liagala

   Liagala merely glared at the gholam as he stopped the music and answered her
questions.  On the way to Tear, huh?  Does he not realize that everyone else
is at Dragonmount?  Even if they are going to Tear, we'll probably die before
anyone gets there to Heal us.  She opened her mouth to say as much, and to add
a few scathing comments about lying filth, and her eyes bulged with shock when
a gag of Air was roughly shoved into her mouth.  She was shoved into the back
seat, then blocked off from the rest of the car.  She heard the click as the
doors locked.  Does he think I'll jump out, at the speed this thing is going?
About to yell at him through the window, Liagala suddenly froze.  All thought
of Sredny, the car, her anger, was forgotten.  In the part of her mind that
held Eddie's Bond, pain bulged, pain like she had never imagined.  They're
torturing him!  Even as softly as she felt it, she wanted to weep.  How can he
stand it?  The agony continued, she didn't know how long. Finally, it stopped,
and she fell asleep from pure relief...
   And woke up screaming.  Where is he?  What happened?  The Bond was... gone.
Faintly, she remembered a dream, of Eddie mounting a gallows... the platform
dropped...  the life choking out of him, and then... nothing.  Oh, Light!
He's dead!  The shock overwhelmed her, and she passed out.  


Sredny

      Sredny thought as they drove along. Suddenly he remembered something.
Eddie hadn't said to meet them at Tear, but to meet them on the way. Shit.
They were never going to get healed. He swerved the car around, and began to
head back for Dragonmount, the last known location. Luckily they hadn't been
traveling that long, so the Turn was only a few minutes back-tracking. The
black Ferrarri sped along, the strange cloaking device keeping it invisible to
all. Cursing again he looked in the back seat. Liagala lay there asleep, but
tears come from her eyes. He released the flows making her gag, and as an
afterthought rolled the window dividing them down. No sense in being totally
unsociable, her hating him wasn't going to help matters.
      They continued along peacefully, and Sredny grabbed another nap, but was
still pursued by the dreams. He woke up with the cold of being channeled at
again, but turned and saw Lia was still sound asleep. This was not normal.
Dreams of killings past he had all the time, but future? Ones he didn't
remember doing? And why could he never remember the face of this strange
woman? And why the Ghul did it feel like someone was channeling at him?
      Sighing he looked around. They were at the base of the mountain. The
ferrarri had various hover and four wheel drive modes, but it still probably
wouldn't be that great a ride. He turned his head, wondering wether or not to
wake Lia. She solved it for him by waking up with a mind numbing scream. She
glared at him, and he could have sworn her eyes were glowing. An explosion
died as it hit him, but ripped the car around him apart.
      "You bastard. You've killed him."
      "You little. . .! that was my car! You think those things grow on trees?
And what do you mean I've killed him? In case you've forgotten, I've been with
you babysitting like your warder bullied me into!"
       "You lie. Now you die." Trees uprooted and flung at him. His body was
ice cold, and it wasn't changing. Apparently she was trying persistence. He
muttered. He didn't have time for this and he didn't want to hurt her. The
trees swung at him. he slid to the ground, and rushed up behind her. The earth
under him rushed up, then fell back, slamming him into the ground. The trees
splintered and fragments propelled at him, slicing his skin.
       He tried to shield her, but she was channeling as much as she could at
him. If he had been able to focus all his concentration at it, he might have
been able too, he wasn't sure, but it made no difference as at the moment he
was avoiding the world being deprived of one more gholam.
       He quickly surveyed his options. There would be no using the guns.
Daggers perhaps, but probably not. He dodged another volley of splinters. That
left good old fashioned hand to hand violence. He moved towards her fast as
lightning, but faster yet a barricade of those splinters began to weave around
her. He could perhaps get through, and the weaves reformed the instant his
hand left an area. It was going to hurt. Occasionally a barrage of splinters
would seperate themselves and fly at him. 
