Climax (attn: Con, Brandeis & Telcia)

[Arette]

It had been an excruciating journey with Con so close, but still as out of the reach as the moon. Arette had almost managed to convince herself that his later safety depended on her discretion. She didn't want to flaunt their thing to the Children and prompt them to mention anything to the Questioners even in an accident for there would be a Questioning. And if the men were like Con, they wouldn't lie for him. But in the best case they might not tell some things. So she suffered in silence and stayed away from him when it wouldn't have satisfied the chaperone rules of even the strictest Amadician noble woman. Even when it required being around Luca that bloody male. Spending time with just Telcia wasn't an option either, even though she longed it. But Telcia needed to get to know the Children too and them her. It was important to show the that Aes Sedai were people and women just like everyone else. And Telcia had sported the typical biases of a Sister toward them and the general high and mighty Aes Sedai attitudes, so maybe she would learn too.

 

Arette would so require a compensation. If Con thought that she would wait nicely for the time he would get time off from the Children and be able to visit the little wife waiting at home, he was sorely mistaken. Every time the little voice in the back of her head nagged and asked "What would Willamina say?", she stuck it into a closet and refused to listen. They couldn't get married since she wanted Willamina to perform the ceremony, but since they hadn't been supposed to ever marry and it hadn't stopped them before either, she would get a proper goodbye night. Or very unproper, she fervently wished. If they just survived this alive.

 

The thought returned her back on the present and she looked around grimly. They were grouped together, the Children of the Light shielding her and Telcia and they were ready to spring the plan to raid the Nalemar manor in rescue of the children of Telcia - and Iussi, she grudgingly added. Her eyes drunk Con lamenting that she couldn't see his face. He looked formidable on the horse top in his heavy armour but they were facing dangerous men and maybe a male channeler too. He could die. She sent her prayers to the Light and promised that she'd never want nothing else if he only survived now... and when he returned to the Fortress of the Light. And well, of course she wanted her precious girls to be well too and grow strong and happy. Light, but he had to live.

 

Con motioned with his hand and a knot tightened on the bottom of her belly. It was starting now and she should focus on her role. Only worry of him rode on the back of her mind like the bond. But she was still enough an Aes Sedai that she should be able to keep such fears in check. They would win today and the children would be safe. She clung on that vision as they rode forward.

 

Arette Nenatiar

Exiled Brown Sister

Mother of Rana and Cina

Bonded to Calvin Gaidin

[Wayfarer]

Today was the day, and Con found himself having little doubt that they were expected. This was the place that the kidnappers would make their stand, though it wasn't what they had expected. The Nalemar household, Telcia's own family, they were the ones that held the children. That meant they could expect trained retainers to fight, men who knew what they were doing. Most likely mounted like themselves, though Con was confident in his men's ability. There was also Calen Malkari to consider.

 

Or whatever his name was, Calen was just the one the man used most often. Con knew the man by reputation, he was not someone to be triffled with lightly, but if he got between him and Telcia's children he'd run the man through himself. As terrible as he was, that was the thing Con had to remind himself of. Telcia's children were the priority above all else.

 

Speaking of which, Telcia had become a bit more settled amongst Con's companions with their travel. Arette had helped in that respect he was quite certain, for which he was grateful. Telcia had a temper, and she had her own ideas about the Children. Neither she gave free rein, nor did Iussi for that matter. Then again, he wasn't the callow youth that Con had known when the lad was new to the guard and courting Telcia.

 

Then there was Arette... It had been difficult traveling with her. Well not the travel itself, but having to keep her at a distance. That wasn't to say they didn't talk or that he shunned her, but he had to give time to his men that he led as well, he couldn't simply ignore them because it felt convenient. Maybe afterwards, if they had time, though he didn't know for sure whether there would be. The chase had already taken a substantial amount of time, he needed to return sooner or later, with success to report. There was no room for an alternative.

 

Looking to Brandeis beside him, he nodded slightly before slipping his helm on. The Nalemar manor was walled, and while Aes Sedai couldn't use their power as a weapon against people, nothing would stop them from ripping down the gate. All they had to do was keep them safe.

 

Checking his shield straps one last time, Con motioned with his free hand for them to advance before taking up the spear in his lap. Advancing from the treeline, they moved slowly to conserve their horses, for there was little doubt that they were expected.

 

An expectation that was proven as the gate was opened to the Nalemar Manor. From within emerged a score and a half riders. They would meet them out in the open to decide it then, hoping to use their superior numbers to break their line quickly to get to the Aes Sedai. Waving his spear in the air, Con called out. "Form two columns on me and Brandeis! Luca, Leon and Bernd stay as guard, kill any who get past us."

 

Moving into a canter with Brandeis at his side, Con frowned, they were moving towards them with speed with only a single straight line. Weren't they trained to move together? The canter moved into a gallop as they neared, closer and closer they came as the thunderous roar of the hooves of their horses grew. Three hundred feet. Two hundred and fifty feet. Two hundred.

 

"Wedge on me! On me!"

 

Fanning out behind them, the discipline and horsemanship of the Children held as they reformed. One hundred and fifty feet, a small group broke off from the rest of six or seven riders, a fireball careening through the air towards them. Dissipating before it reached them, Con sent a quick prayer for being saved from Victor Warne's fate before their lines clashed.

 

Losing his spear in a man's chest, Con grunted as he took a savage blow to his shield before freeing his sword. Their wedge had broken the Nalemar line, every Child was still in their saddle and half a dozen horses were galloping clear without their riders. Wheeling about, Con charged at the nearest enemy with his blade raised high.

 

 

Con Stavros

Child of the Light

[Sam]

Releasing the reins, Brandeis guided his horse with legs. His mount sensed the nervous excitement among the riders. Brandeis remembered his first battle, and part of him longed to be once more so young and naive. His face held little other than luster; his eyes shone resigned; sad. With familiar ease the Inquisitor pulled his gauntlets over his hands. After picking up his shield, he touched the war hammer strapped to his back, before fingering the reins with his free hand. There would be no pre-battle ritual. No prayer.

 

The formation increased to a canter, and the familiar flutter of fear clutched at his stomach. Fear he was used to. Fear could be controlled. The instinctive reaction of endless drills saved him from the fire. Without being aware of it, he responded to the command and sent his horse skidding to reposition. His mind had been elsewhere, and had it not been for quick thinking . . . Brandeis did not really want to think about it, but his mind went on ahead anyway.

 

In the distance Brandeis spotted a heavily built man, dressed in mail and leather. He wore black gloves and bore a heavy shield and sword, he would prove as good a target as any. Loosing the reins once again he reached back for his hammer, letting it hang at his side. The weight of the charging horse would add what he hoped to be crippling power to his swing.

 

His mount snorted dust, its nostrils wide and flaring as he reached his opponent. The man braced himself for the blow and his long blade flashed out in the sunlight. It later seemed grimly humourous to Brandeis that what he believed to be gloves were actually snake head tattoos and that the sword had struck like an angry viper.

