This story takes place in the fourh age, in the future we saw in Aviendhas visions in Rhuidean. Specifically shortly after her great-granddaughter, Oncala, convinced the queen of Andor to lead the free nations of the Westland to war against the Seachan.
The Seachan are strong, united and still collar all channelers. The Aiel have been fighting against the Seachan for decades, and are now more skilled and powerful than ever. And now its time for the rest of the world to join the fight, and in the end there can only be one winner.
He was Farad, a Dedicated of the Black Tower. He was the son of a merchant from Four Kings, and had often as a child traveled to and by the Black Tower, in awe of the things he saw the men there do as they trained with the One Power. It had been the happiest day of his life when, after four tryouts, they had finally found the spark in him, and he had been able to join their ranks.
He wasn't one of the strongest men in the tower, he had trained for half a decade before they gave him the silver pin of the Dedicated and the right to wear the black cloak, and he supposed it would be even longer before he finally became a full Asha'man. Or it had seemed liked that until yesterday, when the M'Hael, Logain, had called the whole tower to a meeting.
When the call came, he had been training on the blasted fields north of the Citadel City. He had been practicing how to reassemble destroyed boulders. When training as a Soldier he had learned how to destroy things, as a Dedicated his job was to learn the much harder skill of making things whole again. He had been together with a group of six Dedicated and one Asha'man when the female warder came running. Running! As if there wasn't a perfectly well known traveling gate nearby. He had laughed at the sweating Warder. His laughter stopped when the warder started telling her news. The Black Tower was locked down for defense. The ter'angreal in the bastions had been activated, preventing traveling to and from the tower for all but those few with the specific keystones. The one hundred and thirteen towers were to be manned and ready at all times, and the Citadel City surrounding the Black Tower was to prepare for a siege. There was going to be a war. With the Seachan.
Of the Dedicated nearby to hear the news, each reacted differently. Uthor, a strong Kandori, fainted. A few paled visibly the more they heard. But some, maybe even most of them, were like Farad. Excited. As he thought about it, he felt in a way as if it was just the thing he had always been waiting for. The Seachan did terrible things to channelers. The women there had been collared and enslaved for a thousand years already, and a few decades ago they had found out a way to bind the males as well. There men like Farad were less than human. They were slaves, animals, maybe less than animals. And everyone knew that the Seachan secretly desired to bind all channelers. After all, they had only two words for channelers. The leashed, and those who must be leashed.
And Farad heard often rumors of channelers falling to the Seachan. Mostly the rumors said that another Aiel channeler had been captured, which was only reasonable considering their ongoing war with the Seachan. But it wasn't uncommon for lone Asha'man or Aes Sedai going missing. It had happaned to one of Farads friends as well. Benedet had been his name, and he had gone back to his old home-town in Illian after gaining his rank as Asha'man. He had never returned, and others from the same place said that he had never arrived there either. And all this happened while the Seachan claimed they knew nothing and simply held to the Dragons Peace. Lies! But now Farad would have a chance to show those Seachan. And he wouldn't have to wait long for his full rank either. Promotions came so much faster in war.
He looked over at the boulders they had been carefully sticking back together, grasped the one power, the blew one up again with a weave of Earth, Wind and Fire. The boulder turned into little more than sand, and Farad wasn't even very strong. Looking at the destruction he'd caused, he felt confident. It only served to reason that the reason the Seachan hadn't begun open war yet was that they were afraid. Afraid of the industrial and military might of the Pact of the Griffin and the Court of the Sun. Afraid of the combined forces of the Black and White Towers with the Aiel Wise Ones and Dragon Blooded. And they were right to be afraid, for each damane the Asha'man released would make the Westlands stronger, and the Seachan weaker. This was going to be a short war; short and victorious.
After waking up Uthor, the passed out Kandori, they jogged back towards the tower. They kept a moderate pace, not slow enough to be arrogant or careless; the Seachan were not to be underestimated after all, but not fast enough to make the common people think that the world was about to end right now. When jogging through the countryside and the city, Farad noticed people cheering them on, wishing them good luck. Some commoner asked Farad to take him with him; he wanted to fight as well. The news had traveled fast. Farad ignored the man and continued towards the Black Tower itself.
