EGWENE: Sit down, daughter! Tell me - [she breaks off as she sees the Blue raise a hand].

BLUE: Pardon me, Mother, but may I have your permission to ward this room against eavesdroppers?

EGWENE (resignedly): If it will let you speak more freely.

[Brief pause while the Blue weaves a soundproof shield around the room]

BLUE: Thank you, Mother. It's one of our Ajah's rules : never discuss our private affairs when any outsider could conceivably hear us doing it.

EGWENE: I see. What other special rules does your Ajah have?

BLUE: Let's see . . . never explain anything of importance to an outsider, unless, in YOUR opinion, it is important that he know it right away so that he will be able to assist in the fulfillment of your plans.

EGWENE: Even if telling him would make him likelier to trust you?

BLUE (sniffs): Trust? Trusting is for friends and relatives. Aes Sedai are to be RESPECTED, not "trusted" as if they had to prove their merit to every stupid peasant or insolent monarch. After all, we are bound by the Three Oaths, are we not?

EGWENE (muttering under her breath): This explains a lot . . . [she raises her voice]. So you feel that speaking as elliptically and noncommitally as possible is the best way to get people outside the Tower to do what you want?

BLUE (very firm): Absolutely! We have to IMPRESS them!

EGWENE: The way we've "impressed" Artur Hawkwing, and the Amadicians, and the Tairens, and even the Ogier, who have an old proverb: "Never deal with an Aes Sedai except inside a stedding; that's the only place they're safe?" Notice the way that the White Tower's idea of "power politics," a thousand years ago, made Hawkwing and his descendants SO angry that they now rule half the world and ENSLAVE women with the spark, to make sure "Aes Sedai" never get the better of them again. Don't you think we came on a little bit TOO strong sometimes?

BLUE: Nonsense! The aberrations of the Seanchan cannot be blamed upon US. As long as we keep the Three Oaths, it is impossible for us to be too "forceful" in our dealings with the world.

EGWENE (rubbing her aching head): Daughter, do you REALLY think the Three Oaths make people rely upon us to deal with them honestly and nonviolently? It is not exactly secret that an Aes Sedai can send a Warder to kill someone on her behalf, after all . . . and then if someone strikes at her Warder in defending himself, the Aes Sedai feels free to "defend" her Warder and assist in the assassination.

BLUE (firmly): I think you're overrating the dangers, mother. After all, no Aes Sedai has ever been convicted of murder or similar crimes by any non-Tower authority - except in Amadicia, and those Amadicians will believe ANYTHING.

EGWENE: Yes, it would be hard for non-channelers to arrest an Aes Sedai and her Warder . . .especially if (for example) a death looked like suicide, the local City Guard not being aware that an Aes Sedai can channel a locked door open, and relock it again, without leaving any scratches on the lock, so that it would seem "certain" to them that no stranger had gotten in and out of the room to put poison in a man's glass, and he must have poisoned it himself.

BLUE (uneasily): Purely hypothetical, Mother. Such actions are RARELY necessary . . .

EGWENE: Perrin Aybara told me of a time when Moiraine Sedai and Lan considered doing it to an innkeeper, merely because he suspected she was Aes Sedai. Matrim Cauthon feared Siuan Sanche would arrange his own demise, so that she could have someone else blow the Horn. To this day, I don't know if she had decided to kill him or not, because he got away from the Tower so quickly, and she can lie to me now. Although she HAS suggested I arrange convenient "accidents" for other people who were "inconvenient." I think you Blues are FAR too eager to dispose of problems by murdering them . . .

[A long pause] Tell me, daughter, have YOU ever sent YOUR Warder to murder someone to assist one of your political schemes?

BLUE (looks offended): Mother! The very idea is insulting!

EGWENE (mildly): We must all bear with such hardships from time to time. Please answer the question.

BLUE (outraged): That would be a violation of the laws of whatever land I was in at the time, mother! Such things could have grave consequences for the Tower!

EGWENE: They certainly could, and that's why I want them to stop. FOREVER. I CANNOT approve of murder during my administration, and I need to know if anyone will be bringing such charges against any of our sisters - true charges, that is to say. Have you ever sent your Warder to commit murder?

BLUE: I have never ordered my Warder, nor asked him, to kill anyone whom I did not consider a grave threat to myself, my plans, the peace of the world, and forth.

EGWENE: It's a simple Yes/No question and you seem unable to answer it. Let me make my position QUITE clear: you will answer that question with a Yes or a No, or you will be shielded and placed under house arrest on suspicion of murder until we get to the bottom of this. I don't intend to be the soft, easygoing administrator that Siuan Sanche was, you know; I intend to maintain DISCIPLINE!

BLUE (winces as she tries to picture what it would take to make Siuan look soft and easygoing): Mother, suppose I were to describe to you a hypothetical situation where a Warder of a Blue Sister killed a Lord in another nation, a Lord who was stubbornly refusing to support a certain policy which would clearly be of great benefit to the people under his rule? You might then agree that "murder" was not the approriate word . . .

EGWENE: You had your chance to answer my question , and you preferred to prevaricate. I'll get more use from you now by using you as an example for the others, so that I get a more cooperative attitude.

[There is a brief flare as both embrace saidar; a moment later, the Blue Sister is shielded from the Source. Egwene then tugs on her Warder's bond, pulling him toward her office from the practice yard where he's been instructing some recruits]

GAWYN [entering the Amyrlin's study with his sword drawn]: Egwene? What is it?

EGWENE: Take her away, Gawyn. To be placed under house arrest; an armed guard outside the door of her living quarters. Suspicion of murder. One Green Sister to be with the armed guard at all times, in case anyone tries to channel their way through the guards.

GAWYN: Got it.

EGWENE: Oh, and Gawyn? On your way out, will you send in the Brown Sister who's waiting to see me?

[NOTE: It has always amazed me that the Aes Sedai don't make a habit of asking each other such questions about crimes and secrets and so forth. I suppose they think it's rude. Yet, except for the occasional Black Ajah, it would prove MOST informative. For instance, in LOC, Elayne suspects that many of the things she's learning from Moghedien (about eavesdropping, say, and other stuff) are "secrets" and "tricks" that a FEW Aes Sedai have independently rediscovered, but NEVER told anybody else about. Strong leadership would have forced them to answer questions such as, "X Sedai, do you know ANY weaves that I don't know, and what do they do?"]

Raina's Hold / Raina's Library / Other People's Humour / Renovating the White Tower