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Chapter Text

The sun was already high in the sky when The Chaser finally docked at the harbour after being at sea since first light. The Chaser had a grand name for its size. It was a small fishing dinghy with enough space for three occupants and their daily catch. Siuan jumped the gap towards the dock, not waiting for her father to finish tying the cleat hitch and stood.

The worn wood creaked beneath her bare feet as Siuan looked around. Most of the other fishing boats had already docked, their crews gone. She felt disheartened, by the time they arrived at the market the customers would be few and the best sales long gone.

“Come on, Talia, we haven’t got all day. We are late as it is.” Siuan grumbled, looking up at the
sky with a slight frown.

Talia, her older sister, rolled her eyes and rose from her perch on the bow, turning toward the stern and picking up the worn, stained sack that contained their catch. “Calm down, Siuan. We still have plenty of time,” she said, throwing it into Siuan’s waiting arms.

“Mama will want us to help prepare the fish for the market and I want to see the procession from Cairhien.” Siuan looked up at the sun again and bit her lower lip. “It is almost seven. The king is coming this afternoon and they said that the whole court is too!”

“Well,” Berden intervened to stop an argument between his eldest daughters before it even started, “It is not like we caught a lot of fish today.” He scratched the back of his head, “I am sure you will have time to do both, Siuan.” Gently taking the sack from Siuan’s hands and hauling it across his back, he started towards the cacophony of sounds that indicated that the main road of the Maule, Tear’s port district, was just around the corner.

Siuan and Talia followed, bouncing along barefoot in the mud and moving expertly out of the way of the passer-bys. The road was abuzz with activity. Vendors shouting over each other to sell their products, maids running in and out of inns going about their work, drunk men pestering young women and talking amongst themselves, hardened urchins prowling. A standard week-day morning. Out of the corner of her eye, Siuan noticed a brawl starting in front of one of the inns, two men tussling and shouting about something or other but paid no mind.

They weaved through the crowd coming up to the emptier roads on the outskirts of the southern Maule until they reached a line of small wooden shacks squished together and precariously balanced on stilts over the Erinin. A curly-haired head peaked from one of the windows and pointed excitedly at them before turning around and disappearing inside. A few moments later the door to one of the houses opened with a thud giving way to Nina, the third and youngest of the Sanche sisters.

“You are back! Mama said we could go watch the procession in the Inner City if we finish early.” Nina chattered with a twinkle in her eyes. “Let’s go, you two, quickly!” She dragged Siuan and Talia by the arm towards the door. “Uncle Huan even said he will buy us fudge from mister Perez’s stall if we get everything done in time.”

Siuan and Talia both perked at the mention of fudge, a rare treat in the Sanche household, and scampered along towards the kitchen after cleaning their muddy feet as best as they could, with their father following closely behind. On a pillow on the floor, aunt Nuria sat mending the cuff of an embroidered coat with baby Guillem clutching and tugging her skirts. Aunt Nuria - sister to Siuan’s mother - was a kind and warm woman, even if she did have a bit of a temper.

Nuria, her wife Sara and their adopted son Guillem all lived in the hut alongside Siuan’s nuclear family and her uncle Huan. It was admittedly a bit cramped, and Siuan, her sisters, mother and father slept in one room. Nuria, her wife and their baby in the other, while uncle Huan slept in a hammock in the kitchen.

“Good catch?” Nuria asked the trio, looking up from her work with a smile that quickly melted away on seeing the tired look on Berden’s face. He shook his head.

“There is very little fish in the delta these days.” He sighed and added with a grimace “I think we might need to go further into the Sea of Storms soon.”

“Not to worry, Berden, things are not that desperate yet. Sara and I got a good amount of work with the lords and ladies from the Inner City with all these Cairhienin coming over.” She looked back down to her stitching. “We won’t be going hungry again these next couple of months at least, the Light willing. We even might have a little left over to pay some of Huan’s debt with that deranged moneylender.”

Siuan, Talia and Nina all smiled at each other. It seemed like things were starting to turn around for the family. The past few months had been tough on everyone. It had been a difficult winter, with very little catch to be found and not a lot of sewing work around either. The money coming in was but a trickle and Siuan’s heart still tightened when she remembered seeing her baby sister and cousin cry from hunger. She knew the face of hunger very intimately and she was proud of having endured it and of carrying on living despite it.

“Talking about Cairhienin” Siuan changed the subject. “Let’s get these fish ready for market, Papa.”

And so the dreary daily task of gutting, cleaning and filleting fish started right there in their kitchen with the girls arranging themselves into an assembly line for maximum efficiency and Berden coordinating their efforts while Eva, their mother, and Huan were setting up the stall in the market by the big square.

“Done.” Siuan declared, while putting the last tilapia away. She sniffed her hands and frowned. They absolutely stank of fish guts. “I need a scrub before leaving though…”

“I need to drop the fresh catch off with Mama before heading to the Inner City, so I’ll go now with Nina and you can meet us there.” Talia said, drying her hands with a tea towel and handing it to Nina who picked it up and started drying her hands as well, wincing a little when it rubbed the fresh cuts in her fingers she got from filleting some of the fish. She was 10 years old and still learning the trade. Siuan and Talia were much more practised and hardly ever cut themselves anymore.

“Fine, I’ll meet you by the gate.” Siuan started shrugging off her clothes without a care and heading outside to scrub herself clean and apply some sweet smelling rose oil by the river.

After washing herself thoroughly, making sure the smell of fish had completely left her, Siuan put on her best set of clothes - which is to say the set she didn’t use out at sea - and ran quickly out of the door hoping that the Cairhienin wouldn’t have arrived yet.

Growing up in the Maule, she was familiar with all the best shortcuts and the secret passages that cut between the docks and sagging buildings. She moved through them with as much practice as she hauled in the casting nets, her bare feet sinking into the mud. Every now and then, a familiar voice called her name and she answered with a quick wave. These were folk who’d known her family forever - dockhands, tavern maids, fishwives - people who’d known her and her sisters since they were newborn babes.

Before long, the gates of the Inner City rose ahead, their silhouette sharp against the clear skies. Siuan slowed, catching her breath, the hum of the crowd reaching her ears.

It looked like the whole of the population of Tear had decided to gather there - people from all walks of life seemed to be awaiting the procession eagerly. Highborn and peasants alike. The crowd was as tightly packed as if everyone were squished together in a tin of sardines and the buzz of excitement as people gossiped, pointed and giggled was palpable.

Of course my sisters are nowhere to be found, Siuan thought to herself feeling quite annoyed at them, if they were actually waiting for me by the gate, that would have been a bloody miracle.

The king’s procession was just passing through the gate now, if the trumpets and rolling drums were anything to go by. Since Siuan was not above elbowing her way through a crowd, she did just that.

Ignoring the scowls folk were sending her way, she squeezed past people, edging forward with no small effort until she reached the front where the worn pavement met the road. She stood there, wide-eyed at the opulent sight.

Four bannermen walked along the road in a square formation, marching in time with the steady pulse of the drums coming up just behind them, richly embroidered banners rippling in the breeze. They were soon followed by what looked to be some sort of band of knights, maybe the king’s guard, wearing luxurious, gleaming armour and trotting along on top of well-cared for horses.

Siuan’s uneasy fascination with the obscene display of wealth faltered as the horses drew near. They loomed over her, easily twice her height, and were most definitely looking at her with shifty eyes. She instinctively stepped back, glancing away, as if ignoring them would make her less of a target.

When the last of the horses passed and she dared to look up again, a soft gasp escaped her. A procession of litters followed, each one borne on the shoulders of four men, swaying gently as they also moved to the rhythm of the drums down the road.

Craning her neck to get a better view, she couldn’t tell if any of them were dressed better than the other. Their outfits were all fit for a palace, even if a little too severe. They were all wearing stern, dark clothing with dark lace adorning their collars and cuffs. There were slashes of colour cutting across their chest and bodies.

“Are any of those the king?” Siuan asked one of the women that stood next to her.

“No,” she replied in a conspiratorial way “I’ve heard people saying it is the king’s family. The king himself apparently is in that palanquin.” She pointed towards the ornate palanquin right on the back of the line. It was closed. Siuan’s shoulders dropped in disappointment. The person she really wanted to see was the king. Soon after, however, her attention was caught by a small figure looking every bit as regal as the others, if not more.

A girl about her age rode in one of the litters trailing after another that carried a young man. The girl was very pretty, Siuan thought, as pretty as anything. She was very pale and dark hair framed her face in soft waves. Arched eyebrows and high cheekbones gave her an austere look. Siuan’s eyes catalogued every inch of the girl’s appearance, from the elegant pendant that adorned her forehead to the way she picked at her lacquered nails as if uncomfortable. Casting her eyes back towards the girl’s face, Siuan felt as if lightning had struck her, as the girl’s eyes bored into hers with a curious and appraising manner to them.

“Who was that?” Siuan asked the woman beside her as the girl disappeared from view. “Do you know?”

“I think that was Lady Moiraine. Lady Moiraine Damodred.”

Chapter Text

Siuan dragged herself through the door with heavy limbs and a headache after spending the morning working the fishing boat and the rest of the afternoon helping her father do some standard maintenance, removing barnacles of the hull by soaking it in vinegar, scraping them off with a knife, and then using sandpaper to remove the rest. Barnacles should be removed often since they cause a lot of damage over time, causing the wood to rot away from the inside. It was very hard work that left her arms burning, and under the hot sun with no food in the stomach to give her energy it became even more taxing. She felt dangerously faint a couple of times, holding down onto the boat to keep herself from falling on her face and breaking her nose. Something which had been known to happen on fishing boats.

The cherry on the cake of an already difficult day was when mister Perez from the sweets stall came running, splattering mud all over them and shouting for Berden to come quickly that Jehan had gotten himself into trouble with the defenders of the stone and was being carried to the head quarters for trial. Her Papa dropped all his tools on the deck and bolted after him, leaving Siuan to finish the work by herself.

“Evening, auntie” Siuan greeted her aunt Sara who balanced the baby close to her waist with one arm and tried to fold some fancy clothes with the other.

“Evening, darling” She replied flicking her eyes towards Siuan then back to the clothes “Your mum left some bread and cheese for you. Where is your dad?”

“He went to try to save uncle Jehan’s neck from the gallows” Siuan scowled “Again.” She plopped herself down in one of the cushions on the floor. “Uncle Jehan is as crooked as a barrel of fish hooks, Papa might get in trouble.”

Aunt Sara’s eyes widened and she shook her head slowly as if trying to dispel an evil thought. She abandoned her pile of clothes and lowered herself down to Siuan’s level, putting Guillem softly on the ground. Gently, Sara rubbed Siuan’s arms up and down in a soothing motion.

“It will be as the wheel wills, Siuan, no point in getting yourself worked up, you know that. Remember, you can’t control where the wind blows but you can control the angle where it hits your sail. He is your father’s brother in the end of the day, he has got to try.” Sara said comfortingly. “Would you like some tea? You need to get something in your belly, I know you haven’t eaten since dawn.”

Siuan sighed and nodded, looking at her hands. She was right, there was no point in worrying about it. She just wished her father wouldn’t get mixed up with the likes of her uncle. The defenders of the stone were a nasty bunch and getting associated with a rough crowd in their eyes spelled bad news for anyone. They were known to be truculent and corrupt, always siding with the wealthy and making any excuse to send people to the gallows if they stepped an inch out of line. Especially citizens of the Maule. Siuan knew of a girl who accidentally channelled by the docks and disappeared without a trace. The official story was that she ran away with a travelling circus that same day. People in the streets said the defenders took her in the night and beat her to death.

Guillem babbled something incoherent and reached for Siuan’s hair, interrupting her thoughts.

“Hello Gilly Billy” Siuan cooed, picking her cousin up and setting him down on her lap. “You will be a good boy, won’t you?” Guillem blinked and turned his head as if listening intently. “You will listen to me? Yeah, you will!” Siuan softly bit one of his toes which made him squeal in delight.

“Here.” Aunt Sara set a plate of bread, cheese, dried cod and some pieces of papaya down on the floor next to Siuan alongside a nice cold cup of herbal tea and then motioned for Siuan to hand her the baby. “After you are done, could you take those clothes to High Lord Gueyam’s manor? You can drop it off with any of the maids. I need to go pick up some more buttons on the other side of the city.”

Siuan grimaced. She still felt random stabs of pain behind her eyes and her limbs complained.

“Sure, auntie.” She replied dutifully.

Trying to ask for directions to anyone rich enough to live or work inside the walls was always a pain in the arse. They would take one look at her worn clothes and dirty bare feet and turn away with their noses up in the air. Siuan’s blood boiled but she kept her temper in check, gritting her teeth and feigning meekness in the way her mother had taught her when dealing with Inner City people.

Eventually, she managed to extract enough information from people to make her way to this High Lord’s manor. It was a grand stone house, with beautiful adorned columns and even more beautiful land around it. Carefully adjusting the bundle of clothes wrapped in tissue paper in her arms, Siuan went around the back looking for the servant’s entrance. It wasn’t the first time she had visited a High Lord’s estate but it was the first time she visited this particular one, her eyes recording everything in memory. What a dream to have a garden with space for so many fruit trees like these.

Finally, Siuan found the servant’s entrance. One of the stable boys that sat in a corner looked her up and down but didn’t say anything.

“I need to drop these off with one of the maids.” Siuan extended her arms to indicated the bundle she carried. “Can you go get one of them for me?”

The boy nodded and disappeared inside.

A few minutes later, a plump, middle-aged woman emerged from the same door the boy had went into. She also looked her up and down with a slight twist of her lips and Siuan mentally rolled her eyes. Bloody Inner City hagfish, living off from their lord’s leftovers and fancying themselves high and mighty because of it.

“Yes?” The woman asked Siuan in a tone that brooked no nonsense.

“I came to deliver this.” Siuan handed in the clothes. “From mistress Lopar.”

A spark of recognition seemed to flash in the woman’s eyes. “Oh yes, of course.” She picked up the bundle. “Wait here, girl.” And turned swiftly back to where she came from.

Siuan nodded and motioned to sit down but the woman returned in a flash, quick as a pike.

“There you go, girl” The plump woman extended her hand towards Siuan, motioning for her to take something. “This is for mistress Lopar.” She put a silver penny on Siuan’s palm. “And this is for you.” She added on a copper penny.

Siuan’s eyes widened in surprise. “For me?”

The woman smiled. “You need some meat in your bones.” She nodded towards the road. “Go get yourself something nice to eat, there is a nice baker across the bridge.”

Siuan flashed a most winning smile, carefully deposited the coins in a pouch hanging from her waist, and started towards the bakery, not quite leaving the property grounds before turning back to wave goodbye. The woman waved back. Smiling to herself, she felt the contempt for everything and everyone inside the Inner City walls diminish a little. But only a little. One could never be be too careful. That lesson Siuan had learned very early in life.

Feeling as contented as a turtle in the sun, Siuan left the bakery with two whole sweetcakes wrapped in a linen cloth, tied with a piece of string and a half eaten mutton pastry in her hands. Her headache was mostly gone and her tired muscles didn’t bother her as much. Strolling through the cobbled streets in the moonlight with a bellyful of delicious buttery pastry, life didn’t seem so bad anymore.

She would bring the treats to her family and they would all sit on cushions on the floor around the rug in the kitchen, share the sweetcakes among themselves, have some hot tea and laugh about the days events. Auntie Sara was right, there was no point in crying about the wind. Good sailors adjusted the rudder and carried on sailing. Maybe Uncle Jehan would stop getting himself into trouble and would finally find a decent job that didn’t involve any illegal activity, maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe Papa would realise his brother was too far gone, maybe he wouldn’t.

