The Grey Tower

Lydie’s instructions made her want to clench her jaw, but Rhykana was too aware of how the other Accepted bustling about would react to that sort of murderous expression. She already had a reputation for being quick to anger and did not want to add to it. But oh, how Lydie’s instructions rankled! She had some skill with persuasion, but subtlety had never been one of Rhykana’s strong suits.

Perhaps it was only the fact that Lydie had issued her orders that made her so furious. Rhykana clenched and unclenched her fists as she walked, keeping her face blank with pure strength of will. The woman acted as if she should be glad to be receiving such orders, as if she was a pet working for the affection of a benevolent master. But Lydie was certainly not benevolent, and even more certainly not her master. In a few years, not even Lydie would dare send her on little tasks.

Rhykana stopped before Makenna’s door, glancing surreptitiously to her sides before she knocked. There was an hour of free time left before bed, and all of the novices were already asleep. As soon as the last Accepted in the hallway disappeared into her room, Rhykana knocked on the door. It would not do to be caught, when Lydie had been so very adamant about subtlety.

“Makenna?” She called, her voice low. “It is Rhykana. Do you have a moment?” She hoped the other woman remembered her favorably, although she rather doubted it. But it was no matter; for Rhykana, there was always an easy way around such disfavor. If only Makenna would open the door.

After a few moments, the door did open, and Rhykana found herself facing the black haired Accepted. She did not take the time to check the other woman’s expression, instead acting quickly and without thought. Saidar came to her easily, and she struck quickly; a simple weave of Spirit. It was hardly one of the overwhelming, mind-altering tangles that she had been practicing. It was only a small piece of Compulsion, enough to make Makenna friendly and receptive to her presence and questions. Rhykana would have done more, enough to drag the truth from her mind, but Lydie had demanded bloody subtlety.

“May I come in?” Rhykana asked, forcing her lips to twitch up into a smile.

Makenna had been stitching a small layette for her infant granddaughters when the knock on her door interrupted her. She took the time to finish out her stitching on that hem and to tie the knot in the thread before she set it aside and moved to the door. She was unaccustomed to visitors at all. She had not really encouraged friendships. She had too much to do to be entangled in time consuming and fruitless relationships.

Stepping lightly to the door and pulling it open, her eyes barely had time to focus on and register the familiar face before her. Her irritable exasperation at the intrusion was softened and subsided. Something soft about the light, something sweet in the air; whatever it was, she suddenly felt less irritable. In fact she felt better and less cranky than she had since well before coming to the Tower. She thought maybe she had just really needed to move. She focused on the Accepted in her door. "I know you, what was your name? Oh! Yes, please come on in. I would offer you refreshment but all I really have is water. It was Riki? Rika?"

Makenna stepped out of the way and invited the woman in. Gesturing for Ryhkana to sit at the small dressing table's chair, she took a seat on the edge of her own bed. "What can I do for you?" Her cheeks began to itch and she realized she was genuinely smiling.

“My name is Rhykana.” She told the other Accepted, still smiling, as she entered the room behind her. Now, sure that her Compulsion had taken hold, Rhykana took the time to examine the other woman. Makenna was older, but not as old as she had remembered her to be; her hair was still black, without a hint of white or grey, although wrinkles were quite evident around her mouth and eyes. But that, Rhykana judged, was more likely to be the sign of a hard life than of age. She was already getting a sense of the other woman’s strength, for all that the Tower had tried to smother that instinctive scrutiny, and Makenna was clearly stronger than she. But what about the woman had perked Lydie’s interest?

Rhykana sat, smoothing out her skirts, and regarded the other woman. It would be so very easy to simply force her to speak! Lydie would never know. For a moment she hesitated, hands almost raising to make the necessary signs to create a more complex web of Spirit, before she stopped. It was aggravating to admit it, but Lydie was right. She was growing dependent on Compulsion, and she would not always been able to use it. Anyways, this woman was hardly a threat; the truth could be drawn out just as easily with words, now that her weave had left Makenna amenable.

