Towers of Midnight
The Gaidar

It wasn't until Min nearly fell to the floor that Narishma focused his attention on the Lord Dragon. He was busy staring at Mierin. And trying to ignore Beldeine's eyes, he had been told that he had disturbing stare. Beldeine could give snakes lessons in glaring. And the only time he stared back at her, Mierin felt... betrayed, although he couldn't understand why. It was Beldeine that chased him, not the other way around, and not even leaving her hanging above a pit a mile deep for four hours changed her mind. She didn't interested in him as a human being, he was simply an Asha'man, and she was eager to prove she wasn't afraid of Asha'man.

"I felt... something." Rand said, "It felt like a fade's stare." That was all the explanation he offered, and his eyes seemed to be searching for something, something that might attack him. "Well, I did!" He snapped at Elayne's direction, the woman looked at him with eyes wide with shock.

Mierin's hold on his wrist tightened, it tightened enough to leave a bruise. She was surprisingly strong for such small woman. "What happened - ?" He began to ask, and then he saw the woman. Very tall woman, with golden red hair the color of the sun in a clear day, her hair reached her waist and gather in one long braid. She was dressed in a ruffled green dress, in a style unfamiliar to him. Blue eyes scanned the room, until they laid on the Dragon Reborn. "I found you," the woman whispered. "At last, I've found you."

Narishma glanced at Elayne, he was right, the two women looked like sisters, except that Elayne had no sisters. Maybe a cousin, the woman that entered was only few years older than Elayne, but easily as beautiful.

The Dragon's reaction to the sight of the woman could be only described as deep shock. The cup he held in his hand, thick green glass, shattered. He didn't even seem to notice that he was hurt. "Ilyena!" He whispered, stunned.

As if the name was a sign, the woman collapsed. A horse, black as night and big enough to be a warhorse stepped through the door. No one moved when the animal snort and bent its head to push the woman on the floor, as if it was trying to wake her. How that woman reached here? And the horse, for that matter!

A short man in cloths in Cairhienin fashion rushed into the room, "Ilyena Sedai?" He said, kneeling near the unconsciousness woman, "Are you fine, Lady?"

Eben stared at him, and mouth silently a joke they shared, "Nothing should surprised you around the Dragon Reborn!"

"This is the first time I've seen any such thing!" Varil muttered, coming closer to him, nearly an hour after the woman entered the room and caused more commotion than a horde of raging Trollocs.

"You've not been around the Lord Dragon long enough," Narishma told him with a smile, Nynaeve, who still stood only because of Lan's support, held her stomach and glared at the black horse,bound with air. Nynaeve knew nothing about war-horses, apparently.

"Indeed," Varil agreed, "I begin to wonder whatever it was worth it, going to the Black Tower."

Narishma glanced at him, the man was full with saidin to bursting, as he himself was, and everything was worth it. He said as much, glaring at the man, when his attention was distracted.

"My Lord Dragon," Flinn said, making Rand's head turn. "She is waking." The Dragon Reborn's head turned; he was questioning the man that came with Ilyena. By his face, he was ready to skin the man if he would hesitate a heartbeat before answering. The man felt it, and talked as quickly as he could. No one save those gathered in the room knew about the Cleansing, and Rand was very... specific with the man.

The man, who claimed his name was Der Cal, stood rigid, trying to flinch away from flows of Air that held him as surely as any stonewall. He claims to know nothing whatsoever, only following the unconsciousness woman to here because she wanted him to.

Mierin divided her eyes between him and the woman on the floor. Anger and fear battling inside her, her eyes could bore holes in steel. She was that way since he had to order her not to try to kill Ilyena. He could understand the anger, yet not the fear. She loved Rand al'Thor no more; he knew it for a fact. What reason she had to fear. No, it went beyond fear, beyond anger, fury and horror, or something even stronger.

Mierin weren't the only one glaring, Min and Aviendha stared at Rand with eyes as sharp as knifes. Elayne hadn't taken her eyes from Ilyena for a heartbeat, and she was as pale as new snow.

Rand didn't seem aware of them, despite their bond to him. He was too busy questioning Der Cal, and sending guilty looks at the woman on the floor. "Ilyena," Rand said, kneeling beside the golden hair woman. His voice was pained. For some reason, Min, Aviendha and Elayne looked at if they were stabbed, straight in the stomach.

The woman's eyes opened slowly; she stared up at the man kneeling behind her, "Lews Therin?" There was question in her voice.

"I... I'm Lews Therin." Rand said, and something flashed in his eyes, it was all he had time to say before he was thrown away, smashing into a wall. The woman scrambled to her feet, Mierin's anger seemed to melt away, a shocked, yet pleased expression on her face. She moved toward him, forgetting her hostility to him.

"Why, Lews Therin?" The woman asked as she scrambled to her feet. Her voice quiet and deadly, a lightning strike, the size of a small tree, straight toward Rand. The man, still shocked, couldn't protect himself. Narishma wove Air and Fire, forming a shield; he saw other shields, felt his shield touching others, shields that he couldn't see.

"Don't hurt her!" Rand shouted as he rose to his feet. A shield surrounded him and the fair-hair woman, a weave Narishma never saw anything even slightly similar to. Hindering any from reaching them, whatever with the True Source or any other way, Narishma studied the weave closely; it seemed, very... handy.

The weave might have stopped them from interfering, but it hindered neither sight nor hearing. And Narishma cursed his lack of knowledge in the Old Tongue. He wasn't aware that the Lord Dragon had such control in the Old Tongue. All he could understand were few words here and there.

Ilyena's face seemed to be carved from a rock, if rock could be beautiful and angry at the same time. While Rand's face were still pale as he face her. Kinslayer was a word he recognized, and Dragon, and something about oaths given that had been broken, death was also a word that repeated more than once, along with betrayer and love. And what seemed like a list of names, that Ilyena delivered in a voice as flat and cold as death itself. And each name landed like a whip or Rand. Yet he seemed to become colder at the same time.

Ilyena did most of the talking; with Rand trying to put a word here and there, yet she didn't seemed ready to let him speak. Weaves of saidin moved constantly in the air, slashing at something her couldn't see, Ilyena's weaving; no doubt, trying to kill him.

It had to be stopped, somehow, the woman, Narishma could hardly believe that she was named Ilyena, after Lews Therin's long murdered wife. Or that she was that wife. But one thing was clear, she obviously didn't know Rand al'Thor well, or she would have chosen her ground more carefully. His eyes darkened quickly. But something else caught his attention before he could do anything about it; Mierin's face, they... beamed with joy. And she leaned against him, wrapping an arm around his waist as if she belonged there, which certainly she did, in any other moment but this. "What are you so happy about?" He demanded to know, but even in his anger. He still couldn't make himself push her away.

"Nearly four thousands years I've been waiting for this very moment, Jahar Narishma." She told him in a serene tone, yet she all but bouncing on her toes! She didn't look at him, she was too busy staring with obvious pleasure she didn't even bothered to hide. "It might have worth dying. You've no idea how much trouble I've passed to cause the slightest breach between those two. And now..." She simply nodded, nothing more was needed. Ilyena didn't sufficed herself with simply talking,

Flows of Air and Fire, woven just so, hit the air constantly, like sharp knifes hitting straight at their target. "How strong is she?" He asked quietly. And for the first time since the barrier around the Lord Dragon and Ilyena Sunhair was placed, he stared at the others gathered in the room. Rand's warders were pale, wives, though for some reason the man didn't bothered to tell them about this little trap hole in the bond. The only answer Rand was ready to give him was a distant murmur about men not putting their neck on the headsmen's block with of their own free will. It made no sense to Narishma. Save himself, he could hardly name a single of Asha'man that had openly admit to his warder that the bond held no difference than marriage. And the reasons were obscure at best.

"She is as strong as I'm," Mierin said slowly, her eyes focus on the two. He couldn't believe that he could love his wife more. Couldn't accept the idea of lying to her. Why the others did so?

Be the reason to that mysterious behavior as it might be, Rand's wives seemedto be on the edge. And he would wager his soul for a copper that Elayne and Aviendha held saidar, as strongly as they could, for that matter, by the itching of his forearms, every woman in the room did. And all the men were full of saidin to bursting. And even now, he had to fight the source, not only saidin trying to destroy him, a fight that only made him more aware to the life that poured into him with every heartbeat. He had to fight himself too, not to do something with the power. There was a gold mine about three miles below them; he could feel the gold calling him through the stone. He already began to plan the necklace, gold and silver, the silver could be find not twenty miles from him, the Dragonmount was a treasure of valuable metals. Golden roses and silver crests, with the ancient symbol of Aes Sedai in the middle. It would fit perfectly to Mierin's neck.

Narishma glared at nothing, it happened again, he had to put all his will into not using the power, it cried out to be use, so much of the power, every bit he could hold, and he hadn't gained his full strength yet, wilders were strong, very strong, among men, when the wilders had been hunted for three thousands years, the only men with the spark that were still born in this days were all among the strongest to come to the Black Tower.

According to Taim, the Aes Sedai culled out of the human race only the weakest among those who were born with the spark. The rest had time, time to do something with theirs fate. Most of them declared themselves as the Dragon Reborn. They didn't escape the madness, yet they left something behind, only memories sometimes. Yet sometimes, a child, with a promise inborn in him was left, for this generation or for a child a hundred years after the man who was his ancestor died.

But, despite touching his borders already, it wasn't enough, yet he had to keep it as this level alone. A bit more, and he would burn out. Strangely, it was the thought of might happen to Mierin that kept him from drawing too much. Without her, he might have been ready to burn out, just for the sheer joy of the power.

"Stop this, Narishma." Mierin said, not taking her eyes from Rand and Ilyena, or moderating her grin, for that matter. "It's dangerous." He snorted, as if he didn't know this.

"So is your expression," He told her, "And what would you gain by creating a rift between the two of them?" She turned to stared at him, no longer smiling.

"Sometimes, Narishma," She said coldly, slowly, "it's better to hold you tongue. In few words, you've ruined a moment I've been waiting ages for, literally."

"What do they say?" He inquired his warder, ignoring her anger.

"She didn't like dying," Mierin said absently, still glaring at him, she didn't seem aware of answering him, "And she didn't like him murdering their children and friends, back in the end of the War of Power. She listed every one of them for him." She shook her head slightly, confusion felt strongly in her, "She sound nothing like Ilyena that I knew." For some reason, the last was full of relief.

Elayne, Min and Aviendha grunted at the same moment, turning his attention to the tall man and the golden hair woman. The reason for the surprised gasps from Rand's warders was obvious, the man stood rigid, somehow looking even taller than he usually was. The shield that surrounded the two broke. And the Lord Dragon spat something in the Old Tongue, harsh and cold and hard and grim! He finished shouting, and stood for a moment, fists tight, breathing hard, then a gateway, leading to utter darkness open behind him, he strode through, none had chance to take any action whatsoever to stop him before the gateway close behind him.

The look on Mierin's face was of utter shock, "What did he said?" He asked softly, his voice just barely reaching her ears.

"I've married you, indeed, and loved you." She whispered, as thought she didn't believe what she was saying, Ilyena looked like she had just reached the bottom of a pit she was falling forever in. "There are no words strong enough to give you the smallest understanding of how I felt when it became clear to me thatit was I was the one who killed you! There is nothing I can say that would make you see how it's to live with such horror on my conscience! Yet, if I'll have to do the same again, knowing the price, I would! A thousand times again! And may the Light burn me for it!"

Tears shined on Ilyena face, and then the first sob came. Another followed, and another, until the woman collapsed on the floor, her face between her hands, sobbing helplessly, miserably, sobs that seemed to be torn from her very soul.

Narishma stared at the woman for a moment, his eyes turned to Valir and he nodded toward the woman sharply. He couldn't do anything for the woman himself; he couldn't even let himself be in the same room with Ilyena without Mierin's temper flaring at him. Valir nodded and moved. And Narishma moved his eyes throughout the room, Elayne, Min and Aviendha looked almost as bad as Ilyena was. Nynaeve stared at the scene; opened month, eyes wide, she clutched to Lan's hand like he was the last real thing in the world. Logain paid no attention to the crying woman, He was too busy arguing in low voices with Halima, the raven-hair woman face him coldly, and Narishma began to wonder whatever the man had as much problems taking care of Halima as he had with Mierin. Maybe he should ask the man for some advices. Of course, that the man had three warders didn't say anything to his favor. Only madman would take more than one, and any but a fool would choose carefully. Glancing over his shoulder to Mierin, he sighed inwardly. He was ready to admit he was a fool, but at least she wouldn't bore him. His eyes slide over to the Aes Sedai, save Beldeine, who still had her eyes on him, they were talking quietly among themselves. Varil took care for Ilyena, pulling her to her feet gently and talking to her in a soothing tone, and all that time holding the strongest shield he could weave between him and her. Varil was very careful, always.

"Eben," Narishma said, walking the small distance between him and the younger Asha'man, "Could you take care for the Aes Sedai? I think that this... party is over." Eben shot him a hard look; the man gained the dragon before he himself did.

"Beldeine is there," Eben noted finally, "Maybe I should let you do it, just to see what she will do to you. She didn't like it, when she heard about... Mierin."

"Since when do I care what Beldeine think, Eben? Or you do?" Narishma asked coldly. "If I'm lucky, she might develop interest in you." The man - despite his age, none of the Asha'man that had came to Domani well were boys anymore - laughed sourly.

"Light save me from that," He muttered, and turned to Aes Sedai, "and from all women as well." Eben added before he began moving. There were many stiff necks and hard eyes, yet the Aes Sedai left the room.

Before they were all outside the room, Narishma caught Beldeine's arm, "I'm already taken, Aes Sedai." He made his voice frosty and hard, not the easiest thing to do, when all he wanted to do was to laugh until he would cry, or to dance until he couldn't hold himself up. "Find yourself another prey to hunt." Without waiting for a replay, he turned back to Mierin. And all in all, Mierin's eyes met his, and even without the bond he could see jealously and fury and betrayal battling inside her. Light! And all he did was talking with Beldeine!

Leane tried to hide a yawn behind her hand as she entered the main room of the quarters she share with Logain, Toviene and Halima, the morning after they celebrated the cleansing of saidin. They have scattered not long after that woman entered. The last she had seen, the woman was still sobbing helplessly with Valir trying to soothe her. It was hard not to feel sorry for her; yet Leane had tried, with Nynaeve's help, for hours, to comport Elayne and Min and Aviendha.

The Dragon's three warders were not far from breaking into tears themselves. Elayne simply closed herself in a shield of cold arrogance, when anyone could see that she was the one who was hurt more than the two others. And Aviendha seemed to be willing to break anything she would lay her hands on, but especially the car'a'carn. Min was... she didn't seem to be fully there at all.

They have agreed at last, that Rand must return on his own accord, they couldn't go for him; it was something he had to solve himself. That was the stage Leane left.

She hoped the three would be fine, but she had others worries too, more important then the three's sadness. The Dragon Reborn must be in the Last Battle. The man couldn't let himself disappear so. She was still troubled by those thoughts as she examined the room; Logain sat on a carved wooden chair by the stone table in the center of the room, staring at the air just above the center of the table. A strange mix of wires that created the outline of a cube in red and green and blue wires hanged in the air, the cube was about size of a Trolloc's head, Logain's eyes focused on the cube. It turned around slowly, and inside the cube; Leane caught more flashes of color.

"It is just something to busy him," Halima said defensively, she sat on a chair opposing Logain, and held a spoon in one hand, she use it to point at the cube. "It wouldn't harm him, it would take him few hours at least to solve it, and it should keep him from troubles."

"What is this?" Leane said, taking a seat and sending a hand to grab the tray that lay, untouched, near Logain.

"That is my breakfast." Logain muttered.

"That was your breakfast," Halima grinned at him, then turned her eyes to Leane, "you might call it a riddle, it is... was used to practice the power." Today the woman wore a dress that didn't expose half as much as the woman usually seemed to enjoy exposing. Leane had the same discovery few weeks ago when she found out that every Domani dress vanished from her cloths chest. And at the time she surrounded hundreds of Aes Sedai, she thought Logain's jealously was sweat, although she made sure that he would understand how angry she was on him. And never mind that it was risking his life for something that foolish and not for being so jealous with her. And, just to prove a point, she made sure she would have new dresses just like the he took. "It gives him something to do, and there is little chance he can get into any trouble with this weave. He can't seem to control the desire to do something with the source."

Leane stare at the plate she stole from Logain, she had to go back to the White Tower soon, suddenly she wasn't as hungry as she had been before, she had others duties save being near Logain, as pleasant as it may be. Halima laid the bowl of stew she was eating on the table and stood, there was nothing left in it, and it wasn't a small bowl. "I would need you and Toviene today, Leane." She said as she walked toward Toviene's room. "I think it's time to build my network." There was an eager light in the woman's eyes.

"Let Toviene sleep as much as she wish," Logain said, not taking his eyes from the spinning cube, a riddle? Leane wondered, then pushed the thought away, she could ask Halima about it later.

"Why?" Halima stopped to challenge him, "I need her, and I doubt if she could be of much help while she is still snoring." Leane took a bowl filled stew, rabbit stew, by the smell, and leaned back in her chair to enjoy the show. Halima and Logain always fought each other, like two cats in a sack.

"You won't need her," Logain repeated calmly, "You're not going anywhere. Not unless I can keep an eye on you. And Toviene doesn't snore, you do." The fool didn't even looked at Halima.

Halima hissed, Leane wondered what it was that awoke the woman's anger; suddenly she looked taller than she really was, more dangerous. The bowl of stew that Leane held flew from her hands, just when she was about to take the first bite. Logain was too busy staring at Halima's riddle to notice the flying bowl. Yet he certainly noticed it when the bowl, filled with hot stew, crushed into his head. "I was eating that!" Leane exclaimed, holding an empty spoon. But she smiled despite her empty stomach.

"I will make you another," Halima said without taking her eyes from Logain. The cube stopped spinning, And Logain jump to his feet, his chair fell back, cursing he tried to clean himself of the stew, all this while glaring at Halima hard enough to pull down a horse twenty feet away from him. He seemed too angry and surprised to think reasonably. "What do you think about an Asha'man stew? I know an excellent recipe for a mule's brain." Halima took a step forward and raised her hand, delicate fingers tightening around something Leane couldn't see. Logain's eyes widen slightly, and he threw himself back, a well of fire springing from the floor, where he stood a moment ago, it linger there for a heartbeat, and died.

Leane stopped smiling, taunting Logain was fine, throwing tempers was fine too; trying to kill him wasn't. "Halima," She began, but the woman paid her no mind. Logain regained his balance when Halima made another step toward him; he was pulled to the air and floated three feet in the air, surprise gone from him, replaced by cold anger. As soon as the surprise was gone he was released, and somehow, he managed not to fall as he crushed into the floor.

"What gave you the idea that I need you to keep an eye on me?" Green eyes flaring and face twisted in fury, she still looked like any man's dream. Leane took back her seat, and grasped a piece of bread with some loaf, Halima wouldn't harm Logain, not too much, at least, and he deserved what he got. She couldn't explain for her life how she knew it. But she did. "What gave you the idea that you can keep an eye of me? Or that I will allow it?" Logain stood, face dark, anger becoming fury.

Halima reached out as if to touch him, thin streams of fire flaring from her fingers. Logain didn't move a muscle, but the flames stopped a foot from him, "That is enough, Halima." Logain said through clenched teeth, Leane could feel him trying to control his anger.

"No!" The woman said, and a flash of Light stronger than the sun blinded Leane, she embraced saidar blindly and wove a shield of Air around her, just to be on the safe side. "It's not enough, not until I will shove some sense into that load of rubbish you call a brain. And I don't care if I'd to use a hammer."

Logain done nothing Leane could see, but Halima's eyes widen, her jaw was set, and she stared at Logain in such a way that Leane doubt if a herd of horses could move her an inch from her decision. "What are you so afraid of, Logain?" Halima asked, her voice too mild. Leane wished she could see what the two did with saidin. All she saw was the two of them glaring at each other, and the air nearly humming with tense. "I can't run away, you made sure of that. I can't return to the shadow, I can't even want to do this." Logain growled wordlessly, "Is that too hard on you, darling?" Halima asked, voice pouring honey, "I can make it harder, honey."

"I can stand whatever you would throw at me," Logain said, "I've already proven you this in the White Tower, or have you forgotten that?"

"I was limited then," The woman replayed, "Some Aes Sedai might have suspected something was happening if I would have tried to kill you with the power, I would have to use few things that would have torn the very heart of Tar Valon. There was nothing I could do beyond trying to sever you."

Logain took a step forward, and another, it seemed to Leane that he had to fight something to do so. His movements slow, as if he was walking inside water. "Release saidin, woman." Logain commanded, shaking with fury.

"What is going on in here? I was trying to sleep." Toviene demanded, gliding into the room gracefully, her eyes were directed to Logain, Leane remembered Toveine from her novicehood, the woman's eyes seemed able to probe into one's very soul, exposing every sin and secret you wish to hide, it seemed to affect men especially.

"The children played," Leane answered in Logain's place, he was too busy taking deep breaths and staring at Halima as if he wished he could kill her. The woman simply crossed her hands below her breasts and grinned at him, never mind that the grin looked more like a show of perfect teeth. By her expression, Halima would be overjoyed to go for Logain throat with her teeth alone.

"Again?" Toviene asked, rising an eyebrow at Logain, "Can't the two of you, for a change, pass an hour without arguing." Toviene's voice was the same she used for a novice who broke a law, but here eyes rested on the overturned chair Logain sat on, with a broken bowl and what remain of a stew that smelled just like she loved it. The rest of the stew was spread on Logain's head and shoulders, near the chair there was a black circle two feet wide, with no doubt what caused it. Toviene gave her accusing look, what had she done, "And why couldn't you stop them?" The woman asked. "Before they would move from destroying furnishing to killingpeople."

Leane shrugged, "They are enjoying it too much, I didn't want to interrupt the game."

"Enjoying?" Logain said coldly.

"A game, Leane?" Halima shouted, "You think this is a game? A game would be to skin him alive, then healing him, only to skin him again, and doing so until he beg for mercy." Logain gave her a sharp look she didn't seemed to notice, Toviene swallowed nervously. "This is no game." Her attention passed to Logain, "I don't care what you think, you arrogant fool whose mother bedded with goats! I've a work to do, and I am about to do it! Toviene, change into something more suitable and eat something! I don't think I can't stand the company for a long time. Not without turning argues into battles." It was the first time that Leane notice that Toviene wore only her shift. Logain had the expression of a boy whose toy had just been taken away; he noticed it long before, no doubt. He seemed unaffected by Halima's words. Toviene blushed like three suns and hurried to her room, Halima's amused laugh chased her.

Halima looked at her dress; the most decent dress Leane saw her in, "The first thing I'm about to do is to visit a seamstress." She murmured to herself as she trotted toward her room.

"Work?" Logain snorted, "Seamstress!" Halima turned her head at him as he sank into a chair, "Women!" He muttered loudly, disgustfully. A strange expression crossed Halima face. Then she turned her back to him, just as the chair he was seating broke apart. He turned his head up, seating between the remaining of the chair, looked at the ceiling, and moaned loudly, desperately, "Why me, Light? Why me?"

