Analin glances over when she feels Ryvin channel, mentally memorizing the weave as the other woman creates Keelix's new boots.
Mistress, come quickly Landa calls out from ahead, out of sight.
Alathea follows the sound of Landa's voice and hobbles towards him as quickly as she can.
"Oh, come on," Ryvin murmurs when she notices Alathea suffering. "What am I, a cobbler?"
Despite her complaints, the Ebou Dari Wilder bids the Ebou Dari Initiate halt and weaves her a pair of invisible shoes as well.
"Not fashionable," she says, lips quirking in a wry smile, "but eminently functional."
The smile disappears almost at once.
"We need to talk later," Ryvin says, eyebrows lowering and her voice serious. "This whole mess cannot be repeated. I know destructive weaves that create much less collateral damage. If you don't know them already, I want to teach them to you. Are you game?"
Watching Litheene step through the door, a hundred thoughts run through Rhoekk's mind; Is she mad? Will she harm people? How did this happen?
His instant impulse is to jump through the gateway and stop her, whatever the cost, so that the innocents might be protected, and Litheene protected from herself, should this be but a fleeting madness. However, though he had never seen the White Tower, descriptions of it and the gleaming city were commonplace enough to make the place instantly recognizable. The Car'a'carn had no presence there, and in fact, it seemed they considered him some sort of criminal, from their treatment of him in the days leading to Dumai's Wells. What would the reaction be if an Aiel were to show up in the streets, and attack an Aes Sedai. Could he avoid capture in Tar Valon? It seemed unlikely; and if captured the half-dozen ter-angreal he carried would likely never be seen again. Not to mention that he now carried all of the notes on the Grey man on his person. No one else remained to complete the task given him and his companions. All of the others remained that he knew of; A'Mar of Issola, Marten Noral and Joliar Belthoval the Asha'man, Teslin Sedai, all gone. Some seemed to have been lost in the myriad mirror worlds they had been spun out into, others had woken from the dream. He could count on no one but himself to complete the task, as even if any of those lost still laboured, he had no way of knowing it, and it was unlikely they were as close to unraveling the mystery as he and Amorial had been.
Rhoekk was no coward, but the fear of what could be lost by stepping through that portal seemed to vastly outweigh what good could be wrought by the action.
He does not move, but casts a glance back at Fiallain behind him, the weight of all these thoughts evident on his face.
Fascinated by the Ryvin's weaving of footwear, Dengorin says, "Truly, Aes Sedai, you are quite skilled with your ability. Crafting shoes do seem to no be something many of you do."
Argrand shrugs at the display, "Impressive to be sure. For an Aes Sedai a worthy weave. For a man, every weave must count. No actions can be wasted after all we do not know how many we will have in us before..."
Alathea frowns at the newcomer's comment. "It must be a sad way to live, counting every breath as one less until your last, yes?"
Noticing but not understanding her stunned silence, Chen grabs Vala by the arm and pulls her after their advancing allies. Catching up to Fia and Rhoekk, Chen says. "What is going on?"
Ryland steps forward with the stone sword held across his body. "Litheene? Are you well?"
Argrand shrugs at Alathea as he continues to plod along, "For some yes. I have always been a soldier. My life has long been pledged to protect others. I can only hope to help stop the Shadow moving across our world before the inevitable happens. Truth be told, I don't generally give it much thought".
He smiles, "After all, we will all die one day, the wind will always blow, the sun always rise and set one cannot stop the inevitable right?"
Analin nods at Argrand. "In the Blight and at the Last Battle, every breath might be one's last. Making them count is what's important." She glances at Ryvin and then Keelix's feet. "That said, there are many things that are important and useful that don't involve killing."
With that, Analin heeds her Warder's call and goes to see what he wants.
Dengorin, realizing the man's meaning. Suddenly starts eyeing him more than the surrounding countryside, as one might a stray dog that could be rabid. He says, "Do you be one of those...men...whom the Dragon Reborn has gathered to him?"
landa stands off to the side, and points for analin to look.
a large maple tree sits in the middle of this forest fire, untouched. the trees around it burn, and its only a matter of time before the fire gets to this one, but for now, it stands untouched.
with the hollow din of the shadowspawn marching upon the old Manetheron, ryland speaks to litheene.
Standing upright, Litheene turns... and you are shocked at her appearance.
blood spray covers her face, while around her lips and chin are coated in bright blood. One of her lips she gnaws, staining her chin and teeth red.
Lifting up a hand to push a stray strand of hair from her face, you shudder as you see that it is the hand without any fingers. Blood smears across her nose and eyebrow as she smooths it along her face, pushing her hand away.
opening her mouth, she screams, loud enough to be heard throughout the city, loud enough to echo within the mountains.
turning away from the opening, as three guardsman with the crest of Tar Valon stitched upon their jerkins approach, she stretches out an arm.
A bar of molten light takes form and lances out, its brightness makes the noontime sun seem dull. It strikes one of the guardsmen, and he vanishes.
