milliways_bar | (no subject)

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.)]

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She tilts her head slightly, and her tone remains calm.

"I intend to unweave the link, insofar as I can."

". . .Okay. Now?"

"Unless you would prefer to wait?"

Polite disbelief.

"No, that's fine. Will unweaving the link get rid of these -- memories?"

"If it does not, I may be able to do something else to affect them."

An odd expression crosses her face as she continues, "I have some experience with such matters."

She takes a deep breath, nods. "Okay."

She adds softly, in the Speech, "Thank you."

"I would not have you bound to one of the Forsaken, Nita, if it could at all be avoided."

Her tone remains calm and certain as she holds out both hands to the girl on the other side of the table, and the golden light appears around her once more.

"Place your hands in mine, and try to remain calm and open."

She takes a deep breath. Why am I nervous? She's helping.

. . .Is it him?

She shakes her head. This is no time to be figuring that sort of thing out. She takes another deep breath and tries to think of how it feels when she and Kit are talking mind-to-mind -- calm, open, trusting. . .

Eyes closed, she places her hands in Moiraine's and tries to relax.

Golden light is transformed into streaks of silver as Moiraine channels, and the weave surges through her hands and into Nita. The Aes Sedai is very still, focusing intently, as she delicately begins to unravel the tangled Spirit of the link in the depths of the girl's mind.

Nita shivers at the power, but tries to keep body and mind still, afraid of distracting Moiraine.

She frowns visible as she tries to sort through the tangled weaving; the Spirit is easily handled, but the flickers of Fire are strange and dangerously woven. It is a complex weave; not unfamiliar, not unlike a Warder's bond in some respects, and the parts she knows are quickly undone and freed.

She cannot untangle the unknown aspects, however, not when she is working against saidin, the male half of the True Source.

But she will not leave the girl like this. Moiraine pales a little and holds Nita's hands tighter as she begins to weave something else, drawing on her own knowledge and on her husband's strength, as well.

Nita winces, and feels her heart pick up a little. It hurts -- some of it in the clean, healthy pain a wound feels as it heals; some of it a darker pain, like a wound being made.

The glow around her strengthens until the Aes Sedai is shining with the fire of a small sun, and there is a sudden flash of silver as an intricate net braids itself around Nita's head and then sinks into her mind.

Memories of Shadow and darkness are locked away behind the shield; memories not her own are sealed apart, save only for the interwoven visions of his-her-their mothers and the hallucinations surrounding them.

Delicately, Moiraine withdraws, and releases Nita's hands as the glow around her fades.

"I have done what I can, at present, I think." She looks carefully at the girl. "How do you feel?"

She opens her eyes and takes a look around her own head.

"Better," and the fact surprises her. "I -- better. Thank you."

"You are welcome."

Her tone is calm still, but dark eyes show distaste at the memories of horror that she had seen in Nita's mind.

"I suspect that it has been difficult for you."

She looks away, and nods. "Fairly, yeah." She wonders briefly how much Moiraine saw.

"How long have you been struggling with this, Nita?"

The Aes Sedai is studying her carefully.

"Since. . . since pretty soon after I was Bound, I think. Two months, maybe two and a half."

"A long time." A pause. "I presume you have spoken with him about this, during that time?"

"A couple times, recently. We. . . didn't figure it out until recently." She blushes slightly.

Dark eyes are intent upon her, and she does not miss the blush.

"If this sort of situation were to be unlike anything in your prior experience, I do not find that difficult to believe, that you might not know."

A pause. "How much do you know about me, Nita?"

"Not a lot," she admits. "I -- I know a little through the link, like that you're an Aes Sedai, and I know you healed one of my friends, Tony Almeida -- but not much past that."

"I am Aes Sedai, yes." Serenely. "Asmodean is Forsaken."

Another pause, and she tilts her head, studying the younger woman carefully.

"Whatever the Dark One wishes, I oppose."

She smiles slightly. "Then dai'stiho, cousin. Sounds like we've got something in common."

The smile fades as she says, "But Asmodean. . . He joined the Shadow, I know, and he did -- horrible things -- but he saved me." She shakes her head. "Sorry. I see where you're coming from. It's just -- I think he saved my life, maybe my soul, and it's hard for me to reconcile that with one of the Forsaken."

"I would not deny that he might have done so," she says calmly. "There are even several reasons why he might have acted so; things are rarely as simple as one might wish for them to be."

"But the fact remains that he is the same man who had it within him to turn to the Shadow in the first place, and you now know that as well as or better than anyone else here."

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nita_callahan - 2005-06-17 23:03 (UTC) - Expand

blue_ajah - 2005-06-17 23:11 (UTC) - Expand

nita_callahan - 2005-06-17 23:28 (UTC) - Expand