AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Previous chapter updated due to geographical errors.

This chapter updated due to chronological issues with the al'Vere sisters.

Thanks to AliasKelly for the correction regarding Alene's glasses :)

Please review! I love reviews, they encourage me to write!

-Chapter 11: A Peaceful Locale -

I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. Sounds assaulted me in a sudden rush, children laughing, the ringing noise of a blacksmith at work and horses neighing. Footsteps and talking drifted up from below me. Shutters blocked most of the light from coming into the room through the one window near the foot of the bed I rested on. A candle on a bench beside my head attempted to make up for it. The room itself was sparse; a bed, a bench and a cupboard rested next to the door. The door opened and I sat up in alarm. The sudden movement caused me to black out again, and I fell into a dream filled sleep.

I entered the Guard's Room of the Jara'Copan Vault of Knowledge, nudging the rotted wood remains of a door with my foot. Water dripped down the walls, the floor was slick and green with moss. It felt damp and cold. The barrenness of the room matched the emptiness in my stomach. I was about to discount the room as being empty when a glint of light came from the corner of the room. I moved closer and cleared some more rotted wood out of the way with my foot. More and more shiny metal was revealed, finally taking the shape of a long spear. The entire length was made of metal and I received a bit of a shock when I lifted it up. It was nowhere near as heavy as it should have been, in fact it barely weighed anything at all. I stabbed it into the wall, expecting it to shatter like glass but was surprised when it embedded itself an inch into the hard stone.

"By the Light!" I exclaimed, easily wrenching the spear from the wall.

When I next woke up, a woman was putting a damp, cold cloth to my forehead. She was in her forties maybe, with long dark hair tied into a braid that she wore over her shoulder. The plain woolen dress that she wore was utilitarian rather than fashionable but she could have made a sack look like a ball gown. She smiled down at me and even that made me feel a little better. Retrieving a bowl from beside her, she helped me to sit up. I felt completely drained, even moving that little bit seemed to take all of my energy away from me. She lifted the bowl up to my lips and I slowly slurped down some warm broth. It tasted delicious. Once I had finished the small amount of broth, she lay me back down on the bed. I could feel the need to sleep creeping up on me and tried to ask her who she was and where I was, but she shushed me and gently stroked my cheek in a way that I had always imagined a mother would.

The great double doors leading into the Vault of Knowledge swung open smoothly, ignorant of their years of neglect. The sight that greeted me was disheartening. The once great shelves, stacked to the ceiling with books and scrolls, were empty. The priceless paintings between each shelf were gone. High above I could barely make out the great painted ceilings, the paint now mostly replaced by mould and dirt. I strode through the hall looking left and right for any sign of something left behind but found nothing. I checked the reading rooms and found them in a similar condition. I checked the rooms of the Librarians before I made my way down the spiral stairs into the lower halls, which once stored the most prized books and scrolls as well as some artifacts from before the Time of Madness. I clearly remembered looking at a frieze showing strange and unfamiliar animals. Suddenly I felt dizzy and reached out to brace myself against the wall. Unfamiliar animals. I shook my head in confusion, one animal in particular stood out. I remember wondering at it's long long neck and orange coloured splotches. I could feel a headache forming, giraffe's aren't unfamiliar animals.

I opened my eyes and a different woman was sitting on a stool next to my bed. Like the other one, she wore her hair in a single long braid over her shoulder. Where the other woman was slim and beautiful, this one was large and matronly; with graying, unkempt hair and a ruddy complexion. Despite her appearance she had look of a nurse, a person used to taking care of people and I trusted her immediately.

"Wh…" I croaked out, my voice raspy and my throat raw.

The woman passed over to me a cup of water, that I sipped at eagerly.

"Where are you?" she voiced my unasked question and I nodded in response.

"You are in Emond's Field in the Two Rivers. My name is Mavra, Mavra Mallen. I'm the Wisdom of Deven Ride."

The names were unfamiliar from both now and 'before', "My name is Emi." I offer, my voice sounding strange to my own ears.

"Well Emi," Mavra begins, "You caused quite a stir here. Limping out from the old Quarry road like that, half starved and delirious. But you're on the mend now, if we can just keep getting some broth into you and keep your fever down. Have a bit of a rest now. I won't be here when you wake, I have others to take care of in Deven Ride, but Mistress Al'Vere will be here."

"Sleep now Emi, sleep." She said.

And I did.

In the lower halls I explored all of the storage rooms, finding them as empty as the upper Library. The most priceless treasures were protected by a foot-thick wooden door. That wooden door was now rotted, it's metal braces poking out from the hinges like rib-bones on a skeleton. I walked through into the Inner Sanctum of the Library. I don't know what had happened. Perhaps the key had been lost? All the rest of the city had been evacuated, but nobody had been able to enter here? Books and scrolls had gone the way of the great wooden doors, rotted into nothing. But amongst the shelves sat a myriad of small items. A ring here, a bracelet there. Everything went into a pocket or my backpack. A small clay statue, a metal sheet embossed with a picture of a unicorn. Of course, none of it was edible and the constant emptiness in my stomach pained me. Soon my backpack was full of all sorts of little treasures and I picked up my spear and made my way slowly up and out of the Vault of Knowledge.

