The Final Ripple: A Darkfriend's Escape
written by Samsu Unraen (NPC), Firredal Osiellin and Aynaiss Cuelaen-Walker

After the fire had passed over him, Samsu Unraen had gotten to his feet and fled from the two
Jia'alantin the way whence he had come. Alone, I'd have no chance. His flight was a desperate one, he needed to get to the Main Gate and escape the Tower Ground before a search was arranged for him.

I was then, when he shot through the smoke like an arrow, that he almost crashed into something in the middle of the corridor leading to the stairs. Stumbling to the side, he raised his longsword before him. Aynaiss Gaidar! There was no time to waste, she could stop him if he did not act. Forward he advanced, thrusting his sword before him in Hummingbird Kisses the Honeyrose. The face-level thrust returned and came around again in Arc of the Moon, creating an effective pair. "Out of my way, wench!"

Firredal staggered around the corner just as Samsu moved close enough to thrust. "Back away!" He yelled, with as much volume as he could manage. Small chance that he will surrender, but we can try... "Drop your sword!"

Aynaiss staggered out of the way as a Ji'alantin stabbed in her direction and then paired it with Arc of the Moon. She raised her sword to glance the thrust away in another direction and followed her katana with the Arc afterward. Her steps fell back as she retreated, but she wasn't afraid. Her eyes were green fire as she watched one of her old students fight against her. Samsu had been talented enough, but she knew she would best him. Her ears caught Firredal arrive to her left, yelling for the Ji to back away and to throw down his weapon; however the Gaidar had little hope that the Darkfriend would surrender.

She paused in her retreat, but kept her sword aimed at the middle of face. "Samsu Unraen," she nodded barely in acquiesence of his "term" for her. She gave him a small smile that was filled with the justice he would receive. Swiftly, like a deer, Aynaiss began with Ribbon in the Air and flowed into a feign of The Falcon Stoops into his thigh. Behind her sword attack, she stepped closer to him and crouched slightly by his left side, and attempted to sweep her leg under his to trip him.

His longsword almost keeping up with the Gaidar, Samsu's shrill yell announced his fall in the end. He had met the thrust, which turned into an attack to his thigh, with a horizontal block of his own. She is too fast.Yet the attack against his legs had been beyond him, and with a loud thud, he hit the wooden floor.

With only moments to recover from this small defeat, Samsu reached behind his back and produced a throwing dagger. The blade was far heavier than the hilt and cruelly shaped into flat spoon with a point. It could rend cloth and skin apart, but he would have to avoid armoured areas. His skill in the throwing dagger, which Jhedan Storm-foot had bestowed upon him, might now just be his key to victory. With a loud cry of hatred towards those who were in his way to freedom, he threw the first one at the woman in a lightning-quick movement from his position on the floor and did not wait at all to send another towards the newly arrived Gaidin.

Alert after Samsu's first throw, Firredal stepped sideways and forward, his left arm sweeping the knife aside. It left a gash on the outside of his forearm, but nothing serious enough to require immediate attention. Burn you!

Reversing his grip - he still held the shorter of his two blades ready - Firredal continued forward and dropped to his knees, stabbing for Samsu's throwing arm. We need him alive, but he doesn't have to be intact. Later, the viciousness of that practicality would shock him, but for now he moved in the calm certainty of the Void. He did not even pause to see how Aynaiss had fared; she might be badly injured or moving in beside him, either one.

Aynaiss felt the whir of a throwing blade, and a sharp pain in her shoulder near her collar bone. The blade that the Ji'alantin had in his fingers for a mere second was now set deep into her left shoulder. A growl lept low in her throat and Aynaiss threw herself onto Samsu, now unable to use her sword because of the shoulder wound. She tried to ignore the painful grinding of the throwing dagger on her shoulder and collar bone, but still mangaged to force all her weight and push her old student roughly down onto the ground.

"Aaargh!"

In the haste of everything, Samsu wasn't certain it was he who had screamed. Yet then the next wave of pain shot up his arm and shoulder, and he knew it to be true. He had just reached for his third ... and last ... throwing dagger when Firredal Gaidin had intercepted him by pinning his throwing arm to the wooden floor by the forearm.

