As usual speech in italics is in the Old Tongue.

Chapter XLI - Into the Waste

A few days later, thinking back to her conversation with Cadsuane Taija made sure to corner Lan. The only place she knew she'd be able to find him without Moiraine being around was sword practice. So, with a deep breath. she forced yourself to ignore her desire to avoid seeing or thinking about it. She couldn't let her own neuroses get in the way of things that were actually important.

When Taija arrived, Rand and his swordmaster, apparently the man's name was Edram or at least that's what he called himself, were sparring while Lan watched with folded arms and a critical expression. Aleksi was sitting off to the side of the courtyard looking a bit bored and was the only one to notice her quiet arrival. He looked surprised and a little worried, but Taija gestured for him to stay seated and he kept his silence.

Rand and Edram were flowing back and forth, wooden practice swords clacking against each other repeatedly. Rand was clearly getting pretty good, even to Taija's amateur eyes. Their swords were flickering blindingly fast, stroke and counter-stroke always blocked or dodged leaving both untouched. Until suddenly Edram seemed to overstretch himself, stumbling off balance.

Taija winced in expectation of Rand's descending blow, except it never landed. Edram twisted aside, smoothly dodging what would have been a 'killing' blow and almost casually placed his sword across Rand's throat.

She could see the frustration in Rand's face as he allowed the point of his sword to drop. "How did you do that?" His voice was sharper than was really polite with the man. Just because he was beaten by him didn't mean he should be rude.

Taija saw a brief flash of irritation on Edram's face, almost instantly gone. Clearly he didn't like the rudeness either, but when he spoke his voice was calm and polite. "Allow me to explain my Lord Dragon. Lan if you wouldn't mind?" He turned to face Lan and saw her. His eyes widened and he immediately bent into a low bow. "Aes sedai," where he was polite, even submissive, to Rand, his voice now oozed respect.

His words also brought Rand and Lan's attention to her. "Taija, do you need something?" Rand was sharp with her too. Taija had a momentary flare of irritation and then she reminded herself of what Aleksi told her, Rand was probably terrified she'd found out about Edram.

"Oh, no, I was just looking for Lan, please don't let me interfere with your practice. I'm sorry to bother you." Taija kept her voice conciliatory.

Relief washed across Rand's face and he turned to Edram who looked a bit nervous, understandable really. "Edram, come. Let's give Taija sedai her privacy." He nodded to her and spun on his heel to walk out. Edram gave Taija a lingering look, almost enough to make her uncomfortable, and then practically leapt into motion, hurrying after him.

There was something oddly familiar about Edram. That feinted stagger, the way he held his hands when he bowed. No matter, the Aelfinn's words resonated in Taija's head and she had far more important things to worry about. Let Rand have his false dragon tutor, she didn't need to be involved in everything and Aleksi would tell her if something was wrong.

Lan was toweling the sweat off his topless form. He really did have an impressive array of scars. "Sorry to have disrupted your practice, I hadn't meant to interrupt."

"Do not concern yourself about it, we were almost finished anyway." He was as stony faced as ever.

Taija reminded herself that she needed to be careful, she didn't want to accidentally tread on some unknown cultural taboo and upset him so she decided to address the question in a roundabout way. It would be good for Aleksi to hear this too. "Lan, would you mind if I asked you about bonding? I've just recently realised that I'm terribly ignorant about it given my relationship with Aleksi, I didn't even know it was a thing until a couple of days ago!"

"Of course, you may ask me anything." If he was surprised by her question he didn't show it.

"Thank you." Taija took a breath and started asking various questions she already knew the answer to. What the effects of the bond were, whether aes sedai could have more than one warder, things like that.

Lan answered calmly and helpfully, his voice as steady and emotionless as ever. Taija did wonder if there was something about the bond that affected people's emotions. Most of the warders she'd met seemed to be stony faced and overly-composed. Probably not, the aes sedai weren't really all that different, even the ones who didn't have warders. It was probably just the way they felt they were meant to behave.

Taija even managed to slip in a question about the compulsion aspect of the bond, which got her a sharp look. It was vile as far as she was concerned, but Lan seemed to be aware of it, so that was between him and Moiraine.

Finally Taija got to the fundamental question she really wanted to ask him. "So when Moiraine 'bonded'," she wasn't at all keen on the word, "you, did she ask your consent?"

Lan gave her a long look and for a moment Taija worried that she hadn't been as subtle as she'd thought. "Yes, of course she asked. The aes sedai do not allow the bonding of warders without permission."

"How fascinating." It wasn't the word she'd really have chosen, but she was trying to play up to her absent minded scientist side for this. She tried not to judge, but the idea of having someone there in her head like that and able to control her too, it was at best strange and at worst repulsive. So long as they consented to it she couldn't really get too judgmental though.

