EGWENE: Sit down, daughter! Tell me, how does your Ajah justify its existence?

RED [sniffs slightly]: The question, mother, might more properly be put as, "How do the others, saving only the Greens, justify THEIRS?" Do THEY hunt down each and every report of a male channeler? Do THEY send expeditions to deal with False Dragons when mundane armies prove incapable of overcoming powerful channeling? Do THEY use their channeling where it can really do some GOOD in the world -"

EGWENE [raising one hand]: Calm down! As a matter of fact, I strongly sympathize with your position.

RED [blinks]: You do?

EGWENE: I am freely prepared to admit that the Red Ajah did ten times as much good for the world, measured in terms of lives saved, destruction averted, and so forth, than any other Ajah, up through the captures of the False Dragons Mazrim Taim and Logain Ablar, at least.

RED [collapses into a chair, looking remarkably confused]: Is this a joke, mother?

EGWENE: Not at all. I shudder to think of a world where Guaire Amalasan and Yurian Stonebow and their ilk had been more successful in their attempts to rule everything - followed, inevitably, by their going stark raving mad and Breaking the World - or select portions of it - all over again. It was undoubtedly your Ajah who took the leading role in preventing such tragedies.

RED [staring at her suspiciously, as she says things no non-Red Amyrlin has ever said before]: It's nice to be appreciated, mother. After 3400 years, I might even say it's overdue.

EGWENE: Of course, I think your Ajah HAS had three - no, make that four - minor flaws in its outlook.

RED [relaxing]: That's good to hear. For a moment, I thought you must be an impostor who was trying to charm me. I was ready to demand to know what you had done with the REAL Egwene al'Vere!

EGWENE [smiles politely]: One: your natural dislike for male channelers was taken to ridiculous extremes, i.e. unnecessary suspicion of ALL males. The death toll of Reds killed in battle might have been lower if they had been permitted to have Warders around to protect their backs . . . Two: if the three Reds who have become Amyrlins (and have all been deposed thereafter) are to be taken as strong evidence of the nature of the rest of the Red sisters [the Red in the chair tenses as this subject is raised], you people are so rigid in thinking that you are absolutely right and anyone with different opinions is absolutely wrong that you make ABYSMAL politicians. A successful Amyrlin needs to be able to see the other person's point of view without losing her temper. Three: as near as I can tell, your Ajah had NEVER planned ahead for the problem of how you were going to recognize the Dragon Reborn when you found him, instead of gentling him by mistake.

RED [eager to defend her Ajah]: Oh, we had thought it through VERY carefully, mother! We had decided that the best thing we could do was take no special precautions to identify the Dragon Reborn?

EGWENE: I beg your pardon?

RED: As near as we have been able to determine over the past 3000 years, the prophecies of the Karaethon Cycle will always come true. ALWAYS. And a great number of those prophecies describe a variety of distinctive things that the Dragon Reborn will do, most notably retrieving Callandor from the Heart of the Stone of Tear. This meant that nothing we ever did could POSSIBLY kill him or gentle him before he seized Callandor - and once he had the Sword That Is Not A Sword in his hands, it would be extremely obvious who he really was, we calculated. This meant that everytime we DID gentle a male channeler, we had PROVED he was NOT the Dragon Reborn! We were eliminating possible competitors, and trusting in the Pattern to weave things to protect him properly!

EGWENE [looking very crosseyed as she tries to untangle that logic. She rubs her aching temples vigorously before responding]: Um . . . I had no idea you saw things that way. Frankly, I don't think ANYONE outside your Ajah knew you had thought it through from that . . . unique . . . perspective.

RED [shrugging]: When Elaida tried to kidnap Rand al'Thor, we went along with it quietly. We figured that if the attempt succeeded, then it meant that the Pattern would permit him to fulfill the rest of the prophecies while under our thumb, which seemed a good idea - and that if it was NOT feasible for him to fulfill his destiny, then the attempt would fail - as in fact it did.

EGWENE: Oh. So you're saying that many of your Ajah felt Elaida's idea to kidnap the man we needed to save the human race was idiotic, but it wasn't your problem to fix it, it was the PATTERN's problem, so there was no need to risk your precious necks by interfering? Especially when you had finally managed to elect a Red Amyrlin for the first time in a thousand years, and didn't want to make waves by publicly criticizing her after you elected her?

RED [looking affronted]: That's NOT what I said, mother!

EGWENE [muttering under her breath]: Not QUITE . . . [louder] Which reminds me, though. Haven't the Reds traditionally done much of the Tower's recruiting of young girls? Keeping an eye out for possible saidar channelers in your travels across the map, searching for male channelers?

RED [looking confused at the change of subject]: Yes . . .

EGWENE: I am wondering if I should turn your recruiting duties over to some other Ajah. You did well at finding male channelers, but now that saidin has been cleansed, that isn't really an issue anymore. And as to finding girls to be novices. . . [she shakes her head] Frankly, I find your performance VERY disappointing.

RED [protesting vigorously]: But mother! We've brought in more recruits than any other Ajah -

EGWENE: I can't help thinking you just brought in such possible recruits as you happened to stumble across without really trying. Please prepare a written report, sealed to the Flame, explaining precisely why, after 3400 years of your Ajah's existence, Red "recruiters" had NOT known that the Sea Folk Windfinders could channel, had NOT known any details about the Aiel Wise Ones, had NOT visited the land of the Two Rivers (near as I can tell) in 2000 years and thus were not aware that several of our Wisdoms could channel and were finding apprentices who could do the same from a wide possible selection, due to our Old Blood being so strong . . . please cover all that in your report, and if your explanations are satisfactory, I will consider keeping you on as the Recruiting Ajah. Otherwise I may have to disband you now that your principal reason for existing - tracking down male channelers before they go stark raving mad - no longer means anything. Dismissed!

[NOTES]

There is no reference here to the "vileness" which occurred after the Aiel War, which was first mentioned in COS. It may or may not relate to the claim by Alviarin that the Reds have gentled a lot more male channelers in the last several years than the official Tower Records show. Since I don't know what all this is about, I've decided to ignore it in my post-Tarmon Gai'don dialogues.

The Red's point about predestination - the idea that Rand was "fated" to live long enough to seize Callandor, to fight Tarmon Gai'don, etc., seems to me a very strong one. Jordan's prophecies (Foretellings, Min's Viewings, etc.) apparently ALWAYS come true UNLESS they are specifically stated to be "maybes" or "branching prophecies" of some sort. In other words, Rand has never been in any REAL danger of dying before Tarmon Gai'don. Logical? Or not?

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