A Flower in Bloom- ATTN: Nani

[Kevin]

Taylin turned the corner of the hallway steps with ease, she had no books in her hands, and yet was off to meet with a Novice as part of her requirements as an Accepted. She was to help the girl gain a better grasp on her ability to not only embrace and hold, but to weave saidar as well.

She wasn't sure what the girl would look like, nor did it matter. Knowledge was what she needed to give her, not a once-over. There was a breeze seeming to come from the opened windows along the outer wall, the day warm and faintly scented of perfume and cologne. She found her way to a small classroom, more like a study than anything.

Looking around she was glad to have arrived first. Tying her blond hair into a ponytail, she pulled up the sleeves on her banded Accepted's dress as she embraced saidar. She lifted two logs with weaves of Air placing them into the fireplace, and then used a weave of Fire to set them ablaze. She appreciated the ambiance it provided, the comfort of a warm hearth.

She moved to the far wall and opened the window to let out the heat, though she could ignore it if she chose, the Novice shouldn't be sweated out by just sitting. The day was beautiful and from here one could see over Hama Valon. She felt the warmth of it in her soul, the simple beauty of another day.

Turning back to the room she appraised it. The curtains were white, and the floor was done in dark marble. A few book cases stood against the windowed wall, and a portrait hung above the fireplace. There was a desk, complete with ink, quill, and parchment. Perhaps this was used as an office some times.

Two wing-back chairs with stuffed maroon cushions sat on a golden rug; a few wall sconces unlit with the light of day filling the room adorned the walls tan blank spaces. She reveled in the Power as she wove another weave of air, splitting it three ways, and then tying a weave off to keep the heat from gathering within the room.

She took a seat in one of the chairs, moving the other so that it faced her with about five feet of distance between them. She then released the Power and waited, smiling slightly as she listened to the noises outside.

[Nani]

Angelique al'Chan

She hadn't been here long. The first few days had been spent debriefing her mother as well as hiding the powerful items she had found in places her or Garren would be able to find them. But her grace days were over, and now she was being required to start her life in the Tower, again. A wilder by definition since she shared no blood relation to Jenna, she was semi trained in her powers already. But that didn't mean that she would be able to get a pass. She knew that she had bad habits, and she also knew that she didn't want to fix them either. Her hands were steady as she approached the small study.

The white of the Novice uniform was alright, but she could have wished for some pants since she had been traveling for quite a while now. Lies, and falsehoods came easy to her, and she would maintain that for as long as she possibly could. They kept her safe, and they kept her family safe. Nothing would come between her and protecting those she cared about. The day was hot and she was already sweating. She still smelled of vanilla, but her underarms were damp, and as she paused outside the door she fanned her top back and forth to cool her chest. It felt weird to not have her shadow, her wolf near her, but she also knew that it would be fine for now. She could handle herself within these walls, and he wouldn't be far. He would be listening to her voice, and if she was in distress he would be there.

Coming back was a trial for him, and her. His crazy ex wife was here, and she bore no love for Angelique. There was no love lost between Angelique and Sulinn, and the Novice wanted to keep it that way. Her hand closed around the handle and as she opened the door she knocked. Her feet carried her forward, but she didn't feel the familiar bounce of her sword against her thigh. Everything was a learning curve. From sleeping in a bed, to NOT sleeping next to her wolf, to not carrying her weapon around with her everywhere. As she entered the room, she paused for a moment and enjoyed the feeling of cool air in the room.

There seated before her was a woman who looked about as safe as could be. Angelique gave her a quick bow and then stood back up. "My name is Angelique al'Chan, and I believe that I'm here to learn about the One Power."

[Kevin]

Taylin stood as the girl entered and introduced herself, more out of polite habit than alarm; although she was surprised to find herself half readying to fight. Her nerves. She knew the Shadow was there, and after what she had seen, well paranoia was understandable. Yet still she kept it under tight control, buried with her anger. She smiled at the woman as she assessed her. There had to be a reason they had sent this one to her. It was no secret Novices whispered, and Accepted did too, but Taylin had always preferred to listen, and find the truth on her own.

The girl was just shorter than Taylin, but carried herself far too much like a Warder for a woman who could turn a sword into molten steel with a single weave. Taylin did not like the short red hair on the girl, she preferred long hair on women, but with her green eyes and mature, pretty face; she pulled it off well enough.

"Hello Angelique al'Chan, I am Taylin Melandrin. I have heard rumors of you I believe, although I believe there are a fair share about my temper, among other things, by this point as well. Perhaps we can work on it, or perhaps it is who we are and they will simply have to accept that. I am not here to judge you or demean you. I don't, frankly, want to waste our time with mucking about in things you already know."

