Howdy, About that last fight... {Lyssa??}

[Arie]

Ooc: I hope you don't mind. You said you wanted to be Roomies again and last I checked Lyssa and Cairma haven't actually talked since she buggered off to the Borderlands with Aran. Soo... it's a pretty good question as to whether they are going to hate or love each other at this point. What do you think?

 

 

Scuffling her feet, the blue-green eyes stared at the door for a moment before pushing it open only to find the quarters unoccupied. -Phew!- thought Cairma as she tossed her bags to the familiarly made bed on the right. Pulling out drawers and putting away the folded clothes from her saddle bags, she wondered how Lyssa was. Lyssa Simeone, a tower guard or unique qualities and a former friend -or at least they were friends. Cairma wasn't entirely sure what to expect from the woman given their lac of communication. A small twitch of her lips brought a frown of thoughts; there were many that she had not yet met up with and Light only knows who would bother to care for her return and who would simply shun her for her abandonment.

 

-Sigh.- What could she expect? There were unanswered doubts and angry, a great deal of angry; much of it her own. She nearly killed Jaz before her trip with Aran to Borderlands. That could not have sat well with Lyssa as she was also knowledgeable of the event. Problem was, Jaz and her made it up, worked things out an now at least they could talk more in passing than scowl as the other passed by. But Lyssa? Blessed Lyssa, the woman was so innocent and judging that Cairma could never predict her. Not in a thousand Ages could she know what the woman thought. She moved to sit on the bed while lost in thought. Articles of accessories were now scattered around her, along with her sword sharpening stones, bits of jewelry that had been gifts from the men in Kings Crossing, and other equally useful or useless items. They needed putting away, set aside and used. The sword needed sharpening, yes.

 

But were those footsteps outside the door? Standing to her feet, Cairma watched the door without reaching for her sword -despite her instincts to always have it in hand. The steps stopped at her door and she watched, waited in both anticipation and dread. -Please, not Lyssa. Not yet... -

 

 

 

Cairma Vishnu

Tower Guard

[Jaydena]

Lyssa wiped the sweat out of her eyes and rotated her shoulders, flowing into the next sword form with practiced ease now that she could see. It had been years since she first started these forms but it seemed like just yesterday in the recesses of her mind. Things had changed, she wasn't the naive little girl that she had been when she had strolled through those white gates. Oh light, she had thought that things would work out, that everything was sunshine and butterflies, and that nothing horrible would ever happen to her or those she loved. Of course she had not known her Mother other than on her visits but she hadn't lacked for love. Her Aunt had cared deeply for them and hadn't treated them with that much difference than she had treated her own brood of children. In addition to all the cousins she had grown up with and run through the woods playing and fighting with, she had also had a twin brother who she loved more than anymore. Admittedly he wasn't always the most energetic young man but they had shared the womb and she knew him better than anyone, or so she had thought. She shuddered for thoughts of the loss of her twin hurt her more than anything that had happened. Lyssa put the wooden lathe in the stand and then began to job as part of her cooldown, having finished the sword forms. It was time to clean up for the day and take a trip into town. She had the day off from her tower guard duties and training the trainees of the Tower.

 

As her feet pounded to the rythme of her heart, she thought about that day she had arrived at the Tower. Young and ready to take on the world, she was to be an Aes Sedai like her Mother. That wasn't to be, no matter how much she wanted it and dreamed of it her entire life. She had walked through the halls and saw her Mother, a woman who she wanted to copy in every way, who had acted like a cold fish and treated her like she was nothing. Lyssa glanced down at the ground as she ran and then slowed her job to a walk. It was time to stretch before she headed back to clean up. She walked until she was cooled down and then began stretching by the barracks. Her thoughts returned to her past like arrows to a bullseye. That day long ago when she had been turned down to learn to channel, she had decided that if she couldn't channel than she would become a warder and train to become her Mother's gaidar. She had been accepted into the Warders yard and had begn to train. During that time her brother had become more distant and colder and relations hadn't improved with her Mother.

