* super chat mode go! *

Iussi nodded severely the her words and allowed her to lead him eagerly. The direction gave him a pause, though. Hope and well, lust, rose in him, but he was trying not to misinterpret here. Oh, he would hold her to the end of the world... gah, and even hear her explanation while they rested. Down boy, he commanded with resignation as he laid beside her on the soft mattress. She fit to him neatly and they were like two spoons cupped together. His crutch rested just finely to her shapely backside and he was starting to think she was torturing him. But no matter what, he was going to keep her plea and not disturb her with his antics.

Clearing his throat he managed a husky "I'm listening."

So Telcia began the terrible story. She told about how she had fulfilled her foretelling by saving Arette from the grief of her losses, of how she in turn helped her with the children and how together they'd made a happy home of a small farm in Andor. She told of her lonliness, of the children's first steps and meger words, she barely kept from crying at the mention that they'd managed words akin to dad.

She told about the terrible night the Trollocs came and ripped her world apart, and how they'd hunted for any sign with no avail... and then came word of Dumai's Wells. This she laid the whole terrible truth out for her husband to understand, of how the hall was rot with indecisions and conflicts among the ajahs and the amyrlin, of how they'd sent emissaries and failure pushed fear to become foolishness. Kidnapping was deemed the best course but somehow that had gone terribly awry. It was as if the Tower had even worked against itself for that. And when word reached her village of the Dragon and his mad male channeling army... why the place gave up on much more than just the hunt for her kids!

She told how she and Arette searched fruitlessly and then how her friend had the strength to send her home to the place she least wanted to be... but her friend wanted most to go home to. Both took up a path they never wanted and went their own ways. Arette to search for children who were believed dead and she to mourn while filling her oaths among those who she had been shamed in the eyes of by the secrecy she was forced to keep.

She told of how alienated she'd been, of how even her sisters felt distant from her and the whole tower would rather she hadn't come back at all. She told of the events that followed in those weeks and how one day she'd had enough of mourning and waiting and decided to take the world into her own hands again. She told him of the Arches, the secret no Sedai ever liked to share, and how she, Sira, and Elyssa had found their true use at risk of their own lives and so much more.

She told of how she'd regained enough status through that act to be allowed to research the greatest find of the age... the diaries of Bonwhin and a ter'angeral that held a message from the breaking... the purpose and reason for the reds existing... and how she'd rededicated herself to the cause in Iussi's memory knowing now that they'd met because it was the will of the pattern that she learn from him this most difficult lesson that was communicated in the Ter'Angreal.

BUT... if he wasn't dead then, what was she to do now? Not that she wanted him dead mind you... but where did he fit in all this now? Could she just forsake her oaths again and run off on a wild goose chase to find her babies who she'd all but buried now?

And worse, knowing the deepest darkest secret of all... could she leave knowing that (and she did hesitate and choke the words out to him more hard than she had wanted) the Black Ajah was real and they had killed Light Loyal Sisters in the Tower who were hunting them secretly. That if the world knew of them, especially now, then one of the greatest armies for the light might not be trusted by the world... but instead become suspect and hated. No... she wouldn't let that happen and she told Iussi as much. It was a long, long talk... mostly her speaking and him listening and when it was all done... Telcia felt as if she'd dropped the world on the floor and was weary from having held it far too long alone.

* yep you guessed it... done in chat *

Iussi's ears were positively ringing after the smack he received. It cleared his head quickly to find himself hanging upside. The view to his cleavage was quite nice from this angle, though. And NO! He wouldn't go there now. He would be respecting and listen to her and... Light, but he was in need. They hadn't been together for over a year, the last time had been right before she had left to give birth to the babies. It wasn't just sex; he yearned for her to be close to him. When they were together, it wasn't just their bodies commingling, but their souls too. I

t was clear from Telcia's urgent and desperate tone, though, that he would just have to hold his horses. The Dragon, the babies, Tower tearing itself apart, male channelers, kidnapping... someone, it wasn't quite clear who... such a burden on her slender shoulders. And he wasn't helping. He felt guilty, but he was still bloody flaming burning. The drop on his head disoriented him, but he heard he her last whisper and the tears she were holding at bay.

