Ancient Truths

[TaeaDawn]

Awareness came as all things do, in it's own time and fashion.  The uncomfortable feeling in her wrists told her that all was not well and as she struggled to wakefulness it was to find herself in a tent, held by ropes.  More than ropes of course, but Aramina could not see the person that held her shield in place.  Her head swam as she looked around the tent, everything taking on a blurry quality that she had come to associate with too much drink, only no alcohol has passed her lips.  She knew this then.  She didn't know how she had arrived here, but she was not in the real world.  This was the world of Dreams, Tel’Aran’Rhiod.  A dangerous place for the unskilled and a place that Aramina had not hoped to see anytime soon.  It begged the questions of how and why easily.  She knew that somewhere in Kandor her body lay asleep somewhere, in a tent like the one she saw around her.  She knew that Rosheen was somewhere, pain coming through the bond in a hazy way, but it was the emotional kind, not the physical.  A small relief seeing as they were held by Dark Friends and Dread Lords in the least, but a relief it was. 

 

Taking a deep breath, Aramina tried to assess the situation.  She was a Battle Sister and a schemer besides.  Observation and strategy were her bread and butter.  This had to be like anything else.  Analyze and act.  Facade and focus.  She became aware of another presence in the room but she couldn't say if it had been there all along or had just come.  There was no tent flap so whoever it was knew their way around this world, a thought that was only comforting because if she died here it would be on purpose and not by some novice's accident.  She didn't deign to speak, but waited for her capture to begin the introductions, or the torture.

 

Watching as the Aes Sedai materialised against the post she had been secured against in the real world, Duram smiled to himself as he heard her deep breath.  She was awake, whether she was aware of whether something was wrong or not he was unsure, but he was willing to give the benefit of the doubt and assume she was possessed of some intelligence.  Not necessarily true, after all the Green Ajah of this time had to be fighters, not necessarily generals, but prudence was a virtue that Duram liked to practice.  Walking around her, Duram smiled down at her even as she got the measure of him in turn. "I'm glad to see you could join me, Aramina sur Dulciena is it not?  Sister of the Green Ajah?"

 

There were many things Aramina had become used to in the world.  Seeing someone so much taller than her was not one of them.  it was unnerving to have someone look down at her like that, but she knew it was only a trick to gain advantage, one she had used many a time in her native homeland.  So whoever it was had not only the ability to move in the Dream World, but was also smart enough to use what he had to his advantage.  She nodded at the use of her name, no doubt there were far greater things to have to deny than her own name and Ajah. "It would seem that a civil introduction would include your name as well.  It is hard to carry on a conversation with a man with no name.  Or do you hide your name for fear or shame?" She asked in a polite manner, not showing any signs of distress at her current position.       

 

"Come now Aramina, I would have hoped the Aes Sedai of this age were capable of a touch more subtlety.  Oh, and you won't need those."  It only took a thought to loosen her bonds, and as she extricated herself from them he continued. "You have the distinct honour of being in the presence of one of the mighty and powerful of the Shadow, destroyer of cities, general without peer, etcetera and etcetera."  Grinning, he gave his name. "The people of this age would best know me as Be`lal, one of the thirteen Forsaken, though as I'm sure you can understand, we prefer the term 'Chosen'." 

 

One of the Forsaken.  Be'lal, the Netweaver.  There had been no rumors from her agents across the world that Be'lal was loose and yet she did not doubt his claim.  He eminated power the way the Tower Guard eminated death.  Not something to be bragged or boasted, but it simply was to the point that it was clear for all to see.  She took a calming breath to steady herself.  The last thing she needed was to slip up now.  She had no idea what one of the Forsaken could want with her, but she wasn't about to give anything if she could help it.  That 'if' sprung into her thoughts at all frightened her more than anything. 

 

She nodded her head in greeting then.  "Be'lal.  I had not heard you had joined the waking world.  Or are you perhaps trapped here instead?" She asked, waving her now free hand to indicate the Dream World. 

 

"Trapped, hardly.  Oh, and do call me Duram, titles are such a bother."  Smiling, Duram unwittingly read her mind as he added.  "And before you make any proud speeches about never giving up the Tower's secrets, don't bother.  I'm not particularly interested in them, and most of them have long since been laid bare.  That and if I needed answers, well, torture is hardly necessary when you can rob a person of their will to conceal things altogether.  But, forgive me, I'm being rude and you have been rather civil after all, a good deal more than your gaidar.  And no, before you ask I didn't submit to the whim of slapping her across the face, even when she decided to inform me that my lineage was somewhat...  suspect."

 

It took a great deal of willpower not to smile at that comment.  So, he had seen Rosheen and she had given him a hard time.  Not at all a surprise considered the sheer personality of her Warder.  "We do know so little about your history.  I'm sure my warder was simply trying to fill in the historical gaps." Aramina said with a pleasant smile.  It took more of an effort to keep it at the though of being forced to give anything away.  She wasn't sure how the oath rod would affect her in this situtaion.  If he used the One Power to make her talk, would her oaths protect her from giving away secrets?  She could only hope so. "If you have no desire for Tower secrets then why are we here?  Surely it's not for the sake of pleasant conversation..."

 

Laughing at Aramina's mention of filling in his history, her question did lead him to the real purpose of having brought her here.  Well, several of them really, but then it would be a bit rude to come out with it all.  And things were quite civil.  "Curiosity.  You see, I was born during an age where Aes Sedai truly were Aes Sedai.  I might have given up that title for another, but I still remember what it was and meant.  The women of this age in the Westlands who pretend to the title however, you interest me because I wonder how much you truly believe yourselves to be what you claim."

 

"But here isn't the place, perhaps somewhere a little more relaxing.  If you would give me your hand?"  Holding out his hand, he took hers as it was given and the scene shifted and blurred around them.  From the dirty tent where she was held, they had come to a great room where many people sat at different tables, talking and chatting away, laughing and socialising though if one were to listen, one couldn't precisely make out individual conversation.

 

"A memory." His own mode of dress transfigured into fine formal clothes of an age past, Aramina's in turn had morphed into something far different than she had been previously garbed in, and far finer.  Streith cloth had once been prized for fashion after all, and the translucent material went well with the garment she wore beneath.  Seeing her surprise as she noticed, the smile was a touch sad as he added. "Someone I knew once wore that dress, it seemed appropriate considering the memory." At that, Duram led her to the table he remembered having once booked despite its exclusivity and pushing her chair in as she sat.  If she had taken the time to look out the window, she would have perhaps noticed that the tower they were within was revolving slowly even as he took his own seat.

 

The change in settling didn't surprise her but the change in her own clothing did.  Aramina prided herself in always being dressed appropriately.  A quick glance around told her that she was well dressed for this place even if she was baring far more skin than she was used to.  His hand came around to her back as he directed her to her seat and a shiver passed through her at the touch.  She took a deep breath as she sat, taking in her surroundings with no real idea of why one of the Forsaken was taking her into a memory of a place long forgotten by the world. 

 

"An enchanting view." Aramina said when she had her barings a little better.  She hated that her body's natural reactions couldn't be controlled even when it was one of the Forsaken.  "I can see why you would enjoy revisiting such a memory."

 

"It is a...  strong, memory."  Looking to the waiter who came over, answered the question he was asked in the same language it was given, and while he was aware that Aes Sedai had varying degrees of proficiency in the old tongue, he doubted that she would have been able to follow it.  The language had degenerated in time until the tongue he spoke had many differences with that was spoken in the current age. "It seems fair that if you are going to be satisfying my curiosity about Aes Sedai of third age, I should in turn give you a glimpse of what was and how different it was to your own time.  But tell me, why do you call yourself Aes Sedai?"

 

"I am a Sister of the White Tower.  What other name would you give me?" She asked.

 

Duram chuckled.  "You're dodging the question."

 

Aramina thought for a moment before trying to answer the man.  Aes Sedai.  Servant of All.  Did she call herself that because she truly believed in it, or was it simply a  title, the name given her by others in the only place she could learn to use the Power that had come to her.  She knew the answer, but it was always worth asking the question. "I would say there is more than one reason to call myself such.  The first being that as a child of this age, the White Tower is the only place in the world that I could have gone to learn to control what Power I have.  The second reason I would call myself Aes Sedai is because I believe that I am truly a servant of my age."  She smiled slightly.  "And said without dodging anything I do believe."                   

 

"For which I am thankful."  Smiling, Duram considered the words spoken as their meals were served to them.  Pasta, beef, another meat from an animal that Duram knew to be extinct in the third age and an assortment of spices that the woman had probably never encountered before.  "You might not like the taste, but give it a go anyway.  Half of the things on your plate no longer exist.  As to what we were discussing...  The former I think we can both appreciate is hardly true, and as to the latter I wonder how you would say you served this age and its people.  Indeed, who is it that you serve and how?"  At that, Duram took up the knife and fork and began to eat as he allowed Aramina time to respond.

 

Aramina shook her head.  "I said there is no other place that I could have gone and those words were not false.  You should know by now that I am bound to speak no lies Duram.  I could not have gone anyplace other than the Tower.  I have had no asperations to power of my own nor the pleasures that seem to cause people to follow your lead." In truth, the only thing The Dark One had ever held that was a temptation was the power over the dead and she was skeptical about that as well.  "As for who I serve, I said I serve my age, not a specific person.  People in general are not well enough equipt to govern themselves.  Someone must take upon themselves that mantle.  Though a child will not always love his parents for their teachings, they guide him through his trials and errors all the same.  So it is with the White Tower and the world."

 

Smiling at her answer as he swallowed the morsel he had been chewing on, Duram gestured to her meal. "You should really try that.  As to your answer, it is a rather general one you must admit.  If I were to ask you how you and the Tower has improved the world since you took on your shawl, what could you tell me?  I made a point of studying the history of the Westlands since my release, and while the Tower can boast a number of victories, when it has come to achieving something more permanent, I have yet to find a sign of it.  Perhaps you could remedy my ignorance?"

 

It was insane to be sitting at a table, eating a meal with one of the Forsaken, even in the Dream World.  It felt more like a dream than that to Aramina, one of those things where your mind needed to work out the answers to something you had yet to be able to put into conscious thought.  Like why were she and her warder risking their lives on a lost cause in a world full of pople that dispised, or at best, feared her kind?  She knew it was the Dream World though and she didn't think for a moment that the meal, the clothing, or the place were meant to do anything more than lull her into a false sense of security.  Still, it was harder to expect the lash from a man you were taking a meal with.  The spices were nothing like she'd tasted before, but Aramina had made it a habit of always eating local cuisine when she was abroad.  Whatever it was, it was a delicate taste, something rich and wonderful.  Too bad he said it was all extinct now.  She rather enjoyed the food and told him so before answering his last question.

