"Oh that's not so bad," she says faintly. "Just thanergetic feedback." She sticks a finger in her mouth, bites down on the fingertip of her glove and tugs it off. She touches her ear.

"No aneurysm." She takes the cloth and mops her face.

"Moiraine Sedai," she says, grinning gruesomely with blood on her teeth, "I have done alien magic. Alien, thalergenic magic. I have surpassed all my ancestors." She slumps back onto the pillow.

"And you... have done necromancy. Congratulations."