Beyond The White Tower: Tales of a Blue Ajah

[ValuciaSabet]

__________________

There were many paths to RhyDin. The way they took was only one of them.

Some arrived by way of nothing more than some wizard's sneeze or wave of the hand. Others had the ability to have a foothold in multiple worlds at once by way of magic within them or some object they had in their possession. Others still leaned more towards fixed avenues of transport, be them amongst the clouds and stars, or through wrought portals and tunnels.

Some of those fixed, little-known avenues of travel were called Ways. Simple a name as any, but it had not been a simple task to create the Ways between that world and the one called RhyDin. Only one Portal Stone arch existed on RhyDin, closest to the heart of all of its lands at the place some simply called RhyDin City or RhyDin Proper. But even it was hidden amongst the thick trees of the northern woods and would be easily mistaken for part of the mountain if one did not know where to look for it exactly.

Others travelled through Ways that were more like tunnels veining through from one word to another. And, depending on the practitioner of that particular talent that the Ogier are known for, to end up in the destination one seeks.

Valucia Sabet, called by those who knew what she was as Valucia Sedai, had travelled to and from the vast lasts of the large world of RhyDin many times for almost a dozen years by most calendars. By foot, cart, and horseback she had traveled the Ways and through the Portal Stone archway.

It was always strange arriving to RhyDin by way of that particular arch since even in the pitch dark, they were able to put out their metal oil lamps and torch because the wall of shimmering light was something brilliant and remarkable to behold.

She rode atop her horse, looking as if she had just spent a twelve-month playing at Daes Dae'mar (The Great Game, or Game of Houses). It was certainly often not a pleasant 'game' and one that could easily cost a person their lands, holdings, coin, and status. But the sister of the Blue Ajah was not stranger to playing these dangerous fact-finding games, and her father's house was no small house. Others sought to have it, topple it, and more.

Aristocracy, she had been born into. A lady is very much how she had conducted herself on many an occasion that called for it. But in service of the White Tower of Tar Valon, she had known just as many days with her hand hands dirtied and blistered from work, or weary and bloodied from the battlefield.

As she lifted her gloved, right hand to shield her eyes a little from the brilliance of the portal's light, thankfully her lengthy, tapered kirtle sleeve helped with shadowing her face a bit from it. Finery, she wore, as they had just come from finer company that demanded such trappings. The weight of the layers was worn with gentle grace, as always. Blue, crushed velvet over sturdy layers. And over that, a travelling cloak of black and blue with the bold emblem of the flame near her left shoulder. It had been winter in Tar Valon with a foot of snow at level ground. It was yet to be seen what the weather held for them in RhyDin.

"Is the Way always this bright?" A young, male voice complained it.

Valucia turned her face, seemingly untouched by the decades of time and service, and smile a gentle, though weary smile towards the young man riding behind one of the Warders. She said nothing as a voice with gravelly tenor was heard, belonging to Nethon Koesan.

"The Way is dark. The exit from it is always this bright." A male voice shoved the words at him strongly enough to draw a worried glance at his mentor. "You will say nothing until spoken to, boy, or you'll find yourself unseated from your horse. Without warning." Nethon's look cut to the youth with the red hair who quickly found silence. When the Warder turned his gaze to the Aes Sedai, he bowed from his seat atop his mount. "My apologies, Valucia Sedai. The boy is still learning."

"No harm was done, Gaidin." Her smile was almost completely veiled with the cowl of her cloak up but not completely hiding her face. "We have all been new to a task at some point. And travel does bring out many questions for the asking."

Boots beneath her skirts gently pressed against the horse's sides and took up place behind the handful of other Warders and two sisters of the Blue that were in front of her. Each one breached that shimmering wall of light that was nearly blinding after the length of travel in darkness up until that point.

What met them on the other side was a peaceful, overgrown forest meeting the bottom of what appeared to be just more preface of the mountain range. The group, eleven of them in all, waiting a couple of moments for their eyes to adjust to what appeared to be the dawning light of day.
Valucia glanced around to look upon each of their faces, including the young man that had just had his scolding from his better, and gave a nod to all of them there. "Let us head for Bulwark's Cove, then. If we do not tarry, we will make it by darkfall." With that, she set off down an almost indiscernible trail that she knew well.

That she headed off alone had one of the Warders force his horse to quicken pace to catch up with her. That gaidin would not be allowing harm to come to her. It would not be something Valucia Sedai would miss or overlook.

[ValuciaSabet]

The Warder that did not let her travel alone long, even among the group of them, was known by the name of Garon al'Korune. He and she knew each other well, moreso than some who were bonded to one another...moreso than couples who had been wed for decades.

But Garon and Valucia were not bound to one another, by the Bond or marriage. Behind them rode the others, exchanging looks and speaking quietly of it, among other things.

