The Grey Tower

The novices sat in neat rows in the study hall. It was homework hour, and they were all required to sit here quietly. An Accepted whom Mirin did not know sat at the head of the room, making sure that they focused on their work.

Mirin looked out the window and sighed enviously. It was a beautiful day outside. She had strategically chosen to sit at a desk placed right by the window. Papers and books were stacked neatly on the desk before her. She had finished most of her work, with only one more paragraph required to complete her essay on Fire. She glanced back at the notes she had taken in class.

• A woman should never use Fire to draw out a flame. She must use Water to douse it, Air to snuff it out, or Earth to smother it. If she tries to use Fire, she can be severely burned, or worse, go up in flames.

She winced. It had happened before, to some unfortunate, untrained woman. She was beginning to understand the danger of channeling the One Power. Yes, it was powerful. But dangerous.

This particular passage, however, didn’t really apply to her. Mirin was pathetically weak in Fire. She hated her weakness. Other novices, even women who were, overall, far weaker than her, could do more than she could with Fire. She had to concentrate very hard to light a candle. A candle! And even that left her sweating with exertion. She would never use Fire, for anything, unless she had no alternative.

Mirin glanced out the window again. A flash of blonde caught her eye, and she scowled. Liri, an Accepted, was practicing swordplay in the Warder Yards.

When one of her teachers needed a model of perfection, they pointed to Lirievin Tesiva. Liri always had a smile on her face. She dressed impeccably, and did not put on airs. She was always ready to lend a helping hand. And she was one of the few Accepted who was nice to the novices. She had endless patience. When she smiled gently at Mirin for the hundredth time and told her to not push herself so hard – that Mirin was already doing well, at least well enough for a novice; and perhaps Mirin’s spectacular failure with Fire would improve with time; all while smiling that kindly, understanding, infuriating smile – it was enough to make Mirin want to scream.

And of course, Liri was beautiful. Mirin hated beautiful women, who competed with her for the attentions of men. Liri had long blonde hair and tan skin that never seemed to burn or freckle. Mirin could only step into the sun for a few minutes before turning as red as a tomato.

Liri was perfect. Or so she seemed.

Mirin frowned thoughtfully, and then scribbled a note.

• Dearest friend,
  
  What would you say to making Miss Perfect squirm? I’m thinking grass snakes in her bed. Harmless, but effective. What are your thoughts? Let us discuss tonight.

She wrote in sloppy block letters and left it anonymous, in case that the note was seized by a teacher or lost. Mirin didn’t take chances. And anyways, Betrys would know who wrote it.

She tucked it in a book and stood up. The Accepted sitting at the front of the room watched her suspiciously. Mirin casually strolled to the other side of the study hall and handed it to Betrys.

“Thank you for letting me borrow your book. Page 48 is especially useful,” Mirin said quietly, knowing that the Accepted was eavesdropping. Then she returned to her own desk to finish her essay.

It was probably still her least favorite part of the day, Betrys had improved fairly well since coming here in respect of her reading and writing - there hadn't been any sort of choice in the matter really. It still didn't make spending a dedicated hour to study and work exactly a pleasant experience but she'd manage...she always did.

Checking her work for mistakes (of which there were a few) Betrys went back and started to copy out the work onto the actual parchment she would be using to submit her homework to the tutor. She'd learned the hard way submitting work with mistakes was not a sound or sensible sort of idea, unless she wanted to particularly spend all her time with the Mistress of Novice, receiving either lecture or punishment and probably both in all honesty. It might not be a kind method for teaching but she couldn't deny that it was an effective one all the same in securing her own personal determination to succeed.

As it concluded Betrys gathered up her books, parchment and pens before frowning as Mirin came over. What did she want? About to open her mouth and ask, she was stopped as she pressed a book into her arms with a suggestion on the reading material. Still, confused she could only watch as Mirin left the room. Puzzlement would need to wait to be answered as she slipped out.

She didn't go far and once she had the chance Betrys ducked into an alcove and pulled out the book, checking the page and reading the note. For anyone else it would be a rather odd code but she'd sat and listened to the rant before now.

Which meant she was waiting for Mirin in their room.

"Ya serious bout snakes? Seem a bit random for tha' lass but I could get a couple, be taking a while though - less you have some way of making more than one leap into the basket?" she asked, immediately leaping into the reply to written message once Mirin was in their room. Betrys couldn't say she cared for Lirii and her rather cool perfection - would she ever be like that? More importantly did she actually want too in any case?