A muffled cry coming from a dark alley to her left brought Siuan out of her head and into the present. She quietened her steps as she approached the wall closest to the alley and peered inside. Two men struggled to hold down a girl. The man closest to Siuan had the girl in an armlock with one hand and had another over her mouth, the other held down her legs as she tried to kicked them uselessly.

Siuan’s mind immediately went back to the past year when she got hauled into an alley by four hard-eyed louts full of cheap wine in their bellies. She felt her stomach turn into ice and every nerve in her body told her to run as fast as her legs could take her.

Licking her lips, she made a decision. She put down her sweetcakes on the floor, swallowed her nerves, said a silent prayer to whatever deity had kept her alive up to now, grabbed her bait knife and pounced onto the closest attacker.

Her bait knife lodged itself into the man’s neck. Blood splattered everywhere, the rusty smell clinging to Siuan’s nostrils and making her gag. She ripped the bait knife from his neck and he fell down to the floor making a gurgling noise. The girl now had free arms and started hitting the second attacker who still held her legs. He threw an uppercut right to her chin and she fell down with the impact. He spit on the floor, cold eyes set on Siuan.

“Girl, you are going to regret that” He said with disdain dripping from his voice.

The man drew near slowly, pulling out his own larger knife from his belt. Siuan’s blood was pumping in her ears, her heart beating so hard it felt like it was trying to jump out of her chest. Light-blinded fool! Siuan thought. Getting into other people’s messy affairs! She took a deep breath to calm herself down. There had to be a way out of this. There was always a way out. This was not the first hard corner she had been in.

From behind the sneering man, Siuan saw that the girl was getting up on her feet. Suddenly, there was a halo of light around her and a blast of pressured air hit Siuan like a ton of bricks. Her head felt like it was stuffed with cotton. Her ears were ringing and there were flecks of colour in her eyes.

The girl had ran up to Siuan and was pulling her by the hand to help her to get back on her feet. “Come on!” She urged “Get up!” Siuan thought she had a voice like silver bells.

“WITCH!” The man shouted from the floor. “A TAR VALON WITCH!”

Chapter Text

Siuan held on to the girl’s hand like a lifeline as they scrambled to get away. She couldn’t tell if people were shouting or her ears were ringing or both. Her entire body hurt and she felt a bit nauseous. The streets were a blur of torchlight reflecting on white stone as they dashed through them. What were they doing? Her thoughts were as slow as molasses. Were those the defenders of the stone on their tail?

Bloody fish guts! She used the One Power! They will hang us like a pair of netted sharks!

Startled back into thinking straight, Siuan scanned her surroundings. The ringing in her ears didn’t allow her to locate where the shouts were coming from. Light, she didn’t even know where they were right now. At every turn they took, it seemed like they were back where they started. Everything looked exactly the same. Big stone houses with pretty gardens everywhere. They needed to leave the Inner City, it would be too easy for the defenders to find them there. They knew the city inside the walls much better than she did.

Glancing at the sky, Siuan located the eastern point of the southern cross and knew they needed to go in that direction to reach the Erinin. Pulling on the girls arm, she indicated the row of stone houses and not waiting for any acknowledgment she ducked under the hedges dragging the girl with her.

They both heaved for breath with the effort of running and Siuan could feel the other girl’s trembling through their linked hands. She noticed her own hands were shaking as well. Huddling together to make themselves smaller still, they peered out from under the hedge. A group of defenders ran past them carrying spears and shouting commands at each other. Siuan felt her pulse quicken from sheer terror. They were so dead.

She didn’t know what kind of trouble the girl was in or how serious the matter was, but Siuan herself couldn’t afford getting caught by the defenders. Not when her uncle was already in dire straits with them and her family could be implicated as well.

“Look” Siuan whispered “We need to leave the walls, they will be able to find us here.” Taking the girl’s silence as agreement, Siuan continued “We should wait a bit though, just until the coast is clear.”

“Ok.”

After what it felt like hours of waiting in tense silence, the commotion outside seemed to have died down. Poking her head through the leaves, Siuan checked for guards. There didn’t seem to be any around. Feeling satisfied that they were relatively safe, she crawled out from under the hedge and extended her hand to help the girl do the same.

The combined light of the moon and the torches lining the street weren’t enough to allow Siuan to make out the girl’s features from under her hood. The girl stared at her for a while then reached inside her cloak and produced a handkerchief.

“You are bleeding.” She offered it to Siuan.

“This is not my blood.” Looking down at her shirt, she grimaced. It was her nice shirt as well! Fish guts. She could already hear her mother ranting about how careless she was with her hard-earned belongings. Maybe soaking it in cold water would help get the stains out.

“Not that” The girl reached for Siuan’s face and wiped the side of her jaw. “Your ear is bleeding.”

“Thanks.”

They stood in silence for a few moments.

“Give me your cloak.” Siuan said abruptly.

“What?” The girl pulled the cloak tighter around herself. “No.”

“People will think something is fishy. If someone sees all this blood on me they will report us to the guards.” Siuan motioned towards her chest. “I can’t go around looking like this.”

The girl took in Siuan’s appearance. “Let’s change shirts.” She said simply.

Siuan nodded and didn’t let any of her suspicion show on her expression. This girl was definitely involved in something dodgy. Whatever floats her boat, she thought, Not like it matters one way or the other anymore, I am already neck deep in these murky waters as well.

Siuan started discarding her shirt right there in the middle of the street. The girl gasped and turned away stiffly. However, she shrugged off her cloak and took her shirt off as promised, handing it over her shoulder. Siuan snickered when she saw a faint blush cover the girl’s pale neck.

“We just killed or at least severely injured two men and you are embarrassed about taking your clothes off?” Siuan mocked good-heartedly, trading in her bloody shirt for the girl’s clean one.

“It is not proper!” The girl hissed while putting on Siuan’s shirt and fastening her cloak around her once again to hide the blood. “We should move.”

“Come on. I know a place where we can hide.” Siuan motioned for her to follow. “What is your name, anyway?”

“Alys.”

“Nice to meet you. I am Siuan.”

Peering from behind a tree, Siuan could tell that there were a few guards by the gate. This could be tricky. They most likely were informed of their stunt with the One Power in the alley and they probably were specifically looking for two girls. Siuan’s brain was working double time trying to figure out a way past the guards when Alys put a hand on her shoulder and indicated that Siuan should follow her.

“Play along and try to look upset.” Alys whispered and glided straight towards the guards with her head held high, suddenly appearing very queenly.

Siuan felt a rush of dread sink in the pit of her stomach. Did the girl have a death wish?! Swallowing her fear, Siuan followed. There was nothing that could be done now that they had been seen.

“Halt!” A skinny looking guard shouted towards the two of them, lowering his spear to block their passage “What are you doing leaving the walls at this time of the night?”

Alys took off her hood and fixed the guard with a piercing gaze.

Is that…?

“My maid’s mother is on her deathbed and she requested my aid in buying herbs that will make her passing more tolerable.” She replied in an assertive tone, motioning towards Siuan who tried to look as upset as she could — which wasn’t very hard given she was so scared she wanted to throw up. The guard took one look at face and nodded, believing whatever emotion he read on it. “The herbs can only be found on a specific wise woman’s shop outside the city.”

The guard lifted his spear. “I’m sorry to bother, my lady.”

Alys nodded sagely, as if he most definitely should be sorry for bothering her.

She dug in her belt pouch for something and offered the guard a gold crown. “For your troubles.” She dropped it in his extended hands. Siuan tried not to show surprise. A gold crown! Siuan had never even seen one in her whole life!

“Thank you, my lady.” He bowed his head respectfully.

“You are the Lady Moiraine.” Siuan blurted out when they were far enough from the gate that the guard wouldn’t hear them. “Aren’t you?”

Looking behind her shoulder to make sure no one had heard, Moiraine snapped “Don’t even whisper that name!”

Siuan had so many questions floating in her head that she didn’t even know which one to ask first. Why was a lady being attacked in an alleyway? What kind of trouble was she in? Could she use the One Power as well? Why hadn’t she gone to the defenders for help if she was a lady? They surely would have helped her. Siuan was about to open her mouth to voice some of these thoughts when she was cut off by Moiraine.

“I will explain later. Let’s get to that hiding place you mentioned.”

The hiding place, naturally, was Siuan’s home. It had seemed like a great idea back when Siuan didn’t know Moiraine was a lady. Now Siuan was rethinking it, feeling ashamed for feeling embarrassed of her home.

Moiraine’s face, however, was perfectly blank, looking at the row of poorly constructed huts. Siuan knew she must be thinking, though, how terrible and ugly a place it was. Moiraine came with the king! She must live in a house like High Lord Gueyam’s one. A spike of defensiveness bubbled up in her chest but she smothered it down by sheer willpower. No point in arguing. Setting her jaw stubbornly, she started towards the hut.

As soon as they crossed the door, Siuan blanched. Her two aunties, mother, and sisters were sitting around the rug and immediately got up at the sight of her, firing questions over each other.

“What took you so long, Siuan?” Auntie Sara frowned. “I only —”

“Where were you?” Talia and Nina asked at the same time.

“— sent you to run a quick errand!”

“What time do you call this, young lady?” Her mother said with an edge to voice. A tone Siuan knew spelled trouble.

Siuan opened her mouth to reply but a voice came from behind her. “I am sorry. It is my fault Siuan is late.” Moiraine said shyly, shrugging off her cloak.

Only then people seemed to notice Moiraine. Siuan’s mother looked her up and down, eyes widening when she took in her bloodied shirt.

“What happened, sweetheart?” Eva moved forwards and gently held Moiraine in place by her arms, scanning her for injuries. Glancing at her eldest daughter she said “Go prepare her a cup of tea, Talia.”

Moiraine looked comically out of place. Like a fish out of water. “I am not hurt. Siuan is.” She replied laconically.

“Alys was being attacked and I helped her.” Siuan intervened, remembering how Moiraine had snapped at her like a pistol shrimp for using her real name, before her mother could give Moiraine the third degree. “Is it OK if she stays over?”

“Of course it is.” Eva was already moving towards her daughter. “She can sleep in the room with you. The girls and I will sleep with Nuria and Sara. Where are you hurt, Siuan?”

“My ear feels funny.”

“Your ear?” Nina laughed. “What a strange place to get hurt in.”

“Shush, you weren’t there.” Siuan scowled at Nina who tried and failed to hide her snickers behind her hand. “Is papa back yet?”

“Not yet, but mister Perez gave word that he will stay with Jehan and Rico for the night.” Eva softened at seeing the look in Siuan’s face. “They are all fine, darling. Do not worry.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Siuan could see Talia offering Moiraine a cup of tea. Moiraine took it with a slight bow of her head, murmuring thanks.

“Now, will you tell me what exactly happened?”

After reassuring her family over and over that they were alright and did not needed to be fussed over as well as extracting a promise from her mother that she did not, in fact, need to go on the boat tomorrow in light of her recent brush with death, Siuan showed Moiraine to her room.

“Sorry, you are probably used to fancy beds.” Siuan felt her face grow hot. “We only have sleeping mats.” She handed Moiraine a blanket. “In case you get cold.” Her face grew even hotter.

“This is more than enough.” Moiraine had a soft look in her eyes, holding the blanket. “Thank you.” She added. “For helping me.”

Siuan nodded and they fell silent for a beat.

“You know, I remember seeing you at the procession when we arrived in Tear.” Moiraine said quietly.

“I remember seeing you too. How do you remember me? I was — ”

“I could feel the One Power in you. You are very strong.” Moiraine interrupted her, fluffing her pillow before lying down on one of the mats.

Siuan settled on the mat next to Moiraine, covering herself with a blanket. “You won’t tell anyone, will you?” She asked, feeling uncertain.

“No.” Moiraine said looking right into Siuan’s eyes. For the first time since their odd encounter at the procession, Siuan noticed how blue they were. Like the Erinin at low tide.

“Thanks.” Siuan breathed out in relief. “I can’t leave my family. They need me. I would have to leave for the White Tower or get hanged. But they need me.”

“They are lovely.” Moiraine was staring dreamily at the ceiling. “They are very warm and… authentic.”

Siuan didn’t know how to respond to that.

“Why were those people after you?” Siuan asked after a moment.

“Daes Dae’mar, most likely. I haven’t figured out all the pieces of the puzzle yet.” She yawned. “I think that was meant to force Father’s hand somehow.”

“Daes dae what?”

Chapter Text

Seeing that Siuan had formal leave from her mother to wake up after first light, she tried to indulge in a little lie in. Her body, however, was so used to waking up with the chickens that she found herself unable to go back to sleep no matter how hard she tried. Siuan mentally rolled her eyes. She hardly ever got any days off the boat and when she did get one, her body would not allow her this small pleasure. Typical. With an annoyed huff, Siuan rolled on to her right. Moiraine was sleeping soundly on the mat next to her, snoring ever so softly.

Siuan had found, with some surprise, that she really enjoyed observing Moiraine. Not because she was beautiful and easy to look at as aunt Nuria seemed to have decided yesterday evening when they were having tea together. But because she was a somewhat new specimen. Siuan had never spoken with a highborn person before and she most definitely had never met anyone that could also touch the One Power. She seemed awfully normal, if Siuan could say so, even if a little guarded and serious. And extravagant with money. Besides, if she was easy to look at — Siuan was neither confirming nor denying this theory — that was just a bonus. Smiling to herself, she got up and tiptoed towards the door, being as quiet as a mouse as not to wake Moiraine up.

Once Siuan got to the kitchen, her aunts were already up. Aunt Nuria was preparing fruit for breakfast while Guillem played with a few wooden toys in the rug with aunt Sara.

“Morning” Siuan greeted. “Did everyone leave already?”

“They just left.” Aunt Nuria put down the banana she was currently slicing and turned towards Siuan. “How’s Alys?”

Siuan felt her eyes narrow at her aunt’s sly smile. “She is still asleep.” Picking up a sugar apple and a plate from the counter she sat down next to aunt Sara and Guillem, cross-legged and balancing the plate on her lap. Guillem reached unsteadily for Siuan’s plate but Sara grabbed him before he could do any damage.

“Our very own knight in shining armour, right there.” Sara laughed while bouncing an unhappy, frustrated Guillem up and down on her knees. “It runs in the family. Remember how we met, my heart?” Sara gazed lovingly at her wife.

“Yes.” Nuria snickered. “You were working in that old fruit stall your parents used to own and some older kids started grabbing the watermelons and breaking them by throwing them on the floor because they thought it was funny.” Suddenly, Nuria looked very pleased with herself “I saw you crying and telling them so stop, so I started throwing watermelon pieces at them and shouting that I was going to call the defenders. So many people started to gather around the stall that they ran away.”

Siuan groaned. “I’ve heard this story a billion times already.” She popped the sugar apple seed in her mouth and sucked the flesh out of it. “And then auntie Sara asked your name and you became friends until years later you finally got the courage to kiss her.” She made a dismissive gesture. “All very romantic, like in the stories. We know.”

Nuria chuckled, setting a tea towel across her shoulder and swaggering towards Sara. “It seems like we are getting old… telling the same stories over and over again.” She gave her wife a peck on the lips.

“Good morning.” A small voice came from the door. Siuan turned around to see Moiraine standing there, looking a tad puzzled, hands clasped together and hanging over her front.

“Good morning, Alys.” Aunt Sara greeted, getting up from her cushion, with a fussy Guillem at her waist. “Would you like porridge for breakfast? I can put some honey, cinnamon and bananas in it if you like? It is the girls’ favourite.”

Moiraine’s face was blank but her knuckles were white with how hard she was pressing her hands together. Her eyes darted from Sara to the humble kitchen and back to Sara in hesitation. Siuan caught her eye and nodded encouragingly.

