Looking for Trouble (attn: Bella)

[Alianora]

Liaran Sedai

Once they took their seats, Liaran was mostly quiet. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to Haeden, but that the only subject on her mind wasn't one she wanted to speak of here. Though she tried to redirect herself and think of other things, she kept returning to her concern over where Nykkolaia had gone, and what she might be planning next. She flipped idly through the menu, then closed it and looked around the room. It wasn't a large room, nor was it especially crowded, and it wasn't long before it was time to order.

Once that was finished, Liaran brought her attention back to the table, silently watching her Warder. Haeden hadn't said much either, and she suspected his reasons were the same as her own. It could have been awkward, but Liaran actually appreciated that they could just spend time together without trying to sustain forced conversation. She smiled at that observation, but it was quickly replaced by a startled blink and the sharp turn of her head as she felt something pull at her skirt.

At first, she thought she might have caught it underneath her chair, but Liaran looked down to see the dark blue fabric clutched in a small hand. The hand moved, shifting the material to reveal a small child beaming up at her.

"Boo!" the little boy said, looking up at Liaran as if she would understand what he wanted. Since Liaran didn't, she wasn't quite sure what to do. Where are your parents? she wondered to herself, a question that was quickly answered as she picked up the sound of footsteps rushing across the floor.

She looked away from the child and saw a tired-looking woman with dark hair like the boy's hurrying over. "I'm so sorry!" the woman said while she bent down to pick her child up. "Nykkolaia Sedai taught him that while she was watching him...and I suppose he's missing her, now she's gone."

[Bella]

If Haeden had learned anything about his Aes Sedai, and he had learned many things, it was that she was a woman of thought. She did not speak needlessly or uselessly, and she would often turn inward for long stretches to consider many things. The Gaidin could not know what those thoughts were unless she told him, but he could always tell when it was happening.

This trait was something that he appreciated about her, that he even loved about her, this deliberate nature. It never bothered him when there was quiet between them, unless the quiet was because something was upsetting her. He knew that wasn't precisely the case here, at least nothing beyond the current mystery before them.

Before either of them could speak, however, there was...suddenly a child. And a woman. And...a name.

Haeden's green eyes flickered quickly to meet his Aes Sedai's gaze before he turned back to the harried mother with a polite smile. "It's quite alright," he answered for the both of them. Whether it was alright or not didn't matter so much as wanting to speak with this woman about the name she had just spoken. "It's such a coincidence. We are actually acquaintances of Nykkolaia's."

Here, he threw in another few words that was something of a chance, but he felt he was right. "We know how much she enjoys helping out with the little ones."

[Alianora]

Liaran Sedai

Haeden looked at her, no more than that, and while she couldn't read his mind, Liaran guessed that he shared her own curiousity. As her Warder spoke, she turned her own chair slightly so that she was looking at the woman, who now held her son perched contentedly on her hip. The woman gave her the briefest glance before turning her attention, and her eyes, back towards Haeden.

"Oh yes, she was wonderful with the children, and I got so much done around the house without having to constantly keep an eye on Timol here."

The child's head popped up at the sound of his name, and though his mother was focused on Haeden, the little boy's large eyes studied Liaran. She smiled at him, and suddenly, the little boy lunged forward, a small hand darting toward her hair. Before he could get a hold on it, his mother intervened, gently taking hold of her child's hand.

"Hands off." the mother scolded, looking nervously at Liaran. Liaran smiled, trying to put her at ease.

"He's fine," the Aes Sedai said politely. "I don't care if he touches my hair."

The woman seemed to relax a little, but Liaran still thought something about her behavior was odd. Certainly she couldn't have done anything to make the woman this wary of speaking to her. She considered it, and a thought occurred to her. Before the woman could turn away from her, Liaran commented, "It sounds like Nykkolaia was a favorite with the children. Did everyone else get along with her so well?"

She remembered the mayor mentioning that Nykkolaia had seemed distant and uninterested during her conversation with him, which made her guess that the other Blue might not have been as well liked by the adults of the village as she was by the children.

The mother blinked, and her eyes shifted away from Liaran's before she spoke. "She was always polite enough, but quiet. She never had much to say to me." There was a hesitation, then the woman was looking at Haeden again, as if she did not want to say anything more to Liaran.

"There was one morning, when Timol had just learned to run, that he pulled away from me and ran towards the road. I chased him, and when I managed to catch him, I picked him up and spanked him." The woman's voice was quieter when she continued, "I mean....just once. Not hard."

