The Grey Tower

Bryn Sevia Riverstone Walker Bryn fretted with her white gown, recalling how much she hated the flaming fabric. After 10 years on the road and wearing nothing more than divided skirts or hunters gear, her skin seemed to rebel against the itchy garment.

And the blasted thing still didn't fit properly. It fit just a tad too snug for her taste, which meant men would be eyeballing her from here to the end of the flaming pattern.

The Aes Sedai standing near her was seemingly oblivious to her plight despite being the one who plucked her up from a small village tavern in Murandy.

But deep down, despite knowing what awaited her behind the nearby wooden doors, she felt relieved to be back here. And for once in the same location as the man she had been hunting for over the last decade.

Bryn hadn't changed much, hadn't even aged much for that matter. She might as well have looked a lass of 20, slender build that flared at the hips and full bosom. Her red-gold hair was done up in ringlets, without much time to change her hairdo since she had been stolen away in the middle of the night and placed back into Novice white. She was tall, almost six feet, and her gold-flecked forest green eyes held a unique intelligence to them — ones so familiar to a few in this Tower.

Her few belongings had been secured in her new quarters, been drilled for at least two hours why she had left by the Aes Sedai now in front of her, and then dragged her. It was early, just barely pre-dawn.

Bryn resisted the urge to yawn and instead looked up at the Aes Sedai. She was pretty, both appearing in her early thirties and far older due to the ageless look on her heart-shaped face. Blue-green eyes stared at a journal she held, apparently scanning important tidbits of information. Auburn hair fell down her shoulders, framing slender form. She wore fine blue wool dress with a purple shawl over her shoulders.

Zae Rowe Sedai was a small legend in the Indigo Ajah, one of the younger ones to earn the shawl and a specialist in Portal Stones and Waygates. Rumor had it she was also a close friend to another, much larger legend in the Grey Tower. But the woman had avoided Bryn's attempts at questions.

The silver-haired Warder with her, Sojin Majere Gaidin, had vanished already. He too had been elusive but Bryn had observed a curiosity in him. She did that, observed. As willful as she might have been, Bryn couldn't ignore details.

Not even the dreams that haunted her since a child and now.

“You're a very gifted artist, Novice Bryn Riverstone,” the Aes Sedai said after a moment. Bryn looked up and swore silently. It was her journal, or at least one of her sketchbooks. “A little sultry in some, but very descriptive, especially of this one man you've never met.”

“Walker, Aes Sedai,” Bryn said after a few seconds, somewhat stubbornly. “Bryn Sevia Riverstone Walker.”

Bryn wanted to say much sharper words but contained herself. She was already in enough trouble as it was, being a runaway and all.

The Aes Sedai raised an eyebrow in slight amusement. Anyone who knew anything about Cosamelle, a town in Ghealdan, knew that Riverstone was the name used for bastards.

While she had earned a lot of looks from men in the town, no one ever let her forgot she was a bastard, with the exception of her foster grand-da and her teacher. She was the child of an Aiel woman taken in by a kindly older man, one who raised her after her mother died in childbirth. And a father whom she never met.

“It's a name, child, wear it like armor and own it and no one will ever be able to harm you,” the Aes Sedai said calmly. “As for the name Walker, that is up to him to decide whether it's true or not. It's one that still commands respect in Andor and one his son never claimed as his own out of respect. Or spite. He does so confuse the two at times.”

Before Bryn could speak, the nearby door opened and a pretty Accepted emerged. For a brief second, the Novice scanned the new face from head to tow and almost wet her lips. But she was commanded to rise by Zae Sedai.

“Illyria Sedai will see you, Aes Sedai, and Novice Bryn Riverstone,” the Accepted said, curtseying and then moving away from the door.

Bryn didn't need a command, she was already on her feet and behind the Aes Sedai. Her eyes quickly took in the room around them as they entered the Mistress of Novices office, and then fell on the woman who would decide her fate.

And then she curtseying deep. And suddenly swore the second she heard the tearing sound as the Novice white gown split on her left side.

“Blood and flaming ashes,” she whispered. “Not another one.”

“Sister, may I present your runaway returned home,” Zae Sedai said. “Bryn Sevia Riverstone, as she signed in the Novice book, though she claims the surname Walker.”

Bryn looked up, her face red from slight embarrassment. First day before the Mistress of Novices and she was already making an impression.

Zae set the journal on the Mistress of Novice's desk and murmured, “She did show potential at one time, and apparently could do well, but I wish you luck. She's a spirited one, even if one who came willingly when we found her. It's strange that a runaway would … want to be caught after so long away.”

She shrugged and muttered, “I leave it to your own observations. The First Seeker has requested my help with something. Farewell.” She gave a slight sweep of the curtsey and then vanished, closing the door behind Bryn.

And she was alone. With the Mistress of Novices. Light help her.

Illyria Malkom This was the second returned runaway this year. She drummed her fingers against her desk; while she was in no place to complain about returned initiates, it was an interesting statistic. The young woman stood slightly behind Zae, not cowering in the least, almost in spite of all the warnings she would have received about running away when she first came to the Tower.

The young woman curtsied elegantly, as if she'd been practicing while she had been away - ah, no. The sound of shredding fabric sounded like thunder in the quiet of her office. Illyria did not acknowledge it, at least not yet. She would be punished for carelessness, but that seemed like a drop in the ocean compared to the world of trouble Byrn Riverstone was already in.