“Yes, please.” Moiraine said primly.

Auntie Sara beamed at that and unceremoniously shoved the baby into Moiraine’s unprepared arms.

Siuan tried really, really hard not to burst out laughing then and there. She thought Moiraine would not appreciate it, given how uptight the girl was. However, the sight of Moiraine holding sweet baby Gilly like he was a poisonous water snake ready to strike at her was unbelievably funny.

Guillem tilted his head in curiosity, staring into Moiraine’s eyes. She stared back just as curiously, with very round eyes and some apprehension. The apprehension wasn’t entirely unfounded given that a few moments later, Guillem reached for her hair and pulled with all his strength. Moiraine yelped and looked at Siuan helplessly when he wouldn’t let her hair go.

Siuan could no longer hold her laughter in after that.

Breakfast was less eventful than it could have been. Auntie Sara and Auntie Nuria were shamelessly flirting with one another making Siuan gag and Moiraine blush until she was as red as a snapper. They were clearly enjoying themselves by torturing them with disgusting mental images. Looking on the bright side, they were not asking Moiraine any difficult questions, choosing to embarrass them to death instead which, considering their peculiar situation, was a good thing.

Siuan got tasked with sweeping the floor when both of her aunts announced that they had errands to run and went out to the river to wash the dishes and wash themselves before leaving the house. Guillem had already had a scrub so they left him playing with his toys on the rug under Moiraine’s unwilling but watchful eyes.

“I didn’t realise you could get married to someone just because you loved them.” Moiraine broke the silence.

Siuan frowned at that.

“What?” She asked in bewilderment. “Why else would you get married for?”

“Power.” Moiraine looked down at Gilly who was shaking a wooden boat in front of her, demanding attention. She picked it up and, not really knowing what else to do, started shaking it back at him. Gilly giggled. Moiraine smiled. “Money. Political alliances.”

Siuan whistled. “In the real world, outside the High Lord’s circles, people marry because they want to spend their lives together.”

“That sounds rather nice.”

The warmth of the early morning sun was pleasant and the fisher-birds were chirping joyfully. Looking out of the window, Moiraine asked if Siuan could take her to see the Erinin now that her aunts and Gilly were gone. Of course Siuan could not begrudge her that request, so she took Moiraine on her favourite walk. Past the cluster of huts all the way down to where the line of trees started to get dense again. They walked for a little while more through lush greenery until they reached a clearing that overlooked the Erinin.

It was a secluded spot, with tall trees all around it. Beds of flowers and over grown weeds scattered on the ground gave it a wild, untouched feeling. Only a feeling, because it was clear that people visited it from time to time to look over the river by the patchy state of the grass where footsteps had worn it down.

“This is my favourite place in the whole city.” Siuan admitted.

Moiraine hummed appreciatively and walked a bit closer to the river, admiring the view. “This is much nicer than the Alguenya. Bigger.” She said. “And prettier.”

Siuan swelled with pride, nodding affirmatively. That was the exact reaction she was going for.

“Have you ever been to Cairhien?” Moiraine asked.

Siuan laughed. “No. Never left Tear. The farthest I’ve been is Godan.”

Moiraine gave Siuan a very long, appraising look. “You wouldn’t like it.”

“Why in the Light’s name not?”

“No one ever says what they mean.”

“Is it that Daes Dae’mar thing you mentioned yesterday?” Siuan suddenly felt suspicious. “Are you saying what you mean now?”

Moiraine giggled. “Yes.” She looked away from Siuan. “I can with you.”

Siuan smiled and sat down on the grass, motioning for Moiraine to come join her. Once they were both settled, Siuan felt an urge to explain to Moiraine just how special this place was to her and slowly started telling her all of the stories of her childhood spent by the Erinin that she could think of.

She told her of playing tag with her siblings and older cousins in that very same spot, of arguing with Talia then pushing her off the boat into the Erinin and of being grounded because of it, and of swimming under the moonlight on a summer’s night with her friends.

“It sounds like a dream.” It was all Moiraine had to say.

Siuan lay down on the grass, with one hand supporting her head, and Moiraine followed soon after. They stayed like that for a while, the backs of their hands touching lightly. Enjoying nature’s sounds, observing the trembling of the leaves with the wind, the way sunlight filtered through the branches.

The market by the square was the nicest place in the central Maule. Anything that anyone could possibly want to buy was sold there, and there was always something new to discover. Siuan held Moiraine’s hand as they made their way through the maze of stalls until they arrived at their destination.

“Mama!” Siuan called to her mother, who looked busy sorting out boxes behind the stall.

The Sanche’s fish stall was not as packed full of sea creatures as it normally would have been when fishing was good. But there was a decent selection ranging from filleted tilapia, to sun dried bream and salted cod to oysters and prawns. It smelled though.

Eva looked up. “Hi, girls.” She smiled. “Did you have a good morning?”

Moiraine nodded politely seeming to be taking in everything around her. The market was a sensory explosion. Smells, colours, sounds and people mixed together created a busy and unique atmosphere which probably was unlike anything Moiraine had experienced. She looked to be a little bit overwhelmed. Siuan, who was already desensitised to it, only paid attention to her mother.

“Yes, I took her to the clearing by the river.” Siuan smiled a little bit smugly then added “She liked it. Did uncle Huan leave us any fudge? Nina said he would.”

Eva looked knowingly at Siuan. “Yes, he did.” She ducked under the stall, rummaging through different bags.

Siuan looked at Moiraine. “It is the best fudge you will ever taste in your life!” She said with an air of finality.

Moiraine looked uncertain but didn’t comment.

“Here you go.” Eva held out a small paper bag. “Enjoy. This will be the last piece of fudge you will be having in a while. Mister Perez’s prices have increased.”

Siuan made a face. “Why?!” She was horrified.

Before Eva could answer, a customer appeared inquiring about the oysters and Eva promptly turned her attention to him, shooing Siuan away so she could work in peace.

Siuan grumbled under her breath about rudeness and turned towards Moiraine.

“Come on, I know a place where we can sit.”

They sat on the steps that lead to a grand obelisk in the middle of the square. The obelisk seemed comically out of place in the middle of all the humbly built wooden stalls. It was very old though, they said it was as old as the Breaking.

Munching on her fudge, Siuan’s eyes were closed in pleasure.

“Is it not the best thing you have ever tried?” Siuan asked, glancing at Moiraine who sat near her, with a smile on her face.

Moiraine seemingly reluctant to give her opinion, looked down at her muddy boots. Siuan glared at her.

“You are allowed to say no.” Siuan carried on speaking with a full mouth. “I bet you have delicious fudge in your big High Lady’s house or wherever is it that you live.”

“In the Sun Palace.” Moiraine mumbled.

“What?”

“I live in the Sun Palace.”

Siuan almost dropped the rest of her fudge at that.

“Seriously?!”

“Yes.”

“With the king?!”

“Yes.”

Remembering the way Moiraine just gave away a gold crown like it was nothing, or impersonating a lady with an air of power and command like it was her birth right, or even seeing her looking as regal as anything in all that finery on top of the litter during the procession, Siuan realised she should have seen it coming from a mile away. It was very unsettling.

She was still processing that information when suddenly, Moiraine’s whole body tensed and she got to her feet in a flash. Startled by the movement, Siuan’s eyes followed Moiraine’s and fell on a tall, dark haired woman in a silk, high neck gray dress.

Moiraine’s eyes looked fearful and were fixed on the woman. She stood out among the people like a sore thumb. Siuan had trouble putting an age to her face. She looked young but her eyes were impossibly old.

“I need to go.” Moiraine whispered regretfully, looking at Siuan with pleading eyes. “I am so sorry.” She grabbed Siuan’s hand and squeezed it.

A moment later she was marching towards the stranger, head held high, looking every inch a queen despite the muddy boots. Siuan watched her go, feeling inexplicably hollow.

Chapter Text

Moiraine sat in an uncomfortable chair at a desk in the rooms that were designed to house her for the period of her visit, mulling over the past few days. The walk back towards the High Lord’s manor was a quiet one. Ariene Sedai, her uncle’s Aes Sedai advisor, had an annoyingly knowing look to her face which had made Moiraine’s heart skip a beat. She knew of Siuan. The was no way she didn’t know. Siuan with her refreshing straightforwardness and warmth. Siuan who made Moiraine promise not to tell anyone that she could wield the One Power. Moiraine felt dread twist her stomach into a knot. Ariene would find a way of sending her to the White Tower, Siuan was too powerful a channeller for this not to be the case. She would never forgive Moiraine for being the person who separated her from her family and that was that. Best not to dwell.

Inhaling deeply, she steeled herself with the practise of someone who had done it many times before and tried to push this line of thought out of her mind. There were more important matters than a peasant girl with nothing to her name to worry about. Even if that peasant girl had showed her more care than she had seen in her whole life added together. Light, but she felt like she swallowed a clump of lead.

Shaking her head and breathing in again, Moiraine focused her thoughts. Ariene Sedai mentioned that Dalresin had asked her to go look for Moiraine yesterday afternoon and that he was worried. He knew Ariene would help, seeing as she was very invested in having Moiraine train in the White Tower. The only thing that still kept Moiraine in the Sun Palace was the insistence of her father in having her there for as long as possible.

It sounded as if he knew something was likely to happen to her. Ariene Sedai didn’t give any explanation as to how or why. She could be holding information back or she could not know. More likely that she was holding information back, that woman knew more of what happened at uncle Laman’s court than uncle Laman himself.

There were a few possibilities. Someone wanted Moiraine out of the way. If that was the case, her family was likely not involved in this. They could use her to their hearts content as a pawn in their Daes Dae’mar plots but they would never actually kill her. Hopefully. Moiraine could never really be too sure of that, but her father said she was too useful to be endangered in that way, and she agreed with him. She was a powerful channeller and would become Aes Sedai eventually, this fact alone offered her unique protection from her family’s more gory endeavours.

No, if someone did mean to kill her, it would be a lord from a different House. Galldrian Riatin, maybe? There were rumours he was still furious about Moiraine’s hand being promised in marriage to the son of the High Seat of House Saighan rather than his own daughter. If Moiraine was out of the way, he could easily marry his daughter off to House Saighan and enjoy the benefits the alliance would provide.

It was not like Moiraine wanted to get married. To that snooty, ugly boy of all people. And it is not like she would actually marry him anymore. She would be Aes Sedai. The marriage promise was made when she was just a newborn, way before anyone knew she had the spark. But her uncle was wisely keeping his cards close to his chest.

It was possible that someone had discovered that she could channel and was going to be sent to the Tower. Cairhienin nobility was known to have eyes-and-ears everywhere. If any of the other Houses had discovered that House Damodred had this particular edge to shift the power balance in Cairhien even further in their favour, they would want to nip it in the bud before it was too late.

So someone wanting to dispose of her was a very real possibility.

Another possibility was that nobody wanted to harm her, instead, they wanted to frighten her. Or her father. Frightening her would not accomplish anything of importance that she could see. Yes, this could indeed be something related to her father. She needed more information. With a sigh, she got up from the hard chair and walked towards the bed, throwing herself at it hard enough for the bed to creak loudly. She would need to interact with her siblings. Taringail in particular, he would surely know something. Her mouth tightened in distaste. The absolute vermin. Not tonight though. She would need to speak to him alone. Tonight was time to quietly observe.

Rolling around until she found a comfortable position, lying on her belly with her arm flung over a pillow, she closed her eyes, trying to think but tired of doing so. The solid lump of panic sinking to the bottom of her stomach nagged at her again. She shifted her position so she was curled in on herself, trying to calm her upset stomach. Siuan would never forgive her. Moiraine could already see it playing behind her closed eyelids. They would meet again at the White Tower and Siuan would know it was all Moiraine’s fault that she was there, wearing novice whites, away from her family. Siuan’s dark eyes staring at her, filled with contempt and hate.

A knock at the door brought Moiraine back to the present. She fumbled to grab ahold of her emotions and sat on the bed with her spine straight.

“Yes?” She called.

Camaille, her lady’s maid, opened the door and curtsied respectfully before looking at her “Your highness, it will soon be time for the feast.”

Moiraine nodded as if that hadn’t put her off balance. How long had she been cloistered in the room? Clearly longer than she expected. This could be a good thing though,a voice said in the back of her mind. It will throw off whoever ordered the attack on me, lull them into thinking I am shaken and weakened because of it. They will certainly know of my movements, since they knew I would go for a stroll by myself in the Inner City that day. There is a spy among the Cairhienin delegation, that is certain. I can use that to my advantage if I can only find out who it is.

“Would your highness like me to draw a bath in preparation? There is enough time.” Camaille asked after glancing at Moiraine’s expression. Camaille had attended to her since she was old enough to warrant a lady’s maid herself and knew all of Moiraine’s moods, habits, likes and dislikes. She was a good maid. Moiraine would even go as far as saying she trusted the woman.

“Yes, Camaille, that would be most welcome.”

Moiraine breathed a little easier after the bath, her muscles feeling relaxed from the soak. Now, already dressed in her formal evening gown, she sat primly on a stool as Camaille painted her cheeks so she wouldn’t appear so pale. The whole process of having Camaille dress her and put on her makeup for an evening was very soothing. An old, practised routine.

“Is it to your taste, your highness?” Camaille asked out of propriety, pushing a full length mirror towards Moiraine, fully knowing that it would be exactly to Moiraine’s tastes.

Moiraine got up from the stool to look at her reflection and nodded. She looked good, she thought. The dark green dress had a high neck and long sleeves, as it is proper, with very dark green, almost black, lace adorning the collar and cuffs. House Damodred’s colours slashed her skirts and chest in diagonal lines. The dress went all the way down to her ankles so that only the tips of her embroidered boots were visible. It was a little stuffy in the Tairen heat, but Moiraine would not have it any other way. Her cheeks glowed with a soft red tint, thanks to Camaille’s makeup.

“My kesiera?” Moiraine asked, feeling naked without the weight of the pendant on her forehead.

Camaille nodded, already holding a kesiera in her hands. Moiraine’s favourite one had an intricate gold chain with a sapphire hanging from it, but this one was comprised of a very delicate silver chain that held an emerald at the end, to match her dress.

Very skilfully, Camaille wove the silver chain in and out of Moiraine’s sophisticated hairdo.

“Perfect.” Moiraine declared.

The feast was a loud and pompous affair as expected. The Tairen High Lord that was hosting them, Lord Gueyam, had spared no coin. The great hall was decorated with colourful, fragrant local flowers and illuminated by dozens of lanterns mounted on the walls and scattered across the u-shaped banquet table. There were a few bards softly playing well-known songs and two gleemen juggling five balls at once in time with the beat of the bard’s songs. Every now and then they switched their balls mid-air without dropping them. Most of the tairen High Lords and their spouses were present. All of them sat further away from the host than the guests. None at the head of the table. The privilege was reserved for Laman, Ariene Sedai, Aldecain, Moressin and Darelsin.

Moiraine sat at the table close to the host as it is proper for a guest of her rank, but not as close as her uncles, her father, the Aes Sedai or her older siblings since they all outranked her. She sat in between her sister Anvaere and a Tairen High Lord called Hearne facing Innloine and Tarigail.

Anvaere immediately latched on to Moiraine.

“Sister, I already told you not to wear green. It simply does not suit your complexion.” Without waiting for Moiraine to voice her offence at that particular comment, Anvaere carried on whispering “Have you seen what kind of dresses these Tairen women wear? Vulgar, I say. Their chests out for everyone to see.”

