The Grey Tower

Zarayne shook her head. "First sisters either share the same mother, or have been made first sisters by the Wise Ones. I have a sister, but she is not my first sister." She frowned. "I don't think Kaira Darrow would have me for a first sister. As for where I am from, I am Aiel." She pulled a few strands of red hair over the front of her face. "I thought this and the height gave it away."

The novice listened without comment on Alrim's opinion on Ravak Darrow. He is sad? He had looked remorseful once her sister had slipped silently away, but aside from that he seemed warm and friendly. The sadness was something she would look out for. Wetlanders did lie, and Ravak Darrow's speech about knowing nothing about her could have been a ruse. It seems unlikely, but it was possible.

When conversation turned to the other apprentices, Zarayne clammed up. She refused to even acknowledge the question, much less answer it. She would not be shamed into admitting her frustrations at Accepted Belaida's tutelage. That was between herself and Belaida, and if a third person needed to be involved, she would have chosen Vanya Sedai beyond all others. Wise Ones' business was between Wise Ones, and the same seemed true for Aes Sedai.

Despite the fact that she was ignoring his question, she noticed the way Alrim held his shoulder and the wince that accompanied it. Her mother's kitchen was filled with remedies for all manner of ailments, when she didn't simply use the One Power to heal. Zarayne wondered if the Gardens had the correct herbs and flowers needed to put together an unction to sooth the pain.

She brightened at the mention of not being found. Admittedly she had chosen this spot so that she would be happened upon eventually, but the punishment from the Mistress of Novices wouldn't drastically change for the addition of a few more hours of freedom. "The Gardens? Absolutely, please. Lead the way!"

The Aielwoman had not been to the Gardens before and it showed on her face. In Shienar, she and her mother had cultivated a small variety of flowers and herbs in the rear room of their house. They had to be indoors, either due to their fragility, or to protect against the cold snaps that killed even the hardiest of trees. Some of her mother's tinctures could only be acquired from merchants, but she made great use of the plants she did have, and Zarayne had spent a lot of time with them, learning about how their grew and what they were good for.

But this. It was more colour than Zarayne had seen in her entire life, or so it seemed. Her fingers brushed over purple flowers and orange flowers and yellow flowers. There were trees so different in appearance that she wondered if they were some other types of flora she'd never come across before. There was one that looked like a frozen waterfall of yellow leaves. Attaching words and descriptions of some of the plant life seemed impossible, but the way Alrim calmly took it all in convinced her that this was all an acceptable reality, and not a conjuration of the Dreaming World.

Zarayne smiled broadly. "No, I haven't! It's wonderful!" She let anxiousness fade away and gave into the wonder of it all. She stepped off the pathway and moved amongst some flower beds. The edges of her skirt picked up more dirt, as well as the occasional petal. Her slippered steps were deftly placed, never intruding too close to any of the life underfoot.

She skipped back onto the path in front of Alrim, beaming from cheek to cheek. "Thank you! I didn't know all of this existed! It's beautiful." The wild abandonment made her reach out and grab one of Alrim's hand in both of hers, as she pulled him after her.

Or that had been her intent. Instead as she started to pull on the Drin's arm, forgotten pain flared across her shoulders and upper arms. She realised her grip as she cringed from the pain, which led to her next problem. Zarayne had no time to react as she fell backwards, no longer counterbalanced by Alrim's weight. She hit the ground with a grunt, then heard the sound of stone cracking against the back of her head. Her sight blurred; foliage danced at the edges of her vision, and even the sky seemed wrong.

Almost as soon as she was sprawled on her back, the Aiel was trying to pull herself up. The pain in her arms were forgotten, but there was no strength in them to hoist herself up. She raised one forearm, bent at the elbow, with the rest of her arm flat on the ground. Her fingers wriggled. "Alrim?" she groaned groggily. "Help me up?"

Convenience would have dictated that the Infirmary should have been located on the northern side of the ground floor of the Grey Tower, closest to the Warder Yards. But tradition was tradition, so instead it resided eight stories up amongst other rooms set aside from Ajah-specific purposes.

By the time Alrim and Zarayne had ascending the endless flights of spiralling stairwells, the latter was feeling quite woozy. She was relying more and more on her companion for support, both for keeping her upright and to guide her in the right direction.

The Infirmary had a sterile smell that simultaneously seemed reassuring and disgusting to Zarayne. She let herself be led through the doorway into the room, and almost as soon as she was through the threshold, an Aes Sedai was standing in front of her.

"What's this?" the Aes Sedai asked sharply. She was shorter than both learning ranks, yet somehow each of them felt like they were being stared down by a giant. "Peace, look at those eyes. Come on, take her over here."

The Aes Sedai seemed to vanish as far as Zarayne was concerned, but fortunately Alrim's eyes weren't unfocused and rolling in their sockets. He led her into a small alcove with a bed, and with a bit of effort, both Drin and Aes Sedai got her laying down.

The sharp-voiced sister spoke again, but in a more motherly tone. "I'm going to delve and then heal you. Is that okay?"

"Yes, Aes Se..." The words died on her tongue as everything slipped away into darkness.

Elia pursed her lips together. Admitting to her faults was not one of her many attributes, but she hesitated slightly over Delving the novice. If this was serious (and it was a head injury, so it probably was), then there were far better Healers. After all, she was an Indigo, and it was the Yellows that specialised in this sort of thing.

