I was preparing some herbal remedies for headache and fever when the doors flew open. I was quite shocked to see two women I had never seen before barge in. The first thing I noticed about them was Ryah's scar and the fierce grimace on her face, but that was quickly replaced by the bloody wound and pale countenance of the one Ryah was leading in her arms. They staggered towards me as I left my table to go to them.

I met them halfway, and Della half fell into my arms, muttering. "Please help me...Trolloc...in the woods."

I led her to the back room and laid her down on a cot. Knowing how filthy Trolloc weapons are and how insidious the infections resulting from then can be, I washed the wound extra carefully. By then, I had gotten a close enough look at her clothes and face to tell she was no Borderlander. I failed to catch her ring however, as I was too preoccupied with the wound to notice such a small detail as jewelry. I certainly never thought to look for it.

Once the tourniquet was off, the bleeding was profuse and I knew she could die if it was not mended properly. This allowed me to touch the Source and do what I have been told is "Delving" – using the Power to ascertain the health or injuries of an individual. At the time however, it was merely seen as one of my odd perceptions. Instantly I knew she had suffered a deep flesh wound, but there was no serious damage to any muscles or nerves. The only real danger was that of bleeding to death or of infection. In about a half hour, I was able to stop the bleeding, expertly mend the wound and restore the use of Della's arm so that any stranger would think she had only suffered a scratch. This of course was also done using the Heal weaves with the One Power. I know I'm a good healer even without the Power, but even I'm not that good.

Once the danger was passed, I couldn't help but feel irritated. I had been distracted from my herb making by what I saw as some fool Southlander traipsing in the woods as if she were on a pleasure jaunt. I already saw enough pain and suffering on a daily basis that I didn't need to see more because of some stupid decisions. And I admit that her doll's face made me think her some pampered noble's daughter who was trying to be 'worldly'. "So may I ask exactly what you are doing wandering around in the Borderlands?" I asked, just barely keeping the derision I felt out of my voice. "Don't you realize how dangerous it is up here? It may not be like that down where you come from, because it's my people who are keeping your lands safe!"

She smiled wanly. "For which I am very grateful. As for me, I was riding from the Tower, and I ran across Ryah, and she offered to show me around because she knows the woods very well. As we rode, a Trolloc jumped out of bushes and attacked us. Ryah shot it, but that didn't kill it. Luckily my horse kicked it and it ran away."

I was dumbstruck. She had been riding from the Tower? It was then that I looked to her hand and saw the ring she wore, the Great Serpent eating its own tail, a symbol of Aes Sedai. Bloody ashes, I just scolded a potential Aes Sedai like a wayward girl. "You are very lucky to have that horse," I managed. I studied her face again, and concluded she couldn't yet be an Aes Sedai. Aes Sedai were supposed to be ageless, and she was obviously quite young, too young to have completed training. An Accepted, then.

Della slid off the cot and flexed her wounded arm, smiling approvingly. Then she turned back to me and held out her hand. "I am Dellasarnia Alianin, Accepted of the White Tower. I am pleased to meet you and in your debt."

I extended my hand to her and curtsied. "Linnea Korozani"

Della regarded me with her wide blue eyes. "How long have you lived here?"

I had no idea why she was asking such questions, but I figured it would be best to answer. "My whole life. Twenty years"

"Have you always had such exceptional skills?"

"Yes, luckily...people are always getting hurt here"

"Did you ever wonder where these skills came from?" She looked at me pointedly, and I realized what she was getting at. I felt my heart leap – could she perhaps want me to train at the Tower? But I was too old, wasn't I? An Accepted couldn't change that.

I nodded slowly. "I have long suspected that...I could channel. There are odd things about me, sometimes. I don't know how else to explain them"

She gave a small smile. "You were right. But if you knew, why are you still here, in this village? Don't you want to train?"

I sighed. "Oh, I've always wanted to, but I've always felt tied down here. The people need me and this is the only way I can help. Besides, I'm too old now"

She shook her head. "The new Amyrlin has decreed that any woman with the spark, regardless of age, may be written into the novice book. I would like to bring you back with me."

I hesitated. Wasn't this the chance I'd always wanted? But now that I was faced with the prospect of actually leaving my home, I was reluctant. "I don't know. I'm the healer here," I said lamely.

"Surely you must have some apprentices."

"Well...yes” I did have an apprentice, a young woman named Rinna who showed considerable promise and had proven herself as competent on multiple occasions. I doubt she was a wilder, but as I have stated before, one can still be an excellent healer without the Power. She was good with herbs and potions and a hard worker. I knew I could be comfortable leaving the village in her hands.

