As usual all speech in italics is in the Old Tongue.
Chapter LXVIII - Theoretical Physics, Applied
Taija was in agony. She wasn't meant to channel this much. The Choedan Kal were experimental pieces of shit and she was bathing in the sewerage. She shouldn't be able to burn herself out using a sa'angreal, but she could definitely lose control.
Her taint-destruction web briefly wavered before she forced it back into shape again. If Taija couldn't control this, force saidin to submit to her, submit herself to saidar, she'd be scored away to nothing. If she was unlucky so would the planet. How much longer could she hold on?
Her head was pounding so hard it felt like her skull would shatter. The flows were getting harder and harder to control, fluttering and flaring in her grasp. She didn't know if it was her exhaustion or the sa'angreal starting to fail, but whatever it was it hurt. She forced herself to stay focused, controlling a surge of saidin as it tried to sweep her away.
Sickly sweet torture humming through her. Battering agony crashing against her. Oh Light it hurt! Taija's concentration nearly broke as saidar tried to draw her into its undercurrents.
She needed to hold on.
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Once again Demandred reached the tree line and carefully looked up at the empty space leading up to the earthen rampart, a web protecting his eyes from the light. His prospects were no better there. This was a waste of time. He wanted Lews Therin dead, but not to the point of making a suicide run against whatever circle he had up there defending him.
Still, he had other options. Shendla would have been working on preparations back in Shara. It might be too late by the time he returned, but he would return. Decision made, he started to quietly work his way back down the slope to get out from under the anti-Traveling wards.
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Nynaeve nearly snapped back at the Forsaken's words, contempt for everything Taija had told her about Semirhage, because that was obviously who it was based on Taija's descriptions of the Forsaken, fueling her anger. She had earnt the patch she wore! How dare she?! Then with a thought she calmed herself. Taija had tried and succeeded in winding her up during training too many times. 'If you get angry you get stupid and if you get stupid you get dead.' The woman really should work on her grasp of the Common Tongue.
She blocked a fireball with air and spun a blossom of fire back at Semirhage.
What mattered was that Nynaeve was not going to get angry, she was going to win. Then, a thought struck her. Taija was very difficult to push off balance, not without touching on certain topics that, by unspoken agreement, were off limits. However, perhaps she could force Semirhage off her own game.
She made herself laugh even as she spun lightning from the sky. "Long-dead betters. Is that what you believe? Did you really think Taija came here alone? Has your time with the Dark One really rotted your brain so much?"
Elayne, Egwene and Aviendha circled Semirhage with her, adding their own attacks to hers. No links here. Taija had taught her how to fight properly.
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Semirhage hesitated, just for a moment. Fire streaked out in a wave from her and the woman threw herself to the ground under it. "Most amusing girl. Has Taija Kosola taught you any other tricks to parrot?"
Nevertheless, the slightest hint of doubt wormed its way into Semirhage's thoughts before she ruthlessly suppressed it. Their tactics brought back memories, not particularly good ones. Taija Kosola must have taught them, she had clearly underestimated the woman.
Laughter echoed back, followed by lightning. "Do you think the Hall of Servants didn't have a plan? That they would leave the Forsaken to return to an undefended world? Look up the slope and you'll see the first step coming together. You're going to die Nemene Damendar, for all the crimes you've committed against us."
Semirhage spun earth and fire, the ground exploding under one of the other girls, sending her tumbling. Annoyingly she was back on her feet in a second with the others striking back at her hard. It was such a pathetic bluff. Semirhage switched to her own language. "You talk of the Hall of Servants, a bunch of useless hand-wringers whose boots you are nevertheless unfit to even lick clean."
Then one of the other girls behind her shouted out, "Go walk on a scree slope you shadow-sucking cunt!"
Semirhage nearly stumbled in shock. That had been pure Adanza! The first woman, presumably the leader shouted back. "Now now Elayne, remember the apprentices can't understand us and we want them to understand what we have to say to Nemene."
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Nynaeve watched Semirhage hesitate momentarily. Did Elayne really speak the Old Tongue that well? The phrase sounded vaguely familiar, like something she'd heard Taija spit out when she was furious. Surely not…
She took advantage of the hesitation, switching to all out attack. She couldn't invert her webs the way Taija did, but she was the closest anyone came. She drew on the angreal hanging round her neck, its interwoven circles warm against her skin. She remembered the way Taija's fingers had trembled a little when she'd handed that over. Nynaeve looked forward to giving it back to her after this. She hoped she'd be able to.
Big, obvious webs of fire shot out while she slipped in inverted webs of air and earth, trying to get past the Forsaken's defences. "I remember our world. Flying through the skies between cities, sitting down to watch a film with a loved one, the world you helped kill. I've stood before a panel of three, I've walked the marble floors of the Hall of Servants, sworn under the divided circle. I never forsook my oaths Nemene Damendar, not like you. Did you think we didn't have contingencies. That Tel Janin came back for no reason?" She was pulling half-remembered snippets from Taija's sometimes-interminable ramblings and it seemed to be working!
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Semirhage was on the back foot, staggering back under the assault from the woman. No one from this Age was that good. She had seen the performance of the best damane and they outmatched anyone from this continent.
The girls to her sides were harrying her, stopping her from focusing her full strength on this woman. Two of them were just as fast as their leader, weaker but a long way from insignificant. The other…
There! The weakest of them. She was slow to spin, more often out of position. This time she had stopped moving to focus on spinning her attack. Stupid. Perhaps the apprentice? It did not matter.
Semirhage spun, overpowering her webs, fire erupted around the girl and a moment later a web of air bisected her lengthways. 'Adanza', ha, shrieked something from her other side and Semirhage rounded on her, spirit twisted around the girl's flailing web and then with an inverted web of air she swept her feet out from under her and smashed her in the chest in midair with a fist of air so hard her rib cage crumpled.
That was 'Adanza' dealt with. Only the leader and one other girl. She focused her attention back on the woman claiming to be aes sedai. Perhaps she would even get the chance to enjoy these two.
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Since the cowardly shadowsouled had run away, Someryn had been having a quiet time in the forest. Well, quiet if one ignored the omnipresent vibration of whatever Taija sedai was doing.
That was one of the reasons she was surprised to see a beautiful, perfectly composed woman picking her way through the forest towards her. The other reason was that the woman was dressed ludicrously. She might as well have been wearing nothing for all the protection her clothing gave her from the cold or from the gaze of others.
It seemed another of the shadowsouled had decided to enter her net. She wove fire and directed the threads at the woman, drawing fully on her link.
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Nynaeve suppressed a scream as Aviendha fell, two crumpling halves coming apart in a spray of blood and gore immediately before Elayne flew backwards her chest caved in. She drew as hard as she could through Taija's angreal and unleashed everything she had.
Waves of saidar blasted towards Semirhage, scouring the forest around her. Egwene added her own comparably meagre power to the attack. With a smirk the Forsaken sliced through her webs. "I am going to enjoy making you scream girl. You and your delusions of grandeur."
Nynaeve ignored the howling terror in her stomach. She wouldn't let herself be taken alive by Semirhage, Taija had told her enough about that, but she had plenty of fight left in her yet. She exploded a tree beside the Forsaken forcing her to stagger as she spun a barrier of air against the shards of bark.
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Moghedien sighed and moved to sit down against a tree near Osan'gar. "You realise this doesn't look good, you just sitting here watching."
He raised his eyebrows, "and after the utter failure of your intelligence network you ran away rather than fight to redeem yourself? If they are looking for a scapegoat, we both know who it will be."
Moghedien smiled faintly, "perhaps. However, I would suggest you look worse at the moment."
Osan'gar scowled for a moment and then his face relaxed. "You are thinking what I am thinking?"
Moghedien nodded. "Osan'gar is not my favourite of the Chosen, but he worked ably beside me as we tried to penetrate Lews Therin's defences. I saw him kill several of these so-called aes sedai before we were beaten back by overwhelming strength."
"Indeed, I have never thought of Moghedien as much of a fighter, so I was honestly surprised at the way she threw herself into this task. I dislike admitting it, but if not for her I would likely not have survived the experience. Yet even together we were grossly over powered by the defenders."
