(Months Earlier)

The smell on the air was awful. It was heavy with the sickly-sweet stench that had hung about them in the room for weeks. There were no physical binds on her, but what was woven on the air about her was stronger than that of stone or steel.

Bound. Past tense. That which had bound her and muted anything that might have been felt had been finally worked lose, and finally broken completely, but it had taken two full days and three Ajah to do so. The three women were of various shapes and sizes as well as appearances that were so starkly different one might have guessed they were from three entirely separate continents.

Ariahna was in all white. For Ajah, such meant they were either a sister of the White?or in full mourning. She wore two black ribbons in her hair. For any who knew their ways. She was both a sister of the White and in mourning. Her face was young, even among Aes Sedai whose features seemed untouched by the passage of time. Her eyes were a shade lighter than that of topaz and her hair was as long as her waist and reddish brown. Her form was lithe and trim. Her skin was darkly tanned, as if too long in the sun recently. Her hands shook as she finally lowered her hands that had been held out over Valucia and the old man near her. Ariahna did not look at the bodies that lay beyond those two, or the women she was with. She didn?t dare look yet. But she did manage a glance to her left where Lursan was.

Lursan appeared just as depleted. The trials of two days had left them all depleted of energy, but their will and determination were still very much intact. This one was easily recognized as a Red. And for being as old as she was, Lursan only had a little bit of gray in her brown hair. Unlike many of her sisters, no matter their sect within the Tower, she preferred her hair very short. As she did not depend on men and did not trust many of them, she seemed ironically to look like one. Only the dress of crimson softened her looks and assured any onlooker that she was female. Hard, black eyes had never closed and flicked from Ariahna. ?You will live. Take a breath and get her on her feet.? She was already reaching for the old man?s arm nearest to her. Her lips were thinned and she made a face to touch the man at all. ?Up with you, now. The barrier?s been ? removed.? It was obvious by tone and action that she was not about to explain anything more to this man. Any man, for that matter.

Fair-fleshed, milk-skinned so that any to see the third woman there could have thought that she was a maiden that had never seen the light of day. Her hair was so blond it seemed white; feathered about her face and shoulders. Green eyes were distracted with so much. Zseil was not fierce like Lursan or shaken as Ariahna. Instead, the one from the Brown Ajah was watching. Tired, but observant ? always. Every sound, motion, word, etc. was tucked away to analyze later for the Browns were known for their studious ways. ?Zseil!? The shorter, slightly plump woman startled. As watchful as she was, she had overlooked that she was not moving, herself. She nodded and moved about to start the abhorrent duty of checking each one of the dozen or so bodies that lay in the building?s great hall. There was a need for a quick cataloging of how many there were and hints of who they were. At least, where they were from.

Her hands hurt. More specifically, Valucia?s wrists hurt, as did her knees. Wrists had been bound before the weave of power had been used to contain her and the man in that space in the middle of the room. She remembered hitting her knees a couple of days ago. Someone had shoved them from behind and both had hit the stone floor. Blackpearl eyes looked to Lursan, then Zseil and Ariahna. ?How many,? She asked it, though did not want to know.

?Fifteen.? Without hesitation, Zseil had an answer for the Blue.

?Another few hours and there would have been two more added to that.? Lursan?s jaw was set. ?Blood and ashes, what are you doing here without a Warder, Valucia?? The Red was curt wasn't concerned at all if she was ruffling any proverbial feathers. A hard look at the Blue, then back at the old man. ?And was it your crackbrain idea to allow this feeble ? man ? to be here with you??

Ariahna winced. ?Lursan ? ,? but she quieted under the heated look of the Red. None of them were in the mood for peace and all of them could have found an inkling of fire within themselves to fight among themselves in the wake of everything that had happened.

?Sisters ? please,? Valucia was the one who sought peace. Always. Though she could fight well enough to make it through many smaller matters and kept her tongue quiet in most others, she was exhausted in a great deal of pain. ?His name is Terrell. He was with me when I was taken. These assumed that he was part of my journey.?