        Sredny sighed, took one breath, then jumped through the barricade. he
was bleeding his strange liquid and skin hang off in strips. He staggered
forward, still being hit by splinters, and the earth occasioanlly rose up
under him, but he continued on. When he reached the center of the storm, he
reached one hand back smacked. . .nothing. He glanced up and saw that she had
left, and he was now trapped inside a cage of splinters. Sredny sighed, and
jumped out again. He staggered towards a shadow. He was being hit with all
sorts of stuff, Lia was pulling out all the stops. 
        Sredny reached a shadow, turned, and left. He staggered out of the
shadows in front of Patty, Jen, and the whole group. thety looked at him
shocked. Safe he thought. And then the wolves started forward.
        "Liquid Shadow! Wolf Eater! KILL!" They screamed it to all who could
hear and ran forward. Sredny looked at them, shook his head, and collapsed.


Kat

    Kat, in the middle of annoying Larissa, was jerked to her feet by a
scream. It sounded familiar, so her feet started in that direction as
fast as they could propel her. The ear-bleeding sound of mass
destruction hit her halfway there. What in the Light...? she thought.
She arrived at the scene moments before the others. Sredy, with some
odd-colored goo all over him--or was that his gholam-blood?-- was
collapsed on the ground, some strange woman--or was it Liagala? She
didn't recognize her--was freaking out in the middle of it all, flinging
who-knows-what at any moving creature in Sredny's vicinity. It abated
somewhat when poor Liagala was momentarily surprised at the collective
howls of rage from the amassed wolves. Madness! By then, other people
were there as well. Kat threw herself in front of the gholam, getting
some nasty tree spikes in her arm and a wolf in her face. "STOPPIT!" she
yelled, loud enough to nearly cut through the rucus. She thwapped a
snarling wolf on the nose to enforce her point and threw a rock as hard
as she could at Lia's enraged form. Taken aback by an attack coming not
from the gholam, but from some other source, she was hit in the stomach
hard enough to knock her over. Noting that someone had somewhat calmed
the irate wolves and several people were restraining Lia, she looked
back to Sredny. He looked like he needed to be glued back together.
Knowing next to nothing about his kind and afraid to move him, she
called for someone to bring water--Water's always good, she thought--and
glared at all the other gawking bystanders until they left to do
someting productive. "Good job," she said dryly, turning back to Sredny.
"What do you need?" 


Jen)
 -----------------------------------------------------------
 It had been hours of pain, hours of ... well, pain. And Ayenda Vera Jennaea
Rowan-al'So--no, simply Jennaea Rowan, now. Simply Jen. But whoever she was,
she was still in pain. An odd sort of pain that bordered on the edge of shock,
but pain nonetheless. She never envisioned this day would come so soon, though
she knew it had to come eventually. Because the White Tower would torture them
all first. She had to know pain, more pain than could ever be imagined. And
they used all sorts of disgusting methods designed by their White Ajah
scientists--not to mention conventional forms of torture, such as the old
"figs and mice" trick. They were finding things out about a human body that
people had never before even dreamed of. And ways to deal with that body.
Especially if it could channel.
      But besides the pain, terrible bloody pain, she had to know fear. She
had to live each day never knowing when their attack would hit, never knowing
what exactly they would do to her. They had driven her out of her own Tower,
so long fought for now abandoned--an empty shell of what it once was. Just as
Patty had become when she could not channel. But Patty had been Healed ...
that in itself should have given Jen the courage to face another defeat from
the WT--if they could overcome one setback, couldn't they overcome them all?
      But Jen couldn't rejoice with patty. The WT had committed the ultimate
act of retribution. Not death, at least ... not death ... there were fates
worse than death. Especially for a Bonded woman. 
      The WT had Davidson. Jen didn't know *how* they had him, just that they
did. And once in their hands, there had been a flood of emotions coming
through their Bond: of fear, of desperation, but stronger feelings of anger
... the pain was worst of all. If it had hurt her so much she knew it must
have been unbearable for him. Most nights atop Dragonmount the rest of the PT
just left her alone; she was in such pain and wanted no more than to be left
alone. They would starve him, they would beat him, they would do terrible
things ... nightmarish things with an a'dam ... before they severed him. 
