http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc

I can be online at 12pm Sunday 12/19 US-Central Time zone (which I think would be 8pm Sunday 12/19 for you) ... double check that with the link I've sent above.

Now... which chat program should we use? I'll need to make sure I know all your nicknames too so we can not manage to miss each other.

-Dee

Telcia was a stone while Iussi swore his oath. It was the second time she'd heard such words cross a man's lips and it was no less a solomn moment despite her state.

When he finished she walked towards him and put her hand on his head. For a moment, only a moment, she took hold of saidar again. The motions of the weave easily seen in her mind's eye, but no. She was a Red and they had not allowed for that just yet... and command as she liked... she didn't want to compel Iussi on any topic ever. Not in that way.

Her hand slid from the top of his head down the side of his face forcing him to look up at her rather than bend his head in submission. As she did Saidar slipped away.

"As you are given to me... I to you." she whispers. "I will exercise caution except in the circumstances where danger can not be avoided and I will seek to guide us along smooth courses always. I will with fervor Serve All under the Light, and accept you as my Gaidin on that path. May the Creator shelter us upon our course now and always." Unlike most Sedai might, Telcia knelt to look him in the eyes.

"I would have loved you without it." She says sadly as she innocently kisses him and pulls back to speak again. "You are not less to me than the last man who knealt before me to speak that same oath... and now, as you learn of it, you shall never fear that fact." She smiles softly.

"It seems I have more in common with my Mentor's ajah than I first thought." She chuckles drily, trying to gauge her husband's emtional state and respond appropriately.

Answering his likely unspoken question she takes his hand and rises. "Con. No one knows but... there was a night after we first failed to petition the Hall to release you when I'd all but given up hope. The Tower was become more and more intollerate of my desires and Con comisserated with that fact. I told him how afraid I was to go out into the world alone, to raise children who would ..." Emotion grows in her voice.

"...never know you except by my stories. I told him my fears, things I've only told you before, about the shadow and my war with in inside and out here int he world. I told him that he was a fool not think he was worthy of being a Sister's Gaidin but so many long years with no offers of bonding had left him feeling less than equal to the men he trained."

"Before the conversation ended we both had admitted how much the other really meant to us." Telcia walks him over to the bed, clearly remember the night in her mind. "That once, maybe, there might have been something more between us but that now his heart was Arette's and mine yours even if both of you were lost to us forever. That even in our sorrow we... we weren't seeking that out."

"So there we were, not wanting be lovers... hurt... afraid... and knowing Tarmon Gaidon was yet on the horizon among other complications. He said that I'd saved him and vice versa, too many times for it not to be so. The oath, even without the bond, would be sacred to us both. I agreed with him and so he knealt and swore. We never told anyone, but when I came back to the Tower after the children were kidnapped... I knew I had to find him." She forces a smile and looks her husband in the eyes.

"I knew he'd find you and never give up on my children, even after I'd learned he'd joined the white cloaks. His words to me, left in a letter in my room before he'd left the White Tower the last time, promised that his parting of ways was with an institution and that he still believed in all he'd said to me that night. His war, our war, wasn't done. That if I ever needed him, like a true Brother to Battle, he would come without question no matter the risk."

For a moment she's silent. "You and Con... you're oath brothers now. Sworn to protect me... and through my our children." She chuckles a bit more true now.

"But you must not say anything to Arette yet. I must be the one to tell her. And yes, I would release Con from his oath to me if she wanted to bond him but I know how she feels on those who bond those they love." She closes her eyes. "She calls them fools." She looks to Iussi.

"So... Gaidin, Husband... I keep my word to you. Here in this bed, I follow you. Have I eased any fears you've had or only set you in ill spirits on this most joyous of nights?"

As she reaches the door, "I love you too Arette." she smiled weakly and then closed her eyes to rest.

Ata, where do you live. I'll figure out a time for us. Sundays are good for me too. I totally look forward to working out some neat plans for rp.

Silh,

Your write up is exquisite. I really would like to chit chat with you about some future plans I have to play with the Kin. Since you (and others planning to play Kin) are already getting a kin together, would you mind a little rp planning session with me?

If you (or anyone else here) is open to the idea I'd love to do a chat sometime next week. Any days/nights good for you? If so, name the date, time (and timezone so I can figure out what that would be my time LOL)

I look forward to rp'ing with you all very soon.

*hugs*

James recently nabbed me on MSN and sent me the documents about the Kin which were written up (which btw, rock my socks so hard I could scream!) and I was wondering if anyone out there is playing Kin or wants to do so still.

I am seriously considering rockin' on the Kin thing and wanted to know if I'm alone in this or if there are peeps out there already having fun with this great group of characters!

Thanks!

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

ic:

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

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

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

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

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

She had kept her word.

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

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

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

Her first sight of death.

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

“Ready?†Iussi mouthed. “Telc?â€

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

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

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

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

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

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

So fast…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ooc: I came up with it. It's alright, but not quite what I was shooting for. It'll do for now. Sorry I missed our sunday chat but I had a *GREAT* anniversary weekend. *wicked grin*

ic:

Telcia makes a nervous half-hearted chuckle. "Yea." She sighs. "I need some sleep Arette dear. The Foretelling really took some energy out of me." Boy was she glad she could say that truthfully. Right now the last thing in the world she wanted to admit was that Con had come to her as a Gaidin and NOT as a child of the light. Sure, she'd not bonded him in so much as the weave but she'd broken her Ajah's law in spirit and perhaps that was just as great of a crime.

She could hardly look at Arette now. Arette had always been a good Sister... supportive of the Tower, a GREAT Keeper... perhaps her name would be legendary one day, and a steller Brown. While she... she would forever be known as the failure Red. Telcia Sedai would be lucky if she was remembered for bad things... if anything at all.

Looking crestfallen and exhausted she gave her Sister a quick hug, never meeting her eyes again, and with shoulders drooped made for sleep.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He was... amazing.

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

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

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

Fire.

Water to counter Fire.

More Fire...

Air to quench it...

FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!

AIR! AIR! AIR!

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

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

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

Light help me!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I've got a feeling nothing will ever be normal again... not for us, and certainly not for the world. The best we can hope for is a few moments of happiness along the way." She manages a weak smile.

