A Child's Plea (Attn: Bella/Natlya Gaidin)

The everyday life of the inhabitants of the Grey Tower. This board is for general daily roleplay around the Tower, in the corridors, rooms and halls that make up most of the building.
Jack
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A Child's Plea (Attn: Bella/Natlya Gaidin)

Post by Jack » September 6th, 2020, 4:21 am

From the eyes of Calisye do’Rai, child of the Tower “... Little Mistress, you mustn’t interrupt your father ... “

The Tower servant grunted as the little girl kicked her in the shin and began to run off. The young pig-tailed redhaired girl was full of energy and determination to see her father, even after the man had told his only child to stay put.

But the nine-year-old was stubborn as steel and full of Murandian fire.

The little girl, dressed in purple-and-white gowns, rushed away from the Tower maid assigned to watch her and toward the direction she assumed her father was in.

Her father, of course, being Alanshir Sodar do’Rai of the Grey Ajah, second Seat of the do’Rai House ... and whatever nonsense teachers filled her head with.

Right now, Calisye do’Rai just wanted her father, who she saw only once every few months ... and she was being denied that right.

At the moment, the young blue-eyed girl was running amok through the Tower halls, in search of her father ...

... when she ran headfirst into another person. Cali looked up and saw ... someone who vaguely looked like her mother. Red-haired, hazel eyes. Shorter than her mother, but still strong ... and pretty.

And she wore a pretty cape that changed colors, just like her father’s friend.

Cali immediately locked her arms around the woman’s left leg like a vice and refused to let go.

“I want my pa!” she shouted, more at the woman she was hugging than at the poor servant assigned to babysit her and her baby brother.

“But young Lady, your father is in a conference with the lord of Aldany ...”

Aldany, a minor province of Gheldan ...

“ ... I want my da! Milo is not doing well! He threw up red stuff ...”

The servant looked at the Gaidin ... “Young Lord Milo has been taken to the Infirmary ... “

Cali relaxed her grip from the pretty lady and swiftly kicked the mean lady in her leg akin before latching onto the former immediately.

“Only da can fix him! Or Uncle Walker or Aunt Nyoma!”

Almost as if by beck and call, another person rounded the corner. A young blond-haired man in dark black with stern brown eyes. He looked at the girl like she was a minor irritant and turned her wrath on the servant.

“You were instructed to keep the girl and any news away from the Asha’man while he was ...”

Cali immediately detached herself from the pretty lady’s leg and immediately crossed the small distance between the three grown-ups. And she kicked the man hard in the shin.

“Don’t talk to her like that!” she howled. “I want to see my brother, not make people hurt!” She kicked the man again.

The man raised a hand and swung at her ... and .... the pretty lady stopped it. Cali latched onto her leg once more. “I want my da! Uncle Walker! Aunt Nyoma! I want to see my brother!”
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Re: A Child's Plea (Attn: Bella/Natlya Gaidin)

Post by Bella » September 7th, 2020, 2:04 am

What in all the bloody, flaming...

Natlya's perfectly innocuous, boring walk through the corridors of her home--through the vaulted halls of the Grey Tower--had taken a very abrupt and bizarre turn. Honestly, however, she wasn't really surprised. This place seemed to attract bizarre things like a moth flying around the flame of a candle.

She truly, honestly had no clue what was going on. The words seemingly meshed together in the high-pitched voice of a child and the scolding voices of adults to follow, but the reflexes of a child sometimes beat in her orphanage combined with those of a well-trained Gaidin and her hands snapped up and caught the man's arm.

"We do not strike children here," she said. The words were flatly delivered, and yet the weight of them could not be missed.

Nat shoved the man away, her hazel eyes piercing him in place. Then, for reasons far unknown to her, she opened her mouth and said, "I'll tend to the child."

You'll what now?

That little voice was trying to do the thing again, but she ignored it. As she generally did. She just needed everyone to shut up and go away for a moment. "Go, go!" she shooed the servants away like bugs. They seemed to hesitant but she gave them A Look that suggested they were going to be skewered if they stayed.

Finally, when they were gone, Nat looked down. "Okay, let's try this--" She began trying to pull the girl away, but it proved harder than she expected. "Little one, I can't talk to you or help you if you don't release my leg." Really, she could have done both either way, but it just felt weird.

