Rienna Dunn
| Rienna Dunn | |
|---|---|
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| RI-enna da-CIL DUN | |
| Created by | Kenneth Edberg |
| Information | |
| Full name | Rienna Daccil Dunn |
| Gender | Female |
| Occupation | Novice |
| Affiliation | The Grey Tower |
| Nationality | Mayener |
| Attributes | |
| Weapon Skills |
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| Masteries | |
| OP Strength | 7.3 |
| Affinities | Air, Spirit, Fire, Earth, Water |
Rienna Daccil Dunn is a Mayener Novice of the Grey Tower.
Description
Seemingly a gracile daughter of a Mayene tradesman that was ship-wrecked and forced to live a life with the Atha'an mire, Rienna Daccil Dunn - belying her effusive manners - possess a far more lambent wit than she lets on.
With opulent blonde hair that reaches her to her lower back, she might wear it loosely or in a leather cord behind her head. She appears to be a five feet and two inches fair-skinned woman who has just reached her mid-twenties when she arrives to the Grey Tower - claiming to have spent nigh her entire life with the Sea Folk. Thus, her veraciously peregrine view of life might to the sandlappers seem either evocative or inappropriate.
She has high cheek-bones that frame a petite nose and gently smiling lips, yet there is nothing meretricious about her comely appearance. Her pale blue chatoyant eyes, like a clear sky over the oceans, are the most evident contrast to her accent and the rolling grace in her step. A speech and gait, that only Atha'an Mire woman could possibly possess. Thus, she walks as if she can still feel the motions of the sea, and also speaks with slang and curses native to the Sea Folk.
Rienna can be heard saying that she used to wear three rather thin gold earrings in each ear and carried two long gold necklaces - each a sign of her accomplishments. Like most Sea Folk, she preferred to go barefoot, wearing baggy breeches of dark, oiled cloth, held up by a narrow, red sash. She carried two curved knives in her red sash - which hung was completely unknotted after she left the salt in order to study the One Power. And while she no longer walk about barechested, as she might when at sea, she now wears common sandlapper apparel upon her lissome frame.
Rienna further claims that she was named Rienna din Dunn Sunlit Moon - named after the way the sunshine made her fair skin stand out amongst her fellow crew. Yet after she abandoned the salt for training in the arts of the One Power, she says she decided to use the name she was born to.
A name, portending a hidden truth - a vengeful calamity risen the grave.
History
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PART I - INCHOATION
A young boy- and not a woman - was found in the driftwood of a Mayene merchant fleet; shipwrecked by a storm and left to his own fate.
It just so happened that the Wheel had other plans than for this child to die and sink to the bottom of the sea, since those who found him were Atha'an Miere - the Sea Folk. Had the boy known what kind of upbringing he would live through, one might wonder if he had not preferred to be embraced by the Aryth Ocean. For the Atha'an Miere were traditionalists that stuck to their customs, and the Soarer that found him - the Gale preserver - were no different than other vessels.
Clan Somarin, which he came to belong to, were just like the other clans, so regardless which one had found the boy, he would have been shunned in the fashion he were. His skin, eyes and his height would forever preclude him from a place in their sea-faring society. Still, a single man pitied the shipwrecked child. It was the Swordmaster of the ship, and his name was Aikean din Nicander Clashing Winds. As a foster-father, the Swordmaster left little to wish for, but the crew would still never truly accept the boy.
Racism remains an evil in itself, and during all his upbringing, he was scorned and ridiculed for his looks - earning no friends amongst the crew and finding no love save the love of his foster-father. Until one day, when he experienced the affections of a woman. She was the daughter of the Galepreserver's Deckmaster, and her name was Kisane. In the boy's mind, it had to be true love, for the women in his culture rarely showed any affection for him. Thus, he found feelings he could not understand spring to life inside him.
Yet the very same night that his love was answered in kind, the Seanchan attacked the Soarer, and it resulted in that his foster-father was taken away from him - as if a predestined amount of love in the young man's life could not be exceeded. It had to be that the young man was forced to pay retribution for exceeding this boundary in his life, for shortly after the Galepreserver docked into land, the Pattern took away his lover too.
Kisane was not only loved by the young man, but yet another crewmember - Sanael. This deckhand could not bear the sight of 'his' woman in the arms of the foreign man - who was little more than an animal in the eyes of the crew. It was a shame to Sanael, and not accepted on any terms. He sought the woman out once they docked into port and tried to speak sense to her, but she refused to hear his words; ignored his threats.
She should have harkened, for when she refused him, he raped her, and killed her by wrapping his sea-worn hands around her neck.
The young foreign man was too late in coming for her rescue, because he had been targeted by Sanael's friends. And as they lambasted him in a dark alley, they told him that Sanael was visiting the woman. The young man turned desperate; fought himself free and ran as fast as he could, yet to no avail. He found her the way Sanael had left her; strangled upon the sheets and staring in horror towards the roof.
The sight burned itself into the young man's irises and he would never forget it. He mourned her in silence, sitting next to her, speaking of fond memories, crying from time to time. The sun came up, and with it, the Windfinder upon his ship. She found him and told him he was to be taken to the Land of Madmen.
Even though the boy did not fully understand what had truly happened, it was actually thanks to him that the Galepreserver had survived the earlier Seanchan attack that had claimed his foster-father. Him, and the gift ofsaidin. It was also the same reason why he had managed to overcome Sanael's friends in the dark alley. They were all dead by the time the Windfinder had found them - broken like eggs against the stone walls. Sanael had been found by the authorities, and locked away. The Windfinder who came to the young man, she already knew what he was, and had the instructions to treat him like all the other male channelers that were discovered. Any male channelers discovered in the Clans were sent to the Land of Madmen to rot their maddened lives away.
Yet because of the dead woman lying on the bed, and in thanks to being alive after the Seanchan attack, the Windfinder went against her instructions, and though she sent him away from the salt, she rather directed him to the westland instead of the Land of Madmen. She told the young man of this place named the Grey Tower, but he refused bitterly. He would not let Sanael survive; to be locked away and spend the remaining years of his life as Ayamar - prohibited to leave Cantorin Island under any kind of sail. Instead, he wanted true justice. He had lost everything during the course of mere days. He had tried to make his own life worth living, to the best of his abilities, but it had all been denied to him.
