One Last Stand: The Trial (Open)

[Guest Celes]

OOC: Muirenn and Sirayn have chosen the position of opposition and defense, but the RP is open for anyone who would like to see this trial.

 

IC:

 

Phaedra straightened her back in front of the small mirror on her drawer. She had Farrah’s help with dressing up for this occasion as it had been so long since she had sat at court. For Phaedra, it was not the dress but the voice of those in the court room that mattered, but since not everyone agreed it was best to let her personal maid help her out. The deep gray dress, the Shawl of her Ajah over her shoulders and her hair pulled back with an ivory comb, Phaedra was unsure what it all meant on this cold morning. Cold in the sense of loss and pain, of disbelief and most of all anger that this could have happened to the Tower, to Lyanna and Lanfir. The Amyrlin had not yet woken up from a deep sleep that seemed to keep her from feeling the immense pain that must burn on her very soul. Lyanna however, was sleeping an even deeper sleep and it hurt Phaedra deeply that it had come to be this way. The two women were truly Greens, fighting for the Tower and the Light, side by side until the battle was done. But who could have thought this battle was fought out right there in the White Tower itself, with the Amyrlin and her Keeper fighting alongside the Sisters of the Tower.

 

She left her room, her hands calmly past her body and her deep green eyes gazing around sharply. She did not find other Sisters in the corridor and made her way down to the main entrance hall, from there she found a few moments to look at that devastation around her. Just the day before, a channeling man had taken the life of many a Sister in the Tower, one of them being their Keeper, Lyanna al’Ellisande who had fought bravely and was no more. Phaedra touched the wall where they had stood in front of, where Sisters had fallen and then took a deep breath. Now was the time to release those emotions of pain, those feelings of revenge and pure anger, now was the time to listen and weigh the scales of justice. The world would be watching on this day, what the White Tower would do to one who hurt the Tower into its very core. Phaedra Eskarne was asked by the Hall to head this trial and she had accepted without a moment’s hesitation. This was nothing like she had ever seen before, for never had she felt so close to a case as this one was. But it was still a case and she would see to it that trial was fair and complete so that none could ever say that the Tower chose justice on its own hand, when the Tower was on the line.

 

“All rise please, the court is in session, Phaedra Eskarne will now open these proceedings,†the voice of the Sister who took the role of clerk was clear and void of emotion. Phaedra expected no less from anyone in the room, though she would have to wait and see if all could keep their emotions in check. Especially once the defendant was brought in, guarded by both Sisters and Tower Guards alike. This was a time to hear the details of his actions, to hear the story behind his actions and to hear the facts as they occurred. “I call this hearing in session, please bring in the defendant,†Phaedra’s voice rung deep and she took a deep breath as the man who had stormed into the Tower and brought devastation in his path entered in through a side door. She could feel the tension rise up in the Hall, everyone was watching. The man took his seat and she asked him calmly to state his name so that everyone would know who he was.

 

After this was done, she called forth the two Sisters who would be speaking in this trial. Muirenn Sedai, Sitter for the Red had chosen to oppose this man and see that justice be done. Sirayn Sedai would be on the defense, a choice few would understand but one that only time could tell would be a good or a bad one. Phaedra was glad that someone was brave enough to take on this role as any man, however guilty one might find him, deserved a fair trial. The two Sitters both took their respective seats and Phaedra called for the trial to commence and everyone to keep quiet for its duration. “Please, let us hear from the opposing council, Muirenn Sedai of the Red Ajah, come forth,†she said and took a pencil and parchment to take notes for herself as she would hear them out.

