PoV Moiraine
The early morning after the dinner Moiraine hosted for Galldrian, Barthanes and Colavaere found her in the gardens of the Sun Palace, standing before an enormous stump, the last surviving remnant of the Avendoraldera.
Before coming to Cairhein, Moiraine sometimes feared she would find no traces of the Avendoraldera, she feared Laman the unlamented, would have uprooted the stump, but apparently that was not so, Laman never got around to ordering it done and Galldrian found it an amusing remainder of Laman's folly and left it be.
From the very first day Moiraine settled in the guest rooms of the Sun Palace she has been visiting the stump every day. She delved the stump for any sign of life and it required several tries and a few hours to find minute traces of it. A thing known to very few, even among Aes Sedai, is that the famed Avendesora, the Tree of Life, is not a natural tree at all. It has more in common with a Ter'angreal than it has with a tree. In essence, it is an idea of a perfect tree brought to life by the genius and will of channelers of the Age of Legends.
From its rich dark brown bark to its uniform tightly packed grain to its symmetrical branches to its thick canopy to its sprawling and deep root network to its iconic trefoil leaves, every aspect of Avendesora is designed to represent the idea of a perfect tree. Then there is the aura of peace and contentment and well being it is said to emit, the aura Moiraine experienced as a child, then as a young woman in the days spent she in Sun Palace, when her father brought her to court during the rare times he managed to tear himself from his personal library in their country estate.
The fond memories of playing under the boughs of Avendoraldera were what led Moiraine to research the legendary Avendesora to begin with. While a fascinating and engaging topic, it is the traces of life Moiraine found in the stump of Avendoraldera that vindicated the hours Moiraine spent as an Accepted chasing legends, distilling a few precious truths from a thousand exaggerated stories.
The artificial nature of the Avendesora meant that it has some redundancies built in to it that no natural tree has, at least not to the degree the Avendoraldera does. With careful delving Moiraine learnt that the stump is less dead and more sleeping, like the white bears of Borderlands who are said to hibernate during heart of winters, Avendoraldera has a mechanism built in that let it go in to a deep sleep when hurt, but it has no mechanism to wake from that sleep. Why would it? In the Age of Legends its makers, the channelers would have been plentiful and close at hand, probably a single weave known to many would have healed the tree.
But Moiraine is not a channeler of legends and knew of no such weave, so she had to improvise, for the last month, whenever she had a free moment, Moiraine studied the healing weave and the nameless weave used to keep plants alive through drought or flood, after several tweaks and iterations and sacrifice of a dozen rose bushes Moiraine settled on a healing weave modified with some elements of preservation wards, and the nameless weave to keep plants alive in even the harshest of conditions. She has tried it the stump of a freshly cut stump of an oak tree and managed to coax it back to life and tried the same weave on a week old stump and failed completely.
Moiraine tried to improve her new weave, practice made it more efficient in terms of Saidar, but it is not enough to bring dead trees back to life, but the stump of Avendoraldera is not completely dead, it is closer to a fresh stump than a week old stump, so praying for the best, Moiraine wove her new weave with barely enough Saidar to fully form the weave and observed the minute reaction.
Hopeful from the results of her test, but not willing to take the chance of something going wrong, Moiraine sent word to the Stedding Tsofu, asking for their resident Treesingers.
As Moiraine finished her inspection of the stump alongside her introspection, she felt Lan drawing nearer, and heard the near silent yet somehow heavy footfalls of the Ogier. Moiraine could see a small crowd following behind Lan and the Ogier, but dismissed the gawkers from her mind.
One of the Treesingers, Havar, the one Moiraine spoke with before bowed and rumbled out, "Moiraine Sedai, your missive spoke of your need for our help with Avendoraldera, while I have arrived with Vilar as you called for us both, I am unsure what is there to do?"
Hmm, that was uncommonly to the point for Ogier, Moiraine thought, but answered with a slight bow, barely more than the nod of her head, "I have delved the stump, and detected the faintest trace of life. It is my belief that Avendoraldera is not completely dead yet."
Havar and Vilar's eyes widened to the size of saucers and hope bloomed on their faces as they drew near to Moiraine and as one they asked, "Truly?!"
Moiraine gave them a small smile and answered, "Yes. It is my hope that with your help I can coax it back to life fully."
Havar and Vilar gave a deep bow and Havar said, "We are at your disposal, Moiraine Sedai. What would you have us do?"
Moiraine gestured for them flank her as she turned to face the stump and answered, "I will channel a new weave, a variant of healing weave designed to help Avendoraldera. I need you to Treesing the Song of Life, then the Song of Growing. I believe this is going to take awhile."
The Ogier Treesingers nodded and set their faces to concentration, knelt down before the stump and rose their faces and arms to sky, as though in prayer to the sun and the sky, a pure note that reminded Moiraine of the earth rumbling issued from their throats and Moiraine started on her work, she ignored the ecstasy of Saidar flooding through her self with practised discipline and wove her self created weave with delicate care and draped it over the stump and she layered the same weave twice more on the stump before focusing on powering the weave with half her capacity, as she concentrated, the Ogier's wordless song hummed through her, Moiraine could feel something unexpected, something she could not quite put into words, she closed her eyes to feel it more acutely and dived deeper into the calm needed to embrace the True Source.
She stopped feeling the ecstasy of the Saidar through her, her bond with Lan muted, and finally even Siuan, other half of her soul felt incredibly distant, then she finally felt the feeling she chased into this deep dark loneliness, it thrummed through her, a sound that she tasted, a light that she felt, and a word that was both question and answer, and a note thrummed with her entire being as string.
