Bleed for Me [ATTN Jaryd]

[Carra]

Carraidhin Glaisne We made a pact and said forever
You won't hear the footsteps
But I'll be following
You won't feel the shadows
But they'll be closing in
You won't see me coming
But I'll rip you at the seams
You won't touch the silence
But you can hear the screams

There were traps in the woods that lay beyond the lines of Baerlon outside a little cottage on the mountainside. Cleverly hidden with twine laced around branches and sticks. Finding one had cost her, but it taught her how to look closer for the traps it made it easier to navigate the lush woods even though it forced her higher into the treeline. She had to give him the nod of appreciation to making it easier to hunt.

Carraidhin crouched next to one of the traps laid out, Sean far from earshot, a simple weave of Illusions that took little Saidar was placed around the plants that hit the trap. Changing the shape of the leaves, adding a slight color change. Weaves so simple that a Novice could do it and incredibly useful to keep in her arsenal, Carra made a small thank you in her mind to the teacher that had taught them the versatility of the illusion weave and completed her work by tying the weave off.

When she was done with setting her illusion weaves, Carra went to work setting up wards. Wardings to push people away and some to ward away animals and birds. It took a little bit of channeling here and there, but as Sean had set traps all around his little cottage, so Carra did the same. Changing the field to specifically put the man at odds with the environment he must have taken a great to learn. She knew it would make him upset and angry, but most of all Carra wanted to take away his control. Sean always had control over himself and his environment, peers and soldiers. What he never could do was control her, merely hang onto a leash in hopes that she would not bite back.

This time Carra was out for blood.
[carra]~~~~8~@[/carra] Previous Storyline:

• (Starts in Carra's Arches... Hints in Jaryd's storyline as well)
  1- http://www.grey-tower.net/Board/viewtop ... f=11&t=547
  2- http://www.grey-tower.net/Board/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=543
  3- http://www.grey-tower.net/Wiki/index.ph ... Old_Wounds

[Carra]

You won't taste the poison
Hidden in my kiss
You won't face the darkness
So I'll just walk right in
You can't outrun the wicked
I'll keep you standing still
You refuse to be the hunted
But I'm out for the kill

The room was empty save the shackles that were hammered deep into the earth, burnt red stained the ground from the blood that had leaked down and into its depths leaving it impossible to clean were someone to bother. Perhaps a whitewash of water kept the room from smelling worse than it did but it could not hide the old scent of urine or feces that had been released here for who knew how long. Not bothering with the light of a candle, her eyes having adjusted to what light came from the outside room and the daylight beyond was enough to see all that she needed to see. A hand moved unconsciously to rub the other arm and the untold scars underneath. Flashes of memory the burned into her heart and the depth of its cold threatened to spill into the small touch of warmth she had found over the previous years at the Tower, knowing that he had touched and harmed someone that was hers.

Never before did Carraidhin feel possessive of anyone. She did for a time hold feelings of attachment, but the possessiveness that she held in her heart for only a few had grown enough to fill gaps in her heart and leave herself feeling unusually and uncomfortably vulnerable. Her mind dared not linger on Amadie and what that connection could now be, but knowing that Lirievin had been here. That he had… caused her pain. It made her heart grow cold and yet burn a dark flame that threatened her control.

She had come this far, and she would not let him bring her back to the point where life, her life and all others, were meaningless. But to that end there was an untold debt that he had to pay. One that revelled in the idea of collecting, yet sad that it had come to this. She held onto that sadness knowing it was the only thing that kept her human.

She had left behind all her traps, wardings and illusions, and had returned to the little cottage in the woods not far from Baerlon to both rest and wait. Sean would spend time hunting, and when he slept, he would hunt her in her dreams even though she protected herself. It bothered her that she could not reach out to learn what condition Lirievin was in, of how Jaryd was faring with the Tower. It took sheer will and discipline not to just open a portal and walk home, but she neither knew the area well enough and despite all her little weaves places throughout the day it was still enough channeling that she was quite tired. Tired and hungry.

Methodically she went through the room that Sean had abandoned in his chase, she had already taken in the spar that had turned over tables and left weapon marks around the room, she found very little. What food she had, she ate carefully and quickly. Anything left behind was likely fine but with the marks around the room Carra had no way of knowing if it had been there before she had arrived or if Jaryd had come across some trouble when he came for Liri after she got Sean out.

