Seeking the Black Tower (Attn: BT Recruiters)

[stp0128]

[OOC: Moved and slightly altered from the Farm board, after being horrendously mislead by Tai!!! :P  Glad to be a part of the team.  ;D]

 

The snowy slush of Tear made Rian step cautiously as he trudged through the streets alongside merchants, dockworkers, and citizens. Looking around apprehensively at all of them, Rian wished he were anywhere but here. He felt that even though he had just walked into town, eyes were upon him, and people knew who he was and what he had done.

Stepping into the nearest inn, Rian moved to an empty slot in the bar and took an ale from the innkeeper, looking at the others around him. As he drank, thankful to be out of the slush and traffic, he overheard a man's voice from behind him.

"..burned to the ground, it did. 'Course no one knows who, or what, started the fire, but that young lad what owned the place was nowhere to be found. Folks are sayin' he died in the fire, 'course I'll have none of it. Five noble youths and a serving girl, dead in an alley, and the place burned to cinders? Sounds to me as if our young innkeeper had more trouble than everyone believed.."

Rian choked on his ale, earning a look from the men talking, and hastily coughed more to act as though he were ill. They seemed to accept it, turning back to their drinks and conversation, now the overbearing weather, and Rian stood calmly and left the inn.

Wondering how he was ever to find the place to claim his amnesty save for asking locals, which at the moment did not seem at all the intelligent way to go, Rian wandered from district to district around the streets, until something in him, a feeling, pulled him down a right alleyway. Out into the street two blocks away it lead, and across from the opening, a small building with the Dragon's Fang scrawled on the door. Wondering what wild feeling had led him perfectly here, Rian stepped across the street and pushed open the door, ignoring the wary looks people in the streets were giving him.

Once inside, Rian shut the door and approached the tall man in a black coat leaning against a nearby doorframe. Reaching the man, Rian stopped. He had not thought about this moment for all he'd been fretting about his ability to channel in the first place. What should he say? Noting the look on Rian's face, the man smirked.

"Here for the amnesty, I take it?" the man said with an air of knowing that said he had spoken these words to more than just Rian today.

"Ah, well...yes. Yes, that's my business here." Rian replied hesitantly.

"Well you'll be wanting to see the man behind the last door and the end of the hall upstairs," the man replied, gesturing to the nearby stairwell with one black-gloved hand.

Nodding his thanks, Rian climbed the stairs and walked down the long hallway, pulling his coat tighter around him as he walked, and adjusting the sack on his shoulder, filled with a blanket and some food he'd stolen from inns along the road to Tear.

It's no colder in here than it is outside, you goat-headed fool. Quit letting your nerves get to you.

Reaching the doorway, Rian placed his hand on it and stopped. This was it, everything he had had before he must let go of, this was his new life. Pushing open the door, Rian stepped into the room, seeing a man with a drink in hand staring out the window into the street below. Or perhaps out into the harbor, or across the hills to some distant place. Rian couldn't tell. A small desk full of papers stood in front of the man, and Rian squared his shoulders, approaching the middle ground. The man took note of him entering and turned to Rian as he closed. Thrusting his hand out confidently, maybe a little too confidently as evidenced by the sudden raising of the man's eyebrow, Rian introduced himself.

"I'm Rian Tareth. I used to own an inn in Cairhien, but some....terrible things happened. I came to Tear to accept the Dragon Reborn's amnesty, and found my way here. I..." Rian closed his eyes, intent on making it through this. No matter what he wanted to believe, this was the way it was. He would accept this, and overcome it. Master it. No matter the cost.

"I can channel."

[TaiDashan]

Tai grumbled wordlessly to himself as he pushed aside the paperwork on his desk. Ok, so it wasn't really his desk, just what he had been assigned here in Tear...Becoming an Attack Leader had its advantages, but it had its disadvantages as well. He rubbed his eyes and rose to his feet, channeling more wood into the fire. More Saidin and the blaze leapt higher. A trickle of Fire and the dented silver pitcher of spiced wine threw up a streamer of steam. Pouring himself a cup he walked slowly to the window. He watched the people press along the street below, bundled against the cold in cloak or coat.

 

Frost coated the window pane and the slush became black under the trodding feet. Two things that echoed the cold black pit inside of him. Aria gone less than half the season and he still could not seem to thaw that gaping hole in his soul. For what had to be the millionth time he cursed the Creator for bringing her back into his life just to take her away. Sereth Arian had gently pointed out that maybe the Creator had done such to tie him more firmly to his oath. The Oath he had sworn to the Dragon himself...

 

His thoughts were interrupted as a man strode in without so much as announcing himself. Crossing the floor the man shifted his small bundle and thrust his hand out, deigning to announce himself. Tai Couldn't help himself and his eyebrow rose slightly. It was not everyday that people barged into his office here, and most that did were not quite so...sure of themselves.

 

"I'm Rian Tareth. I used to own an inn in Cairhien...terrible things happened...I can channel."

