12-20-2021, 12:29 AM
Knowing his family’s penchant for security, and with good reason, Jai was able to spot the street-clad watchers positioned on the blocks around his family’s bank building. One leaned against a wall smoking a pipe. Another was seated outside a café, devouring a drink. A third was trimming vines from an ornate wall. Jai's hood was pulled up as he searched, blocking the sides of his face. The sky dripped a soft rain since he’d entered the Tower, but he was glad for the weather. On a sunny day he’d have to channel a shadow weave to avert curious gazes from penetrating the cowl. It was the kind of thing he learned when spying on the Seanchan. It helped an otherwise ungodly tall man blend in with the ordinary. A nobody. A slump and slight limp helped.
Today he navigated the narrow Tar Valon streets with an agenda. Hoods weren’t allowed in the city for fear of hiding the faces of a Fade. A wise rule that was adopted from the borderlands following the battle of Tar Valon, but it was loosely enforced, less so when it rained. The streets were narrow and the city guards of the white flame worried about the island walls and gates and less about the inner parts of the city. Jai navigated unbothered even when he passed so close to the pipe smoker that the scent of tabac filled his nostrils with annoyance. He never enjoyed pipes. Hard liquor was always his favored vice. Until recently anyway. But given present circumstances, he considered stealing the security man’s drink. There were more that watched everyone watching the bank than he remembered. Seemed Zakar took up Andreu’s paranoia since their brother’s demise. Not that he was wrong for doing so.
Jai waited under the eaves of an herb shop feeling heavy as the clouds. It was the first time he’d beheld the bank since his infamous departure all those months beforehand. He’d not bring himself to go up. Nor would he kick that hornet’s nest. But neither could he bring himself to peer into the highest windows for fear of who may be peering out of them. Ghosts were everywhere. He shivered and pressed closer.
The steps to the bank were unchanged as the marble and granite on which the buildings were constructed. He could imagine Zakar’s carriage depositing him along the curb, his brother hopping to keep the draining water from his shoes. The building never changed. Except during one significant circumstance. The thing that Jai came to see for himself.
Near the entrance were two torches bracketed to the wall. Glass orbs kept the rain from dousing the ongoing fires, which would dance for the next week in honor. Between the torches was a slab of granite. On the sidewalk beneath was a stone altar holding flowers.
He cautiously approached, pulling the hood lower even as water dripped to his chin, and closing the cape around his shoulders so none would see the glint of pins or sway of his coat. Rows of names were carved into the swirling stone. The oldest one was marked at the top: Jai’s namesake. The man whose decisions changed the fates of all his descendants. Asad Kojima. The wife he left Malkier to find was below his, with the date of her death forty years following her beloved. A channeler she was, though turned out of the Tower, she lived unnaturally beyond her twilight years. She outlived their children.
Jai had a hand to his heart as he read the list of names. Downward they climbed, but always the direct descendants of Asad plunging down the middle. The lowest and freshest of names was recently carved. One hand on his heart and another grazing the letters, his chin trembled. Heat watered his eyes despite the chill on the air, and there was a pit of emptiness not even saidin could fill.
He jumped when a voice spoke, "Jai? Is that you?” a woman said.
A weight touched his arm, and Jai spun aside, a snarl of the One Power wrenching his face into all the hatred within. The woman gasped and retracted her hand, only to part her full lips into a shocked smile moments later.
“Jaslene?” he whispered, horrified that she found him like this. The power released and his face softened. She nodded, trying again to put her hand on his arm. Her hair spilled out from the edges of a hood, but the cape could not hide the protrusion of a big belly out into the rain. Jai stepped back from her like he may harm her delicate state by sheer proximity. Steps backward. Then off the curb and into a splash of rain water. The ghosts of his bloodline were one thing. Facing her though. The light faded. He scrunched his eyes shut and gasped for air that made it impossible to catch in the lungs.
“Jas, it’s my fault, it’s my fault,” the words broke between sobs. Andreu’s despair haunted so hard that he had to end everything just to escape the pain. Jaslene looked heartbroken. Of all the people to not know the truth, he wanted to scream into the void of reality and tell her. But Jaslene was too pure, too innocent to believe the worst. The horrible part was that the worst was the truth. A truth Jai couldn’t face for another second. His chest caved in and hope splintered. He opened a gateway and ran without looking to see if she even tried to stop him. He couldn’t know either way. If she did or didn't try to stop. Both would break him.
