(no subject)

[blue_ajah]

As the air parts, she simply appears near her preferred table. Moiraine is carrying an anthology of poetry again this evening, and has a small notebook as well.

The Aes Sedai settles at her table and opens her books, with an idle glance around the bar.

[Summary: Elaine brings tea at Dream's request and is convinced to take a short break, in which she and Moiraine discuss Elaine's family and background, with great canon similarity identified, and then move into feminism and finally discussion of their worlds. Morpheus appears, and Moiraine thanks him for his consideration, and then they are simply cute together for a while. Later, she and Roland discuss Cort's arrival and whether or not Roland should tell him things about the future; at some point later, Peter Pevensie asks her to Heal Caspian (although the healing is rejected in Caspian's thread). Afterwards, she returns to her table and is joined by Bran, who discusses poetry with her-- and is stunned by a plotty revelation. Meg drops by and tells Moiraine that she'll be joining the ranks-of-pseudo-immortal-mortals after her own death, and this is still under discussion, as the thread is slowtimed. Finally, Nita Callahan introduces herself and asks for help with a problem that concerns Asmodean, which immediately gets Moiraine's full attention... (Say it with me, folks: slowtimed.)]

Comments

[lastgunslinger]

It's Milliways. That's good enough.

Roland thinks about this.

"Not ill, but there's a matter I'd ask your counsel on, if you've the time."

[blue_ajah]

She inclines her head slightly and takes a sip of tea.

"I shall listen and advise you as I am able, then."

[lastgunslinger]

A brief smile, then:

"You remember I met my father in the Dreaming, and you told me I might consider it a real meeting." Pause. "I told him all that passed between his time and mine, and he told me I had done as well as I might have."

Roland doesn't spend too much time dwelling on this, but Moiraine might be able to tell that he feels no small sense of relief about this.

"It was ever the father's responsibility to teach his son about ka. For the things we had to learn to be gunslingers, we learned from a man named Cortland Andrus, but there were few who called him so. To us he was Cort, and he was ours." Roland speaks simply. "We had to face him in battle to become gunslingers, as Jake faced me."

Quietly: "My life's greatest teacher." Pause. "He came in, the other night."

[blue_ajah]

She is Aes Sedai, and observant, although she does not comment on Roland's relief-- and then her glance sharpens.

"Is it so? Does he yet remain?"

[lastgunslinger]

Roland shakes his head. "No. He entered and left from Gilead."

Pause.

"Before the fall."

Further pause.

"To him, I am eleven."

[blue_ajah]

Moiraine considers him in silence for a moment.

"I see."

Calmly.

[lastgunslinger]

Roland nods. "He palavered with the Manni -- that's how he got here. They travel to other worlds, and to them todash is the holiest of states."

Pause.

"The Manni know many things, and are loath to trust outsiders."

[blue_ajah]

"Todash is holy to them?" Surprise does not show in her tone, but it flickers in her eyes, before they narrow slightly.

"They do not trust outsiders, you say, and yet your teacher would seem to have known them well."

[lastgunslinger]

He nods again. "Well enough for them to send him here."

And he hesitates.

"...there's much I'd tell him." He meets her gaze. "I'd know if you think I should."

[blue_ajah]

She tilts her head, studying him.

"What is it that you would tell him?"

[lastgunslinger]

"What I told my father."

Unspoken: And to hear what he thinks.

[blue_ajah]

She does not answer immediately; and when she speaks again, dark eyes are thoughtful.

"You are eleven, to him?"

[lastgunslinger]

He nods. "So he said."

[blue_ajah]

"And he knows that you are here, clearly, for you have spoken with him already."

A pause.

"How much longer did you know him, before you came to Milliways?"

[lastgunslinger]

"He died shortly after our ka-tel loaded up for the first time. Eight years."

[blue_ajah]

"And in that time, did he give any indication that he had met you elsewhere?"

[lastgunslinger]

Roland shakes his head.

[blue_ajah]

She taps a finger on the table, thoughtfully.

"I would like to meet him, I think. I shall hope that I have the opportunity to do so."

A pause.

"Has he spoken with others that ... know you?"

[lastgunslinger]

Roland nods. "He knows that Cuthbert and Alain pass their trials." Pause. "It wouldn't surprise me if he'd spoken with folken here, either."

[blue_ajah]

"And in eight years, then, he gave no hint of such knowledge?"

[lastgunslinger]

"No. He didn't."

[blue_ajah]

The finger continues to tap for a few moments, and then stills.

Moiraine looks up at him, and inclines her head slightly.

"It is your decision, of course; but I suspect that you might risk it, and that it would be a reasonable risk to take, if you wished to do so."

[lastgunslinger]

A slow half-smile...and a nod. "Say thankya."

Now there's just the matter of telling it all to Cort.

If Cort ever comes back.

[blue_ajah]

"You are welcome, certainly."

She takes another sip of her tea.

"I am sorry that I missed him, before."

[lastgunslinger]

Roland's smiling again. "I'm not sure what you'd make of each other, say true." Pause. "He was a great riddler...and of the fifty-odd who started in our ka-tel, thirteen made it through."