Oops brainfart moment. It should be Alucia. Alivia is much too old for him.
Lan committed suicide at some point after being rescued by Alivia. His love was dead, he had the impact of the bond snapping and his duty to Malkier was gone.
A New Player in the Game (Wheel of Time)
- Thread starter Teebs
- Start date
-
- Tags
- wheel of time
Oops brainfart moment. It should be Alucia. Alivia is much too old for him.
Lan committed suicide at some point after being rescued by Alivia. His love was dead, he had the impact of the bond snapping and his duty to Malkier was gone.
dhasenan
always lowercase
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I'm curious how steam engines and mines work. I'd guess you use them on the surface primarily, or maybe to pull chains to move mine carts?
- Location
- Texas
Mines tend to fill up with water.
You use the steam engine to run a pump, pulling the water out.
That's where steam engines first took off in the real world.
To be clear, the reason that's where they took off was because the earliest steam engines were absurdly inefficient, and could only be made useful in an environment where coal was basically free.
With better metalworking and a better design, perhaps steam engines could have originated in a different scenario, but even for things that can be mechanized it has to compete with wind and water power.
- Location
- Earth
Industrialisation in this setting is fascinating to think about because there's just so many steps missing imo. This is barely on topic sorry in advance:
Britain and to a lesser extent all of Western Europe had a shortage of wood; wood was useful for building ships, for making charcoal for metallurgy, and for making firewood to heat homes to name but three. There wasn't really any alternative for the first two uses at the time, so the third had to make do and they made do with coal - which was available to easily strip mine especially in Britain. But demand for coal for heating grew, and the mines had to get deeper, meaning they needed pumping out to get rid of the water. Horses and manual labour could only pump so much water meaning you could only mine so deep.
The first steam engines came in here. They were hideously inefficient, but at the mines themselves coal was so cheap it didn't matter.
But demand for coal grew further and further so there was incentive to improve the pumps/steam engines and suddenly they were efficient enough and coal was cheap enough and there was enough demand for mechanical energy for spinning/weaving that steam engines were attractive for use there.
Simultaneously to that advances in metallurgy resulted in a way to make good quality steel using coal rather than charcoal leading to more demand for coal leading to more pressure to improve steam engines.
And it's feedback loops and marginal efficiency gains making new uses viable driving more demand driving more innovation.
Does the WoT setting have a demand for any of this? I don't know. Tel and Taija have much of the knowledge to skip a few steps to more efficient engines, but the engines are useless without the demand
Britain and to a lesser extent all of Western Europe had a shortage of wood; wood was useful for building ships, for making charcoal for metallurgy, and for making firewood to heat homes to name but three. There wasn't really any alternative for the first two uses at the time, so the third had to make do and they made do with coal - which was available to easily strip mine especially in Britain. But demand for coal for heating grew, and the mines had to get deeper, meaning they needed pumping out to get rid of the water. Horses and manual labour could only pump so much water meaning you could only mine so deep.
The first steam engines came in here. They were hideously inefficient, but at the mines themselves coal was so cheap it didn't matter.
But demand for coal grew further and further so there was incentive to improve the pumps/steam engines and suddenly they were efficient enough and coal was cheap enough and there was enough demand for mechanical energy for spinning/weaving that steam engines were attractive for use there.
Simultaneously to that advances in metallurgy resulted in a way to make good quality steel using coal rather than charcoal leading to more demand for coal leading to more pressure to improve steam engines.
And it's feedback loops and marginal efficiency gains making new uses viable driving more demand driving more innovation.
Does the WoT setting have a demand for any of this? I don't know. Tel and Taija have much of the knowledge to skip a few steps to more efficient engines, but the engines are useless without the demand
The way I see the Wheel of Time setting is that it was on the verge of significant technological breakthroughs anyway and was just being held back by the Shadow. I think it's likely that they'd have some quite uneven technology and development because of retained Age of Legends knowledge in some areas and so you can't assume that things would follow the same pattern as our world (for example, their metallurgy might be well ahead of the equivalent period in our history meaning more demand for coal and more efficient steam engines.
I don't have the academic background to say how it all got started without risking making myself look like a fool, so fill in the gaps yourself. You can assume friendly rulers probably got a bit of a nudge from Taija and Tel though even if they're avoiding getting directly involved.
Which book reviews are those?
ALTERNATE ENDING II - The Shadow Strikes Back
On with the alternate ending!
As usual all speech in italics is in the Old Tongue.
Previously in the alternate ending:
Chapter CXLIV - At Last a Visitor
With the latest trolloc push stymied Tel couldn't contain himself anymore. He should be getting some sleep really, he wasn't sure when he'd last had more than an hour or two, but some things were more important.
"I need to go now, you're in charge while I'm gone." Lord Jarin was a decent enough commander albeit uninspired, he'd be fine. Fortunately the man had been expecting it, Tel had warned him that he might need to leave for a while and he should be able to slot into command seamlessly.
Just before he reached the door Tel hesitated and then turned back to Jarin. "Also, it's time to move the base. Get that done as soon as possible, I'll come back to the next location. All clear?"
"Yes Tel sedai." Excellent. Another hard fought lesson from the War of Power. If you left your command centre in one place for too long, there was a real risk of someone hitting it with a sa'angreal or sending in a kill team like the Light Bringers. Now, what would be the fastest way to get to Caemlyn, given all the layers of anti-Traveling wards at both ends?
Alternate Ending II - The Shadow Strikes Back
"Finally, I have obtained news from Caemlyn…" Moghedien hesitated until Moridin gestured for her to continue with more than a little impatience. This was going to be delicate. He was more stable than Ishamael had been, but that was like saying a draghkar was less offensive than a trolloc. "Your attack there… it was not as successful as you had thought… Taija Kosola survived, although it seems she lost an arm…"
Moridin stared at her for a second and then laughed, a rich deep chuckle. Moghedien could have sworn it was entirely genuine. "That woman truly is a thorn in the Great Lord's side. Who else could say they have survived being killed by me twice? Well, I shall have to try again at some point. Or, if not, she will die soon enough when the Great Lord triumphs, no matter. Was that all?"
She hesitated again. "It seems…" She swallowed convulsively. "It seems that Lews Therin's girl also survived."
"Yes, I know, I did not kill her, there are worse things than death." Moridin waved a dismissive hand.
Anger briefly flared inside her. Did Moridin think she was an idiot, that she had no idea what was going on? With long practice Moghedien suppressed it, just the idea of upsetting Moridin terrified her, let alone actually crossing him. "No, I understand that. I mean her only injury was a hurt leg. My sources are not entirely clear, but I believe Taija Kosola replaced her with one of the so-called Dedicated…" She trailed off as Moridin stood, the saa streaming across his eyes. How was he even alive channeling that much of the True Power?!
"That fucking woman!" Every bit of glasswear in the room suddenly shattered and Moghedien cringed into herself. "I am going to make her pay! She will suffer and then she will die, there will be no waiting for the Great Lord's victory."
In lieu of saying anything, Moghedien gave him a low bow, holding it as he ranted and raved in front of her about the appalling things he was going to do to Taija Kosola.
Moridin's ranting stopped as suddenly as it had started. A deadly calm reasserted itself over him as Moghedien straightened from her bow. "I want her dead."
"Of course, I will pass on the orders." She had no idea how it would be achieved, but at that moment she'd have sold her own mother to a myrddraal to get away from Moridin.
"Yes, whoever can kill her will be greatly rewarded. I will not make the mistake of trying to claim her for myself. I want that woman dead as soon as it can be arranged. You give the orders. In the meantime…" He paused to think, suddenly all ice-cold calm. "Your other intelligence work, yes that has been excellent." Moghedien breathed a sigh of relief. "I had not thought it worth revealing our penetration of the Light's communications, nor revealing such a significant card from our hand, but now… Yes. I think that will be appropriate. You will find Demandred and tell him I wish to speak to him without delay."
======
Siuan stood on the walls of Sho Arbela looking out at the smudge on the horizon. The city was ready for a siege, but it was still a daunting thought. Had she trapped herself here? The contingent from the Hall had woven very extensive anti-Traveling wards, not that she would have done anything else. However, once the trollocs had the city surrounded, she would be trapped there as surely as any non-channeler. But then, was that any different to the situation before Taija had taught her to Travel? Probably not.
Ultimately it did not matter, however one sliced the fish she was committed now. Her and her group of aes sedai would share the fate of the Arafelans in their capital. If the Creator allowed it, that fate would be a decisive victory. The walls of Sho Arbela were high and she trusted the aes sedai with her. They were all level headed women. They, plus the force from the Hall, would have been enough to shatter an army in a day under normal circumstances. Of course these were not normal circumstances.
She would need to plan a rotation, she could not afford to exhaust the women. She would also need to speak to whoever was in command of the Hall's forces. It would be ridiculous not to coordinate as closely as possible under the circumstances. All of the sisters Adelorna had picked were relative moderates, they would be able to work with the Hall's group without any significant problems.
======
"My Lord Captain!" Geofram turned to the Child of the Light who had called his name.
"Yes?"
"We have a message from the," his mouth turned down in distaste, "Lord Dragon, we are requested to join with one of his Aiel septs and advance northwards in anticipation of the shadowspawn breaking through the Borderlands. The Lord Captain Commander has ordered us to proceed." The man held out a letter, presumably more detailed orders.
"Hmm, very well. You may go." Geofram took the letter and broke the seal. He would need to get the camp roused and start making preparations. It was a good move, linking them with the Aiel. The Children of the Light had no fondness for the veiled savages, but he knew that the Dragon's own forces were heavily integrated with those of his pet channelers. This way they could be kept apart and yet both serve the Light in their own ways.
======
Tel stepped out of the gateway, near his new command post, his mind whirling. Taija really wasn't alright, that much was more than clear, but what could he do? He couldn't just abandon his command, it wasn't even that he wouldn't consider it, but she'd never accept it if he did. Her sense of right and wrong was too firmly embedded in her for that. She really was a true believer in their time's principles, to the point of sacrificing herself for them. He loved it about her, but right now all it did was make him worry more.
In the end all that that left him was doing his job as well as he could until she could join him. Light, he hoped that she could sort Rand out soon. He was a good boy, normally, but he had no idea how lucky he was with her. He scowled at the thought of Rand's recent behaviour. He could understand why he'd done it, there was no malice to it, but he should have made sure Tel was told about Taija's injury straight away. For her own good as much as his. They would have to have words about that. But not now, now he needed to beat the shadowspawn army that was grinding its way through Kandor.
His mind went back to Taija. She needed to be there with him, not twisting herself into more and more misery over everything. A bit of love and care would have her back on her feet, she was strong, stronger than him really, but no one could be strong by themselves forever.
Tel yawned as he strode through the village that hosted the new command post. He really needed some sleep, but first he needed to sort this out. He'd had to get an update from one of the aspirants dealing with messengers to find out where he was meant to be, but now that he was here he wasn't very happy. This village simply wasn't a good location. It was both too obvious and too exposed. He'd seen a number of what were clearly messengers riding in and out on his way in, which meant anyone else who was looking could too, and the anti-Traveling wards were nowhere near wide enough.
It would be alright for a day or two, that would limit the risk without creating as much disruption as an immediate move, but he'd have to get them prepping a better location as soon as possible. Maybe a distraction attack at the front would help? He'd get onto getting another move set up as soon as he'd had an update from Jarin and made sure that the front hadn't collapsed in his absence. He yawned again. Light, how long had it been since he'd slept? He'd get someone on extending the anti-Traveling wards as soon as possible too.
Fuck, he hoped Taija was managing to hold herself together.
=======
Taija actually slept reasonably well after Tel had left. She still had nightmares, but she'd managed a good six hours or so, probably for the first time since Moridin removed her… anyway! It meant that she was more productive with her work on the web for Rand. In fact, she thought she was pretty much there. Or less positively, she couldn't see any way to improve it. She did think it would work though. It had to, of course, but also after solving the problem of the taint Taija felt she at least had some understanding of the fundamental ways in which the Dark One's influence interacted with the Power. It was all a matter of very specific wave form interactions at a… Maybe she should write a paper on it? Only by the time anyone would actually be able to understand it she suspected there wouldn't be much interest left in the Dark One. Well that or they'd all be dead. Ultimately she couldn't be truly certain it would work until the web was actually used in anger.
Still, it was good news that she'd made it that far, no question about it. Maybe one more meeting with Rand, she might have to link with him to make sure he'd got the right idea, but then she was done. She could fuck off out of Caemlyn, which despite its beauty had become one of her least favourite cities and go to Tel. Everything would be better then. It might get boring if he was just generalling, but at least she could make herself useful, instead of just lying in bed turning into a depressed lump.
There were a few tweaks she could still make to the web even if she thought they weren't strictly necessary. The icing on the cake so to speak. So she might as well work on those. Rand was away for the next couple of days, so she had time before she could next see him. Taija gave her pillow a squeeze and got back to work.
=======
"I see you Amys," Aleksi gave the wise one a polite bow. He would need to word this carefully. The Aiel were prickly people and easy to offend without meaning to.
"I see you Aleksi Durcaral. What was it you wished to discuss with me?"
Aleksi took a breath, "I saw something strange when I was in the Blight, something that might relate to the Aiel. I'm not totally sure, but I thought it might be important for you to know." He could only pray she didn't take offense. "There was a man defending the trollocs, a man who could channel and… while I wouldn't want to suggest he was Aiel, there were enough similarities that I thought I should tell you."
He couldn't read Amy's face, but her voice was hard. "Tell me more of this man Aleksi Durcaral, I understand you make no accusations, this is something we must understand, there is no toh in honest words on this."
"Thank you." That was better than he'd expected. "You must understand, it was battle, so I didn't get the chance to have a good look, but he had the look of the Aiel, tall with red hair. He also wore something that looked like cadin'sor." Aleksi grimaced at the memory of the headless corpse. "However, he didn't veil himself to fight, but he did have what looked like a red veil hanging loose, like an Aiel warrior before battle."
Amys actually looked perturbed at that. "That is concerning, no Aiel would debase themselves in such a way, yet you have clearly seen something." She stared off into the distance for a moment. "No doubt more will become clear as the dance with Sightblinder continues. For now, we shall watch for this. Thank you."
=======
Demandred scowled to himself, he truly hated being given orders by Ishamael, or Moridin as he now called himself. That did not mean he would not obey, he was not enough of an idiot to try to challenge the man, but if there was one thing he hated more than anything in the world it was being second to someone. At least in this case Moridin acknowledged he was the better general, that was a crumb of comfort.
However, that crumb was being ruined by his current orders. He was not even sure how Moridin had learnt of his possession of Sarkanen. However, it was meant to be a war winner, the Light would not expect it when he carved a hole in their lines, relocated and then annihilated whatever fools tried to retaliate against him. But now he was being told to give away his greatest trump card, well other than the Sharan forces, for relatively minor gains. Oh, of course it would deal with one of the Light's generals and a traitor to the Shadow at that, but it was a waste. All because Moridin had lost his temper.
With an irritated growl he seized saidin and prepared the gateway for his escape. Then, he took a deep breath and drew fully on the Power through the second most powerful male sa'angreal ever made.
=======
"We need to find a way to fortify the lines there, do we have any second line troops we can reassign?"
"I will see what I can do Tel sedai and report back."
"Thank you." Tel turned his attention to the aspirant who'd just come in. "Have the anti-Traveling wards been extended?"
"They now go six miles out Tel sedai."
He sighed and resisted the urge to snap at the boy. "I need at least twelve, I could just about hit something that far away, think of what a full circle could do."
"Of course Tel sedai." The boy bowed and fled.
Right, onto the next job. "How are we doing on setting up the spoiling attack near…" He trailed off as he suddenly felt a huge surge of saidin being channeled to the west, more than anything since the cleansing. "Oh, fu…"
As usual all speech in italics is in the Old Tongue.
Previously in the alternate ending:
Chapter CXLIV - At Last a Visitor
With the latest trolloc push stymied Tel couldn't contain himself anymore. He should be getting some sleep really, he wasn't sure when he'd last had more than an hour or two, but some things were more important.
"I need to go now, you're in charge while I'm gone." Lord Jarin was a decent enough commander albeit uninspired, he'd be fine. Fortunately the man had been expecting it, Tel had warned him that he might need to leave for a while and he should be able to slot into command seamlessly.
Just before he reached the door Tel hesitated and then turned back to Jarin. "Also, it's time to move the base. Get that done as soon as possible, I'll come back to the next location. All clear?"
"Yes Tel sedai." Excellent. Another hard fought lesson from the War of Power. If you left your command centre in one place for too long, there was a real risk of someone hitting it with a sa'angreal or sending in a kill team like the Light Bringers. Now, what would be the fastest way to get to Caemlyn, given all the layers of anti-Traveling wards at both ends?
Alternate Ending II - The Shadow Strikes Back
"Finally, I have obtained news from Caemlyn…" Moghedien hesitated until Moridin gestured for her to continue with more than a little impatience. This was going to be delicate. He was more stable than Ishamael had been, but that was like saying a draghkar was less offensive than a trolloc. "Your attack there… it was not as successful as you had thought… Taija Kosola survived, although it seems she lost an arm…"
Moridin stared at her for a second and then laughed, a rich deep chuckle. Moghedien could have sworn it was entirely genuine. "That woman truly is a thorn in the Great Lord's side. Who else could say they have survived being killed by me twice? Well, I shall have to try again at some point. Or, if not, she will die soon enough when the Great Lord triumphs, no matter. Was that all?"
She hesitated again. "It seems…" She swallowed convulsively. "It seems that Lews Therin's girl also survived."
"Yes, I know, I did not kill her, there are worse things than death." Moridin waved a dismissive hand.
Anger briefly flared inside her. Did Moridin think she was an idiot, that she had no idea what was going on? With long practice Moghedien suppressed it, just the idea of upsetting Moridin terrified her, let alone actually crossing him. "No, I understand that. I mean her only injury was a hurt leg. My sources are not entirely clear, but I believe Taija Kosola replaced her with one of the so-called Dedicated…" She trailed off as Moridin stood, the saa streaming across his eyes. How was he even alive channeling that much of the True Power?!
"That fucking woman!" Every bit of glasswear in the room suddenly shattered and Moghedien cringed into herself. "I am going to make her pay! She will suffer and then she will die, there will be no waiting for the Great Lord's victory."
In lieu of saying anything, Moghedien gave him a low bow, holding it as he ranted and raved in front of her about the appalling things he was going to do to Taija Kosola.
Moridin's ranting stopped as suddenly as it had started. A deadly calm reasserted itself over him as Moghedien straightened from her bow. "I want her dead."
"Of course, I will pass on the orders." She had no idea how it would be achieved, but at that moment she'd have sold her own mother to a myrddraal to get away from Moridin.
"Yes, whoever can kill her will be greatly rewarded. I will not make the mistake of trying to claim her for myself. I want that woman dead as soon as it can be arranged. You give the orders. In the meantime…" He paused to think, suddenly all ice-cold calm. "Your other intelligence work, yes that has been excellent." Moghedien breathed a sigh of relief. "I had not thought it worth revealing our penetration of the Light's communications, nor revealing such a significant card from our hand, but now… Yes. I think that will be appropriate. You will find Demandred and tell him I wish to speak to him without delay."
======
Siuan stood on the walls of Sho Arbela looking out at the smudge on the horizon. The city was ready for a siege, but it was still a daunting thought. Had she trapped herself here? The contingent from the Hall had woven very extensive anti-Traveling wards, not that she would have done anything else. However, once the trollocs had the city surrounded, she would be trapped there as surely as any non-channeler. But then, was that any different to the situation before Taija had taught her to Travel? Probably not.
Ultimately it did not matter, however one sliced the fish she was committed now. Her and her group of aes sedai would share the fate of the Arafelans in their capital. If the Creator allowed it, that fate would be a decisive victory. The walls of Sho Arbela were high and she trusted the aes sedai with her. They were all level headed women. They, plus the force from the Hall, would have been enough to shatter an army in a day under normal circumstances. Of course these were not normal circumstances.
She would need to plan a rotation, she could not afford to exhaust the women. She would also need to speak to whoever was in command of the Hall's forces. It would be ridiculous not to coordinate as closely as possible under the circumstances. All of the sisters Adelorna had picked were relative moderates, they would be able to work with the Hall's group without any significant problems.
======
"My Lord Captain!" Geofram turned to the Child of the Light who had called his name.
"Yes?"
"We have a message from the," his mouth turned down in distaste, "Lord Dragon, we are requested to join with one of his Aiel septs and advance northwards in anticipation of the shadowspawn breaking through the Borderlands. The Lord Captain Commander has ordered us to proceed." The man held out a letter, presumably more detailed orders.
"Hmm, very well. You may go." Geofram took the letter and broke the seal. He would need to get the camp roused and start making preparations. It was a good move, linking them with the Aiel. The Children of the Light had no fondness for the veiled savages, but he knew that the Dragon's own forces were heavily integrated with those of his pet channelers. This way they could be kept apart and yet both serve the Light in their own ways.
======
Tel stepped out of the gateway, near his new command post, his mind whirling. Taija really wasn't alright, that much was more than clear, but what could he do? He couldn't just abandon his command, it wasn't even that he wouldn't consider it, but she'd never accept it if he did. Her sense of right and wrong was too firmly embedded in her for that. She really was a true believer in their time's principles, to the point of sacrificing herself for them. He loved it about her, but right now all it did was make him worry more.
In the end all that that left him was doing his job as well as he could until she could join him. Light, he hoped that she could sort Rand out soon. He was a good boy, normally, but he had no idea how lucky he was with her. He scowled at the thought of Rand's recent behaviour. He could understand why he'd done it, there was no malice to it, but he should have made sure Tel was told about Taija's injury straight away. For her own good as much as his. They would have to have words about that. But not now, now he needed to beat the shadowspawn army that was grinding its way through Kandor.
His mind went back to Taija. She needed to be there with him, not twisting herself into more and more misery over everything. A bit of love and care would have her back on her feet, she was strong, stronger than him really, but no one could be strong by themselves forever.
Tel yawned as he strode through the village that hosted the new command post. He really needed some sleep, but first he needed to sort this out. He'd had to get an update from one of the aspirants dealing with messengers to find out where he was meant to be, but now that he was here he wasn't very happy. This village simply wasn't a good location. It was both too obvious and too exposed. He'd seen a number of what were clearly messengers riding in and out on his way in, which meant anyone else who was looking could too, and the anti-Traveling wards were nowhere near wide enough.
It would be alright for a day or two, that would limit the risk without creating as much disruption as an immediate move, but he'd have to get them prepping a better location as soon as possible. Maybe a distraction attack at the front would help? He'd get onto getting another move set up as soon as he'd had an update from Jarin and made sure that the front hadn't collapsed in his absence. He yawned again. Light, how long had it been since he'd slept? He'd get someone on extending the anti-Traveling wards as soon as possible too.
Fuck, he hoped Taija was managing to hold herself together.
=======
Taija actually slept reasonably well after Tel had left. She still had nightmares, but she'd managed a good six hours or so, probably for the first time since Moridin removed her… anyway! It meant that she was more productive with her work on the web for Rand. In fact, she thought she was pretty much there. Or less positively, she couldn't see any way to improve it. She did think it would work though. It had to, of course, but also after solving the problem of the taint Taija felt she at least had some understanding of the fundamental ways in which the Dark One's influence interacted with the Power. It was all a matter of very specific wave form interactions at a… Maybe she should write a paper on it? Only by the time anyone would actually be able to understand it she suspected there wouldn't be much interest left in the Dark One. Well that or they'd all be dead. Ultimately she couldn't be truly certain it would work until the web was actually used in anger.
Still, it was good news that she'd made it that far, no question about it. Maybe one more meeting with Rand, she might have to link with him to make sure he'd got the right idea, but then she was done. She could fuck off out of Caemlyn, which despite its beauty had become one of her least favourite cities and go to Tel. Everything would be better then. It might get boring if he was just generalling, but at least she could make herself useful, instead of just lying in bed turning into a depressed lump.
There were a few tweaks she could still make to the web even if she thought they weren't strictly necessary. The icing on the cake so to speak. So she might as well work on those. Rand was away for the next couple of days, so she had time before she could next see him. Taija gave her pillow a squeeze and got back to work.
=======
"I see you Amys," Aleksi gave the wise one a polite bow. He would need to word this carefully. The Aiel were prickly people and easy to offend without meaning to.
"I see you Aleksi Durcaral. What was it you wished to discuss with me?"
Aleksi took a breath, "I saw something strange when I was in the Blight, something that might relate to the Aiel. I'm not totally sure, but I thought it might be important for you to know." He could only pray she didn't take offense. "There was a man defending the trollocs, a man who could channel and… while I wouldn't want to suggest he was Aiel, there were enough similarities that I thought I should tell you."
He couldn't read Amy's face, but her voice was hard. "Tell me more of this man Aleksi Durcaral, I understand you make no accusations, this is something we must understand, there is no toh in honest words on this."
"Thank you." That was better than he'd expected. "You must understand, it was battle, so I didn't get the chance to have a good look, but he had the look of the Aiel, tall with red hair. He also wore something that looked like cadin'sor." Aleksi grimaced at the memory of the headless corpse. "However, he didn't veil himself to fight, but he did have what looked like a red veil hanging loose, like an Aiel warrior before battle."
Amys actually looked perturbed at that. "That is concerning, no Aiel would debase themselves in such a way, yet you have clearly seen something." She stared off into the distance for a moment. "No doubt more will become clear as the dance with Sightblinder continues. For now, we shall watch for this. Thank you."
=======
Demandred scowled to himself, he truly hated being given orders by Ishamael, or Moridin as he now called himself. That did not mean he would not obey, he was not enough of an idiot to try to challenge the man, but if there was one thing he hated more than anything in the world it was being second to someone. At least in this case Moridin acknowledged he was the better general, that was a crumb of comfort.
However, that crumb was being ruined by his current orders. He was not even sure how Moridin had learnt of his possession of Sarkanen. However, it was meant to be a war winner, the Light would not expect it when he carved a hole in their lines, relocated and then annihilated whatever fools tried to retaliate against him. But now he was being told to give away his greatest trump card, well other than the Sharan forces, for relatively minor gains. Oh, of course it would deal with one of the Light's generals and a traitor to the Shadow at that, but it was a waste. All because Moridin had lost his temper.
With an irritated growl he seized saidin and prepared the gateway for his escape. Then, he took a deep breath and drew fully on the Power through the second most powerful male sa'angreal ever made.
=======
"We need to find a way to fortify the lines there, do we have any second line troops we can reassign?"
"I will see what I can do Tel sedai and report back."
"Thank you." Tel turned his attention to the aspirant who'd just come in. "Have the anti-Traveling wards been extended?"
"They now go six miles out Tel sedai."
He sighed and resisted the urge to snap at the boy. "I need at least twelve, I could just about hit something that far away, think of what a full circle could do."
"Of course Tel sedai." The boy bowed and fled.
Right, onto the next job. "How are we doing on setting up the spoiling attack near…" He trailed off as he suddenly felt a huge surge of saidin being channeled to the west, more than anything since the cleansing. "Oh, fu…"
ALTERNATE ENDING III - Fallout and ALTERNATE ENDING IV - Time to Say Goodbye
As usual all speech in italics is in the Old Tongue.
The next two chapters don't have a huge amount of changes from the other ending (although there are some), so I'm posting them both at once. Divergence really takes off from the next one.
Alternate Ending III - Fallout
The lack of news from Saldaea was growing increasingly concerning. Rand had respected their messages that they didn't need reinforcements, but now there was only silence.
You may have been played boy. Send someone to check and damn their intransigence.
It was a sobering thought, that the Shadow might have scored a victory, somehow, without him even realising it. Not that Lews Therin had suspected either. After a moment's thought Rand waved Moiraine over. He could rely on her to be efficient and she was strong enough to look after herself, especially with her angreal.
"Moiraine, I'm sorry to have to ask you this, but I need someone to go to Maradon and check the Saldaeans don't need help. They've said they don't, but given the way every other nation is being pressed and their silence recently… I need someone strong that I can trust to go and see the reality there."
Thankfully Moiraine didn't protest or try to insist that her place was at his side. "Of course Rand, I shall go immediately."
=====
For the first time since Taija's confrontation with Ishamael she felt like she might actually be up for getting out of bed voluntarily. Eventually she decided not to, she still couldn't quite face the idea, but it was an improvement. Tel's visit had made her feel better about the world. Better about her own situation even. She still shied away from thinking about it, but the idea that she could go and be with him instead of in this fucking room trying to sort out an incredibly complex web for Rand was making things look brighter. When she grabbed her mug with air and brought it over to herself she still wanted to crush it into dust though.
=====
Even using gateways to speed up travel between ward lines, it still took Moiraine the best part of an hour to get out from under the anti-Traveling wards that extended over what had become known as the Army of the Light. It was slightly frustrating being sent away by Rand. Partly because she was not entirely eager to be given orders by him, even when they were worded as requests, but also because it took her away from where she could be most useful, advising him. However, she knew that was not an entirely fair line of thought to follow He was entirely correct about the importance of checking on Maradon and it spoke well of their relationship that she was his choice for the job if he was truly worried that it had been subverted by the Shadow.
As soon as she was free of the wards Moiraine wove a gateway. Not directly to Maradon, they would be under wards of their own, but to somewhere a fair distance from it. If the city was besieged or had fallen she had no desire to Travel straight into the Shadow's encampments, assuming of course that the Shadow did not have its own wards.
She stepped through the gateway onto a hill that she remembered from her own extensive travels in the Borderlands, just out of sight of the city. A quick look around her told her that there were no enemies nearby, no Saldaeans either, although that was not entirely surprising. Good. Moiraine wove another gateway, to the summit of a hill in the distance, one she knew had a distant view of Maradon.
As soon as she stepped through the hole in the air she knew something was wrong. Billowing smoke was rising from the city. At that distance she could not tell whether it was just one building on fire or many, but whatever it was, the fire must have been huge. She could also see the stain of an army around the city, not surrounding it though and far fewer than she would expect to be besieging the capital of Saldaea. Unless it had already fallen. She had thought the city would, at worst, be besieged. If it had fallen then it was an unmitigated disaster for the Light.
Moiraine spun the weave to magnify the view, another useful thing Taija had brought with her, and watched as the city seemed to leap closer. Her heart sank as soon as it did. The fires were coming from multiple places in the city. This was not good. Not good at all. Slowly she moved the weave to the side, scanning along the city. There. A stream of what were likely trollocs was leaving the city. Moving south. It was clear, Maradon had fallen, all while messages were being delivered to Rand assuring him that they were in no difficulty. It was a disaster, an utter and complete disaster. Rand's plan had been based around holding the Shadow in the Borderlands and feeding in reinforcements from the southern armies and the Aiel as necessary to stymie the Shadow's advance. Now it appeared that that strategy had failed. She needed to get back to him and let him know as soon as possible.
Rather than just weave a gateway in front of her, out of habit Moiraine turned back towards the south to leave. That probably saved her life. As soon as she saw the man who had somehow snuck up on her she was channeling, drawing fully on her angreal. Fire and spirit sliced the fireball he sent barreling towards her. Decades of experience meant she did not hesitate when she saw her attacker was an Aielman, albeit a strange one with a red veil hanging from his ear. Moiraine was already striking back, there was no time to waste and the man had managed to get far too close to her. She split her threads, weaving air and fire together several times over to attack from multiple angles.
The Aielman survived, slicing and deflecting her weaves, but was forced backwards, only nimble footwork keeping him upright as he frantically defended himself. Clearly he had not been expecting someone with Moiraine's strength. Good. She did not let up her attacks. After all of the terror of having to potentially fight the Forsaken or the possibility of Taija finally snapping, it was almost refreshing to considerably overpower someone, although she suspected she would have been having more difficulty if not for her angreal. With a snarl the Aielman drew lightning out of the sky. Moiraine deflected it, but that had been very visible. It would no doubt summon more darkfriends, she needed to finish this fast. Was she close enough? Yes, just about.
Moiraine raised her hands and wove all five elements together. A moment later the blinding light of balefire speared across the gap between her and her opponent. He did not even have time to blink, one second he was there and the next he was not. Sometimes it was useful to know things one was not meant to.
With some relief Moiraine wove a gateway away from Maradon. Rand needed to know about this, all of it, as soon as possible.
=====
"I thought the bloody Hall had dealt with the Forsaken in Saldaea, that's what you told me!" Mat turned away from Elayne to look at the maps on the table in front of him again. This was going to be difficult. He had the advantage of mobility, but who knew how long the Shadow's forces had had to penetrate past Maradon?
"Bennae did, she killed her." Elayne sounded as stubborn as ever. Of course she did.
"Well it didn't bloody work, did it?" He ignored her irritated humph. They might need to pull back in Kandor as well to deal with this. Otherwise the Shadow's breakthrough in Saldaea would threaten their rear. No as much of an issue in a world of gateways, but they didn't have the channelers to fight and deal with all of their logistics at the same time. Kandor meant that Tel would be involved. Mat knew that some of the Borderlanders were reluctant to serve under a 'boy' like him. Probably wise of them. Light only knew why Rand had insisted on putting him in charge of the Army of the Light's reserves. That and Kandor meant that Tel would probably take charge. See what the Borderlanders would think about his orders if they knew who Tel really was!
"I assume you will want me to take a team and disrupt the Shadow's logistics?" How did Elayne manage to sound both prim and bloodthirsty at the same time? Light, he needed to get her to teach him that at some point, probably something to do with being bloody royalty.
"Mmm, yes please. Especially if you can hit the western arm of their advance more, it would be good to shift them towards the east." He thought for a second, but only for a couple of days, I'm going to want every channeler I have with the main army soon." No doubt she'd be enjoying this far more than he would.
=====
Rand forced his anger down. Saldaea was a disaster, but it wasn't one that any of them could reasonably have predicted. The real question was, how had it happened? Was it some legacy of the Forsaken's corruption of the Saldaean rulers? Possibly, but they had certainly warmed up to the Hall again after her death. So it felt unlikely. He needed to know though, to make sure it didn't happen again.
He took a deep breath and moved his thoughts back to how to deal with the aftermath of this disaster. He hadn't wanted to commit reserves just yet, but it seemed he had little choice. Otherwise the Shadow could roll up the whole of the Borderlands and advance into less heavily fortified nations at the same time. The forces Mat was taking wouldn't leave the Light with nothing left to throw at the Shadow if there were any more surprises, but they should be enough to stop the Shadow's advance dead in its tracks. Him and Tel together would hold the line.
That reassuring thought was brutally interrupted when the door burst open and an aspirant ran in, all decorum forgotten, hardly even noticing the spears leveled at him.
"Rand sedai, Kandor! It's collapsing! The Shadow!"
"Pull yourself together!" Rand didn't bother to keep his voice level. Now wasn't the time for gentleness he needed information! "What's happening? Give me a proper report."
The aspirant took a deep breath and started again. "Sorry Rand sedai. The Shadow's armies have penetrated our lines and are advancing fast, we're not sure how far they've managed to advance. Everything has descended into chaos and some of the orders we have been receiving are nonsensical. Coordination has been lost and the Kandori forces and the Army of the Light are both in full retreat. Some of them may be encircled already."
I told you not to trust him. The man is a traitor to the Light. He betrayed it once, he will betray it again.
Rand fervently wished, not for the first time, that Lews Therin would just shut up. "What do you mean your orders have been nonsensical?"
"Orders have been intermittent and some of them made no sense, then they just stopped. No messengers, nothing. The army's disintegrating because of it, they can't react, they don't know what to do."
"Alright, alright, thank you. Return to your post. I'll deal with this."
He has turned back to the Shadow, if he ever truly rejoined the Light. Sammael will strike at you next. You should be ready, he knows everything from your plans.
If only Lews Therin would just bloody well shut up! Rand needed to think. He needed to deal with this. Lews Therin's ranting was not helping. Had Tel actually betrayed the Light, again? He couldn't believe it. He thought he knew the man well these days, but maybe that was what everyone had said back in the Age of Legends before he'd turned then.
Of course it was you Light-blinded fool!
But no. Rand could accept that Tel had fooled him, although he didn't think it was likely. He couldn't accept that Tel would betray the Light while Taija was alive, that just wouldn't happen. The man was so deeply in love with her that it trumped anything else. But that left only unpalatable alternatives. He would need someone to go and check on Tel's command centre, wherever it was. While that was happening he'd need to get the lines stabilised. Lews Therin might have some advice for that, but he couldn't take personal command. He would have other responsibilities shortly. It looked like Mat would be getting a promotion.
At least Rand could have the message delivered to him by someone else and so could avoid the inevitable explosion of protests when Mat heard about it.
=====
Eben and Helena stepped out of the gateway perhaps fifteen miles from the village they'd been told was Tel sedai's command centre. For now Eben was leading, so he reached out with spirit, both saidar and saidin to feel for the edge of the anti-Traveling wards. There was nothing within the few miles that they could reach. That was odd. He didn't want to try to spin a gateway into the wards, depending on how they were set up that might trigger an unpleasant reaction from whoever was monitoring them, but they should have extended somewhat further.
He didn't need words, Helena understood.
After a moment he spun another gateway, moving closer before probing again. Once more there was nothing. This wasn't good. Not good at all. He exchanged a glance with Helena and then spun another gateway, this time to the edge of the village. They leapt out of it, ready to dive for cover at the first sign of trouble.
Instead they came to a stumbling halt. There was no village, just a blackened crater many spans across. The trees around it, those that were still standing anyway, were burnt down to their trunks, even the grass seemed to have been washed away by incredible heat.
Light, what had happened there?
=====
As the aspirant fled the room Rand sank into a chair, his hands on his temples. Tel was dead, the only thing that would have been worse would have been if Lews Therin had actually been right and he'd defected back to the Shadow. Light, he'd actually grown to like the man, despite everything.
Yet another sign that you are a terrible judge of character.
Even acknowledging his past, accepting Lews Therin's view that no one sane could truly like the man after everything he had done, it was still a huge disaster for the Light. The Shadow had taken the opportunity and broken the lines in Kandor. He'd just lost one of the strongest and most skilled channelers in his arsenal, as well as a highly skilled general. It also strongly suggested that the Shadow had at least one powerful sa'angreal in their arsenal. They'd done their best to plan on the assumption that it did, because paranoia was the only sensible route to victory, but to have it confirmed did not improve Rand's mood.
Mat already had his orders to shore up the front in Kandor, hopefully preserving as many of the Light's forces there as he could until the lines were stablised. Rand hoped it would be enough. He'd have to make sure Mat was informed about the sa'angreal and Tel's death too. Light, there was so much to do. This was going to be ruinous to the Hall's morale too and Taija, oh Light she was going to be devastated.
You absolutely cannot let her find out about this. Do not tell her under any circumstances.
Rand didn't know how Lews Therin could even say that. Did he not realise how much of a betrayal of trust that would be? He owed her everything and she'd probably never speak to him again.
I know exactly how much of a betrayal of trust it would be. Personally I think she will be better off without him, but regardless of that she is foolishly obsessed with him. Think about what finding out might do.
It would hurt her, of course it would, but withholding that knowledge would only hurt her more.
Think you fool, she is already on the verge of breaking…
That was unfair, Rand didn't know why Lews Therin was so insistent on underestimating her. She'd pushed through more things than Lews Therin could imagine.
You might be surprised boy. Regardless, you need her mentally intact and working on how to seal the Dark One. Without her you have nothing, less than nothing. If you wanted to foolishly sacrifice yourself to do it that would be your business. You would no doubt take me with you, but I cannot say the idea displeases me so much. However, I have put a lot of effort into keeping you alive and, even if I had not, you have no idea what you would actually do. Simply going and slitting your wrists and bleeding on the Dark One is unlikely to have much effect.
For a man who claimed not to care whether he died Lews Therin could be impressively selfish.
I am not being selfish boy. I am trying to save your miserable life. However, if you continue to insist on undervaluing it then fine, think of it this way. If you go to Shayol Ghul with no plan and lose, what exactly do you expect to happen to the rest of the world. If you take your duty to the world seriously, you need Taija Kosola functional, at least until she has completed that web.
=====
Semirhage stared up at the walls of Shol Arbela without making any attempt at hiding her contempt. She supposed that they were impressive for a construct of this Age, although simply piling dirt onto more dirt was hardly the greatest of achievements.
Still, with the meagre resources available to her, it was time to bring them down. Or at least to get past them. Of course she had an almost unlimited supply of shadowspawn and a somewhat more limited supply of half-trained channelers, but that was not much to work with. Really she would have liked artillery and some channelers who actually had half an idea how to fight. It meant that breaking the city would take longer, but she would get it done.
Lightning suddenly stabbed down among the Shadow's lines, sending trollocs flying into the air in the roar of exploding ground. Narrowing her eyes Semirhage drew fully on saidar and sent her own webs flying back at the walls. It was right at the edge of her range, but that likely meant she was also safe from retaliation. Stone exploded from the top of the ramparts and then a moment later her webs were slamming into a shield of air. It was hard to tell at that distance, but she thought it was a mix of saidin and saidar. It seemed that the so-called aes sedai leading the Shadow's efforts here had not been lying about the city's defences. Perhaps she had not deserved quite as much pain as Semirhage had inflicted on her for her failure to take the city.
=====
It was with some satisfaction that Taija decided that she'd developed her anti-Dark One web as far as she could. Now she just needed to wait for Rand to be back and then she could make sure he and his Lews Therin voice understood it. Then she was free. She'd get out of bed and she'd go and be with Tel. She was allowed to be needy. It was fine. She'd done her duty, she could be proud of herself. She did need a better name for the web though.
Taija was trying to think of a catchy name, instead of thinking about… other things when someone knocked on her door. She was a little confused, Rand wasn't meant to be back for another day and none of the servants normally visited around that time.
"Come in."
The door opened and Aleksi entered the room, he looked hesitant, worried and miserable. Oh Light, she hoped Alucia hadn't been killed or something like that. Taija was immediately more focused, propping herself up on her remaining arm ready to comfort him if it was that. However, before she could say anything Aleksi spoke.
"I'm so sorry Taija. I came as soon as I heard the news."
Taija blinked in confusion. "What news? Has something happened?"
He stopped where he was standing. "You don't know?"
"Don't know what?" Icy fear was spreading through her veins, what had happened?!
Anger flashed across Aleksi's face, absolute fury. "Oh Light, he hasn't told you!"
Taija clamped her hand down against her thigh to stop the tremors in it. "Hasn't told me what?"
Aleksi just stared at her for a second, wide-eyed. "I…"
"What's happened Aleksi?" She struggled to keep her voice calm.
"It's… It's Tel…. He's dead."
Taija's world went black.
As consciousness returned Taija opened her eyes to see Aleksi sat on the side of the bed, looming over her, concern painted across his face. Did she misremember? Did she imagine what he'd said before? One look at Aleksi's face told her she hadn't. No… It couldn't be. It just couldn't. Taija shook her head frantically in denial.
"I'm so so sorry." He wasn't letting her deny it. What was the point in denying it? Every time she tried to deny things in this Light-forsaken time she was proven wrong.
"W… w…" She could barely make herself say the words. "What happened?" On some level Taija was screaming at herself, but mostly she just felt numb. Like she needed to curl into a ball and go to sleep, never to wake again. Shouldn't she be crying? She didn't know. Nothing seemed to be properly functioning inside her head right then.
Aleksi hesitated before speaking. "I was told it was a sa'angreal strike. They worked out where his command post was and… He wouldn't have suffered."
It felt like her world was cracking, turning to glass falling in shattering sheets around her. "I…" Taija closed her mouth. She didn't know what to say. There was nothing to say. She couldn't even really process what he'd just told her. It didn't make sense on a fundamental level. The pattern had brought him back to her, this wasn't what was meant to happen. Taija shook her head and tried again. "I…"
Aleksi reached across her to clasp her remaining hand. "You don't need to say anything. I'm here for you. We're all here for you. We'll get through this together."
His comforting words skittered off the surface of the numbness enveloping her. She couldn't do this. She couldn't deal with his concerned eyes and comforting words. She needed to… Taija didn't even know what she needed, but right at that moment it wasn't him.
The words came out without needing any conscious intervention. "Thank you Aleksi, I appreciate it, but I think I need to be alone right now."
"Taija, I don't think…"
"Please!" Her voice broke a little. "Just… I just need to be alone. I can't… I just can't."