“It is their custom, sister.” Moiraine thought she quite liked the fashion. Not for herself, of course. That would not be proper. But she enjoyed seeing their intricate tattoos on display and trying to guess their meaning from the little she knew of Tairen tattoos. She thought of Siuan’s tattoos, of sneaking a few stolen looks when Siuan wasn’t aware, and felt her face grow hot. None of that now, she thought sternly to herself. You’ve burned that bridge already.

Anvaere nodded as if Moiraine had agreed with her, seeming to take her blushing for prudishness. A servant came with a bowl of hot water and fresh towels and offered it to the two of them.

“Where have you been anyway?” Anvaere picked up one of the towels and dipped it in the hot water. “Father was trying not to look worried but his face was a bit pale.” She started rubbing her hands with the wet towel to clean them.

Moiraine knew this question would come eventually, so she had prepared an answer and this was the perfect time to give it. Cleaning her hands with the hot towel that had been offered, she tried to appear as nonchalant as possible, glancing at her siblings as she gave her excuse, to gauge their reactions. “I sneaked away and visited the library at the Stone of Tear. There I found so many books that sparked my interest that I ended up spending the whole night there, until Ariene Sedai found me.” Innloine didn’t look particularly bothered about this information and Taringail had his usual poker face on but was casually looking at the two of them. Interesting. Taringail hardly ever did anything casually.

Anvaere groaned. “Of course.” She had no interest in books. “Well, while you where away, High Lord Gueyam showed us his best Tairen bloodstock and let us ride them. They are beautiful.” Moiraine felt her heart sink a little in jealousy at that.

Before Moiraine could come up with something to reply to her sister’s attempt at a taunt, servants swarmed the room carrying jugs of what it looked to be alcoholic beverages and Anvaere momentarily lost interest in their conversation. Moiraine motioned to speak with Lord Hearne when a voice spoke from above her.

“Wine, your highness?”

Moiraine turned towards the voice and was greeted with the servant’s low cut dress, after the tairen fashion, and an eerily familiar tattoo design carved across their chest. She raised her eyes towards them and her breath caught in her throat. Siuan. Siuan was staring back at her with worry glistening in her dark eyes.

For a long second, Moiraine’s thoughts raced so quickly through her head that she worried she was losing her grip on reality. What in the Light’s name?! was the loudest of the voices screaming inside her brain.

Outwardly, Moiraine could only nod dumbly. Siuan bowed her head respectfully, poured the wine into Moiraine’s goblet and swiftly moved on to the next guest as gracefully if she did that everyday of her life.

Moiraine buried the spike of fear and the complicated tangle of emotions at seeing Siuan at the feast of all places very deep in her chest, and focused strictly on the food in front of her and the conversation with Anvaere.

The feast carried on seamlessly. After a truly delicious mutton pottage as a starter, the servants brought in the second course which was an array of different types of spiced meat and fish. Moiraine caught herself about to track Siuan’s movements across the hall at least twice, carrying trays and setting plates on the table in front of the guests. Not once looking in Moiraine’s direction.

By the third course — spiced venison and wild boar accompanied by sturgeon cooked in parsley, honey and ginger — the feast had turned rather rowdy. The music was getting louder and the guests were getting drunker. Anvaere and Taringail were having a rather animated debate about hawking, discussing the merits of sewing a hawk’s eye shut for it to be able to hunt better using its ears. Moiraine and Innloine eyed each other, commiserating on having barbaric siblings.

On the fifth course things were definitely out of hand, as they usually were on these things. The men at the head of the table were so drunk their goblets kept slipping out of their hands, splashing wine all over the floor and themselves. Ariene Sedai had retired to her rooms two courses ago. Lord Hearne excused himself saying he felt indisposed. He did look very pale, Moiraine noted. And a bit wobbly, but that could have easily been the ridiculous amount of wine he had consumed.

Innloine caught Moiraine’s eye and motioned towards the door. Moiraine was happy to follow.

“I saw you yawning, sister.” She smiled at Moiraine. Innloine was Moiraine’s favourite sibling by far. She was sweet and caring by Damodred standards, even if she was self absorbed and slow-witted. “I think it is time for us to retire to our chambers and let the men and Anvaere carry on with their drinking.”

Moiraine nodded and followed her out of the great hall, towards the bedchambers. As she parted ways with Innloine, Moiraine finally let herself think about Siuan and her worried eyes. What was going on? Events were outpacing her to a worrying degree. That would not do.

Chapter Text

Instead of going to her rooms where Camaille was surely waiting to help her out of the formal gown, Moiraine turned back the way she had come from. There was no time to waste.

She had been seen leaving the great hall with Innloine at a late enough time that no one would think twice on her departure, she reasoned, and by that point most people were so inebriated nobody would keep track of her whereabouts.

The hallway was dimly lit. There were torches sparingly mounted on the walls, but they did nothing to appease the anxiety that the dark sparked in her; threatening to engulf her, flowing from her chest to the tips of her fingers and all the way down to her toes. The echoes of her footsteps only adding to it, resounding loudly in her ears.

She inhaled deeply, trying to slow her heartbeat down. There was no need for panic, she only needed to think the situation through. She needed to first find all the pieces of the puzzle and then piece it all together. Moiraine forced herself to think it over and over again like a mantra.

What had Siuan been trying to tell her during the feast? That had been an ominous look. It felt like every single event these past few days had been meticulously crafted to pull the rug from under her feet. She gritted her teeth in frustration.

There were things that needed doing urgently, but could not be done at the moment. Extracting information from Ariene Sedai. Speaking to her father and Taringail. What she could do now was to find Siuan, so that was exactly what she would do. Siuan who was recklessly straight-forward and generous with information. A fact which could put both of them in danger.

A sudden thought made a chill run down Moiraine’s spine. Siuan could not, by any means, be allowed to interact with her family, or any member of the Cairhienin delegation for that matter. They were too adept at The Great Game for comfort and with the way events were unfolding, there was a distant, but real possibility that Siuan would get even more tangled in all this mess than she already was, if they somehow found out about her.

A fierce rush of protectiveness bloomed in her chest pushing the anxiety out. She would keep Siuan safe from them. She would! She would keep her safe, and then maybe Siuan would be able to forgive her for sending Ariene Sedai straight to her doorstep.

A new resolve straightened her spine and Moiraine stalked through the length of the hallway towards the back gardens where she knew there would be an entrance to the buttery, connecting to the kitchens.

The garden was very beautiful during the day, but it was unsettling at night. The only light came from the moon, reflecting on the central pond. An array of flowering trees formed a crescent around the back of it, casting their long shadow over the pond and beyond. The shape of the flowers were very alien to Moiraine. They were attached to the main trunk rather than the smaller twigs, something she had never seen before, as if someone had stuck really spiky cotton balls all over the tree trunks.

A few spit-boys were sitting on the benches that faced the water, conversing while they ate their late supper — the leftovers of the first couple of courses of the feast. When Moiraine crossed their line of sight, they all rushed to stand up, wide-eyed, and bowed formally, murmuring respectful greetings under their breaths. She acknowledged them with a raised hand and continued on her path towards the door that lead to the buttery.

Inside, Moiraine found herself in the middle of a tumultuous jumble of people moving about their tasks, hardly sparing her a glance. A few cupbearers were startled into bowing at the sight of her, but most were too busy to even notice anything out of place.

Moiraine climbed up the stairs that lead from the cellar towards the kitchen and almost walked straight into a young maid balancing stacked pots who, upon realising who Moiraine was, fumbled for words and apologised profusely, mouth tightening with the beginning of tears.

“It is no matter. It was my fault.” Clasping her hands together, Moiraine spoke in a tone that left no room for argument. The girl let out a relieved breath. “Where can I find the head cook?”

The girl had no spare hands to point her in the direction of the head cook so she angled her head towards the fireplace. “She should be by the fires.” She paused for a moment before hastily adding “Your highness.”

Moiraine moved as if to go towards the fireplace but an impulse made her turn back to the girl. “I am looking for a servant that was very recently hired and has been attending to the tables. She is dark of skin and hair. Pretty, with full lips and has dimples when she smiles.” Moiraine’s stomach fluttered a little at the thought and she clenched her jaw in response.

The maid looked thoughtful for a moment before recognition shone in her eyes. “Yes. Mistress Leanora’s new girl. Curly haired?” Moiraine nodded in agreement. “Last time I saw her, she was taking her break by the dressers, your highness.”

“Thank you.” Moiraine said. The girl curtsied deeply and carried on her way to the scullery.

Moiraine walked a little more carefully then, heavy with the guilt of having almost knocked the scullery maid down.

The kitchen’s servants looked to be even busier than the ones down in the buttery. By the fireplace, a plump, middle-aged woman stood ordering the undercooks about while they put together different types of sweets and desserts. That had to be the woman she was looking for.

Moiraine approached her. “Excuse me, mistress.” The woman turned, looking for a second like she was about to starting shouting at Moiraine, but catching herself just before.

“Your highness,” The woman curtsied very formally. If she was surprised at finding Moiraine there, she didn’t show. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

“I have difficulty sleeping. Could you prepare me a strong cup of goatstongue tea?”

“Of course, your highness.” The head cook replied promptly, curtsying deeply. “I’ll see to it myself.”

Moiraine gave a slight bow of her head and set about trying to find Siuan. The girl said she was by the dressers, where the food that was ready to be served at the feast was kept. That should be near the fireplace. Looking around, Moiraine located the dressers a few paces to her left. Siuan wasn’t there.

Huffing loudly in frustration, Moiraine walked towards the line of dressers. Maybe Siuan’s break had finished and she was back on serving duty. But Moiraine couldn’t give up just yet, so she started towards the pantry area. From the corner of her eye, she caught a wild mass of tightly coiled hair and her heart skipped a beat. Siuan! She was sitting on a bench in the corner, picking at her nails, looking bored.

Consciously schooling her expression to appear indifferent and self-possessed, Moiraine glided towards Siuan. “Hey.” She whispered.

Siuan looked up. She clearly was not expecting to find Moiraine at the kitchens by the way her eyes widened.

“What are you doing here?” Siuan hissed, keeping her voice low.

“What are you doing here?” Moiraine echoed back in a harsh tone. “It is dangerous!”

“You are a princess!” Siuan accused, narrowing her eyes and pointing towards Moiraine’s regal clothing. “You didn’t even tell me!”

Moiraine groaned. “I am not!” Siuan only glared at her. “Cairhien does not have princesses. I am a lady. I just happen to be in line for the throne.” Siuan carried on glaring. “Fine. I am sorry I didn’t tell you.”

Siuan nodded and waved dismissively, as if discovering that a random girl she saved in a dark alleyway turned out to be a princess was a common occurrence in her life, as if Moiraine’s rank didn’t matter to her, as if she was bothered for not knowing the truth and nothing else. Fondness warmed Moiraine’s chest.

A moment later, however, Siuan’s expression turned worried. Glancing at their surroundings as if to make sure no one could hear them, Siuan whispered. “Someone here is trying to kill you.”

Moiraine was already half-expecting that to be the case. She had walked through all the realistic and the not so realistic scenarios that could explain the reason why she had been attacked in the alleyway that evening. The confirmation still chilled her to her very bones. Very quietly, she asked “How do you know?”

Siuan inhaled deeply and opened her mouth to reply when mistress Leanora arrived holding a saucer with a steaming cup of tea on top of it.

“Your highness.” She curtsied and offered Moiraine the tea. “The tea you’ve requested.” Leanora looked between the two of them, then fixed Siuan with a stare and a raised eyebrow. “Girl,” She addressed Siuan sharply. “Get back to work, your break is finished. I told you I would work you hard and I meant it.”

Siuan got to her feet in a heartbeat. “Yes, mistress.”

Leanora gave Siuan another long look and seemed to be happy with whatever she found in her expression. Leanora walked back towards the cooks and seamlessly returned to her job of coordinating the activity in the kitchen, shouting orders at the the two undercooks that were chopping fruit by the fires. At the sound of mistress Leanora’s voice, they sped up their pace, sweat glistening on their foreheads.

Moiraine turned to look at Siuan. “Come to my rooms once your shift is finished. We can talk then. Knock twice in a row, then once, then twice in a row again. I will know it is you.”

“As you wish, your highness.” Siuan grinned a mischievous, dimpled grin and then curtsied perfectly, looking right into her eyes all the way. Moiraine felt a striking heat pooling in her groin and crawling up her spine all the way towards the back of her neck.

The corners of Siuan’s mouth lifted and she winked. “I’ll see you later.” She walked away, leaving a dazed Moiraine glued to the spot, holding the teacup in her hands, staring at Siuan’s retreating form.

Moiraine was tucked in bed, wide awake. The teacup on her bedside table sat empty, its contents already poured into one of the tall, wide-leaved plants by the wardrobe. The tea had only been an excuse for her to waltz unannounced into the kitchens, of course. If anyone heard she had been there, and most likely they would, the goatstongue tea was the perfect front.

It was almost day break. Moiraine’s hands were clammy and she couldn’t stop wiggling her feet. She was just about to grab a book to distract herself when someone knocked twice on the door, then once and then twice again.

Moiraine climbed out of bed taking a care to be silent, crossed the length of the room in long strides, and opened the door quietly. Siuan stood there, shoulders sagging and face twisted into a frown. Moiraine pulled Siuan in by her hand and closed the door after checking the hallway to see if there was anyone about. There wasn’t.

“That woman worked me harder than my mother ever did.” She said, climbing into Moiraine’s bed and plopping down on it, closing her eyes.

Moiraine waited for her to say something.

“Well?” Moiraine crossed her arms under her breasts, losing patience. “Are you going to explain what is going on?”

Siuan opened one eye. Whatever she saw on Moiraine’s expression made her sigh and slowly sit up on the bed.

“Someone poisoned your food.” She said matter of factly. Moiraine suddenly felt ill, her blood turning into ice inside her veins. At seeing the look on Moiraine’s face, Siuan rushed to explain. “It is fine, I switched the plates!”

“You did what?!”

“Yeah,” Siuan looked down and scratched the side of her head, “that lord that was sitting next to you is probably dead already.”

Moiraine’s mind immediately went back to Lord Hearne’s pale face when he excused himself from the meal. Blessed Light! “How did you know?” Moiraine asked, trying to ignore the way her legs started shaking.

Siuan took Moiraine’s hand in hers and pulled gently at it, encouraging Moiraine to sit down on the bed. Moiraine went without complaint.

“Well, I was worried about you when that scary lady appeared. So I followed you two here.” She said sheepishly. “I swear, I only wanted to make sure you were alright.” Siuan smiled shyly, looking down at their intertwined fingers. “It turned out that I’d been here before and I knew the head cook, she is one of my aunties’ clients. I only had to pretend to need a job to help at home, cry a little and she felt so sorry for me that she found me a job in the kitchens, they needed the help anyway. It is chaos in there, you’ve seen it.”

Moiraine nodded absently. The world had taken a dream like quality. Siuan’s voice was very distant and the weigh of her hand, unreal. It was one thing suspecting that maybe someone wanted to kill her, quite another was knowing for certain.

Siuan squeezed her hand, bringing her out of her trance. “Are you alright?” She asked worriedly, eyes searching Moiraine’s face for a hint.

“It is just —” Moiraine breathed out. “It is just a little scary.”

“I am not going to let anything happen to you.” Siuan said fiercely. “We should tell someone. Let’s tell the king, he —”

“No.” Moiraine cut in sharply. “We don’t know who it is that gave the order yet. It could well be uncle Laman. Although I cannot see any reason as to why.”

Siuan gasped. “But he is your uncle!”

“So?”

Siuan opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to find words. Moiraine pressed on. “What else happened? How did you find out about the poison?”

