#Siuan Sanche knows that and always reads it to have a laugh when she is sad

[iviarellereads]

The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 20 - Visitations

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(Crescent moon and stars icon) In which we're not really still playing this game, are we?

PERSPECTIVE: Mat. A woman enters the room, all in white silk and silver, her hair as black as night, and so beautiful he almost forgets how to breathe. Mat half thinks he knows her, but then thinks he could never forget a woman like that, and wishes Rand or Perrin were here to help him talk to women.(2)

She says he'll be passable when he fills out again, and he realizes he's standing there naked. He rushes to the bed, grabbing a blanket to wrap around himself, and apologizes for her finding him that way. She says she wouldn't have visited like this, but she was here for another purpose, at this “White Tower” which seems to amuse her as a name,(3) and wanted to see "all of you". She tells him to eat all they give him, he needs to put weight back on and regain his strength, and she implies that their methods of Healing are crude, to take so much from the one being Healed.

Mat asks if he knows her,(4) and she says he may have seen her somewhere, and to call her Selene. She says she's not an Aes Sedai, and these Aes Sedai mean to use him, though he'll like it, mostly. There's no need to convince him to seek out glory. What does she mean? What kind of glory? She smiles and says she knew that would pull him.(5) Mat insists he's just a country boy, Aes Sedai have no use for him, he just wants to see a bit of the world and go back to his da's farm. Lanfear says he's more important than he knows, and he can have glory if he doesn't trust them. He starts to ask if she's a Darkfriend, although it's not something one can ask politely, and she's amused at the idea, No, she follows no-one. There's one man she could stand beside, but she doesn't follow.(6)

Mat laughed nervously. “Of course not.” Blood and ashes, a Darkfriend wouldn’t name herself Darkfriend. Probably has a poisoned knife, if she is. He had a vague memory of a woman dressed as one nobly born, a Darkfriend with a deadly dagger in her slender hand. “That wasn’t what I meant at all. You look. . . . You look like a queen. That’s what I meant. Are you a Lady?” “Mat, Mat, you must learn to trust me. Oh, I will use you, too—you have too suspicious a nature, especially since carrying that dagger, for me to deny it—but my use will gain you wealth, and power, and glory. I will not compel you. I have always believed men perform better if convinced rather than forced. These Aes Sedai do not even realize how important you are, and he will try to dissuade or kill you, but I can give you what you desire.” “He?” Mat said sharply. Kill me? Light, it’s Rand they were after, not me. How does she know about the dagger? I suppose the whole Tower knows. “Who wants to kill me?”

Lanfear realizes she's said too much, and tells Mat that he should trust her, because she admits she wants to use him, unlike people who would pretend not to. She will lead him to wealth and glory. He asks how he can know if any of what she says is true, and she says by listening to what the Aes Sedai tell him, and what they don't. For example, will they tell him his father came to Tar Valon, if he doesn’t ask? Siuan Sanche sent him and Tam al'Thor back empty handed, without even assurances that the boys were alive. But she can ensure that they're informed that he's alright.

At any rate, she wants him to remember that he has another choice, besides being used by these so-called Aes Sedai or going to Ballsy. She alone can guarantee him all he seeks, if he'll do as she says. He says he supposes he’ll choose her option, since he has so little choice. Her demeanour shifts dramatically, and she says she didn’t come all this way for a suppose. He starts to tingle all over and get a headache(7) but it stops and she takes off in a hurry when she hears something outside his door.

Leaving Tar Valon sounds better by the minute. Mat takes inventory of his belongings, noting that the money would’ve seemed extravagant to him before but now it won’t get him far.(8) Suddenly there's a knock, followed by the door opening. The Amyrlin Seat and the Keeper enter, and tell him he should put his things away and get back to bed, before he falls over. They chat at each other about his condition in that annoying way people have of not talking *to* the person they're talking *about*.

They talk about how hungry he must be, and he says no, he really feels fine, he'll just be on his way. The Amyrlin says he's just eaten a meal for five with room to spare, and he'll eat that way four times a day for days yet, or else risk starving. He's just been severed from a two thousand year old corruption of magic, that has effects. She also tells him that his name and description are on the way to every bridge guard and dockmaster, and he's not to leave the island under any circumstances. Why do they want to keep him there? They don't heal people and then let them waste their efforts, and he may need more Healing still. He says he's been gone from home a long time, his parents probably think he's dead.

“If you wish to write a letter to them, I will see that it is carried to Emond’s Field.” Mat waited for more, but no more came. “Thank you, Mother.” He essayed a small laugh. “I’m half surprised my da did not come looking for me. He’s the kind of man who would.” He was not sure, but he thought there was a small hesitation before the Amyrlin answered. “He did come. Leane spoke to him.” The Keeper took it up immediately. “We did not know where you were then, Mat. I told him so, and he left before the heavy snows. I gave him some gold to make the journey home easier.” “No doubt,” the Amyrlin said, “he will be pleased to hear from you. And your mother will, certainly. Give me the letter when you have written it, and I will see to it.”

