Arette
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A timid but insistent rap on the door rouse the mustached Ebou Dari from sleep. He was groggy and slightly disoriented, but tried to alert himself. It had to be something important at this hour. He grabbed his pants, slipped his feet in and fumbled them close hastily before opening the door. The ajar doorway revealed the girl from the downstairs, the bar wench. She had a somehow bewildered look on her eyes and it woke Iussi up a bit. Maybe someone had harrassed her and she needed protection, it was the first explanation that came to mind. She did cast an admiring look on his wiry upper body, but then visibly shook herself and seemed scared again.
"Please good master, let me in. It is really important", she whispered looking left and right in the corridor. Iussi blinked, but then stepped aside and let her inside, closing the door behind them.
"You're safe now", he assured her. "Just tell me what is wrong and I will do my best to aid you?"
She drew a deep breath. "It is... it is a woman. She just came and..." Blush crept to her fair cheeks, but she pressed on. "She wants to see you. I think that she is..." The girl, whose name Iussi still hadn't learned, gave an emphatetic look on his ring. "... well, you know who."
Iussi just stared at her for a moment until the possibility really dawned on him. Telcia here? Light, would she really have followed him? After all that show in the Tower, sending him away. But then she knew that Iussi would have protested her leaving. She had chosen to return to the Tower and had been there but a month. What would going away again do to her reputation that she had been so worried about? Aes Sedai were secretive beings, though, and Telcia had told him that it was considered unacceptable to put one's nose into another Sister's affairs. Yet all women gossipped and Aes Sedai no less so...
Still, he was happy. Telcia was in the lead and he but followed. And it wasn't in him to plan or worry overly much anyway. Surely she had considered all the angles and possibilities and.... She was here now! That was all that mattered to him.
"Where is she?", he demanded eagerly.
"Room 6. But she told...", the girl started. "...not to cause any fuss." She finished her sentence to empty walls and open door. Men! This one was pretty enough to catch even an Aes Sedai's eye, but he wasn't too smart. He had to have some other... talents to compensate for it. Jenna sighed wistfully and was mentally preparing to head to her lonely bed. She doubted that the lady would be thinking her again tonight.
Meanwhile Iussi was navigating eagerly and trying to find the right room. Room 6 had to be on the same floor... aha, at the end of the corridor. The inn's best room it seemed, maybe a suite even, though he didn't really expect it in a place like this. He knocked the door lightly, but minded his manners and waited for her call despite his eagerness to be with her again.
"Enter", her sweet voice said and a delightful sight greeted him. She was sitting in a copper bath tub and their eyes met and held like two magnets even as he shut the door behind him firmly. His mouth felt dry, but his tongue was ever quicker than his mind.
"Ebou Dari bather at your service, my lady. Your wish is my commandment."
iussi
Tower Guard
Telcia's hubby
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Light, but Brandeis was wasted. Some people were like that. Put little booze on their belly and they would sink down more like sponges. She didn't think that it had to do with growing more resilient, but it was inherent. And while people were intoxicated, they showed their true colours. She didn't very much appreciate the colours this Brandeis fellow was presenting so far. She listened him ramble on and agreed with him that he wasn't quite as fearsome as the Inquisitors she had heard of. The Fortress of the Light was surely as political hotbed as the White Tower with its two branhces and as the real nobility of Amadicia, the Children surely attracted individuals with all kinds of ambitions. He had at least some taste, avoiding his fellows for the most part when he just could.
Con's suggestion about quitting as an Inquisitor seemed to surprise him as if he had never even considered it. The family tradition explained it, though. So he was truly mislead since childhood. It was a surprise that he hadn't become the monster his father and grandfather obviously were. But no one could walk too far from the mercy of Light, no matter what they had done. She wished that Brandeis would leave his side of the order and not tarnish his soul further. Then Brandeis asked something that she had wanted to know ever since finding out about Con's new affiliation. Why was he siding with the Chilrden? Arette would have guessed him to head to the Borderlands after his departure. It had been his dream and the reason why he had originally came to the Yards to train.
By his reply, he had maybe grown a little wiser indeed and less eager to throw his life away. He was no use to the world dead. His longing for a good leader was pretty telling. That was why the White Tower had lost him. Due to inaction and because of the male channeler issue. It had been last straw. Arette still believed that what they had done had been necessary. The male channelers caught hadn't been much help so far, and the other a disaster in fact, but still the change of Gentling Law had made it much easier to get along with the Dragon. In theory since those flaming wool-heads in the Hall had decided to kidnap him.
Her thoughts were interfered by a slurred suggestion to kill her off like another lamb off slaughter. So, that was the real nature of Brandeis, doing away ruthlessly with inconveniences. It took Con a long moment to reply, but the unwavering no assured Arette that he was still the same old honourable man as before. She was just about to turn away, certain that she had heard everything coherent there was to be learned, when Brandeis decided to make a move into the woods right toward her. Her heart skipped a few beats, before she unceremoniusly ducked behind the bushes.
Brandeis didn't venture very far luckily and after some rumbling and rustling around that Arette was glad to not witness, he emerged back to Con. By then she was slowly crawling back to the camp, cursing the stone-brained drunkard for getting her nightgown to even worse condition. She could hear their stumbling walk and Brandeis' oaths and determined that it was safe to stand up and walk. Light, but she was in need of a thorough bath... and the best they could currently offer was a bucket of water from the spring nearby. As she approached the camp, she noticed to her delight that Luca still awake, keeping company to the guards by the fire. Keeping her cloak wrapped tight around herself to keep them from seeing the mud-stained dress under it, she approached the men with greetings. When the pleasantries had been exchanged, she pulled Luca aside to ask him for a favour. As a gentleman, he naturally granted it and she could retreat to her tent with relief to wait for him.
Soon enough he entered with the bucket, a polite rap on the tent poles giving a warning.
"Is there anything else you desire of me tonight, Lini?", he asked. Arette wasn't certain if he had meant all the connotations she was reading into his words, but she blushed violently blessing the darkness in the tent. Light, they hardly even knew each others. And even though he was fine company, she wasn't going to repeat the mistake she had done with Con, bedding a man before they could be certain of the match and their emotions.... not even Con again, if such a miracle happened one day.
"I... uhh... thank you, Luca, but that is all. I really need to get refreshed, so could you please...." He got the message and with a final wish for sweet dreams left her to her own devices.
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It had been two days already since Arette and Con had fallen down to this dark underground world. They had been walking and walking from the moment they woke up to the point when their bodies told them it was time for rest. For that the journey behind them had prepared them, but not for the lack of food and ravenous hunger. They had no gear with them but the clothes on their back, Con's sword and what she could make them by channeling. At least they didn't have to sleep on the hard stone floor anymore, since she could create them hammocks or mattresses for the night. Stiffness would have made walking unbearable and even though she could have eased Con, she couldn't channel to help herself. Speaking of Con, he wasn't talking. After the forced few hours when he had to have kept her awake, it seemed like he had spent his words for the next few days. It was utterly silent in the tunnels save for their breathing and footfall and it was weighing on Arette. She wanted Con to talk so she wouldn't feel so horribly lonely. But cajoling him to speak for whole yesterday had been so frustrating that she thought it better now to just focus on her breathing and doing novice excercises to reach calmness. Getting Con to communicate with her was like squeezing water from a rock. He didn't react much to her speeches either. Only the girls had elicited mild interest and Arette still had her pride. If she was clearly unwanted, she wouldn't abase herself by forcing herself on him.
At nights the barely reached peace of mind evaded her. Sleep didn't come easily as she laid on the rocky ground. In her mind's eye she lived through the best moments of the five months her little sunshines had been on her life. And Calvin, ever loyal. She couldn't die on him and doom him to a broken bond. What would happen to the girls if the only man they had known in their lives would be incapacitated or even worse, dead from the shock. They had already lost their mother for their little minds couldn't comprehend that she hadn't abandoned her because she wasn't gone for good. Light knew what damage she had already caused them. The worst part was that she knew with horrible clarity that they wouldn't remember her when she got back home. Three months that they had approximated their trip to last was an era to a child of girls' age. Was this really worth it? She was saving her immortal soul here, but the trade was unrecognition on the faces of her own children and not being there to witness them grow and maybe even say their first words... their first utterance would not be mom, like for everyone else.
Eventually the pain was just too much to be kept inside her. Willamina had taught her that it was allowed, even beneficial to let it be released. So she wept quietly hugging her budled cloak to her chest, imagining that it was Calvin or one of the girls or even Telcia. But not Con, not anymore and especially now when he was blocking her out. She had every intention of not bothering him with her weakness, but she thought that he knew anyway. She was only greatful that he didn't bring the topic up. On the second day she tried to give him as little trouble as possible by just walking and walking and not bothering him with her presence and obviously unwelcomed attempts for contact by speaking. She receded again to the fade into background tactic. It had proven a good trick in childhood and later in the house of Suinevirs... and even as a novice. If no one noticed you, they would just leave you alone and bothered and hurted you as little as possible. This whole underground journey seemed to be regressing her back into the unhappy years before the Tower when she had been powerless over her own fate. The most difficult thing for her as an Accepted had been to build a facade of confidence and self-assurance over the core where the lonely little girl was hiding. The Brown Ajah and the library had offered her the perfect sanctuary for hiding from people and all the scary things interaction with them brought with it.
Right then, though, her mind was at ease and her hunger pushed on the backburner. Inhale slowly through your nose, hold the air for as long as that took and then exhale through your mouth and then relax your lungs for the same amount of time than the other stages only to start again. This was the trick that kept the cold and heat from bothering an Aes Sedai and now when there was a regular routine again, she did it without thinking. But she very much didn't want her mind to wander, so she forced herself to pay attention to her breathing and to imagine only river held by the bank and wind moving on the corn field and all the multiple novice excersices. Her reverie was broken by Con, who walked in the front, signaling her to stop. It was obvious from the lights she had placed on him that before them was finally a larger space than these endless tunnels. He was going first to examine the place like a proper Warder would. Arette crept a little closer and tried to peek in too, but all she could see was stalagmites and stalactites. It didn't take Con long to emerge again and he was curt as usual.
"There be water and two tunnels leading off the space." Water was good news... if it wasn't stale. And maybe, just maybe there was some kind of strange underground life. Animals always lived nearby water. Arette merely nodded at Con and entered the opening, her stomach rumbling and convulsing painfully. She ignored it with a grimace, but it was getting harder and harder. She had created them a small bucket of Air where she created them water and now she prepared to refill it after tasting the water first. She cupped her hand and grasped the liquid. There was movement on the corner of her eye, something white on the water... there were living things here! Her entire body tensed as she reached for Saidar. The hunger surged in her hundredfold with the increased awareness and she felt light-headed. She focused tightly on the fleeing white thing and a net of Air grabbed it. She pulled it toward her and soon a strange milk-coloured eyeless fish flapped on the floor in front of her with its gills heaving as it tried to draw air.
