To Determine Their Fate...(attn Serena)

[Eqwina]

A light rain fell on the tiled roof, beating out a steady rhythm that was much slower than Thera’s heart. It had been only a few hours since she and Serena had ceased their public display before the open gates of the Tower. It had been a gift from the Light that they’d finally found the restraint to release their passionate embrace, and make plans to meet at a later time. The time they had set was for that very same evening, and yet as the minutes passed the already half spent day was beginning to feel like an eternity.

 

Thera had gone back to retrieve Lyss from the doll makers shop only to find that she’d purchased two more. Apparently her sweet child had taken the notion into her head to play Aes Sedai, and had ruined a few of the dresses during her fervent play. So with child and four dolls in toe Thera returned to her snug house on the Tower ground and had been wearing a track in her floor every since.

 

Lyss had many question about the crying Aes Sedai, none of which Thera could answer to her satisfaction. The stream of “why’s” had been endless until the child had fallen asleep only a few minutes before. Now, Thera stared out into the increasing darkness, wondering when the Tower bells would chime Last. That was when she and Serena had agreed to meet. After their earlier display, rumors had flown through the Warders Yards about what it could mean. Many of the Younger Trainee’s did not know who the mystery Aes Sedai was, but several of the guards were old enough to know of the Mistress of Trainee’s sorted past and they were free with their tongues. Thera would not have been surprised to discover if by now the entirety of the city knew of her scandal.

 

Growling softly under her breath, so as not to wake Lyss, she went out into the main part of the house and poured herself a mug of wine. It was only her second since arriving home, but she was considering switching to Brandy or ale to further calm her nerves. Meeting under cover of darkness increased the feeling that she and Serena were doing something wrong. They wanted to keep rumors from sprouting to any more tongues, but meeting in their old rooms in the White Tower seemed to tempt fate. Could she keep her hands from that silken skin once they were alone? If the eyes of the Tower could not restrain her she was not sure how much a simple band of gold could. She and Jasine had been separated for months, but he was still her husband for what that was worth…

 

At last the tortuous waiting was at an end, but as the bells tolled and night was officially descended upon the Tower; Thera found her feet glued to the floor. What did she want from Serena? What would she say? Would words be enough? Would their electric passion from earlier in the day still be burning strong? Light!! She had dreamed of this chance to confront her former Aes Sedai and now that the moment arrived she could move!

 

Picking up one foot she started for the door, and found that it was easier to keep moving once she’d began. As she entered into the Tower proper her feet faltered, but with another forced step they led her to the rooms she’d gone to so freely and often in her younger days. Standing before the carved wood door, with the array of blue tiles beneath her feet Thera paused to gather another calming breath. Her mind and heart still raced, but she did not assume the void. Her emotions for Serena were strong, and she needed to feel them to know where they would lead.

 

Taking another moment she shook the rain off her cloak and ran her fingers through her damp curls. Momentum or not, her walk had still taken longer than it would have any other time. Adjusting her jacket over her hips and smoothing pants that did not need it Thera raised her hand to knock on the door.

 

Thera Trakelyn

confused and intent

[SerenaMorrigan]

Biting down on the nail on her thumb, Serena regarded the storm clouds outside of her window. They roiled and curled, and shed tear-like droplets that caressed the pained glass that set in her windows. The rhythmic tapping of the rain would have lulled her into a trance like state, or sleep, if she let it. Removing her thumb from her mouth, she replaced it’s spot with the stem of her pipe and bit down hard on it. Her teeth clacked on the innately carved wood, before she set into drawing smoke from within it.

 

The Aes Sedai’s emerald eyes studied the busy souls that rushed in the rain across the courtyard a few stories below. One of them would be Thera, no doubt. Light! Her heart jumped into her throat with merely the thought of her once-Gaidar. The woman would be making her way to the quarters of the Blue Ajah, over the blue tiles of the cool corridors, and straight to her rooms. It seemed like Ages had passed since the beautiful, warm, and feisty soul had been so close.

 

Colour crept its’ way into Serena’s ivory cheeks, and she blushed like a novice having been caught staring too hard at the Trainees in the Yard. Woman! You will be two centuries old in less than two more decades, and you still act a fool when it comes to Thera! You are no child fresh off of apron strings. You are Aes Sedai, fool-woman!