 

It was shortly after that when her own brother had been found to be able to channel by their Mother. Sirayn Sedai had secretly had him gentled and that was when her brother had turned to her Dark One. He had returned and tricked their Mother into a dark cave. He had tortured her as well as her gaidar Seiaman. They had come out as two different woman, Lyssa didn't know exactly what had happened in that cave but she had an idea. Sirayn had at least spared her the knowledge of what her brother had done to their own Mother and what she had been through. Lyssa wasn't sure what she would have done, after all you couldn't bring someone back from the dead, but she would have loved to have killed him for torturing her. Shaking her head she decided she had had enough of that sad track for one day and headed up to her room in the barracks. She didn't share a room and hadn't for some time, not since Cairma had left. Alone is pretty much what she had been for some time, her Mother had vanished and her brother was dead and gone. Her roommate had left and so had Aran. She sighed and headed into her room, turning the doorknb, she flicked her long black hair over her shoulder and glanced up in shock. Cairma stood in her room with a bag on the bed that had been empty for so long. Striding across the room she slapped Cairma across the face and backed up two steps, "How dare you return, after you abandoned Jaydena Sedai. She doesn't deserve that, everyone has left her, she had no gaidin left and you acted like you cared about her. All you have left behind you is destruction. Why would you come back?" She stood at the ready on the balls of her feet in case Cairma decided to attack. Her strength wasn't quite the same as Cairma's but she wasn't the weakling she used to be...

Lyssa Simeone

[Arie]

 

 

The response should have been a surprise, but the resounding slap left echoing in here ears reminded her of that rather silly nervousness. It wasn't nervousness at all. The slight sting of the slap didn't really bother her at this point but the woman's words did more damage than anything. She expected her to be a little more understanding -not that Lyssa was particularly good with that emotion at times. Cairma could have sworn that if Lyssa was an Aes Sedai she would be very Green in her Ajah choice.

 

"And here I thought I would have been missed." Cairma's voice was cold, not showing the hurt for a friend that she felt. "I'll get another room and you won't have to bother with me again." Turning back around Cairma started to re pack what was on the bed into her bags. "I had hoped ... No," Cairma turned around and pointed a finger at the woman. "Look here. We both have gone through a lot of shit in our lives and I had a responsibility to my son. Jaydena knew that full well. If you want to point fingers, fine but don't be surprised if I start bitting them off. I will not hear your accusations or ill wills, is that understood?"

[Jaydena]

Lyssa saw the surprise flit across her once friends face and wondered at it. The woman had left her and everyone without so much as a word and she thought everyone was supposed to be happy when she decided to hop, skip, and jump her way back into the Tower. "And here I thought I would have been missed." Lyssa blinked at that one, she had missed her friend but she hadn't heard anything from her and hadn't known if she was alive or dead. Cairma's voice became cold and she spoke again, "I'll get another room and you won't have to bother with me again." Lyssa raised her hand to stop her friend and then stopped herself, if Cairma cared about her she would have contacted her. The heartache in Cairma's eyes had been gutwrenching before she turned around but she couldn't let that sway her. What Cairma had done was wrong and she hurt her and everyone else who cared about her in the process. "I had hoped ... No," The other woman began to repack her things and Lyssa almost smirked in satisfaction for she never won against this woman, but if was a good thing she didn't for Cairma turned back around and pointed an accusing finger at her. "Look here. We both have gone through a lot of shit in our lives and I had a responsibility to my son. Jaydena knew that full well. If you want to point fingers, fine but don't be surprised if I start bitting them off. I will not hear your accusations or ill wills, is that understood?" Lyssa stared at the woman's finger for a minute and then walked over and flopped down on her own bed. She glared at Cairma and spoke, "Yes, well Jaydena might have known that but you never saw the faraway look in her eyes or the pain when she spoke of you or had to answer the questions about how you were or where you had gone. You never wrote Cairma, I had no idea what was going on with you and it hurt."

