For the Shawl

[Leala]

Leala thought perhaps her feet would give out from all the walking she had been doing throughout the day. She had made so many trips to the Library, had ushered two new Novices to their rooms after giving them a tour of the White Tower, had tended to a Yellow’s herbs for her, and the list went on. Now she made her way to her room. She could feel the skin on the balls of her feet begin to chafe against her stockings and slippers. Walking slower than usual, she traversed the Accepteds’ Quarters and found her room. A good number of the Accepted who had been there when she first donned the banded dress were gone. Most from being removed from the Tower, but still a good number from gaining the shawl. She closed the door behind her as she entered her meager room. The Andoran noble nearly had to drag herself to her bed. The first thing she did was take off her stockings and her slippers to massage her feet. The slight aching in her legs was a satisfied pain of doing a job well done. She had been wondering lately when she would be called for her testing. She hoped it was soon.

 

As she was apt to do, Leala leaned back against the wall next to her bed and laid her head against the hard wall, not even caring that her head bounced a bit painfully without the support of a pillow. Lacing her fingers over her diaphragm, she breathed slowly, her hands rising and falling. She closed her eyes and tried to relax. Her muscles slowly unknotted and she felt as though she would soon sleep. This slow, paced feeling stopped altogether, though, when her door flew open. Her eyes shot open, and she could tell just from the silhouette that it was a shawled Aes Sedai. “Leala Gymorraine,” Valeri Sedai’s voice said with a touch of command. The Accepted righted herself and quickly and gracefully stood from her bed. “You are to be tested for the shawl of an Aes Sedai. The Light keep you whole and see you safe.”

 

Without bothering to put her stockings back on, Leala slipped her feet into her simply white slippers and followed the Mistress of Novices out the door silently. Her turn to speak in this ceremony would come when she would be addressed next. All the tiredness had left her body and now she was mentally and physically full of energy, ready for the next test.

 

Leala saved her mental energy for the tested as she descended below the main parts of the Tower. While she could have nodded or at least smiled at the other Accepteds in the Galleries, or gaped in wonder at yet another part of the Tower she did not know, she stared straight ahead and let the White Tower move around her. Her eyes were fixed on Valeri Sedai’s back constantly as she moved along and thought on what lay ahead of her. She knew that she still had room enough to grow in the One Power, but would what she had now be enough to pass the test? She trusted the Mistress of Novices’ judgement, however, and continued on, never faltering, her face the picture of an Aes Sedai mask of serenity that she would have to maintain throughout the next hundred weaves of Saidar.

 

The pair stopped at a pair of enormous doors. They would have to be pushed open with a number of men, but Valeri Sedai opened them with a weave of Air, bringing the chamber where she would be tested into view.

 

If not for the polished white walls, the room would be almost dim. The rings of torches on the walls surrounded them and reflected off the walls, illuminating every square inch of the large domed room perfectly. The great oval ring ter’angreal stood, waiting for her on its end. Colors swirled around its circumference in a dazzling display. As Leala’s attention directed itself toward the Aes Sedai in the room, Valeri Sedai said, “Attend.”

 

One Sister from each Ajah, also wearing their precious shawls formed a ring as circular as the room around Leala and the Mistress of Novices. Leala’s calm face moved not an inch. Addressing her again, Valeri Sedai began the scripted ceremony that she had had ingrained in her psyche.

 

“You come in ignorance, Leala Gymorraine. How would you depart?”

 

“In knowledge of myself,” Leala replied, her voice clear and confident.

 

“For what reason have you been summoned here?”

 

“To be tried.”

 

“For what reason would you be tried?”

 

“So that I may learn whether I am worthy.”

 

“For what would you be found worthy?”

 

“To wear the shawl.”

 

And with that, Leala began to disrobe. As she did, the Mistress of Novices began the rest of the ceremony.

 

“Therefore I will instruct you. You will see this sign upon the ground," Valeri said channeling to make a visible outline of a six-pointed star in the air in front of her.

 

As the star wavered in her vision, she felt a Sister behind her embrace the Source and begin to channel around her head. This hadn't been mentioned in the explanations of the ceremony, but she assumed that they hadn't told them everything, anyway. Simply what they would be expected to do in a very basic sense. It wouldn't be a testing if they were aware of everything that happened.

 

"Remember what must be remembered," the channeling Sister said.

