Fanfic:Things Foretold/Chapter I
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The Covenant of Steel and Power has been reforged, yet their bond will be tested by the Shadow's agents. In a dream they learn what is about to come, but they could never imagine where their path would lead them. One of Miahla's informants in Andor goes silent, and Caden follows her to investigate what has happened. Neither of them knew that was exactly what the Black Ajah intended.
Storm... Center of a storm... The clashing of lightning and the echoing rumble of thunder... Fear... Pain...
Screaming... There's screaming...
Oh Light! The pain... Center... In the center of it all... Someone calling her name... Who? Where?
A scream... 'I'm here!'
A whisper...
'Please find me.'
A cry... an infant... a child... a woman's scream... terrible, agonizing...
STOP!
No... No... Solid stone... Encased in stone...
Down... dragged down... Get away... Get away! No! Cold steel... cut...
No air...
Mia sat bolt upright in bed, so quickly it hurt but she didn't notice.
The move was accompanied by a scream, which ended prematurely in a noise sickeningly somewhere between a gasp and a wet, choking sound. The images and feelings ran rampant through her, although she couldn't focus on any single one of them. All that she could sense was the agonizing echo of pain in her throat, a clear line of it from one side to the other.
Her entire body was trembling. The bond pulsed in her mind with awareness, but she couldn't tell. She couldn't think about it. Mia couldn't think rightly about anything. There was no conscious thought as her breath heaved in her chest and her hand held on to her throat, as if trying to hold it together.
Blue-green eyes were glazed over with pain and staring straight up at the ceiling, yet seeing nothing. Streaming down her face were tears that she wasn't aware of.
Through the bond, the disposition of one's dreams is projected upon the other. It was a fact that Caden learned to know that night. For when Miahala dreamed, his own dreams grew as troubled as hers did, yet only to the point that he woke - seconds before her. They had not shared the dream, and his sleep was usually very light, so Caden had the fortuity to hold his composure when he opened his left green eye.
His distress came upon seeing Miahala's state of trauma in the darkness of the bedchamber.
Nightmares were an affliction that Caden was keenly experienced with, since after the right side of his face was burned, he had relived the incident hundreds upon hundreds of times. But the way that Miahala reacted to her own - oft as not - unpleasant dreams this night was most uncommon for her, because Caden could almost see her reaction as a mirror-image of his own - back when the impersonation of the Dawn of Blood put his flaming hand to his face every night. The fashion in which Miahala was afflicted this night was as if she had dreamed such a dream for the very first time.
The sight was paralyzing, but in a few moments, Caden blinked away the residues of sleep and came to grasp with reality. He found himself sitting up already; mouth slightly agape. "Hush," he rasped and ran one arm around her shoulders, holding her to his chest. "It was a dream, love. I'm here."
He provided her with the comfort he could - holding her tightly and resting his unburned chin against the top of her head. They were in the Green Ajah Head's chambers. Outside, the night was growing weary and light, with time beating the track for a new dawn. In the moonlight, there were only them, solitary beings on the face of the earth for all they could see. The quiet was beating against their ears in rhythm of their troubled hearts - the blood pounding inside their skulls.
"Nightmares are preparations for the mind to attune itself to possible incidents in the dreamer's life," he said next, stroking her opposite shoulder. "The mind trains itself, and you just had a very hard lesson. That is all. Tell me, what happened?"
At first, it had taken some moments for her to break from the Dream and come in to the world of now, here. When she did, she almost felt as though she would collapse in to herself within his arms. These sorts were always the worst. They were not always like this, but sometimes they were and sometimes they whispered such terrible things in her ears that she felt she would never recover.
When he spoke though, she stiffened and straightened. Without realizing that it would do so, it pulled her from his arms and she stared at him for a moment. The Dream still had her unsettled. Her eyes were wide and fearful. "No..." she whispered, shaking her head. Mia pushed herself off the bed and started pacing, holding her arms around her body. "No... No..." she said again, in an uncharacteristic display of anxiety and agitation.
