Rand sat on the bench, unmoving. His eyes gazed off into the distance, almost as if he was in deep thought. However, upon closer examination, a perceptive person might see the truth; there was no look of concentration on his face, no thoughtful frown or absently chewed lip. Just silence and motionless, and a perfectly expressionless face.
He'd been sitting in the middle of the garden now for a long time. An hour, two, three, he didn't know. It didn't matter.
It was a warm day, and there was no shade nearby. He'd have sunburn tomorrow, without doubt, but that didn't matter either. Sunburnt skin was only annoying because it was painful, but Rand didn't care about pain anymore. He wondered idly if he could even still feel it, before the thought slipped away.
It didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered anymore.
"I want to see him" Tam said, nearly roaring now with frustration.
"I'm afraid that will have to wait a few more days Master al'Thor" Ananda Sedai said firmly "The gentling has already been performed, yes, but during it and immediately afterwards is a traumatic period. It's best the boy is not disturbed."
"He's my son" Tam managed through gritted teeth. He clenched his fists at his side, trying to stop them from reaching out and throttling the light-cursed woman.
"So you've already told me" the Aes Sedai said dryly. She seemed rather sympathetic to him, for the most part, but she had been charged with caring for Rand for the time being, and she didn't seem capable of budging where her patients' health was concerned. If it wasn't for the fact that it was those very same women who had hurt his son, he might have been grateful for that.
"I understand this is difficult for you" Ananda added "But the worst has passed, and I will do everything I can for your boy. Now if you'll excuse me, I have other patients to tend to." She pushed passed him without waiting for a reply. Tam growled again.
It had been almost a month, following the Aes Sedai who had arrived at Emond's Field in the dead of night, pausing only to ask which one was the boy. They'd taken him, still unconscious from whatever it was he'd done to Dannil, over Tam's protests. He'd grabbed a bag and stuffed it with clothes, hard food that wouldn't spoil soon and coin, grabbed his bow and a quiver and ridden after them in haste.
And now that they were finally here, now that Rand had been gentled by these women, he was being told that he couldn't take his own son home. A 'traumatic period', she'd called it. By the light, how was staying in this place supposed to be less traumatic than leaving?
Tam forced himself to breathe. A few more days, that was what she had said. Aes Sedai may be loathsome at times, but they could only speak the truth and, for now, seemed to have Rand's best interests at heart. For now.
Rand wandered around the courtyard aimlessly. He would have preferred to stay seated by the gardens, but one of the girls in a white dress with a number of colours at the hem and cuffs had told him, not unkindly, that it was best for him to walk about once in a while. He didn't really want to, but he wanted to be left alone more, so he had gotten off his seat and done as he was asked.
He stopped abruptly. He could hear a faint clacking sound to the side of the path, like lengths wood being slapped together, but lighter. Some sort of Gleeman perhaps?
Mildly curious, and with nothing else to do, he turned off from the path into the trees, letting his ears guide him. The sound was stronger now, the clacking loud and without rhythm. Whatever it was, it wasn't music.
Soon he emerged onto a large expanse of bare ground, a large stretch across and twice as long. The earth was firm, almost rocky, and looked as stable as a wooden floor. Scattered around the edges of the area were wooden stands, some holding quarterstaves, others holding real weapons, but most holding curious lengths of wood bound together and shaped like swords.
Men stood all along the open ground, most stripped to the waist, squaring off against each other with the wooden swords in hand. Some flailed wildly, others moved as gracefully as if dancing at Bel Tine, but most seemed at a point somewhere between the two, moving fast but rigidly.
Warders Rand thought, with actual interest. He'd heard the stories, fearsome warriors that fought the Blight and Darkfriends, yet were sworn to the service of Aes Sedai. He'd never understood that, why would great heroes serve the Tar Valon witches? The stories never offered much of an answer.
He watched the men fight with so much attention he never even noticed when one of the Warders, shaped like a block of stone, sidled up beside him.
"See something that interests you boy?" the heavy-set man asked with a raised eyebrow, gesturing with a pipe he held in his hand towards the swordsmen.
Rand took a step back, startled. "No... I..." he took a moment to gather his thoughts "I mean yes, I've just never seen Warders before". He tensed, waiting for the man to laugh at him.
The older man just nodded thoughtfully. "Not many come to Tar Valon without having first met an Aes Sedai" the man said finally "and that generally means having met a Warder".
