Stranger in a familiar land

[Helena]

Talin had expected him to fall back upon his usual threats to hurry her along, but it seemed he really was distracted. The squirming was enormously inconvenient. Clearly he had no comprehension or gratitude for the delicacy with which she worked. This was no simple Healing, but a flat out miracle. She sighed sharply through her nose. Another patient would have experienced a pointedly heavy dump of saidar to prohibit the movement of the bouncing leg, but it was not a risk she was inclined to take with him. She felt like a mother pandering to a particularly annoying child. And Talin had never wanted to be a mother.

“I preferred you when you were unconscious,” she said matter-of-factly. Her lips pressed into a thin line. But she did not stop the work.

She did not look up when he shifted, though she could feel his renewed attention. At least the blessed knee had stopped. The line of questioning was peculiar, and she marked it as so. There was something decidedly uncomfortable about Arikan being conversational, and it chilled her innards far more than the suggestion he’d feed her to alligators. Talin was uninterested in lineage. Honestly, she was uninterested in people.

“It wasn’t the warder that did this to you,” she said, curious enough at the interest to make the comment, but not enough to ask outright why he knew the name Vladamir at all. Talin could not say whether she had ever met the gaidin in question. She attended regularly on the training fields, but one face was much like another, and she had no reason to remember them all. If she knew the name it was as she knew other names; the White Tower was full of burgeoning legends, to the point of dilution. But it was from her time at Fal Sion she knew specificity. The apparently bookish boy about whom a Sister had once proclaimed a grand Foretelling. In his childhood home Vladamir was regarded with much speculative mythos. It was among the first questions Kaori had ever asked her, for it seemed they had all quietly hoped that the Lady Graciela’s flight for aid would bring about the prodigious return of the Keep’s young Lord.

“The lady in question is married to Vladamir Gaidin’s older brother,” she answered. “If you know neither that, nor that he was once a lord of Fal Sion, your interest is markedly strange. Or is it simply that you believe in prophecy?”

[Adrian Kane]

This was good news. It would take time; time that Arikan was eager to purchase, but the options suddenly expanded with the news. He’d not taken the warder for more than anything but another uptight borderlander. Their interactions were few, though likely quite memorable on Vladamir’s part, with 'Edwin' focused on positioning himself to gain the warder’s trust. He was subtly compelling the warder to ask questions and bring him answers. It was a tricky outcome for the world of dreams and not as powerful a force as if the channeling were done in person, but Arikan had few other opportunities while imprisoned. He would scrap and claw at every last one, and Vladamir’s manipulation was only a hope of real escape, but he tried none the less. In that time he learned the warder was bonded by a Sitter of the Green Ajah, another borderlander woman, and that Lythia came and went from Tar Valon on a regular basis. He’d never thought to inquire about the warder’s background himself so focused on his Aes Sedai captor as he was. Which was why Talin’s information was quite the revelation.

“Let’s just say he’s an acquaintance.” Arikan replied, noting the absence of any reaction from Talin. Then he rolled his eyes, “Oh don’t get excited. He’s not a darkfriend. Blood and ashes I think the Great Lord would reject that one’s allegiance even if it was offered,” he mused. He knew he would.

He didn’t know if Talin was aware her patient was a master of Tel’Aran’Rhiod. Certainly Corele and Rikela knew, and as far as Arikan knew, both Aes Sedai survived the battle and such high-ranking Aes Sedai were unlikely to dally with the young Yellow. Though the former claimed to no longer be Aes Sedai, he glimpsed Corele in the Dreamworld as recently as a month back. He wouldn’t offer such prized information about himself to anyone, let alone Talin, but he studied her face for flickers of recognition as much or that she might guess as to Vladamir’s talent in turn.

If he was going to get intel about the Borderlands, and Shienar in particular, then Vladamir was perfectly positioned to be his informant. Arikan was still too weak to do anything but sleep at night, so in the interim, he mused over how to get the borderlander to agree to go home.

Then he blinked, realizing something fresh.
”What prophecy?”

[Helena]

“No honest sentence ever started with ‘let’s just say,’” she said without looking up. The disinterest was simply because she did not care who Arikan used if it was in the service of the Light, or at least in service of eradicating the Forsaken. Sometimes it was better not to know the nature of the sacrifices made, especially should she be required to feign her ignorance in the future. She could not betray what she did not know. Nor could she make a judgement on whether the means to their ends remained entirely on a Light-led path. Certainly she expected there would be times to come in which that was not the case. But Talin would not be prepared to use the dreadlord so if she was squeamish about it.

