The Wheel Weaves A Chance Meeting

[Legione Sumus]

Faedre Sedai, Blue Ajah

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Her world changed, years of hard work culminating – finally – into the tangible promise of recognition, only to crumble the moment right before Faedre had been about to grasp it all in her hands. And Kira had not even been here to see it. The night after her Test had felt hollow no matter how Faedre prodded her emotions for a reaction. There had been no oathrod upon which to make her vows, and she felt a schism where she had wanted to feel a welcome among her new Ajah. The Blues had been stripped of their power, their women shattered by the new Red Amyrlin’s rise to power. All three of the Blue Sitters had vanished in the turmoil, Rikela among them, and many Sisters had followed in the nights after. New women sat in the Hall, serenity to paper over the cracks, and the most loyal and promising of the Blue Aspirants had been funnelled into the testing, Faedre among them. But it felt wrong without the oaths to bind. A lie. She saw it in every Aes Sedai who glanced her way.

Word had reached her swiftly about Kira’s return to Tar Valon. Much had changed in Faedre since she was a child in the Panarch’s Palace, but not the way in which she listened to the world around her – and this was news she had been waiting for. Whispers led her to the training grounds, where spectators gathered around a sparring pen. Shiro Gaidin and a stranger – Faedre knew as such before she’d even taken a step outside her Ajah halls – though even as she approached she could see neither with her own eyes, owing to her short stature and the amount of Tower denizens clamouring for a glimpse of the show.

The size of the crowd dismayed her. Faedre hadn’t wanted to share the moment of reunion, though neither had she wanted to wait for Kira to seek her out. Disappointment carved a small, hard shell in her chest as she chose instead to linger back. She’d still been in the banded hems of an Accepted the last time she had seen Kira, their friendship severed by the Yellow fringe of Kira’s new shawl, at least until Faedre attained her own. Had she been thinking she might also have realised that Shiro’s presence inevitably meant Aranea was here. That burned too.