Surprises (Attn: Lysira)

[Jack]

Jerid's mind was racing as the bond cemented itself in his mind. No mater how many times he had been bonded, every experience was unique, even those whom he had shared the connection with in the past.

And apparently Lysira had grown and changed in the intervening years they had been

Here was a woman who had grown in experience and seemed determined more now than ever before to protect what was hers. Lysira had survived the severing of a bond where most would have gone into the final hunt, had given everything to protect their son from danger and ultimately returned here.

And she appeared to be as fiercely devoted to keeping her charges safe as when she had been a freshly-minted Gaidar under Caden Ives' tutelage.

He touched her cheek tenderly, the first amount of affection he had shown to anyone in years. It rippled across the bond, a love never forgotten or left by the wayside.

His gold-green eyes flashed as she signed and he smiled briefly before he inclined his head in agreement. The thought of seeing his son again nearly left him nervous with anticipation and a little fear.

There were bound to be so many questions, some of which he might not have answers to provide. And there were likely questions

Lysira's smile put him at ease and he leaned forward to kiss her lightly.

“You won't have to worry about letting me go,” he murmured. “A mouse has more of an advantage than an old fox.” He gripped her hand briefly in a tight squeeze before indicating to the library with a nod of his head.

“You lead and I'll be behind you,” he said.

[Bella]

'You'll be beside me,' she signed as she smiled at him. Then she turned and began to walk, but felt like she could breathe more at that moment than she had been able to in twenty years. The familiar, soft presence in her mind that was him lightened her heart and the pressure that existed inside her chest. What had seemed insurmountable before seemed...less so now.

Her smile did fade as they walked, however. Not entirely, but it dimmed. She had never spoken ill of Jerid to Cade, and had always given him a good image of her father no matter her own heartbreak, but he was still the father he had not seen in twenty years. He barely remembered him, so young as he had been when they'd left.

And then, of course, there was the reason for their return. Which she probably should have said before now, but seeing Jerid had been such a shock and then she'd been swept away by that moment...

'Love,' she began, glancing sidelong at him as their steps carried them onward, not with any hesitation but not so swiftly as to be bolting down the hall. 'There was a specific reason for our return. Many reasons have been found since we entered the Tower's walls--' She offered him a significant look. '--but there was a more particular driving cause.'

She paused and took a deep breath, knowing that she should choose her words with care. Even if the man had not seen his son for so long, Cade was his son and she knew the value of that to the man she had married. 'We were attacked at the manor in Cairhein,' she signed slowly, brows slightly knit. 'I don't know who they were, or why. But I know there was a channeler among them, a woman.'

Stopping her steps, she turned to face him and looked up into his eyes. Her dark gaze suddenly...almost desperate. Some of her fear at the event slipping into it. 'They were after him. But I protected our son. You know I would have died if it meant that he lived, and I nearly did. But I protected him. And when they were defeated, dead or run off, I knew that I shouldn't do it alone now if there were people like this after us. I brought him here, I brought him home, to better protect him.'

[Jack]

It was strange how things worked within Jerid's mind. Though the life he had lived as a child in the streets of the Rahad was more than a century behind him, it still stuck with him.

Happiness was fleeting, and he had always seized it when he could, especially the few short years with his first love and bondmate Erin.

Jerid had done the same with Lysira, and something a now-dead friend had told him had prompted to act that night all those years ago in his study.

But the intervening years between being a thief in Ebou Dar and the man he was now had changed him, hardened him. While the spark of mischief he had as youth remained, he had become more a soldier anything else.

And very protective of family, even those who had become distant.

So when he sensed Lysira become more cautious and concerned, his mind suddenly sharpened. He noted everything, even the slowing of their pace as they approached the Library.

And then she spoke. His gold-green eyes caught her hands' movement, interpreted them as speech might hit his ears.

His eyes hardened then and his own hands flashed, furiously.

They did what? There was a dark flash of anger in his mind, balanced with love, concern and worry.

A channeler amidst a group of invaders could mean many things. It could be Black Ajah, or Seanchan, or as ludicrous as it sounded, the White Tower looking to kidnap his son.

He placed his bet on Black Ajah, which meant one thing he dreaded more than most: he would be on the hunt again.

It also stirred memories long since put behind him. Images of his daughter, grandchildren and much of his immediate family strewn lifeless in Walker Manor flashed in his mind.

The act had been done at the hands of the one who took had proclaimed himself the Fiery Serpent, likely stolen from the man who had given so much grief to the Grey Tower, all because he had been selected as Master of Soldiers.

For the Black Ajah to repeat that attempt on his family again crossed a line.

