A grave mistake (Atten: Makenna)

[Siera]

Lirievin Tesiva Since returning to the Tower and being off the hospital bed Liri felt like she had been running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Maybe her limp slowed her down but either way, it was hard getting use to things, especially when she hadn't even gotten use to being an Accepted before she had been kidnapped. Her time away had gotten her so far behind that Liri had been overworking herself to get caught up. Working also helped her keep her mind off what had happened. She knew the Aes Sedai who saved her had died, but she felt incredibly guilty. If only she had been stronger she could have helped. Then there was Carra, somehow her captor had known her and Liri hadn't been able to talk to Carra about it. Some days Liri even wondered about her captor, in ways she felt bad for him. Sure he had been hard on her but was it a one time thing? Liri didn't know.

Her stomach grumbled then, interrupting her thoughts. Coming out of her own mind, Liri looked up from the ground and tried to figure out where she was. She had skipped lunch to get in some more studying, but she was shocked and almost scared when she did not recognize where she was. She hadn't been wandering aimlessly for that long, and even then she had been at the Tower for a long time. She should know where she was. Looking ahead Liri saw that there was a hallway, maybe if she got more to look at she could puzzle out where she was.

The first hallway gave her nothing. As did the second and the third. If Liri had not been thoroughly checked out by the Healer in the Infirmary she would be worried about further injury to her head. Coming up on her forth hallway Liri caught a break and saw a Novice a few paces down. Turning down the Hall Liri headed towards her.

"Excuse me." she said sweetly. "I'm so sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me, but could you point me in the direction of the kitchens?"

[Bree]

Makenna was flipping through the pages of the tiny little book and trying to envision the way the weaves were being described. She felt her stomach grumble and roll hard to one side but had long since learned to ignore it. She was serious about her task and her mission and she was finally beginning to make progress. Stopping for food was an inconvenience that she did not find important. The Mistress of Training in the Warder Yard was a hard task mistress but she was sculpting Makenna's body into strong muscles quickly. She had also introduced Makenna to a Brown Asha'man who never seemed to wonder about all of her questions about dangerous or ill-advised weaves other than to think they were a fascinating topic as well.

She was walking slowly with one shoulder pressed to the wall of the hall so that she didn't have to actually look up to navigate. The cheerful voice that broke the morning silence startled her so severely that she actually juggled the very small book from one hand to the other before catching it in her left hand and shoving it roughly into her pocket. The small voice said, "Excuse me. I'm so sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me, but could you point me in the direction of the kitchens?" Makenna thought several things at once then. The Pattern has sent my stomach in real girl form to require me to eat. and I lost my place. I can't believe I spent two hours this morning trying to memorize that one weave and now I will absolutely never find that page again. and That is a really excellent question, really.

Blinking and turning around and trying to point herself in the right direction, Makenna eventually said, "Yes. Yes in fact I can point us both in the right direction. Why don't you follow me? My name is Makenna. I haven't eaten since Breakfast yesterday, if I remember correctly. I will probably end up as a Brown myself. But now that I am not immersed in my book," Her stomach chose that moment to rumble quite loudly once more. "I really need to eat something." The older, motherly woman smiled in the patient way that a woman who has raised more than one child to adulthood learns to do so well and began to lead the way.

[Siera]

Lirievin Tesiva Liri smiles gratefully at the Novice in front of her. The novice, Makenna, was at least double her age but she still was kind and that was rare, sure Liri was an Accepted and she was only a Novice but she could have taken a different tone. Liri couldn’t help but feel jealous of Makenna. She was only a Novice and already she knew exactly where she wanted to be. Novices weren’t even suppose to worry about what Ajah they wanted to be in, let alone already basically have a decision made. Although the Makenna was older, which meant she was probably wiser so she knew more the Liri would.

