Drapes on Fire [Attn: Sarkaska Gaidin]

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Bella
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Location: New England

Drapes on Fire [Attn: Sarkaska Gaidin]

Post by Bella » November 30th, 2019, 8:31 pm

Haeden had finally convinced his mother to not light the drapes on fire...

...for the moment, at least.

Now, he had to find a way to satisfy her call to action but also make sure she was protected. Normally, he would have done so himself, but he had an obligation to his own Aes Sedai. His mother understood that. In fact, she had been on the verge of going off on her own--in true Miahala fashion--before he caught her and drew out her promise to remain until he could find someone to go with her.

Of course, the madness of being cut off from one's bond-mate was just as likely to drive her insane so that promise was on a draining hourglass.

Striding into the warder yards, he looked around. He knew most everyone who was there, but he couldn't send some green, newly-raised Gaidin with his mother. She'd eat them alive at the slightest provacation. No, he needed someone tough enough and experienced enough to stand up to the "legendary" Green Aes Sedai. Preferably a Borderlander, so this Gaidin might have a chance of being listened to.

Haeden spoke briefly with a few of his fellow Gaidin and trainers, being pointed toward a Gaidin in another area of the Yard. Haeden approached the man, respective but resolute, taking note of a man just a hint taller than himself but with far darker coloring. "Sarkaska Jinlo?" Haeden asked.

Mim
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Re: Drapes on Fire [Attn: Sarkaska Gaidin]

Post by Mim » November 30th, 2019, 9:50 pm

There were ghosts everywhere you stepped in the Tower these days.

He'd seen his own spectre in the mess hall, eating porridge and eggs and flirting with a man-eating Domani. He'd blinked again and it had been just Aydrek, his son. The boy had waved to him, but not risen from his repast. That was a hard lesson learned fast. Sarkaska himself had not learned to leave his meal unattended for the first few months. The other trainees would fill it with exotic Taraboner spice or worse, Saldaean ice peppers, if you didn't mind it. He'd learned to eat both. You had to. His faint memories of refusing his porridge ended in a very sharply remembered sequence of being howled at by the beastly Ives, the only man who Sarkaska had ever been terrified of on sight that he hadn't eventually gotten over. That man had passed on as the creature that haunted the dark mazes of Sarkaska's nightmares. He'd probably laugh about it. Sarkaska still wasn't laughing.

So when he spotted the young man with the same brow structure, eye color, and intensity of gaze, Sarkaska did the uncharacteristic, fumbling his blade back into its scabbard. Usually, the only grace the tall Shienaran possessed was with his steel or his horse. The young ghost - younger than Sarkaska had ever known Ives to be - only watched. Staving off the urge to have the boy down in a battle - he probably could, but he'd not be fighting this boy, and he knew that - Sarkaska shoved the shame of fumbling his blade to the side. The man opened his mouth to introduce himself, but Sarkaska realized there was no need. He knew the lad. Had known him since his infancy, almost. This was the Beast's get. By his insane Green sister. Sarkaska had a wide streak of respect for anyone who would have stood up to Caden Ives repeatedly, and it was double the size for anyone the man had ever obeyed.

"Peace favor your blade, Ives," Sarkaska said, pleasantly. A few moments later, his smile had fallen off. A few moments after that, a worm of doubt was twisting hard in Sarkaska's belly. But you went where you were commanded. That was the life of a Gaidin. You pledged your blade, your soul, to serve. It was not your place to say where, or when. He gave the man he remembered as a boy a formal bow from the waist up, his loose topknot tapping him on the forehead as he did.

And then he went where the Tower had chosen to send him this day, quite aware that it could be the last day of his life.

It was only High when Sarkaska presented himself at the Green sisters' quarters, passing through the knot of his fellow Gaidin without comment or teasing remark. He'd taken the boy's advice and come ready to leave. His sons were settled: Aydrek at his studies and Riordan in lessons of a different sort from a gently unfocused Brown brother - and he was quite ready to meet his own death. He knocked smartly at the right door - no one needed to tell him which was which, he knew the lair of the Beast that haunted his dreams still - and presented himself in a way that would have done his younger self proud. His older self knew it was a fool's gambit.

"Honor to serve, Aes Sedai. I hear that you wished my presence."

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Re: Drapes on Fire [Attn: Sarkaska Gaidin]

Post by Bella » December 6th, 2019, 9:36 pm

Miahala opened the door with the rapidity of a summer storm.

Before the Gaidin stood a woman who was more than two centuries old yet, having released the Three Oaths when given the option, she did not stand as a porcelain, ageless statue any longer. She looked...simply like a woman. Her auburn hair was threaded infrequently with hints of silver, and her keen blue-green gaze still struck out of an otherwise impassive expression.

Mia arched her brow when she took in the sight of this particular Gaidin. Shienaran, she thought. Like...Ravak.

