To Begin Anew {Attn Rian}

[TaiDashan]

OOC: Continued from http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,48854.0.html

 

Rian hardly flinched at stepping through onto the platform. Tai considered the man carefully before Rian spoke. Who knew what the man knew of Saidin. Chaos tumbled through the back of his mind again and Tai shoved him aside.

 

The man's tale of a fatherless life, and his mother's death echoed within Tai and he found himself liking the man. He had yet to pinpoint why every man that found him had some aspect within him that Tai could relate to. It was as if the Creator himself had sent him these men, to be guided in the service of the Lord Dragon. He nearly chuckled at the thought of what Arath would say to that. The man continued on with his tale, detailing his brush with Saidin. Those that touched the Source before coming to the Farm usually had stories such as his. Regardless, the sadness in the man touched him. It was awkward how such a kind heart could be so consumed by grief that his exterior remained cold and distant. Tai had attempted to soften himself, but he had seen too much, too much screamed for him to harden himself. The Light save him him, he would see far worse before Tar'Mon Gaidon was done.... The man's words interrupted his thoughts once again. That seemed a common occurrence of late.

 

"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 said, a hardness in his voice. He dashed away what must have been a tear and asked about Tai.

 

Curiously Tai felt like opening up to this man. He was tired of holding it inside. In the depths of his mind Chaos raged, crying desperately for him not to be a fool.

 

We have to trust someone you goat-brained fool!  He silently snarled back to the voice in his head.

 

"My story is in some ways the same, in some ways different from yours." He began, the void not quite muffling his words. "My father succumbed to the Shadow where yours left to fight it. My mother died when i was young and I found solace in the arms of my childhood friend." Words began to pour from him, unaware of the warming in his tone. The ache was deep and still so fresh, and that need to share his pain drove him onward unaware. "She left to see the world and I was left behind with nothing remaining for me in my small fishing village in Mayene. Maybe it was due to my Father's decision, maybe my Mother's admonition to be nothing like him, but i made my choice to go to serve the Dragon and the Light. Recently things have been a little volatile at the Farm, the old Leader went mad and there were...casualties..." His tone turned to cold stone once again. "I have done what must be done to serve the Dragon as shall you my friend, come we will discuss more once we have you entered into the book properly." Raising his hand the darkness split, displaying the snow covered visage of the Farm. The inn to their right looked warm and inviting but for now they had other duties. Weaving again, he opened a gateway to the traveling room in his home just as the skimming platform disappeared from view. He would have skimmed directly to the place, but out of habit had come to this spot. He had recently moved out of Faringal Manor, and his home was still a little bare.

 

So it was that they entered the basement of his home. Channeling a globe of flame directly in front of him, he led Rian past the rough wood door and up the stairs. His home had little in the way of furnishings, pieces from his home Country here and there. For the most part the doors and walls they passed in his small 3 story home were unadorned wood, polished to a dull, warm glow. After topping the stairs the turned right down a hallway and took the third door on the right entering his office. Letting the weave of Fire go, he motioned for the man to take his seat on the other side of his desk and sat leaning back and looking the man over for a moment. A smile touched his lips if not his eyes, though not unkind.

 

"Let us begin I suppose." He said, dipping his pen and pulling open the large, leather bound book. "I know you have told me some, but for the record please state your full name, your country of origin and your age."

[stp0128]

Rian listened as Tai told his story, and as he took it all in Rian couldn't help but feel like the man had been waiting for an opportunity to tell this story. It came in a rush, one event following the next in rapid succession, though the man never lost his outward poise and dignity, Rian could almost sense a palpable comfort in the opportunity for Tai to relate his tale.

 

Good, Rian thought to himself as he listened. I suppose at least one of us should feel comfortable...

