Into the Woods (Attn: Lysira Gaidar)

[Jack]

Jerid Walker Asha'man He dreamed.

He was High Seat to House Walker, albeit with different memories than the Jerid from another life. But he knew enough to play the part, and keep peace.

The memories warred with one another, one knowing that his wife and son were dead, the other knowing his marriage was ended but his wife and son safe, away from him and the danger they once faced.

He traveled, acting the ambassador as he traveled among potential allies in other nations. House Walker, at its, core, was a mercantile power, with trade connections and allies that bridged nations and surpassed national alliances.

Within Andor, House Walker was the bulwark against the north on the outer edges of the Caralain, defending its ancestral homelands.

Jerid wallked through the Goshien Aiel encampment north of Ghealdan. An Asha'man and Andoran was welcome among the group, especially one who once knew Trae Elien, the man who helped bridge peace between the Cairhienin and the Aiel nation.

That's when he had seen her ... a red haired Aiel woman with emerald eyes. She held an air of certainty, stubbornness and yet a lack of arrogance most Aes Sedai might possess.

Their first argument led to a night of passion ... and then several more weeks together ... and then both parted.

He left her a long knife with a fox's hilt, and a special pendant. She had given him only a smile, a kiss and a parting piece of advice ... follow the heart.

Other dreams followed, more dreadful and dark, ones which made him mutter.

"We sought peace ... the Shadow must pay for its crimes ... "

He recalled memories, of looking down at a young son so full of potential. It was a memory from another life, another Jerid.

"Lys ... he was a traitor no matter how much we both loved him ... the Healer M'Hael was poison ..."

And fire. A battlefield, his soldiers fighting and dying against Trollocs and Dreadlords.

He was standing over grave markers, all bearing the names of ones he knew ... and one stuck out ...

It was enough to wake him from his slumber, albeit with a thundering headache.

His gold-green eyes looked up and saw Lysira covered in blood. For a moment, his mind was foggy, until the Indigo realized what happened. The last thing he had seen was an Aiel woman, the ghost of one he once knew.
He reached up a hand to touch Lysira's face, almost grasping saidin as he did so. Jerid thought better, though, and refrained. He doubted he could muster the strength to do for at least a day.

"You look awful, my love," Jerid croaked after a moment. "You didn't upset the Tower's Mistress of Kitchens did you? She swings a mean frying pan."

[Bella]

Lysira smiled gently as she closed her eyes and leaned into his touch, resting her own hand over his for a moment to appreciate the touch of her husband and the relief to seem him awakened again. She had lost count of the amount of time that had gone by since they left for the Mirk, and then since they had returned... It seemed like only for a moment, and only for an eternity.

After a few moments, she had to pull back so she could use her hands. 'This time, I have not done anything untoward in the kitchens to earn such wrath,' she signed with amusement flickering in her dark eyes. 'I'm afraid that you don't look much better. Gareth Asha'man had to be summoned to Heal you. There was poison in your system from the attack in the Mirk.'

[Jack]

Jerid laughed softly at Lysira's comment.

The Mistress of the Kitchens, no matter who held the title, was a force to be reckoned with. Rumor was that everyone but the M'Hael and Amyrlin walked on eggshells around her.

“I should thank Gareth lest I accuse the Mistress for undercooked beaf after I suggested the M'Hael might like something different,” he said wryly. A sly grin touched his face. “Or was that another Mistress and another M'Hael?”

Poison was nothing new for the Asha'man. Granted, he was used to healing it, but there were a few occasions over his long life where it had been inflicted on him.

What concerned him was the Black Ajah in the Mirk cabin and the death of one of his own. The loss of an Indigo Aes Sedai, even one who was retired, struck a sour note with Jerid. He was First Seeker and it was his duty to protect every soul.

And the knowledge the last Shadowsworn shared was particularly disturbing. What did the man mean by a daughter in his shadows, and then the reference to Sojin?

One thing was certain, they were dealing with an Aes Seadi, someone who succeeded both Selan Asha'man and the Fiery Serpent. At least he knew what to look for now.

With what meager strength he could muster, Jerid pushed himself up into a sitting position and looked at Lysira.