A knot that tied her brain, her heart, and her stomach together tightened a little more, but it only showed in a slight pursing of her full lips. He looked...familiar, but then, she had seen many faces in her many years. Yet the familiarity stood out.

"I believe we have met before," she said, stepping back and waving him into the sitting room of the quarters she shared with her present--missing--warder-husband. "My son has insisted that I require a second set of eyes and hands while I go searching the Borderlands for my errant warder." Her saddlebags were already packs and near the door, her cloak over the edge of an armchair.

The drapes were, after all, singed.

"Did my son explain any of the circumstances before conscripting you?" Her tone suggested she perhaps did not agree that she needed help but was willing to placate her second-youngest child.

Mim
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Re: Drapes on Fire [Attn: Sarkaska Gaidin]

Post by Mim » December 14th, 2019, 3:29 am

It was always a surprise to see the Aes Sedai: you looked in vain for some sign that they were something ordinary, something easily explained and then, discarded. They never were ordinary, though: you could say that much for them. Each was different from the others, and some wore their age well and some didn't. Miahala looked much today as she did in his memory, which was problematic because the memory was so old. You expected these women to age, but they didn't. Well, there was silver in her hair, but no complacency in her expression, no hint of apology in the stare she leveled on him. Honestly, he hadn't expected the apology, he decided: what would that even accomplish? This was not the kind of world where a man sent for would be fed a polite line. He was here to serve. Having no one specific ward, he was the Tower's to do with as it pleased. But he recalled that the younger Aes Sedai he had known briefly was kind: that was no small boon. Good with a horse, too: Sarkaska couldn't work well with people who failed to understand their mounts.

"Aye, Aes Sedai," Sarkaska said, trying to remain respectfully impartial. He went where she gestured him: Nelune had taught him that much about proper behavior. She'd also insisted he learn to read, and he'd figured out the bit where you slung a tiny Seanchan woman over your shoulder and put her to bed when she was in her cups all on his own. It didn't seem to bother Miahala Sedai that he didn't have the chance to remind her that he'd been one of her former Warder's proteges: he wasn't even sure she wanted to hear that. Some of the Aes Sedai were quite tender over the losses of their Warders, and some didn't seem to care. Sarkaska just tried to avoid either extreme: it was a good way to keep one's head moored to his shoulders.

"Haeden explained a little," Sarkaska said, carefully. "Mostly he explained that I would need to ask," and Sarkaska neatly edited out the next phrase to pop into his mouth, which had been, "my lady mother," or some such nonsense - "you, Aes Sedai, how best I could serve. And that I should prepare before I came." He would have nonetheless: it was preparation that was drilled first into the minds of the young trainees, even over weapons, even over honor. Those things were vital, too, but first was the preparation. "He said that you would need." and Sarkaska paused again, letting the younger man's phrasing flow through his mind and not his mouth - "aid to source a missing Gaidin." Sarkaska had never tried to hide, cloud, or obscure his strange connection to Nelune, but his Ward had been prone to wandering off toward the local dockside taverns and requiring extraction. For a sister of the White Ajah, she'd had some illogical pursuits. He wondered how and why it was that the missing man was not clear to his bondmate, but there were layers to the bond. Just because his had been an oddly platonic, almost fatherly, relationship when it had any emotional flavor at all didn't mean that everyone else's was the same.

Anyway, he would offer his blade to the cause of protecting an Aes Sedai, any Aes Sedai, save that she be found Black. Sarkaska had no fear in the least that Miahala harbored that bent, and therefore, he was ready to rouse the countryside of any of a dozen countries to find this missing Warder. "Shall I prepare your horse while you tell me the details," he asked, "or do you prefer me to listen now?" With his luck, it would be neither, and he'd spend his afternoon astride a warhorse who liked to nip, beside a woman who thought now was a fantastic time to talk. He disliked both things.

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Re: Drapes on Fire [Attn: Sarkaska Gaidin]

Post by Bella » December 23rd, 2019, 1:19 am

Mia arched one brow slightly and her mouth quirked in a half-smirk. "I shall prepare my own horse, but we can talk on the way to the stables. There is sadly little tell anyways." She blew out an exasperated breath before turned to pick up her bags.

Before she did so, however, a door on the far side of the room burst open and a robust young boy nearly flew out. His face and speech suggested her was around four, while his size suggested more like six. Mia didn't bother to straight up and just caught him as he flung himself at her.

"Iain," she said with a sympathetic laugh. "We have already spoken and you need to stay here with your sister." This being the slender but solid woman in the blue dress who followed the boy from the room. Sadira nodded at Sarkaska but said nothing.

"Momma, where's Papa?" the little one--Iain--asked. "Is he in trouble? Is that why you're going?"

