Lurking in the Library (attn: Avyra)

[Locke]

Terric

The plump Brown at the desk shot Terric a withering look. He found it rather unwarranted. He’d returned his overdue books. Well most of them. But he had treated them better than most people did. Putting her out of his mind, he strode along trying to decide what he wanted to read. He walked down an aisle at random scanning the titles until something popped out to him. Sometimes he’d pick up a random book along with different books people recommended him.

“Ha,” he said, finding a dusty old book, “Flora and Fauna of the Blight.” That sounded rather interesting. He’d been to the Blight once, but not far enough in to really deal with some of the stranger creatures that lived there. As if Trollics and Half-men weren’t strange enough. He went on, searching for more specific books. He wanted to find a book on Mayenean foreign relations for his own pleasure and a few books about Far Madding for an essay. Truth be told, he found the very idea of the City State of Far Madding distasteful. Then again, the city was in the middle of a lake. Of course the people were odd.

Once he found his books, he climbed the stairs to one of the balcony reading areas. The reading lofts held a row of writing desks and several seemingly random clusters of arm chairs and bean bags. Terric found his favorite corner bean bag and dragged it closer to a lamp to read and wait for Avyra.

[Avyra]

Avyra couldn't keep the smile off her face. She carried a few books, all on battleweaves, to return, but she hardly noticed the confused look the Brown sister at the desk gave her when she dropped them off. She wove her way through the shelves, eventually finding another book on weaves she hadn't yet read and picked it out with a nod. This looked good. She didn't really know where Terric wanted to meet, but she had a good idea where he might be. Making her way upstairs to the balcony, she spotted him near the corner, on a bean bag, his nose in a book. Of course, she knew she couldn't sneak up on him like she wanted to, so she just plopped down on the bean bag beside him. It was plenty big for the pair of them, Avyra being as small as she was. "Hello, fancy meeting you here."

[Locke]

Terric

Far Madding was by far one of the last places in the Wetlands he’d want to visit. Terric knew this for a fact as he read through “On the Crossroads of History: Far Madding during the Free Years”. The stilted, self-important prose droned on making him doing the impossible. He wanted to find a way to punch words in the face. He continued reading, making notes in a notebook of his own. He made special note of the writer Madlin Sabin for his rhetorical analysis class. He knew he’d take a sadistic glee picking apart her blatant biases. Guaire Amalasan’s siege of the city had been painfully glossed over. Apparently Madlin Sabin did not think false dragons were good for her city’s image. He snapped the book shut in disgust and picked up “In the Shadow of the Stone: Mayene’s Foreign Policy Post Aiel War”.

He was so wrapped up in the accounts of Mayener Firsts and their struggles against Tearan dominance that he nearly missed the flash of a white dress entering the reading loft. He watched Avyra approach over the top of his book. She seemed rather pleased about something. That was good. Things had been strange around the Tower recently.

With a broad smile and a, “Hello, fancy meeting you here,” Avyra dropped onto the beanbag with Terric. He nearly jumped out of his skin. He forced down his first instinct to point out all the other chairs and beanbags nearby. Why didn’t she take a chair? he thought to himself, Wetlanders love chairs. He didn’t exactly mind her sitting there, it was just… improper.

After a moment of mental flailing, he was able to finally get a choked, “I see you, Avyra,” out. He raised an eyebrow at her, “You do know there are at least three Brown Sisters down stairs, right?”

[Avyra]

Had she actually startled him? He jumped, looking slightly panicked, when she sat beside him. “I see you, Avyra." He barely managed to get the words out. “You do know there are at least three Brown Sisters down stairs, right?” His second sentence was a bit more steady. "Mm," she replied. "And we aren't doing anything. Friends, sharing a bean bag. Its not worth it for me to grab one for myself; it'll swallow me up by myself." She peered over at his reading. "That looks... fun. History class, or for pleasure?" She didn't much enjoy class on history. Well, she liked history, maybe it was the forced learning that made her hate it. "I've been reading up on battleweaves as of late. Trying to learn them without taking the class; I don't have time without giving away all of my free periods. And I don't want to do that, obviously."

[Locke]

Terric

Terric highly doubted that the Browns would see things her way. He didn’t feel like arguing the point though. She peered over to see what he was reading. Since her’s arrival, he had read the same paragraph about three times, so closed his book, marking off the page with this thumb.

“This here is pleasure. It’s kind of a history book, mostly foreign affairs though. It’s an interesting read. Definitely better than some,” he said shooting “On the Crossroads of History” a glare that should have set the pages a light. “So, battle weaves? Practicing to be a Green?” Honestly Terric knew very little about the Ajahs or the Power, having mostly kept to himself since he’d arrived at the Tower. If he was training to become a Gaidin, wouldn’t it be wise to learn a bit? So he leaned over trying to read her book over her shoulder. It might as well have been Old Tongue. Thick ropes of fire and air through a lattice of water and spirit? What did that even mean? How does one even make a lattice of water? Wasn’t even sure if he’d understand if he started at the beginning.

