Andromeda Austen (Arches)

Andi closed the door to her quarters behind her, and with an exhausted sigh, plopped on her bed. Sleep had been a luxury for her lately. Years of being a novice made her used to classes and chores filling up the greater part of her days. Not to mention that Andi was a voracious reader. But for the past two weeks, she had been unable to fall asleep easily. The piece of paper on her small nightstand still lay where it had been when she read it for the first and last time. Stephan, her little brother, had run off with Children of the Light. She had feelings of guilt, regret, and fear for her brother's choice. But this was her life now, even if she was still merely a Novice.
Compounding her pain, was that she missed her good friend and former roommate, Phylis. She failed the Arches and was put out of the Tower. Phylis was a pillar of support that Andi relied on. Now that she was gone, Andi felt lost.
She lay her head down on the pillow, too tired to sleep right away, but nonetheless hoping that she could get some of the rest she required. However, those hopes were dashed as someone rapped on the door, and entered. "Andromeda? Wake up." It was Alizanth Sedai. Andi opened her sleep-famished eyes and peered at the Mistress of Novices. There wasn't any more classes for the day. The Mistress of Novices wasn't one to dispense punishments late at night. Besides, there was no reason for one. "Come with me child. It is time." She went back outside.
Time for what? Andi wanted to know. But no Novice can disobey an Aes Sedai, especially the Mistress of Novices, so Andi slipped out of bed and went out into the hall. She was waiting there, and as soon as she saw Andromeda, went down the hall. Where the Aes Sedai went, Andi had never been. "Where are we going, Alizanth Sedai?"
"You'll see child," as they went deeper into the bowels of the White Tower. There was a door at the end of a long hall and Alizanth went through it, and ushered Andromeda inside. Andi had never been inside this room, but she knew instantly what she was here for. Three arches forming a ring, with the vertex of each arch meeting at the top dominated the middle of the room. Aes Sedai from each Ajah were by the rings, and the telltale glow around all of them showed that they were channelling. She even recognized a couple of them. Bronwyn was wearing a grey shawl. She gave Andi a small smile. Andi gave a half smile back, but the severity of the circumstances hit her. This was the test of Acceptance. The test that her friend had failed.
Alizanth turned to Andi, "There are two things that no woman hears before she is in this room. First, once you begin going through the Arches, you must continue to the end. If you don't, we have no choice but to put you out of the Tower, no matter your strength or potential. You will receive enough silver to support you for a year and make a new life. However, you may never return to the Tower as part of it." Andi nodded. That was apparently what had happened to Phylis. Andi gleaned enough to know that she just was not able to go through the third arch. But Phylis never told Andi why it was she was unable to continue.
'Second, it is extremely dangerous to go through the Arches. Some women have entered and never come out. When they showed that they were no longer in use, the poor girls just weren't there anymore. They were never seen again." Andromeda gulped. She had no idea that she could essentially die by going through the Arches ter'angreal. Was that what made Phylis lose her nerve? How could Andi do this? She was feeling doubts. Doubts that she stubbornly stuffed back down. 'There must be risk in order to become Aes Sedai. How could it be any other way?' she thought to herself.
"If you will survive, you must be steadfast. Falter, fail, and..." she left it hanging. But Andi understood. Steadfastness was what was needed to succeed. "You can still refuse now. That would leave you with only one mark against you. You will be allowed to come back here twice more. However, the third refusal will put you out of the Tower. It's no shame to refuse. Many do. You may speak now." Andi considered this. She would have two more chances. She could better prepare herself. Get more rest.... And worry more about when she'll get the opportunity to go through the Arches, as well. Who knew how long it would take before she was brought here again? She could be a novice forever. Steeling herself, Andi looked straight at the Mistress of Novices and said simply, "I'm ready."
The Mistress of Novices merely nodded. "Very well. But, you must leave your clothes here. You must go into the Arches naked." Andi nodded again, surprised at this determination that she was feeling. As she stepped out of her dress and shift, and the cool, dry air caressed along her skin, she realized that usually that she would be blushing wildly. But Andi had a purpose now. She would succeed. Andi followed the Aes Sedai to another waiting Aes Sedai. "Whom do you bring with you, Sister?" the Aes Sedai said formally.
"One who comes as a candidate for Acceptance, Sister."
"Is she ready?"
"She is ready to leave behind what she was, and, passing through her fears, gain Acceptance."
"Does she know her fears?"
"She has never faced them, but is now willing."