"Who knows, maybe if we live through it all... maybe things will be as they were at the start of the Age of Legends again. Maybe our kids will live to see a dawning of a new and glorious time of peace. Maybe that's the world we'll grow old and die in... and not this one."

She sighs, looking a bit tired and perhaps a bit unfocused. She spits her words out like she's reluctant to ask, or is thinking of something more than she's ready to admit. "Will you bond Con when this is done? Have you considered bringing it up to him yet? Light knows there are benefits for you both to be had, if nothing else so he knows if something the Light forbid happened to you. I'm sure he wouldn't want the children left uncared for."

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

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

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

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

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

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

Almost.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I won't be welcome at the Tower now, no more than you Arette. I'm sure of it." She whispers softly. "And why should I be? I suppose, in the end, Sirayn was right. I've chosen to whom and what I'm most loyal and I have no reasonable regrets." She manages a sad smile and sighs.

"Maybe I'll do what I use to talk about as a girl... take the children, Iussi, and just be a Servant of All for a while. Then, maybe, when the time for Tarmon Gaidon is upon us... I suppose I'll go to fight just like everyone else." Telcia looks sympathetically at Arette.

"And what about you... I don't suppose you'll look good in one of those frompy frocks and bonets." she manages a half-hearted chuckle. "Con's going to go back to Fernhill with you... isn't he?"

Leaping from her chair so fast that it knocked over, and was promptly kicked aside by her back swinging foot, Telcia grabbed her husband and kissed him back with equal agression.

"An Aes Sedai..." She growled and then pulled on his bottom lip as she kissed him, pulling his clothing off him as she moved him backwards. "...takes orders from *no* man."

A ripping sound and a button flying across the room exposed some of his chest which she put her fingers into so hard it made red marks there. Her lips and tongue followed down to the places she'd cause him pain and played at kissing him in the ways that she'd been taught that men liked kisses ...elsewhere. It had been a secret that, oddly, Melanie had shown her on a piece of fruit once late at night in her Novice years. She'd laughed then about how she might try it on a certain Tower Guard she thought had a fine turn of a calf (if he pleased her enough) but she'd never considered it with seriousness...

Until that first night of wedded bliss with Iussi. She'd been tired but she was eager to show him (once she'd gotten past the ackwardness of it all) just how much he meant to her. That for him, all the discomfort in the world meant nothing.

But there was only so many points on which she would bend. In this family she wore the pants, weilded the knife, and SHE (not him) made the choices of what they'd be doing in the future.

"You can't think that I'd honestly take the children into a situation I didn't think I could control... do you? Are you saying I'm a bad mother?" Before he could anwser she'd pushed him down onto his back on the bed and had straddled him.

He didn't seem interested in talking but, to his credit, he did stammer a bit incoherantly. "I didn't think so." She bent down and kissed him again... almost in a feral sort of way, grinding just 'ever so' to let him know just how serious she was about this night possibly going VERY well for him.

"You married a Red. A soilder of the Crimson Banner..." She breathed hotly in his ear. "You married the Tower when you gave oath to me. Bonded to me or not Iussi Dyfelle... you are MINE." She bit his ear lobe just hard enough to get him to let out a noise and then, the coup de grace, she took hold of the One Power to begin manipulating other things on him while her hands and lips kept busy right where they were. Tying off the weave in such a slow and simple motion took almost no thought at all.

Iussi was putty, at first flustered putty... but putty none the less.

"I will cut you with my knife before I let you tell me what we WILL or WILL NOT do or how and where I will raise my babies." She managed to scold him, and for the first time EVER threaten him with the knife and cutting bit he always talked about, while kissing his neck and face and lips every time he looked fit to voice an opinion of his own.

"Yeild this to me Iussi... acknowledge that I am your Sedai as much as I am your wife... or I will find another who will." She meant it. He knew she couldn't lie. If Iussi wouldn't be a loyal warder she'd find one who would be. If the Reds meant to take on men she wouldn't be known as 'that sister who not only married a male channeler but is controled by one too!'

Slowly she backed off of him and released the weave, standing a few steps away from the bed she held out her hand to stop him coming towards her.

"Make your oath to me Iussi... I'll take you at your word and then... you may take me to our bed." She wet her lips so they glistened in the candle light.

"Or... tell me you can not serve me faithfully and follow as my Warder, because you wish to be my equal... and I will come to your bed husband, loving you just the same but knowing that I must seek out a bond with another who can make that promise. I can not be disobeyed... or ordered... this is how it MUST be." Her breasts rose and fell with each labored breath she took. Her hair wet and amess lay wavey about her face and shoulders now. Her eyes told no lies, she wanted to be in that bed with him now but the truth was a bitter pill. No man was an Aes Sedai's equal. Love him though she did she needed loyalty and respect unquestioning out of a warder. Even a Red knew that. She knew well her oaths. If the Reds changed policies... she would follow suit, with our without Iussi; and oddly she understood completely if he could not make that choice.

Still... he knew well who he had married.

He knew what she'd given her oath to first.

The war to end all wars was on and now there was no time for uncertainty. Like it or not her children did not change the truth of that. Somehow she would find a way to be a wife, a mother, and a servant... at least she hoped she could.

Telcia was stunned breathless at the words. Unwanted tears rose in her eyes at the thought of all the ways this impossible thing could have occured. How... Light HOW!?! She swallowed hard, Arette was talking but she could hardly breath let alone hear.

Too many thoughts and memories... old fears and remembered voices of the dead filled her ears with warnings and things she'd not taken seriously enough when they'd been first spoken.

Madness? No, disbelief and overwhelming frustration at the fact that this was only the begining. She could feel the pull of The Glow of Life, the urgings to take hold of the One Power as the Pattern begged her attention towards it.

Eyes easing into a state of the unfocused she let her mind begin drift, a whisper escaping her ever tightening lips; "...three... I've lived through three... unending, unending... no rest for..."

Images flew past her eyes at blinding speeds and she knew then what was coming. The foretellings had gotten easier to deal with since the return to the Arches and though she hadn't spoken of them... she still had them from time to time. Mostly smaller less important things... but not this time.

"...for..." she worked her lips but the words quit coming. This time was clearly important. Perhaps it was brought on by the trigger of hearing about the Amyrlin & the Keeper... perhaps just how the Creator meant it to occur.