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Re: A Child's Plea (Attn: Bella/Natlya Gaidin)

Post by Jack » September 7th, 2020, 3:31 am

Cali refused to let go of the pretty lady until after the mean man was gone. The man for his part glowered at the Gaidin and hissed, “You’ll regret this. That child needs to be taught a lesson ...”

That earned him a slap upside the back of the head from a suddenly irritated serving woman.

“You’ll do no such thing, you bloody brute! Now go inform the Alanshir Asha’man of this situation or I’ll have the nice young Gaidin tossed into the Mistress of Kitchen’s pots,” she said sharply. It was a serious enough threat to send the man huffing off.

The woman’s eyes locked on the Gaidin and smiled.

“Gaidin, the young Lady Caliyse, by all means, is your responsibility until you return her to her father, Alanshir do'Rai Asha'man,” she said. “Little Mistress, your da will be in Milo’s infirmary room soon. Gaidin, good luck.”

Cali glared up at the woman, as if ready to kick the woman again. But she thought better about it. She wasn’t the mean one, the man that just left was.

And then they were alone, Cali still clinging to the pretty lady’s leg like it were a log in a lake.

Until the pretty woman in the cape told her to let go.

And tears began falling from Cali’s blue eyes. She grabbed the woman’s hands and began tugging her toward where the Healers were, or from what she remembered.

“Milo just fell down and starting coughing up red stuff ... blood,” Cali said, sobbing. “Da or Aunt Nyoma or Uncle Walker ... only they can make him feel better. We were playing, food was brought to us by someone the mean man talks to... Milo ate the cakes ... but I don’t like them, they smelled funny.”

“I want my da! Please! I want to see Milo!” She began tugging harder on pretty lady's arm toward the Infirmary. Or toward her father's direction. She was torn.
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Re: A Child's Plea (Attn: Bella/Natlya Gaidin)

Post by Bella » September 9th, 2020, 10:12 pm

"Child, please," Natlya said, pulling her hands free and then kneeling in front of the girl. She wasn't far off from the age that Nat was when she left the orphanage, if her guess was correct. "We must be calm, or else we will not be any help to your brother or able to find your father." She kept her voice calm and even, but serious.

She waited a moment to see if her words were heard and then continued, "Your brother has already been taken to the infirmary, yes? Do you know where your father is?" Both were things she wanted confirmation of, as information had been lost amid the chatter and shin-kicking of the past few moments.

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Re: A Child's Plea (Attn: Bella/Natlya Gaidin)

Post by Jack » September 10th, 2020, 12:31 am

Cali, as much as any nine-year-old fraught with emotion could do, stopped and looked at the now-kneeling pretty lady. She had hair very much like Cali’s and her mother, only slightly darker.

Her blue eyes shifted slightly in the changing lightly, briefly taking on a lavender hue before. Cali took a deep breath -- and then lunged at the pretty lady in a tight hug.

“Milo is in the -- infirmary, that place where the Healers are,” she said. “Yellow-white walls, nice ladies and men and nice-smelling herbs.”

She detached herself from the pretty lady and looked around where she was exactly in the hallway. “Papa is that way,” she pointed, toward one of the adjoining corridors leading to a Grey Ajah corridor. “He said he was meeting with the man with smelly onion breath that dresses like a gleeman ... only he doesn’t tell stories or sing, just makes weird gestures.”

Cali looked in the direction of her father and toward the way that led to the Infirmary. Her freckled face wrinkled slightly and she frowned as if trying to make a serious decision.

“The nice lady told that mean man to go get papa, and he’ll go get papa because the nice lady in the Kitchens scares him,” she said as if coming to a conclusion. She gripped the pretty lady’s hand and pulled her toward the Infirmary’s direction. “He’ll be there when we get to Milo. Milo’s ma isn’t at home so papa will be there.”

It was spoken not with a nine-year-old’s optimism but a precious certainty reserved for children much older.

‘I want to go see Milo. He needs his big sister,” she said.

---

Cali quietly grasped the pretty lady’s hand as if it were a link to the living world as they walked into the Yellow Ajah Infirmary. It was a serene place, its yellow-white walls supposed to be calming,

Cali never liked it. It reminded her of the place where her ma would be whenever she returned to the Tower, some times horribly injured. Ma said it was her duty to protect other people, but Cali wished she would choose another duty.

A few sets of eyes went directly to the unique pair of visitors, with one Asha’man nodding briefly toward a tall Aes Sedai with blonde hair drawn in a single braid, her heart-shaped face scrunched in confusion as she read over a ledger.