"Then let her face what she fears."
The Mistress of Novices faced Andi. "The first time is for what was. The way back will come but once. Be steadfast."
Andi looked at the two Aes Sedai for a second, and then stepped up to the first arch. One stride and....
.... She was in a village. And wearing something other than a white dress. It was a brown homespun. Andi looked at her surroundings and realized why it seemed so familiar. It was Redbrook, her home! In front of her was the inn that her father owned. She ran inside, nearly running down a patron. "Father!!" she exclaimed as she found him cleaning off the bar. Andi rushed to hug him. He was a tall, slightly portly man, with balding straw colored hair. "It's so good to see you again."
"You weren't gone that long, sweetie," he smiled. "Only a couple hours with Wilhelmina and Stephan." His smile withered.
Wilhelmina!! But she was dead!! And what was Stephan doing there?
"How is he?" he then asked. Andi looked at her father questioningly. "Stephan... how is he coming along?"
Andi had no idea what her father was talking about. But then she guessed that he was ill. "Oh... father, you should see for yourself." The pained look that he gave her tore her heart asunder, but it was the only way she hide that she didn't know anything, and go see for herself what was wrong with her brother. Tremaine, her father, grabbed her hand and ran out with Andi in tow all the way to the Wisdom's house.
"How is he?" Tremaine demanded of the Wisdom.
Wilhelmina, taken aback, said calmly, "His fever has broken. He will be back on his feet real soon. He just needs rest is all." Andi peered at her brother and saw that he was older than she last remembered, as if he aged a few years. Andi then looked at Wilhelmina, and she looked haggard, flushed... and old. More so than she ever remembered. Then, the old Wisdom just collapsed.
NO!!! and Andi remembered that Wilhelmina had collapsed after treating Stephan of a fever, and died soon after. Andi rushed to her old mentor and checked all her vital signs. Her heart had stopped.
So that was how she died.
Could she channel? Somehow she wondered if that could do it. Even though she didn't know what to do exactly, Andi couldn't just let Wilhelmina die. She did know, however, that channeling might cause more harm if she didn't know how to help in that regard.
"Andi... what's happened to her?" her father asked, concerned for the Wisdom.
"Her.. her heart has stopped." Andi remembered an old tome in the Tower's library that stated an observation how an Aiel brought back to life someone that was apparently dead for a minute. She put her mouth over Wilhelmina's and breathed in. Then she pressed on the Wisdom's sternum. It was then that she saw the arch by the door. The way back will come but once. Be steadfast..... Steadfast!!
"No!! Not yet, I have to save her!!" she screamed at the mocking arch.
"Andi, there is no one there, sweetie." Andi then gave another breath and round of sternum pumps. The arch seemed to know that she was refusing and started closing. If she stayed to save Wilhelmina, she would be trapped.
Be Steadfast....
"NO!!! It's not fair!! I wasn't there to help her before!!" Andi shrieked.
"Andi, honey, what's wrong?" Tremaine wrapped an arm around her, comforting. It felt so nice to be comforted that she almost forgot that she had little time to escape. Light, she couldn't get stuck here!
"I... I must go." She struggled mightily out of her father's firm, but gentle grip, and ran for the door.
"Andi, where in the Light are you going? She's going to die if you don't do anything. Andi???" her father called after her, his plaintive cry shredding her heart as she made it through the arch just as it closed....
The cold water, and the hard floor of the Tower's undercellar shocked her back to reality. She was sobbing, and Alizanth was holding a goblet over her head. "You are washed clean of what sin you may have done,' she said, 'and of those done against you. You are washed clean of what crime you may have committed, and those committed against you. You come to us washed clean and pure, in heart and soul." Andi looked at the Aes Sedai through tear-blurred eyes, and Alizanth looked at her questioningly.
"I will continue," was her answer to the unasked question. The Mistress of Novices merely nodded and continued. "The second time is for is. The way back will come but once. Be steadfast." Andi took a deep breath and stepped through....
....And found herself walking down a familiar hall leading away from the Tower Library. She stopped in her tracks, slightly disoriented. What was she here for? She did have books. But was she supposed to do something else? She returned to her quarters and despaired that they were empty of her former roommate's belongings. It still felt recent. With a heaving sigh, she sat down on her bed. It was then that she saw the man sitting on the small chair across from her. With a sharp intake of breath, she almost demanded who it was, and even embraced saidar. But she recognized who it was. It was a tall, well-muscled, blonde youth, but those same sad blue eyes were looking at her. However, the intensity that they now had took her aback. Her brother had always been sickly, but now, he looked rather in shape.
