The Grey Tower

As Miahala laid out Tia's lineage before the young girl, she realized she was being more than a bit. . .childish. Perhaps she did want to follow in the footsteps of her mother, but the Wheel weaves as it will, and it had other plans for the young Tomason. She had a strong lineage to live up to, and though there were doubts, hearing her Memma say she would do well. . .she believed it, and so it would be.

The dress was still a conscientious issue, but she had little say in the matter. In fact, she had no say at all on this point. Tia might be naive on some things, but she was not naive about what it meant to have the spark. Anyone found to have the ability to channel had to learn how to wield the One Power so they did not harm themselves or others. Now that she had the spark, her immediate future had been determined for her, and she felt like she was losing a bit of her independence.

Tia realized, though, that she was likely luckier than many who came to the Tower on the path to be Asha'man or Aes Sedai. For many, they learned they could channel and were removed from their families and brought to the Tower without delay. At least her family were at the Tower, and still close enough that she could see them, and visit them when she might have free time. . .though she had no idea what her schedule might be once she joined the ranks.

Furrowing her brows as she considered what her future might now hold, she looked to Mia, "How. . .hard is it? The training? How long will it take?" The different path unfolding before her had just as many opportunities as the one she'd envisioned for herself. . .if not more. It would just be a different set of challenges she would have to face, and overcome.

"That all depends," Mia said earnestly. "Training is not easy, no, but nor should it be. You will be learning to do a remarkable thing, and those things in life that are worth having are worth working for. No Sha'hal has ever shirked hard work, though, so I have no doubt that you will do well." The Oaths made it so, but she was biased to her own blood naturally.

"As for time...that depends, too. How long it takes depends on how well you take to it. You are called upon your tests according to your abilities, so it is less or more for young men and women depending on the proficiency they show once they begin."

Tia was not afraid of hard work, nor was she one to walk away from a challenge. The path she thought she'd be traveling would have required discipline, hard work and years worth of commitment. The Wheel weaves as the Wheel will, and now she found her path would take a bit of a detour. It would require perhaps just as much hard work, and likely the same level of commitment, if not more.

It didn't seem real. . .the idea that she channeled recently, and would become a channeler. Sitting with her was one of the most powerful Aes Sedai in the Tower these days, and the woman happened to be her Memma. Tia realized that her great-great grandmother went through the same training she would now have to undertake. She went through the same moment of realization that she could channel.

While Tia knew Miahala had gone through something similar, she realized she didn't know the story behind how her great great grandmother became an Aes Sedai. Curiosity got the better of her, and she found herself asking, "How did you find out you could channel? Did you do like me, and channel without realizing it?"

To that, Mia shook her head. Strange that she could even still remember it. She had been but fifteen, slightly younger than the kin who sat beside her now. More than a century and a half, plus a couple of decades dead, behind her...but she could still remember the fight with her mother that sent her fleeing from her native Saldea with only her older brother to help her. Coming to the Tower...

"No, actually," Mia said, smiling almost wistfully. "I came to the Tower by chance and was tested. They found that I had the ability to learn and put me into the novice books. Given the strength in it I attained, I do think I may have turned wilder had the hand of the Creator not put me here...but I cannot say for sure. If not a channeler, I may well have stayed and joined the Yard. Light knows I've spent much of my time there anyways."

Being a Saldean, and coming from the Sha'hal line, Tia was fiercely proud of her ancestry, though she realized she didn't know as much about her family history as she thought. She was surprised to learn her great-great grandmother came to the Tower by chance, and only became a Novice after being tested. Did that mean she was the first of the family who'd become a channeler, then?

It was no secret that Miahala Sedai was a warrior, as fierce as they came, and hearing she may well have stayed with the Yards had she not been a channeler resonated with Tia. Could she have asked for a better role model? In Tia's mind, likely not. The soon-to-be novice had a lot to live up to given her family tree, but she would do all she could to make not just her parents, but all in her family as proud as they could be.

"Were you the first of our family to become Aes Sedai, then?" Tia asked. Other questions came to mind, and she realized she was likely about to bombard her Memma. Without realizing it, Tia seemed to already come to grips with her new path, and youthful curiosity was starting to get the better of her. In the back of her mind, she realized they'd need to tell her parents, but for now, she had her Memma to herself, and she intended to cherish the time given her.

Mia had always enjoyed the curiosity and perseverance of youth. Perhaps that's why she had served two tenures as the Mistress of Novices over the decades, and what made her smile grow now when talking to Tia. It reminded her vaguely of when her daughter realized she could channel and set her feet upon that path, though it came as less of a shock for Sadie than it seemed to have for this one.

"As far as I am aware," Mia said. "If there were channelers before me, they were an unknown and remain so. Part of the White Tower then, I would assume. So far as my family history is known to me, they have always been in Saldea and raised horses."

Tia beamed with pride when Mia mentioned Saldea and horses. Her Grandfather and Grandmother still worked the farm, along with other members of Tia's family. Her mother owned one of the mounts from the farm, and had raised Lex from a foal to the battle proven mount she'd become. Young Tia would likely have loved growing up on the farm, but she would have to be content with just visiting.

Realizing she'd let herself get somewhat distracted with talk of horses, Tia recalled the other questions she had, and mulled over which to ask first. She gave a shy little laugh, "I'm sorry if I'm asking too many questions, but...curiosity has gotten the better of me." She was sorry, but not all at the same time, "How. . .how did you know I've recently channeled when I have no knowledge of doing it myself? I don't...I don't even know when I might have channeled." This wasn't strictly true, though it was hard, sometimes, to be honest with oneself.

"It's natural to be curious," Mia said easily, "especially with such a discovery as today's have been. One must live a life with respect and good manners, but always be curious and when appropriate, ask your questions."

She paused to let that sink in before continuing. "When a woman has been channeling long enough, she can sense things about another woman and I could sense the change in you. That's why I asked if you'd been unwell of late. When someone channels for the first time without knowing it and without know how to proper handle it, they can become ill."

Tia furrowed her brows, "You could sense it, but Father couldn't. At least, I don't think he could since he would have said something. Is that because of the differences between men and women who channel?" She wasn't completely ignorant to channeling, and couldn't be, given her family.

The young Tomason was trying to keep to one question at a time, but her enthusiasm was getting the better of her, "And...I know this is kind of a different topic all together, but how did you come to join the Green Ajah?"

"A male channeler cannot sense it in a female channeler, nor can a woman sense it in a man," Mia confirmed. "Touching different halves of the One Power make it so that each gender does not sense the same in each other as we can in our own. Like I cannot see or sense when an Asha'man is channeling, but I can see when an Aes Sedai is." She paused. "You will learn this better as you learn to channel yourself."

The next question was one that she had heard in a variety of manners for most of her life now, since many had sought her out to ask about the Green Ajah, and how one came to be a part of it was the most common way to learn more.

She smiled again. "I was an impassioned young woman. As you are aware, it is a family trait. I was never slow to jump into the fray for a cause I believed in, and I had a temper. I found early that I had a knack for offensive weaves as well, and was stronger in Earth, which is not common for women. All of these led me to just be drawn to the Green, and it proved again and again over the years to be the best choice for me."