Finally, after Carra was comfortable enough with the setting, she set one last ward that would set off a warning and wake her should anyone approach or enter the little cottage. With only one door and limited window space, the roof and floor devoid of any entrance, she felt safe enough then to close her eyes and get what little sleep she could. Dreams warded and what could be considered a safe place was safe enough that within moments she was asleep.
[carra]~~~~8~@[/carra]

[Carra]

So I creep
To watch you bleed for me


Warding a dream was a simple weave, but one that needed to be maintained while asleep which made it dangerous for the lower ranks. It kept a dream safe from the dangers that lingered in Ter’Aran’Rhoid, but Carra needed it for a completely different reason. At her feet, changed to the spot where Lirievin had once been, a man of dark eyes and a sadistic laugh now sat. Chained, and even woven to stay with threads of air and earth to keep him in place. It was not his body that Carra was concerned of, but his mind.

"I do wonder." She said, a now cleaned knife tapping her cheek, her arms folded as she looked down at her caught prey. Capturing him had been easy and perhaps killing him out right would be easier still, but old wounds bled deep and so he sat there with razor cuts from her daggers. Saidar could not be used as a weapon but it made for a very fascinating and useful tool. "If a warding can keep a dreamwalker out, could it keep the dreamwalker in?" Her voice nearly singsong, but the depth of cold ever lingered and her eyes of stone held no room for sympathy.

Sean spat at the floor, hitting Carra's feet with saliva and blood. She neither flinched nor attempted to wipe it away. What bothered her more was his silence. So full of smug arrogance it was almost unnerving to have him so silent but her memory never forgot how many times she had screamed out and there had been no reply. He would not scream for her, he would fight hard to never give that satisfaction and Carraidhin knew it. But, ashes and fire... she would make him sweat it out along with the blood that would drain away whatever was left of his resolve.

Saidar filled her, and the warding was set around him. "Time for a little nap." The smile was anything but warm, the ter'angreal pulled from a pocket, Carra left him behind to sit in a chair. She had someone she needed to find and she would no longer dare wait to find her.
[carra]~~~~8~@[/carra] Dead in the Water So many questions
But I'm talking to myself
I know that you can't hear me any more
Not anymore
So much to tell you
And most of all goodbye
But I know that you can't hear me any more


Ter’Aran’Rhoid was a blur, and it took a moment to settle her mind enough that she was able to maintain her Tower dress without the Amyrlin Stole. The short time in her leathers hunting Sean had brought her mind back to a different time and place, the dream world wanting to giver her mind what it wanted, but the discipline of years stilling her mind and settling into the Grey Tower was enough to set her clothes firmly in place.

It was need that Amadie had used to find Lirievin in the dream world, and now it was need that Carraidhin used to seek our Amadie. Remembering her hair, chocolate and always perfect that spoke loudly of her family's wealth and nobility. Eyes just as rich that shared no more and no less than she had meant, Need Carra pulled, shifted and trying to bring herself closer to Amadie, but all she found was herself in a dreamlike room in the Grey Tower that Carra had left behind in haste.

Words threatened to overthrow her, remnants of her room still lingered in Ter’Aran’Rhoid but slowly things disappeared as if they were being packed away and moved. Enough days had passed that still they would return but Carra could only see that movement as Ter’Aran’Rhoid trying to keep a memory but the current of the waking world was changing it. Her heart beat within her chest, pulsing rhythmically as blood kept her alive, but since leaving her behind for this hunt Carraidhin didn’t dare touch her heart and to then feel what it wanted her to feel.

Emotion was a weakness, it gave into rage and passion. Logic held its place but even what she had made as a Red felt like it came from the right place even if the passion for personal desires was lost. Carra never truely let herself WANT anything. She became a Red because the Pattern needed her to be one. She became Aes Sedai because the Tests told her to. She became Amyrlin because the Grey Tower needed her to be Amyrlin. But none of it she truly wanted.

Alone she stood int he room of her closest friend, the objects in the room shifting in and out. Her fists clenched and in her mind, her heart, a voice screamed out. A pain ripped harshly away as even the memories, her face started to fade. Her green eyes would always smile kindly at her... no Brown. How could she remember that wrong? Amadie’s eyes were brown. Her friend’s eyes was brown.

“Light, ...” The voices in her head halted as it came out like a flow dam reaching the brink of capacity and now teetered on the edge of spilling over. The halting realization that what she had taken for granted was now simply gone. She had a friend in Amadie and for the past few years had basically ignored her friend for the greater good of the damn Tower. Carraidhin would have trusted Amadie with her life, and now… Carra had sold that friendship for secrets and lies without ever realizing the cost.

