Roommates: Friend or Foe? [Attn: Astarte] COMPLETE

[Jenny]

Mirin struck without warning. She darted forward, and her hand - SMACK! - slapped Betrys across the face.

She stood there, looking down at her hand wonderingly. Then, she gasped and ran out of the room. She couldn't remember if violence had been against the rules. There were so many rules for novices that, despite her reasonably good memory, she was finding it difficult to remember them all. After just one day, I'm going to get kicked out of the Tower, she thought bitterly. It's all that stupid chit's fault!

Mirin burst into the office of the Mistress of Novices. "I need a single room," she gasped out. "I have irreconcilable differences with my roommate."

Behind her, the door flung open again. Mirin spun around to see Betrys standing there. Mirin's face drained of color.

[Astarte]

She hit me!

The sensation, the sound - all of it! Betrys was shocked, not because she had never been hit but the whole idea of someone here coming along and doing it so casually, with so little...concern shocked her far more than all the other occasions she had been struck in her life. Of course, Betrys at least had known there were reasons why it had happened. Not that they had always been justified or reasonable but Betrys had at least understood why it had been the outcome of what situation had arrived beforehand.

She hit me!

For a moment she hung there, terribly uncertain about what to do and then she ran. Betrys headed straight for the Mistress of Novices, all thoughts of decorum forgotten as she did so. The length of her skirts whipping around her ankles as she made the sprint coming to the door, barely winded thanks to her rather active life prior to an since coming to the Tower "She hit me!" she red mark on her skin throbbing like an accusing pulse "SHE HIT ME!" Betrys shouted the pitch rising as her anger, pain and outrage all blended together into one.

[Stasia]

Illyria Malkom It was a rather lazy morning. The newest novices had been settled in, and she had finished scraping the ashes of their old clothing out from her large fireplace and their possessions were carefully locked away for when they were either turned out or became Aes Sedai. Both of her newest charges had potential, she could sense it - but they would only become Aes Sedai if they allowed themselves to be forged by fire and trial. They both had long roads ahead of them, but as she had already received her shawl, Illyria could look back on the experience with a thin veil of fondness clouding how miserable her years as a Tower-trainee had been.

Her life had changed so much since then, it was nearly impossible to remember what it had been like to be in whites. She had a Warder-husband, a squealing infant to love, and had settled in the world. But, that did not mean that she was never surprised.

For instance: her door had never, not once in her near decade reign of the novices, been slammed open, nor had anyone had the audacity to barge in and make demands of her. The ink had barely dried on the ledger where Mirin Ronaile had signed her name, and already, it seemed as though every warning she had been given about the difficulties of Tower life had already fallen out of her head.
"I need a single room," she gasped, heaving as though she had run all the way from her quarters, "I have irreconcilable differences with my roommate."

Illyria could only stare at her, cold and icy: the Mistress of Novices may have been shorter than most Cairheinin, but she had become a fearsome opponent over the years. She did not bother gracing the child with a response, and she hoped dearly that her message would sink in, and that Mirin would escort herself out of the office and back to the kitchens, where she might could earn redemption. The girl did not seem to get the message, and instead stared wide-eyed out of the still-open doorway.

A shrill cry pierced the air, and in a flurry of white skirts and flailing arms, another novice stumbled into her office. "She hit me!" That was Betrys Cadwallader; she had not been here more than a week! She turned he profile towards Illyria, so that a definitive hand-print could be seen stretching across her cheekbone. "SHE HIT ME!" Betrys screeched, and looked as though she wanted to return the favor as soon as possible.

Mirin looked as though she might open her mouth to defend herself, but Illyria put a full stop in the conversation before it could truly begin. She stood with such force from her chair that it scraped harshly as it compensated for her movement and she stared daggers at the pair. "Enough," she hissed. "You are Novices of the Grey Tower, not squabbling toddlers in a pigsty. Explain yourselves. Now."

The girls stumbled through their stories. The Indigo was very seriously displeased.

"You will remain roommates indefinitely," she snapped, "I'm tempted to tie your wrists together with the One Power, so that you're stuck to each other, but I will not inconvenience your instructors with class schedule shuffling so that you can learn something you should have learned before you ever set foot outside of your homes. And you, Mirin, will teach Betrys to read. Should I hear one foul word, you will wish you had never been born." The crop sat on her desk, menacing as ever. "And Betrys? I will be watching. Don't think that you can get away with stretching the truth before you've even begun to understand what it means to be Aes Sedai."

"Do either of you have anything to say for yourselves?"

[Jenny]

Mirin flushed bright red and curtsied. She wobbled, her usual grace gone. "No, Aes Sedai," she murmured meekly.

She fled the office, not bothering to look over her shoulder to see if Betrys followed. Perhaps she could simply ignore the existence of the other girl... but no. She had to teach Betrys to read. Mirin was now responsible for her roommate's literacy, or rather, lack of literacy. And it was very clear to her that, if she did not put forth her very best effort, there would be consequences. She shuddered at the thought of the crop on the Mistress of Novices' desk.

