milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Shortly before sunset, Moiraine had come downstairs and gone quietly out the door to the lake. From time to time, a particularly observant or sensitive patron might well have noticed a flicker of golden or silver light near the edge of the building, or by the greenhouse, or at the fringes of the forest.

Sunset had turned into deep dusk, and now night has fallen. The Aes Sedai is still outside, gliding noiselessly over the grass under the dark of the moon. Silver fire sparks from her fingertips as she tests possibilities and considers threads.

Frequently, her gaze flicks upward as she scans rooftops and skies and the branches of trees.

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She is suddenly very still.

"I would hear more of this, Kim."

She looks up, "I have a ter'angreal, she...wanted me to practice working in Tel’aran’rhiod. I...I - a few nights ago, I met her there and told her I knew what she was and was going to stop her."

Moiraine stares at her for several seconds in silence.

"Brave of you," she says finally, "but perhaps foolish, as well. Such a thing as I now mention is not usually spoken of, but your strength does not come near matching what that of the Forsaken is known to be, although something of your potential remains to be seen."

Kim tries not to look away, but it's difficult.

"Very foolish," she admits. "I felt her strength, she'd hidden most of it somehow and she - she tried to torture me into helping her, but I didn't give in."

"More than brave, perhaps," she says quietly. "How did you manage to escape?"

"I didn't," she whispers. "I just...I knew that I wasn't going to let her use me and I didn't try to get away."

Visible surprise flickers in the dark eyes, and then Moiraine says,

"I see. I had not realized... and you returned here, afterwards?"

Kim isn't looking at her and she finds parts of this still a little difficult to talk about.

"Not exactly," she takes a small breath. "Someone, a friend, he was watching what happened and when he woke up, he ran to get me. My Dad had a ring, a gift from Tim and he wished that I'd be healed."

She looks up, "Mesaana thinks I'm dead."

"Light be praised," she murmurs, and then is silent for a few moments.

During that time, her dark-eyed gaze goes briefly to a parliament of owls, perched on the roof of the greenhouse and watching them.

"It is best that she think you so; if we are truly lucky, she will not return here again." There is something implacable in her demeanor as she adds,

"And if she does, then perhaps she may be dealt with. There are ways."

She nods, unable to disagree.

Instinctively, her head turns to follow whatever's grabbed Moiraine's attention. She's never seen so many owls in Milliways. One of the disadvantages of getting wrapped up in your own problems is that you miss a lot of what's going on outside of your mind.

"Is that...normal?"

Her eyes narrow slightly and she looks down at the ground. "I very much hope that someone deals with her."

"It depends on what you would term normal," she says, a hint of dislike clear in her tone as she watches the owls watching her. "It is not precisely unexpected, however."

Moiraine looks back at Kim, dismissing the birds from consideration at the moment.

"Someone will, in time. If she returns here with the idea of carrying out additional maneuvers, that time may be sooner rather than later."

It is a cool promise, of sorts.

"That is a good point," she concedes, but she also notices that Moiraine doesn't sound happy about it. "Why would it be expected?"

She's a tiny bit confused.

"If she returns here and masks her ability or uses a disguise, it would be hard to find her."

"Because, as it happens, I was given to understand that there might be some interest taken in my actions," she replies. She seems calm enough, although that flicker of distaste remains. "It is not a matter that need concern you overmuch, I do not think."

"As for Mesaana..." Moiraine permits herself a faint smile, thinking of Nynaeve's green-jeweled ring. "There are more ways to detect such things than she may be aware of."

"Actions...do you mean whatever you were using those weaves for when I walked over here?"

She looks interested, "You know how to sense Suppressed Channellers?"

"Among other things," she says. It may not be entirely helpful, but Moiraine has no intention of clarifying explicitly under the watchful eyes of the owls.

"And there are ways," she adds. The Aes Sedai looks directly at Kim. "Do you wish to learn?"

Her tone is perfectly calm, almost casual, but the question itself is anything but.

Kim gets a feeling she's asking her more than if she just wants to learn one or two weaves.

She nods, "I would be honored to learn from you. I - when I was with...I want to learn how to use these abilities to help, not destroy."

"You would not be the first student I brought to the White Tower, were you born to my world," Moiraine says quietly. "But you were not there born, and I would not take you there for training in any case, as matters are ... unsettled."

She considers Kim for a moment, and inclines her head.

"What the Dark One wishes, I oppose. What she has done, I will undo, if I can. You will have to study hard, and work harder, but you may go far; you have the potential in you to be very strong indeed, stronger than many I have known."

A part of her rebels at the thought of going back to that world for training, but Moiraine is not Mesaana and even though she's having a hard time trusting people, she knows with a kind of fierce certainty that she can trust Moiraine, if only because they share similiar enemies.

Inwardly, she feels hope for the first time in weeks.

"I will do whatever it takes, Moiraine." And she means that, she views her waking up from that dream as a kind of second chance.

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