Liri followed the older women as she talked. When she finished Liri spoke. “I’m Lirievin, but everyone calls me Liri.” Her voice was gentle, as she always tried to have it. There was no sense in making anyone mad over something that she could control. Liri had had enough of any sort of negative emotion and was trying her best to focus on positive ones. “I can’t believe you already have a good idea of what Ajah you will be in.” She said as they walked. “I’m an Accepted and I still have no idea where I will end up..”

Liri stopped mid sentence surprised at how open she was being. She didn't even know Makenna and here she was spilling out her soul. I'll make a terrible Aes Sedai, spilling out all my thoughts instead of giving nothing away.

[Bree]

Makenna tilted her head to one side, listening. It felt good on her neck to bend it a different direction than down over a book so she lifter her head and tilted it back the other direction. Slowly wobbling her head from side to side, she felt her neck loosen and finally straightened again. "I am not really certain I will pursue the Brown but so far it does seem to present the biggest opportunity for me to pursue my interests. I intend to try to find ways to spend time working in the various ajah halls or for specific Brothers or Sisters of each ajah well before I need to have chosen." She thought about it and then nodded, "Yes, the Brown does seem to suit me."

Smiling, Makenna led the other woman down another hall and to the stairs. Taking a winding staircase down two flights and then another hall, they began to smell the tempting aromas of fresh bread and succulent meats. Makenna's stomach cramped hard around the empty space inside it and then growled low and long. "Oh Light, that smells amazing. I wonder if they have any apple cider available?"

[Siera]

Lirievin Tesiva Liri couldn’t help but feel slightly embarrassed when Makenna said she wasn’t actually sure on her Ajah, it seemed so clear to Liri that Makenna would fit into Brown perfectly but everyone has their own thoughts and maybe Makenna was just seeing what it felt like to be Brown. But that didn’t matter now she had said what she said and now knew to keep a tighter lid on her thoughts, not everyone needed to know exactly what she was feeling at every moment.

Liri was soon distracted from her thoughts as she start recognizing where they were in the Tower, she knew they must have been close to the Kitchens as moments later all she could smell was freshly baked bread and other equally delicious scents from other meals. She heard Makenna’s stomach growl and her’s followed suit. That was one thing Liri loved about the Tower, the work was hard but everyone got 3 meals a day and the meals never disappointed, there was always something she knew she could just eat until she was fat.

“Apple Cider would be delicious right about now.” She said to Makenna as they walked closer, it took just about all she had to not rush past her and race to the kitchen. “But right about now I think I would eat just about anything. I didn’t realized just how hungry I was until we came within smelling range.” As they entered the eating area all the food was laid out for people to grab and Liri and Makenna stepped into line, not that there was much of one. With their plates piled high Liri started to walk towards an empty table, unsure if Makenna would follow her or not. Liri knew she wouldn’t mind the Novice’s company, but she left the choice up to Makenna

[Bree]

Makenna was staring down into her plate. She had piled it with roasted vegetables and meats and two whole sticky buns. She had a large mug of mulled cider in her other hand too. She wasn't paying attention to where she was going, just following the feet in front of her. She almost ran into the table as they approached it. Making a trajectory adjustment, she set down her food and took a sip of cider while inhaling deeply. The spicy, heady scent sent goose pimples running down her arms and she shivered and half closed her eyes. When she was that hungry, a strong scent was pure bliss.

Her closed eyes contributed to the confusion as someone around her suddenly started shouting. "AHHHH! It burns! No, no help!" Makenna stood stock still and opened her eyes again, the One Power filling her to bursting, and she looked around. She saw that she wasn't the only one. Most of the faces in the room where searching in confusion for the source of the very loud and very vehement exclamation.

Looking to her erstwhile companion Makenna asked, "Did you hear that?"

[Siera]

Lirievin Tesiva Liri gave a slight smile as Makenna sat down with her, although Liri was sure Makenna didn’t see it as she was looking down, she had almost run into the table after all. Liri had taken a few bites of her vegetables, they were delicious and Liri could have sworn they were the best thing she had eaten, but she was sure it was just the hunger talking not any common sense. The smells were so good that Liri had to force herself to eat slowly so she could savour it inside of over eat.