He scrambled to his feet and wound his arms around her tightly. He pressed her head to the familiar spot against his shoulder and stroke her hair. "Shhh, now dear. I'm here. You don't have to carry it alone anymore. We will survive, you will see. The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, no matter how we struggle. And the Dragon isn't going to give up without a fight."

She laughed a nervous chuckle, Light but it felt good to be held again. He seemed to steady, like a rock, unmoving but soft. "What do you know about the fool farm boy who's made such a mess of all the world? No... he's sick, dying... he needs his Sisters but he can't see it because these flaming burning..." she nearly growled inspite of herself, "women, they had to mess it all up. I doubt we'll ever make right what's been ruined now. He'll never trust us. He'll never work with us and who can blame him." She sighed. "I had such a plan too... it was worth a go, some would die..." she laughed. "Burn me if I hadn't meant to be one of the lambs to the slaughter on this hair brained plan... and now..." She sighs. "Plans must change."

Iussi still kept caressing her and it helped to control his urges to try to puzzle out what she meant by them, Aes Sedai obviously, messing up with him, the Dragon Reborn, he guessed. There had been some talk previously about... what was it, yes, kidap. They wouldn't have! "Whoa, Telc, slow down. You mean that you tried to kidnap him? Wouldn't like talking have been a better idea?"

"A lot has happened." She says with grave finality. "I don't even know where to start." She takes his hands and leads him over to her bed, without thinking about what he might think she meant to do. She sat on the bedside and kicked off her soft soled shoes only to lay down. "Hold me a while, and I'll try to explain while we rest... please Iussi?"

* even more in chat *

Iussi merely nodded when she offered her the glass and after a long sip, he was able to chuckle at her little joke. His gaze didn't leave her for a moment, though, and its intensity was a strange contrast to the bit of froth left to his trimmed narrow mustaches. It stabbed him to hear her speak of lost husband and children, but he was going to give them both back to her and make it all up to her.

If she would just let him to. Her next words seemed to take the bottom of his stomach off. He swallowed hard and his voice was hoarse when he spoke. "I apologize for the inconvenience of my presence, wife. But I couldn't stay away. You are my heart and when I am not with you, I am only half alive." He knelt to her feet and picked up the marriage dagger stuck on the table placing the blade to

his heart and the hilt to her hand. "If I ever displease you, wife, take my life. Or if it pleases you, just a word and I will go and never come back." It killed him to speak those words, but he would rather die than do her any harm he could prevent. If she would send him away, he still had the children to think about. He was determined that he would be the one to find them, not that cold-hearted bitch.

Telcia closed her eyes and swallowed hard. She could send him away, she was sure he'd go... a word, quick like putting down a lame horse. Quick was best, so her father use to say. The pain was done in an instant and they suffered no more. But men weren't like horses, and for all he was screwing up being here... she wanted him beside her almost as much as she needed Saidar. Putting a hand gently on his she prevented him from cutting himself. Leaning in closely, Telcia kissed his lips softly and chastely. She remembered the feel of this exquisite pleasure with the most intimate of detail, and she nearly shed tears for how much she missed it. Pulling away quickly she whispers softly, "It was never you Iussi... never you who caused me pain." She drew breathe slowly,

"You saved me when least of all I wanted to be saved. You ... you made me human, like my Sisters of the Crimson Banner before me. You made me ready for this fight. I just wish I knew how to reconcile one with the other so simply. I feel... Light, it's silly. Forget I said anything." she takes another deep draught of her ale and refills her glass. "What life can we have now?"

The lovely rose petal lips were moving and words were coming out, but Iussi didn't hear a thing because his blood roared so hard in his ears. He just to let out some of the immense emotion roiling inside him, so he let out such a whoop of utter joy that it would have been heard at the end of the whole corridor if Telcia hadn't warded them. She splashed ale over her in startlement, but Iussi ignored it, ignored everything but her before him. "You still love me!" His eyes were twin suns of passion. "And what kind of a peck was that? Are you a Domani or a milksop Andoran? Bring it on woman!"

