Book 1: Ripples from a mountain
Chapter 3: A journey started
"People will believe anything if you give them proof, whether that proof is truthful does not matter"
The journey to Baerlon was in all honesty quite boring. It was good that nothing happened really, but Rand had gotten used to a certain level of activity when he was travelling. Especially trips that took place so early in his journey. It stood to reason that nothing would follow them on the road for a while since they had wiped out the entire force hunting them. Rand was basically doing nothing except walking and riding interchangeably, since they did not have enough horses, and talking with Mat and Perrin while Egwene and Nynaeve took lessons from Moiraine.
The groups arrival was similarly average in every aspect except the makeup of the group itself, which really was quite exceptional. And as the group of queen-makers rode through the gates of Baerlon after some days of travelling Rand realized something with a jolt, Min would be here. He knew that already of course, but he never really thought about the implications his time-travel would have on her visions and her impression of him.
The inn ,the Stag and Lion, was a rather quiet place compared to some inns in bigger towns but it was still a lot bigger than the Winespring inn and looking at the faces of his friends it was obvious they were overwhelmed. As Rand was about to snap them out of their reverie Moiraine started booking their rooms. Tuning in he just heard the innkeeper say "Will that be all then lady Alys?"
"Yes thank you, how is Min doing now?" Moiraine replied
Master Fitch gave a sort of half-grimace"Poor thing started crying a week ago and hasn't come out of her room since"
"Well, I'll go talk to her then" Moiraine said already walking up the stairs. Sharing a worried glance
Egwene and Rand followed her up.
When they arrived in the room Moiraine was already comforting Min. Rand didn't quite know how well it was going as when he and Egwene walked into the room Min suddenly stopped talking which drew Moiraine's attention to the two of them.
Smiling gently Moiraine said "It's alright they won't tell a soul if you don't wish them too"
Hesitantly Min nodded and started talking "I just don't know what to do now! My viewings have never been wrong and now every single one is! How do I know the new ones even matter..."
Deciding something Rand stepped forward and said "I doubt your new viewings will change given what happened to change them this time"
"Rand!" Egwene exclaimed while Min looked at him with something akin to hope
"You know what changed them?" Min said
Ignoring her for the moment Rand asked "Do you trust me Egwene?"
"Do I have a choice?" She gritted out
That was good enough for him so he turned to Min and said "Yes, I do but before I tell you I would like to know what you see around us, please start with Lady Alys"
Min eyed him questioningly before acquiescing "Alright then, Mistress Alys first you said?"
Both Rand and Moiraine nodded at her.
Gathering her breath Min started talking "Well there are less around her now than before but I can still make a bit out, quite different from what they were though. I see her juggling with banners, a man standing beside you to make sure none fall. A tray filled with teacups, all of them identical and all but one of them offered in good faith, that last one is filled with a poison, slow and unnoticeable but painful all the same. Oh and the fog I suppose, but I see that around everyone these days."
"Fog?" Rand interrupted
"Yes, just a great big fog around everyone" Min confirmed
"The pattern hasn't re-spun itself yet" Rand breathed out in realization
"What do you mean?" Min asked
"I will explain later just continue please" Rand said
Min looked at him weirdly but went on just the same "Alright, the other woman now. She has a few more. First is a sort of rot fleeing from a fire only to run into another fire, one of them white as snow and the other black as charcoal. A grey tower standing on a field of ashes and next to a river blood. A circle of crowns laying at your feet. And lastly the two you share with the man beside you. A silver collar laying on the ground in pieces with an inferno raging behind it"
Rand didn't have to look to know Egwene shared his feeling of grim satisfaction, she hated the Seanchan more than he did.
Heedless of their thoughts Min continued on "And a golden spinning wheel with wool laying in disarray and a spindle covered in blood. But the threads of wool are starting to rearrange and the blood is drying off."
Taking a breath Min turned to him and started to speak "You have many, mystery man but few of them I can make sense of. You have two banners beside you, one with a scarlet and gold beast on a white background and the other with two teardrops, one black and one white twisting together to form one whole. A great shadow trying to swallow sparks and the spars trying to drown out the shadow, interestingly some sparks are twice as bright. A sword made of crystal that looks it would shatter the first time you swung it. You setting a forest on fire with torch of black fire. Palaces crumbling and rising, great trees springing up in your wake, a healing dove and of course the collar and the spinning wheel"
After Min was done she looked Rand in the eye "The three of you are very important people, and very very dangerous. You most of all mystery man, so tell me, who are you?"
Grinning ruefully Rand said "This is gonna sound absolutely unbelievable, but please bear with me"
He took a deep breath and started explaining "Egwene and I are from two years in the future, after the Last Battle. We won but the the damage done to the world was too great for my liking so I decided to come back. Since Egwene was dead and with me I decided to bring her along as well. I am the Dragon Reborn and she was the Amyrlin Seat."
Min stared at him, after a minute she gathered her breath "You know, I am used to being the one who makes the conversation strange. But, this does explain a lot and on top of that I doubt anyone is insane enough to make that up. So I'll believe you for now"
Rand grinned in relief "That's good, that's good, it makes things a lot easier anyway. Now, Min your visions are important, I'm sure you know that already but if I remember right you are really underestimating your influence right now since you have only seen this town. But your visions have saved a lot lives, mine included, on multiple occasions. As you might have guessed my presence means that the Last Battle is approaching. And we could really use your help, ….so what do you say?"
Min scrutinized him "If you are who you say I will, just not now. Send me a letter when you stop pretending to be a sheep-herder or something" she said after a moment "But when you do, I am going to ask a lot of questions. And you are gonna answer them. And tomorrow you are gonna show me some proof"
"Alright then" Rand grinned in relief "See you tomorrow then"
As the group was walking back down the stairs Rand turned to Egwene
"Is there a reason you left everything to me?" Rand said
"You know her better than I do" Egwene shrugged "Besides, I'll talk to her tomorrow. When she's calmer"
Arriving at their rooms Rand stepped inside only to see Mat and Perrin were absent.
