As usual all speech in italics is in the Old Tongue.
Chapter XCVII - The Unstained Tower, Broken (Part 1)
Taija and Tel didn't meet anyone else until they were close to your first destination. There two aes sedai stood guard in front of a doorway, saidar filling them. Taija spun fire, overwhelming power shoved into it to force through any attempt at stopping her and they both exploded into guttering torches. A web of air threw them out of the way and Taija was at the door. Tel at her back.
Her eyes told her the room was heavily warded. Careful probing with spirit revealed that there were also more inverted wards. An obvious trap for the experienced, deadly for the unwary. She could already tell they were going to be a complex nightmare. If only she had a proper specialist with her. Tel was better at making them, she was better at breaking them, but neither of them was a true master. With a sigh Taija focused. Tel would guard her back.
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It took less than thirty seconds for all of them to dash through the gateway and reestablish themselves on another part of the Dragonmount. Excellent. Nynaeve gave the men and women a nod of approval and then resumed her watch over Tar Valon and the White Tower, saidin and saidar from the circle a mere trickle through her, their clothing blending into the mountainside.
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The clatter of armoured feet told Tel more people were on their way before they came into sight. He spun a small gateway to his side so that it opened against the wall ahead of him, effectively looking round the corner towards the approaching soldiers. Two aes sedai were at their head.
He drew on the full power of his angreal and focused the Power into a beam of fire straight through the gateway, sweeping it across the oncoming enemies. Much too easy.
With that threat disposed of, he took a moment to glance down at Taija who'd sat down on the stone floor, utterly focused on her task, her tongue slightly stuck out in concentration. These must be some truly difficult wards, normally she'd have just torn them down by now.
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Taija was vaguely aware of Tel dispatching a couple more groups over the next few minutes and then she had it! The wards crumbled away beneath her webs. Not made by a true expert fortunately or she'd have had no chance. Just a talented amateur. It had probably helped that they most likely still needed regular access to the room too. That would have put limits on how difficult they could make the wards.
She sprung to her feet, "I'm through!" Tel gave her a nod and resumed his vigil as Taija blasted the door down. The room was emptier than she'd expected, but there they were. Elaborate display cases sat on shelves around her, each containing an object cradled in colourful velvet behind a glass door. In some a statuette, in others jewellery, in every case of the highest quality. There were only twenty or so, but it was enough.
Without further thought Taija spun a gateway and split her flows grabbing cases and flinging them through the gateway, uncaring of the sound of breaking glass as they landed on the other side. In seconds she'd emptied the room and was back outside.
"Done?" Tel gave her a grin.
She smiled back as relaxed as she could be in the circumstances. "And dusted! Next room!"
Suddenly Taija felt a burst of saidar somewhere above her as someone drew a truly ridiculous amount of the Power. Many multiples more than she could with her angreal. Enough to crush her, Tel and Rand like bugs even if they were working together.
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Mesaana strode down the corridor, Vora's Sa'angreal in hand, the wand shining too brightly to look at directly. As far as she could tell from the confused reports, one of the men, presumably either Lews Therin or Tel Janin, was wreaking havoc in the Tower while the others were going for the stores below. She would head for the stores first, that must be the primary target, but if she was fortunate enough to encounter the man up here then that problem could be dealt with en route. Fucking idiots didn't know what they were dealing with.
Suddenly she felt a flash of saidar, seemingly distant, off towards Dragonmount.
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There. Nynaeve felt the moment that someone drew on saidar through a sa'angreal. Even from the side of the Dragonmount miles away she could point straight at them. She immediately drew fully on the Power, every ounce available to her from 72 men and women and Callandor, coming together.
She spun fire most of all, but combined with smaller amounts of all the other elements, a web Taija had shown her. Air to protect her and the others from the backblast and the rest in a complex band shooting outwards. The air itself seemed to catch fire around the flows and a bar of fire so hot it was beyond blue and into white two spans across leapt out from in front of her. It was so fast that it seemed to simply draw an utterly straight line between her and that beacon of saidar, connecting them in a fraction of a second. She was too far away to see its effects, not that it mattered. She felt saidar vanish from whoever she had targeted, but she was already moving, spinning another gateway. Taija had said, take one shot and then move. Whether you think you've hit them or not, because if you missed the next shot would be theirs on you and they wouldn't miss.
