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A Pound of Flesh The Grey Tower, Novice Wing, Night – A darkened, unused corridor The halls were very dark, and a thunderstorm could be heard outside as it echoed through the walls of the Grey Tower. Muted, muffled voices were nearly drowned out by the raging winds and claps of thunder outside. Shadows danced on a wall, two forms in an obvious struggle. A sickening thuck resounded through the open area, followed by a stifled cry and a gasp. A knife cluttered to the ground and into view, the blade splattering a deep crimson upon the stone floors of the Tower. Noa Nyskovos’ eyes went wide with shock and horror. How could this have happened? What went so terribly wrong that Novice Terra, one of the most promising Novices in the Tower, had fallen before her in this way? Part of her wanted to run far away from this area and never come back. Part of her wanted to ease the dying girl’s suffering and finish the job. All she had to do was pick up that knife and slit her throat. Another part of her wanted so badly to take back the last few moments and start anew, but none of those were realistic options… I want a better life for myself and those around me, and if I could change one event, I’d stop everything that went wrong for House Caspian. That one event would be the day that the man named Arturos came knocking on the door of our Manor. Maybe then I would not be where I am, with a storm brewing in the distance… 25 Years Ago, Saldea, The Caspian Estate A nine year old Noa was up in her rooms, reading one of her favorite books. Her mother and father had brought it home from town a few years back, having purchased it from a merchant on a street corner. For a book in a peddler’s wagon on a busy street corner, the book was in remarkable shape; or at least it had been before Noa had read through it at least a dozen times. It was a copy of Jayne Farstrider’s Travels, and Noa’s favorite section was the account of Shara. It was such an unorthodox place, and the young Caspian girl dreamed of one day going off on an adventure there herself. There was a very strange feeling in the air, and Noa looked up at her brother Stephyn. “There’s a storm coming again, Stephyn. I can feel it.” “My little Noa, somehow you always seem to call for rain hours before the clouds gather. You know that you aren’t always right. Sometimes you call wolf when there will be no wolf to run from. The day is bright and the sun is high. I foresee a peaceful spring day!” The black haired teen had a twinkle in his emerald eyes, and Noa could not help but stick her tongue out at him playfully in return. “Wise up, both of you. Ma and Da say that we need to be ready to go, Stephyn. Are your bags packed yet for the trip?” Daivon sat on his own, his raven-coloured hair and face a mirror image of Stephyn’s, but with eyes an icy blue. The only way anyone could tell them apart without knowing their personalities was in those eyes. Stephyn’s were rich with light hearted laughter and joy. Daivon had always been the cold, calculating one. A knock sounded on the door, and the three children rushed down the stairs to see who it was. They were all curious about this man that Daddy had met on a business trip, this man that said he knew things about the twins. Many people were still afraid. The Taint on the male half of the source had only recently been cleansed. While it happened when even Daddy was young and at the newly erected Black Tower, not many people were willing to give up 3,000 years of fear. Master Davrom Caspian had made it to the rank of Asha’man, but had given up his life as a weapon of the Dragon when he met the young Saldean woman named Noriko when she was traveling through Andor. The two fled to Ghealdan and started their life together, but moved back to Noriko’s homeland long before Noa was born. She had been named after her mother. Daivon had been named after their father, and Stephyn, the eldest by an hour, had been named after Davrom’s father, a man Noa never had the pleasure to meet. When the children reached the foot of the stairs, they ran up to the door as one. Stephyn opened the door to the man that stood outside. “Good day to the three of you.” The man named Artyr Valtorro was a short, stocky fellow of Cairhienen descent. He stood there with deep, brown eyes that spoke of years of hardship and a Dark One may care smile. The storm that Noa had felt earlier was so strong now that it should have been upon them. Something was not right, and as a typical child might, she immediately figured it to be this man before her. She shied away from him and back inside as Daddy and Artyr began to speak business with the boys. But that doesn’t stop everything. Too bad I can’t go back to stop my father from ever becoming involved with Arturos. Maybe if I knew how to stop that cataclysmic event, my life wouldn’t have been ruined from the age of 14 on… 5 years later Noa, now in her teens, was locked in a room, tied and shackled to a bed. She was dressed, but barely. Unspeakable acts seemed a nightly occurrence, but the days all blurred together anymore with no windows in her prison. The door opened and Arturos stepped in. Noa screamed. Things no woman should ever deal with happened at the hands of a Dreadlord. I wish that they never had to, but if this was the will of the Wheel, I wish that Arturos had put me under Compulsion as he had so many others. Instead, I imagined they happened to someone else and that I was still safe at home at Caspian Manor. 