A soft sound nearby woke Grenwin.
Laying on her side with her back to the wooden wall, one hand crept down to where she kept her knife. She cracked her eyes open slightly as she curled her fingers around the hilt, seeing nothing but soft moonlight shining in through the small window opposite her bed. The door was still closed, she noted as her head cleared of sleep. Still, she watched and listened, prepared to act.
The sound came again, a quiet whimper from the pile of pelts beyond the end of her bed.
Ygdis?
Years of experience with nighttime awakenings like this made Grenwin wonder for a second, then she remembered that Ygdis had taken to sleeping on her own lately. It must have been Maia, then. Sitting up, Grenwin leaned over the foot of the cot to check the strange woman over.
Illuminated by the moonlight, Maia seemed asleep, her straight black hair fanning out around her head and crossing over her broad forehead as though she'd been tossing and turning in the night. Her thin lips were parted slightly, the moon's glow casting the whites of her teeth in brilliant silver, and her crescent brows were furrowed in discomfort. Tears were rolling down her cheeks, leaving trails of moisture behind them. She shook, tossing her head and whimpering once more before saying something in a tongue Grenwin didn't know.
Pursing her lips, Grenwin released the knife and slid off the bed, moving to kneel next to Maia's bedding. She'd seen Ygdis like this often, quietly suffering from terrors in the night, and after the first time it had happened, Grenwin found herself wanting to help. That same impulse drove her to gently shake the small woman's shoulder.
"Maia?" Grenwin whispered, leaning closer.
Maia shot awake in a flash, pushing herself to sit up and babbling in that strange tongue. Her long eyes blinked quickly as they swept the room, though seemed to be seeing something else entirely. Even at their widest, Grenwin noted, Maia's eyes always looked half-closed to her.
Grenwin shook her gently again, putting more force in her tone as she repeated, "Maia. Wake up, it's just a dream."
Maia blinked her mismatched eyes a few more times and froze. She turned her head towards Grenwin. Grenwin hadn't seen anyone else with eyes like that before, her right eye a deep green and her left a bright blue. Maia looked like she was coming back to herself, closing her mouth and her expression turning confused.
"Grenwin? What is it? Is something happening?" Maia looked around, cocking her head as though to listen.
Wetting her lips, Grenwin said slowly, "You were whimpering in your sleep. It seemed a bad dream, and when I tried to wake you, you started speaking in tongues. Are you well?"
Maia's lips pulled tight and her nose scrunched as she looked to be thinking. She began to hum quietly, her right hand rising to pull at the fur on her opposite shoulder. Her left came down on Grenwin's bare knee and gripped at it; Maia's fingers and palm were a little cold against her skin.
"Ye-" Maia shook herself, then her head, and met Grenwin's eyes again. Her breath caught as she tried to speak, then trying again, she said carefully, "No, Grenwin, I don't think I'm well."
Grenwin saw tears welling up in Maia's eyes. Uncertain, she reached out to brush strands of black hair out of her face. What was she to say to that? Ygdis would always deny that anything was wrong; Grenwin wasn't sure how to react to an open admission. She may as well press on.
"Can you tell me about it?"
Maia sniffled, shuddering. "I don't… I'm…" Her eyes widened in a strangely intent and hopeless expression, "I thought I was okay with it. Dealing with…" She took a deep breath before continuing, "Dealing with being broken." Her voice quieted and Grenwin had to strain to hear her say, "I don't know who I am."
Mystified, Grenwin adjusted to sit more comfortably. Maia turned as well, keeping her hold on Grenwin's knee for whatever strange reason. Squeezing the shorter woman's shoulder, Grenwin tried to put on an encouraging look and nodded to her.
Maia stared at her for a long, uncomfortable moment before she shivered, sobbing as tears streamed down her face. Her breaths quickened, turning to shuddering gasps.
Grenwin pulled her into her arms, holding her close, resting her chin atop Maia's head. She knew how it felt to be broken. After the Others had taken Rockjaw from her, she'd felt hollow, as though a void with ragged edges was all she was. She'd been incapable of the simplest tasks, unable to argue against her exile. She'd felt she'd deserved it for such a loss. Without her Bear and her Clan, Grenwin had even lost herself for a time.
"I'm sorry," Grenwin whispered, "That's a terrible thing to feel."
Maia nodded under her chin, crying into Grenwin's furs.
They remained like that for a long while, Grenwin stroking Maia's back 'till she'd cried all her tears out.
