Fanfic:A Clash of Minds
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The damp walls glittered in the flickering torchlight, occasionally interrupted by dancing shadows cast by those who writhed in the dark. Echoing sounds of water dripping mixed with agonized screams filled the corridors, fading as they spread farther into the maze of black stone. Somewhere a hissing sound rose, to be followed by yet another ghostly scream to join the others in the catacombs. Rats scurrired along the dwindling hallways, little black eyes peering at those who cowered behind iron doors and bars. They no longer tried to catch the animals for food, having long since experienced seemingly endless punishments for attempting to lay a hand on His servants.
A darker patch in the firelit shadows appeared, then vanished, only to appear further up the hallway an instant later. A trick of the eye perhaps, caused by months of starvation and constant fear. Perhaps. Those who had long ago forgotten the names and faces of loved ones knew the horrors of their dark world, knew when to cower and when to wish for death. Now, they pressed themselves to the wet wall, clutching their tattered rags and staring at the moving darkness in the shadows with panicked gazes. The myrddraal emerged, the newly forged sword glistening as the fade turned it slowly before their eyes.
Breathing had ceased to exist.
Faster than their shredded minds could comprehend, the myrddraal was inside the cell, its dark cloak filling their vision and becoming their world for their last moments.
Far above, perched on the battlements of the black fortress was a pale figure seemingly wrapped in a dark cloak. Its wide eyes were fixed on the tall woman standing beside it, its unnaturally red mouth pursed in a greedy grimace. The woman, straight-backed and regal in her posture, had her gaze fixed beyond the horizon. She let the wind tousle her long black hair and pull at her deep green dress as it wished. Her face wore a mask of grim satisfaction, her hands knuckling where they rested on the massive stone before her. Her steelgrey eyes shone with a triumphant glitter as she spoke the words that filled her mind. They were nothing more than a breath, carried away as soon as they left her lips.
"Yes, come to me my darling... Come swiftly, brave general..." Almaeda Sedai of the Black Ajah felt the strings of her plan come together in one knot, a knot which would then be unravelled by the removal of a certain strand. She couldn't keep a chuckle from escaping her lips.
The draghkar moved to her left, and she turned to it, eyes ablaze. Reaching forth with saidar, she was suddenly brimming with it, feeling its sweetness add to the growl in her voice when she spoke.
"Do you remember everything now, filthy creature? Do you remember what will happen if you fail?"
Her black hair pushed back by the wind framed her white face, encompassing the lines of rage that touched her features. The draghkar, caught in flows of Air and crackling Fire whimpered and tried to shy back. Almaeda wouldn't let it, but held its gaze fixed until it nodded desperately. Reluctantly releasing the One Power, the Black Sister threw her arm out, gesturing for it to fly.
"Then leave, servant, and bring me my possession."
Watching as the draghkar took off, leaving the black fortress behind and heading for the army she knew was moving in their direction, Almaeda had her lips pressed tightly together. She had done things that would have sent an ordinary man's mind into oblivion to that creature, and she could only hope its fear for her was greater than its lust to feed.
The draghkar flew across the land shrivelled and misshapen by the slowly invading Blight. Hills gave way to crooked riverbeds, long since dried out and overhanged with gnarled trees twisting on the rocky slopes. It flew higher, above the wind that threatened to drive it back to its waiting mistress. Flashes of red pain filled its vision for a moment, and it shrieked, a wordless howl that caused the little animals on the ground to hide. The draghkar would obey its mistress today.
It had done this journey several times during the last weeks, scouting for those above it, yet by orders from the Great Lord. Fragments of memories rushed through its mind, images of soaring far above the vast plains south of the Blight and looking down on the humans trailing along the lighter stretch in the grass. The draghkar hadn't been told the reasons behind the task, but it didn't need to. Its mind was uncomplicated, and it had only to follow the one they had showed him between the flashes of pain. Again it screeched, using the leverage of a wind from beneath to fly higher. The image of the man they wanted was imprinted in its mind, and the draghkar knew the human had been a nuissance to the Shadow for a long time. His scoutings had taken him to the place where this man lived and back to the Blight, time and time again. Only this time, the man wouldn't go back to the other stone building.