Love had never crossed her mind, but as tears brimmed her eyes in the world of dreams she could already see the nightmares that started to form around her. Fears and danger could be found in those darkened clouds that lingered in the so-called shadows of Ter’Aran’Rhoid and as much time as she felt she could have in this world, it grew short. She was not a Dreamwalker and carried only simple tools to survive for a short time here. There would be no time to find Jaryd or Lirievin. No one could save her, but it was time to go home.

Her dress changed, from simple finery to a simply made gown of rich reds free of embroidery or lace. Who was she kidding. Carra was born every much a noble and into wealth as Amadie had. Choices and the world fought to break her and keep her from being who she had been born to be. Carra could never be Aramisa. She could never be Taeadra. She could never be what she never had, but… She could be who she had become.

A last lingering tear slipped down her cheek as she tried to touch something, anything, that had been Amadie’s. It slipped away and remained as it had been. Just out of reach, lingering and tempting her. Too late to make amends, to late to say the words to her that Carra had always meant to say. It was all too late, and now her closest friend was now lost to her, only in memory and maybe in a dream.

“I’m so sorry.” Carra whispered, knowing it wasn’t enough. But it would have to do.

shift..

Time to wake up.

It's so loud inside my head
With words that I should have said
And as I drown in my regrets
I can't take back the words I never said

[Carra]

So I creep
To watch you bleed for me

She blinked awake, tried tears on her skin tickled along her cheek and with a hand she brushed them away. They did her no good in the waking world, and what pain she felt then could not hold a place here. It had been enough of a week that she needed to return for she has been away long enough that no doubt her counterpart would have a more difficult time explaining her absence. She hoped that he was faring well, but thinking of him dared her to follow yet another path that she could not foster in this time or place. Loss was one thing, but knowing she could feel more was just as dangerous, if not more.

Giving her face a quick wash in a basin on a stand by a poorly kept bed, Carraidhin pulled out her Jian, not yet unsheathing it as she returned to the back room where Sean was held. Pushing open the door, Carra saw that her weave was still in place but away he dreamed and asleep. She hoped that the weave did the trick but there was no way to know. He didn't hunt her in Ter'Aran'Rhoid nor did she watch for him there. Carra had been cautious there but he had not been her goal. If the warding had not worked then it meant she would need to act fast, but she was hinging on the fact that whoever he could call would not be able to travel through gateways or other quick methods.

Time, it was a tricky thing.

Returning to the front room, she dragged back into the room and set it to the side. Returning for the basin of wash water she walked it in and poured it onto Sean to wake him, he came to with a bit of a splutter. Carra calmly took a seat, her sword across her lap, and watched him thoughtfully.

"I am ready to listen to you.” She said calmly. Repeating an old mantra from the days where he would speak it over his own victims. She could see laughter in his eyes even though his lips stayed silent. He knew, and Carra could only expect so little from him. Power hungry sociopath. “I do not care for a name, or why you are here, but tell me what it is that you want. I make no promises, but I will listen.”

“You think you are so special.” He said smoothly, even the humor in his eyes did not touch his voice.

“On the contrary. You are the one that is special, a Dreamwalker as skilled as you is a rare thing.”

He gave a validating but non-committal shrug in reply.

“You declared a few times you wished to have me. At least one way or another. A rather selfish request, but was I have difficult understanding is why so caught up in a broken promise made by children.”

“You were the best of us, Aramisa.”

“Carraidhin.” She corrected gently.

“So you are sticking with that name then.”

“Not of the others mean anything to me. I am who I am, and you will call me by that name. Or Aes Sedai. Or Mother, or Amyrlin Seat.” She gave a shrug, the titles meaning only so much to her as did the station. All it really meant was responsibility.

“Your foundation is crumbling, Mother.” He said, “Your Tower and that of the others foster ill will and dark intentions. A Black ledger means very little as even those without are breaking it apart. And we mean to bring you all down.”

“We?”

“You have served as leaders and puppet masters for too long, Amyrlin Seat. You and your Towers are broken and it's time that they be levelled and the power returned to those who you were conditioned to control.”

