As usual all speech in italics is in the Old Tongue.

Chapter XCIX - Time for Celebration

Aleksi sat back in one of the plush chairs that Taija had found from Light knew where and passed her the bottle of wine. She took a gulp from it before passing it back.

"Well, that went about as well as it possibly could have." He glanced behind himself to where the sounds of raucous partying were coming from deeper within the Hall's grounds.

Taija nodded, looking as relaxed as he'd ever seen her. "Yep. We got what we wanted, we almost certainly killed a Forsaken, dealt with a large part of the Black Ajah and none of us died. Couldn't have hoped for better."

"So are you going to be giving the binding rod to Siuan?"

"Oh yes. It'll make her happy, for once, and frankly the thing gives me the creeps. I don't like even touching it. She knows what it does to your lifespan, but I don't think she cares." She paused and looked up at the night sky. "I was thinking maybe we should offer her the Tower as well. I can't imagine the Black Ajah will want to hang around there after what Rand did to them and without the Forsaken we can clear them out quite easily if they do decide to stay."

"Interesting idea, you're trying to go on a charm offensive with Siuan?"

"Well sort of. We do need to work together and I've been putting her in a difficult position for a while." She hesitated. "Also sooner or later she's going to find out about the missing angreal and sa'angreal and I think we'll look more innocent."

He barked out a laugh. "You're a lot more devious than people give you credit for."

She didn't answer, just did her best impression of an enigmatic smile and held out her hand for the wine again. He passed it to her and she took a sip.

"Where's Tel anyway? You seem a bit more comfortable nowadays."

Taija hesitated and then took a deeper swig before passing it back to him. "You know, don't you?"

Aleksi smiled. "Of course I know, I know you too well."

She gave him a sideways look and he took a drink of his own. "And you're not going to start lecturing me?"

"Eh. I can if you want." He laughed at her unamused look. "I can't say I think it's the best idea, given everything, but it's your choice. In the end, I can see it's made you happy and that's what matters. Who am I to question it anyway?"

Taija muttered something that sounded a lot like, "the one person I'd actually listen to."

Aleksi smiled to himself, of course he was and she really needed to learn that she wasn't as quiet as she thought she was when she muttered things.

Then Taija perked up and looked straight at him and his heart skipped a beat, nervousness flaring, he knew that look. He might be in trouble. "Speaking of romance…" He was in trouble. "Why is there no one in your life?" She paused. "There isn't is there? No nice girl in your life? No. There isn't."

"I don't know, I've just been very busy, you know…" Caught off balance he tried to dissemble.

"Is it that you don't like girls? Should we find you a nice boy? Some of the Aiel men have pretty tight backsides." Aleksi spat out the wine he'd been he'd been drinking, spraying it across himself.

"Not a boy then." Taija stretched languorously, amusement shining in her eyes. "There must be a nice young lady who's caught your eye though. You can't just go trailing round after me until you get old. Remember being aes sedai means having balance, not just service."

Aleksi sighed. "Like I said, I'm just too busy. The closest I seem to come to women is trying to avoid this one Aiel maiden who's always…" He trailed off, Taija looked far too interested.

"Oh no, don't stop, keep going."

"She always seems to be there, wherever I…" He trailed off again. She hadn't. "It must be her assignments, but apparently she hasn't requested anything and it seems like a very big coincidence." Surely not.

Taija snorted, unable to contain herself.

"Oh for Light's sake Taija!"

She started giggling. "Your face!" Eventually her laughter subsided under his glare. "Fine, but seriously, you need to get laid."

It took him a second to work out what she meant by that then his face went red. She could be so crude sometimes. Not at all ladylike. "I do not! Anyway it's none of your business." This was part of the problem with your friend being old enough to be your great grandmother!

As she often did when she felt something was inconvenient to the point she wanted to make, Taija ignored that. "Come on, she's into you. She's an awesome fighter and she's super hot. Haven't you noticed?" Despite his best efforts he blushed harder. Taija noticed and pounced. "Ohhh you have noticed. You could crack nuts on her arse and I reckon underneath the cadin'sor she's got fantastic ti…"

Aleksi leapt to his feet. "Fine. You know what, I'm going to go and speak to her right now!" Anything to get Taija to stop. He spun on his heel and stalked away to the sound of Taija's cackling.

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Bennae took a dignified sip of wine. She was sat with Verin and Alanna, at a slight remove from the partying initiates. It felt like a pity that she was there, rather than in the middle of them. Not that she wanted to party with a group of youths, but she had to admit the Hall had grown on her and the separation she maintained could be saddening when she had so few peers for company. Verin was fine and of course Taija was entertaining, but she missed her networks of friends in the Tower. Most of them likely dead, turned or traitors now. She resisted the urge to sigh.

Still, she had also been thinking, ever since Taija had dropped the bombshell on her about the impact of the oath rod. The woman had not even known what she was saying, what an earth shaking revelation it was.

