The next month of my life I believe I worked harder than I ever had before. I trained arduously with the Aes Sedai, and they were harsh taskmistresses. They recognized my potential and pushed me accordingly, but it was worth it – by the end of the month, I was one of the healers that had the ability to restore the power to a severed or gentled individual, although I was not strong enough yet to restore anybody to a level near their original strength.

One day, Della and I were chatting together in her quarters, as we were wont together in our scant free time, when Berrandra Sedai entered the room. Without greeting us, she said, "Well, I knew you two would be here. We have a mission. We are trying to make peace with the Black Tower as you know, and you two and I are going down there to negotiate a treaty. Pack for four days, we leave in the morning." With that, she turned and left.

We had stayed fairly close to Ryah, so we approached her that night to tell her where we were going. We invited her to come with us, just in case we needed somebody with any of her. She agreed to come, and even bring some paper in case we encountered Blue Eyes again, and he could hopefully write for us.

That morning, we went to the Traveling Field with Berrandra, and she opened a gateway to the Black Tower. We were received by a young Asha'man Soldier –similar to an Aes Sedai Novice – who introduced himself as Davion. "I've been told to take you to Master Taim" I couldn't help cringing at that name – as a False Dragon, Mazrim Taim had wreaked havoc in Saldaea, and it was only through the valiant efforts of General Davram Bashere that he was driven out. Della gave me a sympathetic look, and we were shown to the antechamber. Mazrim Taim was sitting at a table in the back of the room.

Davion did formal introductions. "Master Taim, may I introduce Berrandra Sedai from the White Tower of the Salidar Sisters. May I introduce Dellasarnia Allianin, Accepted of the Salidar Sisters. May I introduce Linnea Korozani, novice of the White Tower of the Salidar Sisters. You are in the presence of Asha’man Mazrim Taim, the M'hael, currently in control of the Black Tower instead of the Dragon Reborn"

"Thank you, Davion, you are excused," he answered, and Davion bowed to him and left. Taim turned to us then, fixing us with an intense and somewhat predatory state that made me feel as if my stomach had turned itself inside out. The revulsion I felt for that man was intense.

"Welcome, Berrandra Sedai. You are all welcome. Please, make yourselves comfortable. You will be shown to your rooms shortly. Berrandra, may I have a few words with you?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a black-coated figure come up to us, presumably to guide us to our rooms. I got a bit of a shock when I turned to him – it was Blue Eyes! Indeed, he was told to show us to our rooms (I later joked that I wasn't sure I wanted him knowing where I slept at night). We took the luggage, and got it to the appropriate rooms. Berrandra and Ryah had their own rooms, but Della and I shared a room. Again, we tried to ask for the fire ter'angreal, but he pretended he didn't know what we were talking about. Ryah handed him the paper and pen, but he just laughed and handed it back.

Della nudged me. "Linnea, he likes you, maybe if you flirt with him, he'll give it up."

I rolled my eyes. Della had no compunctions about using her body and charm to get what she wanted, and as much as I liked her, I never approved of the way she strung men along to serve her ends. I kept myself much more guarded than that, and I preferred to be genuine with people. "I will not lower myself to that!"

Blue Eyes charaded to us that he had to go to class then. He bowed, and left us.

Night fell before Berrandra returned from her meeting with Taim. The three of us were still in our room when she barged in. She brusquely asked Ryah to leave, and then told us, "Taim has asked for our assistance. He feels that there is a plot to overthrow him as M’hael of Black Tower, and that False Dragon Logain Ablar is behind this plot. This will probably guarantee us a treaty with the Black Tower. This is what we came to do. Should it come down to a battle, we WILL be siding with Taim." She retired to her own quarters, and the two of us were still pondering the consequences of her words when we had another visitor.

We were face to face with none other than Logain, another False Dragon. With him were two Aes Sedai he had actually bonded as warders – Gabrelle and Toveine. Gabrelle channeled some kind of weave to prevent eavesdropping, and Logain began to speak. "I have just spoken to Berrandra. She does not believe me. Taim is a Darkfriend. He has attacked the Dragon Reborn, and I need to gain control of the Tower from him."

"What Logain says is true,” Gabrelle told us, wanting us to hear it out of an Aes Sedai's mouth. We knew that she must be speaking the truth. At the very least, it meant she thought Logain was speaking the truth.

Logain asked a favor of us – he wanted us to convince Berrandra to join his side, and told us a battle is imminent. We had to choose, and what we chose might determine if we lived or died. With that happy thought, he departed.

