Welcome to Gaia! ::

(Sorry for the monologuing, but it's all I got until I can actually do something with the others. That's why I'm not posting all the time.)

Kiae paused as she headed down another street, getting the distinct feeling she was being watched. She didn't turn around but continued leading her mount down the narrow space between market stalls, positive whoever the person was was following at a perceived safe distance. She turned several corners, relying on her memory of Cairhien to lead her exactly where she wanted to lure the stalker. To her surprise, however, no one showed themselves when she reached the relatively-empty residential street.

Something caught the corner of her eye and she turned quickly, just in time to see a spot of black turn the corner. Leaving the horse in the street, not worried if someone took it but doubting they would try, she quickened her pace to try and catch up. She was led down to another street, this one completely deserted. A tall figure in dashing black clothes stood at the other end, face shrouded in shadows.
"I just thought you might like to know, little Aes Sedai, that Cairhien can be much more dangerous than you remember," the man chuckled, a flash of the Power leaving his fingertips.
Kiae blocked it with a quick weave of Air and tried to retaliate, but the man raised a hand for a momentary peace. "Who are you?" she demanded.
The man sneered, or so his tone implied. "Oh, not your puny New Order or whatever it is you call it," he assured her, the contempt in his voice making his claim sound entirely plausible. "No, I am part of something much bigger that you managed to miss, Sister. Good luck trying to find us with that mess you call a team," he added, before opening a Gateway and striding through.
Kiae rushed forward, but the weave was snapped off too quickly for her to follow. She frowned, finding herself more curious than frightened, and considered the possibility of having missed something important. "I'll have to go over my notes again," she sighed, positive the man wasn't the same one who had used Melthin's weaves.

Ethin nodded, knowing they both wanted to know what had happened with Kiae. The sense she had through the Bond puzzled him. He went down the streets of Cairhien, thanking the Creator for the Cairhieniens need for everything to be orderly and in straight lines. "You might want to be ready to embrace the Power. Something seems off in the Bond. Kiae's feelings are worrying me," Ethin suggested, gripping his sword under his cloak.

They came upon her in a secluded alley. She seemed to be alone. "Did someone attack you, Kiae?" Ethin asked, keeping an eye on everything at once - a skill all Warders were taught throughout their training.

(xD)

Esole twitched her eyebrow in a quick moment of anger but suppressed an urge to act out. She was quite fed up with Kiae and would not let her get to her. "Ah, good thing then. I'm glad to hear it was nothing big. And yes, we were about to have a nice little meal with that interesting older fellow and Melthin. We hadn't had the chance to get the food yet. Perhaps you'd like to join us for a meal? I'm rather famished," Esole suggested, hoping Kiae would be more willing to talk over a some cider and food.

Esole gave Ethin a look that told him he was meant to be there and go along with whatever she had planned. He gave the slightest of nods that anybody else but Esole would have missed. Years together seemed to help with silent communication. Esole smiled inwardly, for what reason, she was unsure.

"I hadn't needed anything to begin with, Yellow," Esole said with a hint of disgust in her voice. That woman implied that Esole had needed something from her. She would roll over and die before she asked the Yellow for anything more.

Esole turned on her heel and walked away, but not back to the inn. She decided it was time to check with her contacts in Cairhien. Esole walked down many side streets that eventually took her to the edge of main city of Cairhien near a gate to the Foregate. She looked for the small shoemaker's buidling that was her major contact in Cairhien. Esole found the building under a new name, The Purple Heel. "Interesting. Why ever would Jayce change the name?" Esole wondered. She strode into the small building and immediately found her old friend and informant.

"Jayce! It's been such a long time, my old friend!" Esole exclaimed as the two embraced. Jayce looked much older than Esole remembered. She had wings of white hair at her temples and wrinkles around her eyes that hadn't been there before.

