Awakening

Hazy awareness rolled excruciatingly like jabbing waves, smashing within her skull to shake her to a painful consciousness. Forcing open her eyes, Dallah thought she had been blinded. She could not see anything! She tried to move and found that she was tightly bound and was encased in some musty-smelling, roughly textured rug.

Memory came crashing back and she winced at each mental movement of her groggy mind.
How dare someone treat her like this?
Who had the termerity to abduct an Aes Sedai Head?
Fury flooded her like never before, for this time, the enemy was faceless, some threatening unknown. She was going to blast them all when she found who was responsible!

Dallah tried to reach for the source. But to her dismay, found that she could not. Who was whimpering? Her cheeks felt wet. She willed the embrace of saidar. But the comforting sweetness, the cloying essence of life eluded her completely.
What was wrong? She was not shielded. Tasting an unfamiliar herbal taste on her tongue, her heart went cold. Somehow, someone must have forced her to drink something that prevented her from channeling. She had heard of a drink like this before though the name of the herb kept slipping away. Which all indicated one thing - only an Aes Sedai could have masterminded this whole operation.

Betrayal stung her. Who would dare??
But right now, she was absolutely helpless as her body registered some a halt in the rumbling motion of a cart. She heard some muffled voices.
"Your cargo is all here, including those rolls of carpets you ordered."
"All right, load them all, men!"
Familiar sounds of port activity filtered into her ears - she had grown up in a port city after all. Noises of raucously swearing sailors, screeching gulls, mooring and departing ships.
And she could do nothing as they lifted her up, transported to some place that she did not know.

*******

Michelle could not believe her ears as the innkeeper regurgitated her amazing story. A Red Sister directly involved in this abhorrent crime!
"Where is she? Where did they take her??" her voice did not sound like hers at all, it was ragged and broke at jagged pitches. She reached forward to grab the woman's dress and shook her none too gently.
"You must know!"

So caught up in her frenzy, she did not even realize that the woman was blubbering that she did not know anything else. She felt a cool hand touch her shoulder.
"Let her go, Michelle. This is all we can discover here," came Daelin's authoritive voice, "Leave us." That was directed at the innkeeper. The woman vacated the room as if an earthquake would swallow her up.

"What are we to do?" Yavanne asked, "She could be anywhere by now."
"But still in Tar Valon," Idinya said, rapidly calculating.
Naturally assuming authority just as she had been born to it, Daelin said, "A few of us will discretely ask around. This will be done most efficiently with just a few of us. The rest of you must go back to the Tower and if circumstances become even direr, it will be your responsibility to inform the Amyrlin Seat. Michelle, I entrust you to lead some of the Sisters back to the Tower."

"WHY??" she said, "I want to look for Dallah. I can't go back to the Tower!"
"Michelle," Daelin's voice said that she would brook no nonsense, "You are the most senior here and you have some influence amongst the seniors.. keep them out of trouble. Things are very much changed since I was last here."
With that, she left with two other Sisters in tow as if she was in some royal procession.
**
Some Sisters and Michelle were sitting listlessly in the Red Parlour. The gauzy curtains of the window hung down still and heavy. The balcony scene of the sweltering Tower grounds was of no interest now.

Without announcement, Zarlash with Niwenay at her side and a few other older Sisters swept into the room.
"I have heard of the terrible news," she declared crisply, "In such turbulent times, the Chair of Ajah Head cannot be empty. The Ajah's position is very precarious at this moment. According to the Constitution, when a Head is incapacitated, the current Sitter is to take her place. I am now taking the Chair and will lead the Reds as they ought to be led."
"You! You're the one responsible for all this!" Michelle nearly choked out.

Idenya had wanted to go with Daelin's party to look for Dallah, but Laurya's arrival had made her realize that she wasn't sure who was capable of doing what within her own Ajah! Somewhere in the deep recesses of her mind, she'd known to trust Michelle only, and accepted Michelle's recommendation of Daelin. Yavanne had been more than willing to help find Dallah, which made sense, too. But Laurya had come running upon hearing news, as well: just because someone has different views from the Head doesn't mean she'd be willing to break the customs to have her views carried out.

So Idenya rode with Michelle's party back to the Tower, thinking along the way about the other Reds she'd not seen in these past hours. Sephirael, who was so obviously liberal... maybe she didn't think Dallah was moving fast enough? Sephirael wasn't around this morning, but Idenya hadn't considered that unusual at the time, probably because Sephirael had been gone with the Black Tower embassy for so long that she was accustomed to Sephirael's never being there.

Idenya kept thinking about each Red sister in turn, even after arriving at the Tower and sitting in the Parlour with the other Red sisters. She had calmed her mind considerably, given the situation, when Zarlash burst into the Parlour with the also newly-arrived Niwenay at her side, among others, and announced herself as the new Head.

As Michelle burst out her angry accusations, which Idenya suddenly saw must be true!, and Yavanne took her own stand against Zarlash, Idenya remained sitting, taking the situation in as calmly as she could muster. I've been in far worse predicaments than this, she thought to herself, but her anger toward Zarlash—towards the Sitter's total lack of respect for her own position as Sitter!—was taking new dimensions. She would put a knife through the Sitter, of course, before letting her get away with it... the Sitter would never know what had hit her, if indeed Dallah was gone and Zarlash became Head with the Amrylin's permisssion.

