Remedial channeling lesson (Open Saidin lesson)

[Kelitor]

Kelitor fumed as he stormed down the path. This was humiliating; he'd just been ordered to report to a large meadow a short distance outside of the Farm, along with a few dozen other Soldiers...

 

It was freezing, and it wasn't true that he couldn't seize Saidin and channel! He simply didn't work well in a traditional classroom environment......

 

Kelitor snorted, Oh enough, he thought to himself You can only seize every once in a while, and its not that you don't feel like using it when you do, its because you just can't

 

He scowled, his mood growing increasingly more foul. He couldn't stand it. He had reached the point where he could sense the Power reliably, and he could see the flows, but what the Dedicated and Asha'man did looked like his older cousin's spinning.... except a hundred times faster. The Soldiers weren't as bad, but he hated not knowing how long he could bluff his way around the Farm. Just this morning, his barrack mates had finally stopped allowing him to evade taking his turn at heating the bath water. He'd managed to get hold of the Power for a second, but he couldn't manage to channel while fighting to control Saidin, recovering from his sleepy grogginess, and deal with the egging on of his friends and he'd lost Saidin when he'd tried to weave, and had to promise Jaren that he'd chop firewood for him and just please for the love of the Light heat the bath because I can't focus enough in the mornings anyhow.

 

They'd laughed, and Jaren had easily (May he rot in the Pit of Doom!) seized Saidin and in a few seconds extended a flow of Fire and heated the water. But he got the feeling that they weren't going to let him keep substituting chores involving the Power for the physical for much longer. He'd been here several months, and he still couldn't seize the Power reliably, although he was improving... But he couldn't channel at all, and that was noticeably not improving.

 

Finally stamping into the clearing, he looked around rebelliously, noting with satisfaction the dark looks on the faces of other Soldiers, and added his own resentful stare to the couple dozen currently skewering the few Dedicated and Asha'man standing on a small rise.

 

((OOC: Oh, I think I should clarify. I'm assuming that Kelitor can probably seize successfully 3 or 4 out of 5 attempts, and will only lose it if he's in a difficult-to-concentrate situation. His problem is he can't weave, fight Saidin for control, and deal with his environment at the same time. He can channel successfully sometimes, especially if he has the weave demonstrated. And is free to focus on weaving to the exclusion of his surroundings, but still sucks at weaving regardless))

 

 

[Arani Lepenque Aes Sedai]

(OOC: Seyneru has no problem in embracing the power.  He can channel more than most Soldiers.  The problem is he weaves slowly, and perhaps a bit clumsily.)

 

Seyneru swirled down the path, the source filling him as he melted a pathway with Fire through the snow.  Even though he could ignore the cold mentally, he still prefered not to wade in the snow as much as possible.  Heat billowed in waves from his hand, warming the air for several paces around as he maintained the weave.  His face however, was a different story.  It was a mask of icy annoyance, that could turn into cold fury.  Several other soldiers saw his face and moved out of the way.  They knew of his temper, and his strength in the Power.  His strength was increasing quite rapidly for one so new to channeling.

 

However, his strength was more than marred by the fact that his skill at weaving the Power was nearly zero.  He needed much practice and concentration in weaving weaves, and he was easily distracted when channeling, which did not help.  The more complicated weaves he was currently capable of learning collasped more often than not when he was distracted, maybe by a sudden chill breeze that rushed through his house, maybe by the door banging open, and each time, he had to find where he had left off before he could continue weaving, by which time the weaves usually frazzle out into nothing.  He knew that several people were laughing at him behind their backs, which was not very encouraging.

 

However, Seyneru still welcomed some extra training - he refused to see it as remedial - but it was just announced so publicly.  Seyneru scowled slightly, and a woman, a civilian, squeaked at the sight of his face, hurried off in another direction, the heat from his fingers warping the air slightly, the weaves of fire around him visible to none but those men who could channel.  Seyneru sighed, and felt his weave falter slightly.  Frowning down at it, he sent it a trickle more of the Power that enveloped him, and the weave glowed more strongly.  The snow hissed and a clear path was now being cut through the snow to the venue.

 

And it started to snow again.  Not heavily, but it was still a slight chill settling against his body.  But he ignored it and let the snow melt within a radius of a few paces, disappearing in a shimmer of mist, obscuring his body and his built partially as he finally entered the training ground, his face serene and smooth, unlike most of the soldiers, who were glaring irately at the few Dedicated an Asha'man.  He was a figure shrouded in a thin layer of mist and fog, warmth pulsating around his figure.

 

Then the weave collapsed right around him and the mist slowly drifted apart and disappeared in the swirling snowflakes that were drifting lazily around him

[Kelitor]

Kelitor half turned at the sound of a spreading mutter in the Soldiers around him and glancing back at the entrance of the clearing he saw another Soldier rapidly approaching. The other man was channeling threads of fire into the snow at his feet, vaporizing it from his path. Kelitor sighed. That probably wasn't the wisest thing to be doing with everyone else so cranky, but he knew that if he was at that level, he would be doing the exact same thing.

 

As he continued to approach, his weave flickered, looking on the verge of vanishing. The soldier glared at the weave before him, obviously drawing more Saidin to sustain it, and Kelitor's eyes widened, shocked at how much of the One Power he was holding. He wasn't very good yet at judging relative strength in the Power, but he knew that others thought him fairly strong, and this other man, who he'd never seen before, was more powerful then any of the other Soldiers he'd met so far.

