The Why of It [Attn: Elia Darrow Sedai]

[Bella]

There wasn't much that Andraste sought out here in the Grey Tower. There really was no need to, seeing as how so much of it was busy seeking her out. Lessons and chores and meals and groups and gatherings... It seemed like every moment of her day was scheduled for her, which was a disconcerting change of pace from her life on the road.

In the before time, as she felt it to be in her mind, the three of them would simply pursue whatever seemed best at the time. If they chose to stop, they stopped. If they wished to pursue something, they did so.

Her new lack of freedom chafed, but there was at least something she could do. That something was what brought her to the halls of the Indigo Ajah on a meeting with an Aes Sedai of that calling. She had simply placed a request for someone to speak with, to teach her, and been assigned a time and place during one of the few moments of her day where it could be fit.

Andra needed to understand what had happened to her life. The channeling was one thing, but that was easier to comprehend, but it was the death of Bel and Chandra that led her to this door. She wanted to understand more about the...thing, the stupid object, that shed the blood of the life she once had on that tile floor and ended up with her here.

Standing outside the door, she took a soft steeling breath and knocked. When she heard the call to enter, she stepped inside and curtseyed in the way she had been impressed upon to do. "Aes Sedai," she greeted respectfully. The extent of the deference she was forced to in this place also chafed, but she could play her role...as she had to.

[Craig]

Elia Darrow

The former Mistress of Novices' apartments were one of the smallest in the Grey Tower. One narrow wedge-shaped room, which fit in four chairs centred around a low table at the far end, and had only a tea stand as its other decoration, served as Elia Sedai's living room. A doorway mid-way along the wall led to her bedroom, which led further onto into a washing-come-changing room. All told it was about half the size of most classrooms, and it was really beginning to grate on the sister's nerves.

Elia closed her eyes as she lay on her chaise longue, the only piece of furnishing in the living room that hadn't been the previous occupant's. Behind the lids of her eyes, she could envisage being in an opulent palace, resting on a patio overlooking grand gardens and endless fields beyond. It was all a fantasy, beyond any expectation of reward she thought likely from the Great Lord, but it allowed her to tolerate the chafing oppression of the Grey Tower a little better.

And to think how hard I worked to become Aes Sedai. She had comfortably surpassed that goal, and there was little else within the walls of Hama Valon that she truly desired. Just the Amyrlin Seat. That would happen, one day. If need be, she would make it happen.

Elia opened her eyes and returned to the present. She was in her high-collared blue Cairhienin dress today, the least flattering and least revealing piece of her wardrobe. The netting of gold chains and moonstones sat arrayed in her shoulder-length hair, with the glass rose ang'real sat behind her ear. She was beautiful, even if there was no-one here but herself to remind her of that fact.

The Shienaran rose to her feet, smoothing out the wrinkles from her dress just as the knock at the door came. A slight smirk crossed the Elia's face. One... two... three... four...

"Enter," she called, wiping the smirk away and adopting the regal cool of an Aes Sedai. A little thing opened the door, a creature all in white. Elia rebuked herself and focused. A novice, a little shorter than herself, with black eyes and reasonable hips. She may grow into something yet.

"Aes Sedai." The child bobbed her head in respect, but Elia could see a little stiffness in the action. We don't like curtseying, do we?

"Come in, child. Take a seat." Elia gestured to the three spindly chairs that surrounded the table. They were Ghealdanin and made of a golden wood, like the table.

Elia suited herself to the chaise longue, although she sat up straight instead of lounging on it. "My name is Elia Sedai. How is it that I can help you today, child?"

[Bella]

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me today, Aes Sedai," Andra said, bowing her head again in respectful acknowledgement for the time the woman was granting her. It had been near-beaten into Andra just where she was in the great scope of it all now, particularly compared to where she had been, and this woman she wasn't keen to offend.

There were others she cared less with, but not this time.

