Much villainsplaining

Betrayal and secrecy

Still no Binding Rod

"I don't like this," Logain grumbled. He was fiddling with the pommel of his sword, which was sheathed at his side as always.

Natael looked at him sideways. "Which part? Meeting Demandred? Forsaking your soul? Or is it the snow that bothers you, perhaps?" They were quite cosy and warm up here in Taim's study but, outside, the temperature had dropped drastically and the ground was covered with a thick layer of fresh snow. They would need to assign a team of Soldiers to remove it in the morning, so as not to slow things down.

"I like the snow. I prefer the cold to the unnatural heat we've suffered these past months." Logain crossed his arms over his chest, as if he was determined not to appear fidgety. "But I have a bad feeling about everything else, aye."

"All will be well, my lord. Demandred is vastly outnumbered. If he makes trouble, we'll teach him not to mess with us."

This was Atal, frightfully naïve as usual. By "vastly outnumbered", he meant that they were four against one, provided that Demandred came alone, of course. And without an angreal, or worse, a sa'angreal. If the Chosen had a Binding Rod, who knew what else he had in his possession?

Natael wished that the youth would stop calling Logain "my lord". Blood and ashes, it was bad enough that he was constantly ogling the man, now he was very nearly worshipping him. And he wasn't the only one. Many of their recruits – regardless of their rank – did not consider Logain as an equal, but rather as Natael's equal. Or worse, Taim's. (Natael often felt that, despite their status as co-leaders, the men thought of Natael as Taim's subordinate. Which was simply ridiculous.)

Then again, the confusion was understandable. Logain, Taim and Natael spent a lot of time together these days, though merely out of sheer necessity. They had plans to discuss, strategies to develop. Logain liked to order people about, but in such a manner that it sounded more like a suggestion or an invitation. He was as powerful as Taim and Natael, or near enough. He exuded leadership and competence, just like Taim.

Natael had made it clear, more than once, that Logain was an Asha'man, nothing more, but even their most decorated recruits tended to call him "Lord Logain", which absolutely infuriated Taim. But to be fair, everything about the Ghealdanin infuriated Taim.

"If Demandred makes trouble, Asha'man Mishraile," Taim said quietly, "you will do nothing."

"Uh-huh, let the adults handle the situation," Natael concurred.

Atal threw him a murderous look. "I'm not a child!"

"You act like one."

"You-"

"Enough, both of you," Logain snapped. "Quit your bickering."

Atal's retort died in his throat and he stared at his feet, blushing. "I apologise for the disturbance, my lord."

Taim looked like he was about to scold Logain for his intervention, but apparently decided that it wasn't worth his time. "Let Natael and I do the talking. Your part in this, Asha'man," he addressed both Logain and Atal, "is to take the oath and become Dreadlords. You will not play the heroes and attempt anything foolish. If you think you can defeat one of the Forsaken on your own, think again. And you would be on your own. We cannot risk revealing our strategy. Whatever happens, Demandred must continue to believe that we are loyal to the Shadow. Therefore, if either of you attacks him, you will be considered an enemy and killed without mercy or hesitation." Atal had gone pale, but Logain was expressionless. He had to know that this little speech was meant mostly for him, but he didn't care. "Is that understood?"

"Yes, M'Hael," Atal said readily. "As you command." He may put Logain on a pedestal for no reason, but the lad still had the sense to obey and respect Taim, at least.

Natael was convinced that Taim had handpicked Atal to become a Dreadlord that day just to annoy him. According to M'Hael, they needed at least another man to pledge his allegiance to the Shadow, a powerful one, so that Demandred would not suspect anything. Natael had insisted several times that the Chosen was only interested in Logain, at least to begin with, but Logain had backed up Taim, improbable as it sounded. Taim had been more surprised than anyone else, in fact. For a moment, Natael had hoped that he would change his mind just for the sake of opposing Logain, but no such luck.

There were two candidates – Atal and Donalo Sandomere, another powerful channeler – but Taim couldn't resist the temptation of humiliating Natael some more. It was his favourite hobby, after all. The official reason was that "Atal had been at the Tower longer". Never mind that he was brash, unpredictable, immature, and utterly enamoured of Logain. And of Taim, like as not.

They didn't have to wait long; Demandred was the most punctual of all the Chosen. He was alone, Natael was relieved to see. Not that he was any less dangerous because he was alone, but at least if anything went wrong, there'd be no witnesses.