 

"You ask for permanence?  We are a race of beings that desires conquest and personal pleasures.  That we are not all actively at war trying to kill one another is proof that the White Tower is doing it's part to ensure mankind's continued survival.  But something permanent Duram?" She smiled at him. "I would have thought one of the Forsaken would understand the nature of human beings better than that."

 

"Chosen my dear, Forsaken is very rude after all." Pausing in his meal, Duram laid his cutlery down and leaned back in his chair as he spoke. "I'm surprised at how quickly you sell out your humanity along with that of your fellow human beings.  Humanity isn't simply base and quick to take advantage.  You would need to look no further than your Warder to know that much.  Humanity, as a matter of fact, is a species of choice first and foremost.  There is temptation both good and bad, but there is always the choice of whether to embrace a temptation or refute it.  That would be the true beauty of mankind, and also one of the underlying evils of the Age of Legends long before the Great Lord was even released."

 

Smiling, Duram shook his head.  "Perhaps I stray though.  Returning to your sisterhood, think about it.  The 'Aes Sedai' of your age have a tremendous power at their disposal, as limited as it is by the lack of knowledge and understanding of the one power, there is so much that could be wrought by it.  But where there could be a united land, there is chaos.  Even before the Aiel War and the birth of the Dragon, there have been constant wars.  Yes, the White Tower did mediate a number of them, but all that did was bandage a wound.  Why hasn't the White Tower ever tried to address the more pressing problem, the source of those wounds rather than simply patching them up?"

 

She was slightly taken back by the Forsaken's words but at the same time understood the truth of them.  A single person had a choice and could do great things.  It was people as a mass that caused trouble, but no man could stand alone.  There was the true problem with humanity.  She didn't answer his rebuke though as he moved back to the original topic. 

 

She was finding her dinner interesting, and though she felt a pang of regret that her Warder wasn't able to be where she was now, she knew that Rosheen was still alright from the bond.  She wondered how many people could say they'd knowingly had dinner with one of the Forsaken?  She pushed the thought from her head and thought about what he was saying. 

 

"What more pressing problem would you have us address?  The various nations?  We would not force them under our rule or anyone elses.  As you mentioned before, the beauty of humanity is choice.  If we force them under us, where does that make us better than say, dread lords?"       

 

"That would depend on which dreadlord you speak of."  Chuckling, Duram shrugged at her. "If you consider Caladesh, the M`aeshadar who attacked your Tower, the measure of a Dreadlord then you would be sorely mistaken.  Likewise, I believe you have also had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of the Scourge, though he is also not representative.  The pair are, or in the case of Caladesh were, at the two extremes.  Much like your sisters, they are possessed of their own motivations that can be as simple as greed or insanity to the more complex aspirations of the Scourge and those who follow his faith."

 

"Besides, choice is much more complex than the manner in which you pose it.  It is an easy thing to say that one would never use the power with violence except in self defence or against the Shadow, yet there are times when it can be necessary.  In fact, the very foundation of the Aes Sedai of the Age of Legends was first founded in violence.  Violence that was used to stop greater abuses in turn, commited by people of their own will against those they had power over.  Yet those Aes Sedai saw that their power could end it, and they chose to exert that power."

 

"And that ended well, did it?  If I remember my history right, the Age of Legends died a rather violent death."   

 

"Thats like saying that a Green Sister wastes her time on the Blightborder because she dies and the Trollocs are still there."  It was a gentle rebuke, and Duram didn't dwell on it as he continued. "Because of the Aes Sedai choosing to use their power to intercede, two thousand years of peace were achieved.  Flawed, at least in my opinion though I know there are others who would not, but it was a peace nevertheless that allowed humanity to spread far and wide, onto other worlds, dimensions, even stepping outside the pattern and beyond.  Two thousand years of flawed utopia and peace that ended in its last fifty years, does that make the previous nineteen hundred and fifty years before it worthless?"

 

"It means that they way it was earned wasn't perfect.  I don't claim that we have it right either, but we all do the best with what we have.  What would you suggest then?  If your experience in history has given you peace for such a long time?  What does history show us is the right course?" 

 

"I wouldn't presume to instruct you on your duties."  Duram grinned. "What I would ask is how you can claim to be serving all by doing nothing more than bandaging the problems rather than trying to uproot the underlying issue.  Why is it that after three thousand years, there are but a handful of the number of Aes Sedai there once were during the breaking, who were in turn a handful of the Aes Sedai that existed during my time.  Why has your Tower earned the enmity of all when during my time, Aes Sedai commanded the respect of all.  What I would challenge you to answer is that if you serve all, then why aren't all served?"

 

Aramina couldn't answer his questions.  There was no way to take all of that on herself and she knew it. "The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills.  If the number of Aes Sedai was the same as it had been, perhaps we would have faced another breaking?  Perhaps we would have peace?  These are things I cannot answer, nor can you say they are something that the White Tower itself has done wrong.  There is no way to judge what changes could have made history different.  But you can't help every single person.  I could walk morning to night and ask how I could help each person I came across and I would never help more than a handful.  What we do is act on things that will affect the whole, not the part.  Or do you mean to say that in your time that every single person was served?"

 

"There was no poverty or starvation in my time, everyone was educated and every single person received the best chance they could to realise their full potential.  All because enough people, not just those who were channelers but those who could not find the power, enough of them were willing to help those around them enough to realise a dream.  They did not say that the problem was too big, instead they helped in every way they could.  People of our power, they did not have the same haughtiness of those who claim to be Aes Sedai today.  They lived as people, they were amongst the people and it was in this way they could serve all.  They didn't limit their powers to great creations or vast plans.  Things as simple as helping irrigate a farm or catching fish were just as worthy tasks.  Why are such things beyond the Aes Sedai of today?"

 

"It's a simple thing to say all was well when no one alive today can witness it." She smiled.  "Present company and the other For- Chosen" She said with a slight bow of her head "excepted.  But you think that the Aes Sedai don't move among the people?  We do.  We are feared by people for our power, feared for what other's did to the world, but we are out in the world, trying to make it better for every person.  Perhaps you can't see that." She waved her hand at the luxury she was sitting in.  "Perhaps if you spend all your time here you can't see the real world and what we do for it."  She smiled again.  "Though I would at least be glad that you reminise at least tonight.  I would not have thought to find so fine a meal in Kandor."   

 

Aramina sur Dulciena Aes Sedai

Duram Laddel Cham Be'lal, the Chosen

[TaeaDawn]

"You're insinuating I'm a liar?  I'm shocked."  Pleasant, Duram quickly finished the last bit of his meal before sitting the cutlery on the plate before him. "The Aes Sedai of current time do not move among the people.  I've wandered enough of the nations and born witness to enough of the works of your sisters to know that help that is given is rarely given freely, and that very high handedness is what has caused so much resentment.  That is when sisters have given rather than taken, much like you took the free will of the High Seat of Mallien yes?”

 

The use of the name nearly started her out of her facade.  As it was the only outward sign of notice was the widening of her eyes at the mention of it.  "Free will?  Exactly how do you think I stole the free will of the High Seat of Mallien?"  A calm, still pleasant voice but she wondered what the Forsaken knew about it.  Did he know about Raina?  About Aran? Her heart clenched in panic at the thought the Be'lal would hunt either of them, but so far he had shown no inclination for that tonight.  She waited to see what his next words would be. 

 

"You know full well what I mean."  The advantage of having been a general, one of the Chosen and most importantly, an advocate of the law, had given Duram a highly refined skill when it came to reading people.  He'd hit a spot with that comment, she'd been too caught by the reference to simply deflect it onto another topic. "Your blackmail of that seat was known to me, as was his attempt to remove you, and of what occured in Cairhien later on.  It was an underhand thing to do, to compromise his free will in such a fashion.  Blackmail is as much a form of compulsion as any other form of force, yet you would say you serve this Age?  Tell me, how did that serve the people?"

 

Aramina smiled at the Forsaken.  She wasn't intereted in having a morale debate with him about her own doings.  She did, as always, what she felt would be best for the people in her care.  Yes, she had blackmailed the High Seat, but the man had been an unmitigated disaster as were most of the members of his house and she had only tried to help the people of Cairhein. "And when did one of the Forsaken come to care so much about the people?" She asked.  her smile remained the same as it  had been, but there was a touch of ice to her eyes.  "I would think you have much better things to do than to keep tabs on Aes Sedai involvment in Cairhein."

 

Laughing, Duram had to admit he liked the way that the woman was holding her own. "You would be quite surprised I think.  There are some who command with fear, and there are others who inspire respect, there are others still who can garner and hold the loyalty of their followers through friendship and even love.  I hold a preference to the last, because fear can easily become hatred and respect can quickly fade, but only through real trust can you expect people to hold with you when the absolute worst faces them.  Otherwise Chachin would never have happened, but then the truth is not known in the Tower as to why Chachin fell, is it?"

 

Aramina wasn't sure what he was talking about with Chachin and the knowledge was eating away at her though she tried to regrain from asking. "I know of few people that offer true loyalty to their followers.  Most promise rewards and some hollow friendships, but very few offer true loyalty, or get it in return." It was a surprising thing to hear him speak of love.  "But what do the Chosen," she gave him the title he asked again.  "know about love and loyalty?"

 

His smile fading at the mention of knowing love, normally it wouldn't have troubled him but with the memory he had chosen it was a different matter altogether. "You seem to forget that the Chosen were once Aes Sedai themselves.  Take Demandred for example.  His wife died early in the collapse, then he lost his sons to sha'je dueling while he himself was the First Marshall of what was increasingly becoming a policing force with Sammael commanding the second.  Tell me, have you ever considered that maybe the stories you were told about the Chosen were not true?  Barid, in his love of the Light and order, he turned against the Dragon alright.  Not out of envy as they say, but because the Dragon Lews Therin had ordered him to carry out a command that his conscience could not, would not allow him to do.  Are you familiar with Balefire, Aramina?"

 

Aramina nodded with a sickly feeling.  "I know of this thing."

 

"Good, so what I'm going to tell you won't be lost on you."  Duram's usual air of careless calm had disappeared in the face of a far more serious, and saddened man.  "As much as I despised Barid for what he later did to me, I do not blame him for what happened then.  A little over three hundred Darkfriends had been rounded up, and in my day it wasn't just a few here and there that chose for gain.  In our time it was much more like a civil war, and entire families pledged to the Shadow.  Over three hundred darkfriends, numbering amongst them not only men and women, but their children.  Families.  The Dragon ordered Barid to balefire those families and you know what he did?"

 

Duram paused before continuing.  "Barid refused to carry out the command.  The Dragon ordered him a second time and he refused.  Instead of ordering a third time, Lews Therin went to carry out the execution himself.  Barid ordered his troops to attack Lews Therin's even as he stood in the Dragon's path and fought him personally.  Yet his forces were outnumbered and as the tide turned and he could hold no longer, Barid fled to later join the Shadow to fight the Dragon.  Quite a different story to Demandred the man who was always a touch short of Lews Therin and therefore joined the Shadow out of envy, don't you think?"

