Breaking a Dam [ATTN: Rosheen]

[Guest Estel]

Ever since her fight with Orion, Estel had been waking up earlier. Once, it had been almost impossible to drag her from bed before noon but as of a month ago, she had been getting up early. In her dreams, the scene of Orion’s retreating back and the look in his sightless eyes woke her, tears running down her cheeks.

 

Slowly now, as the bitter pain of their separation faded with time, she began feeling emotions to intrude on the emptiness she had felt before. Those snippets of feelings were like returning friends, though with them came pain but anything was better than the void of before.

 

The crack of her whip and the scuffling of her feet were the only sounds to break the morning stillness of predawn. Had she been anything other than an Aes Sedia- though she bitterly doubted she even deserved the title anymore with her current behaviour- she would have sweated despite the morning chill. It was cool enough to mist her breath in front of her face as she panted.

 

She came here to make use of the time that would otherwise be devoted to brooding in her room. On the surface she performed her duties as a new Sister but underneath there was nothing left; none of the fervour that had pushed her to the Shawl in the first place, none of the fire that had made her such a vibrant person before. All that was left was emptiness and hate. Hate for herself and her actions, hate for Orion, hate for Matthias. She loathed the ring on her finger and the Shawl on her slim shoulders. She loathed the world.

 

This shell of a person danced with the morning mists, taking out anger on an intangible enemy. She was a rabid animal; rabid in her hate ready to attack at the slightest provocation. It wouldn’t be long for the dam she had built to hold back her pain to break and then nothing would be able to stop the inexorable flood.

[silhouette]

The chill of the morning went unnoticed by the woman running her laps around the yard. Even after all the years she had been there, she still started her day off with them. More and more, until she could run all morning without falling down exhausted. Running brought a peace of mind, a clarity that was usually reserved for the Spring. Rosheen prided herself in the fact that she could be as calm and efficient without it as well now. Of course it still had it’s uses. The heightened senses, the feeling that one could go on forever. No, she would not go without the Spring in battle, but she no longer sought it as often as she had when she was younger.

 

After an hour or so she ended her run, noticing that there were more and more people gathering in the yards, training hard to attain the level she had reached only a short while ago. Blademaster. The title still made her smile. Who would have thought it. One of these days she would have to take Lyv out for a drink. Without her, Rosheen would never have seen how ready she was for the test. With a smile still plastered on her face, Rosheen picked up a lathe, thinking she should work on her forms some more. Her training was never done, not as long as there were things that she couldn’t do as effortlessly as others. She had neglected her training with the naginata for a while so that she could work on her sword handling more. She had a heron marked blade now, and she intended to use it.

 

As she wandered to her favourite training location, she noticed it was already occupied. Her lips curved into a momentary sneer as she saw it was not a trainee or a Tower Guard, but an Aes Sedai. She would never understand why Aes Sedai felt the need to wield weapons. They had the One Power to defend themselves, and on top of that, it made her feel as though they did not think Tower Guards or warders were adequate. She wiped the sneer of her face soon enough, intending to walk past the Aes Sedai to another secluded area. As se passed the woman, she felt a gush of wind rush towards her. She raised her lathe just in time to avoid getting hit in the face by the end of the woman’s whip.

 

Slowly she turned to look at the Aes Sedai, the Spring settling around her as she took her time to observe the woman. She was tall, Domani no doubt, and she would have been attractive if not for the look on her face. Rosheen didn’t know the Aes Sedai, but she was quite sure that, at this very moment, the woman hated her beyond anything else. She didn’t seem to realise the end of her whip was still curled around Rosheen’s lathe. With some care, Rosheen peeled the whip away from the lathe, letting the end drop to the ground. “Be careful where you swing that. Someone might take it as an invitation to teach you why you shouldn’t mess with things you were barely trained in.†Rosheen turned away from the woman, wanting to start on her forms. Preferably some place away from the icy Aes Sedai.

 

~Rosheen Tahn Sakhr

Blademaster

[Guest Estel]

Fury coursed through her. With her blood it pumped and as terrible as the emotion was, it felt good to feel it again- to feel anything.