Batting its wings one last time, the creature landed on a hill crest some hundred paces from the battle scene. The noise was deafening, trollocs snarling and screaming, weapons clanging together, horses neighing and shrieking as they died. Three myrddraal stood a little way off, directing their bonded trollocs by means the draghkar couldn't begin to comprehend. Its large black pools that were its eyes took in the scene without blinking, and then it rose again. Soundless, like a shadow it rose above the fighting humans and trollocs, soaring high and trying to discern he whom it was sent to find. The myrddraal, attentive to the sign they had been waiting for, flowed forward as one to join the battle. A large number of trollocs turned from their current engagement in fighting and headed for one man. Yes. The draghkar flew lower, spiralling through the air as it licked its full lips. The general of this battle, still mounted on a tall warhorse that was kicking and biting where it could. The man was tall too, broadshouldered and clad in armor that was clotted with blood. His face was hidden from view by a helmet, adorned with a half moon lying on its side. Baring its needlesharp teeth in something that could have been taken for a smile, the draghkar descended further and began to sing.
For a moment, everything seemed to slow, the battle dragging out in time as faces turned upward and swords were halted in midair. The draghkar greeted them with spread arms as it flew, singing to them in its eerie voice that lulled their senses and drew them to it. Only one man did not slow, refusing to give in to the compelling sweetness of its voice. Increasing the strength of its song, the draghkar landed at the end of the welling mass of bodies. The general was surrounded now, by trollocs frenetically hacking at him, urged on by the three myrddraal. They wouldn't kill him, they too had received orders from the mistress, but nothing had been said about harming his body.
Focusing all its will and voice on that single man, the draghkar watched with pleasure as the large sword sunk down, one inch at a time. The man was a fierce fighter, it could tell, but not even he would resist the song forever. The warleader reached up, trying to stuff his ears to prevent sound from reaching him, but the helmet was in the way. Slowly, ever so slowly, the man slid from his horse into an embrace of a dozen trollocs ready to bring him down. Letting its voice rise a pitch, the draghkar warned the soldiers of the Shadow not to finish the man, but to bring him forth. They did as they were told, of course, their myrddraal leading the way. Never allowing his song to cease, the draghkar took flight again and turned its head the way it had come. Now lasted only the journey back, and the man would of course prove no problem. Again, the draghkar bared its teeth in that unnatural grin.
In the background, the fighting blossomed anew, humans going insane from the compelling song and being prevented from reaching it. Few noticed their leader being led away. Fewer still returned to their homes to tell about it, and those who did were deaf, or nearly so.
Almaeda Sedai tugged her leather gloves off her slender hands, one finger at a time. A malicious smile played on her lips as she thought of today's work. The man was tough, she gave him that, but after three days in her care, even he had started to scream. For the moment, the general of the northenmost fortress in Shienar hung suspended in threads of Air in a room as dark as if it had been buried. In a way it had, chiseled out from the black rock that made up this...building was too weak a word... this place of nightmares for those who threaded in the pitiful Light.
Snarling, Almaeda threw the gloves aside on the bed as soon as she entered her room. Her apartment here was luxurious to say the least. A giant bed stood to one side, covered in heavy blankets and large pillows. Velvet curtains were drawn back to reveal the starlit nightsky outside, and the walls were adorned with hangings depicting scenes from the Breaking and afterwards, when the Shadow had been victorious. All furniture were made of a dark wood that could only be found on certain islands off the coast of Arad Doman, and gilded till they shone in the dim torchlight. With a wave of her hand, the Black Sister touched the weave encompassing the room with a fine thread of Spirit, and the light increased. Before she could sit down in the cushioned chair by her nightstand, however, she became aware of someone already in the room. Someone occupying her personal chair, in which she dealt punishments to those who deserved it. Swirling around, eyes lit with furious lightning, she had saidar ready for a weave that would not only leave the person skinless, but also babbling like a fool.
A tiny raise of one finger from the person in her chair, and saidar was gone from her mind as quickly as if it never had been there. Her eyes bulging, Almaeda found herself swallowing as she threw herself to the floor.
How does he do it? Why is it that I never know when he comes? My weaves should be enough!
Kneeling on the thick carpet, Almaeda let her eyes focus on the wines that patterned the fabric beneath her, while she worked frantically to get her mind under control. Still, when he spoke, it took her by surprise. As always.
"My servant... I believe you have some information for me?"
His voice was a hiss, clad in frost and underlying threats so thick that she wanted to cringe. Suppressing the babbling voice that was on the verge of sending her into a likewise babbling tirade, Almaeda forced herself to reply in a neutral voice.
"I am striving to bring you only the truth, Master. This man, he... He is hard as heartstone, and I must thread carefully if I'm to keep his mind intact enough to answer me. It will come, Master, tomorrow he will speak!"
The silence that followed was stunning. Almaeda wanted to get up and run, her body ached for it with physical pain. Blinking, she realized a drop of sweat had trickled down her brow. She stared at it, unable to think, focusing on the damp spot in the carpet. Thus, the first blow on her back caught her unprepared, and she fell forward as the air left her lungs completely.
