Fanfic:Revelin's Three Arches
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First Arch
Revelin panted, knees and elbows sore after struggling up the mountainside among shrubberies and stones. She could hear distant shouts coming from beneath her, and she stopped for a moment to wipe away a drop of sweat trickling down her forehead. Where was she? She had no idea, but she knew she had to run or they would get to her.
Who? Why?
The screams from her uncle and the panicking animals still haunted her inner eye, and she dug her nails into her already sore palms to shut the images out. Flames, flames everywhere...
"There! Something moving! Over there!"
Much closer now. With a leap forward Rev grabbed a thorny bush and pulled herself upwards, away from the hunters. Casting a desperate glance over her shoulder, she could see flashes of white and metal armor through the shrubberies. She had to get away...
Something stirred to her right, and she threw herself to the left, a shriek building up in her throat. Her eyes rolled from side to side, searching for a way out.
"Schh! Rev? It's me, Genda! Light, I was sure you were... Hurry, they're coming!"
Tears leaking down her cheeks, Revelin swallowed her scream and moved on, following the horse trainer from their show up the mountain. Or was it rather a cliff? It felt like Dragonmount itself, and wouldn't that have been fitting? A laugh of panic emerged from her dry lips, and Genda turned his head to look at her with concern in his eyes. She just shook her head and waved him on.
Suddenly there was no more. A small grassy field and nothing else but sky. Rev blinked, trying to see something else, shelter, but there was none. Behind them, the shouts grew louder, and she imagined she could hear their ragged breaths as they closed in on them.
"Glenda! What shall we do!?"
Fear clenched her stomach into a tiny knot, and she thought she'd throw up any minute now. They would catch her! And what would they do then...? She quickly put those thoughts aside. Glenda had already started running, and Rev followed without much planning. Then there was no grass either, only sky. Staggering, Rev felt Glenda's hand pull her back from the edge of the cliff, but she couldn't take her eyes of the scene below. So far down... If she fell she would fall forever and then be smashed like a rotten plum at the bottom. Shivers went through her limbs at once, and this time she did vomit.
When she straightened her back and wiped her mouth, she heard voices behind her. So this was the end? Turning slowly, she faced the stone hard faces of a dozen whitecloaks, their leader carrying a satisfied smile on his thin lips.
"Well girl, your running only made it worse. Now you've upset me. Catch the man."
With an arrogant wave of his hand, he sent forward several men who soon overpowered Glenda. Rev felt new tears soak her face, but no matter what she cried out made the men stop.
With a sadistic smile, the captain took a step forward and hit Glenda right in the face, causing tendrils of blood to emerge from under his hand. Glenda moaned and sank down in a heap on the ground, still held by two whitecloaks.
"You can end it now girl. Come to us willingly, and your friend gets a quick death over the edge there. If not, then he'll die piece by piece. Quite literally, I assure you."
Rev's vision was blurred from tears, but suddenly something bright flickered in the corner of her eye. Towards the edge... A silver arch, appearing from nowhere and shining brightly upon the grim scene. Rev cried out again, this time in complete frustration and pain. She couldn't leave Glenda to the whitecloaks! But she had to go through that arch, she knew it.
She stood between the two options, panic running through her body like molten iron. Finally, with one last look at her friend on the ground, his face a bloody mess, she cried out in agony,
"Forgive me!"
Then she threw herself backwards, toward the arch and lunged through it with a wordless cry.
Second Arch
Bumping into the dark figure before her, she got an irritated "schh!" and a glance over the shoulder. Blinking in the darkness, she took a step back and almost stepped on someone right behind her. After a few moments her vision got better, and she saw Rossam immediately before her, and Ravenna behind her back. Thoughts that had been there all along -hadn't they?- continued to rush through her brain. They had gotten as far as the Great Hall, which meant they only needed to get out, cross the courtyard and then be out in the city. Stirs from the trail of people behind them caused more urgent whispers to keep quiet. Rev hardly believed what they were doing, that they had gotten all this way without being detected. Fear had a firm grip on her mind though, and her gaze scanned every shadow, every possible corner where someone could be hiding. Maybe not hiding, more like waiting to see them. Licking her lips, she followed Rossam closely as he led the way across the h! uge room. A little fiddling at the doors, and they swung open without a sound. Thank the Light for that anyway.
Waiting until all the Novices were out in the open, Rev and Ravenna closed the doors behind them. No proof that anyone had ever passed there in this dark hour. Now, if only the bench stood there still, against the wall, then they could...
A single scream shot through the silent night like a sharp knife through flesh, and Rev stiffened. For a moment she wished she could faint, but then more screams followed the first. She didn't see anything, and along with Ravenna she ran to where Rossam had gathered the group of escapees. A single shadow in the shape of a man stood before them, and at his feet lay the body of a Novice. Rossam was incredibly pale in the faint light, and Rev knew she looked the same. For a moment no one moved, but then she struggled out of the frozen position she'd taken.
"Run for the way out! Now! Run!"