The gate opened into a forest with the city of Tar Valon lost behind the treeline. He sank to his knees, rain pounding his back. But it wasn’t into mud. It was upon the ledge of a mausoleum that panged his kneecaps with the hard fall. The torches here weren’t so protected as the public ones in the city. They were doused by the rain, cold and dark as the shadows of the surrounding tombs.
Andreu’s body would be buried naked and without any shroud or treatments in the way of borderlander tradition. Their mausoleum in Moridrosin was nothing more than a monument documenting the existence of a Kojima line. One of many great Tar Valoni families were remembered in these green woods over the last three thousand years. A crest was carved and painted into the stonework. Asad’s sword was featured heavily, something Jai couldn’t bring himself to look at. The fresh dirt of a recent burial was nearby. He’d been here before when his father’s father passed to the next life. He’d not understood the meaning back then of what they said to the grave. But this time, as he stood on the spot where Dru’s body was nestled deep in the dirt, Jai whispered the requisite words and wished they were true with all his heart.
“May the last embrace of the mother welcome you home,” he said, lighting the dead torches with a knot of One Power that would withstand even the harshest rain. There he sat a weary sentry over the grave until the sounds of footsteps nearly made him jump out of his skin.
Saidin raged into his grasp as he took up a defensive posture. He had to assume it was a mourner of the dead. Another grief-stricken loved one left behind. There were other sites near the Kojima’s. But only Andreu’s was fresh. He waited, lump in his throat for them to reveal themselves.
Such was his surprise to find it was an Aes Sedai. She was lean and imposing, hands of dark skin and adorned with tattoos. Her face was smooth as the night sky within the lay of a red cowl. She paused some steps away, just looking at him as if it was the most perfectly normal encounter in the world.
Jai relaxed his grip on the One Power, but only slightly. Instead, he wiped the dampness from his face, glad for the rain to hide anything else on his cheeks. A chill swept his skin then, a sudden one that he knew not to be from the air, but before he could react, the rain slowed to a sprinkle, then a drizzle and ultimately paused altogether. He looked up at the sky and pushed back his own hood. Though it did little good. He was nearly soaked to the bone. In the freshly scrubbed air, the Sister revealed herself.
“Asha’man Kojima,” she nodded her head in a way that Jai almost thought to be deference. It couldn’t be respect. Surely not from a Red. “My name is Kekura Sedai.”
Today he navigated the narrow Tar Valon streets with an agenda. Hoods weren’t allowed in the city for fear of hiding the faces of a Fade. A wise rule that was adopted from the borderlands following the battle of Tar Valon, but it was loosely enforced, less so when it rained. The streets were narrow and the city guards of the white flame worried about the island walls and gates and less about the inner parts of the city. Jai navigated unbothered even when he passed so close to the pipe smoker that the scent of tabac filled his nostrils with annoyance. He never enjoyed pipes. Hard liquor was always his favored vice. Until recently anyway. But given present circumstances, he considered stealing the security man’s drink. There were more that watched everyone watching the bank than he remembered. Seemed Zakar took up Andreu’s paranoia since their brother’s demise. Not that he was wrong for doing so.
Jai waited under the eaves of an herb shop feeling heavy as the clouds. It was the first time he’d beheld the bank since his infamous departure all those months beforehand. He’d not bring himself to go up. Nor would he kick that hornet’s nest. But neither could he bring himself to peer into the highest windows for fear of who may be peering out of them. Ghosts were everywhere. He shivered and pressed closer.
The steps to the bank were unchanged as the marble and granite on which the buildings were constructed. He could imagine Zakar’s carriage depositing him along the curb, his brother hopping to keep the draining water from his shoes. The building never changed. Except during one significant circumstance. The thing that Jai came to see for himself.
Near the entrance were two torches bracketed to the wall. Glass orbs kept the rain from dousing the ongoing fires, which would dance for the next week in honor. Between the torches was a slab of granite. On the sidewalk beneath was a stone altar holding flowers.
