Time to leave
“Wait...Go? Go where?” Amee stood her ground, after Dagna began to walk away. Dagna kept walking, and Amee gritted her teeth, waiting for the tug on her collar. It came, but it also came with a burning sensation to the soles of her feet, and Amee gasped and hopped, but saw nothing there. Dagna turned to her with a smile.
“The a’dam can be used for many things, Amee. It can give great pleasure, can allow you to channel or not as I wish, and can also cause you great pain. Pain like you wouldn’t believe. So far I've been lenient with you. But my patience with you is at an end. So unless you’d like to get a taste, I suggest you come with me. Quietly.” She started walking again, and Amee followed, the pain in her feet having subsided, and then she stopped again. Her mother was looking at her, silently crying, tears rolling down her face, and Amee had the sudden feeling that she would never see her again. Dagna looked at her as she also stopped short, and the burning began, but fiercer this time.
“Owww!!”, Amee whined, hopping back and forth. “Please!! I...I just want to say good-bye to my mother. Please!!!”
Dagna huffed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “In Seanchan, when marath’damane are found, their names are stricken from the family, as if they never existed. Even being Family of the Empress is not enough to shield one from this. But…”, and she sighed. “We are not in Seanchan, and you do not know these things. I will allow you one goodbye, on the condition that you follow me to the ship without question, and without trouble. Otherwise, I will make you curse the day your father laid with your mother. Do we have a deal?”
Amee nodded, frantically. “Under the Light, I swear it.” ‘And I even mean it. Once we get to the ship, though…’
Dagna smileed, almost as if she knew what Amee was thinking. “Very well. Let us go to your mother.” She walked closer to Brundi, allowing Amee to run up and hug her. “Momma”, she whispered. “Momma, I’m scared.”
Brundi smiled through her tears, caressed her face. “That makes this the first time i’ve ever heard you admit that since you were two years old. There’s nothing to fear, child. I know you are not made for the Water way. But think on this. If they had wished you dead, you would be. No, it will be hard, but you are strong, and you will survive. Who knows, maybe you will make a new way. A Stone Way.” She hugged her daughter close. “I will always love you, just as much as when old Mother Selanda placed you in my arms for the first time.” She looked over at Amee, at a Dagna that was clearly about to inflict pain on her daughter. “I love you, Amee. Be good, and walk in the Light always. When you see the moon, know that I’m looking at the same moon, thinking of you.” Kissing her forehead, she released her. “Go, child. I don’t want you to be in pain.”
"I love you, Momma. Say goodbye to Poppa for me." Amee sobbed as she spoke, and gave one more hug before she turned and walked away.
Dagna waited, and then began walking, and Amee had no choice but to follow, walking backwards. Her last sight of her mother was Brundi walking after her, corralled by soldiers, her hand raised in a goodbye. Tears streamed down her face, and she followed, sobbing. Dagna didn’t stop walking, or say anything, choosing to walk in silence. After a few minutes she stopped, and spoke. “The proper way to walk with your sul’dam is on whichever side the bracelet is on, a pace behind. We begin your training now, Amee, so attend me.”
“Yes, Dagna.” Amee was so mad, she could have chewed rocks and spit out sand, but she gave her word, and she ALWAYS kept her word. She stood and walked to the place that Dagna pointed at silently, as if she was a dog, and the thought rankled. She thought about beating her again, but even if the thought of the pain she would feel hadn’t stopped her, she had swore, and Dagna smiled.
“You’re learning, Amee. I can feel you, your emotions and state of mind through the a’dam, so don’t bother lying. You wanted to thrash me just now, but thought better of it. Good girl. Soon you won’t even think about it.” They start walking again, Amee following, and they catch up with the other sul’dam. “So, Amee, do you have any Talents?”
“I...I can hold my breath for a long time, and I can spear a fish from five paces.” All the sul’dam laughed at her, leaving Amee to wonder why.
“Oh, Amee. I mean Talent in the Power.” Dagna chuckled, and they continued walking.
