Golden Brown and Other Rich Shades

[Bree]

Makenna walked with a stately grace born of the confidence of one who knew her own mind. She was fairly certain, and had been for some time that she would join the Brown Ajah when she was raised to Aes Sedai. At least before she joined the Black. She knew who she was and she had Asha'man Rory to thank for it for the most part. He had been a wonderful supporter of her curiosity and had never once suggested that she should not pursue the answers to the questions she wanted to ask.

Today she would sit with him in his study and again have one of those comfortable conversations with no boundaries to her curiosity. But today it was to be specifically regarding what it meant to be a Brown. Rory had said that they would be joined by a Dedicated as well. The young man who had married that firey young Mistress of Training. They were sickeningly sweet together, from what she had seen, and she thought such a young man must either be a complete push over or a very confident bull. Neither was a particularly pleasant prospect but Rory had said he was a friend and Makenna respected Rory's opinions.

She approached the Asha'man's door and paused to brush her skirts and straighten her hair. She would have blushed when she realized what she was doing if she had been a younger woman. As it was the realization made her smile and lift her chin, daring herself to make a single snide comment in her own mind. She knocked and waited.

[Zack]

Zacharyn was surprised with himself. He was typically quite nervous when it came to meetings regarding his future and those who outranked him, but a few hours with Rory and the....wizened Accepted Makenna Grenaldi seemed relaxing and like it would be enjoyable. Zacharyn was already present in Rory's quarters watching the old man toddle back and forth seeming to be busy, but all Zacharyn could see him do was comb his thinning hair and straighten various piles of books about his room.

"Ahh! That's what it was." Rory murmured just loud enough for Zacharyn to make it out as he walked into the other room of his cozy apartment. Just as Rory left the room, a knock sounded at the door and assuming it was the Accepted, Zacharyn made to answer the door for the missing Asha'man.

Zacharyn opened the door and was greeted with the confident visage of Makenna Grenaldi. She was obviously quite certain of herself, and exuded that confidence nearly through the door before he opened it.

"Good Morning Accepted Makenna." Zacharyn said bowing politely. "Rory Asha'man stepped into the other room for a moment, but he should be back with us shortly." Zacharyn finished with a smile and stepping aside while gesturing for Makenna to enter. "I'm looking forward to the chance to speak with you and Asha'man Rory today. This is much more relaxed than the meetings I've had with the Indigos." Zacharyn said laughing softly.

[Bree]

Makenna graced the Dedicated with a small but warm smile and stepped into the room. She breathed in the scent of Rory and his home and her smile broadened. The scent of books and inks and something that she couldn't identify but seemed familiar made her feel calm and happy. "Thank you. It's Zacharyn, right? How has married life been treating you?"

At that moment, the distinguished Asha'man Rory entered the room with a harrumphing and chortle that preceded a very genuine smile when he saw her. "Makenna, Dear. I am so glad you were able to come. I do not think Zacharyn here will be truly swayed to the cause of the Browns even with one such as I to teach him about field study but of you there is no doubt." He took her by one hand and led her to an overstuffed arm chair to one side of a large open balcony door.

The breeze of the early spring night curled in through the door bringing the scent of lilacs and something spicy. The damp warmth was refreshing after the cold of the winter. Makenna was pleased to see the Asha'man welcomed the change of season into his suite. "Thank you for hosting us, Asha'man. I am fairly confident of my choice as well however it is always a good idea to check on the details before one makes the commitment."

Rory nodded and hummed his assent in acknowledgement. "True and well said. Come join us here Zacharyn, my Boy." He gestured to another of the overstuffed chairs and took one directly in front of the open door and between the other two. "Do either of you have any specific questions to get us started?"

[Zack]

"What do the Brown stand for? What drives the research done by the Brown Ajah of the Grey Tower? Why did you decide it would be in your best interest to become a member of the Brown Ajah?" A flurry of questions geysered forth from the Dedicated's mouth. All after he had taken a seat in the overly fluffed arm chair. Zacharyn had initially sat back in the chair, but realized it was intended for... long hours of study, and quickly extricated himself from its embrace.

Sitting on the end of the chair Zacharyn looked curiously at Rory, waiting on the reply to his questions. Rory had never judged him for his bursts of questions and had always actually encouraged him to do it quite often when they had the chance to speak to one another as student and teacher. It was a pleasing feeling to Zacharyn. He remembered having even received disapproval from his family for that particular trait of his.

"Oh!" Zacharyn began as an after thought. "Makenna why do you feel the Brown is the Ajah that you're best suited for?" Zacharyn gave the Accepted the same curious look and waited patiently for the pair to answer his questions....or to ignore him, as they seemed intent on one another.

