As usual all speech in italics is in the Old Tongue.
Interlude XVI - The Modern Perspective
Cadsuane allowed herself a grim smile. Al'Thor had been appropriately warned and reassured, it was time to deal with the biggest problem in the Dragon's camp. Taija could not be allowed to continue to undermine both him and the very status of aes sedai. She allowed herself a grim smile, the conflict would certainly be resolved once she was done with her.
She knew where the girl was of course. She was always in the same room at this time, 'teaching' the runaways. It would be good to put her in her place, not that she would take any pleasure from it, a necessary chore. She was not a cruel woman, but she was a woman who would do what needed to be done.
She pushed the door open and strode in assessing what was going on at a glance. The runaways were sitting at desks, giggling over something while Taija had perched herself on the edge of a table at the front of the room, oddly enough the usually dour woman was smiling. Well that would not last. Aleksi was there too, in some ways an inconvenience, but probably better to nip this whole thing in the bud from the start.
The whole scene illustrated the problem of course. The runaways were just playing around instead of learning or doing chores. Taija looked deeply inappropriate sat on a table in men's breeches of all things, even loose ones. As for having a man who could channel attending lessons with initiates of the White Tower, well she had nothing at all to say on that.
"No you see he was late because his car broke down and the mechanic was… Oh hello Cadsuane sedai." The girl looked over from whatever she was talking about, her smile turning frosty. It was ridiculous that they sat here listening to her as if she had anything worthwhile to say. Was it the way she peppered words of the Old Tongue into her speech, like a pretentious noble, but without the education to back it up? She was not going to return the woman's greeting, this was not going to be that kind of conversation.
Taija continued to witter on, turning back to her audience, when Cadsuane did not answer her. "Anyway the point was apparently meant to be an allegory for the impact of technology on relationships, but I thought it was just funny." Cadsuane spoke the Old Tongue well enough, she was fairly sure some of those words were just invented.
She sniffed, loudly. How could the girl sit there with a straight face talking such nonsense? It was incongruous hearing the Old Tongue from an uneducated peasant, but that would be something she could investigate once this had been dealt with. Perhaps some of the old blood in her? More likely, given her accent in the language and improper behaviour, she just learnt some words from a liaison with someone in the past.
With a sigh that made her exasperation clear Taija turned her attention back to Cadsuane. "Can I help you Cadsuane sedai?"
Cadsuane took a step towards her, calculated to be intimidating. She was watching the others in the room like a hawk. She would need to manage their reactions or this could turn into a real mess.
She would at least give the girl the small credit that she made an effort to be polite even if she did a shockingly poor job of concealing her dislike. Nevertheless she could feel the anger bubbling inside her at the way the girl mocked what it was to be aes sedai. "This has gone on long enough."
"Excuse me?" Taija took an instinctive step away from Cadsuane, even if the girl had been able channel it was doubtful she would have had the strength of character to attain the shawl.
Cadsuane took another step forward, it was important to keep the girl off balance if she wanted to end this quickly and painlessly. Still, the way she was pretending not to understand was infuriating.
"This," Cadsuane gestured at the runaways and Aleksi. "You are making a mockery of the very concept of aes sedai girl. Did you really think this would be allowed to continue without consequences?" Her mind went back to the giggling when she had arrived. "Do you think this is funny?"
Cadsuane embraced saidar drawing fully through the angreal among her ornaments. The fool girl did not even react, further confirming her inability to channel. Any sensible woman would have been visibly on guard and embracing the True Source themselves if they could channel, or quailing at the sheer amount she held.
Instead the girl just threw more defiance at her. "my name is Taija, you may call me Taija sedai or Taija Kosola Miranen if you want to be formal, just as I do you the courtesy of calling you Cadsuane sedai." The contemptuous twist of her lips when she put the title at the end of Cadsuane's name was infuriating. Who did this girl think she was? Surely she must know that she was finished and she was just making things worse for herself. A small part of Cadsuane's mind tried to remember which cultures used three names. Her inability to place the girl's accent truly was irritating.
Never mind that. She snorted in disgust at the girl's behaviour, advancing steadily towards her. "Did you think I would not find out your secret? If you had any idea what you were doing you would know that I can sense whether or not you can channel." It was time to take action, but first she needed to make sure that young Aleksi did not interfere. She wove spirit and pushed a shield into place on him. Too easy, he had not even been embracing saidin, more fool him.