"Alright, just… look after yourself. It will hurt, but you're strong and you have friends, so many people who love you and are here for you." It was ludicrous, she was getting comforting words from a man who wasn't much more than a tenth of her age. On another day it might have amused or even annoyed her. Now it was just a thing to store away amidst everything else. "I'll come and visit you again as soon as I can."
Once Aleksi was gone Taija was left lying in bed, pillow clutched tightly to her and staring at the ceiling. She didn't want to think about anything at all, but her brain betrayed her. All she could see were the scenes she'd fantasised so much about. All of her old fantasies and plans for what she'd do with Tel after the War. Marriage. Children. Mountains. Growing old together. All dust, they'd never be, but they wouldn't stop swirling around her mind. That and one more horrifying thought. Was it her fault? If she'd asked him to stay, he wouldn't have been there. If he hadn't needed to come and see her, would he have been caught out? Had she effectively killed the man she loved?
As those ideas, fantasies, horrifying fears tumbled around inside her, she was left there wondering why the tears wouldn't come.
Alternate Ending IV - Time to Say Goodbye
Kenadin lay close to the ground, a magnifying web in front of him, watching as the battle progressed. He would have liked nothing more than to join the dance with these creatures, to throw his spear into Sightblinder's eye and shout of his triumph and skill afterwards, but that was not for today. Today his role was to watch and to wait. To strike when the opportunity came. Some might say there was less honour in that, but when you fought the Shadow there was no question of honourable battle. You did what you must to destroy it as utterly and quickly as possible.
He was slowly spinning an inverted web to target one of the eyeless that he thought might have been linked to the trollocs around it when his attention was pulled away by a rippling in the air among the shadowspawn. It was strange, like nothing he had seen before, but after a moment the ripples solidified into some kind of stage in the middle of them.
Kenadin quickly adjusted his web to get a better view of what had happened, his planned attack on the myrddraal forgotten. His vision leapt forward, as if he had crawled to the very foot of what he now realised was an ornate, gilded palanquin. He had heard that the Sharans sometimes used such things to transport themselves around, as if their own feet were inadequate.
Twelve women carried the palanquin on their shoulders and on it sat a thirteenth, clothed in almost nothing, surveying the world ahead of her with a contemptuously regal stare. Surely a high ranking shadowrunner, perhaps even one of the shadowsouled! And delivered straight to him it would seem.
Kenadin once again began to labouriously spin inverted saidin. Even the shadowsouled would die to a knife in their back and if he could be the one to provide that knife he would gain much ji. However, it was a struggle, more than it should have been. It felt like there was a mounting pressure around him, it was distracting, pulling at his attention. Strange thoughts flickered through his head. He wanted to kill, enemies were all around him! Kenadin nearly straightened up from his concealment, to find the enemies that were closing in on him before discipline reasserted himself. No! This must be a trick of some kind. In desperation he lashed out with a slicing web around himself.
Suddenly his mind was clear again, but below him the wetlanders were frantically fighting, not the trollocs, but each other. Each man attacking whoever was closest in a paroxysm of murderous rage. What were they doing?!
======
Rand carefully schooled his face into normality, burying the trepidation and guilt he was feeling deep into the void, and knocked on Taija's door.
You can do this boy, for the good of the world.
A moment later she called out for him to enter.
Taija was sitting on the bed, staring blankly at the wall in front of her. She barely moved when he came in and her voice was flat. "Hello Rand, you'll be pleased to hear that I think the web is ready for you."
Light, he'd been sure she'd been getting better. Especially after Tel's visit, it took an effort not wince immediately after that thought.
Recovery is not always a smooth upwards path. Sometimes things will hit you long after the event.
"Are you… Is everything alright Taija?"
"I'm fine, can we focus on what you're here for please." He'd never heard her sound so utterly toneless. "I've written out a full breakdown of the web, Lews Therin should be able to read it if you can't." Taija moved her stump in what he assumed was an attempt at a gesture, then instead nodded at some papers on the table beside her bed. She didn't even wince at her own failure to remember her injury. Something was badly wrong with her.
Nervously Rand picked up the papers and scanned over them. Neat script in the Old Tongue surrounded various detailed diagrams. He knew that he shouldn't have been able to understand half of it, even after so much time training with Tel, but somehow it all made sense. Poor Tel. Light, poor Taija.
Interesting. I can see why she got her third name. A pity about her judgment in other areas.
"Thank you Taija, let me look through this and try to get my head around it. I can ask questions as I go. I'm already fairly familiar with what you're doing from our other sessions, so hopefully it won't be too difficult."
She barely even reacted to that, just the tiniest of nods. Rand tried to put it out of his mind, he needed to focus and to use Lews Therin to make sure he really understood what he was looking at.
"What does this connection between the lateral foundations do?" Rand pointed to a diagram in her notes.
"It's a binding agent, you need to keep the amount of spirit in it at precisely the right level or otherwise the whole web will start to collapse, when you spin it you'll need to keep some focus on those elements." Her voice was still flat, normally even at her worst she'd perk up at the prospect of technical discussions.
Rand asked a few more questions and got the same answers, entirely correct, completely helpful and delivered as if she was utterly disengaged.
It was with some relief that he was able to say, "alright, I think I can spin the web."
"Very well. I don't think you can rely on that though. Link with me so I can see you spin it."
Rand stared at her for a second. "But you hate linking."
"I'll live. Link with me."
After a moment's hesitation Rand opened himself to the Power and a moment later was in a link with Taija. He'd done it before of course, but only a few times, culminating in the cleansing of the taint. This was different, the little bundle he could feel in the back of his head that was her felt… For lack of a better word, dead. There was barely any emotion flowing through it, just cold nothing.
"Taija I…"
She cut him off. Perfectly polite and perfectly blank. "Please spin the web. I know you have many other things you need to worry about, you can't be wasting time."
Rand sighed and drew on saidar through her. At least it wasn't as unfamiliar as it had once been, but he was very aware that during the cleansing it had been her leading the link while this time it would need to be him. Worrying about her was distracting too, she hadn't been this bad since…
I think she has found out Tel Janin is dead.
That wasn't possible though, was it? People knew, of course, but they weren't just hopping back to Caemlyn. Anyway she wasn't that controlled, if she knew she'd be shouting at him, not… this.
The whys and the hows do not matter boy, you gambled to keep her in the game and you lost the throw. Too bad. You can just thank the Creator that she has chosen duty over self-indulgence.
Rand tried to suppress the spike of fury he felt at Lews Therin's dismissive words, he also tried to push down the surge of guilt that rose up in him. She'd be able to feel those as easily as he could feel her emotions through the link. Maybe this was why she hated the things so much?
Rand slowly spun the web, struggling with saidar's unfamiliar shape. It didn't come out quite how it did in the diagrams.
That's normal boy, spinning while linked is never quite the same else we could just teach through links.
However, he knew on some level that it would still serve its purpose.
Taija looked the web over as he held it there. She didn't frown, nor did she smile. Her face remained as disengaged as ever. "That's close, but not good enough. You need to…" she started reeling off a series of technical corrections.
When she was done Rand tried again.
"No, you need to…" Again with the corrections, all in the same numbed, blank tone. Maybe Lews Therin was right and she had found out.
After the third irritation he let the web dissolve and turned his full attention on her. "Taija I know I should have…"
"Spin the web again Rand." Her tone allowed no argument.
Rand spun again.
"Better, but you still need to add more spirit to the bilateral conduits on each of the cardinal whorls."
Light, what kind of a person was he? Trying to hide this from someone who'd been there for him from the start. Using a friend when she was on the edge of collapse. A friend who'd always supported him without question, the only person who'd truly seen him as a person when he first found he could channel.
You are the Dragon boy and you are saving the world. You could do it a hundred times over and the world would still name you a hero for it.
"Taija I need to…"
"Not now Rand, this is important so focus on it." It would have been better if she'd exploded, ranted and raved at him over it, what could he say though? Anything he did say would just be further damning himself.
Rand spun again.
After a long moment Taija nodded. "That's good enough, now do it twice more just to make sure." Her tone was as lifeless as it had been since he'd walked in.
Cringing internally Rand did as he was told.
"Fine. You've got it. Release me from the link."
"Taija can we…"
"Release me from the link." Her tone didn't change in the slightest, but Rand hurriedly did as he was told.
"Of course, but Taija, I'm sorry, I…"
"You got what you wanted from me. I've stuck with my principles and done the right thing," he didn't need her to make the contrast explicit, "please could you leave now. I don't want to talk to you anymore." She looked away from him.
"Taija I…" He trailed off as she didn't even react. "Alright, I'm sorry and thank you. Maybe we can talk in a day or two." Of course Lews Therin had to chime in as Rand turned to leave, glancing behind him at Taija who'd sunk down in the bed and pulled the blankets up to her chin to stare at the ceiling.
Well boy, you truly are the luckiest man alive it would seem. She is stronger than I had expected, she pulled herself together and did her duty, despite everything.
One of the things Rand had promised himself, before Tear, was that if he truly was the Dragon Rebon he would uphold the principles of the Age of Legends aes sedai, make himself worthy of being more than just a prophesied sacrifice for the Dark One. So much for that.
Grow up boy. She did her duty, now you must do yours.
Rand closed the door behind himself, there was a certain, unpleasant finality to it.
It was probably inevitable given her questionable choices. She deserved better than anything Tel Janin could have given her, but there we are.
Not for the first time Rand wished Lews Therin would just shut up and leave him alone.
I do not have the patience for your teenage angst boy. But fine. You care about her, I know you do, so I will give you some advice. I know her type. Do not let her leave until she has regained some stability or you will never see her again.
Yet more insults to her character from Lews Therin, it was infuriating.
If you say so, I am just trying to help. I saw it enough in the War. She will run and she will throw herself into a situation she cannot handle and then she will die. It would be a waste, I have no difficulty admitting that. So if you care about her, make sure she stays in this place you call a city, at least for the next few days.
=====
Lord Lanim ducked a blow from a trolloc's axe and then slashed his sword across its front. A moment later he winced as fire erupted among the shadowspawn ahead of him. He still could not get used to men wielding the One Power. Women were bad enough! He was not going to complain now though. Without the aes sedai and two aspirants from the Hall of Servants, the shadowspawn would no doubt have broken through his banner's lines by now. They had already retreated far to the south of their original positions before he had been able to rally them to slow the trolloc advance and now they, along with other banners from the Kandoran forces and the Army of the Light were holding the line once more. Light only knew what had gone so wrong to allow the Shadow its break through. He did not want to think about how many Kandorans had died as a result.
Here they came again. Trolloc horns sounded and bestial figures rose ahead of him with the roaring and grunting of their monstrous kind. Only there was something else too. Was that high pitched laughter coming from among the trollocs?
"Hold the line men! Steady! Steady!" He tightened his grip on his sword. That definitely sounded like laughter. Children's laughter at that. What in the Light?!
Lightning shot down from the sky, struck amidst the trollocs followed by the rumble of thunder, but then some of it bent sideways, clearly deflected by an unseen force. Did the Shadow have channelers with them now? He fervently hoped not. Then they were coming, bounding forward again, bestial cries, but with childish laughter mixed in. What was going on? Several of his men were wavering. "Steady! They're just trollocs." He was not sure if he had added that to reassure the men or to reassure himself.
As they came closer he saw, some of the trollocs seemed to have a second, smaller head. Odd. The bestial mutations of the creatures were always unpleasant for the eyes. Then childish laughter turned into an infant's shriek of agony and fire leapt from the trollocs towards his men. Some vanished, but around him men fell, screaming with agony as they burnt. Where was the channeler though? Couldn't the aes sedai deal with them?
Seconds later the trollocs were at their lines, desperately trying to bash their way past the wall of spears, accompanied by that high-pitched laughter, punctuated by occasional screams, all grating at the inside of his head.
A trolloc fell to his sword and then another leapt forward. On its shoulder, somehow obscenely attached to its neck, was a child's head. A young girl, happy giggles coming from her mouth. Lanim hesitated at the disturbing, incongruous sight and nearly lost his head as a result, leaping back just in time. What new monstrosity was this?! He raised his sword into butterfly floats amidst the rushes, ready to attack, when the girl's face suddenly changed. Agony painted its way across it and she screamed, louder than he had heard a child scream before. Fire flashed from the trolloc, slamming into him and carrying him to the ground. The last things he heard were the child's screaming and his own flesh burning.
======
Siuan winced as hugely powerful weaves of saidar descended on the walls again. She was not sure why the situation had changed, but the Shadow's efforts had become far stronger. She had had concerns about holding the city before, but now there was either one of the Forsaken or a large link making strikes on the defenders. Or maybe even both. If they just allowed it to continue they were going to find themselves overwhelmed, unable to even strike back with the range the darkfriends were attacking from. Not if she had anything to say about it.
She drew fully on her link. Saidin and saidar roaring through her. It was fortunate that the leader of the Hall's contingent here was reasonable, if he had been as eager to stand on his position as some of the Tower's aes sedai could be, then cooperation would have been much harder. As it was, every single channeler within the city's walls knew that their survival depended on them cooperating.
With a huge amount of the Power roaring through her, Siuan sent a rainbow of weaves hurtling back at the source of the attack on the walls. A brief, intense, over-powered bombardment. As soon as it was done she released the link and they fled, scattering out of the way of any potential retaliation. She doubted that she had killed whoever it was out there, but at least it would force them to be more careful in their attacks.
======
After Rand left Taija went back to staring at the ceiling. She couldn't bring herself to do much more than that. The Last Battle was raging, but it felt to her like the world was already ended. What was left for her now? A bleak, empty world? People demanding ever more from her? Using her? A black void with no end.
When Taija tried to imagine what the world would be like when the Last Battle was over she just couldn't. There was nothing. If she survived it then what? There was no place for her in the world. She was just a relic that should have died 3,000 years ago. They might say the Creator had brought her to this time for a reason, well great. She'd helped cleanse the taint, she'd given Rand the key to his survival and she'd passed on her skills. She'd done her job. Done her duty. She was starting to hate that word.
All Taija had wanted was a small bit of happiness, to be able to have the one thing she truly wanted and she'd thought she actually could. And now it was gone. Tel was gone. There was just nothing left. She was alone.
As these thoughts spun through her head, Taija came to a realisation. She needed to get out. She needed to go. She couldn't stay there, in that fucking bed or she'd go completely insane. For a moment Taija clutched her pillow tighter to herself, recoiling from the thought.
When had she become scared of getting out bed?! It didn't matter. Taija dismissed that fear like she'd dismissed so many others over the years and slid herself sideways so her legs dangled over the bed. There should be clothes in the cupboard since they'd been encouraging her to get up.
She pushed herself to her feet with her good hand and nearly fell over. Light, her legs didn't seem to work properly. She shouldn't have stayed in the bed for so long. It didn't matter though. Nothing really mattered anymore.
Taija tottered her way over to the cupboard and pulled out some trousers and a blouse. They'd do.
It was a struggle getting them on and buttoned up with only one hand, but eventually she managed. In the context of everything that had happened it was only a very minor frustration. Once she was properly dressed she got up again and then, after a moment's thought, went and fetched a coat from the cupboard too.
Then she went back to the bed and sat down for a rest. When had she last eaten? She needed fuel, there was no point collapsing and finding herself back in bed again.
After a minute Taija felt she'd recovered her breath so she got up again and headed to the door. However, when she pushed the handle down the door didn't move. It took her a moment to realise, it was locked. What the fuck?!
It didn't matter though. She embraced saidar and spun earth into the lock, feeling it out. she could shift it just so and then… Actually she couldn't bring herself to care. She added a touch of fire and spirit and the metal dissolved to dust. This time when she pushed down on the handle the door opened.
There were two men outside. Two men she recognised, Nalom and Avyesh. Two full aes sedai from the Hall. They jumped when they saw her and then bowed.
"Taija, why are you up at this time of night?" She looked at Nalom, her gaze flat and unimpressed. She needed to hold herself together for this.
"Why are you outside my door and why was it locked?"
"For your protection, after everything that's happened the Lord Dragon was worried that you might be attacked again." He was lying. Nalom was in his thirties. He still hadn't learnt to lie convincingly. Another lie told to her, it felt like a small thing in the face of everything else.
"Oh, I see." She ignored the flickering of rage under her numbness. "Well thank you, but I can defend myself. Shouldn't you be in the Borderlands or at the Hall?"
"Your safety is more important."
"I see." Was this a polite way of keeping her prisoner? Taija started to walk and they quickly fell in beside her.
"Where are you going Taija sedai?" Oh now they were retreating to formal titles were they?
"I've had enough of Caemlyn. I want to leave."
"Ah, the Lord Dragon he's ah ordered that…"
"I'm sorry, Rand has ordered what exactly?"
"For your own protection, just temporarily."
"Excuse me?" For a second outrage actually broke through the numbness. "Did I stop being First Among Servants without realising it? Are you seriously telling me I'm not allowed to leave?!" She didn't even want to be First Among Servants. It wasn't like she'd ever enjoyed it, like so many other things in this time, it just meant misery.
"No Taija sedai, you are, it's just safety…" She cut him off before he could say anymore. Fuck it. she didn't want to deal with this.
"Alright, I understand, I am hungry though. Can we go to the kitchens? Then I'll go back to my room and we can discuss things like civilised adults in the morning. Is that acceptable?"
They fell over themselves to agree and quickly led Taija to the kitchens. It was late and there were only a couple of servants around, but they quickly fixed her up some food which Taija wolfed down. She didn't feel hungry, but she did feel weak. She knew she needed to eat and so she forced herself. As soon as she was done Nolam and Avyesh were hovering, clearly keen to get her back to her room. That wasn't going to happen.
Taija stood and nodded to them. "Thank you, let's go." As she said the last word she struck. A web of air for each of them, slamming like a fist into their stomachs, hard enough to send them careening over tables. By the time they'd landed she'd shielded both of them. A moment later and they were silenced and bound in air too. "Disappointing." Was that really the result of all the work she'd put into the Hall?
The servants had frozen in place at the sudden violence. Taija didn't want them running away just yet. "Please could you make me a bundle of food, I'm going to be away for a while."
They almost fell over themselves in terror, bowing low and scrambling to do as she'd asked. Taija just sat there, ignoring the two aes sedai's outraged gazes as she stared into the distance. In no time at all she was presented with a wrapped bundle of dried meats, cheeses and bread. That would do.
"Thank you." With that Taija turned and headed for the door, tying off the webs on the aes sedai. No doubt the servants would go running to find someone to tell, but she didn't care all that much. By the time they'd worked out what was happening she'd be out of the palace. Good luck to them finding her in Caemlyn before she left. The aes sedai could wait for Rand to come and free them since they seemed to be so keen on him now. As soon as she was out of sight Taija spun saidar and her appearance rippled and changed to that of a servant.
Taija considered climbing the wall, using saidar to help of course, but she wasn't sure she was up to it at that point in time. So instead she just walked straight out of one of the palace's gates. There was an aspirant guarding it, but she wasn't checking people leaving, only those going in. Then Taija was in Caemlyn proper. As she walked away, her appearance rippling once more, she heard the sound of alarm bells coming from the palace behind her.
Now to get out of the city and then she could head north. As Taija walked towards the edge of Caemlyn staring straight ahead of her a tear trickled its way down her cheek.
The next two chapters don't have a huge amount of changes from the other ending (although there are some), so I'm posting them both at once. Divergence really takes off from the next one.
Alternate Ending III - Fallout
The lack of news from Saldaea was growing increasingly concerning. Rand had respected their messages that they didn't need reinforcements, but now there was only silence.
You may have been played boy. Send someone to check and damn their intransigence.
It was a sobering thought, that the Shadow might have scored a victory, somehow, without him even realising it. Not that Lews Therin had suspected either. After a moment's thought Rand waved Moiraine over. He could rely on her to be efficient and she was strong enough to look after herself, especially with her angreal.
"Moiraine, I'm sorry to have to ask you this, but I need someone to go to Maradon and check the Saldaeans don't need help. They've said they don't, but given the way every other nation is being pressed and their silence recently… I need someone strong that I can trust to go and see the reality there."
Thankfully Moiraine didn't protest or try to insist that her place was at his side. "Of course Rand, I shall go immediately."
=====
For the first time since Taija's confrontation with Ishamael she felt like she might actually be up for getting out of bed voluntarily. Eventually she decided not to, she still couldn't quite face the idea, but it was an improvement. Tel's visit had made her feel better about the world. Better about her own situation even. She still shied away from thinking about it, but the idea that she could go and be with him instead of in this fucking room trying to sort out an incredibly complex web for Rand was making things look brighter. When she grabbed her mug with air and brought it over to herself she still wanted to crush it into dust though.
=====
Even using gateways to speed up travel between ward lines, it still took Moiraine the best part of an hour to get out from under the anti-Traveling wards that extended over what had become known as the Army of the Light. It was slightly frustrating being sent away by Rand. Partly because she was not entirely eager to be given orders by him, even when they were worded as requests, but also because it took her away from where she could be most useful, advising him. However, she knew that was not an entirely fair line of thought to follow He was entirely correct about the importance of checking on Maradon and it spoke well of their relationship that she was his choice for the job if he was truly worried that it had been subverted by the Shadow.
As soon as she was free of the wards Moiraine wove a gateway. Not directly to Maradon, they would be under wards of their own, but to somewhere a fair distance from it. If the city was besieged or had fallen she had no desire to Travel straight into the Shadow's encampments, assuming of course that the Shadow did not have its own wards.
She stepped through the gateway onto a hill that she remembered from her own extensive travels in the Borderlands, just out of sight of the city. A quick look around her told her that there were no enemies nearby, no Saldaeans either, although that was not entirely surprising. Good. Moiraine wove another gateway, to the summit of a hill in the distance, one she knew had a distant view of Maradon.
As soon as she stepped through the hole in the air she knew something was wrong. Billowing smoke was rising from the city. At that distance she could not tell whether it was just one building on fire or many, but whatever it was, the fire must have been huge. She could also see the stain of an army around the city, not surrounding it though and far fewer than she would expect to be besieging the capital of Saldaea. Unless it had already fallen. She had thought the city would, at worst, be besieged. If it had fallen then it was an unmitigated disaster for the Light.
Moiraine spun the weave to magnify the view, another useful thing Taija had brought with her, and watched as the city seemed to leap closer. Her heart sank as soon as it did. The fires were coming from multiple places in the city. This was not good. Not good at all. Slowly she moved the weave to the side, scanning along the city. There. A stream of what were likely trollocs was leaving the city. Moving south. It was clear, Maradon had fallen, all while messages were being delivered to Rand assuring him that they were in no difficulty. It was a disaster, an utter and complete disaster. Rand's plan had been based around holding the Shadow in the Borderlands and feeding in reinforcements from the southern armies and the Aiel as necessary to stymie the Shadow's advance. Now it appeared that that strategy had failed. She needed to get back to him and let him know as soon as possible.
Rather than just weave a gateway in front of her, out of habit Moiraine turned back towards the south to leave. That probably saved her life. As soon as she saw the man who had somehow snuck up on her she was channeling, drawing fully on her angreal. Fire and spirit sliced the fireball he sent barreling towards her. Decades of experience meant she did not hesitate when she saw her attacker was an Aielman, albeit a strange one with a red veil hanging from his ear. Moiraine was already striking back, there was no time to waste and the man had managed to get far too close to her. She split her threads, weaving air and fire together several times over to attack from multiple angles.
The Aielman survived, slicing and deflecting her weaves, but was forced backwards, only nimble footwork keeping him upright as he frantically defended himself. Clearly he had not been expecting someone with Moiraine's strength. Good. She did not let up her attacks. After all of the terror of having to potentially fight the Forsaken or the possibility of Taija finally snapping, it was almost refreshing to considerably overpower someone, although she suspected she would have been having more difficulty if not for her angreal. With a snarl the Aielman drew lightning out of the sky. Moiraine deflected it, but that had been very visible. It would no doubt summon more darkfriends, she needed to finish this fast. Was she close enough? Yes, just about.
Moiraine raised her hands and wove all five elements together. A moment later the blinding light of balefire speared across the gap between her and her opponent. He did not even have time to blink, one second he was there and the next he was not. Sometimes it was useful to know things one was not meant to.
With some relief Moiraine wove a gateway away from Maradon. Rand needed to know about this, all of it, as soon as possible.
=====
"I thought the bloody Hall had dealt with the Forsaken in Saldaea, that's what you told me!" Mat turned away from Elayne to look at the maps on the table in front of him again. This was going to be difficult. He had the advantage of mobility, but who knew how long the Shadow's forces had had to penetrate past Maradon?
"Bennae did, she killed her." Elayne sounded as stubborn as ever. Of course she did.
"Well it didn't bloody work, did it?" He ignored her irritated humph. They might need to pull back in Kandor as well to deal with this. Otherwise the Shadow's breakthrough in Saldaea would threaten their rear. No as much of an issue in a world of gateways, but they didn't have the channelers to fight and deal with all of their logistics at the same time. Kandor meant that Tel would be involved. Mat knew that some of the Borderlanders were reluctant to serve under a 'boy' like him. Probably wise of them. Light only knew why Rand had insisted on putting him in charge of the Army of the Light's reserves. That and Kandor meant that Tel would probably take charge. See what the Borderlanders would think about his orders if they knew who Tel really was!
"I assume you will want me to take a team and disrupt the Shadow's logistics?" How did Elayne manage to sound both prim and bloodthirsty at the same time? Light, he needed to get her to teach him that at some point, probably something to do with being bloody royalty.
"Mmm, yes please. Especially if you can hit the western arm of their advance more, it would be good to shift them towards the east." He thought for a second, but only for a couple of days, I'm going to want every channeler I have with the main army soon." No doubt she'd be enjoying this far more than he would.
=====
Rand forced his anger down. Saldaea was a disaster, but it wasn't one that any of them could reasonably have predicted. The real question was, how had it happened? Was it some legacy of the Forsaken's corruption of the Saldaean rulers? Possibly, but they had certainly warmed up to the Hall again after her death. So it felt unlikely. He needed to know though, to make sure it didn't happen again.
He took a deep breath and moved his thoughts back to how to deal with the aftermath of this disaster. He hadn't wanted to commit reserves just yet, but it seemed he had little choice. Otherwise the Shadow could roll up the whole of the Borderlands and advance into less heavily fortified nations at the same time. The forces Mat was taking wouldn't leave the Light with nothing left to throw at the Shadow if there were any more surprises, but they should be enough to stop the Shadow's advance dead in its tracks. Him and Tel together would hold the line.
That reassuring thought was brutally interrupted when the door burst open and an aspirant ran in, all decorum forgotten, hardly even noticing the spears leveled at him.
"Rand sedai, Kandor! It's collapsing! The Shadow!"
"Pull yourself together!" Rand didn't bother to keep his voice level. Now wasn't the time for gentleness he needed information! "What's happening? Give me a proper report."
The aspirant took a deep breath and started again. "Sorry Rand sedai. The Shadow's armies have penetrated our lines and are advancing fast, we're not sure how far they've managed to advance. Everything has descended into chaos and some of the orders we have been receiving are nonsensical. Coordination has been lost and the Kandori forces and the Army of the Light are both in full retreat. Some of them may be encircled already."
I told you not to trust him. The man is a traitor to the Light. He betrayed it once, he will betray it again.
Rand fervently wished, not for the first time, that Lews Therin would just shut up. "What do you mean your orders have been nonsensical?"
"Orders have been intermittent and some of them made no sense, then they just stopped. No messengers, nothing. The army's disintegrating because of it, they can't react, they don't know what to do."
"Alright, alright, thank you. Return to your post. I'll deal with this."
He has turned back to the Shadow, if he ever truly rejoined the Light. Sammael will strike at you next. You should be ready, he knows everything from your plans.
If only Lews Therin would just bloody well shut up! Rand needed to think. He needed to deal with this. Lews Therin's ranting was not helping. Had Tel actually betrayed the Light, again? He couldn't believe it. He thought he knew the man well these days, but maybe that was what everyone had said back in the Age of Legends before he'd turned then.
Of course it was you Light-blinded fool!
But no. Rand could accept that Tel had fooled him, although he didn't think it was likely. He couldn't accept that Tel would betray the Light while Taija was alive, that just wouldn't happen. The man was so deeply in love with her that it trumped anything else. But that left only unpalatable alternatives. He would need someone to go and check on Tel's command centre, wherever it was. While that was happening he'd need to get the lines stabilised. Lews Therin might have some advice for that, but he couldn't take personal command. He would have other responsibilities shortly. It looked like Mat would be getting a promotion.
At least Rand could have the message delivered to him by someone else and so could avoid the inevitable explosion of protests when Mat heard about it.
=====
Eben and Helena stepped out of the gateway perhaps fifteen miles from the village they'd been told was Tel sedai's command centre. For now Eben was leading, so he reached out with spirit, both saidar and saidin to feel for the edge of the anti-Traveling wards. There was nothing within the few miles that they could reach. That was odd. He didn't want to try to spin a gateway into the wards, depending on how they were set up that might trigger an unpleasant reaction from whoever was monitoring them, but they should have extended somewhat further.
He didn't need words, Helena understood.
After a moment he spun another gateway, moving closer before probing again. Once more there was nothing. This wasn't good. Not good at all. He exchanged a glance with Helena and then spun another gateway, this time to the edge of the village. They leapt out of it, ready to dive for cover at the first sign of trouble.
Instead they came to a stumbling halt. There was no village, just a blackened crater many spans across. The trees around it, those that were still standing anyway, were burnt down to their trunks, even the grass seemed to have been washed away by incredible heat.
Light, what had happened there?
=====
As the aspirant fled the room Rand sank into a chair, his hands on his temples. Tel was dead, the only thing that would have been worse would have been if Lews Therin had actually been right and he'd defected back to the Shadow. Light, he'd actually grown to like the man, despite everything.
Yet another sign that you are a terrible judge of character.
Even acknowledging his past, accepting Lews Therin's view that no one sane could truly like the man after everything he had done, it was still a huge disaster for the Light. The Shadow had taken the opportunity and broken the lines in Kandor. He'd just lost one of the strongest and most skilled channelers in his arsenal, as well as a highly skilled general. It also strongly suggested that the Shadow had at least one powerful sa'angreal in their arsenal. They'd done their best to plan on the assumption that it did, because paranoia was the only sensible route to victory, but to have it confirmed did not improve Rand's mood.
Mat already had his orders to shore up the front in Kandor, hopefully preserving as many of the Light's forces there as he could until the lines were stablised. Rand hoped it would be enough. He'd have to make sure Mat was informed about the sa'angreal and Tel's death too. Light, there was so much to do. This was going to be ruinous to the Hall's morale too and Taija, oh Light she was going to be devastated.
You absolutely cannot let her find out about this. Do not tell her under any circumstances.
Rand didn't know how Lews Therin could even say that. Did he not realise how much of a betrayal of trust that would be? He owed her everything and she'd probably never speak to him again.
I know exactly how much of a betrayal of trust it would be. Personally I think she will be better off without him, but regardless of that she is foolishly obsessed with him. Think about what finding out might do.
It would hurt her, of course it would, but withholding that knowledge would only hurt her more.
Think you fool, she is already on the verge of breaking…
That was unfair, Rand didn't know why Lews Therin was so insistent on underestimating her. She'd pushed through more things than Lews Therin could imagine.
You might be surprised boy. Regardless, you need her mentally intact and working on how to seal the Dark One. Without her you have nothing, less than nothing. If you wanted to foolishly sacrifice yourself to do it that would be your business. You would no doubt take me with you, but I cannot say the idea displeases me so much. However, I have put a lot of effort into keeping you alive and, even if I had not, you have no idea what you would actually do. Simply going and slitting your wrists and bleeding on the Dark One is unlikely to have much effect.
For a man who claimed not to care whether he died Lews Therin could be impressively selfish.
I am not being selfish boy. I am trying to save your miserable life. However, if you continue to insist on undervaluing it then fine, think of it this way. If you go to Shayol Ghul with no plan and lose, what exactly do you expect to happen to the rest of the world. If you take your duty to the world seriously, you need Taija Kosola functional, at least until she has completed that web.
=====
Semirhage stared up at the walls of Shol Arbela without making any attempt at hiding her contempt. She supposed that they were impressive for a construct of this Age, although simply piling dirt onto more dirt was hardly the greatest of achievements.
Still, with the meagre resources available to her, it was time to bring them down. Or at least to get past them. Of course she had an almost unlimited supply of shadowspawn and a somewhat more limited supply of half-trained channelers, but that was not much to work with. Really she would have liked artillery and some channelers who actually had half an idea how to fight. It meant that breaking the city would take longer, but she would get it done.
Lightning suddenly stabbed down among the Shadow's lines, sending trollocs flying into the air in the roar of exploding ground. Narrowing her eyes Semirhage drew fully on saidar and sent her own webs flying back at the walls. It was right at the edge of her range, but that likely meant she was also safe from retaliation. Stone exploded from the top of the ramparts and then a moment later her webs were slamming into a shield of air. It was hard to tell at that distance, but she thought it was a mix of saidin and saidar. It seemed that the so-called aes sedai leading the Shadow's efforts here had not been lying about the city's defences. Perhaps she had not deserved quite as much pain as Semirhage had inflicted on her for her failure to take the city.
=====
It was with some satisfaction that Taija decided that she'd developed her anti-Dark One web as far as she could. Now she just needed to wait for Rand to be back and then she could make sure he and his Lews Therin voice understood it. Then she was free. She'd get out of bed and she'd go and be with Tel. She was allowed to be needy. It was fine. She'd done her duty, she could be proud of herself. She did need a better name for the web though.
Taija was trying to think of a catchy name, instead of thinking about… other things when someone knocked on her door. She was a little confused, Rand wasn't meant to be back for another day and none of the servants normally visited around that time.
"Come in."
The door opened and Aleksi entered the room, he looked hesitant, worried and miserable. Oh Light, she hoped Alucia hadn't been killed or something like that. Taija was immediately more focused, propping herself up on her remaining arm ready to comfort him if it was that. However, before she could say anything Aleksi spoke.
"I'm so sorry Taija. I came as soon as I heard the news."
Taija blinked in confusion. "What news? Has something happened?"
He stopped where he was standing. "You don't know?"
"Don't know what?" Icy fear was spreading through her veins, what had happened?!
Anger flashed across Aleksi's face, absolute fury. "Oh Light, he hasn't told you!"
Taija clamped her hand down against her thigh to stop the tremors in it. "Hasn't told me what?"
Aleksi just stared at her for a second, wide-eyed. "I…"
"What's happened Aleksi?" She struggled to keep her voice calm.
"It's… It's Tel…. He's dead."
Taija's world went black.
As consciousness returned Taija opened her eyes to see Aleksi sat on the side of the bed, looming over her, concern painted across his face. Did she misremember? Did she imagine what he'd said before? One look at Aleksi's face told her she hadn't. No… It couldn't be. It just couldn't. Taija shook her head frantically in denial.
"I'm so so sorry." He wasn't letting her deny it. What was the point in denying it? Every time she tried to deny things in this Light-forsaken time she was proven wrong.
"W… w…" She could barely make herself say the words. "What happened?" On some level Taija was screaming at herself, but mostly she just felt numb. Like she needed to curl into a ball and go to sleep, never to wake again. Shouldn't she be crying? She didn't know. Nothing seemed to be properly functioning inside her head right then.
Aleksi hesitated before speaking. "I was told it was a sa'angreal strike. They worked out where his command post was and… He wouldn't have suffered."
It felt like her world was cracking, turning to glass falling in shattering sheets around her. "I…" Taija closed her mouth. She didn't know what to say. There was nothing to say. She couldn't even really process what he'd just told her. It didn't make sense on a fundamental level. The pattern had brought him back to her, this wasn't what was meant to happen. Taija shook her head and tried again. "I…"
Aleksi reached across her to clasp her remaining hand. "You don't need to say anything. I'm here for you. We're all here for you. We'll get through this together."
His comforting words skittered off the surface of the numbness enveloping her. She couldn't do this. She couldn't deal with his concerned eyes and comforting words. She needed to… Taija didn't even know what she needed, but right at that moment it wasn't him.
The words came out without needing any conscious intervention. "Thank you Aleksi, I appreciate it, but I think I need to be alone right now."
"Taija, I don't think…"
"Please!" Her voice broke a little. "Just… I just need to be alone. I can't… I just can't."
"Alright, just… look after yourself. It will hurt, but you're strong and you have friends, so many people who love you and are here for you." It was ludicrous, she was getting comforting words from a man who wasn't much more than a tenth of her age. On another day it might have amused or even annoyed her. Now it was just a thing to store away amidst everything else. "I'll come and visit you again as soon as I can."
Once Aleksi was gone Taija was left lying in bed, pillow clutched tightly to her and staring at the ceiling. She didn't want to think about anything at all, but her brain betrayed her. All she could see were the scenes she'd fantasised so much about. All of her old fantasies and plans for what she'd do with Tel after the War. Marriage. Children. Mountains. Growing old together. All dust, they'd never be, but they wouldn't stop swirling around her mind. That and one more horrifying thought. Was it her fault? If she'd asked him to stay, he wouldn't have been there. If he hadn't needed to come and see her, would he have been caught out? Had she effectively killed the man she loved?
As those ideas, fantasies, horrifying fears tumbled around inside her, she was left there wondering why the tears wouldn't come.
Alternate Ending IV - Time to Say Goodbye
Kenadin lay close to the ground, a magnifying web in front of him, watching as the battle progressed. He would have liked nothing more than to join the dance with these creatures, to throw his spear into Sightblinder's eye and shout of his triumph and skill afterwards, but that was not for today. Today his role was to watch and to wait. To strike when the opportunity came. Some might say there was less honour in that, but when you fought the Shadow there was no question of honourable battle. You did what you must to destroy it as utterly and quickly as possible.
He was slowly spinning an inverted web to target one of the eyeless that he thought might have been linked to the trollocs around it when his attention was pulled away by a rippling in the air among the shadowspawn. It was strange, like nothing he had seen before, but after a moment the ripples solidified into some kind of stage in the middle of them.
Kenadin quickly adjusted his web to get a better view of what had happened, his planned attack on the myrddraal forgotten. His vision leapt forward, as if he had crawled to the very foot of what he now realised was an ornate, gilded palanquin. He had heard that the Sharans sometimes used such things to transport themselves around, as if their own feet were inadequate.
Twelve women carried the palanquin on their shoulders and on it sat a thirteenth, clothed in almost nothing, surveying the world ahead of her with a contemptuously regal stare. Surely a high ranking shadowrunner, perhaps even one of the shadowsouled! And delivered straight to him it would seem.
Kenadin once again began to labouriously spin inverted saidin. Even the shadowsouled would die to a knife in their back and if he could be the one to provide that knife he would gain much ji. However, it was a struggle, more than it should have been. It felt like there was a mounting pressure around him, it was distracting, pulling at his attention. Strange thoughts flickered through his head. He wanted to kill, enemies were all around him! Kenadin nearly straightened up from his concealment, to find the enemies that were closing in on him before discipline reasserted himself. No! This must be a trick of some kind. In desperation he lashed out with a slicing web around himself.
Suddenly his mind was clear again, but below him the wetlanders were frantically fighting, not the trollocs, but each other. Each man attacking whoever was closest in a paroxysm of murderous rage. What were they doing?!
======
Rand carefully schooled his face into normality, burying the trepidation and guilt he was feeling deep into the void, and knocked on Taija's door.
You can do this boy, for the good of the world.
A moment later she called out for him to enter.
Taija was sitting on the bed, staring blankly at the wall in front of her. She barely moved when he came in and her voice was flat. "Hello Rand, you'll be pleased to hear that I think the web is ready for you."
Light, he'd been sure she'd been getting better. Especially after Tel's visit, it took an effort not wince immediately after that thought.
Recovery is not always a smooth upwards path. Sometimes things will hit you long after the event.
"Are you… Is everything alright Taija?"
"I'm fine, can we focus on what you're here for please." He'd never heard her sound so utterly toneless. "I've written out a full breakdown of the web, Lews Therin should be able to read it if you can't." Taija moved her stump in what he assumed was an attempt at a gesture, then instead nodded at some papers on the table beside her bed. She didn't even wince at her own failure to remember her injury. Something was badly wrong with her.
Nervously Rand picked up the papers and scanned over them. Neat script in the Old Tongue surrounded various detailed diagrams. He knew that he shouldn't have been able to understand half of it, even after so much time training with Tel, but somehow it all made sense. Poor Tel. Light, poor Taija.
Interesting. I can see why she got her third name. A pity about her judgment in other areas.
"Thank you Taija, let me look through this and try to get my head around it. I can ask questions as I go. I'm already fairly familiar with what you're doing from our other sessions, so hopefully it won't be too difficult."
She barely even reacted to that, just the tiniest of nods. Rand tried to put it out of his mind, he needed to focus and to use Lews Therin to make sure he really understood what he was looking at.
"What does this connection between the lateral foundations do?" Rand pointed to a diagram in her notes.
"It's a binding agent, you need to keep the amount of spirit in it at precisely the right level or otherwise the whole web will start to collapse, when you spin it you'll need to keep some focus on those elements." Her voice was still flat, normally even at her worst she'd perk up at the prospect of technical discussions.
Rand asked a few more questions and got the same answers, entirely correct, completely helpful and delivered as if she was utterly disengaged.
It was with some relief that he was able to say, "alright, I think I can spin the web."
"Very well. I don't think you can rely on that though. Link with me so I can see you spin it."
Rand stared at her for a second. "But you hate linking."
"I'll live. Link with me."
After a moment's hesitation Rand opened himself to the Power and a moment later was in a link with Taija. He'd done it before of course, but only a few times, culminating in the cleansing of the taint. This was different, the little bundle he could feel in the back of his head that was her felt… For lack of a better word, dead. There was barely any emotion flowing through it, just cold nothing.
"Taija I…"
She cut him off. Perfectly polite and perfectly blank. "Please spin the web. I know you have many other things you need to worry about, you can't be wasting time."
Rand sighed and drew on saidar through her. At least it wasn't as unfamiliar as it had once been, but he was very aware that during the cleansing it had been her leading the link while this time it would need to be him. Worrying about her was distracting too, she hadn't been this bad since…
I think she has found out Tel Janin is dead.
That wasn't possible though, was it? People knew, of course, but they weren't just hopping back to Caemlyn. Anyway she wasn't that controlled, if she knew she'd be shouting at him, not… this.
The whys and the hows do not matter boy, you gambled to keep her in the game and you lost the throw. Too bad. You can just thank the Creator that she has chosen duty over self-indulgence.
Rand tried to suppress the spike of fury he felt at Lews Therin's dismissive words, he also tried to push down the surge of guilt that rose up in him. She'd be able to feel those as easily as he could feel her emotions through the link. Maybe this was why she hated the things so much?
Rand slowly spun the web, struggling with saidar's unfamiliar shape. It didn't come out quite how it did in the diagrams.
That's normal boy, spinning while linked is never quite the same else we could just teach through links.
However, he knew on some level that it would still serve its purpose.
Taija looked the web over as he held it there. She didn't frown, nor did she smile. Her face remained as disengaged as ever. "That's close, but not good enough. You need to…" she started reeling off a series of technical corrections.
When she was done Rand tried again.
"No, you need to…" Again with the corrections, all in the same numbed, blank tone. Maybe Lews Therin was right and she had found out.
After the third irritation he let the web dissolve and turned his full attention on her. "Taija I know I should have…"
"Spin the web again Rand." Her tone allowed no argument.
Rand spun again.
"Better, but you still need to add more spirit to the bilateral conduits on each of the cardinal whorls."
Light, what kind of a person was he? Trying to hide this from someone who'd been there for him from the start. Using a friend when she was on the edge of collapse. A friend who'd always supported him without question, the only person who'd truly seen him as a person when he first found he could channel.
You are the Dragon boy and you are saving the world. You could do it a hundred times over and the world would still name you a hero for it.
"Taija I need to…"
"Not now Rand, this is important so focus on it." It would have been better if she'd exploded, ranted and raved at him over it, what could he say though? Anything he did say would just be further damning himself.
Rand spun again.
After a long moment Taija nodded. "That's good enough, now do it twice more just to make sure." Her tone was as lifeless as it had been since he'd walked in.
Cringing internally Rand did as he was told.
"Fine. You've got it. Release me from the link."
"Taija can we…"
"Release me from the link." Her tone didn't change in the slightest, but Rand hurriedly did as he was told.
"Of course, but Taija, I'm sorry, I…"
"You got what you wanted from me. I've stuck with my principles and done the right thing," he didn't need her to make the contrast explicit, "please could you leave now. I don't want to talk to you anymore." She looked away from him.
