Justice is a two edged sword (attn: Marden, Arath, Queen Sofia and Banders)

[Arette]

The Queen's Palace in Illian was slowly becoming familiar to Arette as she had visited it a few times in the past few days and she guided Con toward the room where the hearing of Marden Veniso was arranged. Thankfully they wouldn't have to go down to the dungeons where Marden had been kept. He certainly couldn't protest being treated badly as he mainly just slept there and was allowed to be outside heavily guarded and meet the Asha'man. It annoyed her that he tried to paint himself some kind of a suffering martyr by accusing her of burying him alive just like in Far Madding. He was a murderer, that was what he was, even if her view did not get support from anyone. Certainly most agreed about that but political issues were clouding the core question.

 

She had to stick to her conviction or otherwise she couldn't see it through. The disapproval of Con and Lillian had shaken her worse than she had thought, and there had been moments when she hoped that she had never come across Veniso or had just walked away. But it had been too late the moment she had made her snap decision to have him arrested. She wasn't just riddled with doubts about the whole thing; another unrelated event had disturbed her calm. Only few days prior she had come across quite unprepared with a dangerous and strong wilder who had almost burned Arette alive.

 

As a result an entire block had suffered massive damage, her guardians had been hurt and she had been on blisters and burns all over. It was horribly vain but what pained her the most was the loss of her hair. For over two hundred years she had cultivated and lovingly tended the black locks and as a result they had come down to her calves, strong and shiny. And now it was all gone. Silly, but it almost felt like loosing a child or a dear friend. Her hair had been the most beautiful part of her and she had taken it so granted. Now when it was there no more, her head felt weightless and her confidence in herself was shattered. Even though she wore a pretty Tairen style cap decorated with pearls and embroidery, she was certain that people could see the few bald spots where her scalp had burnt. Ebony strands carefully arranged covered it as did fabric but she still felt it. The skin had Healed well but it remained to be seen if hair would ever grow there again. Lillian assured her that it would but nothing could Heal her hair and bring it back.

 

Post traumatic stress the Yellows might have called it, and true enough, her hands were shaking when she even thought back the incident and how the woman had gotten away. Loathing and hating her certainly helped. If only she wasn't tied to Illian or she would have hunted her down and seen the menace gone for good. But the Asha'man would or someone would. A pity that Arette couldn't be there to witness it. But hatred only helped so much. She was averse to leave her home; she just wanted to be alone and mourn, but it would mean that the wilder had won. She had duties and more will power than that and she would have to keep doing things. Her children needed a mother who was more than a weeping mess. And when this thing was over, maybe Con would stop being angry with her. But better angry than coddling. She just couldn't take that. He had to believe that she was strong so she could believe it too.

 

Stiff backed and few steps before her husband, Arette arrived to the temporary court room. Although the final judgement wouldn't be passed here, the seeds would be sown. After the hearing they would negotiate what would be done to Marden. Mainly it would be between her and Arath but the others would be a good to have around as buffers. Speaking of the others, everyone else were present already: Queen Sofia as the sovereign of the country, Arath to represent the Asha'man and members from the Band of the Red Hand as a neutral party. It was kind of strange to represent the White Tower and officially she even couldn't. She had been exiled and technically she wasn't an Aes Sedai anymore. She did not wear the ring even now but she had been the Keeper of the Chronicles when the murders had occurred. In that capacity she could be there. And as the Seat of Rebuke, even though it wasn't a real trial and protocol of Tower justice wouldn't be followed. Lillian should have been there for the White Tower but she had refused and Arette hadn't argued. It was one less person 'against' her there. Marden would be his own Seat of Pardon, even though a madman's ability to represent himself could be questioned.

 

She nodded to everyone in greeting, her pale face marred with two angrily pink spots of new skin on her forehead and cheek where burns had been. Marden Venisp, flanked by guards, she ignored for now though. She looked perfectly composed and in control to anyone who didn't know her very well. It was all just veneer as she was determined to see this through. She and Con seated themselves and it was time to begin.