Garon was a man who looked to be in his fourth decade of life. At a height's mark of six feet, he matched a couple of the men in their company. Shoulders were not broad and his form was lean and not overburdened with the bulk of muscle some Warders had with all of the training and combat that they knew well. A beard and mustache was trimmed at his face in a way that looked soft. The length of his black hair reached his shoulders had grey and white running through it and his beard.

He was a man unburdened by the fact he was still in his finer clothes, as if he wore his simplest tunic and breeches. Even as they rode his tar-black warhorse beside Valucia's gentler mount, he loosened a buckle on the grey and taupe jerkin. The line of his shoulders were not tense but he did not slouch. For a man of war, he bore himself often with a confidence in Great Halls and castles with a lord's manner and way, until he needed to unleash a war hawk for battle.

Valucia slid a look sidelong at him, curious enough only to glance at his hand near the neck of his jerkin before glimpsing the profile of his face. He faced forward, but she could see that he was aware of her eyes on him. She had always found him to be as if two men in the same skin. Lord and Savage, both in equal and well-balanced measures.

"Your silence can be...quite loud, at times, Valucia Sedai." His eyes, the same steely gray as the leather garment he had loosened that single buckle on, turned to her. In their depths, his question was there as well as his lowered tone. The gaidin did not whisper, but not all things were for others to overhear when spoken between such old friends.

The slightest movement at the right corner of her mouth, she saw, was enough to bring a smile from him before she answered the Unbonded Warder. "You slipped into the group just before the Way was travelled."

"Nothing, and I do mean, nothing gets by you, does it?" Mirthfully, a glint in his grey eyes. He might have given a quiet sound of mirth but it was lost to the sound of horses' hooves against earth and stone beneath.

"Some things do. I assure you." Valucia knew he needed no assurance of anything. Even she was not without faults and flaws. She had mentioned the interloping as an opening of a proverbial door for him explain.

Garon al'Korune smiled into his beard. The cue was heard clearly. He had missed his old friend and confidante. "Where to begin..."


Garon al'Korune (The Unbonded Warder)- NPC Character

[ValuciaSabet]

They left the near-undiscernible path at the foot of the northern mountains and tread a road of dirt and small-stone layer. Sounds of leaves and grit were clearly heard beneath the hooves of the horses and the wheels of the heavily burdened cart. Trees grew thick and tall at either side of the path, stretching wooden arms and turning leaves of color as a protective canopy above them to shield from the cold rain that had just begun.

Valucia's hands were covered by good leather gloves that were meant for travel. She raised on of her hands to pull her cloak's cowl over hear head and hair, but not so far forward as to hide her face completely away.

"It is, by my suggestion, a good place to start at the beginning of things...when trying to decide 'where to begin'." As the corner of her mouth, the Aes Sedai allowed sight of a small smile. Bemused, it would seem.

Garon chuckled and cast her a momentary, sidelong glance. "A wise kernel of wisdom, Valucia Sedai." Another chuckle, he shook his head. Reins in his hands, he made certain that his horse did not get too close to Valucia's, to avoid bumping one mount's side against the other. He saw that she still rode side-saddle on her horse, and had been since they had left House Maetrine.

House Maetrine was one of the three Great Houses in Altara, and it was her family's. Her father's, to speak the truth of it. He had inherited and fought to keep it like his father, and his father before that -- and so on, for almost two hundred years. Valucia might have been born a Lady of wealth and title, but she was not the one meant to inherit and all its holdings and lands. That inheritance was her sister's right. Valucia had given up that right many, many years ago as a teenager when she was sent to the great White Tower in Tar Valon to hone the power she had and to become Ajah.

But her duties for the White Tower did not stop her or hold her back from many duties demanded of her by her father and House Maetrine. The Great Game, or sometimes called the Game of Houses, was ever-present and unending. It was not a pleasant game, but one of political skill and knowing how to use one's Eyes and Ears to know what the other houses were up to, and more importantly what they knew of what was going on with House Maetrine.

She had not shirked her duties, even when traveling from there and back to Tar Valon to meat with the Amyrlin Seat. Favors were called in, requests were made, discussions had, and bargains struck. All behind closed doors, of course. Not even the Keeper of the Chronicles had been privy to those discussions on that particular visit.

"Well then, from the beginning. That beginning started two weeks after returning to the Westlands after my last visit here with you." Garon drew breath and continued. All the while he spoke with her, the Unbonded Warder watched the woods to either side of them and the winding path before them that was known to lead to the hearth of RhyDin. "Word of Skarsbane reached me as I was heading from Coramen to Fyall. I was staying at an inn at Maderin when that message was delivered to me."

Valucia turned her cowled head to look on him closer. "Someone was expecting you to be there that day, I wonder."

