This is the first post of the rp that was never completed. We had several posts but I do not have them all in my files, anyone who has them is welcome to send them along to me.
ooc: This story (as I want to refer to this as a story… not just a thread because of it’s importance) is continued from: http://dmpsw.com/dr/viewtopic.php?t=827 The Use/Power/Operation and DRPSW History of the familar Ter’Angreal in this scene (the Arches of Tar Valon) have been approved by the White Tower Division staff. This information will be made available in the Main Timeline after it’s discovery (winter 999) for other characters to make use of. A Hall of the Tower RP may follow this one concerning the events here in. We hope you enjoy the original concept of what we think the Arches “really” are as well as a look into the enduring psyche of two of the DRPSW’s well-loved characters. Questions may be directed to the WT staff or myself at: telcia@gmail.com
Without further adieu, enjoy the show!
| Quote: |
| depu•ration (noun) From the verb “depurate” meaning: To cleanse or purify or become cleansed or purified. |
Ic:
The sun had not risen yet… and Telcia’s head had not fallen. Looking over the notes before her she contemplated what had been the source of all her stress over the course of a lifetime… one moment in time… one vision, the one thing which had forced every major decision in the course of her life from who she loved… to what Ajah she chose.
Reviewing all that might be different in her life if not for the ‘foul thing,’ as she referred to it often, she could imagine a different woman in the mirror looking back at her. She could see a Brown Sister who might have been. She could see a woman bonded to the man she loved, one who would not abandon her and her children to be killed by Shadowspawn. One who wouldn’t have manifested the ability to channel and shamed her further among her sisters even to the point of losing all hope of being respected ever again.
All that she had managed to avoid was becoming Amyrlin Seat with the choice of what to do about the Dragon Reborn… that and being Stilled and little consolation that was after all the death that had marked her cowards path, though she’d never let anyone know that was what she thought of it. Why, burn her if she never wanted to admit it to herself. In too many ways, the Shadow had won in her heart… and Sirayn was right, how could she give solace or help to anyone when she had so little for herself?
Sirayn, her mentee… the woman she first helped to the shawl. The child, not of her own womb, she’d first and best loved. Sirayn who suffered so much now, and perhaps because of her mentor’s own inability to place her on the right road in those fundamental years of learning…
A long slender digit ran across and around the picture of the Three Arches Ter’Angreal of Tar Valon in the book once more. Like a lover’s caress as she considered the object of her nearly two hundred year hatred; two hundred years of study and obsession, two hundred years that she prayed wouldn’t have been for nothing.
Closing the book and putting on her shawl for the first time in a very long time, she admired the sight of herself in the mirror. Honey/Wheat hair with hits of silver starting to appear in it’s thick locks, all bound loosely into a bun at the base of her skull and held in a golden snood. Her simple white dress of Andoran cut reminded her, vaguely, of the dresses she wore for so many years as a novice and accepted but that no longer troubled her as it once did. No one could mistake her for a young Sister any more… she was getting old and sadly that badge of honor didn’t bring her comfort either.
Slipping quietly down the hallway she tried desperately not to wake anyone. She couldn’t bear for her Sisters to know where she was going at this early hour when it was still dark. Surely they’d wonder at her sanity even more than they ever had before. Truthfully, if she hadn’t become so desperate, she might wonder too.
In the main antechamber she stood on the large flame of Tar Valon on the floor tiles and paused only a moment, out of respect, and then continued quietly down the corridors of the Blue Ajah to the door she should have been avoiding like the plague since taking on Vera, her mentee, as a personal assistant.
But this was about Vera as much as it was about her and Sirayn… this was about them all. This was about the War against the Shadow where it lay most insidious and MUST be defeated.
The soul.
Knocking softly, she waited as calmly as possible for Elyssa of the Blue Ajah to answer.
Elyssa was in a dark chamber, it was cold and she had only her shift for protection. She had no idea how she had gotten to this chamber but had a feeling she was in for a harsh awakening. As she walked down the long marble floor toward the only door she could see the sense got stronger. Something was coming for her and it was going to take her places she never even dreamed of. Just as she reached the end of that floor and had her hand on the knob she was awakened by a knock on her door.
Startled she sat up in her bed and robbed the sleep out of her eyes. She slipped into her slippers and put a light blue robe on over her nightshift. Fixing her now shoulder length hair so it didn’t look suck a mess she headed to see who was at her door this early in the morning. She stopped for a short moment at the door to Dafydd’s room to make sure he hadn’t been disturbed. She knew he was wide awake listening for any signs of danger she could feel him in the back of her head.
