Fanfic:Cora's Three Arches
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First Arch
Cora hesitated, though she knew she would not- could not, now- retreat. The first Arch loomed in front of her. She had almost given up hoping they would notice her and raise her quickly...And now here she was, wondering if she was, after all, as prepared for this as she had believed herself to be.
Flicking her hair almost defiantly back from her face, she mustered her courage, and stepped forward.
...Just in time for that same dark, curly hair to be grabbed by a hand shooting out of no-where. A hand which seemed rather strong, and appeared to be attached to an equally forceful arm.
"No use fighting me, girl. Come along, you'll do yourself no favours by being seen to argue!"
What...
The arm attached to the hand was sheathed in white fabric. As was the rest of the figure behind it. Oh....
Cora swallowed, and willed herself not to resist the tugging at her hair. As her eyes began to focus properly on the scene around her, she realised she was in the village square, being dragged towards a waiting crowd. The man dragging her seemed faintly familiar..In fact, she was sure he had been to dinner at least twice, a companion of her Uncle.
For a second another familiar figure appeared out of the milling audience, the old herb man. He leaned in towards her face, huffing musty breath over her as she was dragged past him.
"You should have left when you had the chance! "He whispered. "Now it's gone beyond my reach to mend..."
Confused and disorientated, Cora finally reached the centre of the waiting...and from the murmurs, apparently none to happy...crowd.
Uncle's friend dropped her abruptly to the floor, with every sign of distaste for having had to touch her in the first place, and aimed a sharp toe at her huddled form.
"What..I..."
"Silence!" commanded a new voice rather abruptly. This one Cora did know well, and shuddered to hear. One of Uncle's less endearing associates. Well, let's just say, one of the ones she did not at all like when they were invited to her Mother's house, with all their attempts to sound impressive over just how many people they had killed or victimised today in the name of the Light.
"You have been brought here, child, because someone in this village finally had the sense to ask a few questions about how fortunate your family has been recently. How easily things have come to you all, how the little accidents that might have happened to anyone else, never seem to happen to you lot anymore."
Cora shuddered, and tried to remain calm. So, it had come then. The old man was right, she should have left, should have run away while she had the chance...No, wait, that wasn't right, she had, hadn't she? Or had she? Then why was she here? Light, she was so confused!
"I..."
"I said silence!" the voice roared, and another, sharper, foot found her midriff.
"Of course it was only a matter of time before it came out into the open, girl. Here, amongst us, did you truly hope to conceal the workings of the Dark One forever?"
Cora longed to refute the allegation, but knew now the man was hoping she would fall for just such provocation. She managed, this time, to hold her silence.
"We won't go too harshly on you, girl. After all, we have the culprit, and we know you were only trying to protect her. She told us already. All we need from you is for you to back up her confession. Make it all neat and tidy, like, for everyone. Tell us how long you knew about her, how you tried to help her hide it, all that."
Her? Cora's confusion mounted, and then in a blinding, chilling flash, was gone...Leaving Cora longing to regain her ignorance.
"No...."
The next kick landed firmly in her stomach, leaving her now winded and retching as well as horrified.
"No? Why argue, girl? I told you , she already confessed! Look..."
Rough hands hauled Cora to her feet again, and propelled her forwards to where a small, thin figure was held upright, bound hand and foot, between two more of the Children. Her pretty little face was swollen and bruised, one eye forced closed by the inflammation surrounding it, and blood ran down the girl's cheek and matted the dark curling hair so similar to Cora's own.
But to Cora , that face was instantly recognisable. Mari, her sister.
"Don't worry about me, Cora..." a faint mumble from between those sweet little lips, now so horribly beaten and distorted.
...Which earned her sister a cuff around the back of the head from one of the guards supporting her. Mari licked those mistreated lips with a dry tongue, and continued regardless,
"It's alright, Cora. I told them...told them it was all me. You understand?" Her one good eye seemed to be flashing a signal to Cora, but not one she wanted to comprehend. Kicked or not , her stomach seemed to be wanting to fall through her boots. No, not like this, please...
Oh , it was so like her sister, who would do anything for the big sis she adored...But Cora could not allow it! Even though she knew ..they all knew..what it would mean for her to admit here and now that it was she, not Mari. She who could channel, and had been doing so, without the notice of the village until now....Even though she had wanted to stop, she had not been able to...
And Mari had known for a while, or at least suspected. She was sure of that, now. So that when the Whitecloaks finally caught up with her..Mari had stepped in to take the blame, and save her. Cora could not let this happen, even though she would die for it! Rather her, than her sister. Mari had done nothing, nothing!
The crowd were hanging back expectantly now, waiting to see how she would react. Not all believed Mari, she thought...Many of these people had grown up with them both ..But then an awful lot more seemed not to care too much either way, so long as a culprit- any culprit- was found.
