The Wheel of Time belongs to Robert Jordan, I just play here.



Chapter 11



Jahar had not been to Caemlyn often, but when he had first gone with the Lord Dragon, after the Wells, they had all learned a place to Travel from in every city the Lord Dragon held. He would be able to open a gateway from the Caemlyn courtyard at any time, even years from now, unless the Lady Elayne completely rebuilt the castle.

He had to wait again as Lady Elayne was meeting with a small group of Windfinders, but before long the Sea Folk women left the throne room and the Lady Elayne's guards showed him in.

It did not take long to give her the message, and the envelop. She did not open the letter but instead smiled and put it away, no doubt to read it later in private.

She walked him back to the courtyard from where he would Travel to Tar Valon, hearing him out about the Lord Dragon. He had not much to tell since he had only been in Cairhien for a short while.

As he was about to open his Gateway, a young woman shot out from beneath the pillars that lined the walls. One of the Sea Folk, she was wearing dark, baggy pants and a light blouse. She was barefoot even out here in the snow.

"Asha'man?" she asked breathlessly.

"Yes?" Jahar said.

"I am Talaan. I heard you were in the castle. Are you going back to Tar Valon? Can you take me with you? I want to become a novice," she said all in one breath.

Jahar looked at her, surprised by the girl's request. "Why?" he asked.

"My mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, her sister and my aunt are all Windfinders to the Wavemistresses of a Clan. I have to live up to the expectations of my family, but it is more than that. Among us, among the Sea Folk, there can never be a hint or suspicion that I would be favored because of my family, so I have to work ten times as hard as anyone else and still get punished for mistakes I do not make. I do not want to be the apprentice from my Mother's family any longer, I just want to be myself, and to be judged for who I am," she rattled off.

"Can you not go to the Tower by yourself?" Jahar asked reasonably.

Talaan shook her head. "I do not know well enough where the Tower is to Travel there. I tried to look at a map, but I don't understand the way you shorebound measure your distances and directions. And if I tried to go by the roads, my mother would find me and haul me back before I got two miles from the palace."

Light, this young girl could Travel? No doubt Sheriam would want her in the Tower right away, but the girl was asking him and he would make his own decision for his own reasons. As he considered for a moment, Elayne cut in. "Talaan, I can not let you go. Your mother and your aunt would be furious."

Talaan looked at her, startled but indignant. "You can not stop me. You are not my mother, not my family, you are not even Sea Folk. I am asking him."

Elayne blinked. Jahar thought not many people would speak like that to the daughter-heir who claimed the throne of Andor. But she neither agreed nor disagreed. It would be up to him.

Talaan addressed him again. "Please let me come. I could always tell my mother I slipped through the Gateway without asking."

Jahar had made his decision. "There will be no need for that. If my father had known where I was going, what I would become, he would have tied me up and locked me in the attic and I would still be there. It is hardly my place to deny your request," he told her, and glanced at the very small bundle she held in one hand. "Do you need to pack anything?"

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" Talaan burst out. "No, I just grabbed my brush and a few small items. I did not dare walk through the palace with a bigger pack or cloak."

Jahar nodded. "Well, come along then," he said as he opened the Gateway.



They stepped through and Jahar let go of the weaves as he looked around the Tower courtyard. Sarin, Nisao's Warder, goggled at Talaan. "Where did you pick her up, Jahar?" he called.

"She wants to be a novice," he called back. "You wouldn't know where Tiana is by any chance?" Then for Talaan's benefit he added, "Tiana Sedai is the Mistress of the Novices. She will see you settled in."

Sarin still stared at the slender girl in her Sea Folk clothes. "Well just when I thought I'd seen everything," he muttered, then got a hold of himself and answered. "I think Tiana is over by that huge new building Elaida started on, looking to see if it can be made into novice's quarters."

Jahar nodded thanks and motioned for Talaan to follow him. The Sea Folk girl looked around with big eyes as they walked through the Tower grounds. The cold did not seem to touch her any more than it did him. Either the Sea Folk had their own methods of dealing with cold, or she was simply too excited to notice. As they rounded the corner of the Tower itself, and he started to cross the open area in between it and the half-finished building, the Mistress of the Novices came out and started to turn the other way. "Tiana!" he called.

Tiana stopped and started as she saw him with Talaan. She quickly walked over, taking in the girl from head to toe. "And what is a Sea Folk girl doing here, child?" the Grey asked her.

"I am Talaan, and I want to be a novice, Tiana Sedai," Talaan answered. She was fairly jumping up and down from excitement, but her voice was clear and steady.

Tiana blinked at that, studied the girl, then suddenly her eyes widened. "Light, child, you are strong. And not completely untrained either, unless I am mistaken."

"I was trained as a Windfinder apprentice, Tiana Sedai," Talaan replied.