Reaching the door she slowly moved her hand to the knob that feeling that something was about to change her life coming back threefold. Was that really just a dream or had she sensed what was to come in her future. As she opened the door she could not hide the shock and disgust on her face. Why would a Red sister be at her door in the middle of the night?
“Hello Telcia Sedai, I cannot say that I am pleased to see you more like shocked if anything.” Ely was not trying to be rude but in her shock she could not think straight. “Please come in and have some tea I am sure it is important if you are here at such a late hour.”
Telcia enters. “Forgive the lateness of our meeting Sister. It is, I’m afraid, all too necessary… and do not trouble yourself with the tea. My guess is either you’ll appreciate my having come to you and we’ll be on our way shortly… or I’ll be explaining myself to my Ajah Head and Mother before dawn’s first light.” Telcia hesitates before continuing.
“I need your assistance for two reasons… one because of your known talent and perhaps it’s ability to help you understand more clearly what I’m wanting to attempt and secondly… because if successful, the revolutionary discovery we’ll have made may just be what saves someone we both care a great deal for.”
Ely listened to Telcia as she spoke. She had been right that her life was going to drastically change. She was going to have to see the First Selector over this and she knew it. But the opportunity was just too good to pass up. “Please tell me more of what you have planed and I will think on the matter”
Telcia was wishing she’d accepted that tea now. This was no small explanation. Or perhaps it was… “This has to do, in part, with Vera and securing a future for her. This is part of the reason for this secrecy… for choosing your presence in this experiment as opposed to someone from the Brown Ajah who has worked with me for nearly two lifetimes on this theory or even a Yellow.”
“What if I told you that I may have discovered the true purpose of one of our most well-known Ter’Angreal… and… I had a way to help those with troubled minds through their psychosis? And … that all that was left to do after all these years of research and study was to test the theory. Would you be interested in being part of the team that broke that ground both for your own reasons and to help Vera, if successful?”
Ely looked to Telcia in shock and then in amazement. Which Ter Angreal could she be talking about. Ely could only think of two and that was the Oath rod and the Arches that are used to test the novices. Ely’s mouth went dry at the mention of her mentees name. She walked over and heated some water for tea and again offered some to Telcia.
“Please explain further I am interested in what you are saying and yes I would like to be a part of it but I need more information before I will agree to work with a red on this.”
Telcia bit back a scolding of the woman. She was her elder by nearly a lifetime and one-half and significantly more talented with the One power yet… no… pride was the tool of the Dark One. She would not allow it to stop her now. She could not, for Vera… for Sira and herself… and the Light.
Nodding to the tea, Telcia reluctantly sat down. “The story begins a long time ago when I did not yet know of my Foretelling Talent… when I was tested for the ring and banded dress. I did not know then what my life would be but as I entered the Ter’Angreal something happened.”
Telcia’s face smoothed. “I was nearly lost in the Arches… and what I saw there left me committed to the study of them both for the troubling things I saw and for my fear that they were unstable and unsafe for anyone to use.”
“For two hundred years I have sat on every Accepted raising that I was allowed to. It became standard I would go for the Reds as our Ajah Head knew of my commitment to the protection of our young girls and the strength I have with spirit threads.”
“My study partner became Eriya Sedai of the Browns… Kit, as some call her. The woman is a genius when it comes to Ter’Angreal. Well… the long and the short is that we came to realize the effects the Talented mind has inside them vs. those who are not. AND, those who are already mentally unstable verses those who are strong.”
“As time progressed and we watched more and more raisings, seeing the scars emotionally and mentally it left… we wondered if perhaps we hadn’t been doing things a bit backward. That perhaps the mind is controlling the arch and NOT the threads of the sisters. Perhaps the silver exit appears when the mind is no longer strong enough to bare what it sees. AND if this is true… it stands to reason that the function in the Age of Legends for such a device would have to have been healing… a sound theory as spirit is the primary force for healing and that Spirit is the energy that powers the Ter’Angreal.” Telcia leaned back letting Elyssa take it all in.
Ely sat in silence. She didin’t know what to say to all of this. It did seem reasonable that the person in the arches was actually the one controlling them and not the people outside of them “And how to you propose that we study this theory further?”
Telcia took her tea and sipped it. “I think… Sister, that you’re already quite aware of what the next step in Ter’Angreal study would be.” Telcia leveled her eyes calmly at the Blue who was still waiting for the obvious to be spoken.
“Once research and study is exhausted the next step is logically… testing.”