The pounding in her skull told her what this was, the twisting of her stomach like she was about to give birth once more... the itching on her tongue; all signs she'd come to recongnize in her later years as warnings of the Pattern's need for her.

Yes, that was what Foretellings were in her mind... not her ability to know the Pattern but the ability to be used by the Pattern to share what must be known and what could not be avoided.

Telcia grit her teeth despite trying to relax, her muscles rigid, and mouth all dry in just a heartbeat. A moan and violent shooting of her hand to her forehead was Arette's first real warning that something was very wrong; and as the Brown looked to her, she had to know what was happening. Arette had seen her have Foretellings twice before and both times had scared her and all of them so badly that it wasn't bloodly likely they'd forgotten.

"A spring that seems to never come, a winter that threatens to never end... on the eve of the Shadows advance the lost ones join with saviors to lead the way towards day."

Falling into herself she knew that it could have been worse. It could have hurt more... the Pattern, like the sea, was so vast and violent that it seemed no man could ever really see the whole of it but the Creator himself. Foretellings gave her glimpses but nothing more... and for that she was thankful. More and she was certain she might be burned from the pattern completely. Tales of foretellings spoke of those powerful enough to kill... not a comforting thought. Would it be worse as Tarmon Gaidon came closer? Was her gift a ticking time bomb? Creator...have mercy on your children and servants...

Trying to catch her breath she managed out the only thought that came to mind about all of what had been said before the moment and Pattern took hold of her for it's use. "Woods... must burn for new stronger life to grow. Broken Tower... in Darkness... can only be rebuilt in Light. Unending... the Wheel. must have Faith." She reached a stray hand out to touch Arette hoping she understood.

This wasn't the end yet, though losing icons the likes of Lyanna and Lanfir made it feel like it surely had to be. No, this was what men who placed wagers on street fighters in the streets of Ebou Dar called 'Round Two'... and this round, it was the Light's turn for the upper hand.

Now she just had to figure out just how a rag-tag bunch of out-cast Sedai, soon-to-be-wanted White Cloaks and a Gentled Male Channeler were going to help a Farm Boy with no sense what-so-ever and an insane army, make that happen... after they got the kids back, of course.

Light, give us strength...

Telcia could have smiled like a cat who caught a big fat mouse. Her husband, the Light love him, was like ever man she'd ever learned about ... except playing with him hurt her sometimes. She didn't like to make him make choices he had no sense of why he was really making. And, well, that wasn't fair; like he said they were friends and friends didn't use Domani tricks or Aes Sedai word games on each other.

"I promise to talk to you Iussi and ... I promise not to let you go into this blindly and unprepared. When we find the babies I'll ask Con to let me bond him so he can help protect the children when we seek out the Dragon's school for male channelers. I'll ask my brother Skechid to teach you how to do it and we'll remain with you until you know enough that you can be safely healed to learn more. This way I can continue my Ajah's work and continue to prepare for Tarmon Gaidon. And, who knows, perhaps I'll get some time with this farm boy and can talk some sense into him regarding sending his armies all over the blasted countryside." She shakes her head.

"If the poor tainted fools need to have practice with their power they'd be doing the world much better if they did their training along the blight border." She nodded slightly, her hair getting snagged as she did, she winced.

"Yes, that sounds like just the plan. A way for us all to be together and still keep to our duties. You really are brilliant husband. I never would have thought of such a plan without you." She turned her head and kissed his hand, the one not holding the brush but resting on her shoulder.

"Mmmm... your hands feel so... good. Light but I've missed those hands..." She whispered in a husky bedroom voice. Okay... so maybe just this once some Domani tricks won't hurt.

Sitting down Telcia hardly looked at Arette. Light but the woman was probably fixed to try and paddle her like a novice for the outburst earlier. Just thinking about it made her cheeks threaten to pink and burn.

Taking out the necesarily impliments to make up some of Arie's mint tea she listened to Arette without intterupting her. She, after all, had given her husband up for dead so why should she be shocked at Arette's rage?

Glancing around quickly to ensure no one was in earshot and then speaking in a whispered tone she began, "He was relased by a vote of the Hall a month after you left." Her voice carried a very serious tone edged with anger.

"Just outside Tar Valon, a band of Tower Guards informed him that they'd been sent to take him to a rehabilitation farm despite the fact that he'd understood he was allowed to seek me out. Ever trusting... Iussi went with them. He spent the months that I was suffering on the farm with you... watching the horizon himself wondering why I'd abandoned him. Apparently the Sisters on this so-called rehabilitation farm informed him that I'd been told where he was and that I would come to get him when I wasn't too busy."

Telcia shakes her head slowly. "You wouldn't like the names on the list. One I think was on the list of names of women who went missing with certain objects that you had told me about..." Pressing her lips tightly together and her eye lids she draws breath slowly and exhales. Then she returns to the task of making tea.

"Iussi didn't give up on me though, he remembered how stubbornly I'd written him everyday on the trip to Arad Doman where we captured Jarred. He knew I wouldn't put him off after all we'd been through and so... he escaped them & ran off to find me. What he found, apparently, was you... I was gone already." Finally, she turns towards Arette with a gaze that screamed 'you should be ashamed'

"...and it would seem his welcome was neither warm nor sympathetic to what he'd endured either. He's bloody lucky they didn't get bored of him and have him killed... though burn me if I can't figure out why they didn't kill him any more than I can understand why this man took my babies." She shakes her head and ends the 'shame on you' glare, looking back to her tea preparations.

She is silent for a long moment, clearly wanting a second to mull it all over again and Arette, to her credit, gave it to her. "I made contact with Sirayn and Kit... both are still hard at work on the task they were appointed to. More have died or simply disappeared though and it bothers them both greatly." A smile grew on her face as she considered the happier news that the Brown would so much more enjoy than this dark talk.

"And... the other big news out of the Tower is that not one but two Ter'Angreals' purposes were learned while I was there! Can you believe it... and" her smile grew and her eyes lit up. "...I was a part of both discoveries!" She laughed and nodded her head enthusastically as she saw Arette perking up.