"I have no idea what you're talking about, but if you think you can walk in and insult me, threaten my friends…" Ah now the girl was angry. Soon she would realise how much trouble she was in.
To Cadsuane's side the light of saidar sprang up around Nynaeve and Elayne. She made a mental note to increase their punishment. They were clearly far out of control, thinking to threaten an aes sedai, but before she could chastise them Taija snapped "release it, now!" A moment later the light winked out again. "This, whatever idiocy it is, is between me and Cadsuane sedai. You are not to involve yourselves."
Cadsuane gave the girl a thin smile at that. "The first wise thing that I have heard you say since I arrived in the Stone." Odd that the girl had known though. Probably a good guess. A surprise that the runaways listened to her too. Cadsuane was committed now though. She dismissed the little warning bell that had started to ring in the back of her head. "Typically the White Tower would severely punish anyone who claims to be aes sedai; however, out of respect for your friendship with the Dragon, I will settle for a public apology and recanting of your position."
Cadsuane felt she needed to make the offer to maintain her relationship with al'Thor, but the girl was almost certainly far too arrogant to take it, not understanding how incredibly jealous it was compared to the normal punishments for impersonating an aes sedai. If she had had any sense she would have made herself scarce the very second Cadsuane entered the Stone. When she did not this became inevitable.
The girl did a poor show of hiding genuine anger. Or perhaps a good show of pretending to hide false anger? It did not matter, either way she replied calmly, but forcefully. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I was awarded the title, I am aes sedai. I have a better claim than you ever will. If you want to speak to me then show a modicum of respect. Otherwise you can leave." She dropped her voice, but not enough, "and preferably fall down a crevice."
Anger surged through Cadsuane, ruthlessly kept under control as it always was. The sheer arrogance of the girl, when she should be begging for mercy and then adding an insult in the Old Tongue, as if she would not understand, although it was a poor insult as such things went. "Ah finally the lamb shows some teeth." Cadsuane gave her a distinctly unfriendly smile, time to put her in her place, reveal what she knew. Then she would crumble. "You think you are so clever girl. You do not even realise, I know your secret, I have your lover shielded, you have nothing."
Instead of crumbling the girl looked confused, even as Cadsuane loomed over her. Confused and then furious a second later. "If you try to sever him, I will kill you before you can finish spinning the web." She met Cadsuane's eyes, not a hint of fear in them.
The alarm bells began to ring a little bit louder. Something was just not right with this girl. Surely she did not actually believe her own story? It must be her own painful ignorance of the world, she did not even know to call them weaves. There was no way that anyone with the slightest idea of what she was getting herself into would look Cadsuane in the eyes and make a threat like that.
"You will learn respect girl, I will teach it to you. Firstly though, the runaways need to be dealt with. Nynaeve, Elayne, this charade is over." And not a moment too soon. "You will be disciplined appropriately for running away and following that I shall continue your education properly." No more of this ridiculous rubbish and playing around, they would learn and with Cadsuane's help one day they would be great, not like the soft weaklings the Tower seemed to produce these days. "You will go to my rooms now and await my return when I have finished dealing with Taija 'sedai'." She could not resist layering sarcasm onto the last word.
"No." At this point Taija's denial was not unexpected, but Cadsuane noted with annoyance that Elayne and Nynaeve also had not moved an inch. "Nynaeve and Elayne are my apprentices. They stay with me unless and until I release them or they decide they do not wish to learn from me. Unlike your White Tower's degenerate version, real aes sedai don't need to force people to obey them. We lead, we inspire and most importantly we serve." Taija stepped forward standing almost nose to chin with Cadsuane. "You people squat in the ruins of a once great institution perverting everything it stood for while you scavenge for the scraps of a civilisation you'll never even understand!"
Cadsuane was struggling to follow the girl's nonsense. Ruins of a once great institution? What would she even know? More ridiculous attempts at seeming mysterious. "A pretty speech," the girl really was furious, practically spitting on her. It made Cadsuane furious in turn, this continuing defiance could not be tolerated. Did the girl think she could out-bluff her? "Every word you speak will only increase your punishment. I would suggest you stop."