 

Too caught up in his own blow, Brandeis was unable to duck completely behind his shield in time to avoid the tip that slid over the top of his shield and caught him on the side of the helm. He twisted his head desperately in an attempt to keep his own attack from being interrupted. A thunderous bang echoed in his ears and his arm snapped back painfully as his hammer connected with shield. The other man was thrown clear from his saddle, and with his arm momentarily useless Brandeis attempted to inflict a killing blow by the hooves of his horse. Somehow he lost sight of his opponent and, with a frown, turned to find another.

 

Cursing his injured arm he dropped his hammer on the field and whirled his horse about in a circle. Spotting one of Con's men on the defensive, he sent his horse charging into the fray. Turning his horse so that its shoulder collided with the other mount he sent the other horse into a stumble. It's rider, momentarily unbalanced, was caught neatly in the windpipe with the edge of his shield. There was a gurgling sound and then the rider slumped in the saddle. Brandeis reached over and took his sword. With luck its light weight could be supported by his arm; perhaps not as as well as he'd have liked, but with luck, enough to not get himself killed. If the slumped rider was not dead, he would wish he was . . . just as soon as he regained consciousness.

[Telcia]

Telcia gritted her teeth and kept her face smooth and unreadable as they approached the Manner House. Ghosts of her past seemed to riddle this place. Her brothers' voices, her childhood laughter, the smell of the gardens, the feasts... dancing with...

 

She blinked back the memory of her dead lover who was, for a brief instant, sitting in Iussi's saddle. When she opened her eyes and looked at him again, it was Iussi once more.

 

He looked so... serious, so angry... she couldn't remember seeing him this way ever before; not even when he was held captive. She wondered absently if, were he able, he would channel and kill everyone who stood in their way. A small voice deep inside laughed knowingly. Of course he would. He would make them all pity the decision they'd made to hurt his family.

 

But why, why had they made it? How did they know where to find her? And shadowspawn to boot... there seemed to be only one answer and now, more than ever before, a war raged within her. For some Tarmon Gaidon was on the way, nearly here, but for her... the war began today.

 

When men appeared in sight, Telcia was almost relieved. She wanted battle today in the way Greens must in the Borderlands after waiting for days to see a foe. All that pent up rage seeking to get out made worse but the weighty promises made to the Nalemars on her last visit. Promises she hoped Con didn't remember her saying she'd made when she left the House that day... promises he'd try to keep her from holding true to.

 

As Arette opened herself beside her and Telcia reached out to take control; she almost regretted that Arette's strength would be used in the way she knew without a doubt she was going to use it.

 

Almost.

 

The charge began and the din was overwhelming. Telcia rose up in her saddle, her hands flying out to either side of her and then over her head working the threads into a pattern for a force which would blow the gates clean off the wall... but the fireball flying at them caused her to change her mind.

 

"BLOODY..." She hated holding a weave and trying to make another. There was level of concentration required that, in battle, was difficult at best. It was this level of focus she admired the Greens for most of all.

 

One weave to smother the fire and the other to... *BOOM!* *CRASH!* *CLATTER!* the gates went flying with a tremendous force and rained down in broken pieces onto the earth feet beyond the walls. She'd hardly been aware of how deeply she was drawing in her rage until she made out Arette's warnings beside her over the sound.

 

They raced forward, Telcia watched Con, & Iussi fighting with a level of skill and fire she'd expect from two fathers... a friend, & a lover; but it was Brandeis she was most shocked by.

 

The man had no reason to fight like this for her babies, no reason to like her... to help her... and here he was fighting like his own children were at stake. She felt incredibly guilty, all the sudden, for all the terrible things she'd said and thought about him. Could she have been wrong?

 

"You ready for this?" she managed in a much more grim tone than she'd meant to take, to her Sister beside her.

 

In her mind, Telcia began reasoning out the most heinous weave she'd ever thought of... an untried thing she'd learned in theory, one she suspected she'd never use. Today, for those vile enough to take her babies, she'd make an exception. Today thanks to that fireball, & by her blood she silently swore, channeling agents of the Shadow would learn the name Telcia Dyfelle and know fear.

[Arette]

Arette studied the Nalemar Manor as they emerged from the treeline. It was walled and looked like it could withstand a short-term siege, but she doubted that the darkfriends inside would resort to direct attack. Nalemars might have a channeler with them, but their side had two and trained and experienced Aes Sedai at that. It was worrying, though that the Shadow had deemed this important enough to afford a channeler. Or maybe it was one of the Nalemars who had manifested the ability. But still the question remained why. Why after over a century they had targeted Telcia who wasn't even really their blood? Was this personal or some scheme of the Shadow? If it was personal, how high must they stand in the Darkfriend circles to be able to pull this off. But it was no use to ponder it now; they would get answers from the Nalemars themselves.

 

The thought of battle unnerved her slightly as she had never been tested in the real fire. She knew all the weaves of course and had used them to defend herself and Karana during her assassination attempt. She had even killed a man then, but luckily the experience wasn't vividly on her mind: she had been hurt herself and went unconscious soon after. And then there was her scuffle with the mother bear where she had failed her training abysmally. Adrenalin had rushed in her head and she had been unable to think clearly... again with painful consequences.

 

So it was a good thing that Telcia would lead the link today. She was the more skillful of them two and much more superior with Spirit. And she was a Red Sister tempered in battle and knew how to deal with a male channeler. That was what they might be facing after all in addition to the hired soldiers and other retainers Nalemars might have.

 

The battle begun suddenly with the gates flung open and riders emerging. Con called the men to line up into two columns and his three closest men to stay with Telcia and herself. Arette's heart tightened with worry for him. If something happened to him, it would hurt her more than anything that could befall on her personally. He had to survive and get to know his daughters. They needed their father. And she needed him.

 

She didn't have time to fret about Con anymore since Telcia called her to open for the link and she quickly obeyed. It was so difficult to hover at the edge of sweetness that was Saidar when you longed to embrace it yourself and drink deeply. It seemed to take forever before Telcia pulled the One Power through her. With the link Telcia's emotions surged into her like the Warder's bond and the determination and angry fire nearly overflooded her. Shouldn't she be more in control, calmer and more detached like the Tower always taught?

 

Arette called a warning when the first fireball was aimed toward them. She couldn't see the weave of course since it was done with the vile Saidin, but the culprit had to be somewhere at range of sight to be able to channel at them. It was obvious enough where he was with the smaller wedge of seven men charging at them. He was staying smartly behind them, but it didn't save him from their reach. Telcia had already noticed him too as she turned to face him and Bernd, Luca and Leon positioned themselves between Telcia and her and the charge.

 

She started when Telcia spoke to her, or maybe to herself. "I am ready, Sister", she replied more calmly than she felt. The surge of Saidar grew more intense as Telcia drew power through her to almost her upper limits. The glow around them made her blink and the grim purposefulness resonating through the link increased as did the... was it viciousness? Light, what was she planning.