 

"Thank you all for coming to the hearing of Marden Veniso. His and my statements of the murders of Delaine Rivest, Sera Saunders and Nela Maridi will hopefully help us to make a decision of how to continue. If necessary, Con Stavros can also provide insight on the events as he was the Commander of the Tower Guard at that time. But let us begin with the accused one." She finally turned to look at the man and her face showed no emotion aside from serenity. "Master Veniso, tell us what happened the day those three Sisters were killed."

 

Arette Stavros

Exiled Brown Sister

[Wayfarer]

Looking up as the door to his cell was unbarred, Marden Veniso stood as several men of black and silver entered.  The clink of manacles accompanying them, he considered the possibility of stealing one of their weapons as they stood around him.  He had done so every other time they had come for him, the chance to win his freedom by the blade was the only one he had and he knew it.  Manacles fastened to his wrists and ankles, they were not unknown to him.  He'd worn manacles ever since his imprisonment, and he'd known their iron kiss when he had been prisoner to the Aes Sedai, they were no less comfortable for that.

 

Uttering not a word as he was instructed to walk, Marden knew that the trial was nothing more than a sham.  He was held by soldiers loyal to the Queen, a Queen whose friend was the one who had accused him.  Arette Nenatiar, once the Keeper of Chronicles, she had been there when he had been sentenced once before.  Condemned for being who he was, what he was, stripped of the thing that made him different.  Left to rot in the earth, the only difference this time would be that it would not be his liberty that he lost, but his life.

 

It was tantalising, the thought that it could all end so easily.  An end to the torment of living a half life, an end to all his worries and responsibilities, an end to all pain, all easily granted by the hangman's noose.  He wanted it so badly, he'd spent enough nights looking upon his own blades wondering if perhaps that would be the night he would give himself peace.  A hangman's noose held no fears for him, only promises.

 

But he couldn't do it.  Not yet.

 

Stopping and turning to the right as instructed, he moved as he was directed to the seat reserved for him and he sat down before viewing those who were within the room while the guard filed outside and closed the doors behind them.  Some members of the Band of the Red Hand were there, obvious by the red on their arms, the Queen, a serving woman providing glasses of water, Asha'man Faringail.  No sooner had he done so, the doors opened and admitted two more.  One he knew to have once been the Commander of the Tower Guard, the other once Keeper of Chronicles.  A woman who had presided over the moment that had seen his life split in twain.

 

Silent as she took her place and made her speech, her words were but the mouthings of formality, a polite nod towards justice when this was nothing of a sort.  It was a travesty, a mocking illusion where the outcome had already been decided and was just a balm to soothe those whose conscience might twinge and for others to feel entirely self righteous.  So they could say that the one they hated was tried and found guilty, nevermind that he had been found guilty before this trial was ever convened.

 

A travesty.

 

Looking to the woman whose face escaped time's touch, Marden's voice was like gravel as he answered with a deeply honed hate.  "Piss on your sham you manipulative witch, you know exactly what happened.  I escaped your bloody hole, your prison.  I hacked all three of your witches into an unrecognisable mess and I won my freedom even while my fellows died on your Tower Guard's swords and escaped the city while the city guard were told to hunt for a Darkfriend that looked like me.  Now I am here in a trial that is just a show and I'll hang because you've already decided it.  Burn you and all your kind in the Pit of Doom."

 

 

Marden Veniso

Ti jenn aman sha misain ye

[Arette]

Veniso's reaction was no real surprise and with an attitude like that, he would ruin any chances of redemption. Arette's lips curved in a fraction of smile that held no mirth. The whole thing was travesty that shouldn't be happening. The Black Tower should have seen this coming, and if they intended to harbour a murderer, they shouldn't have brought him to Illian. Unless it had been planned from the start but she couldn't see how it served the Asha'man. Or perhaps there were those of darker loyalties among them who wished to cause trouble between the Towers.