"Yes! Amazing isn't it? Light but both have had a HUGE impact on the Tower and perhaps it's future forever! If Iussi hadn't returned I probably could have..." she stopped her happy words. There was no point in bragging about how 'maybe' she could have been returned to her former level of respect. That slim, glimmer of hope was probably lost now that she'd left again.

"... it really doesn't matter. I'm guessing you're wanting details, and I will give them, but not until you tell me what all has happened before I joined back with you! It's my price for spilling an Ajah secret with you." She poured the tea and offered a cup to Arette waiting for her to begin her tale.

Iussi was so confused. He just couldn't piece this puzzle together. Telcia seemed to be changing topic with her every reply. He had been deeply shocked when Telcia had told him that some Yellow Sister had found a way to Heal Stilling and Gentling. The Tower would of course never offer such to him and he didn't want it. Saidin scared him witless and he didn't want to go mad and rot and die.

He took Telcia's hands to his and kissed her palm and closed her fingers around the kiss partially to show that he wasn't angry and to have a physical connection. He needed it right then. "No, I don't want to be Healed while Saidin is tainted. And I doubt that that will ever change, not without a direct intervention from the Creator. And even if it happened - and it never will... I don't know. It would still be a scary prospect, to wield such a power. Why do you ask, Telc? Why now? What does that have to do with all this bonding talk?"

She wet her lips. "It's not something that matters at the moment but there are many things changing. The Reds... we will have to change, if my and several of the Sister's theories are correct. What use will the world have for Red Sisters if the Wheel turns as surely as we all claim? What will the world need of us when the mission is done?" Clearly the topic is a troubling one to her.

"They won't need us unless there is some other purpose we make for ourselves and there are some of us who think we know what that purpose is... a purpose I'm very suited to with my power. Power is not usually spoke of between Sisters because we can feel each other's strength and it's rude to point out that someone is weaker than you... but the truth is,"

She speaks softer as she says the next part, "I am *very* strong... there are few stronger. Our children, if theories on rights of birth are true, will be powerful too. There are few ways that a strong channeler can be stronger, and one of those, is by joining her power with another. In the Age of Legends, the greatest powers were done between men and women working together to create grand miracles the world doesn't dare dream of now."

She looks deep into her husband's eyes, a frankness there to let him know how serious this really is of a topic. "The Shadow will not hesitate to use Black Sisters and Male Channelers together, I am certain of it... even without the fear of Forsaken or other such, we have to know that the horrors of Tarmon Gaidon will be as dark as the Age of Legends was Light. The Light needs that power fighting for it too Iussi. The bond has advantages... things that could help me help a man who uses the power, to keep him mentally strong. He and I could be a team that no shadow sworn fool would ever want to tangle with. If the Reds decide to embrace such ideals Iussi... I'm not sure I can reject that. The shadow has claimed so much of my joy in this life, I am sworn to fight it, and if there is going to be a future for our children to grow old in... shouldn't we all try to do our best to fight the Shadow with all resources we have?"

She stopped her speech then. She had to know what he'd thought of all this insanity she'd been thinking on this whole trip from the White Tower to here.

Listening keenly, Iussi tried to make sense of it. He disagreed her about Red Ajah needing to change so radically so soon. Saidin would be clean when the First Age would come again, if he knew anything, but that wasn't something Telcia and he were going to see in their life time. But he was no philosopher and he wasn't going to argue it with Telcia, who was much more knowledgeable about these things. But she spoke on and the last bit made him draw breath sharply.

The Red Ajah must have been talking about this. Were they insane? He could understand the need to possibly link with the male channelers to counter what the Shadow did, but it was too big risk to be actually bonded to those rabid dogs. But if he understood it correctly and the Reds made this fateful error, Telcia would bond other madman if he wouldn't get Healed.

His voice was sharp when he spoke. "I thought that I was the one risking loosing my sanity here. This can't be just your idea, Telcia, with the way you are speaking of this. I was of belief that the Reds were reasonable women. You will absolutely not do such a fool-hardily risky thing. The bond connects the people to body and soul. Light only knows what else would come through if you bonded one of THEM! There must be other ways to control them than the bond. I'm sure that that was tried by the early Reds and it did not work. There is life after the Last Battle and if all our Reds end up dead or mad and dead, who the hell is going to deal with those crazy men after the Battle!?"

He had a bloody good point. Still, who could think of any life after the last battle... that's why it was called The Last Battle. "There are things that Sisters do not tell Warders about the nature of the bond until after they are bonded Iussi. It's terrible... but it's true. You must understand I'm not saying I can save a man this way, but I can help him remain strong through the fight."

"AND, I'm not saying I'm running off to do this today for Light's sake... it's, well, it's just been on my mind and I need to know what you would think of such things before the 'what if' ever happened. Try to understand sweetling, this isn't an insult to you, it's a matter of my own duty to the world and our family. This, my oath, is part of who I am. I thought once how wonderful it would be to be just a woman but in this time I've learned how blessed I am to have this duty... not cursed."

"I am the Red Shawl, Iussi, it is who you married. It is my banner and my breath as surely as my love for you and the kids are. Somehow I have to find a way to reconcile the two into one life, that is the challenge *I* accepted in making my vows to you. Let's not worry about this now, okay? I shouldn't have troubled you with my own worries and concerns." She shakes her head and faces forward again so he can comb her hair.

"Perhaps I should have just told you I'd considered bonding Con, perhaps that would have been easier to swallow." She wondered he would laugh at that or be angry. She hoped he'd tell her that would have been fine, truth be told she *had* considered such if the Reds ended up lifting the banon bonding... with Arette's consent of course. She knew her Sister would give it though. After all, she knew the woman's stance on bonding for Love and she agreed firmly with it (not that she'd tell him that.) Besides, who else would she trust Con's care to if not her?

"We will get our answers when we get those bastards", Iussi said firmly. "I will wring the answers out of them myself. And baby, they ARE alright. Your Eyes and Ears told you that the men had been seen with two children, right? And I'm certain that where ever they are being taken, they are wanted alive and in good condition. Light only knows why, but we will intercept those Light-forsaken filths and get Jelene and Jamal back hale."

