Silent Flight (Attn: Bella - Thread Roulette)

[Craig]

Zarayne

Dax's confidence (and convincing) had finally broke through Zarayne's defences. It had taken a number of months, but the Tairen had persuaded the Aielwoman to begin training in the Warder Yards. There hadn't been any one particular point that broke down that wall of reticence, but shame had taken a place amongst it. Hiding in a glade of the Gardens to practice was... dishonest in its own way. Zarayne wouldn't allow herself to be dishonest, even to herself. So now here she was, a white dress amongst a field of grey uniforms, practicing her forms with a wooden training sword in her grip.

If she thought convincing herself was the only issue she would face then she had been mistaken. Pale for an Aielwoman as she may be, there was no denying the woman's origins. One look at her face (or height) and another at the sword in her hands raised suspicious looks. Zarayne was well aware of other peoples' opinions about Aiel using swords. Well, she wasn't just Aiel; she was a novice and a daughter of a Far Dareis Mai. Either of those were justification enough to learn how to fight.

Ignoring the stares and fragments of gossip concerning herself, she moved from Ribbon in the Air into the Swallow Takes Flight, just as Dax had shown her. A soft smile was painted on her face at the thought of him. She liked the Gaidin, and he was good sport to look at too.

Weariness pressed through beyond thoughts of a roguish grin. Zarayne lowered her sword, then stumbled a few paces to a bench. She plopped down onto the seat with little of the legendary Aiel grace and precisely zero percent of the lady-like qualities an Aes Sedai was meant to possess. Sucking in air, the novice looked around at the others in the yard. Without much thought, she ended up staring at a nearby Gaidin. She was short even for a wetlander, but her motions were fluid. She seemed to epitomise the meaning of the term 'to dance' in either of its definitions.

[Bella]

It had been so very many years since a Ji Lysira had taken the katana lessons from a Ji Jip, but she still remembered them well. And fondly. She missed Jip, many times. He had been such a good friend through her youth, just as small and frightened as she was yet just as determined to see through his training and become Gaidin. And he had.

And she had. They had made it...but now she had no idea where he was, or what had become of him. It made her sad, when she thought of it, and unfortunately, she thought of him often when she trained.

Just like her bow, she had no desire to let her skills in any weapon slacken. She spent much time at the archery yard, and she also spent much time working with the sword. She flowed between positions and forms, remembering all that she had been taught and all that she had learned while "in the field." Nothing like real life and death battles to ingrain a thing.

After a time, she paused and lowered the weapon. She brushed an errant, sweaty strand of black hair back from her forehead and turned enough to happen to see a young woman watching her. Aiel, perhaps, if she had to guess.

'Hello,' she signed politely, figuring that either the woman would understand her or would at least recognize it as a gesture of greeting.

[Craig]

Zarayne

Zarayne blinked. It took her a moment to recognise the hand motion; it took her a moment to recognise it as a hand motion. "Hello." Such a simple phrase, but one she hadn't seen since coming to the Grey Tower. She doubted there were many ex-Maidens in Hama Valon, so it was twice as surprising to see a wetlander make the gesture.

'Hello', Zarayne signed back. Her hands moved as if she'd never stopped practicing the secret language of the Far Dareis Mai. As she stared at the Gaidin's slim face, the novice realised she was, well, staring. 'I am sorry, I did not mean to disturb you.' Except now she had. Moreover, she couldn't just look away to stop staring, because that was as good as dismissing the woman.

It was too late to go back. She signed again. 'I am Zarayne'. She had to carefully spell out her name in individual phonemes.

[Bella]

It happened so infrequently that Lysira met others who could speak to her that she didn't mind the pause in her routine in the least. She smiled and inclined her head slightly, taking in the girl's look. Aiel, to venture an educated guess, which would explain the fact that she did understand. There was likely to be some differences in the signs, but for the most part, she could talk to her without help.

