area woman has to do everything herself (the wot/white tower au)
Unimaginable power.
The sound of Liandrin Sedai's voice echoed worse than Rowena's footsteps on the stone floor. The Tower was all but abandoned at this time of night, especially on these corridors.
Freedom.
She walked, and she thought. She'd seen how the Three Oaths bound the Sisters that had come to her village, before she'd been invited back to be a Novice. She'd seen them dance around them with their magic ten times as fluidly as those born with no access to the One Power at all. But still.
Bound.
Defense.
She remembered how her own magic had overtaken her. How it'd been useless to fight with until Aes Sedai had been sent to investigate the rumors surrounding her. How frustrating it was, knowing how to kill her worst tormentors but being unable to do so. The White Tower was a glorified prison, and by the time she'd be let out--finally choosing an Ajah instead of wallowing as Accepted--she'd be bound by the Three Oaths from doing anything to them.
Black Ajah.
Oh, the sister hadn't come out and said it--really Rowena and Liandrin had shared nothing more than a lovely pot of tea going over her most recent studies--but it was there. Rowena wasn't stupid. Black Ajah had sent someone to recruit her.
The Dark One had agents in the Tower.
She knew some of her proposals and ways in class were...unconventional. But to have drawn the attention of such a force--
"What are you thinking about?" came a deep hum to Rowena's left. She jumped. Without consciously deciding, her feet had taken her far from her room with the other Accepted. Bangles sang and light grey skirts swept the floor as Wilhemena Kadish, next in line to be Head Clerk of the Grey Ajah, stood to her feet from lounging in her bed.
"Billie!" Rowena gasped. "I didn't--"
Billie tilted her head. Rowena did; even when she had no idea what it was, she always intended to do it. Even after this last year being separated, the other woman falling gracefully into her role as a fully fledged Aes Sedai, Billie still knew her. Rowena needed to tell someone; it was lethally unsafe to tell someone. The Black Ajah having snared a Red Sister, someone she'd privately thought too unbendable, meant they could be anywhere. They could have anyone, but--
But.
"Whitebridge or Four Kings?"
"What?"
"I'm being sent out to help settle a...conflict," Billie shrugged. "Or to stop one from starting. I need a second opinion. The city of Whitebridge or the city of Four Kings?"
"And none of your Grey Sisters can tell you?" Rowena demanded. "Too busy cozying up with nobles two weeks away from dropping dead?" Billie shrugged. "Wait for one of them to come back, you know I'd go against every advice the Tower'd give you! I'm a selfish cunt who's the Three Oaths'd never take to, to ask anyone here."
Billie kept looking at her, face all but impassive. Rowena wanted to scream. "I trust you."
"...Whitebridge."
Another shrug. "Then it's Whitebridge."
The woman couldn't be serious.
Billie's face already had the haze that overtook some Aes Sedai's face, when they were in the stretch of time only accessed through the One Power. In addition to the immortality, she was also somehow even more unreadable. She wouldn't stop looking at Rowena. Rowena thought about their first meeting. She thought about spending years side by side as Novices, and the Accepted. She thought of Billie leaving through the Three Arches. She thought of her coming back.
Then it's Whitebridge.
Rowena took the two long steps over to Billie, barely having time to relish rare surprise, and kissed her.
---
Liandrin Guirale was not a light sleeper. She was also someone that cherished sleep. So when banging on her door took her out of a wonderful dream--full of long dark hair and guarded, mirthful eyes--she opened it with perhaps more force than was necessary.
"And who exactly thinks they are so important that they can--" she hissed, only to stop at wide eyes and frantic red hair. Rowena. The little Accepted with the fascinating ideas on how to go manipulate the Taint on Saidin.
The little Accepted's lip quivered. Cute, but easily seen through. Liandrin appreciated her trying, though. She could hone that in her; Rowena would make such a lovely Red. "You said I could come talk to you the moment that I--" She broke off, blinking big doe eyes up at her.
"I did," Liandrin allowed. "Have you come to a decision?"
"Yes," Rowena beamed, no trace of crocodile tears now. "Yes, I have."