Demands of a drin (Attn: Miahala Sedai)

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Welcome to the Gardens: one of the most tranquil areas of the Tower Grounds. Birds sing in the trees which line the wide paths between beautiful flower beds and serene lakes. There are benches to sit and listen to the waterfall, and there is neatly trimmed grass to lie on and rest. Novices and Soldiers as well as Warders in Training can be seen, sweeping the stone paths as Accepted and Dedicated study from books and relax under leafy trees.
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Jack
"Lord of Chaos"
Posts: 470
Joined: May 25th, 2015, 9:01 pm
PC: Malcym Ashe

Demands of a drin (Attn: Miahala Sedai)

Post by Jack » August 17th, 2020, 12:46 am

Drin Malcym Ashe Malcym marched through the Gardens with single-minded focus. His silver-blue eyes were hard, focused on the path before him. Dressed as always in the trainee gray, sword at his side, he evoked a single-minded image of determination ... or vengeance.

It had been two weeks since he returned from that flaming sojourn with Jerid Walker Asha’man and two Warders ... two days in which he had seethed over the ... the humiliation he had endured that day.

The Indigo had ... dressed him down over the young soldier’s beliefs, and the encounter with Miahala Sedai about a week or so past.

And the Indigo Asha’man had as much acknowledged that Miahala Sedai had told him what Malcym had said.

Worst yet, he faced a number of sanctions and punishments for both his encounter with the Captain-General and for his behavior while helping to escort the Asha’man.

And in the two days since, his mind had been raging over all those elements. Had he erred? Maybe perhaps.

Did he deserve the Asha’man’s wrath? He would not have had the Captain-General been more tight-lipped. At least the Indigo Asha’man would have been more ... receptive to his arguments.

But instead, he now had to endure embarrassment. And possible penance. The Asha’man had even threatened to send a letter to the Master of Training requesting that Malcym be ejected from the trainee ranks.

If there was one thing he had learned about the Indigo Asha’man, it was he was fully capable of following up on such threats.

Despite logical thinking, he had settled his focus on Miahala Sedai. She was the focus of the young soldier’s rage. In his mind, it was her fault. Had she just simply reported to the Master of Training ... he would not face this many problems.

And so he marched in that direction. It had taken a few hours to find the Captain-General’s schedule but a nice young serving-man had provided information about a location at a glade near the lake.

He knew he had arrived when he saw two Tower Guard armed with halberds ... they moved to blockade his way, with one attempting to speak. But Malcym was too fast, he rushed past them and into the glade.

And his eyes went directly to the person of offense.

“You and I have some words, Aes Sedai ... I demand to know why you went and ... “

A cough interrupted the pair and Malcym looked to his left. And his face paled as he saw a pair of gold-green eyes look back at him. Jerid Asha’man.

Without even a word, the man stood, at a height with the drin, slender, youthful-looking ...and cold as stone.

“I ... will leave this one to you, Sister,” he said calmly. “Thank you, old friend, for your audience and company, but I think since our conversation has been interrupted, I will spend time with my daughter..”

He paused briefly, not looking at Malcym. Instead, the drin saw his eyes flicker slightly toward the right of the drin’s position, toward a small Gaidin with a sword half-drawn.

“Lysira Gaidin may stay if she desires,” the Asha’man murmured, more a suggestion than anything else. “Until next time.”

Malcym blinked and then shuddered at the glare the Asha’man gave him before leaving.

Alone. With the Captain-General.

And his flaming demands. " ... demand to know why you flaming reported me to the Asha'man ..."
Last edited by Jack on September 5th, 2020, 10:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Jerid Walker Asha'man
"We all suffer. It's how we move past it that defines us."

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Bella
Female Channeller Representative
Posts: 5615
Joined: April 14th, 2015, 11:28 pm
PC: Miahala Darrow Sedai
SC: Lysira Viathene Gaidin
TC: Gareth Tomosan Asha'man
QC: Natlya Cade Gaidin
QC: Andraste Alhandra Sedai
Location: New England

Re: Demands of a drin (Attn: Miahala Sedai)

Post by Bella » August 18th, 2020, 11:56 pm

Miahala watched the petulant child as he stormed into the glade to, apparently, throw a little tantrum. She'd endured one just like it from Iain this morning when she denied him an extra sweet. Her cool, blue-green eyes just watched him. Like a bird might watch a bug it had yet to decide on eating.

"Fare thee well, my friend," she said as Jerid rose and left. When Lysira's dark eyes met her, she stepped forward and kissed the small Gaidin on the cheek in a motherly way. "You can go," she whispered with a wry, amused expression. Lysira inclined her head and walked past Malcym, eyeing him up and down as she walked away after her husband.