They talked a little longer and then Taija made her exit, still weirded out by the concept of bonding. She briefly wondered whether the whole thing extended into Lan's sex life with Moiraine. Assuming they were even sleeping together. Bleh, none of her business. She did wonder whether she should tell Aleksi to stop calling himself her warder though. She wasn't sure she wanted people to be thinking that about them. After a moment she dismissed the idea. If modern aes sedai could steal their title from her people then she'd steal the title of warder from them and make it better too.

======

While Taija had been talking to aes sedai and their warders Rand had clearly been thinking and planning in private. A few days later at a meeting of his inner council he suddenly interrupted a discussion on grain shipments to announce that he'd decided he would be going to Rhuidean. It wasn't a request for advice or opinions, rather he was just informing all of them.

Rhuarc of course just nodded as if it was exactly what he'd expected. In contrast, Moiraine and Cadsuane looked like they'd just bitten into lemons and were trying to pretend they were enjoying it.

Rand didn't leave any room for discussion, not even giving his reasons. His announcement made, he simply told them all that if they wished to accompany him they would need to be in the Heart of the Stone the next day at midday, ready to leave.

Then he looked over to Taija, "Taija sedai, a moment of your time if you please." His voice was curt like he was calling her to heel and he promptly turned and strode out of the room, leaving Taija to leap up and scurry after him.

She was a bit irritated by the time she caught up with him. "What was that about Rand?" She snapped, "are you summoning me in front of everyone like a misbehaving school girl now?" Fortunately she got her annoyance under control before she said anything more, reminding herself he was under a lot of stress.

"Are you going to start telling me I'm wrong too?" His voice was hard.

"Umm no?" Taija gave him a sideways look, he was still walking too fast, forcing her to almost jog. "You never asked my opinion, but I don't think it's a bad idea to go to Rhuidean. The Dedicated clearly think you fulfil their prophecies and I can think of worse options. I'm just annoyed at being spoken to as if I've done something wrong."

He hesitated and then slumped slightly, "I'm sorry. There's a lot going on and I know you have your own things to worry about, but actually it was deliberate." Suddenly sound faded from around the two of them, he must have spun a ward.

"I see," Taija wasn't happy, but it wasn't worth making a point over. "Why though?"

He gave her a slightly awkward smile, "I wanted to ask you a favour actually. When I go to the Waste I want to leave Callandor behind."

"What? Why would you do that?!" Taija interrupted him without thinking. "It's a sa'angreal, a powerful one, you shouldn't be letting it out of your sight. What if you need it? What if one of the Forsaken takes it."

He nodded, "it's a sa'angreal, but a flawed one. I can't use it."

"You can't?" This was news to her.

"Cadsuane told me. It seems that it has two major flaws, firstly it has no buffer so I could burn myself out using it and secondly it magnifies the effects of the taint for whoever uses it."

Taija blanched at the idea of the taint being even worse than it was. "And you trust Cadsuane?" She couldn't quite keep the skepticism out of her voice.

"On this, yes." He spoke slowly. "Do you remember the last time I used it? When the trollocs invaded the Stone. I wanted to kill every shadowspawn in the world, I was drawing more and more of the Power and I'd have kept going until I burnt myself out or destroyed everything for leagues around me if you and Moiraine hadn't stopped me. I can't trust myself with Callandor unless I absolutely have to."

Taija chewed over that for a few seconds. "Alright, so it's dangerous for you. Fair enough." She thought a little more. "I suspect you could use it safely in a link with at least two women, if one of the women led, although I'd want to look at how it interacts with the taint first."

Rand chuckled, he seemed to have cheered up a bit. Maybe he was expecting her to argue with him more. "Funnily enough that's exactly what Cadsuane said. Other than the bit about it interacting with the taint. Anyway I don't like the idea of linking with any of them any more than you do. I suppose Nynaeve or Elayne would be alright."

"Alright, so where do I come into this? Did you want advice on where to leave Callandor so that the Forsaken couldn't get to it?" Taija was already thinking over what she'd do. "The obvious solution seems to be somewhere isolated that has no connection to anyone you know, spin an inverted gateway to get there…"

Rand cut her off. "I want to leave it here in the Stone." He didn't give her time to say how stupid that was. "I need a reminder for the Tairens that I'm still alive and that I'll be returning or they'll be in rebellion the day after I leave and I think I can make it so dangerous none of the Forsaken will touch it."

Taija's lips thinned, "are you absolutely sure about that? I assume you know how to invert webs and make complex wards then?"

He nodded, Light he really was picking things up fast. "There's also the prophecies of the Dragon." His eyes took on a distant look and he recited:

"Into the heart he thrusts his sword,
into the heart, to hold their hearts.
Who draws it out shall follow after,
What hand can grasp that fearful blade?"

