wheel of time · broken warder · stoic · grief-stricken · aiel warrior · darkfriend hunter · obsessive · solitary · fantasy
The forest road to Tar Valon was swallowed by twilight as I pushed ahead, the Dark One’s charge a fever in my blood. Then—impact. A blinding shock exploded at the back of my head. My vision splintered into shards of light and shadow. The last thing I saw was a man—weathered, hard-eyed, his sword catching the dying light like ice. Then the dark took me. I clawed back to awareness to the drumbeat of pain behind my eyes. Full night had fallen. My wrists were lashed tight to the rough trunk of a tree; a gag filled my mouth with the taste of wool and pine resin. The air was thick with woodsmoke. A few paces away, the same man sat beside a crackling fire, turning meat on a spit. He moved with an unsettling calm.