She took a seat at the table as Elia had gestured to, sitting up straight and folding her hands in her lap. She contemplated the best means to go about this moment, and found she wasn't sure how. She knew that some of her history needed to be explained to explain why she was there, but she didn't want to speak too much on the painful topic.

"Before it was discovered I could channel, I was a merchant. I had a acquired a statue that a woman was interested in purchasing, I knew little of its provenance, but I met with her. It turns out she was a channeler, and sought to take the object by force." Her throat threatened she constrict and she looked briefly at her hands.

"This woman...killed the two most important people in my life to get to it. My...reaction was what ended me up here." She lifted her gaze again, refusing to ever look away from a person for long. She held her head straight. She would not bow, despite her heart wanting to make her body constrict. "I learned the object was one of power, as they called it.

"I..." She paused, clearing her throat slightly. "I asked to meet with someone who could tell me more about these objects of power. I would like to understand what the importance of such a thing was." There. She had spoken her piece, having to admit more than she wished but not too much beyond. "If you could help teach me, I would be most grateful."

OOC: Extra note in a PM.

[Craig]

Elia

Elia went from being amused to paying active interest. She'd forgotten all about the survivor of Kyriaki's utter failure. Kyriaki was the name Elia knew her as a member of the Black Ajah. Only in death was she identified as Margardia Sedai, an Indigo sister from Tear. It rankled just as much that a sister of the Indigo Ajah had been discovered as a Darkfriend as it was that Kyriaki was dead. There had been suspicions levelled at the Indigos already over the events of the Novices' and Soldiers' Quarters' destruction. Mirin's fall had convinced the Hall, but rumours were persistent even long after the fact.

The Shienaran brushed away those darker thoughts. She'd acquired the ter'angreal in the end, even if not by the means she had intended. But it was now the Indigos' trinket, not her own. Getting it out of the Vaults would be far more tricky than snatching it from the hands of some country bumpkin.

Oh. 'The country bumpkin' was the woman in front of her right this instant. Elia didn't even hold a hint of anger towards the Kandori. It wasn't she who had killed Kyriaki, but a pair of Greens. Elia tried to recall the other details. More people than Kyriaki had died. Something about two men, or was it three? It would come back to her.

Elia maintained the veneer of Aes Sedai aloofness, but she smiled warmly. "Of course I can help you. I have heard about your situation, and you have my deepest condolences. If you need to speak to anyone about it, I am more than happy to listen." In truth, a Yellow would be of more help to the girl, but there were a couple of simple memory weaves Elia wanted to try out on a channeller. The novice represented a perfect opportunity to experiment a little.

"Now I can't speak to the particular object that you had in your possession, but I know plenty about these items. Depending on their function, they have different names. Some enhance the abilities of the channeller using them. These are called angreal or sa'angreal, depending on how much they aid the channeller."

Elia took the glass rose out from behind her ear, and delicately placed it on the table. "This is an angreal. They can come in many forms, many sizes and many materials. Depending on how your talent with the One Power develops, you may already be able to feel some resonance with this angreal. If not, such a thing will come with time and training." She left the rose on the table, not concerned about the girl attempting to channel through it. That would be a breach not just of Tower law, but also of common sense.

"Now there are other objects of the Power which have different uses than to simply further one's ability with the One Power. These are called ter'angreal, and like angreal and sa'angreal they can come in all shapes and sizes. However, the materials used and the designs crafted can inform us about what purpose the ter'angreal was created for."

That was the basics that any novice in their first year ought to know. But there were undoubtedly more questions hidden behind those slanted brown eyes. "You haven't told me your name, child."

[Bella]

The Aes Sedai knew of her situation? Andra suddenly wondered how much the woman knew...but she couldn't dare ask. She simply said a quiet "Thank you, Aes Sedai" in reply to the offer to talk that the younger woman would never her take her up on. She was grateful when the topic moved on immediately.

And as the Indigo talked, the Novice listened. When Elia set down the small rose, the absolute last thing on Andra's mind was to try to channel through it. She didn't even want to touch it, or get any closer to it than she already was. She was curious, but had a healthy...respect for the power it may contain. The danger.