“I came for some advice,” she told the other woman, doing her best to look young. “I am… not certain I wish to stay at the Grey Tower and become Aes Sedai.” Rhykana looked into Makenna’s eyes, and saw nothing but kindness. The woman had not even known her name, and would not know that for a lie. “And then I saw you the other day, and just had to speak with you! You see, everyone knows of how you came to the Tower.” It was not quite true, but true enough. Most Aes Sedai, yes, including Lydie, knew about Makenna’s daughter. Perhaps even some Accepted. But it was not hard to soothe that lie away with a quick tendril of Spirit.

“So I wanted to ask you what convinced you to stay. You have so great of a reason to leave, to find your daughter, yet you stay at the Grey Tower. Do you have that much desire to become Aes Sedai?” Rhykana finished, hunching her shoulders in an effort to look humble.

Makenna felt an itch behind her ear. Poor thing. She is confused and probably a little lost. I wonder where her mother is? She swatted the itch from her ear. "My daughter is held by a force far greater than myself. Even if I had followed them that night, I could only serve to get myself and possibly my daughter killed. No, if I stay here, I can learn to use my Talents. I can make use of the contacts I have here to gather strength and help and ... Besides, I know exactly where my daughter is."

Makenna's ear was positively buzzing with that itch. She laid her hand on the side of her head and rubbed it vigorously. "Pardon me, I have the strangest itch. Extremely irritating."

She schooled her hands to stillness and determined to ignore the itch until it subsided. She focused back on the other woman. "Why do you think you want to leave here? What could possibly be so important or exciting that it can not wait a little while for you to gain your fullest strength?"

An itch? No one she had used Compulsion on before had ever spoken of an itch- but Rhykana had never spoken very long with someone under the effects of her Compulsion. Concerned, she quickly began another weave. Spirit, Air, and Water made an intricate tangle, laid out over Makenna’s mind. It was a subtle suggestion; that there was nothing wrong, that Rhykana was trustworthy and in need of advice. There would be no more itch.

Rhykana resisted the urge to grit her teeth. Persuasion and subtlety were terribly slow, and she resented the order now more than ever. Did Makenna have to be so ridiculously obtuse?

“It is not that there is something more important or exciting, really.” She started, considering the best way to lay out her verbal trap. “ And I do want to stay until I gain my full strength. The One Power… I need it to do something very important. I left my sister behind to come to the Grey Tower, and I need to go back to her. To help her.” Rhykana paused, swallowing the sudden sorrow that rose in her. She avoiding thinking about Navane, let alone speaking of her. Sometimes she wondered if Navane was still there in that house, serving that man. It was a horrible, piercing sort of curiosity- was Derin still forcing himself on her sister, now that she was gone? She would return, soon, to deal with the man. To think of it in the interim set her teeth on edge.

“And I want to become Aes Sedai! I do. It’s just… I can’t help my sister if I swear the Three Oaths. How will you help your daughter after you become Aes Sedai?” Rhykana leaned forward, as if eager for some piece of wisdom that only Makenna could share with her. “How can you save her and still be Aes Sedai?”

Makenna relaxed. She felt a draw toward this girl. She wanted to help her and to confide in her. Yes, she needed to tell her everything. She reached out and touched Rhykana's hand. "I had thought of two ways. Even after swearing the Oaths, I am allowed to use the Power in the defense of my own life. If I am in danger as I most certainly will be, I can fight back. But the rumor is that they have a tendency to try very hard not to kill women who can channel. They are too valuable." Makenna sneered at the thought. One corner of her mouth curled in a twist of disgust.

"In that case, I intend to seek out a woman that came to me in one of my arches. Herrah of the Grey Ajah. More accurately, she is of the Black Ajah. If I can find her, the Black Ajah can remove the Oaths. Assuming she really exists. I don't think I have ever read anything that says definitively if the things that happen in the arches are true or not." Makenna pursed her lips for a moment and then shook her head. She found it so easy to become distracted by a puzzling question. "At any rate, I have been thinking about it almost constantly ever since. It is attractive. The forbidden Weaves that they can teach and the freedom to use the Power to accomplish what must be done. And I am not convinced any longer that the Shadow is truly evil or that the Light is truly good. Too many people who proclaim to walk in the Light are esteemed by others who claim to walk in the Light while they do things quite openly that are not good. Atrocities that no good person can ever wish on their loved ones."

