The Daughters Darrow (Attn: Jenny)

[Craig]

Zarayne

Zarayne immediately resisted, trying to pull her arm away from Kaira Darrow. "No! If you wish to talk, we can talk. But I'm not seeing him." Kaira's other arm moved out of sight, then Zarayne felt the dull impression of something pressing against her back.

"Don't waste my time," Kaira said grimly. "I wasn't offering you a choice." She didn't need the verbal threat to know it was a dagger that sat between her shoulder blades, but it confirmed it.

Zarayne thought through her options. She had never been a Maiden, so overpowering Kaira Darrow was out of the question; she was more likely to put the dagger in her own back during the struggle. Running was a possibility. Wetlanders didn't know the power of their own legs, but Kaira was already on her feet; Zarayne was on her knees. There's not enough time to get away if she's determined. And that was the last problem. She had no idea how real this threat was, so she had to assume Kaira was completely serious.

"I relent," Zarayne stated. She placed the cloth on the lip of the bucket and slowly rose to her feet, carefully not to give Kaira any reason to attack. "Where are we going?"

Ravak Darrow

The metal poker broke off a piece of charcoal, sending sparks into the air and up the chimney breast. Heat bloomed in the fireplace, and Rav returned the iron rod back to the side of the hearth.

Snowflake whined by the doorway, attracting the Gaidin Captain's attention. She stood up, then walked towards the fireplace. Or away from the door. The Shienaran husky wasn't a fan of the heat, so it meant that an Aes Sedai was coming. For whatever reason, dogs weren't admirers of Aes Sedai. The white pile of fluff brushed up against Rav's legs just as two white-clad figures stepped into the room.

Rav's eyes skipped past the lead novice and fell onto the one at the back. "Kaira? What're you doing here?" Instinctively he sniffed the air. There was an air of coercion around his daughter. He looked at the first novice, an Aiel girl about a foot taller than Kaira. What's going on?

Kaira beamed. "I'd like you to meet someone," she said jubilantly. "This is Zarayne. She says that you knew her mother."

His jaw set into a grimace. Bloody Aiel, he thought rancorously. Normal Aiel, if he could classify them in such a way, had their own way to inquire about his golden tattoo from the Wastes. But they've set an emissary to see how their outcast is doing? Hardly surprising from the way they had acted. Ravak never did learn how he got the scaly tattoo, nor what it meant, but every Aiel seemed horrified as soon as they realised he wasn't one of them.

Casually his hands moved to the hilt of his sword-breaker, hidden just behind his desk. The Light knew what the Wise Ones would do. A collection of channellers and bullies that put the White Tower to shame.

Rav was glaring hard, because the Aiel looked pale. Good. He didn't want another one of these desert dwellers giving him another incomprehensible lecture on the sanctity of Rhuidean.

"Uh huh." It didn't matter that Kaira had brought Zarayne to him. They were all the same: narrow-minded unless they spent some actual time with him. And he didn't have the patience to educate this girl, not even to benefit Kaira."

"Tell him," Kaira hissed. Zarayne glanced back towards his daughter, then at him.

Anger started to push into his tone. "Tell me what? I do have work to be getting on with."

Zarayne

Sick to her stomach didn't cover it, and that alone made everything worse. As if things could get worse. She was stuck in a room with the last two people she wanted to be trapped with.

You brought this upon yourself.

Zarayne took in a deep breath.

She looked straight into the eyes of the Gaidin Captain. "My mother is Sinead of the Chumai sept of the Taardad Aiel."

Recognition bloomed in Ravak Darrow's expression. His cold glare didn't go away, but it did lessen. "So you're Sinead's daughter?" He didn't sound quite as hard as he had been, but he would have still put a Stone Dog to shame. "And what does she want?" he asked after a pause.

Zarayne shifted uncomfortably. Everything had been said, and he still wasn't--

Kaira pressed an elbow into her side. "Tell him!"