Alas, the young man did not have a choice in the matter, and he was shipped away - Shielded and unable to do anything about his unfortunate situation in life. He had to learn how to channel, else he would not survive to exact his vengeance upon Sanael. And even though he was not of their blood - never really accepted into their midst - he was still Atha'an Miere in heart. He could not foreswear the oath he had sworn to the Windfinder, that he would not return.
The final blow was the kind to make one think that the Pattern is not woven without a sense of irony, for one week afore he reached the Grey Tower -saidin was cleansed, and the very reason he had to leave the salt and his vengeance was made groundless.
[Biography of Lucan din Nicander Riven Sail]
PART II - BETWIXT SHADOW AND LIGHT
The first years he studied at the Grey Tower, the young man eventually reached the rank of Dedicated, though his time also marked a gradual decline of morale - soon plummeting into an abyss of turpitude.
The reasons were that he saw not how the M'Hael or Amyrlin Seat would care one whit about his quest for revenge. Why would he serve sandlappers when his prime ambition was to find a way back to the salt? Did they even know his name, high up there in the Administrator's hall? He was studying powers within himself that would enable him to locate Sanael and give him his rightful punishment. The Tower would not intervene when the Atha'an Mire had dealt their official punishment, and he could not have himself gentled in order to rightfully return to his previous life, since he would need his powers to break into the Ayamar prison.
Yet the prime hitch lay in how the Three Oaths would make him impotent to the task. What value would his powers have if he was thus restricted? He would, in the end of his studies, be reduced to a toothless shark.
As he was miserable and still holding the rank of Soldier, he set out to learn the things which his teachers indicated to be his fortes - Illusion and Healing. Despite excellent initial results, his heart was not in his learning. He rather busied himself learning and teaching the sandlappers knife-work, since it was a vent for his frustrations to exert himself physically. Failing in Classes, regardless of his great talents, he did not even have the spirit to care.
Whilst he wallowed in his misery and the memories of Kisane, he found forgiveness in all those willing women that now found his appearance alluring. They considered his angst and mystifying appeal - his tanned skin, pale grey eyes and unkempt hair - altogether quite irresistible, while his native people had merely found him an embarrassment to their ship and their Clan. Disinterested, he still found a form of benediction in their eyes - for the woman he had failed to protect.
Among others, he bedded a Novice named Drelle Tai'shar, and she eventually divulged how she had once been a Darkfriend. Like a revelation, it came to the young man how he might be able to avoid the restrictions of the Oaths. Not only this, nay, all his answers lay before him. The only thing he had to do was to ask the right questions. Drelle might have discouraged him from seeking his intended path, though when she was not heeded, she grudgingly opted to volunteer her aid in finding the elusive Black Ajah within the Tower's walls.
The Soldier saw the Black Ajah and a service to the Father of Storms as merely a means to an end. He did not care for the Shadow more than he did for the Light, given what he had suffered in his life at the Creator's mercy. How was he to achieve his goals unless he did aught about it himself? With little luck, he followed the advice of the Novice, until one aestival day that he happened to take a Class about the Forsaken - taught by Cora Calle Sedai.
She detained him after the lesson was over, and in the following discussion, the Soldier's first teacher of the dark arts - his Mistress in the Black Ajah - revealed herself in Cora Calle's person. They spoke of how there was always a hideous aspect which people execrated, and a sublime aspect that they venerated. There could be no Light without the Shadow, so why not live and act in that very definition - in perfect control. Right there, in the Classroom, the Soldier avowed his servitude with a Blood Oath to the Great Lord of the Dark.
When he told Drelle the news; that he had finally succeeded, she betrayed him in blood. She had meant to keep him from the Shadow's talons whilst he searched - misleading him every step of the way with misinformation and trickery. A furious battle ensued between the two lovers, which eventually lead to the defeat of the Lightblinded Novice. With the aid of his Mistress, the Soldier sent Drelle to the Blight - into the custody of a Dreadlord whom had a personal interest to keep Drelle on the brink of death for the rest of her life.
Afterwards, as his training began and he entertained his Mistress in an umbrageous carnal relationship, and while serving under the aegis of the Dark One; offering human lives for his cause and that of his Lord and Mistress, the Soldier gradually turned even more irresistible to the women that came his way - lured by his predatory certitude and sharpened wits.
It was his Mistress that initiated him into the anacreontic diversions and fruitions of both men and women. As she taught, he used both men and women to get whatever he wanted. From lowly stablehands and serving maids to Aes Sedai and Asha'man, none could resist him. And with his mental acuity and defined purpose - a shaded path to follow - he excelled in his studies. He even became the teacher of the very Illusion Class he once took mere months earlier.
Depravity and blood. Clandestine plans unfolding and decimating the Lightblinded. Dark teachings absorbed ravenously - like ichor soaking into Novice dresses. All for the sake of his personal vendetta with his past rival. When he became Asha'man, mayhap even M'Hael, he would descend upon the Atha'an Miere like an eagle upon its prey. He would find Sanael and teach him the true meaning of pain. He did everything in the name of his own justice - for what had been done to him and Kisane.
It was during his Arches test, that he saw himself for what he had become.
During the first two Arches, he saw his past and current life from a new perspective - gradually opening his pale grey eyes to the atrocities he was committing in the name of aching and thwarted love. During the third Arch, he saw himself as the elected M'Hael of the Grey Tower - visiting the graveyard that held all his victims. Then, the Freak and Reaper of the Yards came in attempt to take his life, and with him was Drelle Tai'shar. During the future that he saw, he fought them, yet just as he was about to win, he was given the chance to go back to the Tower and redeem himself.
That, the raised Dedicated did - forsaking the Shadow and opting to lead a life under the brilliance of the Light. He had previously decided to pick the Blue Ajah, yet now, he turned to the Infirmary - instead choosing to lead the rest of his time away from the salt Healing people. To some degree, he hoped it might alleviate the blackened guilt he felt. There was no condign way for him rectify his actions, yet at least it was something - with a deeper meaning.
During the crumbling pretence that he was still in league with the Shadow, Drelle Tai'shar returned from the north - having escaped her captor. Despite the circumstances of how they had parted ways, they became allies, struggling to prevent the Shadow from learning about the Dedicated's defection to the Light. They silenced Darkfriends by the score, whilst always aiming to keep the truth from spreading inside the cancerous infection that spanned through in all the Ajahs.
