I have to room with You?!?! atn Dyrum

[Visar Falmaien]

Everything seemed to be going just as Rytali had dreamed.  She had been accepted as a Novice to the White Tower, and if she worked hard, which she doubted she would have much trouble with, she would become Aes Sedai!  The thought made her head spin.  Well, almost everything...

 

Why in the Light had the Mistress of Novices made her room with Dyrum?  She could hardly stand the upstart noble girl's antics to date, and she could only imagine it being worse if they were forced to share a room.  Why couldn't she have roomed with some other, more reasonable girl?  Dyrum would probably have insisted on having a room all to herself anyway.  Rytali would either be an unwanted extra, or the fool girl would expect her to clean after her every mess like a servant.  Well, here was one girl who would not bow down to that brat!  The Mistress of Novices had said they were going to be equals, and Rytali was determined to prove her worth.  In fact, she secretly hoped that she would be much better than Dyrum.

 

The two of them followed another Novice to their quarters, their steps brisk and almost stomping the white tiles in anger.  Neither said anything to each other.  Well, not that Rytali had anything to say to her.  They reached their door, a plain, small wooden door that looked almost exactly the same as a dozen they had just passed.

 

"This is your room, Kitchens are..." Rytali listened as their guide explained where the kitchens and some of their class rooms would be, with a final reminder to talk to Mistress Pia if they had any urgent questions or problems.  She gave both of them an almost sympathetic look, and left.

 

Entering the room, Rytali could see that it was almost completely plain.  There were two small beds, one near the door and one near the windowless wall.  Rytali sighed; she had wished for a nice view of the city or the river, but she would live just fine without one.  There was a single washbasin in the middle, and two small desks with matching stools.  She moved to the wall side trying to be nice, thinking that no doubt "her highness" would want the bed near the door.  She opened the closet, seeing nothing there but a pair of soft slippers and several pairs of plain, white dresses.  She heard someone clear their throat behind her, and turned to face Dyrum who already seemed annoyed at something.

Light what do it be this time?

[DarthRand]

Dyrum was absolutely fuming as the Novice escorted her and that…commoner to the room that they would be sharing. The injustice of it all grated at the girl. First off, as a noble she was entitled to her own private space. The nerve of that woman! Being forced to room with anyone was bad enough, but to room with a girl who had lived as a servant her entire life…might not be as bad as Dyrum had initially thought, now that she actually considered it. Back at her father’s manor, any time she’d needed something, the servants had taken ages to get their due to the distance from their quarters to her own. Now, she had a servant right within the very same room! Her face actually seemed to light up at the thought as she continued following the girl in the white dress. She frowned as she noted the area they were passing through. On both sides of the hallway were small wooden doors, plain and unadorned. Surely they were the servants quarters. Dyrum’s rooms would, by necessity be grand and well furnished with everything she would need for efficiently studying.

 

Suddenly, they stopped in front of a door identical to those along the rest of the hall, small wooden and nondescript. The Novice turned around, gesturing to the door. “Here is your room,” she said plainly. Dyrum’s jaw nearly touched the ground, her face rapidly matching the tint of a Red sister’s shawl. “Th-there must be some mistake,” she spluttered. “These are clearly servants’ quarters. I demand to be taken to proper quarters at once!” Dyrum quickly regained her composure, giving the command as she had seen her mother do on several occasions. The Novice bristled, but otherwise remained calm. “If you are unsatisfied,” the girl said icily, “feel free to take it up with Mistress Lavinya.” That shut Dyrum up in a hurry. It had been clear that the Mistress of Novice had no idea how to properly treat a noblewoman, and Dyrum was in no hurry to be back in that office if she could help it. Instead, the girl simply sniffed as Rytali opened the door, stepping through first.

 

The room was barely fit to be lived in. Tiny and cramped with two narrow beds, two small desks with uncomfortable looking stools, a pair of ridiculously small closets and, this last caused the young noble to gasp in horror, a single washbasin! For two women! Dyrum nearly fainted right then and there as Rytali moved as if to claim the bed near the wall, which would leave Dyrum the bed at the door, subject to every single draft to come down that hall. The young noble cleared her throat testily, causing the servant girl to look over with a look of exasperation. “You are on the wrong side of the room. I will not be subject to every draft in the hall, nor have my bed slammed by the door every time it opens.” Her voice was sharp and crisp, but the irritation brought on by the room itself was only magnified by the commoner’s silly error. “Move yourself. Now.”

 

[Visar Falmaien]

“You are on the wrong side of the room. I will not be subject to every draft in the hall, nor have my bed slammed by the door every time it opens.”

 

What do be wrong with this girl?!  Do she have no common sense at all?  Or be common sense only for the "commoner"?  How could a girl be so pampered as to mind a bit of a breeze by the door in an otherwise perfectly livable room?  She imagined that winter here would be harsh, being rather far north, but it couldn't be too bad.  Any bed at all was better than trying to fall asleep out on the street.