Della's stomach growled – one of the consequences of using the Power to heal is that it uses the body's energy and so the victim is often very hungry afterwards. "I'll think about it," I told them, as Della got out some travel rations.

I called Ryah in then, and they rested in the back while I returned to my herbs, thinking all the while. Once I had finished, I went back into the room to see them. I had made my decision – it was time for me to leave the village and make something of myself. With some training I could greatly improve my skills and be a better healer.

Della greeted me with a smile. "Have you thought about it? We can help you refine your powers, you know. You could become even more skillful than you are now, and you have tremendous talent already."

I nodded. "I've decided to come with you," I said quietly.

"Grand! We'll leave in the morning."

Della and Ryah readied their horses and stabled them – Ryah had one too it seems, a warhorse who would come when she called – and I called Rinna to me. I informed her that I was leaving, and wasn't sure when or if I would return and that she was now the village healer.

I began to gather herbs, poultices and potions for my healing pack to take with me. As I was doing this, the ground began to shake with tremendous force. I ran outside, meeting up with Della and Ryah outside my door. As if I hadn't received enough shocks that day, I found myself facing an Aielman. Not just any Aielman, but one with completely blue eyes – no whites at all.

He was standing next to a large, smoking hole. The proud grin on his face showed that it was clearly his handiwork.

I am normally very considered very gentle, but it had been a trying day without some woolhead's reckless antics. "What is going on over here?" I yelled. I turned to the Aiel. "Where are you doing? You could have hurt somebody!" I exclaimed indignantly.

The Aiel just stared at me, blinking his large blue eyes. At the time, I didn't know if he couldn't talk or was just plain obstinate - we never heard that bloody Aiel say a word for months, and even then, he never spoke to us. But one thing was clear from the gleam in his eyes and his deranged grin – he was clearly insane. He was also wearing clothes I'd never seen on an Aiel – a black, high necked uniform, with a silver sword pinned to his collar. I missed the significance of this, but Della later whispered that this marked him a Dedicated of the Asha'man of the Black Tower – the organized group of male channelers that Rand al'Thor himself had founded to prepare for Tarmon Gaidon, trained specifically in using the One Power as a weapon. The rank of Dedicated was similar to her own rank of Accepted.

I threw my hands in the air and inspected the crater along with Della and Ryah. There were body parts near it. Trolloc parts. I sighed. It turned out I owed this fellow some thanks after all. It was strange though – Trollocs were rarely so bold as to come right into the village. I shivered with fear as I wondered if it was a member of a raiding party. Our scouts and warriors had been alerted however, and I trusted them to keep the village safe.

Della gasped, and then turned to the Aiel. "I'm so grateful to you for destroying it! It was following us."

At this the Aiel, whom we came to call Blue Eyes in lieu of a real name, smiled cheerfully and waved.

"Is anybody hurt?" I inquired, still anxious.

Still grinning insanely, Blue Eyes pointed at the trolloc.

I smiled in spite of myself, and Della began to laugh at the Aiel's cheekiness. "Hey, can you heal him?" she asked jokingly.

"No, and if I could, I wouldn't," I said tartly.

Meanwhile, Ryah had been inspecting the Trolloc remains more closely. She returned with a parchment she had found on him that had somehow survived the blast. "Does anybody recognize this?" she asked, pointing at the writing. It wasn't in Common Speech.

"It's Trolloc...I can read it," I answered.

"What does it say?"

I took the parchment from her and read aloud. "In the hills, in the lands of the living, exists a power we want." I raised an eyebrow. "Hmm, cryptic."

While I had no idea what they could have been talking about, Della's mind quickly went to her mission, wondering if they were after the same thing she was. Of course she wouldn't mention her mission to us at the time, so she merely suggested that we search for it in hopes of finding it before they did.

Knowing that Della was my link to the Tower, I agreed to help and offered to let her and Ryah stay in my home. To this day, I'm not sure why Ryah agreed to come – she had already repaid her Aes Sedai debt, but maybe she was just appalled at the idea of the two of us trying to track Trollocs through the woodlands and hills alone. We certainly wouldn't have made it very far without her. Maybe she just wanted to hunt Trollocs.

As we discussed this, I kept an eye on the Aiel. He seemed to be harmlessly collecting and playing with rocks, so I paid him no heed when he dropped one down a well.

Until it exploded, that is.

A wave of water erupted from the well, soaking us. This was too much. Angrily, I called for somebody to take this madman away, but everybody was scared to touch him.

Drenched, I turned to him. He just grinned at me, which only infuriated me further. "Would you please... leave! Before you cause any more damage! Stay away from my house!"