Della and I just stared at each other for a moment, struck by the enormity of the task laid before us, knowing that we were tangled in webs and schemes far beyond our skill to unravel.

"What do we do?" she asked.

I shrugged, feeling as clueless as she did. "I don't know. I don't trust Taim, though."

"Do you trust Logain more?"

Again, I had no good answer. Logain was certainly more charismatic, but what did that mean? "I don't know. I'm new at this."

"Well I do. Let's talk to Berrandra," she said convictedly, although I suspect some of that was faked.

Somehow, I didn't see the two of us able to persuade somebody like Berrandra. "If you think it will do any good. I just don't want to get kicked out of the Tower after working so hard to get here"

"Well, we wont be rude about it. We just have to talk to her."

"Look, why don't we try to find some information on our own. If they couldn't convince Berrandra, why should we?"

She nodded. "Good idea. Let's find Blue Eyes... or... wait, we should find Ryah first."

We snuck out of our room, and headed to the horse stables, where we knew we would find Ryah. We told her everything we'd heard, asked her opinion, and said that we were thinking of finding Blue Eyes. She told us she'd come with us, and felt we should find him, because his opinion was needed. We searched the tower for a while, but saw no sign of him.

"Do you think he's on the roof?" Asked Ryah, harkening back to our misadventures at that village. But, we didn't see him there, or near the fringes of the forest where Ryah suspected he could have been collecting more stones.

Eventually, we approached a worker and asked after him. "A blue eyed Aiel?" he said. "Well, there is that one that's always throwing rocks in the forest. I don't know where he is now, but he usually hangs out in the mess hall when he isn't throwing rocks. "

The mess hall seemed as good a place as any to search, so we went in under the pretense of eating. There were at least 100 Asha'man in there, and we finally spotted him in a back corner with several other Asha'man. He appeared to be in conversation – for a moment I was outraged that he could actually talk, but as we neared them, we couldn't find any definite proof that he had been speaking. Della suggested that I approach him first, so I sauntered casually towards him.

He waved merrily to me, and I asked him if we could speak to him in private. He nodded, and the four of us stepped outside.

"Are you willing to talk to us now?" inquired Della. She got nothing but a stare in response.

Ryah tried her luck. "Will you write things down?" She handed him a paper, pen and ink, but all he did was begin to lick the pen. Furiously, Ryah snatched them back from him, and slapped him.

"Look," I cut in. "We're here to begin a treaty. We think it’s very important. Both Taim and Logain have approached us. Do you think you trust one more?" His answer was immediate – at the mention of Taim's name, a look of disgust filled his face. When Logain was mentioned, his face calmed, and he had a respectful smile on his face. For a moment, he actually looked sane.

"Do you think Taim has sinister intentions?" I asked. He gave me a pointed look that said that should have been clearly apparent.

"Do you think you could talk to Berrandra and help us to get her to help Logain? She is very steadfast in her support of Taim."

He looked undecided for a moment, but shook his head no.

"Can you lead us to anybody else who could help?" asked Della impatiently.

He gave us a nod to that, and then led us to some of the living quarters, and knocked on a door. The man that opened the door was short and bald, and in the room we saw an Aes Sedai wearing yellow. "Can I help you?" He asked.

We introduced ourselves. Upon introductions, the Aes Sedai, Corelle, demanded of us, "What are an Accepted and a Novice doing wandering by themselves in the Black Tower?"

Della explained our situation. "We think our Aes Sedai is making a big mistake, and we are trying to find somebody who will help us change her decision," she said, and apprised her of all that had happened.

Corelle and the man, an Asha'man named Damer Flinn whom she had bonded as a warder, went into a corner and spoke quietly among themselves for a moment. When they came back, Damer said, "I never trusted Taim. Logain has shown nothing but loyalty to the Dragon Reborn. If this goes where it seems to be going, I am siding with Logain."

"I will assist you in convincing Berrandra of the situation" added Corelle.

"Do you want to go tonight, or should we wait?" I asked her gratefully.

"We should do it tonight, under the cover of darkness."

We made our way to Berrandra's quarters as discreetly as possible, and Corelle knocked on the door. After greeting her, Berrandra let us all in the room. When we were all assembled, she noticed the presence of the woodswoman. Della and I realized then we had made a mistake in inviting her with us – we should have left her where she was after meeting Corelle so Berrandra wouldn't realize how much we'd told her. Della apologized for her presence, explaining that she knew a lot about Aes Sedai. As she already obviously knew what was going on, she was allowed to stay, but we got an "I'll deal with you two later!" from Berrandra.