She gave Con a triumphant look and her face was almost contorted with relief. "Light! Fish, it's a fish!" She didn't even consider that it might not be edible but rushed to set up the fire with the five "logs". It had proved to be a good concept so she saw no reason to change something that worked. "Can you fry it? I can make you a stick or a pan or something. And I have a trick to lure more fish here... if there are any." She was shaking with emotion and starvation and tears rose to her eyes unbidden. "Thank you Light! We're saved." She detested the smell and taste of fish, but right now it was the sweetest thing in the world she could imagine.
Arette
Retired Aes Sedai
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Air rushed in Arette's ears as she fell and she couldn't see much because her skirts were flying and flapping against her face. She was so panicked that she couldn't think straight. All she knew was that she was going to die and never see her babies again. Saidar would never fill her again with its life and soon she would bloody pulp against the harsh rocks down there. She screamed and screamed and her hands and legs flailed uncontrollably. Then she bounced into something, her skirts getting stuck and starting to rip. With the adrenaline rushing in her veins she grabbed forward and got a hold of something solid, a branch. There was a small and snarled tree growing on a tiny ledge and this particular branch didn't look like it would hold her very long. It was dry and leafless and she held on to the slender end of it.
Her mind cleared enough to look up and she saw glimpses of white and faces peeking over the edge. She didn't dare to move a muscle, but she raised her voice that was already hoarse from all the yelling. "HELP! LIGHT, PLEASE HELP ME UP! HEEEEELP!"
A man was lowered down with a rope and her stomach clenched hard with painful excitement. She clung even harder to the branch and prayed and prayed for the Light to save her and not let the wood to snap before the rescue would get to her. As he got closer, she could see that it was Con. There were white lines of tension on his face and he approached agonizingly slowly. Then he was at her reach, holding out his hand and calling her to take it.
The river boomed below them and she couldn't help but turn her eyes and look at the roaring water. The river was ready to consume her and sweep her away. But Con had come for her and she was not going to die, not today. She would hold Rana and Cina again and finish this mission. She released her left hand from the branch and swung her feet for a kick to get more propelling power for her extend. She was almost half way of the motion with the branch lurched with her when the tension proved too much. With a laudible crack she fell again still holding the end of the wood at her right hand.
Tears blinded her eyes, but she tried to look up to see his face. She hadn't gotten the chance to say him that she loved him. She called his name and tried to desperately hold hands to her sides and keep her body rigid and tense so that her plummet to the water would be smoother. Her body didn't obey her though, but her limbs trashed about.
SPLASH!
The impact rushed all the air out of her lungs and she plummeted down under into the freezing mountain water. She kicked herself toward the light and the surface and gasped air. She was a decent swimmer, but terror was gripping her so hard that she could only flail about wildly. Her shoes and skirts felt heavy, like anchors pulling her down, and the drift moved her at dizzying speed. Her feeble attempts at keeping herself afloat ended when she connected with a jagged rock. She scraped herself badly, but managed to protect her face and head... from that rock. The collision sent her forward to another and she hit the back of her to it. She didn't quite loose her consciousness even though black spots swam in front of her vision, but every muscle in her body went limp and she inhaled water. Her head broke the surface once and she drew air hungrily managing a gasping cry, even though there was no one to hear it.
The waters pulled her down and her lungs burnt and felt like they would burst. Then something grabbed her and she was powerless to resist even when imagery of water beasts flashed through her mind. She was being pulled somewhere, but she was only half awake and unable to breathe. Being laid to the rocky ground on the lump on the back of her head made her open her eyes wide. For a moment before she lost it, Con's face registered in. He had to resuscitate her for a moment before she finally coughed out a lung full of water. She turned to her side and choked and wheezed until she nearly threw up.
She felt weak like a drowned kitten and dozen blacksmiths were pounding the back of her skull, but she was alive. The realization filled her with immense joy and greatfulness. But Light, for how long? She became conscious of just how wet and cold she was and her body was already shivering. And who had helped her? It took an effort to get into sitting position and her head nearly split with pain when she turned it. It was Con, alright. He was studying his gambeson with a worried look.
"C..Con, th..th..thank you", she managed between her chattering teeth. "I'm s...s..s..sorry for getting y...you into thi..this mess too. You sh..sh..should h..h..have left me. Th...the babies ar..are all th..that matters. A...are we g..going to die now? Wh...where are we?"
OOC: Feel free to NPC Arette to forward things as far as you like *s* She can channel, but barely, and will most likely be throwing up every time, because she has a concussion.
Arette
Retired Brown sister
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Listening to Con wish that Telcia was with them was painful considering her past misconceptions of the nature of their relationship. But she also agreed with him full-heartedly. Children needed their mother and she missed her friend too. Still if Telcia had been here, Arette couldn't have beared to see Con speaking at ease with her and laughing with her when she treated Arette like something found on the sole of his boot. It was truth also that Arette had betrayed his trust badly and it was uncertain if he could even bring himself to open himself to her again. Trust was the prerequisite for love and respect and they would have to build that foundation first before anything else. Trust was mutual understanding and knowing what to expect from other people. Arette most certainly had behaved in most unpredictable way when she reacted to pain and what she had seen as a betrayal from Con's part. She believed that she had now been able to analyse why she had acted like that and could explain it to him too. If he would only listen. It wasn't adult and mature reason, but it was a reason nonetheless. And if they wanted to get anywhere with each others, Con would have to understand how different they really were and how different backgrounds they had ever since the childhood.
When they had been together, Con had been certain of himself as a person if not of his skills and abilities. Arette had been confident, even overly so, of what she could do and knew. But when it came to dealing with people and with deep emotions inside herself, she was closed like a mussel protecting a weak and vulnerable core. Now Con had a strong inside and outside, but Arette was still struggling with coming to terms with herself. She was forever greatful to Willamina for forcing her to examine herself like that and exposing her real flaws to her.
Her stream of thoughts was interrupted when Brandeis asked about Telcia. She was mentally preparing herself for the laudatory speech from Con, but he spoke of the Tower instead. Arette found herself agreeing with him in surprisingly many instances. The insulated training did indeed separate Aes Sedai from the common people. Novices performing chores did not make them truly understand what it was like for the common people working like that from day to day. It just taught the young women to develop an outer appearance of humbleness and meekness while they knew that in twenty years they would be allowed to live like queens. The Tower had lost its sight on its true purpose. Its purpose wasn't to Serve All anymore, it was to Serve the Tower. The Tower should be everywhere like the old Hall of Servants, not focused on one city. They should have outposts so that more people could approach them and they reach more people. That way they would be finding more novices too and they would be more available. Most Sisters appealed to lack of womenpower to do that, but they were blind to the fact that if the Tower didn't soon become more open, they would have even less Aes Sedai in the future.
And Light, the Ajahs... Getting them to agree on anything was like trying to carry the world on your back. She and Karana had tried, they had had to divide the Hall to be able to work more freely and keep the Dragon out of the Tower's reach. The Dragon needed only one advisor and even if Adelle wasn't the woman Karana and she would have chosen, she had already gotten the Dragon's trust. A wise woman used the tools available and didn't complicate things like the Hall had by trying to send an advisor from each Ajah to him. And now this brilliant stunt of Dumai's Well. The Tower had broken even worse than in Karana's time and to her knowledge coming from Telcia, there had been two opposing groups of Aes Sedai present there. The Tower had lost any hope of Him ever trusting them again.... and played him right into the pocket of Karana. She had lost the Power, but she had been helped out of humiliating life as a servant in the Tower. And Arette knew just where she was headed. She would have His ear soon enough. If only a Yellow with the right Talent could be gotten to her. Or Raina, the Dragon's Wisdom....
Ah, and then Con got to the Telcia. She was indeed well in tune with the common people, but if Con would ever allow himself to discuss with the villagers of Fernhill, he might get a surprising second opinion of Arette too. They were quite alarmed now of course of the revelation of her being an Aes Sedai, but she was still the same woman who had been labouring as Willamina's apprentice. Con continued and Arette thought of the good, bad and mediocre of the Tower. Which category had he thought that she belonged to before their break up? Most likely mediocre, because she had been consumed by her duty as a Keeper, obsessively even at the last months. But that was largely because of him. Her choice of course, but he had been the trigger.
She frowned disapprovingly when the Inquisitor slurred Con to pass him the flask. He was as drunk as a cuckoo already and ready to spill out some confessions too. It was a good thing that he had come to doubt the way of the Children, but what kind of a man became a torturer in the first place? She felt a pang of pity for him when he admitted that he hadn't enjoyed it. It was a common trick to convince oneself that the person you were doing all kind of horrible things wasn't really a human and didn't need to be treated as such. The Aes Sedai operating the Chair of Remorse sprang to mind. But they never hurt anyone permanently and the end result was law abiding citizens. Her face and heart hardened though, at his last little remark about Aes Sedai screaming just like anyone else. So, he had tortured Sisters, maybe even women she knew for Sisters she was acquintanced with had vanished in Amadicia or near by. Light shine on their souls.
Brandeis might be longing for a Sister to change his perception of the Aes Sedai, but after the revelations from Con his view of her was too skewered for her to ever apply. And after his little confessions, Arette had no desire to be anywhere close to him. Right now she wished only for Con to speak more or she would retire and clean herself as she was really feeling horribly sticky.
Arette
Retired Brown sistah
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The sun was at its zenith over Tar Valon and peaked through the windows of a magnificent apartment in the White Tower to illuminate two lovers enjoying their late breakfast. The olive-skinned mustached man and the pale haired icy blue-eyed woman lay on their sides in the mightily trussled bed and fed each others romantically, feasting on each others' lips occasionally too. They were loathe to speak and spoil the tender mood. It had been so long since they had last been together and they both knew that they had to depart soon. But not yet, right now they would just savour the moment. Not many words were exchanged, but their bodies spoke a common language in kisses, caresses and dance. Telcia had a musical-box playing the waltz on which tune she had given him private lessons for the dancing class in what seemed like ages ago. Those had been carefee days and they had been at the sweet stage of getting to know each others.
Finally it was Telcia, who pulled apart from Iussi with a deep sigh and a final kiss. "It is time, love."
"No, not yet, there IS still time, Telc", he protested fiercely. "Please give me just this one more day."
"Iussi, please, you are making this harder on both of us. We agreed about this. Don't make me to command you. You and I have... duties as you so deftly reminded me last night." And preparations to make, she thought with a secret rebellious smile. "And you're not safe here."
His shoulders slumped in resignation, but he hadn't admitted defeat yet. "Nowhere is safe anymore. And if they wanted to harm me, they would have done it already. They don't care about me anymore or they wouldn't have released me. And..." She quieted him by a finger to his lips and quick kiss that left him longing for more.
"Go. You have to go now."
He met her lips with his own for one last smoldering time and snatched the packed saddlebags. He couldn't look back anymore or he couldn't leave her. Ever. To disperse the image of his wife, he summoned to his mind the vision of Jelane and Jamal like the single cherished occasion when he had got to hold them. Telcia persisted though, and every stride on the red flame tiled floors that took him further from her felt like a step toward the sentence of loneliness he had experienced in the rehabilitation farm. At least now he knew that he would see her in few months and could present her with their toddlers.
****
Bye bye baby.