Moiraine gasped and came to herself from out of wherever her mind, or is it her soul?, went, to hear the final note of the Ogier's wordless song and see a sapling of a height with her in the place of the stump. Moiraine fell to her knees, entirely exhausted, with an ache deep within her, that only came when she neared the cliff of Burning herself Out by overdrawing One Power. The sun was well past its noon peak, they had started when it was below her eyes and now she felt it on her back.
Lan was at her side before her knees fully touched the soil, she pulled herself back on her feet by support of his storng arm and looked to the Ogier, they are still on their knees, heaving out their breathes like bellows, clearly beyond exhausted, their wan faces somehow worn, as though they aged ten years in the span of half a day, Moiraine could feel that they are diminished in some way, that they have given something of themselves to give life back to Avendoraldera. Moiraine sincerely hoped that whatever they gave to the rebirth of Avendoraldera is not a permanent loss, that with time and rest they will recover it.
Moiraine's attention returned to the sapling, its bark a lighter shade of brown, the colour of it still rich, that somehow the brown of its bark is more real than any other brown she had ever seen, it had few branches, but what it had were symmetrical. Almost artistically to appeal to the eye, and the trefoil leaves healthiest shade of green she had ever seen on a tree, even compared to the Great Trees. And most importantly, she once again felt the peace that she once felt, what feels like so long ago now. A deep sense of contentment and well being, that whispered to her soul that something broken in the world is restored, that the world itself is singing in joy to welcome back the Avendoraldera.
Moiraine felt a tear well up in her eye and relaxed her control on her body to let it slide down her cheek, a smile tugged at her lips and she let them widen too.
And Moiraine finally let her attention wander to her surroundings and fully took them in, there are hundreds in the gardens of the Sun Palace, servants, nobles high and low, and even the King of Cairhein, they watched from the gardens, from the awnings and Moiraine could even some young lordlings in more colourful clothing, compared to their elders, on the roof of the Sun Palace. Moiraine saw many smiles and teary eyes among the audience.
Someone started cheering and it spread, it was a cacophony of sounds, some cheered her name, some cheered Aes Sedai as a whole, some took up the Damodred name and many cheered the King, as though it was the King who asked Moiraine to revive the Avendoraldera.
Moiraine locked gazes with the King and he gave a slight nod, exhausted though she was, Moiraine wove a small weave to enhance her voice and spoke, "Sons and daughters of Cairhein, I present to you, the revived Avendoraldera, grown from the cutting of the legendary Tree of Life originally, revived after Laman's folly. It might have come to us as a gift, but after all these centuries, it belongs to us and I do not just mean Cairheinin, it is the legacy of Age of Legends, it is both living history and hope of the return of better days, it is heritage of all of Humanity and Ogier. King Laman Damodred proved himself a poor guardian of such responsibility, but I have higher hopes for King Galldrian Riatin. And I hope every Cairheinin will accept the burden of responsibility for caring for the Avendoraldera, and to do better than we have before."
The cheers renewed, and Moiraine quietly asked whether the Ogier needed something. They answered that they will find their own accommodations but would like to rest beneath the revived Avendoraldera for some time more. Moiraine conveyed her gratitude for their help, and with Lan at her side strode towards the King.
As she neared Galldrian ordered his guards to give him space and Moiraine asked Lan to parallel the King's guards.
The King and Moiraine walked in silence for a few minutes, on a path away from the people flocking towards the gardens as the word spread, and Galldrian spoke quietly but pleasantly, "That was", the King paused for emphasis, and continued, "Remarkable. While I am pleased with this turn of events, I would ask why this was not done sooner."
Moiraine reading the subtext answered honestly, "This was not done at the behest of the White Tower. Very few of my sisters have any care for the fate of the Avendoraldera. This is personal. I have fond memories of the Avendoraldera from my childhood. I have always considered Laman a fool for what he did, even if the Aiel had not invaded, I would have still considered him a fool. I was not speaking hollow words, Your Majesty, when I said that the Avendoraldera is heritage of all Humanity and Ogier. You do realize that there is no practical difference between the Legendary Tree of Life, Avendesora and Avendoraldera. They are of same species. I do sincerely hope you will prove yourself a better protector of it than Laman the Fool, Your Majesty."
Galldrian turned to Moiraine and held her gaze and said with complete sincerity, "I will."
And Moiraine understood, Galldrian wanted legacy, more than anything else, Galldrian wanted to be remembered as the greatest King of Cairhein. Moiraine gave a smile and a nod acknowledging his promise, but spoke no more.
Once again, it was Galldrian who broke the silence, and said, "There will be a feast tonight and for every night for next three days, I would have you sit beside me, as my guest of honour, Moiraine Sedai."
Moiraine let her eyes widen as though surprised and added a bit more warmth to her smile as though fond and gave a curtsy, "Your Majesty, you honour me. But I must regretfully decline, Lan and I are leaving Cairhein tonight, we have been away from the Borderlands and the Blight for far too long already. And these celebrations should be about Cairhein and her King, not Aes Sedai. Please accept my sincere apologies."
Galldrian looked uncertain for a moment, clearly unable to decide between feeling pleased or rejected, before he could decide Moiraine spoke, "The Ogier Treesingers Havar and Vilar, without their help, it would have been impossible to revive Avendoraldera, and while I have channeled and wove Saidar, I sense they gave something more vital, their very essence, perhaps, to revitalize the Avendoraldera. They deserve more honour and recognition than me, I feel. And I sincerely hope, Your Majesty will continue to consult them about the care of Avendoraldera, going forward."
Galldrian looked deep in thought for a few moments and said, "If you must go, then you must go. I wish you well in your travels, Moiraine Sedai, and I will take your words to heart about the Ogier."
Moiraine gave Galldrian another curtsy and signalled Lan to rejoin her and walked towards her rooms in the guest wing, leaving the King behind.
Within the hour Lan and Moiraine are out of the city of Cairhein.