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Chapter Text

Chapter 1 - The Wheel Turns and Ages Come to Pass

She'd been fighting for what felt like hours. The forces of the Light still held the small town behind her, at least in part, but they'd been pushed back from the trench lines. Wave after wave of trollocs, myrddraal and simple darkfriends thrown forward until the defenders were forced to retreat or die.

She'd stayed behind, working her way from trenches to craters to half ruined walls. Staying under cover and disrupting the Shadow's advance as much as she could. She'd already killed three of their channelers. Scum who'd gotten over confident, not even realising she was there before she incinerated them where they stood.

Now she was quietly working her way towards a group of trollocs, led by a lone myrddraal as they picked their way through the detritus of battle towards the Light's empty trenches. She just needed to get a little closer…

Her instincts screamed a warning and she snapped her head to the right, already spinning a web of air to throw a barrier between her and the towering wall of fire that was descending upon her.

It exploded with a roar, breaking harmlessly against her barrier even as she channeled. Spirit, fire, a hint of earth and air came together in a fraction of a second, split four ways. Streaks of fire swung wide from her, tearing through the air to obliterate swathes of ground amidst the Shadow's lines.

She didn't wait to see whether she'd hit her target. She could feel the strain as she spun and the moment her webs came together she was already running.

She dived into the abandoned trenches sacrificing any attempt at stealth. She'd been fighting for hours and knew she was on her last legs, but staying still meant death. She wasn't sure anything other than death was in her near future, but Light damn her, she'd make them fight for it.

She hadn't really expected to hit the enemy channeler, but she was still disappointed when the trench behind her exploded only moments after she'd fled through it. They were strong, too strong at this point. She couldn't feel their spinning, whether it was a man or a woman inverting her webs, but whoever they were they had the advantage over her.

Were those footsteps running behind her? She paused, channeled. Flows of spirit, air and fire came together and lightning struck from the clouded sky, obliterating the trenches she'd just run through. Fire came blazing back down towards her, the enemy's own lightning descended from above.

She sliced the webs with razor sharp spirit and fire. It was a strain. They were too strong. Could this be one of the Forsaken?

She needed to keep running. She wanted to Travel, but the wards covering the trenches wouldn't allow it.

As she ran, panting for breath, she left a few small traps for them. Small, inverted webs, that would explode in fire or razor sharp air.

She knew she needed to get back to the town hall. The defence was being coordinated from there and she might be able to get help or find some way to escape.

No one had thought that the Shadow would field a powerful channeler here and the forces of the Light hadn't been ready to deal with it. She'd made a promise last night, she needed to run if she was going to keep it.

She nearly ran into a small pack of trollocs. A thought and they died in fire. She was almost there. Light only knew how many trollocs she'd killed today, but the whole line was collapsing. Reinforcements were needed here.

Over the crack of shocklances and the bestial howl of trollocs, she heard the first of her traps detonate and a roar of rage. A man then. He seemed to be losing ground, she didn't expect any of the traps to stop him, but at least they'd slow him down.

Pausing in her flight for just a second, she pulled the last grenade from her belt and thrust it into the side of the trench with a quick web of spirit, air and water to hide it and a spun trigger to set it off when someone walked by. Perhaps a conventional trap would be more effective.

There was no time to wait and find out and soon she was staggering into the battered townhall, past the armoured troops firing their shocklances from behind the cover of the walls.

"Taija sedai!;" An officer shouted when he saw her.

She cut him off, gasping out, "channeler, too strong, going for help. Try to delay him!"

She didn't see the look of grim determination come onto his face and barely heard the barked orders as she staggered past him, heading for the basement.

The thick, stone walls of the townhall muffled the sounds of the battle above when she stumbled into its basement. She was almost too tired to feel relief when she saw her friend Antero, a huge bearded man poring over a map, occasionally barking orders into a radio while the local administrators frantically filled a large stasis box for evacuation from the oncoming forces of the Shadow.

Antero looked up as she came in, concern drawing lines across his face. "Taija? What's happened? You're injured!"

She reached up to her face and was surprised to find she was bleeding, "it's nothing. We need to move, now! We're about to be overrun and there's a heavy hitter out there, maybe even one of the Forsaken. I've done my best to slow him down, but I can't handle him, not now. We need to get reinforcements," the look on his face told her straight away there was no help coming, "or evacuate."

She faltered, exhaustion warring with her grasp on saidar. Finding herself struggling to stand now that her life wasn't in immediate danger, she leant on the side of the stasis box, ignoring an irritated look from one of the bureaucrats. "Is the basement still outside the wards?"

"Yes, but…"

She interrupted him ignoring the reluctance that flared up inside her at what she was about to propose, "I'm not sure I can make a gateway right now, link with me." She knew Antero wasn't strong enough to make a gateway by himself, he had other talents than the Power, but combined they should still have enough strength for a gateway to get as many people as they could out before they were overrun.

Antero opened his mouth to reply when the whole building shook, making her stumble. "That was saidin!" As he shouted the building shook again harder, plaster falling from the ceiling.

She felt herself losing her balance, stumbling out of control. Explosions racked the townhall, throwing her around as the building shook itself apart above her.

The last thing she saw before darkness claimed her was Antero reaching out to her his mouth open in an unheard scream.

Chapter Text

Chapter II - Life on the Farm

Aleksi sighed as he trudged behind the two oxen, watching the plough they were dragging slowly draw furrows in the dirt. Not for the first time he found himself daydreaming of adventure, perhaps saving a princess from shadowspawn and being rewarded with money, land and a life that went beyond his village.

He was still young, he'd only inherited his farm a year ago when his father had died of a sudden fever. He still missed the man, could remember his smile, the calm, confident way he'd taught him everything he knew.

His father would want him to stay and keep the family farm going, but that didn't change things. The idea of another thirty or forty years behind a plough in Ramshorn made him shudder.

Still, if he wanted to eat this winter the field needed ploughing. He just wished something, anything would happen to break up the monotony of his work.

He was so caught up in his reverie that he nearly fell over the plough when it came to a grinding halt, its blades caught on something in the soil.

"Flaming rocks," Aleksi muttered to himself as he stepped closer to examine whatever it was that had stopped the plough's progress. Hopefully it wasn't too big a stone or it would be even more of a pain to dig out of the soil.

What he hadn't expected was to see something artificial poking out of the ground, an unnaturally straight, if grime covered, corner of something larger. It had no give to it at all when he pushed at it with his foot, so he bent down for a closer look, trying to push away some of the mud.

When he brushed his hand over the object his skin tingled and the dirt seemed to almost fall off like it didn't want to stick to whatever it was, exposing dull, grey metal, unblemished by the plough's impact. He glanced back at the plough, with a muttered curse, was that a dent in one of the blades?

After a moment he looked back at the object, a flutter of excitement in his belly. Maybe this was the adventure he'd been looking for? A chest of riches buried in his field? Or even a mysterious relic from the Age of Legends?

He knew it was a silly fantasy, but still, this wasn't normal and he'd have to get it out of the field either way, unless he wanted to leave a chunk of his land unplanted.

After a moment's thought Aleksi carefully started backing up the oxen before steering them and the plough around and away from the mysterious metal corner. He'd come back later, but for now the farm had its demands.

That evening he returned with a spade to work under the spring evening sun. An hour's digging exposed more of whatever it was. He suspected it was probably a box or chest of some sort, but also that it was huge. At least three paces to a side.

It wasn't going to be easy to unearth it, but his curiosity had been fired up. He could hardly spend his life complaining to himself about how boring things were and then ignore something as interesting as this!

He'd need more time to dig it out properly and then he could decide what to do.

The real question was whether he should tell someone else about it, but in the end it was much more exciting for it to be his secret, at least until he worked out what the thing actually was. It wasn't like anyone else ever came to this bloody field anyway.

It took a few more days of digging, in between sessions behind the plough, but eventually Aleksi got enough of his new treasure uncovered to have a better idea of what it was. The back half still lay buried in the dirt, but it was clearly a box of some kind, made of a dull, grey metal. Perhaps three paces across and seemingly completely unmarked by its time in the ground, other than by dirt which didn't really stick to it anyway.

He'd heard stories about other people who'd unearthed strange things. Some had been cursed by them, others had been able to sell them, not even for silver but for actual gold! He'd never heard of something like this though. A solid box, no seams, no markings, just sitting there. It was at the same time the strangest and yet most deeply mundane thing he'd ever seen.

At first he'd tried brushing the dirt off it with his hands, but that had been unpleasant. His skin always seemed to feel strange when he touched it, an odd tingling sensation running through it, but there was nothing else interesting about it. Not a thing.

Eventually he'd even brought a broom with him to brush the dirt off the exposed parts. This revealed nothing other than more dull, grey metal.

He gave it an experimental prod with his foot and, as ever, nothing happened.

A harder prod yielded the same, frustrating, results for his long hours of work.

"Mother's milk in a cup!" He gave it a hard kick before hopping away yelping from the pain in his foot.

Still cursing to himself Aleksi was distracted from the pain by the feel of the rising on the nape of his neck and goosebumps shooting up his skin. Something had changed.

At first there was just a low humming noise, like a distant beehive, seeming to come from the box. Then the sound started to rise in both pitch and volume, quickly turning into an almost painfully loud whine.

Aleksi froze, his hurt foot forgotten staring wide-eyed at the box as red lights started to flash rhythmically in each exposed corner.

This must be witchcraft, the One Power! He staggered back, falling over as he tried to get away from it. Why was the box shaking, was it about to explode?

Aleksi realised he wasn't as ready for adventure as he'd thought when he found himself crawling backwards in terror, unable to take his eyes off the now violently shaking artifact.

A woman's voice rang out, clearly enunciating nonsense words that still sounded smooth and elegant, "Danger. Catastrophic system failure detected. Initiating emergency shut down. Please clear the area." The noise from the artifact reached a crescendo and then suddenly stopped, the lights going out.

A second later there was a loud hiss of escaping steam. The front of the box swung open, its movement completely unimpeded by soil still surrounding its bottom half. Aleksi had to shield his eyes for a moment as blazingly bright light shone forth from inside.

A moment later it was gone and he was left lying in the dirt staring into it with wide fearful eyes.

As his vision recovered he saw a woman silhouetted in its entrance, surrounded by disorganised piles of paper.

She was wearing strange clothes coloured in patches of green and brown, but covered in dirt. No skirts though, a man's trousers and boots. Her dark skin seemed to suggest she might be Taraboner, but he wasn't sure. Her hair was tied back in a simple ponytail and it looked like it might be matted with blood, he was fairly sure there was blood on her face.

She looked young, only a few years older than he was and he was already starting to smell something burnt now that the box had opened.

Even as Aleksi gaped at the sight from his position in the mud she reached out in front of her, staring forward with unseeing eyes, screaming something incoherent. She took a couple of steps forward and then collapsed into a heap face first in the dirt.

All he wanted to do was run. He had no idea what was going on, but this must be something to do with the One Power. There was no way that woman could have survived for as long as that thing must have been buried. But no, he'd wanted to be a hero and he couldn't just run away at the first frightening thing he saw. Instead, with an effort of will, he forced himself to stand up and move towards the woman, he didn't know what was going on, but he couldn't just leave her like this.

Chapter Text

Chapter III - Village Life is Not For Taija

Why did the world feel like it was spinning around her? Everything hurt, from the soles of her feet right to the top of her head, but it was her head that hurt more than anything a piercing agony ripping through it. She slowly opened her eyes, but didn't try to move, she wasn't not sure she could. Where was she? Actually, what day was it? She wasn't sure. Why did it feel like she was lying in cold mud? She wouldn't do that would she?

She blinked against the too-bright sunlight as she looked up. Wasn't she underground? She wasn't really sure, but that sounded right. A young man loomed over her and with an effort she forced her bleary eyes to focus on him. Did she know him? He reminded her a little bit of a young Antero, what a silly thought. A giggle came out sounding more like a groan. Why did he look terrified?

The man was sweating, which didn't make much sense, she was practically shivering. Had he been running? His clothes don't make any sense either. Some kind of rough tunic and trousers in drab colours.

It reminded her of when she'd visited the Emalli Historic Village before the War. It had been full of actors dressed just like him, showing tourists about life in a past Age. Her brain was refusing to focus on working out where she was, in fact she couldn't think about much at all through the head-splitting pain. She vaguely thought the village would be full of trollocs now though. Hadn't the Shadow taken… She couldn't quite remember. She wanted to giggle-groan at the idea of trollocs in historic costumes, but some part of her told her that that was not at all funny and her ribs hurt too much anyway.

The man stammered something incomprehensible at her. "Jweun whef qkkj cwe kmkw?"

She wasn't sure if she couldn't understand because he was speaking nonsense or if it was because her own brain simply wasn't working. Either way, now seemed to be a good time to pass out.

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She didn't know how long it was before she woke again, but the next time she found herself in some kind of bed. She wasn't sure where she was, but it was definitely not a medical facility. The walls were made of wood and a glassless window let daylight filter in. Everything looked… rustic would be the nicest way to put it.

She faded in and out of consciousness over the next few days, fever dreams sending her mind on spiraling journeys of delirium.

In rare moments of what she hoped was lucidity she remembered seeing the man from when she passed out looking worried and wiping her brow with a damp cloth. Once or twice there was an elderly lady too. She'd spooned foul tasting concoctions down her throat. She liked the man better, assuming either of them was even real.

Eventually though Taija's periods of lucidity grew longer and she gradually regained her awareness of her surroundings. She was able to stay awake longer and her exhausted mind could start to work on finding out where she was, what happened to her.

The next time the young man returned, coincidentally accompanied by the the elderly lady that time, they both seem excited to see she was awake, babbling incomprehensibly at her.

Taija was able to croak out a few words of her own. "Where am I? What happened? Why are you dressed like that?" Light, she was clearly still not all there if she thought that question was important.

The woman hesitated, obviously confused and then replied, "Id djje wdfb wdkmfw he fhw nfw ewh nkn wekfmk."

Taija could tell from the tone that the woman was asking questions. Her body language also said she was used to being obeyed. That didn't help either of them though as Taija had no idea what she was saying. Some of it sounded vaguely familiar, like it was on the edge of comprehension, but Taija just couldn't grasp it.

Could she have suffered a brain injury? Should she be questioning everything she perceived now? No. She was sure there was a rational explanation for her situation. There were communities out there that rejected modern technology and isolated themselves from the world. She must have ended up in one somehow. A Traveling accident? A gateway that brushed against the wrong kind of ward? It still didn't make sense though!

The two strangers were having a worried sounding conversation over her in their strange language and Taija was getting more and more agitated although she was too weak to actually do anything.

Even in isolated communities where they exclusively spoke their own dialects they would still recognise the Common Tongue. They'd have called for help or have taken her to a hospital. Taija's still blurred vision took in the decrepit wooden walls of the shack they seemed to have put her in. This was more like some kind of roleplaying group that wouldn't break character, which made absolutely no sense.

Taija tried to reach up, to get their attention. "Please, I am an aes sedai, if you can just contact…" She trailed off, her energy fleeing her. They seemed to react to the words aes sedai, but she was still met by the same incomprehension.

As she got more frantic in her attempts to speak the woman whispered soothing words and pushed a cup to her lips. Before Taija knew what she was doing she was drinking the strange… tea? Yes it must be tea that the woman was pouring into her mouth.

It didn't take long for sleep to claim her once again, despite the increasingly tense conversation going on over her head.

=======

It took a while for lucidity to properly return to Taija, but over the next few weeks she slowly recovered and started trying to work out where she was and what had happened to her.

It was pretty obvious that something must have gone badly wrong, although what it was she still wasn't sure. As for where she was, she was completely flummoxed. Nothing seemed to make sense, not even Taija's most outlandish theories about where she could have ended up properly fit what she was seeing.

Taija also knew she was definitely not feeling like herself. She thought she might have had a bad concussion and she felt weak as a kitten. Worse, the first time she'd tried to embrace the Power, a couple of weeks after she first woke up, the pain spearing through her head had been so bad that she'd been left lying in bed with silent tears of pain and frustration streaming down her cheeks.

However, Taija's very nature rebeled against staying in bed, especially when she was in such a strange situation. She desperately wanted to push herself to get out and at least regain some sense of control over her circumstances. She knew she needed the rest though.

The elderly lady who'd been helping the young man look after her also made sure that Taija stayed in bed. She might be some kind of crazy homesteader, but she was still formidable. Normally Taija wouldn't put up with it, but in her current state there wasn't much she could do against the woman's flinty gaze.

Given that she was stuck in bed anyway, she did all that she could to improve her situation. The first step was to turn the young man and older woman's babbling into something more comprehensible. Taija had spent the last five years of her life fighting a desperate war for the survival of her very civilisation, but she was no intellectual slouch before that. So she turned her intellect towards learning the language that those people spoke. It wasn't physics, but it was still an intellectual problem.

It was humiliating having to communicate through pointing and making basic sounds, but needs must. Taija quickly realised that the language they were speaking seemed to be related to the Common Tongue. It also seemed to be simpler, which was helpful, although she did realise that the simplicity might simply be because her hosts were talking down to her.

It didn't take her long to learn that the owner of the 'rustic' building she was in and her rescuer was called Aleksi. The stern, elderly woman was Elena. She seemed to be some kind of a healer. Certainly she was no doctor or nurse, but she had many of their attitudes and was very determined to dispense various herbs to Taija.

Taija also noticed that she both expected and received a lot of deference from Aleksi. He seemed to refer to her by a title of some kind although Taija struggled to work out what it meant. Still, she made sure to be as respectful as possible to her too. Not that she'd be disrespectful to Aleksi, or anyone else. He'd looked after her, despite apparently living in crushing poverty, and regardless she was pretty much at his mercy. Given the weirdness of these people she prefered not to think about that.

Once she was awake, but still immobile Taija received a few more visitors. Apparently she was somewhere named Ramshorn, which meant absolutely nothing to her. Elena supervised those visits and as far as Taija could tell it was just curious rubber necking. No one spoke the Common Tongue and they all wore the same rough, drab clothes. Could it be some kind of strange cult?

More pleasant were the visits she started to get from the young children of the village. At first they weren't left alone with her, Elena sternly watching them, but when she didn't seem to mind and presumably because she didn't seem very dangerous it wasn't long before they were coming alone.

It was nice having happy, innocent kids playing around. The contrast to the days of the War were stark. It was also actually very good for Taija's language skills. The children thought her difficulties in making herself understood were hilarious, but explaining things to her seemed to quickly become a sort of game for them and her progress with their language moved forward in leaps and bounds.

By the time Taija felt able to get out of bed and totter short distances she'd learnt enough of the language to communicate on a basic level. She wasn't going to be discussing abstract concepts for a while, but at least she could function.

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As Elena walked through Ramshorn, returning the respectful nods from the people she passed, her mind turned to the village's newest arrival.

It was good to see the woman Aleksi had found back on her feet. She'd been worried that young Taija would die when Aleksi first came running to her, but the girl was strong and she'd pulled through.

Aleksi's refusal to elaborate on where he'd found her was more than irritating, but the man had always been stubborn. If she hadn't known better, Elena would have thought the young woman had been thoroughly beaten, but there was no one within leagues of Ramshorn who would do such a thing to her and it didn't explain her illness. Nor her perplexing lack of knowledge of the Common Tongue. Elena could admit she wasn't the most worldly woman, but she had once traveled as far as Caemlyn and she had never met anyone who couldn't speak the Common Tongue.

Oh well, she shrugged to herself with a wry smile. Taija was harmless and Aleksi certainly seemed taken with her. Like so many young men, Aleksi dreams of nobly rescuing maidens in distress and it seemed like he'd actually found one, Light knows where. She'd find that out eventually of course, sooner or later he'd crack.

Still, this Taija seemed like a sweet enough woman. She might be a year or two older than Aleksi, but the village could do with new blood.

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Once Taija was moving again, she insisted on helping Aleksi with his farm, doing what light tasks her gradual recovery allowed. At the same time she started working harder on finding out where she was and what happened.

When she was able to walk around Aleksi's village (indeed called Ramshorn) it only fed the growing anxiety she was feeling in her belly. This wasn't some kind of cult or weird roleplay situation. It was just too convincing and too odd.

No one spoke the Common Tongue, there was no hint at all of modern technology, no modern fabrics no nothing. Even more perplexing there were no contrails from sho-wings in the air. Even with the reduction in civil aviation because of the War, there were few places in the world where she would never see anything in the sky.

Taija even stayed up one clear night staring into the sky, hoping to see the familiar sight of one of the four Great Stations as they orbited the planet. There was nothing though. At least the constellations still seemed familiar, glittering brightly in a night sky unmarred by light pollution.

While Taija was indulging her curiosity, Aleksi and Elena were clearly extremely curious about her too. However, she was more than a little reticent in how much she said to them. There was simply too much she didn't know and, while they'd been nothing but kind, well learned paranoia made her careful.

Aleksi seemed rather shy and occasionally even a bit scared of Taija, Elena on the other hand had no issues with questioning her. In a way it was lucky that she was struggling so much to communicate. Her awkward, almost childlike conversations, made it much easier to be vague with her answers.

Neither of them had ever heard of Taija's home city, Adanza, or any of the other Great Cities in fact. It was hard to believe anybody in the world wouldn't have heard of them; however, isolated they were.

She did, however, manage to establish that Ramshorn was in Andor. That would have been much more helpful to her if she had any idea where Andor was. A lot of back and forth let her establish that its biggest city was named Caemlyn and there was a single ruler there, she thought a queen but maybe a president? It was definitely a woman based on the grammatical forms. There were apparently other big cities, but they didn't seem to know much more than names.

More careful interrogation told Taija that Caemlyn was maybe three weeks' travel away. Obviously they couldn't be talking about travel by car, Taija could easily cross a continent in three weeks that way. However… even on foot that would still be hundreds of kilometres.

Taija's worries only grew with that realisation. There was no way she could possibly not have heard about a community like this that covered such a large area. It didn't make any sense!

Her frustration was added to by her lack of vocabulary. It was driving her up the wall and however fast she learnt their language she still felt her grasp of it was deeply inadequate.

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Another couple of weeks found her feeling almost back to normal. Taija wasn't back in the fighting shape that she wanted to be in, but she was finally feeling more like herself.

She'd also managed to get herself to the level where she could say she had a working knowledge of their language. Ironically they also seemed to call it the Common Tongue, which was a ridiculous conceit for their backwards community. Taija couldn't say she was completely fluent in the language, but at least she could understand most things the villagers were saying.

She was hugely grateful for the way the villagers had accepted her into their village. They'd been nothing but kind to her, although she'd had to bite your tongue a few times when Elena had called her girl and ordered her around. Taija was fairly sure Elena was well under half her age. However, they didn't seem to know she was an aes sedai, in fact she wasn't totally sure they even know anything about aes sedai at all.

Either way, while Taija felt they'd earned some measure of trust with their treatment of her, she thought that, given how little she really knew about them, some things were best kept hidden. She hadn't tried to ask about the War or the One Power, she didn't know how they'd react and her ability as a channeler was a huge trump card to have in reserve if it turned out they were darkfriends after all.

Of course it was easier to say that when she hadn't been able to channel without almost incapacitating herself from the pain.

Without knowing what was wrong with her and a proper medical examination Taija knew it was dangerous to try to channel. However, it was pretty clear that she wasn't going to be seeing a doctor any time soon. She knew the addictive nature of saidar as well as anyone and it was been a growing struggle resisting the urge to just embrace it and hold it for a while, even with the risk of inadvertently burning herself out hovering over her.

Eventually Taija decided she couldn't hold herself back any longer. She reached out to the Power, slowly, carefully going through basic visualisation exercises that had been second nature to her for well over a century. Tentatively she reached out to the glowing warmth of saidar and embraced it, channelling just a trickle of it into a glowing ball of light.

There was no pain, everything was just as it should be. She shivered happily, luxuriating in the wonderful feel of saidar within her, and draw more of the power. More and more she pulled, drawing in a deep, deep river of saidar's sweetness, just holding it in herself until she started to feel the warning pinpricks that told her she was at the limit of what she could safely channel.

After another moment Taija released the Power with a soft sigh, a hole in her spirit that she hadn't even realised was there now healed. A second later she was kicking herself for her idiocy. These people might not know anything about the One Power, but any woman, or myrddraal within kilometres of her might have sensed that display, like a lighthouse spearing through the night.

=========

Thankfully no one seemed to have noticed Taija's channelling, certainly there was no reaction over the next couple of days.

Reassured by that she started to use saidar a bit more to make her life easier. Even with all her experience and rigid discipline, it was hard to stop herself. She was a researcher not a farmer and while the years of war had hardened her, digging through fields or hauling water from a well was never going to be something she'd aspired to doing.

Taija also started to become restless. Now that she was fully healed again the smallness of the world she was living in started to chafe. She missed her books, writing, educated debates.

Taija didn't miss the War at all, but her conscience was whispering away in the background. She'd done her best not to think about it, but she needed to know what was happened to her friends, her comrades. The Shadow was out there, killing, torturing, reveling in its depravity and she was sitting there using saidar to plant seeds when no one was looking.

Taija knew she'd been avoiding talking about the future and so had Aleksi, but her conscience won't let her keep doing it forever. So the next day she cornered him outside his house.

"Aleksi, I am always grateful for all that you have done for me." Her face was serious and his normal cheerful smile slipped slightly. "But I cannot stay with your charity for all the times. I am better, fully healthy, I must know what happened to me, how I come to be here. I know you do not want to talk of it, but this is important." Taija knew she hadn't quite expressed herself the way she wanted, but she thought he understood.

He definitely wasn't smiling after that, but he eventually nodded at her earnest expression. "Yes… You're right, I should have told you sooner," he smiled hopefully, "but I had wished we could avoid it. I'm…" He seemed lost for words. "You've been a blessing coming into my life and I had hoped we could forget about…"

Aleksi sighed and then shrugged and continued, "but you have a right to know. I don't know how to explain… but I can just show you, this evening, after the day's work, I'll take you."

Taija was distracted for the whole day and struggled to focus on her work, menial labour holding even less appeal than before. When the evening finally arrived, Aleksi was there as promised. It was a silent, awkward walk to a field that she hadn't realised he farmed.

Looking at the neatly ploughed furrows in the dimming light, Taija quickly saw there was something sticking out the dirt in the middle of the field. It looked like someone had dug around it.

For a second she stood, just staring. Was that…? Before she knew it she found herself running towards it, a horrifying suspicion growing in her chest.

She didn't need to get close before she could properly see what it was. The smooth, metallic shape of an open stasis box, sticking out of the ground it had been buried in.

Taija slowed to a walk as she got closer. Why did she feel dizzy? Her legs were trembling and the world seemed to spin around her until she paused, resting her hands on her thighs and breathing heavily. After a moment she was able to master herself again and straighten up. A glance back showed her that Aleksi was hanging back, looking worried.

She almost felt like she could remember… As she got closer to the open box, saw the papers strewn inside it the memories crashed back into her mind.

She remembered. Desperate flight back to the town hall. The basement. Antero. Channeling. Crashing darkness.

After a moment Taija realised she'd sunk to her knees, tears running down her cheeks as she stared at it. She wasn't sure how long she knelt there, but eventually she was startled from her reverie by the feel of Aleksi's hand on her shoulder. She was too out of sorts to even react to the unexpected touch.

"Are you alright?" His voice was filled with concern.

Taija didn't say anything. The stasis box looked inert, completely untouched, but she wasn't stupid enough to assume that meant anything. Quickly embracing saidar, ignoring the way her mind whirled from the shock, she put together the lightest of diagnostic webs and let it flow over the box - nothing.

There were still drifts of paperwork in the stasis box, secret information that needed to be kept from the Shadow, but nothing that would tell her anything about what went wrong.

Shrugging off Aleksi's hand Taija stood up and tottered over to the stasis box on unsteady feet before putting a trembling hand onto it, where the control screen was. Nothing happened. Tentatively she sent a thread of spirit and fire into it. Still nothing, it was completely dead.

Aleksi was still a little distance away, watching her with concern when Taija turned back to him. "What happened?" She demanded, a bit more sharply than she meant to.

He hesitated and then began to speak, words spilling out. "It it was like in the stories, I was ploughing the field and I found this, so I dug it out. I didn't know what it was, I still don't… But I thought it was something ancient, perhaps it had treasure in it. When I tried to open it there was some kind of witchcraft, aes sedai business." Her heart skipped a beat when he mentioned aes sedai.

Aleksi continued, oblivious to Taija's reaction, "there were lights and a voice speaking in a strange language." He hesitated before continuing in a rush, "the same language you speak. I thought I'd disturbed some ancient curse, but then it opened and you came out. You were hurt and you just passed out right there. I grabbed you and brought you back to my house and called for the Wisdom and that's it. I haven't touched this box since, I don't want to get entangled in aes sedai business!" He made a gesture that she thought might be meant to ward off evil.

Behind her impassive expression Taija's mind was whirring desperately trying to work out what could have happened.

A stasis box was an incredibly complex piece of technology, something only a real specialist could really understand. She'd been holding the Power, Antero was probably channelling saidin and there was the darkfriend channeler coming after her, perhaps even one of the Forsaken. Maybe she channelled instinctively as the roof fell in, she wasn't sure, but there must have been some kind of power interaction with the stasis box.

Taija wondered how long she was in there for, what kind of interaction there might have been with the very fabric of reality. These people, their language, their technology level like something from the distant past of the dimly remembered First Age, the lack of Standing Flows, no mention of the War.

She realised with growing dread that she might have been in that box for more than a few days, more than a few years even. She needed to find out what happened! To find her friends, her fiancé! How long could it have been?

"Taija? Are you alright?" She heard Aleksi tentatively ask and she realised she'd been standing there, blank faced and lost in thought for far too long.

"I am sorry." She quickly said. "I was just… thinking." One thing was clear, she couldn't stay in Ramshorn. She was never suited for the village life, let alone their backwards version of it. She needed answers. When was she? What had happened over the last years, or was it centuries? It was obvious that those answers wouldn't be forthcoming in Ramshorn.

As she walked back to Aleksi's house she started planning. Taija the invalid was done and Taija Kosola Miranen, aes sedai was back.

As a first step she was going to need to go somewhere with more information. This Caemlyn was the only place that made sense. It seemed to be the closest real city and maybe there would be answers there.

Taija had no money and her grasp of their language was still a little shaky, but she'd make do. If only she had a better idea of where she was trying to go she could just Travel there, but oh well. They always did say walking was good for the soul.

Chapter Text

Chapter IV - Thank the Light for Modern Boots

Once Taija had decided that she needed to go to Caemlyn there wass no point wasting her time. Ramshorn had been good to her, but it was quickly becoming stifling.

She'd avoided answering too many questions about where she came from simply by claiming amnesia, although she still hadn't worked out the exact word for that in their language, assuming it had one.

Taking her cue from Aleksi's obfuscation of where he found her and his clear fear of anything to do with the Power, Taija certainly don't mention anything about the stasis box.

Aleksi had needed a bit more of an explanation, but at the same time she wasn't going to reveal too much to him. He'd saved her life and had earnt some trust and a lot of gratitude for that. However, he was also clearly uncomfortable with anything to do with the Power and aes sedai and she just didn't know how he'd react to the truth.

So once Taija got him alone she told him one more partial truth, still pretending that she didn't really know where she came from.

"Aleksi, I'll forever be grateful for what you've done for me, I owe you my life."

He grimaced, "I can already hear the 'but' coming."

"Yes, I'm sorry." She smiled gently, "but I need to leave." He really wasn't great at controlling his facial expressions. Taija could see him fighting to keep the hurt from his face so she hurried on. "I need to find out what happened to me, where I came from, where my people are and I can't do that here. You saved my life, Ramshorn has been good to me, but I need to know…"

She'd never been a great liar, but Aleksi did seem to believe her. It probably helped that it was nothing but the truth that she needed to find out what had happened to her.

He sighed deeply, "I'd hoped that… no, of course you need to go. I understand." Suddenly he was all business, "where will you be going? When do you plan to leave? Have you thought about supplies?"

=====

Over the next few days Taija got ready for her journey. She knew it would be a long way, further than she'd ever had to go under her own steam and she felt woefully underprepared.

Normally she'd just Travel, making the journey in seconds. However, that was a lot more difficult when she knew nothing about Caemlyn or even where she was.

She'd tried opening gateways to a few places she was familiar with once she was back on your feet. Adanza, Jalanda, Tzora even the Hall of the Servants, but every single one had failed, fizzling out in a bright flash of sparks and dissolving flows.

It had been a risk even trying that. Once her head was in the right place she'd placed a tied off web on herself concealing her ability to channel and started spinning her webs inverted, but given how little she knew about the world as it stood, blindly Traveling somewhere could easily get her killed.

She'd gotten enough of an idea of the geography there to skim in Caemlyn's general direction and if any of the villagers could have given her a good enough description of the place she could likely have just opened a gateway to the city. However, without even vaguely knowing what she might find at the other end, she wasn't willing to Travel further than she could see.

So that meant she needed to do things the hard way. She could always skip-Travel, using gateways within her line of sight to speed things up, but even that would be risky if anyone saw her.

It was an intimidating thought, heading out into the unknown, on foot, but she had no choice.

======

Supplies turned out to be easier than Taija had feared. Aleksi and the villagers' kindness was hard to believe. They didn't have much, but they still give her food, a pack, even clothing. Although she couldn't say she enjoyed wearing their simple, scratchy dresses.

Apparently Elena had had to cut her out of her clothes after Aleksi found her. She'd commented on the strangely coloured 'men's' clothing that was apparently very difficult to cut and Taija had had to feign ignorance. So using her own clothes wasn't really an option.

The only thing that seemed to have survived coming with her was her boots. Taija knew she'd be grateful for those soon. Well worn in and built to last, she was going to need them if she'd be walking as much as she expected.

======

While she was getting ready to go, Taija continued to try to find out as much as she could about the world she was in. It was deeply frustrating that the villagers didn't know much about life outside their little region, but they told her what they could.

Taija heard about other great cities, Tar Valon (a nest of witches and darkfriends according to some), Cairhien (and the story of Laman's folly), Tear and Illian (coastal cities united in mutual hate with an unassailable fortress in Tear) and Ebou Dar (apparently they stab each other over nothing and the women wear huge dagger necklaces). It was all very surface level, but at least it gave her some names of places to try if Caemlyn couldn't give her what she needed.

On the history of Andor and its geography she learnt a lot more. About how Queen (President? Maybe dictator?) Morgase had been a good ruler, how there was a crisis before she took charge and some basic history of the nation. Taija also heard about at least some of its larger cities, Whitebridge, Aringill and Baerlon and to her surprise, one of the villagers actually turned out to have a map of the country.

It looked like something out of a museum, hand-drawn and she was sure a lot of artistic licence had been taken, but it at least gave her a reasonable idea of where everything was and the main rivers, mountains and forests. Nothing looked familiar to her unfortunately, but maybe if she could actually see these Mountains of Mist she'd recognise them. She always did like hiking.

=====

When the day of Taija's departure arrived, she was surprised to see a large part of the village's population lined up to see her off. In the grand scheme of things she hadn't spent very long there and she couldn't say she'd particularly enjoyed that time. However, that wasn't their fault. It was still an emotional moment for her to say goodbye to these people who, despite having almost nothing by her standards, had been so kind to her.

There was one notable absence from them though. Taija hadn't seen Aleksi all day and looking around now she still couldn't find him. He was the one she owed the most to, so it felt particularly sad that he wasn't there.

Taija considered delaying until the next day, but eventually with a small sigh she hefted her pack onto her back. In the end she needed to get going, she needed to find a way home. Whether someone chose to say goodbye or not, she was still alone wherever or whenever this was.

Just as Taija turned to leave she heard a commotion from just out of sight. She hesitated and a second later Aleksi came jogging round the corner, panting for breath with a pack and bow on his back and a staff held in his hand.

Slowing to a saunter he came up to her with a casual grin that was slightly ruined by his heavy breathing, "I couldn't let you go off on your own like that, you might end up needing to be rescued again!" He paused, "anyway I've always wanted an adventure."

Despite herself Taija burst out laughing, this she had not expected. There were so many reasons to tell him absolutely not and to go home. He'd probably slow her down. No, he'd definitely slow her down.

He also had no idea what he was getting himself into. He seemed to have a bit of a thing about aes sedai, which could be awkward. He also clearly had a crush on her which could be even more awkward, especially given the age gap. It wasn't that he was bad looking, but he was in his early twenties and had never left his village.

Regardless of all the good reasons to say no, Taija just smiled. "Well let's go then!"

Never mind the local knowledge and someone to watch her back. This world was a lonely place for Taija and she considered him her first and only friend here.

=======

Travel without technology or the Power was… well it was dull. Taija hadn't thought it would be all that bad. She used to go on long hikes in the mountains, although never for weeks at a time, and she'd always enjoyed them. Here though the scenery was boring, other than her boots her clothes sucked and there were no showers at the end of each day.

The first few days were fine, but Taija's mood worsened as they went. She got rained on. She couldn't use the Power to clean herself as much as she wanted to due to Aleki's presence so she felt dirty and carrying a heavy, uncomfortable pack left her feeling more and more tired. Perhaps she wasn't as recovered from her injuries as she'd thought.

All this made her increasingly grumpy as they trudged on. There were good moments, people being incredibly kind to strangers. The occasional inn that Aleksi paid for, even though she knew for a fact that he didn't have much money. The taste of freshly cooked rabbit that Aleksi shot with his bow. But… mostly it was a grind.

Taija regularly fantasised about being in a car. With leather seats and air conditioning. Even a long-distance bus would do.

Or alternatively, she could just skip-Travel her way to Caemlyn to avoid the risks of Traveling somewhere unfamiliar. Opening a gateway to the horizon, stepping through and then repeating. She'd probably be there in a day or two at most. The only thing stopping her at that point was how Aleksi might react, she didn't even care about the other locals.

Much as her journey wore on her, Taija was still glad of the company Aleksi brought. Long days walking or riding on the back of a cart gave her the chance to get to know him better. He really was a nice young man, telling her the stories of his people, about life growing up in Ramshorn and enthusing about finally getting to go on a proper adventure.

The slow travel also gave Taija the chance to learn more about the world and improve her grasp of the language there. People still gave her odd looks and, despite Aleksi's assurances she could tell she had a strong accent. As far she was concerned their language just sounded mushy and it was hard to properly imitate some of the sounds.

During the journey Taija gradually, tentatively asked Aleksi about aes sedai and "witchcraft", using the stasis box and her need to know where she came from as excuses to bring up the topics.

Away from the box and the village he was a lot more willing to talk, but she wasn't sure how much he really knew and how much was just myths or prejudice. He told her about how aes sedai ruled the world from the shadows and smote their enemies with their witchcraft, which really didn't sound right. While he knew they used the One Power, the words saidar and saidin didn't seem to mean anything to him. She also learnt that they were based in Tar Valon where they pulled on the strings of rulers around the world. Apparently they couldn't tell a lie, but would twist words into a knot and turn the truth on its head.

More implausibly Aleksi said that the male aes sedai broke the world and now there were only women, all male channelers are apparently insane and dangerous. He wasn't quite clear what that involved but it seemed to be some apocalyptic event in the distant, almost forgotten past. Maybe something did happen. Taija wasn't even sure if this was her world or a parallel one, so who knew what the truth was. She supposed that maybe it was the end of the War of Power, but given how little he seemed to know about it, it was probably more of a creation myth than actual history.

One thing that Taija couldn't get straight was whether Aleksi thought aes sedai were darkfriends or not. He seemed to think that they were untrustworthy and manipulative, but while he called Tar Valon a nest of darkfriends and witchcraft he didn't seem to think that individual aes sedai necessarily were. It was all a strange contrast to her world where "servants of all", one term that seems to have carried over to the local language even if its meaning had been lost, were hugely respected.

These conversations also led to Aleksi asking more about Taija and her background. She dodged and deflected about her exact circumstances, but told him about her life in broad strokes. Growing up in Adanza, working as a 'scholar' and fighting in a war.

Taija thought she did a good job of obfuscating the truth with her claims of amnesia. Regardless, he was faultlessly kind and didn't push her to say more than she wanted to, which just made her feel more guilty about lying to him. Of course she had good reasons to do it, but he'd been nothing but open with her and was actually walking several hundred kilometres to help her. It didn't feel at all fair that she was repaying him with obfuscation and lies.

======

Aleksi had expected going on an adventure like this to be more exciting. He'd never traveled anything like this far from Ramshorn and soon he was going to see Caemlyn of all places. One of the greatest cities in the world! For now though, his feet hurt and he couldn't really think of the endless days of walking as anything other than drudgery.

Of course that was relieved somewhat by Taija, the reason he'd come in the first place. He glanced over at her. She was still scowling, her mood really hadn't improved since they got caught in the rain that morning.

He could have gone to Caemlyn any time of course, but she'd been the trigger. At first he'd been terrified of her, given where she came from, but it had quickly become clear to him that she really was harmless. Just a nice lady who seemed to be lost after much hardship. Yet there was clearly an adventure to be had at the same time.

Her mysterious origins, the injuries she'd had, the strange language she'd spoken, all harsh consonants, they all intrigued him. Even the clothing Elena had cut off her had been like nothing he'd seen before.

He'd been disappointed when she'd said she needed to leave for Caemlyn, but not really surprised. It hadn't been a difficult decision to go with her either. Someone needed to protect her from a world she was clearly clueless about. He'd entertained fantasies of marrying her for a while, but her lack of interest quickly became clear. That didn't stop him from wanting to go with her though.

Even the stories she'd told as they traveled had been fascinating. She claimed to have forgotten so much, but he was pretty sure she was lying about most of that. She clearly didn't know how she got to Ramshorn, but she was running from something. There were so many signs of it. There was the nervousness on her face when she was asked too many questions. Also the way she'd jump at any loud noise, whirling to face it with impressive speed. Even how difficult it was to sneak up on her was apparently a sign according to old Moki, who'd spoken a lot with the guards on visiting peddlers' caravans. They all told a story of a traumatic past.

His theory was that she'd been betrayed in some way. Maybe a noblewoman whose evil father tried to force her into an unwanted marriage until she'd fled. Perhaps she was from Shara? That might explain the language and the face she could channel, sending her to Ramshorn when he tried to punish her. It was as good an explanation as any.

Hopefully soon she'd feel she could trust him enough to tell him her story. Until then, he'd help her reach Caemlyn and maybe find some of the answers she was looking for. After that they'd see.

=====

In the end the journey was actually quite uneventful and as they got closer to Caemlyn Taija found herself traveling down a proper, paved road. It was still very rough by her standards, but it and the gradually increasing volume of fellow travelers told her that they were getting close.

It wasn't long after that that she saw something on the horizon that slowly resolved itself into the walls of a sprawling city. Taija had never seen anything quite like it. Huge, shining-white, stone walls stretched for kilometres, punctuated with looming guard towers. Buildings crowded up against the walls and gleaming spires towered over them from the inside. It was hard to believe that this city had been built by people who didn't seem to have even heard of steam engines or concrete. Regardless, she knew that if it had been around in her world the city would have been known everywhere. As a tourist attraction if nothing else.

Looking up at the shining walls, Taija mentally rubbed her hands together, this was a proper city and no doubt she'd have a much easier time finding answers here. The first thing she was going to do, once they'd found some accommodation anyway, was visit their biggest public library!

Chapter Text

Chapter V - Knowledge is Power, Guard It Well

Once Taija was in Caemlyn her excitement quickly faded. She and Aleksi had rented rooms at a ramshackle inn just outside the city walls as it was all Aleksi could afford. Even then his money wouldn't last long. Still that hadn't been the problem. While her room was both tiny and filthy, she didn't need much space and a bit of channeling could deal with most cleanliness issues. Even where it couldn't she'd slept in trenches and this wasn't that bad, not quite.

The real problem was that it rapidly became clear that finding information wouldn't be as easy as she had thought. After the kindness of the villagers in Ramshorn and the way Taija's own society worked, the realisation that people in Caemlyn were completely uninterested in helping her and that to them she was just a random peasant, a country-rube barely a step above a beggar, took a day or two to properly sink in.

It also very soon became clear, after a couple of humiliating conversations, that public libraries were simply not a thing in Caemlyn. Taija still winced at the way the innkeeper had looked at her, like she was a particularly stupid insect.

All of this meant that she was going to need a new plan. Easy access to knowledge, public libraries and cheap books all went into the growing mental list of things Taija missed from home. However, she wasn't going to think about that. That way led towards the encroaching darkness of depression. The question she needed to think about was where could she get access to knowledge?

The answer came pretty quickly. It was obvious that there were books in this world. Many of the people of Ramshorn were literate, which had actually been a bit of a surprise to Taija, given dimly remembered history lessons. She'd also seen at least one bookshop, although she'd been chased out of it before she could even look at their stock. Another humiliation.

Regardless, books meant libraries, probably her favourite place to be and, in this strange medieval world she found herself in, if there were no public libraries, then there must be private ones. Much as she was already starting to dislike this place, a society without libraries seemed unimaginable.

The inequality that was rife in Caemlyn had been painful to see, but had been obvious almost as soon as she'd reached the city. Following that train of thought, Taija was fairly sure that it would be the rich that had private libraries and so the palaces in the Inner City seemed like an obvious starting place for her investigations. They were also just beautiful to look at with their sweeping architecture and marbled facades, even if she didn't really have time for gawking.

Of course Taija also needed to consider which rich people would have libraries. Some wouldn't be very interested in knowledge, science, history, things like that. More fool them. However, the really important people would surely have big libraries even if they themselves weren't actually interested. Looking at the inequality on display, they'd probably have people to do their reading for them or something.

Taija was quite pleased with her deduction. So little made sense here, but at least she seemed to be getting her head around some of how their society worked!

This meant that the solution to Taija's woes was obvious. She would need to find the biggest palace, which she'd already done, and then break in and find the library.

She sighed to herself, it would probably need to be at night. Getting caught would make things awkward. Still, while it wasn't like she was some kind of infiltration expert, the One Power was a flexible tool and Taija was confident she could avoid any guards, particularly given the perplexing fact that she hadn't met a single channeler here.

======

The next evening, after eating dinner with Aleksi and discussing how her search was going, Taija told him that she was feeling a bit tired and would retire early for the night.

She returned to her cramped room and embraced saidar, briefly luxuriating in the feel of it before spinning a quick, but complex, inverted web of spirit, fire, air and water that washed over her like a chill breeze.

Another web created a mirror in the air in front of her and she briefly studied her reflection. Instead of dark brown eyes, straight black hair and light brown skin, she saw pretty green eyes staring out from a pale, freckled, younger face that was framed by ginger curls. It was perfect, she looked absolutely nothing like herself.

Job done, she tied off the web of illusion and cracked open her door, checked the corridor was empty and then hurried out of the back of the inn, unseen except by the completely uninterested stablehand.

It was getting dark outside as Taija walked unhurriedly towards what was probably this Morgase's palace. By now she was fairly sure the woman was a queen by, although she'd have to ask her if they ever met.

One of the guards at the gate to the Inner City moved as if he was going to stop her. Another sign of the inequality in this world, but a deft flow of air knocked a flower pot off a balcony, distracting him just as Taija strode past.

It didn't take long for Taija to reach the main gate to the palace. Obviously it was guarded and she was under no illusion that she could just walk in there. She did, however, take a moment to admire the colourful uniforms of the guards before she walked on. They had a certain panache to them.

Circling the palace's walls didn't reveal any obvious entry points, which was annoying, but unsurprising. There were one or two points where she thought she might be able to haul herself over the wall, but it would look very suspicious as well as being undignified. There would likely be guards patrolling on the other side too.

It was annoying, but not a serious problem. Taija hadn't released saidar since she left the inn - she had no intention of getting hit over the head by a mugger before she could do anything about it - and that would be her route into the palace.

She drew harder on the Power, spinning a complex, inverted web of spirit that made the space in front of her match that on the roof of a smaller palace overlooking the walls. The air split apart in front of her and Taija stepped through her gateway.

There, perfect. Now she could see over the walls and into the palace grounds. Even better, there were some large windows on what she thought was a ballroom or chamber of some kind. She spun a quick web, distorting the air in front of her eyes, and it was like she was looking through a telescope, light bent to magnify the image. Yes, the room looked empty.

With a thought Taija opened a second gateway beside her and stepped through, straight into the palace.

As soon as the gateway vanished behind her, Taija had to stop as she looked around, open mouthed. The opulence was incredible. She'd seen some truly stunning buildings in her life, the Hall of the Servants sprang to mind, but the style here was gaudier than anything she'd seen outside a museum. Huge paintings of elaborately, but archaically dressed men and women adorned the walls, carved wood covered in gold leaf highlighted the corners and edges, marble columns framed the windows and the ceiling was covered in amazingly detailed frescoes depicting scenes of leisure.

It took Taija a few seconds to shake herself out of her astonished reverie. It was beautiful, simply incredible, but she had more important things to do. She wasn't a tourist here to gawk. She knew she was in the right place though, she could feel it. So, with a bounce to her step, she headed off to start searching the palace.

Taija's feelings of excitement didn't last all that long. The problem with going to the biggest palace in Caemlyn was that… well it was the biggest palace. She was sure she'd been wandering around for over an hour without finding anything that even vaguely looked like a library and several times she'd almost been caught by roving guards or servants hurrying about their chores.

As a result, Taija was starting to feel quite irritable by the time she nudged a large pair of doors open and finally found her goal. It was dimly lit by moonlight shining through large, ornate windows and it was hard to make much out. However, when she spun a ball of light above her head, the sight in front of her was enough to extinguish any grumpiness. It was simply beautiful! Wooden paneling, polished desks, cosy armchairs and best of all shelf after shelf of books. It felt like years since Taija had seen a book and Light she'd missed them!

That being said, Taija wasn't sure where to start. There was no obvious catalogue and the books didn't have helpfully clear spines like she was used to. So all she could do was pick one off the shelf at random.

"Tairen nobility and bloodlines in the New Era." Taija mouthed the words out loud, struggling with the unfamiliar letters. Thank the Light these people used almost the same alphabet as her so at least she could work out which word was what. She read a few pages, holding the book open in front of her, struggling with the turgid language. However, she quickly concluded that she really didn't need to know about the family trees of the High Lords of Tear, whatever they were.

A bit more searching and browsing brought her to "Principles of Mathematics" by A. Piertrina. That was actually quite interesting. Not because there were any new concepts in it, but because she could see how much people here knew. The answer seemed to be not all that much. Although Taija had to admit that she had no idea whether the book was cutting edge thinking or a centuries old classic. Either way it was fascinating, why she'd never seen this particular proof expressed in this way…

A couple of hours later Taija looked up from the book with a jolt. She shouldn't have let herself become distracted! Quickly putting the book back where she'd found it and resisting the urge to just take it with her she resumed her search.

It wasn't too long before she found something far more useful sounding. "The History of the Hundred Years War: From Unity to Destruction." That sounded like a proper history book and hopefully she'd be able to get some more useful information about the world from it. Just its existence told her she must be a long way from home. The War was the the only war she'd ever heard of and that had only been going on for five years so far.

Taking it off the shelf and returning to the wonderfully comfortable armchair she'd claimed, Taija settled down to read.

It was almost light when she realised with a jolt of panic that she'd let herself become distracted again. Stifling a yawn she quickly replaced the book on the shelf, glanced around to make sure she'd left no sign of her presence and then spun an inverted gateway directly back to her room in the inn.

=======

Unfortunately Taija didn't get much chance to sleep in. The thin walls of her cheap room did little to shield her from the sound of the inn's other occupants rousing themselves. As a result, despite her best efforts, she was quite irritable the next day.

Aleksi had been looking for work and over an unappetising breakfast he told her about how he thought he'd found something, which would support her in her search for answers. However, while he was happily telling her about that, Taija's mind was half back in the library and half wishing she was asleep and all she could manage was one word answers.

The day felt like it crawled by and all Taija could do was wait for night to fall so that she could go back to the library and continue with her reading. As soon as she'd 'gone to bed' she Traveled directly to the library to get back to her research.

Unlike the previous night, Taija refused to let herself get distracted, as difficult as that was, and she managed to finish the book on the Hundred Years War before getting to bed a little bit earlier than the night before.

However, it was still far too little sleep and the next morning, Taija's tiredness was like a hammer pounding through her head. She simply couldn't keep functioning for more than a few days with so little sleep. The guilty voice in the back of her head was also whispering increasingly loudly that she was taking advantage of Aleksi's generosity in an unforgivable way.

While Aleksi protested when she told him she was going to try to find some work, Taija could still the relief in his eyes. Fortunately it seemed that the Creator was smiling on her as in the end all it took to find some work was a brief conversation with the innkeeper.

With that, Taija became the inn's chambermaid, cleaning out the guests' rooms. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had to do such… menial work, Ramshorn aside, and it paid terribly, but at least it let her feel she wasn't taking advantage of Aleksi.

Of course Taija didn't actually spend hours cleaning the empty rooms. There was no one around in the upper floors during the day, so instead she simply used the Power. A whirlwind of webs removing dust and dirt, cleaning it in seconds. It wouldn't have been so easy in a hotel in her own world, but here in this rough inn standards were considerably lower, something she preferred not to think about. At least it meant she could catch up on sleep even while 'on the clock'.

======

Each night Taija continued to visit the palace library. It was slow going, trying to work her way through the unfamiliar script, not helped by the poor quality of the printing in most of them. One was even handwritten!

"The Five Kingdoms of the North" gave her some understanding of the Borderlands, apparently making up the northern most kingdoms, Shienar, Arafel, Kndaor, Saldaea and Malkier. Much of the content was tedious royal histories, but the book also touched on the Blight. So she now knew that the Shadow still had a presence in this world, beyond villagers' fears of darkfriends. It seemed that those kingdoms formed the main the bulwark against the Shadow, or at least its conventional forces, which was interesting and might be worthy of more investigation later.

The next book that Taija decided to read was more exciting. "Tar Valon and the White Tower - Life Among the Servants." She already knew that Tar Valon was where the aes sedai of this world were based and the White Tower seemed to be their version of the Hall of the Servants. She suspected that the reference to 'servants' was a pun on aes sedai. She'd noticed occasional words from her language interspersed in the books she'd read, so it would make sense.

Taija settled down in what was now her favourite armchair, tied off the web providing her with light and got down to reading. In a matter of minutes she was engrossed in the book, trailing her finger along the lines of text on the pages as she laboriously worked her way through it.

Taija wasn't sure how long it was before she was pulled out of reading about the position of the Amyrlin Seat by a noise. She looked up, blinking with surprise, to see a dark-haired woman standing over her, looking distinctly unimpressed. She was handsome rather than pretty, with a cold, severe look on her face. There was also something slightly off about her appearance, although Taija couldn't put her finger on what it was.

As their eyes met, the glow of saidar sprang up around the woman. Immediately Taija instinctively grabbed for it herself. How could she have let herself become so distracted?!

Instead of the warm flow of the Power she felt a smooth barrier between her and saidar.

Fuck… Taija franticly tried to master the surge of panic boiling up inside her, gripping the rough wool of her dress in her fists as the woman allowed a predatory smile onto her face.

She looked Taija up and down, glanced up at the hovering light and sniffed audibly. "I was right, I did feel someone channeling last night." Taija kicked herself internally. How could she have been so stupid?! Not inverting all of her webs, tying them off and to crown it all, letting go of saidar. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

She needed to pull herself together before she got herself killed, if she hadn't already managed that. She clamped down hard on on the fear that threatened to overwhelm her.

"Answer me girl!" With a start Taija realised the woman had been talking. Unless you wish it to go worse for you, you will tell me now, how exactly did you get in here girl and what do you think you are doing?" The woman's voice spoke of command, clearly someone used to being obeyed.

Chapter Text

Chapter VI - No I Really Am Aes Sedai

Sat in her armchair, shielded and vulnerable, Taija desperately tried to suppress the panic that was welling up inside her. She knew what happened to aes sedai that were captured by the forces of the Shadow. Torture and death were at the better end of possible outcomes.

Even as Taija was forcing herself to keep breathing steadily, she was still looking for weaknesses, opportunities. She hadn't survived years of war by giving in to fear and indecision.

Tentatively Taija probed at the shield blocking her from saidar. Surprisingly it felt… for lack of a better word, sloppy. Without taking her eyes off her assailant she carefully felt her way around the shape of the shield, hunting for weaknesses. She needed to stall for time!

"W w who are you?" She deliberately stammered. It wasn't difficult to allow a frightened quiver into her voice. "I I was just trying to read."

The woman frowned slightly, her face impassive beyond that. "Do not try to play games with me girl. Answer me or you will suffer for it." Taija did not need to pretend to wince when the woman channeled and a web of air lashed across her back.

Still, that wasn't important, she'd had worse. Taija pushed gently at the shield, feeling the tangle of saidar that was holding the web together. There was just a little bit of give, larger spaces than she expected between the flows. She was so close, if she could just…

"Ouch! W w what was that for?" Taija tried to make her bottom lip tremble and sound even more afraid. "W w why are you hitting me? J just tell me who you are and I p promise not to tell anyone." If she could mix her genuine fear with false bravado she might be able to tempt the woman into… Oh, yes!

The woman diverted more of her strength, dividing her flows into a web of illusion as well as her switch of air. Taija yelped as pain bloomed across her back from two more hard strikes and the woman seemed to swell in size in front of her, looming ever larger.

"Answer me girl, do not try to defy me." Her voice boomed out unnaturally loudly, shaking the glass in the windows. However, Taija was barely listening. Channeling even a small amount of her strength into the illusion and air switch reduced the amount she had to hold the shield and that momentary weakness was all Taija needed.

Fear and indecision vanished from her face, replaced by hard focus. Decades of channeling experience, years fighting on the frontlines, came together and Taija struck, instantly attacking the knot at the centre of the woman's shield. Exerting the full force of her ability as a channeler, focused precisely on the weak points in the woman's shield, prying into the sloppily large gaps between flows.

Taija wasn't sure if it would have worked without the woman having diverted a small part of her strength, it was such a close run thing. However, as it was, she felt the shield bulge briefly under the pressure she exerted and then a moment later it burst like a soap bubble.

The world moved in slow motion. As saidar flowed back into a her, Taija saw the woman flinch from the shock of her web breaking. She started to react, but Taija was far faster. In a fraction of a second she was spinning a torrent of saidar, splitting her flows four ways.

Fire, air and spirit formed a ball between the two of them exploding into blinding light with a loud thump even as Taija screwed her eyes shut and dived out of her chair to dodge any retaliation. A complex web of all five elements sprang out across the room to block attempts at Traveling, a wall of air, spirit and fire appeared between them to absorb any webs from the woman and finally an overpowered fist of air into her stomach sent her crashing noisily into a bookshelf.

Even as the woman sunk to her knees Taija was following through with an overpowered shield. She nearly spun the web with a razor sharp edge with the aim of severing the woman, but just held herself back. She still didn't know whether this was truly an enemy or not, she wasn't on the battlefield now.

It was as effective as Taija could possibly have hoped. The woman had no time to recover from the shock of her own shield breaking. She was blinded and flung across the room with a squawk of surprise, briefly losing her connection to saidar before Taija could even slam the shield into place.

A moment later Taija was picking herself up off the floor, brushing dust from her dress and wincing slightly at the bands of pain across her body where the woman had hit her with her webs of air. She'd probably be feeling those for at least a week as it wasn't like she'd be able to get any healing here.

Having checked herself over, Taija fixed her attention on the woman who was also slowly pulling herself to her feet, using a shelf for support and clutching her stomach. There was a faint touch of pressure as the woman tested the shield, but Taija could feel the woman's strength, she hadn't the faintest hope of breaking it.

For a second Taija considered binding the woman in air, but decided she'd hold off, for now. The woman wasn't much of a threat given that she was shielded and Taija could spin a web of air faster than the woman could possibly do anything to her at that distance.

Taija thanked the Light that the woman hadn't been a bit more skilled with saidar, or just a little stronger, or she might have been in a lot more trouble. As it was, perhaps now she could get some answers for her questions. Based on the quality of her dress and her presence in the palace woman was clearly rich and obviously she was a channeler, so hopefully she'd actually have some education and be able to tell Taija about this world.

Leaving her able to move freely might even help them resolve things peacefully. Also, now that Taija had a moment to think, she had to admit that the woman had had reason to be suspicious of her. She had snuck into the palace after all, so she opted for a conciliatory tone when she spoke to the woman.

"I'm very sorry about that… unpleasantness. You caught me by surprise and I panicked a bit." Taija gave her an awkward smile and tried to ignore the pain she felt from the woman's switches and the simmering anger that that generated in her. Anger wouldn't serve her well now.

Despite being shielded and surely knowing she was completely at Taija's mercy the woman just gave her a haughtily impassive stare, looking down her nose at her.

Taija stared back for a second and then sighed, "look I really…" before she could finish she was interrupted by the sound of shouts and running boots.

In hindsight maybe she could have been a bit quieter. Thinking fast, Taija bound the woman in air and yanked her closer, ignoring her shout of outrage. She could keep any non-channelers out of the library pretty much indefinitely, but she had no idea whether there were more channelers in the palace. She'd already put herself in a difficult situation by letting herself become complacent once.

After a moment of consideration Taija quickly spun an inverted gateway. Reading residues was a rare talent, so unlikely to be an issue, but she certainly didn't want to find out the hard way that someone could track her gateway. The hole in the air rotated open behind her and she stepped back through it, straight into her room at the inn, before dragging the woman through after her with her web of air.

As soon as the gateway rotated closed behind her, Taija warded the small room against sound, she didn't want the woman calling for help. She kept her shielded and bound with air, obviously. The room was far too small to keep any distance and she'd heard of too many channelers who'd been complacent and ended up being punched or stabbed.

With the room cut off from the sounds of the outside world, Taija turned her attention back to her captive. "Right," she hesitated, her tone awkward. "I'm sorry about that. I don't want to hurt you, but I also don't want to end up in some sort of dungeon. It's just too, too cliché if nothing else…" She trailed off as her mind went back to some of the lower quality "historical" fiction she'd used to read when she was younger.

The woman was still looking around, blinking with surprise, her arrogant composure finally broken. "What was that?" There was a hint of worry in her voice. "Where are we? How did we get here?"

Taija blinked at her, surprised. "We Traveled…" her words were slow as if speaking to a child. Did the woman not know how to make a gateway? She was certainly strong enough.

For a moment the woman looked even more shocked and then she pulled herself together, drawing her composure around herself like a shield. "I see," she replied. "I must have been confused. May I ask who you are?" While she still sounded as arrogant as a freshly minted member of the Inner Council, her tone had become somewhat more conciliatory.

Taija couldn't see any reason to lie to the woman, if she recognised her name then that would tell her something, but she didn't expect her to. "My name is Taija Kosola Miranen," even years later she couldn't help the little flash of pride that came with saying her third name. "Most people call me Taija sedai, or Professor Kosola." Well at least before the War they did. "What's your name?"

Rather than answering the woman raised an eyebrow. "Sedai girl? You claim to be aes sedai?" Her aggressive tone had returned.

Taija shrugged, suppressing a flash of irritation at being called 'girl'. She'd thought it was fairly obvious given the shield she was holding on the woman. It was possible she supposed, not every channeler became aes sedai even if it was rare not to for strong ones. "Are you not one?"

The woman allowed herself a measured smile, "my name is Elaida do'Avriny a'Roihan and yes, you may call me Elaida sedai."

Taija gave her a genuine smile. "Oh, well that's a pleasant surprise." It really was, not only an aes sedai, but one with a third name too! How fortunate to have found someone who would almost certainly have the knowledge and connections to be genuinely helpful. Although she'd still have to be careful, she hadn't forgotten some of what the villagers and Aleksi had said about aes sedai here. "I really do have so many questions! Maybe you can help me with some of them? Aes sedai to aes sedai."

Elaida's response was more measured. "Perhaps I can, although I will tell you nothing that could harm the White Tower or Andor." She paused, "I will also warn you now, the consequences of claiming to be aes sedai are not light. The longer you maintain your pretense the harsher the punishment will be and you must know that the reach of the White Tower is without limits - you saw the False Dragon Logain as he was brought through Caemlyn, that is the fate that awaits all those who oppose the White Tower. If you will release the shield you hold on me and come peacefully to the palace then I will ensure that any punishments are not overzealous."

Taija blinked, confused by that. She might have heard the name Logain once or twice in other people's conversations, although she wasn't sure. It hadn't seemed particularly important or interesting at the time. As for this talk of claiming to be aes sedai, it was offensive! Although if she was fair to Elaida perhaps this world had some sort of tests or signs for aes sedai. "Well obviously I'm not impersonating an aes sedai, but that's neither here nor there right now. Maybe we can discuss that later. First, please tell me, what year is it?"

This time Elaida looked nonplussed, clearly not expecting the question. "Ah, it is the year 998."

Taija already knew that from Ramshorn. "Yes, but 998 of what?

"Of the New Era," Elaida's reply was slow as she tried to work out where Taija was going with her questions.

"Alright, fine, but the New Era of what? What was the Old Era? Was there an Old Era? Are you at least aware of the circular nature of the space time continuum?" Taija realised after a second that she'd dropped into her own language due to her lack of vocabulary. "Uh the… circle of time?"

"You refer to the Wheel? Weaving our lives through the pattern and the Ages?" Elaida seemed to be halfway between asking and stating, but at Taija's nod she continued. "Yes, of course, even the meanest peasant knows about that. Where are you from girl? I cannot place your accent."

"I'm not from around here, also please don't call me girl, it's rude." Taija's reply was vague, but after a second she thought maybe she should offer more if she wanted to learn anything useful from Elaida. "I was born and raised in Adanza." Elaida's blank face made it clear that hadn't rung any bells. "I worked in Paaran Disen for many years too before I ended up living in Jalanda. Maybe you know of them?"

The second name, the greatest city of Taija's world, seemed to have some impact on Elaida, although she only gave a small twitch on hearing it. "I must say I am not familiar with any of those places."

"But have you heard of them?" Taija leant forward pinning her with her eyes.

"I thought perhaps I had heard of this Paren Dicen place," she mispronounced the name badly, "but it would be difficult to say where." Elaida paused and then asked, "you say you worked there for some years, how long for and what is it that you did?"

Taija couldn't see any reason to obfuscate. "For around twenty five years at the… I'm not sure how to say it in your language. I was a… again I don't have the words. In Paaran Disen I was a... post-doctoral researcher in theoretical physics." She said the last few words in her own language.

Elaida's eyebrows rose. "That sounds like the Old Tongue girl, although it appears you do not speak it as well as you think. Your pronunciation is atrocious and you are telling me you spent twenty five years as," her voice took on a sarcastic tone, "'an after scholar explorer of thought about world motion.' I am surprised you know any words of the Old Tongue given your dress and accent, but clearly whoever taught you did not do it very well. You will also need to learn not to lie to an aes sedai or things will go far worse for you." She sniffed loudly. "There is no way that you could have spent twenty five years working already at your age. Did you start when you were five?"

With a humourless laugh Elaida continued, speaking over Taija's attempt at interjecting. "Now, for your own good, you must release me and accompany me to the White Tower. You will be punished for your impersonation of an aes sedai, of course, that cannot be overlooked. However, your obvious ignorance will speak in your favour if you can overcome your foolishness. You are not weak in the Power girl, once amends have been made for your behaviour I have no doubt that you could find your life much improved from this." Her eyes contemptuously took in the shabby room and Taija's cheap dress.

Taija was a little impressed, despite herself. Elaida was completely at her mercy and yet she seemed to expect her orders to be followed as if she was the one in command. Fortunately, she wasn't.

Taija said something vaguely conciliatory and tried to keep digging into the history of the world she found herself in. While she didn't get anything like the level of information she wanted out of Elaida, she was starting to be able to build more of a picture of things. She heard more about the nations and their histories. It seemed like they used to be united by a man named Artur Hawkwing, which was an excellent name she had to admit. Before him there were huge trolloc wars. Both Hawkwing and those wars resulted in new calendars being adopted.

Then something like 3,000 year ago there had been this "Breaking". Apparently mad men had destroyed the world with the Power. It just didn't sound very plausible. Even the worst destruction during the War never came close to what Elaida described. Regardless, Elaida didn't seem to want to talk about that in any detail and Taija wasn't all that interested in exploring ancient myths.

While Taija had learned more about the world, she was still only scratching the surface. There had to be be some connection between their worlds. If nothing else their 'Common Tongue' was clearly related to her own language and Elaida had recognised it, even had some vague idea of how to speak it, calling it the 'Old Tongue'.

Taija found herself yawning more and more as her questioning went on, which contrasted irritatingly with Elaida's unruffled composure. Eventually she decided to try naming some things from her world to see if Elaida recognised them. Names of other cities got her nothing, so in desperation she tried some of people as well. The first few got her nowhere, but Elaida's eyes narrowed when she said 'Lews Therin Telamon'.

"I am confused as to why you have been throwing these names without any purpose at me, but that one… yes I am aware of the Dragon as would be any educated person. However, no civilised person wishes to speak of him." Elaida's mouth twisted into a grimace.

Taija gasped, a smile growing on her face. Maybe she wasn't as far from home as she'd feared if Elaida had heard of Lews Therin. She seemed to put a lot of weight on the title Dragon though. People had only started calling him that maybe a year ago, but really as far as Taija was concerned it was just another thing to feed the man's undeniably large ego.

Eagerly she tried to get more information out of Elaida, but all it revealed was that she was unwilling to give more answers on the topic. All she would do was lead the conversation back to unspeakable fates like the one apparently to be faced by that Logain man she'd mentioned and how Taija should be releasing her for her own good.

It was at that point that Taija realised that the sun was shining through the tiny window to her room. She didn't hear any of the normal morning noise from the inn, but that made sense given the ward against sound. Unfortunately there was no way to make that particular ward one way. Not as far as she knew anyway.

Aleksi was probably panicking at her not having emerged from her room. For all Taija knew he might be hammering on her door right now. Also she was exhausted from lack of sleep. Annoyingly Elaida looked completely unruffled.

She needed to decide what she was going to do with Elaida quickly. She couldn't have Aleksi get into her room and find she was holding one of this world's aes sedai prisoner with the Power. She'd have to explain things to him at some point anyway, but that would really not be a good way to start the conversation.

Taija looked back at Elaida who seemed to think she was making headway with her threats. The woman was unquestionably dangerous. Almost certainly highly influential given she was in the palace and had a third name and she was an aes sedai of non-negligible strength in the Power. She also seemed to feel Taija should be submitting to her authority.

There was no real reason to think Elaida was a darkfriend, but Taija clearly couldn't just release her. Equally, keeping her prisoner would be difficult. Morals aside, she didn't have a good idea of Elaida's capabilities and regardless she didn't have anywhere to put her.

She could kill her of course. Elaida did attack first and that would be one problem solved. However, while it might be the easy way out, Taija was no darkfriend. She wasn't that kind of person and never would be. She could be ruthless of course, when she needed to be, had seen and done far too much on the battlefield. There were times she'd wake up in a cold sweat reliving those things. However, as far as Taija knew, this Elaida hadn't actually done anything wrong, other than the beating with the Power.

Luckily all Elaida had seen was a false face and the inside of a shabby room, which could no doubt be in any one of hundreds or even thousands of low quality inns. She wouldn't even know it was an inn, so she'd have no chance of finding it again.

It would be easy enough to just spin a gateway back to the palace, push Elaida through it and then allow it to close again. However, Taija was feeling a bit petty. Elaida had attacked her without warning. She'd also beaten her without justification and wouldn't stop threatening her with unspecified punishments.

Decision made, Taija gave her a thin smile. "I think I've lost track of time a bit." Aleksi had said these aes sedai couldn't tell a lie, although that sounded implausible, but Taija certainly could. "I don't bear you any ill will. However, equally I'm not an idiot. I'm no darkfriend so I can't just make you disappear, easier as that might be."

Taija channeled saidar, spinning the flows into a complex, inverted web and a gateway opened against the far wall of her room. Carefully she lifted Elaida on flows of air and moved her through it before following herself, keeping it held open behind her. A deft bit of work with the Power lowered Elaida to the ground and tied off the air holding her in place along with the shield blocking her from saidar.

Elaida was left sitting on a grassy hill, looking out over a lovely vista of rolling green hills with an occasional farmhouse or copse of trees punctuating them.

"I thought this was one of the prettier places I saw on my way here." Taija's tone was wistful. "Nothing compared to home of course, if you could see the mountains around Adanza… Well, anyway…" She awkwardly smoothed her dress down with her hands, feeling the loss of her world for a few moments. "You should just about be able to see the road to Caemlyn that way." She pointed off to the left. "Perhaps an hour's walk to the road and then a day or so on your feet should see you back there." Taija looked doubtfully down at the soft slippers on Elaida's feet, "maybe a bit faster if someone with a wagon will give you a lift."

She turned to leave, ignoring the aching feeling at the idea of going back to the shabby little room, leaving behind the only other channeler she'd met in this world. "Oh yes, don't worry about the shield and bindings. They'll dissolve in the next few minutes."

Without further ado Taija stepped back through the gateway to her room. Maybe if they met again Elaida wouldn't call her 'girl'.

It had been an exhausting night, but Taija thought she'd better check on what had been going on in the inn, so she allowed the ward around her room to fade and opened the door, to find a furious looking Aleksi pacing outside it.

"Blood and bloody ashes, what in the Light is going on?!" He demanded, barely restraining himself from shouting. "Not a sound from your room, the door locked and hours into the day!" I was this close to breaking the door down in case you needed help!

=======

Elaida sat on the back of a cart, outwardly perfectly composed. On the inside it was a different story. She was fuming to herself, angrier than she had been in years. That night had been probably the most humiliating experience she'd had since being raised to the shawl.

She still had no idea how it had happened, she'd had the wilder shielded and then Taija had just casually broken it and overwhelmed her like it was nothing. None of it made any sense. No other woman in the Tower could have done that, so how could an untrained wilder?

That wasn't to mention the rediscovery of Traveling. As soon as she'd seen that hole in the air she'd known she needed to take a less aggressive approach with this Tajia. If she could be the one to bring that back to the Tower… Yet nothing had worked. Taija had just asked and asked ever odder questions while ignoring every promise and threat Elaida made.

It was like she was from a different world, some of the questions she had. What calendar did they use? Light! The woman must have grown up under a rock. At least that would explain her strange, clipped accent. It was like every word had to be cut off short.

As for what she'd said about Paaran Disen and the Dragon, what tosh! She clearly had an economical relationship with the truth. Elaida thought back to her first foretelling and suppressed a shiver. The Forsaken might know of the Age of Legends, but they were bound in Shayol Ghul and, even if they weren't, the idea that that small, nervous looking woman and her awkward questions could be one of them was so laughable that it wasn't worth considering.

At best the woman needed to be apprehended and brought under control, at worst she was some kind of darkfriend, whatever her denials, in which case she would still need to be stopped. Either way Elaida needed to be back in Caemlyn.

She looked down at the ruins of her slippers before, not for the first time, snapping angrily at the cringing farmer driving the cart, "can this thing not go any faster?!"

Chapter Text

Chapter VII - The Truth

Aleksi stopped in mid rant, confusion painted across his face. "Uhh who are you?" Anger replaced confusion, "what are you doing in Taija's room?!" Before Taija could say anything he shoved his way in, almost knocking her over with his larger frame, looking around it with wild eyes.

"Where's Taija? What have you done with her?!" He grabbed the front of her dress and shoved her against the wall.

Taija barely restrained herself from flinging him across the room with the Power. That hurt! It was frightening being manhandled by someone his size, even when she could channel and it had not been a good night.

"What are you doing?" She snapped, "I am Taija, have you gone mad?! Let go of me now!"

A moment later realisation hit and she wanted to kick herself. She'd forgotten to undo the web of illusion. With a thought the knot came undone and her appearance shimmered as the illusion dissolved around her. At the same time she discretely pushed the door closed with a flow of air.

Aleksi stood there, mouth open in disbelief. He was still clutching the front of Taija's dress, although it now felt less like a threat and more like he needed it for support.

"Sit Aleksi." Taija gave him a gentle push and despite their difference in size he staggered back into the bed before half falling onto it, still staring wide eyed at her.

Absently Taija rolled her shoulders, being slammed into the wall had hurt, on top of what Elaida had done… She sighed deeply. "Well… I'd been planning to talk about this with you before, but this really isn't how I saw it happening. Let me think…"

Aleksi finally regained his voice. "Y you you're an aes sedai? H h how? W w what?"

Taija sighed again. "It's not so simple. I'll do my best to explain. All that I can ask is that you let me finish and then I'll answer all of your questions as well as I can. I promise, no lies, just the truth."

Taking a moment to think, Taija grimaced to herself, she had a great deal of obligation to Aleksi after everything. "Firstly Aleksi, I owe you an apology from the bottom of my heart." She bent into a deep, formal bow looking at the floor after she spoke. "I haven't been completely honest with you and it's a poor repayment for everything you've done for me."

When she straightened it was with a wince, she really did feel battered. Aleksi opened his mouth to speak and Taija held up a hand to stop him. "Please, let me finish first. This is going to be hard enough as it is."

Aleksi subsided so Taija continued. "Firstly, yes I am an aes sedai. However, I don't think I'm really the same as the aes sedai you know. Until I met you, I'd never heard of the White Tower or Tar Valon. I'm not sure I'm from your world at all."

"To my shame, I lied to you about not remembering things from my past. I don't know exactly how I ended up in your field, but I do remember everything until then. I grew up in… I suppose you'd call it a paradise. My world was buildings of glass that reached the sky, cities that made Caemlyn look like a village, beautiful nature at our feet. Ordinary people traveling across the world in a day just for a festival. No hunger, no disease. Everything you could want supplied by…" she struggled to find an appropriate word, "clever devices and the One Power. Aes sedai working together and among the people for the common good. You know, the words aes sedai mean "servant of all" in my language."

Taija's voice was wistful as she thought back to the times before the Collapse. "Those were the good times. Then it all went wrong. I was a… scholar learning about the way the world worked and some other scholars, Beidomon and Mierin, did… Well it's hard to explain but after that the Dark One started to touch the world."

"People started to commit crimes, evil slowly spread across the world. Life was still good, I was succeeding at my work, people respected me and I became well known for my work. However, around me the world was gradually falling apart. Violence, rape, robbery, cheating, lying they were all growing."

"I was living in my own bubble. Writing, debating and learning, none of it really touched me except as a faint worry when my friends talked about the wider world. That all came to an end when… when the Shadow finally struck. They'd been biding their time, hiding in the darkness undermining everything that was good in the world for decades and when they attacked we weren't ready. Most of us had no idea what was happening."

Taija shuddered as she forced herself to remember things she'd tried very heard to forget. The start of the War had probably been the worst day of her life. She'd just give him a very brief summary, just so he understood. "I was working in Jalanda, I'd earnt my third name a few years before and life was good. It was a sunny afternoon, I'd been planning to go out with a friend for…" she switched briefly into her own language, "a pizza and ice cream, but first I had to finish my work for the day. I heard a commotion outside and when I looked out it was… like nothing I'd seen before. An army, no a horde of men and women were running through the streets. Cheering and shouting they were shooting people when they saw them with bows and arrows, grabbing them and tearing them apart with their bare hands or when they saw women they they did worse…"

She should stop. That was enough, but once she'd started the words just kept coming. "There were channelers with them too," Taija carefully didn't use the words 'aes sedai'. "I saw a man throwing fire at fleeing families, laughing as he burned a woman to ashes. A woman sweeping shards of broken glass through the air shredding everyone around her. It was madness. Horrifying madness." She shuddered at the memory clutching at the skirt of her dress.

Why was she still talking?! "I remember I got up from my desk, like I was in a dream, staggered out into the corridors of the physics department. I heard screaming through a door, coming from one of the nearby offices. I had to go and see, Light help me I knew everyone there." Aleksi hadn't tried to interrupt her, just sitting there wide-eyed and horrified at her story, even if he looked a bit confused at the occasional slips into her own language.

"Ilaria was dead, I could see her insides spread across the floor. We'd had breakfast together that morning. Shinju was halfway up the wall, he was pinned there with a table leg straight through his chest, but he was still moving. I was at his wedding… They couldn't even channel to protect themselves." Taija couldn't stand thinking about that day, but nevertheless once she'd started she just couldn't stop. The terrible images indelibly pressed into her memory.

"Sarita was the one screaming, she was in the air held there by saidin. Belen, he was from another department, a chemist, was holding her there. I think he'd already severed her and was just just cutting bits off her one by one while he stood there and laughed. I… I think I screamed and he looked round and saw me standing there in the doorway. He didn't even hesitate, just cut her in half with a web of air and slammed me sideways into a wall so hard I blacked out. By the time I came to he'd shielded me, grabbed me and pushed me onto a desk with his hands round my throats. He was whispering things to me. Horrible things." Taija seemed to shrink around herself tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I… I think he forgot that I was as strong as I was. I panicked and blew through his shield, I wasn't even thinking I just needed to get him away from me. I'd always been careful and precise, but I just let loose with fire and earth, one huge explosion that obliterated everything around me, including him, even as I opened a gateway under me and fell through it. I think I must have brought the whole building down, I don't know how many of my friends and colleagues I must have killed. Hopefully none, but Light help me I don't know, I just don't know. I needed to escape and I fled. I could have stayed and fought, I should have stayed and fought, I'd probably have died, but maybe it would have been better if I had."

Taija could feel tears trickling down her cheeks. "That was the last day of the Collapse and the first day of the War of Power."

Aleksi placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, surprise overridden by horror on his face and Taija continued on with her story, telling him as well as she could about how ancient, obsolete knowledge was repurposed towards war. Learning to fight with her partner, years fighting for the Light, battling the Shadow's forces. Leaving her life as a scholar behind, sacrificing her passions and throwing herself into defending her world, her very way of life.

Eventually, she finished, telling him about her last battle. How she'd desperately fled an opponent who outmatched her, maybe one of the Forsaken, reached Antero and then found herself in his world. How she wasn't sure whether she was in a different time or a completely different world.

As she reached the end of that battle she gave Aleksi another low, formal bow, apologising once more for lying to him.

After she finished, completely drained from talking about things that she'd done her best to forget, there was a long silence. Aleksi was almost visibly chewing things over as he processed her story. As promised he'd kept silent, but that kind of revelation couldn't simply be shrugged off.

Eventually he came to a conclusion. "Well… That… That was not what I was expecting. I can't say that I'm happy that you lied to me. I suspected you weren't telling me the whole truth, but not something like this. If I told the folk back home about this they'd think I'd learnt to channel and gone crazy. But by the Light I do believe you, no one would invent a story so mad!"

"Thank you." Taija's voice was no more than a nervous murmur.

"I think the Creator must have meant for this to happen. There must be a purpose to you being here. Elena always said the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills," Aleksi mused. "Look, I've always dreamed of leaving Ramshorn and now here I am on an adventure with an aes sedai for a friend. Maybe they'll sing songs about us! Either way, I'm here for you and I'll support you in any way I can, but on one condition. You have to promise, no more lies!"

With a relieved laugh Taija promised that without any hesitation.

It was a huge relief to at least have been able to tell someone about what had happened to her. In her world she'd had friends, a lover, colleagues and a cause. A support network that kept her sane. However, here she found her self isolated from everything familiar and trying to function in total secrecy. It just wasn't sustainable.

After all of her revelations Aleksi convinced her that they both needed a drink of something stronger than water. Despite her emotional and physical exhaustion Taija agreed and so they headed down to the inn's common room.

Over a cup of wine they talked more in low tones and Taija explained what she'd been up to in Camelyn. Aleksi spat his wine across the table when she told him how she'd effectively kidnapped an aes sedai from Morgase's palace.

When Taija explained how she'd left the woman to walk back to the city he'd laughed and at the same time been horrified at himself for laughing.

After a couple of drinks Taija felt able to articulate her fears to Aleksi. "When we were on our way to Caemlyn you said some very… negative things about aes sedai. But now you seem to be very relaxed about what I just told you. Why?"

Aleksi thought for a second, the blur of alcohol in his eyes. "I suppose… You're different. I know you as a person. Every story of aes sedai says that they're mystical, aloof people. You're one of the more down to earth people I know. Lies aside." He gave her a sideways look. "Based on the stories at least, you're not really a proper aes sedai."

Taija wasn't sure whether to be amused or offended, but Aleksi continued on relentlessly. "Regardless, your story is more like something from a hero of the Horn of Valere, it's not something that makes any sense but it's just very different from stories of aes sedai."

He gave her a reassuring smile. It was sweet, but she felt a bit bad needing reassurance from someone who was a fraction of her age. Nevertheless, his acceptance relaxed Taija and they kept drinking together.

Aleksi was a perceptive man and despite Taija's best efforts at holding herself together he inevitably noticed the wistful, distant look in Taija's eyes whenever she talked about things from her world.

Eventually he suggested that she tried telling him names of some of the most important places and people from her world. Perhaps he'd recognise some of them and be able to help her work out where she was, whether she was even in her own world.

Perhaps fueled by alcohol, Taija started to enthusiastically list places, cities, people. Adanza and Jalanda were the most important cities for her, but they got no reaction. Paaran Disen, the world's greatest city, was the same. People who'd been important to her life like Tel Janin, Antero Bashiros, Saela Lemoith and Gemymis Norera received a similarly blank face. So did some of the villains of her world such as Mierin Eronaile and Elan Morin.

However, when Taija mentioned Lews Therin Telamon it provoked more of a reaction.

With an excited gasp Aleksi said, "yes! I know that name. He was the Dragon, the Kinslayer who broke the world. I don't know much more than that, but they say he'll be reborn again to fight the Dark One and break the world once more!"

That was confusing, Taija knew that people had started calling him the Dragon, but him being reborn? It sounded like superstition. Of course people were reborn through the Ages, but without memories or abilities it was… for lack of a better word, meaningless.

As for breaking the world, again that was ridiculous. He was a pompous man, absolutely full of himself, no question, but he was a loyal servant of the Light, a great aes sedai. More superstition perhaps? However, it was more evidence of some kind of link between this world and her own.

"They say that about Lews Therin?" Taija looked awkwardly at the floor. "That doesn't sound like him… He was a bit of an arse when I spoke to him," that was the alcohol talking, "but he was a good man. Why would he do something like that?"

"What?! You knew the Dragon?" If Aleksi had been drinking Taija was pretty sure he'd have spat out his drink. "How? I don't understand…" Aleksi took a big swig of beer.

He was the second person who'd recognised Lews Therin's name, even if no one else's had rung a bell. That must mean something.

Then a thought occurred to Taija. Perhaps she should try some of the Forsakens' names on him.

Many of them he didn't recognise, but Lanfear and Ishamael horrified Aleksi. When he heard those he recited what was clearly a saying in his world.

"The Dark One and all of the Forsaken are bound in Shayol Ghul, beyond the Great Blight, bound by the Creator at the moment of Creation, bound until the end of time."

For some reason he didn't look very comforted when Taija acerbically replied, "well that can't be right since I've met them."

Eventually exhaustion and alcohol caught up with Taija and she retreated to her room, slightly tipsy. Her head was whirling with the thoughts triggered by her conversation with Aleksi. Thinking about everything she missed from her own world was bad enough, but him recognising both Lews Therin and some of the Forsaken strongly suggested that she was actually in her own world, but some time in the future.

That would make sense with a stasis box, after all they weren't used for traveling between worlds, but effectively for traveling through time, in a manner of speaking anyway. Taija had studied the portal stones and the theories around parallel worlds and she still couldn't completely discount the possibility that she was actually in a parallel world and not her own, but it was looking less and less likely.

Despite the alcohol, it took her a while to fall asleep as her mind kept picking over what might have gone wrong in her world for it to end up like this place.

=========

The next morning Taija's head felt a lot clearer and she was more able to consider her situation. The first thing that she realised was that she needed to get away from Caemlyn.

After her encounter with Elaida the whole city would be hunting for her. She was confident that she wouldn't be found by any mundane means given that Elaida had never seen her actual face. However, she didn't know what other tools Elaida had at her disposal.

Over breakfast Taija explained this to Aleksi and he agreed with her logic. She'd been thinking about where else she might go and her best guess was that she might have better prospects in the Borderlands. She'd read a bit about them in the palace library and ultimately she needed some purpose to her life. Killing shadowspawn would hardly hurt with that and she also needed allies in this world, or time. Ultimately it seemed much more likely that she'd find them somewhere where she could actually help people, rather than in a prosperous, by local standards anyway, peaceful city like Caemlyn.

There was probably time to plan her moves given how unlikely it was that Elaida could find her quickly, but it was clear that Taija's time in Caemlyn was limited.

========

Over the next two days Taija started getting ready for their move. Come nightfall she masked herself in illusion once again, this time being careful to invert every web and conceal her own ability to channel before raiding a series of smaller palaces.

It was child's play to use delving webs to find precious metals and then making off with a small 'tax' from each palace's vaults. While her conscience pricked at her, Taija told herself that those people could afford it and she was only stealing out of necessity.

Of course Taija knew that when reports of mysterious thefts filtered back to Elaida she'd immediately be the prime suspect and people might put in place countermeasures, so she carried all of the thefts out in the same night.

The next day she enacted her plan to bootstrap her and Aleksi out of peasanthood.

First came a battered, but well kept, store where they bought better quality woolen outfits with silver pennies. An hour later they emerged, prosperous artisans rather than penniless peasants.

Next came a better shop, smart but subdued. Taija emerged from that with a dress of finer cloth, top quality wool, and several sets of clothing for Aleksi, all paid for with silver marks. They became a prosperous merchant and her trusted retainer.

Finally they visited a fine tailor's in the Inner City. There Taija explained that they needed traveling clothes of excellent quality and quickly too as they'd been called away on duty for her House.

Gold changed hands and the tailor promised suitable attire for the next day. At the last tailor's Taija didn't buy anything for Aleksi as he'd said that, at least in Andor, his way of speaking meant he'd look out of place in overly fine clothes. While it hadn't made a huge amount of sense to her that that would be such a big issue, she trusted his judgment, particularly on any cultural points relating to his world.

=====

When Taija returned from the tailor's a day later, her transformation into minor nobility was complete - Taija the peasant was gone and the Lady Taija had arrived. Not that she'd used her real name with any of the purchases. There was no reason to tempt fate.

Aleksi had also insisted on the purchase of a trio of horses and saddlebags, despite Taija's insistence that they could just Travel. She wasn't exactly keen on the animals, but she had to admit he was probably right.

Finally, Taija also bought a map of the world, or at least of the bit of it that the people here were familiar with. With that she could find her way towards her destination in the Borderlands.

Storing everything had been a bit tricky, but eventually Taija ended up hiring a room and stable space at a much nicer inn, using her persona as a member of the nobility. Coming from a time where there was no such thing as nobility, it felt distinctly odd having an innkeeper bowing and scraping before her, but needs must.

That evening Taija felt things were ready and she was able to Travel back to the original inn from her new room, after changing into more appropriately downmarket clothing of course, to collect Aleksi.

He was initially terrified to step through the gateway that Taija spun, but after she demonstrated how it worked herself by stepping back and forth through the hole in the air he agreed to follow her. Of course, once they were through she took the time to give him a basic safety talk about gateways, before demonstrating their danger in a graphic manner by spinning one to open so that it sliced straight through the blade of a knife she held in her hand.

=====

With their reinvention complete, Taija decided that they'd leave the next morning.

That evening they settled down for dinner in the common room of their original dingy inn, intending to disappear to the more expensive inn to sleep afterwards, leaving Taija's old identity to vanish.

Taija looked up from her rather mediocre bowl of soup when conversation in the common room stilled. It took her a moment to work out the reason, there was a trio of palace guards in their colourful armour being greeted by the worried looking innkeeper.

Her instincts were screaming at her that something wasn't right, so a small, inverted web of spirit and air extended towards the group let her eavesdrop on them. With disorienting suddenness it was as if Taija was standing in the middle of their conversation, their voices as clear as day.

"… green eyes and curly, red hair?" Was that…? It sounded like he was describing her illusion from Morgase's palace.

Taija could see the innkeeper shaking his head, but she still reached over to Aleksi, putting her hand on his arm to get his attention before urgently flicking her eyes up to the ceiling and their rooms.

Luckily Aleksi got the message and they both scraped their chairs back and stood, before turning to head for the stairs. At the same time Taija heard the guard say they were looking for a 'Taija'. A glance told her that this time the innkeeper was nodding and pointing their way, they needed to get moving!

"Run!" Taija urged Aleksi past her and up the stairs while she turned to face the guards from the bottom step. Several lethal webs flashed through her mind, but she didn't want to hurt anyone here. The guards were just doing their jobs and the other patrons of the inn weren't involved at all.

So, with Aleksi thumping up the stairs behind her Taija spun a web of solid air around her ears, blocking all sound. Then, with a silent apology to her victims, she spun a simple clump of fire, air and spirit in front of her, subtly different to the one she'd used in the palace library with Elaida.

Screwing her eyes shut, Taija pulled on a strand of spirit in the web. Even through her eyelids she could see the blinding flash of light and feel the crash of sound from the detonation thump through her body.

When Taija opened her eyes and let the webs over her ears dissolve, the common room was completely intact. The same couldn't be said for its occupants, who were on the floor moaning with pain, temporarily blind and deaf. They'd be fine in a few minutes.

"Send my regards to Elaida." Taija muttered the words before realising no one could hear her. Well it had sounded good in her head. She turned to hurry up the stairs.

A couple of minutes later she and Aleksi had collected their remaining possessions and were stepping through a gateway to Taija's much larger, nicer room in their new inn.

Another hour later their bill there was settled, their horses loaded and saddled and they were both heading out of the city, webs of illusion changing their faces. Taija hadn't wanted to Travel straight from the inn, people might make the connection if she just disappeared from there too, so it was the slow way out for them at first. No one was interested in a noblewoman and her retainer riding out of the city.

After an hour or so of trotting along Taija had decided she hated horses. She was sore all over and felt vaguely sick from the motion. They had to be far enough from Caemlyn now. Whether they were or not, she'd had enough.

There was no one around, so with a gesture she dismounted, followed by Aleksi, and led the horses off the road. Once they were out of sight of it, sheltered in a copse of trees Taija pulled out the map she'd bought, spinning a ball of light to help them see in the dim light filtering through the branches.

She'd been thinking about where to go and, with some discussion with Aleksi, had decided on Shienar out of the Borderland nations for no better reason than she liked the name and Aleksi hadn't objected. The nearest real city to the Blight seemed to be Fal Dara and so Taija had decided that that would be her target.

Unfortunately she couldn't just open a gateway to there. She didn't know her destination at all, or her starting point well enough; however, with a bit of work she was hopeful that she wouldn't have to spend too long sitting on a horse.

She'd have to see how accurate her map really was…

Taija took a moment to do some mental calculations and then opened a large gateway to the void between worlds. Beckoning Aleksi after her, she led her horse onto the platform she'd formed in the darkness on the other side of the gateway. As soon as they were both through, the gateway closed and the platform started to move.

She'd start with a jump of 1,000 kilometres at a 30 degree angle from North and see where she could go from there.

=====

It turned out that trying to triangulate her way across a sparsely inhabited medieval continent by skimming while using a hand drawn map was not a very efficient way to get somewhere. It still beat horses, no question, but after several days of skimming, walking, sleeping and more skimming Taija and Aleksi were both exhausted.

Taija therefore greeted the sight of the walls of Fal Dara with almost ecstatic relief. She'd been starting to wonder whether they'd ever get there.

The guards at on the gate gave her and Aleksi hard looks when they arrived, it was already clear that the city was as much a fortress as a settlement, but the Lady Taija was granted entry without any real problems.

Finding a nice inn didn't take too long and with Taija's purloined funds they were soon able to get some much needed rest. The bathhouse was a particular pleasure. Hot water and cleanliness were something Taija sorely missed after their travels. Of course she could clean herself with the Power, but it wasn't really the same. Aleksi on the other hand seemed less keen on the baths, calling them improper, although she wasn't totally sure why.

The next day Taija was ready to face the world once again and explore the city. She quickly realised that there were only two subjects of conversation for its citizens. The first was the arrival of an aes sedai a day or two ago. Apparently this was a significant event.

Initially Taija thought they might be talking about her, but that was just silly given they'd have no way of knowing, which meant that there must be another. Interestingly the people of Fal Dara spoke about aes sedai with respect and awe rather than the fear and suspicion she'd heard from the Andorans.

However, the main thing people were talking about was the huge horde of trollocs that was expected to descend upon the city. Hundreds of thousands of them. Apparently Fal Dara's ruler, one Lord Agelmar, had ridden out with most of his forces to stop the horde somewhere called Tarwin's Gap.

There was a lot of bravado about the upcoming battle, but reading between the lines Taija recognised something she'd seen far too often during the War of Power - these people thought he'd gone there to die and that the trollocs would be at the city walls soon enough. Many of them were kind enough to advise her to leave, just in case of course, even if they themselves planned to stay to defend their homes.

It didn't take Taija long to realise that she needed to do something to help. She was still tired, but she'd had a good night to recover and she couldn't just stand aside and allow shadowspawn to slaughter innocents, let alone overrun an entire city.

She might not be an army killer on the level of someone like Ida Sauna armed with a sa'angreal, but she wasn't the terrified, inexperienced scientist that she had been at the start of the War. She could still make a difference, she just needed to decide the best way to do it.

Should she try to find this other aes sedai and work with them? Or should she go directly to help the army? She needed to think.

Chapter Text

Chapter VIII - Where Were the Aes Sedai?

Ultimately what to do hadn't ended up being a difficult decision for Taija. Her last encounter with an aes sedai hadn't exactly gone well and anyway she didn't even know where this mysterious aes sedai was. Probably at the front lines with Lord Agelmar if she knew her duty, but who knew. Either way, Taija's own duty to the Light and to humanity was clear.

Speaking of Lord Agelmar, while it wasn't the way Taija normally liked to think about things, she needed allies in this world or time and what better way was there to get one than by joining the battle on his behalf?

With her decision made, it was time for action. Taija turned on her heel and marched off in search of Aleksi. Streams of people seemed to be moving south, mostly women and children, presumably fleeing the city in anticipation of the approaching trolloc army and Taija had to push her way through the crowd. Fortunately Aleksi hadn't left the inn before she found him on his own way out with his bow across his back and staff in hand.

Taija didn't waste time with pleasantries. "Aleksi, I need to go. There's an army of shadowspawn, coming. I can't just stand by and let them fight it alone." He was quite protective of her, she could still visualise the anger on his face when he'd burst into her room thinking she was someone else. "Don't try to stop me! I'm not injured anymore and I'm not some flower to…"

Aleksi cut her off mid-sentence. "I know. I'm coming with you."

Taija's seamlessly switched tracks. "No, you can't! It's too dangerous, there are tens of thousands of trollocs, myddraal and worse out there. You're not a trained warrior, you can't channel and," Taija lowered her voice, "and I think the Shienarans are going to lose."

Aleksi looked disappointed at her words, "maybe I'm not, maybe they will. But you can't expect me to wait here, letting other people die to protect me. You said it yourself, it's dangerous, you'll need someone to watch your back."

The hard set of his face was enough to tell Taija she wouldn't be able to convince him otherwise. Also he did have a point, she could hardly say she couldn't stand aside and then ask him to. It would admittedly be good to have someone to watch her back too. She didn't know these Shienarans and a lone fighter was often a dead fighter.

So, after a moment's thought she gave in. "Fine! But you obey every order I give you or I'll tie you up in air and leave you behind." She paused long enough for Aleksi to nod and ignored the excited grin that spread across his face. He'd never been in a battle before. Lucky him. He'd learn though. Sadly. "Follow me, I want to get out of sight."

She strode up to her room, Aleksi trailing behind. As soon as the door was shut behind them she embraced saidar spinning an inverted web to skim in the direction of Tarwin's Gap.

It was only a short journey that time and the two of them emerged onto dusty ground surrounded by looming mountains. Taija took a moment to appraise them, they could be beautiful, but as it was there was something subtly ugly about them, something she didn't like at all.

There was very little alive around them and what little plant life there was looked sickly and smelt of disease. Those must be the signs of the Blight that she'd read about.

In the distance to their north Taija could see what she hoped was the Shienaran army preparing for battle. While she could faintly hear shouted orders and the call of trumpets, she didn't think there were the sounds of battle, no screams for one thing. She could only hope they weren't too late.

She briefly considered Traveling, directly to the Shienaran lines, but that risked a surprised soldier stabbing her. It wasn't far anyway and she could do with the time to think. So instead the two of them headed towards the army on foot, plans whirling through Taija's mind.

The problem was that she had very little idea what the battle would be like. Presumably the forces of the Shadow would be just as backwards as everyone else here was, or else they'd have had no trouble marching south in the past.

Only having to face arrows, swords and spears must surely change things. Also, given the way people talked about aes sedai and the fact that she had encountered so few of them herself, there couldn't be many involved on either side. This would drastically change the dynamics. Still, she would need to be careful. Over confidence had been the end of many an aes sedai on the battlefield.

It wasn't long before they were spotted and a squad of riders came galloping back from the army to interrupt her musings.

Their leader called out as they reigned in their horses. "What are you doing woman? Do you wish to die today or are you a darkfriend here to help the Shadow? I can see that you are no Shienaran."

Taija didn't break her stride. "My name is Taija Kosola Miranen and I am aes sedai. We have come to help you with your fight against the forces of the Dark One. Please take us to Lord Agelmar at once so that I can discuss how I can best help." It was offensive being asked if she was a darkfriend, but it wasn't an unreasonable question.

The Shienaran officer hesitated. "Honour to you aes sedai, but…" Taija could see the doubt in his face as he looked her over. ""You must understand I have no knowledge of you. Why are you on foot and coming with no warning? Where have you come from to not be seen by the scouts?"

It was annoying, but the man had a point. She should have brought a horse! She must look ridiculous too, walking in the middle of nowhere in this stupid dress. Still, she didn't have time to argue. "I am aes sedai and there is no time for discussion." Taija channeled, forming an illusion of front of her in the shape of the symbol of the aes sedai, sinuous white and black balancing each other and forming a circle together. "Do you need to see more? Do your comrades have time for it before the trollocs attack?"

The man hesitated again and then bowed low in the saddle, apparently unwilling to challenge her further. "My apologies aes sedai. I am sergeant Nerinmar. We shall bring you to Lord Agelmar at once." He pointed to two of his soldiers, "Kayo, Aika your horses for the aes sedai and her warder. You will have to walk back."

Both soldiers bowed in the saddle the same way he had and immediately dismounted without protest. A minute later Taija was galloping back towards the army with the rest of the squad, desperately trying to pretend she knew how to ride and avoid falling off her horse. The soldiers riding beside her were definitely giving her odd looks.

When they reached the main body of the army they reigned in their horses, slowing to a trot, except for Sergeant Nerinmar who pulled ahead to 'prepare the way to Lord Agelmar'.

It wasn't long before they reached a cluster of mounted soldiers with an older man in the centre, his head shaved other than a top knot. His ornate armour seemed to mark him out as a man of some importance, presumably the lord.

Sergeant Nerinmar quickly introduced her, "this is her Lord Agelmar, Taija sedai." There was a slight hesitation before the word 'sedai'.

Lord Agelmar turned to face Taija. "Be welcome Taija sedai, it warms my heart that the White Tower is able to provide help to us in this time of need. I am only saddened that I was not able to provide you with the hospitality of Fal Dara before you arrived here."

Taija noticed his eyes flick to her hand and back to her face. There seemed to be a lot of tension in the air, the soldiers' hands hovering over their swords as Lord Agelmar continued. "I beg forgiveness for my rudeness aes sedai, but you do not have the look of your sisters."

Taija hesitated. This was a dangerous situation, clearly something she'd done had made him suspicious. Possibly it was the appearing out of thing air without a horse, she really should have thought of that. Regardless, she certainly didn't have time for the truth, so hopefully she could bluff being one of this world's aes sedai successfully. It she was lucky they'd be looking for reasons to believe her given their situation.

"Lord Agelmar, when I heard of your plight, of Shienar's plight, I couldn't do anything but rush immediately to the battlefield to help. I've had little time for anything else. As for my looks," Taija tried for an innocent smile, "not all aes sedai have the same appearance."

Lord Agelmar's eyes narrowed, it was rather strange thinking of someone as a lord. Hereditary nobility was a deeply archaic concept. However, before he could interject Taija wrenched her mind away from social hierarchies and barreled on. "The most important thing is that I'm here to help. I'm not as experienced in the ways of war here in the Borderlands as I'd hope, so please just tell me where my talents will be most useful in supporting your men and I will go there."

There was a long pause and then Lord Agelmar reached a decision. "Where the fighting is heaviest aes sedai. That is where you will be most needed. Sergeant Nerinmar will take you to the vanguard and ensure that you are kept safe." He gave Taija a bow, much shallower than the sergeant's earlier one. After a moment he continued, "by the way, may I ask which ajah you claim Taija sedai?"

Shit. Taija could remember from her reading that the aes sedai were divided into coloured ajahs, but the book hadn't said what the significance was or at least she hadn't reached that part. Anyway they were clearly misusing the word ajah, not that that helped her now. After a moment's thought she picked one, mainly because it was her favourite colour. "The red ajah Lord Agelmar."

His eyebrows rose and he glanced at Aleksi, for a second Taija thought she'd made a mistake, but then he continued smoothly on. "Of course Taija sedai."

The two Shienarans exchanged a significant look and then Sergeant Nerinmar was back in front of Taija. "Please, follow me aes sedai."

Taija hardly considered herself a master politician, but she could tell that Lord Aglemar didn't fully believe her. However, he must have accepted her story to some degree as no swords had been drawn. She suspected that she was being put where she was because it gave them the best opportunity to kill her if she did turn out to be a darkfriend. Certainly in the vanguard of their forces wasn't where she'd expect a channeler to have the most impact. However, if she wanted to be trusted she had little choice but to acquiesce to Lord Agelmar's wishes. If she was right about the poor weaponry available to the trollocs it wasn't like stealth would be as important as usual anyway.

When they reached the frontline, almost in the centre of the Shienaran army, Taija could see the seething mass of shadowspawn only 500 or so metres a way. Hundreds of black cloaked myrddraal were riding back and forth in front of an uncountable horde of trollocs. The dots of what were probably draghkar circled in the sky above them.

It was certainly different. If an army had lined up like this in Taija's world it would have ceased to exist within minutes. Artillery, shock lances, the Power. None of these were friendly to massed formations in the open. Even the distance was wrong. A few hundred metres might protect you from arrows, but it wasn't much of a barrier to the Power.

There was a tension in the air as the armies faced off against each other. The human forces were vastly outnumbered, but were clearly ready to sell their lives dearly. Taija herself shifted from foot to foot trying to stifle her own nervousness. Aleksi's excitement at her side wasn't helping.

The troops around Taija shifted, some falling back and new ones taking their places. A grizzled, scarred man who probably scared small children just by looking at them gave her a low bow and said that they were there to make sure that no harm came to 'the honoured aes sedai'. With the hard looks the new soldiers gave her, Taija had no doubt that they were also there to make sure that the 'honoured' aes sedai didn't turn out to be a darkfriend. Still, they were faultlessly polite and respectful.

It felt like hours of waiting, but Taija suspected it had only been ten or twenty minutes before horns started to wail amidst the trollocs. A moment later a roar swelled up from their ranks and the wall of shadowspawn surged towards her and the Shienaran lines.

Taija was vaguely aware of Aleksi taking up position by her shoulder while around her swords were unsheathed, lances set and spears readied. She had more important things on her mind though, opening herself further to saidar, feeling the trickle of the Power increase to a flood. However, for now she held back, this was a marathon, not a sprint, limiting her channeling to a tied off shield of air above her to protect her from arrows. Some proper armour would have been nice…

Taija knew she was already a bit worn down, that she needed to preserve her energy, so she kept holding off as the trolloc horde got closer. 400 metres, 350 metres, 300, the range was closing, bestial howls creating an overwhelming noise battering her ears. Deadly, sleek myrddraal led the charge on coal black horses.

A huge flight of arrows went over Taija's head, towards the onrushing monsters and even as the Shienarans yelled battle cries, leveling their weapons Taija decided the enemy was close enough and she wouldn't be burning energy unnecessarily.

Calmly she picked her targets, pacing herself. An instant later flows of earth, fire and spirit connected her with the five closest myrddraal and they simply exploded in a flash of black blood and gore. A beat of her heart and another five met the same fate. And again. And again.

The part of the trolloc horde in front of her actually hesitated as their leadership rapidly died, those at the front stumbling, falling and being trampled by the monsters behind them. At the same time the Shienarans cheered and hollered, breaking into a charge towards the stunned beasts.

Taija followed behind at a more sedate pace, surrounded by her escorts. There were no more myrddraal within easy range. No doubt they were around, but spotting them was difficult, so she drew on saidar, forming a large, more complex web of air, fire and water above the closest clump of wavering trollocs.

An eerie howl started to echo through the air as her web began to rotate, gathering air into razor sharp shards. It rose in pitch with the accelerating blades of air until with a thought she brought it down into the trollocs. Fifty of them vanished in sprays of blood and bone.

Taija continued her slow, measured advance, face a mask of expressionless focus as she swept her web left and right, blades passing through trollocs like a knife through butter.

It didn't take long, a few seconds perhaps. The trollocs closest to her broke and ran. Taija wasn't surprised given the lack of myddraal to stiffen their spines, that was why she'd started with them.

As the trollocs ran others along the line turned to flee too until the Shienarans were once again left disengaged from the fight, too disciplined to wildly pursue the fleeing trollocs.

Shouted commands and horn blasts rang out from the Shienaran army and the soldiers around her started to make their way back to their starting positions. They suddenly seemed to be in much better spirits, joking and boasting with each other.

As the Shienaran lines reformed in front of her, Taija was pleased to note that there were almost no human bodies near her after the devastation she'd wrought on the shadowspawn. Even her grim-faced escorts, who were urging her back with the rest of the Shienarans suddenly seemed to be torn between stunned surprise and almost obsequious fawning.

Back in place behind the reformed Shienarans, Taija looked over to the trollocs once more. The horde looked barely diminished, despite being quickly beaten back the first time. How many more attacks could she and the Shienarans survive?

Perhaps something to soften them up and remind them that just because they were out of bow range it didn't mean they were safe… She spun and lightning struck into the trolloc lines each bolt throwing broken corpses into the air.

=======

The next few hours were a bloody grind as attack after attack hit the Shienaran lines. Wherever Taija went, the Shadow's forces melted back. For them she was death incarnate. Any shadowspawn that tried to stand and fight died and when she couldn't find leaders to target she simply killed trollocs indiscriminately.

However, the trolloc army seemed to be endless. Piles of dead shadowspawn formed walls between the armies, too many to count, but the Shienarans died too and gradually the forces of the Light were being pushed back. Step by grim step, each trolloc attack was faced by fewer human soldiers, a little bit closer to the open ground behind Tarwin's Gap.

As the fighting raged Taija caught occasional glimpses of Lord Agelmar battling wherever the struggle was fiercest. Rallying his troops and urging them on through their exhaustion. When he saw Taija he threw her a salute before cutting down a trolloc.

Taija was growing increasingly tired as the day went on. Even pacing herself and being careful not to channel to her full potential, fighting for hours on end was exhausting. There were occasional pauses in the battle, when she could sit on the ground, ignoring the blood and churned up mud and take grateful gulps of lukewarm water from a Shienaran's flask, but nevertheless it was grueling, almost constant combat. As the latest attack rolled towards her, a twisted wall of trollocs and myrddraal screaming for blood, she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep going.

This time it felt like the Shadow's forces had decided to target Taija specifically. She drew harder on the Power, embracing an ever deepening river of saidar, this wasn't a time to hold back. Spinning deadly webs, faster than the eye could see, she killed shadowspawn in ever greater numbers. Despite the howling fanaticism of the monsters Taija was keeping an open space in front of her for at least fifty metres and where any shadowspawn came too close it simply died.

However, Taija was so focused on the Shadow's forces in front her, a growing mountain of corpses was evidence of their determination to reach her, that she didn't see them pressing back the Shienaran lines on either side of her. She barely noticed Lord Agelmar riding up to support the men on her left, screaming curses and imprecations to hold the line.

As howling monsters died under her webs in front of her, Taija didn't realise she'd ended up surrounded by a closing ring of shadowspawn. Not until Aleksi shoved her hard to one side with a curse, a myddraal's black blade swiping from behind her through the air where she had been standing before lashing back, viper-fast and narrowly missing Aleksi when he jumped back.

Taija fell hard into the the dirt. Fuck. She only kept hold of saidar through years of practice. Her composure gone she actually made a panicked gesture to direct the web of water and spirit that left the myrddraal collapsing bonelessly to the ground.

Looking up and finally taking stock of her wider surroundings, Taija realised that a ring of armoured men, including Lord Agelmar encircled her, desperately fighting off the seemingly endless shadowspawn that now separated them from the remainder of the Shienaran forces.

Taija took a moment to push herself back onto her feet. Aleksi was much bigger than her and being thrown to the ground like that had hurt! Still, nothing seemed to be broken.

If she and Lord Agelmar died here then the battle was over. She needed to punch her way out of this encirclement right now. Taija clenched her fists are her side, clutching her dress and drew deeper on saidar, feeling the little spikes of sweet, ecstatic pain that told her when she was drawing right at her limit.

Fire, spirit and air created potential difference between the clear sky and the trollocs and myrddraal all around them. A second later lightning stabbed down, tens of bolts exploding among the enemy, sending monstrous, broken bodies flying into the air.

A myrddraal killed its way through the line of Shienarans, sword flickering lightning fast and evading every counter stroke before sprinting towards her. With an absent thought fire erupted from every pore in its body.

She had to be careful not to kill Shienarans too. Taija guided her flows into webs further back among the press of trollocs, splitting them four ways, forming every element into intricate webs that suddenly blossomed into beautiful, swirling balls of white hot fire, each one annihilating everything within 50 metres.

The pressure on the Shienaran lines suddenly fell away as the trollocs fighting them realised that much of their support had just disappeared, but they still fought.

Out of the corner of her eye Taija saw Aleksi loose his bow and a second later a draghkar fell out of the sky. She looked up to see more diving on her. Aleksi's bow claimed another. The other five crumpled in mid-flight as she crushed them in fists of air.

Taija briefly staggered before regaining control of herself and turning her attention back to the shadowspawn pressing at the Shienarans. She knew she was reaching her limits, pushing past what was safe. It didn't matter.

She lashed out, simple webs of air and fire spearing trollocs and myrddraal through the head. Small and precise wherever she saw an enemy. She channeled hard, dividing her flows first five ways, then ten, ignoring the growing, stabbing pain in her head.

Then suddenly the cacophony of combat was gone, replaced by blissful quiet as the last trolloc died. Taija's vision wavered for a second and she couldn't stop herself from falling to one knee, painting for breath as exhaustion truly hit. Reluctantly she let go of saidar before she lost control of it and burnt herself out or worse.

Aleksi was immediately by her side, helping her stand, but as the battered Shienaran lines reformed, Taija could easily see that despite the mounds of corpses between the armies the trolloc horde still hugely outnumbered them. She wasn't sure she or the Shienarans could take one more charge and she certainly wouldn't be able to take two. The rest of the army knew it too. She could feel a sense of defeat, a grim determination to sell their lives dearly settling over them.

The sensible thing to do would be to Travel somewhere else, anywhere else, but Taija wasn't willing to leave the Shienarans to their fate. Anyway, she wasn't sure she had it in her to Travel by that point, even if she wanted to. Thinking she could turn the tide of the entire battle single-handed had been stupid. Ridiculous hubris.

Taija could see the Shadow's forces forming up for another charge, horns blaring and trollocs roaring and shrieking when something changed. First she heard the rumble of thunder and when she looked up there were six small shapes plummeting from the sky trailing smoke. Then a wall of fire descended on the army of the Shadow a gigantic burning wave obliterating anything it passed over.

Had the mysterious other aes sedai finally decided to intervene? Taija quickly dismissed the thought when she realised with a start that she couldn't feel the mystery channeler's flows. Aleksi had been clear that here only women were aes sedai, stupid as that was.

Someone out there was channeling saidin. In fact someone was channeling a ridiculous amount of sadin. Even someone of Lews Therin's strength would need an angreal or maybe a sa'angreal to do this. Frantically Taija tried to find them, eyes scanning the mountainsides closer to the shadowspawn, trying to ignore the blazing flames until she spotted a small figure up above the battlefield.

Taija drew on the Power, ignoring the strain she felt at even relatively light channeling. As the ground started to rumble under her feet she was forming the air in front of her into a lens, zooming in on the figure.

It was very quickly obvious that she'd been right about it being saidin. A young, red headed man knelt there, seeming to be in pain, beating the ground with first. Was he burning out? Taija was vaguely aware of a huge wall of rock, no a wave, rolling over the Shadow's army and obliterating what was left of it. Seconds later the figure vanished in a flash of light and Taija allowed her web of air to dissolve.

Around her soldiers started to cheer as they got over their disbelief. "Victory! For the Light! For Lord Agelmar! For Shienar! Glory to the aes sedai!"

Lord Agelmar rode up to Taija and bowed low in the saddle, his previous doubts apparently forgotten. "Honour to you Taija sedai, you have saved us today. Such power…" He stared out towards where the trolloc army once stood.

Taija gave him a small bow of her own. "The honour is mind Lord Agelmar, but that… I didn't do that. I'm not that powerful, no one is…"

He frowned slightly and Taija got the impression that hadn't been the answer he wanted. "Well you have certainly allowed us to survive long enough for this miracle to happen, even if it was not you that brought it." He looked over the battlefield at the mounds of dead shadowspawn. "You must come back with me to Fal Dara so that you can rest and be honoured as you deserve aes sedai."

Taija was too tired to argue, even if the last thing she wanted was to be back on a horse. Anyway, it wasn't like there was anywhere else for her to go.

=======

Lord Agelmar sat in his study reviewing reports from the battle. All things considered the butcher's bill had been incredibly light. Peace! He had not expected any of them to survive the battle.

Much of that he attributed to the conundrum he was hosting. Taija sedai. He did not hesitate to use the honorific now. While he still had his doubts, the rest of the Shienarans did not and she had more than proven herself.

He was no expert on the aes sedai, but he was an educated man and had played host to many of them before. Taija sedai lacked the ageless face and did not wear the Great Serpent ring. That was not definitive of course, very new aes sedai did lack the agelessness and a ring could be taken off. Based on what she had said, it sounded like she had been on some kind of mission that required secrecy prior to the battle and had chosen to break cover in order to help the Shienarans. He was hardly going to complain about that, a woman who truly understood duty.

And what help it had been! He had fought beside aes sedai before, but he had never seen anything like that. Waves of shadowspawn had broken on her channeling, mounds of their dead piled high. Just hours and hours of relentless slaughter from one woman.

Some aes sedai were more powerful than others, he knew that much, although not how one could generally tell. She must be of prodigious power though, based on the sheer number of the creatures she had killed.

Of course they would still have lost to the seemingly endless horde if not for the mysterious man on the mountain. How he wished that had been Taija sedai's doing instead! But she had ensured far more Shienarans survived to fight again than would otherwise have been the case. They owed her a huge debt.

Still though, there were other oddities. Her accent and manner of speech. He had met people from around the world, even spoken with Aiel, yet he had never heard an accent like hers. Words clipped short, emphasis placed on harsh consonants it was very strange. That went with the way she spoke. Her grammar and choice of words were more akin to a barely educated peasant than someone who had been educated in the White Tower or the noblewoman her clothes suggested. Then there was the way she sometimes seemed to fumble slightly for words that should have been obvious. It was very curious.

She had also said she was red ajah, which made no sense at all. Of course Lord Agelmar had hosted the occasional red in Fal Dara, they did venture this far north in their hunt for male channelers, but one thing he had thought was written in stone was that members of the red ajah did not have warders, yet Taija sedai clearly did. She also seemed oddly disinterested in the man who had been channeling on the mountainside. Of course no one had been close enough to tell what he looked like, but she hadn't even tried to investigate.

Then again, aes sedai could often be inscrutable, looking like they were doing one thing while in fact working towards an entirely different goal. However, he still could not work out why she had essentially locked herself in his library after they had returned.

Regardless, it did not matter. She was clearly a channeler, she was no darkfriend and she had done both him and Shienar a great service, putting herself at personal risk to help them. As far as he was concerned, if she said she was aes sedai then she was aes sedai unless and until other aes sedai said something different and he would honour her as such.

The White Tower harshly punished those who falsely claimed the title in very public ways and she must be aware of that. He would make sure that when Moiraine sedai returned Taija sedai was informed before they encountered each other. He could at least do her that service and then if she chose to vanish, well she had more than earnt it and the gate guards knew to turn a blind eye.

=======

It had taken a while for the battered army to limp back to Fal Dara, but once they got there Taija was certainly pleased with the luxurious apartment that she'd been given. Aleksi had told that her that he'd never even seen anything like the rooms he'd been given. Annoyingly the Fal Daran culture seemed to require that men and women had completely separate living spaces so he couldn't be given the rooms next to her, so she felt a bit isolated.

They'd been very apologetic of course, understanding that an aes sedai wanted to be close to her warder, but it seemed that rules were rules. Taija wasn't totally sure why they kept calling Aleksi her warder, but if she was understanding the word correctly perhaps it was a cultural thing coming from him guarding her during the battle. In a sense he had warded her against danger after all.

It was a couple of days later, when Taija was finally feeling fully recovered, that one of the servants excitedly knocked on the door to her rooms and told her that 'Moiraine sedai' had returned and Taija's presence had been requested by Lord Agelmar at her convenience.

Taija took the time to change into one of the many fine dresses that Lord Agelmar had so kindly given her. There seemed to be a lot of red among them, perhaps because of what she'd said to the man when they first met.

The dresses were beautiful, but she was already fed up with the fiddly and elaborate clothing. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy wearing a nice dress, of course she did, but for special occasions when she wanted to to look her best. When it came to day to day wear, let alone on a battlefield she'd much rather have something practical.

Still, as she headed off to find Aleksi, she did think she looked good in the finely embroidered, red silk. Once she had him at her side, the two of them headed towards Lord Agelmar's audience chamber together.

While she was excited to finally meet the Moiraine sedai, Taija was also struggling to suppress her nervousness. This would be the second aes sedai she'd met from this world and she really hoped it went better than the last time. Still, at least this time she knew to take precautions. She held saidar, of course, but concealed it along with her ability to channel under a pair of inverted webs. Moiraine wouldn't know she was holding saidar or be able to judge her strength. She'd be giving nothing away this time. She also had questions about what the woman had been doing instead of supporting the Shienarans. She didn't know enough about this world to condemn her outright, but it was deeply suspicious that she hadn't been there on the battlefield.

When Taija reached the audience chamber she was immediately shown in, Aleksi cheerfully following behind her. Lord Agelmar was in there with his wife and a small group of men and women, along with an Ogier. How nice to see one of them!

Lord Agelmar turned from his guests to face Taija with a smile. "Ah Taija sedai, thank you for coming. You will no doubt have met Moiraine sedai before?"

Taija saw a small woman standing with the Ogier and the other humans. Her dark hair cascaded down in ringlets and she wore a small gem on her forehead and a large ring on her left hand. Moiraine's eyes flicked to Taija's own hands, without her expression changing.

Taija bowed to her as she would to a colleague she didn't know very well with a guarded smile. "It's an honour, I hope that your journey here went well and that we'll be able to spend plenty of time catching up soon." There, that sounded politely neutral without revealing that the two of them had never met.

As soon as she spoke, Taija noticed Moiraine's eyes twitch. It was a small movement, but she got the impression that the other woman's face didn't show many unguarded moments. "Yes, I am sure we will have much to discuss." Moiraine smiled back politely as Lord Agelmar looked on. Her accent was as mushy as the rest of theirs.

Taija cast her eyes over Moiraine's companions, taking in the tall hard-faced man standing beside the woman armed with a sword. He looked dangerous. Her nervousness increased a notch as she realised the two girls could channel too, so it would be three against one if it came to anything. Unconsciously she began to shape inverted flows of fire, air and spirit into a ball.

There were also three young men, boys really. One huge and bearded, one looking somewhat sickly and… Taija did a visible double take as her eyes settled on him, one with red hair who looked worryingly like the young man she saw on the mountainside.

Across the room, as she saw Taija's reaction, Moiraine's eyes narrowed slightly.

Chapter Text

Chapter IX - Trapped for 3,000 Years...

Taija ended up making polite small talk with Lord Agelmar, his wife and Moiraine. Agelmar and his wife were formal people, perhaps a little too stiff for Taija's liking, but she thought was just the way Shienarans were. They certainly seemed happy to chat with her, although she had to be a bit vague when they spoke about Tar Valon.

Moiraine joined in with the conversation too, her body language was relaxed and she laughed along with Taija when Lord Agelmar's wife told a story about a mishap he had with his uncle, the king of Shienar. However, even as her laughter sounded out across the room, her eyes never left Taija, always watching and calculating. It didn't take long for Taija to start to feel uncomfortable under that gaze. What was going on in Moiraine's head? Was this just what aes sedai here were like?

Nevertheless, Taija was still eager to get her alone. Moiraine certainly seemed like a more pleasant person than Elaida, although maybe that was just the way they'd first met. Hero of a battle rather than intruder in the night.

Moiraine's companions didn't say much, but Taija did notice that Aleksi had at least managed to get a couple of the young men talking to him.

After a while Lord Agelmar apologised and said he needed to leave to inspect the city's grain stores and the group broke up with everyone heading about their business.

It was while she was walking with Aleksi afterwards that Taija realised she hadn't actually been told the names of any of Moiraine's companions, other than the Ogier, Loial, who had joined in with their conversation. It was a bit odd actually, why wouldn't Moiraine introduce them all? Luckily when she mentioned it to Aleksi, he was able to tell her who they were.

Apparently the two girls were named Nynaeve and Egwene. Taija guessed they might be Moriaine's apprentices based on their age. From the boys he said the larger bearded one was Perrin and the slightly sickly looking one was Mat. The red head was the one Taija was really interested in of course and apparently he was called Rand.

Aleksi said they were all a bit reluctant to talk to him, especially Mat who'd seemed rather sullen. To be fair they were teenagers, but Taija didn't point that out to him. He was, however, able to find out a little bit from Perrin and Rand as they had opened up slightly when they found he was from Andor, although apparently their region of Andor was only sort of Andor, which she didn't quite understand. The girls had apparently just looked down their noses at him, which seemed rather rude.

========

It took Taija a few days before she could pin Moiraine down for a talk. She saw her around the keep at the centre of Fal Dara, but she was always moving. Busy or deep in conversation with one lord or lady or another. Every time they met she was faultlessly polite and apologetic, but Taija was soon starting to feel that Moiraine was trying to avoid being alone with her.

In the end perhaps she was just busy because eventually she did invite Taija to her rooms to take tea with her. That was why a few days later Taija found herself sitting in Moiraine's beautifully appointed rooms while a pair of fawningly deferential serving women set up an impressively elaborate tea for the 'honoured aes sedai' before quickly withdrawing.

Without speaking Moiraine poured tea into Taija's cup first and then her own. It was oddly formal and Taija wondered whether there was some kind of ritual going on that she wasn't aware of. With the tea poured, Moiraine took her finely painted cup and raised it to her lips, fixing Taija with her sharp, blue eyed gaze. Nothing showed on her face, but there was a tiny tremble in her hand as she did so.

"Please, Taija sedai," there was an infinitesimal pause between Taija's name and the honorific, "drink." Moiraine followed her own command, taking a sip from the cup.

As had become her habit since Caemlyn, Taija had applied inverted webs to herself, hiding her ability to channel and when she was embracing saidar. So, she doubted Moiraine knew when she spun a small, complex web of all five elements around her cup. A moment later it had confirmed the tea wasn't poisioned. Or at least probably wasn't poisoned, the web wasn't infallible and things might be different here. Still there was justified paranoia and then there was madness.

As Taija took a sip she sighed to herself. Even without the deep loneliness of being torn away from everyone she loved, this world was making her more paranoid by the day. Watching Moiraine take another sip of her own tea she idly wondered whether the woman was also holding saidar and concealing it or if she was really as relaxed as she looked. Perhaps she was, Moiraine had no reason to suspect her of anything after all.

In the end it didn't matter. Taija wanted, no, needed to befriend the woman. Aes sedai in this world clearly had huge influence, even where they were disliked or mistrusted and she couldn't go making enemies of more of them. It also seemed like they would be the most likely people to be able to help her find out what had happened and maybe even get home again. Being open with Aleksi had worked out much better than she'd expected and maybe it would also work with Moiraine. If not, well Taija knew Moiraine was no stronger than Elaida and she could face that problem head on.

So, after exchanging generic pleasantries about the tea and the weather, Taija offered Moiraine her best smile. "Moiraine sedai, I'm very grateful for your invitation. I know you're a very busy woman, but I have so very many questions and I'm hopeful that you'll be able to help."

Moiraine returned her smile, but hers was a little cooler, more dignified. "Of course, I will answer what I can and I am sure that I will in turn have many questions for you." She paused her eyes tightening ever so slightly, "but if I might ask something first? I cannot say where your accent comes from, you must be far from home?"

Taija slumped slightly in her seat. "Yes, a very long way I think. To be honest with you, I don't really know where home is anymore. Have you heard of Adanza? Jalanda?"

Moiraine raised an impeccably groomed eyebrow. "I do not believe so, but if you are not familiar with our cities maybe you have heard of Paaran Disen, it is said to have been the greatest city in the Age of Legends I believe. Your histories might mention it?" Taija was sure the woman's hands were trembling slightly, but why?

It was disappointing that Moiraine hadn't heard of Taija's birthplace or her home as an adult, but still she clearly knew something about Paaran Disen. That was a start! "Some people would certainly say it's the greatest city in the world, but what do you mean by the Age of Legends?" The way Moiraine had spoken made it sound like this Age of Legends was something everyone should know about, so Taija felt a little awkward asking. Also it was a stupid name, like writing 'here be monsters' on a map.

"The Age of Legends?" Moiraine sounded unsurprised at Taija's question. After a moment's thought she launched into an explanation about a magical, utopian world. Some things seemed familiar, others ridiculous. However, it was with dawning horror that Taija realised that it sounded like Moiraine was describing her world before and then during the War. An odd, twisted version of it, with some bits being outright wrong, but she recognised enough. Places, names, events made it clear what Moiraine meant. It sounded like mythology, but it was just too close. Much too close.

Taija knew what she needed to ask. She didn't want to because she already knew on some level that she wasn't going to like the answer, but she needed to hear it.

"H h how long ago was this Age of Legends?" Taija hated herself for stammering, but she couldn't help it. She scrubbed roughly at her eyes with her forearm.

Moiraine's gaze seemed to intensify, her eyes piercing into Taija. "Records are unclear… But scholars think it ended approximately 3,000 years ago when the Dragon…"

Taija cut her off, standing abruptly. Blood was pounding through her head and her vision was dimming at the edges. "I I'm sorry, I need to go, I I don't feel well."

With that feeble excuse Taija fled, breaking into a run as soon as she'd left. She needed to get back to her own rooms where she could safely put up a ward against sound and be alone.

======

Taija didn't reemerge from her rooms for two full days. Worried servants were told she was unwell and everyone else she simply refused to see, not even Aleksi. She needed time to process the realisation.

Up until that point she'd been operating on adrenaline, necessity and a healthy dose of ignorance. However, learning that she was over 3,000 years in the future, 3,000 inescapable years away from home brought it all crashing down. She'd been tempted to simply flee, to get away from everyone, but where would she have gone? Camelyn? Ramshorn? At least in Fal Dara she had comfortable, safe rooms.

If it had been a parallel world she might have had a route home. The portal stones proved the possibility of travel between worlds and while it wasn't her direct specialism it was an area she had some knowledge in. Time travel on the other hand was, as far as anyone had ever found out, completely impossible. Except forward of course, she'd just demonstrated that, but there was no point to that!

Everyone she knew had been dead for centuries. Fiancé, friends, comrades even people she didn't like. She was stuck. Alone. In some shithole backwards medieval world. What had these people done to regress to this level?! Even the War of Power still seemed to be rumbling on at some low level, even though the opposition these people seemed to face would have been dealt with in hours if they hadn't given up on technology, society, everything!

The toxic combination of rage, depression and anguished frustration flooding through Taija still continued to simmer beneath the surface when she finally felt able to leave her rooms. However, at least she had it under control. She didn't want to snap at anyone or lose her temper. It wasn't these people's fault that their ancestors had failed so horrendously.

Taija still didn't really want to talk to anyone, so she found herself wandering up to the top of the city's walls and walking around them, nodding in response to the respectful bows of the soldiers patrolling them. After the first circuit she made another and then another, allowing the relative peace and quiet under the warm sun to sooth her mood.

She was on her fourth circuit when Moiraine found her. She'd climbed the steps onto the walls alone and joined Taija, keeping silent at first.

Taija was happy to let that silence continue, but eventually Moiraine spoke. "I take it the Age of Legends is more than a story to you?"

Taija briefly considered lying, but it would hardly be very convincing. "Yes, I'm sorry for running off like that. It was just… I hadn't realised. I only started to suspect when I was in Caemlyn last week, but I'd hoped…" Moiraine seemed to twitch slightly at the mention of her being in Caemlyn. Maybe she knew the place well.

"Mmm. I had suspected you were from far away, but I am still surprised to hear you say that. It must be very strange for you. Do you know how you got here?"

Taija nodded sadly. "I was… caught, trapped I suppose, in a stasis box, I think during a battle. Something must have gone wrong, but I'm not really sure. One second there was fighting, a powerful man was targeting me, I was injured and then the next I'm, well I'm here with no idea where I am."

Moiraine's lips tightened. "That must have been very difficult for you."

"Yes… I suppose it has been." Taija didn't offer any more than that and there was another long silence before she spoke again. "Tell me Moiraine sedai, do you know what happened? Why aren't we still in the…" her mouth twisted at the name, "… Age of Legends."

"You must understand, records from that time are scant, so much of what I say is conjecture unfortunately, but this I know. The War of Power, you are aware of the War of Power?"

Taija nodded, "yes, I fought in it."

"The War of Power ended the Age of Legends with the Breaking." Taija could hear the capitalisation of the word. "When Lews Therin Telamon, the Dragon, led a strike on Shayol Ghul to reseal the Dark One's prison that was the end. He succeeded, but the Dark One's counterstroke tainted saidin sending him instantly and completely mad. Him and all of his companions. That was the start of the Breaking."

That sounded worryingly plausible based on the small amount of information Taija had heard elsewhere. "Lews Therin you idiot, you stupid fucking idiot!" Taija muttered to herself, without realising she'd reverted to her own language.

Moiraine continued as if Taija hadn't spoken. "Following that, slowly but inevitably every male aes sedai went mad, killing everyone they encountered and remaking the world around them. It is said that mountains were moved and the very shape of the lands changed before the end of the Breaking and we were truly lucky that anyone survived at all. I know little more than this."

Taija's heart was sinking further and further as Moiraine spoke. She could see how attacking the Dark One's prison could send a man mad, but all men? It was impossible. It had to be myth. Backwards people rationalising events of millennia ago.

3,000 years… Taija stopped walking and looked at Moiraine. "So you're telling me that not only is everyone from my time long-dead, there's nothing left at all other than history books?"

She fully expected it, but Moiraine's nod still hurt. "I'm sorry, but records are so sparse that even your name has likely been lost to the depths of history." Why did she look so calculating when she said that?

Chapter Text

Chapter X - Well This Is Awkward

Over the following days Taija met with Moiraine and talked about the world she was in. No, not the world, the time. The present day. She needed to keep in mind that this was her world.

Moiraine seemed reluctant to talk about the White Tower or aes sedai, always dancing around the topic, but told amusing stories of her travels around the world and gave detailed recountings of what was not the more recent past.

In turn Taija told her snippets about her own life. Moiraine seemed a bit reluctant to press for information, probably because she was just being sensitive to Taija's loss and in truth Taija was quite grateful for it. While she was starting to get her head around her situation and her talks with Moiraine were helping, she couldn't help that her mind kept going back to Adanza, Jalanda, Paaran Disen, her fiancé, comrades on the front lines, even academic rivals from before the War.

Another thing on Taija's mind was that she hadn't thanked the young red-headed man yet. Rand al'Thor - she'd found out his full name from some of the servants, or Lord Rand as they called him.

So Taija made an effort to track him down, asking after him at every opportunity, going to where she'd been told he'd be.

Even if she might have been able to escape the battle, if she was lucky, by summoning up enough energy to travel, he'd probably saved her life and had definitely saved the lives of everyone else in the Shienaran army at Tarwin's Gap.

However, every time Taija got close to him she found something stopping her from speaking to him. Sometimes it was Moiraine popping up to talk to her. Other times it was Lan, Moiraine's warder, calling him away for training or a servant telling him or Taija that someone or other needed them.

In the meantime though Taija at least had the chance to talk a bit with Moiraine's other traveling companions. Lan, Moiraine's warder, was cold and hard, although she was fairly sure there was a lot going on in his head behind the composed exterior. Regardless though, all Taija could get out of him was distant, but perfect politeness.

The other two boys were easier to get hold of and at least more talkative than Lan. Perrin was a sweet young man, quiet and thoughtful, but Taija was at least able to have a nice conversation with him about the Two Rivers, the area he was from.

Mat seemed the more interesting of the two. He was clearly a bit of a scoundrel and, on some level, Taija could feel there was something deeply wrong with the dagger on his waist that he kept touching. However, when she caught him somewhat tipsy at a table in a bar he regaled her with tales of traveling through Andor and laughed along with her own stories about mishaps hiking through the mountains near Adanza. That was quite pleasant right up until he remembered she was an aes sedai. The moment he realised, he suddenly backed off with a combination of awkwardness, fear and anger on his face that was less than pleasant. After that Mat had quickly excused himself and fled.

The girls, Egwene and Nynaeve, didn't seem overly friendly sadly. Egwene had been excited when Taija first spoke to her, wanting to talk about Tar Valon and aes sedai. However, she quickly closed off, turning her nose up at her. Taija wasn't sure why, but felt mildly offended.

Nynaeve was a bit older and when she spoke to Taija she clearly made a point of not using her title. However, unlike Mat who simply seemed to have forgotten, that seemed to be deliberate disrespect rather than friendliness. Taija could practically sense the resentment from her when she talked about getting the three boys and Egwene home safely. Nynaeve had looked defiantly into her eyes and said that she wouldn't allow aes sedai manipulation of them.

It was pretty irritating in fact. Taija was fairly sure Nynaeve wouldn't speak to Moiraine like that. Such were the rewards for trying to be pleasant. Telling Nynaeve she had no intention of manipulating anyone just seemed to make her more irritable. In the end Taija made her excuses and left Nynaeve to herself before she pulled her braid out.

The final member of Moiraine's party, Loial, was somewhat different. In better times Taija suspected that she'd be much keener to speak to the young Ogier. However, as it was, whenever she saw him he didn't seem able to help himself, asking questions about where she was from, her accent and her background in his low, rumbling voice, before remembering himself and returning to polite formality. Taija did her best not to be rude to him, but in her current mindset she really didn't want to discuss where she came from with a barely adult book-obsessed Ogier.

=======

After a week of trying to speak to Rand, Taija couldn't deny it. Someone was trying to stop her from seeing him. Fine.

There was something going on there and as some of the Shienaran soldiers put it, she was blood and bloody ashes going to find out what it was. One of the funnier things she'd seen here was the locals' facial expressions when they heard her swear. Obviously they didn't expect it from a woman. Or possibly an aes sedai. Or maybe, Taija could secretly admit, she just hadn't quite got the hang of it in their language.

Regardless, she started watching Rand's movements more carefully. If she wasn't just trying to overcome whoever kept getting in the way, she'd call it creepy. After a few days she had results though. He seemed to spend a lot of time practising fencing alone with Lan in a particular tower. She'd heard several of the men in Fal Dara talking in admiring tones about how young Lord Rand was to be a blademaster, so she assumed he must be quite good.

One morning Taija waited for him to go to the top of his favoured tower to train with Lan and then made her own discrete way to another tower where she could see them from across the walls. A deft couple of inverted webs allowed her to disappear into the background as light was bent around her. It wasn't perfect, if she moved there would be some distortion in the air, but it would have to do.

Suitably concealed, Taija then spun saidar into a gateway, far more complex than normal, combining the web with one of illusion so that when it opened right next to the crenelations of Rand's tower there was nothing more than a faint shimmer in the air for her to step through.

Even though she knew she was moving almost completely silently and the gateway had closed behind her, the clash of their swords wasn't so distracting that Lan didn't look up suspiciously, glancing round the space on top of the tower. Luckily he didn't notice the less than faint shimmer in the air that was Taija as she froze, although her heart threatened to leap out of her throat for a second. Staying still she should have been completely invisible, but he still nearly found her. She would definitely not be able to move any more.

It felt like hours that Taija had to stand there, completely still, watching the clash of practice swords. It wasn't all bad. She was hardly an expert on fencing, but she'd been to enough matches as a supporter in her time that she could appreciate the skill. She was also quite impressed by the sheer array of scars on Lan's toned, topless body. She'd never seen anything quite like it, although she supposed these people didn't have quite the same level of medical care that she was used to.

Eventually however they stopped their practice and put their wooden swords down, sweat glistening on their muscles in the afternoon sun. It was then that Taija released her web of illusion and started clapping. "Bravo! That was really impressive!"

Lan whirled towards her, frighteningly fast, reaching for a sword that he'd left propped up a few metres away against the wall. Taija barely restrained herself from wrapping him in air, he was a big man! Rand on the other hand actually jumped with a loud shout of surprise.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Taija quickly apologised. "That seemed like a much better idea in my head than it turned out to be. Please forgive me, I was just hoping to have a word with young uh Lord Rand here. I owe him some thanks." She gave them a friendly smile.

Lan took a step towards her. "Taija sedai, honour to you, but the boy is tired…"

At the same time Rand asked, "thank me for what, uh Taija sedai?"

"For saving my life of course. And the Shienarans too. You saved all of us at Tarwin's Gap and for that I owe you my deepest gratitude." Taija gave him a low bow. "Is there a reason why nobody calls you aes sedai? You're young, but with that display you must have been channeling for some time. The tests should be trivial and there's no question about your service…"

Taija's came to a crashing halt as she saw the looks of horror on both Rand and Lan's faces. Actually it was the first time she'd seen any expression other than 'grim' on Lan's face. She thought he must have hidden depths, but they were very well hidden.

Internally she was kicking herself. She'd allowed her enthusiasm to make her tread all over these people's weird prejudices about male channelers. Of course Rand wasn't an aes sedai. They wouldn't allow it.

Rand was speechless, his jaw working, but no sound coming out of his mouth. Lan on the other hand seemed to snap out of his frozen stupor after a second. He gave Taija a tiny bow and then sprinted for the hatch leading down from the tower without another word.

Taija winced, this was not the reaction she was expecting. "Look R… err Lord Rand. I'm sorry, I think I've upset you and Lan." She apologised again. "I really didn't mean to, I just wanted to say thank you to you, that's all."

Rand was clearly still trying to process what had been said so Taija tentatively offered him a compliment. "You must be very strong in the Power…"

Rand finally found his voice in response to that, but it was frantic denial. "I I I'm not a Lord or a a an aes sed… I mean I can't channel Taija sedai. I swear, I won't do it again!" He slumped. "Have you come to gentle me? They said you were Red Ajah."

Taija was really struggling with his reaction. She knew these people had a strange taboo about men channeling. It seemed to come from what Moiraine had said about the Breaking and poor Lews Therin, but after 3,000 years it was a ridiculous over reaction. Still, she should do her best to be sensitive. He was barely more than a boy and he did grow up with all of these prejudices.

"Please Rand, may I call you Rand?" He nodded slowly, "I'm not going to gentle you." Taija paused to think. "Actually, what exactly is gentling?"

Rand's disbelieving laugh was better than the horrified terror it replaced, but Taija was starting to think the poor boy needed a friend if nothing else. Maybe she could get him hanging out with Aleksi. He was just as far from home as Rand was and didn't even have the benefit of his friends traveling with him.

Taija gave Rand a reassuring smile and sat down on the wooden floor, folding her legs demurely under her, bloody dress she'd rather sit cross legged. "Here, sit down and let's talk." She smiled up at him and patted the ground beside her until he reluctantly took his own seat.

==============

Moiraine sat, exhausted, in the high backed chair in front of the ornate desk that graced her room. She felt like she had aged a decade in the last few weeks. First the precipitous run through the Ways, then the Eye of the World and the horror of being confronted with nightmares straight out of myth. Being casually brushed aside by Aginor and finally the broken seal to the Dark One's prison.

On one level she should have been delighted, they had foiled the Shadow. Not only had Shienar and perhaps the world been saved, two members of the Forsaken were dead and she was also reaching the culmination of her life's journey. The Dragon Reborn had been found and she was ready to guide him to Tarmon Gaidon.

And yet. This Taija… She wasn't going to call her 'sedai' in the safety of her own head. Was that woman so arrogant that she thought everyone around her was an idiot? Or was she simply so powerful that she did not care? Moiraine was not sure.

It had all started to go wrong when she returned to Fal Dara with the Horn of Valere and Lord Agelmar had excitedly told her about Taija appearing from nowhere and fighting alongside the Shienarans to defeat the shadowspawn. A woman of incredible power and joining the battle at such a fortuitous moment. She had even felt a hint of censorship in his tone, poking through the deference to her status as an aes sedai, as he wondered why she had not been there helping the Shienarans too.

Women impersonating aes sedai were rare of course, anyone with any sense knew that the White Tower would exact its revenge when it inevitably caught them, but they did appear occasionally. Women claiming to be aes sedai who could wield the One Power with great strength on the other hand were much rarer.

Still, before she actually met Taija she had had to admit, she had been away from the Tower for a good while and it was not unheard of for aes sedai to travel under false names. She did it herself often enough. However, the woman's story had clearly been a lie. She had claimed to be Red Ajah and yet also had a warder and regardless, there was no way she would not have been aware of a sister of significant power who was so newly raised as to not yet have the ageless face.

For what must be the hundredth time Moiraine's mind went back to that first meeting with Taija. A sweet, innocent, almost deferential and certainly not ageless face, perhaps Murandian in appearance, crowned by black hair tied back with a simple cord. Pretty, young and utterly lacking in any of the fashion or sophistication that Moiraine would expect from a sister. The only thing that matched was the red dress she wore. Moiraine suspected Lord Agelmar had provided that.

When she had first seen Taija Moiraine had thought it was clear that she was impersonating an aes sedai. She had had no doubt the Tower would have its due when the time came, but she had decided she was not going to get involved at that point given the Shienarans' gratitude to this Taija. One could say she had earnt a measure of forbearance and Moiraine had had other priorities.

That had all changed when Taija opened her mouth. She spoke the Common Tongue oddly, sometimes having to think about words, sometimes choosing ones that did not quite fit. However, it was her accent that had given Moiraine one of the biggest shocks of her life. She had never heard one like it before. Except once, gloating at her at the Eye of the World. The soft voice of the young woman was not the same as the harsh, grating tones of Aginor, but she could not deny the similarity in the way they clipped words short, made everything sound like it should have more consonants.

That had been bad enough, but it was when Taija noticed Rand that Moiraine truly began to be afraid. The woman clearly knew who he was and at that point Moiraine realised that the worst enemies were not necessarily those that simply attacked with overwhelming force.

Since then Moiraine had felt like she had been living in a terror fueled fugue. Even with her angreal, after Aginor she was under no illusion that she could fight one of Them. She was simply too weak. For now 'Taija' was doing no visible harm so Moiraine would in turn pretend to be unaware, but she knew that at any moment that woman might decide that now was the time to strike. She could no doubt kill Moiraine with casual ease and then move on with her plans for Rand.

Conversations with Taija were of little help to Moiraine. That first conversation, once she'd steeled herself enough to be able to stay in a room with that woman without wanting to either throw every ounce of power she had at her or run away as fast as she could, had been illuminating. It seemed that Taija had little awareness of what had gone in the world during her imprisonment. When she fled that first time, Moiraine half-thought it might be the first genuine behaviour she had seen from the woman.

Of course 'Taija' might just be lying about her ignorance, but Moiraine did not think so. Nothing was really known about the Forsakens' imprisonment and she saw no reason why it could not have affected different individuals differently. Aginor and Balthamel had clearly been damaged in different ways. So it seemed perfectly plausible that one or more of them might have been released without realising what had happened to the world since the Breaking.

When they talked more Moiraine told her harmless things about the world, little that she could use in the here and now and in return learnt all too little about Taija. She could only assume that anything she did say was as much of a lie as some of her other ridiculous stories. What she'd initially said about her imprisonment rang true though… A battle, male channelers and then nothing for 3,000 years. Of course she had ruined it later with her ridiculous story about being discovered by a farmer who was now her warder. Presumably she realised how suspicious it sounded.

Having to hide her concern, her fear and even revulsion was bad enough. Worse was when Taija started trying to talk to Rand. Of course she would be seeking out the Dragon Reborn. Clearly she did not plan to kill him, that would have been far too easy under the circumstances so she must have some other goal. Perhaps to turn him. Surely having the Dragon Reborn turn to the Shadow would be an even greater victory than achieving his death. Moiraine would do anything to prevent that from happening though, even if she had to kill Rand herself.

So far Moiraine's efforts to keep them apart had been successful, but she feared that that could not last forever. Perhaps, just perhaps, if it could last until the Amyrlin arrived then something could be done though.

It was with these thoughts running through Moiraine's head that she was interrupted by Lan bursting into her room, the door slamming into the wall with a bang. The outraged squawk of a serving woman pursuing him was ignored as he gasped to Moiraine, "up the tower, she was there, they're together, nothing I could do!"

Moiraine did not hesitate, there was no time for that. Ignoring her headache, her tiredness, she sprang to her feet embracing saidar through her angreal and headed towards the tower. She did not run, that would have raised too many questions among the Shienarans, but she certainly walked faster than would strictly be polite, barely acknowledging the greetings of those she passed. At least those that weren't so intimidated by the grim set of her face that they flattened themselves against the wall to let her by.

As Moiraine made her way to the tower she went back to replaying another debate in her head. Which one was she? There was so little information to work with. Mesaana? She had mentioned being a scholar, if that was not another lie. Probably not Graendal or Semirhage, from what little she knew they simply did not fit. Moghedien maybe? Could it be Lanfear? She was said to have had a fixation with Lews Therin Telamon…

It was with these thoughts going through her head that she pulled herself up the ladder to the top of the tower. Reaching the top she wove air and blasted open the trapdoor immediately before she lifted herself above the floor level.

She hadn't been sure what she would see, but it wasn't Taija and Rand casually sitting on the floor, a perfectly respectable distance apart she idly noted, both looking towards her with shocked faces.

It was enough to make her pause and then Rand smiled for what might be the first time she'd seen since the Eye of the World and called out, "Moiraine sedai you won't believe what Taija's told me, it's incredible. Please, join us."

Moiraine sighed and slowly pulled herself through the hatch to be followed by Lan to go and sit down, although she kept hold of saidar. What on earth was she going to do now?

=========

Taija stared at Moiraine as she joined them, the golden aura of someone holding saidar bright around her. She must have an angreal, she was holding enough of the Power to match Taija's own limits and she knew Moiraine wasn't that strong.

For once Moiraine's always controlled face had lost its composure and she looked unsure whether she should be furious or in tears. Taija wondered whether this was because she'd been talking to Rand. Was Moiraine the one that kept stopping that from happening? If so, she really couldn't work out why. Perhaps it was something to do with saidin? Rand had certainly seemed worried about that.

Either way, Taija felt like the situation was close to getting out of control and someone needed to be the grown-up. So she forced a smile. "Welcome Moiraine, it's good to see you. We've been having a lovely chat and it'll be nice to have you join us."

Even ignoring Moiraine's odd entrance, Taija was a bit irritated with her. The poor boy had been terrified when she first spoke to him and it felt like at least part of that was from the way Moiraine had been ignoring him since Tarwin's Gap. Taija still wasn't sure what Moiraine had been doing while she was at the battle, Rand had seemed particularly reluctant to talk about it, so she hadn't pressed him, but clearly something was going on.

Regardless, Taija thought a lot of what he needed to get him out of his funk, at least temporarily, was just a sympathetic ear and some chatting about life. She wasn't sure Rand really believed some of her stories about the 'Age of Legends' or even that she really was an aes sedai, but her willingness to listen to him without criticism seemed to work to reassure and eventually relax him.

Chapter Text

Chapter XI - The Amyrlin Is Coming!

It wasn't long after Moiraine's aggressive entrance to the top of the tower that the little group broke up. Rand told Taija that he'd said he'd meet with Mat and Perrin, Moiraine had her own business to attend to and Lan trailed off after her.

As Taija went back to her own quarters she was picking over everything that had happened. The more she thought about it, the clearer it was that Moiraine had panicked about her being alone with Rand. Lan running away like that, all the interference with her trying to meet him and then Moiraine coming in blazing like the Sun with saidar.

Taija still didn't think Moiraine was her enemy. If she wanted her dead she'd had plenty of opportunities to strike at her. Certainly Taija was entirely confident that if it was her that wanted Moiraine dead she'd never have had the chance to hit back.

Moiraine had also always been friendly to her, although admittedly keeping her distance. Taija was fairly sure that was just her personality though. Or maybe a 'modern' aes sedai thing. It was frustrating the way that Moiraine, and from her limited experience Elaida too, seemed to have to try to sound mystical and in control all the time.

Obviously that was foolish. Channelers were just people, citizens like any other and it was their honour to serve society, not to have society serving them. That was why they were called servants of all rather than masters of all.

In the end it didn't matter what they did. Being a bit up oneself was hardly the greatest crime. Take Lews Therin as an example.

Still though, there was clearly more going on than Taija had been aware of and she shouldn't allow Moiraine's pleasantness to blind her to it. She needed to be a bit more careful around these people and make sure that she didn't leave herself in a vulnerable position.

Taija sighed to herself and slumped a little as she walked back to her rooms. She'd always hated playing politics.

Without the pressure of the War going on and with all the distraction of learning about what as essentially a new world to her it was too easy to forget herself. Taija also needed to remind herself that just because these people were deeply backwards, it didn't mean they were stupid or couldn't be dangerous. At times it was easy forget.

It wasn't like she was leaving herself completely vulnerable though. Taija already held saidar whenever she was around Moiraine, concealed under an inverted web of course. She'd warded her dreams as a matter of course since her late teens too. She still shuddered when she thought of the series of 'pranks' Tel Valolrin had carried out on her and the other girls at the university. He'd almost been thrown out over that.

Obviously Taija kept her room warded too. Basic precautions that she'd learnt the hard way during the War. However, there was more she could do.

=======

Over the next couple of weeks Taija made sure to seek out both Rand and Moiraine. In Rand's case the boy clearly needed a friend and frankly the way people of this time viewed male channelers was shamefully bigoted. It disgusted her in fact.

Taija could accept intellectually that something went badly wrong with them around the Breaking, but that was 3,000 years ago. Even if their talk of madness was true, and she very much had her doubts, Rand didn't seem at all mad, they should be helping the poor men, not hunting them down and severing them. She didn't need to try particularly hard to come up with three or four better ways of helping them.

In Moiraine's case, Taija needed to deliver a more nuanced message. She'd never been one for manipulating others or political games. She'd spent far less time in the Hall of the Servants than she probably should have as a result. Uncomfortable formal coats, pompous speeches and networking, eugh. It was interesting though, even back then people had tended to forget just how strong she was because of that. Out of sight, out of mind or something like that. Anyway she'd left the politicking to her fiancé, not only was he better at it, he was also just much more interested.

Still, Taija hadn't gotten as far as she had by living completely in an academic bubble and she could deliver a message if she wanted to.

So, in her meetings with Moiraine, Taija did did her best to reassure her that she wasn't looking to be a threat to her or the Light. Obviously just coming out and saying it wouldn't convince anyone. It wasn't so much that as using topics of conversation. Telling her about battling the Shadow, the great deeds of the aes sedai and her own dreams of being able to simply return home and get to her research. Not the sort of things she thought an enemy of the Light would want to talk about or be very convincing about if they did.

Taija made sure to also tell her about her conception of what it was to be aes sedai. How being aes sedai was serving the people, but not being apart from the people and the importance of doing what was right.

Finally, Taija made her own veiled threat during their conversations. In case Moiraine had any ideas about trying to overwhelm her for whatever reason as Elaida had, it would be better if she knew it wouldn't work.

Taija had set out her own views, tried to be clear that she was on the same side as Moiraine, or at least she hoped she was. However, ultimately power came from the ability to enforce one's position on others, or at least to defend it from them. Actually, Taija shuddered, that might have been something Elan Morin had said.

She'd never met Moiraine without the inverted web concealing the fact that she was holding saidar. However, that didn't stop her from channeling. Telling Moiraine about one of the battles of the War it was easy enough to make a point.

"Let me show you, it's hard to explain." Taija smiled as sweetly as she could. Moiraine wouldn't be able to see the glow of the Power around her, but that was fine she'd see the effects and Taija didn't want the woman to get an accurate read on her strength.

Figurines, ornaments, tea cups and other small items from around Moiraine's room lifted from where they rested on inverted flows of air. Taija did her best not to show the strain on her face as she split her flows over thirty ways. This was something she'd always been good at and the amount of the Power in each web was utterly trivial, but it was still right at her limit, like trying to juggle ten different things and paint a masterwork with her feet at the same time. Everything came together into a facsimile of a battlefield map for her to point out cities, armies and movements to Moiraine. A minute later, more carefully channeled, inverted webs returned them.

Internally Taija breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn't messed that up. Splitting things that many ways while inverting her flows was beyond difficult, but hopefully Moiraine got the message that she was no pushover.

In fact Moiraine had seemed unphased, keeping up a facade of polite interest. However, Taija was fairly sure she'd seen her eyes widen slightly at the casual display of skill, which was exactly what she wanted.

Of course they were all very small flows and the amount she had split them strained her to her limit. Not so much the maximum Power she could channel, but the sheer dexterity required to do it. Hopefully Moiraine didn't realise that though and the fact that the webs were inverted should add to her caution.

Reading between the lines, Taija was starting to suspect that many things she took for granted had been lost by these 'modern' aes sedai and she wondered whether how to invert a web was one of them.

Taija's conversations with Rand were more relaxed. He was actually quite a sweet boy, a bit obsessed with duty when he should be chasing girls and having fun, but then it didn't feel like this time had much scope for that if you were a male channeler. She'd read about bigotry and prejudice in school, artifacts of a distant past, and it was beyond strange seeing them in action here.

Rand loved stories about the 'Age of Legends' and seemed to quickly lose the feeling of scepticism that Taija initially got from him. Oddly enough Moiraine always had a slight feeling of it around her even though Taija had actually told her where she was from.

Perhaps that was just what the woman was like. Taija supposed Rand was still very young and so would be more accepting, while she couldn't quite put her finger on how old Moiraine was. Which was odd, there was something about that that made her slightly uncomfortable, but she couldn't work out what it was.

Anyway, Taija felt Rand just needed someone friendly and understanding to talk to. Especially with the way that Moiraine seemed to be ignoring him. He was a much happier young man when he was able to vent about his fears, hopes and dreams. She did her best to reassure him as well as she could and the way he talked about things let her deduce more about the time she was in. She was still shocked to the point of disbelief that severing was the penalty for being a male channeler, regardless of any crime or lack thereof. It was horrible. Disgusting. The worst penalty short of death, or arguably binding, that could be inflicted on a channeler and for many it was a death sentence anyway.

As a result Taija could see why Rand was in a state of terror about his channeling and it wasn't so surprising that it was a topic he was completely unwilling to discuss. She actually felt a bit more sympathetic towards Moiraine. She still disapproved of the way the woman was treating Rand and suspected she was trying to manipulate him in some way, but it probably spoke well of her that she hadn't just leapt to severing the boy, even if she should really be trying to help him.

======

After a couple of weeks Taija was feeling much better about the way things were going. She'd made good progress in her relationship with Moiraine and the two of them were meeting and talking regularly.

She was also sliding into a sort of half-mentor, half-friend position with Rand. He spent most of his time training in the sword with Lan, but often sought her out for conversations and advice. Taija had spend a fair few hours telling him about the aes sedai philosophy on life and service. It even seemed to fit with some of the things Lan was putting in his head, although Taija's view was rather less couched in terms of war and death. It was cathartic for Taija too, being able to pass on the best of her time's ethics and philosophy, rather than having her mind constantly drawn back to the hell that was the War of Power.

=====

One day while Taija was taking tea with Moiraine she calmly informed her that Siuan Sanche, the Amyrlin Seat was coming to Fal Dara and would arrive in the next two days. It took Taija a couple of seconds to remember what the significance of the Amyrlin was, but when she realised it was the leader of this time's aes sedai it was actually exciting. Perhaps this would be an opportunity to find a proper place in this world. The Amyrlin must have incredible resources and knowledge at her disposal.

However, Moiraine seemed a little concerned. "Are you aware of how the White Tower treats those that claim to be aes sedai?"

Taija shrugged. "I think Elaida mentioned some kind of punishment."

That got her a sharp look from Moiraine. "You know Elaida?"

Taija grimaced, she hadn't meant to mention that. While she'd told Moiraine she'd been in Caemlyn, it hadn't seemed like a good idea to bring up her fight with one of Moiraine's colleagues. "Yes, we met under… difficult circumstances while I was in Caemlyn. It was a bit unfortunate, but no one got hurt so in the end it wasn't that bad."

Moiraine's look promised questions in the future, but Taija got the strange feeling that she wouldn't have been too upset if something had actually happened to Elaida. However, Moiraine clearly decided not to engage with what she'd said. "It would be difficult to explain your presence as an aes sedai here when any aes sedai from the White Tower will assume you are an imposter." She shrugged delicately. "They are unlikely to simply accept your origin without evidence that you might struggle to provide."

Taija raised her eyebrows at that. "Well… I am aes sedai. If I was going to push the point, I'd say I have a better claim to the title than any of you." That got a small wince from Moiraine.

"I thought you might say that." She hesitated before continuing. "It might be better for you if you removed yourself from Fal Dara, at least temporarily, until the Amyrlin's visit is over."

Taija immediately started to shake her head, but Moiraine continued, speaking over her. "That is one option, but I am aware that it is unlikely to be your first choice and you will doubtless wish to meet the Amyrlin. So I will offer my help in facilitating that. I will speak with the Amyrlin and inform her of your situation, so that she understands the potential difficulties and then you can met her. With her support, I am sure that the difficulties caused by your status can be resolved."

"Thank you, I'm grateful." Taija really did feel that her friendship had been growing and Moiraine's willingness to help her here was evidence of that. She'd be in a far better position if she could get good relations with the head of this time's aes sedai.

Still, she thought back to Moiraine's face when she'd seen her talking with Rand on top of the tower. A few precautions wouldn't go amiss. While Taija was always careful, by that point she was pretty confident that Moiraine wasn't going to attack her. However, she didn't know this Amyrlin or how she'd react to her, let alone how strong she was or what other tools she had at her disposal.

Taija only had a couple of days to get ready, so she figured she'd better get to work.

===============

Watching from the walls of Fal Dara under a web concealing her from sight, Taija saw the Amyrlin's party arriving. The guards were very unlikely to catch her and it was the kind of sight she'd never have seen in her own time.

The rows of soldiers, drummers, banners. What must be the Amyrlin's palanquin in the middle of it. Finely-dressed women on horses riding alongside. It was incredible. Like something out of a film.

Still, gawking aside, Taija made a note to herself to be particularly careful. If all of the mounted women were aes sedai then she would have to make sure that she wasn't cornered by too many of them. It didn't matter how good anyone was, a sufficiently large circle would bring them down regardless.

Moiraine had asked Taija to keep herself scarce until she could talk to the Amyrlin because of the potential for misunderstandings with the other aes sedai and Taija was willing to go along with that. The night before the Amyrlin's arrival she had told Lord Agelmar she needed to leave on urgent business, but expected to return in the next few days and moved herself to an inn disguised with a different face. Moiraine had even been generous enough to supply some money to help, which was a relief given that the funds Taija had 'requisitioned' in Caemlyn were starting to run out.

She'd left Aleksi behind so that he could act as a go between and let her know when the Amyrlin had been 'warmed up' to speak to her. There was still that niggling feeling though, poking at Taija's instincts, so even though she hadn't told anyone other than Aleksi where she was going and certainly hadn't used her own face, she still put up a number of wards around the inn, inverted of course. If any channeler came too close she would know and be able to make a discrete exit before they ever reached her.

======

The next evening Taija was sat in the inn's common room, picking at a mediocre meal, some kind of peppers mixed with what she thought might be beef. At the same time she was idly musing over whether she could increase the resolution of an intriguing little web that would normally be used to measure certain esoteric particles, repeatedly spinning it inverted, tweaking it and then releasing it. Yet she couldn't really focus, there was too much going on. Too many things to worry about.

Her musing was broken when she heard alarm bells starting to ring across the city. Suddenly men all around the inn were grabbing for weapons and the innkeeper breathlessly hurried over to her with a bow. "My lady the city must be under attack. Do not worry, it will be dealt with, but you should take shelter in your room until it's over, for your own safety!"

Without waiting for an answer he rushed off, presumably to grab his own weapon. Of course Taija wasn't going to sit around, but appearances needed to be kept up, so she gasped with exaggerated fear, getting her a few odd looks, before she hurried up the stairs towards her room.

As soon as she was out of sight Taija spun an inverted gateway, going in from the inn's stairs to the city walls in a single step, ready to rain fire on any attacking army of shadowspawn that she could see.

She slumped a little when she realised she couldn't see anything in the moonlight. There was no army, just the sounds of shouts, chaos and fighting from inside the city. So they were were already within the walls? That was bad, very bad.

Taija couldn't help from up there on the city walls, so she channeled again, stepping through another inverted gateway to the walls of Lord Agelmar's central keep. Looking down from there she could actually see fighting in the well lit passages and squares. Trollocs struggled against Shienaran armsmen, some of them barely dressed, but still fighting bravely. Myrddraal stalked among them, killing whoever they met.

With a thought Taija spun saidar and fire engulfed the shadowspawn below her, precise bursts to avoid collateral damage. A moment later she stepped through another inverted gateway to ground level. She needed to be careful of the other aes sedai, but she was hardly going to tolerate shadowspawn rampaging through the people's homes when she could do something about it. Let alone rampaging through the homes of people who had been as kind to her as the Shienarans. Looking completely different would have to do for discretion.

With no shadowspawn outside it, she entered the keep, stalking through its corridors and passages, hunting for the filth polluting them. She avoided anywhere she could feel a woman channeling, Moiraine's advice prominent in her mind, but that still gave her plenty of opportunities.

She came across a small group of trollocs hemming in a pair of Shienaran armsmen who were desperately trying to shield a small group of servants. Fire, spirit and water came together and the trollocs exploded in showers of gore.

Without waiting to hear the frantic thanks of the Shienarans Taija strode on. Enclosed spaces were not ideal ground for a channeler, it was too easy to ambush them. She needed to keep moving, but at a steady pace, no running or she might not have time to react.

A myrddraal was directing a squad of trollocs, she seized it in a fist of air and squeezed. At the time she spun fire and the trollocs erupted into guttering torches.

Wherever Taija went, shadowspawn died and Shienarans rallied. However, it wasn't long before the sounds of fighting came to a stop and instead of soldiers rushing to face attackers she saw tired men returning from battle.

There probably wasn't much more she could do if the fighting was over, so Taija decided it was time to quietly return to the inn. Anyone that had seen her channeling would assume she was just one of the aes sedai accompanying the Amyrlin. No one would be likely to associate the tall, pale blonde she'd appeared to be with short, dark Taija.

========

It was the next day that Aleksi came to the inn with a scabbed cut across his face. As she soon as she saw his face Taija grabbed him and half dragged him up to her room.

"What in the Light happened to you Aleksi? Are you badly hurt?"

"Oh?" He looked confused for a second, "no! It's just a scratch, nothing more. I was a bit too slow and…" he smiled and shrugged embarrassedly, "… fell over while I was fighting a trolloc."

Taija frowned, not amused at all. "You need to look after yourself better! Can I heal you? I can't do much, but if it's just a scratch…"

Aleksi looked hesitant, she needed to remember he wasn't used to the Power, but he did nod. Taija immediately grabbed his hand and spun air, water and spirit, as strongly as she could. They might well have felt it in the keep actually, she should have inverted the web. The flows merged into Aleksi leaving him shivering and the cut faded from his face, going from an angry scab that would likely scar, to a thin line. "There, that's the best I can do I'm afraid, I've never had any real Talent for healing."

Tentatively Aleksi reached up and rubbed his face, "still… thank you Taija."

She smiled at him and stepped back, "so, why are you here? Is it the Amyrlin?"

"Oh!" Aleksi jumped, "yes, sorry! She's sent for you, said that you were to come at once." Taija was fairly sure he was uncomfortable with the whole concept of talking to aes sedai, but he also seemed irritated on her behalf at the idea of her being sent for, which was sweet.

It took Taija twenty minutes to walk back to the city's central keep with Aleksi, which at least gave them the opportunity to catch up on what had happened last night. She was just glad he hadn't gone and gotten himself killed!

Taija maintained her disguise, keeping the appearance of a tall, blonde woman with an inverted web. Of course she also held the Power, also concealed under a tied off inverted web.

It took a while, getting through various guard posts, but at least the false name Moiraine had told Taija to use was recognised. Finally she was led to the anteroom for Lord Agelmar's secondary audience chamber and told to take a seat.

As she took in the finely carved wooden frame surrounding the entrance to the chamber, Aleksi at her side, Taija breathed a quiet sigh of relief that they'd chosen this room. She'd guessed it would be here or the main audience chamber. If it had been whichever rooms the Amyrlin was staying in then she'd be feeling much less prepared.

Thankfully Taija didn't have to wait long before the door opened and Moiraine leant her head out. "Ah, Taija, I am glad to see you are here. Please come in, the Amyrlin will see you now. Aleksi, please wait outside."

That felt like a power play, she was already nervous about meeting this Amyrlin and she wasn't going to let them isolate her just like that. Also who did Moiraine think she was giving orders to Aleksi? He was a free man, not her servant. "I'd prefer if Aleksi came with me Moiraine sedai." Without waiting for a response Taija stood and headed for the door, Aleksi following after her, although she could practically feel his nervousness at defying an aes sedai. She'd have to apologise to him afterwards.

Chapter Text

Chapter XII - How To Train Your Aes Sedai

When Taija stepped through the door into the audience chamber she had to force herself to breath steadily through her nervousness. This was probably going to be one of the most important conversations she'd have in this time.

She'd instantly taken in the other occupants of the audience chamber. It looked like four aes sedai and Lan. The women certainly had that calmly arrogant composure that she was coming to associate with her modern namesakes. One, sitting on a large chair, a throne really, at the back of the room must be the Amyrlin. Siuan Sanche that was her name. It was a little surprising that she didn't have a third name actually given how important Taija presumed she was.

Obviously Moiraine was there too, a faint smile on her face, accompanied by a very tall and slim copper-skinned woman and another slightly sour-faced woman in a red dress with elaborate honey-coloured braids.

The Amyrlin looked over to Taija, her face showing no expression. She was a dark-skinned woman with black hair, wearing a stole with seven colours on it. The ajahs maybe? Her voice was hard, someone used to being obeyed. "Leane, Liandrin, thank you, you may leave us."

The sour-faced woman looked like she wanted to protest, but after meeting the Amyrlin's eyes she stayed silent and they both curtsied deeply before withdrawing with a murmured "mother". Taija gave them small bows as they left, which just resulted in hard looks from them. Presumably they expected her to curtsy.

At the same time as the other aes sedai were leaving, Moiraine glided over to stand next to the Amyrlin, so close they were almost touching, while Lan stood silently at the side of the room.

As soon as the door closed behind Leane and Liandrin the light of saidar sprang up around both Moiraine and the Amyrlin, the glows blurring together from proximity.

When the two women embraced saidar Taija tensed, opening herself fully to the Power. Moiraine quickly interjected, sensing her sudden discomfort if not her drawing on the Power. "My apologies Taija, we wish to make sure we are not overheard." Moiraine drew lightly on the Power and spun a ward against sound.

Taija's initial irritation at Moiraine's dropping of her title vanished at the sight of the web. It wasn't bad work, Taija could admit, quite different to how she'd have done it though. Could it be improved? Perhaps a tweak to the spirit matrices in the anterior knots? That might eke a bit more efficiency out of it, but it was certainly serviceable.

When Moiraine had tied off her web, the Amyrlin leant forward on her almost-throne, dark eyes capturing Taija's. Both her and Moiraine still held the Power, which seemed unnecessary. Then again so did Taija even if they didn't know that.

The Amyrlin's hard tone broke her out of her musing. "So, child, what are we to do with you?"

A flash of anger shot through Taija and she almost without thinking she responded with a shallow bow. Calibrated for what she would have delivered to a mildly incompetent mayor of a small city during the War. "Amyrlin. It's a pleasure to meet you. I hope we can work together for our mutual benefit."

The Amyrlin's eyes narrowed, it seemed she'd understood the bow, and her voice cracked out across the room. "The correct form of address is 'mother', child."

Taija could recognise a power game when she saw it. If she allowed this woman to walk all over her now it would never stop. Anyway she'd had worse in some of the grant pitches she'd done. She kept her own voice mild though, she wasn't looking for conflict, just respect. "And the correct form of address for me is aes sedai or Taija sedai." She pronounced the words subtly differently to how people in this time did. "I suppose I would also accept Professor Kosola. What I am not, is a child. I'm probably older than you and my mother has been dead for over three thousand years." That wasn't something she wanted to think about… Why had she said that?

The Amyrlin leant back in her chair turning her head towards Moiraine with a small frown. "And you said she was meek as a well-fed roundfish…." Her attention landed on Taija once again. "Very well, Taija sadai. I see that you do have some spine. We are navigating the Fingers with nothing more than a candle to guide us and there are lionfish in the water so there is no space for weakness."

Taija blinked, left speechless as she tried to decipher the Amyrlin's metaphors. Was it an issue with her understanding of the language? Or was the Amyrlin just odd? Her train of thought was quickly yanked back on track as the Amyrlin kept talking. "Moiraine has explained your circumstances to me and I expect that we will be able to do something. However, this is a sensitive time for me and the White Tower, I am taking a risk just by seeing you, particularly without my entourage. If the other aes sedai knew who you were, they would react poorly. As Moiraine has told you, Tower law punishes harshly anybody who falsely claims to be aes sedai."

The Amyrlin held up a hand to stall Taija's protest. "I do not say that you were not aes sedai in the Age of Legends. Merely that under Tower law you are not now. However, you have my word that I am not seeking to have you punished for impersonation of an aes sedai. Doing so would hardly be conducive to a good relationship now, would it?"

Taija let herself relax slightly. Perhaps she would be able to work with this woman. She nodded and smiled. "Obviously I don't want conflict with this time's aes sedai. My goal is to serve the Light however I best can. I've seen enough of what the Shadow can do when the forces of the Light are divided."

Taija paused to think for a moment before continuing. "I think we can offer much to each other. We both have knowledge that the other needs. I could just stay here and kill trollocs, it wouldn't be the worst life, but I want, no need, to better understand the world that I now live in. From your side I'm sure I know things that would be useful to you, the White Tower and society in general. Ultimately, we all walk in the Light and have the same aims for the world."

Taija fervently hoped that was true. She wouldn't want to rely on it until she knew the Amyrlin much better. However, Moiraine seemed to trust her and, while Moiraine clearly had her own agenda, Taija did think that ultimately she was one of the good guys even if she might choose a different path to her.

Siuan offered Taija a small smile. "I am glad you say so Taija sedai. When you are hunting silverpike in the dark it is always better to work together." What in the Light were silverpike? Siuan nodded to Moiraine who reached into a chest beside the throne to pull out a rolled up scroll or maybe it was just paper, Taija wasn't quite sure. Was there a difference?

"As a start for what I certainly hope will be a beneficial way forward, this may be interesting to you."

"What is it? Taija was intrigued, already going over to see as Moiraine unrolled the paper on a desk, weighing down the edges to stop it from rolling itself up again before stepping back to give Taija room.

"This is one of the better maps that I have seen of the known world." Siuan's voice washed over Taija as she leant over it, focusing on the details, tracing a finger along a mountain range without quite touching the paper. "You may be able to find some link to the Age of Legends, perhaps we can relate it back to your time." Already fascinated, Taija barely felt the flash of irritation that came with them calling her time the Age of Legends.

It was at that moment of distraction that Taija felt saidar surge behind her. A thick flow of air grabbed her, throwing her sideways across the room with sickening speed. At the same time a terrifyingly powerful web of spirit hammered at her own connection to the Power.

The world seemed to slow around Taija, everything sensed in pinpoint clarity as she drew hard on the Power, holding it against the shield that threatened to batter through the flood of saidar.

She almost channeled spirit and fire, razor sharp, to slice through the web and stopped herself at the last moment. She couldn't risk hitting the wrong thing. There was no time to think. She split her flows.

A sloppily formed overpowered wall of air with spikes for added lethality blasted towards the Amyrlin and Moiraine. At the same time a soft cushion of air started to form between her and the wall that she was heading towards all too fast.

Taija did her best to shift in mid-air to lessen the impact. Thump! She hit the wall, her momentum only slightly slowed by the partly formed web.

The air was driven from Taija lungs and her webs vanished. For a moment her grip on saidar wavered, pain shooting through her as she fell to the floor. That was all the opportunity the Amyrlin and Moiraine needed. Their shield smashed through Taija's connection to saidar, slamming into place and cutting her off from the Power.

Before she could even groan and stagger to her feet she was yanked up by flows of air pinning her arms painfully tight against her already bruising body.

They must have been linked. It was hard to think through the fog suffusing her brain after her impact with the wall, but it was the only thing that made sense. Light her back hurt! Moiraine could match her with her angreal and the Amyrlin's strength was similar to Moiraine's. Alone neither of them could have forced a shield on Taija while she held the Power, even disoriented as she was. That had to have been why they'd stood so close to each other, to hide the visual effect of the link.

Taija got a few seconds to recover her breath, pain already pulsing in her back as Moiraine and the Amyrlin shared small, satisfied smiles with each other, breathing visible sighs of relief. In the background Lan had his sword to Aleksi's throat. How could they…? What were they…? Was her arm broken? Or just in pain? Had she hit her head?

As Taija pulled herself together mentally white hot fury erupted inside her.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Keeping her temper was a forgotten ambition as was their 'Common Tongue'. "You just attacked me! You could have killed me! Is this what I get from every so-called aes sedai in this fucking time?"

Taija's shouting pulled their attention back onto her and the Amyrlin answered, her voice as cold and hard as ice. "Did you really think you could get away with this? A silverpike trying to hide amount the whitefish?"

"What in the Creator's name are you talking about? Fuck your fish!" With a supreme effort of will Taija got her rage under control as she goggled at the Amyrlin. Fear was bubbling up under the rage, but she wasn't going to show it. "I don't know why you've attacked me like this. Utterly without provocation, but whatever your reasons you're wrong!"

Moiraine shook her head, giving Taija a flat eyed gaze. "Did you really believe I would not notice your interest in Rand? Did you truly think that you could corrupt the Dragon Reborn under our very noses, turn him to the Shadow, while dancing around us with your ridiculous stories? If not for the need to protect Rand from the other aes sedai, we would have had a full circle of thirteen to take you within an hour of the Amyrlin's arrival."

Taija was struggling to catch up with whatever excuse for thought processes was going on in their heads. What even was a Dragon Reborn? "Wait, wait, you think I'm a darkfriend?" Anger surged up again, threatening to overwhelm her tenuous control. "You don't understand what you're saying, or how wrong you…"

The Amyrlin cut her off contemptuously. "Much as I think we could learn from a more… detailed conversation," her hard look left Taija under little illusion about what would be involved in that, "we cannot afford for you to reveal young al'Thor's secret." She glanced at Moiraine and then the light of saidar brightened around them as she drew harder on the Power and began to spin a web. "May the Creator forgive you. May you make better choices in the next turning of the Wheel."

Panic spiked in Taija. It couldn't end now! Not like this! Frantically she screamed in her own language, "activate contingency three!" Instantly one of the inverted wards she'd carefully spun around this audience chamber a couple of nights before triggered.

The inverted flows came together in a blinding flash of light and a blizzard of razor-sharp flows of fire and spirit shot across the chamber, slicing apart every web within its walls in an explosion of saidar.

The web of air holding Taija in place vanished. As did the shield, along with the tied off webs changing her appearance and concealing her ability to channel.

In the back of her mind Taija noticed the Amyrlin wincing as the cut flows snapped back into her, confirming she was the one leading the circle.

It didn't matter, Taija was already channeling, drawing as hard as she could on the Power. She needed to act while they were distracted. Together they were too strong.

Fire erupted around both Moiraine and the Amyrlin, the air almost instantly going from nothing to white hot. Taija could feel the Amyrlin frantically trying to counter the overpowered flows she was feeding into the web. However, at the same time she was already whipping an inverted flow of air around from the right barely above floor level and throwing half-hearted shields at both Moiraine and the Amyrlin.

The Amyrlin dumped air and water into a thick web to push the fire away from the two of them. Inefficient, ideal, she needed to draw a huge portion of the Power available to her to do it, all while blocking Taija's webs of spirit with her own. The Amyrlin started to spin her own flows to attack Taija, slow. Too slow. Less than a second after Taija had started to spin saidar her whip of air took both the other women's feet out from under them.

Before they'd even hit the floor Taija was spinning more webs. Inverted fire, earth, spirit and air surrounded the Amyrlin's head blocking all light and sound. Another web of air, trivially simple, froze Lan and Aleksi in place off to her side.

For a second the Amyrlin flailed with the Power. Before she had time to try to cut the flows blinding her Taija had already dived to the side out of her potential line of fire and yanked her hard sideways into Moiraine with air.

The two women collided painfully, losing their focus enough that the light of saidar briefly winked out around them. In that moment Taija struck, two hard webs of pure spirit slamming into place, barely controlling her anger enough not to put a razor sharp edge onto them. She could always sever them later.

A moment more and she was lifting the two aes sedai on flows of air and pushing them forcefully against the wall in front of her.

Taija realised she must look demented, standing in front of them. Holding them there while blazing with the light of saidar, disheveled and already bruising from her impact with the wall.

Her chest was heaving as she gasped for breath. Partly because she was still somewhat winded from the way she'd been slammed into the wall and partly from the sheer rage that was roaring through her. Sparing a glance back to make sure Aleksi was alright, beyond being frozen in place with a furious looking Lan, Taija turned her attention back to the two women in front of her.

How dare they?! She'd gone to them, with open hands, told them the truth and they'd tried to kill her! Perhaps worse, they'd accused her of being a darkfriend! With blood pounding in her ears, she was almost overwhelmingly tempted to simply kill them, grab Aleksi and disappear to somewhere else in this Light-forsaken time.

Fortunately the decision was taken out of Taija's hands when the door burst open behind her and Liandrin and Leane charged into the room only to stop, completely stunned by what they saw. Of course, the ward against sound…

Taija was about to speak, but the Amyrlin shouted before she could. "Help us! She's Lanfear!"

Taija nearly lost her hold on saidar in shock at that and where her rage was a blazing fire before it was a nuclear inferno now. How dare she! The things that Mierin Eronaile had done to…

She sensed Leane forming a web of her own, something of fire, air and spirit and prepared herself to cut the flows and strike back. Fighting two of these women while holding the shields on Moiraine and the Amyrlin would be a challenge.

Then with no warning Liandrin channeled.

However, her webs weren't directed at Taija. Instead Leane was caught utterly flat footed, barely fending off a burst of fire before being knocked down by a fist of air, the glow of saidar winking out from around her.

It seemed like the whole room was frozen for a second. All Taija could hear was her own heart pounding in her ears as she felt her rage swirling under the serene flow of saidar. Then Liandrin turned to her, giving a deep curtsy. "Great mistress Lanfear, it is an honour to serve one of the Chosen."

It took Taija a moment to really process what Liandrin had said and then her vision went white with fury. "How. Dare. You. You fucking bitch, do you know what that woman did to me?! To my family?!"

As Taija screamed at her she channeled almost instinctively, every spare ounce of the Power available to her, thick, overpowered flows of air connecting the two of them almost instantly.

Liandrin barely had time to realise what was happening before she was slammed to the ground with bone-breaking force, dragged along the floor brutally fast straight into a wall and then whipped back, along the floor into the other wall and back again. By the time Taija got herself back under control, most of Liandrin was a smear of blood and viscera along the floor and each wall.

Taija was left panting, her shoulders heaving and her mind in turmoil, waiting for anyone else to burst into the room. Apart from a groan from Leane on the floor, which prompted Taija to shield her too before she could recover, there was just a stunned silence.

There was nothing Taija wanted more at that moment than to just open a gateway to the Blight and kill trollocs for the next month or so, but she knew that wouldn't be a helpful response to the situation. As her rage cooled into cold anger, rational thought processes reasserted themselves.

Perhaps it was time for a more open conversation with the Amyrlin and Moiraine. All cards on the table, but from a position of dominance. Clearly the only language these so-called aes sedai really understood was force.

Taija turned to face them, still breathing heavily. "Maybe before you accuse me of being a darkfriend you should make sure you have a bit more evidence than your own paranoid delusions. It might also help if you cleared up your own organisation first. Fucking so-called aes sedai." She practically spat the last few words.

With an effort of will Taija got herself fully under control. Abusing them in her language wasn't going to be helpful, even if it was cathartic. She turned towards Aleksi and Lan and released the part of the web holding Aleksi. As soon as he was free he stumbled back, wide eyed, glancing between Taija, the bloody gore on the floor and Lan while looking like he wanted to throw up, but he kept his silence. Probably wise. After a moment Taija decided Lan could stay in place for now.

Taija turned her attention back to the women. Much as she hated to admit, their actions combined with Liandrin's reaction were good evidence that they weren't darkfriends. "Can we perhaps have a civilised conversation now? I'm going to keep you shielded, I'm not feeling very trusting, but I'll let you down." She followed her own words by releasing her webs of air and gently lowering them to the ground.

Taija could see that they were both still in a state of shock. She suspected that there weren't many things that could phase either Moiraine or the Amyrlin, but here and now their composure was completely gone.

It was the Amyrlin who gathered herself and spoke first, choosing her words carefully and slowly. "Very well Taija sedai." There was no hesitation around the honorific. "I believe we may have done you an injustice. Sometimes even the best fisherman casts his nets in the wrong pool."

She exchanged a glance with Moiraine who needed shakily and continued. "You have our sincere apologies Taija sedai. I had my reasons for believing you were a friend of the dark and I still believe my reasoning was sound, you did not… help yourself." She ignored the growing frown on Taija's face. "However, as is regrettably often the case, I did not have all the information I needed and it is clear that I came to the wrong conclusion."

The tension slowly went out of the room as the three of them talked. Aleksi moved to stand scowling behind Taija, hand on the dagger at his belt, but the effect was ruined slightly by the way he desperately tried to avoid looking at Liandrin's remains. After an almost pleading request from Moiraine Taija even released Lan, although she kept an eye on him ready to bind him again if he so much as took a step towards her and Aleksi.

Eventually Leane woke up and the Amyrlin and Moiraine had to explain everything that had happened to her. Obviously she had the most to learn as they talked, but Taija found out a lot of worrying things herself.

The worst shock was when Moiraine told her about the writing daubed on the dungeon wall during the trolloc attack. Lanfear… Taija shivered. She'd thought the Forsaken at least would have been dead for millennia. Unfortunately both Moiraine and the Amyrlin seemed very sure that they were not dead and at least some of them were free, although how they could be so certain she had no idea. Why had only the very worst aspects of her time survived?

Taija also heard about the theft of the Horn of Valere for the first time. She'd never heard of the device and when they said it summoned heroes of old to fight she thought it sounded ridiculous. Of course neither of them had ever actually seen it used. In the end it hardly mattered though. It was clearly a ter'angreal of some kind and couldn't be allowed to remain in the hands of the Shadow.

Moiraine and the Amyrlin also told Taija about the Dragon Reborn, Rand apparently, who was Lews Therin reincarnated and would save the world or break it again. Interestingly that had been a surprise to Leane too. She was told that there were prophecies and foretellings of this rebirth and, again, the women or at least Moiraine and the Amyrlin seemed very sure of it.

Taija was rather more sceptical. Of course prophecies were real, but identifying the true from the false was difficult and every prophecy she'd ever heard of had been so obscure that it was only clear they'd been fulfilled after the event. Pointless in other words.

Regardless, as far as she was concerned, the whole calling Lews Therin the Dragon thing was more about propaganda than anything else. Young Rand certainly didn't seem anything like Lews Therin anyway, although to be fair the man must have been pushing 300 when Taija had met him for the first time, let alone when he died. Of course she kept her scepticism to herself, but really the idea was ridiculous. At least it explained why Moiraine had been so desperate to keep her away from someone she thought was essentially the saviour of the world.

Taija was sure that Moiraine and the Amyrlin still weren't being completely open with her, but she could tolerate that. She wasn't telling them everything either and she didn't expect deep trust to spring out of nowhere. However, now that they all knew where the others stood, a working relationship should be possible.

After a while Leane, who had mostly been staying quiet and listening, pointed out that even with her in on the secret and Liandrin dealt with more permanently, someone would want to speak to the Amyrlin soon enough and the conversation turned to what they should do next.

"I will be returning to the Tower of course." At some point the Amyrlin's composed self-assurance had returned. "They will need to be carefully managed as ever and prepared for the Dragon. Moiraine and Leane will be accompanying me, along with young Egwene and Nynaeve. As for the boy himself, he and his friends will be leaving tomorrow to pursue the darkfriends who have the Horn of Valere, accompanied by a contingent of Shienaran soldiers. It cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of the Shadow."

She nodded to herself and continued. "Taija sedai I think it would be for the best if you were to accompany Rand. The White Tower would be a difficult place for you at present and Moiraine tells me you have developed a good relationship with the boy. Should the Forsaken try to snare him in their nets, you would also offer them a nasty shock when they try to haul him out of the water."

The Amyrlin continued, "we will also need to consider what to do about Liandrin." Her mouth twisted at the bloodied smear and unrecognisable remains behind Taija. "She may have been… Black Ajah," Taija could see she struggled to say the words, "but nobody else knew that."

"Except for any other members," Taija added, deliberately unhelpfully.

"Yes, thank you, except for any other members. I shall have to come up with a story the sisters will accept. Perhaps that she believed she had found a darkfriend conspiracy and it was her end. I will think on it. As for her… remains…"

The Amyrlin looked both concerned and disgusted, so with a small shrug Taija channeled. What was left of Liandrin was lifted into the air and compressed into flows of air. She then added fire, more and more fire until all that was left was a fine ash contained in a ball of air. At the same time she spun an overpowered stain-removing web through the floor and walls, letting it slowly work the blood out of them.

Every other person in the room stared at her, eyes widening. Eventually Leane ventured to speak. "Do you have to hide many bodies Taija sedai?"

Taija felt her face heat at he question. "Uh no… Actually this web is used to remove stains in carpets and I thought it would probably work here."

Leane just about manged a choked, "I see."

Eventually the Amyrlin broke the uncomfortable silence. "So, what will you do next?" Taija could practically feel the effort it took her not to simply tell her what to do.

Chapter Text

Chapter XIII - Taija Did Not Have A Pony When She Was A Child

The morning after her meeting with the Amyrlin, Taija made an early departure from Fal Dara with Aleksi, accompanied by a couple of pack horses carrying her much increased wardrobe and possessions. Lord Agelmar really had been generous after the battle at Tarwin's Gap.

Given the events of the previous day, sticking with Rand and getting far away from this pack of paranoid lunatics whose leader somehow overlooked that one of her lieutenants was a darkfriend sounded like a fantastic idea. Taija had, very briefly, considered whether to teach the Amyrlin and Moiraine how to Travel, but given how heavily infiltrated the aes sedai seemed to be, it was abundantly clear to her that they could not be trusted with it.

As for Aleksi, Taija had been a bit surprised that he was coming with her. There was no way she was leaving him in Fal Dara with the other aes sedai after what he'd heard and seen. Based on the behaviour she'd seen from them, it was even odds that they'd just have him killed to keep their secrets. However, after seeing how ill he looked at what happened to Liandrin and knowing his fear of aes sedai, she didn't want him feeling forced to accompany her.

Taija had offered to spin him a gateway back to Caemlyn or Ramshorn if he wanted it. He hadn't even hesitated though. She'd pressed him, pointing out how dangerous it would be and that just seemed to excite him more.

"I'm getting a taste for adventure!" He'd earnestly insisted. "I've gotten much better with my staff and bow. Anyway, who'll protect you from the world… and yourself, if I let you go off on your own? How on earth you managed to get the Amyrlin bloody Seat to attack you I don't know." It was at least nice that he felt comfortable enough to poke at her now.

In fact Aleksi had been outraged when they'd left the audience chamber and he'd accompanied a limping Taija back to her inn. While adrenaline was a powerful drug, once it wore off she knew that she'd be feeling her impact with the wall for a while. It was just luck that nothing had been broken.

Taija didn't want to give the aes sedai any credit, but to be fair Moiraine had offered to heal her. However, after her attempt at killing her, the chances of her letting that woman touch her with the Power were less than zero.

As the two of them rode away from the city Aleksi kept on chewing over what had happened the day before.

"So you really didn't do anything to provoke them?" It wasn't the first or even the second time he'd asked that. "I thought you were friends with Moiraine."

Taija nodded wearily. "No, I didn't. You were there and so did I. She somehow got it in her head that I was one of the Forsaken. Lanfear of all people!"

Again, not the first time, he muttered, "the Dark One and all of the Forsaken are bound in Shayol Ghul."

"Apparently not." Taija's voice was dry. "To be honest with you Aleksi, I'd thought they were all dead once I found out when this was. In the War, or failing that dead of old age although that would be too good a fate for any of them. None of them could have lived past 800, surely." She ignored his choking cough at the number. "Now I've found out that Lanfear is probably alive. I can't think of many worse things to learn. Presumably the others too. Light only knows what's they're doing now. I suppose once Rand gets this horn back I'm going to have to start thinking about about hunting them down." She sighed. As if it would be that simple or easy.

Aleksi goggled for a second at the idea of someone actually seeking out the Forsaken. "I… just find it hard to believe. My mother used to tell me Semirhage would get me if I didn't go to sleep on time. If I had a bad dream, it was Lanfear trying to break free…"

"I know, well knew anyway, someone who killed themselves with their own teeth when they heard they'd been captured by Semirhage's forces," Taija mused out loud. "They bit through they own wrist rather than wait to be delivered to her."

With a start she realised that Aleksi was looking ill. "Sorry… It's… I don't quite know how to explain. These people are myths to you. They're real people to me. I've met most of them at one time or another. You have your stories about the Forsaken. Friends, family, places I've been to and lived in were the victims in those stories!"

Taija forced herself to stop as she realised her voice was rising and Aleksi was looking more and more uncomfortable. "Again, I'm sorry. If you want to go home, I'll spin you a gateway right now. There's no shame in it."

Aleksi's face hardened. "No. I said I'd protect you, I'm not turning back. I just need to get my head round what's going on."

It was heart-warming that there was at least one person who had her back.

=======

A few kilometres out of Fal Dara Taija was pleased to be able to dismount and walk around on her own two feet. She knew there was going to be plenty of riding in her future, but if she never had to climb on a horse again she'd be delighted.

The two of them had a couple of hours to wait before a group of horsemen came trotting towards them. As they got closer Taija recognised Rand his two friends riding amidst a group of plate-armoured Shienaran horsemen. The Ogier, Loial, was also with them towering on top of an impressively large horse. The kind of creature Taija had seen pulling carts at historic reenactments. She sighed quietly to herself at the realisation that Loial would be traveling with them for the foreseeable future.

When the Shienarans reached her and Aleksi they reined up and their leader, a Lord Ingtar she thought, did a double-take before he bowed in the saddle placing a clenched fist across his heart. "Honour to serve Taija sedai, it is good to have you with us. I was warned you might look different, but your disguise is impressive."

"The honour is mine," Taija murmured before she awkwardly mounted her horse and guided it into their party. "Shall we go?"

As the group started back up again and Taija tried to adjust once more to the uncomfortable bouncing of her horse, she called out, "by the way Lord Ingtar, for now, please call me Alisa or Lady Alisa if you must be formal. The darkfriends mustn't know that I am with you and if you can avoid using my name then they might not realise you have an aes sedai with you at all. Especially with me disguising myself." She gestured vaguely towards her now blonde hair. "If the Light wills it, that could give us an edge if or when things come to battle."

Taija found the talk of lords and ladies more than a little awkward. It just wasn't the way the world should be. Why should some accident of birth give you power or status? What mattered was what you did for society. Another strike against this time's societies.

However, whatever she wanted the world to be like, she had to adapt to the realities of the time she was in, so she would do her best. At least aes sedai seemed to sit at or near the top of the hierarchy in this time.

Traveling with another face really did seem like a good idea. The number of times Taija had been caught by surprise since she found herself in this time was bothering her and she sincerely hoped that the next time something went wrong she would be the one catching out the enemy. She'd met a servant in Fal Dara named Alisa and it seemed like as good a name as any. Promoting a commoner to the nobility felt like a discrete way of thumbing her nose at the concept anyway.

Taija was also more than a bit worried by the revelation that at least one of the Forsaken was free. She didn't know any better until yesterday, but now she was kicking herself for being so blasé about using her real name and face. Hopefully she wouldn't come to regret it and, if she was very very lucky, one of the Forsaken might even make the same mistake.

========

Ingtar was setting a punishing pace and Taija was not enjoying it at all. Not being used to horses made it bad enough, but when she was already in some pain from her confrontation with the aes sedai it was like her own personal hell.

The fact that Aleksi seemed to have taken to the saddle rather well only added to Taija's irritation, although that was unfair to him of course. In fact he'd busied himself talking to anyone and everyone in the party. He did get a few jokes from the Shienarans about how a warder could be such a bad rider, but they were clearly banter and even the sullen Masema seemed to be willing to exchange a few words with him. Of course no one made jokes about Taija's riding, at least not where she could hear them.

While Aleksi seemed to be having a surprisingly good time, there was definitely something eating up Rand and his friends. They were avoiding him in what Taija assumed must be a teenage spat and in turn he was extremely untalkative.

She did notice that Rand seemed to be wearing much nicer clothing than before. Presumably Lord Agelmar had gifted him some the same way he had with her, which was nice. Regardless, he seemed to need space for now, so Taija gave it to him for the first couple of days, instead 'enjoying' the way she could feel aches in what must be every muscle and bone in her body.

In fact Taija ended up talking with Loial more and, despite her initial irritation when she first met him and her general grumpiness due to being forced to ride all day, he did grow on her. He was clearly a bright boy and a bit of a motormouth by the standards of the Ogier.

"So you say that the Ways were grown by male aes sedai during the Breaking using a ter'angreal?" The whole concept of the Ways was fascinating, although clearly far inferior to Traveling or even just going by plane.

"No no, well not entirely." Loial shook his huge head. "They started the process, but mostly they were formed using the Talismans of Growing, ter'angreal which they made for the Ogier."

Taija leant foward eagerly. "How fascinating! But you don't know how it works?"

"No sadly, that knowledge is lost. It's been many generations even among the Ogier, let alone in the short-lived lives of humans."

"You do realise I'm twice your age Loial?"

"Well you don't look it Lady Alisa."

Taija laughed. "You're too kind. Anyway I wasn't around when the Ways were made, obviously. However, from what you've said, I think those ter'angreal, you called them Talismans of Growing, yet? Those Talismans probably combine a dimensional breaching web with the reality altering properties of Ogier tree-singing to form a stable uhh self-perpetuating dimensional bridge to a pre-made sub-space micro-dimension. Or at least that's how I'd do it."

Taija clamped her mouth shut as she realised she'd said far too much in her enthusiasm. Loial gave her a look that said she'd completely lost him, it was a look she'd grown used to seeing over the years even without the added language barrier.

Then to her surprise Loial switched to her own language too. "I have cognisance that aes sedai possess myriad talents Lady Alisa, but you appear to speak the Old Tongue better than most. I am not sure I understand many of the words you use. Where did you say you were from?"

Taija was thrown by the sudden switch and a bit worried that she'd given herself away, but Loial mostly seemed to be excited at the chance to have someone to speak to in what he'd call the Old Tongue. "Thank you friend Loial, you speak it very well."

It wasn't a complete lie. Loial's accent was distinctly odd and his speech patterns and vocabulary were rather stilted, but he was clearly far more fluent than Elaida. That being said, Taija wasn't willing to give away her secrets to yet another person. So as Loial peppered her with questions she was careful to give away as little as possible, pretending to have to search for vocabulary to give herself time to choose her words.

======

The other bright point of those first two days of riding was learning about Hurin's talent. It was intriguing! Taija had never heard of anything like it in her time. However, the man wasn't very willing to talk about it. Like far too many people in this time, he was very wary about aes sedai, even if he was respectful. Taija suspected he might have a point, she could see some of those women carting him off to Tar Valon to study him. It was annoying though, she had no intention of doing that and she wanted to know more!

Still, she didn't want to push him too far. He was clearly uncomfortable with being asked about it, but at the same time too polite or respectful to just tell her to piss off. She'd have to make sure to be friendly to him whenever she got the chance and maybe he'd loosen up after a while.

Although Hurin was a bright point, the remains left behind by the trollocs whenever the party reached their camps were sickening. Taija wouldn't hesitate to kill them herself, but even darkfriends didn't deserve to be eaten by their erstwhile allies.

It was made worse by the fact that however fast and hard they all rode, they didn't seem to be gaining ground on the trollocs. Taija wondered whether she should offer to make a gateway for the group to get ahead of the darkfriends. Or even to just go and kill them all in the night without the rest of the party knowing.

In the end she decided not to. For the moment anyway. Travelling was possibly her best trump card now that she was sure the 'modern' aes sedai didn't know how to do it. Also anyone looking for signs of a channeler from her time could just look for gateways. Sickening fates aside, she didn't really care all that much about shadowspawn killing darkfriends. They'd made their bed and they could lie in it.

======

Taija eventually pinned Rand down during another interminably uncomfortable day of riding. The way he was avoiding conversation and moping around like a lost puppy was just getting irritating and she'd had enough.

After waiting for him to separate from the wider group, Taija clumsily directed her horse toward him, wincing internally at the jolting.

"Right! Enough is enough. What's up with you Rand?"

Rand looked at her a little confused and Taija realised she'd translated directly from her language. "I mean what's wrong. Why are you moping around and avoiding everyone?

He scowled at that. "I'm not moping!"

"Really?" Taija raised her eyebrows, Light save her from moody teenagers.

After a second Rand cracked. "Alright, perhaps a little," he sighed deeply and then looked around nervously.

It took Taija a moment to realise what he was worried about, but when she did she spun a quick web around the two of them and the sound of the group faded away. "Don't worry, no one will be able to hear more than a murmur."

"Thank you Tai… Lady Alisa."

"If you call me Lady, I'm going to start calling you Lord Rand again." Taija softened her words with a smile, still she really didn't like these titles.

Rand grimaced, "fine, fine. So… before we left I spoke to Moiraine and the Amyrlin. It was… I don't know, it wasn't what I expected."

"You mean she talked about fish?"

Rand's surprised laugh choked off his next words. "Well, ha, yes, but she also knows I can channel."

"Well, yes, so do I." At least she didn't seem to have attacked him. Not that Taija had any intention of sharing her own experience with Rand.

"That's not the point and you know it! You don't understand what it means here and… she said I'm the Dragon Reborn."

Taija nodded. "Oh yes, she mentioned that too. It sounded a bit silly to be honest." She ignored the choking sound Rand was making. "I can see why it's upsetting for you, I'd be upset too, but I think you need to be careful how much you listen to these women, they're not as clever as they think they are."

"You don't understand though!" Rand's voice was rising. "They can't lie and they're telling me I'm him. Lews Therin Kinslayer! That it's my responsibility to save the world, all while I'm going mad and killing everyone around me!"

Taija winced and put a comforting hand on his arm. "You're right, I don't understand, not everything. But believe me, I understand how hard it can be when you're being pulled in different directions like this and told terrible things."

She paused for thought. "Not being able to lie doesn't mean they can't be wrong." Taija scowled briefly at the memory. "Also, you don't actually know they can't lie. I'd certainly find it useful if I could convince everyone I couldn't lie."

"But what if they want me to be one of their false dragons. That's what he's been saying in my drea…" Rand cut himself off, clearly feeling he'd shared something he hadn't meant to.

At first Taija made a joke of it, "well you wouldn't make a very good false dragon. I've met Lews Therin and you're nothing like him. He's much more full of himself."

Rand scowled, "you know that's not the point!"

"No, no I know that, but…" Taija's mind caught up with what he'd said before. "Wait, stop! Who's been saying this in your, were you going to say dreams?"

"Oh. It's nothing… I don't want to talk about it."

"No Rand. I'm sorry, but this is important. I need to know. What exactly has been happening to you in your dreams."

Rand sighed and looked down. "Since we left the Two Rivers I've been having dreams of Heart of the Dark, the Dark One. He comes to me in them and tries to persuade me to join the Dark, or to trick me or hurt me. Sometimes he tells me things about the aes sedai that turn out to be true. I'd thought it was just my own fears or maybe even the madness, but sometimes when I wake up there are still marks from things that happened in the dream…" He trailed off and mutely opened his palm to show Taija the shape of a heron burnt into it.

Taija hissed at the sight. "And you didn't tell anyone?!" Even as Rand recoiled at her tone she tried to moderate it. "No, sorry, that's not fair. I understand why you didn't tell anyone, but this is important and incredibly dangerous. So thank you for telling me. Now that I know, maybe we can do something about it."

She thought for a second. "Alright… Firstly I need more information. I think it's unlikely that the Dark One himself is coming to your dreams. I'm not sure that's possible unless you're a darkfriend. Maybe not even then. What does this Heart of the Dark look like?"

Rand seemed to relax a little at Taija's business like tone. "He changed. At first he had a burning face, fire coming out of his eyes and mouth as he spoke. He'd threaten me with doom for me and my friends unless I joined him, tried to trick me into doing things ranting about past ages and his inevitable victory. More recently though he's been different. No fire, smart, but strange clothes. Now he's been much more… coherent I suppose. Instead of threatening me he's telling me about what I need to do to save myself, offering me advice and telling me what the aes sedai will do to me."

Taija grimaced, this really was not good. "But what does he look like?"

Rand paused to think, "he's tall, with dark, straight hair, a neat beard, dark eyes and a large nose. He still says he's Heart of the Dark, but now he's always so calm, he actually sounds nice, like he cares and…" he trailed off for a second. "And his accent is a bit like yours."

Taija couldn't fully repress her shudder or a muttered curse. If one of the Forsaken was taking an interest in Rand did that mean they believed this ridiculous Dragon Reborn story too? "Right. Right. This is ok, this can be dealt with." She took a deep breath. "Firstly, Rand, thank you for telling me. Have you heard of the Unseen World? You might call it… I don't know… the World of Dreams?"

When Rand shook his head she continued. "Well, in short it's a sort of dream world that certain people can enter and use and they can also use this to affect other people's dreams. It's too complicated to explain much of it right now, but this is almost certainly how he's coming into your dreams. From what you've told me, you definitely don't have the Dark One in your dreams, which is good. But… you've just described Elan Morin Tedronai almost perfectly and there's no way you could know what he looks like."

Seeing Rand's confusion Taija clarified, "Elan Morin was Ishamael's real name."

Rand blanched. "One of the Forsaken is visiting my dreams?!"

Taija nodded slowly, she couldn't let the poor boy see how much this actually worried her. "Yes… Well, probably. This isn't good, I know, but it's not all bad news. I can ward your dreams every night from now on. He won't be able to visit you anymore. You'll need to learn how to do it yourself as soon as you can, but for now that'll do. He won't be able to touch your dreams again and now we know he's here so we can do something about him."

"Thank you… Alisa." Rand looked a little reassured which was good, but Taija couldn't help but feel a bit guilty for her false bravado. She might be able to ward his dreams while she was around him, but Ishamael wasn't a problem she felt in any way ready to face…

She sighed, she'd just have to do her best. "Now, tell me everything he's said. The man is a liar through and through, but maybe we can work out what kind of a game he's playing."

======

The next day they found an abandoned village, everything left in place as if its inhabitants just up and left in the middle of their lunches. Taija could tell that the men were getting increasingly creeped out and she had to admit that she was feeling it too. She thought she saw a woman in white in one of the windows for just a second before she disappeared, but she was probably just letting the stress and tiredness get to her.

The party ferried themselves across the river and on the other side they found two of the darkfriends tied and skinned, spreadeagled between the trees. Taija had seen a lot in the last five years, but that left even her wanting to empty her stomach over the grass. While Aleksi kept his lunch inside him, all three of the boys did vomit and some of the Shienarans looked queasy. However, none of them threw up, even though she learnt that the corpses were two of their former comrades.

Taija was surprised when Ingtar ordered the corpses' burial in remembrance of the good they'd done in the past and in case they were just prisoners. She had severe doubts and she could see that a few of the soldiers did too. However, no one said anything in response to his odd reaction.

Another day or riding brought them to a second empty village. Again the Shienarans feared an ambush and entered it cautiously, but there was nobody to be found. However, there were signs of a struggle, blood on the walls and the occasional dead body.

Everyone spread out to look for anything useful, but just before Rand went into one of the houses Taija shouted urgently for him to stop.

Rand hesitated, obviously confused, with his hand hovering over the door's handle.

"Wait Rand, there's something just a bit off about this…" she channeled a tiny flow of air into the door, making it swing open and her eyes widened. There was an intricate web of saidar spread all across the doorway and presumably through the house. She couldn't see all of it, but it looked like something to do with illusion and binding.

"Yes…" She murmured, lost in thought. "You definitely don't want to go in there, someone's left a trap, although I've no idea who'd even know we were coming. I think it's best to just leave it alone, it's just a farmhouse, probably nothing to see inside, but my best guess is there's probably a channeler with the darkfriends and we don't want to find out the hard way what they're doing."

Rand nodded and moved on while Taija went to find Ingtar to let him know what she'd seen and that his men should be on the look out for a potential enemy channeler.

She found him, Uno and Masema staring at yet another disturbing sight. At first glance it looked like a body in front of an old barn. Unpleasant, but nothing new. Then Taija realised it wasn't just a body. Someone had effectively crucified a myrddraal against the barn door. Nails pinned it there thought its hands and feet, while a pair of wooden stakes had been hammered through its eyeless face.

"Light, what kind of monster could do that to one of the eyeless?" Ingtar muttered in a shocked tone. Taija could think of one or two, but that wasn't something that was going to reassure any of the men.

======

That night when the group stopped to camp, Taija saw Ingtar hand Rand a bundle and talk with him. A little while later there was a heated, but whispered argument between Rand and the boys.

After a minute Taija got up to go over to them. Frankly she'd had enough of them sulking at each other.

To her mild surprise Perrin and Mat seemed to try to put themselves between her and Rand, blocking her view of whatever it was that he was holding. Hadn't they been arguing with him before?

"What's going on here?" Taija tried to peer past them. Why couldn't she be a bit taller?

It was Perrin that answered. "Nothing Taija sedai, just a slight disagreement between friends, nothing worthy of your attention."

"Hmm, I'll be the judge of that." Taija sharpened her tone, "also, it's Alisa or Lady Alisa. Remember that, it might save your life."

Perrin's weak attempt at fobbing her off didn't do much to discourage Taija. However, when she tried to just go around them he physically stopped her, pushing lightly on her already bruised shoulder with his oversized paw on her bruised shoulder, making her grimace from the spike of pain.

There was a moment of silence. Taija looked down at his hand covering her shoulder and back up to his eyes which were slowly widening. She was fairly sure she heard Mat mutter, "burn me," off to Perrin's side.

Carefully controlling her temper, he was just a boy, Taija reached up, placing her hand over Perrin's, and pushed it off her. Her voice was ice cold. "Touch me again without my permission and I'll make you regret it."

He winced snatching his hand away as if she'd set it on fire and Taija took the opportunity to step around him.

Rand was standing there, holding a banner in his hands, just staring morosely down at it. Taija walked up to him and took in the white background with a sinuous red dragon embroidered across it, Mat and Perrin trailing nervously behind her, apparently intimidated out of any further protests.

"Hmm, not bad work I suppose, fairly close to the original, but missing a few details." Rand kept staring at it, so Taija continued. "Let me guess, Moiraine left this for you? Got Ingtar to give it to you?"

Rand nodded.

"For fuck's sake." Taija swore, unconsciously switching to her own language. Mat twitched and took a step back at the words and Taija needed to remind herself to keep her temper under control around these boys. Why was everyone so terrified of aes sedai in this time?!

After a moment's thought she sighed deeply. "Alright Rand, probably best if you just put it away. No one can force you to do anything you don't want to. I'd offer to destroy it, but given the way everyone seems to get about this, it might actually be useful some time."

Mat interrupted her at that point, whispering frantically. "Wait?! You're an aes sedai, aren't you going to do something to him? G… He can ch… I flaming well told him not to let you see that blasted thing, I bloody well did. He must already be mad letting you…"

Taija cut him off with a raised hand. "You mean this whole Dragon Reborn thing? Why would I do anything to him? The whole thing's ridiculous. You can't go around treating people badly because of backwards mys..." She stopped herself before she said anything too offensive about their beliefs.

"Look." She took a deep breath. "Prophecy is vague. It's been translated and repeated a hundred times. Who knows what it really means in the end. All you can or should do is judge for yourself and be the person you want to be and not worry about what some scholar wrote down two thousand years ago. Clearly Moiraine wants Rand to… no that's unfair. Clearly Moiraine believes certain things about Rand, but that doesn't mean that she's right or that they even matter if she is."

Mat muttered, "Light only knows what kind of aes sedai you are."

He blushed when Taija shot him an unimpressed look and replied, "the best kind, obviously."

Afterwards Taija returned to her bedroll equally irritated with pretentious, manipulative 'aes sedai' and stupid teenagers.

======

At the end of the next day the party stopped to camp next to a weathered stone that protruded only slightly from the ground. The faint remains of carved symbols could be seen around its base. There was something vaguely familiar about it, although Taija couldn't quite put her finger on what.

As she settled down for "bed" on the hard ground, her mind drifted back to her own time, as it did most nights. The bright lights of Adanza during Spring Festival. Dancing underneath the blooms of cherry blossom. No death or shadowspawn. Just lovers, friends, happy people swirling around each other while aes sedai painted the sky with wild displays of colour and imagery. Better times. Happier times. She missed them.

Chapter Text

An Alternate Take on the Meeting Between Taija and the Amyrlin

"This is one of the better maps that I have seen of the known world." Siuan's voice washed over her as she leant over it, focusing on the details, tracing a finger along a mountain range without quite touching the paper. "You may be able to find some link to the Age of Legends, perhaps we can relate it back to your time." Already pretending to be fascinated, she barely felt the flash of irritation that came with them calling her time the Age of Legends.

It was at that moment of distraction that she felt saidar surge behind her. A thick flow of air grabbed her, throwing her sideways across the room with sickening speed. At the same time a surprisingly strong web of spirit hammered at her own connection to the Power, not that it had much chance of breaking it.

The world seemed to slow, everything sensed in pinpoint clarity as she drew hard on the Power, holding it against the shield that battered futilely at the flood of saidar.

She channeled, centuries of practice coming together in a fraction of a second. Spirit and fire razor sharp to slice through the web, air to cushion her fall.

Before she hit the ground she was spinning more webs. They must be linked, but it did not matter, not against her strength. Behind her she was vaguely aware that Lan had his sword to Aleksi's throat. Inconvenient, he was a loyal servant.

Air solidified around Lan and Aleksi, that would hold them for now, she wouldn't want to have to replace him.

Splitting her flows she threw a shield as a distraction against Moiraine and the Amyrlin while she sent multiple webs of fire and air flying towards them. Of course they were just the cover for the inverted web of air she swept across their feet and ground level.

In a matter of seconds she had the two so-called aes sedai trussed up and shielded.

Job done she straightened to her feet and allowed the white hot fury to consume her. "What were you doing? You just attacked me, unprovoked! Have I done anything to you?" She paused to think, no she had not. "No!"

The Amyrlin answered, her voice as cold and hard as ice, showing not even a hint of the fear that crept into her eyes. "Did you really think you could get away with this? A silverpike trying to hide amount the whitefish?"

"What are you talking about idiot woman? Fish?!" With a supreme effort of will she got her rage under control as she goggled at the Amyrlin. "I do not know why you have attacked me like this. Utterly without provocation, but whatever your reasons you will regret it!"

Moiraine shook her head, giving her a flat eyed gaze. "Did you really believe I would not notice your interest in Rand? Did you truly think that you could corrupt the Dragon Reborn under our very noses, turn him to the Shadow, while dancing around us with your ridiculous stories? If not for the need to protect Rand from the other aes sedai, we would have had a full circle of thirteen to take you within an hour of the Amyrlin's arrival."

"What are you talking about? I am here to help Lews Therin achieve his destiny!" It was outrageous, she could not care less whether he joined the Shadow so long as he was by her side.

Suddenly the door burst open with a bang and Liandrin and Leane charged into the room, only to stop, completely stunned by what they saw.

It was the Amyrlin that called out, "help us! She is Lanfear!"

The Age of Legends aes sedai nearly lost her hold on saidar in shock at that and rage blazed through her. How in the Great Lord's name did they work it out?!

She sensed Leane forming a web of her own, something of fire, air and spirit and prepared herself to cut the flows and strike back. Fortunately she had no shortage of power to spare, even while holding shields on Moiraine and the Amyrlin.

Then Liandrin channeled, but her webs were not directed where they expected. Instead a surprised Leane barely fended off a burst of fire before being knocked down by a fist of air, the glow of saidar winking out around her.

It seemed like the whole room stood still for a moment. All she could hear was the panting of the Amyrlin and Moiraine and the rage flowing through her beneath the peace that was saidar. Then Liandrin gave her a low curtsy, "great mistress Lanfear, it is an honour to serve one of the Chosen."

Lanfear gifted her a thin smile. "Thank you child. It is good to see that I have allies in all the most important places."

Turning back to the Amyrlin and Moiraine she looked them over. "Now what to do with you? I cannot just kill you, it would cause far too much trouble at this point and if Lews Therin found out I have no doubt he would be distressed. So…" She tapped her cheek in contemplation. "Perhaps you can still be put to use."

Blindingly fast she formed two complex webs of all the elements and laid them onto the two women. The compulsion took hold immediately, their eyes losing their focus and stupid smiles spreading across their faces.

Lanfear quickly gave them orders. "You realised that Taija could not be one of the Forsaken, after a long conversation you now trust her implicitly and want her to escort Rand on his hunt to recover the Horn of Valere."

She continued giving them commands, ensuring that she would be able to proceed with her plans without interference and setting up some longer-term opportunities for later. Afterwards she placed the same compulsion on Leane and Lan, all while Liandrin watched on, wide-eyed.

Lanfear did not need her help of course, but good leadership meant rewarding underlings when they tried. "Well done Liandrin. The Great Lord will reward those who work competently for him and I will not forget your name. I see great things in your future, but for now I suggest you leave while these aes sedai," her mouth twisted at the word, "work out where they are and what they are meant to be thinking."

Lanfear also reapplied the web of illusion to herself, shortening and replacing ethereal, pale beauty with a just about pretty, in a mousy way, darker face. She enjoyed the irony really. If that obnoxiously foolish girl had been still been alive to see it, she would have absolutely exploded at the idea of Lanfear impersonating her. Almost a pity she had died during the War, Lanfear would have particularly liked her to suffer more.

"Oh and Liandrin, if you value you life you will not mention seeing me, with either face, to anyone, not even your Black Ajah sisters.

Advice given, Lanfear released the web of air around Lan and Aleksi, took the darkfriend's deep bow as her due, and then opened an inverted gateway stepping through it with Aleksi following behind, feeling quite satisfied with herself.

That could have been a difficult situation, but she felt she had turned it round quite nicely. After this her plans would go ahead unmolested by the so-called aes sedai. In hindsight she should have realised no one with a modicum of sense would possibly be stupid enough to fall for such a ridiculous story as a peasant farmer finding her in a stasis box in a field.

Still, problem dealt with.

Mentally she rubbed her hands together. Now… speaking of unmolested, where had Lews Therin gotten to….?

Chapter Text

Chapter XV - Old Friends

Taija woke with a start, something was wrong! Sitting up she looked around herself, blinking in tired confusion at what she saw. Her surroundings had changed.

Where before she was under the half-buried stone, sheltering in the lee of a hill, she was now on flat ground, next to a fully exposed stone towering six metres above her.

Instead of dense grass punctuated by trees she now saw an altered landscape, everything seemed to be pale and motionless, the occasional tree looking vaguely scorched.

Even more worrying, in place of a party of armoured Shienaran soldiers, there was only Rand, Hurin and Loial along with their horses. No Aleksi either. Fuck.

It only took a moment for Taija to realise what had happened as the fog of sleep cleared from her mind. The how was a bigger question. This shouldn't have been possible.

She ignored the sound of Hurin begging 'Lord' Rand to explain what was happening and Loial's rumbling voice saying he thought he recognised the stone.

How could this have happened? Taija embraced saidar and reached out to run her hands over the stone, completely, unnaturally smooth other than the symbols carved into it. After a minute her temper got the better of her and she snapped at the others, "will you be quiet! I'm trying to work out how we got here and whether I can get us back."

They shut up instantly. At least there were some benefits to everyone being afraid of aes sedai in this time. Then Hurin hesitantly asked, "how do you think we got here Tai… uh Lady Alisa?"

"Give me a minute of peace and I'll try to find out."

Taija knelt in front of the stone, she'd have preferred to have sat cross-legged, but this time's clothing conventions really didn't facilitate that for women. Spinning saidar she formed a complex web of spirit and laid it just so onto the correct symbols on the stone.

"So this is a trans-dimensional breach actuator," her voice had unconsciously taken on a lecturing tone, decades of teaching experience showing. "It allows travel between alternate realities. Places where different choices were made where what might have been actually is. I suppose you could call them mirror worlds as they're a kind of a reflection of our world"

Diagnostic indicators sprung up in front of her, a bright screen of colours and symbols projected into the air by the One Power to gasps from the others. Taija could see the webs behind the colours, comforting saidar mixed with invisible saidin, but all they would see was a flat plane of strange colours and symbols.

"Why we're here specifically… That's more of a mystery. Only a channeler should be able to activate one of these and it certainly wasn't me." It would take a powerful one too, using on of these took far more strength than just Traveling. Taija shifted her web slightly and the projection changed to show historic activations. "Mmm. So, according to this, the last activation was during the night due to," she stopped herself just before she said saidin. "Due to a malfunction. An error in the device. I think the one in our world has been damaged quite badly."

She wasn't even lying. Although how in the Light Rand had done that by accident she didn't know. It took a lot of strength to activate one of these things and as far as she'd been able to gather with some gentle questioning he'd only been channeling for weeks or months.

Taija shifted the web slightly again and looked at the symbols projected in front of her before shaking her head slowly. "Normally I could take us right back to our world - see here's the symbol for Earth, our world." She pointed at a particular symbol. "However, here I think the damage to our world's stone is bad enough that we'd most likely die trying." She was trying hard not to think about how close she came to dying in her sleep. Transported by an untrained boy in an accidental activation of a badly damaged trans-dimensional breach actuator. Fuck.

All three of her companions had paled at her words, but probably for different reasons.

"So we're stuck here and there's nothing we can do?" Asked Rand.

"Well I could take us to a different stone, but without knowing where it is, we could find ourselves underwater, in a volcano or trying to access another damaged one. So I think it's probably a last resort. We'd have a better chance if we can find another stone here so that we know where it is in our world and I can use it more safely than the last time." Taija gave Rand a significant look and from his twitch she thought he got the message.

Rand nodded. "I see. So where can we find another stone?" Taija shrugged, so he turned to Loial, "have you read anything about where else one might be?"

Loial shook his giant head sadly, "I don't remember anything Rand, I've only seen portal stones mentioned in passing, never in any detail." So that was what they called them now.

Then Hurin spoke up. "Lord Rand! I can still sense the trail. It's faint, kind of faded like everything else here, but the darkfriends, I think they came through here, so maybe they can lead us to the way out!"

Rand grinned and clapped Hurin on the shoulder. "Excellent! Good work Hurin, lead on!"

Taija had her doubts, it sounded more like a reflection of her own world. However, she didn't really know how Hurin's power worked and, more importantly, it wasn't like she had a better idea.

They rode along the darkfriends' trail, crossing the odd land. Everything at the edge of Taija's vision seemed to be slightly distorted and it was giving her a headache. At one point Loial stopped and tree-sung himself a quarterstaff from one of the burnt looking trees. Hurin also seemed to be worried by the faintness of the trail, but Rand reassured him. It was odd seeing a teenager helping a grizzled veteran feel better like that.

When darkness fell, Taija and her little party made camp and she spun her normal, inverted protective wards around herself and the camp, also warding Rand against intrusions to his dreams as she had the night before.

Sleep came only with difficulty. Taija had been to parallel worlds through these 'portal stones', not a bad name actually. However, never for this long. She'd always been more interested in the mechanisms than in empty worlds on the other side and now she was cursing that lack of interest.

=====

The next day as they rode they reached a huge spire, which turned out to be covered in trolloc script. Taija was repulsed by the thing, but was a little bemused the fear it triggered in the others until she found out that in her world it was apparently a monument to victory over the trollocs. Disturbing. She hadn't exactly been relaxed before, but she needed to be even more on her guard if this world was dominated by shadowspawn. Not that they'd seen a single thing move in nearly two days of travel.

However, it wasn't long after that that they heard a woman's scream from up ahead. Before Taija could stop him, Rand spurred his horse towards the sound. She chased after him, along with Hurin and Loial, to see a dark-haired woman dressed in white and silver fending off a huge three-eyed monster with a stick. Even at that distance there was something about her…

Before Taija could shout anything to Rand he drew his bow and sent an arrow into the creature. This didn't seem to do much to it, but it turned away from the woman and charged towards Rand instead.

While the mens' attention was grabbed by the charging beast, Taija's stayed on the woman. Worst case she could fry the monster before it got too close and she absently prepared an inverted web of fire and air to do just that.

However, as soon as the monster turned towards Rand the woman seemed to relax completely. The incongruity with her earlier scream and frantic fighting was jarring. She turned to watch the creature charge Rand and calmly called out that to kill a 'grolm' one must hit it in the eye.

The moment Taija saw her face, heard her voice, her heart missed a beat, an icy spear of terror stabbing through it. The terror was followed almost instantly by overwhelming wave of hate. Unconsciously she started to form an inverted web of all five elements before sanity reasserted itself and instead she frantically checked the inverted webs concealing her ability to channel and that she was holding saidar. Thank the Light she'd been making a habit of spinning them each morning.

It took Taija a minute to get her breath under control and stop shivering as she sat there on her horse, drawing on saidar as deeply as she could, to the point where prickles of pain could be felt in her temples.

By then the woman had ridden over to Rand and introduced herself as Selene before getting off her horse and kneeling in front of him with an apparently heartfelt declaration of, "I am yours, Rand al'Thor!" What in the Light was her game here?

As Rand introduced Hurin and Loial to her, Taija could see that they were all instantly smitten with the woman. How did she do it? Rand was a teenager, it was hardly surprising. Hurin though, he was middle aged, he should know better and Loial wasn't even the same species. Argh!

She'd never worried too much about her looks, but Mierin always used to be one of the few people that could make her feel self-conscious about them. Even when Taija had thought they were friends.

After a moment Taija forced herself to ride up too, hoping that Mierin would mistake any fear on her face for worry about that creature, the grolm she'd called it.

"Oh, this is Lady Alisa." Rand introduced Taija without much interest and she thanked the Creator he remembered not to use her actual name.

"I am pleased to meet you Lady Selene, even in such difficult circumstances." Taija forced a smile, focusing very hard on trying to imitate Rand's accent and sound as vapid as possible. "It is good to see another face in this strange place."

'Selene' politely but uninterestedly returned Taija's greeting, before turning her attention back to Rand. As soon as she did, Taija breathed a guilty sigh of relief and moved away to let them talk. She didn't seem to want to hurt Rand right now, so let him deal with her!

Listening to their conversation from a couple of metres behind, Taija quickly found out that 'Selene' was from Cairhien and was out riding when she took a nap, only to wake up in this place and be attacked by the monster. What a load of shit.

Rand was already promising to see her home, practically eating out of her hand and Hurin eagerly told her all about the hunt for the Horn of Valere. Did neither of them have the slightest hint of survival instincts?! To be fair, even Rand was unimpressed by Hurin saying that, asking 'Selene' not to say anything about it, which of course she promised readily. What was a promise to someone who'd break it without even thinking about it?

It wasn't long before they were all riding again, continuing along the darkfriends' trail. Taija made sure to hang back a bit, she wasn't sure she could manage to exchange more words with Mierin than she already had without giving herself away and that would mean death. She just needed to wait for the right opportunity…

'Selene' was telling Rand all about what a great man he'd be, big, beautiful eyes shining up at him and Taija sourly noted that at least he was a bit uncomfortable with that.

She knew she wasn't playing her role as well as she should, keeping back and not joining in the conversation. However, she could only hope that Mierin thought she was sulking at the attention the men were giving her. It was the sort of thing Mierin would think. She'd complained about the way most women were around her before, back in the day. It was probably just a roundabout way of boasting.

'Selene' seemed to be trying to persuade Rand to leave the darkfriends' trail and go to another trans-dimensional breach actuator, although like Loial she called it a portal stone, as if she didn't know any better. Ridiculous. Rand, to his credit, was resisting and insisting on his mission. Taija might have been mildly impressed, if she wasn't deep inside her own head, frantically making plans and discarding them just as fast.

Mierin wasn't even subtle, explaining why the world was so washed out and going over mirror world theory with Rand, Loial listening in rapturously beside them. Apparently she'd read a book on it… Rand was naive, but surely he wasn't that naive?!

One thing that quickly became clear was that 'Selene' was desperately trying to seduce Rand. Taija couldn't work out what on earth she was expecting from this until a thought occurred to her. Surely Mierin didn't buy into this whole Dragon Reborn thing too?!

It was so stunningly pathetic that it actually broke through the terror she was feeling and she had to stifle a crazed giggle. As if crashing his wedding and swearing her soul to the Dark One, committing countless atrocities, wasn't enough! When Mierin found herself in a world completely unprepared for her she was devoting her time to seducing a teenage farmboy that she thought was her ex-boyfriend reborn!

Taija was pulled away from her slightly demented thought processes by Rand firmly insisting that they would not be going to the 'portal stone' to the East that 'Selene' had suggested.

A minute later Taija heard the coughing sound of more of the monsters that were attacking 'Selene'. Suspicious timing, although of course none of the men even noticed.

Five of the creatures came running toward them as 'Selene' gasped theatrically, before informing Rand it was a pack of grolm. She wasn't even a good actor!

Taija could see that Rand wanted to run, but 'Selene' told him that once grolm had a trail, they would never leave it, so with a shout he galloped to a low hill, the rest of them following. Taija could see the grolm coming closer with weird jump-leaps that seemed to cover too much ground. If she hadn't been terrified out of her skin, she'd have been desperate to sit down and study how they did that. As it was, she resisted the urge to blast them with lightning, instead watching 'Selene' out of the corner of her eye.

Next to the woman Taija saw Rand dismount, take his huge bow off his back, string it and draw. He loosed an arrow, followed by another and another and another in quick succession. Five arrows streaked out, each one hitting a grolm dead in the eye.

It was a stunning display of archery. Everyone else looked equally impressed, even 'Selene' and Hurin said he'd never seen anything like it. Clearly Rand had some hidden depths for such a young man.

The moment of peace didn't last long though as the coughs of more grolm came echoing in the distance.

"Can you kill a hundred grolm with that thing?" There was a hint of sarcasm in 'Selene's' tone and she certainly didn't sound impressed anymore. She wasn't even being subtle, why was Rand being so stupid?! Surely teenage hormones weren't that bad!

'Selene' and Rand seemed to be squaring up for an argument and Taija slowly started to put together an inverted web behind her. However, Rand suddenly wheeled his horse to the East without another word and kicked his heels in, quickly followed by her.

A minute later, they were all galloping towards the 'portal stone' she'd been trying to persuade Rand to go to. Taija was thinking about trying to hit Mierin while they were on the move, but she just couldn't focus well enough through the effort of staying on her galloping horse. She couldn't take the risk, she was only going to get one shot and she needed to make it count, there was just too much risk of missing. Of course that woman looked as beautiful and relaxed on horseback as she did everywhere else, Light only knew where she'd learn to ride. Probably as a young girl at pony club or something similarly sickeningly sweet.

It wasn't long before they reined their horses in by a spotless trans-dimensional breach actuator, which Selene told Rand he must use. Of course he didn't see the blatant manipulation there or question how on earth she could get there or even know so much about the things. However, Taija did bless him, or at least the teenage hormones demanding he save the day, for not looking at her and asking her to do it instead.

At that point Taija was seriously considering just letting them go without her. A quick gateway and she'd be gone. Open, dive through and close. Grab Aleksi and go and find something less deadly to do. The chances of Mierin chasing after an unknown aes sedai when she had 'Lews Therin' at her mercy seemed minimal, she didn't know who Taija was after all.

Taija's options were narrowing second by second. She really didn't want to die under Mierin's tender mercies. She also didn't want to end her life smeared across several dimensions because a farmboy was using ancient technology with no idea what he was doing. It was actually stunning that Mierin was willing to risk it herself. Was she completely insane?!

Two things kept Taija from simply fleeing. She hadn't become an aes sedai, fought her way through the War of Power to leave innocents in the hands of one of the Forsaken and she liked Rand Light damn her. Also, there was no way on earth that she would let Mierin have what she wanted without a fight. She'd rather die. So Taija kept her tight smile plastered across her face and prepared herself for death as Rand put his hands on the trans-dimensional breach actuator.

There was a quick flicker and to Taija's surprise she was still alive. Unfortunately so was Mierin.

Rand quickly gestured forward and pushed his horse into an efficient trot. Mierin of course rode up next to him, flattering the boy with honeyed compliments about how remarkable it was that he brought all of them over, even the horses.

To be fair to Rand, it was actually incredibly impressive that he'd done that. How did he even have the strength, let alone the skill? If Taija had any room in her head to think about how stupid it had been to let him try, she'd be hyperventilating.

For a second it looked like Rand might try to kiss 'Selene', but then he pulled back and told her not to talk about the portal stone anymore. Taija could practically feel her irritation before she smiled sweetly and agreed. It wasn't long before they ended with her giving another explanation of mirror worlds and their interaction with time, which all the men listened to far more enthusiastically than anyone ever listened to Taija talking about these kinds of things.

However, they were all distracted. Slowly, carefully, Taija changed her direction, so that it seemed like she was just dropping behind slightly. Saidar flowed through her, deep and powerful, as much as she could draw. She'd never been gladder that she'd taken the time to place a web over herself concealing that fact.

Taija's mind was serenity within the torrent of saidar flowing through her. Burning hate and gibbering fear both ruthlessly suppressed as weaknesses that would only get her killed. With excruciating caution, showing nothing on her face, she started to build a complex, inverted web of all five elements, coming together in intricate patterns around a solid core of fire and spirit.

Chapter Text

Chapter XV - Old Enemies

The web was almost there, all of the Power that Taija could draw funneled into it, just the very last flows to add.

Carefully she shifted her horse moving gently sideways until a few seconds later she was as well positioned as she was going to be. Mierin's white and silver clad back a few metres in front her, none of the men potentially getting between them.

A small breath in, a small breath out and Taija brought the web together. There was no warning. Between one instant and the next a blinding bar of fire as thick as a man's leg blasted out from her straight into Mierin.

But something must have warned her. It took a tiny fraction of a second for the beam of balefire to pass through where Mierin had been sitting, but even as Taija finished her web the Forsaken was already diving off her horse.

Taija swept the blazing liquid fire down and across clipping Mierin's horse, which simply ceased to exist, but Mierin just managed to roll under it, scrambling away.

Taija didn't hesitate. If she did she was dead. She was probably dead anyway. With a scream of frustrated rage she released her web and dove off her own horse, frantically channeling, hoping that Mierin had been stunned by her own fall. Lightning struck from a clear sky, once, twice, three times, the air around the woman erupted into fire and razor sharp blades of focused air shredded the space she was in.

For a brief moment Taija thought she'd succeeded and then she felt it. Her webs were pushed back by a sphere of clear air around Mierin before they were cut, making her wince as the flows snapped back into her.

It was a struggle for Taija to keep hold of her emotions when she saw Mierin straightening up, not untouched, there was mud sullying the pure white and silver of her dress and she was wincing a little, but certainly not seriously injured. Whatever inverted web Mierin had had over herself was released and suddenly Taija could see her blazing with the light of saidar, brighter than she'd ever seen in anyone else.

She'd had one shot at her, just one shot and she'd missed. Now she was probably going to die.

Rand, Hurin and Loial were still blinking away the afterimage from Taija's balefire, trying to work out what just happened, but for her and Mierin all that mattered was each other.

Mierin smiled languidly, seemingly relaxed, but Taija could see the rage bubbling behind her eyes. "Well that was unexpected, a surprise attack from behind without any warning. Presumably from one of this Age's so-called aes sedai. I could almost admire it. If it had succeeded." She leant forward slightly. "I will need to deal with you of course, you really have made a mess of my plans." She glanced at Rand as she said that. "But first, please, tell me. How did you know? Or are you simply so jealous that you could not stand young Lews Therin even speaking to someone more beautiful than you?"

Taija resisted the urge to bite her bottom lip and forced herself into a casual sounding chuckle, "Really Mierin," she deliberately used her first name, as if they were friends. "I should have guessed you'd be here, sniffing after him, despite everything. You've been a joke for a while, but using illusion to make yourself younger so that you can seduce a teenage farmboy. Now that really is pathetic."

As she said the last word Taija was already moving, a gateway snapped open behind her. and she dived through it to cover behind an outcropping of rock, throwing an assortment of air, earth, fire and water behind her in several webs. She didn't expect any of them to hit and none of them did. She was already running even as the spot she'd traveled to vanished in a burst of white hot fire.

Taija stayed out of sight, never stopping, even as explosions walked along the rocks behind her, shattering the cover she might have hidden behind.

Eventually Mierin's burst of temper subsided and Taija carefully climbed onto a boulder so that she could see over it towards her. She was already breathless, clearly she needed to spend more time training. As for Rand and the others, she was praying that they'd had the sense to get away from Mierin, but was worried they hadn't. Of course her fears were confirmed when she saw them still staring wide-eyed at Mierin, apparently too stunned to think about self-preservation.

Fine. She just needed to keep Mierin's attention on her for long enough for them to wake up and make an escape.

Taija carefully spun an inverted gateway behind and below her, just out of Mierin's sight.

"Well that was rude Mierin. I see you still haven't learnt how to control your temper. I'd have thought that after you humiliated yourself at Lews Therin's wedding you might have worked a bit harder at it." Taija knew it was dangerous trying to push Mierin's buttons, but she couldn't afford for the woman to stop focusing on her and start thinking about the men.

This time Mierin didn't let loose at Taija. Instead her eyes narrowed although fury still simmered in her voice. "Who are you? How do you know these things?"

Finally the men started to back away from her.

They just needed a little more time… Taija replied, switching to her own language. "Foolish woman, why would you think you were the only one of the Chosen to be free. When the Great Lord triumphs only one may rule beneath him."

Mierin's laughter was annoyingly lovely, tinkling across the battlefield. "Oh ho ho ho, you'll have to try harder than that!" She gave Taija a considering look. "You speak the Common Tongue properly though, not like the fools from this time. A southern accent perhaps? Maybe…"

A second later Taija staggered as a shield slammed into her connection with the Power. The strength was incredible for anyone without an angreal. Intellectually she knew how strong Mierin was, but having to face it head on was a different matter. She frantically pushed back, clinging onto her connection to saidar before slicing Mierin's web. Taija realised the trick a second too late as Mierin's own web of fire and spirit sliced through the inverted webs concealing her ability and identity.

Mierin paused before she spoke, her eyes widening with surprise. "Taija Kosola. You survived." Her tone was utterly flat.

Talking meant more time for the others to escape, it also meant longer before Taija had to pit herself against the most powerful woman of her time. "Disappointed Mierin Eronaile?" She lengthened the sound of the second name, emphasising it. "Also, did you forget my full name during your time with the Dark One? I suppose prison can hurt your manners. I'm surprised Elan Morin Tedronai," she put more weight onto his third name, "didn't help you there. He always was a stickler for politeness despite everything else."

Rage flashed through Mierin's eyes and she took an angry step forward before she reined herself in and chuckled lightly. "Well I suppose I can live with you having one small victory over me. It hardly does much for the balance between us does it?" Her laugh didn't reach her eyes. "Anyway it seems like a fortuitous day for me. Not only have I found Lews Therin, I also get to rectify the pattern's mistake in letting you live. I really did think he had got you, but you always were hard to kill, slipping away like a little cockroach." Taija was vaguely aware of Rand and Hurin watching clueless even as they edged away, while Loial was mouthing words, seemingly trying to decipher their words.

"And you always were a psychopath Mierin. You're pursuing a teenage farmboy and making yourself look his age to do it. How old are you now? 300? 350? Grooming is such an innocuous sounding word."

"Well it is more enjoyable than entertaining the myrddraal. They do have their needs," she smiled and paused, "as Nerina could have told you."

Reason fled from Taija and with a scream of rage she let loose with saidar, dividing her flows into several attacks. She was too angry to think about cover or evasion, she just threw everything she had at Mierin. Conventional attacks flew at the woman, blindingly hot fire flowed over her, red hot shards of earth exploded from the ground and razor sharp, inverted whips of air lashed at her from behind. At the same time Taija threw a significant proportion of her power into a more esoteric web, desperately inverting the flows as she spun them together, briefly altering the physical constraints of a space beside Mierin to fool the pattern into thinking a star's worth of matter was packed into a tiny spot.

Mierin stood there, unruffled, as the webs exploded towards her. Webs were sliced, snapping back into Taija, only to be replaced by more. Her inverted gravity well actually made Mierin shift a step to the side as it briefly pulled on everything around it with inexorable force before she casually unraveled it. Nothing else even phased her.

After a couple more seconds of shrugging off Taija's assault, Mierin raised her eyebrows, switching back to the local language. "Is that really all you can do Taija? I had forgotten how weak you were. Maybe it was just rose-tinted memories from back in the good old days. Even then you would not have been foolish enough to try to face me though. I suppose you might have become over confident after being around the children they call aes sedai in this time." She pretended to think, tapping her chin with a finger. "A gravity well is a somewhat creative use of what power you have, maybe worthy of a talented doctoral student, but…" Her face darkened, "why would you think it would work on me? I was spinning webs like that for a century before we even met! I am a better physicist than you ever were and you know it. It really will be satisfying squashing you like an insect, I always was annoyed that Ishamael got there first."

As Mierin was talking, Taija was panting for breath and trying to carefully edge back behind her cover without being too obvious about. Slowly she formed the webs for a trio of inverted gateways against the rock face she was using for cover, safely out of Mierin's sight.

In front of her Mierin turned to Rand. "Well… As usual Taija seems to have popped up to ruin things for me, still one must make the most of a situation." She sounded both fond and frustrated when she spoke to him. "I think you and your friends should run along now. We can speak more later. Here… Well you are not ready for a conflict of this kind and I think one thing I can agree with little Taija on is that neither of us wants you dead. Remember Lews Therin, you are mine. Now go!" She gestured imperiously, but gave him what looked like a genuine, loving smile. If Taija had the mental energy to spare for it, she'd have been disgusted.

Rand looked towards Taija and she nodded before calling out, "there's nothing you can do here, not with one of the Forsaken. Mierin and I need to… have a vigorous conversation and you'll just risk getting hurt. Just remember… everything I've told you." She nearly said 'remember me', but she wasn't going to give Mierin the satisfaction.

She could see Rand was torn, but when she shouted "go!" he wheeled his horse towards the south and spurred it away, trailed by Loial and Hurin. She could see he kept looking back as he went, but nevertheless he rode on.

Taija suppressed a shiver as Mierin stared wistfully after him for a few moments, before turning back to Taija. "Lews Therin always did have a soft heart. Such a pity." She shrugged lightly. "Well, is there anything you would like me to pass on to the others? No, well that is…"

Taija cut her off in mid-sentence, completing her webs and feeling as much as seeing the gateways snap open. Two opened behind Mierin and she channeled, drawing as hard as she could on saidar, sweet spikes of ecstatic pain prickling behind her eyes. Through one gateway inverted air and water formed a razor sharp disc of ice flying for Mierin's neck, through the other a blinding beam of balefire shot out, the web inverted and the very air around it seeming to catch fire as she swept it sideways. At the same time she flung a simple of web of air, earth and spirit towards Mierin, visually impressive and taking up a lot of space, but with little real power behind it.

Even as Taija channeled, Mierin dived aside out of the way of the stream of balefire, slicing the other webs she'd thrown at her. Taija however hadn't waited to see the results of her attack, already diving through her third gateway, reemerging a couple of hundred metres to the right, behind a large boulder. Not a moment too soon as she saw her previous cover disappear in a whirling ball of fire.

A second later Mierin turned towards Taija and air and fire streaked through the air while something pulled at the earth under her. She sliced Mierin's webs without even thinking about it and threw her own back, frantically mixing elements and webs, some inverted, in a complex series of simultaneous attacks chained together. She knew hardly anyone had the dexterity or skill to invert webs at combat speed in the way she could, but it seemed to be meaningless here. Everything she could do, Mierin could counter and return with even more power behind it.

Explosions of fire and earth, bursts of air and more esoteric detonations rained down around Mierin as she deflected or sliced Taija's webs. She didn't even move a step, just effortlessly batting away Taija's attacks and then retaliating with her own.

Taija was running, changing location every time she sent a series of webs at Mierin. Light damn the dress she was wearing! She knew that if she stayed still she was dead, but she was still having to slice or deflect more and more of her attacks as she went.

Despair was sinking its claws into Taija. She was throwing everything she had and Mierin was barely even affected, her only expression a growing smile.

An explosion on Taija's heels made her trip and fall, a frantically opened gateway at least letting her tumble away, out of the area of the next blast. Blades of earth and fire sliced through rocks around her, barely missing her and her own attacks were petering out as she had to focus fully on defending herself.

Suddenly the rock in front of Taija was literally tossed aside. How strong was that woman?! Mierin standing there, looked completely unruffled other than the mud on her dress from her earlier dive. It was a stark contrast to Taija's panting, bruised and singed self.

As they faced each other Mierin's smile only grew as webs sprang forth from her. She was just throwing simple attacks now. Almost half-heartedly, yet they were still horrifically strong. Taija couldn't meet any of them head on, instead having to dodge slice and deflect. She was just playing with her at this point!

Fire exploded around Taija and was quenched in air and water. An inverted web shot towards her and was sliced by spirit and fire, felt rather than seen. Razor sharp air was deflected into the sky. But Taija didn't spot the inverted whip of air coming from the other side which slammed into her with an agonising crunch, sending her rolling across the rocky ground.

Then there was a shield battering against her connection to saidar, cutting into the flow of the Power before she sliced the weave. Taija would never give up, especially to Mierin, but she knew she didn't have much left in her. With a supreme effort of will she forced herself to try one last gambit.

Taija dove to the ground under Mierin's next web, dodging it but leaving herself immobile and vulnerable. She ignored the flare of pain in her arm. It might be broken. It didn't matter. She drew hard on saidar.

Mierin seemed to have paused, waiting Taija with cruel curiosity. She didn't have time to do more than that though. A moment's calculation and again three gateways opened in front of Taija, the last of her strength going into forming a web of all five elements.

A finger-thin bar of balefire blasted out. Through the first gateway, which opened behind Mierin. But Mierin was already moving as Taija's web came together. A graceful step out of the path from the first gateway.

An instant later the dodged beam of balefire was multiplied into three as it passed through Taija's other, subtly angled, gateways also blasting through the space to the left and right of where Mierin had stood.

Somehow Mierin turned her smooth step into an undignified fall when she realised what Taija had done, but it was enough. Before she could try to adjust the beam of balefire, the flows slammed painfully back into her as Mierin sliced them.

Straining against exhaustion Taija clung on to her hold on saidar, barely, and threw a web of fire, air and spirit that would set the air in Mierin's lungs on fire while she clambered back to her feet. She could see that now Mierin was truly angry.

Taija's web was casually sliced and then an overwhelmingly powerful fist of air grabbed her and flung her away, towards the rocks behind her. She could see a shield following it, about to cut off her connection to saidar.

She couldn't focus, but she had to. Channel. Now. A frantically formed web opened a gateway behind her and Taija flew through it impacting on the bed in her room back in the dingy Caemlyn inn she'd spent too many nights in with an agonising, boneshaking crash. The shield slammed into place just as she did, cutting her off from saidar and then instantly vanishing with the gateway it had just ended.

Someone started to scream.

Taija looked up from the ruins of the bed with bleary eyes and just before she passed out she saw a woman in her underwear gibbering in terror.

Chapter Text

Interlude I - When Taija Met Mierin

Approximately 3,150 years ago.

The first time Taija had met Mierin was when she was only 30 years old.  A fresh faced post-doctoral researcher she'd just taken up a post in the physics department of the Paaran Disen Central University.

It had been at a drinks reception a couple of months into the job.  She'd gone with her boyfriend of the time, a floppily-black-haired young man named Loim.  He hadn't been at all interested in physics, philosophy had been his thing, but he'd been both dreamily handsome and alluringly witty.

He'd had connections too, had known all the right people, not that Taija had cared about that at all. However, it did mean he was often rubbing shoulders with the great and good, off at their events and he'd always wanted her to with him.  Eventually, after weeks of nagging, she'd agreed to go to one, although only after some dire warnings that she was no one's arm candy.

It wasn't that Taija had been anti-social.  Not at all.  However, she'd never really seen the point of all that networking, even when Loim had insisted that it was important for her career and progress in life.

Of course Taija had told him she just wanted to study, spend time with him and her friends and pursue her hobbies, but she'd been in love and deep down she'd had to admit, he at least had a bit of a point.  It probably would be good for her career.

In the end it had actually been quite nice getting properly dressed up.  Taija hadn't normally worried too much about her appearance.  Beyond looking reasonably smart and well put together, it had never seemed all that big a deal.  However, Loim had gone on and one about how many important people would be there and how she'd needed to make a good impression.  So Taija had bought herself a new dress, had her hair done and actually put on make-up for once.

It had been rather nice actually.  When she'd given Loim a twirl in her new, knee-length, sleeveless, black cocktail dress he hadn't been able to take his eyes off her.  It had also been exciting to have the opportunity to display the formal symbol of the aes sedai on the left breast of her dress.  It had been a few years since she'd earnt the right to wear the sinuously divided black and white circle, but given how she'd avoided formal events like the plague there hadn't actually been all that many opportunities to flaunt it.

Actually being at the drinks reception had been rather less entertaining though.  Loim had soon run off to hobnob with various people his parents knew and Taija had found herself wandering around, feeling a little lost.  She'd had some nice chats with people, but on the whole they hadn't seemed all that interested in speaking to a random, young post-doc from Adanza.  Especially when they'd found out she was just there as a plus one.

That was until Mierin had spotted her.  Taija hadn't realised who she was at first.  Mierin had come over and put her hand on Taija's bare arm to get her attention and Taija had thought she was just a stranger being friendly, albeit in an overly familiar way.

"Hello, I am Mierin Eronaile, pleased to meet you."  Her accent had been pure Paaran Disen, smooth and sophisticated as crystal.  It had made Taija feel like a country bumpkin, which was ridiculous, she was from Adanza, one of the great cities!

Taija had turned to face her and had been almost speechless for a second at how beautiful she was.  It had been hard to believe she was real.  She hadn't recognised Mierin's face, but of course she'd recognised her name.  Everyone in her field had known it.

"H h hi, my name's Taija, Taija Kosola."  She'd kicked herself for stammering, unable to stop her face heating as she embarrassed herself in front of the older woman.

Mierin's faint smile had widened into a genuine grin. "Oh, you are Taija Kosola!  I had heard you were coming.  I had been hoping to meet you."  She'd leant in conspiratorially.  "It is terribly boring at these events I know, I never really feel I fit in, but I am very excited to meet one of the real up and comers in our field. That is why I really come to these, for people like you. I would love to hear how your research on particle filtration webs is going, it is ever so fascinating."

Taija had hardly been able to imagine an apparition like Mierin not fitting in anywhere she wanted, but at least she'd been able to stop stammering when she replied. "Oh, it's err not all that interesting really.  I'm just starting out."

"Nonsense,"  Mierin had been having none of it.  "I do not believe that at all.  I read your paper on combining spirit and air for electron separation and I thought it was groundbreaking."

"You read my paper?"  Taija had hardly been able to believe it.  Everyone had known that Mierin was going to be one of the greats.  She hadn't earnt a third name yet, but it was only a matter of time.  An incredibly talented scientist, stronger in the Power than any other woman alive and so stunningly beautiful that men and women would throw themselves at her feet.  "I'm incredibly flattered!"  Taija hadn't been exaggerating.  "I was inspired by your own research on wave formation, I couldn't have made it to where I am without that."

Mierin had grinned back at her, "you are too kind. I can see that you have a talent for using the Power creatively, let me show you a little something I saw recently that you might find useful." The light of saidar had sprung up around her and she'd spun a small, but intricate web of spirit, air and earth above her hand. "This has a fascinating effect on slowing electron movement for easier viewing, far more efficient than than anything I have seen before."

Taija had looked carefully down at the web above Mierin's hand.  It had been fascinating, she hadn't seen anything quite like it before.  In fact she'd been so engrossed in it that she'd only been vaguely aware of Loim coming up to the two of them and putting his arm around her.

"That's fascinating!" Taija hadn't tried to keep the enthusiasm out of her voice and Mierin had been visibly pleased by it.  "I could see a lot of uses for this, especially if you just tweak it slightly…" Taija had embraced saidar herself and spun her own web, tiny flows of spirit, air and earth coming together in a rapid flurry, perfectly imitating Mierin's web.  "Now if I just shift that node of earth and add a touch of fire…"  Taija's web had flickered as she altered it, "I think this would slow them by at least another 10%!"

Mierin had kept on smiling, but there'd just been the slightest tightening around her eyes. "How intriguing."  She'd stared for a few more seconds before gathering herself.  "Well it was lovely to meet you Taija Kosola and I am sure I will be following your career with great interest, but I think I see Beidomon over there and I really must say hello to him before I leave."

"Of course, thank you so much for speaking to me, I hope we can meet again."  Taija had tried not to sound too awed and then in a moment of bravery asked, "perhaps we could meet over coffee some time?  I'd love to hear your thoughts on… well on so many things!"

Mierin had hesitated and then smiled radiantly. "Of course, I would love to.  Here, let me give you my number.  Drop me a message and we'll set something up."

Number duly given, Mierin had headed off to find Beidomon, giving Loim a small nod of acknowledgment as she did. He'd watched her leave, his arm still around Taija's waist before speaking up. "So who was that then?"

"Who was that?!  That was Mierin Eronaile!  Haven't you heard of her?"  Taija had torn her attention away from Mierin's departing form to stare at Loim in amazement.

He'd shrugged. "Nope, should I have?"

"Yes!  She's one of the most famous physicists alive."  Taija hadn't been sure whether to be outraged or amused at his ignorance.  "A genius, incredibly strong in the Power and she's so beautiful too…"

Loim had smiled at that and made a show of eyeing Taija up and down with a grin. "Was she?  I hadn't noticed, I was a bit distracted by someone."

Taija had laughed. "You're ridiculous.  She's far better looking than me!"  Still, she'd known there was a reason why she'd loved him.

"Nonsense, there's no one more beautiful here and I know exactly what I plan to do with that beauty tonight."  He'd leant down to whisper in Taija's ear.

She'd briefly pretended to be outraged by what he'd suggested before promptly grabbing his hand and heading straight for the exit, dragging him along behind her.

Chapter Text

Chapter XVI - New Allies

Consciousness returned slowly to Taija. Bone deep weariness permeated her body, that and pain, and as her mind gradually caught up with where she was the dim light made it hard for her to make much out. However, one thing was clear. She was in a prison cell. The bars in place of a door and pair of guards standing outside made that much clear.

Lying there on a scratchy straw bed it took her a little while to fully remember what had happened. Mierin. Instinctively Traveling back to Caemlyn. A screaming woman.

She was briefly outraged that she was in a cell and then thought of the way she'd left Caemlyn. She might not have looked the way she did in her confrontation with Elaida, but she'd Traveled straight into her old room with her real appearance. It wasn't totally surprising in that light.

While Taija was exhausted and in pain, she could tell she'd been given some medical treatment. Small mercies. Dried blood had been washed off her and there were bandages around her lower ribs and leg. The splint and sling round her arm explained the throbbing pain there too.

Her nice dress was gone, presumably ruined by the battle with Mierin and replaced with a scratchy, brown, woolen dress like she'd worn after Ramshorn. Eugh. There was a jug of water by the bed, but she realised her ankle was chained to the wall. Definitely a prisoner.

A muffled, but urgent, conversation between the guards broke Taija's train of thought and then one ran off, practically sprinting. They must have noticed she was awake.

Taija lay back for a few seconds, thinking. She needed to decide what to do now and she needed to decide fast. It was odd that there was no channeler there, but maybe they'd tied off a shield on her?

Tentatively Taija opened herself to saidar and, to her surprise, it was right there, waiting for her. Her head was pounding, but that just seemed to be tiredness. Why hadn't they shielded her? Surely they must realise that nothing in that room would hold an aes sedai who didn't want to be there.

Nevertheless, she didn't want to still be around when Elaida arrived. Presumably it would be Elaida. She was in no condition for a fight and she had no idea how negatively the woman viewed her. Obviously her feelings wouldn't be positive though.

The question was what to do. Taija reached for the jug, Light she was thirsty! She raised it to her lips and then thought better of it. Embracing saidar, she formed a trickle of it into a web and ran it through the water, checking for poisons or drugs. Only once she'd done that did she drink deeply.

It was clear the Forsaken were active. More, it was clear that they had an unhealthy interest in Rand. Both Ishamael and Mierin. Surely they couldn't believe this Dragon Reborn rubbish too? Had the whole world gone mad?

In the end it didn't matter though. Whatever they wanted Taija was going to do her best to make sure they couldn't have it. The dilemma for her was what was the best way to do that?

She could go to Ingtar and keep following the Horn of Valere. However, given the Forsaken didn't seem to have done anything about it, Taija suspected she was probably right about the Horn being a diversion from more important things. Ingtar seemed to be a competent soldier and it would be safe enough in his hands.

Rand on the other hand was more difficult. He needed help, that much was clear. What was also clear was that Mierin was watching him and if Taija went to him she'd find her. She didn't think that she'd survive another encounter with the woman. Really she should have died this time round.

She should have kept her promise to run…

Still, there was no time to waste on bemoaning the world. She'd survived, that was what mattered. At least it seemed like, while Rand was definitely in danger from Mierin, her weird obsessions meant she probably wasn't going to actually hurt him in the immediate future. Taija turning up again might change that though. She could just imagine Mierin deciding he'd betrayed her for another woman or something equally stupid.

There was also the issue of her physical condition. She'd recover, of course, but without actual healing she was in no condition to fight any serious opponent and neither Rand nor Ingtar would be able to provide the healing she needed.

So that left one more option, other than running away and hiding form the world. The Amyrlin. Her and Moiraine. Maybe all the aes sedai were paranoid lunatics, but while the two of them were weaker than Taija, they weren't insignificant. Just as importantly, Taija could actually be confident the two them weren't darkfriends.

Perhaps there was a deal to be made. Taija needed allies and more power. They needed knowledge. They had common interests and hopefully they could work together, despite limited trust. After all, even Ishamael couldn't take on a circle of 13. Not head to head anyway.

Decision made, Taija's mind turned to the how of it. She thought the Amyrlin would still be on her way back to Tar Valon and if she could intercept her before she got there then her job would be much easier.

She was also in a bit of a hurry to be gone before someone rectified the oversight of leaving her unshielded. Disappearing from the cell was hardly going to improve Elaida's opinion of her, but that ship had already sailed.

With a groan of pain Taija levered herself up from the bed and met the guard's eyes. "Please give me apologies to Elaida sedai, but I have important places to be."

As he took a step towards her she spun an inverted gateway and at the same time fed a web of earth into the shackle around her ankle. With a hiss of dissolving metal the shackle literally fell apart and a moment later she was limping through the gateway onto a skimming platform.

Light! Taija just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Why did everything hurt? Even standing on the platform as it sped through the blackness was painful. She didn't even know where she was going, not really.

One of those phrases Rand had spouted after too much time talking to Lan sprung to mind and she muttered it out loud. "Death is lighter than a bird, but duty is heavier than a mountain." Taija suspected she got it wrong, but she had the gist of it. It was overly pretentious anyway.

Moving through the blackness between worlds Taija made herself focus on what she was doing. She knew that the Amyrlin had gone down the River Erinin by boat and she could take a guess at roughly how fast a boat would travel. With the memories of maps she'd seen, she could estimate how far down the river she'd need to go. Once she'd found the river it would just be a matter of skip-Traveling down it, opening gateways within her line of sight to go short distances, until she found the right ship.

It sounded simple in her head, but Taija had plenty of time to ponder her aches and pains as her platform silently moved through the space between worlds. She was in no condition for a fight at that point. Battering down a weak aes sedai from this time, perhaps, but any serious opponent would be too much. She really hoped Moiraine and the Amyrlin would be able to help with that, much as she disliked the prospect of one of them touching her with the Power. With the Forsaken free she didn't have two months to recuperate.

=======

It hadn't been difficult for Taija to find the Erinin. However, once she got there she gradually became more and more worried. As she spent tedious hours, bouncing along the river, Traveling a few kilometres at a time, exhaustion started to really get its claws into her.

It wasn't that the activity was all that challenging in itself. Under normal circumstances Taija could spin small, inverted gateways all day and all she had to do each time was step through and look around. However, her injuries combined with the constant channeling were taking an ever increasing toll on her. Only the iron-hard mental discipline required to safely channel and decades of hard-won skill stopped her from dangerously fumbling a gateway or just outright losing her connection to saidar. It wasn't like she could realistically rest either. She had a thin wool dress and nothing else. No inn was going to give her a room and sleeping out in the open in her condition seemed like a terrible idea.

Taija was also worried that she'd miss the Amyrlin's ship when she did find it. She'd never actually seen the thing and she was hardly a nautical expert.