 

Arette spared a glance at the men in the field and caught the magnificent and horrible sight of two wedges of cavalry clashing. She sought frantically Con among the white-clad men and sent a quick prayer to the Light to find him still seated and seemingly unharmed. She wondered if Telcia worried in the same way about Iussi right now or was she professional enough to focus solely on her channeling. Telcia countered handily the fireball which dissipated as if it had never been.

 

The weave that she was preparing next within the same eyeblink made Arette goggle. She couldn't be... it was against the Law. But with Telcia's state of mind Arette had no doubt that she wouldn't really do it. And she couldn't really condone it. If it had been her babies in there, she might have done the same.

 

Arette Nenatiar

Exiled Brown Sister

[Wayfarer]

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!"

 

Feeling his sword punch more than slice through the man's side, Con swung with a backhand and sent the man's head tumbling underfoot. Blood and viscera stained his sword and his cloak closer to the crimson he once wore than the white he had taken up. Combat was a very simple thing in this melee, friends and foes. Their foes had been shattered in the first charge, but still they fought and died.

 

Barely bringing up his shield in time to catch the blow of a passing soldier, a second one who came from the otherside found only air as Con leaned forward under the blow and buried his blade in the man's stomach. Longsword ripped from his hand as the corpse's horse continued charging carried his blade clear before he could free it, Con turned his steed Arestes about in time to catch another soldier charging at him.

 

Literally.

 

Catching the man's blow on his shield as he reached over, he freed his feet from the stirrups as he caught hold of the man and ripped him out of the saddle as the pair fell to the ground. Rolling about, the man had dropped his weapon as he kept hold of Con and tried to reach for a dagger. Con didn't bother with such as he wrestled his way ontop of the man, pinning his arms to the ground as he punched the man in the throat repeatedly. Even as the man gurgled Con didn't stop, he'd finish him.

 

CLANG!

 

Lifted through the air, the force of the blow threw Con a couple of feet away onto his side. Rolling onto his back in a daze, Con tried to roll back onto his side but the best he could manage was moving his arms and legs weakly. Warmth ran from the side of his head where a sword had managed to cleave through his helm, he couldn't even tell how bad it was between the pain and concussion. Nor was he aware of the man who had delivered the blow, that he was bringing his horse about to trample him under the steed's hooves.

 

 

Con Stavros

Child of the Light

[Telcia]

[oc: Reetta, Sam & James, I hope you don't mind me taking a bit of liberties here... if so I'll edit, just email me (deanna[at]innlost[dot]org) and I'll jump on the thread before it gets too far.]

 

Telcia was nearly done with the weave to Sever the Channeler from the source forever. The spirit threads more intricate and vicious than anything she'd ever dreamed of putting together before and as a result it took every bit of her focus. For the first time in more than two lifetimes sweat beaded upon her forehead.

 

It was at this most critical moment when Arette's emotions through the link which connected them both to Saidar, seemed to spike like lightening and she screamed out in uncharacteristic emotional terror.

 

Telcia who had been so focused, nearly lost the weave entirely and barely could make out what Arette had said exactly other than it clearly was about Con.

 

Personally, she hated to admit (in some deep part of herself) she'd tried not to look at Iussi during battle. A Red knew this was the true weakness of an Aes Sedai who had a Warder... he made you vaunerable when you most needed to be focused on your foe.

 

The problem was, she did have such a weakness even if it wasn't supported by the One Power... & his name was Con Stavros.

 

Looking in the direction that Arette glared wide-eyed and utterly panicked, she took in the situation quickly. Dropping the Sever weave with an enraged scoff that would have made Muirenn proud; she gripped at thick threads of air like a woman grabbing for purchase on the side of a cliff as she fell.

 

Throwing together a sloppy but powerful wall of air she lobbed it carelessly in the way of the man hoping for effect, if not precision. And with a resounding spooked shriek from the man's beast of a horse, she realized her gambit had worked only mere heartbeats prior to when the horse would have crushed Con's skull like a ripe grape. Of course, it did hit a few others... but, she wouldn't complain. Con was safe at least.

 

Releasing Arette from the link she barked in a perfectly regal and emotionless tone, "GO!" Her icy blue eyes flashed making the red in her outfit stand out intensely. "SAVE YOUR HUSBAND..." Memories flashed unbidden before her eyes. Con saving her, more times than she could count... hating him... loving him, him knealt before her and wanting more than anything that she'd gone the path of the Brown and not the Red.

 

Looking briefly to him, all the emotion she held for him boiled to the surface and she finished, not caring if Arette really understood how they felt for each other now, "SAVE MY GAIDIN!"

 

She was certain Arette realized perfectly well what she knew to be truth now. No doubt the Brown would think of it if she hesitated about going to him at all... Telcia could actually do the sever weave with out her, if with some difficulty.

 

Before Arette could make any protest, even if she wanted to, Telcia screamed out to her horse and kicked it's flank violently. Leaning down near the horse to charge as Con had showed her in Arad Domain she made for the gate at a full gallop already pulling sweet Saidar into her again with renewed fervor.

 

"IUSSI!" She called out to him as he let a man fall off his blade. She approached him as fast as she'd ever rode before; he couldn't have fully understand what she was wanting when it began but as quickly as it began, it was over. She held out her hand to him, took his, and wrapped him in threads of air to help lift him onto the horse as well.

 

Clumsily but successfully, the two tore into the grounds of the Nalemar Household as their friends bravely held off the soldiers outside. Telcia could only hope they were alive when she got back.

 

Inside, Iussi jumped off before Telcia could say a word. Steel met steel and Telcia was glad she'd taken extra time secretly practicing some combative weaves with Arie as an Accepted. Every ounce of her years in study mattered now. Her babies lives were on the line... this was perhaps the most *real* battle she'd ever been a part of.

 

Oh, sure, she'd seen battlefields... walked among the dead and dying begging her for help long after her ability to light a candle was gone; but this was different.

 

Here she wasn't just shooting at some Channeler (though he was here somewhere, and she feared him a great deal now) from across the battlefield as Tower Guards engaged the enemy... here she stood among the danger. Here the blood was already soaking her clothes as it sprayed freshly out of men's wounds ... some breathing their last as her husband at her side struck his blades deep and true.

 

He was... amazing.

 

The dance of his flashing steel his hair flying wildly about him as he moved, his eyes flashing with a rage and hate she'd never dreamed him capable of... if she hadn't had such a fully engrossing and dangerous mission in her hands, she might have paused to admire his beauty.

 

The ground beneath them rose and shifted and Telcia found herself free-falling down hard onto her back leaving her without air as, the man who had caused the disturbance leapt down off the outer wall.

 

It seemed to take her husband's every bit of concentration to stay on his feet, but unlike her, he had. Swords flashed above her head as two men took on Iussi at once each trying to stay up and take advantage of the uneven ground.

 

Fire.

Water to counter Fire.

More Fire...

Air to quench it...

FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!

AIR! AIR! AIR!

