Wheel of Time RPG

[TK]

((Oooh, Ariena destroyed a Myrdraal with one blast. Isn't she suddenly inexplicably powerful ))

The Myrdraal erupted in a blazing pyre, and at the fire's retreat, naught was left aside of a few charred cinders. Blood and flaming buttered onions! How could that have happened? Was it some sort of distorted effect with a timed release on his Fire weave? He knew little about Shadowspawn in general and even less about Myrdraal, but what else could have been the answer? Nobody could destroy a Myrdraal like that!

At the Fade's death, the Trollocs' power seemed to fleet greatly. They seemed to lose coordination and took to random butchery of all in sight, many times those being fellow Trollocs.

The battle lasted little more than a halfof an hour, Leun swinging his sword and weaving Fire all the time. After that, when the last Trolloc was dead and he surveyed the battlefield, something surprising came to him. The wave of beasts had the army bested in size by twice as much, if not more, and yet... amongst Tanreall's soldiers, besides the guard before the battle, none were dead.

Not one.

What kind of twisted play on chance is that? Leun thought, raking his fingers through his dun-coloured hair.

[irishdragonlord]

TK said:

((Oooh, Ariena destroyed a Myrdraal with one blast. Isn't she suddenly inexplicably powerful ))

The Myrdraal erupted in a blazing pyre, and at the fire's retreat, naught was left aside of a few charred cinders. Blood and flaming buttered onions! How could that have happened? Was it some sort of distorted effect with a timed release on his Fire weave? He knew little about Shadowspawn in general and even less about Myrdraal, but what else could have been the answer? Nobody could destroy a Myrdraal like that!

At the Fade's death, the Trollocs' power seemed to fleet greatly. They seemed to lose coordination and took to random butchery of all in sight, many times those being fellow Trollocs.

The battle lasted little more than a halfof an hour, Leun swinging his sword and weaving Fire all the time. After that, when the last Trolloc was dead and he surveyed the battlefield, something surprising came to him. The wave of beasts had the army bested in size by twice as much, if not more, and yet... amongst Tanreall's soldiers, besides the guard before the battle, none were dead.

Not one.

What kind of twisted play on chance is that? Leun thought, raking his fingers through his dun-coloured hair.

((Mmm... maybe Ariena's hiding something? XD ))

Braendar stirred. He felt... tired. But not hurt; just very,very tired.

"Boy? You awake yet?"

Braendar groaned and cracked his eyes open. Paitar was staring at him, grinning. Braendar noted he was now in a tent.

"Been out for two hours boy; we were beginning to worry." Something in that sentence caught his attention; we?

Sure enough, Artur Paendrag Tanreall was there behind Paitar, and unwelcome look on his face. The look of an angry parent.

"Have you lost your mind?!" burst out the king, barely keeping it under a roar. Paitar gave Braendar a guarded grin that was part sheepish, part understanding. Paendrag rode on.

"You could have died! And running up to a Fade like that!" Braendar didn't bother to protest; he hated it when the one berating him was right. "Were you mad? Are you mad?" Braendar had no chance to answer. "He's all right, Paitar?" The king was now completely ignoring Braendar. Hmph.

"Yes, m'lord," answered Paitar, all respect and humility. Paendrag acquiesced and Paitar shot Braendar another grin when the king turned back to him. Paendrag had probably seen it, but he gave no sign.

"From now on, boy, you ride up near me with the Royal Guards. One more chance of an attack like that, and things may not have turned out as well." Braendar nodded; that sounded good - now he could talk to Ariena. Hopefully. "Now get some more rest; we leave in an hour's time once everything is sorted out." With that, the King of Shandalle departed.

Braendar rolled over on his mat and sighed. He immediately blocked the torrent of thoughts coming to him and fell asleep; his head was still aching.

***

Artur pushed back the tent flaps. Something was very, very wrong - very wrong indeed. Trollocs in southern Shandalle, the boy had flaming swords - he had seen it with his own eyes - and not a single man was dead in his army. Not a one.

Artur shook his head and strolled on. Something was more than very wrong - it was unnaturally wrong.