To Liaran, that sounded quite normal, and she wondered why the woman seemed to feel the need to explain herself. She'd felt the strap more than once during her own childhood. It was just something that had to be done sometimes, especially if the child had done something dangerous like the woman had described. She said nothing, however, with the woman clearly not wanting to say much to her.

The woman was still speaking only to Haeden when she said, "I hadn't noticed Nykkolaia walking up the road, but when I did see her there.......the look she gave me....I could have sworn she hated me. I didn't really try to speak to her much, after that."

Liaran wondered if the woman expected a similar reaction from her, and if that was the source of her nervousness. She wanted to assure the woman that she did not care how she chose to discipline her child, but instead of saying anything, stayed quiet. Haeden would likely have more success with that than she would , since the woman was more comfortable talking to him. She looked up at the child, who rested his head on his mother's shoulder, obviously very much loved and cared for, and wondered what was going on in Nykkolaia's mind.

[Bella]

The fragment of an idea that had lodged itself inside Haeden's mind earlier in the day now felt like a puzzle with another piece added, and the image was beginning to form. It was becoming increasingly clear that Nykkolaia had little use for other people, when they were fully grown... Children she was protective of.

"We certainly can't blame you," Haeden said with his best version of a disarming smile. (It wasn't as good as his mother's, but at least it was far better than his father's.)

She seemed to relax a little, although her glance toward Liaran was still a little wary. After all, Nykkolaia had been an Aes Sedai rather than a Gaidin, so that was now the association made. "Your son seems like a lively little one. I'm sure that he'll grow up well, and strong." He bowed his head slightly to the women, who shyly returned the gesture before hurrying off.

Once she was gone, the green-eyed Gaidin's face became a more thoughtful expression. "I see a pattern forming," he commented, his voice low and pitched just for his Aes Sedai's ears.

[Alianora]

Liaran

Once the woman and child had hurried away, Liaran leaned forward to hear what Haeden was saying. "I see it too," she agreed quietly. Then she raised her head, looking around to make sure nobody was close enough to hear them. "It still seems strange, though." Her voice dropped to a whisper as she said, "When I think about what we learned earlier, I can understand why Nykkolaia did what she did. Not that I approve of it...but I do understand." She was being deliberately vague in case anyone else did happen to overhear, but Liaran was fairly sure that Haeden could follow her thoughts. "The woman we just spoke to, though, didn't seem anything like that and it sounded as if Nykkolaia was just as hostile towards her." The Aes Sedai sighed. "I wish I knew what she's thinking."

As she finished speaking, Liaran caught sight of a serving girl with a tray of food heading towards their table. She pushed her chair back and sat up straighter, leaving anything else that might need to be said to wait until they could be alone. Once the food was set down, Liaran did little more than pick at hers. It wasn't that the soup she'd ordered was bad, but that she didn't feel particularly hungry with her mind as preoccupied as it was. She stirred her spoon idly around the bowl, staring at the food as she thought. Eventually, she put the spoon down and gave up trying to interest herself in eating.

Liaran lifted her eyes from the table to look at Haeden. "I should probably go to my room and start looking over the map," she told him with just a bit of reluctance. It had to be done, so she would make herself do it, regardless of how much she detested such tedious work.

[Bella]

Haeden was able to eat more of his meal, although he was just as distracted. The fact of the matter was that men were less frequently drawn away from their food, and he had the soldier's mindset to eat when the food was in front of you. He would have tried to encourage her to eat more, since it was important to sustain one's self, but he didn't. He could tell it wouldn't help.

When she said she was going to go look at the map, he smiled a little with understanding. "I'll come with you and help," he said easily. "I have a bit of information about the area that I have heard of late, maybe it'll help."

With their meal done and paid for, they left the table to go to her room. Once they were there, they were at least granted more privacy for the topic. While she fetched the map, he picked up the earlier thread. "Perception is important," he commented. "The mother of the child we met today may not have been like the father of the other boy, but perhaps Nykkolaia still perceived a similarity of harming a child."

He moved to the table to help her spread the map down, putting a couple small objects to the corners to hold it flat. "Nykkolaia is the Aes Sedai with the terrible scars on her face, is she not?" he asked curiously, an idea forming.

((OOC: In case you don't recall the character's physical description, the answer is yes. XD ))

[Alianora]

Liaran

Haeden's offer to help with the map earned him a grateful smile from his Aes Sedai as she stood from her seat. She hadn't wanted to ask him to assist with something so terribly boring, but Liaran greatly appreciated his willingness to work with her despite that. She didn't quite hurry from the common room, but she wasn't slow about it either, looking forward to the greater privacy her room offered them.