 

The weaves came at a blinding speed and, unsettled still on the ground and unable to rise while weaving as fast as she ever had in a training session with the best of the Greens, Telcia gasped for breaths still trying to recover from having the wind knocked out of her.

 

Iussi and his sparing partners had backed away. Likely, Iussi thought to protect her from a stray sword's edge or to not get caught in a Channler's duel... both wise. She couldn't have watched those blades at her back now if she wanted to.

 

The man, now on the ground himself, stepped closer with every weave that failed to hit it's target... his flesh a terrible gray like death itself, his eyes sunk in like a day old corpse. Telcia thought he must be mad but those eyes, LIGHT THOSE EYES... he wasn't insane! He was enjoying himself... he didn't even seem winded or worried!

 

Light help me!

 

His thick meaty fist reached past her last threads and grabbed her by the ridding dress, his breath smelled of rotting meat and stale beer. "Alainin Blue..." he hissed the words and she spit at him only, now she was seeing a man who once held her so threateningly as a very young woman. All the while, she still worked at the Severing weave as frantically as she could.

 

I'll never be weak again... She repeated the mantra she'd held to as a girl, only this time it didn't hurt to think about it like it use to. This time it was more of a promise to herself... and a terrible truth meant to be executed.

 

"Time to go home, little princess." He said the words she thought would end it all and as if on cue, Telcia felt the cool violation of steel just as the finished weave released from her grip.

 

She fell to the ground, the world moving slowly now, she marveled how he took in... with horror ...just what he'd lost. He'd never expected this of her. It was forbidden & she was a Light following Aes Sedai… she couldn’t. Could she? Oh how it burned him, the injustice of it all and Telcia, for her years of studying burnt out Channelers and Males who’d been gentled, knew exactly what he was thinking and feeling.

 

Certainly, he'd not thought her so strong without an Angreal at least. He stared wide eyed, stupid, like a frog whose throat had been thinly slit & was bleeding slowly to death unable to so much as croak. It was as if he could do nothing but stare at her unbelieving, even as Iussi's frenzied battle cry shattered the newly fallen silence created by the other two men's deaths.

 

Iussi's spinning blades rose up like the sun coming over the horizon and then came down through the man as perfectly straight as the Tower itself. It was a move she'd seen in the warder's yard before but she never thought was practical.

 

She chuckled wryly as she watched. Apparently, it was.

 

Looking down now to the place where the man has stuck her, even as she could hear her husband frantically coming down to check on her, she realized... it wasn't mortal. The man had put the blade expertly into her flesh, through tender fat she'd taken on in her pregnancy and during her time on the farm, which lay on her side. Why he did this when he could easily have hit a lung or even her heart seemed an unfathomable mystery.

 

With Iussi's help she slid the dagger out. The man hadn't meant to kill her. But... why? What in the Light's name was going on?

 

"I'm fine..." She insisted and tried to wave off whatever fuss he had thought up to say or do. "...in the House, help me up... we must find the children!" She groped for him to assist her, still holding Saidar ready for whatever they might find inside.

[Sam]

His mount's hooves through up great clumps of dirt and its chest heaved with exertion as it carried its rider perilously across the battle field. Bloody warder. Brandeis had not seen him fall, but he had seen Arestes bolt past riderless. Con was on the ground somewhere, no doubt in great crisis and in need of his aid. Brandeis did push himself further into his saddle, smugly: he was still on his horse. Brandeis had never bested his friend in mock combat, but he would be sure to goad him appropriately . . . just as soon as he found him.

 

“Got you . . .†he murmured, when finally spotting the telltale bassinet wrestling in the grass. With a slight weight adjustment, Brandeis gave his horse its head and urged it towards his unseated friend. He spotted the wheeling rider from the corner of his eye, instinctively knew the target, and aimed to intercept. The sword felt too heavy in his grip; he still set himself for the strike. With the Creator's assistance, he would block the charge before it trampled Con.

 

Bracing himself for the impact, Brandeis was very surprised when a blast of air struck the the forelegs of his horse. As both his horse, and the other—obviously the target—scrambled frantically to remain upright, he turned an incredulous stare toward the Aes Sedai, before having the seasoned experience to leap from his horse. He landed in a roll and came up running, his injured arm on fire. His target had been less fortunate. His horse had landed on its side, crushing his leg beneath it as it rocked itself back to its feet. With a leap, Brandeis drove his shield down into the man's face, its force compounded by gravity.

 

With a hail of greeting, Brandeis moved to Con's side, noticed the cleaved Bassinet and forced it from his head. "Oh Light,sheis not going to like this." The left side of Con's face was obscured by a thick layer blood. His eye brow was dented by the blunt force of the strike. A deep slash ran straight through his eye to his jawline.

 

Shearing through his tabard with a discarded blade, Brandeis crudely bandaged the wound, clasped Con's forearms and helped him unsteadily to his feet. He was conscious, but not coherent. "I'm going to remember this," added the Inquistor in a cheerful tone.

[Arette]

The link through which the One Power surged wasn't in Arette's control, so despite Telcia's weaving being in its most crucial point, her attention wasn't required and it waivered to Con again. Two soldiers passed him and he used his shield to block the blow of the other with some difficulty. The other fighter's swing Con neatly dodged and run him through cleanly loosing his sword in the process as the soon-to-be dead man's horse kept moving. Her heart started hammering faster when a third man charged him and she called a warning even though it could not be heard over the melee.

 

Obviously Con had spotted him too and met the attack with his shield. Unarmed, he had no choice but to pull the man down and wrestle him to unconsciousness or death. When Con finally maneuvered his opponent into a helpless position, Arette flinched with every hit as Con crushed his throat. The danger wasn't over with this man, though.

 

"NOOOO!" she screamed seething with helplessness as a fourth assaultant thundered cowardly from behind him.

 

It seemed to take forever for his sword to descend and land on Con's helmet. Con crumpled on the ground, alive or dead she couldn't tell, and his opponent prepared to finish the job by trampling him. But she would burn in the Pit of Doom if she'd let him do that.

 

"TELCIA! CON... SAVE HIM!" She waved and pointed like a mad woman, but dignity was the last thing on her mind right then.

 

She thanked the Light frantically when she sensed Telcia dropping the Sever weave and turning her attention on the rest of the battle. Now if only this distraction did not pay them their lives as the male channeler coudln't be countered. The air weave fulfilled its purpose and with dark satisfaction Arette watched the battle mount go down in safe enough distance from Con crushing its rider's leg underneath it. The rescue was near in form of Brandeis who finished the injured enemy with his shield and moved to tend Con.

 

And then, unexpectedly, Telcia released her from the link and she couldn't think anything for a moment. One moment she had been on the top of the world, Saidar flowing through her in giddying amounts, and on the next instant she was plummeted back to the ground loosing her stomach on the way. She staggered disoriented and saw Telcia's lips moving, but the words made no sense to her. "SAVE MY GAIDIN!" was the first thing she understood and she frowned in confusion. Who did she mean? Iussi? Or... Con?

