The Two-Way Street (Attn: Alianora)

When channelers need to channel and don't want to risk breaking the Tower into a million pieces, this is where they go.
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Bella
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PC: Miahala Darrow Sedai
SC: Lysira Viathene Gaidin
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QC: Natlya Cade Gaidin
QC: Andraste Alhandra Sedai
Location: New England

The Two-Way Street (Attn: Alianora)

Post by Bella » October 12th, 2022, 9:59 pm

Most people probably had a different idea of "bonding time" with their soon-to-be daughters-in-law, but Miahala...well, she was always a little different as a mother.

That's what brought her to the channeling yard that day. She and Liaran had agreed to meet there, although the Green hadn't been too thorough in explaining her reasoning beyond wanting to just get to know the Blue better. She had no doubts in her son's choice, of course. She just didn't know Liaran much beyond that one meeting where they'd made their announcement and what was an otherwise very busy, distracted trip to Arafel where there were many people and no real time to get to know anyone.

It was early in the morning, though not too early. The time was what had suited both of their schedules, but also precluded any classes being in the channeling yard at that time as well.

While she waited, Mia practiced a few weaves. Most of her repertoire wasn't good for idle channeling, but her Air work could--practicing her blunt and fine threads, the battering ram as well as the razor wire. No matter how many years it had been, and it had been many, since she first channeled, she still enjoyed the feeling that Saidar gave her. Two centuries of it now, so she could at least feel pretty assured in her skill, but it was something of a shock that it could still ever give her a rush. As if it was new.

Alianora
"The Path of Daggers"
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Joined: May 2nd, 2016, 8:32 pm
PC: Liaran Sedai, Blue Ajah
SC: Amaranie Sedai, Indigo Ajah
TC: Kalyan Rihera, Yellow Ajah

Re: The Two-Way Street (Attn: Alianora)

Post by Alianora » October 20th, 2022, 10:09 pm

Liaran Sedai
The sun was just beginning to rise as Liaran walked towards the Channeling Yard. It was a place she knew well, and she could often be found there in the company of her students. This first appointment of her day, however, was just a little different. There would be no novices to wait for, nor any Accepted; just herself and Haeden's mother, Miahala Sedai. Spending a little time getting to know the other woman seemed to Liaran to be a good way to start her day, and she hurried along the path, not really needing to look to know where she was going.

It took her very little time to reach the gate, where Liaran paused. The early hour meant the Channeling Yard was almost empty, and would be until the first of the novice classes began. The only person inside was the woman she would be meeting there, who was working on something intricate with Air. That had never been one of her strengths, so Liaran took a few moments just to observe what the older Aes Sedai could do. Not wanting to make Miahala wait on her, Liaran only allowed herself to watch for a very short time before opening the gate and joining the other Aes Sedai where she was working. "Good morning," Liaran greeted her.

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Bella
Female Channeller Representative
Posts: 5615
Joined: April 14th, 2015, 11:28 pm
PC: Miahala Darrow Sedai
SC: Lysira Viathene Gaidin
TC: Gareth Tomosan Asha'man
QC: Natlya Cade Gaidin
QC: Andraste Alhandra Sedai
Location: New England

Re: The Two-Way Street (Attn: Alianora)

Post by Bella » October 26th, 2022, 8:00 pm

Hearing the Blue's voice, Mia let the weaves fall gracefully away as she turned to face her. The Green smiled one of her warmer, genuine smiles. She felt no need to be politic or coy, no reason to hide her feelings in this moment like she did for the majority of the other moments in her life. There was no one else around. It was just family now.

"Good morning," she said, inclining her head slightly in greeting. "I'm glad that you were able to meet me today. I hope I did not cause much disruption to her schedule." She might be the crazy Green most of the time, but at heart, there was a warm woman who family meant everything to.

Alianora
"The Path of Daggers"
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PC: Liaran Sedai, Blue Ajah
SC: Amaranie Sedai, Indigo Ajah
TC: Kalyan Rihera, Yellow Ajah

Re: The Two-Way Street (Attn: Alianora)

Post by Alianora » October 29th, 2022, 2:05 am

Liaran Sedai
While Liaran returned the smile, she was also quick to glance away, still a little shy around the older Aes Sedai. Miahala was, after all, hardly more than a stranger to her. Yet Liaran hoped for that to change before she and Haeden were married, and she made herself look back at the Green sister again.