She had said she was planning to return the oath rod to Siuan as a gift. A noble gesture anyone would say, but another crippling blow to the White Tower's aes sedai. She had not, however, mentioned informing Siuan of the impact on those aes sedai's life expectancy. It was fascinating, Taija preached sisterhood and cooperation and, as far as Bennae could tell, believed it with every fibre of her being. However, just occasionally, she would show flashes of almost respectable cunning. Based on everything Taija had said, Bennae would have thought that she would be desperate to help Siuan in every way possible. Yet then she did something like this. Handing over a gift that was desperately wanted by the White Tower, yet drastically weakened them at the same time. It was admirable. She really was a woman of many facets.

"Siuan will no doubt be delighted when the oath rod is returned to her."

Verin nodded. "Indeed. Has Taija said when that will be happening? It will be good for Siuan to be able to truly raise new aes sedai once more."

"I think it will be at least two or three days. Taija mentioned wanting to have some sort of friendship ceremony to go with it." Because of course she would want that. Soft or devious?

"Oh well that will be wonderful. I had been wondering what would happen without access to the oath rod, Siuan could not hold off on raising new aes sedai forever. It would have been fascinating to see what solutions she explored, but much better of course not to need to do that. I suppose she will just keep it here until then, close to her, I suppose that would be safest."

Bennae let Verin's absent minded prattling wash over her. Her mind going back to thoughts that she had been having for a while. She could not truly say she was a great fan of Siuan's and the White Tower itself had been taken over by the Black Ajah. She had had a long life, it was true, but there was so much more to be done.

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Inalle watched as Jaer jumped high in the air with a kick, leaping over the blazing fire that someone had started. She knew she was drunk, but that was fine, so were half the people here. Still, she wasn't the only one watching him. He really was a fine figure of a man, if only he didn't have such an Aiel stick up his backside.

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Tel glanced at Aleksi as the man powered by, looking rather more annoyed than normal. Best not to ask. He turned his attention back to the group of initiates with their disparate instruments. "That was excellent, keep up the good work." After a moment they went back to their previous tunes.

He'd agreed with Taija that he and Nynaeve wouldn't be drinking tonight, given the need to make sure some people were unimpaired. That didn't mean he couldn't have fun. With a small smile he leant back against a wall and watched initiates dancing, some more enthusiastically than others. Wildly different styles. Social class and age largely forgotten as they pranced around each other. It was chaotic and it was exactly how it should be. It was good to be building something like this again.

He wasn't sure how long he stood there watching contentedly before he felt a familiar presence by his side. He'd never been able to work out how she sometimes managed to just appear or disappear like that.

"They look happy don't they?"

She leant into him slightly, her small form a comforting weight against him. "They do. Hopefully it'll last, sooner or later they'll have to fight."

"Mmm, but we'll get them as ready as they can be and it's good that they can have fun until then."

They stood in comfortable silence for a minute and then Tel smiled. "I have a surprise for you. Come on." He pushed himself off the wall and headed back toward the band.

Taija quickly followed, keeping a more decorous distance now that they weren't standing in the shadows. "What is it? Tell me." He could tell she was resisting the urge to grab at him and make puppy eyes. "Come on, you're not meant to keep secrets, what is it? Is it chocolates?"

"It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you." He ignored her grumbles until he reached the band. "Can you play it please, you know what I mean."

Under the starry sky, lit by flickering balls of saidin and saidar, he headed for the flat space that had been turned into a dance floor Taija trailing behind him. Behind them the music stuttered to a halt and initiates started to move away. There was no more music to dance to and they could see the two of them approaching.

Then the band started again, the eerie, familiar 1, 2, 3 beat to the music echoing out across the open space. Taija stopped dead her eyes widening. Tel didn't wait for her to say anything. He gave her a low bow with a flourish that wouldn't have been out of place in the highest class balls of Paaran Disen before holding his right hand out to her, palm up.

A moment's hesitation, her eyes still wide and a glance around at the crowd of initiates. Then Taija stepped forward and put her much smaller hand in his. A quick lift of his left hand to twirl her and as she spun his right hand dropped to her shoulder blade, feeling her slim, warmth under it, as his left hand clasped hers. Then they were off. Spinning across the ground to the beat. Feet moving in patterns long ingrained in them, even if they hadn't danced together like this since the early days of the War.

As they came towards the initiates he smoothly tilted his elbow down, made a bigger step and they rotated round each other to head away again.

Taija should technically have been leaning back and looking over to her left. If she was doing this properly. Instead she was looking up at him, eyes shining. He'd been surprised she'd enjoyed this kind of dancing so much back in the day, given her hate for formality. But then her refusal to do any of the traditional, uncomfortable bits made up for that. Despite that, she never missed a step, feet moving smoothly with his.

Together they swung across the ground, eyes only on each other as the band clumsily played out a long forgotten tune from a long dead time. Eyes only for each other. If he closed his eyes he could imagine it was one of the balls he'd taken her to before the War.

