The Grey Tower

Kiellan was pleased with his progress, and he thought Valadin was as well. The One Power seemed to come more natural to him now, and he had started to like their little exercises. They were far better, at least, than the classes taught by Asha'man and Aes Sedai he had to attend. Those men and women often acted like they were better than them, simply because of their rank. He knew that in this place, their chains and shawls really did make them his superiors, but he hated how they would emphasize that with every point. At least Valadin treated him like a human being, which was a nice change for a while. If they would have been back in Ebou Dar, he would've simply demanded to duel the more arrogant men and women, but that wouldn't be well-received here, he thought.

While he was generally starting to enjoy life in the Tower more, as hard as it was, he still longed for the freedom of home. He had always thought it would be nice to have someone look after him, but the hundreds of people at the Tower who tried to tell him what he could and couldn't do only served to annoy him. He wished he would be able to get out of the Tower, just for a small break, but even that wasn't allowed. He had been at this place for quite some time now, yet he had still only caught glimpses of Hama Valon, besides the day of his arrival. The only place where he still felt a semblance of freedom was at the Tower Gardens. He knew some places where most people never came, places that were away from the busy gathering places and more popular walking routes. He decided to go there, to try and clear his mind a little. He really needed the alone time.

When he arrived, he felt a little annoyed to see that someone else had beaten him to his private place. A girl, slightly below average length, black hair, was standing there, watching the plants intently. He suddenly felt goosebumps, which, in his short time at the Grey Tower, he had come to interpret as someone channeling saidar. What was this girl doing here, channeling the One Power alone? The ring on her left hand told him she was an Accepted, but he couldn't get himself to care. Not here. This was his free place, and they wouldn't get him here with their rules.

Her arrogant, unfriendly tone didn't help to calm his temper. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I am. This Garden is as much mine as it is yours," he told her. Trying to look challenging, he walked over to a tree and sat down at the base of it.

Kiellan hesitated for a second if he hadn't been too hard on this girl. Maybe she had simply been irritated that someone had interrupted her solitary time, or maybe she hadn't meant to come across so self-absorbed. He would've probably felt irritated, too, if someone had interrupted his contemplations. Life at the Grey Tower wasn't easy, especially for one still learning, and the spare time you did have was all the more valuable for it. The look of hurt on the Accepted's face only furthered his guilt.

All of that lasted only seconds, however. All of his compassion and guilt vanished after the woman's next words. Such a small sentence, but it seemed to symbolize everything Kiellan disliked about the Tower. Why in the world would he have to give this woman respect if he didn't even know her? In the Rahad, respect had to be earned, and doing so wasn't easy. It had taken him six fights before anyone had even the tiniest bit of respect for him. Yet here, in the Tower, people expected you to bow down and kiss their feet simply because they wore a ring, or a shawl. He had endured it so far, but this was it.

His anger only grew when he felt the goosebumps all over his skin, that indicated that the Accepted had embraced saidar. What was her problem? Was she actually planning on using the One Power against him? Accepted, like any other learning rank, were supposed to live as if they had already taken the Three Oaths. She wouldn't really dare use the Power against him, right?

Apparently, she would. The pebble was small enough that it didn't hurt, but that did nothing to lessen his surprise, or his anger. Quickly picturing a flame in his mind, and feeding all his emotions to that flame, he seized saidin. He grasped for the Flow that came most natural to him, Earth, and started weaving it on instinct. He focused on the pebble she had just thrown at him, and it flew right back, maybe slightly harder than it had come.

Shocked, he realized what he had just done. He tried to speak, but couldn't. What had he just done? He had never seen the weave he had njust produced before. The girl had probably used the same, but she wove saidar. He couldn't have learned it from her. With Nothing but utter surprise on his face, he looked at the girl, than at the pebble. What had just happened?