They lost, eventually.
The Dedicated was captured and tortured by those he had called Likeminded, though something did not come to pass the way the cell that had discerned in the young man's true intentions had planned. There was a hiatus of whispered words and images of travelling the westland, and when the Dedicated woke up again, he was on a ship heading for Cantorin Island - the very port at which Sanael was imprisoned.
The Dedicated mourned the loss of Drelle Tai'shar, and since it would never be her that would have sent him back to the salt, the Dedicated never learned who his benefactor had been.
[A Pact of Trust, A Bond of Guilt, A Blood Oath to Shadow, I Died in My Dreams, My Life as a Drin'far'ji (Chapter Four), Lucan's Three Arches, Bad Blood Between Us, All Forgiven]
PART III - AFFIRMATION OF SELF
Thus, the young man returned to the salt and broke his bargain with the Windfinder. He received a golden opportunity to dedicate himself to a just cause - saw the means to change Atha'an Miere culture and let the male channelers gain recognition in their own society. Saidin was cleansed, and the Sea Folk merely had to be enlightened. Not only this, but Sanael was there, and the old bitter feelings of revenge began to stir anew.
When docking at Cantorin Island , the former Dedicated began a life of searching the white-washed streets for information - something that his past allegiance to the Shadow had taught him well enough. The Atha'an Miere were his people, even though they shunned him for his skin. They still were, and allowed most of his enquiries fall on deaf ears. With his skills in Illusion, he was - however - able to circumvent the problem. With the weave named Disguise, he got the answers he needed.
He learned that Sanael had been released from his prison only months before, and even though he was banned from ever putting his feet upon a deck again, he had vanished into the streets - never to be seen again. It was just as the former Dedicated had anticipated back before he was exiled to the mainland. Sanael had a hidden agenda, and a contact among the Seanchan - one to whom he had betrayed their route the night when the Galepreserver was attacked.
Thus informed, he set out to find Sanael, and that journey proved to be far from what he had anticipated it would be. Using his Disguise weave to create a new identity, he named himself Erzal din Zimrath Sable Tempest. Thus named and looking like a more ordinary Atha'an Miere, he found service upon a Skimmer named the Light's Harbinger. His plans had already been set in motion as they departed for the Land of Madmen - about to deliver a large group of Shielded male channelers upon its shores. The Windfinders aboard could not tell that the young man was - in fact - a channeler too.
The voyage was long and treacherous, with the Dedicated almost ending up thrown overboard once he dropped his Disguise and claimed he had stolen passage among the supplies below deck. There was no evidence that he had impersonated the man named Erzal, and no one suspected it since the Former Dedicated had made it so that his fake identity had seemingly fallen overboard - again by the use of his skills in Illusion. Furthermore, he had made sure that none of the crew was of Clan Somarin, and would know of his exile to the mainland.
Despite his skin, the Dedicated was granted to work the sails - filling the spot his fake identity had previously occupied. The crew would not speak much with him, but he made it his mission to gain ears and hearts among their cargo; the Shielded Sea Folk channelers. They were shackled below deck, treated more or less like animals. The Windfinders had rendered them harmless, so the young man had no greater trouble approaching them undetected.
He spent hours below deck, speaking with them all about his aim to have the male channelers among the Sea Folk recognised as equals among the Windfinders. He was met with distrust at first, again, because of his appearance. Yet gradually, they began to listen. If anything else, because they had no choice; no other hopes for survival.
Once they reached the shores of the Land of Madmen , and the cargo of male channelers was freed from their bonds, the former Dedicated acted. He severed the Shields that had been put upon the captives, and a mutiny like no other ensued.
In the end, the mutiny succeeded, with much blood spilled and a power-struggle among the new crew of channelers ensuing. In the end, the former Dedicated was the only one with proper training with saidin, and he was named Sailmaster despite Atha'an Miere customs of having a woman in charge on the ship. There were no women, because they rested on the bottom of the sea, all because they had refused servitude under the male crew and fought back to their dying breaths - fierce Atha'an Miere as they had been.
The nightmares of this mutiny, one he had orchestrated, followed the Dedicated for many years - just like all the other nightmares he suffered from his time in the Great Lord's service.
With this new crew of Atha'an Miere channelers, the Dedicated returned to the Sea Folk Isles. He became a factor of politics where he tried to convey the truth that saidin was cleansed, and that the male channelers would neither rot nor mad. Without realising it, the model of having a Sailmaster instead of a Sailmistress was a factor that his crew urged him to convey too. Years passed for him as an outlawed pirate among the Sea Folk, with a growing crew and eventually the addition of more ships. They did not use the One Power for conquest, but rather to intimidate the Clans with their actual presence in the Atha'an Miere society.
Yet in the end, the Dedicated found himself only interested in his new role of influence for the sake of power: Power, which he would use to fulfil his oath to Kisane's memory.
Oh, he had campaigned for a noble cause for years, gathering all the male channelers he could find, but never did he feel any genuine emotion within; a feeling that made him want to complete the what he had set out to do. It was not that he had been numbed by the prejudice of his people. Rather, the single thing that stirred within him when he visited Cantorin Island, was the wish to find Sanael again and to kill him for what he had done to the woman he could never forget.
Ultimately, beyond all notions of politics and reforms, his goal was still vengeance, and he sought to carry it out once his network of spies grew large enough to give hint of Sanael's whereabouts. Compared to his political agenda to build a safe future for the male channelers, his personal ambition could be deemed petty. Yet it was not so for the young man. He had been obsessed with the idea of revenge for far too many years to forget.
This madness would be his downfall. The story of the reform-pirate lasted for over a decade, yet ended abruptly when he thought he had found what he sought. Subsequently, he failed his political campaign because he abandoned it - as soon as he heard news about Sanael's whereabouts.
Yet in the end, he still did not find him - only a child who the vile man had spawned. Yet it was at least something, and he also learned that Sanael had - over the course of the years - been a shadowsworn all along. Everything was ruined at the turn of a hand. Ultimately, the shadow of vengeance had shrouded his cause, and the rewoven sanity of his frayed - only to finally be torn apart. The reform pirate killed the child, and left the salt behind on his own accord. What irony, that the Lace of Ages had carried him to the Shadow's doorstep years ago, and he had merely failed to see that it was the right place for him to be if he meant to find the elusive Sanael - hidden somewhere in the vast network of Likeminded. A blood-oath to the Shadow was not easily forsaken.
