Fanfic:Drelle's Three Arches

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Drelle's Three Arches
Author(s)
  • Llewellyn Phyre (player)
Character(s)
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The First Arch:

Without allowing herself to get anxious, she plunged into the first Arch. Blinding white light filled her vision until she had to close her eyes and . .

She was tied up and she hurt all over. A million painful gashes covered her body, some of the worst oozing pus from infection. She was on her knees in the dirt, tied to a stake in the middle of a large covered area. Her legs felt dead, and wrists were chaffed and rubbed raw by the roughness of the rope that held her. A large and bejeweled hand grasped her by the chin and forced her chin up.

Her eyes blazed with a familiar silver fire at the man who had such a firm grip on her face, "So there's fire left in you, after all, Drelle Tai'Shar? We shall see if you scream tonight." Oberon casually backhanded her, and in a rare display of defiance, she spat at him. Blood spattered across the fine linen of the man's tunic. He laughed and hit her again, harder this time. Anger rose within Aria, and she felt . . something, there was something missing . . but what?

She spoke, and knew it was a mistake from the first utterance, "My name is Aria." A simple enough statement, but with enough venom to have killed an Ogier. Oberon simply laughed, and it was a laugh that promised her she would pay for speaking later.

Behind Oberon, a soldier bearing Oberon's standard on his chest came in and deposited something on the floor before Aria. She gasped in horror. Before her lay a shredded banner . . a rearing red horse on a green background, and it was stained in blood.

Oberon laughed, an evil laugh that chilled the young woman's blood. She couldn't stop staring at the banner. The mark of Kandor. Rage filled her, and she felt a tickle, an emptiness. Inside she reached . . reached . . for nothing. Confused, she tried instead to reach for the banner. Watching her, Oberon kicked the banner out of reach, then stepped on her outstretched fingers. She gritted her teeth against the pain, but made not a sound. He laughed again, and grabbed her by the hair . .

She had screamed that night, oh how she had screamed. With every cut, she had screamed in agony. But she did not give in easily. It was many hours before he got a peep from her, and that appeared to have only angered him worse. And there were things he had done to her mind that had hurt worse. Images forced into her that had made her gag, and sob. He delighted in the slightest reaction from her.

"Your name is Drelle Tai'Shar. You belong to me, dog, and your name is Drelle Tai'Shar. Say it, you misbegotten whelp of a Kandori whore." In the end, she had given in, named herself Drelle, and forgot . . everything. She knew nothing, felt nothing but the pain.

She had been left on the table, near death. It was late, only hours from dawn when a glowing white Arch appeared off to her right.

Be steadfast. The way comes but once . .

She felt the Arch of light pulling to her, and she struggled to rise from the waist-high table. Every movement increased the pain one hundred-fold. She fell from the table, landing hard and knocking off a tray full of tools caked in her own dried blood.

Uncaring of the noise, she dragged herself to the glowing light. Behind her, a soldier stuck his head into the tent to see what all the commotion was about. He withdrew quickly, and called out to the others before rushing in to grab her. She struggled against his rough hands. The freshly opened wounds provided her just the leverage she needed to slip from his grasp. She got closer to the Arch. The soldier's hand grabbed her by the ankle and twisted as he pulled. She cried out, and slashed at his fingers with a knife that had found it's way into her hand. She felt the knife make contact, and his hand come away.

Crawling on her hands and knees, she fell through the Arch without knowing why she went to it . .

On the other side, she fell into the arms the waiting Aes Sedai. She was whole, at least on the outside.

With a horrified look up at Kirenna Sedai, she said, "My name is Aria . . he took my name from me. I am Aria . . " Logain'shalo: gold and blue. It shouted of glory and power to come Gawyn'saura: streaks of dried blood had made his face a grim mask. He was going to be wounded on the day the Aes Sedai died. He was going to be hurt more than the blood told, hurt somehow deeper than wounds to his flesh.

The Second Arch:

It took her a moment to continue on to the next Arch. She stood before it, hesitating. A quick glance behind her told her that the Aes Sedai were serious when they meant that she would be removed from the Tower if she refused to go in. She steeled her resolve and was once more absorbed by the blinding light . .

She was the only one of Learning Rank in the entourage. There were many Accepted and Dedicated who would have done anything to be where she was now. On her first mission with other Aes Sedai and Asha'man, and she wasn't even one of them yet. In her short time as an Accepted to the Grey Ajah, she had shown remarkable aptitude towards diplomacy and cooling heated tempers. She would be Raised to the Shawl soon, and the Great Serpent Ring glittered on her finger in the light. The bay gelding beneath her danced at the too-slow pace that they plodded along at, and she reciprocated his feelings. This was just supposed to be a regular diplomatic mission to Andor, to reinforce the good feelings between the two groups.

They passed a small farmhouse that looked deserted, and there was a faint shimmer to the air. She frowned, and rode a little closer. One of the guards by the name of Kris, stopped beside her, "Why have you stopped? We still have much land to travel before we stop for the night." She gave him a look, and pointed to the farmhouse, "There's been channeling there. Something horrible." Kris looked concerned and called out to the others. Normally, it wouldn't have worried them, but Drelle could Read Residues, and had gotten much better at it since that day that Aleatha had sat there with her, then helped her to discover that she could, indeed, Read Residues.

Cautiously, she rode her horse closer to the farm and dismounted. With Kris at her side, she pushed the door open with a booted foot, and stepped in. Her senses were assaulted with a myriad of colors and feelings. She could almost physically feel the Weaves used. She walked through the one room house, looking around in horror at what had occurred in this house. Beneath all the layers of Weaves, nothing was touched. It was as if the family had just up and left, without taking anything with them.