 

Oddly enough, though, that emotion was only displayed in her eyes. Her face was the blank serenity of Aes Sedai calm. Rather than a conscious decision, it had been instinct that kept her face blank; her mind decided it didn't want this insolent child to see her true fury.

 

"I suggest you watch your tongue, child." Without the emotionless mask she wore, she would have been sneering. Instead, her eyebrows were raised but nothing else upon her face hinted at the seething fury underneath. Her voice was ice cold dripping with scorn, but the fury within her was concealed from it.

 

How odd her mind was. There had been a handful of times like this when she had taken cover behind the mask of Aes Sedai serenity, but it had always been to hide pain. Usually, she let her anger show not caring who saw.

 

Perhaps it had been the scorn upon Sirayn Sedai's face after her very public fight with Orion. That look of disparagement ultimately crushed her spirit.

 

Fury and recklessness welling up inside her, she acted without thinking. The mohawked woman- already Estel felt herself condenscending towards the woman's outrageous hairstyle, despite the heron on the girl's blade- had peeled the young Blue's bullwhip from her lance. With a snap of her wrist, Estel whip crack again, aiming to leave a mark on the woman's back. That would teach her to spite Aes Sedai.

[silhouette]

The look on the woman’s face and the tone of her voice would have been enough to send Rosheen in a fit of rage. Under normal circumstances, that was. Yet while the woman glared at her, Rosheen remembered seeing her around before. Not the name, of course. As far as she was concerned all Aes Sedai are alike. Except for Lyanna, of course. Still, if Rosheen had seen her before, it meant that the woman had trained here. And learned nothing, that much was obvious. Rosheen’s mouth curved into a displeased sneer when the Aes Sedai called her child. The sneer faded into a little smile when the woman lashed out at her again, aiming to leave a mark on her. Rosheen hadn’t fought against a whip wielder all that often before now, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know how to defend herself against it.

 

With childish ease she flicked her wrist, the tip of her lathe connecting with the tip of the whip, diverting it’s direction and breaking the power behind it. “Have you forgotten where you are?†Rosheen glanced around her, as if to indicate that they were indeed still in the yards. “Here you are the child, and I am the master. I would have thought your mentor taught you that much, at least.†The Aes Sedai lashed out again, only to find her blow diverted very much the same way as before. Rosheen started to feel the urge to bend the tall Domani over her knee and teach her some respect. Attack a Blade master in the middle of the yards without provocation, would she?

 

“Tell me what you want, trainee, and I shall provide it. Is it a duel? Or a beating? I can give both with equal ease.†She wondered briefly if the woman would dare lash out with the One Power. Did her oaths keep her from doing so? Rosheen thought they did, but she couldn’t be too sure. She briefly considered unsheathing her sword and using it to ruin the woman’s whip, before she could hurt anyone with it. She deserved as much, but Rosheen felt it wouldn’t be fair to the whip. It had no choice in it’s owner, after all, and it had no part in her irrational behaviour. Rosheen sidestepped another lash, pondering on how to deal with a woman. Perhaps it was time to show her she would not be bullied into submission, just because the woman wore the Great Serpent ring. Not here, in the Yards. This was her domain, and anyone who attacked her here was fair game.

 

She dodged under the next lash with the whip, closing the distance between them in one step. With a controlled swipe of her lathe she allowed the bundled sticks to connect with the Aes Sedai’s arm. Not hard enough to break anything, of course, but hard enough to leave a bruise. Something to remember her mistake by, perhaps. “I should have you sent to the office of the Mistress of Trainees.†She stated calmly. “Perhaps she can teach you how to behave in the presence of a Blademaster. A trainee attacking a Master with no provocation what so ever.†She clicked her tongue, sounding disgusted. “You are not even worthy of being spanked with the flat of my sword. My lathe will have to do, if you choose to continue down this path.â€

 

~Rosheen

Blademaster

[Guest Estel]

Spurned on by the child's insults, Estel entered that state in which there was nothing but absolute fury. Her soul, which had been so devoid of emotion only a moment ago, was consumed in the fire of fury. In her near-insane state, she fought no longer aware that she was fought a hopeless battle. The child turned each of her attacks off lazily as if they were nothing but the petulant tuggings of a young child on her mother's skirts.