Taylin motioned to the seat she'd placed for Agelique, and turned to the door, asking a nearby serving woman to have tea brought up. Shutting the door again she walked back with a glided pace that seemed natural now, not duck-like as it had in the beginning. She eyed the other woman carefully maintaining eye-contact with her. Something was feral about the look in her eye, defiant. Something Taylin suddenly recognized in her own self reflected; the inner fire of will and passion; personal strength.

"If I am to teach you, you have to trust me. If I say stop channeling, I mean it. I know they call you a wilder, but you know more than just a wilder does. Anyway, I doubt we will have a problem, I don't get too involved in personal affairs. Tell me, where did you leave off in your formal teachings? And what element have you found yourself strongest in?"

[Nani]

Angelique al'Chan

Angelique raised an eyebrow and carefully watched the Accepted before her. She was rather beautiful, but in her time away from the tower and traveling, Angelique had learned to see things that many would rather keep hidden. Such as a tightening of her body ready for a fight. "What rumors have you heard about me Accepted?" She asked, her voice bland but her ear near quivering waiting for her answer. Her rear slid down onto the seat, sitting properly with her back all the way upright and proper.

If I am to teach you, you have to trust me. Those words spoke volumes of what this accepted believed already. The rumors that her travel companion had made her as feral as he was, rumors that she was as apt to bite someone as she was to shake their hand. This was not about trust. This was about necessity. She needed her freedom back, and the only way to do that, now that she was 'home' was to go through that bloody system. She had promised Garren they would only be here for as long as they needed to. "I had finished my one power basics, but as it was a very long time ago, the Mistress of Novices would like for me to have a refresher. My element I had the most strength in at that time was Spirit, Water, Wind, Earth and Fire in that order. It hasn't changed in my time away from the Tower Accepted." She replied softly before her body relaxed marginally.

Her strength was one of raw power. Fine weaves were not something she excelled at because of her lack of training. She had a bad habit of just shoving people off their seats as a joke with wind, or drenching a snobby person with water. That wasn't including her torturing people for information, something she had had to learn to do in the course of her search for the ter'angreal.

[Kevin]

"What have I heard of you, Novice? You'd be surprised when one likes to know goings on around them what they can over hear, and see happening. I know something of you, you're a loner. I know, because I tend to be too. But our strength is in that, because once we have a friend, they are the true kind, not the kind who disappear with time, or if the winds should change.

I also know there is more to your story than I have yet to hear, but with time, all things come to light." Taylin smiled politely, before continuing on normally.

"I assume you've used the Power in ways I have not, being without restriction as a Wilder, but I feel capable in helping to remind you." There was a slight knock at the door as a servant entered with a silver tray of tea and sugar, two cups sat cleanly waiting. Taylin poured them, a sign of good faith if the girl recognized such subtleties of etiquette.

"Water, Air, and Spirit are also in my top three, particularly the first two. I guess that is as good a place as any to start. So let's begin. Embrace the Source. Do not channel, simply embrace and hold it. Once you have done that, we will begin work with each of the five elements. The first will be Water. When you are ready, please follow my weave."

After the glow surrounded the other woman, Taylin wove Water into a sphere creating a simple weave, it floated in a ball of blue and green and every hue between. It was Angeliique's turn now. Taylin waited, ready to act at the drop of a pin should something be wrong.

[Nani]

Angelique al'Chan

Angelique controlled her eyebrow which wanted to raise on it's own as Taylin said that she was a loner. That wasn't entirely true. She had select people she trusted, and a wider range of people she used. True she only had about five people she could trust without question, and this woman before her was not one of them. Angelique took the tea from the Accepted and then moved her hand off to the side. Embracing the source was not something she did often, at least not merely to hold. That kind of action was dangerous when everyone was looking for you to kill you because you knew just a little too much information for their liking.

But she did it, the sweet feeling coming into her body. She held it there, as she observed the weaves made to make the ball of water. It did not take her long, and the ball was bigger then Taylin's, because she did not do well with fine weaves at all. The ball hovered over her out stretched hand as she sipped the tea. This was an old exercise, one she had done many times before, and it was boring. But she hadn't done this in a long time, and she knew that she would have to suffer through it till it was over and she could get what she wanted.

[Kevin]

Taylin watched, and the looked at the size of the girls weaving, it was strong and large, but lacked some finesse. Taylin repeated the ward, this time splitting the flow of Water three ways, and putting the balls into a spinning motion. She seemed unimpressed with herself either, these were basic things, although perhaps not so basic to one who had learned before.