Mia brushed back his flame-red curls and kissed his forehead. "He just needs a little help that only Momma can provide." Inwardly, of course, she thought, Either he's IN trouble or he's GOING to be... "You stay here with Sadie and Alrim, and you'll have a good time. I'll be back before you know it."

Iain nodded morosely but walked back to take Sadira's hand.

The Blue smiled wryly. "I'd tell you to be careful..." she murmured.

Mia'a blue-green eyes flashed as she stood with her saddlebags over her shoulder. "I'll be home soon," she said. "Take care of my boy." The two women exchanged stoic nods and then Mia turned on a heel and walked out, waiting for the Gaidin to catch up with her before she began speaking.

"Simply put," she said, "Momma" gone in favor of "Pissed Off Green," "my warder went to Shienar with his sister, an Aes Sedai of the Indigo. I have sensed no issues and yet the bond has gone...inexplicably quiet. I know he's alive but I can't feel much beyond that, so I plan to use the information he gave me along with what I last knew to try and locate him."

Mim
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Re: Drapes on Fire [Attn: Sarkaska Gaidin]

Post by Mim » February 6th, 2020, 10:37 pm

One pretty woman, Sarkaska's brain informed him, meant trouble. No doubt that Miahala was pretty, even for a woolly-headed Shienaran, but he wasn't going anywhere near anything that you needed a pretty girl to participate in, and so, he could handle one pretty woman. He'd been trained in that, even. Things were Just Fine. The addition of a small boy and a second pretty woman, though, had Sarkaska ready to flee for the hills (any hills, so long as they were far away hills.) It didn't help much that the second pretty woman was busy being a sister (you didn't picture that in an Aes Sedai) because she was still there, smiling. Sarkaska liked the maternal type: he guessed it was mostly because they tended to not get you in trouble and also, they sometimes had cookies. Like his horse, Sarkaska was a simple being, and sweets were a downfall for him. You learned to like your enablers. This Sadie looked like a fantastic source of cookies. But she was just too close in nature and kinship to Ives' old bondmate, and he hadn't yet decided that was an okay thing to have, even with cookies involved. Nothing had ever terrified him more than Caden Ives, and if he was lucky and lived a life where nothing else tried to outdo him, he'd call himself a lucky man and go to his grave happily.

Sadly, his determination that nothing terrified him more than the Reaper was short-lived. It turned out that when irritated, Miahala made the man look rational. Sarkaska felt a momentary pang of fear for the man the Green sister was seeking, but well, the man had to have known. You couldn't save a fool from his own undoing. And, well, sometimes the undoing was great fun, or so Sarkaska had been told. Somehow, he'd managed to go most of his life without bedding his bondmate, which was perfectly fine by him, as the first one had confused him endlessly. He'd meant to pledge himself to his love, same as everyone else, but Nelune had blinded him with...he wasn't sure what. Neediness, maybe. He'd been amused by how much about fatherhood he knew even before he knew he had sons. Keeping a White sister sober and fed and from running off with the Ever Glorious Army every few months had been a challenge. He'd survived. He still wasn't sure how. Sons, it turned out, were easier.

But even a fool like Sarkaska knew better than to abandon one's wife and gad off!

"I know Shienar well," Sarkaska said, aware that his countenance shouted that. From his topknot to his breeches, cut for riding, Sarkaska was a solid representation of the better features of the Borderlands, except that he was light on the grey matter. He was much better at making things bleed. His real expertise was in horses, though. It was a useful skill, even though the Tower Traveled these days. You would never outgrow the need for a good horse. He padded at the Green sister's heels, a lanky man with a rider's gait, silent despite the equipment that gleamed on his flanks. "I have some contacts in Fal Dara, should we need them, and contacts along the western borders. And we are ever welcome in the Ringforts." That kind of went without saying, he supposed: she was a Green, she likely knew twenty people for every one he knew. But still, it was best to have resources, and as a mind worked best when it knew its tools well, it was best to show his hand as quickly as possible. There would be no hand turned against a sister or a Gaidin in Shienar, save it be Black: Sarkaska hoped it didn't come down to that. But evil was everywhere, even home.

They had exited the Green quarters, passing through the loose knot of idling Warders and trainees without exciting comment. (This was, Sarkaska was sure, because they were trying to figure out when to hold his wake: now or later?) "I see your horse has been brought 'round," Sarkaska said, trying not to figure out which of the doorway pundits wanted him dead. "Are you ready to leave, Aes Sedai?"

She sounded ready to go. Sarkaska just knew that he wanted to be at the part where he brought her back in one piece again: it was going to be a long time coming, but it might just be the bit that wiped the smirks off the watching Warders' faces.
----
Guess whose brain fell off? I had J-term, and it was a wild ride. Trauma-informed practice. Whee!

