AN: I actually spotted an inconsistency in canon. On the maps in my books, the distance Emond's Field-Tarendrelle is about equal to the distance Tarendrelle-Baerlon, yet in the narration the former takes one night (admittedly at a frantic pace) while the latter takes six days. For this fic I've decided to go with the map, meaning a shorter journey after Taren Ferry. Pre-publish edit while I'm writing chapter 4: the duration of the journey from Baerlon onwards seems to reinforce this decision.
The group rested for several hours, but by the late afternoon, they once again departed, onwards to the mining town of Baerlon.
Rand once again walked, and though they regularly traveled in silence, he also talked to his various companions at times. To his surprise, he found Mat and Perrin the hardest to talk to, perhaps even because they were his closest friends, yet did not know his secret.
Despite that difficulty, he didn't think it was a good idea to tell them yet. In particular Mat, who had not yet learned to accept his responsibility, no matter how much he grumbled about it, might not think things through and make things more difficult, for example because he'd accidentally reveal something to someone else. On top of that, both boys had rather strong preconceived notions, not that Rand could really blame them considering just how common those notions were among the people of the Westlands.
"Do you think that the Aes Sedai is speaking the truth?" Mat asked at one point. "That the trollocs are after us three?"
"I think so," Rand said. "Our farm and Perrin's family were attacked, and in the village the smithy and your house. The other places they attacked seemed like distractions."
"I don't trust her," Mat said. "Aes Sedai are bad news."
"So are trollocs," Rand pointed out.
"She wants something from us," Mat said. "If there's one thing the stories agree on, it's that Aes Sedai always want something from you, and they'll use you for their own benefit."
"My father trusts her," Rand said. "And he's actually been outside of Two Rivers before, unlike us."
"You don't trust her, do you?"
"I trust my father's judgement," Rand said, employing some Aes Sedai weaseling himself.
"What about the gleeman?"
Thom had made clear on several occasions that he didn't trust Aes Sedai. For good reason - if Rand remembered correctly they had gentled his nephew without following proper procedure, which had resulted in Thom being unable to say goodbye to him before his death.
That was something that was very common. The One Power was addictive to use, and if one was severed from the One Power – or, as it was called in this Age, gentled or stilled depending on gender – the former channeler would start showing withdrawal symptoms, which would lead to depression and, almost invariably, eventual suicide. Most channelers didn't last more than a year or two.
"I don't know him well," Rand said. "He does seem to know what he's talking about though. But for now, well, I've seen Moiraine fight the trollocs, and that's enough for me to rather be with her than anywhere else."
Mat was probably the most talkative of the bunch, often seeking distractions from their flight away from Emond's Field, while Perrin was pretty much the opposite. The smith's apprentice was very broad-shouldered, not just from his work but also by blood, though the two of course compounded, and it had taught him to be gentle and careful as to not harm others by accident. That extended to him probably being the most mature out of the three of them – at least the first time around, when Rand hadn't had his years as the Dragon Reborn and his many more years as Lews Therin to draw upon yet.
He was often pensive, regularly asking Tam questions about the outside world, sometimes discussing things with Rand. Rand suspected that Perrin had noticed he was different, but the boy hadn't asked him about it, unlike Nynaeve and Egwene.
That night, when they stopped again a few hours after dark, Egwene started brushing out her hair, undoing her braid like she had done the last time around. Rand remembered getting into a shouting match with her over it.
Nynaeve – who hadn't been present when Egwene had made the decision the first time around – was the one bringing it up now.
"What are you doing, Egwene?"
"Brushing my hair out."
"Why? You're not a child anymore."
"Aes Sedai don't braid their hair," Egwene said. "Not unless they want to."
Rand decided to step in. "You don't want to braid your hair, Egwene? I remember you were looking forward to it for years."
She hesitated, and he moved closer to the two women.
"I'm not saying you have to, of course. But if you wish, you can be both a woman from Emond's Field and an Aes Sedai. Don't Aes Sedai come from all countries and places?"
Nynaeve gave Rand a thankful smile, not intervening further.