 

Unfortunatly, every word the woman said was true. Estel really was no match for her and it would not be a long fight at all, the fight was the woman's to end whenever she deemed finished.

 

Crack! Her whip split the air yearning to rip the insolent chit's skin, longing to give the woman something to yelp about. But at every turn, she was beaten. Estel was quick, her opponent quicker. Estel smooth, her opponent smoother.

 

As if they were at a grand ball, the two women danced, and while the dance was every bit as graceful- at least on the Tower Guard's part- as that of a court ball, no self-respecting noble would allow the sweat to drip from his brow as salty persperation now leaked from every pore on Estel's body.

 

Slowly, ever so slowly, thoughts and rationels returned to her turbulent mind. What was she doing? 'Fool girl, you're fighting a Blademaster! You are an Aes Sedai! Not a bloody Warder!' A memory, emblazened in her memory came to her: the look of disparagement on the Aes Sedai's face had burned her soul.

 

Still she fought on, unsure of how to end this, keeping as much dignity as she could. 'Crack!' Her whip snapped, again lazily blocked by the woman's blade. The Falcon Swoops, the Courtier Taps his Fan, Parting the Silk. The forms were smooth, she did exactly as Matalina and Talyn had taught her but at every turn she was beaten.

 

Desperatly she fought and desperatly she thought.

[silhouette]

Sparring with someone was didn’t even reach half your skill was quite boring. Rosheen discovered this when she managed to dodge every single blow the Aes Sedai sent her way, getting her own blows in after every two or three attacks the woman attempted. Rosheen could see the cold rage in her eyes, she could see that the woman was thinking, seemingly distraught. Or at least as distraught as she had ever seen an Aes Sedai. Finally some sort of realisation dawned on the woman’s face, and Rosheen was sure that she would end it now, step back and accept her defeat. The woman pushed forward instead. With a snarl Rosheen leapt forward, countering Parting the Silk with Tower of morning, and bruising her shoulder with the Boar Rushes Down the Mountain.

 

For one moment Rosheen worried that she might have broken the Aes Sedai’s collarbone. For the next she wondered if she would remain this stubborn until Rosheen had pummelled her to the ground. The Aes Sedai attacked again, lashing out with her whip in Moon Rises over the Water. “Do you like pain, trainee?†Rosheen hissed, parrying again with Stones Falling from the Cliff and countering with Striking the Spark. The other woman was breathing heavily, with sweat pouring down her face even as she tried to parry all of the swift overhand blows Rosheen aimed at her.

 

Finally she had had enough. If the Aes Sedai was not wise enough to see that she would only get hurt and humiliated in this spar, it was time for Rosheen to show her exactly that. She thrust her lathe at the Aes Sedai’s face in Hummingbird Kisses the Honeyrose, only to shift direction, and move to The Courtier Taps his Fan, only not aimed at her hand, but at her wrist. It connected with a loud crack. With a twist of her wrist she entered the Grapevine Twines, disarming the Aes Sedai. Because this was a lesson, and not a pity party, Rosheen allowed Cat on a Hot Stand to connect with the others arms and sides, striking in the places she left undefended as she sought do keep Rosheen’s lathe at bay with her hands.

 

Finally she ended it with a quick and effective swipe of her legs, which send the Aes Sedai to the ground. Casually Rosheen kicked the whip aside, out of the woman’s reach. If she tried something funny Rosheen would rather deal with her when she was unarmed. An armed fool was always more dangerous than an unarmed fool. “Tell me your name, Trainee, so that I may report you to the Mistress of Trainees.†She said, her voice cold not just because of the Spring. The Aes Sedai deserved no pity.

 

~Rosheen

 

ooc: I figured I'd end the spar with Estel on her back ;)

[Guest Estel]

'Blood and ashes, I hurt! What am I doing? Insolent little whore!'

 

Her thoughts were disjointed- incoherent. Too much was being forced on her at once. The walls she had built high around the wound that was Orion had festered and now that the walls had crumbled, long-buried trobules came to a head. She drowned as the dam broke.

