The Grey Tower

Haeden Ives Gaidin The last few months had been long, and hard.

When his warder-less half-sister had asked him to help her on a mission, neither Haeden nor Sadira could have known just how long the road they trod would be. The life of a Blue could sometimes be that was, Sadie had said. Haeden hadn't had the chance to learn that until now, because as an unbonded Gaidin, he spent most of his time here in the Tower training others, or on the rare occasions a channeler needed aid, but oddly never before a Blue.

Now the pair rode hard to get home, their steeds cantering up the long road that led to the front gates of the Grey Tower; of home. They had been in complete silence during the stretch of their mission, no one know where they had been or would be. By the Light, even they hadn't known until they were there! But now, now they were here, and they rode hard with the hooves of their horses kicking up dirt and dust behind them.

As they neared the gates enough to be viewed by the guards, they reluctantly slowed. Their hoods were down and allowed full view of their faces, which the guards recognized. "Ho, Aes Sedai, Gaidin!" one man called from the tower, announcing the arrival to the ones on the ground. The guards there stepped forward. The elder of the two grabbed the younger one and then pushed him off into the Tower, sending him at a run.

The half-siblings exchanged a confused look. Haeden's green eyes flickered from his sister to the guards, frowning as they walked the rest of the distance between them.

"Well met, Sadira Sedai and Haeden Gaidin," the elder guard who had remained behind stated with a formal bow. "Would you please wait here for a moment?"

"What's wrong? Why are we being detained?" Haeden asked. Although he lacked the frightening facial scarring that made his father's scowl as terrifying as it was, he had grown to perfect an angry look of his own that most were not pleased to see. (His sister had said it was equally his mother's temper that gave it power. Who could say? In twenty years, he had tried to honor them both and yet become his own man.)

"Please," the guard said solemnly. "I apologize, but...please. Just a moment."

Another look was exchanged. Sadira's face remained placid, well settled into its agelessness, but her steel blue eyes flashed with her own confusion and annoyance. They had spent months now looking forward to coming home and as soon as they were finally able to do so, they were kept from it just feet away from touching its stone paving.

It was longer than a moment. Haeden waited as patiently as he could, but he and his horse were both starting to fidget. Just when he was about to turn and give the guard the sharp side of his tongue unless this was explained, a woman came through the gates with the younger guard. Clearly he had been sent to fetch her, but the young Gaidin didn't understand why. His mind couldn't understand what his eyes were telling him.

"By the Light..." his sister whispered.

Miahala Ives Sedai Some of the men who manned the guardhouse to the Tower remembered Mia and had been serving their posts faithfully for over three decades. Those who did not know her before, knew of her, and both were happy to aid her cause. It was a small thing that she had asked of them, really. She knew that her children--the only ones remaining alive--were traveling in the world and no one knew where. She also knew that they would return.

The children of the Tower always returned.

And so she had asked the guards to send for her when they returned, if she was in the Tower, and to keep them until she could reach the gatehouse. She was sure they wouldn't be pleased with the delay, but also hoped that they would understand why she had done it. She didn't want to risk a chance meeting, or delays. When her children came home, she needed to see them and as soon as possible. It was one large piece of her heart that remained missing.

She could not truly be alive again until she was reunited with her children, but it seemed to be taking quite a long time for them to return, and being a mother who could not stop being a mother, she worried about just what mission this had been.

And so it was, one afternoon, that a winded young guard from the gatehouse came running into the common room of the Green Ajah, where he had been told to find Miahala Sedai. "Aes Sedai," he said, bowing hastily. "You wanted word sent immediately when Haeden Gaidin and Sadira Sedai returned, and they are now being held at the gatehouse."

Miahala felt her heart almost explode in her chest. A smile she could not stop blossomed on her face, but then was tempered... How were they going to take it? She had thought of this much in the interim, of course, but now that it was directly before her... Well. She wouldn't know until she found out. Swiftly, she closed the book she had been reading without any care for marking her page and got to her feet, not running like she may have wanted to, moving with the guard to the gatehouse.

The walk took forever. It was unbearable. She had felt calmer knowing a horde of Trollocs was waiting for her...

She pushed through the door and there they were. Sitting atop a pair of beautiful chestnut steeds that she recognized instantly the bloodlines of. Mia was vaguely aware of the guards sliding away from the reunion, giving them what little privacy could be afforded. Her eyes shifted from Sadira to Haeden. Why did none of my children look like me? In the moment, it felt like an inane thought but there it was. Sadie had always favored her father. Haeden was the spitting image of his father's unburned side.

Her Aes Sedai daughter recognized her instantly and lost her serene composure in shock. "By the Light..." She saw the words formed upon her lips.

Haeden, however... He had just been a boy, looking at manhood just over the horizon, when she had died. His expression was clearly confused and his green eyes showed just how uncertain he was. He knew her, and yet he didn't. When Sadira all but leaped out of the saddle, his blonde brows knit and then his gaze turned back to her.

That's when it hit him.

He dismounted then, almost stumbling and falling when his foot caught in the stirrup, so disconcerted as he was. After wrestling with the hard leather loop, he had both feet on the ground. Not that his expression showed it. The horses were well trained and only moved so far as the grass by the side of the road, bending their heads to graze and leaving the humans alone.

"How..." Haeden said, wide-eyed like the boy she remembered. "I saw you. You were dead. You were in Father's arms as he rode through that Gateway to bury you in home soil and follow you into the grave. I saw you!"

"I know," Miahala said, feeling her throat tighten. "I know, my son." Her eyes moved to Sadira. "My daughter. I don't know how I am alive again, but the Wheel was not finished with me and I found myself alive again. I came home and have been waiting to see you again, waiting for your return... I asked the guards..." She trailed off. That detail was not important now. Her emotions were getting the better of her.

Haeden suddenly started looking around. "Is Father returned as well?" he asked.

The note of hope in his voice almost broke her. She swallowed the emotion down in her throat. "No, Haeden," she said quietly. "Not that I have seen. He is not here." Although she couldn't help but wonder at times, but she knew that if he had come back as well, he would have returned to the Grey Tower, just like she had.

Her son's eyes lost some of that first light, but it returned after a moment when he surged forward and hugged his mother. "I've missed you," he said thickly into her shoulder. Sadira joined him, none of them caring--for at least one moment in time--that they were Aes Sedai and Gaidin of the Tower, and were standing in the middle of the road. It didn't matter.

They were reunited.