"No. I do not announce my intentions for all to hear like some wild Gleeman prancing about telling stories," Garon frowned at her. There was a small measure of distaste when he said the word Gleeman. The Warder had not liking for Gleeman, for his own reasons.

The exchanged a knowing look of understanding how much that was a necessary measure to take in both of their lines of work and devotion. "Of course not. Please proceed. I am interested in knowing about Skarsbane." Valucia had not heard much about him the last several years -- hoping he had been dead since the silence had been that long about the man who served darkness and not the light.


Skarsbane (Servant of the Dark) - NPC Character

[ValuciaSabet]

The conversation went on quietly. Each took turns in listening to the other, though Valucia was left listening the most towards the end of the UnBonded Warder. Talk of deaths of a dozen or more, of all ages left her in deep, darkness of a thoughtful well.

"I have upset you?" Garon's question was notably a mixture of concern and puzzlement. He had only rarely seen her upset with her skill and veiling her true, deeper feelings from most. It had taken him years to breach one or two layers of her proverbial walls and knew better than to ever push where she never allowed him.

"Upset. Yes. That those who had never the chance or ability to defend themselves." She breathed quietly. "The children." The two words mourned them at almost a whisper.

"I tell you only because it was in all that was found and what happened." Garon's apologized, well out of earshot of the others who rode behind them.

"You did well to tell me, Garon. What of Skarsbane?" She hated the very sound of the dark servant's name.

"His trail was followed to the western shores."

"By ship, then?"

"By ship," He nodded and glanced over to find her looking to the horizon.

The path progressed upwards a little, on a slight and gradient hill to where the Four Keeps, some buildings and trees could be seen. Even from there, he could see the torches and braziers lighting the land, trees, and stones of it.

"We will speak more of it later, Garon." Slightly she smiled and looked to him. "You have not seen my home here, have you?"

Bulwark's Cove was looked to, but he saw more in the way she looked at it. What is a larger measure of peace and contentment than for Tar Valon? The Westlands in all? Garon smiled to himself and called over his shoulder to those who had travelled there as a group from the Westlands. "Eyes to the dimming horizon, all you there." It wasn't something he hollered, but he made certain he was heard well and clear. "Bulwark's Cove!"

"Now, let us talk of something else, if you are willing, Valucia Sedai." Garon's eyes were on her again. "I am told you have called it among these here Bulwark's Cove, but that you named it, in truth, Ashandarei. Sword and Swear?" It was a word in the Old Tongue that was a combination of those two words. It made a gaidin like him smile. He knew weapons well and glanced off towards the keep, hall, her home and other buildings as they breached the grounds that served as much her home as Tar Valon did.

"Yes, Gaidin. Ashandarei. There are sparring grounds to practice at, a courtyard to talk and rest in, a great hall to eat and dance within. But the name is fitting."

Garon did not argue. He was enjoying the facts of her honoring her homelands, the Old Tongue, as well as Sisters and Warders alike...all in one word: Ashandarei.



Bulwark's Cove (North-West RhyDin). Location of Valucia Sabet's home in RhyDin, as well as Warder's Hall (great hall), the Four Keeps, storage buildings and more.

[ValuciaSabet]

Three days had passed since Garon al'Korune, the other Warders and Aes Sedai along with Valucia Sabet and the youth had travelled the Way from the Westlands to RhyDin.

Garon had seen little of the the others since they had arrived at Bulwark's Cove. It was a place also known as Ashandarei. He had wandered the expanse of grounds that included a home that was particularly Valucia's, a small meadow and patch of woodland as well as large stables, storage buildings of stone and slate, along with the Great Hall and the Four Keeps. In all, it was precisely fifty acres of land but the way it was build in some places and left wild in others made it seem far larger an existence.

He could see why Valucia preferred it to that of the great, illustrious but very busy and built-up city of Tar Valon. Here, he imagined she could think and find peace in order to help advocate for that peace and more.

His hand passed over the stone side of the entrance to the Four Keeps. The way was becoming familiar in the last few days and knew it well enough to venture back into the courtyard of it. At the far end was an area for sparring and practice of sword dance. Sounds of metal and wood meeting likened material could be heard off in that minor distance while he stood where small shade trees, bushes, and rambling roses helped decorate the other end of the vast courtyard.

The path wove amongst plants and places to sit and enjoy the beauty that had been built and planted there. Stone benches, a small pavilion of wood and metals to keep the sun off when at its highest place in the sky over the open-air courtyard, and a fountain coursing, bubbling with life of water flowering from its fourth tier down to its lower three levels. Later months were causing green leaves to turn various shades of gold, brown, and red in a prelude of colder months to come.

Garon came to stand beside one of the eight posts of the pavilion. Left shoulder met with the sturdy, carved beam of wood and metal intertwined, leaning to it restfully. His gaze was on the falling water coursing from one level to the next of the fountain, but his attention seemed to be on things deep in his thoughts.