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Alviarin was running to catch up with Mesaana, she had missed her in her rooms, but she could feel the huge amount of saidar flowing through the woman and so she knew she was getting close. She could have felt it from miles away. In fact, for a moment she thought she did feel another burst of the Power from somewhere far away...
Then she screamed as somewhere ahead of her something… something blinding punched its way straight through the Tower. Right where she'd thought Mesaana was.
It took a couple of minutes for the after-image to fade from Alviarin's vision, but when she was finally able to stagger forward, her face red and burnt from the heat, all she found was a hole, edges melted into smoothness. Carefully leaning out into it and looking left and right she saw a tunnel, perhaps two or three spans wide, had been punched straight through the Tower. In one side and out the other. Had Mesaana been there? If she had… It was a disaster for the Shadow, but perhaps more of an opportunity for Alviarin.
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As Taija was jogging with Tel to the next room she felt the ground shake and the beacon of saidar above them vanish. She allowed herself a small smile. Hopefully that was another one of the Forsaken dead. If not, well she might be stupid enough to light herself up again, in which case Nynaeve would take another shot.
It didn't take them long to reach the next room, this one unguarded. Presumably because the guards had already come and tried to attack Tel while she'd been working. Once again it was heavily warded and so Taija sat down in front of the door once more and got to work.
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The moment he'd felt Nynaeve bring down the anti-Traveling wards Rand had spun a gateway, emerging in a courtyard outside the Tower proper. Nothing was completely safe in combat, but Nynaeve knew to only attack if the target was in the Tower itself. If someone with a sa'angreal made it out of the Tower then he would flee immediately. Anything else wasn't worth the risk and the Hall had already demonstrated their ability to hit the Tower if they wanted to, a key secondary objective.
He was already moving, spinning a multitude of webs. Members of the Tower guard dotted the walls. He grabbed them with air and flung them off. Two aes sedai were staring at him wide eyed, until he spun earth and fire into the flagstones under their feet sending their broken bodies tumbling. His largest web though was almost pure fire, with just a little air mixed in, directed at the gates separating this courtyard from another. With a whoomph they exploded, sending stone and shards of wood flying into the sky.
Rand didn't wait to see the results, he was already Traveling, relocating himself to the walls and spinning more attacks on the people below him.
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Erinea wove air, flinging Choane's warder across the garden where he hit a stone pedastal with a sickening crunch. The light of saidar had vanished from Choane and judging by the amount of blood visible on Logain as he slowly climbed off her she was not going to be getting back up. She glanced back at Logain's erstwhile guard. Neither was Lorase. She put them out of her mind, she could have a breakdown later.
Logain was panting for breath, his haggard, sunken eyes meeting hers, bloody knife clutched in his hand. She needed to decide what to do with him.
"She was Black Ajah?" Logain gasped the words out.
For a brief moment she thought about deflecting the question, then dismissed the long-standing instinct as idiocy. There was hardly anyone left in the Tower that she could trust not to be a darkfriend. Ridiculous that this gentled false dragon was one, yet he had saved her life. He deserved honesty. "Yes. The Tower is lost, they have taken over. We will gather the people I know are reliable and make our escape," best not to mention she meant the Amyrlin. "Can you fight?"
He hesitated and then straightened up, the change in posture transforming him somehow so that he suddenly looked less like a wreck, more noble. Although the sad sense loss in his eyes remained. "I can fight."
"Very well. Take his sword," she gestured at the broken form of Choane's warder, trying not to look directly at him. "We need to move fast. Unless I tell you otherwise, assume that anyone we meet is a darkfriend, do not hesitate to strike because they surely will not." Poor Lorase…
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"We move for the dungeons. Stay to my sides and guard my back. Anyone who gets in front of us I will deal with. Remember, every hand in the Tower is against us." Elaida glanced at the two boys who stood with their swords drawn. She hoped they were as good as they seemed to think they were.
Together they stalked through the corridors of the White Tower. Familiar tapestried stone passages now the home of the enemy.
