Tia Tomosan
Tia tilted her head slightly as she gave a kind smile, “You are not the only one who doesn’t know why you are stronger in one element over another. In general, women tend to be best with Water and Air while Earth and Fire tend to be a bit harder. Obviously, this is not the case for all women. One of my kin is stronger in Earth than Water or Air, so affinities don’t necessarily travel along familial lines.”
The Novice’s frown didn’t go unnoticed, and Tia couldn’t help but wonder what might be going through the young woman’s mind. “I find we are all unique, not just in where our strengths lay, but in how we utilize them, as well as how we work around or work through our apparent weaknesses.
“I suspect you will find some of these weaves come easier to you than they initially did to me given you find Earth easiest compared to Water. It took me time and a significant amount of practice to get proficient with Wards,” the Aes Sedai explained. “You actually know more of Wards than I did when I first learned, as I hadn’t seen one used. I’ll teach you the Ward the Mistress of Novices used, but let’s start with one that may be a bit simpler. We’ll start with a Ward of warning. . .something that will alert you if someone is approaching. I’ll show you the weave, exaggerating the hand gestures while also pulling the weave together slowly so you can see how it works.”
Tia cleared her throat before taking in a deep breath as she embraced the One Power, basking in the euphoria of the Source for a moment before her hands started to move, “You’ll pull together threads of Air, Fire, Spirit and Water for this one. I struggled with Fire when I first tried it, but with practice, I found it easier to form the Ward.” Tia started with threads of Air before weaving in the reddish threads of fire, and silvery threads of Spirit. “The last element is Water, and you should be careful not to overwhelm the weave with too much,” Tia explained as she pulled in fine threads of Water and let the Ward fall over the pair of them.
“If you find yourself in an unfamiliar inn, or camping on the road, you can set the weave so that you are warned if someone comes within its perimeter. The warning can be audible, or not, depending on how thick your threads of Air are. The thicker they are, the more audible the warning. If you make them very thin, then only you’ll be alerted, not the intruder,” Tia explained. She dropped her initial Ward, and created another one, this time with thin threads of Air before dropping it again, and making the threads thicker.
“Why don’t you try?”