Demandred surveyed them, looking down from his hooked nose. They were all about the same height, except for Atal, who was slightly shorter, but Demandred seemed to be much taller than any of them. Logain exuded leadership and competence, but Demandred radiated danger and power. He was in charge of any room he walked into, even this one, which was chock-full of testosterone already. If Lews Therin (the actual Lews Therin) had walked in at this very moment, the room would have exploded with it.

"Great Master. I live to serve." Atal nearly fell to his knees in front of Demandred. They'd commanded him to play the part of the eager, ambitious would-be Dreadlord, but he was overdoing it a bit.

Natael chanced a glance at Logain. That one was not going to kneel of his own accord, that was for sure. His face was composed, but the knuckles of the hand that held the pommel of his sword were white with tension. "Great Master," he said in a tight voice.

Demandred must have sensed his reluctance, but he pretended not to notice. "Logain Ablar. We meet at last." He ignored the prostrated Atal entirely. "You will be a grand addition to our ranks."

Logain nodded. "I will indeed."

Don't get too cocky, Natael wanted to say. Just the right amount of arrogance, not an ounce more, otherwise you'll remind him of Lews Therin. On the other hand, grovelling like Atal was just as bad, if not worse. Demandred valued confidence, both in an ally and in an opponent.

Speaking of Atal… "And who is this?" Demandred demanded, indicating the youth with one of his boots. Today, he was dressed like a Cairhienin, which looked odd, given his height.

"This is Atal Mishraile, Great Master," Taim said. He kicked Atal in the ribs as he spoke, to make him stand, which he did, so quickly that he almost stumbled into Demandred. That would have been awkward. "Mishraile was one of our earliest recruits and is a fine Asha'man. He is strong and reliable, and he has been asking for a chance to prove himself for quite some time, now."

Demandred didn't seem convinced. It didn't help that Atal was flustered, and probably not for the right reasons. It made him look even younger than he was. "Great Master, I swear to-"

"You will speak when you are spoken to," Demandred barked. Atal's mouth shut with an audible click, and he turned an even darker shade of crimson. Demandred turned to Taim. "How old is this boy, Taim?"

Taim shrugged. "Younger than most, Great Master, but older than some." That was a good answer. "I assure you, he will not disappoint."

"No, I won't, Great Master. I will do whatever you-"

"Of course you will do as you are told," Demandred interrupted him. "That includes obeying my command not to speak out of turn." Atal nodded energetically. His lips were pressed so tightly that Natael wondered if Taim or Demandred were using the Power to shut him up. "You will now take an oath upon the Binding Rod." He produced it from a thin sheath that hanged from the belt at his waist. "You first, Logain."

To Logain's credit, he didn't balk. His decision was made and he would see this through. It took less than two minutes for Logain to do the very thing he'd sworn never to do. His face never changed. He repeated every word clearly, looking Demandred in the eyes as he did so. After him came Atal, who stuttered a bit, but overall gave an acceptable performance.

"So it is done," Demandred said. "I must leave now. Let me know when you will require the Binding Rod again. It had better be soon." He opened a gateway.

"Wait!" Natael said. Taim gave him a warning look; Natael sounded too anxious. He did his best to speak calmly. This was a casual suggestion, nothing more. "Wouldn't it be easier to leave the ter'angreal with us? We'd hate to bother you with this sort of menial task too often. Surely you have better things to do."

Demandred didn't say anything, but he made an uncharacteristic sound. It took Natael a few seconds to realise that the Chosen was laughing.

Natael had been nervous before, but now he was terrified.

"Oh, Nessosin. You are so predictable." Demandred put his hands behind his back and paced the room. "Do you truly believe that I don't know exactly what you're up to?"

Natael felt like his entire body had turned to ice, despite the fire blazing in the hearth. It was all he could do not to quiver with fear. "I don't know what you're talk-"

"Don't insult me by denying it," Demandred growled, all trace of mirth gone from his voice. "I'm always a step ahead of everyone else, but I'm at least three steps ahead of you, Nessosin. I knew that you would do anything to worm your way out of this. I knew you'd try to curry the favour of both sides, in case you needed to make a last-minute volte-face, you opportunistic maggot." He chuckled again, but this time there was no humour to it. "You dismissed your entire staff after our last interaction, as if that would prevent me from learning what futile schemes you were concocting." He put one hand on Atal's shoulder. "Your boy here has been working for me from the beginning, Nessosin. I took him under my wing the day after you so rudely rejected him. This is the second time he's taken the oath."

It was neither terror nor anguish now; Natael was in shock. Judging by Taim's face, usually so carefully composed, so was he. Logain didn't look stunned; his face was distorted by fury instead. Thankfully, he didn't act on it.

"That'll teach you to treat me like scum," Atal told Natael with a vicious grin.