 

Telcia's next move quite flabbergasted her. She drank Saidar deeply and spurred her horse to the middle of battle field and away from the male channeler. It dawned on Arette what Telcia was about as she called Iussi and headed toward him. They were to storm inside for the children, a foolish and dangerous move with the male channeler still loose, and Light knew what waiting inside the house.

 

Burn Telcia, what was she supposed to do now. Her gaze shifted uncertainly between Con and the male channeler behind his men... the retreating male channeler. He was making it for the house too! She might be able to take him unaware now. The decision was taken off her hands when one of the combatants closest to her broke off from the skirmish with Luca, Leon and Bernd. His face was set to a grim snarl as he beat his horse in a determined effort to obviously disable her.

 

Arette opened herself to Saidar in a heartbeat and recalled vividly her test for the shawl and the assassination attempt against Karana. Then she had used an Air weave to grapple an opponent and flung him away... off a horse and off the window on top of the Tower. The memory sickened her and it was unnerving to know that she was really going to kill this man soon. But it was him or her and she could not help Con if she was dead. She gathered power and swung her hand in a wide arch wrapping the man in a tight cocoon of Air. Off the saddle he flew seemingly so easily, but she could feel the strain: lifting someone was one of the hardest things you could do with the One Power. Another flip of a wrist and his legs flew over his head and he fell on his neck. Her Saidar enchanced senses could pick the nauseating crunch when his neck broke. He went limp like a ragdoll and Arette wanted to retch. His horrified face swam in front of her vision; the first man she had killed before she herself had been injured first.

 

But the war horse was still on a crach course toward her, so she had to guide herself off the way. The horse under her reacted quicker than she had anticipated to her firm kick on its flanks and she had to struggle to stay on top of it. When she regained her balance, Leon and Bernd were done with their opponents and she turned her face away as Luca finished the last of the seven. She looked for the male channeler, but he had vanished through the gates and there was no sight of neither Telcia nor Iuss either.

 

The quicker they could finish here, the quicker they could go to their aid. And there was still Con. Her eyes found him unerringly and she felt faint with relief when she saw him on his feet. He looked unsteady and leaned heavily on Brandeis, but at least he was alive and could stand. Not that he should be standing with a head wound, she realized. She took in the rest of the situation and counted that there were only about handful of opponents still fighting and the Children were teaming up against them in twos and threes. It didn't look like they needed her help, so it was time to tend for Con. Just in case she did not release Saidar, but she reduced the amount to a trickle.

 

"Bernd, Leon, Luca, accompany me to the Captain. He is in need of Healing." She wondered who would be Con's second if he couldn't lead. Knowing the foolish man, he would demand on going first to the manor the moment he was clear of his wound. But he wouldn't, because she... well, she couldn't do anything aside from postponing Healing him, which she would not do. But maybe Brandeis would see the light of sense and lead the men first himself or see that someone else did.

 

As the four of them trotted toward the pair, Arette was keenly aware of how she rode like a haysack in comparison to the ease of the three trained soldiers. She controlled her horse well enough, though, and she was off the horse back the moment they reached the two. Her enchanced sight had caught the deep cut running all the way down the left side of Con's face, but what worried her more was the likely fracture on his eyebrow. Light, in the worst case he might even loose his sight from that eye. The fool Brandeis had removed his basinet and it might have done him extra harm. Or then helped, because now the helmet at least wouldn't pressure the wound. She couldn't tell without Delving him first.

 

"Brandeis, thank you. Thank you so much", she breathed. "Only, the manor... Telcia and Iussi went there already. Who is going to lead there? He cannot!"

 

She inhaled deeply, hoping to calm down a bit. "Someone support him, I need to Heal him now." Brandeis wasn't moving anywhere, so she settled her hands extremely carefully on Con's temples and wove Air, Water and Spirit, submerging the weave inside him. It stuck on all the wounds with a glow and told her what was wrong. Arette very much wished that she was a Yellow that moment since then she might have been able to Heal him well enough to leave no scar. If only they had had Lwena or Raina with them today.... But wishes didn't make pigs fly. The Delving revealed that there was indeed a fracture in the eyebrow, but not as large and severe as she had feared. The helmet had done its task and the eye and the brains weren't harmed. He did have a concussion, though.

 

As she changed the Delving into a fully fledged Healing weave, Con arched his back and trashed in Brandeis' hold as his flesh and bone knitted back together and skin mended. Arette ached for him and regretted that the Healing wouldn't feel very comfortable and would leave him so tired and hungry. But at least he was alive, that was the most important thing. She very much wanted to throw her arms around him and just stay there forever, but the battle wasn't over yet. Telcia and Iussi were inside the manor, alone, as were little Jelene and Jamal. With an effort she pried her hands off his face only caressing his cheeks quickly. There was fresh pink skin on the left side where the vicious gash had been, but only time would tell would it leave a scar.

 

"How are you feeling, Con? Talk to me."

[Wayfarer]

Winter frost. It was ten times colder than winter frost, the feeling that arc from his head to his toe. Unprepared for it, he couldn't fight the instinctive reaction to clench his fists and toes, struggling in the grip of Brandeis who he was only vaguely aware of. A hiss escaped from between his grinding teeth as what little breath he had in him was expelled. He could feel the bone in his face shifting, moving back into place and binding together, but thankfully the all pervading cold numbed it.

 

The fogginess that came from the concussion also dissipated, and as the cold drained from him he was in possession of his faculties again, if feeling somewhat weak, it took a great deal of effort to keep his feet. Looking about the field, there were only a few left who fought on, strange that they kept fighting when the- Telcia, where was she?

 

Asking the question got him a quick response from Arette, they were inside the manor already. Looking for his horse, he pointed Brandeis towards it and the man helped along regardless of Arette's protests. Getting a leg up, Con swung himself into the saddle even as the other Children began gathering around. Arette had seen there was little point in arguing and had fetched her horse and now Brandeis was already saddling up.

 

Still feeling woozy, he somehow managed to summon the strength to keep his voice steady as he spoke. "Telcia and Iussi do be within the manor, we do be needing to be catching up with them. These no necessarily be the only darkfriends, go." Spurring Arestas into motion, he set off for the gates with the rest of the Children and Arette with him.

 

 

Con Stavros

Child of the Light

[Arette]

Arette's face was a thunderhead as they rode inside the manor. It was obvious that Con was not at prime condition, but here he was still. Thankfully not leading the first charge to the yard, but right on their rear, whereas she had been told to come in last, surrounded by a bunch of Children. The first thing he had asked for was Telcia. Her Gaidin indeed, the small voice nagged. It was extremely petty and low to think such thing right then, but at least it drowned the image of the man charging him and the horrible sound when his neck had cracked and he had went all limp. Saidar was coursing through her and filling her with its life still. A precaution, she told herself but she clung to it as a source of comfort. It still gave her strenght now: only later she would reap the exhaustment. She could also feel Telcia holding on to the Source in the left side wing of the manor where she had earlier, at the planning stage, pointed out the living quarters of the nobles to be. She wasn't actively channeling since the amount remained too steady, so obviously they were facing any more resistance.

