vatheon | And the last of the Ta'veren arrives;

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And the last of the Ta'veren arrives;

Who: The Two Rivers boys - Rand, Mat, Perrin
Where: At the Coral
When: Noonish.
Style: Prose works o/
Status: CLOSED

Rand is very certain that he hadn't traveled. Or fallen asleep. This wasn't the Tel'aran'rhiod, because his brown cloak - coat might actually be far more accurate - didn't change when he tried. And he still had the Dragon Sword, Callandor, and still sensed the Source, so....

"It can't be His doing, the time for tricks is over..." Even if Moridin had claimed that he didn't pull him that time, this... this was a new place. Licking his lips once, he placed saltwater. Could explain the watery look to the sky, but...

Rand shifts, deciding to allow his need for answers pull anyone close.

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Perrin wordlessly nudges the bottle of wine over to Mat as Rand starts speaking. Mat seems to be going through his cup faster than Perrin and at this rate he'll probably need the refill.

Meanwhile he regards Rand with a thoughtful frown. It's true, most of what he's describing sounds like madness; hearing the voice of a dead man in your head, what else could that be? But the way in which Rand is talking about it... seems remarkably calm and collected. Sane, even.

Rand is the Dragon Reborn, the reincarnation of Lews Therin Telamon. Is it so far-fetched to consider that some part of that long-dead man survives now, in Rand? He can't believe, really, that the man was actually carrying on conversations with Rand--that is certainly madness. But Rand seems to know things that no living man ought to, so there must be more to it than madness. And certainly something did happen to him there on Dragonmount.

It's something Perrin is going to need some time to think over. For now, he shakes his head. "It does sound crazy. But, maybe not as much as I'd thought."

He looks down at his own cup, also nearing empty. Something else Rand said was more concerning. "What do you mean that it could kill you?"

Mat likes his wine, and he'll be refilling his cup now. He knows his limit, but this doesn't taste exactly like the wine back in the Westlands. He'll slow down anyway.

You know, he thought Rand was crazy before. But he didn't think he was hearing a voice. Then again, if voices mean you're crazy, what do dice mean? Mat's sure he isn't insane, so maybe Rand isn't either. It certainly is starting to seem like he is sane now. Maybe not that he's completely sane, but at least not insane.

"Blood and ashes." Mat moves the wine closer to Perrin. He has more wine, and he has a feeling Perrin'll need more too. Giving Rand more doesn't exactly sound like a good idea. "You don't sound as crazy as I thought you were either, Rand."

He watches Rand with his eye, waiting for the answer to Perrin's question.

"... I'll take that as a compliment. Egwene asked if I wanted to go get Delved and healed, and probably would have mentioned soothing drinks on the way." Yes, Rand approves of not giving him more wine. He sets his mug aside, and settle like he'd clasp his hands together... only its fingers over the stump.

"Semhirage said something to the extent that hearing the voice of a past life was a sign of a madness that was incredibly rare, nigh incurable, and would likely result in me repeating the Dragon's actions, at his end." He doesn't particularly care, because ... well. "She used to be an extremely talented Healer, - Restorer, what the title was, everything but death out of her reach - so I was somewhat inclined to think she could be right, even if she terrified Lews. I don't think she's right."

Perrin takes the wine back from Mat to refill his own cup. He would offer it to Rand, but he doesn't seem interested. Perrin's eyes rest on that stump a moment as he sets the bottle back down.

"There's no reason for one of the Forsaken to tell you the truth about it anyway," he says. Even if she were telling him what she thought of as truth, he agreed with Rand; it didn't make her right.

Semirhage is also the one who destroyed Rand's hand...Did she always do things like that? Mat nods. "She could just have been lying to you anyway." And yeah, even if she told him what she thought was the truth, it might not have been true.

"So you're not insane anymore, Moiraine's back, and Perrin's gotten rid of a ter'angreal that prevents Gateways." That's all the really important things, right? That and the deaths of more Forsaken. 'Deaths' isn't the best way to say that though.

"Very true. She was the sort who delighted in pain of others, so it could have been said to cause trouble." Toying with his cup for a little bit.

"Seems to be an accurate way to describe it."

That was a neat way of summing up what had likely been ordeals for all of them. Perrin can't help a small smile at that before letting out a breath.

"And now we're here."

"Now we're here." Mat nods. He gets up to make tea, feeling like he was close to his self-enforced limit of wine.

A pause before he mutters under his breath, his back still facing away from them, "Light, I miss Tuon."

Rand was just going to sit here and wait for tea, because Mat wouldn't take well to an offer to heat it with Power but.

".... Tuon?" Did he hear that right. "Tuon, Daughter of the Nine Moons? Small and dark skinned, of the Seanchan?"

That. would explain why she knew him.

Perrin doesn't recognize the name, but Rand clarifies it well enough. Mat, missing what sounds like a Seanchan noblewoman?