The smile on Sean’s lips started to paint a deep purple, rare and broken the coloring as it started to bleed through his face. Carra jumped up from her chair, the Jian skittering along the floor, and ran to him and shook his head. But as the purple bled through his features and his eyes rolled back and bled out Carra dropped him and stepped back watching an incredibly handsome and dangerous man bleed and break apart by something she had no knowledge could happen. For the first time, Carraidhin moved away from the pooling blood that seemed to hint the same purple as it tried to reach out and consume her too. This was something that could not, should not, touch her.

“Bloody-Ashes…”
[carra]~~~~8~@[/carra] Still Here... Fighting to hold on,
Clinging to just one more day
Love turns to ashes,
With all that I wish I could say.

She closed the door, leaving behind the body that now bled out to unstained earth and the chair too far for her to bother saving. Whatever it was that happened Carra saw no sign as to how it started, what caused it, nor had she ever seen a poison that caused such a violent end. He showed no pain, no screaming but the visual of Sean’s death was burned into her mind and she struggled to process it. Fire, the entire cottage needed to be cleaned away with fire.

As the door clicked a soft slick, it was the dagger by her head that caught Carra by surprise. Reaching for her Jian, she realized that it was in the other room among the dirt and blood. She cursed herself to that oversight and with a quick flick of her wrists daggers fell into her palms as she turned around to see her attacker.

Dark Eyes met her Green with a certain wrath that she could only equate to a passionate hatred. Both armed with daggers, Carra knew then that her little warding had done nothing and her guess on its application had been wrong. Only, he was too late to save himself and clearly whoever this woman was in front of her planned to put her in the same hollow grave. Saidar on the brink of her touch, Carra hated to use it against her even if she didn’t feel entirely threatened by her. Can’t use it as a weapon, but there were not simple traps here for her to hide.

Not bothering with dialogue, the dark eyed woman rushed her, a thrown dagger at her head, and Carra ducked, but still she reached her and parried both in hand with daggers of well made steel. The attacks didn’t end there, and Carra was promptly put on the defensive as her attacker kept aiming for soft spots and to razor cut her to death on her arms any time Carra protected her face from the blades. The marks unphased her, but constantly on the defense Carra had not fought like this before with her daggers where her peer was better than her. Better enough that she had to concentrate on her own defense and the idea of reaching out to Saidar impossible. She coudl protect herself, slam up a shield of air, but with daggers. Carra couldn’t get the breathing room.

Over and again the woman attacked, Carra could feel her arms weakening, and she needed to get out alive. Purposely missing an attack, Carra took a hit to her side that made her stagger. Blood gushed from the wound and her attacker smirked and stepped back to see her subject in pain. Fool for her, the warmth and sheer extacy of Saidar filled her, only heightening her enjoyment of the pain even as it weakened her. One hand holding the wound and the other dropping the dagger in lieu of a ball of fire.

The woman was surprised, “Aes Sedai can’t make weapons!”

Carra smirked, “Unless in the last defense of my life.” And on she threw it at the woman who dodged enough to get close to the door. Fire singed at the wood frame far too easily, and Carra knew that if she stayed too long she would go up in flames. But if she left… She would fall to a dagger to her heart. Tallying her wounds, she knew she had a little time still, but not much. Weaving fire in to hearth, and then in and through the wooded frame of the house, Carra laid down as close to the door frame with a simple weave of air filtering in very carefully to keep her from suffocating as the house around her burned. The bare blanket on the bed used to help keep herself from bleeding out before she got help. A touch last of spirit to her heart, she pushed one last need as she felt faint.

JARYD.

Every night, I dream you're still here.
The ghost by my side, so perfectly clear.
When I awake, you'll disappear,
Back to the shadows

[Sunny]

Jaryd Kosari You know they won't see nothing, you know they won't see you
No, they won't see you while you're working to earn just one slice
I'll give you this kindly advice: they'll forget your name at half-price ---

Jaryd stood in the center of the Hall of Sitters, staring up at an array of faces that shone pale against the shadows of its great heights. They were asking him questions, needling him, trying to extort a truth out of him that he had no intention of giving them. They thought they had the authority to extort it out of him, which meant they did not recognize his authority as their leader at all.

The reality of his situation dawned on him then in a way it never had before. They did not like him. None of them liked him. They had chosen him as M'hael because in their eyes he was little more than an effigy to be sacrificed in lieu of someone more important. None of them expected anything but failure from him, and many of them would actively work against allowing him to be an effective leader, no matter how hard he tried. The best he could hope for from his time as M'hael was that he could use the knowledge he had gained to help the world once he no longer held the position.