"I can always find room in my schedule if I need to," Liaran said in response. "I actually have a novice class meeting here when their day begins, so this works out well." She still wasn't sure exactly why Miahala had invited her here, but felt it wasn't her place to ask. It was her hope that Haeden's mother shared her own desire to become better acquainted before the wedding, but the woman might very well have any number of other reasons to want her here that Liaran couldn't even begin to guess. For now, Liaran simply stayed quiet and waited; Miahala would tell her what she wanted in her own time.

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Bella
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Posts: 5615
Joined: April 14th, 2015, 11:28 pm
PC: Miahala Darrow Sedai
SC: Lysira Viathene Gaidin
TC: Gareth Tomosan Asha'man
QC: Natlya Cade Gaidin
QC: Andraste Alhandra Sedai
Location: New England

Re: The Two-Way Street (Attn: Alianora)

Post by Bella » November 2nd, 2022, 9:23 pm

"That does work well then," she agreed lightly. She didn't teach classes as often as she used to, but she remembered days when it was one of her primary tasks. Age and seniority came with a few privileges, and her tenure as Mistress of Novices--which would be ending soon anyway--gave her the chance to assign classes away from herself.

It wasn't that she minded teaching at all, but class structure required more consistent time in the Grey Tower. The Green preferred her freedom. It was the chief reason she had not chosen to remain as Amyrlin Seat as long as her predecessors.

"I'm sure you're curious why I wanted to meet with you today," she went on after a moment. "As you'll be marrying my son, you'll be family, and I thought it would be useful to have time to get to know one another." Mia gestured around them. "As for why here... Well, that will take a little more explanation."

Mia smiled slightly. The expression was...complex, but if one was trying to understand it, they'd see something like wryness and something else more like sorrow.

She held one hand out, palm up, and formed one of those classic balls of light that all channelers learned early on how to make. She threaded it until it was green before she spoke again. "Haeden is very special," she said, looking into the light. "I know he is for you, obviously, but it's particular for me.

"Of my six children, few have seen so fraught a journey into and through this world." She moved the ball from one hand to the other, almost as if juggling the light but with far more grace than such an act usually showed. "While I carried him, I was kidnapped by the Black Ajah and we both nearly died. I would've let it happen, you see, to prevent worse tragedy...but you can possibly imagine the guilt that brought."

Her tone was a little distant, as if it hadn't happened to her or wasn't reality, and yet the truth of it was plain. "Then I nearly died in bringing him into the world, and I did die when he still so young... I left him alone, though not by choice."

She flicked her hand like she was tossing the ball into the air, and it rose then dissipated. She now looked at Liaran again. "As your husband-to-be and your warder, I have no doubt that he has already told you some of this from his own life. I didn't return until he was an adult, and I couldn't be prouder, but all the trials from then to now has made me perhaps a little more protective of him.

"So that brings us to here. I want to know you more, and for you to know me, but I also want to help you learn different combat weaves, whatever you may not yet know and can learn. Gaidin protect their Aes Sedai, but I always have believed that Aes Sedai protect their Gaidin as well. I'd like to help make sure you feel entirely able to do that. It's something I can offer you both."

Alianora
"The Path of Daggers"
Posts: 997
Joined: May 2nd, 2016, 8:32 pm
PC: Liaran Sedai, Blue Ajah
SC: Amaranie Sedai, Indigo Ajah
TC: Kalyan Rihera, Yellow Ajah

Re: The Two-Way Street (Attn: Alianora)

Post by Alianora » November 8th, 2022, 11:59 pm

Liaran Sedai
To be polite, Liaran stood still and listened. She didn't really need to, since the story Miahala told was one she'd heard from Haeden, if only in bits and pieces. She looked idly at the trees around them before turning her attention back to Miahala, wondering why the woman felt the need to go so far into the past. To Liaran, she even appeared to be more attentive to her ball of light than to anything else around her. She stood there, more than a little confused about Miahala's reason for inviting her here, until the Green sister finally provided her with an answer to the unasked question.

Is that all she thinks of me, that I'm not good enough to do right by her son?