Silently, he turned and left. Where he went, I have no idea. Hoping I'd seen the last of him – but fearing that I hadn't – I went back into my house, Ryah and Della following, to get dried off.

We prepared for our journey, and slept well that night. We had decided that the most likely meaning 'in the hills' was the mountains to the south of the Blight, and decided to go to the Black Hills. Not much was known about it, except it being home to a large spire, a remnant from the Age of Legends, that people thought was evil.

We awoke early the next morning and had a quick breakfast. Upon opening my door to leave, I found Blue Eyes sitting a few feet from my house, staring at it. "Don't you dare," I grumbled at him, wondering what he had in mind.

Trying my best to ignore him, we went to the stables to get our horses, and made for the Maradon/Tar Valon road. To my dismay, I saw that Blue Eyes was following us. Again, I tried to ignore him, hoping he'd go away if we didn't pay attention to him.

We had only been hiking a short time when I heard Della hissing. "Blast those evil Trollocs." I looked to where she was and to my horror saw a whole fist of Trollocs camped to the north – just outside of my village. I felt my stomach clench and I felt as if my blood had turned to ice. To see those disgusting, evil creatures stalking my village... I admit, I almost quailed then. Part of me wanted to run back to my village and mentally condemned myself for ever leaving. If those Trollocs attacked, people would no doubt be hurt. And yet...what could I do? As I've said before, I am no warrior.

Della grabbed my wrist. "There's nothing we can do, Linnea. We have to get out of here before they see us," she whispered.

I knew she was right, and turned my back on my village, feeling a deep sense of shame. Any other respectable Borderlander would have charged the whole fist, and brought down quite a few of them before he was slaughtered. I could make no such sacrifice for my village.

"Blue Eyes, no!" I heard Ryah hiss. I looked over and saw him gathering rocks – no doubt he was planning on blowing up the whole lot, one by one and no doubt bringing them all upon us. At Ryah's behest, however, he put down the rock.

"He's going to be the death of us! He's insane!" I muttered.

Ryah agreed, "He's going to lead the whole fist right to us, tramping around like that!"

Della fixed the problem the best she could – she cast False Trail on him so that anybody following him would be led astray, and the three of us – with him following, made it safely to the road.

The next day and a half were commonplace traveling. We rode about fifty miles, passing a few travelers here and there. From them we heard snippets of what was going on in the world, and all of them were repeating the rumors that the Dragon was making an alliance with the Seanchan. I admit that I was uneducated in the ways of the world at large, so this wasn't all that important to me, but Della and Blue Eyes both pricked their ears and tried to hear whatever they could.

We traveled south and branched off about 200 miles from the Black Hills. I suggested stopping at a village about two miles away to replenish our supplies, since we really didn't know what we could find in the hills. We stopped at the inn, and Della attempted to earn her passage through singing, but the most she got was a free dinner. Ryah foraged for the rest of us however, so we were all satisfied. I purchased some more horse feed and Blue Eyes...well, he stocked up on rocks.

We spent a few days in the village, each of us practicing our respective trade for some spare marks. Della sang on the street, Ryah found a weaponsmith and I found a healer to take me in. I taught her some of my own remedies and assisted her in preparing tonics. I don't know what Blue Eyes did – all I ever saw of him was his ranging around the fringes of the village capturing small animals for food.

We prepared to leave the village, and as we left Blue Eyes came up to us, as if he wanted something. We just stared at him, never knowing what to expect from him. He waved, and then walked off towards the hills, clearly intending for us to follow. We exchanged curious glances, and decided we may as well follow.

After about 15 miles, we all began to get somewhat annoyed, but then we saw over the horizon, a large black structure, a broken tower of some sort. It had a circular base, and the remains were three floors tall. It was made of stone, and had a castle like structure to it.

Blue Eyes waited for us, and then went inside, beckoning for us to come along. I don't know what it was – another one of my 'odd' perceptions perhaps, but I felt that he meant well and that this was important. "I'm pretty sure his motive is good, let's follow," I said. Warily, the three of us entered the tower.

It was dark. It wasn't just that light was absent, but as if any light that found its way there was sucked away. It was an all-pervasive bone chilling kind of darkness, one I have never experienced even in the blackest Saldaean night. Della created a globe of light, but its effects were not as far reaching as she had intended, and we could only see a few steps in front of her. Something was hidden here, that was for sure.

Ryah whispered, as if afraid to violate the silence of this place. "This was a palace built by the male Aes Sedai during the Breaking. It is dangerous. Several things can lurk in its corners and never be seen. There are several powerful things probably hidden in it."