The hands which had propelled her forwards released her abruptly. Cora opened her mouth to speak.
The way back will come but once. Be steadfast.
Uh...Shards of memory jarred and span, tugging at Cora. No, she could not, she could not leave Mari like this....
"Well, girl? What say you? You may speak now, of course." The voice seemed almost jeering, mocking, as well it might in the circumstances. Oh, if only the man knew how much more truly terrible this situation was for her, than even he imagined....
The way back will come but once. Be steadfast
A silver arch appeared, shining just beyond her sister, behind the two louts supporting her. No..please, no...
Cora swallowed.
"I..I'm sorry, Mari, please believe me, you'll never understand how sorry...."
Her sister only smiled, forgiving and accepting, as Cora plunged past Mari's guards and hurled herself through the Arch. She would never forget that, she thought, that serene little smile on the battered face, the pleasure that Mari had enabled her big sister to escape as she had wanted. That was worse by far than all the reproaches she could have had. Worse than any punishment, to have witheld the judgement she felt in that moment she deserved.
Stumbling out of the Arch, Cora looked round , disorientated once more.
"Mari, Mari, I'm sorry...." She continued to mumble, as she staggered towards the waiting Aes Sedai.
Second Arch
Strangely, stepping into the next Arch was easier. Cora felt numb, now, and mechanically determined to get through. She had to, now. For Mari. Otherwise everything that had happened had been a waste, in some way that went beyond logical explanation.
Cora stepped forward, and the world disappeared abruptly around her. There was nothing, nothing but darkness, and Cora falling through it. For a second panic arose. Had something gone wrong with the ..with the...what?
Giving up the effort to recall her thoughts, Cora resigned herself to falling blindly for a while. Wherever she was, it had to have an end soon...
Not right, she thought, not right, something has made it go wrong, with me inside it, it must have...Made what go wrong? She struggled to remember.
Abruptly, Cora realised she had stopped. Darnkess still surrounded her, yet she appeared to be standing on something firm now. Something like a step, maybe, in the middle of the nothingness...
The...what was that place the Keeper had talked about in one of the lessons, where there was a darkenss that was not of the Shadow? She had read up a little about it later, after she couldn't remember the name in class. The Ways? Was that where she was now? It seemed a little like the description, but she wasn't sure. But anyway, how?
Confused once more, Cora tried to take a step forward, though a step...one glowing beneath her foot... appeared to be all she had.
However, as she stepped, the ground became solid around her again, and she found herself on the top of a hill.
Before she had time to think, a woman was running up to her, begging her to help her child.
What is this, what is going on here?
Cora was puzzled, and confused even more. Help? But...she was no Yellow! And more to the point, she was only a Novice....
Except that as soon as she thought that, she reaslised that her Novice dress was not upon her now, instead she wore a flowing dark blue robe....
Memories fuzzily drifted past her. Why had she thought she was a Novice? Of course she wasn't...Oh, it had surprised her how fast she had taken both the tests, but with everything else coming to a head in the tower at the moment, and in her life, perhaps it had been understandable that things had moved so fast for her, that she had felt she was being pushed to complete her studies so fast....scarcely raised to Accepted before she was being pushed into this next test...
But...Cora's memories fought with eachother, threatening to implode her skull. She was still a Novice, though! And she had no clue how to Heal this boy! Something was very wrong, she should not be here, not yet!
She shook her head, and smiled -calmly she hoped- at the woman.
"I will do my best," she assured her. After all, she had Healed her mother once, if she only knew how .....
Without warning, voices came from without the hillside, as she bent down to the boy.
"Is this right? Im not sure about this...."
Cora struggled to focus, opening herself to the Source and trying to remember how she had Healed her mother that time.
A different voice, from beyond the hillside.
The way back comes but once, be steadfast
Cora's head spun. She had to Heal the boy...and she had to leave? Which was real? What was real? Was anything real? She was not ready for this...
Instinctively, she fought to find the weave that had come to her to save her mother before. And found it somehow, or what she hoped was it.
She's going to make it, hold on...
But...
Before Cora knew it, the boy was sitting up in front of her, looking pale and weak and reaching for his mother...and the whole scene was fading from her view again.
Torchlight lighting the path around her, the next step forward becoming visible. Cora placed a foot upon it. What else could she do, now?
A castle basement, and someone talking to her as they inspect the supplies. A Lord! What is she doing with a Lord?
Cora sought to find an answer. Myrdraal? Trollocs? What would the creatures she had studied as tales in lessons, be doing being real, and at the door? But if it wasn't real, then they could be...Or was it?
She fought to remember, and this time gave up. All that mattered was that she had to get through this, whatever it was...
A large shape suddenly appeared behind the Lord's left shoulder, it's inhuman features grinning at her. So that was what a Trolloc looked like in the "flesh", she thought...Wondering how she was supposed to fight the thing...and , other than because it was expected of her, exactly, why she was supposed to , too!
