Shadowrunner
Meraia gingerly sat in her seat in Larana Sedai's class. Today they were learning--at a very slow pace--how to make balls of light, and things to do with them. Fortunately, she had already learned these things in the Wise One's camp on the journey from the Threefold Land to Tar Valon.
Meraia's eyes wandered across the room to Niyali, clutching her skirts with raw, red hands. Meraia turned her own hands palm up to study.
They were as raw and tender as Niyali's, but she remembered when they were redder, skin scalded away in an "accident". Only Niyali's newfound Talent at Healing could save them.
It wasn't that she feared to lose her hands, or even to die--to wake from the dream that was life; she remembered her favorite mourning song: Life is a Dream. It was just that the loss of her hands would only set her further apart from everyone in this Light-forsaken Tower. It was the difference between them, and the shame it brought, that she feared--not that she would ever admit it.
The memory of the "accident" with the bucket of water sent her reeling back into two days ago...
_ _ _ _ _ *
Meraia carefully dipped her rag into the tiny bucket of water she had set aside for this enormous pot, which was large enough to take a bath in, not that she would want to. Wringing the rag out, she stuck her head, shoulders, and upper body back into the vat, scraping off bits of dried porridge.
Her face was a mask of calm. Underneath, she seethed with pure fury. Couldn't she be just one, gai'shain or student? Unfortunately, novices seemed to be both. She couldn't wait to become Accepted--even those seven thin bands of color were better than these horrible gai'shain robes.
Picking off a piece of dried porridge with her fingernail, Meraia asked Niyali, "How long are we supposed to do this for, anyway?"
"How am I supposed to know? Kalare Sedai only said 'Until they know better'. It wasn't my idea to go through those gates," she grumbled.
Meraia flushed. They had tried to go into the Water Garden through the maingates, and had passed an Aes Sedai coming out. She knew that novices weren't permitted entrance this way, and had taken them all the way up to Kalare's study by the ears. The biggest problem of all was that it hadn't been Niyali's idea at all.
Taking her anger out on the pot, Meraia scrubbed furiously. Niyali shifted inside her own cauldron, knocking her foot against the large water pail full of hot sudsy water. Meraia moaned as some splashed out, creating a large puddle on the tiled kitchen floor. Good water! That much could have satisfied her for nearly a week when she was a Maiden in the Threefold Land. Or given her a thorough washing in the sweat tent.
Niyali's head appeared from the mouth of the cauldron to see what Meraia had moaned about. Looking around, she noticed the very good-sized puddle on the floor between Meraia and the door into the kitchen. Niyali seemed to understand what worried Meraia better than others in the Tower, but react to it just as strangely. Wetlanders had other priorities, Meraia had realized.
Meraia returned to her pot as the cook's head appeared in the doorway, continuing to scrub with a rag that a wetlander would have dipped in the soapy water again. Rubbing hard at a stubborn patch of porridge, Meraia felt Niyali embrace the Source.
Sticking her head out of her pot to watch the flows being woven, Meraia gasped. The threads being used were not only finer than any Wise One's or Aes Sedai's, but far more complex and interesting than anything she had seen yet.
It was an intricate Twist of Air, Water, and Fire, one Meraia had seen before, sort of. What she had seen was Air and Water used to call a storm, though she had not seen it before leaving the Threefold Land. The Fire reminded her of something used to heat liquids.
What she saw now was Water and Air to call moisture from the air around her--a lot, because of the steam--with Fire woven in to heat it to the scalding point. Another weave was made entirely of Air like a cloth--it looked like a washcloth, and Meraia was sure it felt and worked like one too--and used the hot water called from the air to vigorously scrape and scald away a stubborn soup stain.
"How did you do that?" asked Meraia, stunned.
"What?" asked Niyali.
"That," Meraia said. "How did you get the flows so fine? And where did you find out how to scour them like that?"
"What flows? Show me," Niyali said, being stubborn.