As time went on and she progressed downriver, that worry started to loom over her, ever greater. Had she missed it? She'd seen a fair few ships, but none of them had looked Amyrlin-esque. Whatever that meant. Surely a ship using oars and sails couldn't get that far that fast?

Fortunately, just as she was starting to think she might have to give up, Taija saw it. Even better it, was blindingly obvious. A huge banner with the white flame of Tar Valon flew from the ship's mast and thick webs of saidar pushed the currents behind it and propelled air into its sails. If that wasn't the Amyrlin's ship then nothing was. The only question was how to get onto it without revealing herself to every one of the 'modern' aes sedai on board.

One more quick hop by gateway and Taija sat by the riverbank, spinning an inverted web of concealment over herself to hide from any sharp eyes on the ship. She studied it, watching it hurtle past, considering the best way to approach it. Repeating the process with a couple more gateways gave her more time to think.

Eventually she decided that the large, decorated cabin at the back must be the Amyrlin's. She could see three shadows inside it, moving around the inside, but not who they were. Still, she was fairly sure that the big rooms at the back of sailing ships were were the most important people stayed.

It wasn't ideal. Jumping straight into an unknown situation was unquestionably risky, but Taija couldn't keep following the ship indefinitely and she really didn't want to have to sleep outside in her current condition.

In the end, she was fairly sure that none of the aes sedai with the Amyrlin were stronger than her and she knew the Amyrlin wasn't a darkfriend. So the worst case was two darkfriends against her and the Amyrlin. Even in her current condition she could deal with those odds. Just in case, she double-checked the webs concealing her ability to channel and that she was holding saidar. She still looked like herself, but for now that would be a good thing.

Once she was satisfied, Taija spun the web for balefire, holding it just short of completion. If things went wrong, she'd strike hard and with no warning. There'd be no time for anyone to bring a circle against her and overwhelm her. Going in hard and fast had worked for her during the War and it would work now.

A brief calculation and Taija was ready, spinning a gateway straight into the moving ship, ignoring the strain she felt at channeling so much in her condition. With a single movement she stepped through the gateway, also ignoring the spike of pain from her ribs and already spinning an inverted ward against eavesdropping around the room.

=======

The voices in the cabin stopped abruptly with Taija's entrance and Siuan whipped round from her seat. She'd already been holding saidar, but its light exploded around her as she drew far more heavily on it.

She was already forming a web as she turned, but it fell away as she saw who'd just stepped through the gateway.

"Taija, what in the Light happened to you? You look like you've been caught in a net and dragged all the way through the Fingers." Taija vaguely recognised Nynaeve and Egwene sitting stunned where Siuan was facing a moment before.

She dismissed the two young women from her attention after a glance and let the almost formed balefire web dissipate. She wasn't sure she could actually hold it much longer anyway.

Taija focused her eyes on Siuan. "Mierin Eronaile… Lanfear." Her voice caught slightly at the name. Light she hated calling her that, but Siuan probably wouldn't know who Mierin was. "We fought… I lost…"

Concern washed over Siuan's face and then it hardened. "That… That is concerning. Forgive me, but I must take precautions. What did Liandrin say to you before you.. killed her." Even as hard as she seemed, there was a slight hitch in Siuan's voice at the memory of Liandrin's death.

Taija grimaced. "She called me great mistress Lanfear, one of the Chosen." She almost spat the last word.

Siuan nodded, a sharp decisive movement. "Very well. I believe you are who you say, but why are you here?" Here voice became more urgent. "What about the Horn? Rand?"

"Rand is…" Taija had been about to say he was fine, but that probably wasn't the right word. "Mierin didn't want to hurt him. She's… I think she's trying to seduce him," she had to suppress a mad giggle at the idea. Light she needed to rest. "I'm fairly sure she won't hurt him anyway."

Taija's legs took that moment to try to collapse under her and she staggered, having to grab hold of a wooden beam to stay upright. "As for the Horn… I can't imagine Mierin, Lanfear, doesn't know about it and she's done nothing to try to take it. I don't think she's interested."

Siuan looked behind her and barked, "you're meant to be a wisdom aren't you? Help her girl!" With a start Nynaeve jumped from her seat and hurried over to Taija and proceeded to half help, half drag her to a seat, ignoring her muttered protests.

Taija bit her lip at the pain from Nynaeve's none too gentle 'help', but managed not to cry out. When the pain had subsided enough she looked at Siuan and nodded at the two girls. "Are you willing for them to hear this?"

Siuan hesitated and then shrugged. "Given what they have already heard, it is too late to do much about it. I am confident they are not darkfriends, if they were they would already know enough to have pulled us from the water and left us to dry for the Black Ajah." She ignored Egwene's gasp at the mention of the Black Ajah.

Taija was less than happy with the answer. Egwene at least was far too young to be involved in any of this, but they were Siuan or Moiraine's apprentices or novices or whatever they called them and she didn't have the energy to start arguing about child safety.

"Fine. You already know some of the Forsaken are free. I now know at least two of them are for a fact. Hopefully not all twenty of them…" Taija tried to bat off Nynaeve's attempts at examining her injuries.

Siuan cut her off. "Twenty?! There are more?"

"Well there were more than that, but not all of them survived." She smiled humourlessly.

"But every record we have says there were only thirteen imprisoned at Shayol Ghul."

"Well, that's probably a good thing. Hopefully your records aren't wrong. Maybe the rest were killed after I was imprisoned. Or just died of old age after the War. That would be a small mercy." To Taija's relief Nynaeve seemed to have reverted to stunned silence and stopped muttering about woolheaded young women thinking they needed to fight like men while fussing over her injuries. "We can compare notes, if your records of the Forsaken are like your other records of my time then you know basically nothing. Knowing more about them might save your life or let you deal with them more permanently."

Siuan nodded. "Yes I can see the benefit in that."

Taija hesitated, now was the time to make her play, but Light she hated having to behave like this. This time that she found herself stuck in was bad enough without her starting to act like its natives. "That I'll give you for free. I can also teach you and anyone you trust absolutely some of what I know. Things you'll need to deal with the Forsaken when the time comes. But I want something in return." In her current state she didn't feel she had a great bargaining position, she could barely stand! However, hopefully the other woman wouldn't feel that.

Siuan gaze sharpened, Taija could almost feel her shift into negotiation mode. "What makes you think you can teach us? The White Tower is the greatest depository of knowledge in the world and its knowledge had hidden depths. Perhaps there are some minor things you could demonstrate, but there are limits to what you can offer the Tower.

Taija smiled at Siuan, not in a particularly friendly way. Perhaps she was on stronger ground than she thought. "I don't think this will be much of a negotiation." She held up a hand, three fingers outstretched. "Traveling. Inverting webs so that they cannot be seen. Impenetrable barriers." After each she lowered a finger. "There are no doubt more, but those are things I'm very sure you don't know how to do. As for what I want. It's quite simple, Moiraine's angreal. With that I can fight Lanfear, or any of other Forsaken."

Siuan immediately shook her head. "No that is not possible. The Hall would have my head if I let you have that."

Taija shrugged, trying to look nonchalant and ignore the stab of pain from the action. "Very well." She brushed Nynaeve's hands away and slowly stood, hiding her wince, before forming an inverted gateway. "I'll be off then." She paused, letting Siuan get a good look at the hole in the air.

It only took the woman a second to crack. "Wait! You really have got me trussed up in your net like a fat grunter, but I cannot give you Moiraine's angreal. Still, there is a deal to be made." Taija sighed and made as if to step towards the gateway, but stopped when Siuan held up a hand. "I say cannot, not will not. Moiraine has run off to Light only knows where without a word to me, so I do not know where it is. However, I will help you to obtain one when we reach Tar Valon if you will teach me and anyone else I ask. This I swear."

Taija paused to consider for a second. "Alright, but I will only teach you and anyone you trust absolutely." She emphasised the last two words. "I won't risk teaching your Black Ajah."

"Done." At the quick agreement, Taija started to wonder whether she should have bargained harder. A sa'angreal perhaps? Too late now anyway.

"Good, then we have a deal." Taija sat back down with a wince, letting the gateway rotate closed. She couldn't keep going like this, she didn't want any of them to touch her, but paranoia and her dislike for the idea was going to get her killed. "Mierin, Lanfear… has really messed me up. Would you be able to heal me? The pain is… distracting."

Siuan's composure didn't flicker. "My apologies. I do not have much talent in healing, but Leane is more than adequate. Egwene child, fetch Leane and tell her to come immediately. You are not to breath a word of Taija's presence or what we have discussed. Do you understand?"

Egwene hurriedly curtsied and fled the room with a 'yes Mother'.

It only took her a minute to return with a confused Leane who gasped when she saw Taija. Once she'd been given a brief update she quickly put her hand on Taija's forehead, apparently unintimidated by Taija's suspicious gaze. A moment later a storm of saidar, water, air and spirit exploded from her, melding into Taija.

It was like being doused in cold water and Taija couldn't help but shudder violently as the web washed over her. It was crude. Far cruder than anything she was used to, but as she shook off the after effects Taija realised it had worked. She was feeling even weaker than before, but her pains had vanished. Unconsciously she flexed the fingers at the end what had been a broken arm moments before.

"Thank you Leane sedai." Taija nodded to her as she retreated hastily back to Siuan's side. Perhaps she'd been more intimidated than she'd looked. "Right. We need to plan."

"Yes." Siuan glanced around the cabin. "You cannot stay on this boat. It will be impossible to hide your presence and the Forsaken will be looking for you now."

"I'm not so sure. Lanfear certainly will be, if she can tear herself away from Rand." Taija still couldn't believe the woman was pursuing a teenage farmboy. She'd been a professor at the Collam Daan! "The others though, I suspect she might not tell them. We have a certain amount of… history." Taija's mouth twisted. "Knowing her, I think she might not tell anyone she encountered me, especially since she didn't succeed in killing me." She tried and failed to suppress a shudder. "Obviously we can't rely on that though."

"History? I would ask, Siuan looked at Taija's face and hurriedly changed track, but we do not have much time. A question for Later." Siuan paused then continued, all business. "I think there is a solution. You will Travel to Tar Valon ahead of us, take a room there, establish yourself as a noblewoman who wishes to petition the Amyrlin. It is a little known right, but every woman may request an audience with me. Then we can continue to work from there. If you need gold I can provide it."

"That would work, but I'll need the money. The fight with Lanfear has left with me with nothing but the clothes on my back." Taija glanced down at the ugly, brown dress. "Now, how long do we have and what would be the most efficient use of that time?"

Siuan looked at Leane, "we do not have long before people might get suspicious, perhaps an hour at best, and too much channeling might attract attention to us, which we cannot afford at this moment. Perhaps you could start on what you know about the Forsaken, just the basics for now. If it allows us to spot one of them when they are unaware it could be what allows us to defeat them."

"Hmm. Yes. Lanfear was arrogant enough to appear without a disguise. Perhaps the others would be too. It makes sense to limit us to your 13 given the time available. Where should I begin?"

"Perhaps with Lanfear as we know for certain that she is free?"

She was the one Taija least wanted to talk about, but it made sense. "Fine. Fine." Her tone was sharp, but softened into resignation the second time she said it. "Lanfear I've known for well over one hundred years…" As Taija spoke her stomach rumbled loudly.

Leane immediately jumped in. "Healing will have used up much of your body's resources. Egwene child, go and fetch some food immediately. Tell them the Amyrlin and I require refreshments before we continue your lessons."

Egwene looked like she desperately wanted to protest at not being able to stay and listen, but after a hard look from Siuan she curtsied and fled.

"Thank you." Taija gave Leane her first genuine smile since she'd arrived on the ship. "So. Lanfear. Or Mierin Eronaile as she used to be known. Her defining characteristics were obsession and pride. She was obsessed with Lews Therin to the point of madness and she could never stand to be second best in anything, however many other things she might win at. Together those dominated her actions, even her fall to the Shadow. She'll probably be doing her best to seduce Rand, but may well drop any other plans if it gives her the opportunity to get at me. Hopefully he has the sense to put her off without outright rejecting her. In terms of looks… she loves wearing white and silver. She's well above average height, dark haired, utterly beautiful…"

Taija continued with her description before moving onto Ishamael. Thankfully the others in the room politely ignored the unsubtle gaps she left in Mierin's history.

As Taija finished up on Ishamael, Egwene returned struggling with a surprisingly large plate of food which she set down in front of her without meeting her eyes.

In moments Taija was stuffing her face, she hadn't realised she could even be this hungry! "So…" she paused to take another bite of roast chicken, "who else? Mordlam was…"

Siuan interrupted her. "Who? I haven't hear of him? Her?" She looked at Leane who shook her head.

"Alright, perhaps he's dead. What about… Aginor?" Taija realised the chicken leg she'd been munching on was gone and moved on to another.

A slight look of embarrassment actually broke Siuan's composure. "Aginor will not be a problem."

"Excuse me?" Taija gave her a flat look and then ruined the effect by taking a large bite from her the second chicken leg.

"Rand killed him. At the Eye of the World."

"The Eye of the what? For fuck's sake!" Leane looked she wanted to ask Taija what that meant, but she restrained herself. "You're telling me that boy killed one of the Forsaken? Fine, whatever. Are there any other little revelations you have for me?"

Siuan glanced at Leane. "Balthamel was killed too, by the Green Man."

"I assume you've got this 'Green Man' in your cupboard, ready to jump out and surprise me." Taija couldn't help the sarcasm in her tone.

"No, he died killing Balthamel."

"Alright. Well. That's… I suppose two down is good." Taija shivered as she remembered Aginor. There'd been that night when he'd seemed awkward, but almost human, but every time after that… Such dead eyes. Eyes that only came alive when he talked about his work. Then there was the time she'd met Balthamel at a conference, the way he'd spent a whole conversation staring at her chest. They were both bad enough even before they turned to the Shadow.

After a moment Taija sighed and gathered her thoughts. "Alright then Siuan," the woman's eyebrows rose and Taija hurriedly continued, "sedai. Instead of wasting each other's time, why don't you tell me who you think the Forsaken in this time are and we'll see what I can tell you about them." She met Siuan's eyes and took a determined bite of a pleasantly lemony cake.

"Yes, I suppose that does make sense. Well, we have covered Lanfear, Ishamael, Aginor and Balthamel. So who else is there… Rahvin, Mesaana, Graendal, Moghedien," As each name came out Taija's mood dropped further, "Be'lal, Sammael, Asmodean, Demandred and Semirhage."

Taija let out a hiss at the last name. "I'd really hoped she wouldn't be one of them." She considered the list. "So, the bad news is that most of them are the worst, most dangerous of the Forsaken. The good news is that I can tell you a lot about almost all of them. How they like to operate, what they look like, their weaknesses and their strengths."

All four of Taija's audience leaned forward eagerly.

"So, to start with the hard ones, Sammael is a name I've never heard before. It means destroyer of hope, but…" Taija shrugged. "Moghedien on the other hand, I have heard of. That was the nickname given to the Shadow's spy master. However, I don't know whether it was an actual person, just a title or even a myth. A moghedien was a tiny, very venomous spider by the way, but I don't know if you still have them. Anyway, if they were imprisoned with the others then it seems like Moghedien was actually a real person. No doubt they'll be looking to infiltrate your own organisation, so you should take precautions, but then I'd hope you're doing that anyway."

"Now, on to the more useful ones. Let's start with Rahvin. In my time before the War he was a social media infl… uh a minor political figure with some backwards ideas about women. Very popular with certain groups of young men…"

Taija continued on, alternating between munching through far more food than she'd have thought she could stomach and detailing everything she could think of off the top her head about the worst people of her time.

Before she knew it, the plate was empty and Siuan was stopping her. "Thank you, this has been illuminating, but we've already had you here for too long. People will no doubt be asking questions about what is going on in here." Siuan rummaged in her desk and pulled out a bulging purse. "Here, this should give you the money you need to set yourself up in Tar Valon. If you need more when you're there then I will of course arrange for it."

"Thank you Siuan sedai." There was still no way Taija was going to call her mother. "I'll see you in Tar Valon."

Taija stood, struggling a little with how stuffed she felt, but at least not in pain anymore. In lieu of a curtsy, she certainly wasn't adopting that local custom if she didn't have to, she made a small bow in Siuan and Leane's direction before opening an inverted gateway back to the shore. As she stepped through it, she heard Siuan start to berate the two girls about how they were not to breath a word that they had heard.

A few more hops, skimming through the darkness between worlds, brought Taija within sight of Tar Valon. Rather than try to get in that evening, with darkness already falling, she staggered up to an inn in one of the villages just outside the city and paid in gold for a small, dingy room. Regardless of its quality it still had a bed and Taija barely remembered to set her normal wards before she passed out on it, still fully dressed.

Chapter Text

Interlude II - The 'Modern' World is a Lonely Place

Taija tossed and turned under the scratchy blanket, unable to get back to sleep however hard she tried. While she'd passed out soon enough, once she woke up in the night that was it.

It was the same almost every night. Every time she tried to let go of her worries about the 'modern' world, her mind drifted to her own time, inexorably drawn backwards. Some memories were bad, making her wake up gasping for breath and frantically fumbling for saidar in the darkness until she remembered where she was. Others were of treasured happier times that she missed with bone-deep longing.

All of them were painful though. Everything in them was long gone, consigned to the distant past by millennia of history. Other than the Forsaken of course the very people who'd destroyed everything she loved. Why did they have to be the ones to survive?!

Approximately 3,000 years ago and also two days before Taija woke up and staggered into a field in Andor

Taija had lain back, resting against her partner's broad chest, enjoying the comforting feeling of his thick arms surrounding her. It was a warm summer's night and what was in those days an all too rare moment of peace.

They'd both stared up at the stars in happy, comfortable silence. She'd always loved being able to get away from cities' noise and light, to enjoy a proper night sky. Since they'd met fifteen years ago, getting away from their responsibilities, away from civilisation and the demands of others, had been one of their greatest pleasures.

Gazing up into the night sky had been making Taija wistful and she'd asked him, not for the first time, "what do you think you'll do when the War's over? When we've won."

His short beard had tickled against the side of her face when he answered. "Well… When we win," she'd felt him smile, "I think I'll start a farm and raise chickens. Light knows I've had enough of fighting. No more battles, no more meetings, no more stress. Just fields of corn. And chickens."

Taija had started giggling and sat up, turning to look him in the eyes. It had been a long month since they'd last been together and they really were the loveliest blue. Of course she hadn't been able to see them all that clearly in the dim light of the stars, but she still knew. "Really? You? Start a farm? Come on! It was a serious question! Not even sports?"

He'd smiled back at her, a warm, genuine expression that transformed the otherwise stern lines of his face. He'd never been the most expressive man, but that had made those smiles and jokes he did give her all the more precious. He hadn't answered immediately though, instead pausing to think while Taija had lain back down against him.

Taija had always liked that about him, solid and always considered in his actions. So different to her, but the rock she'd never realised she needed in her life until he'd turned up and filled a hole in it. Well, until Antero had thrown them at each other anyway.

"Fine, being serious, I was telling the truth that I don't want anything to with this anymore." He'd made a vague gesture, ignoring the irritated noise Taija had made when he shifted her with the movement. "I'll resign from the military the day the War ends. They can manage without me. I suppose I could get into coaching, but even that's too close really, let alone getting back into competition. I think I'd like to do something outdoors… Maybe I'll start leading excursions into the Shan'dar Mountains. What about you?"

It wasn't like the two of them hadn't had this discussion many times before, but it had still been comforting to think about a better future and Taija had taken a moment to think, treating the question as if it was the first time it had been asked. Not that it had been much of a dilemma.

"Well, obviously I'll go back to university. Not Jalanda, too many bad memories." She'd shuddered and he'd put a comforting hand over hers. They both had enough bad memories for several lifetimes. "But somewhere, make a new team, get back into it. You know how much I miss research."

She'd felt him nod at that. "Of course. I can sneak off from my tour groups at night and you can come and join me at weekends."

"Ha! I'll come and lead your tour groups at weekends!"

Taija had squirmed back, further into his arms and then they'd lain there in comfortable silence for a while, until Taija had broken it again, speaking in a musing tone. "After the War… I think… Yes I think I'll also marry you." She'd nodded firmly to herself at that, decision made.

He'd let out a surprised bark of laughter, pushing himself up onto his elbows to look down at her. "Taija, are you proposing to me? Like that? Really?!"

After her outraged squawk at sliding from his chest to his lap Taija had smiled widely, looking up at him from what couldn't have been a comfortable position on his legs. "Did you think it would happen any other way? With me?"

He'd huffed in exasperation. "Yes! I'd thought I'd do something romantic when the War was over. Flowers, down on one knee, you know, charming, glamorous, passionate… alright. Fine. I should have expected that, it wasn't going to happen any other way, I admit it."

Taija had looked as smugly pleased as she ever had. "So?"

"Fine. I'll marry you." His voice had been full of mock irritation. "While you might be a bit of a weirdo, there's no one I'd rather spend the next five or six hundred years with."

"Perfect." She'd given him a gentle shove to get him to lie back down before snuggling back against his chest.

Later as the night went on their conversation had inevitably turned back to the War.

"You know, I need to go back to the front tomorrow." His grip had tightened around her as she'd said it.

After a moment he'd sighed. "Yes, I know. The Arikam Sector. I'm worried about it, the Shadow just keeps pushing there, I don't know how much longer we can hold." He'd shifted uncomfortably under her. "I know you can't, but sometimes I wish you'd just stop. Resign. I worry about you out there every day."

Taija had reached up to stroke his cheek, fingers tracing the fine, blonde hair of his beard. "I know you do and you know I can't. I worry about you just as much too, but we have a world to defend. If I stand aside the Shadow gets a step closer to victory. You do what you can and so do I. We both took oaths when we came became aes sedai and it is what it is, being aes sedai."

"I know, I know. We all have our duty and you always make a difference. Taija the Terrible, scourge of darkriends everywhere." They'd both laughed at that, although there was a hint of brittleness to their laughter. "You know, back at HQ they interrogated a captured dreadlord last week, before he was severed, and apparently quite a few of them will try their best to get reassigned if they find you're fighting in their sector."

Taija had shrugged nonchalantly, despite actually being quite pleased. "Smallish, but deadly, that's me. Anyway, you shouldn't worry. Antero's in charge in my sector and he's more than competent." She'd mimed pointing and firing a pistol with her fingers. "He points me at whatever's the most important target and then I blow it up. Boom! Home in time for lunch."

"Oh yes, of course, do say hello to him from me. Ask after Saela too. It's been too long."

"Much too busy to hang out in the mud with us common footsoldiers are you?"

"Ha! Antero commands a whole sector and you… Well anyone stupid enough to mistake you for a common footsoldier would never get the chance to do it twice."

Taija had smiled fondly. "Exactly. Just don't try to give me any special treatment!"

"I wouldn't dare." Then the levity had drained from his voice. "Seriously though Taija, you need to be careful out there. The Shadow's throwing more and more against our lines and we're just not getting the reinforcements we need. I keep asking, but so far nothing." He'd hesitated then, "I know you can more than look after yourself, and frankly you're one of the heaviest hitters we have so we need you out there… but, promise me you won't take any unnecessary risks. If one of the Forsaken turns up, promise me you won't try to stand and fight them. Run. Get help. Call me and I'll come with balefire and deathgates!"

Taija had humphed at him before being cut off. "I could absolutely ta…"

"Please! Promise me. I couldn't take it if the next casualty report has your name on it. It would break me!"

"Alright, alright, I promise sweetheart. If one of the Forsaken comes I'll run."

======

Lying sleeplessly on a cheap, uncomfortable bed in a medieval inn a tear trickled down Taija's cheek and she cursed everything that had brought her there.

Chapter Text

Chapter XVII - If A Man Has You Entirely At His Mercy, Then Hope Like Hell That Man Is An Evil Man

The next morning Taija felt bleary and run down after another bad night of sleep, not to mention everything that had happened the day before. Still, once she'd had the chance to shake the cobwebs out of her head and have a proper wash she felt a bit better. The benefits of hot water couldn't be underestimated. Of course the inn didn't provide that, but when you could channel, cold water was never a big problem. She still felt the deep weariness that told her she'd been going too hard for too long without a break, but at least she felt more human.

After some haggling she became the proud owner of a rather mediocre looking horse and a much better quality dress. At least she now looked more like an odd merchant rather than an exhausted peasant. As far as she could tell anyway. Really she'd rather have just walked, or Traveled, but she was conscious that having a horse would be seen as a sign of wealth and status.

In the full light of day, Tar Valon was simply stunning. A huge mountain loomed behind it, unnaturally isolated and dominating the skyline with its craggy ridges. The city itself though, that was a true marvel, even to her. Arching bridges crossed the Erinin, shining walls stretched to the sky and above them loomed the White Tower. Taija had seen taller, she'd seen fancier, but this was still a truly beautiful city.

She could already feel her mood improving as she rode towards one of the city's gigantic gates, climbing up the arch of one of the bridges. Once she was inside the walls she saw a happy, wealthy population bustling around, going about their business. There didn't seem to be any of the poverty that stained Caemlyn, Fal Dara or any of the other small towns and villages that she'd visited and every building seemed to be built of proud stone, carefully designed to fit together with the wider city.

Impressed, despite herself, Taija continued on to the inn one of the guards at the gate had told her was the finest inn in Tar Valon. He'd looked sceptical, but when she'd given him one of the small gold coins in the purse Siaun had given her, he'd suggested the Shining Flame. If Siuan was going to go around calling herself the leader of the aes sedai then she could go ahead and pay for Taija to at least have a modicum of comfort.

The Shining Flame itself was a much, much nicer inn than any of the others Taija had stayed in. It was almost opulent in fact. Its centrepiece was a huge common room, decorated with paintings and bookshelves was filled with finely dressed people engaging in quiet conversation over elaborate meals.

The owner, a large man with ruddy cheeks, had kept trying to suggest that another inn might be more suitable to Taija until she'd started pressing gold coins into his hand. After that she was suddenly 'my lady' to him and was quickly set up with a room and recommendations for good tailors.

The rest of the day involved tedious visits to tailors to look for suitable dresses. After some arguments about propriety Taija also managed to convince one to make her some loose, thick trousers, although the tailor had seemed to struggle slightly with the concept of a noblewoman wanting something like that.

By her best guess, Taija had a couple of days to herself before the Amyrlin's boat reached Tar Valon. So, given what she'd been through in the last few weeks and months, she decided that she'd allow herself those days to explore Tar Valon. There wasn't much else for her to do anyway, other than Travel out of the city each morning to exercise by herself away from civilisation. She did need to get back into fighting shape after all.

She was too tired to go looking for conflict and, given the Forsaken seemed to be loose, there was a real risk she might bump into the wrong person while she was in no condition to fight. Trying to get into the White Tower, particularly its library, was also tempting, but it seemed stupid to risk being caught when she'd be welcomed in a couple of days.

Regardless, Taija always had liked exploring new places and being able to walk around Tar Valon without constantly being in fear or trying to work out what was going on was a nice feeling. The city was stunning and she had friendly, normal conversations with a few people. She hadn't realised how much she'd missed people not treading on eggshells around her.

Unlike every other city Taija had visited in this time, she frequently passed women with the ability to channel, although none of them were particularly strong. Still, she assumed they must be aes sedai and was glad of her own inverted webs concealing her ability.

It was early evening on the second day when Taija was returning from a tailor's with their apprentice carrying a load of new clothing behind her that she noticed the inn's common area was fuller than she'd seen it before. As usual everyone was finely dressed, clearly nobility or wealthy merchants and today she was even fairly sure there were a couple of aes sedai there.

It was immediately clear that they were listening to a performance by a finely dressed man at the back of the room sat there on a small stage playing a harp, long curly hair covering his face. Soft notes wafted over the room as he sang a song about a battle of some kind.

Taija was intrigued despite herself. She'd never spent all that much time at gigs, but she did like music and hadn't heard much of what this time produced. The man was pretty good and since she was trying to relax she decided that she'd indulge her curiosity. How similar would it be to what she did know? Hopefully it would be better than the garbage she'd once heard from some historical re-enactors when she went to a show at a pre-War fair.

She quickly asked the apprentice to get the clothes sent up to her room, tipping him a couple of the bigger silver coins before finding herself a space at the back of the room to sit back and listen with a cup of wine.

By the end of the song she had to admit the singer was pretty good. She was only half listening though. Despite her best efforts at relaxing her mind kept going back to trying to work out what her next move should be, but he did create a very nice atmosphere for those musings.

The singer started on his next song and Taija leant back in her chair, smiling to herself. The haunting melody reminded her of home, listening to that tune while she banged out another problem sheet as an undergraduate. Wait.

She sat up with a jolt, actually focusing on the music. She knew that tune! And the words, the words were different, but the tune… She looked harder at the performer on the stage. Surely not.

He looked subtly different, but Taija could remember the poster on her bedroom wall at university. Really?! Even after Mierin she was stunned at the sheer arrogance.

She'd need to make sure of course, but it seemed like her relaxation time was over. Antero had always grumbled that she was a bit of a workaholic, she gave a humourless smile at the thought.

Taija sat through the rest of the performance, clenching her wine glass and taking only tiny sips to avoid suspicion. She couldn't afford anything other than total sobriety now. Thankfully no one noticed her tension, the white showing on her knuckles as she gripped her cup so hard it hurt.

The music was exquisitely done and his voice was as good as it ever was, but Taija couldn't enjoy it anymore. Even when several of her favourite works were played, odd without electronic instruments and a full band, but completely recognisable.

After he finished performing, the singer spent an inordinate amount of time glad-handing the rich and powerful in the room. Roaming around, paying particular attention to the two women Taija thought might be aes sedai. Luckily he ignored her, she wasn't sure she could have acted normally if he'd spoken to her.

Eventually he moved to leave, a bit tipsy. He had one of the prettier serving girls with him as he ambled out of the inn, slipping his arm round her before dropping it down to give her backside a squeeze. Half a minute later Taija casually got up, rechecking the various inverted webs concealing her channeling and identity and followed after him at a suitable distance.

After a couple of minutes she ducked into an alleyway, glad that Tar Valon seemed to be such a safe city, and tweaked the web of illusion over her, her appearance rippling and changing. Then she was following again.

It wasn't long before he reached an inn, almost but not quite as nice as the Shining Flame. This would be the hardest part. Taija followed him in, staying a little way behind and asked the innkeeper for a room for the night. It cost her yet more money and a made up story about being caught away from home, but not too many questions were asked once she'd pressed a couple of gold coins into the woman's hand.

Fortunately her target seemed to have stopped for a drink with his serving girl and they were giggling in the corner, uninterested in the disapproving stares of some of the other patrons, let alone in a random middle-aged woman buying a room for the night.

Deal done with the innkeeper, Taija declared herself in need of a nightcap before she went to bed and found her own corner to sit in, giving herself a view over the room and the canoodling couple. Doing her best to hide her distaste she sat back and pretended to drink.

It felt like an interminably long time before the singer paid up and headed for the stairs with his girl. As soon as their backs were turned, Taija gave a theatrical yawn and headed after them, leaving a silver coin on the table.

She didn't need to follow too closely, she could hear the serving girl's outraged squeal and then the two of them laughing as they went. Their floor only had two rooms and she'd seen that they turned left in front of her as she climbed past. Good, now she knew where he'd be.

Taija reached her own room and breathed out a deep sigh of relief as the tension she hadn't even realised was filling her eased off slightly. She'd been terrified he'd spot her. Actually it was amazing how relaxed he was, particularly in this city with so many aes sedai around.

She settled down to wait. She was too wound up to sleep, and didn't want to risk not waking up, so she lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling and thinking of home.

It was a long two hours before Taija decided it was time to move.

Climbing off the bed, she took a deep breath and headed down to his room. Stopping just outside the door Taija tentatively reached out with tiny, inverted flows of spirit. She immediately felt invisible wards, her flows brushing against them, light as a feather, careful not to trigger them.

Taija breathed a sigh of relief. Wards, yes, he wasn't a complete idiot, but they were following the internal contours of the room. It was the natural way to spin a ward, but it did leave certain weaknesses.

She put her hand on the lock and channeled a small, but complex web of earth and spirit into it, careful not to let the flows extend past the door into the room where they'd cross the ward line. After a few long seconds the lock clicked open. Taija paused, but no sound came from the room. He'd probably warded it against sound, in which case he wouldn't have heard even if she'd battered the door down with an axe.

Now she needed to move fast. A flow of air swung the door open and Taija took a long step into the room, her web pushing the door shut again behind her. He was already lurching awake, scrambling up in his bed, the wards clearly triggered by her entrance, but Taija had the drop on him. Before he'd even registered her presence in the dark of the unlit room she slammed an inverted shield into place on him.

Now she allowed herself to smile. She'd already won.

He scrambled out of the bed, completely naked, still clearly confused about what was going on. Taija felt him reach for the Power, pressing against her shield. It was futile, he hadn't a hope of breaking it without help. Help which wouldn't be coming.

"Oh fuck." He muttered the words and slumped back onto the bed, seemingly resigned to defeat. Taija wasn't fooled though, he'd be looking for his angle, how to escape.

"Who's there?" As he called out, the serving girl was sleepily sitting up next to him and looking around in confusion, also apparently as bare as the day she was born.

Taija channeled and a small web of fire and spirit brought the room into low, flickering relief with her silhouetted behind it. "Hello Joar Addam."

With a squeak of surprise the girl pulled the blanket up to cover her chest

Taija saw him jolt at the name and peer nervously at her through the darkness, but he tried to play it cool. "My name's Jasin, who are you and what do you want? You can't just break into a man's room like this!" A quaver entered his voice, "if you want money, it's on the desk. Take it and go! I will not try to stop you."

Taija fed more saidar into the light, making it brighter. "I saw you in town and I thought we could have a little talk. It's been such a long time after all."

Asmodean sighed and dropped the act, straightening up and suddenly looking prouder and more dominant, ignoring his own nudity. "Very well. You seem to have me at a disadvantage. So, tell me, who are you? It is not you Moghedien, is it? If so, this is not at all funny."

The serving girl looked wildly between the two of them, completely confused. "What's going on Jasin? Who is this woman?"

"I'm not Moghedien." Taija laughed humourlessly, her throat dry. "So, would you care to tell me Asmodean, what exactly it is you're doing here in Tar Valon? I certainly didn't expect to see you here replaying your greatest hits to Tar Valon's great and good. Well I say your greatest hits, I'm fairly sure a few of them were borrowed from other artists."

Asmodean winced. "Let me just put some clothes on and we can talk about this." He got up, reaching for his desk.

"Sit. Down." Taija's voice cracked out like a whip. "Don't move a limb unless you want to lose it." She wasn't stupid enough to find out the hard way that he had some sort of ter'angreal of weapon hidden way.

"Jasin I'm scared, why are you talking funny?" The serving woman was whining in the background, but neither of them had any attention to spare for her.

"Ok, ok." Asmodean carefully moved away from the desk, sitting back down and keeping his hands in view, palms placatingly open. "So. Let us talk. An answer for an answer maybe? Who are you and what do you want with me?" Taija felt her web flexing as he pressed against the shield without success. His body language was still relaxed. He was dangerous. She couldn't let her guard down around this man.

Rather than answer his question Taija increased the light in the room until everything was clearly visible.

"Well that is a relief, but I still do not recognise you. It seems you have me at a disadvantage, but given the things you know, you must also know we do the Great Lord's work. You do realise you are speaking to one of his Chosen do you not?"

Taija smiled thinly at that. "As a matter of fact I do." With a thought the web disguising her unraveled. The girl gasped when her form started to ripple, but Asmodean leaned forward, a predatory look in his eyes.

The ripples faded and with it the look in his eyes vanished to be replaced by confusion and then dawning recognition. "Oh." He slumped on the bed, a puppet whose strings had been cut.

"Oh." Taija agreed.

He sighed deeply. "Taija Kosola. I thought you were dead. Obviously."

"Clearly I'm not." She replied dryly, "now I think I had some questions for you."

"No no no, we're not going to go there. Pleasant as it is to see a face from the past, I won't, can't betray my oaths."

"Not even to save your life? You never struck me as the bravest of the Chosen." Taija's voice went from musing at the start to disgusted at the last word.

Asmodean shook his head, looking down, resigned. "It's not courage. We both know how this ends, whether I answer your questions or not." He grimaced. "Ultimately the Great Lord is also known as the Lord of the Grave for a reason. I swore my oaths and if I break them I'll suffer more than anything you can do to me." He hesitated and then looked up to meet Taija's eyes. "Look, Taija Kosola, I know you're not a cruel person, not like us. So I just have one request. Bessa," he nodded at the girl who was frantically mumbling something about aes sedai, "she's not involved, she just wanted some fun for the night. Let her go, she's innocent and there's nothing she can do against you."

Taija was a bit surprised that one of the Forsaken would care about anyone else, but in the end even the worst monsters must have some redeeming characteristics. She thought for a second, but ultimately she wasn't a murderer and the girl had done nothing more wrong than get into bed with a stranger so it wasn't a hard decision. "Fine. You girl. Bessa. Leave. Now. This is aes sedai business and if you breath a word of it to another living soul I will have you wailing for mercy in front of the whole Tower." Taija doubted it would keep her mouth shut forever, but she wouldn't have understood any of what they'd discussed.

With a whimper the girl gasped, "yes aes sedai! Thank you aes sedai!" She practically leapt out of bed, desperately grabbing and pulling on her dress before running out.

Taija turned back to fully face Asmodean as the door swung closed behind the girl. "Well I suppose that puts us on a timer. We both know what you've done. You've been sentenced to death a hundred times over, a thousand, and you've escaped justice so far..." She met his terrified eyes with your own and brought together the web for balefire. It felt like his eyes were still hanging there in front of her as his colours reversed and he faded out of existence. "… but not anymore."

When Taija spun the web to skim back to her room at the Shining Flame and lay down on her bed to sleep, she realised she didn't feel a thing.

Chapter Text

Interlude III - The Competent Forsaken Sub-Committee I

With a flicker a woman appeared in the empty space, clothed in smart black trousers and jacket, a deep navy blouse underneath. Her black hair was in a bowl cut and with big blue eyes she cut an incongruous figure, looking more like she belonged in a boardroom than standing on a platform in a world of black nothingness.

A moment later another figure faded into being. A tall, hook-nosed man with an arrogant tilt to his jaw. His breaches and jacket were also black, made of fine, albeit plain cloth, he wore a silk, white shirt underneath. He was swiftly followed by a third, a strikingly tall woman with pitch-black skin and short wavy hair. Like the first two's outfits her dress was also black as night

There was a moment while they surveyed each other and then the empty surroundings faded away to be replaced by a brightly lit room. Glowing strips ran along the ceiling casting a harsh white light onto a large table that appeared to be made of wood, but was as smooth and hard as polished stone. Now each of the three reclined in black leather chairs. The white walls of the room were only interrupted by a pitch black rectangle in front of the table and on another wall what seemed to be an abstract picture of some kind of red cuboid amidst strange buildings on a rainy day.

The man raised his eyebrows at the new setting, ignoring the smaller woman's challenging stare. "Maybe a bit too on the nose, but so be it. Let us keep this quick we are all busy people." He nodded to the dark-skinned woman, "would you like to go first?"

The tall woman absent-mindedly shifted the papers that had appeared in front of her, "the Seanchan Empire is ripe for exploitation. Their social structures would fit well with the Great Lord's and I've had little difficulty in placing myself in a position of influence. A direct takeover is not a realistic option given their society, but I will have no trouble guiding them down the Great Lord's path."

They both turned to the shorter woman, who took on a didactic tone, "like with the Seanchan, an immediate takeover of these so-called aes sedai would be challenging. However, their 'Black Ajah' is surprisingly widespread, it's far worse than during the War. Ishamael's efforts during his moments of freedom seem to have been very successful there. Several other of the Chosen have been sniffing around here too, but while there are challenges even with these half-trained children, I'm confident that I'll be in a dominant position in no time."

"Excellent," the man nodded but didn't smile. "My own plans in the East are also progressing well. Their society is notably backwards, but full of conspiracy and hidden powers. That leaves it weak and vulnerable."

"Ah so you have given up on the southern sub-continent then?" The tall, dark-skinned woman raised her eyebrows. "This 'Land of Madmen'."

"Sadly yes. It seems trying for that was an error of judgment." His face twisted at the admission. "The name is not inaccurate, there is so little organisation there that there was little to gain and much to lose. The East provides far better opportunities."

"So you didn't leave because you got into a losing battle with a pair of half-mad men and their angry lover?" The shorter woman giggled and then quickly turned her laugh into a cough when the man gave her a look that promised murder. "Anyway, it sounds like our plans are progressing well. What about the others. Do we have any intelligence on them?"

This time it was the dark-skinned woman who spoke up, "Ishamael has been sniffing around the Seanchan. At least when he is not pursuing those boys. I have not been able to work out what he's plotting, but he is up to some kind of scheme with their 'Return'. I shall be most put out if he obstructs it in some way."

The other woman gave a musical laugh, "if he wasn't up to something he wouldn't be Ishamael. You'd have to be half mad to be able to fully understand what that man does."

"Sadly you are right." She scowled. "What about the others?"

This time the man spoke, "Sammael has been leaving his base in Illian and sniffing around in the Borderlands. I have not been able to find out what he's scheming, but I would guess something to do with the armies there, perhaps preparing for when the Blight truly awakens."

"He always did like playing with soldiers a bit too much." The shorter of the two women laughed, the light tone of her voice was a contrast to her companions' and she ignored the scowl from the man at her comment. "I too have some interesting information to share. Lanfear has been in an absolute snit recently. We spoke a week ago and she was fuming, barely holding onto her normal serene act."

The taller woman leaned forward with a predatory smile at that, "do you know why she was so angry?"

"Unfortunately not," she shrugged. "I'm not stupid enough to ask her when she's in that kind of mood. If I had to guess though, I'd think it's something to do with one of those boys Ishamael has been going on about. Presumably whichever one she thinks is Lews Therin reborn, but really who knows? The rest of the Chosen can be bad enough, but that woman takes having your own agenda to a whole different level." Both women smirked and the man's mouth twisted downward at that name.

She continued to speak, giving the other two an amused smile. "On a lighter note, I bumped into Asmodean recently, not that he knew it. He's been prancing around Tar Valon's inns, pretending to be a bard of some sort. His music's been the talk of the city, so I took the time to go and see a performance. He's even adapted some of his greatest hits for this Age. I think he might be trying to inveigle his way into the White Tower, although only the Great Lord knows how he thinks that'll work. To be honest, I think he's managed to get himself distracted by his adoring audiences. Not that I'd question the Great Lord's judgment, but if that man wasn't so strong in the Power there's no way he would have been allowed to call himself Chosen." Her laughter tinkled across the room and even the other two seemed to be mildly amused. "Anyway, it was a nice bit of nostalgia compared to the way these barbarians live, but if he keeps poking around the Tower, I'll have to warn him off."

She sat back and folded her arms, clearly finished.

The tall woman immediately stood. "Well that was illuminating, but we all have much to be doing. If there is nothing else?" Neither of the other two spoke. "Good, until next time." She abruptly vanished.

The man gave the remaining woman a flat look, "next time I'll choose the venue." A second later they both faded away too.

Chapter Text

Chapter XVIII - Living Amongst the Aes Sedai

As Taija had expected, it was a couple more days before the Amyrlin returned to Tar Valon. When she did it was hard to miss. Not only did her procession parade noisily through the city's streets, it was all that people wanted to talk about. There was no recalcitrance in talking about aes sedai here, although every single person was also careful to only speak respectfully about them.

The morning after the Siuan's return, the Lady Alfreda of Houndstooth, a small village in the far west of Andor, presented herself at the White Tower with a request for an audience with the Amyrlin.

A young lady in a white dress with a hem banded in seven colours received Taija, supervising a scribe who noted down her details. She didn't look past her early twenties, although it could be hard to tell with channelers. However, that didn't stop her from looking Taija over as her details were taken, a slight hint of contempt in her eyes.

It was enough to make Taija wince internally. She must have made some kind of mistake in her outfit. Hopefully claiming to be from a small village in the middle of nowhere would excuse her accent and dress. The careful wording of her request for an audience should also make sure that Siuan knew it was her.

Taija sighed to herself when the young woman muttered something to the scribe, if she was going to be treated like a backwoods hick this was going to be even less enjoyable than she was expecting. It was difficult though, she'd never been overly interested in fashion in her own time and, despite the best efforts of the tailors she'd hired, this time's outfits still baffled her. What had been fashionable 3,000 years ago certainly wasn't not, which wasn't all that surprising when she thought about it.

Still, whatever the young woman's thoughts, her words were faultlessly polite and directed Taija to a waiting area where refreshments would be provided, telling her that her petition would be taken to the Amyrlin. She also warned her that the Amyrlin was a busy woman and that it might be a long wait before an audience would be granted, perhaps several weeks, or even months. The young woman's pride at being part of the Tower showed through her tone, with just a hint of smugness underneath it.

Taija gave her a polite smile, despite her irritation, "that's fine, I don't mind waiting. Thank you for your help." She definitely didn't consider tripping the young woman up with an inverted web of air.

After the accepted had left, Taija sat there for an hour, then two, then three. Despite what she'd said, she was definitely getting irritated at the wait and her attempt at picking up a conversation with the other women looking for an audience, oddly there were no men, got nowhere. A nervous elderly lady on her left just said "milady is too kind" and looked at her feet, while the other was staring determinedly ahead of herself, ignoring everyone. The girls training in the Tower, accepted and novices, that was what they called them, all seemed too busy to talk and regardless were uninterested in a stranger who couldn't even channel. Taija had some sympathy with that, she could remember her own youth when she'd first been learning how to channel and the sheer overwhelming excitement of it all, she'd barely been able to talk about anything else for at least the first couple of years.

After a while, boredom overwhelming her paranoia, Taija closed her eyes and started working her way through a series of equations in her head, visualising the symbols, their complex beauty, the way they described fundamental interactions in the universe. Eventually even that lost its appeal and she simply couldn't resist channeling.

So Taija amused herself as she sat there, repeating the same exercises she'd learnt in her teens. A bit of nostalgia and also just revision. The fundamentals should never be neglected and it was nice playing around with them with a more experienced touch.

Inverting her flows without thinking, Taija spun a simple web of spirit into the first letter of her name, visible only to her.

Next she reduced the power going into it, drawing the individual flows out as small and narrow as she was capable of before spinning them together again into the simple web. Now the letter seemed to look the same, but instead of being made of a single, thin flow of spirit, the web was made up of myriad incredibly thin flows woven together.

Next was splitting her flows, adding letters to spell out her first name, then her second too. That took focus. Splitting her flows that many ways was one thing, it wasn't like it used much strength. However, maintaining the incredibly fine control she needed to spin infinitesimally small flows together and inverting them even as she channeled was quite another.

Taija allowed the names to fade and started on another set of webs, this time spinning air and fire together with spirit, keeping her control as fine before. First she wrote out her own first name again and then idly started to mix it with another name, making a heart around… She realised what she was doing and released the webs, her vision suddenly blurry. She didn't want to think about that.

=======

Melyena resisted the urge to sniff as she looked down at 'Lady' Alfreda and cleared her throat again. Light only knew why the Amyrlin was willing to see her so quickly. The same day that she arrived in fact! Not that it was the place of an accepted to question the Amyrlin, of course.

First the woman had just been staring into the distance as vacant eyed as a baby and now she suddenly looked like she was about to burst into tears. It was not any of her business, not if she did not want to be paying a visit to Sheriam's study anyway, but she very doubted the woman was in fact nobility of any kind.

"Lady Alfreda!" The small blonde woman jumped.

"Oh uh, yes, sorry I was in a world of my own…" That was another oddity, Melyena had never heard an accent like that one, words clipped short, everything sounding like consonants. She certainly did not sound Andoran, her village must be a true backwater, if she was even telling the truth about where she had come from. Still, she must be at least somewhat familiar with the White Tower, she showed no fear or discomfort at being around Melyena which meant she knew the difference between accepted and aes sedai.

She carefully moderated her tone, being rude to guests to the White Tower was, like so many other things, harshly punished. "Hmm. The Amyrlin will see you now." It was a struggle to keep the surprise out of her voice when she said it.

========

In no time at all Taija was following the snotty accepted through the corridors of the White Tower. She was soon surprised to find herself ascending in some kind of mechanically driven lift. She hadn't thought they had the technology for something like that, but given the height of the Tower, they must have. Well that or thighs of absolute steel. She couldn't really tell under most of their dresses.

When they exited the lift, Taija gave herself a mental shake. She needed to get her head back in the game and stop vacillating. It wasn't far from the lift to what must be Siuan's office, down an ornately decorated stone corridor. The large door at the end had the white flame symbol these aes sedai had taken from her own time above it and as soon as she reached it the accepted nervously knocked.

A barked "enter" came from within the room and the accepted pushed the handle down and gestured Taija in. When she stepped through the door Siuan and Leane were indeed waiting there for her.

"Thank you child," Siuan dismissed the accepted with a glance. The girl gave her a deep curtsy and hurriedly exited. Taija quickly imitated her with her own much more awkward and shallow curtsy. It wasn't that bad though, she'd been practising.

Siuan looked her up and down. "It'll do I suppose, although no one would believe you've ever gone more than ten leagues from your village before. You could also try to speak more like a noble." She sighed ever so slightly. "No matter." The light of saidar appeared around her and she spun a web against eavesdropping.

"Hello to you too Siuan sedai," Taija replied. "I did my best with limited material to work from. I did choose an isolated place to be from so that I could excuse whatever mistakes I might make."

Mmm yes, it would not have been such a bad choice, but why in the Light did you say western Andor?"

"What's wrong with western Andor?" Taija scowled. "I know it's isolated. I heard when I was in Caemlyn that it's barely even part of Andor anymore and Andor's the nation I've spent the most time in, I can actually describe parts of its capital."

"Yes, those would be good points. Except for one thing. Have you heard of the Two Rivers?"

Umm…" Taija paused to think. "Yes! Isn't that where Rand and his friends come from?" Her brain caught up with her mouth and put two and two together a second later. "Ah."

"Exactly. Unfortunately you are now from the same region as the Dragon Reborn. It seems that if the Pattern has a sense of humour it is a cruel one. Well there is not much we can do, that net is already torn. Western Andor is a big place and if we are lucky no one will make the connection."

"Definitely. I've certainly never been to the Two Rivers, long way away, barely heard of it. They make cigarettes or something don't they?"

Siuan gave Taija a look that said she wasn't sure if she was being flippant, but she wasn't impressed either way. Fortunately Leane quickly stepped in before Taija could give an intemperate response. "So Taija sedai, we've discussed the best way to work with you and we think it might be best for you to move into the Tower. We will say that you are petitioning for help with a family dispute and while you wait for a resolution you will live on Tower grounds."

"So you can keep an eye on me?" Taija raised her eyebrows, wishing not for the first time that she could do it with just one at a time.

"Because it will give you relatively free access to the Tower and means money will not be a problem. Neither I nor the Amyrlin has time to waste on watching you in or out of the Tower." She softened her words with a smile, "anyway given your… advantages I doubt it would be much of a constraint for you."

"Alright, makes sense. How about the teaching?"

"At night. We often work late and do not want to be bothered." Siuan answered this time. "I will show you my bedchamber as it connects to my office. If you have seen it you can… Travel…" she hesitated at the word, "directly to it? Correct?"

At Taija's nod she continued, "very good. Come at 9th bell tonight."

It took Taija a second to work out what that was, "that works. I'll come then, be careful not to have anyone in your bedchamber at the time. A gateway will cut through anything or anyone it touches. Now, what about your side of our bargain?"

Siuan looked irritated, "yes. I have not forgotten. However, I am trying to sail the Fingers of the Dragon in the dark. The sisters are riled up and my position is weaker than I would like. Taking an angreal officially is out of the question and, while I have no doubt you could, I am reluctant to have you raid the storerooms, that would truly set the silverpike among the baitfish. However, I know of a sister who has been keeping an angreal she should not have. If I cannot obtain you one in another way I shall have a talk with her."

"You mean you'll blackmail her?"

Siuan didn't blink, "yes. Is that a problem?"

"Given everything, not in the slightest."

"Good. Is there anything else you think we should discuss before tonight?"

Taija thought for a second, "no, that covers it, will you make arrangements for my rooms?"

Their meeting quickly came to a close and she found the accepted waiting outside the door to escort her back down after she gave 'Mother' her best curtsy. Why couldn't these women bow like sensible people?

========

Taija found she quickly fell into a routine in the White Tower, despite the sheer oddity of the place. During the day she was largely free to roam, at least in the public spaces of the Tower. Unfortunately the aes sedai were more than standoffish, sweeping past with barely a glance of acknowledgment as she made herself curtsy to them. At least she'd very quickly realised that was necessary. It was ridiculous really. Aes sedai deserved respect, of course, although she wasn't so sure about this time's incarnation of them. However, the subservience, almost fear, that they demanded here was an obscenity. It made a mockery of their title. Any aes sedai who'd behaved like that in her time would have been ostracised in the Hall.

One plus side of being in the White Tower was the library. While Taija didn't have unfettered access to it, even the public sections were enough to keep her occupied for long hours. So, each morning she'd Travel from her room to somewhere isolated to train and exercise alone and then return to the Tower to wash before heading to the library. She focused on books covering history and culture, it wasn't like there was anything worth calling science there and books on the Power were restricted. Taija did try to seek out books that touched on the Dragon and or aes sedai, but again many of those weren't available to the public.

At night she Traveled to Siuan's rooms to teach her and Leane. That was yet another source of frustration for her. It wasn't that they were bad students, as such, but they really did seem to struggle to remember that they were students. This meant frequent clashes as they tried to assert their authority as two of the most powerful women on the planet.

======

Siuan sighed internally as the blasted woman looked at her weave with unimpressed eyes before barking "again!"

At first she had actually been a bit excited to be learning secrets from the Age of Legends, even with the unending stress that came from problem after problem piling up on her shoulders every day. However, she now felt like a novice being berated for learning slowly. Ironically that was actually one of the few things she had not been told off for during her years in white.

Channeling the threads of spirit and fire for what felt like the hundredth time that night she brought them together and then gave them the sideways twist that inverted them. She knew they had just faded from sight for the other two women in the room, she also knew Taija would not be satisfied.

The woman was an enigma. A problem and a solution in one body. If Siuan had had more time, not that she had enough of that for anything, she would have brought her to heel. That woman should be, needed to be, under the Tower's protection and, more importantly, its control. If only she could have got her into novice white.

The problems she was already having with the Hall because of Taija were bad enough, but the Light only knew what would happen if she was allowed to keep running loose. It sometimes felt like if she let her out of her sight for a day there would be a new problem for her to keep track of.

They had been talking about the Forsaken on her fourth night in the Tower. That was another thing Siuan was still trying to get her head around. That this woman, who didn't look a day over thirty, actually knew the Forsaken. Some of them anyway. She gave such dry, academic accounts of them, but watching her expressions, reading between the lines, it was clear she had met most of them and even knew some of them well. She certainly had some kind of personal enmity with Lanfear! The insane cherry on her already mad cake of a story.

"Again!" Siuan wove and tried not to fumble the threads.

Taija had just casually mentioned that Asmodean would not be a problem anymore. It made Siuan want to swear like the fisherman's daughter she had been born as. She just dropped it into a lecture like it was nothing!

Siuan had put on her best face for intimidating recalcitrant Sitters and demanded to know why Taija had not told them before and she had muttered something about Aginor and Balthamel.

Then she had blushed and apologised! How could the woman be so powerful and knowledgeable and so, so…

"Again!" The weave came together and vanished, Siuan's fastest yet, which got her a grudgingly small nod of approval.

The problem was, Siuan just struggled to categorise Taija. She did not look or act like an aes sedai. Far too open about her emotions and intentions, mild features, ignorance and simple dress coming together to make her seem more like a novice or freshly raised accepted. Her odd accent and social mistakes did not help either. If Siuan did not know better, she could entirely believe she was the sheltered daughter of some isolated, minor lord.

So, Siuan's every instinct when dealing with Taija told her to put the woman in her place, assert her position and take command like she had with so many women over the years. Women who had seemed far harder, older, more experienced than Taija. Frankly far more frightening women, at least on the surface.

However, every time she tried, a core of steel would show itself in the woman. Mild disposition and the sadness that rarely seemed to leave her eyes would vanish in a flash to be replaced with utterly unyielding certainty, a self-confidence that Siuan could fully believe had been earned with nearly two centuries of life. And hadn't that been a surprise! That this woman was past middle aged for an aes sedai.

Taija could be almost mercurial at times. Switching from relaxed, even naive, absent-mindedness to tense in an instant, or losing her temper at nothings while ignoring something that would have made an enemy for life of some aes sedai. Even her manners were a constant challenge, she oscillated wildly from being insanely casual with address, tone and behaviour one minute to demanding utmost formality and respect the next. Siuan had suspicions about some of it, she'd seen similar things in sisters who had spent too long in the Blight, but much of it just baffled her.

"Again!" Siuan wove and to her irritation Leane's inversion was noticeably faster. "You need to focus more on fine control of every flow. Try to feel each individual flow separately as you bring it out, awareness is key to this. Again!"

Siuan was used to being the most powerful channeler in the room, wherever that room was and in the past, before she had been raised to the Amyrlin Seat, she had not been above demonstrating that power on one or two occasions when necessary. That would not be an option here. When she was not thinking consciously about it, she would see Taija as a naive young woman, not at all frightening and then she would remember…

She still occasionally woke up in a cold sweat thinking about that day in Fal Dara. That, if nothing else, would never let her enjoy the illusion that Taija was just a soft, youth barely past 30 for long. She and Moiraine had had her shielded, slammed her into a wall and they'd still lost, not even after a long duel, but just a brutal, instant reversal.

Siuan suppressed a shudder with long years of practice. She had spent sleepless nights trying to figure out how on earth Taija had done that. Her best guess was some kind of ward, but how she had had it in place and triggered it, the Light only knew. Even if she could work that out, she still had no idea how powerful Taija actually was and she was going to have to give her an angreal, Light help her!

Oddly enough Leane seemed to get on much better with her, perhaps it was just personality or that Leane was more used to following Siuan's lead. No matter.

She would get that woman under control one way or another. For the Tower, for the world and for the Light.

=======

One thing that Taija noticed during her time in the Tower was Egwene in novice white and Nynaeve in an accepted dress, bustling around, busy with various menial tasks. She did her best to avoid them of course. She wasn't really sure how much they were allowed to know and they'd hardly been particularly friendly to her in the past. She'd always hated awkward conversations after all.

That lasted for her first few weeks in the Tower, but then one day, while she was reading, probably her favourite past time in the Tower, particularly given its huge library, Taija noticed Egwene had been working near her. She seemed to be engaged in one of the incessant chores that they subjected novices to in the Tower, but watching Taija out of the corner of her eye. It was a waste of time as far as Taija was concerned, scrubbing floors taught nothing that couldn't be better taught through more productive activities. It wasn't even much use as a punishment. If you wanted to punish someone who wanted to be aes sedai, the work should be pointless to make the point that they were serving nobody.

Still, Egwene's presence put her a bit on edge. In theory the girl shouldn't have been able to recognise her, given the illusion she was under and the false name. However, the girls was definitely watching her. Still, she had better things to be doing than worrying about unfriendly youths and the White Tower's training methods.

The next day, when Taija was walking from the Tower's East Gardens towards the Tower library, two novices swung out of a side corridor into place beside her. One was Egwene, the other a pretty red haired girl she didn't recognise.

"Lady Alfreda, might we have a moment of your time?" Egwene's tone was sweet and nothing but respectful.

Taija mentally sighed, this was deeply unsubtle. "Oh umm yes, can I help you miss…?"

"It's Egwene," her smile widened. "I was wondering where you're from? You see, I had heard you were from my area of Andor and I was wondering if you had news of home?"

Taija offered a quick prayer to the Creator for patience in dealing with teenagers who thought they were being clever. "Well, uh it's been a white since I was home, Houndstooth is a long way from here."

Then the other novice spoke up, even Taija could tell her accent was more refined than Egwene's. "Forgive me my lady, but you do not sound Andoran."

Fine. Taija had had enough. Patience exhausted, she whipped round to face Egwene. "Cut the crap girl. What exactly is it that you want?" Her voice was a low hiss and Egwene briefly recoiled before her self-confidence reasserted itself.

The two novices glanced at each other. "We want you to teach her."

"No." Taija didn't break her stride.

"But…"

Taija cut Egwene off, her voice saccharine sweet. "What would I, a lady from a minor Andoran village, be able to teach someone like you? You should ask the aes sedai to help you."

Taija was saved from any further conversation by reaching the library. The girls peeled off to whatever they were meant it be doing, just before she went in. Perhaps they were nervous about being seen bothering her by one of the White Tower's aes sedai.

Chapter Text

Chapter XIX - Teaching and Tedium

It was a couple of weeks into Taija's stay in the Tower when she saw a familiar face sweeping through the corridors, deep in conversation with another aes sedai, both wearing red-fringed shawls.  Like the novices, accepted and other non-initiates of the Tower, Taija pressed herself against the wall with a still awkward curtsy at her passing, but her eyes still followed the woman as she glided by.  It seemed Elaida was back in the Tower.

That night Taija asked Siuan and Leane about it.

Siuan looked irritated at the question, but she still answered.  "Yes, she has returned from Caemlyn.  I thought she would never extricate herself from Morgase's palace and at one point I believe she did turn back, although I do not know why.  Still, she is here now and it seems it is your fault."

"My fault?"

"Yes Taija sedai, your fault."  Siuan's tone implied it wasn't the only thing she blamed Taija for.  "It seems you were less than discrete when you were in Caemlyn.  I had thought that I could brush off the talk of your presence in Fal Dara as rumours about a sister using an assumed name, but Elaida has other ideas."  She gave Taija a sharp look.  "She has been spreading tales of being assaulted with the Power by a young red-headed woman named Taija who was impersonating an aes sedai.  I would say she is almost obsessive about it and has also been hinting at lost Talents."

"That's uh not quite how it happened…"  Taija trailed off.  Perhaps she shouldn't have dumped her in the countryside quite like that.  Maybe the Blight instead…

Siuan ignored her, "not only that, but now my judgment has been called into question.  I gave the Hall my word that I was confident the 'Taija' in Fal Dara was an aes sedai and now my sophistry is coming to back to bite me.

"I'm sorry," Taija offered the apology while trying to work out what 'sophistry' meant.  "In my defence she attacked me and I had no idea where I was or what was going on in the world at that time."

"Frustrating as it is, I know that.  I accept that you could not have known the consequences."  Siuan waved off the apology.  "You were navigating the Fingers without a light, but regardless of blame there are rocks in the water.  In this case, well… when a boat has one leak it is sure to have others.  I have no doubt Elaida knows more than she is saying.  I am also dealing with problems due to your killing of Liandrin."  She kept talking before Taija could protest. "Not that you did anything wrong there.  However, there are suspicions around her death.  I told the Hall the truth - that I believe she died as a result of a darkfriend plot, but that begs more questions.  Questions that I cannot answer without giving away more than I wish and, even if the story is believed, it raises doubts about my competency in allowing her to die on a mission I led.  Despite my best efforts, the Hall has already voted to send sisters to investigate."

She looked tired and settled back into her chair, but at least the mention of Liandrin reminded Taija of something that had been on her mind.  "Perhaps I can at least help with one problem.  I've been thinking about your darkfriend issue and the 'Black Ajah'."  It was irritating the way both Siuan and Leane winced at the term.  "Clearly your organisation is compromised, one of the biggest problems we faced in the War was betrayals and traitors and I know the damage it can do. We would be winning, beating the Shadow back and then the general would change sides or the Shadow would know all about our movements or a barracks would be poisoned. Without traitors the Shadow would have lost the War very quickly."

Siuan started to protest, but Taija didn't let her speak.  "Liandrin was evidence enough of your problems. Where there's one bad fish there are always more in the barrel." Her attempt at a fish metaphor got her an unimpressed stare and she shifted awkwardly on her feet, "anyway there must be more and the Forsaken are sniffing around Tar Valon too.  I was never involved in spying or counter-intelligence, but I do have some skills that might make me good at hunting your Black Ajah.  No aes sedai will see an ignorant young noblewoman as a serious threat to them, I can listen and watch in ways that one of your aes sedai can't."

"Of course anyone could do that, but I have two big advantages." Taija held up two fingers. "One, you know I'm not a darkfriend. The fact that you haven't brought anyone else to these lessons tells me you can't say that about many, or even any, of your other aes sedai. Two, if I make a mistake and they catch me, well they might find themselves in a worse position than if they'd left me alone. They expect a non-channeler or some weak, unknown aes sedai and instead they get me." Her smile was predatory.

There was a long silence and then Siuan nodded slowly, "you make a good argument Taija sedai, but how do you plan to find them?"

"Well that's the harder part, but I can watch and listen. Eavesdropping is much easier when you can invert your webs and you must have some you're already suspicious of. Oh, yes and I want the angreal, for my own safety. It's time for you to fulfil your side of our bargain."

Siuan's eyes narrowed, but then she shrugged. "Very well, a deal is a deal. I will do my best to give it to you as soon as possible. Leane, you know who to go and visit ." She turned back to Taija, musing. "I am still not sure how you will find them though, I suppose they must have some way of lying…"

Taija gave her a flat look.  "Well of course they can lie.  That's obvious isn't it?"

"Well yes, but they must find a way around the three oaths."

"You mean the oaths you aes sedai swear? Surely you just break them?"

"If only it were so easy, but we cannot. Except it seems the Black Ajah."

"You can't? Why?" A horrible thought came to Taija.  Oh no… Surely they didn't…

"Of course, I forget how ignorant you are of some things," Siuan ignored Taija's irritation. "We swear the three oaths on the Oath Rod, it is a ter'angreal that…"

Taija cut her off, "a smooth white rod, about 30 centimetres long?"  Siuan gave her a blank look.  "About two hands long?"

Siuan nodded at that and Taija exploded.  "Are you insane?! You're telling me that the whole lot of you are binding yourselves. Like… like murderers or rapists?!"

Anger flashed across Siuan's face, "How dare you!"

"Do you even know what you're doing to yourselves? No of course you don't you you stupid, ignorant barbarians. Light help you bumbling around in the ruins of a civilisation you can't even understand, fighting over scraps of misunderstood knowledge like they're gold nuggets rather than a kebab shop's leavings!  What's next?  Do you secretly cut off your toes to becomes aes sedai?"

Siuan's aes sedai composure had reasserted itself by the time Taija finished her rant.  "I am glad I only understood about half of that.  I take it that you do not approve of the Oath Rod?  Perhaps you could share your wisdom with us on why?"  There was a definite sarcastic tone to Siuan's words, but Taija didn't care.

"Voluntarily subjecting yourself to binding? You do realise it halves your lifespan? No, of course you don't. It was something we only did to the worst criminals. They'd be given the choice, severing or binding and some of them even chose severing. I knew there was something about your faces that bothered me, that ageless look, it's how bound criminals look." Taija shook her head in disgust. "Light only knows what other ter'angreal you're misusing to kill yourselves."

She was worked up enough that she mostly missed the uncomfortable look Siuan and Leane gave each other before Leane spoke, smoothly refocusing on the binding rod.  "Alright, we understand you are not well inclined towards the Oath Rod, perhaps a topic for another time, but that does not explain how the Black Ajah circumvent their oaths."

Taija let out another long-suffering sigh. "It's pretty obvious really. A binding rod can bind you, it can also unbind you." Her mood dropped even further when she saw the surprise on their faces. "Surely it's obvious? You have an undercover ajah of darkfriends and you didn't think you could unbind yourselves to lie?" She had to work hard to resist the urge to call them idiots again.

"So… you're saying that with the Oath Rod you can unswear any oaths. Just like that?"

"Yep. Easy. I assume your Black Ajah must have sworn new oaths since they still look bound, but those can be unsworn too. Get an aes sedai in a room, ask her to unswear all her oaths." Taija twisted her mouth in distaste, "get her to reswear your three oaths if you must, and then ask her if she is a member of the Black Ajah."

It took them a few moments to get over their shock, or possibly their cultural inertia and then Siuan met Taija's eyes, a predatory smile growing across her face.  "I may not like your tone, but sometimes you remind me of why we are working together."

With that she was all business.  "Getting discrete access to the Oath Rod may be difficult, so better to start your observations as soon as possible and we can discuss possible target.  We will have to be careful not to give ourselves away, but once we have the Rod we can start."   Siuan looked over at Taija and Leane.  "We can start with ourselves, unswear all our oaths and then reswear the three oaths before we confirm we are not friends of the dark."

Taija nodded along, until she realised Siuan had included her in that. "Oh fuck no!  Asolutely not! I will not under any circumstances swear on a binding rod not even with a shocklance to my head. I won't be treated like a criminal to satisfy your backwards rituals!"

There was a bit more bickering and it all left Taija in a foul mood with the other two women, but eventually the three of them came to an uneasy agreement.  Siuan and Leane would obtain the binding rod, then when they were all ready the first target could be brought to a meeting with them.  Taija would be there to provide additional firepower if needed.

==========

Amidst the seemingly endless shelves of books in the Tower library Taija became a familiar enough face that she actually went beyond exchanging polite pleasantries with one of the brown sisters that seemed to run the place.  Given her white hair, Taija thought Bennae must be one of the older aes sedai, although like with most of them she couldn't quite put her finger on how old she was.  It made her shake her head every time she thought about it.  The way these people crippled themselves and didn't even know it.

She was a slender woman, normally wearing a relatively simple dress in muted colours and she seemed to spend even more time in or around the library than Taija did, although Taija did occasionally see her teaching groups of bored looking novices.

They'd first ended up talking when Bennae had heard her muttering in disgust over a book about her own time.

"Is something bothering you my dear?"

Taija had looked up and answered without thinking, "it's just… ridiculous, some of these descriptions!"

She was already kicking herself when Bennae smiled and nodded, "oh yes, Barar's works are often of dubious provenance. I think his descriptions of 'parties' in the Hall of the Servants are more lurid figments of his imagination."

Taija had shuddered, she'd read that part with horrified fascination.   It had sounded like bad erotic fiction. "Well I'm glad to hear that, history is so fascinating though I can't help reading as much of it as I can, even when it's this ridiculous." She wasn't even lying, much.

Bennae had smiled and said, "my name is Bennae sedai and you are?"

======

Taija watched the glowing flows of spirit and fire hanging in the air before they slowly faded as Siuan inverted them.

With a hiss of frustration she rounded on Taija.  "Why am I doing this again for the thousandth time?  I can do it, can we move on?"

Taija sighed, she'd already had this conversation several times over the last few days and it was becoming more and more of a struggle to contain her annoyance with the woman. "Yes you can do it Siuan sedai, but barely. A skilled channeler can invert their webs as they form, channeling undetectably wherever they are. You aren't even close to that and what it takes is practice. Just because you're strong enough to quickly and easily pick up the basics doesn't mean you can use the Power properly. Again."

"Fine, but tomorrow night you will teach us to travel."

With a resigned look Taija agreed. Siuan also told her that she'd be passing on Taija's knowledge to two senior aes sedai from her former Ajah once they'd been tested with the binding rod. Aniya and Maigan apparently. Taija thought Maigan might be a Sitter, but she wasn't sure she'd met either of them.  Nevertheless Siuan assured her that she trusted them, but prefered to keep Taija's presence as a completely secret trump card so she would teach them herself.

=====

A few days later, Siuan was still being a frustrating student.  So, when the two girls in white popped up again, boxing Taija in, it took a real effort of will to resist the urge to let her irritation bubble over.

"Can I help you girls?"

This time it was the redhead, the posh one. "Egwene's told me all about you and we need you to teach us, we want to fight the Shadow!"

Taija looked up to meet her eyes, irritated that she had to.  "I've no idea what you're talking about. I'm just a simple noblewoman from Houndstooth. All hail good queen Morgase, may she live forever!"

For some reason the sarcastic praise for the queen seemed to irritate her and Egwene hurriedly stepped in. "Come on Taija, please, they're holding us back here and I know you can help us. When the," she lowered her voice to a whisper, "Forsaken are loose surely you need all the help you can get. The Amyrlin won't let us do anything."

"So you've told your friend here, what is her name by the way?"

"Elayne Trakand", the redhead said it like she expected it to mean something to Taija.

"Yes, Elayne, all about me have you?" Taija leant in towards Egwene, unlike Elayne she was about the same height as Taija and she quailed under Taija's gaze. "I'm sure I remember Siuan telling you to keep your mouth shut, do you not understand the importance of keeping secrets? Why on earth would I teach you when you can't even keep the simplest secret?" Taija turned away. "Not that I'd know how to teach you anyway, being just a simple Andoran noblewoman." She didn't even try to sound like she believed it.

With that Taija turned on her heel and stalked away, but as she did she heard Elayne ask "Siuan? Who's Siuan? Does she mean the Amyrlin? She's on first name terms with her?!"

======

When Taija started her search for the Black Ajah she quickly realised, or maybe remembered, that she really really wasn't cut out for intelligence work.  She'd managed to befriend precisely one aes sedai and that was a thoroughly harmless seeming brown who just wanted to talk about history.  Her conversation with others hadn't gotten her very far at all.  One thing that was totally clear was that these aes sedai were utterly closed off to outsiders.  It was ridiculous!  How could they call themselves servants of all while they swanned around their tower, which was literally ivory coloured, refusing to acknowledge the existence of the outside world?

Taija tried eavesdropping on conversations, but only heard a combination of mundanity and politics.  She wasn't interested in hearing aes sedai gossip or their machinations.  She really couldn't care less who the next sitter for the Red Ajah would be.  It didn't help that it was relatively difficult to do, given the profusion of wards in the Tower and the restrictions on Taija's public movement.

She did seriously consider trying to find out what Elaida was doing, but the woman rarely showed herself in publicly accessibly areas of the Tower and even when Taija was able to work out where she was, she was always on the move.  Taija was also nervous about being too close to her.  Of course there was no way that Elaida would recognise the face she was using, but she was still, hopefully, the only person in the Tower who would recognise Taija's accent.

Given that Elaida was out of the question for now, after a week of trying to randomly eavesdrop, Taija decided on a different focus.  She just didn't know the White Tower's aes sedai well enough to pick up on any signs that one of their own might see.  However, she did have one big suspicion.  The Green Ajah.

Apparently they called themselves the Battle Ajah and were devoted to studying war so that they could fight the forces of the Shadow.  In her heart Taija knew she'd be a brown.  However, she'd spent the last few years fighting a war for the very survival of her civilisation, following the professed ideals of the greens, so she should feel a certain kinship.  But…

Her mind went back to Fal Dara, the gigantic trolloc army.  Where were the greens then?  How could they claim to be devoted to the fight against shadowspawn and not even have any members in a major Borderland nation, ready to stand with its defenders when an army of shadowspawn threatened to obliterate the entire nation?

It reminded Taija all too much of certain times during the War.  When armies failed to move, much needed channelers didn't arrive or entire fronts changed sides.  Most of the Green Ajah were probably well-intentioned, but she strongly suspected it had been heavily infiltrated by the Shadow.  It was where she'd have started if she was trying to undermine the Light.

The greens also seemed to be a bit more human than many of the other aes sedai.  Less serene composure, more open and direct, which made them at least a little easier to speak to.  So Taija started going to the place she most often saw them.  The warder training grounds.  There was always a gaggle of women, including aes sedai, watching the men training with swords, or their bare hands.  Even Taija could admit, on an intellectual level, that their well-muscled, glistening bodies could have a certain distracting influence.  However, if she let her mind wander, the sight of them exchanging rapid blows with practice swords just pulled her thoughts back towards the gaping hole in her heart.   Some memories were simply too painful, so she did her best not to think about them at all.

Despite her internal turmoil, Taija fitted right in with the other watchers as a youngish looking single lady.  More importantly it gave her access to some of the greens.  From there she was only an earnest question away from making a connection.

There was one, named Josaine, who was a regular that Taija had been exchanging polite greetings with and who she'd thought would be a good first target, but when Taija decided to make her move, the woman had such a tension about her that she changed her plans on the fly.  She'd have asked her what was wrong, but it was clear by then that no modern aes sedai would appreciate that from an outsider.

So Taija smoothly pivoted to another of the greens, who fortunately was there too.  Like Taija, Erian was a small woman, but she could easily be described as beautiful with deep, dark brown hair and eyes and an exquisitely shaped, delicate face.

"Good morning Erian sedai," Taija greeted her.

"Oh good morning Alfreda." Her eyes didn't leave the practising men, "a good day to be out is it not?"

"Mmm," Taija agreed, pretending to join her in admiring the men. After a comfortable silence she spoke again, "Erian sedai, may I ask a question?" Without waiting for an answer she continued. "Forgive me, but I don't understand why aes sedai need warders. They're no doubt easy on the eye, but surely you can just rain fire on your enemies and don't need a man with a sword." She did her best to sound as earnestly ignorant as possible.

Erian laughed, not unkindly. "Oh Alfreda, you must understand, not every problem can be solved with fireballs. Even an aes sedai needs to sleep, even an aes sedai can be overwhelmed."

"But could you not just…" Taija gestured vaguely, "make barriers of air or, you know, wards with spirit?"

That got her a sharper look, "what do you know of wards child?"

Taija winced internally, "oh it was just something I had read. Water, air, spirit, fire and earth, right?" She smiled innocently, ignoring her irritation at being called child.

Erian relaxed a little, but still seemed more suspicious, "well yes child, but we do not normally speak of such things with people who are not initiates of the Tower." She looked Taija up and down properly as if seeing her for the first time. "I do not sense the ability in you child."

Of course she didn't. Taija shook her head hurriedly, "Oh no… I always dreamed of being an aes sedai, but I was told that I didn't have the ability."

"Ah. A pity. Well, while an aes sedai can of course fight without her warder, we greens train to coordinate with our warders, together we are greater than the sum of our parts."

"Oh, how fascinating!" Taija didn't even have to feign her interest, it really would be interesting to see how the modern aes sedai's combat specialists fought, although she suspected she'd be disappointed.  Would she be able to do better with Aleski with some practice?  Hopefully he was alright… "Is there any chance I could see a practice Erian sedai?   It would be so exciting!"

Erian gave Taija a cool look, back to aes sedai serenity. "No child that would not be possible. We do not allow outsiders to see the weaves we practice, to do so might lose us a key advantage in our fight against the Shadow."  Taija acquiesced as gracefully as she could. 

After that conversation Taija ended up spending much of the rest of the day wondering how Aleksi was doing and where he was. If she knew that, she could just go and fetch him, although that might cause Siuan more issues.  It didn't matter since she had no idea.  Aleksi would just have to look after himself.

That night Taija dreamed of her last day in her time. Fire raining down from above.  Her desperate flight from her attacker and shouting to Antero.  This time there was no stasis box.  The town hall collapsed on her, crashing pressure that suddenly vanished as it was thrown away with the Power.  Battered and unable to channel she was dragged by a pair of trollocs to face her attacker.  Looking up with terrified eyes at a laughing Ishamael whose eyes and mouth only spewed fire…

Taija woke up with a start sweating and desperately flailing at something that wasn't there.  Just a nightmare.  As the confusion faded she instinctively reached out beside her in the bed, looking for reassurance and comfort, but he wasn't there either… It took a long while for her to get back to sleep that night.

======

The next night an irritated Siuan handed Taija a thin gold necklace.   Finely formed links came together to form a chain with a pendant surrounding a small emerald. 

Taija took it, looked it over and then froze, standing there speechless, just staring at the pendant in her hand.  It was in the shape of Adanza's crest.  The three pointed infinitely looping knot symbolising people, knowledge and industry with the circle of unity through them bringing all three together with unending potential.

Taija must have stood there staring for minutes before Siuan asked, "is there something wrong with it?"

With a start Taija looked up and realised she was having to blink away tears.  "Is this what I think it is?"

Siuan didn't seem to notice her emotion. "Yes, never let it be said I do not keep my promises Taija sedai. Believe me I have caused myself no end of problems obtaining this for you. No doubt it will come back to bite me at the worst moment."

Taija slid the necklace over her head and pulled her hair over it, it was just long enough that the pendant hung between the tops of her breasts and when she tucked it under her dress it was barely noticeable. She reached for saidar and drew it through the angreal feeling the Power flood through her, far more than she could handle unaided.

"Thank you Siuan sedai. I appreciate it." Taija's gratitude was genuine, despite her general irritation with the woman and even if Siuan had no idea how much this particular angreal meant to her. She could feel it was a relatively weak one, but it would still give her a significant and unexpected advantage in a fight.  More importantly it was one last remnant of the city she had grown up in.

=======

The third time the girls cornered Taija, she was starting to get quite annoyed, although she could grudgingly admire their persistence.  Before they could say a word, she just said, "no," before turning to leave.

She paused when Egwene cried out, "wait!"

With a huff of irritation Taija stopped and turned back to face the girl.

"Not here T… Lady Alfreda, meet us at 8th bell in the lower galleries after dinner.  It's important!"

Taija forced herself not to roll her eyes at the teenage drama.  "Fine.  But if you're wasting my time I'll make you regret it."

That night Taija made her way to the empty lower galleries, keeping a nervous watch around herself.  She was fairly sure that Egwene wasn't a darkfriend, but not totally, and she really didn't know the Elayne girl.

She tried not to let her nervousness show on her face, but the empty columns felt threatening to her, moonlight playing between them and she was holding as much saidar as she safely could.

"Psst, Taija!"  She jumped at the hiss and nearly cut a column in half with the Power.

"What?  I'm here."  Of course it was the two girls and she relaxed slightly.

"Yes, come along!" She was glad to see they looked as nervous as she felt. "Let's go into one of the classrooms so no one can see us."

Taija quickly followed them in and found a spot that left her back to a wall.  At the same time she spun a web to ward against eavesdropping and laid it in place around the room.  "So you've pulled me away from my evening, what do you want?"  Her voice was flat.

Elayne piped up first, "we want you to teach us."

"I already said no. Several times."

This time Egwene spoke, "yes, but we can help you. We know you're hunting the Black Ajah." She whispered the last two words, "and we want to help fight for the Light!"

"You're what? 16? 17?  Why on earth would I put you in that kind of danger?"

"Because you need us! I know you're some kind of operative for the Amyrlin, but you're… you're like a fish out of water. You get so many things wrong, no one would ever be fooled by you!" Elayne's words felt depressingly true.

"I'm not saying I am, but if I was an operative for your Amyrlin, shouldn't you be worried I'd tell her that the two of you've been bothering me and that you've been spreading word about me Egwene? I don't think you'd enjoy her reaction."

Egwene paled momentarily then rallied, "I don't think you're going to tell her though, are you?" She looked far too confident. "I don't know what you are, but I don't really think you work for her. Like Elayne said, you don't quite fit and you're certainly not respectful enough for that."

She had a point, Taija had considered telling Siuan, but then thought about all the times she had irritated or insulted her and decided fuck her. It wasn't like the girls were doing anything Taija couldn't deal with and Siuan could do with having her nose tweaked.

"Mmm perhaps, but all I'm hearing is time wasting. My time specifically. I already said I have nothing to teach you."

Elayne jumped in, sounding like she was just musing out loud. "You know that questions have been asked about you? At least two aes sedai asked if I've heard of a Lady Alfreda of Houndstooth. Then there's Elaida sedai, she's got a bit of a bee in her bonnet about a false aes sedai named Taija. She thinks she may even have murdered other aes sedai! She's been asking about Rand and the Two Rivers too…"

Wait Elayne knew Rand too? And Elaida? Egwene smiled, clearly trying to play good cop, "of course we don't believe any of that rubbish, but we really do want to help you if you can help us." 

Taija wasn't even sure if they were actually trying to be clumsily helpful in a roundabout way or were just trying to blackmail her. It didn't matter. This needed to be nipped in the bud.

She put on your friendliest smile. "Alright, you'd like me to teach you?"

They both nodded eagerly. "Thank you Taija!"

"I'll teach you your first lesson right now. So. Observe." Taija took a breath, "first of all, you've both learnt enough that you can see the flows when a woman channels. Correct?"

Again they nodded.

"Good. " Taija drew hard on saidar, inverting webs as she formed them. In half a second she slammed shields between both girls and saidar, wrapped them in flows of air lifting them into the air and also grasped and lifted every desk in the room. "Tell me, do you see anything now?" Her tone was conversational.

"N no Taija," Elayne replied, sudden nervousness painted across her face, "I see nothing."

"Exactly." Taija's tone went from convivial to razor sharp. "You've both put yourself alone in a room at night with a channeler you don't know anything about and tried to clumsily blackmail her."

Egwene gasped, "No Taija! We would nev…"

Taija cut her off, "that's Taija sedai thank you very much. Unlike the sisters here I don't believe in corporal punishment, but I do believe in proper respect. Now as I was saying before you so rudely interrupted, you've left yourself completely at my mercy. Do you think there's anything you could do to stop me if I wanted to kill you?" 

Both girls blanched.

"I could do it right now and leave no trace, observe." Taija moved one of the tables hanging in the air in front of them and directed heavy flows of earth, fire and spirit into it. Holding so many webs at once would have been  a strain if she wasn't drawing through the angreal, but she wanted to make her point very firmly. The table flared briefly into white-hot fire before dissolving into dust which Taija whisked away with a simple web of air.

"That could just as easily have been both of you." After another moment of hanging there in the air, Taija allowed them to sink back to the ground and released her webs. "Now, what have you learnt from this?"

Both girls scrambled to answer. "Don't have meetings without backups in place?

"Don't cross you?"

"You're stronger than the Amyrlin!"

"Trust nobody."

"That you really do have a lot to teach us."

After a minute Taija stopped them, they really should have been more frightened by that, where was their sense of self preservation? "That'll do. Fine. I'll teach you, be here two days from now, same time same place."  It was probably a terrible idea, but she was frustrated with the White Tower, Siuan pissed her off every time she tried to teach her anything and the girls would probably just keep bothering her if she didn't.

"Oh thank you Taija sedai! Thank you!" The girls started gushing and again Taija cut them off.

"Let me be clear, if you want me to teach you then you follow every order I give you. You don't try to go hunting for the Black Ajah, you're too young and they'll kill you without hesitating. You tell no one whatsoever about this and particularly not the Amyrlin."

Egwene protested, "not the Amyrlin?!"

At the same time Elayne demanded, "how can you say we're too young? You're at best ten years older than us!"

"Not the Amyrlin because if she wanted you to be taught she'd have told me or had someone teach you. As for my age, Elayne, I'm a lot older than I look. People weren't always foolish enough to inflict bindings on themselves. 8th bell. Two days."

With that statement Taija strode out of the room.

Chapter Text

Chapter XX - The Black Ajah

While Taija couldn't spy on Elaida and she quickly realised that a minor noblewoman was unlikely to get any information out of aes sedai who spent their lives hiding their affiliation from each other, she did have other options.

She started to shadow aes sedai at a distance in the more public areas of the Tower, carefully trailing them with inverted webs of eavesdropping. That had limited success, so Taija started to take bigger risks. She often noticed wards against eavesdropping around rooms and could only assume that was where the truly secret conversations were taking place.

Of course there was no such thing as an unbreakable ward. She could easily demolish them, but the real trick was breaking a ward without the person who spun it realising. That was why some nights found Taija standing in a corridor, biting her bottom lip with concentration and hoping no one came across her as she oh so carefully broke through a modern aes sedai's best attempts at secrecy.

=========

A few nights of spending an hour with the girls before heading over to teach Siuan and Leane told Taija that they were quick learners. Far less obnoxious than the two aes sedai too.

That being said, the first night Egwene had excitedly told her that she wanted to learn to Travel. It hadn't taken Taija long to disabuse her of that notion. Irritating as the two girls were, she had no desire to see them burn themselves out or accidentally spread themselves across several dimensions trying to spin webs they weren't ready to handle.

Instead Taija had spent time going through basic exercises with them. The teaching methods of this time were safe, she had to admit, but both slow and so very crude. There was a fundamental lack of elegance to the webs they produced, small inefficiencies, hand gestures slowing them down. Unimpressive.

"Can you both make a ball of light?"

"Yes of course we can, look I can make three!"

"Good, I want you to forget about the ball. First I want you to focus on making the letter "E" out of fire, in as fine flows as possible."

Initially there was some confusion about Taija's slightly different terminology for channeling. She'd half realised that they called webs weaves now and talked about threads, but really it was quite obvious what she meant.

Over the next few nights she had them repeatedly practising forming and manipulating the finest flows they could. Her exacting standards always demanded more, better and quicker. Despite herself she was a bit impressed at how fast the girls picked things up. Obviously she could tell they'd never be as strong as she was, but they clearly had a lot of talent nevertheless and even in her time would eventually have been among the upper echelons of aes sedai on strength alone.

=======

It was a tiring life, spending her evenings training the girls and then Siuan and Leane before getting up early to Travel out of the Tower to train. Further chunks of time disappeared into eavesdropping on aes sedai and trying to speak to as many people as possible.

Taija's main source of relaxation was her time spent in the library. Books were reassuringly simple and easy, unlike espionage, and she found she was learning more and more about this time, although she was of course conscious that what was described in a book didn't necessarily correspond with reality.

While she was in the library Taija also found herself spending more and more time chatting with Bennae. She was a veritable treasure trove of knowledge and was able to point her to useful texts from memory. She was also just plain nice.

Bennae seemed to find Taija and her views fascinating too. She'd ask her what she thought of books she'd read, debate with her about historic opinions and events and just chat about her own life. It seemed that once she'd decided Taija was a friend, or at least interesting, she was far more open than most aes sedai. Perhaps she was just lonely. If she was, Taija could certainly sympathise.

Bennae was also kind enough to find Taija a copy of the Prophecies of the Dragon that was unrestricted, although she didn't hide that fact that she thought it was odd that Taija wanted to read it.

The prophecies had clearly gone through multiple translations and she lacked the context to really understand them, but Taija read them nevertheless. One worrying thing that stuck in her mind was the mention of the Dragon Reborn being marked with herons. She remembered Rand showing her the heron burnt into his palm. Probably a coincidence, but…

Taija did find herself occasionally slipping up and getting odd looks from Bennae. There was the time when she absent mindedly said that that wasn't at all how elections worked in the Hall of the Servants. Or the other time when she'd muttered that Akash's laws of momentum were only a useful approximation. In both cases she'd made excuses about having seen a book in Caemlyn, which Bennae had gracefully accepted.

The biggest slip up Taija felt she'd made was with the Prophecies of the Dragon when she asked if there was a copy in the original language as she was sure some of the translations were off. Bennae looked at her strangely and asked how she could speak the Old Tongue so well. Taija laughed it off as a joke, but it was definitely an awkward moment.

Still, despite the hiccups, Taija was very reluctant to miss the cup of tea that she found herself sharing with Bennae each day.

======

After two or so months of teaching the girls, Taija was surprisingly pleased with their progress. She could see how exhausting their days were and they often struggled through her additional lessons, but they were determined and pushed themselves past whatever limits they thought they had.

After the most basic exercises, she had them combining subtle strands of different elements, forming beautiful patterns visible only to a female channeler. They were already at the point where they could write their names in small flows of any element and they were getting faster as they went.

Taija would never tell Siuan and Leane, but she suspected the girls' fine control was already approaching theirs. It was a wonder what proper teaching and a talented student could do together.

She also no longer needed to quell their grumbling about the lessons not being what they wanted. Now they were enthusiastically telling her about how they were progressing even faster in their normal classes and how much the control they were learning was helping them where before they'd just have put more power into whatever they were trying to do, limiting their progress to the slow rate of growth of their strength in the Power. Of course the extra lessons were helping with their strength too.

Taija also found the girls were bringing her information, trying to subtly help with her own hunt for the Black Ajah. Of course they were much less subtle than they thought and she did her best to discourage them. Anyway, none of it had been especially useful for her hunt, although sometimes it could be useful for other reasons.

"Taija sedai!" The words spilled out machine gun fast from excitement or worry, "Elaida was asking me about you again today. She cornered me and wouldn't let me go until Elayne said I had to go to class!"

"Calm down Egwene, speak normally and don't shout. Firstly, was she asking about me or Lady Alfreda?" Taija suppressed her own worry to present the girl with a calm facade.

"Sorry Taija sedai, she was asking about you, uhh you you not the Lady."

"Alright, well we know she has a bit of an issue with me, but that's not something for you to worry about. You're not going to tell her anything, are you?"

"No, of course not, but I didn't think she was going to let me go this time. If Elayne hadn't been there she might have made me talk!"

Elayne jumped in, her worry for her friend trumped by her desire to defend someone who seemed to have been some kind of family friend, Taija wasn't sure about their relationship but they were certainly familiar. "Elaida would not do that!"

"Girls!" Taija interrupted before they could start to squabble. "I'm sure Elaida wouldn't do anything unpleasant to you Egwene, she's just worried and, if she did, well don't worry." She smiled. "You're my student now, she'd regret it. Briefly." Taija knew she wasn't the most intimidating looking person out there, but both girls shivered slightly at that.

======

The webs making up a ward against eavesdropping weren't particularly complex as such things went, but they were relatively fine, draping around whatever they were protecting in colourful drifts, at least to Taija's eyes.

Her own flows had to be incredibly precise. Fire, air spun around a tiny core of spirit in threads barely visible to the naked eye. She brushed them carefully across the ward, it was a delicate balance between feeling it out for weaknesses and pushing slightly too hard and warning the aes sedai inside that something was attacking their ward.

Taija had grumbled about the crude way modern aes sedai channeled, lack of proper training meaning they replaced finesse with power, but at least here it was to her advantage. It would be infinitely harder to do this against a ward she'd spun. Actually, it might make a good training exercise for the girls at some point.

When Taija's probe found one of the tiny imperfections in the web that made up the ward she gently started to slide it in. Achingly slowly and precisely, the slightest twitch or loss of control would disrupt the ward enough to alert the aes sedai within.

Taija knew, well had known, people who could have done it in seconds, but it took her nearly half a minute of tense focus before the conversation inside sprung to life in her ears.

The first time she did it it had just seemed to be gossip, nevertheless she'd listened and found out far too much about someone named Alanna's sex life. How did she have time for it all if nothing else? The second time Taija had heard politics, some dispute between far away lords. The third time had been the same.

Much of what she heard was interesting, but nothing that could point her to signs of the Black Ajah. Over the weeks Taija did make note of some interesting tidbits though, ones that might lead to something worth more investigation.

She heard a green she thought was named Asne speaking with someone she didn't recognise about taking a package to Falme and needing to arrange horses. She'd have dismissed it, but they also mentioned Liandrin in passing, the only aes sedai she knew for a fact was black.

Another night she heard a conversation between two greens, Careane and Eliza? Elsa? These two seemed to turn to the subject of the Dragon Reborn. They didn't mention Rand, but they spoke in careful terms about how when he was found he would have to be turned. It certainly seemed suspicious. However, modern aes sedai did seem to have an obsession with forcing everyone towards their way of thinking.

It was the third interesting conversation that caused the most trouble. That night Taija failed to find any green sisters to spy on, but took the opportunity to eavesdrop on a pair of reds instead. While she was unimpressed by the greens and suspicious of them, she really struggled with members of the Red Ajah. They seemed the most haughty and dissociated of the aes sedai and she'd heard them say some genuinely unpleasant things during her eavesdropping. While it wasn't evidence of them being darkfriends, given this time's bigotry against male channelers, it didn't leave her feeling well disposed towards them.

Taija found herself listening to Javindhra Doraille, who she thought was a Sitter for the Red Ajah, and Duhara B… she couldn't remember, didn't really care either.

"I tell you, the woman is losing her grip. She has never been the best choice for her position, but recently…"

"I fail to see what you are suggesting. Elaida's rantings are neither here nor there, the woman has always been one to see conspiracies where there are none."

Taija leant forward slightly, straining to hear more.

"Come on now you cannot be telling me there is nothing to it. She is attacked by some wilder claiming to be an aes sedai. Liandrin dead in Fal Dara and then the Amyrlin assuring the Hall about this 'Taija'".

Taija jerked at hearing her name and her flow flexed. Only a minute movement, but it was enough.

"Wait, someone is listening" She heard rapid movement towards the door. Fuck! She immediately released her eavesdropping web and stepped back against the wall as quietly as possible before quickly spinning an inverted web to make herself as close to invisible as possible.

The two aes sedai looked at each other before stalking carefully down the corridor looking left and right, the light of saidar around both of them. As Javindhra's eyes passed unseeing over Taija she silently relaxed a touch.

After a minute they came back together outside the room.

"Nobody?"

"No, I saw and heard nothing. Perhaps you imagined it?"

"Hmm no, I know what it feels like when someone probes a ward you're holding. Be ready, I will try something."

Javindhra gestured with her hand and a wall of air blasted down the dim corridor towards Taija.

She briefly consider letting it hit her, but it would reveal her position either way so just before it touched her she lashed out with a sharp web of spirit and fire.

Javindhra squawked as the flows snapped back into her and Taija was already moving, letting the illusion around her dissipate and rapidly spinning several webs.

"Who…" Duhara barely had time to start speaking before Taija slammed a shield between her and the Power and tied her up in air. She never even had time to realise she was in a fight.

Javindhra was a bit more on the ball and fire briefly speared from her outstretched fingers towards Taija before she swept her feet from under her, caught her on a cushion of air and shielded her in one smooth combination. It was lucky lucky both of them were relatively weak even by the standards of this time's aes sedai.

Unfortunately Taija now had to decide what to do with them. She doubted they recognised Lady Alfreda, but she also had no doubt they'd be able to find her if she let them go. They'd seen her assumed face now after all. Oh well. It seemed they'd just volunteered to be the first involuntary test subjects for her Black Ajah clean up program.

No one seemed to have heard the sound of the brief confrontation, at least she couldn't hear any shouts or running feet, so she had a few seconds to think, but she couldn't stay there in a corridor with a pair of trussed up aes sedai for long. They were both squirming in their bonds of air, furiously bulging eyes staring at Taija.

Fine, it was going to be embarrassing, but she was going to have to make this Siuan's problem. Quick webs of earth and spirit, carefully spun around the captive aes sedai's eyes and ears ensured they wouldn't see or hear anything they weren't meant to.

A thought brought a gateway through to Taija's own room, inverted obviously, and she gently floated the women through. For now they were only suspects and it would be wrong to make them any more uncomfortable than she had to. A quick twist tied off the webs on them and, with them safely stowed on her bed, Taija spun another gateway to Siuan's bedroom.

A few minutes of explanation and Taija had a very grumpy Amyrlin, still in her bed clothes, sitting in her office when she brought the two red sisters through another gateway.

Taija placed them in front of Siuan and moved behind them so that they couldn't see her, then at a gesture from Suan she removed the block from their eyes and ears.

Blinking in the sudden light they both looked up at the Amyrlin's stern face.

"Mother!" Gasped Javindhra, "what is the meaning of this? Have you stooped to kidnapping Sitters in the corridors of the Tower? When the Hall hears of this they will…"

Siuan cut her off with a look. Taija was somewhat impressed at how intimidating she could actually be. It was surprising she'd never tried to use that look on her. "The Hall will not be hearing about any of this daughter. For now at least." Her voice hardened further, "do you know what you have nearly done? Interrupted one of the most important operations the Tower has undertaken with your blundering! I am minded to order you to do penance for the next decade!"

"How dare you! I have been assaulted and instead of searching for the perpetrator you sit there threatening me? What kind of 'operation' would justify that?"

Rather than speaking Siuan channeled and a flow of air plucked the binding rod off her desk and floated it to her hand. Both aes sedai went quiet at the sight of it.

Siuan channeled a simple flow of spirit into it and then said, "I swear to speak no word that is not true." She paused. "I am not a darkfriend. Which of you wants to go first?"

Duahara broke her silence. "How dare you! This is the greatest abuse of power by an Amyrlin since since… You cannot dare to suggest that either of us is a darkfriend! We have sworn the three oaths, we are aes sedai!"

Javindhra had looked like she might protest, but somehow the vehemence of Duhara's ranting made her change her mind. Instead she looked sideways at her before looking back at Siuan. "Very well mother. I will do it, but we will be having words when I have."

Siuan nodded, "of course daughter." Taija released the air holding Javindhra in place and spun another web muffling the frantic rant coming from Duhara at the same time as Siuan floated the binding rod on another flow of air.

Without hesitating, her eyes on Duhara, Javindhra took hold of the rod, paused for Siuan to channel spirit into it and repeated the oath. "I swear to speak no word that is not true. I am no darkfriend."

Siuan stood and smiled, looking down at Duhara who'd started to thrash wildly against Taija's web of air. "Thank you Javindhra. Welcome to the hunt. It seems that the first fish has already slipped into our net."

The rest of the night was a bit of a blur and Taija knew the three of them would be exhausted the next day. Siuan gave Javindhra an abbreviated explanation of the Black Ajah hunt, brushing over Taija's involvement and side stepping her questions about her. Taija could tell she was hurrying things along to avoid giving Javindhra the opportunity to question her more, with promises to speak further when there was more time. Before Javindhra left she promised Siuan that she understood the seriousness of the situation and would not seek to bring it before the Hall.

Siuan retreated to her bedroom to summon Maigan and Anaiya and Duahra's shield was quickly transferred to them before she was bundled off to a storeroom somewhere with mutterings about the 'Chair of Remorse'. Taija decided she didn't want to ask. What she wanted most of all was bed.

========

The next few days were particularly tense for Taija. Siuan canceled some of her regular training sessions and when she did have them, both her and Leane seem worried and exhausted behind their aes sedai serenity. When Taija asked about Duhara she was told that she still refused to reswear her oaths and denied being part of the Black Ajah, demanding that they follow Tower law. She could tell that they're getting increasingly unsure about whether Duhara was even black or not.

It was on the fifth day that Taija got good news. Duhara had finally broken and agreed to swear on the binding rod. She had to first unswear her existing oaths, as Taija had expected. What was a surprise was Siuan telling her that apparently it was excruciatingly painful to so.

Unfortunately the blacks seemed to use a cell structure so Duhara could only name two other black sisters. Both were social women so it would be difficult to abduct them without anyone noticing, especially with there already being talk about Duhara's sudden "departure" from the Tower. However, Siuan seemed as happy as Taija had ever seen her, entirely confident that now that they had names they could start to roll up the Black Ajah step by step. She also seemed a bit more relaxed around Taija, which was nice, although they still clashed during lessons.

Apparently Duhara had sworn a fourth oath to obey Siuan and been ordered to keep everything a secret and help with destroying the Black Ajah. Normally Taija would be disgusted at that, but as a darkfriend Durhara should consider herself lucky that she hadn't been executed out of hand. In fact Taija offered Siuan a couple of suggestions on additional oaths, including one not to unswear her current ones without Siuan's permission.

Despite the good news, Taija was a little worried because that evening when she'd arrived for her regular lesson with Egwene and Elayne she found no one there. She'd waited with increasing irritation, but they hadn't come.

The next day Taija kept an eye out for them, but saw no sign of them and again there was no one there for the lesson in the evening.

On the third day she took the opportunity to ask after Egwene at her regular training session with Siuan and Leane.

"The idiot girl has run away, not just her, but Nynaeve and the Daughter Heir of Andor too."

"The Daughter Heir? Do you mean Elayne?"

That got Taija a sharp look, "and how exactly are you on first name terms with her?" Siuan made a frustrated sound, "no do not say anything, it does not matter and I do not want to know, I should expect it around you. I have bigger problems. The three most powerful initiates we have seen for centuries and they have gone. If Morgase finds out before we hunt them down she is going to cause no end of problems for me and the Tower. When I get them back they are going to only wish they were dead." Taija tuned her out as she launched into a fish metaphor.

Taija didn't think it was very likely that they both ran away. Novice life was clearly hard work and they certainly felt it, but they didn't seem unhappy. She couldn't see why Nynaeve would go either, although she didn't really know her.

While she didn't say anything to Siuan, Taija started mulling it over in bed that night. Why would the three strongest students at the White Tower just up and run? It was a very convenient story and she'd heard that novices sometimes did run away, but here they had no reason to and Taija actually felt she knew two of them well enough to have some idea of how they were feeling. It was all deeply suspicious. Powerful channelers, associated with Siuan, political consequences for the Tower…

Chapter Text

Interlude IV - The Competent Forsaken Sub-Committee II

The three figures faded into existence within seconds of each other. A moment later there was a flicker and the dark, empty space was replaced with a horde of lush greenery. Birds chirped amidst the fronds of tropical trees and the buzz of insects permeated the background.

Instead of standing on platforms in empty space, the three were now sitting on comfortable armchairs, incongruous in the midst of the greenery.

Demandred surveyed the scene with a certain sense of satisfaction, "well that's a bit more convivial than last time. So, Mesaana, Semirhage what updates do you have?"

Semirhage rolled her eyes at the surroundings and leaned back in her chair, "my plans continue. At the moment the focus is on the Return, it is already bringing chaos to the west of the main continent and if we can stoke the flames successfully then a full scale war will serve the Great Lord well. Whichever side wins, the Shadow will be stronger."

Mesaana on the other hand seemed more irritated than bored. "There's something going on in the Tower, I haven't quite gotten to the bottom of it yet, but I'm sure that the Amyrlin is up to something. She's a hard woman, but normally not particularly subtle so this is a change. Of course I'll be able to deal with whatever she's come up with in due course, but there may be some instability in the Tower soon. What about you Demandred?"

"Everything is going smoothly and according to plan for me. Soon I'll be exactly where I need to be. I've got a couple of irons in the fire in the central nations too, but nothing that should concern either of your interests."

"Excellent." Semirhage nodded. "So what about the others? Any news of their movements?"

Mesaana frowned, "I'm not sure it's news as such, but Asmodean has vanished. One day he was in Tar Valon going around doing his silly little shows, the next, nothing."

"Well that is interesting." Demandred sat up a bit straighter. "I'd expect Moghedien or Lanfear to just disappear on some scheme, but Asmodean was always a bit too obvious for anything like that."

Semirhage shook her head in disagreement, "I look down on him as much as any of you, but we should remember even if he is the least of us he is still one of the Chosen. Look at Aginor and Balthamel, they went off to face a farmboy and a half-trained girl, hardly comparable to any of us, and now they're both dead because they underestimated them. Mesaana, do you think maybe Asmodean might have something to do with the difficulties in the Tower? Perhaps he found what he wanted and is now acting against you there?"

"Hmm, I confess that hadn't occurred to me. A worrying thought, the so-called aes sedai of this age are a trivial concern, but one of the Chosen, even Asmodean, is much more significant." She looked up lost in thought for a moment, "well, thank you for the idea. I'll look into it and if that is what he's doing then I'll have to re-educate him." Mesaana's smile was more feral than friendly."

There was a brief silence until Semirhage spoke up, "Ishamael has moved himself to Falme where he seems to be spending time with the Return. At least that will mean less interference in the Empire itself. Last time I spoke to him he said he was waiting for 'the girls' and smiled enigmatically."

Mesaana huffed irritatedly, "well I think that explains one thing. The Tower's been awash with stories about three students running away. Two of them are from Lews Therin's village and all three are among the most powerful students they've had in centuries, not that that's saying much. I wonder if they're what Ishamael's excited about." She continued with an annoyed grimace, "if it wasn't Ishamael, we'd be having a thorough… conversation about why he should stay out of my territory. I had plans for those girls, with proper training they wouldn't have been insignificant. But… since it is Ishamael…" she trailed off to nods of understanding from the other two.

Semirhage's nod even had a tiny hint of sympathy in it, "believe me I know how irritating that man treading on your toes can be. If I could get him out of Falme I would. Still, it is a relief that he's got proper reasons for grabbing them. With his cackling about girls I was starting to worry he might be turning into another Rahvin. Not that I care what he does with the girls, you understand, but he just goes on about them so much."

That brought a look of exasperation to Demandred's face, "speaking of Rahvin, he's set himself up in Andor. It seems he's moved into the royal palace and is enjoying the queen's company, along with any other woman who comes near him."

Mesaana rolled her eyes, "well of course Rahvin chose that way to 'contribute', the Great Lord only knows how that man managed to become one of us. Is he even doing anything useful beyond banging whatever noblewomen catch his eye?" She didn't wait for an answer, shaking her head. "Of course he's not."

"Actually," Demandred replied, "I think he may be plotting something with Sammael." He held up a hand to stop their immediate denials. "I know, I know, but Sammael has definitely been visiting Caemlyn."

"But Sammael hates Rahvin nearly as much as he hates Lews Therin," protested Mesaana.

Demandred shrugged, even as his lips twisted downward at the mention of the Dragon. "That is true, but much as we all despise Rahvin we have all put up with worse when it would benefit us. I do not think we can discount it. I will keep an eye on the situation and if Sammael can actually put up with that man's idiotic preaching for more than a few minutes then so be it. We will find out what they are up to."

Semirhage gave her own shrug, "well I cannot argue with that. Have either of you spoken with Be'lal recently?" When both shook their heads she continued, "well you are not missing out on much of interest. He seems to be incapable of talking about anything other than how he is locking down the 'greatest fortification of the age'," the inverted commas were audible in her tone, "and preparing an ambush 'ready for the prophecies'. He is just refusing to even talk about anything else and when I tried to discuss coordination of the Great Lord's plans he kept asking me how I thought a Seanchan army might try to take the Stone."

"I suppose he always did like playing with soldiers, no offence meant Demandred."

Demandred waved her off. "Be'lal's one-track mind aside, any other updates?"

"One more from me," said Mesaana. "Lanfear seems to have cheered up a bit, much less of a temper on her than last time I spoke to her, so presumably something's going right for her, but I've no idea what."

Semirhage looked annoyed at that, "mmm, what about Moghedien? Do either of you know where she has been crawling around recently?"

"No one ever knows where Moghedien is until she wants them to," Demandred didn't look pleased at the fact, but neither of the other two could disagree.

Conversation trailed off after that and the three soon departed leaving the lush gardens to fade back into blackness.

Chapter Text

Chapter XXI - A Break from the White Tower

Taija's feeling of satisfaction at successfully catching a member of the Black Ajah, even if it was more a matter of lucky incompetence than skill, was quickly replaced by her increasing worry about the girls. Siuan seemed relatively unconcerned, informing her that if she had actionable intelligence then there was something to be done, but until then she had too many fish already in the pot to be worrying about finding more. The fish metaphor didn't improve Taija's mood.

The amount of investigating Taija could do by herself was limited though. She was tempted to drop her disguise and start bashing aes sedai heads together and demanding answers, but that wasn't a realistic option. Instead she had to settle for being the Lady Alfreda, concerned about a pair of novices who had been kind to her.

Her feeling of dread about the girls strengthened as no one she spoke to seemed to have any idea where they'd gone. Three inexperienced girls couldn't simply disappear that easily, not without discovering how to Travel and Taija definitely hadn't taught that to them. Although if, no when, she found them it might be a good idea to.

Taija was worried that she'd attract unwanted attention with her questions, but at the same time she was increasingly driven to the point that she just didn't care. Really she was turning into a ball of frustrated tension in the White Tower. She was deeply outside her comfort zone, trying to work out what was going on with its manipulative women and all the time she could feel an itch between her shoulder blades. At some point she was going to accidentally give herself away, if she hadn't already, and then it would only be a matter of time until someone tried to put a knife between them.

This all came together to make Taija increasingly irritable and more than once she found that her and Siuan were sniping at each other with Leane having to act as peacemaker.

The only source of relief for Taija was her regular chats with Bennae. She was just so nice, particularly for an aes sedai.

"You know Alfreda, I think you're worrying too much." Bennae looked at her with hooded eyes over her cup of tea as she took a sip. "Every time I see you, you look tenser."

Taija sighed, "I know Bennae, I just worry about… home." It wasn't even a lie, Taija tried not to think about home. Everything that had happened to it, the War, the people she loved. "I hope the Amyrlin will be able to help…" She trailed off a little lamely.

Bennae smiled and put her hand on Taija's, "I've no doubt that in the long run things will turn out better for you. The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, but you're a talented young woman my dear and things will sort themselves out sooner or later."

Taija offered her a weak smile and changed the subject, "so I've been reading about the Trolloc Wars…"

=====

It was a week after Duhara's surrender that Siuan told Taija that she was making the next move in the hunt for the Black Ajah. Elza Penfell, a green, Taija noted with satisfaction, had been identified by Duhara as one of them and Siuan was ready to take her.

That night Siuan had Taija waiting in her bedchamber, under various inverted weaves to conceal her, when Anaiya and Maigan dragged the black sister through a gateway bound in weaves of air. Siuan didn't want Taija to be known to anyone that she didn't have to be. As she said, "if two people know a secret it is no longer a secret." Actually Taija was a little surprised she didn't manage to bring fish into the saying.

As with Duhara, Elza franticly refusesdto reswear the oaths, feigning outrage to cover her fear, and so she was taken away. A very uneventful night for Taija in the end.

====

The next week Siuan was ready to move again. This time the black sister was Dagdara Finchey. Taija had never heard of her, but Siuan told her that she was a yellow and noticeably stronger than the others that had been taken. Nevertheless she was quickly secured and taken away to face whatever Anaiya and Magian were inflicting on the captured black sisters.

======

Taija sat back and sighed as the warmth of the tea suffused her. "I just don't think that that's a plausible way for aes sedai to have organised themselves in the Age of Legends." She still couldn't entirely suppress a little twitch at calling it that. "The title just didn't mean the same thing then as it does now, of course it was important, but just not as all defining… Or so I've read…" She trailed off a bit awkwardly. She tried to avoid talking about her time, but it seemed to fascinate Bennae more than any other subject and Taija often found the conversation ending up there despite her best efforts.

Bennae's eyebrows rose, "you do have such fascinating ideas sometimes Alfreda dear. One day I will have to leave the Tower again and have you take me to some of these libraries you have visited. Nevertheless, I think the sources are clear, the ancient aes sedai had difficult tests of channeling strength and willpower, I suspect administered through ter'angreal, which meant that only the very strongest and most talented could call themselves aes sedai."

Taija scowled at her lap, desperately wanting to tell Bennae how wrong she was. "I'm sure you're right," she offered through gritted teeth. "So how do the aes sedai decide who gets the title now? I've never seen that in a book." She supposed she could just ask Siuan, but since the 'conversation' about the use of the binding rod, both of them had been reluctant to discuss anything like that.

Something flashed momentarily across Bennae's face and then she was back to her relaxed smiling self. "Well Alfreda, you wouldn't have read anything because it's something of a secret. Perhaps that is more of a guideline though." She laughed sweetly. "If you promise not to tell anyone?"

Taija leant forward and nodded eagerly, "yes of course, I promise."

"Well I will not give you the full details, those truly are secrets of the Tower. However," she paused dramatically, "like in the Age of Legends initiates must take a test with a ter'angreal to be raised to the shawl, also to become accepted, although no one knows whether there was an equivalent position in the Age of Legends."

"There wasn't," Taija muttered under her breath.

"These tests use the ter'angreal to test their courage, dedication, composure and skill. To make sure they are worthy of wearing the shawl."

"Ter'angreal," she didn't have to feign widening her eyes, "isn't that dangerous?"

Bennae nodded sadly, "it can be, but to be aes sedai is to understand danger and yourself, to have faced your fears and chosen the path we walk on."

All Taija could do was think with horror about what kind of idiotic misuse of a ter'angreal these so-called aes sedai were forcing on women barely out of childhood.

=====

It took another week for Elza to break and one of the Black Ajah members she named was Asne. With a sinking feeling Taija remembered the overheard conversation about taking a package to Falme and started making connections in her head.

A few questions of stablehands quickly told her that in fact Asne had secured a number of horses around the time the girls disappeared. Fuck. Taija resisted the urge to spin a gateway there and then and head straight for Falme, she couldn't afford to go on a wild goose chase. She knew she was at risk of jumping to conclusions because of her frustration and the last thing she, the girls or even Siuan needed was for her to go haring off after some red herring.

That night Taija brought up her discoveries with Siuan, who seemed vaguely interested, but told her that she didn't have enough evidence to go on. Siuan would deal with Asne in due course, but there were other priorities, stronger, more senior aes sedai who were Black Ajah, she now had the names of Sitters.

On one level Taija knew Siuan was right, but on another she couldn't stand it. Still, it took her another couple of days of haunting the Tower, in an increasingly foul mood, before she cracked in the face of Siuan's indifference. No, that was unfair. In the face of her other priorities.

Taija wasn't an immature child, she could understand that Siuan's absolute priority was protecting the Tower and rooting out the Black Ajah infestation within it. For her, preserving the Tower was the most important thing. Taija could see that that was important, of course. However, she could also see that the White Tower was a tottering edifice, riddled with darkfriends and women more interested in their own power than in living up to their title. Something to be supported and repaired, probably, maybe, but not the be all and end all that the modern aes sedai thought it was.

Taija had her own priorities. Nynaeve was old enough to look after herself and Taija didn't particularly know her anyway. However, Egwene and Elayne were children, whatever illusions they might have about their maturity. More importantly, they were also her students, so she had a responsibility to them. Anyway, given what she'd seen of the state of this time's aes sedai, three channelers with the girls' potential might be almost as important as keeping the Tower together.

 

======

A couple of days of scouting told Taija where Asne's rooms were. As it turned out, it was surprisingly easy to walk around the aes sedai's floors when she could look like a servant. The trick, she quickly found, was just to look like she was moving with purpose and to be carrying something mundane, like towels.

If Siuan didn't want to take any action, then Taija could take her own.

Late the next night Taija headed for Asne's rooms, carrying an empty jug in her arms for cover. A quick look down the corridor told her the coast was clear, but to make sure she spun an inverted ward against eavesdropping around the corridor outside the room, tying it off to dissipate after a few minutes.

Job done, it was time to move. A web of earth, spirit and air rotated the lock in Asne's door and at the same time Taija slashed straight through the black sister's wards.

A warning squawk blared as the wards collapsed, but anyone nearby would have heard nothing.

Taija felt Asne embracing saidar as she threw the door open. Her strength was insignificant. It wasn't even a fight. Taija slammed a shield between Asne and the Power before immediately silencing her protests with a web of air cross her face. Another two webs blocked her vision and hearing.

Scant seconds after she'd started, Taija was in Siuan's bedchamber with a silently struggling Asne.

Siuan, as she'd expected, was unamused at being woken up again, particularly when she saw Asne.

Her eyes narrowed as she stared at Taija with unconcealed irritation in her tone. "I specifically told you that we would deal with Asne in due course. Do you realise how many different problems I am trying to juggle at the moment? You are only adding to them. If the blacks find out what we are doing then we will be straight into the pot and you risk giving it all away."

Taija shrugged. Her irritation at the Tower in general and Siuan in particular was making her unreasonable and she knew it, but she couldn't bring herself to care all that much. "I accept that it's difficult, but I think it's more vital that we recover the three most powerful channelers in the Tower from the Shadow. You can't tell me it's not important."

"It is important," Siuan stood up from the bed using her height advantage to look down at Taija, "but I can also tell you I have one hundred other fish to catch, each just as important and you lack evidence, her involvement is just conjecture." Siuan raised her voice, snapping at Taija. "I am trying to save the Tower and your disobedience makes every step more difficult, every problem worse."

Taija didn't flinch from Siuan's voice or her hard stare, "I hadn't been aware that I took orders from you Siuan." She knew it was childish of her, but she gestured at Asne, "if you'd prefer I can put her back in her room."

Siuan looked like she wanted to put her face into her palms, but after a deep breath she just nodded. "Fine. I will summon Anaiya and we will work on Asne here," she shot the woman a look of disgust. "However, this situation cannot continue, I cannot sail a ship in a storm when the crew are pulling every direction. We must talk, soon, but tonight I need sleep."

"Thank you Siuan sedai," Taija replied, somewhat mollified by her acquiescence, there was no point in further aggravating her when she had what she wanted. Before long a sleepy Anaiya was gumpily taking over Asne's shield and carting her off to what Taija assumed was yet another storeroom.

She slept better for what was left of the night.

======

The next morning, after her daily training session out in the country, Taija emerged from her room into chaos. Close lipped aes sedai and warders were hustling around with unknown purpose. Guards stomped from place to place and novices and accepted fluttered urgently around. However, no one would tell her what was going on and in the end she was ordered back to her room by an irritated looking red sister.

That night Siuan and Leane were absent for their training and Taija ended up retreating grumpily back to her room after waiting in Siuan's bedroom a while. However, the next night she was there and she was absolutely furious.

"Sisters and warders dead! Ter'angreal stolen! The Black Ajah revealing itself like this." She rounded on Taija, "if I find your actions have triggered this I will…" With a visible effort she brought herself under control.

"What happened?" Taija chose to ignore her unspoken threat, "the Tower's been in chaos and no one will even give me a hint of what's happened."

Siuan somehow looked older that night, despite her ageless, bound face, and she sighed as she sunk into her chair. "Thirteen sisters have disappeared together. Before doing that they raided the ter'angreal storerooms and tried to steal angreal too. Thank the Light they did not succeed in that at least. They left two dead sisters and their warders in their wake along with a number of the Tower guard. Now I have to work out how to explain this to the Hall. Light help us if this is a sign the Black Ajah knows they are being hunted!"

Taija's stomach sunk as her explanation went on.

"Not only that, but at least two of the women we were going to take next have left with that group." Siuan looked straight at her, "I assume you know the significance of thirteen women?"

Taija nodded with a wince. "And the ter'angreal they took? What are they?"

Siuan shook her head, "it is a bit of a mystery. They seem to have ignored ones I would think were more useful and have instead taken an odd array that appear to have something to do with dreaming. Also one where the only records that could be found said it produced balefire." She looked thoughtful for a second, "actually do you know much of balefire? It is forbidden by Tower law, but I confess I do not know much more than that, we have lost much." Taija knew that admission pained her.

Mind racing, Taija offered her most innocent shrug and tried to divert the conversation. There was no way she was teaching any of these women how to spin balefire. "Not really I'm afraid, perhaps something from after my time? Maybe the others though? Dreaming… Do you mean the Unseen World?"

Siuan's look sharpened, "I believe so, what do you know of it?"

Taija breathed an internal sigh of relief at the successful diversion away from balefire. "Some things, not as much as an expert, but certainly the basics. The Unseen World is… a kind of mirror to our world. Everyone enters it occasionally in their sleep, but dreamwalkers can consciously enter it and control it."

"But do you know how to enter it? Can you stop those women from doing whatever it is they want there?"

Taija recoiled, "no!" After a second she continued more calmly, "I'm no dreamwalker. Like I said, I know the basics, but the Unseen World is no more accessible to me than it is to you." That was a half truth, but Siuan didn't need to know that. "It's an exceptionally dangerous place. I know people who've never woken up after going there, others who've returned as mindless shells. It's not a place I would go to by choice. Even if I could." The thought made her shiver, there were worse places to die than the real world.

"Fine, there is nothing to be done about that then."

Taija hesitated and then offered, "do you know which way they went? Presumably they don't know how to Travel, it would be relatively easy to follow them and…"

Siuan shook her head. "No, I would not send even you against thirteen of us at once." Taija scowled at that, as if she'd be stupid enough to go head to head with them. She'd pick them off from a distance, one by one. Travel in, strike, Travel out. "But regardless, they used the Waygate in Tar Valon to escape. Unless you also have some way of tracking them through the Ways they are gone." She looked a little hopeful at the idea.

Taija deflated, "no… the Ways were built after… after the War, so I probably know less about them you do."

The next few days saw little interaction with Siuan. Taija went to their regular meetings, talked briefly and then Siuan would say she was too busy to do any training. At least it meant she got more sleep. Each night Taija also asked her about Asne and each night Siuan told her she was still holding out.

======

Taija carefully poured the tea into Bennae's cup and then her own. She wasn't sure it was a good idea to ask, but she hated being ignorant. Loial hadn't really known all that much on the topic. "Bennae, what do you know about the Ways? I heard there's a Waygate in Tar Valon."

That got her a sharp look, Bennae's characteristically absent-minded gaze gone for a second, "goodness me, what in the Light brought on a question like that Alfreda?"

Taija did her best to look embarrassed. "I just heard things… and I was wondering. I've heard of the Ways, how they were built for the Ogier by the male aes sedai, but I don't really know much more about them."

Bennae shook her head, now looking amused if anything, "you really are a sponge for new information my dear. I must say you probably know as much as most aes sedai already, but let me see what I can think of, hmm…" She thought for a minute before launching into a detailed description of what a Waygate looked like, along with a blood-curdling warning about the dangers of the Black Wind.

"Fascinating," Taija murmured, comparing it to what Loial told her months ago in the Borderlands.

"Yes it is, but I hope you're not thinking of anything so foolish and going and trying to explore them yourself?"

Taija shook her head vigorously, "no absolutely not, you couldn't get me in there at spear point." After all, why bother when she could just Travel.

=====

On the fourth night after Asne's capture things changed. When Taija stepped out of her gateway into Siuan's room the Amyrlin had a particularly grim set to her body.

"Ah, Taija. You will be pleased to know that this particular fish has now been skinned. Asne has resworn the oaths and will not be troubling us any more. However, she has also given me disturbing news about the girls."

Taija leant forward, practically thrumming with tension as Siuan continued. "She did indeed take the girls to Falme. The good news is that they have not been handed over to shadowspawn or others of the Black Ajah." Taija breathed a sigh of relief as her fear for them faded slightly. "However, the bad news is very bad."

Siuan took a breath. "I had been reading reports of problems in the west with rumours of strange invaders and aes sedai fighting for them, but it seems the truth is worse than the rumours. There is an invasion going on from across the Aryth Ocean. An empire calling itself the Seanchan."

Taija shrugged wanting her to get to the point, "are they a big problem?"

"I do not know. We had thought that sailing across the Aryth Ocean and surviving was impossible. Even the Sea Folk do not do it."

"Well that's certainly concerning," Taija said in a tone that suggested the opposite, "but what about the girls?" She struggled to bring herself to care too much about squabbles between this time's nations, although of course any war that weakened the forces of the Light was bad.

"Yes, yes. I am getting to that. So Asne has handed the girls over to the 'High Lady Suroth' of the Seanchan, but," Siuan looked disgusted, "it seems they have some kind of device to control channelers. They call them leashed and put a collar on them connected to a bracelet by that leash."

Taija spoke slowly, chewing over the concept in her head, "how does that even work?" She could think of one or two theories, but the idea was both odd and repulsive.

"Asne said she did not know, just that once the collars are on, there seems to be little one can do. She said Egwene had punched the one holding her leash and instead fallen over in pain herself."

Taija's face lost all expression at that. "I see, and the other two?"

"More good news, Asne said they escaped. Though I do not know whether they are still free. She was clearly afraid of being revealed by them though, she had planned to join the group that fled the night she was captured."

"Mmm," Taija's voice was distant, cold. She was already weighing up how much Siuan really needed her in the Tower to fight the Black Ajah, debating with herself how much she even cared. "Is this Suroth a darkfriend too?"

"Apparently so, the second highest ranked person amidst the Seanchan in these lands and a high ranking darkfriend in her own right. I do not know about the others, but Asne believes they are not."

Taija realised she was unconsciously clenching her fists, clutching at her dress and forced herself to relax.

Siuan didn't notice or at least pretended not to, "I cannot allow the girls to be kept prisoner by a darkfriend like this, but I cannot take action myself. The Tower is at a critical point in time and my or other aes sedais' absence would be too great a risk."

"But!" Taija started to protest.

She lifted a hand, "you on the other hand. You I can spare," she offered Taija a wan smile, "and I think if I said to stay you would agree and then go regardless. You are chafing here in the Tower so go with my blessings. I know we do not always see eye to eye, but believe me, when it comes to darkfriend slavers we are sailing in formation."

There was a bit more discussion. Logistics, plans and more details that Anaiya and Maigan had been able to wring out of Asne. In particular Taija found that, like the other black sisters she used the Ways, confirming that the secret of Traveling was still being kept. However, it wasn't long before she returned to her room to pack and get a last night of rest in a good bed.

Shortly after she woke the next morning Taija headed for the stables. Anaiya met her there to hand her a pack of additional clothes and a couple of bulging coin pouches. A brief thank you and goodbye, a check for witnesses and then she was walking her horse through an inverted gateway onto a skimming platform.

Hopefully everything would be easy, sneak in, grab the girls and sneak out. Then back to the Tower within a couple of days.

Chapter Text

Interlude V - The 'Modern' World is a Lonely Place II

The present day in an abandoned farmhouse near Falme

That night when Taija went to bed sleep eluded her, despite her exhaustion, leaving her lying there tossing and turning on her bedroll. Like they did most nights, her thoughts led back to painful memories. With them hovering around the forefront of her mind, she just couldn't find the peace that she needed to fall asleep.

======

A bit more than 3,000 years ago, around ten years before the end of the Collapse and the start of the War of Power.

Taija had been out drinking with Antero one night. It was during better times, before the start of the War, when the world still seemed like a good place and she could live in blissful freedom. She'd never been a big drinker, but Antero had an annoying talent for getting her to let loose a little. By that point she was definitely tipsy, although to be fair, not as drunk as he was.

Antero took another gulp of beer and eyed Taija up consideringly over the of his glass. "You know Taija, what you need is a boyfriend." Declaration made, he slammed his now empty glass back down and called the waiter over for another.

It was one of the nicest bars in Jalanda. Not the kind of place Taija normally frequented, or could even afford, despite being able to live very comfortably on her salary as a full professor. If she was honest with herself, she even felt a little out of place among its glamorous denizens, but Antero had just bulled his way through whatever objections she raised and dragged her along behind him.

"I do not need a boyfriend," Taija's tone was as prim as it ever was as she sat back and folded her arms across her chest. "You've just been with Saela for too long and now you're trying to set up all your friends so you can have some vicarious excitement." She nodded with satisfaction at that argument. "Also I'm far too busy."

"There. That's my point!" Antero ignored Taija's very good point about just wanting vicarious excitement of course. "You're always too busy for it. Do you really want to spend the next five hundred years surrounded by books and cats?"

Taija pretended to think, stroking an imaginary beard below her chin. "Well it has its appeal." A pause and then they both burst out laughing.

"I know for a fact you don't even like cats." He took another gulp of beer to match the sip Taija took from her excessively ornate cocktail. "Seriously though, you're such a sweetheart, it would be a horrendous waste and I know the perfect guy I want to introduce you to. You'll love him."

Taija sighed and rolled her eyes. "Not another of your vacuous influencer friends, please. I'd rather the cats than that."

"No no seriously, you'll love him. He's super smart, very motivated aaand he's ripped." He leant forward and earnestly put his hand on Taija's. "Look I'm playing a game of airball with him next week. I'll bring Saela and we can make it a doubles match. No pressure, if you don't like him you're just doing a favour for a friend."

"Hmph, you really think I'll like him?"

"You'll love him, on my honour."

"Fiiinnne," Taija deliberately drew out the word, "but if he sucks you owe me one."

=======

It had been a productive day for Tel. His usual morning routine of plyometrics, fencing, archery and wrestling dominating. Then a healthy lunch followed by an hour of channeling practice, wrestling the raging torrent of saidin into complex webs under the direction of his ageing tutor.

The afternoon brought with it a quick trip to open a new sports complex in his home town. Forced smiles, glad-handing and autographs were sadly part of the job. Finally there was the meeting with Antero, a great agent, but more importantly one of the few people he considered a genuine friend.

Opportunities discussed and contracts signed, Antero persuaded him that it was time for a drink. Tel had been planning a quiet evening at home, but Antero was disturbingly persuasive. How he managed to combine logic, puppy eyes and being a huge, middle aged man with a bushy beard into one giant package Tel had no idea.

