As usual all speech in italics is in the Old Tongue.
Chapter LXXVIII - Lesson Time
"… and I shall name you Lina." Setulin finished the speech she gave to every newly captured damane and smiled at the blonde woman. If she was not damane she would have been quite beautiful.
This one would be interesting, there had been the expected emotions from her. Surprise, then anger and a flash of fear, but now she seemed calm, the a'dam giving Setulin little indication of what was going on in the damane's head. No matter, every damane was different, but every single one broke sooner or later.
"We shall get you settled into the kennels and then we will begin your training. I hope you are a quick learner Lina. You will be a strong damane, you will serve the Empress, may she live forever, well.
She did not like the slight smirk that had appeared on the damane's face at that, but Setulin chose to ignore it. The damane would learn of course.
With a tug on the leash she led Lina towards the kennels, she would not be punished for her actions in the palace. A marath'damane was one thing, but now that she was damane she was no longer responsible for her previous actions before she was properly leashed. She would suffer or be rewarded based on how she performed, how she responded to her training.
As they walked she explained to Lina what she would be doing for her training. It helped to have a new damane anticipating what was to come. She also warned her of the consequences of trying to remove the a'dam or channel without permission. Lina would try anyway, every new damane did sooner or later, but Setulin was not a cruel woman, she would give the warning.
When they reached the kennels several other sul'dam surrounded them, clapping her on the back for her capture and admiring the damane she had caught. Unfortunately it was at that point that Lina decided to shame her. Throwing herself on to her knees and grasping at her skirts.
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Graendal kept her fear ruthlessly suppressed. This was a bad situation. No, this was a disaster. She had no doubt she could escape, given time, if she was careful, the problem was time.
She had made enough enquiries about these leashes to have a good idea of their capabilities. An impressive and unpleasant surprise for this Age. But no, the real problem was Semirhage.
It was a question of game theory. By being leashed here, however temporarily, she had just placed herself in a prisoner's dilemma with Semirhage. Would Semirhage trust her not to betray her to the Seanchan? Could she trust Semirhage not to silence her? The answer was obvious.
As soon as they were somewhere with enough witnesses that a single darkfriend could not simply silence her she threw herself to her knees and grasped at the leash holder's skirts.
"Great mistress, I humbly apologise for speaking out of turn, but there is something I must tell you. I have committed crimes as one who must be leashed, I know, but I hope to beg for lenient treatment. I have information, valuable information that could save the very life of the Empress, may she live forever."
The leash holder, a dead woman walking, looked down at her anger on her face at the interruption, but she could not ignore a possible threat to her Empress. "Very well. Speak Lina, but you must realise that if your information is not everything you say it is, you will be punished for your actions."
"Of course, I would never dare… But you must know. My mistress, she has set me to perform meagre tasks for her in the Palace, but she has infiltrated the Empire more deeply than you could possibly examine. She sits at the heart of the court, ready to commit her crimes against the Empire." Graendal looked up at Setulin, terror in her eyes. "She has disguised herself using the One Power, she is one who must be leashed too. But… but she has taken on the role of Anath, the truth speaker to the daughter of the Empress, may she live forever. However, she is a dangerous woman, she knows weaves to conceal her ability to channel, she is even stronger in the Power than I am. If she knows I have become leashed she will move to eliminate me before she continues her schemes against the Empire. Take great care I beg you."
Graendal stayed prostrated on the floor as the leash holders around her gasped. There. That should ensure that she lived long enough to escape. She doubted they would capture or kill Semirhage, that would be too much to hope for. However, the woman would be far too distracted to deal with one inconvenient leashed.
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Bennae resisted the urge to scowl at Taim, her usual good nature struggling. The man was not only a criminal, but beyond unpleasant. He was also one of the most powerful channelers alive if what she had heard was true. For all the talk of the taint having been cleansed, that still caused her a visceral discomfort.
Poor Taija seemed to be unwilling to do anything about his rudeness, the dear girl really was too soft, letting him undermine her like that. For all her faults Siuan would never have allowed that, neither would Elaida.
Perhaps… Mmm perhaps an accident would need to be arranged. She doubted any of the people here would be able to stand up to him one on one. Well, she glanced over at Cadsuane, maybe one person. However, for whatever reason, Cadsuane seemed to be taking a rather more measured approach to things than usual, almost deferring to Taija. Odd.
"… leave the men to me and Tel sedai, the people who can actually handle them." Taim finished his rant, staring poor Taija straight in the face. It really would not do.
Silence stretched for a moment, almost long enough for Bennae to start worrying. Surely she was not about to cry? If she did then Bennae really would have to start taking measures. Then something changed in Taija's eyes. They really were lovely eyes, she was very sweet when she was not exasperated, but now their softness had vanished, replaced by hard anger. That was new. How interesting.
"It seems you're not interested in reasoned dialogue then. Unfortunate." Taija raised her voice. "I've welcomed you here, despite your past crimes. Despite your obnoxious behaviour. Despite your attempts at undermining me. I've tried to offer you logic and reason, to work with you. You've thrown it back in my face, in the faces of everyone here who's working to rebuild something great."
Taim gave her a smooth smirk and a small bow. Oh light the silly woman was going to do something foolish. Bennae wondered if she should intervene and try to calm Taija down.