"Taija I…" He trailed off as she didn't even react. "Alright, I'm sorry and thank you. Maybe we can talk in a day or two." Of course Lews Therin had to chime in as Rand turned to leave, glancing behind him at Taija who'd sunk down in the bed and pulled the blankets up to her chin to stare at the ceiling.
Well boy, you truly are the luckiest man alive it would seem. She is stronger than I had expected, she pulled herself together and did her duty, despite everything.
One of the things Rand had promised himself, before Tear, was that if he truly was the Dragon Rebon he would uphold the principles of the Age of Legends aes sedai, make himself worthy of being more than just a prophesied sacrifice for the Dark One. So much for that.
Grow up boy. She did her duty, now you must do yours.
Rand closed the door behind himself, there was a certain, unpleasant finality to it.
It was probably inevitable given her questionable choices. She deserved better than anything Tel Janin could have given her, but there we are.
Not for the first time Rand wished Lews Therin would just shut up and leave him alone.
I do not have the patience for your teenage angst boy. But fine. You care about her, I know you do, so I will give you some advice. I know her type. Do not let her leave until she has regained some stability or you will never see her again.
Yet more insults to her character from Lews Therin, it was infuriating.
If you say so, I am just trying to help. I saw it enough in the War. She will run and she will throw herself into a situation she cannot handle and then she will die. It would be a waste, I have no difficulty admitting that. So if you care about her, make sure she stays in this place you call a city, at least for the next few days.
=====
Lord Lanim ducked a blow from a trolloc's axe and then slashed his sword across its front. A moment later he winced as fire erupted among the shadowspawn ahead of him. He still could not get used to men wielding the One Power. Women were bad enough! He was not going to complain now though. Without the aes sedai and two aspirants from the Hall of Servants, the shadowspawn would no doubt have broken through his banner's lines by now. They had already retreated far to the south of their original positions before he had been able to rally them to slow the trolloc advance and now they, along with other banners from the Kandoran forces and the Army of the Light were holding the line once more. Light only knew what had gone so wrong to allow the Shadow its break through. He did not want to think about how many Kandorans had died as a result.
Here they came again. Trolloc horns sounded and bestial figures rose ahead of him with the roaring and grunting of their monstrous kind. Only there was something else too. Was that high pitched laughter coming from among the trollocs?
"Hold the line men! Steady! Steady!" He tightened his grip on his sword. That definitely sounded like laughter. Children's laughter at that. What in the Light?!
Lightning shot down from the sky, struck amidst the trollocs followed by the rumble of thunder, but then some of it bent sideways, clearly deflected by an unseen force. Did the Shadow have channelers with them now? He fervently hoped not. Then they were coming, bounding forward again, bestial cries, but with childish laughter mixed in. What was going on? Several of his men were wavering. "Steady! They're just trollocs." He was not sure if he had added that to reassure the men or to reassure himself.
As they came closer he saw, some of the trollocs seemed to have a second, smaller head. Odd. The bestial mutations of the creatures were always unpleasant for the eyes. Then childish laughter turned into an infant's shriek of agony and fire leapt from the trollocs towards his men. Some vanished, but around him men fell, screaming with agony as they burnt. Where was the channeler though? Couldn't the aes sedai deal with them?
Seconds later the trollocs were at their lines, desperately trying to bash their way past the wall of spears, accompanied by that high-pitched laughter, punctuated by occasional screams, all grating at the inside of his head.
A trolloc fell to his sword and then another leapt forward. On its shoulder, somehow obscenely attached to its neck, was a child's head. A young girl, happy giggles coming from her mouth. Lanim hesitated at the disturbing, incongruous sight and nearly lost his head as a result, leaping back just in time. What new monstrosity was this?! He raised his sword into butterfly floats amidst the rushes, ready to attack, when the girl's face suddenly changed. Agony painted its way across it and she screamed, louder than he had heard a child scream before. Fire flashed from the trolloc, slamming into him and carrying him to the ground. The last things he heard were the child's screaming and his own flesh burning.
======
Siuan winced as hugely powerful weaves of saidar descended on the walls again. She was not sure why the situation had changed, but the Shadow's efforts had become far stronger. She had had concerns about holding the city before, but now there was either one of the Forsaken or a large link making strikes on the defenders. Or maybe even both. If they just allowed it to continue they were going to find themselves overwhelmed, unable to even strike back with the range the darkfriends were attacking from. Not if she had anything to say about it.
She drew fully on her link. Saidin and saidar roaring through her. It was fortunate that the leader of the Hall's contingent here was reasonable, if he had been as eager to stand on his position as some of the Tower's aes sedai could be, then cooperation would have been much harder. As it was, every single channeler within the city's walls knew that their survival depended on them cooperating.
With a huge amount of the Power roaring through her, Siuan sent a rainbow of weaves hurtling back at the source of the attack on the walls. A brief, intense, over-powered bombardment. As soon as it was done she released the link and they fled, scattering out of the way of any potential retaliation. She doubted that she had killed whoever it was out there, but at least it would force them to be more careful in their attacks.
======
After Rand left Taija went back to staring at the ceiling. She couldn't bring herself to do much more than that. The Last Battle was raging, but it felt to her like the world was already ended. What was left for her now? A bleak, empty world? People demanding ever more from her? Using her? A black void with no end.
When Taija tried to imagine what the world would be like when the Last Battle was over she just couldn't. There was nothing. If she survived it then what? There was no place for her in the world. She was just a relic that should have died 3,000 years ago. They might say the Creator had brought her to this time for a reason, well great. She'd helped cleanse the taint, she'd given Rand the key to his survival and she'd passed on her skills. She'd done her job. Done her duty. She was starting to hate that word.
All Taija had wanted was a small bit of happiness, to be able to have the one thing she truly wanted and she'd thought she actually could. And now it was gone. Tel was gone. There was just nothing left. She was alone.
As these thoughts spun through her head, Taija came to a realisation. She needed to get out. She needed to go. She couldn't stay there, in that fucking bed or she'd go completely insane. For a moment Taija clutched her pillow tighter to herself, recoiling from the thought.
When had she become scared of getting out bed?! It didn't matter. Taija dismissed that fear like she'd dismissed so many others over the years and slid herself sideways so her legs dangled over the bed. There should be clothes in the cupboard since they'd been encouraging her to get up.
She pushed herself to her feet with her good hand and nearly fell over. Light, her legs didn't seem to work properly. She shouldn't have stayed in the bed for so long. It didn't matter though. Nothing really mattered anymore.
Taija tottered her way over to the cupboard and pulled out some trousers and a blouse. They'd do.
It was a struggle getting them on and buttoned up with only one hand, but eventually she managed. In the context of everything that had happened it was only a very minor frustration. Once she was properly dressed she got up again and then, after a moment's thought, went and fetched a coat from the cupboard too.
Then she went back to the bed and sat down for a rest. When had she last eaten? She needed fuel, there was no point collapsing and finding herself back in bed again.
After a minute Taija felt she'd recovered her breath so she got up again and headed to the door. However, when she pushed the handle down the door didn't move. It took her a moment to realise, it was locked. What the fuck?!
It didn't matter though. She embraced saidar and spun earth into the lock, feeling it out. she could shift it just so and then… Actually she couldn't bring herself to care. She added a touch of fire and spirit and the metal dissolved to dust. This time when she pushed down on the handle the door opened.
There were two men outside. Two men she recognised, Nalom and Avyesh. Two full aes sedai from the Hall. They jumped when they saw her and then bowed.
"Taija, why are you up at this time of night?" She looked at Nalom, her gaze flat and unimpressed. She needed to hold herself together for this.
"Why are you outside my door and why was it locked?"
"For your protection, after everything that's happened the Lord Dragon was worried that you might be attacked again." He was lying. Nalom was in his thirties. He still hadn't learnt to lie convincingly. Another lie told to her, it felt like a small thing in the face of everything else.
"Oh, I see." She ignored the flickering of rage under her numbness. "Well thank you, but I can defend myself. Shouldn't you be in the Borderlands or at the Hall?"
"Your safety is more important."
"I see." Was this a polite way of keeping her prisoner? Taija started to walk and they quickly fell in beside her.
"Where are you going Taija sedai?" Oh now they were retreating to formal titles were they?
"I've had enough of Caemlyn. I want to leave."
"Ah, the Lord Dragon he's ah ordered that…"
"I'm sorry, Rand has ordered what exactly?"
"For your own protection, just temporarily."
"Excuse me?" For a second outrage actually broke through the numbness. "Did I stop being First Among Servants without realising it? Are you seriously telling me I'm not allowed to leave?!" She didn't even want to be First Among Servants. It wasn't like she'd ever enjoyed it, like so many other things in this time, it just meant misery.
"No Taija sedai, you are, it's just safety…" She cut him off before he could say anymore. Fuck it. she didn't want to deal with this.
"Alright, I understand, I am hungry though. Can we go to the kitchens? Then I'll go back to my room and we can discuss things like civilised adults in the morning. Is that acceptable?"
They fell over themselves to agree and quickly led Taija to the kitchens. It was late and there were only a couple of servants around, but they quickly fixed her up some food which Taija wolfed down. She didn't feel hungry, but she did feel weak. She knew she needed to eat and so she forced herself. As soon as she was done Nolam and Avyesh were hovering, clearly keen to get her back to her room. That wasn't going to happen.
Taija stood and nodded to them. "Thank you, let's go." As she said the last word she struck. A web of air for each of them, slamming like a fist into their stomachs, hard enough to send them careening over tables. By the time they'd landed she'd shielded both of them. A moment later and they were silenced and bound in air too. "Disappointing." Was that really the result of all the work she'd put into the Hall?
The servants had frozen in place at the sudden violence. Taija didn't want them running away just yet. "Please could you make me a bundle of food, I'm going to be away for a while."
They almost fell over themselves in terror, bowing low and scrambling to do as she'd asked. Taija just sat there, ignoring the two aes sedai's outraged gazes as she stared into the distance. In no time at all she was presented with a wrapped bundle of dried meats, cheeses and bread. That would do.
"Thank you." With that Taija turned and headed for the door, tying off the webs on the aes sedai. No doubt the servants would go running to find someone to tell, but she didn't care all that much. By the time they'd worked out what was happening she'd be out of the palace. Good luck to them finding her in Caemlyn before she left. The aes sedai could wait for Rand to come and free them since they seemed to be so keen on him now. As soon as she was out of sight Taija spun saidar and her appearance rippled and changed to that of a servant.
Taija considered climbing the wall, using saidar to help of course, but she wasn't sure she was up to it at that point in time. So instead she just walked straight out of one of the palace's gates. There was an aspirant guarding it, but she wasn't checking people leaving, only those going in. Then Taija was in Caemlyn proper. As she walked away, her appearance rippling once more, she heard the sound of alarm bells coming from the palace behind her.
Now to get out of the city and then she could head north. As Taija walked towards the edge of Caemlyn staring straight ahead of her a tear trickled its way down her cheek.
ALTERNATE ENDING V - Spit in Sightblinder's Eye
Alternate Ending V - Spit in Sightblinder's Eye
Rand cursed to himself as Nolam and Avyesh explained what had happened. Of course he'd freed them as soon as he'd found them, but Light he half wished he hadn't now! What had they been thinking, letting her get the drop on them like that?!
You are being unfair boy. Those two would not have a chance against Taija Kosola if she put her mind to it.
He ignored Lews Therin as he gave orders for the word to be spread. Those guarding the city were to watch for her, try to stop her if they could, without hurting her of course. It would be made clear it was for medical reasons, to help with her recovery. Some would still inevitably think she'd committed some kind of crime, but hopefully no one important would be that stupid.
It is useless, if she could walk straight through two aes sedai who should have been ready for her, then how exactly do you think any of the meager resources you have in place will be able to stop her before she is gone? Accept it, move on.
Lews Therin was right about one thing. He wasn't going to just accept this like Lews Therin told him to, but he did need to move on regardless. Taija would hopefully be found and he would make sure that she was looked after, but if she wasn't then there was nothing he could do about it. Regardless, she'd been there for him until the end. He would do what he could for her.
Do what you can to assuage your guilt you mean.
He'd do what he could for her, but he had a more pressing mission. He'd thought he would try to get Taija to help him to end the Dark One's threat once and for all, to be at his side with the Choedan Kal, but it was clear that wouldn't be happening. So Nynaeve would have to be taken away from her healing. He already had the forces for the strike on Shayol Ghul lined up. It was time to go, regardless of his own feelings.
=====
Semirghage resisted the urge to take out her frustration on the messenger. She was sure Shol Arbela was ripe for falling, but now she was being called away again. Was this her life now? Bouncing around at Demandred and Moridin's beck and call? She would not stand for it for much longer, that was for sure!
=====
Taija picked her way through Caemlyn, occasionally ducking into an alleyway and changing her appearance. No one was going to find it easy to follow her. Really she felt like she was moving through a dream, disconnected from the world. Just one blow after another until she couldn't take it anymore.
It took her a while to make it to one of Caemlyn's gates. On another day she might have admired the artistry of the stonework. Not today.
Everyone leaving was being checked by a pair of aspirants. Normally it would only be people coming in, but of course they were. Rand had probably given orders to stop her. Another small betrayal, almost irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
A few options flicked through Taija's head. She could probably just exit straight through the walls if she really wanted to. That would risk hurting innocent people though. However she feel about the world, that wasn't something she wanted to do.
Fuck it. It wasn't like the aspirants could actually stop her if she wanted to go through them. Taija ducked into an alley and undid the webs concealing her appearance and then headed out again to join the queue of people leaving the city. She could tell the moment when she was spotted because the aspirants' eyes widened and one of them turned to a guard and sent him running. Fine. She hadn't wanted to queue anyway. Taija stepped out and just strode straight to the front.
Amitte and Jandian interposed themselves in front of her with a bow. "I'm sorry Taija sedai, but we can't let you leave Caemlyn."
"Excuse me?" Taija managed to interject a healthy amount of disbelief into her tone, even though that was exactly what she'd expected. Anyway, if she acted like she felt there was no way they'd stand aside.
They looked embarrassed. "The Lord Dragon has given orders, for your own good. He said you were injured and needed to rest and that you'd overstrain yourself if you were allowed to." Two pairs of eyes flicked to her missing arm. She hated it, but at the same time it felt like the least of what she'd lost.
Taija briefly considered just shielding them and leaving them frozen in place. It would be so much easier than having to talk. "The Lord Dragon. You mean Rand sedai of course?"
"Yes… of course Taija sedai."
"I don't think Rand sedai gets to tell me what to do. Not only am I aes sedai, but I'm the First Among Servants. Let him worry about saving the world and let me worry about my own work. Now, tell me, are you really going to force me to stay in Caemlyn when I need to leave? Do you trust me?"
They glanced at each other and then stepped aside. Amitte was the one that spoke. "We trust you Taija sedai, if you say you need to do something then you need to do something. Just…" her eyes flicked to Taija's missing arm again, she wished people would stop doing that, "please look after yourself. You're everything to the Hall." She hesitated. "We could come with you and help with whatever it is you're doing. If you want?" Jandian nodded at that.
Taija gave her a surprised, and actually genuine, smile, touched even through the blackness that seemed to pervade her thoughts. "Thank you Amitte, I appreciate that, but it's not necessary. Keep up the good work and I'll see you when this is all over." She wouldn't, but at least some people had actually shown loyalty to her.
As soon as Taija was past the gates and the ward line that ran along the walls she spun a gateway to the next line. It helped that she was reasonably familiar with them. She needed to be away from Caemlyn fast before Rand found out where she was and came after her. If he caught her he'd probably have her shielded and locked in a room. It wasn't going to happen. She wouldn't let it.
A couple of minutes of walking where the wards were layered close together and then another gateway. It took a few more before Taija reached the end of the wards. Caemlyn and the Hall were probably the two best defended places on the planet and it could be a complete pain in the arse sometimes. Still, now she was free. No one would be able to find her if she didn't want to be found. Taija spun saidar, splitting the flows and her appearance rippled at the same time as she opened a gateway to somewhere far far away from Caemlyn.
======
Siuan lashed out with the Power, breaking the tottering siege tower that was being pushed towards the walls in half. Trollocs spilled out from it, to be felled with arrows from the soldiers beside her.
Whoever it was that had been battering the walls with so much of the One Power seemed to have gone. For what little it was worth. They had done plenty of damage to the defenders before their attacks had stopped. The Hall and Tower's numbers on the walls were painfully diminished.
Another one of those horrific screams sounded, penetrating through the noise and chaos of the battlefield. Without thinking Siuan wove a barrier of air in front of her and the soldiers, just in time to catch the fireball that slammed against it. Thank the Light there were not many of those perversions amongst the Shadow's forces and thank the Light they had the skill of a drunken novice, although sadly somewhat more strength. She searched among the milling trollocs far below. There. With a thought fire, air and spirit came together and she pulled lightning down into the middle of them.
It was not long before the trollocs were pulling back again, their attack a failure. Another small victory for the Light, but they did not seem to be thinning the trolloc horde surrounding Shol Arbela at all, in fact, if anything, it was growing larger. She did not know how long the city could hold against them. As long as she drew breath she would do her utmost to ensure that it did, but she was under no illusion about how realistic that was.
The trollocs would no doubt be trying to taunt the defenders until the next attack. That was what they had been doing since the siege started. Baying horns to keep them awake, feints at the walls so that resting troops were pulled out of their beds. They had tried to sap their morale with a disgusting display within sight of the walls, bringing forward human prisoners and then slaughtering them for the cookpots just outside bow range. At least there the aes sedai had been able to put a stop to things by demonstrating just how much further they could strike with the One Power. Of course Siuan would have felt more satisfied by that if she was not so sure that they were still doing it, just safely out of sight of the defenders.
======
Taija stepped out of her gateway somewhere near the army of the Light's headquarters, already feeling for anti-Traveling wards so that she could start moving in towards them. After a moment she stopped. Why was she doing this? Just more stupidity in a long line of stupid decisions and failures.
She'd thought she could go and find out where Tel's command center was, see it for herself, but that was madness. He was dead, that was all there was to it. Going to look at a crater wasn't going to make her feel any better. It wasn't going to bring him back. Nothing would. There was nothing for her there.
She briefly considered going into the camp anyway. It was very unlikely Rand had had time to give any orders about her, and she could see if she could commandeer a sa'angreal. But again, no. They had strategic uses. She was just… she didn't even know what. Regardless she was abandoning her own duty to the Light, that didn't mean it was alright to make the battle harder for everyone else. She didn't want people to die because of her. She'd failed in enough things already.
Anyway, she still had her angreal. At least that hadn't been taken from her, unlike everything else. Taija reached up to touch it under her blouse. It was from Adanza and therefore it was hers and no one else's. The last link she had to her time. The only way anyone else was getting their hands on it was over her cold, dead body.
Perhaps she should go and get some supplies though? She could sort water for herself, but food? Again, after a moment, Taija dismissed the thought. She wasn't going to need food anyway. With one last look in the direction of the out of sight army, she spun another, final gateway.
======
Aleksi rode towards the ward line for Mat's new command centre, an inverted web of illusion making him look like one of the Hall's initiates. It was the fifth time that he'd done this in a short period of time. Each time there'd been nothing.
He was starting to become both bored and frustrated, but he was sure the Light's messages were being intercepted. It was the only thing that made sense. Some of the clearly incorrect reports that had been received, Saldaea! And then there was Tel. He might be wrong, in which case it was back to the fallow fields and trying to think of how else the Shadow might be doing it. Something to do with the World of Dreams maybe? But that didn't make sense given how everyone important had their dreams warded and so once again he was led back to messages being intercepted.
Sooner or later he'd catch them, whoever they were, and then he'd make them regret ever turning to the Shadow. Maybe after that he could take a break to go and see Taija. He grimaced at the memory of how the light had seemed to leave her eyes when he'd told her about Tel. Maybe he'd even have time for some words with Rand about that too.
======
Taija emerged from her gateway in the Blight, some way away from the Borderlands, almost due north of Chachin in fact. The sickly sweet odour of the place was vile. Diseased looking plants dotted the landscape, but other than that there wasn't really much to see. It was still one of the most visible reminders of the failures of her time. Of the failures in her life. Mierin had done this. Not directly maybe, but ultimately without her none of this would have happened. Another gaping void turned to horror in Taija's life. She'd been her friend and she'd murdered her family. Taija gave herself a shake. It hardly mattered anymore. Yet another person who'd made sure there was nothing left for her in the world. Maybe it was for the best.
Tel had mentioned that Ishamael had a fortress deep in the North Eastern Blight, she hadn't wanted to hear about it at the time, she'd never wanted to hear Tel talk about his experience with the Shadow. Tel… Taija's eyes blurred for a second and she nearly sat down as the strength left her legs before she pulled herself back together. Maybe she'd head that way. In the meantime, there was nothing here. Taija spun another gateway to a vantage point in the distance.
When she'd first heard what the Dedicated did with their male channelers, she'd been horrified. Since Aleksi had told her about Tel she'd felt more like she understood it.
======
Mat glanced over the various models on the map showing the disposition of his armies and where they thought the Shadow's were. Or at least their disposition over the last day or so, there were always delays in getting information. In the end he'd had to make the hard choice to deploy them further back than he'd have liked. It meant more poor bloody people were going to die at the trollocs' hands, but without good intelligence on exactly where the Shadow had reached there was just too much risk of the piecemeal destruction of his forces.
He had a few surprises for when they made contact too. Oh yes he did. If he was really really lucky, the Shadow's general wouldn't even have any of their own to throw back at him. Or course he was never actually that bloody lucky.
He looked again at the map. He truly hoped he hadn't made any mistakes in how he'd deployed the forces. There were certain weak points in the lines. Barely trained levies from southern nations were the most obvious, but also blended units pulled together from those retreating in Saldaea and Kandor. The Whitecloaks were another one that made him nervous. They were perfectly skilled soldiers, or so he was told, and loyal to the Light, or their own mad interpretation of it anyway. The bigger problem there was the lack of channelers in their formation. There was nothing he could do about that though, apart from have reinforcements ready to move in when the Whitecloaks were inevitably chewed up.
======
Rand took a moment to survey the forces lined up in front of him. Once it had become clear that Taija had escaped, not that he'd really thought there was much hope of keeping her in Caemlyn if she was determined to leave, but he'd had to try, there hadn't been much point in delaying things further. Anything else would have been trying to avoid what he had to do, trying to delay his inevitable fate.
Stop with the mawkishness boy. If your prophecies are true then you may already have lost since I believe a number of them remain unfulfilled. Anyway, if you are so worried, just cut yourself and let your blood drip on Shayol Ghul. I am sure the crowds will lap up the symbolism.
Even if he survived, which he didn't believe he would, what place would there be for the Dragon Reborn in the new world?
For Light's sake boy, a lot of people have put a lot of effort into keeping you and your loved ones alive. If you throw that away out of some misguided sense of guilt then I shall be even more disappointed in you than I already am.
At least he had Lews Therin to cheer him up.
Rand spun a web to enhance his voice so that it boomed out across the small army, making sure that his tone showed none of his inner turmoil. "Today is the day! The day that we end this War once and for all. The Dark One has plagued us for three thousand years, destroyed countless lives. Today we will finish him! I will build a new prison for him, one that he cannot hope to escape."
"But remember, the true strength of the Light is cooperation. Good people from every nation working together to defeat the Shadow. While I and Nynaeve sedai fight the Dark One, I will need you to protect me, because you can be sure that the Dark One's servants will do their utmost to stop me. From the highest monarch to the lowliest peasant, the world will be relying on you. I will be relying on you. There is no one I would rather have by my side. Together, we end the Dark One!"
As cheers broke out from the crowd Rand raised the male access key to the Choedan Kal over his head to his audience and then spun a gateway into the deepest reaches of the Blight.
You know boy, my own speech was not so dissimilar. That did not turn out quite how I had planned, although admittedly I did not have the Choedan Kal at my disposal.
Thank the Light only he could hear Lews Therin.
Rand cursed to himself as Nolam and Avyesh explained what had happened. Of course he'd freed them as soon as he'd found them, but Light he half wished he hadn't now! What had they been thinking, letting her get the drop on them like that?!
You are being unfair boy. Those two would not have a chance against Taija Kosola if she put her mind to it.
He ignored Lews Therin as he gave orders for the word to be spread. Those guarding the city were to watch for her, try to stop her if they could, without hurting her of course. It would be made clear it was for medical reasons, to help with her recovery. Some would still inevitably think she'd committed some kind of crime, but hopefully no one important would be that stupid.
It is useless, if she could walk straight through two aes sedai who should have been ready for her, then how exactly do you think any of the meager resources you have in place will be able to stop her before she is gone? Accept it, move on.
Lews Therin was right about one thing. He wasn't going to just accept this like Lews Therin told him to, but he did need to move on regardless. Taija would hopefully be found and he would make sure that she was looked after, but if she wasn't then there was nothing he could do about it. Regardless, she'd been there for him until the end. He would do what he could for her.
Do what you can to assuage your guilt you mean.
He'd do what he could for her, but he had a more pressing mission. He'd thought he would try to get Taija to help him to end the Dark One's threat once and for all, to be at his side with the Choedan Kal, but it was clear that wouldn't be happening. So Nynaeve would have to be taken away from her healing. He already had the forces for the strike on Shayol Ghul lined up. It was time to go, regardless of his own feelings.
=====
Semirghage resisted the urge to take out her frustration on the messenger. She was sure Shol Arbela was ripe for falling, but now she was being called away again. Was this her life now? Bouncing around at Demandred and Moridin's beck and call? She would not stand for it for much longer, that was for sure!
=====
Taija picked her way through Caemlyn, occasionally ducking into an alleyway and changing her appearance. No one was going to find it easy to follow her. Really she felt like she was moving through a dream, disconnected from the world. Just one blow after another until she couldn't take it anymore.
It took her a while to make it to one of Caemlyn's gates. On another day she might have admired the artistry of the stonework. Not today.
Everyone leaving was being checked by a pair of aspirants. Normally it would only be people coming in, but of course they were. Rand had probably given orders to stop her. Another small betrayal, almost irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
A few options flicked through Taija's head. She could probably just exit straight through the walls if she really wanted to. That would risk hurting innocent people though. However she feel about the world, that wasn't something she wanted to do.
Fuck it. It wasn't like the aspirants could actually stop her if she wanted to go through them. Taija ducked into an alley and undid the webs concealing her appearance and then headed out again to join the queue of people leaving the city. She could tell the moment when she was spotted because the aspirants' eyes widened and one of them turned to a guard and sent him running. Fine. She hadn't wanted to queue anyway. Taija stepped out and just strode straight to the front.
Amitte and Jandian interposed themselves in front of her with a bow. "I'm sorry Taija sedai, but we can't let you leave Caemlyn."
"Excuse me?" Taija managed to interject a healthy amount of disbelief into her tone, even though that was exactly what she'd expected. Anyway, if she acted like she felt there was no way they'd stand aside.
They looked embarrassed. "The Lord Dragon has given orders, for your own good. He said you were injured and needed to rest and that you'd overstrain yourself if you were allowed to." Two pairs of eyes flicked to her missing arm. She hated it, but at the same time it felt like the least of what she'd lost.
Taija briefly considered just shielding them and leaving them frozen in place. It would be so much easier than having to talk. "The Lord Dragon. You mean Rand sedai of course?"
"Yes… of course Taija sedai."
"I don't think Rand sedai gets to tell me what to do. Not only am I aes sedai, but I'm the First Among Servants. Let him worry about saving the world and let me worry about my own work. Now, tell me, are you really going to force me to stay in Caemlyn when I need to leave? Do you trust me?"
They glanced at each other and then stepped aside. Amitte was the one that spoke. "We trust you Taija sedai, if you say you need to do something then you need to do something. Just…" her eyes flicked to Taija's missing arm again, she wished people would stop doing that, "please look after yourself. You're everything to the Hall." She hesitated. "We could come with you and help with whatever it is you're doing. If you want?" Jandian nodded at that.
Taija gave her a surprised, and actually genuine, smile, touched even through the blackness that seemed to pervade her thoughts. "Thank you Amitte, I appreciate that, but it's not necessary. Keep up the good work and I'll see you when this is all over." She wouldn't, but at least some people had actually shown loyalty to her.
As soon as Taija was past the gates and the ward line that ran along the walls she spun a gateway to the next line. It helped that she was reasonably familiar with them. She needed to be away from Caemlyn fast before Rand found out where she was and came after her. If he caught her he'd probably have her shielded and locked in a room. It wasn't going to happen. She wouldn't let it.
A couple of minutes of walking where the wards were layered close together and then another gateway. It took a few more before Taija reached the end of the wards. Caemlyn and the Hall were probably the two best defended places on the planet and it could be a complete pain in the arse sometimes. Still, now she was free. No one would be able to find her if she didn't want to be found. Taija spun saidar, splitting the flows and her appearance rippled at the same time as she opened a gateway to somewhere far far away from Caemlyn.
======
Siuan lashed out with the Power, breaking the tottering siege tower that was being pushed towards the walls in half. Trollocs spilled out from it, to be felled with arrows from the soldiers beside her.
Whoever it was that had been battering the walls with so much of the One Power seemed to have gone. For what little it was worth. They had done plenty of damage to the defenders before their attacks had stopped. The Hall and Tower's numbers on the walls were painfully diminished.
Another one of those horrific screams sounded, penetrating through the noise and chaos of the battlefield. Without thinking Siuan wove a barrier of air in front of her and the soldiers, just in time to catch the fireball that slammed against it. Thank the Light there were not many of those perversions amongst the Shadow's forces and thank the Light they had the skill of a drunken novice, although sadly somewhat more strength. She searched among the milling trollocs far below. There. With a thought fire, air and spirit came together and she pulled lightning down into the middle of them.
It was not long before the trollocs were pulling back again, their attack a failure. Another small victory for the Light, but they did not seem to be thinning the trolloc horde surrounding Shol Arbela at all, in fact, if anything, it was growing larger. She did not know how long the city could hold against them. As long as she drew breath she would do her utmost to ensure that it did, but she was under no illusion about how realistic that was.
The trollocs would no doubt be trying to taunt the defenders until the next attack. That was what they had been doing since the siege started. Baying horns to keep them awake, feints at the walls so that resting troops were pulled out of their beds. They had tried to sap their morale with a disgusting display within sight of the walls, bringing forward human prisoners and then slaughtering them for the cookpots just outside bow range. At least there the aes sedai had been able to put a stop to things by demonstrating just how much further they could strike with the One Power. Of course Siuan would have felt more satisfied by that if she was not so sure that they were still doing it, just safely out of sight of the defenders.
======
Taija stepped out of her gateway somewhere near the army of the Light's headquarters, already feeling for anti-Traveling wards so that she could start moving in towards them. After a moment she stopped. Why was she doing this? Just more stupidity in a long line of stupid decisions and failures.
She'd thought she could go and find out where Tel's command center was, see it for herself, but that was madness. He was dead, that was all there was to it. Going to look at a crater wasn't going to make her feel any better. It wasn't going to bring him back. Nothing would. There was nothing for her there.
She briefly considered going into the camp anyway. It was very unlikely Rand had had time to give any orders about her, and she could see if she could commandeer a sa'angreal. But again, no. They had strategic uses. She was just… she didn't even know what. Regardless she was abandoning her own duty to the Light, that didn't mean it was alright to make the battle harder for everyone else. She didn't want people to die because of her. She'd failed in enough things already.
Anyway, she still had her angreal. At least that hadn't been taken from her, unlike everything else. Taija reached up to touch it under her blouse. It was from Adanza and therefore it was hers and no one else's. The last link she had to her time. The only way anyone else was getting their hands on it was over her cold, dead body.
Perhaps she should go and get some supplies though? She could sort water for herself, but food? Again, after a moment, Taija dismissed the thought. She wasn't going to need food anyway. With one last look in the direction of the out of sight army, she spun another, final gateway.
======
Aleksi rode towards the ward line for Mat's new command centre, an inverted web of illusion making him look like one of the Hall's initiates. It was the fifth time that he'd done this in a short period of time. Each time there'd been nothing.
He was starting to become both bored and frustrated, but he was sure the Light's messages were being intercepted. It was the only thing that made sense. Some of the clearly incorrect reports that had been received, Saldaea! And then there was Tel. He might be wrong, in which case it was back to the fallow fields and trying to think of how else the Shadow might be doing it. Something to do with the World of Dreams maybe? But that didn't make sense given how everyone important had their dreams warded and so once again he was led back to messages being intercepted.
Sooner or later he'd catch them, whoever they were, and then he'd make them regret ever turning to the Shadow. Maybe after that he could take a break to go and see Taija. He grimaced at the memory of how the light had seemed to leave her eyes when he'd told her about Tel. Maybe he'd even have time for some words with Rand about that too.
======
Taija emerged from her gateway in the Blight, some way away from the Borderlands, almost due north of Chachin in fact. The sickly sweet odour of the place was vile. Diseased looking plants dotted the landscape, but other than that there wasn't really much to see. It was still one of the most visible reminders of the failures of her time. Of the failures in her life. Mierin had done this. Not directly maybe, but ultimately without her none of this would have happened. Another gaping void turned to horror in Taija's life. She'd been her friend and she'd murdered her family. Taija gave herself a shake. It hardly mattered anymore. Yet another person who'd made sure there was nothing left for her in the world. Maybe it was for the best.
Tel had mentioned that Ishamael had a fortress deep in the North Eastern Blight, she hadn't wanted to hear about it at the time, she'd never wanted to hear Tel talk about his experience with the Shadow. Tel… Taija's eyes blurred for a second and she nearly sat down as the strength left her legs before she pulled herself back together. Maybe she'd head that way. In the meantime, there was nothing here. Taija spun another gateway to a vantage point in the distance.
When she'd first heard what the Dedicated did with their male channelers, she'd been horrified. Since Aleksi had told her about Tel she'd felt more like she understood it.
======
Mat glanced over the various models on the map showing the disposition of his armies and where they thought the Shadow's were. Or at least their disposition over the last day or so, there were always delays in getting information. In the end he'd had to make the hard choice to deploy them further back than he'd have liked. It meant more poor bloody people were going to die at the trollocs' hands, but without good intelligence on exactly where the Shadow had reached there was just too much risk of the piecemeal destruction of his forces.
He had a few surprises for when they made contact too. Oh yes he did. If he was really really lucky, the Shadow's general wouldn't even have any of their own to throw back at him. Or course he was never actually that bloody lucky.
He looked again at the map. He truly hoped he hadn't made any mistakes in how he'd deployed the forces. There were certain weak points in the lines. Barely trained levies from southern nations were the most obvious, but also blended units pulled together from those retreating in Saldaea and Kandor. The Whitecloaks were another one that made him nervous. They were perfectly skilled soldiers, or so he was told, and loyal to the Light, or their own mad interpretation of it anyway. The bigger problem there was the lack of channelers in their formation. There was nothing he could do about that though, apart from have reinforcements ready to move in when the Whitecloaks were inevitably chewed up.
======
Rand took a moment to survey the forces lined up in front of him. Once it had become clear that Taija had escaped, not that he'd really thought there was much hope of keeping her in Caemlyn if she was determined to leave, but he'd had to try, there hadn't been much point in delaying things further. Anything else would have been trying to avoid what he had to do, trying to delay his inevitable fate.
Stop with the mawkishness boy. If your prophecies are true then you may already have lost since I believe a number of them remain unfulfilled. Anyway, if you are so worried, just cut yourself and let your blood drip on Shayol Ghul. I am sure the crowds will lap up the symbolism.
Even if he survived, which he didn't believe he would, what place would there be for the Dragon Reborn in the new world?
For Light's sake boy, a lot of people have put a lot of effort into keeping you and your loved ones alive. If you throw that away out of some misguided sense of guilt then I shall be even more disappointed in you than I already am.
At least he had Lews Therin to cheer him up.
Rand spun a web to enhance his voice so that it boomed out across the small army, making sure that his tone showed none of his inner turmoil. "Today is the day! The day that we end this War once and for all. The Dark One has plagued us for three thousand years, destroyed countless lives. Today we will finish him! I will build a new prison for him, one that he cannot hope to escape."
"But remember, the true strength of the Light is cooperation. Good people from every nation working together to defeat the Shadow. While I and Nynaeve sedai fight the Dark One, I will need you to protect me, because you can be sure that the Dark One's servants will do their utmost to stop me. From the highest monarch to the lowliest peasant, the world will be relying on you. I will be relying on you. There is no one I would rather have by my side. Together, we end the Dark One!"
As cheers broke out from the crowd Rand raised the male access key to the Choedan Kal over his head to his audience and then spun a gateway into the deepest reaches of the Blight.
You know boy, my own speech was not so dissimilar. That did not turn out quite how I had planned, although admittedly I did not have the Choedan Kal at my disposal.
Thank the Light only he could hear Lews Therin.
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dhasenan
always lowercase
- Pronouns
- She/Her
"While I [sigh, begrudging tone] and Nynaeve Sedai..."
Poor Nynaeve! She could be healing and being useful while Taija rendered herself (relatively) combat ineffective and so would be a perfect saidar battery.
ALTERNATE ENDING VI - Deep into the Blight
ALTERNATE ENDING VI - Deep into the Blight
Aleksi had already decided that ten times was his limit. He had too many other responsibilities to be spending more time pretending to be a messenger. This was number eight and he was utterly fed up with it. If it didn't work he'd just have to try a different gambit.
He spun the gateway to the edge of the anti-Traveling wards and urged his horse through it, trying to put some urgency into his movements, rather than the boredom he was actually feeling.
For the first thirty seconds he thought it was going to be another failure. Then a woman stepped out onto the path.
"My apologies good sir, I am lost. Would you be able to help me?"
The woman didn't match any of Taija's descriptions of the Forsaken, but then if she'd been successfully breaking the Light's communications, she wouldn't be stupid enough to use her own face. Light, it could even be one of the remaining men, although none of them seemed to be likely candidates for that kind of thing.
Aleksi had no real desire to test himself against one of the Forsaken. He knew he was comfortably above average. He also knew Taija could overpower him without too much difficulty and she would be among the weakest of them. Still, this had to be stopped.
He reined his horse in. "Of course, do you need dire…" As he was saying the last word he struck. Air to take the woman off her feet, immediately followed by a shield. If he was wrong and it was in fact an incongruously well dressed woman who just happened to have gotten lost in the woods then he could apologise afterwards.
With a squawk of surprise the woman went tumbling head over heels, but Aleksi's shield felt like it had slammed straight into a wall. It seemed no apologies would be necessary, assuming he survived this.
Aleksi didn't wait for the woman to get back to her feet, he was already leaping off his horse and spinning both fire and lightning. He wanted her alive, but he certainly wasn't going to avoid using lethal webs when he might be facing one of the Forsaken.
Despite her position on the ground, Aleksi felt his flows rebounding into him as she sliced his webs. Then he was frantically fending off a counterattack. How strong was she? He sliced something, then another web, dodged a fireball and spun earth at the ground under her feet, only to feel his web vanish.
Blood and bloody ashes, he was going to be lucky to survive this.
Aleksi sent fireballs of his own spinning out to the woman, mixed in with a blade of air. One of them almost clipped her before it was torn apart, but torn apart his webs were. Then a shield was battering at his connection to saidin, hugely strong. He could feel it starting to push through until he sliced it and retaliated with a razor sharp web of air. That ran into a barrier of some kind. The woman raised her hands palms out towards him in a position Taija had warned him about. Without hesitating Aleksi dived to the ground, the blinding beam of balefire just missing him as it swept over his head.
He spun lightning as he rolled to his feet, but he knew he was outmatched. He couldn't last much longer. A fist of air took him in the stomach, sending him tumbling over backwards, he only just rolled out of the way of the next strike, which destroyed a patch of ground by his head.
Again a shield battered at his connection to saidin, but this time he felt it pushing through, cutting down on the flow of the Power until, suddenly, the shield vanished. Light flashed around the woman, saidin being spun. He knew there was saidar in there too. The woman staggered backwards under the onslaught until suddenly it stopped, with her frozen in place.
Slowly, painfully, Aleksi got back to his feet. That had not been an enjoyable experience. Massaging his back with his hands he half walked, half staggered over to the woman at the same time as the rest of his team emerged from the forest.
"What took you so long?" While he kept his tone cheerful, he really had thought he was about to die there.
It was Alucia who answered, even though he knew for a fact she wouldn't have been leading the link. "We just wanted to see how you would perform against one of the Forsaken. Personally I think you need to train more."
Aleksi decided to ignore that in favour of hitting their captive with a very careful slicing web, avoiding cutting the shield that he could see on her. Her appearance rippled and was replaced with that of a sturdy woman with dark hair who was more handsome than pretty.
He smiled as he studied her. While Taija couldn't have told him what she looked like, Tel had. "So you must be Moghedien. I'm sure we'll have a lot to talk about." If he was honest, he doubted that. Taija would never accept torture, even if he thought it was justified to get information out of someone like this. Oh well, she might talk anyway if she was scared enough. Either way, once he was done with her, she'd make a wonderful gift for Taija given she was most likely responsible for Tel's death.
======
It only took a few hours of searching through the Blight before Taija found something worth bothering with. What seemed to be a path worn into the ground by thousands upon thousands of boots, hooves and Light only knew what else. It was also stained with discarded leavings and shit from the armies that must have passed down it. Presumably if she followed it she'd find some shadowspawn sooner or later.
It turned out to be sooner as she Traveled north along the 'road'. It wasn't long at all before Taija saw a cloud of dust in the distance. She immediately Traveled to a nearby rise, incinerating the plants near her gateway with a thought. From there she could see what she'd found. A meandering column of trollocs making their way to the south. Perhaps a couple of thousand of them. Not all that many really, but it was a start.
Taija stared at them, empty eyed for a couple of minutes before she gave herself a shake. No point in delaying things. She didn't bother with clever tactics or subtlety. She just wanted to kill trollocs until either the hole inside her had been filled or there weren't any trollocs left to kill.
Taija spun a gateway to the front of the column and drew fully on her angreal. A pair of blossoms of fire erupted amidst the vanguard, burning them to ash before they could even react. Then she was walking forward, towards the trollocs, into the intense, residual heat from her opening webs.
A myrddraal came flying at her from the side and tumbled away sliced in two. Trollocs charged towards her and she spun explosive darts, wreaking deadly havoc through them in a rolling series of explosions. She saw a myrddraal exhorting trollocs to advance and burned it to a crisp. Every step forward that she took, shadowspawn died. In seconds they weren't charging towards her, they were turning to flee. The trollocs anyway. The myrddraal were made of sterner stuff. It just made them easier to kill.
In minutes Taija was the only thing left alive, standing there, chest heaving and tears running down her cheeks among the blackened corpses of the shadowspawn. She didn't feel any better at all for it. She supposed she hadn't really expected to. After a moment longer Taija spun another gateway north along the 'road'.
=======
"Order the White Cloaks and the Goshien to advance to fill the gap in the line there." Mat pointed to the map. "The trollocs are about to breakthrough, they'll hold the line for now."
He turned his thoughts back to what had been bothering him. The Shadow had at least one sa'angreal. They hadn't used it other than to eliminate Tel's headquarters, so that meant they were holding it back for something. Were they trying to lure him into using his so that they could hit his sa'angreal teams when they revealed themselves? Were they just scared to use it with the risk of being ambushed themselves? Was there some big event coming where they'd bring it out. He didn't know and he hated not knowing.
=======
Koanvin looked towards the horizon once more as she rode beside the long column of Children of the Light. If her estimation was correct, the time had come. She could not wait until they actually made contact with the Great Lord's forces or they might question things too much, but the trick had been to leave it as late as possible so that whoever commanded on the side of the Light had no time to react before the trollocs broke through.
Giving her horse a kick, foul creature, she rode over to Pedron Niall and his command team. By now no one even frowned at her presence. Instead they all looked to her, just as they should.
"The Aiel have betrayed the Light and the Dragon." As she spoke she spun saidar, tweaking the deeply embedded webs of compulsion that she had been layering into place almost since she had returned to the world. "The Light needs us to show the way. If you strike now, the Shadow's plots may be prevented, but only through your valour and dedication to the Light."
Pedron Niall's eyes narrowed. "By the Light woman, you are correct, it is all clear now. We must attack immediately!" His declaration was accompanied by fervent nods from the officers around him. "Get yourself to safety, this battle will be no place for one such as you."
