As usual all speech in italics is in the Old Tongue

Chapter XIX - Teaching and Tedium

It was a couple of weeks into Taija's stay in the Tower when she saw a familiar face sweeping through the corridors, deep in conversation with another aes sedai, both wearing red-fringed shawls. Like the novices, accepted and other non-initiates of the Tower, Taija pressed herself against the wall with a still awkward curtsy at her passing, but her eyes still followed the woman as she glided by. It seemed Elaida was back in the Tower.

That night Taija asked Siuan and Leane about it.

Siuan looked irritated at the question, but she still answered. "Yes, she has returned from Caemlyn. I thought she was never extricate herself from Morgase's palace and at one point I believe she did turn back, although I do not know why. Still, she is here now and it seems it is your fault."

"My fault?"

"Yes Taija sedai, your fault." Siuan's tone implied it wasn't the only thing she blamed Taija for. "It seems you were less than discrete when you were in Caemlyn. I had thought that I could brush off the talk of your presence in Fal Dara as rumours about a sister using an assumed name, but Elaida has other ideas." She gave Taija a sharp look. "She has been spreading tales of being assaulted with the Power by a young red-headed woman named Taija who was impersonating an aes sedai. I would say she is almost obsessive about it and has also been hinting at lost Talents."

"That's uh not quite how it happened…" Taija trailed off. Perhaps she shouldn't have dumped her in the countryside quite like that. Maybe the Blight instead…

Siuan ignored her, "not only that, but now my judgment has been called into question. I gave the Hall my word that I was confident the 'Taija' in Fal Dara was an aes sedai and now my sophistry is coming to back to bite me.

"I'm sorry," Taija offered the apology while trying to work out what 'sophistry' meant. "In my defence she attacked me and I had no idea where I was or what was going on in the world at that time."

"Frustrating as it is, I know that. I accept that you could not have known the consequences." Siuan waved off the apology. "You were navigating the Fingers without a light, but regardless of blame there are rocks in the water. In this case, well… when a boat has one leak it is sure to have others. I have no doubt Elaida knows more than she is saying. I am also dealing with problems due to your killing of Liandrin." She kept talking before Taija could protest. "Not that you did anything wrong there. However, there are suspicions around her death. I told the Hall the truth - that I believe she died as a result of a darkfriend plot, but that begs more questions. Questions that I cannot answer without giving away more than I wish and, even if the story is believed, it raises doubts about my competency in allowing her to die on a mission I led. Despite my best efforts, the Hall has already voted to send sisters to investigate."

She looked tired and settled back into her chair, but at least the mention of Liandrin reminded Taija of something that had been on her mind. "Perhaps I can at least help with one problem. I've been thinking about your darkfriend issue and the 'Black Ajah'." It was irritating the way both Siuan and Leane winced at the term. "Clearly your organisation is compromised, one of the biggest problems we faced in the War was betrayals and traitors and I know the damage it can do. We would be winning, beating the Shadow back and then the general would change sides or the Shadow would know all about our movements or a barracks would be poisoned. Without traitors the Shadow would have lost the War very quickly."

Siuan started to protest, but Taija didn't let her speak. "Liandrin was evidence enough of your problems. Where there's one bad fish there are always more in the barrel." Her attempt at a fish metaphor got her an unimpressed stare and she shifted awkwardly on her feet, "anyway there must be more and the Forsaken are sniffing around Tar Valon too. I was never involved in spying or counter-intelligence, but I do have some skills that might make me good at hunting your Black Ajah. No aes sedai will see an ignorant young noblewoman as a serious threat to them, I can listen and watch in ways that one of your aes sedai can't."

"Of course anyone could do that, but I have two big advantages." Taija held up two fingers. "One, you know I'm not a darkfriend. The fact that you haven't brought anyone else to these lessons tells me you can't say that about many, or even any, of your other aes sedai. Two, if I make a mistake and they catch me, well they might find themselves in a worse position than if they'd left me alone. They expect a non-channeler or some weak, unknown aes sedai and instead they get me." Her smile was predatory.

There was a long silence and then Siuan nodded slowly, "you make a good argument Taija sedai, but how do you plan to find them?"

"Well that's the harder part, but I can watch and listen. Eavesdropping is much easier when you can invert your webs and you must have some you're already suspicious of. Oh, yes and I want the angreal, for my own safety. It's time for you to fulfil your side of our bargain."

