"I think it's time you were freed from this glass tower, Farah."
She stepped through the doorway leading out of the Indigo Hall into the bright sunlight. She squinted against the harsh glare, but never raised a hand to provide shade. She felt leaden, and making her arms do anything beyond hang limply at her side was too much of an effort.
Figures approached her as she walked along the path towards the Great Serpent building. Two men, both with the dragon pin along their collars, strode briskly in the middle of the road. Farah was slowly moving in the opposite direction, also unwittingly in the middle of the road. Arrogance, bravado, a sense of superiority: any of those attributes that could be assigned to the two Asha'man caused them to impact with the white-dressed Domani. She stopped dead as the two men took a faltering step back. "What do you think you are doing, child?" one of the Asha'man asked.
For the first time in a number of years, Farah was noticed.
She looked at the man straight in the eyes. He had a young face; he wasn't Oathsworn. The Tower had changed in her time here, and that was not one of the improvements. Seeing someone so young-looking glaring at her, as if she was some rat in a gutter, fired up the engines of passion within her.
"You watch where you're going," she snapped back viciously. Shock flittered over the Asha'man's face. Maybe he was actually young, and not merely unsworn. Farah didn't wait for an answer. She moved around them, holding her chin high.
"Whatever you're about to say, forestall it," a woman's voice said behind her. Farah resisted the urge to glance over her shoulder to find out if that was directed towards her. Unhappy mutterings from the two Asha'man seemed to answer that question.
Farah walked the rest of the way to the Mistress of Novices' office with an air of determination. She wanted another run-in with some haughty full rank, just to see that stunned look again. She wanted the world to notice her.
The Mistress of Novices' door received a firm knock when Farah arrived. There were two other novices waiting along the seats by the doorway, but neither protested at having their punishments delayed. Farah stood waited, one fist clenched around the letter that Elia Sedai had written for her. The letter that said she was no longer a novice of the Grey Tower. The letter that said she was free to... what?