Koanvin was already riding away when shouted orders started to ring out across the Children of the Light.
======
It was maybe an hour of Traveling before Taija found another group moving south. This one smaller than the last, or at least that was how it looked in the distance. She paused for a moment to look at it. Could she even be bothered, or should she keep heading towards Ishamael's fortress? After a long moment she sighed, however much of a failure she'd been in her life, she still wasn't going to allow shadowspawn to continue to exist when she could do something about it. Maybe she should just go hunting shadowspawn until she was too tired to do anything else and forget about the fortress? Taija shrugged to herself. She didn't need to decide now and it wasn't like it mattered anyway.
She spun saidar and opened a gateway to the group of trollocs before stepping through. She should really have just bombarded them from a safe distance, but she didn't really care. The two myrddraal were obvious as they were riding. They died first, simply exploding in a shower of blood and gore. Then she got to work on the trollocs. A blossom of fire in the middle of them shattered their formation. She was spinning lightning when she heard the sound of screaming, even over the roars and grunts of the trollocs. She hesitated, did they have a prisoner?
Taija almost missed the fireball coming towards her and sliced it at the last second. A channeler too. Lovely. She didn't want to kill a human prisoner or more than one, judging by the screaming. Children? It sounded like it, which just made it worse. So she let the lightning dissipate and instead started to pick individual targets, five at a time, each time her webs touched a trolloc it disappeared in an explosion of gore.
Then she felt saidar, a fireball, powerful but crude came at her. Taija sliced the web and spun a bar of fire back at the source. It obliterated a strangely shaped trolloc. A trolloc. What. The. Fuck. There was still a child screaming and in her confusion another trolloc nearly got close enough to run her through with its spear. Taija sent it flying hard enough to break every bone in its body. Another fireball, saidin this time. But she couldn't see any humans. Channelers or prisoners. What in the Light was going on? It was weird enough to penetrate the fog in her mind, however briefly, as she tried to work out what was happening.
Absent mindedly Taija incinerated a couple of trollocs that ran at her, while trying to pick out the sound of the screaming child or the channeler. Another fireball let her zero in on it. There. A trolloc, with some kind of growth on it. No, not a growth. A child's head. Screaming. Fully alive as far as Taija could see. Despite everything she gasped at the sight.
It was repulsive, disgusting beyond even the normal level of foulness that the Shadow brought. The screams rose in pitch as another fireball was thrown at her. It was slow, no threat to her really, but she could see how it might be devastating to non-channelers, limited to weapons powered by their own muscles.
In an almost visceral reaction Taija spun balefire, she wanted this thing to stop existing, to stop being an insult to creation. The beam connected and in a fraction of a second it was gone and she was already regretting it. However disgusting it was, she should have spent more time to try to work out what was going on with it. At least it answered the question of whether they had prisoners or not. Her expression didn't change as she spun lightning again, this time completing the web and bringing it down on the few surviving trollocs.
======
Eventually Taija decided she was too tired to keep going. She needed to find somewhere and sleep. She hadn't slept properly in a while and the day had been more than exhausting. Maybe she should just go and find an inn somewhere anonymous. Taija spun a gateway back to the south, to a small village she'd gone through when she'd first arrived in this Light-forsaken time. No one would recognise her there. Only the gateway refused to form, not even fizzling like when there were anti-Traveling wards. Simply nothing. But she'd been spinning gateways all day. It made no sense!
Taija spun another gateway, just to the horizon and that came together perfectly. Alright. Fine. So why not a longer distance? She tried spinning again, but to further away. Back to where she'd first started in the Blight. For a moment she thought it was coming together, but then there was nothing. A bit more experimentation suggested she could only Travel within line of sight. It didn't make any sense, it was breaking the rules for how the world worked. Was it the Dark One? Or had Rand decided to do something with the Choedan Kal? Taija wasn't sure and after a moment she realised she didn't really care.
Fine, she'd just sleep here. Maybe if she was lucky she wouldn't have to wake up again. Despite that thought Taija spun a series of wards around the area, covering pretty much anything she could think of. Then, after a further thought, she spun a box of solid air around herself, leaving just a few small holes for ventilation. With those tied off she felt vaguely safer. While she didn't particularly care what happened, she still didn't want to get eaten by some Blight creature in the night.
======
Taija was woken by one of her wards. The least dangerous of them, spun to pick up humans who couldn't channel. She sat up, rubbing tiredly at her eyes and undid the knot holding the box of air around her. That was the only one that a non-channeler might notice. For whatever reason night didn't seem to have fallen, even though she knew she'd been there for more than long enough. Another thing that in normal times she might have been fascinated by and right now just didn't care about.
When Taija looked for the source of the disturbance she saw a nervous looking man approaching. He was skinny and pale, dressed in what were probably once fine clothes, but now looked rough and worn. One hand lingered at his belt, seeming to clutch at something.
"You are a long way from safety my lady." He called out to her, his voice smooth and reassuring, almost unctuous. "Have you also managed to escape from the clutches of the Shadow? Thank the Light! The shadowspawn are everywhere here and I can only pray to the Creator to remain undiscovered, I thought I would face my end in a trolloc's cookpot. Truly we are fortunate to have found each other, so that we can aid each other. I am trying to head south to escape the Blight, may I at least join you for the night?"
======
Moridin had been waiting a while in Shayol Ghul. It was not the most comfortable place to be, but in the face of his plans that was but a minor consideration. Al'Thor would be coming here and he would be coming here soon. His plans for breaking the boy had not come together as completely as he would have liked, but he would nevertheless take this final opportunity. When the boy faced the Great Lord, Moridin would be there to make sure that he made the right choice or that he died in the attempt. His vantage point on the mountain meant that he could remain unseen and observe the boy's arrival and then descend into the depths of Shayol Ghul through another entrance to intercept him.
As a result, when a gateway opened some way from the mountain, Moridin saw it, saw the red-haired boy and a dark-haired woman step through. Excellent, he would turn the Dragon in this Age or the next, but he very much hoped it was to be this one.
======
Well the place has not improved since I was here last.
Rand ignored what he assumed was an attempt by Lews Therin at being funny and drew more on the Choedan Kal. Not to their full potential, not yet, but still far beyond any other sa'angreal. First he spun a protective dome around himself, Nynaeve and the gateway. Then he let loose. All five elements, but with a preponderance of fire, came together and his web expanded outwards from him at the speed of thought, obliterating everything in a growing circle.
As it hit Shayol Ghul itself, the mountain seemed to resist for a brief second before it disappeared in the storm of fire like everything else around it.
At least that would reduce the chances of anyone interfering while he was working.
You know boy, having seen that, I do start to wonder whether Latra Posae had a point.
Aleksi had already decided that ten times was his limit. He had too many other responsibilities to be spending more time pretending to be a messenger. This was number eight and he was utterly fed up with it. If it didn't work he'd just have to try a different gambit.
He spun the gateway to the edge of the anti-Traveling wards and urged his horse through it, trying to put some urgency into his movements, rather than the boredom he was actually feeling.
For the first thirty seconds he thought it was going to be another failure. Then a woman stepped out onto the path.
"My apologies good sir, I am lost. Would you be able to help me?"
The woman didn't match any of Taija's descriptions of the Forsaken, but then if she'd been successfully breaking the Light's communications, she wouldn't be stupid enough to use her own face. Light, it could even be one of the remaining men, although none of them seemed to be likely candidates for that kind of thing.
Aleksi had no real desire to test himself against one of the Forsaken. He knew he was comfortably above average. He also knew Taija could overpower him without too much difficulty and she would be among the weakest of them. Still, this had to be stopped.
He reined his horse in. "Of course, do you need dire…" As he was saying the last word he struck. Air to take the woman off her feet, immediately followed by a shield. If he was wrong and it was in fact an incongruously well dressed woman who just happened to have gotten lost in the woods then he could apologise afterwards.
With a squawk of surprise the woman went tumbling head over heels, but Aleksi's shield felt like it had slammed straight into a wall. It seemed no apologies would be necessary, assuming he survived this.
Aleksi didn't wait for the woman to get back to her feet, he was already leaping off his horse and spinning both fire and lightning. He wanted her alive, but he certainly wasn't going to avoid using lethal webs when he might be facing one of the Forsaken.
Despite her position on the ground, Aleksi felt his flows rebounding into him as she sliced his webs. Then he was frantically fending off a counterattack. How strong was she? He sliced something, then another web, dodged a fireball and spun earth at the ground under her feet, only to feel his web vanish.
Blood and bloody ashes, he was going to be lucky to survive this.
Aleksi sent fireballs of his own spinning out to the woman, mixed in with a blade of air. One of them almost clipped her before it was torn apart, but torn apart his webs were. Then a shield was battering at his connection to saidin, hugely strong. He could feel it starting to push through until he sliced it and retaliated with a razor sharp web of air. That ran into a barrier of some kind. The woman raised her hands palms out towards him in a position Taija had warned him about. Without hesitating Aleksi dived to the ground, the blinding beam of balefire just missing him as it swept over his head.
He spun lightning as he rolled to his feet, but he knew he was outmatched. He couldn't last much longer. A fist of air took him in the stomach, sending him tumbling over backwards, he only just rolled out of the way of the next strike, which destroyed a patch of ground by his head.
Again a shield battered at his connection to saidin, but this time he felt it pushing through, cutting down on the flow of the Power until, suddenly, the shield vanished. Light flashed around the woman, saidin being spun. He knew there was saidar in there too. The woman staggered backwards under the onslaught until suddenly it stopped, with her frozen in place.
Slowly, painfully, Aleksi got back to his feet. That had not been an enjoyable experience. Massaging his back with his hands he half walked, half staggered over to the woman at the same time as the rest of his team emerged from the forest.
"What took you so long?" While he kept his tone cheerful, he really had thought he was about to die there.
It was Alucia who answered, even though he knew for a fact she wouldn't have been leading the link. "We just wanted to see how you would perform against one of the Forsaken. Personally I think you need to train more."
Aleksi decided to ignore that in favour of hitting their captive with a very careful slicing web, avoiding cutting the shield that he could see on her. Her appearance rippled and was replaced with that of a sturdy woman with dark hair who was more handsome than pretty.
He smiled as he studied her. While Taija couldn't have told him what she looked like, Tel had. "So you must be Moghedien. I'm sure we'll have a lot to talk about." If he was honest, he doubted that. Taija would never accept torture, even if he thought it was justified to get information out of someone like this. Oh well, she might talk anyway if she was scared enough. Either way, once he was done with her, she'd make a wonderful gift for Taija given she was most likely responsible for Tel's death.
======
It only took a few hours of searching through the Blight before Taija found something worth bothering with. What seemed to be a path worn into the ground by thousands upon thousands of boots, hooves and Light only knew what else. It was also stained with discarded leavings and shit from the armies that must have passed down it. Presumably if she followed it she'd find some shadowspawn sooner or later.
It turned out to be sooner as she Traveled north along the 'road'. It wasn't long at all before Taija saw a cloud of dust in the distance. She immediately Traveled to a nearby rise, incinerating the plants near her gateway with a thought. From there she could see what she'd found. A meandering column of trollocs making their way to the south. Perhaps a couple of thousand of them. Not all that many really, but it was a start.
Taija stared at them, empty eyed for a couple of minutes before she gave herself a shake. No point in delaying things. She didn't bother with clever tactics or subtlety. She just wanted to kill trollocs until either the hole inside her had been filled or there weren't any trollocs left to kill.
Taija spun a gateway to the front of the column and drew fully on her angreal. A pair of blossoms of fire erupted amidst the vanguard, burning them to ash before they could even react. Then she was walking forward, towards the trollocs, into the intense, residual heat from her opening webs.
A myrddraal came flying at her from the side and tumbled away sliced in two. Trollocs charged towards her and she spun explosive darts, wreaking deadly havoc through them in a rolling series of explosions. She saw a myrddraal exhorting trollocs to advance and burned it to a crisp. Every step forward that she took, shadowspawn died. In seconds they weren't charging towards her, they were turning to flee. The trollocs anyway. The myrddraal were made of sterner stuff. It just made them easier to kill.
In minutes Taija was the only thing left alive, standing there, chest heaving and tears running down her cheeks among the blackened corpses of the shadowspawn. She didn't feel any better at all for it. She supposed she hadn't really expected to. After a moment longer Taija spun another gateway north along the 'road'.
=======
"Order the White Cloaks and the Goshien to advance to fill the gap in the line there." Mat pointed to the map. "The trollocs are about to breakthrough, they'll hold the line for now."
He turned his thoughts back to what had been bothering him. The Shadow had at least one sa'angreal. They hadn't used it other than to eliminate Tel's headquarters, so that meant they were holding it back for something. Were they trying to lure him into using his so that they could hit his sa'angreal teams when they revealed themselves? Were they just scared to use it with the risk of being ambushed themselves? Was there some big event coming where they'd bring it out. He didn't know and he hated not knowing.
=======
Koanvin looked towards the horizon once more as she rode beside the long column of Children of the Light. If her estimation was correct, the time had come. She could not wait until they actually made contact with the Great Lord's forces or they might question things too much, but the trick had been to leave it as late as possible so that whoever commanded on the side of the Light had no time to react before the trollocs broke through.
Giving her horse a kick, foul creature, she rode over to Pedron Niall and his command team. By now no one even frowned at her presence. Instead they all looked to her, just as they should.
"The Aiel have betrayed the Light and the Dragon." As she spoke she spun saidar, tweaking the deeply embedded webs of compulsion that she had been layering into place almost since she had returned to the world. "The Light needs us to show the way. If you strike now, the Shadow's plots may be prevented, but only through your valour and dedication to the Light."
Pedron Niall's eyes narrowed. "By the Light woman, you are correct, it is all clear now. We must attack immediately!" His declaration was accompanied by fervent nods from the officers around him. "Get yourself to safety, this battle will be no place for one such as you."
Koanvin was already riding away when shouted orders started to ring out across the Children of the Light.
======
It was maybe an hour of Traveling before Taija found another group moving south. This one smaller than the last, or at least that was how it looked in the distance. She paused for a moment to look at it. Could she even be bothered, or should she keep heading towards Ishamael's fortress? After a long moment she sighed, however much of a failure she'd been in her life, she still wasn't going to allow shadowspawn to continue to exist when she could do something about it. Maybe she should just go hunting shadowspawn until she was too tired to do anything else and forget about the fortress? Taija shrugged to herself. She didn't need to decide now and it wasn't like it mattered anyway.
She spun saidar and opened a gateway to the group of trollocs before stepping through. She should really have just bombarded them from a safe distance, but she didn't really care. The two myrddraal were obvious as they were riding. They died first, simply exploding in a shower of blood and gore. Then she got to work on the trollocs. A blossom of fire in the middle of them shattered their formation. She was spinning lightning when she heard the sound of screaming, even over the roars and grunts of the trollocs. She hesitated, did they have a prisoner?
Taija almost missed the fireball coming towards her and sliced it at the last second. A channeler too. Lovely. She didn't want to kill a human prisoner or more than one, judging by the screaming. Children? It sounded like it, which just made it worse. So she let the lightning dissipate and instead started to pick individual targets, five at a time, each time her webs touched a trolloc it disappeared in an explosion of gore.
Then she felt saidar, a fireball, powerful but crude came at her. Taija sliced the web and spun a bar of fire back at the source. It obliterated a strangely shaped trolloc. A trolloc. What. The. Fuck. There was still a child screaming and in her confusion another trolloc nearly got close enough to run her through with its spear. Taija sent it flying hard enough to break every bone in its body. Another fireball, saidin this time. But she couldn't see any humans. Channelers or prisoners. What in the Light was going on? It was weird enough to penetrate the fog in her mind, however briefly, as she tried to work out what was happening.
Absent mindedly Taija incinerated a couple of trollocs that ran at her, while trying to pick out the sound of the screaming child or the channeler. Another fireball let her zero in on it. There. A trolloc, with some kind of growth on it. No, not a growth. A child's head. Screaming. Fully alive as far as Taija could see. Despite everything she gasped at the sight.
It was repulsive, disgusting beyond even the normal level of foulness that the Shadow brought. The screams rose in pitch as another fireball was thrown at her. It was slow, no threat to her really, but she could see how it might be devastating to non-channelers, limited to weapons powered by their own muscles.
In an almost visceral reaction Taija spun balefire, she wanted this thing to stop existing, to stop being an insult to creation. The beam connected and in a fraction of a second it was gone and she was already regretting it. However disgusting it was, she should have spent more time to try to work out what was going on with it. At least it answered the question of whether they had prisoners or not. Her expression didn't change as she spun lightning again, this time completing the web and bringing it down on the few surviving trollocs.
======
Eventually Taija decided she was too tired to keep going. She needed to find somewhere and sleep. She hadn't slept properly in a while and the day had been more than exhausting. Maybe she should just go and find an inn somewhere anonymous. Taija spun a gateway back to the south, to a small village she'd gone through when she'd first arrived in this Light-forsaken time. No one would recognise her there. Only the gateway refused to form, not even fizzling like when there were anti-Traveling wards. Simply nothing. But she'd been spinning gateways all day. It made no sense!
Taija spun another gateway, just to the horizon and that came together perfectly. Alright. Fine. So why not a longer distance? She tried spinning again, but to further away. Back to where she'd first started in the Blight. For a moment she thought it was coming together, but then there was nothing. A bit more experimentation suggested she could only Travel within line of sight. It didn't make any sense, it was breaking the rules for how the world worked. Was it the Dark One? Or had Rand decided to do something with the Choedan Kal? Taija wasn't sure and after a moment she realised she didn't really care.
Fine, she'd just sleep here. Maybe if she was lucky she wouldn't have to wake up again. Despite that thought Taija spun a series of wards around the area, covering pretty much anything she could think of. Then, after a further thought, she spun a box of solid air around herself, leaving just a few small holes for ventilation. With those tied off she felt vaguely safer. While she didn't particularly care what happened, she still didn't want to get eaten by some Blight creature in the night.
======
Taija was woken by one of her wards. The least dangerous of them, spun to pick up humans who couldn't channel. She sat up, rubbing tiredly at her eyes and undid the knot holding the box of air around her. That was the only one that a non-channeler might notice. For whatever reason night didn't seem to have fallen, even though she knew she'd been there for more than long enough. Another thing that in normal times she might have been fascinated by and right now just didn't care about.
When Taija looked for the source of the disturbance she saw a nervous looking man approaching. He was skinny and pale, dressed in what were probably once fine clothes, but now looked rough and worn. One hand lingered at his belt, seeming to clutch at something.
"You are a long way from safety my lady." He called out to her, his voice smooth and reassuring, almost unctuous. "Have you also managed to escape from the clutches of the Shadow? Thank the Light! The shadowspawn are everywhere here and I can only pray to the Creator to remain undiscovered, I thought I would face my end in a trolloc's cookpot. Truly we are fortunate to have found each other, so that we can aid each other. I am trying to head south to escape the Blight, may I at least join you for the night?"
======
Moridin had been waiting a while in Shayol Ghul. It was not the most comfortable place to be, but in the face of his plans that was but a minor consideration. Al'Thor would be coming here and he would be coming here soon. His plans for breaking the boy had not come together as completely as he would have liked, but he would nevertheless take this final opportunity. When the boy faced the Great Lord, Moridin would be there to make sure that he made the right choice or that he died in the attempt. His vantage point on the mountain meant that he could remain unseen and observe the boy's arrival and then descend into the depths of Shayol Ghul through another entrance to intercept him.
As a result, when a gateway opened some way from the mountain, Moridin saw it, saw the red-haired boy and a dark-haired woman step through. Excellent, he would turn the Dragon in this Age or the next, but he very much hoped it was to be this one.
======
Well the place has not improved since I was here last.
Rand ignored what he assumed was an attempt by Lews Therin at being funny and drew more on the Choedan Kal. Not to their full potential, not yet, but still far beyond any other sa'angreal. First he spun a protective dome around himself, Nynaeve and the gateway. Then he let loose. All five elements, but with a preponderance of fire, came together and his web expanded outwards from him at the speed of thought, obliterating everything in a growing circle.
As it hit Shayol Ghul itself, the mountain seemed to resist for a brief second before it disappeared in the storm of fire like everything else around it.
At least that would reduce the chances of anyone interfering while he was working.
You know boy, having seen that, I do start to wonder whether Latra Posae had a point.
ALTERNATE ENDING VII - A Rescue
As usual all speech in italics is in the Old Tongue.
ALTERNATE ENDING VII - A Rescue
Taija didn't say anything as the man got closer to her.
"Not much of a talker then? Well I can understand that. When you have seen the worst the Shadow can do it can affect you. Well do not worry, you are safe now. Wormwood is here and he will protect you. If we travel together then I can deal with anything that threatens you. Why we will be…"
"That's close enough." Taija interrupted him when he was still a good couple of metres from her.
"Of course, of course. I can see why you would be nervous. After what you have gone through, in your condition too." He glanced at her empty sleeve. "A miracle you escaped at all really. A tale I would be delighted to hear, if you are willing to share." He settled down on the ground, cross legged, well out of reach. He was still caressing whatever was on his belt without seeming to even realise he was doing it. It looked like a dagger of some kind. It even seemed vaguely familiar, although really as far as Taija was concerned one dagger was much the same as another.
When she didn't reply he continued to talk. "My own story is as harrowing as you would expect." He edged closer, leaning in conspiratorially. "I was, am, but a humble merchant plying my trade in the Borderlands. I was on the road to Maradon when the trollocs took me, I thought I was dead, the rest of my caravan soon were, but I was lucky. I was taken back by them. No doubt to some even more terrible fate. I saw so many horrific things… the Shadow must be stopped," he shook his head, but his tone seemed more unctuous than disturbed. "I was able to steal a weapon and sneak out in the night and since then I have been making my way towards safety."
Taija looked at him with barely veiled disinterest. "So you could help lead me out of here, I feel like I've been lost for far too long…"
He moved slightly closer still to her. "Of course, Wormwood will help you. Together we will go south, to safety. Do not worry my dear, I will see you safely home. I have skills, many skills that will get us there." He was still edging closer to her, almost in arm's reach.
"Let me show you…" He was cut off by Taija's web. She spun fire and air. Air as a heatshield for herself and fire straight into him, more than enough to melt steel. Wormwood, if that really was his name, which she doubted, didn't even have time to scream. Taija held the web until all that was left of him was ashes.
Unhappy at the world as she was, she certainly wasn't stupid enough to let that man get within arms reach. A strange man with a strange name offered her help in the Blight while going in the opposite direction to the one he said he was. All while trying to get in touching distance of her. Fucking nope. He might as well have had a neon sign on his head saying high-ranking darkfriend or new type of shadowspawn. Really he'd made the same idiotic mistake he'd thought she was making. If you saw something incongruous in Blight, you had to assume it was far more dangerous than it looked. Also who even called themselves Wormwood and expected to be trusted?
Taija glanced again at the ashes lying on ground that had fused into glass. That was all that was left of him. All except for the dagger he'd been caressing. That looked completely intact, which was weird. It should have melted into a puddle. It did look vaguely familiar too, although she couldn't put her finger on why. Did she care enough to do anything about it? It was just another dangerous object in a place full of dangerous and disgusting things. After staring at it for a couple of minutes Taija shrugged. It wouldn't do any harm to deal with it. With a thought she spun balefire and swept it across the dagger, watching it fade from existence. Then she remembered how Tel had felt about balefire and felt even worse.
After a moment Taija got up. It was time to keep heading north. She didn't want to sleep near that man's remains anyway, assuming it had in fact been a man.
======
"He fucking what?!" Mat winced at the way Elayne's tone rose to a shriek of rage.
He looked frantically at Aleksi and help his hands up in as conciliatory way as he could. "I agree, it's terrible, but can we get back to the Forsaken that Aleksi has locked up in the basement?"
"No, Moghedien can wait." Oh Light, she'd put on her 'angry queen of Andor' face. The sort he imagined her mother used when pronouncing a death sentence on someone. "Let me make sure that I understand completely. Taija lost an arm defending Min from Ishamael. She still helped Rand and then when Tel died Rand hid it from her." Blood and bloody ashes. She'd gone calm now. That was normally a sign to go looking for a tavern. One of the nicer ones she wouldn't expect to find him in. "She still worked out his web for sealing the Bore and then he ordered her to be arrested, so half the people in Caemlyn think she's a darkfriend and the other half think he's gone mad? And now she's vanished, because of course she has."
"That's… not quite how I'd put it, but yes…" Mat wasn't sure he'd seen Aleksi look so uncomfortable before.
"How could Rand do something like that? What's the matter with him?! She has been there for him just as much as she has for any of us. More maybe. Loyalty goes both ways! Couldn't he see how she'd take Tel's death. Light, I am not going to mourn the man, he was one of the Forsaken!" Mat frantically glanced around to see if anyone had heard. "I still understand what she felt about him though. She had already lost him once and you know how she missed her own time! Fucking goat kissers! How could he do something like that?!"
Aleksi scowled. "Light only knows. He's under a lot of pressure I suppose, but I didn't think he'd be that stupid."
"And you let him do it?" Mat groaned internally. She was going to lash out, he just knew it. "I thought you were her friend!"
Light, he was going to have to intervene before one of them lost their temper! Fortunately Aleksi spoke first, his voice a low growl. "I didn't let anything happen. You think that if I'd had any idea things were that bad I wouldn't have done something about it? If you're looking to throw accusations around, how many times have you visited her since Ishamael?!"
Mat winced and like the idiot that he was tried to step between them. "Please, you've both been busy. You didn't know everything that was going on. There's no need to…" He trailed off under both their glares. Of course there'd be no thanks to him for trying to be the reasonable one in the room.
Then to his surprise Elayne looked down at her feet. "I apologise Aleksi, that was unfair of me. I am just upset by the situation."
The anger faded from Aleksi's face too. "I'm sorry too, my comment was unwarranted."
Elayne waved it away and Mat breathed a sigh of relief. "The question is what are we going to do about it?"
"What can we do? We're in the middle of the Last Battle and if Taija doesn't want to be found she won't be."
Elayne shook her head. "I'm going to go after her."
Mat spoke before Aleksi could. "You're what?!" He just stopped himself from asking if she'd gone mad.
Elayne nodded, taking on her most stubborn look. "She's not going to look after herself, so one of us has to. You can't come," she forestalled Aleksi before he could start to protest, "you're vital for security. Egwene is full committed to the battle and Nynaeve is obviously busy. That leaves me."
"You don't even know where she's gone."
"It will be the Blight," Light damn it, Aleksi was nodding to that, couldn't the man help? "She will have gone straight for it, the fool woman."
"The Blight's a huge place though, how do you think you'll find one woman there?"
"I will find a way. I am not without skills." The bloody woman was actually going to go through with this?!
=====
Taija kept making her way north, knowing that she'd probably need to turn east at some point. On the way she encountered a couple more small bands of trollocs heading south and killed them all. One of them had more of the horrific channeling trollocs, but there wasn't much they could do to slow her down.
Killing them was the right thing to do, but it brought Taija no satisfaction. Did nothing to fill the blank emptiness inside her.
It was the third band that changed things. Taija saw them from a distance and Traveled to a hilltop to get a better vantage point. It wasn't a huge band, perhaps two hundred trollocs, plus myrddraal. Actually there were a surprising number of myrddraal. Far more than the two or three she'd have expected with a band that size. Maybe ten of them.
That wasn't what caught her eye though. It was the string of humans in the middle of them, chained together, maybe twenty adults and as many again children. She didn't want to be there and she didn't know what she could do for those people if she did free them, but however she felt about the world, she wouldn't be herself if she just left those people to die at the trollocs' hands. Children!
Taija was about to Travel into the midst of the shadowspawn, but then she paused. She couldn't just walk in with no concern for her or anyone else's safety this time. Not if she didn't want more innocents to die.
She'd need to strike fast, the question was where to go first. She couldn't use webs that had too much of an area of effect, not without risking killing the prisoners. Taija was thinking hard when she saw a commotion through her magnifying web. They'd stopped moving and the trollocs were dragging one of the adult prisoners away. Taija was too far away to hear anything, but she didn't need to. One trolloc grabbed the woman's hair and pulled her head back, another raised a knife.
Without thinking Taija spun a gateway, emerging beside them. Air bisected both trollocs leaving the woman to collapse to her knees gasping and sobbing. Taija didn't have time to worry about that. She spun air, fire and spirit, walking the web along the trollocs closest to her. A pair of myddraal came at her from behind and she stepped through a gateway into the middle of the prisoners, sending a fireball back through it as it closed.
"Get down!" Taija shouted to the prisoners, some moved straight away, some hesitated. She swept their feet out from under them with air. She could apologise later. Then there was no one standing around her other than shadowspawn. Fire and air came together, a big, power-intensive web that expanded out from her at her neck level, chest or stomach level on a trolloc. The web sliced through anything it hit in a huge circle around her. That cleared the closest shadowspawn away. After that it was just a matter of time as Taija used less power-intensive lightning to kill the rest.
It wasn't long before there wasn't a single shadowspawn left alive. Taija let herself slump then. All of the people were still alive. She'd managed not to fuck that up. She stared blankly for a few seconds and then remembered the chains round the people's necks. A quick application of the power snapped them, freeing the prisoners.
Immediately one of the men ran to the sobbing woman who Taija had saved from the cookpot. Others of the former prisoners hurried to the crying children. At least that was something good she'd done. Taija was about to turn to leave when one of the men approached her, cringing as if terrified.
"Aes sedai," he bowed low from the waist, "we owe you our lives. Thank you, thank you so much!" For a second Taija thought he was going to fall to his knees. She didn't want to talk to anyone, but these people had just had a deeply traumatic experience, she shouldn't, couldn't just ignore them.
"It's nothing…" Taija muttered the words, resisting the urge to deny she was an aes sedai. What kind of aes sedai just ran away? "Anyone would have done the same." The people seemed to be gathering around her and it was making her edgy. She didn't want them looking at her like that. After a moment Taija decided she needed to say more. "Do you know where they were taking you?"
"They didn't say much aes sedai. Just kicked us and told us to march and then sometimes they'd take one of the adults and…" The man trailed off looking sick. Actually the adults all looked to be in poor condition, unlike the children oddly. Physically anyway, Taija had no doubt they'd be deeply traumatised. After a moment he pulled himself together. "They said something about Aginor, but the Forsaken are bound in Shayol Ghul now and forever?" The way he said it turned it from a statement into a question.
"Aginor…" Of course it would be. Taija had wondered how the children could have survived, let alone looked reasonably healthy. The trollocs would surely have eaten them first. She had a horrible suspicion that if the children were tested they'd all show some ability to channel, even if it wouldn't manifest for years. Or maybe he was just going with potluck and disposing of the extras. She shuddered at the thought. Was there even a practical way of testing children that young? She knew it was doable, but expensive, and so people hadn't generally bothered in her time. Could Aginor have worked out a better way?
======
Graendal dropped the web concealing her palanquin and drew fully on saidar through the link. It had been a real chore finding twelve other strong channelers that were sufficiently disposable for her to use as she wished. She had even ended up having to obtain a couple of leashed from Seanchan of all places. That had been something of a pain.
She spun all five elements together, but weighted towards spirit, into a wide reaching net and laid it out across the Light's lines. The trollocs were pressing hard there, battling blocks of pikemen as crossbowmen shot into them from behind the safety of the pikes. Almost immediately the Light's forces faltered. Within seconds they were degenerating into frantic fighting as they lashed out at each other. Trying to kill whoever was nearest in a mindless rage. Sometimes that meant trollocs, but much much more often it meant each other.
Her web might lack a certain degree of artistry, but she was still proud of it. Unsubtle as it was, no one to her knowledge had ever managed to develop a web that could affect so many minds at once. With a small smile Graendal spun inverted illusion to conceal her and the palanquin once more. Hopefully this battle would be over soon, it truly was not her style, going toe to toe with armies in battle. Honestly, half the reason she had come up with the web was to avoid Moridin ordering her to do something more unpleasant and inconvenient to support the Shadow.
Shortly afterwards she had safely relocated and was able to watch as the trolloc hordes sliced through the chaotic mêlée that had replaced the Light's lines.
======
Olvel looked down at the small woman as she stared into the distance again, clutching his Zerith to his chest. He was starting to worry that she might be completely mad. She would say a few words and then trail off, seeming to look at nothing in particular.
He knew he should be worrying about himself, he was hardly in good condition, although at least Zerith was unharmed. That was the first thing he'd checked after he'd pulled her into his arms. However, the aes sedai was likely their only chance at survival. Arone was dead, it was just him and Zerith and he knew there was no way under the Light that they would survive trying to walk out of the Blight alone, not from this deep in it.
The aes sedai looked like an absolute wreck. Her posture shouted of exhaustion, her face was gaunt and she seemed to be missing an arm, although he had to assume that was an older injury since she at least seemed to be able to function. Given the way that she was behaving, he was more than worried she would just decide to leave them to take their chances. That she might consider her good deed for the day done.
What he wanted to do was to curl into a ball around Zerith and forget where he was or what had happened. If he did that they might well die. He needed to hold himself together and to act, if he wanted his daughter to get the chance to grow up. He'd heard the stories about aes sedai, he'd seen the way this half-mad woman had killed over two hundred shadowspawn apparently effortlessly. He could only pray to the Creator that she didn't decide to take offence.
Decision made, Olvel stepped forward into her line of sight. Therim seemed to have run out of things to say to her, just standing there shivering, probably at the memories. Memories Olvel was going to ignore for as long as he possibly could.
"Aes sedai, I want to thank you, you have saved our lives. My life, Zerith's life." He tried to turn her to face the aes sedai, if anything could soften an aes sedai's heart it must be a small girl, but Zerith refused to cooperate, burying her face in his chest. "May I ask, what do you plan to do now? We will need water, there was some food for the children, but not much. Are you able to help us escape the Blight?" He was surprised at his own temerity, but it seemed to work. The aes sedai blinked a few times as if just noticing him and then focused her eyes on him and Zerith. She really did look terrible. If he didn't know better he'd have thought she'd been crying.
"I'm going to find Aginor and I'm going to kill him."
Olvel ignored the gasps from the men and women behind him. After everything he'd been through he wasn't going to let something like that shock him. "Of course aes sedai, but what about us? If we stay here we'll die."
"You…" She trailed off. Light she actually hadn't thought about that! "I can't get you out of the Blight. It would take too long, I can't just spin a gateway straight out." She thought for another second and then spoke slowly, reluctantly. "You can come with me, I'll do my best to protect you, but it will be dangerous, or you can stay and try to make your own way out. I've been killing shadowspawn all along this road, so it might be clear for you."
Olvel hesitated. A choice between a half-mad, injured aes sedai heading into further danger or trying to walk out of the deep Blight? It wasn't that hard actually, one offered at least a chance at survival. "We'll come with you aes sedai."
"As you wish."
That seemed to be all she had to say. Light, the woman was clearly not in any state to be taking charge of anything and that wasn't a reassuring thought at all. Someone was going to have to do it, or they were all dead. When no one said anything. Olvel turned to the others and raised his voice.
"Well come on, we need to start gathering everything we can. Grab the food and water supplies, you two," he picked out two of the men, "see if you can find any weapons for us from the trollocs. Don't touch anything on the myrddraal."
It took a little while to get everyone organised and he could feel the aes sedai's impatience growing, but eventually they'd gathered all the food and armed themselves with a medley of over sized knives from trolloc corpses.
The aes sedai looked them over with dull eyes without saying anything and then without any warning a hole in the air appeared. She stepped through it and slowly, nervously, they all followed.
They repeated this a few times until suddenly she stopped. Olvel followed her gaze to the north, there was a smudge on the horizon. It could only be more shadowspawn. The air seemed to bend in front of her and the view leapt forward, as if they were beside the shadowspawn. Olvel could only just see, standing next to her, but from what he could tell there were a lot of them. Perhaps too many for her? Surely she wasn't thinking of trying to attack them? The aes sedai stood there for long seconds staring until the silence was broken by one of the children starting to cry.
That seemed to pull the aes sedai out of her trance. She shuddered and then looked back at them. "We'll go around them." Olvel tried not to show his relief too visibly.
It wasn't long after that that the aes sedai called a halt for the night. She looked even more exhausted by then. However, she still took the time to speak to them. "Do not cross this line," a line rapidly carved its way in a circle around them. "That's the limit of the protections I can put in place, if you go outside it you will die." For all that she gave the dire warning, her tone remained as blank as ever. That seemed to be all she had to say as immediately afterwards she sat straight down like a puppet whose strings had been cut, not seeming to notice the cold, hard ground under her.
Olvel sighed, he was going to have to take charge again. "Alright people, let's get the food divvied up, remember we need to make it last as long as possible, so we'll need to organise some rationing." His stomach rumbled, but he knew he was still going to be giving half his share to Zerith.
As they measured out portions of food the aes sedai seemed to ignore them all. Just laying back on an invisible headrest and staring straight up into the sky. Olvel couldn't help but notice that she didn't have any pack with her. Had she lost it? Was she stupid enough to go deep into the Blight without any supplies? Even for an aes sedai that was madness. He put the thought aside as everyone ate, but then he decided he needed to do something. At least Zerith had fallen straight to sleep so he didn't need to bring her.
Cursing himself for having somehow taken on the role of the leader of their little band he got up and approached the aes sedai. When he got close, she turned her red-rimmed, brown-eyed gaze on him and he gave her a low bow, as low as he physically could in his current condition.
"Aes sedai, do you need food, water?"
She paused and then shook her head. "Thank you, I'm fine. You all need the food."
That was odd. He'd thought aes sedai couldn't lie. Maybe it was some twisting of the truth he couldn't work out. He gave her another, smaller bow and turned to leave. Then something made him turn back. She was already back to staring at the sky. She clearly wasn't fine.
Olvel cursed his temerity as he asked, if she took offence he might be condemning himself and Zerith to death. "Aes sedai, forgive me, but when did you last eat?"
He winced as she turned her attention back to him, a scowl growing on her face. "I said I was fine!" He could still the way her eyes flicked to the bags of food they'd taken with them. Suppressing the trembles that ran through him at her scowl Olvel bowed again and fled back to the others.
Arone had always said he had more courage than sense. He'd thought that was unfair, but now as he gathered some food and filled a waterskin he wondered whether she'd had a point. He tried not to think about the fact that he'd never see her smile again. Survival first, mourning later.
A minute later he was back in front of the aes sedai. What was he thinking, ignoring the words of an aes sedai?! A half mad one at that. She wouldn't even need to do anything to kill him and Zerith, she could simply abandon them.
"Aes sedai, please. You need to eat." He hesitated, not sure if he dared say it. "If not for yourself, then for us, we're all depending on you."
She stared at him for a few moments, seeming to look straight through into his soul. Then she took the food and waterskin from him. A second later she was drinking desperately from it, somehow managing to down it without spilling a single drop. As soon as the water was gone she attacked the food, poor fare as it was. With her attention taken away from him Olvel breathed a sigh of relief and slowly backed away.
======
Egwene watched from the hilltop as the Army of the Light and the horde of shadowspawn faced off against each other. She glanced behind her at the others and took a deep breath. At their nods she spun the gateway to their side. A small gap had carefully been left within the interlocking layers of anti-Traveling wards covering the front. She wouldn't be able to go far, but hopefully far enough.
With that done, she looked back towards the trollocs and picked a spot. No use delaying further. She drew fully on saidar and saidin through the link she was in, most of the power coming from the staff in her hand. She didn't hesitate, forming it into a web of all five elements and sending it flashing towards the shadowspawn. Ahead of her the world turned white as a huge swath of their army exploded, but she didn't stay to watch. She was already diving through the gateway.
The very second the last of them stumbled through the gateway Egwene allowed it to close, turning her eyes towards the hill they'd been on. Moments later it erupted into coruscating fire as a huge web of saidar and, she assumed, saidin struck where they'd been hidden. Blood and bloody ashes that had been close. Mat had been right though, clearly the Shadow was focusing forces there. Her mind was already working on how to take advantage of that. As was his no doubt. What a ridiculous idea that he was in command of the Army of the Light, but there it was. She supposed it was also a ridiculous idea that she was an aes sedai wielding a sa'angreal.
======
Semirhage stood, tapping her foot with impatience as the red veiled Dedicated and members of the Black Ajah hurried through the gateway. Of course she did not need to tap her foot. That was a mere affectation, but it made her point well.
As soon as the last was through she looked at the so-called aes sedai who had led the link. She hated aes sedai. "That was far too slow. You may have hit whoever had the sa'angreal, but if you missed and they had been ready for it, you would be dead. Next time you will be faster." She turned her attention to the head of the Dedicated in the group. "You may punish her as you wish for her sloth, but I will need her ready and able to fight tomorrow."
======
The army finished coming through the gateway and arraying themselves in the new wasteland around Rand and Nynaeve. He was confident that they would give their lives to defend him, but hopefully none of that would be necessary after what he he had done to the land for miles around. It was hard to see how anything could have survived. Certainly nothing he knew of could have survived that, but they would see.
Rand knew Perrin would be there in the Unseen World covering him there too. With that and the small army here he was as safe as he could be. He glanced at Nynaeve and she nodded. Good. Time to begin. Rand drew on the Choedan Kal once more, letting the huge gateway vanish. Then he started to spin anti-Traveling wards, one after the other, layering them outwards away from himself. He, or rather Lews Therin, suspected that long distance Traveling wouldn't be possible around Shayol Ghul, not with anything short of a sa'angreal anyway, but that wasn't something he wanted to rely on.
Job done he looked to Moiraine. "I'm ready."
May the Light have mercy on your soul boy. Mine too.
Moiraine reached into her pouch and pulled out the two remaining seals to the Dark One's prison. With a grimace she smashed them to the ground. At the same moment Rand drew fully on the Choedan Kal.
ALTERNATE ENDING VII - A Rescue
Taija didn't say anything as the man got closer to her.
"Not much of a talker then? Well I can understand that. When you have seen the worst the Shadow can do it can affect you. Well do not worry, you are safe now. Wormwood is here and he will protect you. If we travel together then I can deal with anything that threatens you. Why we will be…"
"That's close enough." Taija interrupted him when he was still a good couple of metres from her.
"Of course, of course. I can see why you would be nervous. After what you have gone through, in your condition too." He glanced at her empty sleeve. "A miracle you escaped at all really. A tale I would be delighted to hear, if you are willing to share." He settled down on the ground, cross legged, well out of reach. He was still caressing whatever was on his belt without seeming to even realise he was doing it. It looked like a dagger of some kind. It even seemed vaguely familiar, although really as far as Taija was concerned one dagger was much the same as another.
When she didn't reply he continued to talk. "My own story is as harrowing as you would expect." He edged closer, leaning in conspiratorially. "I was, am, but a humble merchant plying my trade in the Borderlands. I was on the road to Maradon when the trollocs took me, I thought I was dead, the rest of my caravan soon were, but I was lucky. I was taken back by them. No doubt to some even more terrible fate. I saw so many horrific things… the Shadow must be stopped," he shook his head, but his tone seemed more unctuous than disturbed. "I was able to steal a weapon and sneak out in the night and since then I have been making my way towards safety."
Taija looked at him with barely veiled disinterest. "So you could help lead me out of here, I feel like I've been lost for far too long…"
He moved slightly closer still to her. "Of course, Wormwood will help you. Together we will go south, to safety. Do not worry my dear, I will see you safely home. I have skills, many skills that will get us there." He was still edging closer to her, almost in arm's reach.
"Let me show you…" He was cut off by Taija's web. She spun fire and air. Air as a heatshield for herself and fire straight into him, more than enough to melt steel. Wormwood, if that really was his name, which she doubted, didn't even have time to scream. Taija held the web until all that was left of him was ashes.
Unhappy at the world as she was, she certainly wasn't stupid enough to let that man get within arms reach. A strange man with a strange name offered her help in the Blight while going in the opposite direction to the one he said he was. All while trying to get in touching distance of her. Fucking nope. He might as well have had a neon sign on his head saying high-ranking darkfriend or new type of shadowspawn. Really he'd made the same idiotic mistake he'd thought she was making. If you saw something incongruous in Blight, you had to assume it was far more dangerous than it looked. Also who even called themselves Wormwood and expected to be trusted?