"Light preserve me..." she whispered then, rubbing her throat. She had never had her throat cut to the point of death, but imagined that this was what it would feel like: it felt still of the pain and the rush of blood. "This was not a nightmare, Caden," she went on. Her words took on more strength, were a little louder, and a little calmer although she still paced the length of the bed. "No dream of any normal state born."
Miahala stopped and looked at him. "This was no dream, but a Dream. I do not visit places in my mind at night that are this vivid unless there is something that is being told to me. I have Dreamt... I have Dreamt of many things. Some were good, and some were not. I always Dream as though I were living it. They always come before, but never are clear enough for me to do a Light-blasted thing about them!"
She looked around the room, almost as if she did not know it. "I felt... I felt the place. I would know it if I were there again, but my mind... I was familiar with it. I had been there before, but there was more than that. There was so much. It was a storm, and there was crying and someone was afraid. Someone..." A pale, slender hand drifted up to gingerly touch her throat as she looked down. "I think someone is going to be killed there... possibly torture first. I think someone's throat is going to be cut..."
Finally, she moved to sit on the edge of the bed with a heavy sigh and she closed her eyes. "But I do not know where and I do not know when, or who..." She shuddered. "These Dreams are curses," she hissed softly and covered her face with her hands.
Sitting at the edge of the bed, Caden watched her as she spoke of the Dream.
Even though his green eye did not betray much emotion in the dim moonlight, the slight crease of his brow told much about the stone-faced Gaidin's distress at seeing his love in such a state. His mind digested the fact of this rare form of prophecy and tried to remember what he had learned about Dreams before. Not much, he realized, but enough. The experience of the Dream had caused a reaction much unlike any Caden had seen her go through before, and he understood how horrifying it must have been. Miahala had not suffered anything like it before, not since they reunited in the Arafellin wilderness - else he would have noticed. On the other hand, this Dream might have been an especially ill presage.
An event of dire portent, he thought bitterly, Omen enough to leave this iron woman shaken to the marrow. How does one choose to neglect such a thing and return to regular duty?
"Supposed they are," he rasped finally, "curses, I mean." He slid sideways on the bed so that he was right next to her. He ran one arm around her shoulder again, in love patient as the mountain abiding the turns of the seasons, trying again to calm her down with his presence. "I know naught of these Dreams - what they portend, or don't. Nevertheless, I know that they do not simply exist to cause you and people with the same gift as you grief or terror. The same way as everything else exists in the life we lead; there is a reason for them. It may not be a reason that justifies the horror they can invoke, but they still have reason. Personally, I would try to find solace in the fact that they might help, somehow. Then again, I have not suffered their affliction."
Running his thumb along the skin of her shoulder, he fixed his mismatched gaze on hers. The white orb of his right eye shone in imitation to the moon. "You may feel cursed, but there is a ground to why you are. The Pattern has made it so that you saw what you saw. May it be because you are affiliated with the event, or that you need to know of it to warrant a future action you take, but I hardly think you saw what you saw just to deny you restful sleep."
He lifted his other hand and brushed the backside of his fingers against her cheek. "You saw what you saw. Felt what you felt. Remember, but do not dwell on every aspect of the vision. Since it will come to pass, there is naught you can do but to see what the Pattern intends for you to do with your privileged knowledge." He dropped his hand again. "All knowledge is worth having, for better or worse. All. Truth is the adamant blade to which all deception and subterfuge fall."
Holding his arm around her, he tried to comfort her best a Warder and lover could. "As for now, at this moment, nothing has changed - so you must keep your mind at the present. The day will come when you will know; when you will act. But that day is not tonight."
Miahala took in a slow, shuddering breath and leaned against Caden. He was the one solid place in the midst of a torrent, the torrent that was her mind and spirit after a Dream like that. The feelings were fading, but there was still the lingering sensation of pain against her entire body and steel against her throat. It wasn't a feeling that she was unfamiliar with, but it was one that she didn't like.