Don't be long.
I'll worry about you while you're gone.
I'll think of you in my dreams.
You'll never know just what you mean to me.....
- "Worry About You" by Ivy
http://www.last.fm/music/Ivy/_/Worry+About+You
The dark corner table of an inn was a good place to sit if you wanted to be left alone and brood. Iussi, dressed in his usual garish and almost eye-hurtingly coloured garb had chosen that location for himself. He and the horse were both tired after the day's ride and him driving the poor animal as if the Dark One itself was behind him. He would head to bed soon alone and missing Telcia desperately, but first he was going to finish his ale. As he was taking the last sips and wiping the froth off his mustaches, another one was landed in front of him. As he lifted his gaze, he encountered a very nice bosom generously offered over the table. A welcoming pair of eyes met his and the red headed bar wench smiled.
"That one is on me, good master. Should you feel yourself lonely tonight, my room is the third on right on the second floor."
Unpleasent memory of a certain woman named Mada came to Iussi and with it the wave of shame, but this wasn't at all same. She was a so-called paid woman and this lady here was using her Creator given right to spend her time with who ever happened to please her. He would have definately been interested two years ago and the encounter was even now a pleasent shake out his dark reverie.
He rose and gave her an immaculate bow his left hand with the wedding ring dramatically poised in front of him. Her eyes caught the golden glint on his ring-finger and then popped in shock when she realized that it depicted a serpent eating its own tail. No man was supposed to wear that thing. Iussi had quite known the reaction he would get as Telcia's choice of a ring had caused as much disapproval among the Sisters as their marriage in the first place.
"Thank you for the ale and the offer of company, good mistress. I must decline the latter though, no matter how tempting it is." He flashed her a charming smile that was most likely lost on her in her current state. "My wife would stab me with the marriage knife as is her right, or even worse. I'm certain that you understand."
Her mouth worked soundlessly and she retreated rushing into the kitchen. Iussi was almost sorry for that extra flare, but then it also tingled his sense of humour. He settled to finish this second ale too with a slight chuckle. The beer was doing him good, it relaxed and lightened his mood a bit. When he retired for the night, he opened the window of his small room breathing the brisk night air. The stars shone brightly and he wondered if Telcia was watching them right now too. And if Jelane and Jamal were sleeping peacefully. Light, please shelter them on your palm and make sure no harm comes to them, he prayed ardently. That was all he could do for them right now, other than tormenting himself with guilt or go to bed and be fresh tomorrow to continue the pursuit. Merciful sleep didn't come right away as it was difficult to disperse his worries and longing, but eventually it claimed him.
Iussi Dyfelle
Gentled Tower Guard
Telcia Sedai's husband
Father of Jelane and Jamal
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It was settled then. He would go and unite Jelane and Jamal with them and then they would be a family. And then Telcia started kissing him. Didn't she know what an effect she had on him? Was she doing this on purpose? He was quite doing the honour to her again. The mention of the rape always raised his hackles and the rage helped him to turn off... but only a little. His eyes glazed and he was summoning especially unerotic images to his mind, rotting fish, Muirenn Sedai standing beside them a disapproving frown on her face... Light, that was a scary one indeed. It had to be his hopelessly desire-clouded mind, but he thought that Telcia was contradicting herself at the end. Was she going with him or not? And now she was kissing his cheek...
"Telcia, what do you want?", he groaned. "Please make up your mind or you kill me."
"I just wanted to know if you had a plan or if you were going to charge out of here with a sword in hand with no real direction." She muttered as her lips made their way up to his ear lobe and her hand inside his shirt. LIGHT but she didn't realize just how much she missed touching him! "If there's no plan then you need me... I gave an oath to you too, remember?" She flicked his ear with her tongue and whispered. "Make me want to come with you husband... even if I can't... make me want to never let you leave my side again."
This was the sign he had been waiting for over a year. He grinned victoriously and laughed low in his throat at her innuendo about swords. His was definately off its scabbard. His hands were over her too, agonizingly slowly moving down her back, her sides and that perk bottom. Their mouths met and the room temperature got suddenly hotter as their tongues danced. Iussi begun to unbutton her silk dress, but lost his patience and simply ripped it. She attacked his gear with an equal zeal and soon nothing protected their trembling flesh from kisses and ardent caresses.
It was as if all sense had left her but she knew well what she was doing. In all her life she’d only laid with a man a number of times small enough to count on one hand and with no other willingly but her husband. Together their bodies rose and fell in a desperate dance of lust and longing. Like all other men and women of the world they shared their passion and need for companionship with each other without a thought or care to the outside world that would await them just as real and terrible as it had been before they begun. Here, in each other’s arms, nothing mattered; not the Dragon Reborn, not the Black Ajah or reputations and images, nor all the horrors the Shadow could spawn!
Fire-laced lips seared shut open and old wounds of misinterpreted abandonment and betrayal, calloused hands on silken well-cared for flesh rent away all the accusations of ruin or shame, and sweat covered flesh sliding across a mirror of itself in opposite sexual form compressed the true love of lifetimes innumerable from across the pattern and wheel of time from one into the other easing the rift of ages… two souls as one, a singular spirit at peace, two tortured halves to a whole that once lived at the start of time, reunited at long last.
-
Still trying to imprint all of her to his memory, so that her image would remain etched in his mind even if he closed his eyes, he began to notice slight changes. Her hair colour resembled a little bit that of Muirenn's now, they had whitened visibly. It made him feel quite young, but she was even more beautiful now. The more feminine bosom was not a new thing, but the marriage dagger didn't rest between her breasts anymore. Instead she held it in her hands with a much longer chain, something that would hide the dagger under the dress. Was she ashamed of it? It gave him hope, though, that she still wore it at all. But the sheath... his rushed out a breath when he caught the colour and the black circles around the gems marking their children. So she considered them all dead already, he thought angrily, his eyes smoldering. A year and no word and he might have done the same, but he would have at least given his utmost to find the grave. And he HAD sent letters, none of which the farm people had passed on. But for what purpose? Why had they wanted the world to believe he was dead, given in to the depression ailing all the Gentled male channelers?
The bouncing of his thoughts halted when she finally spoke. He flinched slightly at Telcia remarking his guts... or skill. The latter option obviously assumed that he had somehow planned this all like a player of the Daes Dae'mar. Light only knew that he didn't have the brains and patience for it whereas she was the master of the Game. And she couldn't sense the power in him anymore, thank the Light. He wondered why she would even mention such a self-obvious thing. Surely the Reds would have told him that he had been Gentled. But then he wasn't certain of anything anymore. They could have just assumed that she knew and be too tactful to bring the topic up.
Oh goodness, there came the being mad part. Of course, Iussi wasn't assuming that she was a push over. He thought he knew her quite well, but her next reaction completely baffled him. Not the drawing of the marriage dagger, that he had been expecting, but the clear look of fear on her face. How could she even think that he would harm her! And even stranger things, now she didn't even recognise him. She had to be serious. Telcia would never jest in a situation like this. She attacked or played the ice queen, but never showed her confusion. She worried him; maybe the losses had made her little addled with grief.
He spoke gently. "Telcia, you don't have to be afraid of me. I would never hurt you on purpose. Please put the marriage dagger down, before you hurt yourself." Whoops, he might land in trouble because of that remark, but he continued calmly as if talking to a child in need of assurance. "You can use it on me, as is your right, after you've heard where I've been the past months after the Gentling."
Remembering the first question made him frown. "Oh yes, the identity thing. Come on, Telc, you cannot honestly have forgotten me." The hurt in his voice was audible, he had never been able to hide his feelings or even seen the need why he should. "I'm Iussi Dyfelle, your husband and very much alive. Pinch me, if you have to." He looked pointedly at the dagger and continued. "I'm also the father of our still living children, Jelane and Jamal. Blood and bloody ashes, Telcia! How could you set their stones in black! They are NOT dead, you hear me! NOT DEAD! I'm going to go search for them and I'm going to find them despite that miss High and Mighty ex-Keeper's help."
"You asked me what I wanted, huh. I want my old Telcia back! You're mad at me for being gone a year and letting you to think that I was dead. So act on it, woman! Tirade or try to kick me out! But don't bloody stare at me and pretend that you don't even know, who I am. Demand some answers! Then we can hopefully be over with and, and be just like we were before it all started. A second honeymoon, Telc." His voice was more than just little wistful. "Before I have to go bring the twins home. Please..."
Iussi
Tower Guard
Telcia's man hose
-
Telcia sat silently mulling over the letters from today’s batch of pigeons. Lunch had been satisfying enough but somehow she found herself aching for dinner. She’d never found herself to be much of an over-eater, being tiny meant keeping an eye on such things as your figure. She’d learn that early from her mother. And while being Aes Sedai meant living a longer life it didn’t necessarily remove such mundane concerns from your life. Yet, somehow this past year seemed to be changing her as fast as any she could remember in her youth.
Already the signs of age were beginning to show upon her. While her face remained ageless, her once honey and flaxen hair was now hold tints of silver that matched her aunt Muirenn so well that it hurt to admit it. Like a goodwife of a nearby village complaining of the salt showing in her hair, she now bore the signs of age. In the Tower, that meant respect… but it also meant the nearness of an ending of a well-spent career… and life. She’d never been afraid of her age before but now, with so much in chaos in the world, she didn’t dare admit that some mornings she would just as soon stay in bed as get up. She suspected, even after her experience in the arches, that a mild depression held her from time to time.
A hand drifted up to the line of her bosom, larger now from having had the twins, and fished out the small archaic looking dagger that rested there. It’s claw like shape cupped at her breast, always cool to the touch, a constant reminder of what was missing from her life. A slender digit slid lovingly across the two stones that rested now where once open settings had been when her husband had given it to her. Looking down at the white sheath that she had placed the knife into after exiting the arches, she closed her eyes and sighed. It’s meaning to any Ebou Darian would be clear… she was a widow and she never intended to remarry. An announcement to the people of Iussi’s city and world… and most importantly to the Red Ajah. A symbol of her shame and her pain. An eternal epitaph which, since the rediscovery of her Ajah’s most sacred artifact, she had kept carefully hidden beneath the soft silk of her dresses. It would be easier for them to remember her recent successes and not her short comings, if she kept the dagger hidden. If only she could make the world forget what she could never let go of…
Touching the stones lightly she trembled slightly at the memories of cubby smiling faces. Wheat colored hair and eyes as blue as the aryith, looking up to her with utter adoration and love. One single white stone set in black for a son who has died of something other than a duel... and a red stone, so ironically fitting, set in black for a daughter who had died of something other than a duel. The entirety of her family… all that she’d had left in the world to prevent her from this Destiny she now sought... gone.
A frantic knock came and the door began to open. Quickly she released the thoughts of her family and the dagger from her grip, looking up expecting only Muirenn or Perine to enter with such lack of politeness... or maybe even the Amyrlin, she could do such if it took her to do so. Knowing the person had to be worthy of standing she put her hands on her desk to push herself to standing but instead stopped in mid motion. Her eyes locking on a ghost. Moisture left her lips and mouth and she began to feel faint. Instantly, fearing the black ajah had sent her past to put her off guard somehow, she reached out to life’s fire... it’s heat searing away the pain inside leaving a focused and clear mind that could all too keenly smell the cologne that her husband use to wear... ready to defend herself. I’ll burn you to ash where you stand for this… give me a reason… give me one reason and there will be no trial you wretched flipskirt! How dare even the shadow stoop to this, the lowest of all blows to a person before sending death for them!
