Wheel of Time MUD

Summary:
Having recently returned from a lengthy time away from the island of Tar Valon, Sarinda seeks an audience with Chloro, a sister of the Gray Ajah and her long-time confidant. Sarinda reveals her hidden motive for traveling abroad, and the two devise a plan to unearth dangerous secrets as only two Sitters of the White Tower can.

POV: Sarinda
Main characters: Sarinda, Chloro

OOC Note:
The following scene is intended as an introduction to a multi-part story arc inspired by events from my master quest in 2022, which was designed by Elysia and also concurrently served as a master quest for Eran, previously of the Thiefbane. Although this begins with a scene between two members of the Tower, we intend it as a story that will span across clans over time. Lightly edited for spelling, formatting, and post order to improve flow. Hope you enjoy!

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Meeting Room of the Gray Ajah
Large, leaded glass windows surround the room on all sides, save the
southern where a large doorway leads out into a antechamber. The room
itself is dominated by a large wooden table around which sits at least
fifty matching chairs, something close to a record for the White Tower. In
the middle of the table are an assortment of unused parchments, quill pens
and stoppered ink jars. A small stand off to one side of the room holds a
large number of glass cups and a large pitcher of chilled water. An
inscription in fine lettering is etched upon the windows.
[ obvious exits: E ]
Zone: White Tower Upper Floors
Door east: door
A large round table built from black oak dominates the center of the room.
Lady Chloro Arovni is standing here.
A silver-haired Aes Sedai sits here, reading.
A Gray Sister walks here, considering her options.
Annoura Larisen is here, weighing your words.

Sarinda smiles warmly.

Sarinda touches her hand to her forehead, lips, and heart in greeting.

Chloro rises from her desk and smiles warmly. 'Hello sister.'

Sarinda shares a warm smile in return. 'It is good to see you, sister. It has been a long time.'

Chloro chuckles and embraces channeling a thread thin flow of fire around cast iron kettle on the side board. 'Yes it has, how have you been?'

Sarinda pauses as she contemplates the question. 'I am well enough. I was taking a trip away from Tar Valon for...some perspective, in a sense.'

Chloro moves over to the sideboard allowing the flow of Fire to dissipate as she catches the evading answer. 'Did you enjoy your travels on land, or at sea?'

Sarinda flashes a wolfish grin.

Sarinda says 'I spent some time among my people. Visits to Tremalking, and some of the other islands, and some areas along the Shadow Coast.'

Chloro lifts the kettle filling two cups with piping hot black tea, the glaze on the Sea Folk porcelain shining in the lamp light. Turning with a graceful swish of her skirts, she offers a cup. 'No trouble from the invaders I hope? To loose any sister do them would be a blow to the Tower.'

Sarinda shakes her head, her earrings softly jingling as she waves a hand dismissively, but her eyes are unfocused as if lost in thought. 'No, if it pleases the Light, I doubt the Seanchan will advance much farther from the lands they have claimed in Falme and Tanchico for some time.'

Chloro says 'True, though a long time for some is a very short time of us. Did you find the answer you were seeking from your people?'

Chloro places the cup for her sister on table in the center of the room and takes her own, letting the liquid warm her as she takes a sip.

Sarinda frowns, her gaze sharpening as her eyes turn to focus on the Gray Sitter. 'No,' she replies, an edge of frustration behind her tone. 'There is something I was trying to investigate, but it eludes me still.'

Chloro nods and motions for her sister to follow as she moves to two couches by the kindling fire. 'Perhaps that is for the best, perhaps the Wheel or the Tower has something more pressing for you. Darkfriends are not just in the south. We both know what could exist in these halls.'

Sarinda follows Chloro, accepting the invitation to slowly sink into the couch with a murmur of thanks.

Chloro says 'The north is assaulted every day by Shadowspawn, yet the dreadlords seem silent. I do not like when they are silent, it means they have time to think which is never good.'

Sarinda nods in agreement.

Chloro says 'We also have Accepted that could use your battle skill to learn from. Perhaps during that time, your mind might reveal the answer you where looking for.'

Sarinda says 'Have I spoken with you about a Darkfriend plot I uncovered out of Mayene a few years ago?'

Sarinda explains, 'Pevara received word a few years ago that there was a plot by a group of Mayeners to spark an outright war with Tear, and it was discovered that they were Darkfriends. She sent me on a task for the Ajah to hunt them down and bring them to justice. And I was jointly tasked to complete that mission with Eran, who...was...a member of the Thiefbane.'

Sarinda's jaw tightens at the name.

Chloro spits towards the fire at the mention of the former Thiefbane. 'Shadow souled bastard.'

Sarinda nods decisively.

Chloro says 'Though... If Pevara sent you, did she know he was? Also, who gave the information to her?'

Sarinda says 'Master Juilin Sandar assigned Eran the task. I have no reason to believe that either of them had any knowledge about Eran's loyalties at the time.'

Sarinda admits belatedly, 'Even I did not, myself. Her transformation was a shock to me.'

Chloro takes another sip the wheels in her mind turning. 'Then who gave the information to Juilin Sandar? Perhaps it was a trap meant to take out a Red sitter?'

Sarinda says 'The information Pevara revealed was that one of the Tairen nobles overstepped herself, although I now wonder if that was intentional or a true failure, and someone in the Gray Ajah confirmed the plot.'

Sarinda says 'They alerted Pevara due to worrisome reports that someone was using the One Power to allow them to leave the area rapidly, and to cover their tracks.'

Sarinda draws down her thin eyebrows into a frown.

Chloro eyes narrow as she runs through every sister in her Ajah. 'Who confirmed it?'

Sarinda frowns, looking at the Gray Sitter. 'Pevara did not say.'