 

Phaedra Eskarne

First Voice

Sitter for the Gray Ajah

 

OOC: Lannie, Lya, I hope this was about what you had in mind. :)

[Jaydena]

Jaydena regarded her scared face in the mirror, twisted and red, veins of black running through it. Nothing the Yellows had been able to do had one anything, of course they did somehow manage to heal her eye and that something to hold onto at least. She applied rice powder and rogue over her burns and a thick makeup mask that had been created for her. The burns could not be hidden, they were her badges of the fights she had gone through. She normally wore a mask across her face while in the Tower to cover the burns but she wouldn't wear it tonight. The trail for that monster Caladesh was to take place and she would be there front and center with the rest of the Green Sitters. They couldn't have dragged her away from it, she was meant to be there to watch the scum go to trail. He had taken something precious and lovely from all of them and it wasn't known if they would lose their other bright star as well. She picked up the container of charcoal and stained her eyelids and then added color to her lips. When she was done she stood up and regarded her dress. Jade wore a deep green dress of velvet with roses climbing up it. Since she had become part of the Order of the Rose she had taken to wearing almost nothing but roses. She added a matching jewelry set and slide her feet into matching green slippers. Her emerald green shawl went around her shoulders and she pinned it in place with a Aes Sedai broach. Her aburn tresses her pined atop her head and she patted them as she walked out the door. Her steps echoed down the hallways of the Green quarters as she made her way to the trail.

 

 

 

She took her seat as she entered the room and looked around, her chest hurt from the blows she had received during the attack and she had chosen not to have them healed. The scars on her arms would remain and would remind her what they had lost. So many bright young lives, old lives who had fought for the Tower. Aes Sedai of every ajah head died, they had lost Accepted, and novices. Tower guards and gaidin who were just trying to protec that which they held dearest. Fury lashed through her, for this was all the work of one man. The Gray who was leading the trail entered the room and her thoughts were cut off for a moment. “All rise please, the court is in session, Phaedra Eskarne will now open these proceedings.†The Gray motioned to Phaedra and the woman started to speak, “I call this hearing in session, please bring in the defendant.†The man was brought into the room surrounded by Reds and Tower Guards. She pushed down the fury though it took all her strength not to lash out, not to fight and cry at the injustice of it. Many years ago she had sat outside of the cell of this man and helped her mintees to do research on him. What they had really wanted to do was flirt with a forbidden man. She admitted that she had felt the lure and flirted as well. Shaking her head she wished she could turn back time and kill him where he sat in his cell, guarded and weak. Then they wouldn't have lost so much, so many people.

 

Her eyes clouded over as she thought back to the days when Lyanna and Lanfir were still greens. She remembered fighting for Lanfir, standing for her and asking that she be Amyrlin. So proud she had been when Lanfir had went against the rules and chosen Lyanna as her Keeper. The two of them had been an unbeatable team until a madman with a grudge had come after the Tower. The two not caring about their own fate had fought bravely and saved so very many lives, till the end Lyanna had cared more about others than herself, which was normal for her. What an amazing woman for them to lose. She remembered sitting between the two women and thinking how close they were, how in the light would Lanfir live without Lyanna now that she was done. Closing her eyes for a moment she swallowed the lump in her throat and turned her attention to the trail. “Please, let us hear from the opposing council, Muirenn Sedai of the Red Ajah, come forth.â€

 

Jaydena Sedai

[Robin]

OOC:I got a 'little' carried away...

 

 

Aleanda walked towards the Trial. She was going to attend it to get try to get to know more about the reason Caladesh had done all this. She had been in the Great Hall when it all happened, and she had seen what was done by the man. She had heard what he had said, and was, as always, curious about the reasons. The true reasons, the reasons this all had been done. An attack on the White Tower by one single person was doomed anyway. Except perhaps for a few people called the Forsaken. Or at least among the light fools. Aleanda wasn't sure herself how she preferred to call them. They had forsaken, but they also were chosen. The chosen few to live an eternal life and have an amazing strength.

