Chapter 1 - The Wheel Turns and Ages Come to Pass

  

  She'd been fighting for what felt like hours. The forces of the Light still held the small town behind her, at least in part, but they'd been pushed back from the trench lines. Wave after wave of trollocs, myrddraal and simple darkfriends thrown forward until the defenders were forced to retreat or die.

  She'd stayed behind, working her way from trenches to craters to half ruined walls. Staying under cover and disrupting the Shadow's advance as much as she could. She'd already killed three of their channelers. Scum who'd gotten over-confident, not even realising she was there before she incinerated them where they stood.

  Now she was quietly working her way towards a group of trollocs, led by a lone myrddraal as they picked their way through the detritus of battle towards the Light's empty trenches. She just needed to get a little closer…

  Her instincts screamed a warning and she snapped her head to the right, already spinning a web of air to throw a barrier between her and a towering wall of fire hurtling towards her.

  It exploded with a roar, breaking harmlessly against her barrier even as she channeled. Spirit, fire, a hint of earth and air came together in a fraction of a second, split four ways. Streaks of fire swung wide from her, tearing through the air to obliterate swathes of ground amidst the Shadow's lines.

  She didn't wait to see whether she'd hit her target. She could feel the strain as she spun and the moment her webs came together she was already running.

  She dived into the abandoned trenches sacrificing any attempt at stealth. She'd been fighting for hours and knew she was on her last legs, but staying still meant death. She wasn't sure anything other than death was in her near future, but Light damn her, she'd make them fight for it!

  She hadn't really expected to hit the enemy channeler, but she was still disappointed when the trench behind her exploded only moments after she'd fled through it. They were strong, too strong at this point. She couldn't feel their spinning. Whether it was a man or a woman inverting her webs, they had the advantage over her.

  Were those footsteps running behind her? She paused, channeled. Flows of spirit, air and fire came together and lightning struck from the clouded sky, obliterating the trenches she'd just run through. Fire came blazing back towards her, the enemy's own lightning descended from above.

  She sliced the webs with razor sharp spirit and fire. It was a strain. They were too strong. Could this be one of the Forsaken?

  She needed to keep running. She wanted to Travel, but the wards covering the trenches wouldn't allow it.

  As she ran, panting for breath, she left a few small traps behind her. Small, inverted webs, that would explode in fire or razor sharp air.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  She knew she needed to get back to the town hall. The defence was being coordinated from there and she might be able to get help or find some way to escape.

  No one had thought that the Shadow would field a powerful channeler here and the forces of the Light hadn't been ready to deal with it. She'd made a promise last night, she needed to run if she was going to keep it.

  She nearly ran into a small pack of trollocs. A thought and they died in fire. She was almost there. Light only knew how many trollocs she'd killed today, but the whole line was collapsing. Reinforcements were needed here.

  Over the crack of shocklances and the bestial howl of trollocs, she heard the first of her traps detonate and a roar of rage. A man then. He seemed to be losing ground, she didn't expect any of the traps to stop him, but at least they'd slow him down.

  Pausing in her flight for just a second, she pulled the last grenade from her belt and thrust it into the side of the trench with a quick web of spirit, air and water to hide it and a spun trigger to set it off when someone walked by. Perhaps a conventional trap would be more effective.

  There was no time to wait and find out and soon she was staggering into the battered townhall, past the armoured troops firing their shocklances from behind the cover of the walls.

  "Taija Sedai!;" An officer shouted when he saw her.

  She cut him off, gasping out, "Channeler, too strong, going for help. Try to delay him!"

  She didn't see the look of grim determination come onto his face and barely heard the barked orders as she staggered past him, heading for the basement.

  The thick, stone walls of the townhall muffled the sounds of the battle above when she stumbled into its basement. She was almost too tired to feel relief when she saw the huge, bearded form of her friend Antero poring over a map, occasionally barking orders into a radio while the local administrators frantically filled a large stasis box for evacuation from the oncoming forces of the Shadow.

  Antero looked up as she came in, concern drawing lines across his face. "Taija? What's happened? You're injured!"

  She reached up to her face and was surprised to find she was bleeding, "It's nothing. We need to move, now! We're about to be overrun and there's a heavy hitter out there, maybe even one of the Forsaken. I've done my best to slow him down, but I can't handle him, not now. We need to get reinforcements," the look on his face told her straight away there was no help coming, "or evacuate."

  She faltered, exhaustion warring with her grasp on saidar. Finding herself struggling to stand now that her life wasn't in immediate danger, she leant on the side of the stasis box, ignoring an irritated look from one of the bureaucrats. "Is the basement still outside the wards?"

  "Yes, but…"

  She interrupted him ignoring the reluctance that flared up inside her at what she was about to propose, "I'm not sure I can make a gateway right now, link with me." Normally it wouldn't have been difficult, but she was just so tired. Antero wasn't strong enough to make a gateway by himself, he had other talents than the Power, but combined they should still have enough strength for a gateway to get as many people as they could out before they were overrun.

  Antero opened his mouth to reply when the whole building shook, making her stumble. "That was saidin!" As he shouted the building shook again harder, plaster falling from the ceiling.

  She felt herself losing her balance, stumbling out of control. Explosions racked the townhall, throwing her around as the building shook itself apart above her.

  The last thing she saw before darkness claimed her was Antero reaching out to her his mouth open in an unheard scream.