Close to six Asha'man out of any ten that had reached the Black Tower before the Cleansing of saidin has at least one warder belonging to Far Derais Mai, the maidens of the spear, and often more. The reason for the large numbers of maidens serving as warders is quite simple:

Soon after the Cleansing, most Asha'man nearly went mad from joy, clouded mind and judgment, they had raided Caemlyn, then, the nearest city to the Black Tower. Nearly two thousands maidens were in the city at the time, unknown to anyone at the time was the fact that saidin had been Cleansed. And the Saldean soldiers that had guarded the city was gone together with the Dragon Reborn when he left to Illian, and remained in that country. And the Lion guard had only begun to re-assemble, as Elayne, the queen, ordered.

The only defense the city had were the Aiels Rand al'Thor had brought with him when he retook Caemlyn and Andor from Rahvin. There couldn't be a doubt that the Aiel assumed that the Asha'man, to the last boy in the Black Tower, had gone mad, yet they went against them. Had a single Asha'man wished so, nothing but charred ashes would have remained from the city. Yet not a single man or woman was that did not deserved it were hurt during the Days of the Black Guardian, as most people commonly name the event.

Despite several occurrences that caused a rift between the car'a'carn and Far Derais Mai, the maidens wish no harm for the Asha'man,who followed the same lead as they did. Yet they had no choice, when they thought they had all gone mad.

The Asha'man, at the time, were incapable of harming anyone and anything, too drunk from drawing saidin, finally cleansed, that all they've done when being attacked was simply to leave their attackers frozen for few hours, harming nothing save the Aiel's pride.

Yet the maidens found another way to distract the Asha'man's attention. There is a game among the maidens of the spear, called the maiden's kiss. The game involved a group of maidens, and a male victim. The maidens' spears are being held close to the man's throat and he's demanded to kiss every one of the maidens. It the man kisses well, they ease the spears a little; if he doesn't... then they push the spear a bit more, to encourage the man to kiss better.

Those of you who are aware of the Asha'man's bonding techniques would be instantly alert to the problem an Asha'man face, playing this game. Asha'man bond by kissing the woman they choose to be their warder, and the woman bonded feels as if every pleasure she'd felt in her life was summed into a single heartbeat, all the light of sun focused into a single moment, when the Asha'man weave the flows, and the woman is being bonded to him, forever.

One can easily argue how much the Asha'man were responsible of theirs action during that time, however, the results were the same. And nearly all of the Asha'man had one warder at least in the end of the Days of the Black Guardians, whatever they had one when the Days began or not. Most of the new warders were maidens, yet no all, Caemlyn was, and is, one of the great cities, and as such, people from all the lands came to the city, for many reasons. The rest of the warders taken at the end of the few days when the Asha'man ruled Caemlyn came mainly from Andor, yet a considerable number of them came from every land, from the Dragonwall to the Aryth Ocean.

Forcing a bond on a woman is considered an action beyond rape, in the Black Tower, and it was forgiven only twice in the Black Tower's history, when Aes Sedai, sent by Elaida, failed to form an attack on the Black Tower, all those Aes Sedai were captured and taken warders. The only second time that forced bonding was ignored was in the Days of the Black Guardians.

However, there can be no doubt that the warders eliminated every thought in the Asha'man's mind about the advantages of having a warder. There methods are worth to be remembered, if we take Hefal's actions...

The History of the Black Tower, volume X

By Elmindreda al'Thor

The Court of the Sun

The Forth Age

Lessa saw the black-coated man walking down the streets, slowly turning. He looked... Not drunk, but so happy that nothing else mattered to him. These Asha'man... They had come to Caemlyn for some reason two days ago, and all of them looked like this. At least that one wasn't throwing fire around or lifting things in the air or setting the skies alight, or any of the other impossibilities she had seen the last two days when the Asha'man seemed to be everywhere she looked for more than five heartbeats.

The Maidens guarded the town... But these Asha'man were too ripe a joke to resist. Her spear-sisters were back a street, playing Maiden's Kiss with one of the Asha'man they had talked into it. This, it seemed, was the only thing that calmed the Asha'man down a bit. For some strange reason, the Asha'man didn't behave at all like any other men she had seen playing Maiden's Kiss. They didn't seem to sober up until after they kissed a maiden or two. Usually that part came when the men had a necklace made of spears.

She had left, though. She wanted to find out what they were doing here and why... And it wasn't likely she would get answers any time soon from the one she left behind, he was too busy kissing. Glancing back, she saw Arolin drop spears and bucklers and wrapping her arms around the Asha'man, the spears around his throat were taken away completely. By the look on Arolin's face, he earned it completely.

She softly walked up behind the black-clad man. Somehow, though, he heard her before she came anywhere close. He had sharp ears. He was alone, as well, and would make a good one to question... But he still wore that ridiculous smile on his face that all Asha'man seemed to wear. Well, she could help him with that.

"Tell me, then. Have you ever played Maiden's Kiss?" It wouldn't be properly done, without any of her sisters, but she just wanted to humble him a bit. At his confused look, she smiled, again. It was always more fun with wetlanders, they didn't knew the game. "I'll show you..." Her spear point touched lightly against his throat. "Now... You kiss me. If it's well enough done, I'll ease off... If not...you'll not need to shave today." Burn the man! His smile widened as she spoke.

She would show him... She put a bit more pressure on the spear-point, and leaned forward to kiss him. But as their lips met... something happened, strange, exotic, feelings, emotions. Like the first time she saw a river, so much water she could hardly believe they all could even exist. It felt like... the first time she tasted an apple. So sweat that she could hardly swallow it, full of water and red as blood. It was everything she liked in the world, smells, tastes, and sights. Every memory of joy and happiness in her life returned to give her some more pleasure. It was... indescribable.

Eldan leaned back, as the spear was removed from his throat. He could still feel saidin, clean at last, rushing through him. He could also feel the woman in front of him, now. The flows he had woven in that moment were of Bonding, and there was no way to release them... He didn't intend to take a warder, but even if he would found a way to break the Bond... he didn't want to do so. The joy of saidin swept him along, and all lesser considerations were lost. She would be more than a fine warder.

"What is your name, fair lady?" He looked at the Far Derais Mai in front of him. She stared at him for a moment, still lost in the feeling, and then narrowed her eyes at him. "I am Lessa, of the Red Ford hold. Who are you, and why are you asking?" She shocked her head as if to shake something from her face.

He smiled, feeling her emotions, guessing her thoughts. He had never had a warder, nor needed one... But she would do well, if any woman could. It felt... strange, to have someone so close to him, and at the same time, it felt right. As if he wasn't truly whole until now, and didn't know what he lacked. "My name is Eldan Delvar. And it wouldn't disappear if you shake your head," He smiled wider, he couldn't control it, saidin was so sweat he almost cried, "You are my Warder, Lessa. And nothing can change that."

She stared at him in shock; he could feel the emotion echoing through the bond. Then, his head rang from her slap. He was just glad she hadn't used her spear, though she gripped it like she wanted to. "I am not..." Her voice dripped with scorn, "...your Warder. And I will not be one, either."

"Can you not feel it?" He gave a gentle tug with saidin to the bond, and she gasped. "We are already bonded, and there is nothing that can be done about that." Almost before he had finished speaking, the spear flashed at his throat. But he still held saidin, and before it reached the target, both it and his Warder were wrapped in flows of Air.

"If I die, so will you." He growled at her. "So there is nothing to be gained from that. You are not harmed, nor will you be." He didn't drop his smile, still feeling the sweetness of saidin untainted.

"You will have nothing of me, if I must kill us both." She spat at his feet.

"Very well then..." He frowned, and stepped backwards. "If you would have it that way." He turned his back on her, and began walking down the street. He grinned as he released the flow that held her. She was still bonded; she could not escape that. All he did was giving her some space to breath, and that was only an illusion. Few things had almost immediate affect on the bond, she would find her way to him; he knew that for sure.

He walked slowly through the streets, drifting at random, sometimes going the game in the skies, channeling just because he could and it was fun. Then, as he passed in front of a corner, a strong hand grabbed him, and pulled him into the dim light of an alley.

It was Lessa; he knew she was following him for the last half an hour. "What have you done? Why can I feel you in my head? Why can I not leave you?" Her words were hissed out. And by her eyes, she was ready to pull a dagger at him.

He stared at her, forcing down a grin, it was saidin; how could a man stop grinning with saidin inside him? With the power being so sweat and clean and wonderful, he couldn't release the smile for his life. "I told you, you are already bonded, and that can not be undone."

She frowned at him. "If I must..." She straightened, to look him in the eyes. She was very tall for a woman, maybe an inch alone shorter than he was. "...I will accept this, then, because there is nothing else I can do." She cut him off as he began to smile wider. "And if you try to take advantage of this, you will find that not all women are as weak as Wetlanders' women you know. There is plenty I can do, short of killing you."

He wasn't about to be intimidated by her words, "As a Warder, that is all I ask..." He extended a hand to her. "If you would come with me?" She glared at him, and stalked forward, out into the street. He could feel... Almost pride coming from her. He grinned, again. She would do well, indeed.

"Absolutely not!" The replay made him blink. "As I said, I accept the bond if I must, a lesson to teach me that there are reasons for laws and customs, but I'll not follow you like a wetlander woman, a dog chasing its master."

"I doubt if you can compare any warder to a dog, but you've a point there," He noted, "I think that I -" He stopped as the surged of fury, having the bond to warn him as she tried to stab him with the shaft of the spear, she was smart enough not to use the blade. All his training was worth the time putted into them. He skimmed back smoothly, moving a leg behind her left foot and tripping her. She tried to stop her fall as he caught her, her back against his chest, his arms locking her hands; she was strong, very strong, yet he was stronger. He gave her a quick kiss on the back of her head, just above that tail of red hair she had.

"I'll leave you for yourself now, Lessa." He said, feeling her becoming rigid,"But I will return to have my claim on you." Releasing her, he stepped back from her, and wove gateway for skimming. He was gone before she could regain the control on herself.

"If I will feel you within a hundred mile from me, you loutish mound of decaying Trolloc's leavings," Halima said frostily, "you will gravely regret it. I neither need nor want your... assistance, so stay away from me, I've no need in an unattractive load of second-hand sheep barf." How could a woman so beautiful own a mouth so vile? But of course, Logain reminded himself, she wasn't really a woman, or she hadn't been. She was certainly a woman now. Of course, she got mad if he tried treating her as a woman, and furious had he dare suggesting that she wasn't a woman.

He looked at her innocently, so he hoped, "What made you think that I would try to join you, dear?" Curses would have little affects on her, but honey names had much more affect on her, and it amused him to no end.

He could feel her control on her temper wavering, and when she regained her composure again, her lips curled back in disgust, "I know you, and it has not been a pleasant experiment."

Logain took hold in saidin and turned his attention to the riddle Halima presented him, it required both speed and delicacy; he could do either, but not both. The cube began to spin; fire and air creating the outline of the cube, seven flows of earth and water were tied inside the cube. The purpose of the game was to untie all the flows without crossing streams with the cube's flows once.

Halima tied the flows as strongly as she could, apparently, and untying wasn't something to be done roughly. He stopped counting the numbers of time he failed, but Halima was right, it was more than useful to gain skill in the power. "Didn't your mother tell you not to lie, honey?" He asked softly, words were his only weapon against her, and he was about to use them if it would kill them both. "You enjoyed... meeting me very much." He growled inwardly as he failed again. And tried again, he would continue until he would get it, or collapse, whatever comes first.

"My mother also told me to go in the Light, you recalcitrant brainless son of a nauseating pureed stable sweepings! Does it seem like I've ever listen to her." She was flushed, but not entirely of anger. He tensed as she took hold of saidin, but she didn't attack him, not directly, at least. He stared helplessly as her flows moved passed through the cube's wires, she untied all seven flows without once the spinning flows who created the outlines of a cube even getting near her flows. "You should practice more," She told him, half amused over his frustration, the other half still furious. She set the riddle again, and tied it up. "When you're done, try solving this," She told him, a pyramid appearing next to the cube, "the rules are the same, but the spinning is faster." And there were two dozens flows. Amusement won fury in the back of his head, and she bared her teeth at him in a wide grin. Could it be done? He wondered, staring at the pyramid.

That was what he remembered from her after she was gone with Leane and Toviene through the gateway. Her first destination was somewhere in Arafel, but she moved away from there in less than an hour.

He could have traced her, of course, but he believed her threats, there was much a woman can do to make a man's life miserable. And he had no wish for Halima to begin researching this field of being a woman. He would have to use the bond to force his will upon her, if needed, he would do so, but Logain disliked very much the need to force his will on her.

Again he tried to work out the riddle, and again he failed, reaching only five untied weaves before his flows touched the surrounding cube. With a curse, he rewove the flows he just untied and began it anew. He had the strange feeling that Halima was standing behind his shoulder and laughing to his attempts. He even looked back, unnerved, but there was no one there. He stared at the door that led into the corridors of the Dragonmount, he was ready to swear that it was close before, and no one opened it.

Shrugging, he rose to close the door, and sat back to continue his effort solving this... riddle.

An hour later he stared at the cube and felt a grin spreading on his face, he had finally manage to do it. Saidin flows in him like the sweetest river, molten life. Before, frustration hindered some of the joy of the power. Now, there was nothing to make him forget the sheer joy of the power. It was so... sweet and pure and full of life and so strong he nearly drowned in it.

That was the reason Halima gave him that riddle to solve. He didn't even looked at the second riddle, it would take weeks of training before he would manage to solve it, and he could remain in those rooms no longer. For some reason it felt slightly... wrong.

From the first time he channeled, when the mayor of his village caught his daughter and him in the barn, to the day saidin was cleansed, saidin was a two-edged blade. Pure ecstasy and pure evil, he never thought it's possible to have the first without the second, but now he had it, and he nearly shock from the feeling.

He opened a gateway, to the Black Tower; he wanted to know how the Asha'man reacted to the cleansing. There would be much feasting; he was ready to bet. And he was more than willing to join the party.

As the sun rose above the distant peaks of the Lion Palace's towers, a wind blew through the streets, stirring the dust and dirt of the day before. The shopkeepers opened their doors, and venders set up their stalls. As some early shoppers meander the streets, a few voices cried their wares. The crowd slowly thickened, people began to shove and push to purchase the first fresh fruits and vegetables of the year. After nearly four days of chaos, the city became quiet, people stared at the skies worriedly, covered by dark clouds, no longer shaped by saidin into every from imaginable. Fire no longer thrust in the air in columns hundred feet tall and ten feet wide. The skies held no longer visions to stare in awe. Lightning no longer flashed in the skies, in every color wished by the Asha'man.

The chaos ended, so it seemed, and the peace returned to Caemlyn. But even as the crowd pressed to get closer to the stalls of wares, people were shying from the few darkly dressed men that marched through the milling throng. The black-coated Asha'man walked through the crowd as if it were not there. Deeply wrapped in calm self-assurance, they radiate death and danger with every catlike move. Their madness were gone, apparently, there was not a single grin on those hard face. The people of Caemlyn couldn't decide what they rather had. The number of Asha'man in the streets was no way near to what it way as the beginning of those days.

But almost every grim faced Asha'man was followed by one or two women, most of them dressed in the drab brown and gray and green clothes, to suited for the wastelands beyond the spine of the world. Grey and blue and green eyes stared down any who dared to smile. Hands hovering, ready to don veils at the slightest chuckle, these women watched for anyone who would dare to attack the black clad man in front of her. Fewer were those who wore dresses, whatever from wool or silk or velvet.

Few in the crowd understood this strange pairing. That so many of the Aielwomen, who called themselves Far Dareis Mai, would follow those men who could channel, without the men doing nothing to stop them was beyond belief. Nor the reason why the other women, those who did not belonged to the maidens of the spears, followed the Asha'man, some in anger, some with reluctant clear on their face, but most walked with a mix of desperation and fury.

Many of the women glared as hard at the back of the Asha'man they've followed as to the people in the crowd. The people of Caemlyn could not figure out if it the women set themselves to watch the men of he Black Tower, or the Asha'man set to watch the women, they guarded each other, that was clear by their expressions, and all of those pairs or threes, and, in rare cases, fours, stayed within five steps from one another.

None dared to stare openly, for pain and humiliation awaited any who gave more than casual notice. The Asha'man were grim as death, and the last few days they have shown their might, in displays no illuminator could ever copy. All that with the tainted half of the One Power, even the Aiels were careful to hold their stares until after they had passed, but there were stares still. Only the Asha'man and the women who walked with them knew the entire story.

One of them were Lashid, red hair and blue eyes, she stared at the man that strode easily two steps in front of her. The crowd opened up for the black clad man, And Kidar Sharden deserve the blacks! Lashid thought furiously, he is nothing but a d'tsang!

And he held her life and fate in his hands! It was so unfair she wanted to scream. Kidar Sharden had explained her, in great details, what he had done to her. Among the maidens, there were few insults worse than to tell a woman that she would put her soul for a bridal wreath to lie at a man's feet. By Kidar Sharden's explanation, that was exactly what had been done to her.

And there was nothing she could do about it!

He forced her to come with, if one can call a simple request forcing. But she had no other choice but to follow. Saidin was clean, so the man claimed. And she was to be his warder, with no way back, and all that because she played maiden kiss!

No doubt the man thought that he might get more kisses from her! She would greet him with steel!

There were no parties in the Black Tower.

Logain sat stunned; he lost his hold of saidin along the story Kimali delivered in a hard voice. His eyes returned again and again to the women who were gathered in the room, Aielwomen, most of them, who stood or sat on the floor, face rigid and eyes hard.

He saw two girls that couldn't have been more than seventeen, both of them clad in silk, talking quietly between themselves, the tall one held a dagger in her hand, but Logain doubt if she truly knew how to use it.

A woman dressed as tavern maid cried softly near them. The maidens were the only ones not showing anger or fear or desperation. "And there are more in the city!" Sora Grady joined Kimali and glared at him. "Not many of the men returned, but every one who did returned with a warder!" Rand sent Sora's husband somewhere; she didn't really know the details. But she was worried about him, "If that man will take another warder..." Sora knew more about the bond than most other warders, being among the firsts to be bond, she knew there would be absolutely nothing she could do about it. Logain glanced at the women, he counted thirty six, and Kimali said that twenty one Asha'man returned to the Black Tower, before telling him again how it all started, when the Asha'man felt the taint fading.

"Where are the men?" He asked Sora, cutting off Kimali, the woman came to the Black Tower following her younger brother, and she was close to sobbing when she described how he returned with two of those Aiel animals, as she put it.

"They are in the training area," Sora said, and he nodded curtly before turning his back to her to search the men, he might strangle them all when he would reach them.

The traps set all across the Dragonmount were removed before the cleansing, they would have gotten on the way. And Logain doubt if anyone had the time to re-weave them.

The Black Tower was about to be moved, and burn Taim for not being here!

It was four hours past midnight when Miribai Aflet set one fragile sea green glass on the counter and filled it carefully with liquid. Despite her caution, some of the clear stuff sloshed over the side, and the heavy, crude voice shouted in her ear again. "Careful, wench, every drop costs more than you're worth. "Her hands shook as she set the bottle back down, wondering how she could get rid of him. The great ham-fist snatched the glass, and the girl wondered why the delicate stem didn't snap in half under the pressure of the thick, ugly fingers.

The wide-faced, piggy-eyed customer seemed to sense the gist of her thoughts, and he snarled wordlessly at Miribai. She backed up, looking around for someone, anyone to help her; but no one was there... He reached out one ugly paw and caught hold of her collar, despite her efforts to avoid him; he gave her a shake that rattled her teeth. As she was beginning to panic, he tossed her away. Somehow she managed to break her fall, but half the skin on her palms was scraped; her knee hurt where she'd landed too hard. A big, boisterous laugh rang out above her somewhere, and she shivered, hearing the footsteps made by those massive, horrid feet. The door slammed shut behind him.

Unsteadily getting to her feet, Miribai used one corner of the bar for support, hoping that he wouldn't come back again. Of course, she knew better than that; he always came, each night, just before dawn, at the same time, and she couldn't turn him away. He was a customer, after all, she thought with a trace of bitterness. And Mistress Ataulf would skin her alive if she didn't serve him. Even though he tried to hurt her often when he was drunk, which was almost always. Mistress Ataulf refused to close the tavern even when the Asha'man raid the city and the skies were never truly dark, people comes to tavern no matter what, and in times of trouble there are good many who would like to drown their troubles drinking. Nothing is worth losing so much money!

The glass was on the counter, somehow intact, though empty, along with the few coins he'd set there before. She picked them up and put them away, and the glass she brought back into the kitchen. On her way out, she caught a glimpse of her own face in the mirror; there were circles under her eyes now that had never been there before, and her dark hair was disheveled from the fall she'd taken. Dark, harried-looking eyes set in a too-pale face flashed in the mirror for a moment before she moved on.

Locking the doors was easily done, and so was finishing the clean up. The one man left in the bar were dozing quietly, facedown on the table; she didn't think he'd bother going up to his rooms, despite having paid extravagantly for them. So she shook him gently and helped him up; he leaned on her heavily as she got him up the steps and eventually closed the door behind him. The next day, all he remembered was the face of an angel floating in his drunken haze, but that man would never find out whom she'd been.

Back downstairs; she gave the Common Room one last glance-over to be sure everything was as it should be.

The door slammed open, and accompanied by a sharp wind, a man stepped through. Without really looking at him, Miribai said, "We're closed."

"I don't care." The man sound drunk, he certainly smelled so.

At that, she did look up, and found herself gazing at too gleeful face, swarthy-skinned and black-eyed. He was young, and his eyes were the only pretty character in his face.

His eyes were the single redeeming feature of his face, but they were too joyous, too happy; the expression on his face terrified her more than anything the grimness of a customer before had done. He grinned at her and she shivered. "I don't care. Tell me, what do you have to drink in a place like this?"

"Ale," she answered hoarsely. "But we're closed. Please... please leave." He shook his head and advanced closer; her breath was coming faster now, the closer he got, the more fear she felt. Running would be fatal mistake, she knew.

"No. I'm not going to leave, pretty girl. Find me something, will you? It's been... a long day. I'm thirsty." She flew behind the bar; perhaps if she obeyed his wishes he would leave. How had he opened the door? She thought she'd locked it... How could she have forgotten? She glanced at the man, no way to know what colors his cloths were, he looked as if he bath in mud, and by his smell he drunk far too much to be healthy.

"Ale?" she inquired fearfully, and he nodded, still smiling rakishly. That smile was unnerving, and so were the eyes, too black and gleaming for comfort. Miribai poured the glass for him; hands shaking, she spilled even more than she had for the other. But this one didn't care... Suddenly she thought that he wouldn't care about anything, right now, and that scared her too...

He drank it in one swallow, and the smile never left his face. "Now, please leave," she said again, and again he shook his head.

"No, milady, I'll not leave till I've had another. Tell me your name, or I'll not leave at all."

Uneasily she poured another glassful, and began to mop up a bar that was already clean. "I'm not a lady... I'm Miribai. Miribai Aflet."

Another single gulp and it was gone. He tossed a few coins onto the damp wood, and one fell, turning on the ground for a moment before she picked it up. "A lovely name for a lovely girl, I'm Sethos Merik."

She put the money away and took the glass. Squelching her rising fear of the stranger in the dirty coat, she told him, "Good. You know my name, you had two drinks, now leave, please..."

"I fear I cannot," he replied gravely, but the mocking grin never changed. "I am captivated by your beauty."

"That... That's ridiculous. I shall have to call the men to have you thrown out, if you do not leave immediately!" Now her nerves were really on edge; there were no men around to call, in reality. She was never more aware of that in her life.

"Go ahead and try," advised Sethos calmly, and toyed with his red-tinted glass. Miribai threw down her rag and quickly moved around the bar, thinking only to get away and be safe...

He snatched her wrists as she went past, and her skirts slid along the floor as she struggled to get away. It was no use; he was far stronger than she was. "Stop," he ordered her calmly, and she looked up into the too-black eyes. Against her will she obeyed, too fearful to do anything but obey. She stared helplessly at her captor; Sethos still smiled merrily. Half hypnotized, Miribai couldn't move away, even when he released her arms and held her chin in one hand; she shivered with his touch. Maybe he wouldn't kill her if she would do nothing to provoke him.

The girl shook like a leaf, but that didn't seem to bother him. He leaned forward and pulled gently at her; she moved according to his wishes, leaning into him as he did thesame. Anything would be better than him killing her in his wrath.

Then he kissed her.

He kissed her, and it was like nothing she'd ever experienced before. It was like being burned alive. It was like being ripped apart. It was all the light in the world focused into a single moment of time. Every stolen moment of freedom she ever had in her life. It was like dying and being rebirth, love and hate, fire and ice, all at once, in a terrible, tyrannical pulse. It was everything and nothing in the same time, joy and sadness and tears and laugher. Everything surging in her, her entire mind opened to... something, she had no name to it.

Her hands grasped Sethos' dirty shirt desperately, as she tried to keep from falling. Gently he clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle her shriek; it was so effective that she could hardly hear it herself. As Sethos took his hand away, a low moan escaped her lips, but no one could have heard it even had they been in the next room.

Miribai collapsed and he caught her, holding her to him tenderly. "There now, that wasn't so bad, was it?" he cooed into her ear.

Finally she caught her breath. "What... What have you done?" she asked in a whisper, and realized that she could feel... He was there, in her head, somehow. That was the thing her mind opened to! Him! Miribai was aware of him, and he... was there, where no other had any right to be! In her head, where she could dream about freedom all for herself, the only place she was free!

"You're my Warder now. Hush; don't cry... Everything is going to be just fine..." He held her to him considerately as she began to weep. The tears fell like rain, and did not stop when the sun came.

It was late afternoon when Miribai awoke at last. She was long used to getting up at that time, and despite the fact that she had gone to bed later than usual, she still woke up then, in her own somewhat dilapidated double bed. The only difference was that someone else was in it beside her. Smelly someone.

She jumped nearly out of her skin when she saw him, even though she had smelled, and felt, he was there before she'd looked. He had taken his coat off as well as his boots; they were lying on the floor. Apparently he was still wearing the rest of his clothes... She was fully clothed too, and when she thought about it, she vaguely remembered him carrying her up the stairs and into her room, with her mumbling directions through the tears. And she remembered the kiss that had linked them.

A slight throbbing in her head was probably what had awakened her, she thought, and knew that it was his headache and not her own. If hers headache was annoying, his would be much worse when he woke up... All she could see of him was the back of a curly black-haired head; the rest was hidden beneath the blankets. Miribai was glad of that.

But just as she was thinking that, he stirred, both in her head and in the bed, and sat up, facing away. Sethos stood up wearily; shoulders hunched slightly, and came around to her side of the bed without looking at her. A tear slid languidly down her face as he turned and faced her. He looked older this morning, and tired; before, he'd seemed younger than she, but now he looked the same age as she did - though she'd begun to look older than she was. He looked older in the sun light, older, but not prettier, unfortunately.

Another tear mirrored the fall of the first; his hands reached out to her, and he drew her up to stand before him.

His face was grave and sorrowful; she noticed for the first time that his eyes were kind, rather than madly glinting, as they had been the night before. "I'm sorry," said Sethos mournfully; Miribai turned away, wishing he would let go of her hands so that she could cover her face with them.

Instead, taking a deep breath, she turned back to him and asked the first thing she wanted to know. "Why?" her voice broke, and pain flashed across his face suddenly.

"I don't know," he replied in anguished tones."There is no reason I can give you save that I was drunk. And that cannot stand for an excuse, not for what I've done to you. If it helps anything, I couldn't regret it more."

Her eyes pleaded, and she asked the second thing. "Can it be undone?"

"Even trying would almost certainly kill you." Now his gaze was determined and earnest. "I'm not going to let that happen."

"Please..." she begged, and more tears fled down her pallid cheeks, to follow in the paths of the first.

"I can't!" The admission seemed to have been wrung from his innermost soul, and she knew that he was speaking the truth. One of his hands dropped hers and came up to brush the tears from her face. "Miribai... please..." She looked back up at him, and tried to stop crying; it was more difficult than she'd thought it would be. "I need you," he told her almost inaudibly, and wrapped her in his arms.

She pushed him away, and he tripped on the bed, "Yet I had enough for more than a single lifetime with men that smell of ale and mud and dirt!" She shouted at him, he stole from her the last pieces of freedom she managed to keep. He deserved the worse she could think off. She bent down to take one of his boots and threw it at his face. "Get out! Get out of my room! Get out of my life! Get out of my head!"

He evaded the thrown boot with amazing flexibility. She took the other one and held it, "Out!"

"Miribai..." He began, but she had enough of that.

"OUT!" She screamed at him, outraged.

He was out almost immediately, "I will be back, Miribai." He told her seriously. "I can do nothing about it, I fear. I'll be back." She threw the boot at him, yet it hit the closing door only. He was out, coatless and bootless, and she was more than glad about it!

"Your mother was a hypocritical cauliflower who was so ugly her fellow villagers had to keep her on the stables, under a pile of hay, so the horses wouldn't run away." Halima said sweetly, in the Old Tongue,to the seamstress as the three of them approached the short, pale hair woman. Leane gaped at the black hair woman, Toviene only stare.

"Pardon, Lady," The seamstress said with a small bow, "I do not have any knowledge in the Old Tongue."

"Never mind that," Halima said, motioning gracefully with her hand, "I was admiring your store."

"Thanks you Lady," The seamstress beamed at her, "How may I help you? I'm Donevan Kelir."

"I'm Halima Sedai," Halima said, "Those are Leane Sedai and Toviene Sedai." She pointed at them, each in her turn. Toviene glared at the woman's back.

"Do you've any idea what are the punishments for pretending to be Aes Sedai, Halima?" She said coldly, in the Old Tongue, Halima proved a moment ago that the seamstress didn't know the Old Tongue.

Halima turned her head at her with a grin that could have set any man's heart racing. "But I am Aes Sedai, Toviene. It's you who have no right for that title."

The seamstress eyes were slightly afraid, but no doubt that she felt honored. In Arafel, as in all the borderlands, Aes Sedai was not something to be feared of, the other way around, in fact. "What may I do for you, Aes Sedai?" The woman might have doubt Halima's claim, hadn't she been there with her, neither Halima nor Leane had the look of Aes Sedai. But she did, and everyone knew that no Aes Sedai would let any woman escape falsely claiming to be Aes Sedai.

"I need everything!" Halima said, her eyes seemed to be searching something, "I've lost all my wardrobe's content, and I would like to fill it anew." She raised a hand to stop the seamstress from talking, "Money, of course, wouldn't be a problem. A thousands gold coins should suffice, isn't it?"

The seamstress face became red; it was ten time the price she would have asked had Halima wanted all her cloths from silk and velvet. "Aes Sedai, I mean no disrespect," The seamstress began nervously, "But this is five times the price I..." Toviene smiled inwardly, the woman might be honest, but no fool.

Again Halima stopped her, "It would hardly cover your expenses, mistress Kelir." She said calmly, "I've some... special demands of you."

Donevan face paled, "I don't know whatever I can do anything special, Aes Sedai. Certainly not for an Aes Sedai."

"Silence," Halima muttered, moving forward to take a half made dress, black velvet and laces all over. "Do you have silk in the same color? I don't very fond of velvet?"

"Of course, Aes Sedai." Bemused Donevan said slowly, "I've every color of silk, every lord and lady in Arafel buy their cloths from me, but, as I said, I'm not sure I'm capable of making anything that would fit Aes Sedai's taste, especially if you want something special."

Her words had no affect on Halima. She stood frozen, her head titled to one side, listening to something else. "I need nothing that you can't make for me, girl." She said absently, the seamstress stiffened, she was at least fifty, and Halima looked nothing more than twenty-five if that. . "Do you've a piece of paper, dear?' Halima asked, she nodded to herself in satisfaction suddenly, and a smile appeared on her face. "Cats! That should do it, of course, I should have thought about it before!" She whispered, almost beyond Toviene's hearing.

"Cats?" The seamstress asked, handing Halima a piece of paper, a bottle of ink and a pen. She sat down on a chair with the expression of a woman that couldn't be surprised more than she already had.

"Yes! Cats! You've a bunch of them nearby, and only one of them is adult, by the sound. How old are they?"

By the sound, Toviene wondered, Dovevan's face held only distant surprise, of course Aes Sedai would know everything, and of course that she would know about her cats, and that only one of them was adult. It seemed that what surprise the seamstress more than anything was that Halima didn't know the cats' age. "They were born a week ago, Aes Sedai." She answered. Halima stared at the pen with the same expression she stared at Logain, a mix of deep distaste and forced acceptance.

"Good, that is very good. I would like to have them too." Halima murmured in satisfaction, Dovevan's hands clutched her skirt tightly as the pen rose into the air without a hand touching it. It dipped in the inkbottle and scribed hastily on the paper. From where she was standing, Toviene couldn't see what Halima was writing. Leaneleaned against a wall and watched Halima and the seamstress with a wide grin, the woman made a joke of everything.

"The cats?" The seamstress asked incredibly.

"Yes! The cats, the young ones, not their mother," Halima said impatiently, "What else am I talking about?"

"Well, of course, Aes Sedai." The seamstress seemed to be ready to flee in horror, "I was worry who might take them, those are not the best times, you know. With that strange summer we'd and how it broke so abruptly. I feared that I might have to drown them, I can't have half a dozen of cats running around here, simply impossible, it took me almost a month to teach -"

"That is perfect," Halima said, "but I've other places to go today," In the same tone of voice, and in the Old Tongue, she said, "What would happened to us if Logain dies?"

Leane lost her grin, and Toviene felt her stomach sinking. It wasn't something she enjoyed thinking about. Despite what Logain had done to her, and because of that, she loved him. Love that had been forced on her, but love nonetheless, it had been long since she last felt that emotion, but she knew her heart well enough to admit her own feeling, even to herself alone.

"I asked him about it," Leane said slowly, "Each time he evaded the subject with enough skill to be mistaken for a Cairhienin. If to judge by the bond we Aes Sedai use, we would be dying corpses, living only to avende his death, without caring whatever we'll survive the task or not."

For ten heartbeats, Halima froze completely, her face unreadable mask, "And still you agreed to be his warder? He asked you to be his warder, and you agreed?" Incredibility was so heavy in Halima's voice that Leane laughed.

"I asked him to be my warder first, and I could hardly expect a man to do anything I wasn't ready to do." She replayed.

Halima raised an eyebrow, "For some reason, as long as I was a man, that is exactly what women expect me to do." Toviene opened her mouth, and closed it without saying a word, what could a woman tell to a woman that was a man? It was... peculiar, to say the least. She wondered how Logain handled it, considering her and Leane's suspicions about the bond; it must be twice as hard for him as it was to her to accept Halima. And ten times harder for Halima herself.

"Aes Sedai," Donevan said hesitantly, "I beg pardon, but, as I said, I've no knowledge in the Old Tongue."

"Never mind that," Halima said, "As I was saying, I need something special of you. I've enough with dresses. I need a full set of man's cloth, to my size, of course." The seamstress seemed to be relived to hear what Halima's special desires were. Toviene would have given much to know what the woman expect Halima to demand from her. "As I said, the money is not a problem. And I've two more wishes of you, dear." Halima continued, handing her the piece of paper that she asked few moments ago. "Have this embroider on every coat and shirt you're going to make for me."

