(no subject)
Time had run out.
The rose was all but dead.
The flower was blackened and withered--lying motionless on the table. Elan knelt in front of the dresser praying for motion and life from the dying bloom. The blackened petals which had fallen off had been carefully replaced near the flower, arranged in a symmetrical pattern. Not a single one lost or damaged. He had been sure of that--he had to be.
Nothing--
No movement--
Silence--
He was getting somewhere--that much was certain--gaining ground, but he needed more time. The spell was not yet broken. Seizing the source, he drank the power in like a drowning man the air.
--It was a tiny fragment of his power, and it was an incredible strain--a Herculean effort to hold on to that. He could feel the sweat beading on his brow--His breath was fast. Still, it was more than most Aes Sedai could dream of holding unaided. But what was the point? He did not have a way to break the shield... There were no weak points, no knots... The rose was tied to the shield, but it was not the source and neither was it a knot, so how...
Suddenly, he laughed out loud.
There was a solution.
Some knots had to be untied with the teeth.
The rose was all but dead.
The flower was blackened and withered--lying motionless on the table. Elan knelt in front of the dresser praying for motion and life from the dying bloom. The blackened petals which had fallen off had been carefully replaced near the flower, arranged in a symmetrical pattern. Not a single one lost or damaged. He had been sure of that--he had to be.
Nothing--
No movement--
Silence--
He was getting somewhere--that much was certain--gaining ground, but he needed more time. The spell was not yet broken. Seizing the source, he drank the power in like a drowning man the air.
--It was a tiny fragment of his power, and it was an incredible strain--a Herculean effort to hold on to that. He could feel the sweat beading on his brow--His breath was fast. Still, it was more than most Aes Sedai could dream of holding unaided. But what was the point? He did not have a way to break the shield... There were no weak points, no knots... The rose was tied to the shield, but it was not the source and neither was it a knot, so how...
Suddenly, he laughed out loud.
There was a solution.
Some knots had to be untied with the teeth.