Chapter 12 - Tact and Understatement
Surreal sat at the table in the dining room chatting with Jaenelle and Saetan. She had found Gabrielle and Chaosti still at the Hall after training, and her two relatives sat and gabbed distractedly with them at the table as they all waited for Min, and especially Rand to come down from their room. The two full-blooded Dea al Mon had planned to leave the Hall the day before after assuring themselves that Rand was Healed and the situation was under control. Their plans had altered when they had sensed Rand and Jaenelle's display of Power on the training field. They had decided to stick around the Hall this morning, doing their best to ignore the prevailing atmosphere. Everyone else around the Hall, including most of the servants, had found interesting and urgent things to do in local cities or distant territories within the last two hours. Not many people were comfortable around such potent ejections of thought and sensation as were radiating from the bathroom in the family wing.
Surreal was very well attuned to the many nuances of sexual psychic emissions. Having spent a number of her formative years as a uniquely beautiful and alluring young witch on the dirty, unforgiving streets of a large city in Terrielle, and then hundreds of years as a ludicrously expensive courtesan, she was well acquainted with all kinds of subtly and blatantly aired signals. As a Blood female working as a prostitute, Surreal had had to become very familiar with violent and passionate emotions for her own safety. She had become very adept with knives as a young witch, but her best defense had always been an awareness of other's mental and psychic transmissions that was preternaturally acute. She had known, as soon as things got hot in the bedroom and then the shower, that Rand and Min were just having a good old time, completely consensually, if rather spectacularly. Not everyone was as sensitive as she, so when Clarity came to her room at the Hall with Smoke in tow, asking her to help them 'deal with Rand', she took the wolves with her and hastened down to the dining room to find Jaenelle.
By the time she and the wolves had negotiated their way to the breakfast chamber, Lucivar, Marian and Daemon had taken Kaelas and gone to Sceval with Mistral, and Karla had departed for home with Ladvarian and his friends to Glacia. The psychic fireworks had ceased from down the hall, but remnants of the heavy miasma of lust that had been broadcast by Rand still lingered. It was muted somewhat in the dining room, but was still palpable. As she plopped into a chair Saetan had risen to pull out for her, Surreal commented to the assembled humans, "Someone's got to teach that boy to Shield soon." and then muttered loudly to herself, "Sometimes I hate being single." Surreal explained to everyone how the two wolves had been concerned for Min, but that, in her own expert opinion, there was no cause for worry.
Jaenelle laughed out loud while Saetan merely snorted softly, shook his handsome head and concealed a nostalgic smile to himself while making his way to his own seat. Jaenelle's extraordinary senses were much more acute than even Surreal's, and her control of those senses was usually sufficient. This time, however, she had been unable to stop the piercing emanations radiating from the bedroom or bathroom. The web she had expressly woven to contain them had been broken effortlessly, and for the first time ever she had been unable to Shield anyone... including herself.
Rand's psychic symphony of sexual stimulation had scythed into everyone. Jaenelle had never been a spectator, or an eavesdropper, of signals that intense. She knew that she and Daemon often reached a fever-pitch during their love-making, but Rand's display was something else. With Saetan's assistance she had finally managed to weave a web to make the dining room habitable for the people left in the Hall, but it had been an interesting hour before the two Black Widows had engineered a way to Shield the smallish area together.
All of the humans smiled widely as Min bounced into the room with Rand cooly gliding along behind. Rand had changed into the nicest of the new clothing provided him, ones Min had found in their cabinet and insisted he wear immediately. He looked very tall and quite resplendent in a soft gray colored silk shirt under a short and severely tailored black and red jacket. The dashing coat had slightly flaring shoulders and a cinched waist pulling it in above a pair of fine black pantaloons tucked into new and highly polished knee-high black leather boots. Min had found the incredibly soft and showy footwear in the back of their armoire, having been delivered while the two lovers were in the shower. Rand strutted over to the table in his dapper new outfit behind lively Min with an amused and indulgent look in his eyes and a small grin on his face.
