Catieri trembled as she followed the Accepted down the corridor, staring intently at the bands on the hem of the other girl's dress, trying not to think about their destination. She caressed the pain that hovered around the edges of her being, held it to her like a lifeline, like a child with a favorite stuffed toy. Its constant presence had been her only companion for so many nights, for so many days, lonely days beyond number. It had been just two years since the...accident; not long at all, but all too long, a lifetime when counted by those lonely days and nights, and the pain was as fresh today as it had been when she had first regained consciousness and realized what had happened. She still cried at night sometimes. Most times.
The Accepted stopped in front of a door in the Yellow halls. The door looked like all the rest, but Catieri stared at it a long moment, a stab of apprehension tearing at her heart, nearly panicking. The Accepted knocked and brusquely ushered Catieri inside as soon as the door opened wide enough to admit them. A Yellow sister waited inside, a sympathetic smile on her face. How Catieri hated such looks! Sympathy? Ha! Pity. She curtsied to the Aes Sedai and waited for instruction, her eyes glued to the toes of her sturdy shoes that peeked out from under the hem of her dress, her Novice white dress, in spite of her inability to channel.
Leha Tagith Aes Sedai, long time Sitter and new Head of the Yellow Ajah, smiled at the Novice, Catieri. Only last night she had finished the new ter'angreal she had been working for weeks to perfect, and Catieri was to be the first real use it was put to. It was a ter'angreal made to Heal the injury known by so many names; Stilling, Gentling, Burning Out, Severing.... In Catieri's case, the girl had burned herself out trying to hold too much saidar during a channeling lesson. She motioned the girl toward a chair and opened the closet that took up most of one wall.
"Sit down, dear. I'll just be a minute," she murmured, tapping her lips and studying the shelves inside the closet.
The shelves were filled with ter'angreal, most of which were meant to Heal various ailments and injuries. The new ter'angreal nestled in a velvet-lined box and took up a prime spot in the middle of the top shelf. She pulled it down carefully and gently opened the box. Inside was a ter'angreal; two ter'angreal, really; just as an a'dam could be made without the leash physically connecting the parts, so too was this a bracelet and necklace. Setting the box down on her lightly gilded Domani style desk, she clasped the bracelet about her own wrist, smiling at her own handiwork. The pieces really were beautiful, and might do for jewelry some night. So long as she remembered not to channel while wearing it, at least. She lifted the necklace from the box and approached the terrified-looking Novice Catieri.
"Hold your hair out of the way," she said, smiling reassuringly. "Let me put this on you now, but we won't start until you're ready."
Catieri did as told, lifting her long, dark hair, unbraided now, out of the way while Leha Sedai put the necklace on her. Funny that she had waited so long for the right to braid it, and yet wore it down most of the time now. The metal of the ter'angreal was cool against her skin, even cold. She swallowed hard, and the necklace tightened uncomfortably. It was more of a collar than a necklace, really. After all this time, she had her doubts as to whether she would ever be truly Healed or not. Surely, the ter'angreal wouldn't work and she would be sent away until Leha Sedai had made more changes. Or someone would come in with an urgent message for the Aes Sedai and Catieri would go back to scrubbing floors for the next year and a half. Or the Tower would catch on fire and everyone would have to help put the fire out and Catieri would be forgotten again.... She swallowed again and smoothed her skirts, trying hard to remain calm. To channel again...to taste saidar...to taste sweet life itself, even for the briefest of moments....
"I'm ready," she said after a few minutes. Her voice was the barest whisper, and she licked her lips nervously, waiting for something to happen.
Leha channeled flows of each element into the gems set around the top of the bracelet. As she channeled, she watched the flows spread out from the gems and surge down the intricate filigree patterns that encircled her wrist. Most of the gems were for Fire and Spirit, and those two elements dominated the braid of saidar that was quickly moving from the gems on the bottom of the bracelet toward the matching necklace that Catieri wore. The flows wrapped themselves through Catieri's necklace, entering through the jewels and spreading along that same filigree design. Leha directed the threads carefully, searching for the slight cut feeling that signaled the point of severing. When she found it, she channeled more Fire and Spirit into the stones on the bracelet and watched as the emptiness was made whole.
Catieri had squeezed her eyes shut while Leha Sedai was working, but now they flew open of their own accord. There was a glow around Leha Sedai! There was..she...it.... The Source! Catieri closed her eyes again and went through the nearly forgotten exercise of imagining herself as a lily, opening to the warm sunlight, opening herself to saidar.... She opened her eyes, filled with tears now, as much as she herself was filled with saidar, and looked at the Aes Sedai before her. Everything seemed to be filled with more beauty and grace than she had ever seen, Leha Sedai most of all. She threw herself, weeping, against the older woman, hugging her in boundless gratitude.
"Thank you," she whispered between sobs. "Thank you."