 

A smile haunted her lips for a moment at his question. "Yes, a very different story.  Although again we are at a stand still aren't we?  You testify that something I know as history is not true, but I have only your word for it." She looked around and barely registered her own voice. "Though perhaps if you were a good dancer I would believe you.  It's hard to lie when you're dancing." 

 

In the end, if she was going to die for calling one of the Forsaken a liar, she'd rather enjoy the evening first.  She had always loved dancing.  Another pang of loss filled her.  If she dies at the Forsaken's hands she'd never dance with Aran again.  But so far there was nothing more to do.  She could not escape the World of Dreams and until he tried to harm her she would play the waiting game.

 

Was it brazen courage or an attempt to manipulate?  Duram couldn't quite decide as he mulled over her challenge, besides, he was here to expose her to more of the Age of Legends.  After a moment's silence, his graver mood vanished as a slight smile came to him.  "You'll have quite a story to tell if you make it back to the Tower I think.  A dinner and a dance with a Forsaken?  They're going to think you're touched in the head."

 

Standing, Duram walked about and took Aramina's hand as she stood as well and the scene blurred again once more.  Standing in the middle of a dancing hall, a host of people from his memories floated about the hall even as he slipped an arm around her and plunged the pair of them into the great mass as music that would have been of an alien sound seemed to come from all around them.  "This dance is not too dissimilar from some of the ones of today as you can tell."

 

Another shiver came when his arm went around her but he didn't give any indication he had noticed as they began dancing.  The music was at odds with anything she'd ever heard before, but it was beautiful none the less.  The dance was similiar enough that it only took a few moments to get herself aligned with it.  She thanked the Creator she'd always been a quick study at dances.    As they fell into the music she smiled up, the feeling still a bit odd for her.  She wasn't used to men that much taller than her.  She thought of his earlier words and smiled.  "Yes, they probably will think me touched in the head, but I suppose I will have to live through this all to find out.  we have still yet to touch on why i'm here.  The dinner was superb and you are truly proving to be an astounding dancer, but I don't think you brought me her for dinner and dancing.  Why am I here?  A last supper, before the torture begins?  Or is this some other trick?" She asked.

 

"Perceptive, though not entirely accurate." Spinning so as to avoid a couple, rather than simply altering the memory, Duram continued. "I did wish to satisfy my curiosity about the Aes Sedai of this period after all, and you are my first, forgive the pun, captive audience?  Apart from detaining you because you have been a nuisance in the area, I have been informed that Nemene's minions wish to speak with you."

 

Feeling Aramina stiffen in his arms at the mention of Semirhage, she nevertheless managed to keep moving with him as he kept talking. "I am not sure specifically what they wish, but I have acquiesced to them visiting the camp at some point.  They may wish to have a word with you, or your Warder, but unless they have my permission they will not be able to take the pair of you with them and there will be limits to what they are allowed to do.  As I'm still undecided on my course of action, I thought that I would see both of you for myself first before making any judgements."

 

Semirhage?  It was perhaps the worst thing he could have said, except that she was already there and preparing to begin her work not.  Aramina wasn't interested in learning how much pain she could take before she would break.  She wasn't interested in learning what the Forsaken could do, especially Semirhage who had been well known for it, with the One Power.  She managed to keep moving but the dance seemed less interesting and her opponent in the verbal spa was suddenly deadly again.  Not Duram, but Be'lal. "So, is this how you get loyalty?  Spin a good tale and tell people they're safe in your arms from the wickedness that comes?"

 

"Usually, though not in this manner and I'm certainly not asking for your loyalty in exchange for my protection.  You are aware that Nemene was a Restorer, yes?  After Chachin, many of my order were injured and some have not healed properly.  It is possible that I could trade you for the service that she could provide those that I have taken under my custody, my protection, and owe much for the dangers they have faced for me.  Far greater dangers than you have ever known."

 

"But, amongst other considerations, I question the ethics of it, and do try not to laugh.  So, what this is really about is not whether I can turn you into a pawn, or convince you to serve me though if I thought you were genuinely interested I would probably accept you.  I'm curious as to how truthful you are, not how much you would hold to my truth but how truthful you are to yourself.  That is what interests me here and is part of the curiosity I have.  If I think you are truthful to yourself, I'll be less inclined to ship you off, whereas if you're more given to deceiving yourself, I'll find it easier trading off someone who has thoroughly compromised themselves."

 

"I am hardly likely to laugh when your question of ethics determines the manner of my death."  Aramina was surprised that she was able, even in this, to keep her voice even.  The thought that he might turn her over was a haunting prospect, but her mind came back to Chachin again.  Well, if she as going to die, she might as well go to her grave with the questions asked rather than hushed. "What would you tell me about Chachin?" She asked.  "You mentioned it before.  Why was your... Order.... injured there?"

 

The dream blurred and swirled until they stood within an elegant yet well decorated living room.  A pair of lounges faced towards a large black square set in a white wall, shelves lined the walls filled with books and what would appear to Aramina as strange packages.  Letting go of the woman, he gestured for her to sit down at one of the lounges as he disappeared through one of the archways.  It would have been easy to simply bring what he wanted to hand, but it felt more natural this way.  After all, it had once been his home before he had been forced to abandon it.

 

Returning to the room with a couple of bottles, he passed one to Aramina before he realised what she was still wearing and altered it even as he altered his own clothes.  She probably wouldn't have been familiar with them, the way they would fit on her would no doubt feel strange in an age without elastics but they were simple clothes and modest much like the woolen socks she was wearing.  Much like the long wool pants and socks he was wearing, though a simple blue singlet was enough for him as he sat on the other lounge, twisting the top of his bottle off and gesturing for her to do the same.

 

"The truth is that Chachin did not fall to the Shadow when the Trollocs arrived.  Chachin had been under the shadow for many years, and that you were all played for fools during this time.  Not by my doing either, in fact all of us shared a very common enemy though I doubt you or any of the others in the Tower knew it." Duram took a sip of his drink as he let it sink in.

 

Aramina was oof balance with the shift of room and clothing.  She could handle the dress, even if it had been made of an unknown material and had shown too much skin.  The form of the dress was familiar.  But at the same time, what she wore now matched somewhat with the Forseaken's so she put the thought aside.  everything was strange here and she tried to take it all in for later reflection if she survived this.  She had to.  She had to find a way to survive and get Rosheen out as well.  Light, she hadn't bonded the woman to lose her this soon! 

 

When he came back, Aramina listened to his words, trying to puzzle out what he was saying. "A common enemy?  And who would that be?" She asked.

 

Duram snorted.  "He who became known as Ba`alzamon, the Heart of the Dark.  Oh, thirteen Chosen were sealed in the Bore don't worry.  The truth is that of those thirteen, Demandred was not amongst them.  He survived the strike at Shayol Ghul even as thirteen of us were locked away, he orchestrated the fall of the Compact, his son Moerad poisoned Artur Paendrag, most of the madness that this world has known has been arranged by Barid Bel Medar and he was Nae`blis for nearly three thousand years unchallenged.  That was our common enemy."

 

"It has been he who has been protecting the Dragon, using him to chip away at us one by one.  Some would say he had been cutting away the dead wood though now I know he was following prophecy.  That was why the attack on Chachin occured while Dumai Wells was in progress.  Demandred freed the Dragon and watched over him during the battle while I and others attacked his base in Kandor where he has been entrenched for decades.  His order, the sii'ath, as well as many others were based there."

 

"Why are you telling me all these things?"  Aramina asked, her mind still trying to think of the ramifications of what she was being told.  And no matter that part of her was skeptical, she believed Duram was speaking the truth to her.  "Why share this with me to kill me when you're done?"

 

Duram looked at Aramina as he raised an eyebrow. "Kill you?  I said I might trade you.  When I said the degree to which you were truthful to yourself might make the difference between me giving you to Nemene's minions, I was not presenting a choice between torture and a quick death.  If you are worthy enough, you and your Warder may yet walk free."

 

She didn't know what to believe.  It didn't make any sense.  Of course, she'd woken in the Dream World, met one of the Forsaken, had dinner and an interesting debate which had been topped off by dancing.  If anything made sense tonight, she doubted it would happen anytime soon.  She looked at him then,  confusion showing plainly on her face for the first time. "Then what was the point in capturing us?" She asked.  "Why let us walk free?"  It felt too much like a trap and there was nothing she could do about that.

 

Taking a sip of his drink, Duram studied Aramina with a mixture of feelings ranging from sadness to pity before swallowing. “I only need to stop you from nosing about up here, there are plenty of ways to ensure you’re no longer here than actually killing you.  Its certainly a final solution, but there are plenty of other alternatives available to me.  Because I have killed and have the capacity to do so does not mean that I seek to do so or relish in it.”

 

“But, even if I do decide not to let you go, or indeed to trade you off for the sake of some of my Order, I am going to do you a favour.  You, and your sisters, are pretenders to a title that you have no understanding of, usurpers of a legacy that was never yours to begin with and corruptors of an ideal that has besmirched the memories of those who truly embodied what it meant to be Aes Sedai.”

 

Duram leaned forward on the lounge as his words became a good deal sharper. “I am the oldest of the Chosen and while my fellows bore the title for a century, two at most, for over five hundred years I bore the rank that your sisters flaunt like some sort of badge that gives them eminence.  I was a Servant of All, I had the power of saidin to command yet with it came the responsibility to use it to help, no matter how mean the task.”

 

Standing, Duram pointed to Aramina with the hand that held the bottle. “You should appreciate more than most people, the keenest blade is not one of deceit but truth.  You and your sisters have, for nearly three thousand years, kept your titles and your pride with a myriad of self-deceptions that have not only been the worst of lies, but they have allowed you to feel justified, even righteous when you and your kind have committed some of the worst crimes.  All for the greater good.”

 

Walking over to one of the bookcases, Duram didn’t even need to search as he withdrew a book he barely managed to wrap his long fingers about it was so big and pulled it out.  Stepping over to Aramina and dropping it in her lap, he gestured for her to look at it.  On the front cover it read ‘Virtue, Ethics & Free Will: Chief Justice Duram Laddel Cham’.  Turning his back on her as he returned to his seat, Duram sat down before speaking once more with a tad more calm.

 

“Before I turned my back on the Light, I was not only the Chief Justice of this entire world, I was the Lord of Twilight.  I stood alongside the Lord of Morning and together we were elected by the people to be their voice in a single government presiding over all, no authority in our own, serving as advisors and as a conscience.  As Aes Sedai, we served with humility, we gave with an open hand, we were to show people what was best in humanity and while we owed obedience to the Tamyrlin who was the first amongst Aes Sedai, our first loyalty was to our people because we were a part of the people.”

