Multi-Fandom One Shots

Wheel (Moiraine Sedai)

A brunette in dead, rare sleep jerked awake. Barely a heartbeat later, her Warder entered anxiously. He eyed the room suspiciously and came to sit beside her when the he deemed the room safe. He simply called her name.

Deep blue eyes slid to meet his own, something deeper than fear shining in their depths. "I'm fine."

It was automatic. Said so often, Lan no longer believed her. He showed it with a simple stare. They expressed so much with simple looks, and through their Bond.

Moiraine sighed, pulling the blankets back. She patted the space she'd just inhabited, leaving the comfort to pull on her coat. She left her Ajah in the room, the ring donning her finger proof enough. She thought of your own ring, hollowed out, colorless besides the shine of gold. Did you wear it still?

Her thoughts took her on a journey she did not wish to follow. But, as ever, her way was not had. She was stuck in the past.

Through nights of sharing beds, of moments so near, of breaths shared in near misses. Of you... baring your soul again and again. ...And her never responding. She could still see the look on your face when she lied back when she still could. When she crushed you simply because she could. And because she couldn't.

She had never been good at letting herself feel. You'd promised to teach her. And you'd been doing so well, but she hadn't given. She couldn't meet you half way.

And you got tired, so tired.

She'd seen it as you'd left Tar Valon, the Tower, the Aes Sedai, your own potential, and her. And she stayed stubborn, stayed closed off, but to those who could feel her feelings... or Siuan.

Moiraine didn't love Siuan like she loved you, but you'd never open yourself up to her again. Not emotionally. She could accept that you would never love her again.

But she needed you. Light knew how she knew only now, but if anyone could locate and identify the Dragon with only a look, it would be you, with your lovely Talent.

~*~

You lived alone. And you preferred it that way. Alone in the woods, you could pretend you'd never felt pain. Perhaps you hadn't. Perhaps your time outside these trees had never been. It had been so long ago and you still looked so young.

Barely a wrinkle touched your face. So you'd long since thrown out any mirror within your home.

Your only visitors ever had need of you. None were regular. A child once wandered too far and you took her home only to be met with the hateful glares of a human's fear of unknown.

Time ticked still, though. And you felt her coming. Far away and long ago she'd left, not physically, but she'd- No, you'd never had her.

She needed something. You could feel that as well.

Days yet would pass until she arrived. The urge to clean, to appear better than you were, than you ever had been, was undeniably there. But you were better. Better than those base desires. She could accept your help as you were or she could seek her Order on her own.

~*~

Days yet had passed. You were packed and horsed, and you'd met her at the inn. Hateful glares still bore into you, but they were diverted by the fear attached to a lapis Serpent Ring and the armed man who stayed beside her.

Your eyes met hers, firmer than she'd ever seen. She'd allow a night's rest as the sun had already vanished beneath the horizon. Neither of you spoke. Both she and her Warder slept that night while you watched.

The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills.