Chapter 13 - Dipping a Toe
Gabrielle and Chaosti had sat unmoving, calmly listening as Jaenelle and Saetan explained local customs to Rand and Min. They couldn't restrain their amusement at the reaction Jaenelle's pithy and blunt statements received from the two strangers to these Realms, but it was brightly sparkling eyes, not guffaws, that displayed their mirth. Min's adorable reaction to the offer of a Queen's chambers, and Rand's earnest and sincere apology and acceptance of Jaenelle's training had soothed the rough edges both Dea al Mon had noticed on their tempers since the display of Power the day before. The happily married couple had calmed further as Rand honestly admitted some of his own blunders and misconceptions, before Jaenelle approached and began to instruct them. The Children of the Wood sat silently, waiting patiently while Jaenelle finished her lesson and returned to her seat. When she had, Gabrielle stood and smiled tightly toward Rand and Min.
The Queen of the Dea al Mon started speaking in a clear and warm tone, addressing the guests. "I'm glad Jaenelle got that out of the way. I will be happy to tell either of you more about our society and conventions later, but I have something we need to discuss, all of us." Her eyes scanned over every face in the dining room to make sure that they understood what she was about to say was important.
Gabrielle spoke in the same timber and cadence of voice Jaenelle often employed; Healer giving dispassionate evidence. "Yesterday on the training ground, you two linked, and while connected you held as much Power as any person living has ever held. We need to understand this, and I believe that Chaosti and I may have exclusive insight into how it was possible." She turned her intense gray-and-blue flecked eyes to Jaenelle and Saetan. "We've never mentioned this, for one reason or another, but the Dea al Mon know how to maintain a connection with the Twisted Kingdom at all times." She stopped when she saw the cast of disbelief and misgiving on her oldest friend's face.
"I'm sorry, Jaenelle," Gabrielle continued momentarily, warming her tone, trying to make her best friend understand. "You spiral into your core at an incredibly fast rate, and Daemon and Saetan are so strong that we didn't think it was important for you to know." She quickly explained to the group around the table that, thanks to being the most secretive and insular of the races in Kaleer, the Children of the Wood had developed certain skills and ceremonies that made possible what other Blood thought absurd, or untenable.
She related an instance where her remarkably quick capabilities of Power rejuvenation had been noticed by Saetan. Years before in Sceval, Gabrielle had held the young unicorn stallion Mistral suspended, completely off the ground, when he had attempted to run to his mate Moonshadow, endangering the intricate and draining Craft work Gabrielle had used to Heal his leg injury. Gabrielle explained that although she was by far the most proficient, all Dea al Mon who could perform Craft at a certain level had the unique ability to 'dip a toe', as they call it, into the substance of madness itself. They had evolved their own specific barriers to protect their cores from the Twisted Kingdom, and were thereby able to partially access an eternal wellspring of Power, constantly.
Gabrielle's admission clearly rocked Jaenelle. Saetan appeared slightly surprised, but had a contemplative look, as if he had heard or read about something like this before but could not remember when or where. When neither Jaenelle nor Saetan spoke into the strained silence left by Gabrielle's story, she continued. "We have also engineered a way to speak to those who are dead, or Demon-dead. Our Black Widows can, with a combination of woven webs and ceremony, imbue a recently diseased spirit with enough energy to communicate psychically. Even a spirit that was too weak to become Demon-dead may be sometimes found before it has fully returned to the Darkness, found and held long enough to glean useful bits of information from, or to simply supply comfort and assurances to.
Saetan started up from his chair at that point and snapped the fingers on his right hand. "That's it!" He had finally recalled his meeting with Demon-dead Titian, Surreal's mother and Gabrielle's kinswoman, a long time ago in his study in Hell. He stood and excitedly related that exchange to the group around the table, how his first encounter with Titian had been unsettling and tense, an irate Dea al Mon Black Widow, who happened to be the Queen of the Harpies, squaring off against a protective and worried High Lord of Hell. "Titian said something that time... Oh, what was it... aha! 'The Dea al Mon aren't squeamish about dealing with those who live in the forever-twilight of the Dark Realm'. As I had many other more important concerns on my mind at the time, the remark slipped from my consciousness and I never revisited the thoughts and questions it had brought up." Saetan appeared very happy with himself at remembering such an esoteric bit of trivia from a conversation held years ago. He sat back down into his comfortable armchair with a grin livening his handsome features.
Jaenelle began to speak then, ignoring Saetan completely, obviously tabulating strange things she had noticed about Gabrielle or Chaosti over the years in her head as she started haltingly. "So... That was why your Jewel was sparkling with Power again after only four hours of rest following Rand's Healing... And I've always been astounded by your stamina, physically and in regard to Craft... I'm just a little hurt you never mentioned this to me." She finished with a soft voice.