He studied Rand's face, taking in his age and mood "You don't have the look of a city boy lad, are you a messenger, or sick?"
Rand felt his throat tighten and lowered his eyes. "No... I was... brought here to be... gentled" he said at last, with an effort. He felt a glimmer of hurt and fear stir within him, and waited to hear a shocked gasp, or a hurried excuse to leave.
Nothing happened.
When he looked back up he saw the man studying him with pity in his eyes. "Ahhh lad, how old are you?" he asked softly.
"Thirteen summers".
"Too young, by the light" he said with a shake of his head "Far too young".
Rand shifted on his feet nervously. The older man seemed nice enough, but he was still a stranger, and at the moment he wouldn't have wanted to discuss what had happened to him even with Tam.
Apparently realising he hadn't introduced himself, the man nodded companionably. "My name's Hammar, I'm in charge of training".
Rand hesitated before replying. "I'm Rand al'Thor".
There was a moment of silence while Hammar stared at him thoughtfully, chewing on the stem of his pipe. His eyes never left Rand's face.
"The uh... Warders, how are they recruited?" Rand asked, determined to shift the conversation away from what had happened to him.
Hammar took another long drag from his pipe, watching Rand thoughtfully. After exhaling, he nodded, as if confirming something to himself. "Well lad" he began "most of our Warders are former soldiers personally chosen by Aes Sedai, usually from the Borderlands, and then come here to hone their skills".
Rand considered that for a second. "And the younger ones?" he asked, gesturing towards a group of very young men scarcely older than himself.
Hammar smiled "We occasionally get a few adventurous lads who run away from home to play with swords. Most of the time we end up turning them over to the Tower Guard, but if they've got some talent, they sometimes manage to join our ranks."
Rand listened with interest. He didn't think much of the idea of serving women who... who did the sorts of things they had done to him, but he had listened to a lot of stories, and he did like the swords.
Hammar kept smiling, as if he knew what Rand was thinking. "Would you like to try your hand lad?" he asked.
Rand blinked in surprise, and then lowered his head in embarrassment. "I've... I've never used one before" he mumbled. He didn't want to make a fool of himself in front of Warders.
Hammar snorted. "I never would have expected you to have, lad" he said wryly "but we train beginners as well as veterans here, and it's not exactly a rare occurrence".
Rand hesitated again. Swords and Warders! He thought to himself. Just like the stories.
He nodded sharply before he'd change his mind and lose his nerve. "I'd like that" he said as evenly as he could. "At least for as long as I'm here" he added, remembering the tower was full of Aes Sedai.
Hammar inclined his head politely. "Fetch us both a wooden sword from the rack then lad" he said, snuffing out his pipe and rolling up his sleeves "and we'll see how well you take".
"Can I please see him now" Tam asked impatiently.
Ananda Sedai grudgingly nodded. "But you must not disturb him too much" she added sternly "he has very little energy, and exciting him too much could be harmful".
She led him through the corridor that presumably led to the sick quarters. Tam strode alongside her, his mind awhirl with questions.
"I thought Gentled men were supposed to remain active?" Tam remarked "That was what the Accepted girls told me". Along with all manner of patronising suggestions about Rand's health and intrusive questions about his strange hair and eye colouration, but he didn't think the Aes Sedai needed to know that.
Ananda's sniff of disdain conveyed an appropriate level of disregard for his medical knowledge. "Gentling removes a great deal of a person's will to go on living" she began to reluctantly explain "Very little continues to interest them – old hobbies and vocations are often associated with the life they led before being Gentled, and normally they either forsake them in favour of new ones or take their own lives".
They passed from the corridor into a large tree-covered courtyard outside.
Tam felt a chill at her words, and it wasn't due to the wind or climate. What kind of monster could discuss Rand's condition so matter-of-factly? Light, this was his son!
"This deteriorating interest in activity leads to a wasting body mass and loss of vitality" she continued lecturing absently "To combat this, patients must be fed well and lightly exercised, but not too heavily – over-exertion can result in injury or great weariness, which then leads to more inactivity and even greater- oh, here we are".
They came to a halt at a large stretch of earth, framed by trees, where men and boys practiced with wooden training swords.
Mock battlefield or training ground an old part of Tam thought distantly and Warders.
