She ran, that’s all she could do. After being confronted by the man who called himself Frein in the dining hall of her father’s inn. The man had asked her calmly to accompany him, along with his Aes Sedai back to the Great Hall to be trained. Loraine couldn’t find a reason why she couldn’t go, aside from a fear of those who wielded the One Power. She hated her father, hated this inn, and most of all, she hated the way people in this village looked at her, as if she were to be pitied rather than understood. Acting on that fear, she slowed her heart and took a calming breath, feeling the cool fingers of serenity flow through her. She opened her eyes and saw the man smile, if you could call it a smile. With a small smile of her own, she reached out and pushed at him. Expecting to catch him off guard, she was shocked to see his form fly across the room. She felt a moment of panic until she glanced around the hall and found no one but herself, the man and the few patrons taking a great care not to notice her. Not taking any chances about his temper when he regained his feet, she’d taken flight from the inn. Through the town he chased her, across the green and into the dense forest growing behind the row of houses on the other side. She couldn’t seem to get rid of him. He followed her wherever she went and never let her out of his sight, no matter how quickly she moved or how many obstacles she put between them. Through the trees she could see the edge of the grove and an end to her flight. She must think of something soon or she’d be thrown over that massive shoulder and hauled off for the light only knew what reason. He moved slower than she thought, but seemed to have caught up with her too fast. She vaulted over a fallen branch but did not land on her feet. She started as she felt his icy fingers close around her arm. She tried to pull free, but nothing she did loosened his hold on her arm.
Turning on her heel, she pushed all of her weight at him. Her success was short lived, however, as she went tumbling down with him. As he fell, he twisted, pinning her down with his weight and giving her no choice but to look at his eyes. They were not the green she remembered, but brown. Not a deep chocolate color, closer to the color of honey than that. They might’ve been warm with the right look, but this face didn’t appear to have seen that look for a long time, if ever.
There were no wrinkles defining the corners and his hair fell across his forehead at a jaunty angle, giving his face a more round appearance.
“Let her up slowly, Jor, and don’t let her get away from you. Leadin wants her for a novice and she’ll have what she wants.” This new voice drew her attention away from her captor and onto the man over his shoulder, who Loraine realized was the man who had confronted her in the hall. The one called Jor, eased up to his haunches, pulling her with him and kept moving until he was upright. Jor turned on his heel and began following the other man.
I shouldn’t follow, Loraine thought. He would just follow you, a voice in her head interrupted. With a reluctant sigh, she moved to follow him, praying she would not regret it. They made their way slowly through the forest until a camp formed almost out of thin air. Loraine realized it had probably been there the whole time; it was just hidden by the copse of trees along its edges. The woman in the middle of the camp could be none other than Aes Sedai, Leadin the man called her.
“She’s given you trouble, Erlin. Should we leash her, so she doesn’t do it again?” What was said in jest was taken another way and before she knew it, she was bound at wrist and ankle. Jor was the one to tie the knots and he looked almost apologetic for it. Loraine looked around wildly until her gaze touched Leadin. There was a laugh in her eye that almost challenged her to do something about it. Loraine began to wonder if it had been a joke or if she’d been serious. Shaking her head, Loraine tried to focus her attention elsewhere until darkness claimed the camp and her captors were asleep.
Loraine waited until she heard the soft sounds of sleep emanating from the camp. She calmed her heart and again felt the cool fingers of serenity closing around her. She wiggled her wrists and the ropes fell away, coiling neatly behind her. She concentrated on her ankles and watched the rope coil itself beside her feet. A light breeze blew through the camp, and with a smile Loraine turned onto her side, using one coil of rope as a pillow and one as a foot prop. Sleep came easy and Loraine embraced a dreamless night until the first rays of dawn pierced her eyes.
The coils she moved to rest between the Man and the Aes Sedai, pointing out that she would not be treated like a runaway dog. Loraine moved around the camp silently, stoking the flame in the fire pit and warming what Leadin had left on the spit. The others roused to the smell of a meal they had not counted on and the shock running through the Man and Jor was almost as thick as the Man’s cloak. The Aes Sedai just smiled and mumbled something about being right about her.
They rode out soon after the fire was out, Loraine riding a horse she’d never seen before. They rode throughout the day, slowing only long enough to rest the horses and eat enough to keep them from growing weak. When the sun sank in the sky and the camp was made for the night, Leadin pulled Loraine aside and began a barrage of questions. She asked Loraine for her name and was most flustered to learn she had but one name. "Loraine alone is not enough, child. Since I have every confidence you will be Aes Sedai, I suggest you call yourself by that name as well. Loraine Sedai. Yes, that will do." She spoke of a spark that Loraine seemed to have nursed well and complained of her age often. It seemed she was much too old for a novice and that would have hindered even the most gifted among Leadin’s ranks. Since leaving the small village where she was raised, The Aes Sedai tested her and, after picking herself out of the underbrush and ponds usually found near our campsites more times than not, she pronounced Loraine ready for raising. The traveled on, Loraine bound each night, tighter than the night before, and the Man finding the coils of rope next to his bedroll upon waking the next morning.
When they reached the great city, Leadin stayed close to Loraine, never letting her stray more than the length of her horse before urging her horse to catch up. The streets felt wrong, Loraine thought, as if something was not right. She eyed the people lining the street carefully, but found nothing aside from curiosity in their gazes. She did not see the arrows raining from the wall to their left until Jor fell from his horse, howling in pain. The Man lept from him horse as Leadin began her magic. One by one, the men lining that wall fell from it, landing with a thud on the dirt-paved road beneath. Whether they were alive or dead, Loraine could not tell, but she closed her eyes and calmed her heart so that she might give assistance, should Leadin need it. Following her lead, she spurred her horse into a run and began moving toward a great building along the edge of that wall. Leadin seemed to be upset with , for upon pushing Loraine off the horse she rode, she turned and left again. Loraine watched her pass the city wall and kept watching until she was little more than a speck against the fields beyond. So, that is how Loraine Sedai came to be on the steps of the Great Hall of Servants.
Since going home to my father and his inn is not among the things I wish to do most I am resigned to this “training.” Let the Wheel weave as the Wheel will and may the light forever illuminate your path.