"Telcia, I..." His voice was raw with emotion and his throat felt constricted with everything he wanted to say. He was bursting with desire to just hold her and loose himself on her. "I love you", he finally uttered simply, his fluency returning somewhat. "Will you please say or do something?“You must have truly great courage to face me... or skill... I can’t even sense the power in you.†She whispered, narrowing her eyes. “Rest assured however, I am no push over for tricks of the mind or push over for fools!†She seethed the last word and quickly moved her hands, gripping the tight threads of spirit and forced them into place around the apparition of her dead husband in what was perhaps her best ever woven shield. It’s weave tight and intricate... carefully laid and...
It wouldn’t lie upon him. Her eyes widened slightly with fear. Light be merciful... There was nothing to shield. Whoever this was... either they were terrifyingly powerful or not a channeler at all. With hardly a thought she moved to defend herself the only other way she knew how, wrapping her hands around the dagger she pulled it free from the white sheath violently and pointed it at the man.
"Who... who are you? What do you want?"
Telcia Sedai
A Red Sister
Mother of Jelane and Jamal
-
Bihara Sedai's recently mastered cool façade of an Aes Sedai was marred by her eyes popping when she came across the man walking determinedly on the floor tiles marked by the red tear drop - interpreted by some as the Dragon's fang rather than the Flame of Tar Valon. She recognised him, of course, like all the rest of her Ajah members, since they all had kept him company while he was being held by the Tower... and poked by the Yellows and Browns, she though wryly.
To the sadness of many among her Ajah it wasn't often that men trespassed here, even the male servants. Ingratitude was truly the only reward for their hard work in the world. And in this specific man's case it was especially surprising that he had dared to return. Not one of his kind ever had. But he had been a special case in many ways and Bihara knew quite well what had pulled him here. But why now? And was she going to leave with him again? Well, they would get the answers soon enough, but she thought it best to report to the Highest of this potential issue, so that Perine could prepare herself for what ever was to come.
Iussi didn't even notice passing anyone, so focused was he on finding the right room. He hadn't been to this part of the Tower very much on purpose, since he and Telcia had caused quite enough uproar among her Ajah sisters by getting married in the first place. And then quite soon after had come the discovery and Telcia had had to visit him in the cellars. Light, and it was over only now, almost two years after it had begun. Still, there were lots of unanswered questions, like how in the Pit of Doom Telcia hadn't known that he had been stranded to a "rehabilitation" farm, if it was true what Arette had claimed. Rehabilitation, indeed. Much help that had been, being isolated from the whole world in a dinky little house in the middle of nowhere seeing only six faces. Why hadn't he been sent to Far Madding like all the other Gentled men? But even there he would have been apart from his wife and the children, which had been the worst part of his confinement. Even more horrible than the gnawing melancholy he had tried to fight with all that he had. Alone. Why hadn't she come looking for him?
Thinking Jelane and Jamal sent again a spear of pain through his heart. He had last seen them when they had been infants. They were now toddlers already and wouldn't have even a memory of him, if they were even alive anymore. The rage, that had been gathering momentum for months and burning just under the surface, inflamed and like a true disciple of the Spring, he embraced it. He just had to let some of it loose, so he balled his fist and struck the pale stone wall once, twice… Finally the pain on his knuckles brought him to his senses and he looked guiltily at the stain on the wall, red on the white.
He didn't have time for this, he had come to see Telcia, to spend some precious moments with her before going on a wild goose chase in desperate search of their children. But it had been good to vent some long unspent frustrations on someone else than she. Not that their quarrels and the lovely making up afterwards weren't magnificent, he thought wistfully. And he anticipated that he was walking into a storm now. Telcia might even try to throw him out before giving him chance to explain or use the marriage dagger as was her right. It angered him that he was in this position, begging to be let back to his wife's life like some criminal. He was the one, who had been kept away and by the Light she would better understand that. She would have to, because Iussi just couldn't loose her. The thought of her was the only thing that had kept him going, her and the kids, who had been taken. He closed his eyes from the pain.
Speeding his steps, he counted that he had finally reached the right corridor. His heart was bounding madly and butterflies the size of stones fluttered in his belly, when he visioned her before him and tried to gauge her reaction. Iussi rapped the door urgently and while he pushed it open, he realised that he didn't even know if she was in. He sent ardent thanks to the Light when she looked up from some papers, those unforgettable icy blue eyes locking on his. He couldn't interpret her emotions, his eyes just drinking the whole of her and standing as if thunderstruck on the doorway. He didn't know how long they just were still, as if frozen, but he shook out of the reverie first.
"Telcia, I..." His voice was raw with emotion and his throat felt constricted with everything he wanted to say. He was bursting with desire to just hold her and loose himself on her. "I love you", he finally uttered simply, his fluency returning somewhat. "Will you please say or do something?
Iussi Dyfelle
Gentled Tower Guard
The prodigal husband of Telcia Sedai
Daddy of kidnapped Jelane and Jamal
-
The mountains cast a formidable shadow over a pass. It edged a long drop into a fast streaming river in the bottom of the cleft. A small party of thirteen, an unlucky number, moved in a column slowly but steadily along the narrow path above the stream. Despite the lack of armour, dozen of them were clearly soldiers wearing white tabards with golden sunburst on the chest, but in middle of the party a dark haired woman trudged beside her horse. They had been journeying for a month already and reached the northern Andor when a message from Iussi, the father of the children they were searching for, reached them. He reported that their carry was heading to Arad Doman and bid them to head to Katar for further instructions. That had meant crossing the Mountains of Mist to cut time, a decision the woman, Arette, deeply regretted.
She had grown more at ease in saddle and wasn't aching anymore - as badly at least - but her feet were dead as they had to walk the horses. Traveling with the Whitecloaks had been a trial. She was an Aes Sedai after all, if disguised with a weave to look normal, and their organization was a sworn enemy of the White Tower. Con, the leader of the party and her former lover knew the truth as did the Inquisitor, a friend of his. But they would keep their silence until the kidnapped children would be safe. There was no telling what would happen if the rest of the men found out, though, even if they had been chosen for this mission because of their trustworthiness and fairly moderate views. Arette had tried to avoid them to the best of her ability, but decided that it would be too strange for people traveling together to behave like that. Also she had become quite desperate for company, for someone to be friendly to her. She missed her babies bitterly and not a night passed when she didn't shed tears pressing a bundle to her heart and dreaming that it was one of the girls.
The affair of her and Con hadn't ended well and he refused to give anything of himself to her anymore. She had tried to talk with him multiple times over the trip, latching to his side during breaks, when they woke up and made the camp at night. But every time he had rebuffed her attempts to open discussion. He nearly always stayed close to the men and their matters could not be discussed on hearing range of others. Few times when she had managed to corner him, Brandeis had come to his rescue. Or then he just walked away. Arette had pretty much given up hope already and was closing her heart for him too. It just hurt too much and she was finally understanding that he had told the truth when he had told Brandeis that he could not allow himself to love her anymore.
The Whitecloaks had surprised her. Most of them wondered silently why on earth was she allowed to tag along, but they all must have noticed that something was going on between her and Con, but thankfully they never brought the topic up. Instead they offered her courtesy and some even friendliness. Especially Luca and few others helped her discreetly in many small ways and she was welcomed to sit with them at the camp. In her state of mind she wasn't much of a talker, but she listened to their banter and sometimes even smiled and replied. And she appreciated the effort; and them. If someone had told her that she would one day enjoy the company of the Children of the Light, she would have laughed at their face. But the Wheel weaved as the Wheel willed. They weren't bad men really, only misguided and these people less than others, but the same could be said of the White Tower and its inhabitants.
They hadn't been traveling very far yet today and it wasn't a time for a break, but somehow a stone had entered Arette's shoe. It was beginning to chafe so badly that she knew that soon she would have a blister on her foot. It would be a bad thing and hamper her movement, so she called to Luca walking before her and asked him to halt. He continued the chain all the way to Con, who lead the party, and Arette then proceeded to remove the annoying object from her footwear. She was just leaning on the side of the horse with her balance on one foot, when annoyed Con pushed past Luca.
"Why do we be halting?", he demanded to know. Arette's head whipped toward him and her stance wobbled. The horse took a nervous side step. Con's eyes widened on alarm and he started saying "Do no be standing so close to the edge, Lin..." when the accident happened. Time seemed to slow for a moment as the dun mare tossed her head and snorted waving her tail. It hit Arette squarely on face and she took some staggering back steps... only on the third one there was no solid ground under her feet anymore. She plummeted downwards to a certain death with an ear-piercing scream of terror.
Arette Nenatiar
Retired Brown Sister
Mother of Rana and Cina
Bonded to Calvin Gaidin
-
Bliss filled Arette when she heard the words of love confession from Con's mouth. It had been so long from the last time. And he hadn't used past tense. The uplifting emotion nearly carried her through Con's recital of her stupidity and knowing that Brandeis heard it too. Light, what the man must be thinking of her. And of all Aes Sedai. She wondered if he had actually met one before... and if he had tortured a Sister. But she was trying to just distract herself from listening to Con's unpleasent retelling of the events. So she stopped and let the old shame and regret fill her. She had really hurt him on purpose, known how what she would imply would crush him.
Was he really right and had she not really loved him? If she had, how could she have done something like to him? Or was she just so insecure and sad person that she couldn't have let herself be loved? A jealous person was not feeling herself secure, could Con not see that? It wasn't merely him she hadn't trusted, she didn't trust herself either. When it came to personal life, she was clumsy and unconfident as a toddler. Emotions had always been a difficult thing to her, something to fear and to suppress. And she had never during her long and useless life felt anything like with Con. It had been a rough ride, and largely because she had been pulling the reigns all the time to keep the pace slower. She hadn't wanted to fall and hurt herself. Not anymore. She had to be the one, who others relied on, not the other way around. Con had become too important to her and so she had sabotaged their chances by refusing to believe that he could feel the same about her. After all, there had been Telcia and who man wouldn't choose Telcia over her. And who woman wouldn't choose Con over that irresponsible scoundrel Iussi.
If she really wanted him back, she would have to stake her heart. Hiding in her tent when they had camped and avoiding him wouldn't do the trick. He would have to see her around and think about her, no matter he wouldn't like it at first. He would get used to her presence in his life as long as it would take and maybe one day want her closer. That she wouldn't rush, but... she felt a pang of guilt when she thought of using the girls as the bait. Still, they were her best key for reconciliation on long term as unintentional as their birth had been. Light, a miracle rather for a woman of her age. But they weren't here now and even if they were, she would not risk their wellbeing for Con. They deserved a father, who could at least be in the same room than their mother. How long it would take was another question then. But the seeds would be sowed on this trip, because he couldn't run too far away from her.
