Being Deposited Back (Attn: Illyria Malkom)

[Lou]

And here she was again.

Ember was walking in front of a large Shinearan, his thick and meaty hand on her shoulder as he kept her at his pace, and in front of him. She had tried to squirm and shake off his hand, but that had not worked. Damn him. Ember had given up trying to fight, this would be her fate, and here she was, being marched to the Mistress of Novices office. She knew what was coming; some willow birching to the arse, a lifetime of floor scrubbing, and maybe some fresh air and sunlight in about sixty years if she was lucky. Yeah, Ember was becoming a pessimist, she was expecting the worst now.

She was in fawn skin breeches, like a boy, a grey shirt and long black waistcoat over the top. Her Sai were at her waist again, her lap harp on her back in its case, and her hair (which once had been short) was now long and in a messy braid down her back. She looked a mess, she felt a mess, and she was a mess on the inside. She felt hate for her Father; no, not her Father. He was some man who had plucked her off the streets in Ghealadon. She had no idea who her Father or Mother was, did they dream of her, miss her, long her her return? She had no time to even process this yet, it was too soon, and yet here she was, back to face the White Towers justice.

"Here. Knock." The hand lifted from her shoulder, but she knew the man was still standing behind her, so with a heavy sigh she lifted her hand and knocked on the large oak door. She waited until she heard the command to enter, and she did, only then hearing the heavy footsteps of the Warder leave her where she was. She closed the door behind her, curtsied and laid the letter she had been given (the one detailing where she had been found, and by whom) on the desk, and then waited, her emerald eyes fixing at a spot on the floor.

[Stasia]

Illyria Malkom It was always satisfying to have a child returned home.

She poured the scalding tea carefully, and prepared meticulously; she needed to frighten Ember as much as it was possible for a good, Light-fearing woman to frighten someone. It was a skill she had acquired over time. Though she would never be quite up to the legendary standards of some of the women that had held the office before her, Illyria was plenty frightening in her own right. Tight, delicate webs of spynetworks spanned across the Westlands, all focused on information on young women that could channel. Sometimes they found new novices. Sometimes, they brought her runaways in need of a very good beating.

The crop laid across her desk, sunlight sparkling off of it cheerfully.

Illyria hated to use it, but there were times when punishment was necessary. According to her notes, Ember had not been very all advanced in her training with the One Power when she had abandoned the Tower. She had not only endangered her life, but endangered any one that had come into contact with her. Light, for all anyone knew, she could be in the grips of channeling sickness - and she knew all of this. "What possessed you to run away?" Illyria muttered, leafing through her gigantic, ancient ledger.

If it was a boy, Illyria would skin the child herself, and then put it on display in the courtyard.

As if her guard was running on a clock, she heard the tell-tale knock. He'd said fifteen minutes - the timepiece that hung on her mantle said it had been fourteen and a half. "Enter," she called steadily, and the child crossed the threshold, nervous energy radiating from her. She smiled at the child. "Please, sit." She offered the green-eyed girl a steaming tea-cup, conspicuously letting it rest beside the crop.

"It's been quite some time since you've been home, child. What have you been up to?" Her tone was light and conversational, and she sat across from Ember with an easy posture and gentle expression. That usually frightened them more than any sort of display of aggression.

[Lou]

Ember stood for a moment behind the chair on her side of the desk, and kept her eyes lowered. She did not know Illyria well enough to judge how she would be treated next, but she did not doubt it would he harshly. The other Novices always told tales of what happened to Novices that run away, and they always ended badly. She had not really thought about it that much back then, but then she had not planned to run away from the Tower, the need to had just built up inside her. And now...now she wishes she had not. The truth was even harsher than than the lies she had told herself, and she had no idea how she could live her life properly knowing all this.

Ember moved to sit at the Aes Sedai's command, as she doubted that it was a request. Her calm and almost light tone surprised Ember, and that cause her to look up for a moment after she had sat down. The tea was freshly poured, the fragrant steam rose up from it before her. She did not miss the crop on the table, how could she, and she licked her lips slowly, not yet moving to touch the porcelain cup. She instead rested her hands on her lap, her fists clenched, and her nails pressing against her palm. The slight pain kept her grounded, and she hoped it would help.

The question and tone caught her off guard, and she trembled a little inside. Sh had no idea what it was the woman across from her was doing, but it scared her in ways she had not know how to react to. She coughed, cleared her throat, and ran a hand back through her red hair. "I-I had to go...to see my F-Father." She tripped over the last word, knowing it was not true. Part of her wanted to cry, but she did not, refused to cry here and now. Her tears were her own, and that was something the Tower would not see. "He sold me, the Aes Sedai paid him for me. I had to know why." She looked up then, courage and defiance in her eyes. It was the same strange courage that seemed to come to her at the oddest of moments, like the night she had decided to run off and find her Father.

"I had meant to come back...after I had found him."

[Stasia]

Illyria Malkom Illyria had expected tears; they were a part of the way of a Novice's life. She felt a small sliver of empathy for the child, as she had once been in her shoes, but she carefully kept it concealed.

"Your father?" She asked quietly, and took a long moment to stir a fat dollop of honey into her teacup. "A letter wouldn't have worked? Even Novices have access to the Tower pigeon yards, child." You're going to have to do better than that, Ember. "You were made aware of the Grey Tower's attitude regarding runaways when you signed the Novice Book, I'm sure. That is a fate that few women would choose."

Fate was probably an exaggeration. But Ember was young, and if novices had to learn one thing, it was that actions had consequences. Whether it was breaking ties with the Tower, being careless with the One Power, or making an incorrect choice in a dangerous world - they had to learn. The Amyrlin Seat held Mother as an honorific, and she was certainly the source of matronly discipline for those that became Aes Sedai, but girls had to survive Illyria as their mother before they could dream of becoming Aes Sedai.

In truth, Carra was far more frightening. But to those in white, who had never even seen the Amyrlin Seat's shoes, the Mistress of Novices was the front line. The irony was not lost on her; she had once been docile, meek, and probably held some sort of record for least visits made to the Mistress of Novices. And here she was, some years later, adapting to the part of a terrifying Aes Sedai - and the only woman on Tower grounds that was allowed to officially administer corporal punishment.

She did not particularly like it, but she saw the need for it. And regret was never a pardon from discipline.

[Lou]

Ember wondered if the Aes SEdai before him knew anything of her history, and it added some inner steel into her spine, as she frowned at the woman. Send a letter? How did one send a letter to a Gleeman, and one that was unreliable enough that he sold his daughter to Aes Sedai and spent his life in a permanent state of drunkenness. Surely that was in her records, they said that the Aes Sedai recorded everything about a person. Maybe she was too busy with her tea to know or worry about her, Em thought, as she watched the woman. She had always wondered if the Aes Sedai had any feelings at all.

"He is a Gleeman, or a poor example of one." She swallowed hard, her resolve wavering slightly. "It took me months to find him, Illyria Malkom Sedai, how could I write to someone who I had no idea where he would be?" She knew the tone of her voice may indeed get her into more trouble, but in that moment she did not care. She had meant to come back, and she had, even if it had not exactly been her choice.

"I tried to make peace with it, I did, but the dreams would not stop." She nibbled her lip, her want for the tea gone now. "I needed to know why, why he had done it. WOuld you not want to know, Illyria Malkom Sedai? If someone had betrayed you so badly, why they had done it?" She pleaded with the woman, but she did not expect her to understand. Ember was not from a loving family, or she may be but she would never know, or from a rich family. She was just...nothing it seemed.