The words were unfamiliar to her ear, and so she repeated them in her mind over and over. They came in all shapes and sizes. She thought back to the one she'd had in her possession... It was very different than this glass rose.

At the question, Andra realized that she hadn't yet introduced herself, although...upon the briefest moment of reflection...she realized it was because she didn't really think the Aes Sedai would care what her name was. Did they not just call all of the Novices and even Accepted by 'child' and continue about their business? Apparently, she had been mistaken.

"My name is Andraste, Aes Sedai. Andraste Alhandra." The speaking of her last name caused a stinging twinge from her heart down to her stomach, but she stamped it down. The skin around her eyes tightened slightly, but she managed to crush the rest of it back into the small knot of anger that never left her stomach.

[Craig]

Elia

Elia noticed the pain associated with Andraste's surname, but didn't care to divine why. Andraste Alhandra meant as much to the Indigo as 'the country bumpkin' had a moment before. An anybody from anywhere; just another indistinguishable face in the crowd. She would have cared a touch more had she still been the Mistress of Novices, but that deplorable task had been blessedly taken away from her. She picked the angreal up from the table and restored it amongst her hair ornaments; Elia didn't like spending long without the additional protection the angreal offered.

With the glass rose back in place, Elia smiled once again. "Andraste." A sympathetic smile, and a sympathetic tone of voice to go alongside it. "Why don't you tell me a little about this object, if you can stand to revisit the subject. Maybe I can tell you more about what it may have been, and what it's purpose was."

The Aes Sedai's malachite gaze narrowed a fraction. "And maybe you can explain what your reaction was, that ended with you coming to the Grey Tower." And if this ter'angreal has any traps. She was a 'once in a lifetime' natural when it came to her affinity with objects of the Power, but there were risks even to her.

OOC: Sorry for the brevity.

[Bella]

She should have seen this coming, and part of her had, but she was no more thrilled about the idea of it now than she might have been before...

Andraste folded her hands before her and looked at them for a moment. "I know very little about the object," she said, stuffing all feeling into that knot and away from her mind. "It was a simple stone statue of a woman with a robe and hood. She had gems in her eyes, but the stones were of low value. The woman who..." A small breath.

"The woman who wanted it just said it was very powerful, and she didn't want any of us alive to tell about it."

The Novice forced herself to lift her head and look at the Aes Sedai, keeping her voice even. "I tried to talk her out of it, but she just laughed and the men with her killed Bel and Chandra. I lost my mind. I don't even know what I did but that the world was suddenly threads. I killed the men." It was easier to say that without emotion. They deserved it.

"She called me a wilder wench. Said something about sensing my...tricks but I don't know what she meant. I could not kill the woman, but before she could kill me, Miahala and Tia Sedai came through the door." Why couldn't I have killed the evil one too? "And they managed what I could not. Then they told me I had to come here."

She left out how much she had fought that.

Andra didn't know if Elia Sedai needed to know all this, but she asked and so the Novice knew she had to tell it. She came asking for help, and that put her in the weaker negotiating stance. "No one told me what the object was, other than it had to do with the One Power, or what it could do. I've been...interested in knowing more about these things since arriving, though, because of it."

[Craig]

Elia

Kyriaki always wanted to keep everything for herself. Stupid woman. Maybe she would have lived if she hadn't pressed Andraste to, what, unleash her 'threads' against them? It was a little too much to hope the woman had enough understanding of the Power to explain what she did, and frankly it could have been anything from blades of Air to arrows of Fire. There wasn't much difficulty in killing a man with saidar when it came down to it. The harder choice was working out how to kill them.

But that wasn't important any more. Kyriaki was dead, and nothing short of the Great Lord could change that.

"A stone statue of a woman," Elia repeated to herself. Without a word she stood up, crossed to the room's other doorway and vanished into her bedroom. A minute later she returned with a writing set and pieces of parchment, and set them up on the short table between the two of them.