 

She put her hand in her heads and rubbed her palms up and down over her sweaty face before she continued, "I missed you Cairma, and you obviously didn't miss me or you would have contacted me." Laying her hands on her thighs she pushed herself to her feet and continued, "I am sick of fighting, I am sick of the drama in the Warders Yard, or not having any friends, and I missed you. I am sorry for hitting you, I can't take back how I feel. I felt abandoned and left behind." Shock filled her as she realized exactly why she was so mad and she continued, "I felt jealous bloody hell, I felt jealous. I loved him, I wanted to be with him, I wanted to spend my life with him and you ended up with his baby. Once again I was left in the dust and I didn't even get to see his baby, all that was left of him. It was hard for me to open up to anyone after my past and then he picked you. It took me a long time to get over that and I... light I don't know." She put her hand to her face and realized that tears were streaming down her face, tears she hadn't known she was shedding. "I lost both of you and it hurt so much, I had no one left and all I had was my sword. I guess I became bitter and lonely. You can leave now if you want to." With another flop she fell down on her bed and lay on her back with one arm over her eyes...

 

Lyssa Simeone

Tower Guard

[Arie]

 

Cairma regarded the other woman as she moved to the bed; sitting and looking about as hopeless as Cairma remembered her to be. Perhaps it was because Lyssa had no one else to show this type of weakness in front of or perhaps the woman had not changed as drastically as she first perceived. Then again, she was a rather volatile woman; unpredictable and well loved for it. Not looking at her bags, or the contents strewn over the bed, Cairma took a seat on her bed across from Lyssa, her elbows on her knee's and hands folded in front of her. Waiting a moment before looking to Lyssa, she started.

 

"I know you loved him. Many loved him, and many miss him all the more for that love. Perhaps his child was not so much the secret that I thought it was but all the more reason I had to leave without word. There was a great deal of secrets to Aran. Most I've been sworn to absolute secrecy, but trust me none of them were good. Not a single one." Cairma paused before moving on, thinking how she could keep the whole sad story simple.

 

"Aran was never a Tower Guard. He never took the oaths we did but instead was part of the Tower Guard to keep himself protected. He said he was an assassin, you remember the story," She thought back to Braem Woods and waited for Lyssa to acknowledge that she too also remembered, "and not by his own choice. He was being hunted by someone that wiped out his whole family, murdered every last one of them. Aran, if that was his name, was the last one alive. Alive until ..." Kandor. Even still she couldn't say it. "I would have written, but I dared not risk it. I didn't know if Jamie was safe or not. I had to make sure that knowledge of his existence was not connected to Aran.

 

"Take as you will how I left and why." Cairma's face hardened, "Don't guilt me for it. I carry the guilt and shame of more than you could dream I would be accountable for. Know that I am here now, and that it will be enough."

[Jaydena]

Lyssa sensed Cairma sitting down on the other bed, she didn't look up to see what the other woman was doing. "I know you loved him. Many loved him, and many miss him all the more for that love. Perhaps his child was not so much the secret that I thought it was but all the more reason I had to leave without word. There was a great deal of secrets to Aran. Most I've been sworn to absolute secrecy, but trust me none of them were good. Not a single one." Lyssa sat up and glanced over at Cairma, nodding as she listened to the other woman. Tears were still falling but it helped to have someone in the room who had loved him and lost him like she had. "Aran was never a Tower Guard. He never took the oaths we did but instead was part of the Tower Guard to keep himself protected. He said he was an assassin, you remember the story." Cairma looked over at her and she nodded and lowered her head as she thought back to what Aran has shared with them that long ago day.