"I… suppose," Egwene said, brushing her hand through her hair. "Maybe I'll braid it again, later on. But I want to, well, I'm moving to something new, I guess. If I'm going to learn to be an Aes Sedai."
"I think we all are," Rand said.
"Even Nynaeve?" Egwene asked.
Nynaeve hesitated. They hadn't explained particularly much about why she was coming along other than to watch over them, just like Tam.
"I guess so," Rand said. "If we're really going all the way to Tar Valon like Moiraine said, then Nynaeve can't remain the Wisdom, right? She'd be gone for too long."
"You'd really stay with us if you can't remain Wisdom?" Egwene asked, turning to Nynaeve.
"There's… another reason," Nynaeve admitted. "But I can't say what it is."
For a second, Rand thought Egwene was going to pry, but then she nodded.
A few moments later, Moiraine walked up to them. "Rand? I need to ask you about something."
Rand rose and said the girls goodbye, then followed Moiraine as they left the camp.
"I thought now would be a good time for me to try and reproduce Traveling," she said.
"We can't Travel from here," Rand said, "because for Traveling you need to be familiar with the place you're leaving, and if possible also the place you're going to. But we can practice Skimming, which is very similar and doesn't have the same requirement." He brought himself to the edge of seizing saidin, and like in Emond's Field, Moiraine linked them and then gave him control over the circle.
Rand needed a few seconds as well as his knowledge of saidin's Skimming and Traveling weaves to remember how saidar Skimming worked, but then he could show Moiraine. It was very similar to Traveling indeed, and opened a Gateway in the same manner. Unlike Traveling, however, it led to a dark place with a platform, which Moiraine immediately investigated, though without entering.
"If we were to enter," Rand explained, "I could close the Gateway, and the platform would move to our destination, where another Gateway would open. It's fast, but not quite as fast as traveling, not to mention you have the platform size. There's also an innate danger, because if you fall from the platform, you'll keep falling until you die for one reason or another."
He closed the Gateway again and then released the circle, allowing Moiraine to attempt the weave.
"Keep your destination in mind," Rand advised as she practiced. After a few attempts, she once again linked with him, allowing him to show the example again, and they repeated that process several times. After some ten minutes, a Gateway suddenly opened in front of them.
"This is amazing," Moiraine said. "We could go anywhere we want, pretty much instantaneously."
"Travel time becomes trivial once you have Traveling," Rand confirmed. "It completely changes the game." A smile played over his lips. "I have to admit, I can't wait to see the expressions on the faces of the High Lords of Tear when I Travel right into the Heart of the Stone and grab Callandor in front of their eyes. I'll have to make sure to plan it during the Rite of Guarding."
"That sounds like something Mat could come up with," Moiraine noted as she closed the Gateway again.
"We might have need for him," Rand said, turning pensive. "Looking back, if there is one thing I forgot to do, it is to laugh. And we'll have to provide our own reasons for laughter, as the world won't do it for us. We are, after all, heading to Tarmon Gai'don."
They made their way back to the camp, where they listened to the last half of Thom's tale about one of the hunts for the Horn of Valere before going to sleep.
Some two hours after dawn, Lan woke them again, saying they had to leave soon if they wanted to reach Baerlon by nightfall. Rand quickly found himself walking near the rear, next to his father. Tam was riding Bela, and had actually offered Rand to ride for a bit, which he had declined.
Behind them, closing the ranks, were Moiraine and Egwene, the latter of which was still full with questions.
"Why do men get the strongest Powers?" Egwene asked. "Earth and Fire."
Moiraine laughed, and a smile played over Rand's face. A very old question, with a very familiar answer. "You think they are stronger? Is there a rock so hard that the wind and water cannot wear it away, a fire so strong that water cannot quench it or wind snuff it out?"
"It was them, right?" Egwene asked. "The ones who tried to release the Dark One and the Forsaken. The male Aes Sedai. Not the women."
Moiraine remained silent, and Rand assumed she was considering how to answer the question.
"It was, right?" Egwene asked, more hesitant now.
