As usual all speech in italics is in the Old Tongue.

Chapter XXVI - You were Loved and You Will be Remembered

Taija actually found herself relaxing a bit more as she spent longer in Falme. For once she actually had some free time as teaching the girls was only taking up a few hours a day, even with her actually doing it properly rather than sneaking time after everything else. Thankfully Moiraine had stopped coming and bothering her too. She felt a bit guilty about wasting time, but she also knew deep down that she needed a break. That was why, one day, she headed out from Falme for a long, solitary hike through the hills surrounding it. They weren't mountains, but they would do for now.

Her mind kept trying to go back to all the problems she faced, but Taija didn't let it. She was going to enjoy her surroundings and pretend, even if only for a few hours, that she wasn't in this Light-forsaken time. Quiet, solitude and nature. That was what she wanted and it was what she was getting. With the most relaxed smile she'd had in a while she paused to watch a particularly brightly coloured bird stalk through the grass, looking for insects to eat.

After a few hours out in the hills Taija was actually feeing happy and relaxed. Her day was just going so well. The area around Falme really was lovely and tensions she'd forgotten she had were draining away. Even the burn in her thighs as she hauled herself up a hill reminded her of better times.

That meant that when she saw a man making his own way towards her through the long grass Taija was actually in quite a good mood. He looked a bit too well dressed for a farmer, so he must be out on a hike enjoying the scenery just like she was. Even if she'd rather have been alone, she could hardly begrudge him that.

He was unusually tall. Dark haired and handsome and holding himself in a way that suggested he knew it. Taija didn't recognise him from Falme, although she couldn't see where else he might have come from. Either way, he hailed her with a wave and a hearty "hallo" and when he got closer and Taija reluctantly waved back.

It didn't take long for his course to intersect with hers and when it did, he gave her a once over that made her feel a bit uncomfortable. "A fine day for a walk, but it's certainly unusual to see a lady such as yourself out alone. This area has been so troubled recently, where do you hale from my lady?" His voice was cheerful, seeming to revel in the joy of meeting someone new.

"I'm coming from Falme," Taija replied, ever so slightly frostily. She didn't want to give him any ideas. "I'm just out to enjoy a beautiful day, like you?"

"Of course, beautiful isn't it? I do love this area." He grinned, but there was something just slightly off about him. "Tell me, does this beautiful lady have a name?"

"You can call me Naiza," it was the first name that sprang to mind, "and you?"

"Call me Jaen." Taija had embraced saidar when she first saw him, of course, her ability concealed by the ever present inverted web.

"Pleased to meet you," she lied.

"So have you been in the area long, I of course grew up…" Taija felt nothing, but something slammed into her connection with the Power. He was trying to shield her!

Taija didn't let her shock slow her down, she was already leaping away from him and spinning. He was a big man, staying in his reach would be a huge mistake.

Webs sprang into existence around her, fire burning at him, air slicing from the sides and a shield of her own battering at his connection to the Power. All were deflected, batted away like nothing.

Other than a small, satisfied smile, like he knew something she didn't, he barely reacted. He must have been strong, very strong, but she didn't recognise him. One of the Forsaken in disguise? It must be. That or maybe it was what Sammael really looked like, she'd never met the man after all.

It didn't matter, Taija could worry about the who later. For now, she had plenty of strength herself. With her angreal she'd be no easy prey for any of them. Taija spun all five elements together into a beautifully intricate and deadly web around him.

=====

Taija must have been fighting hard for at least twenty minutes. The hills around her were covered in scars, or in one or two cases were much shorter than they before. She could feel the strain, but she wasn't slowing down. Neither was he.

Diving to the side she spun, one, two, three, four webs sending shrieking tunnels fire spiraling outwards towards him, but he was already stepping through a gateway. It was like an almost forgotten dance. He'd step out over there and…

She was already moving, drawing fully through her angreal bringing lightning down from the sky. She didn't bother to invert her webs, he wouldn't be able to see them anyway. The lightning crashed into a shield above him with blinding flashes and she used the opportunity to dive through her own gateway spinning as she went. A web came together above her and hundreds of darts of air and fire slammed into the ground around him, covering it in a roiling wave fire. A big, dramatic web of earth and fire flew back through her gateway, but her real attacks came from a third, opened to her side, a bright bar of white hot fire blasting at him from an unexpected angle.