 

“The true mantle of an Aes Sedai is something that you have never truly known, none of your sisters have because you are not a part of the people.  You and your sisters have held yourselves above the people, distanced yourselves from them, decided that you alone know what is best and have assumed the role of a parent and treat those who cannot channel as infants, assuming that you know best.  That above all else has been the greatest betrayal of the ideal of the Aes Sedai.”

 

“Look over there.” Pointing to a painting upon the wall, there stood a single woman with ivory skin and dark hair with curls that reached her shoulders.  Wearing a simple dress of white, she had a young child in one arm while her other arm was outstretched before her to halt the approach of some one who approached.  Her face was ordinary, smooth and unremarkable yet there was a determination to be found in the expression that was absolute.

 

“Nicola Petraya Kerensky, the original Tamyrlin and founder of the Aes Sedai.  Before her there had existed an indifferent community of channelers in a world ruled by a single government that had once held noble intentions but had become as corrupt as the ones that it had overthrown.  In Nicola’s time, brutality was the expression of power and many rose up to defy the government’s ways only to be harshly subjugated, forced to bend knee and have their will broken.  The channelers of the time held themselves separate, above the concerns of the people for theirs was a ‘nobler mission’.”

 

“Yet Nicola, one of the many brethren, could not forget the world and the violence outside of it.  She rallied the channelers who agreed with her, they challenged the custom and tradition of their order and do you know what they did?  Their powers were not even as great as yours but when the soldiers came to suppress yet another people, another protest, it was Nicola who stood first before those who protested in their defence and cried ‘No more!’”

 

“No more would they sit by and watch the world slide into chaos, no more would they allow slaughter and oppression.  They chose to act, to cast off the shackles of indifference and their stand made the vital difference, they not only saved those people but set in motion a chain of events that would lead to a new world.  But rather than seek to take the reins of the new world order, do you know what they did?”

 

“They showed the greatest wisdom that anyone with their power could.  Nicola refused rank and title, she did not seek to rule, she sought to serve and to protect those who could not defend themselves.  She owned no lands, she possessed no great wealth, she did not use her power for her own gain.  She was the ideal that Aes Sedai were to follow for almost two thousand years.”

 

“For over five hundred years I followed that ideal until I could no longer.  I lived that ideal, I wore the mantle and now in this day and age, I see a mockery of one of the things I held dearest.  I see the lies that you and your sisters have wrapped yourself in to give yourselves solace.”

 

“So, I have decided this.”  Duram’s intense gaze was well beyond anything he had shown before this point. “If I am going to send you to your death, you will do so with an understanding of what your title really means, of what you should have strived for and to know the lies you have lived for what they are.  And if I do spare you, so that you may return to the Tower and see how fallen your sisters are and the tragedy that is those women who wear the shawls and bear the serpent rings, carrying the sigils but bearing none of the knowledge of what it means.”

 

Aramina sur Dulciena Aes Sedai

Duram Laddel Cham Be'lal, the Chosen

[TaeaDawn]

Aramina took a deep breath as she listened to everything he said.  She didn't doubt his words, though in truth she knew that he colored them by his own existence.  The passion he spoke with though was something she understood, something she herself posessed though few would believe it of her from the cold exterior she painted on.  She had always tried to do what she could for her people.  In Cairhein it wasn't so simple, but her agents among her eyes and ears knew her to be compassionate and caring, taking a hand in all matters from helping to rebuild in troubled times to giving advice when she was in the area.  But her agents saw another side of Aramina that the White Tower didn't see.  The belief that Aes Sedai were once more hands on and could interact directly with the people caught a soft spot Aramina wasn't aware she had.  She hated being locked up in the Tower's walls, though in them she had security and safety.  It was the world she wanted to save, and in this day and age it was the Tower that would do it.  Still, it set an ache within her to have been alive at a time when it wouldn't have been necessary to lock herself away as she had, to have been able to befriend those she met, instead of meeting only fear, resentment, and often times hate.

 

She wrapped her hands around her waist, trying to stop the sick feeling that threatened to creep up.  She was Aes Sedai, no matter what he said.  The title meant something different now, but she did what she could for the people she could.  She thought hard about her words though.  She had no desire to end her life and would fight to protect Rosheen's, but in this battle words were her weapon. "I do not fight your words, I cannot.  I cannot say that Aes Sedai of the past were not what you say, nor do I disbelieve your words.  But the knowledge of those women was lost with the breaking as was the way they lived.  The Breaking of the world changed how the world perceived Aes Sedai, so much so that we ourselves had to change to survive.  I don't say that we are better than they, or vice versa.  In truth, I wish I could have lived in such a time, to be welcomed by the people without fear and revulsion, but this is the world I live in now.  We might not be the Aes Sedai of the past, but we still stand for the Light and we do what we can, what we are allowed with the terms the world has dictated to us." 

 

“Those are not explanations, they are excuses that have allowed you and your sisters to deceive yourselves.”  Finishing the bottle, he sat it on the floor as he stood.  “You can only change so much before you cease to be what you were, and the fundamental nature of what an Aes Sedai is, that isn’t to be found in any woman I am aware of that calls themselves Aes Sedai today.  Stand up, I’m going to show you some of the people who embodied what it was to be Aes Sedai.”

 

Even as the woman stood, the world around them unfocused then refocused upon a new scene.  Standing on a street with towers that rose immeasurably into the sky, panes of something other than glass connected them at the higher levels to form more streets.  Grabbing Aramina’s hand, he pulled her off the street and onto the pavement as jo’car sped by.  Only enough time for her to take in the bare basics and the Nym that were shambling down the street, tending to the vines that grew over the towers, the doors at the base of the tower swung open and allowed for a number of people to be disgorged from it.  Amongst them, a much younger version of himself with a number of friends who he had lived with.  It was strange looking at himself, with his hair as black as midnight.

 

Waiting as most of the crowd pushed past them, his simulacrum was standing with his friends before the doors still.  Approaching, they were able to hear the words that were being spoken better.

“You won’t make it.”

His younger form turned to the man with the short blond hair and the bright blue eyes.  Serin. “I will make it, I haven’t missed the Festival yet.  Besides, someone has to put you in your place.”

 

An answering laugh from Serin, the response was all too familiar that he could have said it himself as the phantom spoke. “When you find someone who can, let me know.”

 

“Idiot.” Cocking his head to some unknown signal, phantom Duram pointed to a clear space as a silver gateway spun into existence. “The way is clear, I’ll see you later.”

 

The others following Serin, the gateway was closed in their wake and a new one opened through which his self disappeared through.  The scene shifted to a new place, underground as Duram remembered it.  Himself was emerging from a silver portal before it span out of existence behind him.  He had warded himself from the grime, or so Duram remembered.  A cavern of enormous depth, great lights that hung from the ceiling above provided what light was needed while a deep rumbling filled it.

 

 

Aramina's head was spinning from the changes that took place around her.  She had been aware of the World of Dreams and what it could really do, but there was a wide gap between reading about something and experiencing sometihng first hand.  Her mind tried to take in everything around her as she recognized that she wouldn't understand half of it.  Maybe even a tenth if she was lucky.  Things moved past her quicker than she could imagine and Duram moved her out of harms way, though again she wondered more and more why he was doing this.  They followed the Duram of his memory and suddenly everything was changed again.  It was before she could get much a glimpse of the man in his younger form.  That might have given her more insight, to see him among his peers.  It was obvious that he was more than able to charm if he was willing.  The question was, what else was he willing to do, and if he was so dedicated to the light, why had he fallen to the Dark One so long ago?

 

She didn't say anything though as she found herself in a dark cavern.  She had no idea where she was, no idea why she had been taken to this dark, grimey place with strange metal contraptions on the walls.  More metal that she couldn't even begin to describe but she didn't try to ask about it.  He had brought here for a reason and she had little choice but to see it through. 

 

“A charming place, I must say.” Was all she said.

 

“Perhaps if you’d done some hard labour in your life you’d appreciate it.  Come on.” Following his phantom, Duram left the woman no choice but to follow.  Approaching a tunnel, the phantom disappeared into a room made of metal wire and emerged after a minute wearing some sort of uniform over his clothes and a helm.  At that point, the younger Duram set off down the tunnel.

 

It was a few minutes, down several metal stairways and several corridors of earth before they reached a room of metal that several people were standing in.  Stepping inside, the doors closed and the room itself began to plunge downward at a steady pace, even as his twin began talking to those around him.

“Morning everyone.”

 

“Again?  What is Reyek up to?”

 

”He got a little too sick after last night, Feast of Victors can be pretty taxing.  If he wants to be well enough to compete he needs the rest, and it won’t hurt for me to do this, after all I used to work here.”

 

“He’d better be making it up to you.”

 

”Of course.”

 

“Azran won’t be happy.”

 

”Why not?” At that, Duram transformed to that of a man of similar height but red hair and round features, Reyek.

 

“Hah!  Good luck but I don’t think you’ve got a chance.”

 

The figure that looked like Reyek smiled. “Tell me, why is that?”

 

A figure who had previously remained quiet in the corner of the small room spoke up.  “Because I’m right over here, and when you see Reyek you’ll tell him that I want to speak with him.”

 

The image of Reyek shimmered back to that of a sheepish Duram who was turning to Azran. “I don’t sup-“

 

“Don’t bother.  As long as one of you is here I don’t mind.  You’ll be taking the fifth line today, Sarek says it’s a job better suited to you.  Well, Reyek, but you’re here after all.  Get us through and then go and see Sarek, he’ll have other jobs for you no doubt for the rest of the shift.”

 

Nodding at the man, Duram seemed resigned. ”Yes sir.”

 

”You’re still going to race?”

 

“As long as I’m fine by the time the work is done, can’t race if I’m tired.”

 

“…  Leave an hour early and get some rest.  You’ll need some if you’re going to do well, and best of luck to you.”

 

A grin came to Duram’s face as he straightened. “Thanks boss!”

 

“Idiot.” Azran was going to say more when the room stopped moving and the door opened.  Everyone stepping out, Duram laughed as Azran told him to get to work.  It was nostalgic returning, even if the man had aged a great deal there were some things that hadn’t changed.

 

The scene blurred slightly to bring Duram and his companion to a scene where his phantom self stood at the end of a tunnel.  Laying a hand on it, the wall began to turn to sand and then fade to nothing as other men and women moved back and forth carrying devices that Duram knew Aramina would not understand except in a most primitive sense. “When I was younger than what you see now, this was one of the places I worked, with both power and…  gah, the closest word I can think of is pick though that’s not accurate.  Aes Sedai worked alongside those who could not channel, this was a daily job.  In this case, that vein of rock would have broken most of the…  picks, that we had.  Therefore the power was used to clear the way.”