But there were better ways of handling this... all was not lost, at all. As Yavanne stalked out of the room to join Daelin's party, Idenya stood and faced Zarlash and her friends: "Zarlash, I followed Dallah this morning." Seeing a look of horror cross Zarlash's face for an instant, Idenya turned from the Sitter, walked toward the balcony view of their White Tower grounds, and continued, "The innkeeper told us about a Red-shawled Sister; proof of Dallah's abduction was left at the scene; and it's only a matter of time before we find Dallah." Mentally shaking off the fear that they may find Dallah's body only, she rounded slowly on the sitter: "You could, of course, stop me and others from speaking up against you—lives are easy enough to extinguish apparently." She then approached Zarlash as meekly as she could muster with so much anger stirring inside her: "Or... Or you could tell us where she is, and hope the Amyrlin Seat takes your help into consideration when deciding your fate."

Yavanne saw Zarlash incoming, she heard as Michelle accused the Sitter of kidnapping Dallah, it was a logic explanation, because she would benefit utmost. She first wanted to stay, but she had never been intereste in any politics. She thought "First we find Dal, then we will deal with Zarlash....I would like to see her stilled". She came near Daelin and said "This place now started to stink, I think I will go to the town", Zarlash wanted to say something, but she looked at Yavanne's panther, and reconsidered speaking.
"Excelent Daelin said....I could use another siter as well..."

Laurya spoke up softly. "Daelin, my Eyes and Ears brought me here. Apparently my, uhm, sisters decided it was not necessary to rouse the entire Ajah. I do not know what caused this, but I will be coming along. We will find Dallah."

Looking around the inn, she frowned in distaste.

"This wasn't the best job. They rolled her up in a carpet and took her to the docks. Somehow they were able to prevent her from channelling to respond, so she was either surprised, which I doubt, because she's not one to walk into a situation where she's unsure of the safety, or she was convinced she had nothing to fear, and was deceived. Given the propensity for people using forkroot to foil Aes Sedai, I suspect the situation was this. Someone won her trust, or already had it, shared a tea with her, drugged it, and stuffed her into the carpet. They are likely at the docks right now. I believe the next ship leaves in a little over forty-five minutes. Unless I am missing a vital piece of data, perhaps we should head to the docks?"


The inkeeper blubbered with tears spilling over as Michelle nearly took the woman's skin off with the Power. Daelin had to stop her... irrational fear of the Red Ajah seemed to be the main cause of all their problems and hurting this woman certainly didn't help their cause.
To top it all off, Laurya suddenly burst in, demanding to know what had happened to Dallah. Daelin sighed inwardly. Laurya made a good Red no doubt- she was solid in her opinions and hard for her cause. But she was also prone to fits of overemotion, which was why Daelin assumed she hadn't been called upon originally to find Dallah. So how in the Light had she figured it out? There most be more leaks in Tar Valon than she thought. Daelin was disgusted. Such would only make their task harder and now there was no way of keeping this whole affair quiet.
But she held back her irritation and assiged Michelle to go back to the Tower along with Idenya. Yavanne and Laurya accompanied her around the city to question possible witnesses. Laurya suggested the docks. It was a likely area, but they had no proof. Dallah could havce been taken anywhere in the city to be hidden, hoping that searchers would assume she had been taken out of the city via boat. A mistake here could cost them everything... time was all the kidnappers needed to do whatever they wanted to the Red Head.
And so she set off down the street, questioning vendors and shopkeepers alike, asking whether they had seen carpet merchants headed in their direction. From their answers, she deduced that they were not headed towards the docks, but rather deeper into the northern portion of the city. But she couldn't afford to make mistakes now.
"Laurya, you head to the docks to make sure there are not carpets with a hidden Dallah on the next ship to depart. Also check the cargo holds around the area. They might anticipate our presence, and be waiting until later to take her somewhere. Yavanne and I will head north. Meet us back in my quarters at sundown. We will discuss our findings with Michelle and the other then."

Yavanne felt quite relieved going with Daelin. It was something suspicious in Laurya's appearing. Why she knew about docks, and if Zarlash was behind Dal's kidnapp wasn't Laurya too...after all she was quite close to Zarlash. But she cut those thoughts, there was a rescue to do. As they walked through northern section of town, there was a man guarding one of the doors. There was something familiar....Yavanne quickly recalled that there was one of her thief friends during her days in Caemlyn...Maybe he would know something...She close to him and said:
- Veldrin, I haven't seen you afor ages
- I'm sorry Aes Sedai, I can't...wait Yavanne, that's you....you rose pretty high in Tar Valon...
-- There is no time for chit chat my friend, the friend of us had been kidnapped - interrupted Daelin - Maybe you know something about this,...
- You talk about woman in Domani dress...but wait...she is Aes Sedai right?
- Yes...but...it was you - asked Yavanne
- Light, we were told that this is a fake Sister, and we were to remove herfrom the town, for her own sake, there was odd woman, who told us to do so
- Was her voice sounded like - Daelin modulated her voice to Zarlash's one
- Yes...that was her voice...and I will guide you to our hideout, we really didn't want trouble with the Tower.
And they walked through smallpassages and alleys to a derelicted house. Veldrin knocked and the door opened. Inside there were few armed men.
- Veldrin, why you brought those females...- asked one, and he quickly realized his mistake - I'm sorry Aes Sedai, I
- Yes, you should - said Yavanne in angry voice - You have kidnapped, HEad of Red Ajah, and you dare to adress me in suuch words, I should let my pet eat you.
- But we were told....he was starting to shake - It does not matter, free her at oncee, and maybe we will let you live.
- Yes Aes Sedai
Few seconds later Dallah was let out of the cell, she loooked quite shocked and little wounded, but she looked all right...Now there were only few things to settle...