Taija winced when her cut flows snapped back into her, but there was no time to delay. There was no doubt now, the man was clearly one of the Forsaken. He was too strong and too skilled not to be. If not for her angreal, she would already have lost. He was strong, very strong and seemed to have an uncanny ability to see her best tricks coming, everything was anticipated and deflected. It was lucky she was so fast and had been able to hold him off in turn.

Taija spun a defensive sphere, feeling herself go flying inside it as her vision whited out. She was already spinning. Without thinking she deflected the lightning that struck from above her and sliced the web looping round behind her. If she was right he'd be stepping out of a gateway about... There.

Drawing hard on saidar Taija spun a gateway between her and where she suspected his next web would be coming from. His fire slashed through the gateway and back at him from behind even as Taija opened another two, sending fire through them and bringing a hammer of air down on him from above.

Only he'd opened his own gateway sending his attack back at her again. She dived aside, slicing and spinning webs as she went. She couldn't touch him, everything she did he seemed to anticipate. Equally her own skill meant he couldn't seem to land a blow on her either. They seemed to be evenly matched, so far she'd managed to dodge, slice, deflect or block everything he'd sent at her.

Beams of fire bisected where she stood, diverted by several of his gateways, but she'd already Traveled forming a trio of blossoms of fire around him. Without thinking Taija dived through another gateway just before the earth exploded where she was standing, was that frustration on his face? Perhaps he was struggling more than she'd thought.

Taija flung webs of air at his feet and spun earth, fire, spirit into a blinding flash that should blind him so that her next web, more darts of fire and air could slip through his defenses. Yet he shielded his eyes at just the right moment. How was he doing this?!

Absently she sliced more of his invisible webs coming at her from both front and back. Next would likely be lightning, a barrier of air above her blocked that. She needed to change the dynamic, fast. Taija drew all that she could from saidar and started to spin her webs.

White hot fire exploded swirling through the air around him and she was already flinging lightning and blades of air in a full on frontal attack. No subtlety Something she'd never normally do, but she had an angreal and she wanted to get a bit closer.

Stalking forward she kept up her onslaught. It seemed to have caught him by surprise at first, he was all frantic defence, cutting webs and diving aside from attacks. Then he Traveled and Taija opened her own gateway.

Yes! She had guessed right, stepping out behind him. Taija wasn't hesitating in her onslaught. She'd got him on the back foot, but he still seemed to have an uncanny ability to tell where the next attack was coming from. Now she was close enough though. She was hitting him with almost everything she had, but biting her lip with concentration, Taija spun one extra tiny web of razor sharp fire and spirit and slipped it through the storm of light and Power between them.

A quick cut and his appearance rippled. She'd been right, he was in disguise!

"That won't save you!" His tone was grim determination and he launched his own onslaught. Taija was immediately on the backfoot, blinded by the explosions around her, slicing webs, deflecting beams of fire and simply stopping other attacks dead with walls of saidar. She could feel herself tiring, she wasn't built for going head to head with someone like him.

If she couldn't fight toe to toe she needed to move. Taija spun a gateway, still furiously fending off his webs and stepped through it, giving herself distance and moving off to his left. Already she was spinning her own attacks as he turned to face her.

Intricate webs of earth, water and fire circled around a core of spirit formed. Then. for the first time, Taija really saw his face and the webs were gone fading into the air around her. "Tel?" Her voice was a whisper.

Taija stared, stunned beyond speech, almost beyond thought. Saidar almost slipped away from her, the flow reduced from a torrent to a trickle. Louder she shouted, "Tel?" She took a hesitant step forward.

It was him, but it couldn't be him. It made no sense. It was like she was in a dream, everything seemed to be in slow motion. He'd got a scar across his face, but it was a face that was etched into Taija's mind, one she saw every night as she closed her eyes to sleep.

Taija felt a shield push between her and her trickling connection to the Power, she tried to draw harder on it, but it was too late. With a deadly finality the shield slid into place, cutting her off.

She didn't understand, it couldn't be someone else, but he couldn't be there. He'd been dead for millennia. He was gone. She broke his illusion though, it couldn't be a web.

He looked furious, stalking towards her. Cold eyes looking down at Taija as she stared up at him, desperately trying to hold the tears in.

An invisible fist closed around her and Taija felt yourself be lifted into the air. "Did you really think you could fool me? With this?" He gestured angrily in her direction.