Her thoughts were paused by the silence from the clearing. The quiet moment was broken by Brandeis' whistle and call for more drinks. Arette shook her head. It was such a man thing to need to dose themselves with spirits to be able to talk. But then, she was also greatful. Otherwise she might have not found out in weeks or even months what he was feeling. And maybe even what he was going to do.
Arette Nenatiar
Retired Brown Sister
-
But it’s too late to say you’re sorry
How would I know?
Why should I care?
Please don’t bother trying to find her
She’s not there
- Malcolm McLaren: About Her
The Traitor's Court.... all the Aes Sedai were gathered there.... looking at her with those unreadable faces but their eyes were full of pure dislike and contempt for her. They had come to pass a judgement on her... No one spoke for her, not even her Brown sisters and her Defender. Telcia was silent too, averting her face.... Slowly but surely they all turned their thumbs down... Guilty, a traitor, a despised one. They made her kneel hard on the tiles. The Reds were preparing the weave that would separate her forever from life itself, Saidar... And suddenly if wasn't her anymore, but she was watching the Stilling settling on another woman, whose face she knew like her own. Karana. NOOOO!!!!
She woke with a sob, sweaty and tangled into her sheets. It was her fault that her mentor, her Mother had been there. The Aes Sedai were widely feared and even hated by some. And the majority of the Aes Sedai had shared the last feeling themselves when it came for her. The Hall had made their fateful decision after Karana had decided to not give her up. It was a power play of course, but she had been the bait. The Greens had been behind it. The Greens and Reds, slighted at her machinations against them. But it wasn't irreversible. Raina had a way to Heal Karana. All she had to do was find her and bring her to Raina. She owed it to Karana: she should have been there beside her that day, kneeling on the tiles. But the babies had saved her. And now they loved her unquestioningly, propably the first people ever to do that. The Hall might not have known that their decree would be a punishment. Exile from the Tower hurt of course, but this was even more cruel. She didn't deserve their love. Not anyone's love. How could she have ever thought that Con could forgive her and they could be just the way they had been? There was no way for them. Con didn't know her, not truly. He had seen mere peaks to what she really was and recoiled.
The darkness of the tent pressed on her. She had to get out. She ripped the sheets in her anxiousness to leave their strangling embrace, but had enough sense left to grab her dark cloak. She didn't want the white of the nightgown reveal her to the Whitecloaks outside. Someone might actually offer to escort her and she wanted to be alone. As she fastened her cloak, she could feel the wetness on her chest, flowing toward her belly. It was milk and its sweet scent reminded her again of the girls. She didn't have words for her agony of being apart of them, the flesh of her flesh. She stumbled onward blinded by tears, but the saddle soreness kept her pacing so slow that she didn't make much sound. She didn't know how long she had been wandering around, lost in her pain before she was alerted by voices. She halted her steps and hid behind a tree.
It was Con speaking with one of the men, whom she recognised as the inquisitor. She was about to turn away, when she heard her own real name mentioned. Her heart stopped for a moment with terror. Now he had done it! Light, it would be useless to run in her condition. And if she tried to harm any of the Cloaks, it would just confirm her guiltiness. It took Brandeis a while to reply and Arette had time to develop and abandon many desperate escape plans. His response astonished her... he wasn't going to turn her in until their mission was completed. And he was having doubts about the inherent evilness of the Aes Sedai. A VERY rare Inquisitor indeed. She wondered if the men with them knew about his blasphemous views. They had to know or Con wouldn't have taken them along.
Oh, but then Con was moving on a truly interesting topic... love. It wasn't honorable to eavesdrop, but if Con wasn't talking to her, how else was she to find out what he thought of her and their chances. She knew that she might not hear things she wanted to - the last time when she had spied on him and Telcia had been the last straw to break their already wobbly relationship - but even wild horses couldn't have made her leave now. She tried to make herself as comfortable as possible and prayed that there would be even slight hope for them in his words.
Arette Nenatiar
Retired Brown Sister
Former Keeper of the Chronicles
Mother of Rana and Cina
Bonded to Calvin Gaidin
-
The short ride back to the farm from the village was taxing on Arette's bottom. She didn't have much expertise on horseback and even though the mare was kind, she had been traveling for some time to make sure that she would reach Calvin in time. Her mood wasn't the best one either after a shouting match with him about the fate of the girls and him not accompanying her to keep her safe from the ten Whitecloaks she would be traveling with. Strong words such as Light-burned fool and woolheaded lummox had been used and if Arette had allowed Con some freedom of tongue because she wanted to get back into his good books, she wasn't going to take it from her Warder. Letting off some steam would make it much easier to be calm and collected around Con. And right now she just wanted peace and quiet and snuggling with the girls. She knew that she wouldn't get even a blink of sleep tonight, because she wasn't going to squander their precious moments into that. She might regret it in the next days, but tiredness would act as a buffer against the horrible longing. And hopefully against Con too. She guessed that he would stay clear of her, though, not the least because of his reaction to her innocent invitation. Obviously she wasn't the only one with their moments still well in mind.
Her thighs and bum were ablaze by the time she saw the stable and the farm house. Something was going on her lawn since all the Whitecloaks were clustering there. Narrowing her eyes she caught what was going on. Damn that man! He had given their daughters for some rude soldiers to pawn. And not just any fighters, but men who would happily count the percieved sins of the mother against them too. But there was nothing she could do except get off this animal as quickly as possible and rescue the babies.
She shook her head disbelievingly when few of the Cloaks actually greeted her as she rode past them. She forced herself to return the favour politely, though. They were going to travel together after all and she did not want to cause even the slightest trouble. The dun mare got unsaddled in record time and she waddled bow leggedly toward the mob of men in white. Some of them dared to grin and she snorted disapprovingly. Oh they were men just like any other. And her discomfort might be funny tonight, but if she was in this condition by after mere few hours of riding, she would be in a truly sorry state in few days. She was going to persist, though, even if she had to tie herself on the saddle. They wouldn't hear her whine even once.
She bent her knees stiffly with an effort and gave Con a glance that spoke volumes. However she schooled her face neutral when facing the Whitecloaks.
"Goodmasters, thank you for keeping company to my daughters. I would like to have them back now, if you would please. By the way... has Con told you yet who I am?" There were some head shakes, so she took it as a no. "Well, introductions might be polite since we are to travel together and we have an early wake tomorrow and no time for it."
"Please call me just Lini... Lini Redhill at full. I was helping the woman, whose children were..." There was a visible emotional reaction on her face. "...taken." The Whitecloaks seemed sympathetic enough and each of them introduced themselves briefly. Her cheeks reddened slightly when she recognised the... Light, the inquisitor who had accompanied Con on the yard. Brandeis his name was.
The basket was being handed to her, so it was the perfect excuse to make a swift exit with good nights. She had just one last thing to say to Con over her shoulder, to repeat her invitation and make sure that he got it correctly this time. Men, always thinking just... Meh.
"Like I said, if you want to, Con, you can come to help me with the bathing of the girls. With all the clothes properly on and such of course", she added hastily as if as a prissy afterthought. Sometimes stereotypes about Andoran women were useful and she was certain that the Whitecloaks would take it at face value. She didn't want to embarrass Con in front of his peers after all, just to deliver the message properly without any false connotations.
-
The short ride back to the farm from the village was taxing on Arette's bottom. She didn't have much expertise on horseback and even though the mare was kind, she had been traveling for some time to make sure that she would reach Calvin in time. Her mood wasn't the best one either after a shouting match with him about the fate of the girls and him not accompanying her to keep her safe from the ten Whitecloaks she would be traveling with. Strong words such as Light-burned fool and woolheaded lummox had been used and if Arette had allowed Con some freedom of tongue because she wanted to get back into his good books, she wasn't going to take it from her Warder. Letting off some steam would make it much easier to be calm and collected around Con. And right now she just wanted peace and quiet and snuggling with the girls. She knew that she wouldn't get even a blink of sleep tonight, because she wasn't going to squander their precious moments into that. She might regret it in the next days, but tiredness would act as a buffer against the horrible longing. And hopefully against Con too. She guessed that he would stay clear of her, though, not the least because of his reaction to her innocent invitation. Obviously she wasn't the only one with their moments still well in mind.
Her thighs and bum were ablaze by the time she saw the stable and the farm house. Something was going on her lawn since all the Whitecloaks were clustering there. Narrowing her eyes she caught what was going on. Damn that man! He had given their daughters for some rude soldiers to pawn. And not just any fighters, but men who would happily count the percieved sins of the mother against them too. But there was nothing she could do except get off this animal as quickly as possible and rescue the babies.
She shook her head disbelievingly when few of the Cloaks actually greeted her as she rode past them. She forced herself to return the favour politely, though. They were going to travel together after all and she did not want to cause even the slightest trouble. The dun mare got unsaddled in record time and she waddled bow leggedly toward the mob of men in white. Some of them dared to grin and she snorted disapprovingly. Oh they were men just like any other. And her discomfort might be funny tonight, but if she was in this condition by after mere few hours of riding, she would be in a truly sorry state in few days. She was going to persist, though, even if she had to tie herself on the saddle. They wouldn't hear her whine even once.
She bent her knees stiffly with an effort and gave Con a glance that spoke volumes. However she schooled her face neutral when facing the Whitecloaks.
"Goodmasters, thank you for keeping company to my daughters. I would like to have them back now, if you would please. By the way... has Con told you yet who I am?" There were some head shakes, so she took it as a no. "Well, introductions might be polite since we are to travel together and we have an early wake tomorrow and no time for it."
"Please call me just Lini... Lini Redhill at full. I was helping the woman, whose children were..." There was a visible emotional reaction on her face. "...taken." The Whitecloaks seemed sympathetic enough and each of them introduced themselves briefly. Her cheeks reddened slightly when she recognised the... Light, the inquisitor who had accompanied Con on the yard. Brandeis his name was.
The basket was being handed to her, so it was the perfect excuse to make a swift exit with good nights. She had just one last thing to say to Con over her shoulder, to repeat her invitation and make sure that he got it correctly this time. Men, always thinking just... Meh.
"Like I said, if you want to, Con, you can come to help me with the bathing of the girls. With all the clothes properly on and such of course", she added hastily as if as a prissy afterthought. Sometimes stereotypes about Andoran women were useful and she was certain that the Whitecloaks would take it at face value. She didn't want to embarrass Con in front of his peers after all, just to deliver the message properly without any false connotations.
-
It surprised Arette that Con still hadn't said anything to the other Whitecloak and that he hadn't come asking for an explanation. It eased her fears a little that he had such trust on Con, but it also increased the danger of ever being found out about. When trust was hurt, people usually went to extremes. Whitecloaks were not known for their love of Aes Sedai and now Con was bringing nearly a dozen of them camping to her yard. The thought of being surrounded by potentially hostile soldiers was quite chilling, but they might have found otherwise strange indeed. She gave a disapproving frown at his last impolite remark. So, that was how it was to be. She had hardly expected him to embrace her like a long estranged lover or to find any understanding in him what so ever, but if he wanted to make their future dealing in any way bearable, he could at be civilized. She wasn't going to call him down for that, though, not now or ever. It was what he was expecting and she was determined to prove him wrong about her. She had changed.