Terrell was a bit more haggard than she expected to find him. Wiry white and grayblack hair was sticking up in places. His right cheek was a mottled mess of bruises with a black eye and a busted top lip. Openly, Valucia frowned and felt the pang of guilt for allowing him to have been captured with her. He looked about at all of them, but kept his silence. It was dangerous enough to have been in the midst of the murderous group from before, but the four women around him might prove just as dangerous, by his muted guess of things.

Valucia found a few locks loose from her usually neatly-kept bun and tucked them behind her ears. There was no time to waste on anything more than that. ?Sisters, if we do not want the friends of these here to find us, we should take our leave.?

Valucia had not even considered her own appearance. What she had on her mind was for all of them to put some distance between them and the dead. And she was thinking of Raytheon. Had she confided in him more, made use of him more, she might not have been in the predicament she had been in. Or at least, not for as long as they had been. She shook her head at herself. Such things were for her and the Warder to speak of at a later date. Valucia Sedai was no there for herself. Rarely ? ever ? was purpose about her. Rarely was she that selfish ? so much so that few were close to her ? or for long. Was she not someone assumed to have a m?taal cue (stone heart)? It was not true, but it was easier to allow others to think so. Even then as she swallowed down the notion of pain in her limbs and the headache slamming about within her skull. ?Now, Lursan ?? The Blue cut a look at the Red. She had no power over the Sister but they had to get moving.

They stepped out of the hall into the rain of spring that held a hint of fading winter and the scents of flowers and leaves. It was all far better than the reek of death that they left behind in the building. Valucia?s foot touched stone and water and caused her to blink. Her frown had not faded yet. Why was she barefooted? She could not remember not putting them on or anyone removing them. That was a troubling fact. All though it seemed a small thing, it proved troubling to her. Regardless, she hurried on until they were no longer within reach of any light from the city. They carefully picked their way along the road that started as stone and eventually lead to dirt.

Valucia?s skirts were heavy with rain and mud and she was hurt, but she never complained. It would have served no purpose but to dampen the spirits of an already sodden group. Raytheon was always woven into her thoughts. A few things had been felt while she was away. Far away as she was, the bond was paper-thin, but she still felt him. She was determined that when what was needed to be done was over, that she would return to RhyDin and perhaps be able to keep the home and area of Bulwark?s in her care for herself and others for many years to come. Time would tell if she would find the Warder still there upon her return. Or the man that was helping her to rebuild the Hall and Four Keeps, as well as the strange creature that had come to see her. Skel-something. Skelrisan? She was trying to remember his name when the road came to the crest on a hill.

It was hard to see. The clouds and rain kept any light from the moon and stars from reaching them that dreadful night. Valucia lifted her right arm and a hand opened to rest on the air side-ways before her.

As her hand turned upward, her palm facing the sky, a spark ? and then a bit more grew from that notion until a fiery, flaming orb was formed there. Intensity grew from that until they could see better the path that lay immediately before them.

?Thank you, Sister,? The murmur came from Zseil as she passed Valucia and moved on ahead. Her boots were so wet that they squished with water inside their leather confines. The lights of a huddle of homes in the minor valley off in the distance offered a promise possible warmth and shelter, but it was still hours away. But the Brown didn't seem to have noticed that her feet were that wet and trudged on. Valucia and the others continued as well. They had no wish to be out in all of that any longer than necessary.

The days were proving to be interesting, now that she was finding time to get beyond Bulwark's Cove and all of the restoration there. She had been long out of the public's eye. Or, since they were mostly strangers to her, they had been out of her gaze?

A visitor that had been to see her before came to the Teas n' Tomes. Looking every bit the very much the reflection of herself. As unsettling as that had been. And what she was presented to her was not only a book in a script the Aes Sedai had never seen, but quite a lengthy bit of conversation and conundrum to go with it.

What might have troubled her as much as it all having to do with magicks was that the visitor came looking exactly like her...and the book was warm. Perhaps moreso were all of the riddles the being had spoken in.

Though it all left her stomach in knots, she was grateful for the challenge. A challenge that was not fully accepted yet. She would look the book over at length. Deciphering it, decoding it to help someone else might bring about more than any of them were expecting.

The Aes Sedai had been sitting there for hours in one of the tables in a space she used for both eating and working. At times, for Aes Sedai, both were done in the same space and place. A slender hand met with the arms of the chair, pushing against them to stand. She had been sitting far too long.

