To Make Unseen (fanfic)
Posted: February 8th, 2016, 5:35 am
((This happens after Breaking Point))
Katrie
Katrie
With senses that were enhanced by saidar, Katrie did her best to burn a hole into the back of Liza Sedai's head with the heat from her eyes alone.
She sat in the middle of a narrow white bed, cross-legged and barefoot. She thought she could pick out the faintest hint of mint and lemon, and that was enough to send her spinning. Had Dax come to the Infirmary? Was he hurt? That thought... made her insides clench. The pretty Accepted found herself stretching out her awareness towards him, the reaction involuntary. Katrie sighed inwardly as she remembered too late that there was no bond there.
Her anger at the Yellow couldn't hold, a little smile coming as her thoughts turned towards the Tairen Gaidin despite the small lance of pain that shot through her. She didn't understand why her chest twinged hollowly in response even as the sweetness of holding the Source only seemed to warm her further. Dax had cleaned up the destruction she had leveled upon her room in her stead... letting her sleep rather than insisting that she help. You didn't have to do that, she told him silently, even though she knew he wouldn't hear her. He had been gone when she finally woke. His kindness and care... even days later, confused her.
Absently, she let her eyes travel down to her hands folded neatly in her lap as she separated out flows of Air. She still had no idea what she was doing here, or why Liza Sedai kept her so close. It was unnerving, to say the least, and Katrie was afraid to so much as think of the conversation that had passed between herself and Dax before she had collapsed, lest some trace of it show on her face and betray them.
“Take my hand -”
No! Not here. She couldn't think about that here. The wild rush of hope and joy that surged up stole her breath away and she forced herself to inhale deeply, releasing that breath with the same slow deliberation. Dark brown eyes darted to the Aes Sedai, but Liza didn't seem to be paying any attention to her. Katrie spun together the yellow threads in idle motions, acutely aware of the heat that stained her neck and cheeks with red.
“Do not exert yourself too much, Aikaterine. You are beginning to look flushed. If you are struggling with saidar, release it before you hurt yourself.” That was said without so much as a backwards glance from the Aes Sedai, the Yellow's tone distant as she bent over something that Katrie couldn't see.
Mother's milk in a cup... The Accepted tried one of the curses she had heard Dax mutter, her thoughts turning over the unfamiliar phrase. Katrie had no idea what it meant, but it sounded like it was something that Liza Sedai would most definitely not approve of. That made it good enough for her.
“I'm fine, Aes Sedai,” she said politely through clenched teeth, eyes narrowing. She slumped down, her shoulders hunching inward, flows of Air lacing together in front of her as if to prove that she was not exerting herself too much. Light, she wanted to get away from Liza... to hide... She didn't want to be here in the Infirmary... having this nosy busybody of a woman hovering over her... watching her... always just... watching. She just wanted to be left alone. “Disappear...” she whispered softly to herself as the same feeling welled up inside of her, driving forward to become a sudden, brazen, blatant need. “Then I could get away. I just want to disappear.”
The flows of Air she had twisted together spun around, tightened, then locked together. The space in front of her shuddered, Katrie staring in blank surprise at the weave that shimmered between herself and Liza Sedai. The Cairhienin studied it, curiosity a bright flash of colour in her mind. What does it do...? Dark brown eyes looked quickly to her right, then her left. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Nothing had exploded or imploded or otherwise burst. She peered at the yellow threads intently, giving the weave a mental prod.
Biting down on her bottom lip, Katrie shot a quick glance at the Yellow before easing herself down off the narrow Infirmary bed. The Aes Sedai seemed to be utterly engrossed in whatever it was that she was looking at. The tall Accepted slipped her feet into her slippers as quietly as she could, scarcely daring to breathe. A quick, furtive look around showed that nobody else was paying her much attention.
