The Grey Tower

Sojin Majere Gaidin Early morning light filled the glade as Sojin Majere lifted his eyes from the boulder. The candle he lit hours still burned brightly.

It wasn't an isolated clearing. In fact it was probably one of the more popular ones near the lake in the Gardens. But this morning it was a special place for the Gaidin.

He sat on a tree stump not far from the boulder, his sapphire eyes focused on the area around him. The Warder had been here since the pre-dawn hours of the morning, in a ritual he practiced every year for 25 years.

The years were kind to the Gaidin. Despite some scars, near close calls and so many years of battle, Sojin looked nowhere near his 43 winters. He attributed less to the stress and more to the fact that very stress was channeled into the battlefield and commanding an army.

If anything, the few grey hairs in his silver hair was due to a decade as High Seat.

Today, his mind was far from the battlefield, and more on simpler times.

A laugh, a giggle, a smile from a lovely face...

Those memories swarmed around with other, more horrible ones.

The day was also one to remember loved ones long gone, one he had observed even when there were precious few seconds to spare.

Dressed in earthen tones, he appeared a soldier in a vigil. An ancient broadsword sat near him, in its scabbard. The weapon was one he had wielded in the days before his bond to Saphire. But they had long parted ways, and the saber once used had been surrendered.

Many old things had been washed away over the years, but this ritual still endured.

Beside the candle was a portrait in a glass frame. It was a simple parchment with colored portrait of a beautiful young Cairhienin woman and a young boy of four months. Everything from the vivid brown eyes and pale skin of the young woman’s complexion to the infant’s silver hair and sharp hazel eyes was captured in detail. Beneath the portrait was a description: Simone Cavelon and Gideon Majere on the day of the Festival of Lights.. The portrait was dated many decades previous.

Those days were long gone, much like his hatred for the rogue Shadio Aiel who were responsible for the tragedy.

He gripped the broadsword next to him. He had been away, a day's ride with his unit in the Band of the Red Hand from the village where it had set up itsup temporary camp. He knew at least she was dead, had felt it like a knife. By the time news reached his unit, nothing was left of the village, and his family among the fallen.

The Shaido raiding party paid for its mistake a day later, without a man lost in the calvary unit.

He heard the leaves rustle and he gripped the hilt of his broadsword ever so tightly, his body tense.

It had been a few weeks since the fray near the Blight, but his senses were sharper than they had been in years. The incident was enough to knock sense back into him about where his place was, and it wasn't serving as House Walker's advisor or liaison.

He was a soldier, a Warder. He belonged in the field, not a noble's court.

And those instincts that grew over the years told him he was no longer alone. Steel slid against leather as he drew his sword three inches, enough to reveal a portion of what looked like a bird on the blade.

But he thought better when he saw the reflection of the person. His grip relaxed and the sword was sheathed once more.

"I often wonder that if I had been there when the Shaido attacked, they would still be alive," Sojin murmured, his sapphire eyes on the frame. "I hated them for so long, until that hatred almost burned the memories away."

He smiled, a ghost of an expression that vanished. "Growing up in Tar Valon, my brother and I were taught by some of the people who raised us that good memories should be the thing to define our actions, not the bad." He smirked. "Most would think it strange that such advice came from the Red Ajah, don't you think?"

His eyes never left the portrait. "What brings you here this early in the morning, Miahala Sedai?" He didn't expect Miahala celebrated this particular day of remembrance; most Borderlanders honored their dead on Lamma Sar. But then he could be mistaken.

Miahala Ives Sedai In truth, Miahala had just been out for a walk.

As the years went by, it seemed that she needed less sleep to get by. Thus, she was often found to be awake either late into the darkness or even up before the fullness of morning. It was at many such times that she took to the gardens, because this was among her most favorite places in the Tower to be. It soothed the moments when her soul felt the most tormented.

Today, her attention was drawn by the fact that she was not the only one in the gardens. Her curiosity had drawn her to investigate, and had it not been for the exceptional senses of the warder, she would have left again without having announced her presence. Alas, the good training of the Yards continued to have one up on her.

