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The Final Ripple
While Sagone watched the great wall of Fire ... which he had so elaborately prepared with multiple weaves criss-crossing each other ... scream away from his outstretched hand, he came to realise that the woman did exactly what he did not want her to do. Instead of saving the skin of all her Warders and the Trainees, she held her ground and concentrated on the Shield which threatened to sever his connection with saidin. The void and flame failing him then, Caden Ives had barely any time at all to escape the burning face of death. He was the one closest to the Asha'man when it came for them. There was never any time left to him for thought ... only bone-deep terror ... thus while his head turned to register a set of charred double doors across the corridor to his left, his legs reacted with reflexes alone. One leg kicked away from the wall he crouched by and the other bore him into the air. He knew it was too late, he had known it before he saw the doors, and now, he knew it as the heat hit him. Leanna. Another of her Warders were to die. She would not bear it another time. He never screamed. The Light knew he did not scream ... not even when the impact as he crashed through the doors in mid-air broke the bone of his arm clean off. Frost, soot and flame trailed his fall. It was dark after that. He must have landed on the other side of the broken doors. The last thing he remembered though, was the smell of burning flesh. Leaping back three steps when the wolfkin spun her ashandarei in a tight pattern around herself, Samsu threw back his fair hair and cast a withering look at the wolf he had kept at bay with his falling blows. It seemed to recover it's strength for now, poised to leap at him yet only snarling loudly. It's chest heaved like a bellow. You mutt! Dare me and die. Eyes whipping about quickly he saw to his displeasure how Kethin ... to his left ... got his blade locked between the wall and his opponents blade. As a result, his companion received a tight slash to his torso, which splattered the soot-covered wall. The next instant, Shyne's shoulder threw back the dark-eyed man from his feet. A scream then emerged to Samsu's right and he saw Tansa stagger backwards with a great red rend over his belly. Falling to his knees, the scar-faced man dropped his blade in wide-eyed terror to clutch his abdomen. His bowels escaped between his fingers. Kira al'Haram had gotten through his defences. No, this isn't happening! Then? he saw the great flames roll down the corridor and cover the woman and her two Warders. And with his wits barely intact, he found a tactic. A smile came unbidden to his lips as he fell to his knees, putting the fist holding his swordhilt against the bleeding cut in his left shoulder. "Oh dear, I surrender!" he said in his feminine voice, eyes wide in mockery. He and his two companions had no need to fear the flames ... Sagone Asha'man had warded them from their touch. He just needed to keep the two fellow ji'alantin's attention to himself rather than the screaming inferno approaching them rapidly. Yet he couldn't help himself feeling the triumph and he spoke again to the very-soon-to-die. "Your persistence has been in vain, you bloody pretentious fools. Now you burn!" While Samsu Unraen threw back his head and laughed, the fire enveloped him like a gale. Seeing the Darkfriend raise his hands and begin to gesture, Sigmund quickly glanced back to Saphire. Good, I'm now in range of her Ward. Still ... He crouched down beneith the downed support beam anyway, shielding his eyes from whatever the Shadowsworn was sending against him. Her boots carried her fast down the hallways and out into the Warder Yards, toward the scream of the fire and the bickering of the smoke. She heard the sound of steel upon steel and cries within the building where the Executive Council had their meetings. Her heart raced at the thought of the Council, perhaps trapped in the building with the flames? Who set the fire? Aynaiss cursed, knowing inside that it had been one in league with the Shadow. Chapter Two: The Martyr's Letter
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