She had a tendency to electrocute those who tried, but... there was no one to fight here.
Collapsing in to herself, emotionally speaking, she turned her body to face him and pressed her face against his neck. One arm rose to rest around his neck and hold herself close. If nothing else in the world at the moment was stable, he was... and for some while, that was all that mattered. She clung to him as if he was the last thing in existence and for that time, he was... In that time, though, she was able to ground herself again and find the stronger parts of herself once more.
Her breathing began to even out and her heart slowed, finally stopping in its incessant pounding. "Thank you, my love," she whispered, leaning up but not moving far away. She smiled faintly. "I'm better now. It was just very intense. I could feel it. It felt like someone had killed me." She let out a slow breath.
"In the morning, I'll be clearer and more able to figure things out. I know I get these Dreams for a reason. There have been times when they've helped... but they are still so hard sometimes. They've been far less common in these last years, so it caught me off guard. I may take a look through files and reports tomorrow and see if maybe... maybe there's something, anything, I can connect this to. One thing I do know is that I never Dream about strangers. It might not be someone I know well, but it's always someone I know."
Terrible memories flashed through her mind of the Dream she had that led her to her friend Harmony when she lost the baby... of that led her to the Blight, nearly killing her, to see her lost husbands.
"In the morning," she repeated, nodding slowly. "Perhaps I'll be able to work something out so that this horrible moment will mean something more than just being horrible. I might not be able to stop... whatever it is, I never can, but... maybe we'll be able to do something worth while about it." Mia smiled quietly. "However, little can be done in this instant." She kissed him softly. "Except for your steadfast patience, which is greatly appreciated."
Relieved that she found her calm again, Caden Ives returned her soft kiss and ran his fingers through her hair. "On the morrow," he rasped in agreement. "The world can wait for us until the morrow."
Reaching across with his other hand, the Gaidin gently pulled her into his lap so that she sat facing him. "Yet I worry too, for the possibility that this premonition was acutely connected with you. Is there a chance that this foretelling could have been you in person as well as an acquaintance or friend of yours?" In honesty, he did not want to raise this question immediately, but his fear for her life and the protective instincts of his nature compelled him to.
It was a clear-cut question that he did not ask lightly. Neither in expected denial nor the dreaded affirmation, but the plain truth. He needed truth, no matter what it entailed. The possibility of death was something they both lived with each day; it would only be slightly more uncomfortable to know another possible outcome for their lives. For would she one day die in the fashion described, Caden would either have ended his life in defence of hers, or he would die in pursuit of the man or woman holding the knife.
His face was a blank two-faced mask, neither the demonic or human side betraying a hint to which kind of reaction would come if she would suddenly confess that she was most likely the one who were to die, or if it was just another possibility. Expectant and serious, he still had his arms around her waist; a reminder that he loved her no matter what the future entailed for them.
With the moon behind her back, her hair was a dimly lit halo around her face and shoulders. Caden looked at the apparition of an angel in his arms, the dread for her life a tightly controlled beast in his heart. Light, preserve her. She does not deserve more trials. She, like I, have suffered enough already. A meaningless thought; a sign of weakness, yet heartfelt and true.
A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trails, that was what Varcan Saniral had said to him long ago. True enough. But destruction leaves neither gem nor man for the world to behold. We cannot fight Shadow in the guise of memories.
Although every nerve in her body wanted her to deny is straight out, to ease his mind and comfort him, she knew that a rash response would do no good to either of them, for they were both realists and well knew their place in this world and in the fight against the Shadow. They lived in the shade of their chosen path every day, but it was what they might find in spite of it that meant so much.
Miahala forced herself to look away for a moment and go over the dream in a more... professional manner, to compare it to the past and find what her instincts were telling her about it.
Finally, she looked up and met his gaze, which had long stopped holding the same reaction to her that it held for others. It was him, that was all. She smiled a little and shook her head. "Although I could not swear to it, of course, I do not believe that it has any bearing on me personally. I have Dreamt before of things that involved me, or more directly related to me, and I could tell. There was a different feeling to them. No, this felt like someone I knew, but not well."