All too soon the music came to an end and he spun her out, away from him, with a flourish of his right arm, ending up facing each other, arms outstretched and joined only by their hands. He finished the dance with a low bow, matched by hers, her deep, brown eyes never leaving his. Light she was beautiful.

Then suddenly reality returned as he remembered all the initiates were still there. Taija wasn't going to be happy if he'd just put their relationship on display for everyone to see. He thought fast. "And that, everyone, was a traditional dance from the Age of Legends. If you ask me nicely enough, I might teach it to some of you next week. Now let's all thank Taija sedai for her kind assistance with that demonstration!" As the crowd broke into applause he gave Taija a polite bow.

=========

Irena knew she was a little drunk, well more than a little. However, she wasn't going to let that distract her from what she'd just seen. She leant over to Inalle and Kolanin. "I told you they were lovers! That was so sweet!"

"I do not see why dancing together means they must be doing more than that. Can a man and a woman not be friends? I have spent time with many maidens of the spear without any need to give them courtship gifts."

It took her a second to work out what Kolanin was saying, but once she did, she shook her head at the Aielman. "Don't ridiculous, didn't you see the way they were looking at each other. Anyway Taija sedai has him wrapped firmly around her finger, it's obvious."

"Mmm," Inalle made a vaguely noise of agreement. "Certainly if they're not already they soon will be, but that's none of our business and don't you forget it. Still, I'd like to learn that dance…"

=========

Mazrim Taim ignored the sound of partying from around the building and knocked firmly on the door. He waited a few seconds for an answer and when none came opened it anyway.

There was a faint smell to the room, a suggestion of someone who had let their hygiene go somewhat. Taim sighed to himself, he did not even really know what he was doing here.

"Noruan." The man did not react. "Noruan!"

After a moment the merchant opened his eyes and propped himself up on his elbows to look blearily at Taim. Where he had been portly before, he was rapidly losing weight now. He certainly did not look at all healthy.

Taim looked Noruan over and almost turned on his heel to walk out. This weakness… It was what the aes sedai would have done to him if Demandred had not saved him. It made him feel ill just to think about it.

"How are…" He stopped. He never knew what to say. "The party is quite noisy outside. They are celebrating revenge against the White Tower you know. Revenge for what they did to you." That got him a weak smile. What was one meant to say to a man in this condition?

He kept the irritation out of his tone with an effort and sat down on the bed beside Noruan. "I thought that you would not want to be out among them and I doubt I would be welcome with them. So I brought this." He held up the wine skin.

"Thank you Mazrim, but it's not necessary." Noruan's voice was dry.

Taim was not a man to pretend to be jovial and this would be no exception. So instead he just scowled. "I will decide what is necessary or not. Now drink or else I will be drinking this alone." He pulled the cork from the skin and took a swig before handed it to Noruan.

The man stared at it for a few seconds and then tilted it to his mouth, taking a deep swig before passing it back to Taim.

As Taim took another gulp of his own he studied the other man out of the corner of his eye. Eben had Helena to keep him alive, well he would make sure that Noruan survived too, in his own way.

=========

Helena worked her spoon into the hard earth again before pulling it out, removing a small amount of dirt. Eben knelt beside her doing the same.

"You know, you should really go and join the others. Enjoy the party. You don't have to be here. I'll be fine by myself."

He gave her a slow look, everything about him seemed to be slow these days, but his eyes were focused in a way they hadn't been when she'd first bonded him. She was spending every waking minute on menial, meaningless labour, but the way he actually focused on her made every second worthwhile.

"No… I don't think I'd want that. To be honest, there's nowhere else I'd rather be."

"You're a fool Eben." She declared immediately, but with a fair bit of affection in her tone.

She almost missed the shadow looming towards them from the darkness. As it resolved itself into the form of Nynaeve sedai, she resisted the urge to spring to her feet. Like every initiate she knew that the appearance of an aes sedai was not an excuse to slack off from her work. Instead she gave a respectful dip of her head. "Nynaeve sedai." Eben echoed her a moment later.

The older woman didn't say anything for a while, just standing over them watching while Helena redoubled her efforts at digging. She wasn't sure what additional punishment she could be given, but Nynaeve sedai had a temper and she had no desire to find out.

She was just starting to wonder whether she should say anything when the aes sedai spoke. "Alright Helena, you're done for the day."

Helena looked up, "but Taija sedai said I…"

"I know what Taija sedai said. Am I not aes sedai too?" Nynaeve sedai didn't wait for an answer. "You'll be back here tomorrow, but for today, go to your room or Eben's room and have a break. The whole Hall is celebrating today. Go." Nynaeve held out a skin of something, wine perhaps, to her.

It was all done with Nynaeve sedai's usual brusqueness and it took Helena a few seconds to realise that she wasn't being punished further. She hurriedly got to her feet and gave Nynaeve a low bow, no curtsies in the Hall. "Thank you aes sedai."