Makenna warmed to her subject and felt the words pouring out. It felt good to get it out into the open. "I am coming more and more to believe that the Creator wants all things that exist to exist. If it were not part of the Pattern that the Creator designed, then He would not have allowed it to be spun out by the Wheel of Time. I believe more and more that the shadow sworn darkfriends are essential to the turning of the Wheel of Time. Swearing to the Black Ajah would be no more evil than joining the White Cloaks or the blasted Seanchan." With a nod, Makenna reached the end of her tirade.

Rhykana could not hide her excitement as Makenna began to speak of the Black Ajah. Here, finally, was another woman in her position, who had made the same decisions as she had. She felt a sudden kinship for the other woman, a feeling that went beyond what was expected between two women who could both touch the One Power. Here was another woman who saw the greatness and weaknesses of being Aes Sedai, who was ready to take steps to do what needed doing.

She felt a sudden desire to remove the Compulsion on Makenna’s mind and simply speak to her, Accepted to Accepted, but resisted the temptation. It was too dangerous in this conversation, and too dangerous to let Makenna know about her hidden talent. And Rhykana found no common ground in Makenna’s philosophical views. She had never thought of good and bad, only of expediency and the Three Oaths. The Grey Tower’s view of the world would not allow her to be who she needed to be, so Rhykana would walk in the darkness. It was and had always been a practical choice, and Rhykana had never felt a need to rationalize her decision.

But she could not help but reach forward to touch Makenna’s shoulder, to reassure herself that she had found this person, who thought so similarly to her. “I am so glad that I found you- I feel the same way.” She told Makenna, as she channeled and simply tied off the Compulsion in Makenna’s mind, leaving only the suggestion to trust her hooked into Makenna’s thoughts. “There is so much I need to do, to help my sister and people like her, that I cannot do while bound by the Oaths.” In some ways it was true. Rhykana wanted to kill Derin, to kill people like Derin. But it was flavored by her desire to inflict pain, to see blood welling from their skin. “But I have never heard of a Herrah Sedai.”

Quickly, she continued before Makenna could voice her disappointment. “Herrah Sedai may or may not exist, but I know for a truth that the Black Ajah does remove the Three Oaths. You see,” Rhykana started, dropping her voice, “I have found a sister of the Black, or perhaps she has found me. If you promise to tell no one, and to speak of this only with her, I will tell you her name.” Of course, there was no need to extract a promise, not with Compulsion at her fingertips. But it would be kind to give Makenna the illusion of agency.

Makenna frowned slightly. Herah must exist. She was in my arches. Perhaps she lied about her name? Makenna smiled and nodded. "I am so glad to be able to talk about this with someone who understands. I have discussed my beliefs in a philosophical way with the Brown Asha'man, Rory. I do not think he feels quite as ambivalently regarding the line between good and evil. I believe there is no line; or rather than one might cross fluidly back and forth depending on circumstance or the perspective of a spectator." Makenna shrugged exaggeratedly and then nodded. "Yes, I believe I would like to know this woman. I would like to have the Three Oaths removed when I have attained the shawl. I believe I will be called to test soon. I do not want to feel that restriction any longer than necessary once I am raised."

Makenna felt something in her mind tugging her toward this Accepted before her and wondered briefly why she was being so free with her. She was usually so much more careful. The moment passed and she impulsively took the other woman's hand. Standing, she turned her body so that she faced an angle toward the door assuming that the other woman would want to go soon, now that their purposes had been established. Makenna decided in that instant that she would not share everything she learned with this woman. In believing as she did that the line between good and evil was fluid, she also believed that those who were prone to crossing it were also fluidly good or evil and never to be fully depended upon. One who could choose to cross the line could choose to cross you.

"Will you be able to arrange for me to meet with this Aes Sedai?"

OOC: Do you want to time skip and send us into an initiation scene?