Still, that was how he found himself nursing a beer in a quirky little bar halfway across the world. Apparently Antero had heard about it from a friend and since Tel could Travel…

"Look, Tel you need to lighten up a bit. Saela and I both worry about you. I know you're selling the brooding bad boy look and that's great, but I'm not interested in that right now. You can't spend all your time training and have none for yourself. You need some more fun in your life!" Antero leaned back and waggled his eyebrows, "you need to get laid!"

Tel sighed, "for fuck's sake Antero you go on about this every time I see you. Honestly I'm fine! I have a great life, I love my work and meeting women is hardly a problem." He couldn't resist a small smirk at that.

"Hmmm," Antero was extremely good at looking sceptical. "What happened to the last girl? Cleo wasn't it?"

"I don't want to talk about it. How are things with you and Saela? Are you trying for a baby yet?"

"Oh no no no you're not changing the subject that easily." Antero took a swig of beer. "Come on, out with it!"

"Fine. Yes I got bored again. There just wasn't the spark, you know. Sure, she was beautiful and good fun for a bit, but there was no substance." Tel's mouth turned down in displeasure. "Anyway she couldn't channel, so we both knew it wouldn't go anywhere long term and in the end she left. Something about me not being emotionally engaged…"

Antero raised his eyebrows, "which to be honest sounds fair enough."

"I suppose it is," Tel sighed again, slumping in his chair.

"Same shit different day." They both sad it companionable silence for a minute before Antero broke it. "Alright, well I've got just the solution for you. A couple of weeks time, Saela and are going to be in Jalanda. You know how much they're into airball down there, so we were going to get some games in."

"Well that's nice, but what's that got to do with me?" Tel had a sneaking suspicion and he didn't like where it was going.

"Ah well here's the good bit," Antero leaned forward with a grin. "You know how good Saela is at that blasted game and she's getting tired of pasting the floor with me. Let's make it a doubles game, there's a girl I know there. Absolute dreamboat, cute as pie and I want you to meet her. Then I can actually have Saela on my side for once."

Tel looked unimpressed, "so what you're saying is that you want me to trek to a different continent so that your wife doesn't beat you in a ball game?"

Antero's grin widened, "exactly and also meet a really cool girl."

"Nope. I'm far too busy and we both know how the last date you put me on went. I had to pay a professional to get the stains off the wall!"

"Oh come on. I know you're not that busy, I'm your agent for Light's sake! Anyway you can Travel, it's not like distance is a big deal."

"Still no." Tel's face was was uncompromising.

"Oh come on Tel. She's totally your type and you need some fun. Stop being so serious for once and just let your hair down." Antero glanced at Tel's very neat, short-cropped hair, "well leave it unbrushed or something. Anyway, you'll love her. She's got a third name and everything, at under 200, super accomplished! You'd make such a cute power couple."

"Light will you stop! The last thing I need is to be in another celebrity power couple," Tel scowled.

"Ok ok, look I worded that wrong. She's a physicist not at all the celebrity type. To be honest, knowing her I doubt she's even heard of you!" He met Tel's eyes and his voice took on a wheedling tone, "come on! You'll have fun, meet a hot girl and I can finally win a game of airball!"

Tel rolled his eyes. "You know what, fine. I'll come. But if you think you're going to win with me on the other side… pffff." A dismissive gesture and a swig of beer punctuated the sound.

=====

Taija had turned up bang on time, getting off the bus outside the Cam Braet Sports Complex, a huge building that dominated this little part of southern Jalanda. Apparently it had some of the best airball pitches in the city and, despite herself, she was quite excited to give the game a try. The date on the other hand… It had been a while since she'd found time to go on one, particularly after the disastrous way the last couple had ended. If she was honest with herself, she was more apprehensive than excited about it. Especially given Antero's occasionally odd choices in match making.

Saela was waiting for her outside, looking as glamourous as ever and they headed to the changing rooms together, catching up as they went.

"I still don't understand why you take the bus Taija. It's ridiculous, I know the service is good here, but they take forever and you can Travel for Light's sake." Saela immediately restarted on an old debate between the two of them.

Taija shrugged with a small smile, it was almost a ritual by at this point, "I know, but I like them. It's relaxing, I grab a seat on the top deck and I can watch the world go by."

"But it's such a waste of time! I can't even Travel and I don't take the bus."

Of course Saela was just trying to relax her by getting her onto a pet topic, but Taija appreciated it nonetheless. "Sure, but I'm hurrying all the time. It's too easy to just live in your little aes sedai or university bubble and just not experience the world… Aes sedai should be part of the world, not separate from it."

Of course, despite Taija's best attempts at avoiding it, the conversation had inevitably turned to her date as Taija pulled her sports shoes on, carefully doing up the laces. Saela had been watching her get increasingly slow with her preparations before giving her a gentle shove and laughing, "don't worry Taija, you'll like this one! I'm recommending him too, not just Antero! He can be a bit awkward when you first meet him, but once he warms up you'll love him."

That was at least a bit of a relief, Saela had far better taste than Antero.

When the two of them emerged into the warm air outside Taija immediately spotted Antero and standing next to him was the man that was presumably her date. He looked short next to Antero, but she was fairly sure he was actually a bit above average in height. Much taller than her either way.

He was wearing a tight white t-shirt and blue board shorts, both filled with toned muscle. His face was framed by neatly cropped, short blonde beard and hair and he was doing some intriguing stretches…

Taija's mental train was derailed when Saela poked her in the ribs and hissed, "stop eyeing him up like a piece of meat and come over and say hi." With a jerk she realised Antero was waving and quickly hurried after Saela, already feeling her face heating.

======

Tel was somewhat dreading meeting his "date", the Creator only knew what she'd be like. Once Antero got an idea in his head he was like a dog with a bone, however bad it might be he wasn't letting it go. Still, at least the game should be fun. He stretched his arms, hands interlinked enjoying the crack of his knuckles. It wasn't something he had the chance to play very often, but he knew Saela was an absolute beast in the court and for all his complaining Antero wasn't half bad either.

"Ah here they are. Hey!" Antero pointed to the two women and waved enthusiastically. Broken from his musings Tel stopped warming up and looked over. He immediately recognised Saela's tall, glamourously blonde form, Antero was a lucky man.

Walking next to Saela was a shorter woman in a tight black sports top that left her arms bare and matching shorts. Slim, but probably not tall enough to be called slender, she had light brown skin and straight dark-brown hair pulled back into a simple ponytail. Pretty enough he supposed, but not all that much compared to his usual conquests, if he was honest he preferred a bit more in the way of curves anyway.

"Tel! It's so good to see you!" Saela was her usual whirlwind and grabbed him for a hug and kiss on each cheek, "you're looking great, still working out occasionally I see?" Laughing at her own joke she tugged him towards the other woman. "Right, I want you to meet Taija, she's going to be joining you in losing to us today," her grin sparkled. "She's one of our dearest friends so do make sure you treat her right." Tel didn't miss the undertone of warning in her voice as he offered this 'Taija' his hand and politely introduced himself with his full name.

He groaned internally as his big hand engulfed hers and and her cheeks darkened in a blush, so it was going to be one of those.

Despite that her grip wasn't weak, "Taija Kosola Miranen," she replied looking a little awkward. At least she actually did have a third name, although he supposed he should probably have looked up what she got it for before today.

"Pleased to meet you Taija Kosola. Shall we?" He gestured expansively towards the airball courts. There was a slightly awkward silence as they walked, contrasting with Antero and Saela's happy chatter to each other.

Tel had never minded silence, but Taija Kosola clearly did, "so uh Tel Janin, tell me what is it you do? Antero never said."

Tel gave her a quick look trying to work out if she was making fun of his name, but her face was a picture of curious innocence, "well a few different things these days, but mostly sports. I do a lot of fencing and archery as well as some athletics." To be fair to her, she'd probably been roped into this by Antero with as little information as he had. The man was a menace when it came to match-making.

"Oh really? Is that what you got your third name for?"

Tel nodded, "sixteen years ago now." It was an achievement he was justly proud of.

"Wow, you must be very good! I couldn't imagine doing something like that." Tel shot another look at her. Was she being sarcastic? No, she seemed to be completely earnest. He was already getting the impression that Taija was a very earnest person. He supposed it fitted with her being a cloistered scientist.

"I do alright and it's certainly more fun than sitting at a desk all day."

She looked a bit put out at that. "Sitting at a desk all day isn't that bad you know."

"Oh no no, of course not. I just like being active, you know." Tel quickly tried to change the subject before he put his foot in it again, "what about you, you look very young to have a third name."

She shrugged and her cheeks heated again, "oh I was lucky I suppose, but it was for research, I'm a physicist."

This was at least a bit different to most of the women he met, where even the most accomplished were generally celebrities, athletes or politicians. So he decided to press more, "how interesting, but you don't just get a third name for being lucky, you must have done something impressive."

Absent mindedly he wondered if she'd known Mierin Eronaile before she went off the rails. They'd both been in the same field, although if he remembered correctly Mierin was a fair bit older.

"Oh it's not very interesting really," she vaguely waved a hand in the air, "very esoteric."

"Come on, indulge me, I'm interested." At least Antero wouldn't be able to claim he hadn't tried.

"Well, I uh found a way to directly observe gravitational waves using the Power, you see before they were largely measured only by their effects…"

Tel lost track of what she was saying very quickly, but there was something about her enthusiasm and without realising it he found he enjoyed listening to her rambling explanation.

Eventually she trailed off, looking a bit embarrassed, "sorry! I didn't mean to go off on one." She kept talking over his protest that it was fine, "so have you err played airball before? I heard Saela and Antero are really good."

"Every now and again, I'm not all that great at it." Well he wasn't compared to the sports he actually got paid to play, "but yes Saela is disturbingly good I think she could have gone pro if she'd worked on it. Antero moans about how terrible he is, but he's actually pretty good too, just outshined by his better half. How about you?"

"Oh, no I've never played before." She looked a little awkward and then brightened up again, "but I've read up on the rules and watched a couple of games online, so I should be able to pick it up pretty quickly."

Oh Light, he was partnered with a nerd who'd never even played before, they were going to lose so badly it wasn't funny. Still, she did have a nice smile.

========

Taija sensed Tel Janin's irritation when he realised she'd never played before, although he did try to hide it. However, she'd hauled herself away from her desk for the day and she was determined that she was going to have fun either way. Winning wasn't everything and at least he was easy on the eyes.

They both bumped fists with Antero and Saela before moving back to their sides of the court.

Like most airball courts it was a large space with a grass floor, perhaps 70 metres long and 30 wide, with obstacles scattered across it. The ball sat on a plinth in the very centre of the court with the players starting at the far ends in front of their small goals. This time the pitch had a copse of convincing looking trees to Taija's right, a small lake ahead of her, the usual raised ground blocking the plinth from direct sight of both of the goals and various small mounts dotted around for cover and to provide vantage points.

Tel Janin looked over to her and said, "I'll go for the centre and attack, you take the left and defend. Got it?"

Despite her initial doubts, by the start of the game Taija was quite excited, rocking up and down on her toes and glancing over at Tel Janin. He wasn't a very smiley man, but the way his muscles moved as he loosened up his shoulders was quite appealing, 'working out occasionally' indeed… It was just a pity he was so grumpy. Taija gave herself a mental slap, she needed to focus on the game.

It started with a shout of "go!" from Antero and they were both off. Taija opened herself to saidar and felt Saela do the same out of sight behind the ridge lines. Tel Janin was already moving, an impressively fast sprint taking him into the trees and towards the ball.

A moment's hesitation and Taija was running forward too, scrambling up to the top of one of the mounds to see a cackling Antero tackle Tel Janin to the ground, the shaking of a nearby tree suggesting a flow of air gone awry.

There was no time to watch them though. A grinning Saela was running forward, fast and lithe, with her web of air shooting ahead of her to grab the ball and fling it straight towards their goal. Taija wasn't going to lose before the game had even started properly though. Not on her watch!

A flex of her mind and Taija's own web had curled around Saela's, a subtle twist to disrupt it and boom! She had the ball, propelling it quickly towards the other end of the pitch. Well, she'd thought she had it, but then with no warning her foot was suddenly yanked out from under her by a web of saidar and she hit the ground with a thump, the air driven out of her lungs.

As Taija pushed herself up on her elbows, she saw a cheering Saela grab the ball from where it had fallen and charge towards the goal, web of air poised to fend off any channeling from her side.

She knew she'd have bruises after this, but nevertheless Taija sprang back to her feet and chased after Saela, trying desperately, but futilely to get her own web of air past Saela's. All to no avail. With a loud bong from the scoring system Saela flung the ball through the goal and the first round went to her and Antero.

With a sigh, rubbing her sore backside, Taija headed back to her goal to meet an irritated looking Tel Janin. She could already see he hated losing. Then again, despite her earlier thoughts, Taija was quickly discovering, she did too.

=====

Tel was not in a good mood. He'd been outplayed by Antero, the bigger man successfully distracting him with rough and tumble and letting Saela breeze straight past the weak link on his team. This might be a long day.

He could see Taija Kosola wincing a little as she joined him, ready for the second round. It seemed like Saela hadn't gone easy on her, which was a bit harsh really given how much she outmatched her in both size and skill.

Internally he sighed, the poor woman probably wasn't used to this kind of activity, he should at least try to be nice to her. It wasn't her fault Antero had dragged both of them into this.

"Are you alright Taija Kosola?" He tried his best to sound sympathetic rather than annoyed, "it looks like Saela did a bit of a number on you, if you want to stop we can just let her beat up Antero instead."

To his surprise she scowled at the suggestion that she might want to stop. "No! We're going again." Well that was a change in attitude, no diffidence in her tone there, just a statement of what was going to happen. He could work with that.

As she stretched out, wincing occasionally, Tel watched her appraisingly out of the corner of his eye. Perhaps she wasn't as unfit as he'd thought, nicely toned actually. She winced at one of the movements and then did it again. Some grit to her too. Not really his type of course. He looked away before she could catch him watching.

This round Tel called the start, ignoring the goosebumps that sprang up on his arms when the women embraced saidar. They both ran forward, Tel choosing to take the left this time and Taija Kosola the right. Of course he was faster, ploughing straight through the shallow lake, he used his flow of air to send up an obscuring spray of water in front of himself as he ran.

Again Antero was hurrying to intercept him while a smugly confident Saela ambled in Taija Kosola's direction. Their single, small webs of saidin clashed, the amount of Power they were allowed to feed into them strictly limited by the rules to allow players with wildly different strength to match each other. Some of the best professional players could barely channel, but here dexterity, fitness and wits were what mattered.

Antero was irritatingly successfully tangling his flow of saidin and moving to stop Tel from getting by when, with a yell of surprise, he suddenly faceplanted. Glancing to his right, Tel saw a determined looking Taija Kosola charging towards Saela and the ball flying towards him over Antero's prone form.

He was already sprinting to catch it and push through to the goal, using his own web to hold Antero down. Judging by the look of concentration on Saela's face she was even now fighting with the Power too. Light Taija Kosola must be fast, in a fraction of a second she'd shifted her web from Antero to the ball and to Saela. He wasn't sure he could have done that.

As he rounded the other players' ridge, he glanced behind him to see Taija Kosola tackle Saela with a yell of triumph. He flung the ball ahead of him, his throw perfectly accurate, sending it straight through the goal. Bong!

When Tel came back round the ridgeline to the centre of the pitch he saw a grumpy looking Antero, picking himself up and brushing the mud out of his beard. On the other side of the pitch a grinning Saela seemed to have somehow managed to get on top of a squirming Taija Kosola.

Well that had been an unexpected victory, maybe this day wouldn't be so bad after all.

After Saela had been persuaded to let her up, he gave Taija Kosola a far more appraising look as they walked back to their side of the pitch together.

Her chest was heaving from the exertion while he'd barely gotten started. She was also covered in dirt, her hair in disarray, but Tel could see the excitement thrumming through her. He wasn't even sure she realised how predatory her grin looked under her deep brown eyes as they started discussing a plan for the third round.

======

The second round had been much more fun than the first. Taija hadn't been confident enough in what she was doing or what was going on around her the first time, but in the second she'd been surprised at how easy it had been to slip her web around, evading and out maneuvering her opponents.

She'd even managed to tackle Saela, she hadn't seen that coming! Sure she'd ended up on top after a brief, laughing scuffle, but Taija had still taken her off her feet!

Of course Taija was under no illusion now, Antero and Saela were going to throw everything they had at her and Tel Janin.

He'd actually given her a proper smile after the second round though. Really he should smile more often. It had looked good on him.

With a shout, Antero started the third round and they were both off. It seemed that this time Antero was targeting Taija, while Saela was marking Tel Janin. Antero met her as she rushed through the trees, probing ahead of herself with her web of air.

At the last second Taija felt the resistance of Antero's web, barreling straight for her. With a yelp she jumped to the side, instinctively wrapping her own web around his and diverting it away. She kept running towards him, matching his web with the precisely measured strength of her own to keep it off her.

Of course Antero was perfect happy for Taija to try to tackle him, he was probably more than double her weight, but she had other plans!

A momentary release of her web allowed his unseen one to swing towards her, frighteningly fast. Reestablishing hers at the last she second, she guided his just over her head, accelerating it away before whipping her own web back into him, forcing him to stagger aside with a surprised grunt and letting her spring past him.

Holding Antero's web away from her with jabs of her own, Taija sprinted towards the opposing goal with a shout of, "Tel Janin!"

He had Saela pinned on the ground, using his superior strength while they wrestled with the Power. At Taija's shout he looked up and made a split second decision. Taija saw Saela's web suddenly stop pushing against an unseen obstacle and thump unto Tel Janin, launching him off her, but the ball was already flying towards her, propelled by saidin.

Antero had recovered and was charging towards Taija at terrifying speed, but she caught the ball and flung herself forward, covering the last few metres to the goal, diving ahead and flinging the ball through it just before Antero could run her over. Bong!

====

Tel stood up, resisting the urge to wince at the pain where Saela had clonked his arm with her web. It seemed they'd won again.

To the sound of laughter Antero and Taija Kosola emerged from behind the ridge. She was definitely limping and even more covered in grass and mud than before, her hair band must have gone missing at some point because her hair was loose, but what really caught Tel's eye was her big, open grin.

"That was amazing! I thought you were going to crush me Antero, you need to be more careful!"

"Careful!? If I give you the slightest leeway you'll have me upside down and tied to a tree!" Antero theatrically rubbed his side, "I might need to get healing later after what you did to my ribs."

On seeing Tel, Taija Kosola's eyes lit up more. "Tel Janin! You were great, I can't believe you just let Saela hit you like that to throw me the ball." She gave Saela a sideways look, hustling over to him, "are you ok? She didn't hit you too hard did she?"

"No no I'm fine, it was just a friendly slap, anyway I'll get my revenge in the next round." Tel straightened up and looked down, meeting Taija Kosola's deep brown eyes with his own icy blue ones. There was a moment of... something and then he found a grin slowly growing on his face matching her own.

It was at that moment Tel realised he might be in trouble.

They played a few more rounds before, by mutual agreement, they agreed that their bodies could only take so much and headed for the showers. Saela took a moment to heal the other threes' bruises and then he returned the favour for her. It really did make these sorts of games so much more fun when you didn't have to deal with the aftermath for your body.

The two men were luxuriating in the hot spray of the showers when the smug question Tel had been dreading came, "so what did you think of her?"

He shrugged noncommittally as he rinsed the shampoo out of his hair, "she seems nice I suppose. A bit different to most of the women I meet it's true."

Antero's laughter wasn't the response he'd been expecting, "Come on, you're not fooling me at all, I saw the way you were looking at her by the end."

"Hmph," Tel grunted irritatedly, "fine you were right, she's pretty cool, maybe a bit soft but I wouldn't mind hanging out with her occasionally."

Antero just kept laughing, "you're not convincing anyone, you've got it bad."

Afterwards as they dressed Tel commented to Antero, "I was quite impressed by how fast Taija Kosola seemed to be able to spin and manipulate her web. She must spend a lot of time practising."

Antero gave him an odd look, "why would you say that?"

"Well I assume she's not all that strong in the Power, right?" At Antero's blank look he tried to stop digging, hurriedly adding, "not that that's important of course, but I was just wondering. There's a certain… confidence? Arrogance? that most powerful aes sedai have, but not her. Also, I think she mentioned she'd come here on the bus and I've never seen her at the Hall of Servants…"

He trailed off as Antero burst out laughing. "Oh you poor fool."

"What?!"

"I'm tempted to just leave you to put your foot in it and see what happens, but I'll give you this one for free. Taija's a total sweetheart yes, but she's probably the most powerful channeler in this city. Top two or three definitely. Who did you think was going to make the gateway for us to go home tomorrow? We all know you'll be gone far too early for me and Saela!"

"Ah."

"Yep, so maybe be careful what you say to her. She's normally pretty chilled." He thought for a second, "actually, weirdly so when it comes to channeling, you're right, she doesn't act like most strong aes sedai. She really is a bit of an oddball at times," he added affectionately, "but I daresay she might be able to give even the great Tel Janin a nasty shock if she put her mind to it."

=====

After changing, all four of them went out for dinner and drinks. Taija had looked at her watch a few times early on, but conversation flowed freely as did food and drink and Tel ended up deep in conversation with her.

She'd seemed fascinated by his life as a sportsman, asking all kinds of questions about it to the point that he started feeling like some kind of a test subject. At some point Antero and Saela had discretely disappeared, Tel couldn't put his finger on when. Normally he'd have been a bit annoyed at being left stuck with a random woman they were trying to set him up with, but this time he found he didn't mind.

Taija didn't seem to mind either and kept on with her interrogation.

"So you're telling me you're actually famous?" She tilted her head to the side and looked sceptically at him out the side of her eyes.

Tel groaned, "yes and honestly it's very overrated."

"So you're not just trying to impress me? Guys do that sometimes, but it doesn't work." Tel wasn't sure how drunk she actually was at this point. Actually he wasn't sure how drunk he was either.

"No! It's good that you're not impressed!"

"Oh so you're not trying to impress me then? Ouch!" Tel's groan of frustration was stifled by the sight of her amused grin.

As the drink flowed they found they had a mutual love of history, mutual affectionate frustration with Antero and a mutual dislike for some of the more staid elements of society.

But all too soon, the bar was closing and Taija was blearily looking at her watch before jolting upright. "Crap! I'm meant to be lecturing tomorrow morning. Fuck, this morning! I need to go!"

Before Tel could protest she was grabbing her bag and phone and climbing out from behind the table, a bit wobbly on her feet. He quickly stood too, panicking slightly, "wait, hold on!" He tried to think of something to say, "how are you going to get home?" That was rather less smooth than his normal game.

Goosebumps suddenly sprang up along his arms and legs and Taija's face slipped into an almost comical look of exaggerated focus before she slumped slightly. "No, I am waaay too drunk to Travel," she muttered to herself. Then she looked up at him and smiled, "don't worry I'll get a taxi, but I've really really got to go."

Tel found himself lost for words, sudden indecision hitting him in a way that it hadn't for the best part of a century, at least when it came to women. "Taija can I…" he started to say.

Taija cut him off by going onto tiptoes and giving him a kiss on the cheek. "You're nice, once you lighten up. I like you," she muttered and then smiled before sticking her tongue out slightly in concentration, "here!"

A white paper napkin floated off the table and unfolded itself before a series of finely formed numbers seemed to burn into it. A pause and then a smiley face and a pair of Xs below it. Job done, Taija stopped focusing so much and the napkin floated into his hand. "Call me."

As Tel watched Taija's slim form disappear out the door he was impressed despite himself. He couldn't remember the last time a woman had left him so off balance and, he had to admit, her ability to perfectly burn her number into a paper napkin while completely off her face without setting half the restaurant on fire was kind of intriguing.

=====

That had been the first time the two of them had met, but obviously not the last.

Taija still fondly remembered how one night a couple of years later they'd been snuggling on Tel's sofa and he'd pulled out the napkin with her number on it just to prove he'd kept it.

It had been a lovely evening of reminiscing about their first date, but the thing that still made her smile the most was when he'd asked her, "so that day, back when we first met, did you really have no idea who I was?"

Taija's musical laughter had filled the room, "don't be ridiculous Tel, of course I knew. Everyone knew who you were! I'm pretty sure there was a poster of you up in the postgrads' bar at the university. You were just so stern and full of yourself, I just couldn't let you have the satisfaction."

His annoyed grump had mixed in nicely with her giggles.

=====

The present day, in an abandoned farmhouse near Falme

Taija rolled over in her empty bed resisting the urge to reach for someone who wasn't there, who'd never be there again, and tried to force herself to fall asleep.

Chapter Text

Chapter XXII - The Great Hunt for the Wonder Girls

Taija spent the first few days after her arrival walking around Falme, exploring and watching. She'd seen too many operations go horribly wrong in the past to just charge in blindly when she had no idea what was going on. Charging in could come later.

So she walked through the streets and alleys and talked to anyone who seemed willing to speak with a slightly confused traveling merchant. Coincidentally she frequently found herself walking past the palaces and other civic buildings occupied by the Seanchan, watching and noting everything she saw.

As she'd been reminded by her time in the White Tower, Taija wasn't a very good spy, but being there without support, without anything other than her own wits and the Power meant she had no choice.

A few things stood out, the sheer number of Seanchan soldiers, there must have been an army garrisoned there. It really was an invasion like Siuan had said. Also the grolm, horrible creatures just like in the mirror world with Mierin. Taija shuddered to herself whenever she saw them. More for the reminder of Mierin than their own unpleasantness - she'd seen far worse. Luckily that wasn't an uncommon reaction to the creatures from the other inhabitants of Falme, so she didn't stand out.

However, the thing that struck Taija most was the leashed. Women in gray dresses, cloaked in diffidence and submission walking around with their eyes downcast. A silvery leash connected them to some kind of handler wearing a bracelet. The handlers also had their own uniforms, which Taija noted with a certain degree of anticipation would make them easy to identify. Every leashed could channel. Most were relatively weak, but some were not insignificant.

Imitating the people around her, Taija refused to look directly at the leashed and their handlers, but she saw enough. The easy confidence of the handlers, even occasional signs of affection, like you might give a dog. The way that their eyes scanned the crowds. Also the utter submission of the leashed, who rarely took their eyes off their feet, their body language completely broken.

Taija quickly learnt that sometimes the leashed would point a woman out and she would be grabbed and a collar put around her neck, never to be seen again. No one could tell her why for sure, although one shopkeeper did admit in a whisper that he saw a woman taken and then reappear in a gray dress walking tamely behind a handler a month later. From the dead look in his eyes she suspected he'd known the woman.

Of course it was fairly clear that this happened when the leashed felt another woman who could channel. Taija silently blessed the webs she'd spun around herself. Otherwise she suspected half the city would be on fire.

More worrying was the leasheds' willingness to betray other women. That suggested either a terrifying level of control over them or that they were so broken into their position that they would fight to stay in enslavement. Taija had seen it before, in people who'd been in the hands of the Shadow for too long. Semirhage and Graendal were particularly… she shuddered again.

As she explored the town Taija could feel her anger bubbling away underneath her outwardly placid exterior. What were these people doing to Egwene? Every day she was having to work increasingly hard to keep her temper under control and whenever she saw one of the leashed it would spike, threatening to boil over.

It was on Taija's fourth day in Falme that she saw a familiar shock of curly red hair over a stained brown dress ducking down an alleyway. Could it be? Without breaking stride she turned on her heel and headed after the girl.

A minute later and she was almost certain it was Elayne. It was a little far, but Taija thought she could feel the ability to channel in her and she knew from Asne that Elayne hadn't been captured.

Taija wanted to shout out, but at the same time she didn't want to draw attention to the two of them, so she quickened her stride to catch up.

Elayne turned down another alley and then a third. Then to Taija's relief she slowed to examine something on the ground.

"Elayne!" Taija reached out to her as she started to speak only to have to twist aside with a shriek of surprise when a knife flashed through where her stomach had been a fraction of a second ago. Thought instantly became action and the air solidified around Elayne before she could even withdraw her arm.

"Fuck! You could have killed me!" Taija hissed at her, struggling to keep her voice down as Elayne frantically struggled against her bonds. Taija looked down and saw a slash down the fabric at the front of her dress, "fuck! What the fuck would I have done if you'd stabbed me there's no one who can even heal me here!"

Elayne's struggles slowed at that and she looked at Taija sideways. "Taija sedai, is that you?" Her voice got louder and more excited as she spoke.

Great, now you recognise me," Taija grumbled, but she did release the web around Elayne only to be almost bowled over as the girl threw herself at her, burying her face in Taija's hair.

"Oh Light you came! I didn't know what to do, they got Egwene and me and Nynaeve were going to free her, but then they caught Nynaeve too. Min's here," who was Min? "She's working as a servant in the leashed kennels and the stories she tells me. They're hurting them. She's not even telling me everything. I just know it, but they're hurting them they're training them…breaking them… like dogs… " Elayne's voice trailed off into sobs as she shuddered against her.

It sounded worse than Taija had feared, or maybe better if Egwene and Nynaeve were still holding out. She didn't know how they broke their slaves, but she'd seen enough over the years that she didn't want to imagine.

One thing was for sure though, she couldn't leave anyone in those kinds of conditions. Frankly it would be better to be dead. If someone was exposed to them for long enough they might as well be. As Taija stood there awkwardly patting Elayne on the back, she was already accelerating her plans.

A quick look around to check for witnesses and Taija opened a gateway straight to the abandoned farmhouse she'd turned into a base outside the town, gently tugging a still sniffling Elayne after her.

The poor girl was unsurprisingly exhausted and hungry. A warm meal, gentle deflection of questions about how Taija could channel in Falme without being caught - if she could hide her ability why wouldn't she be able to hide her webs - and a warm bedroll and Elayne was quietly snoring away in no time.

Taija on the other hand still had work to do. It was back to Falme for her. She needed one last bit of information before she was ready to act.

Taija emerged from the alley back in her merchant persona.

It wasn't long before she found a suitable target. A patrol of five Seanchan soldiers with their weird insectile helmets coming marching towards her and, more importantly a handler and a leashed walking behind them. Taija gave the soldiers a low curtsy before ducking into an alley. This was going to be tricky.

She waited an endless feeling couple of seconds, the timing had to be just right. Wait. Wait. Now!

Taija drew hard on saidar inverting webs even as she spun them splitting heavy flows four ways. A barrier against sound briefly appeared between the leashed and the soldiers. At the same time she slammed a shield of spirit into the leashed and grabbed her and her handler in great fists of air before yanking them back into the alleyway with her. They barely had time for a shout of surprise before Taija was opening a gateway, letting the sound barrier dissipate and stepping out of Falme again.

======

However, when Taija emerged from the gateway with her squirming, air-wrapped packages floating behind her, she found she was not alone in the dimming evening light. A group of armed men wheeled to face her drawing swords with shouts of surprise and the light of saidar sprung up around a small, plump woman with an ageless face.

She was strong, too strong for Taija to just shield her, she must have had an angreal. Of course Taija had her own, but she also needed to keep the leashed shielded, hold off the soldiers and protect Elayne.

Taija carefully spun a nasty pair of inverted webs while holding her hands out in front of her, palms open, "there's no need for violence I can explain." She tensed her leg muscles, ready to dive aside as soon as she threw her opening shots.

Before she could move, Elayne came running out of the farmhouse with a familiar face in tow. "Wait! Don't kill her, she's a friend!"

Taija's irritation at the idea that they would be able to kill her broke into a smile when she saw the man with Elayne, "Rand!" She took a step forward only to be faced by what felt like a wall of drawn swords. It was very annoying, it wasn't like they were actually a threat to her anyway.

It took a little while, but eventually everyone calmed down. The Shienarans Taija of course knew once she recognised them under their armour and Rand was there with his friends. The aes sedai was new, but she introduced herself as Verin with a slightly absent-minded smile declaring that she'd, "heard so much about you."

It was good to see them all, but particularly Rand who when he realised who Taija was under her web illusion actually picked her up in a bear hug and swung her round, ignoring her protests.

As soon as he put her down he was embarrassed and blushing, "I'm sorry Taija sedai, I thought you were dead. After… after the stone and…," he hesitated, "the woman, I just didn't see how you could have survived!"

Suppressing both the creaking in her ribs from where he'd squeezed her, he was a big man, and the irritation at being grabbed without warning Taija smiled warmly at him. "I'm surprisingly hard to kill," her smile faded a bit, "I've heard that from a few people recently. Hopefully there won't be any more. Anyway, what have you been doing? What are you doing here? I thought you were on the other side of the continent. How did you get here?" There was something missing too.

Rand winced and the chatter around them paused for a second at that question, "I ah… that is… another stone…" He clearly didn't want to talk about it, but it got Taija's mind wandering. Surely he hadn't brought all of these people… she'd have burnt herself out even with an angreal! "We were in Cairhien and we even had the horn. And Mat's dagger! But Fain took it back and we're still following him. He's in Falme and we're going to get them back!" Mat did look even sicklier than before actually.

Rand leaned in closer and lowered his tone, "also that woman… she told me Egwene is being kept prisoner here." He looked around nervously as if mentioning Mierin might make her appear.

"For fuck's sake, why does Mierin fucking ruin everything," Taija caught herself and switched back to the Common Tongue. Mat seemed to be staring at her, he really didn't look healthy. "So you're saying she might turn up here?"

Rand shrugged helplessly, "I don't know, she told me that she was doing me a favour and then would leave me to it… But I don't exactly trust her."

"Well at least you're not a complete fool," Taija gave him a small smile to take the sting out of the words. On the inside she was thinking hard. If Mierin was going to interfere then her plans would fall apart, violently, but it sounded like she wasn't planning to do anything… She had no choice she needed to go ahead anyway. She stopped herself from shuddering. She had an angreal now. That would make it ok, it would have to. Surely. She wanted Lanfear dead, more than almost anything else in the world. If she could have that and Tel back, she could die happy, but Lanfear was… She was very strong.

Rand gave her an unamused look. "But Taija, you haven't said, what are you doing here?"

"Funnily enough I'm here to rescue Egwene too and Nynaeve it would seem. It's a small world." He gave her a confused look. It seemed like that was another expression that didn't carry over properly to the Common Tongue.

After a second Rand seemed to properly process what Taija had said. "Nynaeve's been captured too?"

She nodded. "I've been in the White Tower, helping… yes let's say helping the Amyrlin with some tasks and when the girls were kidnapped and brought here. I followed."

She hadn't realised Verin had been listening until she asked curiously, "if you do not mind me asking, why would the Amyrlin send you instead of a full party of sisters?"

Taija frowned briefly and then give her an innocent smile, "I think I was all she could be spare." The dumpy aes sedai looked a bit perturbed at that.

She turned back to Rand, realising what she was missing. "Rand, where's Aleksi?" Taija desperately hoped he was ok, he should have been with the Shienarans.

Rand saw her worried face and laughed happily, "don't worry, he's just getting water, he'll be back any minute."

As promised Aleksi did return a few minutes later for another happy reunion. He even treated Taija with the dignity she expected and settled for a tight hug. Light it was good to see the first person she knew in this world again.

=====

The interrogation of the leashed and what Taija found was uncreatively called a leash holder didn't take long. They were both trembling with fear and begging to be protected from the one who must be leashed and even more so the man who'd imprisoned them. The leashed one was violently shivering and kept crying that she couldn't see the weaves.

They seemed terrified of Verin, it must have been something to do with her being an unleashed channeler. Taija couldn't see any other reason. They also shied away from any of the men, presumably convinced that one of them was channeling. Taija on the other hand didn't scare them as much. As far they could tell she couldn't channel after all. So when she decided to swallow her disgust and play good cop to the threat of a power-mad channeler's bad cop, it was surprisingly effective.

Taija quickly established that the woman in the gray dress was called Suki and the leash holder was Corrine. Promises to protect them from punishment by the ones who must be leashed got her tearful explanations of their frankly disgusting philosophy and how the leash holder was able to train and restrain the leashed using her leash. The whole thing repulsed her. It was as bad as anything the Shadow did to people, just with a veneer of civilisation painted on top.

When Taija had heard enough she released the web of air around Suki, reassuring her that soon she would be free. She started to explore the contours of the collar round her neck using both her fingers and tiny flows of the Power. That quickly came to a halt when the woman started to cry and beg Taija not to free her.

Corrine's voice was proud, defiant. "Suki is a good leashed. She knows what is right. Oof!" She was cut off by a web of air from Verin striking her in the stomach.

Taija glanced at the aes sedai to see a look of repulsion on her face before looking back at Corrine, all pretense of kindness gone. "I find every word that leaves your lips disgusting. If you're not a darkfriend then doing this to someone is the next thing to it." Unlike her words, her tone was conversational. "You're currently walking on very thin ice so I would choose your words carefully, or better yet not speak unless spoken to. If not, I can give you to the one who must be leashed."

Corinne's mouth snapped shut and Taija went back to examining the collar, doing her best to ignore Suki's sobs until her probes of the Power found a hidden mechanism. A small flex and it sprang open to a cry of despair from Suki who threw herself at Corinne's feet and clung onto them babbling about how she would be good and not to let the one who must be leashed take her.

Verin seemed to be taking notes now, a small notebook in her hand. She looked up when Taija turned away from the weeping leashed In frustration. "So you're the Taija I've heard much about you from the men." Her tone was curious but vague, like she had other things to think about.

Taija offered her a shallow bow. "At your service Verin." The woman hadn't been rude to her, yet, so she wouldn't stand on formality and insist on titles. "How is it that you joined up with the group?"

"Oh, well," she smiled if she just realised, "I thought I could offer them some assistance in their hunt. Sadly my efforts have been a bit limited, but it has certainly been fascinating. Who would have thought so much could happen with so few people and three people who alter the pattern too."

"Mmm well I'm sure they've been glad of the help."

"Oh hopefully, so tell me Taija," her tone was guileless, all innocent curiosity, "where are you from, I do not recognise your name?"

Taija offered her an awkward shrug, "I've been known by other names too, but originally I'm from a small village in the Mountains of Mist, I doubt you'd have heard of it."

"How fascinating I would love to hear all about it!" Her enthusiasm seemed unfeigned.

"I'd be delighted to tell you," Taija deflected, "but I think is time too short. The men are planning to make their attempt for the horn tomorrow and I think some more discussion is needed. Will you be assisting them with their mission?"

"Oh no, I would just bring the leashed down upon them, more of a hindrance than a help, especially limited as I am by the Three Oaths. Vile as the actions of the Seanchan are, not all evil comes from the Dark One."

=====

That night found Taija sitting with the three boys, Aleksi Ingtar and his lieutenants Masema and Uno, with Verin listening interestedly. They had what sounded to her like a very shaky plan to break into the palace that they knew contained the horn and presumably Mat's dagger.

Normally she'd have preferred to attack at night. The advantages of technology meaning that she could see like it was daylight, but in this place and time that wasn't an option for her. While there were webs that would allow her to see in the dark, they weren't good enough for a combat situation and the biggest risk she was likely to face was someone being able to sneak up on her. No, better to go in full daylight.

Taija had channeled a small model of Falme's most important buildings into the dirt. "So you're saying that this is the palace with the horn in it?"

At the mens' nods she smiled, "good. I'm not interested in that one. Here's what I want from you."

A circle formed around another, slightly smaller palace, "this is the palace of the High Lady Suroth. Don't go near this building under any circumstances." Another formed around the leashed kennels, "this is where they keep the leashed. Keep away from here too for your own good."

Ingtar dipped his head, "peace Taija sedai, we are no fools, we do not wish to fight their collared aes sedai." He missed the sharp look Verin gave him.

"Good. Keep away from those two buildings whatever you do. Now my other request is that you wait for my signal before you act. I will also be going into the town," Taija glanced at Rand, "seeking to rescue some wayward girls from the Seanchan. I can't directly help you, but what I promise is that if you wait for my signal, the guards in your palace will be distracted."

A bit more planning wrapped up the evening and they all retreated to get what sleep they could. Now that they were united again Taija took the opportunity to ward Rand's dreams along with her own.

Fortunately before Taija went to sleep she remembered that Elayne's friend, the Min girl would also be in Falme. She certainly didn't want her dead for the bad luck of having been caught by the Seanchan. Luckily she had Aleksi and a whispered conversation with him and Elayne meant he could go into the town tomorrow morning and get her out before everything started to happen.

After a final promise to Aleksi that she'd tell him everything that had gone on once they had a bit more privacy, Taija tried to fall asleep.

Maybe the aes sedai had a point about warders being useful.

=====

Taija slept fitfully, her rest interrupted by both the noises of the night and bad dreams. However, the next morning she rose early. During the sleepless periods of the night she'd been thinking.

She'd had enough of hiding. Enough of dancing around, permanently in disguise, pretending to be something she wasn't. She was never made for subterfuge and it had been wearing on her, adding to the long long list of things that were grinding her down.

It would always have its place, but after today it was going to be much harder to stay hidden anyway. Taija knew she'd be giving away advantages with what she was planning to do, but spending them to rescue Egwene from being turned into some sort of pet for the Seanchan didn't seem like too high a price. Nynaeve too she supposed.

After her morning ablutions Taija spun a mirror into the air in front of her and then untied the web changing her looks. Her features rippled briefly and then she was facing her own familiar deep brown eyes. It was good to be back.

Taija's momentary satisfaction was quickly doused in cold water when Elayne who'd been watching curiously said, "I thought you'd be taller," in a disappointed tone before clamping her hands over her mouth in horror and muttering something about people who alter the pattern.

Taija gave her a deeply unamused look and stalked off to get changed. There were perils to always walking around under illusion, but still!

Out of sight of the rest Taija pulled the trousers she'd had made in Tar Valon out of her packs. It might be socially inappropriate for this time, but she needed to be able to move freely and quickly. Also, frankly, she was tired of dressing like she was in a medieval fantasy.

Sturdy brown trousers, riding boots, a light blue blouse and embroidered brown woolen overcoat completed her outfit. It wasn't what she really wanted to be wearing, but going into combat it was an infinite improvement over the floor length dresses she'd been stuck in.

Ignoring the looks from the men and Elayne's gasped, "Taija sedai!" Taija strode out of the farmhouse, her mind already on the day ahead. It seemed there'd been some discussion during the night while she'd slept and she thought Rand stayed up practising with his sword.

Whatever had happened, only five of them headed towards Falme to rescue the horn. Rand, Perrin Mat, Ingtar and Hurin. Verin smiled enigmatically when Taija asked her why and said, "some things are simply meant to be."

Taija shrugged, refusing to take the bait of aes sedai mysteriousness and just exchanged a glance with Aleksi who nodded, before giving her a salute, Shienaran style, and then jumping onto his horse to head for the town too. She hoped they hadn't rubbed off on him too much.

After the five (plus Aleksi) had gone, Taija turned to Elayne, Verin and the others. "I will be making my own move shortly. Masema, Uno I would be very grateful for you and your soldiers' protection for a while. I'll be… working with the Power but won't have any concentration to spare."

They replied instantly with fists to breastplates and calls of, "honour to serve Taija sedai."

"Verin sedai, as you're unable to fight, would you be able to stay here and guard Corinne and Suki," she'd left them in a tied off box of air with the shield on Suki also tied off, although she'd suspected that even without it the former leashed wouldn't have channeled.

Verin nodded, seemingly unperturbed by her taking charge. Taija continued, "I'd also be grateful if you could keep Elayne safe and make sure she doesn't do anything foolish."

Elayne leapt up from the stump she'd been sitting on practically vibrating with outrage, "Taija! I'm going to help, you need me!"

Taija shook her head and spoke gently, but firmly, ignoring Elayne's failure to use her title, "Elayne, I know you want to help and your bravery does you credit, but you are a child." She held up a hand to stop her immediate protest, "you would be in great danger and I don't put children in danger by choice. I'm proud of you for what you've done to try to rescue Egwene and Nynaeve, but I'm here now and I will not let you or them get hurt."

"But I can help. Taija sedai, please! You know I'm one of the strongest women in the Tower. Only Nynaeve is stronger than me."

Taija shook her head again, "Elayne you're strong and one day you'll be stronger no doubt, but you're not ready for this. Verin?"

Verin nodded in agreement putting a comforting hand on Elayne's shoulder, "Taija is quite right child, you will be much better staying here with me and helping guard the leash holder and leashed. That town is no place for a novice. I am sure Taija will be back with your friends in no time." She looked at Taija quizzically, "what exactly is it that you are planning Taija?"

Taija smiled and turned to look towards the town, "I'm going to Bring the Light to Falme." Annoyingly no one reacted to her words, other than to look at her confusedly. "Light Bringers?" She added in a slightly questioning tone to no better reaction, although Verin looked intrigued. Oh well, she sighed. It had meant something once.

Taija glanced over at the prisoners and then called out, "Shienarans with me!"

Spinning an inverted gateway she quickly stepped through, followed by nervous troopers, clearly uncomfortable with the One Power. Verin's fascinated gaze followed her through the hole in the air.

Taija had chosen a spot a good few kilometres from the town, shielded from direct sight by the rolling hills surrounding it. More importantly she was also a good way away from where she'd left Verin and Elayne. She wanted to attract attention away from them, not towards them.

"Once I begin, I'll need total concentration for an hour, so I'll need you to guard me from any Seanchan patrols. You know your trade better than me, I leave how you do it in your hands, but if I'm distracted the effects could be catastrophic." Taija paused, "to be clear, I mean all of us die kind of catastrophic." The soldiers blanched before saluting and assured her nothing and no one would bother her while they lived. There were advantages to the way people saw the One Power in this time.

"Thank you. One final thing, once you see the light, do not look in my direction under any circumstances, not if you value your eyesight." Taija met each of their eyes emphasising the point with her expression.

Orders given she continued her preparations while nervous looking Shienarans spread out away from her. She suspected they were going a bit further away than military tactics would strictly require, but there was no harm in that.

A simple web of earth rapidly excavated a large hole in the ground, building up a solid rampart of leftover dirt around it. Taija smoothed a small spot into the wall of earth for herself and then scrambled up onto it.

Complex calculations flashed through her mind, location, direction, movement, other variables. Almost time to begin. After a few minutes she was satisfied and waved to those of the Shienarans that were still in sight before sitting down cross legged on the wall of earth, staring down into the hole.

A deep breath and Taija opened herself fully to saidar drawing through her angreal to far beyond her normal full strength. She was deliberately close to Falme to create more of a distraction for the leashed, but it was a calculated risk. Doing that during the War would have been fatally stupid, but these people couldn't Travel. She really hoped not anyway.

First was the framework, a spherical lattice of all five elements. Its complexity was extremely taxing even for Taija and she was conscious that the amount of saidar she was channeling might well have already been felt if any patrols were between her and Falme.

Slowly she built the lattice, labyrinthe thick flows of saidar coming together forming an ever stronger shell. She didn't realise she was biting her bottom lip as she sat there in utter concentration, staring into the hole, no attention to spare for anything other than this intricate task.

Bit by bit the sphere solidified before Taija's eyes. She didn't try to invert it, she didn't have the concentration, it was taking every bit of her skill to hold the web in place and keep adding to it without making the task even more complicated. Anyway it wasn't like anyone in this time would have much chance of replicating it. Each time she completed a part, she carefully tied it off, she couldn't channel anywhere near enough to actively hold the whole web. She doubted anyone could without a sa'angreal and if she'd had one of those there would have been easier, better options.

It was a cool autumn day, but Taija was sweating as the sphere of saidar grew thicker and thicker. Complex flows of spirit wove control inputs into its surface. Arm thick, ultra dense webs of all five elements wrapped around it, tightening in place. One mistake in this web and she knew she'd kill herself and probably everyone near her.

It must have been nearly an hour before Taija was done, letting the torrential flow of saidar through her ease off a bit. She realised she was gasping for breath and drenched in sweat, but she'd done it. Surveying her work with careful eyes, she couldn't see any flaws. If she was honest, she doubted she'd see them until it was too late anyway. At least if there were any she wouldn't need to worry about it for long.

Survey complete, Taija gave herself a couple of minutes to recover. Soon things would be happening fast.

When her breathing was back to normal she drew heavily on saidar once again and directed the Power with exquisite care at the sphere in front of her. This time it was only fire that she channeled. One heavy flow straight into a precise point in the sphere designated by a beautifully intricate pattern of spirit.

Where before it would have been invisible to anyone who couldn't channel saidar, now a gradually increasing glow could be seen. Once it got going, the air inside the sphere heated rapidly, quickly going from glowing, to fiery, to white hot, to blinding. Absently Taija spun a web over her eyes blocking out most light, but she still couldn't look directly at it and she was very conscious that there was a beacon of light blazing into the sky above her. Nothing she could do about it, but the Seanchan would certainly be on their way now. That was part of the plan of course, to draw them away from Falme.

Taija held the flows for long minutes of heavy channeling, feeding more and more fire into the sphere until she decided it was ready.

Reaching out with spirit, she tweaked one thread in the intricate web. Immediately the sphere started to collapse, falling in on itself at an achingly slow pace. There was no going back now. Despite that Taija couldn't help but have doubts. But no, she needed a distraction and this would provide that. Assuming she survived the next hour, the Forsaken would be hearing about it soon enough anyway and it really would be the return of a classic.

Taija stopped feeding in more fire. Her eyes were now screwed shut, but she could still see the glowing sphere through both her web and her eyelids. Numbers flew through her head, nearly there. Two seconds, one, now!

Simultaneously she opened a small inverted gateway in front of the sphere, spun protection around her ears, tugged on another thread of spirit on its surface and dived backwards off her earthen embankment tumbling roughly to the grass below. There was a moment of nothing and then there was only light and sound.

============

Paitr was pulling his cart into one of Falme's many squares, ignoring his aching back. His mind was already on what he might be able to sell today. Muttering to himself about stingy Seanchan and penniless locals he came to an abrupt halt when he saw a small hole open in the air between him and the High Lady Suroth's palace.

He shook his head, this was probably Seanchan business, something to do with their filthy damane and he wanted no part of that. He'd just turn around and…

There was only blinding light.

=======

The High Lady Suroth dismissed the da'covale with a gesture of her fingers, soon she would have to go and speak to...

========

He stood on the balcony overlooking the town sipping from a goblet of more than adequate wine. Things were coming together nicely. The boy was in Falme and would soon be in his hands or failing that at least another step further down the road to turning. The girls would be shipped off to Seanchan. They couldn't support the boy there and something useful could be made of them, two birds with one stone. Then, once he had the boy, it would be the beginning of the end…

His musings came to a crashing stop when he saw a gateway open in the square below. He felt nothing. Saidar then, or possibly inverted saidin. It couldn't be the boy, or one of these so-called aes sedai, but none of the Chosen would come here when he'd made it clear that he had private business to attend to. Concerning, he'd have to investigate. With a sigh he put his goblet down. Then a thought struck him an almost forgotten memory.

With a curse he dived for the floor spinning a sphere of protection as he fell and throwing his arm across his eyes.

Then there was only light and all encompassing sound, his bones, the very building shaking with the shrieking roar that tore through at his ears.

An endless second later it was over. He picked himself off the floor, letting his web dissipate but already suspecting what he would see. On the other side of the square, the High Lady Suroth's palace had simply ceased to exist, an upward sloping gouge carved through the ground and then the palace leaving nothing at the front and only a few feet of heat warped walls at the back. The square itself seemed to be transformed to black fused glass everywhere in front of that gateway.

His face hardened, this would have to be dealt with. Was it an assassination attempt? If that attack was what he thought it was… Well there were not many people capable of it and even fewer left alive, perhaps only Lanfear.

He turned to leave, ready to bring death on whoever had had the temerity to interfere with his plans and then hesitated, would he have time before the boy? The boy was the most important thing…

That was when he heard the voice.

=====

When she heard the voice Renna sprang to her feet along with a number of other sul'dam. Clearly the Return was under attack by marath'damane. She would be needed.

======

As soon as Taija could safely open her eyes she was channeling. A small gateway into the air above Falme, a web to amplify her voice to deafening proportions. She left the protection around her ears in place even as she released the web shielding her eyes.

She'd seen that Suki had fought to stay enslaved. What was more she'd seen it too many times with others in the past. Give someone to the Shadow, or to anybody brutal enough she supposed, for long enough and they'd break. Stop being the person they once were and do anything for their enslaver, fight to stay in captivity.

She needed to move fast and there'd be no time to stop and persuade anyone. The leashed were the biggest threat Taija would face and however tragic it might be, if she wanted to get out alive, let alone bring the girls with her, she'd need to keep moving.

Taija wasn't normally one for drama, but perhaps this was a time that deserved it. She was bringing a bit of the "Age of Legends" back today. With an internal wince at how pompous she was going to sound she opened her mouth and began to speak, her tone urgent.

========

Nynaeve sat on the bed in her small room, staring at her hands clasped together in her lap. Her knee was jiggling up and down and she couldn't stop it. She needed to stop it, but she couldn't.

She'd thought she'd had hard times, when her parents died, when she first became wisdom, trying to protect the children from aes sedai manipulations, even facing the Forsaken at the Eye of the World.

They were nothing. One mistake two weeks ago and that was it.

She walked in the Light, she knew the world was no paradise, but there were limits to what would, could be inflicted on another person. Now she was in hell and had quickly discovered that, no, there were no limits.

Nynaeve bit her lip. She wouldn't cry, they could make her wail when they punished her, but she wouldn't give them that victory until the agony became too much.

They'd started with soft words, treating her like a… like a pet dog. That had quickly changed though. She'd thought she was strong, refusing to bend an inch. They'd punished her of course, but she'd known she was strong enough to take it. Sooner or later she'd escape. Every prison had its weaknesses.

She'd been so foolish in her arrogance when she was first taken. There was no escape. There was no end. Her only hope was rescue and every worried visit from Min, every extra day of abuse and, she shuddered, every training session with the sul'dam killed a little more of that hope. She'd rather die than give in, but she knew that that wasn't a choice available to Livy the damane.

She was rocking back and forth. Stop. She couldn't show weakness. One crack and they'd be in, prising it open bit by bit. The sul'dam had cut off her braid after the first week and taken her name, but she hadn't broken.

There was no hope left, just her determination not to be broken. All she could do was survive tomorrow without breaking. Then the next day. And the next. Even when the hope had died in her heart she would not break.

They'd said if she didn't do as she was told they would take her hands or her tongue. Damane didn't need them to channel. She wanted to scream at the thought, but she must not give in… She didn't realise she was rocking again.

Then came a brief flash of light brightening the room through her small window, followed by a roar of the Creator only knew what, so loud that the whole building shook, dust falling down on her from the ceiling beams.

Nynaeve looked up with dull eyes for a second before looking down at her hands again. Something had happened, but it wasn't anything to do with a badly-trained damane. Her world ended at the walls of her room.

That was when she heard the voice, booming out across the town unnaturally loud. So loud it must have shattered windows. Even through the thick walls of the damane kennels she heard it clearly, the oddly clipped words of an accented woman's voice, echoing through her body and lodging itself in her heart.

"SEANCHAN. SLAVERS. YOU ARE AN ABOMINATION AGAINST THE LIGHT. TO THE DAMANE AND OTHER SLAVES I AM COMING. DON'T FIGHT ME. WHEN YOU SEE ME, LIE DOWN SO I KNOW YOU WANT TO BE FREE AND YOU WILL NOT BE HARMED. HOLD ON I AM COMING."

As the ringing of her ears died away Nynaeve felt a glimmer of hope.

Chapter Text

Chapter XXIII - Unleashed

Message delivered, it was time to move. Saidar surged into Taija and she spun her first gateway, straight into the leashed kennels. With a hiss it fizzled, sending sparks of saidar into the air. Fuck. Wards. One of the Forsaken was in Falme. No time to think. Plan B.

The air split in front of Taija. A moment later she stepped through to the street outside the leashed kennels.

No time for hesitation. She was already running for them at a full sprint. Squad of soldiers to the right. Fire, earth came together. They died.

In front of her four leashed and their handlers stood, troops mounted on grolm surrounding them. Four was too many. Eyes shut, webs over ears, Taija channeled. She still saw the flash through her eyelids, the thunderous boom in her bones.

She stumbled slightly then recovered her footing, vision and hearing free again. Chunks of paving stone had carved a hole through the formation. Two of the leashed were dead. No time for regret. The rest were screaming, bleeding from their ears. She spun. Flows streaked out and soldiers simply exploded. She split the threads. Spinning shields and slamming them into place. The surviving leashed had already lost their connection to saidar, no resistance.

Spirit and air, their collars sprang open. Shields tied off, blades of air thrown straight through the three surviving leash holders, bisecting them. Taija was already past them running through the large doors at the front of the kennels.

Soldiers, more leashed in the entrance hall straight ahead. Air to deflect a fireball. More air above her to protect from stone raining down from the ceiling. Taija winced and ignored the pain as something hit her, leaving a gash in her arm.

Fire, earth, spirit, split the flows. The soldiers exploded and Taija stepped sideways through a gateway to emerge behind the leashed and their handlers.

======

Polina threw another weave of saidar at the small, dark woman who'd just charged through the doors. Something deflected it and suddenly she was cringing back into herself as the soldiers surrounding her exploded showering her and the other damane in chunks of flesh and bone. Why wasn't the woman glowing? Why could she only see some of her weaves?!

At a command from Guila she wove fire and air together to burn the woman where she stood. Only suddenly the woman dived through a hole in the air, where was she? Fire came at them from behind ripping down the corridor they'd been guarding. Oh Light she was behind them! She tried not to whimper as she to face her death, two of the damane raised shields of air and Guila yelled at her to attack pushing her will down the a'dam. Even as she wove she saw out of the corner of her eye a bar of fire slam through Luki from behind leaving a smoking hole in her chest. Where did it even come from?! Were there two attackers? Beside her Nela crumpled, half her chest missing.

She didn't want to die! In a panic she remembered that voice booming across the town and threw herself to the ground, trying to burrow into it, her hands covering her head as she released the Power.

A second later the noise and chaos stopped and the collar round her neck clicked open just before she heard a squelching thump to her side. It was a moment before she dared to open her eyes and look up. The terrifying woman was gone and the only thing moving in the corridor was Guila's body slowly sliding down the wall, leaving a trail of blood behind it.

=====

Taija was running, ignoring the burning in her lungs. If she stopped for too long it was over. If the Seanchan got the time to organise themselves while she was trapped inside the wards she'd die, or worse be caught. Min had told Elayne where the girls were, but Taija had never been in this building before, so all she could do was hope she was going to the right place. She hoped Aleksi was able to warn Min.

The leashed holding cells were obvious and Taija ran down the corridor, webs of air slamming doors open ahead of her. At least none of of the leashed were standing behind them.

She quickly had to slow down to a walk. It was bad. Many of the doors she smashed open revealed terrified leashed in their gray dresses, many of them whimpering for mercy. None was Egwene. Or Nynaeve. But she couldn't just leave them to their torture. A small web of spirit and air and each was released as she passed. She didn't have time to see how they reacted.

A gaggle of leash holders came running down the corridor towards Taija and she didn't even blink as she slammed them back the way they came in a tumble of broken bones.

Where were they?! Next floor? Elayne had said there were two. Had she gone to the wrong one? Fuck.

Taija came to the end of the corridor and saw the stairs up. Checking behind her, several leashed had emerged from their cells and were tentatively following her, fear clearly written on their faces. She couldn't just leave them, but she couldn't let them slow her down either.

Taija shouted, "you want freedom? Come with me, but move!"

Breaking into a jog, she heard the sound of them pattering after her. At least they seemed to be able to keep up.

======

Ester leaned her head around the corner. There was someone coming up the stairs. Her and Ciora had completed themselves with a damane as soon as they heard the explosion. Ready to report to wherever they were needed. It was an emergency so she'd taken the first damane she reached. One of this continent's aes sedai before she became Pura.

It wasn't ideal, she was only partly trained, but Ester prided herself on her abilities as a der'sul'dam and the Empress would not find her lacking today. She gave a mental command and felt rather than saw saidar spring into Pura, along with Ciora's damane.

She already knew Pura's weakness, but there were other ways. Pura was an adequately strong damane. She'd be ready.

It was clear from the sounds that the battle was moving towards them and that the enemy had damane or worse was marath'damane. Suppressing a shudder, she took a hold of herself. She'd been in the service of the Ever Victorious Army for over two decades and she'd faced enemy damane enough times. She knew how to fight them and soon these intruders, be they traitors or simply enemies, would discover how foolish it was to attack the Empire here in the kennels.

She caught Ciora's eye and with a nod they prepared themselves. Ciora's would attack and distract, Pura would use her strength to shield and deflect.

Then they arrived. A dark skinned woman running noisily up the stairs, spatters of blood staining her immodestly masculine clothing. There was no reaction from Pura and Ester felt nothing, so not a marath'damane. She was unarmed too. Oddly dressed, but surely some kind of servant or civilian then, running from murderous invaders. A subject of the Empire.

Ester moved to franticly wave at the woman to get past them before she got herself killed when everything happened at once. Heat bathed her face as Ciora and her damane turned into guttering torches and she was almost yanked off her feet as Pura dived to the floor putting her hands on her head.

The woman forgotten Ester flexed her will through the a'dam to make Pura get up, make her channel, but all she got through the a'dam was a choking scream as the recalcitrant damane writhed on the ground in pain. Then the collar clicked open and the feeling of her damane disappeared from her head. Ester looked up just in time to see the servant's eyes meet hers.

=====

Taija ran past the collapsing corpse of the leash holder, again slamming doors to leashed rooms open and releasing their collars. She was vaguely aware of the freed leashed behind her helping their fellow slaves up. This had already taken too long.

Ahead of her a door swung open and she feel saidar flowing into someone. A lot of it. A moment later Egwene staggered out, a collar around her neck, its leash leading to a short, pale woman. Taija's met her eyes for a moment and then Egwene shrieked with pain, falling to her knees. "I can't stop her! Please Taija!"

Flows of saidar shot out from her, directed towards Taija. Powerful, but crude. A thought and the flows were sliced. Before they'd even snapped back into Egwene a shield was thrown against Taija's connection to the Power. As it bounced ineffectually away her own narrow flow of inverted air and spirit had slipped past what little defences Egwene had and her collar sprang open.

The pale leash holder stood still for a second, open mouthed. Then Egwene screamed something incomprehensible and channeled. Flows of air lashed out from her, beating the leash holder, striking her from every angle. Egwene just stood there gripping her gray dress with white knuckled fists panting with rage and horror as she beat her.

The leash holder collapsed to the ground shrieking under the blows until Taija reached Egwene and grabbed her. She was so tense it was like holding a board as Taija gently turned her away from the screaming leash holder to face her instead. The light of saidar vanished from around Egwene and suddenly she was collapsing against Taija sobbing uncontrollably.

"She hurt me, Taija. She just kept hurting me. All of them. They just hurt me until I gave in, until I obeyed them. I couldn't stop them from hurting me. I couldn't stop them until I did what they wanted. I hate them. I hate them so much. I want to kill them. I want to kill them all." Her voice broke against Taija's shoulder.

"It's alright Egwene, it's alright, you're alright. You don't have to kill anyone. They won't hurt you anymore. I won't let them." The leash holder was tentatively picking herself up off the floor behind Egwene, shooting terrified glances at Taija. From the way she winced it looked like Egwene had at the very least broken some of her ribs.

Taija met the leash holder's fear filled eyes as she spun a small inverted ward against sound around her and then a web of air. The woman's neck twisted violently. Taija gently rubbed Egwene's back as the leash holder collapsed to the floor, eyes staring lifelessly up at her. "It'll be ok Egwene, I'm here."

After a few more seconds she spoke again. "Egwene, I need you to listen to me," she gently pushed the traumatised girl off her shoulder. "We need to keep moving. If you want to live, you need to follow me now. We're going to find Nynaeve and then we're leaving with anyone else who can come. Do you understand?"

She didn't really know how to deal with a traumatised teenager, but Egwene seemed to pull herself together with a shudder. "Nynaeve's this way." She was a strong girl.

Taija was already moving, urging Egwene along. She followed, but Taija could feel her eyes lingering on the leash holder's corpse as they passed it.

A couple of doors down they found Nynaeve's cell. Egwene burst in with a shout of, "Nynaeve!" and Taija followed to see Nynaeve sitting on her bed, rocking slightly and staring determinedly ahead, her face expressionless.

After a moment she looked up at them her eyes widening. Taija channeled and her collar clicked open. Hesitantly Nynaeve reached a hand up to her neck and Taija absently noticed she didn't have a braid anymore.

Nynaeve glanced at Taija and then looked at Egwene, "w what took you so long?" Her voice rasped harshly. She didn't seem to realise she was scrubbing viciously at her eyes with the gray sleeve of her dress.

Slowly she got to her feet, her movements jerky and embraced Egwene, "there there, it's ok, you're safe now" she murmured, her hand twitching as she rubbed it up and down Egwene's back.

Taija knew she needed time, but there was none. "I'm sorry, but we need to move."

Nynaeve's eyes flashed up to meet hers and she shifted herself between Taija and Egwene, "who are you mistress…?"

"It's Taija," Egwene said, "you know her Nynaeve."

"Well she doesn't look like Taija…"

"I get that a lot," Taija replied dryly, "now unless you want to be back in this room tonight we. Have. To. Move. I've killed a lot of people to rescue you and even if I have to tie you up and carry you we're leaving now."

Nynaeve straightened awkwardly, her voice taking on some of its former stridency, but Taija could see her eye twitching. "well of course we do. What are you waiting for?" The light of saidar sprang up around her, impressively bright. "Let's go." She was already heading for the door. Taija suspected she was in no condition to fight, but at least it was getting her moving.

=====

Nynaeve stepped out into the corridor, keeping herself from stumbling with nothing more than willpower. Light it felt good to have that collar off her neck and saidar under her control rather than those filthy Seanchan! She'd die before she'd let them collar her again.

Suddenly the woman calling herself Taija was ahead of her, already running. "Follow me, don't stop for anything!" The same accent, words strangely clipped short as from the Voice. Nynaeve wasn't sure how she did it, but she somehow jerked into a run behind her.

A hole in the air seemed to rotate open in front of them, the entrance hall of the kennels, how she hated that word, visible through it. There were people there, waiting to take her back! Then there was scalding heat washing back for a second as everything through the hole vanished in fire. She hadn't felt anything, no weaves, no saidar nothing!

Taija was already leaping through the hole into the scorched room, the air dry and metallic tasting. Nynaeve followed behind into the blackened hall, doing her best not to look at the charred corpses dotted around it. They hadn't even had time to scream.

Suddenly Taija stopped, holding her hand up to the group. "Not the front door!" Without any further warning she span and ran to the wall. Putting her hand on it she bit her bottom lip in concentration and stone seemed to crumble away from her. There were still no weaves!

A second later she was dashing through a new hole in the wall, waving them after her.

Nynaeve expected to emerge into bright daylight, but instead everything was shrouded in a strange mist. In the distance she could hear the sounds of combat and screams, but everyone around her seemed to have stopped moving. In the square to their side, rows of Seanchan troops and damane stared into the sky. Even Taija had stopped, chest heaving and sweat dripping from her face as she looked into the sky open mouthed.

In the midst of the roiling clouds two figures fought, lit by a backdrop of ethereal light. One dressed in pitch black, flames swirled around him, swinging an ashen staff. The other… The other was Rand! Fighting with a sword against what looked like the Dark One himself.

======

Distraction could be fatal, but Taija couldn't drag her eyes away from what she was seeing above her. What the fuck was Rand doing? How did that even work? She couldn't think of any web that would do it. That wasn't even getting into the question of why Ishamael seemed to be having a swordfight with him. The man was somewhere on the wrong side of the divide between genius and insanity, but this was beyond that…

Taija didn't know how long she stood there staring, only vaguely aware of the others around her, but then she heard a shout from the direction of the Seanchan. As she tore her attention from Rand's duel in the sky, she saw one of the Seanchan pointing towards her and her group.

She was about to drag them back into a run, but then the light of saidar sprung up around Egwene, a snarl tearing across her face as she screamed, "I won't go back! I'd rather die!" She lashed out with a web of earth and fire, cobblestones blasting from the ground and ripping through the soldiers. Well that had gotten their attention.

There was no discrete escape to be had after that. Taija spun a large, inverted gateway to her side, leading back to the farmhouse. She could feel the strain now, she was nearing her limits.

"Get out of here," she barked. When Egwene and Nynaeve hesitated she added, "you need to get the other women to safety. I'll be right behind you."

After another moment they nodded and started hustling scared women through the gateway as Taija turned to face the Seanchan who were rapidly organising themselves. Absent-mindedly she sliced a couple of webs heading in her direction. None of the leashed among them seemed to want to defy their handlers and she was sailing too close to her limits to give them time to change their minds.

As the last woman hurried through the gateway and Egwene called for Taija to follow she let out a small breath and released the web allowing it to rotate closed. These people couldn't be allowed to follow them. No more women broken under those disgusting collars.

The cloudy turmoil in the sky provided her with useful material. Efficiency was key now. Fire, spirit and air, she didn't bother to invert her webs, she didn't have the energy to spare to do it fast enough to be useful. Opening a gateway beside her, Taija stepped sideways as lightning flashed from the sky exploding amidst the Seanchan formation.

She emerged on top of a building on the other side of the Seanchan force, looking down on them just in time to see her previous location explode in fire. Splitting her flows Taija channeled, spinning webs of fire and air. Small balls of fire went blasting into the Seanchan formation with blinding flashes of light and heat, sending soldiers flying.

She was succeeding in devastating their formation, keeping them off-balance, reacting not acting. But there were still ten leashed among them, it was too many. Shields were thrown at her and she sliced them with fire and spirit. If they could link she'd already have lost.

Taija drew hard on saidar, all five elements rapidly spun together and a huge blossom of white hot fire bloomed among the Seanchan. Eight. Move.

Another gateway and she was among them, a soldier falling bisected by her gateway. A web of razor-sharp air sliced through everyone in front of her. Another leashed was turning to face her spinning air, water and fire. Taija turned her into a briefly shrieking torch. Seven. A leash holder came at her, collar open in her outstretched hands. Air threw her sideways so hard she bowled over several soldiers. She didn't get up.

Taija stumbled as a web of fire clipped her, resisting the urge to cry out. Quickly she raised a howling circle of fire around herself, churning and shielding her from the sight of the soldiers and the leashed. Soldiers shied back and she spun cutting webs of water and air, sending them flying out of the ring of fire.

Again Taija Traveled, her gateway taking her out of the circle onto another building. Another two leashed lay bleeding out on the cobbles. Five.

She stepped forward and stumbled as a shield nearly cut her off from the Power. Barely deflected air made her wince as she felt its blast. Franticly she sliced the webs and sent fire back after them, only to see her own webs deflected into the sky. They were hammering at her now, webs of every element rising to meet her. Taija sliced, deflected and blocked them, barely keeping up. Then with a supreme effort of will she reached out with an inverted web of air, wrapped it around one of the leashed and crushed her where she stood. Four. She thanked the Light for her angreal.

She needed to evade.

Taija opened a gateway, a step to the side and she was back at ground level pulling lightning from the sky, filament thin webs of fire, water, air and spirit linking the clouds to her targets potential difference between cloud and ground instantly multiplied. A torrent of bolts rained down, hard to count, hard to even watch. The first few vanished, but then the attacks on her started slackening off. More bolts struck a barrier of air above the leashed, but she kept up the onslaught. Thunder a constant rumble.

It was sudden when their shield failed. One second she was still slicing and blocking webs of fire, the next the only sound was explosions as the storm of lightning devastated the Seanchan position. Zero.

The remaining soldiers broke, dropping weapons and sprinting for the docks. Taija didn't have the energy left to do anything about them, even if she wanted to. In fact she was struggling to stay standing.

Gasping for breath she staggered over to a wall and sunk down against it, pulling her thighs to her chest, the cobbled ground cold under her. Flashes of light illuminated the duel still continuing on in the sky and she could hear battle going on somewhere else in the mist. Whoever else was out there would have to do without her. Taija wasn't sure she could safely channel enough to defend herself against a man with a knife, let alone an army or other channelers.

Nevertheless her eyes were drawn back up to the sky where Ishamael was still fighting his insane duel with Rand, neither seemingly able to overcome the other.

She gave herself a shake, she couldn't sit there and let the boy die tangled up in one of Ishamael's schemes. She didn't know what was going on, but she'd done what she needed to. The girls were free and as many of the other slaves as she could help too. Siuan could manage the Black Ajah now that she had the tools to do it.

Ishamael was clearly toying with the boy, or else he'd already be dead, but Taija wasn't sure why. She'd never been in Ishamael's league and an untrained boy like Rand certainly wasn't.

In the end though she couldn't just sit and watch him get killed to sate Ishamael's desire for power. She hadn't found much she liked in this Light-Forsaken age. The girls, Rand, Aleksi, Bennae, that was about it. The world was a lonely place and Taija was very very tired. She doubted it would work, but maybe it would give Rand a chance to escape.

Taija levered herself up to her feet, lining her mind's eye up with the two duelists. They separated for a second and Rand grinned, a disturbing rictus, raising his sword above his head. The trickle of saidar running through Taija deepened as she drew through her angreal and she achingly slowly spun balefire, trying to ignore the violent spikes of pleasure-pain in her head that told her she was pushing herself far too far.

Then it all happened at once, Ishamael struck like a snake, plunging his staff into Rand's side and at the same time Rand's sword flashed down. With a deafening screech Ishamael vanished and Rand slowly collapsed, fading from the sky, the mysterious fog already dissipating.

Taija mirrored him, saidar slipping out of her like water between her fingers. She fell slowly to her knees and then onto her hands. Everything seemed to hurt. She could taste bile in her mouth and a second later she emptied the contents of her stomach onto the ground. Then, finally, gasping for breath she fell over, rolling onto her back and lying there on the cold cobbles staring into the darkening sky.

=======

After Egwene left, Min sat looking down at Rand's sleeping form, her hand on his. She wanted to cry, whether with frustration, despair or relief she wasn't sure. At least he was alive.

"What would Egwene have said if I'd told her there was another woman yet to come?" She sighed. "Or will you try to dandle all three of us on your knee? It may not be your fault, Rand al'Thor, but it isn't fair."

Min jumped as she heard movement from the other bed, looking over to see the aes sedai, Taija, lying there wrapped in blankets looking over at the two of them with her dark eyes. Min hadn't seen what the woman had done, she'd never even met the woman before, but her warder Aleksi had carried her here, utterly insistent that she needed a proper bed far from the damane kennels. Had she been imprisoned there?

Since then Falme had descended into chaos. Min had seen the burnt and broken charnel house that was the square outside the kennels. She'd seen death before, but seeing that she'd struggled not to vomit. Perrin had gently told her not to go inside the kennels, that everyone who could be saved had gotten out and she'd quickly agreed once she realised what he was really trying to tell her.

Was that Taija? Did Rand do it? A man who could channel… The Dragon Reborn… She had no doubt that he could, it made more sense than the small, barely conscious aes sedai, she'd seen what aes sedai could do, what they would do and it wasn't that.

"I hadn't realised you were awake. How are you feeling Taija sedai?" Min got up and walked over to her, "can I get you anything?"

Another strange thing about her, whenever Min looked at Taija, unlike every other aes sedai, she never saw anything. No images, no hints at the future, just a woman.

Taija winced and tried to lever herself up in the bed. "Some water, please." Her voice rasped, she looked a mess even after Moiraine had healed her, and it had been such a relief to see that particular aes sedai. Even she'd been shocked at the state of Falme, her normal serenity briefly breaking as she looked around tight lipped while the surviving Shienarans helped move Rand and Taija to safety.

"Of course, Taija sedai." Min headed off to find some water, but by the time she returned with a jug of water Taija had fallen back asleep, so Min turned back to the man she'd been contemplating.

"What am I going to do with you Rand Al'Thor?"

"Not Rand Al'Thor," Min leapt up grabbing her knife at the musical voice, "Lews Therin Telamon, the Dragon Reborn."

A stunningly beautiful woman glided into the room, clad in white and silver. Min had never seen anyone more beautiful. "W w who are you?"

The woman simply ignored her, glancing down at Taija with a brief look of distaste before stopping by Rand and leaning down to look at him more closely.

The woman spoke quietly, but Min could still hear her, "Lews Therin… you know now, but you still do not believe it. No matter, I will continue to guide you to become who you are meant to be. Ishamael may think he is in control, but he will learn."

Min found her voice, "who are you? What are you doing here?"

In a decisive movement the woman straightened up and met Min's eyes with a beautiful smile, "I am Lanfear girl."

Terror spiked through Min and she shook her head in denial, but the woman just smiled calmly, "remember, Lews Therin is mine, but I will leave him in your care until I come for him. Now…" Lanfear turned towards the unconscious Taija and suddenly there was a much uglier look on her face.

Lanfear took a step towards Taija, then another until she loomed over her. Min stood rooted to the spot too scared to do anything other than watch.

The air seemed to shift around Taija, her blankets tightening around her in silent compression, "how fortuitous for fate to have delivered you to me like this." Lanfear reached down to gently trail her fingers down Taija's cheek onto her neck, it was not a comforting gesture.

"Too bad that you will not be awake to experience this, but I have business to attend to." Her eyes flashed and then she hesitated, just for a fraction of a second, before her musical laughter chimed out across the room. "You know Taija… Maybe not this time." She pulled away from the unconscious aes sedai with a harsh smile, it was still beautiful. "I think perhaps the cruelest thing I can do is to let you live just a little longer. Yes, I expect next time I will rid the world of your presence, but for now… I will just watch and enjoy. Oh yes I will enjoy it."

Still laughing to herself Lanfear stepped through a hole in the air and vanished.

Chapter Text

Interlude VI - Reactions

Slowly but surely word of what had happened in Falme started to spread around the world.

======

She delicately picked her way through the ruins of Falme's centre. She had already seen the little that was left of the town's second largest palace. Scant as they were, melted walls and little else. That had been terrifying, she could not even start to work out how that had been done.

But now, seeing the street and square outside the damane kennels. That was worse. Everywhere buildings bore scars or simply holes ripped out of them. The ground itself was pockmarked with blackened craters, in front of the main entrance there was a huge gouge torn from the cobbles. That was not what disturbed her though. She was a hard woman, she had seen battles, traveled through the Blight.

On the surface this was no worse, the cobbles were stained dark with blood and bodies lay all around, staring empty eyed at the sky, where they were sufficiently intact to actually be recognisable for what they were anyway. Trollocs taking a village would do just as bad.

What was worse that it had been done with the Power and, as far as she could tell, one woman had done this. Simply swatted a huge palace out of existence, and after looking at the ruins she suspected that at a different angle, from a different direction, that could have been far worse, and then slaughtered her way through a veritable army of channelers and soldiers without even breaking her stride.

Her suspicion that Taija knew how to Travel had been confirmed by the rescued damane, oh how she hated that word. The three girls had been surprisingly tight lipped though. She wished she had the time to give the girls more leeway. What Egwene and Nynaeve had experienced would have broken many sisters. She suspected poor Ryma would never be the same again, but she did not. The Dragon was paramount and everything else would have to be secondary.

As for Taija… She had healed her… of course. The woman had been unconscious by the time she was brought to her, yet surprisingly intact all things considered, no permanent injuries as far as she could tell.

Not for the first time she wondered whether she should have healed Taija. Whether an accident might have better been arranged. She had learned much over the last few months, but was under no illusion as to how a fight between them would go. A shudder at the memory of Fal Dara was expertly suppressed.

It was not that she thought Taija was a darkfriend, that much was clear. The woman had surely proved her innocence of that and, regardless, she was a terrible actor, it was doubtful she could keep even someone as naive as Rand fooled for long.

No, the problem was her influence over Rand and everyone else around her. Her willingness to resort to brutal violence and to kill without hesitation when she deemed it necessary. Rand would need to learn, need to become strong, but were those the lessons she wanted him to learn? Perhaps it would be necessary, but she was not sure she wanted those lessons coming from Taija either.

It was fortunate that she had arrived in Falme when she had. Clearly the Wheel weaved as it willed, but in this case its will seemed to be that she would be able to assist and guide young Rand.

=========

For the first time in weeks she was starting to feel like life might be alright. Egwene and Nynaeve were free, Taija had woken up again and the Seanchan had been pushed back into the sea.

Verin sedai had wanted to start heading for the Tower right away, but Taija had said she would return the three of them herself when she felt up to channeling again. She knew Taija saw her as a girl, she still had not quite forgiven the woman for leaving her behind when she went into Falme, but whatever her age she could read between the lines and spot the political plays well enough. Taija's offer very clearly did not include Verin.

In her heart of hearts she was secretly glad Taija had made her stay behind. She had asked Nynaeve what had happened and the woman had closed off so fast it was like a door slamming in her face.

She still saw Nynaeve staring into the distance sometimes when no one was around, just sitting and staring with haunted eyes. If only she could get her hands on the Seanchan who had done this to her friends!

Egwene had told her some of it though. Certainly not everything, maybe not much, she knew that, but enough. In some ways the worst part had been Egwene describing how much she wanted to kill her sul'dam, the satisfaction of beating her, the feeling of guilt as she did it. She had told her that Taija had stopped her, with a gentleness they just did not associate with the woman and then she had done something while Egwene was not looking, just… just killed the helpless sul'dam. In cold blood.

She struggled to get her head around that. The woman surely deserved to die, but the way Egwene had described it Taija had not even reacted, not shown any sign at all that she was killing someone while she comforted Egwene. Surely that was not right? Not normal? It was not how it was in the stories.

Nyneave on the other hand had firmly told her she did not want to know what the battle had been like. At the time she was furious, she needed to know! Of course she hid it, the poor woman had suffered enough, but she liked to listen and pay attention so she knew enough.

She had seen the Shienarans' queasy looks when they first came back from the direction of the damane kennels, hardened veterans all of them. Heard them talking in whispered tones. They clammed up if she came too close, but even then the snippets she did catch made it seem far less exciting and brave. "Charnel house." "Never seen anything like it." "Sul'dam just smeared across a wall and the smell of burnt flesh…"

Then there was Taija herself, she was still bed-ridden three days later, but at least she was awake. In better condition than Rand really, and was that not mad? Seeing him again and not only that, finding out he was the Dragon Reborn! She still had not quite processed that properly.

It was strange seeing Taija laid up in bed. She was normally so energetic, going from relaxed absent-mindedness to impatient command and back in seconds and it was painful seeing her clearly suffering. She had been healed by Moiraine sedai who had seemed to pop up out of nowhere after the battle, but Moiraine sedai had explained to her and Egwene that some injuries could not be healed so easily and when a woman over strained herself too far with the Power she needed time to recover.

She also still had not managed to work out exactly what Taija was. Clearly she must be an aes sedai. She seemed to know the Amyrlin and neither Moiraine sedai nor Verin sedai denied her status - she knew from her lessons that the White Tower reacted very poorly to impersonators. However, she did not have the ageless face or even a great serpent ring and perhaps more importantly she did not act like an aes sedai. Not in the slightest. Of course some of the greens and browns lacked the composure of most, but they had their own quirks and it just did not fit. It was frustrating and she hated not knowing.

One thing she was sure of though was that without Taija she would eventually have been caught and faced the same fate as Egwene and Nynaeve. Each night she'd hear Egwene stifling sobs late from the room next door when she thought everyone was asleep. It broke her heart, but she knew her friend would be mortified if she knew she had heard.

Regardless, whatever Taija's relationship with the other aes sedai was, it worried her. Verin sedai seemed oblivious to everything that did not come out of a book, but the speculative looks that Moiraine sedai gave the woman were concerning. More, Moiraine sedai regularly went to visit Taija and when she left Taija always seemed more tired, somehow sadder if that was possible. Why did she always seem to have such an underlying sadness to her? Yet another mystery.

That was why on the third day after the battle she decided. Taija clearly was not in a position to look after herself yet and who knew what Moiraine's intentions were. She had heard of Moiraine sedai, of course she had, but reputation told her little. She was not a naive girl, she knew that every aes sedai had their own agenda. She was not sure how she would stand up to an aes sedai like Moiraine if it came to it, but she would try.

That night she gathered her bedding and moved to Taija's room, she might not be able to fight like her, but she could still protect her until she recovered.

To her surprise she found Aleksi standing outside the door, staff in hand, but he just glanced at her and smiled before stepping aside.

She quietly pushed open the door to find Taija propped up in her bed and Egwene sitting on her own bedding on the floor talking to her.

Taija looked up at her and dropped her face into her hands speaking in her odd accent, "oh no, not you too! Fucking paranoid teenagers." She spoke the Old Tongue reasonably well, but she knew she had a lot to learn from Taija who seemed to have a truly colloquial grasp of it.

"Frak, frakin, frak's sake," she almost silently murmured to herself that night. She didn't quite have the pronunciation right, but she would get it.

========

She gave the girls a placid smile. "You must be looking forward to returning to the Tower to continue your lessons. It is not good for you children to be away from the Tower. Now, where did I leave my notes? I had asked Tomas to make me a sketch of the town's bell tower and he will be back soon."

She bustled away, nodding absently to various people as she went. She really must find out more about this Taija, she clearly was no aes sedai, but it seemed that she had all of them at a disadvantage. The kind of disadvantage that made you call someone whatever they wanted to be called.

She had visited the town centre, seen the havoc that woman and wrought. There were not many sights that could turn her stomach, not after the things she had done, but it had still been shocking. Fascinating of course, but disturbing that one unknown woman could do that. Of course she said unknown, but intriguingly Moiraine seemed to know more about her. If only that woman was not always so tight lipped. No matter.

Of course Taija was not capable of doing much more than sit up in bed for now, so perhaps it would be opportune to take some action before she recovered. It was important that the boy be guided safely to his ultimate destiny and young Taija might be an obstacle to that.

Perhaps an as yet undetected complication… She considered it as she exchanged a few words with one of the Shienarans. No, better not to. She would see how things came together and maybe this Taija would be a useful piece in the game.

Now where had Tomas got to?

=========

"So it is finally happening." He sneered, "the boy has revealed himself. This is all as expected though, why are you so angry?" He asked the tall, dark woman.

She really was angrier than he had ever seen her, practically vibrating. Even the other woman had sat further away from her than usual.

"Do you know what actually happened there? Are you blind?" She practically bit the words out.

"Lews Therin reborn, we know." The smaller woman was clearly irritated judging by her tone, "as we agreed, we don't tread on each other's toes, so beyond the headlines, no we don't know what actually happened. Was it Ishamael again? You won't believe what he's just done in the White…"

"No! It was not Ishamael, although it is his fault." The taller woman took a breath and got himself back under control. "The whole Return has been thrown back into the sea, a huge set back, I have been having to piece together reports from fleeing soldiers, barely a servant of the Great Lord among them, but it was a disaster beyond anything I could have expected."

"The boy defeated Ishamael in a duel above the sky above the town and the Seanchan broke?" His tone was unimpressed.

"It was not the boy. Yes, alright clearly that had an effect and there were reports of a mysterious army too. The main power of the Seanchan though is the damane. Their 'Ever Victorious Army'," there was definitely a hint of contempt in her tone, "relies on leashed channelers to crush the opposition."

She continued without stopping for breath. "You remember the last time we met, we worked out Ishamael had kidnapped those girls from the White Tower? Well someone or something came after them."

The other woman waved a hand dismissively, "well that's interesting, but I don't know why it's enough to call an emergency meeting."

"If you let me finish, then you will see why quickly enough. While Ishamael was playing at swords with Lews Therin… Must you scowl every time I say his name," she snapped at him. "As I was saying, when Ishamael was playing at swords someone slaughtered their way through the damane kennels, freed a group of them and proceeded to kill their way through every Seanchan they saw."

He shrugged dismissively, "impressive for one of this Age's so-called aes sedai, but I think any of us could do the same. A painful setback and you have my sympathies, but we have all survived worse."

"I would agree with you, but for two things. One the attack seems to have begun with the obliteration of High Lady Suroth's palace. No let me finish. I mean obliteration. The place was vapourised. The only surviving witness I could find perfectly described a gateway opening in front of the palace followed by blinding light. He will certainly never see again."

"Ah, that is more concerning." He paused. "Do you think it was Lanfear? Or maybe Sammael? I do not think any of the rest…"

"It was not Lanfear. Or Sammael." The tall woman cut him off. "You understand few damane were left to report back after this and trying to extract coherent answers from ignorant non-channelers can be difficult, however willing they are to talk. I did obtain some useful information though. Firstly, while everybody seems to disagree on what they looked like, there does seem to be a consensus that it was a small woman. Certainly saidar was being channeled, although I suspect many of the webs were inverted. Sammael would struggle to spin a convincing illusion of that. I also have my doubts he could have staged the initial attack. Second, this woman used gateways constantly. From what I can tell it was classic Light Bringer tactics, although no sign of a full team. We all know Lanfear prefers to just rely on her strength and then power through whatever is in her way."

There was a long, contemplative pause before eventually the shorter woman broke the silence. "I suppose we'll need to be thinking about anti-traveling wards again." She shuddered ever so slightly. "Those are not experiences I want to relive."

He sighed, "yes indeed, we will all need to adjust our plans. I see what you meant now though," he nodded to the taller woman. "The real question is… who?"

==========

She sat at her desk, trying to read through the piles of reports she received. Having so many eyes and ears spread out through the world was vital, but it used inordinate amounts of her time. However, regardless of how hard she tried, she kept coming back to one.

A report from Falme, it came accompanied by a sketch of a young man fighting a flaming figure in the sky. Another false dragon declaring himself, another filthy male channeler spreading their curse across the world. This one's support seemed to be spreading incredibly fast, bringing madness to the west at an unprecedented rate. The Red Ajah would need to act fast.

Of course she dismissed the reports of these "Sheenchan" with aes sedai on leashes. A male channeler of this boy's apparent power was bad enough without subscribing to ridiculous rumours.

But then there was one other thing in the report that took it beyond being yet another false dragon. Rumours of a "Tyja sedai" assisting him to free the "leashed aes sedai". Again, ridiculous, but she at least knew that this Taija was real. Wherever she appeared it seemed there were problems and they continued to get worse. She had been sure for a while, but this confirmed it. A darkfriend, like so many others inside the Tower and out. If Taija had this false dragon under influence then things must be worse than she had feared. Action would need to be taken for the Light.

========

One thing had been clear as soon as Semirhage turned up in an absolute temper, barking questions at him, there was something going on. However much he assured her he had not been in Falme recently (or ever) and in fact had never heard of the place until she so rudely interrupted his dinner, she seemed particularly difficult to mollify.

Even he shuddered at the thought of what a proper interrogation from her would be like, not that she would ever get the chance. If it came to it he would smash her the same way he had beaten so many other enemies. Regardless, their status protected them both from each other, or at least from over actions, and so she was restricted to angry words and him to irritated retorts.

It seemed that the others were worked up like a flock of akein over Lews Therin's return to this Falme. His mouth twisted downwards, that would be dealt with in due course. He was a patient man and he had known the rebirth was coming regardless. There was no benefit in taking precipitous action.

Much more interesting was what Semirhage's barely polite interrogation had implied beyond the defeat of Ishamael. When he'd heard about that he'd immediately made his way to Falme, suitably disguised of course. There were too many coincidences lining up and he did not like coincidences.

Of course he also had a vague hope of finding Ishamael in a vulnerable state. If he could ever get that man alone, he had plans for him, oh yes. Him and Lanfear. They'd been a long time coming. One day…

But that had been more opportunistic optimism rather than a true plan. Of course the man had fled to lick his wounds somewhere else. Still, he was glad he'd made the effort to visit Falme.

He'd avoided Lews Therin's camp, too many of those so-called aes sedai and he suspected there might be a trap being woven there for him, but there was much to see among the gawkers in the town.

The scar through the centre where a palace once stood was disturbingly familiar, bringing back dark memories of the War. Lanfear could have done it. Maybe Ishamael. Was one of them targeting him, looking to ensnare him with their schemes? Did they know enough to? Lanfear at least did and he'd learned painful lessons about betting that Ishamael didn't know something.

Given that, the damane kennels were of particular interest to him. It was a risk, of course, going into them, but he'd built his life on calculated risks and this was just one more.

Labourers were busily at work, cleaning the place up, not that they were a problem. A judicious web of compulsion on the foreman and he was quickly getting a personal tour.

Despite the work carrying on, there were still distinct signs of battle throughout. Apparently it had been a woman, although no one could agree on her description. Just one though, that much seemed clear.

Removing a glove he traced his hand down a perfectly smooth groove in a wall. There was no question, a gateway had done that. His experienced eyes ran over the scars and gouges torn from the walls and floor.

It looked like the intruder had come in through the main doors then Traveled to behind the defenders and attacked from there… He couldn't be sure, but he was starting to have a painful suspicion that if he'd been there, he'd have seen that mysterious attacker throwing webs from behind and then attacking straight back through the still open gateway at the same time.

It was classic Light Bringer tactics. None of the others fought like that, but he had no doubt at least a few of them could make a decent attempt at pretending if need be.

A memory of a determined face came into his mind, hair gone awry and dark eyes narrowed, lips pursed in concentration as she spun. He pushed it away violently. He still couldn't work out why someone was playing this game, but if they thought they were going to make him stumble they'd soon learn otherwise.

Abruptly he turned to leave, ignoring his guide's protests. First back East, he was a busy man and had much to do. Then, perhaps it was time to start weaving his own net and see which of them fell into it.

Chapter Text

Chapter XXIV - Back to the Tower

Taija returned to true consciousness a couple of days after the Battle of Falme, feeling like death warmed up. Tentatively reaching for the comfort of saidar produced an agonising spike of pain in her head and she quickly withdrew.

It didn't matter, that pain told her what was important - she hadn't burnt herself out. Thinking back to that last desperate fight, spinning balefire at figures fighting in the air, Taija winced. Madness, especially at the end, she was very lucky she hadn't killed herself. Although she couldn't help but wonder whether that would have been the worst outcome.

At some point Taija was moved to her own room as Falme's civic buildings were taken over and over the next few days she slowly recovered. Moiraine seemed to have popped up just late enough to be completely useless. Perhaps that was unfair, she did heal her, but Taija couldn't help thinking about how a woman of her strength with her angreal would have been more than useful. Maybe enough that she could have intervened in Rand's fight before he so stupidly let Ishamael stab him. Then again, given the performance of these modern aes sedai, she might just have gotten herself and Taija killed.

Moiraine seemed determined to take advantage of Taija's bedridden condition, visiting her regularly. Every time she did it was exhausting. The woman's words had so many layers of meaning behind them, her cool composure irritated Taija and the probing questions combined with what seemed to be veiled commands exhausted her.

Every time she saw Moiraine's serene, aloof face it reminded Taija of everything that was wrong with the aes sedai. The ruins of the greatest organisation of her time, being squatted in by half-trained children with a superiority complex.

Her feelings weren't helped by the vulnerability that she was very conscious of while she was unable to channel. What if Moiraine knew how to use compulsion…?

Verin also visited a couple of time, absent minded as she was. One time she had the girls in tow and told Taija they were planning to leave for the Tower. Ridiculous. Taija told her not to worry, she'd get the three of them back safely as soon as she could channel again. No point in spending a month trudging around on horse back.

Thankfully Verin seemed to forget Taija existed after that. Elayne told her she'd apparently developed an interest in Falme's architecture, sending her warder off to do sketches.

Aleksi was a mercy. He spent hours sitting in Taija's room, talking with her about what both of them had been doing and updating her on what was happening with the rest of the group. Taija had to give him the edited version, with a promise that she'd tell him everything once she could ward the room, but it was enough. He was non-judgmental and kind and she was ashamed that she'd ever considered leaving him behind in her earlier days in this time.

Aleksi's biggest worry seemed to be Taija herself. He certainly had no fear of aes sedai when he told her that she was pushing herself too hard and was going to end up killing herself. It had been a while since someone in their early twenties had called her an idiot, but her account of the end of the Battle of Falme probably did deserve that.

He also seemed to have no fear of aes sedai when he shooed Moiraine out of Taija's room. In fact she was fairly sure he'd started guarding her door at night. He really was taking too much influence from the Shienarans.

Taija's other pleasure was visits from the girls. Mainly Elayne and Egwene, but occasionally Nynaeve too. She could see the signs of deep trauma, hovering below the surface in Egwene and Nynaeve, but she never knew what to say. So she just tried to talk to them. Really they needed proper counseling, therapy… but Taija strongly suspected that was something that no longer existed and she had no idea how to start with it herself.

Ironically, while she'd been worrying about the girls, it seemed like they were worrying about her. She didn't know how it happened, but at one point Egwene and Elayne just moved into her bedroom, insisting they were going to protect her until she was better. It was ridiculous. Heart-warming, but ridiculous. All her protests were ignored though, so eventually Taija had no choice but to give in and accept them fussing over her.

======

It took a week before Taija was properly out of bed and able to safely embrace saidar again. She still felt like a woman of 700 rather than a not even middle aged 180, or was it 181 now? Perhaps it was 3181, the oldest person alive. Other than the Forsaken she supposed. 10th oldest perhaps? She tried to remember whether any of them were younger than she was…

Taija had already decided during her time in bed that she was going to help Rand rather than stay in the White Tower. Siuan clearly had matters in hand and she was largely useless anyway. In her heart she had the self-awareness to realise that it was also bad for her being in the Tower. Every day she was reminded of everything that had been lost and of how much she disliked the way the women claiming to be aes sedai in this time behaved.

Taija gave herself a shake, it wasn't the time for introspection. Rand was awake, but not very mobile yet, she had time to take the girls back, give Siuan an update and then be back in Falme before Rand could do much more than stare at the ceiling while that Min girl mooned over him. Had anyone given him the Talk? How did this kind of society even deal with that kind of thing? Hopefully they had contraception. Maybe Lan could? Or Aleksi?

After a number of goodbyes the girls were finally ready to leave and Taija spun a gateway to outside Tar Valon, inverted as ever. Traveling was one secret she was in no hurry to spread.

After she emerged she quickly disguised herself once more as the Lady Alfreda. Hopefully it was the last day she'd ever have to do that.

It took them a couple of hours on horses to reach the city's gates. There were more guardsmen than Taija remembered, but it was still a beautiful city. She was reminded of that riding through the streets while she briefed the girls.

"Look, we can't arrive together. It would be suspicious and I have my own business to attend to. I'll keep an eye on you up to the Tower grounds where you'll be safe, but I'm going to come in later."

They responded with nods and "yes Taija sedai."

"You also need to remember to be careful what you say. You'll probably be thought of as runaways, maybe punished, don't try to deny it until you speak to Siuan, the Amyrlin, she knows the truth, but it would be dangerous for you to say anything to anyone else. We can speak again later, before I leave. Now, off you go!"

Taija reined back her horse and watched them head off ahead of her towards the Tower. She'd follow at a suitable distance until they actually entered it, then spend an hour or two wandering around the city before she entered the Tower by a different gate.

Light! She hoped they didn't say anything stupid when they got there.

======

After two hours spent riding around the city, torn between boredom and enjoyment of its beauty it was time for Taija to head to the Tower. Finding an alleyway without witnesses, she spun a gateway to the Amyrlin's bedchamber, only to see it fizzle in a flash of sparks. That was concerning. Had Siuan figured out how to ward against Traveling? Taija supposed it was possible, the trick wasn't that difficult if you knew how to Travel and understood wards. Still…

Given she couldn't travel, she had to get to the Tower the slow way. At the gate she was greeted by one of the guardsmen, Dennim she thought, "Lady Alfreda, you're well? I had feared…" He trailed off.

She gave him a confused look, "of course I'm well, but thank you for your concern."

There was clearly something odd going on and her absence had been noticed. Obviously there wasn't an order for her arrest or anything like that, but Taija drew a bit deeper on saidar nevertheless.

She rode on, there seemed to be more armed men around than before. Warders and Tower Guard both. The worry that had started to flutter in her stomach when her gateway failed was steadily growing.

At the stables Taija quickly arranged for her horse to be stabled and her bag to be delivered to her room before she continued on. There was nothing in the bag that she couldn't afford to lose if she needed to make a quick exit.

There were a couple of places where Taija would swear the walls had recently been repainted. People seemed to be moving around with their eyes down, more jerky and awkward than she remembered. Something was wrong.

She needed to get into the Tower-proper and find a way to contact Siuan as soon as possible. Or failing her perhaps Anaiya or Maighan. It might look less odd than demanding to speak to the Amyrlin.

Taija walked through the inner gate, trying to look relaxed, but practically vibrating with internal tension. Her eyes were roaming left and right scanning for any threat. Her plans to get in, get out and go back to Rand had been forgotten and the ecstasy of saidar flowed through her as she held it at her full capacity.

In the inner courtyard she came to a stop. It wasn't as busy as usual, but there were still people around. No one she immediately recognised though, she looked up along the buttressing above the Tower's main doors, towards the windows… Wait.

Taija's eyes flicked back to the main doors. That wasn't, that was…

Her mind ground to a stuttering halt as she processed what she was seeing. A head, coppery skin framed by dark hair, impaled on a spike over the doors. Eye staring sightlessly out of her ageless face. That couldn't be Leane. It couldn't be! But it was.

Taija's mind was whirling. What did this mean? Had the Black Ajah taken the Tower? Where was Siuan? She needed to leave, now. But she also needed to get the girls out. She'd just delivered them to the Tower. Straight from the abomination that was the Seanchan into the hands of the blacks. Run? Fight? Stealth? Was this her fault? If she'd been a bit more discrete would Leane still be alive?

Taija didn't know how long she stood there staring, torn by indecision, frozen by shock. She'd clashed with Siuan, but Leane was always the peacemaker…

The river of saidar hurtled through her, spikes of joyous pain stabbing at her, right at the limit of what she could hold even with an angreal.

Then she felt a gentle hand on her arm. Taija wrenched herself round, spinning inverted fire, earth and a touch of spirit. Just before she threw it she released the web feeling it fade away.

Bennae had a concerned smile on her face, "Alfreda darling, you're back. I'd worried about you, it is good to see you unharmed my dear."

"I i it's good to see you too Bennae," she managed to stammer.

Bennae glanced up at Leane's head and clucked her tongue, "yes, I can see why that would upset you my dear." Her smile faded, replaced with a sympathetic look. "A terrible business that, a horrible sight too, I cannot say I agree with that kind of display." She looked back to Taija, "you must be so discombobulated you poor thing, come along, let me get you some tea. Everything will feel better after a cup of hot tea."

Before Taija knew it she was being hustled into the Tower and up some stairs while Bennae fussed over her. She protested, she needed to get to the girls, "honestly Bennae, I'm fine, I was just surprised that's all."

"Nonsense young lady, sights like that will distress anybody. Now are you hurt? Did anything happen to you? You are looking a bit worn." Her hands patted all over Taija's arms ignoring her half-hearted efforts to try to fend them off.

In no time at all she was gently pushing Taija into her rooms. Taija realised she'd never seen them before, but her reception room was quite luxurious in a comfortable way. Of course the walls were covered in book shelves and she had a large, very untidy desk with more stacks of papers around it, but she also had thick, intricately decorated rugs warming the floor and some very comfortable looking armchairs.

Taija would have protested more, but she was still in shock and Bennae was surprisingly difficult to deny when she was in full on mothering mode. That was probably why she was so often assigned to teach novices.

Taija was quickly deposited in one of the armchairs, it really was very comfortable.

"So did you enjoy your trip out of the Tower my dear? It truly was fortuitous timing for you, avoiding all that unpleasant business." Taija saw the light of saidar spring up around Bennae as she heated a teapot with a simple flow of fire, bustling around at the back of the room. The vaguely positive noises she made in response seemed to be enough for Bennae to keep talking, "of course it's all safe again now and I have missed our little talks so I really am delighted that you're back again."

Taija needed to be taking action, not stopping for tea with Bennae, but she couldn't think of a polite or convincing excuse to extricate herself and it was nice seeing her again, even if she did occasionally seem to lapse into treating her like a surrogate granddaughter.

Eventually she finished whatever she was doing over there and came back with two steaming cups of tea. "Here you go my dear," she handed Taija one.

Taija sat there blowing on the hot drink. If she was honest with herself, she needed this. Essentially the only company she'd had for the last week was corpses, traumatised teenagers and Moiraine trying to trick her into Light knows what. She didn't have time for it, but when she had no choice…

Taija gave Bennae a tremulous smile and a genuine, "thank you," before taking a sip. It was as good as she'd hoped and she took another bigger one with a sigh.

Bennae paused with a kind smile, "so you got everything you wanted to out of your trip my dear?"

Taija nodded, "I suppose so, nothing ever goes perfectly, but I was able to meet the people I needed to and it may even do some good in the longer run."

"Well I am glad to hear that." She leant forward and smileed conspiratorially, "you'll be excited to hear that I have been speaking to one of my brown sisters and I have an absolutely fascinating new book on the great cities of the Age of Legends, I am very much looking forward to discussing it with you."

Her enthusiasm was infectious, but Taija had to let her friend down gently. "That will be lovely Bennae, but I'm sorry, I'm going to have to leave the Tower again shortly. I can't stay for long at all. You know with things how they are back home…" She trailed off.

Bennae nodded understandingly and patted her on the leg. "Yes, over in western Andor is it not?" Of course she already knew that. Then the dim light of saidar sprang up around her and she started to spin a web against eavesdropping.

Within a fraction of a second of seeing the light spring up around her Taija had opened herself to saidar, already spinning except... There was nothing. The light of saidar was still there, but it felt like water slipping through her fingers. In fact her fingers didn't really want to move either. She tried again, and again. Each time there was nothing, in fact even the light felt more distant, unlike the panic that was roaring up inside her.

She looked back at Bennae who suddenly looked much less absently mindedly motherly than normal. Taija had her full attention now and she could feel it. Bennae took a sip of her own tea.

"Honestly, what a pickle you've got yourself in Alfreda my dear." Despite the sharp focus in Bennae's eyes, her tone was still kind, gentle. "Or should I call you Taija?"

"H h how did you know?" Taija stammered, cursing internally.

"Hm," she gave a small self-satisfied nod. "I did not, until you just told me."

Well fuck. Taija tried to get up from her chair and failed. At the same time she felt the air harden around her. Fear spiked within her. Had she just delivered herself straight to the Black Ajah?

Bennae looked her up and down and hummed to herself, her tone musing, "is the tea working? Hmm yes, I do suspect we would both know if it was not. Now… if the tea is working than that must mean you can channel, yes?" She didn't wait for an answer, "so you must have some clever little way of hiding it. What would it be?"

Taija wasn't sure if she was toying with her or genuinely musing, but Bennae just smiled at her furious glare.

"Mmm yes, a way of hiding a weave, but just because I cannot see it does not mean it is not there..." Taija could barely see the light of saidar around Bennae anymore, let alone her flows, but she felt the cold shiver when her concealing webs were sliced and her appearance rippled.

Bennae's eyebrows rose almost to her hairline, "Oh… Oh my, you are a strong one. Such a lovely young lady too. I am glad for the tea my dear, otherwise I suspect I might be in a pickle of my own. Still, I might just… yes, I am going to add a shield on top, just because, well…" she trailed off as if she'd lost her train of thought.

Taija wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Normally she could shatter her shield with a fraction of her strength and now she was sat there trussed up like a bird for the roast while Bennae happily mused to herself about her predicament.

"Now Alfreda dear, or I suppose I should call you Taija now, I would love it if we could have a more honest talk, I really would be fascinated to know where you are really from."

Taija was having to suppress a full on panic. Maybe if she could keep her talking for long enough the tea would wear off before she handed her over to whoever she was working for. Elaida? The Black Ajah? The Forsaken? All she needed was long enough to channel again and she'd be safe. She could tear down the anti-Traveling wards in a couple of minutes. It would be very obvious, but there'd be nothing to stop her escaping then.

Taija took a breath, speaking slowly, trying not to slur through the heavy dullness of the tea, "the truth… Alright. I'm sorry I lied to you Bennae, but I'd been asked, no ordered, to keep it a secret. I'm from across the Aryth Ocean, I came here on behalf of the aes sedai there to…"

"Taija dear," her smile was as gentle as her tone, "the truth. Please."

"Fine." Taija grimaced. "The truth is that I've been working for the Amyrlin as a secret operative outside the bounds of the Tower. I've been hunting enemies of the Tower for her and…"

Bennae cut her off again. "That one is even less plausible than the last Taija dear, I do have plenty of time though, so if you would like to try again?"

Bennae already knew more than enough and seemed to be able to see straight through her. If she knew this much telling her the truth, might at least keep her talking, if she even belied it. "The truth is, I was born over 3,000 years ago in a city named Adanza..." Bennae just gave her an encouraging smile. "I grew up, lived, worked in what you people now call the Age of Legends. I saw the collapse. I fought in the War of Power and somehow I ended up here in what you call the Third Age." Taija looked defiantly at her.

Bennae cocked her head, "there that was not so hard, was it? And you are not a darkfriend?" She didn't wait for an answer, "no, of course you are not." A second later the light of saidar winked out from around her, the shield over Taija unraveled and she felt the bonds of air vanish.

Taija stared at her wide eyed, speechless as she prattled on.

"I am ever so glad we could clear that up. In fact I am very excited, you had so many absolutely fascinating nuggets of knowledge even when you were pretending to be Alfreda, I have so many questions." She seemed to shiver with excitement.

"W w what!?" Taija finally managed to get the words out. "You drug me, shield me and then just let me go? Just like that? Why?!" She struggled to keep her voice under control.

Bennae looked confused by her question, "oh well it is quite simple. Because I like you my dear, but you really cannot lie for toffee. Now I hope you can forgive me for this little adventure," she gestured vaguely around the room, "I just had to be sure and now, well, if you should choose to take offence I am not sure there is much I could do about it once the tea wears off."

Taija was torn between collapsing into hysterical laughter and crying relief. If she wasn't so completely thrown she might be furious, as it was she found herself being swept along by Bennae, "no no… I understand the why. It's just… you're just… you're a very good liar Bennae."

She didn't really mean it as a compliment, but Bennae had the temerity to look a bit pleased with herself. "Taija dear, you are an absolute treasure, but it is a good thing you were an aes sedai in the Age of legends because you would have been eaten alive as one in this Age. You were an aes sedai weren't you?" She frowns, "oh dear, I suppose I should really be calling you Taija sedai."

Taija scowled. "Well not many of today's 'aes sedai' would have qualified in my time." She folded her arms across herself petulantly. "I wouldn't have voted for you to get the title if I was on the panel back then."

Bennae just looked at her and then laughed, "of course you would have dear, like I said, you can't lie for treacle."

Taija wanted to be offended, but Bennae's smugness was just too funny, or maybe it was just stress, either way she found herself breaking into uncontrollable giggles. "Just Taija is absolutely fine for you…"

The two of them talked a bit longer, Taija's anger forgotten, but she had too much that she needed to do.

"I'm sorry Bennae, I really was telling the truth when I said I couldn't stay. I had a message I needed to give to the Amyrlin. Well… to Siuan Sanche anyway…"

"Ah. Yes, like I said you really are in a pickle. I noticed the girls had returned, they will be seeing the Amyrlin now. No doubt to be heavily punished for running away. I assume you had something to do with that too?"

Taija shrugged, "well I brought them back. They were taken by the Black Ajah, tortured."

"Oh, my goodness. how unpleasant. I take it you dealt with them?"

"I don't think any of those individuals will be troubling anyone again." Bennae smiled at that.

"Well that is a delight to hear," Bennae stood, brushing her dress down. "Now, what about you? The old Amyrlin is gone, I don't know where."

"She's not dead? She survived?"

"Oh no. I think it would take more than a coup to kill Siuan Sanche. They do not tell the likes of me what happened, but she has gone somewhere, Elaida declared her a traitor and a darkfriend. Foolishness if you ask me, all foolishness."

Taija gave her a sideways look, "you do realise that if Elaida isn't a darkfriend herself, she's almost certainly the puppet of them. Why are you still in the Tower?"

"Well that is simple, someone has to keep an eye on the novices do they not? Anyway I am much too old to go running around outside the Tower now. I prefer to leave adventures for the young."

Taija shook her head, "I can see there's no point trying to persuade you."

She smiled sweetly, "indeed my dear. Anyway it will take a few hours for the tea to wear off. Perhaps we could have a bit more of a chat before you have to rush off? I take it you will be taking the girls with you?" Taija tried not to react, "yes of course you will. Well it is probably for the best I do not think they would enjoy their time back in the Tower. A big adventure is good for a young woman and you will look after them will you not?"

Taija nodded, somewhat lost for words.

"Oh good. Now, while I have you here…" Bennae got up and ambled over to her bookshelves. "Mmm yes, here." She pulled a large book bound in green leather out. "I have been trying to decipher this work for a long time, it is a play you see, but in the Old Tongue and the language used is terribly obscure. Now that you can stop doing such a bad job of pretending not to speak it…"

She pulled her chair beside Taija's and opened the book to a particular page, "now this passage here talks about a celebrity taking images of themselves at the beach to improve their follower count. I must confess I am stumped by what it is describing."

Resigned to her fate, Taija skimmed the passage.

"Maja poses at the beach at sunset, her boyfriend taking photographs.

Maja: Don't stop, I need to make sure I've got every angle.

Joon: But Maja, can't we just enjoy the beach, you're already a successful influencer.

Maja: My followers need…"

Taija stopped reading it with a look of disgust. For all the things to have survived… "Actually Bennae I recognise this."

She perked up, "oh really? How fascinating!"

Taija wasn't sure sure whether it waws funny or tragic, "yes it was a play about… I suppose about young people not taking society and their duty to it seriously enough. I actually saw it performed with Te… I saw it performed and it was utterly terrible. Badly written, trite and just boring."

That only seemed to make Bennae more interested, "really? Well, you must tell me more, what is a celebrity?"

Taija sighed and tried to think about how she'd explain social media and influencers to someone like Bennae.

She must have spent a few hours talking with Bennae. It was wonderful being able to be open with her, but like so many of the conversations between the two of them, it was a delightfully frustrating experience. Bennae seemed to revel in gently teasing her without ever making her feel bad. It was deeply refreshing and it was with more than a little regret that Taija found herself able to touch the Power again and say she had to be leaving.

Sadness briefly washed across Bennae's normally cheerful face too, "yes I know dear. You've got things to be doing and so have I. I expect the girls will be in the kitchens scrubbing pots already. They will probably be publicly birched tomorrow, so I suppose you had better go and get them."

Taija reapplied her webs of illusion and got up from your chair at the same as Bennae did. She paused and then impulsively gave her a tight hug. Bennae gently rubbed her back, "life can be difficult for all of us my dear, but you are a talented woman. Things will get better, you will find happiness again. You must come and visit me, but for now shoo, off you go!" She gently hustled Taija out of her room.

=====

Taija's spirit felt a little lighter as she walked away from Bennae's rooms. Who would have thought that she'd come out of being drugged and caught out by someone feeling better about the world than she had for quite a while?

Clearly her time at the Tower was over for now, and good riddance to that, but before she left she needed to collect the girls. Whether Elaida herself was Black Ajah or not, the Tower was certainly heavily under their influence.

Taija turned towards the kitchens. If they were being punished she couldn't just ask for them, she'd need a good excuse. That should be simple enough.

As she got close to the kitchens a quick look around told her she was alone and her appearance rippled into that of a woman she'd known and vaguely disliked before the War, tall and haughty, with the red dress and shawl of an aes sedai.

Putting on her most irritated look she picked out Laras, the Mistress of the Kitchens, and strode over to her, deftly avoiding scullions and labouring novices. On seeing Taija and the look on her face she dropped into a low curtsy. "Can I help you aes sedai?"

"Yes, the Amyrlin requires that the three runaways be taken to the Mistress of Novices, summon them at once." She gestured at the busy room.

A scowl crossed Laras' face at her preemptory tone, "I had understood that they were to spend the next two hours here." She added a belated, "aes sedai," when Taija scowled.

"It is not for me and certainly not for you to question the Amyrlin, unless you wish to explain the delay to her yourself?"

"No, no of course not aes sedai." She was not a submissive woman, Taija suspected that if she were actually one of the Tower's aes sedai she might have just caused herself problems. As it was, she got what she wanted. Soon the three girls were hauled up in front of her, looking both filthy and thoroughly miserable. Channeling her best 'modern' aes sedai Taija looked them over and sniffed, "come."

Without another word she turned to leave, not bothering to check they were following, kitchen staff jumping out of her way.

As soon as she was out of sight of the kitchen Taija turned down a less busy corridor and channeled, forming a gateway back to Falme. With a fizz it failed to form. Shit. The whole Tower? If Siuan was gone… One of the Forsaken?

She turned to the confused, increasingly worried looking girls.

"Right girls, it's me. We're leaving, right now. You're my servants, don't speak to anyone unless you're spoken to." She spoke quickly.

"Taija sedai? Elaida is…" Egwene gasped and then clamped her mouth shut at a stern look from Taija and nodded. Taija spun inverted flows of saidar around them and all three rippled, their faces altering and dresses changing into plain brown servants' wool. A quick knot in the webs and then she also hid their ability to channel.

"Whatever you do, let me do the talking and don't embrace the source." Again they nodded hurriedly. "Good, let's go, right now."

Taija turned on her heel and channeled again, her face and outfit rippling into what she hoped was a dark skinned, wealthy merchant's look. Then she headed for the Tower gates. The girls trailing behind her, eyes downcast. Taija wished she had something for them to carry, but it would have to do.

As it was, no one challenged her leaving the Tower. She'd have to leave the horses and her pack behind, but the risk of collecting them was too great. If Bennae was suspicious of the Lady Alfreda then no doubt other people were too.

Taija was soon striding through the streets of Tar Valon, safely out from whatever anti-Traveling wards there were in the Tower and looking for a suitable alley to duck into. There!

A few more steps and the four of them were back in Falme.

As she headed back to the palace that had been occupied by Rand and the rest after the Seanchan departed Taija saw Moiraine and a familiar face coming down the street. Because of course Siuan Sanche would have made her way there.

Chapter Text

Interlude VII - The 'Modern' World is a Lonely Place III

Taija didn't really know how the calendar these days matched up with the one she was familiar with. She didn't even know what day it would be under her own calendar if you counted forward from the day she was displaced. She'd spent too many days unconscious to have much idea and it wasn't like anyone else had much of a clue.

So she had to make her best guess. Tel's birthday had been in early November and she seemed to be firmly into autumn here, so she just chose a day and decided that was his birthday.

She was never devout or superstitious, but some things were important.

Taija chose a moment when she wasn't being pestered, when she could make a discrete exit from Falme.

Opening a gateway she stepped through to high-mountains. It was cold, freezing in fact, but she didn't really notice. Tel had loved the mountains, long hikes through them together had been... She sniffed hard and rubbed at her eyes.

Drawing on saidar Taija channeled water to clear a space in the snow on the ground before bending her web, drawing it up and into a little shelter of compressed snow and ice, creating a little alcove that protected from the biting wind. Another web, of earth this time, smoothed out the bare rock inside the shelter before she used the web to draw a shape straight into that rock, a circle with seven lines through it - the seven spoked Wheel that drove the Pattern.

She took a moment to survey her work before deciding she was satisfied with it. Then she took a candle out from the pocket of her coat. Reaching down, she carefully placed it in the middle of the wheel, where the spokes came together, and lit it with a tiny web of fire. Another moment and she knelt down on the cold stone. Her hands were trembling, but not from the cold and she forced them into stillness. She needed to be in control of herself for this.

Taija stared into the candle for a few seconds and then said the traditional, simple words spoken at the end of every funeral, her voice trembling as she struggled to get them out.

"Go peacefully into the night Tel Janin Aellinsar. May the light of the Creator bless your soul and may you soon be reborn to live again. You were loved and you will be remembered."

There was no one else there to repeat the last words as was traditional, to remember him with her. She was the only one left.

Taija knelt there, cold seeping into her for she didn't know how long, just looking into the flickering light of the candle without really seeing it. Eventually she spoke.

"I miss you Tel, I miss you so much. Everything is wrong here and I just don't know what I'm doing. I had so much more to say to you so much more to do with you…"

She trailed off, silent for a while, her body shaking with stifled sobs.

"I'm trying to live on. I know that's what you'd have wanted, but I don't know if I can do it. I love you and I can't stand it here without you. Everything I see reminds me of you or what we've lost, what was done to our world these people are living in the ruins of our dreams." Her voice cracked as she spoke, but she needed to say this to him he was the only one who'd understand.

"I worry that I'm making everything worse and sometimes they just make me so angry. I just want to burn it all down. I know I can't. I know these people need me, however ignorant, wrong, offensive they are… I know I need to go on, that I can't just leave them to their fate, but I hate it. I hate it so much."

"I know, an aes sedai never gives up," a weak smile washed over her face at an old, inside joke, quickly extinguished, "but it's so hard. I need you and all I can think about is how you must have died, alone in the War or from the madness. I might have been able to save you, but I wasn't there."

She hesitated. "I wish I'd died too." Her last words were a whisper.

Eventually Taija looked away from the candle and said it one more time, the formality of the words feeling wrong somehow. "Tel Janin Aellinsor, You were loved and you will be remembered."

She hesitated a moment longer then, shivering with the cold she hadn't noticed until then, she got up and spun a gateway back to Falme.

With Taija gone there was only a small flame left, flickering on top of the seven spoked wheel in memory of the man she loved.

Chapter Text

Chapter XXV - Calm in Falme

Taija shooed the girls away and went to meet Siuan. It made sense that she would have come to Falme, given everything, but she really wasn't looking forward to their conversation.

When Siuan saw Taija she immediately turned towards her, Moiraine in two. "Taija sedai, a word if you please?"

Taija sighed internally. "Of course Siuan sedai." The light of saidar sprung up around Siuan and she spun a ward against eavesdropping.

Siuan's first words were not what Taija had expected. "I am glad to see you are still alive and the girls are safe. When I got here and was told that you had gone to the Tower, I feared you had jumped straight from the net to the frying pan."

"Thank you for your concern Siuan sedai, but I saw what happened to Leane… I'm so sorry," Taija shook her head sadly in genuine sympathy. "What happened?"

Siuan's face hardened. "A tragedy and a crime. One which I intend to see paid for in full. We have clearly underestimated the Black Ajah and have suffered the consequences, with one of their own elevated to the Amyrlin Seat."

Taija frowned, "so you think Elaida is actually black?"

"If she is not then she is certainly their puppet." Siuan shook her head, "to think, the Tower stood united for centuries and now it has split, under my leadership."

"It's not your fault Siuan sedai," Taija tentatively placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. She must have been suffering as she didn't brush it off, but Taija could feel her tension under it, "if the Shadow was incompetent then it would have been defeated long ago. Even with all of the knowledge we had in my time, darkfriends were able to betray the Light again and again. However, many we caught, there were always more…" Taija stared into the distance for a second before catching herself with a shake. Siuan wasn't her favourite woman, but she couldn't have been in a good place right then and Taija really couldn't see that she'd done anything wrong. "What happened?" She asked again.

"When a ship runs aground, the captain must take responsibility…" Siuan looked down at the ground, before visibly pulling herself together. "I am not sure how the Black Ajah learned of our activities, but something must have given them warning. The day after you left for Falme Javindhra and Duhara both vanished. Of course I set some of the sisters to looking for them, but I already suspected that the Black Ajah was aware of our activities."

She paused and took a deep breath. "I was reading reports the next day, alone in my office and I heard the bell that told me a channeler had crossed the wards outside. I had not been expecting visitors, but I am a busy woman, people regularly come to interrupt me, it is one of the less attractive aspects of being the Amyrlin."

Taija nodded and Siuan continued after a pause. "That would not have been significant except the bell chimed many times, more than six before I lost count. That was unusual. Thank the Light I had been paranoid."

A brief hint of irritation flashed across her face, "I had been thinking about how you beat Moiraine and me in Falme. I know you are strong, but I also know everyone has limits and you seemed to channel while shielded, it was not possible. It took me much longer than it should have, and learning to invert weaves from you, but I think you may have warded the room before we were ever in it."

Taija did her best to keep her face blank, giving Siuan the blandest look she could.

"Hmm, no matter, regardless it saved my life. I still cannot work out how you triggered the wards while shielded, but nevertheless I had prepared my office and the corridor outside it in case the Black Ajah came for me. They thought they had me trussed up, but they found a lionfish in their nets." A brief look of despair crossed her face before she brought it back to its normal composure. "I felt Alric die right then. I was reeling from the shock, but I knew I had to act. I threw open the door with a weave of air and as soon as I saw Elaida and the sisters with her in the corridor I activated the wards."

"I can only hope I did not kill any innocent sisters although certainly any who were there were aiding the Black Ajah whether wittingly or unwittingly," her face promised revenge, "but when the corridor exploded into fire there were certainly injuries if not deaths. While they were gathering themselves I Traveled out to the Tower grounds to rally the other aes sedai against this coup."

Her posture slumping a little, Siuan continued, "I think I would even have succeeded if not for one thing. I found Anaiya and Maigan and set them to finding every sister they could and warning them of what was happening. Then I was attacked by a pair of sisters, I do not know if they were Black Ajah or mere tools, but they named me darkfriend. I was able to hold them off, but together they were gradually overwhelming me. I was losing, but then Leane appeared, I do not know where from, and added her strength to mine."

"Another sister joined our attackers, but we were able to defeat one of them. Leane burnt her to cinders while I held off the other two. A second sister joined us and it was clear we were going to win this battle and then I would rally the loyal sisters and cleanse the Tower of its infestation. I was thinking that the Black Ajah had just made their greatest mistake. Revealing themselves, but failing to successfully wield the knife. Then, she arrived." Siuan tensed up under Taija's hand again. "A woman of monstrous power joined the battle, if I had not known better, I would have thought it was you. I know appearances mean little, but she must have been one of the Forsaken. Like you she hid her strength, but she was clearly far stronger than any of us."

"By then we had three other sisters on our side and two of them just… burst. Leane flung herself forward throwing every ounce of saidar she could at that woman and told me to run, to preserve the Tower, to guide the Dragon. A second later the light of saidar winked out around Leane, the woman shielded her, just like it was nothing and I ran. The White Tower needed to survive, the Black Ajah could not be allowed to control it. The world depends on it, but Light help me I still ran."

"You did what you had to do," Taija knew words weren't enough, she'd seen it too many times during the War, had it said to her enough too. "You could never have fought one of the Forsaken head on. The important thing is that you're alive, Leane's sacrifice wasn't wasted and the Black Ajah still have opposition. Better to survive to fight again than to spend your life for nothing. Elaida's time will come."

Siuan's face could have been carved from stone. "Yes, they will find there are rocks beneath the waves. I have been gathering loyal sisters, they are few for now, but Elaida cannot be allowed to control the Tower." She paused, "I should warn you, as they captured Leane, they no doubt know about you. She is a strong woman, but they would be able to make anyone talk eventually."

Taija winced at the thought, poor Leane… "I'd realised… if we're lucky Elaida may not believe everything she hears, but it will no doubt get back to whichever of the Forsaken is working with the Black Ajah and I think we'd be extremely lucky if she didn't believe it. Especially after Falme," Taija glanced at the battered buildings surrounding her. "It was inevitable really and I never did like hiding."

Before Siuan turned to leave, another thought occurred to Taija. "Siuan sedai… What about the binding… umm oath rod. Do you have that?"

Despite her face, Siuan seemed to age when Taija asked her that. "No Taija sedai, the oath rod remains in the Tower, so without it we are still vulnerable to the Black Ajah."

======

Taija found Rand the next day, he was still limping around, but looking much better.

"How are you feeling?" She was concerned about him, with the Power for healing, even this time's crude version, he should have been looking much better by then.

"It still hurts some," she could tell by the way he moved, "the wound the Dark One…" he saw the look she gave him, "fine, Ishamael, gave me just won't heal properly, despite whatever Moiraine does, she even linked with that aes sedai damane Ryma and they couldn't do much more."

"I'm sorry Rand," Taija murmured. She'd already had a summary of what had happened at the battle before she left for the White Tower, but the damage done to him was shocking.

A passing soldier gave him a bow, "my Lord Dragon."

Taija raised her eyebrows at him and Rand scowled. "Moiraine told me, the battle with Ishamael was as prophesised, thousands maybe tens of thousands saw it." He concentrated and recited:

"Twice and twice shall he be marked,
twice to live, and twice to die.
Once the heron, to set his path.
Twice the heron, to name him true.
Once the Dragon, for remembrance lost.
Twice the Dragon, for the price he must pay.
Five ride forth, and four return.
Above the Watchers Over the Waves shall he proclaim himself,
bannered 'cross the sky in fire."

With a grimace he showed her his palms, both now marked with herons. "No dragons yet I suppose…"

"Well…" Taija was a little lost for words. "It could be a mistake. It could be a coincidence. It could be manipulation from someone. I don't know… It may also be that this talk of the prophecies of the Dragon is true. You know what I think of prophecy, but… if the evidence starts to mount then there's something going on."

Her answer didn't seem to reassure Rand all that much. "So you think I should be acting like I am the Dragon?"

"No!" She shook her head. "I think you should be ready for the possibility. How do I think you should act… I don't want to tell you what to do, you've got Moiraine for that." That got a half amused grunt out of him. Taija pondered for a few seconds. "I think you should think like an aes sedai."

"Act like Moiraine you mean?" She could tell Rand's annoyed by the idea.

Taija gave him a disappointed look, "act like a real aes sedai. Not one of this time's…" she restrained herself and chose a more moderate word, "interpretation of the idea. Being aes sedai means being a servant of all, serving the people. It also means balance. You're not a slave, you have your life to live too. You can, no must, think for yourself. You must also accept that you're one of the people, not above them, not separate from them." She thought for a moment, "I suppose what it really boils down to is always working to build a better world. That's the basic philosophy of being aes sedai."

She could tell that the idea at least appealed more to Rand than imitating Moiraine. "You knew the Dragon didn't you? Back in your time? You've mentioned him before, but you always seemed a little reluctant to talk about him."

"Not about him as such… I don't know," Taija shrugged staring into the distance. "It can be painful talking about my time. There are so many things that are gone, people that I've lost. They were bad times at the end, but still…" This really wasn't what Rand wanted or needed to hear. Taija pulled herself together with an effort, forcing more cheer into her voice. "Yes, I knew Lews Therin, probably the most respected man in the world. He was an incredibly talented man, unmatched in his abilities." Rand looked intrigued, "he was also a flawed man. You people have your stories about him being a kinslayer and bringing the madness. I don't mean that."

She stopped to think about the best way to put this to Rand, she didn't want him to start feeling he needed to live up to some mythological ideal, but equally she didn't want to depress him even more or talk down someone that was, at the end of the day, a hero. "He always did what he thought was right and he almost always succeeded in it. There's no doubt that he was a great man and that's why he's remembered. But… he sometimes lost touch with… with the 'little people'. I never knew him well, we only met a few times, but I remember the epic arguments between him and T… that he had when people disagreed with him. He was never malicious, a truly good man, but I do wonder sometimes whether if he'd been a bit… kinder… would things have been the same as they were? Barid Bel? Duram Laddel? Maybe even Mierin Eronaile…" Including that last name pained her, but she did wonder, it was after the wedding that she'd truly started to go bad.

"Who were they?" Rand asked with confusion and Taija realised she'd sunk into reminiscence again.

"Sorry… I have too many memories sometimes. Look, the key thing I want you to remember is that you're not Lews Therin. Reborn or not. You're Rand al'Thor and every choice you make is your own. Remember that Dragon Reborn or not, you need friends. Lews Therin was a great man, maybe you can be a better one."

Rand was silent for a while and then asked, "but the Dragon was an aes sedai wasn't he?"

"Well yes, obviously." Taija wasn't sure where he was going with the question.

He nodded to himself, apparently satisfied, "alright, thank you Taija sedai, I appreciate it."

