The Grey Tower

One thing Leanora had learned since she came to the Grey Tower was that the training program for both White Tower and Grey was shockingly similar, and thus she made herself at home quite easily. She developed her own learning curriculum spanning a wide variety of channeling and traditional topics. She took silent delight in astonishing her instructors with her strength while publicly turning an abashed cheek to their praise. Of course she did well; it wasn’t as if the White Tower were a hovel in the mud!

Of course, not all her duties were so self-satisfying. She taught classes, gave lectures, and supervised chore rotations, comforted crying women in white, old enough to be her mother, and assured them they would see their homes again soon. It was a lie, but it helped to soothe tears before she grew too openly impatient to tolerate them. She hid her frustration well behind a pretty face and a quirk of sassy lips, and went about her duties exactly as an Accepted should. Someday they would deem her worthy of the shawl, and then- oh, then! The thought filled her with distinctly unseemly glee.

On one day like any other, her preoccupied thoughts carried her through hours of serving as Vanya Sedai’s personal assistant. She shuttled women into the Yellow’s office, scratched their names off the waiting list, then escorted them to their respective destinations once their interviews were over. Most went back to the Tower gates, but some few did actually have the ability to channel.

One such was a dark-skinned, curly-haired girl with a pert nose who emerged from the Mistress of Novice’s office in a new white dress looking perplexed and perhaps a little dissatisfied. She had the look of Arad Doman about her, and Lea suppressed a sniff of disdain. Domani were not particularly well-favored in Tarabon, but she had learned early on that carrying that grudge into Tower life brought her nothing but wrinkled fingers and aching knees.

“Light shine on you child,” she said calmly as she approached the girl. “I am Accepted Leanora. I am to understand your name is Eveayla?” The girl nodded, reaching up with one hand to wrap her fingers into her curls. “Welcome to the Grey Tower,” she continued. “If you will follow me?”

The blue-eyed Accepted turned and walked away without waiting for a response, body held with perfect poise. Once she was certain her new companion had indeed followed her, she said in a warm tone, “Where are you from? What brought you to the Tower?”

Leanora listened to Eveayla’s speech with carefully concealed amusement. Far Madding, with Domani looks? That was an interesting twist. It also explained why the girl looked so discontent with her new lot in life. Far Madding was a queer place, one she had no intention of visiting. With the new novice’s potential to channel, there was little chance she would be selling fabrics to the Queen, either, but it would do little good to bring that up now.

“The Simir family -where I am from- is known from Dragonwall to Aryth Ocean for the delicate lace they produce,” she said instead, a faint smile on her face. “They serve many fine ladies and even a handful of Queens. Thus I completely understand taking pride in your work and wanting to acquire new customers who are worthy of its quality.” She gestured to indicate the young woman should take the stairs at the end of the corridor.

“However, you will need to set aside such pursuits while you are here. Learning to channel is not a process that can be rushed or done half-heartedly. You will need to focus very hard on your studies for some time before you will be able to visit any of your friends.” Sabine, or whatever her name was, would be graying by the time Lea’s young charge attained the shawl; it seemed unlikely she would care much about her company at that point.

“You are of course more than welcome to write to anyone you care to, so long as your chores and lessons are completed before you begin,” the Accepted continued in a pleasant tone. “Perhaps that will help a bit.”

She gave her companion a direct look. “You are interested in the Game of Houses? What could a Far Madding weaver need from Daes Dae’mar?”