As usual all speech in italics is in the Old Tongue.

Chapter LXXXVI - Finally, a Stress Free Existence

Taija felt like a weight had been taken off her shoulders. She still wasn't sure whether giving in and deciding to try again with Tel was the right idea. But frankly she didn't care right then. Tel was… well he was Tel and she just felt so much happier. So much less stressed since she'd stopped having to constantly worry about his very existence.

Things were still awkward, how couldn't they be, but they were getting better.

A couple of days after everything changed, they both took a day off from the Hall. Left Nynaeve in charge, Light help the initiates, and told everyone they had a secret mission they needed to go on that required both their skills.

Then Tel took Taija to Ebou Dar for the day and what a day. No worrying about anything, just walking through beautiful streets, admiring palaces and eating delicious food. Enjoying the Third Age rather than franticly working to preserve it. They even used chopsticks to eat there! The whole city reminded Taija of Mar Ruois actually. Especially all of its canals with carefully carved stone bridges over them.

There were still things neither of them were going to talk about, but that was fine. What mattered was that Taija didn't think about the War or work for a whole day. she even managed to persuade Tel to sneak into the main hall of the Royal Palace with her, disguised as a pair of guards. Too dangerous he'd protested. As if. She'd wanted to see its frescoes and they 'd been worth it. Anyway it would have been open to the public in their time. She had no time for over-privileged nobles hiding beautiful art and history from people in general and her in particular.

Should it really be this easy to leap back into things with Tel? Taija wasn't sure and ultimately she didn't care. He'd done enough to show he could be trusted. Anything else was between her and him.

There was a bit of a bounce in Taija's step as she made her way through the Hall's grounds to teach a lesson on inverting webs.

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Taija looked Verin and this Alanna over and gave them a friendly smile. "Welcome Verin, it's nice to see you again. Pleased to meet you Alanna. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

Verin gave her a vague smile of her own. She reminded Taija of Bennae actually, which instantly made her a little warier. Alanna seemed the grumpier of the two. "We found ourselves at a loose end after assisting Perrin and the Two Rivers and, well, we thought we could perhaps help with your efforts here. Alanna is of the Green Ajah and knows much of battle and I, well, I am so very fascinated by your history."

Green Ajah, Taija snorted internally. She could probably teach some basic channeling usefully though. "Well I'm glad to hear it. We welcome guests here at the Hall of Servants and anything you can contribute would be gratefully accepted."

Taija would have to keep an eye on them of course. The open hand of friendship, but she was ready if they were going to try to stab her in the back. It was another thing to worry about, but those days the burden didn't seem so heavy.

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Eben was in a little huddle with his friends, Jaer and Damer, trying to get their advice on his latest dilemma. Not that he expected Jaer to have anything useful to say. He liked the Aielman, he really did, but he had the strangest ideas about relationships.

"So for the next freeday I thought I'd take Helena somewhere new and exciting, but I'm not sure where.

Before either of them could reply a voice came from behind him. "Ebou Dar's quite nice, very hot though." He jumped before spinning to find Taija sedai standing behind him. Light how did she keep sneaking up on him like this? She must be half cat.

He gave a quick bow as did the others. "Taija sedai! Uh we were just talking about…"

"Oh I know, like I said, Ebou Dar is nice, although make sure you don't get into any duels if you go. Anyway don't let me bother you." She gave them all a smile and headed off into the evening gloom.

She really had been in a very good mood for the last two weeks. It was odd, she was always nice, but recently she'd just been… happy. Well he hoped she kept on being happy, she certainly deserved it. Hopefully he wouldn't have to punch anyone else for making such inappropriate suggestions about what was making her happy though. As he'd suspected and Egwene sedai had confirmed, even aspirants could still be set to digging holes, although being an aspirant apparently he should have known better than to punch an initiate and so only got a spoon to do it with.

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Jur stood in front of Taija, the plain red badge of an aspirant on his brown tunic. "So, like I explained to Tel sedai, I came up with this web so that me and Sora could know where we are and how we're feeling all the time. Especially with me going away on missions with the Lord Dragon." He looked very nervous, more than he should really. Taija caught Tel's eye and resisted the urge to exchange a smile with him. "As soon as I'd made it, I knew I should check with Tel sedai that it was safe to use."

Taija gave him a reassuring smile. "You did the right thing Jur. Well done." All the safety lectures had clearly paid off, although he was a bit older than some of the students, so she'd expect him to be more sensible. "Tel, you've looked it over, is it safe?"

He paused for a second, "yes, I think so. I'm not as good as you with this sort of thing, but I think I'm good enough. It should just make it so they can feel each other, like if they were in a link, no harm to be done and it should be possible to release it."

Taija struggled to imagine why anyone would want something so… intrusive, but that was their business. "So, like the Tower aes sedai warder bond?" Tel nodded. "And there's no element of compulsion to it?"

"No, I've triple checked." Alright, that was what was really important.

"Fine. Well done Jur, I'm impressed. We're going to have a chat with Sora about this, just to make sure that she fully understands, not that I doubt you, but we need to do things properly and then you can go ahead."

Taija would go and find Sora while Tel kept an eye on Jur. She was going to need to think of some more formal rules for this sort of thing though. She couldn't say it was to her taste, but if people wanted to do it… Obviously both needed to be adults. Informed consent, perhaps an interview with each to make sure they fully understood what they were getting into. And absolutely no compulsion. New bondings using the aes sedai version would be strictly forbidden for anyone who wished to remain part of the Hall. Existing ones from Tower aes sedai would just have to be tolerated.

