The Grey Tower

Ravak looked at the six golden coins in Avyra's outstretched hand, and considered why he had just purchased that piece of jewellery for her. Not that it was a gift or anything. It was just that Avyra, or any Accepted, didn't have the sort of freedom with coin as he had.

He wondered, only for a moment, if Avyra's ta'varen tugging at the threads of the Pattern was the cause, but he dismissed it easily. The reason for his generosity was simple. Every time their paths had crossed, she'd treated him as a person first, and as the Master of Training second. Even the time she was practically fuming at him in the Gardens, it had seemed (to him) more that they were on a footing as people than servants of the Tower. It took him the time for her to say "So take them" to think through that. He moved as if to close her hand around the coin again, then stopped himself.

Rav spoke softly. He wasn't about to rumble over her protests, if she had any after this. "Avyra, take it as a gift. Or at least allow me to cover the expenses. I know exactly how much the Tower gifts those who have earned their ring, and I can't have you-" No, can't is the wrong word. "Please, keep your coin for something else. Maybe you can find some shoes to go with the kesiera." Was that how fashion worked? He really didn't know, but all he really wanted at the moment was for Avyra to accept. He barely had much use for coin, after his wardrobes had been fully furnished under Kaia's direction. There was little else but books for him to spend his money on.

"It's not that expensive," he said earnestly. If he had actually planned on getting someone a gift of jewellery, if he even had someone in mind to buy a gift for, he would have looked to spend at least four times as much. Six gold wasn't nothing - Rav hadn't been born wealthy - but he had enough coin to survive on for a good few years if he had to leave the Grey Tower for some reason. In the grand scheme of things, it was precious little.

Still, she was insistent, and he'd made a promise to himself somewhere in the last few minutes. He sighed softly. "If you feel like you need to repay, I won't argue with you." He spread out his right hand palm-up. The sun glanced off the gold ring on his shorn finger, and his mind wandered off briefly. "I'm not looking to win your favour, I'm just trying to keep you safe." He blinked away the memory and looked at the coins now placed within his hand. "Thank you, but there was no need." Avyra's face said there was every need. He let that lie, but he wasn't done. "And you attempted to steal my dogs. You didn't actually succeed."

"That is very pointedly not a challenge," he replied in the same good jest. His pet project to train the huskies into war hounds got lost around the same time he vanished into the Three-fold Land. The kennels looked after them now, much to his own sense of shame. "And I know for a fact you can't catch yourself if you fall from a tree. 'You cannot use the One Power on yourself'. Does that sound about right?"

He grinned. Avyra may be an Accepted, but she wasn't about to change a lot. Hopefully the years alone would instil some maturity and sense of duty into her. But until then, poor Mirin still had the fun job of mentoring her.

"What next?" the Gaidin asked as he adjusted the book under his arm. "Spending spree over, or would the Lady Moeryr like more finery?"

Rav glanced at the book under his arm. He didn't always have a book on him, but he did his utmost not to end up in a meeting without one at hand. The Light knew how many books he actually owned now. Two bookcases in his office, plus another two in the study. Could it be something like two hundred books? Surely not. Could it?

"I like reading," he said undramatically. "It's a good way to fill in the time, and there's always more to learn. My father used to read to my sister and I as children, and I never really stopped from there."

Rav scratched his beard. "I've come to realise that people don't think much of a man reading a book in a corner quietly. It's not something that you may ever come to learn, but you can watch a room whilst reading a book." He grinned slightly. "Plus, if you ever end up in some meeting you really don't want to be a part of, it's a good escape mechanism. The Light knows I've been subjected to a few."

"It's just words on a page," he repeated with an amused grin. "Whilst that is certainly true, it's not just words. It's knowledge."

Rav sensed he was about to embark on a lecture, as his voice took on the patient tone he used when teaching. "A book can tell you about a lot of things you don't have the time to discover for yourself. Take for instance the kesiera. I am not Cairhienin, never been to Cairhien, never met a Cairhienin before coming to the Grey Tower, and yet I knew about kesieras. I can tell you about the different cuts of a gemstone, and how they bring out different facets in different gems. I can talk about the different metals - gold and silver - and tell you where they came from. But I've never been a miner, nor a prospector or a gemcutter. I learned all of these things from books."

He deftly let the book under his arm fall, catching it in his right hand. Then with equal grace, he offered it to Avyra. "Take this, and tell me-" he had slid out his sword-breaker with his other hand "-what do you call this?" He pointed to the crossguard. "Or this?" He moved to the rain-guard. "Or this?" Now he indicated the central ridge. "I bet you don't know now, but I reckon that book on weaponsmithing will tell you."