The gateway shrinks in size, but you are still able to view beyond.
"Wrap Hardened Air around it, isolate it!" Ryvin cries out. "Don't let the fire get to the tree!"
Before the gateway became to small for him to get through, Chen gritted his teeth and followed. This is what he did, now was not the time for doubt, the fears of his empire were apparent on the blood drenched face of this marath'damane
He motioned for Rhoekk to follow him, motioning with his head for the fast Aiel to get around her.
As Fia slowed her sprint to the door, she took in the torn glance that Rhoekk shot at her. As she comes to a stop, she looks out past him, eyes searching for what had given him pause.
The mass of roiling shadowspawn she did not appear to take note of. They were hardly a surprise. What gave her pause however, was the sight of Litheene calmly walking out from the other side of one of her gateways.... a gateway in which Fia could not make out the threads that should make it up. Had Litheene inverted it? She must have. Oddly, the other woman appeared to have let go of the power, for the tell-tale glow was not evident about her.
"I cannot see saidar, yet it should be there." she says softly, mostly to herself and sounding torn and confused. She did not want to attack Litheene, would much have preferred to try to talk to her friend. Now she could see people on the other side looking up in surprise at Litheene’s appearance. Some started to move to confront her.
Ryland spoke from where he stood beside Fia… Litheene seemed to pause. Everything seemed to slow.
In the end, it was the bloody finger stumps that decided the aiel woman. There had been no sign of an enemy in the house... only Litheene had been here. A sane woman would not do that to herself. Even if Litheene had been attacked by another, no woman in her right mind would calmly walk away from that and go to a city she had no business in, leaving her companions behind without so much as word. Fia could not let her walk loose upon an unprepared populace in her current state of mind.
"Be ready," she tells the others. "I'm bringing her back. Same plan as before. Quick and decisive."
Before she had finished speaking, the threads began to appear and coalesce, simultaneously splitting and forming into two different weaves, one primarily of spirit, the other of air. A still forming shield hurtles towards Litheene, as Fia aims to slam it down and wedge it between her target and the power before the other woman can embrace the source once more. The other threads reached through the gateway and would soon attempt to grab around the Aes Sedai’s middle and yank her back through the still open portal.
”No…” the whisper tears from Fia’s lips.
For Litheene had turned and screamed like a banshee. The apprentice’s weaves falter as Fia goes numb inside at the sight of Litheene’s bloody, mad, fearsome visage. Like a harbinger of doom, the other woman turns back towards the city and soon bars of white molten light shoot from her, destroying all that they touch.
There was still no trace of saidar. It was impossible! Fia did not understand what was happening. Even if Litheene had been inverting weaves, she should still see the glow of saidar about the woman herself, but there was nothing!! Nothing… and men were now starting to die.
Her face white as a sheet, sweat beginning to drip down her face and back, Fia frantically works to adjust her weaves even as they flew. There was no time for thinking – conscious decisions were a luxury that events would not allow. She could only react to what was happening, falling back and relying on those natural instincts that had seen her through the harrowing time when she first learned she had the spark and that instinct that had seen her through so many countless battles. She could not trust a shield. She did not know how Litheene was doing what she was doing, or even what she was doing. She knew only that whatever it was, it was wrong.
Knowing the air would feed the flames and enable her to work more quickly, fire ignites most of the strands of air, the flames shooting down the thread until they were dominant, a raging inferno to anyone who could see them. Other bits of air collapsed and then reformed on another path, joining some newly forming strands. The whole while she feverishly works, the voice inside Fia was clawing and screaming No, no NO!! at her, and at what she was doing.
More fire shoots out, wrapping around the bits of spirit and coalescing with them. Both weaves slam into Litheene, the fiery one burning her core even as the air grabs her and violently throws her back towards the closing portal. Her eyes widen as Chen steps past her, too late for her to stop….
Alathea follows Ryvin's eyes and understands her intent immediately. Weaving quickly, she wraps the tree in protective bands of Air to shield it from the encroaching flames. "Let us hurry, yes? We must reach that tree quickly."
Ryland would follow Fia.
Confused, Dengorin looks at Ryvin and asks, "What do a tree that do no be on fire have to do with anything?"
"I am one of them yes, does this, unnerve you?" Argrand replies.
Argrand seeing Alatheas harden air around the tree follows suit.
"I will follow your lead Aes Sedai, I assume there is a good reason for this yes?"
"Er, well, it's just, I do mean, that is, um...why do you choose this? Knowing that you will eventually go insane and die? It do no seem a good decision for anyone. At any moment, you may go insane and try to break the world. It do no seem safe."
Vala hesitantly follows through the gate looking unknown what to do. She was worried for her Aes Sedai. Litheene was like a sister to her, and from that bond she grew not only strength to defend but a connection that seemed to be like a real sisterly bond.