"You want to hear me say that it was the evil men who caused the Breaking of the World, and not the women that you wish to join," Moiraine said. "Yes, it was the men, but they were not evil. They were driven insane by the Dark One's taint on saidin. Before that happened, they were people just like any other, just like you and me. And just like that, the Aes Sedai alive today are people like any other, brave or cowardly, strong or weak, friendly or cruel. What is important to remember is that using the One Power does not change us."
"I guess that's what I was worried about," Egwene said.
Rand let himself fall back, and the two fell silent. "What Egwene said, that the men tried to release the Dark One and the Forsaken, is that true? See, I once heard a merchant guard say that it wasn't, that the men fought just as hard as the women, but that they disagreed on how to turn the war against the Shadow around when they were losing.
"The guard said that the men tried to seal away the Dark One and his lieutenants, and that they succeeded, but that the Dark One struck back by making them go mad, and that's what caused the Breaking of the World."
"That sounds silly," Egwene started to say, but Moiraine interrupted her.
"That guard knew more about those times than even some Aes Sedai."
"But that doesn't fit what the stories say," Egwene protested.
"The legends speak of events that happened thousands of years ago," Moiraine lectured. "Much of what they say has changed over time, in particular with the fear of male channelers, who caused so much destruction during the Breaking and sometimes afterwards."
"So how do you know what is true, then?" Egwene asked.
"Written texts do not change," Moiraine explained.
"What about the Dragon? He was the first to go mad, right?"
"The higher you rise, the deeper you can fall," Moiraine said. "The Dragon was the leader of the Hundred Companions that sealed the Bore, the most powerful channeler to ever live. Dragonmount is a permanent reminder of the destruction he caused, visible from the White Tower in Tar Valon."
"The stories say he will one day return," Egwene said. "Is that true? And will he cause more destruction then?"
Moiraine looked to Rand, who was walking next to her. The question was clear. How much should they reveal? He nodded slightly.
"Yes, he will return," Moiraine said.
"Do you know when?" Rand asked.
"I do not think it will take much longer," Moiraine said. "I have spent a lot of time reading about the prophecies regarding his return, the Karaethon Cycle, but with what I've seen recently, in particular this last week, I don't know if we can even trust that the prophecies are reliable."
"Is that a bad thing?" Rand asked.
"I think it's more likely to be a good thing," Moiraine said. "We'll have to see."
The conversation soon drifted to other topics, and Rand spent the day talking to several people, though he did not have time to relax in the way Mat did, practicing his juggling skills while sitting on horseback. As the sun lowered over the Mountains of Mist to the west, they crested a hill and Baerlon came into view.
"Look at that," Mat exclaimed from the front of the party. "A real city!"
Rand was glad he was again at the rear of the group, together with Tam and Moiraine, because he doubted he'd be able to act out such exuberance at what really wasn't more than a small town with a twenty feet high wooden wall.
Thom had no reason to keep his thoughts to himself. "City," he mocked, though he said nothing more.
"Everyone!" Moiraine called, and the people in front turned their horses to face her. "When we are in Baerlon, we have to be more careful. Do not speak of trollocs, the Dark One or Aes Sedai. There may be people who are all too willing to assume the worst of us, or even darkfriends. Lan and I also use different names. People know me as Lady Alys and Lan as Andra, please remember that well."
With that warning made, they continued their journey, and Moiraine turned to Rand, speaking softly.
"Is there anything you remember happening the last time around?"
"Well, there's Min of course. I imagine her visions might have changed, but I don't know for sure. We'll have to see. The last time I also suffered from channeling sickness at the worst possible moment, right when I met some Whitecloaks, but that won't happen this time."
"There are Whitecloaks in the city?"
"Yes," Rand said. "Or at least there were, last time around. We'll just have to try and avoid them."
The Whitecloaks, or more formally Children of the Light, were a fanatical organization that opposed the Shadow – and claimed that all Aes Sedai were darkfriends. And of course, Rand knew, their stated goals did not make them immune to having actual darkfriends hiding among them.
Their entrance to the town and the inn they were staying at – the Stag and Lion, just like last time – was uneventful, until Moiraine asked whether Min was still there.