 

The school in Far Madding found by Kathana almost twenty five years ago has been meant for people like Marden. Most channeling men the Red Ajah had caught had been glad to be rid of Saidin. Once it was determined that they were safe for themselves and others, they were sent back to their families if it was safe for them or to start a new life elsewhere. But some men had been already touched by the madness and they blamed the Aes Sedai for stealing their birthright. David Harbin had been such a fellow. He had managed to fool the Sisters to release him and right afterwards he had stalked two Aes Sedai and assaulted them.

 

Harbin had still been at the school by the time Travis Muldoon had been sent there only shortly before Veniso. Muldoon was another man who had tried to revenge the Sisters by attempting murder, and with the attitude Marden had showed and the threats he had given, they had decided to not take any chances with him. It was unlikely that he could have been rehabilitated, but there had been successful cases during the years between Harbin and Muldoon, so there was some hope. If nothing else, Veniso was kept from being a menace but in the end he had found a way.

 

"This is not the trial but a hearing, and I am not the final arbitrator of your fate", Arette informed him glacially. "You can affect what happens to you by your co-operation or refusal. No one knows exactly what happened except you, so why don't you enlighten us in detail on how those Sisters died and what events lead to it. Why did you feel that you had to kill them?"

 

Arette Stavros

Exiled Brown Sister

[Wayfarer]

"They deserved to die, just like you and every other witch."

 

There was no hesitation in Marden's voice as he answered.  There was no questioning that they had deserved to die, if he'd been a different type of man he would have made them suffer day after day as he had and worse, he would have pulled them down to the lowest pit of misery and incarcerated them there for all eternity, right where he was.  As it was, it had simply been enough for him to kill them, obliterate their existance so there was little left but flesh, bone and hair.  It had been enough to take their rings so he could keep count, and remember why you didn't trust a woman with an ageless face.

 

Looking at all those gathered, he could see the looks on their faces.  Disgust, pity, indifference, the only face he could count as friendly was Arath's and even then Marden had his doubts.  None of them could understand, none of them knew what it was to be what he was.  Even Arath, when he had manifested the Black Tower had existed, there had been someone for him to go to.  People to welcome him.  He still had his powers, he hadn't been stripped of his life and he never would light willing.  Enough men had suffered.

 

But if they wanted to hang him, then he'd give them truth.  He'd give them his story and let those who judged him choke on it.  "But since you want to know the why, you can have the truth.  Not that pathetic self righteousness that you and your sisters cloth yourselves in, but the real truth.  May you and your kind be scourged for it."

 

"I was once a sword in the service of Kandor.  I was raised from birth to fight the Shadow and to protect those who could not defend themselves and to spend my last breath in the fight.  I had my brothers in arms around me, closer than any family after how many battles we fought and how many brothers we lost.  We lived to serve, served to die, it was simple."

 

"I manifested when I was twenty.  I'd been thrown from my horse and I was about to be torn apart.  I felt a surge of heat and lightning ripped that trolloc apart like it was nothing.  The lightning scared off the other trollocs who fled, and while my ears were still ringing I knew that it was me who'd done it.  I was a channeler."

 

"So did my brothers, do you know what they did?"  There was something else that entered Marden's tone of controlled rage, pain.  "They turned on me.  Every single last one of them, I barely escaped with my life.  From that moment, I was hunted, not just by them but my entire people.  The people I spent my entire life defending, and I was hunted by your Red witches and why?  Because from the moment I channeled, I was condemned to go mad, I was tainted and I would turn on everyone like some rabid hound."

 

"But I was not mad."  Taking hold of his chains, his knuckles began to go white as he continued.  "I wandered the Blight border, hoping that I might find death but it wouldn't take me.  I'd look at my sword every night but I couldn't finish myself, and I survived every encounter with Shadowspawn I had.  Once in a long while, I would brave a settlement in disguise to get food and whatever else I could, and I heard of a False Dragon who was heading to Saldaea with a host, Dramon Calgar.  I thought to myself that perhaps this way I could die, kill the False Dragon and spare many if I could get close enough.  My death might have some meaning then, and I was dead anyway."

 

"I made my way to Dramon Calgar's host, on the very first night I made my way into his tent and he was waiting for me.  When I drew my blade, he didn't do a single thing except speak, and do you know what he said?"

