Vaid Intro 3

--- The Wheel Turns ---
Vaid glanced both ways down the alleyway looking for any sign of danger. Seeing none, he released the weave, letting the strands of power unravel, causing the ominous feeling he had built around him to flee with the two hoodlums. But he kept a firm grip on Saidin should he need to use the power once more.

"You go yelling about your coin," he spun on the girl, looming over her, in his slightly hunched manner, "and soon you'll be sleeping in the gutter!" She squeaked and edged away from him. He realized he was angry and took a long deep breath to calm himself. Then he said somewhat more gently, "Fool girl, this is no place for you..."

Light, she was innocent... so innocent. The world is no place for the innocent, not with men like those hoodlums, not with men like himself. He wondered if there ever would be a place for the innocent. He wondered when he had lost his innocence. When he had seen the charred form of Truneas or was it sometime before that?

Vaid sighed and dropped the club. Then he knelt beside the girl. "Are you hurt?" She looked at him, not daring to move for a while... then suddenly she shook her head. He looked her over. She was no more than fifteen. Her face was pretty, a round oval framed with a border of long black hair. But was smudged and dirty. Her plain blue dress of coarse cloth was ripped and torn. Her knees and elbows scraped and bleeding. He nodded, satisfied. Other than the shock of being assaulted, she was relatively unharmed. Vaid was glad he had arrived in time. Glad he was of some use. It felt good to have helped this one innocent soul. How many times had this happened in the past? For the past several years he would be a secret protector of an entire village until something would happen, until the power got the best of him, until he could no longer control it, contain it, and it burst out destroying those he loved....

The power... Light, it felt good to see those men run in fear from him. And well they should fear. He laughed inside. A harsh laugh. He was not concerned about the big man's threat. Burn me, but they have no idea who they're dealing with... he said to himself, a fierce look in his dark eyes.
Let them come!

Remembering the girl, he shook the thoughts away and spoke to her in a gruff manner, but gently enough that she needn't be frightened of him. "What is your name?"

When she didn't answer he continued gruffly. "No matter. You were a fool to come here, lass. Those men had nothing good planned for you. I hope you have learned you lesson."

She simply gulped, trying to hold back the flood behind her eyes. Suddenly, from relief or from remembering the event, tears came from her wide dark eyes. Spilling into her lap and her body shook with silent sobs.

"Come now..." he spoke gently. "I'll take you home. Let us leave this place." He extended a hand to her. For long moments she stayed where she was until her tears stopped and she took his hand, letting him pull her to his feet. One hand held her shoulder strap in place, and she looked into his hard face.

"Thank you, Sir. I--I don't even know you. Why did you help?"

He shrugged uncomfortably. "Sometimes, things just need doin'. You... well, you're young and have your whole life ahead of you. It shouldn't end in some dark alleyway at the hand of two ruffians." He spat on the ground and looked in the direction into which they ran. He wasn't afraid for himself. But if a gang of them came back, he might not be able to protect the girl. He needed to get her to safety. "Come, on! It's best we get movin'."

She nodded and followed him out of the alleyway, scanning the streets for any sign of danger, he walked beside her.

"Where do you live?"

"Three blocks that way," she pointed towards the Andahar. Vaid nodded and headed in that direction. She followed walking beside him.

"I--", she hesitated. "I-- know it was foolish. And I normally wouldn't have come out here at this hour... but, but ma is in a real bad way and she needed herbs. Of course Horrick doesn't have any... or so he says." She looked back at the house she had visited earlier, anger mottling her face.

Vaid wondered. Should he help her mother? How could he not? He sighed and spoke softly. "I have some skill in healing. Not much, but a little. Perhaps I can help?"

"You do? You can?" The relief in her voice was so great that Vaid felt guilty.

"Don't get me wrong, lass." he looked at her as he walked. "I make no promises...Your mother may be suffering from a malady beyond my skill. I will do what I can, but... do not blame me if she is beyond me."

"I... I understand."

Vaid wondered if she really did. I break things... I, like the Aes Sedai of old will break things... he didn't feel all that certain.

---

The girl directed him to a simple shack nestled up along other similar shacks along the banks of the Andahar. Three blocks away was all... no, this girl had grown up in the bad part of town. There was no taking her out of it. The interior of the shack was simple and plain. They stood in the kitchen. There was no adornment. While it was kept clean and dry, it held little cheer and smelt slightly of decay.

"In here." The girl said and pulled aside a curtain, revealing a second room, the bedroom. On a bed in the corner of the room lay a woman with sweat beading on her face. She looked to be in her early forties, yet still held some of the beauty she had passed onto her daughter. She moaned at the noise of the curtain parting, but she didn't turn her head. She simply moaned over and over again as if she were in some kind of pain.

"Ma, it's me, Riessa... I have brought a doctor. A healer." Then she