I’m Not With Them
Novice Medaea sur Yvaine, Written by Taryn
Posted on Wed, Sep 1, 2010 11:10 am
Medaea glanced down at her sheaf of papers and frowned at her notes—for a tall, elegant and nobly raised woman her handwriting reflected none of her upbringing. Spindly, a little wild, it was nothing of the elegant writing style that she’d been taught and in truth she’d never had much patience to form the letters slowly. Thoughts generally tumbled from her head to the paper faster than she could keep up and even writing that started out well-formed at the top of the page ended in the same scrawl by the bottom. “Looking over your notes from Nisca Sedai, Medaea?”
Her hands smoothly gathered them together and rolled them up into the script before Elowen could see—not that the girl would have been interested in what she thought were notes from a class on Ebou Dari culture. “There are certainly some intricacies in Ebou Dar, isn’t there? Writing it down hardly lets you make sense of it any more, either.”
The notes were anything but from a class and were instead a compilation of pieces of knowledge she had either overheard or had related to her by Novices, Trainees and servants alike. She wondered what the Mistress of Novices or any other Aes Sedai for that matter, would think of a Novice doing what she was doing. But knowing that Novice Keina had been seen sneaking off with a male Novice or that the most recent Trainee to come to the Grounds was rumored to be running from an angry father—those things could be used at any time as commodities in the White Tower. Without a ring or even Shawl, Medaea had to use information as her currency and the notes she carried with her among her regular notes were like gold to her.
Rising, Elowen looked at her in surprise, then to the half-eaten bowl of porridge that Medaea had forgotten about. “I have a channeling lesson very soon.” Regretfully, she took another bite of the porridge and dropped it off at a waiting Novice.
“I heard that the Mistress of Novices will be teaching it, boy doesn’t that make you want to behave the whole time!” Elowen shook her blonde head and smiled. “But you never get in trouble, so you don’t have to worry do you?”
“I get in trouble plenty, Elowen.” Medaea snapped. And over the silliest of things. Talking with the servants during her free time to see how their families were faring. Saving some of her food for some of the urchins who sometimes oozed up to the square in front of the Tower. Picking a flower from the Gardens to give as a nameday gift to one of the younger Novices feeling scared and far from home. It was the most inane of things that she had done as a Lady in Mayene and made no sense to her. When you are Aes Sedai, Medaea, you can look after those less fortunate, but for now you must focus on your studies.
Elowen shrugged off Medaea’s temper and left her to make her way to the Gardens. From the corner of her eye, she noticed a small group of girls arriving for the lesson from the direction of the Training Grounds, their eyes wide and dreamy as they seemed to chatter over which one would be their Warder when they were raised. Refraining from rolling her eyes, she arrived into the disarray of the location of their lesson. It was almost barren compared to the lush Gardens they had just traveled through. Candance seemed to be in conversation with the Asha’man from the distance and as she approached the duo, their conversation quieted.
Dropping into a curtsey, she rose when the Aes Sedai nodded her head, and then there was the sound. Giggles. Light, it was a grating and immature sound that reached her ears and she tried to smooth her face of the emotion, but Medaea knew her countenance probably mirrored her irritation. They continued with the sound in spurts while others arrived to the lesson as well and then Candance Sedai cut it off when she announced the beginning of the lesson and instructed their introductions.
Gliding forward, Medaea was the first to introduce herself as she dropped into a curtsey. “I am Novice Medaea sur Yvaine of Mayene, Asha’man Corbin. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.” There. At least she could separate herself from that gaggle of giggling twits.
In reply to Channelling Lesson: Earth[show]/[hide]
Deftly spinning threads of Air while her hands remained folded at her sides, Candance pulled the chests up from the cart that they had been piled into and moved them, one at a time, so that they were sitting on the ground behind her, lined up in a straight line, equidistant from each other. Many years ago Candance Melhir had realised that she was a precise woman, who liked things kept in a neat and orderly fashion, and now she took pride in living up to her own expectations. It was best to be organised, she felt, and she liked that order to be represented in all aspects of her life.