Siuan's eyes narrowed, but then she shrugged. "Very well, a deal is a deal. I will do my best to give it to you as soon as possible. Leane, you know who to go and visit ." She turned back to Taija, musing. "I am still not sure how you will find them though, I suppose they must have some way of lying…"

Taija gave her a flat look. "Well of course they can lie. That's obvious isn't it?"

"Well yes, but they must find a way around the three oaths."

"You mean the oaths you aes sedai swear? Surely you just break them?"

"If only it were so easy, but we cannot. Except it seems the Black Ajah."

"You can't? Why?" A horrible thought came to Taija. Oh no… Surely they didn't…

"Of course, I forget how ignorant you are of some things," Siuan ignored Taija's irritation. "We swear the three oaths on the Oath Rod, it is a ter'angreal that…"

Taija cut her off, "a smooth white rod, about 30 centimetres long?" Siuan gave her a blank look. "About two hands long?"

Siuan nodded at that and Taija exploded. "Are you insane?! You're telling me that the whole lot of you are binding yourselves. Like… like murderers or rapists?!"

Anger flashed across Siuan's face, "How dare you!"

"Do you even know what you're doing to yourselves? No of course you don't you you stupid, ignorant barbarians. Light help you bumbling around in the ruins of a civilisation you can't even understand, fighting over scraps of misunderstood knowledge like they're gold nuggets rather than a kebab shop's leavings! What's next? Do you secretly cut off your toes to becomes aes sedai?"

Siuan's aes sedai composure had reasserted itself by the time Taija finished her rant. "I am glad I only understood about half of that. I take it that you do not approve of the Oath Rod? Perhaps you could share your wisdom with us on why?" There was a definite sarcastic tone to Siuan's words, but Taija didn't care.

"Voluntarily subjecting yourself to binding? You do realise it halves your lifespan? No, of course you don't. It was something we only did to the worst criminals. They'd be given the choice, severing or binding and some of them even chose severing. I knew there was something about your faces that bothered me, that ageless look, it's how bound criminals look." Taija shook her head in disgust. "Light only knows what other ter'angreal you're misusing to kill yourselves."

She was worked up enough that she mostly missed the uncomfortable look Siuan and Leane gave each other before Leane spoke, smoothly refocusing on the binding rod. "Alright, we understand you are not well inclined towards the Oath Rod, perhaps a topic for another time, but that does not explain how the Black Ajah circumvent their oaths."

Taija let out another long-suffering sigh. "It's pretty obvious really. A binding rod can bind you, it can also unbind you." Her mood dropped even further when she saw the surprise on their faces. "Surely it's obvious? You have an undercover ajah of darkfriends and you didn't think you could unbind yourselves to lie?" She had to work hard to resist the urge to call them idiots again.

"So… you're saying that with the Oath Rod you can unswear any oaths. Just like that?"

"Yep. Easy. I assume your Black Ajah must have sworn new oaths since they still look bound, but those can be unsworn too. Get an aes sedai in a room, ask her to unswear all her oaths." Taija twisted her mouth in distaste, "get her to reswear your three oaths if you must, and then ask her if she is a member of the Black Ajah."

It took them a few moments to get over their shock, or possibly their cultural inertia and then Siuan met Taija's eyes, a predatory smile growing across her face. "I may not like your tone, but sometimes you remind me of why we are working together."

With that she was all business. "Getting discrete access to the Oath Rod may be difficult, so better to start your observations as soon as possible and we can discuss possible target. We will have to be careful not to give ourselves away, but once we have the Rod we can start." Siuan looked over at Taija and Leane. "We can start with ourselves, unswear all our oaths and then reswear the three oaths before we confirm we are not friends of the dark."

Taija nodded along, until she realised Siuan had included her in that. "Oh fuck no! Asolutely not! I will not under any circumstances swear on a binding rod not even with a shocklance to my head. I won't be treated like a criminal to satisfy your backwards rituals!"

There was a bit more bickering and it all left Taija in a foul mood with the other two women, but eventually the three of them came to an uneasy agreement. Siuan and Leane would obtain the binding rod, then when they were all ready the first target could be brought to a meeting with them. Taija would be there to provide additional firepower if needed.

==========

Amidst the seemingly endless shelves of books in the Tower library Taija became a familiar enough face that she actually went beyond exchanging polite pleasantries with one of the brown sisters that seemed to run the place. Given her white hair, Taija thought Bennae must be one of the older aes sedai, although like with most of them she couldn't quite put her finger on how old she was. It made her shake her head every time she thought about it. The way these people crippled themselves and didn't even know it.

