For Cora's previous Tower biography, please see the Tower Library . Cora left the Tower under mysterious circumstances- which is to say that to all outward appearances, she vanished. In fact, she had moved one step too far in her plays for power, and was given into the control of one who punished her severely. This punishment changed the nature of Cora Calle, once Blue Sitter, entirely- from proud Aes Sedai to...

Cora's return to the Tower

The bushes quivered, and leaves parted, drawn aside by a small, once delicate hand. Fingers now twisted like claws, as if the owner had so long held them curled against unnamable pain or terror, that they could no more regain a natural shape. Nails begrimed with dirt, and grown so long untended as to re-inforce the impression that the owner of the hand might no longer be quite human.

As if to add to the impression still further, the hand's owner edged forward out of the bush in a hesitant crouch, an almost animalistic shamble. A first glance, had any observer been present, would indeed have shown what appeared more a half wild creaure than a girl. A girl...or a grown woman? Layers of dirt caked the face also, obscuring the detail. A closer look, peering through the grime, would have hinted that perhaps the face had been pretty once, maybe the matted dark brown hair had once hung in neat curls, but that would probably be all that could be surmised, even then.

A bird called soflty in a tree above, and the girl- or woman, or creature- jumped nervously, flashing large dark eyes suspiciously at the surrounding undergrowth.

The air fell quiet, as the hunched figure waited, frozen. Slowly it let out a hissing breath, and one clawed finger reached up, to entwine itself in the matted hair. The figure turned, shuffling, head now tilted a little aslant, peering out across the land as if seeking something.

Again the hissing breath, and again the creature froze in place amid the waving grass before the bushes, staring now into the distance. Up ahead, lay the tower.

Why have I come here? This is the last place I want to be. Not now, not like this...

A jumble of images like fragments of a gleemans tale heard drunk, tumbled through the creaure's mind.

I was there once. I had a name, there.

She tried to grasp, tried to hold the thoughts, the feelings...Image of a man by a fountain...A boy crying in pain, her laughter...A girl in white, standing by a box...

The images skittered away as she tried to hold on to them. Out of the corner of her eye, it seemed, she could catch a view of who she had once been- but try to bring it to focus and it was gone. Shattered shards.

With a quick, jerking glance to check her path was clear, the figure shuffled forward a few steps. Out here felt so exposed. And she was going to go - there. Where she did not want to be. Her fingers reached to twist in her matted hair again, as if by hiding her fingers she could hide herself from view. A habit, one of many, picked up during her treatment at the hands of...

A face floated before her eyes, and quickly she pushed it away. She must not think of her. Must not.

She licked what had been pretty little lips, now cracked and parched. Her stomach cleched tighter. There would be food and water there, at the Tower, she told herself. That was why she must go, that was logical, was it not? She did have a reason, after all. It had been probably two days, since she had taken the eggs from the henhouse behind that Inn. The creature giggled a little to herself. All perfectly reasonable.

Dimly though, she knew she had already been coming here, even before her food ran short- though thinking that far back was hard.

The Inn- image of a large man, roughly dressed, shouting at her to go away, or he would set the dogs on her. Two dogs, large, dark animals, which had growled and seemed eager to reach her even as the man held them back. Running, running through the fields, cracking open raw eggs even as she ran. The dogs barking. Straw prickling her legs, bare beneath the remnants of her skirts. Egg running down her cheeks. Turning, falling, the dogs gaining on her.

A flash of pain throughout her slight, stooping frame, momentarily arching her body straighter, as brief flames flickered before the dogs, before she scrambled up and ran on, on into the security of the envloping night.

Nothing new, that, the pain. It always happened now. Whenever... It had amused her Mistress, the one she must not think about. Leave her just enough able to channel, through what seemed like some form of shield that had been placed on her, for her to be fit for the menial tasks her Mistress desired of her, but no more. And make it so that even that small achievement hurt her every time.

If I had not concocted that scheme, if I had not been so ambitious so fast...

As it had come, so the moment of clear memory and coherence began to fade, leaving two final jangling fragments. A view of a man steping across the improbable landscape to which she had brought him, risking both sides against the middle for her own gain as well as the furtherance of her cause. And a voice, soflty hissing while she watched, "You overreach yourself. You will pay. Follow."

What came after, she knew she did not even want to try to remember. Less than before, she was now, but perhaps also more. She had to be. All that had been done to her had to have had a purpose. It had to have been worth it, somehow. Certainly she had learned more of pain and torment than she had ever thought possible, in the days when she had played with that fool boy..that..

..who? She grasped at the images again, but they would not come. She could feel the blankness overtaking her again, and it was almost- almost- welcome.

Her wild brown eyes refocussed on her surroundings, crept back towards the distant Tower.

Why am I here?

The twisted hand left the brown tangles of hair, moved down to brush the remnants of the skirts, as if brushing could amend such long misuse. The fabric hung in shreds and tatters, barely distinguishable as having once been of the finest midnight blue silk.

Splintered memory crept upon her once more. A promise, a desire, a pledge given in deepest earnest, in the place she had discovered closest to her heart. A desire, unvoiced yet understood, to rip her dress to tatters if it would help her fulfil her duty, express her feelings.

Again the quiet giggle escaped her lips. If she had known then how that would come to be fulfilled!

Shaking her head as if to clear the thoughts, she took another, slightly straighter, step forward.

Why she must go there- how she had even set out on this journey- she did not know. But the tower was calling her.