The Hunt

[Jay Carpenter]

Continued from Collecting on a Wager

Asha'man Jai Kojima

Arad Doman

Jai was quite content to wait for leadership. It soon came. With a step, Nythadri joined them on western land and Daryen turned away moments after.

He had to force himself to do it, but soon enough, he fell in stride alongside Fate's brother and paid little attention to the specific direction he was led. Such was the way of things, he reminisced, and wished again for distance, musing on how easily he fell back into it all.

The pair were silent for some time. Yui's voice behind permeated the discord, but Jai kept a tuned ear for Nythadri's melody should it come. Short of looking over his shoulder, he only hoped that whatever path was waiting ahead, she might be around to break the anticipated monotony. Even with the once in a lifetime opportunity to infiltrate the Domani's cult-like domination of Razors, misery enjoyed like company.

The leader of their group took them indoors, as much as chiseled terraces and shaded walkways might could be described in this part of the world. Here, flowering plants and green ferns stretched their gangly limbs as much inward as they did outward, blurring those usually distinct definitions. Yet Daryen led through the thick of them all. Jai's eyes roamed the tiled walls, rather than his partner, but caught glimpses of nowhere identifiable. On a rare wind, the scent of the coast labored its way above that of gardens, but Jai mistook the real thing as for one of hopeful memory. He was unaware of royal estates so near the Aryth Ocean, and would remain so until the hunt to come carried them within a few leagues of those watery cliffs nearby.

Lost in memory of territory maps, he was startled by the sudden question from aside.
"Well? Was she as beautiful as in your dreams?"
The question was almost as startling as the hint of sympathy Jai imagined he heard. Like that scent of ocean though, he must have been mistaken. So shook his head in answer. "No."
He caught Daryen's confusion as his own heart sank.

"More."


To say it out loud made it uncomfortably real. Jaslene was not a permanent figment of his imagination. She was the flesh and blood woman of frequent description. One with a magnificent smile. A laugh that could stop your heart. And kind enough to soothe the decay from a dying man's soul. And all the more beautiful because she was untouchable.  Married now. To his best friend. Former best friend, anyway.

His fingers nervously draped the pommel wrappings of his sword then, and from the look on Daryen's face in response, Jai was thankful the women were a few steps behind and supposedly unable to see his expression. Once uncovered, Jai never mastered the ability to bar real emotions from showing. Until then, the Dark One himself couldn't rob Jai's carefully dug grave storing the remainder of them.

"Married. What a bloody light-forsaken fool, right? To think that..."
In trailing off, he fell in step with the blade at his side and sought the simplicity of the Oneness. In there, every step forward was a step away from everything else. Saidin rumbled in the distance. Ironically, its violence was soothing. Just as was the presence of that blade. It fit his height, the sword did. Though his mother would say the sword fit Jai more than just aesthetically. Most assumed he wore it for the allure. It was not completely untrue. There was something heroic to seeing such symbols of victory forged by mankind borne by the Dragon's black army. Jai appreciated that, catching a brief glimpse of his silhouette in a pool. And everyone appreciated feeling like a hero, at least he imagined he would should the feeling ever come around. But as assumptions go, most were wrong.

"They asked what I do. What we all do."
He cut any confrontation short before it started. "Don't worry. I hate you, but i'm not insubordinate."

Daryen's ice cool eyes glanced his way, but infinite patience responded. Jai bloody hated it too. The patience that was. Did the man not have a streak of fury mixed down with the rest of his passion?

"I told you to leave, if that's what you wanted."

"I did."

"And here you are back."

"Here I am back."

Jai gritted through the answer. Was Daryen smirking? Probably, the bloody bastard. While roaming the other man's face, Jai's disbelief betrayed him. He nearly staggered, but managed to keep his feet. How had he not seen it before? "How'd you pull this off?"
The question delivered on a surprised exhale.

That time, Jai definitely saw the smirk. Panic began to rise. His friend inquired after Jaslene. He knew Jai had been to Tar Valon. But he'd left in the middle of night! He wove the gateway himself! How had he known? Could Daryen have the gate followed? Duplicated? Light, was that possible? Was nothing sacred!

Jai spoke frequently of home, of friends and the Golden Fox inn and tavern. He must have sent his sister to intercept. A king's influence is wide. Even to the depths of the White Tower it seemed. Yes, an Aes Sedai could do such a favor when it was Daryen's charm requesting. The bet. The pepper. Everyone knew Jai could not abide those cursed blobs of molten eating flesh. Even Yui joked about his tenderness.

Likely Fate had not been the only one. The remaining scenes of the last two days were quickly replayed. The case for entrapment built quickly, and Jai's nervous drumming of the sword transformed into the stillness of a storm before striking. He went so far as to cast their surroundings with an Asha'man's cold, calculating study. The best wall to collapse. The nearest route to freedom. The darkest vaccuum to consume their bones with the rush of flame.

They came to a pair of fine doors stained dark enough to nearly hide their intricate carvings had Jai not noticed Daryen's fingers momentarily graze the uneven surface. Something so ordinary as a door was still revered for its beauty by the man. Given the nearby servant's entrance, separation from the main portion of the house, and proximity upwind of the stables, Jai guessed this to be some sort of guest quarter. Only when Yui began to explain the change of clothes waiting for Nythadri within did Jai realize she had not been speaking for some time. In fact, he realized no other voice carried the air except his own these last few minutes. Had the women been listening? Light! Was Nythadri part of their scheme? Surrounded by two channelers, Jai grew nervous.

A moment. That was all he had. Daryen was stronger, but couldn't shield him if he already held Saidin unless the man was hiding angreals. Perhaps he was. Less than a moment then. The suction of fire, inhaling the air before total consumption, that would give him the time to escape. Yui would be a loss, but leagues were leagues. An unavoidable sacrifice. Isn't that how he soothed himself to sleep every night? Yes. Only a moment.

In his study of how to play this out, he discovered Nythadri. Steady as those off shore cliffs were her eyes, and Jai remembered their exceptional moment of ordinary back in the Front Hall. Conversation. An apology. A normal man and woman outside of rank and place in the world. Live, she had suggested. Jai remembered the furious counting. Losing control and drawing near all the Power he could, and the soothing repitition which followed.

This was not normal.

Plenty of people were out to kill him. Jai remembered. Somehow, that memory was restorative. The rest would kill him on sight if they knew his worth. The wiser ones would just evacuate him into enemy holes and put him to their good uses for the rest of his extra-long life. Of all these people, Daryen and Yui were not out to kill him. Though they should.

That small pin prick of doubt ripped the sheet of blackness apart. He visibly relaxed, shoved those demons aside, and was more himself when he managed to catch Yui for a brotherly kiss on the cheek and smile to wash away those last few moments. To her protest be damned! "How can a man bear to be so far from such a beauty as our Yui?"
Besides, she didn't seem to protest too hard. The tension lifted.

A teasing display of affection was not the only thing one of their group escaped. Jai was unaware, but Daryen released a breath when his friend came back from that steep edge. Likewise, Daryen noticed how powerful a part Nyathdri's presence played. It made him wonder just who the Accepted was to have such a power over Jai. He swallowed a hint of jealousy, and smothered it with gratitude.