Fanfic:A Crime inside Tower Walls/Chapter II
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Deep in the Tower underground, in a private study in the Indigo Ajah Storerooms, a strange Asha'man worked meticulously on his latest project. Bits of metal and rock lay strewn about, gears of this size and weights of that were heaped in piles upon desk and floor alike; a genius never had time to be tidy.
The lone Asha'man stood in the centre of the room, Saidin flowing freely from him in very lopsided and hazardous weaves of Air and Fire. He pulled a thread tighter here, nudged a thread there, and soon he was sure he had everything correct...
BOOM!
Bits of shrapnel flew from where he was standing. Soot, smoke, and faintly glimmering embers engulfed him, and he backed away coughing madly. Drat! That does not make a glow rod do-hickey! Ah well, back to the drawing board!
A knock came upon his chamber door, and the man yelled over his shoulder. "Come in and watch your step. You might step in a project in the works."
As the party entered he got a good look at them all, and they no doubt would get a quality look at him. Q Asha'man was a shorter gentleman of Tairen build, but he preferred to wear the more common Andoran cuts...when his Asha'man cloaks were not frayed from whatever explosion he had accidentally cause for the day. Truth was, as much as he wished he could be making explosives on purpose, those bloody Three Oaths were quite the burden on him. He could not make weapons of mass destruction, but his inventions had a grand tendency to backfire many times before he perfected them.
He had blonde hair, but it was unruly and dirty with black soot and clumps of whatever it was he had just unwittingly set off. He wore protective goggles on his face that made him seem madder than he truly might have been, but it was to keep from going blind in his ongoing efforts to invent strange new ter'angreal for the likes of the Tower's Elite. As luck would have it, that was precisely who had come knocking that very day - or was it already the wee hours of the night? Time had no meaning to a scientist who slaved away in a laboratory all day.
"Ahh, my dear Liana Sedai! It is good to see you my friend! What brings you here? By the looks of things you are about to set off on a mission! Light, a real adventure! How grand! How may I assist you?" Liana's gaze passed over the room, and she chuckled lightly. So he was still working on perfecting the art of light-stick crafting. "My dear Quartermaster, up to your old experiments I see?" she greeted him warmly with a slight incline of her head due to one of his position in the Ajah from a Sitter. "Not a thing I am required to unweave, I hope?"
Liana's status as one of the precious few Indigo Aes Sedai, let alone one that could Unweave, sent her cleaning up after experiments that involved Saidar at times. But she didn't see any active weaves now.
"This is my mother, Sitter Saphire en'Damier Sedai of the Green Ajah, and the Master of Arms, Caden Ives Gaidin..." She trailed off as she noticed that her mother was already tracing her fingers across a map on the wall with the Master Gaidin.
"No, I think the gate took them farther than that... east and a little south..."
And then the Soldier arrived. Light he was fast. "...and Soldier Aias." Liana left out the interesting oddity of his origin, less it should distract Q.
"Ever since the Seanchan Siege, there has ne'er been a single challenge worthy of a man with your Talents, Q. We are on a perilous quest with dire need..." She briefed him on what had happened to the Captain-General and the trespass of one rogue Aes Sedai and her Warder in her kidnapping. "...save the Captain-General and her unborn child, and capture or kill the Black Ajah. There shall be fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, shadowspawn, chases, escapes, true love, and acts of ta'veren." she smiled lightly on the last note.
"Tear it is!" Saphire exclaimed and tapped the place on the map.
"I have relics in mind." Liana began. Who knew how many agents of the Shadow they would find, there would be need for 'angreal surely, "I was thinking... of something that might blind the Shadow's eye. Yet if there be any new wonders you have yet to unleash, we would employ them." she finished. Q could not be more delighted. Adventure? Excitement? Suspense? He himself did not seek such things out for himself, yet he always did like hearing the stories from those who made the daring trips...well, those who made it back. If only more of the Tower would come see him and request his services and equipment, perhaps fewer deaths would have happened in the past. And Liana was not wrong when she mentioned that his tools had not been used in... well, many years.
"Liana Sedai, I have just what you and your crew will be in need of! I would like to hear what all is on your Short List, but please allow me to introduce you to the latest in my new line of defensive ter'angreal!"
He jumped off to his right and opened a drawer to pull out a few trinkets, then dashed over to a chest on the far wall to receive a few more, not stopping as he dropped off the first load upon a table nearby. A few more cupboards were emptied of contents and brought to the same location, then Quentin Asha'man began setting the items out in order, sorting them by type and effectiveness.
"First we have something you may already be familiar with, Liana. I believe the first of these were made by a young man who aspired to our illustrious Ajah. Sad that the boy perished, but the knowledge of how to make these ter'angreal survived. These trinkets will make any who touch them invisible. Sadly, they are not as effective as the ones the lad had conjured up, but they get the job done. Too much fast movement and the individual may be slightly seen like a Warder in a fancloth cloak when one knows what they are looking for. I must assure you that this seems to bend light around the wearer, not sound. You can still be heard. I've fashioned them into necklaces, both in men's and women's fashions, though I don't really see the point in that, as once they are on the wearer is invisible. I haven't quite worked out how to make it done at will of thought, nor how to allow others wearing the same trinkets to see each other, but hopefully you can manage." He held up one of each type, both the masculine and feminine versions, then set them back down.