Meraia frowned but embraced the Source and carefully removed the stubborn stain from the inside of her own pot. Niyali stared, wide-eyed, at where the lump of porridge had been.
"I did that?" she breathed. "I did that, and didn't even know it?"
"What did you say?" asked an all-too-familiar voice. Meraia suddenly sensed that the woman behind her could channel.
Turning slowly, Meraia looked up--not very far--to see none other than Jhirana. What surprised her was that, instead of the banded white, she was wearing a red riding dress embroidered in black. More important, however, was the shawl with the Flame of Tar Valon on the back, with long red fringe.
"I didn't hear that," Jhirana continued, "but I don't need to. You just channeled, Aiel, even though you know that it is against the rules to channel during a penace."
"Why are you down here?" Meraia growled.
"I don't have to answer that. After all--" she adjusted her shawl deliberately "--I am Aes Sedai."
"You sure don't ACT like one," Meraia whispered loudly, half inside her pot so the sound echoed.
Jhirana's face purpled. She was obviously trying to be calm, like an Aes Sedai would be, but she wasn't doing a very good job.
Meraia still held saidar, and was amazed as a flow of Spirit--all Five Powers, but mostly Spirit--leaped out of her. It was finer than lace ever could be, finer than even Niyali's dishwashing weave, and it settled upon Jhirana.
Jhirana froze where she stood, and Meraia froze where she sat. Her skin went cold. An image appeared in the puddle on the floor between the two still women. Niyali bent over to get a better look before she froze too, caught in the weave. Jhirana couldn't see from her position. Meraia and Niyali could.
Everything else--the cook, the steam from the hot bucket of water, everything--slowed to a halt. The picture in the puddle of water sped up. It showed Jhirana holding the Oath Rod and speaking the Three Oaths.
Jhirana bowed before the Amyrlin Seat, and recieved her red-fringed shawl. Here the picture whirled faster, into a blur, fast enough to make Meraia's eyes spin, into the night, down the steps into the ter'angreal storeroom, where it slowed. Jhirana picked the Oath Rod up off a dusty shelf. She took a hold of saidar and channeled into the Rod.
Here she spoke in a whisper, "I swear by the Great Lord of the Dark and by my hope of immortality under the Shadow, to do everything I can to benefit the Great Lord, and to obey him unto death. This I swear."
Meraia would have gasped, and Niyali too, had they not been frozen in time. The Jhirana in the puddle spoke again as she let saidar go and put down the Oath Rod. "I forsake the Red. I am Black Ajah."
The puddle flashed and went back to normal, the three women nearly fell in it as their bonds were released, and time resumed. Niyali backed away from the Aes Sedai in horror, trying to pull Meraia with her.
Meraia's face hardened, and she stood to tower over the Aes Sedai. It helped that Jhirana was short for a treekiller, and Meraia was tall for even an Aiel. "Shadowrunner," she whispered.
"Darkfriend," Niyali agreed.
Jhirana's face paled, but turned to red-faced anger in a second.
"It's Kalare's study for you," she said haughtily, though Meraia thought she was trying for icyness (A/N: coldness? frostiness? something like that...), "if it isn't expulsion from the Tower."
She used a flow of Air to press Meraia back down to the ground. Then she turned and quickly kicked. The bucket of hot water--hot enough to scald--spilled all over Meraia's hands.
Meraia didn't cry out, she only grunted. Jhirana looked back and said, "I'll get you," in a tone that dripped poison. Then she stalked out.
"Niyali," Meraia said, steadily holding out her hands for Healing even though they burned like fire. Niyali looked at them and gasped. She grabbed them and wove a Healing.
_ _ _ _ _ *
"Meraia, are you paying attention? Make a ball of light. Just this shade of blue, mind you."
"Yes, Larana Sedai."
_ _ _ _ _*
Blah blah blah... I hate this. After finishing revamping this one, I'm going to go play some air hockey or something...