      Jen thought that was the worst of all, severing ... because after that
his hatred was only intensified; it became a horrible raw passion unlike
anything Jen had ever seen. His fits of anger were worse than even Patty's had
been. She supposed they intended to keep him there, a madman, as bait--Jen
could still find him through the half of the Bond that was still
intact--certainly, the WT figured, she'd want to rescue him!
      Such was not the case. It was almsot as though Jen had been stilled
herself. The physical pain was gone, but it was the lesser of two
evils--nothing, not even the blank emptiness after his severing could prepare
her for what lay ahead. Only a few days after they had begun to torture him, a
few days after his capture, they killed him. 
      Jen could not be filled with rager or anger or any other emotion. The
grief was so strong as to take up every part of her being. She had heard, in a
rueful memory, that most Aes Sedai cried for days and nights when their
Warders were killed. But she was hardly Aes Sedai; she was Ayenda Vera, and
had seen more than any Aes Sedai would ever see. She was not bound to the
Three Oaths as they were, like criminals and prisoners. The differences
between Aes Sedai and Ayenda Vera had been hashed and rehashed countless times
through her mind; she didn't need to remind herself of them again. 
      But she shed no tears. She didn't cry--this was so much deeper than
tears, this went to the very center of her being, so deep she was even
physically unable to cry. And she did not mourn--not in the sense that life
went on; they had shared each other's souls, and that can never be forgotten.
But she didn't mourn in the sense that she still lived. 
      Besides, retribution was useless. Revenge was petty and trite. The
Purple and White had danced this dizzying dance so many times--it was becoming
stagnant and stale. Besides, Jen knew firsthand the effects of vengeans.
Davidson's death was proof enough of that. But this empty time, this blank
slate she had become was even more useless than retribution. 
      It was at that moment, those hours after his death, that she formed a
gateway leading to the Amrylin's office in the White Tower. Mayadi was not
there. Sounds of celebration echoed through lower hallways up through the
ventilation system. Jen turned to the file cabinet where she knew certain
documents would be; the documents that would once and for all expose the
Amyrlin as what she was. She opened the drawer with a loud creak--wished and
prayed it hadn't been heard--and turned to see Mayadi al'Kella Sedai towering
above her crouched form. 
      It was more than deja vu, this was the exact moment in which Patty had
been stilled. And every acton and reaction here would not be for naught. Jen
had come here for a purpose. That purpose would be served. 
      "Jennaea, what a ... surprise. I didn't expect you to be here."
      "It's just Jen now." She addressed Mayadi with no title, no "Mother", no
condescending diminutive or familiarity. Just simplicity. 
      "Oh ... Jen ... I'm sure you could have--"
      "No," Jen cut her off. "I couldn't. I don't know what you're after. If
you want to expose us as Darkfriends or Black Ajah--we aren't. If you want to
take all the channelers as your own and dress them in novice white--you can
have them. If you just plain hate us--well, hate is a decidedly non-Aes Sedai
emotion, isn't it. Look. I was going to get these files to expose you as Black
Ajah. I don't even know how much of that is true. A good lawyer could have
made them true. But there isn't going to be a trial, is there? Not for you or
me. There probably won't even be a final battle. There can't be. Because the
White Tower is too powerful and the Purple Tower is too stubborn. We're at a
stalemate. And the Wheel will turn and things will change. Everything changes.
When we're all gone it won't matter what happened here. It'll all be history
and won't mean much to novices trying to 'picture a rose--become that rose' in
their minds. Maybe neither of us will leave a legacy; I don't know. I don't
have the Foretelling. I don't know."
      "What exactly are you trying to say?" came Mayadi's puzzled reply.
      "I'm saying it ends here, Aes Sedai. That's what I'm saying. It endshere."
      Mayadi embraced saidar, ready to still or quite possibly kill Jen. And
Jen was ready--whatever happened here would not matter tomorrow. It wouldn't
matter. Jen closed her eyes and prepared to die.  
 --------------------------------------------- (Liagala)
 ------------------------------
 Liagala woke up in the backseat of Sredny's ferrari, momentarily confused.