Telcia reached across the way between them and slapped him for all she was worth, then in the same motion she thrust herself upward and pulled threads of air together to grab at his feet and pick him up by his ankles, hanging him in the air upside down. Her blue eyes blazing pools of icy rage.

"... you..." she seethed. "Wool-for-brains man!" She pointed a finger at him scolding. "Don't you have ANY clue what a pickle I'm in here... what mess we're up to our eyeballs in! The Dragon Reborn, our babies in the hands of the Light knows what monster, the Tower tearing itself apart at it's very seems, the known world full of male channelers who are now a BLOODY FLAMING force to be reckoned with a BURNING ARMY, and us... having tried to kidnap him... failed... the BLOODY FOOL FLAMING BURNING CHITS! AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF ENEMIES ALL AROUND US AND WITHIN!" She stormed up to him, dropping her voice pointing her finger into his chest hard.

"You ... I... we may be dead by dawn for this risk you've taken! Who will save them? If they are alive... if we're dead... WHO!?!" Tears filled her eyes. "I FINALLY find what it is I'm suppose to be doing only to find you alive, and... you bring this hope... make me feel this again..." She sobs. "And nothing is clear... in all this chaos... now nothing is right." she shakes her head, letting her hand fly dismissively, cutting the weave, turning from him.

"...and all you can think about is kisses. The world is burning Iussi... and us with it. We're at war. The last war Iussi. The last battle is here, now, and..." Her voice trailed to a bare whisper. "...we're losing."

* more in chat *

Iussi beamed at Telcia when she called her to sit and touched her cheek slightly as they passed, not daring for more contact until she took the initiative. He lowered himself routinely on the pillows. "When you and the babies had left, I missed you horribly of course. The Reds were there and they were kind, but they were not you. They assured me that the Hall would soon make the decision and I could be Gentled. They said it wouldn't hurt and well.... it kind of didn't. Still it was like a cut to my soul and it felt like loosing something I never even knew that I had. There is still constantly this kind of an itch on the back of my mind.... like a beckon or something. It is really annoying. And I... I've always been carefree but now I see nightmares often and wake up... broody. I just can't seem to shake it off sometimes. But I try." He sighed.

"Now I'm muddling it up, tho. They didn't Gentle me for months. I heard that there was an Amyrlin change and the Reds were happy about it. Karana wasn't obviously very popular among them." Quite an understatement. "But I read between the lines that it had caused some issues in the Hall, so my matter was delayed even further. I don't remember exactly how long it took before they finally reached the decision... it could have been three months since you left. And then... the farm. But that you already heard about. I... well, that's it. Is there anything else you want to know, Telc?"

She wet her lips, wishing to all the Light that there was some Accepted there now to order around and get a cup of tea from... "Do you... have you been told anything about the events of the world or the Tower since you left up til now?" (done)

Iussi nodded. "I have heard the stories flying around on my way here. As for the Tower..." He grinned wryly. "Not really. You're the second Aes Sedai I've talked to since like nine months. Well, beside Arette in Fernhill, but she just yelled at me and I at her and then she threw me out." He looked bewildered. "And she's a mother now too. I really pity her poor children." He saw the warning look on Telcia's face and knew that that wasn't a safe direction either. He grinned and changed topic. "As for the news... it seems that the Dragon has been Reborn. And everything is a mess and going to the Pit of Doom in a handbasket. But I'm sure that the Tower has everything under control, right? Advising him and all?"

Telcia just shook her head slowly to state that he was incorrect. She rose smoothly and went to a cabinet, now called for a snip of ale... tea was not going to be strong enough for this mess.

"The Last Battle, though. It scares me." He shivered unvoluntarily, but his brain pretty much turned off when she stood and his attention was focused on far more interesting things. Such as wonderful round bottom and buttocks and... she had gotten curvier since the children and she was even more beautiful to him. His mouth was too dry to get a word out, so he just feasted her with his eyes.