Taija glanced again at the ashes lying on ground that had fused into glass. That was all that was left of him. All except for the dagger he'd been caressing. That looked completely intact, which was weird. It should have melted into a puddle. It did look vaguely familiar too, although she couldn't put her finger on why. Did she care enough to do anything about it? It was just another dangerous object in a place full of dangerous and disgusting things. After staring at it for a couple of minutes Taija shrugged. It wouldn't do any harm to deal with it. With a thought she spun balefire and swept it across the dagger, watching it fade from existence. Then she remembered how Tel had felt about balefire and felt even worse.
After a moment Taija got up. It was time to keep heading north. She didn't want to sleep near that man's remains anyway, assuming it had in fact been a man.
======
"He fucking what?!" Mat winced at the way Elayne's tone rose to a shriek of rage.
He looked frantically at Aleksi and help his hands up in as conciliatory way as he could. "I agree, it's terrible, but can we get back to the Forsaken that Aleksi has locked up in the basement?"
"No, Moghedien can wait." Oh Light, she'd put on her 'angry queen of Andor' face. The sort he imagined her mother used when pronouncing a death sentence on someone. "Let me make sure that I understand completely. Taija lost an arm defending Min from Ishamael. She still helped Rand and then when Tel died Rand hid it from her." Blood and bloody ashes. She'd gone calm now. That was normally a sign to go looking for a tavern. One of the nicer ones she wouldn't expect to find him in. "She still worked out his web for sealing the Bore and then he ordered her to be arrested, so half the people in Caemlyn think she's a darkfriend and the other half think he's gone mad? And now she's vanished, because of course she has."
"That's… not quite how I'd put it, but yes…" Mat wasn't sure he'd seen Aleksi look so uncomfortable before.
"How could Rand do something like that? What's the matter with him?! She has been there for him just as much as she has for any of us. More maybe. Loyalty goes both ways! Couldn't he see how she'd take Tel's death. Light, I am not going to mourn the man, he was one of the Forsaken!" Mat frantically glanced around to see if anyone had heard. "I still understand what she felt about him though. She had already lost him once and you know how she missed her own time! Fucking goat kissers! How could he do something like that?!"
Aleksi scowled. "Light only knows. He's under a lot of pressure I suppose, but I didn't think he'd be that stupid."
"And you let him do it?" Mat groaned internally. She was going to lash out, he just knew it. "I thought you were her friend!"
Light, he was going to have to intervene before one of them lost their temper! Fortunately Aleksi spoke first, his voice a low growl. "I didn't let anything happen. You think that if I'd had any idea things were that bad I wouldn't have done something about it? If you're looking to throw accusations around, how many times have you visited her since Ishamael?!"
Mat winced and like the idiot that he was tried to step between them. "Please, you've both been busy. You didn't know everything that was going on. There's no need to…" He trailed off under both their glares. Of course there'd be no thanks to him for trying to be the reasonable one in the room.
Then to his surprise Elayne looked down at her feet. "I apologise Aleksi, that was unfair of me. I am just upset by the situation."
The anger faded from Aleksi's face too. "I'm sorry too, my comment was unwarranted."
Elayne waved it away and Mat breathed a sigh of relief. "The question is what are we going to do about it?"
"What can we do? We're in the middle of the Last Battle and if Taija doesn't want to be found she won't be."
Elayne shook her head. "I'm going to go after her."
Mat spoke before Aleksi could. "You're what?!" He just stopped himself from asking if she'd gone mad.
Elayne nodded, taking on her most stubborn look. "She's not going to look after herself, so one of us has to. You can't come," she forestalled Aleksi before he could start to protest, "you're vital for security. Egwene is full committed to the battle and Nynaeve is obviously busy. That leaves me."
"You don't even know where she's gone."
"It will be the Blight," Light damn it, Aleksi was nodding to that, couldn't the man help? "She will have gone straight for it, the fool woman."
"The Blight's a huge place though, how do you think you'll find one woman there?"
"I will find a way. I am not without skills." The bloody woman was actually going to go through with this?!
=====
Taija kept making her way north, knowing that she'd probably need to turn east at some point. On the way she encountered a couple more small bands of trollocs heading south and killed them all. One of them had more of the horrific channeling trollocs, but there wasn't much they could do to slow her down.
Killing them was the right thing to do, but it brought Taija no satisfaction. Did nothing to fill the blank emptiness inside her.
It was the third band that changed things. Taija saw them from a distance and Traveled to a hilltop to get a better vantage point. It wasn't a huge band, perhaps two hundred trollocs, plus myrddraal. Actually there were a surprising number of myrddraal. Far more than the two or three she'd have expected with a band that size. Maybe ten of them.
That wasn't what caught her eye though. It was the string of humans in the middle of them, chained together, maybe twenty adults and as many again children. She didn't want to be there and she didn't know what she could do for those people if she did free them, but however she felt about the world, she wouldn't be herself if she just left those people to die at the trollocs' hands. Children!
Taija was about to Travel into the midst of the shadowspawn, but then she paused. She couldn't just walk in with no concern for her or anyone else's safety this time. Not if she didn't want more innocents to die.
She'd need to strike fast, the question was where to go first. She couldn't use webs that had too much of an area of effect, not without risking killing the prisoners. Taija was thinking hard when she saw a commotion through her magnifying web. They'd stopped moving and the trollocs were dragging one of the adult prisoners away. Taija was too far away to hear anything, but she didn't need to. One trolloc grabbed the woman's hair and pulled her head back, another raised a knife.
Without thinking Taija spun a gateway, emerging beside them. Air bisected both trollocs leaving the woman to collapse to her knees gasping and sobbing. Taija didn't have time to worry about that. She spun air, fire and spirit, walking the web along the trollocs closest to her. A pair of myddraal came at her from behind and she stepped through a gateway into the middle of the prisoners, sending a fireball back through it as it closed.
"Get down!" Taija shouted to the prisoners, some moved straight away, some hesitated. She swept their feet out from under them with air. She could apologise later. Then there was no one standing around her other than shadowspawn. Fire and air came together, a big, power-intensive web that expanded out from her at her neck level, chest or stomach level on a trolloc. The web sliced through anything it hit in a huge circle around her. That cleared the closest shadowspawn away. After that it was just a matter of time as Taija used less power-intensive lightning to kill the rest.
It wasn't long before there wasn't a single shadowspawn left alive. Taija let herself slump then. All of the people were still alive. She'd managed not to fuck that up. She stared blankly for a few seconds and then remembered the chains round the people's necks. A quick application of the power snapped them, freeing the prisoners.
Immediately one of the men ran to the sobbing woman who Taija had saved from the cookpot. Others of the former prisoners hurried to the crying children. At least that was something good she'd done. Taija was about to turn to leave when one of the men approached her, cringing as if terrified.
"Aes sedai," he bowed low from the waist, "we owe you our lives. Thank you, thank you so much!" For a second Taija thought he was going to fall to his knees. She didn't want to talk to anyone, but these people had just had a deeply traumatic experience, she shouldn't, couldn't just ignore them.
"It's nothing…" Taija muttered the words, resisting the urge to deny she was an aes sedai. What kind of aes sedai just ran away? "Anyone would have done the same." The people seemed to be gathering around her and it was making her edgy. She didn't want them looking at her like that. After a moment Taija decided she needed to say more. "Do you know where they were taking you?"
"They didn't say much aes sedai. Just kicked us and told us to march and then sometimes they'd take one of the adults and…" The man trailed off looking sick. Actually the adults all looked to be in poor condition, unlike the children oddly. Physically anyway, Taija had no doubt they'd be deeply traumatised. After a moment he pulled himself together. "They said something about Aginor, but the Forsaken are bound in Shayol Ghul now and forever?" The way he said it turned it from a statement into a question.
"Aginor…" Of course it would be. Taija had wondered how the children could have survived, let alone looked reasonably healthy. The trollocs would surely have eaten them first. She had a horrible suspicion that if the children were tested they'd all show some ability to channel, even if it wouldn't manifest for years. Or maybe he was just going with potluck and disposing of the extras. She shuddered at the thought. Was there even a practical way of testing children that young? She knew it was doable, but expensive, and so people hadn't generally bothered in her time. Could Aginor have worked out a better way?
======
Graendal dropped the web concealing her palanquin and drew fully on saidar through the link. It had been a real chore finding twelve other strong channelers that were sufficiently disposable for her to use as she wished. She had even ended up having to obtain a couple of leashed from Seanchan of all places. That had been something of a pain.
She spun all five elements together, but weighted towards spirit, into a wide reaching net and laid it out across the Light's lines. The trollocs were pressing hard there, battling blocks of pikemen as crossbowmen shot into them from behind the safety of the pikes. Almost immediately the Light's forces faltered. Within seconds they were degenerating into frantic fighting as they lashed out at each other. Trying to kill whoever was nearest in a mindless rage. Sometimes that meant trollocs, but much much more often it meant each other.
Her web might lack a certain degree of artistry, but she was still proud of it. Unsubtle as it was, no one to her knowledge had ever managed to develop a web that could affect so many minds at once. With a small smile Graendal spun inverted illusion to conceal her and the palanquin once more. Hopefully this battle would be over soon, it truly was not her style, going toe to toe with armies in battle. Honestly, half the reason she had come up with the web was to avoid Moridin ordering her to do something more unpleasant and inconvenient to support the Shadow.
Shortly afterwards she had safely relocated and was able to watch as the trolloc hordes sliced through the chaotic mêlée that had replaced the Light's lines.
======
Olvel looked down at the small woman as she stared into the distance again, clutching his Zerith to his chest. He was starting to worry that she might be completely mad. She would say a few words and then trail off, seeming to look at nothing in particular.
He knew he should be worrying about himself, he was hardly in good condition, although at least Zerith was unharmed. That was the first thing he'd checked after he'd pulled her into his arms. However, the aes sedai was likely their only chance at survival. Arone was dead, it was just him and Zerith and he knew there was no way under the Light that they would survive trying to walk out of the Blight alone, not from this deep in it.
The aes sedai looked like an absolute wreck. Her posture shouted of exhaustion, her face was gaunt and she seemed to be missing an arm, although he had to assume that was an older injury since she at least seemed to be able to function. Given the way that she was behaving, he was more than worried she would just decide to leave them to take their chances. That she might consider her good deed for the day done.
What he wanted to do was to curl into a ball around Zerith and forget where he was or what had happened. If he did that they might well die. He needed to hold himself together and to act, if he wanted his daughter to get the chance to grow up. He'd heard the stories about aes sedai, he'd seen the way this half-mad woman had killed over two hundred shadowspawn apparently effortlessly. He could only pray to the Creator that she didn't decide to take offence.
Decision made, Olvel stepped forward into her line of sight. Therim seemed to have run out of things to say to her, just standing there shivering, probably at the memories. Memories Olvel was going to ignore for as long as he possibly could.
"Aes sedai, I want to thank you, you have saved our lives. My life, Zerith's life." He tried to turn her to face the aes sedai, if anything could soften an aes sedai's heart it must be a small girl, but Zerith refused to cooperate, burying her face in his chest. "May I ask, what do you plan to do now? We will need water, there was some food for the children, but not much. Are you able to help us escape the Blight?" He was surprised at his own temerity, but it seemed to work. The aes sedai blinked a few times as if just noticing him and then focused her eyes on him and Zerith. She really did look terrible. If he didn't know better he'd have thought she'd been crying.
"I'm going to find Aginor and I'm going to kill him."
Olvel ignored the gasps from the men and women behind him. After everything he'd been through he wasn't going to let something like that shock him. "Of course aes sedai, but what about us? If we stay here we'll die."
"You…" She trailed off. Light she actually hadn't thought about that! "I can't get you out of the Blight. It would take too long, I can't just spin a gateway straight out." She thought for another second and then spoke slowly, reluctantly. "You can come with me, I'll do my best to protect you, but it will be dangerous, or you can stay and try to make your own way out. I've been killing shadowspawn all along this road, so it might be clear for you."
Olvel hesitated. A choice between a half-mad, injured aes sedai heading into further danger or trying to walk out of the deep Blight? It wasn't that hard actually, one offered at least a chance at survival. "We'll come with you aes sedai."
"As you wish."
That seemed to be all she had to say. Light, the woman was clearly not in any state to be taking charge of anything and that wasn't a reassuring thought at all. Someone was going to have to do it, or they were all dead. When no one said anything. Olvel turned to the others and raised his voice.
"Well come on, we need to start gathering everything we can. Grab the food and water supplies, you two," he picked out two of the men, "see if you can find any weapons for us from the trollocs. Don't touch anything on the myrddraal."
It took a little while to get everyone organised and he could feel the aes sedai's impatience growing, but eventually they'd gathered all the food and armed themselves with a medley of over sized knives from trolloc corpses.
The aes sedai looked them over with dull eyes without saying anything and then without any warning a hole in the air appeared. She stepped through it and slowly, nervously, they all followed.
They repeated this a few times until suddenly she stopped. Olvel followed her gaze to the north, there was a smudge on the horizon. It could only be more shadowspawn. The air seemed to bend in front of her and the view leapt forward, as if they were beside the shadowspawn. Olvel could only just see, standing next to her, but from what he could tell there were a lot of them. Perhaps too many for her? Surely she wasn't thinking of trying to attack them? The aes sedai stood there for long seconds staring until the silence was broken by one of the children starting to cry.
That seemed to pull the aes sedai out of her trance. She shuddered and then looked back at them. "We'll go around them." Olvel tried not to show his relief too visibly.
It wasn't long after that that the aes sedai called a halt for the night. She looked even more exhausted by then. However, she still took the time to speak to them. "Do not cross this line," a line rapidly carved its way in a circle around them. "That's the limit of the protections I can put in place, if you go outside it you will die." For all that she gave the dire warning, her tone remained as blank as ever. That seemed to be all she had to say as immediately afterwards she sat straight down like a puppet whose strings had been cut, not seeming to notice the cold, hard ground under her.
Olvel sighed, he was going to have to take charge again. "Alright people, let's get the food divvied up, remember we need to make it last as long as possible, so we'll need to organise some rationing." His stomach rumbled, but he knew he was still going to be giving half his share to Zerith.
As they measured out portions of food the aes sedai seemed to ignore them all. Just laying back on an invisible headrest and staring straight up into the sky. Olvel couldn't help but notice that she didn't have any pack with her. Had she lost it? Was she stupid enough to go deep into the Blight without any supplies? Even for an aes sedai that was madness. He put the thought aside as everyone ate, but then he decided he needed to do something. At least Zerith had fallen straight to sleep so he didn't need to bring her.
Cursing himself for having somehow taken on the role of the leader of their little band he got up and approached the aes sedai. When he got close, she turned her red-rimmed, brown-eyed gaze on him and he gave her a low bow, as low as he physically could in his current condition.
"Aes sedai, do you need food, water?"
She paused and then shook her head. "Thank you, I'm fine. You all need the food."
That was odd. He'd thought aes sedai couldn't lie. Maybe it was some twisting of the truth he couldn't work out. He gave her another, smaller bow and turned to leave. Then something made him turn back. She was already back to staring at the sky. She clearly wasn't fine.
Olvel cursed his temerity as he asked, if she took offence he might be condemning himself and Zerith to death. "Aes sedai, forgive me, but when did you last eat?"
He winced as she turned her attention back to him, a scowl growing on her face. "I said I was fine!" He could still the way her eyes flicked to the bags of food they'd taken with them. Suppressing the trembles that ran through him at her scowl Olvel bowed again and fled back to the others.
Arone had always said he had more courage than sense. He'd thought that was unfair, but now as he gathered some food and filled a waterskin he wondered whether she'd had a point. He tried not to think about the fact that he'd never see her smile again. Survival first, mourning later.
A minute later he was back in front of the aes sedai. What was he thinking, ignoring the words of an aes sedai?! A half mad one at that. She wouldn't even need to do anything to kill him and Zerith, she could simply abandon them.
"Aes sedai, please. You need to eat." He hesitated, not sure if he dared say it. "If not for yourself, then for us, we're all depending on you."
She stared at him for a few moments, seeming to look straight through into his soul. Then she took the food and waterskin from him. A second later she was drinking desperately from it, somehow managing to down it without spilling a single drop. As soon as the water was gone she attacked the food, poor fare as it was. With her attention taken away from him Olvel breathed a sigh of relief and slowly backed away.
======
Egwene watched from the hilltop as the Army of the Light and the horde of shadowspawn faced off against each other. She glanced behind her at the others and took a deep breath. At their nods she spun the gateway to their side. A small gap had carefully been left within the interlocking layers of anti-Traveling wards covering the front. She wouldn't be able to go far, but hopefully far enough.
With that done, she looked back towards the trollocs and picked a spot. No use delaying further. She drew fully on saidar and saidin through the link she was in, most of the power coming from the staff in her hand. She didn't hesitate, forming it into a web of all five elements and sending it flashing towards the shadowspawn. Ahead of her the world turned white as a huge swath of their army exploded, but she didn't stay to watch. She was already diving through the gateway.
The very second the last of them stumbled through the gateway Egwene allowed it to close, turning her eyes towards the hill they'd been on. Moments later it erupted into coruscating fire as a huge web of saidar and, she assumed, saidin struck where they'd been hidden. Blood and bloody ashes that had been close. Mat had been right though, clearly the Shadow was focusing forces there. Her mind was already working on how to take advantage of that. As was his no doubt. What a ridiculous idea that he was in command of the Army of the Light, but there it was. She supposed it was also a ridiculous idea that she was an aes sedai wielding a sa'angreal.
======
Semirhage stood, tapping her foot with impatience as the red veiled Dedicated and members of the Black Ajah hurried through the gateway. Of course she did not need to tap her foot. That was a mere affectation, but it made her point well.
As soon as the last was through she looked at the so-called aes sedai who had led the link. She hated aes sedai. "That was far too slow. You may have hit whoever had the sa'angreal, but if you missed and they had been ready for it, you would be dead. Next time you will be faster." She turned her attention to the head of the Dedicated in the group. "You may punish her as you wish for her sloth, but I will need her ready and able to fight tomorrow."
======
The army finished coming through the gateway and arraying themselves in the new wasteland around Rand and Nynaeve. He was confident that they would give their lives to defend him, but hopefully none of that would be necessary after what he he had done to the land for miles around. It was hard to see how anything could have survived. Certainly nothing he knew of could have survived that, but they would see.
Rand knew Perrin would be there in the Unseen World covering him there too. With that and the small army here he was as safe as he could be. He glanced at Nynaeve and she nodded. Good. Time to begin. Rand drew on the Choedan Kal once more, letting the huge gateway vanish. Then he started to spin anti-Traveling wards, one after the other, layering them outwards away from himself. He, or rather Lews Therin, suspected that long distance Traveling wouldn't be possible around Shayol Ghul, not with anything short of a sa'angreal anyway, but that wasn't something he wanted to rely on.
Job done he looked to Moiraine. "I'm ready."
May the Light have mercy on your soul boy. Mine too.
Moiraine reached into her pouch and pulled out the two remaining seals to the Dark One's prison. With a grimace she smashed them to the ground. At the same moment Rand drew fully on the Choedan Kal.
ALTERNATE ENDING VIII - Rodents of Unusual Size? I Don't Think They Exist
ALTERNATE ENDING VIII - Rodents of Unusual Size? I Don't Think They Exist
Deep in the Blight
Taija Felt the beacon appear in her head somewhere to the north and huffed to herself. It must have been Rand starting with the Choedan Kal. She didn't want to think about him, one of a long list of things that she didn't want to think about, but she still hoped that it would all go well. In the end he was just a kid. One she never wanted to speak to or see again, which likely wouldn't be a problem, but he'd had more dumped on him than anyone should handle. None of them needed her anymore anyway.
=====
The Army of the Light's headquarters
Taija would probably have basically gone straight to the north from Caemlyn. That was Elayne's best guess. She would not have bothered being particularly clever about what direction she took or anything like that, just trying to get away.
As far as Elayne knew, Taija was not experienced with the Blight, she probably had not had any specific destination in mind. If she knew the woman as well as she thought she did, she would then just have aimlessly gone into the Blight until she found something worth killing. Or being killed by, but Elayne did not want to think about that. She would find Taija and bring her back!
Elayne shouldered her pack and spun her first gateway to the edge of the Blight. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack, but she could not accept the idea that Taija could be allowed to just go and die alone like that. If she did not try to find her, no one would and that was simply unacceptable. She could accept the screaming fit her mother would have when she found out.
=====
Moghedien sat on the straw bed in the underground cell she'd been given. They hadn't actively mistreated her so far, except to replace her nice clothing with a cheap, scratchy dress after searching her far more thoroughly than she'd ever been searched before. Of course imprisoning one of the Chosen was an error worthy of death regardless of any mistreatment, she clung to that thought even as her stomach twisted in fear. She'd miscalculated badly, but there were still options. She'd be able to escape. They hadn't quite found every little tool that she had concealed on her and all she needed was an opportunity.
The door swung open and Moghedien looked up to see the boy, Aleksi Durcaral walk into the room. The three linked aspirants and single so-called aes sedai shielding her stood and bowed to him, the aspirants somewhat lower than their leader.
There was no point pretending she wasn't a darkfriend, not after the circumstances of her capture. So she needed to make herself valuable, give them as little as she could, but just enough to make sure that she'd have time to make her escape, when the opportunity came, because come it would.
Moghedien immediately fell to her knees. "Please my Lord, I'll talk, let me tell you about the Shadow's plans. I wish to come back to the Light. I know many secrets to share with you!" She knew she was laying it on thick, but there wasn't much other choice.
The boy glanced down at her, eyes hard. "Stand up, get off your knees woman."
Moghedien hurriedly stood, still babbling promises. Telling him information she already expected him to know.
He ignored her, instead turning to her guards. "Stand back please." Moghedien didn't let it interrupt her flow of promises and out of date intelligence. "How can we trust anything you say?" Moghedien paused.
"I would not lie," she lied. "I understand that my life depends on…"
"You are one of the Forsaken." The boy interrupted her, contempt in his tone. She clamped down on the spark of rage it ignited. She was one of the Chosen, how dare he! "You have been sentenced to death a thousand times over."
"No! Please!" They couldn't, she was…
=====
Deep in the Blight
Taija felt increasingly bad for eating her new charges' food and drinking their water, although at least she could do something about the water. She wasn't sure what was going on with the Blight or the world itself though. There was already the issue with Traveling beyond her line of sight. Then there was the fact that the Sun hadn't set. Finally, there were the Choedan Kal. It should have taken Rand minutes at most to spin the webs for the sealing, but they were still blazing away a full day later.
A small part of her wished she was there with a full array of measuring instruments. It was drowned out by the much larger part of her that reminded her that none of that mattered anymore anyway. It was all gone.
As Taija made her way north the terrain had transformed, vast diseased hillscapes, gradually being replaced by towering mountains. She was sure there were all kinds of horrifically dangerous creatures hidden away in them. However, given the speed they were all moving at, just going stepping through short ranged gateways, she didn't think there was all that much threat.
She couldn't keep that up forever though. However much she wanted things to all be over. The adults weren't healthy and the children were children. She was hardly in top condition either, although since she'd started eating and drinking she had been feeling better. Physically anyway.
That was why when Taija stepped out of a gateway onto a ledge and looked down to see a large lake between the mountains she decided to call a halt. She could tell that her charges were struggling and water was in short supply, more so than food in fact. Perhaps it would be a good place to stop for the night? Not that night seemed to be coming to the Blight.
=====
Olvel breathed a sigh of relief when the aes sedai called a halt. He could feel he was on the edge of collapse and he wasn't in the worst condition of the group. Nevermind his fellow prisoners, if he was honest he was surprised that she was still able to continue the way she had been. He supposed aes sedai were made of different stuff to normal people.
She pointed down at the lake below them. "We'll go down there and I'll collect water for us."
Olvel stared for a moment, unmoving until she opened another gateway, surely she couldn't mean that?! Then he hurried forward. He wasn't sure where her accent was from, but she wasn't a Borderlander. "Aes sedai, we're in the mountains in the Blight!" In his urgency he forgot to keep his tone deferential. "There are monsters here that can kill us all and drinking the water would be death."
She looked at him for a moment. Although by now he'd realised that for all her madness she was unlikely to just kill him where he stood, it was still intimidating. He could tell she just wanted to leave them and go on with her insane plan to kill Aginor, but he knew, well thought, that she wouldn't abandon them to do it. Whatever drove her, it hadn't left her without a conscience.
"Leave the monsters to me. As for the water, I can deal with it." She stepped through the gateway without another word. After a moment's hesitation Olvel followed, Zerith's hand clutched in his.
They emerged some way back from the lake. Thankfully she had decided to bring them out at what he hoped was a safe distance. Olvel was no soldier, but he still knew enough of the Blight to be terrified to be here. "Aes sedai, are you sure this is wise? Are you familiar with the dangers of the Blight?"
"You need water or you'll die." That didn't reassure him, but she gestured at the rest of them to stay back as she approached the water. Once she was closer she bent down. Nothing happened for a second and then she spat something that sounded like a series of curses although he'd swear he had no idea what the words meant before adjusting a bit and picking up a stone with her remaining hand. When had she even lost her arm?
The aes sedai wound up and threw the stone into the lake. It hit with a splash and for a moment nothing happened. Then, in an explosion of water, tentacles shot out reaching for her. He couldn't see her face, but her posture didn't change even as the tentacles froze in place before being crushed to pulp under an unseen force. An unearthly screech echoed across the valley containing the lake and the water boiled with movement underneath it.
Once silence had returned the aes sedai glanced back. As expressionless as ever. "Perhaps keep a bit further away from the water." They immediately all shuffled backwards.
Then the aes sedai did something with the One Power. Water started to shoot from the lake, pooling in an invisible bowl some way away from it. A huge amount of it in fact, more than they could possibly hope to carry. Olvel took a step forward, resisting the urge to lick his parched lips. Drinking Blight water was normally death, but if the aes sedai said it was safe to drink…
She held her hand up, warning them off. The air seemed to shimmer in odd patterns around her before the water started boiling violently, turning to steam that funneled through an invisible tube. The steam collected at the top of another invisible container and quickly started to turn back to water, dripping down to the bottom. It felt like longer, but it must only have been minutes before the water had all moved from one container to another. Finally the aes sedai just stared at it for a little while. Olvel wasn't sure whether she'd just relapsed into one of her absent moments or was doing something and was about to speak up when she slumped slightly and waved them over.
"It should be safe to drink now. Drink as much as you can and fill up all of your waterskins."
He didn't need to be told twice. Even if the water did taste rather flat and metallic, the aes sedai had said it was safe and that was what counted.
=====
The Army of the Light's headquarters
Mat scowled at the map. There were more and more reports of huge numbers of strangely dressed Shadow aligned troops joining the battle, with extensive support from channelers too. It wasn't clear where they were coming from. The trolloc lines had been cut off with strikes on their logistics, there weren't many more of them coming. Obviously these were humans and so were able to be deployed by gateway, at least to behind where the anti-Traveling wards begun, but where were they from? He couldn't believe that there were that many darkfriends in the world. Were there? They weren't Seanchan, they had none of those people's distinctive uniforms.
Ultimately it didn't matter where they were from, they were a significant problem. It was time to play his last surprise card. The full force of the Army of the Light's special units. They would be deployed where the lines were buckling. Against these newcomers and also where the White Cloaks had shattered themselves against the Goshien. Blood and bloody ashes, that had to have been the most predictable betrayal of all time and yet he hadn't seen it coming!
=====
The Front
Calyor hurried into position with his squadmates. He'd been going mad with impatience and frustration at being held back while the rest of the forces of the Light fought and died to hold back the trollocs. They were the true fist of the Army of the Light and, whatever the talk about needing them as a surprise for when the fighting was hardest, he still hated it.
However, now that he was here, with a horde of slathering trollocs lined up opposite them, he wasn't sure how keen he really was. His hands trembled a little as he prepared himself for battle. The Light-forsaken White Cloaks had betrayed the Light and now he and his comrades would have to fight to save the world from those sanctimonious hypocrites. Black-veiled Aiel were nearby too, but apparently they could be trusted although he personally was not so sure of that.
A roar came from the trolloc lines. Thousands of bestial throats howling together. He dropped his eyes to the field between them, the various obstacles they'd littered across it before the trollocs had arrived. Another roar. And another. Then, suddenly, they were moving. A wall of screaming, howling beasts that wanted nothing more than to kill every last human descending across the field. It was alright, he'd be alright, they'd trained for this. He clenched his hands harder around his weapon
"Company!" The lieutenant's voice rang out. "Fire by rank on the advance! Present!"
Without thinking Calyor raised his gun to his shoulder, the movement automatic.
"Fire!" He pulled the trigger and immediately dropped to one knee to start reloading as the next rank pushed past him.
"Fire!" Their guns crashed and they knelt. The third row pushed forward.
"Fire!" Crash. More trollocs fell, but Calyor had no time to look. He finished reloading and hurried forward. As he took aim he saw bursts of flame amidst the charging trollocs, channelers targeting the myrddraal. A cannon boomed and a bouncing ball carved its own swathe through the monsters' ranks.
"Fire!" He pulled the trigger and dropped to one knee. How close were the trollocs? He didn't look, just focused on reloading.
"Fire!" Another row pushed past him. The trollocs must be almost on them.
Calyor straightened up bringing his gun to his shoulder, but no command came. The trollocs were pulling back, he saw a myrddraal get trampled as they scrambled to escape. They'd been unable to face the might of the Army of the Light!
=====
Shol Arbela
Siuan could feel the beacon of the Choedan Kal in the back of the head, but she could not let it distract her. This was the third time the trollocs had made it onto the walls of Shol Arbela and she and the other defenders needed to fight for their lives to clear them off. She could only pray to the Creator that relief would come soon, or else she would be left hung out to dry on the nets like one of the day's catch.
She wove saidar into a series of darts of air, sending them shooting through shadowspawn, carving a swathe through them. Eight of her sisters were dead. She was tired, they were all tired, but Shol Arbela had to hold.
A myrddraal charged her and she wove fire into it, leaving it to fall burning from the parapets. She never heard the second myrddraal behind her, did not realise it was there until its sword slid into her chest. As saidar fled her and her vision went black she tried to clutch at the ice cold steel sticking out from her.
=====
The Front
Graendal lashed out with her web again, drawing fully on the circle and watched with satisfaction as another section of the Light's lines descended into murderous infighting. It really was an excellent web.
=====
Faeve sliced the part of the web that had settled over her area, keeping her own slicing web inverted and doing her best to ignore the eruption of screams and clashing weapons from nearby. Mat had made it a priority to kill whoever it was on that absurd palanquin. Despite the ridiculous ostentation of it, they seemed to be able to fade into the battlefield unexpectedly and disappear as soon as they'd torn another hole in the Light's lines with their perverse web. Well not this time. He had anticipated where the Shadow would look to push and she was there waiting. She drew fully on her circle along with the belt sa'angreal she wore under her blouse and struck. There was a brief moment of resistance and then the palanquin and its bearers disappeared in a blinding blast of coruscating fire that she knew would leave the ground melted into glass
Faeve did not wait to see more than that. She was already throwing herself and her team through a gateway to escape any possible retaliation.
=====
Graendal picked herself up off the ground, taking a deep breath as she brought her body back under control. Well that had been far too close. Clearly the Hall had been waiting for her. It was always a relief when people underestimated her. Why anyone with half a brain would sit themselves on a gilded palanquin hauled by a team of enslaved channelers in the middle of a battlefield she did not know. She liked nice things. Alright she lived a life of ridiculously over the top hedonism, but that did not mean she was an idiot.
She scanned across the distance, if she could spot the people that did it then she could at least retaliate against them. After a moment she stopped and glanced to the north, where she could feel the beacon of saidar generated by the Choedan Kal and reconsidered.
When she thought about it, it did seem that they were, at best. in for a repeat of the last round. At worst al'Thor might actually succeed in sealing the Bore without tainting the Power. Either way… Perhaps it was best to be somewhere else for a while.
Graendal turned to leave, respinning the inverted web of illusion over herself. An outside observer would have seen a particularly ugly trolloc vanish into rippling light to be replaced by a myrddraal.
=====
Deep in the Blight
Taija moved the group away from the lake to sleep, she had no desire to find out what else was lurking under its waters. If she was honest with herself, she was really rather worried about what might turn up this deep in the Blight. She didn't know anywhere near enough about its denizens. However, she didn't want to talk to anyone any more than she had to either, so she'd just sleep somewhere where she could set up wards and have a proper field of view. Assuming she could even sleep.
As it was, Taija was so exhausted that sleep actually came quickly to her. She was woken by her wards, the one that detected shadowspawn to be precise. She sat up feeling muggy and wondering what was going on. The ward should have fried any shadowspawn that tried to enter her area. Or at least hurt it badly enough to make it back off, but she couldn't hear anything.
Taija looked around through tired eyes. Nothing. Wait! She looked back, was that rock moving? With growing horror she took in something far larger than any living thing she'd ever seen moving before. What in the Light was it? It was creeping closer, a long body, the size of a train, but with tentacles and spikes studding it. For a moment she just stared in horror and then it lunged forward with frightening speed accompanied by a roaring sound of parts of it scraping along the ground. Taija scrambled for saidar and spun a barrier of air in front of the woman and her child just in time. Only the creature, whatever it was, went straight through the web as if it wasn't there. Its victims barely had time to scream before the tentacles around its front had yanked them into what Taija assumed was its mouth.
They might not have had time to scream, but everyone else was screaming and running almost immediately as her group of freed prisoners descended into chaos. With a rattling, roaring sound, the creature turned towards another of them. Taija hadn't even tried to learn their names and now they were going to die because she'd dragged them further into the Blight.
She felt sluggish, but her mind was still sharp when it had to be. The creature must be like Cadsuane, although what she was going to do against a 30 or 40 metre long monstrosity that she couldn't touch with the Power she didn't know. Regardless, she couldn't let it kill those people.
Taija scrambled to her feet, grabbing a boulder with the Power and flinging it straight at the creature's head. It hit it with a crash that shook the ground she was standing on and shattered into rubble. The impact didn't seem to bother the monster, but it did get it to turn its attention towards her and away from the man it was about to lunge towards. With a screech it charged straight at her.
For a moment Taija was tempted to just stand there and let it, but then it would just kill everyone else. Instead she split her flows and tried something different. Two webs. All five elements came together and balefire streaked out straight into the creature. It didn't even slow down. She dived through the gateway she'd opened to her side, just before it struck through the spot she'd been standing in. Unfortunately the gateway just fizzled on contact with the creature too rather than cutting through it.
Taija stood panting as it reoriented itself towards her, away from the people she was protecting. She could draw it away she supposed, take it far enough that they could escape, but they wouldn't survive the Blight without her. What else might work? She spun earth, fire and spirit, tearing a boulder apart and hardening it into a trio of sharp-pointed spears, using webs she'd learnt to strengthen and shape stone for buildings. Then she added air to the mix and flung them at the creature as hard as she could.
They shrieked through the air and impacted with another crash. Two of them shattered, but one penetrated into the creature's front eliciting a shriek from it. It didn't seem to slow it down though. How tough was the thing? Any of those would have gone straight through an elephant. Taija spun another gateway and stepped through, drawing the monster still further away from her charges.
She could keep battering away at it, she might even kill it eventually, but that would leave her exhausted and also mean leaving the others unattended for an extended period of time.
Light it was fast! Taija Traveled again as it rushed at where she was, just avoiding being caught by a whipping tentacle. It definitely wasn't sustainable. How could the thing even move while being so heavily armoured and immune to the Power? Let alone at that speed?! It didn't make any biological sense. Taija was sure she remembered reading something about how whales could only be that big because of having water to support their bodies. So what was fueling this? It was a construct of some kind clearly, but not like those she knew.
Taija Traveled again, almost lost in thought, not even bothering to lash out at the enraged creature for the moment. It couldn't be the Power fueling it, it wouldn't make any sense. Shadowspawn were pretty much inimical to the Power, it was why channelers could sense them. Maybe…
As it charged at her again she spun lightning fast. A far more complex web, a preponderance of spirit, but every other element mixed in too. She'd had to make a few changes on the fly since this time it wasn't meant to be tied into a saidin warding scheme, but she was fast, she could do that. It was incredibly power intensive, but the web came together in front of her and she flung it at the charging creature. As the web passed over it there was a flash of light, forcing Taiaj to look away and a crashing sound. By the time she could see properly again the creature was lying on the ground, worryingly close to her. It seemed to be trying to move, but couldn't, instead just sagging onto the harsh terrain like a wet tube of sand collapsing under its own weight. It was still alive though. Taija ignored the gasping whining sounds it was making and picked up the largest boulder she could with the Power. Without any change in her expression she dropped it on the creature's head. This time, instead of shattering on a hard shell the boulder went straight through, spraying gore everywhere. Taija picked it up again, lift and dropped it further along the body. Methodically working her way down to make sure the creature stayed dead.
=====
The Front
Adelorna stepped out of the gateway, forty of her sisters at her back. It was time for the true aes sedai to make themselves known. She glanced back at the ornate chest carried by a guardsman behind her. They would make sure to be there and to be seen to be there at a focal point of the battle. Then the Shadow would tremble before the might of the White Tower and the Light would see who its true leaders should be.
=====
Demandred stalked back and forth, it was nearly time. The Sharans were committed. The Light's forces were buckling, but holding. How Tel Janin had had the time to teach them to make cannons and muskets along with everything else he had no idea. Just as he had no idea who was in command of the Light's forces at the moment.
They were very good. Too good in fact. Better than Tel Janin he was fairly sure and far better than anyone from this time could possibly be. They were using channelers and firearms as if they'd fought in the War, not the tentative, fumbling exploration of an early War general, but one who'd fought through to the end. If he did not know better, he would have said it was Lews Therin. However, the beacon of the Choedan Kal to the north made it clear that that was not the case. Lews Therin, the coward, had chosen not to fight and win on the battlefield, knowing his defeat there was inevitable. Instead he had fled to the north to end things directly with the Dark One.
Well. Demandred could not pretend he was not disappointed. He had always fantasised that this would be the moment when he proved his superiority over Lews Therin, proved that he truly was the better man. However, Lews Therin, fool that he was, had made a fundamental mistake. He thought that resealing the Great Lord's prison would win him the War. It would not. So what if he succeeded? He would come back to find his lands overrun with trollocs, under Demandred's control. His friends all dead. There would be nothing left for him to save and then, when Demandred finally killed him, it would be Demandred that went and redrilled the Bore, freed the Great Lord and ascended to the position of Nae'blis.
Or… Demandred gave a rare smile. Perhaps he would not. Perhaps the ideal situation would be for Lews Therin to succeed and then be killed by him. The Great Lord could stay in his prison and Demandred would rule the world without him. The Sharans loved him, not feared him. Why could that not be the case for everyone? Why, in a couple of hundred years the whole world might believe it had been him that had sealed the Bore, not Lews Therin.
The idea had more than a little appeal. However, first he needed to win this war for the Shadow. No point in counting his chickens before they hatched.
Demandred seized hold of saidin and sent a red flare spiralling into the air. A moment later his followers dropped the anti-Traveling wards over the Shadow's lines. He was already drawing at full power from Sarkanen, lashing out with a web of indescribable power into the Light's lines. He immediately Traveled away from the rising, fiery cloud. He could not get too close, the Light's wards extended over the Shadow's lines too, but that was hardly a problem with a sa'angreal like Sarkanen. He stepped out of his gateway, struck again and stepped through another gateway. There he sent a green flare into the sky before immediately Traveling away, back towards his headquarters before the anti-Traveling wards were respun. It would be interesting seeing how the Light's general dealt with the two large holes that had just appeared in his lines.
Perhaps it was Taija Kosola? He had underestimated her a few times already. No, that made no sense, she was a dangerous fighter on an individual level, but had never commanded anything more than a squad in combat.
Deep in the Blight
Taija Felt the beacon appear in her head somewhere to the north and huffed to herself. It must have been Rand starting with the Choedan Kal. She didn't want to think about him, one of a long list of things that she didn't want to think about, but she still hoped that it would all go well. In the end he was just a kid. One she never wanted to speak to or see again, which likely wouldn't be a problem, but he'd had more dumped on him than anyone should handle. None of them needed her anymore anyway.
=====
The Army of the Light's headquarters
Taija would probably have basically gone straight to the north from Caemlyn. That was Elayne's best guess. She would not have bothered being particularly clever about what direction she took or anything like that, just trying to get away.
As far as Elayne knew, Taija was not experienced with the Blight, she probably had not had any specific destination in mind. If she knew the woman as well as she thought she did, she would then just have aimlessly gone into the Blight until she found something worth killing. Or being killed by, but Elayne did not want to think about that. She would find Taija and bring her back!
Elayne shouldered her pack and spun her first gateway to the edge of the Blight. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack, but she could not accept the idea that Taija could be allowed to just go and die alone like that. If she did not try to find her, no one would and that was simply unacceptable. She could accept the screaming fit her mother would have when she found out.
=====
Moghedien sat on the straw bed in the underground cell she'd been given. They hadn't actively mistreated her so far, except to replace her nice clothing with a cheap, scratchy dress after searching her far more thoroughly than she'd ever been searched before. Of course imprisoning one of the Chosen was an error worthy of death regardless of any mistreatment, she clung to that thought even as her stomach twisted in fear. She'd miscalculated badly, but there were still options. She'd be able to escape. They hadn't quite found every little tool that she had concealed on her and all she needed was an opportunity.
The door swung open and Moghedien looked up to see the boy, Aleksi Durcaral walk into the room. The three linked aspirants and single so-called aes sedai shielding her stood and bowed to him, the aspirants somewhat lower than their leader.
There was no point pretending she wasn't a darkfriend, not after the circumstances of her capture. So she needed to make herself valuable, give them as little as she could, but just enough to make sure that she'd have time to make her escape, when the opportunity came, because come it would.
Moghedien immediately fell to her knees. "Please my Lord, I'll talk, let me tell you about the Shadow's plans. I wish to come back to the Light. I know many secrets to share with you!" She knew she was laying it on thick, but there wasn't much other choice.
The boy glanced down at her, eyes hard. "Stand up, get off your knees woman."
Moghedien hurriedly stood, still babbling promises. Telling him information she already expected him to know.
He ignored her, instead turning to her guards. "Stand back please." Moghedien didn't let it interrupt her flow of promises and out of date intelligence. "How can we trust anything you say?" Moghedien paused.
"I would not lie," she lied. "I understand that my life depends on…"
"You are one of the Forsaken." The boy interrupted her, contempt in his tone. She clamped down on the spark of rage it ignited. She was one of the Chosen, how dare he! "You have been sentenced to death a thousand times over."
"No! Please!" They couldn't, she was…
=====
Deep in the Blight
Taija felt increasingly bad for eating her new charges' food and drinking their water, although at least she could do something about the water. She wasn't sure what was going on with the Blight or the world itself though. There was already the issue with Traveling beyond her line of sight. Then there was the fact that the Sun hadn't set. Finally, there were the Choedan Kal. It should have taken Rand minutes at most to spin the webs for the sealing, but they were still blazing away a full day later.
A small part of her wished she was there with a full array of measuring instruments. It was drowned out by the much larger part of her that reminded her that none of that mattered anymore anyway. It was all gone.
As Taija made her way north the terrain had transformed, vast diseased hillscapes, gradually being replaced by towering mountains. She was sure there were all kinds of horrifically dangerous creatures hidden away in them. However, given the speed they were all moving at, just going stepping through short ranged gateways, she didn't think there was all that much threat.
She couldn't keep that up forever though. However much she wanted things to all be over. The adults weren't healthy and the children were children. She was hardly in top condition either, although since she'd started eating and drinking she had been feeling better. Physically anyway.
That was why when Taija stepped out of a gateway onto a ledge and looked down to see a large lake between the mountains she decided to call a halt. She could tell that her charges were struggling and water was in short supply, more so than food in fact. Perhaps it would be a good place to stop for the night? Not that night seemed to be coming to the Blight.
=====
Olvel breathed a sigh of relief when the aes sedai called a halt. He could feel he was on the edge of collapse and he wasn't in the worst condition of the group. Nevermind his fellow prisoners, if he was honest he was surprised that she was still able to continue the way she had been. He supposed aes sedai were made of different stuff to normal people.
She pointed down at the lake below them. "We'll go down there and I'll collect water for us."
Olvel stared for a moment, unmoving until she opened another gateway, surely she couldn't mean that?! Then he hurried forward. He wasn't sure where her accent was from, but she wasn't a Borderlander. "Aes sedai, we're in the mountains in the Blight!" In his urgency he forgot to keep his tone deferential. "There are monsters here that can kill us all and drinking the water would be death."