Where am I?  Wha...  Realization hit her.  Eddie was dead.  Sredny had
betrayed him.  And Sredny was sitting right here in the front of the car,
acting as if nothing at all was wrong.  White hot rage consumed her.  She
wanted nothing more than to see this gholam on his knees, begging for
forgiveness before she killed him.  The destruction began.  (I'm not going to
detail it, Sredny did a *wonderful* job himself).
 ---------------------------------
 Liagala channeled for an unknown period of time, intent only on the
destruction of the creature that had led her Bondmate and husband to his
death.  She lost all control of what she was doing, until a sharp pain in her
midsection suddenly stopped her.  There was Kat, aiming another rock, and
glaring at the others.  Kat?  There was Patty, trying to stop the wolves from
killing Sredny.  Patty?  wolves?  There were the rest of her friends, more
like family, in the Purple Tower, all staring at her as if she had gone mad.
Purple Tower? Wha...?  The wolves sent feelings of *calm* and *peace* and
*friendship* to her, attempting to bring her back to herself.  One of the
assembled people moved forward, hesitantly at first, then faster as they saw
that she had stopped the attack.  She stopped a few feet from Liagala, and
asked what happened, and was she OK?  It was just too much.  Liagala fell into
the person's arms, and managed to cry "Eddie's dead."  before wracking sobs
overcame her.  Vaguely, she felt herself being Healed, but she didn't care.
She would live, but did she want to?  The tears continued as if they would
never end. --------------------------------------- (Vree)  
      Vree frowned a Liagala somehow managed to collapse into her arms.  She
was really bad at this!  Didn't anyone tell them that comforting wasn't her
forte?  She patted the woman awkwardly on her back.  "It's going to be okay,
Liagala... It's going to be okay."  She wanted to scream, Someone get this
girl off of me before I make a fool of myself.  She gritted her teeth, she
really wasn't any good at this.
       Patty whisked by her, "Let me check Sredny!" (I think I spelled it
right :oP ) she said, as she kneeled down into gholam goo, searching the mess
for a beating pulse, a rise of chest, something that might be considered a
human sign of life.  Vree shook her head.  That thing definitely wasn't
human... of course not... it's Sredny!
      Shadow lurched at her side, growling a warning deep in his throat.
Liagala's body lurged, straining instintively for Sredny.  Vree frowned, the
girl's madder than I am! she thought, scooping her roughly up and over her
shoulder.  She was a heavy load for such a small woman, but Vree managed to
stagger in the general direction of Haplo's car.
      When she reached the car's frame she paused momentarily... Should I put
her in the back seat... or in the trunk?  Eyes darted, trunk, backseat, trunk
backseat...  She caught Danielle moping around the car and called her over.
Dumping Liagala unceremoniously in the back seat she motioned the girl over.
"Guard her with your life.  If you move or if she moves, you're mine." she
finished slashing a finger across her throat.  She never liked the girl, and
the girl had given no indication that she was anything other than what she
appeared to be.  A bully.  No need for subtlety here.  It'd probably be lost
on her anyway.
      The girl gulped, nodded once and sat down in the back seat, arranging
Liagala into a less sprawled position.
      Satisfied she turned away and made her way back to accident site.
Someone had gotten a bucket for Sredny (^_~)  She almost choked as she watch a
Studè helpfully try to help him in with a shovel.  "Okay, that's enough girl,"
Vree smiled down on her.  "Somehow, I don't think he'll fit in there right
now."  she could barely hold the laughter.  It was a pretty funny scene.  The
girl nodded, running off.  She bent down and tried to slap him into a
semblence of waking.       "Wha-- I?"  Sredny spluttered.
       Vree crouched before him.  "How long you think before you can travel?"
She cast a look from him to the car.  "I doubt you could survive another trip
in Liagala's presence."  She raised a purely questioning eyebrow.
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (Katja)
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Katja looked around her uncertainly.  Something was still wrong.
 Something had happened to somebody, she didn't know what, but she could
 smell it.  But it was different know.  That strange smell seemed to have
 manifested itself, almost to the point of blocking out all other smells.