The male channelers of the Sea Folk are thus still exiled to the Land of Madmen, as per tradition.
[All Forgiven]
PART IV - THE SEVENFOLD CONFLICT
During the fifteen years when he had been away from the Grey Tower, the Dedicated had worn a beard to keep his identity hidden. As he shaved it off upon his return to the Tower, he noticed that because of his powers, he looked ageless despite being in his early forties.
As he had previously aspired to the Yellow Ajah, he continued to do so, yet immediately set out to retie his connections with his true point of interest - the Black Ajah. If he met any opposition, given his earlier defection to the Light, he dealt with it swiftly and silently. During this incipient stage of his reaffirmation, he met a mute Ji'dar by the name Lysira 'Mouse' Viathene, and initiated with her a casual dalliance - which somehow happened to grow into something a little bit less defined.
In the shadows, there lurked an ancient Asha'man by the name Lycos al'Seraphim of the White Ajah. This man, who had studied the One Power ere the Breaking whilst walking the halls of the Old Tower, had recently returned from a century-long journey that took him across all the known continents. And somewhere along the way, he had sworn his allegiance to the Shadow - finding no better recourse in his accumulated experiencce. It was, to him, the most logical path to take.
This unctuous and influential man became the Dedicated's new Master. He, this arrant Dreadlord still unknown to the forces of the Light - gathered the leaderless Black Ajah underneath himself. He assembled all the hearts - the cells of Likeminded working in ignorance of what the others were doing - and he named a selected few his closest advisors. They were the Conclave, and the Dedicated was one of them - gaining a new shadowsworn name.
Bythos, named thus by his new Master.
Bythos studied the new lore that the Serpent brought from his travels, and it did not take more than weeks erewhile the Dedicated had gained his Master's trust - as far as any Likeminded might be trusted. Under the auspice of this Fiery Serpent of the Black Ajah, Bythos thus became his arch disciple.
The intention behind this reformation of the Great Lord's present forces was to usurp the Light's control of the Tower and to make it a stronghold for the Shadow in the very heart of the nations. Yet the Serpent, uncanny in his knowledge about the dark sides of the One Power and with the nigh omnipresence of mind that could derive results and meaning out of any current events, had his own agenda for what he meant to achieve with his great design.
It all began with the Dedicated, Bythos, who met with Lysira 'Mouse' Viathene in the Loft of the Warder Hall to give her a ring - apparently as an affectionate display. The ring, however, was a ter'angreal created to allow a channeler to sway the wearer's mind. This was a preparation for the Serpent; meant to make the young woman more compliant when the right time came - the Ritual of Insemination.
Lycos al'Seraphim suffered from a terminal decease, and through his knowledge, he had derived a way for himself to be reborn. As according to the arcane scripts of yore, he would need the Womb - which would be Lysira - he would need the Soul - which would be his own - and then the Seed to make the dark ritual work. The plan was to make Bythos the Seed, since the Fiery Serpent was infatuated with the Mayene Atha'an Miere. To be shaped in the Dedicated's image was to him a boon, as well as the fact that Lysira would die from the Ritual. This, unbeknownst to Bythos. The Fiery Serpent did not care for the opposition of the mute Ji'dar.
Finally, the Fiery Serpent would need the pure life-spark of a child, and he chose the child of the Master of Arms and the Captain General of the Green Ajah since such a choice would further benefit his grand design.
A letter was sent to the Administrator's hall, detailing how seven Eyes and Ears of the Grey Tower were being held prisoner. This letter was written by Lycos, who indeed had the seven informants in his possession since some time earlier. Yet these people were already dead by the time the Sovin Tar were sent south to rescue them. Instead, seven other creatures were kept at the indicated lodge in the forests outside Jehannah. The Dedicated, now named Bythos, was supervising the activities in the cabin, ere the point just before the Sovin Tar arrived to Ghealdan. Then, he returned to the Tower for the continuation of the plan.
Back in the Tower, an All-Ajah banquet was held on the first night - with an unexpected outcome. The Black Ajah used the occasion to set the Ajahs against each other, but when things were on the verge to get out of hand, the Amyrlin Seat restored order. Unbeknownst to Bythos, this night was also when the first attempt to kidnap Lysira 'Mouse' Viathene took place.
Bythos had set two conditions in the agreement with his Master. The first, was that Lycos would aide the Dedicated in finding Sanael, and the second, was related to how this mute Ji'dar would be treated. This, because he had deep and indiscernible feelings for her, and had therefore struck a bargain with Lycos that she would be spared for his sake. She belonged to him, and would be his once the plan had been carried out. Little did he know the Serpent's real plan.
Furthermore, an ex-Drin'far'ji that worked for one of those in the Conclave was captured that first night. This forced the Shadow to react, since this young shadowsworn had a role to play later in the play the Serpent had staged. Having just returned from the Jehannah, Bythos freed the prisoner from the Infirmary, which proved to be the most convenient way given how the Dedicated spent most of his time in the Infirmary. In the process of feigning the surprise and providing care for one of the survivors, the Dedicated befriended an Asha'man of the Yellow Ajah that came to serve as his oblivious alibi - one Aden Asha'man.
Meanwhile, another member of the Conclave, Maleljien Ives, set his part of the plan into play by manipulating the Children of Light to ascend the Mountains of Mist. He was successful in fuelling the White Cloak army with a furious outrage against the Grey Tower for the sanctuary the place provided to people who were sought for 'crimes' against the Light.
The following night, the second attempt to capture Lysira took place - this time carried out by the ex-Drin'far'ji that Bythos had freed from the Infirmary. Still, the Dedicated did not know of these attempts - thinking that he was still the one that would gently collect Lysira in time for the Ritual. Though this attempt failed, another member of the Conclave did manage to acquire the Child needed for the ritual. This, obviously leaving the Master of Arms - the Reaper in the Dedicated's third Arch - and the Captain General quite distraught.
During this evening, the Sovin Tar managed to free one of the creatures that the Serpent had planted in the cabin in Ghealdan. It was brought to the Tower, and the creature - who was just as oblivious to its own nature as the Lightblinded - was kept in safe storage not far from the Hall of Sitters. However, given how the Serpent had an informants planted close to both the Amyrlin Seat and the M'Hael, he knew exactly what had transpired. How could he not, since he furthermore knew exactly what was transpiring in that distant cabin?