 

As her escort rode to the yard, it was balefully silent and filled with the reek of blood and guts and fallen bodies of bloody soldiers. The sight turned her stomach, but she relied on a bit more Saidar, almost at the edge of sweetness turning to pain. It did increase the sensory input, but she used it to scan the windows for archers. Nothing there, the whole manor was deadly silent.

 

Con was sending parties inside from all the entrances and Arette called to him, pointing at where Telcia and Iussi were. She, Con, Brandeis and her guard of three took that part of the house. As they entered the manor, they were greeted with a dread sight that made even the battle field fade. Arette couldn't help it anymore; she released Saidar and spew the contents of her belly on the fancy tiled floor of the grand hall.

 

One of the ladies of the manor sat by a small table in all her fineries. Her eyes stared unseeingly at the ceiling and her face was horribly twisted into an expression of pain explained by the froth on her lips and a glass shattered on the ground below her hand. She had taken poison. The few soldiers and even some other members of the family laying around had faced a braver choice, falling onto their swords. But not after first slaughtering a few innocent servants. The couple that had undone her was a servant woman clutching a young boy child to her chest. She had tried to shield him by her own body but to no avail: they both had been savagely run through before one of the soldiers had met his maker. May their souls burn in the Pit of Doom and never be reborn again!

 

She wiped her mouth angrily with a handkerchief and waved away Luca hovering over her.

 

"I am fine now. Telcia and Iussi are that way. There are still some children in this house we can save, so lets move."

 

 

Arette Nenatiar

Exiled Brown sister

[Telcia]

ooc: I had to find a creative way to have Telcia suspect Muir (as we originally planned) but also for her to so fervently want to ignore the truth that I won't compromise the rule on BA sisters. I haven't chatted with Muir yet on the specifics here but we have talked about this in the past. Since Telcia is going FL again (or is at least my intention) I won't be there to spill the beans in the Tower on Muir or have our confrontation until she's good and ready to kill off the character. I herby promise to play like a good kid, as was previously agreed upon. If any one has issues with how I went about writing this, please don't hesitate to email me at: deanna(at)innlost(dot)org

 

ic:

 

 

Telcia held Saidar tight in her grip, the dead lay all about the house, some wearing faces like she could only remember in distant dreams. They were faces of strangers who seemed, somehow, all to familiar to her.

 

She wondered if they even could recall stories of a young Alianin girl who use to run these hallowed halls as a child, her braids swinging wildly as she her hurried her brother Landon to hide with her among the potted plants and in the library. Did they know she learned to play piano here, to dance, to pontificate, to read and write and do numbers… did they know it was here her Grandmother instructed her in the arts of haggling and appraisal… or that a young serving girl here showed her what it first was to feel the yearnings of a woman for a man? Did they know it was here she buried the first man she’d loved?

 

Her lips quivered but her face was rock solid, the two weaves she waited to unleash were very different in nature but both made with the same purpose. One would restrain… the other… the other was of fire and while not as impressive as some Greens might have made, she was sure it would do more than singe a few eyebrows.

 

Each step was like walking back in time… so little had changed here. These old noble manners were like the White Tower in that way, the old things had value to the people here even if they’d long since forgotten what they were really about.

 

“Telc,†Iussi nodded ahead to the last door. Her heart aching to burst in her chest, swelling to a size she thought to be impossible. The door… the door was the head of the House’s. If the woman inside was not dead, she would not go easy… if she was dead… House Nalemar would likely be no more in the Arad Doman Council.

 

She had kept her word.

 

But it wasn’t this alone that made the steps slow, here, so far away from all the other rooms in the house, hung pictures of family long dead… long dead except for the white haired blue-eyed angel of a young girl pictured with her family on red velvet furniture trimmed in gold.

 

She could remember sitting for the picture as a child, how tedious it had been! The boys were forever giving mother trouble, and Father came and went occasionally from dealing with other family leaders… she hated sitting for the thing and had promised herself that when she and … and…

 

She looked to Iussi reaching out for the door, sword at the ready. She could see the boy’s face in her mind, his smile as he came to embrace her, “Everything is going to be alright now… It’s over.†He’d whispered, assuring her, and then it was over just as he said in a heartbeat, a crossbow bolt bursting into him and lodging into his chest.

 

Her first sight of death.

 

She’d loved him and now, she couldn’t even manage to remember his name. She dropped her head just a bit, stray strands of silvery-gray blonde fell around her face and she knew now… she’d lived far too long for any woman. The Creator couldn't have meant for people to be this way... it was cruel.

 

“Ready?†Iussi mouthed. “Telc?â€

 

She nodded silently, and it was as if color drained away from the world as the door flew open and silence filled her ears despite the desperate noise. Iussi was screaming, and tears simply flooded over from her eyes as the weaves she held to guttered and died.

 

She didn’t want to feel this, she couldn’t bear it. “Light take me…â€

 

Saidar filled her… filled her more, and more, and more. She fell to her knees and watched as Iussi scooped the tiny bodies up into his arms, his sword discarded some feet back as the room was as empty as the house… filled with only the dead.

 

“T…E…L…C…I…A!†Iussi screamed to her, as if somehow he knew what she was preparing to do. Behind her she could hear the thunder of feet; some skipping stairs as they ran upward coming towards her at breakneck speed … Arette was screaming something too but the life-song of Saidar… how tempting it was! To simply embrace the Light whole and be brought home into the waiting arms of the Creator; she would watch this hateful world melt away from her and all the pain would end once and for all. Then she could be with them… Melanie, Jelene, her son and daughter… her brothers and mother… her real father & her grandmother; she could go where everyone she’d loved save a small handful waited. She could just walk away and all the death would stop and the terrible things that had once been would be no more.

 

Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes as she stared, feeling helpless, at one of the men she did yet love in this wretched place. Iussi, clutching what could only be the lifeless shell that had been their baby girl seeming to cling to an emotion that was all too foreign to her at the moment. That little girl and that little boy had been everything… the shinning hope for a new world after Tarmon Gaidon… distantly in her mind she imagined them the first two Aes Sedai of a new Age of Legends and then the image (like that of her family members long since dead) began to fade. Would she even remember what they looked like in years to come or would their memories fade too?

 

The world had seemed to move so slowly that when it finally seemed to catch up with itself it did so in a blinding rush. So much happened in what seemed a second… Iussi raging and screaming for her… she filled to the brim with Saidar watching as a man appeared from behind a book case with a dagger falling down up on her husband.

 

So fast…

 

There was no weave, no scream she could make to warn him quick enough. The assassin wasn’t there and then suddenly he was… he was fine one moment (though clearly bent on killing Iussi who couldn’t see him) and suddenly, swords seemed to be blossoming from his chest like a flower pushed up from the earth. Con & Brandeis, looking more like butchers then swordsmen, were on the other ends of the instrument of his demise.