 

"He said he knew why I was there, and that it didn't have to end this way."  His eyes moistening as he struggled with the memory, Marden was choked by it as he spoke.  "He said that we were not animals.  We were not mad.  We were not mistakes, or rabid, or freaks.  We were born for a reason, that I bore my curse for a reason, that there was a purpose to everything.  That we might fall to the taint was not a question, but what we did before that was important.  That we could use our powers to do some good in this world and that we needed to fight the taint as long as we could so we could do that good."

 

"That we should not just give up and die.  That there were others like me and him, that together we could achieve destiny.  That he may not have been born on the Dragonmount of prophecy, but that the end of an Age was coming and that the world needed a Dragon, and he could be him.  That we would unite the lands and find others like us to form a Black Tower, a haven for those who were hunted and despised, reviled and rejected.  That outcasts needn't be outcast anymore, and that we could achieve that dream.  That his words were true and that if I could not see it, that I was free to strike him down and end it."

 

"I dropped my sword and gave him my life in that tent.  Only a great man could have given hope to men such as us, and he did that every day.  We learned from him how to control our channeling, we drew strength from him to resist the taint, we practiced constantly from that day onward.  We were his Asha'man, his Guardians, the soldiers that would never falter in the face of the Shadow and we would see the Dragon Reborn's plan succeed."

 

"We would start with Saldaea and travel the length of the Borderlands, forge it into one united people and with us at their head, we would push the Blight back.  We would be there at Tarwin's Gap to roll the Trollocs back.  We would escort our Dragon to Tear itself to claim Callandor and fulfill the prophecies.  When Tarmon Gaidon came, we would fight and our lives would have had a purpose, a reason.  If we started to go mad beforehand, our brothers would put poison in our wine and we would not wake, we would die without suffering and our brothers would continue the fight."

 

"But that ended in Saldaea."  Bitterness.  "The Saldaean force alone we could have taken, but we did not anticipate the Kandori on our flank.  While we were spread out between the different companies to hold them together, Dramon Calgar was captured and the army disintegrated.  Half of our brothers were cut down and the rest of us barely managed to escape, but we did not forget our Dragon.  We would not abandon him as others had when fortune turned, we would not betray the one man who ever saw us as men, as people."

 

"We followed the Aes Sedai and their Tower Guard and when the time was right, we snatched him away during the night.  There were no more than ten of us, and we stole him from your entire company.  But your sisters gave pursuit with their Guard, we couldn't make the distance necessary to lose you unless something was done."

 

"I stayed behind."  And despite everything that had happened, Marden knew he had done the right thing.  "While the others took our Dragon away, I stayed behind and when the pursuit reached me, I threw light in their eyes and blinded them even as I blinded myself.  I hurled fire to take those with me that I could and by the time I was subdued, your sisters never had a snowflake's chance in the Pit of Doom of finding Dramon Calgar."

 

There was pride in that achievement, something for him to hold onto because it had been all he'd had from there on.  "I was taken in Dramon's place to the White Tower, where you proceeded to judge me even though I was already judged.  I was accused of murder, nevermind that we were at war!"  The hypocrisy of it never failed to stir Marden's wrath.  "Or that I was guilty of being a male channeler, that simply being who I was was a crime!"

 

Shaking from rage, it was only pure will that allowed him to keep talking instead of getting to his feet and trying to take the few steps between he and the Aes Sedai to break her neck.  "Then you 'gentled' me, you and your sisters.  Oh, you've been told what its meant to be like, but you have no idea.  Saidin, tainted as it was, it was a part of me.  As much a part as my eyes, my limbs, my heart, my mind and my soul, you and your sisters tore it out of me.  Where it is, there is nothing, and I know it should be there, and there isn't a day that I don't reach for it, or remember exactly what was done to me, that pure agony."