"Drink?" She offered politely. "It's stout stuff... turns out the Andorans know how to brew as well as complain." She shakes her head at her own joke. "I was never much for it before but after all that's happened... I now understand the charm to all the Tower Guards." She brings back the bottle with two glasses.

"... no... the tower does not have things well in hand, but we're trying. I've been trying. It's why I came back after losing my children and my husband to the Light only knew what. I had nothing but my oaths, which, if I'd been smart... I probably would have paid more attention to before both of us got into this place we're in here at the end of Time." She chuckles pouring herself and him a drink.

"All self-pity aside though, your return presents me with difficulties that I'd not anticipated having the joy of knowing in my life ever again. Certainly not now... not after I'd risked my life and the lives of others in order to rebuild my reputation and regain enough respect to lead these fools in the battle for all our very lives, souls, and creation itself." She takes a drink. "So please... excuse my, odd state." She sighs and drinks again.

* in chat *

Telcia stands there for a moment, trembling, Aes Sedai broken and fear rolling into disbelief and then anger. The knife lowers but her knuckles turn white on the hilt. "How... why..." She shakes her head trying to make sense of it all. How could anyone be so cursed by the bloody wheel as she? This was what she wanted, wasn't it? The pill was bitter now. Her life out of order, disrupted by joy and hate alike. "I... I waited for you!" She spits out at him angrily. "I wrote, I cried... the children they..." She slams the knife, point down, deep into her desk putting a flustered hand into her hair. "All I had left... I came here... and they said you left months ago!" She shakes her head. "Do you know what I've... what we..." So many words and accusations none came clearly.

"Just try... try to make an excuse, explain this to me Iussi. Make it make sense to me how I ... gah!" No eloquence now, just rage and sadness and joy all fighting to be in control.

Iussi ached for her. It hurt him just as deep as her to see her in pain. He had missed her so hard that if she had felt even half of it... Light. His eyes became dagger sharp, though, when he heard her speaking of "them" telling her he had left.

"Who might you be referring to by that them? When I had been released by the Reds, who kindly informed me that you resided now in Fernhill, Andor, I was stopped at the gates of the Tower by a group of Tower Guards, who told me that they had been assigned to escort me to a rehabilitation farm. There I rotted for months and months. Light, I even tried to escape once." His voice was pained.

"I see that they didn't deliver any of the letters.... I wrote to you every day, Telcia, just like you had then once to me. Not a day passed when I didn't miss you. If they wouldn't have let me out when they did... I couldn't have taken it anymore without you. I was having... all kinds of desperate thoughts.... The Reds told me that I would, but that you would help me through it. Telcia, I.... I should have tried harder. I knew in my guts that something was wrong. Why would the Reds keep me after saying that I could go, pointing me to you? Why there were no Aes Sedai in the camp? I don't understand...."

Iussi's words poured over her and at first they slipped off of her like water on a oiled fish. Then, bit by bit, they stuck. Iussi had been taken, not released as Perine had stated and Muirenn. Iussi was held prisoner? Kept from her? Her letters not delivered and his not sent? A lump grew in her throat as big as the unfinished towers themselves. One terrible, horrible, truth could be the only answer but why? What did the Black Ajah care for one exhausted male channeler and her, a broken sister with little status of note then? A woman with children gone off to be alone on a farm and die... certainly she was no threat to them.

But yet, it was a shadow creature who took her babies and what other excuse could be made for this event with Iussi's whereabouts? A mistake? Something to protect her perhaps? The Reds meaning to let Iussi die and spare her the further pain of it? No. Her blood sisters would never! She wouldn't believe it now. Not after all she'd seen with them after the discovery. Telcia slumped into her chair rubbing the bridge of her nose, the horror of being back at the point of no return coming over her again. She would have to, again, decide for or against the White Tower... for or against the life she could have in this short time the world had left. How could she decide against Iussi but how could she ever decide against the Tower now?

"Sit down... husband... we have much to discuss." With that she wove the privacy weave that would hide her shame from them all as best as anything could. "Slowly now, start from the time we last saw each other, what happened?"

"Truly you are a jewel..." She says softly with only a hint of bemusement.

