Chapter Text
Moiraine Damodred meets Siuan Sanche at 8:30am on a Monday morning, which is a terrible time to meet anyone. It’s her very first class of the term, Introduction to Philosophy, and she’s already running late because she didn’t see the announcement that the classroom had changed until she was already halfway across campus in the wrong direction. Her internal monologue is a steady stream of fuck, fuck, fuck, in time with the click of her boots on the sidewalk as she tries to haul ass in a dignified manner.
Exactly one minute before class starts, she slips into the room, feeling grumpy and stressed and overheated from speed-walking all the way across campus. Trying in vain to smooth her hair down and unbutton her coat at the same time, she scans the room for an empty seat and sees one at the end of an aisle. She slides into it without hesitation, desperate to get away from the attention of her classmates.
Then she looks at the girl sitting next to her and thinks maybe she should have chosen a different seat.
She’s… well, she’s beautiful, in that frustrating way that looks effortless. Dark skin, curly hair tied into a neat bun at the top of her head, tight shirt, tight jeans, hardly any makeup. Next to her, Moiraine feels all at once too proper and too unkempt.
“Hi,” her neighbor says, beaming at her. “I’m Siuan.”
“Moiraine,” Moiraine says cooly. “Damodred.” Siuan’s voice is lower than she expected. Moiraine tries not to be distracted by the sparkly highlight on her cheeks.
No recognition sparks in Siuan’s eyes when she drops her family’s name. “Moiraine? I like that. What are you studying?”
“Political science.” Moiraine smiles tightly. It’s far too early in the morning for small talk, but she can’t stop her carefully bred manners from taking over. “You?”
“Law. I want to do environmental legislation, but I won’t bore you with the details.” Siuan’s smile is so bright that for an instant, Moiraine almost wants to be bored with the details. Is she going insane? This is the kind of girl she categorically doesn’t get along with. They always have Moiraine on uneven footing in conversation, and she’s never quite been able to tell when they’re doing it on purpose and when they aren’t.
Best be on her guard.
She opens her notebook and carefully lines up her pencil and eraser next to it, not meeting Siuan’s gaze. Fortunately, before Siuan can say anything else or the silence can get awkward, the professor clears his throat.
“All right, class,” he says, steepling his hands together on the podium. Maybe it’s just Moiraine’s foul mood, but the professor gives her bad vibes immediately. His voice is oily and his eyes are unnerving and — no, she stops herself, she’s definitely just being a judgemental asshole. “My name is Ishamael Tedronai, and I will be your professor this term. Now, don’t expect this to be an easy class because it’s 100-level. There are thousands of years of philosophy to wade through, and most of you have the critical thinking skills of a Trolloc.”
(Moiraine bristles at this. Just because he’s teaching freshmen doesn’t give him the right to be a pretentious asshole about it.)
Professor Tedronai clicks on the projector. “Let’s go over the syllabus.”
Moiraine pointedly doesn’t look at her neighbor for the rest of class, and packs up her bag as quickly as she can when it’s over. She’ll sit across the room next time, she thinks. She’ll never see Siuan again.
The Pattern draws itself tightly around them. Neither of them could guess it, but Siuan is going to change Moiraine’s life.
Monday, January 25th
6:02pm
Lan: First day of classes survived 💪
Moiraine: Celebratory dinner at the dining hall across campus for a change?
Lan: They weren’t lying, the Damodreds ARE fancy
Lan: I’ll head to your room in 30 minutes
Moiraine: If you’re not wearing a tux you’re not invited
Lan: Heard. I’ll break out my nicest camo jacket for the occasion
Moiraine: Is that the one with the paint stain or the one with the rip on the elbow? I’m not sure how you quantify “nicest” in this case
Lan: That was an unnecessary attack, both those jackets are perfectly wearable
The rest of the first week of classes is uneventful. She sits on the opposite side of the room on Wednesday morning in philosophy, and in the class of two hundred students, doesn’t see Siuan at all. Her new seat neighbor doesn’t try to engage her in conversation, which is the way she likes it. She keeps to herself, diligently does the first week of assigned readings for her classes even though she knows most of the other students won’t, and hardly talks to anyone except for Lan.
In short, it’s exactly like most of fall semester. At this point, it’s hard for her to imagine anything else.
By the start of the second week, she’s forgotten about the too-friendly girl in her morning class. She doesn’t even remember her name.
So, of course, the Wheel takes it upon itself to change that. Apparently, for this class, they have to complete a group assignment every three weeks, and the pairings for the first one are randomly generated. When Professor Tedronai puts up a slide with the pairs for their first group assignment, Moiraine Damodred and Siuan Sanche are listed together.
Fine, then. Maybe the Pattern is trying to tell Moiraine something, although she has no flaming idea what. She scans the seats in front of her, idly trying to spot Siuan’s curls. Her efforts are in vain and cause her to miss the next several minutes of what the professor says.
After class, she’s on her way out the door when she feels a hand lightly touch her arm. She jerks away, body going rigid, and turns around to see Siuan.
Siuan doesn’t seem to notice her reaction, which is a relief. “Hey,” she says with an easy smile. Her teeth, Moiraine notices, are a little crooked. “I saw we were partners, and I figured it would be easier to find you after class than to try to send you an email to your school account or something.”
“Hello,” Moiraine says, a little stiffly.
“Can I get your number?” Siuan holds out her phone, with an empty contact up. The screen of the iPhone has a small crack across a corner. “So we can text about the project.”
“Sure.” Moiraine inputs her number and name, handing the phone back to Siuan. “I have to go. I’ll see you around.”
“Okay,” Siuan says easily. “See you Friday.”