They never learn.

Jerid's eyes flashed as he touched Lysira's face.

“Our son has your strength because you were there to protect him,” Jerid murmured. “You did the right thing bringing him here and surrounding him with people who might protect him. The question is why someone might attack.”

He eyed the area around them and then signed his next response.

When time permits, details of the attack, descriptions of the attackers, event hints of the accents they might have used. He signed fast, fluent so most might not be able to pick it up except for Lysira. I'll put it out to what contacts I have left and we will deal with them together should they make a second attempt.

Rare was it that Jerid ever waited. The Indigo had a reputation for launching a preemptive strike against threats long before the enemy could act.

No, this time it was best to wait.

[Bella]

She was not alone anymore. The words upon his lips and the words upon his hand further impressed upon her spirit that she was not facing down the world by herself any longer. A faint smile curved her lips again.

'We shall discuss it in depth,' she agreed. She'd had many of her own theories as to why someone might attack them. Like Jerid, she assumed it was the Black Ajah. That was who had hounded her parents and left her thinking she was an orphan for so very many years, and she was as determined now as the was before that her son would not share that fate. He would not be left alone.

Taking a slow breath, she considered everything for a moment. 'For almost twenty years, it's just been Cade and I,' she said. She didn't want to spell it out in detail, about Jhered, but she did want him to understand where she was now coming from. She'd had her parents, of course, but no father figure for her son. She let her dark eyes linger on his a moment longer to make her point, then nodded to start walking again.

Their steps soon to the library and she glanced around. She led Jerid forward to the section she knew her son would be. He saw her first and smiled, moving towards her. "Mother, I found a fascinating bo--"

At twenty-three, Caden Walker was just a little taller than his father, slender in form but not frail. His hair was as black as his mother's, curly and cut short and close to his head. His eyes were wide and round, shaped like his mother, but closer to his father's unique color. He was now frozen in place, his eyes riveted on Jerid. Even if he could barely remember him, he just knew. Some part of him did remember.

Lysira knew he'd be surprised. Neither of them had expected Jerid Walker to be in the Tower, yet here he was.

"Father?" Cade asked, almost as though he didn't believe it.

[Jack]

“You're not alone any more,” Jerid murmured slowly.

For all of his failings, the greatest was perhaps that he had never been to help raise the children born after Berin and Angel in what seemed like a century ago. Both were gone from the world now, Berin having died during the Seanchan Siege and Angel during the massacre at the Caralain manor.

His grandchildren had grown into wise souls themselves, but rarely did he encounter them any more.

He had never known of or known either Sojin or Solin when they were born in Tar Valon, and the rift between him and Sojin still remained great.

As he and Lysira entered the library, Jerid felt a sudden dread threaten the edge of his calm. He hadn't known Lysira had returned to the Tower nor having brought their son with them.

And a great shock they too hadn't expected.

What he worried about was how well received he would be, or what he would look like. The last he had seen Cade, it had been another lifetime, a boy of two who had had his father taken from him in no small part of his own stupidity.

But that had been so long ago, and Jerid had remove himself from their lives, especially after his first “death” in Hama Valon while removing a Dreadlord cabal threat. When the ashes and dust settled, the Indigo had been presumed dead, and remained that way for a decade.

And then a voice caught his ears and his gold-green eyes locked on to a young man who bore a striking resemblance to both of his parents.

Caden Walker, came the thought. Their son who had been named after a very good friend, someone Jerid had been overjoyed to see born into this world.

All grown up now, and Jerid suddenly found himself realizing how fast the years had flown by, and how they seemed to slow to a halt now. He appeared to have grown into a fine young man, and apparently book smart too.

Jerid acted on emotion and in a few quick steps had his son in an embrace.

“Caden, my son,” he said. “Light I've missed you so.”

[Bella]

If Lysira was skilled at nothing else, she was a master of being utterly silent and so she was now. She melted into the background quite intentionally, without taking more than a single physical step back, but she wanted to let the two have their moment without interruption or intrusion. There would now be enough time for her to be a part of it later. Now, she wanted this for them.

Cade had stiffened at first, but mainly out of surprise. But being a child who had been raised on affection, his mother had never lacked in showing her deep and abiding love for her child, he relaxed into the fatherly embrace he had missed for his life and returned it.

"I've wished to meet you a thousand times," the son said, his voice a touch hoarse but whether from emotion or that his father was squeezing him, he couldn't say. "Mother has always talked much about you that I feel like I do know you, despite..." He paused. "Well, yes. I didn't think that it would ever happen. I'm..." He pulled back and laughed. "I'm really happy to see you."