She clutched her blades as she slipped in and breathed slowly not sure as to exactly what was gonna happen or how she would feel if Litheene was needed to be taken out. In fact she could feel the pain well in her heart as she moved towards the portal and hops in ready to face what is needed.
As she stepped through she came in right when Litheene turned and screamed. What was before her eyes was not her friend or ward but a vile creature twisted by the dark forces of the world.
Choking back the tears she drew her blade and headed forward ready to kill her friend. It would be painful but she did not want to remember her friend like this, This was not Litheene.
Being the closest to the gate, Rhoekk holds out an arm, forming a token barrier between his companions and the door floating in the air. They may of course knock his arm aside if they wish, or go around it; the barrier is meant just to give them pause and make them consider the action.
"Can anyone here hold open that gateway? If not, anyone that steps through that gate will be stuck in Tar Valon if it should close."
I hate to count her lost, but I would hate to lose all she carries too. I don't know how the women divvy up their tools, but undoubtedly Litheene caries some. It feels odd to think of companions merely like spears, to be retained or lost. Damn the Sightblinder!
"I've seen some of you grab and lift people before with unseen hands; can that be used to fetch her back?"
Alathea throws a sidelong look at the Illianer as she pants towards the tree. "You may as well ask why he breathes, yes? I could not stop channeling even if I knew it would drive me to insanity and death. I would think that he feels the same way."
With a short bow, Dengorin says, "Forgive me, Aes Sedai, I did mean no offense. I simply do wonder why he chose to begin in the first place."
Alathea shakes her head ruefully. "Your question does not offend me, and I am no Aes Sedai. It may be that he did not choose to begin channeling, yes? Some of us begin to channel before we are aware of what we are doing."
everyone who can channel channels, building a massive dome around the maple tree. encompassing the very top of 60 feet, and spreading out to around 20 feet in diameter, the tree has been quarantined from the fire, with the exception of the fire burning on the floor. Angrand, not really understanding, mimics the channeling and lays it out on the ground, snuffing out the flames.
everyone breaths a sigh of relief as they realize that they may just have a way home.
Chen, years of training and millenium of dogma drilled into his head, reacts in the great fashion of the Deathwatch. Seeing a marath'damane unleashed, and killing, he leaps forward into action.
Rhoekk, to his credit as a calculating Aielman, attempts to stop Chen's headlong rush, but is unsuccessful, for the Deathwatch is unstoppable. after chen leaps through the portal shrinks, too small him to pass through safely.
Vala, seeing her ward stricken, rushes forward along with fia. Fia stops and initially attempts to render aide until she witnesses the utter destruction of one man. She quickly changes her weaves and causes flames to errupt all over litheene. another weave attempts to ensnare the crazed woman, but fails to connect with her.
Vala, continues rushing up until she stops next to rhoekk, who cautions her to stop. anguish and heartbreak fill her thoughts, and suddenly she pushes past rhoekk and leaps into the small gateway.
and suddenly, the gateway closes.
Litheene howls in anger and pain as flames consume her dress and parts of her body. shaking in pain, she looks at chen and vala. drawing upon her hidden strength and resolve she channels again, forming another twist between the two of you that resolves into another gateway.
"Right," Ryvin says, wiping the sweat from her brow. "Good work, everyone. Alathea... can I borrow that bauble of yours? Opening the gate takes a lot of power. I can probably use the boost."
Rhoekk frowns at the space in the air where the gateway had been only an instant earlier. Similarly, he looks at the hand he had out to stop his companions from rushing in, realizing that he still has it extended. Slowly, he lowers it to his side.
Knowing from having asked the question before that Fiallain is unable to open such gates to try and thereby allow them to aid the departed, Rhoekk turns and walks back into the sanctum, knowing there is nothing more they can do out here.
Alathea hesitates a moment before slipping the--her!--sa'angreal belt from her waist and handing it reluctantly to Ryvin. "Be careful, it is very powerful, yes? You should link with us as well--you will need all the strength you can get."
Fia stands there cold and numb inside, her mouth hanging open slightly as she stares at the space where the gateway had been a moment before. Why? Why did they? Images of Litheene burning seemed etched upon her eyes. Her doing. Fia tore her gaze away, placed the back of her hand to her mouth, breathing heavily. She was going to be sick.
Confused, Dengorin says, "You are no Aes Sedai? But you do wield the One Power. I thought all who wield the One Power were Aes Sedai." Glancing at Argrand, he says, "All women, anyway."
Alathea shakes her head. "I was once an Accepted of the White Tower, and I would have soon taken the test to become a Sister, yes? But the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills."
Analin, the only woman present with the ageless face and an obvious Warder, shakes her head at Dengorin. "The Tower chooses those it chooses; the ways of Aes Sedai are not for outsiders to know." She did not have to wipe sweat off her brow, as she was not sweating in spite of the heat.
She looks curiously at Ryvin. "I will help, if you need it, but I would like to know the weave before I attempt to lend my strength to the effort."
