The Wheel of Kin: A Daughter's Journey

To love is to be known

The sun blazed overhead, high in the Aiel sky. Its warmth should have felt comforting—should have meant something. But the air was dry and thin, and all the light in the world could not touch the grief curled around them.

Moiraine knelt in the sand, her breath still caught in small, sharp gasps—the kind of crying that came after the storm had passed, quiet but unbearable. Her head rested against Elara's shoulder, as if letting go meant letting it all unravel.

Lan stood just behind them, silent. Watching. Guarding. The weight of his bond with Moiraine pressed heavy on his chest, but he didn't speak. Not yet.

Elara hadn't cried since returning.

Her arms had held her mother tight, grounding her, sheltering her. But now, something inside her was changing. She felt it like a hum just beneath her skin.

She pulled away slowly, gently unwinding her body from Moiraine's.

Moiraine looked up, confused. "Elara?"

But Elara said nothing.

Her face was unreadable.

Too still.

She rose, brushing the sand from her knees. Her eyes lifted to the horizon—where the dunes shimmered gold and silver under the burning sun, uncaring.

Lan frowned. "Where are you going?"

She didn't answer.

Her hands moved, threading together weaves of the True Power. They danced like lightless silk, darker than shadow, yet luminous in a way that made the air seem to ripple.

"Elara...please." Moiraine's voice was soft, but cautious now.

"This isnt how it should be. She didnt deserve to die. Not like that," Elara said at last.

Her tone was flat. Final. Unshaken.

Lan took a step forward. "No one does."

Still, she said nothing more.

Moiraine stood now too, reaching for her arm, but stopping just short. "Whatever you're thinking—grief.. it makes us reckless."

"It makes us clear," Elara said without looking at her.

A portal shimmered open beside her—black and violet, laced with silver sparks. The desert wind stirred her braid against her shoulder.

Moiraine stepped closer, her hand hovering just over Elara's wrist. "I cannot lose you too."

Elara turned, just slightly.

There was no fire in her voice.

Just the calm that came after something inside you breaks.

She stepped forward and pressed her forehead to her mother's gently, just once.

And then—

She turned toward the portal and walked through it, the light swallowing her whole.

Moiraine reached for empty air.

Lan stepped to her side, eyes still fixed on the place where Elara had vanished.

The portal collapsed into nothing.

And the sun continued to shine, as if nothing in the world had changed.

❃

The sky above the Blight was wrong.

It flickered with a dying violet hue, clouds churning in slow, impossible spirals. The trees were dead—if they could even be called trees. Their blackened limbs reached like fingers toward her as she passed, but Elara ignored them. Her steps were silent. Her eyes were fire.