“Only after I determined that the Pattern was tugging me somewhere.” Verin blew on her tea. “That meant you or Perrin. It couldn’t have been Rand’s fault, since I’d been able to leave that one easily.”
“Rand?” Mat asked, dismissing yet another flash of colors. “You were with him?”
Verin nodded.
“How . . . did he seem?” Mat said. “Is he . . . you know. . . .”
“Mad?” Verin asked.
Mat nodded.
“I’m afraid so,” Verin said, lips downturning slightly. “I think he’s still in control of himself, however.”
“Bloody One Power,” Mat said, reaching beneath his shirt to touch the comforting foxhead medallion.
Verin looked up. “Oh, I’m not convinced young al’Thor’s problems are completely due to the Power, Matrim. Many would like to blame his temperament on saidin, but to do that is to ignore the incredible stresses that we’ve settled on that poor boy’s shoulders.”
Mat raised an eyebrow, glancing at Thom.
“Either way,” Verin sipped her tea, “one cannot blame too much on the taint, as it will no longer affect him.”
“It won’t?” Mat asked. “He’s decided to stop channeling?”
She laughed. “A fish would sooner stop swimming. No, the taint will no longer affect him because the taint is no more. Al’Thor cleansed saidin.”
“What?” Mat asked sharply, sitting up.
Verin sipped her tea.
“Are you serious?” Mat asked.
“Quite,” she replied.
Mat glanced at Thom again. Then he plucked at his coat and ran a hand through his hair.
“What are you doing?” Verin asked with amusement.
“I don’t know,” Mat said, feeling sheepish. “I guess I just think I should feel different, or something. The whole world up and changed on us, didn’t it?”
“You could say that,” Verin said, “though I would argue that the cleansing itself is more like a pebble thrown into a pond. The ripples will take some time to reach the shore.”
“A pebble?” Mat asked. “A pebble?”
“Well, perhaps more of a boulder.”
“A bloody mountain if you ask me,” Mat muttered. He settled back on the awful bench.
Verin chuckled. Flaming Aes Sedai. Did they have to be like that? It was probably another oath they took and told nobody about, something to do with acting mysterious. He stared at her. “What was that chuckle for?” he finally demanded.
“Nothing,” she said. “I merely suspect that you will soon feel a little of what I did this last month.”
“Which was?”
“Well,” she said. “I believe I was talking about that before we got sidetracked on irrelevant topics.”
“On the flaming cleansing of the True Source,” Mat muttered. “Honestly.”
“I experienced the most curious of events,” Verin continued. Ignoring Mat, of course. “You may not be aware of this, but in order to Travel from a location, you need to spend time in it. Usually, stopping in a place for an evening is enough. Consequently, after parting from the Dragon, I made my way to a nearby village and took a room at the inn. I settled down, learning the room and preparing to open a Gateway in the morning.