After that was settled, Berrandra addressed Corelle again. "Come, let's talk. Logain has approached me as well. I don't trust anybody who has been bonded by an Asha’man because he can Compel them. But you Corelle, I don't understand why, but you have bonded the Asha’man yourself. I believe you still have your wits about you. Do you truly feel Taim is a Darkfriend?"

"I don't know, but we do know that he is power hungry and overly ambitious. These three came to me and told me what Logain told them. And if Taim indeed does know, then the battle is imminent. The Black Tower will be torn apart. I don't know how long we have."

Berrandra turned to us then. "And what do you two think?"

Always the diplomatic one, Della spoke first. "Well, I have always had suspicions against Taim, and people that I trust here at the Tower have told me of their own suspicions, so were it my place I would trust Logain."

"I don't know how many people you know at this Black Tower, the fact that you know any is disturbing. But if you do trust them, and I know of your diplomatic skills, which is why I brought you...I suppose I should think it over. And the novice?"

I tried to inject a level of maturity and confidence into my voice. "Well I must admit that I am biased against Taim because I fully remember the devastation he wrought against my people."

She lifted an eyebrow. "Logain too was a False Dragon, you know".

"I know," I said, aware of the contradiction in my feelings.

"He stilled a sister," she said, the bitterness in her voice showing how it was considered a crime akin to murder among Aes Sedai.

"I believe Taim would, had he the chance. Taim killed Aes Sedai," I replied.

"And what are your impressions of Taim?"

"It may very well be my associations, but he makes me feel sick."

"And you, Della?"

"He turns my stomach."

"Very well, I shall think this over. You are dismissed," she said curtly.

Once out of her room, Corelle said, "I think we did well, Berrandra will come to her senses. I must go." We thanked her, and asked if we could approach her if we needed further help. "Yes, you are always welcome to ask for my assistance," she told us.

Relieved that things had gone so well, I told Della we should go to bed before we got into any more trouble. Ryah left to return to the stables, and Della and I sunk into sleep.

Ryah told us later that she did not sleep, aided by the belt buckle. As she walked back, she stopped at the Mess Hall, and saw that Blue Eyes was still there, eating and listening to people. She approached him, and his friends, who quickly quieted down about whatever they were discussing as they noticed her coming near. She waved to Blue Eyes, and went about her business getting food, and asked if she could sit with him. He gave her the affirmative, and she sat down next to him. She saw his two companions were both Dedicated, but they seemed unfriendly to her. She wondered what they had been talking about so intently, but decided not to get on their bad side by appearing too nosy. As she approached the end of the meal, Blue Eyes, tapped her on the shoulder and gestured for her to follow. Once they were out of earshot, she glanced back over her shoulder and saw that the two Dedicated had resumed their conversation, which was now taking the form of a debate.

He took her to a cellar with several crates and boxes of various sizes lined up along the walls, and stacked up in the middle of the room. He led her to a corner, and showed her a small box hidden in a crevice in the wall. She took the box, and upon opening it saw a dark, cracked sphere. The Aiel gestured for her to be quiet, and to take the sphere. He replaced the box in its hiding place, and then showed her back out of the cellar.

Knowing the object had to be power related, she snuck back into our rooms. She shook me gently, and I awoke from sleep, a bit disoriented, until I saw her face. "I met Blue Eyes," she whispered, before I could say anything.

"Did he tell you anything?" I asked yawning.

Silently, she pulled out the sphere. I slipped out of bed, and went to Della's. "Della! Della! Ryah is here,” I whispered.

Once she had awoken, Ryah said to her, "I saw Blue Eyes...he gave me this"

Now fully awake, she took the sphere. "Saidar emanates from the cracks. Should I try to channel something through it?"

"Just a little bit. I don't want Berrandra to sense it," I cautioned.

"And you better move across the room in case something happens,” added the ever practical Ryah, pulling me across the room with her.

Della tried a weave of air, and was immediately struck with a headache for her efforts. I gave her some herbs as she muttered, "Remind me not to channel through this again..."

"Just leave that thing be for awhile. Don't still yourself out," I said. Even though I had only been training for a month, I had heard plenty of stories about foolish Aes Sedai who stilled themselves while tinkering with strange ter’angreal.

"Should I take it to Corelle?"

"No, don't show it to an Aes Sedai. Can you ask Blue Eyes?"

"He didn't know what to do," said Ryah.