Liaran felt judged, then hurt, and she quickly looked away from the other woman. She'd wanted to get along with Haeden's mother, who had seemed friendly and welcoming enough during other times they'd met. What seemed to her to be a sudden change in the Green sister's attitude towards her was a little upsetting, leaving Liaran to wonder what she could possibly have done to cause it.

It certainly wasn't anything Miahala might have witnessed between herself and Haeden, as she'd always treated him as an equal and a partner. When she finally turned back to Miahala, she spoke very quietly, studying the grass beneath her feet.

"I do try," she said. "Please understand that Haeden is far more than just a blade to me. I don't just mean that I've fallen in love with him, though that is true; I mean that while his task as my Warder is to defend me, I have a responsibility to do the same for him. I look after him as much as he does me, to the best of my ability, and that isn't going to change." She didn't think she'd been able to keep her wounded emotions from bleeding into her words, and perhaps that was for the best. If Miahala Sedai truly wanted to know her, she was going to have to be able to accept the human woman, and not just the Aes Sedai.

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Bella
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Posts: 5615
Joined: April 14th, 2015, 11:28 pm
PC: Miahala Darrow Sedai
SC: Lysira Viathene Gaidin
TC: Gareth Tomosan Asha'man
QC: Natlya Cade Gaidin
QC: Andraste Alhandra Sedai
Location: New England

Re: The Two-Way Street (Attn: Alianora)

Post by Bella » November 15th, 2022, 11:04 pm

Miahala smiled as she listened to Liaran speak. It wasn't condescending; it was small but sincere. Her eyes sparked with appreciation and acknowledgement, and when the Blue was done speaking, Mia inclined her head slightly. "Good," she said quietly.

After a moment, she took a slow breath. She looked out over the channeling yards as she let it out. "I did not ask you here, or tell you all this, to test you." She looked at the Blue again. "I trust my son. Even if I don't--yet--know you very well myself, his trust in you is all I need to know.

"I asked to meet you today because I have learned much over the decades. I want to teach you what I know, or start to. Whatever offensive and defensive weaves I know that you do not know yet, I would like to offer you, so that out in the world, you have every tool available to you. I cannot teach these things to Haeden, but I can teach you, if you would accept my knowledge."

Alianora
"The Path of Daggers"
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Joined: May 2nd, 2016, 8:32 pm
PC: Liaran Sedai, Blue Ajah
SC: Amaranie Sedai, Indigo Ajah
TC: Kalyan Rihera, Yellow Ajah

Re: The Two-Way Street (Attn: Alianora)

Post by Alianora » November 20th, 2022, 10:28 pm

Liaran Sedai
Once Miahala spoke to her, Liaran was watching the other woman again, more out of respect than anything else. Haeden's mother was an Aes Sedai, after all, as Liaran herself was, so she knew perfectly well that studying her wasn't likely to tell her anything about the Green sister's motivations or feelings towards her. The smile she just barely noticed crossing the other Aes Sedai's face was more expressive than Liaran would have expected to see from her, and the younger woman blinked. She hardly moved at all while she continued to listen, mind trying to make sense of the other woman's words.

If summoning me here isn't some sort of test of my skills....or of my relationship with Haeden....and if she trusts her son......then why does she continue to insist that I must not be able to protect myself or him? Liaran stayed still and silent while she attempted to understand Miahala's intentions. Turning her head while she thought, she looked at one of the trees growing nearby. She came to Arafel with us...surely she's aware that I'm perfectly capable of fighting with the One Power......even if I'm not like her.

If that was what Miahala wanted, someone who was more competent in actual combat than Liaran was, then the Green sister was going to be disappointed. Does it matter what she wants? Liaran closed her eyes, blocking out the sight of both the Channeling Yards surrounding her and the woman awaiting an answer. She allowed herself to focus solely on the bond to her Warder; he was busy elsewhere, as he should be, but thinking of Haeden reminded her that she was what he wanted, no matter what his mother thought of her. She did not need the bond to tell her that.

When she opened her near-black eyes again, they blazed with hurt and rejection. Liaran had to force herself to turn back towards the waiting Miahala, still unable to understand the abrupt change she perceived in the other woman's behavior. "I wanted to be welcome among Haeden's family, especially you," she said softly. "I still want that." She pulled her hands into her light blue sleeves, uncertain what else to say.