"Since, like so many other people, you don't seem to respond to words. Since you think you have nothing to learn from me, there doesn't seem to be much point in speaking to you anymore."
Was she going to throw him out? Bennae could see it. It would be a foolish move, but if he refused to cooperate and insisted on undermining her own efforts it was likely all she could do. She really could have done with a few years in the Tower to learn how to handle herself better.
"You think all that matters is power. The ability to inflict violence. Fine. I'll lower myself to speaking your language. You and me. On the training field outside the wards."
Taim gave an incredulous laugh. "You're challenging me to a duel?"
"Don't be ridiculous, I don't fight duels. I'm offering to teach you a lesson and to give you the opportunity to teach me one of your own. If you're as strong as you think you are." She paused, "of course if the idea scares you then that's fine, but in that case you can shut the fuck up."
Taim rolled his shoulders slowly, "no, no I think I shall enjoy this." He glanced at Tel Janin, "don't worry, I won't hurt your woman too much."
Taija twitched at that, fascinating, so there must be some history there. She was still young, whatever age she claimed, perhaps a nice man would cheer her up. Interestingly, Tel just smiled, "go for it, do as you will."
Bennae was starting to wonder if she was missing something. Poor Taija was practically vibrating with rage and clearly putting herself into a foolish situation. Yet Tel seemed unconcerned and he should presumably have the best idea of her capabilities as he seemed to be her deputy here in this 'Hall of Servants'. It really was rather perplexing. Of course Cadsuane was not showing the slightest hint of what she was thinking, so there was no help coming from those quarters.
"Good. I've been working too hard recently, I could use a stressball. Fifteen minutes. Tel, gather the initiates, all of them. This will be a useful lesson for them too." What was a stressball?
Taija spun on her heel and stalked off. Bennae considered going after her, the poor dear, but that would not help anything now. All she would be able to do was watch and pick up the pieces. It was the case far too often, people so rarely stopped to think things through properly.
Bennae quickly waved her own gaggle of girls to follow the others towards this training field of Taija's, they would at least benefit from watching this too. There were so many interesting things to see here.
The way this Tel watched Taija, there was clearly some emotion behind that. His eyes almost never left her, but only when she was not looking. Normally Bennae would have thought his willingness to let things play out was part of a ploy to work with Taim to undermine Taija, but given that… perhaps not. Odd.
With an internal sigh Bennae turned her attention to her own girls who seemed to be trying to keep as far away as they could from any of the men. Understandable, old instincts died hard, but Cadsuane herself had confirmed that the male half was clean. Apparently Taija had had a hand in that too. A very talented young woman, she had clearly been a scholar of some kind and the world was blessed to have her, as was Bennae. Still, no woman could fight a man as strong as Taim one on one, not even close. That was why it had taken a large team of aes sedai to capture him. Whatever her knowledge he would just overpower her. That was why women needed to be cleverer than men, make up for their muscles with cunning. Perhaps Taija had never felt she needed to because she was so strong, by the standards of most women.
"Come along now girls, stop lollygagging. There is no good reason for you to be afraid here. I expect you to comport yourselves like initiates of the White Tower, not a flock of scared children." Bennae cajoled her flocks after the men and women, boys and girls of the Hall. There must already have been more than twenty of them, even though this 'Hall' had only really been established a month ago. It was impressive. Clearly the White Tower had been foolish in limiting itself to girls of a certain age. Another thing to consider.
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A quarter of an hour later a small crowd were gathered around what Bennae assumed was the training field. It was really just an large, open grassy space with the occasional burn scar on it.
Nynaeve al'Meara came jogging up to join the crowd, the symbol of the ancient aes sedai on her breast, followed soon after by young Elayne and Egwene. Another interesting little tidbit, Cadsuane had mentioned that they had fully integrated themselves with Taija's organisation and that Nynaeve was calling herself aes sedai. A great loss for the White Tower. Perhaps she had contributed in some small way when she had encouraged Taija to remove them. It would be interesting to know whether Siuan's group were trying to do anything about it, they must recognise the threat this represented to the White Tower.
Taija was already there, her usual expressions gone, replaced by an angry blankness. A moment later Taim stalked out from the crowd, his mocking smirk never wavering. "So, Taija sedai," he put a sarcastic lilt on the word, "what are your rules for this?"
"Simple, we fight. First one to yield loses. If you win I give you a free hand to work with Tel sedai." That seemed foolish to offer, although if she lost Taija might have little choice. Then again, given the way Tel reacted to her, perhaps she was confident Taim would find little support from that angle. "If I win," Taim snorted, "then you will attend the classes with the initiates for the next month and you will behave with proper respect. I don't expect you to like everyone, I do expect you to show a modicum of politeness."
"Very well Taija, I accept your terms." Taim gave her a mocking, shallow bow.
"Great." Taija turned to face the crowd. "Please watch and listen carefully, there'll be a lot to learn." She turned back to Taim, "feel free to start whenever you're ready."
Surely she could not be this confident if she did not know something Bennae did not. Even a poorly controlled temper would not account for this. So long as she did not get hurt… Bennae had no desire to watch Taija suffer.
