The Grey Tower

The corners of almond shaped eyes were tight, the warm brown orbs unfocused and distant. The quaint little inn that had been home for the last few days rose behind her in all its adorable squat glory, Baelron itself little different from the open fields and mud and bedrolls that she had somehow grown used to. It had a bathhouse though... a clean one, and hot water! Light, she would never take something like heated water for granted again.

Katrie was seated beneath the shade of a sprawling apple tree. At least, she had been told that it was an apple tree... Her expression was dubious as she glanced upwards, having to squint against the backdrop of the brilliant blue sky as she studied the branches. The innkeeper insisted that the misshapen green bulbs would soon flower and then become apples. Needless to say, she had her doubts. She would have to remember to ask Dax later.

She had a sheet of brown paper resting in her lap. It was the list that her lover had made in preparation for their 'trip' away from the Tower seemingly a lifetime ago. It was crinkled... the corners beginning to tear... and the Gaidin had no idea that she even had it. She took it out every so often to look at it, a soft smile coming to her face every time she did so. Gentle fingertips traced over the irregular shape of the letters, the uneven spacing, the smudges of hesitation. She still had never seen him write... or read, for that matter. Even when she lost herself in studying her notes, Dax never spared the contents anything more than a cursory glance.

Why is that? she wondered, not for the first time. Granted, Katrie understood that her Warder was not as curious about... well, everything in quite the same way that she was, but still. She would want to know what it was that he was reading or studying. Dax was intelligent; she had noticed that from the day they'd met. He knew more things than she did about the world around them... he always answered her questions patiently. And he was never curt or harsh when he had to explain things to her. Her nose wrinkled and she carefully folded the list along the well worn lines, tucking the precious square of paper back into her belt pouch. Maybe he just didn't like reading or writing. But why? That was another thing she would have to remember to ask him later.

Katrie glanced up at the supposed apple tree branches again before she shook her head. Slender coppery fingers plucked irritably at the blades of grass within reach, the momentary distraction from the Tairen fading abruptly as a ripple of acute discomfort shot through her arm. There had been a time, up until a few hours ago actually, that she had toyed with the idea of getting a tattoo herself. Now that she was experiencing it indirectly firsthand, she wasn't quite sure she was prepared for the reality of going through with it.

Time passed, the pretty Accepted dappled in shifting patterns of shade and sunlight. She did her best to ignore the muted pain that sporadically rolled up her arms, her hands twitching every now and again in response. The bond flickered with hints of her lover's conflict; Dax's mind kept trying to wrap around hers, their shared awareness twining and lacing together briefly, only to be pushed apart with great effort. His attempts at shielding her from his pain were somewhat successful, the flat distance of the ko'di keeping the worst of it at bay, but that didn't make any of it better.

The pretty Cairhienin gnawed on her bottom lip. She had no way to help Dax. Embracing would only bring everything into sharp piercing focus, her senses enhanced by the female half of the One Power... and... well... Her head tilted ever-so-slightly to the side. Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing, if she could distract him? It wouldn't be for long; not only was it risky, channeling out in the open, but she felt... a curious sense of reluctance in doing so. How odd. It had never been there before. Katrie shook her head, snapping off more grass tips. It didn't matter though. If she could give the man she loved even a momentary diversion from what he was enduring, she would.

Saidar came in a rush of warmth and quiet joy, a smile curving her lips upwards. She felt Dax's interest sharpen and she replied with soothing reassurance. I am fine, love. The world brightened with almost painful clarity, every nuance and detail coming into perfectly clarity. She shifted around and began spinning out threads of predominantly Spirit and Air, adding a touch of other elements now and again as she turned patches of the tree trunk into different coloured squares. Red here... blue there... orange and yellow over by that knot there...

