Disclaimer: same as in the chapter #1. References to
"borrowed" sentences at the end of chapter.
Nemi was soaking in her bath that smelled of Taraboner Dream - a mixture of herbs and oils bought for a hot price on her way from Caemlyn. She was thankfully sipping well honeyed andilay root tea - something an alternatively oriented Yellow sister prescribed for her nerves ages ago; she still kept a large bag of the herb in her wardrobe, and now she was happy because of it. It was not the moment to think of Jeaine - something that would most probably include sobbing and questioning herself - so she drank her tranquilizer and was calm... so pleasantly calm. And capable of actually ENJOYING her bath, even in spite of Rada, an always-sulking servant that grumbled while rubbing Nemi's back.
A servant shouldn't be ALLOWED to terrorize her, Nemi thought, but without involving any emotions in her consideration. She was an Aes Sedai after all, if a young one, and shouldn't the maid be AFRAID of her? Respect her? Nemi shrugged. Rada was one of the servants of the Green Ajah, and Nemi suspected that the serving woman kept choosing to serve HER more often than any other Green sister. In order to terrorize her. Rada was an old woman, Nemi actually remembered her as old and crabby even from the time she herself was one of the kitchen maids - and it was more than ten years ago...
"I have a feeling that you kept sleeping under hedges for weeks, Aes Sedai," Rada declared. "Look at the color of the water. And it's the THIRD tub I filled for you! An Aes Seda shouldn't allow herself a..."
"Oh, shut up Rada!"
"Yes, Aes Sedai. If the Aes Sedai is not content with my service, I can go report myself to Mistress Laras. I would be perfectly pleased to serve a penance, if I can not please the Aes Sedai. I..."
"Will you bloody shut up?"
"As Aes Sedai says." Rada spat out and continued rubbing her back, somewhat more roughly than necessary. "Does Aes Sedai wants her travel dress washed or should I wash the floor with it? It looks rather destroyed, and if Aes Sedai doesn't mind, I would say that..."
"Do with it whatever you bloody want, all right? Cook it for dinner, feed it to horses, wear it yourself, I do not care! Light!"
"Aes Sedai sure has many pretty dresses, but Aes Sedai should learn not to be that generous."
Nemi flashed her eyes at the servant, and Rada shut up. Which won't last long, Nemi thought sorrowfully. This was as good as unbearable... She could, for sure, ask for another maid... or complain to Laras, of course. But that would mean she, a Green Aes Sedai, could not handle a simple servant herself! It would be too humiliating to admit that! And she was pretty sure that Rada behaved all but PERFECTLY when any other sister was concerned...
"Prepare my towels - the soft ones, Rada - and make me a cup of Sharran kaf."
"As Aes Sedai wants. But Aes Sedai should remember that the Sharran drink is no good for her health and..."
"NOW, Rada."
"Yes Aes Sedai. Does Aes Sedai want sugar in her kaf?"
"No, Rada. As you know perfectly well, I never have my kaf with sugar. And Rada? Give me my pipe, please. It's in my saddlebags, right over there."
"Aes Sedai wants to SMOKE?"
"Aes Sedai always smokes while drinking kaf, and, yes, Rada, Aes Sedai KNOWS that it isn't good for her health either, and Aes Sedai doesn't give a bloody damn!"
"As Aes Sedai says."
"And do NOT sulk at me!"
"I'll try not to, Aes Sedai."
"Well, try HARD!"
"Yes, Aes Sedai," Rada's voice contained more acid than ever, if that was possible. Nemi rolled her eyes. If I stopped arguing with her - it's not Aes Sedai-like anyway - I guess she would stop terrorizing me this way, she thought. Only, I somehow can't stop arguing...
Nemi stepped out of her tub, waving away Rada's frowningly offered help. She wrapped herself in a black towel (they were not to be bought at ordinary places; one had to order them made), sipped of her kaf mug, and lit her pipe. The best Two Rivers tobacco, that. She enjoyed every single smoke immensely, as it filled her lungs with a pleasant warmness and foggy smell.