She was a slender woman, normally wearing a relatively simple dress in muted colours and she seemed to spend even more time in or around the library than Taija did, although Taija did occasionally see her teaching groups of bored looking novices.

They'd first ended up talking when Bennae had heard her muttering in disgust over a book about her own time.

"Is something bothering you my dear?"

Taija had looked up and answered without thinking, "it's just… ridiculous, some of these descriptions!"

She was already kicking herself when Bennae smiled and nodded, "oh yes, Barar's works are often of dubious provenance. I think his descriptions of 'parties' in the Hall of the Servants are more lurid figments of his imagination."

Taija had shuddered, she'd read that part with horrified fascination. It had sounded like bad erotic fiction. "Well I'm glad to hear that, history is so fascinating though I can't help reading as much of it as I can, even when it's this ridiculous." She wasn't even lying, much.

Bennae had smiled and said, "my name is Bennae sedai and you are?"

======

Taija watched the glowing flows of spirit and fire hanging in the air before they slowly faded as Siuan inverted them.

With a hiss of frustration she rounded on Taija. "Why am I doing this again for the thousandth time? I can do it, can we move on?"

Taija sighed, she'd already had this conversation several times over the last few days and it was becoming more and more of a struggle to contain her annoyance with the woman. "Yes you can do it Siuan sedai, but barely. A skilled channeler can invert their webs as they form, channeling undetectably wherever they are. You aren't even close to that and what it takes is practice. Just because you're strong enough to quickly and easily pick up the basics doesn't mean you can use the Power properly. Again."

"Fine, but tomorrow night you will teach us to travel."

With a resigned look Taija greed. Siuan also told her that she'd be passing on Taija's knowledge to two senior aes sedai from her former Ajah once they'd been tested with the binding rod. Aniya and Maigan apparently. Taija thought Maigan might be a Sitter, but she wasn't sure she'd met either of them. Nevertheless Siuan assured her that she trusted them, but prefered to keep Taija's presence as a completely secret trump card so she would teach them herself.

=====

A few days later, Siuan was still being a frustrating student. So, when the two girls in white popped up again, boxing Taija in, it took a real effort of will to resist the urge to let her irritation bubble over.

"Can I help you girls?"

This time it was the redhead, the posh one. "Egwene's told me all about you and we need you to teach us, we want to fight the Shadow!"

Taija looked up to meet her eyes, irritated that she had to. "I've no idea what you're talking about. I'm just a simple noblewoman from Houndstooth. All hail good queen Morgase, may she live forever!"

For some reason the sarcastic praise for the queen seemed to irritate her and Egwene hurriedly stepped in. "Come on Taija, please, they're holding us back here and I know you can help us. When the," she lowered her voice to a whisper, "Forsaken are loose surely you need all the help you can get. The Amyrlin won't let us do anything."

"So you've told your friend here, what is her name by the way?"

"Elayne Trakand", the redhead said it like she expected it to mean something to Taija.

"Yes, Elayne, all about me have you?" Taija leant in towards Egwene, unlike Elayne she was about the same height as Taija and she quailed under Taija's gaze. "I'm sure I remember Siuan telling you to keep your mouth shut, do you not understand the importance of keeping secrets? Why on earth would I teach you when you can't even keep the simplest secret?" Taija turned away. "Not that I'd know how to teach you anyway, being just a simple Andoran noblewoman." She didn't even try to sound like she believed it.

With that Taija turned on her heel and stalked away, but as she did she heard Elayne ask "Siuan? Who's Siuan? Does she mean the Amyrlin? She's on first name terms with her?!"

======

When Taija started her search for the Black Ajah she quickly realised, or maybe remembered, that she really really wasn't cut out for intelligence work. She'd managed to befriend precisely one aes sedai and that was a thoroughly harmless seeming brown who just wanted to talk about history. Her conversation with others hadn't gotten her very far at all. One thing that was totally clear was that these aes sedai were utterly closed off to outsiders. It was ridiculous! How could they call themselves servants of all while they swanned around their tower, which was literally ivory coloured, refusing to acknowledge the existence of the outside world?

Taija tried eavesdropping on conversations, but only heard a combination of mundanity and politics. She wasn't interested in hearing aes sedai gossip or their machinations. She really couldn't care less who the next sitter for the Red Ajah would be. It didn't help that it was relatively difficult to do, given the profusion of wards in the Tower and the restrictions on Taija's public movement.