 

Tai listened calmly as the man explained his situation. Banishing his own thoughts he set the cup of spiced wine on the table without so much as taking a sip. "Well Rian, my name is Attack Leader Tai'Dashan. It is true that the Dragon offers Amnesty to those of us given the power to wield Saidin." He said, looking at the man consideringly. I will not ask about your past. Your past no longer matters, forget who you were who you knew. You will be born anew in service to the Lord Dragon. Do you understand?" The man nodded and Tai continued. "Good. I will return in a moment."

 

Poking his head out the door and calling to the nearest Asha'man, he informed him of his plans. He would send someone else to take his place. Maybe he would get the chance to get away from all of this boring work after all. Returning to Rain he offered the man a tight grin before seizing the Source. It would not be a long trip by gateway, but Tai wanted a chance to think, and possibly learn more about this man who had come to serve the Dragon. Skimming would do quite nicely. Raising his hand gently, a hole in reality opened up, revealing a platform made of rough wooden planks. No matter what he had tried in the way of Skimming platforms, rough wood like on the fishing boats back home felt the most solid to him. Motioning to the man to step through he admonished him to mind the edges. The platform was wide enough for 4 men across and more on the length, but a fall here could be dangerous to say the least.

 

Stepping in behind the man he let the blackness close over them. He watched the man ever so slightly out of the corner of his eye as he felt the hair-breadth lurch that said they were moving. What must the man be thinking? How long had he been channeling? Had it just been once? Suddenly Chaos was madly chattering about killing the man. Shoving the voice to the back of his head, he instead spoke into the inky silence. "Rian, tell me more about yourself and your situation. The trip should not be long but I do not wish it to all be in silence. Feel free to ask any questions you wish."

 

OOC: Feel free to react to skimming, ask questions, tell your place etc...sorry if i mislead you :p WELCOME!

[stp0128]

Tai'Dashan, Attack Leader he had called himself. Though unsure exactly what that meant, Rian knew enough about titles to know they implied a power. Pushing aside thoughts of what power that might be, Rian met the man's tight grin with a tired smile. He had traveled far to make it here, to begin anew, but some aspects of his old life he just could not forget, not yet. The helplessness washed over him again, she was burning alive and he couldn't to a thing to stop it, the fire he had started...

Viciously he shoved the memory out of his mind and looked up. Tai'Dashan raised his arm slightly, and Rian turned to leave through the doorway, the only possible place two men would exit a room from. Instead he turned and faced oblivion, a hole in the world. Fear gripped Rian's heart but as he had told himself a hundred times by now, this was his life now. After a motioning from Tai, he stepped inside and onto the wooden platform. Tai followed and the hole closed behind them. As Rian stood in darkness wondering when they would begin their journey, Tai spoke.

"Rian, tell me more about yourself and your situation. The trip should not be long but I do not wish it to all be in silence. Feel free to ask any questions you wish."

Rian related his tale, which as he realized now that he actually decided to tell someone, was not a very long one. His father had left when he was a young boy on some fool notion that his life was best served fighting the Shadow in the Borderlands, his mother tried keeping an inn but her grief was too much, and by the time Rian was around 20 she succumbed to it. He had taken over The Dawn's Pride and poured his soul into keeping it and running it. He had hired on his childhood friends to work with him, Haric in the stableyard, Melane in the kitchens, and Alise.. He trailed off when he finally got to her, remembering what had happened yet again. He could feel the other man shift on the platform, had he noticed his pause? Quickly resuming his story, Rian relayed the events of the Feast of Lights, his inn burning to cinders and the nobles burning in the alleyway alongside innocent Alise.

"After that night...I ran from Cairhien. Into the woods. I tried to harness it, control it somehow, but every time i tried I would black out, or empty my stomach or scream from the way my head would spin. Eventually I found out about the amnesty, and came here to find it, stealing what I could from inns along the way. I had been told as a youth that men who channeled went mad...and I almost did a few times out there at night in the woods. Truth be told I don't know why I haven't yet. Everything I loved, I've been the destruction of. So here I am...to start over.."

Rian knew how somber and depressing his tale must sound, but for some reason right now that didn't bother him. His usual upbeat self did not step in to try and lighten the mood.

"I hear them. When I tried teaching myself, and I would seem to have control over it for only a few seconds, I heard their screams like it was happening all over again. Who could concentrate through that? I'd let go and terrible things happened to me. So I'm here to learn to control it, and do whatever good I can with it, because the dead deserve that from me," he finished with a hardness he did not know he had left in him.

Rian noticed he was staring down at the platform they stood on, following the lines of the grain in the wood with his eyes, which had begun to water. Brushing them dry with the ragged and dirty sleeve of his once-favorite coat, Rian turned to the other man in the darkness.

"Enough of my rambling, what of you, friend?"

 

OOC: Thanks for picking this up, and for the welcome. I'm excited to be on board :)

OOC: Also, if Tai has been in Tear long, he may have heard about the incident with The Dawn's Pride, as tradesmen coming south would surely be mentioning it. Just an option for your character. :)

[TaiDashan]

Continued at the Farm HERE