 

"And not by his own choice. He was being hunted by someone that wiped out his whole family, murdered every last one of them. Aran, if that was his name, was the last one alive. Alive until ..." Lyssa winced as she thought about what has happened to Aran, she didn't want to think about, all it would do was hurt even more. She might never stop crying if she thought about losing Aran. She could have stomached losing him to another woman, but losing him to the Shadow. It wasn't something that she has expected, Aran had been a master of all forms of hand to hand as well as weapons. The fact tht he had chosen Cairma's life over his own, only proved how much he had cared and that he wasn't the selfish man that so many believed. Including herself for quite some time. "I would have written, but I dared not risk it. I didn't know if Jamie was safe or not. I had to make sure that knowledge of his existence was not connected to Aran." She nodded, if she had a child she would choose their welfare over her own. "Take as you will how I left and why. Don't guilt me for it. I carry the guilt and shame of more than you could dream I would be accountable for. Know that I am here now, and that it will be enough."

 

She glanced over at Cairma and then spoke, "I knew about your son through Jaydena, she told me, I guess she felt I had a right to know. She has been the only person I have left here who knows my true story. When my Mother vanished, I had no one. I went to Jaydena and I complained, in fact I fell into her door sobbing in a moment of weakness. She finally explained that you hadn't vanished as my Mother had, that there was a reason you left. Of course that made me mad for some time. I couldn't believe he picked you and that he loved you that much..." her voice trailed off and she clenched her hands tight before continuing, "I wanted it to be me but there was a part of me that always knew he cared deeply for you and that was why he treated you as he did so many times. I would like to meet his son someday, for I have no doubt it's his. You weren't one to sleep around and that I know for a fact." Standing up she walked over to Cairma, tipping the other woman's chin back with her fingers, she placed a gentle kiss on the her friends lips and then stepped back. "Welcome back Cairma, I wish you well, you can stay or not stay in our room, I am taking a bath and then I am headed for a night on the town." Standing near Cairma she waited for the other woman to react to what she had just said...

 

Lyssa Simeone

[Arie]

 

Cairma smiled at the kiss and pulled Lyssa into a hug. The embrace was what she needed. It was exactly what she needed. A friendship, a being that was human that understood what she lost. It was a comfort she could not find on her own and no hugs from Jamie could fill that emotional gap that Cairma fought with every day that she could get here. Sighing deep, Cairma released the woman and took a step back.

 

"If you don't mind then, I'd rather stay here. The familiarity of it feels better then a different room. I'm relieved that its okay with you that I stay. I have missed you, Lyssa. It's been..." Cairma paused to lick her lips, "difficult. To say the least." She smiled to reassure her. "I'll let you take that shower. I might do the same and join you in town, if that is okay with you? A lot to catch up on." And then it occurred to her, "And I'm really sorry to hear about your mother. I know she wasn't the best for you, but she was your mother and that at least counts for something." A hand of sympathy was placed on Lyssa's shoulder as Cairma spoke. The words were sincere, although a mother isn't something Cairma best related with. Being a mother, on the other hand, put an entirely new perspective on things.

 

"If you want to talk, I'm here for you." Smile. "I'm here for you, now."

[Jaydena]

Cairma smiled at her her and gave her a hug, she sighed at the first touch of a human not in anger in months. She hadn't been with a man since.. she gulped, refusing to think his name and looked back at Cairma. If there was one woman she would ever be with it was this one, but she didn't think she was wired that way, so she would have to find herself another man at some point. Right now she was focused on gaining strength and power in her chosen weapons. "If you don't mind then, I'd rather stay here. The familiarity of it feels better then a different room. I'm relieved that its okay with you that I stay. I have missed you, Lyssa. It's been... difficult. To say the least." Lyssa nodded and watched as Cairma smiled and then continued, "I'll let you take that shower. I might do the same and join you in town, if that is okay with you? A lot to catch up on. And I'm really sorry to hear about your mother. I know she wasn't the best for you, but she was your mother and that at least counts for something." She stopped for a second, she had been sure Cair was going to say she wanted to join her in the shower. Light she needed a man, she thought, and it must be a man as good as he had been. She snickered to herself, Good luck with that one dear, he was trained and knew exactly what to do.

