Chapter Five: Where the Ripples End
written by Caden Ives

With his makeshift torch, Caden Ives made his way through freezing knee-deep water... back from the ruins of the Old Tower.

His stride was mechanical as he kicked his way forward through the water in long strides, his face set in a persistent scowl. His glaring green eyes pierced the darkness before him. Whoever has attacked you, Leanna, he thought as he brushed aside moss which hung from the ceiling with his long sabre, will regret his existence in this world when I reach him. He had already failed his duty as a Warder by not being there when she needed him. And he was dead set on preventing any further harm to become his Aes Sedai. He knew he was not just with himself, for the mission he had been on when he sensed Leanna being knocked unconscious was of an importance which merited his absence. Nevertheless, he could not push aside the blame he placed on himself. Behind his titles and within the embrace of his fancloak, he was just a mere man. A man who's loved one was in danger and needed him.

Like a hound following a scent, he hasted in the direction the bond told him to go.

Soon, he reached the section of the passageway that had caved in. He had passed here before, when he led the trainees through the passageway in pursuit of Clavil Fon'har. As he looked up along the great rubble of boulders and rock, he thought about the companions he had left behind to complete the mission. He had placed the great importance of sealing the underground tunnel which lead towards the Claw Stone in the hands of Ji'alantin Kile Durann and four other Drin'far'ji. It had been the hardest decision he had faced in his time as Gaidin Captain. The whole Grey Tower depended now on the five young men, for if the Shadow struck from inside the battlements, they could all be dead by nightfall. On the other side, The Amyrlin Seat had been captured, and he was the only one who could find her through the bond. Aside from that, any man in his place would have made the same decision, due to the fact of their hidden love for each other. Which man in the right of his name would leave his love in the Shadow's clutches, when he knew how to find her... to save her?

Kile Durann, Bassal Toram, Janis Tearsin, Nykolai Deoddyn and Dax Pohgi,he recited in his thoughts, I trust you, for I have seen how far your resolve carries you. Do not fail me. Do not make me a love-blinded and miss-guided fool. By then, his mordant stride had reached the line where the rock blocked his way. He was just about to climb up from the water and make his way over the rocks and boulders when...

...when a source of light illuminated the mosses of the old passageway. Eyes widening, he whirled around when he heard splashing sounds behind him.

The dark form of a man silhouetted itself against the oval shape of a gateway. The knee-deep water poured into the opening and Caden could see a fireplace and a well-lit room beyond the saidin-wrought portal. As soon as the man was on the other side, the gateway snapped shut. Who goes there? The light of the Gaidin Captain's torch could not reach the man, but he did not step forward. Instead, he threw the torch into the water and stood perfectly still... all his senses straining to anticipate any attack. A channeler cannot strike something he can't see, he thought, remembering Sigmund Gaidin's teachings back when he still was a Ji'alantin.

There was no reason for anyone but the Shadow to be down here besides himself and his companions, of that Caden was certain.

There was silence, and he could feel his breath mist in the cold air of the bed-rock. It stroked his face like the hand of death in the solid darkness. "So..." a resonant voice began, "you still live, and you decided to help the wench after all. How does it feel now, when I tell you that you have left the whelps behind only to die in their feeble struggle to follow your orders?" The sound of the man trudging through the freezing water reached Caden. "And for what, Warder? So that you can see your woman safe, to touch her tomorrow, and love her for the rest of your miserable days? I do not understand you. What is the love of a woman if you have no life?"

"Who are you?" growled Caden into the darkness, both his hands upon the hilt of his sabre.

"I think you already know," came the reply. "At least, you should have heard about me by now, unless I've miscalculated gravely."

The cold of the air clawed its way inside his scaled armour. "You are," breathed Caden, "the Dawn of Blood."

"...Yes... That's right." By the last word, an orb of pure light blossomed before Caden, and the speaker was illuminated in its light. Dressed in a black channeler's uniform, with a sword pin in the collar, a dark-haired man in his mid-twenties stood in the water with his arms behind his back. The orb of light levitated higher into the air, casting its light upon a wider expanse of the passageway.