Tiana blinked at that too, then recovered and looked thoughtful. "For hundreds of years we only get three sisters from the Sea Folk, none strong and none happy to be away from their ships, then suddenly you show up, as strong as any Aes Sedai, and you actually want to become a novice. Also, from what the Amyrlin has mentioned, I am surprised the Sea Folk let anyone with any training come here."

Talaan coloured suddenly, and clammed up as she shifted her bare feet nervously in the snow. Jahar answered for her. "Her mother does not know she is here, and certainly would not approve. That is why she asked to come with me."

Tiana started as if she had forgotten he was there. "Well, that at least is hardly unusual," she muttered, then turned to Talaan. "How old are you, child?"

Talaan found her voice again. "I am nineteen, Tiana Sedai."

"Then you are old enough to decide for yourself. If you are sure you want to be a novice, I will write your name in the Novice Book and if your mother has anything to say about it she can come see me," Tiana said.

Talaan lightened up in relief and excitement. "Thank you, oh thank you! I am sure, Aes Sedai. Absolutely sure."

"Good. Come with me child, and I will find you some more appropriate clothing to wear. For the Tower and for the weather." Tiana turned and started toward the novice's quarters.

Talaan started after her, then stopped and turned back toward Jahar. "Thank you for letting me come with you," she said sincerely, then ran off after the Mistress of the Novices.

Her eagerness reminded him of his younger sister, and Jahar smiled as he watched her go. Then he suddenly frowned as he realised it was the first time he had smiled since Merise's death. Come to think of it, he had not smiled so often before that, either. Battles, taint and madness were no laughing matter. But that was then and this was now, and this afternoon he had at least helped make one person happy. He smiled again as he walked to the Tower and up to the Amyrlin's Study.



When he came in to the anteroom Sheriam was at her own desk, sorting through the stacks of papers, parchments and scrolls with help of Siuan. She smiled when he came in, but underneath he could still feel the same frustration and confusion from earlier.

"I take it your news is good, anyhow," she said.

"Some of it," he replied.

Sheriam dropped the papers she had been holding on the desk and went to the inner door leading to the Amyrlin's Study. "That's better than none," she said as she briefly knocked and opened the door. "Let's hear it."

Jahar followed her, and so did Siuan. Sheriam frowned at her but the Amyrlin did not say anything so neither did she.

Jahar briefly told them about the Lord Dragon's plan to check on the Black Tower in the morning, about the reports on the Seanchan, and also about Talaan. And mixed as the news was, so mixed were the reactions. The Amyrlin snorted at having to wait until the morning for further news about the sisters, and she looked worried at the news of the Seanchan's continued advances. She was quite pleased to hear about the Windfinder's apprentice, especially when she heard the girl was strong and already in training.

"It did not go well here," Jahar said when she had spoken.

"No. I already knew that Elaida was power hungry, an egomaniac, and blind for anything that did not fit her view of the world, but she has been doing things none of us can understand. She has set up all the Ajah's against each other. She has made decrees and then recalled them. I can not make heads or tails out of it," Sheriam answered.

"Talene was convinced Elaida was a Black," Siuan said. "But the Sitters who discovered Talene are convinced she was not. One of them had been ordered to find the Black Ajah by Elaida herself."

Sheriam nodded. "I do not believe Elaida was a Black, either. She would not have contradicted herself so often, or punished some of those who were her supporters, if she were."

The Amyrlin looked thoughtful. "What if Alviarin is a Black?" she said. "As Keeper she had access to everything Talene says the Black Ajah knew about, and she might have put pressure on Elaida, controlling her to do as she wanted. As the Black Ajah wanted."

Sheriam nodded slowly. "The Black would have reason to destroy the Tower, create animosity between the Ajah's. it all fits. It would also explain why she took the Oath Rod." That had been another report to create a stir, the sisters who had found Talene had reported the Oath Rod had disappeared with Alviarin. The general consensus was that the White intended to set up a Tower in exile, as they had done, or at least lessen the authority of the Amyrlin, but of course if she were a Black she would have far more reason to get the Oath Rod out of the Tower. "That makes it even more important we find her. We must tell Myrelle and her group," she added. The Green would be leading the search for Elaida's Keeper.

"It would explain what we found here, but if we are wrong, the Whites will be furious," Siuan said.

"Oh, we have been through _that_ before," Jahar threw in. "Your suspicions were right that time."

"It is not an accusation that is lightly made," Siuan noted.

"No, it is not. And Myrelle is hardly the kind of person to approach Alviarin without precautions even if she thinks she is only a renegade White. But a Black would be far more dangerous and withholding such information could easily get people killed," Jahar argued.

"I will not make the same mistake Elaida made. We will tell Myrelle," the Amyrlin decided. "Jahar, if you would go find her?"

"Yes, Mother," Jahar replied and he left to look for the Green.