Somehow, that realization brought only peace where before it might have evoked rage or fear. Jaryd allowed himself to relax into that calm and to consider his options, even as he answered their questions with a studied amount of piercing -though truthful- sarcasm.

The bells tolled, and he shifted, standing straighter and pulling his authority around him like a cloak. The movement interrupted the Yellow who had been quizzing him about Lirievin's injuries, and she gave him an annoyed look. Before she spoke again, he addresed the Hall at large.

"I have endured quite enough of this nonsense," he said, the controlled timber of his voice reaching every corner of the immense chamber, and cutting through every murmured comment. "I chose to reswear the Three Oaths in your presence at the beginning of this session," he continued, "and thus you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am incapable of speaking a falsehood." Their eyes sharpened, but he remained outwardly unaffected by their disapproval.

"I am the Watcher of the Seals, the Fang of Hama Valon, the M'hael of the Grey Tower. It is my duty, above all else, to protect and lead this Tower through whatever may come. To assist in my duties, I have been granted privileged access to more information than many of you could dream of. I have also been granted the authority to determine what -if any- of that knowledge I choose to share with the rest of the Tower while tending to my primary duties. "

He gave the Grey Sitters a level look, and the woman flinched. She knew Jaryd had studied Tower Law. She knew he could quote every line of the relevant code if asked to do so. I'm not so useless as you all think, he thought, but the words did not carry the bitterness they might have at one time.

"I have already told you plainly that the Amyrlin is alive, and she will return. If somehow she is rendered incapable of returning, I will notify you immediately so that we might select a new Amyrlin." He believed Carra would return, and with that certainty came the ability to say it was so. Never mind if he didn't know when. She would. "I am not at liberty to discuss this matter any further; to continue to question me in this manner would be in direct contempt of Tower Law. It may also be detrimental to our long-term health as a political entity. Do you understand me?"

They didn't like that. In the subsequent uproar he stood quietly, fingering the coin in his pocket. Flip. She's okay. Flip. Sean killed her and the weave failed. Flip. She will need me soon. Flip. She's forgotten about us entirely.

Eventually, they let him go. What other choice did they have? The shade of a headman's axe followed him from the Hall, however, and he knew it would not be long before they found a reason to replace him with a new effigy. Do I stay to endure their brand of justice, or do I depart while I still have the freedom to do so? Carra would have known the answer, but Carra was not there.

Flip. Flip. Flip.

---

You're just a ghost in the making
Now you're tortured and you're strange, it's already begun
Why keep throwing punches when you know that they've won?

[Sunny]

Hope it's not too late, we were more than friends
I can hardly wait 'til we meet again.

---

The Altaran disliked admitting it even to himself, but his ability to sleep had suffered in the time since his midnight journey. When he tried, images of Carra's possible fate would flash before his closed eyes in a relentless stream, each one more horrific than the last. If Sean had been willing to torment an Accepted as he had, what more would he do to Carra once he had her in his clutches? Occasionally the thoughts would shift in the opposite direction: what would she do to him? Somehow he didn't doubt for a moment that Sean's fate would be just as horrific as the inverse.

The night following the scolding he had given the Hall, he gave up on resting while the moon still rode high on a sea of pale clouds and the sky to the east remained black as soot. Instead, he sat on the broad windowsill of his bedchamber, and stared into the darkness outside, lost in memories of many similar nights spent on the roofs of Ebou Dar. He had found his solace in the quiet dark even then, hunkered down in the shadow where only the sharpest eyes could see him, watching the world go by. I am a spider exposed to the light here, he thought, staring wistfully into the night.

Abruptly his entire existence filled with a suffocating longing, a need stronger than any he had felt before. "Light!" he gasped, but even as the Void enveloped him and saidin leapt to his command, he was reaching into his pocket. He pulled out the coin Carra had given him, and the sensation increased tenfold, pressing around him like the intense heat of his home city. It spiked higher for a brief moment, then disappeared as if it had never existed.

The thrumming he had grown so used to had vanished as well, and the coin lay cold and silent in his palm, the gold flickering at him in the lamp light. It gave no indication of where she was, whether she was safe, whether she was even still breathing. Nothing. Enigmatic to the bloody end, he thought with a wry smile.