Nemi's room was rather simply furnished, with an enormous wardrobe (that no one dared open) and a big black oaken table, which was pleasantly messy. She left it that way when she left, but when she entered her room now, she found it scrubbed and in a terrible ORDER: every casket neatly dusted, the books all, in one neat pile (with perfectly orderly edges, actually PARALLEL to each other - Nemi rolled her eyes in disgust), on the left edge of the table. The inkbottles and quills all stood on the right edge, pressing her papers... She had went to the table and messed it up a bit, so that it would feel like home - she sometimes REALLY hated those servants, and she was thankful that no one else had the keys to her drawers...
Nemi winced a bit when she heard the door open - without a nock first.
"Why, Nemi!" the voice exclaimed, as a tall, black-haired woman entered the room. "Are you back, or is it your ghost coming to haunt on me?"
Nemi recognized the voice at once - and smiled widely.
"If I came to haunt you, would I do it wrapped in a towel, what do you think?"
The woman laughed.
"Why, I don't know. You seemed to be wrapped in a towel at least half of the time?"
Nemi jumped up, hugging the woman tightly.
"Alanna, it's SO good to see you! After all those MONTHS, I mean. Light!"
Alanna hugged her back, and pushed herself deeper into the room, looking around, and laughing at the sight of Nemi's desk, as if she knew exactly what happened there.
"It's good to see you too, dear. At least now, that I know you are not...you know..."
"You actually thought I was a Black sister? Oh, Light, Alanna, could you really think that about ME?"
"Well, if we consider the color of your dresses... ALL your dresses... and then your towels, your bed sheets, your bloody UNDERWEAR...Why not?" Alanna chuckled, as Nemi waved Rada out of the room.
"Can you be serious once in your life?"
"Why, I don't know, I never tried. Can you?"
Nemi couldn't help but laugh. "It feels so great to be back!"
"Even after all that happened?"
"Yes."
Alanna cast herself in another armchair, and sipped the kaf from Nemi's cup, making a disgusted face.
"You KNOW what happened, don't you? I mean..." Alanna paused. " Well, of course you do."
Nemi stuck out her tongue: "How can you be so sure?"
"Oh. That. Well, Leane told Sheriam you had a loooong talk with the Amyrlin - and since you are here, and still well and WHOLE - I guess you know the story, and that you played no part in it."
"No, I actually did, I'm just a good actress. I have chosen a wrong profession."
"That's what I've always said, didn't I?"
"No. You always kept saying I should have earned my bread dancing in taverns, but never mind. But, wait a moment... Leanne told Sheriam?"
"Aha."
"And Sheriam told you?"
"Sure she did."
Nemi rolled her eyes. "Can't one have a scrap of privacy in the White Tower?"
Alanna looked pensive for a second.
"No," she declared after the moment of consideration. "I don't think so. Not at all!"
"Oh. That's what I thought."
"Wait wait, you did WHAT?"
"I DO think sometimes, you know."
"Light, in your BATH???"
Nemi chuckled.
"It's as good as impossible to have a normal conversation with you, Alanna dear."
Alanna grinned: "Why don't you throw me out, then?"
"Physically impossible. Besides, I hate normal conversations. That's why you are my best friend, right?"
"Oh? Am I? I always thought you and..."
Alanna felt silent for a moment, and looked at Nemi apologetically.
"I guess you don't want to talk about Jeaine, do you?"
Nemi forced a smile.
"No. At leas not when I'm sober."
"When you are WHAT?"
Nemi took a smoke and sighed resignedly.
"Well, I unfortunately am sober at the moment."
"Not for long. I can promise you THAT."
"That's good to hear."
"Want some kaf?" Nemi finally remembered her manners.
"All right, but put LOADS of sugar into it, or I'll vomit."
Nemi rolled her eyes in a false resignation.