The true nature of this creature was a living weapon - set to detonate by the use of a ter'angreal.
This, was exactly what happened - albeit prematurely - when a shadowsworn Soldier by the name Masaryk Jan opted to leap to his death and spread what he knew through the suicide note he carried with him in his fall. It nigh succeeded, had not an Accepted in league with the Serpent together with Bythos snatched the letter out of the hands of the unknowing Learning Ranks that had gathered around the body.
Without being compromised, Bythos took the letter to the Serpent, and his Master decided that in order to cover up this potentially dangerous situation, he detonated the creature that the Sovin Tar had brought to the Tower. The whole Tower shuddered in its foundations. Debris rained over the grounds, and panic ensued. By now, the whole Tower learned that things were not quite right, yet none held any explanations. The death of Masaryk Jan was forgotten in the chaos.
With the entire Tower Grounds an ant-hill that has been kicked over, and a varying degree of panic reaching everywhere in the wake of the explosion, Bythos was sent to kill the Accepted that had aided in collecting Masaryk's letter. He did so readily, and made sure he did not miss his appointment to meet with Lysira in the Tower Library. Once he spoke with her, he learned about the twain attempts to steal her away.
Thus, in sudden and bitter anger for having his wishes so callously neglected by his Master, and since the third attempt took place right there whilst he was present in the Tower Library, Bythos killed the shadowsworn - Malak Panov Gaidin.
The Serpent's very own Warder.
It was a calculated risk, since Bythos had just learned that the Gaidin had been compromised in his part of the grand scheme. In order to keep the Light from getting answers out of the Gaidin after he was captured, Bythos instead burned him to death before he could be questioned - right in front of Lysira and a Ji'alantin had had accompanied her to the Library.
Convincingly playing the role of protecting the two Trainees, Lysira foremost, this act was never considered else than plain unfortunate - given how the Warder-Channeler Representative Aric Asha'man was just too late to find Malak Panov. The Lightblinded, made now more aware about what was transpiring, considered the act naught more than self-defence on Bythos' behalf.
Instead, the Dedicated stood before the trial to face his Master after killing his bonded Gaidin. Oh, he was humbled that night, yet his life was spared, and he was sent off to the Infirmary in order to attend his duties in the Light. By then, Lysira was finally captured, and taken to the Ritual Chamber. This, just as the White Cloak army arrived to the outskirts of the construction site that would one day become the great city of Hama Valon. The Tower forces were called to the battlements, and the Yellow Ajah prepared the Infirmary for battle.
In short order, the Battle of Lights commenced, and the rest of the creatures in Ghealdan were brought to the Infirmary by the Sovin Tar. Having been alienated from the events, oblivious to whether he would be allowed to partake in the Ritual or not, Bythos could but watch how everything unfolded - torn within as he contemplated what he might do.
Then, the Ji'alantin who had accompanied Lysira to the Tower Library arrived to the Infirmary, telling Bythos that she had been taken during the night. This was the turning-point for the Dedicated, where he decided to cast off his allegiance to the Fiery Serpent, and to take the unfolding events into his own hands.
Deceiving the group that had come to the Infirmary, he told them that the ring he had given her was a ter'angreal - yet it was an untruth that he was able to locate her through it. Nay, for he knew where the Ritual Chamber lay - even though he had never been inside there. He led them all there through a Gateway, and as he stepped inside, he learned the gruesome truth about the nature of the Ritual of Insemination.
Along the walls lay the victims of Lycos' experiments - from where the malign creatures that were soon to detonate had been birthed. They were sown inside wombs of women, and came to life as grown humans - thus tearing those that provided the Wombs of the Rituals apart. Lysira lay there on the stone altar, and the Serpent was present - thinking that Bythos had arrived to provide the Seed prematurely.
With great celerity, the battle ensued there in the Ritual Chamber - where Lysira 'Mouse' Viathene was freed from the shadowsworn instigator. As she fled, while Bythos and his followers kept the Serpent at bay, she managed to take the Reaper's and the Captain General's child with her. Desperate moments followed, where Bythos faced his Master - tearing the walls and floors asunder, ere the Dedicated had to flee.
In aiming to get away from the Tower Grounds because of the imminent detonation of the creatures, and given the circumstances through which Bythos had woven the Gateway, he had carried them quite far away into the wilderness. Spent as he had been, he had not been able to weave a new Gateway back. Frustrating as the situation was, they set out on the journey back. They had not been dressed for an outdoor journey in the middle of winter, and the only way to stay warm had been to keep moving.
Would the Tower still stand when we returned? Would they return only to find that their only means for survival have been rendered into smoking ruin? Under better conditions, the journey they undertook would not have lasted for more than a few hours. Yet they were trudging snow and cutting their boots on the crust with each step. The cold had turned everything into ice, and they had to help each other to stay alive. Betrayed and mordant, Bythos would much rather have killed his three companions and eaten them, but he was unsure if he would make it across the mountainous terrain alone. He had freed Mouse with their aid and thus foiled his Master's plans - denied him a new body - one that was not doomed in terminal illness.
Why? From the beginning, he had always been a creature of his own agenda, and he had known from the beginning that he might turn on his Master if there lay any gain in doing so. Gradually, this assertion had evaporated in the Serpent's brilliance, and Bythos had only awakened when his own long-term ambitions in venture. While the Dedicated had been told that Mouse would be by his side during a nine-month pregnancy, Lycos had always known he would emerge from Mouse's womb as a full-grown man - given birth in a geyser of blood. Would Lycos have turned to Bythos then, dripping from Mouse's stomach chyme, only to laugh at the look in his eyes? Bythos would never have become his master's new father, merely the seed that would kill his woman, and grant Lycos a second life-span.
They reached the Grey Tower as night fell over the Mountains. Like an areola, the Hama Valon construction site spread from the battered walls. The White Cloak army had retreated to the foothills, leaving the ruins behind - foiled by the information that Lysira had given the Tower's forces. The funeral pyres still burned after the Battle of Lights, yet there was not a soul in sight. Not even the carrion crows dared defy the brumal air.