Cali immediately burst forward, pulling the pretty lady with her before quickly latching onto the Aes Sedai.

“Aunt Nyoma! Is Milo okay? Did you save him? Did Uncle Walker? Is Da here?” she bombarded the Aes Sedai with questions.

The Aes Sedai simply placed a hand on Cali’s head and murmured, “Calisye Lysira do’Rai, hush now. Your brother is fine ... your father is just over there ... “

In a nearby room, a tall Asha’man stood at the bedside of a young dark-haired boy, with a white-robed servant just nearby ... and before any adult could do anything Cali started walking in that direction.

Sharp lavender eyes locked on to the Gaidin as the Nyoma Sedai evaluated Natlya Cade.

“You’re Natyla Cade Gaidin,” Nyoma murmured. “Jerid Walker speaks very highly of you ... and he doesn’t do that frequently before or since his return.” Her eyes fell on the girl approaching the nearby room, and beyond to the Asha’man and the boy.

“He didn’t waste time getting here. He just opened a Gateway in the traveling area, stepped through ... and watched as a circle of Healers do their work. He’s a good father, that one,” Nyoma said. “Most men would have interceded, interrupted, but that one waited ... before he started demanding answers. Milo’s always been a frail child but a reaction as bad as he had was obvious -- poison and a severe one at that. It was a good thing, his reaction -- otherwise, he would be dead.”

Nyoma tilted her head and murmured, “Begging your pardon, Gaidin, but I wasn’t aware Alanshir had bonded a Warder. How else would you know to bring ...”

A sharp scream interrupted the Aes Sedai ... a scream from Cali. Nyoma’s eyes flickered beyond that to the servant within a few paces of the Asha’man, knife drawn and ready to strike.
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Re: A Child's Plea (Attn: Bella/Natlya Gaidin)

Post by Bella » September 16th, 2020, 6:02 pm

"What the--"

Those were the first words out of Natlya's mouth since she'd walked into the infirmary, having either watched the child or stood listening politely to the Yellow Sister that was clearly on top of the situation. She may have made her excuses and left, given she had escorted the girl to her father and brother's side, but...

Nothing ever goes as expected, does it?

The Gaidin already knew how much space was between her and the bed with the sick child where the father was standing vigil. After all, she knew how far everything was from here in every space she entered. It was one of the many "states of awareness" that had been drilled into her during her training, and later reinforced by the difficulties of life.

There wasn't time to draw her sword just yet, even though it was strapped on her because it just about always was. The servant had a knife out, held overhead like he was about to stab straight through the Asha'man's sternum. Even though she was surrounded by a couple of channelers that would likely react just as quickly as she had, Nat's instincts still kicked in.

She was moving forward in a flash, leaping forward. The toe of her boot hit the bottom rail edge of the child--Milo's--bed as she leaped over his bed with enough clearance to not come close to touching him. As she moved, her hand caught the lip of a metal pitcher of water on the sideboard just beside/behind the bed.

Her foot had no sooner touched the ground than the pitcher was in motion. The metal made a sickening crack in the servant's head before the knife had fully lowered or come in touch with the Asha'man.

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Re: A Child's Plea (Attn: Bella/Natlya Gaidin)

Post by Jack » September 16th, 2020, 8:28 pm

Alanshir do’Rai Asha’man Alanshir’s steel-grey eyes lifted at the sound of his daughter’s scream -- a rare sound but one he still knew all too well -- and saidin rushed into him like a firey tornado.

He bent the Source to his will even as he felt others suddenly grasp the male half of the Power. But even before the first weaves could be spun, a small red blur was already moving toward him -- and clearing his four-year-old son’s bed without a hitch.

Alanshir’s heard rather than saw the sound of a life-altering crack as something collided with the skull of the would-be assassin of the Asha’man and his son. But his eyes gaze didn’t flicker back to his savior or the now-injured servant.

Instead, his eyes were on his stunned red-haired daughter in front of them, and beyond her Nyoma Sedai. The Yellow was likewise in awe, albeit revealed only in a simple blink of her eyes and a mildly irritated twist of her mouth.

And the Asha’man’s sharp steel-grey eyes narrowed in on something he hadn’t seen before -- a young pale woman in servant’s garb, with hallowed eyes that seemed hard to register in Alanshir’s mind. The young woman had a knife in either hand and was within two steps of either his daughter. One knife left the woman’s hand, flung directly at the Gaidin who had saved the day and the other cutting toward Cali.