Della decided to try a light Spirit weave. She said she has another headache, but not as bad as before. Some of the lines began to glow. She put in a little more Spirit, and the sphere opened up. Channeling even more Spirit did nothing, and she couldn't close it manually. Finally, she tried to channel the same amount of Spirit she had used to open it, and that closed the sphere.

We tried more combinations of weaves. Nothing happened while Della channeled though the already open sphere, but if she tried to use anything else to open it, she felt various forms of pain over her body. Finally, after channeling a light Earth weave made her feel like her head was splitting apart, she set the sphere down. "No more!"

I gave her some more herbs for her headache, and some to help her sleep, and I was so exhausted I fell asleep almost instantly. We woke the next morning, and Della said she felt perfectly fine. Ryah was wide awake, as usual, and I wondered if she had slept at all.

There was a harsh knock on the door. We hurriedly gave the sphere back to Ryah, as Berrandra ran in, looking agitated. She looked to Ryah for a moment, said nothing, and ordered us to come with her.

We went with her, and Ryah followed. I think we were all a bit nervous, and wondering what was going to happen. She led us outside, where we saw two squadrons of forty Asha'man each, on opposite sides of the farm. Logain was the head of one, and Mazrim Taim was leading the other. After some quick scanning, we were able to identify Blue Eyes in Logain's army.

Berrandra said, "There is nothing we can do. We are Oathsworn to not harm anyone. We shall stay and support Logain's team. But we can't fight unless somebody tries to harm one of us." She quickly took our hands, and cast a weave all around us. I was able to read the weave and see that it was used to make us invisible. Still holding our hands, she dragged us to Logain's side. In addition to the soldiers, I spotted Damer Flinn and Corelle on our side as well.

The battle had begun. Every person on the field had embraced the Source, except for me and Ryah, and there was an undeniable tension as everybody stared, waiting for somebody to make the first move. That person ended up being Ryah. Taking advantage of everybody else's being occupied with embracing, she let fly an arrow from her bow. She hit a young man next to Taim, and I recognized him as Davion. He didn't die, but he was wounded enough that I'm sure he lost his grip on the Source. I edged to the side, because I knew that I would be useless in a battle, and I hoped I could at least Heal somebody who needed it.

What followed was the most horrifying, overwhelming experience of my life. Perhaps it was because Logain's team truly knew they were on the right side, but the majority of them acted with such initiative that most of Taim's side barely had a chance to react. Everything happened so fast; I barely had time to register it. Logain took advantage of the momentary distraction Ryah's arrow had caused, and a bolt of lightning coursed from the sky and struck Taim dead on. The radius of the bolt's damage alone killed nearly half of Taim's army.

From that point on, everything was a blur of fireballs and riven earth. Some of ours cast swords of flame, but were cut down before they could strike anybody with them. I found out later that the wall of flames that manifested on top of Taim and boxed in the rest of his army was Della's doing, Damer had cast a protective wall around part of our army, and that Corelle severed somebody. She had been injured severely by a fireball, so Berrandra had used her wits and created a gateway for Corelle to escape through. A fireball was also cast at Logain, injuring him and nearly killing Toveine, as well as five of our units.

All of this happened in mere seconds. Though I was no stranger to death and violence, I had never seen it caused to such an extent by fellow men. The only comfort I could take was to fully embrace the Source. By the time I had embraced, the battle was over – Taim had been killed when somebody rived the earth under his feet, and all of his men but one had died, and he quickly surrendered.

I surveyed the devastation. The ground looked as if something had exploded from within, and large craters pockmarked the field. The grasses were scorched and smoking, and there were bodies strewn about everywhere – or parts of bodies. Flinn and Corelle had survived, as had Logain and his warders, along with 20 of our men. I must admit that I was pleased to find that Blue Eyes was one of them.

Still holding on to the Source, I ran to Toveine. It took awhile, but I was able to heal her fully, and then went to find some food, as she was ravenous. Flinn, who was the best healer the Asha'man had, was able to heal Corel. The lone remaining Asha'man with Taim had been shielded and thrown in jail, and Taim's remains were hung on the Traitor Tree, along with the rest of his army.

Logain proclaimed leadership of the Black Tower, until the return of the Dragon Reborn. As he swept past us into the building Taim had occupied, he said to Berrandra, "I believe we have some negotiations to make". Berrandra motioned for Della and I to join her, and Ryah stood behind to guard the door.

Logain stood at the head of the room with Toveine and Gabrelle. Also present were Damer Flinn and Corelle. I calmly waited for him to speak, but to my utter amazement, he turned directly to me and took my hand. "Allow me first to thank you personally, Linnea, for saving the life of my warder."