Sarinda continues, 'But when Eran and I investigated, I found traces of the One Power, a disturbance in the Pattern, along the Spine of the World. I followed it north past Kinslayer's Dagger, in the rocky foothills northeast of Cairhien, nearly to Lockshear. There was a village there where the people had been captured, caged, while the Darkfriends hid and took shelter.'

Chloro says 'Then we will need to find out, that and who this supposed noble was.'

Chloro pauses at the last phrase. 'People in cages?'

Sarinda says 'Eran and I quietly dispatched most of the Darkfriends, but there was a man there, not a Dreadlord I think, but a male channeler of some kind who could wield the One Power. His name is Jaasir Aslam.'

Sarinda says 'Not cages, strictly speaking. But many of them were held in the village's barn against their will. Only a few of the villagers were allowed to roam outside.'

Chloro begins running through her memory of something she found in the restricted section. 'Did you find any Fades, or other channelers there?'

Sarinda shakes her head.

Chloro nods and takes another sip of her tea. 'Then what are your current suspicions?'

Sarinda says 'Aslam is still in the custody of the White Tower. He has been tried and gentled, if it pleases the Light. But there was something about the situation that felt...missing. I worried about inconsistencies in the reports about how many Darkfriends had left Mayene, and whether we had caught them all. Or what they were planning to do next.'

Sarinda says 'I have met with him several times, attempted to interrogate him to learn more about what he might know or may still have held back, but to no avail.'

Chloro says 'This does explain some of the Mayene issue we had a year or two ago.'

Sarinda nods at Chloro.

Sarinda says 'A pattern within a pattern, one might say. Was there more than one plot there, I wonder?'

Chloro pulls a small leather bound book from her purse. 'There was a suspicion I had during it, the Head of the Winged Guard kept pressing from resolution when the negotiators on their side seemed to be loosing steam.'

Sarinda frowns, a troubled and uncertain look slipping through her guarded expression.

Chloro says 'Berelain can be many things, but a simpleton about pushing the Tower she is not. Perhaps there are still Darkfriends in Mayene whispering in powerful ears...'

Sarinda shifts on the couch, hands folded and still in her lap, but with a tension there. 'I wondered the same, which is why I traveled back down to Mayene. I followed whispers, but it felt like trying to catch smoke. I traced some rumors along the coast, past Illian, out closer to Amador, before I lost a trail of what might not even be accurate.'

You say 'So I have returned to the White Tower, with no more tangible information than I left, and more questions than answers, none of them satisfying.'

Chloro says 'Perhaps sister, you were looking in the wrong district?'

Sarinda shrugs indifferently.

Sarinda say 'Perhaps.'

Chloro says 'This may be true, but you returned with an advantage.'

Sarinda tilts her head curiously.

Sarinda says 'Oh?'

Chloro says 'You wear the shawl of a sister, not the fringed shawl of a Sitter. You can move less observed, and leave as you please. Rather good for an investigation, don't you think?'

Sarinda sniffs in disdain at that, shaking her head jerkily. 'The Highest may have believed I was taking a break from my post, but other than Talasia, who has more pots on the cookfire at once than most I know, our Ajah halls are quiet. I may not have the Talent for Traveling, but I can move along the land quickly and be here to help the Tower without losing sight of my mission.'

Sarinda says 'And there are certain places where the shawl of a Sitter and the authority that position can leverage may be useful in a delicate investigation such as may be required of me.'

Chloro says 'No, sister, within the Tower, you can move with more freedom. You think there could be a cell of darkfriends in Mayene, majority of news flows through our halls at some point. Who would question one Aes Sedai shooting the breeze, where some may bulk at doing that with a Sitter.'

Chloro says 'You have friends in that capacity Sarinda, or do you plan to do this alone?'

Sarinda replies softly, 'You may see me through kind eyes, Chloro, but I am Atha'an Miere, and a sister of the Red Ajah. I do not find it a common occurrence that others are lax around me in their conversation, Sitter or no.'

Sarinda says 'But as to the need for help...Sister, why do you think I am here, sharing this with you?'

Sarinda flashes a wolfish grin.

Chloro looks the Red sister directly in the eyes, 'I see you for exactly what you are, and what any Tower woman is, a woman that has seen and been through too much for one life time by the time she reaches the shawl. Still, even in these troubling times, trust is rare. I trust you until that trust is broken.'

Sarinda smiles warmly.

Sarinda says 'If it pleases the Light, there is one I trust among the Thiefbane whom I think we should contact.'

Chloro muses at the idea. 'Let me guess, the blowhard Roberto?'

Sarinda chuckles politely.

Chloro drinks water from a water skin.

Sarinda says 'Roberto al'Farath is Malkieri. He may be brash at times, foolish at others, but he understands duty, and he understands secrets.'

Sarinda say 'As one of the highest ranking members of their guild, he also will have access to information, and inroads with Master Sandar that few others possess.'

Chloro stops mid sip, nearly choking. 'Brash? There are days I wonder how he ever made it off his mother’s apron strings. However, I also suspect he could be trusted to a point.'

Sarinda snorts in amusement.

Chloro pats her chest just below her neck out of habit and finishes her sip. 'I will leave it to you, to bring him in, but we will need to be quiet about this. That, and I will need to start taking a closer watch of my Gray sisters.'

Chloro says 'There is a Brown and a White that hunt as we do. You probably can guess which.'

Sarinda nods and continues in a more serious tone, 'This investigation could be dangerous. There will be dangerous undercurrents, and hazards just under the surface that could founder our ship before we even begin.'

Chloro chuckles and adds her own spin. 'No one expects to forge a piece of iron without getting burnt.'