Interlude XXXIV - Dilemmas Moral and Otherwise Part 1

Siuan let out a breath as she returned to the privacy of her office. The day had been a huge success all in all. The oath rod was restored to her, the curse of the Black Ajah had been dealt with, if not everywhere, then at least among her own people. Every aes sedai in her faction would be reswearing the three oaths in front of witnesses and that would deal with any further members.

The Tower was also reunited. Elaida's declaration would see to that. What was left of it anyway.

What to do with her was the question, the fury that Siuan still felt at the thought of Leane and what had been done to the Tower coursed through her, but Taija, damn her, had had a point. Was it worth expending political capital to save Elaida's miserable hide or should she hang it up to dry amidst the nets?

A decision for later, for now she needed to finish assigning the teams that would be going out to snatch those members of the Black Ajah that they knew the location of. Hopefully it would be before any warning could reach them. She had been tempted to ask for Taija's help with that, no doubt the woman would have given it without hesitation. She had wondered how she would react to the executions, some of her views really were quite soft, but they had not seemed to trouble her in the slightest. Perhaps unsurprising given her attitude to darkfriends.

There was also the return to the White Tower to organise. Light only knew what kind of condition it had been left in. It was difficult, owing so much to a woman who was so thoroughly and deeply irritating. If Taija could spend a few years as a novice, for seasoning, it would be to the benefit of everybody. It truly was a pity Taija had turned down her offer of joining the Tower. Her views were naive, but they had their strengths. If they could be combined with the strengths of the White Tower both they and the world would benefit from it. Sadly that was no longer a viable prospect.

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Demandred looked Taim over, resisting the urge to sneer. There was no point in being unnecessarily unpleasant to subordinates, no matter how unimpressive he found them. The man had not failed him, even if he was not living up to what Demandred had hoped was his potential. Still, this would solve things one way or another. Taim would deal with a thorn in the Shadow's side and start to rise in its ranks. Or he would fail, in which case he would be suitably punished by Demandred. Or die making the attempt of course.

"You have your orders." He saw Taim's mouth start to open, anticipated the protest. "I am not sending you to die pointlessly, take this." Demandred reached into his pocket and pulled out a thin golden bracelet, dancing figures etched into it. "This is an angreal, do you know what that is?"

Taim's eyes widened. "I do." Good, the ignorant barbarian was not completely ignorant.

"Very well. I am not sending you on a suicide mission, I expect you to succeed. Do so and you will be rewarded, fail and I will make you wish you had died. Are we clear?"

Taim nodded spasmodically. Good. With the angreal and surprise on his side Taim should be able to succeed. It was infuriating how rare the things were in this time, but his own one was stronger and he would rather a subordinate like Taim had it than a real threat like Moridin.

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Elaida knelt in front of the Hall of the Tower, eyes downcast. She had not been present while her fate was discussed, but when she had been brought in she had been able to see from the hard faces of the sitters that she had no friends in this room. Hardly a surprise. She doubted she had friends left anywhere. Ironic to think that the person who had shown the most concern over her continued existence in the last few days was someone she had publicly declared to be a darkfriend. Another misjudgment among so many.

Siuan stood from her chair. "Elaida do'Avriny a'Roihan, the Hall of the Tower has sat in judgment upon you. Tower law is clear, the only punishment for falsely claiming to be Amyrlin is stilling." Elaida felt her stomach clench. She had known this was the likely outcome, but had still hoped…

"However," hope sparked back to life in her heart, "there are extenuating circumstances. The Hall has discussed the matter, you were led astray by one of the Forsaken, deceived. The White Tower does not accept excuses, but in this case the Last Battle is coming. The Light cannot afford to throw away its servants. Therefore you will be allowed to continue to be aes sedai. This is subject to a number of conditions…"

Elaida was so relieved that she could barely hear the list of penances and restrictions that Siuan was setting out. She would not be stilled! She would be able to serve the Light! It was enough. Certainly more than she deserved.

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Siuan looked up at the Tower for the first time in over a year. It looked… battered. Burn marks traced their way up it, the walls of the courtyard she was stood in were simply gone in places. Worst of all was the hole bored straight through it, as if it was a simple block of wood at the carpenter's. Still, it was home and it was hers once more. The White Flame of Tar Valon would fly again.

Maigan came up to her, looking grim. "It is as we had feared. The Black Ajah emptied the angreal and sa'angreal stores. We think a number of the ter'angreal are missing too, but there are too many for us to have a full accounting. I will let you know once we have that."

Fish guts. "I suppose it would have been too much to hope for that the blacks would have left those behind for us. We shall have to make to do, as ever. What is important is that we are home and the White Tower stands."