Somewhere behind him, he heard skirts trailing over stones and brushing against crisp, dry fallen leaves. Among the those sounds were others, like small bits of metal clinking against each other. He turned his head a little to the right, as if he might glance over his shoulder, but his eyes looked to one of the empty stone benches nearby.

He pushed gently away from the post to right his form and turn around to face the woman in a black and brown dress before him. After he gave her a formal nod of his head, he spoke. "Valucia Sedai."

"Glad tidings to you, Garon. Did you rest well last night, I wonder." The chatelaine's bits and bobs clattered quietly against each other, soft whispers of her skirts heard as well until they all grew still and quiet when she settled gracefully on the carved, stone bench. Her right hand alighted touch against the armrest there.

"Plentiful and without any ill moments." He regarded her closely. Valucia's timeless visage was without any harsh, set lines that could be detected by him in moments of tension or upset. Things others who did not know her well might not detect at all. Her hair was unbound, worn neatly but loose about her shoulders and it all led him to his question. "You are at peace here, yes?"

Valucia smiled and gave him a finite nod. The movement was so small that it might have been missed by anyone else that was not him. "I am."
"I remember your letters, of when you first...secured Ashandarei. Some walls little more than rubble and most of the plants here were dead. That the fountain had no life..."

"Several years has allowed me the time to bring in those skilled in these matters, to bring life to the fountain and the plants. And to repair and built what time and weather had destroyed." Valucia looked from him, out beyond the plants and fountain to where she could hear sparring in the distance.

"Has the Amyrlin seen it?" He was curious. None of her letters had mentioned it at all.

"The Amyrlin is far too busy for such a visit this far from The Tower, Garon. But the Keeper of the Chronicles has been here in her stead."

"Talmariss. Here?" He chuckled to even consider it. "I did not think she ventured beyond the land-bridges of Tar Valon itself."

"Mind yourself, Gaidin." Valucia smiled as she scolded him for being in danger of disrespecting the Keeper of the Chronicles, but he knew Talmariss as well as she did. As well as most who were from The Tower knew her. She liked her position very, very much but hated traveling. Ever.

"May I, Valucia Sedai?" The Unbonded Warder gestured to the long, stone bench that had been carved with a back and armrests to it. He noticed that it and a few stone-carved seats nearby had animal pelts strewn over them to make them a little more comfortable.

"Of course. You are always welcome in my company." She voiced it with kindness and with that familiarity of two people who had known each other for decades. "Speak freely, Garon. I feel the questions churning about in your mind." With a smile, she glanced from the other end of the courtyard, back to him.

Garon gave her a respectful nod, no matter how familiar they were with one another or how many years they had been friends. Then he stepped towards the bench and set to it with at least two full feet of space between them. "I do have questions. My first is, how did you manage to bring life to the fountain. There is magic here and it is not the One Power..."

Valucia smiled a little more. Most men from their homelands could never feel such a thing and usually, if they could at all they were stilled...and soon died after a necessary, traumatic Stilling them through the Gentling. Garon was unique. In a few ways. Unbonded Warder and he could feel the One Power, as well as other magic when it was coursing, even if he could not wield it himself. But he was not like other men that went mad if left to it. He was not like most men at all.


The inner courtyard of the Four Keeps. Located at Bulwark's Cove, RhyDin.

[ValuciaSabet]

Valucia had intended on answering Garon, but it would have to wait a moment, or two, as she saw a little half-shadow near one of the archways leading into the courtyard. A slight motion of her hand was her signal to him to come closer.

The boy could not have been older that ten or eleven and appeared quiet Human. Brown hair hung on his head like a dirty, cloth mophead with some of it in his eyes and much of it covering his ears and neck. He was dressed, as he was seen often in, an old tunic that was far too large for him. The turnic had several small patched and stitches and the bottom of it hung to his knees. A belt about it helped to keep it from too much cloth of it being in the way -- and to keep his britches up. The britches of cloth looked like they once belonged to a man and had been cut off at the knees. The ends of his britches met low on his chins were an new pair of boots that fit very well seemed to clash with everything else he was wearing. On the belt of black-dyed rope was a crudely made coin pouch of cloth.

He headed over to Valucia Sabet when he saw her signal that he could approach. The boy looked uncertainly at Garon, then back to the woman. He made sure he stopped an arm's length away from her and on the opposite side from the man.

"Good evening, Dravis."

"M'um," Dravis muttered it quietly. "Safe to be talkin' 'round'im."

The Aes Sedai smiled down upon him. Her right hand gently cupped his small chin, then left to briefly pat his left shoulder before deciding on a rest against her own, left wrist. "You may speak freely. Garon al'Korune is our friend." Valucia meant it. Something else, something underlying it, was conveyed to Garon that the boy was trusted and a 'cloak' of protection was afforded the child.