"Stop? Stop?! Who the fuck do you think you are…" As the girl slipped into her badly accented Old Tongue, Cadusane decided this had gone on long enough. She had put up with far too much from the girl and she was showing no signs of recognising her true position, so it was time to take action.
Crack! The impact of Cadsuane's pale hand on her dark face rang out across the room actually knocking her over. For a moment Cadsuane wondered whether she had hit her too hard. It would be embarrassing to have to heal her, she could not be seen to allow her anger to dominate her actions, no matter how infuriating the girl was.
The runaways embraced saidar again and Cadsuane prepared herself to put them back in their place a bit earlier than she had planned.
"No, this is between me and Cadsuane." Ah the girl was practically red with rage. Not totally surprising, although Cadsuane had hoped for submission rather than more anger. Cadsuane watched her haul herself to her feet. Tougher than expected. She was staggering though and clutching her head. This would be over soon.
Still, defiance would need to be punished. It was just a matter of time now though. The girl had started to understand the consequences of her defiance. "It seems that you do not wish to choose the merciful option I offer. Very well then, I shall have to teach you a firmer lesson."
Cadsuane watched the girl's eyes widen, she seemed to be frozen to the spot. Here it was, the moment when she would break. "Ah yes. You thought young Aleksi could save you. Like I said, I know your secret, he cannot channel for you now. Do not worry, I shall not do anything to harm him, but this farce is over."
Cadsuane wove two weaves of air, one to surround the girl and hold her in place, the other to deliver her a light thrashing. She would not hurt her badly, but she clearly needed to be educated about the realities of her position.
The jolt of her cut weaves snapping back into her was both painful and a nasty surprise. Who did that? There was no one else in the room! Aleksi was shielded, the runaways were not holding saidar. Cadsuane scanned the room again anyway, sudden nervousness running through her. Had she missed something?
"I'm spending every waking moment trying to save my friends' lives, doing things with the Power that you can't even start to understand you pathetic half educated barbarian, let along copy and I get this." Taija gestured towards her, she looked confused even through her clear anger. "Do you even know what I'm doing? What I've gone through? Of course you don't!"
However disinterested she was in the girl's ranting, Cadsuane was not going to just stand there and be further insulted by this girl. Still looking for the unknown threat she channeled, sending more weaves towards Taija. Yet everything she threw towards her was sliced. But by whom? Where were they? What had she missed?!
Taija was still ranting while apparently standing there doing nothing. "You just swan around calling yourself aes sedai while serving no one." Cadsuane tied off the shield on Aleksi and increased the amount of saidar she was throwing at the woman. Splitting her weaves as many ways as she could, bringing them in from different directions. Every single one was sliced, almost instantly. This was impossible, no one was that fast! Who even was it? "You can't even get out of the way of someone who is trying to help. Even just standing aside. Instead all you can do is interfere, obstruct. Desperate for control. Pathetic! You're a perversion of the very concept of being aes sedai."
Surely it could not be a man. Al'Thor had been channeling for months, Aleksi was shielded. Without false modesty, Cadsuane was as strong as almost anyone in the world and she had an angreal. No one could be doing this if they could not see her weaves. Surely not. It could not be the girl. She could not even channel. Had she misjudged the situation that badly?
Growing horror painted itself across Cadsuane's face as she leant into saidar, feeling the strain from drawing on it as hard as she could. Taija's screaming rant battering at her ears, was the girl crying? She would have her crying soon enough if not. "Do you even know how hard it is trying to do anything with the taint? I'm sitting there trying to work something out when I should have a whole team with me! Except they're dead, every single one of them!" What about the taint? Team? None of this made any sense. "I should have an institution, friends colleagues, ter'angreal. Instead I'm just left doing it myself. My friends' lives in my hands and only if I can do something impossible. Something even my own civilisation couldn't do! Do you even know what friends are?!"
Surely it could not be the girl. It could not be. Cadsuane franticly looked around trying to find the other channeler. There was no one. It must be the girl. A ter'angreal? Painful memories of the Black Hills, of Norla, sprang up. Fear came with them.
