The Grey Tower

Fear was an unusual sensation for Uilliam. His life in Tear has been dictated by fate at times, but he’d never allowed the unknown to shake his resolve. He did what needed to be done, for himself, for his family, and dealt with whatever consequences may come. The other high nobility thought him emotionless except for his temper, and frankly he was often inclined to agree with them.

But standing here, at the gates of the Grey Tower, a cold sensation wound itself around his insides like an eel. This place was rarely, if ever, spoken of in the halls and sitting rooms of Tear. It should be ignored, its denizens considered little more than fools or freaks, and – above all – avoided at all costs. Bad enough when Aes Sedai had congregated in their precious little White Tower, further to the north. Now they had men among their ranks. Asha’men, he’d heard them called, but labels mattered little when there was a more fundamental truth at stake: channelers, male or female, Asha’man or Aes Sedai, could not be trusted.

His hands curled into fists as he stood outside the gate where his Andoran cousin said he would be met. With a grimace, he glanced down at his right hand, where his fingers curled but couldn’t quite make a ball. The angry pink scar on the back of his hand mocked him. His fingers were not quite able to touch the scar’s mirror image on the palm, and his jaw popped as he ground his teeth in frustration. Until he got the strength back in the hand, he was vulnerable. It was why he needed to be within the walls of the Grey Tower and not just the city Hama Valon.

As he fumed at his helpless predicament, a voice pulled him from his reverie. "I'm Mordjen. Pleased to meet you.” The man’s eyes swept over Liam's fiery hair and pale, stern face. “Ananda Sedai didn't tell us why we were looking for you, just to look for you. I will take you to where you need to be if you will follow me?" Liam’s back stiffened at being addressed so, but he remembered his cousin Ananda’s warning that his station (or former station, as it were) would mean nothing at the Tower. Again his right hand tried to ball into a fist, only to be found weak and wanting. Instead he gave the man a curt nod and walked after him, his back stiff with tense irritation.

The man whose name Liam had already forgotten prattled on as he led the Tairen through the grounds. Liam paid him no mind as his eyes caught a variety of men and women in the yards moving through swordforms of varying levels of difficulty, calisthenics, unarmed combat and other weapons. Liam’s expression twitched for a moment, failing to understand why females were allowed to train as Warders here but not entirely surprised by it. After all, if male channelers were acceptable, why not warrior princesses? His right brow arched as his eyes rolled at the sight.

Rather than listen to his guide ramble, Liam turned his thoughts to how he ended up here: the breaking of his marriage, the harrowing flight from Tear on the heels of assassins, wandering through Caemlyn in a fevered state, waking to find his Andoran mother’s family having rescued him…the entire situation felt contrived. There was something he’d missed in the conversation with his uncle when he’d told them man his original plan to flee to Hama Valon, but he couldn't figure out what. Edric’s daughter being not only Aes Sedai, but one who could heal his sickness and who somehow managed to be home visiting her father when Liam had been scooped up by House Warfold….

It was too late to turn back now that he was here in the maw of the beast. There were no other options. He knew the bridges behind him had been burned beyond repair. All he could do was move forward with this plan, as dangerous as it might be.

Liam blinked as he realized they’d gone inside and the man leading him around was wrapping things up. It seemed the fool had said something about “her”, which made Liam wonder if an Aes Sedai oversaw the Warders, as well. Light, that’d be a nightmare. The older fellow slapped him on the back, and the Tairen’s hand tried and failed yet again to make a fist. Instead, he waited a moment to get his composure back under control before walking toward the appropriate door.

Inside stood a diminutive, bedraggled young woman, her damp blonde hair hanging loose around her face. Her expression was expectant – doubtless she’d heard him approach – and polite. “May I help you?”

Liam gave her a tight smile that walked a tightrope between tense and condescending. “I was told to report here, miss. Can you please fetch someone with whom I can speak regarding enlistment in training here?” He found a seat, straightened his expensive jacket and sat, waiting for the girl to do something useful, which he hoped would not involve her returning with an Aes Sedai in tow.

Ubriel squawked a guffawing laugh at the puffed up poppinjay sitting in the armchair. She turned back to her sheet on trainee boots and made a note adjusting the number of pairs suggested for order up to the next round fifty. She signed her initials and tucked her pen back in its holder and lay the sheet in the basket on the other corner of her desk. "You must be Uilliam. Ananda warned me you would be showing up." Crossing the floor to the table near the window she poured herself a cup of tea, skipped the lemon and honey and sat herself across from him in the other armchair. "I am Ubriel Bryne Gaidar, Mistress of Training here. If you are allowed to stay, it will be at my leisure. So far, you strike me as the type of amusing that makes me inclined to keep you as a pet monkey. Give you a little hat and shave you properly..." She made vague gestures about her face and the top of her head, puckering her lips and bottling her laughter for later.