The next time I woke Mistress Al'Vere (I presume) was there, holding a wooden tray with soup and bread. The pressure in my bladder had become more pronounced and I shifted awkwardly. Mistress Al'Vere put the tray down on the table beside me.

"Are you in pain dear?" she asked.

"I need to go to the bathroom." I answered croakily.

She looked a bit puzzled, "I can bring a bath up, we don't have a room just for using it. But you aren't too dirty, concentrate on getting better."

"Toilet." I corrected, realising my error, "I need to wee."

She nodded in understanding and reached down under my bed, pulling out a ceramic pot with a handle. It looked like an oversized gravy boat.

"Here, my dear, I'll help lift you up." Mistress Al'Vere said, pulling back my bed sheets.

She helped me up into a kneeling position and slid the pot under me.

I must have paused for a moment because she asked, "Do you need my help dear?"

"No. No, I'm fine." I said hastily.

I realised that she wasn't going to give me any privacy and I wasn't entirely confident that I wasn't going to fall off the bed if she left. I shifted my long linen nightgown and peed into the pot, discovering that someone had taken my underwear off, probably when they changed me into the nightgown.

I finished and slid the pot out, Mistress Al'Vere took the pot and put it on the ground before helping me to lean back against the headboard. I crossed my legs and she put the tray in my lap. The soup was delicious; meat, vegetables, barley and beans. I used the bread to soak up the last of it. Mistress Al'Vere sat watching me while I ate, patiently waiting for me to finish.

Once I finished swallowing the last piece of soggy bread I smiled at her and said "Thank you. Thank you for everything."

"You're welcome dear." She said, then questioned, "Your name is Emi?"

"Yes." I said, nodding, "Emi Wilson."

"What were you doing out there all alone Emi?" She asked me.

I weighed my options and settled on the truth, "I was coming from the ruins of Jara'Copan and was heading for either Corartheren or Shanaine. The hunger must have got to me, or the blackberries I ate were off."

Mistress Al'Vere looked confused at first, then gasped. "Little black berries made up of many smaller kernels, all black except for one red one?"

I nodded, I thought that they weren't completely ripe.

"They are poison!" She exclaimed, then sounded relieved "You must have eaten only one or two."

"No." I said, shaking my head, "More like twenty. They were yummy."

She frowned at me, "You cannot have, you would be dead ten times over!"

I shrugged, "I don't know what to say, I ate a fair few. They tasted like blackberries."

There was an awkward silence for a few moments. I was sure that she was wrong and I'm sure that she thought the same.

She shook her head lightly then asked "Where did you say you were coming from and heading to? I didn't recognise the names of those villages."

I laughed a little, "Not villages, cities. Or at least they were. I took the south road from Manetheren to Jara'Copan only to find it too in ruins. So I decided to head towards either Corartheren or Shanaine."

"Manetheren." She whispered and it looked like she was going to say more but was interrupted by a knock at the door.

The door opened and a young woman in her early twenties stuck her head in. Her long dark hair was done in a thick loose braid. The messiness of her hair did nothing to detract from her looks, if anything it gave an impression of untamed wildness. She was obviously Mistress Al'Vere's daughter, displaying a more youthful version of her mother's stunning good looks. With big brown eyes, high cheekbones and wavy dark hair she could have easily found modelling work back home. Her dress showed a number of dirt stains and her stockinged feet had mud stains up near the hem of her woolen dress.

"Oh Loise", Mistress Al'Vere said, handing her the tray. "Please take this down and ask Alene to bring up one of your Father's maps, the big one with the stain."

"Yes mother." said Loise, looking at me in an appraising manner. I caught her eye and she lowered her head, blushing.

As she turned to leave Marin admonished "Change your stockings Loise, if you insist on helping the al'Seen's with their sheep please make sure you clean up when you come home."

"Yes Mother." sighed Loise as she closed the door.

"The fourth of my five daughters, always trying to make up to my husband for the lack of sons." Mistress Al'Vere said in a tone that bespoak long sufferance, "Although judging by your clothes it requires no explanation."

I noticed her smile and took no offence, it wasn't the first time since coming here that my wearing of pants had drawn attention.

"It's common place where I come from." I told her, "My home is very far away."

Her look of almost disbelief led me to form the opinion that Emonds Field must be very isolated, combined with her confusion at my mention of Corartheren and Shanaine meant that both of those grand cities must be in a similar condition to Manetheren. It led me to wonder what else had changed from my new memories. Coremanda and it's Capitol of Hai Caemlyn... Dizziness swept over me and I slipped sideways, Misstress Al'Vere caught me by an arm and kept me up straight. The dizziness passed as quickly as it came.

"I'm okay." I said, "Just a bit of dizziness. Thank you."

"Maybe you need to lay back down?" she asked.