[Bree]

Makenna lowered her eyes and grinned down at her lap at the assessment of her intentions and felt a brief moment of pain in her chest at the knowledge that she would betray this man's trust. Zacharyn had a gush of youthful and enthusiastic questions and Makenna found herself agreeing with the question posed to Rory. She was on the brink of adding her own question of interest regarding Rory's draw to the Brown ajah when Zacharyn addressed her directly. "I spent most of my life living simply in a small village and I never had cause to question much outside of the farms that surrounded it. I discovered more than I had ever imagined possible when I arrived here. I feel that the Brown is the place that will best encourage my ability to continue to explore everything that I have yet to discover." She turned to Rory. "In all of our long talks, you have never shared with me the reason for your joining the Brown. I can see that you fit there well but I am interested to know how you came to it."

Rory smiled and began to prepare three cups of tea with diffusers stuffed with dried berries, mint and black tea. Channeling to heat the water in the pot, Rory poured while he began to speak. "My time as a Brown began long before I ever learned to channel. I was a vast failure and disappointment in every venture I tried as a child. My parents must have bribed the local craftsmen to take me on as an apprentice. I tried everything. It was a trick of the Wheel that gave me the chance to go to work in the great Terhanna Library and my Thread found its place. When I finally arrived here at the Tower, I sought the Library first. It was the desire to return to the stacks and scrolls that brought me here to this Tower to begin with. There was never really any other choice."

Rory dipped his diffuser in and out of the hot water watching the color spread as it dripped into the cup. Makenna took her cup from him, "Thank you." She added a thin slice of lemon to her cup and then frowned at it and asked, "You have a tendency to explore and push the boundaries of good sense in your pursuit of the understanding of the Shadow. Did you ever consider the Green?"

Rory smiled recalling his visit to the Green ajah and his interview with the Aes Sedai that had convinced him that he would never be a Green.

Rory sat uncomfortably on the hard wooden bench facing the woman who the Green ajah had sent to interview him. She was young. Not just young looking but truly young, not even fifty years old yet, and she did a poor job of disguising her skepticism when she peered at Rory's aged visage. "The Green ajah is the Battle Ajah. We train and prepare ourselves to fight, not just with the One Power but with the weapons of our bodies and our minds. Forgive me if I offend you but there is no denying that your body is old and far beyond the prime of life that would be best suited to training."

Rory had agreed in so far as that was concerned but had pressed his conviction that his studies and knowledge would be valuable. "I truly believe that I can be useful in a fight, putting my understanding of the enemy to work to create more effective Weaves..." It had proved fruitless. The Green's eyes had glittered with stifled mirth. She did not see the use nor believe in his ability to create such Weaves.

"I considered them. They were not really appreciative of my skills at the time." He sipped his tea. "The Brown ajah members direct their own studies and we all have our own areas of expertise. As you both are aware, I am a Shadow Specialist. No matter what each of us study, it is the pursuit of truth, facts and knowledge that drive us. Zacharyn, if you were to join the Brown, what do you think would be your field of study?"

[Zack]

"I am no philosopher, but I feel like I would enjoy studying the dualities of the Wheel. Light and Shadow. The Creator and the Dark One. Weaves of the One Power that have the ability to fall to either fruition or ruin depending on their usages. I feel like there would be a fair bit of enlightenment had if any given group of people could just stop and really see what good there is in their actions, but also what evil could come from them."

Zacharyn took a sip of the steaming cup of tea Rory had handed him and pondered briefly about what he was talking about. "I suppose that would only be if I were researching for a purely scholarly focus. Otherwise I would probably fall back into my tendency to study and understand crafting materials and their improvement. I feel like there is far more potential in power wrought metals and cuendillar than the trifling things they're currently being used for.

"I suppose I have taken growing up in the manner that I did for granted. The Borderlands tend to be a rather aggressive place to live in, coupled with traveling with my father to produce metal finery for royals produced a very... peculiar learning environment for me. I knew that there were people who just didn't travel far from home, but it never occurred to me that would mean they were cut off from the rest of the world."

[Bree]

Rory nodded, "The study of the differences between the Light and the Shadow are dear to me. I would welcome you as a fellow researcher in that field. Your knowledge and expertise in metal craft, however, is invaluable. Rory turned his gaze back to Makenna. Her beautiful face always made him hum with happiness. "You and I have discussed many points of philosophy in the past weeks. You have a mind that is suited for the White if you so choose. If you do join the Brown, do you know what area you are most likely to choose to study?"

Makenna sipped her tea, feeling the steam pass through her sinuses and the scent of the lemon tickle her nose. She thought a moment and nodded. "I believe I would like to study languages and music. The old tongue and the language of the Ogier and even the trolloc tongue are all quite fascinating. I think it would be more than worth my time to study them in more depth. I could translate some of the scrolls from the old vaults, the things that were retrieved from those deep sea Gateways." She was gratified to see Rory's eyebrows lift in appreciation at the proposed endeavor. "I have Dreamed of it." She paused to be sure they both understood she was speaking of her Talent. "I have Dreamed of being able to speak and converse fluently in the Old Tongue. I have Dreamed of things that I think mean that I will be able to understand trolloc speech." Rory's eyebrows tried to crawl away over his forehead at that. "I have also Dreamed of myself dancing in a strange, fluid and precise way. Only once but it was certain." Makenna frowned and sipped her tea again. "I don't know what it means exactly but..." She shook herself and offered a smile between the two men.

