Life is so close at times you can feel its touch...
No one who hasn't been subjected to enclosure can understand.
Even air becomes a sacred gift from god.
How? More important, when? When can we act?
We must be patient. Even now, escape would not be allowed
But to be trapped for even another day, why-
The world you tried to build died! It died when they took you!
How many will die for my sins?
How many will die for hers? Wait for the morning.
The red glow from the mountain filled the sky. Kalim's shipmates were astonished to see the White Tower bleeding. Some laughed, others stared in dispair at a final corruption. The captain wisely ordered his ship to skip the port and sail further downriver. He'd seen such a thing before, and barely survived despite miles of ocean being between the ship and the spire.
Within Tar Valon, chaos swept the streets. Some of the mob had already begun to loot, others had slunk back to their homes ashamed. Yet most had remained outside the barracks and the Tower, keeping anyone from going in or out. A futile gesture, in a world where Traveling had been rediscovered, but the crowd had no way of knowing.
Inside of the tower, women met with nervous glances around and spoke in hushed tones. In the library four Browns met and exchanged books about the Last Battle. Throughout the tower women could be seen sweeping and doing the old novice chores. These women all were wearing a black armband, a symbol of what their allegiance would have been save for the Night of Blood.
And deep inside the earth, trapped in a cell with no light, a man walked and talked to himself. Outside his chamber stood guards, half afraid and half in awe of who they were to guard. None of them realized that they would be dead within twelve short hours.
Perrin grasped at the bar, and began to twist it. Slowly, carefully, he shattered the prison in his mind as well. He knew now which he would take, what his duty called him to do. Tears fell down his face as he quietly murmered.
"Why must love always hurt so?"
Deep within Dragonmount, an ancient balance tipped. Power long contained began to run free. Tarmon Gidean had come at last.