Prompt #13 - Profanity

"Moiraine, use the Power!" Lan shouted over the noise of sword clashing against sword. The Myrddraal was powerful and he was still weak from the last one they encountered; he knew he wouldn't have much success at defeating it. Moiraine shook her head. She was already exhausted, her control of saidar was uncertain at best, and she was afraid.

"I can't," she cried, the Myrddraal's icy, eyeless stare freezing her to the spot. "I just can't!"

"Burn me, Moiraine, use bloody balefire if you have to!" Lan yelled. Moiraine almost dropped her daggers. She hadn't told him she knew the secret of balefire. "Just do it!"

Moiraine closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and reached out for saidar. The Myrddraal's presence hindered her, a distraction almost too great for the newly qualified Aes Sedai, but somehow she managed to tap into her link to the Power.

Lightning quick liquid fire flashed out of the sky and struck the Myrddraal. Its dark cloak vanished, unravelled from the Pattern, and the Fade screamed in anger. Moiraine bit down on her lip, hard, and threw one last stream of balefire towards the creature. It lit up momentarily, illuminated against the sky, then vanished, burnt out of existence.

"Is it gone?" Moiraine asked in a voice much higher pitched than normal. Lan looked at her sharply and only just made it to her side in time to catch her when her legs gave way.

"Are you injured?" she asked. Lan shook his head – the wound wouldn't kill him, not before she would be recovered enough to heal him without harming herself – but she still ran her hands over his arms, face and chest searching out injury. "You are hurt," she said reproachfully, and before Lan could stop her she had reached out for saidar and the Power knit the wound back together. Moiraine blinked when she was finished, and slumped in his arms as she passed out.

The Aes Sedai came to a few minutes later, and watched amusedly through half-open eyes as Lan carefully wrung out a wet cloth before placing it on her forehead. He noticed a few moments later that she was awake and watching him, and ceased his actions.

"You fool," he chastised her sharply. "Never wear yourself out like that trying to heal me again! You could have channelled too much and burnt yourself out, you could have killed yourself, you could have lost control and done untold damage…" Moiraine let him shout, understanding that he was only doing so out of worry for her. When he finished shouting, Lan looked at her somewhat ruefully, an expression that seemed out of place on the face of the lost Malkieri king. "I'll go to the Spine of the bloody World if you want or need me to, but for Light's sake don't return the damn failure, Light burn me!"

"Language," Moiraine snapped. She would not be spoken to in such a way, not even by Lan. Lan glared at her but subsided, pondering his words. It was true he'd do absolutely anything to save her, even tell her to use balefire, a skill that could destroy the entire Pattern if used in excess. But why? He had a feeling he felt certain things towards Moiraine, a Blue sister, that were more common between Warders and the Aes Sedai of the Green Ajah.

Moiraine hid her surprise at Lan's words well behind her usual calm mask. She suddenly felt like a novice again, giggling with her friends over this man or that man, friends who later became Green. Maybe she'd joined the wrong Ajah… that was ridiculous, romantic talk, she told herself scornfully. Then realised she'd used the word romantic in relation to Lan. The noble-born, usually composed Aes Sedai let out a curse that would have made a sailor proud.

Lan looked down at her. Moiraine realised her heart was beating faster under the intensity of his stare, and she found herself imagining how his lips would feel.

"Language," he told her, half-smiling. Moiraine decided she'd rather slap him than kiss him.

And that's the end. I know I said fifteen chapters, but Darkest Delight got posted seperately because of its rating. Thank you so much for the reviews hugs and I hope you enjoyed reading these! I certainly enjoyed writing them:-)