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Tidral's Raising First Arch: Tidral stepped through the arch and heard the words echo in his mind, "remember, the way back comes but once." It seemed odd to be hearing those words, but then, there had been a lot of odd things happening lately. He shrugged and continued walking towards the docks, where he would be salvaging the entire cargo of a ship that sank the night before. The storm had come up suddenly, just at a crucial point in an argument he had been having with some of the other dock workers over a salvage they had been doing. It seemed that he lost his temper far more easily these days and constantly lived on edge, and these arguments had been happening more and more regularly, often bordering on violence. Last night ahd been no exception, but just as the situation seemed to be worsening for Tidral, just as the anger and fear were mounting in ever greater quantities, the sky suddenly grew black. Thunder crashed through the sudden darkness and lightning ripped through a roiling sea of thick, black clouds overhead. The men on the dock fled in terror as giant hailstones pelted the dock. Tidral felt strangely detached from it all as the great chunks of ice falling from the sky landed all around him, never once coming close enough to touch him. He walked from the docks alone, and later that night collapsed inside h! is house with a raging fever and the shakes. But this morning he felt fine again and was ready to seek the cargo of a ship sunk in the fury of last night's seas. As he stood on the edge of the dock and prepared to dive, he heard the first sounds of men's voices behind him, coming ever closer. As he turned, he saw the men from the dock the previous night striding towards him carrying weapons and backed up by more of the men from the city. Tidral knew that this meant trouble and immediately began searching for some way out of his predicament, but he had not yet had any ideas when suddenly the men reached the foot of the dock and stopped. One man walked forward and shouted, "You tried to kill us all last night, you and your filthy channeling. You'll go mad and destroy the city, but we've come to put an end to you, witch!" The other men screamed and gestured at Tidral as well, and as one the mob began to advance on him. Tidral did the only fdeasible thingin that moment, he jumped into the sea. Once in the water, Tidral dove down deep, thinking. He had learned long ago that he had a strange ability to stay under the water for as long as he wanted, and this time he intended to put that ability to good use, waiting out the angry mob above. What was going on with him? He didn't know, but again the words echoed in his mind, the way back will come but once. Suddenly he saw a flash of silver in the corner of his eye and turning he saw a shimmering silver arch hanging in the water under the dock. Instinctively, he moved toward it and swam into its soft glow, emerging gasping from the other side.
Second Arch: Tidral entered the arch and felt a twinge of fear before realizing that he was in a garden, not unlike the many he had visited in the Grey Tower. The grey tower? He had never been there, and yet he felt like he knew the place well. "The way back will come but once." He seemed to hear the words in his head, but he didn't remember ever having heard them before. Oh well, he returned to cultivating the herbs that seemed to grow so easily in his garden. Somehow the herbs and flowers he planted in the soil by his house grew easily, almost without care and he could sell them for an excellent price to the passing merchants. Sometimes he seemed to get the feeling that he was supposed to do more than merely grow herbs, but he felt so happy, so at peace in his garden that surely there was nothing more to life than this. "Tidral!" the voice of his beautiful wife drifted out of the open windows of the house. Tidral had loved Kira from the moment he first met her and would do anything for her, yet he took his time standing up and brushing his hands off before turning to go towards the house. "Tidral!" Kira called again, this time with a note of urgency in her voice. He walked more quickly to the house and had reached the door when a shriek cut through the calm morning air, "Tidral!" He raced into the house and saw two men carrying Kira out the other door and off towards the woods. He ran after them but once in the woods, he could find no trace of them. "Kira!" he called frantically, as he searched for some sign of the groups passing. "Kira! Where are you?!" Suddenly to his left he saw a shimmering in the trees as a silver arch rose above the forest. "The way back will come but once." Tidral moved toward the arch but thought of Kira and reluctantly turned around once more. "Kira!" He searched frantically. "The way back will come but once" Tidral turned, tears streaming down his face and ran towards the arch, throwing himself into the soft silver glow. Third Arch: Tidral stepped through the arch for the last time and emerged in the Maule. He was dressed in black with a sliver sword on one collar of his coat and a gold dragin on the other. Near him, another Asha'man and two Aes Sedai struggled to keep their horses under control as they faced a horde of armed and armored men bocking their access to the next street. Tidral looked into the faces of the group of darkfriends and jeered, "What were you given to sell your souls to the shadow? What promises could the Dark Lord possibly make to convince you that it was worth giving up all hope of the Light?" The men merely looked, saying nothing and two of them stepped forward, dragging a third figure between them. The bound and gagged figure of a woman looked up at hime suddenly and he jerked in surprise. "Mother!" He shouted. "Whathave you done to her? How is it that she is here?" Again the men merely stared at him, as one of the two securing his mother drew a whip from his belt and slashed it hard on her shoulders. Tidral took an involuntary step forward and felt a hand touch his shoulder. He looked back to see the other Asha'man looking at him with one eyebrow raised quizzically. He turned back and shouted, "Let her go!" In response the whip rose and descended once more. Tidral raised his hand and the power coursed through him as he channeled. A chunk of ice shot from his palm and smashed into the chest of the man with the whip. The man fell without a sound and the mass of men rushed forward, weapons raised. The four channelers fought back as best as they could, but they were badly outnumbered. One of the Aes Sedai fell, struck from her saddle by a stray arrow and Tidral urged his horse to press through the mass of men, trying desparately to reach his mother. The other Asha'man fell and the last sister was forced slowly bacl. Suddenly the crowd thinned a little and Tidral found himself looking down at his mother. Across the square, a shimmering of silver began to appear and the words echoed through his head, "the way back comes but once." Tidral screamed in fury and knelt next to his mother. "Tidral," she whispered. "It's been so long since the fire. I didn't know if you were alive. Your father died getting me out, and the men were outside waiting for us. I've lived in fear of them or so long." She sobbed and Tidral glanced over his shoulder to see the solid figure of a silver arch across the square. "No," he thought, "I can't leave her." The arch wavered for a second and he heard again, "the way back comes but once." He screamed again in fury and loss and sorrow and jumped to his feet, racing across the square. He heard his mother scream his name behind him as he jumped through the arch, tears streaming down his face. |
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