Author's Note: This story was originally intended to be a one-shot. I recieved a request to extend it, and the reader is always right. I now have no idea how big this could get. Sorry if I'm not one hundred percent accurate on some points about Bethamin, the timeline, the Jordan plots interlaced, or Seanchan in general; it's a lot to keep up with. The timeline's changed a little-the original story took place the morning before the book 9 chapters Questions of Treason and A Matter of Property, but now it's taking place the next day. Sorry for any confusion. Disclaimer: I own Aleine, Jona, Jinna, Jilli, Hana, and Myli. Everything else belongs to Robert Jordan and his publishers.

Augusta

After she was dressed and presentable, Bethamin suppressed a yawn and started down the stairs to the common room of The Golden Swans of Heaven. These common rooms on this side of the Aryth were nothing like those in Seanchan, and she still wasn't used to how open and exposed everything was. In Seanchan, the inns had a series of small, closed rooms that parties could meet in to eat, converse, and see entertainment. Little things were perhaps the most profound in their ability to remind her that she was in a foreign land, far from every association with her life before becoming sul'dam and from everyone she loved, or, to be perfectly accurate, the graves of everyone she loved. To the best of her knowledge, Bethamin didn't have any living kindred. Seeing two friends sitting at one of the tables, she went over and joined them.

" We were beginning to wonder if you'd died, Beth," Aleine joked as one of the serving girls put basins of some kind of porridge and mugs of tea in front of them. " You've never been one to sleep in, even if you didn't have duties."

Jona laughed. " Maybe Beth has a secret lover, Allie, and they -er- wore themselves out while she was gone yesterday." All three of them laughed at Jona's slightly crude joke.

" Hate to ruin your imaginitive streak, Jo, but I don't have a lover," Bethamin said, starting on the porridge. Not like anything she was used to, but not too bad, as far as foreign cuisine went. " I had inspection duty with Renna, then I decided to go shopping instead of looking for extra work."

" So you're human like the rest of us," Aleine said with an exaggerated sigh. " Where'd you go shopping?"

" Oh, down to the laquerware shop two streets over," Bethamin said casually, never flinching at the lie. She was becoming a very good liar, now. That laquerware store was frequented by sul'dam; even if Aleine or Jona or that Seeker tried to trail her, the shopkeeper could in all probability say a sul'dam had been there, but Bethamin was a trout if the woman would recognize one customer from another.

" You did?" Jona asked. " I was over there myself, but I didn't see you."

Bethamin's smile froze. " We must have just missed each other. Imagine that."

" Probably," Jona agreed, not seeming to notice anything. " It's too bad, though. I would've liked to have talked to someone friendly yesterday. All I had to associate with was Jinna and some of these Ebou Dari, and I haven't yet worked out which hate me more."

Changing the subject, Bethamin asked, " Have either of you checked the duties schedule yet?"

" All three of us are on walking today," Aleine said. " Renna's on inspection again, and Seta's, quote, 'in attendance on the High Lady Suroth'."

" Something's up with those two," Jona said thoughtfully. " Neither of them's been complete since what happened at Toman Head, Renna's meek as a mouse, and Seta's mighty jittery for someone who's supposedly being honored."

" I have a theory," Aleine announced. " Do both of you remember Tuli?"

" The damane who was good with metal? Escaped the day High Lord Turak died? " Jona asked.

" That one. Renna was her trainer, and Seta was complete with her on days that Renna had other duties and couldn't manage it. I think that Renna and Seta helped Tuli get her collar off, get out undetected, and Suroth caught them."

" But why wouldn't the High Lady have them arrested?" Jona asked skeptically.

" Maybe they blackmailed her or something. What do you think, Beth?"

Bethamin just barely kept from shivering. Aleine didn't know how close to the truth she was. " I don't know. It could be, I suppose. As my mother used to say, all things are possible in the weavings of the Wheel." They all finished their porridge, and walked past the glaring innkeeper into the street. The damane complex they were heading for was in the attics of the Tarasin Palace, on the opposite side of town.