"So… What now?" Taim asked. He'd already digested Atal's betrayal, or at least he looked like he had. He was cool and collected as he spoke to Demandred. "I think it's safe to assume that, if you wanted us dead, we'd be dead already."

"Why would I want you dead?" The Chosen gestured toward Logain. "You handed him to me on a silver platter. This was Moridin's only condition for my continued involvement in the affairs of the Black Tower, that I Turn Logain to the Shadow, one way or the other. I had it done in less than a week, and without damaging the goods." Now he sounded positively smug, the bastard. "And this is only the beginning."

Taim scoffed. "Now that we know you know, there's no way we'll-"

"Keep feeding the Binding Rod with the unwary souls of your most powerful recruits?" Demandred supplied. "Of course you will. And those who refuse will be Turned regardless, soon enough. Speaking of which…" He extracted a folded piece of parchment from his pocket. "This is the report I would have expected to receive from you, but which came from Mishraile instead. A delegation of Aes Sedai in the vicinity, it says."

Oh, Atal. What have you done, you petty, beautiful idiot?

"Given their numbers, I'd call it a small army, but they are still outnumbered at least six to one, a fact of which they are blithely unaware, if my sources are correct. They expect to find a rabble of incompetent peasants armed with pitchforks, or near enough. You are going to show them how wrong they are, but not by destroying them." He smiled, again. That couldn't be good for him. His lips were going to split for sure. "We will find a use for them."

"The first man to discover the weave will be exempt of chores for a whole month," Taim declared in front of the assembled crowd. This was greeted by profuse cheering and applause. Taim raised his hands and silence fell immediately. "You may experiment on whomever you want, provided that you have obtained their consent to do so." He emphasised that last part. Taim was very pernickety about consent. At the Black Tower, rape was punishable by death. "It can be your wife, your sister, one of the maids… I don't care, as long as they have previously agreed to it," he said again, for good measure. "Am I making myself clear?"

A chorus of "Yes, M'Hael!" answered him. Taim wished them good luck and dismissed them, then stepped down from the platform.

"May I kill you now?" Logain asked the moment Taim was level with him.

"You may not," Natael said quickly. "It wasn't his fault, Logain. I am equally to blame."

"Oh, fear not, bard, you're next on my list. But perhaps I should start with that weaselly little son of a-"

"Enough!" Taim hissed. "You know that plans change every time someone makes a move. That's how war works, Log… Asha'man Ablar. Demandred is a bloody mastermind, and we underestimated him. But now we know that he knows, which means we have the upper hand."

"In what world do we have the upper hand?" Logain exclaimed. "We have both become Dreadlords against our will. The Shadow now controls most of the strongest male channelers alive and we have no way out. Moridin knows about it all, so we cannot hope to deceive him into giving us a Binding Rod. We are about to enslave fifty Aes Sedai, Turn them to the Shadow, then force them to Turn everyone else in this place."

"Who cares about the Aes Sedai?" Taim retorted. "They have come to gentle us, Ablar. How do you think we would have handled the situation if Demandred had not ordered us to capture them alive? I would have stilled them, let them stew in their own despair for a few months, then I would have hanged them in the square for all the world to see."

"That fate is still preferable to what we've been ordered to do to them," Logain said.

Can't argue with that, Natael thought. Demandred really was a devious bastard. It was a brilliant plan, of course, but so…flaming…evil.

"Not to mention our part in all of this. I don't think I can do it, Taim. It was one thing to swear that reversible oath," he said bitterly, "but to actually participate in the Turning process? It sickens me just to think about it."

"But that's what I'm telling you," Taim insisted. "Demandred detailed his plan to us. We know exactly what he expects of us, and how we're supposed to do it. Now all we have to do is find a way around it. Besides, we don't have the required Myrddraal yet, and the Turning cannot be accomplished without them."

"We're Darkfriends, Taim! We cannot disobey a direct order from-"

"Don't be so dramatic," Natael cut him off. He spoke in a low voice; they were starting to draw attention. "Aes Sedai are unable to lie, but they still manage to manipulate the truth until it's barely distinguishable."

"It's easy for you to say, you didn't have to take the oath!" Logain shouted.

"Peace, keep your voice down!" Taim muttered. "If you want everyone to know about this, just make a bloody announcement from the platform, why don't you?"

That shut him up, at least for the time being.

"We will deal with this. There will be no Turning under my roof, not while I'm alive," Taim vowed.

"Our roof", Natael corrected him. "I'm also in charge of this place, lest you forget."

"Should you be, though?" Logain said.

Natael blinked. "Pardon me?"

