most back breaking and time consuming portion of expanding a home is already done, Tam and Lan went to have a look around in the Westwood for good Oak trees for the wood to be used in the construction and returned with good news, they have found several specimen, old and hardy that meet their needs. Moiraine, herself went to cut them down to logs and then debark them, after all using One Power to do it is far less strenuous and time consuming. Moiraine had to get creative and invent a Weave of Air and Fire to create a hair thin blade of fire to burn off the bark without damaging the usable wood, but that wasn't hard as she thought it was going to be, using One Power is incredibly intuitive and the Weave itself is not a bad one to have in her arsenal.
Once that's done Moiraine transported the logs to the farm, that took a few days, the logs were just a bit above the weight she could lift, so lifting a log just a few inches above ground and moving it hundred meters at a time, was incredibly draining. Tam offered to mark out the measurements needed so that Moiraine could move them in smaller pieces after cutting them, but she declined, this too is good practice and truthfully Moiraine missed channeling as she did in the mountains, for hours on end. Moiraine knows how incredibly dangerous what she is doing is, Saidar is addictive, more a woman uses it more of it she wants to use. So many woman burnt themselves out by drawing more than they can safely handle. Thats why Novices are constantly monitored and forbidden from touching the Source without supervision. Thats why even Accepted are kept busy with so much study. Even full Sisters are frowned upon if they use as much of the Saidar she is using for as long as she does. But the Tower is far away and this practice is improving her control, efficiency and endurance.
Once the logs are deposited besides the barn at the farm though, Tam advised to leave them to dry out for a month. The man built his home with his own hands and some help from Emond's Fielders, so he knows what he is doing.
Since Moiraine has some time before the construction starts, she decided to write a primer on the history of the Known World from the End of Age of Legends to present day, something with less than hundred pages using simple words for Rand. The boy needs to be educated and reading about the wide world will always be interesting to boys his age, even if the subject matter is a little dry.