The Drin looked at her, which gave Elia the impetus to act. She wasn't about to go crawling to some slack-jawed Yellow in front of this boy. She embraced saidar, feeling the warming flow of the One Power fill her. The rose-shaped angreal in her hair glowed with a soft pink light as she channeled through it. She wove Air, Spirit and Water into an unending loop, settling it on the novice's head. As soon as it touched her, the weave expanded to encompass the girl's entire form, with filigrees of Spirit returning into Elia to communicate the extent of the damage.

She wasn't as bad as Elia had first thought. The Indigo sister turned her attention to the Drin. She briefly thought of her brother's scissors as she saw the bells in his hair, but any moment of levity was crushed beneath the sister's dissatisfaction. "What happened?" she asked sharply. "Did she fall out of a tree, or were you tussling in the Gardens when she struck her head on a stone? Speak up, or have you injured your tongue as well?"

"She likes flowers," Elia repeated drawly. Well that explains everything. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she may have done privately. The learning ranks had to feel chastised, not insulted.

The comment on beatings did not go unnoticed. A far better Delver than a Healer, Elia had sensed the harsh injuries on the novice. She dismissed it as treatable, not really thinking anything more of it. Now she was curious.

Carefully, Elia rolled up the sleeves of Zarayne's dress. Faintly tanned skin gave way to red scar tissue. Elia continued upwards; those weren't the injuries she had felt. As she got beyond the novice's bony elbows, the skin changed from red to purple and yellow. They sadly looked familiar. Cane marks. And far too many to count as regular discipline. "You suspect correctly," Elia conceded. Punishment didn't seem to be justified in this case, and she was always justified in her actions.

Pulling the sleeve back down, Elia moved around the bed so that she was standing over Zarayne's head. Her slender hairs rested on either side of the novice's head. "She will be fine," reassured the Indigo, as she wove saidar once more. A mesh of Spirit laced with Air and Water formed above the Aielwoman's unconscious form. With delicate care, Elia lowered the weave of Healing onto her patient.

Zarayne screamed. Frozen water had suddenly engulfed her. I've fallen through the ice again, she dimly thought. Dimly, because she was too busy thrashing against the body of water she found herself in. She'd never learned how to swim; the waters in Shienar were too cold, when they weren't simply solid. So she thrashed like she had the last time she'd found herself drowning, incapable of doing any other action.

Suddenly reality shifted. She was no longer drowning; she was burning up. Flames roared out towards her from the centre of the room. Zarayne shielded her face with her forearms. Everything about this moment was familiar too. I'm back in the house. Zarayne had been showing off her gift with the One Power. Just a small flame, dancing in mid-air. Everything had changed the moment she started to pull at the threads holding the flame together. One slip-up and the room had become an inferno. She screamed again as her skin blistered and cracked. This time she wouldn't make it, she was certain.

Reality shifted once more, and Zarayne sat up. She gasped, gulping down lungfuls of air. It had seemed an Age since she had last drawn breath. Wide green eyes found Alrim's piercing brown. Alrim. She wasn't burning or drowning. Those had been memories; Alrim was the present.

Weakly, Zarayne raised a hand to her forehand. "What--?" was all she got out as a hand rested on each one of her shoulders, pulling her back flat onto the bed.

"Welcome back child." The voice and hands belonged to an Aes Sedai Zarayne did not know. She hadn't the strength to argue, even if she wanted to. Zarayne let the Aes Sedai guide her.

"What happened?" Zarayne asked in a hoarse whisper.

"You have been Healed, child." The Aes Sedai moved around the bed, so that Zarayne could see her clearly. She was quite clearly a Shienaran, both in her face and in her accent. "You and your friend here were in the Gardens, looking at flowers. Do you remember that, child?"

She did. She also remembered falling, remembered Alrim's attempt to shield her. "I do, Aes Sedai."

"Good." The red-haired Shienaran gave Zarayne a motherly smile, then sent Alrim a sharp look. "Be useful and go to the kitchens. Ask the Mistress of the Kitchens for a meal, say it's for the Infirmary. And be quick!" The Aes Sedai snapped her fingers in impatience.

The Aielwoman felt tired. More than that. She thought her eyes should have been sore based on how exhausted she was, but it was her stomach that protested. The two plates of fresh food from the kitchens smelled amazing! She forewent using cutlery, grasping at a roasting hot potato with her bare hands. It disappeared in two ravenous bites, as did two more. It was only as she sought out the fourth that she realised Alrim had spoken. She gave him a lazy look through hooded eyelids. It may have seemed seductive, if it wasn't so obvious that Zarayne was only half aware of herself.

"I would like that." Her smile was a pale reflection of her beaming grin from the gardens, but it came from the same place. It was worth the brief visit, even if this had been the cost of it. She took up a slice of meat between two fingers, dribbling gravy onto her dress as she moved it towards her mouth. A dirty dress was of no real concern now that she was in the Infirmary after being caught outside of class. Vanya Sedai was probably on her way up to them right this moment. The concern over the Mistress of Novices did nothing to assuage her appetite.

"You should go, before you get into further trouble." Maybe the Master of Training and Vanya were both coming to the Infirmary. She had no idea if running from the Master of Training was a wise course of action, but Alrim didn't have to share the fate she was consigned to. She gave a bashful, apologetic look over the two plates.