All That Is Gold [Attn: Leala]

[Jenny]

Kaira Darrow The sun beat down on the packed earth as a dozen grey-clad students attempted to follow their teacher’s exercises. Sweaty hands clutched wooden lathes, which flailed about in poor imitation of the smooth arcs of the Gaidin’s sword. The man’s gravelly voice cut through the air.

"Step forward. Shoulder, to waist. Back, and pivot. Parry, then deflect. Good, again."

Despite the heat and exercise, the Gaidin did not seem to sweat. He had a serious countenance below a shaggy mess of short reddish hair. His blade flashed in the sunlight as he flowed from form to form, every move in perfect balance. A glint of gold shimmered on his right forearm from the sinuous golden dragon tattoo that wound its way across his skin.

A few paces away from the Warder Yards, a seven-year-old girl sat in the shadows against the wall of the Tower armory. Her long brown hair was plaited into a messy braid, and dark eyebrows furrowed over intense grey eyes that matched the steely glare of her father. Her gaze searched among the exercising students, darting from face to face. Her right hand clutched a pencil that idly tapped the notebook in her lap.

Her eyes narrowed as they settled on one of her father’s students - a tall, brunette woman. From this distance, Kaira could not see the details, but still there was something unusually arresting about the woman’s face. She tilted her head thoughtfully and stared. What had she noticed? Something had been… not quite right. Something about the woman’s eyes.

Then the woman turned her head at just the right angle and her eyes reflected the sun. Kaira’s breath caught as she saw a glimpse of what had caught her attention: a glint of gold.

[Leala]

Meriana Rayere The presence of the sun had made for a temperate day. The fact that Meriana was moving around while in uniform made it decidedly hotter than she felt necessary. The extra heat, along with her enhanced senses, and the fact that she could smell the determination in her fellow trainees...quite literally, made things a bit disorienting. She was finding ways to handle her abilities, and not let them overwhelm her. Training was one way of doing that. The Master of Training called a halt to the exercise for a moment's rest, and perhaps a bit of hydration. She took a swallow from her water skin and took a step away to stretch her legs.

As Meri moved away, she spotted a tiny figure leaning against the wall of the armory. The little girl also seemed to be staring at her. She recognized Kaira Darrow as Ravak's daughter. She had seen her around the Tower as she grew, but she had never been introduced to the little girl. Smiling, Meri walked over to her and sat next to the child. She offered her hand to the girl and said, "Good day, Miss. Don't believe we've met. My name's Meri. I think yours is Kaira, is it not?" She kept her grin as she studied the little Darrow. She had her father's eyes, and while Meri wasn't familiar with her mother entirely, she must have had similar hair. Kaira had a pad of paper in tow, and a pencil. Maybe that was why she had been staring so intently.

[Jenny]

Kaira Darrow "Good day, Miss. Don't believe we've met. My name's Meri. I think yours is Kaira, is it not?"

Oh Light! Had she been staring too much? Embarrassment colored her cheeks but her eyes remained wide and curious. Kaira was far from shy. She beamed brightly and set down her pencil to reach out and shake the woman's hand.

"Light shine on you, Meri," she said. "Yes, I'm Kaira Darrow. Look! I drew you! Is it okay?"

She held up her pad of paper with a rough pencil sketch of a woman in motion. The figure brandished a sword and a long dark braid of hair. The drawing was far from perfect, with the body and head oddly proportioned. But despite the raw immaturity of Kaira's skill, the ferocity of the woman's expression was unmistakable. And there was that tilt to her head, with sunlight glinting off pale eyes.

"I like to paint and draw," said Kaira. "And if it's alright with you, I would love to paint you! You have beautiful eyes. Why are they that color?"

[Leala]

The Immortal Meri Meriana perked up, despite trying to rest from training when the little girl explained that she had been drawing her. Her smile widened when she looked at the pad of paper, her figure sketched out in a child's hand. It was actually fairly skillfully drawn, for someone of Kaira's small amount of years. "Burn my soul," she said in a surprised voice, "I've been immortalized!" She didn't even have to pretend very hard. The drawing was rather good. The girl had even gotten her expression down. A few of Meri's male counterparts liked to mock her for her look of concentration during training. She knew that it was because she was a woman, so she made embarrassing noises to go with their looks of concentration during training. It was quite effective.

Kaira continued about how she liked to draw and paint, then asked Meri if she could be the subject of her paintings. Then, she asked a question that the Saldaean wasn't quite sure how to answer. She had long gotten over any anxiety of explaining her relationship with wolves to adults, but she wasn't sure if Ravak would be so forgiving if she was entirely forthcoming with his small child.

"I wouldn't mind in the slightest if you painted me, Kaira," she said, brightening her smile. "As for my eyes...my mother always said it was because I stared at the sun too often." She laughed, hoping the girl would buy it.

[Jenny]

Kaira Darrow "Well, your eyes are still beautiful," Kaira said, stoutly. Then her brows furrowed together in a way that strongly mirrored her father's habitual grimace.

"Aunt Elia always said that staring at the sun could make you blind. But Aunt Elia says many things that aren't true just because she doesn't want you to do something. Or because she wants you to do something. I never understood it. Why not just tell someone what you want? I like to speak my mind, like Daddy. Though it does sometimes get him into trouble..."

Then she gasped and clasped her hands to her mouth. Her pencil fell to the ground.

"Oh!" she cried. "Aunt Elia does not tell lies! She is Oathsworn, you know. What I meant was... was... well, I've heard that the truth an Aes Sedai says is not always the truth you want to hear. That is certainly true for... for... I mean, Elia Sedai isn't one of those Aes Sedai, you know, b-b-but..."