"So we have an agreement?"
"Yes, mutually beneficial self-interest."
The two of them leant back against their trees and looked back towards the cliff-top in as close to companionable silence as any two of the Chosen could ever be.
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Siuan lashed out at the Forsaken woman opposite her before blocking her own blows. They seemed to be evenly matched. Both, she presumed, with full circles, but hers more powerful against the Forsaken's greater knowledge. She recognised some of the ageless faces she had seen behind the Forsaken, made a note of them for later. Black Ajah, but not, she knew, the most powerful of the aes sedai, where hers were handpicked for strength, maybe not as many angreal either.
The ground rolled under her feet and she sliced the weave with fire and spirit before sending fire back at the woman. This stalemate could not last though. She could feel herself being beaten slowly back. She was always just that little bit slower than the Forsaken, splitting her threads one or two fewer ways. If this continued she was going to lose and the White Tower would be left under Elaida. She could not allow that to happen.
Maybe if she… Siuan wove saidar, but this time she pulled lightning from the sky into the forest behind the Forsaken, a storm of bolts descending. For a moment triumph gleamed in the Forsaken's eyes and then it was replaced by panic.
Yes! The weaves coming from her had weakened. Siuan redoubled her attacks. She could not think of the last time linked aes sedai had fought other links, but it made sense. Attack the other members of the link and the leader was forced to defend all of them.
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Semirhage was beyond frustrated at this point. She was half starting to believe the woman's ridiculous claims! No one other than the Chosen in this Age had the kind of skills she was showing. She outmatched her, obviously, but only because of the angreal Mesaana had given her. Of course she had likely given her the weakest one she could find, but still.
Well no one in this Age other than Taija Kosola. How had Taija Kosola ended up here anyway? Of course Moghedien had been unable to find that out, the useless worm that she was. Was it so insane that she was not alone?
It did not matter, she would kill her. The woman was on the backfoot, only defending herself at this point, the occasional flurry of attacks from her apprentice easy enough to deflect. This would be done in a few more seconds.
Semirhage's instincts screamed a warning and she threw herself backwards a fraction of a second before a bar of fire burnt through the space she had been. What in the Great Lord's name?
Suddenly she was back on the defensive, attacks coming at her from three sides. It was the aes sedai from Adanza! But she was dead. Semirhage was the greatest healer alive, she knew the human body, the aes sedai would have died in seconds from her injuries!
"Fuck this." She muttered to herself and began to retreat. She was confident she could still beat the three of them, but she had no desire to match herself against powerful aes sedai from her own time who had unknown ter'angreal on them. The information she had on the Hall of the Servants' plans was valuable and she was not planning to risk dying in this pathetic forest.
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Someryn growled to herself, why could she not hit this Light-forsaken woman? Everything she did was sliced mid-weave or deflected. She could feel the power the woman put into her weaves, even if she couldn't see the glow of saidar around her, it eclipsed even her own, at least double, but it paled compared to what she wielded with the link. She was glad that she had ordered the other wise ones to hang back though. She was sure some of the more wild strikes the woman had sent her way had not in fact been wild at all, but aimed at hitting the other women in her link.
For such a ridiculously dressed woman, she was a cunning foe. Yet she was retreating, slowly to be sure, but it was undeniable. As Someryn steadily advanced, devastating the forest around her, the woman was stepping backwards. Perfect appearance as yet unmarred despite the amount of Power being thrown at her.
Soon she would reach Taija sedai's death zone and Someryn would have to break off the pursuit, she was not foolish enough to be lured into a trap. If the woman returned, she would be ready for her.
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Lanfear sliced Tel Janin's webs. There was more strength behind them than she had expected, it seemed Lews had given the man an angreal. Irritating. She drew on her own, splitting her flows too many ways for the eye to easily follow and sent a series of explosions into the trees around the running man. He would need to get used to running, for the short time he had before she killed him.
Fire bloomed around her and she snuffed it out with air and water before drawing ice from the clouds above and slamming it down into the forest around him.