"Truthfully, I found myself in a moment of odd urgency and it was at the ogier grove I had intended to tell you all about this plan... but, I just decided that it would be wise to move under the cover of darkness and not delay. Out of character for a sister of my age perhaps, but the truth is rarely pretty or simple."

"And besides, did I not hear you correctly in the gardens about a disregard for some things and the importance of others?" She arches an eyebrow. "For the Tower, Sira, this is most vital. The girls who use this... those who could be cured by it... they are our future and our fight depends upon their strength. I needn't lecture you on those things, I know, so I will not waste your and our time doing so."

"We are going to the arches down stairs. If I am wrong we will fail to have anything at all happen when we activate them and step inside and no one looks the fool but me for having thought I could have re-discovered something so many have spent lifetimes before me trying to understand."

"However," She steps closer to her old mentee, hope and passion burning in her blue eyes, "If I and my research partner are correct however... when we step inside, we'll find ourselves being the first Aes Sedai to use the Arches correctly since the Age of Legends and the results will leave us with one of the greatest tools in our struggle since the healing weave was first spun!"

"Now... you can't tell me that the possibility of that isn't worth taking a little time to walk down stairs with a red and blue in the dead of night to see? That you can't say that the risk of even harm to yourself isn't worth finding a tool that could help heal the minds of countless sisters and spare the minds and possibly lives of dozens of girls awaiting their raisings, who would otherwise use this Ter'Angreal incorrectly."

"A short walk... a test... either of a theory or self, neither cost you more than we all swore to pay in the defense of those in this Tower and the Light. And if I'm correct, just if, then that may be exactly what is on the line."

ooc: sorry for the delay ladies.

"I see your wit has not faded with time but only become as sharp as a blade Sister." Telcia managed softly as they quickly entered the chambers.

Truthfully she hadn't expected how ill at ease she'd be walking with a blue down these halls. The woman was just that ... a woman, no different than those back in the village in Andor, yet years of training could not be forgotten in a night. Not for her, and most certainly not for the two she was about to involve in one of the most risky affairs the Tower had ever known.

"While I would like for us to watch the sun rise in the east over some nice mint and June-berry with a hint of those Cairhienen spices you use to be so fond of..." She managed only the barest hint of a smile, "I fear that our work presses us for time desperately... if we are to finish before we are discovered and interrupted."

Her eyes fall to Elyssa and then back to Sirayn. "Our preparations will take us to the basements, and Elyssa here... in the absence of Kit who has previously worked with me on this project, who also noted as an expert in Ter'Angrel, has agreed to assist us."

"Of course nothing comes for free in this world and she is doing this on the condition that she may not only represent the Blue Ajah in the glory of our results... but that she may claim she tried to stop us and protect us from our selves if this, fools gambit of ours, goes wrong." Telcia folded her hands in front of her.

"However, I am certain of my and Kit's studies and I am reasonably confident of the results we shall discover at the end of our ... testing." She steps closer to Sirayn.

"As you have agreed to prepare yourself with me..." Telcia let the pregnant pause hang just long enough for something of an energy to be felt in the air and then, "...the hour waits for no woman, Sirayn."

She was certain the Green would know exactly which basement they would visit now. There could be no doubts.

Telcia adjusted herself to either walk out or handle the barrage of questions that might come. Her old Mentee might handle this either way and she meant to try to seem expectant of either response. Whatever the case, this would most certainly be noted in every history book from now until the next Age!

ooc: I hope I do this justice.

ic:

Telcia rose from her seat and came to stand beside her aunt, laying a hand on her arm as the woman activated the Ter'Angreal. The two stood back as the white light flooded the room for an instant, startling everyone who was not ready for it's reaction. The torrent of wind which seemed to come from within the heart of the device whipped her ever whitening hair around her face carelessly as she managed a true smile, that touched her ice blue eyes, for the woman who stood beside her… the mirror of what she would look like in several decades.