Chaosti spoke up for the first time since Rand and Min had entered the room. He stood up beside Gabrielle and gave a chagrinned and slightly abashed smile to Saetan and Jaenelle, "I actually asked Grandmammy Teele once if I could tell you two, but you know her. I have no idea if someone or something told her not to tell anyone outside of the Dea al Mon , but she would have whipped our butts if we had been the ones to disclose to you what she has decreed 'family secrets'.
Surreal just sat there, completely shocked. She had been formally accepted into the family; she had become a Child of the Wood, she thought. Now she learned that they could, and definitely should (in her opinion), teach her how to recharge her Jewels with amazing rapidity, and access a Power she had thought nobody could use. She decided to keep her pain and questions inside, for now. Just to see if the forthcoming chat would alleviate the wintry chill she felt frosting her heart. She had lived as a fairly solitary woman for hundreds of years, and only in the last few years had Surreal truly bonded to people, become part of a family. She had thought that being half-Hayllian meant nothing to her Dea al Mon relatives, but maybe she had been excluded from more of their culture and history than just this, because of the circumstances of her birth, or other reasons. She repressed the burning urge to jump onto the table and start railing at Chaosti and Gabrielle for being lousy cousins. Surreal merely remained still, stewing in her seat playing with a table-knife, watching everyone still seated around the table.
Gabrielle continued into the silence, "I believe that what Rand is doing when he 'seizes saidin', as he calls it, is using a Dea al Mon technique with an unheard of level of proficiency. He thrusts a minuscule part of his psyche into the Twisted Kingdom, while leaving the functional part of his mind in our Realm. Chaosti and I can do this to a small extent, but neither of us have seen, or even heard stories of anyone doing this as deeply and recklessly as Rand here does."
There was another lengthy silence in the dining chamber then. Rand and Min were fascinated by Gabrielle's explanation, regardless of the fact that they had no real idea of what it meant. Rand thought quickly about the difference between saidar and saidin, and the sensations he had noted when he and Nynaeve had linked to cleanse the Taint in saidin. Maybe the tranquil and pleasant river that saidar resembled was like the Darkness traveled through in one's core, and the wild and frenetic rush that was saidin was the plunge into insanity itself, he didn't know. It could certainly explain why many men had died badly or were driven insane, even before the Dark One's Taint, while learning to cope with the raging magics within them.
Rand told the group about the great differences in the male and female half of the One Power. He hypothesized that Gabrielle was correct, as he had noticed that Jaenelle's Power felt quite similar to saidar, but reacted in an astonishing way he had not understood. He had found that the two sides of the One Power attracted and opposed each other, and he had had to awkwardly maneuver the two into an uncooperative symbiosis when cleansing the Taint. The Power in this new Realm, however, appeared more than willing to entwine with and synergize the Power of a man's casting. His very limited understanding of the Craft these people employed made his comments inventive conjecture only, and so he trailed off after a few moments of getting no constructive response from his audience.
Only a couple comments and suggestions were batted back and forth about the table in the next half hour or so. Rand and Min concentrated on eating while the rest thought about Gabrielle's confession and it's inevitable impact upon them all. Saetan and Jaenelle calmly pondered the consequences and influence this revelation could have on the ways they perform Craft, while Surreal continued to steam in annoyance and acrimony. She felt nothing but contempt toward the cavalier attitude adopted by Gabrielle, during the disclosure of her remarkable talents, and couldn't help feeling excluded somehow from one of the only groups of people Surreal felt she had bound herself to.
Jaenelle noticed that Rand and Min had finished lunch, and so she offered them an escort to their new chambers. She knew that no earth-shaking conclusions were going to be made this afternoon concerning Gabrielle's attested abilities, and she wanted to discuss this situation with Gabrielle and Saetan alone, before Rand made his own intemperate leaps of logic. She summoned Helene to the dining room, and when the housekeeper arrived Rand and Min were sent with her to examine their new living arrangements. Jaenelle asked Min to meet with her after a couple of hours, as Jaenelle had Queenly things to take care of early in the afternoon, and Min readily agreed. Saetan also inquired whether Rand would care to meet with him in his basement study sometime that afternoon and received a positive reply as well.
Rand and Min left the dining room trailing Helene, and Surreal left quickly as well, taking the wolves with her as she walked calmly out of the room and then stormed out of the Hall into the sunlight. Saetan and Jaenelle sat back down around the table with Gabrielle and Chaosti, none of them noticing Surreal's uncharacteristic silence, nor the waves of discontent and dismay wafting from the angry female.