She had a lot of work to do. Logistics, organisation, reestablishing control over the city, finding out what else was gone. There were also raisings to be done. Two accepted to test and raise, plus Padaul of course, although he would be excused the testing. A number of novices would need to be tested to become accepted too. That was just the day to day business of the Tower, of course she also had to think about the future, the war with the Shadow.

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Aleksi sat back and took a long gulp of water as he watched Lan and Tel spar. They circled each other, eyes never wavering, as they took slow steps to the side. Then suddenly Lan moved, striking almost too fast for Aleksi to follow. Tel's sword was already there though, deflecting the slash. The cracks of their training swords impacting on each other echoed across the training ground as they exchanged a blindingly fast flurry of blows. Then they were apart, circling each other as if nothing had happened.

Again they came together and split apart and again, neither able to score a blow. It was fascinating to watch. Taija had mentioned that Tel had been one of the best alive in her time, famous around the world for his skills. Aleksi could certainly believe it. Impressively, Lan seemed to be a relatively even match for him. While neither was trying to kill the other, there was a definite tension there. Nothing like the relaxed friendliness that Tel gave off when he trained with Aleksi. Nothing to be done there. Lan was more than justified in his dislike.

Over the next few minutes each scored a few times on the other. Tel always said that if you won all the time when you were sparring then you had learnt nothing from the bout, so hopefully they both felt they'd learnt something. When they decided they had had enough of their spar, they both bowed to each other. Lan's bow was perfectly calculated politeness, not an inch lower than required. Tel gave him a lower bow though, the man did try Light damn him.

As Lan stalked off Aleksi saw the momentary tightening of Tel's eyes the distant look. He must be lonely, in his position. Of course the initiates all looked up to him, but other than that, as far as Aleksi could tell, the only people who would willingly spend their free time with him were Taija, Rand and oddly enough Bennae.

It was still far more than he deserved. Obviously. Aleksi's sympathy for a man who had done what Tel had done was more than limited. However, it still hit him occasionally, when Tel would let some sign of his feelings slip through his cheerful mask. He was clearly a tormented man.

Aleksi got to his feet. "A quick round, me with my staff you with your sword?"

Tel jumped, refocusing on Aleksi and giving him a smile. All signs of his previous mien gone. "Of course, just something light though. Lan's so good it's exhausting."

"Absolutely." Aleksi grabbed his staff and strode out into the ring. They both bowed to each other, at least there was no tension there.

Aleksi made the first move, leaping forward sweeping the tip of his staff towards Tel's head, before reversing the swing to attack his legs with the other end. Tel effortlessly leant out of the way before forcing Aleksi back with a flurry of blows. "Nice, but you'll have to be sneakier than that Aleksi!"

"You did ask me to go easy on you didn't you?"

"Ha!" Tel's sword flickered out, lightning fast, probing for openings in his defences.

As they settled into rhythm, circling, maneuvering and exchanging blows with each other, Aleksi sighed internally. Tel had proven he was trustworthy, he was probably the third most important single person to the forces of the Light and he made Taija happy after everything she'd gone through. Did usefulness absolve someone of their sins? Could good actions wash away someone's past? He ducked under a blow and jabbed out with his staff, hooking it behind one of Tel's ankles and nearly taking him off his feet.

"Oh very good!" Tel backed off and then seemed to somehow slide past Aleksi's whirling staff, slipping into his space and hooking an ankle with his foot before pushing him to the ground.

With a grunt Aleksi took Tel's extended hand and hauled himself back to his feet. "I still don't understand how you can move so fast."

"Decades upon decades of practice. Something for you to look forward to."

"Huh. I suppose I can." Tel was tolerated, but everyone who knew his secret kept their distance from him. He could see the pain it caused the man, but he could also see that Tel was never going to utter a word of complaint, even as it ground him down. Was forgiveness even possible? A normal life? Even if people did forgive him, did that mean they had to welcome him?

It was a conundrum. Ultimately he was no philosopher, leave that to people better suited for it. If Tel was doing his best, and he was, then that was a start. More importantly, he made Taija smile every day. If she had decided that Tel deserved to be not just tolerated, but welcomed, then maybe that should be enough for him too. He'd leave the moral conundrums to people who actually enjoyed them.

"So, Tel, how exactly did you start with learning the sword? I thought your time was meant to be peaceful with no fighting at all until the Bore?"

Perhaps he could learn something he could use for revenge on Taija too. He owed her for Melinn, in both senses of the word. Helping Taija's lover and finding some way to get back at her at the same time would be perfect.