"I don't know what's wrong with her," Master Fitch, the innkeeper, said. "Ever since four days ago, she's been incredibly stressed. Refuses to tell anyone what's wrong, and I've seen her cry multiple times."
Moiraine turned to the group. "Go and take your baths." To Fitch, she said, "I'd like to speak to her."
Rand followed her, which she allowed without comment, and Fitch led them to what seemed to be a private room. Min was sitting at the table, her head in her hands. One thing that had not changed, at least, was her boyish dress style. She had always hated dresses and skirts.
"You can leave us," Moiraine told the innkeeper.
On hearing the familiar voice, Min looked up. "Moi- Lady Alys! Thank the Light you're here."
Though Rand's heart went out to the girl he had fallen in love with, he held back, letting Moiraine take the lead.
"Are you alright?" Moiraine asked.
Min glanced at Rand.
"You don't need to hold back, Rand won't tell anyone anything."
"My viewings," Min said. "A few days ago, they suddenly changed completely! That's never happened before. So many of the old images are gone, and other people have new ones now. And, your images have changed completely." She turned to Rand. "And you have a ton of them, too."
"I suspected as much," Moiraine said as she sat down opposite Min.
"You know why this happened?" Min asked, hopeful.
Rand sat down next to her. "That would be my fault, I suppose."
Min frowned. "How?"
"You know how you basically view pieces of the Pattern with your viewings?" Rand asked.
"How do you know that?" Min asked. She turned to Moiraine, accusingly. "Did you tell him?"
"I did not," Moiraine said.
"I know about it, for the same reason that it's my fault they changed," Rand said. "I changed the Pattern itself."
"That sounds rather bigheaded," Min noted.
Rand couldn't help but smile at her familiar brusqueness. "I'll explain. But perhaps you can first tell me what the images are that you see around me?"
"A lot of things," Min said. "A sword that isn't a sword, a banner with some kind of red and gold serpent with limbs, a strange symbol that looks like a flame of Tar Valon and a dragon's fang combined, a number of women, though I don't think I could recognize them even if I knew them, a darkness that shies back, and there's even more."
"It should be enough for me to explain though," Rand said, "I think I know what a few of those mean, even if you don't. I suspect the sword that is not a sword is Callandor, have you heard of it?"
She shook her head.
"It is found in the Stone of Tear, the ancient fortress, and no one can touch it except for the Dragon Reborn. According to scholars, drawing Callandor will be one of the clearest signs that whoever does it is the true Dragon Reborn, and not a false Dragon like the one in Ghealdan."
"So why do I see it around you?" Min asked.
"I'll explain a little further, first," Rand said. "If you'll humor me. The banner, I think, displays a dragon. The background is white, isn't it?"
"How did you know?" Min exclaimed. "I didn't tell you that!"
"I've seen it before," Rand said. "And last, the strange symbol you mentioned is the ancient symbol for the Aes Sedai. Back before the Breaking of the World, when men and women created marvels with the One Power in unity. White, the female half, and black, the male half, each tear-shaped, and together making a circle."
Min frowned. "I can't make sense of it."
"I am the Dragon Reborn," Rand said. "That's why you're seeing Callandor and the banner I will be using. The reason your visions changed is because I unwound the pattern by about two years and retained my memories from that time, and I'll be making different choices this time around. For example, one of the first things I intend to do is to cleanse the taint that makes male channelers go mad. I did that last time as well, but only after I'd already used saidin for a year and a half. That damage has been undone when I wound back time, and I'd rather not give it the chance to come back. I also suspect that is what the ancient Aes Sedai symbol stands for."
"That sounds… I would say insane, but not insane in that way," Min said. "Insane in the way that it's so ridiculous no one could make it up. And… it does kind of explain why my visions changed when nothing could stop them from happening before."
"I know how it sounds," Rand said. "I'm still coming to terms with it myself. But it has given me an amazing chance to anticipate events. For two years, I felt like I was always trying to catch up, but now I'm ahead."
"Did we know each other?" Min asked.
"Yes," Rand said, dreading the next question.
"How well?" she asked.
"Min, I want you to promise me something, namely that you will not make decisions because you feel you should. The previous Pattern is gone, and no one, not you, not me, not anyone else, holds any obligations to it."