She paused for a moment of thought again. "No, this was not about that happening to me. It may be related to me, as it must be for me to Dream it, but I do not believe in my mind and heart that it was foretold in this Dream for it to be me with that blade to my throat," she told him firmly, for it was precisely as she felt and was certain of. She rested her hands on his face, running her thumbs over his cheeks. "So, I shall not let myself lose sleep over that and would not wish it of you either. It was a terrible Dream, and I fear for who is does mean, but I do not believe it me."
Still, there was some part of her mind that picked up on the Dream and felt that it meant something to her... some sort of danger, but it was hard to be certain if that was just a residue of the terror of the Dream itself, but her instincts told her that the person who was to die as told in this Dream was not to be her.
Death would have to remain waiting in line for her, to claim her another time, as it had been avoided and delayed so many other times in her long life.
In reply to her response, Caden exhaled a breath he did not remember to have held.
No doom has been called upon her, or me for that matter. As cursed as I am, I still have a future - together with her. As dark as the foretelling had been, he was still heartened by this angle of the predicament. He usually did not handle problems by taking a naive point of view and disregard all other factors, but this time, he was relieved to find brief satisfaction in doing so.
"Our threads must end in the Pattern, someday, somehow, but mayhap not yet," he rasped, and the unburned side of his face twitched briefly in a smile. "Not in the fashion you dreamt of at least, which leaves only a million possible ways for the same result. Nevertheless, something to find grim joy in, still."
He ran his hands down to her hips and chuckled, looking briefly out the window. The night was still young; the sky black as pitch with small diamonds strewn across. There were long hours left until dawn, and duty towards the Tower and the Warder Yards equally far in being in effect. At the given moment, when he and his Aes Sedai were usually asleep, he had no obligations to do anything but what he wanted; a rare freedom to which he found himself grateful.
The choice, was a small one and easily taken.
Looking back upon Miahala, his expression had become something akin to rueful, and his emerald eye glimmered daringly in the dim light from across her shoulder. "In fact, I find it something to celebrate." His calloused fingers slowly ran up across the quondam scars along her back. "I reckon you think so too, don't you, my dear?" Slowly, he leaned forward. With his unburned lips, he began to lavish a suggestive trail of kisses, climbing gradually up her neck.
When he reached her ear, his hot breath alone implored her.
Morning
Although the Dream had done well to shatter her sleep, Caden's assurances and attention had done well to soothe her frayed nerves so that she might sleep again and be able to wake to face the day once more. She was still disturbed in the deeper places of her spirit by it, but she was able to take another few mental steps back to examine it rationally.
Miahala sat in her office, going through various stacks of papers - reports and communications, mostly her Eyes and Ears network to see if any had anything to report that might afford her a clue, something that might stand out and lead her to dig deeper and possibly find the source of this Dream, and it's subject. So far, though, she hadn't found much except a rather dire need for much tea.
At that particular moment, Caden was busy elsewhere but he remained a constant presence in the quiet corners of her mind, and she continued to be grateful, even after so many months after their re-bonding in Arafel.
She stopped reading for a few moments to rub her eyes and think. Already, she had read through numerous reports from the past several weeks from her sources in all the Borderland nations, Ghealdan, Altara... A pause. She blinked and looked over the reports. There was one missing from her reading, but she had gone through the stack from the past two weeks. She could not recall reading any from him in that time.
Reaching for the papers, she began to sort through them and seek out a missive or report from her source in the town of Marston, in Andor...
That morning - after his Aes Sedai's dreadful foretelling - Caden had resumed his regular duties as a Warder in the Yards.
His morning exercises has been a relief in the way that his mind turned blank and shut all brooding from entering his thoughts. He ran his winding laps around the Tower battlements and through the mountain terrain - up and down steep slopes and along the encompassing fortifications. By mid-morning, he sought other Warders to spar with; keeping all his skills in methods of fighting sharp.