 

Kelitor turned back to the front, but he watched the other Soldier melting his way through the crowd out of the corner of his eye....

 

Kelitor frowned slightly Me and that man.... we're the strongest Soldiers here, I think   He glanced speculatively up at the Dedicated and Asha'man I wonder what they will do with this.

 

 

[Arani Lepenque Aes Sedai]

(OOC:  Kelitor, you would not be able to sense his current strength, only what he was holding.  He would be holding just slightly less than what Kelitor would be able to hold maximum now.)

 

Seyneru glared at the spot where the weave had vanished and looked up.  Several of the Soldiers were looking at him with undisguised annoyance.  Seyneru raised one eyebrow, and most of the soldiers looked away, wary as they were by the amount of the One Power that Seyneru was holding.  Not that much, but more than most of them could handle, for most of them he was able to recognize.  They were the ones who could not yet embrace the power properly and channel.  They were not newbies. All of them were here for longer than Seyneru, for a considerable period, who was comforted by this fact.

 

Seyneru cast a jaudinced eye across the whole lot of them again as he neared them.  It was then that he caught a flicker of an eye dart away from him.  Looking sideways, he saw another Soldier look away from him, wide eyed at the amount of Power that Seyneru was holding.  It shocked Seyneru himself as to how much he was currently holding as well, although it less than half of what he could hold - a few weeks back he was struggling to hold as much - for he had not expected to progress so quickly over a couple of weeks.  It was simply his skill with weaves that was holding him back.  That was all.  Seyneru now intended to put every effort into practising weaving until he could perfect it with speed.

 

The Power.  It filled him with life even as the taint made him want to sick up on the ground.  He fought it, held it at bay from burning his mind out with the sheer power and fury of it.  Seyneru lessened his grip on the power to a trickle, and the world faded back into mundane reality, though it was still enhanced slightly by his holding a mere fraction of what he could normally handle nowadays as he made his way over to the other soldier.

 

Seyneru looked at him, Kelitor.  Seyneru recognized most of his fellow Soldiers by now, having photographic memory, and knew at least half of the Dedicated and Asha'man by now.  Kelitor was nearly as powerful as he was, it was commented.  And he was surprised to see Kelitor.  "What are you doing here, Kelitor?  I thought you would have been able to channel more effectively now."

[Kelitor]

(OOC: Oops. My bad  :-X ))

 

"What are you doing here, Kelitor? I thought you would have been able to channel more effectively by now."

 

Kelitor snapped his head back around, seeing that while he had glanced away the other Soldier had come up without his noticing. Dark One take it!, he swore ruefully in his head. He hated it when people (and that was just about everyone!) managed to have a better head for names and faces. Now that the man was closer, he recognized him by face, having seen the other Soldier around the Farm. Fortunately, he'd long mastered the trick of carrying on a conversation while still working to recall names.

 

He pasted a sheepish smile on his face.

 

"Well, I could say the same for yourself. As for me, I guess I'm just a slow learner..."

 

He paused, grimacing. "This morning it was my turn to heat the bath water. I caught the Power, I've got that down, but most of the time I'm too busy keeping the Power from ripping my mind apart to actually do anything with it, you know. I manage it sometimes, but I really need examples, and peace and quiet so I can concentrate on not dying and weaving at the same time."

 

He cocked his head. "But are you here to practice the weaving too then? You managed to melt all that snow just fine."

 

He gestured ironically around the clearing at the number of Soldiers who were trying to spin Fire about themselves in attempts to warm themselves. As the other Soldier listened, finally the name surfaced. Seyneru... Just how did I forget his name? I'll remember it now for sure. Of course, that was something he always told himself, but this time it might be true.

 

"You manage better then most here anyways"

 

Heh, you think you could manage it? he thought to himself.

 

"Well, anyways, I imagine we're slightly better off then most here," he said with a wry grin Brilliant move. Now you have to back that up Well, it certainly was easier now that the only alternative was looking like a braggart, and he had the Asha'man and Dedicated demonstrating perfectly formed, tied off examples directly in front of him.

 

Reaching out to the True Source, he filled himself with a measure of the glorious life from the male half. He drew more, deeply, nearly as much as he could hold. It always seemed easier with more. Its like the difference between working with ropes, and fine threads, he thought wryly. And what sort of blacksmith apprentice would be able to do anything with threads, anyways?. He took a deep breath, and drew out several large cables of Fire. Keeping his eyes on the example of an Asha'man directly in front of him, he spun the oversized flows around him, coincidentally including Seyneru and a handful of others in the area of the weave.

 

He sighed with relief. That had gone wonderfully, thank the Light. Of course, tying it off was probably out of the question, and he didn't want to risk it, and he felt that if he reduced the weave to the more personal size that it was supposed to be used in, he'd probably lose his grip on the flows. So he was stuck, powering one of the simplest of weaves with more then enough power to actually create flame. Rather absurd. The Soldiers accidentally enjoying his weave were staring at him as if he'd gone insane. Some of the Dedicates were watching the scene with scarcely concealed amusemente

 

"Well....... as you can see, Seyneru," He said laughingly, and a bit slowly as a glorious storm of poison, fire and ice whirled about him, blazing through him like his own blood had been replaced with liquid fire, or ice, and a filth that made him want to keel over retching all at the same time, "This is a fairly good effort for me."

