A new start

[ConQuest]

Dehimage

 

 

Liquid Brown eyes, Brown eyes always staring into the distance, never to focus again. Always haunting, always accusing, “why?” those eyes seemed to ask. “why did you give me over to these monsters?”

 

A few days ago he had stumbled across a young woman, Hair was fair, and skin still looked delicate, so out of place in the brushes on the side of the road. The smell of death was what lead him to her, with her dress tattered and body slightly mangled from the fight. The sight had brought about the nightmares with a vengeance, even in the day he would have them, tormenting him and driving him mad. He had to focus on his task, he had a mark to take out.

 

A passerby hollering brought him from his thoughts; Days on the hunt left him exhausted. The anger burned inside of him still, rage that fueled an unending race to rid himself of these nightmares. He glanced around and found himself still across from the inn; the man’s horse was still at the stables so he knew he hadn’t missed him.

 

Nothing about the inn had changed, except for the amount of foot traffic in the streets. That wouldn’t matter, he wasn’t about to cause a scene. The man was still inside the inn, probably finishing some other business that lords needed to do. With luck he saw the Mark step out into the street, and start walking away from his position. Standing Dehimage stretched his back out from sitting all night, and glanced into a window, looking to make sure his livery was in order. He looked as if he were just a messenger, someone who could walk in and out and get away quietly. The letter he was carrying was blank, but the seal had a slow acting poison that would quietly and painfully kill whoever touched it.

 

Dehimage quickly caught up to the man just as the sun began setting, the failing light would help cover any features that he had failed to cover on himself. The man had acquired a few rough looking men as a body guard, but they were guarding the wrong threat. “My lord,” Dehimage called out, causing a loud clanging as his troop unceremoniously drew swords.

 

“Fools, Lower your weapons,” The Lord smacked one in the back of his head with his cane, then another trying to get out of the ring of steel. “Buffoons. Now young man, what is it you needed?” He stopped just out of arms reach from Dehimage and placed his hands one over the other on his cane. A small seam ran around the outer edge, just below the decoration, told him that he was prepared to draw the hidden blade just in case.

 

“Only a letter my Lord,” he said digging into his messenger pouch, making it seem as if there were more than one in there, pulling it out and examining it he then held it out.

 

“Who, sent it?” he didn’t take the letter.

 

“She didn’t say her name, my Lord, only your description and said it was of upmost importance.” Dehimage had prepared for a few questions thinking that it was going to be harder to make him belive but he must have been expecting news from someone because he took it and ripped it open.

 

“Is this some kind of joke? Its blank.” He held out the letter to make his point.

Looking befuddled he took the letter back and examined it himself, “my apologies sir but she said it was important.” He stuffed the letter back into his pouch so he could get rid of the poison later, he didn’t want it to get on any one else and have them get hurt for no reason. A gurgling sound made him look up. The man had his hand around his throat as if he couldn’t breathe. His hand had already begun swelling up, foam started coming from his mouth and he had begun to shake uncontrollably. Every one stepped back from him as if he had something catching. It figured the man had to be allergic to the poison. He dropped to his knees and then fell over, dead before his face hit the ground.

 

Before he could try to escape the four guards decided to finally do their job and brought their swords at him. Having never fought with swords Dehimage didn’t know if they had skill or not, so the best way was to finish it fast. He rolled his shoulders to check the blades there, rolled his foot for the one there and pulled the two in each sleeve, he threw those and the landed in the throat of the two in front before they could take a step. The other two stepped over and charged at him crouching he drew the blade from his boot and rolled into the first man stabbing the man in the back of the leg bringing him down heavily and took the opening it caused into the last man. He seemed to be waiting for it and backhanded Dehimage away, causing him a busted lip and it felt like his jaw broke into a hundred pieces. He stood dizzy and disoriented but still alive, shaking his head he cleared his vision enough to see the sword flying to his face. He quickly dropped and kicked the man in the chest forcing him back and into the wall. Taking the opportunity to draw his blades from his back he grabbed one by the blade and tossed it with precision into the man’s bull of a neck.