An hour before noon, he was done. This day, he had no Classes to teach, and Mouse was busy with theoretical studies inside the Warder Halls, so he selected to return to the Tower itself - making his way up the great stairs to the Green Ajah quarters. While doing so, he pondered the mystery surrounding his mute student's past. The promise he had made to her regarding the possible deaths of her parents had been earnest and true. Nevertheless, his research had ended up fruitless. Mouse expects nothing of me, he reminded himself, yet still it vexes me.
The Black Ajah remained a bodiless ghost, unseen even though Caden might be passing agents of Shadow in any corridor.
He entered his own chambers first to cleanse himself before donning clean garments. While still brooding, he pulled on sable breeches and an old white shirt that was a little too tight over his shoulders and arms. The years had earned him scars as well as thicker musculature; the baby-fat of youth scrounged by war and horror from his limbs. He needed to visit the tailor that he had contracted the last time he served at the Tower grounds. For now, he would make do with what he had. He hiked up his sleeves and donned his baldric before letting his steps take him to Miahala's adjoining study.
When he entered, he saw stacks of parchments littering her desk, and secondly, a slight frown creasing her forehead. The Bond told him the nature, but not the details, of what she had discovered.
"What's wrong?" he asked and stepped up to her side. He placed a calloused hand upon the pommel of his sword, his eyes taking in the aftermath of a search through letters and reports written in a myriad selection of hands.
"Hello to you, too, Caden," Mia said with a faint smile and without looking up from her reading, shuffling through papers and scanning over them as she went. "As for what's wrong... well, it's hard to say, really. I've been going through my various reports and missives from Eyes and Ears contacts and everything seems fairly average."
She paused, setting them down in a stack and pushing them to the side. She'd been through them three times already since noting the discrepancy. "Except for one thing, which is one man I have not heard from in two weeks and possibly more, although I'd have to check, but I want to say only the past two weeks. This is not usual for him, particularly...
"I do not, precisely, have any evidence to make me suspect foul play of any sort," she continued, turning her chair slightly to face her Warder. "But... I was simply looking for anything out of the ordinary, and I found it. He's in a town in Andor, so it's not like he's that far off as to make communications slower..."
She then fell in to a silent moment of contemplation, thinking through her Dream and about this discovery. Was it a discovery? Did it really have anything to do with anything, or was she simply grasping at straws in desperation to explain what she had Dreamt, and to do something about it? It was hard to say...
Blue-green eyes refocused and she tilted her head back, looking up at Caden. "It would, perhaps, not be a bad idea to go check out..." she replied. "What do you think?"
Briefly considering their options, Caden nodded.
"We cannot learn anything by abiding our time here," he rasped and folded his fingers around his belt. "And it has been a while since we journeyed. The last time was when we met again - in the Borderlands. It's about time we left the Tower anew."
Already accepting the logic of making a journey to verify the possibility that Miahala's dream might be related to the missing reports, his mind turned to the mission in itself. "Andor is relatively safe to travel as of now. The Seanchan was driven away completely after the siege that the Tower suffered was lifted. We should be able to make the crossing over Andorian land without unnecessary risk, but we could also let some trusted Aes Sedai or Asha'man make a Gateway there."
The prospect of leaving the Tower for a period of time was welcome. Caden had spent long years inside the Tower battlements when he was Gaidin Captain and later Master of Training ??????? initiating and training recruits. The place had not changed much since last, and he was falling into daily routines that threatened to leave him bored without a proper journey to clear his head.
"What say you," he asked Miahala, "If you are ready to investigate this informant's whereabouts more thoroughly, I'll be at your side, naturally. And I rather look forward to being on the road again together with you."
Miahala smiled a little, in that particular way she had - a bare turning upwards of her mouth that conveyed a great deal, because she wished it to, because it shone in her eyes - she let it. If she allowed and if one looked, the truth of her mind and soul was always to be found in her eyes, and it had been so for her entirely life... She just got better at hiding it at will as time passed.