The Unbonded Warder nodded to the boy and tried not to look too serious, lest he frighten the boy away. He presented himself as nothing more than a curious onlooker, listening in those moments.

Dravis' muddy brown eyes ticked from Valucia to Garon and back to her. "Aye, m'um." He bent down a little to dig into a pocket that was a bit deep in trouser far too large for him at this point in his life. Pulled from that pocket as an odd, scrolling symbol engraved into the heavy, thick metal of what looked like a pocket watch with a loop on it. "Comes from Skelrisan. Yer knowin'em, right?"

"The scholar?" And more, but Valucia did not want to fright the boy with talk of what the very old, born-in-RhyDin Skelrisan could do. "Yes, Dravis. I have met with him on several occasions." She smiled gently as she saw Dravis. Skelrisan's appearance was more creature than man and some could not look beyond the exterior of reptilian flesh. "Is this for me to keep?"

"A gift'e said. Said yer knowin' what for." Dravis looked about, hearing the clacking of wood and metal of those sparring at the other end of the courtyard. Then looked back up at her.

She fished out a few coins, some were copper, but one was a silver mark known better in Tar Valon. Smiling to see his face light up, she gently laughed. "Was there a message from him to go along with the gift, I wonder."

"No, m'um. Just said yer knowin' what to do with it." He shrugged his thin shoulders.

"Indeed I do. Thank you, Dravis." As he was about to turn and leave. "I like the new boots, Dravis."

The boy grinned. There were perks for being one of the dozen Eyes and Ears in RhyDin for Valucia Sabet. One of those perks was getting paid for good information and deliveries. Boots, food, and a place to sleep out of the rain. She knew that he didn't say much about those things. He lifted a hand to put fingers and thumb against his forehead, as if he might be doffing a cap that he had never owned, then bolted out of the courtyard and back to areas of RhyDin he knew far better.


Dravis - Street Urchin & one of the many Eyes & Ears for Valucia Sabet in RhyDin (NPC Character)


Skelrisan - Scholar, inventor, and part-time Lore Keeper. Citizen of RhyDin-born & raised. Last known of his kind.(NPC Character)

[ValuciaSabet]

Garon al'Korune watched Valucia Sabet fawn over the street urchin. Except when he had seen her in the company of her sister and niece, he had rarely seen her so at ease with those so much younger than they were.

Gentle. It was a word he thought of instead of soft. The Aes Sedai could be distant and removed with so much on her mind. She could even be tough as stone. But when she was as gentle as he had witnesses, he knew it was a special moment.

"What are you thinking about, Garon?" A slight smile was there, just at the corner of her mouth as she stared at him.

The Unbonded Warder cleared his through and shook his head. "The boy needs a whole new outfit to go with those boots." Brow lifted and waved off in the direction the urchin had run. "You'll have him teased at by those Haves, as well as the Have-Nots." He was not a foolish man. What he had really been thinking was kept to himself.

"Hmm," Valucia eyed him a little closer without moving an inch towards him. Her arms folded graceful to wrap one arm about her lithe waist and give a mortal prop for her other elbow as she brought the device up to eye level. It was turned over once, then a second time.

"You might know what that is, but I am as clueless as that child." Garon gave the metal item another glance but he went back to watching her timeless visage. Blues were always peacemakers, seekers of the next good cause, and more.

"It is a very particular, special...time piece." The words were murmured while the device was inspected. "I have seen him use it on the occasions I have met with Skelrisan, but to be gifted one. That is a pleasant surprise."

Garon gained his feet and slowly moved towards her as he saw her find some unapparent pressure-point, button, or lever he had not seen. The dark, metal piece's outer shell flung open on the topside. From it sprang a colorful image of a world with landmasses that looked nothing like the Westlands or else where he had been. "What world is that?"

"This one, but the look of it. I have seen plenty of its maps -- always changing as they are -- to know it is this world: RhyDin."

The image was transparent but he saw her reach for it and run a finger along what might have been the surface of it, causing the globe to spin slowly. Then stopped it by touching it. "He uses it often. Says that paper and skin maps are...unreliable. RhyDin changes too much, too often." With care, she brushed her thumb and forefinger gingerly against the image of the globe on a certain continent and it brought the image of a topographical map on the air before them to view showing every high and low of the terrain.

"Remarkable." He breathed. "So it's a map, not a time piece."

"It is, indeed." Valucia smiled at it, then at him. "It is both. And more, I am told. It will serve me well, I believe. Another meeting is necessary with the scholar about his devices."

Garon reached out, not to take it from her, but to feel the magic pulsing from it in gentle, small waves. "Do you think it will work in the Westlands? In Tar Valon?"

