Esorna Sedai sat in a large chart room when a bell pealed the hour. She rolled up the chart she'd been working on and turned her attention to the Blue Ajah dovecote. There were three new arrivals and Esorna relieved the travel weary pigeons of their messages. Carefully unfolding the messages, she read them.
She discarded the first, which concerned Far Madding. The second reported a sudden burst in Dragonsworn activity. It was not Dragonsworn she was concerned about, it was the Dragon Reborn. The third came from the palace in Bandar Eban. Someone reported that Lord Rodel Ituralde had been injured during a Seanchan raid, but that he was rapidly recoving. The message also reported that the Seanchan had captured some strategic maps and that there had been an increase in Seanchan ship sightings.
Esorna stood up and went to report to her sisters.
~@~
Somewhere far to the south-west, Sebban Balwer knocked on the door of Pedron Niall's study and entered. Standing precisely in the middle of the sunburst that formed the floor of the study, he waited.
"What reports, Balwer?" Niall demanded.
"Lord Captain Commander, our eyes and ears in Tarabon report that there has been a raid from the Seanchan. They even invaded the Panarch's Palace. Lord Alaric was present. It sounds as if the Seanchan went to the Palace for a purpose, but my source doesn't know what they recovered."
The Lord Captain Commander frowned.
Balwer offered "The Panarch's Palace contains that exhibition with artifacts from the Age of Legends."
Pedron Niall nodded and seemed concerned. He frowned as he said "Let's pray to the Creator that the Seanchan witches won't be using any of those as a weapon."