Lews felt downhearted; he had left the only people he knew far away. Moiraine had deceived him. He understood the situation clearly now; without a doubt, she had been tasked with finding and bringing the Dragon to Tar Valon, and when circumstances prevented that, she had sent word to the Aes Sedai instead. He laughed bitterly, "Ha, the boy was right," he said to himself. Rand had harbored a strong distrust of the Aes Sedai and had been convinced they manipulated everyone. Mat and Thom had similar opinions. There's seldom smoke without fire.
To stay and try to make the best of the situation was a thought that had crossed his mind. After all, he needed to build bridges between the institutions of power, and a meeting with the White Tower would have been beneficial. There were several reasons he had rejected that idea. Moiraine had shown that he couldn't trust them, which was perhaps the main reason. They could easily have shielded him with a large circle—unless he had time to prepare the meeting place beforehand—and such a confrontation could completely destroy the chances of cooperation, and worse; he might even end up as their puppet. The meeting with them would have to be postponed until the conditions were more favorable. He had made up his mind when he saw the self-absorbed demeanor of the Aes Sedai from the Tower.
He had opened a gateway from his room in Fal Dara to the place where he had dropped off Logain. The only thing he knew about the place was that it lay far south of Caemlyn. A landscape with tall grass and small, gnarled trees here and there stretched as far as the eye could see in every direction. He had packed a large sack, the Dragon Banner taking up well over half of the available space. Besides that, he had two waterskins and food for five days, along with a change of finer clothes and his flute, he had also borrowed—without asking— Agelmars map of the Westlands, and a purse of gold from Moiraine's room. Moiraine had apparently decided that a new set of fine clothes should replace his old ones. That was kind of her, but with these modern Aes Sedai, there always seem to be ulterior motives Involved. Lews knew he was being a bit unfair; he had been active on the political scene himself and had—if he were honest—twisted and turned the truth from time to time. But you don't manipulate your friends. He had wanted to believe that Moiraine saw him as one of her friends. Apparently not; modern Aes Sedai might not have friends. He sighed.
He needed to find a place to set up camp and plan his next move. His body twitched with discomfort when he grasped saidin; the contrast with the pure power of the Eye was immense. He created a gateway that led five miles straight up into the air, then looked out through the portal to survey the area. A small village lay a few hours' walk to the left—by a little stream. He released the flows and started walking toward the village.
The small village consisted of a dozen houses and had no inn. An elderly woman in the village had offered him a room for free if he could help her with some of the heavier chores. When the tasks were done, she had provided him with a hearty meal and had proven to be very talkative. The nearest large town was Tear, about a week's walk southeast. The small room he had been given had a bed—slightly too short—and a chamber pot; there was no window. Lews sat on the bed and leaned against the wall. The old woman had already come in a handful of times with various excuses.
Being able to use the Power without the taint was the first thing he needed to solve. The well at the Eye of the World proved that it was entirely possible to cleanse saidin, and it had given him an idea. The taint lay like a film over the Power; if he could draw the Power through a specially crafted angreal where a web acting as a filter, peeled off the outer layers of the power and returned it back to the source, the core should be clean,—it wouldn't work exactly as he wanted without a well, but it would be better than nothing. The downsides, of course, were that the angreal would be about half as powerful and that one would have to draw twice the amount of Power needed for the task each time it was used, which would cause exhaustion much faster. To create such an angreal, he would need a seed, and he knew where there was one, or rather, where it had been three thousand years ago. He and Ilyena had, toward the end of the war, decided to hide away many of their personal belongings such as photos, wedding rings, and the like in a stasis box; he had then buried it in a secluded place. He had woven a Finder's web on his wedding ring, so he could locate the box again, and a Finder's web placed on a metal object lasted forever, or until someone removed it. In the box was also a seed that Ilyena had given him as a wedding gift. When he seized saidin, it almost felt like he was going to vomit; it gradually got worse every time he embraced saidin. He created the web that was the key to finding the wedding ring's web, and to his delight, the other web responded far away to the east.