Liri was just about to cut her slice of meat when there was a loud scream. Liri dropped her fork and knife and shot up filling herself with the One Power, she kept herself from actually moving but her eyes searched the room furiously, panic slowly filling her. Any sort of pain took her back to that place and she did not want to actually go back there. A few others had stood up, including Makenna who Liri briefly looked at before nodding to her question.

“I did hear it.” she said tensely, she still was fighting the urge to get out of there incase something was happening. But this is the Grey Tower, if someone got in here there are plenty of Aes Sedai who would not allow this. Doing another sweep of the room Liri spotted a Novice who looked like she was crying gulping down water.

Liri nodded her head in that direction before sitting down again, “It was probably her, and she just put too much food in her mouth.”.

[Bree]

Makenna heard the scream and stood to seek the source of the problem. It was strange that so few had stood and there seemed to be some who hadn't reacted at all. Makenna looked over at the novice that Liri indicated and frowned. If it had been her, screaming from having too much food in her mouth... That didn't make sense. If her mouth had been full, there would be no way for her to have let out that scream. Makenna looked down at Liri and then back at the novice. "I don't think so."

She picked up a sticky bun from her plate and left the rest sitting there as she walked slowly toward where she had heard the scream come from. Looking around, the few faces still searching for the source of the scream seemed to be all looking toward the kitchen. The scream sounded again and this time, the same faces lifted and the same people jumped to their feet. Makenna was among them as they began to hurry forward toward the kitchen door.

[Siera]

Lirievin Tesiva Liri could still fell the hair on the back of her neck standing straight up. This whole thing had her nerves in a giant knot and she didn’t like it at all. If she could have run in the other direction she would but fear of the unknown kept her glued to her seat. Makenna didn’t think the girl with her mouth full of food was the source of the screaming, but Liri glanced back over in her direction when another scream sounded. Liri knew this time it was not from the girl as her mouth was too full to utter a word.

Liri looked over to where Makenna was, but she had moved away, towards the kitchen. Liri looked down at her plate which still had plenty of food on it, then back to Makenna. As much as Liri wanted to sit here and eat, no one knew why the girl was screaming and that scared Liri. Liri took one more quick bite before standing up and following Makenna, opening herself up to embrace the source as she walked.She knew she would probably get strange glances from others wondering why she had embraced the source for a simple scream but there was no way she was going to go in there unprepared.

[Bree]

As Makenna hurried toward the kitchens, through the door separating the cooking area from the dining area. She did not embrace the source as she was but a lowly novice and had no instructor to grant her permission in this situation, but she did have her cutting knife from her recent foray into filling her plate. She held it at the ready at her side as Mistress Bryne had shown her. Walking into the kitchen, accompanied by a few others from the dining area, the scene was pandemonium. There was little in the way of screaming or shouting as all of the cooks were being smothered by large masses of wet bread dough. The stuff was randomly flying off the beating board and attaching to the nearest face. Several cooks had grown unconscious already and were lying passed out on the floor.

As Makenna took in the scene, one of the cooks managed to rip the stuff off her face and threw it against the wall. The cook shrieked, much more loudly than the scream had sounded in the dining room. The dough, however, was not satisfied and bounced directly off the wall and straight at Makenna's face. She saw it coming and breathed in air as well as Saidar. It was one and the same. As she exhaled, she channeled Fire and baked the dough as it flew. It dropped to the floor and crusty crumbs slid toward her feet. Feeling the Power course through her, she baked the dough off the faces of the people on the floor first and ran to each ripping the bread off of their faces. She winced at the obviously burned skin beneath each even as she tsked at the under done bread. It was not a reaction she could have explained to even herself if she had tried.

Seeing the others who had followed her nod at her progress and attempt to imitate her efforts, Makenna dropped back to the door and let the higher rank channelers take over. She released the Source, hoping no one with the power to punish her, or the will to turn her in, had seen.