 

Another person of this world that she yet loved grabbed on to her and spoke to her in the regal and commanding tone that expected no argument… it was the voice of the Keeper of the Chronicles, “LET IT GO NOW! RELEASE THE SOURCE!†The woman held her roughly, not an ounce of the panic she must have been feeling anywhere on her face.

 

*THUD* the sound was of something hard hitting something else, very near Iussi by the sound of it but she couldn’t see around Arette who filled her vision. “WHO HIRED YOU!?! WHO?!?†One of the men behind Arette… was that Iussi? Or was that Con? Con, yes… he was questioning the man; screaming at him in a most violent way, likely before he died.

 

“TEL PLEASE!†Arette smacked her very hard but it wasn’t the pain that caused her to startle out of the dark and hopeless place she’d fallen, it was the voice of the would-be-assassin & the sight of something she had seen before… a small glass bottle with a mark in the bottom of it... The Flame of Tar Valon.

 

“Only one place…†The Assassin coughed on what was likely his own blood. “They will be safe from us…â€

 

Telcia blinked and focus and reason returned to her eyes, her hold on the power lessened and had she been looking at Arette’s face no doubt she would have seen joy and relief there but her eyes locked on the bottle.

 

Leaping sideways suddenly she reached under the bed where it had rolled and snatched it out, sniffing the bottle quickly to determine its previous contents. Inside she now resembled the look which Iussi had once had on his face but outwardly she had nothing but betrayal painted there. She knew who used this herb and why and though her heart raced as she fell upon her daughter and son screaming, “ARETTE… COLD WATER!â€

 

Iussi’s eyes went wide, the Assassin, despite her deepest wish now, breathed his last and Telcia worked desperately to open her babies mouths and clean out the herb as best she could.

 

“How?!? Telcia they’re not breathing… they… Telc!?!†Iussi’s torrent of questions raged on until she instructed him with less than kindness. “CLEAN OUT THE BLOODY MOUTH… GET THE HERB OUT… PUSH ON THE THROAT INSIDE WITH YOUR FINGER… oh light… MAKE THEM GET SICK!†Staring at her son’s face she urged him desperately, “Come on baby… PLEASE!?!â€

 

In her mind she could see her and her Aunt standing in the dark corridor the night they took Iussi to the Tower dungeon the woman produced a small vile, just like the one now in her pocket, and told her the secret of having used it to mercifully kill when she’d had to help male Channelers in the past… including her own brother. She had said it forced them into a deep sleep, that it wasn’t painful, that their body simply slowed and then drifted off and that she would do as much for Iussi if the day came when he was suffering so greatly that Telcia could no longer bear it.

 

Not Muirenn… Light please not Muirenn… she couldn’t… she… she loves me. Or so she silently tried to reassure herself as she worked. The voice of the Assassin echoed in her ears as she worked. He insisted that the children would only be safe one place… in the same way that she’d insisted there was only one safe place for the dragon.

 

A memory of the woman seeming to feel so badly for her after Melanie’s questionable demise… a memory of her in the infirmary assuring her that the man who’d raped her had paid dearly for his crime… what if she hadn’t meant he’d suffered just in the chair of woe?

 

Did she really so twisted and deeply love her that she could do such a terrible thing to bring her home despite the shame she would endure and despite her love for Iussi? Not Muirenn Light… Not Muirenn. I refuse to believe it. I WON’T. Not her.

 

It was then she heard the most beautiful noise she’d heard since the cries of their birth… the retching, gasping, and crying of her babies.

[Arette]

OOC: I am really glad that you didn't kill the kids! For a moment I was really worried here. Phew. :) As for the prisoner I am writing in in this post, she will not know anything.

 

IC: It was easy to follow the beacon that was Telcia holding Saidar and even though the Children didn't allow Arette to go first, she pointed the direction. She could sense Telcia to stop for a moment and then... Arette's eyes widened in alarm. Suddenly the amount of the Power coursing through Telcia increased so much that she had to be teetering at edge of taking too much. She feared that she knew that had happened: Telcia had found her babies and something horrible had happened to them. Light, please let it not be so. Her heart chilled and she sprinted after her friend as fast as she could and the earlier warning allowed her to pass Bernd, Leon and Luca before the men reacted. They all dashed forward spurred by Iussi's voice calling Telcia's name, the panic clearly audible.

 

Con and Brandeis reached the room before her their swords drawn. They entered a scene of an assassin trying to stab unwary Iussi on the back as he was trying to get the attention of Telcia. She didn't have to worry about him, the men would take care of that pestilence. Arette's eyes were drawn on two tiny figures laying on the floor seemingly lifeless. NO! She wanted to wail in anguish. Jelene and Jamal couldn't be dead, they just couldn't be! It would devastate Telcia and Iussi. So cruel... they had been barely two years old. This couldn't be happening. But she couldn't let herself fall apart now, not yet when Telcia was doing something desperate. She had to stop her.

 

Arette grabbed Telcia from shoulders, her fingers digging deep into her skin. She tried to muster her best command voice, the one that had sent novices scurrying in fear and had made even the most powerful nobles wary of her. “LET IT GO NOW! RELEASE THE SOURCE!â€

 

Telcia didn't seem to even hear her, her eyes were bleak and she was withdrawn deeply into the pits of her own mind. Arette pulled her arm back for the maximum strenght and slapped Telcia hard on one cheek. Her palm stung and there was an angry red spot on Telcia's cheek, but the Red's gaze didn't focus on her and she didn't let go of Saidar. “TEL PLEASE!â€, she pleaded. Her friend seemed to stare at something behind her and what ever it was, it brought her back.

 

Arette started when Telcia suddenly stopped channeling and rushed past her to pick up something from under a bed on their left. She turned and Arette saw that it was a small glass vial. There was fervent hope on her face and she rushed to the babies clutching Jamal in her arms. “ARETTE… COLD WATER!â€, she yelled. Arette just stared at her uncomprehendingly for a moment and then she realized that the children could still be alive. They had been obviously poisoned.

 

Iussi started blubbering stupid questions, but Arette didn't need to hear Telcia's instructions. She knew what she needed to do. Small children couldn't be Healed since they weren't strong enough for it yet, but thee was the entirely natural craft of healing that could be applied. She knelt beside Jelene and lifted the child to her lap so that the girl's side rested on her thighs. She supported her head and she could feel a fluttering and weak pulse on Jelene's neck as she pried her fingers gently on the small mouth and worked on the epiglottis until her throat convulsed and she threw up a few times. Then she drew a shuddering breath and opened her eyes starting to wail weakly.

 

Arette hugged the child fiercely and she could feel tears of relief and happiness on her cheeks. Thank the Light! The poison must not have had time to affect yet. They had made it here just in the nick of time. But why kill the children? Why had they been taken in the first place if there was no use for them? "Ma...ma, mama", Jelene uttered and interrupted her ponderings. Arette smiled gently down on her and touched her cheek with one finger. She closed her eyes for a moment and imagined that it was one of her girls. How she missed them. The child didn't let her to cling on her day dreams for long: she protested the nursing position and stuggled feebly. Arette was fairly certain that the girl recognized her, but of course she rather wanted her mother now when she was finally here.