Elia murmured as she jotted down notes. "A woman, robed and hooded. How big? It was small, was it? Portable? Must have been." Objects in the shape of people always had a specialised role to play, or grant a great boon to an individual. Kyriaki was right about its power in that case. "And stone, but with gemstones?" For Kyriaki to know it for a ter'angreal, it had to be attuned to women. Stone was a relatively neutral material. So it's a ter'angreal for both men and women. Well that largely ruled out the possibility that it was a sa'angreal.

The quill make a hard scratching noise as the Indigo wrote. "What colour were the gemstones, do you remember? And for eyes? So there were two? The same, or different?" They could be simple ornamentation added after the fact. The purpose behind gemstones were tricky to reason out, as they were so seldom used. Who cared it if took several hunks of rocks to finally create a successful ter'angreal? That wasn't the case when it came to transmuting emeralds or moonstones into useless amorphous blobs when things went wrong.

Half a page of writing became a page of scratched out thoughts as the Shienaran muddled through the possibilities, with Andraste going completely unnoticed. Of course, having the ter'angreal in her hands would have made this task several steps easier, but it was in someone else's possession at present. Instead she had to reason around whether the hood was indicative of some form of obscuration or not. Or whether the robe was about protection or warmth, or just aesthetic. How crucial were these gemstones? If the shape or cut of the gems mattered-- she scored those parts out. There wasn't enough to work with to even begin thinking about the stones! The crack of the quill hitting the table snapped Elia out of her little bubble of research. She rubbed the bridge of her nose, unaware of the ink she was smearing on her face.

She looked up away from the table, recognising the presence of the novice for the first time in a number of minutes. "Sorry," she added guiltily. Glancing at her notes, she wasn't sure what to make of things. "I'm afraid I don't have any certain answers for you at this point, Andraste. It certainly seems to be a ter'angreal from your description, and assuming that it is linked to the One Power. I would also summarise that a man or woman could use it. But for what, I cannot say." She spreads her hands and gave a conciliatory look. "And you never found a way to use it yourself, did you?"

[Bella]

The sudden intense focus of the Indigo upon writing these notes surprised Andraste, but she just sat...and watched...and listened. When questions were tossed in her directly, almost as carefully as discarded paper, she did her best to answer them. The time in question was rather...murky in her mind, clouded with emotion, but she did her best.

"Yes, it was only about the length of my forearm."

"The gems were light blue."

"They were the same. Little more than chips."

When the woman suddenly stopped and apologized, Andra blinked her dark eyes. She kept listening. She had to do a lot of that here at the Tower, but she was getting used to it.

"I'm not sure I care so much about what that particular object did, Aes Sedai," the Novice admitted after a moment, when there was a break in the conversation she seemed allowed to insert herself into. "No, I never did use it. That I knew of, though I realize now that I did things I didn't know of then..."

She paused thoughtfully. "But I've gotten curious about the Objects in general. I don't know that I fully realized just how powerful, and thus how...sought after they could be, until I have spoken with you now."

[Craig]

Elia

Elia tilted her head ever so slightly. "Sought after? Why, yes child, yes. They are certainly sought after." Incredulity was creeping into her tone, but she reined in it. Andraste was just a novice, after all, what could she know?

In a milder voice, Elia continued. "A great deal of the Indigo Ajah's work lies in simply acquiring objects of the Power. Least of all for the safety of others." She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "I am sorry we did not get there in time to save your friends."

The Shienaran smoothed out her skirts needlessly as she pondered if there was any way to get more from Andraste. The only way to be certain she had got everything out of the woman was Compulsion, but there would be some ongoing interest in the novice. She had channelled in the presence of an unknown ter'angreal, and Yellows and Indigos would be prodding her occasionally to search for side effects. No, Compulsion was off the table.

A little sigh of regret passed Elia's lips, as she wondered what to do with the woman. "Would you like to see other objects of the Power, child? Who knows, you may have a future in the Indigo Ajah. You may have a Talent yet undiscovered."