In the chaos of it all, Telcia dared mouth words to her Aunt she'd never said anywhere but in private, "I love you". Turning to the group assembled as the gasps began, she knew that their eyes would not be on her or her Aunt, but instead upon what could be considered nothing short of a miracle of the Light.

The pool of radiant light had formed into colors and shaped itself into the figure of a man. He was tall and handsome by her standards, with thin mustashes laying like feathers neatly trimmed on his lip. At his side was a long warder's sword with a heron's mark. He was not well muscled... instead thin and lithe... like a reed. His eyes were blue and held an intensity of the sea before a storm. Were it not for the threads of Saidar woven my Muirenn, moving in and out of him, one could easily mistake him for something real and solid.

The man's hair was long and dark and pulled back from his face. On his forehead he wore something that looked like a candori of the Malkari with a singular object that likely held all the gatherer's attention: a small medallion, the ancient symbol of the Aes Sedai.

One did not have to be an Aes Sedai with their talent for reading people to see that his eyes were focused upon the imagined image of someone he thought would know him and likely cared deeply for him.

His gaze had this way of seeming to look right through a woman to her very soul. It would be clear, to even a novice, that he had something on his mind and it weighed him down greatly. And then, just as everyone was getting use to the sight of a man from another age, suddenly they were startled anew to hear a voice come forth from his lips in a strange alien voice that seemed to speak on top of itself as if two or three men in his voice were speaking at once.

With his words, Telcia translated his strangely accented, the proper accent she noted, Old Tongue.

"Sister", she began emotionlessly repeating his word that seemed to speak of a deeper love than the word could ever have meant to her before having "met" him.

"I'm reminded, looking across the ocean and it's calm today, of the sky the day we last sat together on the steps of the Hall of Servants in Paaran Disen." A glimmer comes to his eye and he manages to blink it back. "I wanted to give up then," a smile grows on his face that threatens to touch his eyes even as sadness builds there. Obviously the happy memory, in his dark moment, is nearly too much to bear.

"But it was your conviction and courage, that fire in your eyes, your voice, your heart that not only stirred the Hall to hope when the world would say we had none, but in me as well. For that, and this dream that I am dying in, I can not begin to give you thanks enough. Had you not earned the Name already, if the world were as it was." The man carefully touches his knuckles to his lips and then puts it over his heart in a manner that was similar to what the Shienarans did still today. Telcia was uncertain what he meant by names or what it was he was getting at, but she marveled at the ceremony and importance the word carried in his tone. He might as well have named her Amyrlin for the reverence he seemed to lend to it.

But his pause did not last, and his lovely face was once again lined heavy with regret. "I'm afraid the news is not good and so I send to you this recorder in the hopes that it finds you before my compatriots do." The man swallowed a deep pause, his tone carrying mountains of emotion to a woman no one would ever know.

"Despite all the research, all your wisdom and advice and your prayers, the experiment has resulted in failure and worse for some. The taint grew in those who offered themselves to the testing, and they are like their brothers before them." In Telcia's mind she could only see the rotting corpse of every male channeller she'd ever nursed through his darkest, most hate filled, and lonely hours when all the world had rejected him but the Red Ajah.

"I fear some who know where you were held up are coming for you and your ajah.. and they are most assuredly in worse conditions than I, mentally. Never fear though, I did not betray you - I have kept my honor. I know you will survive to reach your destination safely." The man winces a moment, a touch to his head with his hand and his image wavers slightly as if it means to fade away.

The first time Telcia had seen this, it had scared her and the others, but now, she understood, the man was fighting his pain in order to hold the weaves together which had somehow recorded his image and voice the way Browns recorded words in a book with a pen. He was, indeed, far gone and it was a testament to his love that he could keep his thoughts and wits enough to make this message.

"I have stopped who I could but I lack the strength to cut the weaves of so many different portals. And so now, I fear, the world is suffering as I record this message. In not stopping them, I have failed them as a Servant, but I take little solace that I will not live to see what has been done. This message, Sister, is my only consolation to the souls I and my brothers unwittingly have endangered and I fear that my gift to them must be a burden upon you."