 

Nothing she saw made much sense, but she could see the comraderie that he shared with the others.  It was something she had never known, even as a child.  Being Aes Sedai hadn’t changed her inability to allow people close.  In fact the only people she had been close to she had met because she was Aes Sedai.  The scene was haunting but it didn’t matter what they had once been.  What it meant to be an Aes Sedai had changed.  Just because they did it in other ways didn’t mean they weren’t trying to do their best.  Oh, she knew that not all the Sisters agreed on the best way to go about it, or that every Sister believed the same was best, but she at least did what she could. 

 

“I’ve seen things like this done before.” She said in all honestly. “Perhaps not in a place like this but in other ways.  A farmer who can’t remove a stone and is helped, giving him more space for his fields.  Or to help rebiuld a home, or to put out a fire.  There are many ways that an Aes Sedai can help.”  She knew she wasn’t the only one who had helped her agents, but on the other hand she knew that there were other’s who wouldn’t help another person unless there was something in it for them.  It was hard to justify but she could only talk about her own experiences.  She could not and would not defend every Sister who claimed the title.

 

“And how often?”  Even as he watched his mirror walking through the wall more of it parting in his wake, Duram continued. “The Aes Sedai of your time might do something if they’re around, but the fact is they’re not.  I spent a decade doing tasks like this at mines much like this.  That requires commitment, dedication, a humility to know your place in the world that you and your sisters don’t understand.  Your loyalty is to your Tower, not your people.”

 

”Look at these people, how they move around more former self.  No fear, no worry of offending.  Aes Sedai were not instructed that they were greater than those who could channel, they were not taught haughtiness and command.  I saw you in Cairhien, I’ve seen Aes Sedai elsewhere, you use your title as a whip to command obedience and fear.  That is not the way of true Aes Sedai, and the flaw of your kind is the inability to accept that truth.”

 

”That you are meant to be people, much like others.  You are no greater, no more worthy than those that you protect, the only difference is that you have a talent that gives you a greater ability to help those around you.  Tell me, do you not have emotions, feelings and thoughts like any other person?”

 

She wondered for a moment if he really had seen her in Cairhein.  If he had, he might not be asking that question.  People tended to think Aramina didn’t have feelings and she was almost amused at the question if it hadn’t been that her life and her Warder’s life were tied up with it all. “I suppose not.  I’ve rarely been accused of having an overabundancy of emotion or feeling.” She said in honesty. “I was raised to be better than those around me, which had nothing to do with my becoming an Aes Sedai.  If you wish to take that matter up, I suggest you talk to your Master.  Perhaps the lord of the dead would give you a chance to talk to my dead mother and explain why she thought her yongest child should be raised to a life of emotional solitude.”

 

Duram snorted, Aramina was dodging the issue by shifting the blame.  Whether she had been raised that way or not, it was another sign of self deception that irritated him because of the way she wielded it so unwittingly.  How could she simply attribute her ways to what?  Maybe fifteen years before she was found to use the power?  To the way she treated those around her as opposed to well over a hundred years wearing a shawl?  "You're lying to yourself.  Your family might have raised you in such a way, but you seem to be forgetting the rest of your life the moment you were taken to be trained.  Tell me, did the sisters of the Tower disencourage your opinion of being better than those around you?  Or did that only extend as far as you not being better than they?  That you were but a child with no understanding."

 

He wasn’t as easily put off from the subject as she could have wished, but then she had never expected him to really take her answer as anything than what it was. “The Tower does not instill in it’s trainees that they are better than the world.” She wasn’t sure he’d care for the distinction she was making, but there were others in the Tower that she felt were far more caring than she, others that did work in the day to day lives of those around her.  She took a deep breath before continuing. “What it does instill is that from Novice to Accepted they should emulate the Aes Sedai.  Telling a child to take up the stance of a woman with that much more experience does tend to make girls believe they are more than they are.  A woman of my age does not believe the One Power makes her superior.  A Novice trying to emulate me though would not necessarily see the distinction.  I do not think I am their better, but perhaps my years have made me wiser.  Perhaps the fact that I stand aside from their petty concerns of money and glory and fame I can see more clearly into a matter that would plague someone that is too involved in it.  That, I believe, is what helps us with the people around us.  We are not tied to any one nation or to any people.  The White Tower is our home and as a whole, we give no credit to one nation more than another simply because we live there, or we knew the people there.  Could you say that there was never any concern of favoritism on your part?  That you would not side with one person or another because of your affiliation with them?”

 

"I did side with one cause or another, quite frequently in fact.  On the otherhand, I made my choices without carrying the voice of a city state of channelers behind me."  Becoming less interested in the current scene though it continued to play, Duram continued.  "Are you really so naive to think that your Tower and its sisters possess the free will necessary to do what is right?  As opposed to being bound to the ambitions of the older of your order?  Tell me, how much history are you even aware of in regards to how your Tower was founded.  How it was built, how it was shaped and the people who did so."

 

“I am aware that the Tower does not always agree what the best course of action is with what an individual Sister would sometimes think it is.”  She had in fact been at the other end of it more than once.  “There is no way to have such a large group of people come together and make decisions with a full concensous.  But,” she decided to move forward since that debate was one that would take up more time than she figured she had left.  “as to the history of the White Tower, I know the same thing that everyone knows.  The history is available and indeed, well known.  The details might be a bit boring, but the White Tower was created as a place to harbor Aes Sedai from the world that had turned against them after the Breaking and to be a place that would allow them the safety to continue working towards the betterment of all men.”

 

"Really?"  Duram chuckled as the scene shifted, now turning into a much more recent memory as opposed to the long distant past.  They stood in the depths of the White Tower and in the centre of the room were three silver arches that would be very familiar to the woman.  Of that he had little doubt even as he walked towards it.  Running a hand over it, he turned about and leaned back on were two of the arches met as he looked to Aramina.  "Give me a summary of the founding of the Tower, educate me because I am not familiar with this story."

 

She took a deep breath, thinking back to her time as a novice.  Light, all of this had been drilled into her head back then.  Amazing what 150 years could do to her memory.  She could still remember everything she had ever done with Natalie, but she couldn’t remember much of the details in the founding of the White Tower.  Though to her own credit, who would ask it of her?  Only she found herself in the capture of one the Forsaken and with her life on the line, she could remember little more than she had already said.  She took a deep breath. 

 

“The world turned against all Aes Sedai after the Breaking, not just the men who had laid their lands to waste.  Aes Sedai were no long welcomed as you show them.  They were feared and hunted.  They began to find one another again, slowly over time building alliances with one another to keep them safe.  The White Tower was conceived then, a place for the Aes Sedai to live in safety.  A place where Sister could come together and work for the common good.  We took the Three Oaths then to ensure the world around us that Aes Sedai would never harm them again.  The world, even with those Oaths, has still never trusted us as it once did, but we had safety within the Tower’s walls and it’s reputation gave us safety in the world as well.”   

 

"You seem so very sure for someone who was politically savvy in Cairhien before it fell to the Dragon."  Duram, who had been resting his head back between the pair of arches, looked up as he smiled. "You're not so naive to think that all those people, children of the true Aes Sedai, simply agreed for to live inside the Tower?  That they all just decided that they would work with one another?  You know that there were many ajah who then became seven Ajah.  An odious enough corruption of what true ajah were.  The truth is that this Tower is founded upon control, upon oppression, upon maintaining authority and in the beginning, there were many who paid dearly for the desires of a few."

 

"Oh, no doubt they had the most noble of intentions.  No doubt.  But do you have any idea how many female channelers were stilled during that time?  In a world with only one united organisation, its mandate was simple.  They would make all 'Aes Sedai' come to heel, not just wilders who picked up a trick or two, but others who had been taught by Aes Sedai and refused to submit to the authority of the Tower. They were ajah that had their own causes, their own purposes.  Some were even based in regions, doing good works that were entirely worthy in their own right.  But they did not submit, so they were made to kneel and those who didn't were made an example of."

 

Stepping forward, Duram stopped but a few feet away from her.  "I make a point of this because of this very room.  Did you know that this very ter'angreal was the source of a schism?"  Duram gestured to the arches. "One group of your sisters felt that it was a necessary tool, another group disagreed vehemently.  The former were the majority so the minority's objections were, like many in that time, silenced by stilling or intimidation.  Tell me, what do you think this ter'angreal does?"

 

She nodded with a sinking feeling in her heart.  It wasn’t that she doubted the history she had been taught, but there were few detailed accounts of what life had been like after the Breaking.  Who was their to dispute the words of this man?  And as much as she wished she could find a reason to doubt him, she didn’t.  He didn’t have to lie to her.  He didn’t have to make her listen to any of this.  She thought briefly about the ter’angreal and if she should mention it’s purpose, but there was nothing the Forsaken couldn’t take from her mind if he chose to“Simply put, it is a testing device.  It determines if a woman is strong enough, if she will have the strength to endure what must be endured to be Aes Sedai.”

 

"Really?"  Turning to the arches, Duram looked them up and down before turning back to her.  "Thats rather fortunate that the Tower would have, at its inception, a ter'angreal of power like this that tests your aspiring sisters for worthiness." Pausing, Duram cocked his head at her.  "Tell me, how do you work this ter'angreal?  What happens to those who go through?  In those challenges, what is it that allows each woman who goes through them to pass the test put before them?"

 

In that moment she hated the man more than she had ever hated anyone.  The truth of the ter’angreal had been a painful one for Aramina, one that she denied for years until she had prepared to stand before the Green Ajah.  She didn’t want to remember the memories.  She didn’t want to remember the people she had left behind to return to the Tower; her sister and dying mother in the first arch, Natalie in the second, and then Natalie and Mandi Sedai, along with her sister’s child.  On top of that, she had the feeling that he already knew the answers to his questions. 

 

She did speak of what happened in the arches, refused to comment on what had happened to her, but she could answer the last.  “What lets a woman pass back is the knowledge that she much return to the Tower.  That her work in the Tower is more important than anything or anyone else in her life.”   

 

"Indeed, the Tower is paramount.  I know well enough that in there you probably abandoned your family, your closest friends, your mentors, anyone that you have ever known or respected.  Doesn't that seem a bit peculiar to you when you think about it?  That you are taught that your Tower and the Amyrlin with her Hall are so important that you must give up everything else?  What is more peculiar still is that if you haven't been conditioned well enough to have accepted this 'truth', you're...  How do they put it, lost?"

 

"The truth is that this measure, like many others, was one of the reasons that the White Tower was resisted by many children of the Aes Sedai.  An Aes Sedai's true duty is to their people, to those they love, to that which is right.  The beauty of their choice to do so, to exercise their free will in taking a virtuous action is what made Aes Sedai what they were, truly noble.  They did not surrender their will or their choice except to reason.  This arch was never used by Aes Sedai of my time to test its members, we never needed nor never would have used this ter'angreal in such a barbaric fashion."

