MRP – In the Gardens

Sadrok had been visiting Gideon Gaidin now every morning since he had begun his first lessons on Fire, at Cassandra Sedai’s instruction. He liked her warder well enough, though he had been a bit disappointed that his idea of being allowed to train with him wasn’t an option as a novice.. Though Gideon had suggested that a thorough workout every morning would leave his muscles aching – for a while that had been enough to let him Channel. He hadn’t lost his temper in weeks now, though there were many occasions where he’d all but wished he had, usually involving a fellow Novice deciding to prank him because he never got into any trouble on his own.

The more he talked with Gideon, the less he thought that pain itself was his Bar and the more he found himself walking around with his head in the clouds while thinking about it. For all the thought he put into it, for all the reason for his Bar must have been staring him in the face, it eluded him. Eventually his body grew used to the exercise, and it was no longer enough for him to work around his Bar to simply exhaust himself of a morning. He continued with the exercise though, it had become as much a part of his daily routine now as his chores, though there were some days when he would put it off in favor of getting a little more sleep than he normally would.

Sadrok hadn’t really made many friends among the other male Novices, they all seemed to prefer to keep their own company from what he saw. It didn’t make much sense to him when he thought about it, but to be honest with himself he had to admit he didn’t really want to be friends with the other Novices. The men and young boys avoided one another as if they could lessen the stigma of being a male who could channel that way. What was there to lessen? It’s not like they had the choice about whether they could channel or not, was it?

From what he could tell, he and the other male novices in the Tower were there because they either had already started Channeling before coming, or had been found by Aes Sedai or Asha’man and been brought here because they would channel eventually regardless of whether they wanted to or not. Many of the Aes Sedai and Accepted that dislike the male novices had often called him and others like him a Wilder, and it certainly was not meant as a compliment.

So it was that he found himself sitting in the Reflection Gardens during his free time of a morning, rather than doing his usual exercises around the Training Grounds, wrapped firmly in the Void as he contemplated saidin, his Bar, his family’s history with the Tower, and his own past. His mother had trained here as a Novice herself, but had been put out of the Tower when she couldn’t reach Acceptance. What that really entailed, he didn’t quite have a clue about, but he imagined he would find out sooner or later. It didn’t really matter right now either, it had nothing to do with his bar, so he put his family’s history with the Tower out of his mind for now.