Mirin climbed tiredly up the stairs to the novice quarters. After finishing her essay, she had gone to a brutal lesson in the One Power where her teacher had trussed her upside down in the air in an attempt to force her to use more Fire. And she could not, not even a whisker.

Her teacher would not believe her when Mirin said that she could barely channel a hair of Fire, even though her flows in Spirit, Air, and Water were already as thick as her arm. You have such ability, child!, the Aes Sedai said. You just need to use it! Mirin had tried, desperately, but she couldn’t. She just couldn’t! Her teacher had been puzzled; usually women had varying strengths in the Power, but nothing this drastic! The woman had finally given up, muttering under her breath about a "block," and allowed Mirin to leave.

Mirin had rolled her eyes as she left. She had read about blocks. A wilder, a woman who learned to channel on her own, sometimes formed mental barriers in her mind. But blocks were for touching saidar, not for channeling a specific element of the One Power! And besides, Mirin was not a wilder, despite the little tricks that she had learned before coming to the Grey Tower. She still kept those carefully secret.

And then she had to sweep the floors and clean the tables in the dining room, her muscles sore and head spinning from being held up in the air.

She entered her room and brightened when she saw Betrys waiting for her. Sometimes it was incredible to remember that she had started off hating Betrys. Now, she could not imagine living without her. Betrys was her rock, her confidante, the shoulder that she cried on. The stresses of life as a novice were too hard to endure without a friend.

Mirin listened to Betrys’ question, and then laughed. “Of course I’m serious about the snakes, Betrys. When have I ever not been serious? Liri has it coming. And as for getting more than one, well, one is good enough. Now -” She pulled out a copy of The Complete Garden Wildlife Book of Reptilian Behavior and settled down at her desk. “I need to find a way to keep the snake where we put it."

It may seem to an outsider that Mirin had a complete disregard for rules. That was certainly not the case - she was desperate to learn and was terrified of being expulsed from the Tower. However, she was also a high-spirited young woman and needed to have an outlet to express her frustrations. Otherwise, Mirin thought she would go mad from the pressure.

She recognised the look on Mirin's face "Ya want some help with the theory?" Betrys offered, not that she was any kind of special talent when it came to Fire or at least she didn't think so. Although it didn't seem like she was having as much trouble with some of the weaves as Mirin, however, right now this was all about the planning for this latest prank.

Hopefully, she was not going to end up being remembered solely for these actions but that wasn't really important. She liked spending time with Mirn - surprising but a happy fact given they had to share a room with each other and therefore spend a lot of time together as a result "Well...snakes are a pretty big step-up on things. Ya confident that she ain't gonna be screaming the place down cause she get sick, right? I ain't getting involved with that" Betrys pointed out and then muttered something unclear very much under her breath.

Betrys suddenly smiled "Right...hmm? I can weave something with reeds or wood I think if I can get hold of it" she replied, making the offer to assist without thinking as she headed over to her bed and bent down, getting to her knees and reaching under her bed to pull out a medium sized box that had some of the hobbycraft she had managed to gather up "...that would work but ya can do the catching, less ya can teach me?" she asked, eying the book.

Mirin was already deep in the book about reptiles. She didn’t even look up as she grumbled, “I’m just miserably weak with Fire, Betrys. And Earth as well, to be honest. I’ve studied the theory backwards and forwards, but I simply have no talent for it.”

She spoke smoothly, as though she were not bothered by her weakness. But being weak in Fire was a hindrance. She couldn’t even make a simple globe of light without beads of sweat breaking out on her forehead!

Luckily she more than made up for it with strength in Spirit, Water and Air.

She continued flipping through the book. “You spend so much time in the garden, Betrys, I think it would be less conspicuous if you did the catching. I’m like a fish out of water out there. I wouldn’t even know where to begin to look. Here,” she leaned forward, pointing at a paragraph. “Reptiles are cold-blooded. If we pack the snake with some ice wrapped in cloth, it will cool down and become more sluggish. That would make it easier to handle. And it would stay in Liri’s bed instead of slithering out to scare the servants.”

OR they'd end up with frozen snake-icles, which would probably be just as effective.