Maia said something, though it was too muffled to make out.
"What was that?" Grenwin asked her, prompting Maia to pull away a little.
"Can I fix it? Can I put back all the pieces like they'd been before?"
Grenwin sighed, taking Maia by the shoulders and pushing her back to meet her red-rimmed eyes. She stared back at Grenwin with an earnest and hopeful expression.
"I think you can try," Grenwin said slowly. "I think that trying is all any of us can do. Why do you say you don't know who you are? You're Maia, yea?"
A hesitant nod answered her. Maia took a moment before speaking, "I think I remember living two lives. The first, I remember living in another place, another world, where there weren't free folk, or a Wall, or kingdoms. In the second… The second is like a living nightmare. I don't, I," she shuddered, brows pulling down in sudden fury, "Why is this happening to me, Grenwin? Why am I the one with these damned lights in my head? What kind of sick joke is this?!"
She's mad, Grenwin thought with horror. She's mad, and I haven't a clue what to do. Trying to keep her thoughts from showing, she carefully wiped Maia's tears away with her thumb.
"Sometimes we don't get answers, Maia. Sometimes we just have to pick ourselves up and keep moving. What else are we to do, lie down and wait to die?"
Maia stared unblinking at her for a long moment before slowly nodding. Her voice trembled as she repeated, "Have to pick ourselves up and keep moving. I… I can do that. I don't want to die again, Grenwin."
The words sent a chill creeping down Grenwin's spine. Again? What?
Maia continued in a monotone before she could respond, "I remember it. I was murdered. They held me down in black water, and there was something awful at the bottom, and it glowed like the sun. The water burned horribly, but the light was worse. I drowned in it, Grenwin. I could feel parts of myself tearing free, flying away, gone forever." She took a deep breath, "And then I was in the snow with a head full of lights. I don't know how I came back. I don't think I'm the girl who drowned, and I don't think I'm the other one, either."
Grenwin pulled her close again, desperate to distract her long enough to have a chance to think. She wasn't sure she could believe it. She felt she faced a choice, here. She could reject Maia's claims and try to reassure her that those things couldn't have happened, not if she was still alive. Or, she could take Maia at her word, accept that was what the woman thought had happened to her and maybe help her move on. It took effort for her to speak, once she'd made her decision.
"Whatever happened to you, Maia," Grenwin emphasized her name, hoping it might help somehow, "It's in the past."
"You don't believe me," Maia said without accusation or anger from under Grenwin's chin.
Sighing again, Grenwin looked at the scabbarded blade propped up nearby.
"I do," she said, surprised to find it was the truth. "You've been straight and honest with me this far. If that is what you say happened, then it happened. I can grant you that much. Who am I to tell you otherwise?"
Maia chuckled, though it was empty of warmth. "I must sound like I've gone mad. It sounds insane just thinking about it."
"Yea, you do," Grenwin admitted after a moment. Maybe I can distract her? "Though, it's not the strangest thing you've said."
Maia pulled away to look at her quizzically.
"What do you mean? I'm pretty sure it is."
Shaking her head, Grenwin thought back to the night before and fresh humor warmed her. "No, the strangest was you saying you wanted to try at being a Queen." Laughter bubbled out of her at the memory, "That was a shock, I'll tell you. Barely a full day with us and you pull that on me?" Grenwin shook her head, feeling her lips pull back in a smile. "Compared to that, this nightmare of yours isn't so bad."
Maia's cheeks reddened and she spluttered, "That- Ah, wait, really? Even more than the stuff about my lights?"
Grenwin nodded, "Aye, stranger than that, made all the stranger for the way you went about it. Who was it that put that idea in your head?"
"Uhm, would you believe if I told you I wanted to find a way to get people to listen to me so I could teach them everything I know? That's a lot, by the way, more than anyone else in Westeros can offer. I talked to Symon about it and he said I'd have to do something to prove myself, and I thought—"
Laughter burst from Grenwin, pulling itself up from her belly and interrupting Maia's babbling.
"See, that is strange to me. Why not tell me this to start?"
Maia blinked at her, small mouth open in uncertainty.
"I… Overthought, I think. Made it more complicated than it needed to be in my head." She laughed a little at herself, a gesture Grenwin appreciated, "What I want is to see everyone here happy. I've never felt so accepted anywhere, Grenwin. I think I've always been on the outside of things looking in before coming here and I want to repay the kindness I've been shown."