The Black Tower was a huge black spire with seven wings at the bottom. Everything was plated with Cuendillar, making the tower practically indestructible to any outside attack. And it was huge, bigger than the White Tower, probably the biggest building in the world. But even with almost a thousand Asha'man, Dedicated and Soldiers standing guard it in the towers and other defensive structures, even then there wasn't one single place large enough to fit everyone. Farad went the hall of the Golden Interest, his own, and found not a single empty seat. He overheard someone saying it was the same in all the other Interests, as well as the Barracks commons and the great halls of the tower itself. As Farad saw still more streaming towards the hall, he decided to quickly try and find a good place to stand, so that his sight of the Viewer wouldn't be obstructed too much.
It took maybe half an hour before everyone seemed to have come, and the viewer turned on. They saw the M'Hael, Logain, standing before them just as if he was there in person.
"Asha'man, attention! One hour ago I met Queen Talana. She said she has proof that the Seachan mean to attack. She showed the Seachan plans to attack Caemlyn, other cities, and other nations. And she showed me how they mean to attack the Black Tower." The last line stirred the whole hall into an angry rage. How dare the Seachan, after how hard the Black Tower had worked to keep the peace and tried to peacefully make the Seachan see the truth of what their empire was founded upon. Not one Asha'man had taken part in the Aiel war.
"Silence!", the M'Hael continued. The hall complied. "I suppose in a way I, we all, knew this day was coming. I made an oath once. To the Dragon Reborn, the champion of light, that the Asha'man would guard the world when he was no more, to stop wars. And you all know how we have tried, and this failure is not ours, but theirs. They are the ones who would not change, they are the ones who would not see the truth in front of them. They are the ones who wish nothing more than to enslave us all, while we have hoped for nothing but freedom for all," the M'hael said while looking around the crowds as much as the Viewer let him. "But, nonetheless, this war hasn't started yet. And no matter how little, there is always hope. So, we will be ready. We will guard, as is our role. We will guard the peace for as long as possible, and when the peace is no more, we will guard the world. But we will not break the peace. Because we have sworn an oath to the memory of the Dragon Reborn. And as Asha'men we will proudly stand behind the word and spirit of that oath, and not try to wriggle out of it like others would."
The M'Hael took a pause, to let it sink into the crowd that they would not be charging with the first wave. Farad felt a bit disappointed. And afraid; what if they lost their advantage by waiting? As a Dedicated he had not yet taken the Dragons oath, though he was meant to live as if he had. He looked up at the M'Hael again. "But if war comes to us, we will not hold back, but unleash the tempest. Dismissed."
The rest of the day the Asha'man spent organizing themselves into battle ready groups. The only exception was the Gray Interest, the meditators and politicans. Farad didn't see much of them, but he heard that most of them had moved to the Gamblers Redoubt outside of the city, and were traveling to places near and far to try and salvage the peace. Farad even heard of Aes Sedai meditators joining the grays.
Farad thought what the grays were doing was pointless. When younger he had traveled extensively in the Seachan lands and the Westlands. As a Soldier he had met the Aiel and Aes Sedai. And he knew that in their hearts, everyone wanted to get rid of the other ones. They were too different to co-exist, and it had passed too long since Tarmon Gai'don for people to be afraid of war anymore. And everyone thought they could win.
Farad wished the White Tower sent them less grays, and more from the Green or Red Ajah. Those were always ready for battle, and it'd be useful if the Asha'man could form or join circles in large numbers. Circles were the one thing the Seachan could not do, so it was one of the great advantages the free channelers had. But hoping for sense from the White Tower was improbable, especially after Logain had years ago let that runaway novice from the White Tower join and train in the Black Tower. Now they had too few females to be of much use in forming strong circles, but too many for the White Tower to stomach.
Farad was sure that it wouldn't matter in the end though. They had over twenty-thousand Asha'man, and even if they had to fight without anyone else to support them, the Black Tower would fight. And they would win. They had to, didn't they?