"Hello Andi," his young baritone voice filling the room with a smooth timbre.
"Stephan," she gasped. She was so stunned to see him here. What was he doing here? How could he be here?
Apparently those questions were voiced, and she didn't realize that. Or he could read minds. "I am here to liberate you." He took off his brown cloak and underneath was the tell-tale white cloak with golden sunburst.
"Liberate me? What do you mean?" she asked increduously.
"I'm here to take you out of this city seething with filth, evil, and corruption. I'm here to take you away from this heart of the Aes Sedai witches. I'm here to take you back where you rightfully belong before you were kidnapped." His eyes looked at her intensely. He really believed in these words, even though she knew them to be false.
"I..." she started uncertainly. She wanted to be with him, but at the same time she knew that her place was here. "No Stephan. I belong here."
"Light!!! Burn these Aes Sedai, but they're brainwashing you!! Still, you're my sister, and it's still not too late to come back to the Light." He grabbed her hand, and dragged her out. She struggled, but he was just too strong and determined. Andi never thought of using the One Power on him to stop him. She could never harm him like that.
"What is the meaning of this? Who are you?" a voice of authority inquired after them. Andi recognized the voice as being Bronwyn Sedai's. "Andi? Andi hun, what's going on?"
Still, Stephan persisted and as Andi was too shocked to say anything, Bronwyn strode to them. "Stop this instant!!!" She then saw the white cloak and let out a cry half of fear and half of rage. "Noooo!! Unhand her, you filthy Whitecloak!!" The thing Andi knew, she was falling to the ground as the hand holding her was thrust away from her. She got the breath knocked out of her as she hit the floor, and panted as she observed Bronwyn closing the distance to a Stephan pressed against the wall. His eyes blazed with hate, and that scared her, but not as much as her eyes returning that hate.
"You took away my family, and now you're invading my home to take away my friend?!?!" the Aes Sedai shrieked. Stephan merely spat at the Aes Sedai. This infuriated her even more, and if it weren't for the Three Oaths, Andi was sure she would have killed him.
"Stop this!!! Stop this instant!!" Andi shrieked. Both of them looked at her. "Let him go, Bronwyn Sedai. He's Stephan, my brother." Bronwyn stared at her, while Stephan smiled triumphantly. "Let him go, Bronny," Andi pleaded with her.
"Andi...."
"NOW!!"
Bronwyn sighed and the glow left her and Stephan peeled away from the wall. "Let's go, Andi."
"No!! Don't go with him!!" Bronwyn chimed in.
It was then that the arch appeared just behind both of them.
"Make your choice, Andi. Please break with this evil!"
"Andi, going with him will be a mistake. Your place is here."
Andi grew frantic. She knew deep down what the right choice was, but it was so good to see her brother again. She believed that she could possibly help him break this nonsense about being a Child of the Light. Andi looked at one and then the other.
"Andi, I love you. I need you out of this festering hole." Stephan was becoming more insistant.
'Be Steadfast' that same voice inside her again ringing through her mind.
"Andi, hun. You know the right thing to do."
'Steadfast, be steadfast'. The voice brought her a sense of alarm. The arch was nearly closed as she stood there uncertainly. With a curse, she flew past them both and ran for the swiftly closing doorway out.
"Andi, don't leave me!" both Aes Sedai friend and Child of the Light brother called after her....
....cold water hit her again. She shivered not from the cold, however, but rather from the memory of the battle with Bronwyn, Stephan, and her temptations.
"You are washed clean of false pride," Alizanth intoned. "You are washed clean of false ambition. You come to us washed clean, in heart and soul."
There was only one arch left. Light, but could she go through it? She shook with fright, but knew that whatever happened, she would succeed. A life without the Tower seemed empty now. Andi stepped through the last arch....
Desolation. Death. Decay. It was the scene of a nightmare. Dead soldiers lay everywhere. Amongst them were Warders and Aes Sedai. Andi walked amongst it all. She fingered her yellow shawl as her eyes peered over the scene. Strangely, she felt calm. There were few still alive, and she tended to them. Andi was helping people in need, and this made the horrific setting bearable.