Her body complained of it, aching into the joints of her shoulders and hips as well as along her spine. A simpler dress of dusky blue had been put on that morning. Its fabric was smoothed down absently before she took a step towards the sideboard. A wooden goblet was selected from the sideboard's hook before removing the lid of a pitcher. Water was poured into the simple goblet and she put the pitcher back.

"Why would Gael Martan write, I wonder." The pages of parchment were plainly written in its wording but she suspected there was more to tell Valucia than how the Martan elders were doing. Gael had mentioned that he was traveling to Tar Valon but made it sound, by all that was inked to the pages, that it was to visit the grave of his brother; nothing more.

Alone, in her home at Bulwark's Cove, she could relax. There were none to see or judge her as she paused beside the sideboard and her head hung a little; wearily from such thoughts Alrin.

Blackpearl colored eyes closed, controlling the pain in her heart. It would not do poor Raytheon any good to know how deeply she hurt from those memories of Alrin. There was nothing he could do to ease them. No blade or braun, no words could take away what was in her heart even after so many years. A breath was drawn into her lungs. She unpinned her hair and let it fall about her shoulders and back. The pins were dropped into another, empty goblet to retrieve later to be put away.

For now. Valucia needed to relax in ways that she would simply never allow of herself in a public venue. She strolled the room, pacing as it were, while she thought of how to reply to Alrin's brother.

If she ever found someone to make a decent pot of kaf, it would be as rare an experience as finding oneself in procession of satare. It had been days since the visitor had appeared and presented her with the book. Writ in a language the Aes Sedai could not yet decipher but she was drawn to its elegant lines for every bit of its script to every page.

The young woman that was the granddaughter of the Teas and Tomes?s owner was milk-faced at best in her ways and all together unorganized and inattentive when it came to serving her the last few times she was there. Valucia could only guess the young man who was coming to see her every other hour has something to do with this since the girl had not been so lacking in her position to help with the establishment in the Ajah?s earlier visits there.

She had been looking at the book for hours, pouring over scrolls of different languages and others that aided with instructing such deciphering of foreign tongues. She was not a sister of the Brown and had not true hunger in her to see this as a wondrous challenge to excel towards. But it was a lovely book. And a warm one. That was a mystery, in and of itself. Why was it warm to her touch? The Visitor had told her nothing but riddles. Because her own touch was warm. How does such explain that about a book?

Her head ached and her shoulders hurt. She unpinned the bun and let her hair fall. There were none in the place other than the owner and his granddaughter, so she relaxed as much as she dared in public. Dark, black hair rested long and with waves about her shoulders and against her right arm. A breath was exhaled as she leaned very lightly to the scrolling side of the couch.

At some point, while she waited for the girl to bring her some kaf, her hands rested to the open book. The entire area smelled pleasantly of an odd mixture of parchment, ink, leather, sweets, and even the wood burning in the nearby fireplace. Perhaps if she stilled herself for a while she would be able to start unraveling the little mystery.

Months, she had been back in RhyDin though it might have seemed she was gone. The inn of the Red Dragon had not been visited while there was so much work to do on the Hall and the Towers at Bulwark's Cove. Still left was for Valucia to see to her own home that stood on the same portion of land. She had done enough to it to make it liveable, but little else.

But after spending every fourth weeknight for a few hours in the company of the odd, reptilian-like scholar, Skelrisan had scolded the Aes Sedai. Surely she was remiss in being "out and about amongst the masses and making a friend or enemy here and there.." as he had to flippantly put it. The strange, male creature was swiftly becoming her sounding-board, of sorts, though she did not trust him yet to confide in him anything of great worth. He did make her laugh, though. That much was paramount and she did not toss the connection away just yet. Perhaps he would give her a reason or two to eventually consider him a friend.

Winter had left the lands and the thaw left some areas a bit soggier than others, but overall the weather's improvement was to her liking. She thought on the few she knew well and a handful of others she didn't. The Dreamer and her Beast popped into her mind as she was putting on a dress that was a little less utilitarian than she had been wearing to work in of late. A strange smile was there, hoping perhaps against hope that neither of that couple were ill or dead and that somehow they had carved a niche somewhere for themselves.