Siuan licked her lips, staring at Moiraine with consternation pinching her eyebrows. “It was completely by chance. Mistress Leanora told me to go get a uniform that fit me, because I couldn’t be seen in these old rags. Her words.” Siuan’s face showed exactly what she thought of the words. “Anyway, the cupboard with the uniforms is at the other side of the back garden, inside the shed. You need to cross the garden to arrive at it. I went in there, tried a few different dresses and found one that fit me. When I was leaving, I heard someone whispering your name. They were just outside the shed, by the mango trees. I got curious and hid behind that pile of broken carts and barrels nearby and listened. One of them mentioned the order that the plates would be set on the dresser, which number would yours be, and told the other to put something in it. He said he wanted you dead within the week.” Siuan grimaced and squeezed Moiraine’s hand even tighter.

“Did you see what they looked like?”

“No. Sorry.” Siuan mumbled. “The one giving the orders sounded Cairhienin, though. The other sounded Tairen.”

Moiraine closed her eyes and let go of Siuan’s hand to rub at her temples, feeling the beginning of a headache coming. This was very bad indeed.

“You said before this was a plot to force your father’s hand. How?” Siuan asked.

Moiraine breathed in, eyes still closed. “I thought it was. It could be still. I am not sure.” She fell backwards on the bed and looked up at Siuan. “My head hurts and I am tired.”

Siuan nodded as if she understood. Siuan herself looked completely wrung out. She glanced at Moiraine with a far off look and hesitated before getting up. Moiraine snatched her arm.

“Stay a little?” Moiraine asked in a small voice, glancing away from Siuan. She was the only person in the manor house Moiraine could put her full trust on, having proved time and again that she was trustworthy. This feeling of security was incredibly delicate and precious, and Moiraine didn’t think she could have let Siuan go even if she wanted to.

Siuan looked uncharacteristically timid but she smiled and acquiesced. They silently arranged themselves on the bed. Moiraine to the right and Siuan to the left, both lying on their backs. Their hands, linked once again, falling in the middle.

“This bed feels like a cloud.” Siuan broke the silence. “How did you manage to sleep on those sleeping mats back at the hut?”

Moiraine giggled, chest feeling just a little bit lighter, her thumb lightly caressing the back of Siuan’s hand.

Chapter Text

A ray of sunlight seeping through a small opening in the curtains caused Moiraine’s eyes to flutter open. With a yawn, Moiraine stretched her arms, popping her elbows; and her legs, right down to the tip of her toes. An unexpected weight on her waist, and a puff of air caressing the back of her neck caused her body to tense. That was odd. Slowly turning to her left, Moiraine came face to face with a sleeping Siuan snuggled against her.

Moiraine swallowed. The moted sunlight kissed Siuan’s skin, specks dancing around her long eyelashes with each breath. The soft curve of her mouth. The sweet, flowery smell of her hair. There was only Siuan, and the dust, and her breathing. Moiraine reached for her cheek, delicately, as if under a spell, brushing full lips with the pad of her thumb.

Desperately, selfishly, she clinged by her fingernails to the faint hope that Siuan would still be her friend if they managed to survive this. The idea of a person as a safe haven was a decidedly strange kind of narcotic. Of course, there was her father. She could trust him not to harm her, and really, she was grateful for his guidance on The Great Game, but she had to be realistic and deal with the world as it was, not as she wished it to be. She could not count on him putting his hand in the fire for her, he had never done so in the past, busy with his own problems. He helped in his manner, teaching but never getting involved in any meaningful way. Siuan was a different beast entirely. A very strange kind of narcotic indeed.

She stirred in her sleep, shattering the moment. Moiraine pulled her hand back as if she had been burned. The prospect of having Siuan as a fellow novice in the Tower was enticing as anything, and Moiraine had to actively fight not to spend her days daydreaming of it. It was no use indulging in wishful thinking. Why was it so difficult to focus on things and think of them all the way through near her? She never had that problem with anyone else. There were more important matters at hand, so it was imperative to let the potential future stay where it belongs.

Once the distractions were forcefully put aside, the memory of the day before had a free path to come back like an avalanche. What time was it? They shouldn’t have fallen asleep.

“Siuan,” Moiraine called, “Wake up.”

Siuan mumbled something incoherent and turned to the other side.

“Siuan!” Moiraine shook Siuan lightly by the shoulders. “Wake up!” Siuan didn’t even blink.

Light, but the girl slept like the dead.

Maybe if I…

Moiraine untangled herself from the covers, settling on her knees. With a wicked grin, she set about tracing soft patterns over Siuan’s eyelids, and gently blowing hot air inside her ears in the same way Innloine used to do to her when she was younger. It always used to work. Having air blown in your ears was unpleasant when you were awake, but particularly so when you were asleep. Siuan stirred again, eyes blinking open.

“What are you doing?” Siuan protested, voice hoarse with sleep, slapping Moiraine’s hand away. “I was having a nice dream.”

Moiraine bit back a laugh, wondering for a brief, foolish moment if maybe Siuan was dreaming about her. Shaking her head, she centered her thoughts. “You need to leave. I don’t know the time but Camaille can come at any moment.”

“Who?”

“My lady’s maid. She will come to wake me up and help me dress for the day.”

Siuan made a face. “Dress you? Fish guts. You really are a princess.”

A nasty stab of insecurity lowered Moiraine’s eyes, away from Siuan. Would their difference in status be a problem? It hadn’t seemed like a problem before. A moment of silence followed. Siuan lightly touched the underside of Moiraine’s chin with her index finger to get Moiraine to look in her direction again.

“No need to get your spikes out.” The corners of Siuan’s lips curled up. “Like a little pufferfish, aren’t you?” Moiraine’s mouth twitched with a sudden, inexplicable need to return the smile, but she kept control of her expression.

“Go. Don’t let anyone see you leaving the room. Nobody must know of your connection to me.”

Moiraine watched intently as Siuan got out of bed, staring at the gentle curve of her neck, the ink that poked out from under her collar; drinking the sight eagerly, while Siuan was busy trying to smooth the creased skirts of her dress. Siuan turned towards Moiraine then, a serious look in her eyes. “I need to go back home to stop mama from having a heart attack, but mistress Leanora told me to come back in the evening to help in the kitchens again.” She paused for a moment and then added “Be careful while I am away, will you?”

“I will.”

“And don’t eat anything unless you know for sure that someone else has tried it first and didn’t die.”

Of course Moiraine didn’t bother telling Siuan that this wasn’t the first time someone had tried poisoning her and that she had been taught at a very young age what was the procedure for situations like these. It was a very sweet thing for her to say, in any case.

“I won’t. Don’t worry.”

Siuan nodded her approval, seeming appeased. She started walking towards the door but something made her stop for a moment before turning back to face Moiraine. She pulled the hems of her dress up and reached inside it, in the most appalling display of bad manners that Moiraine had ever witnessed, and produced a small knife. The same knife she had used back in the alleyway.

“Carry it with you. It has saved my sorry arse more times than I can count on two hands.”

“Where in the Light were you keeping this?” Moiraine asked, a little afraid of the answer.

Siuan laughed. “My knickers. Where else?”

Moiraine didn’t know how to formulate a reply that would not lead to more awkward conversation, so she focused her attention on the knife, unsheathing it from its leather case, and holding it in her hands, feeling its weight. It was double-edged. One edge was smooth and the other toothed. It was simple but of good quality metal with a bone handle. Some sort of fish, probably.

“Thank you.”

“Take care, alright? I’ll see you around.” Siuan grinned and waved a hand in goodbye, disappearing behind the closed door.

Moiraine sheathed the knife, put it under her pillow, and fell back asleep, trying and failing not to imagine where exactly had Siuan stored it before.

A knock on the door followed by rattling and swishing of fabric roused Moiraine from her sleep. She could have sworn it had only been minutes since Siuan had left and her head touched the pillow. Blearily, she opened her eyes to find Camaille at her side, holding what it looked like a cold pitcher of water.

“Good morning, your highness.” She set the jug on the bedside table and curtsied. “Her highness Innloine has instructed me to invite you for breakfast in the gardens.”

Moiraine glanced at the droplets of water condensing on the outside of the pitcher and ever so slowly sliding down the side. She felt a stab of thirst.

“Sure.” Moiraine replied looking away from the water.

A brief thought of commanding Camaille to try the water crossed her mind, but Moiraine soon dismissed it. That was the Damodred thing to do and she did not wish to be lumped with the rest of them if she could avoid it — and she would avoid it. There were lines she would not cross; uncle Laman started life as an innocent baby and look where he ended up. Choices made a person. Not their family or their upbringing. Choices.

They fell easily into their morning routine. Camaille was usually very quiet and Moiraine didn’t mind. She preferred it that way. Today, however, Moiraine noted by the reflection in the mirror her mouth opening and closing as if she was going to speak but decided against it. Twice.

“What is the matter, Camaille?”

“I’m sorry, your highness?” Camaille asked, looking up from the back of Moiraine’s dress where she was doing up the ribbons.

“You want to say something.”

Camaille clasped her hands together, rubbing her thumbs against each other.

“My lady won’t have heard it yet, but one of the Tairen lords was found dead in his room. They said it was a heart attack. The lord that was sitting next to you.”

She hummed encouragingly, interest peaked, so Camaille continued. “One of the girls that works in the kitchens told me in passing that Istaban, one of of the grooms, caused a scene in the kitchens in the early evening. I saw him speaking to Torven a few hours before. I thought that it was interesting.”

Moiraine gritted her teeth so she wouldn’t gape openly. A groom in the kitchens outside of meal times was odd. The same groom speaking to uncle Aldecain’s valet was even odder. They had no reason to speak, any orders from uncle would be sent straight to the stable master.

“Yes.” Moiraine turned around to look at Camaille. “Thank you for letting me know.”

Camaille smiled fondly and went back to fasting the ribbons on Moiraine’s dress. The sentiment wasn’t lost on Moiraine. Maybe she should give her a raise.

Once Moiraine was suitably clothed and made sure she had stashed the knife in a hidden pocket on her dress’ waist, she went to meet her sister in the front gardens where a table was set with all kinds of of bread, exotic fruits, dried meat and cheese. There were also bowls of porridge with jam and steaming teapots. The table was strategically placed by flowering hibiscus bushes in such a way that half of it was in the shadow and the other half in the sun. Bees and flies buzzed about the flowers, and occasionally the table, attracted to the sweet scents.

The front garden was not nearly as pleasant as the back garden. It was meant to impress, rather than relax. It was still beautiful and colourful in the way that only tropical gardens were, but it was methodically built. All straight lines and harsh corners. Similar to the style of gardens favoured in Cairhien for that matter.

Innloine was already sat at the table, sipping from her tea, eyes closed in pleasure from both the tea and the warmth of the morning sun on her skin.

“Morning.” Moiraine greeted. Innloine opened her eyes and adjusted the wide-brimmed sun hat she wore to get a better look at Moiraine.

“Moiraine. I trust you are feeling well after yesterday. You didn’t have too much to drink, unlike some people.” She frowned certainly thinking of Anvaere. Innloine had voiced her contempt for Anvaere’s drinking habits many times in the past. They weren’t suited to respectable ladies, apparently.

As if thinking of her had been a summons, Anvaere appeared like magic from behind the bushes looking every bit like a ghost. Pale-faced and sunken-eyed, she moved as if her head weighted more than her whole body. She sat on the shadowed side, a few chairs away from Moiraine and Innloine who sat side by side.

“Moiraine, don’t sit in the sun without a hat you are going to get sun burned and end up looking like a peasant that works the fields. You know better than that.” Annoyance gnawed at Moiraine but she let it slide, only glaring at her sister who carried on without noticing the effect of her words. “Anyway, have you two heard of lord Hearne’s sudden death?” She asked in a low voice, squinting at the brightness of the sun that must have been hurting her eyes.

“No.” Moiraine and Innloine replied at the same time, Innloine with wide-eyes. Anvaere grinned when the opportunity to gossip presented itself. She was utterly predictable.

“Well, he was found dead in his bed. Heart attack apparently.” She had a sly smile even as she held her hand over her eyes to protect them. “Guess who I saw throwing a tantrum over it? A proper tantrum, breaking vases and everything.”

Moiraine tried not to look too interested and was saved by Innloine’s curiosity.

“Who?”

“Latian.”

Moiraine could not control her surprise at that. Luckily, neither could Innloine. Latian was the head of Taringail’s personal guard.

“Taringail is responsible for his death, do you think?” Innloine spoke a bit too loudly. Both Moiraine and Anvaere rushed to shush her.

“Scream it louder, you dumb cow! I think they didn’t hear you in the Aiel waste. Do you want to get murdered as well? Anvaere whispered in a harsh tone.

Innloine looked hurt at that. “Sorry!”

“There is no need to be rude, Anvaere.” Moiraine stepped in to defend Innloine. “It’s not her fault you drank yourself into a nasty hangover again, so don’t take it out on her.”

Anvaere turned her eyes towards Moiraine, a fire burning behind them. “I’ll be as rude as I see fit, and you don’t get to tell me otherwise you grubby runt. It’s no wonder mother died giving birth to you. She’d rather die than having to stare at your ugly fucking face.”

Moiraine felt the prick of tears at the corner of her eyes, but she swallowed it, picturing a brick wall around her. “Shut up!”

“Make me.”

Moiraine snatched the teapot to her left and motioned to throw it at Anvaere’s head when Innloine grabbed her hand, looking in exasperation at Anvaere.

“For the love of the Light! I just wanted to eat breakfast with my sisters. Anvaere, can you stop picking fights with everyone at least for the length of this meal?”

Anvaere had the decency to look abashed. She had a very explosive disposition, especially when she wasn’t feeling well, but her outbursts were short-lived. Moiraine once heard her uncle Moressin say that Anvaere would never make it to high seat of House Damodred because of her particularly poor control over her temper. It said something, given that almost all of the members of House Damodred had some anger issues in one way or other.

“Fine.” Anvaere mumbled, face twisted as if the word left a bad taste in her mouth.

“Now.” Innloine breathed out, grabbing the teapot to pour some tea for herself. “What else do you know of this story with Latian?

The two of them spoke quietly of what had happened. Anvaere didn’t know much else apart from what she saw. She didn’t think that Taringail was involved since he wouldn’t have gained anything from murdering a random Tairen lord, she thought maybe Latian had a score to settle with lord Hearne.

“It is very odd.” Innloine agreed. “Moiraine, you haven’t eaten a scrap. Are you alright?”

Moiraine blinked. She was hungry and thirsty but she couldn’t afford to eat or drink anything that hadn’t been tried by anyone else. On top of that, Anvaere’s words were still ringing in her ears and tangling themselves in her stomach, making her feel nauseous. “I’m not hungry.”

“Have some of the tea at least. It will open your appetite.” Moiraine looked between Innloine, her cup and the teapot. She had been drinking the tea for a while now and she seemed fine.

“I will have some tea, then. Thank you.”

Moiraine sipped the tea, but only enough to quench her thirst. There was no point in tempting fate.

Chapter Text

Moiraine could not find her father anywhere. She had looked in what it felt like all the rooms in the manor house and even checked the stables. In Cairhien, her father would often be found in the library, nose deep into any old, dusty book on the Trolloc Wars. There was no library in the manor, so that wasn’t an option. The closest one was in the Stone of Tear and she squeezed out of the stable master that no Cairhienin had left the grounds today.

Clicking her tongue in annoyance, she found herself in a tastefully decorated sitting room, composed of various shades of warm, inviting colours. Reds, mustards, greens and browns. Very different from what she was used to, back in Cairhien, but tasteful nonetheless. There were large potted plants lining one of the walls, cabinets holding richly designed sea-folk porcelain, a few bookshelves, and a harpsichord which stood proudly on a rug as the centrepiece. She plopped down on a dark leather sofa by the book shelves, feeling a slight soreness in her legs from walking too much too quickly.