The fight finished, Dehimage checked his wounds, his jaw wasn’t broken, but it would heal funny if he didn’t get it set soon, he was losing blood too. The man’s sword and gotten him in the arm and he hadn’t realized it.

Edited July 17, 2011 by ConQuest

[Elgee]

Grays were widely known as negotiators and diplomats, to the extend that people sometimes forgot that they also stood for justice. Justice was Esther's passion. Without law, without rules, without order, the world would return to the chaos of the Breaking. Murdering anyone was against all laws, rules and order. When that murder was perpetrated against an innocent, it was unforgivable. When that innocent was a woman who could learn to channel, not only her sense of justice but also her duty as Aes Sedai demanded that she investigate and punish the perpetrator to the full extent of the law.

 

The Amyrlin had sent her group out into the world to search for women who could learn to channel. They had been placed under the authority of Cara, an experienced Brown, and Esther had gladly acquiesced to her authority, even though she was the Strongest of the group by far. They had searched diligently, and found a surprising number of women who could learn to channel, and even a few Wilders. Arrangements had been made to send them to the Tower in groups, where possible.

 

When word had reached them that one of the women who had tested true had been murdered, opinions were divided. Everyone wanted the culprit caught, but most argued that the Amyrlin's orders took precedence, and local authorities would have to deal with the matter. Esther was torn - on the one hand, it was correct to obey the Amyrlin. On the other hand, Tower law demanded that anyone who harmed an initiate (which the woman surely was, even though technically her name had not yet been written in the Novice Book), had to face Tower justice.

 

After hours of discussion, Cara eventually agreed that having Esther investigate the matter would not violate the Amyrlin's orders, as the rest of them would continue with their search for girls. Esther would rejoin them as soon as Tower justice had been executed.

 

Days of investigating, days of following the various tracks from where the girl's body had been found, had eventually led to this man at this inn. Each Ajah had special Weaves that they used, and the Grays had several that could be used for tracking. Esther had assiduously learned them, but this was the first time she'd had the opportunity to actually use them. The reality was far different from what she had expected; she was out of her depth here, weaves and theory learned not translating into practice at all as she had assumed. Light, I hope this really is the man! Nerves held her frozen for much too long as the man rose and exited the inn, along with his cronies.

 

Eventually she managed to rouse herself and follow him, only to be met by a scene of carnage outside. Bodies lay strewn around, the man she had identified as the main culprit amongst them. Esther was no Yellow, but even to her eyes it was obvious he had been poisoned. Only one man remained standing, though only just. A man who had NOT been with the group who had exited the inn only minutes before.

 

Esther would never know exactly what she based her lightning decision on. Maybe it was instinct, though she had never before acted on something as illogical as that. Maybe it was the look of the man - those burning eyes, full of hatred yet somehow also vulnerable. All she knew was that someone would come along at any second, and matters would follow its inevitable course ... unless she intervened.

 

She hurried over and grabbed his arm, pulling him towards an alley nearby. "Can you walk? Just until we get somewhere where I can Heal you?"

 

 

Ester Tremaine

Gray Ajah

[ConQuest]

Dehimage

 

The deed was done, the man was dead and his troop was out of commission, and he had survived. He needed to get out of here but he was just starring, exhausted, he had gone days without sleep, days following this monster at his feet. The woman on the side of the road had been avenged, and she could sleep in peace. Though it didn’t make him feel any better. Was he any better than the man at his feet? He had just killed these men, and he felt nothing about it. No pity, only anger, though not at the man at his feet any more, just at himself.

 

“Can you walk?” And then he was moving; being pulled along at a quick pace, he could barely keep his feet below him. “Just until we get somewhere I can heal you,” he didn’t understand that last part, his mind just wasn’t working like it should. Darkness had fully taken hold now and all he could see was the shadows around him, her desperate pull of breath ahead let him know that it was still her leading him. He was too tired to question why she was helping, one foot in front of the other he told himself. She rushed into a dark alley nearby with him dragging behind. The smell was overpowering, it was as if all the rot in the world was sitting in the muck at their feet.

