A Game of Stones [Attn: Astarte]

[Julio]

Daelar watched in wonder as the girl changed the Trolloc into a cat, then had it burst into flower. "A song? No, not much of a song. At least, there are no words, and if it is a song it is a very slow song. More of a story. A very long story, that is in no hurry to end. Shaping the earth is like adding vibrant detail. I simply add a detail, and it shows up. Of course, if that detail doesn't go well with the story, it is very hard to add. For example, say the part of the earth I am shaping feels like a battle. If I add the details of a swordfight, it is easy. However, if I try to add a feast, it doesn't work."

"No, I have not worked with plants before. Though I do wish to learn, as it sounds like it would fit my skillset decently. Your weave is amazing. I'm sure if you had decided to turn the gardens into Trollocs, you wouldn't have a problem."

He didn't know if she had; it seemed possible, though. How many people were there in the Tower who could - and would - turn the plants into Trollocs? To be honest, he didn't know whether the plants had been grown from seeds, or simply changed. He suddenly realised that he didn't even know this girl's name!

"We have been speaking for a while on earthsinging and plant shaping, but I do not even know your name, and you likely do not know mine. My name is Daelar Ralead; what is yours, if you don't mind me asking?"

[Astarte]

She couldn't stop the slow spread of a smile at his response. Betrys had been seriously worried about sharing the particular sensations that seemed to exist when she connected and used this aspect of her abilities- did it just make her weird? While it wasn't exactly the same - which was no surprised as male channelers were of course different from the women, it did help her feel better about her own experiences "No, there aren't words..." she agreed with him nodding slowly.

Betrys didn't notice the same struggle to get her efforts to mesh, she saw, no she felt the places and the way it could go. The subtle edges that had room to be filled in and added to, it all felt so welcoming. As if she had a place within.

Perhaps she did?

There was no vanity in her person to suggest that she was special but she did believe that the Creator had a purpose in mind in her existence "I dinnae mind. I am Betrys. Betrys Cadwallader" she remarked and smiled at him once more. She was often smiling, it was something she found easy when she was truly relaxed, although there was always the awareness that it sometimes made more sense to resist her urges. She didn't usually succeed but she knew about it all the same.

"I should hae said something sooner" she added and shrugged "I suppose I cheated a wee bit with ma Weave here, it's one I've done before" she admitted, not quite ready to own up to her exploits with the Trolloc-plants "...I practise a lot in my room" Betrys added brightly.

[Julio]

Betrys. Betrys Cadwallader. Even her name seemed... right. Beautiful. The sun had come out from behind a small cloud, and seemed to be shining on her, and her alone. Well.

"It's not cheating to have practiced at a weave. I have practiced creating earth sculptures many times, and likely have made boats in the past. I think I'll try my hand at this plant sculpture right now."

Daelar knelt down, and concentrated on a small flower. He listened for the story in the plant, but couldn't find it... He looked deeper. There. A faint idea. It had a faster pace than the earth, but still it was a story. Not like water, which told very quick stories. They didn't focus on long, far off plots, though they had a common idea generally. This was a mix between the two, not a short story, and not a long convoluted epic. He tried a weave to fit in. It felt like it would cause the flower to grow, and form itself into a corkscrew. He released it. The results were rather sad.

It started in a way that looked right, but it simply shot out a great tangle of leaves. Well, it had a slightly correct basic shape... it was thin on the bottom and the top, and not so thin in the middle. It was quite terrible, to be honest. He looked up at the Accepted... No, Betrys.

"Not quite what I intended to do. It was supposed to be a bit more... orderly. I will likely look in the library for a book on plant shaping. Now that I have tried a plant sculpture, why don't you try one with earth?"

He stood up, brushing the small amount of dirt off his hands.

[Astarte]

She had never been one prone to introspective, even the way she wondered about Valadin was far more about him than herself and that was echoed in respect of anything to do with her personally. The way she styled her hair and spoke, they made her stand apart but they'd always done that and so Betrys had long since ceased to consider them as being important "Yer doing a sight better than I managed the first time" she insisted. True, she'd then spent hours making it over and over, determined to get it right.

"Aye, yer right...there..." she looked at the ground and then him. This was the trouble with sharing the knowledge of Weaves between genders, you couldn't just show the other person what you were talking about the differences being saidin and saidar made that impossible - still Betrys didn't discount the use she'd found in spending time with the male channelers. They'd helped in giving her ideas and new concepts that allowed her to try and add them to what she'd already managed to figure out.

Betrys gently cupped some of the dirt in her hands and tried to figure out what he'd done so easily.

Allowing herself to surrender to the embrace of the One Power was an easy thing now. She had started to find it increasingly easy to reach out and suspend her own worries and doubts about everything as it washed over her and provide the energy she needed to create the wonders that had started to fill up her rooms and the gardens as a result of her efforts "...alright..." she murmured and reached out, her hands spinning and shaping the delicate strands of power into a Weave that she hoped would work, at the core remained Earth but she added delicate bands of water and air with an addition of spirit as well. Hoping to coax the dirt into shaping the way he had done.

It started to look vaguely bowl shape, at least if one was going to accept a rather droopy looking item.

"Oh dear..." she murmured, opening her eyes "That doesnae look right..." she looked over at him.

[Julio]

Daelar watched with amusement as Betrys attempted to make a bowl. It looked(quite strangely indeed) as if it was made of mud. To be honest, though, this was a much better first attempt than his own. "Well, at least you managed to make a shape. When I was first learning this weave, for a while I couldn't make anything happen with it. Then, well, after a very exasperating week of failure, I managed to use it successfully! This wonderful use of my weave knocked down a shelf in the library. The librarians were, naturally, quite pleased with me. They politely informed me that they would greatly appreciate my help in the reorganization of the library. Quite a privilege."