As with any mention of something built using Saidin, I felt fear and revulsion well up within me. But I forced myself to press on bravely. I had nowhere else to go, and I was determined to prove myself worthy of the Tower.

Blue Eyes began to search, assisted by Della's light. After a time, he found a solid gold belt buckle, made of a material more durable than gold, yet lightweight. It was beautifully crafted, and was large enough for a broad belt, but could smaller belts as well. "I've heard of that,” whispered Ryah with awe. "It's a legendary ter'angreal. A traveler named Penera used this buckle, although I don't know why or how."

At this Blue Eyes attached it to his belt, against Della's indignant sputtering that it was property of the White Tower, and besides, he had no idea how to use it or what it could do to him! But, there was no visible effect, and we continued our exploration.

I turned back to the door we came in, a bright rectangle of light, which didn't enter the tower at all. Likewise, we could see the sun above us through the corroded roof, although none of its light blessed us with its presence. None of us spoke, but Blue Eyes smiled and waved cheerfully at the sun.

The silence was broken as a loud roar echoed throughout the chamber. I had never heard a more terrifying sound in my life. It was animal in nature, but was still unnatural and chilling. It seemed to come from all directions, surrounding us. Della, Ryah and I clung together, shaking, but Blue Eyes simply laughed. Then he pointed.

We saw another rectangle of light, and Blue Eyes began to make for it. Ryah looked like she was ready to leave, and made for the exit, but Della and I followed him. Realizing she was going to have to come with us if she wanted to stay with us, she followed reluctantly.

Just as we came into the second room, there was a crash behind us. We turned around and saw that the room we were just in had caved in. Having nowhere to go but forward, we inspected the room we were currently in. To our relief, it was truly sunlit, although darkness still touched the walls. It was an open courtyard, but the vegetation was rotting with the Taint. The joy of sunlight relaxed us all a bit.

But not for long – from out of the bushes jumped a very large cat. I pulled out my dagger, although I didn't know what I could do if it came down to it. It lunged towards Blue Eyes, who was closest, attempting to take a bite of his leg. Blue Eyes dodged, but not quick enough, and the sharp fangs grazed his leg.

Suddenly it was as if the earth itself exploded. A crater appeared just in front of us and showered us with debris. The unlucky cat was stunned and thrown straight up in the air. Ryah attempted to shoot at it, but missed, as Della channeled a fireball directly at it. It hit the bobcat dead on, effectively roasting it. The tang of burned fur and flesh filled our noses.

Once the smoke and dust cleared and the stench wasn't so overpowering, I peered anxiously at my companions. "Is anybody hurt?"

Blue Eyes smiled weakly and pointed to the bobcat. I noticed then the blood dripping from his leg. "You're hurt," I said. It only a few moments to bandage him up, and the rest of us went our way to heal ourselves of the minor hurts we had suffered from the debris blast.

I turned to the door we came through – as expected, the opening was completely black and nothing could be seen beyond the threshold. Above the door was an ornate stone carving in the form of a knot. Before I could study the rest of the walls, I heard a squeal. I turned and saw, to my exasperation, that Blue Eyes had just shot himself in the foot. He looked at me hopefully, and despite finding him completely idiotic, consented to using some healing balm to ease his pain.

Staring at the walls again, I saw there were equivalent knots placed evenly on the walls, eighteen of them all together. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Blue Eyes raise his bow again. Wordlessly, I put my hand out in front him to stop him, and he lowered his arms.

But if I had thought I had averted further injury to him, I was wrong, for he then ran full out into the wall across from us – and knocked himself out. I ran up to him and checked for a concussion, and finding none, declared, "Well, he'll be fine. He'll come to on his own, but have a nasty headache. I say we should just leave him be and let the headache be a lesson to him." The girls grinned, agreeing with my assessment. I poked at his downed figure with my toe. "Well, his ter’angreal obviously does not give you the ability to walk through walls," I remarked dryly.

Della knelt down by him and took the belt buckle from him and put it on herself. "I feel less fatigued, hungry and thirsty,” she declared. She looked down at him with pity. "I guess he needs it more than I do right now, though," she said, and put it back on his belt.

As ridiculous as Blue Eyes's actions were, we realized he'd had a point – perhaps the knots marked other doors. Taking his lead, we pushed on the walls and knots, and found eight more doors, each one apart from each other, and each one with the same darkness emanating from it. We laughed a bit at the poor Aiel's bad luck at picking one of the door-less walls, but the laughter was hollow. None of us felt very secure in the courtyard with all the open doors, and we couldn't go back out the way we came.