Puffing hard enough to blow dark locks of hair out of her eyes, Moiraine kneaded the top of her thighs absentmindedly. Where was her father when she needed him? Hunger gnawed at her belly, but she paid no mind. What would Siuan be doing? Would she have arrived in the kitchens already? Moiraine could use someone in the kitchens to verify Camaille’s piece of information. From what she had gathered from her interactions with people, the primary suspects seemed to be Taringail and Aldecain although she could not see how they would immediately benefit from her death. Could they be working together?

She needed to start taking some risks, she could not work on assumptions forever. Moiraine felt her heart sink at the realisation that this would involve risking Siuan as well, but she couldn’t see any other way out. There was no one else she could trust and she needed her own spies. Was this what being a Damodred meant? Realising that the circumstances were hopeless and that you needed to use the people around you like pieces in a game of stones? Would this be the choice that hurled her towards the point of no return? She was trapped between a rock and a hard place, the Light help her.

She rubbed at her temples. High Lord Gueyam had organised a hunt for the afternoon. They wouldn’t be hunting wild boars, news which had left Anvaere moaning for ten whole minutes — she enjoyed the thrill of a dangerous prey. The High Lord declared that it wouldn’t be fitting for women of their status to participate in such a masculine endeavour and that he would not dream of endangering such esteemed ladies. Instead, they would go on horseback a few miles outside the city where all of the High Lords kept a private chase populated with all sorts of animals, mostly deer, pheasants and other game, bred for leisurely hunting.

They would be heading out at noon. Unconsciously reaching for the knife hidden in her dress, feeling its shape with the tips of her fingers, Moiraine thought of finding Siuan. There was enough time for a visit to the kitchens, but it was not yet evening, so best to wait until after the hunt.

Moiraine glanced at the bookshelf near her. The leather book covers were in perfect condition and covered by a thin layer of dust. It certainly fit with what Moiraine had gathered of High Lord Gueyam; he was not the kind of man who read for the pleasure of it, maybe not even out of obligation. Moiraine ran her index across the leather spines, reading the titles as it moved along.The Travels of Jain Fastrider, The weapons of the Age of Legends, Military tactics in the battle for Manetheren… Hearts of Flame. Innloine had mentioned it once, between giggles. Picking the book up and rubbing her index and thumb together to clean her finger, Moiraine softly blew away the dust gathered on the book cover, and used her thumb to flip quickly through the pages, skimming its contents.

Oh.

She held the book to her chest for a moment, feeling inexplicably drawn to the possibility of learning about love and the like. Siuan’s aunts seemed sickeningly happy and Moiraine’s curiosity was tickled. Keeping the book clutched to her chest, she walked briskly to her bedchambers in the hopes of storing it safely under her mattress. Maybe she could find the time to read it later.

Moiraine barely had time to smooth her bedsheets back into an unsuspecting state when Anvaere burst through the door, not caring for knocking or politeness, shouting for Moiraine that she was to come to the archery range to practise with their borrowed bows before they could go on the hunt.

The range was a long narrow section of land situated just behind the mango grove in the back gardens, separated by a thick stone wall. So close, in fact, that the sugary smell of mango blossoms hung in the air, carried by the wind as Moiraine and Anvaere walked towards the group that gathered behind the shooting line. Innloine sat on a picnic blanket that lay on the grass, engrossed in a book. Taringail, their uncles and the High Lord talked amiably, inspecting the different types of bows that were mounted in a rack on the wall.

“Ah, there are my nieces.” Laman gestured to the two girls so they would come closer. “Gueyam, you will find no better markswoman than Anvaere. She is the best of the best in Cairhien. Moiraine is also excellent. Of course, I had them trained since they were young girls, you see.” His gaze dropped down to Anvare’s breasts and he bit his lower lip before raising his eyes again to the High Lord. “Now they are fully grown women.”

Moiraine felt Anvaere stiffen, holding back the impulse to slap their uncle only by force of habit, an impulse that surely must be burning her from the inside out. Anvaere knew, though, that with uncle Laman, if she let it overtake her, she would find herself in more than just hot water. With the way Laman was behaving recently, reckless even by his standards, maybe even exile.

“I see.” The High Lord replied with a slight mocking twist to his voice. “I shall like to see how a contest unfolds between us. I have never known a woman to be better at archery than myself. Of course, they excel in other areas, like spinning.”

“In Cairhien there are many accomplished female archers. I am sure you will find your match in my niece.”

The High Lord looked doubtful but even so, he picked up an intricate, composite bow from the rack. Two different curved pieces of wood joined together in the middle, giving it two peaks instead of the usual one. Moiraine was not, by any stretch of the imagination, an expert in weapons, but she knew that these types of bows were best for hunting with horses for they had more draw-weight and less size.

“Here, Lady Anvaere.” Gueyam handed her the bow. “Would you like to go first?”

Anvaere was already trembling with barely contained rage, and his condescending tone did not help. She snatched the bow from his hand, and with a forced smile she said “Thank you, my Lord. I shall be happy to give you a good game.” Abruptly, she turned back and marched towards the tents to find herself a quiver with arrows. High Lord Gueyam followed after her, not noticing, or not caring for her moodiness.

Moiraine stood among the men of her family who talked amongst themselves, trying her best to appear inconspicuous — something which she had much practice in. An advantage to being a young woman in court was that powerful men tended not to notice them, unless they had lush curves. Times such as these made Moiraine very glad for her flat chest and narrow hips. The trick didn’t work for very long because soon Laman turned to Moiraine.

“Moiraine, where is your father? I told him he must attend the hunt.”

Moiraine winced at his harsh tone. Was her father in trouble? “Forgive me, uncle, I do not know. I’ve searched for him earlier with no luck.”

“Father is a coward, uncle, he is not going to show up after what happened yesterday.” Taringail intervened, as eager to voice his opinion as always. “Especially with that Lord ending up dead.”

The feast? What had happened?

“Yes, Taringail, we know. But Darelsin knows better than to disobey me, even after a disagreement, and that Lord’s death has nothing to do with it.”

Well, this was an opportunity to throw something out there and get a reaction. Now or never.

Moiraine kept her face perfectly devoid of emotion and spoke clearly. “I heard through the grapevine that there was a commotion in the kitchens when the food was being prepared, a groom was caught sniffing around the place where the cooked food was set. He was most likely poisoned. There are lots of poisons meant to stop the heart.”

All three men snapped their faces back at her.

“Well, well. Little Moiraine thinks she can play The Game, does she?” Aldecain said with an ugly smile. “And might I ask from whom have you heard this?”

Moiraine opened her mouth to answer when Moressin cut in. “It is only natural that she should dip her toes in it, brother.”

“Yes, yes.” Taringail intervened. “Who cares about some random Tairen Lord? What will you do about father, uncle Laman?”

“That, Taringail, it is —”

Laman was cut short when Anvaere and Gueyam returned carrying a bow and quiver each. Anvaere looked angrier still, knuckles white from the force with which she gripped the bow. High Lord Gueyam must have been spouting his chauvinistic nonsense at her.

They walked towards the shooting line. Anvaere was already pulling an arrow from the quiver attached to her waist when Laman grabbed her roughly by her upper arm.

“You’d better wipe the floor with his face, Anvaere.” He whispered in a dangerous tone. “I don’t enjoy looking foolish.”

Anvaere’s smile was tight. “Yes, uncle.”

She turned towards the target that was straight across from her, eyes unblinking, and nocked the arrow.

There were 5 targets painted on the wooden panel at the end of the long strip of grass. Each target was formed of a series of white concentric circles. The smallest circle in the middle was painted green and it had a drawing of a human eye on it.

Steadying her breathing and feeling the wind touch her cheeks, Anvaere held her breath for a moment, then she let the arrow go. The arrow whistled through the air with purpose. Bullseye.

Innloine’s excited cheering could be heard from behind them and uncle Laman looked pleased. In his opinion, Anvaere’s genius was only a reflection of his own light. That was always the case. As long as he could showcase to the world how brilliant the Damodred blood — his blood — could be, he was just about happy.

The hunting party was medium sized, and even then, the cacophony of sounds grated somewhat at Moiraine’s ears. The clatter of metal as the party rode along and the growls and howls from the packs of hunting dogs was inexplicably aggravating.

Moiraine knew very well, however, that her irritation had nothing to do with the noise. What had happened in the feast? Was it somehow linked to her poisoning attempt? It didn’t seem to be, uncle Laman had said so and he looked to be speaking genuinely, from the tone of his voice and the quickness with which he replied to the question. Taringail seemed more interested in what had happened to father and uncle Aldecain… Well, he did sound particularly malicious. Was he behind this? Why could he possibly want her dead?

She tangled her fingers in her horse’s mane, letting herself be lulled by the steady rhythm of her Tairen mare’s canter, breathing in the familiar scent. Horses had always been a source of happiness for her, having spent the better half of her childhood hiding in the Sun Palace’s stables with only her horse for company. The weight of the bow strapped across her shoulder, the feel of the forearm guard and the quiver attached to her belt also offered a sense of familiarity which helped ground her. She might not be as accomplished an archer as Anvaere but she felt at home with a bow in her hand.

The men rode in front of her. The huntmaster led the way through the meandering path on his courser. Laman talked down at a sulky Gueyam, still riding the high of Anvaere’s spectacular victory over the High Lord at the archery range. Aldecain spoke to one to one of the greyhound keepers, seemingly interested by how different the beasts looked from their Cairhienin counterparts. Taringail and Moressin spoke quietly just behind.

Anvaere rode near Innloine, chattering away in a high pitched voice that told Moiraine she was in a better mood and was not likely to lash out. Moiraine heeled her brown mare, Fey, closer to them.

“Taringail mentioned there was an argument during the feast after me and Innloine retired. What was it about?”

Innloine looked curious. “Argument?”

“Oh that.” Anvaere’s face looked almost resigned. “I was hoping I would forget the whole thing from all the alcohol I drank.”

“What is it?”

Anvaere glanced at their uncles before whispering. “Uncle Laman is blackmailing father into some sort of dicey plot to undermine House Saighan’s stranglehold on the spices market. Now that you are not marrying Etienne, they had to figure out a different way of ensuring that the control is ours, I figure. I didn’t catch much of it, but the words ‘I’ll have your head for this’ were definitely uttered. Quite loudly.”

Moiraine grimaced. So that was the reason she couldn’t find him. Had he run away somehow? And left her alone in this viper’s nest? A sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach told her that yes, he had left her. Just like he always did.

The sun was high in the cloudless sky, when they reached a walled forest. A warm breeze caressed Moiraine’s skin; the perfect weather for a hunt. The bloodhounds were frantic, pulling on the leashes, eager to pursue the scent of the animals that they could already detect.

The huntmaster led them through the gates. The gilded iron gates were wide enough that four horses could trot through it abreast without it being an issue. Moiraine led Fey inside, marvelling at the beauty of her surroundings. Sunlight caught on the lush green giving it an almost ethereal glow, leaves rustling softly with the breeze. The trees were very tall and had wide treetops. The forest was not thick, as she was expecting it to be, rather it was spacious and there was plenty of room for the horses to move. It occurred to her that this might not be a natural forest, it seemed planned and grown especially for horse riding.

Once the full party was inside, the huntmaster gestured for them all to gather around him. While the dog masters were prepping the dogs for the hunt, getting them a reasonably fresh severed piece of deer leg to sniff, the huntmaster explained how it would work and split them into two teams. Moiraine, Anvaere, Aldecain and Moressin in one, and Innloine, Taringail, Laman and Gueyam in the other. Each team would have two bloodhounds for picking up the scents and two greyhounds to flush the game out. The team to first catch a deer would win.

As soon as the huntmaster gave the sign, the teams split into opposite directions, each moving deeper into different parts of the forest. The first dog master, a very tall tairen man called Olavo, was on foot at the head of the line, holding tightly to the bloodhounds that advanced with their snouts flat on the ground, sniffing every which way. Just behind him, Moressin followed on his horse with Anvaere, Moiraine and Aldecain trailing along. The second dog master, a woman named Hana, held onto the greyhounds waiting for her turn to shine.

They rode a good couple of miles with nothing happening other than a slight change of scenery. Moiraine was about to voice her worry when the bloodhounds stopped for a moment before jerking decisively to the east, so suddenly that she wondered how Olavo managed to stay standing. They moved slowly now, prowling even. Moiraine wagered they had found what they were looking for.

“Nock your arrows and be ready.” Olavo said, gesturing for Hana to come forward. “There is a deer hiding inside those reeds, the greyhounds will flush it out and once it is running you are free to shoot. Be mindful of the dogs and of each other, friendly fire is not uncommon.”

Moiraine glanced at her teammates as she nocked her arrow. Their horses all stood side by side, snorting and stomping as if eager to move. Anvaere shook with what seemed like excitement, arrow nocked and ready, holding on to four other arrows with the same hand as she held the bow. Both her uncles looked fiercely at the reeds, prepared and waiting.

The greyhounds were let loose and in what felt like a second they were at the reeds, a moment later a stag scrambled out of the tall grass, running away from them as fast as its legs could take it.

Moressin heeled his horse shouting for the rest to follow, standing on the stirrups as the horse galloped forwards, shooting an arrow that missed the stag by quite a margin and lodged itself in a tree.

The other horses quickly followed, no instructions needed. Moiraine pressed her thighs to Fey’s body as it jumped over a stream, trying to balance with no hands. She stood on the stirrups for a better view of the stag and immediately knew she had made a mistake. A loud snap rang in her ears and she slid to the left. With no free hands to hold on to the reins, she tumbled to the ground. A shadow flickered in the corner of her eyes and something crashed into her chest with such force that she felt bones crack. She coughed up blood, each cough spreading fierce, stabbing pain across her chest. She felt faint. From a far, she could hear Anvaere screaming. Her brain felt heavy, her chest felt even heavier and the effort of holding her eyelids open was more than she could handle. She let her eyes close and gave in to the bliss of a painless void.

“Moiraine?” A soft voice called her from far away. Outside of the world, of time itself. Moiraine didn’t know to whom that voice belonged but she knew it was important somehow. She chased the echo of it, ran down fields and forests and deserts. She felt that voice everywhere in her body, like a lover’s caress.

“Moiraine?” The voice repeated. This time followed by a light touch on her cheeks. The aftermath of the touch tingled down her body, pulling it from its half-asleep state. Moiraine blinked her eyes open and found herself face to face with a worried looking Siuan who sat on the bed next to her.

“You are awake!” Siuan’s whole face lit up. Joy was becoming on her, accentuating her dimples. The light of the oil lamp by the bedside table twinkled in her dark eyes. Moiraine could see the shadows dancing along her skin with each flicker of the flame.

Moiraine smiled at her even as the movement caused her chest to throb painfully. “What happened? I feel very sore.”

Siuan’s lips tightened and her eyes turned worried again. “You fell from your horse and it accidentally stepped on your chest. You almost died. The Aes Sedai said that if your sister had arrived back here a few minutes later, she wouldn’t have been able to heal you. You’ve been out for two days.”

The memory of the fall rushed back to Moiraine all at once. “The strap snapped and the whole saddle slid off.” Moiraine looked pointedly at Siuan. “It wasn’t an accident.”

Siuan nodded thoughtfully, one hand twirling a loose curl of hair. “I spoke to the Aes Sedai —”

“You what?! Siuan that is —” Moiraine cut her phrase short with a harsh exhale when pain shot through her chest.

“All I heard is that you were dying, trampled half to death by a horse.” Siuan’s eyes were hot as a furnace. “A horse! And you! You are tiny!” Siuan accused her as if being short were a crime. “What were you doing on top of a Light-forsaken beast like that anyway? I needed to make sure you were alive. I came to your room and — Are you alright?” All of Siuan’s fire was extinguished and softness took its place.

