Polishing The Silverware, oh fun! (Open)

[Lou]

It was becoming safe to say that Ember was getting quite sick and tired of all the chores they were piling on her. She knew why she was getting them, and that she deserved them, and that they were not going to stop any time soon. But that did not mean she had to enjoy them, did it. Today she was sent to the kitchens, and was set polishing all the silverware they was used in both the Aes Sedai and Asha'men's dining room, and for the personal trays that some of them ate off of too. It was better than scrubbing the floors, she knew that much, but also worse as the smell of the wax kept making her sneeze.

Urgh, what sweet torture this was.

With a sigh, Ember continued on, trying to not sneeze, or get any marks on her white dress. She had braided her hair that morning, and used a white ribbon as a head back to keep the more annoying curls out of her face. She was tired, hungry and bored. She was even thinking about trying to slip away and finding a corner to curl up in for some sleep.

[Bree]

Makenna didn't care how long someone had worn the shawl. When they were wrong, they were wrong. Yes, but I do not always have to be the one to point it out to them.

Sighing and tugging at the neckline of the Accepted dress she opened the door to the storage cupboard where the dishes and silver and other implements of the kitchen were kept. It was called a cupboard but the room was three times the size of the one in which she slept each night. Sitting at the table in the center of the room was a novice, slouching in a weary fashion and doing a pathetic job of polishing silver. Makenna arched her eyebrows and rolled her eyes. Not my child, not my problem. She turned to the basket of table cloths and napkins that needed mending and began to sort through them by color. She had found a larger number of yellow first so she began to make a pile, and once she had enough to make it worth threading the needle, she moved the pile to the other end of the table. She took her small sewing kit from her belt pouch and found a neutral yellow thread.

Once she had the needle threaded and was speedily and skillfully darning, patching and hemming, she finally said, "Hello." She didn't expect the child to be interesting or intelligent but it was better to give her the chance. Makenna was well into her own forty-second year and no longer cared if anyone believed she was intelligent or ill-tempered or talented or otherwise. But there are advantages to having a reputation for being likeable.

[Lou]

Ember did not look up when the door opened, she guessed it would be the evil Accepted who had been set to watch over her, Mia, who had once been a friend when she had been a Novice, but now she was the poster child for ultimate power corrupted ultimately. So, on the assumption of it being the raven haired vixen, Em did not sit up straight, or even put more effort into her punishment. Her fingers ached now, and her skin smelt of the polish she had been given to use. She was sure there was a less stinky option for her to use, but Mia had given her his one. Flaming goat-kissing bint! She sighed, and then realised that whoever it was that had come to look inside had not left.

Tilting her head slightly, Em looked up through her lashes and spied an older looking woman in an Accepted dress. That did make Em's eyebrows twitch upwards, but she looked back to her work quickly as the woman seemed to be sitting down with a stack of yellow linens. Oh great, company! She inwardly sighed, and continued on with the candlestick in her hand. When a 'hello' permeated the air between them, Ember looked up surprised. She had not expected that from an Accepted. "Hello Accepted." She was remembered the honorific, see, she was learning.

[Bree]

How about that. A quiet novice. Makenna assumed that the quiet of the other woman probably indicated that she thought she was not allowed to talk. Makenna pondered her own feelings on the subject for a time. Do I want to give her permission to speak or do I want her to stay silent?

After a time, when her thoughts were not soothed entirely by the rhythmic movement of the needle and thread, Makenna asked, "Are you in penance or a regularly scheduled chore? By the smell of the polish, it is a penance. You can exchange it for the lemon scented in the cupboard just there behind you; if you want to."

[Lou]

Em had no idea what was going on in the Accepted's head, but then who did? She could never see herself in one of those banded dresses, it would be far too strange, and there was no way she could be as much of a Wool-head as some of them were. She did not want any power, cause if she turned into one of those power hungry maniacs then she would have to throw herself off the top of the Tower. Maybe even visit the Amyrlin too while she was at it. Maybe she would also sing a song on her way down. When the Accepted asked her a question, Em looked up and paused a moment before answering. Maybe this was a test, to see if she was trying to shirk her duties.