 

"Then I was told to recant my faith in the Dragon and expected to thank you for taking my ability and my will to live?  Like you had done me some favour?  Piss on your mercy, and piss on you expecting me to break faith with the one man who ever treated us with anything other than loathing.  Then of course, when I refused and I tried to escape repeatedly I was sent to the 'School' so I could 'learn' to 'overcome' my 'rage'."

 

"But everyone else here doesn't know about the school, do they?"

 

Turning to everyone else, he wasn't about to give the woman a chance to cover her crime.  "The School is a prison in Far Madding, a place for male channelers who don't fall over themselves in thanks for having their power taken from them, from essentially being castrated.  Those of us who actually don't like what they did to us, and are considered a 'threat', we are sent there to learn to love the Aes Sedai for carving us up and leaving us with nothing to live for."

 

"Within the first week I was put in an underground cell.  There is one source of light, torches that are outside your cell when they bother to light them.  You have a single bed of straw and you are brought your meals and sometimes one of the three Aes Sedai there would visit you.  There was one other inmate when I arrived, David Harbin."

 

"After they ripped his life from him, he tried to take revenge on a pair and they made the School because of him.  He was about my age when he manifested and was caught, and he was held for twenty five years in the same cell, underground, it had been so long since he'd seen sunlight that he couldn't even remember what it looked like.  He'd spent the better part of his life in a single cell with only torch light to bring light.  Only reason he held on so long was because he just wanted to see the sun one last time."

 

"Or what about Travis Muldoon?"  Glancing back to the Aes Sedai, Marden's hatred was palpable.  "He came later, it was because of him that we discovered that its actually impossible to strangle yourself.  He tried enough times, he'd fall down dead then later on he'd be up again.  They put him in the underground cells as well because he wouldn't forget what was done to him, or lie to himself and say it was right.  I was there for a year while they tried to make me forget what had happened, and I also refused."

 

"Then there were our three captors."  Angrily turning away from the woman to the rest who watched and listened, Marden began with the first he had killed.  "Nela, that bitch of a Yellow Sister.  She used to come to us, such a bleeding heart.  You poor creature, tell me how it felt to be gentled, you know you were gentled because you would have turned on all those around you, why can't you see that it was for your own good?  Why do you still want to serve a False Dragon?  Why do you not want to live your life?"

 

"No guilt, no regret, there had been nothing wrong with taking part of my life from me.  We were wounded animals to her, we just didn't understand, it was all for our own good.  We were something to be pitied, like shadows of real people, the broken pieces that she wanted to fix so she could feel that she had done some good in the world.  Convince us to believe a lie, have us thank her and hers for what they did to us.  Never."

 

"She was the first to die.  While she was in my cell with a pair of guards, asking me once again to relive the moment of being torn apart.  I'd feigned weakness for months, they were lax, I had her hairpin in hand and menaced her with it to make the pair drop their swords, turn to the wall and kneel down.  I threw her aside and killed the pair before they could get up and then I cut her to pieces.  I think she died on the third stroke but I was beyond caring, there wasn't much left of her when I came to."

 

"I took her ring, much like I later took the others."  Reaching for the silver necklace he wore, he lifted it clear of his tunic to reveal three serpent rings.  "I took the keys and I freed my two brothers in misery.  Travis was pale as I was, but it was David who surprised us.  He was forty five, but he looked like a bent man of seventy.  Shriveled, what was left on his arms and legs was flabby and there wasn't much."

 

"But then, a year in that prison left me looking like this."  Gesturing to his face with a free hand, Marden continured.  "I was in the prime of my life when I went in there.  I came out looking like I was nearly forty, I'm now twenty five and look at me!"

 

He would never forget the first time he saw his face.  Hiding in a house he'd let himself into as the Tower Guard still ran about the streets of Far Madding looking for him.  He'd found a mirror and razor and shaved his head and face save for what was about his mouth and chin.  He had recognised himself, but barely.  That was what he might have once thought he'd look like if he'd lived old enough to have children as old as he was then.  They stole everything from him, his power, his face, his future.