 

Truth be told it had been the hardest thing in his life to step through that hole in what was, into pure nothingness, and not empty his stomach. Not that he wasn't grateful for his ability to control that, he had emptied his stomach enough in the past few weeks to last him the rest of his life. The hardness he had felt expressing his reason for coming to the Black Tower had dissipated almost as fast as it had come, and there was Rian, terrified again, but never showing it. Rian focused on Tai's story to push the ever-encroaching thought that some planks of wood were all that stood between himself and oblivion out of his mind.

 

"Recently things have been a little volatile at the Farm, the old Leader went mad and there were...casualties..."

 

Rian started at this. He went mad? Their leader? It was certainly no surprise that men who channeled went mad, he had been told it often enough while growing up, and these days he was just waiting for it to come knocking on his door, but their leader? However what startled Rian more than that was the man's pause and tone. Those were no ordinary casualties; Rian recognized that tone, the expression on Tai's face, as the exact same he himself had felt when talking about Alise. Maybe his hunch was wrong, but Tai had lost someone important to him in that "madness". As quickly as the faltering moment had arrived it vanished again, and Tai confidently raised his hand, splitting the darkness like shears to silk and revealing a village draped in snow as he spoke.

 

"I have done what must be done to serve the Dragon as shall you my friend, come we will discuss more once we have you entered into the book properly."

 

Rian nodded at the man's words. This was his life now; he had nothing else. The Lord Dragon, Tai, the Asha'man, they were his family now. Stepping out into the frigid air, Rian pulled what remained of his tattered coat around him and looked back into the blackness through which they had traveled. Staring into it he poured out all of his feelings for what he had had, the people he had known, the life he had led. He left everything out there in the black; everything except Alise. In time, Rian knew, he would have to let it go, let her go, but for now, she would be his motivation, the strength he drew on through what he knew would be rough days ahead. "You're better than this," she had told him in secret, when they were the only ones left closing up the common room for the night. "You're a great man, Rian, and you've already dealt with more than so many people ever will. You could go wonderful places, do great things!" And while he had always thanked her for the kind words, he knew he had never wanted to be anywhere else. He was comfortable in Cairhien, in the Dawn's Pride, and Alise was there. Feeling the cruel irony of her words, Rian let out a short, mirthless laugh as the gateway closed.

 

The laugh startled him, and he inwardly cursed himself for it. Gripping tightly to the memory of Alise, he followed Tai through another hole in reality, into a dark basement. As Rian's eyes struggled to adjust to the darkness again, a small orb of flame sparked to life in front of Tai. Following him through the softly lit home, Rian absently let his hand slide against the polished wood of the walls. They reminded him of the counters in the Dawn's Pride, especially in the evenings when he'd just given them a good clean-- No. He stopped himself abruptly and all but slammed his hand back into his coat pocket. Following Tai into a simple room that was apparently his office, Rian took the chair he was motioned to and looked out the window at the gentle snow falling on the village before Tai spoke again.

 

"Let us begin I suppose. I know you have told me some, but for the record please state your full name, your country of origin and your age."

"Rian Tareth, of Cairhien, age 21."

The words came calmly but inside Rian felt the last vestiges of his previous life shatter as he watched Tai pen the information into the book. And oddly, even though he sat terrified of what would be to come, and ragged from the trials of the last few weeks, he did not miss it. As feelings for his previous life slid away in his mind's eye, he saw only Alise. She sat in a comfortable chair in the library of the inn. It had been uncomfortably cold due to the current weather, and Rian had come to say goodnight to her. Though that was not all he had come to say to her. He had hesitated, told himself he would address it later when they weren't so tired, or any other myriad of reasons. He had hesitated, and now she was gone. He would not make that mistake again.

Lost in his thoughts already he had missed the next question Tai had asked him.

 

"Ah...I'm sorry. I ah...was..." Rian lowered his eyes in embarrassment at even considering lying to this man. Lying to family. Steeling himself, he raised his eyes again. "I was letting go of some things. What was it you needed of me?"

 

OOC: Assumed the office has a window, not sure if it does. May be trivial, feel free to ignore it if it does not in fact have a window :P