[Avyra]

A pleasure read? He was reading it for pleasure? What a foreign concept! She didn't speak, though, as he asked about her own choice of reading, battleweaves. "A Green? Maybe. I don't know." She paused, sighing. "I'm not sure if they'll accept me, if I joined. I'm not intimidating. I'm just... me." She paused, studying the pictures on the page, all written in different colored inks for thw different elements. "I've never been able to practice battleweaves before, either. Its too dangerous." She sighed, closing the book. "That's what I've been trying to read most of my freetime. Maybe, if something bad happens here, if I at least knew the concepts of the weaves I could help defend the Tower. I wouldn't be useless, like I usually am." She paused. "I'm best at the fire weaves. And air. It seems. I can't channel Earth, though. It just... doesn't happen. I can only really weave it when I'm using illusion."

[Locke]

Terric

“From what we’re taught,” Terric said, refereeing to the Gaidin trainees, “The Green are the Battle Ajah. Who cares if you’re intimidating? As long as you can fight.” It was a shame she couldn’t practice on her own. Unlike practicing a Drin, she couldn’t just pick up a padded weapon and flail at a dummy until she got better. She would have to go to the Channeling Yard if she wanted to throw around fireballs and the like, and even he knew Novices couldn’t use the power without supervision. Maybe she could try signing up for a class, the next registration period.

He found her wish to learn incase an enemy came to the Tower, laudable. Every Aiel learned to fight with a spear, even if they didn’t train under a master or join a Society. The Power was her spear. “Your decision has much ji.” Her explanations about her strengths and weaknesses with the Power were beyond him. He assumed her strength in fire and weakness with earth were like his skill with the spear as supposed to his ability to use a war hammer. He had fought with spears so long that they were a part of him. He had only ever held a war hammer once or twice. He’d been hit with more padded hammers than he’d held, actually. That just left one major question, “What exactly are fire weaves and how do you channel earth? Would that be like moving around big walls of sand?” He marked his page with a slip of paper and put his book aside. “I’m sorry,” he said leaning in curiously, “but I actually don’t know much about the Power. I’m training to be a Gaidin, if I’m bonded to an Aes Sedai or Asha’man, or even if I’m spending time with them, I think I should understand the Power at least slightly.”

[Avyra]

Avyra laughed, almost reaching over to pat his hand. Almost. She somehow stopped herself. "Oh, you've been so patient with me prodding you with questions about the Aiel and your life; its only right that you are able to ask some of me. "In truth, I'm not the best one to ask. I'm new at this too. But... from what I can gather..." She paused, thinking. "There are two sides of the One Power. I use Saidar, the female side. Men use Saidin." She paused. "There are five types of threads a channeler can manipulate. Air, Fire, Water, Spirit, and Earth. For all channelers, their strengths and weaknesses are spread. Rarely is there someone who can use all equally, although we all strive to. Its like... I guess channeling Earth would be like moving rocks and stuff. But... its my understanding that you look at the world like a Pattern. And channeling weaves the Pattern. That's why the progression of time is sometimes called a Wheel, like a spinning wheel. Those of us who can channel, like me, can redirect where the threads go. I guess." She shrugged. "Its hard to explain without a true visual. But I can't use illusion right now to make one, because I'll have a sister up here in moments." She smiled, though. "I like the feeling, though. Embracing saidar makes me feel... its really light. Happy. Its like a flower."

[Locke]

Terric

Interesting, Terric had already known about the One Power’s relationship to the Wheel, he’d read several books on the subject before coming to the Tower where he’d had to take a class on Philosophy. He hadn’t ever thought much about the Power in practical terms. He had never heard about different threads of the power. This was all very fascinating. He reached for his notebook intending to actually take notes, he thumbed past a sketch he had done of a teacher in a rather boring math class as he looked for an empty page. With a pen poised to write he asked, “What do you use to make illusions? There aren’t threads of light to weave with.” He was happy he’d used the right words. “It’s not like making a wall of fire or something. You’d obviously just use a weave of fire.” He wanted to also find out how Spirit worked, it seemed like an outlier. Terric liked understanding oddities and outliers.

[Avyra]

She smiled, watching him as he flipped through his notebook, asking further questions about the Power. As he did so, she spotted a page of art. He was an artist? She intended to ask later. "You are right. Its not just one thread you're working with in illusion, you're working with all five in some cases. In illusion specifically, you weave a net, per say, of Fire crossing one way, Air crossing the other. You then use some Spirit in the net, too, and it makes a base of sorts to work off of." She paused. "Then you take and weave Water for color, Earth for texture, and its done. For that part, you envision the color and texture you want to achieve." She paused. "And to make an illusion move, you fill the joints of it with Spirit, and tie threads of Spirit, like a puppet, and move them. "In fact, most of the weaves we use are made of more than one type of thread. A fireball isn't just Fire; there's Air too. You can weave Air and Fire into lightning." She looked back to him. "Maybe when I'm an Accepted, I can show you all this first hand. But for now, you have to deal with my boring voice." She paused. "I didn't know you drew, either. That sketch I saw in there was really good."