 

“When you see that sign, you will go to it immediately, at a steady pace, neither hurrying nor hanging back, and only then may you embrace the Power. The weaving required must begin immediately, and you may not leave that sign until it is completed.” As Valeri continued, Leala absorbed the information, paying attention to every word.

 

"Remember what must be remembered." Apparently, she was going to forget something in the ring. This made the information doubly important.

 

“One hundred times will you weave, in the order you have been given and in perfect composure.”

 

"Remember what must be remembered."

 

Leala felt the weave settle into her as it was finished. The Sisters moved from their circle around her and all knelt in a circle around the ring and began channeling as a unit, sending complex weaves of all five elements into the ring. Valeri Sedai waited for her to finishing doffing her dress. When she her dress had finally been folded into a pile, she placed her precious Great Serpent ring atop the bundle and waited for the ring in perfect composure. Finally, the air in the opening of the ter'angreal turned into a blinding white and took some of the light in the room with it, making the once brightly lit room seem dim. the ring then began to rotate in silence and Leala stepped forward. There were only a few feet between her and the ring, and she closed the distance in a steady pace. When the face of the ring turned toward her, she stepped through...

 

Leala's bare feet were on a forest floor, filled with fallen tree bark, dead leaves, and itchy grass, but she kept her feet still. How had she gotten here? Why was she naked? Wondering these things, she walked in perfect rhythm, trying to find her way through the forest. As she did, she spotted one of her fine silken dresses embroidered with her House's colors hanging next to her shift and small clothes from a low-hanging branch. Soft slippers were under the garments on the floor. Calmly, she walked to the clothes and dressed herself. She ran her hands down the bodice, still clueless as to how she had arrived in this dark and unfamiliar place and knowing that something was missing. Looking up again, on the same branch was her silver cord used to tie her hair back. In a graceful motion, she took the cord and slipped it around the crown of her head.

 

Now fully clothed, Leala continued through the forest, looking for a way out. She kept her balance through the thick woods by lightly placing her palms against the trunks of the trees ahead of her. Each turn led her to more trees it seemed, but she did not show her frustration. I must keep calm... She noticed something as she walked. There was not a sound from any creature. Not a bird, not a squirrel, not the rustling of a fox...it was completely silent. She knew something was wrong. But what was it?

 

At another turn, she found two important things. There, in the grass of a clearing was an impression of a six-pointed star, and she knew what to do. In front of the star, however, there was a large white tent. there was something on the tent that she could not see for the darkness of the moonless night. Neither hurrying nor hanging back, she approached them both and stood in the middle of the star and embraced the Power, beginning to channel the first required weave. Taking the necessary weaves of Air, she began the complex patterns needed. "Who's there?!" demanded a groggy voice from the tent. She said not a word and continued on. "Hm? No one is there, yes?" Did these men have Amadician accents? she continued the weave as there were grumblings and the first man who spoke lit a lantern. The bright golden sun of the Children of the Light flashed into view on the tent. The man carrying the lantern opened the tent flap and gave her a scowl. He was wearing his small clothes, but he still looked very tightly wound, as if he could still hurt her. She gave him an uncaring look and prepared an extra weave of Air.

 

"It's a Tar Valon witch!" With those words, the men in the tent began to clamor for their weapons and anything they could grab. Within seconds, they began to spill out of the tent. Taking the extra weave of Air, she pushed the men back into the tent, but not without a few cuts from swords. An arrow even wizzed past her face and she did not flinch. Taking that extra weave and still concentrating on the required one, she made a shield around herself. Finally, the small coin that the weave created dropped into her hand and she took the rest of the weavings and hurled the men back, knocking the air out of their lungs for a time when they hit their backs from the fall. Looking back to the forest, she saw two intersecting limbs between two trees make a very distinct six-pointed star and strode to the sign...

 

Leala found herself in the middle of a desert. Her feet felt the sting burns of the sun-heated sand and suddenly, she felt she knew how this substance could be molded into glass. To stave the burning sensation in her feet, she walked. Each step was painful, but she still held her composure. The rest of her skin was warmed by the sun and had not felt the full effects just yet. Over a dune of sand, she found a scratchy woolen dress with worn leather boots and a thick brown cloak. In a steady pace, she donned these clothes thankfully and guarded herself with the cloak as the winds picked up. Looking at the sun, she judged that it was late in the afternoon, but still nowhere near sunset. There was nothing to do but walk. So, she did. Her feet were glad for the boots, but the boots held little traction to the sand. The hood of the cloak helped but did not block all the heat nor all the sand thrown at her face.