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Bella
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Location: New England

Re: Drapes on Fire [Attn: Sarkaska Gaidin]

Post by Bella » February 29th, 2020, 2:54 am

Miahala spied them walking her horse out, already tacked up, and she frowned. She would have to speak with the stable-hands again. No one was to tack up Seren but her. They were lucky to still have all their fingers attached and toes unbroken...or maybe they didn't. None of them would dare tell her if it were otherwise.

"I am, Gaidin," she responded with one of those surface smiles that hid almost everything except a faint flick of fire in those Saldaean-slanted blue-green eyes.

She took her horse from the stable-hand and mounted with the ease a longtime rider. (Which she was. Very, very longtime...) "We are traveling to a border outpost called Kentano's Redoubt," she said, her heart seizing with love-threaded worry. She remembered traveling there with Ravak, no so long ago it seemed... "That was the last word I had about where he was."

Mim
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Re: Drapes on Fire [Attn: Sarkaska Gaidin]

Post by Mim » March 5th, 2020, 4:08 am

Kentano's Redoubt. Fantastic. He didn't know where that was. It could be in the southern passes, he supposed, as he had not traveled there often, but it could also be among the eastern Ringforts. For all he knew, he guessed it could be right in Fal Dara Keep: it was astounding how quickly the world changed, now that the Dragon had twisted the threads of the Age Lace and made his pattern - and gone. They said the world was new now, and that there weren't traditions that would remain unbroken. Sarkaska supposed they were right, but he also thought they were a little wrong. In this turbulence, it seemed that people clung to as many of the old ways as they could, and that was tradition, wasn't it? But this wasn't the time to argue about that. It might be that he needed to draw a clean map, but he doubted that the Aes Sedai intended to give him the time that would take. Cartography wasn't a strength for Sarkaska, although he could draw a passable battle map if he needed to.

And cartography wasn't a strength that had much of a calling these days, anyway: all the Aes Sedai Traveled. He guessed the Grey sisters still had need of it, and the Greens used it a fair bit, but maps were not so precious a commodity now that anyone could go almost anywhere an Aes Sedai or Asha'man had been. You didn't need packhorses so much now, or extra supplies, and many a Gaidin slept most nights in his own bed these days. Sarkaska wondered if they were all grown soft, like forgotten cheese. The sounds of a sparring drill floated over the walls of the Warder Yards as they led their horses past it on the way to the traveling yard. Would they invent something that made that obsolete, as well? Sarkaska found that he was worried for his eldest son, although he knew it to be a fool's errand. Many a lad had graduated trainings before his son had found his way to the Yards, Sarkaska included. The boy was in good hands. And he did have his brother, should the Mother claim him. He doubted She would, though: it wasn't as if they were riding into the wastes, or to war.

He assessed the Aes Sedai's mare as they neared the Yards. She had a high step and a fine, dancing gait: full of energy and the Tower's superior feed. His own mount, a barrel-chested Dhurran with more brains than Sarkaska boasted of himself, had stamina and a loping stride. He was a brave creature, and despite his intelligence, loyal. While Sarkaska possessed more than one mount, the giant chestnut stallion was a favorite. He had a half-trained warhorse, his own war-trained mare, Cueran Ayende, now elderly and enjoying the sunset of her years, and this stallion, culled from the spring breeding at the Circuit of the Sun several years before. He could have been a racer, but he didn't have the proper look, being ever so slightly bandy-legged and foul-tempered. He'd even nip Sarkaska, now and again, but the Gaidin thought that he would soon outgrow his playfulness. It was a shame, he thought, as he often did, that it took such an intelligent animal to be war-trained. They were the ones stubborn enough to not like learning! Dhjin leaned into Sarkaska as they walked, but the Gaidin brushed the horse's muzzle away from his ear as one might bat at a fly.

He let his eyes close as they crossed the threshhold of the Traveling Yard, his mind murmuring the same nonsensical prayer it said at the beginning of his journeys. He did not permit himself to glance back, though. The Light willing, he would see the Tower again.

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Bella
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QC: Andraste Alhandra Sedai
Location: New England

Re: Drapes on Fire [Attn: Sarkaska Gaidin]

Post by Bella » April 26th, 2020, 8:34 pm

"The redoubt is perhaps a day's travel south of Tarwin's Gap," Mia continued, which caused another squeeze of the heart at the thought of past lives and past loves...and also might have been total bullshit but Bella was just too bloody lazy to dig through thirteen pages of the thread where this place was originally written about.

There was an Asha'man manning the Gateways now and Mia brought her horse up to a halt. It was her nature to want to bound through, because she was a headstrong Green if ever there was one and practically among the "original" headstrong Greens of the Grey Tower, but she'd had enough Gaidin over the years to know better...so she stopped and waited.

She informed the Asha'man of where in Shienar the Gateway needed to open to and held her place as the silver slash ripped apart space and time, then for the Gaidin to proceed her.

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