Suddenly she stopped, holding up a hand. Saidar had just exploded like a beacon from somewhere below them. A sa'angreal? It must be. Had the Black Ajah raided the stores? It would be logical, but why would they do it now? Was the Tower under attack? Was that why it had shaken. She did not know and regardless, there was nothing she could do against someone with a sa'angreal. No matter, they would just have to be careful, there was no point in staying where they were and waiting to die.
She was about to continue stalking forward when she felt a brief flash of saidar in the distance, followed immediately by a blinding light through one of the windows. Then, with a deafening crash, the whole Tower seemed to rock. All three of them kept their balance, but it was a struggle not to stumble. What had that been? Both sources of saidar were gone now. One thing was clear, the Tower must truly be under attack. Had Siuan launched an attempt at taking it back?
It did not matter, she would use any opportunity she could, the chaos might be to her advantage.
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Erinea and Logain crept through the Tower, working their way up towards Elaida's offices. She tried not to glance nervously back at him. At least he was no darkfriend, but she was very conscious of his presence behind her and the sword he carried. How vulnerable she was to a false dragon who had every reason to hate aes sedai like her.
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A hammer blow of air descended on Rand. He spun a gateway, diving through it and pulling lightning out of the sky straight into the circle of aes sedai that had emerged. A shield was pushed at him and he sliced it before sending a stream of explosive darts of fire back after it. It seemed the White Tower was starting to bring together some proper opposition. Sooner or later it would be time for him to leave, but his deadline hadn't arrived yet and Taija and Tel would still need every eye drawn away from the Tower's basements. He spun saidin and flung out a web of thin red lines which sliced straight through a contingent of Tower guard.
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The wards on the second room were even tougher than on the first. Taija could feel sweat trickling down her face as she carefully worked flows into the cracks in them. Tel was standing behind her, a silently steady and reassuring presence, he knew enough not to pace back and forth while she was doing this.
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Elaida's careful descent of the Tower came to a halt when she reached what seemed to be a huge tunnel carved straight through the Tower. What in the Light could have caused that? She was so shocked she almost missed a familiar woman in a white dress standing at the edge of it the light of saidar around her and some kind of weave probing into the hole.
Elaida or one of the boys must have made some noise though because before she could do anything Alviarin smoothly turned to face them, her eyes widening slightly in surprise. Oddly her face was red as if she had been burnt.
"Mother. You should be in your rooms, it is too dangerous to be wandering around the Tower." Alviarin's eyes took in the boys behind Elaida too.
"Alviarin, I did not expect to see you here. I must know, what is going on. Is the Tower under attack? It must be defended." Both women held saidar right at their limits.
"Yes mother, it must be…" Alviarin struck, some kind of weave of spirit and fire that Elaida did not recognise.
Sadly predictable. They had both known this was coming as soon as they saw each other. She sliced Alviarin's weave and retaliated with her own. A shield to push into Alviarin's connection to saidar and two weaves of air to batter her.
Suddenly the air between them was filled with weaves as they both lashed out, trying to find holes in their opponent's defences. The two boys behind Elaida tensed, but had no way of realising what was going on.
"So you have finally decided to open your eyes, Mother." Alviarin put a sarcastic intonation on the title. "You left it rather late did you not?"
Elaida did not bother replying. This was a fight to the death, not a time for witty banter. Her weaves grappling with Alviarin's, she suddenly threw herself to the side to dodge a nasty looking weave that she did not recognise. No doubt some perversion of the Black Ajah. Nevertheless, she could not afford to stand and duel with Alviarin, time was short. She was surrounded by enemies.
Elaida wove fire, big and dramatic, throwing the glowing ball at Alviarin with a gesture, a smaller weave of air concealed just behind it. Alviarin sliced the first weave with a look of triumph that was wiped off her face as the second slammed into her stomach. Elaida did not wait for her to recover, she was already weaving more attacks, fire and air spiraling down the corridor and into Alviarin. The woman vanished thrown backwards and burning into the hole drilled through the Tower.
Saidar at the ready, Elaida moved forward to look down the hole. There she was, Alviarin's lay contorted, clearly dead, lay a couple of floors down. That had been easier than she had expected. Then again, unlike her erstwhile keeper, she was Red Ajah, trained in how to fight other channelers rather than pontificating about logic.