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[white_flowers]

[From here.]

She walks, with halting movement, into the bar through the lake door. Deep crimson marks her white cloak along her left hip and side, and scorch-marks are visible along the hem. Her left hand is hidden in its folds, and her right hand is pressed tightly to her ribcage, covering a slowly spreading bloodstain.

Despite all this, the White Rider does not look particularly displeased-- until she spies Merriman, who jerks to a halt at her entrance. Her ice-blue gaze as she looks at him is cold and arrogant, and then she turns away without a word.

Limping slightly, she starts for the stairs.


[OOC: Warning for violence in this post too, now.]

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[white_flowers]

"Cariad," she says to Antigone's back, very quietly. The soft musical voice is warm and worried and ever so slightly breathless now, but ice-blue eyes are sharp and calculating as she looks at the others.

"Dear, I cannot stand this much longer-- please, can we not just leave them? Do not anger them further, your fight this is not-- please, cariad."

[buriedmybrother.livejournal.com]

Antigone would have been perfectly willing to make this her fight, though her breath caught in her throat when Moiraine stepped forward-- she is never one for showing fear.

But Blodwen's voice tugs at her like a thread, reminding Antigone that she's hurt and that she ought to go see a physician or rest; she ought to be away from here.

She looks back at Moiraine, chin lifting.

"Let us pass."

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

Don't think that Ace has come to terms with her imprisonment.

Don't think, for a fraction of a moment, that if she could somehow free herself that she wouldn't immediately continue on her previous course, and try to satisfy the bloodlust screaming through her head.

It is just that the sheer enormity of the number of insults, threats, and cries of rage and pain have come to loggerheads in her throat, and thus she is silent and still.

Her expression is pretty eloquent, however. It details, with great relish, the many things she plans to do to Blodwen, and to this strange girl that is helping her if she persists in getting in the way. She has so many, many ideas, and she will take great joy in each one.

[blue_ajah]

Something flares in the Aes Sedai's glance -- something deadly dangerous, that speaks clearly about just how close to the edge of her patience she has come.

"Do not presume to command me, child." Her tone is scathingly astringent. "If I chose to bar your way, then remain you would."

"But as it happens, however, I have no further desire for your company at this moment." Dark eyes meet the Rider's ice-blue ones-- and lock, and hold. Coolly serene, Moiraine adds, "You have my leave to depart my presence, for now."

[white_flowers]

Blodwen's flat glance in return is one of malicious amusement, and then in the next instant it is gone utterly as she turns to Antigone.

"Come, dear-- come on, come upstairs," she urges. "Let us go, oh while we still can--"

Weary and tired, hurt and afraid, all of these emotions are carried clearly in her words.

[buriedmybrother.livejournal.com]

It angers and humiliates and frightens Antigone to feel so utterly reduced to childhood again, to be the willful brat stood in the corner until she learns to behave herself.

But none of it shows in her face, or at least very little. Then she glances back at Blodwen, and her expression loses its sharpness.

Softly, "Yes. Let's go."

[white_flowers]

Nothing of her triumph shows in her face, as Blodwen takes the first few steps up the stairs.

Instead, a soft gasp of pain can be clearly heard, and she clutches with her free hand at the railing.

Her other hand, the burned one, she keeps wrapped in her cloak.

[buriedmybrother.livejournal.com]

Antigone rushes to support her, weak though she knows her arms to be.

"Mrs. Rowlands--"

[white_flowers]

"It's all right, dear," she reassures her, although she does lean a little into the support.

"Why, it looks worse than it is, I do think -- just a bit of rest, to catch my breath--"

[buriedmybrother.livejournal.com]

"You're bleeding."

She bites her lip, swallowing down the worry and anger as best she can.

"Why did they hurt you?"

[white_flowers]

The quick flash of calculation is automatic and deeply buried.

"Not those two," she says. "Another it was, a woman like an animal-- she was in such a fury--"

They have reached the upper hall, and Blodwen starts down it, limping slightly.

[buriedmybrother.livejournal.com]

"A woman like an animal?"

It is probably a pity that of all the shapeshifting women in Milliways, Coyote is the only one she knows.

Antigone freezes a moment, a sick feeling growing in her stomach.