The little girl stuttered as she scrambled to cover her tracks. She did not mean to speak poorly of the Mistress of Novices. Oh, certainly not! She loved her aunt very much. Her commentary was simply one of those things that she had not yet learned to keep to herself, much like Elia's expanding waistline or Ravak's problems with women. This unfortunate tendency to speak before she thought was something that she was still trying to outgrow. She squirmed as she looked up at the older girl.

"Sorry," said Kaira, though she didn't quite know why she was apologizing to the Drin.

Then, she coughed nervously and picked up her pencil. Now that she could observe closer the subject of her art, she could begin filling in details. Carefully, she shaded in another portion of the woman's face. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment.

[Leala]

Meriana Rayere Meriana couldn't help but smile as the girl steadfastly complimented her eyes. Light, child, please don't go staring into the sun to make your eyes look like mine... she thought. "Thank you," she said, her smile still in place. "Your eyes are beautiful too, you know. Before mine were gold, they were as brown as my hair." Meri added a laugh to that as she held up her dull brown braid. Before she could continue, Kaira began to talk about her Aunt Elia, and how she was Oathsworn. She rambled a bit, but Meri could understand how nervous she felt, having an Aes Sedai in the family, and Mistress of Novices at that.

"Hm... Aes Sedai are strange like that," the Drin agreed, ignoring the nervous apology. The poor girl probably needed someone to just chat with for a moment. "They have a lot of responsibilities, though. When I came here, I had met an Aes Sedai who had had her Oaths taken away, but she still did her best to tell the truth." She paused for a moment. "Except when she was joking," she added with a grin. "She came from the White Tower, and every sister there has to take the Three Oaths. And she had been a sister for a long time. Before the Grey Tower had been founded, even. After coming here, I don't know if she took the Oaths again, but...I think she's still trying her best, whatever happened to her."

Meriana hadn't seen Aureli for a while. She had to have been working hard to get used to her new surroundings, and her new Ajah. "All that said, I like to speak my mind too. It's a good thing I can't channel, because I'd make a terrible Aes Sedai." She chuckled at the thought of her walking around in white dresses. "But, it's important to remember that Aes Sedai are human, too. Just don't let them think you know that when you talk to them." She added that last bit in a low, conspiratorial voice, with a giggle added at the end.

[Jenny]

Kaira Darrow Kaira laughed. "I would make a terrible Aes Sedai too," she said. "They do too much reading and studying. And most of them sit inside all day! How boring. I want to be a Gaidin, like my father! Oh yes, Meri, you want to be a Gaidin too, right? Is it hard, being a Drin?"

Then she turned her picture around. "Look!"

Over the course of their conversation, the pencil drawing had improved. The mess of pencil markings now formed something that was distinctly recognizable as Meri's face. The budding artist had also fixed some of her mistakes and cleaned up smudges. The head now seemed almost proportional with the body, and the nose didn't nearly seem so misshapen.

"Would you like to keep it?" she asked. "If you give me a few minutes, I can make another sketch to take home for my painting. It will take me some time to find some paint that will match the color of your eyes. Maybe yellow ochre would do. I used it before to paint dandelions! What do you think?"

[Leala]

Meri...who is currently melting Meriana felt a small relief when Kaira seemed to drop the notion of her golden eyes. She seemed to take to the funny idea of becoming a terrible Aes Sedai, too. Meri didn't have anything against Aes Sedai...she just didn't want to be one any time soon. Now, a Gaidin was more in her line of thinking. "It was hard in the beginning," Meri admitted with a smile. "But, once you get used to it, it's not that hard. They have to make it hard, so that you can get stronger," she explained.

As she spoke, Kaira had finished her drawing and turned it to her to see. "It's beautiful!" she exclaimed. "You're very talented!" It wasn't a lie. For a child, this sketch was very detailed. It even looked like Meri now. She wasn't even entirely sure if she could draw like that herself. "I would be honored to keep it," she declared. As the girl began to talk about colors and paints, the conversation went past the Drin's area of expertise. "Well, you are the artist. I think if you think yellow ochre is the right decision, then the painting will be beautiful."

[Jenny]

Kaira Darrow With quick strokes of her pencil, the young artist made a copy of her drawing. Then she tore the first sketch out of her notebook and handed it to Meri.

“I’m so glad that you let me draw you, Meri,” she said, happily. “Thank you so much!”

Like many other Tower children, Kaira went to school at the Mar a'Mael. Each morning she walked to the city and attended lessons until the afternoon. After school, she often stayed late and sought out Master Hans, one of the art instructors. He taught lessons out of his studio at school. This was where she brought her sketch the next day and began to paint.

Master Hans peered over her shoulder. His thick, white eyebrows wiggled like caterpillars as he spoke.

"You have a good eye and enthusiasm, but you need to learn to use your head. Look at the yellow here. Why are you mixing the ochre with sulfur? Light, child, that stinks to high heaven! Open the window. Quickly, child, before we asphyxiate!"

He backed away, coughing. Kaira ran for the window.

"Ack! Sorry Master Hans! But how can I make her eyes sparkle, like gold?”

He dabbed delicately at the painting.

"Then add a bit of white here, and blend it like this. See?"

"Oh... oh! Yes, I see!"

Eight weeks later, a portrait of a young woman in warm brown and golden tones appeared in Ravak’s office. It had finally been completed with lots (and lots) of help from Master Hans. Kaira wrote a short note in her blocky handwriting to a certain young Drin.

Dear Meri, I hope that your training is going well. I finished a painting of you from the sketch. It is in my father’s office if you would ever like to take a peek. - Kaira Darrow p.s. My aunt showed me a book that said staring into the sun can make you blind. I still think its a load of hogwash. Your eyes are special. Don’t ever let anyone bring you down!