'I am Lysira,' she returned, spelling her name and not bothering to add the "Gaidin" to it because she thought that would be fairly obvious. If she needed to make a correction, she would. 'You did not disturb me. I was due for a break anyways.' She paused and smiled faintly again, if wryly this time. 'And it's a rare pleasure to meet another who signs.'

She used her hands for something else for a moment, brushing her hair back off her face and rolling her shoulders. 'Would you mind if I joined you?' she asked, gesturing at the bench.

[Craig]

[font=Macondo name=Macondo] Zarayne [/font]

Zarayne considered the request for a mere moment before nodding in acceptance. 'Please, you are welcome' was how she phrased her response. 'I have not conversed like this since arriving at the Grey Tower.'.

With Lysira now sat beside her, the novice wasn't sure whether to continue the conversation in hand-talk or not. She chose the route of discretion. 'I thought only Far Dareis Mai knew how to converse in this fashion.' Holding back from asking the obvious question, Zarayne quickly cast a glance around them, in case they had attracted onlookers.

A man in a black coat locked eyes onto Zarayne from the edge of the Training Yards. Before she knew it, the man was sprinting towards her. He was unfamiliar to her, yet he was clearly both a Dedicated from the silver sword on his collar and Shienaran from the topknot that lashed wildly behind him. She had little time to think of a response to his sudden burst of speed. Zarayne rose back up onto tired legs and got ready to dance. The man skidded to a halt before them with a distinctive lack of grace. Staggered to a halt was a better way of phrasing his abrupt deceleration.

"I did it!" he exclaimed with wide, fevered eyes. "I need you to come and bear witness, so I can present my findings to the M'Hael." His gaze shifted from Zarayne onto Lysira. "Gaidin, please, I must show you. You can be my testimony to the M'Hael, to prove I'm not lying."

Zarayne frowned when the Dedicated slid his focus off from her. She tried to reclaim some of his attention by asking the obvious. "What are we bearing witness to?"

"I rediscovered Flying! I can Fly!"

[Bella]

Lysira was on her feet without conscious thought as soon as her peripheral senses took note of the young man rushing towards them. She was smaller than the Novice by over a head, but that didn't stop the diminutive Gaidin from immediately positioning herself between the potential danger and the girl--both Gaidin and mother pushed her to it.

However, he wasn't a threat after all...at least not in a physical sense. Maybe to sanity.

"I can Fly!"

The words were spoken and Lysira had the briefest flashback. Her son Cade, eight years old, standing on the second story balcony of their Cairhienen home, overlooking the garden. "Mama! Mama! I can fly!" he exclaimed. She wanted to cry out and tell him to stop, but of course she couldn't. He wasn't looking at her so he didn't see the look on her face.

With just a split second, she had rushed forward...just in time for her dark-haired boy to try to fly. Which happened...for a split second, then it was just crashing. His small mother caught him, but it wasn't a happy occasion for either of them and both ended up laid up for a time--he with a broken arm and she with busted ribs, and no channelers nearby to Heal.

This boy was not Cade, but he had that same look in his eye and she felt sure that she was about to get a broken rib again...

'And just how did you come by this discovery?' she signed. The Dedicated blinked with confusion at her moving hands, his gaze swinging the woman who had spoken a moment ago.

[Craig]

[font=Macondo name=Macondo] Zarayne [/font]

Zarayne was briefly confused by Lysira's hand-talk. It seemed to be directed towards the Dedicated, but the man clearly did not understand the gestures. The gaze of the Dedicated shifted onto the novice, and only then did things slide together in her mind.

The Aiel did her best to sound commanding, like all Gaidin she had encountered were. "Lysira Gaidin is asking how you came upon this discovery," she interpreted. She wasn't sure whether adding in her own curiosity was appropriate or not, so she remained silent on that front. The Gaidin had authority over both of them, so she could call for her input if required.

"I was in the Band of Brothers last night when I discovered it," the Shienaran proclaimed. "I was standing atop a table, and then I stepped off it. But I didn't fall! Soon I was whizzing around the common room. It was spectacular! But I want to try it again in front of everyone. I thought I could step off the balcony in the Warder Hall, or one of the high perches along the outside of the Tower."

