Ashes, Ashes, They All Fall Down…. (Namandar)

Tue Feb 10, 2004 (11:08 pm)

Impatience and other negative emotions fled from Raeyn as she entered the cavernous space that the city was in.

“So, this is Namandar,” she thought to herself as the clean white lines of the city shone through to her. It was ethereal and ghostly; the area of the pit lit only by crude torches and glowing balls of Saidar, bobbing along and casting cruel shadows in the depths of the darkness.

She permitted herself a small smile.. this was a good place to be; better than so many others. Here they would most certainly find the treasures of a grander Age, and perhaps leave behind a few “accidents”, if the Great Lord deemed it so. Her eyes locked for a second with one of the Green sisters. The child went far enough to start to smile back before starting and ripping away from Raeyn’s baleful gaze. A sharp feeling of warning from the bond jolted her back to attention, and her face back to stillness.

“Thank you, Mat,” Raeyn murmured quietly to her Warder, “Sometimes I think you are the only thing that is keeping sane amidst all these… Green…. sisters.” The last came with a slight sneer, quickly covered again. Her nerves were still too fragile, and no good could come of it.

Still, she had a job to do, for whatever may come of it. She noted several of the sisters assigned to her recovery party already running around with baubles and grinning. Stopping those that she could, she took careful notes on their findings.

Eventually, her wanderings took her and Matalina deeper in the city. The small globe of light perched on her shoulder, she wandered in and out of houses, picking things up as she felt fit, notating all that she saw. Raeyn cursed herself for her minute ability in drawing.. so much here needed to be copied as best possible for posterity.

She put up her nib for a moment and leaned against a building, shaking out her wrists. Mat stood guard on her moment of rest, looking as relaxed as an arrow nocked and drawn. Raeyn smiled… the rediscovery of knowledge, the shadows and her friend, her Warder… this day was turning out to be more bearable than she had thought it would be. Only the cave collapsing and killing all of the Green sisters within could make it any better.

Through the bond, Raeyn could feel Matalina draw herself up tighter, if humanly possible. Pushing away from the building, she peered in the direction that Matalina was staring.. was someone coming towards them?

Raeyn Sedai
Head of the Brown Ajah
Bonded to Matalina Gaidin


Another day, and Another Wish for Death (Namandar)

Raeyn found herself stirring from another restless night of quasi-sleep in the semi-light of dawn. A breeze twitched at the tent-flaps, enough to show Matalina sitting outside in the miserable torridly windy weather.

She smiled, a quick twitch of her lips. In failing to protect her two former Aes Sedai from harm, Matalina seemed to have unseemly dedication to her duties since her fall into the Shadow. It was rare to find anyone loyal to anyone else who served the Shadow, yet the Great Lord had smiled upon Raeyn in finding Mat. And the dedication that Raeyn felt towards Matalina was returned in spades; she had saved this woman from her own death, and she would do her best to protect her dear Warder, one of her dearest friends as well as she could.

Dressing quickly, she pulled on a thick velvet dress in a deep hue of brown over her warm woolen shift. The chill in the air was so terribly reminiscent of home, but her time spent in the Tower had caused her to become unaccustomed to the joyful briskness of a proper winter. Channeling, she relight the brazier that still contained some remaining wood from the night before, at which time Matalina poked her head into the tent.

“Raeyn, they seemed to have found the city. It looks as though they are preparing to enter.”

Raeyn blinked. That would explain the rising noise levels outside, louder than could be accounted for by those in camp simply getting up and heading for some breakfast. “A fine day for discovery,” she murmured ruefully as another breeze ripped open the tent flap to show people milling about outside, running for this and that.

She put on her belt, checking the pouches attached to make sure she had everything she needed: ink, notebook, pens, and a random assortment of other things that she had found useful to have on hand over the years. A small, unadorned dagger tucked into the belt completed her arraignment.

Stepping out of the tent with Matalina shadowing, she let the wind rush over her for a minute before starting towards the direction that people seemed to be excitedly pointing at. A day of destiny for some, a day of doom for others. What would come of today, in the histories, in personal lives?