 

For perhaps two hours she walked until the sun began to set. She had been following the sun this whole time. The terrain was beginning to change as well. More rocks seemed to sprout from the ground as she went on. Where was she headed? Looking ahead, she saw a six-pointed star made out of rounded pebbles. In her steady pace, she approached the sign. She heard rough sounds around the bigger rocks in the distance toward the horizon, but pushed her worry to the back of her mind and away from her face. As soon as she entered the star, she reached for Saidar and embraced the One Power. For this second weave, she brought out threads of Air, Fire, and Earth and began to weave. As she did, though, a knot of Trollocs barged out of the large stones, heading straight for her, weapons raised and what she could only guess was hunger in their human eyes above their snouted and beaked mouths. Still, she kept on. The weave was almost ready for Spirit.

 

Raising one hand as she wove her threads, she gathered an extra weave of Fire before her outstretched hand and shot a blazing fire ball at the Trollocs. As she added Spirit to her weave, she repeated this action twice, downing all the Trollocs temporarily. She added Air to the weaves, then Earth and Air together in one weave. All the while, she would glance up, serenity in her expression, to see if the Trollocs were ready to attack again. One such beast stood and roared. This time, she simply sent a thick weave of Fire to knock him down, but aimed it to its roaring mouth. The beast screamed and thrashed in a wild display of pain and torment. Leala continued on. More Air was added to the mix. The weave was nearly done, she thought. Looking up, she saw two Trollocs heading to her again. As she had with the last one, she shot weaves of Fire into the dumb beasts' mouths. Adding Spirit and Water to the weave, it was done. Looking around, she spotted another star etched in a tall, arching rock not ten feet away. in her graceful, steady pace, Leala walked under the arched stone...

 

Leala's toes felt the soft, cool, welcoming feeling of the sea's coast. Without a stitch of clothing, she looked as though she were about to go for a dip in the water. Turning, she found a bundle of a simple yet comfortable woolen dress with leather slippers in the sand behind her. In patient motions, she dressed herself. Looking around, she found herself in a port town. The pier was in sight, but bit of a ways down the coast. Thinking there would be something of worth there, she followed the coastline, but kept her feet from the water, not wanting to damage the leather slippers. Keeping her eyes on the docks, she felt her shift slip away. That was unusual, but she showed no sign of surprise. As she approached the docks, her shoes were no longer on her feet, but she traversed the hot sand until she stood on the hot, dry wood of the pier. Looking around, she saw a six-pointed star etched into the wet wood of the small pier's dock. Either the water was high or the pier was low, either way, she could have easily touched the water with her toe without bending over if she wanted.

 

She began to approach the star, but just as she did, her dress completely vanished, leaving her naked again. There was no change in her pace and none on her face.

 

Her feet were grateful for the cooling effect of the wet wood as she stepped into the sign and embraced Saidar. Taking Air, Earth, and Spirit, she began to weave the intricate and detailed weave. As she thought on the pattern of the weave, she felt a wet and slimy pressure on her ankle. Looking down, she saw thick tendrils of seaweed slinking around her feet, looking to drag her down. Quickly, but not shocked, she cut the seaweed with a sharp weave of Air and continued in her task. Another arm of seaweed made its presence known by slithering around her waist. Automatically, she cut this one again with a weave of Air. The beautiful pattern of the weave was coming to form when ten arms of the same seaweed rushed at her like a tidal wave. This time, she used a strong whip of Fire and severed them. The offensive seaweed fell useless and singed, floating on the ocean water as Leala finished the lace like weave.

 

Searching, she found another six-pointed star on a docked vessel. Walking toward it with dignity and grace despite her state of disrobe, she walked up the ramp and boarded the boat that housed the star...

 

"WHO COULD HAVE DONE THIS?! Oh, Light, who...?" Leala sat at her desk in her bedroom at home, in the Palace of Caemlyn. A lantern lit the pages she had been reading, otherwise, the room was completely dark. She thought it odd that she was completely nude as she sat at her desk. Standing, she walked to her wardrobe and found only one dress and one shift. Again, this was odd, but she did not question it and she did not let her confusion show. She simply reached for her shift...