He was still running, ducking further back into the trees, changing direction but always striking. She was the rock the waves of his attacks broke on, unmoving, just turning to face him on the spot. A blizzard of webs sprang forth from her, some to be cut, others dodged or deflected. Tel Janin's own counter attacks were strong, but less diverse, hammers pounding at her defences. Always looking for weaknesses. He was crude, like his little lost love.
Lanfear smiled to herself and let a web of air come too close, let herself stagger, clutching her left side. He immediately sensed weakness, a storm of webs coming at her, most from the front, but some smaller ones trying to sneak in from her left.
She let herself sink to one knee, fending off his attacks as he advanced on her. As he did, she spun her own web, this one inverted, no need for anyone else to see, into an expanding bubble, covering a huge space around them. The distraction helping to sell her feigned weakness.
Closer, closer, yes! Lanfear spun a pair of small gateways below eye level. Air through one, fire through the other. Tel Janin barely had time to react before the webs shot at him from behind. Somehow he still did, twisting into a dive, so that he was only clipped. She would grudgingly admit that his reputation was not unearned. Which still left the question of what he saw in Taija.
No matter, he was off balance, she opened a gateway and stepped through it, smoothly moving behind him, sending webs back at him. Of course Tel Janin was already moving and retaliating, but she could see he was slower now. Victory was inevitable, just a matter of time.
"Did you think you could stop me Tel Janin? Your sad little girlfriend might have come up with some derivative crudities, but I am still the greatest scientist of our time." She was rather proud of her bubble, creating a space she could Travel in despite whatever wards were in the way.
Now she moved and Tel Janin was the immobile one. The difference was he had no choice as he countered her attacks, coming from every angle and she stepped through gateways out of the way of his counters, taking full advantage of her superior mobility.
"So you figured something new out? That's surprisingly inventive for you." Despite his casual words, his voice was cold as ice. "I suppose it might even have earnt you a third name in a slow year." He tipped his head back up the hill. "It doesn't really compare to what Taija is up to nowadays though, but that was always your problem with her right?"
Rage flashed through her, no he was just trying to provoke her. It was only a matter of time now and she would not allow herself to get distracted by him. A web turned a tree beside her into a guttering torch, but she was already Traveling, opening a trio of gateways, spinning fire through two of them and stepping through the third.
She emerged only for Tel Janin to come flying out of his own gateway, sword descending at her head. Frantically she backpedalled slicing at his webs and turning the air solid around his sword.
To her surprise he did not hang onto the sword or bother trying to slice the web, instead he let go, leaping forward, his forehead connecting with her nose with a crunch. Pain bloomed across her face and she staggered backwards flinging webs at him, any one of which would have instantly killed him if they had hit. She spun saidar into a gateway, she needed distance and felt it fizzle as she scrambled to her feet.
"Neat enough web," he gave her an utterly humourless smile, the torrent of webs coming from him did not slacken, "but limited combat use when I can use it too or just slice it."
Blood trickled down her face as she matched him blow for blow. They were too close in strength with their angreals for a slugging match like this to be an easy victory. It would come down to a simple contest of endurance, unless she could distract him.
"You know, Tel Janin, for all that we are such different people, really we are fundamentally similar."
He ignored as her as she had known he would.
"I have been failed by a society that would not recognise my talents, so have you. Neither of us truly believes in the Shadow. I have lost the one that I love and so have you. We are the same, we should not be fighting."
He laughed at that, there was no humour in it. Disgust tinged the ice of his voice. "The same? Me and you Mierin Eronaile? I suppose in many ways we are. We've both damned ourselves because of the one we love. Yet there's one big difference, I'm trying to be better." He took a slow step toward her, the wall of saidin he was throwing at her never wavering. Hate filled his cold, blue eyes.
Lanfear could barely spare the concentration for this, slicing and deflecting as she was while throwing her own attacks at him, but she needed whatever advantage she could gain. "Trying to be better? You realise Taija will never take you back. She will never forgive you for what you have done."
"I know." Those words had a worrying finality to them, perhaps she would not be able to distract him. "I'm still trying to be better though."