 

Her shoulder throbbed and she had the sinking suspicion her wrist was broken. She was in agony- a mass of bruises at cuts. Even after her attack, the chit across from her stood unscathed. Not a gash marred her skin and she barely sweated.

 

“Tell me your name, Trainee, so that I may report you to the Mistress of Trainees.â€

 

Impossibly, Estel face grew to a deeper shade of crimson. She lay in the dirt beneath the woman. 'Have I fallen this low?- so low I am beneath even this whorechild?' Within her mind she wept bitterly for her fallen dignity, her curhsed pride.

 

Her Great Serpent ring sparkled in the sunlight. She longed to rip it off. She didn't deserve it. The Green Sister had been just in her contempt. In her mind she saw herself tear the ring from her finger and throw it at the mohawked woman.

 

In a desperate attempt to maintain what miniscule scrap of dignity she could cling to, she regained her feet- or at least tried to. A wimper escaped her lips as she put weight on the shattered wrist and she collapsed back to the dust at the feet of her opponent.

 

A wave of bitterness and self-loathing washed over her anew. But it was her very nature to be stubborn. Was that all she had left of her soul? Of her former self? Her stubborness? Gritting her teeth, she pushed herself up. She could feel grit in her teeth even as pain envoloped her.

 

As if she were pushing against invisible bonds she forced herself to her feet. Only stubborn resolved was left of what had once been a firey young woman.

 

Hazel eye met the eyes of the hated woman. Only those eyes betrayed emotion- in her broken state she had retreated once more behind the mask that hid her pain. She said nothing, refusing to acknowledge the woman's disdainful question.

 

Spitting the grime out from her mouth before the woman's feet, she spun on her heel, beginning to limp away. She did not look back to pick up her whip.

 

ooc: very much enjoying my spanking...feel free to continue it

[silhouette]

Rosheen let out an amused laugh as she saw the Aes Sedai limp away. Not that the woman got very far. No, not while Rosheen wasn’t finished with her. And she fully intended on finishing what the fool Aes Sedai had started out of spite. Several onlookers had gathered around her now, most with worried looks on their faces. A glare from her told them not to interfere though. This was her business to deal with, and deal with it she would. With a few quick strides she was behind the woman, grabbing the back collar of her shirt firmly with one hand, and giving it a firm yank. In truth Rosheen had only sought to pull her back into the area they had been ‘sparring’ before, but the force she put behind her action caused the Aes Sedai to stumble back several paces, as well as land on her backside, much like the way she had been only moments before.

 

“Your name, pitiful wretch, or I will have you dragged to your betters and spanked for your insolence.†Rosheen’s voice was calm now, her demeanour unchanged even under the look of hatred in the Aes Sedai’s eyes. Truth be told, Rosheen had dealt with worse. She had been accused of murdering a trainee once, and even those she considered her friends had chosen to believe she was guilty. The looks in their eyes could send Rosheen to her knees, begging for forgiveness. But not this Aes Sedai, with her pathetic hatred and her obvious weaknesses. It dawned on Rosheen that that was the reason why she was being so hard on the woman. No Aes Sedai should be as childish as this, lashing out in anger at those who did not deserve it.

 

“I thought they weeded out the weak during their tests.†Rosheen said, her voice a combination of amusement and almost gentle wonder. The foot that connected with the Aes Sedai’s thigh had a different tune though. It spoke of punishment, and more pain the longer her questions were resisted. Rosheen had dealt with trainees that had more of a spine than this wench. She placed the tip of her lathe under the woman’s chin, lifting it slightly. “Well? Cat got your tongue?â€

[Guest Estel]

Was she on the ground again? Her mind seemed swallowed in whatever maelstrom was going through her head. Anger turned to shame turned to loathing turned to self-pity. She barely felt the kick as she lay on the ground, beneath the feet of the woman.