The trolloc hit the unsuspecting Lord over the head with a large club, and advanced on her, drooling. Oh, so that was the way of it? Well, personal was different....
The way back comes but once, be steadfast
Cora grasped the Source, and attempted to remember the basic battle weaves she had learned. A fireball, maybe? Pulling Fire and Air together, she prepared to throw, directly into the face of the advancing Trolloc....
...As a silver arch appeared in the air next to it.
What the...
She could stay, and pass one test...if she didn't die first...or she could leave, and pass another test, one her memories tried to tell her she had already recently taken once....
Cora hesitated, torn between her options.
And then dived through the Arch, hoping she had made the right choice.
Third Arch
Her head still spinning, Cora stepped back into the Arches again. One more time...Time....
Time passed so slowly, she found herself thinking, as she sat at the ornate, carved desk, her midnight blue silk skirts tucked tight beneath its heavily decorated frame. So slowly, while she waited for the reports to come back in.
She called out quietly, and a girl in Novice whites jumped up from the corner.
"Tea, please, if you would, and see if there is yet any news..."
The girl nodded silently and scurried out.
Of course, there would be no news yet. If there was, then surely Cora would know it first, from Jiriam. She could feel him nestled as usual at the back of her mind, and smiled to herself. Sometimes, no news _was_ good news. If Jir did not up and react in fury, then perhaps things were yet going well for her more private plans, no matter how outwardly disastrously events presented themselves for the Tower....
Cora blinked and flicked back her hair. Jiriam? Her? And why was she...the room, the desk....
Pushing away the disorientation, Cora stood and strode purposefully to a cupboard in the corner, carved as darkly and ornately as the desk. She had other means of aquiring information, now that her little attendant Novice was out of the way for a few minutes..
Cora warded the door to the room...her study? Of course it was her study! What else would it be? ..And opened the cupboard door gently.
From within the cupboard, she took out a box, and from within that box, modeled on one she had encountered so long ago, in appearance if not in function...from within that box she took out a what appeared to be a simple, small, plain stone, slightly mottled on the upper side.
She channeled Air across the top of the stone in the precise pattern she had been shown when she had first...acquired...it...and spoke softly, holding the stone cupped in her hand.
A shifting of the light in the opposite corner of the room, became a suggestion of a face, hanging in the air. A face known to Cora, known well enough that she did not endeavour to meet it's gaze.
"Your report, girl?"
"I..."suddenly Cora felt like a Novice again, before that voice, and had to shake her head firmly, her long hair flying, to convince herself that all she remembered, all she believed in now, was real.
She swallowed and tried again,
"I...All goes as I....we...as You planned... I have had no untoward reports as yet, and time passes. Soon it will be too late for them to act, even if the news reaches them. "
She listened to the words coming from her own mouth, and found herself shivering. What was she talking about? She understood none of this!
"Is there...If I may ask, is there any news from my homeland?"
Oh, how she wanted the answer to that question.....How close they were now......Those whom she had shaped, wound up and set off according to her designs, according to her earliest dreams of revenge...
The shifting figure flickered.
And a different voice spoke.
The way back comes but once, be steadfast
No..NO, she needed to know, now! She needed to find out, if this was the future! But it wasn't the future, was it? It was now and she was here, and it was all about to fall into place....She couldn't leave now.....
And another impression then, of pain, of anger, of a right royal disaster going on somewhere.....Somewhere in the back of her mind. Jir! Danger, hurt, more anger...
"Please...What is happening?"
She found herself almost begging the figure hovering before her, her only true source of information now...
And Jir hurt, and lashed out...at what, at what????? Which of her plans had come to what, now?
"Please..."
The figure spoke again.
"Give me more, girl, give me what I know you keep from me yet, and I will tell you."
Cora felt herself paling, shivering. She knew, and yet she did not know, what the figure asked of her. She knew only that she must not...She must not...And yet all her plans...She had to....What was the freedom of action she had carefully kept for herself, balanced amid the battles of her hidden superiors, when weighed against her long-planned revenge? But everything!
The way back comes but once, be steadfast
Slowly Cora reached into the cupboard again. In a dream she watched herself, unsure what it was she did, or why it was putting herself in such an untenable position to do so. But she had to.....She had enough sense to know when she was cornered....And Jir was tied up in this now....
And then there was the Arch, appearing in front of her.
Stay, know the answers...maybe lose Jir...but did she really have him anyway? Or go...and never know. Never know how her plans came out, here or at home. Never know if she could in the end outsmart the figure who now had her over a barrel.....Never know if she lost everthing here, or snatched her victory from the jaws of defeat after all!
Cora winced, hating to have to abandon such an interesting future....And lunged for the Arch, biting her lip as she did so, distantly aware that babbling inanely on what had passed within this time, would go down none too well with those who awaited her!