Any humor evaporated as he scrambled from the window sill and went to his wardrobe. He readied himself with mechanical grace, choosing Ebou Dari-styled clothing made of black leather or wool. Weapons came next, a collection of blades tucked away in his coat and boots and beneath his clothes. He strapped two hunting knives to his thighs and his curved dueling dagger stuck into his belt. Then he tucked a small star-shaped piece of glossy metal pressed against his skin at the small of his back, and shoved a delicate gold ring on his smallest finger. The Indigo Ajah would have something to say about those items if they ever caught him with them, but in that moment he could not have cared less.

He turned to leave, then hesitated, duty warring with his need to answer Carra's call. The Tower needed to know what had happened, however. They needed to know how long to wait before replacing their leaders. Any sensible man would have alerted the Tower as soon as the coin went silent, but now it was too late; any further delay could cost Carra her sanity or her life. He strode to his desk, grabbed nearest sheet of paper, and scrawled a message on the blank side. They would have to be satisfied; if he did not find the other Red in good health, Hama Valon in its entirety could fall to rubble, and he would neither know nor care.

He channeled then, forming a Gateway that opened over the last place he had seen Carra. It was the only place he knew to begin his search. He strode into the darkness without a backward glance.

---

If you don't really know where you want to go
It makes no difference which road you take.

[Sunny]

And I will be your shelter and these tears will be your last
You will never again wake up with silence in your heart

---

As soon as the Gateway closed behind him, Jaryd's senses came alive. The moon cast a cold white light on everything, illuminating some things and leaving others in deep shade. The wind whispered through the trees, and although he could not identify every sound, he knew wildlife moved about him. He turned, searching, and his eyes rested on a tree he remembered. Yes, he had gone this way while Carra had taken a different route. He had no hope of finding traces of Carra so long after the fact, in haste, and in the dark. Instead, he set off in the direction of the building he had visited before, moving as quickly as he feet could carry him.

As he ran, memories of the woman he had fought in that musty basement crept back into his mind. A woman he knew. She's dead. I killed her. She's dead. Dark eyes, dark hair, dusky skin and a throaty voice belied his certainty. How was she alive? Why was she there? Unbidden, another memory rose. His mother's voice echoed in his ears, "He got here too quickly, and he knew too much, Jaryd." The Great Stair wasn't real. it couldn't be.

The scent of smoke interrupted his reverie, blowing towards him from some point ahead. He realized then that the sky in that direction was the color of an old bruise- purple and red, brooding. He broke into a run, and with every step the smell got stronger. He topped the last hill, and below him saw flames licking up the sides of the little house. A figure with a cloud of dark hair stood facing the fire, outlined against the blaze, the blade she held in her hand flickering orange.

He channeled without thought, flows of Air wrapping so tightly around the woman that he could hear her gasp even over the crackling flames. He spun her in place to face him, walking steadily forward. Saidin raged, but the Void kept his face impassive as he gazed into a face that he thought he had known so well. He saw her eyes flicker to his chest, and widen in recognition when they saw the stone that hung on a chain around his neck. He had one question that needed an answer; the rest would have to wait. "Is she in there?" He asked coldly.

"Are you talking about that redhead? I have to say, I never thought you the type to fall for a frigid bitch, Jaryd. I thought you preferred women with more...substance." He felt anger battering the outer reaches of the Void, but ignored it. Instead, he grabbed her arm and yanked it behind her back, twisting and pushing up until he felt bone grating together and she yelped in shock.

"Her name is Carraidhin Glaisne," he said calmly. His captor did not answer, though her face had gone pale with pain. With his free hand he drew his dueling dagger, pressed the blade against her throat; a thin line of blood instantly pooled along its edge. "I've already killed you once, Marisa," he said conversationally, "and I have grown so much since then. Do you really want to find out what I am capable of?"

Black eyes met black eyes for several long moments as the flames leapt higher, and then her gaze dropped. "She didn't come out." The Void flickered for a moment as the M'hael stared at this remnant of his past. He had watched this woman die, and yet she survived. If she lived, then so, too, must Carra. With that thought foremost, he tied off the flows of Air and left Marisa standing.

As he approached the blaze, saidin leapt gleefully to his command, filling him with a sweetness greater than any he had dared hold before, Fire and Air flexing in his grasp like a living thing. With a grim smile he bore down with all his strength; Air spread through the ground below the structure, building a pathway, while Fire took the heat from the flames and dispersed it along that path deep into the ground, where the cold and dark welcomed the warmth. More, and more, and more he forced into the ground, feeling the earth rock beneath his feet as the bedrock cracked and crumbled from the building pressure.