Grenwin felt that to be a deeply sad statement. She'd seen the rest of First Fork keeping Maia at arm's length, following her with their eyes and whispering after her. Maia certainly hadn't helped any of that, strutting around like this was her home and they all her guests. Grenwin thought Maia either misunderstood the way people had been treating her, or that whatever she'd known before must have been terrible indeed if this is what she considered to be acceptance.
Maia blinked, a look of realization coming over her features.
"Grenwin, did you have a chance to look through what I made yesterday?"
Grenwin recalled there being some commotion the prior afternoon, but she'd been feeling the need to take some time for herself and hadn't looked into it. She shook her head, "No, and I'm not sure what you mean."
"I asked around for what people wanted. My lights let me make wooden weapons and tools as resilient and effective as steel, and they ensure that whatever I make is going to be very high quality. Herrick and Wyck helped me make everything everyone asked for. I wanted to ask you for what you wanted first, as thanks for taking care of me, but I couldn't find you."
It sounded a wild claim fit for the mouth of a braggart, but she saw earnestness writ across Maia's face and in her mismatched eyes. There was no intent to deceive, nor any desire to impress, just sincerity. Grenwin had to admit that would explain the excitement.
"Is that why everyone was wound up?" Grenwin shook her head, "I needed some time alone. I spied you working a few times but didn't think much of it."
Maia nodded, the corners of her mouth pulling upward in a grin.
"If there's anything you want, anything at all, I'll do it for you. It's the least I could do."
"Oh?" Grenwin raised a brow at that, trying to cover a warm feeling she had no desire to put a name to, "You really shouldn't make offers like that. Since you have, though, I'd like a new knife."
"Just a knife?" Maia blinked at her, surprised. "Alright. I've heard requests for everything from climbing picks to new beds, so if you change your mind and want more, let me know, alright?"
Grenwin chuckled at her, shaking her head, "Just a knife. Might be I'll think of something else later, but for now, a knife will do."
Maia nodded at that, then peered past Grenwin. "It looks like dawn's coming. I'm sorry to have woken you early, Grenwin."
Turning her head, Grenwin saw she was right. Through the window, she could see the sky growing brighter. A cock began to crow, greeting the coming morning.
"Huh, so it is." She looked back to Maia, who was looking at her while chewing her lip, "Think nothing of it, yea?"
Blue and green eyes met hers uncertainly for a moment before Maia nodded.
"Yeah, alright. Would you care to join me for a morning run? After, I was thinking we might train some and I'd see about making some soap and having a wash." She grimaced as she sniffed at her underarms, nose wrinkling in distaste. "I think I need one."
"You don't smell bad if that's what you're worried about." Grenwin grinned at her, and it was the truth. She smelled a little different than what Grenwin was used to, true, but it was far from unpleasant. "Show me what you mean by running?"
Nodding, Maia rose, pulling on her trousers and setting about tying them with the belt. She hesitated, eying her sword, then shook her head and left it behind.
Grenwin dressed as quickly as they left her home. Maia insisted the two of them go through a series of stretches in the cool pre-dawn air before setting a quick pace out towards the edge of the clearing. She was surprised at how fast Maia chose to move, not expecting to have to work as hard as she did to keep alongside. Despite her height, Maia didn't seem to have any difficulty speeding along, breath coming in steady puffs and stepping nimbly around roots and rocks and hollows covered over by snow. Grenwin found herself flagging after their third circuit around First Fork and was disgusted. Once, she'd been able to maintain this pace easily. She'd been getting soft. She berated herself in her thoughts as she forced herself to keep going.
Her body soon betrayed her, stumbling and falling as her leg cramped. She cursed as she stretched the limb out, gritting her teeth past the pain.
Maia slowed to a stop when she saw Grenwin fall, coming back to put a hand on her shoulder. The short woman didn't even seem winded and Grenwin felt a stab of envy towards her for that miraculous healing of hers.
"That might have been a bit much. Here, let me take care of that."
The pain vanished a moment later. Grenwin shook her head, "Shouldn't have had to do that if I weren't so weak." She patted Maia's hand and met her eyes, "Thank you anyway."
Maia blinked at her in shock, tilting her head as a peculiar coo came from the depths of her throat. "You? Weak? Grenwin, I'm pretty sure you'd have been able to completely body me even when I was at my peak."
"I have no idea what you mean by that. Thank you, I think." Grenwin stood, brushing the snow from her legs. "I think that's as much as I can handle this morning."