Their session was almost done. And thank the light for it too. He was not normally quite so chatty. Though she supposed she’d rather he just ask his questions than expect her to dance around knowing what information he required. A warder seemed a strange investment though, and she did at least contemplate the possible manner of their said “acquaintance”. Vladamir was veteran enough to have seen the siege. For him not to have recognised Arikan would be a glaring ignorance for any gaidin, let alone one bonded to a Green, and therefore entirely unlikely without some measure of subterfuge. But where Talin did not have answers, she knew how to find them. She had spent her entire life cultivating skills of observancy, seeking to fit herself unobtrusively into this world. She noticed things, remembered them, and found someone else to bother with the work of piecing them together.

“I’ve never heard tell of it on Tower grounds. But his kin say a Green foretold he would save the life of a Sister, and in so doing save the lives of thousands. Honour dragged him south accordingly, of course. I rather think the Keep hoped he would return to them in their time of need, but it seems that thread is not to be woven in such a way.” She glanced up. Her gaze was unnervingly direct when she chose it to be, or perhaps when she forgot to apply the necessary masks of mediocrity. But it was only a moment before her attention returned to her task. “Still, some threads shine brighter than others. And that’s a useful tool,” she agreed. "Other men will follow a man like that."

[Adrian Kane]

A noise resembling amusement escaped. Who knew Talin had some wit to her? The quip served to distract him from what was happening with his feet, which soon subsided to his great relief. Not to mention, as he stretched and wiggled his toes, that the stabs of pain had also receded. It took some bending, but he looked upon her work with something approximating being impressed. The skin was pink and plump. The wounds smooth. Though all he showed of his appreciation was an approving nod. It wasn’t as if she’d managed to regrow his toenails. Now that would have been remarkable.

No further question followed her retelling of the prophecy. He gave no whim to the rhyme or reason of foretelling. Darkness knew the Light lived and died by such things. The Seanchan read omens like gossip letters. The Dark Book was filled with portents of things that must happen. For all Arikan saw was contradictions, half-truths and unreliable sources. He understood their power, though. That half the world would bow to them as though millennia-old words could give their lives meaning. He may not believe such nonsense, but he was more than willing to press the sanctity of prophecy to his own ends.

Since they were chatting about her companions in the White Tower, he brought up another name that had been on his mind all these months. “There is another. Do you know an Aes Sedai who goes by the name of Elsae?" The corner of his lip twitched with amusement, "Let's just say that I will require her presence at some point." 

[Helena]

The work for this sitting was done, and Talin had no desire to remain beyond business. As he inspected the glossy pink skin of his feet she stood. He would be mobile now, albeit still weak, and the test of their alliance would truly begin. She considered the ramifications behind the mask of her severe expression, but ultimately this was a risk she had been prepared to take from the beginning. Arikan was calculating. And clearly, given how close he had come to taking the White Tower, he had some talent. But he was also full of emotion. She was never likely to forget the look of him the day she had apparently offended his prideful sensibilities. He meant what he said. She simply had to ensure he continued to need her to accomplish the task.

She considered this second request, which was even more unusual than the first, not least because Accepted Elsae had been the girl attacked in the city. A darkfriend then? Talin did not know, and she did not actually care either, though she considered briefly if it might be something she ought to take to the Mistress of Novices. Manipulating a man she thought could be of value to her cause was one thing, but out and out fraternising with the Shadow was another – or at least it significantly raised the likelihood of getting caught and misrepresented as Black Ajah. For now there were still things she needed to accomplish from within the Tower.

“Black Ajah?” she asked. Her tone was disapproving, though perhaps only because she expected that it should be. The gaps in Arikan’s knowledge suggested a very specific avenue for his having gained it, but she would consider the ramifications of that later. Talin had no real association with Elsae; had not even when they were the same rank. She was too flighty, too vague, and too inclined to bored mischief. But Nythadri was friendly with her. A shame the woman still wasted her time in the rainbow bands. But it made her consider something else: that if Arikan required allies in this venture, perhaps Talin did too.