They told him, but he had to ask, and they didn't mention Tam. He mentions Rand, and the Amyrlin says she's sure he's fine, though she only met him the once. She sends Leane to get a bit of food and some drink, and then tells Mat some things are dangerous to talk about even around Leane.(9)

She asks if he remembers the Horn, and he asks what horn? She says if he plays games with her, he'll regret it. He says he remembers, and she asks if he knows he's now linked to the Horn? If he blows it, the Heroes will come forth. Anyone else will just blow a normal horn. So long as he lives. He realizes she could have let him die, had someone else, under her control, blow it instead. He accuses her of meaning to have him blow it at the Last Battle, and she asks if he'd prefer the alternative? He never said he wouldn't blow it, he says, realizing the alternative is to have him killed.

The Amyrlin gave an exasperated sigh. “You remind me of my uncle Huan. No one could ever pin him down. He liked to gamble, too, and he’d much rather have fun than work. He died pulling children out of a burning house. He wouldn’t stop going back as long as there was one left inside. Are you like him, Mat? Will you be there when the flames are high?” He could not meet her eyes. He studied his fingers as they plucked irritably at his blanket. “I’m no hero. I do what I have to do, but I am no hero.” “Most of those we call heroes only did what they had to do. I suppose it will have to be enough.(10) For now. You must not speak to anyone but me of the Horn, my son. Or of your link to it.”

He asks why she wants to keep it such a secret, even from other Aes Sedai? She says the more people know of a thing, the more it spreads. As it is, Darkfriends surely know the Horn has been found, but they don't know where it is yet, or that he sounded it. Does he want Darkfriends and Shadowspawn coming after him? He says he thought they couldn't get into the Tower, and she says well, all the more reason to stay and rest. He'll feel better soon.

He lays on the bed a long while. The Amyrlin wants to hold him like a sheep in a pen, and he wonders who the heck is Selene and what does she want? He thinks he'd rather face Trollocs than be caught between those two. There has to be a way out of both their grasps.All he has to do is find it.

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(1) And ANOTHER new one! This one's a lot more self-explanatory though. The moon, the stars, the night, and the daughter thereof. Lanfear's got her own icon now. What does that say about her arc and future in the story? (2) Ah, yet another "oh I'm the worst at talking to women" from one of the lads. They do like to trade that card around. (3) Why would this amuse her? Consider: she lived in the Age of Legends, before the Breaking of the World, all the Forsaken have been sealed in the breach with the Dark One since then but her memory is, of course, intact. Nothing survived the Breaking, and we saw the Tower-free island being formed when Lews Therin blew up and made Dragonmount. So, it's possible the White Tower was named in honour of something from the AOL, or named for something only loosely remembered through someone else's accounting. Or perhaps she's just amused at how they carry themselves as if they were the height of achievement when Lanfear is one of a very few people who know exactly how much more was achieved in her time. (4) Did Mat ever meet Lanfear? Has he seen her in his dreams, like Perrin has? (5) Mat has a lot in common with Nynaeve. Both will say one thing and do another. Both can be led by the right questions but remain suspicious of others' motivations. What's funny about this is, I can find love in my heart for Nynaeve but not for Mat, and many, many readers are the exact opposite. At any rate, Lanfear says she knew how to manage him, that that line about glory would hook him. She knows it didn't work on Rand. How would she know it WOULD work on Mat? And why would she admit it to his face, or does she think he's that pathetic and dense? (6) Not to interrupt, miss, but you do in fact follow the Dark One, do you not? We can probably guess that she means Lews Therin, the version of him she remembers, as the man she could stand beside… but she follows no one? Well, perhaps if you don't consider the Dark One a person so much as a cosmic force… (7) We've seen those symptoms before. Rand was subjected to a more intense form of the same when Liandrin found him in the dungeons at Fal Dara. We don't know for sure what it was, but we can probably guess. We know Liandrin has a Talent for Compulsion, for tweaking people to her side of things. But it's probably crude, since it's frowned upon by the White Tower. Lanfear, being from an age where magic was refined to what they believed might well be its purest form, might know a subtler and more effective method of the same. (8) My, how they grow up so fast. (9) I wonder how Leane feels about being sent out of the room so often lately for Siuan to talk to Emond's Fielders. (10) We have some reasonable assurances that Siuan hasn't been compromised, her Oaths are likely intact and she can't lie. So, her story is likely true. And, I think a lot of families have at least one person like that around. Mat is shaping up to be the archetypal lovable rogue, after all. The Han Solo, the Green Arrow, the Shrek, and how many others like them stretching backward in time in that vein.

[missdronio16]

In the White Tower Chronicles there is a volume that contains the whole list of women friendzoned by Moiraine Sedai.

The name of Liandrin Guirale appears 23 times.