“The….The Power? You mean like an Aes Sedai?? I don’t know how to channel, never did it. I swear by the Light, I’ve never channelled.” Dagna kept walking, but huffed once. Amee yelped as what felt like a stout switch hit her across the seat of her pants, and she squealed, jumped up and rubbed herself. “What….why did you do that?? I’m telling the truth!!! Can’t your magic collar tell you that?”
“The a’dam can only tell me what you’re feeling, Amee. Not whether you’re lying to yourself or not. But Nura picked you out, and she is a good damane. You can feel the a’dam, it’s control. You CAN channel, Amee.” Dagna looks at the other sul’dam, speaks in that flowing language again, and then looks back at her. “It’s possible that you haven’t sparked yet, your ability to channel present but not flowered. You need someone to help guide you, let you open the ability.”
The sul’dam who has Nura’s collar, looked at her. Nura immediately prostrated herself before her. “Sul'dam, Nura is sorry. She doesn’t know how. Please, sul’dam. Nura is a good damane.” Her sul’dam comes over and coos at her, petting her, calming her.
“Nura is good, Nura isn’t in trouble. Nura is a good damane”, and started tickling her, rubbing her back. Nura giggled, and stood up, helped up by her sul'dam. They started walking again, and Dagna sighed. “No matter. If there’s no damane on our ship that can do it, then one of the other ships must have one.” Turning to Amee, Dagna looks at her, up and down. “What are you wearing? Your parents allowed you to walk around like this?”
Amee looked down at her clothes, her shirt and short trews. “I’m a fisher and a pearl diver. I can’t wear dresses on a boat, Dagna. Too much loose fabric, and I would never be able to dive…..” Her face fell as she realized something. “I’m...I’m never going to be allowed into the ocean again, am I?”
Dagna shakes her head, and then pauses. “Perhaps, as a treat for you. If you are a good damane, and train hard, it’s possible. As it is, I allow you to call me by my name, as a mark of favor. Any other sul’dam that completes you, holds your a’dam, you will address as ‘sul’dam’, as Nura does. Should you vex me, you will lose that privilege.” She keeps walking, saying nothing, and soon enough they get to the docks. The strange ships are there, ribbed sails furled, and soldiers standing smartly at attention. More of those lizard-cat beasts are prowling around, and Amee shies away from them as they get close enough to one for Amee to smell it’s rank odor.
“It’s not unheard of in newly conquered lands for someone, usually a lover or parent, to try to free a damane”, Dagna says conversationally. “The torm are used to hunt them down. The person who freed them is painted with a substance that we use to encourage torm to mate, and then given to them. What’s left doesn’t even look human. The damane loses a hand for running. The next time she tries, she loses a foot.” Dagna can feel Amee’s terror and she notes that. “The torm ALWAYS find their prey.”
Amee edges closer to Dagna, away from the torm and the soldier riding it, and they get closer to the ship. Soldiers are standing at attention, another soldier in differently colored armor standing in front of them. Porters carry supplies onto the ships, and if she closes her eyes, Amee can think that she’s on the docks, about to go out on a boat to fish. The fantasy is broken the moment she moves her head, feels the collar around her throat. She turns to Dagna and scoffs. “You don’t know the Water Way if you think someone is going to come for me.”
“The...The water Way?” Dagna sounds confused, and she is. She’s never heard of this philosophy, and she stops, looking at amee.
“Yes, the Water Way.” Amee looks up, sighing, and recites from memory. “As Water conforms to its environment, so do we. As Water strives to be at peace, so do we. As Water does not fight, merely flows with the tides, so do we.” She turns to Dagna, and shrugs. “That’s the basic gist of it. Basically, go with the flow. So if you are worried about a rescue, it’s not happening. Not from them, anyways.” She hikes a thumb back the way they came. Dagna nods, it’s similar to some other philosophies she’s heard from other places.
“Then we don’t need to worry about needing the torm, do we? Good, let’s board.” Walking up the gangplank, she can feel Amee’s distress, her fear. And an undercurrent of sad humor.
‘I never said I follow it’, Amee thinks, as she walks up the gangplank, and leaves her home behind.