When Mirin returned to the room, she flung herself on her bed. She didn't want to cry, oh she did not want to cry, but the tears flowed anyways. Events had happened too quickly over the last few days. Wilmer had dumped her. She had left home. Her dress was burned. Her roommate was awful. She was treated, at best, like a child, but worked like a servant. Even the servants had more respect.

Mirin buried her face in her pillow, her tears flowing freely now. Her body shook with sobs. She wished that her mother were here.

"I miss you, mother," she said softly. I miss you.

[Astarte]

She'd wanted to say something that would be able to protest or at least deny the punishment that had been afflicted on her shoulders, it wasn't fair! Betrys hadn't asked to have a room-mate like Mirin. The...the...moon-faced chit! She muttered under her breath the whole time she walked back to her room.

Betrys knew she was different from the rest of the girls here, well most of them. The fact she lacked the same level of literacy as so many of the others wasn't really the point - she didn't want to be different.

"This is all ya fault! Ya stuck-up priss!" she shouted, before she narrowed her eyes "Are ya whining?" Betrys hadn't expected her to be crying like that. It made her worry slightly? But only a little. Mirin had still got them in trouble, embarrassed her and also hurt her physically on top of everything else. Betrys took a deep breath and watched her, not sure this wasn't some kind of trick.

[Jenny]

Mirin pulled herself up, wiping her tears.

“I am not whining,” she started, and then she bit back the rest of her words. No, she would not be drawn into bickering like a child. Be calm and collected, she thought. Pretend you are an Aes Sedai.

She glared at Betrys for a few long minutes with eyes red from crying. Finally, she took a deep breath and spoke.

“Go wash yourself, Betrys. You still stink like a pig,” she said coldly. “We will start our reading lessons tomorrow. And you best be ready to learn. You may hate me. That’s fine; I hate you, too. But we have a common goal. The faster you learn, the faster we can get away from each other.”

===

The next day, she pulled her chair next to Betrys’ desk. Her tone was polite, but cold. She would try her best, even if she hated the other woman. She showed Betrys, on a piece of parchment, how to form letters. Then, she explained their phonetic sounds.

After her explanation, she said, “I will help you as much as I can, but practice is the best way to improve. Do you have any questions?”

[Astarte]

She snorted.

It certainly looked like she was whining but Betrys let it lie. She was still too angry to want to say anything more "I's nae need ya to be troubling me with ma smell or lack of it!" she announced but still grabbed her change of clothes and left to get washed and refreshed. Betrys probably took longer than she normally would in an effort to avoid Mirin.

When she got back, Betrys headed straight to bed and snuggled in for the night.

In the morning, she was up and dressed before Mirin and already sat at her desk when she approached and started trying to teach her what to do with the symbols and sounds and how they were all linked together to make sense into words. It sounded very much like Mirin was speaking in code "...ya going tae fast for me. I's need...what is this one?" she asked, pointing at one of the first symbols once more.

[Jenny]

Mirin gritted her teeth. It took tremendous effort for her not to roll her eyes. But her voice was steady and patient as she went through the symbols once more. She made Betrys form each letter, and repeat the sound after her.

Then, she picked up the pen and wrote a few of the symbols together. “This is your name, Betrys. Listen.” She sounded out the other woman’s name, showing how the sounds flowed together. Mirin hoped that Betrys would feel an emotional connection to this, and the learning would go quicker. By the Light, if Betrys learned nothing else today, Mirin was determined to make sure Betrys would know how to read and spell her own name!

[Astarte]

As a child she had been charmed by the travelers who came to share the stories of the world and all the events that happened in the far-out world beyond her own village. It had been fascinating and exciting, along with being a little scary as well. Betrys had always been caught in the mix of fear and desire. She had wanted to go out and spend time experiencing those things for herself but it had been hard to imagine it as a possibility it had been why she'd only tried to run once.

Well there had been other reasons but that had been of an assist in making sure that she didn't keep on fighting.

"That's my name. My name?" she murmured warmly, reaching out a hand and stroking it over the shapes that made up her name "Does that..anyone would know that is my name?" it was like a new kind of magic, one that seemed more worldly and connected than she had previously experienced or been aware of existing and it was amazing "...are... what about ya name?" she asked eventually, looking to her room-mate and almost challenging her to do the trick again.

[Jenny]

Betrys' wonderment was contagious. Despite herself, Mirin smiled, a wide smile that lit up her eyes. For a moment, she forgot her dislike of the woman.

"Anyone who can read will know that is your name," she said kindly. She dipped the pen into the inkpot and bent over the parchment again, scrawling another short group of symbols. "And this is my name." She sounded it out for Betrys as well.

Then, Mirin straightened. "You will need to practice on your own," she said sternly. "I won't always be around to help you. So, you have homework. This book -" she pulled out a slim, colorful book, "- is full of childrens' stories. I think you will find it enjoyable. Use this -" she tapped the parchment with the alphabet, "- and you can sound out the words like I showed you. Copy down all the words you can't sound out, and we will work on those. We'll have another lesson in a week - that will give you time to get through the book."

Mirin stood up, and suddenly, recalled her dislike for her roommate. Her good mood vanished. "Now, I have other homework to do, and I suggest you work on your other classes as well," she said coldly. She spun on her heel, dragged her chair back to her own desk, and bent over her own work.