This got them running, in all directions. Panic was upon the crowd like rain, and the courtyard was filled with screams and cries. She soon lost track of Rossam and Ravenna, just hoping they kept a cool head and ran for the bench they'd prepared. More guards had appeared, but she couldn't make out any faces. They struck with lethal waves of saidin though, for she felt nothing being channelled that reminded her of saidar. Running desperately, trying to avoid the fallen bodies on the ground, she didn't see where she was going until something stopped her. Looking up, green eyes wide with fear, she found herself staring into...nothing. It was a man, she saw the clothes and hands and hair, but where the face should have been there was only a shadowy mass, nothingness. A scream erupted from her throat, and she turned to run the other way, but there were more of these men. The surviving Novices were gathered in a cluster, and there was Rossam and Ravenna as well. Helple! ssness shone through their eyes, and Rev felt the same. What could she do? What could harm these shadowmen? They would all die, she was sure of it. Then a blessed light appeared in the night, and she cast a relieved look at it. A silver arch, leading somewhere safe! If they all ran, they could make it!
"Rossam! Ravenna! Over there, run for the arch!"
She spurted towards it before the words had left her lips, but she stopped as she realized that no one else moved. One of the shadow figures reached out a hand, and another Novice fell with a scream. Rossam looked pleadingly at her.
"What arch Rev? What are you talking about? Help us, for Light's sake!"
They couldn't see it. They couldn't get away! Panic filled her yet again, and pain clenched her heart. How could she ever live with herself if she ran and left them to die? Impossible! Yet she knew she had to, for some unconscious law of her mind, and her feet moved again. At high speed and with a desperate glitter in her eyes. As she ran into the silvery light, echoes of their screams rang in her ears;
"Help us! Heelp uuuuss...!"
Third Arch
Revelin adjusted her shawl and eyed through the paper in front of her. Good, the whitecloaks had retreated from the Ghealdanin border and moved south. Not much, but it was a victory. Her brown hair falling in soft waves down her back only partially covered the blue-fringed shawl she had achieved only two weeks ago. Already she was drenched in work to do, of which most belonged to the war in Amadicia. She wouldn't want to do anything else though, and everything she did here in her study would aid to free the Amadicians of the whitecloak reign. She still wore the shawl most of the time, amazed to feel the weight and warmth on her shoulders. Revelin Alder, Aes Sedai. Who would have thought that some years ago? Least of all herself. This caused a small chuckle to escape her lips, but as a firm knock was heard on her door, she suppressed it. Before she could call out for someone to enter though, the door swung open, revealing a most impressive group of people.
Rev was on her feet and in a curtsy before she knew it, as the Amyrlin Seat, the Keeper and eleven Sitters entered her room. It got crowded in there, but the Amyrlin carried an aura of power that allowed her to gain at least a little space in the room.
"Mother. Keeper. Sitters. What brings me the honor of..."
Rev began, nodding in turn to the people she mentioned, and raising her eyebrows to indicate the question she was about to ask. With a gesture from the Amyrlin, she fell silent, waiting.
"We have serious things to discuss, Daughter. My sources tells me that someone has been manipulating the commanders in the army against the whitecloaks, and through that sending thousands of men to die. Say nothing, you may speak later. We have also learned, that during your time as a Novice and Accepted in the Grey Tower you plotted and planned for a mass-escape, and if possible attack on the Tower itself. Had we heard of this earlier, you would most likely not have achieved the Shawl. You will remove it from your shoulders now."
The Amyrlin watched her with absolutely no expression at all, and Rev felt chills running down her spine.
"Mother, I assure you..."
"Now, Daughter."
The tone left no room for discussion, and with numb fingers Rev did as she was told. Slowly, the Shawl fell from her shoulders and she put it on her chair. What was all this? Surely her reports hadn't done that? Thousands of men... And attacking the Tower? Never!
"If you have anything to say, say it now."
"Mother, I don't know how you learned this, but I assure you, that source is wrong! I've done everything I can to aid the army in their struggle against the whitecloak terror, and I wish nothing more than to see them victorious!"
Expressionless faces all around her, Aes Sedai eyes waiting for more. What would they do?
"As for my Novicehood, it is common knowledge that I wasn't very happy to be here then, but that was only during my first years here. I could never harm the Tower in any way! I want to see justice done, and that is all! I have done nothing wrong!"
Fear shone through in her voice, and it grew pitched at the end of her speech. It did nothing to help, surely, and the Keeper cast a glance on the Amyrlin, who nodded solemnly.
"We too want justice, Revelin. And you are a danger to all of us, to the Tower. You will be stilled for your deeds, and sent away from here to live your life somewhere else. You should never have been raised."
Without any further motions, the Aes Sedai in the room embraced saidar. Rev licked her lips, eyes bulging. Was this happening? To never feel the source again... A fate worse than death.
Something glittered behind the wall of women in front of her. Something silvery? She knew it was the only way out, but what could she do? Thirteen Aes Sedai holding saidar? A surprise attack and then run? She didn't want to, couldn't make herself attack the Amyrlin, but what chances did she have? Embracing the source with tears streaming down her cheeks, she stroke out with fire, the Aes Sedai closest to her burning almost before she had sent the flows. She ran forward, pushing the Amyrlin aside. Killing Aes Sedai... what had she done? Panic in her mind, almost making her loose saidar for a moment. She heard their cries from behind, cries for them to stop her, cut her off, now for Light's sake, cut her off!
Screaming in terror and guilt, she ran through the arch and the world erupted in bright light.