The next morning, after having a good breakfast, he thanked the old woman. She said he was welcome back if he ever passed through again. After a half-hour walk along the small stream, he stopped and seized saidin. First, he tried the Finder's web to roughly estimate the distance to the box. Then he created a skimming portal and stepped onto the floating platform. He sped through the darkness for a long time. When the platform finally stopped, the portal opened, and Lews felt a wave of intense heat hit him. As he stepped out, his feet sank slightly into hot sand. Looking around, he saw nothing but sand dunes in every direction. "Just what I needed, a desert," he muttered to himself and sighed. The Finder's web pointed slightly towards the northeast, it wasn't that far now. So, he repeated the procedure with the skimming portal again, and when he opened the portal and stepped out, his feet sank into hot sand once more. Once again, all that could be seen around him were sand dunes.
Maybe five hundred feet now. He began to stumble through the sand; it was hard going as his feet kept sinking with every step. The heat was unbearable, and he had already emptied one of his waterskins. After struggling through the sand for a while, he reached the spot where his web pointed straight down. About a hundred feet below. The place lay between two other sand dunes, maybe three hundred feet from each. He grasped saidin and wove a shield of air around himself. Then, he wove strong flows of air and sent them swirling to create a powerful whirlwind that could move the massive amounts of sand covering the spot. The sun was soon obscured by the large clouds of sand whipped up by the whirlwind. The clouds of sand would be visible from many miles away. But who would be out in a desert? And who would go to meet a sandstorm? There shouldn't be a reason for worry. After about half an hour, he could make out what should be the stasis box. He released the flows of air and began using other flows of earth and air to turn the sand into steps as he descended.
Thoughts began to whirl—how would he react when he saw all the personal belongings he and Ilyena had hidden away? So far, he had felt a fondness—but no grief—when his thoughts wandered to Ilyena or his children, as if he were shielded from emotions tied to his past life. He could see the smooth surface of the stasis box as he got closer. Once there, he placed his hand high on the right. The box came to life, lights and symbols blinking as a network of symbols appeared on the flat surface of the box. Lews entered the password, and the box opened with a hissing sound. With a sense of reverence, he began searching through paintings and photos of his former family. After a while, he found his wedding ring, and as he took it in his hand, he felt a tear fall on one of his hands. He remembered everything—happiness, joy, and sorrow—with a warm feeling of contentment. This belongs in this beautiful display. He placed the wedding ring back and after some time found what he had been looking for: a pendant with two overlapping hearts in gold, with the words mia, iro, asa engraved in the three areas created by the overlapping hearts. On the back, it simply said Mashi. He gave the pendant a light kiss and hung it around his neck, then closed the box.
As he turned to climb back up, he noticed a shadow before feeling a sharp pain high in his chest, near his left shoulder. An arrow… His vision blurred, and he stumbled backward against the box. His breathing suddenly became labored, and each breath hurt so much that his vision flickered. After a moment, he saw a figure, a woman, he thought, with the sun behind her like a halo; he could only see her green eyes, the rest of her face concealed by a black wrap. He fumbled for the void but couldn't reach it. She raised a spear as if to strike him. "This bad dream ends," he groaned. The woman suddenly hesitated; she skillfully spun the spear around and struck him with the butt against his head… everything went black.
The walls of the room seemed to press against her, and it felt as if she couldn't breathe. Moiraine sat on the bed in her room. Her plans had failed; now they had no control over Rand whatsoever and any trust she had built up were surely damaged, possibly beyond repair. She stood and walked to the window. Outside, the sun stood high in the sky. She opened the window and took several deep breaths. The night had been chaotic. A few hours after the search for Rand had ended, Trollocs and Darkfriends had launched a surprise attack. They had managed to escape with the Horn of Valere and had left one of the Shadow's prophecies on the walls. Moiraine had met with the Amyrlin Seat and Verin Sedai during the early hours, where it became clear that the prophecy suggested that the Daughter of the Night, Lanfear, was once again free. As if that weren't enough, Verin had subtly figured out Moiraine and Siuan's secrets. Siuan had decided that they should head back to Tar Valon and plan their next move during the journey. Ingtar would take up the pursuit of the Horn, and they had decided to encourage Mat and Perrin to join the chase.
Moiraine, however, would have preferred to go out and search for Rand, though she knew it was pointless. If neither Lan nor Agelmar's skilled trackers could find any traces, she wouldn't either, and Siuan had insisted that she accompany them to Tar Valon. One of the walls had a message mentioning Toman Head, and that could very well be where part of the prophecies would be fulfilled. But he's asked so much about Tear and Callandor, I think that's his goal. They could even arrive there long before him if he didn't take the river route, even if they took the detour via Tar Valon. Min is there. She could also be of help in finding him.