He cautiously approached, pulling the hood lower even as water dripped to his chin, and closing the cape around his shoulders so none would see the glint of pins or sway of his coat. Rows of names were carved into the swirling stone. The oldest one was marked at the top: Jai’s namesake. The man whose decisions changed the fates of all his descendants. Asad Kojima. The wife he left Malkier to find was below his, with the date of her death forty years following her beloved. A channeler she was, though turned out of the Tower, she lived unnaturally beyond her twilight years. She outlived their children.
Jai had a hand to his heart as he read the list of names. Downward they climbed, but always the direct descendants of Asad plunging down the middle. The lowest and freshest of names was recently carved. One hand on his heart and another grazing the letters, his chin trembled. Heat watered his eyes despite the chill on the air, and there was a pit of emptiness not even saidin could fill.
He jumped when a voice spoke, "Jai? Is that you?” a woman said.
A weight touched his arm, and Jai spun aside, a snarl of the One Power wrenching his face into all the hatred within. The woman gasped and retracted her hand, only to part her full lips into a shocked smile moments later.
“Jaslene?” he whispered, horrified that she found him like this. The power released and his face softened. She nodded, trying again to put her hand on his arm. Her hair spilled out from the edges of a hood, but the cape could not hide the protrusion of a big belly out into the rain. Jai stepped back from her like he may harm her delicate state by sheer proximity. Steps backward. Then off the curb and into a splash of rain water. The ghosts of his bloodline were one thing. Facing her though. The light faded. He scrunched his eyes shut and gasped for air that made it impossible to catch in the lungs.
“Jas, it’s my fault, it’s my fault,” the words broke between sobs. Andreu’s despair haunted so hard that he had to end everything just to escape the pain. Jaslene looked heartbroken. Of all the people to not know the truth, he wanted to scream into the void of reality and tell her. But Jaslene was too pure, too innocent to believe the worst. The horrible part was that the worst was the truth. A truth Jai couldn’t face for another second. His chest caved in and hope splintered. He opened a gateway and ran without looking to see if she even tried to stop him. He couldn’t know either way. If she did or didn't try to stop. Both would break him.
The gate opened into a forest with the city of Tar Valon lost behind the treeline. He sank to his knees, rain pounding his back. But it wasn’t into mud. It was upon the ledge of a mausoleum that panged his kneecaps with the hard fall. The torches here weren’t so protected as the public ones in the city. They were doused by the rain, cold and dark as the shadows of the surrounding tombs.
Andreu’s body would be buried naked and without any shroud or treatments in the way of borderlander tradition. Their mausoleum in Moridrosin was nothing more than a monument documenting the existence of a Kojima line. One of many great Tar Valoni families were remembered in these green woods over the last three thousand years. A crest was carved and painted into the stonework. Asad’s sword was featured heavily, something Jai couldn’t bring himself to look at. The fresh dirt of a recent burial was nearby. He’d been here before when his father’s father passed to the next life. He’d not understood the meaning back then of what they said to the grave. But this time, as he stood on the spot where Dru’s body was nestled deep in the dirt, Jai whispered the requisite words and wished they were true with all his heart.
“May the last embrace of the mother welcome you home,” he said, lighting the dead torches with a knot of One Power that would withstand even the harshest rain. There he sat a weary sentry over the grave until the sounds of footsteps nearly made him jump out of his skin.
Saidin raged into his grasp as he took up a defensive posture. He had to assume it was a mourner of the dead. Another grief-stricken loved one left behind. There were other sites near the Kojima’s. But only Andreu’s was fresh. He waited, lump in his throat for them to reveal themselves.
Such was his surprise to find it was an Aes Sedai. She was lean and imposing, hands of dark skin and adorned with tattoos. Her face was smooth as the night sky within the lay of a red cowl. She paused some steps away, just looking at him as if it was the most perfectly normal encounter in the world.
Jai relaxed his grip on the One Power, but only slightly. Instead, he wiped the dampness from his face, glad for the rain to hide anything else on his cheeks. A chill swept his skin then, a sudden one that he knew not to be from the air, but before he could react, the rain slowed to a sprinkle, then a drizzle and ultimately paused altogether. He looked up at the sky and pushed back his own hood. Though it did little good. He was nearly soaked to the bone. In the freshly scrubbed air, the Sister revealed herself.
“Asha’man Kojima,” she nodded her head in a way that Jai almost thought to be deference. It couldn’t be respect. Surely not from a Red. “My name is Kekura Sedai.”
Only darkness shows you the light.