Fine filaments of invisible air flew forward, tightening around the woman in heartbeats while a second weave deflected the thrown dagger before it could get within a foot of the Gaidin, sinking into a nearby wooden shelf. The bindings were so sudden that the woman jerked in surprise and her knife clattered to the floor. A twist of the Asha’man’s fingers and the would-be assassin was flung against a nearby wall.

Nyoma jumped visibly this time, her lavender eyes wide as she turned. From the goosebumps raising on his forearms, Alanshir could only surmise that the Yellow Aes Sedai added her own measure of security. Alanshir tied off his weaves even as he saw two other Asha’man and a number of Warders approach the commotion with various weapons half-drawn.

A look from Nyoma stymied any such notion of drawing steel in her Infirmary. And when the Yellow saw the silent plea from the Asha’man standing over his son, she nodded and moved to take the hand of a shaking but stunned little girl.

“Come, Cali, your father and Natlya Gaidin will look after your brother,” the Aes Sedai said softly. She was met with resistance as Cali refused to budge and instead tried to tug the Yellow toward Alanshir.

“Calisye Lysira do’Rai, go with your Aunt Nyoma to her apartment and I will be there shortly,” the Asha’man said firmly but assuredly. The young girl nodded slightly and finally relented to the Yellow’s gentle nudge out of the Infirmary.

When the Asha’man and Warders moved toward the bound but still struggling woman, Alanshir shook his head. “That thing stays put until I can question it as to why it and its companion attacked.”

Alanshir looked back for the first time even as he gripped the hand of his still-sleeping son, suddenly taking into full account the small redhaired Gaidin holding the unconventional weapon used to render the unlikely assassin unconscious and bleeding. Judging by the slight motions of the man’s chest, he was still alive, if only just. A brief jerk of his head and a Yellow Asha’man and his Warder collected the downed man and his weapon ...

... and those steel-grey eyes were wholly on the young Gaidin.

“Thank you ... Natlya Gaidin,” his mind seizing upon the name Nyoma had spoken, “for saving my son’s life -- and my own -- and apparently for seeing my daughter here safely in the first place,“I daresay that servant wasn’t expecting you deliver a drink of water with such ... finality.”

A mirthless smile touched his lips but no humor touched his round, steel eyes. A genuine show of gratitude reflected in his gaze -- and a controlled anger directed at another source. Alanshir looked back at his son and brushed a hand through the boy’s black hair.

Thank the light Milo was asleep he thought. “Nyoma Sedai told me poison was the culprit, but I want to know why and who ...” he murmured, more to himself than anyone else.

His grey eyes flickered back to the servant woman., “Have you ever seen a Soulless before, Gaidin? A Grey Man?” he asked, nodding to the bound and still struggling creature. Even though it was there, struggling against its invisible restraints, Alanshir’s eyes still had a hard time perceiving it. “It’s like a Warder in a fancloak, difficult to register and so inconspicuous ... even after it slits your throat and walks away.”
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Re: A Child's Plea (Attn: Bella/Natlya Gaidin)

Post by Bella » September 24th, 2020, 12:07 am

"I daresay that servant wasn’t expecting you deliver a drink of water with such ... finality."

Natlya arched a pale brow, looking back with outward emotionless in the direction of the second assassin that had nearly taken her own life before she'd fully had the chance to turn around. She liked to think she still could have taken care of herself, but thanks to the channelers in the room, it had not been necessary.

"I have seen many things, Asha'man," Nat said formally, bowing her head--though her eyes never dropped. "I cannot, however, say that I believe I have met one of the Soulless before. It is an experience I would have gladly avoided, if given the choice, but I am glad I was able to be here at a time I could be useful. Your daughter is very...persuasive." A faint smirk lifted one side of her mouth, even as her eyes continued to survey their surroundings.

The peaceful walls of her home were not so welcoming for the moment.

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Re: A Child's Plea (Attn: Bella/Natlya Gaidin)

Post by Jack » September 24th, 2020, 1:57 am

Alanshir chuckled softly at the redhaired Gaidin’s description of his daughter.

“Cali gets that from her mother,” he said with some humor, looking back at the woman. “And probably quite ostensibly from her namesake as well.”