A dedicated, he thought, and oddly enough, he felt a form of relief that he was not responsible for accepting this evil into the Tower. "I do not know you, " he said, trying to buy time. For what? He can kill me with a mere thought.

"No. Do you think anything you could have known about me and my life in the Tower would have helped you? I have studied you, but we have never met. I could not allow such a risk. It is not enough that you meet me now, when I have come to guarantee the Great Lord's victory? After I've killed you, I will find those rats you have left behind and kill them as well. And if they would manage to seal the tunnel to the Claw Stone, I would just have to open it again."

"So that is the ultimate plan?" said Caden, a confused frown creasing his forehead, "In the end, no army of shadowspawn since the Trolloc Wars can stand against the collective force of the Grey Tower now. Not now, when we are forewarned. Surely, you must know this. Your plans will fail." What he said was far from a certainty, but not not that far from the truth never the less. His lie had to pass unnoticed...

The young man dismissed the words with a small shrug. "You are just a pawn. You need not know anything more than you already do. Now you die, and you will die in blissful ignorance of what we have in store for this day." With those words, the Dawn of Blood raised his hand towards Caden.

Pain shot up from the Gaidin Captain's chest and extended out though his limbs and up his neck. His scream could not be contained, so it echoed along the passageway. To his stricken mind, it sounded like the cry of a man beyond sanity and any form of composure. His senses were in panic... his mind only working to escape the acute pain, to tear it away from his chest and be free of the agony. His knees had given away long ago, and his grip around the hilt of his sabre as all that kept him up. Leaning on the blade with both his hands, he clapped his jaws together and steeled himself against the onslaught he felt.

When the echoes of his screamed faded, the Dawn of Blood spoke again in a mocking voice; "Want me to make it stop? Stand up before me and I will put you out of your misery."

Caden clawed with his sheer will to make his mind work again. Leanna. The thought of his aim summoned the resolve he needed.

He snatched his right hand behind his back and gripped his dagger. And with all his strength, he hurled it towards the shadowsworn's face. The blade glinted in the orb's light, and the channeler had to leap out of the way... momentarily distracted. That short lessening of the agony was all that Caden needed, and he dove forward into the murky water. The momentum of his dive and the weight of his armour carried him forward through the cold water, and he covered several yards before he had to use his free hand and his boots to move. With numb fingers, he clawed his way sideways and forward with the aid of the rifts between the yore mosaic tiles.

The water was not deep, so the channeler could easily follow his approximate advance. However, his fancloak and the dark water hid him from direct detection. Caden could feel whips of Air lash into the water with sharp blows, and he received a slightly stalled blow over his thigh once before the Channeler lost him. But the attacks disturbed the surface, and the ripples and tides aided him. The Gaidin could not see his enemy, but he knew approximately where he was. Thus he made slow, slow progress... holding his breath.

In the world below the water, Caden Ives knew fear. Yet he suppressed it, holding the Saniral family motto true to heart; Courage is fear when it has said it's prayers. No more had he found strength in the words when his shadow sense told him that more shadowspawn had come within range. And the direction was... No! The companions he left behind were in danger! He should not have left them!

He lingered for a few more seconds, his heart beating fast... the void shuddering each time. Then... Now! Abruptly, he sprang up on his feet with a rising cut. The startled shadowsworn had unfortunately been slightly out of range of his rising strike, and only the uniform tore over the young man's chest as he leapt backwards, nearly falling. There was no room for thought, so the Gaidin Captain leapt after in pursuit and dealt a falling reverse cut.

However, the Dawn of Blood was faster.

His falling blow was slammed aside by an invisible cord of nothingness, and another lashed into his mid-riff. He bent forward by the impact, and before he could react, he received another blow towards his head and fell backward into the water. The grip of his sabre slackened and passed out of his memory.

Chapter Five: Where the Ripples End
~Ripple One: Meanings
~Ripple Two: The Hall
~Ripple Three: Decisions
~Ripple Four: The Messenger
~Ripple Five: Shadow
~Ripple Six: The Clawstone
~Riple Seven: The Claw Stone Aftermath
~The Final Ripple

Return to the Ripples Intro