He smiled wryly remembering that. Well, he had learned since then. The real lesson there was not to practice channeling in the library. "I'm sure you can get the weave right. Maybe make it a bit thicker; the parts tend to collapse if they are too thin."

He demonstrated this, making a more correctly proportioned boat. The mast collapsed almost immediately, as did the oars. "See what I mean? The tricky part is making it strong enough, but still having it look good."

[Astarte]

She knew that initial failure was far more likely at this stage that any sort of recognizable success which didn't mean she couldn't want to actually achieve something that actually...worked.

Still, at least she'd manged to do something, even if the effort had been rather disappointing as it...well collapsed "I suppose that it could have gone worse..." she finally agreed softly in an effort to offer at least something which resembled a positive response. After all, he had been able to handle his own limitations with a degree of grace - she could manage to do the same with respect of her own attempt "I'll not nae attempts tae be made in the library - though I could suggest ya been teaching me bad habits, eh?" Betrys suggested lightly, frowning at the remains of her bowl while she considered what might need to be changed for the next time and it would need to changed.

After all, there would definitely be a next time of that much she was certain.

Betrys had encountered enough disappointment to know it was best to just get right back on board and try again "Were yer banned for that accident?" she asked, curious about the possibility of what his punishment might have ended up being. The library staff weren't noted for their kind dispositions towards anyone who messed up their domain.

[Julio]

Daelar leaned against a tree trunk, absorbed by the conversation. "No, I was not banned. Some of the librarians thought I should be, but other than that I had a good track record. What also helped was that a few of the browns like me, as well as one of the Indigos. Still, though, certain browns will give me frosty glares when I come across them. Frostier than usual, that is. However, I was given the responsibility of organizing a lot of things. With supervision, of course."

That had been terrible. He liked the library, and he liked knowing where things were, but he had no use for knowledge of the precise order and number of the books on knitting, nor the books on crocheting, nor farming. There seemed to have been an inordinate amount of books on all those subjects. Having to climb a step ladder carrying piles of books that needed to be placed alphabetically wasn't fun either. He absentmindedly formed a small mound on the floor, forming it into the shape of a S'redit, what these mainlanders called boar-horses. The tusks had to be shortened a little, the long nose had to be curled up on itself, the ears had to be thickened, and the legs shortened a bit, but all in all he was happy with it.

When he finished it, he realized that he had been absorbed by making it. "I'm quite sorry for being unattentive. This is a S'redit, a Seanchan animal. They are quite large, strong, and intelligent."

[Astarte]

He was more fortunate than her in that respect; although her efforts as a prankster had probably made it easier for the staff to want to both punish and censure her to the maximum level. It had only made her (and Mirin) more skilled and sneaky about making sure that neither of them ended up getting caught. So, there was a lesson of a kind in that sort of thing.

Betrys was fairly sure that hadn't been the intention "They do like tae make sure ya learn to respect all the organizing" she admitted, she'd not been trusted with that task but then her efforts at reading had been at times rather painful and certainly time consuming which made it very certain that she was not the sort of person to do that sort of work. While Betrys had been able to pay attention to his conversation that hadn't prevented her from being able to watch him as the One Power and his own creative tendencies created...something? Betrys had heard stories about the creatures of the world but she'd not actually seen all that many of them.

It looked like...boar-horse? However, she wasn't about it. At least until he actually named it "I nae seen one before..." she admitted and moved to have a closer look "Yer seen one in real life?" Betrys asked carefully, curiosity and some awe clear in her voice and manner.

[Julio]

Had he seen one in real life! Daelar laughed out loud, a clear sound, and a sensation he wasn't at all used to. Of all the most ludicrous questions! He realized after a moment that he might have accidentally insulted her.

"I am quite sorry indeed for laughing so impolitely. I have seen many S'redit, extremely often during my time in Seanchan. Especially during my early childhood, we owned quite a few beautiful ones. We occasionally rode them in state, though not very commonly. Then, quite without warning, while I was still very young, it seems almost as if I had dreamed all of that, and was only a farmer. Our names were different, we lived in a different place, we now all grew hair, and we had no servants."

He was speaking almost to himself, down the road of his earliest memories. He suddenly realized that and lightened up, speaking cheerfully, with a laugh in his voice. "We still saw S'redit. For a time, we kept some. They were never so magnificently dressed, though. They were as tall as our woodshed, some taller, their noses as long as beams in our house. Never, even as babies, were they nearly so small as this one I have created."

He glanced at his foot-and-a-half long S'redit and laughed again. "I'm sure there are things that you are used to that I would be shocked about."

[Astarte]

Betrys wasn't easily offended and she certainly wasn't that interested in judging someone for any random outburst but it was hard to not be upset about the way he started to laugh at her comment. She had been opening up and being friendly, hoping for something of the same in reply and then it had been slammed back at her without any warning - it seemed her luck in that aspect of relations with men was holding true. Sadly. Betrys had been hoping that things could work out a little better for her given that she was older and surely more experienced than she had been before - right?

"I see. That must hae been somethin' tae experience" she replied evenly "I canna imagine growing up like that. But...I also dinna imagine I hae seen much ya wouldn't hae" she added, becoming so much more stiff and formal with him as she pulled back from the danger of opening herself up to those dangerous emotions which she apparently was sorely lacking in any type of understanding when it came to dealing with the male gender - perhaps she should just avoid all of them.

It would be a lot better. It really would.

However, Betrys had long since retired from any of her urges to run away from the things that worried and upset her and instead choose to face them more or less head on "I used tae help my father wiv brewing..." she suggested "And I help wiv the infirmary, been working on that so I git tae see the hurting folks" she replied and shrugged.