The Dragon Reborn - Chapter 12 [#100Days, Day 84]

Leader Assessment: Siuan Sanche and The Long View

    This chapter gives the first real glimpse of how the Aes Sedai, particularly the Amyrlin Seat, earned the reputation of puppet-masters for the world.  Siuan Sanche, sits at the center of an intricate web of information, plots and misdirection.  

    Ten years with the stole, she thought.  Nearly twenty since I decided to sail these dangerous waters.  And if I slip now, I'll wish I were back hauling nets.
Siuan Sanche, The Dragon Reborn, p. 116

    "The true Dragon has been Reborn," Verin said almost to herself, "and so the Pattern has no room for false Dragons anymore.  We have loosed the Dragon on the world.  The Light have mercy on us."
    The Amyrlin shook her head irritably.  "We have done what must be done."  And if even the newest novice learns of it, I will be stilled before the next sunrise, if I'm not torn to pieces first.  Me, and Moiraine, and Verin, and likely anyone thought to be a friend of ours, as well.  It was not easy to carry on so great a conspiracy when only three women knew of it, when even a close friend would betray them and consider it a duty well done.  Light, but I wish I could be sure they would not be right to do it.
Verin and Siuan, The Dragon Reborn, p. 117 - 118

    "So long as Mat lives," Verin went on, "the Horn of Valere is no more than a horn to anyone else.  If he dies, of course, another can sound it and forge a new link between man and Horn."  Her gaze was steady and untroubled by what she seemed to be suggesting.
    "Many will die before we are done, Daughter."  And who else could I use to sound it again?  I'll not take the risk of trying to return it to Moiraine, now.  One of the Gaidin, perhaps.  Perhaps.  "The Pattern has yet to make his fate clear."
Verin and Siuan, The Dragon Reborn, p. 118 - 119

    Plots within secrecy.  At a glance, it appears that the rest of humanity is nothing more than means to various ends for the Amyrlin Seat.  She is gifted with a particularly strategic vision - twenty years is a long time to remain focused on such a vision of success.  It's quite a bit different than starting something from the ground up, creating a Facebook or Apple, etc.  She was part of the organization; novice to Accepted to Aes Sedai.  Working through an organization to get to a position to put it on her back and haul it in the direction it needs to go is quite a feat; bureaucratic inertia notwithstanding.  Had she been a wilder and gifted with the same vision, she would have had certainly more freedom in the methods of her search for the Dragon Reborn, but she would have lacked the infinite (by comparison) resources the White Tower offers.  Her navigation through the intricate plots, infighting, alliances and misdirection gives Siuan a cunning bordering on terrifying.