Suddenly, the heat was gone and he snapped back into himself, gasping for breath. He opened his eyes, blinking rapidly at the unexpected darkness, ears ringing in the silence. An ominous creaking sound caught his attention, and a flow of Air lashed out to hold the beam that had been about to fall in place. The fire was gone. The ground still trembled, but he knew it would pass.

He channeled again, flows of Spirit to create light, flows of Air to pull the building apart with delicate precision, tossing beams that it would take five men to lift to the side like so many straws. Finally he saw a blackened wall frame that had toppled, propped up by the charred remains of a door frame. Below that, he found a bubble of relatively clean ground, on which lay a woman in dark leather, her soot-blackened hair pooled around her head in disarray.

He dropped to his knees beside her, fingers seeking for a pulse. After an anxious moment he felt it, fluttering slow and unstable; when he pulled his hand away, it was covered in dark blood. He cursed, turning her from belly to back, his light brightening as he examined her. Blood. So much blood. That she still breathed was a miracle. He wove the flows for Delving, registering the response with a pale face and aching heart. His friend had endured too much; without assistance, she would die.

He knew beyond a doubt that he lacked the Talent for Healing necessary to save her. He felt hot tears sliding down his face, and brushed them away, taking her hand in his. "You aren't allowed to die, you fool woman," he told her in a fierce whisper, leaning over to stare her in the face. "The Tower needs you. Burn it all, I need you. You've fought for too long for it to end like this." No response.

He stared at her in silence, his tears dropping unnoticed into her hair as an unthinkable idea began to form in his mind. There was a chance. A small one, a reprehensible one, one she might hate him for, one that violated every law of decency that existed. It had to be better than dying in the ruins of an abandoned house though. It had to be.

As if in a dream, he straightened and reached for saidin again, flows of all five Powers tying together to form two parts of a tapestry complex beyond knowing, one end anchored in the depths of his soul, the other anchored in her. He channeled with feverish intensity for some moments, paying special care to those portions that would grant her endurance and strength. Then he paused and leaned over Carra once more, smoothing her hair from her face. "Forgive me," he said simply, and pressed his lips against hers, the last flows of Spirit bridging the gap between them as their skin touched.

[Carra]

Carraidhin Glaisne We're too young to die today, to die today
But we're too broken to fly away, to fly away
Cause we both know better than to set ourselves on fire
All in the name of love
We're too young to be afraid to fly like burning doves

There was pain in her dream. A different pain. One that was uncomfortable and yet freeing. Like a glass that once had a crack and red wine filled to full now pouring over and breaking through. Relieved of that life blood as it fled her, Carra felt a solace in that moment. A calm she had thought to understand but never experienced. Eyes fluttering, she thought the light of the world around her fade as the heat of the sun was chased away into a night filled with dark clouds. Whispers of a stars peeking through with words that she couldn't quite reach. But up there was Amadie. It would only be fitting if she walked among the stars to watch with those infuriatingly intelligent eyes

..soon, my...

In her dream, Carra fought with herself. A part of her wanted to reach high, higher and higher, just to see Amadie's smile again. A part of her wanted to pull the warmth of the fire around her and let it suffocate her. And yet another felt an injustice that the end would happen now before she could even learn of Livirien's fate. Her need for Jaryd was great, but her heart had carried such a large black hole and Carra help little hope for more than a passing approval. A friend. Carra didn't make friends, and those that she did either die or become seriously maimed. She didn't want that for him.

Not for anyone.

Yet a longing filled her heart as she floated in that dreamspace, a star twinkling beyond the clouds... fading as the warmth within her also faded. She could feel her body giving way and the cool rush of the last of her life slipped away with a gentle sigh. Supposing that perhaps the Pattern was done with her and once again took away that choice from her. Life. Death. What did it matter when there wasn't a choice for her. Carra left herself fade.

'You've fought for too long for it to end like this.'

Jaryd

need.

There were no longer stars. Only darkness and a renewed fervor of pain as her body fought to live with a new strength. There was a need, a different need, a new warmth that was far more gentle than any kind of need she had ever known but with a passion Carraidhin could not explain. She had never experienced this before and a new sense of longing pulled at her. And as she breathed in -really breathed in- it was not just air but him. With lips against hers Carra knew, and her damaged heart skipped a million beats as she felt herself gently kiss him back. Blind by the dust, she knew that scent, she knew his voice. Carra knew it was him and for a moment she let herself live. Believing for only a second that maybe, just maybe he loved her too.