Recovering a little at his earlier shock, although still surprised and confused, Kiellan carefully eyed the Accepted facing him. He hoped she wouldn't try to strike back, or the whole situation would escalate even further. Kiellan didn't like rules, but he wasn't fond of punishment either, and the people of the Grey Tower could be quite creative with it. He also knew that everything he had done before this, his tardiness, mischief and other small infringements of the rules, would pale in comparison to what he had done just now. He cringed at the thought of the lectures he would get, the horrible chores, and most importantly, the Valadin's disappointed looks.

Thankfully, she didn't seem to get angrier, just more surprised. Kiellan almost grinned, at least he could understand that feeling. Seeing the woman rub her thigh, Kiellan started to feel guilty. He hadn't meant to hurt her. He didn't even know what he had meant to do, he had just been upset, and lashed out. It was the response he was used to. Still, he shouldn't have done it. He didn't mind a fight, but he had always tried not to hurt people who didn't deserve it, and he had not reacted proportionally.

"I apologize, Accepted. I didn't mean to hurt you. I... I don't know what I did, or how I did it. What you did... I just responded. It happened instinctively," he said, still looking confused, although happy the conflict didn't seem to escalate further. He thought about what had happened. He had seized the One Power, and he had channeled Earth. But he was sure that it was a weave he had never seen before. The girl had done it too, however. "Do you know what it was?" He looked at the Accepted with anticipation. Maybe she could help him figure this out.

Kiellan shook his head. "No, I haven't."

Earth had always been the element Kiellan was most comfortable with. It had come easiest to him that first time, in that dark room with Valadin. It had made him feel of home in a place where he had thought he would lose himself to the strangeness. It had reminded him of the dark, sun-baked Altaran soil, where he used to play as a child, where he used to fight as a teenager, and where he had walked on during his last minutes in the city that he missed so much. Even in that dark room, it had comforted him that he could feel the same essence in those stones that he associated with the ground he walked on, the ground he trusted. It was why he always went to the Gardens when he had to think. He loved being outside, but more than that, the plants and the grass made him feel like those Gardens could be his home, like the Tower had its own little piece of Ebou Dar.

He had never managed to influence Earth as he just had, however. It wasn't surprising that he had grabbed for Earth instinctively, over the other elements, but that still didn't explain how he had just woven a weave he had never seen before, or even heard about. Now that he thought about it, that last thing may not have been entirely true. Fares Asha'man had told him about channelers, mostly men, being able to use the One Power to prevent, or even to cause earthquakes. While that was something entirely different from controlling a pebble, perhaps the two were related.

He wasn't the only one who knew it, however. The girl did, too. She hadn't seemed at all surprised when the pebble had hit him, meaning that she must've done it on purpose.

"You have, haven't you? You've done this before. You must have. What is it? What did we do just now?"

Kiellan forced himself to take it easy. This girl was probably right, she didn't have all the answers either. Still, it was hard for Kiellan to restrain himself when there were all these questions he had, questions he wanted answered. Apparently, there was something special he was able to do using Earth, and he wanted to know what it was, how he had used it, and what he could use it for. He had never been particularly good at taking things slow, and his curiosity was getting so strong it made his heart pound faster.

He grew excited at the girl's admittance of having done it before, his excitement only slightly lessened by the fact that she apparently didn't really know what she was doing either. When the girl brought up the pain, he looked at the wound again, and cringed. In his own hurry to discover what had happened, he had forgotten that he had actually hurt her. "Sorry about that, by the way. It was the heat of the moment, and I didn't really know what I was doing. Still don't, really."

He was a little insulted by the Accepted's question. He wasn't really a new arrival anymore, and had been taught at the Tower for quite some time now. Still, he thought, this girl is probably only trying to do her best to uncover the mystery. "I know about saidin and saidar and all that stuff, if that's what you mean. I've channeled more than once, I know a few basic weaves. How to summon small flames, light a fire, move stuff, those kinds of things. I've just never done anything like this before."