[TK]

Silence held dominance now, as Leun held himself segregated from the rest of the soldiers. He was alone in the void, detached from him emotions, alone aside of thoughts. None dead, no, but many wounded. He offered no Healing to mend the few scrapes he could without the gemstone ter'angreal to the other soldiers; the channelling he had done in the midst of the Trollocs was accounted as an act of Aes Sedai, as an act of the king's advisor. That was surely best.

Letting go of the void, Leun listened. Murmurs coursed like tremors through the throngs of soldiers, all on the subject of the Aes Sedai. It truly was no secret; Aes Sedai much of an ill repute amongst common men, and channelling men would have far worse. Far worse.

Surely the best.

[TK]

Stepping out of the dampness of Stedding Handu ((Yes, we said Stedding Tsofu the entire time, but that was stupid - that's in Cairhien, not the Aiel Waste. This is better.)), Pertrova was suddenly exposed to the blazing heat of the Aiel Waste. Her two Warders - she spat on that name - tread closely, showing no sign of exhaustion.

They had traversered through the Ways, following the foolish Ogier. Yillin? Yolane? His name had not mattered; he had left the palace and departed to his homeland through that darkened dimension, followed unknowingly by the three Aes Sedai.

She had suspected the girl would be here; she had heard them speaking of it! Pertrova had planned of pinning her down without her two friends for help, but the chances of that out in this desert were none.

Continuing on, the three Aes Sedai traversed across the sand. They would survive. They would see the boys and the girl die.

[Crystal]

TK said:

((Oooh, Ariena destroyed a Myrdraal with one blast. Isn't she suddenly inexplicably powerful ))

((I wasn't sure what it'd actually take to destroy one. I mean, Moiraine's killed her share, but I don't have the first two books, and they can be killed by one person with blades, because Mat once did so. Buttered onions, TK?))


Ariena slumped, tired, over Iena's saddlebow. Light, but taking out that Mydraal had used almost all she had, and what little she had left she had used for Healing. Those who would let her touch them, that was. Realizing that she was slumping, holding on to Iena almost for dear life, she straightened with an effort.

They wouldn't be moving for a while. At least until the next day, when the wounded could be tended to and the army back on track.

Someone had set up a tent for her next to the king's. Wearily, she unbuckled her saddlebags and channeled them inside with flows of Air. A passing guard's eyes bulged and he stepped back, flinching. She caught the flicker of fear and despisement in his eyes. Another time it would have hurt her, but now she just ducked back out of the tent, handed Iena's reins to the guard with instructions to tie her to the wooden railing where all the horses were, and went to look for Braendar. She'd heard that he had been injured, so he was probably where Tanreall could get his hands on him.

She saw the king emerging from a tent with one of the boy's trainers. Waiting for them to go, she held herself calmly and ducked into the tent. The boy was sleeping, a few minor-looking bandages on him. Still, she gathered the Healing weaves of Air and Water and Spirit, and reached out to touch him.

[irishdragonlord]

The Myrddraal was coming again. He would sacrifice himse - no! Run! He had to run! He -

He sat up with a jolt it what he did. He suddenly felt very cold and shocked; it took him only a few seconds to register what had happened.

"Ariena!" he shouted. Or, at any rate, wanted to. It was more of a hoarse whisper; she must have just Healed him. Light, but that thought still made him feel a tad queasy; he wasn't used to such thoughts just yet. At least this made his plans to talk to her far faster and easier.

Braendar began to splutter. "Do you know where Leun is? Did you see that Myrddraal... explode like that? Light, did you see what happened to my swords?!" All the thoughts he had tried to avoid were now a relentless deluge of confusion.

[TK]

Crystal said:

Buttered onions, TK?

((An excellent curse once used by Mr. Matrim Cauthon ))

Wiping the razor clean and tossing it aside, Leun heaved himself up. Light, but would they ever continue marching again? One dead, just some wounded, and the king somehow felt the need to remain here until what would be the end of the Age!

He seized the Power to clean the razor and for that moment, through his saidin-enhanced ears, he heard a distant yell. It was al'Taren.