"You did great," Maia told her earnestly, "I couldn't do even a tenth as well when I first started running for fitness."
Grenwin was about to tell her to stow the compliments, then thought better of it.
"We'll be doing this often, then?"
Maia nodded, "Every morning if you think you can handle it. I can use my… My healing to help us recover afterward."
"I can handle it," Grenwin confirmed. "Though for that, I feel I should repay you in kind. How long would it take you to work yourself a practice spear?"
"Not long," Maia said with a small shake of the head. "Want to watch? We can get to training right after!" She sounded as eager as Grenwin remembered herself feeling when her mother had decided she was old enough to learn.
Grenwin nodded and followed the shorter woman back to the village. She eyed Maia's wings, still unsure of what that meant. They didn't seem like a deformity, but she'd surely never seen the like of them before.
The village was up and active now, the sun just peeking over the treetops and illuminating the heart tree's canopy in a blaze of red. It seemed most everyone was out working, taking advantage of the nearly cloudless sky. Grenwin enjoyed the chatter as it washed over her, a reminder that she wasn't alone here. She had nightmares, sometimes, where she wandered an empty First Fork, looking for familiar faces and finding nothing.
They passed by slender Inella and her daughter, near a woman grown now, working with long sticks to knock icicles down from the eaves of buildings. The pair paused as Maia called out a greeting to them and they, to Grenwin's surprise, returned the winged woman's sentiment openly.
Grenwin's confusion grew as they continued up the path and a pattern emerged. Sometimes, people would see them and call out their greetings, which Maia would loudly and excitedly return; other times, Maia would shout over to them, and rather than the standoffish suspicion Grenwin expected, they'd shout back. Teagj was the only exception, though even he grunted and gave them a nod as they passed by.
For a moment, she felt some regret over missing yesterday's events. She'd not realized that Maia genuinely had gained a measure of respect from the others.
Maia led her through the strange doorway on the front of First Fork's hall, the interior transformed from the plain expanse Grenwin had last seen. Now, it seemed sunlight shone down from the ceiling onto a wide table amid wooden racks festooned with spears and bows and crates filled with tools. Maia began gathering a variety of tools and several long portions of wood before pausing.
"I may as well make your knife while I'm at it," Maia told her, "What do you want?"
Grenwin unsheathed her old copper knife, offering it to Maia.
"Make it like this."
Maia took the tool from her and turned it over in her hands for a moment before handing it back. "Alright, I'll do that first."
Grenwin took a reflexive step backward as Maia blurred into motion. It was impossible to track her movements as she worked, and then moments later Maia was offering her a knife and a round sheath. She took them, uncertain what to say as she examined them. The wood had seemingly delicate leafy vines worked into it, forming a fine hilt with a good texture for gripping. A stocky bear snarled on either side of the blade, not the Bears of Grenwin's clan, but an unfamiliar creature that looked nearly as ferocious.
How had she known? Grenwin flicked her eyes up at Maia's hopeful expression, then slid the knife home into the sheath.
"Is that alright?" Maia asked with worry in her tone, "It's just, Teagj called you a she-bear, and I thought it fit, and you mentioned a bear, and I figured a grizzly suited you-"
Grenwin laughed, wrapping the small woman up in her arms and spinning her around. She set the stunned Maia back down a moment later, "This is a wonderful gift, Maia! Even if it's not half as good as you claim, I'll keep it for the bears alone. Now, go on, make us a couple of dull spears for practicing with."
Nodding woodenly, Maia sat back down on the chair and got back to work, arms a blur.
Grenwin unsheathed the knife again, thumbing the carvings of the bear. A grizzly, Maia said. Grenwin felt the name fit the figure. "My grizzly," she murmured to herself. Only Ygdis had given her a gift like this before, a small bear carved from a bit of mammoth ivory worked over in tiny runes that the fire-touched girl claimed would protect her from spirits of ill luck. That sat in one of her belt pouches, a trinket that Grenwin wouldn't part with. This knife, Grenwin knew, would claim its own space in her heart.
She was so preoccupied that she failed to notice Maia slowing.
"I'm done," Maia said, startling Grenwin.
On the workbench before her lay three spears. Two of them were the proper length for Maia, while one was a match for Grenwin's weapon. For a moment, Grenwin wondered at how she'd managed it, given Grenwin's spear was back in her cabin, then shrugged and put it aside as she reached out and took up the longest weapon.
