Sail Away With Me (attn: Bella)

[Alianora]

Liaran Sedai

Liaran folded her arms across her chest as she looked up at her husband. "You are nowhere near close to being old," she pointed out with a smile for him to show that she was not being serious. "But I won't ask you to come with me if you decide you'd rather not try." She let her arms fall back to her sides, still watching Haeden, finding it hard to even imagine a time when he would become aged and infirm as many people did. It was not a subject the Aes Sedai wanted on her mind as they began their life together, and she distracted herself by turning her head to look out over the waves.

By now, the ship was racing across the water, and Liaran spotted a few nearby dolphins leaping from the water, then plunging back in. "Haeden, look!" she called, dark eyes still focused on the sea before her. She moved away from him and towards the raker's back, hoping for a better view and that her husband would follow her.

[Bella]

Whither thou she went...

He would have followed her regardless, but the idea of seeing dolphins off in the water was intriguing on its own and something he would have wanted to see if he was alone. Being with Liaran--his Aes Sedai, his wife--just made it all the better. He was just two steps behind her before they reached the railing, Haeden able to see the water over her head without much trouble given their heights.

For a moment, he found himself a bit...breathless wasn't quite the word, but it was close. He'd read about these creatures in books, seen drawings, but he never imagined he would see them for himself. He smiled broadly, letting one hand rest lightly around his wife's waist while his eyes remained caught on the ocean view. "How amazing," he said quietly.

[Alianora]

Liaran Sedai

Liaran smiled at Haeden's words but said nothing in return, not wanting to distract him. Leaning against her husband, she watched the dolphins surfacing with a similar fascination. Unlike Haeden, she had seen them countless times as a younger woman, but she had rarely been free to just stand there and watch them. There had always been work to do, some task or another requiring her attention, and while she appreciated the moment of peace shared with her husband, it did feel a little strange to Liaran to know she had no responsibilities here.

After some time just watching the sea and its inhabitants, the Aes Sedai turned away from it, studying the ship that carried them. Without really thinking about it, her searching eyes picked out some small chores she could have been doing: ropes that could be put away, knots that needed adjusted or redone. Blinking, Liaran realized what she was doing and turned her attention back to her husband. If he was still watching the ocean, she was looking up at him.

This life...it is not one I would have ever expected to find myself living, she observed to herself. It still surprised her sometimes that she was so content with the life she once would not have been able to imagine. Liaran put an arm around Haeden as she settled herself against his side. She asked quietly, "Do you know how much it means to me, that you wanted to see where I come from?"

[Bella]

The tall Gaidin didn't hesitate to wrap an arm, strengthened from many a year in the training yards, around his wife. Her feelings over the moment practically radiated from her, though he knew he was the only one who would be able to sense it. He was perfectly happy to have it that way, as well. So much of him was reserved only for her, after all.

"I'd like to say I have an idea, yes," he replied, just as quietly and with the same level of emotion. "We have each expressed interest to know more about the other's life from before, those corners we do not know yet, and it's always...good for the heart." He smiled and gently squeezed her shoulders, just enough to be felt and convey his feeling. "This took a little more planning, but it was too big an element of your history and who you are for me to not want to experience what I can of it."

[Alianora]

Liaran Sedai

Almost as soon as she asked the question, Liaran realized that he did know, and not just because he could easily feel her emotions through their shared bond. Haeden just understood her that well, and that comprehension made her smile as she looked up at him. "I'm so glad you're here," she said simply. "When we return home, we should take a day for you to share more about your life growing up in the Tower," she suggested. "I've lived there for most of my life now, and still it is hard for me to picture what it would have been like to be a child there."

She was quiet for a while then, eventually starting to look around her again though she left her arm around her husband. This time, Liaran sighed when she stopped herself. "Perhaps I should have taken a trip like this years ago," the Aes Sedai muttered. "I think I've forgotten how to relax and enjoy having no responsibilities other than spending time together."

[Bella]

Haeden chuckled quietly, his deep voice barely audible beyond where they stood but the sound reverberating in his chest. He wasn't amused at her, of course, and he knew that she would know that. No, it was simply how once again, they were a lot alike.

He knew that if anyone looked at them just on the surface, they may think this newlywed couple was very different from one another, but they would certainly be wrong. Haeden and Liaran shared a great deal of similarities in many areas, which was what made them work well enough to not only become bondmates but also spouses.