She spun out more threads of Air, making sure that every new weft and warp matched the ones already in existence. Somehow... she knew exactly where to guide the threads, knew instinctively where to place them and how they should be shaped. A nudge there. A tug and a pull here... it could be bent up there but not down here... The weave felt almost like a living thing to her, and as she wrapped it around herself, it... she remembered that need to disappear, letting that feeling run rampant through her. Casting one last look at Liza Sedai, Katrie took a small step to the left. And then another. And another. Nothing. She let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Well... if the Aes Sedai wasn't going to stop her...
She didn't exactly sneak away, but she did attempt to remain as silent and as stealthy as possible. Dark brown eyes tried to watch everything and everyone from every possible direction at once. Her hyper-vigilance was unnecessary... strangely enough. No one looked twice at her; in fact... there were a few instances where it seemed as if the person she was staring apprehensively at looked straight back through her. Odd.
“Aikaterine, what are - ” The Aes Sedai cast a cursory glance over her shoulder, but then the serene perfection of the ageless face dropped and Liza Sedai spun around, something very akin to surprise plain on the Yellow's face. “Accepted!”
“Yes?” Katrie froze, all the way across the room from where she started, not understanding why Liza wore that particular look. It was as if the Aes Sedai had bitten into something particularly unpleasant.
“Drop that weave immediately and release saidar!”
“Yes, Aes Sedai?” The pretty Cairhienin obeyed, baffled at the other woman's reaction. The weave shimmering around her disappeared as she let go of her hold on the Power. The world dimmed marginally, but she could still feel the stain of warmth that the thought of Dax had brought along her neck and cheeks. She heard muffled gasps sound around her, Katrie perplexed by the peculiar looks nearby patients were giving her.
“Come.” Liza pointed at the spot in front of her.
Katrie bristled and for a moment, and considered simply turning on her heel and leaving. She was not a dog to be brought to heel with a gesture. Run. Away. Her irritation listed sideways. Throttling down her pride, she made her way to the Yellow as leisurely as she could get away with, standing just off to the side of the indicated place.
“How long have you known?” That sounded more like an accusation that a question.
“Known?” the tall Accepted frowned, spreading her hands in genuine confusion. “Known what?”
Liza's eyes narrowed, the gold and yellow jewelry she wore seeming to reflect their owners displeasure as the gems threw off glints of hard light. “How to hide yourself from sight.”
“What?” The word left Katrie's lips inelegantly and rudely, her brows lifting. She stared outright at the Aes Sedai.
“How long have you known, Accepted? Tell me, and tell me true Aikaterine.” The Yellow closed the distance between them, those measuring, judging eyes boring into the Cairhienin's.
“I don't know what you're talking about.” Each word was carefully enunciated and this time, she didn't bother to hide what she was feeling from the Aes Sedai. It took everything Katrie had not to flinch back from the weight of that gaze, but she hadn't actually done anything wrong. She felt her spine stiffen, the edge of her stubbornness rising as her jaw setting obstinately. She met Liza stare for stare, anger bubbling to the surface of sable orbs. Her chin lifted. She was not going to be made to feel stupid or small over... she didn't even know!
What seemed like an eternity passed before the Aes Sedai relented, just a hair. “Tell me what you did.”
Katrie frowned, spreading her hands again. “I was holding saidar and strands of Air. You told me not to exert myself and I started weaving the threads I was holding together to prove that I wasn't. Then I started thinking about how I...” she hesitated here, letting her reluctance show. “How I wanted to disappear. And then something happened with the Air flows and they became a weave,” the pretty Accepted made a small gesture with her hand, “so I held on to it and you didn't seem to notice. So I walked across the room with it. Then you noticed I wasn't on the bed anymore and ordered me to release the weave and the Power.”
Liza said nothing for a long while, continuing to study her in that oddly unnerving way. “Why did you wish to disappear?”
The Accepted's head canted ever-so-slightly to the side. “So I could leave the Infirmary,” Katrie admitted. It was the truth, if not all of it. “I… really don’t like it here.”
What might have been a smile passed over the Aes Sedai's face. “Show me that weave again, and then we shall move elsewhere and discuss what this entails for you.”