It was time to employ some fool-proof Novice technics: speak not until you were spoken to and even then say only what absolutely had to. But it would be bloody hard to carry out by a woman who had gotten used to people jumping when she snapped her fingers. Willamina had made her do the dancing for a while, but these past months were only a scrape of her long life commanding... bossing people around you could have said too. She was going to at least give it a try, because she had no intention to live the rest of her life waiting his miserable visits. They would be at least polite to each others, if nothing else.
But there was some work to be done before dawn. She had to reach Calvin before he came here and have him stay for the night in the village. He would be a give off otherwise... and cause trouble with Con. She sighed and was greatful that the bond told her exactly where he was and that it was some hours riding away. It gave her time to tell Willamina that she was going and have her find a girl to take care of the babies with Calvin and a wet nurse. She wondered if any woman in the village would do that willingly now when they knew who she was. Mayhap they would for the babies. They were innocent after all. But no time to dwell on that now. Rana had to be waked up and fed and then it was time for their all three's favourite moment, a bath. Maybe... No, she wasn't going to invite Con, not this time, because the tension between them would ruin the mood. She wanted to spend her last day with just the girls and store every moment of it for Light only know how long time before she would see them again. And besides, he would be busy with setting up the camp. Unless she postponed the bath... He had lost three months already. Arette had seen him with Jamal and Jelane, so she knew that he could handle babies. So perhaps he could even be allowed to hold the girls.... She realized with annoyance that she had already decided to allow him to come. With an irritated shrug she went inside to go on with their daily routine and to start packing.
The arrival of the Whitecloaks elicited a fearful peek through the curtains from her, but she found it the best idea to just stay inside and let them mind their own business.
****
The girls gurgled happily in their sturdy basket with a handle. When they were awake, they didn't like to be apart, so the basket required some hauling from Arette. But she wasn't going to leave the girls inside alone even for the little while it took her to find Con and ask him to keep an eye on them for a moment. The Whitecloaks setting up the camp eyed her curiously and she instinctively held the basket even closer to her. She tried to ignore them, even through their presence gave her the creeps. She was happy to spot Con alone with the horses. Eyeing the animals suspiciously, she got closer and harrumphed to get his attention.
"Con, could you please take care of the girls for a while. They have been fed and are dry, so you would need to just... be there. I need to go and speak with you-know-who, before he gets here, and arrange few things in the village. I will be back soon." She paused and hesitated, but finally decided to make the offer. "Rana and Cina will be taking their bath then.... I thought that maybe you'd like to be present."
OOC: I'm sorry, Sam, that I haven't included you more in. If you would like to, we could start already another thread set to the next morning when the group is leaving and Arette/Lini will explain what has happened (which could happen the previous evening too, though, if you want to).
I will be emailing James the details so you can NPC me if you want to and move things forward a little quicker. *s*
-
Con's stiff back retreated from her vision and Arette closed her eyes from the pain. Oh Light, it had begun again. They were tearing at each others like a cat and dog. She had thought that she had changed and matured, but obviously he brought the worst out of her. But he had hurt her and her first reaction to the unfamiliar pain had always been to lash back. Where was all that new self-control that Willamina had cultivated in her for all these months? Before she would have blamed this all on Con, but she had grown at least wise enough to realize that it was she, who made the choices, no matter how someone else pulled the strings. And that no matter who had begun the quarrel, it was more important who put an end to it.
So soon she would go and apologise Con and tell him everything that she knew about the kidnap. But first she would have to make the tough decision regarding the girls. The story about the wetnurse just wouldn't hold water if she took Rana and Cina with her. Con was right about them slowing the group down. Light, without the girls she and Calvin would already be north, hot on the trail. The Whitecloaks might allow her to come along because of her oath and leaving her own children behind would be strong enough proof of her faith and determination. And traveling would not do good for the babies. They needed routine and stable environment. Still, she just couldn't leave them behind. The girls needed her and none of the women in the village could offer them the same love and care than she could. But was it worth the risks? Was she really argumenting here for the good of the babies and not herself?
Arette wrecked her mind for the rest of the feeding, wrestling with herself and thinking dozens of elaborate cover stories for why she just absolutely had to have the babies with her and why the Whitecloaks should let her to. However, the only one that they might accept was the truth and that would reveal Con's lie and most likely get her killed. There just was no other option. By the time the movements of Karana's mouth slowed down and she was slowly dozing off, Arette fought against tears. It would kill her to leave them behind. She would feel a little safer about it by leaving Calvin with them. He would protest, but not too hard, because these tiny ladies had already wrapped his heart around their little fingers. Rana slept already but Arette still held on to her, breathing her baby smell and wetting a drool wiping cloth with bitter tears. She had enough pride to keep her weeping quiet, though. Let Con think that Rana wasn't ready yet.
She didn't know how long it took before she got herself under control and felt composed enough to put on a good show to Con. A look to the mirror and she adjusted the illusion to cover her tear stains. Her head and heart ached, but she took every step outside determinedly. Con was sitting at the porch and she lowered herself down to a chair beside his.
"Rana and Cina are both asleep now", Arette started. "That's what we usually call them beside the usual endearments. Rana is the one with more temper and Cina is the calm one, she's like a model baby really. Must be taking after me", she tried to joke lightly with a weak smile. She knew she was being a coward, trying to talk about the babies and not take the wolf by ears.
She sighed and finally looked at him. "I'm sorry, Con, for everything really." Yes, let him mull over that. Aes Sedai never apologized and she the least. "You were wrong about one thing that you said, though. I didn't try to hide the children from you, I just didn't know how to find you. I wasn't on the top of the world anymore with all the strings at my hands. If you meant by that me sending the letter only when I was already so far along...." She begun to speak as much to herself as to Con. "For months I was a mess. There were days when eating or even getting dressed was too difficult for me. Quite pathetic really and I felt very much sorry for myself. It's not much an an excuse, but I had to work things out for myself, before I could even think of anyone else."
"As for the cover story, I can try to be a wet nurse, but I'm not much of an actress. It's also quite a hinderance for not being able to lie. I will also be the haughtiest wet nurse ever. Humbleness is not my greatest virtue, even though I've got some good practice lately. Furthermore, for the role it wouldn't be realistic for me to be allowed to take the children with me." She heaved a trembling sigh. "And they are much safer here: traveling wouldn't do them good and they would be endangered. I will leave Calvin with them and I know that the Wisdom will take good care of them." She was on verge of tears again, so she continued decidedly steadily keeping her gaze at a fixed point in the horizon and monitoring her breathing.
"We should leave tonight, the quicker the better." A clean cut was always preferable to a slow, postponed one. "I will of course share all the details of the kidnap with you and your... fellows, but first you need to tell me what you've told your man there while I was inside. You told him already that he should call me Liselle?" Her mouth twisted at the name. It was nice to be able to put her mind on something else, something trivial like this. "There was actually a Mistress of Novices named that once. So I would rather be called otherwise and pick up a better name myself. I think that Lini would do nicely." A life time ago she had known one Lini, a pleasant servant who had been kind to a scared young woman entering a hostile family before she too had left.
Arette Nenatiar
A retired Brown Sister
Former Keeper of the Chronicles
Mother of Karana and Telcina
Bonded to Calvin Gaidin
-
Resisting the temptation to peek at him reading the letter and gauging his reaction, Arette focused all her attention on humming to Rana and rocking her gently. Her concentration broke in few minutes, though to a roaring from their field. It was Con letting out his rage and it really scared her that he had been standing behind their door with such pent up frustration. She hugged the baby closer and kept on humming to get her jitteriness under control. Luckily the horrible sound from outside was over almost as soon as it had started.
Soon footsteps could be heard from the yard, getting closer and Arette knew that Con was ready to come in. He wouldn't do anything stupid with the children around, that she was sure of. But she couldn't guarantee that she wasn't going to do anything stupid; her nerves were such a wreck. She had sat up at some point, but now she stood up slowly to not disturb the baby. He knocked on the door and she paced around anxiously trying to desperately calm herself. "Come in", she finally called tremorously. Light, what would he think of her when he would see her so exposed. She had never had much curves, but motherhood had rounded her. Would he think that she was showing herself to him on purpose? And the white hair... Dear Light... but it was too late to do anything now.
Opening the door softly, Con slipped in and shut it behind him just as quietly. He had no wish to disturb the baby who was feeding at Arette's breast, yet at the same time he wanted to hold the baby. A girl, Arette had said she. Stopping just infront of Arette, he had eyes only for the child who nursed away vigorously. "What do her name be?"
Arette gulped visibly at the sight of him, but he didn't seem to be even noticing her, his eyes locked on the child. She wasn't certain that she was feeling only relief. She had to clear her throat a few times before she could reply his question. "She is Karana Constanzia... Stavros. I gave the girls your last name and... erhm... I've been going by it myself too, because...." But he didn't seem to be hearing her. He mouthed the word "girls" and looked around searchingly. Arette said simply. "Twins, like you and Mia. Telcina Electra is in the crib there still asleep." She wondered if he would see his siblings in the girls. Both, Con and she, had brown eyes and black hair and there was indeed a patch of dark birth hair on top of the heads of both the girls too and their eyes had darkened in the first month after birth. The clearest resemblance to their father was their skin. Arette was pale, but Con had the golden glow of Illianer olive skin.
Turning about, Con slowly walked over to the crib, and sure enough there was a second child in it fast asleep. Telcina Electra Stavros. Reaching down ever so gently, he took her tiny hand within his. As he did so, he couldn't help but feel something new wash over him, and at the back of his mind he could suddenly understand why his father had been so adamant about him never leaving the family in the first place. Now that he had seen the child, fantasies of a life with the children growing up as he raised them came to his mind.
But the smile that had started to form disappeared as Arette appeared in those fantasies, shattering them well and truly. Slipping his hand free softly so as not to wake the child, Con turned and walked back to Arette. Speaking quietly, there was no mistaking the fact that nothing was resolved between the two. "You no be thinking of taking these children with us."
Arette's mouth thinned at his words and her back straightened. Her voice was just as quiet as his when she spoke. "You are TELLING me to leave my children behind? I gave a promise to Telcia to find HER children. No, I swore it by my salvation and rebirth. And I intend to be the one to deliver Jelane and Jamal back to her. And speaking of safety, how much does your whitecloaked friend out there know? You obviously didn't know that I was here, so how many did you bring with you? What have you told them of the situation here?"
There was an audible crack as Con's hands clenched and knuckles popped, but he relaxed as best he could, for the sake of the children. "Our children Arette, our children." Spoken through his teeth, he took a moment to unclench it before continuing. "We be going on a search that do be involving the shadow, and you be wanting to be taking our children with us? Are you insane?"
