The way back will come but once. Be steadfast.

The arch is before her, down the endless hallway and behind her, Sahel is screaming.

The way back will come but once. Be steadfast.

This is what is. What shall always be and what she cannot change.

The way back will come but once. Be steadfast.

Her hair fans out behind her as Ralyse turns around and makes her choice.

The way back is gone.

II.

For a moment, she is flying. The air around her no longer feels choked and heavy and she can breathe freely for what feels like the first time in years. The pain that had seared through her just moments before is gone, and Ralyse is flying.

When they find their bodies, no one is surprised. Common speculation claims she pushed him, but he grabbed her. The swoony-eyed romantics claim she took her own life because she could not bear to lose him. Somewhere in the hall, a Blue sister rolls her eyes and speaks harshly to anyone perpetuating rumour.

They were found, crumpled together beneath the cliff. His golden hair and her fiery curls, tangled and bloody and broken.

As a metaphor, it works.

III.

Their bonding is impulsive. Some jokes, some drinks, and some laughter in the Inn. They laugh their way back to the Tower and with grins on their faces their bond is made.

Neither is prepared for the rush of intimacy that overcomes them. Neither will ever speak of the pain they feel from the very essence of the other. So many struggles they had been through, but never together.

Marks branded into skin and bodies lying broken beneath cliffs, the image swirl through their minds as the smiles fade from their faces.

Where Ralyse is harsh and fiery, Sahel is calm and hard. They will protect each other until the end of days, unable to ever truly dispel the guilt they feel at having left the other alone in the past.

IV.

Curiosity had always been her sin. The tall gates stand before her and for a moment she closes her eyes, imagining. She imagines the power, the knowledge, the good she could do... A world where she could open her mind to whatever she wished and close her thighs to those she did not. Food on the table and beautiful dresses...

The moment is fleeting, and she goes about her way.

V.

She thinks it’s ridiculous when you consider that such a thin weave, a fine point of spirit, is connecting them in every way. She sees it in front of her as if it were tangible and her heart is steeled against him like a fortress. The warm glow of saidar has never been a mentality she ascribed to, but now it is cold as ice. She is filled with resolve and ire and a purpose that she cannot stop to think about, for thinking will cause her to waver.

The tiniest flick and it’s broken.

She is halved.

Ralyse crumples then, like she has not been doing since the moment he left. She falls to the floor in a pile of red curls and failure, her heart in pieces around her. Her mind screams with the emptiness of two broken bonds and she can’t hear anything else. He’s in Saldaea, awash with relief and she can’t tell the sound of her own breathing from the blood pounding in her head.

She thinks her hands must hurt, for she has clenched them so hard her nails have broken the skin of her palms. She sees the first traces of blood between her fingers and tilts her head to the side. She thinks she sees him in the patterns on her hands, on the carpet beneath her knees. Her head is screaming and Tane is in her blood and Harad stands in the corner with his familiar smirk, mocking her.

Tane finds her, his regret driving him to Tar Valon with unmatched speed. He had tried to scream out to her before she cut the ties, but her mind had never been truly open to him. When they examine her body, probing her with weaves, they do not find anything.

When they examine her mind, it is closed.

Her eyes stare blankly and somewhere, Harad is laughing.