"I do, but such will need to be tested on my next visit there." Clicking it shut, the image disappeared and the magic of it rested. She took the loop and clipped it on her chatelaine. Then sought his arm to hold at the crook of his elbow. "Now, shall we take a walk? I will answer your questions about the fountain and more."

The Unbonded Warder would not provide an argument there.


A special time piece/map from Skelrisan

[ValuciaSabet]

Valucia and Garon had not always enjoyed one another's company. They could both remember, quite well, how the met and had not been as friends.

It was decades earlier; many, many turns of The Wheel ago. Valucia had only been raised to an Ajah for a few years and was on her third venture for the Blue sect when she received word from Tar Valon. The assignment was cut short and she had returned there, to the White Tower, without hesitation or delay.

Not a half hour's mark on the clock had she been in the great rooms of the Blue Ajah in the tower than she saw a group of her fellow sisters all in blue make their way there. Each of them were carrying their carpet and leather travel bags. From a quick glance over them, they were wearing their split-skirt dresses meant for long journeys on horseback.

"Welcome home, Valucia. We have waited for you." Maloryn Thals broke off from the group and embraced her briefly before stepping back.

"Thank you all, Sisters." Valucia cast a look to the others, then back to Maloryn.

"Very well, then. Let us take our leave of this place. The sun will not wait at its crest while we stand about talking." She smiled and nodded to the others before turning to head out of the chambers to the waiting horses and a wagon pulled by two more.

Each of the Blue Ajah went to their prospective horses. Each horse was already there with their bonded Warders on their own mounts, holding the reins. Two sisters of the Brown Ajah--the scholars, writ keepers, and more--sat on the bench of the uncovered wagon. They were, by no one's doubt, coming along to scribe the events for the tower. It was not common, but it was not unheard of either.

Valucia found it odd though and glanced over to Maolryn after they had both seated themselves atop their horses and headed away from the tower to one of the land-bridges meant for the mainlands. "What is the purpose you called me back for with such haste, I wonder."

"A Gentling."

"Gentling? Where are those sisters of the Red, Maloryn?" Valucia knew well enough that it was usually the Red sect that handled, and thrived for, the stilling of men who showed evidence of being able to channel the saidin.

"This is a special case."

Valucia road alongside her quiet, noble Warder, Alrin Martan. She knew he had already thought what she was questioning. "A special case? What could make a Gentling a special case to not have even one of the Red with us, I wonder."

"The young man is not harming himself or others with it." Maloryn gave Valucia a knowing look. "And...he is not going mad. And before you say anything, it seems he has been using it for years. Successfully, I might add."

"Years?" The young Valucia was almost twenty years old with a few years under her shawl as an Ajah. Still, she was surprised. Her Warder, Alrin Martan, could feel it through their bond. Though he did not turn and look at his Aes Sedai outright, he did flick a single curious look at her while she spouse with Maloryn. Valucia felt him staring but kept her visual attention on her Sister. "Are the reports to be believed? Perhaps the information is flawed, or a trap for something we know nothing of."

"I have already considered that. As has the Amyrlin. We are prepared for all of that. What I am more concerned about is if it is true."



Tar Valon - Home of the White Tower.


Decades ago - Alrin Martan (deceased now) & a young Valucia Sabet (Bonding)

[ValuciaSabet]

The group of them rode south to a place called Rook's Rock, just north of Aringill. It was only a thirty or so houses and one of those homes was a public house. Rook's Rock wasn't even on the maps others had. It was too small of little consequence and most passed it on their way to Aringill without ever stopping.

The Aes Sedai and Warders did stop at Rook's Rock, though. Maloryn led the group by direction of the Amyrlin Seat. Even though there were those among them with more years' experience knew better when the order came so definitively from the seat of the White Tower.

Maloryn al'Thon dismounted with the aid of her Warder, Rin Maul. She neatly arranged the split-skirts of her riding dress and smoothed any strands of her red and brown hair that had come undone during the long journey there. She glanced over her shoulder and smiled a little at Rin, then to others before she climb the four stone steps. Rin was somehow there before her and had the door open with ease and without a sound. She gave him a nod of her head, to thank him.

Her presence was one very much out of place with her strikingly dark blue dress and a cloak that bespoke of some higher status and coin. It was not her intention to be viewed as anyone or anything else but what she was: Aes Sedai. The Great Serpent ring was on her hand as she adjusted the cloak in a way to make certain the pub's owner saw it well and at great length.

"Greetings, Aes Sedai!" The owner was an older man and knew very well what she was, especially with Rin towering near her. The man had said it loud enough to bring a face peaking through the doorframe and a cloth covering meant as some sort of door. Then the face disappeared and movement could be heard bustling about in the kitchen behind the cloth barrier.