"Uh, sure," Min said. "Were we like, lovers or something?"
Rand could deny it, or dance around the subject, but that felt unfair, to both the past Min that had loved him and this younger Min that didn't know him yet. "Yes," he said instead.
She blushed. "How… how did we end up together?"
Rand thought back, both to his own memories and what he had learned when turning back the Wheel. How much she had done for him, always being there as his rock, yet he couldn't repeat that out loud, didn't want to influence her decisions for the future. So instead, he focused on what she had gone through. "It was quite the journey from your part, and you disliked a lot of it because you were often sent this way or that by Aes Sedai without much choice. Until you ended up with me, that is."
He turned pensive. Both women in the room seemed to be waiting until he had ordered his thoughts and spoke again.
"I don't know whether it's possible to avoid getting you involved this time, if that's even what you want. Your viewings are incredibly useful, and it might put you in danger from darkfriends, or even Forsaken. But I also don't want to force you to go somewhere you don't want to go."
He drummed his fingers on the table. "What do you want, Min? Stay here? Leave?"
"I'd like to see a bit of the world," she said slowly. "Moiraine talked to me about my viewings when she was here last week, and I would like it if someone can make use of them, too. I don't know, really. I've never been into girl stuff, and that makes it hard to find a place. I'm not really picturing myself as some housewife."
"How about this," Rand said, a plan forming. "Right now, I don't really have anything to my name. I live on the road, and Moiraine pays for my expenses with Aes Sedai money. But once I announce myself as the Dragon Reborn, it won't take long before I have one, probably even several, places to live. You'll stay here for now, then once people know who I am, I'll come and get you, and you can live in Tear, or Caemlyn, or wherever you want, and you can help me by telling me what viewings you get from people."
She nodded. "I like that."
"And remember," Rand said, "don't force yourself to try and love me, or anything. I don't have any rights to you or anything just because of what the Wheel wove the last time around. In fact, with how things are going right now, I wouldn't be surprised if I get another girlfriend."
"What if you get together with her, and then I come and fall in love with you again? I mean, I imagine the other me had a reason for liking you."
"Then, we'll have to see. I actually had two other girlfriends as well, which you agreed to. Again, I'm not saying that you need to do anything a certain way because that's how it happened last time."
"Yeah," Min agreed. She frowned. "You know, I'm used to me being the one that makes a conversation feel strange."
Rand smiled. "This is how it feels to be on the receiving end for a change. I remember the last time around you actually made me rather uncomfortable when we first talked. No, don't apologize. I was a naive farm boy afraid of my own shadow, not to mention I'd had a bad dream that made me even more jumpy."
Moiraine looked up sharply at those words. "Perhaps we've been talking for long enough. Min, I'm sure you understand you cannot tell anyone about what you heard." Min nodded. "I want to ask you to take a look at the other people who are traveling with us, and tell me – and Rand – what images you see around them. If you talk to them, keep in mind that not all of them know Rand's secrets yet."
"I can do that," Min said.
They said their goodbyes and Rand followed Moiraine into a corridor, where she stopped halfway through and turned to him. "You said you had a bad dream?"
"Yes," Rand said. "On the first night here. Ba'alzamon – that's Ishamael, remember, not the Dark One – invaded my dream and also Mat and Perrin's dreams. He didn't know which one of us was the Dragon Reborn, not for a while longer. I'm not sure if things will be different this time around, but I figure that my control over the dream might tip him off that I'm the one he's looking for."
"Keep me updated on what happens," Moiraine said. "Though I suppose you might know more about the World of Dreams than I do."
"Ishamael tends to use dream shards," Rand said. "They are somewhat similar to the World of Dreams, but made separately by a channeler, usually a Dreamer, which gives them more control. We'll see what happens tonight, and I'll tell you tomorrow, as well as whether Mat and Perrin had a similar dream. Last time, we decided against telling you until we were in Caemlyn."
"Stubborn village boys," Moiraine muttered.
Rand laughed.