"I guess it's no use telling you that sugar can only SPOIL the aroma, adding absolutely nothing to it? No? Well, I thought so... But, since I don't want you to THROW UP on my wonderful black carpet - all right. Here is some terrible sugar for you dear."
"So?" Alanna asked, as she watched Nemi mess with the fireplace and the kaf pot (a black one, needless to say). "Where have you been, then?"
"Traveling around a bit. Caemlyn, mostly. A fascinating city."
"With fascinating inns?"
"Exactly. And gleemen, Alanna... I've never met THAT many gleemen in Tar Valon. Why's that, what do you think?"
"You don't go to the right places."
"But...we are hanging at the same places, Alanna."
"Well, I guess I don't go to the right places either. Never mind that. Found any handsome warders down in old Caemlyn?"
"Blood and ashes, Alanna! Would I be taking the bath ALONE if I did?"
"Oh. Well. You've still got plenty of time, dear."
"What do you mean by plenty of time? Light, Alanna, I'm dying, don't you know?"
"WHAT?"
"What what? I've got only 100 years or something left!"
Alanna barked a laugh.
"You are incorrigible, Nemi. But...Talking about dying, you should go see Myrelle as soon as possible."
"Myrelle?"
"Black hair, green eyes. The head of our Ajah. Remember?"
"Light, I know who Myrelle is, but why 'talking about dying'?"
"She's pretty angry with you, you know."
"But why bloody 'dying'?"
"Well, she's REALLY pretty angry with you."
"Enough to die of that?"
"Enough that YOU die of that."
"Oh. All right. I'll go see her as soon as I'm dressed."
Nemi stood up from her armchair unwillingly and headed towards the wardrobe. Opening the door (after some time spent messing with three different locks), she was attacked by an ocean of blackness that stared at her from the unexplored depths.
"Light, dear!" Alanna rolled her eyes. "It's about high time you cleaned that mess. And don't you have one SINGLE piece of clothing that would be another color than black?"
Nemi looked at her half-offended.
"Of course I do! See here..." she muttered, digging trough her dresses. "I have one see-green undervest... I HAD!" she added, sadly staring at something dark-grayish she held in her hands. "They must have washed it TOGETHER with the rest of my underwear. I told them about HUNDRED times not to wash colored things together with the black ones. I'll really get that Rada once for all. I'm sure she did it on purpose!"
Alanna laughed softly. "Now, at least, everything is matching..."
"Do you think I should wear this?"
"A Domani dress? Why, of course! You look great in those!"
"That is settled, then."
"But, Nemi?"
"What?"
"Saldaean cheek bones," Alanna continued mockingly, "Arafellan temper, Domani dress, Sharran kaf, Caemlynian tobacco, Shienaran whiskey... You really ARE a citizen of the world, ha?"
"Oh, shut up. Speaking of whiskey..." Nemi took out a little bottle from somewhere behind her clothes. "Want some?"
Alanna mumbled something, rather loudly, but absolutely incomprehensibly.
"Why do you talk like that, now?"
"Why, you told me to shut up, and I felt a nod wouldn't be enough to express my enthusiasm."
Nemi sighed resignedly. "Actually, I hoped you'd say no. But...friendship demands sharing, I guess?"
"Yes it does, Nemi. Even sharing of ALCOHOL. Hey, don't take that much of that stuff! You won't be able to talk to Myrelle like that!"
"It won't leave enough for you, you mean to say? Here you are. I hope you don't want sugar in THIS, do you? Oh, and are you going with me?"
"Do I have any choice?"
"Actually, no."
"All right then. Let's go face The Head."
REFERENCES:
"I DO think sometimes, you know." "Light, in your BATH???" - it strikes me now that Pippin might have said to Frodo something like that, once. I'm not sure, but if so, than it belongs to Tolkien.
"What do you mean by plenty of time? Light, Alanna, I'm dying, don't you know?" "WHAT?" "What what? I've got only 100 years or something left!"- This is from Buffy, slightly changed though.