Since Blue Eyes was the one who'd bought us here and seemed to know his way around, we realized we couldn't go anywhere without him. I got out some of my smelling salts and brought him too. He smiled at me gratefully, but before I could get up, he had thrown his arms around me in a fierce hug. I must admit, it was a bit unnerving, but I felt some of my animosity towards him dissipate. He was endearing in a sense, I suppose, like a lost puppy.

He got up, stood facing away from the door we came in, and then turned to go into the door to the left of it. We followed him, and once again felt the revolting darkness pressing in on us, and with it a malevolent presence. Exploring, we found ourselves in a large circular room with no other doors. Blue Eyes began to search for anything interesting, with the aid of Della's light.

"Did you find anything interesting?" I asked when he came back to us.

He held out a small statue in the shape of a small fish, made of glass or porcelain.

"Do you know anything about this," asked Della. He nodded.

"Is it Power related?" I asked. Again a nod. Since he wouldn't talk, we couldn't get more information out of him.

We also found a dent in the wall that turned out to be another door. As the door opened, I asked him if there was anything else he knew of in the room, but he only shrugged. The door revealed a staircase to a lower level. None of us really wanted to go down there, especially if Blue Eyes didn't know what was there – how the madman became the defacto leader of our group, I don't know, but there it was. I think, deep down, we all suspected there was something to him he was hiding. As aggravating as he could be, I suspected that he really was intelligent – how else could he be a Dedicated? – and the insanity was partly a ploy.

Once in the courtyard, Blue Eyes led us into the door left of where he had splatted against the wall. This took us into a bare corridor, which led to another circular room, with some cabinets on the walls. We searched, and Della said she detected Saidar coming from one of the cabinets. Inside was a small porcelain dog, emanating Spirit, but Della couldn't tell what it was. We found another staircase like the one in the previous room, but as before, we didn't want to go down.

We went back into the courtyard, and Blue Eyes led us through the door we had just explored. This time, we saw a staircase going up. We followed him warily, and when we were about halfway up we heard the terrifying roar again. Della nearly ran out, but Blue Eyes merely clapped his hands and continued up. I trusted him, inexplicably, and followed, and I believe Della realized she had no choice but to follow us.

We saw a very long open room, as long as we could see. This room also pulled away all light, but from what we could tell, it was hoop shaped. While exploring the internal wall, Blue Eyes found a device shaped like a glass column of several rings bound together by wires. Nobody could feel anything radiating from it, but Ryah somehow knew it was a ter’angreal able to be used by either sex, but not by non-channelers.

Now that Blue Eyes had three ter’angreal, I suppose he felt it generous to give one to Ryah, the only non-channeler among us. He unclipped the belt buckle and gave it to her, grinning, and it worked for her as well. Then he pointed the rod towards the inner wall, and a huge ball of flame can shooting out the end. It blasted through the wall, down to the courtyard below, once more incinerating the unlucky bobcat. Having now discovered and demonstrated its use, he took to searching the outer wall, but found nothing. We went back to the courtyard.

It stunk. We chose a door two doors to the right of our original entrance. We found another stairway leading up, but not as high up as the previous one – we deduced that this was the second level of the tower, and the room we had previously been in was the third floor. Once again, we heard the roar, but we pressed on regardless. At the top of the stairs, we found an old bookcase full of books, all in the Old Tongue. We couldn't make out much, just a few words such as 'wheel' and 'pattern' here and there. Everything in the room was decayed, and Della said a good Keeping had been woven around the books to keep them intact.

We went back to the courtyard, and by now night had fallen. We were all feeling hungry and tired, except for Ryah. We ate, and Ryah was incredibly able to find some berries in the smoking pit. None of us wanted to sleep in the open courtyard, especially not with that unnatural roar still fresh in our minds. Blue Eyes beckoned to us, and led us through the passage two doors from the original entrance. This took us into a dark corridor, and at that moment, Della's light weave began to wane, and the darkness began to crush us. But at the end of the corridor was a welcome sight – an exit from the tower. We began to make for it, when we heard the roar again, and then heard footpads coming from the exit.

Della cast another light weave, and we caught a glimpse of a silver claw attached to a paw. Blue Eyes quickly constructed a wall from the power, and we ran towards the courtyard. As we ran, we heard the thing pounce after us, and then a smack and a yelp as the creature collided with the wall.

We went into the corridor three doors to the right of the one from which we had just come in. To our disgust, we saw nothing but infestations of uncannily large spiders and insects. The rest of the tunnel had caved in; there was no way out that way. We headed out, and then through the door directly to the right of our entrance. This was just an empty room, as safe as anything we were going to find in this place. Blue Eyes cast another false wall across our entry, and we prepared to sleep there.