 

Aleanda took place on her chair, and waited for what was coming. The room was quite filled already, though there were also some Aes Sedai not there. Some remarkable Aes Sedai, Aes Sedai who would have had attended this trial. There were reasons for those to be absent. There were many sisters injured by what Caladesh´s attack. There were also losses, losses for the White Tower. Terrible losses in Aleanda´s eyes. The Keeper and the Amyrlin Seat were killed in a battle with the man who stood for the Trial. Among all Aes Sedai those two were killed. Terrible losses. When such things happen, they always raise questions. Questions many hadn’t thought about before. Or never dared to come up with. Like, if the Amyrlin and Keeper should or shouldn't enter a battle. In Aleanda´s eyes this was a very good question. The Amyrlin and the Keeper were in her eyes the most important people in the Tower, but these two were raised from the battle Ajah, it was in their blood to help defending the Tower. But did they need to do that, as leaders of the Tower. Loosing them gave a lot of trouble. But it were they who, as good as, brought Caladesh down. Aleanda had though about this. She hadn´t an opinion on this yet. She needed to think about it longer and deeper, all she could come up with was that she most likely wouldn´t prefer another green on the Seat. The Amyrlin Seat.

 

Aleanda wished she could do some more for the White Tower than only speak to it through her Ajah Head. In Aleanda´s eyes she was an Aes Sedai with a little more ideas that were in conflict with the traditional ideas of the Ajah than her fellow Ajah members. It was, most likely, because she had almost joined the Brown Ajah. She had thought to join that Ajah for quite a while at least. Many of the members of the White Ajah had been sure to choose the White Ajah from when they were very young. For Aleanda it had been a very difficult choice. Brown and White were for her the Ajahs to choose between. She had chosen the White Ajah, without having regret afterwards. Still it meant that she had little influences in Tower Business. She had tried to gain contacts in each Ajah. Sitters, Aes Sedai of miraculous age, an age no one even dared to guess, and other influential Aes Sedai. Aleanda knew she was one of those who had contacts, friends in every Ajah. She never thought about it this way before but right now she thought that she was trying to have as much influence on the White Tower without standing in the picture. It was a very great help that she had learned to cover her emotions. With that she could reach much in conversations. More than people thought they could. Aleanda hoped she could get to know what the Hall was going to decide on all this. Though her hopes, in this matter, weren´t high.

 

The Trial began. "All rise please, the court is in session, Phaedra Eskarne will now open these proceedings," Aleanda rose from her chair. The room was now full with people. Aleanda watched what was happening. When they were all seated again Phaedra spoke. "Please, let us hear from the opposing council, Muirenn Sedai of the Red Ajah, come forth." It was a Red Aes Sedai who is opposing. Not very surprising in Aleanda's eyes, though it was a little surprising that it was Muirenn Sedai who was doing this. Though on the other hand, she was old and knew very much, she was experienced and wise. She could be the perfect one to do this. Aleanda'd see. She was going to pay much attention and make notes about the Trial. She had some paper and ink, her brains and her attention. She was ready for it.

 

Aleanda Antori

Aes Sedai of the White Ajah

[tismeb4u]

Silently Corin waited in the back room with the other Tower Guards, cloaks of Red draped over their backs and the sides thrown over shoulders to allow quick and easy access to weapons. They stood in grim silence with an accompaniment of Red sisters and one lone man in the middle. A circle of heightened awareness surrounding a monster; no one wanted to see a reply of the reason they were all here. Disbelief still swarmed his mind at the happenings resulting in this trial; though a well placed bow could have saved them all this. He worked to keep the scowl from his face as his eyes passed over Caladesh. The man had brought the butchers bill into the tower, to the very halls within the gleaming White structure and reeked havoc. Many sisters and responding guards had fallen that day; some never to see the sun again only mother earth’s embrace. The guard had lost friends that day and silently it wanted blood in repayment.

 

But the man’s fate rested in the hands of Aes Sedai, his job was to watch and wait. The likely hood that the man would ever be able to replay that day with the number of Red sisters surrounding him and the awareness of every other Aes Sedai in the tower was very unlikely. Still the guard had a place in this it would not release easily. There had been no shortage of hands when the detail was posted. Everyone in the tower who wore theRred cloak had tried to get on the assigned guard. Even now, those who had not been drawn would most likely be in the audience if they were not posted to the wall or the added sentry at the entrances to the Tower it’s self. It was sought after as much as a position on the honor guard that would lead the sisters and their fallen leaders funeral procession. The most skilled and experienced swords in the Yard held the inner circle watch over the man and the remaining, like himself, held an outer one. No one would get to this man and this man would not move more then a foot without the Red sisters approval before he found his heart stilled.