 

The underbelly of the city thrived in this rot and always was on the lookout for the unlucky few who wandered into these dark twisting passages.

 

He kept his last knife out and made sure to present it too any who got too close, twice they had to back track and only once he had to physically push a decrepit looking man who was missing most of his teeth, who decided to ignore his blade and go for a young woman. Dehimage shoved him into a wall, the following sickening thud told him that the man wasn’t getting back up any time soon and probably wouldn’t wake, if he was found by the others.

 

They finally broke out into the open streets lit only by the moon. His face was now a steady throb and just breathing was becoming a challenge, and he was getting dizzy. He hadn’t had the time to staunch the blood from his arm. “I need to sit,” he found a comfortable looking rock and sat heavily on the ground, and leaned his head against the wall behind him.

 

The woman crouched before him and all Dehimage could see were her brown eyes. “Even now you haunt me.” Visions started flashing through his mind, all the women he captured, all their faces, all their voices, always crying and screaming out for help that he never gave. He couldn’t help them, couldn’t take it back, he cried out that he was sorry but it never changed, always the same nightmare. An Icy cold raced through his body, washing all thoughts out of his mind,

Edited July 20, 2011 by ConQuest

[Elgee]

She was in over her head - Esther knew this after one alleyway. At first the only thing that kept her moving forward was a determination to get this man to safety. Darkness had fallen, bringing every unsavoury character in this Light Forsaken town into the open, it seemed. After about the third attempt to attack her which she had not even noticed until her mysterious companion counter-attacked, anger at her own ineptness came to her rescue.

 

Light, woman, you made it through the Arches and the Rings, countering much worse than this! Weaving a simple half-moon shaped Air Shield, strangely first for her companion and only then for herself, she felt more confident immediately now that their backs were protected. Next she wove a Club of Air, using it to knock unconscious anyone who stepped too close. She did not want to advertise the fact that an Aes Sedai was in the area, and only another Channeler would know that something other than a blunt weapon had been used.

 

Eventually they burst out into a quiet street in what seemed to be a better part of the town. Within a few steps her companion stumbled to the nearest wall, then slid down it until he was slumped on a rock. Hastily crouching down in front of him, Esther Delved him then hissed in surprise. The man was gravely close to dying! How he had managed to get this far with the amount of blood loss he had suffered was beyond her. Adjusting the Weaves to form the Healing one, she let that sink into him. His wounds knit up until not even a scar remained, but there was no way in which she could replenish the blood he had lost. "Can you walk?" she whispered, but he only mumbled incoherently. She bit her lip and eyed him uncertainly, then scanned the area, trying to determine how far they were from the quiet Inn where she'd rented a room and left her horse.

 

The Light must have had mercy on them - they had ended up only one street over from her Inn. She couldn't carry him all the way there, though, AND hide the fact that she was carrying him. He would have to get there on his own two feet, and for that to happen she was going to have to do something very dangerous. Dangerous to him, that was, though with luck she'd be able to fix that too. Taking a deep breath, she very carefully wove just the right amount of Air, Water and Spirit to draw a bit of the fatigue out of him. Enough so that he could walk with her to her Inn and sink onto the nearest bench without stumbling too much. Waving one of the serving women over, Esther ordered food. A lot of food. The man must already be feeling as if his stomach was trying to chew through his back bone.

 

She glanced around to make sure that no-one could overhear them, then leaned closer to him anyway. "I Healed your wounds and took away some of the fatigue so you could walk here, but you are going to need complete bed rest for at least one full day, and to take it very easy for a few days after that. You're also going to need a lot to eat to replenish the blood you've lost and what the Healing took out of you."

 

She sat back as the serving woman approached with enough food for three men, as well as a glass of wine for her and a tankard of ale for him. She waited until the woman was out of earshot, before continuing. "My name is Esther Se ... Esther Tremaine." Maybe he wouldn't know what an Aes Sedai was, though it was probably too late to try and be circumspect now. "What is yours?"

 

Ester Tremaine

Gray Ajah