Disclaimer: I own the people. Robert Jordan owns everything else.
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Meraia
Embracing the True Source, Meraia wove a small flow of Air and Fire to make a tiny bead of light float above her palm, just to prove that she could. Growling in frustration--not at the light--she snatched it out of the air and crushed it, releasing the flows and saidar both.
There were two things she was frustrated about. One was that she would never be able to use the spear hidden under her bed. She had gone to all that length to convince and persuade one of the Maidens--once her fellow Maidens--to give it to her, and now she would never need it!
Another reason of her frustration was the awful clothes she wore. They were all white, and made her feel like she had been made gai'shain. Meraia didn't want them to touch her skin.
Why? she asked herself, for what seemed like the millionth time after coming to Tar Valon a week ago. Why did they pick me? I could have become a Wise One, or even better, still a Maiden of the Spear back in the Threefold Land, but no, they chose me to come here. Meraia buried her hands into her white skirts to hide their clenching. She did not want the woman walking through the door to see her anger.
The woman was Jhirana Koloy--no, just Jhirana, she reminded herself; she must get used to calling people by their first names only--an Accepted that Meraia knew. She was short, dark of hair and eyes, Cairhienin, and not nice at all. She had probably felt the flash of saidar as she was walking by, and come to scold her before going to Kalare Sedai, the Mistress of Novices.
Jhirana tapped her foot and wrinkled her nose. Their eyes were on the same level, even though Meraia was sitting on her bed.
"Do you wish to speak, Accepted--" Meraia ducked her head in respect, also using the gesture to hide a small smile "--or do you come to tap your foot at the Aiel girl?"
Jhirana's eyebrows snapped down. "You... you black-eyed Aiel--" she spat the last word out "--just because you are from the... the thingummy sept of the Ter-dead Aiel doesn't make you better than anyone else. In my opinion--" she sniffed arrogantly as if her opinion was the most important thing in the whole Tower "--it makes you worse."
Meraia boiled inside at the lack of ji to this statement, but kept her face impassive. "I am Meraia, once Far Dereis Mai, of the Jhanei sept of the Tardaad Aiel. I had never seen black eyes except on the few peddlers that came into what you call the Waste," she said, almost reciting from memory. After a pause where she looked at the Accepted through a screen of her red hair, she added, "I notice, also that you have black eyes. Are you a 'black-eyed Aiel' as well?"
Several novices stood clustered at the open door. They gaped, wide-eyed, at this question. Meraia tried to relax herself. She had most likely broken hundreds of customs these Aes Sedai had, but she didn't care. She thought.
The other woman was red-faced, and looked ready to breath fire. "Tardaad or Ter-dead, it doesn't matter! You are Aiel! You don't belong here! You and your kind destroyed my city and home twice! Burn you, Aiel! Burn you and all your kind!"
Meraia's eyes narrowed. The only way for the girl to repay the toh from this was to be made gai'shain for several years, if not da'tsang, but that would never work. Jhirana did not follow ji'e'toh. Oh well. A good beating would have to suffice, once she was allowed to do so.
Meraia's voice was soft, deadly, like a coiled snake. "I am sorry, treekiller, for the amount of toh you have to me. You may not have done Laman's sin, so I do not hold Laman's sin against you. It is not well for you that you believe I destroyed the treekiller city. I did not. I am no Shaido. You have no ji, no honor. The only thing you have is toh. Toh to me-- to all my kind! If I was a Dawn Runner, I would take my spear and kill you here and now, and nobody of any other society, even Stone Dogs, would complain."
Meraia gave a slow smile at this, and Jhirana took a step back, afraid there was a spear under the bed for the Aiel girl to use. Well, there was, but she did not know that. If she did, she would be running for all her treekiller legs were worth.
Meraia's smile twisted into a cold frown. "But I will leave you alive for three reasons. One, it would go against my ji to kill a helpless one such as you. Two, Far Dareis Mai is not so hasty as the Dawn Runners. Three, I do not think the Aes Sedai would like it if blood was spilled on their floors." Meraia allowed herself a mournful look at the white-scrubbed floor before glancing up at Jhirana.
The other girl was not five paces away from the door, her face white as a sheet. At that glance she shoved her way through the crowd of novices towards the Accepted's apartments. Meraia's eyes followed her with a look of contempt.
The novices murmured among themselves about the Aiel girl who faced off an Accepted-and won. All but one filed away toward their own rooms. The other girl edged hesitantly into the room.
Meraia unconcernedly smoothed her bed and pulled two cushions from underneath, plopping down on one and gesturing for the other girl to sit on the other. She bit her lip, frowning, and slowly lowered herself onto the cushion.
The girl was dark-haired and dark-eyed, and reminded Meraia of the wetlanders from where they said eastern Andor was. It didn't matter, anyways. All of the wetlanders hated her, one way or another.
The girl jerked when Meraia spoke. "I am Meraia of the Jhanei Tardaad." When the shorter girl did not speak, Meraia added, "What is your name?"
The girl looked at her, seemingly weighing her. Meraia barely hid her fury at the lack of ji to not speaking. She had given the girl everything wetlanders wanted in an introduction. There was a nice place to sit, an introduction of herself, and everything else.
When she did speak, Meraia nearly jumped. "I am Niyali Verova, from Baerlon."
Meraia scolded herself. Had she grown soft like a wetlander woman after only a few days in their Tower?
"I see you, Niyali Verova. I offer you the water of my house," Meraia replied absently. When she realized what she had just said, could only just keep her hands by her side, not over her mouth, and her mouth shut, not babbling an apology and a wish to meet toh. She had disobeyed the Wise One Allarra.
Back across the bridge to Tar Valon, just before she had donned these hideous clothes, Allarra had said to her, "Learn the ways of the wetlanders, Meraia. You are a guest in their hold. They are not the guests in yours." The Wise Ones were still camped across the river--not like the tiny streams in the Threefold Land--to make sure she kept her promises and that she was getting to know the customs.
Where hesitation was Niyali's face before, there now was eagerness, welcome, and a smile. "I see you, Meraia of the Jhanei Tardaad. I accept the water of your house." Meraia's head jerked up in surprise before a smile grew on her face as well. Perhaps her stay at the tower of Aes Sedai would not be so bad after all.
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Okay, that was my first re-vamped chapter. I'm going over them one by one, copying them into an html thing, and italicizing everything again. It's awfully tedious...