Min was wearing black silk pants, they could see, poking along with her leather-sandaled feet out from beneath the hem of the bathrobe she had discovered earlier. She explained quickly, upon entering the chamber and bounding over to the table ahead of Rand, that if they didn't mind, and if it was socially acceptable, she was going to wear her wonderful new robe every day.
Jaenelle, as the acting Queen in the Hall, gave Min license to wear the robe whenever and wherever she wanted, laughing quite fondly at the sweet girl while she did. Min's ebullient and sprightly entrance, and the obvious love between the two strangers to their Realm calmed everyone considerably. There was still a slight reverberation in the psychic currents surrounding them all from Rand's many climaxes, but the stirring sensuality ebbed even further at the now peaceful and complaisant flows of psychic Power emanating from the tall, handsome man.
After Jaenelle's proclamation that Min could dress as she pleased, the lovers once again entwined elbows and cruised over to chairs together. A large silver platter of food sat upon the black wood table, piled high with sandwiches and fruit provided by servants fled from the Hall hours before. Beside the platter sat several carafes of juice and fine wine, as well as a plethora of condiments for the sandwiches. As Rand and Min selected their first sandwich and spread combination, Jaenelle pondered how to tactfully and yet efficiently solve the newly realized problem.
As Jaenelle had been unanimously voted, by those still at the Hall, to be the one to inform Rand and Min of local customs and proprieties, to buy herself a little bit of time she inquired once again if they were satisfied with the relatively small chamber they had been accommodated. Jaenelle explained that an entire apartment or Queen's suites could easily be made up for them, and that it was just convenience that had placed Min in that modest chamber while she Healed.
Min quickly demurred, saying that the room they had was just fine and that they wouldn't want to be a bother. Rand smiled easily as he shrugged and replied, "Whatever she thinks." He turned his gray eyes from Jaenelle at this point and sat watching Min in the seat beside him with a patient expression.
Min squirmed after a moment under Rand's seemingly innocuous scrutiny, running her small hands over the arms of her sumptuous robe. "Okay, sure," she betrayed her interest a moment later, "I guess that if you have the rooms, and they aren't being used, well, it's silly of us not to use them... right?"
Once again, the young, charming little witch's comments brought a hearty chuckle from several people around the table. Jaenelle quickly informed Helene psychically that their guests would take one of the visiting Queen's apartments when they could be made ready, advised Rand and Min that their things would be moved, and that a servant would show them to their new accommodations when they were ready. Jaenelle felt she had had enough time to prepare at that point to tackle the subject forefront on all the minds of the Hall's inhabitants.
Jaenelle began in her clinical Healer voice, "Rand, there are some things I need to discuss with you and Min now. I mentioned yesterday that the barrier within your mind is very different from what the Blood have developed over the millennia. As the Blood evolved as magic-using creatures, we all found the need to extend mental barriers, or Shields. These barriers work in many ways. All creatures capable of Craft can emit a wide array of psychic emanations, and most are taught at a young age to guard the release of their own, as well as block out the bleating of others. It is the accepted custom and convention in our Realms to Shield strong emotions, or at least the ones of an explicitly sexual nature."
Her cool, laconic tone faltered. She continued quickly though, "Your barriers are very formidable when it comes to Power release and input, but Rand..." Here Jaenelle's voice warmed markedly as she shook her head and chucklingly informed him, "Your Shield doesn't do anything about your emotional ejaculations. The tryst you and Min just enjoyed in several places in the Hall affected everybody. I was completely unable to Shield you two, and your emissions ravaged easily through the web I wove in haste in an attempt to divert the current."
She stopped speaking for a moment, looking at the slightly shocked, and definitely embarrassed faces of her guests. Jaenelle could feel the blood rushing through her veins, making her own countenance flush as she continued. "Our first task this afternoon is to show Rand how to Shield properly his psychic expressions. No one is angry, but it took Saetan and I over an hour to weave a web capable of making this single dining-room livably free of the substantial haze of sexual heat you created in the entire Hall." She sat still in her chair then, blushing slightly and watching Min, and Rand particularly, to see how they would react.
