Wheel of Time: Light and Shadow
by PJ
 
Egwene al'Vere, Amyrlin Seat of the Aes Sedai, left the stifling interior of her camp tent, gratefully inhaling the cool night air.  She gazed over the Aes Sedai camp, with its many fires and tents arranged in orderly sections by Ajah. The Amyrlin walked down a clear path to the western edge of the camp, passing two tall Warders who bowed briefly in acknowledgment.  She looked out at the Caralain Grass, an immense flat land that stretched out to the horizon.  Egwene wrapped her shawl tighter around her slim shoulders, shivering despite the warm summer air.  Soon the Aes Sedai would encounter the Asha'men, soon a battle that would rival Tarmon Gai'don would begin.  Egwene sighed in resignation. She turned away from the plain, reluctantly returning to her hot tent to gain what rest she could before the bloodshed began.
 
 
Moraine Damodred clutched the top of the headboard while Imlik thrust himself into her.  The blonde woman clenched her teeth, refusing to give voice to her pain as the Asha'man violated her sex, his cock slamming cruelly into her sore vagina.
 
"You do not cry out, how disciplined of you!" laughed Imlik, yanking back on Moraine's long golden hair, rubbing his nose in her glistening mane while he continued to pump back and forth between her bare legs.
 
Moraine ground her teeth, tears sliding down her closed eyes from her aching scalp.  Imlik kept his left hand entwined in her hair, his right hand slapped her bruised buttocks, emphasizing each thrust into her moist cunt.  The strength of Imlik's thrusts intensified as his climax drew closer.  He slapped her ass harder, pulling her hair until she gasped sharply in agony.  The Asha'man grunted when he orgasmed, his cream filling her belly.  Imlik leaned against Moraine's ass, sliding his right hand over her perspiring, pale skin.
 
"Did you enjoy that?" asked Imlik, falling onto his side, watching Moraine closely.
 
"Yes," whispered Moraine, her dangling tits pumping heavily.
 
"Good," smiled Imlik, brushing a strand of slick blonde hair away from Moraine's face.  "Sleep now."
 
Moraine snuggled close to Imlik, motionless as he laid his right arm across her left hip.  He kissed her on the forehead, resting his face next to hers, falling into an exhausted sleep.  Moraine watched the Asha'man for a long time, sensing when he fell asleep through the Bond she shared with him.  Moraine watched the sleeping Asha'man, watched and plotted his death.
 
 
Steel rang upon steel as Galad's blade parried a blow from Imlik.  The raven-haired Prince blocked several more swift slashes from the Asha'man, circling him, searching for an opening.  Imlik grinned with pleasure, forcing Galad back with a blur of sword strikes.  Galad parried each one flawlessly, his eyes narrowed, his lips pressed tightly together.  When the hole appeared, Galad struck ruthlessly, smacking Imlik's sword hand, numbing the fingers so that Imlik was forced to release his blade.  Galad rested the tip of his sword on Imlik's throat, staring coldly into the Asha'man's wide eyes.
 
"Do you yield?"
 
"Aye," nodded Imlik, swallowing.
 
Galad saluted Imlik, sheathing his blade smoothly.
 
"Well done!" laughed Imlik, slapping Galad on the shoulder, "you've just earned the rank of Soldier!"
 
The other Asha'men in training congratulated Galad with handshakes and slaps on the arms.  Galad smiled wanly, accepting their praise, but untouched by it.
 
"We'll go into town tonight, celebrate your promotion!" smiled Imlik.
 
"Thank you, but no.  I want to work on my Channeling exercises tonight, I'm..having some trouble focusing."
 
"Worried about the Aes Sedai?" chuckled one of the young Asha'men.
 
"Don't concern yourself with those witches, my friend," replied Imlik.  "The Aes Sedai will regret coming after us, but we won't mind adding some more servants to the stable!"
 
The Asha'men roared with laughter, suggesting how the new 'servants' would service their new masters.  Galad left the crowd, walking back to the small house he had been granted just a few days earlier.  He passed Bonded Aes Sedai, the young women hunched over with various burdens, from freshly washed clothing to baskets of food.  Galad felt sick inside, nauseous that the Asha'men would treat the Aes Sedai, would treat any woman, this callously.  The Prince walked through the door of his house, closing it firmly behind him, leaning against it, his eyes closed while he pondered how he would leave the Black Tower.
 
 
"The Aes Sedai will cross the Caralain Grass to Whitebridge, where they will ferry over the river.  From Whitebridge, they will march to Baerlon, taking on additional supplies before they assault the Black Tower.  I do not intend for them to reach Baerlon, I will engage them on the Caralain Grass, with surprise on my side," declared Burk within the meeting hall of the Black Tower, surrounded by his veteran Asha'men officers.
 
