Making Amends (White Tower, open)

[Alianora]

Liaran Sedai

Still feeling that odd shyness, Liaran nodded. "I'm....not used to needing anyone. I've had to look after myself for most of my life, so I'm not very good at accepting help." She'd been looking at Haeden while he spoke, but her eyes shifted back towards the field for just a moment while she thought. She'd never really given much consideration to what could have happened if Haeden hadn't come looking for her, and since nearly all the possibilities ended in her own death before coming home, it wasn't something Liaran wanted to think on for long. She looked down on the ground below her before adding quietly, "I still wish what happened hadn't hurt you, but....since I did need someone to get me home....I'm glad it was you."

After a few seconds passed, she made herself look up again. Offering Haeden a small smile, Liaran said,"I think we should probably head back, it isn't really fair to leave Orinna by herself for much longer." She turned, heading back towards the field and the work ahead of her. As she approached, it looked as though the crowds had thinned out a little, but Orinna was still busy. Liaran picked up a sack, intending to go right back to work without a word to the other Blue, but when Orinna noticed her, the smaller woman rushed to Liaran's side.

"Liaran, are you all right? What happened?"

Liaran's hand tightened around the sack she held. What happened? Can't you guess? It was hard for Liaran to believe that the woman from the White Tower actually had no knowledge of what had been done to her, but Orinna's question sounded sincere. Liaran still didn't trust her. "I'm fine," she said coldly. "And as for what happened, I'm sure some of your White Tower sisters would be more than pleased to tell you, perhaps you should ask them." She certainly wasn't going to explain herself to the other woman. A shiver ran down her spine, and Liaran took a deep breath to calm herself down. She opened her sack, went back to work, and did her best to forget Orinna was there, and that she truly had seemed concerned.

[Bella]

Haeden chose to hold his tongue over anything he might say during the interaction between the two Aes Sedai, since he didn't want to shove himself into all of Liaran's business... He worried that he had already placed himself into too much of it and he was going to start annoying her.

That didn't mean, however, that he wasn't paying close attention...as inconspicuously as possible. If he felt there was any sort of threat, even if just to her emotional stability, he would step in.

Her cold tone suggested that it wasn't yet the case, and he hoped that Orinna Sedai took the hint and just moved on... Since she herself was not a part of what happened to Liaran, he had nothing personal against the woman, and yet knowing the effect he had on the Blue from the Grey Tower... Well, he just wanted her to move along.

Still silent, Haeden still kept himself near to Liaran and just kept working alongside her.

[Alianora]

Liaran Sedai

Not long after she and Haeden returned, Liaran noticed that Orinna had slipped away. A small, petty part of her hoped the other woman would just stay gone. Unfortunately for Liaran, Orinna was not gone for long before coming back, far sooner than Liaran would have liked. She said nothing to the other Blue, but heard Orinna speak to her, and it was quiet enough that Liaran couldn't just pretend she hadn't.

"I spoke to some of the others," Orinna said. Liaran blinked, but didn't take her eyes off the refugee in front of her. She had not actually expected the other Blue to do that, and it surprised her. It's almost as if she cares.

"I'd only just returned to the Tower for the Feast of Lights," Orinna explained, "so with the war, I haven't had much time to talk to anyone. A few of them told me of a rumor that had been spreading through the Tower not long before, that we'd caught a wilder claiming to be Aes Sedai from the Grey Tower, and that the Amyrlin broke Tower law with the severity of her punishment." Liaran's eyes shifted briefly towards Orinna, getting a glimpse of the other woman's large blue eyes in a nearly white face, before quickly going back to her focus on her work. "They all spoke of it as though it were only gossip, but....I think there might be more truth than rumor to it."

Liaran flinched, and wondered why Orinna just couldn't seem to understand that she did not want to talk. Instead of responding, she simply continued to work, refusing to even look at the other woman. Undeterred by Liaran's silence, Orinna persisted, asking her, "Do you think that could have actually happened?" She almost sounded worried, which made no sense at all.

Liaran was nearly out of patience with the other Blue by now, unable to understand Orinna's inability to just drop the subject. Frustrated, she turned towards the other woman, noticing for the first time that Orinna seemed nervous. The smaller woman's hands were actually shaking as she handed out the blankets they'd brought. Liaran felt herself calm down, feeling less threatened, though that didn't stop her from nearly hissing when she spoke. "It did happen. What your White Tower did to me, and wanted to do to the others, nearly killed me. So you'll excuse me if I don't wish to stand here talking about it!" Orinna's eyes grew even wider, giving the woman the look of a frightened animal. Liaran blinked in surprise at the other Blue's reaction. Could she really not have known?