Moiraine smiles politely at her before she walks away. She doesn’t even have anywhere to be — her next class isn’t until noon — but being around Siuan is making her itchy. She’s too put-together and too nice to not have an ulterior motive.
Whatever game this girl is playing, she’s going to figure it out.
-
She runs into Alanna, another girl on her dorm floor, in the elevator on Thursday. The two of them aren’t friends, but they’re friendly enough. Alanna is very pretty and very spirited, and seems to be having the stereotypical college experience that has absolutely eluded Moiraine so far. Moiraine won’t judge Alanna too harshly, though, for staying out late half the nights of the week and never bringing back the same boy twice. She seems to be having fun.
The elevator ride can’t be longer than thirty seconds, but Alanna wastes absolutely no time trying to convince Moiraine to come over on Friday night for a small dorm party.
“Bring your hot bestie,” she says with a wink that raises Moiraine’s hackles immediately. She flicks her gaze to the ceiling for a split second to get her annoyance under control, both at Alanna’s words and her own reaction. It’s not like she has any claim to Lan. If he wants to get with Alanna, there are certainly worse women he could choose. It’s not Alanna’s fault she defies every one of Moiraine’s Cairhienin sensibilities.
Alanna is looking at her, waiting for an answer to her invitation. “Maybe,” Moiraine says politely as they step out of the elevator. It wouldn’t be the worst thing to try to be more social this term. “I have homework to work on. Have a good evening.”
Thursday, February 4th
3:04 pm
Moiraine: Are you going to Alanna’s thing tomorrow?
Lan: I don’t know, maybe. Are you?
Moiraine: Maybe
Moiraine: I know we've had less than a week of real classes but I feel like I’m already behind. I only had time to annotate my philosophy reading before lecture today, not take notes
Lan: I’d remind you that no one else is even doing those readings, but I know you wouldn’t listen
Lan: So... yes or no on the party?
Moiraine: I’d rather just hang out with you
Moiraine: Is that bad
Lan: No
Lan: BUT
Lan: Maybe we should consider going just this once. If it sucks we can just leave. It’s literally like one minute down the hall
Moiraine: Ugh. True. Fine
Lan: I can’t believe I actually convinced you of that so easily
Moiraine: Don’t push your luck I can still change my mind
Moiraine is exhausted on Friday morning. The English assignment due last night had seemed easy, but she’d ended up sinking over an hour into formatting the citations correctly after doing it wrong the first time. After the stress of trying to turn the assignment in on time, her mind wouldn’t stop racing as she tried to sleep. Now, sitting at the back of the philosophy lecture hall, she doesn’t have much faith in her ability to stay awake for the whole lecture.
“Is this seat taken?”
“No,” Moiraine says automatically, before looking up at the speaker. It’s Siuan.
“Great.” Siuan swings into the seat, groaning slightly. “Fuck, I’m bloody exhausted.”
Moiraine’s eyebrow raises slightly at Siuan’s loud cursing. Her tired brain can’t think of anything to say, but Siuan seems happy to fill the silence. “I talked to my advisor and she’s making me move down to, like, remedial English, since my high school’s class didn’t cover enough of the curriculum apparently, and my professor could tell from my first assignment. It’s such a load of fish shit to me, because I know I could catch up. It’s not my fault that my high school sucked.”
For a moment, Moiraine blinks, unable to get past Siuan’s casual use of fish shit. “I’m sorry,” she says finally.
“It’s fine. I’ll just take the bloody class and if I work hard enough, maybe they’ll let me go back to the regular track next term. If not, I’ll email the dean until he changes his mind.” Siuan’s eyes flash. Moiraine is a bit taken aback by her intensity.
“What about you?” Siuan finally asks, seemingly remembering her manners after her angry tirade. “How’s your week going?”
Now probably isn’t the best time to complain about the assignment for her English class — she’s in the upper-level course, having gotten credit for the prerequisites in high school. She shrugs. “It’s going fine.”
“Do you have any fun plans tonight?” Siuan pushes, when Moiraine doesn’t volunteer any more information. Is this her game? Is she going to judge Moiraine for having such a dry social life? Moiraine looks directly at Siuan and smiles calmly.
“Actually, yes. My friend Alanna invited me over to her room for a party.”
“Wait, Alanna? What’s her last name? I might know her. I know a lot of people.”
With how annoyingly outgoing Siuan seems to be, Moiraine doesn’t doubt that. Besides, Tar Valon University’s campus isn’t that big. Even she, who has exactly one friend, knows a lot of people. (Although knows of them might be more accurate. One can learn a lot by observing.) “Mosvani.”
Siuan’s face scrunches up in thought. “Lots of jewelry? Really pretty? I think I’ve met her a few times at parties. All the guys are always falling over themselves to talk to her.”
“That sounds like her.” It doesn’t seem like Siuan is mocking Alanna. Is she jealous? No, that can’t be right. Siuan is one of the most beautiful people Moiraine has ever seen. She could get any man she wants, and hell, she probably does. “She’s on my dorm floor.”
Professor Tedronai starts his lecture, ending their conversation rather abruptly. Moiraine watches Siuan out of the corner of her eye, noticing how fast Siuan’s hand moves across the page of her notebook as she struggles to keep up with the lecture. Is she trying to write down every word the professor says? Even Moiraine doesn’t take notes that detailed. It simply isn’t an efficient strategy. And Siuan is doing it by hand, instead of on a laptop? Even more inefficient.
She doesn’t comment, of course. This random girl doesn’t want unsolicited academic advice. Moiraine still isn’t sure what Siuan does want from her, but she’s sure it’s not that.