The Grey Tower

The heavy oak desk was piled neatly with papers, documents, folders, missives and anything inbetween. It towered in a way which ought to defy gravity, staring at Murdock defiantly.

The man himself stood staring right back at this mountain of paperwork with a grimace. This is to be my life now? Asha'man for less than a week, and I'm already chained to a desk. Wouldn't his daughters be proud of him though, to be achieving something so noble and great? Murdock hoped so, but it was a little too soon to hear back after the letter he had sent to them. Everything else was happening ever so quickly, but that did not mean that postal services would be any improved.

With a click of his tongue Murdock took a seat at the desk, wriggled his fingers, and took the first sheet of paper from the top of the pile. And so, it began. The Keeper of the Chronicles, a woman Murdock knew from his Dedicated days, had been quick to divvy out his share of the workload and there were also various appointments, letters and the like which were supposed to be passed on to the M'Hael. Another person Murdock had experience of, but the man wasn't naive enough to assume that this was what had singled him out for this position. Why, if he didn't know any better, the man would have said he was in the wrong place at the wrong time...

Head hunched over, large hands moving deftly like they were administering first aid to a patient, Murdock set about organising his workload. Whatever system Jaryd had before becoming M'Hael, he was going to have to learn, and then of course change. It made no sense to keep everything quite so transparent for the man to come and go as he pleased, though Murdock would tell him whatever he needed to know. Within reason. The Oaths settled around him heavily like a new skin, restricting him. Binding him. Preventing him from performing his craft, Light burn it all. What am I doing here? the man asked himself several times. He had no mirror to look in dramatically but if he did, the man would have seen his neat black coat, the dragon and sword pins gleaming, and the coppery brown shirt beneath his coat was in pristine condition, the collar tall and crisp. His expression was the same as it ever was, naturally.

The strangest thing wasn't the pile of paperwork - Murdock could organise papers easily enough, he was no fool and it came naturally to him - nor was it the fact that he was now an Asha'man. No, the strangest thing was that when he had first come across his new desk and was left to settle himself in, there was a small, spiked plant in a pot sitting there. Not knowing what else to do with it, the plant remained where it was, to the side and out of the way but not quite out of sight.

Its name was Bradley.

Aelyn had found himself in the position of the Master of Soldiers. By some strange turning of the Wheel, some strange tweak of the Pattern, he had been placed in charge of the learning ranks of young men pursuing the lofty title of Asha'man. A rather insistent voice was there, questioning the decision of the M'Hael to instate him as such. The highest rank he had held was the Head of the White Ajah, and he had been more than happy to pass that on to someone more deserving. Ah, well. It seemed that, despite his best efforts to avoid this being seen, he had a way with the soldiers and Dedicated. He could not convince the M'Hael to find someone else, and he would not think to try. The man had enough on his plate as it was. But, he could keep his eye out for a Dedicated to take his spot when the time came.

One such Dedicated had made it all the way to Asha'man, and then to Keeper of the Archives, one Murdock Mather. He had come to the Grey Tower from the Black Tower, and hailed from Far Madding, an interesting place for a channeler to come from. He was rather quiet and mysterious, but he was also an excellent student. The Brown Ajah was a fitting one for him. Hopefully, the title of Keeper of the Archives would fit him as well.

Aelyn ascended the Grey Tower until he came to the offices of those that ran the Tower. He found the Keeper's office quite easily, having been in this particular hall quite a bit since becoming the Master of Soldiers. He found the door unlocked, and opened it without knocking. "Good day, Brother," he said to the new Keeper of the Archives. He found the man nearly eye-deep in papers. Murdock did seem to have some idea of where they were going, as some of them were in his hands. "Congratulations on your various raisings," he said with a smile as he adjusted the spectacles dangling from the top of his long, white vest. "I thought I'd come by and see how you were adjusting to your new role." His eyes landed on a small potted plant, sitting to the side on the Keeper's desk.

"Ah," he said, walking up to the desk, picking up the small pot. He put on his glasses and squinted his eyes, looking at the spines on the small plant. "That's a very interesting plant," he said, not knowing how else to comment on it. He looked at it a little more. Was it a plant? "At least, I assume it's plant. I hope it's a plant."

Murdock tampered down that horrible feeling that he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to be, that his purpose was all wrong and that he had strayed from his original path. Whether it was true or not, he had to put it aside. He had a duty to the Grey Tower, like it or not, and he wasn’t a man who tended to abandon his duties. Just your children. Murdock shoved that thought away in the name of organising his documents.

Some time into his filing, he was interrupted by the Master of Soldiers. Murdock had few dealings with the man himself, preferring to keep his own counsel and break rules more subtly than his peers. Of course, the man who was well behaved was overlooked when they found dead rats and birds in Hama Valon. Really, now he was the Keeper of the Archives there was little need for Aelyn to come pay a visit, because it wasn’t as if he could assign Murdock penance any more. The small smile on Murdock’s face as he looked up at the White, and the slight wrinkle of his eyes, said that unlike some new Asha’man, Murdock had slipped into the role quite nicely and didn’t need to get over the fact that a few days before, he could be bossed around by any of these men. “Thank you for your kind words,” he said as a man would to his equal. No matter that Murdock was a relatively weak channeller, his position and his general disinclination towards such politics meant he was quite amiable with whomever he spoke with. “It’s early days yet but I’m sure I’ll get used to the role soon enough.” It couldn’t be that hard if Jaryd could do it, after all.

Murdock didn’t tense as Aelyn approached his desk, but the little man putting his glasses on and inspecting Bradley was met with trepidation. Bradley was his, a personal item, and he didn’t like people being so close to his things. “Of course it’s a plant,” Murdock said, though he hadn’t the foggiest idea of how to take care of it. It was sharp, and small, and apparently had no flowers to speak of. For all that though, he was attached to Bradley already. “It has roots and it’s green, that’s as close to a plant as it gets. It was a gift, I think. It wasn’t here when Jaryd was Keeper.” It could have been from the new M’Hael but Murdock didn’t see the man as a giver of gifts, especially in his current mood. Regardless of the source, Bradley was on his desk, so belonged to him.

As the White inspected his plant, Murdock continued to tidy his papers. He never showed such interest when I was a trainee, the man thought warily, recent events making the fellow more suspicious than usual. People breaking into his room in the night and making him agree to things he wasn’t sure he truly felt any more, he should have gone to the Master of Soldiers right away. But even as he thought that, a look at Aelyn and Murdock was changing his mind once more. What could this man do to help Murdock? Furthermore, did he even need helping? No. I can handle this just fine. I already am, and will continue to do so. He is simply here to pay his respects. Maybe as a fellow scholar with years of experience under his belt and more time in the Grey Tower than Murdock, Aelyn thought he could do the Keeper’s job? More fool him, wouldn’t it just grate on the nerves if he knew Mrudock had been raised through no merit or skill of his own? Now you are being ridiculous. Nobody wants to work for Jaryd.

“I’m guessing you couldn’t tell me more about my plant. I’m going to have to find out who left it here and see if they know how to take care of it.”