“I imagine Zae picked up the investigation surrounding our recent outing,” Jerid murmured. The Indigo knew better than ask, given how he had tapped the woman to be one of his lead investigators. With Liana en'Damier gone, Zae was the Indigo most skilled in combat. “As soon as her results are on my desk, I … “

He looked at Lys and knew better. “I need to rest and let others handle this until I recover because my Warder will chain me in irons if I refuse to comply.”

His gold-green eyes studied Lysira for a moment and he detected a subtle hint of … something. He tilted his head briefly in curiosity.

“What's wrong, Lys,” he asked.

[Bella]

There was something to be said, both for and against, sharing the bond of the warder and the bonds of marriage with someone.

Most simply put, it was impossible to hide anything at all.

A faint smile curved his wife's mouth as she held his gaze. She took back her hands to speak. 'Whether it is anything wrong is open to interpretation,' she commented, feeling humor inwardly at using the word 'interpret' while speaking with her hands. 'It has been a flaming strange day. Finding the Aes Sedai. The attack. That...' Here, her words fumbled. 'Whatever happened to me. Concern for you...'

She trailed off, debating how best to make her next statement. But she knew that she could not hide it from him. 'And there was a girl here. Brought to possibly link with Gareth, if he needed the power. She said that she is your daughter.' Well there, blood and dirt covered as they were, she had at least make that piece of information known.

[Jack]

Jerid's face was calm as he watched Lysira sign. In some ways he was thankful for his wife's form of communication, for he could contemplate the information more directly.

He recalled everything up until his collapse. His mind was already racing about who the Aes Sedai could be that betrayed a member of his own Ajah and the theft of an Object of the Power.

But he blinked at the mention of a daughter.

And then his mind flashed back to what the dead Dreadlord had mentioned in his statements before death.

The girl with the fire red hair, a vision so familiar

He smiled faintly.

“I fear she is right, Lys,” Jerid murmured. “It was after … the Portal Stone.”

His fingers skimmed her face briefly before withdrawing. A heartbeat later the long knife at his side was in her hand.

“You have the right, per Ebou Dari tradition, to take right of injury,” he said. “Whomever the girl might be, she is the daughter of Sevia, and I did spend time with her, however brief.”

He wasn't guilty of the fact, and he knew that Lys might expect as much. Jerid remembered the Aiel Wise One apprentice: fierce, fiery and unrelenting in her pursuit for justice. During his attempt to return as High Seat of House Walker, he had met the Aiel woman and fallen in love with her.

And now he had a daughter because of the brief union.

“I never knew, but I have a feeling others might,” he muttered. He held up a finger to stay any suspicion. “Whomever held the secret, I will not hold accountable.”

His smile vanished and his green-gold eyes flashed with anger.

“A Dreadlord threatened our family I will hunt his mistress down no matter what,” Jerid murmured. “If I have to tear every part of this Tower's dark part apart out who did so, then so be it.”

[Bella]

She felt him press the weapon into her hand in the span of a heartbeat, and she was not surprised. Neither was she surprised by what she read in his face and voice. Maybe there would have once been a time she'd be angry, or hurt, or jealous...but that time was no longer. She had grown a lot as a person, over twenty years of solitude. She'd had a great deal of time to think, and to learn.

Sometimes, things really just weren't that important. Jerid was a man of great passions, which was both his greatest virtue and his worst flaw, but she loved him. She had loved him for most of her life, now. She loved his defects as well as his blessings, even when the two too often collided and resulted in...

...well, generally in children. She no more had it in her at that moment to be mad at him for this than she could be mad at his daughter for it. It happened and was done. It was while she was no more in his life anyways. She'd had no oath upon him them, not really, and she'd followed her own pursuits. However ill-fated they may have been.

The diminutive Gaidar with the mouse-like eyes put the knife on the ground beside him, well within his reach because after the day they'd had, she wasn't going to put their weapons too far.

She smiled at him, but the expression was as dark as her eyes.

'We--' And that gesture was exaggerated. '--will hunt them down. No one threatens our son, my love.' Without realizing it, a little of that earlier darkness crept into her mind. Not enough to take her over, but it was there. 'I would tear their hearts from their bodies and drink their blood if it would tell me where to find every dark creature there is so we might remove them.'

[Jack]

Jerid looked at Lysira for a moment as she set the knife on the floor. In all his long life, he sometimes couldn't understand people's peculiar habits.

