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His fight had left him scarred in ways she did not yet understand She could feel his pain She’d felt it during Seh at first she’d hthtmare could be that terrible She could still feel echoes of that incredible pain, those waves of agony, the frenzy inside of hih She had toh to him for her mistake; she would deal with that once she was finished with her punishments If she ever did finish,

"Rand al’Thor will deal with his probleat her "Can’t you feel his pain?"

"I feel each and every ritted teeth "But he must face his own trials, just as I face mine Perhaps there will be a day when he and I can face ours together, but that time is not now"

/ must be his equal, first, she added in her head / will not stand beside him as his inferior

Min studied her, and Aviendha felt a chill, wondering what visions the woman saw Her predictions of the future were said always to come true

"You are not what I expected," Min finally said

"I have deceived you?" Aviendha said, frowning

"No, not that," Min said with a suess I wasn’t certain what to think, after that night in Caeether I feel close to you, yet distant frouess I expected you to cos to discuss When you didn’t, I worried I thought perhaps I had offended you"

"You have no toh to me," Aviendha said

"Good," Min said "I still worry sometimes that we’llcoood would a confrontation serve?"

"I don’t know," Min said with a shrug "I figured it would be the Aiel way Challenge ht over a ? If you had toh toward me, perhaps I could demand that we dance the spears--but only if you were a Maiden And only if I were still one too I suppose that we could fight with knives, but it would hardly be a fair fight What honor would there to be gained in fighting one with no skill?"

Min flushed, as if Aviendha had offered her an insult What a curious reaction "I don’t know about that," Min said, flipping a knife fro it across her knuckles "I’m hardly defenseless" She made the knife vanish up her other sleeve Why was it that the wetlanders always showed off such flourishes with their knives? Thorn Merrilin had been prone to that as well Didn’t Min understand that Aviendha could have slit the wo the time it took to flash that knife like a street perfor, however Min was obviously proud of the skill, and there was no need to embarrass the wo her work "I would not fight with you unless you gave rave insult My first-sister considers you a friend, and I would like to do so as well"

"All right," Min said, folding her arood thing I have to ad"

Aviendha hesitated, then dipped her finger into the pail "Neither do I" At least, she didn’t like the idea of sharing with a woman she didn’t know very well

"Then what do we do?"

"We continue as we have," Aviendha said "You have what you wish, and I am occupied by other matters When it becomes a different tihtforward of you," Min said, looking confused "You have other er in buckets of water?"

Aviendha blushed again "Yes," she snapped "Just like that You will excusethe buckets She knew that she should not have lost her te out her punishment Her inability to decipher what the Wise Ones wished of her Rand al’Thor, constantly putting hier to help hier She crossed the brown thatch of theher distance fro, he’d notice her wrinkled finger and ask why she had been soaking it! If he discovered that the Wise Ones had been punishing her, he would probably do so rash and make a fool of himself Men were like that, Rand al’Thor round, the brown thatch patterned with square ih wetlanders scurrying this way and that She passed a line of soldiers tossing sacks of grain to the next and loading theon hitched to two thick-hoofed draft horses

She keptThe truth was, she felt just as likely to do so "rash" as Rand al’Thor would be Why? Why couldn’t she decipher what she was doing wrong? The other Aiel in the cah of course they had not spoken to her of the punish similar punishments when she’d been a Maiden, and had always known to stay out of Wise One business

She rounded the wagon, and found herself heading toward Rand al’Thor again He was talking with three of Davram Bashere’s quartermasters, taller than each of the blackRand caught sight of Aviendha and raised his hand toward her, but she turned away quickly, reen

She ground her teeth, trying--unsuccessfully--to taer, if only at herself? The world was close to ending and she spent her days being punished! Ahead, she spotted a s beside a pile of brown tent packs The tight, oblong bundles had straps for ease of carrying over the shoulder

Aviendha should have returned to her pails and redoubled her efforts But she did not Like a child with a stick charging a narshcat, she stalked up to the Wise Ones, fu

"Aviendha?" Bair asked "Have you finished your punish in front of theed at her shirt, but she let it flap Hurrying caroup a wide berth

"Well?" Bair asked

"You are not learning quickly enough," A quickly enough?" Aviendha de you have asked of me! I have memorized every lesson, repeated every fact, performed every duty I have answered all your questions and have seen you nod in approval at each answer!"

She stared the "I can channel better than any Aiel woman alive," she said "I have left behind the spears, and I welcoht honor on each occasion Yet you continue to give me punishments! I will have no more of it Either tell me what it is you wish of er from them She expected disappointment She expected them to explain that a mere apprentice was not to question full Wise Ones She expected, at least, to be given greater punishlanced at Melaine and Bair "It is not ho punish you, child," she said, see to choose her words with care "These punishments come by your own hand"

"Whatever I have done," Aviendha said, "I cannot see that it would have youher eyes "Are you rejecting our punish "I a as ours, do you?" Bair asked, shading her aged face with her hand "You presuht, panic setting in I’?

Could she back do? Beg forgiveness, meet her toh somehow? She should hurry back to her punishment and move the waters Yes! That is what she needed to do She had to go and--