"Mmm well you know my views on prophecy, but fine, I take your point. So you're going to put some traps around it, presumably the sort of thing that would be fatal if you try to take Callandor or break the wards?"

"Yes that's right." Well at least he looked confident.

"Alright. Presumably you're asking me because you want me to add a bit more to the mix?" It wasn't a terrible idea. "You do realise wards aren't my speciality? I've spent a lot more time breaking them than making them and my methods for breaking them aren't the most sophisticated."

"Of course, but I was thinking, I want to make it look like we argued. Maybe you could look a bit chastened after our conversation and I can storm off. Then I can make a big show of placing my own inverted wards over Callandor tomorrow. After that no one is likely to suspect that you've added a few of your own at the same time. If they're feeling out inverted threads of saidin they might make a mistake with inverted saidar by using the same techniques for it." He had a slightly evil smile.

"Well… Alright, fine, I'll do it. I'm still not sure that this is the best way to protect Callandor, but you're the Dragon." Taija wasn't sure how he knew about the differences between saidin and saidar wards. The subtleties of feeling one's way round inverted wards hardly seemed like something that even a false dragon would be able to teach him. He was right though, it could be a nasty surprise for anyone who only expected saidin. "So what's the plan?"

"Right, so I'll come in and make a big show and give a short speech, then I'll drive Callandor into the floor in as dramatic a way as I can. At the same time I'll be spinning the wards around it. You'll be able to tell when I'm done as I'll let go of Callandor and that's when I'd like you to add your own."

Taija smiled at how he'd clearly planned out a dramatic entrance that he'd no doubt try to have appear to be spontaneous. It was the kind of thing Tel used to do. Her amusement faded at that thought. "That works. How will I be able to make sure I don't trigger your wards when I add mine?"

"Don't worry, I've thought about that. I'm going to key my wards to allow you to touch Callandor and I'd be grateful if you could do the same for me. Then I'll also add a Protean Trigger to them with this signature…"

======

The next day Taija was waiting in the Heart of the Stone with a large pack on her back shortly before midday. She wasn't sure how long she'd be out there, but the War had taught her to get by with nothing more than she could carry. Of course she could most likely just Travel if she needed to leave the Waste, but she couldn't be 100% sure of that and it also made a good teaching opportunity for the girls. Particularly Elayne. Taija smiled ruefully to herself, she did try ever so hard but it was very easy to see that she'd been brought up in a palace.

Rand hadn't specified whether there were any limits on who could or couldn't come. Not that he would get to decide what Taija did anyway. One aspect of modern aes sedai that she could get on board with was their view that no one else was allowed to interfere in their affairs. It was just a pity they seemed to be so reluctant to apply that to her. Regardless Taija was an independent woman who could make her own gateways so there wasn't much anyone could do to stop her. Other than ask politely anyway.

Regardless, there was no chance Taija wouldn't go and it was an easy decision to bring the girls with her. They'd be happy to see Egwene again and since she'd pretty much given in and accepted them as her apprentices they should follow where she went. Obviously Taija offered them the choice, but unsurprisingly they hadn't hesitated in saying they'd come.

She'd spent some time after that talking to them about appropriate packing and clothing choices and she was pleased to see that they turned up in the Heart of the Stone with packs they could lift themselves. They were still wearing dresses, but at least they weren't silk.

The girls' insistence on 'propriety' was frustrating, but Taija was sure she'd get them into something more sensible sooner or later. Dresses were great for when she wanted to look her best, but they were completely inappropriate for going to a desert wasteland full of odd warriors, let alone for actual fighting.

Judging by how grumpy the girls looked, Taija suspected that their initial plans were to bring rather more and she was glad she'd nipped that in the bud. She really needed to get them running with her each morning too.

It went without saying that Aleksi was also there with her. His now familiar shadow just behind her, staff in hand and pack on his back. He certainly hadn't needed any instructions on packing.

There was already a large gathering of Tairen nobility filling the Heart of the Stone, standing in clumps and watching the doors. They studiously ignored Taija and the girls, refusing to meet her eyes, but somehow a space seemed to clear for her.

Cadsuane was also there with her own bubble of space around her and Moiraine and Lan walked in shortly after Taija. They didn't have packs with them and the aes sedai were in their usual fine silk dresses. Odd.

Finally, just before midday Mat hurried in. To Taija's surprise he made a beeline for her group heading behind her to stand next to Elayne. Taija glanced back and gave him a welcoming smile, he really had been nice to Elayne since the horrible events with the Aelfinn, so she'd generally got time for him even beyond the fact that he was quite fascinating.

Mat grimaced ever so slightly and looked away rather than smiling back, although Taija was pretty sure he tried to hide the reaction. She always seemed to make him nervous, when he couldn't outright avoid her at least, and when she'd asked Elayne why she'd been very evasive. Perhaps it was still her drunken episode, that would make any young man uncomfortable. Taija gave a grimace of your own but luckily he couldn't see.