Katrie touched at her fat little belt pouch again, delighted by that particular patch of vivid purple she had just created, the glorious colour standing out in sharp contrast to the muddy brown and green around her. Idly, she wondered if holding onto the Source would make understanding the Old Tongue any easier. Would it work in that fashion? It couldn't hurt to try it... could it? Her head throbbed once as if in direct response to that thought and Katrie smiled ruefully.

Not for the first time, she wished she had paid better attention on that subject and sent up a silent apology to her tutors. A white square appeared and she stuck her tongue out at it before a thread of fire changed it to pink. She remembered some things from her lessons... but trying to figure out what she had copied from the books in the Library was still slow going and difficult. Had she returned all the books she had appropriated...? Her fingers drummed against her thigh. She honestly couldn't remember... but she supposed it hardly mattered now.

Maybe she was remembering wrong, but hadn't Dax once said that Jaryd was fluent in the Old Tongue...? The tall Cairhienin snorted. Even if the Asha'man was, that was not going to help her now. He was still back at the Tower and she was here, seated beneath an apple tree in Baelron. There were ways to reach Jaryd, she knew, but... that seemed like an unnecessary risk to take simply to ask him to help her with the Old Tongue.

Because she could, Katrie made another brilliant purple square, her tongue clicking against the roof of her mouth. And really, by the time any correspondence reached him, she would be long gone from the place she had sent it from anyway.

She went to twist together the silver and gold strands of the Power, her focus turned inward as her long, slender fingers still drummed rapidly against her thigh. She struggled to slow her agitated thoughts. Did Jaryd know she had run away? Another hesitant thought, one about her Mama that she quickly stopped before it could fully form.

A thin vertical line appeared on the ground in front of her, rotating slowly open and it was several minutes before Katrie realized that... she was no longer looking at gnarled roots and blades of grass... but at the top of someone's head. She peered down intently, her curiosity and her surprise crashing together. She was looking at an office of some kind, sunlight streaming in from a source of windows off to the side that she could not see. The... Light, what was this? What had she done? Who was she looking at?

The dark head beneath her was hunched over a desk, and as she looked down in rapt interest, she saw the way the other's shoulders rolled back, the mystery head lifting. She thought she caught a glimpse of burgundy. The figure looked quickly from side to side, hands coming down hard against the desk before the person stood. "You may as well show yourself. I know you are there."

That voice... Oh flaming Light...

Her heart was suddenly hammering against her ribs. It took several tries before her voice would agree to work. "Up here." The head snapped up and as sable eyes met coal-black, Katrie's face tried to wince and grin at the same time. "Hi Jaryd."

The Asha'man stared up at her, shock plain on the swarthy face before it was wiped clear of all emotion. "Accepted Aikaterine. What in the bloody Light."

She shrugged helplessly, the emotion evident on her face. "I don't know! It just happened! I was thinking of the Old Tongue and how Dax said that you knew how to speak it and... this just kind of happened."

The heavy brows lowered and the black eyes were frightening in their intensity. Katrie felt herself wilt beneath it. "Traveling is incredibly dangerous, serenla." His voice was hard and cold. "The edges of the weave are beyond razor sharp. It will shear through whatever it touches with the ease of a knife blade through paper."

She gasped, her hands going up to clap over her mouth. But that meant... if it... oh Light! Her eyes went perfectly round and saidar wobbled in her grasp. She hadn't known... oh Light, she hadn't known!

The Red Asha'man's expression softened a touch. "Yes. If your Gateway had opened where I was sitting, you would have killed me. Just like that."

"I'm sorry!" she blurted out, horrified. "I didn't mean to! I won't do it again! I -"

Her distress chased away saidar and as the Source slipped from her hold, the gateway simply winked out of existence. Katrie stared at the spot for a long moment before she pushed herself up onto her feet and ran back into the Inn.  Up the flight of stairs she went and she threw herself into the room that she and Dax shared, promptly burying herself face down into the bed. Hours passed, spent in a continuous silent litany of apologies to Jaryd, before she was calm enough to realize what it was that she had done.