we_bring_hell | (no subject)

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You would need an advanced degree in Nonagesamics to realize that Harrowhark is ecstatically happy this morning, but even the layman can tell that her usual spikes are retracted somewhat. Not the spikes on her boots--Gideon liked these boots, and she has no intention of wearing anything else for a while. But the metaphorical spikes.

Aside from her boots she is back in her standard habit--black trousers, black long-sleeve shirt with the high collar. No gloves. Her hair is freshly cropped back to her scalp. Her face is painted with exceptional care, in what Harrow considers the sexiest pattern, because Harrowhark has opinions about things like that. This one is called The Chain and has considerable, immodest flourishes. She has edged the perimeter of the painted skull with midnight purples and deep blood reds, an even greater departure from propriety.

She is writing in her journal, and since she writes in code there is no way anyone can tell she has doodled One Flesh One End approximately one hundred times. She has been eating oatmeal, and by God she even ate the raisins.

Things are good. For now, for once, things are good.

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"We had spoken of practicing the portal weave," she says. "Do you have the time this morning?"

"I do, as it happens."

"Then shall we?" she says, then pauses. "I should inform my cavalier where I will be, however."

Try to look less giddy when you say that, Harrow.

Moiraine smiles, very slightly.

"I shall wait here for you," she says. "Bring her along, if you and she both wish."

Harrow returns, sans cavalier, but having added a jacket to her ensemble. It is leather, and as such, responsive to her powers, which is reassuring.

"She is still asleep," she says, with an indulgent rolling of her eyes. "But the last few days have been terrible for her. I have been here long enough to have recovered some of my equilibrium, but for her it was all only yesterday."

"Shall we?"

"Certainly."

She rises, graceful as always, and glides beside Harrow toward the lake door.

"If there is a particular area that you have spent time," she instructs, "then we might begin there."

"The inlet," she says immediately.

She does not say why, but to someone of Moiraine's perspicacity it's hardly necessary. It's salt water; and when they arrive, the sand is marked. Among the various marks are two sets of prints of bare feet, still quite fresh. One is notably larger than the other.

She glances at the footprints, then back at Harrow.

"To open a portal, a gateway, to another location is known as Traveling," the Aes Sedai says. "Although there are some shortcuts that may be possible, I think it is important for you to have fully mastered the process before trying them."

"The first thing is that you must know the location where you are attempting to open the gateway. The feel of the land, the air around you, the landscape itself -- all the things that make it distinctive to you, so that you would be able to identify the particular place itself as different from another."

She nods. "It is, at least, the most significant place in the outside of Milliways to me." Unfortunately, Harrow spends a lot of her time inside. "I have worked ritual magic of sacred geography here."

"All right. We will weave from here to a clearing on the other side of the stables, past the paddock and just inside the woods," Moiraine tells her.

"I will do so first, so that you may see how I do it. Do you think it would help you to see, if you were to link with me as you did before?"

"That could help," she agrees. "Are you prepared?"

A faint golden glow springs into existence around her as she embraces saidar, and Moiraine nods to her.

She closes her eyes for a moment, retracing the steps of the theorem, then opening herself fully to the bio-energetic map of the area. Moiraine Sedai, of course, blazes as a fountain of thalergy, but under the glow is the busy swarm of life and death of a living human being.

The theorem enchains the pattern of the Aes Sedai's brain to Harrow's own sensory cortex, and her own perception of the beach blurs and lurches heavily to one side as she looks out through Moiraine's eyes. Once again, the sickly feeling of thanergy seeps beneath Moiraine's skin as the theorem hooks into her living body.

She breathes through it, letting the flow of saidar rush through her and dominate her senses as much as she can, even while remaining aware of the creeping feeling of necromantic presence and awareness that it brings.

"Watch closely," she murmurs, and shapes the initial filaments of the gateway, sending threads of Spirit forth to test the ground immediately before them, seeking a place here that matches one there, as well.

She observes, the drawn pattern of the weave from Moiraine's rendering making more sense when she sees it in action.

She doesn't want to disturb Moiraine's concentration, but makes a mental note of her questions as the weave proceeds.

Once again, the thanergetic chill seeps through her blood and wraps around her bones, squeezing tight. As the threads of Spirit find their foundation and root in the earth, then stretch across the liminal space between to their destination, the Aes Sedai can see the deaths of small creatures in the sand, the wisps of wilt in seagrass nearby, the natural endings to the vibrant life that she sees, as well.

She cannot let herself be distracted, and is experienced enough to manage it. Air and Earth spin from her fingers now, then ground themselves in the center of Spirit's foundation and shoot upward in a bright, shining line in the middle of the air, which pulls open wide to reveal the clearing and trees beyond.

Spirit, Air and Earth. Earth is easy; Air is harder. Harrow has never practiced or even seen jhator in practice.

Harrow notes the roles of Earth particularly, and with minor misgivings, but steers her attention back to the completed portal, borrowing Moiraine's superior skill for such things to examine the portal structure itself. There are elements not included in the weave; things rooted in Moiraine's knowledge of the two places.

The encoding of the here and there into the weave is fascinating, as well as the delicate threads that bind the two ideas together.

Edited 2020-10-21 13:22 (UTC)

As Harrow examines the link between saidar and the elements of place built into the gateway, it may be possible to discern that the threads of Spirit themselves carry knowledge of the distant location, identified through their testing as a match of sorts to the place known through Moiraine's study of the present location. It seems that one might truly only have to know their origin, and from that can find their destination... although knowing both certainly seems to help.

Moiraine holds the gateway open, allowing Harrow time. Through slightly gritted teeth, she says,

"I do not suggest we cross while linked like this. I am not certain of the potential for backlash, and if there were to be one, it could be devastating."

Edited 2020-10-21 13:36 (UTC)

"By no means," she says. "I do not know this theorem as well as some, either. I can disconnect if you wish." She herself is beginning to sweat, although it isn't blood sweat yet.

Edited 2020-10-21 13:38 (UTC)

"Take what time you need to study the weave closely, first," she says. "Then, when you are ready."

She takes another couple moments to examine, and looks through the gateway as well. It does seem close enough to touch, and she's curious to try and extend her power through -- but not, as Moiraine says, when they are joined like this.

"Spirit to establish the resonance between the locations, Earth to bind them together?" she speculates. "And Air for... boundaries, again, as in the invisibility weave?"

"Yes," the Aes Sedai confirms. "Earth as the anchor and bridge, both. Air to define the opening, and Spirit as you have described."

"I think I have it," she says. "Is there a special closing procedure for it? I know you said it has perils if it runs out of control."

"Release the weave," Moiraine tells her. "As it dissipates, the gateway will no longer remain open."

"The particular dangers are more from trying to stop a gateway that is in the process of closing, from crossing through an unstable gateway, or in being unable to properly locate and set it so that it is clearly defined. The first may cut you in half, while the latter two may surge the power through the channeler, sometimes others nearby as well. There have been violent results."

"I see," she says. "So the greater danger is in making a mistake in establishing the portal."

"I have additional questions, but I do not think I need to see the weave for them."