The former, his ex-wife, was a Green Aes Sedai as stubborn and unyielding as stone, the latter was -- the wife and Warder of a very old friend.

His steel-grey eyes shifted back toward the girl who still struggled against her invisible bonds. He frowned, looking from his still sleeping son, to the Warder who looked now for any still hidden dangers that might still linger.

“My daughter also knows not to worry — Milo has always been prone to fevers, but she’s also very precocious for her age,” the Grey Asha’man murmured. “She would not run from her nanny and seek out help without cause.”

The Asha’man straightened and with one last squeeze of his son’s hand, he was past the bed. The slender broad-shouldered Murandian moved with purpose, his face like marble as he walked toward the Shadowsworn.

“Gaidin, with me please,” he said cooly as he passed the woman. It was much more a request than an order. If there was anything to be known about the Asha’man, it was that he did not often issue orders to anyone and even rarer to Warders.

Today was a rare day, but such exceptions ended with treading ordering Warders about. He respected the Yards too much. As he walked from his son, two Tower Guard were quick to replace him near his son’s bed. Without so much as a thought, he drew a curtain to conceal the boy from the greater Infirmary.

Steel-grey eyes locked on a small Yellow with brown hair and green eyes and a tall mountain of a man with a shaved head save for the braid of black hair and a face of granite. Yeldin Asha’man and his Warder Walden, both friends of a sort.

“Yeldin, with your blessing and permission ... “ he murmured. The Yellow nodded and Alanshir’s eyes were on the struggling would-be assassin. “Walden, please find my aide Sebastian and have him brought here. He should be in one of the Grey Ajah’s conference side chambers on this floor. Should he find reason to delay or resist ... “

The mountain man nodded grimly and said plainly, “As you ask, Asha’man and at any sign of deception ... his splattered remains will be delivered nonetheless.”

As the Warder turned and left, one of the remaining Tower Guard blinked and muttered, “Was he joking?”

Alanshir smirked. “We’ll see.” He looked at Yeldin simply. “Brother, may I have this area to myself with Natyla Gaidin.” The other Asha’man nodded before giving order to have the immediate area cleared.

And there were only three of them: Alanshir, Natlya and the woman who had tried to murder his daughter and the Warder beside him.

Saidin was alive in him, burning an icy hole clear to his soul. He wrestled it fiercely and assumed command much as he did with any negotiation. A subtle twist of his fingers and the air bands he had woven tightened. A second weave formed and snapped forward -- a nettled blanket meant to irritate rather than inflict pain but still imply the latter.

“I want answers, creature, and I will have them,” he said simply. “I would know why you and yours dared to attack my children.”

“You won’t harm me,” the woman said with emotionless laugh. “You have rules because you’re a good man, as the traitor said.”

Steel eyes narrowed and the nettle’s points sharpened ever so slightly. “Good men don’t need rules, child,” he said quietly. He smiled but there was no mirth in it or his eyes. “Jerid Walker himself trained me and you should not ask why I have so many.”

If a Soulless could show emotion, it sparked then in this woman’s eyes -- at the mention of a name and the implications associated with it.

Alanshir looked sideways at Natlya and took a half-step back as he placed his hands behind his back. “But seeing as how you almost skewered my very capable Gaidin here, especially after she quenched his thirst for blood, I’ll let her do the initial questioning. I mean she is ever so good with blunt objects and getting results.”

His smile was even, emotionless. “I mean, if you would like to, Gaidin,” he said, offering up the opportunity. The Asha’man’s eyes held something else. Barely-maintained restraint revealed by clenched fists held behind his back.

Grey Asha’man training was one thing; a father’s wrath was another thing entirely. Both were at war with each other right now. And it was best to have an objective party interject.
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"We all suffer. It's how we move past it that defines us."

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Location: New England

Re: A Child's Plea (Attn: Bella/Natlya Gaidin)

Post by Bella » September 29th, 2020, 10:44 pm

Natlya was surprised at first, but she got over it quickly as she put two and two together and came up with fathers shouldn't interrogate the people that nearly killed their children.

That aside, however, interrogation was not actually her area of expertise. There were others far more qualified than her in the fine art of extracting information…but they weren't here now. Or those here who might be were compromised toward the process. That left, well, her apparently. She arched her brow slightly but then inclined her head to acknowledge her understanding of the situation of all its subtext.

"Let's try something easy and see where that gets us" Nat said with deceptive light ease. "Who sent you?"

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