The Grey Tower

Jerid Walker Asha'man The two men stared at each other for several moments. Neither paid attention to the small Warder in standing in striking distance of each other.

Jerid's gold-green eyes flashed toward the bloodied saber on his desk, frowning slightly. It was just drying, an indication of a fresh kill. Sojin had killed the man quick, without hesitation and or thought.

Thirty seconds to respond to their man's death. They were still in shock. And they had still stayed, risking the wrath of a highly skilled soldier and a number of armsmen.

“You have our greatest respects for what you did,” Jerid said calmly after a moment. “But the Seanchan cannot be trusted. I would sooner trust my House to a cadre of Whitecloaks than them.”

Sojin's eyes were steel, a hard blue ready to cut down anyone in his way.

“They want peace, so why don't you,” Sojin asked after a moment.

The Indigo had to admire his son's stubbornness, no matter the subject. Light, but the lad was like his mother in so many ways. And like Jerid himself.

But the subject had its own inherent dangers.

“If one Seeker was involved, then surely more Seancahn are against this proposal than are for it … “

Sojin's fist slammed against the desk.

“If they are, then they go against a formidable flaming family in the Seanchan Empire, one that has proven loyal to the Crystal Throne,” Sojin said. “And they are willing to make a concession: damane in their 'custody' will be released to the Grey Tower in a show of good faith after the flaming Seeker incident.”

Sojin let the words sink in. Given how both men knew the intolerance of such behavior was for one another, it should be a positive sign.

Jerid still had his doubts, and a tinge of regret followed him for the words he was about to utter.

“Would you be so forgiving to the Shaido Aiel band that killed your wife and son when you still rode in the Band of the Red Hand,” Jerid murmured, his eyes level with Sojin.

It was an old wound, one long since closed to Sojin. But the Indigo had no choice but to see how deep it still penetrated. His own losses still stood fresh in his mind from the Seanchan, no matter how long ago they had been.

Sojin flinched visibly and his hand flexed slightly. A throwing knife was hidden under his sleeve and he nearly fell to temptation.

Gideon Majere and Simone Cavelon had been the brightest spots in his life as a young soldier. Simone had been a Tinker woman who had against all odds bonded him. He wasn't a stranger to Warder bonds, at least not the lore behind them having grown up in Tar Valon. Gideon had been their son, the reason they had married not weeks after she had discovered she was pregnant.

For a year after … he had been a man in love, not a man past 17 years old … and then the Aiel band had struck.

“They're all dead because of what I did,” Sojin said after a moment. “Their blood is on my hands and the five men I led into battle for revenge. I'll never forgive them but I'll be burned if comes to define my life. What's your excuse?”

Jerid nearly smiled. He wanted to, to admit he was proud of his son for admitting something, especially in front of an essential stranger.

Instead he picked up the saber by its handle and murmured, “Because I remember every thing from the day the Seanchan invaded Ebou Dar until now, and because I do not trust the Seanchan. How can a police force like the Seekers for Truth be so effective when they cannot even see the Shadowsworn in their own ranks, especially the ones that can channel?”

“How can we trust our own, father?” Sojin retorted. “We risk every day our own friends being Darkfriends or worse, Black Ajah. You end up dead like the Healer M'Hael, but you have no flaming choice. If you don't trust, you risk friendships that can never become.”

Jerid did smile, wryly, this time. He looked at Lysira and said, “Caden taught him well.”

“Lord Ives taught me how to fight and observe, not to judge,” Sojin said sharply. “I trust the man to have left that to my own devices. And I make my judgment now: Morgan Walker is to marry his intended bride at his own wishes. And the Seanchan family is to expect an express personal apology from you. And if you don't have your flaming Warder there, she won't have the pleasure of skinning you alive. You'll be on my saddle two seconds after you return.”

Jerid blinked. What had happened to the lad who had clamped his jaw with but a glimpse from the Indigo?

He had grown up. Grown smart. Had become a soldier. It made the Indigo proud.

“Apology in person, yes,” Jerid murmured after a moment. “But the marriage is conditional. I will … “

Sojin cut him off. “They will agree to restore Walker Manor in the Caralain and with rebuilding of any damage done to outlying villages, and will supply soldiers to protect it. They've already begun because I've authorized it, just as I did the marriage.”

Jerid blinked in surprise, much to Sojin's delight.

“Morgan holds his vows in a month,” Sojin said. “I had to drill into that skull of yours the importance of this marriage, and the danger the Seanchan risk if they ruin it.”

He paused before he murmured, “You are an Asha'man, father, sworn to this Tower. You absolved yourself of all outside loyalties the day you exited from the last Arch. Morgan Walker is High Seat, and you are First Seeker. Protect those you can.”

Sojin looked at Lysira briefly. “And you, protect him as he'll need it. As for my brother, he will have a shadow that will guarantee survival.”