"Let's see: you were once one of the Forsaken. You are not under oath. Demandred made it clear that you couldn't be trusted, and that you'd side with whomever was more likely to triumph in the Last Battle. So I ask again: should you really be in charge of the Black Tower? Should you be in charge of anything, for that matter?"

Natael's mouth twisted in a sour smirk. "And I suppose you'd kindly offer to replace me? You're an ambitious, power-hungry man, Logain. I see right through your holier-than-thou attitude. You're no better than me." He snorted. "Besides, if you want to point accusing fingers, let me remind you that it was Taim who suggested that we use Atal as secondary bait today."

Taim seemed to swell with outrage. "If you're trying to imply that I knew-"

"Well, you do keep involving the lad in our business despite my best efforts to-"

"Oh, cut it out," Logain said wearily. "We all screwed up, it's pointless to assign blame. The question is, what do we do with Mishraile now?"

Taim and Natael glanced at each other. Kill him for playing us, Natael wanted to say. For daring to betray us. He read the same answer in Taim's dark eyes. "Hang him for treason."

"Don't you think that Demandred will punish us severely if we execute his favourite mole?" Logain asked.

"I don't see how he could possibly punish us more than he already has," Taim pointed out.

"Your lack of imagination is one of the reasons why you'd make a terrible Chosen," Natael said, though not unkindly. If anything, it was a compliment. It meant that Taim's mind was not as devious as the minds of the Chosen – including Natael's own. "He could torture us within an inch of our lives. Or worse, he could ask Semirhage to do it. He could murder the few loved ones you have." At least Natael didn't have any of those. "He could destroy your reputation. He could have you poison the recruits who are overwhelmed by the madness. Thanks to Atal, he must know how you hate to do that."

Logain's eyes widened. "You've murdered some of the recruits?"

"Only one," Taim mumbled.

"I've dealt with the rest of them," Natael said. Only thirteen thus far – it was a low number, considering that there were several hundred channelers. Logain's face was a mask of disapproval. "Poison is a mercy, Logain. When you find out how the ones we caught too late died, not to mention the innocent souls they took with them, you'll understand that."

"If you say so." He still wasn't convinced, but it was irrelevant to the matter at hand. "But we can't poison Mishraile. We can't claim that the madness took him, not if he's been protected from the taint for months."

Natael scoffed. "Aw, you believed that, did you? You're not protected by your oath, Logain. That's a lie we tell to every new Dreadlord."

"So there's nothing good that came out of this complete fiasco? Nothing at all?" Logain protested.

Natael shook his head. "The taint is still there, still gnawing at your brains. Only the Chosen are truly spared its nefarious effects. Demandred knows that, so technically Atal could go mad at any moment, but it's far-fetched. Demandred doesn't believe in convenient coincidences."

"Then we send him away," Taim suggested. "As we did with Dashiva and the other bad apples."

"I have a better idea" Natael said. "Now that we know what he really is, we could feed him false information. As soon as we come up with a plan to counter Demandred's orders, we can use Atal for misdirection, deception or distraction."

"He's not the only mole, though," Logain noted. "There must be others, even among the Asha'man who still live at the Black Tower, otherwise Demandred would never have revealed where Mishraile's loyalty truly lies."

"Well, we always knew that there would be spies, no matter how carefully we select the Asha'man." Natael had not seen Atal's betrayal coming, though. Not at all. In fact, he was still reeling with shock. Was this his fault? Did Atal do this just because of Natael's rejection? Granted, it had been prompted by Taim and his silly ideals of professionalism, but ultimately it had been Natael's decision. He couldn't even remember why he'd welcomed the lad in his bed in the first place. Atal was pretty, but he had a subpar personality, to say the least. Was Natael really so shallow? Ugh, he could have slapped himself.

"I'm afraid that we can't trust anyone but ourselves," Taim said. "From now on, we keep our ploys secret. We will still raise Asha'man and prepare them for battle, of course, and reveal our general objective as well as Natael's identity, but nothing more."

"Are you saying that we are to trust Master Natael implicitly?" Logain asked.

"He's never given me a reason not to," Taim stated.

Thanks for the overwhelming vote of confidence, Natael thought.

"Neither have you…so far," Taim went on, eyeing Logain with his customary intensity. "We'll have to take our chances with each other. We don't have a choice, at this point."

Not that we had much of a choice to begin with.

"Well, whyever not?" Logain said wryly. "I've already forsaken my soul, thanks to you. What could be worse than that?"

Natael would have laughed, were he not afraid that it would sound hysterical. Those were words that ought never to be uttered aloud. The Great Lord never lacked imagination, when it came to making things worse.