The woman smiled, that was a well known ground for her. "Of course," She beamed at Halima, "But are you sure you would like man's cloths? It would be such a shame to put a body like yours in a man's cloths. I can make a lovely dress for, to make any man stare."

Toviene notice Leane wincing, it didn't took much to flare Halima's temper. "That is what I'm trying to avoid." The woman said, then she glanced down at herself and muttered something in the Old Tongue Toviene very much wished she didn't understood. The thing didn't sound probable, and until now, Toviene thought it impossible. "I fear that nothing could do much in that direction, this body is build to please men's eyes." And more, Toviene thought, but she had no wish to direct the woman's anger at her.

"As you say, Aes Sedai." Had Halima would have said she wanted man's cloths to fly, the seamstress would have accept it without a singe blink, no doubt.

"How much people you've?" Halima asked, facing the seating seamstress with stern pace.

"People?" The seamstress stared at Halima, beyond surprise after less than half an hour with the woman in her store. "Arafel has -"

"I meant," Halima cut her off with a voice that could have froze the Aryth ocean in a hot day, "how many people you've that are working for you? As seamstresses!"

"I've twenty girls that work for me, Aes Sedai." The woman said fearfully, Halima was clearly angry. "I will set five of them on your cloths, Aes Sedai. As soon as we're through the measurements, will you be here next week?"

"I said I've two demands of you, Donevan Kelir." Halima said sweetly, "As soon as the measurements will be done, I expect you to set every girl you've on my cloths, and fetch a needle for yourself as well. I'll have those cloths ten hours from now."

Ignoring entirely from protesting Donevan, Halima turned her head to them, "I expect the... measurements to take a while," She said, with deep distaste. "In the meantime, go outside and fetch me every kitty you can find, none of them may be old enough to open its eyes." Again, she used the Old Tongue.

"What are you going to do with cats?" Leane asked incredibly.

"I meant to live forever," Halima said absently. She lay one hand against the seamstress mouth, "Shush, we are trying to talk." She told her, in the same tone of voice Toviene would have used to school a novice. The seamstress eyes went wide with shock and indignation. But she was too fearful to do anything but obeying. Halima seemed to have no problems switching from the Old Tongue to Common, "Now, it seems that I'll have to die trying." A sad grin appeared on her face and was gone. "I died once," The shiver was almost invisible. "I've no intention of dying again, not so soon. And certainly not because I've let a man kiss me."

Toviene raised an eyebrow, "You let him; you were complaining that he bruised you when he tried both jumping you and kissing you at the same time." Halima's face took an interesting shade of pink.

"Never mind that," She said hastily, "I don't meant to die. That is the important thing! And if Logain dies..." She let her voice fade; Toviene was ready to give much to know the exact reason.

"You don't have to sound so practical about it!" Leane said, just short of a shout. "The man loves you!"

Halima let the hand she laid on the seamstress' mouth drop as she pointed sharply at herself, "Have you ever looked at me? Every man above fifteen falls in love with me on sight! Had I bothered paying any attention whatsoever to that I would have done nothing all day long but lying on back!"

Leane straighten her back, glaring down at the shorter woman, "Not that kind of love!" Leane shouted at her, "And you know it as well as I do!"

"At least, not only that kind of love." Toviene added, a little more calmly the Leane, but not much, was the woman blind as well as deaf to what happened in the back of her head?

Halima snorted, but said nothing for a moment, she seemed to be thinking, "Aes Sedai," Donevan almost begged, "Can we start the measurements? The sooner I could start the sooner I could finish," And get rid of mad Aes Sedai for good. But the last haven't said, although it was clear by her face.

"Go outside and find me some cats!" Halima ordered, releasing them with a graceful motion, "And remember, none of them must be old enough to open its eyes!"

"Cats!" Leane grumbled as the walked down the street, "I once was the Keeper of Chronicles! And now I'm being sent to fetch cats for that... infantile container of noxious..." She stopped; Leane wasn't half as good with curses as Halima was.

"Ideas?" Toviene suggested, "I'm sure she wouldn't have sent us to find cats if she hadn't had some use of them. Good use." Leane grumbled something about Trollocs and Halima that Toviene pretended not to hear. "She don't want Logain to die, somehow she will use the cats to help Logain survive. And that must be good."

"What is she going to do with cats a week old?" Leane asked, "Throw them at an attacking trollocs and expect it to stop to eat it while she run away?"

Toviene shrugged, "Maybe, but in the meantime, try stop sulking." She continued walking, leaving Leane behind her, glaring hard at her back, easily ignored.

"I want half the money," was the first thing Mistress Ataulf said to her as Miribai went downstairs from her room, after crying for more than half an hour in her room. Crying because the last scraps of freedom were finally taken from her. It took her nearly an hour to fix her appearance so she could leave her room with no evidence of last night's... events, although horrors would have been better to describe what the man did to her.

"What money?" Miribai asked; it would be for the best to pretend that last night never happened. She would take it an hour by hour; that was what she did when her mother died.

"I saw the man coming out of your room today, girl." Mistress Ataulf said sharply, "Don't play games with me! I told you when I got you to work here, if you take men to your room in my tavern, you give me half the money, now give it!" She held out a big, fat hand, and gave Miribai one of those stares that always made her shrink and swallow in terror.

Today, the glare had no affect on her; she was too tired and hopeless to let it touch her. With all her strength, she slapped Mistress Ataulf on her face and turned her back to the frozen women. "Come back here, you rotten wench!" The shout came just when Miribai opened the door. Miribai ignored it. She was too busy staring at the man who leaned just outside the building.

"I told you to go away," Since he left her he found time to take a bath, and changed his cloths. Black silk that nearly shined in the sun, it made her even more aware of her simple wool dress, or to that she left everything she had in the world in her room, and that she had no intentions whatsoever to return there.

"And I told you that I would never be able to do so, Miribai." He replayed calmly, "What ties us together affect me almost instantly. It would take a while for the affects to be felt on you. But that would happen, and when it does, you would need me as much as I need you."

"Is that an ultimatum?" Miribai asked, and began to walk away from him. She had no idea where she was heading to, Away from him, away from the tavern she had worked for five years in.

"I can give you none," Sethos said as he joined her. "Never."

"How sweet of you," She said acidly, "If you were that way yesterday, we wouldn't have this trouble at all!"

Guilt! Strong and sharp and burning inside him, "That was the first time I ever got really drunk, Miribai." He grimaced, "Considering the results, I think I will avoid being drunk ever again."

She slapped him, hard! She felt the pain in the back of her head, raged, she hardly noticed that, "Do you've any idea how many times I've heard men saying the same to women! Do you know how many times I've seen it being broken? Go away and let me live my own life."

"You can't!" He insisted. He caught her hand in his when she tried to slap him again, a strange feeling, feeling her hand both through the bond and as she always did, strange, and not unpleasant.

"I've been taking care of myself since I was six years old!" She shouted at him, not caring at all that people stared at her. "I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself!"

"Like you did last night?" He asked softly. He was no prettier in sun light, even cleaned. His eyes were the only think that saved him from being ugly. Even drunk there were big and soft and warm. Sober, they could make him, slightly, attractive, to the right woman, whom she was not, despite his claims.

"Last night," she said coldly, "I was facing a drunk man that can channel, I would know what to do next time I will encounter your kind."

"If you say so," He smiled.

She continued walking away from him; she needn't to glace back to know he was right behind her back. "I told you to go," She said without turning her head back to him.

"I rarely do what I'm being told to do." Sethos said, a foot behind her. "You might have noticed that."

"What do you want from me?" She exclaimed, turning back to face him. She had to dance back a few steps as to not to fall on him.

"Everything," He said, one finger tracing her cheekbone. She jerk back from his touch, but he only smiled, sadly, she thought. "Mind and soul and heart and body, Miribai." He said, very slowly, "I want it all. You've my heart tied to you, along with my soul. I can hardly stop thinking of you." His grin spread wider, "All is left now is to you to accept it before you can have my body as well." Did men think of nothing else?

People turned to stare at the pretty woman with wool dress that, in the middle of the street, slapped, with all her might, to an Asha'man that could easily pick her up with one hand.

Hand burning in pain, and a cheek that burned in the back of her mind, Miribai turned her back firmly to the disgusting man, and walked gracefully away from him. This time, he hadn't tried to follow.

"Seven hundreds twenty six!" Toviene said coldly, more shouted than said, in fact, "We've gathered seven hundreds twenty six kitties for you! And none of them with its eyes open! Do you've any idea how much time it took us? How much effort? Cats never attack Aes Sedai! Not unless there is Aes Sedai fool enough to try to takes the kitties away! Seven hundreds twenty six, and you say it's not enough."

Halima ignoredToviene entirely; she was staring admirably at the small creature she held gently in her hand. It fit perfectly into her palm, with nearly golden fur, it looked a little like an angry dog, since the ears almost didn't exist at the moment. "This would be perfect, Toviene." She whispered in awe. Leane stared at the woman, then at the small fur-covered creature. She could see nothing to define it from the Seven hundreds twenty-five other furry creatures that were spread all over Halima's room, bed and furnishers.

"And what were you doing, Halima?" Leane asked, seven hours of searching for small, furry, creatures that seemed to be made of little else save claws and teeth, and the woman simply disappeared in the air. When they returned to Dovevan's store, the terrified woman told them that after the measurements were done, Halima stepped through a big hole that opened in the air. Luckily, Toviene was just strong enough to make a useful gateway. You swore you wouldn't grave your lost strength any more, woman! You've saidar, however weakly, and it's far more than you could ever wished to have.

"I told you, Leane." Halima said impatiently, "I needed to set up a network, you can just dream it, you've to make one."

"I've set up a network of my own, Halima." Leane said, forcing patient into her voice. "No one can dream a network, a network you dream about remains a dream."

Halima gave her a peculiar look, "I tend to forget how much knowledge you... Aes Sedai lost." She said softly, in almost a whisper. "Suffice to say that I already had a network of eye and ears ready. I never trusted Friends of the Dark to be very good spies. A man or a woman that are ready to give information to the shadow knowingly aren't to be trusted."

Leane raised an eyebrow, "And what exactly did you do?"

Halima threw her head back and laughed, "I never claimed I'm to be trusted, Leane. Never!"

Toviene sniffed, "Tell us something new."

Halima shrugged, "No one knows where the borderlands' rulers are, from Shienar to Saldea, the kings and queens simply disappeared from the face of earth."

"Where did you heard that?" Leane said, her own network had reported nothing of the like.

"Few servants that couldn't keep their mouths close at the sight of me." Halima said with a slight grimace. "As it is, I've convinced few men the last six hours that we've an affair. They would do practically anything for me." She grimaced fiercely, "If Logain wouldn't have forbade me to use Compellation, it would have been much easier."

"You, above all," Toviene said sharply, "shouldn't be so eager to use Compellation. Logain's bond ties us to him through Compellation! We're forced to do what he wishes us to do because he Compel us to do so! And you speak of using against others?"

"I'm not so sure that the bond is based of Compellation," Halima said quietly, fondling the little creature in her arms, "The weave is as complex as anything I've learn in the Academy, I'm surprised that the Asha'man managed to come up with something as sophisticated. But still, it's wrong, unsafe to use. And will probably kill any man if he would try to use it. It doesn't make sense!"

"Have you tried to ask Logain?" Leane said.

"Bah!" Halima growled, and added something in the Old Tongue, Trolloc's mating ceremonies, if Leane got it right. Logain wouldn't be pleased to find his name there. "Prying answers from the Dark One is easier than from this man!"

Toviene laughed suddenly, two sets of eyes focusing on her, "Before we would begin to discuss men, why wouldn't you decide what you're going to do with seven hundreds twenty six kitties? They would be hungry soon, and they could starve very easily."

