Post-Halloween

[we_bring_hell]

Harrow is working. Very seriously. She is not mooning over her new relationship with Gideon even a little bit; she has too much work to do.

She is, however, wearing a skull with accents of deep, almost black purple, with a starburst or floral pattern just below her temple, that she has never been seen to wear before.

Other than that sentimental embellishment, however, she is entirely focused on Obaeg's Toward a Common Haemographology. She is making copious notes in the margins--courting future simian fury--and thinking that she should have found this for Moiraine before they started working on her weave notation.

Comments

[we_bring_hell]

"To weave with your own soul," she murmurs. "God's teeth."

To think she thought she had anything to teach Moiraine Sedai about necromancy!

[blue_ajah]

"Well, I do not think I could have done so with another's," she points out, practically. "But I knew myself well enough."

[we_bring_hell]

"Yes,"she says, almost to herself, "exactly."

"Forgive me." She shakes her head. "I was struck by certain similarities. But how did you survive it?"

[blue_ajah]

"I did not expect to," she says.

"But as it happens, the years I had spent here created a new thread, a new life. And I was able to return to it."

[we_bring_hell]

The Fourth House indeed, she thinks.

"How did you come to live in Twin Peaks?"

[blue_ajah]

"I was invited," she says. "First to recover there, afterwards, and then to stay."

Her glance goes to the violet of Harrow's paint, and she adds,

"By someone very dear to me."

[we_bring_hell]

"I see." Her smile is faint enough to be a trick of the paint. "Is it very different?"

Both Is Twin Peaks very different from the world you know? and Is it very different, to live for yourself and perhaps one other, and not for a whole planet?

[blue_ajah]

"I will not deny that it has taken some getting used to," the Aes Sedai says.

"It is something that Dale and I have discussed, more than once. Both he and I have faced our separate battles and have supported each other in them, and we both understand the requirements of duty as well as what comes after it."

[we_bring_hell]

So that is her balance; a work in progress, she has said, but worth it.

"Did his battles involve this cursed location? Or is that a false inference?"

[blue_ajah]

She does not bat an eye.

"Some of them. Not all. But Twin Peaks has been affected by it more than once, over the years."

[we_bring_hell]

"I see."

So his retirement is threatened by this, as well as Moiraine's new world.

"...is he the one you have referred to as a bodyguard of sorts?"

[blue_ajah]

She inclines her head in assent.

"He has acted as such more than once. Including when he returned with me to my birth world, for Tarmon Gai'don."

[we_bring_hell]

That completes the narrative she had mentioned before, then, of returning to her own world. "And having seen both, you chose to return to his world to... retire, as it were?"

[blue_ajah]

Part of the answer is that Dale had indicated that he would not have wanted to leave Twin Peaks, but that is his business, and it is not the whole of the answer in any case.

Moiraine says,

"It is a little more complicated than that. For one thing, I am still able to travel between the worlds, and when there is a particular need, those who are aware of how to reach me may do so, and I will assist if I can. As I said before, I do not do well with enforced idleness."

A small smile curves her lips, then.

"But I do think that all things considered, it is a better choice for the two of us to have remained in Twin Peaks than to have settled anywhere in the world in which I was born."

[we_bring_hell]

"I am pleased for you, then, that you have found some measure of balance and an earned peace," she says. "For the most part."

Lyctors don't get to retire.

[blue_ajah]

"For the most part," the Aes Sedai agrees. "The Wheel weaves."

"But thank you, Harrow."

[we_bring_hell]

"Thank you for telling me about it," she says. "I will of course keep it in confidence."

[blue_ajah]

"I appreciate that," she says, "as I am something of a private person. However, there are others here who know as well, so it is not as though it is a secret."

[we_bring_hell]

She nods. "I understand the value of privacy."

She hesitates. "May I speak of this to Gideon, if or when it seems appropriate? I will impress the importance of respecting your privacy on her as well. She is capable of discretion, though it may seem surprising."

"I will understand if you prefer I do not. But a friend told me there should be few secrets between us."

[blue_ajah]

She smiles, at Harrow's last observation.

"You may."

[we_bring_hell]

"I will also speak to her about visiting the world of your birth. I must try to give her more warning," she says ruefully. "But she will be quite interested, I believe. As long as the Warder has an interesting sword."

"Is there anything else relevant to such a visit we should know? I assume my paints may be out of place; would a veil be appropriate?"

[blue_ajah]

"It depends on if the one I am thinking of is available," she says. "There are not many with heron-mark swords. But we shall see."

"As it happens, either paints or a veil will draw attention. Wearing a black veil, however, may indicate to others that you are in pursuit of vengeance or violence."

[we_bring_hell]

Her lips thin. "Very well; I can bare my face if necessary."

[blue_ajah]

"Or you can wear your paints," Moiraine tells her. "I can craft a story that will serve, without conflicting with my Oath."

[we_bring_hell]

She deliberately relaxes her expression.

"Moiraine, the avulsion trial burned the paints off my face and every stitch of my clothing besides. I hope I am as modest as any sister, but I can bear what I must."