Smoothing Ruffled Feathers, Level Advanced [Attn: Taesh Durlaen Asha'man]

[Bella]

As if the work of the Grey Ajah out in the world, and even within their own walls, wasn't hard enough with nations and royalty and ruling classes that acted more like spoiled adolescents than pillars of their community, now the Black Ajah (though never so blatantly named aloud) and the Tower itself had to go making things worse.

Fortunately, many of the Ajah itself--oddly, though--had not been present at the calamitous formal affair the Tower had hosted, ironically in the attempt to appease the nations.

Now that it was sorted, as much as could be, and most of those who had been sent out were returned, the Grey Ajah was of course having to play cleanup and achieve what the ball had meant to do. Today that task was going to fall to Derren and his former mentee turned Head Clerk Taesh, whose door he was at now.

He knocked, his other arm holding onto his book and parchments.

[Kenneth]

Head Clerk Taesh

Taesh had been expecting that knock. In all actuality he had been dreading that knock. Ever since the fiasco, the Atha'an Miere Head Clerk had been beating himself up for deciding to patrol Hama Valon. Perhaps if he had been at the Ball itself, then more of the Greys would have attended as well. As it was, most of his Ajah Brother and Sisters had taken their cue from their leader, and decided to be elsewhere during function. The Seafolk channeler thought that perhaps if more of them had been there, things would have turned out differently. Then again, it left him enough agents of his Ajah to go out and calm the waters, ones whose faces the nobility would not immediately connect with the disastrous gathering.

"Come in Derren" Taesh called out in a voice that was sincere in it's greeting. Derren had been Taesh's mentor, and introduced the then Soldier fresh from the sea to the Grey Ajah. He had been a willing ear for Taesh as he reconciled his new life on land and in the Tower, and found his place and purpose there. Often the long-lashed Plantweaver thought that Derren, the older and more experienced Asha'man, should hold the title of Head Clerk.

Still, Taesh was glad that Derren supported him in his role as the leader of the Ajah of law and mediation. He was more than glad that he had the ice blue eyed channelers expertise now, with what must be done. The smile that Taesh had for his friend and mentor only brightened at the load of books that Derren carried. Of course Derren had been studying up and preparing for the diplomatic excursion to come.

"Great minds" Taesh said with a laugh as he ushered Derren in and indicated the tomes and scrolls, maps and treaties, laid about on almost every flat service of his office space."

[Bella]

"It's not difficult to see where we will most be needed," Derren said with a faint smile as he stepped into the Head Clerk's office and shut the door behind him.

Many might have thought that the elder Grey would struggle having a younger channeler in the title of Head Clerk over him, but the truth was that Derren had no issues at all. He was not a man who aspired to such power. He just wanted to be a Grey, not an overseer, so he was more than glad to let someone else bear that weight.

He would, however, help however he could.

"These," he said, holding up several letters, "are from some of my eyes and ears within different nations. Some have reacted better than others to what happened. Some are affronted and don't care, although some understand that it was a mishap no one could have seen coming that effected everyone. I've made them slightly lower priority than the ones screaming."

Approaching the desk, he looked over all the sources of information that the Head Clerk had laid out. "The Borderlands seem the calmest," he went on. "They are used to dealing with strangeness. However, the Cairhien ambassadors are not pleased to say the least. There was also one reluctant man who came from Murandy who thinks all his issues were founded."

[Kenneth]

Taesh sighed as he looked over the assorted information and maps on his tables. He rubbed his face in irritation, a habit he had never really grew out of. He was glad for Derren's assistance, but irritated with himself that the situation had even gotten this out of hand.

"Tell me Derren, why did I decide to go patrolling about the city instead of being at the ball?" Taesh asked his friend and mentor. "Like a fish wanting to fly, only foolishness comes of it."

Taesh took a seat at one of the tables, holding a strongly worded letter, that was only two or three words away from being an outright thread, to Derren and indicated for the other Grey to take a seat as well. The letter came from a House in Cairhien that could not be ignored. The House was old and powerful enough to make things difficult for the Grey Tower. Like any Tower, the Grey needed allies among the powerful rulers and nobility of the Nations. The White Tower had centuries over the Grey to cement alliances, and while the Black was not as old as the White it had an edge on the Grey as well. It fell to Taesh and his cohort to build and maintain the alliances that the Grey Tower needed, and smoothing the sea after the fiasco of a ball was going to be a story the Greys would tell for sometime.

"Letters like that one have been coming in from all over, and I fear it is going to take more than a wink and a smile to calm most of them" Taesh admitted. "Though there are one or two that I am quite sure are over reacting only because they want me to give them personal attention. Those can wait to the real storms are settled."

The Atha'an Miere grinned a particular sneaky grin. There were two Lords and a Lady that he knew for sure were making their grievances up, and demanding that the Head Clerk himself attend to them, not because of his ability to make things right. Instead they desired his prowess in other more intimate areas. Their letters he kept in a pile that he would delve through later, once the real crisis had been averted.

[Bella]

Derren took the offered seat and listened to what his fellow Grey had to say on the matter. He leaned back in his seat, contemplating the words and the mess that rolled out around them. He stifled the loud sigh that tried to escape and worked on wrapping his mind around the totality of it all.

"We all must work to ascend where we were," he mused aloud, in response to his friend's first question. "You chose to enter Hama Valon to grow from where you were. You could not know what would happen at the ball. None could."

He paused and looked at all the letters again. "So where do you believe we should start? I imagine the Grey is going to be traveling for a time to work on this effort. It sounds like Cairhein is screaming the loudest and probably where we should take our banner of appeasement first?"

[Kenneth]

The Head Clerk nodded his head in agreement with Derren's assessment. "Yes, where the storm is raging the most is where we should set our sights. Quell that swell and it may take the wind out of some of the lesser blows that are trying to stir up" he voiced as he looked at his map.

"The question now is, will you and I suffice, or should we bring some of the others" either way the Atha'an Miere leader of the Grey Ajah was fine, until he had a sudden epiphany. "For the love of the sea let us leave Bora here in the Tower. I don't need Cairheinin nobles yelling in my face and her whispering at my shoulder." Bora Sedai was competent and Taesh was glad she was a member of his Ajah. When she deigned to notice him, she was quick to make it known how inexperienced she considered the much younger channeler to be. Taesh did not think it would be good to have someone along who didn't mind undermining his authority, not when meeting with the leaders of Houses that the Tower want to maintain a good rapport with.

"This may be, however, a good time to bring some of the Accepted and Dedicated along, those who have shown an interest in the Grey. Give them a chance to see what it is that we really are about, and how important it is. We aren't about the flashy weaves of the Greens and Reds, or the all important missions of the Blues, but what we do is no less important, and in my opinion more. This would be a good chance to show the undecided the ship at full sail, so to speak. What do you think"

[Bella]

Derren was perfectly content to agree with Taesh about their Grey Sister. He did not dislike Bora, but he did find her at times to be a little...unsettling to his innate tendencies and long-practiced demeanor. He also didn't imagine that a woman of that height would make the noblemen of Cairhien--typically of a small stature--comfortable. At Derren and his height was a man.

"I think that is a good idea," Derren agreed. He had spent many years now mentoring aspiring Greys, the Head Clerk included, and he always thought that it was a good idea to nurture such things.

After a moment, he went on, "I think we could start with just the pair of us. I would not want to overwhelm anyone with some show of force, even if only in numbers. Learning Ranks would not be as much a problem, or intimidation, I would believe. So two fully raised Brothers should be enough to begin with, and we can always return if needed, with more of the Ajah."