With that, she turned to face the angry puppy.

"You...demand..." she repeated, her words rolling off her tongue like she was tasting the audacity off them. Without a single twitch, without the blink of an eye, Miahala had thick cords of Air wrapped around the Drin before he could exhale and he was thrust against the trunk of a strong tree with his feet dangling inches away from the dirt. "Why does this one think he is permitted to demand anything of me?"

The question was asked without any more emotion than vague bemusement, tilting her head as she walked towards him. Hands still placidly laced before her as she approached him. "That I...reported you...to the Asha'man?" She smiled. It wasn't a nice a look. "Like a child tattles to the teacher when their toy is stolen?"

Jack
"Lord of Chaos"
Posts: 470
Joined: May 25th, 2015, 9:01 pm
PC: Malcym Ashe

Re: Demands of a drin (Attn: Miahala Sedai)

Post by Jack » August 19th, 2020, 12:34 am

Malcym knew from the brief moment of motherly affection the Green showed Lysira Gaidin that his days were numbered. That part was left out of stories.

Much like a great deal about these people. The calm, emotionless look that the diminutive Gaidin gave him as she followed her Asha’man was ... well it was not a good sign.

It proved prescient the moment he felt the invisible ropes slap him back like a rag doll. If he could have grunted he would have, but for the second time in almost three days, he found himself flattened against a tree by a flaming channeler.

The last occurrence had been caused by the now-departed Indigo Asha’man. The only difference was ... the Green’s weave felt more forceful yet refined, whereas the Indigo had simply applied brute force of a thick, hard blanket filled with a dozen thick tomes.

And the look she gave him as she spoke to him like a child ... was not kind. Oh, put on a smile, adopt the polite posture of an Aes Sedai ... but those eyes might as well belong to a ... well, a fearsome predator.

One who had killed before. And could do so again.

A part of Malcym told him he should apologize then and there, beg forgiveness and then stay out of the woman’s way ... and her continued wrath.

But that logical part never fully connected with Malcym’s mouth.

“Aye, tattle is the right word, indeed, Aes Sedai,” he said harshly. His silver-blue eyes glared down at her, hard and unyielding. Burn it all, but he would not be beaten down like some stray.

Yanked around like a rag doll, yes, but that was beyond his control.

“It was a cowardly thing to do, one that puts pride and reinforces what I said earlier: all those years do put you out of touch,” he said. Harshly. Simply.

You really are a stupid fool trying to get yourself killed, Malcym Ashe, logical Malcym’s brain railed. But his silver-blue eyes remained fixed on Miahala Sedai. Daring her to do her worst and questioning whether she had actual ability to carry through on any possible action.
Jerid Walker Asha'man
"We all suffer. It's how we move past it that defines us."

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Bella
Female Channeller Representative
Posts: 5615
Joined: April 14th, 2015, 11:28 pm
PC: Miahala Darrow Sedai
SC: Lysira Viathene Gaidin
TC: Gareth Tomosan Asha'man
QC: Natlya Cade Gaidin
QC: Andraste Alhandra Sedai
Location: New England

Re: Demands of a drin (Attn: Miahala Sedai)

Post by Bella » August 19th, 2020, 12:50 am

"Cowardly?"

The words dripped from her lips like honey, slow and sticky and sweet. Oddly sweet.

A moment later, she started laughing. It was a fully-fleshed, lyrical, musical, ...terrifying sound. She walked up to him and touched his chin like she might with her son, looking up into his eyes where she had him suspended above the ground. "Oh, you poor thing," she said simply, the laughter of earlier bleeding slowly from her face until there was nothing. "You deluded child."

She dropped her hand, but that was when the pinpricks would start. Thousands of tiny bits of air biting through his clothes and at his skin. It would do no damage, but it was annoying as all damnation and he was immobilized. "You have no right to demand anything of me, nor to censure what I tell to my long, long, long-time friend when he mentions the idiot he brought to the Yards. I simply confirmed.

"Tattle." She tilted her head, holding his gaze and not at all seeming like a woman managing multiple weaves--blunt and delicate--all at the same time. "When you have spent two centuries living a life one could not even imagine in their nightmares, come talk to me. When you have held mothers, comforting them for the loss of their child that you were too late to save... Come talk to me.

"When you have buried your own children. When you have seen your own life drip through your hard, cut off by the face of a family member... Come talk to me. When you have built cities, homes, orphanages, and infirmaries in towns razed by the Seanchan and Whitecloaks and Trollocs on the borderlands... Come talk to me."