"I did not mean to intrude, Gaidin," she said, her voice a bit warmer and gentler than usual. The candles and the portrait, the very air around them in the moment...it was all familiar. She knew she was not the only tormented soul at that moment. "I was simply taking a walk and was curious as to who else would be here at such a time as this."

Sojin took after his father in many ways, though he wouldn't openly admit it. One trait they shared was attention to detail, though in the Gaidin's case it was honed of years as a soldier and sharpened in the Yards.

He looked over at the Aes Sedai, noting her calm, warm demeanor. The Gaidin didn't know her well, only in passing or from what little Lord Ives or Jerid Walker had spoken about her.

Only the recent battle near the Blightborder had fully acquainted the pair. And Sojin had been impressed with Miahala's skill and temperament on the battlefield.

Sojin also noticed something else. It was nearly invisible, something most wouldn't pick up on unless they too had lost or were intuitively keyed to people's emotions.

Something was disturbing her, or had in the recent past. Of course, it was understandable given what Miahala had gone through over the years. He had left the Tower to rejoin the Band of the Red Hand before her death, but news reached him nonetheless.


"You did not intrude, Aes Sedai," Sojin said after a moment, straightening. He retrieved the ancient broadsword before moving toward the makeshift altar. "My vigil was nearly ended and after almost 30 years, there's been times when only a few minutes were allowed."

He blew out the stub of a candle.

"She was the first one to bond me, a Wilder Tuatha'an" he murmured. "It's strange that a woman of peace could find such commonality with a soldier, or fall in love with one."

His eyes were still on the portrait, on his son. Gideon wasn't even a year when the Shaido hit. His unit was tasked with shadowing the Tinker caravan, protecting them for Light knows what reason, but Sojin never complained. He was a lieutenant, an officer following his captain's orders.

And he fell in love, was bonded, and was gifted a son.

"Jerid Walker once argued that the bond was the most painful loss anyone could endure, beyond death, beyond even a severed link to the One Power," he murmured. "I know not the latter, but he was correct about the former."

He turned to look at the Green Aes Sedai. Despite her calm demeanor, Miahala Sedai appeared to Sojin every bit a veteran battle expert. That she was one of the oldest Aes Sedai, likely older than Saphire en'Damier, said something of her abilities. Even if she did die once.

"I understand your son has become a fine Gaidin," Sojin murmured. "I saw him sparring in the Yards the other day and he would be one I would like to challenge ... but Jerid Asha'man 'advised' me not to lest I spend the next year in the Caralain."

He smiled wryly at the thought. His father had enough pull to do just that. "Haeden will make a fine Warder for an Aes Sedai or Asha'man one day. And I am sure he makes his mother proud." He spoke much like a father might have.

In the strange silence she seemed able to achieve, resembling a statue more than a living being, she listened to what he had to say. He had kept his vigil for thirty years. She... Well, she had lost count of the number of years. She just knew that the number of people to be included in her own kept growing as well as the time since each one.

When he mentioned Haeden, however, she smiled warmly. "Yes, he has grown into a remarkable young man. I cannot imagine why Jerid would advise you away from a spar with him. Does not every Gaidin need to continually challenge themselves to improve?" She had never been the type of mother to coddle...which is perhaps why she had ended up with two Gaidin sons and a Blue Aes Sedai daughter.

Mia held his gaze with her smile for a moment longer and then looked at the pictures. "Love is never to be explained. I have lost four warders, three of whom were husbands. I've lived past the death of three children..." She tilted her head curiously, although did not yet turn her attention back to him. "Oddly, Caden survived me yet having been brought back, I still feel the loss as if his side of the bond had been severed first..." She turned back then. "Odd, that.

"I admire those who remember their beloveds, even lost to them," she added, waving her hand at the drawings and the candle. "Since you do not strike me as the type to be held hostage by that remembrance, like many are."

Sojin smiled very faintly at Miahala's comment on Haeden. He appreciated the appraisal, especially when it came to the possibility of a skilled sparring opponent.