“Yes, Aes Sedai.” Katrie wasn't sure what that meant, but as she embraced, she didn't really care, so long as she wasn't cooped up in the Infirmary any longer.
She sat in the middle of a narrow white bed, cross-legged and barefoot. She thought she could pick out the faintest hint of mint and lemon, and that was enough to send her spinning. Had Dax come to the Infirmary? Was he hurt? That thought... made her insides clench. The pretty Accepted found herself stretching out her awareness towards him, the reaction involuntary. Katrie sighed inwardly as she remembered too late that there was no bond there.
Her anger at the Yellow couldn't hold, a little smile coming as her thoughts turned towards the Tairen Gaidin despite the small lance of pain that shot through her. She didn't understand why her chest twinged hollowly in response even as the sweetness of holding the Source only seemed to warm her further. Dax had cleaned up the destruction she had leveled upon her room in her stead... letting her sleep rather than insisting that she help. You didn't have to do that, she told him silently, even though she knew he wouldn't hear her. He had been gone when she finally woke. His kindness and care... even days later, confused her.
Absently, she let her eyes travel down to her hands folded neatly in her lap as she separated out flows of Air. She still had no idea what she was doing here, or why Liza Sedai kept her so close. It was unnerving, to say the least, and Katrie was afraid to so much as think of the conversation that had passed between herself and Dax before she had collapsed, lest some trace of it show on her face and betray them.
“Take my hand -”
No! Not here. She couldn't think about that here. The wild rush of hope and joy that surged up stole her breath away and she forced herself to inhale deeply, releasing that breath with the same slow deliberation. Dark brown eyes darted to the Aes Sedai, but Liza didn't seem to be paying any attention to her. Katrie spun together the yellow threads in idle motions, acutely aware of the heat that stained her neck and cheeks with red.
“Do not exert yourself too much, Aikaterine. You are beginning to look flushed. If you are struggling with saidar, release it before you hurt yourself.” That was said without so much as a backwards glance from the Aes Sedai, the Yellow's tone distant as she bent over something that Katrie couldn't see.
Mother's milk in a cup... The Accepted tried one of the curses she had heard Dax mutter, her thoughts turning over the unfamiliar phrase. Katrie had no idea what it meant, but it sounded like it was something that Liza Sedai would most definitely not approve of. That made it good enough for her.
“I'm fine, Aes Sedai,” she said politely through clenched teeth, eyes narrowing. She slumped down, her shoulders hunching inward, flows of Air lacing together in front of her as if to prove that she was not exerting herself too much. Light, she wanted to get away from Liza... to hide... She didn't want to be here in the Infirmary... having this nosy busybody of a woman hovering over her... watching her... always just... watching. She just wanted to be left alone. “Disappear...” she whispered softly to herself as the same feeling welled up inside of her, driving forward to become a sudden, brazen, blatant need. “Then I could get away. I just want to disappear.”
The flows of Air she had twisted together spun around, tightened, then locked together. The space in front of her shuddered, Katrie staring in blank surprise at the weave that shimmered between herself and Liza Sedai. The Cairhienin studied it, curiosity a bright flash of colour in her mind. What does it do...? Dark brown eyes looked quickly to her right, then her left. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Nothing had exploded or imploded or otherwise burst. She peered at the yellow threads intently, giving the weave a mental prod.
Biting down on her bottom lip, Katrie shot a quick glance at the Yellow before easing herself down off the narrow Infirmary bed. The Aes Sedai seemed to be utterly engrossed in whatever it was that she was looking at. The tall Accepted slipped her feet into her slippers as quietly as she could, scarcely daring to breathe. A quick, furtive look around showed that nobody else was paying her much attention.
She spun out more threads of Air, making sure that every new weft and warp matched the ones already in existence. Somehow... she knew exactly where to guide the threads, knew instinctively where to place them and how they should be shaped. A nudge there. A tug and a pull here... it could be bent up there but not down here... The weave felt almost like a living thing to her, and as she wrapped it around herself, it... she remembered that need to disappear, letting that feeling run rampant through her. Casting one last look at Liza Sedai, Katrie took a small step to the left. And then another. And another. Nothing. She let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Well... if the Aes Sedai wasn't going to stop her...