 

Voices rang out in clear tones from the other side of the door indicating the beginning of the trial. He could feel the tension build, thick around the group of men and women who surrounded the cause of such heart ache and destruction in the heart of the Tower. He looked nothing special; no different then an average man. But he touched something seething with evil; brought death and destruction to quiet safe places. No man who could touch the One Power could be left to live long unless gentled by the sisters so that society remained protected. The command came through to bring the prisoner forward and the group moved in unison; pouring through the entry with Caladesh remaining in the middle the whole time. Corin had never seen so many gathered formally before, but his eyes swept quickly over the room before he moved to take his place. His eyes seemed to take in everything at once, but his true focus remained the man in the middle.

 

Justice would be served this day, one way or another there would be justice for the women who died. A Red was called forward as the prosecutor and internally Corin nodded approval. Who else to convict and condemn a monster then the Ajah that spent their whole existence on finding and removing one of the greatest threats during his age; men that could channel. History had already proved the danger they held for the world, only a properly controlled man under the guidance and direction of a group of sisters had any chance of being of use. Though even that though was questioned by many. He only wondered who they had roped into defending the man.

[TaeaDawn]

It was perhaps, the saddest day Aramina had ever witnessed in the Tower. The day of the attack had been about work, correcting the damage to the Tower, healing the wounded, people running around in a flurry of activity that kept them all numb to the events around them. Time had settled that activity until all focus was on the Trial. Aramina wished she could be anywhere but in the Tower today, listening to the debauchery that they would call a Trial. Oh, the forms would be met and justice would be done, but who in the White Tower could claim to hold an unbaised assessment of events after the great losses they had faced? Surely even the Gray Ajah would be heavy hearted. The Tower had not only lost it's guiding light in the darkest of days, the Amyrlin Seat and Keeper of the Chronicles gone forever, but Sisters of all Ajahs, Accepted and Novices, all had died when the madman had loosed his strength against the halls of their beloved home.

 

But Aramina sur Dulciena was a political creature and a Sitter in the Hall. The Green Ajah did not accept limitations. It demanded sacrafice and courage when others would run in fear. It demanded strength when others would fall to weakness. Today, it demanded that it's Sister's walk the Tower with pride, showing the strength and courage their fallen comrades no longer could.

 

Green dress immaculate as always, her shawl worn proudly, she made her way to the Trial. She was startled by the appearance of Jaydena without her mask, though she didn't allow it to show. She nodded tightly to the woman. She had been a strong force in Aramina's early career in the Green Ajah, helping her to the shawl itself when Sirayn had turned her away. She had the right to show her scars today. They all did.

 

As the man was brought out, she could hardly think his name without thoughts of various ways for him to meet the Creator dancing sadistically through her head, she remained silent and still in her seat. The biggest surprise in these procedings was Sirayn's part in it. After the death and mayhem he had caused she couldn't understand her desire to defend him. He deserved a fair trial, Aramina believed in that, which was why she felt that someone else should hold sway in this hearing, though she would not be stupid enough to voice that aloud. Perhaps Sirayn just wished to make sure he had a chance at a fair trial. Or perhaps there was something more in this for her to gain.

 

After all these years, working side by side in the Ajah and in the Order, Sirayn still kept her guessing. They worked well and Aramina still didn't regret her vows to Sirayn. She wasn't sure today would be a good day to be known as her associate though. Standing for the man guilty of such atrocities was sure to encite others.

 

As the Trial began Aramina turned her attention to watched those around her instead of the participants to see their reaction to the hearing and the words of their Sisters.