Holding up a finger to show he wasn't finished, he took another moment before continuing. "The inquisitor out there do be a good friend, do be the men with me. They do be knowing that a kinswoman of mine do be having her children kidnapped, possibly by Darkfriends. They do be knowing that we do be meeting a person here that perhaps be having a lead. They no be knowing of the Tower, and certainly not that you be Aes Sedai. Telcia no be telling me that I be meeting you, and judging from your surprise she do no be telling you either. There do be ten in all, enough to be seeing us out of a tight spot."
Horrible indecision and guilt flashed on Arette's face when Con reminded her of the danger they would face. But at least he included her to the group that would be going. The group which included an inquisitor. An inquisitor! Bile rose to her throat and she clutched the baby closer until she whimpered and she eased her hold immediately.
"Trusted men and friends or not, they are still Whitecloaks. They will suspect something sooner or later. And you will need me, because there is channeling involved. And I'm not even certain that I will be enough... But the babies.... how could I leave them?"
"You be leaving them because I be telling you that you be doing so." Subtlety eluded Con for the moment. "There do be danger in our mission, and no doubt we do be covering a great deal of distance. Too much for them. They do be safer here in this village than with us. As to travelling with those of us that do be wearing the sunburst, it be this simple. Travel with us, or be staying here and be breaking your oath to Telcia."
Living already the pain of the possibility of being apart from the girls in her mind's eye, Arette almost missed Con's bossy words and attitude. Oh yes, he had definately gathered some backbone and nerve during the past year. But this wasn't about who was wearing the pants. She couldn't deny the truth in his words, though. In every single one of them and it galled like salt water on wounds. But it was her decision still and she wasn't going to slip into a submissive role at this fragile stage of affairs.
"The babies are still nursing, they need their mother. And 10 blades should be more than enough to keep us safe."
She was being difficult, naturally. Yet as much as he wanted to keep the children close by, so he could start caching up on all that he had missed, he knew the realities of it. Leaning in close, Con's face was separated from Arette's no more than an inch as he stared her down. "You do be having two choices. Either you be travelling with us, and be leaving the babies with a wetnurse or one of the other mothers of the village. Or, you do be telling me where to be searching, I be riding off and you do be staying here. It would no be the first time you broke faith."
Arette clenched her hands into fists when Con tossed up the choice of a wetnurse as if the girls were simply inconvenient packages to be left behind. His second option handed her a weapon, though. Her satisfaction didn't last for long as he started going into personal attacks. But it was only to be expected and she could hit under the belt too. "I have faith enough, Con dear, and at least I was here doing something and taking care of our children, rather than going to a self-pitying quest of heroism after sneaking off into the night. And you have it all backwards, I don't need you or your help. I don't have to tell you anything."
There was a pause where Con stopped breathing as he absorbed what she said, then he spoke levelly, yet his anger was at the edges of it. "Children that you be hiding from me..... You no be changing at all. No be stupid all your life, you do be a guide, but I be the means to be getting you anywhere. I be going outside, and you do be having until Karana be fed to be deciding. When you do be deciding, your name be Liselle, you be a wetnurse for my kinswoman." Turning away, Con let himself out quietly to let Arette fume. She had no choice, she knew it, and she'd have to decide to do the right thing. That or she'd go nowhere, and if she had any sense left at all, she'd realise his threat wasn't hollow.
Arette & Con
-
OOC: Yay, an answer! *g* I had forgotten how annoying and exciting it is to wait for another person to post. I'm sorry that I didn't bring in the letter already. I would have edited my post today if it wasn't the Mothers' Day. Kind of appropriate, though. *s*
IC: Over the satisfied noises of the baby suckling Arette could hear the anxious steps of the man in full plate behind the door. She was going to be tied down here for at least half a turn of an hour glass, so it might be the best if she slipped the letter out. It would hopefully give Con enough time to brood and get adjusted to the completely unexpected news. Light, she should have found some way to get the word to him somehow. She cursed Telcia for not telling her that she knew how to reach Con. Or maybe she had known, but just hadn't wanted to admit it to herself. She had anticipated this meeting ever since accepting that she was really going to do the Hall's bidding and raise the children herself - and love it. She had crafted a hundred different scenarios in her head of how he would take the news. And even few where he never found out and they would still live their lives happily ever after, the passion dulling into a fond memory. It was still possible actually. All she would have to do was to imply that the girls were a result of some random tryst. But she couldn't do that. The girls had right to their father one day, if he could come to accept that role, and Con had the right to know. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
Her decision made, she retrieved the letter and opened the door enough to hold the it out.
"Now you know why you shouldn't come in, Con." There was a clear warning in her voice. "I'm nursing the baby now and she is calm. If you disturb her, you will not like it. Read the letter and afterwards once you've calmed down... well, maybe we can talk then."
He took the letter without a reply and she could perfectly imagine the look of steaming impatience and annoyance on his face. It sent a shiver through her spine. And even though he was wearing gauntlets, the short touch of their hands gave her a jolt. She snatched her hand back as if it had been burnt and banged the door closed with a little more strenght than was necessary. Rana didn't luckily even blink an eye.
"Well, the dice has been tossed now, love", Arette murmured to the baby in a low voice. "Daddy's going to soon find out about you and Cina and even though he will be a little angry..." Quite an understatement that. "....especially at Mommy, he is going to adore you. He will. He just has to. You will see."
She knew the short and simple words of the letter by heart. They had been extremely hard to write, to find the right extremely business-like tone and the correct words. She had settled for simplicity at the end after hundreds of torn and burnt pieces of parchment.
Con,Read this letter!
I know that you despise me, but I would not write to you unless I absolutely had to. Sending you this message is the most difficult thing in my whole life and I will spare us both by not beating around the bush.
Six months ago we shared the bed for the last time and I am now pregnant. I have never slept with anyone else but you despite the impression otherwise that I gave you to hurt you. So you will be a father in late Choren.
If you do not believe that I am incapable of lying in spoken or written word, believe that I would not have the audacity to lie to you about a matter of this great importance.
Should you desire to act upon this knowledge, you will find me and Telcia from village of Fernhill in Southern Andor. I understand if I will never hear of you, though. But you had the right to know and now I have fulfilled my duty of telling you.
Arette
There was nothing else to be done but to pray and hope for the best.
Arette Nenatiar
Retired Aes Sedai
Mother of Karana and Telcina
Bonded to Calvin Gaidin
-
There was a long, tension filled moment with Con sitting on his saddle staring down at Arette with stony eyes and she arching her neck and staring back at him praying that he would come with her. Now he was as unreadable as ever and the walls were back twice as thick and tall, but there had been a visible reaction to her blurted words. Obviously she could string pluck strings in him; now she would just have to find a way to pluck them in a manner that would produce goodwill, not discord. He followed her a few steps behind, but she saw him watching around unobtrusively from the corner of her eye. She guessed that he was suspecting a trap and sighed quietly. He propably still thought her a pawn of the Tower. But she had had her inner struggle about this matter and she believed that the Tower didn't have the right to retain Con. The manner of his leaving had been so abrupt and insulting, like a thief sneaking off at the night, that it had become a question of pride for the Tower to have him back. They could call it securing the defenses, but all the arrangements had already been done to make any information Con had useless.
Arette stopped at the door. "I will go and retrieve the letter now. Please do not enter before that. You will know why after reading the letter. I sent it to you to Tar Valon since I didn't know that you had... departed. The Tower Guards returned it to me opened." She squirmed slightly, uneasy with the shaming memory. Until then the father of her child had been uncertain to the Tower, poor Calvin being the most popular suspect. She and Con had quit with such a bang after all.
"After that information they thought that you would surely come here and wanted to place a guard around the place. Telcia dissuaded them of that idea, but I'm sure that the Tower has Eyes and Ears close by." She sighed. "The villagers won't come here anymore, not after the show with the kidnappers. So the pidgeons aren't propably flying yet. But at least they are still helping with the search of Telcia's babies. Calvin is with them right now."
"Con, this is no trap. I'm not going to betray you to the Tower and I'm not going to harm you." Well, physically at least she wasn't. How he would take the news was a different matter then. "I will go inside now and you should stay here until you've read the letter."
Before he could argue, Arette opened the door enough for her to enter and closed it quickly behind her. The Whitecloak with Con would find it strange and so would he, but she was not going to let Con to upset the girls. She leaned on the door to draw a few deep calming breaths. She never approaced the babies emotional, even while they were asleep. Awake they picked her mood and got fussy. The letter was in a locked and Warded box beside the crib and as she passed it, she saw that Rana's eyes were wide open. The poor sweetheart must have been waiting for her for a while already as she had kicked her blanket away and her face was now decidedly puckered for a wail. And she was the louder of the girls with good lungs and a piercing cry.
Arette started making faces desperately and cooing calmingly but after a moment of thinking, the child opened her mouth and expressed her unease to the world. Arette was certain that the heart-breaking weeping was audible all the way to Con's companion. You couldn't put an egg back to the shell, so there was nothing else left to be done but to take the baby and quiet her with food. She started unbuttoning her dress with resignation. Once the baby was in a suckling position, she let out few more hickuping cries before settling to fill her belly. Arette smiled down at her and whispered silly non-sense endearments. Con and his Whitecloak friend could go to Pit of Doom for all she cared right now.
Arette Nenatiar
Mommy of hungry Karana and sleeping Telcina
Retired Aes Sedai of the Brown Ajah
-
Rising up slowly from her curtsying position, Arette examined the two men before her. The other one had clearly straightened when he heard her speak and became somehow... statue-like would have been the word. The other Whitecloak was looking at him, so obviously he was the leader. Why had he reacted so strangely? There was something odd going on here and she prepared to freeze them any moment now. Then the leader lifted his helm and it was her turn to experience unadulterated shock. Telcia had arranged this! Light, she would have left immediately if she had known who Telcia had sent for. Or maybe not, considering how she had just moment ago lamented loosing him for good. His words shattered any hope of forgiveness, though. If he had any feelings left for her, he kept them carefully under a lid. Nothing had changed since Tar Valon. Except her and... she looked closer at him, some mean soul could have said that she drunk every feature of him, and it was obvious from his being that he had found the self-confidence he had lacked. He also radiated now the same menace the Warders did and Arette guessed that he had grown even better with the blade. And he had grown a beard! It was neatly trimmed, but still a beard. Arette stared at it with consternation.
"Con, you have grown a beard", she stated the obvious in an accusatory tone. "How is a woman supposed to kiss a man with a bush like that?"
She realized that she had been thinking aloud from the reaction of Con's companion. She blushed crimson and was absolutely mortified. She wanted to quickly change the subject and then to fall under the ground.
"I mean... I'm sorry... Please forget that I ever spoke. I.... Con, please..." She drew a deep breath that she wished would calm her jittery nerves. He was smelling of horse and leather and steel and obviously they had been traveling for a few days. But underneath it all was his own scent that she had breathed for so many nights before. Light, what was she thinking?! She shuddered and released Saidar. There was no need for that. She just couldn't believe that Con would harm her. Especially not after he heard about the girls and she intended to tell him as soon as possible that he had become a father.
"Con, there is something that you don't know. We just can not leave before that matter is cleared. I sent you a letter that was returned to me by...", she glanced at his companion and never finished the sentence.
"Can we please speak in private?"
