"Yes and no. Loraine Sedai says you're to have a night off. So you will. I think these gentlemen can see to the Lady Tessian's safety for tonight." He turned to look at the guards, "can't you?"

He gestured for Edana to follow him, "I'll check up on them tonight. Go blow off some stream, I fear the next few days are going to be a test for everyone... Oh, and get your gear in a state where you can leave quickly... It may become necessary."

"Maybe four days, dear. Don't count on that being a hard and fast rule, but I'll give you all the time I can for diplomacy."

Kyn looked askance at her using the One Power to wash away his fatigue and simply grunted his a  acknowledgement of her heading to bed. He then say for a while thinking about what he was going to do about Edana needing a break. He needed to make sure she got in the next day or so, because he didn't think they'd actually get all for days Lor was hoping for.

Finally he got up from the chair and headed out into the palace, for the place was nothing but, to find Edana and give her some time off. It just meant he had to babysit the brat, because he couldn't trust her own guards not to be a part of one faction our another.

"Regardless of all that, for the next for days we can leave on two hours notice. The arrangements are made and paid for. I don't think we should dally longer than that, the rumors I've picked up on are troubling and I think there will be some sort of trouble if we remain too long."

At t he mention if how tightly Edana was strung, Kyn gave shrug and then shook his head. "A day off? It's been hardly a month, and then only a few hours each day. She should be fine, duty is not something to be followed merely until you've had enough of it or need a break. It is all the time, no matter what." Kyn turned his back to Loraine and gathered in his temper. When he turned back to her he'd set his jaw. "If you tell me to give her a day of I will, but I think she needs to be pushed further, she needs to be ready to do what it takes to keep a Sister safe regardless of her own needs and desires."

Kyn felt Loraine coming closer, he knew he'd have to explain what he'd been up to. He just hoped she wouldn't have to be to explicit in explaining, she couldn't tell what she didn't know. Those oaths were damned inconvenient sometimes. "We've been here a month, you're no closer to bringing that slug to let loose of that girl than you were when you got here. I was making some arrangements so we can leave like we should have the weeks ago. The girl can channel, she belongs in the Tower, period; and it is time to quit playing with that puffed up popinjay and take her there. Politics be damned." Kyn waited for her reaction, but he knew it was time for them to be gone, there were too many factions here, and none of them wanted the Tower involved and certainly not with the Tessian.

"I think it would answer the question quite thoroughly." Magic responded as he let her feet settle back to the sandy earth.

He took a glance at the setting sun and shook his head in disagreement. "We should set up camp with what remains of the light, the digging can begun in the morning. You said we had three days, no need to take risks, not here. It gets cold fast in this post of the three-fold land."

Madoc kept his gaze on Mordre as she pulled away, his brain wasn't engaged and he was having a hard time making sense of what she was saying. When the words she was saying finally made it through the haze she'd created in his mind the first thing to come out of his mouth was a very un-suave "Ummm..." Madoc gaze a serious shake of his head, loosening his shoufa some as he did so. He wanted to tell her all these articulate things, express himself in words, but he was no gleeman and the best way to get her to understand what he was feeling was to just kiss her again. So he did, dropping his spears to the ground and wrapping both his arms around her, he lifted her up so their lips could meet again and he kissed her thoroughly there in the setting sunlight on the edge of the great desert nothing where no one could see them or hear them.

Madoc had come to the same conclusion, that there was not time left in this day for much else but heading in the right direction and finding some sort of cover for the night. However, as his gaze drifted across the Termool had little hope of finding anything in that flat barren land. He saw the movement out of his peripheral vision and he half expected Mordre to attack him somehow she she leaned in close to him. At the last moment he realized she was going to kiss him, and he had just enough of a moment to tilt his head down a bit so she could. The hand that held his spear at the ready remained by his side, but his free hand curled around her hip as he returned her kiss. He wanted more from that kiss, but he had long ago known he had to wait for Mordre to come to her own decisions about how she felt and he didn't push more than she was willing. When their lips did part he kept his eyes on hers as she settled back down to her heels, waiting for her next move.

"Am I sure this is where I want to go? With you? Not if all you feel is sisterly affection, no." he swallowed the last of the meat and took another drink of water before rising. "I want you to make up your mind about how you really feel, then decide if you have Toh for what you said a few moments ago. I do not believe you really mean what you said and that your intransigence is harming not just you, but others, as well as Hold, Sept and Clan." He took a peek out at the sun and nodded, "Time to run Mordre, we can make it far enough that we will reach the Termool late tonight."