Even with the battering feeling of so many weaves snapping back into her Cadsuane stepped forward toward Taija, this needed to stop. She had clearly misjudged the situation. Badly. She clamped down on the fear bubbling up inside her. They needed to stop, talk.
A chair smashed into Cadsuane with a thump forcing her to stagger backwards, fortunately the impact merely painful with the six pointed star in her hair net spreading the impact across her whole body.
In frustration she shouted at Taija. "You are only making things worse for yourself girl. Stop this madness, tell whoever it is that enough is enough!" She should have paid more attention to Moiraine's cryptic warning, they would be having words after this! With a thought she tried to activate her fish ter'angreal, to pull whoever it was into a link, but there was nothing. Nobody in the room other than her was holding the One Power.
Tears were streaming down the girl's cheeks. "I hate this time! I hate that everyone I know is dead or worse and I hate that every time I try to help I have to work my way around manipulative bitches like you playing fucking stupid games." Cadsuane had given up on being angry, now she was just worried about being in a condition to walk out of the room when this was done. Also, she realised, the girl's Old Tongue was far too smooth through that accent, far too fast.
Suddenly three more chairs flung themselves at her. Far faster than the first, hurtling across the room and shattering painfully over her, nearly flooring her. Those could have killed her! Even with the ter'angreal she might need healing after this. Freed from the constraints of the third oath by the lethal attack, defensive instincts took over. It could not be anyone but Taija doing this and she was trying to kill her!
What a mess she had made of this. She would have to salvage what she could of the situation afterwards, but for now she just needed to survive.
Cadsuane smoothly switched from painful and humiliating weaves of air to the full array of her skills. Fire, earth, blades of air. Any of them potentially lethal. She did not want to kill the girl of course, but it was clear that if she did not use every weapon at her disposal she would be the one who would end up dead. Still, everything was sliced invisibly, snapping back into her. Only Taija seemed distracted, for a moment she screwed her eyes shut and one of Cadsuane's weaves nearly took her feet from under her before being sliced.
Taija was still ranting in that odd accent with occasional words Cadsuane did not recognise, screaming at her. "I just want to go home! Not here finding each revelation worse than the last!" The woman was clearly distraught and completely out of control.
To each side of her Cadsuane saw a table spring into the air almost instantly rotating onto its side the legs shredded from them in moments. It was frighteningly fast and she instinctively slammed weaves of air between her and the tables.
Her blocking weaves were immediately sliced and for the first time in a long time Cadsuane felt true terror. As the tables slammed into her from each side with a crunch she remembered what Taija's clipped accent reminded her of. The man she had fought in the Stone, only he had been nothing like this!
Then she was flying through the air with no more time for thought. Wham! Pain!
"Why can't I even have the smallest of pleasures without fucking aes sedai trying to take them away from me? Why can't I work it out? I don't want my friends to die!"
She was flying back the other way. Wham! Her vision blurred, the six pointed star ter'angreal could only do so much. Wham! Overwhelming disorientation and pain, she could not keep channeling. It was all she could do to hold onto saidar.
Wham! Her arm broke with a crunch and saidar fled her grasp. She was flying again. Wham! Something else broke. Flying, she was going to die. Wham! Flying and then suddenly the pressure around her was gone leaving her to fall painfully to the floor, an agonising collapse onto the remains of the two tables.
Tears of pain rolled down her cheeks and it took every bit of Cadsuane's prodigious willpower not to scream when she hit the ground.
Rand's furious shout was shockingly loud, "what in the Light are you doing?! Stop this madness!"
Through blurry eyes she saw Taija disappear through a gateway and Rand stand over her. His face was hard, angry. "What did you think you were doing you Light-blinded fool?!" He visibly struggled with his temper for a second before getting it into control and gesturing someone over. A second later Nynaeve joined him looking down at her. "Nynaeve, please could you heal her," he asked with a sigh.
Cadsuane saw Nynaeve hesitate for a moment and then her face hardened. "No. She talked about consequences. She'll live. It'll take a while but she'll heal on her own and then maybe she'll learn her lesson. If she gets worse I'll reconsider it."
"Nynaeve, please…
She cut Rand off with a disapproving look. "If she's so useful you can't do without her, get Moiraine to do it."