But then he was Ebou Dari by tradition, raised for most of his childhood. What could most people expect from a foreigner?

And as he watches Lysira's words, a spark of worry flooded his thoughts. He noticed her eyes.

And he promptly kissed her, fiercely. It was a tactical move, hopefully enough to spark other emotions.

He pulled away and murmured, "We will find whomever is responsible, my love."

Jerid touched her face and murmured, "Be calm, Lysira Walker. Our son will be safe even if we have to be the shields, and his brother will be armor."

Sojin Majere might not entirely welcome his father's presence in his life, but the man watched after Cade like a hawk.

Whatever had affected Lysira during the initial assault on them in Cairhaien, he was concerned. But at the same time he was partially thankful, it was a weapon that could be used.

He nipped her lips and murmured, "If it is someone who is found within this Tower and in front of others, this person shall face the justice of the Hall. I did not serve this Tower for more than century to let its children be threatened, or prepare my Ajah for war against the Shadow to go without such measures."

His gold-green eyes flared like sparks then. "If that person is outside the Tower or found through other means, it will be a different scenario. Not even the Dark One himself will protect that person, for that soul will burn."

Only once had he used balefire, and that had been to protect his wife and unborn son. Of course, he reported the occasion to Amora, and accepted the lashing for it.

But things were different now. His family was at risk. His home was at risk, and if he had to do anything to protect either, then burn his soul.

Jerid kissed Lysira again and murmured, "First thing is first, we should shed these bloodied clothes and order a bath." He eyed his wife and grinned. "And I am hungry, and food is not on my mind."

[Bella]

His words and his touch, as they always had, achieved the desired effect. The promises for the safety of their son soothed the mother instinct, and the wife instinct roused in its place. The time they had thus far had together since their reunion had still not been enough to sate twenty years without him. Her pale skin was too susceptible to color and as he stirred heat in her body, a faint tinge of pink entered her cheeks.

Her son would be safe. She had made the best choice to come home to the Tower, because here was a father and half-brother as ready to protect him as his mother was. This knowledge, this conscious reminder, was enough to push back the shades that has started to rise again in her mind. Instead, her black eyes glistened with her focus on her husband.

'Yes, my husband,' she signed with a faint smile curving her lips as she stole a soft kiss on her own impulse this time. 'I would enjoy...' The hesitation in her hand movements quite purposeful. '...being clean. And sated.' Just knowing that she was not alone anymore was such a powerful feeling for the diminutive Gaidar that she could just melt her being into Jerid's now and revel in the knowledge.

[Jack]

Jerid smiled slyly as he watched Lysira's fingers dance. He knew all well what those fingers could do, how they could make him relax ... among other things.

He nipped her lips playfully and murmured, "Sated is something I can do that we don't necessarily have to be clean for, my love."

They both had very few intimate moments since their reunion, and Jerid wanted to relish every moment he had with Lysira. The bond flooded with a simmering fire, low in heat but ready to boil over.

He kissed her again, his hands tugging at her shirt, ready to disrobe his wife ...

... when a knock sounded at the door. One hand immediately went to the knife on the floor when a voice announced the presence of a bath.

"Flaming perfect timing," Jerid muttered. Still he was suspicious and he rose carefully. He almost reached for saidin, but thought better of it. He had channeled too much as it was and he knew better than to overextend those limits.

Instead, knife hidden behind his back, the Indigo opened the door, admitting a group of Tower liveried servants carrying a tub large enough for two and buckets of hot water, with the appropriate supplies.

Jerid smirked slightly, wondering whom might have thought to order the tub. But soon vanished when the servants very promptly and very professionally prepared the bath before bowing and leaving the married pair to their privacy.

He looked at Lysira and asked, "Shall we bathe, wife?"

[Bella]

When the knock on the door had come, all of the cells that had inflamed at his touch and words changed their tune very quickly. Her body tensed, but she realized just as quickly as he did, when the servants on the other side said so, that it was a bath. A lovely idea, she thought and smirked faintly as she rose to her feet. She stayed put and watched, smiling politely in thanks at them.

Her eyes glinted as they watched them leave. By the time Jerid turned to her and asked if she was ready to bathe, she was already halfway done peeling her clothing off her renewed, slender frame and moving to the tub with a very specific look over her shoulder at her husband...
Fade to Black... (You have imaginations, people.)