 

And with that he just grinned, since there in situations such as this, that is the only thing you really can do, and hold on to the flows as best you can.

[Arani Lepenque Aes Sedai]

Seyneru raised an eyebrow when Kelitor suddenly embraced Saidin and channeled the same weave of Fire that Seyneru had woven, with it seemed, almost all of Saidin that Kelitor could hold.  The weave of Fire glowed powerfully as the weave melted with hisses of steam, for several paces around, including a few other soldiers in the weave as well.  Other soldiers were staring at Kelitor as though he had gone mad, others were gaping at the amount that Kelitor was holding.  Some of the dedicated had even noticed and looking quite amused at the show of power.  Seyneru rolled his eyes at them and turned his attention back to Kelitor.  Kelitor was holding an amount of the Power that was nearly equal to what he himself could hold, and with some strain too.

 

It seemed that Kelitor was holding as much as he could, but trying to prevent his mind from being burnt to ash in that tide of molten rock and freezing ice and crashing waves.  Seyneru raised his eyebrows at Kelitor's comment.

 

"Well ... as you can see Seyneru, this is a fairly good effort for me."

 

Seyneru grinned wryly.  "I can tell Kelitor, when someone is channeling to full capacity.  There is a ... sense of strain about him when he does that.  And you are on that line now.  And I suspect that you would burn yourself out if you drew just a hair more.  And by the way,"  Seyneru frowned, looking at the ground, which was now devoid of snow OR steam, and was now starting to heat up to slightly uncomfortable levels.  "I think you should lessen the weave or let go of the weave entirely.  It's starting to get slightly uncomfortably warm here.  Unless you want to burn yourself by accident?"

[Kelitor]

Kelitor stood there, Saidin streaming through him and hanging on as hard as he could to the ends of the flows when Seyneru, with a grin commented "I can tell Kelitor, when someone is channeling to full capacity. There is a.... sense of strain about him when he does that. And you are on that line now. I suspect you would burn yourself out if you drew just a hair more,"

 

Probably right. Your not exactly being subtle. Tiring yourself out before the lesson even starts. Not your smartest idea.

 

Seyneru then glanced around ...And by the way, I think you should lessen the weave or let go of the weave entirely. Its starting to get slightly uncomfortably warm here. Unless you want to burn yourself by accident?"

 

 

Kelitor grimaced Oh Light, no! He'd heard stories about what happened to Soldiers who had to be Healed of injuries they got through their own... misadventures. Probably exaggerated, but people everyone swore they knew a friend who knew another friend who'd been forced to much out the stables with their bare hands for a week.

 

He hurriedly allowed the weave to evaporate, with some relief, then let Saidin go entirely.

[Arani Lepenque Aes Sedai]

(OOC: Arath... Where are you?)

 

Seyneru smiled slightly as he felt Kelitor take his advice.  Even though in the ever-growing and thickening mist, he could not see Kelitor's face, he could feel the flows of Fire vanish and the amount of Saidin that Kelitor was holding diminish and finally, Kelitor had let go of Saidin.  Since the mist produced was because of the vapourizing snow, which was in turn heated by the flows of Fire which had now ceased to exist, the mist now started the thin, and dissapate, and Kelitor's face was now visible, and he seemed slightly relieved.  Seyneru smiled encouragingly at him.  He was impressed by Kelitor's current strength.  It almost rivaled his own now, even though Seyneru was the junior, he was still stronger, and that made him smile inside.  But the smile did not last long as the cold began to seep into his bones, and he distanced himself from the cold mentally, though his body ached slightly.

 

Seyneru then seized an appropriate amount of Saidin, and wove the same weave of Fire, not large, but not insignificant either.  The weave of Fire was for personal means, and would extend someways to Kelitor.  He did that on purpose, and he did not really want Kelitor to start channeling again and accidentally burn himself to a crisp with that amount of Saidin.  He wove slowly and meticulously, the threads of his spinning falling into place one by one, continuously, but it was slow.  Slow enough that when he finished and the snow around started to rise in thin mist again, the snow had already reached his ankles.  Sighing, the weave of Fire melted some snow, giving off just enough warmth to sustain them for a while longer.

 

The mist swirled and was broken as a freak gust of wind ripped it to shreds and blew some more snow in his face.  Seyneru frowned at the wind as though it had just done something naughty.  His long black hair swirled around him as he turned to face the wind.  Some of the soldiers around him had had their concentration against the weather broken by the sudden chill and were shivering.  Strengthening the weave, he caused the shield of heat to expand and blossom out, controlled and uniform.  When the snow met the weave, it hissed and became mist that started the shroud them from view.  When the wind subsided, so did the amount of Saidin that Seyneru put into the weave, and the mist ... well, it thinned back until everybody was visible, but there was a slight grey haze in his view as well.

 

He looked around at the Asha'man who was teaching this lesson, and glanced at the sky, which was clouding over, threatening to snow heavily.  Hopefully the Asha'man would start the lesson before the sky opened and a blizzard that was threatening started.

[Arath Faringal]

Daevis hated teaching these classes.  The students who fell behind enough in their training to warrant one of these lessons usually fell into one of two categories: the dense, and the arrogant.  Daevis wasn't sure which was worse.  The dense student who simply couldn't learn, or the arrogant one who wouldn't learn because he was sure he already knew more than his teacher.