"A regular penance." She answered with a small grin to herself. "I ran away, and then I got brought back. And given enough punishments and chores to see me through until I am about....ninety." She looked back down t the polish and then back up to the woman before her. "Oh, thank you. But Mia ...Accepted Mia will no doubt be unhappy to see me using the nicer stuff as she gave me this stuff." She sighed, wondering if the other Accepted knew of Mia, surely everyone did.

[Bree]

Makenna eyed the noisome polish in front of the novice and considered taking the option from her by exchanging it herself. It was... objectionable. But she had endured much worse in the course of raising and disciplining her children. She raised and lowered her eyes in one of those dismissive gestures of impatience she had picked up from other Accepted since arriving at the Tower. She began stitching one of the cloth napkins. She pinched the seam together and ran her needle in and out of it six times before pulling it through entirely. Once more and the entire rip was closed. A spiraling, running stitch down the length of the seam brought her back to the beginning and in under two minutes she was tying off the thread and snipping it loose. Reaching for the second napkin in the pile, she looked back to the novice.

Makenna had spent more than twenty years as a seamstress. The minor chore she was completing now did not require her full attention, or even for her to look at what she was doing. Looking instead at the novice, she began to channel the barest flows of Water at the items in the novice's pile of finished work; a small silver goblet particularly. Tiny bubbles of condensation began to bead up on the surface of the silver. Makenna released the threads of Water and replaced it with a tiny flow of Fire to quickly dry the little bubbles leaving tiny dark spots like freckles all over the goblet. The novice of course could see everything she was doing, but Makenna just released the Source once she had completed her little prank and smiled in pure glee at the incredulous look on the novice's face. "Runaway, you say?"

[Lou]

Ember did not feel entirely comfortable in the small room now the Accepted had come in, but the woman, the much older woman, seemed focused on her sewing, and that was good. But Ember still peeked up every now and again, watching the woman through her dark red lashes. And when she felt the other woman embracing Saidar next to her, Em did look up and noticed the water and and fire at her own small pile of polished silverware. She watched astonished as she ruined the pile before her eyes, and then smiled to her as if butter wouldn't melt. Em gritted her teeth together, and met her eyes, her own dancing with emerald fire. She wanted to reach over and smack the woman in the mouth, and she would, if she did not think she would break too many bones in the old woman's face. When the woman asked about running away, Em just continued to meet her eyes, her own hands moving over the silverware in her hand.

"Yes, I did." Em replied, still fighting the urge to lash out as she was known to do. Or maybe this silly old bat didn't know it. And while she continued to do her job, she was thinking over all the wonderful things she would now do to the older woman, her and that Mia both. She smiled then, her own version of that sickly sweet smile that the old bat had just given her. "And I had a wonderful time while I was away from the Tower. Convorted with all kinds of people, drank, danced, told stories, lived a wonderful life." It was all a lie, of course, but that was what the woman obviously thought or wanted to hear. Itching powder, water buckets, misdirected letters and rota's, oohhh forkroot. Her mind was flying over what she would do to this woman over the next few months, she would make her so, so sorry for what she just did, for making a bad situation a lot worse.

[Bree]

Makenna heard the slight squeak of the higher pitch of the lie. She saw the tinge of color of the young woman's irritation. She lowered her eyes back to her needlework. "Of course you did. So, why did you come back then? Were you dragged back kicking and screaming? How far did you get? Did you make it all the way to the Sea of Storms or did you stop at the first tavern that would give you a mug for a flip of your skirt?" She didn't bother to look back up. She could feel the heat of the other woman's anger rolling off of her and across the table.