But then he knew his father. Jerid Walker kept a particular eye on those he considered family, and when he considered the Green Aes Sedai family, that meant her children fell under the same sway.

"Tell that to a man who would strike a bargain with my Captain and have me assigned to 'ambassadorial duties' in the Caralain," Sojin said with a smile. "It's a practical assessment, consider who trained me and my ... reputation as a trainee for sending sparring partners to the Infirmary. Sparing that partner the final blow was never a consideration."

He tilted his head and smiled. "It shows how much he cares about you. Pity the day should you ever be called to serve as Amyrlin Seat, because you'll never be rid of his vigilance."

Sojin's sapphire eyes glittered in the dim light as he listened to Miahala. The Warder knew very little of this woman, other than that she possessed both very cold determination when in battle and compassion that could warm an entire hall.

It was both very similar and very different in his encounters with other Aes Sedai of her age.

Sojin losses paled in comparison to the Aes Sedai's, but he understood the sharp pain.

“You'd be surprised what can hold me hostage, Aes Sedai,” he murmured before he blew out the candle. He turned, looking at the Green. “I'm sure you are aware that Saphire Sedai bonded me whilst I was still a Ji'alantin but kept secret until I earned the fancloak. I requested release from the bond months after we lost our unborn twins while evacuating a Borderland town from a Trolloc invasion.”

His reputation was also well known for being bonded briefly to a Keeper of the Archives before he left to take a position as captain of a calvary unit in the Band of the Red Hand.

“Channelers should not see me as someone they bond, Aes Sedai,” Sojin murmured. “They depend on someone who can Ward them despite the obstacles, and I ran rather than stay and endure and being there for my Aes Sedai.”

There was a brief hope of reconciliation with Saphire, but that faded after the fall of Walker Manor.

“As for the sense of loss, one could imagine that it is sharp because you awoke from a long slumber, and it hit like a sledgehammer because the sensation was so new,” Sojin murmured. He tilted his head and added, “Of course, that's also speculation based on spending time with Zae Sedai. She lost her husband and bondmate Alec Asha'man during a rescue of Saphire Sedai, and we reminisce occasionally.”

Mia listened and nodded at points to show that she had both heard and understood what he had said. Letting herself be too long too still and people tended to think that her mind was not focused on the one before her, or that it had started as such and then wandered off. It took people who knew her very well to understand that Mia did not lose focus. The decades had honed that.

She knew of Zae Sedai, though did not know the other woman much at all otherwise. Anyone who had existed before her death in the Tower would be someone she knew of, even if she didn't know them.

"It is fair speculation," she said in response to his final statement, although her mind rolled around the other things that he had said. She didn't miss anything, after all. "Sadly, not something I think can ever be known for sure." Maybe just coming back to life made everything hurt worse, she theorized, but kept that one to herself.

After a moment, she gestured at their space and the extinguished candle. "If you're done here, for this vigil, you're welcome to walk with me."

Sojin considered Miahala's posture and the way she nodded only briefly before he smiled slightly.

“You look like a owl with all that nodding,” he said jokingly as he retrieved a water skin from a satchel near the makeshift altar. He opened it to douse the now-dead candle, ensuring it wouldn't set anything on fire.

“My father told me stories of you, about the Battle of the Lights, the assault against the Whitecloak Dreadlord who led it, and all the events surrounding the event,” Sojin said. “Well, some of it. He left details out, but his observation of you at the time was: 'Don't say an errant word around Miahala Sedai, for she's as adept as her husband in catching things. As a channeler, she'll likely remember it until you're grey and wrinkled.”

He placed the family portrait in the satchel, slung it around his shoulder and then retrieved his sword as he inclined his head in acceptance of the Aes Sedai's offer.

And promptly took point slightly ahead of her in the direction she chose. Whatever else he might be, Sojin was a Warder first and that meant guarding channelers. It might have only been a few hairs in distance, but he knew the advantage it would bring.

