That Novice is Certainly Not Skipping Class (Attn: Jaryd)

[Leesa]

The concept of not giving information to your enemy was readily understood by Serain- she just didn't know what she could have possibly given the man posing as the High Seat. He'd asked her about her lessons, and Serain had actually thought she was being at least a little clever. Oh sure, maybe calling the One Power a weapon hadn't been the smartest thing, but how else was she to see it? Any of the few Aes Sedai she'd come into contact with back home had seemed to view it that way, all the stories she'd heard about had talked about using the Power to fight the Shadow. To use it for anything else seemed a waste.
The young woman frowned dubiously as the Asha'man told her she'd given him a 'dizzying' amount of information, shifting as she sat. She knew not to say too much, and she felt the man wasn't giving her enough credit.
"But what could you have possibly gotten from what lessons I like, or that I'm not highborn? How's that 'dizzying'?" Serain huffed in exasperation, tilting her hands up in a confused gesture as the man suggested they discuss what he had managed to glean- or rather what she'd apparently handed to him.

She held back her words as the man went through it all, frown growing deeper and her eyes all the more wide as he went on. If her having that conversation at all, just because of who she was, was some sort of insult, then everything she had said was wrong. Anything she said would have been- but had she been supposed to lie? If she had gone along with it and hadn't corrected Lord Raitin, she was sure she's have messed up something even worse, broken one of the many rules nobles had to live by just because of who they were.

It seemed like she couldn't win either way- and there was still more to come. She felt her face begin to burn. More mistakes, and all for being honest. Light, she was such a fool- even if she wouldn't have been chosen to attend someone so important she was still a fool for saying anything at all. It was like a punch to the gut the left her winded and speechless.
She uncharacteristically felt the urge to hide behind her hair. One little talk and she'd possibly started a war. Jesi and Paks and all the other friends she'd made might be killed in the fighting because she hadn't known what to say... The realization had her feeling sick and made her muscles turn to mush.

All her arguments about how little sense it seemed to make died on her lips as she made to speak. What did it matter what was true- that she was a homesick Novice from the Borderlands where warfare was such a big part of their culture- when a High Seat saw threats everywhere and was looking for trouble where there was none?
There was a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach and when asked if she understood, she nodded mutely, not trusting her voice for a moment.
"Yes, Asha'man...I understand." she said softly, breaking his gaze at last and looking at the ground. She understood her presence here made even less sense than she'd thought. With her head so full of stories of clashing steel, she'd completely neglected another, probably more important part of what made a country a country. She'd been taught Aes Sedai meant servant of all in the Old Tongue. How could she do that if she was so bloody ignorant? Assuming she was ever raised at all.

She stared at the invisible plate on the ground for a long moment. For as awful as she felt about all this, she now knew what a mistake she'd been making. Which meant she could fix it.
The redhead took a deep breath and picked up her 'teacup' again, making eye contact with the curly haired man once again. She was angry at the tremble in her voice when she spoke, but she had to know how to fix this so she could keep her friends safe from her own stupidity.
"...W-What could I have said then? Simply by my birth I shouldn't have been attending to Lord Raitin, but what could I have said? Should it all be a lie, or would things have been assumed from whatever I said?"