Telcia was about to give in to the sadness, but he wouldn't allow it. Good spirits were essential for being able to keep up the speed they would need within the next month. Unceremoniously he lifted her from the bath and wrapped her into a huge towel. He kissed her gently and tickled her from the spots he knew were her undoing. He just loved to hear her giggle and see... and oh Light, feel her squirm against him.

"Ahem, maybe we want to stop this, if you want to talk with me some more and not do something else." He winked. "The tea is ready to be served, love, but my offer for all kinds of desires still stands."

She nodded, drying herself and pulling a night shift from her bag, put it on. Also, she produced her brush and night combs so that Iussi could make himself useful at a task she know he adored greatly. Sitting down she used a weave of air to pour herself a cup of tea, frivilous but with Iussi eager to brush out her hair, she didn't want to tie him up with the task.

"Yes, there is more to be discussed... much more. The plan right now is that we'll arrive in Katar, retrieve the latest news from my contact as well as the picture. We'll then take residence in an Inn there, assuming the children aren't in town ... because if they are I'm waiting for no one to get them back... but if they aren't then we'll await Con and Arette who are expecting to be meeting with just you. From there we'll move where-ever the clues lead us. If the sighting is a bust..." She sighs. "I'm not sure just what we'll do next."

She goes silent then, thoughtful but not quite grim... clearly considering something else. "Sweetling..." she began in a tone that sounded more fit to a goodwife of her old Andoran Farm Village than to an Aes Sedai. Quickly she cleared her throat getting rid of the odd tone. "I need to ask you something very important and I hope it doesn't anger you. You won't be angry with me... will you?"

Telcia changing into her night gown held Iussi's interest raptly. He admired her lusher curves motherhood had brought with it. The thin dress would come out soon, he hoped, but right now it was useful for keeping her from catching a cold. His eyes lighted when she handed him the comb and brushes. He loved touching her hair and running his hands and brush through it. He listened to her quietly until she mentioned them not waiting if the kids were there. "Exactly! We'll storm the place ourselves if the kids are still in Katar. And Con follows the trail from the start and they were coming north too. So I really doubt that it's a wrong lead."

"And love, I can't promise that I won't be angry since I don't know what you're going to ask. But I could never keep it up for long. I promise to listen and consider it and try to not get too mad no matter what it is."

She manages a small nod at his excited words. "Alright then, I've been thinking a lot about what I saw in the Ter'Angreal I told you about... the one with the man from the Age of Legends. I've been thinking about my mission and what I've sworn myself to do, to build a future for our children... both of them... because, you should know, there is good reason to believe they will both channel."

She let that sink in a moment and wait to see if there would be a reply from her husband.

As Iussi nodded she continued. "Well, I guess the long and short of it is this... would you be overly jealous and angry if I bonded someone." There, she said it. Light knew she probably wouldn't but so much of the world was changing now, who could say what might happen? So, she had to know.

For a moment Iussi just stared at her. What was all this bonding talk? The Red Sisters did not bond. Unless this was some really radical change in the policy of the whole Ajah... No, he just couldn't believe it. "I... yes, I would be. At least in the beginning. In the first, oh about ten twenty years or so. Why Telcia? Why all this bonding talk all of the sudden now? And why would you bond someone else than me if you are going to do it?" He was definately starting to get riled up here, but he tried to keep it under the lid to his best ability.

Turning her head to look at him very seriously she whispers, "Are you willing to be healed?" She lets the idea of healed of 'what' exactly hang between them. She didn't know if she could even bring herself to say it. She didn't want that. She wanted him to live, to survive this dark time and raise their children even if she was doomed to die at the Pitt fighting the Dark One hand to hand at the side of the Dragon himself.

Iussi merely shrugged at her chastisement about not keeping his head down better. It was late hours and this inn wasn't at all crowded. Also she should know by now that low profile was so not his forte. His eyes did pop slightly at the tossed comment about bonding. It was a new thing. She was a Red after all and couldn't bond anyone. Earlier she hadn't even brought it up really even as a joke.

The smile convinced him that she was indeed jesting and he relaxed. Obediently he set the tea pot on fire. Since she wasn't going to cheat this time, it would take a while before the tea would be ready. Meanwhile he could use the time productively and wash her back and maybe some other places too. The soap didn't smell the same than the one she usually used when he took the cloth it was in from

Telcia's hands. He pushed her forward gently to reach her backside better and begun to scrub gently kissing and nibbling her ear lobe at the same time. "Not that I am not happy to see you, but this was quite a suprise, Telc", he whispered between pecks. "I must have done you some really good things since you just had to follow me. But seriously, what made you to change your mind?"

She closed her eyes, soaking up how wonderful his touch and kisses felt, the warm water lapping at her sides as he circled the cloth around her back. "An Aes Sedai is bound by her word. You know that." she made the statement as if that should explain it all but she knew, her smile growing bigger as she anticipated her husband's next question, Iussi would miss the mark.

"Oh uh... sure, I guess. But I just don't remember you promising to go is all. But I know that your decision was well thought of and you took all the things into consideration, so it's not like you have to justify anything to me. I was just surprised. And did I say already how happy I was to see you?" Iussi demonstrated it by moving his lips and tongue by her ear just the way he knew she liked it.

Telcia broke into a laugh as he touched her ears, her amusement no longer able to be kept in. Pushing herself to her knees she turned, taking his face into her hands, and kissed him for a long moment getting him all wet. Pulling back her lips she put her forehead to his, stared him in the eyes and whispered; "Our wedding vows... I realized they bond me as surely as any other word I've given. I am your wife, your family, your partner... our bond is the strongest that the Creator made Iussi. It is sacred." She stressed the last word.

"To think that I could really call myself Aes Sedai or a Guardian and not follow you, not find our children, well..." She shook her head. "I'd shame both words if I let you leave me to face the world alone, ever again."

The kiss made Iussi's brain sizzle and he didn't even notice getting wet by her embrace. He gazed lovingly at her icy blue eyes that were so warm right then and so close to his. Her words brought emotional tears to his eyes with their beauty. He knelt beside the bath tub and pulled her close to him again for a deep, passionate kiss. It left him breathless, but he managed to croak "I love you, Telcia. And I will never leave you again, never."