Madoc's eyes just narrowed at her, he was certain she had just told a falsehood, one way or another, he flicked his eyes up to the sun and then back down to Mordre when she asked him what he thought. "I know what I know Mordre, what others think or do is up to them. It is not my Ji at stake when they make actions and decision, just their own. If they are pushing in a direction I want to go then that is fine and they suffer less Toh for it, if it is a direction I do not want to go, then their Toh is more. Simple no? Does it bother me that they try? No. Does it bother me that they may succeed? No. But then I am a leaf on the wind compared to you, going wherever it may lead." He couldn't resist the smirk at recalling her protestations the day she was taken from the Maidens to be Shri's apprentice, the entire Hold knew what Mordre though of that situation. He thought he'd heard his mother say she was approaching the record for runaway attempts back to her spear-sisters, but he wasn't positive about it and so didn't bring it up as a salient point. Finally he put the last bit of dried meat in his mouth, chewing slowly and giving her time to respond; but he never did stop looking at her through the hair falling across his eyes...

Kyn shook his head as her ring glinted in the sun, she was ever a noblewoman showing of what was probably kept hidden. Still he couldn't suppress a smile at his wife. "My worst will see you either pregnant or in the hospital... Or perhaps both." He said as he stripped his shirt off and stretched his arms and chest before seeking into a fighting stance.

"We've been lucky about a great many things, love. That I am still here in one piece is more a testament to your battle skills in the One Power than any luck." Kyn raised an eyebrow at her suggestion that they spar, she usually didn't want anyone to see that as it didn't leave her looking the most dignified at the end of it. Of course, at the end of their private sparring it usually led to some of their more interesting private moments as well. He lowered the eyebrow and gave a shrug and a mischievous smile, "If you wish Aes Sedai, I am always at your service."

"Without seeing it or knowing it was coming? Loraine, I am a Warder. Not an Asha'man. I would be trusting to you to do what was necessary to keep me safe from the weaves of the One Power as I always have, there is not a thing I could do to stop anyone who tried that. Not one... other than use a Power wrought blade that would not be affected."

Kyn watched what Lor was doing to the rope, he thought it would be of more use in a infirmary than on a battlefield, since it self cauterized the cut she was making. "What does it do to steel or wood?"

Kyn'd felt his wife awaken, felt the warmness she was feeling inside, he could feel her approaching from behind as he stood on the deck. "I'm not fidgety." He eased his hand to rest on his sword hilt, stilling himself from the fidgeting he'd been doing. "I'm ill at ease because of this whole voyage, mission and trip... and I can't burn off any steam because we're trapped on this accursed boat." He'd kept his eyes fixed down river, as if there was something off in front of them that he could make appear simply by staring for it. He really had a bad feeling about this whole mission and was just waiting for the whole world to go to the Dark One and them having to scramble to hold it all together.

Madoc took the proffered food and ate slowly, partly because eating too fast would be as sure to cause problems as drinking too much water would and the other because dired food just took a while to chew and re-hydrate enough to taste like anything. He glanced up at her when she asked, peering at her through the hair hanging over his face. "Who is sure of anything in this life Mordre? All I know is you will be as prickly as a disturbed gara if you keep it all in."

Madoc nodded his agreement, they were near the place where they'd sheltered as youngsters out hunting with his father for meals and he figured it was as good a place as any to stop to eat a midday meal. It was a small outcropping, one that would not shelter them for long as the sun traversed the sky, but it was cool now and would stay cool for another hour or so. The change in temperature was dramatic as he stepped out of the sun and into the shade, it almost made him shiver as he came to a stop. The sand under his feet was still cool, as was the rock face that he leaned against as he sat down. He reached around to his pack and produced a waterskin and passed it to Mordre as she entered the shade of the outcropping. "Slowly..." he said, absently, not thinking that she had been going out into the three-fold land as long as he had been.

He waited while Mordre drank, then took the waterskin back and drank himself. Making sure not to over indulge as that would cause trouble later on when they needed to run again. He also waited to see what Mordre produced from her pack to eat, he was betting on some dried fruit and cured meat. it was a typical fare for a days travel such as they were doing. He had seen she had been hard at thought as they ran, she had been particularly quiet during the second half of the morning. "If you do not talk soon, Mordre, those thoughts will eat their way out of you and leave you with nothing but a stomach-ache."

It took Madoc a moment to realize that she wasn't running with him anymore. He stopped and turned back to her. "My mother is a Wise One, and was one long before I was born. So, if this is a plot to push us together, then... well, yes she is in involved." He then furrowed his brow, "I hope it is not though, for if you think it is you will fight it with every fiber of your being... Even if it is what you want too." Madoc then turned to take up their pace again, not really wanting to delve into that whole topic out under the midday sun.

Madoc glanced over his shoulder at Mordre, "Because the three-fold land is a dangerous place Mordre. Because there's too many things that can go wrong when you are out in the three-fold land alone. Because you are neither warrior nor Wise One, yet, and any clan or sept or hold could take you and keep you for more than the year, since you carry no weapon. Because, from what I hear, you are one of the more talented channelers to come along in a generation or more. But the most likely answer is one I couldn't fathom, that Shri has some plan I don't begun to understand involving you and me."