"Just Taija, the title's only for formal occasions and people I need to make a point to."

Both their appetites for conversation seemed to have dried up after that and they soon headed their separate ways.

======

A day later Taija was summoned by a servant to see Moiraine and Siuan. She'd thought Siuan had left, but it seemed she was back again already. With Traveling it wouldn't be that big a deal for her to bouncing around, she'd hardly have thought anything of it in her own time after all. She'd loved living in Jalanda, but if she'd wanted there'd have been little to stop her from commuting halfway across the planet.

Siuan and Moiraine both greeted her with expressionless looks, but Moiraine took the lead. "Taija sedai, are you aware of young Mat's condition?"

Taija shrugged, "I know he's not well, something about a cursed dagger, an item of the Shadow? I'd thought you were going to cure him of it."

"Not of the Shadow, but similar." Moiraine's face was as composed as ever, but Taija thought she couldn detect a hint of worry in her voice. "I had tried, with the Amyrlin, but we do not have sufficient strength, he is too far gone."

Siuan interjected, "he is clearly important as the sounder of the Horn," Taija was still sceptical about the story of ancient heroes being summoned by it, maybe constructs of some kind if it was a ter'angreal? "Also young Rand has made his feelings on the matter clear, so it seems we must ask for your help."

Taija held up her hands, "I'd love to help, I can't say I know Mat very well, but that's nothing to do with it. The problem is I just don't have much talent with healing, I've seen Moiraine heal, she's far better than I am."

Taija wasn't sure if there was the ghost of a smirk on Siuan's face at her admission. "We feared you might say that, but we had not been thinking in those terms. Even with your angreal I doubt you have much more strength than the two of us combined using Moiraine's angreal." She paused and Taija carefully didn't fill the silence, she liked keeping a bit of ambiguity about her strength.

When Taija didn't confirm or deny it Siuan continued, "we would ask you to link with us, to lend strength to Moiraine as she melds the flows."

Taija didn't hesitate, "absolutely not, find someone else." There was no way that she was giving Moiraine or Siuan control over her like that. There were ways of course, but breaking a link once you were in it was not an easy process if the leader didn't want to release you.

"There is no one else Taija sedai." Siuan glanced at Moiraine, "we will bring the girls into the link as well, Ryma too and some of the freed damane, but I think without your strength it will be insufficient."

Taija shook her head in denial, she really really don't want to do this. The risk of giving them control, having them share her head however briefly, both ideas repulsed her. For a brief moment she seriously considered just letting Mat die, she didn't really know him.

But that wasn't the person she wanted to be and he was Rand's friend. "Do you swear that you don't think it can be done without me?"

Siuan nodded, "you have my word."

Moiraine then followed up, "you know we are bound by the three oaths. In the hope that it will persuade you, I swear on the Light and my hope of rebirth that I will release you from the link immediately upon the healing being completed or upon your request." She had clearly been thinking about it, anticipating Taija's response.

Taija was not actually completely sure that they were bound by the three oaths. Siuan had had a lot of time with the binding rod, even if she did lose it during the coup. Taija knew she'd have made some changes to what was binding her if she'd been in Siuan's shoes, but then she'd never have done something so stupid as to voluntarily bind herself. She hadn't seen Moiraine swear with it at all, but at least she was fairly sure she wasn't a darkfriend.

After a moment of mental examination for loopholes in the oath, Taija slowly nodded. "I suppose I can accept that, but I also want your word that you will not pass control of the link to anyone else…"

Rand had better be grateful for her agreeing to this! Not that she'd ever tell him how much it bothered her, the poor boy had enough burdens.

Moiraine didn't hesitate to agree to Taija's additional promise, which was at least reassuring.

Once Taija had agreed, it didn't take long to get everyone assembled. She quickly realised they were all essentially waiting for her, presumably Siuan realised she'd be the most difficult.

Trying not to look too unhappy about it Taija joined the circle of women surrounding Mat's bed, sparing a nod for the three girls. He lay there, eyes closed, his fist gripping a ruby hilted dagger tightly to his chest. She could almost taste the miasma of filth surrounding it and him. Moiraine had said it wasn't related to the Shadow, but it certainly felt similar.

Taija had always hated being in links, unless she was leading them. Sometimes it was necessary for professional reasons, but she generally did her best to avoid it. The intrusion of feeling all of the other men and women in the link was more than bad enough, but it was the control it gave people over her that made truly, deeply uncomfortable. Especially when she'd been younger… A young woman with her strength was an attractive part of any link and there'd been that one incident in the early days of the Collapse…

It had been better once she was more experienced. After that she was always the one leading the link when one was needed and most of the time she'd had enough strength to do things without links. The only person she ever really felt comfortable linking with was Tel and well, he wasn't here.

Resisting the urge to clutch at her coat, Taija placed herself just on the edge of embracing saidar. At least people seemed too nervous around her to comment on her choice to wear "men's" clothes instead of dresses, now that she was back in Falme.

Gradually the light of saidar moved round the circle of women, merging together into one bright glow as Moiraine brought them into the circle one by one. She left Taija for last and she had a moment where she had to desperately resist the urge to fight before she was drawn in and lost control.

The whole room was suffused in the glow of saidar, weak around some and bright around others, very bright around Moiraine with her angreal. Of course even if Taija could see herself, she wouldn't have been glowing given the inverted webs over her.

"Let us begin," said Moiraine.

Despite her discomfort when she felt saidar being drawn through her, Taija watched Moiraine intently as she started to spin her web. It was simple on the surface, primarily spirit, but with water and air mixed into it. However, the more Taija looked, the more intricacies she saw. She had no real talent for healing, but she could still analyse it alongside admiring the way Moiraine spun the web covering young Mat and the dagger in a complex interweaving of bright threads.

Then Moiraine began the real work, drawing hard on the Power through everyone in the circle. Fine threads become wrist-thick, shining, dense flows and the dagger started to pull away from Mat, his hand still clutched around it.

Moiraine was drawing a gigantic amount of saidar. A full circle of thirteen with Taija in it and a number of other women of not insignificant strength. She could shatter a city with that. The girls looked halfway between fascination and ecstasy.

A low groan from Mat slowly turned into a full on scream as the Power pulled his fingers off the dagger one by one. As the last one came off it, his shriek reached a crescendo before he suddenly went limp.

Everything moved fast after that, Moiraine deposited the dagger in a lead lined box that she'd procured from somewhere and then ran an over-powered healing web through Mat, leaving him spasming and shivering.

A second later the light of saidar winked out from around the other women and Taija felt herself released from the link. She slumped unrealised tension released from her body.

=====

Taija spent some of her time in Falme continuing her lessons with the girls. Egwene's strength had leapt forward during her time with the Seanchan. It seemed that they were forcing it, ignorant or perhaps uncaring the dangers. The White Tower taught more slowly than safety really demanded, but there were limits. Probably the least of their crimes. Elayne was developing well too, but was still some way behind given how she'd spent the last couple of months hiding her channeling.

Both girls threw themselves into the time Taija spent with them with a fierce determination. Her instincts told her to keep the pace slow, have them working on all of the little things that she'd expect any properly educated channeler to know and understand, but the girls begged her to teach them more. She knew they were grasping for control in any way they could after the experience of Falme, but she didn't give in immediately.

In hindsight, Taija wasn't too surprised when Nynaeve also appeared with them on the second day, asking respectfully to join their lessons.

Nynaeve was a very different kettle of fish to the girls. A fish analogy, was Siuan getting to her? Older, quieter and much less willing to submit herself to Taija's authority during the lessons.

"I simply don't see the point of us spending time on this Taija," she gave Nynaeve a look and the woman belatedly added, "sedai. We need to learn useful weaves, not be doing novice exercises all the time."

Taija resisted the urge to tell her she was welcome to leave if she didn't like what she had to teach. Nynaeve had a way of getting under her skin a bit, but the poor woman was trying to process having her life turned upside down, starting with her being dragged out of her comfortable village life and culminating in two weeks of torture.

"No Nynaeve, you need to do this because it's the foundation of so many aspects of channeling. Just because you've been taught inadequately by the 'aes sedai' in the White Tower doesn't mean that I will ignore it."

Nynaeve changed track suddenly, "why do you always sound so…" she groped for a word, "dismissive when you talk about aes sedai. You are one aren't you?"

Damn. Taija hadn't mean to show her feelings so clearly. No wonder Bennae said she was a terrible liar. "The aes sedai," she was careful to moderate her tone this time, "are dedicated servants of the Light who work very hard for it. On the whole." She belatedly added the caveat.

The look Nynaeve gave her told Taija she was unconvinced.

A couple of days later when she had the three of them in front of her, Taija decided that Nynaeve did have something of a point and she'd also had enough of the girls' nagging.

They could always work on their fine control of the Power and she was sceptical about teaching some things to them at all, particularly Egwene and Elayne given their age.

However, Taija could admit that if they'd known how to Travel all kinds of problems would have been solved much more easily. Of course others might have been caused. If Egwene or Nynaeve had been able to teach the Seanchan how to Travel it would have potentially been a big problem…

Regardless, she'd made her decision.

"Girls, today we're going to be studying something new." They perked up at that, although not quite as much as Taija had expected. She'd noticed they'd been whispering together a lot recently and were right before she'd arrived too and now they seemed distracted. "I'm going to need you to promise me you won't teach this to anyone else without my permission. It's both dangerous and a huge advantage while the knowledge hasn't spread."

She got a series of nods and continued, after pausing for dramatic effect. "Very well, today you are going to start to learn how to Travel."

=====

Nynaeve heard the other two girls gasps and only maintained her own dignity by resisting the urge to join them. If only she'd had the same ability as Taija. Been able to just step through holes in the air, so many things could have been avoided…

The way that Taija just casually used gateways was fascinating, her tendency to always invert the wea… webs on the other hand was deeply irritating.

Normally Nynaeve could pick things up after seeing them even just once, but that woman kept her secrets closer to her than a newborn with its mother. If she never even saw the threads then how could she copy them!

"The first thing we will discuss is safety, this is dangerous and if you don't treat it with the respect that it deserves then I won't be teaching you anything at all." Taija had taken on what Nynaeve had come to recognise as her lecturing tone, more confident and smooth with a hint of authority running through it.

By now Nyneave had gotten used to the woman's odd accent, words and syllables seeming to be clipped short or swallowed, emphasis on the wrong parts of words. However, Nynaeve still couldn't work out where it came from, especially combined with her strange vocabulary and use of words that Nynaeve was sure were very typically Andoran.

Elayne had also told her that the woman seemed to speak the Old Tongue whenever she was stressed, albeit with a very odd accent, which was all the stranger. Of course the daughter-heir would know that sort of thing, although she had confessed that she often found it difficult to follow what Taija was actually saying in it.

It was a conundrum and Nynaeve intended to get to the bottom of it. Egwene and Elayne seemed to accept Taija for what she was, looking up to her like lost puppies. Nynaeve on the other hand wasn't so young and naive, she knew that things weren't always what they seemed and after her time with the Seanchan she wasn't going to let herself get caught out again.

She'd spent long nights speculating with the girls, who couldn't seem to agree even between themselves.

Elayne thought that Taija was from a rival group of aes sedai somewhere else in the world. "Maybe Shara," she'd said, nodding to herself like the girl knew anything more than the rest of them about the place.

Egwene on the other hand pointed to the odd bits of knowledge that Taija had, the way she'd spoken about the Forsaken with such familiarity. She was convinced the woman was like the Heroes of the Horn. A great figure spun out from the pattern to help guide the Dragon to his ultimate victory over the Shadow.

Obviously that was ridiculous, but Nynaeve had her own suspicions. She'd watched the way the woman talked about the aes sedai of the White Tower, ranging from frosty politeness to barely veiled contempt. It was strange, suspicious even. Of course Nynaeve had her own views on those women, but she had her reasons for them and certainly wasn't going around claiming to be an aes sedai.

She'd also spoken with Rand about her concerns over Taija and he'd angrily stood up for her, saying that she hadn't done anything other than support him, unlike all the other women around him. She really didn't know what was going on with him. He'd changed since they left Emond's Field and she wasn't sure it was for the better. In the end it wasn't what was important at the moment, and regardless, he wasn't too old for her to take a switch to him if he didn't behave himself.

Whatever was going on with Rand, the way Taija spoke about aes sedai didn't quite fit. She insisted on the title and then spoke with contempt about them in the next sentence. Then there were her eyes. She seemed normal whenever you spoke to her, but when she thought no one was looking or sometimes when she spoke about certain things… Nynaeve could recognise that long, sad, empty stare into nothingness.

Finally, she mentally ticked off another point, the woman seemed to know some of the Forsaken in ways that made no sense at all. She supposed an ancient hero might have known them once, but the sadness, the deep sense of regret she sometimes exuded made no sense at all in that context.

Of course Nynaeve had her own theory. All that knowledge, all those regrets… It was said no one could walk in the Shadow so long they could not return to the Light and she suspected, or maybe feared, that that was exactly what they were seeing every day.

If that was the case though… she couldn't leave the two girls alone with Taija. It wasn't that she thought she would do anything bad to them, she'd seen what the woman had done to free Egwene, and her of course, but she could accept it was really Egwene she came for. Actually that kind of brutality was perhaps more evidence, the way Egwene said she'd just killed her sul'dam…

Nynaeve could also see through the grumpy facade to the genuine fondness Taija clearly felt for the two girls. But… they hadn't the sense of a toddler between them when it came to Taija and who knew what she might teach them or how she might influence them. No, Nynaeve wasn't worried she'd hurt them, but she still needed to keep an eye on her for their own good.

She'd asked Moiraine about Taija with gritted teeth and the woman had just given her a cool look and told her that Taija's secrets were hers to keep and to ask her if it bothered her that much.

Nynaeve had hated having to ask Moiraine for anything, but she'd needed to know so she'd even asked Moiraine directly whether Taija had once been one of the Forsaken. The woman had given her the blankest look she'd ever seen from her and then bluntly told her that she would be deeply foolish to even suggest the possibility to the woman, but to feel free to dig her own grave if she so desired.

She reached to tug her braid in frustration, only to remember it wasn't there anymore. Of course she wasn't going to get straight answers from an aes sedai, but she'd find out what was going on with Taija one way or another.

Chapter Text

Interlude VIII - The 'Modern' World is a Lonely Place IV

"For Light's sake Taija, calm down, you're past 150 not 15. Stop fretting!"

Taija shot her mother an exasperated look. "I'm not fretting! I'm just getting ready."

"You're fretting and you're over-excited." She gave Taija a look of her own as she stood there, hands on her hips, still fit despite the fact she was starting to show her age at over 200. "You've already rearranged the living room twice!" Taija hurriedly put the cushion back onto the sofa and pretended she hadn't been doing anything of the sort before her mother turned back to the kitchen, her white hair disappearing round the corner.

"Well I'm excited!" Nerina piped up. "I've seen him on TV and he looks so cool!"

Taija took the time to ruffle her long hair, she'd just dyed it blue, apparently that was what all the kids were doing these days. "And if you say that to him I will be very upset Nerina."

Her niece grinned up at her. "I know Auntie Taija, don't worry, I have to pretend I've never seen him before!"

"You know," her mother called from the kitchen, "if I like him I might get a poster of him for my bedroom to match Nerina's."

Taija made a strangled, choking sound. "Nerina, you have a poster of Tel in your bedroom?!"

However, before Taija could get an answer a loud chime sounded through the apartment. She started towards the door, but Nerina was faster, already moving, racing ahead of Taija and dodging her attempt at grabbing her. "I'll get it!"

"Shit." Taija muttered to herself, before pursuing her niece at an only slightly slower pace.

By the time she reached the door, Nerina already had it open, "hello are you Taija's boyfriend? I'm not allowed to recognise you."

With a muttered curse Taija grabbed Nerina and lifted her away, "go help mum." For a moment she looked she might protest and then she dashed back towards the kitchen leaving Taija to nervously smile up at Tel. "Hello. I'm so sorry, she's just over-excited!"

Tel looked as good as ever, smart trousers and white shirt that she was quite sure was more fashionable than anything she'd ever wear, accentuating his ruggedly good looks. He gave her an amused smile, before leaning in to kiss her and wrapping her in a tight hug. "Hello to you too."

A moment later Taija remembered herself and pulled away, "come in, come in, and close the door behind you. You'll let mosquitos in and I haven't fixed the anti-bug wards yet. Mum's just in the kitchen, try not to let Nerina bother you. I think she must have been eating sugar all morning or something." She shrugged slightly embarrassedly.

Tel just laughed, "she's adorable, don't worry. Here, hold this for a second," he passed Taija the bag he'd been carrying and started unlacing his boots.

Unable to resist, Taija poked her nose into the bag to find a bunch of flowers, a box of chocolate from a Paraan Disen shop she vaguely recognised as being far too expensive and a bottle of wine. "Ooo are the flowers for me? And the chocolate?"

Tel gave her a look as he pulled off his boots, "you know perfectly well they're not."

"Hmph. House slippers are there," she pointed at a rack. "Come on!"

With a good natured grumble Tel slid his feet into the slippers and took the bag back from Taija, letting her half-lead, half-drag him to the kitchen.

"Mum, this is Tel," Taija caught herself. "My boyfriend, Tel Janin Aellinsar of Paaran Disen."

Tel gave her mother a smile and a low, formal bow appropriate for an honoured elder. "It's a pleasure and an honour to finally meet Taija's mother."

Her mother giggled, actually giggled! She was over 200 for Light's sake! Then gave Tel a bow of her own, much more casual in style than Tel's. "Araevea Kosola, so you're the one who's finally managed to catch young Professor Kosola's eye. It's a delight to finally meet you. Nerina and I are very excited, you know it's been nearly fifty years since she brought someone back here."

"Mum!" Her mother ignored the warning note in her voice and gave Tel an appraising look.

"And you're just as handsome as she said you are. I don't know why she's been hiding you from us for the last two years!"

"Mum!" Taija interspersed herself between them, very deliberately not catching Tel's amused eyes. "You've already met Nerina of course."

Tel grinned at her niece, "of course." He gave her a low bow, even lower than he'd given her mother. "I've heard you're the one that's really in charge here."

Nerina just giggled and looked at the floor, suddenly shy until she remembered her manners and returned Tel's bow with one of her own. "I'm Nerina Kosola."

A moment later Taija's mother was bustling around them. "Come along, make yourselves comfortable. Dinner will be ready soon. Can I get you a drink Tel Janin? Wine? Beer? Some water?"

"Please, call me Tel. Oh!" For a second his smooth composure was broken as he remembered the bag in his hands. "I brought these for you. Thank you for having me here.." Tel pulled out the flowers, chocolate and bottle of wine, handing them to her mother with a small bow.

"Oh, thank you! How lovely. I'll go get a vase."

Taija's mother hustled off, so Taija led him to the living room. "Here we are, it's a little small, but…" It was even smaller than her own apartment in Jalanda in fact. She channeled a flow of air to flick a light switch and the room was bathed in warm light from the lamps Taija had bought her family last year. "It's still home for me."

"It's lovely Taija and I'm excited to be seeing where you grew up. Now stop fretting and sit down." Tel plonked himself onto the sofa and pulled her down next to him. Nerina found her own seat in one of the two armchairs and sat, staring intently at Tel for a few seconds.

Taija was about to tell her stop it when she blurted out, "I saw you on the TV, Tel!"

"Oh really?" Tel sounded amused, even as Taija hid her face in her hands.

"Yes, you were awesome, can you teach me to swordfight like that?"

"Nerina…" the warning tone in Taija's voice was ruined by Tel's chuckle.

"Of course I can, but where's your sword?"

"Just a sec!" Nerina was already off running as Taija looked at Tel.

"You do realise she's going to be trying to ambush you with a tube of rolled up cupboard for the rest of evening right?"

He shrugged, "well it'll be good training for me, right? Always on my toes!"

"Idiot," Taija leant into him and relaxed under his arm as her mother bustled back in with some nibbles on a tray.

======

That night, they were curled up in bed together, enjoying the warm afterglow. After all, thin walls really weren't a problem when you could spin wards against sound. Tel's warm body was wrapped around Taija's, spooning her as he whispered, "so do you think they liked me?"

Taija snorted, "of course they did. They loved you. You really know how to lay on the charm." She squirmed a little against him. "I hope they weren't too annoying for you and I know it's not the kind of place you're used to, but…"

He gave her a squeeze. "Stop it. Everything's lovely and I'm having a great time. Your mother's charming, she made me feel incredibly welcome, like I was part of the family, and Nerina's just adorable even if she can be vicious with that 'sword'. As for the rest, stop worrying that I'm suddenly going to turn into some kind of snob. I'm just disappointed you didn't bring me here sooner."

Taija made a vaguely happy sounding noise. "Thank you sweetheart."

Chapter Text

Chapter XXVI - You were Loved and You Will be Remembered

Taija actually found herself relaxing a bit more as she spent longer in Falme. For once she actually had some free time as teaching the girls was only taking up a few hours a day, even with her actually doing it properly rather than sneaking time after everything else. Thankfully Moiraine had stopped coming and bothering her too. She felt a bit guilty about wasting time, but she also knew deep down that she needed a break. That was why, one day, she headed out from Falme for a long, solitary hike through the hills surrounding it. They weren't mountains, but they would do for now.

Her mind kept trying to go back to all the problems she faced, but Taija didn't let it. She was going to enjoy her surroundings and pretend, even if only for a few hours, that she wasn't in this Light-forsaken time. Quiet, solitude and nature. That was what she wanted and it was what she was getting. With the most relaxed smile she'd had in a while she paused to watch a particularly brightly coloured bird stalk through the grass, looking for insects to eat.

After a few hours out in the hills Taija was actually feeing happy and relaxed. Her day was just going so well. The area around Falme really was lovely and tensions she'd forgotten she had were draining away. Even the burn in her thighs as she hauled herself up a hill reminded her of better times.

That meant that when she saw a man making his own way towards her through the long grass Taija was actually in quite a good mood. He looked a bit too well dressed for a farmer, so he must be out on a hike enjoying the scenery just like she was. Even if she'd rather have been alone, she could hardly begrudge him that.

He was unusually tall. Dark haired and handsome and holding himself in a way that suggested he knew it. Taija didn't recognise him from Falme, although she couldn't see where else he might have come from. Either way, he hailed her with a wave and a hearty "hallo" and when he got closer and Taija reluctantly waved back.

It didn't take long for his course to intersect with hers and when it did, he gave her a once over that made her feel a bit uncomfortable. "A fine day for a walk, but it's certainly unusual to see a lady such as yourself out alone. This area has been so troubled recently, where do you hale from my lady?" His voice was cheerful, seeming to revel in the joy of meeting someone new.

"I'm coming from Falme," Taija replied, ever so slightly frostily. She didn't want to give him any ideas. "I'm just out to enjoy a beautiful day, like you?"

"Of course, beautiful isn't it? I do love this area." He grinned, but there was something just slightly off about him. "Tell me, does this beautiful lady have a name?"

"You can call me Naiza," it was the first name that sprang to mind, "and you?"

"Call me Jaen." Taija had embraced saidar when she first saw him, of course, her ability concealed by the ever present inverted web.

"Pleased to meet you," she lied.

"So have you been in the area long, I of course grew up…" Taija felt nothing, but something slammed into her connection with the Power. He was trying to shield her!

Taija didn't let her shock slow her down, she was already leaping away from him and spinning. He was a big man, staying in his reach would be a huge mistake.

Webs sprang into existence around her, fire burning at him, air slicing from the sides and a shield of her own battering at his connection to the Power. All were deflected, batted away like nothing.

Other than a small, satisfied smile, like he knew something she didn't, he barely reacted. He must have been strong, very strong, but she didn't recognise him. One of the Forsaken in disguise? It must be. That or maybe it was what Sammael really looked like, she'd never met the man after all.

It didn't matter, Taija could worry about the who later. For now, she had plenty of strength herself. With her angreal she'd be no easy prey for any of them. Taija spun all five elements together into a beautifully intricate and deadly web around him.

=====

Taija must have been fighting hard for at least twenty minutes. The hills around her were covered in scars, or in one or two cases were much shorter than they before. She could feel the strain, but she wasn't slowing down. Neither was he.

Diving to the side she spun, one, two, three, four webs sending shrieking tunnels fire spiraling outwards towards him, but he was already stepping through a gateway. It was like an almost forgotten dance. He'd step out over there and…

She was already moving, drawing fully through her angreal bringing lightning down from the sky. She didn't bother to invert her webs, he wouldn't be able to see them anyway. The lightning crashed into a shield above him with blinding flashes and she used the opportunity to dive through her own gateway spinning as she went. A web came together above her and hundreds of darts of air and fire slammed into the ground around him, covering it in a roiling wave fire. A big, dramatic web of earth and fire flew back through her gateway, but her real attacks came from a third, opened to her side, a bright bar of white hot fire blasting at him from an unexpected angle.

Taija winced when her cut flows snapped back into her, but there was no time to delay. There was no doubt now, the man was clearly one of the Forsaken. He was too strong and too skilled not to be. If not for her angreal, she would already have lost. He was strong, very strong and seemed to have an uncanny ability to see her best tricks coming, everything was anticipated and deflected. It was lucky she was so fast and had been able to hold him off in turn.

Taija spun a defensive sphere, feeling herself go flying inside it as her vision whited out. She was already spinning. Without thinking she deflected the lightning that struck from above her and sliced the web looping round behind her. If she was right he'd be stepping out of a gateway about.... There.

Drawing hard on saidar Taija spun a gateway between her and where she suspected his next web would be coming from. His fire slashed through the gateway and back at him from behind even as Taija opened another two, sending fire through them and bringing a hammer of air down on him from above.

Only he'd opened his own gateway sending his attack back at her again. She dived aside, slicing and spinning webs as she went. She couldn't touch him, everything she did he seemed to anticipate. Equally her own skill meant he couldn't seem to land a blow on her either. They seemed to be evenly matched, so far she'd managed to dodge, slice, deflect or block everything he'd sent at her.

Beams of fire bisected where she stood, diverted by several of his gateways, but she'd already Traveled forming a trio of blossoms of fire around him. Without thinking Taija dived through another gateway just before the earth exploded where she was standing, was that frustration on his face? Perhaps he was struggling more than she'd thought.

Taija flung webs of air at his feet and spun earth, fire, spirit into a blinding flash that should blind him so that her next web, more darts of fire and air could slip through his defenses. Yet he shielded his eyes at just the right moment. How was he doing this?!

Absently she sliced more of his invisible webs coming at her from both front and back. Next would likely be lightning, a barrier of air above her blocked that. She needed to change the dynamic, fast. Taija drew all that she could from saidar and started to spin her webs.

White hot fire exploded swirling through the air around him and she was already flinging lightning and blades of air in a full on frontal attack. No subtlety Something she'd never normally do, but she had an angreal and she wanted to get a bit closer.

Stalking forward she kept up her onslaught. It seemed to have caught him by surprise at first, he was all frantic defence, cutting webs and diving aside from attacks. Then he Traveled and Taija opened her own gateway.

Yes! She had guessed right, stepping out behind him. Taija wasn't hesitating in her onslaught. She'd got him on the back foot, but he still seemed to have an uncanny ability to tell where the next attack was coming from. Now she was close enough though. She was hitting him with almost everything she had, but biting her lip with concentration, Taija spun one extra tiny web of razor sharp fire and spirit and slipped it through the storm of light and Power between them.

A quick cut and his appearance rippled. She'd been right, he was in disguise!

"That won't save you!" His tone was grim determination and he launched his own onslaught. Taija was immediately on the backfoot, blinded by the explosions around her, slicing webs, deflecting beams of fire and simply stopping other attacks dead with walls of saidar. She could feel herself tiring, she wasn't built for going head to head with someone like him.

If she couldn't fight toe to toe she needed to move. Taija spun a gateway, still furiously fending off his webs and stepped through it, giving herself distance and moving off to his left. Already she was spinning her own attacks as he turned to face her.

Intricate webs of earth, water and fire circled around a core of spirit formed. Then. for the first time, Taija really saw his face and the webs were gone fading into the air around her. "Tel?" Her voice was a whisper.

Taija stared, stunned beyond speech, almost beyond thought. Saidar almost slipped away from her, the flow reduced from a torrent to a trickle. Louder she shouted, "Tel?" She took a hesitant step forward.

It was him, but it couldn't be him. It made no sense. It was like she was in a dream, everything seemed to be in slow motion. He'd got a scar across his face, but it was a face that was etched into Taija's mind, one she saw every night as she closed her eyes to sleep.

Taija felt a shield push between her and her trickling connection to the Power, she tried to draw harder on it, but it was too late. With a deadly finality the shield slid into place, cutting her off.

She didn't understand, it couldn't be someone else, but he couldn't be there. He'd been dead for millennia. He was gone. She broke his illusion though, it couldn't be a web.

He looked furious, stalking towards her. Cold eyes looking down at Taija as she stared up at him, desperately trying to hold the tears in.

An invisible fist closed around her and Taija felt yourself be lifted into the air. "Did you really think you could fool me? With this?" He gestured angrily in her direction.

The web of air lifting her was painful, but not as painful as contempt in his voice. And it was definitely his voice. "Tel, please! It's me!"

"Stop! Stop using her voice! Stop calling me that!" Rage twisted his horribly scarred face, then he smiled cruelly. "Let's see who you really are."

There was a pause and nothing happened. "Tel, it's me," she said, her voice breaking.

At his name he looked even angrier. He paused again, Taija was fairly sure he was trying to slice any web of illusion over her.

Confusion was replacing anger on his face. "Taija? You can't be. You're dead." The web of air lowered her to the ground but still held her. "It can't be, you can't be alive. You died in… You died…"

Hope blossomed in Taija's heart. If she survived, maybe he did too. Maybe he'd found a way! Maybe she wasn't, didn't have to be, alone after all! "It's me Tel, it really is me." She thought for a second. "The last night we spent together. I asked you to marry me. No, I told you I was going to marry you. No one else knows that. How could they?"

"Oh Lord it is you. How though? How are you alive? It's been 3,000 years and you're not…" Tel looked utterly stunned.

"A stasis box! There was one in the town hall, something happened and I'm here! I've been… it's been so difficult…" she tried to hold herself together she didn't want to ruin this… this miracle by breaking down, but tears were already flowing down her cheeks. "I thought you were dead. I I I just… how about you, what happened to you? Was it a stasis box too?" Taija barely noticed that the shield and web of air around her were still there.

The confusion slowly faded from his face and a little spark of fear ignited inside her. "You have to understand Taija, after you died…" There was none of the gentleness she remembered in his voice. "Lews Therin, the War… They just wouldn't work together. After you died nothing was the same and we were losing, oh Lord we were losing."

"Tel, I don't understand, what do you mean?" No. No no no no.

He trailed to a halt, shaking his head despair warring with anger on his face. "Taija, I…" He stopped and suddenly a gateway sprang open beside him.

A step and he was gone. As the gateway closed the webs shielding and holding Taija faded and she sunk to her knees staring at the burnt ground, mind completely numb.

Taija didn't know how long she'd have stayed there, on her knees, if she hadn't heard the mocking applause start from behind her.

"Well that was utterly delightful, I must say!"

She looked up through watery eyes to see the person she least wanted to see at that moment, "Mierin?"

She smiled at Taija, coming to stand next to her, an ostensibly comforting hand on her shoulder. "That must have been quite difficult for you, and dear Tel of course, but I did not quite get everything I wanted from it."

Taija gathered herself, preparing to strike. She was tired, but she had an angreal, Mierin might not know about it.

Mierin gave Taija's shoulder a little squeeze, "he can be quite an annoying man sometimes, but you know I've spent a lot more time with Tel than you have recently." Taija franticly shook her head in denial. "Of course we don't call him that anymore."

"No," she begged, already knowing. "Please!"

Mierin squeezed her shoulder again a happy almost giggle in her voice, "now we call him Sammael."

With a scream of rage Taija drew every ounce of Power that she could, if not for the angreal's buffer she'd have burnt herself out in a flash, the air around her transforming to blinding, white-hot fire in an instant. But Mierin was already gone.

=======

Taija didn't know how long she knelt there, staring blankly at the circle of earth fused into glass around her, but eventually the silence was broken when she heard hoofbeats and voices approaching.

She couldn't talk to anyone. She couldn't deal with this. Taija got to her feet, briefly meeting Moiraine and Aleksi's eyes as they rode towards her at a canter at the head of a large group. With a thought she bent reality into a gateway and stepped out into forest, vaguely remembered from her first weeks in this nightmareish time. Uninhabited. Far from any village.

Anger, despair, frustration, misery, rage were tumbling through her, an uncontrollable mass of feelings that overwhelmed her, yet couldn't even start to fill the hole inside her. She needed to let it out, she wanted the world to be gone, to punish it for what it had done to her.

Saidar flooded through Taija and straight out again. She didn't bother with complex webs, just simple devastation blasting outwards. Trees flashed into roaring infernos. blades of air sliced through metre thick trunks like they weren't even there. The very ground rose up to swallow and crush centuries old trees.

Taija let her absolute incandescent fury at the world out in a paroxysm of unrestrained destruction.

It didn't last forever, channeling that amount of the Power was exhausting and after a while the rage she was blasting out of her was overwhelmed by the despair that stayed sitting in her belly. As the webs faded away Taija was panting for breath and her throat felt raw from screaming.

Looking around her, all there was as far as the eye could see was destruction. Not a tree was left standing. In some places fire still burnt, but other than the crackles of the flames the only thing Taija could hear was the harsh sound of her own breath.

Anger drained away. She needed to get out of there. She needed to get out of this Light-forsaken time. Why couldn't she be home? Curled in a ball in Te... She choked off a sob. All she wanted to do was to forget and never have to think again.

Taija spun saidar and the gateway opened in front of her. A second later she was stepping out into Falme.

She walked numbly through the streets, barely noticing people snapping angrily at her when she walked straight through them.

She was in an unfamiliar part of the town when she saw what she wanted. Somewhere to help her forget.

The dingy frontage of the inn called to her and it was promising oblivion. Exactly what she needed. Taija turned into it, ignoring the growl of a roughly dressed man who almost tripped over her.

When she walked in, all conversation ceased for a few seconds. The common room's occupants were, other than a couple of serving girls showing a lot of cleavage, all roughly dressed men, many scarred, all armed. She didn't care.

Barely aware of her surroundings, Taija went up to the bar and looked at the innkeeper through bleary eyes. "Wine, just keep it coming." She put a gold crown down on the counter.

He glanced down at the coin and back at her, conscience warring with greed. "My lady, perhaps this…"

Taija put another gold coin down. "Wine."

Greed won. The innkeeper shrugged behind her, but she'd already turned to head for an empty table at the back of the room, not seeing him make the coins vanish before gesturing at one of the serving girls.

By the time Taija had sat herself down with her back to the wall the girl was already bringing her a full goblet of wine.

As soon she'd put it down on the table, Taija picked it up and downed it. It was terrible. It was what she wanted. "Another." The girl glanced at Taija and back at the innkeeper before heading to get her another.

Gradually conversation resumed across the common room. Low whispers between groups of men, glances shot her way. Confusion turning to avarice.

Taija didn't notice, staring into the distance, eyes unseeing as she tried hard not to think.

She was waiting for her third goblet when the first two men made their move. Dressed in rough, brown jerkins they stood up and swaggered over to her table, daggers on their belts and alcohol on their breath.

The larger of the two put his hands on the table and leaned over Taija while the other pulled up a seat at the table beside her. Slowly she looked up to meet the eyes of the man looming over her.

He was a tall man, his lip curled back by a scar from a knife fight, dirty dark hair trailing down his back. "You look a bit too high class for a place like this milady." His tone belayed the title, "I'm thinking a pretty little thing like you might want to do something for us, for protection like."

Taija blinked a couple of times. Was he threatening her? "Fuck. Off."

He didn't understand the words, but her tone was clear enough. His face darkened and he sneered down at her. "You can pay with money or you can pay with your body, but you're gonna pay one way or another."

His friend, a dank looking man with piggy eyes leaned over and grabbed Taija's arm hard enough to bruise, "don't worry love, we'll show you a good time."

Taija looked blankly down at his hand on her arm for a second, the pain just an irrelevant sensation in the back of her head. Saidar flowed through her and with a loud crack the man's arm snapped and bent back, the movement tearing his fingers from Taija as it was ripped backwards.

There was a moment of stunned silence and then the smaller man started to scream. The man looming over her grabbed for his dagger. Taija channelled. Air slammed them both backwards across the room, hitting walls with a firm thunk. One was silent, unconscious or dead she didn't care, the other was screaming.

Hard, rough men exchanged glances and then the whole common room descended into chaos as shouting men scrambled for the exit.

It took a second for the ruckus to penetrate Taija's rapidly increasing alcoholic haze, but this wasn't what she wanted. Couldn't this Light-forsaken world just leave her in peace for even a measly few minutes?! She didn't realise she'd stood until she was screaming, "will you all shut up and give me some peace!"

Air wrapped around an empty table in the middle of the room flinging it into the air. It slammed into the ceiling as she momentarily lost control of its ascent and then she crushed it into a ball.

Taija sank back into her seat as the inn descended into silence. Ashen faced men sitting back down wherever they could find a seat, suddenly trying very hard not to be noticed.

She gestured at the serving girl. "Another."

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Interlude IX - You Were Loved and You Will Be Remembered II

Approximately 3,000 years ago.

Tel stood in the grassy field staring empty eyed into the distance. She wouldn't have wanted this to be here, Taija would have wanted to be in the mountains.

The seven spoked wheel had been carved into the grass, a candle placed in the middle of it. He didn't know who by. The expediencies of the War limited what could be done.

A few other mourners stood behind him. She had no family left, Lanfear had seen to that.  The woman's mad grudge culminating in… yet another thing he didn't want to think about. Antero had died with her of course. There were just a few soldiers, comrades who'd fought beside her, and one or two officials. Saela was there too, quietly sobbing at the back. He appreciated her coming when she was already mourning her own husband. He'd also been there when she'd said the words for Antero. Finally, a couple more of her friends, they'd had kind words for him.

Of course there were more people out there, so many who'd known or cared about her, but everyone else was either dead or locked in place by the War. Even he'd had to fight to make time to be here.

Tel knelt down in front of the wheel, head bowed, unable to stop the tears from rolling down his cheeks.  With her ancestors and siblings gone and no descendants the duty fell to him to end the ceremony.

"Go peacefully into the night Taija Kosola Miranen. May the light of the Creator bless your soul and may you soon be reborn to live again. You were loved and you will be remembered."

He just about managed to stop his voice from breaking as he said those final words. He needed to set an example, the whole front relied on him holding it together. He couldn't start sobbing, couldn't let his shoulders start to shake when the others solemnly repeated. "You were loved and you will be remembered."

He stayed kneeling as the other mourners slowly dispersed, giving him the privacy that he needed for his own last words. "I'm sorry Taija, I'm so sorry I wasn't there. Maybe I could have saved you. Instead I did my duty and now you're dead."

"I told them we needed reinforcements, I told them again and again, but they never came. All reserves were needed for the Cylaxian front, they had a great victory there. Lews Therin beat back the Shadow, again." He laughed bitterly. The man had sent him a message of condolences, kinder words than he expected, but empty nonetheless.

"They told me it was Ishamael. Intervening directly to break our lines. Why were you always so brave? Why didn't you run? You couldn't beat someone like him. You should have run." His hands clenched at his trousers. "If only I'd been there too…"

"I'm trying to fight on, I know the Light needs me, I know it's what you'd have wanted, but I don't know if I can do it. I love you and the world is so empty without you." His voice cracked. "Everything I see reminds me of you, your smile, the look in your eyes, every moment we spent together."

"I know I need to press on. I need to keep pushing in the Hall and with the Rods of Dominion, but I don't know if I can. Without you the whole world seems grey. Sometimes they just make me so angry and I want to burn it all down. I know I can't, I know the people need me; however, corrupt, weak or indecisive their leaders are… I know I need to go on, that I can't just leave them all to be slaughtered by the Shadow, but I hate it. I hate it so much."

"You were my foundation, you held me together. I need you and all I can think about is that madman Ishamael, laughing over your corpse while I pray to an uncaring Creator that you didn't suffer." He scowled, "I promise you this. I will kill him. I will make it slow and painful and when I do, I'll tell him you sent me."

"Without you I feel so empty, there's no happiness, no laughter, no smiles left. I know an aes sedai never gives up, but without you it's so hard."

He paused, just staring into the candle's small flame trying not to think of her dark eyes shining up at him.

Tel wasn't sure how long he knelt there before an aide came hurrying up to him, apologetic but insistent that he was needed at headquarters. With an effort of will, Tel pulled himself together and got up from his knees. He took a last look at the flickering candle and muttered the final words, "you were loved and you will be remembered."

He turned away, face hard, already spinning a gateway back to his headquarters and stepped through it.  Back to the War.

Then there was only a small flame left, flickering on top of the seven spoked wheel in an empty field.  Yet another hero of the Light, soon to be forgotten.

=======

The present day

Sammael stared up at the ornately painted ceiling above his huge bed. His plans were progressing well, the Great Lord's victory would be inevitable and once he was nae'blis he would be able to shape the world as he desired. Make it the way it should be.

So why was it that when he closed his eyes all he saw was her face, looking up at him, denial on her lips and despair painted across it?

Of course he was shocked, thrown off his game.  He prided himself on his self-awareness and he could admit that. Who wouldn't be? But it had been years. He'd moved on, the world had moved on. She was an anachronism, a relic of a failed system, a memory of a failed earlier life.

He considered, not for the first time, maybe he should try to turn her. She'd understood him, understood what he'd been trying to do and the problems that penetrated to the heart of the Light. She'd always been the optimistic one, but if he could make her see the truth… The dysfunction of this time was in many ways even more obvious. She'd met 'so-called' aes sedai, she must see that.  For all her foolish love for the aes sedai philosophy, it wasn't like she'd had much patience for fools.

He didn't have space left in him for love, but it seemed he still remembered it. So, he'd offer her a chance, in memory of what they once had. If she didn't take it, well, then he'd leave her to the others.

She was a dangerous woman, but she had her flaws. Lack of interest in politics, clever in so many ways and yet so blind when it came to strategy, a sense of duty that forced her into making worse and worse mistakes. He'd seen Falme, impressive, but if the slightest thing had gone wrong she'd have been dead, or worse a damane.

She'd alienate the wrong people, make too many missteps, gradually get herself into more and more situations she couldn't handle and then she'd be dealt with.  Yet another 'hero' of the Light, soon to be forgotten.

Chapter Text

Chapter XXVIII - No One Likes Apologising

When Taija woke up the Sun was shining through the curtains to her room. She wasn't certain what time it was, but given the time of year, she was pretty sure it was well into the day.

Consciousness returned slowly. Fighting. Tel… Alcohol… Oh Light. Her memories of last night weren't totally clear, but she remembered enough to be horrifically embarrassed. She'd gone and insulted almost every person she liked and some she didn't. Taija was no 'modern' aes sedai, but she still had a sense of dignity and she'd drunk that into submission before going on to trample all over it.

While Taija could, unfortunately, vaguely remember most of the night, some things were a little odd. She wasn't totally sure, but she thought she'd passed out in that bar, no inn. Possibly on young Mat. Fuck.

However, now she was in her own bed, in her shift. She didn't think anything had happened, thank the Light, but still, humiliation burned inside her.

Honestly, Taija would have preferred some proper pyjamas, but it was better than trapping some poor boy under her while she drooled on them. Because of course she'd have drooled on him. Tel told her, she always drooled when she fell asleep after drinking. Tel…

With an effort Taija stopped her thoughts from descending into a downward spiral. There were things she needed to do. She could process this later. If she let herself stop to think for too long she might end up back in an inn again. Once was inexcusable, ending up like that again would be unbearable.

Taija started moving, preparing herself for the pain of climbing out of bed, she wasn't a big drinker, but there had been other occasions in the past… but to her surprise she felt fine. In fact she felt better than fine, at least physically. Well rested, refreshed as if she'd had a fantastic night's sleep, not a night of deliberately drinking herself to the point of passing out to avoid thinking about… Moving on.

It didn't take her long to get dressed and perform her morning ablutions and then she headed out, she had things that she needed to do.

The first order of affairs was to find the girls. Taija couldn't remember everything, but she was rude to all of them. Nynaeve in particular… an image of her trailing along behind her wrapped in air flashed through her mind.

The woman had already suffered enough. Taija knew Nynaeve wrapped her dignity around her to help hold herself together and then she went and did that to her. There was no excuse. She wanted nothing more than to disappear, open a gateway to somewhere isolated and never have to show her face. Nevertheless she left her room to seek them out, what was it Rand said? Duty was heavier than a mountain and death was lighter than a feather? Sometimes it did feel that way.

Her first stop was the two adjoining rooms occupied by Elayne and Egwene. Taija hated having to apologise, the embarrassment of her loss of control made her cheeks burn, but nevertheless she tentatively knocked on one of the doors. A few seconds later a slightly guilty looking Egwene opened it, Elayne looking out from behind her. Taija only got a brief moment to wonder what she'd been doing.

"Taija sedai!"

She cut Egwene off, she'd thought about how to do this. In her time there were many formal ways to apologise, letting her carefully calibrate exactly how ashamed she was and how much of an obligation she owed the recipient of the apology. Here, she'd just have to do her best translation.

Taija bowed low at the waist, almost horizontal. The kind of bow she'd only give at the most formal of occasions or the most humiliating of missteps. "Egwene, Elayne, my behaviour last night was unacceptable and an embarrassment." She started to straighten to meet their eyes. "I apologise from the bottom of my h…"

She was cut off as something thumped into her, nearly knocking her over. Arms wrapped round her and then Elayne followed a second later, the two of them squeezing her tightly. Both of them talking over each other.

"It's alright Taija sedai, please don't apologise we're just worried about you."

"Are you alright? We're so sorry. How could anyone do that to you?"

"Please don't run away and try to kill Sammael."

"You must be so lonely."

"I'll learn the Old Tongue, Elayne's started teaching me."

Taija found herself reassuring Elayne and Egwene that she wasn't angry with them or going to do something stupid. Why were they crying? This really wasn't how she'd seen this going. Teenagers…

It took her a while, but eventually Taija extricated herself from their grasps with a combination of reassuring and apologetic words.

"I need to find the others and apologise to them too," she gave them her 'teacher' look. "An aes sedai must always take responsibility for his or her actions. I'll be back later for your lessons, but for now," she sighed and rubbed her forehead, "I need to live up to the title." Taija didn't give them time to protest, "we can talk more later, but first, please could you tell me where Nynaeve is."

It seemed her guess that they'd know where she was was right. Both looked a bit awkward, before Egwene spoke up, "I think she's on the North Beach, practising, but Taija sedai… Please don't judge her too much if she's a bit prickly, she's a stubborn woman."

"Why would I judge her? I'm going to apologise to her, not the other way round."

"Just… I know Nynaeve well and she can say things she doesn't really mean." Egwene looked nervous, "I know she doesn't really hate you, she'd be furious if she finds out I told you, but you know she helped us get you to bed and it was her that healed you. She might not show it, but she feels terrible for you, she understands why you got how you did."

Maybe the 'modern' world wasn't such a bad place after all.

======

Taija Traveled out to the North Beach. It was easy to find Nynaeve there, the light of saidar was glowing brightly around her. For someone with so little training she was impressively strong. One day, a day not too long from now probably, she'd match Taija for strength and then she'd just keep on growing. She still spun like a barely tutored child though.

Nynaeve didn't notice her at first as she stood there, her body language radiating tension and anger while she crudely spun web after web, muttering to herself as she did. Eventually Taija coughed gently.

Nynaeve jumped and the light of saidar vanished from around her as she whirled to face Taija. She'd have to make sure Nynaeve didn't turn that into a habit, releasing saidar like that could get her killed.

"Taija sedai." Her voice was flat.

Taija winced, this wouldn't be as easy as with the girls.

"Nynaeve, I…" Taija pulled herself together hiding behind ritual. Again she bowed low at the waist, almost horizontal, "my behaviour last night was unacceptable and an embarrassment." She straightened up and met Nynaeve's eyes. "I apologise from the bottom of my heart for it. I have lowered my eyes under the Light and I beg your forgiveness for it. I was under a lot of stress, but that does not excuse the way I treated you."

Nynaeve's looked Taija over for a couple of seconds, her face expressionless, then she relaxed a little. "Thank you Taija sedai, I appreciate it. I accept your apology, I realise you must not have been yourself. Just…" her expression tightened briefly, "please do not do that again. Self-control is vital for a channeler of your strength, without it you can hurt people without meaning to. Sometimes you have to set an example…"

Taija didn't like being lectured by Nynaeve, especially given the hypocrisy of her talking about self-control, but she wasn't going to taint her apology by saying that so she listened and nodded at appropriate moments.

By the end of her lecture Nynaeve clearly felt better about the world in general and Taija in particular. Her body language was more relaxed and her face less tight.

"I'll see you for you class this afternoon Taija sedai?" She phrased it halfway between a question and a statement.

"Yes, I look forward to it."

======

After last night Mat had had enough of aes sedai for several lifetimes. He took a gulp of ale.

Oh, he could admit that Taija wasn't bad as aes sedai went. Unlike the others she didn't pretend to be the next thing down from the Creator and didn't walk around with her nose in the air all the time. She wasn't bad on the eye too, not a beauty, but pretty enough. If she wasn't an aes sedai he might even have thought about a dance and a cuddle, as it was, when you looked into her eyes… well he had more bloody sense than that.

At least he'd managed to persuade her out of going and killing her betrothed, one of the flaming Forsaken and wasn't that insane? Burn him if he was going to be involved in that!

Falme was really getting to be too much for him. Too many aes sedai here and then there was Rand, the Dragon Reborn. It didn't make any sense and he certainly didn't want to be around when Rand went mad and killed everyone.

Elayne had told him that Taija and Moiraine were both looking for him and so he'd made himself scarce. They might have their aes sedai tricks, but he was good at hiding from angry women and he didn't think they'd be willing to troop round Falme's inns looking for him.

He took another gulp of ale and looked around for another dice game. If he was going to leave Falme, he'd need enough money to tide him over.

======

Moiraine sat brushing her hair. It had been an eventful time, even by recent standards.

Thinking about Taija's rant at her was painful. The woman had clearly been suffering, she could only imagine the pain she must have been in, but to lose control of yourself like that. It was not just that it was embarrassing, it also brought into question the very nature of being aes sedai. The composure and self-control that being one of the most powerful women in the world required. If you could not be trusted to keep yourself under control like that then how could you be trusted to wield power that even kings and queens could only dream of?

Then today the woman had come and apologised. Moiraine could tell the apology was given through gritted teeth, carefully worded to obfuscate the fact that she had meant every word and only regretted saying them out loud. She had spent enough time in the Tower and around far more sophisticated players of the Great Game to see straight through word games of that kind.

Still, if there was one thing Moiraine could not see it was Taija running off to join her betrothed. In a world full of uncertainty and threats that was one relief. Siuan was not sure, but she had her reasons for paranoia, Moiraine was confident.

That did not mean there were no problems of course. The woman had far too much influence over Rand and she seemed to be spreading her tentacles into the girls too. In a better time and place it would not matter, Moiraine did believe that she only had the best of intentions, but here and now she was going to get them killed with her foolish ideas.

She might be an ancient aes sedai from the Age of Legends, and she certainly had the knowledge and power to back that up, but Moiraine doubted she would even have obtained the shawl in the White Tower. The woman was not equipped for the Third Age. Too soft, too flighty.

Unfortunately there was little she could do about it. Any overt action risked alienating Taija, which would be bad enough, but it also risked alienating Rand and the girls, which would be utterly disastrous. She would just have to deal with it, as she had to deal with every other problem the pattern threw her way. The Dragon Reborn must survive and he must succeed.

======

The days in Falme dragged on. Taija was working hard to keep herself busy, not giving herself a moment to think. She continued the girls' lessons and their progress was fast.

Pleasingly Aleksi had also been keeping himself busy. When she had the mental space Taija felt twinges of guilt for the way he'd dragged himself away from everything he knew, seemingly just to follow her. Regardless, he seemed to have struck up an odd friendship with Rand and Lan and they spent long hours practising various forms of fighting. Taija could only hope Lan wasn't rubbing off on them too much. He was far too grim.

Trying to fill her time, she also talked to people around Falme and learnt more about the world and the people who'd sworn themselves to follow a teenage boy. She even assisted in reconstruction efforts around the town, channeling to move rubble and rebuild some of the destruction caused by the battle that raged through it.

When Taija didn't have anything to occupy her, she Traveled to somewhere isolated and trained. Sprinting, blowing things up, experimenting with webs.

All of that meant that every night she fell into her bed too exhausted to think and it was exactly what she wanted.

=====

Elayne wasn't yet strong enough to make a useful gateway, but that would come. The other two could actually Travel now, although Taija had refused to teach them the full web until they were able to recite the five basic safety principles back to her word for word without the slightest hesitation.

More disturbing was Rand. Since the Battle of Falme he'd been becoming more and more withdrawn. He was clearly feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders. His body language, the way he spoke, the haunted look in his eyes, they all told Taija of someone who was starting to crack.

She was fairly sure he'd been trying to avoid her, but he was easy enough to find when she wanted to, unlike Mat.

"What's up Rand?" The poor boy was clearly brooding again. He looked at Taija in confusion until she clarified. "I mean, how are you? What's going on?"

He sighed, "too many things. How can I do this? Everyone making demands, wanting things from me. People dying in my name, half the West on fire over what? Me!"

Ah. "Right." She nodded sympathetically. "That sucks," he looked confused again, "that's terrible. We're going for a walk." Without giving him the chance to argue, Taija spun a gateway and stepped through it. "Come on Rand!"

Hesitantly he followed her, looking around at the trees now surrounding him with a hint of confusion. "Where are we? Why did you bring me here?"

"We're in a forest," Taija smiled, ignoring his unamused scowl. "I brought you here because you need to get away. Here we can walk and we can talk with no one to bother us. When I need to get away from everyone and everything I find it relaxing to do this. Maybe one day you'll be able to too."

Rand scowled harder, "if I ever learn to control the Power. I try to embrace it and it slips through my fingers more times than I succeed. Even when I can hold it I can't make it do what I want half the time. Sometimes I try as hard as I can and nothing happens. Other times I hold it, but then I channel and everything goes wrong, sooner or later I'm going to hurt or kill someone. Then there's how it feels, every time I touch it, I want more, it feels like being truly alive, but at the same time I feel sick and disgusted." By the end of that his voice was raised, his breath harsh.

Taija gave his arm a comforting pat, "why didn't you tell me this before Rand? I might have been able to help." She thought it might be the first time he'd actually talked to her about channeling.

Rand shrugged and didn't meet her eyes, "you've been upset. Egwene told me why and I just didn't want to bother you or do anything that might remind you of… you know…" he trailed off awkwardly.

Light bless earnest teenage boys, "Rand you're a nice boy, but you don't need to worry about me, I'll be fine. Whatever problems you have I'll help you with them if I can." Taija resisted the urge to tell him that was what adults were for, that never went down well with young men or women.

"It's not like you can help me anyway. Moiraine already told me, saidar and saidin are different, a woman cannot help a man learn to channel. She said a fish might as well teach a bird to fly."

Taija smiled faintly at that, "Moiraine is a very intelligent woman, but she doesn't know as much as she thinks she does. She's not completely wrong, there are limits. I can't see or feel how you channel. I certainly can't teach you how to spin webs. However, I do understand the basic principles of how a man channels and those I can explain to you."

"How do you know that? I know you know more than Moiraine, but you're still a woman."

"A proper education." She felt a flash of irritation and loss that she ruthlessly suppressed. "In my time every channeler had to undergo basic education, sort of like the White Tower, but more formal, more organised. Part of that was channeling theory, understanding the basics of the way the Power works for both men and women." Her voice took on a more distant tone, "also we talked. You understand the world wasn't like it is now, broken and dysfunctional. Men and women worked together, learnt together, cooperated. I had male friends who were aes sedai, I had lovers who could channel," Taija ignored him choking next to her, these people were really very conservative, she also carefully didn't mention Tel, "we talked, especially when we were young. Channeling was new, so exciting and we wanted to talk about nothing else."

Taija hauled herself out of her reminiscence with a sigh, "anyway it was a different world. So, tell me, what do you do when you want to hold the Power?"

He hesitated, "my father, Tam, taught me something called the flame and the void. I imagine a flame flickering in my head and then I feed everything, all my emotions and feelings, everything, into it. When I've done that I sometimes feel saidin at the edge of the void and I try to open myself to it, like Egwene described from her lessons."

"Well there's your first mistake." Taija gave him a gentle smile. "I've never heard of this flame and the void, but the principles sound familiar. All channelers have a meditative technique to open their minds to the Power. Egwene and Elayne imagine themselves as flowers opening to the Power, I visualise a beach with waves lapping at it. It sounds like yours does the job for you too. However, your mistake is trying to imitate Egwene. Saidar and saidin are fundamentally different. Women embrace saidar, we have to accept it and guide it rather than try to impose ourselves on it. Men are the opposite. You need to seize saidin, take control and dominate it, otherwise you'll never be able to use it properly, if at all."

Taija kept talking, gently lecturing Rand about the basics of channeling for men. As ever he listened carefully, taking in her words intently. She hoped she could at least teach him enough not to kill himself.

If Taija was honest, she was a bit nervous telling him anything. It's not that she didn't want to help, but most of what she told him came from half-forgotten classes and late night conversations with dreamy young men during her teens. As for trying to actually help someone who was learning to channel without a teacher, well. Taija thought they called them wilders nowadays, but there wasn't even a word for them in her time they were so rare. All she really knew was a half remembered statistic that learning to channel by yourself had a fatality rate of well over 75%.

=====

Teaching Rand helped to fill Taija's time, but some things still brought back painful memories. Both Rand and the girls were sensitive about asking her too much about the past, she tried not to show it, but she was fairly sure they could see the pain in her eyes. Nevertheless, the topic came up sometimes.

"How do you become an aes sedai Taija sedai?" Elayne hesitated, "I mean in your time. I know there are tests nowadays although they are kept secret, but your kind of aes sedai."

Taija paused in her demonstration of how to twist a web of illusion to provide camouflage, thrown off a bit by the question. "Well, it was both simple and difficult at the same time."

"What does that mean?" Nynaeve sounded unimpressed by the answer.

Taija shot her a look, "it was simple because in theory all you had to do was have a panel of three aes sedai decide that you were worthy of the title. It was complicated because to get a panel to agree you had to prove yourself in various ways."

"So like the tests now?"

"No, not really. I don't know exactly what's involved now, but it wasn't a test. It was more… showing that you were worthy of calling yourself a 'servant of all'." She thoight back to her own panel. She'd only been 22, considered very young to apply for the title. A man and two women sat on the raised platform, long, formal overcoats with high-collars showing their status as aes sedai. Taija could remember how impressed she'd been at the golden globes on the collar of the panel chair's black coat showing she had earnt her third name. "You had to submit a…" she searched for the right word and couldn't quite find it, "a list of what you had done to contribute to society. You also had to survive an interview in which they'd question your actions, attitudes and moral outlook."

Taija pursed her lips, "if I'd gone in with the sort of attitude that aes sedai nowadays have, I'd probably have failed immediately. There was a lot more emphasis placed on the serving part of the title, but having it was a great honour. One most channelers sought in my day, even if it took them a century to get there."

"So any channeler could become an aes sedai if they had the right attitude?"

"No not really," she shook her head. "You also had to demonstrate a level of channeling skill, but it wasn't about strength. In fact I think the average aes sedai now is probably stronger in the Power than the average aes sedai in my time. Even a very weak channeler could be awarded the title if they could show they had the knowledge and the skill in spinning their webs." She sighed sadly, "of course I don't suppose there will be anymore now, given it's just me left." After a moment Taija spoke quickly before the encroaching darkness inside her could come too close. "Now come on girls, back to work!"

=====

The situation in Falme trundled along for over a month before Taija started to feel she needed to move. It was harder and harder for her to keep her mind off things sitting there acting as a glorified school teacher to Rand and the girls, interspersed with occasional sniping matches with Moiraine.

To her surprise, Moiraine turned out to have been pushing Rand to leave Falme. It seemed that she was worried about the local powers moving to crush the latest 'false dragon'.

Somehow Taija found herself sitting in what was essentially a council of war. Moiraine was urging Rand to go Illian.

"To survive and unite the world as the Dragon Reborn you need nations behind you. At the moment every King and Queen will oppose you, wherever you go. If we stay here we will be crushed so we need to move." She stood, her tone becoming more urgent. "You need to go to Illian. We have the Horn of Valere and if you bring it before them they will rally behind your banner without hesitation. You need an army and you need a nation behind you if you are to lead the Light."

Taija wasn't totally sure why Elayne was included in this council. Perhaps Rand asked for her to be. They seemed to have gotten friendlier over the last month. To be fair the girl was a princess too, so perhaps it was just a rank thing in a feudal society. Regardless, she had her own view. "Andor is the largest, most powerful of the nations. It can give you more support than any other and you yourself are Andoran. While Queen Morgase might not welcome you if you came by yourself, with my support and that of an aes sedai she would throw the power of Andor behind you. Better to rely on the good sense of my mother and our connections to her than a guess about the Horn of Valere."

Rand himself preferred to go to Tear. "The Prophecies of the Dragon say that the Dragon will be reborn when the Stone of Tear falls to him and he wields the sword that cannot be touched. I don't want armies fighting on my behalf, I want the killing and dying to stop and for that I need to be acknowledged as the Dragon Reborn… Or to find that I'm not."

Moiraine and Elayne were both dead set against that, although Moiraine was able to talk over Elayne's protests. "How will you be able to take the Stone of Tear without an army? It is a fortress that has stood since records began. You are the Dragon Reborn, but that will not protect you if you choose to act like a fool."

Rand and Moiraine ended up bickering for a while, with Taija keeping quiet in the background, until eventually Rand turned to her. "Taija sedai," he put some emphasis on your title and she wondered if he was trying to make a point to Moiraine. "What do you think I should do?"

Taija held up her hands, palms out, "I'm sorry Rand, I don't know your world well enough and I've never been much of a strategist. Whatever you decide to do, I'll support you in that."

Moiraine gave off a vaguely smug feeling at that, although it didn't show on her face. "Taija sedai is correct, you need to listen to the advice of those who know best. I have decades of experience of such matters and, while young Elayne is understandably biased by her relationship to her mother, she also understands the need to establish yourself before you go haring off after the Stone of Tear."

Rand nodded at Moiraine, "nevertheless, I wish to hear Taija sedai's opinion."

Taija paused to think for a few seconds before she spoke. "Rand, like I said, I'll support you in whatever choice you make. I don't want you to think that I'll be angry if you ultimately choose a different path to the one I would choose." Her voice was earnest, he needed to understand that she really meant it. "That being said, I think Tear is the best idea for now. I just don't feel as optimistic as Moiraine and Elayne about rulers or nations backing you up and you'd be putting yourself in a very vulnerable position if things went wrong in Illian. The Stone of Tear is meant to be an unbreachable fortress, so I can't see that an army would help with it." She paused, "also an army would be a target for any of the Forsaken. On the other hand, trying to sneak into the Stone might actually work where any army wouldn't."

She shrugged, ignoring the look Moiraine was shooting at her. "That's what I think for what it's worth."

Rand politely thanked Taija everyone else, but it was clear that he wasn't going to be making a decision that night. She could see that Moiraine was annoyed that her advice wasn't being followed as she stalked out shortly afterwards. Taija exchanged a few more words with Rand and the others before heading to her own rooms, Aleksi shadowing her.

Chapter Text

Interlude X - Tel Makes a Speech

Approximately 3,000 years ago

Tel stood up from his seat in the Grand Council Chamber. Columns of white marble surrounded the room, tiered balconies looking down on it. The Sun bathed the chamber in naturally coloured light through the gigantic stained glass dome that rose above it. The three hundred seats of the Grand Council were filled with other aes sedai in their official white. Aides and watching aes sedai milled around the columns at the edge of the chamber.

He took a second to straighten his formal, high-collared coat. Like the others, it was the white of a member of the Grand Council, the symbol of the aes sedai prominent on his left breast, sinuously divided circle on a red background. On each collar he wore a golden circle representing the globe, to show he had earnt his third name, something even many of members of the Grand Council couldn't boast. The interlocking blue-red weave of a general wound its way round his cuffs and he wore the crimson sash of a Defender of the Light across his chest.

He took a deep breath, scanning the viewing galleries on the lowest balcony. There she was. Taija was sitting in the front row, surrounded by other viewers, fidgeting uncomfortably. Her own formal coat black and unadorned other than the badge of the aes sedai and golden circles on her collar.

As soon as she realised he was looking she stopped fidgeting and gave him an encouraging smile along with a thumbs up. He knew she hated being here, hated the stiff formal clothes, the politics, brown nosing and manipulation. But he'd also known she'd come to support him. She was very aware of how important this was, to him and to the Light. He hadn't asked her, she hadn't said anything, but of course she was there, shifting around trying to make her little-used coat more comfortable when she thought he wasn't looking.

It was just what he needed, that little boost as he made his way to the podium, knowing she was there cheering him on.

The podium felt like a thin shield against the eyes of the audience when he stood behind it, but he'd prepared, practised and rehearsed this speech endlessly. Taija had already told him if she had to hear him recite it again he was sleeping alone for a week.

Taking a deep breath, he began. "Friends, companions, comrades, aes sedai. We are losing this War. The Shadow seeks to destroy everything we hold dear. Every day thousands of innocents die at the hands of the Forsaken, the Dark One's minions, the disgusting shadowspawn."

"However, we are stronger than the Shadow. The Light holds with it the ideals dear to us. Peace, democracy, freedom, unity. Together we outnumber the servants of the Shadow, we have industrial might, we have population, we have the strength and skill in the Power. And yet we are losing this War. Every day the Shadows pushes our lines back further. Good people die spitting defiance in the face of the shadowspawn, but nevertheless they die. City after city is lost. Their inhabitants enslaved, or worse fed to the trollocs to fuel the Shadow's nightmarish war machine. I ask you, why? Why are we losing?"

"The servants of the Shadow can barely work together. They will as soon fight each other for scraps of power as work together to defeat us. Those of you that have fought on the front lines," he resisted the urge to scowl at the thought of those who hadn't fought, wouldn't fight, "will have seen the way they fail to cooperate."

"Unity, cooperation, friendship, these are core values of the Light, they should be core strengths. Working together we can shatter the Shadow. Logistics, strategy, coordination, these should be our foundation. And yet…" He paused and scanned across the room, trying to judge people's reactions.

"And yet… Our forces are uncoordinated, regional fiefdoms answering to individual generals, at the whim of local political leaders. Those unlucky enough to be at the front lines fight and die, throwing themselves into the night just to slow the Shadow with bravery beyond anything that could be asked of them."

"And yet the safer regions, those far from the front, hoard resources. Dole out reinforcements like the stingiest of misers. They play political games, demanding concessions to do their duty to the world while we fight and die to protect them. Every step we are pushed back makes the Shadow stronger and brings more regions into danger."

"And yet they continue to vacillate. Empty promises are made, but never fulfilled and all the time we fight and die, watching the Shadow extinguish more and more of our cities, our homes, our treasured friends. We spit defiantly into the Dark One's eye, but it feels like we can do little more." Angry rumblings were rising from some parts of the chamber, but Tel continued unperturbed, the webs around the podium letting his voice ring out over any interruptions.

"People tell me things are changing, they're getting better. Maybe they are. We have appointed a supreme leader of the Light's forces. The honourable Lews Therin, the Dragon as he is now known. Our military coordination has improved." He made a sweeping gesture with his hand towards where Lews Therin sat and gave a small, polite bow in his direction.

It should have been him. He knew he'd have done a better job than Lews Therin, but he could accept it. Lews Therin had the political power, just as many victories, just a few more accomplishments to his name. He didn't like it, in fact he'd been furious when it had been announced, but Taija had talked him down. Someone had to be appointed and there were many who would have been worse than Lews Therin, he couldn't help but glance towards Latra Posae sitting in the front row with a scowl of disapproval on her face. If he was fair, and he always tried to be a fair man, Lews Therin was a good appointment, not as good as he would have been, but a solid choice nonetheless.

"We have the Dragon in control of our forces and we are able to work together better. Crushing defeats have been inflicted on the Shadow through his strategic acumen." He paused.

"And yet we are still losing. Lews Therin asks for more resources, asks for what we need to defeat the Shadow. But instead of working together to give him what we need, every region tries to hoard what it can for itself. Undermining the war effort, consigning their fellow citizens to horrific death."

"I believe in democracy. I treasure the values of our system. Whatever my opponents say, I am not calling for dictatorial powers to be granted to Lews Therin or anyone else. However, we are fighting a desperate war for the very survival of our civilisation. If we do not win there will be no system left to protect. That is why I am urging you to vote to grant overriding powers to the Inner Council. Regional authorities must not be allowed to impede the war effort any longer. Our central government is democratically elected, the Inner Council is supervised by the Grand Council, we can allow it to take control for the length of the War. We need it to take control if we want to have anything left by the end of this War."

"For the good of the Light and for the good of the men, women and children dying every day at the hands of the Shadow."

He took a breath, "thank you honoured Councillors." He bowed low to the room and returned to his seat to the sound of both applause and angry shouting.

It took a while for the Chair to bring the chamber back into a semblance of respectful silence, but once he did Lews Therin stood to take his own place at the podium. His face expressionless.

Tel couldn't help but watch with baited breath as Lews Therin began to speak, his smooth charisma instantly captivating the room. "Honoured members of the Grand Council," he began. "I thank Tel Janin for his passionate words. He made many valid points in his speech and we should all consider them. He is right that unity, cooperation and friendship are true values of the Light, and among our greatest strengths."

Something was wrong, his words were positive, but the tone… "And yet," he dropped the words like a tombstone, "Tel Janin forgets that democracy and freedom lie at the very core of what we stand for. His proposals for reducing regional autonomy come from the his heart and he is correct that the war requires more from us. I respect his passion. However, his proposals are a recipe for dictatorship. I do not suggest that this is in any way his intention. But, we have seen how the Shadow will corrupt any system. We need checks and balances to protect the very values we believe in. Otherwise we walk blindly towards dictatorship and oppression, every small step forward seeming reasonable until one day we look in the mirror and no longer recognise ourselves for all we see is the Shadow itself."

Tel sat there, trying to keep his face neutral as Lews Therin continued. He'd thought the man understood! Thought he would be one of his strongest supporters, but there was no chance of his proposal passing now, not with Lews Therin speaking against it.

Chapter Text

Potential spoilers on Taija's abilities below.

Strength in the power: 4 (roughly equivalent to Moghedien in raw strength).

Elemental affinities:
Strong in: spirit, fire, earth, air
Weak in: water
(Strength in elements is of course a bit relative given her overall strength)

Talents/Skills:

In terms of her strengths and Talents, Taija was never particularly known in the Age of Legends for her channeling. This has been seen already in at least one flashback where she was severely underestimated. Partly that was issues of attitude (she didn't really give off the "vibe" that most high tier channelers did), partly that her professional uses of the Power were highly esoteric and more about subtle control than raw power (things like working out better weaves to measure sub-atomic particles) and partly because she didn't really take part in aes sedai politics or networking. She was also a little bit of an oddball.

That being said, her strength in the Power was pretty significant, even in the Age of Legends when strong channelers were more common. If she was in a room, unless it was in the Hall of Servants, she was probably the strongest one there.

Another reason why pre-War she wasn't well known even among channeler fan-clubs (because those would absolutely have existed ) was a relative lack of flashy Talents (capitalised). Because of the obscurity of what she did and her not being all that public a figure outside academic circles, for most people there wasn't anything they would see that they could mark out as being exceptional about her, other than raw strength, which wasn't on the level of the true power-houses like Lews Therin, Barid Bel or Mierin Eronaile.

However, like most channelers with her level of strength she is able to do most things very well, even if she doesn't have a Talent allowing her to do more than you would expect with her strength. That doesn't apply to everything though. For example, an exception to this is healing where she doesn't have much skill at all (maybe healing a small fracture or cuts/bruises at best).

She does excel at a few things (arguably unequalled even in her time). In particular, she found it very useful for her career that she had a level of fine-scale control over saidar that virtually no one could match.

She's also exceptionally fast, something that didn't really get noticed until the War because unless you were a professional Power-athlete speed of weaving wasn't all that important. This is probably the other side of the coin for the fine control over her channeling. Her ability to invert multiple, complex weaves at combat speeds is very unusual.

Accompanying that is a very strong instinctual understanding of saidar, combined with a classical AoL education. If she sees a weave she can probably replicate it and explain it and there's a decent chance she can tell you exactly how she would improve on it.

While she has the general AoL channeler education, she has a very deep knowledge of anything and everything in her professional field (theoretical physics). This can lead to some pretty esoteric weaves, but most of them aren't super useful in a renaissance society (the need to measure sub-atomic particles just isn't there). She has made one or two more… "applied" uses of her knowledge so far though.

In general, the most useful thing for this is probably a deep knowledge of metaphysical and physical weirdness. She thought she could work out how the Ways were made after a conversation with Loial, she could absolutely recreate the bore if given the resources (not that she would).

She also has the kind of level of general knowledge that you'd expect of an intelligent, highly educated person in a high tech society.

Chapter Text

Chapter XXIX - Rand and Taija's Excellent Adventure

Over the next couple of days Taija could see Rand getting grumpier and more withdrawn. It was easy to work out why, Moiraine was cornering him at every opportunity and pushing her preferred course of action.

She was left wondering whether she should intervene, although she wasn't sure what she could actually do to get Moiraine to stop trying to lead him around by the nose short of severing her, putting her in a box and delivering her back to Siuan to be her problem. Even that probably wouldn't work since Taija had no idea where Siuan's rebel aes sedai actually were.

Perhaps if she could sneak a tracking web onto the woman next time she visited Falme? It was something to think about.

Regardless, Taija's pondering was cut short one night when Rand knocked on her door. It was late and she was fast asleep until her wards woke her, so she wasn't in the best mood when she poked her head out of the door. She'd been expecting some kind of emergency, but instead she was met with Rand's worried face.

"Taija, can we talk?"

She sighed internally, "of course Rand, come in." Taija opened the door wider and gestured to a chair. He immediately flushed bright red looking everywhere except at her.

It took Taija a second to realise he was embarrassed at her 'immodest' shift. With a very much audible sigh she grabbed a blanket to drape herself in. It was ridiculous though, it was a knee length nightgown not a bikini.

Once her modesty was suitably protected and Rand had calmed down he started to talk. "I need your help and you said you'd support me whatever I chose. I want to go to Tear, but Moiraine simply won't leave me alone, I know you can get me there." He took a breath. "I want you to make a gateway for me to the city tomorrow, so that I can get away from all of this and settle things once and for all."

Taija's heart broke a little for the poor boy. "Oh Rand, I'm so sorry. However, I'm not going to help you go and get yourself killed," anger flashed across his face, but she kept talking, "so I'll be going with you. You're absolutely not going alone to a strange city to break into an impenetrable fortress. Nope." She sat back with a conclusive smile.

Thinking about it, this worked well for Taija too, she was sick of Falme and really needed a distraction.

"No Taija! You can't come, it's too dangerous!" Rand's protest was vehement.

Taija tried to stifle an incredulous laugh, not entirely successfully. "You're trying to protect me?!"

"You've been having such a hard time recently. I can tell how hard you find it here sometimes and the whole thing with you know…" He shrugged a bit embarrassed.

"Oh Rand, you really are such a nice boy, I hope you never change." He really was. Taija's voice hardened. "That being said, you're not going without me. I don't think anyone else will take you and I am not letting a nineteen year old", he started to protest, "whatever, twenty year old friend go off and get himself killed over some stupid prophecy."

Eventually Rand grumpily acquiesced and left Taija to what was left of the night. Instead of falling back to sleep and having to deal with yet more bad dreams she started planning. Money shouldn't be too big a problem. She still had some left over from Siuan and had already engaged in a bit of discrete looting of what the Seanchan left behind in Falme as had plenty of others she suspected.

The big question was whether she was going to take anyone else. Specifically the girls. Egwene and Elayne in particular. Nynaeve was old enough to make her own choices.

Really she should be leaving them with Moiraine and Siuan, they were in training to become 'aes sedai' after all. The question was threefold though.

Firstly, did she want to? Taija wasn't totally sure. They might well end up being liabilities and she'd always preferred research to teaching. On the other hand she'd grown rather fond of Egwene and Elayne. Even Nynaeve wasn't that bad, most of the time.

Secondly, did she think they'd actually be safer with the rebel aes sedai? Taija wasn't sure. They'd be targets there or targets with her, but her confidence in Siuan's ability to protect them when she had so many other problems wasn't particularly high.

Thirdly, was it fair to take them away from their dream of becoming aes sedai with the White Tower? Taija might not have much respect for the modern aes sedai, but she'd got little to offer the girls herself.

She thought on it for a while and in the end she decided, unsurprisingly, that the only moral approach for her to take was to let the girls decide.

She'd offer Aleksi the choice too, but she already knew what he'd say.

======

The next day Taija grabbed the three girls early in the morning.

"I have something that I need to discuss with you." She spun a web against eavesdropping around the room, not inverting it for once so that they could see the web, almost anything could be a teaching moment. "I'm going to be going to Tear with Rand later today. It's short notice, but he needs to move and he's decided that that's the best way forward for him. I'm willing to support him in that."

Inevitable there were protests, "you can't just let him run off and get himself killed because he feels obliged to fulfill a prophecy. He needs support!"

"That may be true Elayne, but he needs to decide for himself. We can give him advice, but we can't make his decisions for him. I'm not going to try to manipulate him into doing what other people want. Equally I'm not going to let him run off and get himself killed, which is why I'll be going with him."

"Then we're coming too," declared Nynaeve. "We're not going to let you get yourself killed either. The two of you need someone less wool-headed to keep you from doing something foolish." Taija raised her eyebrows at her and she quickly muttered, "sorry, Taija sedai."

"You do realise that you should be staying with Moiraine or going to Siuan, that if you come with me the White Tower will likely see you as runaways and you might never become aes sedai?"

This time Egwene spoke up, "we know, we've discussed it. If the worst comes to the worst, well you said that three aes sedai could award the title. We figure that if you're the last aes sedai from the Age of Legends," Light Taija hated it when they called it that, "then you can make new ones until there are three."

"I'm not going to award you the title of aes sedai if that's what you think," Taija's voice was flat.

"Oh no of course not, but we want to be with you anyway and you have so much to teach us." Egwene sounded suspiciously innocent.

Taija chose not to engage with that. "So, you all want to come?" They nodded, "fine, we meet at the stables at midnight, try to get some sleep before then and please don't tell anyone else, especially not Moiraine."

======

Elayne hurried to find Mat. She didn't have much time, but if she was leaving for Tear then she needed to do something first. Frak she was running late. She should not have helped him hide from Taija after that night, he had become much too good at avoiding any of them when he wanted to.

Fortunately, she eventually remembered one of the inns that he liked, not a horrible place like the one they had found Taija in, but certainly not a respectable establishment either. Spending more time with the bloody man had meant that she was becoming more familiar with Falme's inns and they had quickly lost their appeal. As Lini always said, see gold too many times and it starts looking like brass.

Luckily, but predictably, when she walked into the inn he was there, sitting with a couple of men who looked like merchants, gambling of course. Still, at least he looked like he was winning. A few men in the common room shot her the kind of looks she did not appreciate, but there was nothing more. This was not that kind of inn and anyway, from what she had heard, men in Falme were being a lot more careful about strange women walking into inns these days.

Mat did not notice her, continuing with his dicing until she pulled up a chair at his table and sat down next to him. When he saw her he jumped so badly that he threw the dice out of the cup. His eyes were on hers, but she saw them tumble and land, a single pip standing up on each of them.

"Elayne, what are you doing here?" He did not seem pleased to see her and she felt a flash of irritation that quickly turned into guilt. Especially as his gambling partners were already pushing back their chairs, making excuses to be elsewhere.

"Can I not just want to see you?" She asked, even as she embraced saidar and spun a weave against eavesdropping around the table.

Mat flinched as the sound around them suddenly vanished, "blood and bloody ashes! You could warn a man before doing that!"

"Sorry Mat," she smiled, not sounding at all sorry. "I would not come and bother you, but it is important. I need to ask you a favour."

Mat huffed briefly giving her that mulish look that she had come to associate with him trying to find reasons to say no before he suddenly smiled roguishly leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Alright, what is it that you want from me? Let me guess, it's something to do with Taija?" And there was the sarcasm she had been expecting.

"Yes it is Taija, and Rand." She sighed at his smugly raised eyebrow. "They are going to go to Tear, to try for the Stone. They are leaving tonight and I will be going with them."

That made Mat sit up and pay attention, "are they mad? Are you mad? You're going to get yourself killed with a madwoman from the Age of Legends and a bloody man who can…" He cut his own words off. "I suppose you want me to come with you? Blood and bloody ashes Elayne, you're asking a lot of a man, I don't want to go…"

This time Elayne interrupted him, "no Mat, I do not want you to come with us. No I mean I would like you to," she blushed, where was her self-control?! "But that is the favour I need to ask of you. My mother will be worried about me. The White Tower has split, she will know I am not there. She will be worried and furious and I do not want to fuel a breaking between Andor and Tar Valon. I would like you to go to Caemlyn and deliver this letter to her." Elayne handed him a sealed envelope. "Would you be able to do that Mat? For me?" She made her best pleading eyes at him, eyes that had obtained her illicit sweets many times through her childhood.

Mat leaned back again, considering, apparently unaffected by her eyes. "Burn me! You want me to go to Caemlyn. Not Tear? Just to deliver a message to your mother? The bloody queen of Andor… Sometimes I forget you're a princess." He did not seem delighted by the thought.

Elayne chose to ignore that comment. "Yes, just to Caemlyn. Deliver the letter and you will be free of Rand, Taija and aes sedai interference." She was not sure she liked the idea of that, she would be aes sedai one day after all, but Light he moaned a lot about them. "If you can be ready to leave today, Nynaeve and I can make you a gateway to just outside the city so you will not have far to travel."

After a moment more of consideration, Mat rose to his feet. "Fine, I'll do it, but only because I like you, even if you are a bloody princess." He gave her that roguish grin again and it was all she could do not to roll her eyes at him. "Give me one hour and I'll be at your rooms, ready to go."

As he turned to go she heard him mutter something about barely remembering last time he was in Caemlyn anyway. How odd.

======

It was a strange feeling stepping out of a gateway from the middle of the night into the first light of dawn. Particularly when Taija was going from a cool winter night through to almost tropical heat. It had been a relatively long journey, skimming through the space between worlds and she was glad to be back into the real world.

It wasn't long before the six of them saw the dark walls of Tear looming above the run down outer city. Dominating them all was the Stone of Tear, towering into the sky, a huge edifice that overshadowed the city. Frankly it looked more like a mountain than a fortress. The One Power must have been involved in its construction. There was no way those people could build something like that without it.

Taija felt a certain sense of relief that Rand chose not to pursue amassing an army. She was no general, but looking at that monstrosity she was quite sure that no army from this era could take it. Perhaps with artillery, firearms and channelers it would be possible, but she wouldn't have wanted to try.

Tear seemed like a miserable city once Taija was in it. Many of the streets were wet with deep mud, the people scurried around with downcast eyes and it had a generally oppressive atmosphere. In the end it didn't matter, she was there on a mission not to be a tourist.

It wasn't long before the six of them had purchased rooms at a respectable looking inn inside the city walls. Of course none of them looked like they normally did. Instead of Taija's strange little group, anyone looking at them would see nothing more than a family of wealthy merchants, looking for opportunities in the city.

======

They established themselves over the next few days. Going out, apparently to 'meet potential traders', but in reality getting the lie of the land. Rand and the girls were under strict instructions not to draw attention to themselves and just to find out what they could about Tear.

Taija took Aleksi to have a closer look at the Stone. Walking around the wide street at its base she talked with Aleksi about nothing that could arouse suspicion while she gently probed at the Stone with tiny inverted webs. It was difficult to do, especially while looking casual. For this kind of sensitive work she'd much rather be able to sit somewhere out of sight and give it her full attention, but she still learnt a lot.

The first thing that became clear was that she was right about its construction. The Stone was built using the Power and it had certain protections built into its very foundations. Taija doubted she could make much of a dent bombarding it with the Power using anything short of balefire. Perhaps if she could actually touch it though…

The other thing was that someone had warded it heavily. Possibly with inverted webs of saidar, but based on the unfamiliar curves and intricacies of the wards that she'd tentatively felt out, Taija was fairly it was with saidin. That meantt Traveling straight into the Stone was therefore not an option. The wards also made it clear that one of the Forsaken had chosen to make Tear their base. That complicated things.

======

That night in the private dining room they'd taken over in the inn, Taija updated the rest of the group with her discoveries to horrified gasps from the girls and a look of despair in Rand's eyes.

"So you're saying that we can't get into the Stone?" He asked, slumping in his chair.

"No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that we can't take the easiest approach which is just to Travel straight in, grab Callandor and then either leave or fight off anyone who tries to stop us." She tried not to sound exasperated, but Taija felt like she'd had to repeat herself a few times already. "This just means we need to spend more time on preparation."

Rand scowled, but didn't answer back. Unfortunately Egwene chose that moment to mutter, perfectly audibly to the rest of them, "woolheaded men always thinking with their chest hair."

Rand's scowl deepened and with a scraping noise he pushed back his chair and stalked out of the room. Taija took a moment to get her temper under control. What had she been thinking, taking herself on a mission with a bunch of teenagers? Tel would have been able to smooth things over with a few words and a joke, but well...

"Aleksi, please could you go and make sure Rand's ok."

"Of course Taija." He nodded and headed out after the boy.

Then she rounded on the girls. "Right, all three of you. I've had enough. The last month seems to have been full of snipey comments about men and frankly I expected more of you. Rand is a bright boy who has just had a mountain dropped on his shoulders, not a 'sheep headed fool', and the last thing he needs is comments from you. Aleksi is just too nice to complain, but that doesn't make it acceptable to make them about him either. Especially you Egwene, you grew up with him."

"But Taija sedai…"

Taija didn't let her speak. "Yes, you get annoyed at men being stupid. I get it. I do too. I also get annoyed at women being stupid," her expression left them under no illusion about which women she was annoyed about at that moment. "From what I've been told, my entire civilisation came to an end because men and women couldn't work together. It sounds insane to me. What I do know though is that all of the greatest achievements of my time were done by men and women working together. I suggest you remember that. If you can't then at least restrain yourselves from saying anything unless it's helpful."

At that she turned on her heel and stalked out of the room after Rand and Aleksi.

======

Taija avoided spending too much time with the girls for a few days after that and she was fairly sure Rand was venturing out for longer and longer each day to avoid talking to anyone too. Instead, she found herself spending most of her days walking around Tear with Aleksi.

During those walks she found a shop owner who was willing to let her and her 'retainer' onto the roof of his building to sketch the Stone after she told him that she'd always dreamed of seeing it and her father back home had asked for a drawing.

Up there, while she was making diagrams of the Stone, looking for weak points and possible places she could enter it, Aleksi spoke up.

"Taija, I know you're stressed, but I think you need to be easier on Egwene and the others." His voice was gentle.

"They need to grow up," she groused. "They seem to spend more time bickering with each other than actually doing anything productive. I'm just fed up with it."

"Of course they do, but they're only young. Basically children," he paused, "well except Nynaeve."

Taija gave him an amused look, "how old are you again?"

He ignored her comment, probably wisely. "If you're not happy with how they're behaving then maybe you need to give them something else to think about. It's no good just lecturing them about how things should be you need to show them."

Taija's first instinct was to deny it, but then she sighed, "you're right Aleksi. It's just sometimes it's so hard, there are so many things to think about and all I want to do is find a hut somewhere in the mountains and forget everything."

"I know Taija, but you're strong, you'll manage." He put a comforting arm round her and she leant into him, the view ahead of them dominated by the looming Stone.

======

That night at dinner Taija told the other five of them that the next day they were all going to start training to attack the Stone. She still needed to decide on how they were going to get in, but she could make sure that when they were in there they'd at least all able to work together. Hopefully it could also start to close some of the distance that was growing up between the girls and Rand and give everyone something to do other than brood and squabble.

That actually seemed to perk them up and not for the first time Taija was grateful she'd ever met Aleksi.

However, when everyone headed off to bed Egwene stayed behind, looking nervous. "Taija sedai, can I ask you about something?"

"Of course, what's wrong?" She was clearly a bit upset.

"I've been having dreams," she spoke slowly like she was having to pick her words carefully. Taija didn't interrupt. "Not like normal dreams, but instead I keep seeing things that seem more real. Anaiya thought I might be a dreamer, but we could never work out whether I was or not."

It would have been useful if she'd told her that some time ago, but Taija suppressed he groan and instead gently said, "go on Egwene."

"I've been dreaming of a man waiting in the Stone, watching Callandor, but that's not what I want to talk about. Everyone seems to be having that dream." That was news to Taija. Worrying news.

"What I wanted to ask about is," she took a breath, "I've been dreaming that I'm inside the Stone of Tear walking around it and sometimes I see people. I've always hidden myself, I don't think they saw me until last night, but last night I was there and I saw Falion Bhoda in there, looking at Callandor. Before I could hide she turned round and saw me too. I know she did because she smiled straight at me."

It took Taija a second to remember where she'd heard that name and then it came to her. One of the Black Ajah that Siuan said had fled the Tower, with the dream ter'angreal. "Oh for fuck's sake", the words come out before she could stop them and she quickly moderated her tone. "Thank you for telling me Egwene, sorry I was just shocked."

Taija looked the girl over, "well you're almost certainly are a dreamer. It very much sounds to me like you've been accidentally entering the Unseen World and you saw Falion there. The bad news is that Falion is a member of the Black Ajah and she probably knows you're here now. We can only hope she only thinks it's you. There are thirteen of them, so if they're all in Tear we may have a big problem on our hands."

Egwene's face paled at that, "the Black Ajah? Here?"

Taija nodded, "so we're going to have to be extra careful. We'll speak more of your dreams in a minute, but first, tell me about the man everyone is dreaming of."

As Egwene started to perfectly describe Be'lal Taija's expression darkened. Had the idiot forgotten to shield his dreams? He must have been supremely confident in himself if that was the case. That or it was a trap. He wasn't someone she knew at all well, but she did remember that he had a reputation for elaborate schemes.

Taija briefly considered entering the Unseen World in person to attack his dreams, but then dismissed the idea as madness. She didn't have the skills or the knowledge to be confident she'd be successful, really didn't want to go into the Unseen World anyway and regardless there was no was he wouldn't be ready for something like that.

Still, one plus to all of this was that she now knew who'd warded the Stone.

======

The next day it was time to start training the others. Before Taija could do much with them though, she'd need to test them, find out what their capabilities really were.

They couldn't train properly inside a potentially hostile city, so the six of them Traveled out of Tear to a tree studded hill somewhere in the Andoran countryside.

After a careful and thorough lecture on safety Taija explained what the first exercise would be. Halfway up the hill she spun a web of earth and shaped the ground into an oversized, high-backed armchair before climbing onto it, sitting cross legged.

"So, I want to see how you can work together. I'm going to make you a gateway to a point where you're just out of my sight. You then have five minutes to work out a strategy between yourselves. Your objective is to touch me, either with the One Power or physically. If you succeed, then you win, if I touch all of you with the Power or you take long enough that I get bored and have to come find you, then you lose. Is that clear?"

They all nodded and Taija spun a gateway for them to step through before she settled back to wait.

Their first attempt was sadly all too predictable. The three girls came marching through the trees together. At least they weren't silly enough to come out in the open, but they were barely making any effort to hide and the feeling of them holding saidar was enough to tell Taija roughly where they were. The men she didn't see at first, but she was sure they'd turn up.

Taija let the girls get a bit closer and then spun three inverted webs, one for each of them, reaching out to touch them. As soon as the webs came into contact, each of them heard her voice whisper "dead."

A few seconds later, Taija saw movement in the long grass to her right. It only took a moment for her to wrap Aleksi and Rand in air and lift them out of the grass. She was about to release them when she felt the jolt of her flows snapping back into her and the two men fell back to the ground with thumps.

Taija smiled, it seemed Rand had taken the opportunity she gave him, although she wasn't sure where he'd learnt how to slice flows. She spun and a web touched Aleksi to whisper "dead" in his ear. However, the one aimed at Rand was cut again. He was staring at her with a look of slightly confused concentration and Taija sliced through a couple of webs he sent in her direction.

Then without warning several trees around her erupt into roaring flame and his look of concentration was replaced by panic. Shit. Without hesitation Taija spun a shield and slammed it between him and the Power. She felt the resistance as she drove it in, he was already shockingly strong for someone so inexperienced with the Power. It wouldn't be long before this wouldn't be an option for her even with her angreal. A moment later he heard her voice whisper "dead" in his ear.

When the annoyed looking group had gathered in front of Taija again she looked them over. "Well that wasn't very impressive, none of you even got close. What do you think you did wrong?"

Nynaeve's expression was sour, but she was the first to speak up, "you were able to find us before we could do anything," she thought for a second, "because you could feel we were holding saidar?"

"Exactly, well done Nynaeve. Anything else?"

Elayne spoke up, "we tried to come at you straight on, even if we succeeded it would just have ended up in a contest of strength?"

"Very good Elayne." It was refreshing how well they were engaging with the exercise.

"Rand and I shouldn't have split off from the women, we should have worked together more?" This time it was Aleksi.

Taija could have hugged him, of course he would know what to say. "Yes, exactly. Rand can channel of course, but I'm not sure it's reliable enough for you to want to assume it'll be available." His loss of control was actually quite worrying. "So you're separating your channelers from the non-channelers and leaving both groups weakened and vulnerable. Now, let's do this again. I don't expect you to win, but if you can force me to move from my chair we can buy cakes from the bakery near our inn to celebrate." Hopefully they'd do well enough, those cakes really did look delicious.

There was a definite improvement as they kept trying, but by the end the sweat drenched group had had no success. It was a pity, Taija really did want a cake, but she had her integrity. Maybe she could sneak out with Aleksi to get some while the others were busy.

The key thing was that now they were working together. They even managed to get close when Egwene and Elayne distracted her with a flashy display and Nynaeve opened an inverted gateway for Aleksi right behind her chair. Taija was more than pleased with their progress and now had some idea of the sort of things they needed to work on.

Chapter Text

Chapter XXX - An Unexpected Guest

After days of intense training Taija could see that the group were starting to flag, despite their rapid improvement, so she gave them a day off. The kind of training they were doing was exhausting and everyone needed rests sometimes.

The girls were off exploring Tear and Nynaeve had said something about finding a wisdom, whatever that was. Aleksi had also said he wanted to speak to a blacksmith and so only Rand was with Taija in one of the inn's private dining rooms when a serving girl opened the door looking slightly glassy eyed. "Mistress, you have a guest."

Before Taija could reply she stepped aside and Tel walked in, blue eyes coldly surveying the room. Taija was already moving, standing so fast that her chair was thrown over backwards, embracing saidar to the point of pain. Rand was a bit slower to react, looking between her and Tel in confusion.

Tel quickly held his hands out, palms out, "I'm just here to talk Taija, I don't want to fight."

She could blast him with everything she had, but she was in the middle of a city. Something he'd surely considered. Their last fight told her that even with her angreal she wouldn't have enough of an advantage in strength to quickly beat him and she didn't want to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds or thousands of innocent Tairens as they fought each other. Rand might be able to help, if he could actually get his channeling under control, but at that point he wasn't skilled or mobile enough to be anything more than a liability.

"What do you want Tel?" Taija's voice was flat, emotionless. She wouldn't, couldn't let him know how much it hurt to see him like this, but underneath that the yawning hole that had been ripped through her was bubbling with anger.

Rand took another second to work things out and then went for his sword, the idiot. Tel no more than glanced at him and he was frozen in place. Taija considered cutting him free, but Tel wasn't hurting him and she didn't want to trigger the fight unless she had to.

Tel's voice oozed contempt when he spoke to Rand. "I'm not here for you today Lews Therin. Count yourself lucky for that, now sit in the corner and keep quiet like a good boy."

"What do you want Tel?" Taija repeated herself, pulling his attention back to her. "I've got nothing to say to you."

Tel's eyes flicked back to Taija looking her in a strange mixture of possessiveness and contempt. Her stomach clenched, they were so cold and hard and that hideous scar sliced across his face… "I want to help you Taija, I'm sorry I ran away last time, but I was shocked, surprised when I should have been delighted." His voice was smooth, as powerful as it ever was, the same voice that had wowed fans and impressed TV hosts, but oddly emotionless. He certainly didn't sound delighted. "I haven't been able to stop thinking about you since then and I've been trying to find you. I'm worried about you and I want to help you."

"How can you possibly help me? You joined the Forsaken, you can't help anyone, not even yourself." What more could she say than that?

He shrugged, dismissing her words like they were nothing, "it was a different time. You don't understand how it was, you weren't there."

"No of course, it was so very difficult for you that you became a mass murderer and betrayed every principle we had. Sure." Taija didn't even try to keep the biting sarcasm out of her voice and it rose with anger as she went on. "Now what? You think you can come here and I'll fall over myself with delight at your presence? Give me a smile and I'll flutter my eye lashes and leap back into your arms?"

He looked a little shocked at her vehemence and then collected himself with a slight smirk. "You always were passionate Taija, it was one of the things I liked about you. But no, I don't expect you to do that. As I said, you don't understand how it was, but I want you to understand because then I can help you, give you the chance to survive."

She glanced over at Rand, he was still ok. "You want me to understand? Go ahead, explain the inexplicable. I've experienced enough 'miracles' since my alleged death," her tone made it clear how happy she felt about those miracles, "what's one more?"

Tel ignored Taija's sarcasm and started talking, suddenly he sounded almost earnest. She hated it. "Like I said, you don't understand, you weren't there. The Light was falling apart, you know that, but it only got worse after you were gone. Lews Therin was denying me at every turn. Hoarding troops to sate his own desire for glory, but that I could perhaps forgive. What I could never forgive was the way his behaviour got you killed, he ripped the only thing I truly cared about away from me with his gloryhounding."

Taija wanted to interrupt, to tell him how ridiculous he sounded, tell him that if he'd really cared about her he'd never have joined the Shadow. But he kept talking and she kept listening in fascinated horror to this man who she'd asked to marry her only months ago, who'd changed so much that she barely recognised him.

"I kept on fighting of course, giving everything for a dying cause. I kept on trying to fight for more unified command, for centralisation and efficiency and I was blocked at every turn. I led my armies, fought on the front lines and watched my men die. Die pointlessly just like you died, while others bickered and put all of their effort into avoiding making any personal sacrifice at all." The coldness in his eyes and earnestness in his voice had been replaced with anger, spittle flecking his lips. "Every day I fought and every day I was rejected. Lews Therin took resources, troops and glory. Bureaucrats and politicians who'd never even seen a shocklance hoarded whatever they could get their hands on. The system wasn't working and so few people could see it. Every action I took to fix it was stymied, Lews Therin was key to that, if he'd worked with me then perhaps it could have been saved, but he wouldn't." He shot a hate-filled glance at Rand. "And all the way through this I have to work with, to obey orders from, the man who's responsible for your death. Of course he didn't kill you himself, but he as good as, all so that he could preen for the cameras one more time!"

That was too much. "You sound like Mierin when she talks about me! You're obsessing over a fantasy version of a man who's been dead for three thousand years and his imagined slights to you, just like she does with me. I was there, I knew Lews Therin. Yes he was a pompous arse, but he was on the same side as you and he was a good man!"

Anger flashed into Tel's voice at her interruption. "My heart was ripped out the day you died and it was Lews Therin's fault! Him and Ishamael! You think I could keep going through that? I didn't think so, but I did. For two long years I did, watching everything just get worse and worse while I stood there alone, without you..." He seemed surprised at his words for a second before he gathered himself.

"That's when I started to think about how I could really make a difference. The Light rejected me, took away the thing I most cared about in the world and left me trying to save a fundamentally broken system. The Light was going to lose, that much was clear and the Shadow would remake the world in its own image."

He took a breath, returning to that strange, cold tone. "The world was falling apart. Balefire ripping holes in the pattern itself, vortexes of black nothingness tearing through our world. That was when I first spoke to the Shadow. Both sides were using it. Lews Therin and a full circle of 72 obliterated an entire army of shadowspawn with balefire using the Infinity Chalice. The retaliation from the Shadow burnt an entire city out of the pattern." He shook his head, "you can't imagine what it was like then. It was worse than anything we'd seen in the earlier days of the War, the very pattern unravelling around us. I knew it needed to stop or there'd be nothing at all left, Light or Shadow. So I made discrete contacts with some of the Chosen, exerted my own political power with the Light and we came to an agreement. It was never written down or even openly acknowledged, but both sides stopped using balefire. That was when I realised the truth, the Shadow promised a worse life than the Light, that was undeniable, but you could work with it, shape it."

Taija couldn't even muster a sarcastic comment to that. She was horrified by what he was telling her, but it wasn't the Tel she knew. How could he be so stupidly, blindly, wilfully ignorant? So horrible?

"By then it was clear that the Light was doomed and the choice was dying pointlessly or having the opportunity to make things better within the Shadow. Better to have some survive and work to rebuild a better system under me than to watch everything be extinguished by trolloc hordes. Oh I kept fighting for a while longer, but I already knew deep down what I had to do…" His eyes flashed and he glanced again at Rand. "It also offered me revenge. I could make Lews Therin pay for what he did to you, but just as importantly I could get access to Ishamael, make him pay for that too. Even Lanfear for what she did." A sneer twisted his face, accentuating that horrible scar. "Then I would become nae'blis and be able to preserve something of humanity so that it could be rebuilt and become something better than our failed system." His rant came to an end and he stood in front of her, painfully hard and emotionless.

"I can see you've had a great deal of success with those goals," Taija got her anger back under control enough to keep her voice dry. "The Light survived, so did Ishamael and now you're stuck here in a medieval shithole. I suppose you did at least help Lews Therin on his way, although I'm not sure the billions who died during the Breaking would thank you for it. Did you dance with trollocs in Adanza's ruins too? Or was that one of your friends amongst the 'Chosen' and you just took the time to spit on my empty grave afterwards?"

Her words must have hit home because rage flashed across his face. "I fought the Shadow in Adanza after everyone else had fled! I left that city exhausted, surrounded by walls of dead shadowspawn because I'd fought until I couldn't fight any more and fucking Lews Therin decided it wasn't a strategic priority!"

Taija furiously resisted the way her eyes wanted to fill with water at the thought of her home left in shadowspawn infested ruins. "And that convinced you the right thing to do was to go and do that to someone else's city? What was the Shadow's price? How many millions did you kill? How many other cities burnt? And for what? Nothing! Your own ridiculous delusions!"

He ignored her words. "Taija, join me. The Light is doomed. You've seen what this time's people are like, the jokes that they call aes sedai. Together we can replace the lunatics that make up the rest of the Chosen. Make sure that when the world is remade it's remade in our image, rule it together to preserve what we can. No more fighting, no more politics, just the two of us, together like we were always meant to be." He stretched out his hand to her. "Come with me Taija, be with me again."

Taija met his eyes, looking into their cold, dead blue. After a moment she laughed. It was a dead, empty, hollow sound completely lacking in humour. She wasn't even tempted. "Tel, you're pathetic. You come here saying you're giving me one last chance and then use it to try to justify yourself, justify why you've done things you know can't be justified. What do you want from me? For me to say I understand and it was the right thing to do?" She'd lost the struggle to keep her voice under control. "Well I don't and it wasn't and I never will!"

"Taija," he sounded resigned, "you do know what your future is if you don't come with me? Together we could save the world, apart… If you're lucky you'll be dead in months, if you're unlucky you'll end up as one of Graendal or Rahvin's playthings."

The boiling rage inside her flared ever brighter, "well I'm glad to see you have such respect for the woman you want to rule at your side's capabilities."

His voice softened, "come on Taija, if you want to live you need me. If you want anything of humanity to survive you need to work with me. It's inevitable otherwise. You're not equipped to survive in this Age. You're already making mistakes, Falme, me being able to find you here. Sooner or later you'll make one you can't fight your way out of." His eyes softened briefly, a tiny reminder of what she once had before the Creator cursed her to survive, then the cold hardness overwhelmed them again. "Join me and together we can make things better. Otherwise you'll be dead in six months, if you're lucky. I don't rejoice in it, that's not a threat. In honour of what we had I won't help them get to you, but I've known you for fifteen years. I know you too well, every weakness you have and you can't survive. Not here."

Taija looked up into those familiar, yet alien eyes. "You say you knew me that well after fifteen years. Are you sure? Because I thought the same and then I found I didn't know you at all. I arrived in this time with nothing but memories and now you come to spit on those too!"

"Taija please, be reasonable, you don't you understand…"

She cut him off staring straight at him, her words those of a judge pronouncing sentence. "Tel Janin Aellinsar is dead. I loved him and I will remember him. You are Sammael and I have no interest in speaking to a man who could never be loved and will soon be forgotten."

There was a moment of stunned silence. Sammael didn't seem to know what to say, his face completely expressionless.

Taija drew on saidar and started to spin balefire, making the web slow and obvious. She wasn't sure she could actually make herself kill him, but when Sammael saw the flickering light start to form his eyes widened and he opened a gateway, she didn't really care where to. A moment later he was gone.

Immediately Taija slumped, exhaustion hitting her. She wanted to cry, to rage, to destroy something, but inside she felt like a hollowed out shell. Nothing at all except a yawning pit of emptiness.

She looked dully at Rand and sliced the invisible web holding him, he'd be fine, Sammael hadn't hurt him. Not like he'd hurt her.

"T t that was Tel…" He wasn't really asking, but she nodded nevertheless.

"Yes it was Sammael." She was already heading for the door, right now she needed to be alone, she couldn't face talking to anyone. Everyone who could really understand had been dead for millennia, no doubt in part because of Sammael.

Then Rand spoke again, his voice somehow different, more pompous, smoother, "you should have never let him into your heart, the man was always going to betray you. From the very first time he set foot in the Hall of Servants all he wanted was power and glory."

It took Taija a second to fully process the words before she turned and look at Rand through dull eyes. "I thought you were a better man Rand. Not just a reflection of Lews Therin, but a kinder man who might be able to unify where he pushed people apart. But sometimes you're just as thoughtlessly cruel as he could be."

She had nothing else she wanted to hear or say from him right then. Taija channeled and stepped through a gateway straight to her room.

Chapter Text

Interlude XI - A Decision

Tel was angry. No that wasn't true, he was more than angry. He was absolutely fucking livid. He turned on his heel and stalked back across his huge bedroom. That fucking bitch! He turned again. He'd been pacing all night, back and forth, his boots wearing a hole in the plush rug. How could she speak like that to him?!

He'd gone to her, risked himself to offer her a chance to live and she'd spat in his face. He couldn't stop striding back and forth. Whenever he stopped all he could see was her hard, empty eyes boring into his. He'd always loved the soft, deep dark pools of her eyes, but there'd been no softness there. He'd bared his heart, exposed himself to her and she'd thrown it back at him. He was Sammael, he justified himself to nobody!

Those final words echoed through his head "Tel Janin Aellinsar is dead. I have no interest in speaking to a man who could never be loved."

She was wrong! He'd seen what needed to be done and had acted when everyone else was too weak. It had been inevitable. He could remember Adanza, at the end. He'd been standing on a small hill in the centre of the People's Park, surrounded by the bodies of trollocs and myrddraal. Exhaustion nearly dragging him to his knees. His comrades either fled or dead. He'd already known the Light had lost by then.

He could remember Lews Therin telling him that he was letting Taija's death cloud his judgment. That Adanza wasn't a strategic priority and that he'd wasted forces defending it that were needed on other fronts. He'd thought of refusals from the south to even send reinforcements and wanted to burn the man out of existence, but he'd just stalked off then.

Focus on strategic reality. Said by a man who'd opposed his reforms at every turn. Don't let nostalgia cloud your judgment. Coming from a man who'd clung desperately to an outdated, failing system. The man who'd as good as killed Taija. He hadn't managed to kill Lews Therin back then, but he could still kill Lews Therin reborn.

The Light was doomed, she was tying herself to some foolish boy trying to claim the name of someone who, for all his faults, was more than some Third Age peasant could ever become.

Perhaps he should accelerate his plans. That would show her, show the world. He had contingency plans, he could kill Ishamael, any of the others that were capable of opposing him. In a week there'd be nobody left to oppose his rise to nae'blis! Then maybe he'd be able to stop seeing her disappointed face.

No, that was foolish. He had to admit, she'd gotten to him if he was even considering this. He ran his hand across his head. He needed to pull himself together. They called Be'lal the Netweaver, but he had his own nets to weave and he wasn't going to throw away years of work because that bitch had put him off balance.

He'd been shocked by how vehement her rejection had been. He hadn't really expected her to understand. He'd been telling the truth when he said if you weren't there you couldn't understand. She was never going to.

There was a niggling doubt bothering him though. One that he couldn't quite squash. Years spent together, she had a temper on her no question. When you pushed her far enough all the softness vanished, but he'd never seen her so angry, so devastated.

The utter disgust in her voice when she'd asked what he'd done to join the Shadow. It took his mind back to places he didn't like to go. The screams of his command staff, when he'd turned on them. The trollocs stacking corpses for the cookpots at Satelle afterwards. Armies of shadowspawn pillaging their way through cities as he stood above them.

But she didn't understand. Everything worthwhile had its price. He needed to preserve something, anything and she spat on the sacrifices that he'd made for the greater good.

The idiot woman didn't even care that she'd be dead in the next six months. He knew her well enough, for all her faults she was clever. She knew he was right. She was alone in the world, fighting desperately to save these barbarian peasants in a losing battle. The so-called aes sedai opposed her, because of course they did. She was left herding a bunch of children in some forlorn hope that they could win for the Light and she still threw his offer back in his face!

If she'd been there, had survived that townhall and he'd died she'd have done what he did. She'd have understood and made the journey to Shayol Ghul, she just got lucky!

No. He shook his head, his ever-moving strides still taking him back and forth across the room. He wasn't like some of the others, an idiot who'd tell himself comforting, arrogant lies. He knew his capabilities and those of his enemies. She'd have died spitting defiance, sooner or later, but she wouldn't have turned.

Maybe that would have been better, if he'd died and she'd lived? She'd have pushed on, fought on… It was ridiculous. Yes, she'd have done that and then she'd have died with honour, alone and pointlessly. He had survived and he would lead, he would preserve humanity under his leadership.

His boiling fury made him want to lash out, punish her, but he knew his limits. She clearly had an angreal and she was dangerous. She'd gotten under his skin. He needed to do something though, he couldn't let her get to him like this.

Fuck Ishamael and his plans. It was idiocy trying to turn the Dragon, it just gave the boy more time to become stronger.

That would do it. He would kill Lews Therin, burn him to ashes and then he would have had the first true step of his revenge.

She'd no doubt have moved them since his visit, but that was fine. He had his ways, unless she was a lot more on the ball than he expected, he'd have no trouble finding the boy.

She was right about one thing though. Tel Janin Aellinsar was dead. Sammael didn't smile, because Sammael never smiled. He did stop pacing though.

Chapter Text

Chapter XXXI - Thank the Light for Aleksi

When Taija woke up the next morning, all she could do for a while was stare at the wooden beamed ceiling. It felt too difficult to get out bed. She hadn't really felt ok since she worked out when she was, that she was three thousand years away from anything and anyone she'd known.

The crushing revelation of how Sammael had survived had ripped a hole through her psyche and his pathetic attempt at self-justification only widened it. How could she have been so stupid?! She couldn't even mourn what she'd lost now, he'd ruined that too. Everything was tainted. Every moment of love and joy.

Taija knew that she needed to keep going, but it was so hard. What was even the point? She didn't want to be looked up to by the girls. She was still furious with Rand even though really she knew he was just a kid. The aes sedai were a twisted perversion of her own beliefs. She was tired.

She needed equals, friends she could ask for help, who'd look after her just as much as she did them. Aleksi did his best, he really did, but the fact that she was relying on a twenty five year old farmer for emotional support, to hold herself together, illustrated the problem.

It would just be so much easier to just go and become a hermit in the mountains, or go to the Blight and kill shadowspawn until she couldn't fight anymore.

In the end what got Taija out of bed was the realisation that her thought processes were starting to sound like Sammel's 'explanations'. She'd die before she started to travel down his road.

So Taija hauled herself out of bed and achingly slowly got herself ready to go out. She'd thought she should keep training the others, but in the end she decided that she wasn't ready to face the girls or Rand. Not today. At least there was work she could set them to.

Taija grabbed Aleksi on her way out and told him that she needed to do some things outside Tear and that he and the others should arrange a move to a new inn with new names. If she'd been thinking straight she'd have moved last night as soon as Sammael left, but even if the best time to move was then, the second best time was now. She arranged to meet Aleksi later so he could tell her where they'd moved to.

Then Taija spun a gateway back to Falme. Sammael found her and she wasn't sure how. The most obvious explanation though is that he found out from someone in Falme. She wasn't likely to find any darkfriend spies, but it was possible that he got the information more directly. Taija didn't much like Moiraine, but she felt she needed to make sure that the woman was alright.

However, when Taija got to Falme Moiraine was nowhere to be found. In fact, the only people she recognised other than servants from the palace were some of the Shienarans that accompanied Rand from Cairhien. They were very respectful to her, but all they could tell her was that Moiraine left the day after she and the 'Dragon Reborn' did. If she had to guess, she'd probably either gone to Siuan or was looking for her in Tear. Either way a problem for another time. She'd check in on Siuan, but she and Moiraine had carefully not told her where the rebel aes sedai were based. Perhaps it was for the best.

=====

Back in Tear Taija met with Aleksi, changed her appearance and headed over to the new inn. Actually one of the girls had done a very solid job of spinning him a new identity, if she hadn't known he'd be there she'd never have recognised him. She'd have been proud if she had the mental energy for it.

Aleksi briefed Taija on her and the rest of the group's new identities on the way back to the inn. She took it in without saying much, just going through the motions.

By the time Taija got to the inn Aleksi was visibly worried about her. He was never great at hiding his feelings, but then neither was she.

Taija saw Rand, or at least someone who looked distinctly like his new disguise, in the common room when they entered the inn. As soon as he saw her with Aleksi he leapt to his feet. "Lady Gisel, I…"

Oh yes, that was her new name. At least he remembered that. Taija really couldn't face talking to Rand at that moment though so she just kept walking while Aleksi made an apologetic face at him.

When she'd been escorted to her room Taija thanked Aleksi, firmly shut the door and lay down on the bed, staring at the ceiling again. She knew she was being self-indulgent, that those kids needed leadership, but it was hard. She didn't want to be there, she didn't want to be in charge.

Around an hour later Taija heard a tentative knock on her door. She ignored it. She didn't want to talk to anyone right now, unfortunately whoever it was didn't seem to be going away. She heard another knock. A pause and then another, much less tentative.

When she didn't answer again the door handle rattled and the door swung open. Taija immediately embraced saidar, but released it when she saw it was just Aleksi. He stepped in past the threshold of the room, looking down at her. "Taija," his voice was gentle, "what's wrong?"

"Didn't Rand tell you?" She snapped. Unfairly defensive, but she couldn't help herself.

"No, he didn't. He's upset about something, but just told me it's none of my business." Aleksi came over to her bed, "now what's wrong? You look halfway between wanting to kill someone and wanting someone to kill you." He gave a weak chuckle at his own joke.

"I don't want to talk about it," she said. There was a tearing feeling in her chest where her heart should be, a painful tightness and suddenly she was twisting her mouth into a grimace as her eyes swam. She wouldn't cry, not over him and not in front of Aleksi. Taija forced a slow breath through a rib cage that didn't want to cooperate. "Please just… just leave me alone. I'll be fine in the morning Aleksi." She knew he could hear the roughness in her voice but forced a steady look at his face to convince him.

Aleksi sat down on the bed beside her. "Taija, I've known you longer than anyone else here. You are not fine." He enveloped her hand in his, calluses scraping her softer skin. "If you don't want to tell me then, don't tell me, but I'm your warder and you can trust me whatever happens."

Taija sat silently and rigidly for a long moment, fighting herself and a rising swell of emotion that could drown her if she let it. A single tear broke past her control and ran down her face and she gasped silently for one last breath to try to hold it in.

In the end she told him everything.

======

Rand was not enjoying life. The last few months had been bad enough, but now things just seemed to be getting worse.

He'd fought the Forsaken before and every time it had been a terrifying experience he'd barely survived. He'd even spoken with Ishamael, although that was in dreams. What he hadn't been was utterly helpless at the hands of one of them.

When Sammael had walked into the dining room… He'd barely acknowledged him, a child facing an adult man. A mere glance and he'd been blocked from the Power and wrapped in air like a lamb for the butcher. If he was actually the Dragon Reborn, and he had his doubts about that, he'd need to fight these people, to beat them and yet there he was failing at the first hurdle.

He hadn't understood what Taija and Sammael were saying to each other, at times it had felt like he almost could, but he didn't know how to speak the Old Tongue. He could see the hate filled looks Sammael had shot at him though and Taija's own face had shown her emotions like an open book.

She really wasn't like Moiraine or the other aes sedai he'd met. She didn't hide her emotions well at all and what he'd seen made his heart break for her. Disgust and revulsion, absolute fury too, but dominating it all was just devastation and pain.

He knew that and yet he'd made that idiotic comment to her afterwards. He didn't know where it came from, he didn't even know anything about Sammael, but he'd said it nonetheless.

It felt true, somehow he knew that, but he couldn't get the dead look in her eyes when she'd looked at him out of his head. The sheer disappointment and hurt in her voice when she said she'd thought he was kinder than that.

Sometimes he felt like she was the only person who really believed in him as a person. The one person who didn't care that he could channel. Those long conversations telling him that he was who he was, not just the Kinslayer reborn, that he could make his own destiny. That even if he was the Dragon Reborn, he could still be a better person than the Dragon had been.

Then there were her words, comparing him to the one person he desperately wanted to avoid becoming. Words coming from someone who'd known Lews Therin personally. He knew he needed to be strong, so he hadn't fled, but the words had penetrated to his core.

It had made it still worse when she'd just walked past him this evening in the inn's common room, not even acknowledging him. Nynaeve and Egwene certainly knew how to snub a man, but he'd never seen her do that to anyone before.

How could he have been so stupid? Why couldn't he just keep his mouth shut?! She must be absolutely furious and he wasn't sure what he could do to fix it.

So he sat morosely in the common room, sipping at a mug of ale and wondering if he should just climb the walls of the Stone of Tear and try to reach Callandor that night. At least then he'd have an answer.

Rand had just about decided that he'd finish his drink and then head for the Stone when someone's hand descended onto his shoulder. He jumped, groping for his sword before he realised it was just Aleski.

He looked up at Taija's warder, the slightly older man normally looked relaxed and cheerful, but today he seemed to be doing his best imitation of Lan. "Walk with me," Rand could almost hear the 'sheepherder' at the end of the sentence.

It didn't matter that Aleksi was nearly as odd a warder as Taija was an aes sedai, it seemed he could still be intimidating when he wanted to be. Rand hurriedly got out of the seat and followed the man out of the inn. He wasn't sure what Aleksi wanted, but he was sure he'd never seen him looking so grimly serious before.

They walked in silence for a while, until Rand broke it. "Is Taija alright?"

Aleksi paused and then sighed, letting out a great huff of air, some of the tension leaving his body. "Yes, she'll be alright, she's sleeping now." He hesitated, "why in the Light did you say that to her though?"

Rand thought briefly about denying it and then gave a sigh of his own. "I don't know, it just came out. Like I knew something about him, even though I'd never seen him before. It felt true, but I wasn't thinking."

"Clearly," Aleksi's voice was dry.

"I wish I knew what he'd said to her though. I don't think I've ever seen her so angry or so hurt and then…" his voice dropped. "I know I hurt her more."

"Look Rand, you need to understand what's going on." Aleksi ran his hand over his face, Rand knew he was only in his mid twenties, but for a moment he looked much older. "Whatever you think, I believe you're the Dragon Reborn. More importantly, I like you and Taija likes you."

Aleksi hesitated, glancing up at the night sky, before seeming to come to a decision. "If she finds out I told you she'll kill me… well probably not literally she's too nice but she'll be very angry. Still, I think you need to know, so that you can understand what she's going through and why it was so stupid of you to say that. Maybe then next time you'll keep your mouth shut."

Rand couldn't say he liked being called stupid, but he could take it if he needed to and he knew he needed to hear this. He nodded his assent, "I won't breathe a word of it to anyone."

Aleksi thought for a second and then he began to speak. "You know she was betrothed to Sammael? Well to the man before he became Sammael anyway?" Without waiting for Rand to respond he continued, "whatever face she puts on for you or anyone else, she's deeply unhappy and lonely." He grimaced, "if you reveal I told you this, she won't need to kill you because I'll do it for her, but I'm fairly sure she cries herself to sleep many nights. She's not in a good place. Not at all… I think she's mostly keeping herself together out of a sense of duty to the Light and desire you to protect you, Egwene and Elayne. And Nynaeve too I suppose. Think about it, she was living in a paradise that we can only imagine, with friends, family, a home. Now she's here, with none of that, squabbling with aes sedai and with half the Forsaken desperate to kill her."

Rand winced, he'd had no idea about any of this. She always seemed so strong, so comfortable in herself whenever she spoke to him.

"Anyway," Aleski continued, not giving him the chance to say anything. "As you know, Sammael came to speak to her. He was… Well she's not quite sure, maybe halfway between trying to turn her to the Shadow and trying to convince her he'd done nothing wrong."

"But it's Sammael, one of the Forsaken! Why would she even listen to anything he said?" Rand protested.

Aleksi gave him a deeply unimpressed look. "Try to get some empathy into that thick skull of yours. She's alone here, with nothing except memories of the man she loved, who I'm fairly sure was a hero when she was in the Age of Legends." A look of distaste flashed across Aleksi's face. "She's already struggling and then the man she loves turns up and has committed crimes you and I can't even imagine. Except, believe me she can, because she's met the Forsaken she's seen what they did. How would you feel if you went home and found your father had murdered and raped everyone you knew?"

With a sinking feeling in his stomach Rand thought maybe he did understand why Taija had been so upset. "So what did Sammael say to her?"

======

The next day Taija was feeling more functional. She wasn't ok, she wasn't sure that she'd ever be ok again, but she could at least face speaking to people. Talking to Aleksi helped and not for the first time she thanked the Creator that he was the one that found her after the stasis box.

At breakfast she informed the others that they were all going to be heading out of Tear to train again. She'd decided, especially with the Black Ajah seemingly being aware of Egwene, that they needed to move against the Stone soon. No more than a week from now. However, she wanted them to be as ready as they could be when they did make their move. Be'lal would no doubt be expecting an attack, but hopefully he wouldn't be expecting all six of them working together.

In no time at all they were all back on the hill that they'd started the training on. This time Taija told them, they wouldn't be trying to beat her. Instead she wanted to work on tactics involving gateways.

So far only Egwene and Nynaeve were strong enough to open useful gateways, but that didn't matter. To be fair, Rand also thought he'd done it before, but he wasn't sure how and Elayne was getting close to strong enough.

"Today we're going to be practising using gateways as a mobility tool." She started her lecture. "Staying still in battle is making yourself a target, a slow fighter is a dead one. With gateways you're not limited to your own legs, you can disappear and reappear anywhere on the battlefield, or even flee if you need to."

Taija gestured across the field, "so we're going to play a game of tag." They didn't seem to understand what tag was so she took a moment to explain with a sigh. She quickly found out that they each had different names for the game. "Anyway…" Taija tried not to sound irritated by the diversion, "your objective is to 'survive'. You're not allowed to attack me, but I'll be spinning webs that cover an area that will sting you if you stay in them for too long. You'll be able to see them as they form to let you dodge. The rules are, if you're stung then you're dead, if you can dodge on foot or with gateways for long enough then you win. Got it?"

At their nods she clapped her hands together, "let's go."

It turned out the painful stinging sensation that came from being caught in Taija's colourful webs was a good incentive and they quickly improved. Not only did they get better at staying moving, but also at working together to Travel back and forth. At first the girls ignored the boys to keep themselves safe, but Taija quickly corrected that.

Interestingly, it was also exhausting work for the girls. Rand and Aleksi were very physically fit, probably from all the time they spent training with Lan, but the girls could definitely do with a bit more exercise. Taija wasn't sure how to discuss that with them though. She couldn't really see them running in the inconvenient dresses that they favoured. Even she'd had to be sneaking out by gateway at odd hours for runs in what everyone in that Light-forsaken time considered to be men's clothing and hence deeply inappropriate. There wasn't much she could do about it now, but she was going to have to put some thought into it after the Stone, assuming they survived.

Over the rest of the week Taija also took them through another two key uses of gateways in combat. The first was simply attack, using gateways to redirect your own attacks to hit an enemy from a different angle or bypass their defences. For that she split them into two teams. Egwene on one and Nynaeve on the other and had them compete with each other.

Second, she had them practicing using gateways to 'assault' somewhere. Rather than dodging through them, they used gateways to bypass defences and strong points and to support each other. Again Taija had them competing in teams against each other, with her running interference to keep things interesting.

It was all a very watered down version of the tactics Lightbringer teams used to use. She'd never truly been one of them, but she'd worked with them often enough when they needed more of a heavy hitter and trained with them occasionally.

Taija would never forget the terrifying efficiency with which those teams could fight their way through enemy channelers and if she could get even a fraction of that into the heads of her companions they'd be terrifying in modern times. If nothing else, their sheer combined strength in the Power would make up for a lot of deficiencies. Once they reached their full potential anyway.

Taija also took the time one evening to talk Egwene through what she knew of the Unseen World. Mostly she told her about the dangers to her, but she was at least able to explain the basics of how to manipulate the place. In particular that it was all a question of willpower and visualisation and that everything was malleable.

Taija made sure to tell her some of the horror stories that she'd heard in her time and how the Forsaken and other predators stalked through that place. In particular, emphasising how Egwene should avoid it at all possible. The girl looked suitably scared, but Taija still suspected that she was going to be ignoring much of her advice. It was the problem with teenagers.

=====

The whole group was getting better fast as they got towards the end of the week that Taija had given for preparation, they were all impressively talented youths and very willing to work hard. Back in her time Taija would never have even considered assaulting a member of the Forsaken on their home territory with a team like this, but nowadays… She might actually have a chance.

Working on training the others took up most of her time and that was good. Not having much time to think meant she was holding herself together better than she had any right to expect, but sometimes Taija just couldn't make herself face the world and she needed to be alone.

She wasn't sure what triggered it, but one morning when she got out of bed, going out suddenly felt unmanageable. The empty hole torn out of her heart by being in that time, by Sammael was just too big.

Eventually Aleksi came to Taija's room to find her curled up on the bed staring emptily at the wall.

"Taija…" His voice trailed off.

"I'll be fine, please…" she just wanted to be left alone for a while, "please just tell them I'm not feeling well. I'll look after myself, you all go and train, Nynaeve or Egwene can get you there fine without me."

Aleksi didn't want to go, but Taija insisted and eventually he left to marshal the others. She was left alone, with her thoughts.

======

Tel allowed himself a nod of satisfaction. He wasn't sure what she was doing instead, but she'd left Lews Therin unattended.

He didn't want to attack him inside the city, that would bring unwanted attention, but now the timing was perfect. He'd been watching and she hadn't left her room, so when the web he'd placed on Lews Therin's sword the last time he saw him told him that he had Traveled outside the city he knew his opportunity had come. He did briefly consider whether it might be a trap and then dismissed the idea. If she had any idea he was here she'd already have acted.

He'd give Lews Therin a little longer, just to make sure that Taija didn't show any signs of joining them and then he would strike.

Tel leant back in his chair and pretended to take another sip of ale. Everything was coming together nicely.

Another fifteen minutes passed and it was time to leave. Straightening his finely-cut coat he headed out of the inn to find somewhere discrete for his gateway. Better not to be seen in general, but particularly when he was working in a city claimed by one of his 'colleagues'. Be'lal certainly didn't scare him, but it could be inconvenient.

Turning into an alleyway, he spun an inverted web, opening a gateway to a hilly area somewhere to the north-west. Then he hesitated, caught in a rare moment of indecision.

No. He would have his revenge on Lews Therin and nothing would stand in the way of that. A moment and he'd spun a web of illusion over himself. An outside observer would have seen him ripple until he seemed to be replaced by a much shorter, slim, brown-skinned woman. He ignored the moment of discomfort he felt at his choice, really he should be enjoying the dark irony of taking on this appearance.

Given how much bigger he was than her, he didn't expect the illusion to hold up to close scrutiny, but it would let him get nearer to the unsuspecting Third Agers.

Seconds later he was striding through the grass towards them, Tear left far behind. His steps were those of a grim executioner, a job to be done. Finally he would get his revenge and then he'd be able to continue with his plans, undistracted by the doubts that had been cropping up more and more over the last few days.

As Tel got closer, he could see that they had stopped whatever they were doing, apparently taking a break. Lews Therin and that boy that followed Taija around were lazing on the grass while the girls were standing over them. They looked tired and sweaty, but seemed to be happily talking to each other, laughing at some joke, which was something of a surprise. He'd thought that Lews Therin was surlier than that in his current incarnation. Still, no matter. It would be a pity to kill them while they were unsuspecting, but victory came before honour.

As he got closer they looked up and saw him, so he waved and kept walking forward, preparing several inverted webs for when he felt he was close enough to ensure a quick victory. It was easy enough to spin a web to change his voice too, especially when he was so familiar with hers. "Hello!" He called out, making his voice enthusiastic.

The boys got up and Lews Therin waved back at him, taking a step forward before the other one stopped him with a hand across his body. "Taija sedai," he shouted back. "It's good to see you on your feet, has your stomach improved?"

Internally Tel scowled, the boy might well be on to him. He was fairly sure this was a trap of some kind, but there was still a chance and either way he'd get closer if he could keep them talking. "Yes, must have been something I ate, I'm feeling much better now, so I thought I'd come to supervise your training."

There it was. Just a glance from the boy and fire was erupting around Tel. It was impressive coordination, saidar of course, he doubted Lews Therin had learnt how to invert his webs. It was actually admirable how well they worked together. If only the forces of the Shadow could do the same.

Contemptuously he sliced the webs assailing him and let loose with his own inverted webs.

They would die, five children one of whom couldn't even channel were no match for him. Fire sprang forth from him, shrieking through the air to engulf the five of them. At the same time, lightning bolts struck down dragged by him from a clear sky.

Irritatingly they all shattered against a barrier and finally Lews Therin seized saidin. Far too slow, he really was just a boy still. Killing him would hardly be a challenge. A pity, but Tel knew victory was more important than glory. He wanted his revenge. Idly he spun more webs bringing together the elements to send huge balls of fire mixed with whirling, razor-sharp blades of air, this time focusing them all straight towards Lews Therin.

A gateway snapped open beside Lews Therin and he dived through, escaping Tel's attack. He hadn't felt saidin in that, so it must be the girls. He was already starting to get irritated by them. Without thinking he fended off a web of saidin that Lews Therin had sent his way. Powerful for someone as inexperienced as he was, but crudely spun.

With an irritated grunt Tel began to bombard the girls with lightning and fire while absently slicing anything that came from Lews Therin. Even together they wouldn't be able to stand up to him and he could take his time.