Min's entire face and exposed parts of her upper body were flaming with abundant awkwardness and abashment, from where the robe came apart above her breasts to the roots of her short dark hair. Her mouth opened and closed, silently casting about for an excuse, or something, anything to alleviate the complex tensions in the dining room.
Rand studied the varied expressions on the faces around the table as Jaenelle finished. He then turned his attention to Min for a moment before starting to laugh richly. He shook his head ruefully as he apologized sincerely to the group and eagerly accepted Jaenelle's offer to teach him how to Shield.
"I would have shown you the trick of it yesterday, Rand, but your emotions had been so contained until this morning... They took us all quite by surprise, and we thought the physical exertions Lucivar put you through would temporarily quell your ardor." Jaenelle had returned to her calm, collected self by this point.
"As I explained to you all at our last meal together," Rand decided to elucidate his past for the strangers. "I have had to develop my own 'barriers', if you will, within the last couple years. I will freely admit, now that I have some perspective on it, that I was a whiny and insufferable prick at many times." He turned his head from the intently and calmly listening strangers to Min's somewhat shocked countenance. "It took me a long time to realize that I was the Dragon Reborn, and even when it did dawn on me that I had a massive responsibility to the people in my world, I acted as a child would."
Rand continued after a moment of introspective thought, still facing Min but directing his words to everyone. "I threw fits. I disappeared for days at a time. I tried desperately to harden myself, emotionally and physically, shutting myself off from all feeling. I fortified my soul, temporarily relinquishing what I now recognize as the only reasons a man like me has to live - passion and love. I grew cold and curt, kept my dealings with most of those I care about at a minimum. As the Blood did, I formulated a blockade for emotions and became fairly adept at controlling myself."
His voice changed slightly, "I acted like a complete ass, and Min here took the brunt of a lot of it." He softened his tone considerably then, and he took Min's hand in his and moved closer to her. "I'm so sorry. You are the reason I'm still alive and kicking right now, Min. You especially, but Aviendah and Elayne as well, are the true reasons I didn't melt down into useless slag while being reforged. I took the opportunity this morning to show you how I felt about that. I hope you didn't mind."
"Not so long as you promise to do it again." Min answered quickly, blushing fiercely once more.
Rand turned to everyone and addressed the group with a wry grin on his face. "So once again, I'm sorry for the way my blundering attentions perturbed some people this morning. I was trying a few new things, while delving into emotions I hadn't released in a long time. I may have gotten a little carried away."
There were a couple sets of raised eyebrows around the table at his understatement. When Rand had enumerated the crucial events that had shaped his last few years of life, he had only obliquely mentioned the other women Aviendah and Elayne. He had made it clear that both women were important to him, but hadn't made it transparent to his listeners that he had romantic and sexual relationships with three separate women, at the same time. Saetan chuckled gently to himself, thinking of the discussion to come between him and Rand in private. He pushed those thoughts aside for a moment and began a partial explanation of why Rand and Min may have been especially uninhibited in the room and bathroom they had used.
"Some of the blame for this morning's misadventure rests on our shoulders, Rand. I'm sure you've noticed the balls of Craft-fire that light all of the rooms in the Hall. We've found this to be the most pleasant and efficient way to light our residences for a long time. Recently Lucivar's wife, Marian, a very clever and resourceful Purple-Dusk Hearth Witch, has taken to changing the colour and tone of the lights in certain sections of the Hall. You may not have noticed, but the chamber Min was placed in when she first arrived has an almost imperceptible blue hue to the lighting. We've found, through trial and error over the last couple years, that these colours directly affect the mood and ambiance in each chamber, and that different shadings have greatly varying effects."
Jaenelle continued for Saetan when his voice slowed and he seemed to be casting about for words. She grinningly informed the two guests, "That blue light scheme makes everyone spectacularly horny. The first time Marian, with the help of Helene, changed the lighting tone in our bedroom, Daemon and I could hardly tear ourselves away from the bed for two whole days. As you can see, this dining room has a slightly yellow tinge to the light. We've found that to be the most comforting and calming, and so that tone is now used in most of the public areas of the Hall. Marian thought it would be amusing to leave the blue lights in your suite, Min, just to see what might transpire." Jaenelle's face as she finished her explanation showed clearly that Rand's display, while not being completely unexpected, had disconcerted a few residents of the Hall.
