Returning Home (Ravhala)

[Craig]

Ravak chewed his lip as he crossed over the threshold into the Grey Tower proper from Hama Valon. It had been some time since he last stepped foot here. The journey that was now coming to an end had started a couple of months back. It should have been a relatively quick trip to and from Camelyn, but the journey had extended through more cities, including Tar Valon. That had been a fretful experience.

A sound somewhere between a sigh and a whistle emanated to the Gaidin's left flank. In his periphery, a blue-gowned figure tensed up, her movements becoming just slightly more stiff and guarded. This was only his homecoming. For now, at least.

"Nervous?" he asked without turning to face his companion.

"You've already asked that," came the curt response.

There was a pause before Ravak replied. "It's natural for a father to worry."

"Hmm." She clicked her tongue. "Perhaps."

The Gaidin did turn then, and moved a hand to bring his companion to a halt. Grey eyes rounded on him, her face shifting quickly through emotions before settling into wary annoyance. "There's no need to say anything. I know what you're going to say."

He grimaced, opened his mouth to speak, then paused to reconsider his words. The face that stared back at him was not the face he had recalled before setting out. Those grey expressive eyes had been adoring once, graced with the unconditional love that only stemmed from the young. That time had passed. While he still saw his daughter, there was a physical change that had come over her. She was still young, but while the passage of time had been kind on her other features, those grey eyes held a weight to them. She was older, she had grown, and Kaira didn't need her father coddling her.

Seemingly assured that no words were forthcoming, Kaira nodded in satisfaction to herself, and set off. Ravak's heart skipped a beat. Light, that was just like her mother. He moved to follow, thumbs idly circled the pommels of his swords as they made their way through the Warders' Yard towards the tower. The sounds of training faded away from notice as Ravak tried to think of the right words to say before they got too near.

They got halfway through the yards before Kaira stopped and rounded on him. "Stay it."

"If you get any questions-"

"Say I'm Ravak Darrow's daughter, yes. And if that doesn't stop them, say I'm Miahala Sha'hal's stepdaughter." She paused, putting on a wicked smile. "And if that doesn't work, set them alight."

Rav grinned. "I definitely didn't add that last bit."

"It's what Miahala would do," Kaira remarked, still smiling.

Ravak chuckled. "I'm not saying anything. But you aren't the Captain-General."

"Not yet." She was beaming brightly now. That was the look he remembered from the past. Kaira, wholly unburdened. The look didn't last long as she peered back towards the base of the Grey Tower, mind already moving onto the future.

He glanced away. "I should get back." He gestured towards where the Green Ajah quarters were.

Kaira peered ahead, shoulders squaring off. "And I should reacquaint myself."

Both held their ground for a long minute. It was Kaira who moved away first. She marched forward, briefly blending with the Drin and Ji'val despite the dress. Ravak watched her until she disappeared inside the main body of the tower, then stood for a minute more.

He ran a hand through his beard, then started moving not towards the Green Ajah's halls, but away from them. The calm and assuring presence of Mia radiated from the gardens. Why she was there, he didn't know. They hadn't communicated in a month. Maybe she was waiting for him there, or perhaps it was a coincidence. Regardless, she wasn't setting things on fire, that much seemed certain. But the day was young.

[Bella]

Miahala was in the gardens because she was teaching a class.

It wasn't something she did very often, because...well, she was old as hell around this place, and age did have its privileges. Some people also worried that she would scare the young ones. Her time as Mistress of Novices was long behind her, though she didn't think she was always that frightening.

This class was special, however. A small number of advanced Novices and Accepted had shown an unusual skill with Earth. As it was typically stronger for men, it would stand out in the young women. As it was also unusually the among the strongest of Mia's elements, she was asked to help them hone that skill.

She liked to do their early lessons here in the garden, close to the earth itself.

It was just wrapping up when she felt, finally, that spot in her head that was her husband and warder drawing nearer. He was finally home. Of course, any other couple would probably have issues with this length of separation and low contact, but... Ravhala was not like other couples. She was glad he was home, even if she might want to ping a couple small stones at his head for the long delay.

"That's all for today, girls," she said with a warm smile at the small, diverse gathering before her. "I will see you again, at the same time right here, in two days. Go over what we talked about today." With that, she shooed them off. She rose from the small stump she had used as a seat and brushed off her (of course) green dress, deciding to let Ravak find her where she was instead of leaving to meet him.

[Craig]

When Ravak saw a group of young women approaching, he moved over to one side of the pathway to let them pass by easily. Some of the full ranks would just plow through the middle, forcing the learning ranks to part around them. He'd been one of those people in the past, but having a distracted Novice or Soldier tumble to the floor as they bounce off you got old - and sore - quickly.

The group were a curious lot, a mix of Novices and Accepted. If not for Miahala's presence, he would have suspected mischief. That they were making a reasonably orderly retreat away from Mia didn't wholly rule out mischief, just that they may have been caught, and were glad they got away from his wife physically unscathed.

As they passed out of sight, he forgot them to focus on who was ahead. There were feelings of happiness blanketed over a sense of annoyance, if he had to guess. He had to keep himself from frowning in concern, as if he was a victim. Frankly, he had earned more than a little ire. His journey had taken a lot longer than he'd intended, and that sojourn to Tar Valon wouldn't have escaped notice.