"Your technique needs work. Split your thread of water as I have and form three smaller globe, then make them spin for you. When you can do this, I would like you to weave Air, simple Air. Do nothing with it other than to create the orb, as such."

Taylin allowed the weaves of Water to dissipate, and wove a strand of Air into a hazy, fog like ball. Then split the weave three ways yet again, and now three spheres of Air danced around her palms. She let her weavings drop, as only the glow of saidar surrounded her.

[Nani]

Angelique al'Chan

Splitting weaves? No, merely splitting what she had currently. Fair enough, still basic, but easy enough. Taylin wasn't wrong, she lacked technique. But she knew that she made up for alot of her lack in the area of sheer power. And so, she managed to split the main ball into three separate ones, her hands giving a small shake in her concentration. She needed to concentrate hard on splitting it. Once it was split, she would be able to hold them without an issue. But splitting them would take its toll on her momentarily.

Finally they were split, and slowly revolving around her upturned hand. Then her next task was keeping those three spinning, which required little of her concentration since it was her strongest elements, she wove Air into the same sized ball she had before. She could split it smaller, but the main ball would always remain large. She couldn't help the size of it, because she currently drew in alot of power. Angelique had a hard time getting the small portions. It was like Saidin in that regard for her, a huge torrent of sweet honey.

Over her hand would hover the three balls of water that were still slowly spun around the ball of air which sat in the center of all three. Angelique could remember someone describing her mother's dance of illusions one year at a Sunday festival where she took each of the elements and made a beautiful display of lights like this that she had hovering over her hand. Her tea was still being sipped on as she watched the Accepted. "Would you care for me to split the air as well, as you did?" She asked, her face bland and carefully controlled.

[Kevin]

Taylin looked at the novice. She stopped channeling, or at least consciously. The sunny day was growing dim with cloud cover, and rain seemed promised on the winds. It was a mirror to her darkening mood at the Novice who lacked any form of respect, even for someone who was sent to help her. Taylin took her flippant attitude as disrespect, and so, she stopped trying to be nice, it didn't fit her well anyway.

"I don't have to teach you any more than you want to know. You are not Accepted. Leave the Tower once they deem you safe, I do not care. I am here to teach a lesson as asked. You are strong in the Power, but a cunning channeler, even weak, is more dangerous than someone unrefined in their abilities."

Taylin made a mental effort to stifle some of the rage she always seemed to have on slow boil, and with that control, the weather would return slightly to normal, though now overcast by clouds outside of the window.

"Split it, then combine each sphere of water to an equal sphere of air. Split the spheres so you have six in all. Hold them, and then create a weave of Spirit, and juggle it between every second ball."

Taylin demonstrated, the globes before her dancing in circles within circles. She added spirit, and a third circular orbit was added.

[Nani]

Angelique al'Chan

There it was. A spark of humanity. The fire she possessed had been brought to the foreground. Her hand closed, and the balls ceased moving as she looked out the window as the Accepted got angry with her purposeful disrespect. And as the accepted gained her control back, the sky cleared a little more. Was it just a coincidence that the weather reflected her mood? Perhaps. Angelique would keep an eye on it.

"Forgive my rudeness Accepted, I merely wished to see if you were human, or as ice cold as most Aes Sedai pretend to be. Nothing is more real then anger, and nothing is harder to hide." Angelique had spent many years being angry. Her happy ending had always been stolen from her, raising her brother while her mother was Comatose. It would be clear on her face that she wasn't patronizing Taylin, she knew what it was like to have that rage simmering below the surface.

Angelique would get Garren to look into her more, but her gut told her that Taylin was okay to trust. Perhaps it was the loner deal, perhaps it was that she had anger, and it made Angelique curious. At any rate, Angelique needed to get back to the lesson. The Novice's hand slowly opened and the spheres started to spin again. This time, air split easily and Angelique grasped Spirit, that silvery beautiful light, and tried for the small spheres right away. The balls would form between every second ball in her current rotation, and this was the easiest as Spirit was her strongest element. Soon her beautiful spheres were rotating over her hand and she knew what was coming up next by process of elimination. The two that would require the most concentration to maintain. She was the opposite of her mother, who's strongest elements were fire and earth.

"I feel I must warn you Accepted. When I have to weave Fire it can potentially get dangerous if I'm holding others in my grasp. Just a forewarning as I would rather not hurt you. It tends to get a little.....explosive." She said as she set her empty cup back on the saucer.