The man wets his lips and seems to focus more intently as he continues, "Your speech to the Hall has remained with me these long days and nights. In all this time I have contemplated what would become of the world should every man find himself in danger of being as we, a sword at the throats of his sons and a plague of death upon his daughters, a misery which could only rot the soul of his wife just as I too am rotting, and I..." The man grits his teeth and in spite of herself, Telcia tears up as she always had at this part of the speech.

"I can not bear the thought of this more, than I ever loved this gift I have been given, which has now, through our arrogance, been turned into a curse. And so I know without doubt or fear, what must be done, but Sister, I will not live to do it and so I must ask you and your ajah Sisters to take up your words spoken that day, from this day on, as an Oath."

"If ever you felt anything for our bond Sister, do not let this fate be that of our world. Guardians of Humanity, that was what you called the Hall of Servants in this dark hour of the world and so you must promise to be always."

"Ever to Watch, and Ever to Guard not just their lives which are so fleeting in the Creator's sight, but to Ever Watch and Guard our world and the hope of a future. A future which I know that you see with the greatest of clarity."

"I have seen the love you have in your eyes and heart for even those who have hated you, and it is this strength to love that you must shelter in this storm of Ages. Fan it to life in each young girl who comes to learn from you. Show her how to not fear the dark and the end which comes to all things, or to selfishly hunt for and demand the Light for her own path, but to instead build up the Light within her own heart, so brightly, that it can shine as a guide for others who are so lost in this night that has fallen upon our world."

His lip quivers, and it clear the words that come next are a struggle. "Love us, enough to steal it away." A pregnant pause leaves a silence that could be cut with a knife. Perhaps the woman who was to hear this in the past did not know what he meant, but every woman in the room here in the age of the Dragon Reborn, did.

"Take the pleasure before it can be truly known to us Sister. Steel Saidin from them that they may never feel it's song or it's sickness until a remedy is found." The man's words were not spoken with eloquence at this point, though they were beautiful in their own way.

"In time, as with all things, these men will pass from our world and the madness will destroy the last of those who were once truly great and in that lull, you and your ajah must go forward with that courage and love and seek out all would-be students where they reside and end their pain before their pain begins. You must have the strength to grant them this mercy, though they may die just the same for the loss, they need not suffer so greatly as ... as those before them."

"Let their families love them ... if they have the strength and if they do not, you must be to them as you have to me" The image of the beautiful man fades away and a rotting corpse stands in all it's agony where the man had been only a second before. Clearly the recorder had beheld a powerful illusion the man had built around himself and this was the result, and the true tale of his terrible suffering.

"I can not come to you as THIS ... thing!" He nearly spit's the word. "I can see you there now in your horror of me and my suffering, and how your Sisters must be comforting you, and it is in their embrace you must find your strength. Let their love and care be your legs when you have none left to stand upon. When all that you are is questioned and besmeared by the world, when you are haunted by the memory of what you have done and hated for what you must do, in times when men have forgotten what my brothers and I have done to their world, THEY will remember. THEY will love you as I have loved you ..." His voice drops to a whisper another tear flowing down his cheek freely. It had been the most she'd ever seen a man cry. "As I love you."

The man unsheathes his sword. "The color of your banner, Sister, let it be your reminder of those who have gone on in this task; for crimson shall be everywhere anyone can see for perhaps lifetimes to come... until the time when this malady afflicts us no more and we can again be as one."

"Look to it, and remember me fondly as I was and not as the monster I have become. Remember my last service to all, and the last gift we shall all give when the last embrace of the mother welcomes us home. Until the day we are together again Sister... I will rest well knowing that you keep the watch." The man kneels and places the sword point to his stomach and slides the blade inward and pulls up and to the left quickly, the sight is as gruesome a thing as any Telcia had ever seen in battle.

The image remains only a few moments, his red blood flowing smoothly out of him like a streaming crimson banner in the wind on a clear day; ironically, or perhaps by his last weave (though the Light alone knew how he managed such focus) the torrent pooled into a vague shape of the great seal, and there, after only a few more moments of a most holy silence, it was done.

In a brother's blood, the Red Ajah was formed.