This is my first ever fan-fiction; I hope you guys like it, please read and review

My Lady

Lady Kerinelle of House Pelinar in Andor sat gingerly down on her bed in the novices' quarters of the White Tower. Her latest meeting with Heria, the Mistress of Novices, had been one of the most… memorable… yet. She was just gearing herself up for a nice mental rant about the unfairness of life as a novice, and how she, a lady despite her youth, should not be forced into doing anything she did not want to, when a firm knock came on the door of her room.

Sighing self pityingly, hopefully loudly enough to be heard on the other side of the door, she called in what she hoped was a faint, frail voice (She had never been very good at that, she had always been depressingly healthy as a child. Honestly, how was anyone supposed to have any notice taken of them in a crowd if they could not faint at will?), "Come in."

The sight of the tall, blonde woman who strode briskly through the door almost before the words had left her lips did little to improve Kerinelle's mood. Shana was extremely unlikely to have any sympathy for her whatsoever. Despite the fact that the blonde woman wore the novices' plain white dress as well as she did, Shana always seemed to think that whatever scrapes Kerinelle found herself in were undeniably her fault, and if she would only comply to the rules of the Tower, life would be more comfortable for all concerned. For her bottom, certainly.

Sitting herself down on the end of Kerinelle's bed (The audacity of the woman! She forgot herself in the presence of a noble!), Shana, with an unusual glint of pity in her eye, said "How was it? I thought that Larien Sedai's head would explode when you asked her what the point of her lesson was. Heria Sedai can't have been gentle."

"Oh it was just terrible! She switched me! Again! Me, a Lady! All I did was to ask that hateful woman why we needed to spend so much time on such small things! I've been able to light a candle with the Power for days! And she still won't be allow us to do anything more. Surely you must be anger by this, Shana! They say you have at least as much power as I do, which is not inconsiderable, according to Katya Sedai. I mean, when the woman came to my father's estate seeking to buy a horse, I thought her eyes would fall out of her head when she first saw me, say what you will about the Aes Sedai calmness. And she spent the entire night arguing with my father about bringing me here for training. My father! High Seat of House Pelinar! And her only a farmer's daughter from the Borderlands, despite that ring on her finger.

Now look how they treat me now that they've got me here! Beatings, and chores hardly fit for peasants! It's disgusting! My family has claims on the Lion Throne, you know. I could be Queen of Andor one day, and they act as if…" Before she could work up to a proper state of distress, Kerinelle let her voice trail off at the sight of Shana's face, from which any sympathy was rapidly fading.

"Well, Nelle," The woman began carefully, "All novices are equal in the Tower, aren't we? I mean, it would hardly be fair to everyone else here if they treated you any differently from the others, would it."

"My dear Shana! It is hardly a question of fairness! It's a question of status. Surely it's not proper for myself, a woman of noble birth to be set to scrubbing pots along side a girl who at home would only be a servant at most? You must be able to see that. And do not call me Nelle!"

"Jemma doesn't see to have a problem with the way the Aes Sedai run things, and her father is a Tairen Lord. Surely if she can put up with having less special treatment, you can."

With a sigh, Kerinelle rose to her feet and moved over to the washstand in the corner. That was another thing about this place. The rooms! At home, only the lowest kitchen maid or stable boy would live in quarters so small! It was barely three paces from the door to the far wall, and even less across.

"Well, I suppose I had better be washing for dinner. If you don't mind, Shana, I will see you in the dining hall in a few minutes."

"I'm not sure that you have time, Nelle," replied Shana, wrapping a bit of her hair around a finger in what Kerinelle was almost certain was feigned nervous. " The fifteen minute warning went just as I was about to knock, and it's been at least ten minutes since then. Maybe you should come with me now?"

"And not change my dress? Certainly not, Shana. I must try and retain some semblance of status, even if Jemma (the name was almost spat) is content to undermine herself."

With a sigh, and Kerinelle was almost certain she had seen rolling eyes, Shana rose and crossed to the door, managing to sweep out of the door with as much grace as Kerinelle could have managed herself, for all her father was a fletcher in some Light-forsaken little village in Ghealdean. That was what was so infuriating about the woman. At 18, she had one year on Kerinelle, but she was so naïve! She just had no idea of the way the world worked! Expecting her to tolerate being force to work like a servant for the Light knew how many hours a day, and even in the lessons which were supposedly the reason she was here, she was being held back by hateful women who expected her to curtsey when they passed, and jump to whatever menial task they set her. Just because they had taken the Three Oaths seemed to make them think that they were above all the lords and ladies in the world. Suppressing a scream of rage, she used a trickle of the Power to heat the cold water in the wash stand, and, reluctantly releasing the deliciousness of saidar, she slipped the plain white dress she and the other novices wore over her head, and, after splashing her face in the warm water, pulled a fresh dress on to replace the one that was soiled from her day's scrubbing pots in the kitchen.

Shana hurried down the corridors toward the dining hall, a worried frown creasing her forehead. She had felt the flow of saidar being woven from Nelle's room as she had walked away from her door, and sighed. If an Aes Sedai, or even an Accepted caught her using the One Power outside of a lesson, she would be bqck in Heria Sedai's office before she could say "status". If she was not already there first thing in the morning for being late for dinner.

She could work out why she continually tried to make the younger woman see how ridiculous it was to keep breaking the rules of the Tower so blatantly and frequently. She was sure that if the woman had not had such potential in the Power, she would have been sent back t her sprawling Andoran estate months ago. It had been almost a year since she came to the Tower, and in that time, despite making huge strides in her ability to work with saidar, she still refused to accept that in the Tower, all women started off on even footing. While normally Shana had no patience for uppity nobles thinking that money and blood gave them the right to tower over all the common folk, she was oddly drawn to the Andoran lady.

Maybe it was the fact that Jemma, her best friend in the Tower, who had joined only a few days before Shana herself, was a noble, albeit a minor one, where she lived in Tear. Jem had been the first noble Shana had ever seen, which was not as inconsiderable as you would have thought, her village, Mira, in Ghealdean was near to the point where two major roads crossed, and hardly a week went by without some fancy carriage rumbling through the main road, one of only five in the entire village, who did not turn her nose up at those not of noble birth. Indeed, she had been much friendlier towards Shana than some girls who were the daughters of farmers.

With a final deep sigh, she turned through the doors and into the large dining hall.