Jaenelle went on quickly, now back to her normal, slightly musical and friendly tones. "When you are shown to your new rooms later, Helene will explain and change the lighting scheme as you choose. I'll warn you though, any amount of red lighting creates almost the opposite effect as blue. For no reason you will become angry and irritable in a room with red-tinged lights, and the carnal affections inspired by the colour will be much sharper and more aggressive than I believe either of you are used to. Feel free to do as you wish, but forewarned is forearmed."
In the same friendly voice Jaenelle continued, "I have said that it is custom among the Blood to Shield strong emotions, and most times this is true. But there are a few exceptions to these conventions that I must explain. The men and women in the SaDiablo family are rather well known in our Realms for being... How shall I say it? Quite graphically expressive when we choose to be." Jaenelle took a short moment to gather her thoughts. "One of the greatest assets of a Queen or a Warlord Prince, or any Blood individual in our world is our ability to broadcast inaudible signals of hostility, submission, acceptance, fear, and especially rage. These signals inform everyone in the vicinity of the Power and disposition of the person sending them. It is an efficient way to gauge the strength of a person's Jewels, and their relative position in the Caste system I described for you yesterday. Many confrontations are resolved simply by the clashing, and sampling, of non-verbal psychic emissions."
Jaenelle's face heated again slightly as she continued. "As I'm sure you know, there are also physical emissions and signs that communicate displeasure, arousal, and once again, especially rage." She stopped talking abruptly at that point, making the decision that she and Saetan would cover this specific topic separately with their guests. She planned to invite Min for some private girl-talk very soon, and knew that Saetan intended to have an informal meeting with Rand at the first opportunity.
"Anyways, that explains things well enough for now." Jaenelle rose from her chair and moved around the table to stand behind the seats Rand and Min occupied. The guests turned their chairs ninety degrees so they faced each other and could clearly see Jaenelle as well. "If you would link with me again, I will show you a trick to leashing your psychic tendrils. And I will show you how to release them in focused bursts, to identify yourself to others or to warn people of your Power, without anything being spoken."
Rand nodded his head in understanding. He had been immediately aware of the heavy tension in the study, where he had met Daemon and Lucivar the day before, and how the blatant agitation and hostility in the men had been assuaged markedly when Jaenelle made her proclamation about Rand's oath. Rand had been too exhilarated and befuddled by the immensity of their combined Power on the training field later that day to notice specific reactions from the witches and Warlord Princes surrounding them, and the rest of their time spent with the hosts was cordially spent, with him growing more and more tired as the afternoon waned. He watched Min's face as he recalled the events of the day before.
Min still had a light blush colouring her pretty features. She had been vaguely aware of the emotions and impressions of strong feelings swirling through the ether in this strange world, but had accredited it to her own excitement and heightened perception. She was quite used to seeing, and sometimes even understanding, things that no others around her were able to, and was very pleased that she and Rand would both be able to learn to decipher all of these signals. She gladly reached out to Rand, who was sitting very still and watching her, and clutching his left forearm she smiled and turned to reach her free hand to Jaenelle.
Now that Jaenelle could link easily with her guests it took only a few moments to demonstrate and advise the lovers how to control their psychic discharge. She also showed Rand how to communicate and interact without pushing a part of his psyche into the Twisted Kingdom. This lesson took by far the most time, as Rand was accustomed to the battle that was saidin, and found it very strange to use inborn, natural abilities without augmenting them with the One Power, or inadvertently shouting them with Craft. Jaenelle was impressed again at the intelligence obvious in her new friends, the facile and adroit adaptive capabilities of their young minds was considerable and clearly evident with this type of linking. They both easily identified and then copied the barrier technique shown to them, and Rand's difficulty regulating the strength of the signals sent was the only complication. The sated and complaisant flows of Power from Rand were stifled, and slowly the usual atmosphere returned to the dining room.
