Drabbles of life after

Day 5 MAIDEN

WoTtober #5 MAIDEN

It was one of those nights Thom hated. Not because he got very little sleep, but because he feared for Moraine's mood after them. She would barely eat the next day, usually, too bothered by what she saw in her mind. He could do little but hold her and whisper soft nothings into her ear from time to time when her breathing got too fast.

So far everything seemed to be really well for them in Cairhien. Up until the formal visit from the Aiel delegation. This was the one incident that might have impacted her sleep's calm.

"It's the maidens," she whispered, startling him in the middle of the night, after they laid together in silence following her nightmare.

"What?"

"You were wondering what unsettled me yesterday and why." He would have liked to deny, but needed to nod in the end.

"You don't need to tell me."

"They killed Laman, you know, the maidens. In the end it was the women that made it through the Sun Court defenders and executed the Treekiller." He loathed her speaking with such a clinical voice. It was like she was giving a lecture about a genesis of an Old Tongue name or worse. Nothing was as scary as dispassionate Moiraire. "They have left some of the guards alive to witness, but nobody wanted to release that information."

"But somehow it got out."

"I had my Aes Sedai ring to grant me some more information once I found out from my sisters... blue sisters," she clarified, "that some records were sealed,"

That might have done it, but Thom doubted it was everything. Moraine has spent a lot of time with the Aiel between Tear and her confinement. This was not it. He had to wait, however, for her to formulate the words she was looking for.

"They would show me my death at the hands of the Aiel." This chilled Thom to the bone. "They liked to play with my memories and sometimes put something new from different scraps into the established nightmare. So they fabricated things from scraps. In this one a maiden would make it to the White Tower to finish off the heir to the Treekiller. She would kill everyone on her path and as I was with Siuan at the time she came for me..."

Moraine's voice faltered and he knew she needed help. "They would make you watch Sivan die because of you." she nodded. "Because of your heritage no less."

"I've known already that it was not their way, the Aiel, but the Finn pulled on my memories, on the superstitions that were rampant during the war."

"So why now? Was there something the Aiel had said that reminded you?"

"One of the delegation..." Moraine shivered. "we saw her frequently while travelling after Rhuidean. I don't even remember her name, but..."

"They used her face." Moraine nodded and burrowed into him even more, if that as possible. "I will send word we're indisposed today. We'll figure something out after that."

Moraine seemed to buy into this illusion he created. They wouldn't be able to escape the delegation forever, but for now Moraine slept easier. Small victories. mattered.