             At first glance, everything seemed all right.  Haplo was
 trying to get everyone ready to move, Rebekka was telling another one of
 her stories, and Patty was still looking as enthusiastic as a Stude at
 being able to channel.  Dilating her nostrils, she forced herself to
 inhale the smell from the others.  It almost made her gag.  She looked
 over at Jami, to make sure that he was doing all right, but the smell
 was not coming from him.
             Katja scanned everyone's faces again.  Just the normal worry
 over the White Tower...except....  She swung her eyes back to Jen's
 face.  THe Cuebiyar's face was solid granite.  No smile, no tears, no
 anything.  It was as if she was empty.
             Katja handed Algai's reins to Rebecca, who gave her friend a
 quizzical look.  Seeing the grey rolling across Katja's eyes, she
 started to stroke the horses neck, worried.  Katja started to stride
 over to Jen, wishing to help in any way possible the person who had
 given her a home.
             About two-thirds of the way to her, Katja was suprised by a
 flash of brilliant white light in front of the Ayenda that revolved into
 a gateway.  The anger and hatred, showing in her eyes, of anybody that
 could do something terrible to Jen allowed her to see the weaves that
 were woven.  Without a second of hesitation, she copied the weave.
             Stepping though the gateway, she found herself in Mayadi's
 study and suddenly lost her hold of the power, causing the gateway to
 disapper and cut some of the heel off of her boot.  "Stupid child," she
 cursed at herself and recalled the saying that she used to keep herself
 out of trouble, "Curiousity killed the Katja."  With a slight giggle,
 she crouched behind the desk, waiting for something to happen.
             Something did happen.  In walked Mayadi herself.
             *Oh, Light!  Jen must be out of her mind* 
      "Jennaea, what a ... surprise. I didn't expect you to be here."
      "It's just Jen now." SP>     "Oh ... Jen ... I'm sure you could have--"
      "No," Jen cut her off. "I couldn't. I don't know what you're after.If
 you want to expose us as Darkfriends or Black Ajah--we aren't. If you wantt
 take all the channelers as your own and dress them in novice white--youcan
 have them. If you just plain hate us--well, hate is a decidedly non-AesSeda
 emotion, isn't it. Look. I was going to get these files to expose you asBla
 Ajah. I don't even know how much of that is true. A good lawyer could have
 made them true. But there isn't going to be a trial, is there? Not for youo
 me. There probably won't even be a final battle. There can't be. Becausethe
 White Tower is too powerful and the Purple Tower is too stubborn. We're ata
 stalemate. And the Wheel will turn and things will change. Everythingchange
 When we're all gone it won't matter what happened here. It'll all behistory
 and won't mean much to novices trying to 'picture a rose--become thatrose'
 their minds. Maybe neither of us will leave a legacy; I don't know. Idon't
 have the Foretelling. I don't know."
      "What exactly are you trying to say?" came Mayadi's puzzled reply.
     "I'm saying it ends here, Aes Sedai. That's what I'm saying. It end
 here." 
             Katja held her breath as Mayadi held saidar, too scared to
 gather enough dark emotions to do more than see the glow surrounding the woman.
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (Tamane) ~~~~~~~~~~ 
   Tamane was wondering around the camp watching all the preperations.
Wetalnders, they travel with so much.  She thought to herself.  Leaving the
main area, she explored the surroundings and came accross an interesting
scene.  There was a bunch of people and wolves surrounding something just out
of her sight.  Reaching out to the wolves she asked What happens here
brothers?  Responding quickly We come to protect our two-leg kin.  Curious she
sat in the foliage, waiting for the crowd to clear.  Eventually there was only
one person there, Vree.  Tamane had seen her briefly before this, but now she
was talking with....A GHOLAM?!?!
     White hot anger flashed in Tamane.  A shadowspawn, they will all pay for
the lives of my family!!  Surging with the heat of her fury, she waited.  
     Watching Vree leave shortly after, Tamane rose from her hiding place in
the trees.  Walking slowly to the shadowspawn, she spoke.  "What is
shadowspawn doing this far beyond the Blight alone.  No back up?"  Sredny
truned his head in the direction of the voice and cursed under his breath.  He
could see the pure hatred in her eyes.  "I have destroyed all shadowspawn that
come within reach."  she hissed.  "You will all die for the lives that have
been taken!"  Slowly advancing toward him, she watched the Gholam stand.  