And then the wench had jumped upon him and he couldn't even move. Again, he screamed high in his shrill voice. The impact tore at the place where the short blade emanated from the floor and through his arm. Blood spilled over the soot and charred wood. The pain was too much and he felt all the blood in his face leave. He was held down and his chin rubbed against the soot. "Get off me!"

When nothing was done to ease his painful position, panic came. He couldn't do anything. His sword was lost and his swordarm useless. He had to surrender. "I yield! Hear me, I yield!" His pants came sharp and hard, his pale blue eyes were wide. "Now get it out!"

Firredal glanced at Aynaiss as he rose, leaving his shortsword in place. We need something to bind him with... a rope? strips of cloth? He looked around, unwilling to tear strips from either of their fancloth cloaks, but not seeing anything else nearby. Ah, got it!

Withdrawing his longer blade - sheath and all - from his sash, he quickly un-knotted the cloth and removed it from his waist. The sheath for his shorter blade clattered to the wooden floor. He paused for a moment, considering how to do this and checking to make sure than no one else was approaching. Then he set the longer blade and the sash carefully out of reach on the floor. Gripping his shorter blade by the handle, he said, "I will remove this, and Aynaiss will turn you over onto your belly. Resist, and I'll put it back in the other arm." From his belly, we can bind his arms behind his back with the sash.

With an abrupt movement, he pulled his blade free.

Samsu had thought the pain couldn't possily be worse than when the wench had jumpe upon him - tearing the sword sideways through his arm. Yet it could, for he felt it when Firredal yanked the blade free. The scream was short this time, for he didn't have enough air inhis lungs. He could all but cling to conciousness this time, and ragged pants escaped between his bared teeth when his voice failed.

"You will regret this, before the day is over, you will gravely regret this..." Lying still while he glared on the two in turn, he rested his injured arm upon his chest, not wanting to touch it as more pain would come then. His mind raced for a way out but as of yet, he could not find one.

Aynaiss narrowed her eyes onto her student, her green eyes challenging the Ji'alantin. She raised her eyebrow slightly to break the rocky facade of her expression. The dagger embedded within her shoulder pained as she moved her arm. "Alright, Firredal, I am going to turn him over. then tie him quickly--and tightly--so he doesn't wriggle free." She focused her eyes back onto Samsu, the mass beneath her panting with pain. "You will cooperate or I am sure your other arm will match the other as Firredal Gaidin offered." The tone was one of command and not question, and Aynaiss grabbed his injured arm on his chest and used it to make him roll onto his belly. Once the Darkfriend was where he should, she nodded in assent to Firredal to tie his arms as Aynaiss pulled both of Samsu's arms behind his back with her knee planted into his back.

The knot was relatively simple. A single loop pressed Samsu's wrists together behind his back; both ends of the sash went up to the middle of his back, made a brief knot, and then one end looped out to each bicep, holding the upper arms close against the ribs. These loops met again in the middle, then rose up and were knotted together in front of Samsu's throat. The arrangement made a cross of cloth on the Ji'alantin's back, so that any attempt to move his wrists down or his arms out would put pressure on the front of his throat.

With that done, Firredal turned his attention to Aynaiss. The dagger wound looked nasty, but... She'll lose less blood if we leave it there until we find a healer. He checked his knots, to make sure that they were tight enough to hold, but not so tight as to strangle the Ji; then he went to retrieve his blades. Without the sash, there was no easy way to carry both - not and be ready to draw them, at least.

With a shrug, he leaned the shorter blade in a corner and took the longer one in his left hand, holding it by the scabbard just below the guard. With his right hand free, he looked at Aynaiss again. "We need to find an Aes Sedai," he said simply. Saphire, for a preference. Where are you? With an unaccustomed rush of concern, he wondered if the Aes Sedai was all right. She would be in no less danger than they were.

Return to "The Final Ripple"

Chapter Two: The Martyr's Letter
~Ripple One: All But Pride Mended
~Ripple Two: Serpent in Shawl
~Ripple Three: A Shadow in a Black Robe
~Ripple Four: Seekings
~Ripple Five: The Twin Archers
~Ripple Six: Aftermath
~The Final Ripple

Return