Kiera nodded, retrieved some potatoes from the bin and proceeded to slice as she was shown. The blade cut through easily, making a pleasing sound as it sliced through the crisp tubar. She and Domino worked side by side in silence for a few moments before Kiera couldn't stand it any longer. Her mind kept returning to what could be happening to little Aubrey. She needed some sort of distraction.

"You say you don't even know if you had parents? How is that possible?"

OOC: sorry it's so short after such a long wait, but conversation is the best way to get to know each other!

Kiera nodded and gathered the pile of wet linens, making her way out into the yard. Hanging laundry was not a hard task, and she let her mind wander. She had known that eventually something like this would happen. Somehow she would be put in a situation where she couldn't keep Aubrey with her every waking (and some not waking) moments. She wished now that she had actually set up a contingency plan. Having Aubrey come to meet her at the Inn in the afternoons would only work for so long. Cevan would get annoyed with it or her step-father would put a stop to it. It was hopeless. She felt the unfamiliar swell of tears behind her eyes. She thought she had run dry of tears long ago. Burying her face in her hands, she stood in the yard, alone and lonley, hidden in a forest of billowing white linen and cried.

A small time later, the noisy clatter of pots and pans brought her back to herself. It was time to get back to work. She hurriedly finished with the laundry, using the time to gather herself, then went back into the kitchen. Domino was up to her elbows it soapy dishwater, staring blankly into space as she continued to scrub the same spot over and and over on one pan.

Kiera cleared her throat to get Domino's attention.

"I...uh...finished with the laundry."

There was no sign that Domino had even heard her. Kiera stood and watched for a few minutes as Domino scrubbed the same circle on the pot. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. She walked over and gently took the pot from the other woman. Domino jumped as if startled out of a dream. "You are going to scrub a hole in this pot if you keep that up." Kiera said, trying to relieve the suddenly unsettleing gaze of the other woman.

"Aubrey, would you like daddy to read you a bedtime story?"

"Oh yes I would love that, Daddy!"

A cold chill ran through Kiera as those words floated through the air. Her baby sister came bounding over to Kiera, joy filling her face. "Did you hear that Kiera? Daddy is going to read me a story!"

Kiera smiled at her little sister, even while dred seemed to eat away at her insides. "Well, if daddy reads to you, then how will I tuck you in?" Kiera asked picking Aubrey up in her arms. She had made a point to always be the one to put Aubrey to bed. The smaller the contact with 'daddy,' the better as far as Kiera was concerned.

Aubrey's pudgey little face frowned in thought. "Hmm...." the brightened, "Daddy could read us both a story!"

Kiera saw her step-fathers mouth tighten and eyes harden. "I think Kiera is too old for bed-time stories."

"I think that sounds just lovely! Reading to both your girls. What a good father you are." Her mother said, coming out of the kitchen and kissing him on the cheek. Kiera let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. Most of the time she didn't like her mother, but every now and then the oblivious woman would do something beneficial for her children.

"Come Aubrey-bird, time to get ready for bed."

"Fly me, Kiera!"

"Alright, but just on the way to bed." With that, Kiera turned her baby sister in her arms so that Aubrey's stomach was parallel to the floor, her arms outstretched, and ran down the hall to the little girls bedroom, past her scowling step-father.

"Weeeee!"

Once ready, Kiera carefully positioned Aubrey to the inside of the bed, stretching out next to her and called 'daddy.' His eyes narrowed when he saw the arrangement, but didn't say anything more. He read the story quickly and left the room, his expression telling Kiera that she would pay for interrupting his plans.

"Daddy isn't a very good storyteller..." Aubrey remarked through a yawn when she was sure he was out of earshot.

Kiera laughed. "No he isn't. Shall I read you another?"

"Yes, please! I like it better when you read. You do all the voices and everything."

Kiera stayed with her little sister long after Aubrey had drifted off to sleep and she heard her parents disappear into their bedroom. She whispered the same promise that she had every night since Aubrey was born. "I promise I won't let him hurt you like he did me...."

~**~

"Kiera, come here." The stern voice interrupted Aubrey's lessons. It was two days after the bed-time story and Kiera had been sticking to Aubrey like glue. He wouldn't try anything when there was someone around. No matter the torture he had caused her, he was still a coward at heart.

She got up from her place on the floor in Aubrey's room and went to the kitchen. There her step-father and mother sat, serious expressions on their faces.

"Sit down Kiera," her mother directed kindly.

Kiera sat.

"I think it's about time you started earning your keep, young lady." Her step-father began. "You are passed the age where most girls set about finding husbands, and it's high time you started to contribute around here."

