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Cellyn nodded. "So, you sabotaged yourself, even if you didn't mean to do so," she remarked, taking note of the man.with a calculating stare. She dropped it after a moment, not wanting him to think her judging. The woman wasn't sure what to say about a man who had ruined his own reputation for being honest - they were far and few between, in her opinion. She could respect him for that, she reasoned.

"What in bloody hell are you doing?" Cellyn shouted, spurring her horse to race after him. It took her a few moments to see what Noj already had - smoke rising above the treetops in the distance, varely visible unless she squinted. "By the Light, was there an attack?" she wondered. She knew Darkfriends and Black Ajah were still on the loose, but she had never encountered any violence near her.

It took them what seemed to Cellyn like hours to reach the tiny hamlet, though she knew it couldn't have been more than thirty minutes. People were still screaming as fires blazed through buildings, bodies littered on the ground. Her stomach lurched and she grabbed onto her horse's mane for support.
A man, running by in panic, stopped and whirled around to stare at the two strangers. "There's more!" he shouted frantically. Several people rushed to his aid and Cellyn's mount reared up in panic. She scrabbled desperately at the reins and only just stayed in the seat.

Cellyn's jaw dropped in disbelief as she stared at the woman. "Are you suggesting this horror is our fault?" she demanded, with all the indignity of a merchant cheated out of a fair price. She remained saddled, however, and looked down on the woman from her nose. "Are you mad or just stupid?" she snipped. "We saw the smoke and came here to investigate!"

"Investigate, what a mighty word," the woman sneered. "You and your kind, nothing but trouble from the Pit!"

"My kind?" Cellyn repeated. "What do you have against - "

"Black Ajah!" the wise woman shouted, pointing a finger at Cellyn. The woman on the horse was too stunned to say anything and her jaw dropped in shock. "She doesn't even deny it! She and her Darkfriend man did this! Look at them - he's not natural!" she shrieked.

Cellyn slid off her horse and ran over to Noj, a hand gripping his bicep. "What in bloody hell are you doing?" she hissed. It hadn't escaped her notice that the Wise Woman had to be a Darkfriend - she wasn't that stupid - but the sight of Noj channeling only confused her further. What was the bloody man doing?

She was forced to press close to him as the people surged forward in anger, then abruptly began to run away from their homes, their lives, into the forest. Although the woman had never seen such fear on people's faces before, such terror, she was afraid she knew exactly what could cause it. They thought they were Darkfriends. Cellyn looked around, trying to see if there were any real Darkfriends around, when an arrow suddenly flew past her and skimmed Noj's side.

"Light blast it!" she swore, seeing a few brave men in the trees with bows and arrows. "What is wrong with you?" she shouted, grabbing her horse's bridle before the beast ran away in fright.

Cellyn held onto the horse's bridle as best as she could, but was forced to let the animal go when it screamed and reared up. She fell to the ground in an effort to avoid the hooves and watched helplessly as it ran off. She wasn't too attached to the horse itself, but why couldn't it just stand still like Noj's? Unfortunately, she got her answer a few moments later when two Myrddraal glided out from the trees, long swords in hands.

"Oh...oh Light...Noj..." She scrambled to her feet and clutched his arm in fright. Cellyn wasn't about to run away, exactly, not while Noj was there - but she had never seen a creature like that before and it wasn't pleasant. "What are those?" she whispered, eyes wide in fright.

((I'm guessing his hand was injured? It's a little weird how you wrote it, that's what Wayne is guessing too.))

The merchant woman had remained frozen after Noj had pushed her, landing near a tree and clinging to it as if that would save her. Anything solid, immovable, to ward against the flowing, inhuman movements of the dark creatures. It seemed to be over in seconds as she watched Noj battle, channeling saidin with a frightening amount of power. She blinked, however, when he collapsed.

"Noj!" she gasped, scrambling over to him and falling on her knees next to him. Cellyn looked at him in panic, seeing the blood seeping from his hand slowly beginning to turn black. The veins in the hand bulged, as if under a massive strain, darkening before her eyes. "Oh, Light blast it, what am I supposed to do?" she demanded to no one. She knew no one was going to help - there was no one there, and even if they had been, it would have been a waste of time to wait. She grabbed his hand, resting her palm across his in an effort to slow the bleeding.
"Please, please, please...don't die, don't die," she thought frantically, pressing against his hand harder. Cellyn gasped as she felt something course through her body, her hand feeling like it was on fire and dipped in ice water all at the same time. She grew lightheaded and whens he looked down at Noj's hand - there was no wound.

Cellyn sat on her knees, staring down at her hands. "I couldn't have just channeled..." The thought was impossible, yet there was no more bleeding, no more poison. She had done something like this once before, but the memory had been shoved into the farthest corner of her mind.

"C'mon, Cellyn, don't be such a baby!"
"It's too high! You'll get hurt!" she protested, trying to pretend she wasn't deathly afraid of how high the branch was. Myr just laughed and began to ascend higher, ignoring his fellow eight year-old's calls. He ignored the cracking of the branch until he was flat on his back, blood pooling behind his head.
"Stupid!" she shrieked. She knew she shouldn't touch him, but the urge to see if he was still alive was overwhelming and she went to move his head to the side. Before she knew it, he was sitting up beside her, her father running up after hearing the noise.

Cellyn started to feel fuzzy and closed her eyes, hoping she wasn't going to faint. Her vision started to blur and everything went dark.
"The Light. The White Wolf rides for the Light, before the Light. He leads them, high above them, far before them, into the darkness beyond. The chain stretches from his back, tied tight, never to break."

"Am I where?" she asked, blinking a few times. She was surprised she was still sitting up, if she had fainted, and looked around to see Noj staring down at her. "What's the - you're not bleeding anymore," she murmured, grabbing his hand and staring at it with wide eyes. "My head feels funny," she complained, pressing her fingers against her temples as she tried to stand up, wobbling as she did so.