"When do we attack the witches?" inquired an Asha'man.
 
"Tomorrow, at dusk," replied Burk, his face eager.
 
 
The Forsaken hovered in the air within the heart of Shayol Ghul, watching a display of Fire and Spirit woven by Aran'gar.  Lanfear levitated at the head of the gathering, her pure white gown fluttering around her long, pale legs.  At Lanfear's right floated Delana Trakand, the newest Chosen intent on the display of the Caralain Grass, her curly blonde hair shimmering in the light of the One Power.
 
"Your pieces are in place, Lanfear," observed Aran'gar with a toss of her dark hair.  "Is it wise for us to eliminate the Aes Sedai and Asha'men now?  We might need them soon."
 
"When the Confrontation comes, it will be the Forsaken who stop them.  The Aes Sedai and Asha'men are irrelevant.  They will merely hinder us," replied Lanfear cooly.
 
"I still hold the Accepted, Aran'gar," said Delana smugly.  "If we require more wielders of Saidar, we can use them."
 
"Our young sister speaks wisely," nodded Lanfear with approval.
 
"Very well," snapped Aran'gar with a glare at Delana.  "The Asha'men are preparing to attack on the Caralain Grass, there's no turning back."
 
"We merely have to watch and enjoy the show," chuckled Lanfear softly.  "What delicious sport this shall be!"
 
 
"No!  Please!" begged Egwene, her naked body dripping with hot sweat.
 
"You will obey!  Do not resist!" purred Lanfear, the long black whip in her hand snapping across Egwene's back, biting deep into her trembling flesh. Egwene held tightly onto the cool marble pillar in front of her, her manacled hands held at face level as the Forsaken whipped her again and again.  Drool flowed out of Egwene's quivering mouth, her small breasts pressed firmly against the rock.  Egwene's slim legs shook, a streak of cunt honey making a trail down the inside of her right thigh.
 
"You will obey me, whore!  You are weak!" snarled Lanfear, lashing the back of Egwene's left leg, making the naked young woman squeal in pain.
 
"I..I can't..take any more!" sobbed Egwene, sweet nectar flowing out of her pussy, warming her shuddering crotch.
 
"See how filthy you are!  You are not worthy to be the Amyrlin Seat!" hissed Lanfear, gathering Egwene's cum on one black gloved finger, rubbing the glistening fluid over the chained girl's soft lips.
 
"No!" screamed Egwene, jolting up from her cot, her breasts shaking violently. The young woman pressed her palms against her eyes, crying softly, venting her frustration and shame.
 
"Mistress?" inquired the servant girl who waited just outside the flap of Egwene's tent.
 
"I'm fine," called out Egwene, wiping the hot tears from her cheeks.  "I'm fine."
 
 
The march across the Caralain Grass was dull and dreary.  Egwene sat limply on her white mare, the reins loose in her right hand as the Aes Sedai rode forward to destroy the Asha'men.  The Black Hills stood vigil to the north, hazy and indistinct.  Due west, Egwene thought she could see the rough outline of the Mountains of Mist, the range where the Black Tower stood, nestled in its lake valley.
 
"Amyrlin," nodded Suilin Jareen, a new wearer of the Blue Shawl.  The young Aes Sedai nudged her mare closer to Egwene, her features furtive, uneasy.
 
"What is it?" asked Egwene, grateful for the interruption from her black thoughts.
 
"Saidar.  It is..uneasy," replied Suilin, her bright green eyes searching the reddening sky.
 
Egwene opened herself briefly to the True Source, her body eagerly taking in the surge of Power.
 
"I can't sense anything," frowned Egwene, reluctantly closing herself from the hot embrace of Saidar.
 
"Perhaps I'm imagining it.  I am still new to the shawl," laughed Suilin weakly, her eyes still drawn to the sky.
 
"If you feel anything more urgent, please tell me at once," smiled Egwene.
 
Suilin nodded sharply, clicking her mare away from Egwene's steed.  Egwene watched the young Aes Sedai disappear into the milling Sisters, many of them appearing to be tense, wary of some unknown danger.  Egwene ignored her Sisters' discomfort, she stared straight ahead, confident, remote, as she thought an Amyrlin should be.
 