The Aes Sedai smiled to herself and pulled the shawl about slender shoulders and started out the door on that evening walk with every intention of visiting the marketplace, the Red Dragon...or both.

Tomas Nur had said it would take at least a year to complete repairs on buildings which stood on the grounds of Bulwark's Cove. The piece of land she had purchased a few years ago had been called Ashandarei by her. In the Old Tongue, it translated to meaning 'sword-spear'. For any Warder (Also known as a Gaidin), a warrior and protector who is Bonded by an Aes Sedai via saidar, they would think of that weapon known to be a tall, slender polearm topped off with a blade looking like a shortsword - meant to be wielded with both hands and quite useful in skilled hands. Few had staffs with swords instead a spear to its tip. It was a far heavier weapon and for those who had no knowledge of it at all would find themselves dead before welding it properly and effectively.

For the raven-haired woman who had originally hailed from the Westlands, it meant something a little more. It represented strength, a joining of two very distinct weapons into one; alone they are effective but not as strong or deadly. This was much how the Aes Sedai and Warders were. Separate, they could manage, but the awards, strength, and more of being bonded to one another far outweighed walking any path alone.

Valucia stood by the fountain in the courtyard of The Four Keeps. More correctly, it was not for holding court by practice at arms. At one end stood that fountain with two sturdy, stone benches to either side of it. She had requested it of Tomas Nur so that those who might come to watch them at practice or to visit with any who might come to stay there could enjoy their rest beside the fount. It was finally working. Tomas and others had dug beneath its old foundation to find that unending source of water and properly clear its intake and outflow. Currently, one of the youths he had working under his care was scooping out a few leaves and sediment but it was mostly clear water flowing after a couple of day's progress with it.

Her arms were crossed lightly over her chest and unbound, but well kept dark hair of hers rested mostly against her left shoulder and back. Dingy, brown hems passed quietly over the stones surrounding the base of the tiered structure that was gurgling with life now.

"Of course, Valucia Sedai. I had one of the men build some make-shift stairs so that the upper levels on the south-western tower can be started with. The roof and walks will be rebuilt. While that is happening, another will be working on the windows."

"Thickly glassed but clear and strong," She said, casting a thoughtful look towards that keep in particular.

"Yes, as you requested." Tomas watched her as she turned and stepped towards him. From her right skirt pocket she withdrew a leather pouch, full of coin.

She gingerly held the pouch, without making the coin within it clink about too much. "Payment is here for you and the others. And.." Lips pursed ever-so-vaguely, pensive as she continued. "..when the work is finally completed, we will celebrate."

Tomas Nur narrowed his good, green eye on her.

"Do not be absurd. I mean only, by that I mean that a dinner will be held. Wine, mead, meats, and more."

"Ah. Uhm, of course. Thanks...thank you, Valucia Sedai." Said as he accepted the payment of coin.

It seemed to her that he shifted his weight from one foot, to his other. "Now then. When the stairs of stone are finally completed in the first keep, please let me know." Valucia started to turn and step away.

"May I ask you something. A.. uh.. nothing at all about the stairs.."

"Of course." Valucia stopped and turned back around. Her hands were still dirty and she passed one palm against her other.

"There are rumors that you -- I mean any Aes Sedai -- can skin a man alive. Truly...do this. Is this so?"

To her eyes, he seemed entirely serious but unafraid in the asking of it. It was answered in an indirect way: with a question. "Do you believe that I would ever do something like that to someone, I wonder."

His weight shifted back to his other foot, but otherwise he did not fidget. "No, Valucia Sedia. Not you."

"Very well, then. You have your answer." In this way, no lie was told. She had not nor ever could imagine herself doing such a thing. But even she had heard of the One Power taking hold of body and mind of one or two in history where the Aes Sedai had lost control and had killed. It was a horrible thing to think of. The couple of instances she had ever heard about were probably meant to scare anyone who would think to misuse the power. Her smile was small, but well-meant to him. "I will go wash now. See that you tell the others about food and drink when all is finally done here."

Then she turned and headed out of the sparring yard, frowning all the way to where her home stood nearby.