 

She was a fallen Aes Sedai- literally and metaphorically. Whatever pride had survived recent events was gone. The Accepted, so naive in her confidence that she had what it took to take on the world, lay broken at the feet of a meer Tower Guard. 'Who am I, that it takes only a woman with a stick to break the little I retained. Light burn me! No...not Light...I'm unworthy of that...BURN ME TO THE PIT OF DOOM! I hate myself. But more...I hate her!'

 

Abandoning thought, abandoning whatver sense of propriety she had retained, she embraced the Power. Sweetness engulfed her, numbing her tender soul, allowing her to hold back tears that should have been shed months in the past.

 

Saidar filled her, uniting with whatever bestial instinct drove her to do what she did. Where hatred and shame had filled her eyes, it was replaced by a wicked light, unknown yet to herself. It was a cruel instinct that had one purpose- to make whatever was assaulting her suffer. She was Estel Liones no longer.

 

Tendrils of Air swirled around the woman sneering above her, pinning her hands to her sides with far more force that necessary. The sudden look of pain delighted the woman who was now picking herself up from the dust.

 

The crowd gathered around looked frightened by the sudden turn of events. Whether or not the cold, detatched manner with which Estel now acted allayed or gave flame to more fear, she couldn't tell. To her, they didn't exist. Nothing existed but her, the Power flooding her with life and the woman before her, trapped.

 

Taking her sweet time, as if the matter of this woman was nothing but a trivial thing, the Blue Sister approached, slowly unsheathing her dagger and inspecting it. As she did so, sword leaped into hands, but a cold, wildly amused look stopped any aid for the woman in its tracks.

 

"Never...Never push an Aes Sedai too far." Whether she was sneering, or smiling, couldn't be discerned. Whatever emotion played across the copper face was enough to chill a strong woman to the bone. She was a wild, reckless thing now, borne of desperation. No reason or logic passed through the emotion-driven mind.

 

The knife was no more than a wrist-flick from the Tower Guard's neck, though Estel still fingered it as though she were contemplating purchasing it from some weaponmaker.

 

Suddenly, she lunged, stopping the blade a hair from oppressor-turned-victim's neck. Crazed laughter rang through the tense air. It was mocking and bordering on simply evil. "Who's taking orders now, whorechild?"

 

ooc: SO sorry this took so long, got overloaded with other RPs and exams then took a week off...

[silhouette]

Rosheen was not a women who feared the power. She had spent ten years on the Tower Grounds now, and of those ten years, she had been a friend to the Keeper of the Chronicles for eight. She couldn’t feel the power either, but she could see it in the face of the wretch lying beneath her feet as she embraced it. There was no fear in Rosheen, for she had long learnt that the power was not to be feared. Not here, where the three oaths bound Aes Sedai from using it against anyone other than darkfriends, and those who threatened their lives and the lives of their sisters and warders. So when tendrils of air wrapped around her and pushed her arms to her side forcefully, she let out a surprised, and somewhat pained sounding grunt. The woman had used Saidar on her. No. Her mind denied the fact even as the Aes Sedai rose to her feet and stalked towards her like a predator to a prey.

 

Her mind still denied it even as the knife blade the woman held pressed against her throat drawing a trickle of blood. There was a dark look of madness in the woman’s face. Rosheen studied her coolly, in a detached manner even as she felt the blood flow down her throat onto her shirt. She was helpless, but that really wasn’t what mattered to her. It was the look, bordering on pure malice, and the fact that the woman had attacked, aiming to hurt her more than once. Dark… She couldn’t finish the accusation even if it was just a silent one. She did not believe in such things. The Dark One was bound to Shayol Ghul and… but the malice.

 

“Darkfriend!†she suddenly snarled, the look of confusion turning into one of blind hatred. Her arms and legs strained under the binds of air, struggling to get free, not to flee, but to murder the Light forsaken whore who stood before her. “Release me, you darkfriend whore so that I can kill you where you stand. How dare you defile the tower grounds with your presence?!†Lyanna… Light, had this vile woman spent time in the same room as her promised? Had she caressed her knife then, the way she did now, thinking of murder? There wasn’t one man or woman in the circle around them that hadn’t drawn their weapons, that wasn’t advancing. An Aes Sedai wouldn’t be crossed here, not until she crossed the line herself, but a darkfriend? Even just an assumed darkfriend? But they saw the malice, and they had seen her attacks. Darkfriends did not live long on the Tower grounds.