She giggled at the fuming intensity on his face. She had a habit of prodding the overstuffed ones and she really ought not let herself be goaded. She studied that face and saw trying to hide beneath ridiculous rudeness and unseemly arrogance..., what was that? Pain? Bitterness? Loneliness? Yes, there is more to the story than just what is there on the surface. "I apologize. I am playing with you. No I really am the Mistress of Training, but I would not really make you into a pet." Ubriel cleared her throat and sipped her tea. This man was not going to become a fan of her humor. More's the pity for him.

Settling into her more serious role and donning the expression she had cultivated for use with her trainees, she went on, "Ananda told us very little about what to expect from you but she asked two things of me. Firstly, that I not let your brusqueness and bad temper be what I settle my opinion on. Second, that I not let you stay here on her account. I apparently should "throw you out on your ear" if you don't meet my standards. So, I will ask you the same as I ask all the recruits who come here seeking to train in this Yard. What brings you here? I do not mean who do you wish to escape or impress or both. I mean, what is the fundamental aspect of being a Gaidin, or eventually a bonded Warder, that makes you think coming here to train with us is the best choice for you?"

Ubriel sipped her tea again and then gave a completely staged and exaggerated 'tsk' saying, as if it had only just occurred to her, "Oh, if you would like some tea, you can pour some for yourself. I don't mind."

"Take care with your tongue when you arrive at the Tower, cousin," Ananda warned him, her face alight with that teasing glow that never seemed to leave it. "Refuge there may be the only chance you have." A smile played along her lips, and Liam returned it with one of his own, all the while suppressing the urge to throttle her. She had given him scraps of information and little else other than a constant needling. But because he knew she was right, and he did still owe her family his life, he swallowed his temper.

"Do you have any other instructions for me?"His voice was cool, but that was his default setting in dealing with the Warfolds. Despite Andor's reputation for not playing the Game with the same deft ruthlessness as the other southern lands, Liam sensed its traps all around him in their estate house. Best to maintain the same neutral tone as often as possible with them.

Ananda shrugged. "I don't deal with the Gaidin much, so I have little I can share. I would only give the same advice I would for a girl entering as a Novice: be honest and forthright in what you say. All of the citizen of Hama Valon have a nose for lies and do not respond well to them."

As Liam ground his teeth as the Mistress of Training openly mocked him, the Tairen wished his Andoran cousin had been forthright enough with him to let him know he would be reporting to a woman. He found the concept laughable - she looked like he could pick her up and toss her over his knee without so much as a fuss - but that didn't matter. His life was in her hands; he couldn't afford to scoff at her the way she did him.

By the time this Ubriel asked him a question, his pallid face had fallen into a controlled mask. Direct and honest were things he could be. The better question was could he deliver them with a touch of tact. So rather than answer right away, he rose and strode to the windowside table in one smooth motion. He poured a cup and, in a deliberate show of weakness, picked it up with his right hand. Though the porcelain cup was only half full, his hand began to tremble almost the moment it lifted it off the table.

He could feel his fingers turning numb and, rather than drop the fragile mug, he placed his left hand beneath it. Tea had sloshed over the sides, dripping lazily onto his skin and the rug beneath him. He sat the vessel back on the table, picked up the cloth beside the teapot and dried his hand. Then he returned back to his chair.

Ubriel's eyes never left him, and when he looked back at her, he could sense her calculating something behind them. He rearranged his jacket again before finally speaking. "What brings me here, and why," he said, voice soft and cool as he picked a piece of lint off his dark trousers, "is not a simple answer. I won't lie to you and say that it's always been my heart's dream to enter these halls. You know that's as false as I do.

"But I can say that necessity isn't the sole reason, either. The moment I left Tear, I knew this was my destination. Yes, there would be safety behind the walls of the Grey Tower. And yes, I could simply lay low here and see refuge." He leaned forward, and showed Ubriel the mess that was his right hand. "I will never see this back to full strength on my own. And though your training may restore it one day, it cannot restore that which I lost back home."

For the tiniest instant, Liam let himself feel what he hadn't since the night he'd almost killed his wife: loss. His marriage, his home, his title....everything he'd ever known or wanted. It must've shown on his face, because he thought he detected something sympathic in Ubriel's posture. And then he threw that wall right back up. He would deal with that later.