Then he turned, prepared to leave.

Jerid frowned slightly, still holding the bloodied saber. “Sojin ...”

“Keep it. It's become too heavy to carry,” he said before slamming the door behind him.

Jerid was quiet for a moment, realizing the significance of Sojin's leaving. And the recent conversation.

“Saphire en'Damier gave him his saber not long after her rescue from the Black Ajah,” he murmured, looking at Lysira. Light, but she must have vaguely remembered the night Sojin had stormed into their apartments, demanding help. Saphire had been taken by Black Ajah, had been threatened to turn by a circle of 13 channelers and 13 Fades. Lysira had been nearly due with Cade at the time, and Sojin had acted as his Warder, the lead of what happened to be a force of channelers from six Ajahs.

“Saphire bonded him as a Ji, that's how she was found,” he murmured. “Leaving this here means he's moving on from her. It's also a message I should move on from a flaming long vendetta.”

The saber fell to the desk as Jerid sank into his seat. He felt tired.

For the first time in decades he was doubting himself.

“He's right, and I'm so flaming tired,” he murmured. He looked at his wife. “Advice from my personal advisor, is it time for peace?”

Although she wouldn't be likely to admit it 'aloud', she rather admired Sojin in that moment. He hadn't, in fact, forced her to dive in front of a blade (she appreciate that) and he had made his case very effectively. He had stood up to his father not in petulance, like a younger man would have, but as a mature adult with a good point to be made. And he had made it.

Lysira turned to Jerid after the other warder had left. She could see the fatigue written all over him, for all of it and she smiled softly.

As it was safe to move away from her place of strategic safety, she slipped around the desk and slid her small, lithe body onto the chair with him, sitting in his lap. She couldn't wrap her arm around his shoulders like she might have wanted to, else she wouldn't be able to talk, but she leaned into him and held his gaze with her dark eyes. Her look and smile was tender and understanding, now his wife and not his Gaidar.

'He's right, my dear,' she signed. 'We are none of us who we once were. I'm not saying it's needs be to truly trust the Seanchan, I understand, but I think maybe it's time to trust your son.'

Jerid looked at his wife as she sank into his lap. His arms wrapped around her and he smiled faintly as he considered her words.

He had been at war for so long, since the day Erin, his first love and bondmate, was murdered by a Seanchan agent. More than century of war, battles and threats by both Light-minded and Shadowsworn Seanchan had made him weary and filled with hatred.

He had recalled one time, long ago, when a Seeker for Truth entered the Caralain with the intent to kill his daughter and son. They were still teenagers at the time, before Beric had gone to the Tower, and Jerid had stopped the man. His head ended up in the Imperial Court in Seanchan, across the Aryth Ocean and the rest scattered across Seanchan-occupied lands.

He kissed Lys lightly on the lips and whispered, “If I didn't trust my son, would I have allowed him to remain bonded to Saphire Sedai whilst a still a trainee?”

When the tables had turned … Light but the two had made such an indomitable team. Sojin had risked his life for an Aes Sedai he loved and nearly died for it … and bit his pride to ask for his father's help at a time when neither knew one another well enough.

“Cade needs to be around him more,” Jerid murmured after a moment, looking at the saber. “The two could learn from one another, just as I learned from my own son today.”

His gold-green eyes grew distant then, a reminder of some threats to Cade.

“We need peace at least with the Seanchan,” Jerid murmured. “Or at least with someone who can calm the flaming Crystal Throne. That would be one less threat to Cade.”

Light but was he tired of killing Seanchan. He had known a few decent ones in his own time, ones he had wanted to call friend.

But they had marched on the Caralain to remove a myth, a legend. A threat.

“It's time the legend of the golden-eyed demon died with the birth of this marriage,” Jerid said, looking at Lysira. “My love, prepare for a meeting between myself and the insulted party at the Band of Brothers, with the proper precautions. It's time to make peace and give my blessing.”

She listened as he thought it through aloud, saying nothing and letting him come around to his conclusions. Lysira would not tell him what to think or feel, and she had already shared her own and thus it was to him now. Although truth be told, she had a pretty good idea of where his opinion would end up, judging by his reaction to his son and the pronounced fatigue she had seen in him after Sojin had left.

And she was right. Lys smiled tenderly at him. There was a time to hold on to things, and a time to let them go.

The simple truth was that their family could use one less enemy. Even if they might never trust them to be an ally, to not be an enemy would be very useful. And even if this grudge had come long before Lysira entered the picture, Jerid was hers. Thus what affected him, affected her, and for the sake of them both and most importantly their son, they needed one less enemy.

'It will be done, my Asha'man,' she signed with a slight glimmer of teasing in her dark eyes as she used the more proper title...while sitting in his lap, and just before leaning in to kiss him again. Using her lips to speak in the only way she could to show that she thought he made the right decision.