I nodded, unused to being paid attention to by somebody so important, and managed to utter, "I am just glad I was able to help somehow"

He smiled and released my hand, and then addressed Berrandra and the rest of the room. "I think negotiations are a waste of time at this point. We will have a mutual non-aggression pact with the Rebel Tower. We will NOT support you in your attempt to claim the White Tower, or in an attack on you. Also, the Black Tower promises to make no alliance of any kind with the Sisters remaining in the White Tower. Also, I will send three of my Dedicated with your party in order to practice Linking."

Berrandra merely nodded, but she was pleased. "We can accept that, at least as a temporary solution. I look forward to our alliance, and hope more can come out of it at some point. We will leave you now." Logain and Berrandra swore oaths to uphold their treaty, and we turned and left. I realized I had witnessed something historic – the first alliance in ages between male and female channelers.

Once outside the building, Berrandra turned to us. She thanked us for our help, and told us, "All is forgotten, but if you mess up again, you'll be doing penance until the Last Battle!" Della and I grinned at each other, and retired to our rooms, and were told to rest, as we would be leaving in the morning.

We spent that night, and the next few weeks at the Tower further experimenting with the strange sphere. A spirit weave was enough to open and close it, and we tried to see what it could be used for. We tried putting marks into it when it opened, but after closing and opening it, the mark was unchanged, even if we tried to channel through it with another element. All it seemed good for was a storage device.

Della tried mixed combinations of weaves. Some of them resulted in unpleasant effects, but we found that mixtures of Spirit and Earth made the lines glow red, although nothing came of that. Trying a mixture of all five elements caused the sphere to open up again, but to a different compartment. Inside this compartment was a small white pad the size of our palms. The material was somewhat pliable, and pressure would cause indentations to form, but the pad would always return back to its original form. Della tried channeling through that as well, but nothing happened.

We found that the sphere was like a false bottom box. We put the pad back where it belonged and closed it. Then, using the spirit weaves, opened it and put the mark back in. We closed it again, and opened the sphere once more with all five weaves. This time it opened up to the pad. When we closed it and opened it up with Spirit, we found the mark again. Our first guess wasn't too far off – it was a kind of storage device, and using the wrong combinations resulted in discomfort or displeasure. Who knew how many other combinations there were?

Experimenting with the pad some more, we found that it could make extremely accurate impressions. Conceivably, one could make an impression of a key, and use it to make another copy of it. If a bit of Spirit was channeled through it, the pad flattened out to its original form.

We found other combinations. Using Air, Water and Spirit, it opened to a new compartment, revealing what seemed to be a commonplace bottle of ink. However, as we used it, we realized the ink in the bottle was unlimited. Earth and Water glowed red, but never opened. A strong weave of Fire and Air resulted in us finding a small golden ring, which we discovered to be an angreal.

We found that a mixture of the 'male' affinities just gave Della a headache. After doing as much as we could with it, we deduced that some of the combinations could use Saidin, or a mixture of Saidin and Saidar.

Other than our clandestine probing of the sphere, life was business as usual at the Tower. I continued to work hard and practice my skills over those next few weeks. It was three weeks after the battle when something wondrous happened. Blue Eyes had been at the Tower on a shift of Linking duty. As usual, he was driving everybody insane, but sometimes Della and I would go and visit him when we had spare time. One evening, he was infuriating us, as usual, and I jumped to playfully hit him. He anticipated my attack, and leapt on me, and began to tickle me. I am exceedingly ticklish, and I struggled to fight him off between gales of laughter and gasps for breath. Della, who had fallen to her knees laughing at the sight of us in the dirt, was no help. Eventually, I had laughed so hard my sides were pained, and I was out of breath and too weak to fight. I relaxed and figured there was no use, and perhaps if I stopped resisting, he would loose interest.

It was then that I suddenly felt a strange energy coursing through me, and warmth as if the sun was blazing above us. I was vaguely aware of Della's gasp and saw that Blue Eyes was no longer moving. Indeed, he couldn't move – I had bound him with Air, and the realization dawned on me: I had embraced the Source. The power surging through me was so beautiful I wanted to weep, but I reluctantly released it, and Blue Eyes just stared at me, stretching his arms out.

Della was grinning at me. "Congratulations Linnea, isn't it wonderful?" I could only nod, and I held out my hand, and channeled a small tongue of flame, simply because I could, and partly because, deep down, I was still disbelieving. But as I watched the flames dance in my hand, knowing that I had summoned them there, I knew that I truly had broken my block. My eyes filled with tears then, and I smiled back.

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