*Nezralyn*
On Her Own
Nezralyn din Rhea took a deep breath, meant to calm her nerves. It didn't help. She'd been in storms, but Jasin had just named this one a hurricane, and she was afraid.
"My whole life has been nothing but easy", she thought to herself. "It's about time something happened to me that I had to fight." She just wondered if she were ready. And what was this feeling that this storm was not the only thing she had to fear?
Nezralyn set her jaw firmly and set her mind to the task at hand. Using all of the Power she could hold, she concentrated on flattening the waves at the front of the ship. They were getting higher, though; some threatened to engulf the bow of the ship. Nezralyn blew them apart with Air and kept holding Water weaves over the front, hoping to keep the waves lower than the deck.
She used the tiniest bit of power to weave Air around herself, blowing a breeze around her in a small circle. This kept the water and sweat out of her eyes.
The Power felt good. On the other hand, it also felt more strongly than she'd ever felt it. She knew she was holding too much; with her capacity for the Power, she couldn't sustain this for any decent amount of time. Was there a choice? The lives of the crew were at stake. The ship himself was at stake. Nez felt her responsibilties settle over her, heavier than the waves she fought. "'Duty is heavier than a mountain'...is that what the gleeman said?" she thought, distantly. "I wish I could see a mountain. Someday I'll see the Dragonwall..." Suddenly every hair on her head stood up, and a bolt of lightning drove its point into the waves before her. It blew her back several feet, but did not manage to remove her grip from saidar. She stood back up with the help of a crewmate who'd been knocked down, as well. He looked at her sympathetically; no one wanted the bow position during one of these. Nezralyn din Rhea set her jaw again, turned to the storm and snarled. She was going to earn her salt name in this storm; she could feel it.
*Jasin*
The Bolt of lightning almost struck the prow
Jasin saw Nez blown backwards onto the deck. One of the new crewmen helped her up. A wave crashed into the starboard hull. The deck lurched again and the water cascaded across the deck throwing the crew to their feet. The surge was carrying the crew dangerously close to the edge. The ship rocked again as people were picking themselves up and threw one of the crew overboard! With a curse and a prayer Jasin turned to Jhenia.
"You okay here?" she waved a hand distractedly. He unclipped his vest and descended quickly down the pulleys. Nez was casting over the edge for the missing crew.
"Get back to dancing the waves girl." he snapped and tied a quick loop with a rope he found on deck. He clipped it to his vest and threw himself overboard towards the bright slash of orange in the boiling waters. The wetlanders never suspected why the Seafolk wore such eye rending colours. He had heard one say it wasn't natural. That was the point.
The sea swallowed him.
*Nezralyn*
The Overboard Crewman
"JASIN!" Nez screamed against the wind. It was a futile effort; he couldn't hear her, and it wouldn't have helped if he had. She turned her face back to the waves, but her attention didn't follow. "Light, oh, LIGHT he's out in that," she thought.
She struggled with the waves. Lashed by the wind and driven by lightning, the waves were torn apart between the grip of the elements and the grip of the young Atha'an Miere girl channeling them flat. She gritted her teeth and set her face once again to the wind, praying that Jhenia was doing something miraculous, because they needed it.
*Jhenia*
Fighting the Winds
The movement caught Jhenia's eye as Jasin lept overboard. Her whole world seemed to shake for an instant, saidar being her only link between her body and her mind. They're depending on you...their lives are in your hands...Fight the Winds...Ride the Storm. If there was a point where sweetness could turn sour, where pleasure could turn to pain, she teatered on that brink of laughing and crying, being in control and losing her soul. Saidar rushed through her like a maddening flood that she either controlled or was swept away with. Not allowing herself to think, using only her instincts, she began to Weave the chaos into a pattern. Wind, Spirit, Water, Fire, Earth, it was all there, it all must be used.
Wind and Spirit, building a something of a shield she pressed with all her might and felt as the winds roared in fury at being pushed back. Her body trembled as she poured herself into her work, but she could feel it working, the waves definately lessened, though they didn't disappear. She couldn't hold it. Light! There has to be another way! Lessening what she did, she felt some of the torrents lash angrily at the sails, while others were still held by saidar. She lessened it just a bit more, allowing herself enough slack to do something else. Wind and Spirit again, only this time with Water and tiny amounts of Fire and Earth, she battled with the boiling clouds this time, as she still tried to hold back some of the winds. She pushed and shoved, trying to break through to the clear sky that she knew had to be on the other side of the storm. It's not going to work...it's not going to... dispair washed over her in a wave. But something else was there.
Not just dispair, but anger.
She grasped for that thin thread, her lifeline in the chaos, her only hope. If she let despair win, the storm won as well. I will not die! Not here, not at my first chance to prove myself! Fight it, fight! She altered the flows and pressed the clouds again, only this time to control them, not break them. Rain fell, but only where she allowed it, the wind blew but only as strongly as she let it. She felt her energy being sapped, but she wouldn't stop. Suddenly, there was a tremble. She felt all the blood drain from her face. The tremble grew stronger and she released all the flows she had been holding. The winds and rain slammed back with renewed fury, but she paid them no mind.