 

"Delaine the red, we were not even animals in her eyes.  We might as well have been shadowspawn, her interrogations were constant and they were always to trip us up, to justify her reason to hold us underground.  To find any way she could of ensuring that we could still be deemed a threat, Harbin most of all.  She was there from the beginning, she never forgot what he did and she knew that all he wanted to do was see the sun one more time and die.  She made sure that never happened."

 

"Sera was the worst."  As much as Delaine had hated them, it was Sera who he had hated the most.  "We were not even people, not even animals, not even shadowspawn.  We were objects, things to be studied, things to be tested and observed.  We were to be pushed in this way, tested in that way, no say nor right nor chance to have otherwise.  She acquiesced with Delaine to keep Harbin there simply so she could continue her study.  It wasn't as if he had any future anyway, he could be put to some use this way."

 

"I caught the pair talking in a study, I took Sera hostage from behind and forced Delaine to approach.  I cut her throat open before running Sera through, sticking my blade near her spine and ripping upward until she stopped twitching.  Then I hacked them both to pieces, I obliterated them, I made sure that there was nothing left and I took their rings.  When I got to the kitchen, the kitchen maid almost screamed but I clubbed her quiet and David led us outside."

 

"There was a garden."  Marden remembered it vividly, the feel of the wind on his face, he'd stretched out his arms as if to embrace it.  "David tottered over to the nearest tree and fell next to it, crying while he ran his palsied hands over it.  I washed the gore off with a nearby water barrel while Travis was inside eating, when I went back in we were talking about what to do when David came through the door to warn us."

 

"He didn't even have a chance to finish my name before one of those bastard guards ran him through from behind.  He was an old man, so weak he could barely keep on his feet and they killed him.  Travis had the sense to take the maid hostage and forced the Tower Guards to throw down their swords.  David died in my arms, you know what he told me?  I saw the sun Marden.  Did you see?  I told him I did and then he died.  Then we killed those bastards and took their clothes."

 

"We were discovered again and had to make a run for it.  We got to the streets and split up, I hid but Travis wasn't so lucky, they killed him in the street.  When I made it through the gates in disguise, I heard the guards talking about how darkfriends had killed Aes Sedai and that they were hunting them down.  Darkfriends, we were prisoners and we won our freedom one way or another."

 

"I later found Dalinarius Traachanshield in Tear after two years and he told me that Dramon was not the Dragon and he took me to the Tower and showed me Dramon Calgar.  A forsaken posing as a Dragon left him nothing but a husk, he is comatose, the finest man I ever knew.  The man the White Tower declared war on, felled by a darkfriend and he hangs on only because weaves are used to sustain him.  I refuse to forget him, even if others have, and I remember his dream of a place where men could channel without fear of some mob or women with serpent rings.  I remember that and I hang onto life everyday with it."

 

"It is why I hung on long enough to come here to fight.  To risk my life for a Queen who I owe nothing, and now sits there judging me.  A Queen whose men arrested me on the word of this bitch" Marden turned to the Aes Sedai "who is one of many who oversaw the power being ripped from me, who put me in the 'School' where Aes Sedai tried to make me recant my oaths and forget who I was, and now is going to have me hanged because her and her kind have fooled people for centuries that men who channel can do nothing but turn rabid.  That we are dangerous dogs that must be 'gentled' and that is our only course.  That we can do nothing with what we have and that it is better to steal our will to live than to give us a chance to be something else, the chance that Dramon Calgar gave us."

 

"Do with me as you will."  Replacing the necklace beneath his shirt, Marden finished as he leaned back in his seat.  "But do not pretend that this is justice, or that you are somehow capable of judging me, or understanding me, or understanding what happened.  I will not apologise for who I am, what I have done or the hatred I have for those who took everything from me.  Bring your noose and your executioner and be done with it."

 

 

Marden Veniso

Ti jenn aman sha misain ye

[Arette]

A great beginning again, Arette remarked with disgust. Once she had been able to feel at least some pity for Marden but he was truly dangerous, a prime example of a rabid male channeler. Let the man spout his ‘truths’ and condemn himself even further. She knew his life story so it was easy to listen expressionlessly. The events had gone quite typically, with old friends being horrified by what he had become.