 

"Indeed, would you like to know what this ter'angreal was used for?" Duram had suspicion part of her would not, but he continued.  "The correct use of it was to help a person face their phobia, their fear, their pain.  When they had received enough help, they were shown into it and they were given the chance to reface what harmed them to begin with, or to face a future fear and quell it.  When the War of Power began, it became highly important in conditioning spies and the like, helping them become resistant to the torments that could be leveled at them until few, like Nemene, could ply their secrets."

 

"What is so amazing about this is that someone knew how to operate the ter'angreal when your White Tower was formed.  To do that, they must have had some idea of what it was intended for, how it could be used, how to manipulate it and indeed, how to manipulate the people sent through it so it would create the correct reaction from people that passed through it, to test their loyalty to the White Tower.  Lastly, what amazes me most is that if they knew how to operate it, there was a chance of something that is more disgraceful than the fact that they sent normal people through it."

 

Looking Aramina dead in the eye, Duram didn't hesitate as he explained the worst crime of all. "If they knew how to use it, they should have known that it was possible to bring people back out."

 

 

 

Aramina sur Dulciena Aes Sedai

Duram Laddel Cham Be'lal, the Chosen

 

[TaeaDawn]

She had known from the outset that he intended to show her something that would hurt her.  The ter’angreal was a good place for it, though he could not have understood how much Aramina’s heart had been closed by the artifact before them, how it’s memory had closed her off to any future relationship because it’s truth had been too harsh. She would leave anyone behind for the cause of the White Tower.  She knew it.  Even now, hearing him speak of it’s true purpose, she knew that if she had to, she would leave those dearest to her for the good of the Tower.  She couldn’t imagine a life when she might have been different. 

 

His last comment hit so hard though that she had to take a step back.  Bring people back?  Unbidden tears filled her eyes.  Light... “Lillian...”  How could she ever face her again, how could she tell her... Taei might have been saved.  How many girls had she sent through that Arch to prove something that was unnecessary?  How many girls had been killed in the 150 years that she had been in the Tower?  She didn’t know and didn’t really want to.  She stared at the ter’angreal, trying to blink past the pain.  She had tried to help Lillian through the death of her friend, but Lillian had been right.  She hadn’t needed to go through. 

 

“Bring them back?  How?” She finally managed to ask.

 

"You know of the silver arch that appears?"  Duram noted the quick nod that came from Aramina. "With the right application of spirit into the ter'angreal, you can end whatever scene is playing in there.  If necessary, you can send a second person in to fetch the first out.  There was meant to be a way to bring a person back even if the arches had been left idle, but that knowledge is beyond me.  Of all my brethren, perhaps Kamarile would know the secrets of it but I was never trained how to use this.  And you can be certain that she would never deign to help people free of this ter'angreal."

 

"Or rather, person.  The way your sisters use this ter'angreal, everytime someone fails, when the ceremony is next used the person who failed is killed as they, along with the memories of were within the ter'angreal, are wiped clean.  The reason I make this point is this, if the founders of the Tower deemed it necessary to use such a test, then what do you think their motives truly were.  Indeed, are your motives really your own?  Or was your free will compromised like the rest of your sisters?  Its one thing to serve the Light, its another thing to be convinced that the only way to do so is to serve a Tower."

 

She didn’t know how to answer any of it.  She kept thinking back to Lillian, to finding her sitting before the ter’angreal trying to operate the device on her own to bring her friend back.  She didn’t know how she was going to be able to talk to Lillian again.  She was the closest thing she had to a friend among her Sisters, the person she had worked with the most.  Even though she had been working with Sirayn for her whole of her career, Lillian was the only one that she had an almost constant contact with since the sharing of their Eyes and Ears had begun. 

 

She shook her head to try to clear her thoughts.  Light, Rosheen was depending on her! “I think if the ter’angreal was able to take away our free will then we would not lose a single girl inside it.” She said finally.   

 

"Oddly, you are right, yet at the same time not." Duram walked around the ter'angreal slowly, looking over it as he spoke.  "Every woman in there does make a choice, but in this arch your sisters aren't conquering their fears, nor are they becoming Aes Sedai in any way.  Every woman in there is forced to make a choice, not between Light and the Dark, they are forced to choose between what is most important to them.  They choose between their family or the Tower, or their closest friend and the Tower, or something so very dear to them and the Tower.  Any answer other than the Tower is death, and the tragedy of it is that this Tower is nothing.  For a true Aes Sedai, their concern is not for a Tower, or any group of people, it is to serve all and to embody right action."

 

"How is staying to protect a friend an incorrect choice?  How is leaving a parent in their deathbed necessarily the right one?  The way the Arches are used they do not test free will, they punish it.  Anyone who cannot conform when they go through those Arches is killed by those who follow.  The real tragedy is that amongst those who have died in those Arches are some who would have made true Aes Sedai, they used their heart as much as they used their mind.  In the reality they were given, they made right choices, and now the world is a lot poorer for them being gone."

 

Another step back, a step away from him and the truths that she had never wanted to know.  Truths about the Tower she didn’t want to learn.  She had known the truth about herself.  If she hadn’t learned it long ago, Aran had shown her how horrible the truth was.  It wasn’t until he had come into her life that she realized how much of her humanity she had stripped away.  He had shamed her when her Grand Niece had been kidnapped, shamed her into action and into a relationship that she would have let die at the end of a bloody assassin’s knife.  Had the Tower done that to her, or had they simply honed the coldness that had already grown inside her?  She didn’t want to know. 

 

She looked back at Duram, at the Forsaken Be’lal.  She did not doubt his truths, but that didn’t make a lie of the life she led, did it?  She shook her head but had no answer for it. She had no answer for anything.  “Is there more you wish to show me?” She asked.

 

Giving Aramina a measured look, weighing her up as well as his own willingness to continue.  He had mastered his pains a long time ago, but it did not mean he enjoyed them.  There was little of him that need be hidden, especially since the woman was never going to be allowed to speak of what she had learned. "I don't think I need to push this point further, I think you have the beginning of understanding now and only time and thought will help you with that.  Though I would say this, within the White Tower there are not one by two libraries.  The first is what is available to all your sisters, with them many of the comfortable truths that you have clung to."

 

"But this second library, it is held in trust by a few.  The Amyrlin, the Keeper and a few select others that I am unsure of have had access to it throughout history.  There are records in there, some of which will confirm what I have said, others of which lie in different ways.  Should you ever gain access to it, you would do well to see if you can discover the truth for yourself there...  But, I don't think we are completely done.  I think there is at least one more question that you wish to ask me.  You may ask it."

 

It hurt that he would understand her well enough to say it, but it was even harder to question him.  The truths he gave, as he had promised, were far more painful than lies and she feared what the next truth would give her. “If you were all that an Aes Sedai should be, why did you turn from the Light?”

 

“One reason turned me, a second kept me true.”  The scene blurred again and they stood within a park with the song of birds and animals surrounding them, a Nym shambling past them as he tended to the garden, oblivious to them.  Before them stood one tree in particular, one that was different from the others yet one only knew from the lassitude, the peace that felt incredibly natural, relaxing.

 

“This is chora, an artificial plant.  Within the first thousand years of the new order, long after Nicola Petraya Kerensky’s death, these were first created with a fusion of power and science.  You are familiar with Avendoraldera yes?  Avendoraldera was a descendant of these trees, these constructs that were designed to allow for a sense of inner well being.”

 

”They were quickly planted throughout the world, wherever you went you could find them.  Those that did so were well intentioned I think, and they did many good things.  Around these trees, the will to do violence, feelings of anger, hatred and fear, all these things are subdued and eventually dissolve while you are within the range of its effect.  It was one of the reasons that crime was so rare, feelings such as envy and jealousy are hard to maintain, especially in an age where everyone was provided for.”

 

”Yet there are still some things that you can envy someone, the love of a good woman, the respect of someone who never recognised you.  Crimes of passion were the only crimes we knew before the Bore was opened.  Usually crimes of the moment, they were the source of rare murders and assaults, and these people were bound against violence.  They were usually thankful for it, they had no understanding of what they had done beyond that it was a most heinous act.”

 

”And murder is a heinous act, no matter the reason.  And while we enjoyed our peace, these trees amongst other things were the flaw.” Laying a hand on it, even as a memory it felt real as he turned to her.  “Virtue, ethics, the choice to do the right or wrong thing is the most basic and fundamental aspect of any human being.  You choose to help someone, you choose not to, you choose to take advantage of someone, you choose to protect them.  It is these choices that define people, that decide who they are and what they will be.”

 

“But these trees destroyed that choice.” Removing his hand from it, Duram continued. “Every base feeling from hate to jealousy, envy and wrath and most importantly, fear, these are what test us.  Struggle and choice are what make people, what allow you to see who people truly are and even what they could be.  Yet these trees chose for people, they removed the burden of choice, how could you choose to resist the urge to steal if the very thought ebbed from your mind?  How could you choose to discipline your anger in the face of something you disagreed with if the very outrage you feel, the depth of your feelings, is robbed from you?”

 

“People cease to be people then, they become decadent, in many ways they become unworthy because they have ceased to exercise the one thing that could define them.  These were questions I entertained before the Bore was made and the Great Lord was loosed into the world.  And it was then that I began to see what a people was like when they ceased to be tested with choice.”

 

”Did you know that during the collapse, they continued to bind people?”  Barking a laugh, Duram threw a hand in the air as he added. “Did you know that these people who were bound were not necessarily as remorseful as those before?  They chose not to be.  Yet worst still, because they were bound against violence, regardless of their reason, they in turn became victims because they could no longer defend themselves.  The very means we had to deal with violence engendered more violence in turn.”

 

“What seems so common in your day, prisons, as the Chief Justice I had to reinvent them.  Not only to keep those who broke the law isolated from the rest of the community, I had to protect them from those who would have taken advantage of their helplessness.  It was insanity, yet amongst that insanity there were many people who made the right decisions.  In fact, watch this.”

 

A defeaning roar filled their ears from the sound of a massive explosion, the earth trembling from what Duram remembered to be a great building collapsing into the earth several blocks away.  Taking Aramina’s hands as he led her through the street, he wasn’t fearful of the people around him who were oblivious to their presence.  Looting, brawls, violence of the worst sort.  It didn’t take Duram to find what he was after, which he pointed to and told her to look.