Leaving all behind, he sped off past the flocks of other soldiers to the rows of tents - he himself was a mere initiate and not worthy of a tent, though there was whatever al'Taren had with Tanreall that made him worthy of such luxury.

Peering into one of the tents, he saw two figures - firstly there was al'Taren, and then...

"Ariena!"

It was not he who spoke her name but rather al'Taren, and the boy even muffled it out into a hoarse whisper. Surely enough, the woman really was there. At last, the complexities seemed to be coming together like a blacksmith's puzzle. The advisor. The Green. It was not another woman... it had to be Ariena.

"Do you know where Leun is? Did you see that Myrddraal... explode like that? Light, did you see what happened to my swords?!"

So this was some joke, was it? He clenched his fists until the blood drained clear, leaving them ashen. Al'Taren the king's adoptive son and Ariena the king's advisor, both too good to cavort with Leun Darakh, the mere soldier. It was not as if he had bloody-well wanted to come!

Using a weave Ariena had taught him what seemed like years ago, he combined Air and Fire into the weave of eavesdropping. He strode off for some twenty paces behind the tent in refuge at the far end of a tree stump and listened.

[TK]

Leun remained there in his crouching stance, ears awaiting the sounds of voices. They did not come; why was the pair suddenly being silent? No, it could not be that - he would surely be hearing movement if not voices.

Light-blasted weave! he thought. Either he was not strong enough to keep it maintained at such a distance or he had simply formed the weave improperly. Letting go of the One Power with some hesitancy, he let the threads of Fire and Air fade away to naught. He would most definitely be seen if he approached Ariena and... no. Leun would not deprecate himself to that.

Heading hurriedly past the tent where the two were, Leun stared left and right, easily spying the largest and most elaborate tent of them all. The king's. He approached at a slow pace, peering in. It was just the king, writing away at some scrap of parchment perched upon a makeshift desk.

"King?" Leun spoke up. "That is to say... King Artur Paendrag Tanreall?" The man looked up, giving him a look of no special interest. He himself was a mere soldier, after all. Before the king could send him away, Leun added, "I have a proposition that may interest you greatly. The kind of proposition that could decided this march against the False Dragon."

Tanreall stared for a moment, assessing the situation. At last, he beckoned Leun closer with a wave of his hand, adding that he close to tent flaps behind him. "I'm listening."

He had best make this terse; those who wasted the time of kings seldom made the same mistake twice, and for good reason. "I'll try to be brief - you're marching against the False Dragon Amalsan, you're about to strike at the Shadow Coast. His army that he's assembled could very well be of simple men, or they could be an army of channellers, just as he is. I--" He swallowed. "--can channel. I can wield saidin."

This was met with silence, the king neither taken aback or showing any signs of intent. For all that he could tell, he might have mentioned that it was a sunny day. Trivial news. "Steel and strength alone will not work against these men. You have your advisor, the Aes Sedai, but there is only so much a channelling woman can do with a channelling man. Guaire Amalsan is a channelling man, sir, and this is where I can come in. Not only can I detect when a man seizes the True Source, but I can see the weaves and combat them far better than any woman. I am also--" And here was where the lie entered the play. "--one of the strongest with the One Power since Lews Therin Telamon, the Dragon himself. This is why I would like to be your military intelligence."

Tanreall looked on, processing this information with a surprising calm. After what felt like hours, he siad, "This would be entirely in secret; you know that? And I will not offer you any gold."

Leun nodded curtly, masking relief. "Yes. Not anyone can know. Not your advisor, not the boy you're often with, not even your wife. A secret. And I've no use for your gold, sir."

Arching his fingers, Tanreall nodded. "I will arrange a meeting with us, in private so we can confer over these matters. You may take leave, now."

Sinking into the deepest of bows, Leun muttered his thanks and sped from the tent, running over the situation in his mind.

[Crystal]

Ariena jerked. As Braendar spoke her name.... there had been someone there. Leun? She sensed him through the Warder bond. The man had seen her, the Light burn him!

