"...Oh."

"...I can talk to cats. Dunno if that's the - reason they think it's me."

"I imagine not. Though that is a very- unique ability."

"Yeah, I'm pretty unique." She doesn't sound quite as happy as the last time she said something similar.

"I do not consider that a bad thing."

"Even if it's in a Dragon kind of way?"

"Even so. The Dragon is prophesied to be the one capable of saving the world. As one who currently lives in the world, I approve of that."

"Thought the Aes Sedai don't like - people who aren't them who have the One Power."

"Channeling the Power without proper training is dangerous, for the channeler as well as those around them. And every male channeler since the Breaking has invariably gone mad. But the Dragon is an exception to many rules. To blindly follow the dictates of tradition without adjustment for changes in circumstance is folly. The past has many lessons to teach, but the present is not the past."

"But talking to the cats isn't channeling?"

"It is not a weave I have ever heard of."

"Would you be able to tell if it was just a weird weave? And - what's a weave?"

"No one ever channels the entirety of the Power at once. It is divided into two halves, conventionally called female and male based on who can tap into which: saidar and saidin. During channeling, it is separated further into strands we call threads, which can be one of five types. Air, Water, Fire, Earth, and Spirit. These threads must be organized into a specific pattern to achieve an effect; these patterns are called weaves. Speaking with cats or other animals is not an effect I've heard of or indeed closely related to any effects that I have heard of."

"I'm not like - doing something different than talking? It doesn't feel like there's threads or anything. Just - cats are people and they have a language, even if no one else can understand it."

"Intriguing."

"I'm that, too."

"Very."

"I will be leaving this village today. I would like you to come with me, as well as your friends Mat and Liland."

Grin. "I'd love to."

"Excellent."

"You'll have to tell me about all the interesting places we're going through."

"As much as I can."

"There's limits to your knowledge, then?"

"There are limits to everything."

"Except to the things we don't know yet."

"Perhaps."

"Hopefully so."