Zarayne's mind boggled at the concept of... flying? It didn't sound like he was talking of the flight of a normal bird. Did he mean he could hover around like a hummingbird? Surely not. Before she knew it, she was turning thoughts into words.

"With the Power," he explained. "I can use saidin to fly. Please, I must show you! The First Seeker will be thrilled, as will the Amyrlin and the M'Hael. Oh, and the Mistress of Arms," he added as an afterthought with a glance toward Lysira.

[Bella]

Oh, this was promising.

Lysira listened to the young man as he rambled and she worked very, very hard to keep that stone-like Gaidin expression that she had been so well trained in over the decades. He had been in the Band of Brothers, of course he had. She wondered just how much betting may have been involved on top of clearly too much liquor.

Since the boy couldn't understand her, she glanced at the Novice with a faint apologetic smile that the girl was suddenly wrapped up into the role of temporary translator.

'Would you ask him just how much he had to drink last night?' She was Gaidin and the boy was still a student, so she wasn't overly worried about being especially tactful. In fact, she rarely was worried about that, though the mute thing tended to force her into more diplomacy than she might have otherwise.

After the question was relayed, he looked affronted. "I wasn't drunk!" he exclaimed and then seemed to realize who he was talking to. "I mean, I wasn't drinking that much, Gaidin. I know what happened, and now I need to show everyone."

Lysira considered asking if he was still drinking, but chose not to. It wouldn't do much good.

'Perhaps you should try it from a lower height then,' she said. She knew that she could simply tell him not to, but the mother mingled in her mind with the Gaidin and the idea that maybe if he tried and then failed, he would reconsider future attempts. She could mitigate the damage in the process.

[Craig]

[font=Macondo name=Macondo] Zarayne [/font]

"Lysira Gaidin says you should try from a lower height," Zarayne relied. Really, you're going to let him jump? If this Dedicated was telling the truth and had rediscovered a lost Talent, this was going to be miraculous. But on the other side of the rock was the image of the Shienaran falling to his death, or at least dealing himself serious injury.

The Aiel bit down on her lower lip. She didn't like where this was potentially heading. "Can't you just fly here and now?" she asked. "Why do you need to launch yourself off of anything? You were just on a table before." Assuming he had been on a table. Assuming he had flown. She wasn't sure how she was even considering this as an option.

For a brief second, Zarayne thought that her bout of common sense had won through. Then the Dedicated's glassy eyes swung back down to Lysira. "From the roof of the Soldiers' Quarters! Then everyone can see." Without pause he turned around and ran -- maybe staggered was more accurate -- back towards the Tower.

"Um..." The novice turned to Lysira, then signed. 'Do we follow him? Could I call for someone?' She had no idea what was happening any more.

[Bella]

Lysira watched him run off with a sigh that came from her whole body. Idiot, she thought uncharitably.

'Please go fetch a Yellow,' she signed simply and then took off. She was small, lithe, well trained and honed. Her legs may have been shorter than the Dedicated's, and the Novice's, but she was fast. She always had been. As a girl on her own in the world, forever on the run, she had to be. It had not going away. Becoming a warder just made it better.

Plus, the man was more staggering than running. She needed the Novice to get the Yellow because she could speak to them more easily, while if anyone was going to tackle someone, it would be her.

He was a channeler and that didn't go amiss, but she knew that he wasn't all there and she trusted her reflexes. And a Yellow could fix whatever she needed to do to him in the process. What a day to not have her bow immediately on hand, though. If she had, she would have just shot him in the foot and that would be that.

The diminutive Gaidin gained on him quickly and amid a few onlookers who turned in time just to realize the show about to take place, she leaped and landed on the man's back. She may have been small, but that was still a sizable weight to careen into you. They both went to the ground, him with a mouthful of dirt and her knee in his back.

Maybe he had learned how to Fly, or maybe not. She was sure not going to let him jump off a damn building. Now to make sure he didn't try anything else stupid before the Novice found that Yellow...