Nemi was soaking in her bath that smelled of Taraboner Dream - a mixture of herbs and oils bought for a hot price on her way from Caemlyn. She was thankfully sipping well honeyed andilay root tea - something an alternatively oriented Yellow sister prescribed for her nerves ages ago; she still kept a large bag of the herb in her wardrobe, and now she was happy because of it. It was not the moment to think of Jeaine - something that would most probably include sobbing and questioning herself - so she drank her tranquilizer and was calm... so pleasantly calm. And capable of actually ENJOYING her bath, even in spite of Rada, an always-sulking servant that grumbled while rubbing Nemi's back.
A servant shouldn't be ALLOWED to terrorize her, Nemi thought, but without involving any emotions in her consideration. She was an Aes Sedai after all, if a young one, and shouldn't the maid be AFRAID of her? Respect her? Nemi shrugged. Rada was one of the servants of the Green Ajah, and Nemi suspected that the serving woman kept choosing to serve HER more often than any other Green sister. In order to terrorize her. Rada was an old woman, Nemi actually remembered her as old and crabby even from the time she herself was one of the kitchen maids - and it was more than ten years ago...
"I have a feeling that you kept sleeping under hedges for weeks, Aes Sedai," Rada declared. "Look at the color of the water. And it's the THIRD tub I filled for you! An Aes Seda shouldn't allow herself a..."
"Oh, shut up Rada!"
"Yes, Aes Sedai. If the Aes Sedai is not content with my service, I can go report myself to Mistress Laras. I would be perfectly pleased to serve a penance, if I can not please the Aes Sedai. I..."
"Will you bloody shut up?"
"As Aes Sedai says." Rada spat out and continued rubbing her back, somewhat more roughly than necessary. "Does Aes Sedai wants her travel dress washed or should I wash the floor with it? It looks rather destroyed, and if Aes Sedai doesn't mind, I would say that..."
"Do with it whatever you bloody want, all right? Cook it for dinner, feed it to horses, wear it yourself, I do not care! Light!"
"Aes Sedai sure has many pretty dresses, but Aes Sedai should learn not to be that generous."
Nemi flashed her eyes at the servant, and Rada shut up. Which won't last long, Nemi thought sorrowfully. This was as good as unbearable... She could, for sure, ask for another maid... or complain to Laras, of course. But that would mean she, a Green Aes Sedai, could not handle a simple servant herself! It would be too humiliating to admit that! And she was pretty sure that Rada behaved all but PERFECTLY when any other sister was concerned...
"Prepare my towels - the soft ones, Rada - and make me a cup of Sharran kaf."
"As Aes Sedai wants. But Aes Sedai should remember that the Sharran drink is no good for her health and..."
"NOW, Rada."
"Yes Aes Sedai. Does Aes Sedai want sugar in her kaf?"
"No, Rada. As you know perfectly well, I never have my kaf with sugar. And Rada? Give me my pipe, please. It's in my saddlebags, right over there."
"Aes Sedai wants to SMOKE?"
"Aes Sedai always smokes while drinking kaf, and, yes, Rada, Aes Sedai KNOWS that it isn't good for her health either, and Aes Sedai doesn't give a bloody damn!"
"As Aes Sedai says."
"And do NOT sulk at me!"
"I'll try not to, Aes Sedai."
"Well, try HARD!"
"Yes, Aes Sedai," Rada's voice contained more acid than ever, if that was possible. Nemi rolled her eyes. If I stopped arguing with her - it's not Aes Sedai-like anyway - I guess she would stop terrorizing me this way, she thought. Only, I somehow can't stop arguing...
Nemi stepped out of her tub, waving away Rada's frowningly offered help. She wrapped herself in a black towel (they were not to be bought at ordinary places; one had to order them made), sipped of her kaf mug, and lit her pipe. The best Two Rivers tobacco, that. She enjoyed every single smoke immensely, as it filled her lungs with a pleasant warmness and foggy smell.
