Light in the Wall
Niyali groggily opened her eyes, wincing as sweat and blood got into them. She rubbed her head as a lump on it throbbed.
She shuddered, remembering what--besides her injuries--had caused her headache.
_ _ _ _ _ *
There was a thump. Niyali opened her eyes and lifted her face out of her pillow. "First Bell hasn't rung yet," she muttered, "go away."
There was another thump. "I have no intention of going away," whispered a very familiar voice.
Niyali put her face back in the pillow and said, "Well, wait until First Bell anyway." Then she stiffened. She recognized that voice. It was Jhirana.
"What are you--" In a flash Jhirana embraced the Source to hold Niyali down and pry her jaws apart. Then a minty tea was stuffed down her throat.
Gagging, Niyali tried to embrace saidar--but it was gone. Where was it? It wasn't like shielding. It was as if the Source was gone. Had she been... stilled?
She tried to sit up, but could barely manage to move her head. Jhirana laughed softly and made a stretcher to lift Niyali with. Cloaking Niyali and the stretcher with Air to make them invisible, and then inverting the weaves, Jhirana laughed again before Niyali lapsed into unconsciousness.
When she woke, Jhirana and six other Aes Sedai were surrounding her. One spoke.
You know something, girl. You are too valuable to be let loose."
"What do I know?" asked Niyali thickly. Her head felt stuffed with wool.
Something invisible lashed her ear. "Tell us."
"I don't know," Niyali moaned, trying vainly to move her finger. For all she could do, she was a disembodied head. It was most uncomfortable.
After a while of this--where Niyali was thankfully distracted from most of the pain by trying to move various body parts--she was thrown in a cell, shielded. How was she ever going to escape?
_ _ _ _ _ *
Meraia clutched a tightly rolled bundle of clothes to her chest as she hurried along the corridors of the White Tower, trying to look as if she was on an errand for an Aes Sedai. In fact, she was just worried that someone would embrace the Source and feel the resonance in the angreal and ter'angreal she had "borrowed" for her mission.
The angreal was the strongest she dared take and thought that nobody would notice when gone. It was a small mirror, seemingly made of glass, though unbreakable, as most angreal seemed to be. When light shone on it, rainbows spread across its surface, lasting for minutes longer than the light itself.
The ter'angreal was what some would call a Well. It stored the One Power, and allowed you to draw on what was inside even in a stedding, or when shielded. The one she had taken was a plain gold necklace with a single green stone as a pendant. It appeared normal, until one tried to focus on it. Eyes... slid off of it, like oil on water. Earlier, she had stored as much saidar in it as she could.
Ducking into her room, Meraia quickly shed the gai'shain robes for an algode blouse, thick wool skirts, kerchief, and a shawl. Fixing a displeased expression upon her face, Meraia strode into the main corridor. People spread a space around her, hoping not to be the focus of that gaze.
The Wise Ones had been trying to see her since a few days ago. Who was to say that this wasn't just another unsuccessful visit? Only Meraia.
Walking out of the Tower, across the city and into an inn whose innkeeper had made arrangements with her earlier, who seemingly "understood perfectly". She nodded to the plump innkeeper and ducked into the private dining room.
There she changed out of her Wise One's apprentice garb with a sigh, replacing it with a green dress divided for riding, embroidered in white, given to her by the kindly innkeeper. Slipping the glass mirror angreal into the pocket and clasping the necklace ter'angreal on, she bundled her other clothes together again.
Pushing the door open, she came face-to-face--if you can call a tall Aiel and short Andoran standing right next to each other "face-to-face"--with the innkeeper. "Yes?" Meraia asked uncomfortably.
"I know what you're up to," the innkeeper said. "You're running away, aren't you?" She smiled knowingly. "I'll help."
Holding back a relieved sigh, Meraia smiled gratefully.
You need to go to Ebou Dar. The Kin will help you there," said the innkeeper seriously.
Meraia nodded vigorously. She could get off the island with the innkeeper's help, then head for the Black Hills. Wait.
Was that really her thought? The thought of one once Far Dareis Mai? It seemed she became more like Aes Sedai every day...
_ _ _ _ _ *
Niyali wiped wetness from her face with one hand, and searched the dirty stone walls of her medium-sized cell with the other. She had no idea why she searched the walls, she just did.
After all, she was shielded by no less than six sisters! If even one of them let go of saidar, or even just dropped the link, Niyali was sure she could break through. She ran her mind along that smooth glass wall in her mind just as she ran her hands along the stone wall.
Niyali was frantic. Wiping her sticky and dirty hand on her skirt, she went back to groping at the wall with both hands. Suddenly, her finger caught in something. A hole!
Extracting her finger, Niyali bent to examine it in the darkness. She gently pulled a lump of moss out of the hole, placing it carefully on the floor where she could find it again.
A thin stream of sunlight peeped through the tiny hole. "Oh, Light, thank you!" Niyali whispered, bending to draw in a breath of clear, fresh air. It was sweeter than anything she had ever tasted before in her life, after the musty confines of the cell.
The rusty iron lock on the door rattled. Niyali immediately put the plug of moss back into the hole. She then put her face in her dirty hands and began sobbing quietly, shaking slightly, watching the door warily through her fingers.
It opened with a squeak and a groan to reveal Jhirana, with a long iron key in one hand. The air around Niyali pushed her to her feet, leaving her to stumble towards the door.
"Perhaps your tongue will loosen this time," Jhirana said. "We do have our ways of finding things out, after all."
Niyali began fake-sobbing again, though the terror I her eyes she did not need to fake. Light, please let her be able to keep quiet! Just until Meraia came for her! 'Because she will come,' Niyali thought fiercely. Meraia wouldn't leave her to this... she hoped.