"Oh dearie, yes it has. Little 'Soley's all grown now!" Jayce said, her voice an aged memory of its old self but her smile still as genuine as it always had been. "Now I'm s'posin' you'd like to hear the latest news of Cairhien? 'Course you do. That's why you always come and visit me, eh? Ah, I'm just messin' 'Soley. I know you're a busy lady," Jayce said, her smile widening as she saw the expression on Esole's face.

"I'm afraid you've got me, Jayce. I'm in Cairhien on important business and need to know all that I can about what's going on," Esole informed her as she put up a strong ward against eavesdropping and inverted the weaves so they were invisible. She had learned that trick long ago in the Tower but sometimes it didn't matter who saw the Power in use, but she feared that this was one of the times it did matter. "Jaycey, something dark is festering out there and it is threatening the peace the Dragon brought to us by defeating the Dark One. I must know everything," she told the woman in grim seriousness.

Jayce then proceeded to tell her of all the news she had. Esole trusted her not to hold back. The woman knew how much was riding on what Esole learned from her contacts. Esole left Jayce with several gold crowns, not out of business, but in sincerity. The woman helped her with so much when it could cost her just as much.

As Esole wandered down the street in search of her more elusive contact, she pondered what Jayce had told her. Shadowspawn and a new regiment of Darkfriends. It was just had she had feared. Forces of evil were rising much quicker than the Tower had expected.

Esole took a break from her searching to get a drink in the nearest inn called The Lady's Prince. She watched the people who came as she slowly sipped her cider.

(No, I hadn't meant them. I meant the rest of the New Order. I had meant for Ethin to stay behind but it's cool. Guess he's with Esole now.)

Ethin walked in shortly after Esole. She hadn't told him to follow but he knew she had expected him to. He took a seat next to her and took up the mug of cider she had ordered before he had arrived. "Now what?" Ethin asked, knowing that Esole knew he was speaking of Kiae.

At that moment, a large, gruff man walked in and as soon as he spotted the two, he walked over and took a seat with them. He didn't speak. He just watched the two. Ethin looked over at Esole and saw that she had a knowing look in her eye. She knew him. Ethin kept his silence and waited for the two to speak.

(Not sure what to do with Kiae now.)

The Yellow muttered to herself as she read over her notes, a ward of evesdropping preventing any curious passers-by from overhearing. She had found a bench outside a merchant house to study what papers she carried on her, not wanting to put it off. None of them mentioned anyone other than the New Order, and she supposed she could assume the man was lying.
"Something didn't seem like he was lying, though. It was almost as if he was having too much fun to lie," she thought. It made no sense, but there it was. Frowning, she continued skimming what information was with her, hoping to find some clue or another among the writings.

After a short conversation with the man, Esole departed from the inn, motioning for Ethin to follow. The man, her contact, Othello, had told her that there were small gatherings of Darkfriends at a rundown inn in the Foregate every night. Esole had heard of it before and was vaguely aware of its location.

"Ethin, be ready for anything. These Darkfriends may be on a very low rung of the Darkfriend ladder, but they are still dangerous. We may have an advantage because they are not expecting us, but we don't know that for sure," Esole informed her Warder as they walked hurriedly down the crowded evening streets of Cairhien.

Once they reached the Foregate, Esole followed her vague memory of the area, and finally found the inn she was looking for - after getting lost quite a bit. There in front of them was the Dark Knight, Esole sneered at the sign. "How fitting," Esole said with a sigh.

Ethin walked in first, hands ready on his sword. Esole followed close behind, surprised to find no one there but Ethin.

Kiae began to correct his manner of addressing her, then remembered her instructions and sighed. "What I'm doing is none of your business, Geofram," she informed him calmly, slipping her notes into her cloak for safe-keeping. She considered what do now and was surprised the man was speaking to her at all.
"What irony, he's the only one that isn't mad at me for something yet," she thought wryly, deciding she was being punished by the Light for something she had yet to do. "Did you need something from me? I find it odd you sought me out instead of Esole," she said, glancing at him with a stern expression.