She did seriously consider trying to find out what Elaida was doing, but the woman rarely showed herself in publicly accessibly areas of the Tower and even when Taija was able to work out where she was, she was always on the move. Taija was also nervous about being too close to her. Of course there was no way that Elaida would recognise the face she was using, but she was still, hopefully, the only person in the Tower who would recognise Taija's accent.

Given that Elaida was out of the question for now, after a week of trying to randomly eavesdrop, Taija decided on a different focus. She just didn't know the White Tower's aes sedai well enough to pick up on any signs that one of their own might see. However, she did have one big suspicion. The Green Ajah.

Apparently they called themselves the Battle Ajah and were devoted to studying war so that they could fight the forces of the Shadow. In her heart Taija knew she'd be a brown. However, she'd spent the last few years fighting a war for the very survival of her civilisation, following the professed ideals of the greens, so she should feel a certain kinship. But…

Her mind went back to Fal Dara, the gigantic trolloc army. Where were the greens then? How could they claim to be devoted to the fight against shadowspawn and not even have any members in a major Borderland nation, ready to stand with its defenders when an army of shadowspawn threatened to obliterate the entire nation?

It reminded Taija all too much of certain times during the War. When armies failed to move, much needed channelers didn't arrive or entire fronts changed sides. Most of the Green Ajah were probably well-intentioned, but she strongly suspected it had been heavily infiltrated by the Shadow. It was where she'd have started if she was trying to undermine the Light.

The greens also seemed to be a bit more human than many of the other aes sedai. Less serene composure, more open and direct, which made them at least a little easier to speak to. So Taija started going to the place she most often saw them. The warder training grounds. There was always a gaggle of women, including aes sedai, watching the men training with swords, or their bare hands. Even Taija could admit, on an intellectual level, that their well-muscled, glistening bodies could have a certain distracting influence. However, if she let her mind wander, the sight of them exchanging rapid blows with practice swords just pulled her thoughts back towards the gaping hole in her heart. Some memories were simply too painful, so she did her best not to think about them at all.

Despite her internal turmoil, Taija fitted right in with the other watchers as a youngish looking single lady. More importantly it gave her access to some of the greens. From there she was only an earnest question away from making a connection.

There was one, named Josaine, who was a regular that Taija had been exchanging polite greetings with and who she'd thought would be a good first target, but when Taija decided to make her move, the woman had such a tension about her that she changed her plans on the fly. She'd have asked her what was wrong, but it was clear by then that no modern aes sedai would appreciate that from an outsider.

So Taija smoothly pivoted to another of the greens, who fortunately was there too. Like Taija, Erian was a small woman, but she could easily be described as beautiful with deep, dark brown hair and eyes and an exquisitely shaped, delicate face.

"Good morning Erian sedai," Taija greeted her.

"Oh good morning Alfreda." Her eyes didn't leave the practising men, "a good day to be out is it not?"

"Mmm," Taija agreed, pretending to join her in admiring the men. After a comfortable silence she spoke again, "Erian sedai, may I ask a question?" Without waiting for an answer she continued. "Forgive me, but I don't understand why aes sedai need warders. They're no doubt easy on the eye, but surely you can just rain fire on your enemies and don't need a man with a sword." She did her best to sound as earnestly ignorant as possible.

Erian laughed, not unkindly. "Oh Alfreda, you must understand, not every problem can be solved with fireballs. Even an aes sedai needs to sleep, even an aes sedai can be overwhelmed."

"But could you not just…" Taija gestured vaguely, "make barriers of air or, you know, wards with spirit?"

That got her a sharper look, "what do you know of wards child?"

Taija winced internally, "oh it was just something I had read. Water, air, spirit, fire and earth, right?" She smiled innocently, ignoring her irritation at being called child.

Erian relaxed a little, but still seemed more suspicious, "well yes child, but we do not normally speak of such things with people who are not initiates of the Tower." She looked Taija up and down properly as if seeing her for the first time. "I do not sense the ability in you child."

Of course she didn't. Taija shook her head hurriedly, "Oh no… I always dreamed of being an aes sedai, but I was told that I didn't have the ability."

"Ah. A pity. Well, while an aes sedai can of course fight without her warder, we greens train to coordinate with our warders, together we are greater than the sum of our parts."