"Training here will give me an opportunity to build something new for myself. Perhaps a title," though his lips puckered as the thought of being bound to one of these women crossed his mind, "but most assuredly new skills that could be used to repay any debts I owe to you and the Tower." And my cousin, he added silently, knowing that she would come to collect her due one day. Light help him when that day arrived.

Ubriel watched the performance with her fullest attention. There were some strained moments of truth and sincerity and that was better than nothing. Ubriel could fan that spark into the flame of a noble and honorable man; maybe. That ruined hand was possibly not as bad as he thought. If Ananda had Healed it, it would knit back together without any nerve damage eventually. They could train for that here in the Yard. Moreover, they could work on his discipline and his sense of entitlement. Too many high born fools spent their lives feeling as if they had been born owed something. It often took a sharp dose of reality and truth to put them right. Sipping her tea, Ubriel decided she could probably handle this high born fool as well as any other.

"You have a benefactor here. Your cousin wishes to see you given the opportunity to gain what you may from training with us." All levity had left Ubriel's voice and she met his gaze with an unwavering intensity. "If you agree to the rules of conduct and the training schedule that we set for you, I will take your signature in the enlistment register. You will be expected to learn unarmed combat first. That and the exercise regimen will do for your hand. It will heal and I am certain you will have no loss of strength. That is the way of Healing.

"We do not require a promise to bond with a channeler in order to train here but keep in mind that this is a privilege. If you step out of line, I will not hesitate to throw you out and there is not a single person in the Tower with the authority and inclination to overrule a decision I make on that front." The Mistress of Arms could pull rank and tell her she could not remove a trainee but Amayani never would. "You will be expected to guard these walls in times of crisis should any come no matter your rank and you will be expected to guard anyone in your company if you are off of the grounds."

She saw that the scope of what he was asking to sign up for was beginning to register with him completely. She stood and moved to the desk, opening a large ledger to a page somewhere near the middle, she began filling out the blank lines. Room assignment, apparent shoe and uniform size, name and so on; she pulled the tab from the edge of the page with the order for the new room and uniforms and turned the ledger to face away from herself. Beckoning him over she offered the pen and said, "If you think you can abide by and survive under the strictures of this training ground, sign your name into this book. Be at ease, this is no contract or oath, only a register that you understand what we have discussed. Signing here means that you know what you are signing up for."

OOC: We will have three or four more necessary exchanges to complete the EI from this point. If Uilliam has any specific points to cover before we move on, this is the time that he should address them.

Uilliam stared at the pen for a long moment, as though Ubriel offered him an adder rather than a writing implement. Signing that, even without a required oath to one day bond a channeler, made his former life officially over. He could never again declare himself a High Lord in good conscience or taste. Light, he wouldn't even really be a Tairen.

It might have been his imagination, but he swore he saw the corner of Ubriel's mouth curl ever so slightly at his hesitation. Liam's featured tightened as he stood and snatched the pen out of her hand. All of his life, it seemed, he'd been the one everyone had doubted. Though he had fallen from favor in Tear, he had not failed as so many had expected when his father died. All of his life others had doubted his ability to achieve and thrive. Hama Valon, he realized, would be no different. But, he thought with a cold smile as he dipped the pen into the ink, neither would be the results. He did not lose, if only to spite everyone around him.

His confidence notwithstanding, Liam's fingers spasmed when he tried to grip the pen well enough to sign his name. He felt the heat rising in his face when his hand trembled. With a muted sigh of frustration, he placed his left hand around his right to steady it. His signature looked a bit wobbly, but it wasn't too far from his usual precise penmenship. He placed the pen back on the desk and sat while Ubriel sprinkled sand across the parchment to dry it.

"May I ask a question?" he ventured. She glanced up at him and gave a quick nod. "Am I allowed into the city itself? If so, am I required to wear the uniform?" He had noticed measurements within the register. "Also, are the accommodations here small single rooms, or will we be bunking barracks-style?" He wasn't fond of the idea of the latter, but he had done so before as a young man when his father had sent him off to learn some basics of ship combat.

Ubriel was pleased to hear the interest in his living arrangements. She brushed the excess sand off the page and stuck the blotter page into the ledger before closing it. "You will have a room to yourself. If you desire a roommate, we can certainly find you one. Generally, recruits are more successful in their training if they have the privacy to rest well." She stood, picked up her quarterstaff, and headed for the door. Waiting there for Uilliam to join her, she said, "If you will follow me, I will give you the tour and we can discuss what is required of recruits."