“I am very tired.” Moiraine mumbled. “It hurts to breathe.”

“The Aes Sedai has warded your room against unwanted visitors, so you can rest easy.” Siuan smiled as she tucked a stray lock behind Moiraine’s ears.

Moiraine smiled back weakly, already being pulled towards a different world. She closed her heavy eyes and smiled a second time when a sweet smell of flowers invaded her senses and warm lips were pressed to her forehead.

“Sweet dreams.”

Chapter Text

The sky was turning pinkish and the stars were blending in with the paleness of dawn when Siuan finally arrived home, closing the front door as softly as possible, trying to stifle a yawn. Making it all the way to the hut without any sort of mishap was a bonus at this point. The past couple of days depleted her of any energy she had in store, even though she was able to strike a bargain with her parents in order to stop working the boat at daybreak — she was bringing in good money by doing the night shifts at the High Lord’s kitchen — she still was to help Eva and Huan with the stall in the market and Nina would take her place in the boat and start learning the trade. That meant that she was working for the better part of the day and well into the evening, leaving little time for rest.

The question of why she was putting herself through this was asked by her family and followed by quips at her expense. Siuan laughed along and took it all good-naturedly but she didn’t really have an answer. Why did she care so much about a noblewoman’s safety? The best she could come up with was that she was in way too deep now. But that wasn’t the whole truth, and she knew it.

The sight of Moiraine being carried into the great hall as white as a corpse by her sisters, shivering and vomiting blood, had burned itself into the back of Siuan’s eyelids and she just couldn’t help but sneak into her rooms to take a peek, to check in on her.

It took a couple of days for Moiraine to come to herself again; once she did, the strength of the relief that washed over Siuan was not something she’d expected, even though, in hindsight, she should have. Nor was the impulse that hooked her by the navel to feel Moiraine’s skin on hers. At that moment, she knew. Pure physical attraction was what she felt for the sea folk woman she bedded a few months ago. This was something else. The Wheel, perhaps.

Moiraine was a still ocean with dangerous undercurrents beneath; unexplored, dark underwater caves that called to Siuan like the siren’s song. She was always a big fan of puzzles and Moiraine posed the most intricate yet. Siuan had barely scratched the surface of Moiraine, she would keep her safe until she did and then some more.

Siuan tiptoed her way to the kitchen. There wasn’t a lot that Siuan could give Moiraine that she didn’t already possess threefold, but she could provide her with food that was safe to eat and water that was safe to drink. That was a start.

The kitchen was barely half-lit by the light of dawn and Siuan had to strain her eyes to see. It looked to be mostly clean but there were bits of fish scale dotted around the counter, catching the weak light. Siuan stepped on something cold and slimy and shuddered in disgust. Making a face, she shook her feet and a gooey blob of what looked to be fish guts fell from the bottom of it, where it was stuck. Crinkling her nose, she picked it up and threw it out of the opened window, cleaning her hands briskly on her dress. That would be Nina’s doing, she cleaned like she had no standards.

Going down on her knees, Siuan rummaged through the cupboards, finding a tote bag and holding it open with one hand instead of putting it down, not trusting the state of cleanliness of the floor, thinking it unlikely that Nina had done any actual mopping. There was a loaf of stale bread, dried bream, salted cod and a few olive jars. Pushing a couple of jars containing unknown substances out of the way, she found a bundle of dried apricots on the back of the cupboard and picked that up as well.

“Siuan, darling, what are you doing?”

Siuan jerked in fright, accidentally letting the bag slip from her hand, and turned to find her mother yawning and rubbing sleepily at her eyes.

“Nothing.” Siuan cringed at the clink of the glass olive jar against the floor.

Eva looked pointedly at Siuan in response.

“Are you actually starving? I thought they were feeding you at the High Lord’s house.This much food can be a meal for the whole family.”

She stared at her mother for a moment, struggling to find something to say.

“Yes!” She said abruptly, thinking that making her mother laugh would be a good enough distraction. “Yes I am! They have all of these feasts everyday and they don’t even share with the staff.” She snatched the tote bag and held it close to her chest. “I haven’t been eating. Don’t you see how skinny I am looking?” She said in a rueful tone, holding her arm out towards her mother.

Eva chuckled and grabbed Siuan by the wrist, lifting her off the floor and bringing her in for a cuddle. Siuan was almost half a head taller than Eva now, so she didn’t get kisses on her forehead any more, but she enjoyed the cuddles just the same. Eva stepped away from Siuan and held her gaze, eyebrow quirked.

“What is going on? You’ve been acting strange ever since you came back home with Alys. Getting a job as a cook’s assistant at a High Lord’s house... You don’t even like cooking. I thought you enjoyed helping out with the boat and the market. Out of all my children, you are not the one I expected this from.”

Siuan tilted her head and took in her mother’s familiar mannerisms, gut twisting itself at the brief thought of lying to her. “She is there. In the manor.”

A slow smile grew on Eva’s face. “Right. She is a sweet girl, very polite. Pretty too. I see that rescuing young women and being charmed by them is a trait that runs in the family. She is Cairhienin, isn’t she? Does she work for the king?”

It could have been the way her mother was looking at her, as if she could see straight through her soul; or it could have been the meagre three hours of fitful sleep she got the previous night, or even the way the Aes Sedai had stared at her as if she were a prize catch, eyes cold and calculating, when they crossed paths in Moiraine’s bedchamber. There was no way to tell the reason, but the words spilled out of her mouth before she could consciously hold them back.

“She doesn’t work for the king, she is his niece! Her name is not even Alys, it is Moiraine. She was at the procession, she was being carried on a litter and everything! The reason I found her that day was that someone put a hit out on her, they are still trying to off her. I followed her to the manor and her food was poisoned, then she was trampled by a horse and was bleeding everywhere. She looked dead! I am bringing her food, otherwise she might be killed — if I let her eat anything else.”

Eva’s eyes were growing wider by the second, she opened her mouth to speak but Siuan carried on heedlessly.

“The Aes Sedai was able to heal her from the accident with the horse, but she is worried. These nobles enjoy scheming and backstabbing, and Moiraine is right there in the middle of them. They are worse than the defenders. She told me — no, she demanded that I was to keep my eyes and ears open to anything out of place with the servants, like I didn’t already know!”

If Eva’s eyes were wide before, at that moment they were as round as saucers.

“Aes Sedai?”

“She found me trying to sneak into Moiraine’s room. There was no way out of that one.”

“Does that mean —?”

Siuan huffed. “That she knows about me being able to wield the One Power? Yes. I don’t think I can escape going to the White Tower any longer.”

Eva’s fear was plain on her expression. Aes Sedai were not well regarded in Tear and it was known that once a girl was shipped off to train with them, she hardly, if ever, returned.

“It is ok.” Siuan grabbed her mothers hands in hers, holding a little harder than strictly necessary, fighting back the need to scream and burrow in her mother’s arms for comfort. As much as she needed to be near Moiraine, she didn’t want to leave her family behind. She couldn’t decide if their meeting was a curse or a blessing from the Wheel; maybe it was a bit of both. “It is for the best, if I stayed here someone could have seen me channeling, or sensed me, blabbed to the defenders and then what would we do? We can’t give them anymore reason to dislike our family more than they do already, with uncle Jehan doing what he does. I didn’t know it, but people who can channel the Power can feel it in other people.”

“Siuan — ” Eva seemed lost, mouth opening and closing as she tried to find words. “Is there any way out of this? The White Tower is so far away. Will you visit, at least?”

Siuan grinned a lopsided grin, ignoring the way her throat constricted from the pent up frustration. “I’m not sure there is. Aes Sedai get what they want, don’t they? At least you will be left with your favourite children.” Maybe there would be a way out of it; and if there were one, she would take it, but for the moment, Siuan couldn’t really see it.

“Shush.” Eva grabbed Siuan again, with more strength than before, and squeezed her in a bone breaking hug. “You be safe, Siuan, you hear me? You’ve always been too bloody clever for this shitty life, anyways.”

“Yes, mam, I always am.”

Eva laughed at that, letting go of Siuan. “Previous experience tells me otherwise. Now, you look about to pass out, go catch a little sleep and try not to wake your aunts before they need to be up, you know how grumpy they get.”

Siuan nodded, cradling the tote bag against her chest, the weight of it straining her forearm muscles. A rush of affection towards her mother swelled in her chest as Siuan realised Eva wasn’t going to tell her to put the food back into the cupboards. Not making any more noise than necessary, she went inside the empty room where she slept with her sisters and got ready for bed as quickly as possible. Carefully putting the tote bag down next to her pillow, she closed her eyes and eventually fell into a dreamless sleep.

It was almost dinner time when Siuan managed to escape the stall and arrive at the manor, tote bag safely secured on her right shoulder. The dissonant sounds of kitchen staff hard at work could be heard all the way from the servant’s gate and there was a whiff of roasting meat in the air that made Siuan’s mouth water and her stomach growl.

She had barely entered the kitchen area when the head serving girl rounded on her, sweaty and red faced from working near the fires.

“Where were you, Siuan? Actually, it doesn’t matter. Go change into your uniform and clean yourself and your dirty feet before mistress Leanora sees the state of you. You stink.”

She turned and left, leaving Siuan glaring daggers at her back. Did no one understand that she was working two jobs? And trying to keep a small, pretty noblewoman alive on top of that?

Frowning still, Siuan made her way towards the scullery where a large wash basin was kept for such purposes. A couple of scullery maids, hands deep in sudsy water, acknowledged her with small smiles and went back to their conversation.

It had been a hurtful thing for the serving girl to comment on but she did stink, the day’s worth of sweat and fish juices stubbornly clinging to her skin. She scrubbed her hands, arm, feet and face as hard as she could with unscented soap and even rubbed a little bit of the expensive looking jasmine oil on the insides of her wrists.

Grabbing a wet towel, Siuan went to the shed to change into her uniform, but only after using the towel to scrub the rest of her body.

Once she was dressed and as clean as she could get, she made her way through the now familiar hallways of the manor and arrived at Moiraine’s door, tote bag held close to her chest. A little flutter of nervousness made itself known, like butterfly wings tickling Siuan in the pit of her stomach. Taking a deep breath, she knocked at the door, in the way that they had agreed.

“Come in.” Moiraine’s soft voice called.

Siuan was greeted with a much healthier looking Moiraine. The colour had returned to her cheeks and her eyes were less ragged, a twinkle in them showing that she had her feet firmly planted in reality this time. She was carefully tucked under the thin blankets, a book in her left hand, index finger marking the page she was reading before the interruption.

Moiraine’s hair fell down her face in waves, in disarray from all the bed rest. The messy locks looked more inviting then they had any right to be. For a brief moment, Siuan wondered what they would feel like between her fingers; silky and soft, she decided.

“What have you got there?” Moiraine asked as she sat up, graceful as the princess she was, and picked up a tattered, embroidered ribbon from the bedside table, placing it in the book and putting it aside. She set her eyes on Siuan then; their usual piercing quality leaving her feeling naked and exposed.

“I brought you some food.” Siuan said, opening her bag and spilling its contents on the bed. “I thought it would be good for you to have a stash.” Siuan picked up the bread and offered it to Moiraine. “Are you hungry?”

Moiraine’s expression was unreadable, but if Siuan could guess which emotion she was feeling, she would guess surprise and maybe some discomfort.

“What is it? I know this is not the fancy food you are used to — ”

“No! No!” Moiraine tripped on her words in a rush to get them out. “It is just that Ariene Sedai has brought me food that is safe to eat, so I am not so hungry anymore. But I am feeling peckish — I could eat. What I mean to say is… I will have some of that bread, if that is ok?” Moiraine was flushed as a red snapper, eyes cast downwards with clear embarrassment. Adorable.

Siuan couldn’t help the smile that was growing on her face. “There you go.” She said, handing Moiraine the bread.

Moiraine held it with both hands and delicately bit into it. When the bread failed to break, she bit harder but still far too delicately, with no success. Siuan laughed.

She snatched the piece of bread out of Moirane’s hands. “Like this, your ladyship.” She bit into it as if famished, which she was, and pulled on it until it broke. “Have you never eaten stale bread before?” Siuan spoke, unwittingly spitting out bread crumbs along with her words.

Moiraine faintly wrinkled her nose and forehead in something like disgust. “No.”

Siuan wiped her mouth with the back of her hand self consciously, but she recovered quickly.

“Really? Well, now you have.” She handed the piece of bread back to Moiraine. “It keeps your teeth healthy. That is what my father says, anyway. He says soft food makes soft people.”

Moiraine rotated the bread in her hands, studying it.

“Where did you get this from?”

“From my house.”

Moiraine hummed an affirmative note as if she had been expecting that to be the case. She sneaked a glance towards Siuan and bit into the bread with a ferocity that was out of place on her, chewing it as if determined to see it through, and swallowed it.

“Will you eat something too?” Moiraine pointed to the rest of the food parcels scattered on the bed and looked in Siuan’s direction, eyes guarded.

Siuan wasn’t about to stand on ceremony with the way hunger gnawed at her empty stomach. She opened one of the parcels, took a piece of salted cod, broke the rest of the bread into two halves, put the cod in between the two and took a large, unrefined bite out of it. Siuan could feel Moiraine’s unblinking eyes on her as she devoured her sandwich.

“It will last longer if you paint a picture! ” Siuan spoke around her last mouthful. She expected at least a giggle out of Moiraine but she got a blank look instead. Fish guts, it wasn’t easy to get Moiraine in a playful mood, was it? She was so uptight. “Is there something you want to say?” Siuan asked, already knowing fully well that there would be.

Moiraine’s eyes widened for a brief second. “Can you tell?”

“Yes, I can bloody well tell.” Siuan spoke in a gentle tone that was at odds with her words. “Now, out with it.”

Moiraine cast her eyes down and turned towards her bedside table. She picked up the intricate chain with the blue stone pendant she wore on her forehead and motioned for Siuan to take it.

“How good are you at wielding the One Power?”

Chapter Text

Siuan could only stare at Moiraine in disbelief. Maybe being a princess granted her protection from the defenders, but she shouldn’t be saying these things so openly. Perhaps the near death experience had finished loosening the screws in her royal brain, who knew; the warm candle light, however, revealed only stoic determination in Moiraine’s eyes.

“What are you even saying?” She whispered. “Keep your voice down!” Fish guts. Siuan would have to be doing all the work if she was to keep Moiraine’s pretty little head attached to her shoulders.

Moiraine made a dismissive gesture, unconcerned by Siuan’s apparent distress, waving the pendant at her. “No one will hear us here, these walls are thick. Nobody has that good a hearing! Unless they can eavesdrop on us using the One Power.”

Siuan frowned and lowered her voice even more, trying to make a point. “Will you stop talking about the One Power so loudly?” She snatched the pendant out of Moiraine’s outstretched hands and examined it. “What does your jewellery have got to do with it anyway?”

Moiraine looked slightly exasperated and delicately took back the pendant, holding it by the chain. “Nobody can hear us. You have used the One Power before, haven’t you? Have you ever used any object to aid you in channelling it?”

Siuan was puzzled at that. She scoured her brain for any instances of memories, even early memories, where she had used some sort of object to aid her in channelling. There were none.

“No.” She said finally. “The only thing I ever needed was my breath and my hands. Using the One Power is similar to weaving nets, and I am very well practised with them…” She realised she might be coming across a bit arrogant so she added “Even then, I don’t use it often. It is forbidden to channel here and they would ‘disappear me’ if they ever found out.”