No matter how old she was, being wrapped in the Mistress of Trainees arms earlier that day had been like coming home. The comfort, the warmth, the love, the passion- everything that she had missed in the years that had passed. One day, Thera would be gone, and Serena would be left to live on without the woman; Age, would take all the Warders and Tower Guards one day, and the Aes Sedai would hardly have the sign of age on them.

 

Shaking her head, Serena could not bare to think of losing Thera completely. Yes, she had thought she had lost her love already, but she knew that the woman lived on. Once death took her…. No, I cannot think of that. Those thoughts were the ones that had been responsible for her to distance herself from her Gaidar years ago. She loved the woman, and she had come to understand that she could not protect a Warder from doing their job, no matter how much she loved them. It was what they did, it was what they lived for. Sometimes, Serena wondered if it was really the Tower Gaurds that Served All, by serving the Aes Sedai and the White Tower.

 

If an outsider were to look in on her, they would see her and regard her for looking absentminded; however, the diminutive Aes Sedai was aware of her surroundings, and was merely being caught by her thoughts momentarily. It was like being swept into a current of nostalgia. Light, the things that Thera’s embrace had done to her. Feeling the woman pressed up against her…breathing in her scent…

 

A firm knock lifted Serena out of her thoughts and she got to her feet with confidence. She ran a small ivory hand through her short raven coloured hair and set her jaw. Cool serenity swept across her features, and tilted emerald eyes glinted with mischief momentarily. Rose coloured lips smirked at the spark in her eyes, and she could see pieces of her “old self” again. Nodding, she ran her palm across her jacket and checked the buttons down the chest of her coat.

 

Smoothly, Serena seemed to glide across the hard wood floor towards the door. She released the Alarm Wards around the threshold, and opened the door. The sight on the other side was breathtaking, and it made a gasp escape between her parted lips. Warm red curls seemed to reflect the golden light that was being given off by the candlelit sconces on either side of her door. The Mistress of Trainees seemed a powerful woman, yet, somehow, still the young Tower Guard that Serena had bonded all those years ago. Yes, age, experience, and childbearing had changed the other woman; but hints of her younger years swept through her features.

 

“Thera,” the Saldaean Aes Sedai breathed.

 

Shaking her head in disbelief and to set her thoughts on a more lucid path, the Blue Sister cleared her throat. As she let her eyes glance over Thera again, she noticed the glistening droplets of water on her cloak and quickly spun a weave of Air to remove and dry the other woman. Why hadn’t she thought of that before? Light, she had let the her soak!

 

Afraid of what might happen if Serena invited Thera into her rooms, she was unsure of the next move to make. Stepping backwards slightly into her quarters, she gestured into the room. “I have not been very hospitable, I apologize, letting you stand out here in the hall…would you like to come in for a moment, or shall we proceed into the City?”

 

Fool woman!!  She cursed herself. Where was her Aes Sedai calm? Where were her years of training and schooling her features to appear to be the icy and commanding woman she had become? Gone. Thera knew Serena, better than anyone in the White Tower, or without. The Aes Sedai had cast aside her her visage for the Tower Guard once before, and was finding it easier to keep things simple. Serena had to pull pieces of her Aes Sedai mask off. Maybe not all at once, and maybe not all of it, ever; but she had to show her true self, if she wished to be part of Thera's life again.

 

 

 

Serena Morrigan

Blue Ajah

Cursing her light-fool self

[Eqwina]

Every life is riddled with pitfalls and missteps, but it is not that you have experienced them that makes you who you are, it is what you learned. For every battle scar that has left you wounded is another chance for you to discover your true self.

 

Before Thera’s eyes was perhaps the largest and most fatal wound of her life. She had thought it long since turned to stone, but now with it bleeding fresh she knew that once again she would fight for her life. This time though, she had more than her own desires to fight for. There was the life and happiness of her child to consider.

 

As Serena’s plumply perfect lips parted to admit sweet music Thera shivered as she wondered how something that was killing her could sound so enchanting. “No..” Her voice was quiet, and strained as she struggled to control her shaking hands. It was as if she could feel the tremors of those old stone walls shifting and settling as they collapsed. “I think I have seen enough of the City today, if you don’t mind?”

 

Taking a single step into the room, Thera moved aside only far enough for the door to close behind her. In all the years she’d slept in the rooms she’d never noticed how small they were. The tall ceilings seemed cramped, and the large expanse of carpet was only a scrap. The smile that cracked Serena’s face said that she was feeling the same strain. Her movements were too stiff, and she took several hurried steps back as Thera crept farther into the room.

