(no subject)

[we_bring_hell]

Harrowhark is in the bar, wearing the style of facepaint known as the Vanitas, with no lower teeth and sharp angular edges. It's good to be back in her makeup, even if the consecration was a greater undertaking than anticipated.

Although she is formally painted from the neck up, she is wearing some of the more informal clothes her room had supplied; soft trousers and a hoodie all in black. She is not wearing gloves today, because her palms are wrapped in bandages, but it is the kind of wound she is used to dealing with and it is healing quickly. The pinpricks of pain around her lips are worse, if only because it's been a very long time since she underwent the ritual of the Sewn Tongue.

She is diagramming spirals on paper, working in ink rather than blood right now. She can't spare any blood currently. She has refreshments to share, if you like faintly cucumber-flavored water and very bland, crumbly biscuits.

Comments

[we_bring_hell]

"It isn't..."


She sighs. "Well, it's not wrong."

That's not the point, of course; the point is that wearing such a garment is an advertisement that either one is such a chivalrous person, or is fond of one. Perhaps in search of one.

"If the Bar thinks Gideon Nav is ever far from my thoughts... it is wrong."

[blue_ajah]

"Perhaps that is why," she murmurs.

"Do not let it trouble you, if you can."

[we_bring_hell]

"It doesn't trouble me," she says. "I mean--the shirt doesn't trouble me."

"When I return I will have to face her," she says in a low voice. "And tell her the things... the things I am afraid to even tell you. She may kill me. If she chose that penance, I don't..."

"I don't think I would stop her. If anyone has the right, it's her. And if I have to die I hope it's someone I love. Not a construct or a trap or a traitor. She is the one I choose to die beside."

[blue_ajah]

"There is a saying," the Aes Sedai murmurs, after several seconds of silence. "In the world where I was born. 'Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain.'"

"I shall not gainsay you, Lady Ninth. I shall instead hope the best for you, and for Gideon Nav. Light illumine and protect you both."

[we_bring_hell]

Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain.

"A axiom worthy of the Ninth," she says. "I thank you."

She looks at the notes on the table. "And whatever happens in my world, I have contributed something here, I hope."

[blue_ajah]

"You may be certain that you have," Moiraine tells her. "And I shall hope that we may continue to learn more from each other."

[we_bring_hell]

She nods slowly. "I plan to take my time returning. I have things to face... but there are things I want to accomplish first."

[blue_ajah]

"The Wheel weaves," Moiraine says, "and it may well be that you have found your way to this place for exactly such a reason. When the time comes for you to return, I think you will know."