Makenna really didn't handle silly chits very well. She was even less patient since her own silly child had been so rudely kidnapped. She sighed. "I sincerely doubt that running away was all that charming an experience. Why did you do it? What was the important thing that had you leave your training with the possibility that even coming back, they might not ever let you learn more?" Makenna looked up then and took pity on the wretch. Channeling Earth and Fire, she brushed the goblet in a spiraling ropework and the spots vanished.

OOC: I am sorry it took me so long to answer. I got caught in real life and it has been tough. Makenna is not really so bad, just angry and bitter in her sadness.

[Lou]

Ember was glowering like her name may suggest, she was almost hot with loathing and the need to strike out and have revenge on the harridan before her. It just went to prove to her that all Accepted could not be trusted. They let the power go to their heads in the worst possible way, and she was starting to loath them all. Makenna's words, calling her a flip-skirt made her grit her teeth together, but yet she refused to answer. What was the point, the woman would think what she would think. Let them all think what they would think. She needed none of them, she was fine on her own.

When the woman's tone then changed, and she began to ask her questions and not in an accusatory tone, Ember looked up at her, meeting her own eyes as she looked up. She watched as the woman undone what she had done to the silverware she had already polished, and Ember sighed. Could she trust this woman, should she? "I needed to find my Father, I had to ask him why..." She paused, she knew it would only take someone to break into the Mistress of Novices room and check through the files to know the truth. Who cared now. "He pretty much sold me to the Aes Sedai for a bag of coins. I needed to ask him how he could do that." She worked to keep her voice stable, "And then when I finally found him he told me I was not even his. He just found me, and decided to keep me." She shrugged, anger seeping back into her voice. "And then I was dragged back here, kicking and screaming all the way."

There, let her choke on that.

[Bree]

Makenna studied her thread for a moment. She and the other women of the village had intervened a few times over the years when a child was not being taken care of. Once, a merchant had come through with a foundling boy and tried to sell the child saying only a family with the coin to reimburse him for the care and feeding of the toddler would be able to care for him. The women had set upon the merchant with bags of grain and cheese and a cask of wine and taken the boy from him. He had died during the fevers but before that he was well cared for by the innkeeper's sister. She was a sour woman with no husband who blossomed into motherhood. She had married and had two more babes before that fever. What had that boy's name been? Gil? It had been a few years.

"I supposed that you needed to put that behind you. I hope that you have. You can't make decisions for others and you can't make your decisions based on the bad choices of others. At least that man saw you safe to a place where you can become Aes Sedai. Think on it now. Would you really have preferred that he kept you and you had never known the joy and awe of channeling the One Power? I think you will see that you owe that man a debt of gratitude." Makenna didn't think the girl would see it that way but she had to plant the seed. It was her nature. She didn't like seeing weakness in anyone, especially when it was based on the fault of someone else entirely. She glanced up from her stitchwork to determine if the expression she would see would be thoughtful or petulant. She couldn't decide.

Sighing she shrugged. "Either way, kicking and screaming is no way to travel. You were out and you were seeing things that you have not before. If you were smart, you would have taken the opportunity, even as a captive run-away, to enjoy the journey. What new sights did you see? Did you get a look at any of the Seanchan that seem to be invading every land west of Andor? Did you see any of the Aiel that have appeared all over the civilized world? Honestly, if you were out and adventuring, the smallest unpleasantness of your foster father being disappointing should not have been enough to entirely ruin it."

Makenna thought she would hope that someone would remind her own child to find the wonder and enjoy whatever she could even as a leashed Damane. There were some things in her power and other things that were not. She hoped remembering to smile remained in Maleia's power. Suddenly she wondered and then decided to experiment at the same time. Channeling a tiny thread of Air, she threaded it through the cloth before her and attached it to the end of a piece of thread. Pulling ever so gently, she watched as the thread was pulled into a long stitched seam with almost no effort and taking only moments where using a pin would have taken twenty minutes or more. She smiled vaguely but inwardly she was laughing with exultation. Oh yes child, you most certainly should be grateful that you were able to find your way here to learn.