None of us really rested well – all night our sleep was interrupted by intermittent roars, and I don't know about the others, but when I did sleep, it was an uneasy one filled with dark, evil dreams. Blue Eyes prepared to untie the weave to his wall, his fireball rod held at ready, and the rest of us with our weapons brandished. It was fortunate we did so, as the first thing we saw was a very large black cat with silver claws. Blue Eyes quickly shot off a fireball, but the fool didn't think about the blast radius, and we were all singed. It blew the cat across courtyard, and Della quickly cast another fireball of her own, burning it to a crisp.

Once again, I was able to prove my worth to the party, healing the severe burns we had all suffered. For whatever reason, one can't Heal herself, so I had to resort to my kit for my own injuries – but my skills served me well – my burns healed well and without any infection or scarring.

Back in the corridor, we investigated the very last door, two spaces from the right towards where we had just come out. We made our way down, but none of us could shake the odd feeling of being watched. I for one kept thinking about more big, fierce cats. We hadn't gone very for when we all decided to turn back. We returned to the corridor where we had first saw the cat, and saw that Blue Eyes's original wall had unraveled. Nothing remained but residual traces of greyness.

But, with the cat gone, there was nothing to stop us from running outside. It was a marvelous feeling, after spending so long in that oppressive, dark tower. However, we found that something had attacked our horses – they were scarred with what look like claw marks, although they seemed to have fought off whatever had attacked them. We spent the day resting and tending to the horses, and Ryah foraged some more food for us.

After gathering our strength, we decided to explore that last passage. As a precaution, Blue Eyes found a small rock, and channeled it into a grenade, and launched it down the corridor. As it exploded, we heard that horrifying roar again, although this time it sounded pained. He launched two more down the corridor, and it sent the wall crumbling, and whatever thing was there possessing the tower unleashed a chilling cry that reversed the blood in my veins.

Blue Eyes motioned us back about thirty feet. Feeling just a little scared, and wondering what his destructive powers would accomplish, I watched as he reached inside the corridor and lightly touched the wall. He began to run, but before he got more than five feet away, the wall exploded, there was a monstrous roar, and the shockwave seemed to extend about twenty feet. It was so intense that he landed unconscious, badly burned and bleeding, at our feet.

Seeing him there like that, I really feared he would die. I will admit that he had endeared himself in an odd way to me. The fright enabled me to embrace the Source, and I successfully healed him. By then, the dust had cleared, and we saw the aftermath of what he had done. I helped him to his feet, and we staggered over. His blast had opened up a secret passage between two of the doors.

It was as if the taint itself leaked out of that passage. The light was pulled away even more, and we couldn't even see the knots on the walls anymore. Blue Eyes lobbed another grenade into the passage as a parting gesture, and we saw a very large, white blast in the darkness. We heard the roar one last time, and this time it began to taper off like a dying creature. For a moment, there was silence, and I no longer felt I was being watched. The darkness began to recede, and we could see the knots again. I began to feel relieved.

I felt trembling under my feet, then. With a start, we realized the whole tower was coming down on us. The exit was too far to run – surely we'd get crushed to death in the tunnel, but Blue Eyes and Della both thought quickly. Blue Eyes constructed a false wall above his head, large enough for the four of us to huddle under, and Della hardened the air around us. Moments later, we were practically surrounded by rocks on all side, in a dark and claustrophobic prison.

Della released the air, and we were able to climb out. Once safely out, Blue Eyes untied his wall and let the rubble fall. Bruised, but otherwise okay, we made our way outside and found that our horses had run away. Well, we were in a fix!

Ryah, who had some skill with animals, and who had trained her horse to come when she called, said she would look for our horses. In the meanwhile, Della and I went with Blue Eyes back into the wreckage. He stood over where the secret corridor had been, and delved. He indicated that he sensed something important there, and began a weave known as 'sculpting the earth' – he was able to shape the rock in such a way that it opened up a passage. This took some time, so Della and I rested and waited. By the time Ryah returned with the horses, he had found what he was looking for – an iron sword with a sharp, curved blade with an inscription in the Old Tongue. Being an Aiel, he refused to pick it up. Della retrieved it for him, but couldn't make out anything of the Old Tongue except for the word "Pattern". "There's a resonance from this blade," she said. "It's power wrought."

As Ryah was the only one skilled in swordsmanship, we gave it to her. Blue Eyes pantomimed hitting a boulder with the sword, and when Ryan complied, the sword sliced through the boulder like it was butter.

