Fanfic:The Beginning and the End

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The Beginning and the End
Author(s)
  • Saraid Mahara (player)
Character(s)
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Saraid rubbed hand across the back of her neck. The amount of Power being drawn on within the Tower made her neck prickle. Its force, its potential was shattering and if something went wrong - no, she did not like to think of that. She then moved her hand to sweep her slightly damp hair from her face. Even the Aes Sedai trick of not sweating was hard to keep up in this heat, the best she could managed was not sweating too much and projecting an outward look of coolness. A cat padded across the floor of her rooms and she leant forwards to pick up the half full glass of water on her desk. Was it her imagination, or did the water ripple? No, there it was again, and her pen skittered across the sheet of paper she had on her desk. "They don't have earthquakes in the Mountains of Mist, do they?" She spoke to her cat but did not expect an answer. "Perhaps it's just tremors of power from that big experiment they're doing . . . " There, that was a safe explanation. The whole room shook then next time, and her pen leapt off her desk with a life of its own and clattered to the floor. A small painting on her wall, its pin loosed from the wall, slid to the ground and the glass covering the design shattered.

"Oh Light," Saraid whispered, not daring to move. She had seen such tremors before, they had been a prelude to the earthquake which had knocked a whole cliff face onto half of the Ryukko sept of the Nakai Aiel; Saraid had first channelled, so hugely and clumsily that half of the hold crumbled before the channelling Wise Ones could do anything about it. In that accident they had lost nearly seventeen people and another five had been quite badly injured. Needless to say Saraid left before the Wise Ones could take her into their control and train her as one of their own. "Oh Light, not now." She did not think she could cope with the loss of some her friends and loved ones, events no doubt to come. The room shook, and a little water splashed out of the glass as it danced a little jig across the tabletop.

"Right . . . " Saraid said. "Here, puss, puss, puss . . . Here kitties, come to mama . . . We have to go now," she told the four cats that came to her call, walking over to the door. "Come on." She opened the door and they stepped out. What a sight met their eyes! The hallway was in shambles and scared young people darted from door to door, eyes wide with terror. A servant cowered in an alcove, praying to the Light to pardon him, to rescue him from the 'living mountain'. Another tremor shook the building, and Saraid found herself stretched out on the floor, not recalling how she got there. A little shaken, she righted herself and ran over to the servant. "Come on," she told him raggedly. "The Creator helps those who help themselves," and she roughly pulled him to his feet. "Go," she said, pulling the man after her, down the hallway. The cats bounded along behind her, agilely avoiding the fallen plaster and decorations - paintings, hangings, and the like.

Saraid turned a corner and saw the stairs in view. Pulling the servant in front of her she told him quickly and firmly to hurried down and out of the building. Once he was there, he was to stay as far away from the buildings and rock faces as he could for his own safety. The man did not ask Saraid what she was going to do but she felt sure that had he not been so frightened he would have had a measure of concern for her too. "And take my cats! They belong to Saraid Sedai of the Green Ajah." She told her cats to stay with the man and took a pile of loose cord that someone had dropped in their haste. The cord was quickly tied to her cats' collars and the end of the cords handed to the man. "You are not to leave them on any account!" The man nodded and fled, the cats bounding after him. Saraid sighed and then continued down the passage, ignoring the central stairs to her right. Then she felt a tearing in her body, emptiness and loss flooding every part of her. She knew this feeling, she had felt it when Davarin had passed away. Her remaining Warder, Ikusero, was gone. Dead. She knew immediately, as she let the information enter her conscious mind, that he was dead. Killed in the room where the experiment was taking place as saidin ran wild and he had overdrawn. He was burnt out and then killed by the vast amount that he had drawn himself. All this she knew and more in the split second it took to register the information their bond gave her before it was torn from her. Shock was quickly taking control of her body, numbing her mind and thoughts. She had no care whether or not she lived or died now. Her cats would be taken care of by Harmony or one of her other dear friends. Not Rashenne, was the last sensible thought to cross her mind, Rashenne hates cats.

Saraid rounded another corner and stopped - not in shock the events of the last minute had taken care of that. An Asha'man - for he wore the cord, a Yellow cord, of that rank - lay curled near a fallen pillar. But as she stepped closer something nagged at her, telling her there was something else about this Asha'man. Stepping forwards to kneel by the wounded Asha'man she quickly checked him, Delving as Davarin had taught her to. She rocked back on her heels in shock. The man was very close to death. Deep within her, a feeling stirred, and she knew her instinct was telling her that without some kind of help he would certainly die.

It would be something to keep her occupied, to stave off the shock and pain of Ikusero's death, she justified the action. "Hey," she told him. "I'm Saraid, and these Healers say that you would have a better chance of survival if you were bonded. I recognise you as Keyeren Selan Asha'man, and I know you are not bonded . . . So I'm going to bond you." She told the fallen man, whom she now recognised as Keyeren Selan one-time M'Hael of the Grey Tower, what she was going to do as she laid the weaves. She also told him about the Healers to calm him at her actions if her could hear her. "If you don't like it afterwards, when you're Healed, I can release you from the bond." Saraid looked around momentarily. She had come across the man who had been M'Hael when the Tower was created! Then she panicked momentarily as the floor shook again. "We have to get out!" She picked up the Asha'man in a weave of air - Light knows I couldn't carry him else! - and ran, floating him along behind her.


Saraid sat in front of the huge doorframe ter'angreal that Keyeren had fallen through and disappeared into a month ago. She meditated their meeting and the duration of their bond. She had not thought at the time that love could grow from something born of need. In the seven years she had been Aes Sedai she had bonded three very different men and lost them all in succession - that was more of an achievement than she'd ever heard of any bonding Aes Sedai in such a short time. Still, she did wonder now if perhaps she was unlucky; every one of her Warders had died or disappeared and two of them had done so just prior to their planned wedding. She frowned, she was not upset too much now. No, that was a bare-faced lie. She was upset but not in as much shock or pain as she had been for the deaths of Davarin and Ikusero - after all, Keyeren was not necessarily dead. He had just disappeared through an unstudied ter'angreal and their bond had faded and then completely dissolved. Saraid knew Keyeren would not be coming back even if he was alive still, or at last not for a very long time. She had mourned his disappearance long enough, she had better find a new Warder to take care of her. Hopefully he would not disappear or die on her.