The Grey Tower

A Lesson in Weeding It was nice out. Spring had truly come and the Garden reflected it. All around the well kept verdant space were the signs of growth and renewal. All accept in a swath in a corner of the garden. This area looked as if Winter had just left the area, the grass was brown and dead. Vines were shriveled and hard, lying like dead snakes across the ground. And in the middle of it all was a dark-skinned, smooth faced Atha'an Miere. He was on his knees, barefoot pulling at the dead grass, and brushing dirt away from the few green shoots. His shirt was open, and stained with sweat around the collar and arms, his pants covered in dirt and grass. This swath of out-of-season looking flora was all his doing. Though not on purpose, still it was Taesh who had used the One Power to fuel rapid growth, a talent called Plantweaving, but he did not know how to sustain it. So, just as quickly as the plants had burst to life, they had began to die. Normally the discovery of a Talent would be a thing to celebrate, yet Taesh was only a Soldier, and channeling without permission and supervision was against the rules in the Grey Tower. And so Mirin Sedai had set him several tasks, the first of which was to weed and tend to this section of the Garden until it was healthy again.

So, Taesh the ever-smiling Soldier, found himself once again pulling up errant weeds during his free-time. Of course his punishment would not replace another chore, it was just added to the list of responsibilities that he already had. And no sympathy was given, everything still had to be done on time and perfectly or the tasks would only become harder. Working in the soil was no bother to the Atha'an Miere, as strange as that was to someone born to the sea, but it was the tediousness of the task that annoyed him. So, to make the time go by, Taesh repeated what he had learned about plant-life from the books he had found in the library.

Stems can be thought of as the skeleton of a plant. They are the main structure of the plant, and they carry the nutrients throughout the plant the young Soldier thought to himself. As he pulled more weeds from the ground he looked at their stems and rolled them between his fingers. When he had used saidin to make the plants grow, he found that all Five of the powers played a part in the growth, and he now knew that it was the stems that carried the energy that plant needed throughout the entire plant.

Leaves are the light harvesting part of the plant and they are the area where excess water is given back to the Air Taesh continued. Taesh picked up a leaf and held it up. He had taken notice that there were lines in leaf that reminded him of the veins he could sometimes see on the back of his hand. He had asked an Asha'man of the Yellow Ajah who also knew something about herbcraft about that. The Asha'man told him that the veins in the leaf and the veins in the body functioned about the same way.

As Taesh pulled another tough bunch of weeds from the ground he held them up and looked at the roots, again repeating what he had learned to himself. Roots absorb and store water and nutrients. They also serve to physically anchor the plant The roots of the weeds seemed so tiny, he couldn't really understand how they could anchor anything, but it was clear that they did. He threw the unwanted flora with the rest in a pile and sat up, kneading his lower back with his fist. As Atha'an Miere and a Soldier he was no stranger to demanding labor, but being constantly on his knees and pulling at stubborn weeds and dead grass was taking a toll. He was quite sure Mirin Sedai meant it to be when she assigned the task. A bell chimed in the Garden and Taesh knew it was time for him to get to his lesson. That was the other horrible part of this punishment, he had no time to clean himself before his next lesson, and the very clean Sister of the White who taught the class did not appreciate his earthy accents.

With a long sigh and a quick stretch Taesh stood and grabbed his boots. He looked at the pile of errant grass, and the patch that still needed tending and sighed. He would be doing this for some time yet, and being forbidden to use the One Power to assist meant more back-breaking labor.