His bombardment came to a sudden end when his instincts screamed and he threw himself to the ground, just dodging the end of a staff as it whistled through the space his head had been occupying a moment ago.

What the fuck just happened? He scrambled back franticly fending off the sudden flurry of webs thrown at him while also trying to get away from the swiping staff. Of course. The boy had come through another gateway behind him. Impressive for untrained peasants. Taija had clearly been busy.

He rolled sideways to dodge the whirling and jabbing end of the staff. No time to get distracted by thoughts of the time they'd spent training together.

There, the boy came too close and he hooked a foot behind his ankle. A quick grab, push with the other foot and he was down, Sammael jumping to his feet over him, fending off webs of saidar and saidin as he moved.

Air to seize the boy. He needed to change position before the others battered down his defences. It was quickly becoming clear that much as he could dominate any of them one on one, he couldn't quickly win a contest of brute strength against the four of them.

He spun a gateway and leapt through it, bringing the boy with him. He'd make him pay for nearly killing one of the Chosen, but he deserved an honourable death, not just to be obliterated by a channeler. Tel glanced towards the girls and sent a series of webs of fire and earth their way. He'd get back to them.

Drawing his sword he turned towards the boy, lining it up, level with his exposed neck. Above him lightning detonated futilely against his wall of air. The boy's eyes widened, fear painted across his face as he realised what was about to happen.

Tel swung only for his sword to slam into solid air with a clang. Another web of air sprang up between them, too close and unexpected for him to stop it, picking him up and throwing him away from the boy in a tumbling heap.

Ever-present anger surged in him. He treated them with honour and this is what he got in return. Fine, he would show them why he was known as the destroyer of hope. He channeled, forcing saidin into a series of complex webs. Fire erupted around the girls as the earth exploded under them, lightning struck down towards the boy. Only Lews Therin was already there. Poorly spun, but powerful, a web of air shattering his lightning bolts with deafening roars.

"Why?!" He didn't sound much like Lews Therin. "Why are you doing this?! Haven't you done enough? You walk around trying to justify your crimes while every day you add to them." Fire burst from Lews Therin's hands, a stone was ripped from the ground and spun through the space Tel would have been in if he hadn't stepped through a gateway.

"You speak of crimes Lews Therin, what about your crimes?" Tel sliced a web from one of the girls and casually flung her backwards with his counterstroke. "Opposing me, for glory, letting the Light wither, refusing to do what needed to be done." Lews Therin staggered backwards under the onslaught of saidin that Sammael threw at him. "You want to talk about crimes, you killed everyone you love and everyone that I loved too!"

"You Light-blasted hypocrite! Everyone you loved? I look into Taija's eyes every day and see what you did to her." Tel dived to the side as fire streaked at him out of a gateway from an unexpected angle. "How can you talk about love when you treated her like that. She lost everything and then you came in and somehow managed to make it worse!" Fury twisted Lews Therin's face and Tel staggered backwards barely deflecting the flurry of fire, air and earth bombarding him.

"You don't understand! How can you? You're just a farmer, some boy from this Light-forsaken age!" He channeled and Lews Therin was thrown off his feet, barely rolling out of the way of a blade of air that would have cut him in half. "You ask me what I did to her? I did what needed to be done, if she can't see that then that's her fault! It's nothing but her own weakness showing through. She never deserved me!" His voice rose to a scream, his killing stroke sliding off a barrier of saidar.

Lews Therin climbed to his feet again, "if you truly believe that then she's right. Tel Janin is dead." Suddenly attacks were coming at Tel from three different angles, the girls had clearly repositioned themselves while he was focused on Lews Therin. "You had your friends, your allies, your whole world and yet you still turned to the Shadow. Taija has nothing, she cries herself to sleep and then gets up to help us like nothing ever went wrong because unlike you she's strong. All she had was memories and now you're turning even those to ashes. Someone like you could never truly understand love, loyalty, friendship. That's why the Shadow will lose!"

"The Shadow's victory is inevitable." Tel Traveled out from between the girls and flung a blossom of fire at them, only to see them step through gateways of their own. "I gave everything I had for the Light and it wasn't enough." He staggered as a web of air clipped him. His own fire came close to incinerating Lews Therin and the boy before it was sliced. "You stand there judging me when you can never understand. With your friends, allies working together," he deflected a gigantic fireball into the sky, "how could you understand."

His voice trailed off. Tel didn't know how it was happening, but combined they were holding him off. He'd taken their measure, they weren't that good, yet he was struggling. Suddenly he just felt tired. This had been a mistake, four of them, maybe even five, together, maybe another time. Too much strength, too much talent, even if undeveloped.

Lews Therin shouted to one of the girls and more gateways opened. Fury surged in him. He wasn't going to lose to a gang of barely trained children. With a snarl he started to spin balefire, he wasn't going to end his journey at hands of half-trained children.

Yet he didn't finish the web. For a long second he held it and then finally he let it dissipate with a grunt of frustration. His first contact with the Shadow, the start of his fall, no ascension, had been with the aim of stopping the use of balefire. What was he even thinking? What was the point of this?

With a roar of frustration he channeled and a gateway opened behind him. A second later he was back in Illian. There would be better opportunities, Lews Therin would be alone sooner or later.

====

At the end of the day Taija was feeling a little more functional. She'd managed to make her way down to the inn's common room for a light dinner and she thought she could just about face seeing the others.

However, when Aleksi and Rand came in they were grim faced. They quickly spotted her and hurried over to her table.

"Taija!" Rand jumped at his own indiscretion and looked around to see if anyone heard before dropping his voice to a whisper, "Nynaeve, Egwene and Elayne, they've been taken!"

"What do you mean they've been taken!?" In a flash Taija went from dull apathy to fully awake, sitting up straight and adrenaline shooting through her.

"Aes sedai. The Black Ajah it must have been," Aleksi jumped in. "There were lots of them, at least ten, and they surrounded the girls out of nowhere. We were walking a bit behind them and I don't think they realised we were together."

Rand interjected, "I thought the girls were going to channel, blow them away, but then they just stood there. They looked so scared. I was going to try to help them, but Aleksi stopped me and said we needed to get help first, he said there were too many." He sounded half apologetic, half accusatory.

Taija stood, mind whirling, "Aleksi was right, you did the right thing. You couldn't have taken on that many 'aes sedai'." Light everything was falling apart, but at the same time she felt more alive than she had all week. At least here she had a purpose. "Did you see where they took them?"

"Yes," Aleksi nodded, "we followed at a safe distance, they were taken straight to the Stone."

"Fuck." So they were almost certainly working with Be'lal. Taija remembered Siuan's list of black aes sedai. Thirteen darkfriend channelers… She tried to suppress her shudder. "Alright, fine. We need to move. Fast." She stopped and took a closer look at them. "Why do you smell burnt? Have you been ignoring what I said about safety."

Rand and Aleksi looked at each other, but Rand spoke first, "Tel… he…"

Aleksi followed right behind, speaking over him, "Sammael, he attacked us. We fought him off." There was something more going on there, Taija knew him well enough, there was something bothering him. A lot.

"Sammael attacked you?" She felt a spike of pain in her heart and ruthlessly suppressed it, she didn't have time for that. "Are you hurt? What about the girls?"

"No, we fought him off!" Rand answered looking proud, "we worked together just like you taught us, all of us together and we were beating him!"

Taija gave him a flat look. "The five of you beat Sammael?"

Rand's nod was enthusiastic, Aleksi's was slower, more thoughtful.

Taija shook her head, "no… No, I don't think so. I'm sorry Rand, but the five of you can't beat me yet and…" memories of long training sessions together flashed through her head. "And Sammael is at least as good as me, he's stronger in the Power and he's a skilled soldier, he must have had some sort of scheme."

They clearly wanted to argue, but kept their mouths shut. Then Rand glanced nervously at Aleksi who winced. "There's something else too," he said slowly.

Taija was too busy trying to think through the consequences of everything and work out how Sammael found them and absently asked, "what's that?"

"I can channel."

Oh. Taija looked up and actually focused on him. She nearly said 'congratulations', but just caught herself. His face told her everything she needed to know about how he felt. "Oh Aleksi, I'm so sorry." When she thought about it, even without this 'taint' and the bigotry, it was deeply worrying. Without a teacher his odds were poor and she didn't think Rand was anywhere near being able to realistically teach someone how to channel. That was a problem for tomorrow though. "I'm so sorry Aleksi," she repeated and reached out to give his arm a squeeze. "We'll talk more and work out what we're going to do, but that can wait. It has to wait. For now we need to move on the Stone. The girls need us and we need to get Rand in there before Sammael tries again."

Aleksi steeled himself and nodded although she could still see the worry in his eyes, "you're right. What do we need to do?"

They were both looking to her for leadership that she wasn't sure she could provide. She needed to try though, to live up to their expectations, not to live down to Sammael's example. "Alright, here's what…"

Taija stopped when the two of them suddenly lost focus. A moment later she turned to see what they were staring at behind her. Moiraine. Gliding into the common room like she owned it, Lan stalking behind her looking as dangerous as ever and finally Perrin trailing awkwardly after them.

"How the fuck is everyone fucking finding me?! For fuck's sake!" Taija wanted to scream the words, but kept her voice low. It was getting ridiculous. "Right! You two, upstairs. Now. We'll continue this in my room." She caught Moiraine's eye and gestured with a jerk of her chin before following after the boys.

In her room Taija waited for the arrival of Moiraine and her party. When they came in she stood and gave her a shallow bow, "Moiraine sedai, I didn't expect to see you here."

"Taija sedai," she gave her a tiny nod of acknowledgment, "I go where the Light needs me and that is currently at the Dragon Reborn's side." She shot a glance at Rand.

Great, if she wasn't going to bring up Taija's disappearance with Rand and the girls, then neither was Taija. She was sure she'd be hearing about it at length later.

"Well it's good to see you Moiraine sedai," Taija was only half lying, her strength in the Power wasn't insignificant and she had no doubt Lan was deadly with his blade. "We have several problems and we were just discussing what action to take."

Taija quickly updated her on the day's events.

"Given this, we need to act immediately, I plan to enter the Stone tonight with Rand and Aleksi. We will rescue the girls and then take Callandor if Rand can, so we can settle this whole Dragon Reborn thing once and for all. Of course your help would be invaluable if you're willing."

Moiraine gazed at her with infuriating serenity. "Well, it seems you have placed yourself and your charges in a difficult position." The worst thing was Taija couldn't even argue. She wanted to protest that Moiraine didn't understand, but she couldn't bring yourself to use the same words as Sammael. When Taija kept quiet Moiraine gave a small, satisfied nod. "Of course I will assist you, we work towards the same goals. Perhaps this time you will listen to my advice though. What is your plan?"

Taija quickly descended into the nitty gritty of planning with Moiraine and the others. Much as she disliked the woman, she had to admit she knew what she was talking about and actually gave useful advice. The biggest surprise though was her revelation that Callandor was a male sa'angreal. With that Rand would be unbeatable, as would any of the Forsaken, if they could get their hands on it. Taija thought she was starting to see at least the outline of the net that Be'lal was weaving…

Chapter Text

Interlude XII - Are We The Bad Guys?

Tel finished changing out of his ruined clothes into clean ones of equally fine cut and make. He was sore and aching in various places and if he hadn't run a cleansing web over himself he'd smell faintly of smoke. However, his body's aches and pains were nothing compared to the anger burning inside him. Beaten off by a bunch of children. What was wrong with him? He was the Destroyer of Hope!

He needed to get his head back in the game. He had plans that needed to be pushed forward, things to do. If he kept letting himself be distracted he'd be easy meat for the rest of the Chosen. They could sense weakness and they wouldn't hesitate to turn on him, any more than he wouldn't hesitate to turn on them. Well, most of them anyway.

He began the web for a gateway, altering it slightly to send the polite chime that warned anyone at the other end that he was coming. After a suitable pause the gateway opened and he stepped through.

In an instant he was in an expansive atrium, sunlight shining down onto marble columns and gushing fountains while stunningly attractive, completely naked men and women cavorted around him.

With long practice he ignored them, focusing his attention on the full-figured woman in front of him. Again he ignored the way her dress clung to her curves, showing more than it concealed, instead looking straight into her eyes.

"Graendal," he nodded to her.

She smiled widely, "Sammael, how lovely to see you, to what do I owe the pleasure? A drink?" She gestured and a naked girl who couldn't have been far out of her teens immediately hurried over to offer him a glass of wine.

He glanced at the girl before dismissing her from his mind. "No, thank you."

"Oh Sammael, you should relax more," Graendal laughed. She shot a glance to her left and a handsome young man scrambled to get on his hands and knees while another knelt beside him holding a cup of wine up as if he was praying to her. They certainly both thought of her as a goddess.

Graendal settled down onto her human chair and gave Sammael a smile that would make lesser men go weak at the knees. "Since you don't want to take the time for small talk, tell me, what is it you want Sammael?"

Sammael ignored the slaves, they weren't important. "I have a proposal for you." Graendal leant forward, interested, and not at all coincidentally exposed yet more of her expansive cleavage to him. Typical. "I have plans that will elevate us in the Great Lord's regard and secure our positions as first among the Chosen."

"Go on," Graendal was polite as ever, her voice smooth, encouraging.

"I want to kill Lews Therin, Ishamael is losing his grip, wasting time trying to turn him. We both know the Great Lord's interests will be better served by having him dead. For that I need your help." He hated having to admit that he couldn't do something alone.

Graendal raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow shifting on her living chair to get more comfortable, before clasping her hands in her lap and looking straight into his eyes. "Are you sure you're not letting your judgment be clouded by your hate for the man?"

"No!" Sammael scowled and moderated his tone, "you know perfectly well how I feel about Lews Therin, you also know I'm nothing like Demandred, I don't let my emotions rule me."

"Mmm, no of course not." Graendal reached out and took her glass from the hands of her slave before sipping from it. "So what does this have to do with me?"

Sammael knew she was trying to needle him, she always liked to provoke people to say more than they meant to. "Lews Therin has found himself allies, allies who'll be significant opponents of the Great Lord themselves one day." He met Graendal's eyes, intensity burning in his voice. "They cannot be allowed to survive and neither can he, but alone I'm out matched by weight of numbers," he didn't try to hide the grimace at that admission. "However, together we could overwhelm them with ease, removing what are potentially the greatest opponents of the Shadow at a single stroke, or possibly compelling them to our side. We would reduce the other Chosen to insignificance in the face of our victory."

"Hmm," Graendal glanced at one of her performing slaves and the girl hurried over to prostrate herself in front of her before starting to massage her ankles and calves while staring adoringly up at her. "I can see the appeal of what you propose, but there are significant risks. Have you considered…"

Graendal was cut off by the entrance of a finely dressed, man with grey streaked through the brown of his thick beard and hair. A beautiful, young, pale-skinned brunette trailing behind him clutching nervously at the sides of her elegantly tailored, silk dress. Graendal looked over to them a flash of annoyance passing across her face before she smiled and clapped her hands together in apparent delight.

Sammael took a step to the side as the man hustled up to Graendal, he had eyes only for her and he suspected that the man would have just walked through him if he hadn't moved. Normally he'd have considered burning the man to ashes for the insult, but today the ever present anger didn't flare. It just seemed… unnecessary. Trivial perhaps.

Reaching the nude slave massaging Graendals legs the man immediately knelt, his knees hitting the floor with a thump. "My lady, I have come as you requested and I have brought my daughter and heir. As I told you, her beauty is spoken of widely." He didn't seem to see the slaves cavorting around the room, his eyes were completely fixated on Graendal. His daughter however did. She was staring wide eyed at her surroundings, confusion warring with awkward disgust and fear.

Tel shifted uncomfortably, he'd seen this play out before. Graendal had her predilections, he knew that well enough.

"Father, what's going on, what are we doing here?" She was refusing to give in to her fear, a brave one then, but he could hear the tremor in her voice.

Graendal rose from her human chair, "you have done well Lord Ponin." She eyed the girl, her gaze roving up and down, eyes coldly analytical before she smiled beatifically. "Yes you did not exaggerate at all. Your daughter is a beauty, she will do well."

"Thank you my lady!" Lord Ponin sounded delighted to have pleased her, ecstatic even.

"What are you talking about? Father? What is wrong with you?" The girl looked like she was about to try to run, not that that would do her much good. Tel could see the rising panic in her body language. She tried to shake her father's shoulder and he roughly brushed her off without taking his eyes off Graendal. "What have you done to my father?!"

Graendal just smiled lazily, looking down at her, a predatory gleam in her eyes. Despite being no taller than the girl she somehow seemed to loom over her. "Oh I would not worry about him my dear girl, he has served me well. Just as you will." The way she looked around the room at her slaves said everything. Tel could see that she was relishing this. Was she putting on a display just for his benefit? Surely not, she knew he was made of sterner stuff than that. Wastefully distasteful as he found it, this was nothing he hadn't seen before.

The girl was backing away from Graendal, retreating from her father too. Her eyes franticly looking for anything that might help until they settled on Tel. The only other person in the room wearing clothes, the only one who wasn't gazing adoringly at Graendal.

"Sir, please, help me! I don't know what she's done to my father, I think she must be an aes sedai. Please!" Tel could see the desperate hope in her face as she begged, but she must know that he wasn't going to do anything to save her.

The goosebumps on his skin hadn't gone away since he arrived, but Tel could still identify the exact moment Graendal placed her web on the girl. The sharpness in her deep brown eyes suddenly faded. Her gaze on him became unfocused as terror, hope, alertness even life dimmed in them.

He grimaced, Graendal's methods were crude, wasteful.

The girl looked away from him, towards Graendal now, tension leaving her body.

Tel tried very hard not to think of Taija's companions, a similar age to this girl. So full of passion, working together to fight him, just as it should be. Loyal, competent servants of the Light. The way they were so relaxed when he arrived, able to share hopes and dreams before he'd descended on them. He absolutely did not think about how another pair of dark brown eyes would look as life faded from them to be replaced by perverse worship. He was Sammael, greatest of the Chosen, not some weakling who couldn't make the choices that needed to be made!

The girl stumbled to her knees in front of Graendal, mumbling words of adoration, her eyes shining with nothing but empty devotion for the woman in front of her while her father looked benevolently on, a vacant smile on his face.

Graendal seemed to have forgotten Tel was there, smiling happily down at her newest slave. "Wonderful, simply wonderful. You will start off serving me food and drink and I shall then consider how best to employ you. Now strip, take that dress to be disposed of and go to the kitchens."

Long forgotten sensations were welling up inside Tel as the girl hurried to disrobe, previous awkwardness and fear entirely forgotten. Was this really what he had sworn himself to? He'd seen it or things like it happen so many times before though. Sacrifices needed to be made for victory, he knew that. Yet some things were… He did what he had to do and that was that.

Her business done, Graendal turned her attention back to Tel, "I do apologise for the distraction, but you know how it is, there is always business to be done." She seemed to have forgotten the bearded father kneeling in front of her, not that he objected in his delight at being so close to her. "Now back to your suggestion. The honest answer is, it seems like a risk. Now I am not saying no. We have worked together ever so well since the first time I brought you to Shayol Ghul," she gave him an almost fond smile, "I know that you do not jump precipitously into action and I am inclined to put my trust in that, but like you I am cautious. I will need time to consider it further. These half-trained children can wait a week. I shall have my answer for you then."

Did he even want this? Was she like this even back then? For some reason the idea of unleashing this… woman on anything felt far less appealing than it had when he first arrived. Was revenge really so important that he could subject someone to her simply for having had the bravery and ability to fight him? "Thank you Graendal, I'll return for your answer in a week." Tel gave her a shallow bow, forcing the words out.

Graendal clapped her hands together, "well, now that that is settled, are you sure I cannot persuade you to join me for a drink? Conversation here is always a little dull," she laughed and glanced across the exposed flesh of her devoted slaves. "You do know how I like to reminisce about the good old days and there are so few of us left."

Tel shook his head immediately. "I have too much that I need to get on with, but thank you for your kind hospitality." The polite words were ashes in his mouth. "One week." He channeled and stepped through a gateway back to Illian without another word.

======

As soon as Sammael was gone the smile vanished from Graendal's face. There was something going on with the man. He was absolutely not himself. If she did not know any better she would think he was in the early stages of a breakdown.

Of course he projected his usual cold certainty, hard eyes and aggressive body language. Standard for the man. So much tension and so many useful buttons and levers to press if you knew what to look for.

She could remember all those years ago, the culmination of months of careful work when he had finally agreed to turn to the Shadow. In hindsight it had been almost laughably easy. A broken man standing on the precipice, just waiting for someone who could understand what he was thinking and feeling and then give him a small nudge. Really they had been kindred spirits, both dedicated in their own ways before being failed by those around them, allowing them to forge their own paths to greatness.

The Chosen were always on guard around her for compulsion, checking their servants for her webs and protecting themselves. Yet they always seemed to forget that she had earned her third name for her understanding of the human psyche and if you knew how to repair something then you also knew how to break it. They really were all fools, seeing the obvious, crude tools and neglecting to look for the subtle and invisible. The Power was not everything.

As for Sammael, well it was obvious what was bothering him. That girl he had been involved with. The Great Lord only knew how she had survived, that was certainly an unpleasant shock. She was not even sure what had attracted Sammael to her. Perhaps he just liked mild women that would just do as he told them, she supposed it would fit with him. He did so hate anyone questioning him.

Regardless, one day Taija would make a fascinating addition to Graendal's collection. Admittedly she did not meet Graendal's normal aesthetic standards, but that did not mean Graendal would not make an exception for someone like her. The last true aes sedai, perhaps as a footrest, it would be delightful. She allowed herself a little shiver of pleasure.

Sammael though, well he was clearly going to be off his game for at least a little while.

Graendal briefly considered taking advantage of that, removing him from the competition while he was distracted, but then dismissed the idea. It would be easy, a few words in Ishamael's ear, a stealthy strike in the night. But she had no doubt that he would pull himself together soon enough, if there was one thread that ran deeply through Sammael's psyche it was his sense of certainty and that would not be swayed, not after he had gone so far. He'd continue to come up with justifications for everything he had done because he'd never be able to accept anything else.

Anyway, she was actually fond of the man. Well as fond as she could be of any of the Chosen. He really was one of her greatest works, the culmination of years of subtle conversions of flawed men and women of the Light. When she became nae'blis there would be a place for him too. Under her obviously.

Perhaps she should help him get back to normal sooner. It would be simple enough to remove Taija and return matters to the status quo. But no, that also carried with it significant risks. Not least that he might try to take revenge on whoever he blamed for it. She had put some thought into whether she could frame another of the Chosen, but for now the idea would go on the back burner. Better to let him think think he was the one dictating events.

As for Sammael's proposal that they disobey Ishamael and work together to eliminate Lews Therin and his companions, well if he was thinking normally he would never have suggested it. Whatever she said, she had no intention of doing anything to help him with that.

She would do as she always did, watch and wait from the sidelines as she maneuvered the rest of them around the board like the unwitting fools that they were.

Chapter Text

Chapter XXXII - I Have A Very Particular Set of Skills

After some discussion with Moiraine and the others, they all agreed on a plan. The first step would be sneaking in and freeing the girls. Then they'd move on Callandor.

Stealth would be key to success. Taija knew it wouldn't last forever, but the longer they could keep the defenders, and more importantly Be'lal and the Black Ajah, ignorant of their presence the better.

They all took a couple of hours of rest to prepare themselves and then made their way to the Stone. Moiraine's presence was actually a blessing from the Creator. Taija had thought disabling and replacing some of the Defenders of the Stone would be the best approach, Moiraine convinced her otherwise. Instead they rode on a fine carriage that she somehow obtained. Rand, Aleksi, Lan and Perrin were under inverted webs of illusion making them look like house-guards, Moiraine was playing the role of a Tairen high lady.

Moiraine had assured Taija that the real high lady would not be around to contradict their story and so she'd also altered the appearance of the carriage to match the house colours Moiraine told her it needed.

Moiraine's plan was definitely better than hers, but still, the woman hadn't needed to make a snippy comment about not everything needing to involve hitting someone over the head.

With Moiraine's help, their entrance into the Stone was anti-climactic. The Defenders at the outer gate made a perfunctory check of the carriage, urged on by the High Lady Melassa's impatience and they were through. Taija supposed a noblewoman and a few guards were hardly going to be a threat to a fortress like that.

In no time at all they were disembarking from the carriage and passing off the horses to a simpering stable boy. Moiraine contemptuously ignored him, her nose high in the air as she swept into the Stone, trailed by the rest of them.

Somehow she seemed to know where to go, heading unerringly towards what must have been the Stone's dungeons. Taija noticed that there seemed to be a lot of Defenders of the Stone running around, mostly heading upwards, but more importantly, completely uninterested in bothering a high lady and her guards.

=======

Mat breathed a sigh of relief as another group of Defenders ran past him without stopping. This day was turning out even worse than he'd expected and he'd known it was going to be a bloody terrible one ever since he'd seen Elayne, Egwene and Nynaeve being dragged into a waiting carriage.

Those flaming dice had been rattling in his head the whole time since he'd overheard Lord Gaebril's conversation in Caemlyn. Only to come to a crashing stop when he finally found the girls, only minutes too late it seemed. They'd been in disguise of course, but he was no fool, unlike them. What in the Light possessed Nynaeve and Egwene to take on the appearance of members of the Women's Circle he didn't know. Still, at least it allowed him to recognise them and Elayne had had enough sense not to go around looking like Queen bloody Morgase.

As soon as the Defenders had passed he continued making his way down towards the cells. Scurrying round corners or behind columns when it looked like he might spotted.

He'd already had to fight a number of Defenders when he blew his way into the Stone and hadn't that been a surprise. Who'd have thought that fireworks could do so much damage, he'd just meant to distract the Defenders. Well it had certainly done that! Then again the Aiel he'd encountered up there were probably doing an even better job of it.

It wasn't long before Mat reached the cells, which seemed suspiciously empty of both guards and prisoners. He quickly started making his way past them, searching for the girls. He needed to find them and then be out of there before the bloody aes sedai caught up with them! Aes sedai were bad enough when they weren't actively looking for you.

Eventually he turned a corner and froze when he saw a woman sitting outside a cell, looking like she was mostly asleep. After a moment he started moving again, but much more slowly and quietly.

He expected to be seen at any moment as he snuck up on the woman, but he had no choice, Light he wished he'd just turned around and gone home. It was what any sensible man would do. He recognised her from when the girls had been captured, another bloody aes sedai.

Yet she stayed dozing, never even looking up as he approached her. In for a penny, in for a crown, when he was in reach he swung his staff, clipping her across the side of her head. The thunk made him wince, he didn't know why she'd taken the girls prisoner. He could certainly think of a few reasons someone might want to and do worse too, but hopefully she'd have no more than a headache when she woke. Not that he planned to be in the same city as her when that happened.

Bending down he rummaged in the aes sedai's belt pouch and pulled out a likely looking key to insert into the cell door. Luckily it turned easily and the door swung open with a long creak which ended with his gasp at what he saw.

Inside Egwene was lying asleep on a bed, while Nynaeve and Elayne faced the door. That wasn't what shocked him though. All three of them looked like they'd been in a common room brawl and came off the worse for it. Their dresses were torn and purple bruises marred their faces and arms. What had those aes sedai done to them?

Nynaeve and Elayne seemed just as stunned to see him and there was a long pause. Then Elayne leapt into his arms giving him a tight hug. "Mat!"

At the same time, Nynaeve spoke sounding shocked, "Matrim Cauthon, what under the Light are you doing here?"

"I came to bloody rescue you," he said. Burn him, he wasn't sure why he'd bothered, of course she'd be like this, she was always like this.

Nynaeve hurriedly nodded flushing slightly. "And I thank you for it Mat," why wasn't she telling him off? Had she been beaten too hard? "There's no time for talking, we need to be moving. I'll wake Egwene."

Mat looked Elayne over, she really didn't look good, "what happened to you, was it that aes sedai, I thought they weren't allowed to hurt people?" Perhaps he should have hit her harder.

"It is fine Mat, I've had worse." He bloody well doubted that. She turned her nose up the way she always did when she was irritated by something. "We were captured by the Black Ajah, do you think they treated us like valued guests?"

The Black Ajah?! Mat winced. Burn him, what was he doing there? "I suppose they wouldn't at that," he laughed nervously. "Blood and bloody ashes, the Black Ajah." A quick shake of his head, "are you alright? They didn't hurt you too much?"

Elayne shook her head, her lovely tresses bouncing with the motion, briefly hiding the bruises on her face. "No, I will be fine, once we are out of the Stone anyway." She put her hand on his arm and smiled prettily at him, "thank you Mat. However, I thought you were in Caemlyn, not that I am ungrateful, but why are you here?"

He groaned internally, this wasn't going to be an easy conversation. Being a princess and all Elayne could get very worked up about certain things and this was something that could get anyone into a snit. "Could we perhaps leave it until we're out of the Stone. We're going to be knee deep in flaming Defenders soon, or worse."

"Yes, Mat's quite right," Nynaeve interjected, again not commenting on his swearing, perhaps that aes sedai had hit her one too many times. "We need to get going before we're caught again or that mad-woman decides to do something insane like blow up the whole Stone to free us."

"Which mad-woman would that be?" Mat span at the sudden, terrifyingly familiar, feminine voice behind him, to see a short, bearded man in the uniform of one of the Defenders of the Stone. He goggled for a second at the incongruous sight before it clicked. It was that bloody mad-woman.

Well he wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of seeing how much he wanted to be anywhere else. "Taija sedai, it is nice that you have finally arrived. You will see that I have already rescued the ladies." He gave her a bow with a flourish. There, not even Nynaeve could accuse him of being rude.

"Ah Mat, what a pleasant surprise. It seems we were barely needed at all." The voice was distinctly odd coming from a man's face. Why were the girls all staring at him instead of her? "Girls, you look terrible. Nynaeve, heal the other two. Moiraine sedai, would you mind healing Nynaeve?"

Moiraine was here too? Of course she bloody was. Mat edged away as he saw Nynaeve lay her hands on Egwene and Elayne, their bruises vanishing quickly. It was bad enough that Elayne was becoming an aes sedai, but at least she could have a laugh. Now he was faced with Moiraine who was the epitome of aes sedainess and Taija who, well he wasn't quite sure what she was, but frankly she terrified him whatever Elayne said about her.

A richly dressed noblewoman swept into the room, Taija standing aside for her. That would be Moiraine then. A second later Nynaeve also looked healthy again. Moiraine moved towards him and he leapt back, he wasn't having any of that, he'd bloody well be fine thank you very much.

"Right, now that that's done, can you fight?" Taija's voice cut through his thoughts and he found himself nodding with the girls. Her voice seemed different to usual, harder, more sure of herself. "Excellent, then we move out. We're going for the Heart of the Stone. We avoid fighting for as long as possible, but once we're discovered we move as fast as we can. Anyone gets in our way, don't hesitate. Knock them out if you can, kill them if you have to. The four of you are now servants, follow behind us and keep your eyes down."

Mat winced, he'd already fought his way in here to rescue the girls and now she wanted him to join them? Not bloody likely! Yet when they started moving he found himself following.

Outside the cell Taija suddenly stopped and turned to the unconscious aes sedai lying on the stone floor. "Black Ajah?" Her voice was cold.

"Yes, Berylla Naron." Egwene answered looking angrily down at the unconscious woman. A moment later Mat heard all three girls gasp and a glance at Moiraine told him even she looked perturbed. It must be some kind of aes sedai thing, the woman was still breathing and he couldn't see that anything had happened.

=======

Taija had been surprised to find Mat had already freed the girls when she arrived. He clearly had even more hidden depths than she'd thought, she'd have to really try to pin him down for a proper chat at some point. She did still owe him an apology too.

For now though, they all needed to keep moving. It seemed like something else was going on in the Stone. Taija was sure that their stealthy entrance had been helped by whatever was drawing the Defenders of the Stone up towards the upper reaches of the Stone. It couldn't last forever, but the further they could get undetected the better.

They all made their way through the surprisingly wide corridors of the Stone. Many Defenders and servants went by, some giving them odd looks, but it seemed their disguises as guards plus Moiraine's haughty false identity were enough in the current chaos for them to get by.

That came to a crashing end when they entered a large chamber, arches lining alcoves in its sides.

As soon as Taija walked in she felt saidar being channeled from around the room. Then glowing women step out from the shadows all around them. Twelve of them.

Moiraine failed to suppress a wince, her voice tight. "I am shielded." Shields also slammed into place on Nynaeve, Egwene and Elayne. Rand looked like he was about to do something precipitous and Taija grabbed his arm before his did.

She assessed them with a glance. Two circles of six, enough to shield any of them if given the chance, well except her with her angreal.

The aes sedai weren't even looking at her. They had no idea she could even channel. To them she was just another guard, at worst an irritation. Idiots. Nevertheless, they weren't completely stupid, Taija felt the air around her harden into place.

One of the aes sedai, Taija thought it was Falion stepped forward. "So it seems our trap has caught somebody, although I do wonder where the Dragon is hiding himself?" She glanced over Taija and the immobilised men. When she was met with defiant silence she stalked closer. "Perhaps a little pain might loosen your tongues? Yes?"

Taija's willingness to let her monologue ended at the mention of torture. She was already embracing saidar right up to her limits through her angreal. It only took a thought to unleash it.

Fire, spirit and water split three ways and inverted. Three of the aes sedai, including Falion, exploded into torches of flame, their brief shrieks cut off almost instantly.

The moment of distraction was all Taija need, razor sharp webs of spirit and fire lashed out all around her. Air softened to nothing and shields withered away and she was already moving.

A gateway sprang open in front of Taija mid-step and by the time her foot hit the floor she was through it. Two of the black aes sedai were in front of her, turning too slowly to face her. She grabbed them with overpowered webs of air and slammed them into the ceiling hard enough that it probably broke every bone in their bodies.

An aes sedai across the room recovered from her shock long enough to pull her hand back making a throwing gesture. Taija saw the web of fire forming and cut it with barely a thought, at the same time her own web of earth and fire ripped the flagstone under the aes sedai's feet upwards into a storm of razor sharp shards of rock.

Various webs flashed back and forth across the chamber, it seemed the girls and Moiraine had joined in. A bit slow, she'd have to get the girls to work on that.

A pair of blacks were franticly fending off Moiraine and the girls' webs. It was barely a challenge to spin her own sweeping one of them's feet from under her, sending her briefly airborne. Someone, Taija thought it was Moiraine, hit her with a fireball before she hit the ground.

Only five left, Taija could take them single handed even in this confined space. Webs flashed back and forth and she was almost tempted to see how the girls handled it. But no, this was a fight to the death, imagine if one of them got hurt because she was just trying to make it a teaching moment!

Taija spun earth and fire and discs of rock span out of the walls at blinding speed, passing straight through a pair of aes sedai leaving their bisected corpses to collapse.

Then she had to duck, almost instantly spinning a barrier of air around herself as something seemed to shake the whole chamber. Maybe the whole Stone. Rubble fell from the ceiling, huge lumps of rock that could crush a man, and a couple of archways simply crumbled into dust.

She didn't feel any webs, was it Be'lal? Taija was spinning a nasty surprise for him when she saw Rand looking mortified. Ah, he lost control. She ignored the sound of Mat swearing, she wasn't sure what was wrong with milk in a cup, but it wasn't important.

When the dust cleared the remaining three black sisters seemed to have vanished, presumably fleeing for their lives.

Something really needed to be done to help Rand, but Taija didn't know what. She'd told him everything she could about channeling saidin, beyond that he needed a teacher before he accidentally killed himself or someone else.

By the time everyone had pulled themselves together there wasn't much point in pursuing the Black Ajah. Taija suspected that, like most darkfriends when faced with overwhelming force, they'd keep running, but if they didn't then so be it. Now what they all needed to do was move as fast as possible. There was no way that Be'lal was unaware of their presence by then, even with all the chaos going on. Rand had just channeled a large amount of saidin and, even if he hadn't, the whole fortress probably shook.

"Everyone alright? Good." Taija raised her voice, "Be'lal will certainly know we're here now, so no more hiding. Now we move fast for the Heart of the Stone. If anyone tries to slow us down, we remove them." She quickly reached out with the Power and unraveled the webs of illusion disguising them all. "We can't afford mistaken identity now, strike fast and strike hard. If you can avoid killing guards, fine, but don't put yourself at risk. Now let's go, don't slow down!"

Following her own instructions, Taija broke into a fast jog. The kind of loping pace that, after years of practice, she could keep up almost indefinitely. Aleksi and the boys quickly matched her pace, the girls and Moiraine seemed to be struggling more so she slowed herself down slightly. They really shouldn't have been wearing those stupid, heavy dresses.

Jogging through the huge fortress, the corridors seemed oddly empty. A finely dressed man demanded that they stopped and was rewarded with a clip around the head from Aleksi's staff. A couple of times groups of Defenders ran through cross corridors ahead of them without even looking.

The first opposition they met was a squad of twenty Defenders of the Stone forming a block across the corridor, a wall of spears pointing at them. Taija spun faster than anyone else. Fire, air and spirit in a ball flung down the corridor at the Defenders. Then an opaque wall of air, earth and spirit blocking sight and sound, only briefly coming together to hide the blinding flash of light and deafening crash of the explosion for her side.

The Defenders were already disoriented and she Traveled, stepping through a gateway behind them even as Lan, Perrin, Rand, Aleksi and Mat crashed into them. Taija was spinning webs of air, tied to fade after a couple of hours, pinning them to walls. The others rampaged through them cracking skulls with staffs, hafts or hilts. By the time the girls reached them they were all incapacitated. Hopefully they'd live.

A couple more times Taija saw groups of Defenders fighting figures wearing grey-brown coats and breeches. It almost looked like camouflage, which wasn't something she'd seen in this time. Regardless, they didn't interfere with her progress, so she didn't do anything to them.

It wasn't long before Taija saw the great doors that she thought must be the entrance to the Heart of the Stone. The place where Callandor apparently awaited Rand. She reached out with tendrils of spirit as she jogged towards them. Surely there were traps there. Things had been oddly easy so far.

Yes, there was something. Taija stopped and held out a hand to halt the others. "This is almost certainly a trap, just give me a second, I need to focus."

Chapter Text

Chapter XXXIII - The Dragon Reborn

Taija's tiny flows of spirit extended along the great doors, gently probing and exploring. It was soon clear that there were a number of wards spun into them. She wasn't sure what they all did, but she was also sure she didn't want to find out. If her suspicions were correct, Be'lal wanted Rand to go into that room, but not to have anyone else to support him. So presumably something that would incapacitate anyone that wasn't Rand or possibly something aimed at female channelers. She could think of a few ways she might do it and Be'lal probably had more ideas than she did.

Unfortunately for Be'lal Taija didn't intend to go along with his plan.

Eyes half-closed she spun spirit into various minuscule nooks and crannies in the wards. She wasn't going to be at all subtle about this. There was no time, but then he already knew they were there. Well maybe not her personally, but Rand and at least a few others.

Hooks of spirit inserted Taija pulled deeply on saidar, as much as she could take through the angreal, and channeled it down her webs of spirit. Then, for lack of a better word, she flexed the webs.

What had been delicate flows were now iron-hard bands of power and after a brief moment of resistance, whatever wards Be'lal placed over the doors shattered. Taija didn't see his webs of course, but fire engulfed the door and the whole stone shook around her.

Before the dust had settled she was waving the others forward through the now gaping doorway, Rand in the lead. She on the other hand, hung back slightly.

The Heart of the Stone was a huge circular chamber, a multitude of columns towering up to a vaulted ceiling. It was undoubtedly impressive. However, everyone's eyes were drawn to what was floating in the centre of the chamber, a crystal sword hanging suspended in webs of saidar and saidin. Callandor. If Moiraine was right and it was a sa'angreal then it would make Rand unstoppable.

He hesitated at the sight of it, standing unmoving until after a second Egwene gave him a little push. He started towards it, tentative at first, but then visibly gathering himself. The others followed a little behind him. Entranced by the sword as they were, they didn't notice Taija sidling off behind the columns rather than following.

Her suspicions were confirmed when Be'lal stepped out from behind a column on the other side of the room. She immediately knew something was wrong. A faint smirk was visible behind his short, neat, silver beard. He was confident. Far too confident for a man faced with what he must have known was at least five hostile channelers.

Rand stopped dead, "who are you?" He asked, there was a slight tremor in his voice. Taija thought he already knew the answer. She was slowly making her way round the outside of the chamber.

The man's smirk grew, "I am Be'lal, do you not remember me Lews Therin? The good old days, when we sported together, those times when we turned swords from a bloodless bit of fun into a way of warfare? Don't you remember meeting me on the battlefield?" If Taija remembered correctly from what she'd heard about him in the past, he liked the sound of his own voice a bit too much. She was relying on that to some degree.

Rand shrugged, "not really, should I?" Taija allowed herself a small smile at the snarky nonchalance he managed to put into his voice. It certainly wiped the amused smirk off Be'lal's face.

"So be it." He glanced at the others. "I see that you still let your heart rule you and stopped to rescue your women. Still, I will make time for them afterwards, do not worry, I will make sure they are properly looked after. In memory of you." His eyes promised a horrible ending for them. "However, we both know what you are really here for," he gestured grandly at Callandor, "take it. Strike me down. Otherwise I will kill you and your friends."

Taija saw the girls and Moiraine starting to spin webs, ready to strike as soon as they got a sign from Rand, then the light of saidar winked out from around them in quick succession.

Fuck. Her mind came to a grinding halt for a moment.

He must have had an angreal. Taija didn't know exactly how strong Be'lal was, but he wasn't among the strongest of the surviving Forsaken and there was no way he could have shielded all four women just like that while they held the Power. If he had a strong one…

Lan took a stride forward and then stopped abruptly as the air solidified around him and the others. Taija suspected Be'lal had tied off the webs. Even with an angreal, holding four women, all those webs of air and fighting Rand all at the same time would be a strain.

She was still moving, slowly, quietly. She didn't think he'd seen her. If he had there'd be fire in the air.

"Go on Lews Therin, take it, perhaps it will be enough to allow you to survive, to allow you to save your friends. I will give you this chance in memory of the friendship we once had." Be'lal's confident smirk was back, his cold eyes told Taija what he really thought of that friendship.

She was going to have to spend some time teaching the girls how to undo tied off shields if they survived this.

Be'lal didn't seem to be inclined to kill Rand, there was no sign of a battle with the Power going on. They might have been channeling spirit at each other, she couldn't tell, but Be'lal would surely overwhelm Rand if they were.

"I had thought that you might have Taija Kosola with you, I heard she survived." Be'lal looked pleased, "this might have been more of a challenge if she had been here. As it is, if you will not defend yourself, I will kill you." He didn't hesitate after those words, drawing his sword and throwing himself at Rand in one smooth movement.

Rand drew his sword almost as fast, but he was immediately on the back foot, fending off lightning-fast slashes from Be'lal's weapon. However, he quickly recovered. Their swords flashing together meeting again and again, the loud clangs of their impacts ringing out. They were impressively fast. Taija once saw Duram Laddel compete with… him… and it had been an exciting match even for someone like her who wasn't all that interested in sword fighting.

One thing was quickly clear though, Rand was severely outmatched. Taija thought he was pretty good, but he was clearly not a master on the level of Be'lal.

They moved around the chamber as they fought, Rand constantly giving ground to stay alive. Be'lal moving with smooth confidence, never in danger himself. His sword flicking in and out, barely deflected by Rand. It was quickly clear to Taija that Be'lal was deliberately letting Rand retreat, but making sure that his steps were taking him in a closing spiral towards Callandor. Presumably he intended to strike the killing blow a moment after Rand touched the sa'angreal.

By then Taija had maneuvered herself round far enough that she was confident that she wouldn't hit any of the others in the cross fire. She briefly considered just hitting Be'lal with balefire while he was completely unaware. It would be a fittingly simple end for someone who took such pride in his complex schemes.

However, after a moment's thought she dismissed the idea. He had a male angreal and Taija wanted that angreal for Rand. Or she supposed if Rand had a sa'angreal, then she wanted the angreal for Aleksi. Either way, she wanted it and she was prepared to take a risk to get it. Balefire would mean destroying it along with Be'lal.

So Taija paused for a second, spinning an array of webs that taxed her even with her angreal. A moment's wait for the right angle and… There!

Taija completed her webs, hurling saidar away from her. Four webs of razor sharp spirit and fire sliced the webs shielding Moiraine and the girls. They could look after themselves now. At the same time she opened a pair of gateways, sending webs of air through them to hit Be'lal from behind and flung fire straight at his face.

Taija didn't wait to see whether she'd got him or not, she was already opening a gateway to the far side of the chamber and flinging herself through, out of the way of any retaliation.

He survived.

Without thinking Taija spun a complex web of fire and air, tens of explosive darts forming themselves above her and then flying towards Be'lal. Explosions ripped along the floor as they bombarded him, sending red hot shards of rock flying where they weren't sliced or blocked by him. She spun a hammer blow of air from above and swept another web along the ground at foot level, not to pull his feet from under him, this one was a blade.

Both were sliced, but Taija could see he was reeling, staggering backwards, putting everything he had into fending off her flurry of webs. The stone of the floor reached up to envelop his leg before bursting into dust. Wire thin strands of air enveloped him and vanished. She sent fire at him from above, whirling blades of razor sharp air from the side. He was going to crack any second, miss something and then he'd be done.

Then suddenly, Be'lal gasped and Taija franticly pulled back on her webs, bringing her attacks to a sudden halt as a sword appeared through his chest. For a second he groped at it, trying to say something, then he slumped to his knees to reveal Rand standing behind him, the life leaving Be'lal's eyes even as he fell.

It took Taija a second to realise what had happened. That was incredibly stupid of Rand, if she'd attacked Be'lal from behind through a gateway she might have hit Rand without even realising. Still, she couldn't argue with the result. She'd be able to factor some of this into his training later, for the moment it was time to celebrate.

Taija smiled widely and went towards him. "Well done Rand, it looks like…"

Her words were cut off by sudden pain. It hurt! She was flying through the air and she didn't know how she get there and she was screaming. Taija hit the ground curled into a ball around herself trying to stop the pain.

As suddenly as it came the pain vanished, leaving her lying on the ground, still twitching. She didn't think she'd broken anything, but she wasn't totally sure she could stand up right then. She did manage to prop herself up on her elbow to see a bearded man, his normally kindly face twisted with rage, step out of a cloud of darkness. Ishamael.

Taija felt saidar being channeled and webs of fire and air flashed across the chamber towards him. Moiraine and the girls.

He didn't even look at them, webs vanished, cut or blocked, Taija didn't know. Black lightning shot out from him and they collapsed with their own agonised cries.

But he only had eyes for Rand. "I offered you the chance to serve the Great Lord twice Lews Therin and you spurned me. Well this time I will kill you and you can serve the Lord of the Grave in death instead."

"Rand!" Taija shrieked, "Callandor!"

He hesitated for the briefest moment and then dived for the floating sword just as Ishamael spun that black lightning. Taija heard Rand scream with pain for the moment it took for his hand to close on the crystal sword. Then there was only blinding light.

======

As soon as his hand touched Callandor the agony vanished and saidin surged through Rand, torrents of it beyond anything he had ever imagined. He teetered on the brink, fighting the deluge with everything he had, clinging on with his fingertips. Barely resisting being swept away. It felt like it took agonisingly slow minutes even if it was probably less than a second, but eventually he brought it under control. Standing on the precipice of a waterfall, feeling the raging flow of saidin hurtle through him, but he had balance for now. The taint washed over him too, oozing waves of it flooding his senses with filth.

Slowly he turned towards Ishamael. "This time I'll kill you once and for all." It felt like more than words, a pronouncement of the way the world would be. With this much Power he knew it would be true.

The Forsaken hesitated and then channeled, seeming to tear a hole in space and diving through it. It was like Taija's gateways, but different.

He was going to end this. A thought and flows of saidin shot out from him, mirroring Ishamael's web.

When he stepped through the gateway he found himself right where he started, in the Heart of the Stone. Except there was no one else there, everything was strange and… a bar of liquid fire streaked through the dim light straight for him.

A thought and he brought Callandor between them saidin hurtling through it, through him. The bar split in two and obliterated columns behind him, bringing them tumbling down.

He heard a curse and copied Ishamael's web, sending a thick bar of blinding light back at him, carving through columns, bringing yet more destruction to the Heart of the Stone.

Ishamael fled and Rand followed.

Traps were thrown in his way. Webs he didn't understand. Trollocs. Barriers. Monsters he'd never seen before. Each he obliterated with Callandor in ways he couldn't fully comprehend until eventually they found themselves back in the Heart of the Stone.

He was a butterfly tossed around in a hurricane of saidin, but with this much of the Power he could do anything.

Rand focused the flows and threw them at Ishamael in a wall of white hot fire that obliterated everything it passed over. Yet somehow the man survived, staggering backwards, clothes smoking and one of his arms hanging at an odd angle.

For the first time Rand saw true fear in his eyes. He raised Callandor spinning a huge web something momentous something he knew would permanently end the man. The web came together, an intricate pattern of doom, but before he could bring it together, Ishamael spun another gateway, fleeing through it. This time Rand felt nothing from Ishamael's channeling, he couldn't follow.

After a moment he channeled, instinctively replicating the gateway he'd made earlier and stepped back into the Stone. There seemed to be a lot more people now, Defenders of the Stone and the strangely clad people who'd been fighting them. They weren't fighting now, but rather standing uneasily eyeing each other under the eyes of a glaring Taija, Moiraine and Nynaeve.

As soon as he stepped out of his gateway every eye in the room snapped to him and the glowing sword in his hands.

For a moment there was silence and then Moiraine's voice rang out, "all hail Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn!"

Chapter Text

Interlude XIII - Realisations

Sammael thought back to his conversation with Graendal. She'd be expecting him soon. He knew he was due to go back to her to get her answer to his proposal and yet, as that deadline got closer, he found himself less and less eager for it. Had he just been deluding himself about what he wanted to do?

Every time he thought of Graendal all he could see was the spark of life draining out of terrified brown eyes, pleading with him for help. How could he even justify that? Sacrifices needed to be made to preserve what he could. Fuck. When he was nae'blis that wouldn't be happening, but he wasn't nae'blis and were some sacrifices worth it? For years he'd have said yes, but he couldn't deny that he wasn't sure now.

How could anyone work with a monster like Graendal? What had he even been thinking? When he'd made his way to Shayol Ghul with her she'd seemed like such a kindred spirit. Two people failed by the world, ready to bend it into the shape that it should be. She'd understood him, sympathised, felt the same things! He'd seen her indulge her pleasures before, what was wrong with him?

Was revenge on Lews Therin, on Ishamael or Lanfear worth this? Was preserving what he could of the world in the face of the failings of the Light worth it?

Inevitably, as it had so many times since his first visit to Tear, his mind went back to Taija. He didn't need to concentrate to see her disgusted, devastated face.

"Pathetic," Sammael muttered to himself, not sure whether he was agreeing with her or condemning her.

He'd been thinking though. He wouldn't be who he was if he hadn't been. Using Graendal to help him destroy Lews Therin's allies wasn't going to work. Tel suspected she was just stringing him along anyway, but in his current state he couldn't seriously consider fighting by her side. Even Lews Therin didn't deserve a fate like the one that Graendal would inflict on him. No one did.

Still, Sammael knew how to work around his own failings. Taija had thrown him off, he was having an emotional moment. That was to be expected. It would pass. He had few weaknesses, but knowing them allowed him to minimise them.

Graendal was disgusting, she always had been, and he lowered himself by working with her. Going to her had been a foolish idea, pathetically seeking comfort from someone who would never be capable of giving it. Fuck. Pathetic.

Fortunately he had a plan that would make Graendal and the rest of the Chosen unnecessary, irrelevant even. It all made much more sense. Why was he even scrabbling around with filth like her, when he could have his revenge and ascend to lead the forces of the Shadow at the same time?

That was why he was walking through the dimly lit corridors of the Stone of Tear, wearing the drab clothes of a servant and carrying a pitcher of wine. Lews Therin had revealed himself to the world by taking Callandor. He had also made himself a target for any of the Chosen that wished to take the sa'angreal from him.

Taija had removed the tracking weave from the boy, of course she'd worked that out. However, it was easy enough to find Lews Therin now that he had claimed the mantle of Dragon once again. The boy would be on his guard, no doubt, but no man could be awake at all hours.

No one ever looked at servants. His enemies thought him too arrogant to abase himself like this, but they always underestimated his desire for victory. He hated to be looked down upon, to be in second place, but that didn't mean he couldn't pretend when he had to. He wasn't Demandred.

Of course Taija had placed anti-Traveling wards around the Stone, for all her failings she wasn't completely stupid, but they did little to prevent someone like him from simply walking in. Bribes, compulsion, easy disguises. He hardly needed to be Moghedien to go straight through their security, especially with the disruption to everything that came with Lews Therin taking over.

When Sammael reached the door to Lews Therin's room he paused. If the boy had Callandor with him then this would become a far riskier venture, he needed to be cautious. He would only strike when he could be assured of surprise and then he could take the sa'angreal for himself. Hopefully the boy would be asleep.

Cautiously he leaned towards the door, listening. There was someone speaking inside. Was Lews Therin alone? It was too much of a risk to go in if there were other people with him. The wrong ones would mean disaster. What if it was Taija? He cringed at the thought and then remembered himself, bringing his face back to its normal cold composure. He'd only have one shot at this.

Sammael carefully sent out inverted flows of spirit to check for any wards spun with saidar, or less likely inverted saidin, around the room. They found nothing, so the next step was an inverted web of spirit and air that would allow him to hear clearly whatever was being said in there.

He channeled, extending the web away from him, brushing it under the door and suddenly everything in the room was as clearly audible as if he was standing next to Lews Therin.

He could hear boots pacing, back and forth and a man's voice, quietly angry. He sounded like he'd been speaking for some time. "…am I meant to do? I'm not ready for this. How can I be the Dragon? I just want to go home." It didn't sound like Lews Therin, but the voice was unmistakable so he continued to listen.

"They're all looking at me, expecting me to take charge and I've got no idea. The High Lords, the Tairens, even these black-veiled Dedicated, they all think I've got answers. How can I deal with it? Burn me!" He seemed to be ranting, but Sammael couldn't hear anyone else. Maybe he was alone?

"Taija tells me to just be myself and do my best." Tel ignored the lurch in his stomach at her name. "What does she know though, she's so, so centred and all I can do is flail along as the Wheel drags me where it will." Surely there couldn't be anyone else in there… This really didn't sound like Lews Therin, he was always full of himself, in control and confident to the point of offensive pomposity at times.

"If I make the slightest slip the Shadow wins. If I show any weakness a High Lord will put a knife in my back and half the world will thank him for it. How am I meant to save these people? How can they be asking this from me?!" Lews Therin's voice rose to an agonised cry and Tel heard a loud thump followed by a curse.

"The Forsaken want me dead and I can barely even hold saidin. Every time I do it's like bathing in filth and yet I want more. What am I even meant to do? I'll kill myself, or worse someone else. Won't that be a thing, recreating the Kinslayer without even meaning to…" A dark chuckle tore its way out of Lews Therin.

"The Shadow waits for me with open arms and daggers concealed behind them, aes sedai seeking to manipulate me, the world against me." There was a soft thud, Tel imagined it might be Lews Therin throwing himself onto his bed.

Lews Therin's voice dropped to a whisper and then started to rise. "I just want to go back to the Two Rivers, see Tam, be back on the farm. I didn't ask for this. They all look at me like I'm Lews Therin Kinslayer. They don't know me, I'm not him! I'm Rand al'Thor! Taija's the only one who even looks at me as a person these days, but how can I live up to what she says when I'm just going to go mad and kill everyone around me, unless I can die in the Last Battle first. What in the Light am I meant to do?" Was that a sob? Surely not.

"I need to be better, to do better than the Dragon ever did, but I don't know how. How can I?!" Lews Therin continued to rant to himself, but Tel didn't need to hear anymore. He didn't want to. He let his web dissipate, the sound fading into the background.

He could walk in and kill the boy right now. No one would stop him, there was no one to help Lews Therin and the boy was clearly incapable of doing it himself. The man he hated most in the world was at his mercy.

So why wasn't he moving? His hand refusing to rise to the door handle, his feet rooted in place.

Tel just felt ill. Sick to his stomach. He couldn't go on like this, if he kept it up someone was going to kill him. Whether it was one of the Chosen or someone on the side of the Light, he just wasn't in a fit state to fight. He needed to get out of here before someone saw him standing outside Lews Therin's door and started asking questions.

After a moment he turned on his heel. He needed to leave. This wasn't even Lews Therin, it was just some boy. Trying to do his best against monsters like Graendal. Monsters like Sammael. Monsters like Tel Janin.

Thinking felt like wading through treacle, but as he strode as fast he safely could towards the outside world, to get out from under Taija's wards his mind never stopped moving.

Lews Therin and his friends working together to fight him. Laughing together. Friendship, allies, trust. Horrified screams as he betrayed his own comrades. Dead eyes staring emptily up at him from corpses scattered across the broken concrete. Lined of broken slaves trooping past him. Faces filled with terrified hate from prisoners who already knew their fates. The delighted joy dancing in Graendal's eyes. Life fading from deep brown eyes.

As soon as he stepped out from under Taija's wards he opened a gateway straight to his bedroom with a snarl. Why couldn't he get his head straight!?

If it was still the Second Age he'd have been pulled off the line by now, ordered into a period of rest and recovery. He gave a choking laugh at the idea of the Shadow ever caring that much about its servants. When had he last laughed? He'd told himself he'd have the last laugh over the other Chosen, but there was no laughter to be had.

Without conscious thought he sank to the floor, his back against the wall, not even bothering to light the lamps with the Power.

What was it all worth? He'd talked, ranted to Taija about the failings of the Light, about revenge. What had he actually done? Ishamael lived. Lanfear lived. The Shadow was as vile as it ever was. Pathetic. She was right. How could she understand? There was nothing worth understanding.

He couldn't even kill Lews Therin. Why did he even want to kill Lews Therin? Because he'd killed Taija? He hadn't. Because he'd doomed the Light with his refusal to support Tel? Tel had stabbed the Light in the back. Because Lews Therin didn't fight hard enough for the Light? Lews Therin had knowingly gone to his doom rather than surrender, unlike him. Because Lews Therin was a better man than he'd ever been?

This wasn't even really Lews Therin, this was a frightened boy doing his best in the face of an implacably hostile world.

In this Age they said no man could walk in the Shadow so long he could not come back to the Light. Bollocks. Some things were unforgivable, could not be justified. He'd seen it in her eyes. He was damned, there was no coming back.

Taija's face seemed to hover at the edge of his vision unbanishable and for the first time since he'd visited Shayol Ghul Tel Janin admitted it to himself, mumbling into the dark of his bedroom, "I was wrong."

Chapter Text

Chapter XXXIV - Iaido is Kind of Cool

Tel wasn't sure how long he'd spent sitting staring at the wall of the lush bedroom afforded to someone of his status. It didn't matter though.

It was like a wall had broken within him. Every small realisation leading to the next. Every single one worse than the last. His whole world view shattering around him, every little justification, rationalisation broken down and thrown away.

He hadn't slept all night, just sitting and thinking, then pacing and thinking, sometimes raging, sometimes calm. There were several dents in the room's carved wooden panelling where he'd punched it in his anger.

He'd argued with himself, of course, repeating the same tired justifications that he had for so many years. But it all boiled down to the same thing. He'd been wrong.

It was inexcusable. He didn't mean that the way he normally did, that errors were beneath him. Maybe unforgivable was a better word. The things he'd done…

He was a logical enough man to understand the problem. Once you took away the foundations underlying his choices, every single one became unjustifiable. A cascade of evil. He could die a thousand times over without redeeming himself.

It wasn't until the next morning that he felt able to leave his room and that was only to tell his majordomo to cancel all of his appointments. He needed more time to think. And after a fitful nap that was exactly what he did.

He sat and thought about the future, about what he really wanted and what he could do. Instincts ingrained by years of War and service to the Shadow told him that he should use his position of Power, he had Illian, he could lead the Light and redeem himself defeating the Shadow.

That was insanity though. A continuation of everything that he'd done wrong since the start of the War. It was just an excuse to seek more power, even if through a new route, and he'd seen where that led.

He knew that what he really wanted was to go straight to Taija and throw himself at her feet. To beg for her mercy and forgiveness. To ask her for redemption. To ask her for her love once more. He also knew that it was a deeply selfish idea, one that followed on from years of selfish ideas.

He'd broken her heart twice now. Once when she thought he was dead and again, worse, when she found why he was alive. He'd seen the way she looked at him. She was right to. There was no way she would accept him, no way she could forgive him.

He might be able to find redemption in death at her hands. Would she actually kill him? He wasn't sure, but putting that decision on her would just hurt her more. He wouldn't, couldn't be even more of a burden on her. She needed to think Tel Janin and Sammael were both dead and gone. Dying would be the kindest thing he could do for her. Perhaps then she could eventually move on, find someone in this Age who could help her heal, help her be happy once more. The idea hurt, but it felt right.

If he truly believed that what he had done was wrong then he needed to think strategically. What was the most good that he could do? The most good he could do without delusions of leadership.

If he even had a future and he suspected he didn't, he also needed to think about himself and his flaws in a way that he hated. What selfish weaknesses had led to him betraying the Light? How could he reverse them? Never mind seeking absolution from others, he needed to find absolution from himself.

Eventually, a plan started to come together. It would be difficult, but it would help the Light. It also went against every negative instinct in him. He hated the idea of it with a passion, but that was what made it perfect.

That night Tel opened a gateway to a small stone cairn in the middle of nowhere. A cairn that very very few people knew about. On the cairn he left a message. That was the first step.

Afterwards he slept better than he had in weeks.

It was a couple of days later, when he checked the cairn, that he found a slab of stone with a few short symbols carved into it. It was just a time and a location. Yet it was exactly what he'd been waiting for.

Later that day Tel stood in his bedroom, carefully adjusting his clothes. A fine green, embroidered coat of silk with just a touch of lace at the cuffs covered his top half. Brown breeches and knee high leather boots were visible below it. Looking at himself in a reflective web of air and spirit he tightened his belt, the heron marks clear on the hilt of the sword sheathed through it. He looked the epitome of one of the backwards nobles of this era, wealthy, but not foppish. A man of action, the way Sammael always liked to look. It was fitting.

Suitably attired, Tel Traveled to a non-descript manor house in the Altaran countryside. The place seemed to be dead, the gardens around it covered in snow and the building itself in dire need of maintenance. However, when he raised his hand to knock on the door it swung open with a low creak just before he could touch it. Behind it stood an empty eyed man dressed in black. Much like one of Graendal's slaves in fact, but without the devotion or nudity. With a low bow the mindless man gestured for Tel to follow him.

As soon as he stepped over the threshold Tel released saidin. Walking into this place holding the Power, even with it concealed, was asking to be killed. He had no false modesty about his abilities, but here, seeing this man, well…

It was a short walk to the main reception room and the servant opened the wide doors to it with another bow.

Tel strode inside, not even sparing a glance for the servant, he was beyond thanking anyway. Inside stood a bearded man with a kindly face. The sort of man who you might think should have been teaching undergraduates philosophy, at least until you saw the stream of black saa flowing across his eyes.

Tel suppressed a spike of fear and the urge to turn and flee. Instead he strode forward as Ishamael greeted him, "Sammael. I hope your request for an emergency meeting was not frivolous, I am a busy man." Even his voice was mild, trustworthy, although perhaps a bit less friendly than usual. Actually, he was holding himself oddly, had he been injured? It didn't matter.

"Thank you for making the time to see me Ishamael," he kept walking forward, "I have urgent news to share. It's of the greatest importance, something dire has happened."

Ishamael's face took on a more focused look, "tell me Sammael." He was a paranoid madman, but he clearly felt relaxed with the True Power blasting through him and Tel carefully not even thinking about touching saidin.

"Of course, it's about the Dragon," rage flashed across Ishamael's face, the kindliness vanishing to be replaced by something vile.

There, close enough. Tel leant forward gesturing wide with his left hand to Ishamael's attention away, "he's found…" he didn't need to think, his right hand moved instinctively. A movement he'd honed with over a century of training.

It was faster than thought, faster than he could channel. Fingers closed round the hilt of his sword and he was drawing. The steel blade moving so quickly it painted a diagonal line across his vision as it slashed upwards.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment. Tel should have brought the sword down again, struck a second time, but he was caught in the moment too.

Ishamael looked down from Tel to his torso, eyes widening in disbelief, nothing seemed to have changed at first except a thin, red line gradually widening across it.

The stream of saa in Ishamael's eyes briefly increased to a storm and then vanished, at the same time Tel felt the man seize saidin, a huge amount of the Power, far beyond what Tel could handle. He must have an angreal. For a moment it surged through the man, his lips working soundlessly. Then he fell to his knees, blood suddenly streaming down his front and saidin faded once more.

With a soft thump Ishamael hit the floor face down and Tel let out the breath he'd been holding in a long sigh of a relief.

He was committed now. There was no turning back.

Whether he'd killed her or not, Ishamael had separated him from Taija. The first step in his fall. Revenge for that wasn't sweet, it was cold ashes on his lips, but he had made the first step. Now to continue with the plan.

=======

It was surprising for Taija how quickly the Stone of Tear got back to a semblance of normality. The Dragon's banner now flew above it and the scars of battle still marred it in places. However, beyond that life seemed to continue largely unchanged for its inhabitants. Well as far as she could tell anyway, she was hardly an expert.

Taija was occupying her time teaching the girls and talking with Rand. The burden of his position was clear on him. She spent time trying to support him and give him advice. Not on the politics, frankly she hadn't a clue there, the Tairen nobles all seemed to be snakes and frankly she found the whole system deeply distasteful but she couldn't say much more than that. Still though she could talk to him and listen to his problems, be a sounding stone for his thoughts.

Aleksi seemed to have come down with a nasty fever, but luckily Moiraine and Nynaeve were both talented healers and spent time with him. She was assured by them that he was in no immediate danger.

Now that Taija wasn't undercover she'd gone back to wearing 'men's' clothes. One thing that gave her some pleasure was being in a position of sufficient wealth and power that she could order clothes designed to replicate the fashions that she used to like. The materials weren't right, but it was nice to be back in practical-chique. Leather boots, loose trousers made of thick cloth, with pockets! A light silk blouse tucked into the trousers and an open coat over them.

The looks she got from the Tairens irritated her, but they were more scared of an aes sedai than they were of her breaking of social norms. The Dedicated on the other hand seemed to find it completely unremarkable once they found out that she was an aes sedai. As far as Taija could tell they just accepted that aes sedai were different and could do what they wanted. She supposed there was an element of truth to that, especially in this time when might made right.

As for the Dedicated, they were both intriguing and confusing. Just the fact that they called themselves the Dedicated was odd.

She'd never had much to do with the Dedicated to Peace by aes sedai standards. Taija hadn't really needed them and her career didn't lend itself to their services. Of course she still encountered them during her infrequent visits to the Hall of Servants and at formal events that she couldn't avoid. However, she'd also found them a bit unbalanced, service was vital, but it wasn't everything, people also needed to look after themselves. Not that that was an opinion she could have shared in her time without causing great offence. Regardless of that, she missed them, their songs, their compassion the happiness they shared with their aes sedai...

Anyway, these Dedicated were nothing like those she remembered. Certainly not peaceful or subservient. Instead they seemed to be dedicated to war. Hard eyed and hard bodied men and women who put her a bit on edge with the way they moved. She'd met enough very dangerous people in her life to be able to recognise them. It wasn't that they scared her, but when she wasn't entirely confident whose side they were on or what they really wanted it worried her.

One afternoon Taija found herself walking with Rhuarc, not for the first time. A Dedicated clan chief, he was a giant of a man. So many of the Dedicated were. Taija thought he must be around 200 centimetres tall though, it was such a difference from her own height that she felt faintly ridiculous walking next to him. She couldn't say she enjoyed how fast she had to walk to keep up either, practically scurrying.

"I see you Taija sedai." He greeted her in the way the Dedicated seemed to like.

"Hello Rhuarc, how are you today? Is everything well?" Taija was going to feel the strain in her neck if she spent too much time looking up at him as they talked.

"All is well. The wetlanders continue to squabble, water still falls from the sky and the dream goes on." He seemed mildly amused by something, Taija wasn't sure if he'd just made a joke.

He'd already shown her his dragon tattoo and explained that the Dedicated thought Rand was their prophecised Chief of Chiefs, and the other Dedicated seem to agree with him. However, beyond that Taija had found them very tight lipped. Whenever she'd asked them deeper questions they'd been highly apologetic and spoken of secrets that were only for those who'd been to Rhuidean.

She thought perhaps Rhuarc might be more helpful. "Rhuarc, why are the Dedicated called that? What exactly are you dedicated to?"

When she'd asked other Dedicated they'd said that they only knew that they had failed the aes sedai in some unknown way and would need to atone for their sins. It was very frustrating! "Some things are to be known only to Clan Chiefs and Wise Ones Taija sedai." He at least looked guilty.

"If you say so," she replied, struggling not to sound grumpy. "No one seems to know much of the Dedicated though." Her voice took on a nostalgic tone. "I remember the Dedicated to Peace. It's a funny coincidence really that they share a name with you, they didn't dress that differently to you either. Very different people though," she glanced at the spears and buckler on his back, "I suppose it's a common enough word." Concern shot through her, "are you alright, are you choking?"

Rhuarc managed to stop coughing, "it is nothing Taija sedai, please do not worry."

He definitely looked awkward, but Taija was fully into nostalgic memories and refused to be distracted by the man swallowing a fly or whatever had triggered his coughing fit. The Dedicated to Peace were something that could never have survived the War and the Breaking, but still… "They were such lovely people. I remember once going out to the fields in spring and the songs they sang…" She smiled faintly, lost in the memory.

"You saw…" Rhuarc seemed to be speechless. Taija supposed he wouldn't really know what to say to something like that, it couldn't exist in this time. "Does the White Tower have ter'angreal to see… such things?"

"Oh…" She was brought crashing back to the present by the mention of the White Tower. "I suppose it might, I don't really know." She felt bad for it, but she was annoyed at him for ruining the moment. "The ways of the aes sedai are mysterious and should not be questioned." Her tone was clearly sarcastic, but he didn't seem to pick up on it, instead nodding firmly and quickly making an excuse to leave.

Taija felt somewhat guilty for that and was in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

=======

Despite what Taija had said about its dangers Egwene kept on finding herself in Tel'aran'rhiod. She could normally stop herself from going there when she fell asleep, Taija's advice had worked, if only partially, but she still wanted to visit it to explore her new found abilities. So, often she simply allowed herself to walk into the World of Dreams.

She was fairly sure Taija hadn't meant to encourage her to visit more, but her explanation of how things worked there made everything so much easier. She still struggled to control her clothing and surroundings it was true, but she'd made huge progress! Just knowing that it was a matter of will and focus at least gave her something to work on.

With a happy smile she focused and jumped to the Two Rivers. Tonight she'd see whether anything had changed back home.

=======

Somewhere in one of the finest palaces in Illian a sudden, gigantic explosion ripped through Lord Brend's apartments, annihilating them utterly.

No explanation could be found for it, but people muttered about darkfriends and aes sedai plots and thanked the Creator that through some fortuitous coincidence none of the servants had been present there. Apparently a voluptuous blonde woman in scandalous clothing had been seen going to them, presumably for a liaison with the Lord, but no one seemed to know who she was and it was presumed that she had perished with Lord Brend.

Nothing was left of poor Lord Brend or his lover, but a number of people suddenly found themselves reconsidering their plans for both their own houses and Illian itself, wondering why they had tied themselves to such an upstart lord. In the end a small funeral was held for him in his palace grounds following which everyone tried to discretely forget he'd ever existed.

Chapter Text

Chapter XXXV - Can You Forgive The Unforgiveable?

While the Dedicated were intriguingly odd, there was something else in the Stone that captured Taija's attention.

It was Moiraine that told her that there was a store of artifacts from the 'Age of Legends' in the bowels of the Stone. Taija could tell she wasn't happy revealing it to her, that woman kept secrets like they were treasure, but she thought Taija might have more luck than her in identifying what some of the ter'angreal were meant to do.

So one day Taija descended with Moiraine down into the depths of the fortress. She led Taija to a damp, dark room that looked like it was strewn with rubbish. When the ball of light that Taija channeled into the air illuminated it she could see that it might once have been richly decorated and well organised, but now random objects lay haphazardly everywhere.

Taija carefully picked her way through the room glancing at what surrounded her. There must have been well over a hundred items in there, but as soon as she saw it she only had eyes for one thing. A ter'angreal that she instantly recognised. A large doorframe, made of a red stone that seemed to twist to make a continuous edge that her eyes refused to follow. Wavy lines bedecked its sides and edges.

"Do you recognise it?" Moiraine asked, a hint of impatience in her voice.

Taija stared at it for a long moment, "yes, I'd never seen it, but I recognise it. The Aelfinn…" She gave herself a shake, "you know of it?"

Moiraine didn't answer immediately. "Yes. The White Tower has studied it, I am aware of its nature."

"Mmm," Taija stared a little longer before tearing her eyes away. "A dangerous thing to leave unattended. Dangerous for anyone who walks into it. I'm surprised it isn't better guarded."

"No one comes here, the High Lords despise anything to do with the Power," Moiraine didn't seem to be overly interested. "What about the other items."

"Oh. Yes." She'd be back for the doorway when Moiraine wasn't around. Taija started to pick her way through the room, careful not to touch anything without looking at it first. She picked up a small intricately decorated box. "This was used to make video-calls. Umm to view and speak to someone from a distance. Useless now."

She kept looking, "this will produce a bright light from one end if the button on it is pushed down. It should still work." Taija showed Moiraine a torch.

She found a blank screen encased in a metal frame. "This was used for entertainment, imagine seeing a play whenever and wherever you wanted. It wouldn't work anymore."

There was a pistol made of some kind of hardened plastic sitting on a pedastal. Clearly an officer's weapon, it was ornately decorated. Taija picked it up and sighted along it, being careful not to point it at Moiraine or anything potentially valuable. "This was a miniature shocklance. It would shoot… tiny fireballs, but you needed… bolts to put in it and it's useless without them." She pointed it at the wall and pulled the trigger to the sound of a dull click.

"This is a mobile telephone, it was used to communicate over long distances." Taija found quite a few of those. All useless without infrastructure.

She spotted a small ball made of a black metal and while Moiraine was distracted by one of the other items Taija slipped it into a pocket in her coat. It might come in useful at some point and would be a neat trick to have up her sleeve. Once charged with a flow of saidar she could set a timer by twisting it and then it would work as a reusable flashbang.

There was a small, silvery metal rod, separated into two parts that could be twisted separately. "This one's actually useful." Taija tried not to sound surprised. "You can use it to create a bubble of silence, like a ward against eavesdropping, but it also blocks light and electromagnetic signals." She took a certain immature pleasure in not explaining the last two words.

Many of the items Taija discarded as rubbish, nothing to do with the Power or her time.

She found a metal rod with a pair of probes on the end, "this is more interesting. You'd use it to detect electrical activity, umm tamed lightning, perhaps if you were a builder. I think it would still work, but I'm not sure what you'd use it for now."

As Taija progressed through the detritus of her civilisation, doing her best to explain concepts that were blindingly obvious for her to someone who didn't even know what a steam engine was, she found herself getting more and more depressed.

"This one I've got no idea." Moiraine didn't say anything, but Taija had said it about a few things and she could feel her being unimpressed each time It was actually very irritating that Moiraine seemed to expect her to know what everything was. Lots of the objects were mass manufactured, some of them weren't even really ter'angreal in any sense beyond using the standing weaves to function or just simple electricty, but there were thousands, millions of different ter'angreal. Many of them custom made. Why on earth would she know what someone's special, personal 'massage wand' looked like?!

"This one controls the weather in a small radius. If you channel air and spirit into it you can charge it so it'll be useful for a few hours. The very rich would use it for garden parties to ensure good weather, I'm not sure it's got much use to it beyond that." That was a flat golden disc with clouds etched into it.

Finally Taija got to the last item. "Another mobile telephone." She wondered what that said about her world, that half the remnants were mobile phones. "I'm afraid that's it Moiraine sedai. There's nothing more that I can identify."

She nodded graciously, "nevertheless thank you Taija sedai, you have been most helpful."

=======

Rand sat at the ornately carved desk in his room staring at the piles of reports on it. Callandor was propped up against the wall. He wasn't mad yet. Surely. But it was ridiculous, everyone was looking up to him when he knew what his fate was. He laughed at the dark irony.

He looked up, his laughter cut short when his door swung smoothly open on its well oiled hinges. A servant walked in carrying a jug of wine. It was odd, he hadn't called for anything, but the Aiel had let him past so he supposed it was normal. He was still getting used to being more than just a farmer.

There was a certain tension about the servant though. Something not quite right.

Rand immediately reached for the Power, seeking to seize saidin, just in case.

Instead of feeling the raging torrent of saidin he smashed into an unseen barrier. Panic spiked in him, he'd been shielded!

With a snarl Rand dived for Callandor, only for the air around him to ripple into solidity, leaving him uncomfortably frozen mid leap. All he could do was stare at the 'servant' fury and despair competing for dominance in his eyes.

The 'servant' met his eyes with a hard look of his own and then seemed to waver as his appearance rippled to be replaced a few seconds later by an arrogant looking blonde man, hair and beard cropped short, blue eyes hard and a scar torn across his face. Saidin also seemed to suddenly fill the man, presumably as an inverted web was allowed to dissipate.

Sammael looked at Rand for a long moment before using his web of air to drag him back to a more comfortable position in his chair.

"What do you want?" Rand spat, defiance his last weapon as he stared death in the face.

Instead of the gloating or torture that he expected Rand received an awkward shrug. "Lews Th… Ah Rand… I'm sorry, let me ex… No, you'll understand soon enough." He could feel saidin raging through Sammael, more than he could possibly hold.

Helpless as he was, all he could do was wait for death and watch.

So he looked on with ever wider eyes as Sammael drew his sword. He could see it was a masterwork, herons stamped into the hilt. The sword came slowly out of its sheath and Sammael held it between them as if weighing it up. Then, with a sudden, decisive movement he turned it towards himself, hilt pointing to Rand before laying it smoothly onto Rand's desk.

"W what are you doing?" Rand stammered.

Sammael's reply was terse, "be silent, for once in your life." Rand could feel tension thrumming through the man. "You'll understand soon enough." He repeated.

The Forsaken then pulled a pair of daggers from his belt, again laying them on the desk with their hilts pointing towards Rand. The scowl that Rand had come to associate with the man from their brief encounters was there as strong as ever.

Then came another dagger from inside Sammael's coat and another one from each boot. Each silently placed on the table with careful, almost formal precision, although Rand was sure he could see a slight tremble in the man's hands.

Finally, he reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a long gem encrusted ivory tooth, thicker than Rand's thumb and almost as long as his hand. That too was laid on the table beside the sword. The amount of saidin Sammael held felt like it diminished greatly as he put that down.

Sammael then took a step back and spread his arms. "I am unarmed." His tone was flat, but with a hint of pain to his voice.

At this point Rand was left watching him with shock dominating his other emotions. There was something deeply ritualistic about what Sammael was doing, Rand wasn't sure why, but it somehow felt like a familiar pattern.

Sammael met his eyes then, furious, sharp blue eyes boring into his before he suddenly looked down. Was this it? Was this when it all ended? Some sick joke for Sammael to prove he didn't need weapons to kill him? Rand closed his eyes, perhaps death wouldn't be so bad.

He heard a thump and franticly reached for saidin. The shield was gone! He seized it before opening his eyes, drawing in as much as he could hold, Be'lal's angreal, a statuette of a bald, fat man sitting cross-legged and holding a sword, allowing him to hold far more than he could unassisted. Sammael had sunk to his knees before him. His eyes down and hands clenched in tight fists at his side.

"Lews Th… No. Rand al'Thor. I have wronged you. I have wronged the Light and I have wronged the world." Under Rand's stunned gaze Sammael prostrated himself, folding over his knees so that his forehead touched the cold, stone floor. "I have committed crimes for which there can be no forgiveness. I acknowledge and accept my guilt, I can offer no defence and I do not ask for mercy. I offer you my life, so that my blood might begin to redeem the slightest of my sins. I do not ask for forgiveness, I beg for redemption that I do not deserve."

An old wording, practically ancient and achingly formal, but deeply serious. How did he know that?

Rand didn't know how to react, what to do with a member of the Forsaken on his knees in front of him. In the end all he could do was gasp out one word, "why?"

Sammael straightened up, still kneeling with his head bowed. "I've…" His body language was wildly different to the arrogant confidence that Rand had seen from him the last two times they'd encountered each other. "I've been thinking and… the more I've thought the worse it's been." He took a deep breath, his hands clenching into white knuckled fists at his sides. "I don't want to try to justify myself, there is no justification. I'll just say that since I found that Taija was alive, since I spoke to her, the justifications have made less and less sense. I…"

He trailed off, sounding more like a broken, unsure man than one of the Forsaken. Rand needed to be careful, the Forsaken were manipulators, dangerous. He stood, ready to burn Sammael to a cinder without warning. "Why me? Why have you come here? Why not go to Taija?"

Sammael laughed, a hollow humourless sound. "Going to Taija would have been easy. It would also have been one of the most selfish things I could do. She will never forgive me, how could she? If I offered her my life she'd have to decide whether to take it. How could I do that to the woman I loved, still love? She's burdened with so much already. I've put my actions on top of that. Tel Janin is dead. Sammael is about to die." He sounded utterly broken. "Let her move on, find someone else who'll make her happy."

"You still haven't answered my question." For some reason Rand felt himself growing angrier. Every word Sammael said seemed to inflame something inside him, a mounting urge to kill the man, to make him suffer and watch him burn. "Why me?" He knew his voice was cold and distant filtered through the void.

"You… I could have just killed myself, it would have been easy. Oblivion and an end to my shame. It wouldn't have been enough. It would have been too easy. I hated Lews Therin you know. Even before Taija di… left, I severely disliked the man. I thought he was pompous, foolish and wrong about almost everything. Afterwards, I can't even describe my hate for him. I blamed him for Taija's death. I blamed him for the Light's defeats. I even blamed him for my own failings. I wanted him dead and I wanted nothing more than to do it with my own bare hands." Rand resisted the urge to recoil from the vehemence in Sammael's voice at the same time as he tamped down on the drumbeat of rage inside him that was demanding he exact his own punishment on the Forsaken. "I was wrong though. Oh Lews Therin had his flaws, of course he did, but how could a man like me judge a man like him?"

Sammael took a deep breath and then continued, "What better way to atone for the unatonable than by submitting myself to the man I hated most in the world. I know, you're not Lews Therin, that much is clear to me now. I could have killed you three times in the last few weeks and each time you showed me you weren't." What was the third time?! "But you're still Lews Therin reborn. I must not, cannot take the easy route, so I'm here offering myself to you. My life is forfeit a thousand times over. I deserve to die. I want to die. But it's your choice. I swear under the Light and my hope of salvation and rebirth that I will serve you and the Light to the best of my ability if you so choose. Otherwise, perhaps my blood will serve to wash away some small part of my sins and you'll have one less of the Forsaken to worry about."

Sammael subsided into silence though he was breathing heavily, he seemed to have said his piece. Rand paused for a second, studying the man who knelt there head bowed before him. Internally he was in turmoil, raging torrents skittering across the surface of the void, it was like he felt a voice screaming for him to kill Sammael now.

With a low hiss of metal on leather Rand drew his sword. "I don't know a fraction of what you've done Sammael, but I know enough to say there can be no forgiveness for your crimes."

Rand came round the desk with slow steps and at the same time Sammael reached up to the collar of his coat with trembling fingers and rolled it down exposing the bare skin of his neck. The man was clearly very brave, but terror was starting to show signs in him too.

Kill him! He had to be hard. The Dragon Reborn needed to be able to act. Kill him! Needed to fight for the Light. This man was so dangerous he couldn't even imagine half of what he could do. Kill him! Had committed crimes that made the worst darkfriend look like a kindly grandmother.

Rand stopped beside Sammael, looking down at him as the man bowed his head, fingers digging into his thighs.

Rand raised the sword, hands shaking with the fury hurtling through him. "For what you've done there can be no forgiveness," he repeated the words as he brought the sword down. At the same time he channeled, not totally sure what he was doing, vaguely remembered webs from when he'd first fought Ishamael forming an intricate pattern around the descending sword.

The razor-sharp, saidin-clad blade sliced through the air behind Sammael cutting through something Rand could neither see nor feel. "But maybe there can be a chance at redemption."

Rand was left standing there panting as Sammael screamed in brief, excruciating pain.

=======

Deep in the bowels of the Stone Taija once more stood in the dark, dingy room of ter'angreal looking up at the twisted red stone doorway. She didn't know anywhere near as much as she'd like about it, but she knew enough. She needed answers.

No frivolous questions, no questions that touched on the Shadow. Such simple rules, but she'd heard enough about what happened to people who broke them, whether accidentally or deliberately.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Chapter XXXVI - Unpleasant Discoveries

Despite what Taija had said about its dangers Egwene kept on finding herself in Tel'aran'rhiod. She could normally stop herself from going there when she fell asleep, Taija's advice had worked, if only partially, but that didn't stop her desire to explore her new found abilities.

She was very sure Taija hadn't meant to implicitly encourage her to visit more, but her explanation of how things worked there made everything so much easier. Egwene still struggled to control her clothing and surroundings, but just knowing that it was a matter of will and focus at least gave her something to work on.

Tonight she decided she was going to look at the Aiel Waste. She wanted to see where these strange people had come from. Elayne had told her some of what she knew about it, but much of it seemed to be beyond credibility.

She closed her eyes and focused, bringing her desire to see the Waste to the forefront of her mind. A flicker and she found herself somewhere else. Small, scrub-like plants were dotted around, but most of what she saw was just achingly dry dirt. Most, except for the woman dressed like the Aiel maiden-warriors stalking towards a boar, spear in hand.

Egwene must have made a sound because the woman suddenly froze and looked towards her. She waited a moment, expecting the woman to vanish like everyone else here seemed to, but instead she raised her spear and took a step towards her.

"Wait, wait I mean you no harm." she gasped the words out, the woman looked like she was about to launch the spear straight through her. Egwene focused for a second, transforming her clothes into Aiel ones to match what the woman wore.

Her reward was a look of distaste, "you have no right to wear cadin'sor girl." The woman didn't do anything, but Egwene's clothes vanished leaving her standing there naked as the day she was born! Outrage flared in her and with a thought she brought her own clothes back, the dress she'd been wearing before though not the cadan'ser, and made the other woman's disappear.

With a suddenly wary frown the Aiel woman brought her own clothes back, different now though a white blouse and brown skirts. "Are you from the White Tower? I am Amys of the Nine Valleys Sept of the Taardad Aiel."

Was this one of the Aiel's wise ones? "You're a wise one? Of of course you are! And you're a dreamer!" She mastered her excitement and put on her most composed face. "I am Egwene al'Vere…" She breathed in nervously. "I am aes sedai."

She noticed a flicker of something in Amys' face. "What are you doing here Egwene al'Vere?"

"I was," Egwene tried to sound confident and serene, like Moiraine always did. "I was exploring Tel'aran'rhiod, seeking to learn its mysteries."

Amys gave her a flat look. "You may be aes sedai, but in the World of Dreams you are an arrogant child. You should not be here."

"I admit I am only starting to learn its secrets, you could be of great assistance." Egwene tried not to sound too eager.

Amys snorted, "I cannot teach you here. If you wish to learn you will learn properly. Come to the Three-fold Land. I can be found at Cold Rocks Hold. I will spread word through the clans that an aes sedai named Egwene al'Vere may have safe passage. I am at Rhuidean now, but I will have returned by the time you can be there."

Egwene resisted the urge to gasp with excitement instead settling for a dignified nod. "Thank you Amys; however, I can be at Rhuidean or Cold Rocks Hold within a day or two, may I come to you at Rhuidean?"

Amys frowned at her, "the city of Rhuidean is off limits to all outsiders. To enter it without permission is death." After a second she seemed to relent though, "but I will show you my camp near the city, you may come to me there as long as you give me your word you will not attempt to go to Rhuidean itself. Aes sedai cannot lie, correct?"

Egwene nodded quickly, "yes, you have my word!"

=======

Deep in the bowels of the Stone Taija once more stood in the dark, dingy room full of almost useless ter'angreal looking up at the twisted red stone doorway. She didn't know anywhere near as much as she'd like about this, but she knew enough. She needed answers.

No frivolous questions, no questions that touched on the Shadow. Such simple rules, but she'd heard enough about what happened to people who broke them, whether accidentally or deliberately. Taija shuddered, if she wasn't so far out of her depth, flailing around without any real purpose beyond misery there'd be no way she'd risk this.

There were good reasons why she'd sat the girls down before coming here and explained what she was going to do and exactly how dangerous it was. She'd also strictly forbidden them from going through the doorway even if they were inclined to do so, which they'd insisted they weren't.

With a deep breath Taija stepped through the doorway. For an infinite moment all she saw was blinding light then suddenly she was in a large chamber, lit by what might be electric lights with strange columns twisting up to support the ceiling.

Taija took another deep breath. She'd already decided on the questions she was going to ask, but in her time there'd been a whole group of experts dedicated to this. Before anyone was allowed through the doorway their questions would be vetted, double-checked for their own protection. Even then it still wasn't considered safe. Not just any idiot was allowed to go in and ask whatever they felt like. Today, circumstances forced her to be that idiot.

She jumped when she heard a sibilant, reedy voice speak behind her. Even as Taija whirled to face it she stopped herself from embracing saidar. She had to be careful there, she thought she knew the rules, but really all she knew was from reading a couple of academic articles on the doorways which were rather more focused on the physics of it all than the treaties with the Aelfinn. She probably knew more about the strange ways space and time were twisted there than she did about the rules of interacting with the Aelfinn. The risks of getting something wrong were terrifyingly high.

One of the Aelfinn stood before her, black slit eyes, elongated form, just like the pictures. "It has been a long time and yet once again seekers come to us." Taija was sure she could see movement out of the corner of your eye among the columns. "Good. You have brought no lamps, no torches, as the agreement was, and is, and ever will be. You have no iron? No instruments of music?" Its accent was distinctly odd.

Taija nearly asked who else had been through the doorway and then remembered herself, "no I have none. I am here for answers, take me to where I can receive them." Her words were measured, careful, but her heart was pounding in her chest.

The Aelfinn gestured for Taija to follow and began to walk. She hurried after him. This place have her the shivers. It seemed to be a gigantic palace, but there was something badly wrong with everything. Buildings curved impossibly, there were no straight lines, everything was twisted. Despite her discomfort Taija half wished she could spend a week there with a proper research team, the basics were well understood, but there was so much more to discover! Of course the Aelfinn would never allow that.

Eventually her guide brought her to a large, ornate archway, its carved form uncomfortable to even look at and gestured inside. "Your answers lie within." Before turning to leave he leant in, opened his mouth wide and inhaled at her. It was deeply uncomfortable, reminding her a bit too much of the first time she met Ared Mosinel and Taija had to clamp down on the urge to throw him away from her with the Power.

Suppressing a shudder she stepped through the archway. Mosaics formed strange patterns in the floor, ones that made her feel nauseous when she tried to look at them. However, what was important was the three spiralled pedestals in front of her.

One of the Aelfinn sat on top of each them, clad in faded robes. "Welcome questioner, it has been a long time. Ask according to the ancient agreement, ask." They spoke together.

Taija gave herself a nod and recited her first question. "Thank you for your guidance honoured Aelfinn. My first question is, how can I best help Rand al'Thor and Aleksi Durcaral to learn to channel saidin safely?"

One of the articles she'd read had said that trying to "lawyer" questions to force an overly specific answer would often be treated as frivolous by the Aelfinn, so she was trying to keep her questions simple and to the point.

"You must allow yourself to be blind." The first of Aelfinn, on the lefthand pedestal, spoke without hesitation. A deep bell tolled somewhere nearby and the three Aelfinn inhaled sharply.

Taija inclined her head in thanks, despite having no idea what they meant by that. She'd think about it later. "My second question is, how can I best help Egwene al'Vere to learn to dreamwalk safely?"

This time it was the Aelfinn on the middle pedestal that answered immediately. "The young bird must be permitted to fly the nest." The bell tolled a second time and once more they breathed in, shivering in apparent pleasure.

Again Taija nodded her thanks, thoroughly creeped out. That answer was much clearer, unusually so in fact. She strongly suspected it meant Egwene would get an opportunity and she'd need to let her take it without interference.

Taija's final question was the most difficult to decide on, there had been a few options. In the end though she'd decided she needed people you could rely on. Both for her own good and to help with the Light.

"My final question is, who is the most powerful aes sedai that I would safely learn to trust with my life?"

The lights seemed to flicker for a second and all three Aelfinn lean forward, their eyes black slits. The room suddenly felt far more oppressive. Terror spiked within her. Taija had thought this would be a safe question, avoiding any mention of the Black Ajah and being wide enough not just to be seen as an attempt at getting round it, but she hadn't been completely sure…

There was a silence that drew out for agonising seconds until the third Aelfinn broke it. "Tread carefully Seeker of Mysteries." His voice was a low, angry hiss. "You shall see her stand, untouched by your wrath, yet anger may lead to trust." The bell tolled a third time and once again they inhale.

"Thank you for your forbearance," Taija apologised carefully, trying not to shiver at how close she just came to the line. She'd read enough about some of the consequences they could inflict just for trying to get around their rules to have absolutely no desire to try.

"Your questions have been answered. Leave." All three turned their backs on her, their displeasure obvious and four more Aelfinn seemed to appear around Taija out of nowhere, quickly hustling her out of the room. It was clear that they wanted her gone. They weren't friendly when she'd arrived, but now she was met by scowls and practically having to jog to avoid being shoved by them. Taija's journey out of the strange palace was far more direct than her entrance and before she knew it she was stumbling out of the doorway back into the dingy room.

=======

A couple of days after her visit to the doorway Egwene stayed to talk to Taija after a lesson with the other girls, looking nervous about something.

Taija hoped it was nothing serious. She already had a lot on her mind. In particular, she was worried about Elayne, she hadn't taken Mat's revelations about Lord Gaebril at all well. Taija had her suspicions about who he was and she was starting to think about a suitable way to deal with him if they were correct, but that was small comfort for Elayne.

How could it be? How could someone deal with being told that their mother might be in the hands of one of the Forsaken and that if they tried to rescue her the most likely outcome was that they would be gracing the monstrous man's bed in turn? Taija tried not to shudder at the thought and gave Egwene her attention.

"What's bothering you Egwene, I can see something is." She gave her an encouraging smile.

Egwene looked nervously at her feet. "I've been invited to go to Rhuidean."

"What exactly is Rhuidean and who has invited you?" Taija was a little confused, but a suspicion was growing in her.

"It's a place in the Aiel Waste, I've been invited there by a Wise One to learn how to dreamwalk."

Of course she had. "How exactly did you receive this invitation?" Taija's voice was dry.

"I… met her in the Unseen World." At least she had the decency to blush. Taija wanted to groan at her headstrong idiocy. Light save her from teenagers who thought they were invincible.

"I see." Taija let her stew for a long moment, but she could hardly forget the second answer she got from the Aelfinn. The only one that seemed to make any sense. "You do realise how foolish you were? I'm disappointed in you for ignoring my advice." Her face fell.

"I'm sorry Taija sedai."

Taija sighed, "but you do need a teacher to learn to dreamwalk, as you clearly don't have the self-discipline to restrain yourself. We're going to have a good talk about this and about making sure you're safe there, but I will allow you to go."

It went against every instinct she had to let her run off to Light knows where. The easy solution would be for Taija to go with her, it would be an adventure for the other two to see this Aiel Waste, but the Aelfinn's words echoed back in her head. Taking the nest with her would hardly count.

=======

A day after Egwene left Moiraine came to Taija's rooms. She's was as serene as ever, but there was a tightness around her eyes and she spun a web against eavesdropping around the room when Taija closed the door behind her. It was unexpected, normally the two of them avoided each other unless they needed something, it was an arrangement that had worked well enough.

"Taija sedai, I must speak with you."

Taija was curious if nothing else. "Of course Moiraine sedai, what's this about?"

She didn't beat around the bush. "Are you aware that Aleksi can channel?"

Taija blinked, surprised. "Well yes, of course. I've asked Rand to help train him as well as he can to make sure he doesn't end up hurting himself." She wasn't really sure she saw why Moiraine was raising this.

"I know he is important to you, but you do know what that means do you not?" Taija could tell she was trying to project sympathy, although she wasn't very good at it.

"I know there's a very real level of prejudice against male channelers nowadays yes."

Moiraine sighed, a hint of exasperation in her tone. "It is not prejudice. Every man who channels is cursed. They will go mad and they will die. It might be weeks, it might be months or it might in rare cases be years, but there is no escape."

"So I've heard." Taija's voice was dry, but worry was curdling in her belly. Moiraine certainly believed it even if she thought it was ridiculous. "I haven't seen any evidence for it though. Where are all the mad men, destroying and killing as they go. I know the statistics, what proportion of the population can channel, they should be everywhere."

"Are you sure your statistics," Moiraine stumbled a little over the word, "are still valid in this Age? Many aes sedai believe that the ability to channel is being bred out of the population. It may be much less common than you think." It was true that that hadn't occurred to Taija. "Wherever male channelers are found they are gentled. The Red Ajah devotes itself to this and all aes sedai will assist because it is a mercy. A mercy to them and to everyone around them, because they will go mad and they will kill those they love." Moiraine leant forward emphasising her words like she was trying to force her to understand.

"What's your point?" Taija knew she was being defensive, but she didn't like what Moiraine was suggesting about Aleksi. She didn't like it at all.

"My point is that you need to be aware of the consequences of letting a male channeler go free. Not only for himself, but also for everyone around him!"

"Why are you coming to me about Aleksi and not Rand?" She was being deliberately unhelpful, but Taija was thoroughly annoyed by her.

"For Light's sake you stupid woman, do you think it's not a concern for Rand too?! But he is the Dragon Reborn, we have no choice. Mad or not we need him to face the Dark One at Shayol Ghul. Aleksi is not." For once Moiraine's composure cracked.

Oh. Now Taija understand where she was going with this or she thought she did and she really didn't like it. "I see." Taija stood meeting her eye to eye, she was actually slightly taller than Moiraine, not something she could say about many people. "Well let me be clear with you. If you lay a hand on Aleksi, if you try to sever him or, Light forbid, succeed, it will be the last thing you do because I will kill you."

Taija didn't change her tone as she delivered the threat. There was no need for her to be dramatic, it wasn't her style. Both of them knew she meant every word.

Moiraine looked at her for a second, her eyes searching for any sign of weakness and then without another word she got up and stormed out. Good riddance.

It was another worry to add to her list though. For all that her first instinct was to dismiss anything Moiraine said that she didn't like, she was a knowledgeable woman who shouldn't be able to tell a lie. She could of course be wrong, but if Taija was honest with herself it seemed unlikely.

Regardless, there was no way that she would let her sever Aleksi, that was a death sentence, but she needed to start thinking about this properly. Whatever happened she'd protect both him and Rand, possibly even from themselves.

=======

Elayne took a deep breath and kept her face composed. She was not happy that she was here.

The realm of the Aelfinn was worse than Taija had described to her. Just looking around gave her a headache and the way these people behaved, the way they looked at her terrified her. Nearly as much as she feared Taija's reaction if or when she found out Elayne had disobeyed her and come here.

Then there was Mat. They'd agreed to go in together and yet as soon as she stepped into that light he was gone leaving her alone with the Aelfinn. She could only hope that he was well and just separated from her.

However, she was the Daughter Heir of Andor and she knew her duty. She would not show weakness or fear. Raising her chin, she asked her first question of the three Aelfinn in front of her.

"Will I be able to become aes sedai if I take my training from Taija Kosola?"

"The Seeker of Mysteries may name you one." She was surprised at how quickly the answer came.

She'd thought hard about her next question, remembering what Taija had said about questions that touched on the Shadow. She'd very carefully worded it to avoid any mention of Lord Gaebril, if it didn't mention him then it couldn't touch on the Shadow, it was just a question of politics. "How can I help my mother to keep the throne of Andor?"

The room darkened and the lights flickered. Suddenly the Aelfinn seemed to be leaning forward, an oppressive feel in the air. Did they somehow look angry?

"Turn the wolves away, leave her to her own affairs she will keep it." The words were spat this time, dismissive disgust in them.

Rage flared in Elayne, they knew what she'd meant. Trying to twist their way out of answering. Didn't they know how important this was? Fine! She'd rephrase it, she wasn't stupid though, she wouldn't mention Lord Gaebril. "How can I help my mother to regain control of Andor?"

For a moment the lights went out and Elayne had to stifle a shriek in the darkness. When sight returned to her the pedestals were empty. It took her a second to realise the three Aelfinn were in front of her, looming far too close for comfort. Their eyes drilled into her as they pressed forward, pushing her back towards the back of the room.

They seemed to be practically vibrating with tension as they began to speak, one after the other, their voices angry hisses.

"The Worthy Daughter thinks she is clever."

"Sophistry used against us."

"Twisting words, twisting the rules."

"She knows what she truly asks."

"We know what she truly asks."

Elayne's eyes flicked from one to the other with growing fear, as she took another step back.

"She must be punished."

"She asks us to speak of the forbidden."

"The punishment can only be death."

"Death!" All three of them spoke at once in a sibilant hiss.

They pressed in closer, leaning into her space, forcing her backwards as she desperately looked for an escape. Their steps were quickening as were their voices. "Please! I meant no offence!"

Elayne frantically reached for saidar only to find it slipping through her fingers, something was not right with it in this place.

Disappointment entered their voices. "The treaty still holds."

"She did not ask directly."

"The rules are clear."

"The treaty does not permit it."

Elayne breathed a deep sigh of relief, even as her back hit the wall. "M m may I go?" She managed to stammer. She was never going to disobey Taija again!

"She wishes to leave." Mocking laughter seemed to echo through the room.

"She did not ask directly and yet she sought to deceive us, to twist her words."

"She must be punished."

"She will have her answer."

"But she will pay the price."

There was a pause in their voices as if they were conferring silently, but before Elayne could plead with them they suddenly spoke in unison.

"There are three. Find the one one who runs with wolves. Send him to the Enslaved Mother to gain your desire."

All three Aelfinn inhaled deeply and without warning she found rough hands seizing her from behind where there had been solid wall a moment before.

"Let me go!" She shrieked, struggling to pull free from grips that could have been made of iron.

The three Aelfinn ignored her cries, drawing wickedly curved daggers from their belts and speaking one at a time, even faster than before.

"You have your answer as is written in the treaties."

"But there must be a price."

"Equal payment for equal offence."

"The Worthy Daughter protects the Enslaved Mother."

"You shall have no daughters of your own."

"Your line shall end with you."

"So shall it be done, the price shall be paid."

Their faces suddenly split into hungry grins, mouths full of too many teeth, as they leant forward, daggers descending. Elayne could do nothing but scream in agony as the first blade stabbed into her abdomen.

Chapter Text

Chapter XXXVII - Unpleasant Discoveries Part II

Taija was talking with Rand when Mat burst into the room without even knocking, looking thoroughly disheveled. "T Taija sedai," he panted, holding onto the doorframe, "it is Elayne, she has need of you."

He was clearly a bit of a mess and Taija ignored the odd look Rand gave him. "Calm down Mat, what's wrong?" He'd been avoiding her since the Stone had fallen, pretty successfully. She suspected Elayne had been helping him do it, although she hadn't quite worked out how. Much as Taija wanted to spend time with someone who could speak her language, she didn't want to force herself on the boy and it had been kind of amusing half-heartedly trying to catch them out.

"Elayne, she is hurt, badly. She needs you."

Fuck. She sprang to her feet. "Where is she? What happened?"

"The room with the ter'angreal, the doorway…" He trailed off as he saw the anger on her face, but Taija was already spinning a gateway, stepping through it, thankful that the wards she'd put up only prevented Traveling in and out of the Stone.

As Taija stepped through the gateway she spun air and fire into a bright ball of light to illuminate the room and immediately saw Elayne in a crumpled heap beside the twisted redstone doorway. Her hands were pressed over her abdomen and there was a lot of blood. Too much blood. Fuck.

Rand and Mat had followed her through the gateway and she allowed it to close before opening another to just outside Moiraine's quarters. "Rand, fetch Moiraine now! Drag her if you have to. I'll keep the gateway open." She paused for a moment, the girl was hardly experienced, but it might help. She had a real talent after all, "then fetch Nynaeve." Taija opened a second gateway, "go!"

Rand, Light bless him, leapt through the first gateway without questioning her and she turned back to Elayne tying both gateways off. The girl seemed to be fading in and out of consciousness, her eyes glassy. There really was a lot of blood. It was lucky she wasn't squeamish.

"Get your arse over here right now," Taija snapped at Mat. "I'm going to need your help." She shrugged off her coat and held it up in a web of air before using another web to rapidly slice it into strips. As she worked she asked him, "What the fuck happened here?"

Taija ignored his wince at the rapid Power-aided disassembly of her coat. "I uhh… I had heard about the doorway from… from a book…"

She could already tell he was lying about that, Elayne probably told him. "I'm going to try to heal her, hold these." Taija handed him the strips of cloth that were all that remained of her coat, it was a nice coat too, and put her hands onto Elayne's, feeling the warm, slippery blood coating them. She formed a web for battlefield healing and poured every ounce of saidar that she could channel into it, a huge amount of the Power with her angreal. As the web sank into her, Elayne sat up with a gasp and then flopped back again. Taija thought she might look slightly less pale, but she was still bleeding.

Mat looked like he wanted to run away, but she wasn't having that. "I'm going to hold her up, you need to wrap the cloth around her tightly, we need pressure to stop the bleeding so that she can survive until Moiraine or Nynaeve gets here." Not for the first time in her life Taija cursed her lack of talent with healing. She didn't know why she'd never been able to heal effectively, it was just a web to be analysed like any other, but it was what it was.

Mat nodded as Taija gently lifted Elayne, using saidar to avoid moving her any more than she had to. The puddle of blood on the floor around her was alarmingly large. What in the Light did she ask the Aelfinn? Stupid, foolish girl!

After a brief flurry of work there was nothing more the two of them could do other than wait. So, placing her now blood covered hand on Elayne's Taija fixed Mat with her best stare, "you were telling me what happened?"

He shifted uncomfortably. "It was Lord Gaebril. You know what I told her and who he is. She couldn't bear thinking about it, she needed to do something, but she knew you were right and she couldn't just go and remove him herself. I told her about the doorway." Taija sighed internally, it was kind of sweet that he was trying to protect her, but if Elayne survived this she was going to be furious with both of them. "We agreed that we would go through together, but we planned the questions, we are not fools. We knew the rules!"

"So she asked about Lord Gaebril?"

"No, we agreed, she would ask about how to help her mother and not mention Lord Gaebril, that way the question would avoid the Shadow." He seemed desperate to convince her, despite the evidence lying in front of them.

Taija shook her head, "trying to play word games with the Aelfinn doesn't end well." She glanced down at Elayne, her stomach twisting, please let her survive this. "She's lucky to…" Taija trailed off, not wanting to finish. "What did you ask Mat?"

He shook his head vigorously, "nothing they threw me out immediately." Another obvious lie, but before Taija could call him on it Moiraine and Rand burst into the room only for Rand to run out again through the second gateway.

Moiraine was all business, practically shoving Taija and Mat aside, the Power lighting up around her as she drew through her angreal. She placed her hands on Elayne's head and a storm of saidar flowed out of her. Spirit, water and air flowing together in an incredibly powerful healing weave.

Elayne seemed to shudder violently and Taija could see the wound visibly knitting over, but still seeping blood.

After a second Moiraine slumped taking her hands off Elayne. "I have done what I can, but I fear it may not be enough. She has lost a lot of blood and the internal damage is extensive."

"I hope that…" She was cut off by Rand returning, this time with Nynaeve. Thank the Creator he found her quickly.

She glanced around and saw the three of them kneeling around Elayne. "Light what has that fool girl done now?"

Despite her words she didn't hesitate to kneel down by Elayne muttering angrily to herself. A second later the light of saidar sprang up around her and a far more complicated five element healing web appeared up in a storm of light around the girl. Taija had no idea how Nynaeve had worked that out, she didn't think anyone in this time had taught her, she certainly hadn't. Taija had known Nynaeve had a talent for healing, but this was clearly proper healing like she'd expect from a restorer, not the crude webs better suited for battlefield first-aid that Moiraine and other 'modern' aes sedai used.

When the light of saidar faded from around Nynaeve Elayne looked much better, some colour returning to her cheeks.

"Will she be alright?" Taija was dreading the answer, if she'd been punished by the Aelfinn then a simple stabbing was unlikely to be all that was involved. She looked down at the poor girl, trying not to bite her lip nervously.

Moiraine just looked to Nynaeve who looked uncomfortable and upset. "She'll live, but… It's odd, I'd thought the injuries were random, but everything has healed adequately except for her womb. I don't think there's anything I can do about that."

Taija winced, "so she can't have children?"

Nynaeve shook her head and Taija's heart went out to Elayne, previous anger extinguished in painful sympathy. Even Moiraine looked perturbed, although she was probably just thinking about how this would impact on Andoran politics or something cold blooded like that.

========

Even with the Power to heal her it took a couple of days for Elayne to be well enough to get out of bed. Taija's anger at her stupidity was long gone. She was just a teenager and teenagers did stupid things Also it wasn't like she hadn't suffered enough for her actions. Taija couldn't deny that she'd done plenty of stupid things under stress, without even having the excuse of age. It did distress her though, things were bad enough during the War, but people seemed to be expected to grow up so terribly young in this time.

Taija spent more time than she really should have going to see Elayne given her other responsibilities. She was clearly horrifically upset, understandably so, and underlying it all was a strand of guilt and fear when she saw Taija.

More than once Taija found herself rubbing her back while she clung onto her tearfully mumbling about how sorry she was into her chest. "I'm sorry Taija sedai, I should have listened to you, but I needed to know."

"It's alright Elayne, I'm sorry that it happened. But you'll be ok, you're a strong young lady. Lord Gaebril will get his comeuppance, I promise you." Taija made the promise to herself too. Whether he was who she thought or not, she'd make sure of that, even if no one else would.

Elayne did of course tell her what questions she'd asked, but she was completely stumped by the answer that the Aelfinn gave her, until Taija pointed out that Rand, Mat and Perrin were three ta'veren so maybe it was them.

Elayne's eye brightened up a bit. "Oh! Mat told me…" Just as quickly she clammed up completely, "never mind, but I am sure it's Perrin."

Now that was a mystery for Taija, even with Mat doing his best to avoid her, Perrin was the one of the three that she knew the least well. If she was honest with herself, she found him rather boring. He always seemed to be brooding in the background rather than doing anything that caught her interest. Kind of a typical teenager actually.

Taija stopped herself before she got caught up in speculation. The boy's secrets were his to keep and she didn't want to push Elayne to break a confidence. "So you think Perrin needs to be the one to save your mother?"

Elayne nodded firmly, "it is the only answer that makes sense with what the Aelfinn said."

"Fine," Taija shrugged. I can make him a gateway to Caemlyn if that's what he wants. "You're not recovered enough," she added before Elayne could protest.

A day later she was spinning a gateway for Perrin and the Ogier Loial to just outside Caemlyn, wishing them the best of luck. Elayne was oddly reluctant to discuss what he'd be doing with Taija, but she supposed that was her prerogative. Taija was just left wondering what in the Light Perrin had to do with wolves. While he was quite hairy, he didn't look like one at all.

=========

Once Elayne was sufficiently recovered Taija kept herself occupied teaching her and Nynaeve and talking with Rand. During her time with the girls she found that she was missing Egwene. She really had grown fond of her and Taija could feel her absence. She'd promised herself that she'd leave the girl to forge her own path for a while, however difficult it might be to let her go at her young age, but Taija decided that if she hadn't heard anything from Egwene after a couple of months she was going to go and check on her, Dedicated hostility to outsiders or not.

Now that Rand was also ruling a kingdom he seemed even more stressed and worried. It wasn't really surprising. Taija did her best to offer him what comfort she could, but her best guesses at medieval politics were more than lacking. She knew he was also getting advice from Moiraine and Elayne and she had no doubt theirs was much more useful.

As a result Taija put more effort into talking to him about philosophy, ethics and what it meant to be an aes sedai. At least those were things that she could talk knowledgeably about and which were valuable for a young channeler to learn.

However, it was only a couple of days after she'd helped Perrin on Elayne's mission that Rand started asking unexpected questions. Questions which completely changed things for Taija.

It all started fairly innocuously. "Taija, I was wondering, what exactly is it that you did before the War of Power?"

She blinked, surprised at the question. No one had actually asked her that before, not even Aleksi. It was more than a bit sad really, well over a hundred years of work relegated to irrelevance. She sniffed and tried to move on from the thought. "I…" Taija realised it was actually quite hard to explain to someone from this time. "I was a physicist." Her tone was a little lost, her eyes distant. It was difficult to describe how much she missed it, so many years spent fighting when really she wanted to be in her office or in a lab researching, discovering.

Rand gave her a blank look so Taija tried to elaborate. "I studied the way the world worked at a fundamental level, the forces and tiniest parts that bind it together and make the Wheel turn."

Rand looked at her like she'd just confirmed a suspicion he had. "So you used the One Power in your studies and looked at how it worked?"

Taija shrugged a bit awkwardly, there were too many memories, "sure I suppose so. That was part of it."

He nodded to himself, "but there was no taint on saidin in your time?"

"Well no, of course not." Taija was wondering where he was going with it. Since her conversation with Moiraine she'd given a bit more thought to the apparent taint on saidin, but she hadn't had much time for it. Perhaps that had been a mistake. After a moment Taija focused her eyes on his, "Rand, can you describe the taint for me? All I've heard is that male channelers go mad, but I haven't seen much to support that being anything more than prejudice. Moiraine was going on about it too and I suppose she should know."

He looked surprised at that. "Taija… the taint is real. I feel it every time I channel." Rand seemed to close in on himself a bit. "It's like a foul slick of filth on pure saidin and every time I seize the Power I'm bathing in it." His eyes were widening with remembered disgust. "The filth just covers me, it fills every pore and I want to vomit. But I can't, I just want to channel more saidin even while I'm covered in its foulness." He seemed surprised he'd said that much.

Taija was surprised too. Surprised and shocked. "Rand…" Her voice was soft. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

He looked embarrassed, "well you never asked."

"Maybe I should have." Her mind was drawn inevitably back to her conversation with Moiraine. The woman's deadly seriousness about Aleksi's fate and her own refusal to even consider it. Taija let out a hiss of exasperation. This was unacceptable.

"Is everything alright? Are you alright?" Rand eventually spoke up after she'd been lost in thought for a while. He really was a sweet boy.

"Mmm? Yes. I'm fine." Taija didn't want to, but she was going to have to do it. "I need to understand this better. We need to find Nynaeve or Elayne." Before Rand could protest she'd spun a gateway to their apartments and was stepping through it urging him after her. "Come on Rand!"

As it happened Nynaeve was away, but she easily found Elayne who was in her room with Mat. As soon as Taija and Rand turned up he made his excuses and left, but that was fine she didn't need him for this.

Taija wasn't interested in Elayne's irritation at being bothered, all she cared about right now was the taint, so she just ignored it. "Elayne, I need to make a link and I need to be guiding the flows," linking was bad enough without having someone else leading the link, but in this case Taija was telling the truth, she needed to be the one feeling this. "Do you know how to link?"

Her question was aimed at Rand and unsurprisingly he didn't. Taija stifled a frustrated sigh at the way it was slowing her down and start to explain.

Eventually she thought he had it and she formed the link, starting with Elayne and then adding Rand afterwards to ensure that she stayed in control throughout. Taija did her best to ignore the sensations she felt from them and just focused on the Power.

As soon as Rand was in the link she drew on saidin through him.

It had been a while, the last man she linked with was Tel… Even then he would have to lead when it was just the two of them.

Saidin felt just as Taija remembered, raging, violent, needing to be dominated. Except for the oily slick of filth on top of it. What the fuck?! Rand's description underplayed how disgusting it felt. Drastically. How could he be channeling this foulness on a daily basis?! How was he not screaming or vomiting every time he channeled?

Taija didn't even notice herself shudder, she was exploring the feeling of the taint, the way it interacted with saidin, swirling across the webs and sliding into, through Rand. It was vile. It was fascinating. Perhaps if she manipulated the flows just so…

Eventually Taija noticed the other two were getting twitchy, she wasn't sure how long it had been, she'd been so focused. With a mumbled apology Taija released the Power and fled. She needed to think.

Over the next couple of days, beyond teaching the girls, that was close to all she did.

========

Taija was fast asleep, dreaming. She was eating noodles in a hole in the wall place in Jalanda that did a wonderfully spicy combination of pork and peppers when she remembered she had exams the next day and she hadn't even started revising. Taija panicked. She wasn't ready! She was going to fail and disappoint everyone!

She jolted into wakefulness, gasping for a few seconds as she tried to work out where she was. Were those bells? Why were they ringing? There was nothing to celebrate was there? What about her exam?

It took her far too long to come awake properly and realise that they were alarm bells. When she did adrenaline surged through her, a jolt of energy helping Taija to throw herself out of bed and scramble for at least the outer layers of her clothing and some boots.

Now she could feel the filth that was shadowspawn somewhere nearby and there was shouting coming from outside her room.

Taija was still pulling on her left boot when, with a loud crash, her door was broken in and the bestial form of a trolloc leapt through the gap already raising an axe to swing at her.

She didn't need to think. Saidar flowed through her and a web of air smashed the trolloc through a tapestry and into the stone wall behind it with a sickening crunch. Another two were already following it though and Taija could hear screams from outside.

Her mind was cold, analytical like it always was in combat. There was no time for emotion, no time for the worries about the taint that had been plaguing her every waking moment she spoke to Rand. Again she spun air, a wall of it, blasting the two trollocs, along with the remains of her door, back into the corridor outside.

The path clear, Taija stepped out after them into frozen chaos. It seemed that her attackers' exit caused a brief distraction. Before the fighting, murdering and pillaging could resume she was channeling.

She couldn't afford to let any of them get close to her, a trolloc's spear could kill her just as dead as balefire. Taija spun saidar and the trollocs closest to her simply exploded. A myrddraal further down the corridor hissed a command and more howling trollocs charged, a poor servant was cut down as she tried to get out of their way.

The myrddraal shouldn't have drawn Taija's attention. A simple web of fire turned it into a guttering torch. The trollocs charge descended into a bloody mess as she forced webs of air down the corridor, razor sharp discs of spinning away from her.

Taija's instincts shouted a warning and she whirled to face the other direction. Lightning fast she caught a spear in mid-air, no more than a metre from her. For a brief moment the trolloc looked confused and then it died like the others.

She needed to find the others, probably Rand. This clearly wasn't targeted at her or they would have made a better try. Rand on the other hand…

Taija broke into a brisk uneven walk, her missing boot made it uncomfortable but there was no time to go back. She didn't run. It was too dangerous to run somewhere like this, she could find herself right in the middle of a group of trollocs or myrddraal before she could do anything about it.

It wasn't long before Taija came across a squad of Defenders of the Stone, a few dead trollocs at their feet, looking around themselves fearfully. Their sergeant gave her a disapproving look, "get back to your rooms and hide woman!"

Taija supposed she didn't look like much, wearing one boot, half dressed in men's clothing with her hair all over the place. Stupid of him though. She ignored his command and snapped, "follow me, we go to aid the Lord Dragon." It felt odd referring to Rand that way.

He looked like he was going to ignore her, which would be a pity. She could do with some people to watch her back, but she didn't have time to argue. Then a group of trollocs came charging out of a side corridor. Even as the Defenders were trying to reorient themselves and get their spears between them and the trollocs Taija was spinning webs of water, fire and spirit. Each trolloc they touched exploded like they'd swallowed a grenade. In a matter of seconds they were all dead.

The sergeant's face paled and he immediately dropped to one knee, "my apologies aes sedai, I did not realise…"

Impatiently she cut him off, "it's fine, now either follow or don't!"

========

Like the others Nynaeve had woken up to the sound of the alarm bells. The first thing she'd done was check on Elayne. The poor girl had hardly left her room other than for lessons and she needed to make sure that she wasn't in danger.

Fortunately Elayne had been wide awake too, already dressed by the time Nynaeve reached her. That was when they'd heard the screams, shouting and grunts and roars. Words hadn't been needed they'd been moving immediately, saidar flooding through both of them.

They'd been fighting for a while, helping groups of Defenders and Aiel while they tried to make their way towards Rand's apartments.

A group of trollocs came into view ahead of her, clashing in a melee with some Defenders of the Stone, easily pushing them back.

Nynaeve channeled, spinning a web of air between the thrusting trolloc spears and the Defenders' shields. At the same time Elayne spun a gateway, stepping through it to bombard the trollocs with fire from behind.

In seconds the trollocs were dead and the wool-headed soldiers were staring at them like cows waiting to be milked. "Well come on then," she snapped. "The Stone won't defend itself."

That seemed to break them out of their reverie and with a series of bows and "yes aes sedais" they pulled themselves together.

It was all typical of soldiers really, running around thinking with the hair on their chests and then letting themselves get all worked up when they faced something really frightening.

More trollocs came running, with a pair of myrddraal among them and Nynaeve spun fire, air and spirit cutting them apart in conjunction with Elayne's own web. The soldiers were barely having to do any work at all, not that they were complaining. No point asking a man to do a woman's work.

They rounded a corner into a huge chamber to see more shadowspawn, a larger group with several myrddraal leading it. Nynaeve started to spin a web of fire when Elayne grabbed her arm and pointed, "wait there's a man there!"

She wanted to snap at the fool girl for slowing her down, but Elayne was right. Standing with his back to them facing the shadowspawn was a lone man. What in the Light was he doing? She didn't want to accidentally kill him! "Run you fool!" She shouted as loudly as she could and he whirled to face them, turning his back on the trollocs, the idiot.

He was as tall as some of the Aiel, wearing a tight shirt with short sleeves that emphasised his well muscled body. He appeared to have shaved his head other than a short, neatly kept beard and moustache. He also wore what seemed to be shaded glass over his eyes, although Nynaeve couldn't think of any reason why he would do that. How could he even see properly? Why were the shadowspawn leaving rather than attacking him?

When his eyes settled on Nynaeve and Elayne his eyebrows briefly rose behind those odd lenses and then his forehead furrowed into a scowl. A second later something hammered at her connection to saidar. The man was channeling!

Nynaeve spun fire and spirit to slice his web, flailing a little at the unseen contest. There was momentary resistance and then the attempted shield vanished. She had a moment to glance at Elayne and then they were both sprinting apart, creating distance between themselves. She could only hope the soldiers with them weren't stupid enough to try to join this fight.

She spun earth and fire sending a web into the stone floor beneath his feet at the same time as sending a dramatic fireball rocketing towards him, a touch of air in the web making it look far bigger and more threatening. She could feel Elayne channeling to her right too, flashing light connecting her to the man.

Her heart sank as he seemed more irritated than concerned and both their webs were sliced before they could reach him.

His retaliation was like a hammer blow. Nynaeve briefly tried to meet it head on with a barrier of saidar, but it was brushed aside like it wasn't even there leaving her desperately throwing herself out of its path. That had been stupid of her, Taija had taught her better than that!

Now the blasted man was smiling, "typical women, but not to worry, you'll know your places soon enough." He had the same clipped accent that Taija had. If only she was here.

Nynaeve scrambled to her feet spinning webs as she went, razor sharp air, a fireball, an overpowered shield to block his connection to saidin. At the same time Elayne used the distraction to open a gateway and send a shrieking, spinning blade of air through it behind the man.

That wiped the smugness off his face, fortunately, as Nynaeve was franticly trying to fend off his monstrously overpowered webs. Taija never hit them with anything this strong! How powerful was this man?! He dived to the floor at the last second to avoid Elayne's web and it gave both women time to spin new gateways and relocate.

Not a moment too soon as both their previous positions disappeared in white-hot fire. "Stay still you bitches so I can put you in your places!"

Even while she was fighting for her life Nynaeve wasn't sure what female dogs had to do with anything. A sweeping blade of air at foot level combined with what Taija called a blossom of fire and Elayne was bombarding him with spikes of frozen air and water.

Their webs didn't even seem to be bothering him, instincts Taija had drilled into Nynaeve screamed and she Traveled across the chamber to see her previous location explode into rubble. Elayne was on the backfoot and she redoubled her own attack to take pressure off her.

Another gateway and then a stream of fireballs through it. The man whirled to face her and suddenly she was under a relentless attack. Elayne tried to intervene and was swatted aside staggering under an unseen blow.

Nynaeve was fully on the defensive, channeling as much of saidar as she could, pain stabbing at her temples, frantically slicing and deflecting webs she couldn't see. Thank the Light for Taija's infuriating habit of inverting her webs. At least this wasn't completely outside her experience. Although she still had no idea how the woman could do it so fast.

The backwash of a fireball singed her face, chips of rock from an explosion in the floor cut at her and then suddenly the pressure ended.

Nynaeve didn't try to work out why, she'd already opened a gateway across the chamber and stepped through it ready to attack once more. She sent a fireball at the man even as she realised another woman had come into the chamber.

She wore a simple, green, silk dress and had her iron-grey hair tied up in a bun with various ornaments dangling from it above an ageless face. More importantly the light of saidar surrounded her, very brightly in fact, far more than Nynaeve could hold. A veritable storm of webs lit up the air between them as the newcomer bombarded the man with saidar.

He seemed taken aback for a second and then spat, webs falling apart or splashing against unseen barriers around him. "You're not even a looker, unlike the other two."

He seemed to focus on the woman for a second and then staggered, surprise painted across his face. "What the fuck!" Nynaeve thought she recognised one of the expressions Taija often used when she was annoyed. Elayne refused to tell her what it meant, which was confirmation enough as far as she was concerned.

She had already caught Elayne's eye and they both opened gateways splitting their flows to attack from their own positions and through the gateways, although Nynaeve could see the strain on Elayne's face from channeling so much of saidar.

The man was on the backfoot now, most of his focus seemed to be on the other woman, yet nothing seemed to be happening around her, all of her webs seemed to be directed purely into the offensive on him.

He was staggering back, barely able to deflect or block the webs coming at him from five sides. He must have been incredibly strong based on the amount of saidar the woman was channeling.

Suddenly the man snarled something Nynaeve only understood one or two words. "Fuck this! Come at me without a paralis net and you'll see how things end." A blinding light exploded outwards with a wall of sound and by the time she'd reoriented herself he'd gone, presumably fleeing.

She took a step to run after him, they couldn't just let a darkfriend like that, probably one of the Forsaken, go and then stopped herself. He'd been too strong for her and Elayne and this new woman didn't look like one to run anywhere.

Instead she turned to face the woman, Elayne joining her. She knew they didn't look their best, even ignoring that they'd just leapt out of bed. They were both panting, singed and bloody in places from the fight. The woman on the other hand looked completely unruffled, everything about her immaculately placed.

As Nynaeve looked her up and down, noting her ageless face, she gave them her own appraising look, seeing to weigh them up with a single hard-eyed glance. "Ah, you must be the runaways."

"What?! We are not…!"

The woman simply rolled over Elayne's protest, "be silent girl, there are more important things to deal with now. You may call me Cadsuane sedai. Now tell me, where is the Dragon, we must go to his aid immediately."

Nynaeve clenched her fists in her skirts. The woman spoke sense, but how dare she!

=======

For once Taija had been relieved to see Moiraine. Trying to fight alone in an enclosed space was a nightmare scenario for a channeler. A spear in the back would kill her just as dead as anyone else.

In fact her and Moiraine were working surprisingly well together. They hadn't spoken much, beyond agreeing that Taija would deal with threats further away and she would be the inner line of channeling defence. They were both benefiting from their angreals and the amount of saidar that they could wield between the two of them was huge. With Lan smoothly dispatching anything that came too close they were soon reaching the reception hall near Rand's apartments. A trail of dead shadowspawn and their victims behind them.

Taija entered the hall to a scene of chaos. Defenders of the Stone and Aiel fought in clusters surrounded by trollocs. She didn't spot anyone she knew, except for Rand. He was fighting with his sword, laying about him with impressive speed and skill, but that wasn't all. He must have been channeling as shadowspawn near him seemed to suddenly lose their footing or catch fire. Taija was somewhat impressed, his control seemed to have really improved since he took Callandor.

For a second it looked like he was about to be overwhelmed by a trio of myrddraal and then he opened a gateway that sliced straight through one of them and leapt through it to another part of the room. How in the Light had he gone in a matter of weeks from just about doing it with a sa'angreal to making gateways in the middle of combat?!

There was no more time for thought though, Taija and Moiraine were unleashing the Power on the hordes of trollocs and myrddraal, tearing through them life a knife through butter.

She was able to relieve clusters of Aiel and Defenders who came together to fight the shadowspawn, but there always seemed to be more. There must have been a limit to them though? Surely?

Trying to fight with the Power in close spaces like this really didn't play to Taija's strengths. Or any channeler's really.

Taija gestured to Moiraine and Lan and opened a gateway to what she thought was a bandstand on the far side of the hall. The three of them stepped through and she got a better vantage point on the room. That meant she could hit more shadowspawn. Unfortunately her more destructive webs risked killing people on her own side in this enclosed space, not least Rand himself. So Taija spun air and fire into explosive darts to be flung into whatever shadowspawn caught her attention. Splitting her flows as many ways as she could, Taija started to carve her way through the horde in a storm of fire and explosions. Beside her Moiraine seemed to have settled for flinging over-powered fireballs into larger concentrations of the beasts while Lan rapidly killed any that tried to climb up to them.

On the other side of the hall Taija saw Rand step out of a gateway into a cluster of Defenders, which included a tall, dark-haired man slicing his way through the trollocs with an impressive display of swordsmanship. She thought it was his new swordmaster, although she'd avoided speaking to the man, swords reminded her too much of Tel.

To give Rand some help and relieve the pressure on the group he was in Taija diverted some of the multitude of flows she was channeling into a razor sharp blade of air slicing through the air at neck level on the trollocs pressing them. A number fell, decapitated on the spot, but she realised she'd missed a couple of myrddraal, passing the blade over their heads. Sloppy. A moment later Moiraine incinerated them.

The shadowspawn in the hall were dying faster than they could receive reinforcements, but Taija had no doubt the Stone was teeming with the creatures. She might need to find the girls and fight her way out if it was as bad as it looked. The wards she'd set up would stop gateways that crossed their threshold, turning the place into a trap for any channeler in it.

Taija saw the swordmaster scream something at Rand. He froze for a second. She nearly shouted her own warning as a myrddraal lashed out for the opening Rand left, but lightning fast the swordmaster parried its blade and beat it back. A moment later Rand opened a gateway and vanished through it. She had no idea where to.

It wasn't long after that that she and the others killed the last of the trollocs and myrddraal in the hall, but Taija could still faintly hear the sounds of screams and roars echoing down the corridors. The Stone must be teeming with the monsters.

Wearily she steeled herself to go hunting when suddenly lightning seemed to crawl into the hall, from the direction of Rand's quarters. Taija couldn't feel anything from it, so it was probably saidin. It looked almost alive as it crabbed over the ceiling like it was questing, hunting for something.

Its prey was revealed when a squad of trollocs charged into the hall. Before Taija could hit them with her own web the lightning lashed out from the ceiling spearing them from above, killing them instantly before continuing its probing spread.

