The Storm, part 1
Amee falls asleep after she’s done singing. The women talk to each other from their rooms, even though the damane from Seanchan merely tell them to accept this, that this is the best fate they could have. Amee scoffs at them. To be caged, to be chained up and treated less than an animal is NOT what she had in mind when she thought of her future. “You’re wrong. With training, we could have been Mothers. We could have...have been Aes Sedai.”
“Aes….are you mad? Women with the ability to channel, without being chained, or controlled in some way? The devastation they could cause is...In Seanchan, we know the danger marath’damane pose. Clearly you don’t.” The girls says nothing else on the matter, merely staying silent. Amee grits her teeth, and then moves to the floor, beginning her exercises. Ever since she was a little girl, she had wanted to be a pearl diver and fisherman. The older fisherman had laughed at her, telling her she was too scrawny, that she didn’t have the muscles to pry the shellfish from the rock. To throw a spear long, hard, and fast enough to spear a fish, or row a canoe to where it needed to be. To swim far or ast enough.
Well, she had proven them wrong. With the stubbornness that was her primary trait, she set out to become stronger. And this was how she did it. Bracing herself on her toes and knuckles, she slowly lowers her chest to the floor, and back up. She does that thirty times, then takes a break, rolling to her back, and quickly sits back up, and then down. Thirty times, and then back over to her chest. She did that three times, then got up, sweating. She begins to slowly lower herself up and down, holding her hands out, thirty times, then stretches, and does it again. Then she raises up on her tiptoes, holds it, and rolls back down, Again, thirty times. Taking a sip of water from the pitcher, then looking out the porthole. Sniffing, she smirks. There was a storm brewing, and around here they could creep up quickly. She could warn them...but she chooses not to.
Moving to the wall, she stands against it and then slowly lowers herself into a sitting position, and holds it there for as long as she can, until her legs are shaking. Standing up, she does her squats again, then back to the wall sit. When her exercises are done, she takes another sip, and lays down on the bed. Fully cognizant of the chain linking her to the damn bracelet, and how much room she has to move around the room. She whispers goodnight to her family, and then sleeps.
She’s not sure what wakes her up. Could be the booking thunder, or the yelling of the sailors from up top. Either way, she’s awake in an instant, feeling the ship move beneath her, boards creaking. She knows, within an instant, that the storm was upon them. Grinning, she sat back, and then wondered if having the ring move because of the storm would bring the same effects. She shrugged, and then sat back.
Dagna woke up as the ship rolled and moved, and she’s out of bed quickly, moving to change from her nightgown into her clothing. The lightning and the thunder move through the room, casting everything into stark relief. Her lantern swayed back and forth, it’s covered light still shining, but now the shadows are moving. Putting on just the basics and her boots, she moves into the hallway and up the stairs, where the door is. “You can’t get out that way”, she was told by another sul’dam. “They sealed the doorway to keep the ship from flooding.” Unable to leave, and unwilling to sit in her room, Dagna makes her way through the hallways of the rolling ship. To the damane kennels, where she finds her Amee laying in her bed, still fully clothed.
Amee watches as Dagna lurches through the doorway. Clearly, the woman had never been in a squall at sea. She looked positively green, and Amee was enjoying her discomfort. “You know, you can feel the ship move up and down so much”, she says, and stifles a laugh as Dagna runs for the small pot in the corner. Grins as Dagna retches into it, quite happy that she used it before all this started.
Dagna looks up, feeling even more nauseous as the smell of the used pot hits her nose. “You...how doesn’t this bother you?”
Amee grinned. “First off, I’m a fisherman, so this isn’t new to me. I was on a boat before I was able to walk. Secondly, I’m watching you be sick, and that makes me feel better. Thirdly, there’s not much I can do with this stupid thing on my neck, so I’m just going to enjoy watching you stick your face into my piss. Fourth…”, and she grins, “I don’t know if the boat being wrecked will move this in such a way that I can’t swim and I die. And I’m fairly certain that I know the waters around here and you don’t...but I also know that dying is better than living like this.” She shrugs. “So there you have it.”
Suddenly the boat heaves, and Dagna is thrown off her feet. In a flash, Amee is on top of her, trying to get purchase around her throat. Slamming her head into the floor, face full of rage. “Let me out of this collar, and I’ll let you live”, she snarls into Dagna’s face. “I swear it by the Light.” Lightning flashed through the porthole, and thunder boomed as Amee crouched over her, one hand on her throat.