Dealing with Consequences

The day following the Sunday Festival found Perie in the infirmary, as usual. The day after a festival was normally fraught with hangovers, sleep deprivation and upset stomachs, all common complaints that were a frustration to Perie, since they were all self-inflicted. Perie had little patience for what she considered downright stupidity, yet many Aes Sedai managed to land in the infirmary every time there was some sort of celebration. Many of the Yellow sisters would also suffer from one or more of the forms of self-indulgence, so Perie usually took it upon herself to handle the infirmary for the day, and for all that it was busy, she could usually manage it with just Daeric’s help. Today would be a nice change, though.

Though Perie had stayed up very late the night before, she was still awake before first light that morning. She and Daeric only needed a few hours of sleep each night, something she suspected had to do with their advanced age. Regardless of the reason, Perie was thankful because it meant that she was in the infirmary before the novices arrived, with three hot breakfasts under a keeping waiting on a table. The young woman from Tar Valon was still sleeping, the ward Perie had placed around her the night before to alert her if the woman went into labour still intact. In Perie’s expert opinion, she felt it would be another three days before the woman’s contractions started, but she had been wrong before. Hopefully it wouldn’t happen today; Perie had too much on her plate to deal with as it was.

Bustling about the infirmary, she pulled open the drapes to let light in – when the sun rose – and smoothed the covers on the empty beds. The room was spotless, which was to be expected, and Perie found herself, surprisingly, at loose ends. She had been careful not to wake Daeric when she got up and left, figuring he could use a lie-in. Now that she was by herself in the infirmary waiting for the novices – or other patients – she was strangely lonely. Daeric had become her shadow these past twenty-odd years, and when he wasn’t around, she noticed it.

She prepared herself a mug of tea, and then went to stand by one of the eastern-facing windows, gazing out over the city and beyond that, the river. The sky was just beginning to lighten, turning the city into a mass of shapeless dark lumps, the streets a lighter shade of dark, breaking up the lumps into seemingly random patterns. As the sky lightened, Perie was better able to distinguish individual buildings, and past the city one of the bridges, which glimmered as though it were lit from within. She knew that it was just a trick of the light, but a beautiful trick it was.

Gazing out the window, Perie felt two things simultaneously: one was the approach of her warder, the other a woman who could channel. Turning back to the room, Perie found that Sadrok and Brileia had arrived, and were standing just inside the doorway, looking around warily. Brileia, Perie was happy to see, was standing firmly on both feet, though the Aes Sedai could see the bandage rising above her slipper and disappearing into her skirts. The Fire and Water weave she had woven was still there, Perie noted, though it likely wasn’t generating as much heat, as it had faded quite a bit over the night. No bother, since that was expected; Perie was just surprised to see it still intact after so long.

“Well then,” she said briskly, making both novices jump. “Brileia, you hop up on this bed here,” Perie indicated the one closest to the door, “and Sadrok, you get a bowl of water and the jars of Ground Ivy, Five-Finger and Sunburst root.”

After examining Brileia’s ankle, Perie was satisfied that it didn’t need any Healing, and didn’t seem to be paining the girl at all, which the girl confirmed. “I’ll just wrap it up again, because you’ll need the support, and the herbs can only help.” Once again, Perie soaked the bandages in the herb water, but didn’t bother with the poultice. This was probably overkill, but since Brileia was going to be on her feet all day, better safe than sorry. Perie directed Sadrok to put the jars of herbs away properly while she disposed of the bowl of water, and sent Brileia to the table where breakfast waited. A fourth tray had appeared next to the other three, with Daeric sitting patiently before it.

“Good morning,” Perie said to Daeric, squeezing his shoulder and dropping a kiss on the top of his balding head. Once the four were seated, Perie removed the keepings and they all dug into the very hearty breakfasts placed before them. Brileia and Sadrok seemed surprised at what was available for them, so Perie enlightened them, lest they think they were being rewarded.

“You two are going to be very busy today, and you will need a good meal to start off with. Lunch will be the same, as you will be burning a lot of energy.” Brileia stared at Perie, eyes wide, but Sadrok merely looked resigned, swallowing heavily before looking down at his tray again.

“Now,” Perie continued, laying down her spoon, “I believe I mentioned last night that as you both disobeyed me, you had earned a penance. Well, after you left I had a visit from Candance Sedai, who informed me of at least part of the activities that led to your return to the infirmary, and I must say, I am quite disappointed in the pair of you. You, Sadrok, are lucky that we are accepting men at the White Tower now, so that you may learn to safely channel without being brainwashed into being a weapon for that Dragon Reborn creature. That does not give you leave, however, to treat the Tower as though it is your home village, where you can do as you please and dally with the girls. You are here to learn and to work. That is all. I can appreciate wanting to learn all the time and practice channelling whenever you want, but we have rules in place for your own protection, and we expect those rules to be obeyed at all times. The first rule a novice learns is to never channel unsupervised, yet you did so twice last night, and from what Candance told me, there was not a good enough reason either time. For the rest of your time as a novice, youwill not channel unsupervised, have I made myself clear?  As for you, young lady, I have been to Saldaea and I know exactly how they raise their young women, and they are not raised to break rules and kiss whichever men they please. Like I told Sadrok, you are here to learn and work; everything else come secondary to that. Before men were allowed in the Tower there was no canoodling allowed for novices or Accepted, and the rules have stayed the same even with men here. Men coming to the White Tower is a distraction to the girls, and vice versa, and you will never reach Aes Sedai if you allow yourself to be distracted like this.

“Having said that, your original penance was fairly simple: you would help me prepare remedies for common complaints that occur after festivals for part of the morning. Now, however, Candance Sedai and I agree that you need a stronger punishment, so instead you will be spending the entire day here, in the infirmary, assisting me. Your lessons have been cancelled, I have already sent your teachers notes, and your chores will have to be dealt with another day. There will be no channelling at all, and Sadrok, there is a ter’angreal here which indicated when a man in this room channels, so if that is triggered, you had better have a good explanation. When you are finished, which will be after dinner, you will visit Candance Sedai’s office where you will each receive a switching and then spend the rest of the night in your room, contemplating your punishment, why such a punishment was warranted and what you have learned from this, if anything.

“Sadrok, you will have Daeric supervising you, since he knows almost as much as I do about the infirmary, and Brileia, I will be supervising you. Now finish your breakfasts because now that the sun has risen it will start getting busy in here.”

OOC: Alrighty you two, I’m looking for minimum of 4 posts of 500 words each but you can write more if you want. I’ve emailed you with details for what’s expected and what you can do. Feel free to write in a string together or two separate ones under this one, but keep one thing in mind: based on what you’re being punished for, you’ll be separated as much as possible. Good luck and have fun!