Still, it was overwhelming, and as she strode amongst the consequence of battle, her determination flagged. How could this have happened? What had happened? Then, in a strange sort of way she remembered. Andromeda Sedai remembered, actually. Darkfriends had ambushed her party of Aes Sedai and Warders. But at the same time, men in white had come out of the woods. Light!! Children of the Light!! And indeed, many of the dead were in white uniforms. What if... what if Stephan was amongst them? Her breath drew in sharply as she recognized a dead Aes Sedai. Taracia.
"Light... Taracia. I'm so sorry." Next to her, dead with a sword to the chest was Bronwyn. "What is my place, now?" she asked her.
"Andi," a male voice got her attention. She turned and saw Stephan advancing on her, with his sword raised. She was too shocked to move. "Andi, down!!" She dove and his sword found the darkfriend that was sneaking on her with a knife. Andi looked slack-jawed at the dying darkfriend that would have been her bane if not for her brother. Her brother that soon collapsed. She looked over him and saw that he had a vicious wound to his chest. It was a wonder that he could stand, let alone kill that man. He looked grizzled, a veteran of 25 years in the service of the Children of the Light by that time. And he looked tired, painfully so.
"Stephan, you're hurt." She said foolishly, since it was obvious.
"Hello Andi," he managed a weak smile. "Not exactly how I wanted to see you again."
"Let me help you," knelt by him and put her hands on him.
"NO!!! Don't do any of that... that Aes Sedai witchery on me!!"
"But Stephan, you will die..." she protested.
"Please... find a different way."
"There is no other way, Stephan. Not with that wound."
Stephan looked at her, considering. "Are you sure?"
"Yes. And as I cannot lie since I'm bound to the Three Oaths, I am telling the truth."
Stephan laughed. "I believe you, but not because of a filthy lie such as those so-called Three Oaths. I believe you because you're my sister. But I'd rather die, than have the Dark One's taint go through me."
"Stephan, please. Listen to me. I... I can save you. If you let me save you, I promise..." she gulped, "I promise never to channel again."
Stephan stared at her. His eyes held that same intensity he had in the previous arch. "Really?" She nodded. He became quite pensive. But as he was thinking, Andi caught sight of the last arch out.
'NO! Llet him decide first!' she screamed inside her brain.
'Be steadfast,' was the answer.
She looked nervously at the arch that seemed again to mock her, and back to Stephan. She needed him to decide!
"All right," he said reluctantly. "Only because I love and trust you, will I permit this obscenity."
She nodded and immediately knelt by him again and set to Heal him. She probed him first to gauge the extent of the wound. It was mortal, but not that hard to Heal. It would take some time, though, since stopping the blood flow too soon would cause cardiac arrest.
But the arch was closing. She didn't have much time.
"NO!!! Stay open, burn you!!" she yelled at the arch.
Stephan looked at her uncertainly, "Andi, what is the matter?"
She worked to make the right weaves and apply them, but the faster she worked, the faster the Shadow-accursed thing closed!
'Be Steadfast, the way comes but once' the voice repeated in her head. She worked frantically, despite the warnings of the voice and the quickly closing exit.
But she knew there wasn't time...
The arch would close long before she could heal Stephan...
If she stayed to Heal him, she would be trapped, and in the real world, disappear.
"NO!! It's not fair!!" she cried in dismay. She leapt up and started running for the arch, now nearly closed to the point of no return.
"Andi?! What in the Light are you doing? Get back here!! Don't leave me!! Don't abandon me!!" his cry was plaintive and keening.
'Oh light, Stephan, forgive me. I have to do this,' she thought to herself.
When it was apparent that she wasn't stopping, his voice took on a different tone. "You Aes Sedai witch!! They have corrupted you, haven't they? I shouldn't have trusted you, you stinking spawn of the Dark One!! I should have let you die, or killed you myself!! Burn you! Burn You!!!"
She dove through the opening, Stephan's words tearing her insides to pieces. "Light, I'm sorry!!" she said to him just before going through....
....again, she was doused with cold water. Andi rolled in a ball, sobbing, but she could still see that it was the Amyrlin standing over her. "You are washed clean of Andromeda Austen from Redbrook, Ghealdan. You are washed clean of all ties that bind you to that world. You come to us washed clean, in heart and soul. You are Andromeda, Accepted of the White Tower." Andi looked intently at the Amyrlin through tear-streaked eyes. "You are sealed to us now," the Amyrlin said.
Andi could do nothing more than nod and then she broke down, once the finality of the Amyrlin's words hit her. She was part of the White Tower now and irrevocably.
Category:Arches