Cold dread coursed through her. How am I going to keep her safe if I'm not here?!

"But, daddy, I tend to Aubrey. Teach her her lessons-"

"Your mother can handle that responsibility, and Aubrey is a big enough girl to take care of herself now. I've spoken with Ceven down at the Inn and he has agreed to take you on. It has been very busy down there lately, and that half-wit they have working for them spends most of her time day-dreaming. You will be reporting to him tomorrow afternoon."

No no no no! The bastard! I won't let him! I'll kill him first! screamed in her head, but she just nodded her head meekly and left the table.

Back in Aubrey's room, the lessons continued, but Kiera was only paying attention half-way. Her mind was racing furiously, trying to think of a way out of this, a way to protect her sister. Her mother would be no help, that's for sure. She was essentially lazy, and too used to living the good life. Daddy always took care of everything for her. Though he did spend most of his mornings out surveying his workers... If Kiera could get Aubrey away from the house while he was gone.....

"Kiera, are you paying attention?"

"Hmm?"

"I didn't think so," giggled Aubrey. "I was just telling you that the kitten has two heads and was talking to you."

Kiera smiled breifly at the silliness of her little sister.

"Aubrey, starting tomorrow, I have to go work in town."

Aubrey frowned. "But then who will I play with?"

"Well, here is what I want. You are a big enough girl to walk into town now. I want you to come see me in the Inn when daddy gets in from the fields."

"When daddy comes home? Why?"

"Please, just do it. That way I can check up on your lessons. And maybe buy you a sweetroll or something from the kitchen with my new wages."

Aubrey's face lit up. "A sweetroll? Every day?!"

"Every day, my Aubrey-bird."

"YAY!"

~**~

Kiera entered the Inn nervously. She didn't know what to expect. She'd never had a job before, certainly not one like this. In early afternoon, the common room was mostly empty and Ceven spotted her entrance at once.

"Ah, there you are! Come, come. Lots of stuff to show you. I'm so glad that you have come to work for us. Domino isn't always there, if you know what I mean, and I could sure use the extra set of hands!"

"Domino?"

"The other girl working here. Come, she is in the kitchen now. I'll introduce you and she'll show you the ropes. That is if she can remember them, bloody girl..."

He ushered her quickly into the kitchen, making hasty introductions, then quickly departing.

Kiera regarded the other girl quietly. Domino was tall and svelt. She moved with a grace that it seemed she wasn't entirely aware of. She had the look of the perpetually lost on her face, but she also had the look of a girl who had been through a lot, and had managed to survive regardless of what life through at her. Kiera felt an immediate kinship.

"Hi," she said weakly, unused to dealing with anyone outside the family.

"Thankfully, Jaydena, I am not in your place." Gaea answered with a sly smile. Obviously, her story had touched the other woman, as she had hoped. But rules were still rules. It was part of what had kept the White Tower standing for so long.

"Generally, an Aes Sedai doesn't just up and disappear. That is usually Novices and Accepted. So I understand that finding a fitting punishment is difficult. I am sorry for the quandry. I had no intention of being gone as long as I was. But the Wheel weaves as the Wheel will.

"For an Accepted, I would put her back in Novice whites until she had proven that she had grown up enough not to do something so foolish again. For a Novice, I would likely assign them the most hated and difficult of tasks until she proved that she had grown up enough not to do something so foolish again. But an Aes Sedai...well, you can't really give something so public, can you? And tell the world that the Aes Sedai are anything other than infallible? Of course, there is the Farm. Or a penance within the Ajah...Perhaps, instead of novices and accepted fetching the things the Sister's need, that job gets relagated to the Sister in disfavor...As we do often with the newest Sister to join our ranks, only more so...."

Gaea watched as her Captain General took all this in. It was quite a situation. Gaea didn't think she could remember a time when a full-grown Sister just packed up and left with no word or permission of any kind, so there was no precedence....at least as far as the public was concerned. Sister's came and went all the time. Who could really say if they had left word or not.

"I will, of course, accept any punishment that you decide on, Captain General." Gaea said, inclining her head slightly. Though she really hoped strapping wouldn't come up. She didn't want to have to explain the scars....

And more importantly, where have you been?

Ahh, the moment of truth. The question that Gaea knew she would have to answer, and had dreaded answering. It would not be the first time she had to answer it either. Gaea pondered just how much to reveal, buying time by pouring the tea and looking about the rooms, seeing what Jaydena had done with them, trying to learn as much as she could about the woman to whom she would now answer by studying the objects she surrounded herself with. Gaea had always liked Jaydena when they were Sister's together, and remembered her as being friendly, though completely dedicated to her duty. She may understand Gaea's need, and may even commiserate with her, but she wouldn't forgive the way Gaea took her absence. Well, so be it.