 

"Mistress Leala!" a desperate voice sounded at her door. "Mistress Leala, come out here, oh..." One of her handmaidens sounded as though the Dark One himself had paid her a visit. As she dressed, she heard other shouts and screams. "One moment," she called back.

 

Suddenly, the door slammed open. She turned her head calmly to see the older woman at the door with a wild look on her face. "This is not a time for dallying, Mistress!!" Leala was only dressed in her shift, what could be so important? The handmaiden stormed in and took her hand. She turned and Leala pulled her hand back with a calm assurance that she would indeed follow. She knew where the woman was going, and did not hurry along. The handmaiden would turn back and wait for her, desperate that she would hurry, but the girl never did. Finally arriving at a door, the handmaiden blocked the way. The same woman who had been so insistent that she follow close behind now barred her way. "Before I open the door, Mistress Leala, you must know...it...it's..."

 

"Allow me to see," Leala said in a consoling manner. "That would be best."

 

"Y...Yes, Mistress, of course...just..." The handmaiden's words trailed off and she bit her bottom lip and closed her eyes as she stepped back from the door.

 

Leala opened the door. The chandelier was lit in this room and lit the most grotesque and horrific scene that Leala had ever seen. There, lying in the middle of the floor was her mother, her brother, and her sister, dead. Blood splattered the walls and they were covered in deep gashes and lacerations. It was clear to anyone who could see them that they were dead, their blood lining the walls and the floor. "Light save us..." the handmaiden whimpered. Spotting what her family was positioned around, Leala stepped into the room calmly. Stepping over her little sister's motionless body, she entered a six-pointed star on the rug where her family lay. She embraced the Source and imagined herself a rosebud as she began to weave. She clung to the image of the rosebud and her concentration on weaving as she wove threads of Air, Earth, Water, and Spirit. She shut out the noises of the handmaiden's sobs, and the horrific scene just below her until she completed the weave.

 

Still clinging to the image of a rose bud, she turned around. Above the door she had entered was a six-pointed star above the door frame. Again, she stepped over her sister's corpse, but did not connect it mentally to someone she knew, and walked through the doorway...

 

A mournful dirge filled Leala's ears. The large gallery of the Palace was empty except for her, and she stood nude. In front of her was one of her silk dresses and a pair of slippers. She dressed herself and walked out of the palace, toward the dirge. She saw a large gathering of what looked to be all the courtiers of the Court in a knot of mourners in the distance. She followed the road toward them and wondered who it was they were mourning. One of the mourners in the back noticed her following and motioned for her to hurry up. But Leala could not hurry nor tarry back. She kept a steady pace on the road. The wind seemed to wail as it brushed her hair over her face, blocking her view to clues as to the deceased. Looking down on the road, she saw a six-pointed star made from rounded and polished stone, just to the edge of the crowd. Still following it, she stopped at the star and opened herself to Saidar, embracing it for the hundredth weave. She felt tired and drained of any feeling, but she knew this was the final step. Towards what, extactly?

 

Pulling out the appropriate weaves, she began her final weave. As she did, the crowd streamed out around her, avoiding the star, and rejoining on the road. Still weaving, she concentrated, but spared a glance up and instantly regretted it. The only mourners left were her mother, her elder brother Tobias, and her little sister Eliara. Tobias had a glum look on his face and had a hand on his mother's back and his sister's. The person in the newly-dug grave was her father. Eliara looked up at her and she began to sob. "Leala!! Leala, come and say goodbye to father."

 

"I have said my goodbyes and recited prayers for him," Leala answered, something like coldness in her voice. She continued to weave. She wanted so much to burst into tears and embrace her family and say her final goodbyes, but she knew that she could not. She must remain calm and finish her final weave.

 

"Come, Leala. You have been away too long. Your father was always proud of you, just like us." It was her mother who bade her this time. This time, Leala kept quite, weaving and creating, not even looking up. It was nearly done.

 

"Sister..." Leala was surprised to hear Tobias's voice, but her face spoke of no emotions. "Say goodbye with us and stay a part of our family. I won't pawn you off as a lord's wife, I promise. And I'm sorry for ever having said so." Placing the last weave, it was complete and a spray of colors erupted around her. Not even having to look around, she found the last six-pointed star on a tomb that had its door open for her to walk through. She left the star where she stood and calmly strode around her grieving family. Turning her head as she passed, she said, "Good bye, father. May the Light illumine your soul." With that, she climbed the small dais and entered the tomb that housed the last star...

