She looked more like her mother every year. Cyridine al’Cair, formerly Cyridine Ticara of the Seven Towers, was taller and sturdier, and her icy blue eyes were sharper than Kristal’s brown, but the resemblance was obvious. Had it not been for those hazel eyes, one might have thought that Kristal’s father had left no mark on her. She was her mother’s daughter in all things, except that her loyalty belonged to the White Tower now. She had chosen this, though, and there was no room for regrets, not when she had twice proved that she truly wanted it. First the arches, and finally the terrible test for the shawl. It was an impossibility to question any woman’s conviction once she had survived and passed both tests. When the shawl was draped around a woman’s shoulders, her life was forever changed. She was a servant of all, and that left no place for any other loyalties.

For now, though, Kristal had seen but twenty-seven winters and had to fight for every scrap of authority among her peers. The Three Oaths she had taken when the blue-fringed shawl had been draped around her shoulders no longer creaked like new leather every time she turned around, but she was still little more than a baby sister to other Aes Sedai. The older ones still spoke to her as if she were a child, expecting her to accept that they were higher in the hierarchy than she was and obey their orders like always before. But Kristal had never obeyed orders easily. Even as a novice of fifteen summers, she had bristled at every command and earned many punishments for her ’disagreeable temper’ and ’sulky obedience’. It wasn’t that she hadn’t known why it was necessary for her to learn to obey; it was the part about obeying without question that had always raised her hackles.

She still had that same attitude, and the way older sisters sometimes mistreated the younger made her so angry she thought she must explode from it some day. Things being as they were, building up her personal power base would take time, and she had her own opinions about being Aes Sedai that did not always match those of her sisters, but... In this, too, time would show her the way. The Light only knew that Tower training had taught her patience.

Young as she was, Kristal was nevertheless going to take one more step towards credibility and unquestioning respect this day. The Blue Ajah had welcomed her, yet those few whom she had confided in about the cause that was closest to her heart had been alarmed at the risks she was going to take. Her causes were associated with great personal danger and would probably require that she spend many years in the Borderlands studying the Blight, and for that purpose she needed a Warder. It was perhaps unseemly for such a young sister to bond, but Kristal had never cared much about how things should and should not be done in the opinion of older sisters, and was not about to start now. Ever since her cause had become clear to her some years ago, she had been on the lookout for a suitable warrior to watch her back. She had known she would need someone with a good sword arm and quick wits, someone with a strong enough temper to question her when needed but also someone who would obey without question in a tight situation. Yes, Tower training had also taught her why obeying without question was sometimes necessary, and the truth be told, she had never had any problem with others obeying HER without question, just the other way round. She had been watching the Warder trainees for quite some time now, wondering if any of them could really meet her requirements, and coming to no conclusions at all. There had been some very promising young men that she had considered for a while, but something had always kept her from taking the final step of offering a bond to anyone. The man was always too young, or too old, or had too close a relationship to someone else, or was not exactly sure if he wanted to be a Warder or not... Something always came up and made her reconsider.

Little had she known that the right person had been watching her back for years now without her even realising it. It shamed her that she had completely overlooked those closest to her when considering potential Warders. It might have been a form of self-preservation or sheer folly, but she had needed quite a pointed reminder to realise that she had had a Warder in theory if not in practice from the first day she met Harkening Wacliffe Sivar. And after what had happened during her ill-fated expedition into the destroyed nation of Malkier, there could be no doubt that she and Harken were meant to share a bond.

”It is time”, Kristal told her reflection and put the looking glass back on the shelf. He would be waiting in the gardens at sunset as they had agreed. In the Tower, the gardens had always been the place where both of them had been the most comfortable. She knew he loved his privacy as much as she loved hers, and they had spent many a quiet evening in the Tower gardens, and later in the Ogier grove, just walking side by side in a silence that needed no words. Kristal had always scoffed at the idea of soul mates, but when looking back at her history with Harken, she was not quite so sure any more. Try as she might, she could not find another word that would better describe the strange, peaceful relationship they had developed over the years. From the first day they had met, Kristal had known that they would be friends. Harken had taken to her immediately when her first reaction to his golden eyes had been undying curiosity, not horror, and she had been absolutely intrigued by his reticence. Later on, they had somehow become each other’s true companions, and Harken had started to think he had a say in what Kristal did and where she went. Infuriating man, yet strangely comforting to have around. And now... yes, perhaps soul mates was not such a ridiculous notion after all.