"Oh, how fascinating!" Taija didn't even have to feign her interest, it really would be interesting to see how the modern aes sedai's combat specialists fought, although she suspected she'd be disappointed. Would she be able to do better with Aleski with some practice? Hopefully he was alright… "Is there any chance I could see a practice Erian sedai? It would be so exciting!"

Erian gave Taija a cool look, back to aes sedai serenity. "No child that would not be possible. We do not allow outsiders to see the weaves we practice, to do so might lose us a key advantage in our fight against the Shadow." Taija acquiesced as gracefully as she could.

After that conversation Taija ended up spending much of the rest of the day wondering how Aleksi was doing and where he was. If she knew that, she could just go and fetch him, although that might cause Siuan more issues. It didn't matter since she had no idea. Aleksi would just have to look after himself.

That night Taija dreamed of her last day in her time. Fire raining down from above. Her desperate flight from her attacker and shouting to Antero. This time there was no stasis box. The town hall collapsed on her, crashing pressure that suddenly vanished as it was thrown away with the Power. Battered and unable to channel she was dragged by a pair of trollocs to face her attacker. Looking up with terrified eyes at a laughing Ishamael whose eyes and mouth only spewed fire…

Taija woke up with a start sweating and desperately flailing at something that wasn't there. Just a nightmare. As the confusion faded she instinctively reached out beside her in the bed, looking for reassurance and comfort, but he wasn't there either… It took a long while for her to get back to sleep that night.

======

The next night an irritated Siuan handed Taija a thin gold necklace. Finely formed links came together to form a chain with a pendant surrounding a small emerald.

Taija took it, looked it over and then froze, standing there speechless, just staring at the pendant in her hand. It was in the shape of Adanza's crest. The three pointed infinitely looping knot symbolising people, knowledge and industry with the circle of unity through them bringing all three together with unending potential.

Taija must have stood there staring for minutes before Siuan asked, "is there something wrong with it?"

With a start Taija looked up and realised she was having to blink away tears. "Is this what I think it is?"

Siuan didn't seem to notice her emotion. "Yes, never let it be said I do not keep my promises Taija sedai. Believe me I have caused myself no end of problems obtaining this for you. No doubt it will come back to bite me at the worst moment."

Taija slid the necklace over her head and pulled her hair over it, it was just long enough that the pendant hung between the tops of her breasts and when she tucked it under her dress it was barely noticeable. She reached for saidar and drew it through the angreal feeling the Power flood through her, far more than she could handle unaided.

"Thank you Siuan sedai. I appreciate it." Taija's gratitude was genuine, despite her general irritation with the woman and even if Siuan had no idea how much this particular angreal meant to her. She could feel it was a relatively weak one, but it would still give her a significant and unexpected advantage in a fight. More importantly it was one last remnant of the city she had grown up in.

=======

The third time the girls cornered Taija, she was starting to get quite annoyed, although she could grudgingly admire their persistence. Before they could say a word, she just said, "no," before turning to leave.

She paused when Egwene cried out, "wait!"

With a huff of irritation Taija stopped and turned back to face the girl.

"Not here T… Lady Alfreda, meet us at 8th bell in the lower galleries after dinner. It's important!"

Taija forced herself not to roll her eyes at the teenage drama. "Fine. But if you're wasting my time I'll make you regret it."

That night Taija made her way to the empty lower galleries, keeping a nervous watch around herself. She was fairly sure that Egwene wasn't a darkfriend, but not totally, and she really didn't know the Elayne girl.

She tried not to let her nervousness show on her face, but the empty columns felt threatening to her, moonlight playing between them and she was holding as much saidar as she safely could.

"Psst, Taija!" She jumped at the hiss and nearly cut a column in half with the Power.

"What? I'm here." Of course it was the two girls and she relaxed slightly.

"Yes, come along!" She was glad to see they looked as nervous as she felt. "Let's go into one of the classrooms so no one can see us."

Taija quickly followed them in and found a spot that left her back to a wall. At the same time she spun a web to ward against eavesdropping and laid it in place around the room. "So you've pulled me away from my evening, what do you want?" Her voice was flat.

Elayne piped up first, "we want you to teach us."

"I already said no. Several times."

This time Egwene spoke, "yes, but we can help you. We know you're hunting the Black Ajah." She whispered the last two words, "and we want to help fight for the Light!"

"You're what? 16? 17? Why on earth would I put you in that kind of danger?"

"Because you need us! I know you're some kind of operative for the Amyrlin, but you're… you're like a fish out of water. You get so many things wrong, no one would ever be fooled by you!" Elayne's words felt depressingly true.