She couldn't even scream as the lashes continued, tearing her dress apart and crackling her skin like lightning on stone. Panting, the only thought that whirled in her mind was
I'm dying he's killing me I'm dying
Her body jerked in spasms of pain, but she couldn't do anything to hold herself together. Nothing.
Much later, Almaeda lifted her head from the bloody carpet to fasten her spinning vision on her Master's boots. He was saying something, and she knew she had to listen or she would truly be dead.
Dead? I am dead already! I've failed!
Suppressing the thought was an impossibility, but she steeled herself from the terror she felt and bent her mind to hearing the ice cold voice that spoke to her.
"...will not fail me, servant. Go back to him tonight, and finish the task that has been given you. If I hear you haven't tried hard enough..."
The unfinished sentence made her shiver, suddenly cold to the bone. She could only nod pathetically in response. And then he was gone, as silently and swiftly as always.
Almaeda let her head sink down on the bloodied carpet and cried like she hadn't done since the day she was turned to the Dark.
Striding through the hallways, surrounded by glistening black stone on all sides, Almaeda Sedai ran curses through her head as she knuckled and unknuckled her fists. Her back felt as if there was a burning fire roaring where her skin should have been, despite the loose-fitting dark dress she'd chosen. She knew very well that her Master could have inflicted the same pain on her simply by touching the spot registering these feelings in her brain, and yet he choose to punish her like this. Though there were others near who could have Healed her, Almaeda didn't think twice about it. He would know, and then it would be worse.
Stepping into compact darkness, Almaeda channeled Air and Spirit to create a glowing aura around herself. Her steel grey gaze filled with hatred as she looked at the man hanging in midair. He was stripped of clothes, and scars crisscrossing his body stood out as illuminated streaks in the eerie light. Some were fresh, glaringly red against his pale skin. While he had been allowed water sometime yesterday, he had been given nothing else since the battle when they had caught him. Nothing else but pain, of course. And yet it hadn't been enough... Almaeda's voice seemed unnaturally loud in the enclosed space as she spoke, her anger shining through in the words she chose.
"It is time you began speaking, Urikanu Larithan, while you still know how to form words."
His only response being that stubborn glare she had learned to despise during the last days brought the fury to the surface of her mind. The Black Sister wove Spirit, and went to work.
She had kept a flow constantly touching the warrior's speaking centra, preventing him from screaming despite what she did to his mind and body. Now however, she couldn't afford that, when everything that left his lips could contain the information she needed. The information they needed, really. It was common knowledge that Urikanu had been a resident of the blasted Grey Tower for decades, and now he had all of a sudden withdrawn to his Fortress, seemingly biding his time. It was obvious that a large plan was about to unravel, and despite the Lightblinded fools' lack for success, something of this size could prove an annoyance to the Shadow. Thus, they needed to know what this plan covered, aimed at, and who were involved.
Scowling, she felt a headache coming up from the loud screams she had to endure. Nothing was visible on the man's body, but his mind was ablaze with liquid fire, her merciless flows touching the spots she knew would do harm. Adding a flow of hightened sharpness, she probed deeper into his brain, searching for vulnerable spots yet untouched. There was something... a resonance... With a triumphant exclamation, Almaeda pressed her needle of Spirit into the knot of invisible flows connecting two minds in one.
"A bondmate, Urikanu? You failed to tell me that... Now she will have to suffer from your stupidity. Quite reckless of you, isn't it? Warders should protect the Aes Sedai at any cost, isn't that right? Once you tell me what I want to know, I will let her go. Let that be firstmost in your mind, general."
The grin that appeared on her face would have given a grown man nightmares, but the Black Sister didn't stop at that. Moving all her flows into the soft spot of emotions in Urikanu's head, she attacked whoever was on the other side of the bond.
Rolling the tiny note into a small tube, Revelin Alder Sedai, Keeper of the Chronicles, rose and set the usual ward on her desk. Leaving her office with a glance over her shoulder to make sure everything was in order, she passed the Accepteds in the anteroom, acknowledging them only with a curt nod. Following the advise she'd been given by the Yellows, Revelin tried to get out of her office twice a day to prevent the headaches from interrupting her work. The thought about headaches made her think of her Warder, and she gently touched the spot in her mind where his emotions were displayed as hers were displayed in his mind. Well, normally she could tell what he was feeling, but for the last days the bond had been... dimmed. Four days ago, she had looked up from the bowl of soup she was eating in the dining hall, her mind suddenly filled with his anger, determination and eagerness. She had learned to connect those feelings with battle, and she hoped he was alright. Urikanu had never been a person of complaint, however, and he had most likely dimmed the bond to prevent a possible injury from paining her as well.