 

A small fire burned on the hearth, and the room seemed alive with the flame. Thera’s caramel eyes took in all that was familiar to her, but it did nothing to make her feel more at home. The rift that had opened between them was no less wide for their public display this afternoon. Sitting down in the chair that used to be hers, it felt foreign, but even those thoughts were forgotten as her eyes latched on to the painting on the wall. It was of the two of them, a raven haired goddess and Thera with her hair aflame as their naked bodies intertwined becoming one.  There was something new though, a hastily mended tear as if the canvas had been sliced with a dagger. Thera arched an eyebrow but did not make any comment as Serena handed her a goblet of wine.

 

“These rooms have not changed much from what I remember, though it seems that we both have.” Her eyes stole to the carved door that led to the bedchamber and it took all she had not to quiver. So much had changed..

 

“How…” She had been going to ask how Serena had been, but being in their old rooms she was emboldened, and refused to sit and make small talk. “Where have you been! I know that it is my fault that we are no longer bonded, but I could find no news of you for over a year. I feared you were dead…I thought…..”

 

Thera’s voice cracked and she reined in the passion that was pouring from her fresh wound, this was no way to begin…..but how??

 

Thera Trakelyn

Enthralled, Enchanted, and In Pain

 

[SerenaMorrigan]

Oh, Light! The woman had asked her the one question that Serena did not want to have to answer. The question would open a can of worms so large that no eagle, hawk or other giant bird could pick up every piece and put it in its place. Yes, we have both changed. Serena’s eyes swept over Thera’s form once more, and could not help but notice all of the physical changes, as well as the stern and motherly look in her eyes. Sharing a grin with herself, the Blue Sister took all that she could muster, as to not let a small laugh escape her lips. Never in a million years could she ever have pictured Thera Gaidar as a mother. Not that she wasn’t capable of it; by no means did Serena mean that. It was merely the excessive drinking and dangerous lifestyle.

 

Serena had changed as well, but for the worst. Her heart and soul had been torn out of her very existence and left on the line to be flayed instead of dried. Her sanity was questionable, and she was not sure which man could have offered his hand in that. Perhaps the breaking of the Bond with Thera had a piece to play in that as well.

 

Biting down on the inside of her lower lip, Serena took a seat across from Thera and leaned back, feigning comfort and ease. Taking a sip of her wine she averted her eyes to the dark liquid inside of the cup, instead of watching the beautiful woman before her. A change from her normal habit. She trusted Thera. If there was anyone in this Light-forsaken world that she could put faith and trust in, it was her. Like a knife, a pain seemed to stab her in her chest, right where her heart would be. It was cold, and felt like a hard ball of coal. Obviously, she had not trusted the woman or had faith in her while they were bonded, otherwise they wouldn’t have had the problems that they did.

 

“Where have you been! I know that it is my fault that we are no longer bonded, but I could find no news of you for over a year. I feared you were dead…I thought…..”

 

Serena spluttered as she heard Thera’s words. Lifting her face from her cup, her lips curled in a smile and her eyebrows furrowed. Her face was an obvious contradiction, and she was completely astonished.

 

“What?!”

 

Serena dabbed at her mouth as she tried to collect herself. Was Thera serious? Setting her goblet down on a glass table between them, the Aes Sedai smoothed her hands on her breeches before sitting back up.

Tilting her head to the side, her smile a thing of the past, Serena shook her head as she spoke. “Thera, I will tell you where I have been, and what I have been up to; however, do not think for a moment that this was all your fault. This…” She waved her hand in the air to simulate the situation that had occurred between the two of them. “…wall that has been erected between us. “

 

Out of the corner of her eye she caught the flames dancing on the hearth; licking at the log that it burned to ash. Serena had always loved to sit by the fire, especially when she was curled in the arms of her lover on a cold winters’ night. Giving her head a brief shake as if to knock the image of years past out of her mind, the Aes Sedai reached into her coat pocket and produced her ornately carved pipe. Hopefully, the diversion of her hand reaching into her coat would have distracted Thera from noticing the slight shake of her head. Again, the Blue scoffed at herself. Thera was much too smart to fall for Serena’s feeble attempt at Daes Dae’mar. Naturally, as a Blue, Serena was better than decent at the Game of Houses; but, not in this moment. Nor did she think she really wanted to be. The Saldaean would have sliced her chest open and laid her heart bare on the table before them for Thera to see, and to deal with as she wanted. However, an Aes Sedai had to hold onto some kind of dignity, didn’t she?