Everyone was staring at the lightning open mouthed. Many of them with fear in their eyes. Taija realised her own mouth had dropped open too and she quickly closed it.

She could recognise what it was, a construct aimed at shadowspawn, but how the fuck was Rand doing it, if it was even him? The inefficiencies and Power requirements alone… The lightning was showing no signs of abating and Taija could only assume it was spreading through the whole stone. One person, even with a sa'angreal shouldn't have been able to do that. How powerful was he? How powerful was Callandor?

Taija was about to go looking for him when he staggered into the room, Callandor in his arms almost too bright to look at. His face was locked in a grim rictus and he was surrounded by storm clouds pumping out more of the lightning.

Taija breathed a sigh of relief as the cloud started to dissipate and Rand's face relaxed. Then he looked around the hall, taking in the piles of bodies, people and shadowspawn alike and rage suffused his face.

She heard him shout something and Callandor grew even brighter in his grip. A new construct seemed to be forming around him. Taija thought he'd already killed every shadowspawn in the Stone, possibly every single one in Tear. Light only know what he was thinking.

She could feel her hair literally standing on end, the very air in the room charging. It was madness, she wasn't going to let an untrained channeler with a sa'angreal kill her and everyone else around him. Taija spun a gateway and stepped through it beside him, dimly registering Moiraine had done the same.

"Rand, stop this madness!" Moiraine screamed and he whirled towards her anger in his eyes.

Taija's instincts were telling her to get as far away from him as possible, but she made herself grab his arm, the muscles wound up tight as steel under his shirt, "Rand, please! Think for a second, stop!"

Maybe her words got through to him or perhaps it was the way Moiraine stepped backwards her composure briefly replaced by terror, but the tension left Rand's body and the light from Callandor subsided. A second later it was just a crystal sword again and Rand staggered with sudden exhaustion.

Taija let out a deep sigh of relief and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, feeling his shoulders rise and fall with each gasping breath under it. "It's ok Rand, breathe," she muttered. That had been deeply disturbing, she was going to need to put some thought into it when everyone had calmed down.

Slowly the soldiers started to clap and cheer for the 'Lord Dragon' as they realised they were still alive and the trollocs have been defeated, probably not realising how close they had just come to Rand losing control and obliterating the Stone and them with it.

It was because of their hollering that Taija didn't hear anyone coming up behind her until Elayne's cry of "Taija!"

Rand seemed to be recovering his breath and had straightened up so Taija turned to face her with a smile. She'd just look silly trying to keep her hand on Rand's shoulder when he stood up straight anyway.

Elayne looked pleased to see Taija, but something was bothering her. Nynaeve looked tense as a coiled spring and there was a woman she didn't recognise with them. A woman with an ageless face, hard eyes and hair tied up in a grey bun adorned with jewelery that looked surprisingly fashionable for something from this time.

Inevitably Taija's attention was focused on her as she strode through the room, making a beeline for her, or more likely for Rand. She barely spared a glance for the bodies on the floor or the surviving soldiers and Dedicated. Yet her dark eyes seemed to take everything in. Taija could feel her strength in the Power, impressive for this time and well beyond Moiraine's, but not on her level.

She looked decidedly unimpressed when she stopped in front of Taija, the girls trailing behind her. She tutted loudly, "well this is quite the mess. You must be Rand al'Thor, well look me in the eyes when you speak to me boy, did you mother not teach you manners?" Before the speechless Rand could gather himself she'd moved on. "Moiraine," the woman received a nod in return that was so frosty Taija was surprised the room's temperature didn't drop and then the woman's eyes are on her. "And you must be Taija." Her tone said it all.

Taija had more than had enough by that point and she was absolutely not going to be sneered at by a 'modern' aes sedai. "That's Taija sedai to you." Her voice was sharp.

"Hmm," the woman dismissed her with a glance and turned back to Rand, "my name is Cadsuane Melaidhrin."

Taija could already tell she was going to be a problem.

Chapter Text

Interlude XV - Wait, is that a landmine? Nah, everything's fine.

Cadsuane tutted to herself as she steadily moved the knitting needles, listening to the conversation going on around her. The rediscovery of Traveling really was fortuitous. If not for that, she would probably still be trundling around the west chasing rumours of a false dragon, rather than sitting here an adviser, although perhaps not yet a trusted one, to the Dragon Reborn.

She had been thinking about returning to her farm after the rather disappointing experience that had been helping with the capture of Mazrim Taim. Then she had heard rumours about a new false dragon, this Rand al'Thor who was making a name for himself in Toman Head. That had sounded far more interesting than going back to tending plants in the obscurity of retirement so off she had gone.

It had not been long after that that news of the split in the Tower had also come to her. And what madness that had been! She certainly had better things to do than to get involved in such foolishness. Next they would be asking her to become Amyrlin as a compromise or some such rubbish. No, she had decided it was much better to see about dealing with al'Thor.

Still, she had made a diversion to Siuan Sanche's exiled Tower as it had not been so far out of her way. She was still, arguably, the Amyrlin seat after all. It was disappointing really, there could not have been much more than one hundred maybe sisters there, she had expected better of the woman.

Siuan herself had been irritatingly tight lipped. She simply would not share any more than the most basic of information with Cadsuane. The woman was hard too, so she could not simply be pushed into giving way to Cadusane in the manner some of her predecessors had, more was the pity.

Still, what had Elaida been thinking? Cadsuane doubted the woman was a darkfriend like Siuan claimed, more likely just an idiot. However, that was bad enough. Once al'Thor had been dealt with perhaps she should do something about the woman. As long as they did not try to make her Amyrlin in her place.

What had truly astounded her though was that Siuan had been sitting on the greatest discovery of the last thousand years. She had refused to speak about it. It was clear that Siuan did not trust her and she supposed the woman had no reason to, but it was most inconvenient. Regardless, it had been easy enough to extract the secret of Traveling from one of the other sisters there.

Once she had had that, there had been no particular need to stay around Siuan's Tower in exile. So it had been on to Falme, suddenly a journey of weeks turning into seconds.

Falme had been an education. The people there were convinced that al'Thor was the Dragon Reborn. Of course that was a story she had seen too many times before with false dragons. If they were unable to take people in then they would hardly see any success.

The wreckage of the centre of the town was interesting though. The boy was clearly a strong channeler and these Seanchan would bear some thought if even half the stories about them were true.

It had been easy enough to find out that young al'Thor had made his way on to Tear. Apparently Moiraine Damodred was accompanying him which had been perplexing. Cadsuane had wondered what kind of game could she have been playing? It had certainly explained the stories of an aes sedai fighting the Seanchan, but it had been difficult to think that she could actually believe he was the Dragon.

When she had arrived in Tear Cadsuane had discretely established herself in the city's finest inn, right in the shadow of the Stone, ready to commence her investigations in the morning. She had thought the main priority would be stopping the boy before he turned the city to chaos.

The next morning it had not taken long for her to receive one of the greatest shocks of her life. Before she could do much more than look at the Stone she had seen the Dragon's banner flying above it. It had been hard to believe, but she was nothing if not grounded in reality and that banner had said it all. Perhaps the al'Thor boy really was the Dragon Reborn.

She had ended up making a rare retreat back to her inn for a complete rethink.

Once she had straightened herself out Cadusane had had a number of plans for how she would introduce herself to al'Thor. He had fulfilled the prophecies, or at least enough of them that it was clear he was no false dragon. He would need guidance though and she would need to be there to provide that. This was far more important than hunting down false dragons or even putting that fool woman Elaida in her place. It would likely be the most important work of her life in fact.

However, those plans had fallen apart when that very night she heard the sound of fighting and screams on the wind, coming from the Stone. The citizenry of Tear had been out on the streets around the Stone staring at it and muttering to each other about what was going on. She had heard more than one person confidently saying that the Dragon must have gone mad and was going to kill them all.

Regardless of the cause, it had been clear that the time for waiting was over and she needed to be inside the Stone.

She had quickly found herself fighting her way through hordes of shadowspawn, with no idea how they had reached the place. Of course the vile creatures had fallen before her, but they should not have been anywhere near this far south.

However that had not been the real surprise of the evening. That had come when she found the two young runaways, and more importantly their opponent. A man, channeling.

As far as she had been able to tell he had been even stronger than Logain or Taim. It had felt mad to think it, but faced with his strange clothing, his strength and his shouting in the Old Tongue, she had seriously considered that she might be facing one of the Forsaken. Even now, thinking about that made her want to shudder, not that she allowed herself to.

The two runaway girls fighting him had been impressive, when she had finished with their punishments she would have to have them show her some of their tactics. It would not do to encourage them to get above themselves before they were properly reminded of their position though. Truly a pity that they had been allowed to leave the Tower at all, let alone continue to run free. It all seemed to come back to Moiraine's laxity and this Taija woman.

Of course the girls had been losing, how could they have hoped to take on one of the Forsaken? They had been lucky that she had arrived when she did and had been able to drive the man off. She thanked the Light, not for the first time, that she had her angreal and ter'angreal collection. That would have been a far harder fight otherwise, one she was less sure the three of them would have won or even survived.

The girls' reaction to her had been disturbing too. No curtsy, none of the respect that a novice and an accepted should show to an aes sedai. Clearly they needed to be taken in hand.

Then there was the boy she had come for. Rand al'Thor had not quite been what she had expected. He was clearly an incredibly powerful channeler though, his display with the weave to kill the shadowspawn was enough to tell her that.

As usual she'd tried to put him off balance as soon as she spoke to him. She had obviously succeeded at that, but he had quickly bounced back. It seemed the boy was strong. Nervous about his position as one might expect, but willing and able to push back. Good, he would need to be. Not arrogant though, that was unexpected.

Of course she had changed tactics as soon as this became clear. She would never give way to people or be shy and retiring, but she was perfectly capable of calibrating her behaviour. The boy needed a strong supporter someone he would listen to and rely on to speak the truth without fear, but who would also boost his confidence and position. The ability to adapt was something so many of her sisters sadly lacked. It certainly explained the current parlous state of the Tower.

That brought her to the meeting she was sitting in a few weeks later. Part of what seemed to have become Rand's inner circle of advisers. There was Moiraine, obviously, the woman had not made such a mess of things that she was excluded from that. Her warder Lan too, although he rarely had anything to say.

There was also Rhuarc, the Aiel clan chief. Now there was an interesting man, but his presence made sense.

The runaway novice, Elayne was also there. Perhaps for her royal blood? She did not seem to be in a relationship with young al'Thor, which would be the obvious explanation.

Then there were the two conundrums. Aleksi and Taija 'sedai'. She snorted internally at the title and glanced over at the small woman who seemed to be staring into space yet again.

Aleksi had been difficult at first. As far as she could tell he was an Andoran peasant. His accent, the way he held himself, his views. They all but shouted country boy made good. Not so far off al'Thor in fact.

She had assumed he was just an old friend of the boy, like the slippery young Mat, and was in the council because of that. However, that changed when she got close enough for one of her ter'angreal to solve the mystery of his position. He could channel too. Something would have to be done about that at some point, but not now, not when things were still delicate with al'Thor.

It also explained the bigger mystery in the group. Taija Kosola Miranen, the woman had placed an odd emphasis on the full name when they were properly introduced.

Everyone treated her as an aes sedai, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Ignoring the fact that Cadsuane had never heard of her, the woman did not have the face for it, she wore no Great Serpent ring and most damning of all she could not even channel.

Cadsuane had spent centuries being able to assess the strength of a woman at a glance and Taija gave her nothing. Of course that did not fit with what people had said about her.

Moiraine had been characteristically tight lipped, as unforthcoming as ever. All the woman had said was, "I leave her be for a very good reason, you can take my advice to do the same or on your own head be the consequences." Ultimately it had just made Cadsuane all the more determined to get to the bottom of the mystery.

However, others were more than willing to talk about Taija and her various achievements. If they were to be believed she was a channeler of prodigious strength and talent, an inspirational aes sedai many had assured her.

It was ridiculous. Cadsuane was not stupid enough to underestimate a powerful wilder. Her experiences after attaining the shawl had put paid to that. However, a woman who could not even channel was hardly a concern on the same level.

It was not even just a question of ability to channel. She had met plenty of strong women over the years and Taija was simply not one of them. She avoided conflict, allowed herself to be snubbed and half the time did not even pay attention to what was going on around her.

She was like the worst of the brown sisters, except that it was obvious she had only a fraction of their knowledge. Cadsuane could not place the woman's odd accent, but her vocabulary was entirely Andoran peasant. Even Aleksi seemed more well-spoken than she was. As for her education, why a few days before she had actually asked what the sea folk were and looked surprised at the answer! Perhaps it was the way she would occasionally use appallingly accented phrases in the Old Tongue that helped fool people? They would often mistake a surface level of knowledge as a sign of sophistication.

Whatever the case, everyone continued to refer to her as Taija sedai. Even Moiraine who should have been furious at the insult to the White Tower.

It was of no matter. She had been careful in case the true reason was some unforeseen danger. However, when she had finally realised that Aleksi could channel it had all become clear. The Dragon Reborn might be permitted to walk free as a male channeler, but the same could not be said for any other man. A friend of his who could channel would need help covering it up. That was where Taija came in. What better cover for a hidden channeler than to have a public one there to take credit for his deeds?

Of course Moiraine must be aware. Further evidence of her failings really. Although, if Cadsuane was going to be fair, it was probably a sensible decision not to confront al'Thor about his friend when the man could potentially be unstable.

The runaways would go along with it because, instead of the harsh lessons and discipline of the White Tower, they would be allowed to play around doing whatever they wanted while pretending to be taught by someone barely older than them. They clearly already thought of themselves as above the Tower's tutelage.

She was not sure what Taija got out of covering for a male channeler. Perhaps it was simply the prestige of being acknowledged as an aes sedai and being able to go around doing whatever she wanted, wearing whatever she felt like too. She tutted at the thought of Taija's deeply inappropriate dress-sense.

Still, that would not be enough by itself. There must be some relationship with Aleksi too. They spent far too much time together for anything else. They could not be related, despite their Andoran syntax, she looked nothing like him, more like a Taraboner.

Perhaps lovers then? That made sense. A desperate woman protecting her lover the only way she could. It was certainly a more sympathetic story than a power-hungry girl taking advantage of the forbearance of the aes sedai.

Regardless, it would have to be nipped in the bud. Al'Thor could be allowed his friend, she was not foolish enough to try to interfere with that. For now anyway. However, she could not tolerate Taija taking the Tower's name in vain. Especially not when she was doing such a bad job of it. Every day she continued with her pretense she damaged the reputation of aes sedai that little bit more.

Al'Thor finished speaking. "Does anyone have anything they wish to add?" He looked around the room and everyone shook their heads except Taija who was slumped slightly in her chair, biting her bottom lip and staring into space. An unedifying display from the girl.

She could not resist speaking up, "I am not sure Taija heard you Rand. Perhaps the girl should pay more attention if she is going to attend these meetings?"

Everyone winced at her comment and she could have sworn those next to her leant away slightly. Yes, she must be Aleksi's lover if people were that worried about his reaction.

After a moment of everyone staring at her Taija seemed to jolt in her seat and look up, blinking owlishly for a second before mumbling, "oh umm, no nothing from me, sorry." A moment later she was back in whatever fantasy world she was inhabiting.

Something would have to be done about this. If nothing else the runaways could not be left to stagnate under Taija's charge. They needed disciplining for running away from the Tower and then to be properly trained so that their talent did not go to waste. She had little time for it herself, but she supposed she would have to make some.

As for Taija, Cadsuane needed to maintain her relationship with al'Thor and hence Aleksi, but they would also have to understand that this was Tower business. She would treat the girl gently, at least compared to what she deserved, there was no need to alienate them further than necessary, but this farce could not be allowed to continue.

Chapter Text

Chapter XXXVIII - The Weight of the World

It was kind of impressive how fast Cadsuane took up a position in Rand's inner circle. She was practically a force of nature. After her rude entrance she seemed to turn on the spot while everyone was still off balance, suddenly respectful, albeit aloof, and more importantly offering good advice to Rand. The adeptness with which she seemed to be able to switch between behaviours was a bit frightening. As far as Taija could see, Cadsuane was everything that this time's aes sedai tried to be. Mysterious, domineering and manipulative. She hated it.

Still, she was without a doubt competent.

Regardless of Cadsuane, Taija was finding herself increasingly distracted by what she had felt linked with Rand. Every day it bothered her more. The fact that she'd just ignored the taint as an issue too. Yet another fuck up.

Taija even felt a bit guilty about her conversation with Moiraine. In hindsight she'd been coming to her with what she clearly thought was a major problem and Taija had reacted by threatening to kill her rather than listening to someone who, if she was honest with herself, would know much better than her. This really wasn't the person Taija was, or at least the person she wanted to be.

There was only one thing she could do. She needed to fix things. At first Taija made it her mission to learn more about the taint and men channeling. The Stone had an adequate library and while there seemed to be scant material on male channelers, there was still some, which she devoured. It was mostly unscientific garbage, but even that just made her feel worse. How stupid could she have been to ignore it? She didn't want to believe it though, maybe that was why she hadn't believed the taint was real. Only seeing what she wanted to see. Stupid. She needed to deal with reality as it was, not as she wanted it to be.

Homicidal madness in anything from weeks to a few years with a gradual descent and even if they managed to keep their sanity they inevitably died as their body rotted away. Story after story of men killing their families, their loved ones, whoever happened to be around them. Villages burnt. Armies raised and destroyed. Severed, hanged, burnt to death by mobs. It was horrific. Disgusting. Tragic. Another scar across her memories of her own time.

Apparently inevitable for both Rand and Aleksi. It played over and over again in Taija's mind.

Worse, every male channeler she ever knew. The lucky ones dead in the War. Antero must have died when the town hall collapsed, thank the Light. The unlucky ones mad, killing, burning, finishing what the Shadow started.

Taija wanted to vomit, curl into a ball and cry, but that wasn't an option. 3,000 years and no one had done anything to solve the problem. They gave up thousands of years ago, accepting the state of their world. There was no one else. She didn't think she could do the impossible, but if not her then who?

Taija had started thinking on the problem the day after Rand came to her and asked some oddly specific questions. She hadn't stopped since.

Why hadn't the aes sedai fixed the problem of the taint when it first came about? With the full resources of her society behind them and the War ending surely they could have done it. Had things really fallen apart to such a degree that they couldn't by the end of the War?

The research institutes, talented scientists, sa'angreal. What had gone wrong? Taija had to assume that things had fallen too far, which was a tragedy in itself. If the world she knew hadn't been able to save itself then there was no chance she could alone. So it must have already been shattered, it was the only way she could keep on hoping. Taija hated the thought of the glorious beauty that was her world in ruins, but it had to have been. It had to!

Despite her horror at the situation, there was something about the taint that grabbed her attention. It wasn't yet another obnoxious aes sedai, simpering noble or badly behaved teenager. To be fair the teenagers weren't that bad, they were just young. It was the sort of thing that she'd devoted her life to. Over 150 years spent analysing the foundations of the universe. Esoteric particles, wave functions, the Power. It was her bread and butter.

Taija was good at fighting, there was no question about it, but it wasn't her. Science was her first and last love and unlike every other love she'd had she hadn't lost it. She didn't get her third name before 200 for no reason.

This meant every spare moment was spent thinking about the taint. Remembering how it felt, the way it moved with saidin and trying to think about how to stop it. She'd even found a new favourite spot for thinking. An old tower on top of the Stone that was difficult to reach without Traveling. There she could sit and channel in peace, think about the taint, without being bothered by all the people who wanted her time.

Meals were brief, she made sure to wash regularly and she made time for the girls. Other than that, every minute away from the problem was a wasted one.

==========

While trying to work out what was going on with the taint was taking up almost all of Taija's attention, she made sure that she kept on working on the girls' training. It was sad that Egwene wasn't there too though, she hoped that she was doing well with the Wise Ones.

One of the first things Taija did was a proper debrief on the attack on the Stone. They fought Rahvin, which was a shock, but no one else she could think of would be both a male channeler in this time and dress like such a prick.

Taija was amazed at the fact that the girls held him off for as long as they did. Cadsuane was also clearly a very competent channeler. Taija could feel her strength and she wasn't in Rahvin's league, she was a fair bit weaker than Taija in fact, so she must have an angreal.

She took a few sessions to go over the girls' fight with Rahvin blow by blow, going into what they did right and what they could have done better. Overall she was really quite impressed, but there were a few things that she added to her teaching plans for them.

Taija spent as much time as she felt she could spare, more really, teaching them and it was pretty rewarding actually. The girls learnt like sponges, soaking everything up faster than she could hope for. Tactics, channeling, history and philosophy, Taija covered them all. If she was going to be teaching them then she was going to turn them into proper aes sedai.

Taija did wish she had more of a talent for healing though. Nynaeve seemed to have independently discovered or rediscovered how to do true healing. If she hadn't seen it Taija would have thought it was impossible at her level of training. She really needed someone who could help her develop and nurture her talent. Unfortunately she was stuck with Taija doing her inadequate best.

In lieu of that, one of the things Taija had them working on was inverting webs. While Siuan didn't have the patience to practice enough or possibly the talent for it, she was fairly sure that she could get them up to the level where they' would be fast enough to use the technique in combat, at least at a basic level.

Sometimes Aleksi sat in too. Particularly when Taija was talking about non-power related matters or discussing combat tactics. He was even more interested than the girls in a lot of what she had to say, or at least he did a good job of pretending.

It was after one of of those sessions that Aleksi followed Taija out. That wasn't unusual, but what was was how worried he looked.

"Taija, can we talk? In private." He looked around nervously.

"Of course," she didn't hesitate to swing into a side room and spin a ward against eavesdropping. "What's wrong? Tell me."

He took a moment to gather his thoughts, "it's about saidin." He began hesitantly. "Rand has a teacher. He took me aside and said he wanted me to have lessons too, that he could help me far more than Rand could."

Taija was a little confused, "well that's good news isn't it?" Why didn't Rand tell her though?

"Yes! Well, no. I don't know." He hesitated a moment and then it spilt out in a flurry of words. "It's Rand's new swordmaster, he's… he's not who he says he is. Rand made me swear not to tell you before he'd let me learn from him. I think he was a false dragon before, at least that's what Rand implied."

"Why would Rand be worried about that?" Taija was a bit confused. Was it because he was a former rival?

"Ha," Aleksi barked a laugh. "Sometimes I forget how much you don't know. False dragons are… not good people. They've brought destruction, war and ultimately madness to the world. Every sane hand is turned against them. He probably thought you'd hunt the man down and gentle him yourself."

"Oh…" She felt a little uncomfortable at the idea. "Wait though, you swore to Rand that you wouldn't tell me?"

Aleksi shrugged and looked embarrassed, "I'm your warder. Of course I was going to tell you. You know where my loyalties lie."

That made her smile. "Thank you Aleksi."

He still looked a bit nervous though. "You're not going to hunt him down and gentle him are you?" His voice dropped to a whisper, "I think he might be Mazrim Taim, he's definitely from the Borderlands."

Taija spoke slowly, carefully, remembering the words of the Aelfinn, "well… whatever his past don't they say that the Dragon breaks all ties? Perhaps he can redeem himself by helping you and Rand." She wouldn't say it to anyone from this time, but she had more than a little sympathy for men who declared themselves the Dragon Reborn, it might well look like a better option than just rolling over and dying or being severed. "Look, learn what you can from him and be careful. I don't want to interfere when you and Rand both need a teacher to survive. Let him keep his secrets. I trust you. Keep an eye on him and if he does anything to hurt you or Rand then tell me straight away. Otherwise… I think I don't want to know, let him have his privacy and we can all forget he was ever a false dragon."

==========

Taija still went to Rand's inner council meetings despite resenting the time away from thinking on the problem of the taint. An element of that was stubbornness. She knew Moiraine and Cadsuane would love to see her pushed out and she wasn't so distracted that she'd allow that, but also he was her friend and he might need her support if they were pushing too hard for their own agendas. That didn't mean she paid much attention in them though. Taija was ready to intervene if things got heated, but normally they were just talking about politics, ruling Tear, other no doubt important, but still boring things that she just didn't feel she knew much about.

She'd asked a question about the Seafolk a few days ago, which had apparently been deeply stupid. Taija had had to fight hard not to blush under the witheringly unimpressed look she'd received from Cadsuane. Not knowing basic things about the world was infuriating as was people thinking she was an idiot. It wasn't like they even had what would have been considered a basic education in her time! Cadsuane probably thought it rained because the Creator was crying or something like that.

However, Taija had more important and if she was totally honest with herself, more interesting and exciting things to do than to worry about that. It wasn't like it was in the good old days, but she was finally faced with the kind of problem that she'd dedicated her life to figuring out. If only it hadn't been so utterly horrifying.

That was why in many meetings while they droned on, she was just thinking about the taint. Taija knew she should pay more attention, but she just couldn't get her mind off it.

So she sat there, carefully spinning tiny, incredibly intricate, inverted webs. Quietly watching and manipulating them as she tried to figure out what could impact on the taint.

Her starting point had been a series of webs designed by Alemhok Tissa Adebir for separating out flows of the Power to allow analysis at the smallest possible level. She'd improved on them back in the day and she thought they might be the best starting point here. Before she could solve a problem like the taint, she needed to be able to measure it, to interact with it. Once she had that, she'd be able to manipulate it and then it would just be a matter of time to a solution. Hopefully anyway.

Spirit in ultra fine, layered sheets, threaded through with an interconnecting lattice of fire, air, earth and water. It was unlikely anyone else would be able to replicate something like this now, based on the lack of subtlety of the channelers of this time anyway, but that was fine. Concept first then replicability. Taija narrowed her eyes, if she upped the amount of fire on the transverse flows and also interwove more spirit into the lattice might that work better?

Suddenly she realised with a jump that the room had gone silent. When she refocused everyone was staring at her. Had she missed something? Why did they look worried? Except Cadsuane, she looked predatory.

Oh! Taija rewound vague memories, she thought they asked if she had anything to add. "Oh umm, no nothing from me, sorry." She mumbled the words, they were talking about some plot or another from a High Lord. Boring. Her mind was already going back to that little inverted web.

The glowing multicoloured lattice sat simultaneously suspended in the air in front of her, invisible to everyone else, and modelled in her mind at the same time. Perhaps this one would work, but she was sure she could improve it further. Taija was vaguely aware that she was biting her bottom lip, a bad habit when she was concentrating too hard, but she had much too much to think about to worry about that.

=========

Weeks went by in a blur as Taija focused her attention on the taint.

Rand was already getting too busy for her to experiment on him. He was more than willing to accommodate her when he had time, but she knew he had a thousand and one things pressing down on him. He seemed to be somewhere between king of Tear and the messiah and he had better things to do than stand there feeling the filth of the taint flow through him while she tried to feel it out.

Luckily Aleksi seemed to be learning prodigiously quickly. He must have had a fair bit of talent, although Taija suspected he was also pushing himself more than was safe. She'd say something, but she knew he'd just ignore it and, with the situation they were all in, getting strong, fast was probably a sensible risk to take.

It wasn't long before he'd learnt enough to be able to seize saidin on command and therefore also to enter a link with Taija and one of the girls. She felt just as bad making him stand there channeling the taint as she did with Rand, but she needed to feel it, explore it even though it turned her stomach. Every moment she wasn't working on it she was having to avoid imagining some of the very few living people she could consider herself close to dying horribly.

Taija drew on saidin through Aleksi, the trickle of Power that he could handle suffused with the oily horror of the taint. She was hopeful she was onto something this time. Channeling saidar she spun the web she'd been working on for the last week, placing the finely spun, intricate web of all five elements over the flow of the male half. It sunk into the bands of saidin and… her face fell. Saidin moved through it freely, as planned, but there was no interaction with the taint, just nothing.

She wanted to cry. What was she missing?! Taija could feel the taint, she could fucking see the taint in the flows, yet she couldn't find a web of saidar that would interact with it in any way. What was wrong with her?! She sat down with a thump, releasing both the link and saidar, head in her hands. She needed to think, there had to be a solution, there had to be. She couldn't be useless for this too!

Research was meant to be collaborative, it was resource intensive! Scientists didn't just sit there thinking clever thoughts until everything came together. She should be in a proper lab. Spotless white walls, surrounded by towering custom made detection and analysis ter'angreal. Not smooth stone and medieval tapestries. Taija wished she had her team with her too. Together they were the best in the world as far as she was concerned. She couldn't have done half the things she had without them.

There'd been Luan her number two. He'd been the rock the team rested on. Dead during the War.

Ilaria had been so young and bright, Belen had killed her, she hadn't even finished her doctorate. Taija could remember the sight of her intestines across the office floor like it was yesterday. Shinju, dead too. Sarita, the same day, dead. Mocktar, dead. Balla, dead. Dead, dead, dead, dead! The word repeated itself in her head. They were all dead, it was all down to her to solve this. Just her. Alone. She shuddered and blinked rapidly to clear the blurring in her eyes.

After a moment Taija felt a large hand on your shoulder, "when did you last sleep Taija?" Aleksi's voice was full of concern.

"Last night!" She immediately protested, but actually… "I I'm not sure…"

He nodded firmly, "you're going to bed. Now, and you're going to sleep until tomorrow morning even if I have to get Nynaeve to feed you some of her herbs."

"No I need to…" Aleksi cut off her protest.

"No arguing. Bed. Now, or I'll carry you there." Taija found she didn't have the energy to argue. "Come on Taija." He easily hauled her to her feet and tugged her along, an arm round her shoulders. She staggered a little, maybe sleep wasn't such a bad idea.

"Ok ok, I'm going," she muttered petulantly.

He just kept walking her along, "I know you're trying to save me and I can't tell you how thankful I am, but I'm not going to watch you kill yourself doing it."

"Mmrmph." Taija mumbled something incoherent. She was vaguely aware that people were giving her odd looks as they went by. She supposed it was a break of these people's decorum that he'd got his arm round her, let alone that he was taking her to bed. Idiots.

She was practically asleep by the time her head hit the pillow.

======

A few days later Taija was walking through the corridors of the Stone when Rhuarc suddenly appeared beside her. His disconcerting ability to sneak up on her aside, it was odd. He'd seemed to be avoiding her ever since their last conversation, although she hadn't been sure why. She'd had more important things to think about anyway. At least he slowed his pace to a more reasonable one for her.

"I see you Taija sedai." When Taija looked up at him he didn't seem desperately keen to be there.

"Hello Rhuarc, what's up, I mean how are you?" She should probably try to greet him the same way he greeted her. Another little thing to file away for when she had the headspace.

"I am well Taija sedai, I think that soon we shall be returning to the Dedicated Waste."

Now that was interesting. "Oh really, why is that? I thought that Rand was the man you were looking for? Your Chief of Chiefs."

Discomfort flashed across his stony face. Why did so many people in this time seem to put so much work on not showing their facial expressions?! "Whether Rand al'Thor is the Chief of Chiefs remains to be seen. It is for the Wise Ones and Rhuidean to determine the truth of the matter."

"But you think he is?"

Rhuarc's shrug didn't deny it, but neither did it confirm it. "What will be, will be." He glanced around almost looking likes he was nervous, but didn't say anything.

"Well I suppose I'll go with him, so it'll be nice to see Egwene again." The idea made Taija feel a bit more cheerful, she'd missed having her around.

Rhuarc nodded, "yes she is headstrong, but learning fast."

Taija raised her eyebrows, "how do you know that?"

"The Wise One Amys is a dreamer, so she passes on messages to me sometimes." Oh of course, that made sense. Quite convenient for them too, to be able to communicate fairly quickly without Traveling.

That seemed to kill the conversation though and they walked in a slightly uncomfortable silence. Still he didn't seem to want to leave. Was he trying to hit on her? Surely not. She was just imagining it, she must have been. He was being really awkward though. Then again awkwardness seemed to be standard for the Dedicated when they spoke to her.

Not that she'd be interested anyway. The very idea of getting with someone at the moment just made Taija want to curl into a ball and eat ice cream all night. Another thing lacking from this time. She couldn't be with someone that tall anyway, it gave her phantom neck ache just thinking about it. She was definitely just imagining it, for fuck's sake.

After a minute Taija threw him a bone, it was uncomfortable seeing the normally so impassive man looking awkward. "Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?"

She was surprised to see him look around again, he really was uncomfortable about something. "I had hoped to speak more of the Dedicated to Peace."

He looked like he'd rather be talking about anything else. "You do?" That was not what she'd expected.

Rhuarc nodded firmly, "you said that you went out into the fields to hear them sing?"

This was definitely one of the stranger ways that Taija had had someone hit on her. If that was even what he was doing. She wasn't sure enough to turn him down, that would be awkward if he was really just curious. "Oh well I just went once, it was basically just fields, not very interesting really, too flat. They were doing a growing song, it was interesting I suppose, nice voices. M'Jinn was much more interesting. That's the city I stayed in for the visit. You should have seen their history museum, they had artifacts from the first age and it was much more interesting than songs." She realised she was babbling and Rhuarc seemed to be unsure how to react.

Wait a minute, wasn't he married? She was sure he'd mentioned that before. Would that stop him? She needed to get out of there before she made an idiot of herself by telling him she wasn't interested or something!

"Oh I've just remembered I'm meant to be speaking to Aleksi about something, I have to run, sorry!" Taija was already moving off at speed.

Chapter Text

Chapter XXXIX - Click, Boom

Rand was sitting through yet another meeting. This time with Rhuarc and Lan to discuss the disposition of the Defenders of the Stone and the Aiel. However, his mind was elsewhere.

At first he hadn't been sure about Cadsuane, but he had to admit that she'd grown on him. Not only was her usefulness undeniable, but after that strange, initial rudeness she'd also become far more polite and helpful slotting herself neatly in among his advisers. She could still be abrasive, but she gave good advice and seemed to be much less focused on trying to manipulate him than Moiraine. She also had a talent for ferreting out secrets and a thorough understanding of a huge range of subjects.

Of course Rand wasn't stupid. He was well aware that she was aes sedai, a modern one anyway, and that he needed to look at everything she said and did three times to weed out hidden agendas. However, useful was useful and he certainly needed skilled advisers.

The only real fly in the ointment seemed to be Taija. He mentally corrected himself, the problem was Cadsuane's feelings about Taija, not Taija herself. Cadsuane seemed to have a grudge against her and he simply could not work out why. He'd asked her more than once and each time she'd said that the affairs of the aes sedai were for them alone and not to be questioned by outsiders.

That seemed to be her response to anything to do with Taija. He could see that something was eating Taija up from the inside too, which wasn't helping. He'd asked her what he could do to help and she'd just said not to worry about it and that he had enough on his plate, but he could see how distracted she was from, well, everything. The worry painted across her face when she thought no one was looking. He wasn't even sure she was noticing Cadsuane's petty sniping. In a way he hoped she wasn't.

His conversation with Cadsuane just before this meeting had been particularly odd. He'd asked, well no, he'd ordered her to stop her sniping at Taija, and didn't it feel strange to be giving orders to aes sedai.

She'd just smiled and told him not to worry, she knew Aleksi could channel. While he'd been spluttering protests she'd told him that he had nothing to worry about with the man, she accepted the situation there and wouldn't interfere, but since Aleksi was safe she would be resolving the situation with Taija so that there would be no need for any further conflict.

He hadn't been sure what she'd meant by that and then she'd left with a reminder that while she supported him as the Dragon Reborn, the affairs of aes sedai were for them alone, but that he shouldn't worry she would bring her conflict with Taija to an end as requested.

It had been bothering him ever since, surely it was good that she was going to resolve things. Except that what you heard an aes sedai say wasn't always what they meant. Resolve could mean all kinds of things, bring an end to…

"Mother's milk in a cup!" He sprang to his feet, already moving to the door. "Sorry, I have to go!" Light take him, if he was right and with Taija in her current mental state there'd be blood on the floor. Probably Cadsuane's. He broke into a dead run towards the room he knew Taija liked to use for her lessons. If he was right Cadsuane was about to do something very stupid.

=========

About a week after her very odd conversation with Rhuarc, Taija was sitting in the room that she'd commandeered for lessons with the girls.

Teaching the two girls was essentially the only break that she got from her efforts at solving the problem of the taint on saidin. It was a pity Egwene wasn't there too, but she never ceased to be amazed by the speed at which Elayne and Nynaeve picked things up. They even put up with her various lectures on philosophy and being aes sedai with decent grace.

Today, as he often did, Aleksi was sitting in too as she wasn't really focusing on saidar. In fact, they'd somehow managed to get her diverted into an explanation of movies and how they worked. Taija knew exactly what they were doing when they tried to distract her away from her planned topic and onto something more exciting. Still, sometimes she needed a break too and even in her current, fragile emotional state she couldn't deny that she was getting some entertainment from trying to explain her favourite romcom to them. It wasn't the overall concept that was a struggle, but more the context it was all set in. It was bittersweet thinking about it, but she was feeling relaxed.

"No you see he was late because his car broke down and the mechanic was…" Taija trailed off as the door swung open and Cadsuane strode in. "Oh hello Cadsuane sedai."

Hard eyes in an unsmiling face took in the scene, but she didn't say anything when Taija greeted her with a polite, if slightly cold, smile, so after a moment Taija just ignored her and continued. Frankly she'd had enough of the woman anyway.

"Anyway the point was apparently meant to be an allegory for the impact of technology on relationships," she found herself slipping into her own language to try to explain, "but I just thought it was funny."

She heard a loud sniff come from Cadsuane and with a sigh she turned her attention back to her. "Can I help you Cadsuane sedai?"

Cadsuane took a step towards Taija, her eyes slowly scanning across the room's occupants. "This has gone on long enough," there seemed to be genuine anger in her voice and Taija found herself taking an instinctive step back.

"Excuse me?" She ignored the irritation flaring up inside her.

Cadsuane took another step forward, but this time Taija didn't retreat. "This," she gestured around the room. "You are making a mockery of the very concept of aes sedai girl. Did you really think this would be allowed to continue without consequences? Do you think this is funny?" The light of saidar sprung up around her, far too bright. As Taija had thought, she clearly had an angreal. Taija immediately embraced the Power herself. With her own angreal she had the advantage on strengt, although unless something had gone badly wrong with the webs she kept on herself Cadsuane wouldn't know where she stood.

Suppressing the bubbling fury within her, Taija kept her response calm, "my name is Taija, you may call me Taija sedai or Taija Kosola Miranen if you want to be formal, just as I do you the courtesy of calling you Cadsuane sedai." She nearly added 'despite my doubts about your worthiness for the title', she needed to stay polite. She didn't want a repeat of her conversation with Moiraine where she ended up threatening to kill her. Unhelpful and probably unjustified. Someone needed to be the adult here.

Cadsuane snorted, she was still advancing on Taija. "Did you think I would not find out your secret? If you had any idea what you were doing you would know that I can sense whether or not you can channel." She spun a web of spirit and slammed a shield into place on Aleksi. He jumped and suddenly looked worried.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but if you think you can walk in and insult me, threaten my friends…" On the other side of the room the light of saidar sprung up around Nynaeve and Elayne. Taija immediately snapped at them, "release it, now!" A moment later the light winked out again. "This, whatever idiocy it is, is between me and Cadsuane sedai. You are not to involve yourselves."

Cadsuane gave her a thin smile at that, "the first wise thing that I have heard you say since I arrived in the Stone. Typically the White Tower would severely punish anyone who claims to be aes sedai; however, out of respect for your friendship with the Dragon, I will settle for a public apology and recanting of your position." Her body language and tone made it clear that she both thought she was in an utterly dominant position and that she was doing Taija a huge favour.

Who the fuck did she think she was? Taija had been working herself to the bone trying to save their whole world from a problem they'd singularly failed to deal with for millennia. She was putting up with the White Tower aes sedai claiming a title they didn't deserve. She'd ignored Cadsuane's constant sniping. She needed to stay calm. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I was awarded the title, I am aes sedai. I have a better claim than you ever will. If you want to speak to me then show a modicum of respect. Otherwise you can leave." She couldn't help but muttering afterwards, "and preferably fall down a crevice." She was failing at staying calm.

"Ah finally the lamb shows some teeth." Cadsuane's smile was predatory. "You think you are so clever girl with your little story and your ridiculous attempts at the Old Tongue. You do not even realise, I know your secret, I have your lover shielded, you have nothing." Of course Taija knew he was shielded, she could see it. Wait. Lover, what? Her mind caught up with the implications.

"If you try to sever him, I will kill you before you can finish spinning the web." In an isntant Taija's tone went from angry to deadly serious. Cadsuane was in her personal space and Taia had to look up a bit to meet her eyes, but she did her best to convey that she meant every word of it. So much for getting through this without threatening to kill someone, but the voice of reason was fading away to the back of her head behind the rising flames of her anger.

Cadsuane just smiled at that, irritatingly unconcerned. "You will learn respect girl, I will teach it to you. Firstly though, the runaways need to be dealt with. Nynaeve, Elayne, this charade is over. You will be disciplined appropriately for running away and following that I shall continue your education properly. You will go to my rooms now and await my return when I have finished dealing with Taija 'sedai'." She layered sarcasm heavily onto the last word.

"No." Elayne and Nynaeve hadn't moved an inch, but Taija still said it. "Nynaeve and Elayne are my apprentices. They stay with me unless and until I release them or they decide they do not wish to learn from me. Unlike your White Tower's degenerate version, real aes sedai don't need to force people to obey them. We lead, we inspire and most importantly we serve." She stepped forward almost touching Cadsuane. "You people squat in the ruins of a once great institution perverting everything it stood for while you scavenge for the scraps of a civilisation you'll never even understand!" By the time she stopped talking she was practically spitting the words furiously.

"A pretty speech," Taija realised she'd put Cadsuane uncomfortably close to her, but she couldn't step back now, not without showing weakness. Despite her mocking words Cadsuane sounded genuinely angry. "Every word you speak will only increase your punishment. I would suggest you stop."

"Stop? Stop?! Who the fuck do you think you are…" Taija's world suddenly went white, why was she on the floor with her head ringing. Did Cadsuane just hit her? Cadsuane just slapped her! Hard.

The girls had embraced saidar again, Taija knew them well enough to see even through blurred vision that they were about to attack Cadsuane. It was hard to think with the absolutely white-hot fury that was roaring through her now, but she just about had the composure to snap at them, "no, this is between me and Cadsuane." No title for her anymore.

Taija hauled herself to her feet, her head still spinning a bit from the impact. She was well past losing her temper now. Homicidal rage burning through her. But no, she wouldn't kill her. However, she was going to make her wish she had. Taija exaggerated how woozy she felt, letting herself stagger backwards a little to create distance. Clutching her head. Was that blood from her lip? She was going to wipe that self satisfied smirk off Cadsuane's face!

Cadsuane continued, her voice oozing smugness. "It seems that you do not wish to choose the merciful option I offer. Very well then, I…" Taija spun five different webs all inverted. The woman was too strong to just shield, so she went for her legs with air, for the eyes with spirit and earth and three more webs of air from behind. "…shall have to teach you a firmer lesson." Cadsuane continued as if nothing had happened. Taija's webs just dissipated when they touched her, fell apart as if she'd released them. What. The. Fuck.

She realised she was just standing there staring when Cadsuane continued, "ah yes. You thought young Aleksi could save you. Like I said, I know your secret, he cannot channel for you now. Do not worry, I shall not do anything to harm him, but this farce is over." Cadsuane spun air into two webs, one to hold Taija in place and the other to cane her from behind, nothing overly harmful, just painful and humiliating.

Without even thinking Taija sliced them with inverted fire and spirit and Cadsuane jerked as the flows snapped back into her.

That might have been the moment to try to deescalate the situation, Cadsuane had some kind of unknown defence and Taija had just proven that she wasn't just a victim, but she was too angry. All the stress, the insults and now this. She couldn't keep it in any longer. Webs of saidar spring up around her looming and diving in towards Cadsuane.

"I'm spending every waking moment trying to save my friends' lives, doing things with the Power that you can't even start to understand you pathetic half educated barbarian, let alone copy and I get this." Taija gestured towards her, words spat out.

She bombarded Cadsuane with air, fire, spirit, spinning them together into esoteric webs, although careful to avoid anything actually lethal or that might hurt the girls or Aleksi, to try to get around whatever protection Cadsuane had as she went on. "Do you even know what I'm doing? What I've gone through? Of course you don't!"

Taija's webs just faded out of existence when they touched her. What in the Light was going on? Cadsuane wasn't cutting them, she wasn't deflecting them, Taija could see what she was channeling! Taija was still talking though, shouting even, she couldn't stop. She needed Cadsuane to know what she really thought of her. "You just swan around calling yourself aes sedai while serving no one."

Cadsuane must have had a ter'angreal of some kind. Something Taija hadn't seen before. She was channeling too, throwing a tangle of webs at Taija, splitting her flows multiple ways. Powerful, but simple. Crude. Slow. Taija sliced them. "You can't even get out of the way of someone who's trying to help. Even just standing aside. Instead all you can do is interfere, obstruct. Desperate for control. Pathetic! You're a perversion of the very concept of being aes sedai."

Cadsuane started to look worried as every web she formed was immediately sliced. Ha! "Do you even know how hard it is trying to do anything with the taint? I'm sitting there trying to work something out when I should have a whole team with me! Except they're dead, every single one of them!" Why were her eyes going blurry? "I should have an institution, friends colleagues, ter'angreal. Instead I'm just left doing it myself. My friends' lives in my hands and only if I can do something impossible. Something even my own civilisation couldn't do! Do you even know what friends are?!" Taija was ranting, but she couldn't stop.

Cadsuane was throwing a storm of webs at her even while she looked around trying to work out who could be slicing them. So much power, but no subtlety, Taija cut them, noting somewhere in the back of her head that Cadsuane still wasn't trying anything lethal, just painful.

Cadsuane took a step towards Taija, she didn't want her in arms reach though, not after she'd already hit her. Taija had stopped bothering to try to touch her with the Power it wasn't working, so she grabbed a chair with a web of air and threw it at her, forcing her to stagger back. It didn't seem to move her as much as Taija had expected though.

Cadsuane was still limiting herself to multiple webs of air, frustration and anger clear on her face now, aes sedai composure failing as she shouted at Taija. "You are only making things worse for yourself girl. Stop this madness, tell whoever it is that enough is enough!"

Taija didn't think she could stop even if she wanted to deescalate things and she didn't. "I hate this time! I hate that everyone I know is dead or worse and I hate that every time I try to help I have to work my way around manipulative bitches like you playing fucking stupid games." As she screwed her eyes shut for a second, hoping to clear the blur in them, Taija was vaguely aware that she was screaming in her own language. She nearly missed slicing one of Cadsuane's webs before it touched her. Sloppy, failing, just like she had been every day since she linked with Rand.

Taija grabbed three more chairs in webs of air and flung them at Cadsuane hard enough that each of them shattered over her, nearly knocking her off her feet. Yet she seemed to be unhurt. That should have hospitalised her. How many fucking ter'angreal did she have?! It was the fashionable hair jewelery it had to be. Another stolen treasure from Taija's time, although she'd never heard of anything that just made webs dissipate.

Suddenly Cadsuane was flinging far more serious webs at her. All of the elements mixed in. Taija sliced a web of fire and air that would have burnt her arm off, sliced a blade of air, sliced earth and water sent into the stone floor beneath her feet. It was a storm of saidar, but she was its eye, untouched by anything.

Taija wanted to hurt the smug bitch. Make her feel a fraction of what she was and Cadsuane had just taken off the gloves. "I just want to go home! Not be here finding each revelation worse than the last!"

With flows of air she demolished a pair of tables, ripping the legs from them in a fraction of a second and slammed the now flat surfaces into Cadsuane from each side. She thought she could use lethal webs on her without consequences? She'd fucking learn.

"Why can't I even have the smallest of pleasures without fucking aes sedai trying to take them away from me? Why can't I work it out? I don't want my friends to die!" Taija whipped the tables hard into the wall, Cadsuane sandwiched between them. Wham! Her webs faltered even as Taija sliced everything that came near her. She whipped her back into the other wall. Wham! Back again. Wham!

The light of saidar wavered around Cadsuane and the storm of webs around Taija abated. Wham! Taija sank to her knees unable to stop herself sobbing. Wham! Why were they all like this? Wham! The light of saidar winked out around Cadsuane. Why was everything on her? Wham! She just wanted to see her friends, to find out Tel had never really turned to the Shadow, to see Adanza one more time.

Taija jolted as her webs of air were sliced and snapped back into her. She looked up through tear-filled eyes already spinning several nasty webs to see Rand looking absolutely furious. "What in the Light are you doing?! Stop this madness!" His shout was shockingly loud.

She'd never seen him look this angry. She didn't even know how to answer, what was she thinking? The girls and Aleksi looked terrified, horrified. She needed to get out of there, she couldn't deal with it.

Without conscious thought Taija spun a gateway to her spot on the tower and threw herself through it, forcing it closed behind her before anyone could do more than gape.

========

Taija must have been up there for at least an hour, staring down at Tear, sitting on the edge of the vertiginous drop. At least the air was fresher up there, away from the smells and sounds of a medieval castle. Her lip was painfully swollen and she was fairly sure she had a red handmark across her face.

Why was she such a fuck up? She couldn't help her friends, she didn't seem to be able to handle actual grown-ups, the only people she had any real relationship with were in their twenties at best, and she was failing utterly at dealing with the taint. Everything had made so much more sense in her own time.

All she really wanted was to be back home. Even if it was in the middle of the War. Even if Lanfear had already killed her family. At least she'd had friends, comrades a feeling that she could actually make a difference. A society that wasn't perfect but at least felt like it meant something. Somewhere where she could fit in and be valued rather than be the constant outsider. At best an odd relic of a bygone era. At worst an alien inconvenience to be removed or worked around. She was just useless here, failing. What was even teh point?

Taija was disgusted at the way her self-control was fraying too. Every decision seemed justified at the time, but she'd just battered an old woman to the point that if Nynaeve or Moiraine didn't heal her she'd need months of recovery. Sure, she was provoked, but she was better than that. Better than these people.

Taija stared down at the ground a long way below her dangling feet, her hair fluttering in the breeze. None of them understood, not really. Most of the people she really liked, which was painfully few, were basically children. They looked up to her, needed her to be strong, wise, to help them. And she wanted to. Of course she did. She'd put her life on the line for them, she'd killed her way through small armies for them.

It wasn't enough though. Taija's mind was pulled inevitably back to the sick, slick feel of the taint. To Tel's scarred, snarling face and hate filled eyes. Was this how Tel felt? Was this what drove him to betray everything both of them had ever stood for?

No! There was no excuse. He had friends, supporters a cause that meant something, a world to protect. Taija crushed the momentary feeling of sympathy. He'd never had to face what she was and regardless, she would die before she turned to the Shadow. It wasn't even a question.

She looked down at the ground again.

Taija wasn't sure how long she sat there alone in her thoughts. The whole reason she liked this place was that no one seemed to know about it and anyway they couldn't get there without a ladder or Traveling.

That was why she jumped so hard she nearly fell off when she saw a pair of hands appear over the edge shortly followed by Lan's stone faced visage. Did he just climb up the outside of the Tower?! Was he insane? He could have died! He wasn't even sweating!

Taija's surprise stifled her instinctive response to snap at him to go away and leave her alone and she settled for something milder. "What are you doing here Lan?"

He finished hauling himself up and sat down beside her before answering. "Duty is heavier than a mountain, death is lighter than a feather." It was that phrase of his that Rand liked to repeat. He didn't look at her as he spoke, just looking out over Tear like she was.

"I don't want to hear it. You don't understand, how can you?" Taija was so tired. Tired of this time, tired of constantly trying and tired of being alone.

Lan didn't answer for a while and then began to speak, his piercing blue eyes staring out at the sky. "I was born in Malkier, into the royal family as the heir to the throne." He took a breath, even behind his stoic mask Taija could see he didn't like to talk about it. "When I was just an infant the trollocs came. Hordes beyond count descending on my homeland."

"Malkier's border forts had been stripped bare, a betrayal as it turned out, and the trollocs overran them in hours. My parents placed my father's sword in my infant hands and sent me south with twenty of the best swordsmen in Malkier." His hand unconsciously dropped to the hilt of his sword. "Five of them survived to see me to Shienar."

Taija winced at the thought that she'd nearly decided to go Malkier after reading an outdated book in Caemlyn, but didn't interrupt. This was by far the most words she'd heard Lan say at any one time.

"I grew up amidst the remnants of my culture, feted as the heir to a lost kingdom, but reminded of what was gone at every turn. My parents' retainers brought me up in the Malkieri way, placing the burden of duty on the shoulders of a child. Even today every Borderlander looks at me and wants to know when I will be raising the Golden Crane banner of Malkier and leading them back to retake my country. A wasteland that has been overrun by the Blight. The Seven Towers have fallen, the Thousand Lakes are poisonous and infested with creatures of the Blight. The Aiel call me Man Alone because I represent the last of my people."

"I'm sorry." Taija mumbled, she really shouldn't have been wallowing in her own grief.

"I do not tell you this to lessen your own struggles. I cannot claim to understand more than part of your pain and the world you come from. I was not there, I still have some remnants of my people, but I can understand part of it. Sometimes it can seem almost impossible to keep going, but always duty asks ever more." His voice was level, almost musing.

Lan continued. "Since I met Moiraine I have been dedicated to her and her mission. I had not thought I could be diverted from my duty to Malkier, but she had a higher duty. We have spent the last twenty years seeking the Dragon Reborn because nothing is more important. Rand al'Thor must survive and he must succeed. We have given up everything for half our lives to help him, when every hand in the world would be turned against us for it. Duty is an unrewarding mistress with myriad demands, but how can we let it go?"

Had Moiraine sent him? Taija hated herself, hated this time, for even having to think about that sort of thing. He seemed to read her mind though.

"Moiraine has not sent me here to speak to you. If she knew I was here she would be furious. I am here to speak to you as al'Lan Mandragoran not as Moiraine's warder."

"Fine." Taija's response was short, rude really, but he ignored that.

"I want you to understand, your efforts are not in vain. I see the sacrifices that you make, the pain you deal with. Others do too." He huffed slightly. "I know you and Moiraine have your disagreements, but even she respects what you do. It can be hard to deal with someone who is so outside one's expectations."

Despite her mood Taija found herself responding. "It's… it's just hard. I've barely had time to even think about things. Well under a year ago I had a fiancé, I was living in what you call the 'Age of Legends'. Then suddenly it's gone. Dust blown away by the winds of time. The continents aren't even the same shape as in my time. Yet there's always more for me to do. I can't even take the time to mourn because I need to make sure my friends survive only I don't know if I even can."

Lan nodded, "when I say duty is heavier than a mountain it is not a mere platitude. I look at you and I see strength, you will succeed, true blood of Adanza."

Taija sighed and the two of them subsided into something one might, at a stretch, call companionable silence.

Chapter Text

Interlude XVI - The Modern Perspective

Cadsuane allowed herself a grim smile. Al'Thor had been appropriately warned and reassured, it was time to deal with the biggest problem in the Dragon's camp. Taija could not be allowed to continue to undermine both him and the very status of aes sedai. She allowed herself a grim smile, the conflict would certainly be resolved once she was done with her.

She knew where the girl was of course. She was always in the same room at this time, 'teaching' the runaways. It would be good to put her in her place, not that she would take any pleasure from it, a necessary chore. She was not a cruel woman, but she was a woman who would do what needed to be done.

She pushed the door open and strode in assessing what was going on at a glance. The runaways were sitting at desks, giggling over something while Taija had perched herself on the edge of a table at the front of the room, oddly enough the usually dour woman was smiling. Well that would not last. Aleksi was there too, in some ways an inconvenience, but probably better to nip this whole thing in the bud from the start.

The whole scene illustrated the problem of course. The runaways were just playing around instead of learning or doing chores. Taija looked deeply inappropriate sat on a table in men's breeches of all things, even loose ones. As for having a man who could channel attending lessons with initiates of the White Tower, well she had nothing at all to say on that.

"No you see he was late because his car broke down and the mechanic was… Oh hello Cadsuane sedai." The girl looked over from whatever she was talking about, her smile turning frosty. It was ridiculous that they sat here listening to her as if she had anything worthwhile to say. Was it the way she peppered words of the Old Tongue into her speech, like a pretentious noble, but without the education to back it up? She was not going to return the woman's greeting, this was not going to be that kind of conversation.

Taija continued to witter on, turning back to her audience, when Cadsuane did not answer her. "Anyway the point was apparently meant to be an allegory for the impact of technology on relationships, but I thought it was just funny." Cadsuane spoke the Old Tongue well enough, she was fairly sure some of those words were just invented.

She sniffed, loudly. How could the girl sit there with a straight face talking such nonsense? It was incongruous hearing the Old Tongue from an uneducated peasant, but that would be something she could investigate once this had been dealt with. Perhaps some of the old blood in her? More likely, given her accent in the language and improper behaviour, she just learnt some words from a liaison with someone in the past.

With a sigh that made her exasperation clear Taija turned her attention back to Cadsuane. "Can I help you Cadsuane sedai?"

Cadsuane took a step towards her, calculated to be intimidating. She was watching the others in the room like a hawk. She would need to manage their reactions or this could turn into a real mess.

She would at least give the girl the small credit that she made an effort to be polite even if she did a shockingly poor job of concealing her dislike. Nevertheless she could feel the anger bubbling inside her at the way the girl mocked what it was to be aes sedai. "This has gone on long enough."

"Excuse me?" Taija took an instinctive step away from Cadsuane, even if the girl had been able channel it was doubtful she would have had the strength of character to attain the shawl.

Cadsuane took another step forward, it was important to keep the girl off balance if she wanted to end this quickly and painlessly. Still, the way she was pretending not to understand was infuriating.

"This," Cadsuane gestured at the runaways and Aleksi. "You are making a mockery of the very concept of aes sedai girl. Did you really think this would be allowed to continue without consequences?" Her mind went back to the giggling when she had arrived. "Do you think this is funny?"

Cadsuane embraced saidar drawing fully through the angreal among her ornaments. The fool girl did not even react, further confirming her inability to channel. Any sensible woman would have been visibly on guard and embracing the True Source themselves if they could channel, or quailing at the sheer amount she held.

Instead the girl just threw more defiance at her. "my name is Taija, you may call me Taija sedai or Taija Kosola Miranen if you want to be formal, just as I do you the courtesy of calling you Cadsuane sedai." The contemptuous twist of her lips when she put the title at the end of Cadsuane's name was infuriating. Who did this girl think she was? Surely she must know that she was finished and she was just making things worse for herself. A small part of Cadsuane's mind tried to remember which cultures used three names. Her inability to place the girl's accent truly was irritating.

Never mind that. She snorted in disgust at the girl's behaviour, advancing steadily towards her. "Did you think I would not find out your secret? If you had any idea what you were doing you would know that I can sense whether or not you can channel." It was time to take action, but first she needed to make sure that young Aleksi did not interfere. She wove spirit and pushed a shield into place on him. Too easy, he had not even been embracing saidin, more fool him.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but if you think you can walk in and insult me, threaten my friends…" Ah now the girl was angry. Soon she would realise how much trouble she was in.

To Cadsuane's side the light of saidar sprang up around Nynaeve and Elayne. She made a mental note to increase their punishment. They were clearly far out of control, thinking to threaten an aes sedai, but before she could chastise them Taija snapped "release it, now!" A moment later the light winked out again. "This, whatever idiocy it is, is between me and Cadsuane sedai. You are not to involve yourselves."

Cadsuane gave the girl a thin smile at that. "The first wise thing that I have heard you say since I arrived in the Stone." Odd that the girl had known though. Probably a good guess. A surprise that the runaways listened to her too. Cadsuane was committed now though. She dismissed the little warning bell that had started to ring in the back of her head. "Typically the White Tower would severely punish anyone who claims to be aes sedai; however, out of respect for your friendship with the Dragon, I will settle for a public apology and recanting of your position."

Cadsuane felt she needed to make the offer to maintain her relationship with al'Thor, but the girl was almost certainly far too arrogant to take it, not understanding how incredibly jealous it was compared to the normal punishments for impersonating an aes sedai. If she had had any sense she would have made herself scarce the very second Cadsuane entered the Stone. When she did not this became inevitable.

The girl did a poor show of hiding genuine anger. Or perhaps a good show of pretending to hide false anger? It did not matter, either way she replied calmly, but forcefully. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I was awarded the title, I am aes sedai. I have a better claim than you ever will. If you want to speak to me then show a modicum of respect. Otherwise you can leave." She dropped her voice, but not enough, "and preferably fall down a crevice."

Anger surged through Cadsuane, ruthlessly kept under control as it always was. The sheer arrogance of the girl, when she should be begging for mercy and then adding an insult in the Old Tongue, as if she would not understand, although it was a poor insult as such things went. "Ah finally the lamb shows some teeth." Cadsuane gave her a distinctly unfriendly smile, time to put her in her place, reveal what she knew. Then she would crumble. "You think you are so clever girl. You do not even realise, I know your secret, I have your lover shielded, you have nothing."

Instead of crumbling the girl looked confused, even as Cadsuane loomed over her. Confused and then furious a second later. "If you try to sever him, I will kill you before you can finish spinning the web." She met Cadsuane's eyes, not a hint of fear in them.

The alarm bells began to ring a little bit louder. Something was just not right with this girl. Surely she did not actually believe her own story? It must be her own painful ignorance of the world, she did not even know to call them weaves. There was no way that anyone with the slightest idea of what she was getting herself into would look Cadsuane in the eyes and make a threat like that.

"You will learn respect girl, I will teach it to you. Firstly though, the runaways need to be dealt with. Nynaeve, Elayne, this charade is over." And not a moment too soon. "You will be disciplined appropriately for running away and following that I shall continue your education properly." No more of this ridiculous rubbish and playing around, they would learn and with Cadsuane's help one day they would be great, not like the soft weaklings the Tower seemed to produce these days. "You will go to my rooms now and await my return when I have finished dealing with Taija 'sedai'." She could not resist layering sarcasm onto the last word.

"No." At this point Taija's denial was not unexpected, but Cadsuane noted with annoyance that Elayne and Nynaeve also had not moved an inch. "Nynaeve and Elayne are my apprentices. They stay with me unless and until I release them or they decide they do not wish to learn from me. Unlike your White Tower's degenerate version, real aes sedai don't need to force people to obey them. We lead, we inspire and most importantly we serve." Taija stepped forward standing almost nose to chin with Cadsuane. "You people squat in the ruins of a once great institution perverting everything it stood for while you scavenge for the scraps of a civilisation you'll never even understand!"

Cadsuane was struggling to follow the girl's nonsense. Ruins of a once great institution? What would she even know? More ridiculous attempts at seeming mysterious. "A pretty speech," the girl really was furious, practically spitting on her. It made Cadsuane furious in turn, this continuing defiance could not be tolerated. Did the girl think she could out-bluff her? "Every word you speak will only increase your punishment. I would suggest you stop."

"Stop? Stop?! Who the fuck do you think you are…" As the girl slipped into her badly accented Old Tongue, Cadusane decided this had gone on long enough. She had put up with far too much from the girl and she was showing no signs of recognising her true position, so it was time to take action.

Crack! The impact of Cadsuane's pale hand on her dark face rang out across the room actually knocking her over. For a moment Cadsuane wondered whether she had hit her too hard. It would be embarrassing to have to heal her, she could not be seen to allow her anger to dominate her actions, no matter how infuriating the girl was.

The runaways embraced saidar again and Cadsuane prepared herself to put them back in their place a bit earlier than she had planned.

"No, this is between me and Cadsuane." Ah the girl was practically red with rage. Not totally surprising, although Cadsuane had hoped for submission rather than more anger. Cadsuane watched her haul herself to her feet. Tougher than expected. She was staggering though and clutching her head. This would be over soon.

Still, defiance would need to be punished. It was just a matter of time now though. The girl had started to understand the consequences of her defiance. "It seems that you do not wish to choose the merciful option I offer. Very well then, I shall have to teach you a firmer lesson."

Cadsuane watched the girl's eyes widen, she seemed to be frozen to the spot. Here it was, the moment when she would break. "Ah yes. You thought young Aleksi could save you. Like I said, I know your secret, he cannot channel for you now. Do not worry, I shall not do anything to harm him, but this farce is over."

Cadsuane wove two weaves of air, one to surround the girl and hold her in place, the other to deliver her a light thrashing. She would not hurt her badly, but she clearly needed to be educated about the realities of her position.

The jolt of her cut weaves snapping back into her was both painful and a nasty surprise. Who did that? There was no one else in the room! Aleksi was shielded, the runaways were not holding saidar. Cadsuane scanned the room again anyway, sudden nervousness running through her. Had she missed something?

"I'm spending every waking moment trying to save my friends' lives, doing things with the Power that you can't even start to understand you pathetic half educated barbarian, let along copy and I get this." Taija gestured towards her, she looked confused even through her clear anger. "Do you even know what I'm doing? What I've gone through? Of course you don't!"

However disinterested she was in the girl's ranting, Cadsuane was not going to just stand there and be further insulted by this girl. Still looking for the unknown threat she channeled, sending more weaves towards Taija. Yet everything she threw towards her was sliced. But by whom? Where were they? What had she missed?!

Taija was still ranting while apparently standing there doing nothing. "You just swan around calling yourself aes sedai while serving no one." Cadsuane tied off the shield on Aleksi and increased the amount of saidar she was throwing at the woman. Splitting her weaves as many ways as she could, bringing them in from different directions. Every single one was sliced, almost instantly. This was impossible, no one was that fast! Who even was it? "You can't even get out of the way of someone who is trying to help. Even just standing aside. Instead all you can do is interfere, obstruct. Desperate for control. Pathetic! You're a perversion of the very concept of being aes sedai."

Surely it could not be a man. Al'Thor had been channeling for months, Aleksi was shielded. Without false modesty, Cadsuane was as strong as almost anyone in the world and she had an angreal. No one could be doing this if they could not see her weaves. Surely not. It could not be the girl. She could not even channel. Had she misjudged the situation that badly?

Growing horror painted itself across Cadsuane's face as she leant into saidar, feeling the strain from drawing on it as hard as she could. Taija's screaming rant battering at her ears, was the girl crying? She would have her crying soon enough if not. "Do you even know how hard it is trying to do anything with the taint? I'm sitting there trying to work something out when I should have a whole team with me! Except they're dead, every single one of them!" What about the taint? Team? None of this made any sense. "I should have an institution, friends colleagues, ter'angreal. Instead I'm just left doing it myself. My friends' lives in my hands and only if I can do something impossible. Something even my own civilisation couldn't do! Do you even know what friends are?!"

Surely it could not be the girl. It could not be. Cadsuane franticly looked around trying to find the other channeler. There was no one. It must be the girl. A ter'angreal? Painful memories of the Black Hills, of Norla, sprang up. Fear came with them.

Even with the battering feeling of so many weaves snapping back into her Cadsuane stepped forward toward Taija, this needed to stop. She had clearly misjudged the situation. Badly. She clamped down on the fear bubbling up inside her. They needed to stop, talk.

A chair smashed into Cadsuane with a thump forcing her to stagger backwards, fortunately the impact merely painful with the six pointed star in her hair net spreading the impact across her whole body.

In frustration she shouted at Taija. "You are only making things worse for yourself girl. Stop this madness, tell whoever it is that enough is enough!" She should have paid more attention to Moiraine's cryptic warning, they would be having words after this! With a thought she tried to activate her fish ter'angreal, to pull whoever it was into a link, but there was nothing. Nobody in the room other than her was holding the One Power.

Tears were streaming down the girl's cheeks. "I hate this time! I hate that everyone I know is dead or worse and I hate that every time I try to help I have to work my way around manipulative bitches like you playing fucking stupid games." Cadsuane had given up on being angry, now she was just worried about being in a condition to walk out of the room when this was done. Also, she realised, the girl's Old Tongue was far too smooth through that accent, far too fast.

Suddenly three more chairs flung themselves at her. Far faster than the first, hurtling across the room and shattering painfully over her, nearly flooring her. Those could have killed her! Even with the ter'angreal she might need healing after this. Freed from the constraints of the third oath by the lethal attack, defensive instincts took over. It could not be anyone but Taija doing this and she was trying to kill her!

What a mess she had made of this. She would have to salvage what she could of the situation afterwards, but for now she just needed to survive.

Cadsuane smoothly switched from painful and humiliating weaves of air to the full array of her skills. Fire, earth, blades of air. Any of them potentially lethal. She did not want to kill the girl of course, but it was clear that if she did not use every weapon at her disposal she would be the one who would end up dead. Still, everything was sliced invisibly, snapping back into her. Only Taija seemed distracted, for a moment she screwed her eyes shut and one of Cadsuane's weaves nearly took her feet from under her before being sliced.

Taija was still ranting in that odd accent with occasional words Cadsuane did not recognise, screaming at her. "I just want to go home! Not here finding each revelation worse than the last!" The woman was clearly distraught and completely out of control.

To each side of her Cadsuane saw a table spring into the air almost instantly rotating onto its side the legs shredded from them in moments. It was frighteningly fast and she instinctively slammed weaves of air between her and the tables.

Her blocking weaves were immediately sliced and for the first time in a long time Cadsuane felt true terror. As the tables slammed into her from each side with a crunch she remembered what Taija's clipped accent reminded her of. The man she had fought in the Stone, only he had been nothing like this!

Then she was flying through the air with no more time for thought. Wham! Pain!

"Why can't I even have the smallest of pleasures without fucking aes sedai trying to take them away from me? Why can't I work it out? I don't want my friends to die!"

She was flying back the other way. Wham! Her vision blurred, the six pointed star ter'angreal could only do so much. Wham! Overwhelming disorientation and pain, she could not keep channeling. It was all she could do to hold onto saidar.

Wham! Her arm broke with a crunch and saidar fled her grasp. She was flying again. Wham! Something else broke. Flying, she was going to die. Wham! Flying and then suddenly the pressure around her was gone leaving her to fall painfully to the floor, an agonising collapse onto the remains of the two tables.

Tears of pain rolled down her cheeks and it took every bit of Cadsuane's prodigious willpower not to scream when she hit the ground.

Rand's furious shout was shockingly loud, "what in the Light are you doing?! Stop this madness!"

Through blurry eyes she saw Taija disappear through a gateway and Rand stand over her. His face was hard, angry. "What did you think you were doing you Light-blinded fool?!" He visibly struggled with his temper for a second before getting it into control and gesturing someone over. A second later Nynaeve joined him looking down at her. "Nynaeve, please could you heal her," he asked with a sigh.

Cadsuane saw Nynaeve hesitate for a moment and then her face hardened. "No. She talked about consequences. She'll live. It'll take a while but she'll heal on her own and then maybe she'll learn her lesson. If she gets worse I'll reconsider it."

"Nynaeve, please…

She cut Rand off with a disapproving look. "If she's so useful you can't do without her, get Moiraine to do it."

=======

Moiraine had been shocked when a servant had come running to her, asking her to attend Rand immediately. She had been even more shocked when she had walked into the ruins of the room Taija had taken over and found Cadsuane lying on the ground, clearly in a great deal of pain, with Rand looking as angry as she had ever seen him.

Clearly Cadsuane had decided to poke the bear. She would have been more amused if it had not been clear that things had gone much further than she could possibly have expected. This was not the humiliation and loss of position that she had anticipated. It had looked like a full scale battle had taken place in the room and Taija had outright tried to kill Cadsuane. Of course she reflected ruefully that was unlikely to be the case, given Cadsuane was still alive.

Rand had politely asked her to heal Cadsuane, his voice had been perfectly controlled although she could feel the anger bubbling underneath. Of course she had immediately done so. It had not been a situation she had wanted to insert herself into, she would rather have put her bare hand in a wasps nest, and the quickest way out was to do exactly as Rand asked without questions.

As she had channeled the healing weave into Cadsuane, watching the woman's body repair itself under her eyes Rand had stalked out, with a brief word of thanks and a command, not a request, to send Cadsuane to his apartments as soon as she was able to stand.

The boy was clearly growing into his role and she was not sure how much she welcomed it right now.

It was a couple of hours later that Cadsuane had come to her rooms. Of course she had fetched tea for the woman, it was clear that they needed to talk.

Once they both had their tea they sat facing each other, both perfect models of aes sedai serenity. Moiraine took a sip of tea from her cup of finest sea-folk porcelain and looked over it with hooded eyes while Cadsuane took a sip from her own.

She let the silence stretch. Cadsuane was infuriatingly composed, her facade back in place despite everything. Moiraine did not think she could have kept her composure so well after what Cadsuane had been through.

The girls had been distressingly unwilling to tell her what had gone on, another issue to lay at Cadsuane's feet. At least they had been willing to talk to her before. She could have told the bloody woman that trying to force them away from Taija would not work. Perhaps she should have told her, not that she would have listened.

Fortunately Aleksi had been more willing to explain what had happened. He had been absolutely furious on Taija's behalf, but at least that fury had been directed at Cadsuane not aes sedai in general. She probably had the time he spent with Lan to thank for that.

Eventually Cadsuane broke the silence, a small victory. "So. The Age of Legends." Her voice was dry, displeased.

Moiraine took another sip of her tea. "Indeed. Did she tell you?"

No," Cadsuane grimaced slightly, "I might have worked it out afterwards from what she said, but al'Thor took the time to… educate me."

Moiraine raised an eyebrow, "educate you?"

"Indeed. It seems he was displeased with my actions and felt that I needed it explained to me exactly what the situation was and how tenuous my position had just become." She was all cool arrogance as ever, Moiraine could not believe the woman could maintain her attitude in the face of what had just happened.

"I take it you explained the error of his ways to him?" Of course the fool woman did, she had not encountered a problem she could not bully her way out of in almost three hundred years.

"Of course I did not!" The sudden sharpness in Cadsuane's voice took her aback. "I made a grave error of judgment, that does not mean I am completely addled. He told me to consider myself lucky that Taija had given me such a thorough beating as it allowed him to turn a blind eye rather than punishing me." Her knuckles tightened around the handle of her cup. "I nodded, smiled and thanked him for his forbearance."

Moiraine sat back slightly, mind whirling. It seemed she would have to reconsider some of her plans. "I see. That is… remarkably tolerant of you to accept that from the man."

Cadsuane took another sip, "I was allowed to labour under the misapprehension that she was an imposter, pretending to be an aes sedai." The look she gave Moiraine made it clear who she blamed for that. "In part the failing is mine, I allowed my assumptions to dominate my thinking and lead me into foolish action with potentially disastrous consequences. Are you aware the girl…" she hesitated, "no, woman, has killed one of the Forsaken?"

"Mmm…. Yes." Moiraine eventually nodded.

Cadsuane muttered something that might have been a curse. "Very well." She hesitated and then sighed. "Perhaps I should follow Taija's example and dispense with the word games we have become so used to, so allow me to be blunt. It is clear that you do not trust me, presumably you believe I may be Black Ajah." Moiraine had to hide the surprise at such a blunt statement. She would have expected Cadsuane to explode at even the suggestion that the Black Ajah was real. "Obviously I believe this is unjustified and I serve the Light, as I believe you do. However, without a degree of trust we will fail to work together."

Moiraine folded her hands together, not denying Cadsuane's words. "What exactly do you propose?"

"We need to reconsider the way that we deal with the woman. I do not ask you to trust me, but I do ask you not to actively undermine me and I shall do the same for you. Hopefully, with time, you will see that my goals are the same as yours. Al'Thor must be allowed to develop, free of anyone else's control and he must be guided to ensure that he fulfils his potential and is ready to face the Dark One."

Moiraine considered for a moment. "That is acceptable to me." She was as cool as ever, giving nothing away beyond her words.

"Good, now we need to discuss Taija. Or what is it she called herself? Taija Kosola Miranen." Cadsuane paused. "Oh."

"Oh?"

"I just realised why she put so much emphasis on her full name. In the Age of Legends it was considered a great honour to be awarded a third name, that is why she sounds the way she does when she says it. I wonder what she received it for."

Moiraine shrugged delicately, "I confess I do not know."

Cadsuane's smile made Moiraine feel she had just walked into a trap. "Indeed and this illustrates the problem. You have clearly severely mismanaged your relationship with her. What do you actually know of her?"

It was an effort to stifle her instinctively angry response to that, but that would be giving Cadsuane exactly what she wanted allowing her to turn the conversation back on Moiraine. "I hardly think you are in a position to criticise after your behaviour since arriving."

"Hmm, deflection. A bit too obvious though." Cadsuane leaned forward. "You have mismanaged your relationship with her from the start. We have a genuine aes sedai from the Age of Legends dropped into our laps, one of apparently prodigious power and skill, and you have somehow managed to develop an enmity with the woman. You have not even got the excuse of having provoked her into attacking you."

Cadsuane paused watching Moiraine with an unreadable look in her eyes. "Oh Light you did!" Moiraine carefully kept her face impassive until Cadsuane snapped, "come on, out with it! I can hardly take amusement from your misfortune after my own actions."

With a sigh Moiraine explained. "Siuan Sanche and I, we thought she was one of the Forsaken, everything pointed to it."

"I suppose I can hardly judge you for mistaken assumptions, I can see how such a mistake might be made."

Perhaps Cadsuane was actually serious about working together, Moiraine had expected her to leap on the point. "Siuan and I were linked and I had my angreal. We had her shielded. She somehow broke the shield and had us both shielded in turn within a few seconds. She never even blinked." She had to a suppress a shudder at the memory. "Then Liandrin walked in. We begged her for help, telling her Taija was Lanfear. She knelt and swore allegiance to her. She said it was an honour to serve one of the Chosen!"

Cadsuane hissed at that, it seemed even her composure could be broken. "Then what happened?"

Moiraine grimaced at the memory. "She lost her temper completely and started screaming in the Old Tongue. At the same time she grabbed Liandrin with air and simply… smeared her across the room. It was so fast I barely saw it happen. Just a flash of movement and… bloody bits of bone and flesh pasted across the floor."

"Light." Cadsuane breathed the word without even thinking. Perhaps she was comparing it to what had happened to her. Then she was all brusqueness once again. "Well it is certainly clear that you have handled the woman badly. You will of course do what you wish, but I shall deal with her appropriately."

Despite herself Moiraine had to ask, "are you sure that is wise? What do you intend to do to her?"

Cadsuane's smile was a little frightening. "Do to her Moiraine? Why this is exactly what is wrong with your thinking. I shall do nothing to her. I shall apologise profusely for my behaviour and offer her whatever assistance I can give her."

That was… unexpected. "You will?"

"Of course. My goals are aligned with hers, why would I oppose her strength when I can help to guide it. She is alone in this world, clearly dealing with it poorly. She is friendly with al'Thor. If I was able to correctly interpret some her ranting, she is trying to find a solution to the taint. I doubt it is possible, but she has already proven herself able to do the impossible so who can say. Either way, she will react better to the hand of friendship than to whatever it is you have been doing." Cadsuane's smile did not reach her eyes. "Remember saidar. If you fight it it will overwhelm you. If you wish to succeed the first thing you must do is surrender to it."

Chapter Text

Interlude XVII - Tel v Asmodean

The day after Tel's surrender to Rand

Tel tentatively reached out to grasp sadin. After the agonising pain that had come from his connection to the Gre… no the Dark One being cut, he'd been scared to even try for the first day. He had no idea how Lews Th, no, Rand had done it, but it was what it was. In a way it was actually very helpful. It left him with no chance of backsliding and also, he suspected, would make it harder for the Dark One to take revenge. A connection could go two ways after all.

Freedom. What a refreshing thought. Or was it freedom? He'd committed himself to something a long way from what he would have called freedom.

With a thought he seized hold of the raging torrent that was the male half of the Power, allowing only a trickle into him. The boy standing over him, distrust in his eyes and saidin filling him to bursting held Tel back from any more than that.

Saidin was as it always was, a storm of ecstatic power to be mastered and shaped, but now… He wanted to scream, to vomit, to cry. He'd thought what he'd heard about the taint was an exaggeration, but this was worse than he'd been told. Slick, oily filth oozed over him. He could taste it, feel it in every pore. How was Rand even able to tolerate this? It was horrific!

With a shudder he released saidin and met Rand's eyes. "T t that was the taint?" He couldn't believe he actually stammered. He was too thrown out of sorts by the feel of the taint to even be angry with himself for his momentary weakness.

Rand just nodded.

Fuck. Death was all he deserved, but channeling… that. Going mad or rotting to pieces. That wasn't going to happen, he couldn't allow it to happen. In a sudden movement Tel stepped close to Rand, gripping the man's arm tightly and looking straight into his eyes. He realised a moment later that he could have just gotten himself killed, but that didn't feel important right now.

"Rand, listen to me very carefully, this is possibly the most important piece of advice I'll ever give you." He spoke each word carefully, emphasising how absolutely, deadly serious he was. "I know you don't trust me and you have no reason to, but please, take my advice on this, I beg you. I want you to go to Taija, right now. You need to ask her exactly what it was she did before the War of Power. Make her talk about it, pretend to be curious, tell her you saw it in a dream, I don't care how, just get her talking! Then you are going to tell her about the taint, every horrible detail that you can. I'm sure you've been telling her it's not that bad. Grinning and bearing it and pretending to save her sensibilities. It's what I would have done." Wasn't that an irony! "Don't. Make her understand in any way you can."

"Why would I do that?" Rand protested. "What's the point? It just gives her another thing to worry about and she's already struggling under everything that's happened to her. No thanks to you." He muttered the last part.

Tel shook his head suppressing a flash of anger. Rand was right. "You don't even know what you have in her." He ignored the pain at what he'd lost, no thrown away. He'd had her support once. "You do realise this is exactly the sort of thing she got a third name for? In her mid hundreds. In an obscure field. While being bad at politics. Do you even have the faintest idea how impressive that is? No, of course you don't. Look, I'll explain that properly another time, but there is no one in this Age or the last that I would rather have thinking about the problem." Rand still looked dubious. "Just go, talk to her, now. Please!"

A couple of weeks later

Tel looked defiantly up at Rand, at first meeting his eyes without flinching, but then after a second he looked down. He was trying to redeem himself, not show defiance or assert dominance. The young man was in a foul mood about something, but when Tel had asked what was wrong he'd just snapped that it was none of his business. It had rankled, but he hardly had room to complain. Rand didn't trust him and he couldn't blame him for that.

"How can I trust you?" The younger man barked. "I don't even know the half of what you've done. What I do know sickens me." He laughed humourlessly. "Yet I'm stuck here, dependent on you for my survival. Dependent on someone who betrayed their cause twice over."

Tel winced. "I've sworn to follow and obey you Rand." He knew it was inadequate as a response, his word, once a treasure he'd doled out sparingly, was worth less than mud now. So, he sighed and tamped down on the resentment bubbling up inside him. "If I was playing some kind of elaborate game, it would be a very strange one. I had you at my mercy and then I placed myself at yours. I've taught you without hesitation. You've cut me off from the G… the Dark One's protections. I can't see what I could possibly gain from this." He grimaced, "other than my faint hope of being able to make up for my crimes. Haven't I obeyed every command you've given me?"

"Hrmph," Rand grunted in response, clearly unsatisfied by Tel's answer. "And if I told you to clean my apartments using a paint brush? Would you still maintain your facade of humility?"

Anger flashed across Tel's face before he firmly strangled it. He had known this wouldn't be easy. "I would tell you that there are better uses for me and then if you nevertheless insisted, I would do it."

"Hrmph." Rand grunted again and then stalked out without another word.

Tel stood there for a moment. How dare the boy speak to him like this? And then just storm out as if Tel had caused him offence! This was more than Lews Therin at his worst! Yet it was no more than he deserved. Before the War menial labour had been a common punishment for trainee channelers, to illustrate to them that if they were going to waste their instructors' time their own would be wasted and because pointless labour was the very opposite of what it meant to be aes sedai.

He thought back to his own early education in the Power and the following years he'd spent bouncing between athletics development camps and the tutelage of various aes sedai. He'd been a headstrong youth.

It enraged him to have the reincarnation of the man he had blamed for so many of his woes speak to him like this. But. He needed to suck it up. There was no way back other than accepting the consequences of his actions. In full. Nothing else could ever be enough. If he was honest, nothing could ever be enough, but he would do what he could. He'd given up once, never again.

He was going to need to find a paintbrush. Also a bucket of water and soap. This was going to truly suck. However, Tel would be damned a second time over if he wouldn't do the best job he could do.

Another couple of weeks later

"So that's enough about logistics, I can see your eyes are glazing over." Tel ignored Rand's scowl. "If you're feeling well enough rested, we can work on fine control in channeling. You've got more than enough Power, but someone who knows what they're doing will just out spin you with no trouble. The first exercise I want to work on helps develop faster spinning skills. We'll combine it with a new web as well. It's pushing far too fast really, but I think you can handle it."

Shortly after Cadsuane's fight with Taija

Tel was angry beyond reason. Did they not know what Taija must be going through?! Obviously he avoided her as much as he could, but he kept his ears open, saw her occasionally from a distance. She was a wreck. This gang of teenagers might not be able to read her, most of them had the emotional intelligence of a spoon, no that was unfair, but they were still basically children with all that entailed.

Rand had forbidden him from speaking about her, which didn't help. He could see why. The boy wanted to protect her from him, but it still rankled.

"How did you allow this to happen al'Thor? What were you thinking?" He was almost spitting with rage, his promised subservience all but forgotten. "Can't you see what a mess she's in and then you let your pet aes sedai loose on her?!"

Fortunately Rand chose to overlook his disobedience of the command not to speak about Taija, he seemed nearly as angry as Tel in fact, although his anger was directed elsewhere. "How was I flaming meant to know she'd do something so insane? She bloody well decided Taija couldn't channel and went to teach her some discipline. I put a stop to it as soon as I found out!"

"Lucky for her that you did from what I heard," Tel couldn't help but feel a bit of pride, misplaced as it was given everything that had happened between them. Beating the absolute shit out of what was apparently the top aes sedai of this age, who had a paralis net no less. Taija probably didn't even know what a paralis net was. "That reminds me, we need to think of a way for you to tell Taija about Cadsuane's paralis net to make sure she knows what's going on there.

Rand nodded sourly, "of course." There was clearly more on his mind though, "it's just so hard to know what's going on in her head. She won't talk about her problems or what's bothering her and the sometimes someone just pushes her too far. I've dealt with Cadsuane, I don't think she'll be causing problems with her again." Tel wasn't so sure about that, he'd seen that kind of woman before, but he held his peace and didn't interrupt. "It's everything else though."

Well maybe here was another way that he could make himself useful to Rand and help to undo some of the pain he'd inflicted on Taija. The rage was already fading as he put his thoughts in order.

"Alright, we should probably discuss how to deal with people like Cadsuane, but first if you want to help Taija, you're going to need to understand her better. I can't tell you everything, but I've known her for a long time." He sighed. "Firstly you need to keep in mind that she's under an incredible amount of stress. She's basically lost everything, every single one of her friends has been dead for 3,000 years. Her whole civilisation, everything she knew, everything she fought for is long gone. I think it's hard to understand for someone who wasn't there."

Rand interrupted coldly, "is this a roundabout way of trying to make me feel sympathy for you? Because it won't work."

Tel shook his head stifling a flare of anger, it wasn't an unreasonable thing to say. "I made my choices and I'll pay the price for them. Taija didn't, but she's paying anyway." He took a breath and composed his thoughts again. "What this means is that she's going to be more prone to sudden bursts of emotion, whether it's anger or sadness. There isn't much that you can do about that, but there are some things…"

Tel continued with telling Rand what he could about how to work with Taija. It hurt, drawing on his memories of the fifteen years he'd spent with her, but that was no more than he deserved. At least the pain was, in a way cathartic, allowing him to do a small part to improve her life.

"… Finally, you need to keep an eye out for signs that she's hitting her limit. She will absolutely run herself into the ground and then struggle with frustration because she's not concentrating. The warning sign that you need to look out for is that she'll stop talking to anyone that she doesn't have to and just withdraw into herself as much as she can. She'll do the same when she's really concentrating on something, but then she'll often chew on her bottom lip or stick her tongue out a little and look a bit cross-eyed. Best not to bother her then. When it's stress she'll look like she's trying to curl in on herself and get snappy at small things. If that happens, the best thing to do is feed her some chocolate, give her a hug and then make her go to bed."

Tel paused, "do you have chocolate? I don't think I've seen any." He paused again, "also she's quite picky about who's allowed to touch her, so be careful with the hugs. Maybe Aleksi?"

He sighed, this was getting silly. "Look, the key point is she will absolutely work herself to the point where she forgets to eat or sleep. If she looks like she's pushing herself too hard, make sure someone brings her food and makes her eat and that she's pushed into bed each night. If you can do that she'll be alright."

Chapter Text

Chapter XL - Problem Solving the Age of Legends Way

The day after Taija's fight with Cadsuane she woke up emotionally drained. In fact she was just feeling exhausted, both physically and mentally. As well as the impact of the confrontation she'd just been working herself too hard.

Her to-do list was already overloaded and now she needed to add working out more ways to get round that woman's bloody ter'angreal onto it. She really couldn't rely on being able to cut all her webs like that in the future.

Still, there was something cathartic about smashing her into a wall repeatedly. Taija wouldn't lie to herself and say that she didn't intensely dislike the modern aes sedai. Well most of them anyway, there was always Bennae.

When she eventually hauled herself out of bed and started getting ready to face the world, there was a knock at her door shortly followed by Aleksi holding a teapot and what looked like a pair of buns on a plate. He gave her a smile and placed them down on her desk.

"Good morning Taija. Before you do anything else today, you're going to eat the buns and drink the tea." While he was smiling his voice brooked no disagreement.

"You don't need to ba…" Taija's definitely not petulant protest was ruined by her stomach rumbling. "Fine." She groused and poured herself some steaming hot tea. A few seconds later, her mouth full of sugared bun, she mumbled, "thank you, I appreciate it."

It didn't take her long to munch her way through the buns and after that Taija felt much better about the world. She was more awake and finally felt like she could deal with thinking about the taint again.

Maybe she should have a rethink? She'd been pursuing her current line of thinking with no success for too long now. Perhaps Alemhok Tissa's web wasn't the right base for what she wanted to do. The question was, what else could work?

Taija was already deep in thought as she went round her lush room collecting cushions and piling them up in an empty corner. However, she still allowed herself a moment to survey her work before she nodded and settled into the nest she'd created. Perhaps if she went back to first principles and then built up from there?

It didn't feel like very long later that Taija heard Aleksi's raised voice outside her door, although it was muffled by the thick wood. She scowled at the disruption to her concentration, but before she could settle back down the door opened and Aleksi stepped inside in looking thoroughly annoyed before closing it behind him. Actually, why was he hanging around outside her door in the first place?

"Cadsuane is outside." His anger made his words short. "She wants to see you and isn't taking no for an answer." He glanced at Taija's nest of cushions, but visibly decided not to comment. Probably wise of him.

She sighed and draw more of saidar. "For fuck's sake. Just what I need."

Aleksi nodded his agreement and turned back to the door, "I'll try to send her away again then."

"No… no I'll see her, she's just going to keep on bothering us if I don't, so send her in." Taija definitely didn't sound exasperated.

While Aleksi turned and headed out again Taija acted fast. First she got up and sat in a chair, smoothing her coat down. Then she quickly spun a series of inverted webs. First a web of illusion to hide her nest of cushions, Cadsuane didn't need to see that. Then around her a number of small objects, coins and bits of jewelery floated into the air and moved to the corners where they hovered, difficult to spot. If Cadsuane was coming looking for a fight the gloves would be off this time, she wouldn't leave the room alive.

Taija held the items against the wall and ceiling, but with webs on the edge of coming together. All it would take was a thought and they'd put enough power through the objects to accelerate them to ridiculous speeds. Attacking an aes sedai who'd had time to prepare the terrain was never wise.

A second later, when Cadsuane came into the room, she found Taija sat behind her desk, fingers folded together and elbows on the table, looking serious and professional. Taija resisted the urge to sigh at the sight of her, she really didn't want to have to talk. If she was honest, she'd probably prefer to just batter the woman into the ground with saidar again.

"Cadsuane," she twitched when Taija left her title out, "why are you here?" Her voice was blunt and uncompromising.

Beyond that twitch Cadsuane didn't show any sign of annoyance. "I wished to speak with you about yesterday actually."

Taija gave her an unimpressed look. "Really? I think we both made our positions clear, it doesn't feel like there's much more to be said. Was that all?"

She sighed. "I am not accustomed to this. However, I owe you a sincere apology. My behaviour was unacceptable. I was working on incorrect assumptions, but that was not a sufficient excuse. I accept full responsibility for what happened yesterday and wish to say that I am sorry." Despite the sigh, her face was still serene in the way of modern aes sedai. "Young al'Thor has explained your situation to me and that you are a true aes sedai from the Age of Legends." Taija suppressed a grimace, why did these people insist on calling it that? "Now that I know the truth, it is clear to me that the words I said to you were cruel and incorrect. My only excuse was that I had no idea of the truth. If I had known I would have welcomed you as an equal and a valued ally. As it was I thought you were an ignorant youth who could not even channel, seeking power through deception."

Taija gave her a flat stare, "would you still be apologising if it had turned out that you were stronger than me?"

She didn't blink, "I would like to think so."

"Hmm, fine. Apology accepted." Taija was surprised that she'd come to her and apologised like this. Pleasantly so. Maybe Rand made her do it. That didn't mean she had to like the woman though. "Was there anything else?"

If she was irritated by Taija's shortness with her, she didn't show it. "Only that I wish to offer my help with whatever you are trying to do. I realise you will have little trust for my advice, but perhaps I can help in other ways. If I understood you correctly, you are trying to solve the taint?"

Taija's anger faded as her mind went back to the problem that had been bothering her so much. "Yes, I'm trying." She emphasised the last word.

Was that a hint of wonder in Cadsuane's eyes? "And you really think you can? Even when no one in 3,000 years has been able to make the slightest difference? Even when your own society broke before it could be fixed?"

Taija felt a brief flash of anger at the implied criticism of her people, but Cadsuane seemed to be genuinely asking so she put it aside. "I don't know… I don't think things were really the same by the time of the Breaking. So many more years of war, so many more dead. Things were already starting to fall apart when I…" Taija trailed off briefly. "I need to believe that because…"

She seemed to understand. "Records of the Breaking are scant, but it is clear that many of the marvels of the Age of Legends…" That name again! "…had been lost by the end of the War. I cannot truly imagine what it would have been like during the Breaking, but I would think that distrust and the sheer level of destruction would have made any efforts futile."

Taija shrugged, it was a topic that she hated thinking about. "I hope so. I'm one woman, alone. In my time there would have been a huge team of experts, working together with resources, ter'angreal and the backing of every aes sedai on the planet." She paused. "In fact, I think there would have been several such teams both working together and competing to see who could solve the problem fastest. It would have been the entire world united to find a solution." The breath left her lungs in a huff, "I won't lie, I really don't know if I can solve this, but what can I do other than try?"

"Well I will say you do not lack ambition Taija sedai." Cadsuane gave you a searching look, then continued. "I will not claim to have your education in the Power, but I am not lacking in knowledge and skill myself. I will put myself at your disposal to offer whatever assistance I can."

"Thank you." Taija wasn't sure what Cadsuane could realistically do, but maybe there was something. Even if it was just having a decently powerful assistant to do basic tasks.

Cadsuane smiled thinly at her, "just let me know. Now, I should be going." She turned to leave and then paused. "You should be proud of your warder, not many men will stand up to me like he did, his loyalty is to be commended. Did you bond him shortly after you arrived in this time?"

"Bond him?" Did she mean when did he agree to be her warder? "I'm not quite sure when he became my warder, it just sort of happened."

They stared at each other in mutual incomprehension for a second. "I mean the warder bond, the weave that connects every warder to his aes sedai."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." There was meant to be a web? "You're saying that aes sedai place a web on their warders? Why?" Cadsuane looked confused at Taija's reference to a web. "A weave. I mean a weave, we call, called them webs."

"Oh. Yes." Taija could tell Cadsuane was doing her best not to look at her like she was an idiot. "The warder bond allows an aes sedai and her warder to feel a small part of what the other feels and gives some additional benefits to the warder such as greater vitality and the ability to sense shadowspawn. An aes sedai and her warder can also find each other wherever they are."

That felt… Deeply intrusive. Taija tried not to shudder. "So every warder is 'bonded' to their aes sedai with this web?"

Cadsuane nodded. "Every single one, did they not have this in your time?" She seemed surprised at the idea.

Taija shrugged, "it seems there are still some new things for me to discover. I've never heard of such a thing." She'd have to talk to Aleksi about this. Much as she liked him, there was no way she wanted that kind of intimacy with anybody.

"So you are not bonded to him?" Taija shook her head. "Would you like to see the weave? It would seem unfortunate not to be able to share more with your…" She searched for a word, "friend."

Wait was she implying Taija and Aleksi? Couldn't a man and a woman just be friends in this time? On the other hand she did really want to see the web. That would actually be interesting, perhaps she really was trying to be helpful. "He's just a friend," Taija corrected her, "but if you can do it without a subject, then yes please."

"Of course." It wasn't immediately clear whether Cadsuane meant her relationship status or the web, but she embraced saidar.

Taija tensed slightly ready to kill her where she stood if she made the wrong move. Fortunately she just spun a complex web of pure spirit, one of the more complicated things Taija had seen modern aes sedai spin actually. Still relatively crude, but ever so pretty.

"How fascinating," she breathed. Taija was already leaning forward, Cadsuane half forgotten, as she studied the web. Mentally tracing the flows through their intricate pattern she unconsciously murmured her thoughts, "so this is probably a quantum tunnel to provide the connection, yes… Presumably that lets them tap into the channeler's strength… Hmm…" Her attention fell on a complex swirl, it looked oddly familiar and she spoke up a bit. "The upper anterior counter-clockwise knot connecting laterally to the quantum tunnel, what does that do?"

Taija glanced up at Cadsuane who looks utterly bemused, "I am sorry Taija sedai, but I have no idea what you just asked me."

With a sigh she pulled herself back to the current world and tried to imagine she was speaking to a first year student. "This bit here," she pointed at a section of the web. "I was wondering what it did?"

Cadsuane actually looked a little embarrassed, frustration in her tone. "I am not sure… I can explain what the weave does, but I have never sought to break it down in such depth." Taija wondered if she could even if she wanted to, but it didn't matter.

"It looks a lot like parts of the web for compulsion. Does this bond give the ability to force a warder to do things?" She already suspected the answer. Disgusting. Another unpleasant surprise of this time.

Cadsuane answered slowly, "yes… It is little known, but it is possible." She saw Taija's expression darkening and hurriedly added, "but bonding a man against his will is considered by the White Tower to be as bad as a man forcing himself on a woman. One of the greatest crimes an aes sedai can commit."

"I see." Taija noted that she didn't say whether the men were aware of that part of the bond or how common its use was once they were bonded. She hadn't told her about it until she asked after all. "This has given me much to think about Cadsuane sedai. Thank you for your time, I will consider about how you can help me with the taint."

"Thank you Taija sedai." She gave Taija a polite nod before turning to leave again.

She was definitely going to have to talk to Aleksi about this. There was absolutely no way she would bond him or anyone else though. What a vile idea! She could probably tweak the web if she really wanted to to remove the compulsion elements, but regardless she didn't want him or anyone else in her head.

She should probably have a word with Lan too. It would no doubt piss Moiraine off if she found out, but she needed to check that he did consent to being bonded. Also that he was fully aware of the potential consequences.

Thinking of Moiraine, Taija did need to speak to her too. She really had let things go too far there. She had good reasons to dislike her, but after her conversation with Lan it was harder to deny that her problems with Moiraine were at least in part due to cultural clashes and misunderstandings rather than a fundamental difference in goals. She probably owed her an apology for threatening to kill her too.

Life could be so difficult. She'd do it tomorrow, enough hard conversations for one day. For now she wanted to think about the taint.

=======

The next morning Taija went for a run as she tried to do at least every other day, Traveling out to grasslands somewhere far from Tear. Then after she'd washed and mentally shored herself up she headed for Moiraine's rooms.

There was a pause after she knocked on her door and then she heard Moiraine's musical voice, "come in."

Taija sighed to herself and stood up straighter. Chin up and game face on. Without hesitating any more Taija pushed the door open and stepped in. "Moiraine sedai, sorry for bothering you. I was hoping we could speak."

Moiraine's gaze was as serene as ever, but there was a certain coolness in her voice. "Of course Taija sedai, what can I do for you?

Taija resisted the urge to grit her teeth. "I wanted to apologise actually. I know we've had our disagreements, but I was out of line when you came to speak to me about Aleksi, I shouldn't have threatened you like that." She ran her hand awkwardly through her hair struggling to meet Moiraine's eyes. This sort of thing was never easy, even in her own time.

Moiraine blinked a couple of times. "Thank you Taija sedai, I appreciate that." Other than that she didn't react. Taija suppressed a flash of irritation, she really disliked modern aes sedais' aloofness and serenity. How was she meant to know what to say to them when they barely reacted to anything?

The silence extended until she broke it, "I was hoping we could clear the air between us. We should be able to work together better than this. I know you've spent your life working to find the Dragon, Rand, and have been devoted to helping him since you found him. Equally, you know I'm as devoted to the Light as anyone. Yet we try to avoid each other and half the time can barely exchange a civil word."

Moiraine didn't interrupt, just sat and listened so Taija continued, shifting uncomfortably under her gaze as she spoke.

"I think part of this is… cultural clash. I'm not stupid." Taija didn't give her the chance to contradict her. "I realise that there are things about the way I behave that are… wrong or annoying to your kind of aes sedai. It's not deliberate." She hesitated, she was trying to be honest. "It's mostly not deliberate. But you have to understand that social rules, normality, expectations were different in my time. Equally, many things that today's aes sedai do are, or would be, considered extremely poor behaviour for aes sedai in my time. I'm not saying they're wrong," she hurriedly added, although obviously she thought they were, "but it can't help but affect the way I see them. It might be helpful to just sit down and talk about what things we do that annoy each other and how it makes us feel. Then we can explain why we do things. I don't expect either of us to necessarily change our ways, but perhaps if we understand each other better we can move forward with a bit more harmony."

Moiraine just looked at her for a couple of long seconds and then grimaced, the first proper expression Taija had seen from her since she came in. "I must say you are full of surprises Taija sedai. This solution you offer is perhaps an excellent example of what you have just said. It is not something that any aes sedai from this time would ever suggest." Taija opened her mouth to justify herself and Moiraine held up a hand to stop her. "I am not saying I will not do it, just that it perhaps illustrates the problem. I appreciate your apology. In the spirit of openness that you suggest I too shall be open with you."

Her eyes seem to pierce into Taija as she continued. "I was attempting to use your own methods when I came to you to speak about Aleksi. To talk about the risks in full so that we could have an open discussion as I had judged you would prefer. I did not appreciate the death threats when I was trying to reach out and play by your rules. I know you pride yourself on your receptiveness to logical argument, but your reaction to me was anything but that."

A flash of anger shot through Taija, how dare she turn this around onto her?! A moment later she'd ruthlessly suppressed it. She was trying to resolve things like an adult rather than with sniffing and obscure comments. Also Moiraine did have at least a little bit of a point.

Taija nodded and chose her words carefully. "That is fair, I dismissed your arguments because they didn't fit with what I wanted to be true and I shouldn't have leapt to death threats, I'll repeat my apology for that." She'd still kill her if she tried to sever Aleksi though. "However, I'd ask you to look at it from my perspective too. We already had a strained relationship and you came in and seemed to be trying to convince me that we needed to immediately sever the best friend I have left alive." She certainly wasn't going to elaborate on how terrified of being alone she was even without that. "I've spent time researching the taint and your time's views," she just stopped herself from saying prejudices, "on male channelers. I understand your perspective better now, but there are other solutions."

Moiraine looked away for a second, her lips turning down. "Very well. I did approach you in the wrong manner. I should have been clearer that I did not intend to be a threat to your friend. That would make anyone react badly."

Talking to people could be hard and uncomfortable, but sometimes it really did work. "Thank you Moiraine sedai."

She hesitated, "you mentioned other solutions… Cadsuane mentioned you were seeking a way to remove the taint. Do you really think it is possible?" There was just a hint of wonder, or maybe hope in her voice.

Taija shrugged awkwardly, "to be entirely honest with you, I don't know. I think so… I think there must be. There has to be. But… the real question is whether I can do it. I think your people gave up a long time ago, but there would have been huge efforts made during the Breaking with no success, so…" Taija clamped down on the despair that threatened to bubble up. "In the end I have to try because I don't think there's anyone else. I can't just stand by and watch it destroy Aleksi and Rand along with every other man unlucky enough to be born with the spark."

"A noble goal…" Moiraine seemed a bit lost for words, Taija wasn't sure she believed she could do it, but then she clearly reached a decision. "If there is anything that I can do to help you with it, all you need to do is ask and you will have my support."

Taija doubted she could be of much help, but it was a nice gesture. "Thank you."

There was a moment of more companionable silence and then Moiraine sighed. "So, back to business. Shall I go first?" Without waiting for an answer she continued and Taija braced herself for her criticism.

========

For anyone looking for more WoT fanfiction, Tyranniod Overlords on SpaceBattles has started writing an interesting looking one based in the Age of Legends during the Collapse. A rather more dystopian take than Taija's experience, but the world is a big place and she was a successful up and comer. Do check it out. All Legends End (Wheel of Time AU) (discussion welcome)

Chapter Text

Interlude XVIII - Taija's Testing

Nearly 3,200 years ago.

It was Taija's third annual testing. As with her first and second, she joined the long line of girls in the playground after morning classes. The line snaked all the way around the glass walls of the science block and into the looming brick of the school's main hall. Approximately seventy girls in each year group, six year groups of girls to be tested. It made for a long line. However, Adanza Jara Vinaixa High School was not a school that aes sedai sent their children to, so it was rare to find even one girl with the ability to channel from that line and she would probably be one of the older girls with the ability to learn. Nevertheless the Government required that every child be tested.

Taija stood there under the hot summer sun slowly shuffling forward, eagle eyed teachers patrolling, watching for any misbehaviour. Of course she was giggling nervously with her friends about what would happen if any of them was found to have the Talent. How their lives would change and what amazing things they'd do. She didn't really think any of them would, but it was fun imagining.

"I'll become an explorer, finding ruins, dodging traps and unearthing relics from the First Age, they'll have exhibits named after me in the World History Museum in Paaran Disen," Taija asserted. Sounding as certain as she always had at that age. Paraan Disen felt a long way away, almost unattainably glamourous, but she knew she'd do it, if only she could channel.

"No you won't, you'll just want to sit somewhere and read for six hundred years!" Alisa ignored Taija's immediate protest and spoke over her. "I'll be a restorer and heal you from the terrible papercuts you'll get on your 'adventures'."

The whole group erupted into giggles, half-stifled at a look from one of the patrolling teachers while Taija crossed her arms grumpily at the unfairness of it. Poela took the momentary quiet as an opportunity to weigh in, "I want to make ter'angreal, it would be amazing, changing people's lives and being an artist all at the same time."

The girls all nodded at that one. That one was believable and would be pretty cool. Not as cool as exploring First Age ruins though.

The boys had their own line, parallel to the girls'. While the girls and boys did most things together, obviously, the Power was different, everyone knew that. The boys would go in in groups of twenty or so, to stare at a ball of light made with saidin while a channeler felt for a resonance. They'd repeat the test every year into their mid twenties.

When Taija wasn't chattering away with her friends she was watching Gorim, waiting in the boys' line. He was scruffy, but achingly hot, eventually in hindsight Taija would think he'd probably deliberately made himself look unkempt to impress his peers. He certainly wasn't a very good student either way, not like she was. Still there was something about the way he held himself, his confident, cocky grin, that kept her looking back at him whenever she thought she could get away with it.

That time he caught Taija looking, catching her eye and flashing her a smug smile that left her flushing and doing her best to pretend she'd never looked. She was so young back then. Only fifteen at the time. The girls' testing started at thirteen, earlier than the boys' and also ended earlier than the boys'. Just another oddity of the way the Power worked.

Of course at fifteen, despite their collective bravado, none of the girls expected to be picked out. It wasn't unheard of, but very rare to show the Talent quite that young. Particularly for someone from their little corner of Adanza. Still, the Hall of the Servants was clear. It would be intolerable for even a tiny number of children to be endangered because they had not been found soon enough and so every girl in the world had had the honour of being tested every year from age twelve or thirteen and every boy from sixteen. In the vanishingly unlikely event of someone with the spark starting to channel before that, well doctors kept their eyes open for channeling sickness.

Really all of them were just happy to get the afternoon off classes. The annual testing had always been something of an event for each school, but the main thing from their perspective wasn't the pompous speeches by local dignitaries before the testing began or the half-hearted exhortations from their teachers. It was the early finish. After Taija had been through the testing she was going to go to her favourite cafe with a couple of her friends and drink iced tea together.

The line slowly shuffled forward as each girl was nodded into the hall. Unlike the boys' line which moved in jerks as groups went in, Taija's progress was relatively smooth.

Eventually Taija reached the front and went through the wide doors into the hall, nervously smoothing her skirt as she stepped inside. She was pointed to one of three booths, curtained off to hide what went on inside, by a dumpy, friendly-looking middle aged woman she didn't recognise. The curtain was solid black other than the symbol of the aes sedai in the middle of it, a full half metre across.

Taija tried to look composed as she pulled the curtain aside, like she imagined an aes sedai would. On the inside she was bubbling withs suppressed nervousness. Of course she was! While she didn't expected anything to come of it, this test or another one like it could determine the rest of her life. Her mother was a very weak channeler, she'd never even tried to become aes sedai. Her father on the other hand couldn't touch the Power. On paper that made Taija a weak prospect, barely better chances than someone born to two non-channelers. However, in her school's rather limited pool she knew that the gossip had her down as one of the better prospects because of her mother.

Inside the booth a bored looking, elderly woman was sat at a plain desk with a tablet propped up in front of her. She wore the black, high-collared, formal coat of an aes sedai, but unadorned by anything other than the sinuously divided circle on a red square.

Taija gave her a deep, respectful bow upon entering. "Aes sedai." She hadn't met many aes sedai in her short life, but like every child she'd been taught the proper modes of polite behaviour.

At Taija's age she would only be tested for the spark. The boys' test also detected those with the ability to learn, but for the girls it was different. Testing for the spark required no more than a glance, but more effort was needed to find if a girl could learn, so testing for that would only start from age 18.

"Hmm." The aes sedai glanced at her tablet, "you are Taija Kosola?"

"Yes aes sedai." She tried not to let her voice quiver. The aes sedai looked at her briefly, her sharp, blue eyes feeling like like she could look straight through Taija to her soul.

"Very good, thank you." After her momentary look she made a notation on the tablet, out of Taija's sight. "You may go."

Taija quickly hurried out on wobbly legs. They wouldn't tell her the result of the test on the spot, even though the aes sedai would have known one way or the other as soon as she had looked at her.

Taija knew though. Somehow, as soon as the aes sedai's eyes had fallen on her she'd known that her parents would be called into the school tomorrow and that her life would change forever.

Chapter Text

Chapter XLI - Into the Waste

A few days later, thinking back to her conversation with Cadsuane Taija made sure to corner Lan. The only place she knew she'd be able to find him without Moiraine being around was sword practice. So, with a deep breath. she forced yourself to ignore her desire to avoid seeing or thinking about it. She couldn't let her own neuroses get in the way of things that were actually important.

When Taija arrived, Rand and his swordmaster, apparently the man's name was Edram or at least that's what he called himself, were sparring while Lan watched with folded arms and a critical expression. Aleksi was sitting off to the side of the courtyard looking a bit bored and was the only one to notice her quiet arrival. He looked surprised and a little worried, but Taija gestured for him to stay seated and he kept his silence.

Rand and Edram were flowing back and forth, wooden practice swords clacking against each other repeatedly. Rand was clearly getting pretty good, even to Taija's amateur eyes. Their swords were flickering blindingly fast, stroke and counter-stroke always blocked or dodged leaving both untouched. Until suddenly Edram seemed to overstretch himself, stumbling off balance.

Taija winced in expectation of Rand's descending blow, except it never landed. Edram twisted aside, smoothly dodging what would have been a 'killing' blow and almost casually placed his sword across Rand's throat.

She could see the frustration in Rand's face as he allowed the point of his sword to drop. "How did you do that?" His voice was sharper than was really polite with the man. Just because he was beaten by him didn't mean he should be rude.

Taija saw a brief flash of irritation on Edram's face, almost instantly gone. Clearly he didn't like the rudeness either, but when he spoke his voice was calm and polite. "Allow me to explain my Lord Dragon. Lan if you wouldn't mind?" He turned to face Lan and saw her. His eyes widened and he immediately bent into a low bow. "Aes sedai," where he was polite, even submissive, to Rand, his voice now oozed respect.

His words also brought Rand and Lan's attention to her. "Taija, do you need something?" Rand was sharp with her too. Taija had a momentary flare of irritation and then she reminded herself of what Aleksi told her, Rand was probably terrified she'd found out about Edram.

"Oh, no, I was just looking for Lan, please don't let me interfere with your practice. I'm sorry to bother you." Taija kept her voice conciliatory.

Relief washed across Rand's face and he turned to Edram who looked a bit nervous, understandable really. "Edram, come. Let's give Taija sedai her privacy." He nodded to her and spun on his heel to walk out. Edram gave Taija a lingering look, almost enough to make her uncomfortable, and then practically leapt into motion, hurrying after him.

There was something oddly familiar about Edram. That feinted stagger, the way he held his hands when he bowed. No matter, the Aelfinn's words resonated in Taija's head and she had far more important things to worry about. Let Rand have his false dragon tutor, she didn't need to be involved in everything and Aleksi would tell her if something was wrong.

Lan was toweling the sweat off his topless form. He really did have an impressive array of scars. "Sorry to have disrupted your practice, I hadn't meant to interrupt."

"Do not concern yourself about it, we were almost finished anyway." He was as stony faced as ever.

Taija reminded herself that she needed to be careful, she didn't want to accidentally tread on some unknown cultural taboo and upset him so she decided to address the question in a roundabout way. It would be good for Aleksi to hear this too. "Lan, would you mind if I asked you about bonding? I've just recently realised that I'm terribly ignorant about it given my relationship with Aleksi, I didn't even know it was a thing until a couple of days ago!"

"Of course, you may ask me anything." If he was surprised by her question he didn't show it.

"Thank you." Taija took a breath and started asking various questions she already knew the answer to. What the effects of the bond were, whether aes sedai could have more than one warder, things like that.

Lan answered calmly and helpfully, his voice as steady and emotionless as ever. Taija did wonder if there was something about the bond that affected people's emotions. Most of the warders she'd met seemed to be stony faced and overly-composed. Probably not, the aes sedai weren't really all that different, even the ones who didn't have warders. It was probably just the way they felt they were meant to behave.

Taija even managed to slip in a question about the compulsion aspect of the bond, which got her a sharp look. It was vile as far as she was concerned, but Lan seemed to be aware of it, so that was between him and Moiraine.

Finally Taija got to the fundamental question she really wanted to ask him. "So when Moiraine 'bonded'," she wasn't at all keen on the word, "you, did she ask your consent?"

Lan gave her a long look and for a moment Taija worried that she hadn't been as subtle as she'd thought. "Yes, of course she asked. The aes sedai do not allow the bonding of warders without permission."

"How fascinating." It wasn't the word she'd really have chosen, but she was trying to play up to her absent minded scientist side for this. She tried not to judge, but the idea of having someone there in her head like that and able to control her too, it was at best strange and at worst repulsive. So long as they consented to it she couldn't really get too judgmental though.

They talked a little longer and then Taija made her exit, still weirded out by the concept of bonding. She briefly wondered whether the whole thing extended into Lan's sex life with Moiraine. Assuming they were even sleeping together. Bleh, none of her business. She did wonder whether she should tell Aleksi to stop calling himself her warder though. She wasn't sure she wanted people to be thinking that about them. After a moment she dismissed the idea. If modern aes sedai could steal their title from her people then she'd steal the title of warder from them and make it better too.

======

While Taija had been talking to aes sedai and their warders Rand had clearly been thinking and planning in private. A few days later at a meeting of his inner council he suddenly interrupted a discussion on grain shipments to announce that he'd decided he would be going to Rhuidean. It wasn't a request for advice or opinions, rather he was just informing all of them.

Rhuarc of course just nodded as if it was exactly what he'd expected. In contrast, Moiraine and Cadsuane looked like they'd just bitten into lemons and were trying to pretend they were enjoying it.

Rand didn't leave any room for discussion, not even giving his reasons. His announcement made, he simply told them all that if they wished to accompany him they would need to be in the Heart of the Stone the next day at midday, ready to leave.

Then he looked over to Taija, "Taija sedai, a moment of your time if you please." His voice was curt like he was calling her to heel and he promptly turned and strode out of the room, leaving Taija to leap up and scurry after him.

She was a bit irritated by the time she caught up with him. "What was that about Rand?" She snapped, "are you summoning me in front of everyone like a misbehaving school girl now?" Fortunately she got her annoyance under control before she said anything more, reminding herself he was under a lot of stress.

"Are you going to start telling me I'm wrong too?" His voice was hard.

"Umm no?" Taija gave him a sideways look, he was still walking too fast, forcing her to almost jog. "You never asked my opinion, but I don't think it's a bad idea to go to Rhuidean. The Dedicated clearly think you fulfil their prophecies and I can think of worse options. I'm just annoyed at being spoken to as if I've done something wrong."

He hesitated and then slumped slightly, "I'm sorry. There's a lot going on and I know you have your own things to worry about, but actually it was deliberate." Suddenly sound faded from around the two of them, he must have spun a ward.

"I see," Taija wasn't happy, but it wasn't worth making a point over. "Why though?"

He gave her a slightly awkward smile, "I wanted to ask you a favour actually. When I go to the Waste I want to leave Callandor behind."

"What? Why would you do that?!" Taija interrupted him without thinking. "It's a sa'angreal, a powerful one, you shouldn't be letting it out of your sight. What if you need it? What if one of the Forsaken takes it."

He nodded, "it's a sa'angreal, but a flawed one. I can't use it."

"You can't?" This was news to her.

"Cadsuane told me. It seems that it has two major flaws, firstly it has no buffer so I could burn myself out using it and secondly it magnifies the effects of the taint for whoever uses it."

Taija blanched at the idea of the taint being even worse than it was. "And you trust Cadsuane?" She couldn't quite keep the skepticism out of her voice.

"On this, yes." He spoke slowly. "Do you remember the last time I used it? When the trollocs invaded the Stone. I wanted to kill every shadowspawn in the world, I was drawing more and more of the Power and I'd have kept going until I burnt myself out or destroyed everything for leagues around me if you and Moiraine hadn't stopped me. I can't trust myself with Callandor unless I absolutely have to."

Taija chewed over that for a few seconds. "Alright, so it's dangerous for you. Fair enough." She thought a little more. "I suspect you could use it safely in a link with at least two women, if one of the women led, although I'd want to look at how it interacts with the taint first."

Rand chuckled, he seemed to have cheered up a bit. Maybe he was expecting her to argue with him more. "Funnily enough that's exactly what Cadsuane said. Other than the bit about it interacting with the taint. Anyway I don't like the idea of linking with any of them any more than you do. I suppose Nynaeve or Elayne would be alright."

"Alright, so where do I come into this? Did you want advice on where to leave Callandor so that the Forsaken couldn't get to it?" Taija was already thinking over what she'd do. "The obvious solution seems to be somewhere isolated that has no connection to anyone you know, spin an inverted gateway to get there…"

Rand cut her off. "I want to leave it here in the Stone." He didn't give her time to say how stupid that was. "I need a reminder for the Tairens that I'm still alive and that I'll be returning or they'll be in rebellion the day after I leave and I think I can make it so dangerous none of the Forsaken will touch it."

Taija's lips thinned, "are you absolutely sure about that? I assume you know how to invert webs and make complex wards then?"

He nodded, Light he really was picking things up fast. "There's also the prophecies of the Dragon." His eyes took on a distant look and he recited:

"Into the heart he thrusts his sword,
into the heart, to hold their hearts.
Who draws it out shall follow after,
What hand can grasp that fearful blade?"

"Mmm well you know my views on prophecy, but fine, I take your point. So you're going to put some traps around it, presumably the sort of thing that would be fatal if you try to take Callandor or break the wards?"

"Yes that's right." Well at least he looked confident.

"Alright. Presumably you're asking me because you want me to add a bit more to the mix?" It wasn't a terrible idea. "You do realise wards aren't my speciality? I've spent a lot more time breaking them than making them and my methods for breaking them aren't the most sophisticated."

"Of course, but I was thinking, I want to make it look like we argued. Maybe you could look a bit chastened after our conversation and I can storm off. Then I can make a big show of placing my own inverted wards over Callandor tomorrow. After that no one is likely to suspect that you've added a few of your own at the same time. If they're feeling out inverted threads of saidin they might make a mistake with inverted saidar by using the same techniques for it." He had a slightly evil smile.

"Well… Alright, fine, I'll do it. I'm still not sure that this is the best way to protect Callandor, but you're the Dragon." Taija wasn't sure how he knew about the differences between saidin and saidar wards. The subtleties of feeling one's way round inverted wards hardly seemed like something that even a false dragon would be able to teach him. He was right though, it could be a nasty surprise for anyone who only expected saidin. "So what's the plan?"

"Right, so I'll come in and make a big show and give a short speech, then I'll drive Callandor into the floor in as dramatic a way as I can. At the same time I'll be spinning the wards around it. You'll be able to tell when I'm done as I'll let go of Callandor and that's when I'd like you to add your own."

Taija smiled at how he'd clearly planned out a dramatic entrance that he'd no doubt try to have appear to be spontaneous. It was the kind of thing Tel used to do. Her amusement faded at that thought. "That works. How will I be able to make sure I don't trigger your wards when I add mine?"

"Don't worry, I've thought about that. I'm going to key my wards to allow you to touch Callandor and I'd be grateful if you could do the same for me. Then I'll also add a Protean Trigger to them with this signature…"

======

The next day Taija was waiting in the Heart of the Stone with a large pack on her back shortly before midday. She wasn't sure how long she'd be out there, but the War had taught her to get by with nothing more than she could carry. Of course she could most likely just Travel if she needed to leave the Waste, but she couldn't be 100% sure of that and it also made a good teaching opportunity for the girls. Particularly Elayne. Taija smiled ruefully to herself, she did try ever so hard but it was very easy to see that she'd been brought up in a palace.

Rand hadn't specified whether there were any limits on who could or couldn't come. Not that he would get to decide what Taija did anyway. One aspect of modern aes sedai that she could get on board with was their view that no one else was allowed to interfere in their affairs. It was just a pity they seemed to be so reluctant to apply that to her. Regardless Taija was an independent woman who could make her own gateways so there wasn't much anyone could do to stop her. Other than ask politely anyway.

Regardless, there was no chance Taija wouldn't go and it was an easy decision to bring the girls with her. They'd be happy to see Egwene again and since she'd pretty much given in and accepted them as her apprentices they should follow where she went. Obviously Taija offered them the choice, but unsurprisingly they hadn't hesitated in saying they'd come.

She'd spent some time after that talking to them about appropriate packing and clothing choices and she was pleased to see that they turned up in the Heart of the Stone with packs they could lift themselves. They were still wearing dresses, but at least they weren't silk.

The girls' insistence on 'propriety' was frustrating, but Taija was sure she'd get them into something more sensible sooner or later. Dresses were great for when she wanted to look her best, but they were completely inappropriate for going to a desert wasteland full of odd warriors, let alone for actual fighting.

Judging by how grumpy the girls looked, Taija suspected that their initial plans were to bring rather more and she was glad she'd nipped that in the bud. She really needed to get them running with her each morning too.

It went without saying that Aleksi was also there with her. His now familiar shadow just behind her, staff in hand and pack on his back. He certainly hadn't needed any instructions on packing.

There was already a large gathering of Tairen nobility filling the Heart of the Stone, standing in clumps and watching the doors. They studiously ignored Taija and the girls, refusing to meet her eyes, but somehow a space seemed to clear for her.

Cadsuane was also there with her own bubble of space around her and Moiraine and Lan walked in shortly after Taija. They didn't have packs with them and the aes sedai were in their usual fine silk dresses. Odd.

Finally, just before midday Mat hurried in. To Taija's surprise he made a beeline for her group heading behind her to stand next to Elayne. Taija glanced back and gave him a welcoming smile, he really had been nice to Elayne since the horrible events with the Aelfinn, so she'd generally got time for him even beyond the fact that he was quite fascinating.

Mat grimaced ever so slightly and looked away rather than smiling back, although Taija was pretty sure he tried to hide the reaction. She always seemed to make him nervous, when he couldn't outright avoid her at least, and when she'd asked Elayne why she'd been very evasive. Perhaps it was still her drunken episode, that would make any young man uncomfortable. Taija gave a grimace of your own but luckily he couldn't see.

Bang on midday Rand strode into the Heart of the Stone. Perhaps a hundred or so Dedicated ran beside him, black veils across their faces. Taija thought that meant they were ready to fight or something. Maybe a question for Rhuarc, they did seem to have some odd beliefs about when and how it was appropriate to fight.

Rand headed straight for the centre of the Heart, coming to a halt with an echoing ring of boots on the stone floor, his Dedicated arrayed behind him. It was as impressive as Taija had expected. Almost as soon as he'd stopped he launched into a speech about Tear's armies marching, to much cheering from the Tairens, before telling them they'd be going on a humanitarian mission to Cairhien. That got rather less in the way of cheers. However, it made Taija smile. It had been a frequent subject of debate with his inner council.

From the start Rand had not wanted to go to war with Illian and instead to help the starving people of Cairhien. Moiraine and Cadsuane had both argued against it as, to Taija's surprise, had Elayne. She of course had supported him. War between light-aligned nations would only serve the Shadow and helping starving Cairhienin would improve his image while also being the correct action for an aes sedai to take. Benevolent self-interest.

Both the other aes sedai looked less than happy with the announcement. The same could be said for the Tairens.

Rand went on to name the lords who'd be leading the force and making some further announcements about various lords and ladies. Taija was rather less interested in those. Based on the small, grudging nod she saw from Cadsuane she suspected that those moves were rather clever, but she couldn't bring herself to care all that much.

More interesting was trying to work out how Rand knew what a Protean Trigger was. It wasn't like it was a secret, but relatively obscure terms used in warding were hardly what she'd expect him to be picking up by himself. Or learning from a self-taught false dragon. On the other hand, he had managed to teach himself Traveling out of nowhere with less than a year of channeling under his belt. Still, even if he knew what he was doing, he shouldn't have known the terminology.

Taija's train of thought was broken by a sudden silence. When she looked up Rand was holding the glowing crystal sword, point down. It was nearly her moment. She embraced saidar, unseen by the other channelers in the room and focused. It was going to be tricky. Wards weren't her area of expertise and she was going to need to spin fast while looking like she wasn't doing anything other than being shocked at Rand's brilliance.

Rand was sweating and Callandor glowed brighter, almost blinding. "The Stone will hold Callandor until I return!" He plunged the sword straight into the stone floor, lightning arcing up to the dome above the chamber. Taija and everyone else in the room looked away from the light, so bright that it was painful.

The whole Stone shook, loud rumbles running through it and Taija staggered, struggling to keep her feet even as many people around her fell. Not having to pick herself off the floor meant that she saw Rand slowly prying his fingers off the sword's hilt, his body almost seeming to resist him.

As soon as his last finger left the hilt the light faded from it and Taija was spinning, rapidly mapping out Rand's own webs by feel and sliding hers around them. He seemed to have somehow spun something that was almost perfectly designed to allow saidar to be inserted into its structure and she filled the gaps with her own inverted webs. All five elements coming together in an intricate matrix, spun with blinding speed. She kept her face as expressionless as possible, not moving a muscle.

Permissions were added to her half of the ward for her and Rand, various contingencies, deadly consequences, they all came together. It was small, but it was as complex as any ward she'd ever spun.

The Protean Trigger was there, as expected and when Taija's web came together she tied it off, spinning it into the mouth of the trigger and using spirit to trip it. A moment later Rand's wards were active, inextricably intertwined with her own webs a solid mass of invisible saidar and saidin. Taija resisted the urge to slump slightly as she released saidar. That had been difficult to do so quickly.

By the time she was finished the audience were picking themselves up and Rand had already turned to leave. Taija and the others who were planning on going with him hurried on after his Dedicated escort.

Taija quickly realised he was heading for the stables. Ahead of her Moiraine seemed to be having a furious argument with Rand while Cadsuane was hanging back. She decided to leave them to it, content to amble along behind everyone with her own entourage.

At the stables they were met by Edram and yet more Dedicated as well as various people's already saddled horses. It seemed that the aes sedai had bags on their horses and pack horses besides.

For fuck's sake, she should have thought of that, but why would she even think about horses? Horrible, uncomfortable smelly creatures when you could just Travel or get a bus or train. Taija allowed herrself a moment of irritation at the fact she'd be carrying her own pack, but such was life. Perhaps she could palm it off on someone. Maybe if she leaned on her status as aes sedai? The girls looked even more disgruntled, but it would be good for them. Character building.

Eventually once everyone was organised, Rand opened an impressively large gateway. Peering through the hole in the air all Taija saw was barren looking scrubland. She suspected she wasn't going to enjoy it all that much.

Chapter Text

Interlude XIX - Elaida Will Save the Day

Elaida do Avriny a'Roihan, Watcher of the Seals, Flame of Tar Valon, the Amyrlin Seat, studied the reports in front of her with something approaching despair. There were so many things wrong with the world.

It was bad enough that Siuan Sanche had survived and was leading her pathetic rebellion against the Tower's lawful authority somewhere out to the west. Thank the Light so few sisters had joined her. Just as bad in many ways was the way her her own 'loyal' aes sedai seemed determined to stymie her will at every turn. However, by far the worst thing was the discovery that the false dragon Rand al'Thor was not in fact a false dragon, but the true Dragon Reborn.

She had known for weeks, but she still felt sick to her stomach whenever she thought about it and it was hard not to have it constantly on her mind. The implications… If the Dragon had been reborn then that also meant the Last Battle was coming. A terrifying idea. The White Tower would need to be ready to lead the forces of Light, so that the Dragon could die on the slopes of Shayol Ghul as the prophecies required. She would need to be ready to lead.

But never mind that, what truly distressed her was the Dragon himself. A man that could channel was bad enough, but now she had to deal with the revolting fact of a man that must to be allowed to channel, who was running free from the White Tower's guidance and control. Who had already conquered a kingdom.

Elaida accepted the need to allow his continued existence. That he could not simply be gentled as every man who could channel should be. Of course she did, she was no darkfriend, but she could not pretend that she liked it.

Still worse, the reports were clear. There was a woman named Taija Kosola with him in Tear. A woman claimed to be aes sedai despite being a darkfriend of the worst kind. To think of how she would be influencing him... At best dancing him on strings held by the Shadow, at worst turning him against the Light itself!

Rand al'Thor needed to be brought under the White Tower's control as soon as possible. For the good of the world!

Elaida tapped her fingers on the desk for a few seconds, deep in thought. She would need to send an embassy to him. They could definitively deal with Taija and then bring the Dragon back to Tar Valon. Whether it was in a place of honour or in chains she did not care overly. What was important was that he was safely secured for the Light and that his darkfriend companion was removed from the world.

In the meantime she would need to act to protect the other nations. She would issue a proclamation, making it clear that the Dragon Reborn was the business of the aes sedai and that any nation dealing with him directly risked the wrath of the White Tower. Together rulers could resist the destruction he would bring and he would soon realise that he would need to submit to the Tower's authority, for the good of the world.