"Next we have what I call Flash Orbs and Smoke Orbs, but there is a very limited supply. I can spare one of each for each of your people present. Both are designed to disorient attackers so you can get the jump on them. These take a simple weave of fire in each to activate, and you will have only moments before the ter'angreal activates. The Smoke Orb is black marble. Weave the Fire into it, then toss it. It will spin and release enough smoke to fill a decent sized farm house with a thick cloud. This makes the area within hard to breathe and impossible to see, but hopefully your people will not get caught in the same room as it. The Flash Orbs are white marble, and they light up a room with a brilliant glare for a few moments. Deploy them the same as the Smoke Orbs, and keep your eyes covered. The light seems to last only seconds, but your enemy should be so disoriented from the sudden light they will not strike well.
"Finally, we have various 'angreal for enhancing different levels and weaves of the One Power. They come in various shapes and sizes and allow for different amounts of Saidar to be harnessed by the user without burning a lass out. You should know most of those yourself. Now, did you have anything else in mind?" The Quartermaster's enthusiasm for sharing the treasures of the Vaults usually amused Liana to no end. And were it not for the foreboding in her heart, she might have pondered over the objects and discussed them further with him. But the urgency of the situation demanded their haste, and so she shared a look with Caith, and smiled politely for Brother Quentin, and spent the time through which he searched writing missives instead. "An' it please you?" she asked, gesturing to the writing set, before turning it around to face her. With it she wrote to brief the First Seeker and update the Amyrlin Seat on the quest, as far as she was aware, and asked leave to depart. As little as her mother thought of the courtesies of departure, Light, she is as jittery as a cat on hot sand! Liana had no intention of absconding.
"I'll have someone pack our things. We travel light." Liana glanced up at these words. No doubt her mother intended to fetch her armor. She was always looking for an excuse to wear armor. "Meet us when you're done here."
Liana nodded tersely and gave her the hastily folded missive to be given to a runner for delivery to the Administrative Hall.
"Fine." Saphire rolled her eyes. "I suppose it'll ease her temper when we return."
Liana smiled her thanks as her mother left the room for the stairwell, and returned her attention to Brother Quentin.
In truth, Aljen had made such a vanishing ter'angreal for Liana alone. As soon as she became a Sitter, with all of the rights and privileges to objects of power, she had had it registered. It was superior to the others here, and would allow her to move swiftly and not be seen. But the artifact intended for her could go to the Captain-General once they found her.
The flash and smoke orbs would prove useful for sure, but Liana was more pleased that the Quartermaster had anticipated their need for 'angreal. Rare and irreplaceable they were, no doubt a kingly gift, even in loan.
"You have my hearty thanks, Brother Q." she addressed him as he preferred to be called. "I have but two additional requests:" the first she explained without pause, "There is a statue seated in the Administrative Hall, which blinds the Dark One's eye to all within its presence. I heard that the new shipment in from the Shadow Coast contained some small trinkets, and I suspected that they might serve a similar purpose. If the tests are complete and confirmed my suspicions, that they serve the same purpose as the statue on high, I intend to borrow them for this mission." it would aid their escape at least.
"So too is there a small crystal ball, with the image of a blood red wolf's head captured within it." That would signal danger.
Liana finished the last of her missive to Aric as Brother Quentin aided her yet again. In that time she received word back from the Amyrlin Seat, and judged it a reluctant blessing. As Q approached, she glanced down at the missive from her grandmother, and asked for but one more item, "And... something which will enable me to walk Tel'aran'rhiod." she was to report on their progress. Yet as much as she desired her independence, there was another reason she had suggested this particular means to ameliorate the Amyrlin's fears...
She slipped from her belt pouch a small sealed scroll. Liana thumbed it silently as she listened to the Quartermaster, nodding appropriately. When he was finished, she looked down, and then gave this to him with the folded parchment. "Pray, give this parchment to the First Seeker, and the scroll to the First Sitter of our Ajah." She meant, of course, Lembirt Antii. There was so much yet unspoken between them. "I bid you tell them what I have told you, my friend, and I shall be indebted to you by gratitude and do all I can to preserve these precious relics and return safely." Caden had been a heartbeat faster than Saphire in leaving the vault again as soon as Miahala's approximate location had been established.
"I will be in the Channeling Yard as soon as humanly possible," he had rasped on the way out, inclining his head briefly to the gathering. There was naught he could do to aid in the Channelers' preparations. It was better he took care of his own until it was time to leave.
Behind him, he heard Saphire speak briefly to Liana before she followed in his footsteps. Together, the climbed the stairs from whence they had come. Caden was silent for some time, his inner eye towards the bond.
"She is awake. She is under strain, as if concentrating..." Then Caden felt a flicker of brief triumph. He was not sure what had happened, but she was unharmed as of yet. "They are not torturing her... yet. She is unharmed."
When they reached ground-level, they took off in different directions, exchanging brief words of where in the Channeling Yards they were to meet up.
References
- ↑ Aias was designed by Sigmund von Danzig (player), then later given to Eric Robins. If someone knows who wrote for Aias during this period, they can amend this to only show the correct name.