 

“Move yourself. Now.”  Rytali's hands clenched into fists.  How she wanted to pound some sense into this thick-skulled, wool-headed brat!  She forced herself to try to stay calm.  Compromise...think of a compromise.

 

"Fine.  I did want the room by the door anyway." she said, moving back over to the side she had wanted in the first place.  Light, she was tired!  Dyrum stared at her, seeming to wait for something.  What did the princess want now?  A curtsy and an apology?  An offer to make her bed and tuck her in and sing her a bloody lullaby?!  Rytali swore by all things holy that this would never happen in a thousand years.  In fact, she needed something to be perfectly clear right now.

 

"Look.  If we be going to live together, you do need to know something.  I be no your servant; nor will I ever be.  You do take care of yourself; I will no scurry around and do whatever you say.  We be both here to become Aes Sedai.  We, as the Mistress of Novices said, be both equals at this point.  You do try to push your scrawny noble self around with me, and you will see where it gets you."

 

Her hands on her hip, Rytali glared at Dyrum.  She fully intended to follow up on her threat, too.  Though not tonight.  It was late and they were both tired, and she felt like she had stomped her foot down too hard as it was.

[DarthRand]

Dyrum smirked as the girl did as she was told and switched places with Dyrum, who promptly turned about to get a better look at the room, her face slowly wrinkling in disgust.. “How can they expect us to learn properly if they keep us in servant’s quarters?” She wondered aloud before casting another withering glare at the servant girl she was being forced to room with. Did the girl have no proper sense of respect for her betters that she would give them such sass? The noble girl’s mouth opened to demand an apology for the Illianer’s impertinence when the commoner spoke up in that absolutely wretched accent of hers.

 

“Look.  If we be going to live together, you do need to know something.  I be no your servant; nor will I ever be.  You do take care of yourself; I will no scurry around and do whatever you say.  We be both here to become Aes Sedai.  We, as the Mistress of Novices said, be both equals at this point.  You do try to push your scrawny noble self around with me, and you will see where it gets you." Dyrum’s face turned scarlet once more as her jaw went slack in horror. The gall of this girl, speaking to Dyrum as if they were equals! Well, Dyrum would just have to crush that thought before it festered into a real obedience problem.

 

The noble sniffed, glaring right at the commoner. “We,” Dyrum began with a haughtiness long practiced and handed down in the nobility, “will never be equals, regardless of what Pia Sedai said. It is well known that commonfolk are inferior to those of noble blood in every way, and I’m sure that includes the Power. Whatever illusions you have of becoming Aes Sedai, you’d best spare yourself the heartbreak and dispel them now. They would never allow such rabble as yourself within their ranks. They accepted you for study out of pity, no doubt. And, not to mention, I will not be spoken to with such disrespect, especially not by someone without so much as a drop of noble blood in her filthy common veins. And I am not scrawny you slab-tongued witch!”

[Visar Falmaien]

“We...will never be equals, regardless of what Pia Sedai said. It is well known that commonfolk are inferior to those of noble blood in every way, and I’m sure that includes the Power. Whatever illusions you have of becoming Aes Sedai, you’d best spare yourself the heartbreak and dispel them now. They would never allow such rabble as yourself within their ranks. They accepted you for study out of pity, no doubt. And, not to mention, I will not be spoken to with such disrespect, especially not by someone without so much as a drop of noble blood in her filthy common veins. And I am not scrawny you slab-tongued witch!”

 

Rytali was angry, but not angry enough to really argue with this rich brat. She had heard this nonsense before, and she thought it was best to ignore it.  Dyrum was still stuck in her pampered illusions that just because she was born with everything; she was entitled to have everything her way.  Rytali wished she could see how long this snotty girl would last if she ever had to live with any need; if she ever had to work a full day, from sun up to sun down, doing laundry and cleaning the floors.

 

She snapped back deliberately, choosing her words carefully.

 

"I will speak how I do please around my roomate, however lofty a throne 'her highness' sat upon before this.  And you will learn to respect me as your equal.  But as to what you did say, I do no care what you think.  I be tired; we both be new here.  I do no have anything further to say to you.  Good night."  Rytali said, her voice stiff and cold.  Then, as easily as she had dealt with and ignored nobles in Illian, she turned her back on Dyrum, stripped down methodically to her shift, and crawled into bed.  Being the sort of girl who could fall asleep almost anywhere, she would fall asleep within minutes.

 

Before she drifted into unconsciousness, Rytali wished she had never decided to follow Dyrum in.  Still, she could be happy about two things.  First, her bed was reasonable comfortable compared to what she was used to, and the sheets were warm enough.  This was a good place for her to work, she felt.  As long as her needs were met, she would make a place for herself somehow, no matter how much work it took.  And the second silver lining to today's miserable cloud was that she suspected Dyrum, no doubt used to sleeping on piles of feather pillows in her palace or wherever, would not sleep nearly as well as her.