 

Even though she had hardened her heart, she couldn’t help but feel sorry for the male channelers in general. It was the joy of Saidar and pleasure of learning that you could channel viciously and cruelly twisted. The men didn’t want it and it just wasn’t fair. But fair or not, before the Black Tower someone had been needed to stop the men from going insane, and that someone was the White Tower. The Asha’man could hate them for all they wanted but the White Tower had done what was necessary and right.

 

Then Marden got to the phase where he had met Dramon Calgar, his idol and the finder of the Black Tower. He was clearly touched even now when he spoke of the man. Likely the man was important to him as Karana had been to Arette. If she could have somehow sacrificed herself so that her mentor hadn’t been Stilled, she would have done it.

 

It was quite incredible how they had managed to sneak into the camp when Calgar had been caught by the Aes Sedai and release him. But the Wheel had had need for the Black Tower and he would become its finder. And Marden’s role had been to become captive in Calgar’s stead and the Aes Sedai would play the judges. It wasn’t a pleasant task and only the most vicious Red Sisters received any satisfaction from it. Arette had no intention to defend the White Tower because anything that she could say would be wasted on those who were already set against the Gentling. And those who saw it’s necessity didn’t need convincing. Veniso was the one accused here, not the White Tower.

 

She had decided to not let him get at her with his vile words but her fists clenched when he kept painting them the villains and hypocrites. It was so tiring to receive only ingratitude for hard work and have to make such decision almost daily and that was why she was glad to be in Tar Valon anymore.

 

Her lips twisted with disdain when Veniso tried to paint the school a torture center and himself an innocent suffering prisoner. It took every ounce of patience to not interrupt him and she listened his filthy lies with gritted teeth.

 

“Congratulations Veniso. You spin the truth just as skilfully as an Aes Sedai, only as you have never taken the Oaths, you can outright lie. And that you certainly do. Although in your case it could be just delusions.”

 

“The school was a rehabilitation center. You were sent to Far Madding because we had good reason to suspect that the moment we released you, you would try to attack an Aes Sedai. Can you deny this?”

 

“As for your treatment in the school, that is the real exaggeration or lie. I received reports from the Sisters monthly and they never mentioned a word of imprisonment. I read the personal journals of all three Sisters after their deaths and there was not a single word of a prison there either. Omission from official reports might have been possible, but there was no need to censure private notes. And Sera Saunders’s notes were most detailed.”

 

Aes Sedai could not lie in written or spoken word. Not unless they were Black Sisters. Light, could it be possible that the three had been Blacks? It was true that the bodies of Harbin and Muldoon had been in as bad condition as Veniso described. And he didn’t look like he was twenty five but years older. Arette had never heard of such pre-mature aging on any Gentled male channeler. She glanced at Con with slight uncertainty but he was regarding Veniso and she couldn’t read his expression.

 

"Those three women tried to help you, just like they had helped others. They had successes with cases like yours. Hu Sanche and Devril Robillard were also in Far Madding and they were sent to new lives. They still live and prosper, so why would the Sisters have treated you any differently?"

 

"They didn't and you thanked them by killing them. No, you hacked them mercilessly into pieces and took their rings as trophies like a real psychopath. It was a cruel and deliberate murder. I am sure that Dramon Calgar would be very proud of you now."

 

She stood up fast enough that her chair toppled but she didn’t care. Marching at Veniso, she grabbed the necklace he had slipped back under his shirt, intent to reclaim the rings. It turned out to be a very bad idea as the man moved like a viper. He stood and uppercutted Arette right under the jaw which sent her staggering back dazed and concussed. She collapsed on the floor quite out of the situation.

 

Arette Stavros

Exiled Brown Sister

[Guest Arie Ronshor]

"Stop him!"

 

Queen Sofia's words reverberated over the scene of mass Chaos. Just as Arette Sedai moved to take away the necklace -- or so Sophia guessed -- Master Con was already leaping over tables to reach his wife. He was too late for the uppercut to the woman's jaw, yet despite her inner wince for the pain that must have caused the woman, it was her court and she would have Order. Her guardsmen moved faster than Master Con could move around the table, lacking in obstacles was perhaps their only saving grace, and were able to detain him before he could reach the man. Although she felt concern for her Advisor, Sofia knew better than to allow that sentiment show.

