A Game of Stones [Attn: Astarte]

[Julio]

It was late morning. Dealers stepped into the garden, wanting to do something other than hit people, read, or study Ter'angreal. Not that any of those were bad or boring things, but he did them all too often. He wanted to do something, not just sit outside. The air was cool, with a scent of snow in the air. It had been like this for most of a week, but now there were clouds coming toward them. He wanted to take one more day that wasn't bitterly cold.

Daelar walked around the garden, looking at all the different plants. There were the Trolloc shaped ones; someone had filled the garden with them, scaring the denizens of the Tower for most of a day. To be fair, it had frightened Daelar as well, and he had destroyed a few before realizing they were plants. However, someone, likely the gardeners, had cleared most of them out, except for this small picturesque group. Picturesque, that is, if picturesque means artistically placed grotesque creatures.

Daelar walked over to them, looking them over. He couldn't do anything as impressive as this, though he could grow plants. He was better at simple earth moulding. He looked around for somewhere to make something; yes, there. There had been flowers recently, but they had been cleared in preparation for winter. Their would be new ones planted next spring. He walked over to the patch of bare ground, and seized Saidin. He had just begun to make a small spire when he heard a step behind him. He spun around; it was an Accepted. She had black hair, and looked a couple inches shorter than himself. Daelar greeted her. "Hello. What are you doing at this time in the morning?"

[Astarte]

Betrys hadn't expected her prank to have such dramatic results, the fact people had actually attacked the Trolloc-plants had been really pleasing as it proved how successful her creations had been. It had made her determined to try again but first she did need to clean up, the scattered chaos and slight damage had made her sad for the garden but at least this was in the wintertime so most of the flowerbeds and such were empty of their usual plants.

Which was one of the reasons she had even agreed to go along with the idea. Not that it took much to persuade her to join in but it at least it managed to mitigate her guilt about the whole venture "Oh! I wasnae expecting anyone tae be bout right now. I come here often - in the morning, what are yer doing here?" she asked, deciding to challenge him right on back.

After all, Betrys had a lot of reasons she could use to justify herself being here but she had yet to here what his excuses were and that would be rather nice to hear about in some more detail. Besides he'd started it "Yer nae a body I hae seen here bouts afore now" she added, looking up at him. Which was usual for her, even with the variety of all the people that were encountered in the Tower she still tended to be the one who was the shorter end of the scale. Not that she minded that much. It was after all something that she couldn't actually change no matter what she might prefer to be otherwise, and there were far more critical things to be concerned about than her height.

[Julio]

Daelar wasn't all that surprised when the Accepted turned his question back around on him. That question had been more of a reflex, really. If you make someone feel as if you belong there and they don't, they are less likely to be annoying. This girl was obviously not a timid girl, though.

Where making someone feel they didn't belong didn't work, there were other ways. One was using big words. "Well, I am striving to attain the beautification of this arboreal sanctuary."

That's exactly what he was attempting to do. However, his attempt looked doomed to failure. This girl looked much too intelligent - and perhaps stubborn - to be easily gotten rid of. Why get rid of her anyway?

Daelar decided to come clean. She didn't look like the type to get people into trouble. At least, not by telling on them. "I am practicing my earthsinging on this bit of garden. I am making little sculptures. I started with a simple spire, during the creation of which you interrupted me. I do not know what you know of earthsinging, but perhaps you would like to join me."

Daelar wasn't sure, but he might've seen a gleam of interest when he mentioned earthsinging.

[Astarte]

When she had first arrived at the Tower, reading and writing had been two strange and frightening unknowns. Over time and with a little hard work (well a lot of it) Betrys had managed to work on her skills until at last they had become familiar enough to avoid upsetting her every time she had to deal with either of them.

Which didn't make her comfortable when people used phrasing and words which were far above her own personal vocabulary. So, she narrowed her eyes slightly "You are. Well that isnae a bad thing I suppose..." she admitted, taking care with her own reply just in case this had been some kind of test. Betrys didn't recognise him but that didn't remove the fact that he had earned the right to come to these gardens as much as anyone else who have come to the Tower, the possessive reaction she felt about this location was merely in her own mind and she would respect that "Earthdsinging? I've nae seen a man do plant sculpture before" she replied softly.

As a result of her own interest in the skill and the learning experiences which had led to her understanding that her own talent was very much built in Betrys had spent more time watching male channelers as few other women could actually manage to keep up with her Earth weaving skills which had meant her being somewhat more creative than the other lessons.

"Aren't yer bothered wiv the Trolloc-pants?" she asked. Betrys had noticed that more than a few had been unsettled about the prank and the plants which had made it a success.

[Julio]

Why would the girl ask something like that? As if she was worried? "No, the Trolloc plants didn't bother me at all. They are very ingenious. Now that most have been removed, if you don't want to see Trollocs while meditating, you can just stay away from here. I don't know why anybody wouldn't want Trollocs all over the place while they rested and enjoyed nature."

Daelar smiled slightly. His sense of humour was strange. He delighted in both understatement and irony, finding most other jokes to be foolish. Except playing with words. He could play with words all day, if there wasn't something more interesting.

"I am not actually creating plant sculptures. I am simply making earth sculptures. Though, if you know how to make plant sculptures, I would love to learn. Even if you don't know how, I would still love to learn. It would be irrelevant, though."

He casually created a bowl in one of the stones using earth, and then filled it with water from the air around. He formed the water into half of a sword, seemingly sticking out of the ground. Then, using a quick weave of water and fire, froze it. He wasn't sure why he was doing this; he looked at the girl and realized why. He wanted to impress her.