Looking down at the ground, she tried to find the words to explain herself. "But it appears you'd prefer it if Haeden had chosen someone with more ability in combat weaves, or use for them than I have. I can't change that, or who I am....so I suppose all I can do is ask that you please accept his decision."

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Bella
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Posts: 5615
Joined: April 14th, 2015, 11:28 pm
PC: Miahala Darrow Sedai
SC: Lysira Viathene Gaidin
TC: Gareth Tomosan Asha'man
QC: Natlya Cade Gaidin
QC: Andraste Alhandra Sedai
Location: New England

Re: The Two-Way Street (Attn: Alianora)

Post by Bella » November 25th, 2022, 6:02 pm

Truth be told, Miahala found herself a little surprised and a touched confused by Liaran's reaction. Was it really that awful for the Green to offer two centuries' worth of battle-channeling experience to the woman who would be roaming the world with her son? Judging from the look on the Blue's face, however contained, it had been a miscalculation.

Mia didn't make those often, but she was still human...mostly. She thought. Probably?

"His decision is accepted and welcomed, as are you. I did not mean to give you the impression otherwise, and I apologize for having done so," she said simply, but there was no coldness in her tone. She meant it, since this was indeed the opposite of what she'd been aiming for, and she wasn't used to missing her mark so widely.

She gestured expansively. "I only wanted to offer what I could," she continued. "He is still my son, even if he is fully grown and has little need for me. You are my daughter-in-law. It's in my nature to want to help those in my family." Mia offered another brief smile. "I've lived long enough to learn many things that I can pass on, and to offer it is not meant to discredit all that you already know or skills you already possess."

Mia tilted her head a little, almost like a curious animal, and her eyes wandered off to the horizon for a short, thoughtful moment before she turned and took a step to begin walking. "Perhaps an offer to tea would be more suiting? I know a lovely place in Hama Valon."

Alianora
"The Path of Daggers"
Posts: 997
Joined: May 2nd, 2016, 8:32 pm
PC: Liaran Sedai, Blue Ajah
SC: Amaranie Sedai, Indigo Ajah
TC: Kalyan Rihera, Yellow Ajah

Re: The Two-Way Street (Attn: Alianora)

Post by Alianora » November 27th, 2022, 10:42 pm

Liaran Sedai
Frustrated and nervous, Liaran looked from place to place within their surroundings, all while avoiding Miahala's gaze. While she was listening to the other woman's words carefully, the Blue sister was having considerable difficulty making sense of any of them. Why is she apologizing to me? Liaran could not understand it when Miahala had just been so insistent that she wasn't good enough and required so much improvement in her battle weaves in order to be acceptable to Haeden's family.

Or was that not what she meant?

Certainly, it was what Liaran had heard, an attitude that, to her, was to be expected from anyone's mother. How many times had her own mother spoken to her in just the same way? Let me show you how to tie that, Liaran......You're not mending that properly, watch how I do it.... No amount of effort had ever satisfied her mother, and similar behavior from Haeden's, while disappointing, would not have surprised Liaran at all.

What Miahala actually was saying, however, was a surprise, one that had the younger Aes Sedai watching her again, wide-eyed but silent. Is that all she wanted, to teach me what she knows just to share....not to judge or criticize? Liaran wouldn't have thought it possible, but Miahala did sound sincere, as far as she could tell.

Standing still, she looked down, unsure what to say. It was so strange to her that this woman she barely knew would be part of her family when she and Haeden were married. Liaran had wanted to change that, to become more comfortable around her ahead of the wedding, but felt as if she might have lost any hope of ever doing so. She tensed, preparing to force herself to make some sort of apology before fleeing, when Miahala spoke again.

"Perhaps an offer to tea would be more suiting? I know a lovely place in Hama Valon."

Liaran blinked, relaxed slightly, then returned her gaze to Miahala. Never a talkative woman, she had particular difficulty deciding what to say now. "I am sorry I misunderstood you," she finally managed. Not yet comfortable discussing her reasoning, something she rarely shared even with Haeden, she kept the explanation to herself. Dark eyes flickered away from Miahala away, towards the entrance to the Channeling Yards. Shyly, Liaran said, "I...would like that, if you would."

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