She stepped back further, and the pinpricks stopped. "When you grow up and realize that the world does not revolve around you, and that those who have come before you do know something of that world... Then, you may come talk to me." She released the weave to put him on his feet. She stood where she was and simply watched him. Waiting to see what he would try next.

Jack
"Lord of Chaos"
Posts: 470
Joined: May 25th, 2015, 9:01 pm
PC: Malcym Ashe

Re: Demands of a drin (Attn: Miahala Sedai)

Post by Jack » August 19th, 2020, 1:43 am

If there was ever a time that Malcym wanted to move, it was now. But alas ... he hung there, helpless, and hapless as a thousand irritating little needles pricked him. Like a flaming feeling that had long gone past tickling.

And then there was that laugh. Unnerving as flaming nails on a chalkboard. Only it was worse. Because it did not fit here.

Again, there was that sense that ... she could probably kill him where he stood if he pressed the point.

And then the Aes Sedai’s words began to weigh him down ... well figuratively given his current plight. Whereas Jerid Walker had torn into him two days prior ...[/i] “vain, selfish, ignorant child”[/i] ...

The Indigo Asha’man had torn into him without going into the weight of ages. The man’s words had instead torn the young soldier with a sharp edge, attempting to instill the worth of other Warders, ones he stressed how they had earned their fancloaks.

Miahala took a different approach, it seemed, and applied a blunt hammer with a sharp spike. And the logical part of Malcym’s brain absorbed the words like a sponge. A mother, a soldier, a woman who had walked the earth long before him ... of an age with the Indigo, who had suffered through similar yet very different circumstances.

Eyes that had seen and witnessed and suffered through so much more than he could have understood in his 23 years of life.

And for one small glittering moment, his silver-blue eyes glimpsed that he had absorbed the Green’s words. But that logical part of his mind was suddenly cast back the second he was lowered and those blasted pricklings vanished.

A very old saying came to mind. Fury hath no wrath like an Aes Sedai scorned.

It was a double-edged knife. A soldier bore no injury to his experience, no matter how much it paled in comparison to one of the Captain-General’s words.

“Oh, the flaming ego,” he said sharply. Any attempt by that logical portion was battered away.

“I might not have your ... experience or your sense of loss, Aes Sedai,” he said sharply, harshly. Coldly. “...but I have gone through battle after battle, seen the horrors inflicted by those ‘Dragonsworn’ mobs, by remaining echoes of Shaido Aiel bands, by brigands and those with who might as well have no soul.”

He took a step forward, ever so slightly, hands clenched at his side. “I went through fire and bloodbaths, had to endure incomponent commanders and lead men to ensure they were not slaughtered further, comforted orphans, tried to calm widows and childless mothers and ... those who were forced by brigands ...”

If there was ever a moment where Malcym Ashe needed to shut his mouth, it would be now. More so for the privacy of his own past than anything else.

“I wake up every night, in sheets of sweat for the men I’ve killed ...” Fire was in his blood now. “And never assume that you are the only one who has had to bury children or loved ones,” he said harshly. “I buried a daughter and a lover because a cowardly, ruthless band of so-called soldiers thought raiding and butchering a Tutha’an caravan that had settled in the area was ‘sport.’

“When you’re half a league away, tracking that very same band because your first commander, some whelp of a noble, heard a whisper of an echo and wanted to earn glory instead of valuing further information gathering when they die ... people who were by every right supposed to be under the protection of the king’s army ...” He knew he should pause for breath, but he couldn’t stop. Whatever walls had been erected over six years were gone ... “When you took command of a small contingent after seeing that caravan slaughtered ... and tore into the murderers with savagery reserved only for Trolllocs ... killing the wounded butcherers instead of giving them over to the king’s justice ...”

He paused, his blood still pumping like fire. His eyes flared ... unbeknownst, hints of gold filling in with silver as they flashed ... and stayed.

“I’m not nearly as old as you, Aes Sedai, but you ever think to question or call me pup ... especially on loss ...,” he growled. “And I will knock your two front teeth out, status as an Aes Sedai or bloody oaths of the Yard be burned.”
Jerid Walker Asha'man
"We all suffer. It's how we move past it that defines us."

User avatar
Bella
Female Channeller Representative
Posts: 5615
Joined: April 14th, 2015, 11:28 pm
PC: Miahala Darrow Sedai
SC: Lysira Viathene Gaidin
TC: Gareth Tomosan Asha'man
QC: Natlya Cade Gaidin
QC: Andraste Alhandra Sedai
Location: New England

Re: Demands of a drin (Attn: Miahala Sedai)

Post by Bella » August 19th, 2020, 1:51 am

"You will do no such thing."

