Battle Tactics – Tahmelah!!

Staring at himself in the mirror, Ramaes wasn’t sure if he wanted to even bother attending the Sunday Festival. Yes, it was a chance to relax, and a possible chance to meet other novices. It was a rare evening of freedom in the midst of so many days of work and study. But, even as the sounds of music and laughter drifted through his tiny window, Ramaes still found himself unable to decide. There would be people from every section of the White Tower, and the delegation that the Black Tower had sent would likely be there as well. He doubted, however, that this Sunday would be like any other he had attended in his youth, in Tear.

Frowning, running his fingers uselessly through the mop of black, curly hair that crowned his head, Ramaes realized that he had already decided to go.

“What, are you afraid of a few girls, Ramaes?” That was the novice who he shared a room with – the White Tower had decided that all the male novices would be bunked in pairs, if possible. Ramaes was sure the reasoning behind it had something to do with feeling more like he was a part of the White Tower, rather than a recent change in policies that had stood for thousands of years.

He turned away from the bubbled, chipped plate of highly-polished metal that served as a mirror. One day, he would own a mirror like those he had seen in other parts of the White Tower – a real mirror, that gave a true reflection. He had seen his own reflection clearly only a handful of times in his life, so he had a vague idea of what he looked like, and he was pretty sure it wasn’t anything a girl would be interested in.

“No.” He said, a little more curtly than he had intended to, and the other boy grinned.

“Ha! You know, ignoring them will just make them believe you’re really interested, Ramaes. You know how girls can be.” Ramaes grimaced, turning away from his bunkmate again. The novice – his name was Borinas – was almost always going on about the wide variety of information he had regarding girls. Ramaes was willing to believe about half of what the novice said, and only half of that without doubt. Still, he did sort of know how girls could be, and Borinas was right in one sense – ignoring girls never, ever made them leave you alone. In fact, it tended to do the opposite.

“Fine, fine. I’ll go.” He grunted, straightening his collar one last time. “I’ll never hear the end of it if I don’t, and I really don’t want to listen to you blather on about everything I missed for the next two weeks.” He knew he sounded sour and irritated, but he couldn’t help it. He had still not managed to fully trust the denizens of the White Tower, male or female. Old habits died hard.

“Don’t worry!” Borinas said, altogether too cheerful. “I’ll still tell you everything you missed, since you’re probably going to sulk in a corner for the next few hours anyway.” Ramaes snorted, glaring at his own reflection.

“If you actually dance with someone, I’ll wash your ‘whites for a week.” Borinas said, a sly little smile touching his lips. “And if you don’t, you get to wash mine.” Ramaes glanced at him, baring his teeth in something resembling a grin.

“Deal.”

---

Half-an-hour later, Ramaes was beginning to suspect that he would be the one washing novice whites. The Hall was enormous, and as filled with people as it was decoration. Everywhere Ramaes looked he could pick out other novices – they were the only people in pure white, after all. There were more girls than he remembered noticing during classes and at meal times, but that didn’t really surprise him. There were new novices coming to the White Tower almost daily, and he couldn’t be expected to keep up with them all.

The first (and only) one he really recognized was Corvin, the novice he had first met crawling around in the gardens. That was not a memory he would soon forget, and he guessed that Corvin’s was not a face he would forget, either. However, Corvin was the only novice besides Borinas (who was already dancing) that he truly recognized. A few faces seemed familiar to him – he had probably had chores or classes with a goodly number of the novices here – but there were more strangers than anything else.

Sighing, Ramaes pried himself out of the corner that he had magically wedged himself into almost immediately, cursing Borinas under his breath. He waded into the crowd, heedless of the fact that he was sort of elbowing his way through rather than being ‘polite’. He passed by a number of Aes Sedai as he did so, and though he was sure he would hear about his abruptness later, they ignored him for the time being, focused as they were on networking with the Black Tower’s delegation.

He really had no direction in mind – he was fairly sure that he would pop out on the far side of the crowd eventually, and the novice hadn’t quite figured out what he would do after that. Certainly, he would wait a minute or two before barging his way back through the throng. Yes, that much was certain.

He was big enough that people started to get out of his way a half-step before he trampled them, which was a mixed blessing. It meant that Ramaes the novice had a small bubble of space around him at all times. It also meant that he was closing in on the far side of the hall a lot quicker than he would have liked. Scowling, he glared at nothing in particular, and remained completely oblivious to the stares that were following him across the room – many belonging to those girls he was so mystified by.

He had come to a stop, maybe a dozen feet from the edge of the milling crowd. A small wall of novices (most of them female) stood between him and the relative safety of the tables that were crowded up against one wall, laden with so much food that they were nearly groaning.

At some point, he had decided that he could avoid talking to anyone if he simply spent the entire time with some sort of food or drink in his mouth. It didn’t even cross his mind that he probably couldn’t eat that much food – or at least, it hadn’t yet.

But there was this human wall of female novices that he had to deal with, first.

He studied them the way a man might study a battlefield, trying to decide which one was the most likely to let him pass. Sadly, there weren’t friendly forces in that battlefield –any male novice would have let him through immediately, knowing his tribulation. On the other hand, the only male novice Ramaes knew that didn’t also avoid female novices like the plague was Borinas, and he had long ago vanished from sight.

“Bloody buttered onions.” He murmured, and wondered if he could scowl his way through the line. Probably not. Women seemed notoriously immune to scowls, at least when they came from men.

Saldaean, Tinker, Tairen, Domani, and one of the Seafolk. Five girls, all eyeing him as if he were their next meal — or at least that was how he perceived it. The Tairen might let him through just because they shared a homeland, but he doubted it. She was definitely looking at him as if he were something shiny that had just landed in her lap out of the clear blue sky. He might be able to bargain with the Tinker or the Atha’an Miere, but he doubted he would get the better end of the deal. That left the Domani and the Saldaean. The Domani would be his best bet, but Ramaes was fairly sure that he stood absolutely no chance in a game of wits against the girl, even if she was a few years younger than he was. Which left the Saldaean.

Well, at least I know what to do with a fiery temperament.He thought, and grinned. Four sets of eyes lit up at that grin – which of course the novice was completely oblivious to. The other eyes – emerald-hard and emerald-green, narrowed to slits and regarded him with suspicion.

Drawing a deep breath, and dredging up all the bits of charm he had been told he was in possession of, Ramaes approached the Saldaean, neatly placing his back to the other four girls, who had started to move almost as soon as he had.

He bowed, still grinning like a fool, and offered the suspicious-eyed girl one hand.

“Want to run away with me?” If you listened hard enough, you could just hear the shine coming off his teeth.