She kissed him again and again until at last she put a hand to his lips to end the torrent. "I have more news... good news... about the kids." She stressed firmly. "My eyes and ears have finally turned up something. It could be a dead end, they may be wrong, but we do have a lead which is much more than we had months ago." The smile threatened to split her face.

Blood pounced on Iussi's veins and her kisses had him on fire. It took him a moment to refocus on the world and cool a bit the furnace of emotions she had lighted inside him, but then the full meaning of her words dawned to him. Light, she knew where the children were! "Where are they, Telcia? Where? We have to ride there immediately and get them back."

Iussi's immediate demands to know where made her laugh again. She was enrapt with seeing him so very happy and re-energized. "The message got to me just before I left Tar Valon, it arrived from a city named Katar. We're suppose to go there, meet up with Arette and Con, and check to see if we've got another message there with a man who I have been having work for me for some time now. Hopefully whoever has them, made the error of letting it be know where they were heading next. There are sketches of them done by a theif catcher I hired, waiting in the town also. We can see their faces and confirm if it's them. The man is charging me a a small fortune but Light, if it's them Iussi..."

Telcia laughed at him, he was certain and he realised that he had been a little bit over enthusiastic. She explained what she knew and he tried to count the distance to Katar. It would be maybe three week's journey if they didn't ride the horses dead. He wanted to keep a good pace, though even if they would have to wait on Con.

"It IS them, it just has to be. How many times do you see men traveling with two small children? It can't be a coincidence. It might be only a month away while we hold them again, if Katar was their final destination." There was a murderous glare in his eyes. He wanted the blood of the men, who could do something like this, kidnap babies.

"A month and we'll be in Katar." She nods firmly and leans back into the water again. "I just keep telling myself that they would have killed the children already if that was the goal." She shakes her head, her smile fading.

"I don't know why anyone would do this Iussi. It doesn't make a witt of sense. None of it. If this was about money or randsome, certainly we would have gotten word weeks and weeks ago." Her gaze unfocuses a little and she whispers.

"I hope they're okay... Jelane is forever getting into mischief and Jamal had the sniffles, if not watched closely they'd be breaking bones or falling ill so easily. It's just they're both so... small." A hand raises her her lips in an effort to contain any overly sad emotion from showing. She knows that is the last thing either of them needed at the moment. Still, it ate at her desperately whenever she had to focus on it for very long.

It was a bright and beautiful day and Telcia found herself smiling and laughing easily at her husband’s side, as they walked down the street. It had been the first time in days she’d felt such ease.

The days had passed painfully slow since arriving in the little town to wait for her friends arrival. Iussi had insisted that, despite the presence of the Children of the Light, things were safe and so... she listened to him and took as much pleasure in their time together as she could. She knew if she had been too forceful on the matter of her own safety, then her husband might just take it as some sort of sign of failure on his part and start with the marriage knife and ‘her having the right to cut him’ talk again.

Blasted Ebou Dari Men... Though it was good to know that he, unlike so many other men, would normally listen when it mattered most of all. Truly her husband would have made a fine Warder, just as she had always said in the years before they were married. Of course, now she would never allow such a foolish thing. He’d be bonded to some spark wielding half-wit flip-skirt chit when she was cold and dead in her grave, and perhaps not even then if the Creator had any sense at all. He was a good man but she was certain that it would take a very particular kind of woman to handle him and no one was fit to do that, besides her.

Hearing Arette’s voice stopped her only for a moment and then, she was rushing into the woman’s arms. They held each other for a long while, whispering and giggling like novices on free-day… she wanted to cry for all the joy that filled her now in this moment. Light but it was tempting to make it even more incredible by filling herself with the power just as she did in those moments with Iussi at night, but she would be ashamed to let Arette feel such foolishness.

Kissing her Sister’s cheeks quickly and making notice of her very insistent eyeing of the White Cloaks nearby, and her mouthed ‘Lini’ she nodded quickly. Of course, how foolish! Arette couldn’t be going by her name in a city so full of the White Cloaks. Light she’d nearly gotten them into quite a pickle but Arette was taking it in good spirit.

Telcia then released Arette and turned to the direction of her husband and Con’s laughter. Her breath immediately caught at the sight of him but she managed to make herself appear as steady as possible. With no hesitation, she embraced him as well. No matter what tunic he wore, no matter the color of her shawl, what existed between them was (to her) nearly as sacred as her bond to her husband and children.

"Con" she breathed, squeezing him tighter as she spoke his name. "...brother...†she muttered into the bright yellow on his tunic that was the symbol of the Light itself. "It's so good to see you!"

"And you sister, and you. Light I did be missing you."

Realizing now that the men she'd seen in town were likely with, if not under Con, she whispered; "I hope we haven't just leapt from the frying pan of my home into the fires here... or put you at some unforeseen risks?" She knew he'd understand that her 'home' was Tar Valon. She figured even thinking the words might not be safe near his brothers in arms. Silently, she began wondering how he took seeing 'Lini' again. She repeated the name in her head once more just to be sure she'd remember it. Light what a mess!

"What do be happening, but I do be with yours till the course be run."

"My course runs till the bitter end Brother. It's an end that, the Light send it not so, may be coming all too quickly." She looks up towards his face, a faintly grim demeanor fading to mischief and mystery dancing across her gaze; "And if I have my way of it; in this chaos our world has entered, I mean to make some old broken things into new happiness for us both."

"It do be on the mend I think."

As Con releases Telcia from the embrace and she backs away from him slowly she says, "Now... shall we take some time to share a drink and catch each other up a bit before we ride off to continue our journey or..."

Falling back into Iussi, she barely had time to register what was happening around her. Con had only thrown her so forcefully once in her entire life and once was enough to know what it meant. They were back in Arad Doman and here there was almost as much danger for her as in Cairhien and Tar Valon.

Turning she could see the bolt impacting with Con, missing it's intended mark of Arette. Looking back to the direction from which it was fired she was able to catch the faintest hint of the man running full speed towards the edge of town.

"STOP THAT MAN!" Telcia ordered with an authority that might have made a King spring to attention in an effort not to raise her ire all before asking 'who am I chasing?' Her husband, as well as several of the White Cloaks, seemed to instantly have swords at the ready even before she'd finished barking out her command.