The end is beginning and I'm falling
So take it or leave it cause I'm all in

[Sunny]

And by now I have learned
There's only hope for me if she says so.
And with all my bridges burned
She'll finally be the only road I know

---

As the flows fell into place and spanned the space between them with an irrevocable bridge of the One Power, Jaryd shuddered, eyes closing in surrender to what he had done. A new awareness froze him in place as the One Power faded from his grasp. No pitiful lecture or minimal tracing weave could have prepared him for the experience of sharing his soul with another. Carra's existence surrounded and permeated him, and even though moments before they had been separate, he could no longer imagine them as anything other than one.

Her pain and exhaustion filled him; he reached for it with his mind, trying to protect her from the worst of it with this new connection they had. As he did, he felt her begin to wake, climbing out of the darkness where her mind had fled for respite from her wounds. With consciousness came confusion, denial, and then, warm against everything else, the realization of where his lips still rested.

He blushed, and prepared to pull away, but to his utter shock she tilted her face up, eyes still closed, and returned his kiss. Light, her lips were so soft. He could find no trace of outrage or rejection in that bundle of feelings he could now access as easily as his own. Instead, a strange soft wistfulness, and an aching feeling he could not label rose to cover everything else. Something in his heart answered that ache, and he gathered her against him with gentle hands. He sat back with her in his lap, lost in the communion they shared with their lips, one small part of his mind desperately wishing that the Wheel would simply stop turning.

An unearthly sound shattered their fantasy without warning. He turned to look for the source, still holding Carra against him protectively. Marisa stood at attention in her invisible bindings, shrieking at such a high pitch that he flinched and tightened his jaw against the auditory assault. It took a moment, but he managed to pull the flows for the most basic of Wards together, cutting the sound off as if it never existed. She continued to scream, unaware that no one could hear, but he knew that first vocal display had done enough damage. Why didn't I gag her? Regret for another day.

He would have to face that ghost. Soon. He could not hide the fact that he knew Marisa from Carra; she was too smart not to interpret that complicated knot of emotions correctly once she had time to consider it. Could he bring the Altaran back to the Tower with them? If he did, what benefit would it serve? The Hall would try her as a Darkfriend, all chance at knowledge lost with no regard for the future damage that could cause. How could he secure Marisa from both Tower and enemy, while also protecting Carra?

He turned his attention back to Carra, smoothing her hair away from her face again, helping her sit up, but still bearing most of her weight in his hands. "Is your...business....done here?" He asked. He had not seen another body in the house, but he also had not been looking. "We need to leave- soon. She," and he nodded sharply at the still-screaming Marisa, "has alerted anyone within five miles that something happened here. We can't count on safety for much longer."

[Carra]

Carraidhin Glaisne it was like a rush of mountain water that broke through her thoughts, sending her plummeting over a waterfall and then spat right back out of the ocean to a dry and heartless ocean. The ache's in her body told her that she hit every rock and stone along the fall but as memory and conscience returned to her Carraidhin realized then that she was no longer alone. Her mind was no longer her own and as the world slowly began to focus around her she could feel a familiarity to the voice not far from her. The familiarity was different then just seeing the face of a woman that tried to kill her after Sean's untimely demise, but something... more.

She understood then that He was there. A deep part of her felt violated to have someone so deep within her, deeper than she even allowed herself to be, and yet there he was. Not just in her head but holding her close, and... and...

'Bloody ashes, he... she... they... they... ' What little blood she had regained now rushed to her face and as she was about to fight back with words Carra found her mouth dry and her body weak. Too weak. A mental test of her limited movement told her she was fighting a ticking clock and needed a healers hand. Not just the strength of a bond or herbs but Saidar or Saidin infused healing. Or an incredibly skilled Wisdom if they had to stretch it. Light knows she had enough scaring on her body to hide any damage the One Power could heal. Logic and necessity taking away the embarrassment of her predicament and to her the kiss and the bond would have to wait. Saidar was within her grasp but she knew that even now she was too weak to handle much of it without losing control.

Although, she truly wanted to gag the woman, Marisa, who was a screaming banshee not too far from where they were. A part of her knew that she was bound with Saidin. Of course she was. Jaryd was a channeler. Carra gave a firm nod of her head, as best as she could. Her voice husky from the smoke, fighting a cough that threatened to burst through. "G-go. I ha-ave take-en ca-are of things he-ere."