Nemi's room was rather simply furnished, with an enormous wardrobe (that no one dared open) and a big black oaken table, which was pleasantly messy. She left it that way when she left, but when she entered her room now, she found it scrubbed and in a terrible ORDER: every casket neatly dusted, the books all, in one neat pile (with perfectly orderly edges, actually PARALLEL to each other - Nemi rolled her eyes in disgust), on the left edge of the table. The inkbottles and quills all stood on the right edge, pressing her papers... She had went to the table and messed it up a bit, so that it would feel like home - she sometimes REALLY hated those servants, and she was thankful that no one else had the keys to her drawers...
Nemi winced a bit when she heard the door open - without a nock first.
"Why, Nemi!" the voice exclaimed, as a tall, black-haired woman entered the room. "Are you back, or is it your ghost coming to haunt on me?"
Nemi recognized the voice at once - and smiled widely.
"If I came to haunt you, would I do it wrapped in a towel, what do you think?"
The woman laughed.
"Why, I don't know. You seemed to be wrapped in a towel at least half of the time?"
Nemi jumped up, hugging the woman tightly.
"Alanna, it's SO good to see you! After all those MONTHS, I mean. Light!"
Alanna hugged her back, and pushed herself deeper into the room, looking around, and laughing at the sight of Nemi's desk, as if she knew exactly what happened there.
"It's good to see you too, dear. At least now, that I know you are not...you know..."
"You actually thought I was a Black sister? Oh, Light, Alanna, could you really think that about ME?"
"Well, if we consider the color of your dresses... ALL your dresses... and then your towels, your bed sheets, your bloody UNDERWEAR...Why not?" Alanna chuckled, as Nemi waved Rada out of the room.
"Can you be serious once in your life?"
"Why, I don't know, I never tried. Can you?"
Nemi couldn't help but laugh. "It feels so great to be back!"
"Even after all that happened?"
"Yes."
Alanna cast herself in another armchair, and sipped the kaf from Nemi's cup, making a disgusted face.
"You KNOW what happened, don't you? I mean..." Alanna paused. " Well, of course you do."
Nemi stuck out her tongue: "How can you be so sure?"
"Oh. That. Well, Leane told Sheriam you had a loooong talk with the Amyrlin - and since you are here, and still well and WHOLE - I guess you know the story, and that you played no part in it."
"No, I actually did, I'm just a good actress. I have chosen a wrong profession."
"That's what I've always said, didn't I?"
"No. You always kept saying I should have earned my bread dancing in taverns, but never mind. But, wait a moment... Leanne told Sheriam?"
"Aha."
"And Sheriam told you?"
"Sure she did."
Nemi rolled her eyes. "Can't one have a scrap of privacy in the White Tower?"
Alanna looked pensive for a second.
"No," she declared after the moment of consideration. "I don't think so. Not at all!"
"Oh. That's what I thought."
"Wait wait, you did WHAT?"
"I DO think sometimes, you know."
"Light, in your BATH???"
Nemi chuckled.
"It's as good as impossible to have a normal conversation with you, Alanna dear."
Alanna grinned: "Why don't you throw me out, then?"
"Physically impossible. Besides, I hate normal conversations. That's why you are my best friend, right?"
"Oh? Am I? I always thought you and..."
Alanna felt silent for a moment, and looked at Nemi apologetically.
"I guess you don't want to talk about Jeaine, do you?"
Nemi forced a smile.
"No. At leas not when I'm sober."
"When you are WHAT?"
Nemi took a smoke and sighed resignedly.
"Well, I unfortunately am sober at the moment."
"Not for long. I can promise you THAT."
"That's good to hear."
"Want some kaf?" Nemi finally remembered her manners.
"All right, but put LOADS of sugar into it, or I'll vomit."
Nemi rolled her eyes in a false resignation.