"Hmm," Grenwin hummed lowly as she examined it. The shaft fit perfectly in her hands, not too thick, not too thin, and she felt as much as saw the carvings of flowering vines adorning it. The spear tip, though dull, was shaped into a long leaf with another grizzly bear carved on both sides and still had a good heft to it. Stepping back a couple of paces, Grenwin spun it in her hands, shocked at how well-balanced it felt. She shifted her grip to stab with it, shifted again, and spun it as though to club with the butt of it.
This may well be the finest spear Grenwin had ever held. Her own was fine enough, but this felt like a weapon to take pride in, and it had taken Maia only moments to create.
Looking back to Maia, Grenwin saw her chewing her lip with an expression of worry, as though she feared she'd made a mistake. Best to disabuse her of that; this was wondrous.
"Maia, could you make another like this with a sharpened tip?"
She blinked and nodded, blurring into motion without another word. A few moments later, she handed Grenwin a spear that could have been the first's twin, save the sharp edge along the tip and the prominent maker's mark worked into the bear's eye on either side.
"Are they alright?" Maia asked her, standing from her stool and taking up her paired weapons. Those, Grenwin saw, may well have just been shorter iterations of what she currently held, though stylized wings took the place of the bears on the blade.
"These," Grenwin hefted the spears she held, "Maia, I've never seen the like of these, above or below the Wall. Yea, they're alright."
Maia studied her for a moment, mismatched blue-green eyes flicking about Grenwin's face, then nodded slowly. A smile pulled at her lips, then, oddly, her cheeks reddened and she looked away.
"I'm glad you like them," she said quietly.
Grenwin took a couple steps closer, the humor she felt strong in her voice as she told her, "I owe you a beating, remember?"
She hadn't promised that would be today, and Grenwin saw little point in beating on someone as untrained as Maia. They'd work with stances and basic movements for now.
Looking back at her, Maia nodded, "I do. Let's go, then."
Grenwin led her out of the hall and away from the inhabited portion of First Fork, heading towards one of her favored places. A few crumbling buildings surrounded a small open space some distance from the heart tree, giving the spot a sense of seclusion from the rest of the village.
"Here's where we'll train," Grenwin said, gesturing around the snowy clearing. She turned to see Maia turning a slow circle behind her, studying the decrepit cabins and an old hall.
"Here? Alright."
Grenwin took Maia's edged weapon and stood it up against a nearby wall, then set her new spears next to it. Returning to Maia, she gestured at her.
"Before we do any sparring, you need to know how to hold that spear. We'll start how I started."
"How's that?" Maia asked, looking up at her.
"You've got to know how to stand with it," Grenwin told her, taking Maia's hands and adjusting their position on the spear's shaft. "Stand like this," she demonstrated, bending her knees and setting her feet.
Maia mimicked her, though Grenwin had to adjust her stance before she was satisfied.
"Alright, what now?"
Grenwin took a few steps back, moving to retrieve her dull spear before coming to stand before Maia.
"Now, I'll show you some movements I want you to follow as best you can."
Grenwin displayed a pair of simple sweeping motions with the butt of the spear and Maia followed well enough. A few corrections more and the small woman was soon repeating the motions. Grenwin had her continue that for some time before adding another movement, and soon another.
She missed teaching, she found. Ygdis had surpassed her with the spear a while ago, and while sparring with her was enjoyable, it wasn't the same as it had been early on. Here, Maia had none of Ygdis's natural talent, and Grenwin had to walk her through each step. All the while Maia peppered her with questions, if she was doing it properly, if she was making any mistakes, if her posture was correct.
Grenwin chose to be a kinder mentor than her mother. She didn't beat Maia when she overreached and her foot slipped, didn't shout in her face when she flubbed a new motion, and didn't loom over her. Instead, Grenwin paced around the shorter woman, offering corrections when needed or demonstrating a move again when asked. She took pride in how well Maia seemed to be responding to her; Laine had only ever inspired a fear of failure in Grenwin and her sister, never the admiration and drive to improve she saw in Maia's eyes.
"Grenwin, may I ask for a favor?" Maia asked as she slowly swept the spear around.
"Depends. What do you need?"
Maia's eyes flicked to hers for a moment before looking away and grimacing.
"I'm going to get sick in a couple of days. Would you be willing to care for me? I might act strangely, more strangely than what you've seen. I might not even be in total control of myself." Her voice was tight and controlled, but Grenwin heard an undercurrent of fear there, too.