Holding the small paper tube firmly in one hand, Revelin began descending the stairs that would take her to the pigeon coop. It was situated high above ground level, but still far beneath her own floor, enough of a walk to allow her to stretch her legs. This route was becoming almost too familiar, by now. She knew there must be rumours flying through the Tower of her regular visits, and of the many pigeons sent to Shienar. She mentally shrugged the thought away. Let those who whispered experience having a Warder practically on the other side of the world, and see what they said about it then. Frowning, Revelin's dark eyebrows enhanced the boldness of her nose, and a servant maid leapt out of her way with a squeal as she passed by.
The Tower seemed bustling today, people were milling about even on this floor. Milling with a direction, if it could be called that. Entering one of the main hallways, Revelin found herself surrounded by scurrying Accepteds and Dedicateds, a pair of Asha'man discussing something with heads held close together, four Aes Sedai walking in various directions, and among all, servants trying to be invisible. Her frown deepened as she calculated the extra time it would take for her to reach the pigeon coop and get back to her duties. If she was to follow her plan, then she would have to work twice as fast this week and the next. She didn't look forward to it, but if Urikanu...
The world exploded in searing pain, filling her mind and body like molten iron and tearing at her senses with a fierceness she could not have fathomed existed. A choking scream escaped her lips as she fell forward, hands clutching her head as if to keep it together. She sank to her knees in the middle of the hallway, unaware of anything around her but the pain. From far away, shouts and the sound of running feet reached her frantic mind, but she couldn't focus. Pain was everything. Everything was pain.
Revelin was no longer aware of her body, or her existance. She floated in the white-hot pain that filled her, and became her. Perhaps she screamed somewhere, but inside her mind, there was only a hissing sound of the searing strings of pain seeking to shred her to pieces. Then, from somewhere deep inside her mind rose a voice, coated in ice and flowing with hatred so strong she could almost touch it.
"...Once you tell me what I want to know, I will let her go. Let that be firstmost in your mind, general."
And just like that, she was no longer alone. Urikanu was there, by her side, exposed to the same pain that filled her and threatened to tear her mind apart. She reached out, desperately, like a child pleading for its mother to take the pain away. The words she'd registered couldn't seem to carry any meaning to her, and yet the voice filled her almost like the...
...like saidar! It's the One Power, but it's not mine...
Trying to form a thought, Revelin searched the strings of pain for something that could tell her what to do. A light was flickering just out of reach, and somehow she knew it to be the end of this nightmare. If she could grasp it, there would be peace, and blessed darkness.
Forcing herself through the barrier that encompassed the confused part that was her thoughts and feelings, Revelin stretched her mind to impossible thinness, knowing that the light was the only hope she had. And yet it was too far away, she couldn't reach it. Desperate, she retreated and was shaken to the core of her being as an increased jolt of blinding pain entered from Urikanu's mind. She had to get out, she had to move now or there would be nothing left of either of them. Without thinking, Revelin threw herself towards the light, and gave up everything that held her together with that move.
And saidar filled her.
She could have cried with joy, had she had a body. The feeling of pain increased tenfold, but she wrapped it with the newfound light and shoved it away, leaving her tattered mind in silence and utter relief. What sweetness! Life inhabited her, and it was beautiful!
Suddenly aware of another presence in her mind, Revelin swung the Power at the intruder, aiming loosely and using whichever power was there. Refined flows were for another Age.
She thought she could hear the echo of a scream, filled with rage and disbelief, but inside her own mind, she smiled. The strings of pain had retreated, back through her Warder and left them both in a dazed emptiness that held promise of more to come.
The counterattack came an instant later, but she was prepared now, fighting off the flows that filled her mind and aimed for cracks in her saidar-wrought shield. She wove Spirit in turn, unleashing a hailstorm of sharpened flows that battered against the intruder's mind. While Revelin had never been strong with the One Power, complete surrender to saidar and oblivion for what could happen was she to draw too much allowed her to take in more than she ever had before. It seemed this battle could go on forever, the two minds locked in equal battle with Urikanu locked in between, but Revelin knew it had to be ended, and soon. Somewhere, she registered a tiring sensation that could have belonged to her. Increasing her efforts, she pushed her flows further, made them harder against the wall of steel air that protected the mind of the intruder. Did it bulge? She couldn't tell by any of the senses she normally used, but it seemed the other mind was retreating. Urikanu was a vessel, silent and suffering, in between the battling minds. Revelin couldn't allow herself to think about that, but focused her entire being on crushing the other shield, no longer fully maintaining her own.
