Rand had treated her like a girl during the fight at the Eye with the Forsaken. Pushing her aside. That made her furious. She knew that as long as they were together, he would treat her like the inn keeper's daughter she was. But she had felt the power of the true source at the Eye of the World where she had been in the thick of the fight against the Dark One. Even if for just a short while. The Wheel was weaving the web, she could feel the strands, she was on one and he, Rand, another. The paths of Mat and Perrin were unclear. She could see her path, though one lesson of the last few weeks was that getting there would not be easy or the path straight. She also loved the feeling of Perrin's thick dick inside her.
Egwene smiled at these thoughts. She wrote, scratching away on the parchment, having decided to capture the details of what they had done the night before they left for the Blight while the memories were fresh. Done, her hand cramping, the morning sun a little higher in the sky, she hid the titillating details of that night in an old book that would travel with her. Then she went to wake her two friends as they had plans to visit the great baths and then do some more shopping in the old city.
++++++
They had spent a lazy hour in one of the city's communal bath complexes washing, where naked men and women mixed freely in the same warm pools. From the highest to the lowest naked, washing each other, talking, sharing news, letting eyes linger longer than polite over another's nude body. At first, Egwene and Nynaeve were a bit shy, being naked with so many strangers but soon came to love the experience, the freedom of it. Rand was still a prude, shy anytime he showed himself at the pools, while Perrin and Mat embraced the culture and promised to bring the idea back to the Two Rivers.
Now clean and fresh, the three of them were in the old city below the castle walls. Perrin carrying, good-naturedly, whatever the two of them purchased in the markets.
Today he carried bolts of fine cloth in green and blue, their colors, in a sack over his broad shoulder. The girls walked ahead of him dressed in new dresses, spring flowers in their hair, and wearing lightweight cloaks. Soon, their peaceful walk was interrupted when trumpets began to blow from outside the city's walls, announcing the arrival of someone of importance.
They followed a crowd of city folk toward the main avenue where they saw a large party accompanied by drums, banners, and more trumpet blasts heading to the Castle Keep. Even Egwene understood the meaning of the white teardrop on the largest banner as if flapped in the breeze. For a moment her heart froze then beat faster in anticipation.
The Amyrlin Seat, leader of the Aes Sedai had arrived at Fal Dara.
End of events from book 1.