"I guess it's no use telling you that sugar can only SPOIL the aroma, adding absolutely nothing to it? No? Well, I thought so... But, since I don't want you to THROW UP on my wonderful black carpet - all right. Here is some terrible sugar for you dear."
"So?" Alanna asked, as she watched Nemi mess with the fireplace and the kaf pot (a black one, needless to say). "Where have you been, then?"
"Traveling around a bit. Caemlyn, mostly. A fascinating city."
"With fascinating inns?"
"Exactly. And gleemen, Alanna... I've never met THAT many gleemen in Tar Valon. Why's that, what do you think?"
"You don't go to the right places."
"But...we are hanging at the same places, Alanna."
"Well, I guess I don't go to the right places either. Never mind that. Found any handsome warders down in old Caemlyn?"
"Blood and ashes, Alanna! Would I be taking the bath ALONE if I did?"
"Oh. Well. You've still got plenty of time, dear."
"What do you mean by plenty of time? Light, Alanna, I'm dying, don't you know?"
"WHAT?"
"What what? I've got only 100 years or something left!"
Alanna barked a laugh.
"You are incorrigible, Nemi. But...Talking about dying, you should go see Myrelle as soon as possible."
"Myrelle?"
"Black hair, green eyes. The head of our Ajah. Remember?"
"Light, I know who Myrelle is, but why 'talking about dying'?"
"She's pretty angry with you, you know."
"But why bloody 'dying'?"
"Well, she's REALLY pretty angry with you."
"Enough to die of that?"
"Enough that YOU die of that."
"Oh. All right. I'll go see her as soon as I'm dressed."
Nemi stood up from her armchair unwillingly and headed towards the wardrobe. Opening the door (after some time spent messing with three different locks), she was attacked by an ocean of blackness that stared at her from the unexplored depths.
"Light, dear!" Alanna rolled her eyes. "It's about high time you cleaned that mess. And don't you have one SINGLE piece of clothing that would be another color than black?"
Nemi looked at her half-offended.
"Of course I do! See here..." she muttered, digging trough her dresses. "I have one see-green undervest... I HAD!" she added, sadly staring at something dark-grayish she held in her hands. "They must have washed it TOGETHER with the rest of my underwear. I told them about HUNDRED times not to wash colored things together with the black ones. I'll really get that Rada once for all. I'm sure she did it on purpose!"
Alanna laughed softly. "Now, at least, everything is matching..."
"Do you think I should wear this?"
"A Domani dress? Why, of course! You look great in those!"
"That is settled, then."
"But, Nemi?"
"What?"
"Saldaean cheek bones," Alanna continued mockingly, "Arafellan temper, Domani dress, Sharran kaf, Caemlynian tobacco, Shienaran whiskey... You really ARE a citizen of the world, ha?"
"Oh, shut up. Speaking of whiskey..." Nemi took out a little bottle from somewhere behind her clothes. "Want some?"
Alanna mumbled something, rather loudly, but absolutely incomprehensibly.
"Why do you talk like that, now?"
"Why, you told me to shut up, and I felt a nod wouldn't be enough to express my enthusiasm."
Nemi sighed resignedly. "Actually, I hoped you'd say no. But...friendship demands sharing, I guess?"
"Yes it does, Nemi. Even sharing of ALCOHOL. Hey, don't take that much of that stuff! You won't be able to talk to Myrelle like that!"
"It won't leave enough for you, you mean to say? Here you are. I hope you don't want sugar in THIS, do you? Oh, and are you going with me?"
"Do I have any choice?"
"Actually, no."
"All right then. Let's go face The Head."
REFERENCES:
"I DO think sometimes, you know." "Light, in your BATH???" - it strikes me now that Pippin might have said to Frodo something like that, once. I'm not sure, but if so, than it belongs to Tolkien.
"What do you mean by plenty of time? Light, Alanna, I'm dying, don't you know?" "WHAT?" "What what? I've got only 100 years or something left!"- This is from Buffy, slightly changed though.