A/N: I am assuming that readers know at least the general outline of the events of the book series Wheel of Time. If you haven't read them and don't particularly want to do spark notes or something. Although I would suggest you read the books, they are a very engaging read.

Chapter 5: Explorations throughout the Tower

Edward Elric had been in the Tower for several weeks since his meeting with Suian Sanche, the Amyrlin Seat. In that time he had gotten to know Min a lot better, as well as finally being able to at least talk with Elayne and her newly found friends, Egwene and the recently raised to Accepted Nynaeve al'Meara. To put it simply Ed did not get along well at all with Nynaeve. She was much older than him for a start and she was always ready to give a tongue lashing to anyone, even Aes Sedai at time. She would do this despite being sent to the Mistress of Novices for punishments in said cases. However, much to his relief and annoyance all four of his closest companions in the Tower up and disappeared one day. He knew all of them to be too sensible to run away, as he knew for a fact that Egwene and Elayne desperately wanted to be Aes Sedai and would endure any hardship to get to that rank. It partially reminded him of his and Al's devotion to finding a way to get their bodies back. First it was with the philosopher's stone; and then with making a deal with Truth for their bodies.

Other Aes Sedai that Ed had encountered had frightened him somewhat. First and foremost was Verin Mathwin. That woman may have appeared distracted but in her he saw a very hard intelligence and attention to detail that he knew he too possessed. He made a mental note to always be careful around that woman with any information. She was a fount of knowledge, but at the same time while she appeared distracted he knew she was inconspicuously taking notes in her mind, which he suspected were written down later when she had the chance to use them.

One woman that always seemed highly suspicious was Alviarin. She was always watching and insinuating that she knew of a way to help him achieve his goals if he were to put his trust only in her. This roused his suspicions immediately; does she take me for a fool? From that point on Ed was especially careful around the Aes Sedai and resolved to speak with the Amyrlin Seat, when suddenly disaster struck.

Throughout the Tower there was a reverberation. It originated in the store rooms that held the angreal and ter'angreal. Ed rushed to where he knew the storerooms to be. Don't make me too late, like I was too late to stop Kimbley from blowing all that stuff up near Briggs. He raced to the room that held the angreal. When he finally got there he saw an Aes Sedai laying there, she was dead. He saw in the room two Aes Sedai gathering as much as they could. Anger fueled through him; these women murdered their own initiate and then were stealing things from the Tower that was public domain? Without thinking he clapped his hands together and performed alchemy. Wrapping the women up in stone from the ground and then using more stone to take the bag from them. His next bit of alchemy was to knock the Aes Sedai out cold and shove them out of the room. After using alchemy to do so he constructed a stone wall across the entire entrance to the storeroom. Suddenly he heard footsteps and saw more Aes Sedai. They saw him and instead of rushing to aid the sisters when he called to them they attacked with fire at him.

That settles it there is a Black Ajah in the White Tower. And damn him if he wasn't going to ferret them out for attacking him. He prepared to launch a counter offensive but one of the blows that was sent at him and missed had a larger range than he thought. The last thing he saw before darkness took him was the two Aes Sedai rescuing the two he caught and then them taking a different path since there came the sound of many footsteps, those of other Aes Sedai, and Warders.

Suian Sanche marched right down the stairs to where the angreal were kept. On the outside was a large stone slab to keep people from getting in or out. And lying on the floor was an unconscious Edward Elric of all people. Healing was not one of Suian's greatest skills but she knew it had to be done to keep the boy's secret safe. He claimed he couldn't channel, and yet he was able to do something like this! Light! Quickly she healed him and gave orders to get him to the room that he had as the guest of the Tower. She quickly did the weave that allowed a woman to sense the residues of a man channeling Saidin. As before, nothing was found, despite all evidence to the contrary. Edward couldn't channel Saidin. He was wielding another power all together. That could not necessarily be detected by anything. This added a whole new layer of questions about Ed; she determined he would not leave the city until she had the answers that she desired. She wanted to learn something of how to do this if women could learn what he could do; it would be another weapon in their arsenal against the Dark One.

On her way out she was greeted by Elaida, that unpleasant woman. "I must wonder what happened here Mother. I saw the Elric child being carried out of here and the strange stone at the door. It is very difficult to break down. He must be able to channel. Give him to us in the Red Ajah so we may gentle him!"

"You overstep yourself daughter. I personally checked for residues of Saidin in this whole section of the Tower and found not a single trace of it. So the boy did not channel Saidin at all."

"We will still wish to investigate this area. I want to see to it personally Mother. If I may?"

It was more a command than a request but since she knew that Elaida would not find anything damning to the boy she had no real problem with Elaida doing it. Yet she also would have some other sisters do the task as well. Women who weren't as biased against men as Elaida and many of the Reds were.

Elaida strolled up and down the corridor furiously. She had performed the weaves countless times and still she had found nothing. She was so sure that Elric had been channeling Saidin. Yet in the end she came to the same conclusion that the Sanche woman came to. Most called Suian Sanche the Amyrlin Seat, which she was, but to Elaida in her heart of hearts would always think of her as that Sanche woman. There was really nothing left to do but interrogate Edward Elric. That boy had some sort of protection from the Sanche woman. But she would see to it that she talked to him again on his terms. Despite how stubborn she had heard the boy to be. She had also heard rumors he was more a man than many men 10 years older than him.