=======
Moiraine had been shocked when a servant had come running to her, asking her to attend Rand immediately. She had been even more shocked when she had walked into the ruins of the room Taija had taken over and found Cadsuane lying on the ground, clearly in a great deal of pain, with Rand looking as angry as she had ever seen him.
Clearly Cadsuane had decided to poke the bear. She would have been more amused if it had not been clear that things had gone much further than she could possibly have expected. This was not the humiliation and loss of position that she had anticipated. It had looked like a full scale battle had taken place in the room and Taija had outright tried to kill Cadsuane. Of course she reflected ruefully that was unlikely to be the case, given Cadsuane was still alive.
Rand had politely asked her to heal Cadsuane, his voice had been perfectly controlled although she could feel the anger bubbling underneath. Of course she had immediately done so. It had not been a situation she had wanted to insert herself into, she would rather have put her bare hand in a wasps nest, and the quickest way out was to do exactly as Rand asked without questions.
As she had channeled the healing weave into Cadsuane, watching the woman's body repair itself under her eyes Rand had stalked out, with a brief word of thanks and a command, not a request, to send Cadsuane to his apartments as soon as she was able to stand.
The boy was clearly growing into his role and she was not sure how much she welcomed it right now.
It was a couple of hours later that Cadsuane had come to her rooms. Of course she had fetched tea for the woman, it was clear that they needed to talk.
Once they both had their tea they sat facing each other, both perfect models of aes sedai serenity. Moiraine took a sip of tea from her cup of finest sea-folk porcelain and looked over it with hooded eyes while Cadsuane took a sip from her own.
She let the silence stretch. Cadsuane was infuriatingly composed, her facade back in place despite everything. Moiraine did not think she could have kept her composure so well after what Cadsuane had been through.
The girls had been distressingly unwilling to tell her what had gone on, another issue to lay at Cadsuane's feet. At least they had been willing to talk to her before. She could have told the bloody woman that trying to force them away from Taija would not work. Perhaps she should have told her, not that she would have listened.
Fortunately Aleksi had been more willing to explain what had happened. He had been absolutely furious on Taija's behalf, but at least that fury had been directed at Cadsuane not aes sedai in general. She probably had the time he spent with Lan to thank for that.
Eventually Cadsuane broke the silence, a small victory. "So. The Age of Legends." Her voice was dry, displeased.
Moiraine took another sip of her tea. "Indeed. Did she tell you?"
No," Cadsuane grimaced slightly, "I might have worked it out afterwards from what she said, but al'Thor took the time to… educate me."
Moiraine raised an eyebrow, "educate you?"
"Indeed. It seems he was displeased with my actions and felt that I needed it explained to me exactly what the situation was and how tenuous my position had just become." She was all cool arrogance as ever, Moiraine could not believe the woman could maintain her attitude in the face of what had just happened.
"I take it you explained the error of his ways to him?" Of course the fool woman did, she had not encountered a problem she could not bully her way out of in almost three hundred years.
"Of course I did not!" The sudden sharpness in Cadsuane's voice took her aback. "I made a grave error of judgment, that does not mean I am completely addled. He told me to consider myself lucky that Taija had given me such a thorough beating as it allowed him to turn a blind eye rather than punishing me." Her knuckles tightened around the handle of her cup. "I nodded, smiled and thanked him for his forbearance."
Moiraine sat back slightly, mind whirling. It seemed she would have to reconsider some of her plans. "I see. That is… remarkably tolerant of you to accept that from the man."
Cadsuane took another sip, "I was allowed to labour under the misapprehension that she was an imposter, pretending to be an aes sedai." The look she gave Moiraine made it clear who she blamed for that. "In part the failing is mine, I allowed my assumptions to dominate my thinking and lead me into foolish action with potentially disastrous consequences. Are you aware the girl…" she hesitated, "no, woman, has killed one of the Forsaken?"
"Mmm…. Yes." Moiraine eventually nodded.
Cadsuane muttered something that might have been a curse. "Very well." She hesitated and then sighed. "Perhaps I should follow Taija's example and dispense with the word games we have become so used to, so allow me to be blunt. It is clear that you do not trust me, presumably you believe I may be Black Ajah." Moiraine had to hide the surprise at such a blunt statement. She would have expected Cadsuane to explode at even the suggestion that the Black Ajah was real. "Obviously I believe this is unjustified and I serve the Light, as I believe you do. However, without a degree of trust we will fail to work together."