This time, however, the words were soft. Quiet. Gentle. The Aes Sedai was gone, and the woman who had kissed Lysira's cheek was suddenly there. She had listened to every word. She had not interrupted, nor had she turned away. Miahala 'Out of Touch' Sedai had let him vent his rage.

She had waited. Inexorably as the ages.

When he was done, with a threat at the end no less, she had simply, quietly said, "You will do no such thing." She walked forward, calmly and coolly, her hands still laced before her until she was right in front of him. Growling, frothing at the mouth, and all. "You have seen more than your years should have allowed," she said simply, "but that does not give you the right to put your pain on others."

Mia paused, letting those words settle a moment. "You rage against me now for presuming to know you. To act like I knew what you had lived through or what you had suffered. Yet that is exactly what you did to me, and then called me out of touch, prideful, superior, cowardly when I took offense. And mind, my offense was far less full of vitriol than yours now."

She smiled, but this time, it was not the cold, frightening expression. It was...kind. "I am sorry for your loss, Drin Malcym Ashe."

Jack
"Lord of Chaos"
Posts: 470
Joined: May 25th, 2015, 9:01 pm
PC: Malcym Ashe

Re: Demands of a drin (Attn: Miahala Sedai)

Post by Jack » August 19th, 2020, 2:50 am

Raw, powerful anger raged inside Malcym, almost impossible to control. And when she uttered those words countering his threat to break her teeth, he tensed.

Almost a dare, a challenge. His hands clenched even more, and for a split instant, he was utterly tempted to throw that swing ... a swing similar to that he had taken at a certain Asha’man before he had signed the rolls ... when he was still a soldier.

Malcym knew he’d never land it. He’d gotten a taste of the Aes Sedai’s power and knew she could be as fast as the Asha’man ... and as mercurial as her temperament was, end his life in a heartbeat as much as spare it.

The Asha’man was ... willing to provide mercy to a point, but would not hesitate to kill him. And would spare any pretense of his intent. His Warder wouldn’t hesitate to split his skull with an arrow if Mal had threatened the Asha’man.

But this Aes Sedai, whom he had chosen to single out as an enemy ... words eventually proved to be a powerful weapon.

Let go, you fool ... a voice whispered. Just let go ... you let that wall down ...

And the last few weeks of his own actions reflected back as she spoke ... like a mother, or like a Wisdom, or the matron of the previously mentioned Tutha’an caravan to a cavalier young soldier ... they hit him like a hammer shattering a frail mirror.

More than three years of angst, pain, agony and loss had been wrapped up in anger burst free. Both she and the Indigo had been right in so many words.

And that part of his mind, the logical part, pushed forward, forcing him to acknowledge one thing ... anger and pride blinded him.

Where was the soldier that rode off to protect an Asha’man, that voice asked. The one that put pride aside ... that would fear and respect the Aes Sedai before you. One in your right mind wouldn’t have threatened ...

All that rage evaporated ... replaced by the loss he had mentioned ... and shame ...

Malcym’s legs gave way and fell to his knees without thinking. And he wept. “I’m sorry, Aes Sedai ... “ were the only words he could muster.
Jerid Walker Asha'man
"We all suffer. It's how we move past it that defines us."

User avatar
Bella
Female Channeller Representative
Posts: 5615
Joined: April 14th, 2015, 11:28 pm
PC: Miahala Darrow Sedai
SC: Lysira Viathene Gaidin
TC: Gareth Tomosan Asha'man
QC: Natlya Cade Gaidin
QC: Andraste Alhandra Sedai
Location: New England

Re: Demands of a drin (Attn: Miahala Sedai)

Post by Bella » August 19th, 2020, 3:32 am

Contrary to what the rumors and legends might say, Miahala was not--at heart--a vengeful or spiteful woman. She would not bear ill will against the broken young man on his knees before her...at least, not for what had been. The future was still wide open.

But here, and now, he was a child in her eyes. This time, however, it was not in the sense that it had been before. It was in the way that pain and grief could turn anyone to a childhood need, a very human need, for release and compassion.

And although she might have been something other than human at times, she was still that when all was said and done. And she was, in the very innermost, core part of her being, a mother.

This Aes Sedai--legend, ancient, a killer, a predator, covered in the blood of ages, feared and respected throughout nations--knelt beside the man who had insulted her, offended her, and threatened her, and she embraced him like she had embraced her own children so many times.

Though the skinned knees of their youths and the broken souls of broken bonds. She said nothing. She held him, and she let him weep.

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