Origins of the Sea Folk
A short story by ~ Elfin Glasswater

The boy looked up from his work, frowning. He was trying to splint the leg of a small bird he had found lying in the bush a few yards from his home in the country. He would have taken it to the city and looked for a Healer, but it was too many miles away and anyway, who was he to be bothering one who could channel the Power with a bird? The city wasn't safe, if it came to that. There wasn't any risk of Shadowspawn out here in the country but get into a city and who knows where the Dark One might strike. The war. The boy seemed to vaguely remember his great-grandfather telling him about a time when there wasn't any War, but he dismissed the thought out of hand. The war had been going on forever, and would go on forever, until Lews Therin Telamon, the Dragon of legend, would finally stop the Dark One, maybe even kill him. The boy smiled wistfully; how glorious that would be, to see the Dragon in all his glory defeat the Dark One!

He continued trying to splint the injured leg, and finally succeeded. He placed the tiny bird in a box in the house and went outside. Suddenly, he heard a strange rumbling noise come from the direction of the city. As he looked up, he felt the ground begin to shake and tremble, small stones and pebbles jumping about in animated dances. He ran for the house, hearing crashes as family heirlooms and delicate vases fell and crashed on the ground.

"Mother, Mother!" he called.

His father came tearing out of the house, his skin pale beneath the tan.

"Run, boy! Come on!"

The boy simply stood there, stupefied. Where was his mother? What was happening?

"RUN, boy! Run!" Suddenly galvanized into action by his father's words, he started to run alongside his father, away from the city and towards the place where the great sho-wings were kept. His thoughts were racing as fast as his feet, as they tried desperately to keep their balance on the rocking ground. He didn't know why they were heading for the sho-wing park; the sho-wings were only used by soldiers, and he did not believe his great-grandfather's stories of a time when the Sho-wings had carried passengers to go to far distant places. His father surely did not intend to steal one did he? It was unthinkable. The soldiers surrounding it would kill him in an instant.

As he topped a rise and looked down on the great flat plain where the sho- wings took off and landed, he saw that it was in turmoil. There was a huge crowd of people who had obviously had the same idea as his father. As he watched about three-quarters of the crowd boarded the sho-wings all at once, much less organized than the few times he had seen the soldiers board one. The rest of the people were crying, a huge wail of despair that made the boy reel back, for he had suddenly realized the truth of the matter. The Dark One was trying to make a final, desecive strike: he was going to Break the world, and no-one would survive. The only ones that would escape alive were the ones that were in faraway places, across the sea perhaps ... and the boy was not going to be one of them. It took all his effort to follow his father down the hill to the waiting crowd.

He followed like an automaton, barely registering the fact that there were other people there until one of them spoke to him.

"Boy.... Come... Here, boy...."

The boy looked up, surprised. The speaker's voice was cracked and harsh, as if they were weak or wounded. He saw a woman with a gaping hole in the side of her coat, as if it had been slashed or burnt.

"Boy ... do you know ... who I am, boy?... I am Aes Sedai...... and you are prophesied.... by one of my sisters...... who has the Foretelling. She.... tells me that.... you shall survive this.... breaking of the World..... that if you do not..... the next Age.... will not ... exist.... Come here, and see how I use the last of my power.... I will create a gateway ... to the Sea... Find a boat.... and go......"

The woman threw up her hands and made a slit in the air, widening into a hole in the air, a hole to another place. Some others had heard what the old Aes Sedai had said, and as the boy scrambled through they followed, a tide of people that suddenly stopped as the power keeping the Gateway open vanished. No-one looked back; they had all heard the stories about what happened to people trapped in closing Gateways, and had no wish to find out if they were true.

For a while the boy lay on the cool sand, trying not to think about what the Aes Sedai had said. He decided to concentrate on one small bit at a time: find a boat, she had said. When the boy got up and started to do this, looking around the sea - there was a magical word, the sea; he had lived hundreds of leagues from it in the place he was formerly - for something, the people followed his orders unquestioningly. When the man found a ship big enough for all of the remaining people lying about three miles from the original base, the boy wondered about the dying Aes Sedai as he set to work at the job of getting away; had she known?

As the people were setting out to sea, the Aes Sedai sat on the ground of the Sho-wing park and saw the gout of flame that suddenly engulfed the last sho- wing; this, too, had been prophesied. By now, they would have found the ship, and the future would have a hope.

And as the Hundred Companions and the Dragon ripped the world apart around her, the Aes Sedai lay back on the ground, and was reborn, as all are, throughout Time, until the Wheel stops turning.

Three days out from shore, they found an island. They refilled their hundreds of waterskins and kept sailing. Eventually, a month later, they found islands which they deemed far enough away and built more ships. There were some who had borne children on the first ship; these were called the Athan Miere, the folk of the sea. The boy grew; he gained himself the title of Master of the Blades. He married, and his wife he called the Mistress of the Ships. It would be nice to say that they lived happily ever after, but with the Dark One still alive this could never be. May the Light shine on us, and the Creator shelter us. May the wheel never stop turning.