She looked at him for a moment. Although by now he'd realised that for all her madness she was unlikely to just kill him where he stood, it was still intimidating. He could tell she just wanted to leave them and go on with her insane plan to kill Aginor, but he knew, well thought, that she wouldn't abandon them to do it. Whatever drove her, it hadn't left her without a conscience.
"Leave the monsters to me. As for the water, I can deal with it." She stepped through the gateway without another word. After a moment's hesitation Olvel followed, Zerith's hand clutched in his.
They emerged some way back from the lake. Thankfully she had decided to bring them out at what he hoped was a safe distance. Olvel was no soldier, but he still knew enough of the Blight to be terrified to be here. "Aes sedai, are you sure this is wise? Are you familiar with the dangers of the Blight?"
"You need water or you'll die." That didn't reassure him, but she gestured at the rest of them to stay back as she approached the water. Once she was closer she bent down. Nothing happened for a second and then she spat something that sounded like a series of curses although he'd swear he had no idea what the words meant before adjusting a bit and picking up a stone with her remaining hand. When had she even lost her arm?
The aes sedai wound up and threw the stone into the lake. It hit with a splash and for a moment nothing happened. Then, in an explosion of water, tentacles shot out reaching for her. He couldn't see her face, but her posture didn't change even as the tentacles froze in place before being crushed to pulp under an unseen force. An unearthly screech echoed across the valley containing the lake and the water boiled with movement underneath it.
Once silence had returned the aes sedai glanced back. As expressionless as ever. "Perhaps keep a bit further away from the water." They immediately all shuffled backwards.
Then the aes sedai did something with the One Power. Water started to shoot from the lake, pooling in an invisible bowl some way away from it. A huge amount of it in fact, more than they could possibly hope to carry. Olvel took a step forward, resisting the urge to lick his parched lips. Drinking Blight water was normally death, but if the aes sedai said it was safe to drink…
She held her hand up, warning them off. The air seemed to shimmer in odd patterns around her before the water started boiling violently, turning to steam that funneled through an invisible tube. The steam collected at the top of another invisible container and quickly started to turn back to water, dripping down to the bottom. It felt like longer, but it must only have been minutes before the water had all moved from one container to another. Finally the aes sedai just stared at it for a little while. Olvel wasn't sure whether she'd just relapsed into one of her absent moments or was doing something and was about to speak up when she slumped slightly and waved them over.
"It should be safe to drink now. Drink as much as you can and fill up all of your waterskins."
He didn't need to be told twice. Even if the water did taste rather flat and metallic, the aes sedai had said it was safe and that was what counted.
=====
The Army of the Light's headquarters
Mat scowled at the map. There were more and more reports of huge numbers of strangely dressed Shadow aligned troops joining the battle, with extensive support from channelers too. It wasn't clear where they were coming from. The trolloc lines had been cut off with strikes on their logistics, there weren't many more of them coming. Obviously these were humans and so were able to be deployed by gateway, at least to behind where the anti-Traveling wards begun, but where were they from? He couldn't believe that there were that many darkfriends in the world. Were there? They weren't Seanchan, they had none of those people's distinctive uniforms.
Ultimately it didn't matter where they were from, they were a significant problem. It was time to play his last surprise card. The full force of the Army of the Light's special units. They would be deployed where the lines were buckling. Against these newcomers and also where the White Cloaks had shattered themselves against the Goshien. Blood and bloody ashes, that had to have been the most predictable betrayal of all time and yet he hadn't seen it coming!
=====
The Front
Calyor hurried into position with his squadmates. He'd been going mad with impatience and frustration at being held back while the rest of the forces of the Light fought and died to hold back the trollocs. They were the true fist of the Army of the Light and, whatever the talk about needing them as a surprise for when the fighting was hardest, he still hated it.
However, now that he was here, with a horde of slathering trollocs lined up opposite them, he wasn't sure how keen he really was. His hands trembled a little as he prepared himself for battle. The Light-forsaken White Cloaks had betrayed the Light and now he and his comrades would have to fight to save the world from those sanctimonious hypocrites. Black-veiled Aiel were nearby too, but apparently they could be trusted although he personally was not so sure of that.
A roar came from the trolloc lines. Thousands of bestial throats howling together. He dropped his eyes to the field between them, the various obstacles they'd littered across it before the trollocs had arrived. Another roar. And another. Then, suddenly, they were moving. A wall of screaming, howling beasts that wanted nothing more than to kill every last human descending across the field. It was alright, he'd be alright, they'd trained for this. He clenched his hands harder around his weapon
"Company!" The lieutenant's voice rang out. "Fire by rank on the advance! Present!"
Without thinking Calyor raised his gun to his shoulder, the movement automatic.
"Fire!" He pulled the trigger and immediately dropped to one knee to start reloading as the next rank pushed past him.
"Fire!" Their guns crashed and they knelt. The third row pushed forward.
"Fire!" Crash. More trollocs fell, but Calyor had no time to look. He finished reloading and hurried forward. As he took aim he saw bursts of flame amidst the charging trollocs, channelers targeting the myrddraal. A cannon boomed and a bouncing ball carved its own swathe through the monsters' ranks.
"Fire!" He pulled the trigger and dropped to one knee. How close were the trollocs? He didn't look, just focused on reloading.
"Fire!" Another row pushed past him. The trollocs must be almost on them.
Calyor straightened up bringing his gun to his shoulder, but no command came. The trollocs were pulling back, he saw a myrddraal get trampled as they scrambled to escape. They'd been unable to face the might of the Army of the Light!
=====
Shol Arbela
Siuan could feel the beacon of the Choedan Kal in the back of the head, but she could not let it distract her. This was the third time the trollocs had made it onto the walls of Shol Arbela and she and the other defenders needed to fight for their lives to clear them off. She could only pray to the Creator that relief would come soon, or else she would be left hung out to dry on the nets like one of the day's catch.
She wove saidar into a series of darts of air, sending them shooting through shadowspawn, carving a swathe through them. Eight of her sisters were dead. She was tired, they were all tired, but Shol Arbela had to hold.
A myrddraal charged her and she wove fire into it, leaving it to fall burning from the parapets. She never heard the second myrddraal behind her, did not realise it was there until its sword slid into her chest. As saidar fled her and her vision went black she tried to clutch at the ice cold steel sticking out from her.
=====
The Front
Graendal lashed out with her web again, drawing fully on the circle and watched with satisfaction as another section of the Light's lines descended into murderous infighting. It really was an excellent web.
=====
Faeve sliced the part of the web that had settled over her area, keeping her own slicing web inverted and doing her best to ignore the eruption of screams and clashing weapons from nearby. Mat had made it a priority to kill whoever it was on that absurd palanquin. Despite the ridiculous ostentation of it, they seemed to be able to fade into the battlefield unexpectedly and disappear as soon as they'd torn another hole in the Light's lines with their perverse web. Well not this time. He had anticipated where the Shadow would look to push and she was there waiting. She drew fully on her circle along with the belt sa'angreal she wore under her blouse and struck. There was a brief moment of resistance and then the palanquin and its bearers disappeared in a blinding blast of coruscating fire that she knew would leave the ground melted into glass
Faeve did not wait to see more than that. She was already throwing herself and her team through a gateway to escape any possible retaliation.
=====
Graendal picked herself up off the ground, taking a deep breath as she brought her body back under control. Well that had been far too close. Clearly the Hall had been waiting for her. It was always a relief when people underestimated her. Why anyone with half a brain would sit themselves on a gilded palanquin hauled by a team of enslaved channelers in the middle of a battlefield she did not know. She liked nice things. Alright she lived a life of ridiculously over the top hedonism, but that did not mean she was an idiot.
She scanned across the distance, if she could spot the people that did it then she could at least retaliate against them. After a moment she stopped and glanced to the north, where she could feel the beacon of saidar generated by the Choedan Kal and reconsidered.
When she thought about it, it did seem that they were, at best. in for a repeat of the last round. At worst al'Thor might actually succeed in sealing the Bore without tainting the Power. Either way… Perhaps it was best to be somewhere else for a while.
Graendal turned to leave, respinning the inverted web of illusion over herself. An outside observer would have seen a particularly ugly trolloc vanish into rippling light to be replaced by a myrddraal.
=====
Deep in the Blight
Taija moved the group away from the lake to sleep, she had no desire to find out what else was lurking under its waters. If she was honest with herself, she was really rather worried about what might turn up this deep in the Blight. She didn't know anywhere near enough about its denizens. However, she didn't want to talk to anyone any more than she had to either, so she'd just sleep somewhere where she could set up wards and have a proper field of view. Assuming she could even sleep.
As it was, Taija was so exhausted that sleep actually came quickly to her. She was woken by her wards, the one that detected shadowspawn to be precise. She sat up feeling muggy and wondering what was going on. The ward should have fried any shadowspawn that tried to enter her area. Or at least hurt it badly enough to make it back off, but she couldn't hear anything.
Taija looked around through tired eyes. Nothing. Wait! She looked back, was that rock moving? With growing horror she took in something far larger than any living thing she'd ever seen moving before. What in the Light was it? It was creeping closer, a long body, the size of a train, but with tentacles and spikes studding it. For a moment she just stared in horror and then it lunged forward with frightening speed accompanied by a roaring sound of parts of it scraping along the ground. Taija scrambled for saidar and spun a barrier of air in front of the woman and her child just in time. Only the creature, whatever it was, went straight through the web as if it wasn't there. Its victims barely had time to scream before the tentacles around its front had yanked them into what Taija assumed was its mouth.
They might not have had time to scream, but everyone else was screaming and running almost immediately as her group of freed prisoners descended into chaos. With a rattling, roaring sound, the creature turned towards another of them. Taija hadn't even tried to learn their names and now they were going to die because she'd dragged them further into the Blight.
She felt sluggish, but her mind was still sharp when it had to be. The creature must be like Cadsuane, although what she was going to do against a 30 or 40 metre long monstrosity that she couldn't touch with the Power she didn't know. Regardless, she couldn't let it kill those people.
Taija scrambled to her feet, grabbing a boulder with the Power and flinging it straight at the creature's head. It hit it with a crash that shook the ground she was standing on and shattered into rubble. The impact didn't seem to bother the monster, but it did get it to turn its attention towards her and away from the man it was about to lunge towards. With a screech it charged straight at her.
For a moment Taija was tempted to just stand there and let it, but then it would just kill everyone else. Instead she split her flows and tried something different. Two webs. All five elements came together and balefire streaked out straight into the creature. It didn't even slow down. She dived through the gateway she'd opened to her side, just before it struck through the spot she'd been standing in. Unfortunately the gateway just fizzled on contact with the creature too rather than cutting through it.
Taija stood panting as it reoriented itself towards her, away from the people she was protecting. She could draw it away she supposed, take it far enough that they could escape, but they wouldn't survive the Blight without her. What else might work? She spun earth, fire and spirit, tearing a boulder apart and hardening it into a trio of sharp-pointed spears, using webs she'd learnt to strengthen and shape stone for buildings. Then she added air to the mix and flung them at the creature as hard as she could.
They shrieked through the air and impacted with another crash. Two of them shattered, but one penetrated into the creature's front eliciting a shriek from it. It didn't seem to slow it down though. How tough was the thing? Any of those would have gone straight through an elephant. Taija spun another gateway and stepped through, drawing the monster still further away from her charges.
She could keep battering away at it, she might even kill it eventually, but that would leave her exhausted and also mean leaving the others unattended for an extended period of time.
Light it was fast! Taija Traveled again as it rushed at where she was, just avoiding being caught by a whipping tentacle. It definitely wasn't sustainable. How could the thing even move while being so heavily armoured and immune to the Power? Let alone at that speed?! It didn't make any biological sense. Taija was sure she remembered reading something about how whales could only be that big because of having water to support their bodies. So what was fueling this? It was a construct of some kind clearly, but not like those she knew.
Taija Traveled again, almost lost in thought, not even bothering to lash out at the enraged creature for the moment. It couldn't be the Power fueling it, it wouldn't make any sense. Shadowspawn were pretty much inimical to the Power, it was why channelers could sense them. Maybe…
As it charged at her again she spun lightning fast. A far more complex web, a preponderance of spirit, but every other element mixed in too. She'd had to make a few changes on the fly since this time it wasn't meant to be tied into a saidin warding scheme, but she was fast, she could do that. It was incredibly power intensive, but the web came together in front of her and she flung it at the charging creature. As the web passed over it there was a flash of light, forcing Taiaj to look away and a crashing sound. By the time she could see properly again the creature was lying on the ground, worryingly close to her. It seemed to be trying to move, but couldn't, instead just sagging onto the harsh terrain like a wet tube of sand collapsing under its own weight. It was still alive though. Taija ignored the gasping whining sounds it was making and picked up the largest boulder she could with the Power. Without any change in her expression she dropped it on the creature's head. This time, instead of shattering on a hard shell the boulder went straight through, spraying gore everywhere. Taija picked it up again, lift and dropped it further along the body. Methodically working her way down to make sure the creature stayed dead.
=====
The Front
Adelorna stepped out of the gateway, forty of her sisters at her back. It was time for the true aes sedai to make themselves known. She glanced back at the ornate chest carried by a guardsman behind her. They would make sure to be there and to be seen to be there at a focal point of the battle. Then the Shadow would tremble before the might of the White Tower and the Light would see who its true leaders should be.
=====
Demandred stalked back and forth, it was nearly time. The Sharans were committed. The Light's forces were buckling, but holding. How Tel Janin had had the time to teach them to make cannons and muskets along with everything else he had no idea. Just as he had no idea who was in command of the Light's forces at the moment.
They were very good. Too good in fact. Better than Tel Janin he was fairly sure and far better than anyone from this time could possibly be. They were using channelers and firearms as if they'd fought in the War, not the tentative, fumbling exploration of an early War general, but one who'd fought through to the end. If he did not know better, he would have said it was Lews Therin. However, the beacon of the Choedan Kal to the north made it clear that that was not the case. Lews Therin, the coward, had chosen not to fight and win on the battlefield, knowing his defeat there was inevitable. Instead he had fled to the north to end things directly with the Dark One.
Well. Demandred could not pretend he was not disappointed. He had always fantasised that this would be the moment when he proved his superiority over Lews Therin, proved that he truly was the better man. However, Lews Therin, fool that he was, had made a fundamental mistake. He thought that resealing the Great Lord's prison would win him the War. It would not. So what if he succeeded? He would come back to find his lands overrun with trollocs, under Demandred's control. His friends all dead. There would be nothing left for him to save and then, when Demandred finally killed him, it would be Demandred that went and redrilled the Bore, freed the Great Lord and ascended to the position of Nae'blis.
Or… Demandred gave a rare smile. Perhaps he would not. Perhaps the ideal situation would be for Lews Therin to succeed and then be killed by him. The Great Lord could stay in his prison and Demandred would rule the world without him. The Sharans loved him, not feared him. Why could that not be the case for everyone? Why, in a couple of hundred years the whole world might believe it had been him that had sealed the Bore, not Lews Therin.
The idea had more than a little appeal. However, first he needed to win this war for the Shadow. No point in counting his chickens before they hatched.
Demandred seized hold of saidin and sent a red flare spiralling into the air. A moment later his followers dropped the anti-Traveling wards over the Shadow's lines. He was already drawing at full power from Sarkanen, lashing out with a web of indescribable power into the Light's lines. He immediately Traveled away from the rising, fiery cloud. He could not get too close, the Light's wards extended over the Shadow's lines too, but that was hardly a problem with a sa'angreal like Sarkanen. He stepped out of his gateway, struck again and stepped through another gateway. There he sent a green flare into the sky before immediately Traveling away, back towards his headquarters before the anti-Traveling wards were respun. It would be interesting seeing how the Light's general dealt with the two large holes that had just appeared in his lines.
Perhaps it was Taija Kosola? He had underestimated her a few times already. No, that made no sense, she was a dangerous fighter on an individual level, but had never commanded anything more than a squad in combat.
ALTERNATE ENDING IX - The End
As usual all speech in italics is in the Old Tongue.
AN: Note that while this is the final chapter of the alternate ending, there are still epilogues to come.
ALTERNATE ENDING IX - The End
Deep in the Blight
It took what felt like another two days of following the road to get somewhere. Progress was slow because of Taija's charges and the need to dodge occasional bands of trollocs, many of which had those disgusting channeling monstrosities among them. It was hard to be sure about the time though, given the way that the Sun never set. Either way, as time went on Taija was sure she was getting closer. The number of times she had to dodge trolloc bands increased as did the signs of their presence. She actually saw occasional villages, or that was what she thought they were from a distance. She supposed trollocs must live somewhere when they weren't out pillaging real people's homes. There was no time to stop and destroy them though. She wished she had a sa'angreal and could just set about them. Destroy their lives like the Shadow had destroyed hers.
When Taija reached a cliff face she was fairly sure she'd reached her final destination. Groups of trollocs milled outside under the supervision of myrddraal, but what drew her eye was the perfectly carved, square entrance in the rock. It looked like someone had taken a cave and then made it look as neat as possible using the Power. The other thing that convinced her it was probably where she'd find Aginor was the group of children being roughly urged into the entrance. The sight made her stomach turn.
The question was, how to get in. Tentative feelers of spirit had already told her that the place was under anti-Traveling wards. They didn't feel particularly substantial, she could probably break them, but that would be like a foghorn announcing her presence.
Really Taija just wanted to throw herself at the shadowspawn and slaughter her way in. But then she'd lose the element of surprise again and there were quite a few of them. The last thing she wanted was to get ambushed by other channelers or Aginor because she was busy killing shadowspawn. Or worse he might escape instead of attacking her.
She lay on the ridge looking out over them chewing her lip as she thought. She didn't even notice that the man who seemed to have become her little group's spokesman was beside her until he spoke.
"Is Aginor really in there aes sedai?"
She jumped and stifled a shriek. She really wasn't with it these days, he shouldn't have been able to sneak up on her like that. After a moment Taija regained her voice. "I think so. He must be. It's where the those… disgusting trolloc things are coming from and where they seem to be taking the…" she didn't say children. His would have been there if not for her.
He nodded. "And you don't think you can get in?"
"Not without risking him escaping or hearing me coming and overwhelming me."
"And what happens to us if you die in there?"
"I… I don't know. The Dragon is sealing the Dark One away as we speak. When that's done you'll probably be safe. Safer. The Light will win the Last Battle."
He looked at her for a long moment. "So we'll die."
Taija looked away, unable to meet his eyes. "Hopefully not."
He thought for a few seconds. "Well it seems there's a way to get around this. Can you use us as prisoners to get in?"
Taija didn't hesitate. "No! Absolutely not!"
"Why, because we might get killed?"
"Yes!" Obviously she wasn't going to use a bunch of traumatised men and women and their children as props to walk into Aginor's base. What kind of a psychopath did he think she was?! What did he think would happen to them after she died? What if it wasn't even Aginor's base?
He just shook his head sadly at her. "We owe you our lives aes sedai, but what do you think will happen to us if you get captured trying to get in or simply die in the attempt? Our best chance of survival is for you to succeed and, ultimately, killing one of the Forsaken is worth more than any of us." He hesitated and then pressed on. "I don't know what's driving you to do this aes sedai, but you can't do this alone."
=====
The Front
Adelorna could see the Light's lines buckling ahead of her. There were just too many channelers on the other side. These fresh troops that the Shadow had brought in were heavily supported by what seemed like rather large circles. It was a miracle the lines had held as long as they had, especially after the casualties the Hall's forces there had taken. Perhaps it was time for the White Tower to make its presence known here, while she had no desire to throw away true aes sedai, they could not afford for this battle to be lost either.
She glanced down at the ornate box. "Open it."
As one of the other aes sedai busied herself with the task she looked out again at the press of troops maybe half a mile ahead. She could hear the screams and clash of weapons easily from where she was.
When she looked back the aes sedai was holding it up to her. Funny to think that a relatively simple looking curved horn could be such an important artifact, but that was the way of the world. The Age of Legends had no true sense of presence or style. Taija was enough of an illustration of that.
She reverently took the horn in her own hands and brought it to her lips. The rumours were that it had already been blown, possibly by Matrim, the young Andoran nobleman leading the Light's forces. If that was true then it would be locked to him, but she was not sure she believed that. So she would try. If it worked she would bring glory to herself and the White Tower. If it did not work, well it would be disappointing, but she would bring it to the boy and would still be honoured for that.
Taking a deep breath she raised it to her lips and blew. A single clear note sounded out, seeming to echo on and on and on. Fog began to gather around her.
=====
Deep in the Blight
Rorg look up and sniff air as a hole opens. Woman step out, human. Rorg growl and look to myrddraal.
Many humans follow woman. Little ones like Great Master want. Rorg no touch. Also big ones. Rorg want. Good meat.
Rorg come forward and roar. Rorg take man meat, eat.
"Control your beasts or I shall do it for you." Woman talk to myrddraal. No fear for woman. Rorg reconsider. Woman might be aes sedai. Myrddraal give Rorg look, Rorg decide not so hungry.
Myrddraal not happy. "You are not on the schedule. I have not been notified of your arrival."
Rorg interested now. Rorg smart, if Rorg wait, maybe man meat after all. Maybe even aes sedai woman meat.
"You dare to question me?! To question the Great Master's orders?! I have been told to bring these test subjects to him and I hear and obey. Do you want to interfere with his orders? We could go and bother him I suppose? I am sure he will be even more delighted to have his time wasted than I am."
Woman meets myrddraal eye to eye. Rorg almost impressed, Rorg cannot do. Slowly myrddraal stands aside.
"Very well, you may enter, but I shall accompany you." Rorg disappointed. No man meat for Rorg.
=====
Taija was almost trembling with a combination of rage and anger as the myrddraal led her into the mouth of the cave. Although she wasn't really sure she could call it a cave. As soon as she was inside she saw that everything was painted white and carved into smoothness with the Power. It looked as close to a research facility from her time as someone could make using contemporary resources, the Power and a cave in the middle of the fucking Blight.
She needed to ignore that though. She was doing her best to emulate the worst behaviours of the Tower aes sedai, but it was a struggle in her current state.
The myrddraal turned back to her and Taija forced herself not to quail under its eyeless gaze, stamping down on the terror that gibbered inside her. "Shall I arrange for the children to be taken to the holding pen and the adults disposed of?"
Taija immediately shook her head. "Absolutely not. The Great Master ordered me to bring them directly to him, all of them."
"That is… irregular."
She scowled. "I am not going to question the orders of one of the Chosen."
"Indeed," its bloodless lips twitched into a small smile. "Let us go directly to Lord Aginor then."
=====
The Front
Despite the breakthroughs that he had forced in the Light's lines with Sarkanen Demandred was not satisfied. They were chewing up the Shadow's armies at a horrendous rate. Their use of firearms in particular was devastating. He had thought that with all of the work the Shadow was doing to pick out and target the Light's channelers they would have an insurmountable advantage, but not only did the Light have more channelers than he had thought, they also had guns. It was not fair.
Oh well, such was the nature of war. It just meant he would need to be more active. The Light had been making intermittent strikes with its sa'angreal, despite the danger posed to them by the teams Semirhage had trained to work in unison. Perhaps it was time for him to show them how it was done. He looked down at the map and pondered for a few seconds. That area seemed to be a focal point and at least one sa'angreal had been used around it. He would go there and break the Light's lines as well as eliminating their sa'angreal. First though he would need to properly understand the layout of their anti-Traveling wards, he had no desire to find himself trapped for a counter-strike.
=====
Demandred waited on the hilltop, giving him a commanding view over the battlefield. In the distance his Sharans were fighting and dying for him, throwing themselves into the Army of the Light's ranks. He could not care less about the shadowspawn, but the Sharans' deaths, they were regrettable. Well soon he would solve that. A burst of saidin drew his attention to the east, immediately followed by the flash of an explosion among the Light's forces. That would be Semirhage's circle. A full circle of 72, easily on par with a lesser sa'angreal, if somewhat more unwieldy. They also made excellent bait.
=====
Faeve felt the flash of saidar and then the rumbling of the ground, this was what she had been waiting for. She drew fully on her link with Jahar and Erelle, Callandor briefly flashing to blinding brightness behind her, and flung the web at the location the Shadow's attack had come from. Immediately afterwards they were diving through a gateway.
=====
There. Demandred drew fully on Sarkanen and annihilated the spot the counterstrike had come from before leaping through a gateway.
=====
Faeve felt the start of the blast coming through the gateway even as it closed. That was far too close. Jahar grabbed her arm, "there!" He pointed across the battlefield.
She did not hesitate, spinning through Callandor and annihilating the area he had pointed at.
=====
Egwene lay amidst the grass, Jaer at her side with the staff clutched in her hand. With the casualties the Light had been taking the numbers they could use for links was falling. Still, she hardly needed a link to be effective with a sa'angreal in her hands. That was why they were there, not linked at all, while she waited for another of the Shadow's big circles to show itself.
Blinding fire flashed on one side of the lines, then the other. Towering columns of flame tearing into the sky.
"Egwene, it is saidin, link with me. I can find him." She didn't hesitate, opening herself to Jaer's control. He paused, watching, another two blasts and then fire was tearing through the Light's lines. Saidar surged through her as he drew on it and a spot behind the Shadow's lines vanished into its own fire. Then they were both rolling through a gateway. Him watching for signs of saidin from the other side, her looking for the retaliatory strike on their previous spot. After a few long seconds they both relaxed.
She couldn't be sure, but she thought they'd probably hit the Shadow's channeler, no doubt one of the Forsaken. Probably the one that had killed Tel. More worrying was the lack of retaliation from Callandor at the end. Had he hit Jahar, Faeve and Erelle? A colder person might call it a favourable exchange, she just felt sick at the idea of yet more friends being dead.
=====
Deep in the Blight
As the myrddraal led Taija and her terrified charges through what she was quickly realising was a whole cave complex she struggled to keep herself under control. Shadowspawn stalked through it. Humans scurried around too. Some of them clearly darkfriends, nervous but not terrified. Others looking more like slaves, emaciated and pushing heavy carts in front of them. Taija glanced inside one cart and wished she hadn't. A trolloc carried a kicking and screaming boy past her under its arm and she had to watch them go by, however much it horrified her.
Eventually the myrddraal led her down a corridor past a line of children, standing against the wall with trollocs standing guard over them. Most of them were crying quietly.
The myrddraal knocked on a large metal door and waited a second. Then it gave Taija another bloodless smile and opened the door for them all to file in, the adults clutching the children close to them.
The myddraal bowed low. Taija saw a raised platform, a man hunched over it. There was a trolloc on there, parts of a child suspended in the air around it, blood dripping, organs hanging loose and wide, staring horrified eyes. Very much alive eyes as the girl's head is drawn towards the trolloc's neck by invisible saidin.
Taija had seen a lot over the years and maybe it was her current condition, but this was too much. She looked away, her stomach clenching and emptied the little that was in it onto the floor. Aginor, not that it looked like him of course, straightened up and turned to face her, his arms covered in blood up to the elbow.
=====
As the aes sedai emptied her stomach at the sight before them Olvel did his best not to panic. This wasn't what was meant to happen, he'd expected her to just strike down the man in front of them the way she'd put down every other thing that had threatened them. He couldn't even look at what was going on in front of him, it was too horrific. That was what would have happened to Zerith. He swore then if he had to kill his daughter with his own hands to avoid a fate like that for her then he would.
The man, no the Forsaken, Aginor, frowned as he looked them over. Then he frowned harder as the aes sedai seemed to jerk and suddenly stood up straight again, meeting his eyes, although Olvel could see she was trembling.
The myddraal spoke first, its voice like ancient parchament. "Great Master, this woman was attempting to infiltrate your laboratory. She could channel, so I thought it best to bring her to you, particularly as she had a number of potential test subjects with her."
"Indeed." The Forsaken looked her over. He didn't look like much, a plain faced, middle-aged man, with lank hair and a weak chin. Not like someone used to scare children in stories "So what have we here, another do-gooding so-called aes sedai?"
The illusion over the aes sedai rippled to be replaced by her real appearance. She looked even worse than before. Nevertheless the Forsaken recoiled. "Taija Kosola?!" Was that her name?
Then, the Forsaken switched to the Old Tongue. Oddly accented and rapid fire with some strange words, but Olvel was an educated man, he thought he could just about follow. "What are you doing here? You look utterly terrible! I know we don't see eye to eye on many things, but is there anything I can do for you? You need to leave, really." He sounded genuinely concerned, conciliatory. What in the Light?! Was she a darkfriend?
At the Forsaken's words the myrddraal went for its sword, drawing with snake like speed. Neither the aes sedai, Taija, nor Aginor even glanced at it, but it suddenly both erupted into fire and crunched into a compressed ball of blood and bone at the same time.
The aes sedai, Taija, scowled at Aginor. "I'm fine, you know perfectly well why I'm here Aginor. What the fuck is this? I knew you were a monster, did horrific things just because you could, but this… This is even more disgusting!" Her voice was rising to a shriek.
Aginor blinked a few times, looking a bit uncomfortable. "I thought it was quite impressive to be honest. Anyway, please, call me Ishar. You know, the challenges of combining channeling with shadowspawn were almost impossible to overcome, why I've had to come up with several new webs to get it to work. Just the incompatibility of human DNA with…"
Taija cut him off. "What the fuck is wrong with you Aginor? Those are children, it's disgusting. Everything you do is disgusting!"
The Forsaken actually looked hurt at that. "I made sure they didn't suffer, a slight tweak to the pleasure centres and that's why they're always laughing. It's a better life in many ways." He shrugged. "Well except when they channel, nothing I could do about that. Can't even silence the screaming without…"
He trailed off under Taija's disbelieving stare.
"Anyway, I don't suppose I could persuade you to turn around, go home. I'd really rather not fight you of all people. I'd hate to have to kill you."
She didn't reply, just kept staring at him.
"No, I suppose not. I could make you a new arm you know, quite easily really. I wouldn't even ask anything in return."
"I'd rather hang myself than accept that from you Aginor."
Aginor actually looked disappointed. "Well… I'm sorry to hear that. I do hold you in the highest regard you know, it's just a pity it's not reciprocated. Still, if we're going to do this then I just want to offer you my sympathies about Tel Janin. While I cannot say that I was a huge fan of the man, I know you loved him and I'm sorry for your loss."
Who was Tel Janin? Also why did this Taija speak the Old Tongue the same way as Aginor? There was a long pause, was that a tear trailing down Taija's cheek? "It doesn't change anything, but thank you."
Aginor shrugged awkwardly, if a blood spattered member of the Forsaken could do anything awkwardly. "I'm just sorry it came to this. Knowing the way you've carved a swathe through our ranks, I'd normally be quite worried, but looking at you I'm not sure you're in any condition to do this. Are you sure you don't just want to walk away? There aren't very many of us left who remember the good old days and I'd as soon destroy the stained glass windows of the Bahanra Almoran as someone such as you."
"Your disgusting creations did destroy the Bahanra Almoran, I saw the remains!"
"Oh. Well perhaps not the best analogy. It's the tragedy of someone in my position, I create, but I don't get to decide what my creations do. Very well then." He sighed. "Shall we begin?" Olvel prepared himself to die.
"Wait!" Oh Light, was she going to give in and join the Forsaken after all? Surely not, everything about her said she was repulsed by Aginor. Yet he actually looked hopeful. "Can I ask one favour, as a fellow scientist? Just a small one."
"Of course, I'm not guaranteeing anything, but… I'll try."
"Thank you, I appreciate it." She actually bowed to him, Olvel was very much starting to regret having offered to help her get in. "I've put a lot of effort into keeping these people alive. I… if they die it would feel like I've just failed at everything. Would you be able to give them safe passage out of the Blight."
"Oh." Aginor looked over at them like he was seeing them for the first time. "I don't see why you would care, I had thought I might use them after…" He blinked a couple of times and then made a dismissive gesture. "Of course, a small favour like that, for you. I can do that, for you."
He didn't do anything that Olvel could see but a few seconds later the door opened again and a myddraal stepped in.
Aginor's voice took on a more imperious tone. "These humans are important to me and to the Shadow's victory. Take a couple of your kin and a fist of trollocs and escort them out of the Blight. They are to be delivered unharmed. If you value your continued existence, you will treat them as honoured guests. Am I clear?"
"Yes great master." The myrddraal bowed low. "They will not be harmed." It turned its gaze on them and Olvel felt his knees tremble. "If you would come with me honoured guests."
=====
The Front
Mat breathed a sigh of relief as another report came in of the Shadow's forces on the run. Poor bloody Jahar and Faeve, getting themselves killed like that, but it had likely won them the battle. It was pretty clear that whichever of the Forsaken had been hitting them had been killed in turn by Egwene and Jaer. He'd been able to order the remaining sa'angreal to be used with relative impunity. That and the flaming Tower aes sedai using the Horn of bloody Valere to shatter the Shadow's lines. He'd thought it was linked to him until he died. Maybe being hanged by the Eelfinn had broken the link? Or maybe the aes sedai were just wrong about how it worked, it wouldn't be the first time they were wrong about something.
Now he only had to worry about Rand and Elayne. The channelers hadn't all started going mad, so Rand was probably alright. Elayne… Well she could look after herself, but she could also easily bite off more than she could chew. She'd be fine. She had to be, she wasn't going looking for a fight, she was just rescuing a mad aes sedai from the Age of Legends deep in enemy territory. For some reason that didn't make him feel any better.
=====
Deep in the Blight
Taija watched as the myrddraal led her charges away. She didn't really know whether she could trust Aginor, but their survival chances were better like that than they were here with her. She didn't really think she could beat him. He wasn't a fighter, but he was much stronger than her. She was also exhausted and just… not functioning right.
"Thank you." To her surprise she actually meant it. Not that it changed anything.
"You're welcome, you know we could still t…" Taija spun balefire, cutting him off mid-sentence, sweeping the beam across him. Aginor dived to the side and she was immediately fending off a storm of webs from him. Taija retaliated, splitting her flows. All the elements, different types of web, all coming at him from every angle. But she felt slow, so slow compared to normal. He was still struggling to keep up, she could see that, but he must have had an angreal there was just too much power there. Of course all of the fucking Forsaken had managed to get angreals, she wouldn't be so lucky as for any of them not to.
The whole room shook as one of Taija's webs was deflected into the walls but the exchange of webs between the two of them didn't let up. She tore a chunk of whitewashed stone from the wall and flung it at Aginor, combining it with several fireballs and a blade of air at foot level.
He blocked them and superheated the air around her, leaving her scrambling to cut the overpowered web.
The beacon of saidar that Taija could feel from the Choedan Kal suddenly winked out and Aginor stumbled. She didn't have time to react to his surprise though, she was too out of it. He recovered almost instantly and Taija was slowing down more and more. She didn't have the energy. Her body was tired, she was just tired. Aginor's webs battered at her and she knew she was losing.
Still, there was some comfort in thinking that Rand had almost certainly succeeded. Saidar was still clean after all. The Light had won, she'd done her duty. Just one more relic from her time to remove from the world and then it would all be over.
With a sad smile Taija reached out to the walls with flows of earth. Tel…
=====
Elayne was exhausted. She had been Traveling constantly in hops of mere miles at a time, working her way through the Blight. She had quickly decided there was a good chance she was on the right trail, thank the Creator. Why else would there be signs of recent battles with the Power and dead shadowspawn? Certainly the attacks on the Shadow's logistics were not penetrating that far into the Blight, not with the problems with long distance Traveling once one got north of the Borderlands. Light only knew what Taija was heading towards though.
However, her exhaustion did not reduce her determination. She was going to find Taija and bring her back. That was why she found herself lying on a ridge overlooking an oddly square entrance to a cave. Shadowspawn milled outside it, trollocs and myddraal. Had Taija gone in there?
She assessed the shadowspawn in front of her. She could probably fight her way in, but Light only knew what was inside. Ultimately it did not matter. It was where Taija was most likely to be and so it was where she would go. With a deep breath she gathered herself, she would need to move fast.
Elayne was about to spin a gateway into the middle of them when another group emerged from the entrance. Three myrddraal and a few trollocs, surrounding a terrified bunch of humans. Half adults, half young children. If it had just been adults and they had looked less scared she might have thought they were darkfriends, there were no chains on them after all. But then, where would anyone run to here? Maybe they would know what was going on. Regardless, she would need to fight her way through the shadowspawn to get in, so the least she could do was free them.
=====
Olvel kept glancing back at the cave entrance, trying not to look at the shadowspawn around them. Had the aes sedai really saved them? It seemed like it, or at least she'd tried. She clearly didn't think she could protect them anymore. He still couldn't feel anything but terrified though.
He jumped and gave a small shriek as all three myddraal suddenly burst into flame. Then someone was moving past them. A Sun-haired woman, more a girl. Everywhere she looked trollocs died, myrddraal exploded. It was violent, noisy chaos.
It only took a minute or two and then she was approaching their group. Olvel slowly got back to his feet and bowed to her. "Aes sedai, thank you. We owe you our lives. Are you here to help the other aes sedai?"
The girl's eyes stopped flicking back to the cave. "The other aes sedai?" Suddenly she was in his face. "What was her name? Speak man, tell me!"
"T T Taija I think, she never told us, but that was what Aginor called her."
"Aginor?! Where is she?!"
Wordlessly Olvel looked to the cave and the aes sedai followed his gaze. She took a step towards the cave entrance, breaking into a run and dismissing him as if he had never existed. Then, a shudder ran through the ground, violent enough to make all of them stumble. The aes sedai lost her feet and tumbled to the ground even as the whole mountainside started to collapse. Its face briefly bulged outwards, before falling in on itself, crumbling as if in slow motion.
AN: Note that while this is the final chapter of the alternate ending, there are still epilogues to come.
ALTERNATE ENDING IX - The End
Deep in the Blight
It took what felt like another two days of following the road to get somewhere. Progress was slow because of Taija's charges and the need to dodge occasional bands of trollocs, many of which had those disgusting channeling monstrosities among them. It was hard to be sure about the time though, given the way that the Sun never set. Either way, as time went on Taija was sure she was getting closer. The number of times she had to dodge trolloc bands increased as did the signs of their presence. She actually saw occasional villages, or that was what she thought they were from a distance. She supposed trollocs must live somewhere when they weren't out pillaging real people's homes. There was no time to stop and destroy them though. She wished she had a sa'angreal and could just set about them. Destroy their lives like the Shadow had destroyed hers.
When Taija reached a cliff face she was fairly sure she'd reached her final destination. Groups of trollocs milled outside under the supervision of myrddraal, but what drew her eye was the perfectly carved, square entrance in the rock. It looked like someone had taken a cave and then made it look as neat as possible using the Power. The other thing that convinced her it was probably where she'd find Aginor was the group of children being roughly urged into the entrance. The sight made her stomach turn.
The question was, how to get in. Tentative feelers of spirit had already told her that the place was under anti-Traveling wards. They didn't feel particularly substantial, she could probably break them, but that would be like a foghorn announcing her presence.
Really Taija just wanted to throw herself at the shadowspawn and slaughter her way in. But then she'd lose the element of surprise again and there were quite a few of them. The last thing she wanted was to get ambushed by other channelers or Aginor because she was busy killing shadowspawn. Or worse he might escape instead of attacking her.
She lay on the ridge looking out over them chewing her lip as she thought. She didn't even notice that the man who seemed to have become her little group's spokesman was beside her until he spoke.
"Is Aginor really in there aes sedai?"
She jumped and stifled a shriek. She really wasn't with it these days, he shouldn't have been able to sneak up on her like that. After a moment Taija regained her voice. "I think so. He must be. It's where the those… disgusting trolloc things are coming from and where they seem to be taking the…" she didn't say children. His would have been there if not for her.
He nodded. "And you don't think you can get in?"
"Not without risking him escaping or hearing me coming and overwhelming me."
"And what happens to us if you die in there?"
"I… I don't know. The Dragon is sealing the Dark One away as we speak. When that's done you'll probably be safe. Safer. The Light will win the Last Battle."
He looked at her for a long moment. "So we'll die."
Taija looked away, unable to meet his eyes. "Hopefully not."
He thought for a few seconds. "Well it seems there's a way to get around this. Can you use us as prisoners to get in?"
Taija didn't hesitate. "No! Absolutely not!"
"Why, because we might get killed?"
"Yes!" Obviously she wasn't going to use a bunch of traumatised men and women and their children as props to walk into Aginor's base. What kind of a psychopath did he think she was?! What did he think would happen to them after she died? What if it wasn't even Aginor's base?
He just shook his head sadly at her. "We owe you our lives aes sedai, but what do you think will happen to us if you get captured trying to get in or simply die in the attempt? Our best chance of survival is for you to succeed and, ultimately, killing one of the Forsaken is worth more than any of us." He hesitated and then pressed on. "I don't know what's driving you to do this aes sedai, but you can't do this alone."
=====
The Front
Adelorna could see the Light's lines buckling ahead of her. There were just too many channelers on the other side. These fresh troops that the Shadow had brought in were heavily supported by what seemed like rather large circles. It was a miracle the lines had held as long as they had, especially after the casualties the Hall's forces there had taken. Perhaps it was time for the White Tower to make its presence known here, while she had no desire to throw away true aes sedai, they could not afford for this battle to be lost either.
She glanced down at the ornate box. "Open it."
As one of the other aes sedai busied herself with the task she looked out again at the press of troops maybe half a mile ahead. She could hear the screams and clash of weapons easily from where she was.
When she looked back the aes sedai was holding it up to her. Funny to think that a relatively simple looking curved horn could be such an important artifact, but that was the way of the world. The Age of Legends had no true sense of presence or style. Taija was enough of an illustration of that.
She reverently took the horn in her own hands and brought it to her lips. The rumours were that it had already been blown, possibly by Matrim, the young Andoran nobleman leading the Light's forces. If that was true then it would be locked to him, but she was not sure she believed that. So she would try. If it worked she would bring glory to herself and the White Tower. If it did not work, well it would be disappointing, but she would bring it to the boy and would still be honoured for that.
Taking a deep breath she raised it to her lips and blew. A single clear note sounded out, seeming to echo on and on and on. Fog began to gather around her.
=====
Deep in the Blight
Rorg look up and sniff air as a hole opens. Woman step out, human. Rorg growl and look to myrddraal.
Many humans follow woman. Little ones like Great Master want. Rorg no touch. Also big ones. Rorg want. Good meat.
Rorg come forward and roar. Rorg take man meat, eat.
"Control your beasts or I shall do it for you." Woman talk to myrddraal. No fear for woman. Rorg reconsider. Woman might be aes sedai. Myrddraal give Rorg look, Rorg decide not so hungry.
Myrddraal not happy. "You are not on the schedule. I have not been notified of your arrival."
Rorg interested now. Rorg smart, if Rorg wait, maybe man meat after all. Maybe even aes sedai woman meat.
"You dare to question me?! To question the Great Master's orders?! I have been told to bring these test subjects to him and I hear and obey. Do you want to interfere with his orders? We could go and bother him I suppose? I am sure he will be even more delighted to have his time wasted than I am."
Woman meets myrddraal eye to eye. Rorg almost impressed, Rorg cannot do. Slowly myrddraal stands aside.
"Very well, you may enter, but I shall accompany you." Rorg disappointed. No man meat for Rorg.
=====
Taija was almost trembling with a combination of rage and anger as the myrddraal led her into the mouth of the cave. Although she wasn't really sure she could call it a cave. As soon as she was inside she saw that everything was painted white and carved into smoothness with the Power. It looked as close to a research facility from her time as someone could make using contemporary resources, the Power and a cave in the middle of the fucking Blight.
She needed to ignore that though. She was doing her best to emulate the worst behaviours of the Tower aes sedai, but it was a struggle in her current state.
The myrddraal turned back to her and Taija forced herself not to quail under its eyeless gaze, stamping down on the terror that gibbered inside her. "Shall I arrange for the children to be taken to the holding pen and the adults disposed of?"
Taija immediately shook her head. "Absolutely not. The Great Master ordered me to bring them directly to him, all of them."
"That is… irregular."
She scowled. "I am not going to question the orders of one of the Chosen."
"Indeed," its bloodless lips twitched into a small smile. "Let us go directly to Lord Aginor then."
=====
The Front
Despite the breakthroughs that he had forced in the Light's lines with Sarkanen Demandred was not satisfied. They were chewing up the Shadow's armies at a horrendous rate. Their use of firearms in particular was devastating. He had thought that with all of the work the Shadow was doing to pick out and target the Light's channelers they would have an insurmountable advantage, but not only did the Light have more channelers than he had thought, they also had guns. It was not fair.