 

A pair of men were dragging a woman away who was fighting with all her strength, screaming and wailing as they slowly managed to get her away to the pavement where one held her down and the other began to strip her.  Yet, for no explainable reason, several looters who were carrying what they had stolen stopped, dropped their things and proceeded to jump the pair of men and quickly finished them with a brutal savagery that had stayed with Duram since he first witnessed it.  The woman they helped to her feet, helping her away with them as they vanished into another building to steal what they could.

 

The scene shifted again to a courtroom, over which he himself had been presiding.  He seemed older then, it had been one thing to deal with a few isolated cases over the years, but the early years of the collapse had completely overrun their legal system.  Before him were the looters, standing together as they awaited judgement.  Yet this scene didn’t move, it was a frozen frame as Duram turned to Aramina.  “Tell me, how do you decide the fate of men like these?  They committed crimes, they stole, they murdered the men we saw.  Yet they also saved that woman, she survived that riot and she owed her life to these men that I was sitting up there and judging.  What would you do?”

 

“I would feel remorse for sentencing them for the murder they committed.  The looting could be pardoned perhaps for helping the woman, but they killed where it was not necessary.  As loathsome as the crime may have been, it should not have been their hands to judge this man’s life.”  She turned away from the scene to look at Duram. “But I see where the problem lays.  If you have kept them from feeling the baser emotions, then you negated their ability to defend themselves against it when they were no longer protected.  You created a dependency in order to keep your civilization orderly.” Looking back at the scene she shook her head.  “And then you were forced to pass judgement on those same people.” 

 

“There is more to it than that.”  The scene suddenly lurched into motion, Duram watching himself stand from his seat to pronounce judgement.  ”In accordance with our laws, for abusing your right to act freely you shall surrender your ability to do violence.  So is the mercy of the light, so let it be done.”

 

Watching the men taken away, Duram turned about to Aramina even as his phantom left the chamber. “Would you care to know what my decision did to those men?”  Shimmering, they found themselves in a room that reeked of death.  Sprawled across the lounge room, each of those men was lying dead on the floor along with another who couldn’t be recognised, bloodsoaked much like a good deal of the room.

 

”The next riot, they were unable to defend themselves.  They in turn died, and why?  Yes, they were greedy and they stole, yes they murdered, but was it unreasonable that they killed?  In a world that doesn’t understand this, two things happen.  Either the world begins to understand, or it refuses to change and it was the latter that happened for at least the first eight years of the collapse until we instituted prisons.”

 

”Yet laws were absolute as were morals, there was no question.  Murder is murder, no matter what the cause, once someone does such a thing they are done.  Yet is there no redemption?  Is it possible that wrong choices can at the same time be right choices?  I thought so.  But in a world untested by choice, people try not to make those decisions.”

 

“They planted more chora trees in the first ten years of the collapse than they did for the previous four hundred years.  The trees ceased to simply be a misguided attempt to bring peace and became something a lot more sinister.  They didn’t attempt to show people the right way, to teach them to discipline themselves, to choose for themselves what was right and to live a virtuous life.  They forced people to do so, tried to contain them, contain their feelings, make them conform rather than give them choice.”

 

“That was the reason I first turned to the Shadow, long before it revealed itself.  I did so because in a world where there was only two sides…  When you are a servant of all, you choose to submit yourself to the needs of other people.  I could no longer serve, not when what I served became as terrible as the unknown menace that would eventually rear its head.”

 

“But, that is why I first turned.  I’m sure you can see the holes in my theory, how could I trade one evil for another?  Yes, I am not under any illusions about what I have done or continue to do.  The reason I first joined was the first step, but do you think you are ready for the reason that sealed my fate?  Or do you wish to stop?”

 

It seemed insane, but she needed to see the whole thing through.  She felt... compassion for Duram, for the world that he had lived in and lost, the world that was falling to pieces through the memories he had shown her.  It was no wonder he wanted someone, at least one person, to understand what Aes Sedai had once been.  She wished he could have chosen anyone else but her, still she was the only witness to this and she would see it through. 

 

“I would see the rest, if you will show it to me.”

 

 

Aramina sur Dulciena Aes Sedai

Duram Laddel Cham Be'lal, the Chosen

[TaeaDawn]

Blurring, they stood within a great circular hall.  At two ends, two men sat.  One was recognisable as Duram, his hair black and his face calm.  At the other end was a man that he doubted the woman would recognise.  It was much like a theatre, the rows of seats raising from the centre and each seat had a desk with a representative of a different region of the world at it.  Occasionally one could see one of the Ogier amongst them.  In the middle of the hall, there was a woman with fiery red hair and the sort of beauty that came as much from her expression and soul as her physical appearance.  With her stood several men, each of them in varying garbs but clearly in support of her.  Once again, the scene was frozen.

 

“You can see where I am, the man at the other end was the Lord of Morning, Lews Therin Telamon.  Sitting over there just near the floor and separate from the others is the First Speaker, Saric Lores Canin.  Holding the floor is Jelana Astor Katel, the representative of Mar Rouis.  To her left is Barid Bel Medar, the First Marshall.  To her right is Mai Lai Murazen, representative of Paaren Disen.  The two men behind her, twins, are Ruan Mardua Parval and Luan Sovien Parval.  Both are members of the same ajah as her, though Ruan could not channel.  Their ajah was one third of this hall, another third belonged to my ajah that believed in a more passive approach and trying to understand the problem.  I directed it deliberately to slow down action against the collapse for I had sworn myself at this stage.  The remainder of this hall was independent though more often than not I won them over with caution.”

 

“Watch.” 

 

The scene came to life as the woman raised her voice to the hall. “The time has long since passed for us to take action!  Barid Bel Medar has given you his account, we need to increase the size of the corps and indeed expand a full second corp under his second, Tel Janin Aellinsar.  We need these extra forces, along with more jo’car, sho’wing and striders in order to contain the violence!  If we do not do so, our cities shall be overrun!  I submit to you all that the time for research, the time for planning, all of this is done.  We must act!”

 

“Lord of Morning?”  The First Speaker, directed the question towards Lews Therin who nodded in acknowledgement at the opportunity to speak.

 

“I offer my full support to the representative of Mar Rouis.”

 

“Lord of Twilight?”

 

Duram stood from his seat before addressing the hall with a confidence that bespoke of years at his post.  “I cannot.  Something does need to be done, I do not disagree with this.  But rash action will provoke more violence, we have seen this in the past.  Once again, I hear that we speak of containing the problem, but why does no one speak of a solution to the problem?  For ten years now, this council has seen arguments put forward that creating an armed force will quell the issue.”

 

”But, while I respectfully acknowledge Barid Bel Medar’s successful campaigns, what have we achieved?  We are staving off an inevitability by training more soldiers, by building more weapons of destruction far beyond what I remember in over five hundred years of life.  Every time we fight, it only abates for awhile, then the trouble returns twice as terrible as before.”

 

“I do not forget the lessons of our forefathers.  I do not forget that violence was a tool of oppression and we must be wary of overstepping our bounds.  Our forces for the moment, I believe, are capable of holding the tide.  I will not support increasing those forces and endangering us in stepping beyond our mandate by going beyond keeping the peace to ruling by intimidation.  Until it is deemed necessary, I cannot give this my blessing.”

 

The vote was then called by the First Speaker.  A narrow margin, but enough to defeat the proposed upgrade of troops.  The hall was adjourned.

 

Walking over to Aramina, Duram took her hand before the scene shifted again, this time outside a great building of marble and crystal in a garden to where two people stood.  Himself, and a red haired woman.

 

”Damn you Duram!  Why won’t you listen?”

 

”Because I remember a time when we did not solve every problem with violence, which is what your war party is bent on.”

 

”Don’t you put words in my mouth!”

 

“Then don’t accuse me of not listening.  You should know better.”

 

There was a pause between them before the Jelana held out her hand.  Taking it, Duram squeezed it gently, they had done this so many times that they no longer needed to speak of apologies, it was yet another disagreement to be weathered because neither would budge.  It was awhile before Duram spoke.

“Will you still come with me tonight?”

 

Jelana snorted. “Of course I will, you’d look like an idiot by yourself wouldn’t you?”

 

Smiling, Duram kissed her hand before letting it go. “I’d be lost without you.”

 

“Flattery won’t get you out of this one…  But it’s a start.  I’ll see you there.” Reaching up on her tippy toes to give Duram a quick kiss, there was a slight smile on Jelana’s face as she walked away.  One mirrored by Duram as he watched her go before turning away himself and setting off.

 

The scene shifted again, and this time they found themselves in a sizeable yet modest apartment.  As the scene settled and humming filled the air, Duram let go of Aramina’s hand and took a step or two away to sit on a nearby chair, looking away at the wall as he allowed the memory to play out in his mind.

 

A phantom of himself slipped through the window to the room, clad in black save for his face which was open.  It was raining outside, yet he was strangely dry as he walked to a nearby door and opened it, closing it behind him even as another door opened to reveal a bathroom and Jelana in a dress.  Walking to the window even as the assassin opened the door that had hidden him, it only took a couple of steps and Jelana’s mouth was caught in his gloved hand.

 

She had enough time to see who her attacker was before a blade found its way into her stomach.  Twisting it slowly, his twin ripped it up and through her, before stabbing her several more times.  Using her blood as ink, the man was quick to begin writing upon the wall a reference that would undoubtedly be lost to Aramina, but Duram understood all too well.

 

She watched the whole thing with a morbid fascination.  She didn’t know what would happen as the man showed himself into the room, but it wasn’t long before the blood came.  She didn’t understand, didn’t see why he had killed her.  Her death would be certain to galvanize a force against the violence and defeat the very thing he had been working for.  There was more to this.  There had to be.  “Why?” She asked in a quite voice.

 

Duram was silent as the phantom made his way throughout the apartment, searching quickly as if time had sped up and soon departing through the window.  It was perhaps a few minutes before something new happened, the main door slid open as his twin stepped in, this time dressed in a fine suit and carrying flowers in his hand. 

 

The flowers dropped as the figure ran and dived next to Jelana’s corpse and pulled her to him, yelling at her hysterically, pulling her into his arms and sobbed like a broken man.  Duram ignored it with a stoicism of a man who had seen the scene many times before, though there was a certain rigidness to him as he kept studying the wall, letting the scene play out behind him.

 

It wasn’t long before another person appeared, Barid Bel Medar.  Dressed in his usual work clothes, he was trying to get Duram’s attention but it wasn’t working.  Taking out a small object from his pocket and speaking into it, calling for more men to come.  Replacing the item even as he slipped on gloves, he at best managed to get Duram’s phantom to look up at him though he wasn’t really there.

 

It was clear Barid did something with the power because the Duram that was holding Jelana in his arms, spattered in blood and tears, simply slumped over on his side.  Barid pulled him clear of the body and began to examine it, examining the writing on the wall and cursing, looking about the window and the rest of the room.  While he did so, more people in uniforms began to filter into the room and take charge of the situation.

