Fanfic:Unitas per Servitiam
| Author(s) | Bella |
|---|---|
| Character(s) | Natlya Cade |
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This is a piece of fanfiction. Only the original author(s) or Librarian(s) should make content changes to this page. |
This was it.
Natlya stood before a woman, an Aes Sedai. She looked young and the agelessness was present although not as strongly pronounced as many of the older Aes Sedai of the Tower who remained Oathsworn. Judging by the pale yellow of her dress, Nat guessed her Ajah.
They stood and stared at one another for a moment before they began on their way.
"I am Thea Sedai," the woman introduced once they were mounted and on their way.
"Ji'val Natlya," the trainee replied.
The Aes Sedai smiled slightly. "Yes, I know," she said. "Have you been often to the Blightborder?"
Natlya shook her head. They were riding onward at a steady but not over-exerting pace. There was no reason to kill their horses, since they would do the people of the outpost little good if they died on their way. "I have not been here as much as some of my fellows, but I have taken my training turns at the Citadel."
Thea Sedai nodded. "Once there, I fear your wardering abilities will not be strongly tasked, though I will need every set of hands I can get. There are many ill people I must attend, which will be my task. But just traveling to and from the outposts is dangerous, especially if you're not a Green. This will be your task."
"I can imagine so, Aes Sedai. It is an honor to serve." The formality and respect for her rank drilled into them since day one came out strongly. Better too much than not enough, she determined. Even as she moved further from the days of games, Nat still clung to many facets of her personality honed during her thieving life. One of them being to know the game she was in, and play it well.
"Have you spent any time working in the infirmary?" the Yellow asked after a few moments.
"Again, not much but some tours for training," Nat replied. "One of my instructors thought some basic infirmary knowledge was vital for a warder."
"Wise instructor," Thea agreed.
She fell into silence then, and so Natlya followed suit. By nature, she tended to like to talk. That had been tempered by her grief, but slowly she had been crawling out of that and was returning to some form of her former self. She would never be the same again, and she knew it, but some light was shining through once more.
...but she wasn't going to ramble at an Aes Sedai. If the woman wanted it quiet, then it would be quiet. Besides, it gave Natlya a better chance to watch their surroundings, right?
They arrived at Outpost Alain without any trouble, which was a slight disappointment for Natlya. Although she certainly didn't want to find trouble, she wondered if a peaceful trip could possibly be a good test of whether or not she was fit to wear the fancloak.
If nothing happened, would she be kept as a Ji'val and forced to wait for another, more suitable try? She didn't want that to happen. This was her chance.
This was her time.
And yet...she wasn't the type to want confrontation and conflict. She knew that she had grown a great deal since the girl who could not protect her most loved one, even to the point of protecting another and succeeding, but she wasn't one who wanted the fight. If she could talk, lie, cajole, or trick her way out of trouble, that was the route she would take.
The outpost...wasn't much to look at. One could feel the state of despair and disrepair as soon as it was looked at. Weary, sallow soldiers manned the outpost ramparts, and Nat couldn't believe it hadn't been overrun by the Blight already.
"What's happened here?" she asked in mild horror, forgetting her propriety.
"They don't know," Thea replied, either forgiving or not noticing. "That is why I was called. They have been wasting away with some illness."
For a moment, the worry flashed through Nat's mind of catching whatever it was. She vividly recalled avoiding quarantined areas of the city while she in her running days with Morgan, but that was another time. Now she knew it was her duty to put herself in harm's way. Although during training and classes, she had imagined that to be at the end of a sword...but this was a different kind of the same idea.
Unconsciously squaring her shoulders, she nudged her horse along and moved slightly ahead of the Aes Sedai. It was a warder's duty to enter first.
The treacherous path to becoming a Gaidin of the Grey Tower was certainly...a great deal different than she had expected.
Thea immediately went for the worst of the cases, who had been gathered together in a central building. Those who tended them didn't look a great deal healthier, but they were not as bad off as those who were sickest. The room smelled of their putrid, festering wounds. People were lying on cots, or beds just made of piles of blankets. Some even just layed on stacked clothing. They were wrapped with strips of cloth, yellowing either from salves or pus.
Nat managed--only by trying really, really, really hard--to keep her face straight as she followed Thea Sedai in. She felt fairly safe there wasn't any threat here that she could protect her Aes Sedai from…
The Yellow exemplified the cause of her Ajah and did not hesitate before moving right among the worst of them. She knelt down beside one and without looking away, took off her shoulder bag and handed it to Nat, telling her what things to pull out. It was a short list, but involved things familiar and not. The Ji had to listen close to be sure she understood and did so correctly.