 

As he approached, Daevis noticed that some of his students appeared to be showing off for the other soldiers.  A fairly large section of the training grounds had been cleared of snow by vastly oversized heating weaves.  Several of the others were beginning to try it as well.  Daevis ground his teeth as he hurried closer.  While it might be easier if the lot of them incinerated themselves before he even began the class, it would mean a lot of paper work.  Paper work was worse than the class itself.

 

So rather than watch the class burn to death, Daevis began to lay about with sharp weaves of spirit, slicing all of the weaves apart and watching with some satisfaction as each soldier recoiled from the unpleasant sensation.  It felt rather like having your brain slapped with a wet towel.  There was no actual damage, but it was definitely something to be avoided.

 

"As much as I wouldn't mind watching half of you kill yourselves with bloody flaming weaves, you will not be doing that again.  Fire is not an element to be played with.  The amount of power some of you were using would have made your weave burn you to ashes on the spot in a few more moments."  One soldier in particular was lucky he had released the weave before Daevis had come within range.  Heating was NOT supposed to be done with cable thick strands of fire!

 

"You're all here because you lack control.  Control of yourself, or control of Saidin, or some mix of the two.  Lack of control will be the death of you, and probably for many around you.  Lack of control caused you to weave with this," Daevis drew on the One Power and produced a thick weave of fire, "instead of this."  The thread of fire vanished to be replaced by another much finer one.  "So we're going to work on your fine control.  First, I mention your meals.  The inn has been informed to not serve hot meals to any one of you.  If you want hot food, you'll cook it yourself, using only Saidin."  Daevis looked up at the dark, snowy sky.  "That might be an important one to figure out.

 

"Next, we have your first exercise of the day."  Digging into his pocket, Daevis pulled out a large packet of needles and threads.  Tossing this to one of the dedicated, he continued.  "Fine control.  The dedicated will be passing out a needle and a length of thread to each of you.  Your first job is thread the needle, using only Saidin."  He noticed a sneer cross the faces of several soldiers.  Daevis hid his own grin.  Threading a needle with the One Power was many times harder than doing it by hand.  Weaves fine enough to pass through the eye were difficult for many full Asha'man, let alone for a new soldier.

 

"To make sure that none of you cheat, we will also be binding your hands behind your back."  Daevis stepped forward to the pair of soldiers who had started the dangerous fire weaves, and wove air.  In moments, their hands were secured in the small of their backs, and a needle and thread had been placed on the ground in front of them.  "None of you are moving on to anything more interesting until this is done.  And none of you are leaving until you've finished all of my assignments.  You'd best get moving."

[Arani Lepenque Aes Sedai]

(OOC:  Hehehe...)

 

"Look out!" came a hiss from nearby.  "Here comes trouble on the flow!"  Seyneru turned just as a short weave of Spirit slashed as his weaving.  Seyneru felt the flows snap back into himself, but because the weaving was not thick, and the amount of Saidin and the strength he was putting into the weave lessened, it was not as hard as it would have been.  Nevertheless, the recoil of the flows was enough to make him blink and grunt slightly as the impact hit him in the face.  A hard-faced Asha'man came walking down the pathway, looking as though he would rather have died than teach this class.

 

"You're all here because you lack control.  Control of yourself, or control of Saidin, or some mix of the two.  Lack of control will be the death of you, and probably for many around you.  Lack of control caused you to weave with this," Daevis drew on the One Power and produced a thick weave of fire with enough strength to awe many of the other Soldiers, "instead of this."  The thread of fire vanished to be replaced by another much finer one, as fine as anything that Seyneru could have done.  "So we're going to work on your fine control.  First, I mention your meals.  The inn has been informed to not serve hot meals to any one of you.  If you want hot food, you'll cook it yourself, using only Saidin."  Daevis looked up at the dark, snowy sky.  "That might be an important one to figure out."

 

Seyneru looked up at the sky as Daevis spoke.  No hot meals?  The prospect wasn't very entertaining.  He exchanged a quick fleeting glance with Kelitor and turned his attention back to Daevis, who was continuing his long winding speech about fine control.  But Seyneru listened hard.  He could control the amount of Saidin flooding through him and through the weave.  He was good at it, but the problem at heart lay at his skill.  He needed to learn how to weave fast and with skill.

 

"Next, we have your first exercise of the day."  Digging into his pocket, Daevis pulled out a large packet of needles and threads.  Tossing this to one of the dedicated, he continued.  "Fine control.  The dedicated will be passing out a needle and a length of thread to each of you.  Your first job is thread the needle, using only Saidin."  Seyneru blinked.  Threading a needle?  With Saidin?  Why under the light would we need to do that?  Noticing several smirks on the other Soldier's faces, he raised an eyebrow at them in his mind.  There had to be a purpose.  Surely the Asha'man wouldn't give them anything simple to do, there must have been something to this task that looked easy but wasn't.

 

"To make sure that none of you cheat, we will also be binding your hands behind your back."  Then Seyneru immediately felt his hands bound to behind his back.  He felt the same being done to Kelitor.  When the Asha'man was satisfied, he turned away to survey the class.  "None of you are moving on to anything more interesting until this is done.  And none of you are leaving until you've finished all of my assignments.  You'd best get moving."  The thread and needle was placed in front of them.  Out of his line of vision, Seyneru felt the other Soldiers being bound in the same way too.  But his task was now before him, and Seyneru studied it.

