Ely edit 27 Nov 2023:
1-6 qps, depending on length and quality.
Potential +1 qp: if part of a series: x (related to Chloro's past posts on the same subject)
Total: 5 qps, giving an extra one because it incorporates current ingame event... euh... events
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Sunlight drifted through the small port window behind Chloro as she lounged on a chase in her private apartment. The rays of sunlight gave a false hope of warmth so far into winter, it would soon be time for the feast day, though that did not seem to stop the shadow. Her eyes narrowed and refocused as she read the few brief words on the parchment held in her left hand.
“Be steadfast against the Night old friend.”
To anyone not of the tower it would seem utter nonsense, few knew the meaning of “Be Steadfast” or the second meaning of “the Night”. Something was stirring south of the border lands, she could not confirm the dark as part of it, but a creeping suspicion was starting to take root in her mind. First the tinkers appear, some claiming they had found the song. Then the rock retrieved from the blight that uttered true gibberish for all to hear but responded to being channeled into. Too many things were happening on a grand scale simultaneously without other great bastions of the light experiencing the same or developments one would hold to such a time. Someone was pulling strings as well as any Gray sister could, perhaps as strongly as the Ajah heads. That narrowed it down to being a woman, but which woman could it be. Lanfear was in the forefront of the mind when it came to forsaken, but only a fool counted out the others.
The mutilated blue sister had stuck in Chloro’s mind for days, she had not looked at the blues as closely due to so many looking for darkfriend’s as it is. Yet where better for a darkfriend to hide than in plan sight. Had she been working alone, or were the theories of small groups working together to be believed? So much was quite honestly in the dark about the workings of darkfriend’s and worse yet, Aes Sedai sworn to the dark. A concept she wished were not true, but the tower had been crippled before and would again, how much of it had been the manipulation of the black and how much shear dumb luck?
This year had been a whirlwind with the Andor incident, Lord Salmon, Lord Gabrial, and Lord Brend having been notable possible forsaken manipulating the world, or perhaps it was the same one changing his appearance at each location. Either way, the tower at current was ill prepared for the last battle, or even a minor incursion with a forsaken. Many sisters seemed to be returning, that as to which of them could be dark, there was no clue. Too much was currently at stake for anything to go wrong. Nations had begun cooperating and allowing White Tower coaches and teams to approach their local barracks. So much could be lost in a single misstep if they were not careful.
Perhaps it was time to have tea with a select few and discuss matters going forward, if small groups were how the dark did it, then the light could win with the same. The strings being pulled, and webs being woven now had not happened over night. This would have taken a decade or two of planning and several generals to do as the commander bided. Trolloc raids reached further south even into the borders of Tar Valon, Fal Dara no longer held its status as the fortress that held back the blight. Things once again not turning in the lights favor.
With a soft sigh she put the parchment down on a side table and looked to the wardrobe Annoura had given her. It had seen so much use lately that she wondered if it would not need to be replaced. Kinsa had gone into retirement, a worthy reward after so many years of service. Her contacts in Caemlyn and among the tinkers had gone silent just before the gathering began. Two, she confirmed had met with untimely ends. Was she to be next, was she hunted in the very halls she walked every day?
With her mind she reached out sensing Finan in the dining hall, still recovering from their incursion with a opposite tower in world of dreams. They and the party they traveled with had survived, yet it was not a pleasant thing to see the tower turned so dark. She thanked the creator, this was the world she had been born into, even with its shortcomings.
Her thoughts halted as shuffling could be heard outside her door and a green ribbon was shoved under the door. Taking a moment to process the action she stood, her dressing robe of gray silk worked with blue roses rustling as she crossed the room in a graceful stride. Bending she could see no shadow announcing someone still at the door. Lifting the ribbon, she turned it over in her hands, a single word written on it.
“Web”
She had no contacts among the Green, Asandra was a close friend, and Evangeline had ridden out shortly after the Andor incident. Vianca was too young to have been approached about anything like this. Her mind began to wander through the older Green sisters in residence and continued to come up blank with who would have contacted her. Though the fact that it was on a green ribbon did not necessarily mean it came from a Green, it could be an indication of a floor tile, or the color of a visitors garment.
Turning from her door she walked to the wardrobe, her fingers deftly finding the hollow, hearing the click of the false bottom opening as she pulled a jewelry box from the dark space. The latch had come apart some time ago, but the hinges on the lid still held, fifty-nine years was not so bad for that. The box had been a gift from her Gray sisters after attaining the shawl, the small crystalline circlet within sparkled as she removed it and put it on her left ring finger before the great serpent ring. Not since her shawling had she considered using such an object, but if a forsaken was pulling as many strings as she thought, even at her greater strength than most sisters, she was no match in raw power for even the weakest of them.
The circlet hummed as she reached out to saidar pulling flows of air, fire, and water together into a single weave. Flows of air lifted the parchment from her bedside table as the intricate three element weave settled into it, first burning the document then dissolving the ashes to vapor. No one would reconstruct it after that. Her mastery of weaves had only increased since her freedom from the banded dress and the heavy weight of the shawl coming.
Releasing saidar she looked to the circlet again, it was strong. She could even give Cadsuane a run for her money with this, but would it be enough if she came face to face with a forsaken. Looking to the window she noticed for the first time the light beginning to fade as the sun set, she had inner debated this topic for hours. An Ominous sign, the light fading at that time, would it tell of what was to come?
Leaving her robe open, a simple lowcut sleeping dress beneath it, she headed to the door and opened it. A look left and right revealed lamp light flickering in the empty space. Closing her door and weaving a lock of air around it she moved down to the dead end of the hall. A beautiful window looked out on the tower guard’s barracks. To her left and right walls carved in ivy and songbirds. With slight strength she pushed on the sixth brick up from the bottom dead center in the left wall and heard the click as the passageway opened. Looking back at the hallway to see if prying eyes had tried to track her, she nodded satisfied no one had. With a graceful movement she slipped into the hidden corridor and closed the false wall, darkness swirling around her as she moved towards the spiral staircase.