"Is it more vulnerable because it is more brittle, or less flexible, perhaps?" she asks.

It is strange to be talking about spells woven with decay and death and parts of a physical body, but it is as they have discussed previously - Harrow's work draws from the power released at the end of the natural process, rather than at its creation. Even Ages both come and pass with the turning of the Wheel of Time. For the time being, the Aes Sedai is content to learn more.

"I can see how it would be something to which one could become accustomed," she adds. "If the pattern at the heart of the spell remains similar, then it may be only a matter of adjusting the parts of it."

She is already thinking how she might try to adapt this type of notation to describe the basic weaves taught to novices in the White Tower.