Turning of the Wheel

[Matalina]

Years were passing by slowly and Kate just knew she'd choose Green above all other Ajahs. She just knew that it was what she was meant to do. She was driving that direction ever since she reached the stripped dress. It was to be her way to prove to the Great Lord she was worthy of his rewards. Her mother had been a warrior. She was much more than that, and Kate knew that it was in her blood, right down to the bone. She was a fighter.

 

But as life would have it things changed about 2 years into her years as an Accepted. Kate found herself with an aptitude for using the One Power to kill things. She didn't kill anyone with it, but she used it to torment the birds and flowers around her. The beautiful things were just that things. It wasn't that Kate disliked beauty it was something she actually enjoyed since growing up on the Ranch and all. But there was something pleasurable about destroying that beauty.

 

Kate enjoyed the dilemma the Sisters and gardeners had when their beloved rose bushes were found dead after being perfectly healthy the night before. Kate had snuck out of her room and drained all the water from near the roses. She had siphoned it into the fountain nearby. And that had been enough to kill the roses. If it were so easy to kill roses, would it not be so easy to kill a man or a woman by pulling all the water from their pores? Kate took on the theories of the body, much like her mother had, much for the same reason as well. How can you kill something you do not understand.

 

The birds outside her window in the tree nearby drove Kate up a wall and back down again. She found that trapping the bird in a prison of solidified air suffocated the poor singing fool outside her window.

 

Kate had to be careful of the things she was learning. It was hard really to explain why she was doing the research she was doing. When asked it was to learn how to kill their foes. Which was true, she was learning that, but it wasn't the trollocs and fades she was trying to understand, it was her true foes, those who loved the light - other men and women. Kate wondered if that had been what her mother had been doing as well, telling people the same thing.

 

But it soon fell on Kate to use her study of the body for good. She hadn't intended it to become a focus in her life, but it had. With her knowledge of herbs, her study of the body, she soon began to make an appearance on the Yellows radar. Not only the Greens, but the Yellows saw a purpose in Kate. Younger Yellow sisters would approach Kate asking her about this or that and what she thought. It wasn't that they didn't know the answers but they wanted to test Kate. Kate knew that she was being tested, she wasn't sure she really wanted to be a Yellow. They were so good. So very good. Always helping the needy, helping those who came to them with disease and disastrous falls and the like. It really wasn't what Kate wanted.

 

But Kate's interests in strategy and tactics and the art of war never diminished she pushed both topics to the extent of herself. She knew she'd have to choose Yellow or Green. But she was an Accepted and now there really was no point. She would learn both to the best of her knowledge. They both played a part in her life as a child, and so they should now.

 

Kate and a few other Accepted were out on a free day in the city of Tar Valon. It was a normal day, and the women were having a few drinks at one of the inns. It was a reputable place - it had decent decor and it didn't smell of swill, but it was an inn and people got rowdy. It was typical of any inn. A fight broke out. Kate and her friends stayed out of the fight but when it was all over the bouncers and some of the participants were hurt, some very much so.

 

Kate didn't think she just reacted. She went to the man who looked to be most seriously injured. She did as she was taught and delved the man. It was a strange feeling actually delving an injured person. Kate could feel the injuries and knew that he would die without help. But that wasn't what Kate was doing, she was searching for things, using the man as a play toy, something she'd never been able to do under the guidance of an Aes Sedai. The others knew she was channeling, but they couldn't see her weaves or what she was doing. That was the way it worked. Kate continued to delve the man. She found many places where he had internal bleeding. A rib had punched through his lung and he was gasping for breath. It wasn't what Kate had intended but she blocked the whole with a weave of air and his breathing eased at least for a while. She explored his body with the One Power. She was relishing the man's suffering and truly enjoying the experience. Not of his death, but of his internals, How it felt to be near death and the things she could easily do to end his suffering.

 

Kate never even thought about what the others thought of her doings. They weren't going yellow, they knew only the basics and Kate was sure none of them would attempt it either. Kate smiled at herself. She knew she could let this man die in peace, but she didn't, she pushed at his heart. She started to squeeze it and he rattled in his breath. Kate tried not to enjoy the thrill of it too much. It was far better than killing a bird. Kate used a water weave to pull more blood from his veins. She made him bleed faster and then there was no stopping it. Kate let her weaves go, he was going to die. He was suffering and she was enjoying it very much. Kate leaned in and whispered, "Thank you for dying here, it has been a pleasure." Kate sat up as the last breath from his body was release. "I'm only an accepted I cannot do anything more. I tried." Kate sat back on her heals and put her head in her hands as if she were sad. She let out a soft sob and let it be so.

 

Kate had a new passion after that day. But it was hard to explore. Kate would spend the rest of her years as an Accepted trying to figure out the best possible way to kill a man or a woman without ever touching a single hair on their pretty little heads.

 

It was really hard to hide her true nature, but she managed, she even developed a talent for healing. She wasn't the greatest healer or even anywhere close to the best in the Tower. But she made sure she did well. She learned quickly and she pretended to be a good healer. She even spent time in the infirmary mending boys bones. She used every c chance she could to explore the human body to understand it from the inside out. Though no experience would ever come as close to that time in the inn. That was free reign, a pure exploratory expedition into the human body. Kate would never feel that way again about delving a man. Not until she could be herself and truly perform for the Great Lord. Now was not that time, she had to keep her head on straight, she had to be a true Aes Sedai in training. She had to hide her true nature. That was the hardest task. She missed the Ranch for that fact, she didn't have to hide herself from view. Though many of the people there didn't know truly how far the darkness ran in Kate. She wasn't even sure Aiden knew. Her mother certainly did. She didn't harness the darkness though, but she didn't stop it from growing either. Kate loved her mother greatly for treating her as she had. It taught her a lot.

 

Being a Yellow was now Kate's passion. And it would remain that way until the day she died. She enjoyed the human body and learning how it functioned, how to make it stop. It was her new life, and her mother would be proud. Kate knew that, if her mother could kill without touching her victims, how much more money could she have made, to make it look like an accident without any poison. Or to make it look like a natural death. It would make her mother very proud and Kate knew without a doubt this was her path for greatness.