"It is..." he began thoughtfully, "a remarkably easy thing to forget how to do. It is just so easy to lose oneself entirely in the work, especially at a place like the Grey Tower. This is not a bakery or milliner's shop where you work your day, hang up the closed sign, and return to your home for the night. Our work is all around us all the time. In many ways, it defines us.

"That makes it take much more effort to recall how to step away and then to actually do so."

[Alianora]

Liaran Sedai

When Haeden laughed, Liaran smiled, sharing his amusement. In this, they were the same: devoted to their work, often to the point of neglecting the other aspects of their lives. It was Liaran's opinion that she had begun to improve in this as she and Haeden had gradually built a life together, and she hoped that was also true for her husband. Looking up at him, she said, "I never thought of it that way, but you may be right. Being Aes Sedai....it is what I am, not merely something I do, and I would be surprised if that was not also true for you as a Warder."

She leaned slightly against his side, dark eyes still watching the endless ocean before them. "Even before I returned to the Tower, I lived aboard the ships where I worked," she commented thoughtfully. "I suppose I never learned to separate myself from it; the tasks needing done aboard a ship at sea are endless, and every one vital in order to stay afloat. Perhaps I carried that with me when I left the ships behind."

The sparkle of sunlight on the water drew Liaran's eye, and she studied it without saying anything more. The Aes Sedai did not regret choosing to make her home in the Grey Tower, but she still felt a connection to the ocean where she had been born, one she suspected would never completely leave her. "Tell me if you'd rather go somewhere else," she said to Haeden. With her husband beside her and the sea within her view, Liaran felt she might be content where they were for quite some time, as long as she could keep the thoughts of work from intruding.

[Bella]

"I am happy to stay here a while longer, or however long you wish to," he said easily. Even if he had very little (no) experience being on the water, he felt himself already acclimating to the motion and the different feeling in the air. The sights, sounds, smells were all different, but as a Gaidin, one had to know how to adapt quickly.

"I know what you mean, though, about having grown up here where the constant work is the same... I grew up in the Tower. Most people come to it from somewhere else, different ways to grow up where there were those differences, but I have never known anything else. My mother was the head of the Green Ajah and Mistress of Novices, for a time. My father was the Master of Arms.

"One might say I did not have any role models for not overworking." He laughed again, however, to show that he was not bitter for that. He had grown past most of his issues with his parents. More with his mother, since she had come back and he'd had the chance to work through them. His father was another matter, but he'd been learning to let go of that too.

[Alianora]

Liaran Sedai

Still watching the water before them, Liaran shrugged and said, "Neither did I. My parents taught me to work hard and take pride in it, and when I came to the Tower....life as a novice is just as difficult, though different, and it took me years to learn that there was more to living than work." The Aes Sedai turned away from the view of the ocean to look at her husband with a smile. Growing closer to him had helped her begin to learn that particular lesson, and she hoped that Haeden knew how much she appreciated it.

Liaran pushed a piece of her loose hair out of her eyes, and her gaze darted toward the water again. No matter how content she was to stand here and watch it, the Aes Sedai still doubted that Haeden felt the same. She wasn't certain someone who hadn't been born and raised at sea could ever share the pull towards it that she still felt, not that she minded. She valued their differences as much as their similarities, and enjoyed being able to show her husband where she had come from. Looking back towards him, Liaran asked, "Would you like to take a walk around the ship, maybe? I could tell you more about sailing, if you want, or about my life before the Grey Tower."

[Bella]

He could never experience the same feelings about the sea, in the same ways, as she did. Anymore than she could feel the same about watching a herd of horses dancing in a wide-open field. One could appreciate and admire and even love it, but it would still never be quite the same as those who had grown up with it as a part of them.

Still, it was beautiful to watch the water and he did not mind staying there to do so. Her suggestion was appealing, and he nodded with a smile. Even now that they were married, they were both people just economical in discussing their pasts. "I'd enjoy hearing about either," he said easily, "and the walk. I would like to learn as much as I can during this journey. Understand things better.

"By virtue of being in the Tower at all, you know more about where I was raised than I do about where you were." His green eyes glittered a little, showing that it was just a pragmatic statement and not anything that bothered him.