Oh well, such was the nature of war. It just meant he would need to be more active. The Light had been making intermittent strikes with its sa'angreal, despite the danger posed to them by the teams Semirhage had trained to work in unison. Perhaps it was time for him to show them how it was done. He looked down at the map and pondered for a few seconds. That area seemed to be a focal point and at least one sa'angreal had been used around it. He would go there and break the Light's lines as well as eliminating their sa'angreal. First though he would need to properly understand the layout of their anti-Traveling wards, he had no desire to find himself trapped for a counter-strike.
=====
Demandred waited on the hilltop, giving him a commanding view over the battlefield. In the distance his Sharans were fighting and dying for him, throwing themselves into the Army of the Light's ranks. He could not care less about the shadowspawn, but the Sharans' deaths, they were regrettable. Well soon he would solve that. A burst of saidin drew his attention to the east, immediately followed by the flash of an explosion among the Light's forces. That would be Semirhage's circle. A full circle of 72, easily on par with a lesser sa'angreal, if somewhat more unwieldy. They also made excellent bait.
=====
Faeve felt the flash of saidar and then the rumbling of the ground, this was what she had been waiting for. She drew fully on her link with Jahar and Erelle, Callandor briefly flashing to blinding brightness behind her, and flung the web at the location the Shadow's attack had come from. Immediately afterwards they were diving through a gateway.
=====
There. Demandred drew fully on Sarkanen and annihilated the spot the counterstrike had come from before leaping through a gateway.
=====
Faeve felt the start of the blast coming through the gateway even as it closed. That was far too close. Jahar grabbed her arm, "there!" He pointed across the battlefield.
She did not hesitate, spinning through Callandor and annihilating the area he had pointed at.
=====
Egwene lay amidst the grass, Jaer at her side with the staff clutched in her hand. With the casualties the Light had been taking the numbers they could use for links was falling. Still, she hardly needed a link to be effective with a sa'angreal in her hands. That was why they were there, not linked at all, while she waited for another of the Shadow's big circles to show itself.
Blinding fire flashed on one side of the lines, then the other. Towering columns of flame tearing into the sky.
"Egwene, it is saidin, link with me. I can find him." She didn't hesitate, opening herself to Jaer's control. He paused, watching, another two blasts and then fire was tearing through the Light's lines. Saidar surged through her as he drew on it and a spot behind the Shadow's lines vanished into its own fire. Then they were both rolling through a gateway. Him watching for signs of saidin from the other side, her looking for the retaliatory strike on their previous spot. After a few long seconds they both relaxed.
She couldn't be sure, but she thought they'd probably hit the Shadow's channeler, no doubt one of the Forsaken. Probably the one that had killed Tel. More worrying was the lack of retaliation from Callandor at the end. Had he hit Jahar, Faeve and Erelle? A colder person might call it a favourable exchange, she just felt sick at the idea of yet more friends being dead.
=====
Deep in the Blight
As the myrddraal led Taija and her terrified charges through what she was quickly realising was a whole cave complex she struggled to keep herself under control. Shadowspawn stalked through it. Humans scurried around too. Some of them clearly darkfriends, nervous but not terrified. Others looking more like slaves, emaciated and pushing heavy carts in front of them. Taija glanced inside one cart and wished she hadn't. A trolloc carried a kicking and screaming boy past her under its arm and she had to watch them go by, however much it horrified her.
Eventually the myrddraal led her down a corridor past a line of children, standing against the wall with trollocs standing guard over them. Most of them were crying quietly.
The myrddraal knocked on a large metal door and waited a second. Then it gave Taija another bloodless smile and opened the door for them all to file in, the adults clutching the children close to them.
The myddraal bowed low. Taija saw a raised platform, a man hunched over it. There was a trolloc on there, parts of a child suspended in the air around it, blood dripping, organs hanging loose and wide, staring horrified eyes. Very much alive eyes as the girl's head is drawn towards the trolloc's neck by invisible saidin.
Taija had seen a lot over the years and maybe it was her current condition, but this was too much. She looked away, her stomach clenching and emptied the little that was in it onto the floor. Aginor, not that it looked like him of course, straightened up and turned to face her, his arms covered in blood up to the elbow.
=====
As the aes sedai emptied her stomach at the sight before them Olvel did his best not to panic. This wasn't what was meant to happen, he'd expected her to just strike down the man in front of them the way she'd put down every other thing that had threatened them. He couldn't even look at what was going on in front of him, it was too horrific. That was what would have happened to Zerith. He swore then if he had to kill his daughter with his own hands to avoid a fate like that for her then he would.
The man, no the Forsaken, Aginor, frowned as he looked them over. Then he frowned harder as the aes sedai seemed to jerk and suddenly stood up straight again, meeting his eyes, although Olvel could see she was trembling.
The myddraal spoke first, its voice like ancient parchament. "Great Master, this woman was attempting to infiltrate your laboratory. She could channel, so I thought it best to bring her to you, particularly as she had a number of potential test subjects with her."
"Indeed." The Forsaken looked her over. He didn't look like much, a plain faced, middle-aged man, with lank hair and a weak chin. Not like someone used to scare children in stories "So what have we here, another do-gooding so-called aes sedai?"
The illusion over the aes sedai rippled to be replaced by her real appearance. She looked even worse than before. Nevertheless the Forsaken recoiled. "Taija Kosola?!" Was that her name?
Then, the Forsaken switched to the Old Tongue. Oddly accented and rapid fire with some strange words, but Olvel was an educated man, he thought he could just about follow. "What are you doing here? You look utterly terrible! I know we don't see eye to eye on many things, but is there anything I can do for you? You need to leave, really." He sounded genuinely concerned, conciliatory. What in the Light?! Was she a darkfriend?
At the Forsaken's words the myrddraal went for its sword, drawing with snake like speed. Neither the aes sedai, Taija, nor Aginor even glanced at it, but it suddenly both erupted into fire and crunched into a compressed ball of blood and bone at the same time.
The aes sedai, Taija, scowled at Aginor. "I'm fine, you know perfectly well why I'm here Aginor. What the fuck is this? I knew you were a monster, did horrific things just because you could, but this… This is even more disgusting!" Her voice was rising to a shriek.
Aginor blinked a few times, looking a bit uncomfortable. "I thought it was quite impressive to be honest. Anyway, please, call me Ishar. You know, the challenges of combining channeling with shadowspawn were almost impossible to overcome, why I've had to come up with several new webs to get it to work. Just the incompatibility of human DNA with…"
Taija cut him off. "What the fuck is wrong with you Aginor? Those are children, it's disgusting. Everything you do is disgusting!"
The Forsaken actually looked hurt at that. "I made sure they didn't suffer, a slight tweak to the pleasure centres and that's why they're always laughing. It's a better life in many ways." He shrugged. "Well except when they channel, nothing I could do about that. Can't even silence the screaming without…"
He trailed off under Taija's disbelieving stare.
"Anyway, I don't suppose I could persuade you to turn around, go home. I'd really rather not fight you of all people. I'd hate to have to kill you."
She didn't reply, just kept staring at him.
"No, I suppose not. I could make you a new arm you know, quite easily really. I wouldn't even ask anything in return."
"I'd rather hang myself than accept that from you Aginor."
Aginor actually looked disappointed. "Well… I'm sorry to hear that. I do hold you in the highest regard you know, it's just a pity it's not reciprocated. Still, if we're going to do this then I just want to offer you my sympathies about Tel Janin. While I cannot say that I was a huge fan of the man, I know you loved him and I'm sorry for your loss."
Who was Tel Janin? Also why did this Taija speak the Old Tongue the same way as Aginor? There was a long pause, was that a tear trailing down Taija's cheek? "It doesn't change anything, but thank you."
Aginor shrugged awkwardly, if a blood spattered member of the Forsaken could do anything awkwardly. "I'm just sorry it came to this. Knowing the way you've carved a swathe through our ranks, I'd normally be quite worried, but looking at you I'm not sure you're in any condition to do this. Are you sure you don't just want to walk away? There aren't very many of us left who remember the good old days and I'd as soon destroy the stained glass windows of the Bahanra Almoran as someone such as you."
"Your disgusting creations did destroy the Bahanra Almoran, I saw the remains!"
"Oh. Well perhaps not the best analogy. It's the tragedy of someone in my position, I create, but I don't get to decide what my creations do. Very well then." He sighed. "Shall we begin?" Olvel prepared himself to die.
"Wait!" Oh Light, was she going to give in and join the Forsaken after all? Surely not, everything about her said she was repulsed by Aginor. Yet he actually looked hopeful. "Can I ask one favour, as a fellow scientist? Just a small one."
"Of course, I'm not guaranteeing anything, but… I'll try."
"Thank you, I appreciate it." She actually bowed to him, Olvel was very much starting to regret having offered to help her get in. "I've put a lot of effort into keeping these people alive. I… if they die it would feel like I've just failed at everything. Would you be able to give them safe passage out of the Blight."
"Oh." Aginor looked over at them like he was seeing them for the first time. "I don't see why you would care, I had thought I might use them after…" He blinked a couple of times and then made a dismissive gesture. "Of course, a small favour like that, for you. I can do that, for you."
He didn't do anything that Olvel could see but a few seconds later the door opened again and a myddraal stepped in.
Aginor's voice took on a more imperious tone. "These humans are important to me and to the Shadow's victory. Take a couple of your kin and a fist of trollocs and escort them out of the Blight. They are to be delivered unharmed. If you value your continued existence, you will treat them as honoured guests. Am I clear?"
"Yes great master." The myrddraal bowed low. "They will not be harmed." It turned its gaze on them and Olvel felt his knees tremble. "If you would come with me honoured guests."
=====
The Front
Mat breathed a sigh of relief as another report came in of the Shadow's forces on the run. Poor bloody Jahar and Faeve, getting themselves killed like that, but it had likely won them the battle. It was pretty clear that whichever of the Forsaken had been hitting them had been killed in turn by Egwene and Jaer. He'd been able to order the remaining sa'angreal to be used with relative impunity. That and the flaming Tower aes sedai using the Horn of bloody Valere to shatter the Shadow's lines. He'd thought it was linked to him until he died. Maybe being hanged by the Eelfinn had broken the link? Or maybe the aes sedai were just wrong about how it worked, it wouldn't be the first time they were wrong about something.
Now he only had to worry about Rand and Elayne. The channelers hadn't all started going mad, so Rand was probably alright. Elayne… Well she could look after herself, but she could also easily bite off more than she could chew. She'd be fine. She had to be, she wasn't going looking for a fight, she was just rescuing a mad aes sedai from the Age of Legends deep in enemy territory. For some reason that didn't make him feel any better.
=====
Deep in the Blight
Taija watched as the myrddraal led her charges away. She didn't really know whether she could trust Aginor, but their survival chances were better like that than they were here with her. She didn't really think she could beat him. He wasn't a fighter, but he was much stronger than her. She was also exhausted and just… not functioning right.
"Thank you." To her surprise she actually meant it. Not that it changed anything.
"You're welcome, you know we could still t…" Taija spun balefire, cutting him off mid-sentence, sweeping the beam across him. Aginor dived to the side and she was immediately fending off a storm of webs from him. Taija retaliated, splitting her flows. All the elements, different types of web, all coming at him from every angle. But she felt slow, so slow compared to normal. He was still struggling to keep up, she could see that, but he must have had an angreal there was just too much power there. Of course all of the fucking Forsaken had managed to get angreals, she wouldn't be so lucky as for any of them not to.
The whole room shook as one of Taija's webs was deflected into the walls but the exchange of webs between the two of them didn't let up. She tore a chunk of whitewashed stone from the wall and flung it at Aginor, combining it with several fireballs and a blade of air at foot level.
He blocked them and superheated the air around her, leaving her scrambling to cut the overpowered web.
The beacon of saidar that Taija could feel from the Choedan Kal suddenly winked out and Aginor stumbled. She didn't have time to react to his surprise though, she was too out of it. He recovered almost instantly and Taija was slowing down more and more. She didn't have the energy. Her body was tired, she was just tired. Aginor's webs battered at her and she knew she was losing.
Still, there was some comfort in thinking that Rand had almost certainly succeeded. Saidar was still clean after all. The Light had won, she'd done her duty. Just one more relic from her time to remove from the world and then it would all be over.
With a sad smile Taija reached out to the walls with flows of earth. Tel…
=====
Elayne was exhausted. She had been Traveling constantly in hops of mere miles at a time, working her way through the Blight. She had quickly decided there was a good chance she was on the right trail, thank the Creator. Why else would there be signs of recent battles with the Power and dead shadowspawn? Certainly the attacks on the Shadow's logistics were not penetrating that far into the Blight, not with the problems with long distance Traveling once one got north of the Borderlands. Light only knew what Taija was heading towards though.
However, her exhaustion did not reduce her determination. She was going to find Taija and bring her back. That was why she found herself lying on a ridge overlooking an oddly square entrance to a cave. Shadowspawn milled outside it, trollocs and myddraal. Had Taija gone in there?
She assessed the shadowspawn in front of her. She could probably fight her way in, but Light only knew what was inside. Ultimately it did not matter. It was where Taija was most likely to be and so it was where she would go. With a deep breath she gathered herself, she would need to move fast.
Elayne was about to spin a gateway into the middle of them when another group emerged from the entrance. Three myrddraal and a few trollocs, surrounding a terrified bunch of humans. Half adults, half young children. If it had just been adults and they had looked less scared she might have thought they were darkfriends, there were no chains on them after all. But then, where would anyone run to here? Maybe they would know what was going on. Regardless, she would need to fight her way through the shadowspawn to get in, so the least she could do was free them.
=====
Olvel kept glancing back at the cave entrance, trying not to look at the shadowspawn around them. Had the aes sedai really saved them? It seemed like it, or at least she'd tried. She clearly didn't think she could protect them anymore. He still couldn't feel anything but terrified though.
He jumped and gave a small shriek as all three myddraal suddenly burst into flame. Then someone was moving past them. A Sun-haired woman, more a girl. Everywhere she looked trollocs died, myrddraal exploded. It was violent, noisy chaos.
It only took a minute or two and then she was approaching their group. Olvel slowly got back to his feet and bowed to her. "Aes sedai, thank you. We owe you our lives. Are you here to help the other aes sedai?"
The girl's eyes stopped flicking back to the cave. "The other aes sedai?" Suddenly she was in his face. "What was her name? Speak man, tell me!"
"T T Taija I think, she never told us, but that was what Aginor called her."
"Aginor?! Where is she?!"
Wordlessly Olvel looked to the cave and the aes sedai followed his gaze. She took a step towards the cave entrance, breaking into a run and dismissing him as if he had never existed. Then, a shudder ran through the ground, violent enough to make all of them stumble. The aes sedai lost her feet and tumbled to the ground even as the whole mountainside started to collapse. Its face briefly bulged outwards, before falling in on itself, crumbling as if in slow motion.
- Location
- Madness realms
I much prefer the other ending where Taija managed to get herself kicked out of power she didn't want after the consequences of her losing the position became nil and she got to hang about and do science and trick people into learning.
It's not over yet, there's a good chunk of epilogue to come, but I think both endings improve each other with the contrast.
Things have consequences and this is definitely the darker ending.
ALTERNATE ENDING - EPILOGUE I - The Problem with Tel Janin
As usual all speech in italics is in the Old Tongue.
ALTERNATE ENDING - EPILOGUE I - The Problem with Tel Janin
Extracts from an article "The Three Witches" in Popular History Magazine 1,874 ATG
The three female Forsaken that are sometimes almost affectionately known in contemporary times as the "Three Witches" for their sheer effectiveness frequently worked together. Of course internecine warfare among the Forsaken was common and they were no exception, but they were well known for allying against the others and supporting each other in face of aggression from their male counterparts.
Certainly the Three Witches were among the most competent of the Forsaken, albeit that was not always a high hurdle to cross, and the damage that they did to what were then known as the Forces of the Light was far beyond their personal strength in the One Power. Impressively, two of them even managed to survive Tarmon Gaidon, although all the evidence suggests that they died shortly afterwards.
Historians have spent their lives trying to piece together the actions of these women, who were secretive by their very nature, and in this article we have exclusive details collected from recently discovered primary sources about their actions. In particular we have had access to never seen before records of interrogations of darkfriends in Kandor during the Great Purge.
…
Graendal we shall address first as she was the first of them to die and the only one to die during Tarmon Gaidon. As fans will know, she was reputed to have been one of the greatest psychologists ever to be born in her original time. Later on she devoted herself to hedonism, moving from an ascetic lifestyle when she defected to the Shadow during the Second Age.
During Tarmon Gaidon she was notable for her invention of the first mass compulsion web. Imitations have been attempted since, with varying degrees of success, but to this day no one has managed to replicate the scale of the reported effects. That being said, we do have to assume a certain amount of exaggeration of its effectiveness given that reports come from eye witnesses who were under battlefield conditions.
…
Semirhage was reputed to be a sadist and master torturer, although practical evidence of this is limited and may well have involved a certain amount of mythologising.
Following the breaking of the White Tower she devoted herself to training the lesser channelers of the Shadow. Given the Shadow's disadvantage in strategic Power-based weaponry, her goal was no doubt to create a counter with large circles as was seen during Tarmon Gaidon.
She survived Tarmon Gaidon, unlike most of her compatriots, and is believed to have moved to Seanchan shortly afterwards. Records after this point are sparse and historians are forced into a certain degree of speculation about her eventual fate. However, it seems that her plan was likely to attempt a takeover of the Seanchan Empire with the goal of eventually replacing the Empress, or possibly turning her into a puppet.
The current consensus is that she likely died in the battle of Qupross. There were reports of a tall marath'damane* matching her description that died in an ambush there, but was able to kill a large number of damane** before she was brought down. There was, however, a great deal of confusion at the time. The Seanchan Empire was already a chaotic place and by then it was also suffering from repeated attacks on damane kennels by channelers. These days those attacks are generally believed to have been part of a black ops project organised by the Hall of Servants (although this has never been confirmed and was historically denied by the Hall) and some historians think that it was in fact one of the Hall's operatives and not Semirhage that died in that battle. If that was the case then it would beg the question of where Semirhage went and what happened to her.
While various sightings were reported for centuries after her alleged death, none have been particularly convincing.
* The Seanchan word for channelers who had not become damane.
** The Seanchan word for channelers who were forced into slavery through the use of a ter'angreal known as an a'dam, which took the form of a collar around their neck and a bracelet worn by a controller.
….
Mesaana, unlike the other two, had already died once and been brought back by the Dark One. Before and during Tarmon Gaidon she infiltrated the Children of the Light*** and was able to turn them against the Army of the Light just as a breakthrough was threatened.
It is believed that she simply rode away from the conflict she had started and the Light's lines nearly broke as a result. In the end the situation was only stabilised through the deployment of units wielding firearms (one of the first ever), which were able to stymie the Shadow's advance.
Tarmon Gaidon was won shortly after that and it is not clear what Mesaana intended in the face of the Shadow's defeat. Unfortunately for her she was caught up in the frenzy of violent revenge that was the Great Purge in the months that followed. Records from the Hall show that she was in one of the Westlands cities for reasons that were unclear when someone accused her of being a darkfriend. A crowd turned on her and she was forced to channel to save her own life, killing at least a thousand people in the furious mob. Unfortunately for her, she was trapped within the city's anti-Traveling ward array and there were sufficient aes sedai from the Hall and White Tower present to kill her, albeit with severe casualties.
*** A fanatical religious organisation devoted to what they perceived to be the Creator's goals, ironically their actions almost resulted in the defeat of the Light, although obviously that was at least partially due to Mesaana's interference.
…
=====
Approximately 1 month ATG - Cairhien
"Her, she cursed the Creator before the battle, I heard it!" The man pointed at a young lady and the crowd surged behind him, roaring with rage.
She took one look at them and turned to run, but to no avail. In no time she was seized and dragged to the self-appointed Judges of the Light before being forced to her knees in front of them.
The three of them looked down at her, no mercy in their eyes as accusations were thrown. She had cursed the Creator's name. She snuck messages to rats. She had not given her goods to support the Light.
Her pleas of innocence, begging for mercy fell on deaf ears. Every single person there had lost friends and family to the Shadow. Many of them had fought the trollocs, seen the horrors they wreaked. They wanted revenge, they wanted to see darkfriends pay for what they had done to them and they were not overly bothered by niceties of evidence.
"Darkfriend, hang her with the others. Next!"
=====
Approximately 3 months ATG - A Palace in Caemlyn
"Thank you taking the time to get together." Egwene looked between the others in the very unofficial meeting she had called. Rand, Nynaeve, Elayne, Aleksi and Bennae. She suppressed a sigh as she saw that Elayne and Aleksi had placed themselves on the other side of the room to Rand. "I asked you all to be here because of the rumours that have been going round."
"Which rumours? There are always rumours." Elayne sounded almost combative.
"You know what I mean. Damer explicitly asked me if they were true today. I was able to fob him off, but I had to promise I'd call a full meeting of the aes sedai to discuss the issue." That was not something she was looking forward to. Her election to be First Among Servants had been one of the proudest moments of her life as well as one of the saddest given who should have been in the post. However, in the two months since then the work and stress had been relentless, she had no idea how Taija had handled it. And now… well in a way Egwene was glad she wasn't around to see this.
"Fucking White Tower." Elayne didn't bother to keep her voice down.
Egwene didn't bother to protest that she had no proof it was them. They all knew exactly who was behind this. "Indeed." She hesitated. "So we're the people who knew who Tel really was, that's why we're here. We need to decide how we're going to approach this and what we're going to say to the rest of the aes sedai."
Rand grimaced. "What is there to say? He was what he was, but he still died a hero of the Light. No one can walk so far in the Shadow that they cannot return to the Light."
Bennae shook her head. "It is a nice saying, but you are ignoring the reality my dear. People are looking for revenge. I know things have not been as bad so far south as Illian and Tear, but even there the purges are ongoing. You have been spending enough of your time trying to suppress them after all and even you have not been able to fully stop them. That unfortunate business in Ghealdan has only made things worse. Everyone, every single person has lost friends and family because of the Shadow and they want revenge."
"And if not for Tel they would have lost a lot more of them!"
"Alright, let's think about this. I don't think any of us denies the contribution that Tel made to the Light." It still made Egwene deeply uncomfortable to think that he had once called himself Sammael. Whatever his contribution, she wasn't happy about it. "The question is, what do we do about it?"
"Deny it." Bennae's voice was uncharacteristically hard. "Call it slander, tell them he was an undercover agent for the Light. The truth does not matter and they would not accept it in any event."
"No!" Aleksi's reaction was surprisingly vehement. "That's not what the Hall stands for, it's not what Taija stood for. Yes, he committed crimes, but he chose to come back. If we can't justify allowing him back then why did we allow it? But more importantly, we're not the White Tower. The Hall stands for openness, freedom and truth, not manipulation and twisting the truth. We have our principles and we should stand by them."
"While I take your point, I agree with Bennae. This is not something that we want the rest of the aes sedai to know about. Most of us are still uncomfortable with Tel, are we not?" Elayne looked from face to face and got grudging nods from everyone other than Bennae and Rand. "Imagine how people will feel, when their blood is up and they are looking for revenge? When Demandred killed their brother. When their mother was killed by that woman in Ghealdan. You agree Egwene, do you not?"
Egwene hesitated and then shook her head. "I think Aleksi's right. If we don't have our principles, we just become a younger version of the White Tower. We have a legacy to live up to. What about you Rand, what do you think?"
He paused, looking at nothing for a long moment. "I think…"
=====
An extract from The Hall and the Tower The First Cold War - published 1,548 ATG
The Hall of Servants is thought to have been founded in approximately 2BTG, although the exact date is unclear. Its founder, Rand al'Thor, known as the Dragon Reborn, brought together a disparate group of powerful channelers and able administrators to form what would become one of the world's two preeminent channeling organisations for the years following Tarmon Gaidon.
Of course the Hall was wracked by controversy almost immediately after Tarmon Gaidon. While its own records contain no documentation evidencing it, is is clear from other contemporary sources that one of its key members from the moment of its establishment, Tel Janin, was in fact the Forsaken Sammael. More shocking at the time was that, in addition to al'Thor, much or even all of the senior leadership of the Hall appears to have been aware of this, while concealing it from the wider populace.
Given the actions of the Forsaken and their role in the War of Power in the Second Age, along with the run up to Tarmon Gaidon and the battle itself, it seems unbelievable that one would have assisted al'Thor. At least not other than as part of a convoluted scheme for the forces of darkness. It therefore seems even more unbelievable that one of them would have been trusted to the point of being given a key role in establishing a force of channelers.
Nevertheless, the evidence is clear that this was the case, albeit clearly concealed by the Hall's senior leadership in the run up to Tarmon Gaidon. The position seems to be that they believed he had returned to the Light, although the reasons for this are not known. Given the atrocities committed by the Forsaken, simple regret seems to be unlikely. It is unfortunate that none of those key individuals ever left memoirs, meaning that ultimately historians are limited to speculation on Tel Janin/Sammael's motives, along with theirs for accepting him. However, Reldim Manag's biography of Rand al'Thor The Dragon Reborn - From Ta'veren to Tear does speculate that it was in fact Sammael that taught al'Thor and that his belief in Sammael's defection to the Light was genuine.
Regardless, of what those in the know believed, the secret was revealed to the wider population of the Hall at the worst possible time. The Hall had taken devastating casualties during Tarmon Gaidon and, like the rest of the Westlands, many of its members were looking for revenge for the suffering inflicted on them by the Shadow (for more details see chapter 10 - The Great Purge - A Justified Reaction?).
Details of the discussions that took place within the Hall are limited as no minutes were kept of the relevant meetings. However, various contemporary accounts do provide some background.* We know that a meeting was held among all of the Hall's aes sedai to discuss rumours that had been circulating about the identity of Tel Janin. At that meeting his true identity and the fact that it had been known by the Hall's senior leadership was revealed.
It is perhaps unsurprising, given feelings at the time, that this was considered sufficient to result in the immediate removal of the Hall's first First Among Servants, Egwene al'Vere only three months into her term. It also resulted in a public acknowledgment that Tel Janin had in fact previously been one of the Forsaken and an apology for the same. The impact of this would seem more academic at this point and with the benefit of hindsight (not to mention distance from the atrocities committed by the Shadow) the man's contribution to the Light's efforts does seem clear. However, readers must remember that at the time feelings about the Forsaken or darkfriends in general were extremely strong.
While the removal of al'Vere might have had a limited impact in and of itself, for sources show that she remained heavily involved with the Hall in a lesser position, the consequences for the balance of power between the Hall and the White Tower would be far more significant.
The revelations about Tel Janin, along with the discovery of who had kept his identity secret, were the trigger for what became known as the Initiates' Revolt, although of course that is often mischaracterised. Generally it is portrayed as a single mass move of initiates and aspirants, when it fact it took place over a period of months and also involved a number of full aes sedai, encouraged by some of the adaptations that the White Tower made to its procedures and rules to be more attractive (see chapter 4 - The Initiates' Revolt - Would the White Tower Have Survived Without It? and chapter 6 - Change in the White Tower, the Most Radical Amyrlin). The impact on the Hall's recruitment efforts was also notable.
* We would recommend the classic memoirs by Damer Flinn - Healing the World - My Journey from Queen's Guardsman to Sitter
=====
One year ATG
Rhin sat stony faced as the ambassador from the Seanchan Empire launched into another diatribe at him. The man really was a tedious blow hard.
"You call yourself the First Among Servants, well unless you want a war with the Empire you will call your servants to heel."
He resisted the urge to be undiplomatic in return. Honey often got one further than harsh words. "I understand that you have a grievance Lord Bakain, but I must apologise, I do not know what that grievance is. Perhaps you could be more specific?" He was fairly sure that he knew what this was about, but he would not be so foolish as to admit that to the unpleasant man in front of him.
"Fine, I shall play your games. Five attacks in the last six months. On damane kennels. Every single time all of the sul'dam there were found dead," interesting, Rhin was fairly sure he was lying in some way about the sul'dam, "and the damane gone. Stolen away." Lord Bakain took a deep breath. "This is a clear violation of our treaty, it was agreed that in return for the Seanchan Empire's forebearance in your Westlands you would keep your marath'damane out of Seanchan. Yet…"
Rhin cut him off, standing to take advantage of his height. "I deny this accusation completely. The Hall of Servants has not and will not violate the treaty. In fact, I find it odd that you come here with accusations on your lips. The White Tower, the Kin, the Sea Folk and the Aiel are all perfectly capable of doing this too, nevermind independent actors. It is not like your Empire has not given them an incentive to do so. However, I think that the most likely explanation is instability within your own realm. Damane are valuable tools," he could not resist his look of distaste at the word, "to you. Your Empire has a long history of instability and rebellion. I find it far more likely that you are seeing the results of yet more rebellious nobles seeking to obtain advantage in their struggle for power. So, unless you have some evidence to present, which seems unlikely as we are not involved, I would ask you to keep your accusations to yourself."
The Seanchan ambassador scowled harder and looked around the room. "Leave us." He gestured to the three subordinates he had brought with him. Once they had hurried out he turned his attention back to Rhin.
"You want to know why I have come to accuse you rather than to anyone else? Very well then, you will understand why." He held up a finger with a long, lacquered nail. "Firstly, the attacker's tactics were distinctive, we know how your people fight and this matched it."
"The White Tower has adopted many of those tactics, we train with the Aiel and the Kin."
The ambassador ignored him and raised a second finger. "Secondly, the slogans carved into the walls of the damane kennels spoke of your organisation's misguided excuse for morality."
"Oh really?"
"The Damane Liberation Front. Death to slave owners. Freedom and equality are the fundamental goals of a just society."
"I cannot say I have heard any of those before."
"Thirdly, the sul'dam were not dead. Well some of them were, but most of them were in the kennels with the a'dam round their necks."
"Ah, well that must have been awkward, having your dirty little secret aired."
The ambassador ignored that comment too. "So given the treatment of the sul'dam and the slogans it clearly was not one of the Seanchan and the evidence points directly at your Hall."
"Well no, it does not. As I said, the Hall has not been involved in this in any way. Your visit today is the first I have heard of it." He certainly was not going to mention the groups of damane with tied off shields that were occasionally found outside the Hall. They were being looked after and most certainly would not be returned to Seanchan. "If you can give me whatever additional information you have, I promise it will be investigated."
Lord Bakain looked like he wanted to growl at Rhin, but composed himself. "Every time it was a blonde woman, tall and attractive, in her middle years. Some might call her glamourous. She wore clothes that were certainly not in the Seanchan style, although I could not say which nation from the few witness accounts we have. She did not speak other than to the damane, but she was heard by servants and da'covale and they agree that she called herself 'Saela'. I suppose you will deny having any of your marath'damane by that name."
"Thank you. I have indeed never heard of anyone by that name, but I promise I shall look into this. The Hall has no interest in violating its treaty with the Seanchan Empire."
Rhin's mind was whirring, while he certainly did not disapprove of this 'Saela's' actions, he could not risk her provoking a war with the Seanchan. Not with the situation as it was there in the Westlands. He could not trust the White Tower not to take advantage, even if their long-term interests would surely align with the Hall's in seeing the Seanchan Empire fall.
Who could it be though? He did not think any of the Hall's aes sedai would do something like that without speaking to him first. He certainly hoped not. It was not the style of any of the other organisations. Lord Bakain had been right about that. So an independent actor? They would need to be powerful.
There was one obvious candidate. It seemed he would need to pay Alivia a visit. He certainly would not describe her as glamourous, but she was blonde and who knew what fantasies she might be trying to replicate from her missed years. The Light knew, if it was her he would understand it. He certainly would not be telling the Seanchan, but he could at least ask her to back off for a while, until tensions with the White Tower reduced.
=====
Extract from the autobiographical notes of Gelan Maccal, aes sedai of the Brown Ajah, held unpublished in the White Tower's archives 348 ATG
My decision to leave the Hall of Servants and join the White Tower was at the same time one of the hardest and easiest decisions of my life. The revelation about Sammael changed everything. The very idea that I had been taught by one of the Forsaken, laughed with him, drunk with him disgusted me beyond belief. The Shadow, led by his brethren, had killed nearly half the aspirants and aes sedai in the Hall by end of the Last Battle, yet we'd been told to remember this man as a hero. To group him together with friends and family who had given everything they had for the Light. Who had gone willingly to protect the world from people like him. I had cried at the memorial ceremony for him!
Oh those who stayed said that it did not matter, that it was about the principles of the Hall, that he had fought for the Light. Well perhaps there was something to that. I certainly cannot say that I agree with everything the White Tower has done since I joined it, particularly not in the first sixty or so years, but it missed the point. The Hall's principles meant nothing, they were nothing. Its entire leadership kept this a secret from us and only revealed it when they were forced to, while spouting platitudes about openness and honesty. At least the White Tower lacked their hypocrisy.
They talked about the Black Ajah in the White Tower. The Hall's leader was sleeping with one of the Forsaken. I spent sleepless nights wondering if Taija was a darkfriend. How else could she have tolerated it? I saw the way she looked at him, she loved him. Had he fooled her somehow? I don't know. I was angry then. These days, as an old man, I'm much less angry. Now it just makes me sad. Sad for her, but sadder for all of us that so blindly followed her. How much of the rest of it was a lie?
Sometimes I lie in bed and ask myself whether it was the right decision, joining the Tower. I think many of us never worried about it, were completely comfortable with their decision. Especially after so many long year. For me though, I still wonder, especially after some of the things the Tower has done. Every time I do though, I think yes. It was not a perfect choice, but it was the right decision. How any moral person could stay in the Hall after finding about Sammael I do not know, but I still wonder.
I wonder whether it was worth it too. I thought at the time the Hall would collapse. We actually outnumbered them for a time. Who would have expected that, in the midst of the Hall's pre-battle triumphalism? Now though, things are different. Maybe I have just lived too long. I do not know.
Regardless, Sammael can burn in whatever prison the Dark One or Creator keeps him in. As for Taija… I wish I knew. Poor, misguided hypocrite or one step from a darkfriend? I know what the Tower would prefer me to think, it does put such weight on public certainty among the aes sedai. Fortunately it would rather I just keep quiet about her like everyone else. History does not like complexity.
I wonder whether I will be allowed to publish this if I ever do turn it into a book?
ALTERNATE ENDING - EPILOGUE I - The Problem with Tel Janin
Extracts from an article "The Three Witches" in Popular History Magazine 1,874 ATG
The three female Forsaken that are sometimes almost affectionately known in contemporary times as the "Three Witches" for their sheer effectiveness frequently worked together. Of course internecine warfare among the Forsaken was common and they were no exception, but they were well known for allying against the others and supporting each other in face of aggression from their male counterparts.
Certainly the Three Witches were among the most competent of the Forsaken, albeit that was not always a high hurdle to cross, and the damage that they did to what were then known as the Forces of the Light was far beyond their personal strength in the One Power. Impressively, two of them even managed to survive Tarmon Gaidon, although all the evidence suggests that they died shortly afterwards.
Historians have spent their lives trying to piece together the actions of these women, who were secretive by their very nature, and in this article we have exclusive details collected from recently discovered primary sources about their actions. In particular we have had access to never seen before records of interrogations of darkfriends in Kandor during the Great Purge.
…
Graendal we shall address first as she was the first of them to die and the only one to die during Tarmon Gaidon. As fans will know, she was reputed to have been one of the greatest psychologists ever to be born in her original time. Later on she devoted herself to hedonism, moving from an ascetic lifestyle when she defected to the Shadow during the Second Age.
During Tarmon Gaidon she was notable for her invention of the first mass compulsion web. Imitations have been attempted since, with varying degrees of success, but to this day no one has managed to replicate the scale of the reported effects. That being said, we do have to assume a certain amount of exaggeration of its effectiveness given that reports come from eye witnesses who were under battlefield conditions.
…
Semirhage was reputed to be a sadist and master torturer, although practical evidence of this is limited and may well have involved a certain amount of mythologising.
Following the breaking of the White Tower she devoted herself to training the lesser channelers of the Shadow. Given the Shadow's disadvantage in strategic Power-based weaponry, her goal was no doubt to create a counter with large circles as was seen during Tarmon Gaidon.
She survived Tarmon Gaidon, unlike most of her compatriots, and is believed to have moved to Seanchan shortly afterwards. Records after this point are sparse and historians are forced into a certain degree of speculation about her eventual fate. However, it seems that her plan was likely to attempt a takeover of the Seanchan Empire with the goal of eventually replacing the Empress, or possibly turning her into a puppet.
The current consensus is that she likely died in the battle of Qupross. There were reports of a tall marath'damane* matching her description that died in an ambush there, but was able to kill a large number of damane** before she was brought down. There was, however, a great deal of confusion at the time. The Seanchan Empire was already a chaotic place and by then it was also suffering from repeated attacks on damane kennels by channelers. These days those attacks are generally believed to have been part of a black ops project organised by the Hall of Servants (although this has never been confirmed and was historically denied by the Hall) and some historians think that it was in fact one of the Hall's operatives and not Semirhage that died in that battle. If that was the case then it would beg the question of where Semirhage went and what happened to her.
While various sightings were reported for centuries after her alleged death, none have been particularly convincing.
* The Seanchan word for channelers who had not become damane.
** The Seanchan word for channelers who were forced into slavery through the use of a ter'angreal known as an a'dam, which took the form of a collar around their neck and a bracelet worn by a controller.
….
Mesaana, unlike the other two, had already died once and been brought back by the Dark One. Before and during Tarmon Gaidon she infiltrated the Children of the Light*** and was able to turn them against the Army of the Light just as a breakthrough was threatened.
It is believed that she simply rode away from the conflict she had started and the Light's lines nearly broke as a result. In the end the situation was only stabilised through the deployment of units wielding firearms (one of the first ever), which were able to stymie the Shadow's advance.
Tarmon Gaidon was won shortly after that and it is not clear what Mesaana intended in the face of the Shadow's defeat. Unfortunately for her she was caught up in the frenzy of violent revenge that was the Great Purge in the months that followed. Records from the Hall show that she was in one of the Westlands cities for reasons that were unclear when someone accused her of being a darkfriend. A crowd turned on her and she was forced to channel to save her own life, killing at least a thousand people in the furious mob. Unfortunately for her, she was trapped within the city's anti-Traveling ward array and there were sufficient aes sedai from the Hall and White Tower present to kill her, albeit with severe casualties.
*** A fanatical religious organisation devoted to what they perceived to be the Creator's goals, ironically their actions almost resulted in the defeat of the Light, although obviously that was at least partially due to Mesaana's interference.
…
=====
Approximately 1 month ATG - Cairhien
"Her, she cursed the Creator before the battle, I heard it!" The man pointed at a young lady and the crowd surged behind him, roaring with rage.
She took one look at them and turned to run, but to no avail. In no time she was seized and dragged to the self-appointed Judges of the Light before being forced to her knees in front of them.
The three of them looked down at her, no mercy in their eyes as accusations were thrown. She had cursed the Creator's name. She snuck messages to rats. She had not given her goods to support the Light.
Her pleas of innocence, begging for mercy fell on deaf ears. Every single person there had lost friends and family to the Shadow. Many of them had fought the trollocs, seen the horrors they wreaked. They wanted revenge, they wanted to see darkfriends pay for what they had done to them and they were not overly bothered by niceties of evidence.
"Darkfriend, hang her with the others. Next!"
=====
Approximately 3 months ATG - A Palace in Caemlyn
"Thank you taking the time to get together." Egwene looked between the others in the very unofficial meeting she had called. Rand, Nynaeve, Elayne, Aleksi and Bennae. She suppressed a sigh as she saw that Elayne and Aleksi had placed themselves on the other side of the room to Rand. "I asked you all to be here because of the rumours that have been going round."
"Which rumours? There are always rumours." Elayne sounded almost combative.
"You know what I mean. Damer explicitly asked me if they were true today. I was able to fob him off, but I had to promise I'd call a full meeting of the aes sedai to discuss the issue." That was not something she was looking forward to. Her election to be First Among Servants had been one of the proudest moments of her life as well as one of the saddest given who should have been in the post. However, in the two months since then the work and stress had been relentless, she had no idea how Taija had handled it. And now… well in a way Egwene was glad she wasn't around to see this.
"Fucking White Tower." Elayne didn't bother to keep her voice down.
Egwene didn't bother to protest that she had no proof it was them. They all knew exactly who was behind this. "Indeed." She hesitated. "So we're the people who knew who Tel really was, that's why we're here. We need to decide how we're going to approach this and what we're going to say to the rest of the aes sedai."
Rand grimaced. "What is there to say? He was what he was, but he still died a hero of the Light. No one can walk so far in the Shadow that they cannot return to the Light."
Bennae shook her head. "It is a nice saying, but you are ignoring the reality my dear. People are looking for revenge. I know things have not been as bad so far south as Illian and Tear, but even there the purges are ongoing. You have been spending enough of your time trying to suppress them after all and even you have not been able to fully stop them. That unfortunate business in Ghealdan has only made things worse. Everyone, every single person has lost friends and family because of the Shadow and they want revenge."
"And if not for Tel they would have lost a lot more of them!"
"Alright, let's think about this. I don't think any of us denies the contribution that Tel made to the Light." It still made Egwene deeply uncomfortable to think that he had once called himself Sammael. Whatever his contribution, she wasn't happy about it. "The question is, what do we do about it?"
"Deny it." Bennae's voice was uncharacteristically hard. "Call it slander, tell them he was an undercover agent for the Light. The truth does not matter and they would not accept it in any event."
"No!" Aleksi's reaction was surprisingly vehement. "That's not what the Hall stands for, it's not what Taija stood for. Yes, he committed crimes, but he chose to come back. If we can't justify allowing him back then why did we allow it? But more importantly, we're not the White Tower. The Hall stands for openness, freedom and truth, not manipulation and twisting the truth. We have our principles and we should stand by them."
"While I take your point, I agree with Bennae. This is not something that we want the rest of the aes sedai to know about. Most of us are still uncomfortable with Tel, are we not?" Elayne looked from face to face and got grudging nods from everyone other than Bennae and Rand. "Imagine how people will feel, when their blood is up and they are looking for revenge? When Demandred killed their brother. When their mother was killed by that woman in Ghealdan. You agree Egwene, do you not?"
Egwene hesitated and then shook her head. "I think Aleksi's right. If we don't have our principles, we just become a younger version of the White Tower. We have a legacy to live up to. What about you Rand, what do you think?"
He paused, looking at nothing for a long moment. "I think…"
=====
An extract from The Hall and the Tower The First Cold War - published 1,548 ATG
The Hall of Servants is thought to have been founded in approximately 2BTG, although the exact date is unclear. Its founder, Rand al'Thor, known as the Dragon Reborn, brought together a disparate group of powerful channelers and able administrators to form what would become one of the world's two preeminent channeling organisations for the years following Tarmon Gaidon.
Of course the Hall was wracked by controversy almost immediately after Tarmon Gaidon. While its own records contain no documentation evidencing it, is is clear from other contemporary sources that one of its key members from the moment of its establishment, Tel Janin, was in fact the Forsaken Sammael. More shocking at the time was that, in addition to al'Thor, much or even all of the senior leadership of the Hall appears to have been aware of this, while concealing it from the wider populace.
Given the actions of the Forsaken and their role in the War of Power in the Second Age, along with the run up to Tarmon Gaidon and the battle itself, it seems unbelievable that one would have assisted al'Thor. At least not other than as part of a convoluted scheme for the forces of darkness. It therefore seems even more unbelievable that one of them would have been trusted to the point of being given a key role in establishing a force of channelers.
Nevertheless, the evidence is clear that this was the case, albeit clearly concealed by the Hall's senior leadership in the run up to Tarmon Gaidon. The position seems to be that they believed he had returned to the Light, although the reasons for this are not known. Given the atrocities committed by the Forsaken, simple regret seems to be unlikely. It is unfortunate that none of those key individuals ever left memoirs, meaning that ultimately historians are limited to speculation on Tel Janin/Sammael's motives, along with theirs for accepting him. However, Reldim Manag's biography of Rand al'Thor The Dragon Reborn - From Ta'veren to Tear does speculate that it was in fact Sammael that taught al'Thor and that his belief in Sammael's defection to the Light was genuine.
Regardless, of what those in the know believed, the secret was revealed to the wider population of the Hall at the worst possible time. The Hall had taken devastating casualties during Tarmon Gaidon and, like the rest of the Westlands, many of its members were looking for revenge for the suffering inflicted on them by the Shadow (for more details see chapter 10 - The Great Purge - A Justified Reaction?).