[Astarte]

Odd. Betrys decided that was as good a word as any to describe this man. He was odd. Not that it counted greatly against him, she considered herself rather odd at times as well. At least here at the Tower it usually only resulted in a few perplexed stares in her direction before people just moved on with whatever they'd been doing. There was a degree of comfort in that knowledge, the certainty that she wasn't quite as alone as she would have been otherwise.

Betrys had struggled with fitting in at home, sometimes that was also true here but the difference was that she had a purpose now "I ain't sen earth sculpture before - is it hard?" she wouldn't mind trying but of course as usual when she watched something done with saidar she would have to figure it out on her own. The two couldn't be taught between the genders, even if it was possible for them to come together and create wonderful and wondrous things.

It was a strange separation but clearly the Creator had something in mind when he had arranged it in the first place "I can show yer the way I've done and talk about the Weaves I use..." she offered, giving him a rather hesitant smile "Did you..yer like the Trolloc-plants?" Betrys asked.

[Julio]

"Well, as you likely gathered, this was an ice sculpture. I am more proficient with water than earth. And no, earth sculptures are not hard. It simply requires dexterity to shape you weave into whatever. I found an obscure technique in an old book, one used for shaping earth. It is useless for causing explosions and other things, though. Basically, you create a blank space for your thread to fill. You mentally cause parts of your weave to grow or shrink, which forms the earth when you are done. You can make something with quite a few offshoots with a single thread that way. To be honest, it took me quite a long time to become decent at it. Months, in fact."

Her smile caused his heart to jump a little. This was a strange feeling indeed. He couldn't remember ever experiencing anything like it. She seemed surprisingly interested in what he thought of the Trolloc plants. "It would be useful indeed to be able to teach a user of other source - or be taught by one. I would love to hear of your methods of plant shaping, as I know nothing about it. And yes, I do like the Trolloc plants. Why do you ask?"

A moment later he suggested, "Perhaps you could attempt making an earth sculpture. It is quite hard to make one that is tall, though. You have to create a large base part, relatively low, and then make little shapes off of that. For example, I could not make that sword out of earth. It is much too tall, without a base."

He looked at her shyly, not that he really understood what that was. Seanchan weren't shy.

[Astarte]

It hadn't been hard to guess it was water-based, although Betrys hadn't seen an ice sculpture before now. So, this was all rather new and therefore much more interesting "Well yer saying that but that dinnae mind I wouldnae find it so. Saidin is very different after all" Betrys replied, not wanting to argue but also not accepting that it was as straightforward as he was making out.

"Explosions? I've nae done anything like that" Betrys admitted warmly.

As he mentioned the plant shaping, she felt her cheeks heat slightly "I can make things like the Trolloc-plants actually" not actually outrightly owing up to being the one who was responsible for their creation. Betrys didn't want to receive any sort of lecture or punishment for all her hard work but he did seem rather impressed and it was hard not to want to own up and say she had been responsible "I use Weaves of Earth and Spirit with touches of Water..." she explained, although Betrys knew it was probably not going to be something that he was going to understand just from a description and even showing him was rather hint or miss.

"What would you suggest the first time?" she asked, accepting the look and returning one of her own. Betrys was very familiar with shy, which she really needed to work on given how often she was spending around men. She couldn't keep blushing all the time.

[Julio]

"Earth and spirit with touches of water... I like that. Those are my three favourite elements. I heartily dislike having to use the others. But, as you say, Saidin and Saidar are very different. I am quite disgusted by the amount of fire required for many weaves with Saidin." Daelar really did want to learn to make plant sculptures. He would have to search through the library later.

Right now, though, she had asked him to suggest something to create with earth. He didn't want to alienate her in any way. It generally wasn't considered civil to run away to a library suddenly. "Well, I would suggest a bowl of some sort. Bowls are simple, but require more than just simple weaves known to everyone. Or you could start with a cone of some sort, and add shapes off of it. A simple boat shape would be good, too, as it is not uniform. I really don't know what to suggest."

Daelar was quite ashamed, he couldn't think of any good suggestions. He covered his embarrassment by simply creating those three shapes, each about a foot long. He went a bit farther with the ship, adding a multitude of oars coming out from the sides, as well as a single mast. He added some small waves around it, so that it would look like it were actually sailing somewhere. He looked up, still shy, to see what she thought.

[Astarte]

Betrys had always been prepared to work on sharing her ideas and creations when she was able to and especially when she could learn something new from someone else.

Which made her pleased that he still seemed so interested about her ideas and capabilities "It is? I thought fire were something that all men did well" which was probably a mistake to assume was the case. The abilities that existed just between herself and Mirin were vastly different after all and they were both women.

"A bowl?" she nodded slowly before watching as he just went ahead and did it "That is...well yer make it look so easy like - I'm gonna need tae work on it a little more" of that much she was very certain. While it all seemed to come easily and with little effort that didn't mean no work was required at all "Hae yer worked wiv the plants at all?" she asked, using her connection to the One Power as she concentrated on linking herself to that feeling of vast, welcoming warmth and allowing it to give her the vision and energy she needed to summon and control the Weaves for what she had in mind.

Betrys wasn't really thinking about how much it might or might not give her away but she was determined to give him an idea of what could be done with the plants - and the easiest way was to show her abilities.

Renewing her link to the Trolloc-plant she extended the Weave with an addition of some air to allow her to shift the plant slightly, making it quiver before the shape began to alter. She removed the obvious features and had it bow down into a smaller form that resembled a cat, before directing another Weave that encouraged the plant to bloom with delicate white flowers shaped like a stars "I find it best to coax...it is like a song I hear - what about yerself? The Weaves I use are all meant tae match the songs I hear" Betrys seriously suspected she'd end up sounding more than a little daft "...would the earth be like that yer think?" she asked narrowing her eyes and eying a patch of earth that she wondered about working with.