When the door closed behind them, Liaran retrieved the map and unrolled it on her room's small table. While she did that, she listened to Haeden's comments on the problem they faced. Everything her Warder said about the situation made sense, but it worried her. If Nykkolaia could see no difference between the abusive father she'd killed and a mother who was only trying to discipline her child, then just about anyone who had a child, or interacted with them at all, might be another potential victim. It was knowledge that did not sit well with Liaran.

She sighed, sitting down at one of the two chairs near the little table, and bent her head over the unrolled map, trying to identify where Jornhill was located. She had only just begun to study it when Haeden spoke again. Her head turned towards him, and Liaran blinked in confusion at what he asked.

What does that have to do with any of this?

She couldn't think of any reason Nykkolaia's appearance might matter, when it was fairly simple for a channeler to change such things, but Liaran nodded anyways.

"Yes, she is." Liaran said. She could tell Haeden was thinking hard about something, but couldn't know precisely what that something was without being told. She looked into his green eyes, curious now, and asked, "Why?"

[Bella]

Haeden put his hands on the table, leaning forward to look at the map for a few moments even though he wasn't really seeing it. After a moment, he lifted his gaze to meet hers. Her, he saw. He always saw her.

"I don't know that it helps us find her," he said. His words came a little slow, as his thoughts moved while he spoke. "But I'm just wondering about her motive. I'm just trying to understand." He frowned a little, pale brows knitting. "I wonder if she received the wounds that caused those scars as a child...is what I'm thinking.

"It might explain her actions, and maybe what weakened her mind in the first place..." He trailed off, looking at the map again. "She didn't kill the mother of the son we met today," he said. "She simply very clearly disliked her. She may have killed the other man who was a father, who seemingly did more harm to his son. She may not have broken completely, yet...but if this is her work, it may be coming."

The thought settled in deep, and sat ill with him.

[Alianora]

Liaran Sedai

Liaran didn't respond immediately, needing some time to think about what Haeden had said. When she did speak, she wore a frown that wasn't meant for him. "That....makes a lot of sense," she said with reluctance. "I'd been trying to figure out her motives myself, but hadn't come up with anything. If something happened to her when she was young, it would certainly explain why she feels so protective towards children."

The Aes Sedai was quiet for a moment then, steeling herself to voice the rest of her thoughts. "And...I'm afraid she might not be far from breaking down. I've been thinking about the kidnappings Nykkolaia solved, and the murder afterwards, and if just maybe if she was responsible, and if that was when all this started. There's no way to find out now if that's true, but the possibility is still there. " She sighed and continued, "That happened quite a few years ago now, and with what we learned here, that she was the last one seen with the victim here, and her anger toward the woman disciplining her child.....it seems to me that she needs less and less reason to target someone. If she truly feels she's protecting these children, especially from something she experienced, she's not going to stop until we find her."

Liaran was still frowning when she turned her attention back to the map and the search for Jornhill. There was something about maps of the shorebound lands that had always confounded her. She could navigate a ship anywhere on the ocean, but finding her way on land, with all the little towns and villages, felt absolutely beyond her. With effort, she finally located the tiny dot representing the village where they were staying now, but she couldn't see anything else of potential interest around it. A tattooed finger rested on the map to mark the spot as Liaran muttered, "You said you had some information about the area, didn't you? I'm not seeing anything very close that would be big enough to have an orphanage, I don't think." It didn't really have to be that close if Nykkolaia could Travel, but Liaran didn't even want to think about that possibility yet.

The Aes Sedai scowled at the map, shaking her head in frustration, mainly with herself. She considered her difficulty with this task to be a failing of hers, and would not have allowed anyone besides her bonded Warder to see it. She raised her head, allowing herself to take her eyes off the map, and hoped whatever Haeden had heard could offer them both some sort of assistance.

[Bella]

Haeden shifted his hand where it rested on the table. It moved just enough to rest, side to side, with hers. He knew her to be highly focused when there was work at hand and he would not try to dissuade from that, but he was compelled to ease the discomfiture he felt over the bond.

"The fact is, it doesn't have to be a very large town to house an orphanage," he said thoughtfully, his eyes roving over the map with concentration even while his hand remained against hers. "But some of what I've heard of late from various reports, both in the Yards and personally, is that one town is expanding rapidly.

"It's all fairly new, so maps are not up to date to suggest its size. It's also not incredibly far from here." He pointed with his other hand to a spot on the map that noted the town of Harmon. "Here. It's about...a day's ride, perhaps. Its expansion could easily include an orphanage."