As usual all speech in italics is in the Old Tongue.
Chapter CXLI - Death Comes For Us All
Moridin chuckled as he stepped out of the way of Taija Kosola's balefire sending his own darts exploding through the air, forcing her to dive aside. She cut the ones that came too close of course, but the smoke and light was just the distraction he needed. A web of the True Power slipped past her and Min was thrown into a wall with a thump.
Hmm perhaps that had been a bit hard. He laughed again, slicing through a series of webs from Taija Kosola, using the True Power this time, reveling in the feel of the Great Lord's might flowing through him. Was that a whimper from her? It was hard to tell over the sound of the explosions surrounding them. Having your web cut with the True Power was certainly unpleasant. He glanced back at Min, she had not managed to stand. He would have to heal her. He wanted her in perfect health, irritating, but of no great matter. Another quick web with the True Power and she was bound in place, she would not be crawling away from him while he dealt with Taija Kosola.
A web nearly slipped through his defences and he crushed it in a fist of spirit. Taija Kosola was retreating slowly, sometimes coming forward or diving to the side, but letting him press her back. She was no fool she would be looking for ways to escape. There were none of course. Still he might as well enjoy himself, it had been a long time since he had faced a real opponent, even one so outmatched.
"I really am pleased to find you here guarding Min. It has saved me a great deal of trouble." He smoothly ducked under a beam of balefire and sliced the gateway that started to open to his side, then sent his own balefire spearing back at Taija Kosola to make her dive aside.
"Of course you are and I'm secretly Cadsuane's lovechild." She spun something and stones ripped from the ceiling, pelting him. All too easy to deflect, although the way they exploded as soon as his webs touched them did give him momentary pause.
"You have improved. Anyway, sarcasm does not become us. If we cannot be honest with each other at this point, then when can we be honest with anyone?" Moridin spun fire, air and spirit, imitating a flashbang and sent spikes of air through it.
The walls shuddered, stone crumbling off them. "Go fuck yourself you pretentious prick." She really had improved, Moridin's smile widened.
"As I was saying, I truly am pleased." Balefire shot at him from two sides and he sliced both webs before thrusting his hand out spinning fire, water and spirit down it into crackling lightning. Blinding light suddenly obscured his vision, but the shriek he heard suggested he'd at least made contact. "You see, once I was done with Min here, you were going to be my next visit. After all, while you are no Kamarile Maradim, you are still far too good for him."
And… there. He spun the True Power behind him sending her flying back through her gateway with a thump. She rolled straight to her feet, moving away, but he could practically feel her pain. It was delightful. She was the cause of so many of his frustrations. In fact he suspected that it it was not for her he would not need to be doing this in the first place.
"Nothing more to say?" He casually sliced a quartet of webs, any of which he was quite sure would have killed him instantly and sent a wave of fire back at her. "I think there is a certain neatness to it. You serve the pattern, endlessly repeating time. I hate it, I feel it grinding down on my soul every moment of miserable existence, but you, people like you, defend it, maintain the circle with every ounce of your beings." He let anger bleed into his voice at the thought, overriding his amusement. "Well, here we have a perfect circle. I ended what was your life as you fled from me. Now you are back and here we are once more and this time I will make sure of things." He paused. "Maybe Tel Janin will be so upset he will join the Shadow again."
There. Her shriek of rage was music to his ears. Balefire swept across at him and Moridin tore a hole in reality, stepping past it. Enough though, he should stop playing with his food before somebody else came along. He came here on a mission and he needed to keep himself in check until it was complete. For the first time since he had arrived in Caemlyn Moridin drew on fully on the True Power.
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Taija knew she was losing this fight. Just like she had been losing 3,000 years ago. But this time she couldn't run. The longer she could delay Ishamael the less chance there was he'd work out that it wasn't Min there. Taija spared a slither of attention to slice the web holding the Dedicated girl in place, spinning precisely to avoid impacting the illusion over her. It felt wrong against her web, she couldn't describe how. Half the webs Ishamael was spinning did and were are his eyes black? Was this the True Power, she hadn't wanted to hear about it, but Tel had told her a little. Not that it was much help now.