 
The Aes Sedai were just setting up camp when the Asha'men struck.  Gateways sprung open all around the Aes Sedai, disgorging squads of Asha'men warriors. The men seized Saidin, then released it, weaving patterns of Fire and Earth. Balls of flame exploded in the midst of the Aes Sedai, hurling them like broken dolls, their smoldering bodies lying limply on the scorched earth.  The ground rumbled, then churned like water, blasting the Aes Sedai off their feet, smothering them in thick blankets of smothering dirt.  The Aes Sedai who could fought back, tearing apart Asha'men weaves, counter-attacking with their own fireballs or bolts of lightning.  The Warders charged the Asha'men, advancing like silent wolves, slashing at the Saidin-filled men
with sharp, gleaming blades.  The Asha'men struck with their own swords, using Saidin-enhanced reflexes to cut down the Warders' defensive screen.  Aes Sedai screamed when they felt their Warders die, their own bodies feeling the death blows of their selfless guardians.  The Asha'men used the disruption to press their assault, plunging deep into the Aes Sedai ranks, hacking down paralyzed women or disabling them with the One Power.  Egwene watched the Aes Sedai fall. She yearned to help her Sisters against the Asha'men, but something held her back.  The shadow of Lanfear still hung over the young Amyrlin, it trapped her more securely than any set of chains could do.  Gleaming tears slid down Egwene's cheeks, she wept, her chest shuddering, as she watched the Aes Sedai die before her.
 
 
Moraine Damodred lay curled within the blankets of Imlik's bed, her naked body shaking while she felt the Asha'man's joy, his unrestrained bloodlust as he slaughtered her fellow Aes Sedai.  An endless flood of tears flowed from Moraine's eyes, just when she thought she had no more, a fresh torrent would burst free.  The enslaved Aes Sedai was so lost in her grief that she didn't hear Galad enter the house until he coughed within the doorway of the bedroom.
 
"Are you hurt?" asked Galad, taking a step into the dark bedroom.
 
"No," whispered Moraine, brushing tears from her face.  "What do you want?"
 
"I'm going to free you.  I want you to leave the valley with me."
 
"Why?"
 
"I heard that Imlik treats his Bonded Aes Sedai the worst.  I'm sick of the Asha'men!  I'm going home, but I wanted to take an Aes Sedai with me, to free her."
 
"Who are you?"
 
"Galad Trakand, son of Queen Elayne Trakand of Andor."
 
"Elayne!" gasped Moraine, her sorrow overcome by surprise, and a glimmer of hope.
 
"Yes," smiled Galad, sitting next to Moraine on the bed.  "Did Imlik Bond you?"
 
"Yes, I can feel him in my mind, fighting the Aes Sedai."
 
"The Asha'men are attacking the Aes Sedai on the Caralain Grass.  The Black Tower is practically deserted, which makes my departure much easier," remarked Galad while he touched Moraine's warm forehead with his right hand.  "I think I can shift his Bond to me, please sit still."
 
Moraine sat quietly, a soft pain forming in her head as Galad seized Saidin, weaved Spirit around her mind.  The Bond shifted abruptly, Moraine gasped when she felt the link switch from Imlik to the young Prince.  The bloodlust in Moraine's mind became concern and tightly controlled fear.
 
"It worked," smiled Moraine softly.
 
"Good.  Let's go!" urged Galad.
 
 
Imlik withdrew his dripping blade from a young, green-eyed Aes Sedai's belly. He laughed harshly, Saidin filling his veins, its presence a song in his mind as he searched for another Aes Sedai witch to kill.  A pain exploded in Imlik's chest, he bent over, clutching over his heart, the breath stolen from his lungs.  Saidin slid out of the Asha'man's grasp, sucking the strength from his body.  Imlik staggered across the corpse strewn battlefield, then caught a glimpse of an Aes Sedai marching toward him with a blood-stained dagger.
 
"Asha'man butcher!" spat the woman, ramming her knife up to the hilt in Imlik's chest.  Imlik coughed blood, clutching at the dagger buried within his throbbing heart.  He stumbled over a dead Aes Sedai, falling heavily onto his back, his vision darkening.  Imlik's killer was the last thing he ever saw, her body bent over his while she retrieved her knife from his dying body.
 
 
Galad helped Moraine onto her horse, then ran his eye over the other Aes Sedai who had asked to join him and Moraine in their escape from the Black Tower. Smiling reassuringly at the cloaked, trembling women, Galad ran to his own horse and jumped up smoothly into the saddle, snapping the reins and sending the black and grey stallion into a swift gallop.  The Prince and his charges rode east out of the valley, to freedom.
 
 
The nightmare was over at dawn.  The surviving Asha'men wove their Gateways, dragging their new Aes Sedai prizes with them.  When the last Gateway had flashed out of existence, Egwene al'Vere, the Amyrlin Seat, left her horse and walked amidst the dead.  The stench of death was everywhere, it filled Egwene's nostrils with the cloy, sickly sweet scent of blood, burnt flesh, and voided bowels.  Egwene ran her eyes over the dead, the broken, blood-soaked bodies of the Aes Sedai and the hacked corpses of Asha'men and Warders.  The sobbing Amyrlin knelt next to the blood-drenched body of Suilin, she touched the girl's cold face, then pulled her hand back, sickened by the sight of her dead Sister. Staggering back to her feet, Egwene looked around, at the bodies that seemed to stretch on forever.
 