"Go back to sleep, Braendar," she murmured. "I can't Heal everything." She closed her eyes and reached out to where her Warder was. He walked past their tent, and she followed silently. Leun could sense it if she weaved saidar.

Grasping the threads, she wove the weave for eavesdropping and stood next to the door of the king's tent. Calmly now. Like any Aes Sedai advisor, waiting to talk.

".....only can I detect when a man seizes the True Source, but I can see the weaves and combat them far better than any woman. I am also one of the strongest with the One Power since Lews Therin Telamon, the Dragon himself. This is why I would like to be your military intelligence."

The bloody liar! Or... was he telling the truth? No. He couldn't be. She had seen him fight against the Aes Sedai in the woods. Someone as strong as the Dragon would have had no problem with them.

Another web of lies, Leun? she thought furiously. Isn't it enough that you abandoned me? What was the man up to?

Tanreall was speaking now. "...I will arrange a meeting with us, in private so we can confer over these matters. You may take leave, now."

Leun left the tent, almost running. She let him reach a suitable distance, quite near to her own tent, before catching him in weaves of Air and striding over. Aes Sedai calm was still outwardly there, but all calm inside was swept away by her fury. She unfuzzed the bond with swift, angry mental strokes.

Men!

[TK]

Abruptly Leun felt a tremendous sensation in his head - whatever had happened to the bond between Ariena, whatever impediment had been put in place, came toppling down. He felt her, sensed her, and she was near. She was--

"Ariena!" he said far too loudly, spinning around to see her. She had heard! Light, but she had heard everything!

Anger flaring inside of him, anger of the teachery she had put him through, he seized the One Power - through her pendant angreal. He sent a shield of Spirit slamming down over her, blocking her from the True Source. He held onto it, not daring to tie it off.

"Tell me what you're doing here," he said quietly, drawing in slow, nettled breaths.

[Crystal]

He had shielded her!

That... that Light-burned man! Burn him to the bloody Pit of Doom! She clenched her fists to avoid hitting him.

"What am I doing here? I'm here to save your bloody skin, that's what I'm doing here! I'm here to blast Trollocs off your bloody, turncoat, Warder back and fry Mydraal, that's what I'm doing here! I'm here because bloody Artur Paendrag Tanreall pulled me off leaving and ordered me to come along, that's what I'm doing here!" She kept her voice soft, but there was no masking the seething in her tone. She was shorter than he was, blast the bloody man, but she stood up straight and wove serenity about her posture to hide the anger.

Shielding her! How dare he! How DARE HE? Right out in public, the advisor snarling at a common soldier. This was no way to keep anything hidden!

[TK]

She was cold fury, and he was flaring rage.

"Why couldn't you have just told me? If you didn't want to talk to me so badly, you could have at least told me to keep away! What did I even do to you?" Leun borderlined upon striking out at her, perhaps waving her about in the air or singeing her dress a whit. He daren't risk losing the shield, though, and he stopped - forced - himself from doing this.

[Crystal]

No one was looking at the moment, but if they started screaming at each other like she wanted so badly to do to him, they might.

"Get into my tent," she said coolly, pushing some of her hair back from her shoulders with cool, uncaring superiority. "We can talk there."

[TK]

It was of no matter to him; he was a soldier, the lowest rank, and disgrace to a soldier meant naught. Disgrace to the advisor, however... nevertheless, he followed with a snarl, pacing uneasily into the woman's tent.

"Well?" he demanded, his tone fixed. "If you'd rather never see me again, tell me, Ariena! Tell me!"

[Crystal]

Ariena glanced outside the tent, then turned back to him, her divided skirts flaring and her eyes ready to sear him. "Burn you, I'd like nothing better, for all that you've cost me! But you're my Warder and I'm not letting you go! Was there nothing else for you to do than to dump me just like that? Ariena, go off to the Aiel Waste, oh and did I mention? I'm not following you! You can just bloody go alone! I'm staying here, don't you dare stay too, and good riddance to see you go!"

Burn calmness! She clenched her fists until her nails bit into the palms and glared at him.

"Now release that bloody shield!"