The Grey Tower

Life was good, very good indeed for Alrim Gaidin. He had a purpose, an unshakeable Bond with a woman he loved and respected, and he had served the Tower in ways he would never have predicted some years past. It hadn't always been so lovely, that he knew well. It had been a struggle and he had lost much along the way. Not least his sanity or soundness of body at times.

Thank the Light for Aes Sedai Healing he noted to himself fervently as he waited upon his charge.

So he had an inkling as to what this Farah was going through - he had been told she had used to be a Novice but had not managed to make that work out. A difficult and sad business indeed. Perhaps he may not understand her woes exactly, but he might understand more than most given his own origins. When someone had already lost something, maybe everything, the usual stern instructor risked breaking them. Not that they were weak, whoever this lass was, but more that even the strongest thread could hold only so much. He had agreed to try to teach and he had yet to fail at such a task. He didn't plan on starting on this day and he had a mind to try something different than the usual, rather boring, forms.

He looked out across the Yard from his reclined position, ankles crossed upon a barrel before him, and smiled a soft smile, bells jingling in the gentle breeze. It had been some time since he had relaxed there and he had missed it. The rhythmic clack of wood on wood, the zing of scraping metal. The sweat, the sand, the yelps from the careless. It would always be home to the Gaidin of the Grey Tower. He still preferred Rose's arms but the Yards were a solid second place.

"Funny, I used to hate this place so much. All the beatings and the failures. Light I hated it," he mused to himself as he scratched his chin absently, "guess that's what the Tower does to you. Gets in you blood or gets you out"