Halima blinked, for a moment, she looked startled, then three or four dozens of small kitties rose from to bed, and into the floor, carried by saidin, the male half of the True Source, woven by a woman.

Halima sat on the space she had freed and stared at the kitty she held, then, in a very low voice, she began cursing. The vilest curses Leane have ever heard. The Old Tongue gave Halima large freedom when expressing her ideas; and the woman stressed the language's borders.

Not surprisingly, the word that repeated more times than any other was Logain's name.

Relin trembled inside as she held the handle to the door of The Drunken Bull, a tavern the sort she had been warned again and again not to come near to. She had never been allowed before even to consider enterring such a place. It was, as her nanny put it. A place unsuitable for a young lady, or any woman at all, at least not the kind of women that work on their feet instead of their back. She was seventeen, Light! Dimor was in her name day party, she should have known her age, but she still thought the girl in her charge was too young to understand her words. She was twelve no longer! "Don't you like to know what kind of women work on their back?" She whispered to Shoni, her friend since they both were in the cradle.

"I'm not that sure that I would like to meet a woman that is..." Shoni hesitated, flushed and finished in a whisper, "working on her back, Relin."

"Nonsense, Shoni," Relin said in confident she didn't really felt, her curiosity put her in trouble before, and would put her to trouble in the future, she was sure. So there was no reason why she would get in trouble now. "Can you imagine yourself another time where we can be free before we both will have gray hair?"

"That is why I'm worried, Relin." Shoni said, she was always the cautious one, while she was the one who got the pair of them in troubles. "What if one of those men is in here? It looks like a place they would enjoy of." Not much chance of that, unfortunately, the men seemed to vanish slowly from the city, one by one, there were no more displays in the skies, and hardly any evident whatsoever to the tainted male half of the True Source being used.

"I always wanted to see a man that could channel." Relin said cheerfully, opening the door, "We weren't allowed to see Logain." Their parents protected them in a shell that resembled too much to a dungeon. Shoni heard about the Asha'man coming into Caemlyn accidentally, when she entered a room with her parents discussing the subject, and she was sent to her room like a child when they saw her. That attitude made Relin want to scream, and Shoni, although much more calm in her reaction, was just as annoyed by this treatment. Did their parents truly think that their daughters were complete idiots? Foolish enough not to understand what the grand display in the skies were?

Until today, the biggest adventure she had in her life was when a boy stole a kiss when Dimor wasn't looking. Shoni was caught kissing a boy in a dark corner in a garden, and Relin envied her to this day for that adventure. Even though she and Shoni were parted for a whole month, it was worth it. Both she and Shoni cried when they rejoined. None ever felt quite right without the other.

"They aren't just men, Relin. They can channel, and I don't want to be near one of them when he would go mad, or see one of them rotting." Shoni stated the last with a glare and a stubbornly held her head. "If you want to see men, we can go elsewhere, and pretend they can channel."

"I fear you don't have any luck here," A man emerged from the shadows, his voice amused to no end, obviously he listen to the entire conversation. Shoni jumped and breathed too quickly, her hand clutching a belt knife that Shoni's parents made sure that could hardly harm a piece of bread even if Shoni would use all her strength.

"We... we... have money for you if you want it." Shoni said in trembling voice, "Just... just don't hurt us." Relin stood frozen, looking at the dark figure in fear. That was what came from her wish for adventures. They were about to robbed, and only robbed, if they were lucky.

"I fear you run out of all the luck you had," The man said again as he stepped out of the shadows, yet, somehow, he seemed to carry some of the shadows with him. "I'm not after money, and I fear that I'm neither mad nor rotting." He made a perfect bow, "Although I fear I might start raving soon, staring at your collective beauty." Relin laughed weakly, her mind screaming warnings, the man wore black; she was desperately hoping that Shoni wouldn't make the connection. But her childhood friend was too busy staring admirably at the man. Anger well up in her, she had been forced to admit that there was more than enough to in that man. The only common physical character between her and Shoni was their height, too tall to be pretty, as Dimor mourned often. Yet the man was a full head higher then the any of them. He had dark long hair that reached his shoulder and was tied back with a wide leather cord, she couldn't be sure about the color of his eyes... yet assumed they were deep brown. He was too perfect to be real, one of the biggest man she'dever seen. And no doubt strong enough to lift her up in the air with one hand, or to break her neck with one twist of those huge hands.

He was too... too... himself to let him stay near her any moment more than necessary, the kind of man she loathed at site. The kind of man her parents would think as perfect for her husband. Someone that could tame your wild nature, she had to stay away from him or else she would try doing something unforgivable to him. "If you excuse us," She said to him, as politely as she could, "we would like to go inside the inn, it's cold here."

"It's, isn't it?" He said, sounding slightly surprised, his cloths were light, and he couldn't have unnoticed the cold, maybe he was too poor to allow himself other cloths, maybe he wasn't an Asha'man, and maybe, just maybe, she could control that sudden urge to giggle hysterically. Common sense, rusty after no being used for so long, advised her to leave with Shoni, that still stared at the black clad man as if she never seen a man before in her life. And never mind that she had been dragged to dark corners in her own house to be kiss by a man six years older than her.

She tried to open the door when he put his palm on it, stopping her with the door open just enough she could see safety, yet not reach it. "I think that this is the first time anyone named The Drunken Bull an inn," Said, amused, then his tone became serious, "I fear I can not allow you to enter here." He said quietly, "This is no place for the like of you."

"Enough!" Relin exclaimed, that Shoni was still looking at him like he was a candy, and as if Shoni was half way to starve set her fury higher than it have ever been before. "I've heard enough lectures to suffice for a dozen life times. I'm tired and sick of what I can and can't do. I'd enough of my parents telling me to do, I'm seventeen years old and I'm - "

"Foolish enough to risk that pretty neck of yours for a stolen adventure." The man said darkly, "You should have listened to your mother, girl." He moved forward suddenly, and somehow, lifted her to his shoulders as if she weighted no more than a feather. "Come!" He ordered Shoni; "I've other things to do than take care of two lost puppies."

"Let me down this instance!" She shouted at him, and added a few words from her small vocabulary of the words she wasn't supposed to know, had Dimor would have heard her she might be switched! But she would have kiss Dimor, the old witch, and accept any punishment whatsoever gladly just to be back in her bed. How many times she had been warned? Now she passed the limit, and, Light burns her, she had taken Shoni with her. And the man might kill them, or worse, and it was all her fault!

Yet she wasn't about to give up, not as long as there is the smallest chance of escaping. Kicking with her feet done no good, neither hitting his back with her fists. She screamed, as loudly as she could. The men inside the tavern must have heard her, why none of them came to check what was going on.

"Put that thing down!" She heard the man ordering Shoni; "You might kill a small mice with it, but nothing beyond it!"

"Let Relin down!" Shoni said, her voice shaking, clearly she was panicked, but she didn't run away, it made Relin proud of her. And, at the same time, endlessly frustrated with the bloody woman.

"You, too, have the common sense of a goat?" The man asked, and Relin had to close her mouth tightly to avoid throwing up as she was tangled like a sack as the man lift screaming Shoni on his other shoulder, He hadn't took his left hand from around her waist, it set her in her place as well as any steel chain would have, the knife, if such thing deserve the name, laid on the floor. Relin saw it as the man began walking away from The Drunken Bull, where no one bothered to see why a woman was screaming in the middle of the night.

"What are you going to do to us?" Shoni whispered fearfully, after it became clearly that trying to get away would help nothing.

"What I'm going to do to you," The man grumbled in a deep voice, "Is to take you somewhere when I can explain you what almost happened to you tonight. And I'm going to make sure that this lecture would remain in your mind, even if I've to make sure you would seat lightly for the rest of your life."

It wasn't half as bad as Relin imagine herself it would be. But it was still unacceptable. The man seemed to be unaffected completely by her struggles, or Shoni's, if anything, she suspected he was amused!

She no longer recognized the part of the city they were in and that sent chill into her heart, they was totally depended on his mercy, Shoni's face took a green color long ago. And Relin's stomach felt just the same, she was so sick that she clanged to the man, I don't know even his name! She thought furiously, closing her eyes helped, but only a little.

"This place I know well enough for Traveling," the man grumbled loudly to himself. She shoved fingernails into his coat and shirt, trying to hurt him somehow. Shoni moaned loudly, she seemed ready to lose the content of her stomach on the man's back. "Here," The man said, and tried to settled them both on the ground at the same time, which only managed to bump her against Shoni. She was too sick in her stomach to even notice him, falling to her knees, she threw up everything she since she was nine years old, or so it felt. She heard Shoni doing the same near her, with the man whose name she didn't know kneeling near her, talking softly.

When she rose to her feet, he offered her a handkerchief to wipe her mouth. Shoni was seated on a low stone bench, and she was pushed beside Shoni. "Why did you have to make this to us," Shoni asked, holding her stomach hard, she seemed to trying fight the urge to sick up again. "And why did you carried us for so long, that hurt." Shoni's admiration to the man was completely gone; no doubt they both would have bruises, which should teach me to listen to mom and pop. She thought sadly. There were tears in Shoni's eyes.

"Because, you wool headed idiots," He said, nearly shouting, "Had you entered that place the way you are, dressed in silk and staring big eyes at everything. You would have been lucky if they would have slit your throat first and then rape you, if you wouldn't have been so lucky, that could have been the other way around!" He stared at them and signed tiredly, "Do you understand what I'm talking about," he asked, obviously expecting a negative answer.

"Of course we do!" Shoni, sweat Shoni, that never threw a tantrum in her life, shouted at him. All Relin could do was seat down and wonder how her brilliant plan would have ended. She felt sick, and not for the voyage on the man's shoulder anymore. "What I want to do is what gave you the right to haul us the way you did half way around the city! Like we were nothing more than two bags of loaf!"

"If we would have stayed there few more minutes, we would have been attacked," the man said coldly, "and I don't think I would have love to kill them, not today, at least. And, in case you haven't noticed, I carried you for quarter of a mile only!" He turned his back toward them, and began to pace the length of the yard he brought them to; it was small, and smelly! With only that bench to decorate it, houses that seemed too old to keep standing surrounding it. Relin rose to her feet, they felt like water, "Let us go," She said quietly, because she thought she might begin crying any moment, "I... thank you for... saving us, but now I want to go home."

"And who is going to guard you after I'll put you in your beds?" The man said, turning to face her, looming above her in the darkness of night. "The way I see it, you will skim tomorrow's night to another place, twice as dangerous!"

"Listen to me, you goat faced horse kisser," Relin hissed at him, "I'm not about to let you go half a mile from my bed, not to mention anything to put me in it! All I want you is to leave us alone! Are you too stupid to understand it?"

"No, but you're too naive to be true," His laugh made her grit her teeth. "But I think I might have a solution for you."

He stood five feet away from her, but he crossed the space in a single heartbeat, and grasped her head in his hand, titling her eyes to meet his. He didn't hurt her, but she couldn't move her head a hair width. And then, he kissed her, actually kissed her.

She could have counted the times she had been kissed on two hands with much room to spare, and all those times were only when Dimor was away. Both her and Shoni's parents were rich merchants, and they over guarded their daughters. Neither hers nor Shoni's parents, who, like their children,practically grew together, were born rich, but they gained wealth and power, and, by the small snatches of stories she could pry from her parents, and what Shoni heard while eavesdropping, the path to wealth wasn't neither paved neither smooth.

But they have every intention to make sure that their daughters would lack nothing, save freedom. They meant to make sure that they wouldn't have to go through what they'd to in their own youth, and didn't understand that they created something, that, in Relin's and Shoni's eyes, was far worse.

The man kissed her, and all thought fled as warmth flowed into her from his lips, sweet warmth, that filled her to bursting. She was a butterfly flying over a flower field, enjoying the warmth of the sun, a hawk searching for a prey, but also flying for the sheer joy of flying, an oak near river, old enough to see Arthur Hawkwing, listening to the birds' talk. It was like... like something she never felt or dreamed about before.