And then, in the time it takes for a butterfly to flap its wings, or for a newborn baby to draw its first breath, the resistance broke and she was through. She was through, and she was wielding saidar like a sledgehammer inside the foreign mind.
Almaeda was screaming now, her knuckles pressed to her eyes as if to shut everything out, or perhaps to reach what was inside her head and pull it out. Everything had gone so wrong! She had reached through the bond of this Warder, and had only a slight shove left to completely extinguish the mind on the other side, when all of a sudden the Aes Sedai had fought back! Drawing a ragged breath only to let out another scream, the Black Sister let go of all flows she held but the Spirit needles, throwing up a shield in her own mind while attacking the other, through the web of Spirit between Urikanu and his lady.
Yet she was loosing, and she knew it, already battered from the punishment her Master had inflicted on her. Trying to form curses as she screamed, Almaeda thought she had learned to master pain long ago, and she did not like being proved wrong. Not a bit.
Realizing too late that she had lost the grip on Urikanu, she felt his hands shove her backwards before she could do anything. Hitting the stone floor with a loud crack, her fists unknuckled and fell to her sides as she stared dumbly up at the face twisted in rage that hovered over her. There was a warm, tingling sensation to the back of her head, and without looking she knew the impact with the floor had crushed her skull. She blinked slowly, trying to fight back with saidar. But it was so hard to focus, the world seemed to shimmer...
Urikanu was saying something between clenched teeth, his eyes like stormy skies sending lightning into her skull. No, that wasn't him, it was that other person. Almaeda made a huge effort and managed to get her mind together an instant before her shield wavered and crashed down. And then the pain was truly inside her head, and there was no escape. Her throat couldn't find strength enough to form a scream, but it resonated inside her along with the slashing weaves of Spirit that the other woman sent at her. Urikanu's hands had closed on her throat, and he was choking her, oh he was choking her...
Almaeda realized she was dying, and in that same instant realized that she had failed not only her Master, but the Great Lord of the Dark as well. A shudder ran through her body, and she spasmed despite being pinned to the floor by Urikanu's heavy body. As a last light flared in her steel grey eyes, the Black Sister reached out with what strength she had left and wrapped her mind and flows alike around the bond that had served as the path for the battle. Her flows were intertwined with the bond now, part of it as a parasite is part of a host and slowly drains it of life. Then, as life seeped out of her through the hole in her skull and no air found its way down to her lungs, Almaeda pulled at her flows and brought them with her into death.
Gasping, drawing in as much air as her lungs could hold, Revelin's body jerked up into a sitting position just as her eyes popped wide open. The scream that erupted from her parted lips told of the horror and pain that filled her body and mind, and the Brown Sister standing next to the Keeper's bed in the infirmary reached out to steady her. Revelin was frantic, her eyes bulging and flickering around the room as if looking for someone, and her mind refusing to take in what she saw. It was the soft yellow-painted walls of the infirmary, bed after bed filling the room and learning ranks carrying linen or pitchers of water back and forth. A few people were currently in the room, and they had all stopped to stare at her. Turning her head wildly to the Brown by her side, Revelin forced the scream to end and tried to form words. Yet they wouldn't come, she couldn't think of anything but the emptiness in her mind threatening to swallow her whole.
She thought she recognized the plump Brown with long golden hair as Cebriana, a Sister who had come to the Tower a few months back and had approached her on some matter of knowledge or other. Why the woman was here now eluded her, and it didn't really matter. What mattered, was
"Uri..."
The name she spoke came out as nothing louder than a breath, but still Cebriana nodded sympathically and patted her arm. A worried wrinkle creased the Brown's forehead, and Revelin stared at the woman without blinking until she realized that there were tears streaming down her face. Raising a hand to touch her cheek, she wondered briefly if she should feel embarrassed for crying in public like this. Before she could do anything to stop it, however, the full impact of what had happened hit her like a resounding gong, and her shoulders heaved in sob after sob. She had thought she ached before, but it had been nothing compared to this! To think that hollowness could hurt so much...
The Keeper of the Chronicles reached forward and clung to Cebriana in a desperate hug, crying as if the tears would never end. Her Warder was gone from her mind as completely as if he'd never been there, and yet the void that filled her showed her how much a part of her entire self he had been. She wanted nothing more than to lie down and die, right then and there. Perhaps in death she could have peace.
And she knew they would not let her, they would keep her here, crying and mourning until she emerged from the Infirmary no less a ghost than Aleatha had been after Edwyn's disappearance. Somehow that scared her more than death. New sobs racked her body, and she let the hollowness in her mind engulf her, shroud her in its emptiness and fill the cry that escaped her lips.