She asked Zacharyn then, "Do you think there is a use for Power Wrought metals and Cuendillar that does not revolve around weaponry?" she had a thought and she grinned, "What do you think your warrior wife will think if you are a quiet Brown researcher, sitting neatly away from trouble and keeping her out of the fray as well?"

[Zack]

Listening to Makenna speak on her preferred areas of study, Zacharyn couldn't help but nod with appreciation himself for her interest in music and languages. Zacharyn had always enjoyed listening to all the accents he came across as he went from country to country. Zacharyn couldn't remember ever hearing a trolloc speak anything other than Common tongue however, so he was quite interested in what their native language would sound like.

"When Ubriel and I were still in Cairhien, I heard stories from the people around her hometown. They said the Dragon had created a place near the castle in Cairhien itself where people were creating things and even had wagons that would move by themselves. Imagine the implications of power wrought metals being used in something like that. All the speed of a horse without the need to feed it. All the durability of metals produced by smith's from the Age of Legends, fueling commerce and trade. Not only that, but reading through the stacks I found several things referenced in older texts about glowing balls and flying carts, etc... that I think are just things that were derived from power wrought steels and cuendillar."

Pausing for a second Zacharyn couldn't help but laugh at the thought in his head. "I don't think Ubriel would take well to the...stationary lifestyle of a Brown. I believe cabin fever has a permanent place in that girl's head. If she doesn't have some movement she'll go crazy." Zacharyn said giggling softly at his wife's expense. It was all in good fun though, he didn't mean anything ill by it.

"How often is research able to enter the area of experimentation Asha'man?"

[Bree]

Rory opened a small carved wooden box on a table between them and pulled out a pipe and a bag of Tabac. Methodically cleaning and stuffing the pipe, Rory answered, "Oh as often as one would like. I think the only limit that I have seen on experimentation is resourcing the given experiment. For instance, any experiments I would like to do on a trolloc or myrddraal would necessarily require that I actually have one or more of said creatures in hand. The Brown Ajah Head and Sitters would of course be able to call a halt to any experiment they deemed to dangerous but I have never heard of that happening." He paused, "Though I believe Latisia Sedai was asked to conduct an experiment far away from the Tower for safety. I don't know what it involved but they are usually pretty hands off."

Makenna listened to the men and pondered what she would do as a Brown. Her serious interest in the Old Tongue and in translation had surprised her when she discovered it. She had begun several weeks after being raised to Accepted combing through the old scrolls of poetry and found that many of them were in the Old Tongue. The ones she had found at first were already translated but the flow and cadence of the original poems in the Old Tongue were vastly more elegant than the modern interpretations. She had begun writing her own poetry and then sought out other writings in the Old Tongue. She had started reading them for their sound and beauty more than their meaning but she had since found that she also wanted to know their meaning. Learning the Old Tongue was a slow process but she was gaining finesse and agility with it a little at the time.

Rory stood and stepped over to the doors of the balcony. The chill had grown in the air as the evening had deepened and he pulled the doors closed. "I remember when I realized that the Brown was going to be my home. It was not long after I was made Dedicated here. The Green was... not welcoming. And the kind of unlimited access to the resources of the Library that I wanted and needed, not to mention an allotment of research laboratory rooms, meant that I would need to be a Brown. The Brown control both, save what the Indigo possess. I was not discouraged by the realization, it just made things more obvious." Rory made his way back to his chair. "I do need to begin to find a bondmate that shares my intellectual proclivities and is willing to risk their lives in the pursuit of the understanding of the Shadow." By the end of his speech, he was mostly muttering to himself but clearly and with the projection of an orator.

Makenna sipped her tea once more and then set the cup down on the table. "This has been a fascinating interview. I believe however that I should be going." She stood and turned for the door.

[Zack]

Realizing the amount of time that had passed, Zacharyn also stood."I also need to be going. I didn't realize exactly how long it had been. Asha'man, thank you for your time today. You've given me a fair bit to think about and discuss with my wife." Bowing respectfully to the old Asha'man, Zacharyn also turned for the door.

"Accepted, may I get the door for you?" Zacharyn asked as he had already moved toward the swinging object in question. The subjects at hand had seemed to fly by in an instant, but Zacharyn was reeling at the amount of time that had actually passed. He still had alot of things to be doing and didn't realize how long they had been enjoying one another's conversations.

Reaching the door and pulling it open for the Brown to be, Zacharyn waited patiently for her to make her exit. Standing there though, he felt he may be being a bit rude, and began to squirm slightly at the thought of having offended Makenna or Rory with his gesture.