Taija split her flows, three more obvious webs and one subtle one to slip past his defences. He sliced them all and she winced from the pain, why did it hurt so much more sometimes?
Taija frantically spin air around herself shielding her from his fire. The building felt like it was about to fall apart around them. Why was he going on about his cod philosophy? Couldn't he just shut up?! Then his words registered, what he'd said about Tel and her vision went white. That couldn't happen. Taija spun balefire, everything she had and swept it forward.
Ishamael somehow Traveled even though there was no gateway, stepping out of the way, then with a faint smile he struck. Suddenly Taija wasn't on the backfoot anymore, she was backpedalling, trying frantically to survive. She had nothing to hit back with. Was he just playing with her before? She barely deflected a blade of fire, felt the heat going past her face, crushed a web of air, sliced five different webs she didn't even recognise. She was going to die and there was nothing she could do about it.
Taija's heel hit the wall behind her. A flash of fire, straight through into the wall, blowing it away, then agonising pain lost in the rumble of the ceiling collapsing above her. Something hit her in the head and everything went dark.
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Moridin looked for a second at the rubble that dominated the other side of the room. Well that was unfortunate. He knew he had hit her before the roof fell in, but he was not sure it was fatal. Of course having a roof fall on you often was too. But then that was what he had thought the first time round too. Truly the Creator did have a sense of humour, circles everywhere. He hated it. But nevermind. He would dig Taija Kosola out and make sure she was dead in due course, but first he had to save Min. She had not been caught in the collapse, but he could see she was in a bad way.
Now that he had attention to spare he could see Taija Kosola had sliced the air binding the girl in place without him noticing, impressive actually when she was under such pressure, but it seemed he had been lucky today because Min simply lay there, gasping for breath. Clearly he had injured her more than he had thought. Well he could not have her expiring on him, not after all this effort.
"Well fought Taija Kosola, I shall be back for you though, I will not be making the same mistake as last time." He turned his attention back towards Min. "Now then young lady, this may hurt a little. No, I misspoke, it will hurt a lot, the Great Lord's healing always does." He focused and spun the True Power into a rarely used web.
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Rand sprinted through the halls of his palace, leaving the other aes sedai behind. The explosions had just stopped. Did that mean she was dead? Was he too late? No. He couldn't bear the thought, he couldn't be too late!
Why do we bring death to everyone we love?
He cursed himself again as he realised he should just have had the others use their sa'angreal to rip down the anti-Traveling wards. Too late now. He skidded round a corner into the corridor outside his and Mins' rooms. A body was smeared across the floor, unrecognisable. The wall was completely gone, so was the roof in fact. He didn't slow down at all, leaping across rubble frantically looking for any signs of life. There, more of the wall blown away. She might still be alive, if the aes sedai had fought a fighting retreat. He prepared a series of webs and ran straight for the hole.
There was more damage, someone had just blown their way through walls to make a beeline for the edge of the palace, but at least it made them easy to follow.
Rand leapt into what seemed to be remains of a huge kitchen. A man in black stood at one end over a pile of rubble, rock floating around him. Rand didn't hesitate, he let his webs come together into a storm of saidin, balefire mixed in with every other web he could think of. Too slow. The man looked up with a curse and threw himself to the side, slicing some of Rand's webs as he went. He was good. Strong too.
It is Ishamael you fool, in a new body. No one else is that strong or fast.
Was that…? Rand faltered and a web nearly took his head off. Min was alive. Relief shot through him and the storm of webs he was throwing at Ishamael intensified. The Forsaken met them, a certain amount of relish on his face. Then it turned into a frown.
"I would enjoy doing this al'Thor, but unfortunately I need you alive. Do give my regards to your lover." Reality shrieked and Ishamael reappeared at the far end of the room already turning to run. Rand took a few steps after him and then hesitated. He needed to check on Min and was there someone under the rubble? What about the other people in the palace?
And if you go haring after Ishamael you are going to get yourself killed. I was better than him, marginally. You boy are not. Not yet. One day you might be, but you have two years of training.
With a grimace Rand stopped, moved towards Min, relief making him go weak at the knees. "Min, you're alright! I was… I was so worried!" He could feel tears threatening him. First Tam and then Min, he didn't think he could have taken it. "Did he do anything to you? Do you need healing? It's alright, I'm here."
