The Grey Tower

“One for books”, eh? He had never really thought about it before, that one small part of his early life, his noble upbringing… before his disinheriting. As a soldier he had endured the good natured joking by his fellow officers over his preference to sit in his tent and read rather than join in whatever game, be it cards, dice or stones, they were playing. He enjoyed learning about the past, gaining some insight into what brought them to this point in time… and the approach of Tarmon Gai'don. Light but let it be a long way off still!

Prewtez spared a glance at his traveling companion again. So, she was once a farm girl? That comment about hands in the earth, it could explain her unique way of speaking, at least unique to his ears. Even though some of his troopers came from as humble beginnings they usually dropped their colloquialisms quick enough, to avoid the constant teasing by their mates if nothing else. But it was interesting to note that Aes Sedai came from all different backgrounds. The One Power did not discriminate between noble and commoner.

“On the subject of bonding, Betrys,” he spoke as they again pushed their mounts to a trot, the foothills gaining in altitude as they advanced, “What does an Aes Sedai gain in the bonding? As a warder, the gaidin heals faster, gains stamina, alertness, even some dexterity as he or she becomes tied to a channeler. But if warders are only bound in order to protect the Aes Sedai, why need they bother? Could they not simply do as you have and be assigned a bodyguard when needed? I have heard it said that if one’s warder dies, his bond-mate suffers terribly.”

If nothing else came of this trip Prewtez felt that he would at least gain a better understanding of the women he had pledged to serve.

“I fear it will be even colder the higher we go, but we’ll build a good fire tonight which should ease the chill.”

She didn't mind being around someone who was clearly better educated (not that it was difficult to achieve) than she was or at least had more interest in things like books and the knowledge which they contained inside - she was worlds better than on her arrival but Betrys was still no kind of scholar, expect perhaps a poor one. Which was why made it so much easier for her to listen patiently to the information he possessed.

Betrys had always enjoyed the blessing of an excellent memory, one of the things that had needed to develop in direct response to the limited book learning and it had meant that Betrys was able to recall what she saw and heard with far more ease than others (most of the time) she was definitely not perfect.

"Yes, that is supposed to be true. I canna speak from a personal experience, mind. I hae never had a bond" she'd wondered about it but for the time being Betrys was not quite willing to actively seek one out for the duration which explained Prew and his presence here, she'd not have needed him had she already been appropriately and properly bonded "...for us, as I understand this, the bond is about making sure we are well. The One Power can do many things, Prew but we are vulnerable...for instance should I be Healing someone I would nae be able to notice harm coming to me. A Warder provides support, protection; there are our helpmates and closest friends. I canna really say more but wha I learned in the books and lessons" probably nothing more than he already knew in all honesty.

Betrys looked around at the landscape and back to him "Does that help at all?" she asked.

“Just confirms what I thought,” he laughed, Aes Sedai could not lie but the truth they told was not always what one thought they heard. “While I, or any other Gaidin or Gaidar, can provide the protection you need I imagine it is the other, the helpmate and friend that is most important to a Sister. That must be what they get from the bonding process. I suppose I am just a glorified bodyguard right now but, Light help me, Betrys, it is good to be away from the Tower and doing that for which I was trained.”

And that training seemed to be working as he again felt a sense of wrongness in the air. Looking about Prewtez gave a start as he spied a single raven perched in a nearby tree. The bird’s black eyes stared directly at the travelers before it squawked and took flight. Rats and ravens, said to be spies for the Dark Lord himself, could that have been the source of his alarm? But they were just going to Andor in order for the Aes Sedai to visit family, why would the Shadow express interest in that? Or was there more to this journey than just that? He thought again about Aes Sedai and the truth.

“Betrys, can you imagine any reason that Darkfriends, or worse, would be aware of our mission?” he did not want to alarm her but he needed to know, “Did you not just notice a raven watching us?”

Perhaps it was time to stop and camp for the night.

There was no guile or deceit intended in her response but she couldn't give anymore information about something which she ahd not personally experienced, even if the answer wasn't the one he might have wanted "It depends on the Sister and the gaidin..." she replied carefully "As fer the glorified? Well ya are certainly more than enough for me but I'm glad you're enjoying this...I am as well" Betrys hadn't realised how closed in her life had been since she had come to the Grey Tower.

While she had been able to make some visits to Hama Valon, that had petered off after the bar fight. She hadn't visited very often at all "I don't suppose I thought of you as a being a..." her words tapered off as she looked towards the sudden sense of wrong that seemed determined to push upon what had always been intended as a mundane and straightforward journey. The raven was not a bird which she was unfamiliar with from her early life in the village but this animal wasn't something she was comfortable with seeing or sensing, even if Betrys wasn't at all sure about why it seemed that the this bird wasn't like the others known before.