That done, Candance looked out around the area, checking that everything else was as she wanted it. She was in the Corner Garden of the White Tower grounds, one that was currently being remodelled and landscaped, and the labourers were working hard at it. To the Mistress of Novices, the opportunity had been too good a one to pass up, and she had requested that the labourers let her know when they reached this stage so that she could use it to teach a lesson to the novices. They had agreed, and liked the idea of a day off from their work, which Candance had personally suggested to Melina Sedai for their help.
The garden certainly did not look as it once had when Candance had been a novice; the trees which had grown so large that they were a threat to the structure of the White Tower if they came down in the latest storm were now removed, leaving a large depression in the soil where their root systems had once been. All of the turf had been torn up, and all of the flowers from the flowerbeds had been pulled out. What was left was a large empty field of soil, a brilliant contrast to the surrounding gardens that seemed to be exploding with green. Candance already knew from her own testing that the soil here ran deep, as deep as they would need.
Yes, she had been fortunate with the timing of the landscaping of this garden; it would serve her purposes well.
Looking up at the sun, Candance realised that her students would be arriving soon, which made her wonder where her male counterpart was.
“Where is he?” she mused out loud.
As if summoned by her words, Asha’man Colbin shouted out his greeting to her as he turned a corner into her view from the Training Grounds. Had she not known the man’s tendency to get caught practicing with the blades with the Warders, she would have wondered why he was coming from that direction, but she didn’t need to see the welts on his bare chest to know what he’d been doing.
Drawing up closer to her as he pulled his black coat back on, doing up his buttons quickly, Colbin flashed her a friendly smile and ruffled his dark hair happily. His dark Cairhienin colouring was almost at a contrast to her own greying hair, and his small, petite face would have looked decidedly odd if it had her bold, prominent Saldaean nose or upturned, green eyes.
“Good morning, Candance Sedai,” he said happily, offering her another smile. He was one of the more polite Asha’man currently residing in the White Tower, who seemed genuinely interested in learning more about the ways of the White Tower in contrast to the ways he had been trained in at the Black Tower, as well as the ways of the Warder. She had often thought that his smile was infectious, and he seemed to flash it around to whoever caught his eye. Asha’man Corbin was a genuinely friendly man.
“Good morning,” she replied amicably, “you have been in the Training Grounds?”
“I have! These Warders of yours fight with a fierceness not many in the Black Tower could rival, they’ve certainly been able to teach me a thing or two. I haven’t felt such the keen sting of bruises when I shift in my sleep since I as an un-pinned soldier years ago, still trying to work out how to heat up my meals and washing water!”
As if to prove his point he stretched, reaching his arms up towards the sky, and winced noticeably, flashing her a sheepish smile after he’d returned back to his normal stance. Despite his friendly nature, the man possessed a certain grace of danger, his body held loose as if he was constantly ready for anything. It was something all the Asha’man seemed to have: an air of danger that followed them around no matter how they smiled.
“I’m glad that they’re keeping you on your toes.”
“Yes, you could say that they are definitely doing that!”
“The novices will be here soon,” Candance said, and, once again, as if summoned by her words, the first splash of white against the green gardens appeared, followed by several others. Candance and Corbin stood together and watched as the cluster – a group of giggling girls who had also come from the same direction as Corbin drew closer. As they drew closer, they were able to see that one of the girls was blushing a furious crimson and was the source of the other girls’ giggles and Candance felt her face steel – what had the girls been doing in the Training Grounds?
Upon realising that they were being watched both by the Asha’man and the Mistress of Novices, both of who were watching them quietly, with emotionless faces, the girls quietened (barely managing to stifle their giggles) and scurried up to them quickly, dropping into curtseys once they stood in front of them. They remained down in the curtseys slightly longer than they normally would have, and Candance left it unsaid that they were trying to stifle their giggles once again.
“Good morning, girls,” Candance said smoothly once they had pulled themselves up, “I trust you came straight from your morning meal to this lesson–” she did not need their blushes to tell her otherwise “–kindly introduce yourselves for the sake of Asha’man Corbin. You’re the first ones here, so we’ll begin shortly.”
OOC: Welcome to Novice Earth! =D Post at least 400 words as an introduction and have your novice introduce themselves to Asha’man Corbin. If you have any questions, please email me. =) We’ll continue with this lesson on the 8th.
–Jeremy