As for this Taija, Elaida would issue a second proclamation. A statement that Taija Kosola was falsely claiming to be aes sedai and that she was a darkfriend of the worst kind. Perhaps a reward for anyone assisting with her apprehension would help…

Elaida smiled to herself, sometimes aes sedai could be overly secretive about things. If she was lucky perhaps this Rand al'Thor would even hear of Taija's dark secrets and take action himself. She could only pray to the Creator that the woman had not succeeded in corrupting him.

Decision made, she turned her attention to the other tasks in front of her. Now, first up was deciding on the punishment for…

Chapter Text

Chapter XLII - It Can Be Difficult to Translate the Old Tongue

As soon as Taija set foot in the Dedicated Waste she was hit by the heat. It was like stepping into a furnace and she was almost instantly sweating. She quickly shot a glance at Aleksi, she'd have to do something about him, with his pale, Andoran skin he'd burn very quickly. The girls too.

As for herself, Taija at least had the benefit of melanin. Nevertheless she was soon rummaging in her pack, which was now happily mounted on a horse that she'd 'acquired' at the stables in Tear, for a cloth to tie around her head. She could just spin a web to partially block the sunlight above her, but that would make her stand out uncomfortably. A target for anyone looking to remove the channelers from the group.

Taija pulled out a length of white cloth from her pack and, after a moment's thought, wrapped it around her hair and over her face, just leaving her eyes exposed. For a moment she enjoyed imagining she was Fernain Kiramon when she starred in Rapid Reaction 3. A completely trashy film, but great fun all the same. Then she remembered where she was and pulled herself back into the present with a small grimace.

Pleasingly the girls were already copying her, although probably not fantasising about long gone movies while they did it. That just left Aleksi. She'd have a word with Rand too, ginger hair and excessive Sun didn't go well together, but he seemed to be arguing with Moiraine about something, so Taija figured she'd leave them to it for now.

By the time she'd sorted Aleksi out, and seen that Mat had copied Elayne, sensible lad, the rest of the group had gotten themselves organised with Rhuarc taking the lead. They were all on what looked like a mountainside overlooking yet more wasteland. Not a particularly attractive mountain though, no towering crags or snow or trees. Just brown, arid scrub.

Taija didn't hear what was being said by Rhuarc, but soon everyone started to move slightly down and along the mountain. It was lucky it wasn't particularly steep or rough, at least where she was, but with the heat and lack of a proper path it was still going to be hard going.

Aleksi, Mat and the girls swung themselves onto more 'acquired' horses, they were far too soft at times. Aleksi was fit enough she supposed, but Taija found herself musing about the girls' condition. Then she saw the Dedicated walking and trotting along in small groups and she started smiling. The kind of smile that would have had her apprentices worried if they'd seen it. It was a good opportunity to start doing something about the girls' insistence on acting like pampered noblewomen when they weren't channeling.

The group was progressing at a comfortable walking pace, so with a nod to Aleksi Taija sped up her steps and headed over to the girls. "Elayne, Nynaeve, I've been thinking about your training." She didn't bother with a preamble, they were used to that by now.

"Yes Taija sedai?" Their voices were as polite and respectful as she'd expect, but they couldn't quite hide the hint of trepidation in them. They were learning.

"I've spoken with you before about the importance of fitness. In my own time we used to say 'a healthy body leads to a healthy mind' and I think that applies just as much nowadays. Just as importantly, if you want to be able to fight, then fitness is vital. It's nothing I haven't said to you before." Taija could see their faces falling, they knew where she was going with this.

Elayne sighed, "what would you have us do Taija sedai?" Good girl, Nynaeve just looked more mulish.

"You're both far too slow on your feet and you're worn out long before you should be when we do combat training. It wouldn't matter in times of peace, but those aren't an option for any of us. So, from now on, you either walk during the day," Taija paused as if making a great concession, "you can leave your packs on the horses though, or you join me for my morning runs. Your choice. Of course if we're not on the move then you'll join me regardless."

Elayne grimaced and then dismounted from her horse with enviable elegance. "Yes Taija sedai." Fortunately she didn't see the amused smile a nearby Dedicated warrior gave Taija.

Nynaeve on the other hand protested, "Taija sedai, with the greatest of respect," she could probably work on the respect if her current tone was the best she could do, "that isn't necessary. Women shouldn't be charging around like men, leave it to them, we have better things to do with our time."

"I disagree." Taija gave her short shrift. "If you want to learn from me then that means learning everything I have to teach, whether you like it or not. That includes fitness. I'm not going to have one of my apprentices dying because you got winded after trying to dodge one of the Forsaken's webs."

Nynaeve sniffed and Taija raised her eyebrows. "If you don't like it, you have other options. I'm not from the White Tower, I don't force people to stay with me." She made her tone slightly teasing to try take the sting out of her words. "If you still want to be aes sedai, I suspect Cadsuane would welcome you back to the Tower."

That got a deeper scowl from Nynaeve, but she bowed her head in acquiescence, "as you wish Taija sedai." With that she climbed off her horse, somewhat less gracefully than Elayne.

Taija cast a slightly critical eye over the two of them as they walked, "we're going to need to do something about your shoes later. Those just aren't good enough for this kind of thing."

That dealt with, she shot a querying glance over to Aleksi who'd been watching with some amusement next to Mat. He shrugged, "I'm already doing a lot as part of my… sword training with Edram."

"Fair enough," she hadn't noticed him running out of steam too easily. "It would be good to get you and Rand along to train with the girls some time soon though. Everyone could do with getting more experience working together." Taija raised her voice, "Mat, will you be joining us?"

He just gave her a flat stare. Fair enough, it wasn't like he was her apprentice, but his loss.

======

It took a couple of hours of walking, but eventually, as they worked their way round the mountainside, a valley came into sight below them. It was an awe inspiring vista, spread out before Taija, almost making up for the unattractiveness of the mountain itself. Or it would be if it wasn't full of dense fog. How in the Light was that possible in this heat?

There was something poking out of the fog too and as Taija got closer she started to think it might be towers. She could only see the very top of them through the dense grey cloud, but even the little she could see of the architecture looked oddly familiar. Eventually she realised with a twisting feeling in her stomach that it reminded her a bit of her time. It must be Rhuidean. Maybe she'd be able to get a closer look later.

It wasn't long after that that they crested a ridge to see two encampments of Dedicated ahead of them. Taija wasn't sure why they thought a fight was coming, but the Dedicated in her party reacted by veiling themselves and more Dedicated seemed to be streaming out from those camps, also veiled. Shouldn't they be friends? Or did they have some kind of internecine warfare thing going on? Were they dedicated to different things?

Taija embraced saidar and prepared herself to spin lightning. Perhaps she could scare them out of doing anything stupid before anyone got killed.

Then she heard a woman's voice loudly call out, "the peace of Rhuidean!" Suddenly the Dedicated came to a halt, hurriedly unveiling with the tension leaving them as quickly as it came.

Taija realised that the voice came from a third, much smaller encampment, from which four women bedecked in jewelery and wearing dark skirts and white blouses had emerged.

With a fight now looking unlikely, she let go of the webs she'd begun to spin, although she continued to hold saidar. The older looking of the Dedicated women seemed to be saying something to the Dedicated who came with Rand and as she was speaking most of them started to divide up supplies and move off.

Taija was starting to get irritated at not being able to hear what was going on, so she moved forward through the group towards the Dedicated women. That let her see Rhuarc go up to the white haired woman and tell her something quietly. She briefly touched his cheek with obvious affection as she replied. Perhaps that was his wife? Taija really hoped he hadn't been hitting on her.

Once she was close enough Taija listened to them talking about clan chiefs with one ear while she turned to the girls, Mat and Aleksi and ordered them to drink. "If you don't stay hydrated, well watered, then you'll end up incapacitated or dead in no time." She'd have thought they'd have the sense to drink plenty without being prompted!

By the time Taija had sorted them out, there seemed to be some kind of argument going on between one of the Dedicated warriors and the women. In her head she rewound what she'd vaguely heard. She thought it was something about going to Rhuidean.

Based on what she'd heard, the Dedicated seemed to have a bit of a thing about the place. It made her wonder whether she could get herself permission to go and have a look, or alternatively just sneak off by herself when no one was watching. There must be something interesting going on there, the towers were interesting if nothing else.

The angry Dedicated man subsided into a furious sulk and then Rand stepped forward and bowed to Amys, strangely his bow would have fit right in at an event in the Hall of Servants. He asked permission to enter Rhuidean using some oddly formal wording.

Two of the Dedicated women said he could, but the angry man interrupted, declaring that Rand was no Dedicated and had no right to do so. Rand claimed that his mother was one of the Dedicated, which was a bit of a revelation. Taija had thought that he was Andoran, although she supposed he did look a bit like the other Dedicated. The other two Dedicated women quickly gave him permission too.

The way Rand was acting suggested that it was all part of his plan, although he hadn't shared that with her. He seemed to be becoming more paranoid and secretive by the day, it was worrying. Taija hoped Moiraine hadn't been getting to him.

It was a bigger surprise when Mat stepped forward and also asked for permission to enter Rhuidean. She quite liked the boy, but this seemed rather out of character for him.

There was a moment of stunned silence and then the Dedicated man moved to stab Mat with his spear in an incoherent rage. Taija readied a web to stop him if he got too close, but the light of saidar sprung up around two of the Dedicated women and he was flung back before she needed to do anything. Given they could channel, those women must be the Dedicated's wise ones. She'd have to ask them about Egwene once they had a minute.

The Dedicated man was spitting with rage, but was just ordered back to his tent, along with Rhuarc and the other Dedicated men. Apparently this was wise ones' business.

Eventually, after some debate the wise ones agreed that Mat could go. It looked for a second like Elayne wanted to say something, but Taija laid a warning hand on her arm and she subsided. The last thing she wanted was the girl trying to go too and getting herself into trouble. Tear had been more than bad enough.

Mat and Rand were informed that they couldn't take food, water or weapons into Rhuidean, which was frankly stupid. However, they didn't protest and Mat started unloading an impressive number of throwing knives.

When they were both denuded of weapons and water some ritual words were said over them and the wise ones formally covered their faces before sending them away. As they headed off across the dusty ground Elayne looked wistfully after Mat until Taija nudged her with her elbow. "Stop staring so obviously, it's distracting, he'll be fine."

She ignored Elayne's outraged look and went back to observing what the wise ones were doing. They gave the rest of them a once over and then the white haired one addressed the remaining men, "you two," she looked at Aleksi and Edram, "and Man Alone, we wish to discuss women's business, go to the encampment and raise your tents." If Lan hadn't already told Taija why the Dedicated called him Man Alone she might have had to suppress a snigger. If she ignored the very serious and tragic reason behind it, it was a bit of a silly name. As it was, Taija was irritated to have Aleksi ordered away because of some stupid gender thing, but kept her silence. There was no point alienating these people straight away.

The wise ones didn't seem to be particularly interested in her and the girls at this stage, instead speaking with Moiraine and Cadsuane. That was fine with Taija, she was happy to listen and learn for now.

It seemed that they had dreamed that Moiraine would most likely come, but hadn't been sure about Lan or Cadsuane. That confirmed that they must be the ones teaching Egwene. Taija shifted on her feet, suddenly a bit impatient, she wanted to make sure her apprentice had been alright among these odd people. She'd been careful not to interfere because of the Aelfinn's answer, but it had been difficult for her.

Finally they called over the last Dedicated who had stayed behind, one of their spear maidens who Taija vaguely recognised from the Stone. She'd stuck in her mind because she could channel, or at least had the potential to, and occasionally seemed to hang around with Elayne. Aviendha… that was her name.

What followed must have been another ritual, if a rather harsh one. She was informed that she was going to become a wise one whether she wanted to or not. Her weapons were broken in front of her, a few threats made and a lot of talk of duty and obligation. It seemed unnecessarily unpleasant, although it was nice to hear at least some channelers talking more about duty than their own status. It was interesting that all four of them seemed to be wise ones even though only two of them could channel.

Something passed between Moiraine, Cadsuane and the wise ones, although Taija wasn't quite sure what, but the oldest looking one spoke to them, "You meant to take her to your White Tower to make her one of you." It wasn't a question. "She is Dedicated, aes sedai."

The wise one's tone was firm, but it didn't seem to discourage the aes sedai. "She could be very strong," Cadsuane didn't deny the accusation..

"With proper training," Moiraine added. "She could be stronger than any of us."

"If she comes to the Tower she can achieve her potential." Both of them were intoning their words, alternating and working together for effect, it was actually quite impressive and Taija could see how it might be intimidating to some people. She was glad she hadn't had to put up with it from them.

"The Tower can provide knowledge and training greater than any other institution." She was surprised they could say that with a straight face.

The younger looking of the two Dedicated channelers replied. "We can teach her as well as you can aes sedai. Better. You treat your apprentices too gently in the Wetlands. The Three-fold land is no place for weakness. Aviendha will learn all that she needs with us." There was an undertone of contempt in the woman's voice and the Dedicated seemed to consider the matter closed after that.

It didn't take long after that for Aviendha to strip naked and run off towards Rhuidean. Given the nudity, it kind of made sense that they'd sent the men away.

Apparently there was some kind of ter'angreal there that she'd have to go through which would give her visions of the future. It sounded useful, but Taija couldn't remember ever hearing of a similar one in her time, which was curious. She was sadly less than surprised to hear that some women never returned from entering the ter'angreal. What was it with this time and people misusing extremely dangerous ter'angreal? She was doubly glad she'd restrained Elayne.

As Aviendha bounded away into the distance, the wise ones turned their attention back onto Cadsuane and Moiraine.

"Come," the eldest said, "We offer you water and shade aes sedai." She was clearly addressing Moiraine and Cadsuane and then she glanced back to Taija and the girls. "Your companions may find shelter with the others."

That wouldn't do at all. She probably shouldn't have hung back so much. Taija stepped forward uncovering her face and giving them a small bow, "my name is Taija Kosola Miranen," she kept her tone mild, she wasn't trying to make a point, not yet anyway. "I'm also aes sedai and these are Elayne Trakand and Nynaeve al'Meara my apprentices."

The woman's eyebrows shot up, "my apologies aes sedai, I had not realised. We had not seen you coming in the dream. We of course also offer you water and shade."

"Thank you," Taija nodded and smile politely. She couldn't hold it against them that they didn't realise when she'd keeping quiet at the back like that.

They were all quickly escorted to the wise ones' tents while a white robed Dedicated was sent off with the horses to ensure they were cared for. Did the white robes indicate a servant of some kind?

Once they were inside the largest tent they all sat down cross-legged on thick rugs and another white robed Dedicated served them water. The wise ones, Amys, Melaine, Bair and Seana introduced themselves. In turn Taija's group gave their own introductions.

"Cadsuane Melaidhrin, aes sedai of the Green Ajah."

"Moiraine Damodred, aes sedai of the Blue Ajah."

"Taija Kosola Miranen, aes sedai."

The atmosphere had seemed more relaxed, but her lack of an ajah causes a stir among the wise ones. "Do you not have an ajah?" Amys voice was sharp.

Taija shrugged, "I don't really feel I need one at the moment." She was tempted to explain that the word 'ajah' was being misused by the aes sedai nowadays, but that seemed a bit obnoxious.

To her irritation, the wise ones seemed to glance to Cadsuane and Moiraine as if asking them for confirmation. However, she felt a little mollified when Moiraine said, "Ajah or no, Taija sedai is aes sedai."

"Very well." That seemed to settle the matter.

Taija thought Moiraine might be about to speak, but jumped in before she could. She had things she'd been worrying about and now was her chance to put those worries to rest. "How's Egwene? Has she been learning well?" She leant forward eagerly.

Amys answered, "we have been very pleased with Egwene sedai's progress. She is headstrong, but always eager to learn, she is not how we expected an aes sedai to be."

Taija nodded for a moment, wait, aes sedai? "I'm sorry did you say Egwene sedai?"

"Yes," Amys nodded. "Of the Green Ajah." What kind of trouble had the bloody girl gotten herself into now?! Taija noticed Cadsuane leaning forward, eyes narrowing with a predatory gleam. For fuck's sake.

She hurriedly kept talking to make sure neither Cadsuane nor Moiraine got the chance to say anything, choosing her words carefully. They would no doubt be maneuvering for some kind of scheme to get Egwene back in their clutches. "Why exactly do you think she's an aes sedai?"

The Wise Ones glanced at each other, faces going blank, although Taija thought Amys had a slight frown. Moiraine and Cadsuane's faces had also gone worryingly blank, actually hers might have too. Amys answered. "That was how she introduced herself. I had been a little surprised, she looks young and lacks the ageless face and great serpent ring," the wise ones' eyes flicked over to Taija.

"Aes sedai will normally only develop the ageless face a few years after being raised," Cadsuane offered unhelpfully as she rearranged her hands in a way Taija was fairly sure ensured her great serpent ring was on display. Cadsuane wasn't showing it on her face, but Taija strong suspected she was enjoying the situation.

She resisted the urge to make a sarcastic comment about people binding themselves like criminals. The truce she'd achieved with Moiraine and Cadsuane was tentative enough.

Amys' eyes flicked from Taija's face to her hand again. "Yet Taija sedai does not have an ageless face, nor the ring." Her voice was level, just presenting a question, not challenging Taija's status.

Taija kept her voice mild, "Nevertheless I am aes sedai."

"Indeed," Cadsuane agreed without hesitation to her mild satisfaction. Although Taija supposed she'd established her status with her through right of conquest if nothing else. People nowadays did seem far too focused on strength.

Taija didn't want Moiraine and Cadsuane taking over. "It seems that I'm going to need to have words with my apprentice." She emphasised the last two words without looking at the other aes sedai. She could sense Cadsuane shifting slightly, but she didn't say anything. Quite right too.

The wise ones glanced at each other and after a second Amys summoned one of the white robed servants. "Fetch Egwene, tell her to come at once."

Perhaps sensing the tense mood the servant nodded and practically ran to find her.

The nine of them sat in slightly awkward silence while they waited and then Egwene came hurrying in looking sweaty. She was dressed like the Dedicated wise ones in white, cotton blouse and brown skirts and seemed to have picked up quite a tan.

She was looking to the wise ones when she arrived, but then she registered Taija and the other aes sedai's unsmiling presence. "Hello Egwene sedai." Her face instantly fell and Taija felt a pang of guilt she really had missed the girl. However, it was completely unacceptable to pretend to be aes sedai. She'd have thought Egwene would have realised from her lessons how offensive it was for someone to claim the title when they weren't entitled to it. Modern aes sedai at least had the excuse of believing they were true aes sedai, although as more than one of them had tried to remind her, they were hardly willing to let others claim the title either. More so it was personally offensive. She'd gone out of her way to take Egwene in, had to fight, literally, to have herself recognised as an aes sedai and then the girl just claimed it casually.

Taija let the silence stretch for a second, she didn't want to be unnecessarily unpleasant to Egwene, but she needed to understand that it wouldn't be tolerated, that Taija was actually very angry with her. "Would you care to explain?"

Egwene was a bright girl, if prone to poor decisions at times, she knew what Taija meant. "I'm sorry Taija sedai! It just… it just happened. I was in the Unseen World and I ran into Amys, like I told you. I panicked when I met her and I was… I was just desperate for her to help me and so I told her I was aes sedai. I realised straight away that it was a stupid mistake, but then I couldn't say anything in case the wise ones refused to teach me so I just had to keep going."

Taija watched her, expressionless, as she explained. She couldn't see any hint of dishonesty in Egwene's expression. She mostly looked upset and scared. It was a plausible explanation too. Taija thought back to some of her own youthful escapades. She'd never have been stupid enough to claim to be aes sedai when she wasn't, but there were plenty of times she'd managed to get herself into a difficult situation by saying something stupid.

Unfortunately her considerations were interrupted by Cadsuane. "The last girl I met who claimed to be aes sedai was made to weep for several months afterwards."

Taija shot Cadusane a look, seriously? The wise ones were looking very unimpressed with Egwene too, nodding in approval of Cadsuane's statement.

This was getting out of control. "Egwene, I'm disappointed in you. You know more than enough to know that claiming to be aes sedai isn't acceptable. We will discuss your punishment between us, go and think about what you've done." Taija spoke to her as if she was a child and tried to ignore the fear on her face. She didn't have time to be angry, she needed to get in control of this situation before one of the others said something publicly that they couldn't walk back on. It was going to be a delicate balance between protecting Egwene from the others and still making sure she was appropriately punished. Just what she needed.

"But, T…" Egwene protested before Taija cut her off.

"Now Egwene." Her voice left no room for compromise.

Despite that, Nynaeve spoke up, "Taija sedai, p…"

She cut her off too. "Quiet! Elayne, Nynaeve, you two leave too please." It did her credit that she wanted to support her friend, but there was a time and a place. The situation was going to be delicate enough as it was. Taija needed to be in control of the conversation before the Dedicated or other aes sedai decided they wanted Egwene beaten or the Dedicated refused to teach her anymore.

"I must apologise for my apprentice's behaviour, if I had known she was claiming to be aes sedai I would have put a stop to it immediately." Taija faced the wise ones, making it clear it was them she was apologising to. Ultimately she was fairly confident that Cadsuane and Moiraine would give way to her if she pushed the point, although she'd rather not have to. "She has given offence to all of us, but I think the best thing would be for us to collectively agree on a punishment for her."

"I do not see why that is necessary, she has obligation to all of us, it must be met individually."

It took Taija a second to process what she meant by obligation. People did use her language oddly sometimes. "I understand what you're saying. However, the Dragon has been reborn, you have your Chief of Chiefs and the Light is assailed by the Shadow from all angles. We can spend time punishing her in each of our own ways and waste our collective time and also hers when she should be learning like the apprentice she is, or we can come to an agreement together.

The Dedicated looked sceptical and Cadsuane was clearly feeling unhelpful. "The only way to make sure this kind of lesson sticks is through pain."

"Absolutely not," Taija snapped before the Dedicated could have time to agree, then moderated her tone. She doubted her views on corporal punishment would get much favour with the Dedicated. "Ultimately she is my apprentice," Taija shot a look at Cadsuane. "I will speak to her, at some length, about what she did, but I acknowledge that is not a punishment." She could see she was losing the wise ones and hurried on. "In my own training, when a student committed a severe offence they might be given pointless tasks to do. Without the Power of course." This was the proper way to punish someone and make them learn at the same time, not some barbaric beating. "This was punishment with meaning. The purpose of being aes sedai is to serve, pointless labour is the opposite of service. To spend someone's time on valueless activity like that is humiliating and thought provoking. You do nothing for anyone else and also nothing for yourself until the lesson is learnt."

The wise ones glanced at each other, expressionless, then to Taija's surprise Amys nodded, "that is acceptable to us." That was a relief, unexpected though. She'd thought the Aiel would push for something more visceral.

That just left the other aes sedai. Taija looked Cadsuane straight in the eye and refused to look away until after a few seconds she looked down, her mouth twisting as if she just swallowed a lemon. "I can live with that."

After that it was just dickering about specifics.

=======

Once they'd reached agreement there was a brief pause and then Moiraine spoke up to ask about a letter the wise ones had apparently sent her in Tear telling her to come to Rhuidean. She certainly hadn't mentioned that in front of Taija.

This led into a lengthy explanation of dreaming and what they could and couldn't predict. Taija wasn't a huge fan of it as an art. She could acknowledge its usefulness, but like every other method of predicting the future, it was frustratingly vague.

Apparently there were all kinds of conditions that needed to be fulfilled for Moiraine to survive, various people needed to come here with her and she'd need to go through the same ring ter'angreal as Aviendha, although telling her that seemed to have been a slip up on the wise ones' part. Interestingly none of these things seemed to involve Taija, she wasn't sure whether to be relieved or offended by her apparent insignificance.

As far as Taija could tell Moiraine took the wise ones' statement in her stride. She had a sip of her drink and then launched into a musing monologue about the 'Old Tongue'. Personally Taija was much more interested in what the wise ones had to say about Rhuidean and the ring ter'angreal.

"It can often be difficult to translate the Old Tongue, words can have so many meanings. The Unseen World means the World of Dreams or perhaps the Unseen World, neither is really exact and it can be almost impossible to know the true meaning of a word in the language." Seriously? Taija couldn't help snorting softly to herself. Every time she thought she'd heard it all they came up with some new way of showing both their arrogance and their ignorance.

Her train of thought disrupted Moiraine glanced over at Taija her face unreadable. That must have been louder than she'd thought. No point alienating her, Taija was trying to be the bigger woman. "I'm sorry Moiraine sedai that was rude of me."

She just sighed, "as I was saying, the meanings of words in the Old Tongue can be complex." Her attention returned to the wise ones although Taija was sure there was a slight tightening of her lips. "Some words have become common and we do not think about their true meaning. Aes sedai meant servant of all. Then we have the Dedicated, which means dedicated in the Old Tongue. Only it does not just mean that, it is stronger, an oath written into your bones. I have often wondered what the Dedicated are dedicated to."

Even as the wise ones' faces hardened, Taija excitedly spoke up, previous irritation forgotten. "Oh yes, I'd asked Rhuarc about that and he didn't want to answer, it was a bit odd. The only Dedicated I've really known are the Dedicated to Peace who were pretty different really. Are different Dedicated dedicated to different things? Is that why they fight?"

Moiraine looked irritated at first and Taija realised as she spoke that she'd probably cut her off, but the annoyance disappeared when Taija mentioned the Dedicated to Peace. She always found Moiraine hard to read but she thought she looked both pleased and intrigued.

The wise ones on the other hand looked like they were carved from stone. Eventually Amys broke the silence, "Rhuarc has spoken to me of you Taija sedai. He said that you claim to have seen the Dedicated to Peace. How can this be, is it something of the aes sedai?

Taija glanced over at Cadusane and Moiraine who seemed to be content to let her do the talking for the moment. Maybe it was because they had no idea what she was talking about? "Well… kind of." The unamused faces of the wise ones told her that that wasn't enough of an answer. "I don't think Moiraine sedai or Cadsuane sedai will have seen them?" Her rising intonation made it sound like a question.

She paused for Moiraine or Cadsuane to speak, but they stayed silent. Eventually Amys sighed, exasperation slightly breaking the stone-hard impassivity of her face. "Let us not bandy words aes sedai. You say you have seen them with your own eyes?"

The wise ones were being very weird about this, so Taija simply said "yes" without elaborating.

The older one Bair seemed to lose her patience and snapped, "stop this obfuscation. Our patience is not unlimited. How do you know of them? They are long g…"

She clamped her mouth shut as if she had been about to say something she shouldn't have. However, Taija wasn't interested in that. She was sick of people talking down to her, women who thought the only way to get through life was by bullying others. "I don't understand you Dedicated's weirdness around the Dedicated to Peace. " Her voice was low and laced with anger. "You're nothing alike, beyond a name. They were devoted to serving the aes sedai and the most peaceful, benevolent people you could imagine. You people… I don't even know what you are. Dedicated to pissing me off probably." She muttered the last few words in her own language before continuing in a more normal tone. "Since you ask, I probably didn't know them as well as I should have, but I could hardly have forgotten them. The same way I can't forget Adanza, Jalanda, Paaran Disen. The world was a better place with the Dedicated to Peace in it even if they could never survive now. I assume your own name has nothing to do with them since I can't see what you do to make the world better. Moiraine sedai says it's difficult to truly understand what words like that mean. Well I understand perfectly well. Their dedication was one of the foundations on which the aes sedais' work rested."

The wise ones took a moment to process what she said before their eyes widened and they glanced at each other. "My apologies for my rudeness Taija sedai," Bair replied. "I have obligation."

"It's fine," Taija muttered she'd been quite rude back, "consider it forgotten."

That didn't seem to be quite the response Bair was looking for, but she continued nevertheless. "You speak as if you were actually there among the Dedicated to Peace, but this cannot be possible."

Taija shrughed, increasingly uncomfortable under their gazes. She hated talking about her time like this, it just brought back painful memory after painful memory all while forcing her to explain things to people who could never understand. "I was there, I wish I was still there, but now I'm here." She folded her arms and looked down at the ground with a scowl.

======

Amys looked at the girl, no woman - she'd heard enough of what she'd done from Rhuarc, sat scowling petulantly in front of her. Was she really claiming that she…? "You were really there?" She could not quite keep her voice from wavering.

Taija looked up again, pain filling her eyes. "I was born in Adanza, I've visited the Hall of Servants more times than I ever wanted to, I remember when the Bore was drilled. I fought in the War. Yes. I was there."

Off to her side Cadsuane sighed "The world has lost much since the Age of Legends; however, Taija sedai was there. I do not know how it is possible, but she was there."

This Taija's openness with her emotions was discomfiting, she was as soft as any wetlander, but then if what she was saying was true… The Aiel had toh to her. Far more so than to any other living aes sedai. "I see." At least she had remastered her voice. It made sense, she recognised some of what had been said. The Hall of Servants, the Bore, it was nothing that an aes sedai could not invent from histories of the world, but they said aes sedai could not lie.

"Now would you please explain to me why you get so uncomfortable every time the Da'shain Aiel are mentioned?" Amys suppressed her discomfort at yet another mention of them. It was a name that was not meant to be spoken yet clearly Taija knew of them, despite knowing almost nothing of the Aiel themselves. It made no sense unless what she claimed was true.

Amys glanced at the other wise ones, but they did not seem inclined to speak. "There are some things that are only spoken of in Rhuidean, can only be spoken of by those that have gone to Rhuidean. But…" she trailed off. Was she really considering breaking millennia old tradiiton even further? "We will speak of this with you alone. My apologies aes sedai." She nodded to Caduane and Moiraine. They were also aes sedai and held much ji as a result, but sacred laws could not be broken further, even for them.

She could see they did not want to leave, but eventually the two aes sedai nodded, "of course, we will give you your privacy." They stood up and left the tent.

The bleakness was still clear on Taija's face, but once the other two aes sedai had left she smiled slightly, although it did not reach her eyes. A moment later all sound from outside the tent vanished. "You want to keep your secrets and I respect that. No one will hear what is discussed in this tent."

There had been no glow of saidar, no weaves. Amys resisted the urge to gawk and kept her face composed, pretending she simply took it in her stride. Truly an age full of legends. "Thank you Taija sedai."

After a moment Taija prompted her, "so, the Da'shain Aiel?"

"Yes…" for the first time in years Amys glanced at the other wise ones, hoping one of them might take the lead, but no help was coming. Very well, she came to a decision. "In Rhuidean there is a ter'angreal. It shows those who walk through it visions of past Aiels' lives. Only those who are to become clan chiefs or wise ones may pass through it. Rand al'Thor will go through it and if he survives and if he is the Car'a'carn then he shall be marked by it. I do not even know if this ter'angreal will work for you as you are not of the blood. However, if you wish to find answers to your questions about the Aiel, I will give you permission to go to Rhuidean and try to find the answers you seek."

She glanced at the other wise ones who all nodded and gave their consent.

"Four wise ones have agreed, so you may go to Rhuidean if you wish. However, I will warn you. Your path is your own to choose, but if this ter'angreal does function for you then, while it may show you what has passed, some are unable to handle what they see."

Chapter Text

Interlude XX - Taija and the Scientific Outreach Committee

Approximately 3,025 years ago. Well into the Collapse as the Age of Legends became less and less of a utopian society. Not long after Taija met Tel.

Taija was not happy.

She'd agreed to be part of a new committee event tasked with scientific outreach for a few reasons. Helping to promote science education and encourage children to study the various sciences was a noble goal of course.

Also, as Professor Kolin, the university's vice chancellor, had helpfully pointed out during one of her rare visits to the staff common room, it would be good for her profile and the university's own fund raising efforts. He'd put rather too much emphasis on that last part in her opinion.

So, when an already filled in application form landed on her desk the next morning, with a note from him attached to it with the words, "as discussed," Taija had decided there hadn't been much point protesting. Especially given she'd managed to palm off the last five similar 'opportunities' to more naive colleagues.

She'd already been bracing herself for a tiring couple of hours after she'd Traveled to the World Media Centre in Paaran Disen. Sitting in committee meetings had never been her favourite thing, but such was life. She'd have thought that getting her third name would have meant more freedom to do the things she actually wanted to do, but while she hadn't had it for long, so far it seemed more like the opposite.

There hadn't been much in the way of details given, just that she'd be discussing her experiences as a scientist and that there might be some media involvement. It wasn't ideal, not being able to prepare properly, but she could think on her feet well enough.

When she arrived Taija was sent straight upstairs to the committee room by a solicitous, but irritated young man. It seemed that she'd been expected to be there at least a couple of hours in advance for make-up and briefing and there'd been some kind of a communication failure. Why she needed that for this Taija really wasn't sure.

The young man practically shoved her into the room, leaving her standing there under the gaze of her fellow committee members. Taija recognised most of them. Galen Bashar, a chemist she'd met once or twice in the Hall of the Servants and Lorina Fallan who she'd corresponded with before. An enthusiastic woman who'd cornered her more than once to bend her ear off about one idea or another.

Both of them were more what some people would sneeringly call 'popular scientists', Focused on communication rather than genuine original research. Personally Taija thought that was unfair, both approaches were important.

More of a surprise was Ishar Morrad Chuain, wearing the formal long, black coat of the aes sedai with the golden circles of a third name on his collar. He was sitting at the table looking annoyed to even be there. Taija couldn't help but wonder who on earth had let him out of his box, it wasn't like she knew him well, but he was hardly a good communicator. Even back then there were also rumours about unethical experimental practices swirling around him.

Then there was Zolyor Machira Ondyel. Perfectly coiffed hair flopping over his irritatingly handsome face. Taija supposed he'd done a lot of good for getting people interested in science with his zany broadcasts, but he seemed a little out of place on this committee as the only non-scientist. Although thinking about it, she suspected that if she said that to his face he'd be quite offended.

Other than Zolyor Machira, Taija was the youngest looking in the room and she noticed that everyone else in the room looked rather like stereotypical scientists of one kind or another. Ishar Morrad in his formal coat. Lorina Fallan and Galen Bashar with white hair and wearing lab coats. The other two who she didn't recognise were wearing very old fashioned clothing, looking rather out of touch with the modern world.

There were a number of cameras in the room too, which was also a surprise. Obviously Taija had expected some publicity, but not to have various lenses pointed at her the moment she walked in. No one had mentioned this was going to be filmed. Still, she was adaptable, she could roll with events.

A young woman flounced up to Taija before looking her up and down, her lips thinning in poorly concealed disappointment, "oh you must be Taija! I'm Belase." Taija resisted the urge to scowl at her over-familiarity. "Welcome! Welcome! You're a little late, but no matter, we can just do your interview during the break." She grabbed Taija's arm and started urging her towards the seat next to Ishar Morrad, babbling as she went. "It's a pity you missed out on make-up, but no worry, you're still young and we can play it off well enough, anyway. Absent-minded, head in the clouds, you know."

"E e excuse me?" Taija managed to stutter, but the woman completely ignored her.

"Also you could have dressed properly, didn't you get the memo?"

"What's wrong with my outfit?" Taija was feeling rather overwhelmed by everything. Anyway she'd dressed very professionally, smart shoes, a knee length black skirt and cream blouse. There was nothing to criticise, she'd even checked with Tel!

"Nothing, nothing. You could have just tried a bit harder to look, well you know, scientific." She practically pushed Taija into the seat next to Ishar Morrad, "say hello Ishar!"

As soon as Taija's backside hit the seat Belase bustled off leaving her feeling a little stunned.

Ishar Morrad leaned over with a grimace and whispered, "welcome to hell. Did your funding committee make you do this too?"

Taija couldn't have said she was particularly keen on the man. No doubt he was a great scientist, but in her admittedly limited experience he was also an obsessive weirdo most of the time with unsavoury rumours swirling around him. That being said, at that moment she was glad to have an ally of any kind in the room. "No… My vice chancellor just told me I should go and filled in the form for me."

"Sounds about right." He leant in closer, "well done on not giving in on their dress code though."

"Dress code?" She asked in confusion, but before he could answer Belase's voice rang out across the room.

"Alright, now that everyone's here let's get going. We'll have the intro from Zolyor first. We roll in 3, 2, 1, action!"

"Hey guys, so I'm here with some of the great minds of our scientific community and we're going to be talking about all the crazy sciencey things they do!" He gave the camera a big grin and Taija had to admit he had a certain charisma about him even if he was deeply irritating. "You'll already be familiar with Galen and Lorina, who you've seen on my show before, but today we've also got some really big brains here too to talk to you about science! Over there you've got Ishar and Taija, two real science nerds!" What had he just called her?!

What followed was one of the more excruciating hours of Taija's life. Zolyor Machira read out idiotic questions that he claimed were from his followers in his smooth Paaran Disen accent, directing them at her and other committee members. She couldn't help but notice that she seemed to be getting the stupider questions too.

"So, Taija my lovely," she was already quietly seething and being called that didn't help. "I read about your work, but it's really rather dense. Myca, aged 16 from M'Jinn, wants to know why we spend time and money on that kind of thing when we could be working on more exciting things like how to make bigger spaceships?"

Taija's first instinct had been to say that that was a stupid question, but actually it was the sort of thing young people really did think about and it wasn't totally unfair. "Well, hello Myca, that's a good question." She gathered her thoughts as she started to speak. "Spaceships are definitely cool and I love them as much as anybody, but when we design them they're based on fundamental scientific research that can often seem boring. It's like a skyscraper, you can't build something that big and amazing without having deep foundations underneath it even if no one sees them. In the case of…"

She was cut off by Zolyor Machira. "Well sure Taija dear, but what about your research."

Taija ruthlessly suppressed her growl of frustration, keeping her tone mild. She was talking to the audience not to him. "Thank you Zolyor Machira, I was just getting to that. My own research at the moment is focused around differentiating tiny elements of the Power, both saidin and saidar. It's certainly pretty obscure," she laughed self-deprecatingly, "but ultimately it will make our use of the Power more efficient and in turn what that means is more powerful engines for spaceships and more powerful engines means we can have bigger spaceships."

She took a sip of water, pleased with her answer only to nearly spit it out when Zolyor Machira spoke, "well thank you Taija. It all sounds rather nerdy to me, but I suppose someone has to do the boring stuff." What. The. Fuck.

The questioning of the participants continued in a similar vein for most of an hour and at the same time Taija had to work harder and harder to control her growing anger. While the others received fairer treatment, it quickly became clear that she and Ishar Morrad were both regularly the butt of jokes or snide comments while Zolyor Machira spouted vapid platitudes for his audience. The real question was why?

Taija had already decided that she was going to be having words with Professor Kolin when she got back to work the next day. Words like 'resignation, 'never again if he valued his life' and 'significant pay increase'.

Thankfully a halt was eventually called, although apparently there would be more after a break. Zolyor Machira was already being hustled off to have his hair and make-up touched up. Neither Galen Bashen nor Lorina Fallan would meet Taija's eyes.

After answering a couple of emails she'd been about to get up and look for a restroom when Belase pounced on her. "Taija dear! Since you were late do you mind terribly if we do your one on one interview now?" She didn't give Taija the opportunity to protest, already dragging her over to a corner where Zolyor Machira was preening in front of the cameras. "Zolyor's already good to go, come along, just sit here and smile. I'm sure you'll look fantastic."

Taija found herself deposited in the corner, plonked down in an uncomfortable seat faced with Zolyor Machira's pearly white grin. She could have sworn for a second that she could see cold, calculation in his eyes, but it was gone a moment later replaced with friendly warmth. "Wonderful Taija, you look lovely by the way, very smart. Now, don't worry this won't take long, I just want to get a few candid moments for the cameras so that we can slot them in around the main event. Just be yourself, I'm sure they'll love you."

Taija forced herself to smile. "Thank you Zolyor Machira, of course, I'll do my best."

"Of course you will." He very briefly pursed his lips as if thinking before nodding, his grin back in place. "Ready? We're rolling in 3, 2, 1, action!"

"Now I'm here with Taija who's well known in scientific circles for her work on studying the tiniest bits that make up the universe. She's even pretty good at it, a lot of talent in such a little package, why she even got her third name quite recently." Was he just an idiot or was he deliberately being patronising? Also, was that a hint of scepticism in his tone? He lowered his voice conspiratorially, "she's also a bit of a cutie. Now how did you get into science Taija dear."

Taija clamped down on her anger. It was difficult. Was this man incapable of showing even a modicum of politeness and respect? "Thank you Zolyor Machira," she steadfastly refused to address him with the same over-familiarity he used. "I'd always liked science when I was in school and when I was young I desperately wanted to make a difference, to make people's lives better. That never changed and I also just found the way the world worked to be so fascinating so I…"

He cut her off with a grin, "well isn't that adorable guys." She had to remind herself to breath. "You say you wanted to change the world, but your research is pretty obscure isn't it? Mightn't it have been better to have worked on something more practical, like Ishar does?"

Taija forced herself to chuckle, even as she was already composing the letter of complaint to the media regulators in her head. "Well Zolyor Machira, like I said when I was answering young Myca's question, fundamental research is all about creating the blocks we can use as the foundations for more public facing science. I have nothing but respect for Ishar Morrad's research," although if some of the rumours were actually true… "but without more theoretical research, the work the public sees wouldn't be possible."

"Well it does all sound very esoteric and impressive, you can really get a third name for that kind of thing?"

His tone said it was a teasing joke, but she saw him turn his head slightly so that his sneer wouldn't be seen by the cameras. "Well." She was so stunned by the rudeness that she struggled to respond quickly. "I suppose that's a question for the Naming Council." The T'zora Institute of Science had already offered to pay her 20% more if she moved there and she was almost certain she'd be able to negotiate a clause in her contract about not having to ever do anything like this again.

"Of course, we wouldn't want to question their wisdom," he winked at the camera as Taija wondered, not for the first time that day, how he had his own third name. "You just look ever so young to have one, why back in my day it took a while to get a third name." Wasn't he younger than her?!

She resisted the urge to snap at him, "well I'm older than I look." That was shorter than she'd meant to be, she needed to try to keep her temper under better control.

======

Ishar sat awkwardly at the conference table toying with his phone. He could hardly believe what was going on. He'd only agreed to come because he'd been informed in no uncertain terms that if he didn't do more public outreach then his university was going to stop making excuses for his research practices.

He had better things to do than be taking part in some stupid outreach event anyway. Leave that for the popular 'science' types like the others. Taija Kosola was the only other real scientist here.

With half an ear he listened to Zolyor Machira starting his interview with her. He should probably pay some attention, that deeply irritating Belase woman had said he'd need to do one after the show.

Wait a second! He blinked in surprise. That was an extremely inappropriate way to speak to Taija Kosola, but she deflected it admirably.

As the questions went on, Ishar listened with growing horror. It had quickly become clear to him that Zolyor Machira was trying to provoke her, there couldn't be any other explanation for the kinds of questions he was asking. The poor woman! Was he going to be next?

The man just kept on going back to her appearance, calling her boring, questioning her competence, but all in a teasing jokey way that meant he'd no doubt deny anything untoward if he was challenged.

Absently he admired Taija Kosola as she sat there, still somehow looking composed and in control - he'd have lost his temper long ago. She was certainly a good looking woman too, if perhaps a bit young for him, he wouldn't mind… He gave himself a mental slap. That was not an appropriate way to think about someone, let alone a respected peer. At this rate he'd end up thinking like Ared Mossinel.

He winced as Zolyor Machira asked her whether she felt she had been compensating for her upbringing by working so hard, striving to overcome her humble roots, sympathy oozing from his voice.

What was the matter with that man? What possible goal could he have for this?

His thoughts drifted back to some tentative conversations he'd been having with certain people. There might be an alternative, no having to put up with this kind of shit. One that would give him the academic freedom that he craved, building a world that would also show proper respect to people like him and Taija Kosola.

Had Zolyor Machira just asked her whether she thought she'd be a good mother? Light what was wrong with the man?!

======

The infuriating and inappropriate questions just kept coming. However, Taija kept control of her temper despite them, she wasn't going to explode and embarrass herself! She wouldn't allow herself to!

Zolyor Machira looked her over, "now, Taija dear, it looks like you've dressed up specially for today, but we were all a little disappointed. Don't you normally prefer proper lab coats," he stage whispered to the invisible audience, "wouldn't she look adorable in one?" Going back to his normal tone he continued, "or maybe a proper aes sedai coat? You can channel, can't you?"

There was that brief calculating look in his eyes again, she hadn't been imagining it! Taija forced herself to smile, "yes I can channel. I don't think that's something that should define anybody though. What's important is what they can contribute. As for lab coats, well sometimes I'll wear one, but a lot of the time it's just casual clothes for work. Personally I like to be comfortable, just jeans and a t-shirt." She hoped that would be relatable.

Zolyor Machira laughed, "don't you think it's a little difficult to take you seriously if you turn up looking like that?"

Taija wondered, through rising fury, why he was being like this. It wasn't going to persuade anyone that they wanted to be a scientist. It might be entertaining for some people. Messed up ones, but it would just put most people off. "Well no, I think that in our society people judge based on ability not appearances."

"Of course of course and naturally you do look lovely," his eyes roved uncomfortably across her body and she was fairly sure that wouldn't be picked up by the cameras. Not for the first time Taija wondered whether he was trying to provoke her? "So, I'm told you're single. It must be a lonely thing when that pretty little head is thinking such big thoughts, maybe there's someone in your department that's caught your eye? A secret little intra-office romance?"

This time there was no mistaking the maliciously expectant gleam in his eyes and certainty dawned on Taija. He really was trying to provoke her! Light only knew why.

With a decisive movement she stood. "Nope! This interview is over. I don't know who in the Light you think you are, but this is deeply inappropriate and you should be ashamed of yourself." Without another word she stormed back to her spot at the table to grab her bag from where she'd left it next to Ishar Morrad, uncomfortably aware of the cameras tracking her.

Behind her, as she grabbed her bag, Taija heard him saying, "it can be difficult sometimes to talk about your emotions when you spend all your time thinking about hard sciencey things, especially when you you've had a bit of a rough upbringing, we'll get back to poor Taija when she's calmed down a bit."

That was the last straw. She lost her temper. "Go walk on a scree slope you slimy piece of shit! You want to provoke me, well consider me provoked! You undermine everything our society stands for! Who the fuck did you even bribe to get your third name." Then she turned to her fellow scientist, "fuck this. Ishar Morrad I need a drink, want to come?"

He sprang to his feet even as she spun a gateway right there in the room. She figured she could just pay the fine if anyone made an issue of it, "oh Light yes!" A second later both of them were half way across the city.

=====

Over a couple of glasses of wine Taija discovered that Ishar Morrad wasn't actually all that bad of a guy. Definitely a bit obsessive about his work, it was true, but that wasn't something she could criticise too much - no throwing stones in a glasshouse. On the positive side of the ledger she found he had a wonderfully cynical sense of humour and he was very much capable of an intelligent conversation.

Like her, he'd been pushed into this farce without any idea what he was going to be subjected to. It was actually quite nice having a good moan about university politics, funding and all the things that seemed to be going wrong with society over recent decades. Riding the buzz of mild tipsiness and having vented at each other for a while Taija was feeling bad about the negative thoughts she'd been having about him at the start of the day. He was actually pretty cool.

Then he put his hand on her thigh with a shy smile.

Nope! Taija recoiled and he snatched it away. "Oh I'm sorry, were we not? Did I misread the situation?"

He'd seemed to be genuinely embarrassed, she might even have felt bad for him, but it was the last thing she needed on that shit sandwich of a day. Still, no reason to be rude. "No no, it's alright, I'm sorry, but I'm not interested. You're very nice, but I have a boyfriend."

"No, it's ok, I understand, I should be the one apologising." He sat and fidgeted with his hands in his lap.

"Look it's been a pleasure getting to know you Ishar Morrad, but I really should be getting back home, there's a lot to do and I need to get going on my letter of complaint."

"Yes, yes absolutely, me too." He smiled awkwardly at her, "well I'll be seeing you around Taija Kosola?"

========

After settling the bill Taija Traveled straight to Tel's place, not even bothering with the polite chime that would request permission to come through the gateway. He wouldn't mind, he'd actually given her a key to his place recently and told her to treat it as her home too. They hadn't been together all that long, it felt a bit fast, but on the other hand it just felt right. Also his house was gigantic and far nicer than hers.

Taija stormed into his study without ceremony, grabbing a chair with saidar to throw herself into. "Are you busy?" She didn't give him the chance to reply. "I have had the worst day ever!"

He looked up from the papers he'd been reading with a mixture of annoyance, amusement and sympathy on his face. "You could have knocked so I had time to get myself ready for this… So the outreach thing didn't go well?"

Taija launched into a blow by blow account of the day. Letting it all out while Tel made appropriately sympathetic noises and comments.

"And then to finish it all off Ishar Morrad put his hand on my leg! Why is it that men seem to think having a nice conversation means you want to sleep with them?!"

"I've got no idea, maybe it's just a miswiring in our brains?" Taija let out a growl of frustration only to feel Tel's hand land on her leg. She looked down and then up again to see his amused smile.

With a snort she pushed his hand off her thigh, "stop it. I'm not done venting."

"Sorry, sorry, please continue to vent." He held his hands up in mock surrender.

She told him about how angry she'd been with Zolyor Machira and how worried she was about the impression she'd made, what they'd broadcast about her, how it might affect her career.

As ever Tel had good advice. "So you've already mentioned the letter of complaint. I suspect Professor Kolin will be no happier than you, I can't imagine he'd have deliberately set you up like this and he knows you have other options. You need to get him onside and then go on the offensive…"

Dating a celebrity wasn't such a terrible idea after all. Not that Tel was anything like Zolyor Machira, but he at least knew how to handle public relations.

Eventually, as her anger had faded in the face of a combination of sympathy and helpful advice Taija smiled at Tel. "Thank you, I don't know what I'd do without you." Then her smile had widened, "do you ever wonder? Why is it that women think you being a good listener means you want to sleep with them?" She put her hand on his firm thigh with a sideways smile.

=======

The present day

Osan'gar stood musing over the dissected corpse of a myrddraal. For some reason his mind going back to the day he'd met Zolyor Machira Ondyel. He'd never forgot that excruciating day, one of so many things that had confirmed that joining the Shadow had been the right choice. Still, he'd eventually had his revenge on Zolyor Machira, for science of course, although it was certainly one of those times he'd enjoyed the opportunity to mix science with pleasure. As for the painfully awkward ending to it all…

Taija Kosola was one of the few people he respected. It was a pity that she hadn't seen the truth and joined the Shadow, but he could still admire her abilities. It had been awkward the way she'd rejected him, but these things happened, life wasn't about base urges. It was just a pity her thinking had been limited by her so-called morality and now to think that she'd survived. It would be nice to see her, but a sad at the same time because they would no doubt have to try to kill each other. Perhaps best just to avoid her. Being stuck in this shithole of a time was just a series of disappointments…

Chapter Text

Chapter XLIII - The Dedicated

Taija grumbled to herself as she jogged towards Rhuidean. It was hot, it was dangerous and she wanted some water. This had been a terrible idea. Maybe she'd be able to catch up with Rand and Mat and have some company.

At least she didn't have to be naked for the glass columns ter'angreal the wise ones had told her about. She definitely had a bit of a guilty smirk to herself when Moiraine was told that she would need to go to Rhuidean naked. Presumably it was because of differences with the ringed ter'angreal Moiraine had been directed to. She seemed surprisingly sanguine about it though. That had been a mild surprise after the girls' conservatism, but Taija supposed she was probably just a bit more grown up than them.

The wise ones had told Taija that they were only allowing her to go into Rhuidean for the glass columns, because she needed to understand the Dedicated. They'd said the Dedicated had obligation to her and all like her, ignoring it when she said she didn't think they owed her anything. Regardless they'd made it clear that they weren't keen on her going off and trying out everything in their sacred place. Taija supposed she'd respect that, especially when it involved dangerous, unknown ter'angreal. She could always sneak back later if she really wanted to.

Her mind went back to their warning about glass columns, that some people were unable to handle what they saw. Clearly they felt that they had a terrible history given the weight they put on it, but that at least wasn't too much of a concern. If it even worked for her she wasn't likely to be all that worked up about the history of a group she had nothing to do with. Hopefully it would be more interesting than unpleasant.

========

The fog on the edge of Rhuidean was like a wall with unnaturally defined boundaries. When Taija reached it she stopped to look it over and couldn't resist spinning a web of spirit into it to see if she could work out what was generating it.

Annoyingly, she found nothing, so with a deep breath she plunged into the fog, half enjoying half squirming at its clammy damp feel.

It didn't take her long to emerge and she found herself in a main thoroughfare of what seemed to be a medium sized city, well designed but incomplete buildings lining its streets. The architecture wasn't quite right, but at the same time it was achingly familiar, all glass and steel, with occasional retro marble designs. It was strange to be surrounded by what looked to be office blocks, apartment buildings and even shopping malls again, although the buildings were strangely bare without any labeling or advertisements.

As Taija walked between the buildings so close to home and yet incomplete, uninhabited and just slightly wrong, she feel an aching pang deep in her stomach. She'd spent her time in the Third Age doing her best not to think about home and this place was making it harder by the second. Maybe coming here hadn't such a great idea, but she'd never been one to turn back from something once she'd started.

There was truly beautiful architecture in this time. Caemlyn's inner city and Tar Valon sprang to mind, but they weren't home and Taija didn't think they ever would be. Rhuidean wasn't home either and certainly wasn't one of the Great Cities, but it was so painfully familiar.

She walked down the wide avenue, wide eyed and looking left and right at the buildings until eventually she came across a fountain that was actually flowing. Water spraying out despite the heat and desert conditions. Was the city not completely dead then?

The sight of all that water made her realise how thirsty she was and a quick web of air created a transparent bowl to hold some of the water. Another web of air, fire and water sterilised it and then Taija placed a filtration web of air and water over the top of her bowl to allow her to drink it without any impurities. Normally it would taste horridly flat, but under the circumstances any water was heavenly.

Once she'd slaked her thirst, Taija continued on her way. It didn't take her long after the fountain to reach a plaza, what seemed to be the central square of Rhuidean. Grandish buildings, worthy of a minor provincial capital surrounded it, their tops towering into the fog that encompassed the city.

Around the square Taija saw sculptures and objects scattered around as if at random. Some of them were clearly ter'angreal. Others might be, or might just be street art. She'd have to examine them more closely to be sure. On the far side of the square she could see what must have been the glass columns ter'angreal that the wise ones described to her, but her eyes were drawn inexorably to one thing. In the centre, there was a Chora Tree!

Taija gasped and before she knew it she was hurrying over towards the tree. Picking her way through discarded ter'angreal. A strange red, crystal chair here, a series of long, black rods there. She almost tripped over a pair of statuettes holding crystal spheres, presumably more ter'angreal, but she only had eyes for the tree.

When Taija reached it she couldn't help but cling on to the trunk, pressing her cheek into its rough bark and luxuriating in the feeling of calm and contentment that washed over her, driving away every stress she'd built up in her head. With something between a sigh and whimper she sank down beside it and just leant back with her eyes closed, imagining she was back in Adanza on a hot summer's day. Light she'd missed Chora Trees!

It took Taija a while of sitting, luxuriating in the familiar, but long gone, feelings of contentment brought by the Chora Tree, but eventually duty reared its ugly head and she decided she needed to move on regardless of how much she didn't want to. She came here for a reason after all.

With a sigh Taija heaved herself to her feet and turned her attention to the glass columns. Interestingly there was another twisted red stone doorway nearby, like the one in Tear. The patterns on it told her that it led to the realm of the Eelfinn rather than the Aelfinn. After what happened with them in Tear she'd hardly be inclined to try with questions again. Trying to make a deal with the Eelfinn would be far worse. She'd read enough about the horrible consequences people had suffered from trying to bargain with them to know that the price for anything she'd want would be far too high.

Turning her attention away from the red stone doorway Taija tentatively approached the glass columns. They were actually hugely impressive. Concentric circles of glittering transparent glass rose up perhaps thirty metres into the air. They were so slender that they looked like a stiff breeze would bring them crashing down, yet they must have stood there for thousands of years.

She paused to admire the work. She didn't recognise it, but whoever had built this thing must have been a master, or a team of masters. Long gone now, of course. She sighed quietly.

Taija hesitated, indecision written across her face, did she really want to do this? Again she thought of how the wise ones said some people couldn't handle what they saw and it was after all an unknown ter'angreal, but she couldn't see that the history of the Dedicated would be all that bad for her. It was more a matter of academic curiosity than something that was likely to affect her all that much. Anyway, if she was honest with herself, the decision was already made. She'd decided when she left the wise ones' tents and started jogging towards Rhuidean. She'd never been able to say no to knowledge.

A moment longer and Taija took a deep breath before stepping into the rings. As she did she tensed, waiting for… nothing. Absolutely nothing happened and she was left standing among the rings feeling increasingly frustrated. The wise ones had warned her this might happen, but it wasn't fair! Pretty much everyone must have Dedicated blood after 3,000 years. It wasn't her fault that she was born before they existed! She wanted to know what happened! Where this strange city so reminiscent of her own time came from, and yet again this Light-forsaken time was denying her any satisfaction at all.

With a growl Taija moved to kick one of the columns and then stopped herself at the last second as she thought better of it. Even if they had survived for so long, they still looked delicate, she didn't want to find that she could damage them. With a sulking pout Taija just put her hand on it instead, expecting to feel warm, smooth glass under it.

=======

There was a moment of disorientation and then Taija was standing in a black void surrounded by empty nothingness. It reminded her of the place between worlds used for skimming except there didn't seem to be any sense of up or down.

For a second she had to suppress panic as she was left staring into nothingness and then bright words appeared in the air in front of her, spelled out in her own language. "Welcome aes sedai. Please answer security check for access." There was a pause and then the floating words were replaced. "What is the web used to open the door to the Chamber of the Named in the Hall of Servants?"

It took her a moment to overcome her shock and then Taija bit her lip as she franticly wracked her brains. That grandiose name was essentially a dull meeting room only accessible to aes sedai with third names. Networking with extra pretension. It had had a locking mechanism that could theoretically only be opened by a specially crafted web. Because of course it had.

She'd been in it all of three times in her life and two of them a man had opened the door for her, but she'd been shown the web when she first got her third name. It had been more than ten years since she'd used it… Fuck.

The words in the air started to flash in front of her and Taija felt an ominous pressure building around her. In desperation she spun air and fire in front of her into a vaguely remembered form, a relatively simple web, but useless for anything.

She held her breath as the words stopped flashing and then were replaced again. "Thank you aes sedai. Diagnostic mode activated. Please choose (a) adjust matrices, (b) review experience or (c) shut down."

There was no way that she was fiddling with that. It was hugely impressive and quite unexpected. Someone must have built the thing to detect when a female channeler without Dedicated ancestors touched it, perhaps to help with its construction. However, trying to do anything with ter'angreal beyond use them was wildly outside her expertise and talents, particular a masterpiece like this one. So she channeled a thin flow of spirit at the (b) floating in front of her.

Again there was a pause and then high-resolution images of a series of men and women flashed up in a line in front of Taija. On the left was Rand, followed by various Dedicated that she didn't recognise, mostly women with the occasional man. Based on what the wise ones told her, she suspected that choosing one would allow her to see what they saw.

After a moment's thought, Taija touched the second image with a flow of spirit. She didn't feel comfortable seeing Rand's, it might be intensely personal, but she wasn't sure how to safely get out of this ter'angreal without choosing one. As soon as her flow touched the image everything vanished from around her.

=======

She was there behind someone else's eyes feeling everything they felt. It was worse than linking! She wanted to struggle, but there was nothing to struggle against. All she could do was watch.

She was Aledin, a young sept-chief stood on the mountainside, looking down at a half-built Rhuidean.

No, she was Taija in a ter'angreal at Rhuidean!

She'd come to Rhuidean as the wise ones had instructed, despite her desire to avoid the Jenn Aiel. She could remember the conversation, the arguments they'd had. Danein had insisted that if she did not go and agree to everything that was asked then she would die as would every member of her sept. Not a threat, but a prophecy.

Why are there so many kinds of Dedicated? Was one not enough?

As she made her way down the mountainside with her men, she saw a procession, Jenn Aiel carrying palanquins. Once again her mind went back to why the Aiel had all been called to Rhuidean. How Danein and the other wise ones had told her that she must agree to what the Jenn Aiel asked.

Actually, was this what being a man felt like? How odd.

As she got closer, leaving her men behind, she saw many other chiefs. More than she'd ever seen before. Perhaps a hundred of them. All moving forward. Some friends, some old enemies. None of them were veiled thankfully. Killing in front of a Jenn Aiel was nearly as bad as actually killing one of them, but she wasn't sure how far that would hold.

What made them True Dedicated? Were there False Dedicated? Ambiguously Dedicated? This must have been after the War, but it made no sense, of course people killed in front of Dedicated to Peace during the War, so why was it such a taboo to Aledin? Were the True Dedicated that different?

Despite the tension of being surrounded by so many threats and trying to keep an eye on all of them at the same time, she wasn't able to resist staring at the aes sedai on the palanquins. She'd never seen anyone so ancient looking! Hair so white it was practically transparent and faces covered in deep wrinkles.

Was that Torerin?! She looked so old! She survived! Oh Light someone actually survived! This must have been centuries after the War. Taija desperately wanted to shout to her before she remembered she was just a passenger there.

Along with the other chiefs she stood there, listening to the Jenn Aiel. She was angry when they told her she did not understand why the Aiel did things, angry they even called themselves Aiel. Yet she still listened to how they wanted her to come to Rhuidean, to allow them to choose the chiefs and wise ones.

If they were True Dedicated why did Aledin get annoyed at them calling themselves Dedicated? Was it some sort of schism?

She heard the prophecy whispered by the ancient aes sedai on the palanquin, about the future coming of the Car'a'carn. Eventually Mandein spoke up, volunteering to be the first of the Aiel to go to Rhuidean, she was the second.

=======

Taija blinked as she suddenly returned to the world, lights flashing across the glass columns around her. That was one of the more disturbing experiences she'd ever had with a ter'angreal. She'd been this Aledin, felt everything he'd felt, had his memories.

She still felt his contempt for the True Dedicated, despite having no real idea what they were. Interesting, but not as informative as she might have liked. At least she now know how Ruidean was founded. It was also interesting being a man for that brief time, what an odd feeling that was. Tall too, that hadn't been so bad.

What really stuck in her mind though was Torerin. How long ago must this have been? How long after she left her time? Torerin hadn't been that old then, so this must have been hundreds of years later. They'd been friendly, even if not close friends. Another person Taija had known and liked that was long dead. Another one she'd never share a coffee with again.

As Taija looked around herself she realised she was further into the glass columns than she'd thought. She wasn't sure she wanted to do this anymore, after seeing Torerin the black cloak of depression was hovering over her. However, she strongly suspected the ter'angreal didn't offer much choice once someone had started. Well, there was only one thing to do. She took a step forward.

=======

She was Kollim, an older man.

With her clan she'd traveled far. Despite her age she held her spears with the same easy confidence as any of her fellow warriors. Her fears weren't about attacks at that time though, instead it was lack of water in this parched land. When she was young water had been plentiful, but that certainly wasn't the case anymore.

However she now found herself in the only land where the people had given her group permission to fill their waterbags. She glanced over at the Jenn Aiel, struggling with their wagons and quickly looked away when the aes sedai traveling with them looked down at her with their sad eyes.

Was that Torerin again? She looked younger now, still very old though! The visions must be traveling back in time. She'd been such a cheerful, happy woman. What happened to her? Why was she so sad now? Was it the Dedicateds' fault?

Jeordam, the leader of her group took her and his grandson Rhodric to meet the son of the chief of the local town. He asked about whether the Aiel and the Jenn were the same people and Rhodric said they were the same people, yet not. She knew it was the truth, but she also knew he didn't really know what that truth meant because neither did she.

She also discovered that the people of that town had their own aes sedai adviser and that they planned to have a city built by Ogier.

Hadn't someone mentioned that Ogier had built a lot of Tar Valon? Maybe that was where they ended up. It would make sense with the aes sedai adviser and if they still had proper aes sedai like Torerin around then it would explain why they shared their water with the Dedicated. Maybe that was why the Dedicated were so respectful to aes sedai?

The townspeople pointed the Aiel towards the Dragonwall and she remembered the Aiel's greatest secret, that they were the People of the Dragon. Although she wasn't entirely sure what a Dragon was.

Lews Therin hadn't had any special relationship with the Dedicated to Peace had he? Were there any other Dedicated groups around before he died? If there were they must have appeared after her own displacement. Did they even mean Lews Therin? He was the leader of the Light so maybe everyone counted as part of his people?

The important thing to remember was that in the world there were only Aiel, Jenn and enemies, and perhaps now these people who had allowed her to share their water.

======

Taija gasped as she emerged into the glittering columns once more. Pulses of light seemed to be running up them around her.

Torerin had looked younger in this vision. Maybe one or two hundred years. Why had they been so worried about water? The world had looked so dry and desolate. Were they in the Waste then? She didn't think so.

Surely Torerin or the other aes sedai could have helped them? She was a strong channeler, couldn't she have dealt with the water situation? Taija hated seeing her like this. Why had she looked so sad? What had she been through?

She didn't like any of this in fact. Amys had said some people couldn't handle what they saw, maybe it was just too depressing for them? That didn't seem right though. Still it was fine for her, she was already depressed enough and more bemused than unable to handle what she saw.

There was a bubbling feeling of dread growing in her stomach as Taija took another step forward.

=====

She was Morin.

A woman, finally.

All her life all she had seen was snow and cold. Elders spoke of changing seasons, but then they said that the earth shook and mountains rose and fell like mud in the rain which was ridiculous.

Where was Torerin? What had happened to her? Taija wanted to see her again, not some stupid Dedicated woman!

She'd lived among the wagons for the short years of her life, struggling to hold to the Covenant. Yet every day was harder than the last. Today was the final straw. When she'd tried to trade with the townsfolk they'd taken her daughter. At five years old she'd been the light of her life and she knew what kind of a fate she'd face growing up a slave with them.

So she and two others went to the Aiel for help. A young man leaning on his spear greeted her, calling her Jenn as if to mock her. Of course he was the oathbreaker who had given up on the Way of the Leaf, whatever his claims about never touching a sword.

So the True Dedicated followed the Way of the Leaf? Were they descendants of the Dedicated to Peace? Maybe that was why Torerin was with them, but then why was she not there now? If Taija had been there the townsfolk wouldn't have survived trying to take Morin's daughter. It wasn't fair! Too many Dedicated and not the person Taija actually cared about.

Nevertheless she was taken to his chief, a hard eyed man who said the Aiel would help, but that if the men wished to stay with them they would need to take up spears to defend themselves.

She would be helped regardless, women didn't fight. However, a moment's thought was all it had taken, she was going to get her daughter back, she couldn't live with the Covenant any more.

No woman had taken the spear up before the chief told her, but there was a first time for everything.

======

Taija winced at the blinding light from the glass columns around her.

That must have been how the Dedicated spear maidens got started. It seemed odd that no one had done it before though. Women certainly fought on the front lines in her time, was the ridiculous sexism, a word she'd only really had to start to use after her displacement, that permeated this time something that came about during the Breaking?

Taija still wasn't sure what the Dedicated were actually dedicated to. These True Dedicated, too many Dedicated! The True Dedicated seemed to be more similar to the Dedicated to Peace. The Covenant, the Way of the Leaf, that was their path. It could be a hard one to follow even before the War. She couldn't judge Morin for abandoning it, especially when she could still feel her pain over her kidnapped daughter.

Times seemed to have been even harder in this vision. Elders talking of mountains moving… Huge climatic changes… Was that the Breaking? If this was before Torerin got so old then that might make sense.

Why wasn't she in the vision though? Taija wanted to see more of her, find out why she wasn't there. Perhaps it was selfish, but when the only person she had seen from her time in almost a year was T… Sammael… She wasn't going to cry, she wasn't!

Taija took a deep breath. Obviously the Dedicated broke off from the True Dedicated who were probably an offshoot of the Dedicated to Peace. It wasn't that difficult to work out. Hard times, they had to break the Covenant and defend themselves. Not a surprise. Typical of this time, making everything into a huge, dramatic mystery!

She could see why they'd find it upsetting, breaking the Covenant could be seen as a huge dishonour if they didn't really understand it. People could leave the Dedicated to Peace, it wasn't a prison. Anyway, Taija couldn't see why anyone would judge them in the circumstances. Her mind went back to the more important question. What about Torerin though, what was she doing and what happened to her? That was what she really wanted to know!

She took a step forward.

Chapter Text

Chapter XLIV - How Could She Have Possibly Thought This Was A Good Idea?

She was Gearan, one of the Da'shain Aiel.

Yes! She was right, the True Dedicated must have come from them. Although it had been pretty obvious once they'd mentioned the Way of the Leaf. A man again too, for fuck's sake.

Almost all she was able to think about was how hungry she was. Yet here she was with four other Da'shain Aiel to rescue Colline and Maigran from their kidnappers. Their families had been ready to mourn the girls and move on, as they had done for so many others, but the five of them had decided that they'd try to save them.

She snuck into their camp with the others, but the men who'd taken the girls heard their clumsy attempts at moving quietly. They all tried to get the girls to come, but they were terrified, unable or unwilling to run, even as the men roused themselves.

This was wrong. Why was no one protecting them?

The men were going to kill them all! "Can you squeal boy, or do you people just run?"

In desperation Charlin threw himself at one of the men and Lewin took a spear and stabbed another of them through the gut. While they were distracted, she picked up a branch and smashed a third man round the head with it. He fell and she just kept hitting him until he stopped moving, leaving her staring wide eyed and panting over his corpse.

Some Dedicated to Peace left the Covenant, of course they did. It was a free world. Others joined it. This though, she'd never heard of anything like it happening. Not that she could judge. The Way of the Leaf was a beautiful philosophy, but how anyone could be expected to hold to it in those circumstances she didn't know. It only worked because they lived in a better time and had the protection of the aes sedai.

They collected what they could from the mens' encampment and took it back to the wagons. No swords though, swords went against the Way because their only purpose was killing. A spear had other purposes.

Did Dedicated not use swords? She wasn't sure. She didn't really like thinking about swords, maybe something she had in common with them.

They took the girls back too, but when the inevitable revelation of their actions came they were turned away from their people, rejected forever.

"What of the Covenant? There is no reason good enough to justify killing another human being! None!" The words echoed in her head as their families turned their backs on them.

She insisted to an uncaring world that she was still Aiel, veiling her face against the dust as the wind picked up.

======

Taija was shaking as she emerged from the vision. She could still feel the pain of Gearan's loss, bouncing off and amplifying the pain of her own losses. Flashing light surrounded her, too bright to look at.

Did Torerin not find these Dedicated until later? If she'd been there maybe she could have saved more of them. Couldn't the visions have shown her instead? She might have known more about what was going on too.

The Dedicated to Peace felt like a treasured relic of her time, but no more than a relic. How could they have survived in anything other than utopia? Without the protection of the aes sedai?

How could anyone be so cruel as to reject their own child for doing what Gearan did? That felt worse than breaking any Covenant. Why did the War have to happen?

Taija's hands were trembling. She desperately wanted to stop, but she took another step forward.

=======

She was Jacquin. One of the Da'shain Aiel.

All of her life she had followed the Covenant, served the aes sedai, protecting their objects of the Power as well as she could.

Her clothes were rags as she sat in the dirt and wept. Yet another attack on the wagons. Treasures of the aes sedai thrown aside into the dirt. Da'shain Aiel killed where they stood if they tried to interfere. Her wife had been taken, on the end of a rope like an animal.

Her family had almost all been gone before that. Fever, starvation, murder, her brother had hanged himself when he'd found he could channel.

The taint?

If she'd tried to do anything to stop the attackers they'd just have killed her and the baby she was holding in your arms.

In the background Sulwin and Adan were arguing. Adan had lost almost everything too, but he insisted that they all went on, that they kept to the Covenant, kept their promises to the aes sedai.

Why? Nothing could be that important. No fucking ter'angreal were worth this! Who cared about promises to the aes sedai?!

Sulwin had had enough, he wanted to take his followers to find safety, to abandon the wagons. He wanted to abandon their promises to the aes sedai for easy safety and the fantasy of a song.

She didn't hesitate, she would keep to the Covenant, go on with Adan. Sulwin and his followers were no longer Aiel, for all their claims that they still followed the Way of the Leaf. She despised them for giving up on their duty to the aes sedai.

What kind of monomaniacal madness was this? How could anyone despise someone for giving up on objects in favour of people?

After they'd left she wept harder still, despairing at when this would all be over and the future her daughter faced.

======

Taija's legs didn't want to support her. She was struggling to think amidst the whirling lights. What kind of monstrosity was this ter'angreal?

What had been so important that the Dedicated to Peace would go through this? Where were the aes sedai to protect them? It was a Covenant, not a suicide pact! Yes they served the aes sedai, but it went both ways, they should have had the protection of the aes sedai too!

If she'd been there she'd have died before allowing this to happen to those people. So would almost every other aes sedai she knew. Why hadn't Torerin been there? Taija knew she survived. Or someone? Anyone?

Had her own people fallen so far?!

As she got her breathing back under control Taija wondered what happened to Sulwin's group. It seemed like the Dedicated to Peace became the True Dedicated and the Dedicated she knew split off from them, but she didn't know of any other people in this time following the Way of the Leaf. Maybe they died out?

Taija forced herself to take another painful step forward.

======

She was Bedein.

She was tired, exhausted even. She missed Tzora, now gone like every other one of the Great Cities. It had vanished in the fire of saidin, some people said it had been a huge beam of balefire. Other cities were under new seas or buried in rock. There was nothing left, nothing except the wagons.

What in the Light happened to Tzora? It was nowhere near the frontlines. What about the other cities? Was that the Breaking? She didn't want to think about it. Was this just going to get worse and worse?

Her mother Erola had been one of the Da'shain at Tzora… No, she couldn't even think about it. She'd been lucky to be elsewhere… Although now she wasn't sure how lucky she'd really been.

What had happened?!

Her group of Da'shain, vastly diminished in number, stumbled along beside the wagons laden with objects of the Power. So many were dead with no aes sedai to heal them. Injuries, starvation, everything. Occasionally they met other groups, haggard looking figures, barely surviving amidst the roiling, changing world. They always tried to help them, but how could they when they had nothing themselves?

Where were the aes sedai? How could they call themselves that and leave the Dedicated to Peace like this?! It was a Covenant not slavery!

The last time she'd seen an aes sedai it had been a woman. Thank the Light they hadn't encountered any men. Then again she'd seemed half mad herself.

She'd appeared from between some burnt out trees wearing the tattered remains of her formal black coat, looking like she hadn't changed it in months, a golden globe still visible on one collar. She'd healed those she could, then taken an angreal from the wagons and Traveled somewhere else all the time muttering about some man being on the move and how she needed to stop him.

She should have stayed. It was an obscenity!

They were all heading south now. They'd been going north in the hope of finding food, water and shelter. However, other groups had told her that the north was swarming with trollocs and myrddraal. The War was meant to be over! Yet there was no safety to be found anywhere. She kept to the Covenant, but how could she feel anything but despair?

=======

Tears were streaming down Taija's face, turning the kaleidoscope of lights around her into a blur. What sort of a hell was this? She could still feel the hunger, the despair deep inside her bones.

She'd recognised Lemiad Namere Ganagin from Bedein's memories too. She'd only been a hundred years older than Taija, but there she'd looked five hundred. Why hadn't she helped these people? Had she forgotten her duty, was she mad too? Taija felted a growing sense of horror at what the Dedicated to Peace seem to have put themselves through to help the aes sedai, despite being abandoned by them. She didn't even want to think about the aes sedai, her mind skittered over what they had done. What they had failed to do. It was horrible. It was shameful! She wasn't there, she couldn't have done anything, but she could still feel it in her bones. She claimed to be aes sedai, yet the aes sedai failed these people! What was the title even worth?

Also, what had happened to Tzora? To Bedein's mother?

Taija tried to make herself take a step forward, feeling sick to her stomach, but her feet refused to move. She really really didn't want to see any more, but she needed to move. She could feel growing, threatening pressure from the ter'angreal and eventually she stumbled forward.

=====

She was Erola.

She wore her cadin'sor like she had so many other days. The comfortable work clothes marking her out as one of the ten thousand Da'shain gathering outside the city.

Oh Light she was the one Bedein remembered. She didn't want to see this! She needed to make it stop!

She tried not to tremble as she looked ahead past the crowd of her fellows to see Jaric Mondoran come ambling over the brow of a hill. The man was a hero, had been a hero, one of Lews Therin Telamon's Companions, but now…

She knew he'd been heading for the city for a while, obliterating outlying villages with the Power as he did. It had taken time for the Da'shain to gather, but now they were all here. Ready to serve, for the last time.

Why didn't this fucking ter'angreal have an off switch. Were there no safety features? Who invented this monstrosity?!

She glanced over her shoulder, back towards Tzora, towards home. Cars and people were streaming away from the city, fleeing his approach. She knew that four aes sedai, all women, had tried to stop him earlier. Now they were dead.

Why would Jaric do that? What was wrong with him? Was this the madness? She didn't want to see this. She'd been to Tzora with Tel, another fucking thing to lay at his feet. Why had everything gone so wrong?

In front of her Valrim called out, desperation in his voice, "Jaric sedai, please! Listen to us, you need to remember! This isn't you. Let us help you!" She already knew it wouldn't work, but that didn't matter. They needed to try. They were Da'shain and they served the aes sedai, that was what they did. Even then, every second they delayed him was time for more people to escape from Tzora.

Jaric looked curiously at Valrim like a baby examining a new toy. A second later the man exploded. Her stomach clenched, she had to do this! The aes sedai had tried to stop him in their way and now it was her turn to try the Da'shain way.

No no no! Not Jaric! No!

She felt hands grasp hers. Padom to her left and Zeralle on her right. A huge ring of Da'shain forming around the hill.

She joined her voice with the others, singing a song of peace and memory. Begging Jaric to remember, to remember them, to remember the man he was.

The ground shook and she stifled a scream, before picking up the song again. Moving with the circle, dancing and singing. Feet stamping out the rhythm as voices rose above it. A flash of heat to her right. She had to keep going, he had to remember. She had to buy time for the people of Tzora.

The circle shrank as each Da'shain died, was killed by Jaric Mondoran. She wanted to run and hide, to weep as lifelong friends, family, were obliterated, but she kept on singing. Please Jaric, remember who you are!

Zeralle exploded, showering her with blood and viscera. She'd known her for thirty years, her children called her auntie. She stepped forward, blood-spattered hand finding another to close the circle. She needed to keep singing.

Her voice was hoarse, tears flowing down her cheeks, but she was still singing. There couldn't have been many of them left. Perhaps a hundred of what had once been ten thousand. Jaric Mondoran seemed to have slowed down with his killing, seeming to ponder for a while before each murder. There was no malice in his eyes, just a wondering stare like a child seeing the world for the first time.

Her feet moved rhythmically with the other Da'shain, voices singing out to him. If only she could get through to him. Please Jaric!

Those childlike eyes met her and the last thing she felt was a flash of heat.

=======

Taija fell to her knees and emptied her stomach onto the dusty ground. Her own tears flowing freely. Those emptily wondering eyes still imprinted in her vision.

She'd known Jaric well, he'd been a real sweetheart. A dry sense of humour combined with a razor sharp wit, but always with time to help people. He'd hated the War, hated fighting in it. He just wanted to be a historian, he was no killer, but he'd still done his duty as a powerful channeler.

He wouldn't have, couldn't have killed those people. But she'd been there. She'd seen them die around her, seen the madness in his eyes! Felt herself die!

Taija stayed, hands on the ground, panting for breath, not seeing anything other than that scene. She couldn't deal with this. She didn't want to see more. She couldn't see more. She should never have come here.

She should have been there. Maybe she could have helped him, or if she couldn't help him then maybe she could have stopped him. Others had tried and died, but she'd been sleeping the centuries away safely buried in a buried stasis box while her civilisation died above her. Everything she loved obliterated in War and madness. Her own failures compounding top of the rest of the aes sedai. She should have been there! Maybe she could have made a difference…

Taija stayed down, unwilling or unable to make herself get up. Yet the lights of the ter'angreal grew brighter and she felt an increasing pressure on her mind. This was dangerous, she needed to move.

Eventually she gave in, levering herself to her feet tears still flowing down her cheeks as she stood. Without thinking she wiped away the blood trickling from her nose and took another step forward.

=======

She was Felyena.

She was on her way back from the fields where she'd been singing with the Ogier and Nym. It had been a tiring day, but she had a warm feeling of contentment inside her. She'd been doing this for many years now, but she still loved it, looked forward to every day of work.

Because of her, the Da'shain Aiel and the Covenant, people would have enough to eat. The crops would grow strong despite the ongoing War. There had been fears of famine, with the shadowspawn spreading across the world and the disruption to logistics, people had gone hungry. However, here, now, she was helping make sure that didn't happen to more people.

She still remembered the times before the War, when she was only a child when there had been peace. No soldiers or shadowspawn. No Forsaken. No Dark Lord. It was hard for her to imagine now though.

As she walked back through the outskirts of Tzora to the inn she was staying in, she looked over the drab buildings, peeling paint, dirty glass. Things had been better when she was young, she did remember that. The town wouldn't have been allowed to fall into this condition.

A homeless child held out his hand for money and she had to turn him away with a heavy heart. The Da'shain were provided for by the aes sedai, but she had nothing to give.

A beggar? A child?! The first beggar Taija had ever seen was in Caemlyn. How far had her people fallen before the end of the War? Another failure.

She saw Erola talking to one of the soldiers, something she'd never normally do, but there was an excitement to her, she seemed to be practically vibrating. As the older woman saw her coming she spun away from him almost bouncing over to her.

She looked so happy. How much time had passed since the last vision? She didn't look any different. How much longer did she have?

"Have you heard?" She was practically gasping. "The War, it's over! We've won! No more killing!"

She was confused, "what do you mean the War's over?"

"The Dragon! He did it!"

She found a smile growing on her lips at the thought of Lews Therin Telamon, the great leader of the Light. Hope blossomed. Maybe there'd be no more soldiers, like she remembered. "What did he do?"

"He struck Shayol Ghul, him and the Companions. The Bore has been sealed! With most of the Forsaken behind it!"

She let out a little cry of joy, before grabbing Erola and dancing around briefly. Across Tzora bells were ringing and happy shouts were rising up.

After a moment she pulled away. "I need to find Guilin sedai, she'll want to return to the Hall of Servants as soon as she hears the news."

Erola smiled widely, "of course, go! But make sure you celebrate too. Peace! At last!"

=========

When she emerged back into the light the pulses running up the glass columns were so bright Taija could barely see, everything seemed to hurt.

Everything looked so run down. Hunger? Even in the worst days of the War the government made sure there was enough food that no one starved.

Who allowed a child to be begging on the streets? Had the government given up? Had the aes sedai? Could she even say her civilisation, with all its technology and power, was worth saving if it had allowed that?

Was that what Tel saw? Was that what pushed him tot he Shadow? Or did he cause it? She didn't want to know.

She must be getting to the end, this couldn't go on much longer. She couldn't take much more of it. Taija took a step forward, ignoring the blood under her nails.

========

She was Alindra. Da'shain Aiel and servant of Nerran sedai.

It had been a hectic day for her, running errands for Nerran sedai, but he was a busy man right now and needed her support more than ever. He wasn't one of the top researchers, no Mierin or Beidomon whose names were known across the scientific community, but he still had a vital role monitoring things. Something about wave function amplitude, she didn't really understand. But that didn't matter, she was Da'shain Aiel and she served.

He'd been in charge of ensuring that the web drilling the Bore kept within certain safety parameters. Many people had blamed him for not terminating the experiment when things had started to go wrong, but that was unfair, he'd probably never had the chance.

She was hurrying through the streets of V'saine, hoping to get one last delivery done so that she'd be in time to congratulate Nerran sedai when the experiment was completed. The silver and gold domes of the Collam Daam loomed ahead of her, the Sharom floating serenely above them. Nerran sedai was somewhere in there, doing great work for the world.

Suddenly she stumbled, the ground seeming to ripple under her feet. Coming to a halt she looked around in confusion, was there an earthquake? Her eyes landed on the Sharom, its pure white form hanging there. Then a tiny chip of white flew off it, and another and another, only blackness underneath.

Seconds later black flames were exploding from it, the huge sphere breaking apart and coming crashing downwards as darkness swallowed the light all around it. Nerran sedai was in there!

He'd died instantly. Poor man.

She needed to get to him! She broke into a sprint, maybe she could save him!

=======

Taija came out of what must surely be the final vision wanting to throw up again. There it was, the moment it had all gone wrong. She was still feeling Alindra's raw emotion at seeing the Sharom falling from the sky.

She'd seen it replayed again and again over the years. Of course she'd known about Mierin and Beidomon's experiment, it was the most significant development in centuries. She'd been eagerly waiting for news and then she'd seen the messages, turned on the news and watched in terrified horror. It was a scene she'd had to rewatch too many times since and she'd hoped to never see it again. Yet here she was, having 'enjoyed' one more viewing of that cursed moment.

Taija had even done interviews with that footage playing in the background. Stifling her distaste for it and trying to explain what might have happened, defending her friend from criticism. How could Mierin have known what would happen? The whole scientific world had been excited for her and Beidomon's work. It wasn't like she'd been acting alone.

Of course now with hindsight Taija wondered how true that was. Had Mierin known? Could she have known? She didn't think so, but…

As it was, on that horrible day Taija had needed some time to process what had happened, but then once she'd overcome her shock the first thing she'd done was to call Mierin.

Taija had been friends with the older woman and she'd needed support, someone who understood what she'd been doing. She could see how lonely she was sometimes, especially since she'd broken up with Lews Therin. After a disaster like that she'd need friendship even more. Most people wouldn't understand.

Thankfully she'd answered Taija's call. "What is it Taija? I'm not in the mood!"

Of course she'd forgiven Mierin's shortness with her. She'd mostly been relieved that she wasn't visibly injured, although she'd been able to see that Mierin had been crying, her normally flawless face marked with red, puffy eyes. "Mierin! I'm so sorry, so so sorry. Are you at home?"

She'd scowled, "thank you." Taija had been able to tell she didn't mean that, but that was ok. "Yes I am at home, they told me to go home and not to go anywhere until the investigators contacted me."

"They sent you home, on your own? After that?!"

"Yes." Taija had been more than shocked. How cruel could they be?

"Ok ok, don't move!" She'd run to her kitchen and grabbed a bottle of wine from the fridge, reconsidered and then taken a second, along with a tub of chocolate ice cream from the freezer. Jogging back she'd been relieved to see Mierin hadn't hung up, although she'd looked increasingly annoyed. "Right, I'm coming through."

"What do you mean? No, wait!"

Ignoring her protest Taija had spun a gateway straight into her living room and stepped through. "I have wine. I have ice cream. You shouldn't be alone right now." She'd offered her an awkward smile, Mierin could be so prickly sometimes and she hadn't wanted to make her angry by overstepping. "You're just going to stew here by yourself and that's not good for you. We can sit in silence or we can talk, about what happened or about something completely different, I don't mind. However, we are going to drink the wine and eat the ice cream."

Having said her piece Taija had decisively plonked the bottles down on Mierin's living room table.

=======

Taija sighed as she remembered that day. Look how that had turned out with Mierin. Was she ever really her friend? Was Taija the idiot and Mierin had always been evil or had she been warped by what happened and the Shadow? She'd probably never know. It was one of so many topics she didn't like thinking about, especially after what Mierin did to her family. Was she doomed to have everyone she liked turn out to be a darkfriend? That or dead it seemed.

She was aching in various places and still feeling nauseous, but she couldn't stand there on the edge of the ter'angreal forever. Taija really wished she hadn't gone through it. She'd wanted to know about the Dedicated, but well… curiosity killed the cat. She knew she was going to be waking up with nightmares about the Breaking. Jaric's face at that last moment… She shuddered violently.

All she could do was try even harder to solve the problem of the taint. If she could do that then maybe everything would be alright. Maybe it would go a small way to making up for the failures of the aes sedai. The utter failure of her people. It was a big if.

Why did she feel like she was bruised all over? She could feel dried blood on her face and neck too, but she didn't do anything to cut herself. This was definitely the last time she set foot in an unfamiliar ter'angreal.

Tentatively Taija started walking. She just wanted to sit under the Chora Tree again, to close her eyes and pretend none of this had ever happened. She could be back in Jalanda staring at the sky with Tel, or in her lab fiddling with a tricky web. Perhaps admiring the towering spires of Paaran Disen. Not here. Not now. That was the key. That was what she needed.

Unfortunately, as she painfully made her way round back to the tree there was no peace to be found. Instead she saw Mat and Rand. It was strange that she hadn't seen them before, Rand must have been in the ter'angreal at the same time as her and if Mat wasn't in it then he should have been in the square. As she got closer to them she furiously rubbed her face with her sleeve, she didn't want it to be obvious she'd been crying. The blood she couldn't do much about.

Mat seemed to be feeling even worse than her, propping himself up with some kind of strange spear staff while Rand fussed over him. Taija could see an ugly red mark around his neck. How did he get that? He also seemed to be wearing something on a chain around his neck, although she couldn't quite see what.

Rand on the other hand looked perfectly fine. Annoying.

Chapter Text

Chapter XLV - I Have Obligation

As Taija, Rand and Mat limped back towards the Dedicated encampments she was stewing in her own misery. She didn't really want to talk to anyone, let alone a couple of teenage boys, friends or not, Dragon Reborn or not. Yet Rand kept on trying to strike up conversation.

He'd been a bit distant recently so she was surprised, but she thought he might be finding the silence a bit awkward and trying to fill it. Regardless, Taija desperately didn't want to talk about her experiences amidst the columns. They probably saw similar things to each other, but he was clearly not all that distressed by them. Presumably it was all academic to him, just some interesting history. For fuck's sake.

Perhaps a subject change would help her avoid having to talk about it? Mat certainly seemed to be suffering after whatever he did. She hadn't been going to ask him what had happened, she knew how private he was about his life, but curiosity and expediency combined to change her mind. "Mat, you look terrible. What happened to you?"

Mat glanced at her and scowled without saying anything, but she let the silence linger until he gave in and filled it. "It was the bloody doorway. I don't want to talk about it."

Oh, he was speaking her language again. Yes! Although his accent seemed to have changed. She ignored his protest. "You mean the twisted, redstone doorway?"

"That is the one. But burn my soul this time they did not have any answers for my questions, instead they tried to kill me." Mat gave a bitter laugh.

Taija winced, "No… they wouldn't have."

Mat jumped on that, "what do you mean they would not have?! Is that not what those creatures are meant to do?"

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Light save foolish children who just walked into unknown ter'angreal. At least she'd had a vague idea of the risks she was taking. "No Mat, the doorway here leads to the Eelfinn, not the Aelfinn." The names clearly didn't ring a bell for him so she continued. "They're similar in some ways, but the Aelfinn answer questions while the Eelfinn will grant you favours, for a price. The Doorway in Tear was the Aelfinn. Personally I wouldn't go near the Eelfinn." Taija gave him a sympathetic glance, her own misery temporarily forgotten.

"Well burn my blood and the horse I rode in on! That's the last bloody time that I walk into a flaming ter'angreal and you can bet your life on that." Mat subsided into muttering dark things about aes sedai. Oddly his accent kept changing each time he spoke. Probably best not to probe into that right now or he might stop speaking her language at all.

"I won't ask you about the price you paid." Taija tried not to look at the red welts around Mat's neck, he probably wouldn't answer anyway, "but what did you ask for?" She ignored his offensive mutterings about aes sedai. As far as she was concerned he was probably talking about the White Tower lot and she wasn't in the mood to defend any aes sedai anyway. Regardless, the fact that he was willing to do it in front of her suggested he wasn't really including her among them.

She could see Mat chewing over whether to tell her to mind her own business. He was barely walking properly, leaning on his new spear-staff, not that she was in much better condition, but eventually he answered glumly. "I don't know if I tell it honestly. I went in asking questions, not looking for favours."

"How odd." Taija didn't really know how that kind of a situation would be dealt with by the Eelfinn, but maybe… "The Eelfinn can be… tricky, I know that much. It's possible that you said something that they could twist into a request even when it wasn't really."

Mat pondered for a few seconds before speaking. "Those thieving, conniving sons of goats! I think I know what they did, it is like you said, they chose to misinterpret my words. I think they would say I asked for a way out, replacements for some things I had lost and a…" He blushed and stops talking.

Interesting. She hadn't thought there was much that could make Mat blush. After a moment Taija took mercy on him, he was a nice kid and she shouldn't be using him to distract herself from her own woes. "I can see how you'd make the mistake," if he made a habit of wandering into unknown ter'angreals at least. "What did they give you?"

He seemed to feel a bit more comfortable answering that, "I'm not totally sure. They gave me this halberd," he gestured at the spear-staff he was using to help him walk, "I think it is their idea of a joke." He laughed humourlessly and tilted the blade so that she could see it.

Taija read the inscription out loud, pleasingly it was in her own language in a fine script.

"Thus is our treaty written; thus is agreement made.
Thought is the arrow of time; memory never fades.
What was asked is given. The price is paid."

"Huh," Taija raised her eyebrows. "That's very on the nose isn't it?"

Mat grunted. "If I ever get the chance I'll slice them with their own wit. They also gave me this." He pulled out the thing he'd been wearing round his neck.

"May I take a closer look? I promise I won't do anything to it."

Mat looked like he was about to refuse and then sighed and pulled the cord over his head and handed it to Taija. That was nice, he was getting much less uncomfortable around her!

Taija held it up, her eyes widening as she took it in. It seemed to be made of jade, a beautifully carved piece of green stone in the shape of a staff with a serpent curled around it.

After a second she handed it back to Mat. "Don't let anyone see that if you can help it. If it's what I think it is then there are a lot of people who would quite literally kill you to have it. Whatever price you paid, you got something very valuable for it."

Mat tucked it back under his shirt, "what is it?"

"Don't test it too hard because I'm not entirely sure, but I think it's a regenerator." At his blank look Taija continued. "A ter'angreal, obviously, which will heal its wearer from almost any injury, at least if the injury is inflicted while it's being worn. If I'm right then I could cut off your hand and it would grow back. Fast too, although obviously there will be limits. Again, I wouldn't suggest trying it, I could be wrong!" She felt the need to repeat her warning given he was stupid enough to go through a second one of the doorways.

Mat unconsciously ran his hand over the lump under his shirt looking speculative, "if that's true then why do I still feel so bad? Shouldn't it have healed me?"

Taija shrugged, "I'm not sure. Perhaps I'm wrong about it? Perhaps there are some things it won't heal? Maybe it's something to do with the price you paid?" She held up her hands to forestall his inevitable complaint, "I'm not asking what happened, just saying that it might be related."

======

Taija returned to the Dedicated encampment feeling like she'd been run over by a train. It was a long, slow walk in contrast to the fast jog that she set out with. At least after her conversation with Mat about his own experiences both he and Rand had stopped trying to get her talking.

She didn't see Moiraine or that Aviendha girl on the way back either. She hoped they hadn't run into trouble or had problems with their ter'angreal.

On their return they were all immediately greeted by the wise ones, a palpable tension hovering over them. Well, Rand was anyway. Taija was practically ignored by them, which suited her perfectly.

There was a bit of back and forth and then she was surprised when Melaine pulled back his sleeves to reveal a pair of dragons tattooed onto his arms. It seemed that was what the ter'angreal did for men. One dragon for a clan chief and two dragons for the Chief of Chiefs. Only men apparently, which was a relief. She'd never wanted a tattoo, let alone something associated with Lews Therin.

Taija was happy for Rand, although he seemed deeply uncomfortable with it all. She, on the other hand, really didn't want to talk to anyone right then, so while everyone was focused on him Taija discretely slipped off to find Aleksi and see about getting her tent set up.

It was easy enough to find him and even better he'd already got her tent assembled beside his. When she arrived he took one look at her and grimaced. "Bad?"

Taija just nodded.

He put his arm round her and urged her to her tent. "I'll find you some tea and something to eat."

"Thank you," Taija muttered as she bent down and go into it. It wasn't a big tent, just large enough for her to sit up inside it, but it was all she really needed. It wasn't like she had much in this time anyway.

Taija sat there blank faced for a couple of minutes until Aleksi returned with the promised tea and some sort of stew. "Again, thank you. If anyone wants me, please could you tell them I'm not to be bothered unless one of the Forsaken is attacking the camp."

He nodded, concern filling his eyes, but left without protest.

As soon as the flap closed behind him Taija embraced saidar and spun. A ward against eavesdropping just inside the tent and sound from outside vanished. Then another ward round the fabric of the tent to detect anyone who touched it. Finally, because she really didn't want to speak to anyone, a third ward inside both, which would deliver a nasty shock to anyone who crossed it. For once she spun the third one without inverting it and even added some colour so that it provided a visible haze to non-channelers, she wanted it to be obvious.

Job done Taija spun a small gateway to the mountains outside Tear and tied it off before crawling through, tugging her bedroll after her.

She laid that out on the bare rock and then sat down it, hugging her knees to her chest, and stared out over the beautiful, craggy vista with watery eyes.

======

Amys was more than displeased. In all of the excitement over Rand al'Thor's return Taija sedai had been able to slip away. There was no shame to be had in focusing on Rand al'Thor. He was the Car'a'carn and his visit to Rhuidean had been of paramount importance. He would save the Aiel, or potentially destroy them, and nothing was more important than that.

However, the ancient aes sedai was still someone she needed to speak to, if it were not for the Car'a'carn she would be the most important visitor here for centuries. For the good of the Aiel and also for the toh that they held to the aes sedai Amys needed to speak with her.

For a wetlander who appeared so unfocused, her ability to slip away from under watching eyes was surprisingly impressive. Of course as soon as Amys had realised that Taija sedai had disappeared, she had set the gai'shain to finding her.

It had taken a little while for the information to filter through to her, but it seemed that Taija sedai had set up her tent amongst the Taardad Aiel, the woman seemed to have no true sense of proper behaviour. Dressing like she wanted to be a maiden, camping with the warriors and men away from the wise ones' and other aes sedais' tents.

Amys settled her face into the determined position that had taken her far amongst the wise ones and strode up to the tent she had been told was Taija sedai's. The young man, Aleksi Durcaral she had been told his name was, stood in front of it, clearly guarding it. Amys' mouth twisted briefly downwards, he did them dishonour by showing such a lack of trust among allies. Still, she must make allowances, wetlanders had little concept of honour and so could not truly be expected to know better.

"I see you Aleksi Durcaral." She announced herself, barely slowing her pace. "I need to speak with Taija sedai." The man would most likely step aside rather than be run over by her.

To her mild surprise, despite his youth, Aleksi Durcaral seemed to have some steel in his spine, actually stepping forward to stop her with a small bow, forcing her to come to a sudden halt. "My apologies wise one." At least he was polite. "Taija sedai is busy and cannot be bothered. I will of course let her know that you wish to speak with her when she's free."

Amys did not let her annoyance show on her face. "This is important wise ones' business, step aside young man." Few people, men or women, would defy her to her face.

Aleksi didn't blink, meeting her eyes without hesitation. "I'm sorry, but you cannot see her now. I'll be happy to take a message."

========

To Amys' annoyance it was several hours before Taija sedai decided to make time to speak to her. Aleksi Durcaral had been impressively determined to deny her, particularly for a young wetlander. She was not used to anyone other than wise ones being willing to turn her away. Despite the inconvenience to her, Taija sedai's warder had earnt much ji for his service.

Taija sedai entered the tent and gave Amys and the other wise ones a small bow. "I'm sorry for keeping you waiting, I needed time to process what I'd seen."

Amys cast an appraising glance over her. She'd clearly made a half-hearted effort at hiding the impact of Rhuidean on her, but it was obvious she had been crying and there were scratches down her face. Not unusual for someone who had been there. Of course the Aiel did not show emotion so openly, but one had to make allowances for wetlanders. They had not been hardened by the Three-fold Land.

More surprising were the signs that she had almost failed the test of the columns. Not that Amys would ever comment on such a thing, to do so would be to give toh to the other person and in doing so to incur huge toh herself, but it was a surprise. Surely Taija sedai would not have had any difficulty in understanding the history of the Aiel, perhaps their failure had been that much of a shock to her?

Appraisal complete, Amys nodded to Taija sedai. "It can be difficult to finally fully understand the Aiel's toh and how we failed the aes sedai. I hope that you at least found it instructive."

The aes sedai grimaced, not unexpected. Especially for a wetlander who was so open with her thoughts. Then to Amys' surprise she bent into a low bow, going almost horizontal from her waist. Hands on the front of her thighs. "The Aiel did not fail the aes sedai." Taija spoke from her bent over position. "I saw more than enough. The aes sedai failed the Aiel."

For the first time in many years Amys found herself momentarily speechless. This was insanity. "You do not know of what you speak." As soon as she said it, she wanted to take the words back. She did Taija sedai great dishonour with them.

There was a flash of anger behind Taija sedai's usually diffident eyes as she straightened up. "How dare you! Do you think I didn't understand what I saw? That you know more about the… the Age of Legends," she nearly spat those words, "than me?"

Amys held up her hands, "I have toh…"

But Taija sedai was not stopping. "Do you think you know more about what it meant to be Da'shain Aiel or to be aes sedai than an actual aes sedai? The sheer arrogance of you people! I've seen the same things you have, but I've also lived in that era, grown up with the Da'shain Aiel as a part of my society."

Taija sedai visibly restrained herself with a wince before continuing in a moderate tone. "I really am terrible at apologising. Sorry." She gave a despondent sigh. "The Da'shain Aiel had the covenant and yes they served the aes sedai. The Aiel have since abandoned the covenant, that's also true. However, in the… 'Old Tongue' a covenant means an agreement with two sides, not one person signing themselves into slavery." She briefly veered into a lecturing tone, "I'm not totally sure how you people have translated it, sometimes I struggle with the more subtle meanings of your language. Anyway! I do know about the Covenant, probably more than anyone else alive," her face challenged anyone to deny that, "and in return for the Da'shain Aiel following the Way of the Leaf and serving the aes sedai, the aes sedai also had obligations to them."

"The aes sedai provided freedom, protection and livelihoods for the Da'shain Aiel. Without the service of the aes sedai to the Da'shain Aiel, there could be no Aiel. I saw the visions, after the Breaking. The aes sedai failed the Da'shain Aiel. They set them an impossible task and then abandoned their part of the bargain. The Way of the Leaf was… is a beautiful philosophy, but it could only truly survive in better times. Without the protection of the aes sedai it was no more than a promise of suicide."

That was all wrong, Amys shook her head vehemently. "The Aiel broke their promises to the aes sedai."

Taija gave her a look of frustration. "You can't break an agreement that's already been broken. If a husband beats his wife and sleeps with other women then no one expects her to stay with him. No true aes sedai would condemn the Aiel for what they did. Any who told you otherwise or try to take advantage of what you see as your failure are no true aes sedai."

Amys' mind immediately sprung to some of the veiled statements Moiraine and Cadsuane sedai had made. Was Taija sedai implying something there? There had been a certain amount of coolness between them, but then this woman did not seem at all like a subtle manipulator. She had poor control of her emotions and she said what she thought. Of course Amys could appreciate that, at least the second part. Then again… the best manipulators never seemed like manipulators… A thought for another time.

Regardless, whatever she said, Taija sedai did not understand. Not truly. Her words gained her much ji, there was no doubt about that. She understood the importance of her own people's promises, but she could not truly understand the Aiel's own shame.

Then there was her denial of the Aiel's toh. That was rude, almost unconscionably so to an Aiel, but she could not be expected to understand that. Amys smiled internally, for a woman who clearly knew so much she could be surprisingly ignorant at times.

Still, to have an aes sedai who believed her people to have toh to the Aiel would be useful. The survival of the Aiel must come first after all. She could no doubt be helped to understand and, in time, she might be a powerful ally for the Aiel.

Amys gave Taija sedai a comforting smile. "I understand what you are saying. You gain much ji through your words and they are appreciated by us. However, it is not your place to decide whether the Aiel have transgressed, that is our burden to bear."

Chapter Text

Interlude XXI - Age of Legends Careers

Approximately 3,100 years ago
"Hmm yes, a most impressive resumé young lady." Taija already hated Professor Garion's smug face along with his smoothly patronising Paaran Disen accent. "Of course I see that you completed your undergraduate studies and doctorate at the Adanza People's University…"

"Yes and then I spent time as post-doc at the Paaran Disen Central University before going on to lecture there as a reader. You can see the list of my publications just below…"

"Yes yes, of course, a very worthy institution, but the Collam Daan is not just any university we must make sure that we take only the best." He paused and smiled, "we do have a junior lecturer post in the physics department."

Taija's mouth dropped open. "That would be a demotion. A large one. As you know I applied for the junior professorship that you were advertising, not for… that."

"Mmm of course, but this is not one of your provincial institutions, this is the Collam Daan. I am sure that you would be able to contribute, but you simply do not have the background to waltz in like that. A few years to prove yourself and then perhaps we could consider a move up to a full lecturer position."

This was pointless. "Thank you for your time Professor Garion. I have an offer of a full professorship at the Jalanda University of Science, while I acknowledge the Collam Daan's reputation, I've got no desire to take a demotion for it."

"Ha, a provincial institution with no particular strength in the field. You would be making a mistake young lady, the Collam Daan does not offer positions to just anybody."

"Thank you for your time professor." She got to her feet and gave him a bow, impolitely shallow, before turning to leave.

========

"Are you sure that was a good idea Taija?" Mierin lifted the bottle of wine and refilled her glass. "I can see why it annoyed you, but well, the Collam Daan is the Collam Daan. People would kill for the opportunity to work there."

Taija shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it was a mistake. My mother would probably tell me it was, but I just couldn't face it. He was just so… arrogant! Judging me the second I opened my mouth."

"Well, you don't always help yourself you know."

It was heading back onto old ground, an argument they'd rehashed too many times. "I'm not going to pretend to be something I'm not just to please some fuddy duddy old men and women who think your pedigree should be checked like a dogs."

Mierin gave her a languorous smile. "I do hope you are not including me in that." Despite her smile there was a hint of warning in her tone.

"Oh no, of course not, you're my friend. Anyway you never tried to check my family tree or worried about where I went to university."

"Hmm."

"And you're anything but fuddy duddy. Practically the opposite."

Mierin grinned at that, "well that's true. Anyway, the more I think about it, the better I think it will be for you."

"Oh, why's that?"

"Autonomy. You're going to be leading your own team already. I am happy with where I am, but because I have worked my way up the ranks of the Collam Daan I am still having to play second string to washed up old has-beens. You will be a full professor and you are not much past seventy."

"That's what I was thinking, although I'm a bit worried about the step up. It's all very well when you're… well when you're someone like you." Taija gestured vaguely at Mierin. "But I've never had to run a team, be the one taking the lead on everything. It's quite scary."

"Pfff," Mierin waved a hand dismissively. "Don't be ridiculous, you'll be fine. You're hugely talented, why do you think I've helped your career along? One day, when the current generation of big names have retired, Beidomon, Sivia, Gaidon the rest, it'll be us two everyone will be talking about."

"And won't that be nice. You'll have your third name soon, if everything goes well with your latest project they'll have to give it to you." Taija grinned.

"Well, maybe." Despite her words, Mierin preened, she was always terrible at modesty. "Then give it another few decades and you'll be right behind me!"

"Ha, I should be so lucky. Anyway, how is it working for Beidomon? He always seemed a bit too serious to me."

========

Approximately 3,070 years ago.

Taija sat on the bus admiring Shorelle's architecture out of the window with half an eye. Most of her attention was focused on preparing her speech for the conference at the Shorelle Technical University. She'd Traveled to the city in the morning, but rather than go directly to the university she'd indulged herself by deciding to take the bus across the city. As she told anyone silly enough to ask, you couldn't get the feel of a place just Traveling between all its top locations. People said it was un-aes sedai like. Pff. Anyway she found it relaxing and the architecture there really was unique.

Regardless she was in no hurry to reach the university, it was just going to be another boring session of mediocre researchers who didn't even share her specialisms congratulating each other. She was only there because Eleshta had come down with something unpleasant and she'd been begged to fill in. Apparently the Jalanda University of Science absolutely had to be represented there, it was unthinkable that it wouldn't be.

She was the most junior professor with a vaguely relevant specialism, not that there was much competition for that, and so here she was. Not for the first time she wondered whether she should have just taken the demotion thirty years ago and gone to the Collam Daan instead. They wouldn't be so desperate to send someone here. After a moment she shook her head. That would have been a terrible idea and she knew it, she wasn't going to take a demotion, have to give up her own research ideas or let someone else take credit just to get a fancy name on her CV. She might be the most junior professor, but that was because she'd jumped into a full professorship far earlier than anyone had any right to expect and that let her do what she wanted, really make a difference to her field. The fact that the Collam Daan didn't exist anymore didn't help either, poor Mierin...

The bus pulled to another stop. Shorelle was… Not quite what she'd hoped for. It seemed to lack the prosperity of Adanza or Jalanda, let alone Paaran Disen or V'saine. Not that they were perfect, but she couldn't imagine the council of any of those cities allowing them into this state. Everywhere she looked there were signs of neglect and poverty. Even the bus she was on was dirty! Perhaps she should write a letter of complaint to… somebody. She wasn't sure who.

She paid no attention to the group of youths coming up the stairs to the top deck of the bus. They were a positive riot of tattoos, face paints, odd piercings and frankly mismatched clothing, but frankly the elaborate, if dingy, architecture outside was much more interesting than the vagueries of current youth fashion.

She didn't pay them any more attention until they stopped in front of her, crowding the aisle and looking slightly ridiculous. She looked up as the tallest of them spoke. "Yo, I think we left our money in yo wallet."

He had a smirk on his face that suggested he thought he'd just said something clever. What…? Even when Taija had deciphered his thick accent, surely it must be an affectation, his words still didn't make any sense.

After a moment he spoke again, anger in his tone. "Yo, lady. I think you be deaf a wee bit. I said, YO, We left our money in yo wallet."

Were they trying to rob her? She'd read that crime was rising around the world, but it hadn't really seemed very real. Taija cocked her head at the youths. "Are you trying to rob me?"

A thrum of agitation went through the seven youths, anger painting itself across their faces as they puffed themselves up. They were all much bigger than she was. Around them other passengers shifted uncomfortably, being careful not to make eye contact with anyone.

"Yo you sound like Adanza lady. Well we doing things different here in da big city, so give us yo cash and I won't carve yo face up."

Again, it took Taija a moment to work out what he'd just said. Once she'd worked it out she carefully considered the kind of day she was already having and what would be an appropriate response. "Fuck off."

"Well, home lady, this is on you for being such a dumb bitch, so don't blame anyone but yo inbred family." The leader pulled out a switchblade, flicking it open and waved it at her. "Now. Get open yo wallet and give us our money and we'll only cut yo a bit."

Taija stated at the blade for a second, hardly believing what she was seeing. After a moment she looked up again. "Seriously, fuck off and bother someone else. I'm not in the mood." She looked away again, perhaps the drinks reception after the event would be alright, surely there'd be some interesting people there.

If looks could have killed, the death glares she was receiving and ignoring from the punks would have made her explode with the fury of a thermonuclear fireball. One of the girls spoke up.

"Ya think we joshing, ya low-bitch?" She growled out, piercings jangling with her seething hatred. "Ya think ya can mock the hoodies and not get yo inbred face cut up, Adanza girl?"

With a sigh Taija looked back at them. "Do I need to call the police?"

"Ya think the hoodies give a flying fuck about the pigs, I'm gonna show you low-bitch!" The leader thrust forward at her face with the knife. She hadn't actually expected him to do that! He was actually attacking her!

In a fraction of a second Taija embraced saidar and spun air, sloppy in her panic. The leader's hand froze mid-thrust, only centimetres from her face. Taija was almost trembling from the sudden adrenaline dump, but she still spun more air, freezing the rest of the punks before they could do anything.

There was a long pause, confused glances going between the passengers and then the leader started shouting. "Yo you let me go, what the fuck some aes sedai bitch doin' on the bus?"

Absent mindedly Taija spun air to gag him, adding to the number of flows she was maintaining. This really wasn't what she'd expected and now she had a load of youths to deal with. She should probably get them off the bus at least so they weren't bothering the other passengers. Decision made, she reached out and pressed the button to notify the driver that she wanted to get off at the next stop.

It took a bit of shuffling bound punks around, but eventually she managed to work her way past them and down the stairs, followed by the seven floating youths and the silent, wide-eyed stares of the other passengers.

The real question was what to do with them once she had them off the bus. Maybe there was someone she could call? She pulled her phone out and started searching for what to do when you'd apprehended someone.

"Honoured aes sedai?" The voice made her look up from her phone to see an exceedingly solemn-looking young man walking purposefully toward her. As he stopped he held out his police identification and gave her a polite bow. "Officer Caleb, ma'am. You have just apprehended repeat offenders, robbery and theft, five counts as of their latest attempt. Nice work by the way."

This was perfect! He could take them off her hands and she wouldn't need to worry about them anymore. Taija smiled at the young man and gave him a bow of her own. "That was fast, I hadn't even called! Oh. You were already in the area I suppose." After a second she remembered herself. "Taija Kosola." She gave him another bow. "Would I be able to leave these children in your custody?"

"Ma'am, I am sorry to impose, but may I request you accompany me and the suspects to the Bureau of Youth Statistics, and then to the station? I'd prefer to go straight to the station but...regulations."

Taija tried not to wince. That sounded like a complete pain. She couldn't have been that successful because Caleb quickly continued.

"I know you likely have much more important things than this on your plate, but trust me, Ma'am, your presence will be a wonderful help, and would greatly expedite the whole process. I would be most in your debt if you did help."

Actually… She'd already been thinking about how much she didn't want to go to the conference and this would make a great story in the staff room next week. No one could possibly criticise her for helping law enforcement after a gang of kids, no… after a violent street gang of armed, criminal thugs had tried to murder her in public and only barely been stopped… Yes that would make an excellent story. "You know, I think my business can probably wait. I'm always ready to help expedite justice. If you could just let me make a quick phone call I'd be happy to come and help you officer." Maybe he'd have some good stories too. Her colleagues would be so jealous!

Chapter Text

Chapter XLVI - What in the Light is a Quantum Mirror?

The morning after her somewhat frustrating conversation with the Dedicated and her deeply traumatising visit to Rhuidean, Taija roused the girls from their tents early. There was no point in wallowing in her own misery, that way lay much bigger issues. So she fell back into routine and research.

It was amazing how the Power could be used to wake up recalcitrant teenagers. Egwene too. She'd be spending her free time digging holes and filling them in again, but Taija wouldn't be allowing that to get in the way of her training. With the ways things were, there was too little time to waste delaying the girl's training to punish her. It was up to the wise ones what they did with their own training of course.

As promised, Aleksi was there too, looking as cheerful as ever. She couldn't say she was delighted with the early start, or the world in general, but Taija made an effort to match his mood, just to set an example for the girls. Unsurprisingly all three of them were less than happy to be up. Taija would say typical teenagers, but really she hated early starts too, she just forced herself.

Taija started by leading them through a warm up. Couldn't have them injuring themselves pointlessly.

Of course they looked ridiculous in their dresses, although at least Egwene's Dedicated-style cotton clothes were a bit more practical. She was going to have them dressing properly sooner or later.

A few Dedicated gathered while she was doing it, watching with unabashed curiosity. Perhaps they'd never seen a proper warm up before?

Once Taija thought everyone was suitably warm it was time to get going. "Right girls, we're going to start easy because you're new to this. I don't expect you to match me straight away, but I do expect you to do your best. Try to look less churlish Nynaeve, it doesn't suit you." Taija gestured forward, "follow me!"

She started to jog, setting a slow, easy pace. They shouldn't have been completely unfit. They were young and they had been training with her after all.

However, it quickly became clear that she was over optimistic. Aleksi had no trouble keeping up with her and, more surprisingly, neither did Egwene. However, Elayne and Nynaeve were quickly left gasping as they floundered along in their dresses. The watching Dedicated completely lost interest when they realise they were just going for a run.

That all contrasted with young Aviendha. She came jogging up to the five of them when they'd been going for a little while.

Elayne and Nynaeve seemed to be completely dead although they were soldiering on with admirable determination, so Taija told them they could take a break, they'd need time to improve after all.

"Can I help you Aviendha?" Taija wasn't sure why she was there. She thought she'd seen her hanging out with Elayne a fair bit though, so maybe that was why.

"I see you Taija sedai." Dedicated were so formal sometimes. "Amys suggested that I join you and your apprentices."

"Oh, well you're welcome of course. Although it's a bit mean to come and show up an old woman in front of her apprentices." If Taija was honest with herself, she doubted she could keep up with Aviendha, the girl had basically spent her life training to fight. However, Taija did exercise hard most mornings and Egwene had been looking too smug about keeping up with her, so it was time to up the pace. She was barely sweating in the cool morning air anyway.

Aviendha smoothly matched Tajia as she accelerated to what she thought was a more reasonable jogging speed, although she did see a smile tugging at the corners of Aviendha's mouth. "I would not wish to question the word of an aes sedai, but you are very young to call yourself an old woman Taija sedai."

Taija laughed, "I'm over 180 years old Aviendha, I could be your… very great grandmother."

Aviendha stumbled a bit at that, but quickly pulled herself together. "Will I next find that Elayne is old enough to be my mother?"

Taija glanced back at the spot where Elayne and Nynaeve had splayed out in the dirt. "Oh no, she's practically a baby."

The four of them jogged on, but Taija could see Egwene was flagging. "Egwene, you can take a break if you need one."

"No Taija sedai," she gasped between panting breaths. "I can keep going."

Good girl, "alright, but don't overstrain yourself." Aleksi seemed to be keeping up without any real problems.

"I had not thought the aes sedai trained their bodies in this way." Aviendha's tone was musing.

"Soft wetlanders are we?"

Aviendha flushed, "I apologise aes sedai, I have obligation."

Taija smiled and upped her pace a couple of notches. "Nonsense, I was asking for it." They were both sweating by then, but Aviendha smoothly matches her. Egwene stumbled and nearly fell before she recovered herself. "Take a break Egwene!"

Taija ran along with Aviendha and Aleksi setting a fairly hard pace. The Dedicated girl was sweating, but she still looked annoyingly relaxed, with a bit of a cheeky smile. They made a wide loop before coming back. As Taija passed the girls she called out cheerfully to them, "rest time's over, make loops of the camp at your own pace. If I think you're slacking you'll regret it!"

In no time they'd left the girls behind again. Taija thought she ran for about an hour with Aleksi and Aviendha. By the end of it all three of them were sweaty messes. The other two looked annoyingly like they could do it all over again without even trying though. Taija on the other hand was panting for breath. She could do it again, but certainly not without some effort.

As for the girls… Well they had a lot of work to do.

"Good job girls, go clean yourselves up. Maybe later we can discuss appropriate exercise clothing." Taija saw their faces at that, "or maybe not…"

=====

After training with the girls Taija cleaned herself the quick way, with the Power. She was amazed the Dedicated didn't all stink after days out in the desert.

With her mind cleared a bit and the girls suitably exhausted it was time to get onto her real work. She'd have another training session with the girls in the evening, something less physical.

Taija had already decided to accept Cadsuane and Moiraine's offer of help and she'd been thinking about what they could do. They were almost certainly clueless about the sorts of things she needed, so she'd have to teach them from scratch, but hopefully they could be useful.

With that in mind, Taija got her new 'research team' assembled outside the camp. Cadusane, Moiraine, Nynaeve and Aleksi.

Aleksi would provide the tainted saidin. There was no way she was trusting Cadsuane or Moiraine to link with her. So Nynaeve, or Elayne when its her turn, would join the link with her and Aleksi so that she could lead and maybe they could learn a bit too.

"Right, thank you for coming Moiraine sedai, Cadsuane sedai, here's what I want to do today."

=========

Cadsuane listened to Taija with an impassive face. So the woman wanted her to weave something new to allow her to do the real analysis? Well, much as it galled her, she supposed Taija must have some expertise. The Age of Legends had clearly taught her things that had been long since forgotten. Whether those skills had anything to do with the taint was a different question.

Really she thought the woman was barking mad thinking she even had a chance at cleansing the taint, but she wanted to get close to Taija and supporting her in this was the best way to do it. Who knew, vanishingly unlikely as it seemed, she might even succeed.

"If you want to feel the taint for yourselves, I'd advise you to ask Aleksi if he's willing to link with you. It's entirely his choice." Taija glanced at him and gave him a small smile. They were sleeping together, they must be. She had been wrong about a lot of things with Taija, but all the signs were there with Aleksi. It also explained her determined focus on the taint.

Taija continued on, oblivious to Cadsuane's thoughts. "Cadsuane sedai, I'm going to show you a web that I would like you to spin." As usual there was no light of saidar around the woman, but this time her weaves were visible. A storm of saidar came together in front of her, a curved sheet of intricately woven threads of all five elements.

Cadsuane goggled at it despite herself. "That's… very complicated."

"Oh? I suppose so." Taija did not sound much like she thought so at all. "Normally I'd use a ter'angreal for this but since that's not an option I've done my best to recreate the effect through a web. It's fairly specialist I'll admit. It's called a nach'endarshi tebout shaani cloriol." She understood most of the individual words, but together they meant little to her. Something about measuring the reflection of quality?

"Please could I see it again, perhaps a bit more slowly?" It galled her to have to ask.

Taija visibly stifled a sigh. "Of course Cadsuane sedai." Her weave faded and then she wove it again, threads coming together with exaggerated slowness. Cadsuane winced internally, this was going to be harder than she'd thought.

After a few more demonstrations she thought she had it. "Very well, I will try now." She embraced saidar and wove the ridiculous tapestry that Taija had showed her. She was quite proud she had picked it up so fast, she doubted any other women in the Tower could have.

"Hmmm." Taija's sceptical noise did nothing to improve Cadsuane's mood. "A good first try." Light, the woman truly was sounding like a teacher, right down to providing comforting words before criticism, "but if this is going to be useful the flows need to be more precise. Observe."

Taija wove again, splitting her weaves two ways. Two versions of her… weave, whatever it was called, came together in front of her. In one case the threads were a little larger, seemed less precise and in the other they were tiny, finely woven threads fitting together perfectly. How could she even weave two of those at once? "This is a precision instrument and any wavering or gaps in the web will leave it worse than useless. I realise this is difficult, if it's too much for you then I completely understand."

Cadsuane gritted her teeth, the bloody woman even sounded like she meant it. Was she actually that nice, that soft or was it just an act? "No, it is fine. I just need to practice a little."

"Fine, you give it a few more goes while I show Moiraine what I need from her." Taija wove another intricate weave. "This is called a miere wakhatu obram." An increase in wave impulses? She had thought she understood the Old Tongue well!

======

After a few hours Taija was feeling nearly as exhausted as Moiraine and Cadsuane looked. She hadn't managed to get any practical work done, just trying to get them trained doing things that no sane person would try to do manually.

She'd do it herself of course, but she just couldn't focus well enough to hold a quantum mirror, wave-pulse amplifier and do her own analysis at the same time. There were limits.

The two women had made good progress across the day, Taija thought they'd get it soon, but it didn't help the bubbling frustration inside her at the lack of progress.

She'd also asked them for any insights they had into the taint and had been shocked at how ignorant they were. Cadsuane had said she'd 'dealt with' more male channelers than any two other aes sedai. Of course Taija knew that when she said 'dealt with' she meant dragged off to be severed and it made her feel sick to your stomach. However, neither of them had any idea about what the taint actually was. They'd never even felt it themselves. How could they be so disinterested? Moiraine had an excuse, but Cadsuane claimed to be a specialist!

The only vaguely useful bit of information was what Moiraine had told her about the 'Eye of the World'. Apparently a pool of clean saidin that had been created by 100 male and female aes sedai working together. It would have been more useful if Moiraine had been totally sure it was actually clean, had had any idea how they'd done it and hadn't told her that every single one of them died doing it. So about as useful as a chocolate teapot. A, possibly mythical, solution that killed the people using it was no solution at all.

=====

Over the next few days Taija fell into a pattern. She had no doubt that they'd all be moving on soon, but apparently the wise ones were waiting for a candidate for clan chief from the Shaido tribe to return from Rhuidean, or possibly not if he failed. Apparently three quarters of candidates did, which was insane. Misusing dangerous ter'angreal! If only she had the mental energy to be more than quietly disgusted.

Each morning Taija took the girls and Aleksi for a run and calisthenics, often joined by Aviendha. Then she spent most of the day working on the taint, or at the moment, trying to train Moiraine and Cadsuane to the point of usefulness. Late afternoons and evenings she spent with the girls, training them in the Power or talking about history or philsophy.

It was exhausting and she wasn't sleeping well either. She know she was pushing herself too hard, but she couldn't stop or slow down. She owed it to the world.

A couple of days ago she'd found out that young Dedicated men who could channel went to the Blight to commit suicide by shadowspawn. They said they were off to kill the Dark One. In the wetlands they were simply severed. Cadsuane and Moiraine had looked at each other and simply refused to tell her what the Seafolk did when she'd remembered they existed and asked.

Each night Taija spun a ward against eavesdropping around her tent, not to keep the sound out, but to keep the sound in. She hadn't had a proper night's sleep since she went through the glass columns. The nightmares were unrelenting. She was waking up thinking she was one of the Dedicated to Peace, abandoned by the aes sedai and about to die. Or just seeing Jaric Mondoran's empty eyes staring into hers as he spun death.

After a few days of this Taija was just getting through each day forcing herself forward and ignoring Aleksi's worried looks. However, one thing did look brighter. Cadsuane and Moiraine had finally reached the point where they could spin what she considered to be a barely adequate web. Surely that would help. At least she thought she'd be able to try again with actually detecting the taint the next day. It felt like all she was really good for as she settled down for what would no doubt be another night of disturbed sleep.

The next morning Taija woke up, feeling as tired as when she went to sleep, and hauled herself up. She went for her run with the girls and Aleksi, but her heart wasn't really in it. Aleksi disappeared immediately afterwards while she cleaned herself up.

He returned when Taija sat down for a brief, bland breakfast with a cloth bag of something. Something that smelt familiar. Tantalisingly familiar.

Taija's apathy faded and she looked up suddenly interested as he came and sat cross legged in front of her with a happy smile. "Rand gave me these, he said he'd traded them with one of the Dedicated, apparently they trade all over the place, and he thought you might like them."

Aleksi opened the bag and Taija poked her nose in to see a pair of buns, sugar dusted across the top of them and was that… Was that chocolate?! Without even thinking her hand snaked out and she took a bite out of one of them. It was chocolate. Oh Light it was chocolate!

Before she knew it the first bun was gone and with horror she realised she was already munching on the second. "Oh fuck, Aleksi I'm so sorry I just took them and…" Her face heated as she wondered whether to try to offer him the half eaten bun or if that was just weird.

He just waved Taija's concerns away. "Oh no no, it's fine. These are for you. I just thought you were under a lot of stress and Rand said…"

She couldn't help but tune him out as she finished munching her way through the second one. She'd thought chocolate had been lost, she hadn't seen it in any of the places she'd visited in this time and yet here it was. Just what she needed to cheer her up. A long-lost and very much missed taste of home.

Actually it really was a taste of home. The buns weren't quite the same, but they were very similar to the ones Tel used to bake when he was feeling domestic and she was down. It wasn't like it was an obscure recipe, she could think of several shops in Jalanda where she could have bought something similar. Still though, that was… odd.

"Where did you say you got these again?" Taija kept her tone casual.

"Rand gave them to me. Like I said, he told me he traded for them with the Dedicated. Presumably it's something from Shara? I know the Dedicated do a lot of trade there."

"Of course, that makes sense," Taija nodded. "Please do thank him for me." It didn't really. She hadn't seen the Dedicated baking anything like this before and it was just too close to what she used to love. It as a very strange coincidence. Still, it had made her day and worrying about it was something for another time. She had the taint to solve now. Funnily enough, chocolate buns for breakfast had drastically improved her mood.

======

It was frustrating trying to get Cadsuane and Moiraine to work helpfully. They were trying, Taija had to admit that, but they just didn't have the training they needed. Light only knew what rubbish they taught them in the White Tower. They'd managed to spin adequate webs, after a lot of practice, but they were wavering, struggling to hold them in place sufficiently well. Still it was progress and despite the lack of success so far, she was at least feeling a bit more confident that they might get somewhere.

Through her link with Elayne and Aleksi Taija drew on sadin, feeling the filth of the taint flow past her, wrapped around the flows of the male half. She sent tainted saidin into the concave hollow of Cadsuane's web and nodded to Moiraine. A second later Moiraine spun her own web linking into Cadsuane's at key points.

It was crude, but Taija gave herself a smile of satisfaction. She'd managed to cludge together a proper quantum analysis system using a pair of half-trained channelers and webs that she'd made up from scratch. Credit was due to them too for overcoming their lack of training and skill.

With saidin in place Taija drew hard on untainted saidar, spinning her own web, even more complex than Cadsuane and Moiraine's. Alemhok Tissa was out, this was purely her own invention after weeks of thought and more days spent experimenting once she had the two modern aes sedai trained up. She filtered it through theirs, all five elements blurred together, connecting to their webs at key points and then settled down in the shape of a net spread over the flow of saidin.

Now came the real work. Taija brought her web together and in her mind's eye a multifaceted image of the flows in front of her sprung up. She could see saidin, break it down into its constituent parts at a nanoscopic level without any trouble with this kind of set up, but the taint was still infuriatingly undetectable with saidar, even though she could bloody well see and feel it without any assistance. Still, that was fine, nothing came immediately. She'd spent days trying this and really was only just getting started.

"Cadsuane, please could you add a small amount of fire to the clump in the lower left of your web. Moiraine, add the spirit flows we discussed." Taija altered her own web, twisting spirit and air through it. Saidin blurred, the resolution of what she was perceiving failing, still nothing from the taint.

Next iteration, she shifted the flows slightly.

It was exhausting work for all of them. After a couple of hours Taija was sweating profusely. That amount of complex channeling quickly left her feeling ground down even when she was at her best and Cadsuane and Moiraine looked little better. They'd all been channeling large amounts of the Power without a break and the focus needed had been intense.

Taija was just about ready to give up for the day, they needed to pace themselves after all, when it happened. Another tweak to the webs and suddenly it was there! Those oily strands appearing in her mind surrounded by various parameters. It was poor resolution, vague imagery with little detail, but it was there!

Taija let out a yip of surprised delight and almost lost her connection to saidar.

"What? Has something happened?" Cadsuane looked both bored and stressed from the strain of holding her web.

"Yes! I detected it, it worked! I detected the taint!" Taija shouted, wanting to get up and dance. She was a fucking genius! Without a lab, without a proper team! Yes!

"But I thought you could see it anyway?" Elayne sounded confused, poor girl, she'd learn.

"Yes, but I couldn't detect it! Don't you understand? If I can detect the taint, specifically the taint using saidar then that means I can interact with it and if I can interact with it then I can affect it!" Taija wanted to get up and dance even if the others seemed oblivious to the significance of what she'd found. Well more fool them. If she'd had someone from her time there they'd have understood. Well a scientist would have anyway.

"So you can cleanse it?" Aleksi sounded excited at least, but then it was more personal to him. Still the question brought her down a bit.

"No… Not yet." She perked up again, "but I'd been thinking it was impossible." Well impossible to do without killing herself with the resources she had. "Now, with this I think I could actually do this!"