Taking hold of the siren's song which was the infinite force of all life, Saidar, the ancient Sedai quivered where she stood in spite of herself. It had been quite some time since adrenaline and the One Power had both surged through her in such a manner. Oddly, the feeling (despite the situation) was indescribly wonderful. If she didn't know better she might think herself fresh out of Accepted banding and new to the Shawl again!

As the herd of men rushed past in a thunderous roar, she fell down beside Arette and reluctantly offered control of the power to her Sister. She hated doing that, hated it because she knew how strong she was with Spirit (the power of healing) and because... it was *HER* power. She hated letting someone control it. It always felt like letting someone hold your hand and force you to write letters. Your fate, your joy, belonged to someone else for a time... giving one's own soul might have been an easier thing to reconcile oneself to doing at times than linking.

Arette was quick with the weave, together their power was just enough to pull off the weave for healing and the terrible rend in Con's flesh was smooth in a matter of moments. Even though she'd seen and done it many times before, on much worse wounds than this one, it was always an amazing thing to see.

Quickly the two scrambled to get Con inside the Inn. This was going to be wretchedly hard to explain to the white Cloaks... truth be told Telcia was already running through escape plans in her mind. They'd seen their commander hit, they'd know he'd be laid up for months even with a good Wisdom's help. His ability to walk and ride so quickly could in no way be mistaken for anything other than what it was.

Suddenly, the day had just gotten a LOT darker.

Telcia rolled her eyes at her overly eager husband. Telcia sighed and put a soapy hand to her face, instinctively weaving a circle of silence. "So much for not being known..." she half chuckled and shook her head.

"I've half a mind to bond you where you stand just so you can know better when you're levity is appropriate and when it is not, that is if I knew they wouldn't hunt me down for the sheer audacity of it..." she moved her hand and gave him a smile to let him know she wasn't really all that mad with him.

"Get some tea going on that fire would you, I have some of Arie's famous Cairhienen Mint Brew in that sack over there. I haven't had a good cup in days." she clicked her tongue in spite of herself. "To think I use to hate that stuff." Again she shook her head and put the crude bar of soap, not at all her milk and herbs kind from the Tower, to cloth for some serious scrubbing.

*polite bump*

 

It's down to this

I've got to make this life make sense

Can anyone tell what I've done

I miss the life

I miss the colours of the world

Can anyone tell where I am

His kisses were so sweet, his touch like fire. She'd barely been with her husband at all since she'd married him. Their whole marriage revolving slowly around the White Tower to which they swore. The problem was, had the Tower ever returned the favor of their blood and tears? Had it ever really done it for any one in the world... or was it the people inside who mattered, their deeds the real good or evil?

 

'Cause now again I've found myself

So far down, away from the sun

That shines into the darkest place

I'm so far down, away from the sun again

Away from the sun again

Watching Iussi ride away from the Tower in the ever brightening day made her choke with pain inside. The memory of his body and his laughter were already fading from her mind. With ever instant, her resolve grew stronger.

She had to keep her oath.

 

I'm over this

I'm tired of living in the dark

Can anyone see me down here

The feeling's gone

There's nothing left to lift me up

Back into the world I know

She'd pulled her hair up into a tight bun to her head and put on a large dark floppy hat to hide her femine features, breeches, long coat and gloves to hide the ring on her hand. She'd keep it on, for as long as she could. To the pitt of doom if she must. This was just a detour. She'd find her babies, or bury them... and then it was back to work.

Mounting Sundancer, her tiny silver bells on the reigns jingling softly, she clicked her tounge twice and kneed the stout mare. At break neck speed she tore out of the gates of the White Tower. Memories flashing through her mind both good and bad... but unusally, mostly good.

This was home. She was leaving home in the hands of hidden enemies. Light help you Sira... Perine... Muirenn. Find the shadow. End this madness.

 

And now again I've found myself

So far down, away from the sun

That shines into the darkest place

I'm so far down, away from the sun

That shines to light the way for me

To find my way back into the arms

That care about the ones like me

I'm so far down, away from the sun again

The ride was long, coming across villages he'd been at before her... he'd been keeping a devilish pace, as if somehow the light told him where he was going. She couldn't understand it. How could he seem to have such a sense of things? Was he just riding away to leave her further behind, to ease the pain? She had let him think she wasn't coming after all.

Light, but the road was a lonely place. Now, not for the first time ever, she began to see the charm of a warder.

 

It's down to this

I've got to make this life make sense...

The moon's journey across the sky was nearly done when she pulled reign in the small town and went into the inn. It was the only one for miles. She was so tired she barely had the sense to notice Iussi's horse stabled just down from Sundancer.

Entering she found only the barkeep and a young woman up and talking. Tapping her boot she removed the dust from them and walked calmly towards the man behind the bar who was washing down some glasses. Both he and the attractive young girl seemed to be watching her with express interest, but with her head tipped as it was she was certain they took her for a man from Cairhien, an assumption confirmed with a firm, "Good eve to you sir. How may we help you?"

Without a word, Telcia reached into her pocket and tossed more than enough coin on the counter for the room. She'd barely spent any of her allowance yet, on the road she'd been sleeping mostly in the sadle and on the cold earth. It would be good to get a bath, the Light only knew what she smelled of.

"A room sir?" The attractive woman pipped up much too quickly. She gave only the barest hint of a nod. "And some food too... perhaps a bath? I can accomidate you one if you like?" The girl, she decided this one seemed too young to be anything but a girl, was showing her cards fast. It must have been a slow month in the area for her to seem so excited about offering herself so easily to a stranger.

Again Telcia nodded and as soon as the barkeep said which room, she moved swiftly up the stairs too it. The girl fetched a bowl of stew (which had likely been on the fire all night) and raced up the stairs after her so quickly that Telcia was amazed she didn't trip.

Entering the large room she looked around as the girl lit a lamp. A bed, a copper tub, a dresser... clearly this was the Inn's best room. Perhaps, she was already far too use to Tar Valon's prices again. She'd clearly over paid the man down stairs for him to simply give her this room.

"The stew is hot," the girl warned setting it on the table taking off her simple hand made shawl. "... but I'm sure you use to handling things that get a little hot from time to time."

