AUTHOR'S NOTE:

This is a response to a challenge on TRLt posted by The Death Frisbee. The challenge: write a short piece, in English, without using the letter 'e'.

This is set on Juilin, Thom, Elayne, and Nynaeve's sea voyage upon the Wavedancer from Tear to Tanchico. It is AU, as I have taken a little bit of liberty with canon. Hope you enjoy.

Paying

His third day without drink was a trial. Six days on a boat with Rand's girls was too much for any man to stay away from his cups. But wisdom had finally won out. Rand was going to kill him, no doubt about it. Thom didn't want alcohol so much as his mind and body simply shut down without it. That Trakand girl was complicating his world too.

Light! Court Bard? Not now; just a drunk, trying to pay for a past that would not slip into a fog of dry mugs and common rooms. This trip would kill him. Rand was looking out for a girl, and it was going to kill Thom. Lack of alcohol, or old pain, or just good old daily action. Thom thought it might call for a bit of showmanship, though.

"I am too old for this." Thom said to a cold morning wind. Tanchico was no city for girls to go gallivanting around in. "Juilin, find our girls. Land in sight. It is Tanchico." If his story was to stop in Tanchico, Tanchico was in for an amazing round of showmanship.