A/N: Eh. It's short, but it's just a prologue. I'm trying to stick as close as possible to canon while sticking original characters from another universe in there. Don't worry, though. "Nine is the number of the Fellowship..." Oh, and it's post-cleansing, WoT-wise.
Prologue~ Whose Idea Was it to Camp by the Portal Stone?
Morning dawned, bright when compared with the events going on in Middle-earth. Darkness was growing, Sauron gaining power, and two people on horseback who should not have been there were bickering on the shore of the River Hoarwell, not far from the Last Bridge.
"What are we doing here, Amon?" The woman asked, using the reins to keep her bay gelding still. Her amber eyes flashed with anger, though her smooth, copper-skinned face was expressionless.
"I have no idea, Elena," the man sighed. His long hair, the same color as his own fierce black gelding, was gathered into two braids. Bells were woven into them; they could be heard when he turned his head to look around.
"It was your idea to camp next to the Portal Stone. I certainly didn't channel into it," Elena shook her head to move her black hair back from her face. Young looking even without her ageless face, the Domani woman showed her anger in the way she fidgeted with the reins in her hand.
"And you think I did? If you didn't want to camp there, you should have said so. You were the one who dragged me out of Caemlyn to search for something you didn't even know was there, in case you've forgotten." Amon straightened his black coat, making no effort to hide his anger. The silver sword and Dragon pins on his coat collar indicated he was an Asha'man as much as the woman's ring and face said she was Aes Sedai, and the bonds the two shared made any effort to hide emotion futile. He felt that familiar prickling, now, as she embraced saidar, and the dominant emotion racing along the double bond changed to confusion.
"Odd. Saidar feels stretched, as if I'm reaching through a shield. Try with saidin, if you would." Elena dropped one of the reins to run her left hand down that leg, feeling the barely opaque cloth of the blue riding dress, a subconscious nervous gesture of hers.
Amon opened himself to saidin, feeling that familiar rush. Well, not so familiar. As Elena had said, it was stretched, as if he was reaching not through a shield, but through a very fine net. Better than the taint had been, nevertheless it wasn't very comforting. He let it go, and could tell the Aes Sedai did the same when the tingling stopped. "What do we do now?"
"Hm. We don't have that much food with us, enough to last a few days at best. Water, at least, isn't a problem," she said, with a glance at the river. "Why don't we continue on until we reach a farm or a village?"
"Seems like a good idea," he answered. They urged their horses on, moving at a steady trot. Not that either had any clue where they were headed, but both preferred action to inaction.
Looking in the distance, at the bridge they were approaching, Elena shivered and murmured to herself, "I have a bad feeling about this."