Arette Nenatiar
A former Aes Sedai with her foot in her mouth
-
A wind breezed through a small patch of woods at the edge of farming village in southern Andor plastering the cloak of a woman pulling water from a well to her back. She turned the winch effortlessly until the bucket was at her reach. The muscles on her arms tensed as she raised the bucket over the rim, but a curse escaped her lips as she splashed water on her simple dress. Instinctively she looked around to make sure that the Wisdom wasn't at the hearing range. Such foul language could earn her a mouthwashing with soap or she might escape only with a stern lecture. It still mystified her that the simple village Wisdom coaxed such reaction and respect from her. After all, she was Arette Nenatiar, an Aes Sedai and the former Keeper of the Chronicles. In the days of her height she had commanded the attention of Queens and Kings and a herd of servants and novices had been at her beck and call to fulfill menial tasks like this. In those days she could have also merely willed so and the One Power would have done the deed for her.
Unlike her poor Karana, she still had the One Power at her reach, singing constantly it's siren song at the back of her mind and making her wish to embrace it, to feel it fill her with life. Now she no longer used the Power unless she absolutely had to. At first Willamina had forbid it, but then it had become her own principle too. She had come to realize that the Aes Sedai relied too much on the Power and even when they wielded it, it wasn't for the benefit of the common people as it should have been. They were the Servants of the All, but they did not play the part. Arette believed that she hadn't understood what it truly meant to be a Servant until now, even though she had laboured for her foster family as a child and young woman and later as a novice. Even reaching the shawl had only made her haughtier and more distanced from the real world. Willamina had snapped her out of her delusions of grandeur and self-pity and made her work with her body and soul again as her apprentice. At first Arette had resented it, like she had resented the woman and chores of novicehood. She had accepted her lot only because Telcia insisted on it. But with the months she had come to grudgingly like the woman and then understand her and eventually admire her. Now she gave Willamina nigh the status of her respected mentor Karana. It was truly something for their friendship span back over a century.
But here she was standing idle and reminescing when her precious girls were inside still and soundly asleep. They would wake up soon and need their porridge and bath. She just couldn't help smiling stupidly when she thought of her dolls Rana and Cina. Everything in her had mellowed since they had been born. And even it sounded a cliche even to her own ears, she hadn't known what it meant to love unselfishly and unconditionally until now. If only she had loved their father like that, she thought with sorrow. Light, she wasn't certain if she had even loved Con, when she compared it to this emotion. There had been enough passion to blow off the top of the Dragonmount, but they had been in so very beginning and faced so many obstacles, the largest one being Arette herself and her jealousy and inability to trust him and his feelings for her. No, but now was not the time to think him. He was gone and lost to her forever. And lost to the girls too. They would grow up with uncle Calvin and her and never miss a father. Of course she would tell them about Con if they ever asked and even if they didn't, she would tell them when they were older. Maybe they would find their father then one day... if they just wanted to.
She sighed and was about to go back to the farmhouse, when hoofbeats from the road alerted her. She wondered fearfully who in the Light it could be and embraced Saidar, drinking deep until it filled her to her brims and the edge where sweetness became pain. Calvin it wasn't since the bond told her that he was still faw away with the search party. After the taking of Telcia's children, the whole village had been paranoid about strangers and Arette not the least. She was deeply ashamed of her great thankfulness that her own girls hadn't been taken, but she grieved for her friend for her loss of her children. But Arette had sworn that she would bring them back to her and she intended to keep her vow on her salvation and hope of rebirth. Unlike Telcia, who had lost all hope already, Arette believed that the children were still alive. The Shadow had clearly come for them and only them. There was some bigger game at play here and she would dig to the roots of it. But first she would find out who approached her home and children right now.
Her Saidar enchanced sight soon picked up two riders coming through the forest, their white cloaks rippling in the wind and the golden sunbursts on their chests gleaming. Their gear identified them as Whitecloaks and her heart drummed faster with fear. Dear Light, had they heard of the incident with the Shadowspawn too and come to investigate? In Andor?! Surely they knew then of channeling involvement and had inquisitors with them. Had they come for her and what would happen to her babies if she perished? She wished dearly now that she hadn't sent Calvin away today. He wasn't a Blademaster yet, but he would have given a good match to two Whitecloaks and bought her enough time to subdue them. She forced steel to her knees and thanked the Light for still thinking clearly despite the adrenaline rush on her veins.
There was only two of them, but her Oaths forbid her from using the Power as a weapon unless she was threatened. The Whitecloaks could be a danger, but she knew that she might be able to speak to them and diminish their suspicions. Then she could grab the girls and leave immediately. She would keep her promise to Telcia, but she could wait no longer for her expert to arrive. She had no intention of loosing her life in an unnecessary skirmish such as this was bound to be if it came to that. Arette wove carefully but quickly a Mask of Mirrors around herself and knotted the thread. Fire, Spirit and Air just so and the Whitecloaks would see a dark haired woman with slight white wings on her temples, who looked just like her but with a placable age. The creases and the true signs of her years would make most guess that she was maybe fourty.
The riders were getting closer. They both wore helmets and the other a heavy plate armour and it made her even more nervous that she couldn't see their faces and read their emotions. But nervous was good, she guessed, because that was how genuine countryfolk would react in a situation like this. Though it usually only made Whitecloaks even more certain that there was something going on, because why otherwise people had cause for fear. Oh Light! She prepared to meet them in the middle of the yard, as far away from the house as she could without it seeming odd. When they were three horse lenghts away, she prepared as thick webs of Air as she could muster to trap the soldiers if they made a move on her. She also gave a deep curtsy and wished fervently that her gesture would stop them.
"Is there aught I can help you with good sirs?", she asked with an unfaked tremor in her voice.
Arette Nenatiar
Retired Aes Sedai of the Brown Ajah
Former Keeper of the Chronicles
Bonded to Calvin Gaidin
Mother of Karana and Telcina
Over the edge (attn: Con and Brandeis)
in Legacy Saga Archive
Posted
Arette crouched on the stony floor and maintained the weave that lured fish to her. There was already a nice pile of catches behind her and Con was at work cleaning them. She had made him a very simple stick out of the One Power and the smell of roasting fish wafted to her wetting her mouth. Her stomach protested loudly, but she preserved. They would need every morsel of food they could just get since only Light knew how much longer they would have to endure underground. With a simple Keeping she could preserve the perked fish but would it last until they were out?
Con begun to eat already and she gave him an indignant glare that he blissfully ignored. It was her who had caught the fish after all, burn him. Even if he didn't talk to her much, he could have showed at least the slightest manners and waited for her before starting to fill his belly. She dropped the weave and grabbed a fish to herself too. Seafood had never been her favourite and the first week as an Accepted had escalated her dislike to new dimensions. Now she gorged it with delight though, after the first painful cramps of her deprivated stomach. She was about to start another one when Con snatched it off her hands.
"No more or you do get sick. Do the preserving weave and we be moving on as there no be any more fish."
Her eyes narrowed at his commandeering tone, but it was true that the stream was dry of life now. She had just hoped to lure some discussion out of him as they rested comfortably with full bellies. She had noticed that his tongue was looser after a nice dinner and when they shared a pillow snuggled close to each others. But that she wasn't even dreaming of with the things like they were betwixt them.
"Con, can we please rest for a moment? It's not healthy to start moving right after you have eaten." She didn't wait for him to protest, but leaned back on the cave wall and made herself as comfortable as she could by tugging her cloak behind her.
Looking at Arette for a moment, Con didn't really have a choice in the matter, she wasn't going to move. She was right insofar it wasn't healthy to move, of course, it was also true that living underground wasn't exactly healthy either. Time was wasted every moment they were in the mountain. Light, but Brandeis and the others would be at Katar within the week. If they kept taking stops for rests, there was a good chance Brandeis and the men would presume him dead and move on.
"Then do be warding the food at least."
She had guessed right, he didn't like it, but it wasn't like he had a choice unless he wanted to drag her. And it had become quite evident already that he avoided coming close to her unless he absolutely had to. But she had gained this small victory so she could be gracious. She smiled at him and set the Keeping on the gutless fishes and bundled them together with an Air weave. She didn't bother to hurry since he would end their little break as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile she spoke as if thinking out loud. "You know, there is one thing I've wondered about, Con. That's how you became a Wh... I mean, a Child of a Light. I saw Lothair Mantelar's book in your office, but I would have thought you to head to Borderlands to help with the battle against the Shadow. That was your original dream after all. So why the Children of the Light, Con?"
His eyes had found the water to look at oddly enough, a far easier sight for him than his companion. Especially now that this was going to be a chance for her to try and get under his skin, like every other time she sought to make conversation. "They help people."
Arette pursed her lips at his curt reply, but it was a start. "I suppose that they do, some of them at least. And they get off the Fortress alot more than the Aes Sedai from the Tower." She sighed. "So, what kind of things have you done wearing the Sunburst cloak? Caught any darkfriends?"
Narrowing his eyes, he refrained from looking in her direction even as her words swirled about in his mind. It had started already, her mocking, a slight concession before she decided to take a polite dig at what he did. Aes Sedai derided the Children for their 'catching of darkfriends' for catching no one but innocents. Did she think she was funny? "I help people."
She noticed his reaction, but couldn't cauge was it because he didn't like the direction the discussion was taking or because of speaking with her in general. "I don't doubt that, Con. I just... I suppose I'm curious to hear how what the Wh... Children of the Light do differs from what the Tower should be doing." She emphasized the should, because she truly believed that the Tower could be better, could actually go to people instead of expecting them to come to Tar Valon.
"They do things." That said it in itself, light but Con didn't want to talk to her.
This was like pulling teeth, but she had started the game again and she wasn't going to give up this lightly. "What kind of things?"
Why couldn't she leave him alone? "Stamp out banditry, keep the peace. People be feeling safe in Amadicia for a reason."
Awesome, he was getting a little more wordy. She did disagree with him about the safety issue, since Amadicians had traded their freedom into safety and had to live in fear of the Inquisitors. But she wasn't going to bring it up now. "That is very good indeed. Kind of what Aes Sedai do in Tar Valon. But unlike the Sisters, the Whi..." Light, she was doing this again. It wasn't to annoy Con, she was just so accustomed to calling them by the derigatory form. "... the Chidren actually venture out of Amadicia. Have you been on a mission elsewhere yet?"
"I be here, no?"
Arette let out a breath slowly. A wind in the corn field, a river held by the bank. She was calm and collected and didn't want to smack him. "Yes, yes you are. Although I suppose you wish you'd be anywhere else right now." It was her fault that their search was hampered. And they would have to move soon, but just a few more questions while she had him talking. "Umm... " She was thinking. "Do you still believe that I am a Black Sister?"
That was a question he hadn't expected. Why was she testing him? What was she up to? "No."
"You don't?" Her delight was obvious. "What convinced you otherwise?"
"What do you be playing at?" Light but he hated being manipulated, he'd get it out in the open and deal with it once and for all.
"Playing? I am NOT playing anything. I am trying to make a conversation, that is all. Do you intend to answer my question?"
Arette & Con