“So tell me, Aes Sedai, did you find some release near the Blight that day when you went to reinforce the our people and I had to save your skin,” he asked. “Or as my dear father said, 'Save that crazy Green's hide or I'll have yours for my saddle.' ”

Well, it wasn't so much that the Indigo had spoken the words but the man's eyes sent the message clearly.

He cocked his head slightly and smirked, “Words that might be applied to Saphire en'Damier, the day he ordered her to stand to after the Amyrlin Seat was taken.” He chuckled. “I was a new Ji'alantin at the time, barely on her radar other than as an escort, and the Master of Soldiers barks three simple words to a First Sitter known for injuring men for less: Stand to, Sitter.”

Oh, but that was a lifetime ago. And those days had been much simpler.

“I ask because watching your rear made me think of my own role,” Sojin murmured. “I've been a soldier since I was 15, whether in Lord Cauthon's army or in the Yards, and my role always required me to fight the Shadow or those who did injustice against others.”

His fingers lingered on his sword hilt briefly, the ancient blade a reminder of his role as a soldier.

“Is life here as soldiers worth throwing our lives into the fire, especially when a Warder must consider all options to protect an Aes Sedai's rear,” he murmured. “Mind you and asking forgiveness, but it was worth protecting such a fine arse as yours.”

It was, perhaps, the first time in the Green's life (first and second) that she had ever been called an owl... The idea was rather amusing, in all earnestness, although she didn't say as much and just allowed a small lift at the corner of her mouth as she otherwise stood still and quiet, waiting for him to sort out his items set out here in the garden clearing and prepare to depart.

Mia fell into the proper place for a channeler, of the Green at least, beside the warder. She had been bonded for more years than not, although too many not over all, and knew the game.

And as they walked, she listened. It amused her how protective Jerid was of her, considering that she was certainly more than capable of taking care of herself. Sojin's help in the Blight skirmish had been timely, but she had no doubt that she would have survived even if she had been on her own. She did not fear death, and felt that it was a joke of the Creator that would keep her alive forever now.

She somehow felt sure that she would see not only the Final Battle, but the end of the age that followed--whatever that might, she felt sure that she was the great joke of the Pattern that would keep her alive through all of it to watch it crumble into dust that she trod upon with her knife-sheath, booted feet... What she did not fear would not set upon her, even if she sought it.

The Wheel had already spat her back out, after all, so why would it keep her a second time?

These were all thoughts that she kept very strongly to herself. Instead, she listened. "Your question is a salient one," she granted musingly, "but ultimately, does it matter? We are soldiers against the Shadow, you and I, and can we be anything else? I know that I cannot. And if I cannot, I don't know that it is of worth to wonder the worth of the life I cannot change."

Pausing, she glanced sidelong at him with a faint smile that curved her full lips and made her blue-green eyes glitter at his comment about her rear. He had his father's bravery, since few else would say such things, but she did not mind. In fact, it helped pull her away from her more defeatist thoughts. She felt a little less like a corpse among the living to have someone say such things about her.

It reminded her that she was, after all, still a woman...somewhere inside her.

Sojin was silent as he considered his own questions. He was a soldier and his wife had been a Tinker.

His wife was outcast because of her decision to wed him, and he failed to protect her and their son because of his decision to meet the Aiel in combat. His reaction resulted in the death of innocent people and then the deaths of hundreds more in outright vengeance.

The moments he had been bonded to Saphire Sedai and Zarishka Sedai taught him well about such desires and urges.And about the fallout about such desires.

“We live for the ones we lost and the ones who still breath,” he muttered. “You love your son and daughter, care for Lord Walker and Lady Lysira, and I watch over my the latter and their son.”

It was admission he rarely admitted. Jerid has asked him to watch over Cade, and in doing so meant looking after the Asha'man and his wife.

“I think my father's advise in watching your rear might be right,” he muttered. “He looks after you because he sees the future Amyrlin Seat … and one who might defy every flaming rule in the books to protect family and home.”

His smile vanished the second he heard the nearly-silent creak of branches. His fist clenched his broadsword and then he acted on the first impulse he had.