"My fault..it's all my fault," croaked Egwene, her clenched hands trembling out of control.
"I'm not an Amyrlin!  I'm a failure!"
 
Egwene tore open a Gateway, fleeing the battlefield, fleeing the sight of the dead, fleeing everything.
*****************
 
 
"To a job well done!" crowed Lanfear, clinking her crystal wine glass next to Delana's and Aran'gar's.
 
The three Forsaken stood upon the summit of Shayol Ghul, watching the sun rise over the Spine of the World.
 
"The Aes Sedai and the Asha'men are broken, and Egwene has fled.  My servants in the White Tower report that she has yet to return," smiled Delana, her sparkling blue eyes glittering with malice.
 
"Then the White Tower is ours," laughed Lanfear, nodding respectfully towards the beaming princess.
 
"Now that the lesser threat is neutralized, what about the others?" reminded Aran'gar, her eyes smoldering faintly.
 
"Ah, Them," mused Lanfear, sipping her wine.  "All in good time, Aran'gar.  Do not distress yourself, when the time comes, we will move."
 
"Until then, to victory!" exclaimed Delana, her young face flushed with wine and excitement.
 
"Glory to the Shadow," countered Lanfear, raising her glass to meet Delana's and Aran'gar's, the newborn sun turning their wine the color of fresh blood. ************************
 
 
Min hung bonelessly in her web-constructed bonds.  The woman's head lay against her chest, her mind in a fog from the poison that coursed throughout her nude body.  She felt the web shiver, then she gasped when she felt a hairy tendril slide into her cunt, punching deep into her vagina.  Min moaned weakly, her body bobbing up and down within her bonds while her captor probed her again, its amusement a sharp hiss in her ears as it twisted its limb inside her pussy, its coarse fur rubbing her clitoris, making the stiff knob quiver.  Min could feel the huge creature's saliva pour down her back, the fluid burning her pale, white skin.  Mandibles slithered against the right side of her neck, dribbling more acidic drool over her flesh.  Min's lips shuddered, she squeezed her eyes shut, distancing herself from her prison and the thing that raped her, that took pleasure from her suffering.  She whimpered when the first streams of nectar escaped out of her pussy, gleaming on the monster's dry fur.  The creature probed deeper into Min, moving its limb faster and faster between her legs, stroking her clit until her cunt was slick with her juices.  Min's skin became hot, feverish, as her captor's poison raced within her throbbing veins. The woman bit her lower lip, piercing the pink flesh with her teeth before releasing a low, husky cry from her mouth.  Sensing Min's imminent orgasm, the creature slowed its probing, sliding its limb gently up and down within Min's vagina, her honey covering its furry tendril.  Min writhed in her sticky bonds, vainly trying to avoid what was coming next.  The orgasm jolted up Min's crotch, she panted while the powerful convulsions overwhelmed her, her vagina clenching the probe that invaded it.  Min's ravager pierced the tender white skin of her right shoulder, stabbing numbly into her flesh, sucking the blood wetly from her body.  Min's struggles ceased, she relaxed within the embrace of the web, drool dripping out of her open mouth while the creature on top of her fed.
 
"She is ready," pronounced Moghedien somberly.
 
"Look at me, what do you see?" hissed a silky voice behind the wrinkled Forsaken.
 
Using all of her remaining strength, Min raised her head, squinting at the dark form that squatted just beyond Moghedien.  Min licked her cracked, bleeding lips, struggling to speak.
 
"I..I see a horde, a swarm of darkness emerge from a circle of bright light. More darkness fills the sky, like a plague of locusts," croaked the naked woman.  "It destroys everything it touches, nothing can resist it."
 
"You see," smiled Moghedien, her elderly face cracking into a gleeful smile.
 
"But before..before the swarm covers the world, a group of men and women blocks its path, they shine with the light of the sun, they are the Guardians."
 
"What do these Guardians do next?" hissed the voice.
 
"They destroy the swarm," replied Min before her head flopped back onto her chest.
 
"She is unconscious," observed Moghedien.
 
"The Vision remains the same.  We must discover who these Guardians are and eliminate them."
 
"The Chosen?" guessed Moghedien.
 
"Perhaps.  We should be thorough and get rid of all potential threats before the Crossing.  There is no room for mistakes."
 
"What about her?" asked Moghedien, pointing up at Min's web-bound form.
 
"I will keep her.  She tastes very sweet, and she may be useful in other ways.." cackled the squatting form.
*************** 
To be continued...