[Guest Estel]

Darkfriend? Confusion burst in through the reign of anger that held her mind on sanity's edge. Darkfriend? Her? 'How dare the insolent chit...' But the knife in her hand? What was she doing pointing it at the woman's neck? Blood and ashes! She was drawing blood!

 

She shook herself. 'What in the Light am I doing! Mother's milk in a cup! What am I?'

 

"Darkfriend?" The question bordered somewhere between outrage and a piteous whine. Her anger slowly beat down the horror at what she had done, but she refused to let herself repeat her actions. Light, she needed to walk away from this with as much dignity as she could- as much dignity as an Aes Sedai. 'Aes Sedai? Hardly! You don't deserve the Shawl you pitiful wretch!'

 

"Darkfriend?" Anger heated her voice, filling it with the passion it had for months lacked. She was ready to beat the woman until she withdrew the accusation, but even with her temper once again loose in the world, she knew that would do nothing but bolster that woman's accuastion in the eyes of her fellows. "Think what you want..." she eyed the woman, scathingly, as if questioning what she was "...woman." Her tone hinted at whore if anything else, or a hundred other insults her quick tongue could come up with.

 

Spinning on her heel, she picked up her whip, sheathed her dagger and strode away, face red. Whether with anger or shame, even she could no longer tell. The two emotions warred in her head. Not until she was just on the edge of vision, did she release the bonds of Air around Rosheen.

 

"Blood and ashes, it's time to get away from here." The Tower- her home- had now become nothing more akin to her private Pit of Doom.

[silhouette]

The change in the woman’s face was as clear as night turning into day. The woman was shocked, not because someone had discovered her true nature, but because someone had dared call her that. It was as though she hadn’t even realised what she was doing until now. Confusion, fear and anger took turn on the Aes Sedai’s face, while all Rosheen could do was snarl. The woman might not be a darkfriend, but Rosheen would be damned if she would let this creature get away with what she was doing. The only problem was that she couldn’t move.

 

Several of the Tower Guards present were walking towards them one, one of them carrying a stave, which he clearly intended to use on the Aes Sedai. Not everyone had seen the face of the Aes Sedai change the way Rosheen did. For all they knew, her actions clearly named her a Darkfriend. Rosheen was just about to call to them, to tell them not to kill her when the Aes Sedai spoke, turning on her heel when she was done. Fleeing, as surely as if she were a dog with her tail between her legs. Perhaps fleeing from what she had done there. Rosheen followed her with her eyes until she was out of sight. Moments after that, the bonds that had held her loosened, and Rosheen fell to the ground on her knees.

 

The advancing Tower Guards stopped in a circle around her, looking protective. “Do you want us to chase her?†one asked. Rosheen shook her head. “No… no, she’s gone now, and I doubt she’ll be back here any time soon.†She let out a nervous laugh. “Light, but that was scary. I thought she was going to kill me.†She looked around her, and saw a wide-eyed trainee close by. “You. Go and find Borac. Tell him to meet me here.†As the trainee turned around, she felt at the little wound in her neck. It was still bleeding. “Wait!†she called out to the trainee. “Tell him to meet me at the infirmary. I’ll be damned if I let that crazy woman scar me.â€

 

Fayth was more than understanding as she healed the little wound in Rosheen’s neck. Her eyes widened as she heard Rosheen talk to Borac about what had happened with Estel. “And you don’t think she’s a darkfriend?†he asked, looking serious. “No, she was definitely too shocked for that. It’s still a problem though.†Borac nodded, looking a little pained. “Very well then. I’ll inform her that she’s not to come into the yards without an escort again. As much for her own protection as for ours.†It didn’t really matter if she was a darkfriend or not at this point. Rosheen understood the workings of the rumour mill as no other, and some people would rather kill someone who might be a darkfriend, instead of waiting for the darkfriend to prove that he or she was indeed evil at heart.

 

Ooc: Well, consider the decree issued. No more yard-time without an escort for you ;)