Once she and the horse finally reached the spot where they were supposed to meet, the Aes Sedai brought the horse to a stop. She turned her head, bright blue eyes looking around her, but as she'd expected, nobody else nearby could possibly be the woman she sought. She pressed her lips together, forcing down a sigh of frustration. She'd been ready to leave days ago, and it had been very difficult for Stefana to have to wait for a Warder to be found to travel with her. Honestly, the entire arrangement made the Red just a little nervous. How is someone I'm not even bonded to supposed to protect me? She didn't really understand it.
To distract herself from that nervousness, Stefana thought about the mission ahead of them. They would be traveling to a few small villages near the Blightborder in Arafel which had seen a few people go missing. On its own, that wouldn't have drawn her attention, but she had built up quite a network of Eyes and Ears in the Borderlands during her time there, and their reports of the situation spoke of notes left at the homes of those who had disppeared by someone called the First Blade. While the name was completely unfamiliar to her, after asking around within the Red Ajah, she'd learned that this person had been a plague to the Grey Tower for years, and was almost certainly allied with the Shadow.
She brushed a few specks of dust from her red riding dress, still searching the area. This First Blade person, whoever he or she was, needed to be found. Stefana was more than sure of that. All that remained was for the Warder to show up so that they could get going, and Stefana was already feeling a growing impatience to be gone.