She suspected that Harken would be nervous about this, and could not blame him. She was feeling quite tense herself. This was uncharted territory for both of them, although both knew in theory what this choice entailed and what kind of consequences were to be expected. It was, however, much different to dream and speculate and make plans than to actually go ahead and perform that simple Spirit weave on someone. They’d be linked for life in a very real sense. Kristal was still afraid that her Ghealdanin wolf wasn’t fully aware what this bonding truly meant.

He had not hesitated at all when she had finally gathered enough courage to ask him. ”It would be an honour”, had been all he had said. He had not even teased her about it, although driving Kristal up the walls had been his favourite pastime ever since they had become friends. Well, perhaps that was not the whole truth. It was better to say that Harken had had an incredible talent for getting under her skin without even meaning to. He was even more serious than she and rarely jested or even laughed, but nevertheless no one had ever managed to torment her so. Harken had a maddening ability to always appear in the very place Kristal did not want him to be, or to say the worst imaginable thing at the worst possible moment. Every time she told him to stay behind, he was waiting for her down the road with a determined look on his face. There was no escaping him.

Infuriating he might be, but Kristal knew that Harken would never abandon her. Already during their years of training, he had protected her from harm and sheltered her from sights she was better off not seeing. In a sense, he had been her Warder for years already, and the bond was only a formality. For some reason Kristal could not fathom, Harken had decided at some point that she needed someone to keep her out of trouble and, without bothering to consult her, had assigned that task to himself. Men! Trust them to be stubborn fools, one and all!

”Harken?” she called out softly at the garden entrance when she did not see him there. She smoothed down the front of her simple blue robe, feeling a tiny flutter in her stomach. He had taken off again. She couldn’t blame him for that, not really, for finding fault in Harken’s wanderlust would have been pure hypocrisy from someone who had always felt confined in Tar Valon herself. She was actually hoping that the restlessness they both seemed to feel would be eased by this bonding, because once it was done and Kristal had a Warder she could trust, nothing could keep them cooped up in the Tower any longer. They had always talked about travelling in the world, yet neither had been able to voice the thought of wanting to travel with each other. Now that thought could remain unvoiced. There would be no need for words to describe how they felt about that, not after the bonding was complete.

”Here, my lady”, came the darkly amused response almost directly behind her. Kristal whirled with a sharp intake of breath but relaxed almost before she had seen that it was him. She should have known better. Harken did have an uncanny ability to turn up without warning, and this was by no means the first time he had scared the wits out of her.

”You stop those ’my ladies’ right this instant!” Kristal snapped, pointing an accusing finger at him. ”I have told you a hundred times that I have a name and you are to use it. Peace, Harken! Can you not give me a moment’s peace, today of all days?”

He had the audacity to grin, and amusement changed his solemn face to quite something else. The nerve of that man! How was it possible that he always seemed to know just where to poke to make her want to shriek in frustration? With sheer painful effort of her will, Kristal forced herself to swallow her fury this one time. There would be more than enough time to repay him thousand-fold for every little barb he had given her over the years. Oh yes, he would be hearing a piece of her mind all right. The nerve of him, to be laughing at her!

Ignorant of his impending doom, her Gaidin-to-be bowed and offered her his arm, which she took after a moment and followed him to the shadow of a mighty oak that hid them from the eyes of passers-by. This was a private matter, and neither of them wanted witnesses. There would be time to celebrate later, and they both knew that Hinka and Velieen at least were organising a ’surprise party’ in the Blue Halls for their honour, or what would be left of it after that feast. Kristal really did not want to know what was being planned there, but knowing Hinka, it was likely to involve drinking and singing and general tormenting of the newly bonded pair. Even for a Shienaran woman, Velieen’s Gaidar had a few too many surprises up her sleeve for Kristal’s peace of mind. She found herself wishing there was a way to escape all the fuss that was probably waiting for them already, but knew that if there was no escaping Harken, there was no escaping Hinka either.

Kristal could see that Harken had taken pains to make himself presentable as had she, but no amount of grooming could keep his unruly hair in check. Straight and pale blonde, it was just long enough for him to tie it back at the nape of his neck, but disobedient locks always came loose whenever he moved his head. Her fingers itched to smoothe his hair back into place, but that was a fancy she refused to indulge in. It did not matter. He looked more than fine to her, and anything he could have worn would have been overshadowed by his eyes anyway. Those golden orbs were his most striking characteristic, and Kristal had seen people shrink away from Harken’s steady gaze for more times than she cared remember. It was a constant pain to such a kind, refined man to be shunned without reason, but at least he seemed to find some solace in the fact that Kristal neither feared nor hated him and had gone so far as to offer him a bond with not a thought to his eyes, or to the other things that the golden colour meant.