 

Walking over to Aramina, the real Duram took her hand and the scene changed again.  This time to small chamber with a long table that seated several people; Saric Lores Canin, Mai Lai Murazen, Ruan Mardua Parval and Luan Sovien Parval.  This time the scene began immediately, the door near the other end of the table opening to reveal three people.  Barid Bel Medar, Duram Laddel Cham and Tel Janin Aellinsar.  As they stepped in, men in uniforms followed them while Saric rose from his seat.

“May I ask what the meaning of this is?”

 

It was Barid who spoke with a voice as cold as Blasted Lands.  “You are all under arrest.  Conspiracy, treason and murder are to name but three crimes you are all charged with.”

 

”Treason?  We did not betray anyone.” The Speaker’s smile was disquietly calm.  “It is that man amongst you that is the traitor.  Duram has blocked our council for ten years from making the right decisions, and if you think you will brand us as traitors when we have done what was necessary, then you are mistaken.”

 

It was Duram that stepped forward then, tightly held fury evident in his voice. “You are a worse than filth!  What about Jelana?!  She fought for your cause!”

 

It was Rualan that stood as he smiled coldly at Duram. “Don’t pretend ignorance, you know exactly why we did as we did.  Besides, she was…  compromised.”

 

Duram took an unwilling step forward even as Rualan laughed and began walking towards him.  “Just so you know, it was me that wore your face for those that were watching.  She even said your name, right before I gutted her.”

 

The scene exploded into a violent melee of swords and the one power but Duram ended it, reverting the scene back to his quarters that they had been sitting in previously when he had first told Aramina what his intent had been.  “The truth cuts a good deal sharper than the truth, Aramina sur Dulciena, I believe I told you that earlier.”

 

”The truth was, while I’d chosen what side I was on, I’d done so knowingly understanding everything I did.  But Jelana…  She was killed deliberately to spark an outrage, and I was framed for it.  Too incapacitated in my grief and my reputation stained by the accusation, it was only the fact that I was elsewhere with witnesses that saved me from being bound on the spot.”

 

”Her own companions murdered her.  It was a calculated plan of theirs.  When the death of Jelana reached Mar Rouis, the entire city rioted.  The riots were too much for Barid Bel Medar’s forces to contain so a second division of troops was authorised under Tel Janin Aellinsar.  The investigations eventually revealed the plot, the First Speaker along with the Parval twins and Mai were bound and imprisoned.”

 

“Their sickness was that they were so sure of their cause that they ceased to have any understanding of what they did.  So righteous, so self justified that they felt they could sacrifice one of their own who had fought for them again and again.  Not only Jelana, but thousands died in the Mar Rouis riots, more so elsewhere due to their machinations.  And in the end, they had not a single bit of remorse, they had the mandate of the Light and the greater good.”

 

 

Aramina sur Dulciena Aes Sedai

Duram Laddel Cham Be'lal, the Chosen

[TaeaDawn]

”The mantle of an Aes Sedai isn’t something you earn, it is something you live everyday.  I reached a point where I couldn’t do it anymore, but these people…  When people fight evil, some forget who they are and what they represent and they become the very thing they fight.  Your Tower sits somewhere inbetween, some of your sisters tend towards the Light but there are some I would trust less than I would Mierin.”

 

Looking at Aramina, Duram’s face was empty of the earlier smiles, he looked tired now.  “I have lost my faith, and did a long time ago.  Sometimes I have given into temptation, I killed Barid in Chachin with a blade that ensured he could never be reborn for his later betrayal when I sheltered him.  What ethics I still practice…  I am not who I was I think, or will be again.”

 

“What I understand now is all that there is, something more basic than good and evil.  Every human being can make a choice, irregardless of the wheel and its ta’veren coercing the pattern to dance to a particular tune.  You now have a grasp of what Aes Sedai were and what made them something that inspired for hundreds of years, you now know what yours sisters have reduced that legacy to.”

 

“You’ve seen some of the reasons for my choice and why I am.  You have many choices ahead of you, not only how you understand what you saw but how you will let them effect you.  Could you decide to take up the true mantle of an Aes Sedai?  To live as one or to simply pretend to be one?  I don’t know, but those choices will be yours.  You may only have days to live, you may or may not get your freedom.  But if you are to meet your end, how would you meet it?  Moreover, if you are to find your freedom, how would you embrace it?”

 

Everything she had seen was tragic.  It was the only thing that came to mind when she tried to fight her way back to her normal state of mind.  Ironically tragic.  The founding of the beloved Tower, the reasons for turning to the Shadow for two of the Forsaken, the name she carried and revered about all else, it was all tragic.  She closed her eyes to Duram as he spoke, as he asked his questions.  She hated him for what he taught and hated herself even more for witnessing it.  Where was her belief in the Light that was supposed to make her strong enough to disbelieve anything the Forsaken came to taunt her with.  Where was the passion that has set her on her course, the pain of Natalie’s death fighting the Shadown alone and dieing for it?  Where was her fear for her Warder’s life?  Why did none of it make her able to push his words away?

 

She didn’t know.  She didn’t care.  She had always known that sometimes the cause of good lost it’s focus and became worse than it’s enemy, but she had never thought of herself or her Sister’s that way.  Duram made her doubt that now.  He made her doubt everything she had ever come to hold dear to herself.  The Tower had begun as a lie and her Title was little more than a joke.  But no, she was more than that now.  She was more than just an Aes Sedai.  She had trouble admitting it to herself, but there was love and life and happiness sometimes. Aran had made sure of that.  He had been the one to see past her cold demeanor, he had seen part her jealousy and her inexperience.  He had taken the fear of rejection and loss and tossed everything on it’s side.  He’d seen her instead.  he’d cared for her and in doing so, he’d made her love him.  She took a step backwards and would have fallen over if a chair hadn’t materialized under her as she did. 

 

She had no right to the title she claimed, to the life she lived.  If there was anyone she knew who gave so completely, who listened without judgement, or showed compassion for others, no matter who they were, it was Aran.  He deserved the title far more than she did.  He deserved far more than she could ever give.  It was a bittersweet revelation with one of the Foresaken watching over her, holding the life of her Warder as hostage, but it was true none the less.  She’s put the Tower before too many things.  It was time to make a change. She could never leave it, could never stop doing what she could to help the world, but what she had seen had only shown her what her heart had known for years.  Power corrupts and she was no different from the rest.  Only her love gave her humanity and she gave nothing back for it. 

 

She looked up at Duram finally, her vision blurred from tears she refused to release.  “Perhaps some other, some stronger person would defy you to the end.  Or perhaps some stronger person would say thank you for the truth.  I am not that person.  I am an Aes Sedai as this world knows them.  The road before me is not so clear as it once was, but the journey is still to be undertaken.  I will still fight the Shadow and I will not stop.  Perhaps my means will change for the truths you’ve shown.  I cannot begin to guess what impact this will have, how can I when my life is mostly likely numbered to days.  But I will not soon forget these truths.” Her voice broke unexpectedly and she was shocked to the core by the nakedness of her own emotions.  She thought of Aran and Lillian and Rosheen and all the people she had loved before who had never known the woman she was for fear of loss or rejection.  “I will remember.”    

 

Smiling sadly, Duram walked over and put a hand on Aramina's shoulder.  As he did so, the world began to shift around them, blur and unfocus until it faded away altogether and them with it.

 

Waking, Duram stretched as he yawned.  Time in the dream wasn't real sleep, which meant he'd now gone the better part of a day without it.  Foolishness, but it was one he'd chosen to entertain and he was satisfied with himself.  He'd made one of them think, it was easy to break someone or simply overwhelm them with power like his, far more difficult to make a person think and draw their own conclusions about things they were taught never to question.  If he changed one of them, enough that they could realise what they were was a lie and that if they wanted the mantle of Aes Sedai they wore to be true...  That was enough for him, at least for now.

 

The woman seemed to be awakening as well, tied and shackled to the centre of the tent with no chance of escape.  As she awoke, she seemed to take into account where she was and who was there and seem a little surprised.  But, he got up nevertheless and walked over to her, squatting down beside her as he looked apologetic.  "I'm sorry.  I showed you what I could, but that truth comes with a price of its own.  I can never let you speak of it to another.  I'm going to seal what happened within you so that only you will know, and nothing and no one will ever be able to get it out of you, which makes sense because in the end it was for you alone.  Before I do, is there anything else you would say of it?  You won't be able to again."

 

There was only one thing that came to mind through it all, one thing she felt she had to say.  She realized that it was crazy, with everything in the balance and knowing she was speaking to one of the Forsaken, but the words came out anyway.  If she had a hand free she would have reached for him, though little would he have realized the meaning of such a touch from her.  “I am sorry for your loss.”

 

Sitting very still for a moment, Duram nodded as he reached over with one hand and placed it upon her brow.  Threads of spirit flowing unseen, they wrapped their way through her mind until they had found what they were after, shaping themselves to his will and achieving his purpose before he released the one power.  “You will be able to say that we spoke, that you are unable to speak of it because of what I wrought and that what was said is beyond their grasp.  Apart from that, you will not be able to communicate about the matter in anyway.”

 

Standing, Duram made his way to the tent flap but before leaving, looked back and said quietly.  “For what it is worth, if you wish the mantle of the Aes Sedai, you have it within you to realise it.  Regardless of what has gone before, a person may always choose to walk a new path. You may choose not to, much like I made my own choices.  But, it is your choice to make.”  At that, he disappeared from the tent.

 

She thought she would feel something, some sort of dread or creeping threat looming over her as he worked the male half on her, but there was nothing but the knowledge of what he had done.  She could say that she had met Be’lal and that they had talked.  she could speak the words, but she understood very well that it was unlikely she ever would.  If she went to the Tower and told them that one of the Forsaken had forced silence upon her, what else would they suspect him of doing?  She feared it herself, that he had tied her to him in some way that would allow him to control her, but at the same time didn’t think he would. 

 

He made no mention of her last words, nor of the visions they had shared in the night, but in the end left a few words for her to contemplate.  It wasn’t the words or their meaning that made her think on them though.  Above all else, she had a new question on her mind, one that she would never be able to voice but would stay with her as long as she lived.  He spoke of becoming Aes Sedai, of making the choice to take on the mantle.  He was giving her hope, she felt, trying to make her aware that she had the power to change.  Was it something the Forsaken was aware of within himself?  Was he trying to find a way to bring back the Aes Sedai that he had known, or was he simply holding onto the hope that someday he himself might walk that path again?

 

There were still no answers but she was given time to think and though she knew her mind should be worried about the approach of more minions of the Forsaken, she found it hard to pull her mind away from the memory of Duram and the truths he had once again buried.

 

Aramina sur Dulciena Aes Sedai

Duram Laddel Cham Be'lal, the Chosen