Exhausted, we laid down to sleep outside the pile of rubble, except for Ryah who hadn't needed to sleep ever since she got the buckle. It's lucky we had her keep watch for us that night – three Trollocs came upon us.

I then witnessed the most ridiculous battle I've ever seen. As Ryah yelled at us to wake up, she notched her arrow – and shot herself in the foot. As she hopped around in pain, one of the Trollocs took the opportunity to shoot as well – and apparently he'd decided to mimic her style because his arrow also went into his foot. The foremost Trolloc ran forward, swinging his sword at Ryah, but he missed wildly.

Della ran to the side and cast a fireball in the middle of the incompetent Trollocs, badly burning all of them, and killing the already injured one. The last Trolloc moved forward, stunned. I saw it point its bow at me, and I quailed – but I needn't have, for he too, shot himself in the foot and died miserably. I don't know what came over me then...perhaps the fear I felt for myself and my company, but I suddenly had a picture of twisting the bones in the last living Trolloc – and it was done.

I stood there, panting, still feeling the Source flowing through me. I had never felt so...powerful. I barely noticed Della jumping up and down exclaiming that she had weavesighted the weave I'd used – a rare healing weave known as 'Rend' – don't ask me why it's considered a healing weave, as it obviously does a good deal of damage. I suppose because the damage it does is internal.

Still feeling more alive – and more like a true Borderlander than I ever had before – I turned my attentions to Ryah's foot, and tried to console her with the fact that at least she could retrieve the arrow. It was then that I noticed Blue Eyes's stare. He had seemed to take a liking to me because of my healing him, but now he seemed enamored of me, after seeing me in action.

To the north, we saw the same fist of Trollocs we'd seen before. They had been going the same direction we had, and they had been sending out scouts. Blue Eyes pantomimed his idea that we should trail the Trollocs, and perhaps they would lead us to the item of power. It took us quite awhile to figure this out, and finally Della burst out with an angry, "Why don't you just talk?"

I was feeling a bit irritated as well, but said, "He's led us this far, we might as well follow." So, we circumvented the camp by about a mile and ended up directly behind them. We watched as they packed up and headed south, deeper into the hills. We followed them for three days, staying a mile behind them the whole time.

On the third day, we saw some scouts head into a cave in the hills, and a Fade accompanied them. Even from a mile, I couldn't suppress the fear in my stomach. The Eyeless inspired fear wherever they went, and were seen as the embodiment of evil. Even I had never seen one. We knew that we had forfeited our chance to get the object first, if at all.

They stayed in the cave for three days. During that time, we hotly debated what we could do to get the item. Could we somehow block the cave, and ambush the rest of the Trollocs? Could the channelers hit the Fade with enough fireballs to kill him before the Trollocs came to us? All of the ideas seemed too outlandish for us to carry out, as inexperienced as we were. I knew of seasoned warriors who had been murdered by Fades. How could we have a chance of stopping it?

The Fade emerged that night. Only two of the Trollocs were left, and the Fade was carrying a lead box a foot long. Blue Eyes shrugged and pointed his fireball wand at the Fade, but before he could unleash a fireball, I jumped at him and stopped him. Fades could detect channeling, and I didn't want a whole fist on our trail.

As we watched, they sent scouts to the north, east, and west. We debated attacking the scout and alerting the Fade to our presence, and in the end, decided to kill the Trollocs without channeling. We set up an ambush – both Ryah and Blue Eyes were able to hit the Trolloc with their bows, although Della's arrows missed their target. It was Ryah that scored the critical hit in the end. We noticed some increased activity in the camp, but we couldn't tell if it was due to the death of the Trolloc. We rifled through the Trolloc, but found nothing of use.

We then decided to ambush the scout sent to the west. Unfortunately for us, Blue Eyes got to the Trolloc first – and using the Power turned the Trolloc into a grenade. At that moment, the horde became a flurry of startled activity, and we knew the Fade had caught on to us.

Blue Eyes ran back to us, but we were already running at a breakneck speed. The whole horde was on our trail, but luckily, as we had horses, we were able to outdistance them by some margin. We rode east until we came to a river, but Blue Eyes seemed hesitant to cross. By now, it was obvious he no longer (if he ever had) cared about the box, and just wanted to blow things up.

Blue Eyes listened to the ground for a moment, and communicated that the fist was now moving north. He seemed to want to follow, and Della seemed to agree. Ryah was undecided, but I was dead set against following a whole bloody fist of Trollocs and an Eyeless! To this day, I don't know what on earth they were thinking – Blue Eyes was insane, and Della must have been cocky over her past victories, but I held no delusions about myself! I appealed to Ryah's good sense and disdain for foolish risk taking. "Please, Ryah, back me up on this! You know what a Fade is capable of! Nobody in their right mind would go after one!"