[Jack]

Jerid had always held a tight rein on his emotions lest they consume him. It was one of earliest things his teacher had taught him as a child in Ebou Dar. It was something that Daimenin had schooled him on later as a Soldier and Dedicated.

Today was probably one of the few days where he allowed himself to smile proudly at his son.

He relaxed his embrace on Caden as he pulled back as he heard his son's voice, the timber, the surprise. And his gold-green eyes searched his son's eyes, ones so very similar to his own. He looked very much the man Jerid had envisioned him to be.

“I'm happy to see you too, son,” Jerid said quietly. “I never thought in two centuries that I would lay eyes on you again, and such a fine man that your mother has brought up.”

So much time had passed, especially since he had held a young boy just out of swaddling.

He cocked his head slightly and murmured, “Your mother told you much, perhaps even what happened the day the accident occurred.”

Jerid looked down, eying the book Caden held. “Your mother tells me you're always scrambling around looking for interesting things to read. What subjects do you fancy?”

[Bella]

Cade Walker The young man smiled with an ease and a brightness that showed her did so often. He ran his hand over his short hair as he laughed quietly, his gaze swinging from his mother to his father. Light, his father! Who could have imagined? "Everything," he said, almost sheepishly. "I don't know I've found a book I didn't like to read, but particularly philosophy."

Pausing, he looked at his mother for a moment. "The library at the Cairhein manor was wonderful, but admittedly, noting compared to the one here at the Tower. If I'm not careful, I may just decide to put up a bed in a corner somewhere and just read until I sleep and sleep until I read again." His gaze returned to his mother.

'I think your mother would have a thought on that matter,' she signed but he saw the warmth in her smile and her dark eyes. He wondered how she was feeling, being back around Father. It had been so long, and yet... The way she stood near him, kept looking at him... Well, Cade was not an idiot.

[Jack]

Jerid nearly raised an eyebrow at the mention that his son enjoyed reading philosophy. When he had been Caden’s age, or just a little younger, he had rather enjoyed reading The Adventures of Jain Farstrider.

His son sounded so much like a Brown or a White, and yet so energetic that it almost came from a Blue.

“Aye, nothing can compare to the library here in the Grey Tower, except perhaps that in Tar Valon,” Jerid said.

He felt Lysira near and his eyes caught the flicker of her fingers. Jerid smiled and inclined his head in agreement.

“I fear that your mother would be right, son,” Jerid said after a moment. “The Browns would shoo you out with so much vigor that they might defy a host of Greens.”

His eyes flickered toward Lysira and he smiled slightly. It almost appeared the family reunion he preferred, the one he desired for so many years.

Yet Lysira’s warning also played deep in his mind. If the Black Ajah or some sort of Shadowsworn was after his son, they had to find out why.

All things in time, he thought to himself. For now, he wanted to least enjoy one happy moment.

“If you are interested in some cultural reading, I would recommend Master Trae Elien’s treaties on the Aiel,” Jerid said. “It’s perhaps the finest book to delve into the culture, written by one of the finest men who helped bridge the gap between the Aiel and the Cairhienin.”

He almost smiled at thought of a very old friend who had died in these halls at the hands of a Seeker for Truth. The man had been the most skilled mediator Jerid had ever known, a man sworn to peace and who had managed to settle many feuds.

Caden reminded him somewhat of that man, and that bore good signs.

Jerid looked between Lysira and Caden and tilted his head.

“If you’re opposed to it, let us have dinner tonight,” Jerid said. “There is very good news to tell.”

[Bella]

Lysira Walker This had gone well, she thought. Although she hadn't expected it to go badly, it was still better than she could have hoped. Cade had always wanted to meet his father, after all, and she had thought it a wish that she never could grant. And now here they were, the two men who always had and now always would mean the most to her. All the mistakes of the past made right again in one surprise instant.

Was she so foolish as to think that everything would be perfect and smooth in the moments and days and months to come? Of course not, because she was not a fool. There would be growing pains for them as a family, and there would be trouble and dangers before them as they sought the answers as to why their enemies were laying siege to their son...

But for now, she was going to enjoy the moment for what it was.

'Cade, this means you must tear yourself away from the library and return in time for dinner,' she signed with a warm smile.

He smiled sheepishly.

Lysira looked back at Jerid for a moment. 'Your father and I--' It felt so good to say that. '--and I have some things to discuss and catch up on, but we'll all have dinner tonight and truly catch up with one another. Will you stay here until then?'

Cade nodded, turning his youthfully enthusiastic smile on Jerid. "I look forward to talking more tonight...Father."