Turning to his father he asked "Where are Mat and Perrin?"
"Exploring Baerlon" Tam answered
"Better go find them then" Rand muttered "Make sure the whitecloaks don't kill them"
As Rand was walking through Baerlon he saw someone moving, Padan Fain. And while he couldn't deal with him in Emonds field he had no such limitations here. Quickly weaving himself to look like a completely unremarkable fellow he set out to follow him. Pondering how to get rid of Fain he dodged a group of whitecloaks. A idea sprung in his mind a second later, taking care not look suspicious he continued following Fain.
When Fain arrived at his inn Rand waited a minute before following him in and going straight up the stairs, making himself invisible he stood in the corner and waited for Fain to go out again. Thankfully that didn't take long, as soon as he was alone in the hallway he went into Fain's room. After rifling around he found what he was looking for, letters. In this case it was about a fireworks order but that didn't matter. Glancing around one last time Rand started weaving his third Mirror of Mists of the day. The fun thing about said weave was that you didn't need to place it on a human. So long as it was a solid object you could make it look like whatever you wanted, providing you didn't change its size too much, then things just got messy. Double checking that it was now a letter from Fain grovelling for forgiveness for the attack on Emonds field failing, he hid the scroll where it would be found if the room was thoroughly searched but not before. After that he made sure the coast was clear and walked outside again.
Still looking like your average man he quickly found the nearest patrol of Whitecloaks.
"Sirs, o sirs it's terrible. Terrible I tell you" Rand said
"What is?" the leader said looking annoyed
"Well, there is a merchant that goes south to Two Rivers you know. And I was hoping to get some Tabac from there, its the highest quality you know" Rand babbled on
"Get to the point man" The leader interrupted
"Right, right of course. Forgive me I'm just scared. Because you see I tried to catch up to him to buy some but he was too fast for me. By the time I got to his inn I was several minutes late. And when I was at his door I heard him praying. Praying to the Dark one!" Rand helpfully explained.
"What! Are you absolutely certain, good man?" The leader exclaimed shocked
"Oh yes! He was muttering about the Great Lord, something about forgiveness for the attack having failed" Rand said
To say that the whitecloaks were shocked would be an understatement.
"If it is as you say you have done good work. We will be investigating this" The leader said, turning to the man next to him "Get me some more men, quickly!"
As the man ran off Rand bowed towards the remaining whitecloaks"May the Light shine on you brave men, you truly are doing the Creators work"
The leader puffed up "We would not be able to do it without the help of concerned citizens such as yourself. I will still need the name of the merchant and the inn"
"Of course" Rand said agreeably "The merchants name is Padan Fain and the inns name is The Eagles Rest"
With another word of self important congratulations the whitecloaks went off once more.
Having done his part Rand discreetly dropped his disguise and set off to find friends once more. He was pretty sure that Whitecloaks would have taken Fain in on his word alone, but it paid to be cautious. The framing was done masterfully if Rand said so himself (although can it be called framing if the person is actually guilty? Rand wasn't sure, perhaps he would ask Moiraine later.) no trace tying back to him, compelling evidence and he was positive that the whitecloaks wouldn't punish the innkeeper so long as he played it smart, or rather not exceedingly stupid. Rounding yet another corner he found his friends seemingly in the middle of a prank. Smiling he joined them.
A few hours later dusk began to fall and the group of three friends were walking back to inn laughing and joking about.
"I will see that Nobleman's face in my dreams" Mat laughed
"What do you mean there is a fish on my head!?" mimicked Rand
"It was one of your better ideas" Perrin acknowledged
"What do you mean, all my ideas are absolutely perfect" Mat said grinning
Both Perrin and Rand snorted at that
Mat looked at Rand, his smile now gone "You know Rand, I am glad that you are still our friend. What with you and Egwene looking like you have a thousand secrets between the two of you"
"And I always will be" Rand firmly replied
Mat looked relieved at that and the conversation went back to light-hearted topics.
A while later they returned to the Stag and the Lion where they joined the rest of their group for dinner.
"What have you boys been up to then?" Tam asked
"We explored the city" Rand replied
"It was great, they have so many different things" Mat gushed
Tam chuckled "Quite a shock, eh? Not much in common with the Two Rivers and still everything from home is here in one form or another."
Before Mat could go on a tangent of everything they did in the city Egwene cut across him "Yes, that was odd. Everyone in the inn talks almost the same but just different than home"
"You talked to strangers all day?" Mat said surprised
"Yes it was quite interesting" Egwene said
As Egwene and Mat bickered the rest of the table got engrossed in their own conversations. Eventually the group split off to their rooms. And as Rand got ready for bed he reflected on a productive and fun day. He was asleep before the Mat and Perrin got in their beds.
A/n
Well hello, its been a while hasn't it. Thankfully this is just a hobby and I don't get paid or I would have been fired quite soundly. This chapter was very hard to write though, I scrapped the entire thing twice, twice! Before this I sometimes scrapped a paragraph but not more. This chapter was suppose to cover the trip to Baerlon but I really couldn't write that well enough. So I just pulled this chapter forward and expanded the next one since I pulled like 90% from chapter will be interesting for sure.
Cosmicuni-Thank you, I try
SamonIllmantrim- Thanks, it's my first time writing and I am very glad people enjoy it.
Odithos- Thank you. And yes Egwene and other Aes Sedai will be interesting. I am not entirly sure which way I will go with her but there is no chance Egwene will just agree to becoming a novice.
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed and please review
-Rallar