"Someone with a sick sense of humor has passed through this house, and yet there is no evidence of what I See. There was compulsion . . and . . Healing, but not of the Light." Her eyes glazed over as she stopped seeing the physical, and concentrated on the Weaves that faded as they stood there, "We only missed them by hours. These Weaves are very fresh, and . . oh Light. There are Weaves here that someone tried to Unweave . . " Kris had come just inside the door and was scribbling furiously on a piece of parchment as she spoke. They would need everything if they were to investigate this further. He was quite used to being the one with Drelle when she was sent to Read Residues.

She shook herself, and looked back at Kris, and screamed, "Down!!" He ducked on reflex, and rolled towards her. An arrow barely missed him and thunked in the doorway where he had just been standing. A whip of Fire materialized in her hand, and she ran for the door. Horrified, she saw that the rest of the entourage had been slaughtered while they had waited. There was evidence of a struggle, and the bright colors of the defensive Weaves hovering in the air where the four other channelers lay. The horses had all bolted with the fight, and there was a small group of armed men approaching the house. Among the group were two women dressed in dark shades and smiling in triumph.

Kris came up alongside her just outside the door and withdrew his sword. He attacked quickly with his sword, and the whip in her hand came to life, snapping and cracking and lashing away the defenses of the men until all that was left were the two women. They stood and watched in amusement as Kris and herself made short work of the armed men.

"Very well done, Drelle. I trust you have not forgotten me." A woman with honey blonde hair, and wide brown eyes regarded her as a cat would a mouse.

Drelle's silver eyes narrowed, "How can I forget one who forsook the Light for the Shadow, and tried to kill me when I was but a Novice? How could I forget the one who killed Lucan, Jilly? It pleases me that you have finally come to beg my forgiveness." The other woman snarled and started towards her, but the shorter woman put out a restraining arm.

"Now Drelle, there is no reason for you to insult Jilly like that. She is merely jealous that you have become such a talented channeler since last we saw you." Drelle switched her gaze back to the woman talking, "Have you come for forgiveness too, Kari? It is not too late to accept the Light into your heart before I kill you. And believe me, I will kill you." Her voice was deadly quiet, and the glowing whip in her hand disappeared. Kari's eyes widened slightly, but otherwise she remained calm.

Next to her, Kris looked from Drelle to the two women, and back again, "You know these two?" Drelle had never told anyone but Lucan of her past association with the Shadow, and she could feel Kris pull away from her. Uncertain now, of his companion, Kris looked back and forth from Drelle to Jilly and Kari. The two woman took that moment of distraction to strike at him.

He stiffened, and collapsed to the ground, clawing at his neck. Drelle called out a challenge, "You attack the defenseless, and leave me free to act? You cowards!" With her words, she lashed out a gust of icy wind, disguising needle-tin spears of ice that stabbed deep into the flesh. She smiled in grim satisfaction as some of the needles made their goals. She looked back at Kris, and in her distraction, was attacked by a whip of Air that cut a deep gash across her shoulder. She cried out as she was slammed back against the wall of the house with the force of the attack.

A flicker next to her, and the Arch came to life beside her in the doorway.

Be steadfast. The way comes but once . .

She looked down at Kris, then to the laughing women, and leapt through the Arch . .

. . and once more into the arms of an Aes Sedai. This time the eyes that looked up at Kirenna Sedai were strained and hard. She had had to let two Black Ajah go, and could not save Kris's life. She would endure the last Arch, and she'd be damned if she'd let it hurt anymore innocents.

The Third Arch:

Drelle's lips were set in a thin, determined line as she allowed the next Arch to consume her . .

Defiance radiated out of the eyes of the young woman before her. Leaning back in her deeply cushioned chair, Drelle asked of her, "What makes you think, child that it is permissible to Bond a Soldier? When we Raised you to Accepted, we thought you old enough and mature enough to know the risks that come with a Bond, especially one at such an unprepared stage in the lives of yourself and the Soldier's." The girl began to wilt slightly under the intense stare of the Mistress of Novice's silver eyes. They were eyes that could read a lie without blinking.

There came a knock on Drelle's door, and she frowned at the Accepted. Ignoring the look in the girl's eyes, she dismissed her, "You shall return exactly the same time tomorrow, and I will have your punishment prepared. Until then, no free hours. Kitchen duty for the rest of the day when you are not in classes." Tears slipped silently down the girl's face as she left.

When the Accepted left, another entered. Without looking up from her writing, she queried, "What brings you to the office of the Mistress of Novice's, child?" A deep chuckle, and her writing stilled. She knew that laugh. She looked up and gasped, "Lucan!"

Without thought to the image made, she dashed around the desk and tackled him where he sat. They fell together in a head of furniture and limbs. She hugged him fiercely, "Oh, Light, Lucan! You're alive!!" There came a knock at the door and a soft query after the noise. She bade the Accepted leave her in peace, and scrambled away from Lucan so he could right himself. Once they both stood, she attacked him again with a tight hug. He laughed again, but frowned when she suddenly slapped him.

"Fifeteen years and not so much as a pidgeon letter? Where have you been?" She switched back to elation almost as swiftly as she had left it, and just hugged him again and laughed.

Behind Lucan, a flicker appeared and then the Arch. No . . not when I've just found him again . . She pulled away from Lucan, and looked into his eyes . . and pulled away. As she went slowly to the Arch, he put out a pleading hand to her, "Stay with me, Drelle. Please . . it's been so long."

Be steadfast . . The way comes but once . .

No. You are dead. This isn't real . . She plunged into the blinding light and tears fell from her cheeks.

How many times can he be taken from me . . . ?