Moraine’s lips twitched with the beginning of a smile. “You are talented. You would do well as an Aes Sedai, most girls start channelling with the help of a conduit. Arienne Sedai has been teaching me some basic weaves and - ” She cut herself off before finishing the sentence and put the pendant on the bed, between the two of them. “It so happens that I also am talented.”

Siuan felt herself lift an eyebrow in amusement. She found she liked this bossy, confident side of Moiraine very much. Like that time she impersonated a lady in front of the guards, or when she was talking with the guests at the feast. Moiraine held her gaze for a second, looking serious, before pointing towards the pendant.

“I would like to teach you an eavesdropping weave so you can use your position as a kitchen maid to spy on the groom that was in the kitchen before the High Lord was murdered.” Moiraine said the whole sentence in one breath. “I can do it myself but -”

“I’ll do it.” Siuan interrupted her. “You can’t leave the bed, not yet, you need to recover. The Aes Sedai said so. She said she hasn’t healed you fully because otherwise it would have been too taxing on your body. You should be resting. Besides, it would be suspicious if you were around very often, asking questions. Nobody cares about a servant, but they would pay attention to you.”

Moiraine looked relieved but uncertain.

“Look, I am asking you to put yourself in a difficult position. I want you to understand the implications of it. You can be killed if you are not careful.”

“I understand it very well. Show me how it is done.”

Something in Siuan’s expression, or the finality of her words, must have convinced Moiraine that she wasn’t lying, because Moiraine nodded and inhaled deeply.

“Open yourself to saidar. Embrace it.” Siuan felt the rush of the One Power running through her veins. It felt weird to do it inside the city. Scary. Like the defenders would burst through the door at any minute. “Well done. Now, weave a flow of Earth with a touch of Fire into the stone.”

Siuan dropped saidar.

“A flow of what?”

“Of Earth.”

Siuan could only stare dumbly at Moiraine. What was she talking about? Earth? The One Power wasn’t like the earth - it was more like a storm at sea, with terrifyingly high waves that threatened to drown you. Moiraine was also confused, if the slight tilt of her head was anything to go by.

“I see.” Moiraine finally said. “I am sorry, I understand that you haven’t had any formal training yet. Embrace saidar with me.”

Moiraine tightened her jaw and, suddenly, Siuan could see a halo of light around her; so she surrendered to the One Power as well. Two very thin, faint but fairly distinct and simple weaves flickered in the air over Moiraine’s head before being sent straight towards the pendant.

For a moment, Siuan thought that the weave hadn't worked as it should, but then she heard very clearly: “I told you to go pick the ripe mangoes two hours ago!” Siuan was, at first, confused as to where the voice was coming from, but then she realised it was coming from the stone - it must have been someone in the hallway outside the room.

Siuan whistled. “That is pretty impressive.”

Moiraine grinned and her whole face lit up. Siuan thought she could see a faint blush, but she wasn’t sure if it was her imagination playing tricks on her.

“Now you try it.” Moiraine said.

Siuan nodded, biting her lips and scrunching her face up in concentration. She thought about the weaves that Moiraine produced and what they looked like, what they felt like in her skin. With a deep breath she embraced saidar again and twirled her hands as expertly as if she were weaving a net for her father.

Two faint weaves, similar to Moiraine’s, appeared in the air around the two of them. Siuan’s skin felt weird, different from what it had felt like when Moiraine first channelled, so she dropped the weaves and rubbed her hands together in concentration.

“Why did you let them go?” Moiraine looked slightly confused. “The weaves looked good.”

“Yes.” Siuan replied absent-mindedly, cracking her fingers. “But they didn’t feel right.”

Moiraine looked even more confused but a hard look from Siuan seemed to be intimidating enough to keep her silent.

Siuan breathed in and tried again, moving her hands in the way that she had done since she was a child, mimicking the movements of expert net weavers, letting the breath go.

For a second time, two faint and distinct weaves appeared, this time Siuan was pleased with herself, and a fraction of a second later, a faint whistle of wind reverberated around the room. Moiraine searched around for a potential culprit, but all the windows were closed. The sound seemed to come out of the stone. Moiraine had uncharacteristically big eyes, seeming impressed. Siuan didn’t say anything, she preferred to look cool and unbothered, but she couldn’t help but feel the sting of pride.

After being unceremoniously ushered out of the room by an anxious Moiraine, who mumbled something about her lady’s maid coming to check in on her, Siuan made her way to the kitchens ready to start working and keep an eye on whoever looked suspicious.

Moiraine mentioned a few names to listen out for and told her that, if she could do so in an unsuspecting manner, she should visit the stables. The tairen groom had an alleged connection to the poisoning, and to Moiraine’s brother and uncle, which made him the ideal first point of enquiry.

Siuan chatted to some of the younger maids, who were about her age, while helping carry a load of freshly dried dishes from the battery to the kitchen for what it felt like the hundredth time - the amount of food produced to feed these nobles was staggering, disgusting even. The bright side was that she got to eat the leftovers and, boy, she had never had such good food in her whole life. Other than that, kitchen work was boring and she much preferred being out in the boat. The work was harder but more rewarding, there was nothing better than the feeling of taking home a basket full of catch and seeing the look of respect on her father’s face.

Fishing, however, was mostly solitary; and Siuan enjoyed being around new people, making easy friends with the scullery maids. For all her prejudice against inner city ‘hagfish’, she was surprised to find out that a few of them were originally from the Maule. They were a gossipy bunch and enjoyed taking smoking breaks in the back garden. Which is how Siuan found herself with a borrowed pipe in her hands trying to mimic the other, more practised, smokers.

“He was not looking at you like that.” One of the maids, Lucia, piped up in between puffs “You know that he is desperately trying to get into Lena’s pants.

“Well, I think I might have a chance.” The other maid, Cornelia, replied, tapping the top of the pipe’s bowl with her thumb, while taking a puff. “He will get tired of chasing after her eventually, and once I get my hands on him, I won’t let it go.” They dissolved into a fit of giggles.

Focusing on keeping appearances, she tried to copy Cornelia’s tapping technique (that she found neat). The unexpected force with which the smoke rushed up her nose made her eyes tear up and her throat burn; she held in a cough.

She listened to the conversation with half an ear. Leaning on a tree trunk, she observed the comings and goings of the staff in the manor. Nobody looked particularly evil or suspicious, they all went about their daily tasks as always - until a tairen man walked past them carrying various horse-related contraptions, walking towards the stables.

“Who is that?” Siuan asked, pointing towards the man with her head.

“Istaban.” Lucia replied, making a show of exhaling smoke. “Don’t even think about it, Siuan, he is already taken.”

This time Siuan coughed for real, more from the accusation that she fancied a man than for the fact that this was the guy she was looking for. “If I wanted a man, I think I could do better than that, thank you.”

Both girls cackled. “Let me guess, then…” Cornelia started, “Soril?”

Siuan burst out laughing. Soril was the head maid taking care of the scullery area - she reported straight to mistress Leanora and she was about 120 years old.

“Come on now, my tastes are more refined than that. A Cairhienin princess, perhaps?” Siuan said with a grin, followed closely by a wink. She excused herself, saying she was going for a walk around the property to enjoy a bit of sunshine before going back inside the dark scullery, and left the two maids still laughing at her joke.

So that was Istaban, the groom mentioned by Moiraine. Still holding the pipe in her hands, Siuan took a reluctant puff, not inhaling but grimacing at the taste it left on her tongue. She never saw what was the point of the pipe, despite how much some of her friends - and even her father - seemed to enjoy it. As far as she was concerned, the so-called “leaf buzz” was a myth, something people made up just to have someone to smoke with.

Walking around the perimeter of the manor, to get away from the maids' prying eyes, Siuan found her way towards the stables.

It wasn’t - she hoped - obvious that she was spying. There were other servants about, enjoying a little bit of free time before they had to go back to their duties. Branching off the main track, a smaller, narrower path carried Siuan towards a stone bench beneath a tree, on a secluded spot by the stables. So close, in fact, that she could smell the stench of horses. It was even worse than the pipe.

Holding the pipe with her left hand, mostly to keep the pretence that she was out there having a smoke, Siuan grabbed Moiraine’s jewellery from her dress pocket and held it in her hand. It was unnerving, holding this much money in her hands. That thing could probably feed her entire neighbourhood for a year. Maybe two.

Siuan breathed in and out a few times - she felt very exposed, preparing to channel out in the open like that. Placing the pipe and the jewellery on the bench, Siuan moved her hands, as if she were weaving a net, spinning the two weaves Moiraine had taught her, sending them straight towards the stone in the pendant.

A moment later, a booming voice erupted from the stone, so loudly that Siuan barely registered the words “contract” and “the likes of you” and dropped the weaves in fright. With her heartbeat still drumming in her ears, Siuan tried to calm herself down. It was a miracle no one had shown up.

Had that been a Cairhienin accent? Maybe so, but she couldn’t be certain. She picked up the jewellery and stuffed it deep inside her dress pocket, grabbed the pipe and vanished down the narrow path, towards the opposite side from where she had come from. Panic thrummed in her veins when she found herself close to the pond where some of the servants enjoyed taking their meals.

She let herself drop into one of the benches, noticing the pipe was still faintly lit. She took a long draw, hands trembling, enjoying the burning sensation on her throat. She definitely could see the benefits of the pipe now.

Chapter Text

Sitting in her usual spot, surrounded by trees, Siuan looked out over the Erinin below. The sounds of nocturnal wildlife waking and skulking enveloped her; an owl hooted in the distance. She took a handful of dry chainleaf branches from her pocket and lit it on fire with one of the matches borrowed from Cornelia. The acrid smell of its smoke would ward off any snakes and the crocodiles, by this time, were all down by the river bank hunting for their dinner.

The waxing moonlight seemed alive, dancing on the gentle ebb and flow of the dark waters. It was all wonderfully familiar, and it should have felt safe. It was her hiding place, her refuge; yet the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach would not go away. She took deep breaths trying to slow her still racing heart, the lingering memory of channelling out in the open weighing on her chest.

This place was now suffused with the memories of Moiraine, memories that taunted her, telling her that she was not half the woman she thought to be. It was already late, a good few hours past the time they had agreed to meet in Moiraine’s room. She would probably be worried; or hurt. Or both.

The pendant in her pocket weighed a tonne. She stuffed her hands inside her dress pocket and grabbed it roughly, holding it so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

Flashes of Moiraine struggling against two men in a dark alley coursed through Siuan’s head. Scenes of busy kitchens and red-faced maids; of feasts, high-lords, kings, and murder. But it was the image of the girl beaten to death at the docks for channelling, years ago, that stuck, whirling in her mind like a boat caught in a maelstrom.

What was she thinking, getting so entangled in Moiraine’s affairs? Rushing headfirst into danger for a girl she’d only met days ago. Why shouldn’t Siuan just sell the bloody gem and leave Moiraine to her fate? Her family could certainly use the money.

Echoes of the past swirled around her. Moiraine’s lifeless body, soaked in blood, hastily carried across the empty stone halls. The tenderness in her eyes when she woke. That cocky smile flashed in private. The controlled, almost shy way she held herself around Siuan’s family.

Siuan’s throat constricted and her eyes stung with the beginning of tears. It was hard, doing the right thing. Her father had once told her with ragged eyes, after two nights spent negotiating uncle Jehan’s release from the debtor’s prison. The whole family had to live on stale bread and water for the good part of a year.

She inhaled deeply and rose to her feet. Running away from her fears would not make them go away, so she grabbed the smoky chainleaf and started towards home.

Siuan disentangled her skirt from a thorny bush and stepped into the clearing where the vegetation thinned. She glanced at the chainleaf. At the top of the branch, where the leaves met the stalk, only embers were left, glowing and smoking faintly. She threw it on the floor and smothered it with her bare heel. The sting didn’t bother her.

The huts were barely visible from there, but by the moonlight’s reflection, Siuan spotted something bright and out of place - too close to her house for comfort, too similar to a person’s silhouette for comfort. A spike of cold dread shot up her spine and her heart pumped panic into her veins. The thought of the girl murdered by the defenders snapped back into her mind.

Careful not to make a sound, Siuan approached the figure. Slowly, her eyes started to draw a clearer picture as the person’s features became more distinct. It looked like a woman. Siuan could not help the relief that coursed through her body, not the defenders then, they most certainly did not wear dresses.

A loud snap rang in the air, making Siuan cringe as a twig cracked under her left foot. The woman’s head flicked in her direction. She appeared to have found what she was looking for and started marching in Siuan’s direction. As the woman approached, her features became more defined and Siuan recognised her by the impossibly old eyes.

“What are you doing here?” Siuan barked.

The Aes Sedai studied her with a piercing gaze that sent a chill down Siuan’s spine, thin lips twisted in something like displeasure. An air of cold efficiency clung to her, a manner of being that must have been cultivated through long practice.

“I had hoped that Moiraine could face this using her wits alone. She possesses a formidable intellect and considerable strength in the One Power. She is, however, inexperienced. You, on the other hand, are streetwise in a way that lifetimes in Cairhienin court could not instill. The Pattern wove your lives together for a reason. Did you know that the two of you are perfectly matched in the One Power? That is exceedingly rare. You must return to the manor and aid Moiraine.”

That sounded like a lot of grand talk for a cop out. “Why aren’t you helping her? You are Aes Sedai!”

“I am helping. I cannot do so overtly, however. There are matters neither of you need to know, events that must come to pass in a certain way.”

”You mean you want them to murder her?”

“I want them to try.” Her expression was aloof but something fiery flickered behind her eyes.

“That is insane!” Insane didn’t even begin to cover it. “She is a person, not a pawn in one of your games!”

“Unfortunately for her, child, she was born a Damodred. And not a very important one.” The fire in the Aes Sedai’s eyes waned into something softer. “Be careful, and look after each other. You will need one another in what is to come. Then, you both can be shipped off to the Tower and we can all be glad that it is over.”

“What is coming? Who is trying to kill her?”

“It is best if she doesn’t find out.”

“You can’t just waltz in here, tell me all of this and expect me to do as you say. What if I don’t want to come to the White Tower? I have a family here that needs me.”

“In Tear, you put your family at risk by being a channeller. Even if you try to hide from the Source, it will find you. Touching it is as involuntary as the beating of your heart. In the White Tower, you will be allowed to channel freely while being trained in the ancient arts of the Aes Sedai. As a novice, you will be given an allowance of 2 gold crowns a year on top of having food and accommodation provided. You may send them a part of that allowance, if you wish. Consider the offer wisely, it is not standard practice.”

Two gold crowns a year was very generous indeed but even the Forsaken are wary of gifts too lavish. She would be able to keep her family fed and she could buy as much fudge as she could fit in her stomach? People did say that Aes Sedai liked playing puppet masters and that you should watch one with both eyes and a mirror. All of this scheming and backstabbing were getting on Siuan’s already frazzled nerves. It was no wonder Moiraine thought she wouldn’t like Cairhien, she had never been there and she already wished it would be taken by the Dark One’s own hand.

“What is so important about this contract?”

The Aes Sedai visibly startled. “What contract?”

“You know which contract I am talking about.”

“I know about many contracts. I am an Aes Sedai of the Grey Ajah, contracts are my bread and butter.”

Annoyance gnawed at Siuan. The woman was more slippery than a freshly caught eel. “The one that relates to Moiraine.”

The Aes Sedai remained silent.

“If you so desperately want my help, you need to give me something to work with.” Siuan knew her voice betrayed her irritation and that this was not the treatment one gave an Aes Sedai, or anyone her elder, but she had just about enough.

The Aes Sedai sighed as if she had lost at a game of dice and was resigned to her fate. “Very well, I suppose this is something like a negotiation…” She stared at Siuan. “It is a marriage contract.”

IT IS A WHAT?