Bythos eyes were affixed to a certain square in the ruins. The Final Conflict had begun - and they could see it happening even from that distance. For when the Battle of Lights failed to turn out the way the Shadow had designed, the Alternative strategy came into play instead. The forces of Light faced the Black Ajah at the grand plaza of Hama Valon, and a battle transcending the one that took place against the White Cloaks was being fought.
The Dedicated faced his treacherous Master upon the roof of a museum. The Serpent, worn from the battle, chastised his arch disciple and tried to make him see things his way. Yet still they fought, with words and Power. Yet with the help of Lysira 'Mouse' Viathene and Jip Ji'alantin, the ancient Lycos al'Seraphim was defeated. The Sea Folk Dedicated cut the beast's throat, and watched it bleed its life out in the snow.
Later, he told everyone that he had done everything for Lysira.
Which, in a sense, was the truth.
[The Sevenfold Conflict MRP, Growing up, fast...]
PART V - THE FIERY SERPENT IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE FIERY SERPENT
In the wake of the Battle of Lights, the acephalous and gravely decimated Black Ajah collected Bythos for questioning - leading to a chamber in the Sunless Haven where a conventicle would judge what had truly transpired.
Lycos al'Seraphim had betrayed the Black Ajah's cause by trying to make himself the emperor of a new world order - claiming that its nature would be of a Balance betwixt Light and Shadow. Yet he had failed, because Bythos had stood up to oppose him while the rest of the Conclave had been deceived by their Master and killed in the battle at the Grand Plaza of Hama Valon. Though while Bythos had done everything for his own ends, he - of course - told the shadowsworn the layers of truth he wanted them to hear. He was prepared for the questions, and could answer them readily and convincingly. He already knew why he had truly been called, and he only satisfied their desperation with each conniving word he spoke.
He was Lycos al'Seraphim's arch disciple, and he was thus named the new Fiery Serpent.
The Sea Folk Dedicated thus became the Head of the Black Ajah, and the Tower came to know a new reign - a leader in the darkness that carefully and assiduously rebuilt the Shadow's influence in all seven Ajahs. By inchoating meticulous methods to keep his shadowsworn from making costly mistakes, and by almost mathematical carefulness cutting the losses from the Battle of Lights, he managed to keep the Black Ajah in rein - until such a time where they might act more openly.
Ironically, the new Fiery Serpent had another Master - the Lightblinded Aden Cole Asha'man of the Yellow Ajah. As his tutor in the Healing arts, and with a mimicked friendship on his own behalf developing with the Amdadician, the Dedicated paved his path to the cord. Erelong, the Fiery Serpent was raised to the rank of Asha'man.
Thus, he led twain lives at once: Officially, he was a prominent Healer in the Yellow Ajah that taught many and penetrated the lore of herbcraft with zealous and devoted research. In the other, he was the thrifty spider in the centre of the web, with razor-sharp strings that both protected him and hid his true intentions.
For he cared little about the blind devotion to the Great Lord of the Dark, yet he carried out his will more than enough to keep his house in order. With absolute power over the Grey Tower's shadowsworn, and with the tutelage of both Cora Calle Sedai and Lycos al'Seraphim Asha'man to aide him, the Asha'man succeeded them both. Yet all he ever truly desired was always to locate Sanael in the network of shadowsworn that spread across all the nations of the westland and beyond. This, was why he had the passionate ambition to follow in his late Master's footsteps.
Thus, his search began in earnest.
Erewhile, he made the Tower his seraglio - his harem of devotees. Both Lightblinded and Likeminded came and went, yet unlike his previous dark days as a mere Soldier, he had an agenda - a defined purpose and the absolute means to ascertain truth and broaden the scope of his percipience. With informants everywhere, knowing and unknowing lovers in high places, and research in the arts of herbcraft and saidin that further augmented his cause, he was the nexus of the Tower crisis - the origin of every sanguinary storm.
Yet it was not enough.
He could not find Sanael within the great ambit of his network, regardless of persistent enquiries, so he needed something more - a source of information that his predecessor had no access to. He chose to charm Crysthia Faedryn Sedai - the current Keeper of the Chronicles - since she had access 13th Depository. Therein lay the secrets that no one except the leaders of the Grey Tower might know. She was his key to that treasure, and it served him well that she had been one of his students in knifework many years ago - before he had returned to the salt. Thusly, as her personal trainer, he could claim her as his own - making her his official lover in the eyes of the Tower populace. For he had to make it a legitimate relationship, since everything hung on the results on this endeavour.
Yet there was another who had to vanish first; his silent flame. Lysira Gaidar.
Ere the lengthy process to truly sway the heart of the Keeper had become official, and Crysthia had yet to truly fall for him, the Asha'man indulged the Gaidar whenas she asked him to accompany her in the quest to find her missing parents. He had his own agenda, since he could not afford her to live while there were still unresolved emotions between them. She was a distraction, and it did not help at all that he was jealous about her friendship with Jip Gaidin - the jellyfish who had accompanied her at every turn during the events pertaining to the Battle of Lights.
Whilst he meant to kill her in some remote village of Murandy, she revealed to him that she was still untouched, and that the Gaidin had never laid claim on her. Furthermore, she offered her virginity to him, for reasons that the Asha'man could only discern as true affection. Because of this, he stayed his hand, and felt something inside him respond. After so many years of complete apathy, this rare and flickering emotion in his dark heart meant much more than any of the countless lives he had taken.
During this time, the Asha'man had taken an interest to speak with a friend of Aden Cole Asha'man; Jerid Walker - the soon-to-be-appointed Master of Soldiers. As a part of the Serpent's on-going endeavours to secure the Shadow's influence - and thus his own - in the Hall of Sitters and in the administration of the oblivious and susceptible Learning Ranks, he had threatened to kill the Indigo Asha'man's entire family unless he refused to take the position. Unfortunately, Jerid Walker did not heed his warning, which forced Serpent to act on his threat.
The result became known as the Caralain Carnage, where everyone in that distant family manor was killed. The only survivors were three little children, whom had managed to hide themselves whenas the Serpent and his lakeys came to pay their visit. In the wake of this, the Serpent had thought that the Master of Soldiers would reconsider. Alas, Jerid Walker did not - keeping his position as the Master of Soldiers. This forced Lucan to take other measures, and opted to approach the man as a friend. The stroke was a success, albeit done a double-edged sword.