Betrys didn't concern herself with worrying about it, just at the moment her mind was running through the various parts of the garden that would allow her to locate the necessary volume of snakes. Not that she was still completely convinced about the solidity of this overall plan but that had always been Mirin's end of the planning. In fact, it was usually her bright ideas that ended up being behind the pranks that they played, it wasn't that Betrys didn't agree or like them but it was harder for her to come up with these sort of ideas.

The gardens were the focus of her life at the moment; that and the saidar and the books and the hundred other matters that had been the focus of education since coming here. In fact, she hardly ever had a moment to herself, except in the garden.

It was her special place "I'll be back" she stated, taking the basket and heading off to fetch the snakes.

...four hours later.

Betrys took a deep breath as she came back in and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand "I got them all, Mirin" she sighed out loud, the breath escaping in a rush "I'll look-out now but ya can put it in - you have the ice, right?" Betrys commented and passed the basket over. She pulled off her shift and corset and put on something a little less stained as she walked out and checked the corridors to make sure there was no one about. Especially not the Mistress of the Novices, she concentrated tugging on that deep well of saidar and using earth and air to build a weave to hopefully shield them from other people.

It was against the rules but everyone did it.

"Ready as you are" she headed, covering the tracks and keeping an eye out while Mirin actually took care of the planting of the basket of iced snakes for Liri to find and experience.

Mirin looked in the basket and immediately drew her head back in disgust. The snakes were slithery, and slimy, and… ugh. She took the packets of ice from the kitchens – she had faked a headache and asked for a few for her head - and slipped them carefully into the basket. She hoped that the cold would prevent the snakes from slithering around, but she didn’t look in again to make sure. It was too disgusting.

Mirin frowned as Betrys embraced saidar. She was afraid that someone would sense the channeling and come to investigate. After all, novices were not allowed to channel without supervision, which made channeling in the novice quarters very dangerous. Then, she sighed, accepting the risk. It was dinnertime; almost everyone was in the dining hall. Mirin desperately hoped that no one would catch them.

They stole quietly down the hallway, and then down the stairs to the rooms of the Accepted. They saw no one.

Mirin handed the basket to Betrys, and motioned for her to wait around the corner. Alone, she walked down the hall and knocked on Liri’s door, prepared with an excuse at the tip of her tongue. When there was no response, she twisted the doorknob and cracked open the door. The Accepted’s room was larger than the novices’, and held only one bed. It was still quite bare, but looked luxurious when compared to Mirin’s small room that she shared with Betrys.

She motioned for Betrys to join her. Betrys poured the snakes on the bed, and then tucked the sheets in around them, holding them in. Then, they left just as quietly and quickly as they had came, making sure to take the ice packs and basket with them.

They did not relax until they returned to their room, where the basket and ice packs went back under Betrys bed. Then, they hitched up their skirts and ran to the dining hall. They must not be noticed to be missing!

If anyone asked, their excuse for being late would be that Mirin was not feeling well and had been sick, and Betrys had stayed to help her feel better. But Mirin hoped that the excuse would not be necessary - because, of course, they wouldn't get caught.

The novices and Soldiers filed into the study hall for their homework hour, sitting in neat rows of black and white. Mirin walked quickly toward her usual desk by the window – and then froze. There was a snake there, stretched on the window sill.

“AHH!” she screamed, and pointed, drawing the attention of the entire room.

The person assigned to watch them – a Dedicated, this time – strode over. “Hush, child,” the man said. He unlatched the window, reached for the snake, and then frowned. There seemed to be something invisible blocking his hand.

“Saidar,” the Dedicated muttered. And yes, now that Mirin had calmed down somewhat, she could see the traces of saidar forming a cage of Air around the snake, preventing it from moving.

Lirievin Tesiva, thought Mirin. She was certain the Accepted was behind this. Despite herself, she felt a surge of grudging respect toward the woman. This had been a very subtle message. Liri knew who had been responsible; or at least had a suspicion. She had not turned the novices into the Mistress of Novices or gotten them in trouble. But it was a warning. Mirin sniffed, annoyed, but she would not dare to prank the Accepted again.

The Dedicated sent another novice to fetch an Accepted or Aes Sedai to remove the snake. Mirin found another seat, away from the window, and sat to do her homework. Internally, she smiled. At least she had gotten a reaction out of the Accepted, even if it hadn’t been much. And she had stayed out of trouble, this time.