She deposited the order slip for his room and uniforms in the basket at the bottom of the stairs. She had yet to figure out how the staff knew when a new ticket was placed there but they never failed to complete the order before she finished the tour. It worked so she didn't want to mess with it.

"So, yes you will be required to stay in uniform. There are dress uniforms and there are work uniforms. There are occasionally special events during which you may wear special formal attire but not often. A visit to Hama Valon is not considered a special event. We will expect you to wear your uniform. You have to understand, you are here at your own volition. No one is going to go chase you down and haul you back if you leave. Additionally, we are not going to allow you to stay if you either fail to uphold our expectations or misrepresent our interests. Training with us allows you to reach your fullest potential. It is a privilege and we won't allow it to be taken advantage of." Ubriel smiled as if she had just informed him his birthday would be celebrated weekly.

She led him back out through the double doors that he had been brought in. They were back in the main Warder Yard, and she stopped there to see if he had any other questions before they continued their tour.

Thank the Light for small favors, Liam thought when Ubriel said the rooms were single. He was pretty certain his first months here would be straining, and he knew himself well enough to know that a roommate would only grate his nerves and, therefore, his temper. The last thing he needed was to be tossed out for slitting his bunkmate's throat in his sleep. The thought make him smile, though, which the Trainer seemed to take as a positive sign. Let her take it as she will. All you need is to be sure you can stay here until you know enough to kill anyone who tries to kill you first.

He was also pleased to learn he could occasionally venture into the city. Hama Valon wasn't as large as Tear by any stretch of the imagination, but it was better than some of the villages he'd ridden through on his journey to Andor. In its taverns he might have the opportunity for a civilized game such as chop rather than mere dice tossing. He never understood why peasants were happy to play games that required only chance. Was it any wonder they never rose in station if they didn't have strategic skills they could hone?

When they paused again, Ubriel inquired if he had further questions. He gave it some thought, and then looked at his hand. "Will be joining classes right away, or will this need additional time to heal?" He made another weak fist before meeting her eye. "Ananda Sedai mentioned a strict therapy regimen. Will that be with her or through you?" And, he couldn't help but wonder, if not through his trainers, how much extra time he would be putting into rehabilitation.

Ubriel took a good look at his hand and wondered, Why would she not heal it thoroughly? To Uilliam she said, "I think she probably intends for you to seek her out for specific therapies. However, we expect a fair amount of physical training from you that will strengthen every part of you, including your hand." She led him towards some of the trainees exercising in the Yard. Gesturing, she said, "You will find calisthenics and strength training exercises at almost any time of the day. One of the things you will be expected to study is unarmed combat. Every member of the yard should be able to defend themselves and those under their care even without any weapon on hand." She led him farther out into the yard and through groups of practicing trainees.

She gestured around at the training happening loudly all over the yards. “You will need to choose another fighting style to train in. We recommend that you begin with the weapon that you intend to use as your primary. You might consider two-handed sword training as that is a useful and relatively versatile style. You may want to consider dual wielding as your fighting style and learning the techniques of using several various styles of bladed weapon like a pudao or an axe or even a spear and then take up dual wielding as a trained combat style. There is also shield use, ranged, polearms..." Ubriel paused to allow him to take in the scene of the women and men fighting with long quarterstaves and other distance weapons and the group doing target practice with their ranged weapons. There were several groups of trainees practicing sword and shield melee as well as a few performing advanced techniques with more exotic weapons like the ones she had mentioned.

After a moment or so, Ubriel gestured to the right of them and led the way around the edge of the yard to a smaller building there. “This building is the weaponry hall. There are racks and racks of various sorts of weaponry, field and practice models, available for use. You will need to get the permission of the Master of Weapons or your mentor or teacher to remove any of them. If you want to just come in and look them over or even heft them, the hall is open during the day.” She stopped before the door and opened it, leading them inside.

The inside of the building was like a library. Instead of the stacks of books, there were rows and rows of sorted and arranged weaponry. One rack held nothing but a variety of two handed bastard swords and the rack next to it held the same sword in a practice variety. There were other racks with polearms of various types and another with axes. One held an assortment of short bows with their cousin longbows two racks over. All together they made for a shiny and dazzling spectacle.

[OOC: You can find more Weapon Descriptions. If you are ever interested in something that you do not see a class or an available instructor for, PM me or any of the admin team and we can help you find the right way to find training.]