He turned on a heartbeat, wrapped his warms around the Green and kissed her passionately
as he pushed her against the tree.

His lips lingered for several seconds, before his teeth sank into her neck in a passionate bite.

“Embrace,” was all he said.

And then he was away, heron-marked broadsword drawn as the first man appeared with a mace. He was cut down in a heart beat by Sojin sliced the man across the chest.

As the man in the Tower Guard uniform fell, six more men appeared from the dim light, five in masked clothes and a second in an Dedicated's uniform.

He knew the face. Jonah Dedicated, a trouble maker.

“Leave now, soldier of the Tower Fade, and let his whore remain,” said the channeler in a cock mood. “He has demanded her second death.”

Sojin didn't flinch. “Touch one hair on her and the First Seeker will not get a chance to kill you. Your hide will presented before the Hall, before it adorns Lord Walker's saddle.”

A heartbeat later, a attempted attack by one of the five masked soldiers ended with the man on the ground and Sojin's blade dripping blood.

“You would protect an Aes Sedai who could not protect her scarred Demon, or her children, who betrayed her own Tower by killing the Healer,” the Dedicated rasped. “She who was killed, will die again for her sins .. She has commanded ....”

Sojin cut him off.

“ … only after my last breath has left. Touch my Aes Sedai and you will be bu a memory to your master.”

The other four converged, longswords drawn.

The words "future Amyrlin Seat" were remarkably disconcerting, and ones that she really didn't want to contemplate.

It was not such a flurry in her brain that she didn't hear the same sound he did, nor did she miss the sudden tension in his body. He was standing right beside her, after all, and she had been a soldier of the Tower for longer than Sojin had been alive. She hadn't stayed alive for all this time without good senses.

Her death blow had not even been...entirely unexpected, in its way. And had only come from the hand of a man who shared her beloved Darien's blood. No other hand could ever have slayed her, but one from within.

And so it was that when Sojin grabbed her, she had already embraced Saidar. The sweetness of its song was already pouring through her like the ocean's waters when he kissed her and pressed her to the tree. The rational part of her mind knew it was a ploy, because what better way to hide things or distract? And yet, oh, that was a moment she had not tasted in so long.

Mia was, and always had been, a passionate woman. She wondered if certain parts of her, including her heart and other desires, had not been brought to life with the rest of her...

...now, she was beginning to doubt that less. Even as so obvious, to her, a ploy, there wasn't all insincerity in the moment. However, she could not waste any time in contemplating it... There were much more serious things afoot and they would have to find out just what the lay of this land would be.

He whispered embrace after a bite to her neck that made her hate that there was anything else to the moment, but since she already was filled with the power, there was nothing else to do but follow his lead as he turned back. A Tower Guard with a mace fell swiftly. Always betrayed from within, she reflected darkly as six more emerged. A Dedicated. Five in masks. Always within...

The man spoke. Whore. Why were they always so unoriginal?

Sojin moved swiftly, as any Gaidin trained under her Caden would. Her hands twitched but she listened to what they said, for sometimes the tongues of serpents could speak interesting things...but the mention of Caden, and her children, did bite her to the core. It did not show, of course, as ice filled her. But it hurt. Because it echoed the painful things she spoke to herself in the darkness.

It still the weaves that danced at her fingertips, but just long enough to Sojin to speak. His words were not missed by her attentive ears, but it was one more thing that could not be addressed even just in her mind. The remaining four masked swordsmen advanced. There was no time for her heartbreak... There had been enough time for that, anyways.

The first swordsman lost his head, quite literally, as a razor thin wire of Air wrapped around it and slid through. Mia's eyes remained on the Dedicated, however. The earth beneath his feet trembled, throwing him off balance, as she threw a shield at him and then wrapped her cords of Air around his body. Spirit was not her strongest, but she was a strong channeler... The Air wrapped tight, ready to slice him apart if need be but she thought he might be useful alive...

[ooc: I don't want to over-write it and take all your fun. Just leave at least one more for Mia to destroy, yeah? ]