"No, not at all Prew. This is intended to be a visit home. My home...I doubt my returing tae my family could draw that sort of interest" or least she couldn't imagine what reason the Shadow would have to take any interest in this trip. It wasn't anything with a hidden agenda after all "...yes, I saw it" and she wasn't happy about it "Did it seem off to ya?" she asked.

The sky began to take on a reddish orange tint as the sun behind them made its way to the horizon. Although they had barely left the foothills and could not yet be said to have truly entered the Mountains of Mist proper, Prewtez thought it best they stop for the day. As Betrys had said, this was a trip home for her, there did not seem to be any urgency in their progress. Better not to push the horses, or themselves, too hard. With the weather appearing to hold, a leisurely pace did not seem problematic. Still, there was that raven… and his feeling of something not quite right. She seemed to sense it as well.

“Off to me? Perhaps, or maybe I’m just being the overly cautious ‘warder’,” a sheepish grin crossed his face, “After all, it is my charge to protect you on this journey.” Did those words just escape his lips? Light, but it sounded formal! Lighten up, man, he reminded himself.

Coming upon a clearing just a little ways off the road, he decided it would serve as a campsite for the night. After they had dismounted, Prewtez unsaddled the horses and relieved the pack horse of its burden. Placing feedbags of oats over the muzzles of the three beasts he set about hobbling them for the night. He turned to see that Betrys had the camp stove working and appeared to be brewing tea.

“I’ll make a quick check of our surroundings,” he told her before moving off to inspect the woods around them. Returning, he took a seat on the ground near the Aes Sedai as she handed him a cup of tea.

“I imagine you haven’t been home since you came to the Tower. Are you excited at the prospect?” he hadn’t been told how long she planned to visit her family, not that it mattered, “Though I, too, am Andoran, I don’t really have a home to visit; no one really. Does your family know you are coming?”

She attempted to recall the village that she had called home as a child, it was a small place, one where the most exciting event was who managed to drink the most or spending time discussing the various pieces of gossip about just who was the real father of Ellaie's babe and other such news. It was a small place, one where the news of attacks by Trollocs arrived months if not years after the fact. There was nothing about it that could possibly be of interest to the Shadow or even the Darkfriends who watched for them.

Bertys was just not that interesting, at least she couldn't believe she was. Let alone the place where she'd been born.

"You sound terribly serious...should I be worried?" Betrys wasn't being completely sincere, mostly because she really didn't want to give over to worrying about what might be going on, let alone what it meant. It would only end up creating stress and tension and that was the last thing she needed to introduce into this journey - it was supposed to be ...well fun, wasn't the best word but it wasn't completely unsuitable "I trust yer tae that then" she agreed, drawing her horse up to halt and then slipping down from the animal and proceeding to lead it the rest of the way into the clearing.

As he left to do the...well whatever he needed to do. Betrys set about breaking camp, which included making fire, clearing debris and laying out bedrolls for later. She also didn't forget the horses, rubbing her own down after removing the tack and then doing the same to his own. By the time Prew was back, not only was tea brewing but she'd put a small pot of meat, vegetables and a few herbs onto cook. It wasn't much, but the dried meat would soften with the addition of the water that had been added and the vegetables would need to be eaten before they spoiled "Excited and nervous...and nae. My kin are nae readers, would be little point in sending word when none of them could read it - is the tea alright?" she'd been tempted to ask about the scouting but if anything had been there he would have mentioned it.

"Hae ya gone back?" she asked, sipping from he cup.

The aroma from the cookpot was making his mouth water. A surprising change from the dried meat, hard bread and cheese he had been expecting. And the tea was wicked good, a fact he was quick to thank her for.

Taking another sip, Prewtez thought for a moment before responding.

“Betrys, there is nothing for me to go back to. My family more or less disowned me, if I ever belonged in the first place, and it seems my second family, the military, may have done so as well. There have been some strange goings on with the Queen’s Guard of late, resignations, transfers, and, as in my case, discharges. No, nothing to go back to,” he smiled to let her know he was over it all and did not expect sympathy. The Grey Tower was his family now, that was all that mattered.

Eyeing the pot over the fire, he added “I’ve had a lot of campfire meals in my life but I can’t recall one smelling quite so good as what you have cooking. Do you do a lot in the kitchen?” his familiarity with meal preparation was limited indeed. Growing up in a noble house there were cooks that prepared the meals, of course. And while he might have raided the kitchen for some warm bread or hot cakes, he had paid scant attention to the work being done. In the Andoran military he either ate what was served in the mess or what troopers could come up with in the field. Thankfully they had proven better soldiers than cooks!