"You could be so much more working for yourself. Join with me, we do not need lost love or the Shadow. Working together we could be truly free to do what is right, unbound by the Dragon or the Great Lord."
Lanfear staggered as the ground heaved under her feet just before she sliced the web and Tel Janin took another step closer to her. She would have to do something about that, her nose was probably broken, he would pay for that, and she had no desire to let him back within arm's reach.
"You know, at my worst someone might have tempted me with that Mierin Eronaile, except that it was you. I would never work with you. Why do you think you nearly died in the Twisted Delves? Why were your forces crushed in Angoridua? Did you never question how the Light knew you were coming at Whiterock?" His voice rose with anger as he spoke.
Lanfear's mind skipped a beat. Her greatest failures. She had considered treachery at the time, but… Rage flowed through her. "Why? More petty games played between the Chosen for the Great Lord's amusement?"
Tel Janin laughed bitterly, his eyes never leaving her face, the storm of webs never slackening. "Why? Why?! Do you even remember what you did to Taija's family? What those myrddraal did to…" He was almost shrieking by the time she cut him off.
"Yes, what of it?" It had been one of the more satisfying moments of the War if she was honest with herself, imagining Taija watching that footage.
Suddenly his tone was ice cold again, just hints of anger leaking through it. "I might have forgiven you for what you were, I forgave worse during my time among you. I could never forgive you for that. They were her family, but they were my family too!" His control slipped, voice becoming a snarl, hate painted across his face. It could have been intimidating, to someone else. Lanfear lashed out, almost catching him with a web, forcing him back as she battered at his defences. She wanted to cackle, it was working, he was distracted! "You wouldn't understand of course. You can't understand love. I had no family left and they took me in, Araevea treated me like the son she'd never had. Nerina called me big brother."
Were those tears trailing down his cheeks, accompanying the fury in his voice? Pathetic. But to her advantage if he could not keep control of himself. "Did Taija tell you what she saw then?" She let some of the glee of the memory leak into her voice.
"Taija only saw the beginning. I stopped her. I saw the whole thing though."
Fury spiked in Lanfear. He must be lying! Just ruining one of her most cherished triumphs over Taija. It would not stand! With a shriek of rage she refocused on attack, throwing everything she had at him.
Tel Janin seemed to be faltering, then she clipped him with a web of fire, leaving an ugly burn down the side of his face. He staggered nearly falling and Lanfear immediately focused her attacks on his wounded side, he wouldn't be able to see as well there.
His hand brushed the ground to keep himself upright and suddenly there was something in her eyes! Dirt? She backpedaled lashing out with the Power to keep distance. Just as she reached up to rub her face a huge weight crashed into her, driving her into the ground. He had tackled her! Lightning fast she flung him off her, sending him airborne, at the same time something pinched in her chest and arms. Why was the world suddenly going dark? She tried to channel light into the air above her, but saidar slipped through her grasp.
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With a groan Tel picked himself up from the forest floor. Absolute, homicidal fury still roared through him, but his face was in agony, his leg might not be broken, but it barely worked and he was fairly sure he'd cracked several ribs in that last fall. He was already spinning more webs when he saw.
It had worked! For all his myriad crimes against the world, he didn't think he could have beaten Lanfear otherwise, but her over confidence at thinking he'd lost was her downfall. Good for torturing innocents, beyond skilled in the Power, but ultimately she was no fighter.
It was a strange feeling. He'd wanted her dead with as much passion as he'd ever felt for Lews Therin or Ishamael for over a decade and now he'd done it. Should he feel relieved? Happy? Exhausted?
He staggered over to her body, bisected horizontally through the chest and arms, her face looked more surprised than anything, lying there in a growing pool of blood. After a moment he spat on her corpse. "That was for Nerina and Araevea." It didn't seem to be enough though. He thought for a second and then he spun air and sliced through her neck, before picking up her head by the hair and trying it to his belt, ignoring the blood that dripped onto his breeches.
As he straightened from his task, he glanced up the hill towards where he knew Taija was. The taint was still there, still leaving its filth on him with every web he spun, but it felt… somehow less. Diluted maybe? If she could just hold on a bit longer…