He saw the Warder's hand lazily at his sword belt but he knew better than to thing a Warder was ever slow or unaware of anything. A nervous laugh and smile, he looked to each of the Aes Sedai and the Warders. The crowd of them were enough to fill half of the humble common room of the public house. "Greetings. Greetings, all! I am Kahl Dar, owner of this establishment. How can I be of service to you?"

"I am Marolyn. We will take all of your rooms for the night. And to have someone see to the care of our horses, post-haste." She placed a small but heavy leather bag upon the counter of his bar.

"Of course, Marolyn Sedai. Of course." He disappeared into the kitchen, barked a few things and hurried back out. A young woman rushed out and up the stairs to the second level while a boy headed ran along the edge of the common room to the front door and out it to see to the horses.

Marolyn seemed unaware of the bustling, hurry, and haste. Her own actions were quiet, calm, and full of grace and purpose. "So very kind of your Master Dar. We have road quite a long distance and are in need of a meal, baths, and those rooms after that."

"As you wish, Marolyn Sedai." Kahl Dar was no fool. He knew the power Aes Sedai wielded. Some told stories of horror. Others told tales of them being saviors to a few or entire lands. He had no wish to find out what is was like to be on the bad side of any Aes Sedai or their Warder let alone a common room full of them. "I fear we only have boar, rabbit, and squirrel meat. Deer have been as scarce as the boar lately."

"That will do nicely. I saw a few orange and apple trees as we rode in. Do you know how to make baked apples with honey?" This and more, she discussed with the owner of the pub another few moments.

Valucia and Alrin moved as one into the small pub and took their rest at a table before the fire. She listened to Marolyn make arrangements. Hands came up to pull her gloves from her hands and laid them to rest on the table. It would be a while longer before they could sleep. Much-needed food and drink first, a hot bath, and then, and only then, would any of them consider sleep. The next day would be long and tiring enough. For now, they all needed sustenance and rest.

[ValuciaSabet]

Alrin carried their bags and packs to the second level of the public house in Rook's Rock, following behind the young Valucia by two steps or he would be stepping on the hems of her travel dress. He saw that the road had left her flecked with mud from about her knees to the bottom of her hems and suspected her boots were still heavy with the mud they had walked through just to make it to the front entrance of the humble establishment.

"I will ready things if you wish to see to your own care."

She looked up at him and gave him a weary smile. "Thank you, very much, Alrin." Her hand touched his arm briefly and took one of her bags from him. It was placed on one of the two beds in the room and opened. Sifting through it, she soon selected a smaller pouch of salts and oils and sleeping robes.

As soon as Valucia Sedai closed the door to the room they had secured, he walked the room's inner bounds. Any crack, any hole -- even if it was a mouse hole-- was looked for. When he was satisfied that none one could invade the ajah's privacy or enter in any way other than the door to the windowless room, he gave a satisfied sound before he placed the contents of one of her bags neatly on the opposite side of a small table that was flanked by two chairs.

After eyeing the chairs and table, unbuckled his sword belt and put a few of his weapons at the foot of it, beside the single leather pack and a cloth one he had brought for himself. Britches, tunic, and boots were left when he had shed himself of his bracers, guards, and more. It would be as unclothed as he would be around her in such times and in a place they new little to nothing about.

By the time he had seated himself on his bed and pulled a thin, ribbed leather volume the door was opened to the room. Alrin looked up to see she had returned. Long, brown hair so dark it looked black in some light and wearing bedrobes of brown. It was quite a contrast to the sight of her from earlier in her well-made traveling dress and her hair pinned neatly into place. He gave his Aes Sedai a nod and glanced with intention to the table where he had placed her belongings.

"Oh, good. Thank you, Alrin. No doubt, after tomorrow's...work, I will have some thoughts to put to paper."

"Why are we here?"

"Pardon?" The small, young woman padded barefooted across the room to the table. She paused to towel her hair some more and looked back at him.

"This is far Red Ajah. This is known and we overstep in these matters."

Valucia exhaled a breath, but it was not a sigh. One of her hands gestured on the air. "You know as much as I do, Alrin. And I know you hear what Maloryn told me when I questioned it for this very reason."

"It will cause strife. Each have their paths. Each have their purpose." Alrin merely wished to discuss what was obvious to all colors of ajah.
Red Ajah were known for short tempers and could be prone to grudges. Especially on matters like that.

"You are correct, in all of this, my Warder." She gave him a gentle smile as she walked back through the small room to the bed meant for her. "But by the Amyrlin Seat, we have our orders. You will not find me disobeying them." The towel was laid neatly over a bed post for drying before she pulled the covers back and eased into the bed. "Now, we need rest. A Severing can be very...taxing...on ones energy and skills. I will not be found lacking tomorrow."