As he took a bowl of the stew, the taste equally or even surpassing the smell, he asked her “Betrys, do you know any wards you can set on our camp tonight. I can stay up on watch but could use at least a couple hours of sleep. Tomorrow we should be able to spend the night at an inn.”

She acknowledged the compliment with a soft smile. This wouldn't last; soon enough it would be hard biscuit, cheese and some very dry bread but Betrys certainly hoped that they would be able to round it out slightly during their journey. Betrys might not be familiar with the whole route but it wasn't uninhabited so there really shouldn't be any specific issue, unless harvests had been bad and no word had reached the Tower to suggest that had or would be the case.

So...it shouldn't be too terrible.

This first night though would be the exception rather than the normal and Betrys was pleased that he appeared to appreciate her efforts to make the meal a success "No need tae thank me, this is the only night likely tae be quite like this" as he replied to her question she could only nod. In truth, she had no idea of what sort of welcome she'd receive on returning but she had to go back.

"Nae so much since I came to the Tower, but I learned tae cook from my mother. She taught all us girls" nothing new there "And I like plants" she added, it was fairly common knowledge about her knack with the garden by now. That and the rumours that persisted about the Trolloc plants and just who had brought them to be. She was an Aes Sedai and that was no longer an option, well not on that scale at least. She still worked on her side projects and what else caught her interest in learning more about the One Power and what she could make it accomplish. The fact it seemed to mesh so well with her own interests with the Yellow Ajah only added weight to the fact that she had made the right choice in choosing to join their number.

Betrys nodded again, taking her own bowl "I hae some basic wards" things taught to most but she'd never been someone who'd sought mastery of such things. That was one of her failing. Holding the bowl, she drew easily on the warmth of saidar shaping threads within her mental scope, ones that relied more on the Earth than most but no less effective for all that, she made sure that they should sound an alarm clear enough to announce the encroach of danger onto their location "Did you notice anything?" Betrys asked, shifting part of her focus back to him.

It wasn’t that he was disappointed to learn they could not eat like this every night, he realized their supplies had to get them to Baerlon, still a good two to three days out. Still, he appreciated that Betrys had made the effort to prepare something above and beyond his expectations for their first night out.

“I sometimes wonder what nobles would do if their servants simply up and left them,” after all, not likely any noble women had been taught to cook as girls by their mother or anyone else! “How would they cook, or care for their horses, or, in some cases, even dress themselves?” Prewtez chuckled in spite of himself at the thought of his half-brother doing any of those things. “I suppose it is a symbiotic relationship, that between the common people and the noble born. The former provide food and services while the latter offer order and protection.” At least, that was what he had been taught growing up, though he knew it as a one-sided point of view.

Sopping up the last of the stew with his bread, Prewtez set about rinsing out the bowl. “Did I notice anything? The oddity is what I didn’t notice. No sight or sounds of any wildlife near us; no foxes, squirrels, rabbits, not even a redwing. It could be our nearness to the road I suppose but it is good you have placed a ward, just in case.” He didn’t want to alarm her, it was most likely nothing, just him being overly cautious. But that was what Gaidins did. He thought again of the old adage ‘an ounce of prevention’… nothing was likely to take him by surprise this night.

“I’ll stand watch for a few hours just in case, but I’m confident we are safe here.”

Betrys nodded slowly a small soft chuckle escaping her at his comments about the nobility "I am not sure that the nobles would be all that interested in seeing things in that perspective - although I've not actually met any..." she mused, not wanting to sound like she was judging him but inclined to hold onto the subtle bias that remained in the heart of the brewer's daughter that she had always been "But that could be applied tae other matters...though not as unequally. I imagined that the Warder and Aes Sedai need one another tae be properly whole and effective" Betrys shrugged her mind and attention drifting back from the conversation as she put down her plate to stand up.

The One Power made everything seem so much more alive as she began to walk around the edges of their camp. She would need to look at mastering some more specific wards and actually learning about them properly but she used her knowledge of plants and the Earth to touch with Weaves of Earth, Water and Spirit to make sure that they should have some protection.

"I'll help out as well..." she added coming back towards him "I dinnae sleep long, always up early so nae bother - that should help, hmm?" she suggested and started to gather up the remains of the meal and began to clean it up. Old habits that had been ingrained since she was child and now served her well in making sure that the camp was in some kind of proper order before she sought her rest.