"You recall that I came here, to the White Tower, in search of my past and my memories?" Gaea began, handing Jaydena her cup, and then sitting without waiting for an invitation. At Jaydena's nod, Gaea continued, "My plea for help was unable to be met, but it was found out that I could learn to Channel." Jaydena nodded impatiently, this was all old history and she wasn't interested in the stuff that she already knew.

"When I took the test to become Accepted, memories started stirring. Horrible, half glimpsed images would plague my dreams, and I would wake up in a cold sweat more mornings than not. I was able to put it to the side and focus on my training, but once I reached the shawl, I didn't have as many demanding distractions. The dreams became worse. I couldn't focus on what I was supposed to be doing here. It was getting dangerous for me to handle to Source. After one particularly nasty nightmare, I decided that I couldn't go on like this and I needed answers. I packed up and left for the only clue that I had as to the whereabouts of my family and my past. I got to Four Kings and found the remains of my families home. Once there, the floodgates opened and I relived what happened. I now know that my family was killed and that I narrowly managed to escape. The tattered images that haunted my dreams were fragments of memory of what really happened. I saw them killed."

She paused in her narration to take a sip of tea, not letting the turbulent feelings inside her show in her either voice or her face. She debated on telling the rest, knowing that what she explained thus far didn't cover the amount of time she had been missing...but decided that unless asked, she would let it go. She wasn't quite ready to fully admit all the events that followed the regaining of her memory. She had been foolish to leave without telling anyone and without someone with her, and it had almost cost her everything. She had paid dearly as it was.

Deciding on her course of action, she skipped the next few events and finished weakly, "I spent the rest of the time recovering. When I was recovered enough, I came home." The truth, just not ALL of the truth. She sat quitely, waiting to see what her Ajah Head would say.

And waited....

LOL Well, it's about time that you got your tush over here! As for the ropes.....well, I guess we'll just have to take turns showing each other ;-P

YAY!

Welcome to DM and the Freelanders! Can't wait to RP with you!

OOC: I don't mind at all! That's why I put (Open) in the title!

IC:

A young voice interrupted Gaea's ruminations and she turned to see a fresh faced girl in an Accepteds dress curtsie to her. It really has been a long time! I used to know at least the face of every Novice and Accepted...Well, at least they still know their manners.

She smiled back at the girl and nodded her head. "Yes, Zeveria, was it?" The girl nodded and Gaea handed her Midnights riens. "I have been gone from here a long time. The company up to the Tower would be nice. No matter how long you live here, it still never looses its ability to steal the breath away!"

The last thing Gaea wanted was to go into the White Tower completely ignorant of all that has happened and she began to pepper Zeveria with questions. "How far along are you in your studies? Are there many new novices and Accepted? Have you picked an Ajah that you are interested in? Tell me, child, what all has happened and changed in the year I've been away."

Gaea Sedai

Green Sister

“Whoa, Midnight.” Gaea pulled the reins tight and gazed at the city in front of her. Sunlight sparkled on the waters surrounding the island, and the Tower walls stretched high, trying to be a part of the sky itself. Her heart gave a nervous little thump. What will happen when she walked through those gates again? Some sort of penitence, she was sure….on more than one front. She wasn’t sure if she feared the Amyrlin’s wrath, the wrath of the Green Ajah leader, or Yrean’s wrath more. She was sure none of them would be pleased with her.

I wonder if they have declared me dead? If that’s the case, then they might well be pleased to see me! She laughed ruefully to herself, knowing that regardless of her reception, she would still owe a penance. One didn’t just up and leave the White Tower without permission, with no word of her whereabouts, then show back up a year and some change later and expect everything to continue on as always before.

I just hope they will all understand that I had to….

She clucked to her horse, and continued down the short path to the gates of the great Tar Valon. Despite her nervousness, once she crossed the threshold to the city, she felt like she was coming home.

Gaea Sedai

Green Aes Sedai

LOL now now girls, no need to argue ;-P Thank you very much for the links! And I was always fairly happy with my OP score, but thank you for the information about that as well ~smiles~

No, I haven't. I'm not even sure if the link I have is the still the correct one!

~smiles~ Thanks. This place is very hard to break away from forever. Eventually, we all come back LOL Or so it seems anyway.

So here I am, minding my own business, when someone happened to send me a link for a RP they wanted me to read. Next thing I know, I'm thinking more and more about DM.

Not sure if anyone here will still remember me or not. But I figured I'd stop in and say a Hello.

Gaea Sedai

Green Aes Sedai

She of the lost memory