The web of air lifting her was painful, but not as painful as contempt in his voice. And it was definitely his voice. "Tel, please! It's me!"

"Stop! Stop using her voice! Stop calling me that!" Rage twisted his horribly scarred face, then he smiled cruelly. "Let's see who you really are."

There was a pause and nothing happened. "Tel, it's me," she said, her voice breaking.

At his name he looked even angrier. He paused again, Taija was fairly sure he was trying to slice any web of illusion over her.

Confusion was replacing anger on his face. "Taija? You can't be. You're dead." The web of air lowered her to the ground but still held her. "It can't be, you can't be alive. You died in… You died…"

Hope blossomed in Taija's heart. If she survived, maybe he did too. Maybe he'd found a way! Maybe she wasn't, didn't have to be, alone after all! "It's me Tel, it really is me." She thought for a second. "The last night we spent together. I asked you to marry me. No, I told you I was going to marry you. No one else knows that. How could they?"

"Oh Lord it is you. How though? How are you alive? It's been 3,000 years and you're not…" Tel looked utterly stunned.

"A stasis box! There was one in the town hall, something happened and I'm here! I've been… it's been so difficult…" she tried to hold herself together she didn't want to ruin this… this miracle by breaking down, but tears were already flowing down her cheeks. "I thought you were dead. I I I just… how about you, what happened to you? Was it a stasis box too?" Taija barely noticed that the shield and web of air around her were still there.

The confusion slowly faded from his face and a little spark of fear ignited inside her. "You have to understand Taija, after you died…" There was none of the gentleness she remembered in his voice. "Lews Therin, the War… They just wouldn't work together. After you died nothing was the same and we were losing, oh Lord we were losing."

"Tel, I don't understand, what do you mean?" No. No no no no.

He trailed to a halt, shaking his head despair warring with anger on his face. "Taija, I…" He stopped and suddenly a gateway sprang open beside him.

A step and he was gone. As the gateway closed the webs shielding and holding Taija faded and she sunk to her knees staring at the burnt ground, mind completely numb.

Taija didn't know how long she'd have stayed there, on her knees, if she hadn't heard the mocking applause start from behind her.

"Well that was utterly delightful, I must say!"

She looked up through watery eyes to see the person she least wanted to see at that moment, "Mierin?"

She smiled at Taija, coming to stand next to her, an ostensibly comforting hand on her shoulder. "That must have been quite difficult for you, and dear Tel of course, but I did not quite get everything I wanted from it."

Taija gathered herself, preparing to strike. She was tired, but she had an angreal, Mierin might not know about it.

Mierin gave Taija's shoulder a little squeeze, "he can be quite an annoying man sometimes, but you know I've spent a lot more time with Tel than you have recently." Taija franticly shook her head in denial. "Of course we don't call him that anymore."

"No," she begged, already knowing. "Please!"

Mierin squeezed her shoulder again a happy almost giggle in her voice, "now we call him Sammael."

With a scream of rage Taija drew every ounce of Power that she could, if not for the angreal's buffer she'd have burnt herself out in a flash, the air around her transforming to blinding, white-hot fire in an instant. But Mierin was already gone.

=======

Taija didn't know how long she knelt there, staring blankly at the circle of earth fused into glass around her, but eventually the silence was broken when she heard hoofbeats and voices approaching.

She couldn't talk to anyone. She couldn't deal with this. Taija got to her feet, briefly meeting Moiraine and Aleksi's eyes as they rode towards her at a canter at the head of a large group. With a thought she bent reality into a gateway and stepped out into forest, vaguely remembered from her first weeks in this nightmareish time. Uninhabited. Far from any village.

Anger, despair, frustration, misery, rage were tumbling through her, an uncontrollable mass of feelings that overwhelmed her, yet couldn't even start to fill the hole inside her. She needed to let it out, she wanted the world to be gone, to punish it for what it had done to her.

Saidar flooded through Taija and straight out again. She didn't bother with complex webs, just simple devastation blasting outwards. Trees flashed into roaring infernos. blades of air sliced through metre thick trunks like they weren't even there. The very ground rose up to swallow and crush centuries old trees.

Taija let her absolute incandescent fury at the world out in a paroxysm of unrestrained destruction.