 

She looked back at Cairma as she realized what her friends final words had been, she didn't think about her Mother unless she had to. Her mother had been the mother of all mothers within this Tower and had left her behind without a second thought. She had wanted to bond that woman, and now she would live the rest of her life without knowing what it felt like to be bonded to her, to be closer to Sirayn than she ever was as her daughter. "If you want to talk, I'm here for you. I'm here for you, now." She returned Cairma's smile and then spoke, "Thank you for that, it's not something I talk about much, but if I ever talk to anyone it would be you. Since very few know exactly the history behind that, and one of them is Jaydena, who is to busy for me these days." She smiled sadly and then continued, "I am off to take that shower if you want to join me?" She winked at Cairma and laughed softly, grabbing her towel she headed off to the bathroom to take a shower...

 

Lyssa Simeone

[Arie]

 

"You wash my back, and I'll wash yours, is that how the deal worked again?" Cairma laughed as she stood from her bed and turned to look for a towel. There was still a lot of her things scattered on the bed, more than she thought she had when she packed. Although it was still far less than what Jamie had collected over his time in the Yards and now at the Royal. The only child of a Vishnu, Kisaya was no doubt spoiling him more than any child had the right to be spoiled.

 

Light she missed him.

 

Pulling up a towel, picking up bits that fell on the floor, Cairma turned to Lyssa with a smile. "Well, I might as well. It's been a long day and I can come here and crash on the mess as drunk as the night is dark." Which was only slightly untrue. Her tolerance for all the various fire brews had gone up exponentially after sharing a brew or 18 with Adain. Bad influences, her brothers. "Lead the way."

 

 

 

Cairma

 

Ooc: Skip ahead to the Bar, or do you want to rp in the showers.. might get a little over pg 13.. ;)

[Jaydena]

ooc- Ya that might be a bit over the limit and last time I checked they don't sway that way, though maybe. *ponders and laughs*

 

"You wash my back, and I'll wash yours, is that how the deal worked again?" Her friend laughed and Lyssa stared in shock, being away from the Tower had changed this woman, she had better watch herself or she would end up being trapped by her own words. Cairma used to be angry more than half the time but now she seemed calm and loving even, joking around as though it was something she normally did. Cairma picked up her towel and shook some things out of it and then spoke, "Well, I might as well. It's been a long day and I can come here and crash on the mess as drunk as the night is dark." Lyssa nodded and smiled, this would be an interesting night indeed, "Lead the way." She laughed softly and spoke, "Watch how far you take that flirting Cairma darling, things have changed and I am no longer innocent. Might take you up on it?" She winked and they headed to the showers, it didn't take long to clean up, there might have been some mild flirting but that was okay because it didn't mean that they had to do anything, though it had been fun to tease Cairma earlier . It felt nice to be comfortable around someone again, it had been way to many years to count.

 

Lyssa headed back to her room and began changing her clothes with Cairma at her heels, she put on a skin tight pair of leather pants that she often wore to go out on the town. On top she wore a black leather vest that matched the pants, also very tight. Underneath this she wore a see through material of the smoothest white silk. She pulled her long hair up into a pony tail and pushed her feet down into the matching boots. Her sword belt went around her waist, with her money purse attached, and a small dagger. She added another dagger inside her boots and turned to Cairma, adding the necklace that her Mother had given her years ago she waited for Cairma to finish. While she was waiting she decided to add some kohl to her yes. She added black under her eyes and blue to make her eyes pop as they were such a striking blue. On her lips she put some deep red and then noticed that Cairma had finished. Nodding to her they headed to one of the taverns where she ordered a drink and turned to Cairma, "So what is it like to be a Mother?"

 

Lyssa Simeone