With that she smiled to see Alrin nod to that. He snuffed out the candled and rested himself on the bed, but he did not sleep for a long time. Noises above and below were listened to, as well as some who were still coming and going in the hall beyond the door. Only after everything was quiet did he finally allow himself some sleep.

[ValuciaSabet]

Nothing could have prepared them for what they saw, what they experienced the next day. Or even the next week. Not all of their training combined had schooled them in how to deal with someone such as the young Garon al'Korune.

Before his many decades of wisdom and lifetime of friendship Valucia knew him and trusted him for, he was a youth of fourteen and very, very dangerous. The only problem, as Valucia recalled it well, was that the boy though he was just fine and felt he knew what he was doing.

It could not have been further from the truth.

Not much older than Garon at that time so long ago, the young Valucia was still new to her raising to an Aes Sedai. Only a few years or so had she worn that shawl and all of the responsibility that came with it. She was little more than a child herself and learning many things were not in books or taught from chores from when she was a Novice.

Alrin helped her down from her horse, though they each knew that she was physically capable of doing so by herself. Her dark brown hair, so dark that it seemed black in some lighting, was pulled back into a tight braid and pinned well. She had not idea what the day would entail, but she knew it could prove rough.

Valucia rested her ungloved hand on the bracer at Alrin's right forearm, then both of her hands habitually saw to her utilitarian, grey colored skirts. A strap rested diagonally across her upper torso to carry a thick, sturdy leather back by her right hip. The pair brought up the rear of the group after the horses had been secured to metal loops to the side of the wagon that held further provisions, if they were needed.

Maloryn al'Thon and her Warder, Rin Maul, were striking, stunning to look upon. Many a lord and even a king had tried to make her their wife without success. And Rin Maul had even more success in such sweet followings, but his loyalty was for his Aes Sedai.

They led the way towards one of the houses that made up the humble place called Rook's Rock. At some point, the others hung back a little while the pair took the steps to the single-story home of fieldstone and wood-shingle roof. A few animals roamed nearby while they awaited an answer to their knock.

For the reason they were they, Valucia and Alrin had already had their own discussion on that. Surprise was best when dealing with a male who could touch and use saidin. It was a violent thing and had been know to level villages, kill man and beast alike and drive the one with that dark talent mad. But Malroyn had decided another approach. Every scrap of what they had been told about the youth Garon al'Korune, was not like anything that was associated with those who could wield the saidin.

"No one is about." A young man's voice could be heard behind them. "Except for me and the chickens. Well, the cow and the goats, to--"

The Warders were unnerved. Not a single one of them had heard the boy's approach. They all spun about and had their swords drawn and in hand before the young man's smile was complete to greet the strangers. A smile that dropped away when steel left their sheathes.

[ValuciaSabet]

--
Valucia and Alrin moved at once and as one.

Reflexively, she reached out to touch the saidin, even as Alrin's steel left its wood and leather scabbard. Both were at the ready, but even at the unexpected presence of the boy told to be able to tap into and use the saidin, they were not in charge of that endeavor.

Aes Sedai wielded the female part of the One Power, saidar, while men went mad with destruction and worse wielding the male part of the One Power called saidin. The history of that destruction was never far from an Aes Sedai's mind. Especially since it was hard for them to tell if and when it was being used until--many times--it was too late.

The young man, barely into his teens, dropped the bucket of warm cow's milks and sent it splashing and spilling as it hit the ground, fell over and lurched back and forth once or twice. His hands were up and he started to shout. "Woah there! Woah! I am not a Darkfriend or Trolluc!" Panicked breaths rushed in and out of him. He was reedy, at best, and his skin darkened by working outdoors. Garon's black hair was a mop and mess of black on his head with it as long as his shoulders and the wind breezing by.

"Garon al'Korune?" Marolyn barked the question at him with only his name.

Garon hesitated, weighing his options. Anything seemed better than meeting the pointed end of the spears of more than one Warder. "Y-yes...?" His eyes were wide and scattered a mix of his attention over all of them and any path left, right and even over a shoulder before he looked back a them again.

"Excellent. We have much to discuss." To say they were all puzzled was an understatement. One who could wield the saidin could have set them all on fire, broken the ground, and ripped the largest oaks from their roots. He didn't seem able to keep hold of a bucket of cow's milk. But Marolyn did not miss a heart-beat worth of time. She moved forward and two of the Warders took the boy by each of his arms. With a nod, she led them for his home and into it.

A few spoke amongst themselves, while the others kept watch for anyone or anything that could be a problem with the fact-finding that could take hours or days yet to come.

When Marolyn and her Warder stepped in with the the boy and two other Warders, Valucia was with them since one of Garon's arms was gripped by a patient, stalwart of a man she knew well as Alrin.

It would be as the Wheel Willed It if the day would go well, or if any of them would be digging graves before dark.


Garon al'Korune (As a teen)