Work is A Necessary Evil to be Avoided

Lulu had a talent for disappearing.  Today, she'd managed to somehow fade out of a group of Novices who were sent to muck out the stables.  She hadn't made any friends yet, so no one would really notice that she was gone, or so she hoped.  Even if they did, she thought that some time to herself would be worth the punishment.

She'd wandered around the grounds of the Tower instead, looking purposeful if she saw any Aes Sedai, who barely deigned to notice her unless they might have work that needed doing.  She was beginning to suspect that this whole novice thing was just a ruse that the Aes Sedai used to lure in unsuspecting girls who then spent the best years of their lives scrubbing pots and folding laundry.  Since all of the novices were young, she hadn't yet figured out what they did with them when they got older, but she was sure it was something vile.

She'd settled in part of the gardens, where the bushes and trees were sculptured, but beautifully, and there a perfect little shady spot just right for a girl to curl her back up against a tree and while away an afternoon with her thoughts.  And a book – she'd filched this from her roommate's bedside table (yes, she'd gotten one the very next day after her arrival, to her dismay) and while it was a little dry and boring (it was "A History of Traveling" by some long-dead Aes Sedai), it was better than nothing.  So she read, mindful of the sun's passing, for she might want to miss chores, but she certainly did not want to be late for supper!