Being wrong would literally be life or death, although in a way she hadn't considered as this trip began. From that moment, the day passed in a blur. True to her word, Thea Sedai made good use of the girl slated to be her warder for the task but there was no combat; they fought only against time and mystery, but Thea was so focused that Nat began to think a Mydraal could fall from the sky and land on her head but she would only notice if it offered the cure.
As the hour grew late, Thea finally did stop. She went to a basin to wash her hand for perhaps the thousandth time, but this time actually spoke to Nat. "I think I have found the cause. Fortunately, it is organically wrought and not some wicked oddity of the One Power or the Shadow here in the Blight." To know it wasn't the Shadow at work was a comfort, at least. "Can you Heal it?"
Thea nodded slowly. "In all but those too far gone," she admitted quietly. "I can do nothing for those here. I could cure the disease, but the damage is too far gone. It cannot be Healed completely even by the best of us with the One Power." Emotion slipped through, sorrow and regret.
Nat nodded slowly as well. She did not know these people, but it saddened her to know as well. Could channelers not do everything?
No. She knew very well that they could not. No matter how much they may wish to.
It took two days for Thea to treat everyone that she could, and console those she couldn't. She was so exhausted by the end of that time that if she hadn't declared her work finished, Natlya would have pulled the warder card and dragged her away, Aes Sedai or no.
After forcing as much rest as she could in taking a good meal, Thea demanded that they ride out. She wanted to get back to the Tower.
Natlya was just again beginning to wonder if this task would even count for her raising when yet one more...unexpected thing happened.
Road bandits.
From the other side of a curve in the road, behind one of the few places anyone could hide along this desolate run, a group of three armed men came out. One in the back had a bow, so Natlya wasn't sure how well she liked their chances for using the horses to make a get away.
The pair pulled up short, and quickly her eyes took in every detail around them.
No one said anything, until one in the back--the one without the bow--nudged the one in front. "Look at that one's face," he said. His voice was just loud enough for Nat to hear. "Ain't she one of those Aes Sedai then?" The way he said it made it pretty clear to the Ji that it wasn't complimentary.
"Get off the horses," the leader ordered. Nat evaluated. If this came to a fight, she'd be better on foot. She was rubbish at mounted combat.
‘Something to work on,' she thought as she glanced at Thea and nodded. The woman still looked exhausted, and Nat wondered if she even could use the power like this.
Once on her feet, she looked at the leader and slid back by a few years.
"Aes Sedai?" she replied with an incredulous smile, dropping feet first into a hastily put together role. She looked back at Thea again, turning her head enough so the others couldn't see her. ‘I'm sorry,' she mouthed, then turned forward and resumed her act. "I can't imagine how you got that idea. No, my sister is… Well…" She sighed, acting like she was about to confess a regretted family secret. "Different, you know?"
She gave them the big eyes, running her teeth over her bottom lip. ‘A little bit of the Badger Game,' she encouraged herself. It had been a long time, and she felt a little rusty; could they hear her mental joints creaking? Step forward. Hips shifting.
"I know, you can tell just by looking at her, but her face is just the tip of it." Step. Pathetic, put-upon woman look. "She ain't too quick either. In fact, pretty slow. In fact…" She leaned forward, lowering her voice. "In fact, she's pretty dumb. How could she not be with a face like that?"
The leader, caught in her flashing hazel eyes and pretty red hair, was caught. Yeah, she still had it. He chuckled. "You don't say," he said. "And what would two women like you all be out alone on the roads?" "Boss," said one behind, not quite as entranced. "She's got a sword."
Nat resisted the urge to glare at him. "Well, yeah, I mean… I'm not the stupid one, and we are out here. My parents, Creator bless them, wanted me to take care of her. She needs someone to. You know. Not that I'm all that good at it, but my poor parents were saddled with two girls and no sons. What were they to do?"
Forward.
"All the same, maybe you should toss that sword, little lady," the lead one said.
Her mind raced.
The lead bandit stood there with a sword of his own. It was out, held low and in front. Relaxed, although not tense for battle.
She shrugged, but moved slow. "Whatever you say," she said. "I mean, guess it wouldn't do me much good anyway." Carefully, she pulled it from its sheath and put it on the ground. She tossed it slightly, making a show like it would go further but it was still in reach.
Daggers. Hands. What to do about the bow?
The three stood pretty close. The two behind more to the sides than behind the first one.
She saw the slight easing in their bodies. They thought her even less threat now. She capitalized on that and shifted forward and little more. "Thing is, sir," she said, now looking as pitiful as she could without overdoing it. It was a thin line. "We don't have much of anything on us." Her voice was low, ‘forcing' her to shift a little closer. She acted ashamed. "Two daughters didn't do much for the family fortune, either. Not even enough to marry us off and be actually useful."