All those dreams of what she thought as pleasuring couldn't compare to this. It was... it ended, just as she was about to decide what it was. Leaving her gasping for air and weak knees, she clutched to him, the man without name, clutched to him hard. She could think coherently, only that he was there, and... that was all that was important to her, somehow, for some reason, even thought she loathed him.

"Don't worry, pretty girl," She heard him saying, but it wasn't directed to her, who was he talking with? Was there anyone here? Shoni? The name had some meaning to her; it had to. "Your turn would come soon too." The man said, and suddenly she felt like crying and laughing in the same time.

Stepping through the gateway, Logain showed no sign that the Cleansing of saidin had any affect on him whatsoever. Rage burn pleasure away, he seized control on himself with iron fist. One slip, and the Light alone know what he might do. Halima could feel it, as clearly as she could feel her own emotions. Carefully she set the gorgeous creature she held aside. The man simply disappeared for two days, without a word coming from him, and he was on the edge throughout those two days constantly. She wasn't worried about him, of course; in fact, she fell in love twice the last two days with Logain gone.

The first she fell in love with was the little kitty that lay on her bed, either sleeping or eating most of the time. She had done so before, of course, but always under others' supervision. It took her longer then she expected, manipulating it, but once she finished with the general design, it went quickly, she finished more than half of the kitties already.

She had some talent in those areas, but she pushed her limits here. And, of course, she had to avoid killing the little creatures, which was why she used infants, their endurance to the kind of manipulation she was using was amazing. But still, if lucky, she could finish with seven or eight kitties per hour. With Seven hundreds twenty-six kitties to work on, and only a day and a half to work with, she pushed it and finished nearly three hundreds. She kept that little golden kitty for herself, the rest where stored in Logain's room. And Leane and Toviene's eyes glared at her every time their eyes laid on her. None like to... baby seat a bunch of small, smelly ugly creatures, as Toviene put it. Especially since Halima came up with a way to feed the kitties, she was just glad they obeyed, the kitties were important. Although she wanted to make it a surprise, to everyone, which was why she had told the two as near nothing as she could.

As she walked to the door, to find out what the man was scheming now, not because she missed him, she savored her new love. She had no idea how much she missed breach until she had them again. She burned every dress in her wardrobe to ashes, just to make a point for Logain. Some men, and him included, for sure, apparently had very strange ideas about women's proper place. If Logain would dare saying a single word about her clothing, she would set his hair on fire!

He traveled to the main rooms of their quarters, he felt like he wanted to strangle something. Halima watched aghast, nearly seventy five women passed through the gate, most of the women in dresses cried,the others, those who wore breach and coats much like her own, but in gray and brown and green instead of the darkest black possible, stood rigid, moving as if every movement caused them endless pains. They glared at anyone, anything, for some reason, large numbers of the glares were directed at her, most women were jealous of her. It often amused her to no end, not now.

"Do you collect them in groups now, Logain?" Halima asked acidly, staring at the woman that followed. He ignored her; she had to thank the bond for that, had anyone else dared taunting him at the moment...

"Toviene, Leane take care or all of the women. Halima, I need you with me." He ordered, tying the weave of the gateway at the same time. Halima grimaced; she hated being ignored more than she hated being a woman.

He didn't look back, the sight of the women was probably more than enough to break his self control at the moment, if what she understood what he was feeling. He was on the corridors of the Dragonmount before she could make more than three steps to follow him.

"Have you sat on a sharp thorn, Logain Albar?" Halima said sardonically, she had to run to catch up with him. "What has set you aflame like that, you son of mule?" She put a hand on his arm and stopped him, "I've no intention of going anywhere unless you begin to speak." She said seriously, clear green eyes glaring at him.

"Apparently," He said through clenched teeth, "The Asha'man has no more self control than any sheep I've met."

"Oh," She rose an eyebrow and grinned, "That surprised you. You don't seem to have much the last few days." His glare slide right past her, after facing Shaidar Haran's glare, it only widened her grin. "What have they done to anger you?" She titled her head to one side, "I can think of several things that I would have done had I had a reason to celebrate." She glanced down at herself, "That is, if I weren't in this... body." The last came out as a whisper; she hoped he didn't hear her. Logain shake his head slightly, he didn't like to be reminded who, and what, she was. Neither did she, for that matter. "It doesn't matter anymore, isn't it?" Halima muttered with a twisted grin, "At least not with anything I'm ready to do. What have they done?" What he would have done had he been in her place? The thought made her grin.

"Every last one of them abandoned the Black Tower and went to Caemlyn." He said, by his face, he would like very much to have one of the Asha'man in front of him, to punch him in the nose, or strangle him. "They gave the citizen every reason to believe they all gone mad!"

Halima shrugged, "You weren't very coherent lately, Logain." She reminded him, just in case he didn't know it himself.

"The last couple of days are a reason to doubt my sanity," she thought she heard him whispering.

"They would calm down sooner or later, the same as you did. It's no reason to be that much angry." Silently she cursed him and his curiosity, a woman channeling saidin; that was something he couldn't believe, and when she tried to kill him... Killing her - if he could, they were almost equal in strength - was impossible. So he taken her as a warder instead, and all her troubles began.

"You're doing it in purpose, doesn't you?" He questioned in a tight voice. She enjoyed taunting him, bringing him to the edge. So far she counted three dozens times when she was sure only the bond stopped him from trying to kill her.

She stared at him with surprise; big emerald eyes staring at him in a way that she knew that was making him want to strangle her. She had absolute control on her face, now, at least, inside his head; all the man would feel would be only amusement and slight regret. "What are you talking about?" She asked, any judge would have convicted her, no human being could be that innocent. She practiced that expression long ago; it worked as well when she was a woman as it did when she was a man.

"Never mind," He muttered, raking a hand through his hair. She couldn't recall when she last felt him asleep, he couldn't sleep, at first, when saidin raging in him, so pure that it brought tears to him eyes. And nothing in the world could make him lose the One Power; a dream that he never let himself believe in became true. And now he had to face the not so pleasant results. "They didn't suffice in leaving the Black Tower, they seemed to lost all control of themselves. I don't think that they harmed anyone, not intentionally, at least, but as far as I've seen, every man or women in Caemlyn is in terror. And that is not the worst of it." In a whispered he thought she wasn't hearing he added, "Burn Far Derais Mai! And burn every woman along with them!"

"Oh?" Halima said with a grin when he stop in a junction between two corridors and tried to remember which one would lead him to his destination. This place was deliberately created as a maze. "Where are you going anyway?"

"To find Rand bloody al'Thor! Where else!" He said as he took the left turn, "He need to know about it, someone has to take control over the Asha'man, and Taim simply disappeared, if we have any luck, the man couldn't control saidin when he felt it clean at last and died. But Taim isn't the kind of man to make us such a favor."

"Why don't you try to calm down, Logain?" Halima suggest, her voice dropping honey and acid at the same time. "This corridor will take you nowhere, Lews Therin's rooms are that way." She walked into the right corridor, ignoring his curses.

Following her, he asked, "Did he return?" The last he had seem the Dragon Reborn, he fled from a woman who claims to be Ilyena, his long dead wife. Halima wasn't so sure about the woman's identity. Something was... wrong in her, she knew, but she couldn't say what it was. But death changed you in many ways, some of them greater than you could imagine.

"I don't think so," She said absently, "Why not you?"

"Why not I what?" He asked, his temper boiling.

"You said that someone has to take control over the Asha'man, why not you?" He nearly tripped his own feet to her words.

"The Light save me from that!" He called, startled. "The only time I was in command was when I led my army, and I only did that because I'd to save my throat. It was the only way to avoid the Aes Sedai." And even that failed, at the end, he shivered at the memories. She could identify with him. "It was enough for a dozen life times."

Halima took a turn in another level crossing, not slowing for a heartbeat, "Why? What happened?"

He deliberately misinterpret her question, she would pry the information out of him, sooner or later. "Every last man who knew how the weave, and had the strength to do so had taken a warder, or more than one!" Halima sucked in a breath with a hiss, yet she said not a word. "Now do you understand what I'm angry about?" He nearly cut off his tongue trying to swallow the words.

"I understand perfectly well," Halima said emotionlessly, and Logain fell silent, as her temper nearly escaped her control again.

"You know, Logain," She said pleasantly as they came closer to Lews Therin's rooms. "You're a true, rare example of unattractive loaf of musty foot fungus." He stopped on his track, staring at her back in amazement.

"What did I did this time?" He asked, he truly didn't understand.

One frustration Halima clearly remembered from the days she was still a man, she hadn't turned her head to him as she continued walking. "If you don't know, Logain bloody Ablar," She said, using her sweetest voice. "I'm not about to tell you."

His pained groaned sounded like music to her ears.

He emerged from the shadows that hided him, black on black, he was nearly invisible as he came near the woman, lying with her eyes closed on the pallet spread on the floor. Despite having her eyes close and her breathing even, she was awake, something the man knew even before he kneel by her side. "How did you pass the guards?" Hate was easily found in the voice and in her too. Hate and bitterness and half a dozen of other emotions she couldn't name. All focusing around the man kneeling near her pallet, she held a long dagger hidden beneath the blankets, and was more than ready enough to use it.

"You know what I'm, Lessa. The guards didn't even saw me." He whispered to her, did he think that if he would whisper the rest of the maiden wouldn't wake? They knew he was coming. Asha'man arrived all day long, very often with grim faces, to take their warders, the truth about what the Asha'man did upon kissing had became common knowledge far too late.

Lessa could understand it; her... situation was too humiliating to speak about, not to anyone. The silence was understood, no one could ever imagine that there would be so many Asha'man would take warders among the maidens. "You sent me flowers!" She accused him. Still with her back turned on him and eyes closed.

"I did," Surprise was strong in his voice, "What is wrong with that?"

"Barbarian!" Lessa muttered. "You don't even understand what you've done!"

"I send a bunch of roses to my warder," Eldan Delvar said slowly, "Why are you so annoyed?"

She rose to a seating position, hugging her knees to her chest, and looked at him, "Among us, it's the woman, or women, that ask a man to marry them." Wetlander had it the other way around; they were truly barbarians.

"I know, I spend the last day at the palace library, searching for anything about the Aiels." He said softly; then rose an eyebrow, "Are you intend to ask me to marry you? If so, I would gladly accept - " She tried to punched him, hard, straight on his nose. He moved his head quickly, and she hit only air. The strength of the blow sent her fumbling into him.

A spear hit a buckler, and the maidens lying in the pallets all over the room rose. They have all the warning the needed. "Light, woman!" Eldan exclaimed as she fell against him. "I understand strange customs, but it's quite impossible for you to rape me!"

Hissing with indignation, she tried to hit him in the ribs, and was rewarded by something lifting her up in the air. "I had enough!" Eldan growled, rising to his feet, only to find that he was facing dozen maidens,fully clothed and armed, all veiled.

"You can't have me," Lessa said calmly, forcing panic down, Light, she was three feet in the air, held by nothing. "If you try, they will stop you."

He glanced at her, with a grin that made her want to shiver. "You're forgetting who I'm." He said calmly, then returned his eyes to the maidens, "How it will be?" He asked calmly, not showing the slightest sign of fear, he didn't feltfear, only amusement and confidant. She would gladly kick his bottom, hard. "One by one or all of you together?"

Arolin snorted, they were friends since they had wedded the spears, often considering of saying the vows that would make them into first sisters. She had been taken warder too, although her Asha'man was yet due to come, Arolin didn't doubt he would come. "We follow ji'e'toh, wetlander."

"How lovely," Eldan said slowly, "unfortunately, I don't." He smiled harder, saying that.

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~Barid Bel Medar & The Soulless Home's authors group