She made her decision. She would corner him and threaten him with exposing him if necessary to get him to talk. She could always convince her fellow reds he was either a darkfriend or a man who could channel and they would either do the gentling process or kill him. But then again, he could be a valuable resource. So it would be best to just convince the reds he was a man who could channel. They would try him in a secret red only court and gentle him. Afterwards, they would let him go; he no longer would be a threat. But she could only do all of that if pushed to it or she saw it as absolutely necessary.

Ed woke with three faces hovering over him. This is why he hated hospitals. People always trying to but in and make him sit still for way to long when he had plenty of more work to be doing. Never being the most patient man in the world he glared at them until he was thumped on the head. Immediately Ed knew who was there. Nynaeve, Elayne and Egwene were all hovering over him.

"What did you do that for braid-lady?"

"You shouldn't exert yourself you will only be harmed by it Shorty" the braided woman replied with another sharp thwack

"Stop that I've been hit in the head enough in the last 4 years to last a lifetime! Besides where have the three of you been. And where is Min. I could use at least one of you not always breathing fire down my neck!" he screamed. Okay so he was exaggerating a little bit, but he was bored without the four of them and Galad and Gawyn were not nearly as much fun to be around as Elayne and Min. For one thing he didn't have any romantic feelings for either since he knew both had their hearts set on another man. And he in his heart knew that there was only one woman really for him. Even if had hadn't even been able to admit it to himself. Suddenly he realized what he had just said and the room had gotten very quiet.

"You remembered your past?" Elayne asked excitedly. He cringed; oops he knew he had said too much. Should have known that they would pick up on what he said in anger. It was another reason he knew he had to keep it better.

"Never mind that, where have you been all this time, Gawyn, Galad and I have all been worried. You just up and left without saying a word to me. I know I'm new to all of you but damn it I need to know to at least let Gawyn and Galad know you are in safe hands! Besides I want to know where you three have been and what you have been up to. I've been going stir-crazy being here surrounded by Aes Sedai and women who eye me very strangely."

At that last part all three of them grinned. They seemed to know exactly what he was talking about. As he saw their knowing grins he began to blush as at least partial realization began to dawn on him. But being who he was, it wasn't much. He was an alchemical genius, not one on personal relationships.

"We were taken out of the White Tower on orders from Liandrin, who we believe is Black Ajah due to that she lied to us and got us captured by some people called the Seanchan." At the Egwene subconsciously began to rub the front of her neck as if there to check something was there. "After we got to the Western part of the continent we were caught by surprise by the Seanchan and Egwene was captured by a collar. The collar forces those women who can channel to be forced to channel for the one holding the leash. It is evil. It forces women to become slaves."

At this Ed became very angry. He had notions that slavery and servitude were inherently wrong. There was nothing wrong with serving someone or something if you were compensated for your work. But to do it for free because the master said so? No he did not like that one bit.

After they had finished Ed spoke up, "Well that at least makes some sense to what I saw when I was last conscious. There were Aes Sedai attacking other Aes Sedai and trying to steal from the vaults. So I did what I could to stop them." He then proceeded to tell them what happened leaving out the alchemy he performed. As he sat up and tried to get out of bed Nynaeve stopped him and said, "You are not going anywhere Ed until I am certain you are well." With that said she pushed Ed back into the bed and clasped her hands on his dead forcefully. Ed was increasingly nervous Nynaeve might reveal one of his biggest secrets. He shivered as he felt her delve him.

Nynaeve stood up and backed away shocked. "Edward, I don't know how to tell you but you are missing your right arm and left leg." Elayne and Egwene gasped at the same time. Then, they looked even more surprised as Ed unconsciously moved his right arm to the back of his neck and started rubbing it. Immediately he became aware of what he was doing. Nynaeve fainted dead away at that and Elayne and Egwene looked like they were going to too.

When Nynaeve finally came around a few minutes had passed. "Alright start talking Edward. Or I will beat you to an inch of your life heal you and then do it again until you tell me. And I will use the One Power to do it too!"

"Aw hell. You've seen me move my arm, you might as well know how I'm able to still move that arm and my leg as well. See it happened in an accident years ago."

"So you have remembered!" Elayne interrupted

"Heh, yeah well after I lost hem I went to my neighbors, the Rockbells and they made me my arm and leg out of metal for me. It is called auto-mail." At this Edward rolled back his sleeve and showed them the metal that was his arm. All three sets of eyes widened as they saw this.

"Why did you not tell anyone before this? It can make the work of farmers and many others who have lost arms and legs better. It needs to be used for study."

"I don't know how to make it. I should have given more attention to how it was made. I know that it connects to the nerves in my arm and the metal is many types so it won't rust very easily at all. Mine was designed to stand up to cold weather as well, which is more difficult. So you can't take it apart. You must keep this a secret. I need it to survive. Besides Winry will kill me if I bust this up again."

They nodded reluctantly when suddenly, "Who is Winry? Is she a girl? Do you love her?" those questions came from Egwene and Elayne. Nynaeve and Elayne still seemed to be studying his arm and he quickly moved it from sight.

"No! She's just my mechanic and childhood friend!" he said a little too quickly. At this all three of their faces became rather, mischievous would be the best word for it.

"Don't worry, we won't tell, not unless we find her. I assume you still don't know exactly where you are from so we'll just have to find out won't we?" Before they could go on the bells began to ring and they had to head off to their meeting of punishment from the Amyrlin as well as Mat's Healing. Saved by the bell.