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"I did love you, once," the Dragon says, looking Egwene in the eye. "But you are broken. Broken worse than I am. I will do my best for you. But your days of power are at an end. Forever." The Dragon Reborn raises a hand and weaves a Shield at Egwene, attempting to cut her off from the Source.
"No. There will be no divide. For the coming of the Last Battle, I will have unity," the Dragon says in a voice of cuendillar. "Your leadership is at an end, Egwene. I could never allow anyone to lead who, like Elaida, had come to use Seanchan domination collars. " The Dragon raises his voice so all can hear: "I would not kill a woman, especially not one who once I loved. But I can not allow one who would be damane to rule, either. Aes Sedai, Asha'man -- SHIELD AND SEIZE HER!" If his orders are followed and Egwene is subdued, the Dragon snaps his fingers at the adventurers who freed him. "Get her bracelets. Keep them for me. After we settle matters at Tar Valon, I will see about the women at the other end. Yes. We go to Tar Valon. Aes Sedai, Asha'man, Armsmen and Armswomen, ready yourselves. We will save the city. We will rebuild it. A new order shall go forth from the new Tar Valon!"
The Dragon's lips twist and writhe. It might almost be an attempt at a smile, on another man. But with that face of stone surrounding it... "A combined effort," he says, the words falling from his lips like dead things. "How noble. But as we can all see, it is too little, too late, thanks to time wasted on negotiation. Aes Sedai, failing to move because they must manoeuvre for supremacy; the same, sad, old story. Asha'man failing to move because they are pulled into those same, sad games. I place no blame on you, Logain, Taim; Aes Sedai Always play their little games, and they have grown good at them. But those games are now ." The Dragon does not turn around, but raises a hand and points at the group that got him out of the Tower. "They look very rag-tag, do they not? And yet, they got me out of the Broken Tower while you were playing for advantage, Rebel Amyrlin Seat. And I shall honour them, who had the courage and the honesty to move for me, where you sat on your hands and did nothing." The Dragon's eyes burn into Egwene's. "Oh, yes. It is broken. It is dust. As is the ancient order. The Aes Sedai games are at an end, and you must change. You will change. Logain, to me. Taim, to me. Asha'man, to me, every last one of you." The Dragon waits, arms crossed, eyes staring unblinking into those of the Amyrlin Seat, for the Asha'man to join him. Saidin fills him, a raging torrent of fire and ice, life and toxin, a tide threatening to wash him away -- or else the world he stands on. Once the Asha'man are deployed around him, he speaks again. "For the third and last time I tell you: your games are at an end, Rebel. The Broken Tower is a memory of dust and rubble. Tar Valon is under siege by the Shaido this very instant. To save as many of you Aes Sedai as I can, that I may wield them in the Last Battle as the weapons they should have been and shall be again, to save the innocent citizens of Tar Valon if any can be found, in order to save the world itself, I will have your obedience. I will forge the Aes Sedai back into one, and you shall march alongside of my Asha'man. You broke over me. I will recreate you. Kneel or be knelt."
The Dragon looks at Logain, and while his face might as well have been chiseled from stone and is growing harder by the second, his eyes burn. "Risky," he finally says. "You were worried about risk. My plans for the world's defence and salvation teetering on the edge of annihilation due to the actions of a madwoman, and your concern was with risk." Turning his eyes from Logain, the Dragon fixes a basilisk stare first on Mazrim Tain -- and then on Egwene al'Vere. And his expression changes not a hair. "So," he says. "Here do I find you, Rebel Amyrlin Seat. Attempting to tie apron strings around the sword arms of my men, no doubt." |