Worry spiked in him as Min stayed kneeling, looking up at him wide eyed, her face a mask of exaggerated adoration.
"It's alright Min, he's gone. You're safe now." He reached out to help her out and the moment he touched her she let out an odd sound, a sort of choked giggle.
"I have been touched! My Lord Dragon has blessed me, the Creator truly smiles on me today, I must rejoice for this blessing!" Her beautiful grin was there, but wide, too wide, unnaturally happy. Her shining eyes gazing up at him with mindless devotion like the worst of the Dragonsworn.
"Min what are you doing? Please, just get up!" He could feel his world crumbling around him.
Not all of the Forsaken are as crude as Mierin or Semirhage.
Min instead sank down, raining kisses on his boots. "I only wish to serve the Lord Dragon, tell me how I can serve my Lord you are the embodiment of the Light!"
Rand's face was wet. "Please Min, no, I love you."
"You wish to love me, of course my Lord Dragon, I am yours." She straightened up and began to undo her shirt.
"Stop!" She ignored him and he said it louder. "For Light's sake, please! Please just stop!" Damer was with the others he'd be here soon. He could help her. He'd be able to save her, he was as good as Nynaeve he could heal anything.
Damer will not save her. She is gone boy. I am… I am sorry.
Rand ignored Lews Therin, he needed to hold himself together. He was the Dragon Reborn. He needed to be hard, he couldn't afford to show weakness now. The sound of boots grew louder, the other aes sedai catching up and he hardened himself, schooling his face into expressionlessness.
When they skidded into the room his voice was cold. "Damer, Ishamael has done something to Min, see what you can do for her." He could mourn when he was dead. Every time he showed affection for someone it hurt them, hurt him.
This is not healthy boy, this is not a good coping mechanism. I would know, believe me.
Rand dismissed Lews Therin's voice and watched Damer lay his hands on Min. Her eyes were fixed on him, still filled with utter adoration and he forced himself to meet them. Damer tutted. He couldn't afford to watch too closely, he needed to be hard.
The others were watching him, was that fear in their eyes? Perhaps that was a good thing. "Ishamael was moving the rubble over there, like he was trying to get something. Go and see if there's anything under it." Tam dead. Min as good as dead. Was he destined to kill everyone around him like Lews Therin had said. With a thump one of the aes sedai threw a chunk of stone to the side with the Power.
Damer cursed behind him and Rand made himself look. The older man looked up at him, sympathy in his eyes. Unwanted sympathy. "I'm sorry. Truly I am. The web's buried deep in her. It's… I don't know how to describe it, two webs one on the surface, that I think is saidar and one of something I don't recognise, all through her, it's tied into her very being. I could remove it, but I think it would kill her."
Ice spread its way up Rand's spine, freezing his very soul. "Very well, thank you Damer." Why?!
"I could unravel the saidar web if you want, I don't know what it does, but I don't think that would hurt her. It… it couldn't hurt I suppose." Damer tugged nervously at his collar under Rand's gaze.
Rand shrugged, it made no difference now. He couldn't let himself lose control. "Why not." The words seemed to make Damer even more nervous, but he still spun fine flows of saidin, watching his web intently. After a second Min's appearance rippled. Rand looked away, he needed to be hard.
Wait. He looked back. In Min's place was a maiden of the spear, Jirndha, still staring up at him with the same expression of adoration in her eyes. Still grinning like she was giddy with excitement just to be in his presence. But if that wasn't Min… Warm relief flooded through him.
In a decisive movement Rand spun to face the rubble, forcing saidin around the stones and lumps of plaster and lifting more than any other man on the planet could. Frantically he tore away at the pile of detritus. Someone must have fought Ishamael to have caused all this destruction. Was that what he'd been looking for? In seconds he'd moved enough to reveal a hand, small and brown poking out from the mess, completely unmoving. Light, no.
He lifted the stone that covered it from the wrist. A sick feeling grabbed at his stomach. He threw the rock away. Followed her arm to where it ended. Burnt cloth and flesh. With an inarticulate shout of rage he grabbed at the rest of the rock, the whole building shaking as he flung it away. Where was she?! Rubble flew away until he saw her, "Damer!"