inbox | eastbound

[downswing]

lan wangji
missives | encounters

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[cairhien]

No Aes Sedai can.

[downswing]

Custom, prohibition of the sect, or inability?

[cairhien]

Oaths that we are bound by. I cannot tell a lie.

[downswing]

Duty and choice.

[cairhien]

Not choice.

To become Aes Sedai the final thing is to swear three oaths, oaths that cannot be broken. You are sealed to them.

[downswing]

'Aes Sedai.' ( Slow murmur, rasped. It's wrenched of him. ) Order or profession?

[cairhien]

Can it not be both?

[downswing]

Is it? ( Riddle tongues. No better than profanity. )

[cairhien]

It is what I am.

[downswing]

A sorceress. That is 'Aes Sedai'?

[cairhien]

Any woman that can channel is your sorceress. A channeller. Only those trained, who are raised to the shawl are Aes Sedai.

[downswing]

A sorceress of profound skill. ( No, oaths. ) And discipline.

[cairhien]

Things we must have to do as we do.

[downswing]

What oaths bind you?

[cairhien]

To speak no worth that is not true, to make no weapon with which one person may kill another an never to use the one power as a weapon except against Darkspawn or Shadowspawn, or in the last extreme defense of my life, that of my Warder or another Aes Sedai.

[downswing]

Whom do you serve?

[cairhien]

We don't. Aes Sedai are bound by no King nor Queen.

( they served their amyrlin seat, though it was less service and more following her instruction. she did not rule but lead.

in an extended truth, aes sedai served everyone. the world. in the old tongue aes sedai meant servant of all )

At that is one fact many find uncomfortable.

[downswing]

( Undaunted, for you will not be excused of honesty through omission, madam: )

If not a man, all sects serve a purpose. A mission.

[cairhien]

Each takes her own mission, as to where her interests lie or are needed.

[downswing]

And you?

[cairhien]

I've been on a mission for twenty years.

[downswing]

You do not wish to speak of it.

[cairhien]

It's a mission that only two know I'm on, something dangerous in its knowledge.

[downswing]

I ask once: does it dishonour you?

[cairhien]

No. It's to save the world.