Ravak straightened, eyes darting between the two novices. "Tell me what? I don't have time for games Kaira."

Before Kaira could respond, Zarayne stepped in. Apparently the truth was not so blindingly obvious.

"My mother is Sinead of the Chumai sept of the Taardad Aiel," she repeated, "and my father is Ravak Darrow of the Grey Tower."

The world spun to a stop.

Zarayne looked down into her father's eyes now that he was seeing who she was for the first time. His face was still set in a scowl, his mouth a mere thin line. He could have been Aiel with his hair and expression, but his skin was pale like her own. Just like my own. She watched him watching her, wondering what was about to transpire. Wetlanders were soft and showed all of their feelings openly. There would be some great emotional outpouring which would leave her feeling very awkward.

Her father smiled, a bright grin crossing over his hard face. Zarayne felt herself smiling back, in spite of the years of separation, in spite of the fear and the lifetime apart, and--

Ravak laughed. "I don't have a daughter. I mean, yes, yes I have a daughter, but she's standing just behind you." He chuckled, shaking his head dismissively. "Kaira hunny, I don't know if this is a joke or your friend's confused, but." He leaned forward, crossing his arms on the desk. "That was forever ago, and I haven't seen or heard from Sinead since. I don't know where you dug up that name, but I already have one daughter. I don't need another one, joke or otherwise."

[Jenny]

Kaira

The relief that came with her father's laughter washed over her like a calming draught. The tension that Kaira held within her drained away. She had her share of disagreements with her father, but there was one thing she could always rely on: Ravak never lied. She released her hold on Zarayne and stepped away.

"There," she said. "See? All this fuss over nothing. It wasn't a joke, Daddy. I was curious, that's all. Sorry for troubling you."

Kaira glanced at the tall girl next to her and narrowed her eyes. Zarayne was looking down at the floor. She appeared to be the meekest of chastised novices. But Kaira was not fooled. She peered closely at the other novice and pressed her lips together into a thin line.

"I am not a joke," Zarayne said, dejectedly.

"No one said you were," Kaira said, impatiently. "Come on, we have chores to finish."

She gestured toward the door.

"I am not a joke," Zarayne repeated, eyes still intent on her feet. "And I am not lying."

Kaira rolled her eyes.

"We get it. You aren't a joke. Let's go."

She touched Zarayne's arm, but the girl didn't turn away. Instead, Zarayne raised her head slightly and stared straight at Ravak. Her green eyes blazed with some unidentifiable emotion.

"Mother said you had a scar across your shoulder blades," she said. "You got it from one of the Shadowwrought in the Great Blight. And you had a small mark on your left thigh from an Eyeless's blade. She said that she could never see into your dreams due to your bond. And that you were exiled after being caught leaving the city of Rhuidean."

Kaira's impatience boiled over into cold fury.

"All things that a close friend would know," she said. "Especially if they were learning ranks together. Listen to me! We can stand around arguing all day, but it doesn't matter what your mother told you. My father says that you aren't his daughter. You heard him yourself. He hasn't seen your mother in years. And my father doesn't lie."

She glared at Zarayne, daring her to challenge the truth of that statement.

[Craig]

Ravak

"All things that a close friend would know."

The ragged strip of pink scar tissue that ran from shoulder blade to shoulder blade had been the result of a Trolloc's mace that he only narrowly avoided being smashed with. He did nothing to hide it, saying that he often trained shirtless. The leg injury was not so well known. A pale triangle of flesh on his leg had been from a Myrddraal's blade, when he and Kaia had been investigating one of the Grey Tower's smaller outposts on the Blightborder. And the only other noteworthy wounds were the marks on his shoulder and chest where he'd been hit by two arrows during the Second Seanchan Siege.

"Especially if they were learning ranks together."

Ravak wasn't hugely proud of his conduct in his earlier years. He had chased after one woman, then skipped straight onto another without a look back. That second had been Sinead, the beautiful Aiel he followed into the Waste for a year. That was also not a secret, but it had been before Kaira's birth. But they had never been learning ranks together.