 

Weaving flows of air, he studied the hole in the needle.  It was very small.  And he was supposed to thread it?  Seyneru had grown up in a family where women predominated, and as such he had already known some basic sewing like threading a needle, or mending a tear in his clothes with some stitches.

 

He also knew that threading a needle was nowhere near as easy as it looked.

 

But he had a few tricks up his sleeve to make it easier.  His sister Nesyer had taught him some, as a favour.  The first trick, she said, is to bend the thread in half, into a small loop.  Then, you thread the needle by forcing the loop through the needle.  When some of it is through, you can pull the rest in.  Bending the thread into a loop makes it stiffer and thus it is easier for the thread to go through.

 

And so with thin flows of Air, Seyneru picked up the needle and the thread.  A slight adjustment to the weave, and one end of the thread was bent in a small loop and tied there.  Seyneru then looked at the needle, which was hanging fixed, suspended in the air.  The eye was small.  This was not going to be easy.  The weave of air needed to be thin enough to fit through the eye.  But first, he looked at the thread.  A thin wire of Air was tied to the loop.  Hopefully it would be thin enough to pass through the eye of the needle.  Bringing the other end of the wire of air to the needle, he tried to pass it through the needle.  Fortunately, the needle was still, and his concentration was not broken as easily as otherwise.

 

When the end of air met the needle, the end of air was stopped by the needle.  Looking closely, he saw that the thread of air was not thin enough.  Looking at it with a raised eyebrow, Seyneru thinned the thread further.  It was not an easy task.  With so little Saidin in him, his connection with Saidin seemed to waiver and thin, then strengthen, and the weave ... flickered.  Narrowing his concentration, he focused his whole mind to maintaining the connection the way it was.  Saidin seemed to slow to a drip.  It dripped into him in one continuous flow.  So thin it could no longer be described as a trickle.

 

The weave thinned to a hair.  A hair that was under Seyneru's total mental control.  Narrowing his eyes, he stared at the scene, and the hair, under his immense concentration, wafted through the eye of the needle.  Looking at the thread, real and solid, he watched he loop being pulled through the eye, then after that, he wove another weave of air, and pulled the other end of the thread through the loop, knotting it so.

 

Releasing Saidin with a sigh, Seyneru looked with satisfaction at the threaded needle.  Such a simple task was relatively easy for him, once you considered it.  It was within his abilities, for it required no complex weaving.  He noticed with some satisfaction that the Soldiers who had sneered at this menial task were having great difficulty with his task, unable even to pass their weave through the eye.  Some had even tangled their threads in knots...

[Kelitor]

(OOC: Uh oh)

 

Kelitor had just released the True Source when suddenly a whiplash of Spirit snapped into view and eviscerated Seyneru's own weave. Kelitor blinked, and looked over to the source, and saw an absolutely enormous man with a topknot and the pins of a full Asha'man glaring over as if he'd like nothing more then to split the earth open and watch them all fall in.

 

 

And then he took a breath and let loose "As much as I wouldn't mind watching half of you kill yourselves with bloody flaming weaves, you will not be doing that again."

 

I was right, A detached part of Kelitor's mind mused, He does want to kill us.

 

 

The Asha'man continued to speak, "Fire is not an element to be played with.  The amount of power some of you were using would have made your weave burn you to ashes on the spot in a few more moments."

 

 

Then, he sensed the Asha'man drawing on the One Power and he continued to speak "You're all here because you lack control.  Control of yourself, or control of Saidin, or some mix of the two.  Lack of control will be the death of you, and probably for many around you.  Lack of control caused you to weave with this," And he drew a thick flow of Fire, and Kelitor had to exert every ounce of self-control to keep from shifting from foot to foot. No one had moved, but he still had the odd feeling that everyone was staring directly at him.

 

"instead of this." Now the Asha'man drew a much thinner thread of Fire. So we're going to work on your fine control.  First, I mention your meals.  The inn has been informed to not serve hot meals to any one of you.  If you want hot food, you'll cook it yourself, using only Saidin. That might be an important one to figure out. The Asha'man looked up at the wintry sky. Kelitor could have sworn he was suppressing a smirk.

 

 

Kelitor stood there for a few seconds before what he had said struck him. Oh Light have mercy on my soul... and he exchanged a glance of mutual suffering with Seyneru.

 

This is going to be awful. We're already supposed to do so much just with the Power Now Kelitor raised a hand and began idly massaging his temple, only to stop a moment later when Daevis suddenly threw something to a Dedicated a few feet from him.

 

"Next, we have your first exercise of the day. Fine control. The Dedicated will be passing out a needle and a length of thread to each of you. Your first job is to thread the needle, using only Saidin."

 

Kelitor blinked. It wasn't often you met a Shienaran with a sense of humor. They were so often entirely somber. And he wouldn't have expected a joke from this one, of anyone.

 

The entire group just stood there, waiting for him to deliver a punchline or start laughing. When he did neither, it dawned on him that he might actually be serious. Kelitor felt an incredulous expression blossom on his face. He noticed several others sneering and from that he thought he could probably guess they'd never even touched a needle and thread before.

 

The Asha'man continued to deliver his instructions, but now he was walking towards them. Staring at him. Kelitor felt himself break out in a cold sweat. 

 

"To make sure that none of you cheat, we will also be binding your hands behind your back."

 

Kelitor's mouth dropped open as he felt bonds coalesce around his wrists, slamming them to the small of his back. Then the Dedicated came over and casually tossed a needle and some thread down at his feet.