About to ask the Aes Sedai why she'd brought him here, Tam opened his mouth, and then caught sight of a shock of red hair among the swordsmen.
Rand.
The lad moved amongst the group under the direction of a large blocky Warder with a pipe. He moved a bit unsteadily, trying to follow the teacher's demonstrations of a strike or parry.
"So this is what you meant by 'light exercise'" Tam commented.
Ananda nodded, watching the students "He has weeks to go, at the least, before he can do anything more strenuous, but so long as he is only fighting empty air this works very well". She looked at Tam out of the corner of her eye "Hammar Gaidin" she said, gesturing to Rand's blocky teacher "Tells me that your son is a natural, considering his condition".
Tam remained silent, watching his son steadily ape his graceful teacher, but he could tell the Warder was correct. Before they had come to Tar Valon, he knew for a fact that Rand had never seen a sword before except in books and sheathed scabbards on the hips' of caravan-guards. He knew his son had never handled one before.
And yet Rand stood focused, a blade with both hands, in an easy stance. When he moved, he showed clumsy footwork and weak form, but he must have had only a few days instruction, and he was undoubtedly still exhausted from his Gentling.
It's unnatural Tam thought to himself as he saw Rand demonstrate a slow, but fair example of an overhead strike. Inborn talent only went so far. How many of the Companions had been born with a talent for the blade, and how long had it still taken them? Years.
He comes from a strong people that distant part of his mind reminded him. Who are you to say what is natural for him?
He remembered for a moment flashes of a bloody, strawberry-blonde woman dead in snow, a child at her feet. A woman who had gone in battle pregnant, if her recently-used spears and recently-born son were any indication.
Tam abruptly became aware of Ananda Sedai studying his face shrewdly.
"In your opinion Aes Sedai" he asked suddenly "would my son be ready to safely go home tomorrow, if I took care not to over-exert him?"
Ananda frowned. "Well, yes" she admitted irritably, unable to wriggle out of such a straight-forward question "but it would be smarter and safer by far to wait. Your child has shown great aptitude and interest in swordsmanship, and such pursuits are extremely bene-"
"Thank you for your care then Aes Sedai" Tam answered impassively, cutting her off before she could launch into a lecture "But I am a former soldier myself, and can teach my son as well as your Warders. We will leave tomorrow morning."
He didn't look back at the furious healer, no longer bothering with undeserved civility.
He started towards Rand slowly; fixing his face into what he hoped was a comforting expression. He could care for his own child just as well as, if not better than, the women who had done this to him.
The trip back to Emond's Field was, in a way, both more tiring and tedious than almost anyone would have likely thought.
Rand needed to be almost bullied every few hours before he would reluctantly hop off the back of the wagon and walk around to get the exercise he needed. Yet conversation for any other purpose than the bare necessities was completely absent.
So anxious were they to get home, that apart from a quick stop in Whitebridge for Tam to buy something or other, they stopped moving only for eating, sleeping and resting the horses, which they tried to combine as often as possible to speed the journey.
They each had an odd feeling that they couldn't talk about what had happened until they had reached the safety and comfort of the Two Rivers.
When they finally reached home, scarcely had they settled when Tam asked Rand to come back outside with him.
Rand followed gingerly. His father stood with a wrapped bundle in his hands.
"I have something for you" Tam said, to break the silence between them. He cleared his throat before continuing "The Aes Sedai told me that it helps for... Gentled men to have an outlet for their emotions, a focus through which they can anchor themselves".
Rand nodded slowly, more to show that he was listening than because he understood.
Tam tossed back the cloth covering his package. Beneath lay two dark, wooden swords, shaped like the ones he had handled in his stay at the White Tower, but of different materials. Where the Warder's training swords had been composed of strips of a strangle flexible wood bound together to form a hollow 'blade', these wooden swords were more solid, seemingly carved entirely out of heavier materials, perhaps oak.
"Hammar Gaidin told me before you left" Tam said quietly to Rand "that you had as much talent with a sword as many man that he's ever taught. He advised me to find you a teacher to continue the training he gave you."
Rand tore his gaze away from the wooden swords, meeting Tam's eyes curiously. "Where will we find anyone for that in Emond's Field?" Rand asked, bewildered "will we have to move?"
His father smiled slightly. "No Rand, we already have one. I think it's about time I told you what happened to me when I left the Two Rivers."