Madoc had noticed the changes in the Three-fold land. They were subtle differences, ones even an Aiel could miss if they were not paying close attention to their environs. He was slightly impressed that Mordre had noticed them so quickly. “Much has changed, yes. It is as if the three-fold land is drying up.” He didn’t look at her as he spoke, there was too much danger in running across the landscape to waste attention on niceties such as looking at the people you were speaking to, that was for when you were travelling in a large group, and quite often not even then. He wasn’t about to bring up the subject of the night on the rooftops. It seemed to Madoc that they were now in a perpetual dance, one that was just as serious as dancing the spears, perhaps more so because of the prize at stake. Well, they were stuck in this perpetual dance while both of their inhibitions were not weakened by oosquai.

Madoc 'harrumphed' at Mordre's comment about the his mother's skirts and Maidens crying in their cups, "'t'was not I who met you outside my door Mordre." In his experience Maidens didn't cry about anything other than a broken spear or lost knife, and certainly not because a man was going out of the hold for a few days. He fell into pace beside her, letting her set the speed as it was her mission and she knew what her deadline was... besides, he was certain he could keep pace with whatever stride she set. As they ran through the streets he kept quiet, it was enough to be starting out on this journey together and there would be plenty of time for talk when there was no chance of anyone else overhearing their conversations. Madoc had decided this because their talks seemed to turn to things that should be private an inordinate amount of the time here recently and he'd rather not have them out where anyone can hear, no matter how much toh was earned from eavesdropping some of the Sept were horrible gossips.

“My mother will be pleased to know I am going to guard an apprentice from the dangers of threefold land, as all know that none of them should be out of braids yet.” Madoc retorted, turning to find grisal behind him which caused a rueful shake of his head. Now he owed her even more toh than before, it had been a small lie and one she had wanted him to make, he was certain, but it had been a lie. And one she had caught him in, not good. He returned home from there by way of the sweat-bath to clean the days grime from his body.

The next morning he was up well before the dawn and waited at the entrance to the Shri’s roof for Mordre to appear, he’d asked his mother where they would go to gather the roots Mordre would need and the reply has surprised him a bit. The Termool, or nearly there anyway, that was a long run for two days travel.

Madoc raised an eyebrow at her, “You need a spear to go and gather herbs? Where are you getting them from, the Shaido’s stores?” he said with a laugh. He then listened to the rest of what Mordre had to say, “I am certain Grisal would go with you… if he were in the Hold.” Madoc knew the man was in the hold, but first of all he wasn’t letting that man alone with Mordre if he could do anything about it and second he didn’t trust Grisal’s spearwork, the man was too enamored of his bow and used it when other weapons would have been more use. Madoc pushed himself up straight and stood so that it would be more difficult for Mordre to see around him and make out the lie for what it was. “Besides, I’ll go with you. I haven’t anything pressing to do other than train, and certainly leaving the hold is far more practical training than staying here.” Particularly since Shri has said you must take a spear with you, he thought to himself.

Kynwric rolled over, and nearly off the narrow bed he was sharing with Loraine. There was little to be done when they were stuck aboard a ship for so long, well little that didn't involve staying in the cramped cabin that was indicative of shipboard travel. He was tempted to turn back the other way and forget about going up on deck, but the soft sounds of Lor's sleep breathing thin better of the idea. Instead he slipped out of the covers and pulled his short over his head. In short order Kyn was out the door and heading up onto the deck, sword in hand, when he spotted Edana pushing the door open to her room. He didn't say a word, just waiting for the other woman to clear the hall so he could make his way up onto deck aand work out his cramped muscles. He only spared her a 'good morning' before she shut the door and he made his way topside. he thought about going back to gather Cora out of that room, so he at least had someone to do some light sparring with, but again decided against it, figuring it would turn more into a training session.. and his mind wasn't ready for that yet this morning.

Madoc had been working in the ring, spear-work mostly, with a bit of knife-work tossed in for variety. The day had been unusually cool for the middle of summer in the threefold-land, which had made practice slightly less grueling that it would have normally been. He was still no displeased to see it ended for the day, he was tired and sore from the near constant pummeling he’d taken at the hands of several of the Shaen m’Taal over the course of the last few days. Ever since he had made the decision that Mordre had pushed him towards and had come to accept that it was what was best for him and the Aiel. The side benefit of his not being gone from the hold nearly every moment and thus got to see more and more of Mordre, when her schedule permitted, was an added benefit. That being said he was still surprised to see her nearly bouncing down the street in her blouse and skirt instead of the usual determined stride she carried herself with.  He didn’t bother to hide the fact that he was watching her as she came down the street, even going so far as to lean against the wall to the Stone Dog’s roof as he watched.

Finally her eyes reste don him and he pushed himself up straight and uncrossed his arms. “You look particularly pleased with yourself.”

Ji'E'Toh - Completed.

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