"What d'you mean? Sure, I'll keep an eye on you, but what's this about?"
"Thank you." Maia was quiet for a long moment, moving through a few more moves before speaking again. "It has to do with my lights. One of them gives me access to a force, saidar, that'll be really, really useful to have. The problem is, the light doesn't come with the training to use it, just access. I was overeager and couldn't remember the dangers accompanying it before I, ah, touched it. The sickness comes from the touching, you see, and it'll come every time until I can teach myself control."
An old saying Grenwin's mother had often used sprang to the forefront of her mind. "Magic is a blade without a hilt," she said quietly.
Maia glanced at her, confusion visible on her face before being overtaken by a look of understanding.
"I guess that fits well enough. I grabbed the blade without realizing and now my hand is bleeding. I've got to figure out how to hold it without cutting myself."
Grenwin nodded, "I'll look after you, Maia. What should I expect?"
"Physically, I might suffer nausea, dizziness, a sudden and uncontrolled loss of fine motor skills, chills, a fever, or any mix of those. Mentally… I'm not sure. I might have emotional outbursts, make foolish or poorly thought out decisions, or act rashly." She met Grenwin's eyes and added in a quiet, insistent tone, "I'll be vulnerable 'till I recover. It shouldn't last long. I'm really trusting you, Grenwin."
She trusts too easily, Grenwin thought bitterly.
Ygdis trusted her, too. All the others who'd placed their trust in her were dead. Skarolf and Aradir, friends close as brothers to her, were gone, taken by the Others for her foolishness.
The sickness she described, though… It sounded much like what she'd heard her mother had suffered in her youth. The same sickness had taken her mother's sister; the gods had cursed her for some slight against them. Strange that Maia would know of it, stranger still that she sounded so confident about her knowledge.
Maia lowered her spear, studying Grenwin. Her brows furrowed in concern over earnest eyes.
"I'm sorry, have I said something hurtful?"
Grenwin shook herself, shook away the old clinging pain, and pulled her lips up in a smile she didn't feel. "No, Maia, you haven't done anything. Just old ghosts, that's all. I'll keep your trust."
Nodding slowly, Maia scrutinized her for a moment longer before moving again.
"Alright. I'm not going to ask, but if you need to talk about it, I'm here, alright?"
The temptation to do just that pulled at Grenwin. Maia would listen, she could see it in the winged woman's eyes, but even the thought of putting a voice to her past hurt. Speaking it would be agony. She sought for some other topic to talk about.
Grenwin crossed her arms, "Tell me more about the sickness. What was it you said? Sai something?"
Maia's expression turned bright, enthusiastic interest clear on her face and in her tone.
"Saidar, that's what I said. It's a powerful force that I'm overjoyed to have the opportunity to wield. The sickness comes from touching it, though I have a thought that part of the reason it comes is as part of a process of adaptation. Every time I brush it, the sooner the sickness will come after. If the touching and the sickness come at the same time and I haven't built up the control needed to survive, I'll die a horrible and agonizing death."
Grenwin stared wide-eyed at her, shocked. She sounded so happy when she said that.
"You're going to die?" Grenwin whispered, horrified.
Maia shook her head, "No! Not if I can help it! It's fine, only four out of every five women this happens to die without help. I have the advantage of knowing what to do and what to watch for, you see, so I'll be fine."
"…Right. That's good. Watch your footing."
She's not going to die, not if I can help it.
Maia shifted, putting her feet back in position. She was quiet, a look of focus on her face as she worked with the spear.
Grenwin watched for a moment and found herself wanting to see more of Maia's enthusiasm.
"So, ah, saidar." The word felt incredibly strange on her tongue. "What all can you do with that?"
Maia's face lit up again, looking at Grenwin with a huge grin.
"I'd be happy to tell you! Saidar is like a tool you can turn towards almost any purpose you can think of. It can be used as a weapon, too, but that's not how I look at it."
Maia kept up her explanation, telling Grenwin tales of some of those she'd known who could, in her words, "Channel the One Power." Her enthusiasm was infectious and Grenwin soon found herself listening with rapt attention to the myriad possibilities. Doors that could take them anywhere in the world in a single step, to look within a living body and heal whatever ailments could be found, even to peer deep into the earth itself and bring up copper and tin and iron.
Grenwin knew change had finally come to First Fork, and for once, it was for the better. Whatever trepidation she'd felt towards Maia melted away as she prodded her with more and more questions that were readily answered.