 

Arette Sedai had taught her well.

 

"Restrain Him. . . . Your aid in battle will no be overlooked, and my gratitude for your aid is all but keeping you alive. Appreciated, it was unasked. You do be remembering that." Her voice lacked emotion beyond the conviction and the clip in her voice. It took her weeks in front of the mirror to mimic Arette of it. It seemed to be paying off, but she could not allow herself the time to congratulate herself. "You do be relinquishing your necklace of trophies. If you had wished to keep it secret you no be showing it to an Aes Sedai. Should you be found," She struggled for a word, "complimentary then it will be returned. On my soul." It was a quick solution to regain the fallen Aes Sedai's rings. "Until then it will be placed in my care alone."

 

Inclining her head a little as she looked at him, Sofia's face slipped briefly in a moment of thoughtfulness. "Will you relinquish it willingly, or do I be needing to command it?

 

There was an entirely unpleasant fire blazing in Marden's eyes as he was restrained. The woman had dared to try and touch him, to try and take that necklace away. He only wished his hands hadn't been shackled, he could have snapped her neck instead. Now the Queen wanted his necklace, there was no hesitation in his words. "Go to the Pit of Doom. Who are you to judge me? Take my freedom and then try and take my rings as well? Bloody thief, and coward hiding behind your men. Come and try and take them yourself if you want them, betrayer." Rather than shoving forward, he smashed the heel of his foot into the bridge of the man's foot on his right. Unexpected, it freed his right side long enough to use that hand to grab the one on his left restraining him and rip the fingers back, breaking one of them in the process and shoving him clear before someone clubbed him on the back of the head, dropping him to his knees where more hands grabbed him as he struggled with a tenacity that was unnatural.

 

Fortune prick her, Sofia knew a loosing battle when she saw one. Another time she will retrieve it when reason was more favourable. Now, it was not. Obviously.

 

"Remove Master Veniso from this court until I be giving an order for his return." Her voice firm and hard, controlled barely as that layer of anger was evident in her smoldering eyes. "Anyia, take Arette Sedai outside for some air and have ice be fetched for her. I do think Master Maise and Master Gorin will accompany you both until Arette Sedai be ready to entertain this court once again. Now."

 

The order was swiftly carried out, and Sofia turned her attention to the man in shackles awaiting his fate. Arette had been right that it had been meant as just a testimonial and that no verdict would be declared without a Council of Confidence among the two Towers, the Band and herself. Sofia had been willing to chance this in hopes to gain more information on a subject that she was sorely lacking knowledge in, but as the scene played out, it had been a very poor choice indeed. What made matters worse Sophia was without a doubt that allowing Arette to act as the first speaker was the singular worst decision that was agreed upon.

 

Silence for a moment as eyes moved between her and the door where Master Veniso had been lead out. Silence allowed the weight of the situation to settle and calm to be restored. Quick cold glances settled the whispers of the men and women around the room. Silence was golden.

 

Behind cold eyes that weighted Master Veniso with unseen thoughts Sofia was unsure what to believe. On one hand Sofia felt she owed Arette a Life-debt for her help and inhibited trust and devotion to help her regain her fathers Crown. Her Crown. On the other hand, the mans words spoke with a ring of truth to it. No doubt a difference of opinion and insight along with clouded judgement, hate and years of festering had shadowed the most simple truth of the matter. Shadowed and hazy, Sofia did not know who to believe. An Aes Sedai bound by the Oaths or a madman renown for his crimes. The weight of the matter should have been easy. The problem was, Sofia found it a little too easy.

 

Refraining from rubbing her temples in frustration, her voice sounded calmer than she felt. "The floor is open for discussion."

 

 

 

Queen Sofia Stepanneos

Watcher of the Sea of Storms

The Laurel Crown of Illian