Eye of the Beholder (Attn: Marla)

[Craig]

Elia

Elia stood by the doorway of her room, gawking at the spray of coloured, sparking sand that covered her bed and desk and washstand. A glassy rod hung loosely in her grip, the cause of all this mess. "I am never going to get this all out," she said weakly to herself. Even with the Power, it was going to take a lot of time and energy to find every piece of coloured sand, and there was a limited chance she would have that sort of time before tonight. If anyone was to come knockin-

The Accepted shrieked as reality and her thoughts collided into one. She threw the rod ter'angreal quickly onto the bed, hastily checked that she wasn't covered in any glitter, then opened the door the barest amount. "Yes?" she asked warily through the gap, making her voice as still as possible.

"Ninya Sedai wishes to see you, Accepted." Elia opened the door a little more, enough to see the younger face of the novice that had spoken. The Accepted didn't recognise her, but in all honesty, Elia's thoughts lay elsewhere at this moment.

She sighed openly, nodding. "I'll be right along. Thank you, child." The door was shut before there was any response, nor the opportunity to see the novice's questioning look.

A white nimbus formed around Elia, as she embraced the One Power. With a careful control over the air, she pushed as much of the sparkling dirt towards the far wall, as much into a corner as she could. This will have to do. The mess was still very much obvious, but didn't look quite as dramatic as the moment prior. With a sigh, she opened the door, felt the afternoon wind on her face, and made her way quickly towards the Blue Ajah's quarters.

[Sunny]

Ninya Evoneigh, Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah (NPC)

Ninya sat at ease in her quarters, sipping a cup of fragrant jasmine tea. She wore a dress cut in her native Domani fashion, small gems and gold embroidery providing delicate embellishment to the rich blue silk. It was not as provocative as many of her countrywomen may have preferred, but it suited Ninya well enough.

An assortment of objects graced the table before her. A ball that weighed nothing, but looked like jade had been balanced in a teacup. A figurine of a blindfolded woman holding a set of scales sat close to her teapot. A delicate silver pendant on a chain lay on the table a little apart from the others. That one had grown warm to the touch as soon as she returned to the Grey Tower. There were others, each unique in their own way.

She had retrieved them from a Murandian lord’s private collection with remarkably little effort. Even with the male half of the Source cleansed, men want nothing to with the title “False Dragon,” Ninya thought in some amusement. The necklace at least had something to do with the Power, and if even one of the others did, then Ninya was willing to consider the long ride back to the Grey Tower a success.

Now she waited for the woman she had been told could help her to identify them. Accepted Elia has a natural touch with such items, she had been told, and thus it was that she had sent a novice to fetch the woman.

As it turned out when she arrived, Accepted Elia had red hair, perfect porcelain skin, and green eyes. She hid her curiosity at her summons well, at least. The Domani Aes Sedai waved her into her chambers, and indicated she should sit across from her. “I had heard you had some Talent with ter’angreal, child. As you can see, I have some items here- I would like to know what they do before I give them to the Vaults.”

She paused, then added "Would you care for tea?"

[Craig]

Elia

Elia opened the door, no longer looking flustered. There was no chance she had yet acquired Aes Sedai grace and serenity, but she made her best impression of it. Ninya Sedai was sitting in a beautiful dress; it made the Shienaran a touch jealous. The corner of her lips curled up as she caught the scent of jasmine in the air.

"I had heard you had some talent with ter'angreal, child," Ninya began, as Elia made her way across the room. "As you can see, I have some items here." She simply looked at an odd assortment of objects on the table in front of her. Malachite eyes scanned them briefly, before returning to the Domani sister. "I would like to know what they do before I give them to the Vaults."

Elia sat down, politely declining the invitation of tea - although she knew that simply meant she could pour her own cup. She looked again, properly now at the assembled objects. The form of a woman, holding aloft a set of scales, looked to be made from some type of bone. There was what appeared to be a dice cup, holding five or six golden dice, but dice with more than six sides. The cup itself was gilded gold. Whether a ter'angreal or not, that had to be worth a small fortune. There were various other things too.

The Shienaran smoothed out her skirts, already imagined the warmth of saidar that would soon be completing her. "What would you like me to look at first, Ninya Sedai?"

[Sunny]

Ninya

Ninya watched the slender Shienaran with hooded eyes, curious to see how she would respond to such an offer. It was not typical for an Accepted to be allowed to look at ter'angreal, let alone touch them or….diagnose them, I suppose it might be considered. At least…it had not been typical when Ninya was Accepted. Times change, she reminded herself, pouring herself another cup of tea.

The girl smoothed her skirts. "What would you like me to look at first, Ninya Sedai?" Her manners were a relief; Ninya had encountered a collection of the younger learning ranks since her return, and had been unimpressed by their blatant disregard of etiquette. What is the Tower coming to?

"I know very little about ter'angreal," Ninya admitted, calm-voiced. "It is not a Talent I ever acquired. However, I do know through evidence and deduction that the necklace must have something to do with the One Power. I also believe that that," she pointed to the dice, "may as well. I have rolled them out of that cup more times than I can count, and never once have any of them fallen off the table they land on. It seems a useless parlor trick, but perhaps it serves some other purpose as well."

+She sipped at her tea. "I have no preference where you begin."

[Craig]

Elia

Elia followed the Aes Sedai's look towards another table; the Accepted hadn't noticed it originally when she had come into the room. The necklace in question was a slight thing made of silver. She moved a hand close, and felt heat coming off of it. Slowly she inched her fingers closer, but fortunately the metal was only warm to the touch.

Lifting the necklace up off the table, she noted it was meant for a small neck, possibly a child's or a young woman's. Stretched the links out wide, Elia thought it may just about fit her, not that she had any intention of placing a random ter'angreal around her neck. The pendant on the chain was shaped like an inverted teardrop, the hole going through the bulbous section, so that a fine point hung down.

The Accepted returned the necklace to the table. "With your permission, Ninya Sedai?" The Domani nodded, and soon the joy of saidar flowed through her. A breathy sound escaped her lips before she could stop herself, and she gave Ninya a guilty look. After her embarrassment had settled, she wove out a tendril of Spirit. All ter'angreal needed Spirit, to one degree or another, so it was a good place to start. She started on the chain, and was surprised to find that it was a part of the ter'angreal. The metal could have been heated by proximity, but not in this case. She worked her way along, seeking out each link in the necklace with the Power. Each small piece seemed similar to the others, all equal pieces of the ter'angreal.

That left the pendant itself. Was it different, or the focus point, or just regular silver? Elia pursed her lips as two tendrils of silver light drifted close to the teardrop. She couldn't sense the resonance she'd detected before with Ravak's ter'angreal. That meant the teardrop was either ornamental or a part of the whole, not a separate ter'angreal in and of itself. Silver thread of saidar and silver metal of the pendant connected and-

Floating in a star field, formless, shapeless, points of light against a sea of black, red points, blue points, amber points, pulsing, glowing, amassing, alone, pulsing stronger, glowing bright, red points, a conflagration of warmth, weightless, star field, stars, a glowing light, amber.

Elia reeled in the chair, pushing it back a foot as she gripped her head. A moment before there had been a surge of sensation beyond anything she could verbalise, then nothing. She blinked, looking down at the floor, wondering what had happened, what she had been doing. Straightening, she caught the Aes Sedai's eye, then glanced at the necklace. What under the Light was that?

"It's definitely a ter'angreal." That was an understatement. Elia still had no idea what that experience was, or how it related to anything meaningful. "Let's me try with something else. See if I can understand its function."