She didn't exactly sneak away, but she did attempt to remain as silent and as stealthy as possible. Dark brown eyes tried to watch everything and everyone from every possible direction at once. Her hyper-vigilance was unnecessary... strangely enough. No one looked twice at her; in fact... there were a few instances where it seemed as if the person she was staring apprehensively at looked straight back through her. Odd.
“Aikaterine, what are - ” The Aes Sedai cast a cursory glance over her shoulder, but then the serene perfection of the ageless face dropped and Liza Sedai spun around, something very akin to surprise plain on the Yellow's face. “Accepted!”
“Yes?” Katrie froze, all the way across the room from where she started, not understanding why Liza wore that particular look. It was as if the Aes Sedai had bitten into something particularly unpleasant.
“Drop that weave immediately and release saidar!”
“Yes, Aes Sedai?” The pretty Cairhienin obeyed, baffled at the other woman's reaction. The weave shimmering around her disappeared as she let go of her hold on the Power. The world dimmed marginally, but she could still feel the stain of warmth that the thought of Dax had brought along her neck and cheeks. She heard muffled gasps sound around her, Katrie perplexed by the peculiar looks nearby patients were giving her.
“Come.” Liza pointed at the spot in front of her.
Katrie bristled and for a moment, and considered simply turning on her heel and leaving. She was not a dog to be brought to heel with a gesture. Run. Away. Her irritation listed sideways. Throttling down her pride, she made her way to the Yellow as leisurely as she could get away with, standing just off to the side of the indicated place.
“How long have you known?” That sounded more like an accusation that a question.
“Known?” the tall Accepted frowned, spreading her hands in genuine confusion. “Known what?”
Liza's eyes narrowed, the gold and yellow jewelry she wore seeming to reflect their owners displeasure as the gems threw off glints of hard light. “How to hide yourself from sight.”
“What?” The word left Katrie's lips inelegantly and rudely, her brows lifting. She stared outright at the Aes Sedai.
“How long have you known, Accepted? Tell me, and tell me true Aikaterine.” The Yellow closed the distance between them, those measuring, judging eyes boring into the Cairhienin's.
“I don't know what you're talking about.” Each word was carefully enunciated and this time, she didn't bother to hide what she was feeling from the Aes Sedai. It took everything Katrie had not to flinch back from the weight of that gaze, but she hadn't actually done anything wrong. She felt her spine stiffen, the edge of her stubbornness rising as her jaw setting obstinately. She met Liza stare for stare, anger bubbling to the surface of sable orbs. Her chin lifted. She was not going to be made to feel stupid or small over... she didn't even know!
What seemed like an eternity passed before the Aes Sedai relented, just a hair. “Tell me what you did.”
Katrie frowned, spreading her hands again. “I was holding saidar and strands of Air. You told me not to exert myself and I started weaving the threads I was holding together to prove that I wasn't. Then I started thinking about how I...” she hesitated here, letting her reluctance show. “How I wanted to disappear. And then something happened with the Air flows and they became a weave,” the pretty Accepted made a small gesture with her hand, “so I held on to it and you didn't seem to notice. So I walked across the room with it. Then you noticed I wasn't on the bed anymore and ordered me to release the weave and the Power.”
Liza said nothing for a long while, continuing to study her in that oddly unnerving way. “Why did you wish to disappear?”
The Accepted's head canted ever-so-slightly to the side. “So I could leave the Infirmary,” Katrie admitted. It was the truth, if not all of it. “I… really don’t like it here.”
What might have been a smile passed over the Aes Sedai's face. “Show me that weave again, and then we shall move elsewhere and discuss what this entails for you.”
“Yes, Aes Sedai.” Katrie wasn't sure what that meant, but as she embraced, she didn't really care, so long as she wasn't cooped up in the Infirmary any longer.