“Too right she looks better,” Mat whispered, although he wasn’t altogether certain that she did. He wasn’t sure what was happening. Was the man actually doing anything yet? Or was he just being hopeful that this wasn’t one more snake oil salesman out to con the world out of a bit of coin? Mat edged closer to Thom – and, incidentally, closer to the door. As he watched, as it looked like nothing was happening, his skin began to crawl. There was no way this could be a good thing. It had seemed like it at the time, seemed like a brilliant idea really, but now that his initial burst of panic was over, Mat was deeply, deeply second-guessing himself.
After all, he’d brought a man who could bloody well channel into the room. The man seemed sane enough, but how could he be?
Mat bit the side of his thumb again, trying not to fidget – failing badly.
“Come on, Moiraine,” he muttered.
He gave Moiraine a somewhat sad but still friendly smile. “Secretive, hm?” he asked, smiling a little more, and he shrugged one shoulder. “Fair enough. That’s a life I know well. Now, if you don’t mind, my lady, I’d appreciate you not trying to kill me when this is over.” He winked, as if this were all some harmless, merry sort of game, despite the sadness in his eyes. Then, he lay his other hand on her and closed his eyes, exhaling softly before going perfectly still.
Saidin and saidar twined themselves together, simply and naturally, as they were always meant to do. There was no taint, no twist of darkness, nothing foul that came along with the magic. The Healing he wove was simple enough on the surface, but if Moiraine had the strength to follow along, she might be able to see enough tiny threads to know it was anything but simple. And, if she did not have the strength, she might feel a calming sensation, like a comb being gently run through one’s hair, as tendrils of energy moved through her, cleansing away the lingering darkness and poison of her wound before acting on the wound itself, before the true healing began.
It wasn’t fast. Another Aes Sedai could doubtless have done it in a few heartbeats. But it was gentle, as gentle as floating in a warm pond, bathed in sunlight. And, when it was over, the Blue’s wound would be cleansed, healed, nothing remaining but a scar.
The stranger opened his eyes and dropped his hands to his lap, watching her intently.
Mat stepped forward. “She’ll be alright now?”
“I hope so,” the stranger murmured. “My lady? How do you feel?”
THIS DIDN’T SEEM TO BE the first time the stranger had done this sort of thing, Moiraine observed. He seemed far too confident to not have done this before, far too practiced in his weaves. However he had managed it all without being caught and gentled by the Red Ajah, she wasn’t going to question that. She was far too grateful for his help to even begin to question anything he did.
It felt odd, whatever it was he was doing. Moiraine was all too familiar with being healed, but this felt different. She couldn’t quite place what it was, however, though she could tell it wasn’t the same as what she was accustomed to. It drew far more of her energy than she would have expected, though to be fair, the stranger seemed to know what he was doing, and Moiraine had had little strength left to begin with. She supposed it was the first time she had been quite so close to death upon being healed. Perhaps it was to be expected that it would leave her much weaker than she would have expected.
Her brow furrowed just the slightest bit upon hearing the question, though she was quick to return her expression back to one of calm composure, despite being unable to completely hide just how drained she felt.
For a moment she was silent, merely considering her answer, trying to pay close attention to what was going on with her own body. There was only a dull ache left behind where not too long ago had been sharp pain, like fire coursing through her veins. She imagined it was the sort of ache that would fade in time, once she was rested and had regained her strength.
“Exhausted,” she finally admitted in a quiet voice, barely able to even keep her eyes open. “But… It is definitely an improvement.”
While he couldn’t see anything happening, it was clear to Thom that the stranger was doing something. A bit of colour seemed to be returning to Moiraine’s cheeks - or was that his imagination? He couldn’t be sure, but he certainly hoped he wasn’t imagining it. She might be angry with, she might very well hate him, but he would rather she keep right on doing that, if the other option was death. And luckily, it seemed death wasn’t on the table for her today.
Time seemed to stand still in the gap of silence between the stranger’s question and Moiraine’s answer. Thom hated every second of it. Moiraine’s voice sounded strained to him, but she did sound a little better than she had over the past days.
“Being exhausted is...normal? Right?” he asked, eyeing the stranger. He didn’t know too much about healing, especially not by channeling, but he had seen it done on a few occasions, and a bit of tiredness afterwards didn’t seem to out of the ordinary. And with how close to death Moiraine had been...would that leave her even more tired? He wasn’t sure.
“How long before she can travel?” he asked a minute later. He thought she would probably be eager to leave. “I imagine she’ll want to find her Warder...”