Rhykana kept pace at Makenna side, keeping an easy chatter going as she led the other Accepted to Lydie’s quarters in the Hall of the Yellow Ajah. It was easy to talk about Healing to the other woman, thought Rhykana was incapable of idle speech; instead, her chatter was filled with ideas of how to create ter’angreal to aid in Healing. Makenna hardly responded, and was perhaps too focused on Lydarian and the Black Ajah to take part in intellectual discussion. Idly, Rhykana wondered if the woman had any interest in intellectual and scientific pursuits. It would bring great joy to her, to have a companion who understood her allegiance to the shadow and her love of learning.

Soon, they were at Lydie’s door. Rhykana knocked quietly, and curtsied as was proper when Lydie welcomed them inside. Lydie was perhaps more put together than she usually was; her dress was of beautiful yellow silk, and her hair was coiffed into a complicated bun, held up with pearl hair pins. “Welcome, children. It is wonderful to finally meet you, Makenna. Please, call me Lydie.” Lydie moved gracefully, gesturing to them to take a seat on the low couch, and pouring them both tea. Rhykana sat, and folded her hands in her lap. It was difficult to squash the feeling of pride welling up in her; pride that she had succeeded at Lydie’s request. But she refused to be Lydie’s creature, and kept her face impassive as the Aes Sedai smiled at her.

Lydie embraced the source, and Rhykana watched with a sinking feeling in her gut as the woman channeled thin strands of Fire to heat the three cups of tea. Dread and anger pooled in her as Lydie split her flows. A mesh of Spirit, Air, and Water emerged from the Yellow sister, and converged on Makenna’s mind. The woman was picking apart Rhykana’s compulsion. Rhykana watched, her expression stony, as Lydie removed the Compulsion against speaking and started to unpick the weaves that had created an easy friendship and trust between her and the other Accepted.

She should not have followed Lydie’s directions. In hindsight, it was so easy to understand. She should have approached Makenna on her own, and recruited her on her own. Makenna would become Lydie’s lackey, as Rhykana had been as a novice, and Lydie would doubtlessly pit the woman against her. She did not tremble with anger and hate, although it was a close thing. She had been outplayed and outmatched once again. Oh, she could have channeled. Rhykana was strong enough to cut Lydie off from the source, to split her flows and recreate the Compulsion on Makenna’s mind. But she was not strong enough to split her flows enough to do the same thing to Lydarian’s treacherous little head. So it was better to sit, to stew in rage and impotence, than to show Lydarian her true colors.

“Now that all obstacles are removed,” Lydie spoke, handing both of them their tea, “let us speak frankly.” Rhykana gazed up at the Aes Sedai, her cool blue eyes betraying nothing. Lydie touched her cheek, the careless caress of a master to her pet, and it took all of Rhykana’s will to not slap her hand away. “Rhykana tells me that you are interested in joining my Ajah.”

Makenna took stock of the woman before her and watched as she did something with the Power that was unfamiliar to her. It seemed that so many of her nagging thoughts that had flitted so fitfully through her mind recently came swirling into the forefront of her mind, coalescing into a ball of mistrustful and irritable apprehension. The look on Rhykana's face seemed to bely the superficial calm she exuded while watching the Aes Sedai. Makenna felt it as the decision was made in her mind. She allied herself with Rhykana and against this "Lydarian". It became clearer and clearer and finally, as if she had only just managed to wake from a drowsy afternoon nap, Makenna began to sort through her own thoughts faster and faster.

Lydarian said, “Rhykana tells me that you are interested in joining my Ajah.”

Makenna took the cup of tea and sipped it to purchase time for the gravity of the admissions she had made to settle on her. She didn't waste time trying to puzzle out what had compelled her to do such a thing, instead making the quick acceptance that it had occurred and now she must decide where to go with it. She decided to stop volunteering information immediately and, for lack of a better strategy, play dumb.

As obviously as she could manage, Makenna looked up and down at the Aes Sedai in her yellow dress and widened her eyes slightly. "Which ajah is that, Aes Sedai?"

Adjusting her position, Makenna managed to lean slightly closer to Rhykana, hoping the other woman would realize that she still had a friend in her. She sipped slowly at her tea to mask her expression and waited. She would not serve herself or her daughter to be trapped by a loose tongue.

OOC: You have probably said but just to clarify, is Lydie a Yellow? Also, does she look like she has any age on her or like she might have been young when she came to the shawl? It will effect Makenna's behavior.