That colour had brought him more pain and grief than such a young life should have held. Ghealdan was not an accepting country, not with the Whitecloak power-base so near, and he had been driven from his village as little more than a child. The White Tower had been a nervous sanctuary, but at least he had not needed to fear angry crowds with torches and pitchforks coming after him here. Kristal knew he still agonised over not knowing how his mother and little sister were coping in the south, but with him gone, the Whitecloaks had no reason to persecute them. That was poor comfort for a son and a brother who was worried sick about them, but it could not be helped. Kristal had already decided that once the bonding was complete, they would travel to Ghealdan first thing and try to find out where his mother and sister lived. They would bring Harken’s womenfolk out of the country and take them someplace safer. Perhaps then he could sleep in peace.

”Harken”, Kristal spoke up quietly, just loudly enough to be heard. Night was falling quickly, and her features were softened by shadows. Harken’s golden eyes gleamed eerily in the fading light, but she was not afraid. She had never been afraid of him.

”Yes?” he replied softly, questioningly.

”Are you sure, dear one? Do you accept this freely, willingly? I have told you what accepting a bond means. You will benefit to be sure, but you will also be bound to me in spirit, and permanently.”

”I am already bound. You should know that”, he said simply, and gave her a wistful smile that shamed her for ever thinking he did not care.

”But Harken, if I should die...” she tried one more time, frantic to make him understand what would happen to him if she fell, which was very much possible in the Blight.

”I know. Yet I accept this of my own free will.”

Kristal said nothing for a long while. They had had this conversation many times before, and it always turned out the same. She would imagine all kinds of horrible ends for them both, and Harken would calmly accept them and assure her that no one was forcing him into this. How could he be so stoic about it?

”There is one thing that worries me, though”, he suddenly spoke up, which was more than unusual. He nearly always deferred to her and let her do most of the talking. If he said he was worried about something, it was probably bad enough that normal people would have been panicking already. Like any Warder-to-be, Harken was suspicious of anything and everything that might threaten his charge, but he rarely cared to put those fears into words. ”My bond with the wolves. I don’t know what it’s going to be like. For you, I mean.”

Yes, there was that, and Kristal had no answers, no consolation for him. ”I trust you”, was the only thing she could say to put his mind to rest. ”There is no telling if your pack will be able to feel me, or if your bond with them will affect me in some way. The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, dear one, and we are all but threads in the Pattern. I believe that this is meant to be, Harken, and I would be a poor sister indeed if I were to balk at taking risks. If the risk of feeling your wolves is the price I must pay for having you as a Warder, then I shall accept it of my own free will.”

”Brave as always. Too brave, I fear”, the amusement returned to his voice.

Kristal could not help but smile. This, too, was something she had heard more than once. ”We cannot dictate how our lives will unfold, Harken. I have faced my fears once already, and you or your pack were not among them. I accept your bonds and loyalties, as you have accepted mine”, she told him.

”So be it, then”, he said, turning to her, understanding and accepting.

Kristal reached out to him, placing her hands gently on his temples. The weave of Spirit she directed into him was simple enough, and it settled gently and easily. A moment of anticipation and holding of breath; and then, slowly, an awakening. It was like waking from a dream, a strange sensation of awareness, a touch of feelings that were not her own. Kristal suddenly knew that he was anxious about something, and she could guess what lay at the bottom of it. She could sense a... strangeness, a near-presence of something else than Harken in her head, but when she tried to examine the feeling more closely, he kindly yet firmly shooed her away from it. He had ever been protecting her, and one weave of the Power was not going to change anything. Kristal realised he was holding her hand in both of his.

”My life belongs to you, as yours belongs to me. I will protect you for as long as there is breath in my body”, he said solemnly, looking down at her with those golden eyes that shone with intensity as the night fell. ”I will keep you safe.”

It was done. Too late to turn back now. The strange feeling of another’s presence in her head would need some getting used to, but that was a task she would gladly apply herself to. She could no longer sense the other presence and suspected that Harken would take steps to keep that so. Even where there was no need, he had always protected her from harm.

”It is done. For good or ill, Harken, we are bonded”, she replied, accepting him and his protection. Side by side, they walked deeper into the gardens. Both knew the surprise party was going to have to wait for a few moments longer.

Kristal thought she heard a wolf howl somewhere in the distance.