 

Producing a silver box from a hidden drawer beneath the table, Serena withdrew a small amount of tabac and placed it in her pipe. As she did so, she leaned backwards again, and placed the stem of the pipe in her mouth. Her teeth clicked on the smooth wood as her lips wrapped around it. Two fingers, her index and middle, seemed to tickle the air as she channeled a small strand of Fire to light her pipe.

Sighing, she began.

 

“When I..when we..” Oh, this is starting out fabulously, Aes Sedai. She mocked herself. Serena cleared her throat and pulled from her pipe. “After being released from the bond from Asha’man  Arath Faringal , we returned to the Tower in shambles, you and I. What we had and what I lost bared a weight on me I could not understand, and could not stomach. I took off to the Borderlands to defend the Blight as my people do. Yes, I may have been going for some of the wrong reasons, but I could not face the circumstances here any longer. Not after…” The release of the bond…she finished in her head. Light, this was so much harder than she had ever thought.

 

“While in Shienar , I chased a Darkfriend into the Blight, and while there I ran into a lost Gaidin. He was broken, and determined to kill every last scrap of Shadowspawn in the bloody Blight. His Sedai…had been lost to them.” Serena’s face reddened with rage at herself for not being able to save the blasted man. Her heart ached with his pain, and it broke again when he died. No, she had not loved him like her other Warders, and none as much as she had loved Thera.

 

It was during her explanation of Bonding Elessar that Serena suddenly worried about what Thera might think of her once she found out that she had not had his word to do so. “Thera, you must know, I Bonded him against his will.” There, it was out in the open now. Damn her and her empathy for dying men.

She raised a small hand before her, as if to stop Thera before she could rebut.

 

“He was dying, Thera He was committing suicide and I could not stand by and watch him do so. I realize that I am no Green, and perhaps that is why he died anyways. I could not help him, I could not save him. I betrayed him by not giving him a choice, and he died none-the-less.”

 

The pain of his death rang true. Her blood boiled with anger at herself, and her own stupidity. Tears welled in her eyes and she hunched forward in a sob. She could NOT be expected to be over a Bondmates death in merely a year, but she felt weaker for it. “Light…I tried to save him.” Her Three Oaths kept her from lying, so Thera must know that it was how she truly felt.

 

Reaching forward for her goblet, she buried her face in her wine and took a sip to calm her nerves. “I apologize, Thera. I did not mean for our night to begin like this.”

 

Clearing her throat once more, she collected what dignity she had left and continued. “Once he passed into the last embrace of the Mother, I took off for the White Tower. I could not keep running from the truth and pain that resided here, and that followed me. When I arrived and saw your daughter, I was overjoyed for you that you had given birth to such a wonderful little being; yet, it pained me greatly that I was not the one you were bonded in heart and soul to.”

 

Well, there it was. Laid bare on the table. An Aes Sedai, reduced to sobs and shame.

 

 

Serena Morrigan

Blue Ajah

 

[Eqwina]

Her fingers idly toyed with the nail heads that climbed along the arm of her chair. The familiar floral shape did nothing to sooth her nerves as she listen to Serena speak.

 

..do not think for a moment that this is all your fault… her heart caught in her throat and her hands stopped their examination. Serena seemed willing to share some of the blame for their current situation, but Thera was not sure she should allow it. It had been Thera that had allowed her Aes Sedai to pull away, and it had been her that had accepted a job that kept her tied to the Tower, and it had been her that had asked for the bond to be released. How Serena found any fault in herself Thera could not imagine. 

 

Watching that familiar pipe come out there was a great sense of comfort that crept into her bones. How many nights had she lain at Serena’s side gently tracing her curves, while her beautiful Aes Sedai contently puffed away. Tonight, there was nothing content about the way her hands shook, or the way her teeth clenched around the stem. The story that was about to be told was one Thera did not think she would like to hear.

 

“After being released from the bond from Asha’man  Arath Faringal , we returned to the Tower in shambles, you and I..

 

Arath, now there was a name Thera never wished to hear again. Her hands clenched into fists on the chair and her knuckles turned white. She had been unable to protect Serena from what was to come, and in her mind that was the first of her failings that had led to their demise. If only though that had been the worst that her former lover had to tell.

 

It seemed as if each sentence drove a knife deeper and deeper into her heart and by the end Thera’s face was pale, and her drink sat forgotten in her hand. The only sounds in the room were the now roaring fire and Serena’s quiet sobbing.