It didn't last forever, channeling that amount of the Power was exhausting and after a while the rage she was blasting out of her was overwhelmed by the despair that stayed sitting in her belly. As the webs faded away Taija was panting for breath and her throat felt raw from screaming.

Looking around her, all there was as far as the eye could see was destruction. Not a tree was left standing. In some places fire still burnt, but other than the crackles of the flames the only thing Taija could hear was the harsh sound of her own breath.

Anger drained away. She needed to get out of there. She needed to get out of this Light-forsaken time. Why couldn't she be home? Curled in a ball in Te... She choked off a sob. All she wanted to do was to forget and never have to think again.

Taija spun saidar and the gateway opened in front of her. A second later she was stepping out into Falme.

She walked numbly through the streets, barely noticing people snapping angrily at her when she walked straight through them.

She was in an unfamiliar part of the town when she saw what she wanted. Somewhere to help her forget.

The dingy frontage of the inn called to her and it was promising oblivion. Exactly what she needed. Taija turned into it, ignoring the growl of a roughly dressed man who almost tripped over her.

When she walked in, all conversation ceased for a few seconds. The common room's occupants were, other than a couple of serving girls showing a lot of cleavage, all roughly dressed men, many scarred, all armed. She didn't care.

Barely aware of her surroundings, Taija went up to the bar and looked at the innkeeper through bleary eyes. "Wine, just keep it coming." She put a gold crown down on the counter.

He glanced down at the coin and back at her, conscience warring with greed. "My lady, perhaps this…"

Taija put another gold coin down. "Wine."

Greed won. The innkeeper shrugged behind her, but she'd already turned to head for an empty table at the back of the room, not seeing him make the coins vanish before gesturing at one of the serving girls.

By the time Taija had sat herself down with her back to the wall the girl was already bringing her a full goblet of wine.

As soon she'd put it down on the table, Taija picked it up and downed it. It was terrible. It was what she wanted. "Another." The girl glanced at Taija and back at the innkeeper before heading to get her another.

Gradually conversation resumed across the common room. Low whispers between groups of men, glances shot her way. Confusion turning to avarice.

Taija didn't notice, staring into the distance, eyes unseeing as she tried hard not to think.

She was waiting for her third goblet when the first two men made their move. Dressed in rough, brown jerkins they stood up and swaggered over to her table, daggers on their belts and alcohol on their breath.

The larger of the two put his hands on the table and leaned over Taija while the other pulled up a seat at the table beside her. Slowly she looked up to meet the eyes of the man looming over her.

He was a tall man, his lip curled back by a scar from a knife fight, dirty dark hair trailing down his back. "You look a bit too high class for a place like this milady." His tone belayed the title, "I'm thinking a pretty little thing like you might want to do something for us, for protection like."

Taija blinked a couple of times. Was he threatening her? "Fuck. Off."

He didn't understand the words, but her tone was clear enough. His face darkened and he sneered down at her. "You can pay with money or you can pay with your body, but you're gonna pay one way or another."

His friend, a dank looking man with piggy eyes leaned over and grabbed Taija's arm hard enough to bruise, "don't worry love, we'll show you a good time."

Taija looked blankly down at his hand on her arm for a second, the pain just an irrelevant sensation in the back of her head. Saidar flowed through her and with a loud crack the man's arm snapped and bent back, the movement tearing his fingers from Taija as it was ripped backwards.

There was a moment of stunned silence and then the smaller man started to scream. The man looming over her grabbed for his dagger. Taija channelled. Air slammed them both backwards across the room, hitting walls with a firm thunk. One was silent, unconscious or dead she didn't care, the other was screaming.

Hard, rough men exchanged glances and then the whole common room descended into chaos as shouting men scrambled for the exit.

It took a second for the ruckus to penetrate Taija's rapidly increasing alcoholic haze, but this wasn't what she wanted. Couldn't this Light-forsaken world just leave her in peace for even a measly few minutes?! She didn't realise she'd stood until she was screaming, "will you all shut up and give me some peace!"

Air wrapped around an empty table in the middle of the room flinging it into the air. It slammed into the ceiling as she momentarily lost control of its ascent and then she crushed it into a ball.

Taija sank back into her seat as the inn descended into silence. Ashen faced men sitting back down wherever they could find a seat, suddenly trying very hard not to be noticed.

She gestured at the serving girl. "Another."