"I must confess that I am not unhappy with the idea of getting out of the Tower again, seeing to matters. Although the reason is, or at least could be, a dark one... I cannot manage to remain stationary for too long." The corners of her mouth turned upwards a little more. "A trait that we share."
Taking in a breath, she looked briefly over her desk. "Fortunately, other business is quiet, so I can easily settle things so that we might leave as early as tomorrow, if you thought it prudent." She looked up at him again. "I think perhaps it would be best to leave sooner than later, of course, for if there is cause to worry about my informant, then the investigative trail will be cold if we wait too long."
"Aye," rasped Caden and considered that aspect of the problem. "He might be dead already, if your Dream happened to show what it did when it actually did happen. Then we would have to make haste. On the other hand, he might be alive still, but still needs to be heard because of the missing reports."
Frowning, he realised they had little choice in this matter.
"As much as I would like to ride the countryside towards our goal, we might not have that alternative if we are to find your informant dead and there actually is a cooling trail to follow," he said and paced around the corner of the desk, "We can ride home to the Tower afterwards, of course, but I suppose we have no choice but to Travel to our destination; with the best interest of your man's life in mind."
He paused as he realised that if the man was indeed the one in the Dream, there was naught they could ever do to stop it. He cleared his throat. "Well, perhaps not with that in mind. Not that we can stop it from happen, but you might have received the Dream because you have the opportunity to learn something from the incident. And since we have the possibility to get there quite fast by using a Gateway, we can be certain that the man probably died last night, or sometime very soon, because he did not have us to protect him."
It was true that they might fail to protect him once they arrived, but Caden was confident in his abilities to keep people alive. It was, after all, his calling in life.
"That makes the eventuality of a cooling trail quite plain, and the sooner we arrive, the most we can learn from it." He shrugged and rested his knuckles on the desk. "Or we might be chasing the wind, and the man is fine, just preoccupied with something - like arrangements for a wedding or a burned down house, or maybe a newborn babe. One can speculate forever when it comes to prophesies. What are your thoughts?"
Mia really rather disliked it when things she didn't like made sense and were too logical to dismiss. It was not anything she held against Caden, just that what he had just said was very rational, yet it put her in a unfavorable position.
For some reason, which she had yet to be able to fully understand in herself, she didn't like to Travel or use Gateways. If she had her way - which with her rank and age, was often - she would ride everywhere. Her best guess on this was that she was Saldean and it often seemed her blood was as much equine as human. So, she didn't like to hear the reasons for Traveling, but the sense in it was not to be avoided.
She sighed quietly. "Aye, it's best to waste as little time as possible. I have a friend in the Blue who is fairly well talented in it and will probably assist me. I will speak to him this afternoon. We should prepare to depart in the morning, if you're amenable. As you say, there is little we can be certain of here, so best be prepared, but leaving in the morning will be soon enough."
Here she paused for several thoughtful moments, thinking over things. "I should warn you," she finally said. "The town we travel to is also the home of several nobles and I have a... connection to one of them. Lady Catvinya of the House Masseroy, a rather well connectioned and high considered place for the city, seems to like me. Many years ago, I was kind to her and she's never forgotten." The rueful smile that Mia gave showed that she almost wished the Lady Catvinya had forgotten.
"Whenever she hears I'm in town, she tracks me down using the Light knows how many spies and invites me to an elegant dinner, as she puts it. It's always some event that requires me to dress up and not be obviously armed. She's quite persistent and a lovely lady with a good heart, despite forcing me in to finery every time she has the chance." Another sigh. "We might escape her notice, but if we don't, be forewarned, I can almost never get out of these things.
"Before you ask, if the woman could have channeled, she would've been a bloody good Aes Sedai. She can word play anyone. I could best her if I wished but it would require being more unkind than I actually feel towards her, so I end up attending these events. Even given the business we'll be there on, I do not think I'll be able to avoid it if she corners me. I say this so you'll be warned, and so... we are sure to bring appropriate items, just in case."