After handing over the last piece of fruit from the sack she held, Liaran turned to walk away from Orinna, fast enough that her skirt swirled behind her. She didn't go more than a few steps from where she'd been, but she needed some space to try to collect herself. She took deep breaths, and her dark eyes studied the other Blue, who still appeared rather startled. The thought she'd just had came back to her again. She didn't know. This time, Liaran actually believed it might be possible, that Orinna could be as innocent of it all as she herself had been.

[Bella]

There wasn't much Haeden could do, not much that he had a right to do. He restrained himself from inserting himself into their conversation, because he knew that Liaran was an adult and not one who needed to be shielded from all things. That didn't stop him from wanting to do so, however. It was somehow now ingrained in his nature to want to do so.

As inconspicuously as a man of his height, breadth, and bearing could, he tried to just work and not intrude upon them...but it was impossible for him to miss the conversation, such as it was, because of his nearness to Liaran. Orinna's ignorance of what happened to Liaran made sense, after witnessing her behavior up till this point.

Haeden then watched her walk away. He stared after her, debating within himself whether he should follow or not.

He followed before making the conscious decision.

With the quiet that Gaidin were preternaturally apt to achieve, he came up beside her. "Are you...alright, Liaran?" he asked, his voice low and uncertain as he stood beside her.

[Alianora]

Liaran Sedai

Haeden was by her side again, as he had been for much of the day. Liaran didn't mind. Somehow, the Gaidin managed to be supportive without being overbearing, and she wondered if he knew how much she appreciated that. "I'm fine," she rushed to tell him, not wanting him to worry. "I'm just....confused, that's all." Liaran frowned slightly as she studied Orinna, unsure just how badly she'd misjudged the other woman. She shook her head, then looked up at Haeden.

"After everything that happened, not just to me, but to others during the war....I've been afraid of the women from the White Tower. I didn't want them to move into our home. I truly believed that every one of them would..harm us, if she could." Her voice was quiet, to ensure Orinna wouldn't hear her. "I think you heard Orinna talking to me, though, and she really seems to have thought that what happened to me was nothing more than gossip. I looked right at her, and I don't think she could have been pretending she didn't know." Liaran sighed. "I just....think I may have been wrong about them all this time."

[Bella]

As he listened, Haeden nodded slowly, thoughtfully. He took it in and considered it. "It is..." he began and then paused, eyes drifting out of focus as he formed his words. "There are few groups of people that truly are all one thing or another. Your fear of them is entirely understandable, and I doubt anyone could blame you...

"But even so, it does not mean that all of the Aes Sedai from the White Tower are the same. Any more than all of the Aes Sedai from the Grey Tower are the same as each other. After all, you and my sister are dissimilar, yet both Aes Sedai, and Blue." He shrugged slightly, offering a small smile. "So...maybe others of them are like that. But perhaps Orinna is not, after all."

[Alianora]

Liaran Sedai

"Maybe she's not, I don't know," Liaran said. "But I think I'm going to have to learn to live with all of them, not just Orinna." She didn't much like it, but she knew that was true. The women from the White Tower were not going to leave, regardless of how one Blue sister felt about them. Still, Liaran sounded as nervous as she felt. Some of them may be Black Ajah, she thought. At least twelve, to be exact, though it wasn't something she was going to say anywhere outside of her own Warded rooms. She had seen proof of that during the war, and suspected anyone who had been there would also have seen it. It was not a subject she wanted to think about, and Liaran made herself stop. She forced a smile at Haeden before dragging herself back to work. She had to deal with these women, and she would start with Orinna. Any others she had to interact with could wait for another day.

Almost as soon as she'd returned, Orinna was next to her, speaking quietly enough that Liaran did not think anyone but herself and possibly Haeden could hear the words. "I knew something wasn't right when I returned," the other Blue said, "but I never thought the Amyrlin would....do that...or anything else she did to incite war between us." The stress in her voice suggested to Liaran that Orinna had understood precisely what she hadn't been able to say. For the first time that day, Liaran turned her head to address Orinna directly.

"Of course you didn't," Liaran said, and meant it. She remembered her own shock when they'd returned from the war to learn the unpleasant truth about their own former Amyrlin. She realized then that for Orinna and any others like her, the war must have been as hard on them as it had been for those from the Grey Tower. "There isn't any way you could have known.''

Orinna sighed. "When we took your diplomats hostage, everyone knew, and nobody tried to stop it. I didn't try to stop it...and I knew it was wrong." The other woman turned away from Liaran to stare out at the ruins of her old home. "I wish it hadn't come to war between us, but your Tower did what you had to do."

"There isn't anything you could have done to stop it," Liaran said quietly. "You.....may not have survived, if you'd tried." She knew that well, from her own experience and what she'd heard happened within the Grey Tower when Ninya made her true allegiance known. "I think...all of us just need to do our best to live with things as they are."

Orinna said nothing, which was fine with Liaran. She continued to work, and as the day drew closer to ending, Liaran knew that she would return to this place in the future. She wanted to continue to work towards healing for both the city of Tar Valon and for herself.