 

Memories clamored and crowded her mind of the whole ordeal of the testing. She sorted them all swiftly and was about to walk forward into the room toward Valeri Sedai, but pain from all her hurts stopped her. Her feet felt as though she had walked from the Aiel Waste to Saldaea all in one day. Her tiredness was pushed back, however, when the Mistress of Novices walked forward and clapped her hands loudly. “It is done. Let no one ever speak of what has passed here. It is for us to share in silence with she who experienced it. It is done.” Another clap. “Leala Gymorraine, you will spend tonight in prayer and contemplation of the burdens you will take up on the morrow, when you don the shawl of an Aes Sedai. It is done.” Again, she clapped once and left.

 

The rest seemed somewhat of a blur. The seven Sisters, who were now her own Sisters, well they would soon be, crowded her and consoled her for her hurts. They offered Healings, and after feeling as though she had jumped into a freezing river, she felt ready to walk to her room again. She wondered which of these Sisters had devised the last test, and the one with her family murdered. She did not dwell on it long, though. She knew that a test would not be a test if it were easy. After having dressed herself again, the Sisters escorted her above ground once more. They departed and left her to find her room. The sky was dark, and seemed to have been so for quite a while. She felt as though she had been gone for a week, though.

 

Arriving at her room, she found a tray of hot food waiting for her. Sighing happily, she sat on her bed and began to eat. Many Accepted did not dwell on their responsibilities and pray during that one night, but Leala wanted nothing but that.

 

OOC: Oaths on the next post

[Leala]

Leala's thoughts had drifted throughout the night of what would lay before her when she took the shawl. Every burden would be difficult, but that was the life of an Aes Sedai. This was what the Pattern had chosen for her, and it was what she had readily accepted when she entered the Tower all those years ago. The fact that she had passed the test meant that she was ready for whatever else she would face as a full Sister. She fingered her Great Serpent ring gently, caressing it, thinking of the shawl. She had chosen her Ajah perhaps a year or two ago. She had wavered for a while between two, but the one she had chosen was her true calling. The door to her room opened, revealing a Gray Sister at her door. She did not have to look to know that there were six other Sisters, one from each Ajah behind her. Without a word, Leala stood and confidently followed the group to where she had been tested. A great number of sisters representing their Ajahs stood in the circular room, the entire Hall of the Tower, with the Amyrlin at the head of the room.

 

"Who comes here?" demanded the Amyrlin.

 

"Leala Gymorraine."

 

"For what reason do you come?"

 

"To swear the Three Oaths and thereby gain the shawl of an Aes Sedai."

 

"By what right do you claim this burden?"

 

"By right of having made the passage, submitting myself to the will of the Tower."

 

"Then enter, if you dare, and bind yourself to the Tower."

 

Entering the room, Leala strode with confidence and serenity toward the now still ring that she had passed through the evening before. Her eyes kept on the Amyrlin and the Oath Rod that the Keeper held on a velvet pillow. She stepped through the floating ring ter'angreal and continued her short yet all-important trek. Reaching the Amyrlin, she knelt, ready for the Oaths. The Amyrlin took the Oath Rod, offering it to Leala. Taking the Rod, Leala channeled a simple weave of Spirit into it.

 

“Under the Light and by my hope of salvation and rebirth, I vow that I will speak no word that is not true. Under the Light and by my hope of salvation and rebirth, I vow that I will make no weapon for one man to kill another. Under the Light and by my hope of salvation and rebirth, I vow that I will never use the One Power as a weapon except against shadowspawn, or in the last extreme of defending my life, or that of my Warder, or another Sister.”

 

After she had recited the Oaths, her skin felt too tight, uncomfortable, as if it didn't quite fit her. Accepting it as normal, she let the Rod fall back into the hands of the Amyrlin. “It is half done, and the White Tower graven on your bones. Rise now, Aes Sedai, and choose your Ajah and all will be done that may be done under the Light.”

 

Rising as instructed, Leala walked down the outline of the shawled Sisters. She passed the Blues, the Greens, the Browns, and when it became apparent that she was directing her path to the Whites, all the others filed out of the room. Looking into the eyes of her new Sisters, the Aes Sedai holding her white shawl placed it on her shoulder as she was welcomed among the ranks of the White Ajah.