After their chat with Min, Rand and Moiraine both enjoyed a good bath, followed by dinner with their full party and a good night's sleep. Well, for most people it was a good night's sleep. Like last time, Rand, Mat and Perrin were each visited by Ba'alzamon in their dreams. As Rand had predicted, Ishamael was not stupid, even though he had gone mad from the passing of time, and quickly realized that Rand was the boy he was looking for.
At that point, Rand saw no need to keep up any pretense in the first place – on the contrary, the quicker he could draw Ishamael into a confrontation, the quicker he could get rid of him. He was the leader of the Forsaken – though, to Rand's knowledge, not officially at this point – and the most powerful among them.
And his freedom from the Seals on the Dark One's prison made him a threat. Last time, when Rand had cleansed saidin, he'd had the support of Aes Sedai, Wise Ones – the channelers of the Aiel – and Asha'man, members of the Black Tower that he had founded as a male counterpart to the White Tower of the Aes Sedai. So when the Forsaken had arrived in an attempt to stop Rand, they had defended him and fended off their attacks.
This time, Rand would not have that support, as he was not willing to wait with the cleansing for long enough to gather it. But that meant he needed to act before the other Forsaken were free from their prisons, which would be no more than a few months from the present time, and he needed to take Ishamael out of the equation first.
In the morning, Rand and Moiraine once again met with Min, discussing the viewings she'd seen around their party, which meant that when Rand was finally ready to go out into the town, everyone else had already left.
He decided to look for Perrin, Mat, Egwene or Nynaeve, however the first familiar face he encountered was someone else entirely, as he suddenly found himself eye to eye with Padan Fain. In an instant, Rand had seized saidin, ignoring the appalling sensation of the taint, and bound and gagged the darkfriend. He manipulated the weaves of Air around Fain to make it look as if the former peddler was walking while he considered his options.
The simplest would be to straight up kill the man. However, with the Whitecloaks in the town, a death that could only be attributed to channeling would draw far too much attention. Though… gave him an idea.
Rand slowly wove a mirror of mists around himself, gradually changing his appearance so he would not be recognized as he marched Padan Fain through the town. The man looked half-mad, with the rags he was currently wearing, and if Rand remembered correctly, he wasn't very coherent right now.
Soon enough, he noticed a patrol of the Whitecloaks in the distance. Perfect. He marched Fain in their direction, then when they were close, he conjured a fireball next to the darkfriend – as if he were the one conjuring it instead – and threw it at the Whitecloaks, making sure to not aim at a lethal spot. They might be fanatics, but Rand would not kill unless in self-defense or if he knew his target was a darkfriend.
As expected, the Whitecloaks responded immediately, seeing Fain as a male channeler – in their eyes, making him both insane and a darkfriend. Which wasn't even inaccurate, in this case. Screaming condemnations, all three Whitecloaks drew their swords – including the one whose left arm had gotten burned - and attacked Fain, who was released from his bonds by Rand.
Rand had half expected them to go for the kill, however their commander had enough restraint that they only bound Fain, though the man was bleeding from several spots where their swords had cut him.
And with so many witnesses who believed Fain had been channeling, it was likely that they would receive permission from the governor of the town to execute him – or perhaps the governor would order the city guard to oversee the execution.
That was good enough for Rand.
Fain had been a major problem the last time around, for two different reasons. The first was that the Dark One had given him the ability to track Rand, Mat and Perrin, and the second was that Fain had been touched by the evil from Shadar Logoth, which through him had managed to escape, and indeed even let it survive the cleansing of saidin, which had destroyed the ruined city as a byproduct.
While that was unlikely to happen again – Rand had no intention of going near the city except for the cleansing – he still didn't feel like running the risk. After all, while there was a measure of free choice, the very existence of ta'veren and their ability to alter people's destinies by simply being nearby proved that the Pattern did work towards certain goals.
However, with the commotion caused by Rand's actions, he decided to make his way back to the inn, as he figured that those who knew he was the Dragon Reborn might get worried if news got around that a male channeler had been arrested for attacking Children of the Light. No matter that Rand was powerful enough that he could blow anyone - both the town guard and the entire regiment of Children camping nearby - to pieces without having to risk his skin.
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