 

He glanced back up at the Asha'man who was just finishing, "None of you are moving on to anything more interesting until this is done.  And none of you are leaving until you've finished all of my assignments.  You'd best get moving."

 

Around him, he felt the others connecting to Saidin and beginning to work and he sighed, staring down at the needle and thread.

 

Well, nothing for it I suppose He grimaced. This was going to be as tedious as any of the menial chores he'd had to do back home.

 

He reached out to Saidin once again, seized it, and pulled in enough to work with. Then he considered.

 

Air, I suppose. Its the easiest.

 

Carefully pulling out the smallest flows of Air that he could, he scooped up the needle and thread together, drawing them up to eye level, thinking.

 

He shrugged. May as well try the obvious first. And wrapping one flow of air around the end of the string, tried to move it through the eye of the needle. As he thought, it didn't work.

 

He continued for a while, working on making his flows smaller and smaller. It helped when he noticed that Seyneru was holding almost nothing, and he found that it was indeed easier to avoid using too much of the Power when you held almost none in the first place.

 

He mused for a while, idly moving the thread and needle while considering... He doubted he could weave a flow quite small enough to fit itself through the eye... But nothing had been about actually passing the weave through the eye, just the thread. To one side, he noted that Seyneru had done it... Apparently he had used as little as he could and made his threads almost insubstantial; just barely large enough to support his thread while being small enough to pass through the eye.

 

Finally an idea dawned on him. He smirked.

 

 

He smiled tightly as he spun strands of Air, as fine as he could weave them, with new purpose. He brought his needle and thread close to him, just below eye level, and spun Air about one end of the thread, spiraled about one end of the thread, trying to braid it together.

 

He then drew the thread close to the eye, and when it had gotten as close as he could manage it, he extended his awkward braid of Air out towards the eye. It was too large, as he'd expected. Carefully, he allowed the end of that braid extended past the thread to unravel and shoved the rest of the thread forward from behind. A number of the tiny threads of Air splayed out to the side of the eye, but some went through.

 

He smiled triumphantly, grabbing those threads of air that went through, reweaving them as best he could and allowing the others that didn't go through to evaporate. The result was barely small enough to fit, but he tugged on the braid of Air and it slid through the eye and then held the thread there to float with the thread through the eye.

 

Wasn't too difficult when you thought about it, He thought. Just have to be a little smart and careful as you can.

[Arath Faringal]

Daevis stifled a yawn as the minutes wore on.  He'd expected this exercise to take some time; a few minutes at the very least.  But it was a full quarter of an hour before the first of the soldiers managed to thread his needle.  Those who had looked disdainful before now looked simply frustrated, craning their necks to see what others were trying, and failing, at.

 

Eventually, enough of them had finished the task to allow Daevis to continue.  Those who hadn't figured it out yet would just have to catch up later.  Walking over to a small sack he had intentionally left in a pile of slush, the Asha'man retrieved a number of sodden papers from inside and returned to the awaiting group.

 

"Your second task," Daevis said in his booming soldiers voice, "is to find out what your third task is.  It's written on these papers."  Daevis held up one of the dripping papers.  They had all been folded many times, creased very sharply, and had been soaking in the water for quite a while now.  It would be difficult to open them at all without them falling apart.  Even harder to open them without smearing the ink all over the place.  It was possible, but it needed to be done slowly, and required a great deal of patience.  Fortunately, Daevis had a lot of spares.  About three for every soldier present.

 

"Be careful.  The dedicated will be watching you.  If they deem your orders too badly damaged, you will need to start over again.  I'll see you when, or if, you manage to complete the task."  Without even a backwards glance, Daevis set off toward the inn.  He had at least a half an hour before any of the soldiers made it to the next task, and he had no intention of suffering in the cold along side them.  Travelling insured that he would be there before any of the soldiers.

 

OOC:  Alright.  Have fun with this one.  Fail once or twice, in whatever way you want.  Get frustrated and tear the thing in half.  Set it on fire while drying it out, suck out all the wet ink along with the moisture.

 

The papers simply say to run one section of the walls (2 mile stretch) then meet at a fallen tree just outside the gates.

[Arani Lepenque Aes Sedai]

Seyneru frowned at the piece of paper that the dedicated had now passed to him.  Fortunately, his hands were now untied after the first task had been completed, and now it would be easier for him to look at what he had to do next.  As the Asha'man marched off, Seyneru sighed.  The instructions were written on the piece of paper, and it was their job to do find out the instructions.  Dedicated were hovering around so as to ensure that no cheating would take place, whereby where one finished, the rest would follow.  And so they had no choice but to ensure that they were able to complete the task.  Seyneru grumbled inwardly.  The paper was so much mulch now, and it would take a dexterity that he had not yet mastered to unravel the mystery without the ink seeping out with the paper.

 

Sucking out the water from the paper was not a very clever option, because that would perhaps cause the ink to flow out if the weave were to be too strong.  But it WAS an idea, so he decided to try it anyway.  Weaving fine flows of Water, he placed them on the sheet of paper.  However, before he lowered the weave onto the paper, the weave fizzled, and disappeared.  With a grumble, Seyneru tried again.  This time, the weave was woven exactly as he had been shown several days ago.  But it took him quite a while, for his spinning of the weave was slow and meticulous.  Seyneru was not skilled, and it took most of his concentration to make this weave, seemingly simple, yet deceptive in its appearance.