A wide grin broke across his face unbidden when his eyes fell upon her, any worries over a rapprochement washed away in the moment. Miahala was a column of green surrounded by a pageantry of flowers, but none of their ephemeral beauty compared to the love he felt for her. He'd been talking to Kaira about how the Grey Tower was a homecoming, but Miahala was home. Wherever she was, that was where he wanted to be. She was his light, and his love, and something moved on her features. She was smiling. Why was she--

"Sometimes I forget about the Bond," he mockingly grumbled. The corners of his lips were starting to hurt from how widely he was smiling. He spread his arms wide and embraced her. "I'm sorry I was away for so long. I will make it up to you."

[Bella]

"You should be in trouble simply for saying you forget about the Bond," she started, her face perfectly serene to the point where someone would not be able to guess if she were serious or not--but for what the aforementioned Bond and the flash in her blue-green eyes would say about it--as she stepped into his embrace.

Mia held him close for a moment and then pulled back to look into his eyes. She smiled warmly. "I am truthfully so happy to see you that I will forgive your absence, provided I find your explanation for the extension of it to be satisfactory."

Those eyes flashed again just before she kissed him; she kissed him as though she weren't an Aes Sedai who was

Spoiler: show

so old that Bella stopped keeping track

and was instead a teenager fresh off the farm who didn't bloody well care what her parents had to say about anything and didn't care who saw.

After all, anyone who gave Miahala ni Sha'hal t'Darrow, of all people, grief about her behavior was likely to see a swift-yet-remarkably-painful end before they finished the admonishment.

For all her faults, the same source of those was the same source of her strengths and her energy. She was a passionate woman, and that's why she was indeed very happy to see her husband. No matter how old as dirt she became, or how used to absences she was forced to be, she felt strongly for the people she chose to held dear in her life and wished to be around them.

[Craig]

Miahala's mood was infectious. He had to hold a mental image of the white hairs that were growing in his beard to keep himself from reverting to the wild-eyed Drin he'd been countless seasons ago. That child wouldn't have found the courage to look at an Aes Sedai, let alone hold one in his arms.

"The extension?" Rav thought that was a funny way to phrase it, but underneath all of her love for him, part of Mia really wanted to know what had kept him away. He wasn't going to risk keeping her waiting.

"Well, as you know, I wanted to see how Kaira was doing." That was the understated way of him saying he hadn't heard from her in months, and with the rest of his family resident in the confines of the Grey Tower's ground, he hated that Kaira was all in way over in Camelyn.

"When I got to Camelyn, she wasn't there." His jaw tightened. "I spoke with her landlady, Adkins. She became forthcoming, made mention that some 'ladies' had come looking for her. I also gathered that Kaira may have been..." He moved to take Mia's hand. There were no secrets between them - at least I have no secrets - but some things he didn't like to give voice to. Rav simply took a hold of his wife's Great Serpent ring. "She may have been giving out the false impression to some people." Pretending to be a bloody Aes Sedai! It was his fault that Kaira possessed a Great Serpent ring, but she was never meant to use it for that. Light.

"So a trip to Camelyn became a trip to Tar Valon." Understatement and glancing over a sojourn to the White Tower. That was Ravak 101. That giddiness from Mia was fading, yet the boy that couldn't look an Aes Sedai in the eyes was returning. "Now we're back. I brought Kaira back. So..." He let the word hang, wondering what fate was about to befall him.

Spoiler: show

I feel the need to mention, more for generalised context, that the last time we 'saw' Kaira, she had run away from the Grey Tower and was pregnant. So this is a fun little homecoming for Kaira.

[Bella]

Alright, so, the judges would allow all that as a viable excuse for his delayed homecoming.

Miahala and Kaira hadn't exactly spent a great deal of time interacting while she had still been at the Tower. The Green Aes Sedai may have been her step-mother, but she didn't get the impression that meant as much to the younger woman as it might have to a different, slightly less headstrong, slightly less...Darrow younger woman.

(To be fair, Mia barely remembered the woman who was the girl's mother, so she couldn't ascribe traits to that half with any confidence.)

She couldn't help a general concern for what the girl had been doing and that her father had to track her down like that, but Mia's greater, more directed concern was naturally for the effect upon Kaira's father. That all sounded...like it must have been very hard on him, to say the least. She would not be angry at him for the sins of the daughter. As it were.

Instead, she put her other hand over his where it touched her ring and held their hands close together for a moment. "I am sorry that you have had to go through all that, my love," she said softly, in a tone that would probably shock anyone still living to know she was capable of. "Come, let us go inside and we can talk more about where things stand with your wayward child."

She paused and smiled faintly. "Your youngest will also be most glad to know you've returned." That offspring-related homecoming would undoubtedly be a much happier affair than the other.

[Craig]

Your wayward child. There were many things Ravak could do to pick apart those three words, bit by bit, if given half a chance. He would be able to spit out quite a decent diatribe, if he knew what a diatribe was. But he also knew getting angry and outraged at his wayward child was not how he wanted to spend these moments with Mia.

"My youngest," he repeated with a smile. Iain was a ray of light, and still thankfully at an age where he thought his parents were all-knowing paragons of virtue. That'll change. Light, he dodged Zarayne's years of young adulthood, but he was still living through it with Kaira. At least with Iain, he wouldn't be navigating it alone.

"Tell me some good news; how is Iain? And how are you? I know me being away for an Age hasn't helped, but something good must have happened in my absence."