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Taija watched Tel teaching one of his advanced combat classes. Since her little stunt a few of the women had signed up too, which was good. Everyone seemed to be having fun and Jaer had taken on a sort of assistant instructor role, which Taija supposed made sense given his background and skills.

Still, her eyes were repeatedly drawn back to Tel's glistening form. she still hadn't managed to get it into his head that he'd be distracting all the young women walking around topless like that. He really had kept in shape.

While they'd been spending time together, talking openly, rebuilding their connection, just enjoying each other's company, she hadn't taken things beyond sitting in his arms, enjoying his presence. Anything more just felt… weird.

Tel lifted Jaer up, muscles straining with the weight of the bigger man, and dropped him on the mats. Perhaps not that weird though.

Fuck it. It had been more than a year since she'd even touched a man like that. Taija was trying to focus on her own happiness. As the class ended she caught Tel's eye. "Tel, when you have a minute," she hesitated, "and after you've had the chance to clean up, would you mind coming over to my office there are a couple of issues I need to discuss with you."

Half an hour later she heard a knock at the door of your office. "Come in."

Tel stepped in, closing the door behind him. He gave her a smile, the happy smile that Taija liked to see on him, not a sad or nervous one. "What's up? One of the initiates misbehaving?"

Taija got up from her desk. "Something like that." He'd put a shirt on, it hid just enough to make things tantalising. He'd washed too, his hair was still damp. Her eyes drifted up from his hips, over his flat stomach to his broad chest. She glanced down at his forearms, covered in the light fuzz of his blonde hair their toned form still bare with his sleeves rolled up and then up to meet his deep, blue eyes.

He was looking a little confused as Taija advanced on him, but he could be quite slow sometimes. "I've just been thinking, about us." She spun a web against eavesdropping around her office and then another one to hold the door closed. She was not going to be disturbed.

"About us? Is everything ok?" He sounded worried.

Taija didn't reply. She was almost in his personal space and he took a step back looking nervous almost panicked in fact. "D d do you want me to leave?" His face started to fall.

"For fuck's sake Tel, just shut up." Taija reached up and grabbed a fistful of his shirt before pulling his head down to her.

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"You seem to have been more cheerful recently my dear, it is good to see." Bennae smiled and took a sip of tea.

Taija smiled back, feeling relaxed, "I've just been trying to take your advice. Focusing on my own happiness and taking more time for myself and it's made everything seem so much better."

"Well I am glad to hear that. You will have to tell me what you have been up to, but first I wanted to talk about the initiates from the Tower."

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Taija heard a knock on her office door and when she said, "come in," to hre mild surprise it was Elayne. She'd been spending a lot of time away from the Hall since she was raised to full aes sedai, mostly supporting her mother, which was fair enough.

After some pleasantries, she got down to business. "Taija, I found something out that you and Rand are likely to be interested in."

"Oh really?" Taija leant forward. "Do tell."

"Verin and Alanna were in the Two Rivers with Perrin, as you know." Taija nodded. "Well it seems they have a number of girls from there sequestered in an inn who think they are going to become novices at the White Tower. Or more likely Siuan's village, but I am not sure they know the difference."

"Oh. That is interesting." Nynaeve would have an absolute fit if she found out they were there, particularly after all the men and women she and Aleksi brought back from their own visit. "You haven't told Nynaeve?"

Elayne shrugged, looking embarrassed for a second. "I wanted to speak to you first. Nynaeve would just go and bully them straight into the Hall." That was almost certainly true. "Obviously getting them would be good for the Hall, but it might well cause problems with Siuan and the Village."

"Ah, yes, I see your point."

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Mat groaned to himself as he sat through yet another interminable meeting. Why had he agreed to come to Aringill with Elayne? Of course she needed to go and make these visits to shore up her mother's rule and her own position as heir to the throne. That was obvious. If you didn't keep the nobles happy, especially in a border town like this one, you risked all kinds of problems. His problem though was why he was there.

Just because she wanted his company, it didn't mean she actually needed him there. Yet there he was, dressed like a bloody noble and having to act like one too. He'd sneak out after the next meeting. Have some fun, maybe find a game of dice and then he'd be back in time for supper. She wouldn't be too annoyed. Probably.

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Eben followed a step behind the two aes sedai. Rand sedai or the Lord Dragon, he was never sure which to call him, and Bennae sedai took the lead, with the initiates and him, the sole aspirant behind them.

Today they were in Cairhien. The Lord Dragon's fifth visit. Taija and Tel sedai had decided after the third that it was safe enough to send initiates and he expected that he would be helping with some construction work later. For now though it would be boring speeches and discussions between the aes sedai and nobles.

He glanced at the initiates, all considered responsible enough to come for the learning experience. It was funny to think that he was the most senior when Noruan was well into his middle years.

One of the Cairhienin lords was droning on about something dull, but he made himself listen. Bennae sedai always said that if you listened you could learn far more than people expected, that there would be nuggets of useful information beneath the boring pleasantries.

The flow of words was stopped shortly afterwards by Bennae sedai's surprised exclamation. "Galina, I did not expect to see you here."

"Bennae, what a pleasant surprise." His eyes were drawn to a woman in a red dress, her face marked with the agelessness of the Tower aes sedai, just like Bennae's. She didn't sound like she meant it. A moment later goosebumps popped up over his skin. Someone was holding saidar. He did the only thing he could think of and seized saidin, the world sharpening around him as he did.