"No." I reassured her, and myself, "I'm fine."

Coremanda was now Andor, obviously, and Hai Caemlyn had been shortened. How long ago was the fall of Aridhol? What of the fate of the rest of the Ten Kingdoms?

"You can't be much older than Egwene, who isn't even old enough to braid her hair." Mistress Al'Vere said, "Who were you travelling with? Do you have family out there?"

"I was travelling by myself, my family are back home." I told her.

"Where is your home? The clothes we found you in were completely outlandish and your backpack and the other things are like nothing any of us had ever seen."

"You have my things?" I asked, both thankful that I hadn't lost them and wary that she had gone through my things, "Where are they?"

"In the wardrobe." She said, getting up and bringing my backpack over to me.

I caught a glimpse of the metal spear leaning up inside. I opened my backpack and found everything neatly packed, including the items that I had pillaged from Jara'Copan. I held back a sigh of relief.

"I don't think that you will find my home on your maps. It's a large Island nation called Australia. Not even the Queen of Andor's Aes Sedai had heard of it." I said, fudging the truth to make a reasonable lie.

"The Queen of Andor?" She asked, shocked, "You've met the Queen of Andor?"

"Yes, I was… am a friend of Princess Elayne's." I told her then smiled ruefully, "My story is a strange one."

We were interrupted by a knock on the door, "Come in." Mistress Al'Vere called.

The door opened and a woman came into the room carrying a large rolled up piece of paper. She had her dark braided hair hanging over her shoulder in the same way that Mistress Al'Vere wore hers. It was obvious that she was one of the five daughters, but did not possess the fortune to take after her mother. She held out the rolled map to her mother who unrolled it onto my lap. I studied it briefly and spotted Caemlyn in Andor quickly, as well as the Mountains of Mist.

Mistress al'Vere introduced the woman as Alene, another of her daughters.

"Can you show me where you journeyed?" Mistress Al'Vere asked.

"Well, this is the Manetherendrelle." I said, tracing the line to the south of Emonds Field labelled as the White River. I found the approximate location of Manetheren's lost Capital and Shanaine was labelled as Jehannah in Ghaeldan, I tried not to pay attention to the fact that nothing remained of Aridhol, or the rest of the differences from my memories.

"I started my most recent journey in Manetheren," I said pointing to its location on the banks of the Manetherendrelle.

"Manetheren!" Alene exclaimed, looking at me in surprise.

"Yes, although nothing much remains of it other than shards of crystal amongst the trees." I told her continuing to trace my journey on the map, "From there I travelled down the South Road to Jara'Copan. Jara'Copan is mostly swamp now, but pillars and towers and walls still remain in parts. I don't know why I didn't try to head for Shanaine farther to the South, but I remembered some blackberries near a small path that I crossed only a little ways back to the North. Once I was there, I thought to head towards Corartheren where the Tarendrelle and Manetherendrelle meet. I remember crossing the Manetheredrelle and coming across a small path that was heading in the right direction, I think."

"It's like in the Travels of Jain Farstrider!", Alene said, "These places you've been to are places I've only read about in books like 'The History of Andor in the Time of the Ten Kingdoms.'"

"I wouldn't mind reading that myself." I said to her, "I know a fair bit about the history of the Ten Kingdoms, less so about how things stand now."

"Nothing is left of the lands I know about, Hai Caemlyn has grown out from its Ogier built Inner City." I added, "Apparently nothing remains of the once great Cities of Aridhol. The Gardens of Abor'maseleine and great white arches of Cyrendemar'naille."

"How did you come to be here from your home Country, without family?" Mistress Al'Vere asked almost at the same time as Alene asked "How did you manage to find Manetheren?"

"I stepped into a portal from my home. Where there was normally a wall, I could see a forest. I stepped through and arrived here. My family probably don't even care that I'm gone and to be honest there isn't much incentive to try to get back there. My first morning here I awoke in Baerlon.", I began, drawing their sceptical looks back to the map, "Then I travelled to Caemlyn where I met the royal family and became friends with Princess Elayne. I was forced to leave there through a Waygate and travelled the ways until I came out at Manetheren, or the ruins of Manetheren at least." I explained my trip into Jara'Copan in more detail, telling them about the Libraries and the other ruins.
"All up." I summarised, "I'm really just happy that someone found me and that you've been kind enough to look after me."

Mistress Al'vere looked at me with a small frown, "What else would we have done?"

I smiled at her in return.

Alene seemed excited by my 'adventures',she was looking at me like I was a cake to be devoured. "That must have been so exciting! All the ruins of old cities!"

"Mostly it meant being cold and wet and hungry." I explained, "And sad, knowing what was there is now gone."

I yawned, covering my mouth and causing the map to fall onto the ground. Alene sprung up and picked it up gently.

"Come on Alene," Mistress Al'Vere said, "time to let Emi get some more sleep."

"Yes, Mother." answered Alene, and they both got up and left me to myself.

It wasn't long before my eyes started closing and I once again fell asleep.