With Lysira having opened up feelings that he had thought forgotten, the Serpent became susceptible to the camaraderie that he came to share with the Master of Soldiers. During the course of many conversations, it became more and more apparent to the Serpent that he truly needed not spend all his time and effort to locate Sanael for the sake of exacting justice for a long-gone crime towards a woman that would never come to life again. Why could he not be content with the feelings that were growing for Lysira, and revel in the friendship he had found in Jerid Walker?
He received a most brutal answer, whenas it was revealed to him that these two new cornerstones in his life had become both bondmates and lovers - neither of three knowing what had transpired until it was too late. Lysira had not known about Jerid and Lucan's friendship, just as little as the Serpent and the Indigo Asha'man had known they were in love with the same woman.
Needless to say, the ending of the Serpent's dream was not pretty. He had been ready to foreswear his Blood Oath and to hand the entire Black Ajah to the Hall on a silver plate. He had nigh succeeded to replace the face of Kisane in his dreams with that of Lysira's, and he had found a life in the Light that he was prepared to lead. Yet now, everything was ruined, and never again did the Serpent trust in such vain notions.
His later retribution was to bond Lysira's friend - Darrik Gaidin. For while he now had won Crysthia Faedryn's heart, and by extension gained another measure of influence in Tower politics, he made sure to turn Darrik against Lysira right from the beginning by means of carnal pleasure as well as eliciting the darkness from inside the swordsman's innocent heart. By nursing the already existing feelings of the Gaidin - since the younger man felt that Lysira had abandoned their friendship as soon as she threw herself in Jerid's arms - the Serpent eventually aided the Gaidin's transition from Light to Shadow.
It did not take long ere the Serpent's renewed ambitions came into fruition.
Not only did his influence over the Keeper earn him political sway, it showed him a path that he had never dismissed, yet only dared to see become a possibility. With the Black Ajah spreading like a cancer through all the other Ajahs, and with the insight that he gleaned from the floor of the Administrator's Hall, he realised how he might gain personal access to the 13th Depository.
Circumventing the current Amyrlin Seat's - Amora en'Damier's - network of spies and her hold on the Hall of Sitters, he was considered for the place by her side - as the Fang of the Grey Tower.
The shipwrecked boy fifty years past had come so far, that he not only governed the Shadow inside the Tower Grounds, but might also ascend the final step and become the M'Hael of the resident forces of Light. As a Healer, the lover of the Keeper, and certainly as the hero who had slain Lycos al'Seraphim, the Atha'an Miere Asha'man had been raised above all suspicion. Yet nothing would ever compare to holding a title such as one of the Watchers of the Seals. The Head of the Black Ajah, as well as the M'Hael. He imagined the accessibility to information, the insight in everything that might transpire - the influence to affect any kind of outcome in the eternal war; to secretly stage the Light and Shadow against each other in a form of deterrence, so that he might continue his searching utterly undisturbed.
And thus it went; the Fiery Serpent became the 11th Father of the Grey Tower.
Once he moved into the highest floor, into the M'Hael's apartments and began his reign, a form of tranquillity settled over the Serpent's life. He could have just dismissed Crysthia Faedryn from his life since he had no further use of her, yet he found himself loath to do so - instead keeping her as his lover. He ploughed through the information kept in the 13th Depository at first; attempting to see whether there was aught he could use to find Sanael there, yet over time, this ambition slowly faltered. He found himself quite content with his place in life, where he needn't fear neither Light nor Shadow any longer. He could take on the role as the general of both armies, and had naught to fear for his own life.
With Crysthia Sedai and Darrik Gaidin, the first Lightblinded and the latter Likeminded, the Serpent had found a perfect balance in his life - crediting himself for the lives he spared by keeping the conflict twixt the Light and Shadow at a level of minimal losses. He learned that he was to become a father, and rejoiced in knowing that there was a meaning to be found in life besides the revenge he had so long sought.
Yet it all came to an end. The Freak and Reaper of the Yards and the Captain General of the Green Ajah had somehow - despite meticulous care - learned the truth about their Father.
By catching him and Darrik at an unwary moment in the bowels of the Tower, Caden Ives cut the sa'angreal ring from his hand and enabled Miahala Ives to Shield him from saidin. Darrik was swiftly hacked down, and during the agony of this loss of half his hand and his Warder, the two named the Serpent's crimes to his face. Until the very end, the Healer M'Hael trenchantly tried to deceive and persuade the twain warriors of the Light to put him to an official Trial before the Hall of Justice, yet to no avail.
He told them that he was to become a father, and that he could hand them the Black Ajah - giving them names and places, lists and secrets. Yet they chose not to harken, for they had correctly discerned that if the very M'Hael was put to Trial before the Hall for crimes such as his - that if the truth about his nature would ever become public - it would tear the morale and the hierarchy of the Tower asunder. Should the truth be known, all of their struggles to protect the Tower in the name of the Light would have been for naught. They would commit high treason by killing the M'Hael, rather than throw the forces of all Ajahs into a domestic war.
Nay, their minds would not be swayed.
Out of the shadows stepped Lysira 'Mouse' Viathene, and even though the Fiery Serpent called out to her - proclaiming his rights as well her past betrayal towards his feelings - she raised her bow and shot him in the heart.
Thus died the Father and Serpent both - falling to the damp floor under three pairs of eyes.
Where was the justice? Since all that he had ever done, he had done for love...
[Lucan's Great Stair, The Serpent's Bite, Killer Instinct, The Caralain Carnage Prelude, The Caralain Carnage, Consumed Soul, Rebirth to the Masters hands, Oaths to the Shadow, Martyr's Pardon (Chapter I - III), The Conversations of Trine, Lead Me Into Temptation, Introducing Latonia Svan, Closure - Part I - IV, On the Eve of Ascendancy, Dissolution (The End)]
PART VI - HIATUS
The child without a name grew up to be the hand
To watch you, to shield you, or kill on demand
The choice he'd made he could not comprehend
His blood a grim secret they had to commend
He's torn between his honour and the true love of his life
He prayed for both but was denied
So many dreams were broken and so much was sacrificed
Was it worth the ones we loved and had to leave behind
So many years have passed, who are the noble and the wise?
Will all our sins be justified?
The curse of his powers tormented his life
Obeying the crown was a sinister price
His soul was tortured by love and by pain
He surely would flee, but the oath made him stay
He's torn between his honour and the true love of his life
He prayed for both but was denied
So many dreams were broken and so much was sacrificed
Was it worth the ones we loved and had to leave behind
So many years have passed, who are the noble and the wise?