 

The weave was placed onto the sheef of paper, and the water was drawn out.  However, when he looked at the sheet of paper, the message was almost illegible.  He could only see the following few words.  "Run along th...(gibberish)... and meet a... (blank spot)"  Seyneru cursed inwardly.  He had wiped out the most important part of the message that told him where to meet.  With a sigh, he took another sheet of paper, and tried again, but keeping the words that he had seen in mind.  He embraced Saidin again, the taint filling him with revulsion, whilst the sweetness of life upwelled in him once more.  He had to still himself from filling it to the max, to draw in every ounce of that reservior.  He only took what he needed.  No more.

 

But it still was an exercise in self control nonetheless.

 

Seyneru then lessened the amount of Saidin he held until he barely held it.  It was more than he held just now when he was trying to thread the needle, but still only the merest trickle.  Carefully he wove Air and Fire laborously, thread by thread.  Even now, he was becoming more skilled and so.  Seyneru smiled as the threads fell into place, quicker than he had ever manged before.  They glowed with a faint light, showing just how little of the power he was using now.  It was a weave of Heat, but in this case, only some heat, enough to dry the parchment, would be used.  Or at least, Seyneru hoped so.  He hissed in impatience as the paper started to heat up.  Using this little of the power was necessary, but slow.

 

Slowly the paper heated up, and the water evapourated.  Seyneru made sure that the water evapourated and did not trickle out of the parchment.  He smiled as he finally managed to dry it completely, and opened the piece of paper.  Run one stretch of the walls, and meet at the fallen tree just outside the gates.

 

Seyneru nodded slowly as he read the instructions, then left.  Running at a brisk enough pace, he ran as the snow fell around him, coating his hair even as his hair flew in the wind, shaking off the snow.  His black coat was flying in the wind as he ran, and without too much hassle, he reached the gates.  A few of the soldiers were converging there as well, and they reached the tree at roughly the same time, as Daevis stared at them impassively.  Seyneru guessed that he had used a gateway to come here, and inwardly sighed at Daevis' physical laziness, then waited for instructions.

[Kelitor]

Kelitor sighed, smoothing his hair back from his face. This task didn't seem like it would be an easy one. He reached out for the filthy flames and ice of the True Source, and filled himself with a measure of the One Power yet again.

 

He spun a simple web of pure Fire, manifesting a finer sized flame, over which he absently held the paper... Gazing around at all the others, most seemed to be doing what he was: simply drying the paper over a tongue of Saidin-wrought fire, although he noticed Seyneru had set a web of Water, interestingly enough, around his paper. He considered emulating him until he saw him open the paper and grimace, discarding that result.

 

Kelitor decided he'd have to rely on his own wits. No one else was looking particularly brilliant.

 

Glancing back at his paper, he noticed it had dried out a bit, enough that a small flap of a top layer had risen above the rest. Almost absently he sent a tendril of Air out and probed it, teasing the paper open further. The soggy paper tore slightly, and on a whim he inserted a rod of Fire into the center of the thread of Air. This time, the paper dried, and actually began to curl before he hurriedly pulled back.

 

Kelitor grinned. He'd figured it out he thought.

 

So, extending a fine thread of Fire, with Air around it, he set to work. He sent in the finest tendrils he could weave. The threads of Air, heated by the thread of Fire underneath, steadily dried the folds of the paper, while the thread of Air allowed him to delicately dissect the letter....

 

It took him many long, intense minutes. Distantly, he was aware of some other Soldiers crowing triumphantly and dashing away, but finally he nudged at the mass one last time with his thread of Air, and it unfolded completely.

 

The paper was still very soggy, the message nearly illegible, but he could still understand it.

 

He swore.

 

He loathed running.

 

OOC: You can assume I made it, me thinks. Sorry if its a bit skeletal.... I've been deluged with RL recently, and I finally decided I really needed to buckle down and get this up.

[Arath Faringal]

When the first of the soldiers arrived at the fallen tree, they saw Daevis sitting on the stump, a large pile of charred woodchips strewn about him, and a small wooden carving in his hands.  The Asha'man continued to ignore the tired looking soldiers until about half of the original group had finally arrived.  At that point he blew the dust from the figure and got back to his feet.  

 

"Well, that took a little longer than I had expected, but at least some of you are here now.  The others will just have to catch up.  This part might take a while, so I hope you're all accomplished artists."  As a confused look rippled through the group, Daevis grinned and channeled air.  One by one, he tossed wooden blocks to each soldier.  The blocks were roughly one foot cubes, roughly hewn, but good enough for the task at hand.

 

"Your final task of the day," Daevis paused, and looked up at the falling sun, "and maybe tomorrow as well, is to take that block of wood, and carve something out of it."  Holding up his own figurine, he let the class see what he expected.  In his hand, he held a much larger replica of his dragon pin.  The writhing, four legged serpent known as a Dragon.  "I don't think any of you will do quite this well, but I do want to be able to recognize whatever animal you decide to carve, be it a bear, a lion, a frog ... whatever you choose.  But I have to be able to recognize it.  Oh, and you will only be using fire weaves.  No tools of any kind.  You can temper your weaves with other elements, but you will mainly use fire."