 

She handed a little reluctantly the girl to weeping Telcia who couldn't seem to hold the twins close enough. Iussi sat there beside her looking slightly bewildered and lost. Arette actually felt sorry for him. His own children wouldn't recognize him since they had last seen him as infants and he didn't know how to be with them either. She glanced up at Con who was also watching the happy family union. She couldn't quite read the expression on his face and she wondered if the similarity of his and Iussi's situation had come to his mind. She wanted very much to be comforted by his embrace right then, so she stood up to go to him. Only then she saw a second body that she had failed to notice before.

 

It was a woman dressed in fairly simple clothes, so she had most likely been a servant. There didn't seem to be any puncture wounds or blood on her so maybe she had been poisoned too. She could still be alive and since they hadn't caught anyone else, she might be able to provide them with answers. Arette made her way to the body and Delved it. Her assumption proved to be right. "This one isn't dead yet. She has been poisoned too, but I think that I can Heal her." She proceeded to do exactly that and after a few minutes the woman opened her eyes, blinking and confused.

 

Arette loomed over her. She was more than likely a Darkfriend, so she wasn't going to give her any time to recover. "You will tell me now why these children were kidnapped. What was your part in this vile scheme? Co-operate and you will spare yourself from a lot of pain. If you will not answer me, I will hand you over to the Inquisitor of the Children of the Light." Arette lifted the woman's head painfully as she grapped her from the hair at the nape of her neck. She pointed at Brandeis who recovered from his surprise quickly and played his part by giving the woman a menacing glare and snarl. Arette thought that he looked like he was a madman, but maybe that was exactly why commoners found him so frightening.

 

Brandeis most definately had an effect on the servant as her eyes widened and she squeaked. Arette let go of her hair and her head bounced on the floor as if she didn't yet have the strenght to support it. "I... I am just a nurse", she replied with a trembling voice. "Please lady and lords, don't hurt me, I don't know anything. I have been in the manor only little over a month."

 

"Lies", Arette spat. She had to be lying and know something. She doubted that the rest of the Children had founded anyone alive from the other parts of the house, at least not anyone who could tell them anything useful. Their hope lied on this woman.

 

"No, no, I am telling the truth." The servant was frantic now. "I was recruited from Osprey village outside Bandar Eban and I have been here only a little over a month. I didn't know about the kidnap, I swear. They told me the kids were relatives, orphans. Please don't hurt me." She started crying and Arette was disgusted... with herself too, because she was starting to believe her. If this was an act, the woman was among the best in the world and it wasn't very likely.

 

She stood up wiping her hands on her dress and looked at Con and Brandeis. "Do you believe her? What are we going to do with her?"

 

Arette Nenatiar

Exiled Brown Sister

Bonded to Calvin Gaidin

Mother of Karana and Telcina

[Wayfarer]

Most everything had been a blur from the moment Arette had spurred them on. The assassin had died under his and Brandeis blade, the babies had been poisoned but it had been forced out of them, now a servant woman who had been found still dying had been healed and was now subjected to their questioning. All the while Con still felt somewhat out of it, the blow to his head had been healed but he still felt... Not entirely there.

 

Arette was alot rougher than Con would have expected, it certainly wasn't the Arette he knew. Then again, Arette had no doubt seen a new side to him today. He was covered from head to toe in blood, only some of which was his own. His face wasn't pretty to begin with but the blow he'd taken certainly hadn't helped things either.

 

The woman was terrified, in fact Con was fairly sure she was scared out of her wits by now. Her answers came quickly, seemingly from memory as opposed to her creating a story on the spot. It could have been a trained story, but at the same time Con found himself pitying the woman more than anything. It surely couldn't be possible that the entire household had been darkfriend, and Con had definitely had enough bloodshed for one day. Not to mention that while it was one thing to kill a person on the battlefield, it was another entirely to execute someone which was what they would have to do if she were darkfriend. There was no chance of her being taken back to Amador as a prisoner.

 

"I do believe her. We do be only able to let her go, at least that do be my opinion. Brandeis?"

 

 

Con Stavros

Child of the Light

[Sam]

Brandeis gave a thin lipped smile. He had been slightly surprised by the Aes Sedai's unsympathetic reaction to the "nurse"; that is not what made him smile. What had was the contemplation as to whether any present (save himself) had the relentless conviction to seek the truth with measures beyond instinct. He hoped not, at least in Con's case.

 

There was no way to rule out the possibility of guilt, even through the "question." True enough, all had their limit of endurance, but occasionally death was known to strike first."

 

He would not perform such acts in front of Con. He was well aware of the look given to his kind, and he refused to see it on the face of that one. Aes Sedai be damned. Still, there was another way . . . .

 

Striding forward, Brandeis cupped the nurse's chin in his hand, eyes riving like blue fire. A ghost of the transformation that allowed him to do what he did, and to do it well. His voice became distant, and he began to gaze through her, not at her.

 

"You know what I am . . . ?" He spoke softly, tilting her head toward the symbol on his tabard. She nodded.

 

"You know what I do . . . ?" A whisper. Her body began to tremble, and he held her gaze for in silence for an uncomfortable space of time: her fear almost a scent in the air.

 

". . . Boo!" The single word, while not quite a shout, shattered the delicate quiet, which seemed to fragment like broken mirror. The woman's eyes rolled, and her body went limp. Fainted. Brandeis gave a snort. "Innocent," he proclaimed.

[Arette]

OOC: Cool post, Sam! :) And I guess that this thread is pretty much over soon.

 

IC: Arette watched with unwilling fascination how Brandeis dealt with the poor nurse. He seemed to transform into an entirely different man in front of her eyes. She was glad that he wasn't going to resort to his more extreme questioning methods. She would make the woman sleep and maybe she would be less shocked tomorrow. They could escort her at least to Bandar Eban.

 

"You're right, Con and Brandeis. We should let her go. Lets just tuck her into bed somewhere for tonight. After that, we have to go through the house." She sighed. "I doubt that the others found anyone alive either, so we have to put the pieces of the puzzle together by other evidence. And then there is burying the bodies." She definately wasn't looking forward to that, but she might be more efficient there than at looting the house.

 

"However, someone else needs their rest too and that is you, Con. It's the Healing. You will have a long journey ahead of you starting from tomorrow, so you need to be in your best condition." He was going to leave her then. She wanted to cling to him and beg him to stay for a little longer or come with her or something, but she didn't. She was proud that her anxiety didn't show expect by the longing gaze she gave to him. Light, but she would miss him. It would start all over again, just when she had thought that she was over it and him. But she wouldn't have changed any of it and he would come to see them... if he just survived the return to Amadicia.

 

"I believe that I am of most use at digging the graves", she declared quietly. "Brandeis, will you take the searching? I think that you have the most experience in that."

 

Arette

Exiled Brownie