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Into the Halls

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2023 12:58 pm
by Loret
The sound of commotion was everywhere, young women in gowns pouring out of classrooms and small apartments. A group of novices were seen being hurried down the hall by a tower accepted leaving an empty class room in their wake. Loret kept her eyes down and moved quickly in the opposite direction as the crowds seemed to flush outwards as she made her way deeper into the halls of the White Tower. Loret tried to minimize her presence as she moved quickly through the halls but, she still commanded suspicious looks from straying eyes. Turning a corner a tall woman in a gray robe was instructing two lesser girls in banded dresses what to do just outside of a tall spiraling staircase. Her eyes immediately met Loret's as she ordered the Hand to stop where she was and not to move a muscle. Loret froze in her tracks, slowly raising her hands to show was of no threat to the girls. Loret began explaining herself and arguing loudly that she wasn't here for her or the girls. A bronzed candleholder came crashing down just behind the group of women making an extremely loud crashing noise as candle wax, fire, and metal shattered on the granite floors below. Wincing slightly the robed woman turned to address the new threat, and just like that Loret had broke for the stairs in the commotion, leaving the robed woman at the bottom of the stairs and yelling after her.

Exploding onto the top floor from the spiral staircase below, the sound of screaming could be heard now, the alarms of Tar Valon ringing through the open archways that overlooked the cities. The muffled sound of guards could be overheard storming through the lower parts of the tower busy clearing each room.

Some individuals appeared to be working in a group just down the hall to the left of the stairs.

"In the Gray wing" screamed a large man, sword drawn and barking orders to a group of differently colored robed women in tow.

Two large doors made of solid oak stood ajar, marking the entry way to the Corridors of the Gray Ajah. The smell of fire filled Loret's nostrils and charred remains of what looked like books scattered the entry way into the Gray Corridors just ahead. A man could be seen just inside the Gray corridors making his way into what looked like a vacant apartment, a glimpse of his cloak bared what looked like a serpent in silver biting his own tail. The sound of someone crying for help came bellowing down the hall from the apartment in which the Dreadlord was seen entering. Loret revealed herself to the party just outside the archway, two would-be enemies under any other circumstance from her past but in this moment the lesser of two evils.

"I'm here for the same reason you are, let me hold the door while you enter the apartment".

The Warder looked on in disbelief, steeped in instinct and years of service that had taught him to be weary of the Hand, much less one showing up at this inopportune moment and deep in the halls of the White Tower. The robed sedai reluctantly agreed, a brief moment of reading each others eyes. She cursed under her breath but, the situation was dire as they rushed through the archway and towards the apartment. Loret pulled the large metal bound oak doors closed and leaned against them heavily.

Chaos ensued.

The sound of screaming, cackling, and the crashing of objects being tossed about on the inside of the apartment drowned out the Alarms over Valon. A loud noise clattered against the closed double doors as if someone had tried to put a shoulder through it, but to no avail. Loret dug her heels in as the chaos continued just on the other side of the door, spreading her arms as wide as possible and doing her best to keep the large oakdoors shut. Then finally, silence. Loret braced herself, holding the door in anticipation for another run at opening it. A soft but, labored voice spoke out from the other side of the door.

"He's dead..you can open it now"

Loret unbarred the door and stepped back just as one of the two large oaken doors was opened from inside. Out stepped a bloodied, but survived Aes Sedai. Peering into the hallway and through the opened door the warder stood over a heap of what was the Dreadlord. Loret moved past the woman and through the doorway, drawing a silver sai from deep inside of her coat and rapidly approaching where the Warder stood. The Warder assumed a defensive stance, blade drawn just as Loret plunged the sai deep into the back of the dreadlord laying on the floor. The dreadlord writhed in agony to the surprise of the party before Loret twisted her knife for good measure, vacating any last bit of life from what was now just a corpse of a Dreadlord.

"You never truly know, until you know, Gaidin". Loret kicked the lifeless corpse in frustration, wiping the silver blade on the coat bearing the silvered snake eating it's own tail.

"I am exhausted from this endeavor. Who will see to it that I am escorted to the gates safely?" asked the Hand.

Chloro Sedai stepped into the corridor and held out her hand, beckoning to follow her. The sound of guards running through the halls filled the top floor of the White Tower, albeit arriving late. Chloro explained the rare scenario to head of the guards and asked for their cooperation in delivering The Hand of the Light safely from the Tower Grounds.

Speaking quietly amongst themselves as they made their way down the spiraling steps she had arrived from and delivered just outside of the west gate.

A rare occurrence, but one of great success. The Dreadlord Mikhan has been tracked and killed inside the White Tower. Investigations as to why this Dreadlord was in the Tower in the first place will remain ongoing, but for now, The Hand of the Light have played a vital role in killing of a Dreadlord. The Hand of the Light will go to great lengths to see Dark friends rooted out. Let this be a lesson to all, that even the White Tower is not off limits if there are Dark Friends roaming their halls. The Hand of the Light knows no boundaries in the pursuit of destroying evil. A special thanks is in order for the civility shown by the White Tower, after the removal of the Dreadlord. With their brief stint of cooperation, together, we were able to kill a much more dangerous and larger threat posed to the people of the Light.