Bang on midday Rand strode into the Heart of the Stone. Perhaps a hundred or so Dedicated ran beside him, black veils across their faces. Taija thought that meant they were ready to fight or something. Maybe a question for Rhuarc, they did seem to have some odd beliefs about when and how it was appropriate to fight.

Rand headed straight for the centre of the Heart, coming to a halt with an echoing ring of boots on the stone floor, his Dedicated arrayed behind him. It was as impressive as Taija had expected. Almost as soon as he'd stopped he launched into a speech about Tear's armies marching, to much cheering from the Tairens, before telling them they'd be going on a humanitarian mission to Cairhien. That got rather less in the way of cheers. However, it made Taija smile. It had been a frequent subject of debate with his inner council.

From the start Rand had not wanted to go to war with Illian and instead to help the starving people of Cairhien. Moiraine and Cadsuane had both argued against it as, to Taija's surprise, had Elayne. She of course had supported him. War between light-aligned nations would only serve the Shadow and helping starving Cairhienin would improve his image while also being the correct action for an aes sedai to take. Benevolent self-interest.

Both the other aes sedai looked less than happy with the announcement. The same could be said for the Tairens.

Rand went on to name the lords who'd be leading the force and making some further announcements about various lords and ladies. Taija was rather less interested in those. Based on the small, grudging nod she saw from Cadsuane she suspected that those moves were rather clever, but she couldn't bring herself to care all that much.

More interesting was trying to work out how Rand knew what a Protean Trigger was. It wasn't like it was a secret, but relatively obscure terms used in warding were hardly what she'd expect him to be picking up by himself. Or learning from a self-taught false dragon. On the other hand, he had managed to teach himself Traveling out of nowhere with less than a year of channeling under his belt. Still, even if he knew what he was doing, he shouldn't have known the terminology.

Taija's train of thought was broken by a sudden silence. When she looked up Rand was holding the glowing crystal sword, point down. It was nearly her moment. She embraced saidar, unseen by the other channelers in the room and focused. It was going to be tricky. Wards weren't her area of expertise and she was going to need to spin fast while looking like she wasn't doing anything other than being shocked at Rand's brilliance.

Rand was sweating and Callandor glowed brighter, almost blinding. "The Stone will hold Callandor until I return!" He plunged the sword straight into the stone floor, lightning arcing up to the dome above the chamber. Taija and everyone else in the room looked away from the light, so bright that it was painful.

The whole Stone shook, loud rumbles running through it and Taija staggered, struggling to keep her feet even as many people around her fell. Not having to pick herself off the floor meant that she saw Rand slowly prying his fingers off the sword's hilt, his body almost seeming to resist him.

As soon as his last finger left the hilt the light faded from it and Taija was spinning, rapidly mapping out Rand's own webs by feel and sliding hers around them. He seemed to have somehow spun something that was almost perfectly designed to allow saidar to be inserted into its structure and she filled the gaps with her own inverted webs. All five elements coming together in an intricate matrix, spun with blinding speed. She kept her face as expressionless as possible, not moving a muscle.

Permissions were added to her half of the ward for her and Rand, various contingencies, deadly consequences, they all came together. It was small, but it was as complex as any ward she'd ever spun.

The Protean Trigger was there, as expected and when Taija's web came together she tied it off, spinning it into the mouth of the trigger and using spirit to trip it. A moment later Rand's wards were active, inextricably intertwined with her own webs a solid mass of invisible saidar and saidin. Taija resisted the urge to slump slightly as she released saidar. That had been difficult to do so quickly.

By the time she was finished the audience were picking themselves up and Rand had already turned to leave. Taija and the others who were planning on going with him hurried on after his Dedicated escort.

Taija quickly realised he was heading for the stables. Ahead of her Moiraine seemed to be having a furious argument with Rand while Cadsuane was hanging back. She decided to leave them to it, content to amble along behind everyone with her own entourage.

At the stables they were met by Edram and yet more Dedicated as well as various people's already saddled horses. It seemed that the aes sedai had bags on their horses and pack horses besides.

For fuck's sake, she should have thought of that, but why would she even think about horses? Horrible, uncomfortable smelly creatures when you could just Travel or get a bus or train. Taija allowed herrself a moment of irritation at the fact she'd be carrying her own pack, but such was life. Perhaps she could palm it off on someone. Maybe if she leaned on her status as aes sedai? The girls looked even more disgruntled, but it would be good for them. Character building.

Eventually once everyone was organised, Rand opened an impressively large gateway. Peering through the hole in the air all Taija saw was barren looking scrubland. She suspected she wasn't going to enjoy it all that much.