Will all our sins be justified?
Please forgive me for the sorrow
For leaving you in fear
For the dreams we had to silence
That's all they'll ever be
Still I'll be the hand that serves you
Though you'll not see that it is me
So many dreams were broken and so much was sacrificed
Was it worth the ones we loved and had to leave behind
So many years have passed, who are the noble and the wise?
Will all our sins be justified?
~ "The Hand of Sorrow" by Within Temptation
PART VII - WHEREOUT THE PRIMORDIAL DARKNESS SHE CAME
Whilst floating in oblivion, memories where hard to retain.
They slipped from the talons of his mind like water - leaving the shoals of his perception before he could grasp at them. There were images, inconceivable to envision, and sounds beyond the bounds of possibility to truly hear. Febrile sleep, beleaguered with the whispers of the Wheel; the Pattern being weaved, or merely the screaming silence of the afterlife.
Then, the names came, clear like blinding pain. ALDRANE DUNIC CINN, came the first, lingering as if in contemplation. DUNAN NICAL CENDIR, was the second, and there was no way to measure the time in-between the sets of syllables. NIAN DULCAN NEDRIC, that was the third - searing through him like acid. Then, came the last one, with such finality that he could not remember the others.
RIENNA DACCIL DUNN.
Thus named, her eyes shot open.
Where am I?
The first thing she noticed was the heat. She blinked at it since it dried her eyes instantly and made her lungs ache for air. Through narrowed eyes, she saw sweat on her nose, and the rock she lay upon. Next, the redolent fetor seared her sense of smell, making her wonder how she could ever have fallen asleep whilst breathing it. Her arms, as weak as a newborn's, moved when she made them, and she distantly felt that the heat had left her entire body slick with her own salty egesta.
She blinked again, the lethargy slowly ebbing away with each new fact she gleaned. Why was she in her bare skin, and why did her body feel so alien to her? Desultory, she sat up on the ledge - meaning to find answers to this mystery. Yet as she did, she rather wished she hadn't.
The cavernous walls encircled the lip she sat upon - stretched far up towards a crepuscular sky unlike any she had ever seen. The clouds there were maelstroms - moving with winds unlike the Aryth Ocean had never seen. She knew skies intimately, and could read storms and clear skies ahead of time. This, was other - not of this world.
Secondly, as she discerned the umbrageous walls whereupon spectres of malign fire danced, she perceived the source of the heat. How could she not have heard it from the start? The susurrous anlage of fire - the lake of magma right below the ledge. Her eyes widened to the sight; fiery effluvium rising, roaring ebullitions larger than her, and the sinuous motions of the molten rock.
Finally, as she awkwardly staggered to her feet and subsequently noted her own lacking height, she looked down herself. Her lips pursed in a silent scream. Her skin, made rubescent by the heat and glistening in her perspiration, rounded across twin globated mammaries. Shaking, she raised her hands, and saw what she was afraid to see; that her tattoos were gone, replaced with unmarked skin as bare as the rest of her.
HARKEN, THRIFTY SERVANT.
The words detonated in her mind - washing away all manner of thoughts about her current situation with its sheer puissance. The voice overrode the deafening hiss of the cavern and smote her mind into supplication. She splayed herself on her knees, hands pressed to the gravel, before she realised that she had heard that voice before.
She knew to whom she was speaking.
"Y-yes, Great Lord." An unfamiliar voice, echoing against the bedrock of Shayoul Ghoul. Was it her own?
YOUR QUIETUS HAS ENDED. The words coursed through her, and the sempitermal presence might have been pleased with what it had wrought. Rapture ossified her, and she threw her head back with a hoarse gasp. Still, the words came - unrelenting. I HAVE FURTHER USE OF YOU, DESPITE YOUR CONTUMACY.
Yes, that was the truth. She had died, and now she lived. Images of her long life before the hiatus came to her, but there was no time. She had questions, yet dared she utter them? She was in the presence of the one she had plied herself to with a Blood Oath, and she could not even find the words to speak? This was not the person she used to be; she would voice her queries.
"Why, Great Lord, have you made me in this image?"
IT WILL SERVE YOU, came the immediate declaration, and now pain seared through her bones. She screamed and fell on her back. She curled up in a foetal position - as if she was caught in a storm and had no other recourse. Yet the agony subsided once the voice spoke anew. YOU LIVE, AND HE WHOM YOU WERE IS NO MORE. YOU WILL ADAPT. THE BODY BENDS TO THE SOUL, THOUGH THE BODY BENDS THE MIND. SOON, IT WILL BE AS IF YOU WERE BORN AS YOU NOW ARE - BEARING YOUR NEW NAME.
She gasped it out loud. "Rienna... Y-yes, Great Lord." What choice did she have but to accept - to adapt? That voice she had heard, it had given her a new name. She remembered. It was the same voice.
YOUR PUNISHMENT, it declared inside her skull, through it was not even shouting - speaking but in a tenebrous and yet utterly luculent tone. The agony came again - making her writhe like a maggot on fishing hook. FOR YOUR FAILING FAITH, YOU WILL NEVER AGAIN TOUCH THE MALE HALF OF THE SOURCE, BUT RATHER RELEARN ALL OF YOUR THEURGY.
What? A speck of ire seeped into the woman on the ledge. With saidar? All the years of accumulated knowledge - the skill she had held and the Weaves she knew. The arcane knowledge; the most secret mysteries of the Yellow and Black Ajahs. All of it gone, since there was little resemblance between the two halves of the One Power. She didn't even know how to begin - to even feel the spark.
Yet what choice did she have? She got up on her knees again - braving the situation best she might. "How may I serve you, Great Lord?" was all that she said, in the end resigning herself to her new fate.
I MERELY ASK OF YOU, said the voice, and Rianna was forced to hang on every word while Shai'tan instilled obedience into her, THAT WHICH YOU HAVE ALWAYS CRAVED.
Rianna raised her pale blue eyes so that she might look into the Pit of Doom - hearing the words that would guide her hand from that day on. They were a surprise, yet she was nonetheless pleased once she heard them.
RETRIBUTION, FOR WHAT WAS DONE TO YOU.
Career History
- Novice