Telcia cringed. That had to be the most desperate, terrible line she'd EVER heard... and she was familar with a few. Walking over to the door she locked it, a giggle was the response behind her. Silently she wove a privacy weave, all without the girl noticing, and then took off her hat letting her long golden and silver locks fall around her face.

The girl leapt onto the bed gasping in shock and shame. "Wha... wa..." she stammered.

"Pull it together child and put that shawl back on." She commanded and, as expected, the child did just that. Telcia clicked her tongue in disapproval.

"Such a shame. Draw my bath now girl... and not a word, do you understand."

The girl nodded meekly and moved as if her life depended upon it. Out the door, down the stairs, and back up with water... again and again. Telcia removed her boots as the girl worked and when she was done, she begged to return to her room for the night.

Telcia produced a coin and offered it to the girl. Her eyes went wide and she reached for it. Quickly Telcia shut her hand around it. "There is a man here. Black hair... hair on his lip perhaps. Daggers on him and a thin sword. Ebou Dari, perhaps wearing an odd ring?"

The girl swallowed very hard, as if she suddenly wanted to fall to her knees. Telcia knew then that the girl had seen him... and now suspected she knew the truth of who she was. Blood and ashes..

"You will go to his room," she gave the coin. "and you will find some way to bring him to me. You will not attract attention our say out loud any strange ideas you may have in your head now. Once you've brought him to me... I shall double this for your troubles. Go now." Telcia dismissed the girl who broke into a terribly sloppy curtsey and then all but ran out the door.

Light but she had missed this sort of thing... the thrill of it... the risk... the danger... the respect. In the Tower even the most lowly of novice seemed to know her and her deeds, and even though they gave the motions, their eyes held little of true fear and respect that they should have. Out here, in the real world, she was still an Aes Sedai.

Here she still Served All, whether the White Tower like that or not mattered very little... out here, in the Light blessed Real World.

Telcia let Iussi's absence go on from the Tower for one full hour (having packed and made herself ready to go) all before making her move, hoping it would be long enough that anyone still staring would have come to her senses by now.

There was no question that Muirenn knew her great nephew-in-law had thumbed his nose at all sense and ettiquette and had returned for a brief visit to his wife. Someone would have run straight to her upon seeing him even before the Amyrlin herself if only because it involved her.

However, after recent revelations of the Messenger's Ter'Angreal (what they'd all been calling it lately) she hoped none among them could nay-say him that right. Like it or not, he was her husband and she had every right to lay beside him one night, taking comfort in his arms with Tarmon Gaidon so near them. The problem was, she had every reason now to believe there was at least one black among her sisters... someone who must have hated her to her very bones to have tormented her this way, because certainly she and her tiny children were not so very important to the Dark One as to single her out this way for him?

She hoped.

Down the long hallway she made her way before knocking on the oldest Sister's room... her Aunt Muirenn. She's going to be furious, but I won't be a coward. She deserves to know this crazy plan first hand and more importantly... I have to warn her of the danger. I won't leave her ignornant.

Knocking only a short bit, she turned the knob and entered swiftly similtanous to Muirenn's curt "Enter." Already in her mind she could see the woman trying to comfort her over having made the 'right' choice of telling the 'boy' to leave without her.

"Sister..." She says softly with a nod of respect, "I am afraid we need to discuss some weighty news with an eye to privacy. If you have the time to speak with me now..., may I weave us the circle of silence so we can begin?" Silent as the dead she waited for her Aunt's reaction and reply.

oc: Muir, we need to touch base oocly and discuss this. I think got good stuff for you & me. :)

* chat style *

It took a significant part of Iussi's almost non-existent self-control to ease down and to listen. Then it all was starting to overwhelm him. He was just a simple guy and this was so much. He didn't quite agree with Telcia's decision of leaving that woman in charge of the search, but she was right that with the networks of the Tower they might learn something. But it had gotten her tangled into all the webs here again, everything that she had wanted to get away from when they had gotten married. But duty was heavier than a mountain and death lighter than a feather, or so they said in the Borderlands. And whether she wanted it or not, Telcia was a woman of the White Tower to her core, even if she wanted to deny it and have some happiness just for herself. Light knew that she deserved it, and Iussi would make sure that he would. He would bring their children here. Other Aes Sedai had raised a family in the Tower too and even if her situation was quite special, so could they.

Hearing the confirmation to the resilient rumors of the existence of a darker Ajah shocked him. Light, even the Tower wasn't safe. Could that be the answer to all of this? Tower Guards did not work without command of the Sisters and unless the men had been imposters... and they weren't, because Iussi had recognized at least one of them as a real thing.... But why? Why would the Black Ajah be interested in ruining one Sister's life like this? Why had the Shadow wanted their children? Could it be just because their both parents were channelers? Finally Telcia was coming to an end and it was obvious that a huge boulder had been lifted off her. Iussi rained tiny kisses to her neck and just held her still for a moment longer before speaking.

"You are Aes Sedai, Telcia. I think that you knew deep inside what choice you were making when you returned here. After everything you have just told me, it is obvious that you worry about the events of the world AND you believe you can affect them. Leave or don't, and you will feel guilt. You are needed here, so it's quite simple really. Me and the kids will be returning here. The Dark Ajah.... would we be safe from them even in Fernhill or anywhere if they decided to do something? No, the Tower is still the safest place in the world." He quieted, silenced by a worrying thought he hadn't taken into account. "I don't know what that would do to your reputation, though... but I meant what I said, Telc. I will enjoy any moments we have together, but then I will leave and bring our babies to you. What happens then is up to you, but you will have time to think...."

She rolls over to look him in the eyes. "You bring our babies back and I'll follow you to the Dragon Reborn's side, to the Last Battle and back. There is no difficulty in that choice Iussi. I will serve humanity no matter where I am, I just don't want..." What was it she wanted? She nuzzled her face into his chest, kissing his neck softly.

"I don't want to be a fraud. For the first time since before the rape, I'm thinking clearly Iussi. I'm not sick any more... it's like a veil of darkness has been lifted from my eyes and even in all these terribly fearful events the world is better, even more so because you're here now to ease my heart and share this moment with me." She kisses his cheek innocently. "Where would we go Iussi, to find Con and Arette and travel with them? To my eyes and ears and across the land aimlessly? I've searched for rhyme or reason in this and I see none."