It was easier to argue with himself over the unimportant things. Easier than facing the truth about what Zarayne was suggesting.

"And my father doesn't lie."

"Neither do Aiel," Rav posited warily.

His time with Sinead had been in the distant past, but Ravak had daydreamed about 'what if' the events in Rhuidean hadn't taken place. Maybe he could have returned to Hama Valon with Sinead, seen her obtain the shawl of the White Ajah, become her Warder... He'd dreamed of such fancies in the small hours at night, although not exclusively about Sinead. There was the 'what if' Dax had never met Katrie, or the 'what if' Kaia had never unbonded him. Or even if she had just lived. The same was true of Mirin as well. The quadfecta of women who had affected his life the most, and had all left him in their own ways.

He was getting off-topic, thinking of fairy tales and ignoring the being of flesh and blood staring at him with a hauntingly certain glare. He mentally thought of pulling courage around him like a blanket. It was a foolish bloody notion, but he was gearing himself up for battle within his own office.

"How old are you?" he asked.

"I have seen twenty-one namedays."

Peace. It fit. He didn't know it to the month or day, but the number of years sounded about right. It was in 'the margin of error' as Elia would put it.

"Zarayne," he said softly, with the delicacy one would afford to a young child, "why do you think you're my daughter?"

Zarayne

The tall novice thrust her chin up, making it even clear even to the wetlanders that she was offended. He even said Aiel do not lie. The frustration of having to make clear everything she said made her want to dance, even if she was not allowed to.

"My mother told me as much," she said with a touch of venom in her tone. Zarayne was far more protective of her mother than herself. "The Gaidin that escorted her into the Three-fold Land, who received the mark of a clan chief. You are the only man she has lain with." She folded her arms across her chest, which only reminded her how powerfully her heart was beating.

Ravak Darrow stood slowly. He used both hands against the top of his desk to push himself to his feet. The sleeves of his shirt pulled back, revealing just the flash of gold on his right wrist. Her skin crawled at the thought of a wetlander bearing such a mark. There was simply nothing Aiel about Ravak Darrow.

His eyes flickered between the faces of his two daughters. Zarayne didn't turn to see how her sister was doing. She was waiting for something to come from Ravak Darrow. An acknowledgement. Something beyond being laughed at.

"So, you are my daughter." It seemed half a statement and half a question, but there was a clear transformation in her father's expression. He moved around the desk, and before she knew it the man had her in a wetlander's embrace. Her arms, which were still folded, pressed against his throat but he had her in a vice. "Forgive me Zarayne," he whispered in her ear. "I never knew, never thought your mother and I..." He squeezed her tighter, to the point where her own arms were pressing painfully against her own chest.

[Jenny]

Kaira

What?

Seriously?

What under the bloody, flaming Light was this?

Kaira watched as her father's face lit up. Then he rounded the desk and he - her father! - embraced the other girl like she was... was...

She could not complete the thought. Her head spun. This could not possibly be happening. With a dead Darkfriend for a mother and a well-known public figure for a father, Kaira had never expected to live a normal life. During her time away from the Tower, many of her most basic assumptions had been challenged and forced into revision. But she had still clung to a few truths that had been undeniable. Or so she thought.

One of these was that her father loved her, and only her. Now what? She had to share his love... with a sister? A sister who came suddenly came traipsing in and expected to be loved simply for something that had happened twenty-one years ago? A sister who was older, taller, stronger, and... Light, Zarayne even resembled Ravak more than she did, now that she looked more closely.

Kaira didn't like this at all. But what could she do? Her emotions tumbled, one after the other. Anger. Loneliness. Betrayal. She shifted uncomfortably as she watched Ravak and Zarayne and their display of emotion that was clearly not meant for her. The rug had been pulled from under her feet and she was falling with nothing to catch her. She wanted to disappear.

So she did the next best thing. She turned on her heel and slipped silently out of the room.