No-- she wouldn't have--

But she would.

She'd only have to be angry enough.

"Where is she?"

[white_flowers]

"I don't know," Blodwen says simply, and then halts as Antigone freezes.

"Why, what is wrong, dear?"

[buriedmybrother.livejournal.com]

She frowns.

"What was her name? The one who hurt you?"

[white_flowers]

"Why-- Coyote, I think," she says, watching Antigone with surprised wary uncertainty.

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

Ace watches Blodwen for as long as she can, listens to the restreating footsteps until even the echos are imaginary.

And then she snarls, and all of her usual friendliness and comradrie with Moiraine is gone.
"She killed him. She killed him an' an' you helped her! He trusted you!" She wails brokenly.

Her bird is gone.

[blue_ajah]

She also has watched as the two had departed, and when she turns to look at Ace, her expression is stony.

"Do you truly believe that of me, Ace?" Coolly serene, and carefully, carefully controlled. "I might have thought you would know better than that, even as upset as you are."

Although the golden aura around her does not yet fade, the bands of Air around Ace slither away, leaving the other woman free.

"Think."

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

"Can't think!" She snaps, but there is enough humanity left in the mix that she does not attack blindly, does not accept Moiraine as a target since she was deprived of Blodwen.

"Can't think, because all I can think... all..." She chokes on the words and looks away, leans back against the wall and stares up at the dark ceiling.


One moment.


Two.


Then rage fades enough to allow grief to surface. She bites her lip hard enough to draw blood to keep from sobbing - can't let them see how badly she's wounded, it only encourages further abuse.

[blue_ajah]

She is watching Ace very carefully, and the slightest bit of tension may be seen to fade as the other woman's rage does.

"The Rider did not kill him," Moiraine says quietly. "He left, but she did not kill him."

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

For a long moment, it seems that Ace does not hear, isn't listening, or perhaps simply doesn't think that worthy of an answer.

Then she looks down from the answerless ceiling, and gives Moiraine an utterly hopeless and blasted look.
"He's... spoken, of out there. Flyin'. He went there, once. To get Wash, to the end and beyond."

Sobs break her voice, but she can't keep quiet. It's never been a gift of hers.

"He had a goal, last time. And he almost didn't come back." He almost didn't return, pale and cold and distant for ages until the spark came back.

"He's gone. My brother's gone."

[blue_ajah]

"But he did come back, before," she replies calmly. "And I do not think it likely that he would knowingly allow her to achieve such a victory over him as to readily surrender the field this place has become, do you?"

It is more than belief; it is hope.

A pause, and then she says exactly that.

"Do not give up hope; do not give in to despair, Ace."

Diamond-hard determination is clear in Moiraine's tone, even as she finally releases saidar, allowing the glow around her to fade.

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

"I didn't think he'd leave without a word either." She retorts, but her usual fire is gone. "Bugger hope. There's no use to it. Only sets you up for the next loss t'rip you apart again. I hoped my Doctor would come back and we'd be able t'work as partners for once, but he was killed and replaced with a stranger. I hoped I had married someone who cared enough t'give a damn, but he didn't even try. I hoped I could save one person before the Daleks killed me, but they were slaughtered. Y'can keep your damn hope. I'm not fallin' for it again."

[blue_ajah]

"Then I will, and Light willing, it will be enough."

Levelly composed. I am as hard as I must be.

"I do not intend to allow despair to overwhelm me, for then the White Rider will truly have won."

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

"How very pretty." Ace notes acerbically, ignoring for now how very much this conversation echos one she had with the Doctor not too very long ago. So much has happened between then and now.

Maybe she would give him a different argument now.

Stiffly she reaches up over her head, grabs the handrail, and staggers to her feet with its aid.

"I want my dog. Can I do that, or are y'gonna freeze me to the wall again?"

[blue_ajah]

"Not really," she says quietly, "but in the absence of beauty, it will have to do."

A pause.

"I will not prevent you from that, Ace. It is only that I did not wish you to be locked in the cells or harmed." Her tone hardens as she continues,

"Believe me when I tell you that there will be a way to see that this creature of Shadow and evil pays, somehow, for the harm that she continues to cause, and I intend to see that it is found."