The sky began to light, but she was already doing her work. Fire, Wind, and Spirit in a solid knot just so. Lightening began to streak, and for a moment all of time stood still. All her anger, all her strength, everything she had to offer at that moment went into that flow as she threw it towards the oncoming shaft of light that would be their death. The two met in the sky, and what happened next she was sure if she dreamed or if it was real.
The lightening shattered.
For a heartbeat the night sky was brighter than than the clearest noonday, and then...nothing. Jhen felt her body slam backwards and she released saidar before it had a chance to overtake her. In that moment, she could do nothing, and in that moment another bolt of lightening streaked towards the boat. Defenseless, the Windfinder hoped her apprentice could handle this.
*Jasin*
Another World
lay beneath the waves. The dark was churning as the storm raged above. Jasin caught a glimpse of the orange breeches of the new crewman. Jasin had never met the man, but he was as important as any of the crew that he knew. Stroking mightily against the heaving currents. He had maybe a minute before the rope had payed out in it's entirity. Before he was pulled by a stronger force than the sea. His ship. The crewman had seen his own bright clothes and had responded by struggling against the grip of Strombringer. Outstreched hands met, clasped, and were tested as the rope snapped taut. The force was powerful but they hung on for dear life. Muscles and lungs screaming, Jasin dragged the crewman to his lifeline. They towed themselves towards the ship. For an instant the sky burst open. Blue flaring light filled all vision. He broke the surface screaming defiance to the sky. The other crewman was scaling the rope towards the ship where waiting hands were receiving him. Jasin stared at the silhouettes of Nez and Jhenia. Nez at the prow arms held wide gripping the rails, Jhenia slumped against the mast. Suddenly a second bolt streaked towards the ship, he held his breath.
*Nezralyn*
Watching Jhenia
Nezralyn whipped her head around at a crack of thunder right on top of the ship, just in time to see Jhenia doing SOMETHING to another bolt of lightning. The bolt...expanded...then flew apart in glittering shards of blue light that filled the vision. Jhenia slumped against the mast, spent. "Jhenia!" Nez screamed, but it caught in her throat as a second bolt of lightning approached the boat. This one was hers; there was no one else.
"Oh, Light, PLEASE let me be able to handle this...If we can only make it to the eye..." the thought was there and gone in a split second, but it lasted an eternity. She drew in all of saidar she could stand, and did the only thing she knew how to for lightning. A shield. Air, Water, and Earth.
Jhenia watched in horror, raising a hand to stop Nez. Not fast enough.
The shield flew up and around the ship, encasing it in flows of Air, Water, and Earth. The lightning throbbed around the shield, and for a moment, Nez didn't understand. "Water!" she thought. "The Water in the shield is drawing the lightning!" It was too late now to pull the Water threads out; the lightning would break through and kill them all. "Light, PLEASE!" she screamed, throwing every ounce of saidar she had into the shield. The shield exploded outward, tearing the lightning apart, and blowing the clouds directly above the ship up and out.
The lightning was gone, but the storm wasn't over. And Nezralyn din Rhea lay on the deck, unconscious.
*Jhenia*
The Eye of the Storm
Jhen felt a scream rip from her throat, half for Nez and half for herself. For an instant, as she felt the flows explode, the temptation to draw all of saidar that she could hold, and then more, was almost overwhelming. The world seemed to catch fire for an instant, and an unexplainable combination of pain and horror nearly devestated her. But then, suddenly, it was over.
Not only the pain, but the storm.
Reality came crashing back on the Windfinder, and she realized that the storm was not over at all, they were in the eye of the hurricane. Near hysteria, Jhenia unclipped her vest and made her way down the pulleys in the same manner she had seen Jasin decend. Her feet seemed to barely touch the deck as she ran to where Nez now lay unconsious. She saw Jasin and the crewman that she didn't know climb back over the railing of the boat, but her mind wasn't with them.
The younger woman's head in her lap, Jhenia began to quickly weave flows to see if she was alright physically. Little did many know, but it was extreamly important that a Windfinder be able to Heal as well as Listen to the Wind, Healing was her way of looking after the crew. Puzzled, Jhen studied Nez for a moment before reality hit her again. She was perfectly fine physically but...her hands jerked back from the apprentice's head as though she had been burned, and the Windfinder let out a low hiss.
"What? What is wrong with her?" Jasin's voice was enough to make Jhenia jump, she hadn't realized that he was standing there.
She clamped her eyes shut and fought back the threat of losing her mind. "She's fine physically, she'll wake up shortly and will be OK for the most part. It's just that..." she opened her eyes and studied her apprentice's face, her former apprentice. "She won't be able to channel. She's burned herself out." Clamping her eyes shut again, she felt a sob rack her body. Light, I can't do this alone!