Moiraine folded her hands together, not denying Cadsuane's words. "What exactly do you propose?"
"We need to reconsider the way that we deal with the woman. I do not ask you to trust me, but I do ask you not to actively undermine me and I shall do the same for you. Hopefully, with time, you will see that my goals are the same as yours. Al'Thor must be allowed to develop, free of anyone else's control and he must be guided to ensure that he fulfils his potential and is ready to face the Dark One."
Moiraine considered for a moment. "That is acceptable to me." She was as cool as ever, giving nothing away beyond her words.
"Good, now we need to discuss Taija. Or what is it she called herself? Taija Kosola Miranen." Cadsuane paused. "Oh."
"Oh?"
"I just realised why she put so much emphasis on her full name. In the Age of Legends it was considered a great honour to be awarded a third name, that is why she sounds the way she does when she says it. I wonder what she received it for."
Moiraine shrugged delicately, "I confess I do not know."
Cadsuane's smile made Moiraine feel she had just walked into a trap. "Indeed and this illustrates the problem. You have clearly severely mismanaged your relationship with her. What do you actually know of her?"
It was an effort to stifle her instinctively angry response to that, but that would be giving Cadsuane exactly what she wanted allowing her to turn the conversation back on Moiraine. "I hardly think you are in a position to criticise after your behaviour since arriving."
"Hmm, deflection. A bit too obvious though." Cadsuane leaned forward. "You have mismanaged your relationship with her from the start. We have a genuine aes sedai from the Age of Legends dropped into our laps, one of apparently prodigious power and skill, and you have somehow managed to develop an enmity with the woman. You have not even got the excuse of having provoked her into attacking you."
Cadsuane paused watching Moiraine with an unreadable look in her eyes. "Oh Light you did!" Moiraine carefully kept her face impassive until Cadsuane snapped, "come on, out with it! I can hardly take amusement from your misfortune after my own actions."
With a sigh Moiraine explained. "Siuan Sanche and I, we thought she was one of the Forsaken, everything pointed to it."
"I suppose I can hardly judge you for mistaken assumptions, I can see how such a mistake might be made."
Perhaps Cadsuane was actually serious about working together, Moiraine had expected her to leap on the point. "Siuan and I were linked and I had my angreal. We had her shielded. She somehow broke the shield and had us both shielded in turn within a few seconds. She never even blinked." She had to a suppress a shudder at the memory. "Then Liandrin walked in. We begged her for help, telling her Taija was Lanfear. She knelt and swore allegiance to her. She said it was an honour to serve one of the Chosen!"
Cadsuane hissed at that, it seemed even her composure could be broken. "Then what happened?"
Moiraine grimaced at the memory. "She lost her temper completely and started screaming in the Old Tongue. At the same time she grabbed Liandrin with air and simply… smeared her across the room. It was so fast I barely saw it happen. Just a flash of movement and… bloody bits of bone and flesh pasted across the floor."
"Light." Cadsuane breathed the word without even thinking. Perhaps she was comparing it to what had happened to her. Then she was all brusqueness once again. "Well it is certainly clear that you have handled the woman badly. You will of course do what you wish, but I shall deal with her appropriately."
Despite herself Moiraine had to ask, "are you sure that is wise? What do you intend to do to her?"
Cadsuane's smile was a little frightening. "Do to her Moiraine? Why this is exactly what is wrong with your thinking. I shall do nothing to her. I shall apologise profusely for my behaviour and offer her whatever assistance I can give her."
That was… unexpected. "You will?"
"Of course. My goals are aligned with hers, why would I oppose her strength when I can help to guide it. She is alone in this world, clearly dealing with it poorly. She is friendly with al'Thor. If I was able to correctly interpret some her ranting, she is trying to find a solution to the taint. I doubt it is possible, but she has already proven herself able to do the impossible so who can say. Either way, she will react better to the hand of friendship than to whatever it is you have been doing." Cadsuane's smile did not reach her eyes. "Remember saidar. If you fight it it will overwhelm you. If you wish to succeed the first thing you must do is surrender to it."