 

Thera sat her cup down on the small round end table and fell to her knees at Serena’s feet. As gently as she could she gathered the small slim hands in her own and pressed them to her lips. When she was finally able to find her tongue words flowed from her mouth without abandon.

 

“ I am so sorry Serena, so sorry. For it is my folly’s and my inability to bend my proud neck that led to this place. I know you wish to accept part of the blame, but it was I who led us both to the heartache we now face.” Tears stained Thera’s cheeks, but she didn’t stop her confession. “I was drawn in by Jasine’s sweet words and the innocence of his youth. He was so fresh, and without the scars that I carried. He made me remember a part of myself that I had thought I lost, and yet he was never you. I think that after awhile I was convinced that if I had you out of my mind.” Her fingers strayed to where the small bundle of emotions used to set “I could get you out of my heart.”

 

“I tell you truly that, the day you left my heart never came. Even after you fled the Tower and Jasine and I were married I think he knew that a part of me was off journeying with you.”

 

Looking up into her former Aes Sedai’s eyes Thera knew now that as much as she’d loved Jasine, their love had been a candle next to a fire. “Our relationship was strained, but then I got with child and we both tried hard to mend what had been broken, but….” Her voice caught and she had to take several deep breaths before she could continue. “but when our child died, that was the end for us. She did not make it past her first week, and neither did Jasine and I. We are still married, but I have not seen him in many months and there is a part of my heart that knows he will not return.”

 

“The child you saw, she is not my own, but she belongs to one of the trainees. She is his younger sister, both of his parents are gone and his life is now succumb with the Tower. When he first asked me to watch after Lyss I wanted nothing of it, but my heart was still raw with the loss of my own daughter and I could not refuse. So while I did not give birth to her, she is mine.”

 

There was so much of Thera’s story that made her feel ashamed. Here she was bowed at the feet of a woman who wielded power beyond her imagination, and all Thera could think was of asking her if there was a chance. A chance to renew their love…A chance to renew their bond…..

 

But who was she to ask such a magnificent woman to accept someone broken and incomplete?

 

Thera Trakelyn

 

[SerenaMorrigan]

As Serena’s sobs rattled through her, she cursed herself for being a weak woman, let alone any type of Aes Sedai. If the woman seriously thought about it, she would have found it difficult to pinpoint the last time she had cried. The Tower, and the symbol of what it meant to be Aes Sedai, was tough on the soul. Although her tears were silent, and she did not wail like a toddler, the Blue Sister did not know that Thera had moved. The lithe and agile Tower Guard slipped from her seat and knelt at Serena’s feet. The warm and strong hands that held her own were callused from sword-use, yet soft and inviting.

 

A longing in her heart seemed to pull at her chest as she yearned to be in Thera’s arms again. Through tear-blurred eyes, she looked down at the beautiful woman as her small hands were being lifted to Thera’s inviting lips. If it had been another time, some year in the past, Serena would have cracked a joke about being so close to her lips, or kissing the wrong area; not now, though. Now, it was the perfect gesture, and it made her tears sting in the corners of her eyes again. Crumpling forward, she let them fall again.

 

Looking into those caramel coloured eyes was almost painful, and when her once-lover began to speak and explain her side of the story, Serena could do nothing but want to shake her head. No, this was not you, my love. As Thera’s story progressed, and the details of her own pain and emotional upheaval became relevant, she felt even worse. What had she done to the woman? How could she not have been there for her?

 

When the Mistress of Trainees spoke of Jasin, her husband, and how they were still wed, it stung like nettles that had been swept up by the wind and thrown hard at her skin; and when she found out that the child was not Thera’s, had that made the pain of her lover’s miscarriage any lighter to bare? No. The woman was stronger than Serena could ever be, stronger than she could ever imagine, and where had she been? Nowhere to be found, neck deep in her self-pity.

 

Pulling one hand free, although she would have preferred to keep it against those soft, full lips, she placed her hand on the side of Thera’s face, and ran her small ivory coloured  thumb along the smooth skin of her cheek-bone. Light, those eyes could melt the Creator.  

 

“Thera, beautiful Thera.” Serena’s emerald eyes danced in the firelight, and shimmered with her tears. Tilting her head to the side, she took in all that was the image of beauty and love, before her. “I have missed you, and my heart has never stopped longing for you. I have lived in fear that you despised me, and I would have understood if you had. In such a short time, you have become stronger and bathed in more beauty than before I had left.” She dropped her gaze from Thera’s. “I have been weak, and should cast down my shawl, for I have behaved like no Aes Sedai.”