The light flickering through his eyes was disgusting, but she didn't break character.
"I think I could probably think up a thing or two for you to...pay with," he began with a dark smirk. She widened her eyes but then forced her head down. She could still look up, though, and saw she was just close enough…
"I suppose I could think of a thing or two as well," she breathed.
Her right hand snapped out, crossing the space between them with reflexes honed in blood and sweat and tears in the yards of the Grey Tower. Her fingers wrapped around the wrist of his sword-hand and yanked the very surprised man forward. She shifted her weight onto her back, right foot and kicked up with her left.
The toe of her boot snagged the bow and as she lowered her foot, it pulled the bow to the ground. The arrow fell away as the second shocked man was pulled forward and she rabbit-punched him in the nose with her left hand.
He cried out and dropped the bow entirely, gripping his face as blood poured down his face. His second cry made him inhale some of the blood, and he coughed and gagged.
Letting go of the first man, she dove forward and grabbed her sword. She rolled on her back in time to see the first man, the leader, turning and coming for her. She shoved both boots out, capture each knee straight in the cap. They made sickening crunching noises and he screamed. He sounded like a woman. Falling to the ground, his sword was forgotten.
That left one man. He overcame his own surprise as she jumped to her feet, sword at the ready. Although...he didn't look quite so confident as he had before, now did he?
Natlya grinned at him, then winked.
"Who are you?" he asked amid the wails and whines of his compatriots, who were far less intimidating now that they were crying for their mothers.
"That last person you should've messed with," she declaring.
His first strike came from above. Natlya, holding her sword in both hands for the block, caught it blade to blade. Deflecting it with a push of her arms, she followed it immediately with a swipe of her elbow that caught the bandit both by surprise and by the shoulder. It sent him back a step. He was not so surprised as to give too great an opening, but Nat had already pivoted slightly and took the opening to advance.
Now on the offensive, she aimed a strike for the larger man's side and was blocked, but slightly awkwardly. She saw his position and moved swiftly for a second strike to the other side, knowing that the heavier set of the man would make him slower to move out of the hard block and catch the other. He did, but barely, and was again shifted a step.
The bandit, teetering between fear and frustration, shifted his weight and tried to reclaim the offensive. What followed was a series of powerful strikes but quick blocks and deflections. Nat flowed into her element, though her ears never left the sounds of cries around her. They did not approach, but she'd know if they did. Otherwise, she was a creature of pure focus with the swift movements of a strategic mind. She let the bandit have the offensive that sequence, evaluating the movements and comprehending the man's strengths and weaknesses.
Once she had determined this knowledge, she further determined to take the advantage back. She knew this fight wasn't just about survival, but about something almost as important: proving herself. She had to prove to the Grey Tower and the Warder Council that, despite everything they had thought and she had thought and everything that had happened, this was the path for her.
She was capable of being a Gaidin, and protecting her charge.
The bandit came back with a strong-armed strike, and she blocked but this time their blades caught between them. She shifted her weight to one foot and the other caught the bandit flat against the midsection, sending him back and nearly pulling his weapon from his hand. It didn't, but was close and the surprise on the man's face as he coughed once was evident. Nat surged forward again.
The nameless bandit was losing ground. One of his strikes had managed a slight blow on Nat's shoulder, but not enough to stop her and not enough to get the advantage. She moved like he hadn't even noticed. The Ji'val powered forward, using her swifter hand to force the bandit's steps into retreat.
Until one moment when Nat's strike was a feint, but a convincing one. The bandit's move to block shifted him too much and she was able to glide to his side and elbow him in the back, sending him stumbling forward. By the time he turned around, which to his credit was remarkably fast for his size, the point of Nat's sword was at his throat.
"Mercy!" he cried.
"Why should I?" Nat drawled. "You would have done terrible things to me and charge, and why should that be forgiven? I should kill you all for what you would have done and spare another."
Instead, she leaned back and kicked him in the face.
He fell back, unconscious or dead she did not know. She did not care.
Sheathing her sword, she looked to find the one with the broken knees passed out on the ground and the one with the broken nose had run, even leaving his bow.
Natlya shook her head and raced back to the Aes Sedai, still mounted. Her ageless face looked...apologetic.
"I tried to help," she began.
"But you had exhausted yourself in the service of the ill," Nat finished for her as she mounted up, ignoring the shrieking pain she now found in her shoulder. "I knew it before this began. You serve them, and I serve you. Let us be on our way."
"What about them?"
"They were live, or they will die. If they live, let us hope this serves as a reminder what they do to strangers on the road," Nat said simply, as they both spurred their horses onward and back toward the Citadel, and beyond it, home.
Beyond it, Light willing, the culmination of all her effort--the fancloak.
Beyond it, Light willing, redemption.