Falling silent, she gave a wry look at her warder, wondering if he'd be amused at his Aes Sedai's agitation over wearing 'dress' clothes.
When she first had told him that he should be warned, it sounded like she had something serious to fear in journeying to their destination. The corners of his mouth drew down and his green eye sharpened.
Yet it turned out his Aes Sedai merely feared the possibility to attend a simple banquet, should this fearsome noblewoman get her claws into her hide. Caden made sure he kept his face straight, and nodded gravely as she told him that they might have to pack some finery for their mission. His amusement shone in his eye though, and he could not help but to smile a little with the unburned side of his face.
During the years he had spent in Arafel ??????? as the High Seat and before he achieved that title ??????? as well as his younger years in the Stone of Tear, he had attended far more banquettes than he cared to remember. Court-trained from young years, he certainly found his Aes Sedai's discomfort amusing. He cleared his throat and suppressed his smile. Yet his eye continued to beam. "Certainly, my Aes Sedai. One always has to prepare for the worst. Thank you for the warning."
The only clothes he had that actually fit his wider shoulders and thicker limbs perfectly were the finery that he had worn in Arafel; made by some kind of renowned tailor that all the nobles went to and complete with all the needed accessories. He supposed he could bring any of those. "You will find your Warder impeccable, should the dreadful situation arise." He did not add that to make her feel that she had to go out on a limb and find something really nice to wear, not at all.
He continued before she got the opportunity to comment on that, seemingly in stride and oblivious to her possible discomfort. "Well, if we are to leave on the morrow," he rasped and took a few steps towards the door, "I should go and make some arrangements with the stables and make sure N'dore and Winterbourne are saddled and ready when we need them. I'll arrange for supplies and maps of the region too. Is there anything else you need, my love?"
Unable to not sense her Warder's amusement, both over the bond and glinting in his eye, Mia smirked dryly. "No, I think that shall be sufficient," she replied. "I shall speak to my friend and arrange our actual passage. Otherwise, it will simply be a matter on my part to pack. I at least know a reputable Inn. The Innkeeper knows me and will take good care of us."
Her smirk became a little rueful. "Which as we know is always a benefit. I know more in the Borderlands, but do know at least one in that area."
With a quiet sigh, she glanced down at the papers on her desk. "For this precise moment, however, I will comb through some slightly older reports and see if there is anything that can be found in them which will offer any information that will assist on our journey."
Mentioning the Inn, Caden knew she referred to an incident where they had been dependent on the help from an Innkeeper in order to get away with their lives.
After Caden had killed the leader of a band of brigands with Miahala's help, it turned out that the man had had a brother. This brother had followed their tracks and attacked them in a most awkward moment, and together with his own band of highwaymen the brother had tried to repay the favour. In the end, the newly bonded Warder and Aes Sedai had cut down the rate of brigands in the area considerably ??????? literally.
In truth, it had been a close call, with Caden almost strangled to death against a terrace railing and Miahala cut to the point that she almost bled to death. Great stories of heroism were always apt to be as right in substance as they were wrong in detail. Only the scars of such times told the truth.
"Very good," rasped Caden and opened the door, "I will see you shortly. I'll pack when I return from the stables."
He stepped out, but before he closed the door, he stopped and gave Miahala a lop-sided smile. "Don't forget that the pointed neck-lines are in fashion at court these days," he grated, and then continued superfluously, with an expertly raised eye-brow, "Take something that is not too modest and yet absolutely not something too vulgar. Yet for Light's sake, make sure you pick the colours of the season. Furthermore, you have to pick out your shoes first, before you decide on the dress. And the jewelleries come second after the shoes. You wouldn't want to make your noble friend regret inviting you, should ...disaster... strike us."
Before a fireball would strike him, Caden shut the door quickly. He cleared his throat and strode off, to deal with the matters needed before they se out on another journey together.