Details of the discussions that took place within the Hall are limited as no minutes were kept of the relevant meetings. However, various contemporary accounts do provide some background.* We know that a meeting was held among all of the Hall's aes sedai to discuss rumours that had been circulating about the identity of Tel Janin. At that meeting his true identity and the fact that it had been known by the Hall's senior leadership was revealed.
It is perhaps unsurprising, given feelings at the time, that this was considered sufficient to result in the immediate removal of the Hall's first First Among Servants, Egwene al'Vere only three months into her term. It also resulted in a public acknowledgment that Tel Janin had in fact previously been one of the Forsaken and an apology for the same. The impact of this would seem more academic at this point and with the benefit of hindsight (not to mention distance from the atrocities committed by the Shadow) the man's contribution to the Light's efforts does seem clear. However, readers must remember that at the time feelings about the Forsaken or darkfriends in general were extremely strong.
While the removal of al'Vere might have had a limited impact in and of itself, for sources show that she remained heavily involved with the Hall in a lesser position, the consequences for the balance of power between the Hall and the White Tower would be far more significant.
The revelations about Tel Janin, along with the discovery of who had kept his identity secret, were the trigger for what became known as the Initiates' Revolt, although of course that is often mischaracterised. Generally it is portrayed as a single mass move of initiates and aspirants, when it fact it took place over a period of months and also involved a number of full aes sedai, encouraged by some of the adaptations that the White Tower made to its procedures and rules to be more attractive (see chapter 4 - The Initiates' Revolt - Would the White Tower Have Survived Without It? and chapter 6 - Change in the White Tower, the Most Radical Amyrlin). The impact on the Hall's recruitment efforts was also notable.
* We would recommend the classic memoirs by Damer Flinn - Healing the World - My Journey from Queen's Guardsman to Sitter
=====
One year ATG
Rhin sat stony faced as the ambassador from the Seanchan Empire launched into another diatribe at him. The man really was a tedious blow hard.
"You call yourself the First Among Servants, well unless you want a war with the Empire you will call your servants to heel."
He resisted the urge to be undiplomatic in return. Honey often got one further than harsh words. "I understand that you have a grievance Lord Bakain, but I must apologise, I do not know what that grievance is. Perhaps you could be more specific?" He was fairly sure that he knew what this was about, but he would not be so foolish as to admit that to the unpleasant man in front of him.
"Fine, I shall play your games. Five attacks in the last six months. On damane kennels. Every single time all of the sul'dam there were found dead," interesting, Rhin was fairly sure he was lying in some way about the sul'dam, "and the damane gone. Stolen away." Lord Bakain took a deep breath. "This is a clear violation of our treaty, it was agreed that in return for the Seanchan Empire's forebearance in your Westlands you would keep your marath'damane out of Seanchan. Yet…"
Rhin cut him off, standing to take advantage of his height. "I deny this accusation completely. The Hall of Servants has not and will not violate the treaty. In fact, I find it odd that you come here with accusations on your lips. The White Tower, the Kin, the Sea Folk and the Aiel are all perfectly capable of doing this too, nevermind independent actors. It is not like your Empire has not given them an incentive to do so. However, I think that the most likely explanation is instability within your own realm. Damane are valuable tools," he could not resist his look of distaste at the word, "to you. Your Empire has a long history of instability and rebellion. I find it far more likely that you are seeing the results of yet more rebellious nobles seeking to obtain advantage in their struggle for power. So, unless you have some evidence to present, which seems unlikely as we are not involved, I would ask you to keep your accusations to yourself."
The Seanchan ambassador scowled harder and looked around the room. "Leave us." He gestured to the three subordinates he had brought with him. Once they had hurried out he turned his attention back to Rhin.
"You want to know why I have come to accuse you rather than to anyone else? Very well then, you will understand why." He held up a finger with a long, lacquered nail. "Firstly, the attacker's tactics were distinctive, we know how your people fight and this matched it."
"The White Tower has adopted many of those tactics, we train with the Aiel and the Kin."
The ambassador ignored him and raised a second finger. "Secondly, the slogans carved into the walls of the damane kennels spoke of your organisation's misguided excuse for morality."
"Oh really?"
"The Damane Liberation Front. Death to slave owners. Freedom and equality are the fundamental goals of a just society."
"I cannot say I have heard any of those before."
"Thirdly, the sul'dam were not dead. Well some of them were, but most of them were in the kennels with the a'dam round their necks."
"Ah, well that must have been awkward, having your dirty little secret aired."
The ambassador ignored that comment too. "So given the treatment of the sul'dam and the slogans it clearly was not one of the Seanchan and the evidence points directly at your Hall."
"Well no, it does not. As I said, the Hall has not been involved in this in any way. Your visit today is the first I have heard of it." He certainly was not going to mention the groups of damane with tied off shields that were occasionally found outside the Hall. They were being looked after and most certainly would not be returned to Seanchan. "If you can give me whatever additional information you have, I promise it will be investigated."
Lord Bakain looked like he wanted to growl at Rhin, but composed himself. "Every time it was a blonde woman, tall and attractive, in her middle years. Some might call her glamourous. She wore clothes that were certainly not in the Seanchan style, although I could not say which nation from the few witness accounts we have. She did not speak other than to the damane, but she was heard by servants and da'covale and they agree that she called herself 'Saela'. I suppose you will deny having any of your marath'damane by that name."
"Thank you. I have indeed never heard of anyone by that name, but I promise I shall look into this. The Hall has no interest in violating its treaty with the Seanchan Empire."
Rhin's mind was whirring, while he certainly did not disapprove of this 'Saela's' actions, he could not risk her provoking a war with the Seanchan. Not with the situation as it was there in the Westlands. He could not trust the White Tower not to take advantage, even if their long-term interests would surely align with the Hall's in seeing the Seanchan Empire fall.
Who could it be though? He did not think any of the Hall's aes sedai would do something like that without speaking to him first. He certainly hoped not. It was not the style of any of the other organisations. Lord Bakain had been right about that. So an independent actor? They would need to be powerful.
There was one obvious candidate. It seemed he would need to pay Alivia a visit. He certainly would not describe her as glamourous, but she was blonde and who knew what fantasies she might be trying to replicate from her missed years. The Light knew, if it was her he would understand it. He certainly would not be telling the Seanchan, but he could at least ask her to back off for a while, until tensions with the White Tower reduced.
=====
Extract from the autobiographical notes of Gelan Maccal, aes sedai of the Brown Ajah, held unpublished in the White Tower's archives 348 ATG
My decision to leave the Hall of Servants and join the White Tower was at the same time one of the hardest and easiest decisions of my life. The revelation about Sammael changed everything. The very idea that I had been taught by one of the Forsaken, laughed with him, drunk with him disgusted me beyond belief. The Shadow, led by his brethren, had killed nearly half the aspirants and aes sedai in the Hall by end of the Last Battle, yet we'd been told to remember this man as a hero. To group him together with friends and family who had given everything they had for the Light. Who had gone willingly to protect the world from people like him. I had cried at the memorial ceremony for him!
Oh those who stayed said that it did not matter, that it was about the principles of the Hall, that he had fought for the Light. Well perhaps there was something to that. I certainly cannot say that I agree with everything the White Tower has done since I joined it, particularly not in the first sixty or so years, but it missed the point. The Hall's principles meant nothing, they were nothing. Its entire leadership kept this a secret from us and only revealed it when they were forced to, while spouting platitudes about openness and honesty. At least the White Tower lacked their hypocrisy.
They talked about the Black Ajah in the White Tower. The Hall's leader was sleeping with one of the Forsaken. I spent sleepless nights wondering if Taija was a darkfriend. How else could she have tolerated it? I saw the way she looked at him, she loved him. Had he fooled her somehow? I don't know. I was angry then. These days, as an old man, I'm much less angry. Now it just makes me sad. Sad for her, but sadder for all of us that so blindly followed her. How much of the rest of it was a lie?
Sometimes I lie in bed and ask myself whether it was the right decision, joining the Tower. I think many of us never worried about it, were completely comfortable with their decision. Especially after so many long year. For me though, I still wonder, especially after some of the things the Tower has done. Every time I do though, I think yes. It was not a perfect choice, but it was the right decision. How any moral person could stay in the Hall after finding about Sammael I do not know, but I still wonder.
I wonder whether it was worth it too. I thought at the time the Hall would collapse. We actually outnumbered them for a time. Who would have expected that, in the midst of the Hall's pre-battle triumphalism? Now though, things are different. Maybe I have just lived too long. I do not know.
Regardless, Sammael can burn in whatever prison the Dark One or Creator keeps him in. As for Taija… I wish I knew. Poor, misguided hypocrite or one step from a darkfriend? I know what the Tower would prefer me to think, it does put such weight on public certainty among the aes sedai. Fortunately it would rather I just keep quiet about her like everyone else. History does not like complexity.
I wonder whether I will be allowed to publish this if I ever do turn it into a book?
ALTERNATE ENDING EPILOGUE II - Mysteries of the Ancient World
ALTERNATE ENDING EPILOGUE II - Mysteries of the Ancient World
Extract from The Rise and Fall of the Seanchan Empire - 1298 ATG
The collapse of the Seanchan Empire is one of the most significant events in the history of the eponymous continent. Unlike many other chaotic events of the Tarmon Gaidon era and the decades following, the reasons for the collapse are relatively well documented. What remains unclear, even to this day, is the actor or actors behind it. This is why it is a frequent feature in lists of the world's most successful conspiracies. However, more light can now be shed on the question, tilting the evidence heavily towards the Hall's involvement.
As readers will know, the city of Paral remained a relatively isolated and secretive state even after it nominally opened itself to the outside world. This meant that access to Paral's secret records was only opened to historians in recent years. Documents in those have shed new and interesting light on the Damane Liberation Front and its origins. In doing so they have allowed us to potentially dismiss at least one of the key theories behind its foundation.
There is a great deal of uncertainty about the origins of the Damane Liberation Front. Of course the name was later adopted by revolutionary movements across Seanchan and there is no doubt that by the time of the the collapse of the Empire it very much existed as a true organisation in the form of a coalition of rebel groups. However, it first appeared in the years immediately following Tarmon Gaidon. Its impact was clear, even sparking diplomatic protests from the Seanchan Empire, yet beyond its actions there there is almost no evidence at all that it existed in any meaningful form. No members have ever been identified from that period and there are no records of any interaction with it beyond strikes its at damane kennels and government targets.
Despite that, the most popular theory was that it was indeed started and organised in the Seanchan Empire and was entirely domestic in nature. Of course many argue that the lack of evidence for this is because it started as a small and, by necessity, highly secretive organisation and so documentation was limited. However, even after the fall of the Empire no one has been able to identify a founder or origin for it in Seanchan. While one or two individuals did later claim to have been its founder, none of them were able to provide plausible backing for their assertions.
The second most popular theory has therefore been that the Damane Liberation Front was the result of black (i.e. unofficial, off the books) operations by the Hall of Servants. The incentives for them to involve themselves are clear. Not only was the Seanchan Empire an existential threat to any channeler in the Westlands, the Hall was notable for its consistent and hardline opposition to slavery. However, the evidence for its involvement is less clear. The Hall prides itself on its openness and has long allowed researchers access to its archives. Documents from those make it clear that, while the Hall did play a secret role in the rehabilitation of freed damane and was certainly providing tacit support in the later days of the collapse of the Empire, in the initial years of the Damane Liberation Front the Hall's leadership was as confused by its existence as the Seanchan. This confusion extended to the point of the Hall conducting its own investigation to try to establish whether it was the result of one of its own aes sedai going rogue.
The documents available in the Hall's archives in turn leads to the third theory. Its leadership at the time appears to have believed that the Damane Liberation Front was possibly the result of independent action by Alivia Hunter, a former damane of prodigious strength in the Power who had established herself in Illian and at that point ran an orphanage. Records show that at the time she denied all involvement. Indeed, even a century after the final fall of the Empire she continued with her denials, maintaining that she believed it had been the Seanchan that had freed themselves. This personal denial, even long after any consequences would have attached to the actions, does seem to support the view that she was not involved.
Returning to the release of the Paral records, they are relevant to the initial leading figure of the Damane Liberation Front outside Seanchan (in fact some historians argue she was the only figure in the Damane Liberation Front until its popularity exploded across the continent). Aficionados for the era will of course realise that this is a reference to 'Saela'. Fascinatingly the woman* that called herself that also features in records from the same rough time period in Paral.
If those records are to be believed (and they must be taken with a certain pinch of salt given the Paralan penchant for propaganda) then, in addition to her activities in Seanchan, 'Saela' was also responsible for various actions on the Paralan continent. In particular, they blame her for teaching the inhabitants of the Wastelands (the Paralan term for the majority of the continent outside their city) a number of channeling techniques along with how to better defend themselves and also for directly threatening the Paralan Chief Secretary if they did not change their policy towards the Wastelands. In fact the Paralan documents, biased as they are, represent the most detailed surviving record of a conversation with 'Saela'.
Unsurprisingly, records from the rest of the Paralan continent were rather sparse given their very low levels of development and literacy immediately after Tarmon Gaidon. However, it does appear from their own histories that a woman, of various names, but in some cases recognisably close to 'Saela' (e.g. 'Sala') helped to uplift them from their condition at the time and put them onto the path for their rejoining world civilisation, albeit the continent does remain poorer than the rest of the world.
I explore the Paralan records in more detail later, but the primary conclusion that I take from them is that they should put an end to the idea that the Damane Liberation Front was a truly home-grown, Seanchan organisation. In particular, the interest in Paral strongly suggests that it was in fact a Hall black operation rather than anything to do with the Seanchan. I have already discussed the Hall's incentives for intervening in Seanchan. Similar pressures would have applied in relation to Paral. It also supports my hypothesis that the identity 'Saela' was one assumed by multiple operatives at different times. Of course the Hall denies any such thing, but even the most open of organisations can still have their secrets.
* Of course given the revolutionary activities and secrecy involved, it could just as easily have been a man disguised as a woman with the Power, or several individuals all assuming the same identity.
=====
Extract from Taija Kosola - Secret Darkfriend or Misguided Hero? The Controversy Explored - 1934 ATG
Taija Kosola (some sources state she also had a third name, Miranen) is the one of the seven founding figures of the Hall of Servants about whom the least is known. Ever since the first histories of the Hall were written she has been a controversial and difficult figure. Some sources suggest that she was the leading figure in the Hall, potentially surpassing even Rand al'Thor in importance within it. Others that she was a relatively minor administrator. The truth is likely somewhere in the middle.
No doubt there are two significant factors contributing to this confusion and the lack of information about her. Firstly there is the fact that, other than Tel Janin/Sammael, she was the only one of the founders not to survive the Last Battle . Secondly there is her relationship with Janin, which was well known in both the Hall and the Tower.
…
Of the Hall's founders, she is known to have been closest to al'Thor and was a key collaborator with him on his cleansing of the taint on saidin, even being permitted to be the other half of the link with him*. This relationship is illustrated by the statues of her in the cities of Tear and Illian (formerly the twin capitals of the Double Throne). Al'Thor had them commissioned a few years ATG and both are beautiful works of art, considered some of the finest sculpture of the end of the pre-industrial era.
[Photo of a 20 foot tall statue of a woman wearing breaches, blouse and coat, her hair tied back in a simple knot, with one foot on a rock, staring out to the east with a faint smile on her face. The Stone of Tear looms in the background.]
At the bottom of each statue is the inscription, "Taija Kosola Miranen, she gave her life for the world. She was loved and she will be remembered."
At the time the statues were highly controversial. For reasons that will be properly explored later, Kosola was a contentious figure among those who knew who she was and the construction of the statues also resulted in rumours circulating that she had been al'Thor's lover (although evidence for this is non-existent). Given the popularity of Queen Elmindreda this led to further difficulties with their commission. In the end al'Thor broke his habit of relatively hands off rule and overrode all objections to the statues.
Even then, for the first few years of their existence they had to be guarded against vandalism. Fortunately, regardless of the truth of her story, these works of art eventually came to be seen as the treasures that they are.
*Note that during his lifetime al'Thor was always insistent when asked that she was in fact the driving force behind the cleansing, but given his well known modesty and the scope of his abilities, this seems unlikely.
…
While the events of the Great Purge have been extensively explored, as have their impact on the Hall's position vis a vis the White Tower, the damage it did to to Kosola's reputation is less well known. In fact there appears to have been a deliberate attempt to cover up her involvement with the Hall. Of course this was not possible and she is to this day, almost 2,000 years later, recognised as one of its seven founding members. However, it does mean that her exact role is unclear, especially given the destruction of much of the Hall's pre-Tarmon Gaion documentation (see below). That being said, while it is not undisputed, I think it is fair to say that the consensus is that it was a leading one, possibly second only to al'Thor. I go into the reasons for this in more depth later, but while she featured surprisingly little in memoirs written after her death, surviving documentation from the time indicates that she may have even been the first First Among Servants (her signature on the Hall's original treaty with Andor is good evidence of this).
Regardless, the reason for the lack of records is obvious; her relationship with Janin. The evidence does point towards her also having been from the Age of Legends, which raises a number of questions in and of itself. Over the years many historians have tried to argue that she was in fact also one of the Forsaken. However, I believe that is unlikely. It simply seems inconceivable that the other founders, people whose devotion to the Light was never questioned, even by their enemies (although their judgment frequently was), would have placed two of the worst enemies of the Light in leading positions. The reaction to the revelations about Janin also seems to match this, for her treatment in history is distinctly different to his. Where he has been actively repudiated by the Hall, she continues to be accepted as an honoured figure, but one that is better forgotten as a bit of an embarrassment.
What is clear is that the revelation of Janin's identity led to accusations that Kosola was at best criminally foolish and at worst a darkfriend (or even one of the Forsaken herself, although as I said I believe that accusation can be safely dismissed). Of course she was unable to defend herself or her reputation from these accusations, which no doubt contributes to the controversies around her.
One thing is clear, the surviving founders of the Hall were willing to go to far greater lengths to defend her reputation than they had been for Janin. Some historians have attributed this to the theory that she was also al'Thor's lover, although in my view that is more prurient fantasy than sensible theory. It also fails to explain the fervour with which others defended her. After all, I have yet to see any suggestion that she was also the lover of the other four founders.
Regardless, no formal accusations were ever made, although it is known that on at least one occasion matters descended into violence over it. This is best recorded in Rhin Alderon's account of Elayne Trakand's duel with Naral Allasin over comments he had made, which is reported to have resulted in him needing weeks to recover despite the availability of healing with the Power. Of course those post-war days were characterised by considerably more violent behaviour than would be accepted nowadays.
There does seem to have been a concerted effort to purge Kosola from the Hall's records. When this took place is not clear, but it was presumably after the original founders had disengaged themselves somewhat from its leadership, given their previous efforts at defending her reputation. The White Tower's own records, the second best source we have for those days, barely mention her at all, although they do contain formal speculation that she was a darkfriend. Of course there is the rumoured 13th Depository, which might contain more information, but that is widely considered to be a myth.
From the Hall's perspective, she is treated as an honoured founder, but a slightly awkward one, better forgotten. This is perhaps well illustrated by the memorial to her in the Hall, which can of course be visited by the public. Unlike the towering statues in Tear and Illian, or even the extensive Taija Kosola Memorial Garden in the Royal Palace in Caemlyn, the Hall's memorial seems almost subdued. However, if you do visit the Hall (and its museum is certainly one of the best on the planet), you can find a small statue of Kosola in the eastern corner of the compound, standing approximately six feet tall, so slightly larger than life (by all accounts she was a small woman). The quality is exquisite even if it lacks the grandeur of some.
=====
Extract from Eyewitnesses of Tarmon Gaidon - 445 ATG
With the death of Rand al'Thor in his 400s, I realised that the number of surviving eyewitnesses to Tarmon Gaidon was diminishing fast. Given many of them had never spoken publicly about their experiences and the events of the most cataclysmic battle of our time, I resolved to make it my mission to seek out those that were still alive, inevitably channelers of some strength. Some were happy to speak to me, others rather less so. Of those that I did succeed in speaking to, the largest surprise was Mazrim Taim. While he is well known in his adopted home city of Tanchico, he is a rather more obscure figure in the wider world due to the low profile he has kept. For those in the know, his reticence in speaking to journalists is also notable.
…
Interviewer: Finally, I would like to ask about Taija Kosola and Tel Janin, your time at the Hall of Servants overlapped with theirs. What do you think of the controversy surrounding their participation and, in particular her?
Taim: I could not care less, I have no interest in the Hall's political squabbles nor their relationships.
Interviewer: Please, indulge me.
Taim: Very well if you insist… In my view, post-battle neither the Hall of Servants nor the White Tower were fit to clean either of their boots. The Hall is only what it is because of them and the Tower only survived because it took advantage of their actions and in particular Taija's forbearance. While there were legitimate questions to be asked about Tel's history, the way that the Tower has completely ignored and the Hall has brushed over Taija's history and contribution to the world is a complete disgrace. I can understand why the Tower has done it, but the Hall should have been ashamed of themselves.
Interviewer: That is fascinating, you seem very passionate about the topic, do you not wish to correct the historical record?
Taim: No. I have indulged you as requested, but like I said, I have no interest in the Hall's internal squabbles.
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Paralan Archives: Report to the Internal Security Directorate Command - Paral - preserved in the original Old Tongue - 5 ATG (note, converted from the Paralan dating format)
Greetings citizens! I have written up the key points summary of the involuntary conference between the Chief Secretary and the terrorist channeler 'Saela' as requested. Please see below. Should you require more details before your meeting, recordings are available.
The Chief Secretary was in his office late, working for the good of the People as he does most nights when a gateway appeared. The Chief Secretary pressed the hidden panic button, but none of his security staff were able to enter the room.
The criminal wrecker of the People's freedom who emerged from the gateway did not match the appearance of any from the encounter of a few years previously with channeling terrorists (see File 12642/98). This one was also female, but taller than the two women previously encountered, dressed in style analysts say was reminiscent of the late pre-Breaking era and blonde.
Unsurprisingly this enemy of the People lacked decorum and simply took a seat opposite the Chief Secretary without any invitation. When the Chief Secretary bravely attempted to deal with her presence himself, she crushed his gun into a small cube using the Power.
At that point the Chief Secretary resolved to buy time by listening to what the representative of channeling imperialism had to say.
I note that she spoke the Common Tongue roughly as well as the leader of the previous channeling group, although she denied all knowledge of them when questioned.
After she had introduced herself, the Chief Secretary demanded to know why she was interfering with the lawful business and freedom of the Paralan People and what could possibly make her think the Paralans would accept the return of channeler oppression when they could live in self-ruled paradise.
The terrorist witch laughed at his words and made the laughable claim that she had no interest in, apologies but I quote directly to illustrate the depths of her delusion, "ruling anywhere, let alone this shithole that should have died 3,000 years ago."
Obviously the Chief Secretary did not believe this, but under the circumstances there was little he could do (note that at this point his security were attempting to forcibly gain access to his office, but were prevented by a barrier of some kind, presumably a result of the Power). This is the danger of channelers and why their continued existence inevitably leads to suffering of the working man.
The running dog of the oppressors proceeded to lay out a series of demands to the Chief Secretary, each more unreasonable than the last and all backed by threats of violence, for that is the only language channelers truly understand.
The only one relevant to current discussions was that she demanded that Paral cease operations against those in the Wastelands that would threaten us. When the Chief Secretary mocked her temerity for asking that and questioned how she could even enforce it she responded by asking him what the loss rates were among the Kill Teams (note she did not call them that) (further note, in the last two years losses have increased by approximately 70%).
The Chief Secretary replied that the security of Paral was paramount and that if sacrifices had to be made by the People for their freedom then so be it.
This seemed to aggravate the intruder and she proceeded to threaten the Chief Secretary in a brutish and uncivilised manner. She made two specific threats which will need to be considered. Firstly she said that each time she found a kill team had taken action she would make a strike against Paral and the first target would be the Chief Secretary's office. As you will be aware, the Chief Secretary has since moved his office away from the top of the City Hall to a confidential, underground location.
Secondly, she said that she had not yet spread the knowledge of Traveling to the people of the Wastelands. She claimed that she did not want to see Paral destroyed with the death of innocents that would result, although that seems implausible. However, she threatened that if the use of kill teams continued then she would spread this knowledge and it would be the end of Paral. To demonstrate what she described as the "tactical paradigm resulting from only one side having the ability to Travel", she opened a gateway to the Wall and, apparently channeling through it, melted one of the defence guns to slag.
Shortly after that she left the way she had come, through a gateway. I understand that the matter is now up for consideration by the Central Committee and hope that this note assists you in your contributions to those deliberations.
=====
Extract from Mysteries of the Ancient World 1,653 ATG
While not quite a mystery in the way that many of the subjects covered by this book are, the question of Taija Kosola provides enough controversy that it is worthy of inclusion.
The sheer lack of sources about her activities during her life is highly unusual. She is probably the significant figure of the Tarmon Gaidon era about whom the least is known. Even Tel Janin had various historical records about his life as Sammael, but Taija Kosola is almost unknown. There are no existent records at all of her from before 2BTG and of course she died in Tarmon Gaidon.
The evidence is that there was a concerted attempt to suppress records of her life. The White Tower and the Hall both seem to have worked to ensure that little was known of her actions.
The other founders of the Hall would no doubt have been able to shed greater light on her; however, regrettably none of them left autobiographies. Egwene al'Vere, Elayne Trakand and Aleksi Durcaral all refused to speak about her. The reasons for this are unclear, there was clearly a great deal of bitterness in the early years after Tarmon Gaidon, but it is unclear why their refusal continued into their old age.
Other works were published by individuals claiming to have been close to Kosola and to have known her during her period of activity, yet they are often contradictory, making it difficult to know which are true and which are not.
One of the most popular is Standing Beside Greatness which purported to have been written by Bennae Nalsad. Bennae Nalsad is indeed a real person who was known to have been an aes sedai in the Hall of Servants who was promoted during Kosola's life. Some sources suggest that she was a White Tower aes sedai prior to that, but that is not supported by the Tower's own records.
Regardless, the general view is that, whether it was in fact written by Nalsad or not, the book is best treated as an enjoyable work of fiction. Nalsad makes for a fantastic character and several successful films have been made based on her story, but all available records point to her having been a figure of relatively minor importance and interest rather than the master manipulator and assassin the book makes her out to be. Naturally this also calls into question the claims the book makes about Kosola - portraying her as both the most important figure on the side of the Light, matching Rand al'Thor, and also as a naive and often confused woman in need of Nalsad's guidance.
Extract from The Rise and Fall of the Seanchan Empire - 1298 ATG
The collapse of the Seanchan Empire is one of the most significant events in the history of the eponymous continent. Unlike many other chaotic events of the Tarmon Gaidon era and the decades following, the reasons for the collapse are relatively well documented. What remains unclear, even to this day, is the actor or actors behind it. This is why it is a frequent feature in lists of the world's most successful conspiracies. However, more light can now be shed on the question, tilting the evidence heavily towards the Hall's involvement.
As readers will know, the city of Paral remained a relatively isolated and secretive state even after it nominally opened itself to the outside world. This meant that access to Paral's secret records was only opened to historians in recent years. Documents in those have shed new and interesting light on the Damane Liberation Front and its origins. In doing so they have allowed us to potentially dismiss at least one of the key theories behind its foundation.
There is a great deal of uncertainty about the origins of the Damane Liberation Front. Of course the name was later adopted by revolutionary movements across Seanchan and there is no doubt that by the time of the the collapse of the Empire it very much existed as a true organisation in the form of a coalition of rebel groups. However, it first appeared in the years immediately following Tarmon Gaidon. Its impact was clear, even sparking diplomatic protests from the Seanchan Empire, yet beyond its actions there there is almost no evidence at all that it existed in any meaningful form. No members have ever been identified from that period and there are no records of any interaction with it beyond strikes its at damane kennels and government targets.
Despite that, the most popular theory was that it was indeed started and organised in the Seanchan Empire and was entirely domestic in nature. Of course many argue that the lack of evidence for this is because it started as a small and, by necessity, highly secretive organisation and so documentation was limited. However, even after the fall of the Empire no one has been able to identify a founder or origin for it in Seanchan. While one or two individuals did later claim to have been its founder, none of them were able to provide plausible backing for their assertions.
The second most popular theory has therefore been that the Damane Liberation Front was the result of black (i.e. unofficial, off the books) operations by the Hall of Servants. The incentives for them to involve themselves are clear. Not only was the Seanchan Empire an existential threat to any channeler in the Westlands, the Hall was notable for its consistent and hardline opposition to slavery. However, the evidence for its involvement is less clear. The Hall prides itself on its openness and has long allowed researchers access to its archives. Documents from those make it clear that, while the Hall did play a secret role in the rehabilitation of freed damane and was certainly providing tacit support in the later days of the collapse of the Empire, in the initial years of the Damane Liberation Front the Hall's leadership was as confused by its existence as the Seanchan. This confusion extended to the point of the Hall conducting its own investigation to try to establish whether it was the result of one of its own aes sedai going rogue.
The documents available in the Hall's archives in turn leads to the third theory. Its leadership at the time appears to have believed that the Damane Liberation Front was possibly the result of independent action by Alivia Hunter, a former damane of prodigious strength in the Power who had established herself in Illian and at that point ran an orphanage. Records show that at the time she denied all involvement. Indeed, even a century after the final fall of the Empire she continued with her denials, maintaining that she believed it had been the Seanchan that had freed themselves. This personal denial, even long after any consequences would have attached to the actions, does seem to support the view that she was not involved.
Returning to the release of the Paral records, they are relevant to the initial leading figure of the Damane Liberation Front outside Seanchan (in fact some historians argue she was the only figure in the Damane Liberation Front until its popularity exploded across the continent). Aficionados for the era will of course realise that this is a reference to 'Saela'. Fascinatingly the woman* that called herself that also features in records from the same rough time period in Paral.
If those records are to be believed (and they must be taken with a certain pinch of salt given the Paralan penchant for propaganda) then, in addition to her activities in Seanchan, 'Saela' was also responsible for various actions on the Paralan continent. In particular, they blame her for teaching the inhabitants of the Wastelands (the Paralan term for the majority of the continent outside their city) a number of channeling techniques along with how to better defend themselves and also for directly threatening the Paralan Chief Secretary if they did not change their policy towards the Wastelands. In fact the Paralan documents, biased as they are, represent the most detailed surviving record of a conversation with 'Saela'.
Unsurprisingly, records from the rest of the Paralan continent were rather sparse given their very low levels of development and literacy immediately after Tarmon Gaidon. However, it does appear from their own histories that a woman, of various names, but in some cases recognisably close to 'Saela' (e.g. 'Sala') helped to uplift them from their condition at the time and put them onto the path for their rejoining world civilisation, albeit the continent does remain poorer than the rest of the world.
I explore the Paralan records in more detail later, but the primary conclusion that I take from them is that they should put an end to the idea that the Damane Liberation Front was a truly home-grown, Seanchan organisation. In particular, the interest in Paral strongly suggests that it was in fact a Hall black operation rather than anything to do with the Seanchan. I have already discussed the Hall's incentives for intervening in Seanchan. Similar pressures would have applied in relation to Paral. It also supports my hypothesis that the identity 'Saela' was one assumed by multiple operatives at different times. Of course the Hall denies any such thing, but even the most open of organisations can still have their secrets.
* Of course given the revolutionary activities and secrecy involved, it could just as easily have been a man disguised as a woman with the Power, or several individuals all assuming the same identity.
=====
Extract from Taija Kosola - Secret Darkfriend or Misguided Hero? The Controversy Explored - 1934 ATG
Taija Kosola (some sources state she also had a third name, Miranen) is the one of the seven founding figures of the Hall of Servants about whom the least is known. Ever since the first histories of the Hall were written she has been a controversial and difficult figure. Some sources suggest that she was the leading figure in the Hall, potentially surpassing even Rand al'Thor in importance within it. Others that she was a relatively minor administrator. The truth is likely somewhere in the middle.
No doubt there are two significant factors contributing to this confusion and the lack of information about her. Firstly there is the fact that, other than Tel Janin/Sammael, she was the only one of the founders not to survive the Last Battle . Secondly there is her relationship with Janin, which was well known in both the Hall and the Tower.
…
Of the Hall's founders, she is known to have been closest to al'Thor and was a key collaborator with him on his cleansing of the taint on saidin, even being permitted to be the other half of the link with him*. This relationship is illustrated by the statues of her in the cities of Tear and Illian (formerly the twin capitals of the Double Throne). Al'Thor had them commissioned a few years ATG and both are beautiful works of art, considered some of the finest sculpture of the end of the pre-industrial era.
[Photo of a 20 foot tall statue of a woman wearing breaches, blouse and coat, her hair tied back in a simple knot, with one foot on a rock, staring out to the east with a faint smile on her face. The Stone of Tear looms in the background.]
At the bottom of each statue is the inscription, "Taija Kosola Miranen, she gave her life for the world. She was loved and she will be remembered."
At the time the statues were highly controversial. For reasons that will be properly explored later, Kosola was a contentious figure among those who knew who she was and the construction of the statues also resulted in rumours circulating that she had been al'Thor's lover (although evidence for this is non-existent). Given the popularity of Queen Elmindreda this led to further difficulties with their commission. In the end al'Thor broke his habit of relatively hands off rule and overrode all objections to the statues.
Even then, for the first few years of their existence they had to be guarded against vandalism. Fortunately, regardless of the truth of her story, these works of art eventually came to be seen as the treasures that they are.
*Note that during his lifetime al'Thor was always insistent when asked that she was in fact the driving force behind the cleansing, but given his well known modesty and the scope of his abilities, this seems unlikely.
…
While the events of the Great Purge have been extensively explored, as have their impact on the Hall's position vis a vis the White Tower, the damage it did to to Kosola's reputation is less well known. In fact there appears to have been a deliberate attempt to cover up her involvement with the Hall. Of course this was not possible and she is to this day, almost 2,000 years later, recognised as one of its seven founding members. However, it does mean that her exact role is unclear, especially given the destruction of much of the Hall's pre-Tarmon Gaion documentation (see below). That being said, while it is not undisputed, I think it is fair to say that the consensus is that it was a leading one, possibly second only to al'Thor. I go into the reasons for this in more depth later, but while she featured surprisingly little in memoirs written after her death, surviving documentation from the time indicates that she may have even been the first First Among Servants (her signature on the Hall's original treaty with Andor is good evidence of this).
Regardless, the reason for the lack of records is obvious; her relationship with Janin. The evidence does point towards her also having been from the Age of Legends, which raises a number of questions in and of itself. Over the years many historians have tried to argue that she was in fact also one of the Forsaken. However, I believe that is unlikely. It simply seems inconceivable that the other founders, people whose devotion to the Light was never questioned, even by their enemies (although their judgment frequently was), would have placed two of the worst enemies of the Light in leading positions. The reaction to the revelations about Janin also seems to match this, for her treatment in history is distinctly different to his. Where he has been actively repudiated by the Hall, she continues to be accepted as an honoured figure, but one that is better forgotten as a bit of an embarrassment.
What is clear is that the revelation of Janin's identity led to accusations that Kosola was at best criminally foolish and at worst a darkfriend (or even one of the Forsaken herself, although as I said I believe that accusation can be safely dismissed). Of course she was unable to defend herself or her reputation from these accusations, which no doubt contributes to the controversies around her.
One thing is clear, the surviving founders of the Hall were willing to go to far greater lengths to defend her reputation than they had been for Janin. Some historians have attributed this to the theory that she was also al'Thor's lover, although in my view that is more prurient fantasy than sensible theory. It also fails to explain the fervour with which others defended her. After all, I have yet to see any suggestion that she was also the lover of the other four founders.
Regardless, no formal accusations were ever made, although it is known that on at least one occasion matters descended into violence over it. This is best recorded in Rhin Alderon's account of Elayne Trakand's duel with Naral Allasin over comments he had made, which is reported to have resulted in him needing weeks to recover despite the availability of healing with the Power. Of course those post-war days were characterised by considerably more violent behaviour than would be accepted nowadays.
There does seem to have been a concerted effort to purge Kosola from the Hall's records. When this took place is not clear, but it was presumably after the original founders had disengaged themselves somewhat from its leadership, given their previous efforts at defending her reputation. The White Tower's own records, the second best source we have for those days, barely mention her at all, although they do contain formal speculation that she was a darkfriend. Of course there is the rumoured 13th Depository, which might contain more information, but that is widely considered to be a myth.
From the Hall's perspective, she is treated as an honoured founder, but a slightly awkward one, better forgotten. This is perhaps well illustrated by the memorial to her in the Hall, which can of course be visited by the public. Unlike the towering statues in Tear and Illian, or even the extensive Taija Kosola Memorial Garden in the Royal Palace in Caemlyn, the Hall's memorial seems almost subdued. However, if you do visit the Hall (and its museum is certainly one of the best on the planet), you can find a small statue of Kosola in the eastern corner of the compound, standing approximately six feet tall, so slightly larger than life (by all accounts she was a small woman). The quality is exquisite even if it lacks the grandeur of some.
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Extract from Eyewitnesses of Tarmon Gaidon - 445 ATG
With the death of Rand al'Thor in his 400s, I realised that the number of surviving eyewitnesses to Tarmon Gaidon was diminishing fast. Given many of them had never spoken publicly about their experiences and the events of the most cataclysmic battle of our time, I resolved to make it my mission to seek out those that were still alive, inevitably channelers of some strength. Some were happy to speak to me, others rather less so. Of those that I did succeed in speaking to, the largest surprise was Mazrim Taim. While he is well known in his adopted home city of Tanchico, he is a rather more obscure figure in the wider world due to the low profile he has kept. For those in the know, his reticence in speaking to journalists is also notable.
…
Interviewer: Finally, I would like to ask about Taija Kosola and Tel Janin, your time at the Hall of Servants overlapped with theirs. What do you think of the controversy surrounding their participation and, in particular her?
Taim: I could not care less, I have no interest in the Hall's political squabbles nor their relationships.
Interviewer: Please, indulge me.
Taim: Very well if you insist… In my view, post-battle neither the Hall of Servants nor the White Tower were fit to clean either of their boots. The Hall is only what it is because of them and the Tower only survived because it took advantage of their actions and in particular Taija's forbearance. While there were legitimate questions to be asked about Tel's history, the way that the Tower has completely ignored and the Hall has brushed over Taija's history and contribution to the world is a complete disgrace. I can understand why the Tower has done it, but the Hall should have been ashamed of themselves.
Interviewer: That is fascinating, you seem very passionate about the topic, do you not wish to correct the historical record?
Taim: No. I have indulged you as requested, but like I said, I have no interest in the Hall's internal squabbles.
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Paralan Archives: Report to the Internal Security Directorate Command - Paral - preserved in the original Old Tongue - 5 ATG (note, converted from the Paralan dating format)
Greetings citizens! I have written up the key points summary of the involuntary conference between the Chief Secretary and the terrorist channeler 'Saela' as requested. Please see below. Should you require more details before your meeting, recordings are available.
The Chief Secretary was in his office late, working for the good of the People as he does most nights when a gateway appeared. The Chief Secretary pressed the hidden panic button, but none of his security staff were able to enter the room.
The criminal wrecker of the People's freedom who emerged from the gateway did not match the appearance of any from the encounter of a few years previously with channeling terrorists (see File 12642/98). This one was also female, but taller than the two women previously encountered, dressed in style analysts say was reminiscent of the late pre-Breaking era and blonde.
Unsurprisingly this enemy of the People lacked decorum and simply took a seat opposite the Chief Secretary without any invitation. When the Chief Secretary bravely attempted to deal with her presence himself, she crushed his gun into a small cube using the Power.
At that point the Chief Secretary resolved to buy time by listening to what the representative of channeling imperialism had to say.
I note that she spoke the Common Tongue roughly as well as the leader of the previous channeling group, although she denied all knowledge of them when questioned.
After she had introduced herself, the Chief Secretary demanded to know why she was interfering with the lawful business and freedom of the Paralan People and what could possibly make her think the Paralans would accept the return of channeler oppression when they could live in self-ruled paradise.
The terrorist witch laughed at his words and made the laughable claim that she had no interest in, apologies but I quote directly to illustrate the depths of her delusion, "ruling anywhere, let alone this shithole that should have died 3,000 years ago."
Obviously the Chief Secretary did not believe this, but under the circumstances there was little he could do (note that at this point his security were attempting to forcibly gain access to his office, but were prevented by a barrier of some kind, presumably a result of the Power). This is the danger of channelers and why their continued existence inevitably leads to suffering of the working man.
The running dog of the oppressors proceeded to lay out a series of demands to the Chief Secretary, each more unreasonable than the last and all backed by threats of violence, for that is the only language channelers truly understand.
The only one relevant to current discussions was that she demanded that Paral cease operations against those in the Wastelands that would threaten us. When the Chief Secretary mocked her temerity for asking that and questioned how she could even enforce it she responded by asking him what the loss rates were among the Kill Teams (note she did not call them that) (further note, in the last two years losses have increased by approximately 70%).
The Chief Secretary replied that the security of Paral was paramount and that if sacrifices had to be made by the People for their freedom then so be it.
This seemed to aggravate the intruder and she proceeded to threaten the Chief Secretary in a brutish and uncivilised manner. She made two specific threats which will need to be considered. Firstly she said that each time she found a kill team had taken action she would make a strike against Paral and the first target would be the Chief Secretary's office. As you will be aware, the Chief Secretary has since moved his office away from the top of the City Hall to a confidential, underground location.
Secondly, she said that she had not yet spread the knowledge of Traveling to the people of the Wastelands. She claimed that she did not want to see Paral destroyed with the death of innocents that would result, although that seems implausible. However, she threatened that if the use of kill teams continued then she would spread this knowledge and it would be the end of Paral. To demonstrate what she described as the "tactical paradigm resulting from only one side having the ability to Travel", she opened a gateway to the Wall and, apparently channeling through it, melted one of the defence guns to slag.
Shortly after that she left the way she had come, through a gateway. I understand that the matter is now up for consideration by the Central Committee and hope that this note assists you in your contributions to those deliberations.
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Extract from Mysteries of the Ancient World 1,653 ATG
While not quite a mystery in the way that many of the subjects covered by this book are, the question of Taija Kosola provides enough controversy that it is worthy of inclusion.
The sheer lack of sources about her activities during her life is highly unusual. She is probably the significant figure of the Tarmon Gaidon era about whom the least is known. Even Tel Janin had various historical records about his life as Sammael, but Taija Kosola is almost unknown. There are no existent records at all of her from before 2BTG and of course she died in Tarmon Gaidon.
The evidence is that there was a concerted attempt to suppress records of her life. The White Tower and the Hall both seem to have worked to ensure that little was known of her actions.
The other founders of the Hall would no doubt have been able to shed greater light on her; however, regrettably none of them left autobiographies. Egwene al'Vere, Elayne Trakand and Aleksi Durcaral all refused to speak about her. The reasons for this are unclear, there was clearly a great deal of bitterness in the early years after Tarmon Gaidon, but it is unclear why their refusal continued into their old age.
Other works were published by individuals claiming to have been close to Kosola and to have known her during her period of activity, yet they are often contradictory, making it difficult to know which are true and which are not.
One of the most popular is Standing Beside Greatness which purported to have been written by Bennae Nalsad. Bennae Nalsad is indeed a real person who was known to have been an aes sedai in the Hall of Servants who was promoted during Kosola's life. Some sources suggest that she was a White Tower aes sedai prior to that, but that is not supported by the Tower's own records.
Regardless, the general view is that, whether it was in fact written by Nalsad or not, the book is best treated as an enjoyable work of fiction. Nalsad makes for a fantastic character and several successful films have been made based on her story, but all available records point to her having been a figure of relatively minor importance and interest rather than the master manipulator and assassin the book makes her out to be. Naturally this also calls into question the claims the book makes about Kosola - portraying her as both the most important figure on the side of the Light, matching Rand al'Thor, and also as a naive and often confused woman in need of Nalsad's guidance.
dhasenan
always lowercase
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The fanfic writers are slacking.
They were too busy writing Moridin - Graendal - Rand threesomes.
- Location
- Madness realms
Shockingly I kinda wanted more Taim than what I got at the end. I get the feeling he's a bit of a cutie pie with his boyfriend.