"I'm not saying I am, but if I was an operative for your Amyrlin, shouldn't you be worried I'd tell her that the two of you've been bothering me and that you've been spreading word about me Egwene? I don't think you'd enjoy her reaction."

Egwene paled momentarily then rallied, "I don't think you're going to tell her though, are you?" She looked far too confident. "I don't know what you are, but I don't really think you work for her. Like Elayne said, you don't quite fit and you're certainly not respectful enough for that."

She had a point, Taija had considered telling Siuan, but then thought about all the times she had irritated or insulted her and decided fuck her. It wasn't like the girls were doing anything Taija couldn't deal with and Siuan could do with having her nose tweaked.

"Mmm perhaps, but all I'm hearing is time wasting. My time specifically. I already said I have nothing to teach you."

Elayne jumped in, sounding like she was just musing out loud. "You know that questions have been asked about you? At least two aes sedai asked if I've heard of a Lady Alfreda of Houndstooth. Then there's Elaida sedai, she's got a bit of a bee in her bonnet about a false aes sedai named Taija. She thinks she may even have murdered other aes sedai! She's been asking about Rand and the Two Rivers too…"

Wait Elayne knew Rand too? And Elaida? Egwene smiled, clearly trying to play good cop, "of course we don't believe any of that rubbish, but we really do want to help you if you can help us."

Taija wasn't even sure if they were actually trying to be clumsily helpful in a roundabout way or were just trying to blackmail her. It didn't matter. This needed to be nipped in the bud.

She put on your friendliest smile. "Alright, you'd like me to teach you?"

They both nodded eagerly. "Thank you Taija!"

"I'll teach you your first lesson right now. So. Observe." Taija took a breath, "first of all, you've both learnt enough that you can see the flows when a woman channels. Correct?"

Again they nodded.

"Good. " Taija drew hard on saidar, inverting webs as she formed them. In half a second she slammed shields between both girls and saidar, wrapped them in flows of air lifting them into the air and also grasped and lifted every desk in the room. "Tell me, do you see anything now?" Her tone was conversational.

"N no Taija," Elayne replied, sudden nervousness painted across her face, "I see nothing."

"Exactly." Taija's tone went from convivial to razor sharp. "You've both put yourself alone in a room at night with a channeler you don't know anything about and tried to clumsily blackmail her."

Egwene gasped, "No Taija! We would nev…"

Taija cut her off, "that's Taija sedai thank you very much. Unlike the sisters here I don't believe in corporal punishment, but I do believe in proper respect. Now as I was saying before you so rudely interrupted, you've left yourself completely at my mercy. Do you think there's anything you could do to stop me if I wanted to kill you?"

Both girls blanched.

"I could do it right now and leave no trace, observe." Taija moved one of the tables hanging in the air in front of them and directed heavy flows of earth, fire and spirit into it. Holding so many webs at once would have been a strain if she wasn't drawing through the angreal, but she wanted to make her point very firmly. The table flared briefly into white-hot fire before dissolving into dust which Taija whisked away with a simple web of air.

"That could just as easily have been both of you." After another moment of hanging there in the air, Taija allowed them to sink back to the ground and released her webs. "Now, what have you learnt from this?"

Both girls scrambled to answer. "Don't have meetings without backups in place?

"Don't cross you?"

"You're stronger than the Amyrlin!"

"Trust nobody."

"That you really do have a lot to teach us."

After a minute Taija stopped them, they really should have been more frightened by that, where was their sense of self preservation? "That'll do. Fine. I'll teach you, be here two days from now, same time same place." It was probably a terrible idea, but she was frustrated with the White Tower, Siuan pissed her off every time she tried to teach her anything and the girls would probably just keep bothering her if she didn't.

"Oh thank you Taija sedai! Thank you!" The girls started gushing and again Taija cut them off.

"Let me be clear, if you want me to teach you then you follow every order I give you. You don't try to go hunting for the Black Ajah, you're too young and they'll kill you without hesitating. You tell no one whatsoever about this and particularly not the Amyrlin."

Egwene protested, "not the Amyrlin?!"

At the same time Elayne demanded, "how can you say we're too young? You're at best ten years older than us!"

"Not the Amyrlin because if she wanted you to be taught she'd have told me or had someone teach you. As for my age, Elayne, I'm a lot older than I look. People weren't always foolish enough to inflict bindings on themselves. 8th bell. Two days."

With that statement Taija strode out of the room.