Note: From now on it is all my work, aside from a small contribution from Ariana Sedai, The Amyrlin Seat at www.wheeloftimerp.com. Rayel is my own character, her (sur)name slightly altered from the character you will eventually find in my Ragewater Chronicles. A few names mentioned from here on in are not my own inventions, but the majority of them are.
Foremath
Rayel worked all that day, exhausting herself in her attempts to forget. She
scrubbed dirty dishes, something that had always repulsed her, and even did
part of the floors. The cook looked astonished that she was volunteering
herself without being dragged in by her ear. She just looked at the woman
briefly and continued about her business.
She washed up when someone else came in to take over—they had been assigned the
job, and Rayel was not about to let them get into trouble by forcing them out
of a chore—and headed over to the main entrance of the Tower. She didn't hide
herself, and soon enough an Aes Sedai approached her with several errands to
run. She was to deliver messages, letters and summonses, and then go and help
clean out the cabinets in the sickroom. She did all of this, moving as fast as
she could so that the pain in her muscles kept her mind from wandering.
Next she practically leapt on an Aes Sedai, and realised she had sounded like
she was begging when she asked for a chore. "Are you well, child?" the Sister
asked, frowning down into Rayel's wide eyes. She simply nodded and waited
eagerly, fighting not to hop from one foot to the other with impatience. She soon
had a chore and wasted no time completing it.
She worked like this all day, doing whatever she could. She knew she impressed
many a Sister, though that had not been her intention. She also knew that she
could not keep up this pace forever—and the thought not only angered her, but
set fear into her heart. What would happen when she could not move, and had to
sit there thinking? Thinking of…
She went to visit friends, but realised she didn't have those anymore. She
spoke with Elli for a brief moment, but it was not like it had been. There were
long silences and those were the last things Rayel needed. She moved on,
desperately searching for something to do.
Eventually she really had nothing to occupy her. She was so exhausted that she
had to be helped to her room by a stately Aes Sedai with a streak of brown in
her hair. You must be so very old, Rayel thought. Or, she believed she
had only thought it—until the Aes Sedai slapped her and deserted her to the
care of an impatient novice. Rayel had spoken aloud! "You fool," the other
novice glowered at her. "You don't speak to Aes Sedai like that! I wonder how
you've lasted so long."
So do I, Rayel said inwardly, knowing she didn't speak aloud this time.
She had been in her room an hour, writing about and drawing the Forsaken, and
her idea of what a Black Sister would look like, when a knock sounded at the
door. She dropped her charcoal and absent-mindedly wiped her hands on her
dress. Heaving herself up off the bed she limped over to the door. When she opened
it, Madeline Sedai stood there regally, making Rayel feel like a little street
urchin. "It is time, dear," the woman said, her voice sending chills down
Rayel's spine.
"Time…?"
The woman nodded and motioned for Rayel to follow. She did not hesitate,
exhausted as she was, hobbling out the door after the woman. She was so tired
she forgot to shut the door.
'*''*''*''*'
She listened carefully as
Madeline Sedai told her what no woman learned until this moment. Her stomach
churned but she barely noticed it, such was her exhaustion. Is it safe to do
this in my state? she wondered, but by then it was too late. She had
already nodded and murmured the words, "Yes, Aes Sedai. I am ready." Madeline
smiled, and motioned Rayel forward. No turning back, a small voice
echoed in her mind as she stood shivering.
A slender woman with a yellow-fringed shawl approached, and Rayel did as she
knew she must. When she had stripped she neatly folded her novice dressed and
crouched to place it on the ground, for the first time noticing how filthy it
was.
The link with Marana was just a dull presence in the remotest corner of her
mind. It means she lives. So where did she go? Why did she leave me…?
Ordinarily at least one tear would have fallen by now, but this was no ordinary
moment. Rayel looked at the looming arch before her, and felt a peculiar sense
of affinity for whatever lay within. Fool, she muttered, or perhaps it
was someone else who spoke the word. You may never come out, came
additional words, either her own or someone else's. She knew they were true,
either way.
"…Faced them, but now is willing," Madeline was saying, and Rayel blinked and
tuned in.
"Then let her face what she fears."
Her throat felt tight and dry. She thought of asking for water but decided she
dared not. Countless pairs of eyes were on her, including Marana's, and without
further ado she stepped forward and into the light.
For a moment she truly believed she had stepped into the Creator's shadow…