I turned angrily to Della then. "Don't you know what a Fade can do? They can travel through the shadows? Their very gaze inspires paralyzing fear! They can tear a man from limb to limb for a Trolloc cookpot! I know you're my only link to the Tower, but if I stay with you, I won't live long enough to see it!"

Eventually, my impassioned pleas won the rest of the group over. Perhaps some would see it as cowardice, and because of it we failed in our quest – but I simply see it as prudence. In the end, I suppose we never should have let the Trollocs find the item first – we probably could have come across that cave and been gone before they ever got there.

Blue Eyes saw that none of us were following, and finally forded the river. We decided our best course of action was to return to the White Tower, so Della could report to her superiors the unexpected perils she had faced on her journey, and to introduce me to the Aes Sedai. So, we began to travel west again, Ryah foraging for us along the way. Blue Eyes, still petulant and bitter over missing his chance to blow up Trollocs, seemed intent on leaving a swath of destruction in his wake. Any time I asked him to stop, he would just stick his tongue out at me, and once he accidentally blew up a tree.

We passed villages, and stopped at one near the Tower. Della was successful at getting us free room and board this time – so successful in her seductions that the innkeeper told us we could stay as long as we wanted, and Della's belongings were moved to his quarters.

Blue Eyes spent his time converting pebbles and small rocks into grenades, and tormenting people from the roof of the inn. Worried that his behavior would get us kicked out of the village, I tried to reason with him. "You can leave if you want to hunt Trollocs!!" He merely "told" me that he couldn't kill many on his own, and besides, he wasn't part of our group so he didn't have to listen to me.

"We healed you! You should be indebted to us!" I fumed indignantly, mentally adding, And most of the wounds I healed were due to your own recklessness! Blue Eyes just grinned and pulled out his porcelain fish, and mimicked using the belt buckle and sword, clearly trying to get across the point that he had repaid that debt by helping us find the artifacts.

"Well...you don't have to be following us! That was your own decision!" His only reaction was to pause in his grenade throwing, and hand me a rock. Disgusted, I threw it back at him and stalked off.

The next few days, we all tried to ignore him. Ryah tried to get a job with the weaponsmith, but it didn't work out. I was lucky enough to find a healer who took me in, and earned some extra coins that way, which I later used to purchase a rope. Finally, the tree of us decided to try and climb the roof and persuade him together to be nicer. Della was able to agilely scramble up pretty quickly, followed by Ryah, but I ended up slipping and spraining my ankle. I tended to it as I watched the three of them. Blue Eyes looked after me, but didn't seem to care too much. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but from what I saw, they tried to flirt with him. Again, he did nothing but offer them rocks, and the two women climbed back down, exasperated.

Finally, the next day, he came down. As we were getting close to the Tower, we tried to get the ter’angreal from him, but he refused to give them up, and there wasn't much we could do. We continued on our way.

It wasn't long before I saw it – dominating the horizon, the White Tower shone like a beacon of knowledge and power, its pure white walls gleaming in the sunlight. I was so awed by the sight, that it was quite awhile before I noticed the military encampment across the harbor.

Shocked, I grabbed Della. "Is somebody daring to siege the White Tower?"

Her cryptic reply truly befitted an Aes Sedai. "Yes, the rightful White Tower"

She attempted to explain some of the situation to me, and also that there was an alliance between Egwene's Tower and the Black Tower. Blue Eyes changed into his cadin'sor, and Della took me into the encampment to find her mentor, Berrandra.

After explaining the whole situation, Della had to endure a fierce berating from the Aes Sedai, who scolded her so fiercely that I felt punished too, even though there was no way I could be blamed. For at least ten minutes straight, she went on about how she had personally vouched for her and her skills, how she never should have let the Trollocs get to it first, how she shouldn't have assumed the Trollocs had found what she was looking for, how she should have checked somewhere else, but admitting that the Trollocs probably had found the mysterious object. In the end, she confiscated the small dog, which she had sensed, and informed us that it was a small well, used to store the Power so an Aes Sedai could draw on it later.

Despite all this, I was relieved. For the first time in may days, I felt safe, despite the turmoil going on. The day was coming to a close, and the acquaintances I had made began to drift apart. Blue Eyes was called back to the Black Tower for debriefing, Ryah was able to get a job with the Tower smiths, Della went back to her Accepted quarters – and my name was written in the novice book, and I went to bed clothed in novice white.

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