“Blood and flaming ashes,” the girl whispered, “Not another one.” It was more difficult to control her amusement after that, but she kept her features still as Zae Sedai explained the situation to her.

“Sister, may I present your runaway returned home,” she said. “Bryn Sevia Riverstone, as she signed in the Novice book, though she claims the surname Walker.” Walker...? Surely, of no relation to the First Seeker. He had returned and been raised to the Head of the Ajah in what couldn't have been more than a space of a fortnight, but there was no one that she would have rather seen at the helm. Jerid Walker was a capable man, and even if they were not closely acquainted, she knew that he was reliable.

Illyria took a closer look at the girl. Redheaded and tall... No, not much resemblance between the two, unless one counted green eyes. Perhaps Walker was a common surname.

“She did show potential at one time, and apparently could do well, but I wish you luck." Zae continued quietly, "She's a spirited one, even if one who came willingly when we found her. It's strange that a runaway would … want to be caught after so long away.”

The child shrugged and muttered, “I leave it to your own observations. The First Seeker has requested my help with something. Farewell.” Well. That was interesting. Zae Sedai left the room quickly and quietly; it was almost as if she hadn't been here in the first place. Illyria stared at the child for a long, silent moment, but eventually picked a place to start.

"You claim the surname Walker now? Have you taken a husband on top of running away?" Her tone was light, almost conversational. Despite her curiosity, Illyria did not feel comfortable prying into the affairs of her Ajah Head. It did not matter that Jerid Walker had called her back - it was her duty to be sure that Byrn had wished she never left in the first place.

Bryn fretted with her gown slightly, frowning at the new tear. The bloody garment was at least one size too small for her.

At least she had learned to mend as a child. Her foster grandfather had always needed his clothes sewed or her own clothes for that matter.

Another hole in your flaming hide is all, Bryn thought to herself.

Her head snapped up at the Aes Sedai's query and she very nearly let out an indignant grunt. That would be the day!

“With respect, Aes Sedai, there are very few men who has trouble looking about my neck, and none of them husband material,” she said abruptly. “Light even some of the women weren't looking for more than a toss under the sheets...”

She bit her tongue then, her face red.

“My apologies, Aes Sedai,” she said, looking at the Mistress of Novices. She didn't look like many Aes Sedai she had ever encountered before. Her hair was of a color with Bryn's, albeit slightly darker and those grey eyes of hers didn't bear the slight arrogance that most expected of Aes Sedai.

That didn't mean she wasn't capable of playing games, and Bryn had to be careful.

As if ya were capable of that, Bryn Riverstone Walker, mocked an inner voice.

“The name Walker is one I've claimed since the day I could retain a memory, Mistress,” Bryn murmured. “It's the name that my grandda — the man who raised me as his granddaughter — said belonged to me, and on the account he was told by my mother that the Lord Jerid Walker Asha'man was my father before her thread was rewoven.”

She started pacing a little to and fro in front of the Aes Sedai's desk, almost oblivious the Indigo's presence.

“Riverstone's the name they give to bastards in Cosamelle — sometimes pretty, mostly useless, all too common and not worth much,” she muttered. She looked up and at the Aes Sedai. “I may be bastard and the daughter of an Aiel, but I'll be burned to be considered useless or worthless.”

She sighed quietly, realizing she was fretting and rambling over the small details when a much serious punishment awaited her.

“He's the reason I left, Aes Sedai, the reason I ran away,” she murmured. “All my life I had dreams of what occurred, of shadowed figures dancing around him in a burning structure and then … the world went dark.” She shuddered. Those dreams had been so surreal and vivid. And the ones for the last decade had been just as authentic.

Rumor had it he had died before I was 12 ...and when I was brought here the day after I first channeled, I learned he was alive but had returned to House Walker in the Caralain.”

It was the Dark One's own luck that she was fated to miss him by one step. “Rumor came not too long after that … a month … that Walker Manor fell to the flaming Ever Victorious Army for whatever flaming reason and well … I needed to know if my dream had been ...”

Bryn was raised on legends of Jerid Walker, at least stories her grandda Haas told to her as a wee lass. The High Seat of an ancient house that had risen from simple roots, a soldier, Asha'man of the Grey Tower … and the demon Seanchan told ghost stories of on this side of the Aryth Ocean.

“Blood and ashes, but he probably doesn't even know I exist, for all the flaming luck I have,”

But they were just stories. She had always wanted something more.

“I ran away, made my way to the Caralain at the edge of Andor's borders ...”

Nothing had remained but a husk of a once great and ancient manor surrounding a slick stone pillar marked with strange glyphs. She had scouted the area for three days, hoping to find some sign of survivors. A few skeletons, the remains of a skirmish then littered with scorched remains of what she had assumed were Seanchan soldiers, but very little else.

“I … wanted to return here, but I couldn't. I cursed myself for taking the flaming coward's route but I just couldn't … so I returned to the Hunt for the Horn,” she muttered. “At least, escape somewhere, anywhere … and then word reached Murandy that he had returned… and a merchant had a letter he gave to me.”

She pointed to the journal Zae Sedai had left on the Mistress of Novices' desk. “Fifth page from the back, the letter is in there. It wasn't signed but it said that I was to return to the Tower, and that Jerid Asha'man had returned.”

Instead of running, she had waited in the village. She knew it was a trap and simply waited.

“Whatever punishment, penance or dreadful nightmare I must endure I will do so,” she said simply.