 

“Could you…” She swallowed the lump of tension in her throat. “…Could you ever forgive me, Thera Trakelyn? For what I did to you, for not being around when you needed me the most, for not being there for you?”

 

Light, she felt like a bloody child. Fear swarmed like butterflies flapping against her stomach lining. If the woman could not forgive her, she knew she would break again. The physical manifestation of herself would go on, but she would refuse to feel anything at all. Aes Sedai numbed most of their human feelings, but her love for Thera had been the last thing she could hold onto. Sucking up her pride, she bit down on her lower lip, and looked into Thera’s eyes. The Blue would be hurt if the other woman could not accept her, but Serena would always love her. She did not expect a full recovery of their relationship, she did not know if it could ever be salvaged, although she hoped somewhere deep within her, that there was at least a dim light at the end of that tunnel.

 

 

Serena Morrigan

Blue Ajah

 

 

OOC: Serena’s apology and mine. Sorry, for once again going insane with work.

 

[Eqwina]

OOC: I am glad you have returned!! I am working on a post. I should have it up soon.  :-*

[SerenaMorrigan]

Woohoo!

 

*runs around in circles*  ;D

 

 

[Elgee]

Title: Re: To Determine Their Fate...(attn Serena)

Post by: Eqwina on 28-08-2010, 22:20:30

 

Time seemed to stand still as Thera leaned in to Serena’s gentle caress; savoring every moment of contact with her silky skin. For too long she’d huddled in her own skin, afraid of opening herself up to the outside world; and in one swift motion her beautiful Aes Sedai had torn down all the walls she’d struggled so hard to build.

 

The only light left in her heart had been Lyss, but now the secret recess of her hardened heart had come alive blooming with signs of spring. “…Could you ever forgive me, Thera Trakelyn? For what I did to you, for not being around when you needed me the most, for not being there for you?”

 

How could she explain that there was nothing to forgive? How could she make Serena see that her heart had always been with her?

 

Pulling back, Thera reached down into the neck of her silk shirt and pulled out a long thin silver chain. Dangling on the end of the chain was a small delicate ring; its flowing lines making it sparkle as it turned slowly in the firelight. As the silver band spun, the leaves and flowers which had been so expertly carved seemed to come alive. “I bought this several years ago, before……” the words died on Thera’s lips and she let the chain fall onto her chest breaking the other woman’s gaze. She could not bring herself to say the words that they both knew all too well. Before their bond had been broken .

 

“I wanted you to be more than my Aes Sedai, more than just my bonded, and more than my lover. I wanted to share all of my life with you; I wanted to stand up before the Light and the Creator and declare my undying love for the whole world to know, but the Black Tower changed all that.”

 

Daring to raise her eyes, Thera reached up and pulled the necklace off over her head.“Our fighting, and the rift between us made that impossible. Perhaps, it was never possible for us to be what I wanted. Still..” Gently Thera laid the ring in Serena’s hand, and closed her fingers tight around it. “this ring, and my heart have always belonged to you. You are the reason my body still has breath, and the sole purpose for my beating heart.”

Closing her eyes, Thera surrendered fully to ecstasy of the moment as she pressed her lips to Serena’s wrist gently caressing her pulse with her tongue. As her kisses began to trail up Serena’s arm she knew there would come a moment of no return; a moment that they could not turn back from. Her mind and her body screamed to reach that moment, and yet her heart forced the kisses to stop short of Serena’s lips.

 

This close she could smell the lavender soap Serena had used to bathe, and her hot, sweet breath felt like silk on her lips. It was all becoming too much to bear, being this close and forcing herself to be restrained. Her heart raced, and her hands twitched with the desire to caress her Aes Sedai’s milky white skin. “Serena Morrigan, I love you now and always and if it is my forgiveness you seek then it is yours…if it is my life in trade for your own, I will lay it down for you now. If it is my life my love and my heart that you want, that will take time; but I am willing to give you all the time I have left in this world.”

 

The words tumbled from her mouth before Thera could stop them; but she knew every one of them to be a declaration of her heart. Years of torment and pain had been well worth it, to experience this moment of pure bliss. Thera was still a woman broken and shattered, but her life had meaning again; and she would not give it up without a fight.

 

Thera Trakelyn

laying her heart in Serena’s hands