milliways_bar | (no subject)

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[OOM: Everything is tangled.]

A shining portal flashes into existence, but there is something clearly wrong with it: it flares once, twice, unstable and very nearly uncontrolled.

From the other side, a soft despairing cry slices through the air-- and then Moiraine falls through the gateway as it sparks and dissolves in silver fire around her.

The slender figure of the Aes Sedai then crumples to the floor and lies there, unmoving.

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"If you would not mind my presence," she demurs, "then I should enjoy your company, I believe."

Moiraine offers a serene smile to them both.

Cooper doesn't return it. "Moiraine, when was the last time you ate anything?" Beat. "Or slept?"

The Aes Sedai hesitates, visibly.

"No word that is not true," she murmurs, very softly, and then sighs.

"I do not know, Dale."

'One thing can be seen to straightaway, at least.' Merriman looks over at Cooper, quiet and serious. 'I will return momentarily.'

And with that, he heads over to the bar.

Cooper nods, and watches him go.

He doesn't lead Moiraine to the table they were at before. Instead, he chooses one in a corner -- one that's dark, and one that has a good view of the entire room. They'll be less likely to be bothered than they would be out in the open.

He pulls out a chair and says, quietly, "Are you physically injured?"

"I do not believe so," she replies, calmly, taking the seat that he holds for her.

Moiraine glances around the room, as if refamiliarizing herself with it.

"Okay," he says.

Good, the hand resting briefly on her shoulder says, and then Cooper takes a seat.

Merriman has a tray in his hands when he makes his way over to the table Cooper has selected. A glass of water. A simple bowl of soup, with a small basket containing three bread rolls. A plate with slices of fruit on it, apples and oranges. And the ubiquitous pot of tea -- albeit one that is not too strong.

He sets it down on the table, then takes a seat himself and moves the teapot and single cup off the tray for the moment.

She observes this, and then arches an eyebrow at Merriman.

"Perhaps the two of you would see fit to share refreshment with me, as well?"

There is a touch of amusement in her tone.

"I already ate." This said calmly.

Cooper has entertained the notion that whatever caused his change in behavior was something he ingested.

But it was coffee or chocolate, and the coffee hasn't ever done anything before, and not everybody was acting off. And both items are missing from the tray.

Merriman resists the temptation to simply produce a cup for the tea out of nowhere, like a conjuring trick, and instead signals for a waitrat -- not Holly, as it happens. Not from any real desire for the tea itself, but because there are already enough levels of potential awkwardness to face without the additional one of sitting and watching Moiraine eat.

The waitrat hurries off and returns very quickly, bearing the cup in both hands. And so he calmly begins to pour, both for her and for himself, without saying a word.

As Merriman pours, Moiraine takes one of the rolls and begins to break it into manageable pieces.

"Thank you," she murmurs. A pause. "How are matters with you both?"

"I'm not Bound any more." This said quietly. "But the story behind that can wait."

Cooper looks at Merriman. There's a situation, Merriman said, earlier -- but Cooper hopes that it's the kind of situation that can wait to be mentioned until she's rested.

The situation can wait, and will wait. Especially because Cooper does not yet know the more pressing concern that happens to be on Merriman's mind.

'I am well enough,' he says as he finishes filling the cup closest to him. 'I have had a few interesting and enlightening conversations, as well as a game or two of chess, but those too are really nothing to speak of at the moment.'

He sets the cup near to her, and starts pouring again.

Something that might be surprised pleasure flickers in the dark eyes at Cooper's news.

"I am pleased, Dale, for your sake," she murmurs, setting the bread down in favor of the tea. "It is no easy thing, to be Bound.

"Thank you," she adds to Merriman, taking a sip of the tea. Although she is well aware that chess is something of a delicate subject in this company, it is only a moment before she continues, "Perhaps some day you would wish to try a game of t'cheran, as well."

A pause, and another sip of tea, and then Moiraine looks up at both of them. If there is a sigh, it is not visible.

"I will explain, if you wish," she says simply.

'Please do,' Merriman says, sipping his own tea. 'As much or as little as you see fit to explain.'

They can give her that much leeway, at the moment.

She glances back and forth between them, and then says,

"Matters in my world are less stable than I had believed, in a sense. The Pattern is ... thinning, in some ways."

A pause.

"It has an effect."

"It caused you to be disoriented?"

"One might say that, I suppose."

Moiraine hesitates, then continues steadily,

"I am perhaps peculiarly sensitive, however, although it grows so clear as to make it easy for others to notice as well."

Merriman tries a slightly different tack, trying to put together what he felt with what both he and Cooper saw. 'When you entered, the portal you used was remarkably unstable. Enough so that I was concerned about what might happen if I were to come into physical contact with you. How long had you felt the instability -- the thinning of the Pattern that you mentioned?'

She shakes her head slightly at this.

"Time is one of those matters that is uncertain, Merriman. It is difficult to say exactly how long it has been."

A pause, and it may be evident that it is somehow a very deliberate one.

"Besides, I do not think that one might directly credit the Pattern itself with that particular effect."

"Then who or what else would you credit?"

Things like this aren't -- they're not quite beyond him. But Cooper knows that he doesn't have the understanding of time, and Patterns, that Moiraine and Merriman do.

"With the instability of the portal?"

Moiraine smiles, very faintly, and sips her tea.

"Myself."

Merriman is silent for a moment.

'Creating a portal of that nature requires a sound and conscious knowledge of both the starting point and the destination.' He says this more for Cooper's benefit than anything else, but it still helps to speak of it aloud in the process of reasoning out his thoughts. 'If either is affected, the magic used to create the portal would be affected as well. And before, you spoke of "paths" -- more than one. If the Pattern is thinning, and your place in it was affected, and you yourself were affected by it....'

Merriman's knowledge of Moiraine's world is not great, but he knows enough of unstable magic to know that it must be able to vent its instability, or it will turn to destruction. And a mortal body, unable to withstand the strain of the instability, will look towards self-preservation when all other hopes have been exhausted.

'It was a last resort, was it not?' More quietly than before. 'A means of escape, that brought you back to a location where your place in an ongoing Pattern was assured?'

She is suddenly very, very still, and as she sets the cup down a fine tremor shivers the surface of the tea.

"It is not precisely the thinning of the Pattern that has affected my place in it," Moiraine says, very softly. "Not precisely. It is more that I am now in too many places at once, and some were perhaps never meant to be woven so."

A single breath, and a slight shrug.

"It was more difficult than I had expected, this time, to distinguish between what was, and what was not, what had been and what might never be."

Dark eyes meet theirs, steadily.

"But it was an escape, yes; perhaps not the last resort, but a desperate measure that I should never have needed to take, had I been more ... clearly aware."