3 days ago “Noa, I no do mean to cause alarm, but I do be needing to have words with ye.” Novice Terra, a Novice whom Noa met in her Basic Healing class, had a dodging look about her, as if she had been looking over her shoulder for weeks. “I think there do be something that I need to discuss with you.” Worry consumed Noa Nyskovos. “Are you ok, Terra? What’s got you so nervous?” “Just meet me tomorrow in the unused halls. I do be needing to finish a thing or two prior to our talk. You will be there, right? Noa stared at her friend questioningly. After a moment’s hesitation she found her voice. “Yes, of course. Where exactly in the unused halls? And what is this about?” I did not understand. Why did Terra want to meet me there? Had I known how the night would continue, I would have talked her out of it. I would have brought someone else along. I would have put a stop to the pain brought into our lives and the inquisition that followed. Last Night The storm was raging at high intensity now, and Noa was sure she was running late. She would have run, but something in the air told her that was a bad idea. Instead, she crept through the halls. Not more than 20 paces later, she heard muffled voices and what sounded like a heated argument. Noa snuck up to the corner, embraced saidar, and peered around. “You could have been a powerful Life Ender. You acted like you were on board the other night, and now I see you hiding in the halls like a traitor?!?” Maat Ong’taar was nearly shouting. Had his eyes been arrows, they would have shot straight through Terra to claim her life. “I no could ever join your kind! I do no love the Shadow, Turpis!” Maat swooped in quickly to her, threw her against a wall, and placed a finger to her lips. In a very irritated voice, he whispered in her ear. From Noa’s standpoint and still holding the source, she barely made out the words. “Where did you get that name?” “You no do keep secrets very well, Master Fidens. Maybe you ought no trust the wrong people.” Annoyance now filled the visage of the liveried servant for the Brown Halls. He eased off of Terra, and she knocked him off of her as she started to brush herself off. His moves became erratic, as if he was unsure whether to run or stay a bit longer. Suddenly and without warning he jumped at her again, knocking her head into the wall as he did so. “No more games, Child!” Noa heard a sickening sound and barely noticed that a blade had gleamed in the light at about the same time. The move was so fast that Noa could do nothing but watch. Maat darted off into an adjacent hallway, leaving Terra to slump down the wall. Noa was frozen, and the Source left her body then as she fell to her knees, tears in her eyes. Terra’s hands were trembling, but she pulled at the knife wedged into her left breast. It took two tugs to get the entire thing out of her, and she let it fall to the floor. It clattered across the hall, blood splashing off of it as it sailed a few feet away. Where it had been, dark crimson spread out like a disease upon Terra’s Novice White. She coughed and choked, and blood splattered out of her mouth and into a trembling hand. The girl was crying. Noa finally found her voice and screamed, but it was too late. Maat Ong’taar was long gone, and she was sure that Terra had one foot in the grave already. Her breathing was labored, and she slowly started to shut her eyes… Without thought, Noa approached Terra. She had embraced the one power once more and ran the rest of the way to her friend. She wove the weave for a traditional delving and then began pulling in threads of Spirit, Air, and Water to work a Healing weave. She was still screaming out for help as she settled the weaves down upon the other Novice. With a last burst of strength, Terra grasped Noa’s arm. “Quick…before the blood…ruins it. A note tucked…in my blouse.” She tightened her grip a moment, and then her whole body went rigid for a brief moment. Terra gave up the fight for her life, and her body slumped there in the hallway. Tears were streaming down Noa’s face, and she entered a state of hysteria. Her closest friend in the Grey Tower had died before her eyes, and she had barely done a thing to prevent it. Trembling hands managed to dig into the girl’s clothes, and she pulled out a folded note. Opening it, still shaking and unnerved by the events unfolding before her, she took a look at the page. Upon it were six names. The tears made her eyes so blurry she couldn’t read correctly, and the blood that had soaked into the document didn’t help. Yet the two words at the top of the page were very clear. Black Ajah. Noa folded the paper and put it away in her own dress as Terra had done, then she clutched Terra’s dead body to her chest and shrieked at the top of her lungs. Footsteps sounded down the halls, and then shouts. Noa didn’t register any of it. All she could do was howl out in anguish and agony before she blacked out, her senses overloaded… I did nothing. I could have saved her, but I did nothing. Present. Day, MoN’s Study “Don’t you see, Serrah Sedai? I stood there and did nothing. My friend is dead because I did not act! Now this Maat Ong’taar, or Turpis Fidens, or whatever his real name is, he’s out there with others. There are those that said they saw him flee, but they did not know about what he did to Terra. No one stopped him. The Black Ajah, and other Dark Friends, have planted themselves in the Grey Tower. The only connection we had to them is gone, and this note was ruined by Terra’s own blood. We have nothing but a name, and he’s long gone.” |
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