     Grunting at the pain from his earlier wounds Sredny stood to face the
advancing Maiden.  She was deffinately intent on attacking him, yet he noted
that she had not veiled herself.  Pure rage beamed from her light a light you
could see.  What the hell did I do to HER?  He wondered.  
     Continueing her slow advance, Tamane's face contorted with rage.  Veiling
slowly she pounced at him.  Colliding, they fell to the ground.  Quickly she
got a grip around the Gholam's neck, and squeezed with all her might.  Feeling
her grip on his throat, Sredny grabed her sides and crushed.  Wailing in agony
she fell back, yet rose again to conitue the battle.  Drawing out her spears
she pounced again.  This time Sredny caught her in mid air and threw her past
him, slamming her against the ground and rolling a few feet away.  She spung
from the ground and again faced her enemy.  Srendy felt his body go cold.
Laughing her yelled to her, "I am not affected by the One Power." 
     Using flows of air he wrapped her up and held her there.  Furious, she
writhed in the invisible bonds.  "You WILL die shadowspawn!" she shrieked.
She let loose with the One Power jaming a shield between him and Saidin.  In
her rage her strength was increadable.  Sredny was so shocked he almost got
one of her spears in his ribs.  Dodging it quickly, he thought up his next
move.  The Gholam stood ready for her next attack, which came promtly.
Tackleing him to the ground she again got a death grip on his neck.  Coughing
he clawed at her arms, tearing them away.  He picked her up and threw her
away, Tamane smashed against a tree and crumpled on the ground.
     Srendy appraoched her cautiously to see what dammage he hd done.  "Poor
foolish Maiden.  I didn't intend to fight you."  He shook his head as he
looked at her crumpled body.  He caught a glimpse of movement, "I'm not done
with you yet Gholam!"  She stood and stared him right in the eye.  Weaveing
flows of earth the fround errupted underneath him.  Sredny cursed.  Remaining
perfectly still and outwardly calm she sent him flying in the air.  As she was
about to send him up again she felt a shield slide between her and Saidar.
The back-lash hit her like a tree trunk, knocking her to the ground.  She
turned and saw Vree had come back to check up on the spadowspawn.  Vree
wrapped her in a field of air and went to Sredny's side.  "You alright
Sredny?"  "Yeah," he replied "but that one's a bit of fire in her soul."
nodding to where Tamane sat motionless.  Vree helped Sredny into the camp, and
when they were far enought away, released the flows on Tamane.
     Tamane burned with her hatred.  How can an Ayenda Vera protect such a
creature?  She wandered off into the woods to be alone, and let her temper
calm down so she could think things through. ~~~~~~~~~~  -----------------
(Liagala)
 ---------------------------------------
 Liagala merely glared at the gholam as he stopped the music and answered her
questions.  On the way to Tear, huh?  Does he not realize that everyone else
is at Dragonmount?  Even if they are going to Tear, we'll probably die before
anyone gets there to Heal us.  She opened her mouth to say as much, and to add
a few scathing comments about lying filth, and her eyes bulged with shock when
a gag of Air was roughly shoved into her mouth.  She was shoved into the back
seat, then blocked off from the rest of the car.  She heard the click as the
doors locked.  Does he think I'll jump out, at the speed this thing is going?
About to yell at him through the window, Liagala suddenly froze.  All thought
of Sredny, the car, her anger, was forgotten.  In the part of her mind that
held Eddie's Bond, pain bulged, pain like she had never imagined.  They're
torturing him!  Even as softly as she felt it, she wanted to weep.  How can he
stand it?  The agony continued, she didn't know how long. Finally, it stopped,
and she fell asleep from pure relief...
 and woke up screaming.  Where is he?  What happened?  The Bond was... gone.
Faintly, she remembered a dream, of Eddie mounting a gallows... the platform
dropped...  the life choking out of him, and then... nothing.  Oh, Light!
He's dead!  The shock overwhelmed her, and she passed out.  

******