" I'm going to try to be complete with Jilli," Aleine said enthusiastically as they walked.

" I'm going for Hana," Jona threw in. " Beth?"

" I'll let everyone get sorted out and be complete with whichever's left over," Bethamin answered, unpertrubed.

" How come you never have any favourites, Beth?"

Unconsiously, Bethamin felt of Zerai's a'dam through the fabric of her belt pouch. If you knew, Jo, you'd never play favourites either, she though to herself, but answered aloud, " No point in getting attatched to one when she could be sold or her owner relocate or anything else at any time, I don't think. "

" That's our Beth," Jona laughed. " Always practical."

True to her word, Bethamin stood aside and let the other sul'dam squabble over who got who and then took the one left over from the day's selection of those to be walked. She was not displeased to be complete with Myli, a pretty, serious young damane from the Empire. Walking the circle with Myli gliding like a swan beside her, Bethamin finally had time to think about everything that had happened since she had finished her inspection duty yesterday.

When she had gotten back to the Golden Swans after her meeting with Egeanin, she had been a nervous wreck, getting slightly tipsy on her roomate Iona's apple brandy. The alcohol had done nothing to calm her. When she retired to bed, she hadn't managed to fall asleep for hours, the main reason she had slept so late, and then she had been forced to endure that dream. Now, though, the whole situation was very clear in her mind and warranted examination. Her life could be forfeit if she didn't examine it and determine what to do.

First, there was the fact that Egeanin held the cards as far as blackmail went. Bethamin couldn't reveal Egeanin's secret, but Egeanin could reveal hers. Could and would. Add in that hulking brute of a so'jhin who was supposedly Egeanin's lover, and the newly-appointed Captain of the Green had the sul'dam in a sack she couldn't get out of, as the saying went in Abunai. Regardless of how hard the cat clawed at the burlap, the fabric held.

Worse was the Seeker. His knowledge of the plots to do with the Aes Sedai and damane and lies and murder was dangerously detailed, but there could be flaws in it. He had thought that Egeanin murdered the sul'dam she found, and if he could be wrong on one thing, he could be wrong on another. Even if he was, though, he was still dangerous. Too dangerous. Bethamin knew that no matter how perfect a citizen and sul'dam she seemed, she would protect her own neck first, even if it meant treason. Her desertion at Falme had been treason, so what was steeping herself further now?

She had hated betraying the Empire and her own values, but she had been terrified. Terror, love, and anger could all make people do things, things they would never ordinarily do, and as Aleine had reminded her, she was human like everyone else. It had all seemed so simple, in the beginning. She would pretend to be one of the sul'dam left behind instead of a deserter. That had been the story she concocted after the terror of being collared damane wore off and she started to think rationally. Only a sul'dam could know the horrors of being a damane, and therefore only a sul'dam would go to any lengths to save herself from being one. After she had come up with that, Egeanin had captured her and held her with the a'dam, then let her go after meeting with two girl Aes Sedai. Others sent to aid in returning sul'dam had accepted her lie immediatly and helped her return to the main force with the High Lady Suroth. Then she had found out that Egeanin was still alive, and that Seeker started questioning her. It had all seemed so simple, but it was as if with every treason, the next grew easier. First finding Renna and Seta leashed in Tuli's kennel and not reporting it. Then fleeing Falme for Tanchico. Then not reporting herself when she escaped from that basement. Finally, now she was committing her worst treason yet, working with Egeanin against the Seeker she was supposed to be Listening for. It had all seemed so simple.

She saw a figure watching the damane exercise period from the corner of her eye, and glanced in that direction. It was a middle-aged man with golden hair. He could have been an innocent bystander. He could have been a sul'dam's secret lover. He could have been a pervert trying to decide which damane to bed. Bethamin felt like she was going to be sick. He was none of them. She had been planning to ask for extra assignments, but she knew she wouldn't. The Seeker was watching her. She knew she would have to visit Egeanin again.