"I wouldn't have thought you'd get on well with the Seanchan, Mat."

Right. He hadn't told either of them about her yet. And he'd been planning not to. Blood and bloody ashes. "She's Empress now, Rand. And I don't. Tuon's special."

...They won't figure out he's married to her from that, will they? Light, he hopes not. They'd just tease him, and Perrin's already done that, even though he isn't from that far yet.

"Special may explain the 'indolent scoundrel' comment." Rand is studying you Mat. He figures the two were close in some way. Otherwise Tuon may have had worse things to say about his friend.

"Light, Mat, you're not pursuing the Seanchan Empress, are you?"

No, Perrin probably won't be able to guess Mat is married to the woman, but him calling her 'special' coupled with that 'scoundrel' remark is enough for him to suspect romantic interest on Mat's part. He might just be foolhardy enough for it.

ALjfdlfjl;asdfjjf Bloody ashes! He's definitely not going to look at them now. "I'm not." Considering they were already married, he's really not. Even though he was the one who said his half of the vows first. He didn't know what they were at the time.

He sounds a bit wistful. "She mentioned me?" -wait. Waaait. He turns to stare at Rand. "You talked to her? You didn't-- Indolent scoundrel? She's the one who-- Why were you even talking about me? When did you talk to her?"

"She mentioned you kidnapped her, when Nynaeve threatened if she had hurt you." Rand is just... studying that reaction there, Mat. You are totally attached to her in some way.

"I wanted to treat with her. The westlands need to be unified, and having to fight the trollocs on one side with the seanchan at our backs wasn't a good situation. The first time I met with her, it was really Semhirage. The second, it didn't come to anything, so I didn't mention it." and it was before he got calm, so... oops.

That may not technically be a lie, Mat, but you sound, smell, and act like you're trying to hide something. It's an incredible and improbable thing, but those sorts of things tend to be less so around the three of them. Perrin watches Mat with amusement replacing some of the incredulity in his yellow eyes. Some of the things Rand just mentioned can wait.

"You didn't mention kidnapping an empress in your recent accomplishments, Mat. It sounds like an interesting story."

"Light! She wanted to know if I knew you. Don't think she wanted to treat with you though."

Mat blinks. "Nynaeve threatened her because she thought she might have hurt me?" That...is a bit surprising. Especially since as Tuon apparently said, Mat had kidnapped Tuon. Not that he'd hurt her. Blood and ashes, he did whatever he could to help her when there was a battle. And she'd probably be dead if he hadn't kidnapped her. Before hearing who she was, he'd been planning on tying her up and leaving her there, like he'd left Tylin. And the gholam had gotten Tylin.

He turns away again. "She wasn't Empress when she was traveling with the Band and me."

"She must have become Empress sometime after I talked to her. She was still Daughter of the Nine Moons then, and that doesn't sound like an Empress title." Rand is faintly amused that they're attached. He's very sure there's more to this.

"Never mind about her title." Does it really matter when exactly it was that she stopped being this 'Daughter of the Nine Moons' and started being the Empress?

"I'm more curious about why you miss her."

a;fjdaf;jdsa PERRIN. What's the most round about way he can tell them...Doesn't seem like he has a choice but to tell them now.

"You miss Faile, and Rand misses Min, Aviendha, and Elayne, right?" Please say he doesn't actually need to say that he's married to her...or well, in love with her.

And it doesn't really matter, except for giving Mat a bit of reference of when Rand talked to Tuon. Sometime before he arrived in Caemlyn, it seems.

"Ah." Well, that makes plenty of sense - only it is Mat in the equation, so it doesn't really.

"So you're settling down then."

Rand isn't technically married to any of his women, so there's nothing to confirm this Tuon is Mat's wife-- but it's clear enough that this is a serious relationship. Mat settling down... that simple fact is probably about as unexpected as his choice of woman.

Perrin's smile is tempered only slightly by the reminder of how long he's been away from Faile. "It sounds like congratulations are in order."

....they took that a lot better than he thought. They aren't teasing him because of it! Mat chuckles.

"Something like that. I need to talk to her again to see how we stand. I haven't seen her in months."

A pause before he turns around, tea in his hands. "No congratulations necessary, Perrin." He doesn't know how she feels about him after all. Tuon, he really does love you. How do you flaming feel about him? He wants to know...

Hmmmnn. What else. Rand's not sure what to say.

".... So we're just.. back. In the same area." He'll claim one of those cups of tea, and... maybe raise it a little.

"To being out of the mess, for a time." And together again, only without being really awkward sounding.

Mat, if you think you have escaped teasing, you are mistaken. It just isn't happening right this moment.

Perrin nods and raises his own cup a little more definitively.

"For a time." But hopefully not too long, because as crazy and dangerous as things are back home, and as close as they might be to the end, he misses Faile.

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And the last of the Ta'veren arrives;

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