 

More than a few jaws dropped open as comprehension dawned on the group.  A few looked positively sick.  "Don't look like that.  I carved this thing exactly the same way."  True enough, though he neglected to tell them that he'd spent the better part of a week doing so.  Which brought him to the next point.  "The good news," Daevis added with a grin, "is that you have until noon tomorrow to finish it.  And you don't have to stay here until it's done.  Take your block wherever you're most comfortable, but meet me back here tomorrow to show me your work.  If I can't figure out what it is though, you'll be running laps of the walls for the rest of the day.  Understood?"  Most of the soldiers offered a rather half-hearted salute in response.  Luckily for them, Daevis wasn't much of a stickler for that sort of thing.

 

Dismissing the group in front of him, Daevis settled back onto the stump and resumed work on his own figure, giving each soldier that came along a block of wood and the same set of instructions.  Within an hour, the last of the stragglers had stumbled in, exhausted by the run, and had been sent off to work on the carving.  Despite himself, Daevis was curious as to what the soldiers might come up with.  

 

OOC:  Sorry about the delay.  Didn't see Kelitor make his last post and forgot about it. :P  This will be the last post I'll require for this class.  Pick whatever animal you want to carve.  It's up to you whether or not it's good enough for Daevis to recognize it and let you avoid the laps of the walls.  And remember, be careful when you play with fire :D

[Kelitor]

(ooc: sorry its been so long! Its been a long year.  :P  :'( )

 

Kelitor puffed his way up to the stump, where he saw Daevis sitting. He comforted himself by imagining Daevis being torn, screaming, limb from limb by starving dogs.

 

As he stood before him, catching his breath, the man finally climbed lazily to his feet, and making some initial, cryptic remarks, tossed them all cubes of wood.

 

Kelitor stared at it in puzzlement.

 

"Your final task of the day, and maybe tomorrow as well, is to take that block of wood, and carve something out of it."

 

Kelitor felt an ugly grimace covering his face, but when he looked up, Daevis' was holding a replica of the Dragon pin worn by Asha'man, carved from wood. But then Daevis had to go and make it impossible, and stipulated the use of primarily Fire.

 

And I only have one day, he thought sourly as Daevis sat back down with his own figurine. He himself stumped off to one side of the clearing. Behind him, some of the others were also spreading out to work on their figurines. He also saw some idiots heading back to the barracks for free time, as if they would be able to complete this thing at the last second.

 

He seized Saidin, and set to work.

 

He passed several hours in that fashion, in the shade of an ash tree, and he finally looked up, releasing the Source with a slight headache to contemplate his work. He had barely begun. His block of wood was only slightly deformed, but he felt that he was doing better then those whose blocks had flamed into ash. Ash wasn't particularly recognizable as any animal, and Daevis hadn't said they would get another block.

 

The practice had also had its mishaps, he was distantly aware. In the periphery of his mind, he had noticed when some brainless fool had thought a stylus of lightning would make a good carving instrument and had watched the resulting explosion from half a mile away, and the efforts made to save the fool's life.

 

With a sigh then, he seized Saidin again, deciding to try something else. He'd been told to use primarily Fire.... but he could "temper" his weaves. What would that mean. He'd been using Earth, but it hadn't done much that he had noticed, except perhaps damping the wood.

 

The only element he hadn't really bothered with was Spirit, but he figured it was worth trying. Extending Fire and Earth then, he tentatively stretched out cords of Spirit to the block, and carefully made to slice gently at the block.

 

To Kelitor's utter shock, the wood almost seemed to flow away from his weave, and his eyes widened. He could see the wood he wanted gone burn off, and it did so quickly, but the wood seemed strange now. He reached out with a finger and poked it cautiously: It still felt like wood. But, as he carved with Fire with increasing confidence, under the influence of Spirit, the image he wanted almost seemed to flow into existence, and in the early morning, by the light of the moon, he triumphantly released Saidin, and tossed his roughly carved bear statuette into the air, catching it again with a grin.

[Arani Lepenque Aes Sedai]

Seyneru stood, poleaxed, as Daevis stated what he wanted them to do with the blocks of wood in their hands.  Carve an animal from a block of wood?  With fire?  Seyneru grimaced and looked down at the stone in his hand.  Learning Saidin had not been extremely easy for him, but he had made it so far, and he would make it through this task.  When they were dismissed for the rest of the day, Seyneru simply took his brick and strode off into the woods outside the Tower.  Snow slithered and fell around him, the crystal flakes glistening in the weak sunlight.  Seizing Saidin and dividing his flows two ways, he created a globe of light so that he could see, and wove Air and Fire to heat the air to comfortable temperatures.

 

Tying off both flows, Seyneru looked down at the block of wood, frowning slightly.  How to go about carving an animal from this piece of wood, he had not much of an idea.  Saidin filled him with life, but at the same time the taint made him want to sick up.  Saidin made that feeling worse.  Ignoring and suppressing it into a corner of his mind, Seyneru channeled as thin a flow of fire as he could and touched the block of wood gently with the weave.

 

The block of wood started to smoke, and turned the area the weave touched the block black in colour.  Flakes of wood started to drift away in the slight breeze, and Seyneru's eyes narrowed in concentration.  Channeling, he shaped the weave until it resembled the animal he wanted - a dog, and inserted it into the wood.  He then waited for a short while, allowing the weave to take effect, then released it.  Taking a flow of air, he narrowed it to a hair, and struck the block, the weave hitting the block with a solid thunk!

 

The block of wood split apart, and Seyneru smiled at the resultant figure of a dog that he held in his hand.