To Tar Valon [attn: silhouette]

[Moseley]

"Ride on, Edi." Dovaen Ianura spoke softly to her harrowed mare. She too was exhausted and could hardly stay on the horse, but Tar Valon was so close. It's unsullied white walls reflected the rising sun and captured something deep within her heart, pushing out the weariness the two-day ride had filled her with. She had dark circles under her eyes and slovenly hair, but she was free from her overbearing mother and her malicious former mother-in-law. They would both think her dead now, and never again would she be forced into anything against her will. A deep, satisfying feeling of being cleansed of her former lifehad filled her since she left Saldaea. And it would be complete when she reached Tar Valon and signed her name in the Warders' log of trainees.

 

Edara, Dovaen's brown mare, plodded along slowly following the River Erinin to the city. As her faithful horse led her steadily closer to Tar Valon, her herat began to beat faster. It would not be long until she would stand at the gates of the Warders' Yard. What will they think of me? Dovaen wondered. Will they think of me as a silly Borderlander girl with an uncontrolable temper who wishes to fufill some childhood fancy?

 

"Oh Edi, you will still love me won't you, girl?" She whispered to her horse as they crossed the bridge to the city. Her stomach dropped and her heart skipped a beat or two as she saw the sheer enormity and stark beauty of the White Tower. "By the Light..." She rode through the city streets, which seemed to buzz with the early morning anticipation of the coming day. Astonished at the size of the city, yet also slightly intimidated, she rode her way toward what she hoped was the White Tower.

 

OoC: Brenda, you can go from here.

[silhouette]

Another day, another trial. Rosheen glared at the young man standing before her. “Well?” she asked him. The boy didn’t even have the decency to wipe the grin of his face. “Care to explain why you thought putting glue in my hairgel would be a good idea?” The boy blushed a little, and shook his head. Looking at the jar in her hand, Rosheen sighed wistfully. She only had one jar of the stuff left now that this one was ruined. If she wanted her Mohawk to stand up proud for the coming months, she’d soon have to make the trip to the only store in town that imported it from Cairhien.

 

“So you’re absolutely sure no one put you up to this?” the boy shook his head, still grinning. “No doubts? You haven’t been approached by a little man called Aran?” another shake from the boys head. “Fine, have it your way then. Go to the Mistress of Trainees, and tell her what you were trying to accomplish here. I’m sure she’ll think of a suitable punishment.” The boy froze for a moment. Apparently Aran had told him that she’d let him off with just a warning. “Fool.” she said, turning away from the boy and walking to the gate. Since she had little else to do now, she might as well see a certain shopkeeper about the gel from Cairhien.

 

In truth all she really cared about at the moment was that none of the glue had actually ended up in her Mohawk. It would have been hell to get it out, which was no doubt part of Aran’s ploy to get her to cut off her Mohawk. “Now that would be a travesty. Rosheen without a Mohawk? How would people recognise me then?” She muttered to herself as she made her way out of the yards. Fortunately the boy hadn’t been the brightest star in the sky, for he had used some very foul smelling glue. Rosheen had noticed the difference the moment she unscrewed the jar. All in all it had been a good try. She would have to praise Aran for it later. After she’d given him a nice black eye to go with the one he’d earned from her a week ago.

 

Distracted as she was by the gel and her plots on revenge, she didn’t notice the young woman on the horse until she almost knocked into her. “Woah!” she exclaimed. It took the girl a few seconds to get the horse under control again, but not as long as she would have had she not been riding on a Saldean horse. Rosheen patted the horse on the side. “Nice looking horse you have there. I have one of a similar breed, though mine is a little bigger than yours.” Which was an understatement, of course. Nikos was a Saldean warhorse, trained to look fierce and intimidating at all times. “I don’t remember seeing you here before. Have you come to the White Tower to be tested?”

 

~Rosheen Tahn Sakhr

 

[Moseley]

It took Dovaen several seconds to get Edara under her control after nearly running over a curious looking woman with only a short, spikey strip of hair down the middle of her head. “Nice looking horse you have there. I have one of a similar breed, though mine is a little bigger than yours.” The woman patted Edi's flank, and Dovaen was a little taken aback by the odd woman's boldness. She didn't “I don’t remember seeing you here before. Have you come to the White Tower to be tested?” Apparently, this woman worked in the White Tower, but she was not an Aes Sedai clearly, because she lacked the ageless face of one. But she also seemed to have a different grace than the channelers. The way she moved seemed more... lion-like and predatory. Could she be a Warder?

 

Dovaen snapped out of her momentary inquiry of the woman's occupation, and realized that she was waiting for her question to be answered. "I have not come here to be tested, and I hope that I cannot channel." Realizing who she was talking to, she quickly added, "I do not hate channelers, but I... erm... I... uh..." Dovaen trailed off, finding Edara's reigns suddenly fascinating. "But the real reason I came to Tar Valon was to become a...oh, please don't say it's silly...a...Warder." Dovaen turned beet red and felt like hiding in Edi's mane.

 

[silhouette]

A wide grin spread on Rosheen’s face as the young woman stumbled through her reasons to be in Tar Valon. Ah, she remembered her own arrival as if it were but a few days ago. Running through the night, only to arrive in the city in the morning. Asking directions for the yards, only to get strange looks because of her hair. Almost stumbling over Nevin as she finally entered the yards… life had been good, then. And the life of a Tower Guard was still good, now. “I’m glad that you’ve chosen the path of the warrior instead of the path of the politician.” She said, smiling at the girl.

 

“My name is Rosheen Tahn Sakhr. I’m a Tower Guard, which is what you become once you’ve completed the first stages of your training. After that you can choose to get bonded, and serve one Aes Sedai alone, or you can choose to remain a Tower Guard, which means that you will serve the White Tower as a whole.” She paused for a moment, judging the look on the young woman’s face. “But this kind of talk is for a later time. What’s your name?”

 

Taking a hold of the horses’ reigns, Rosheen started to move back towards the warders yards. Her gel could wait. Ginae would be pleased to find that she had a new recruit. And a female one at that. Rosheen briefly wondered if she could ask Ginae if she could train this one. She’d never had a female trainee before, after all.

 

~Rosheen Tahn Sakhr

Tower Guard.

 

[Moseley]

“I’m glad that you’ve chosen the path of the warrior instead of the path of the politician.” Dovaen frowned at this statement, wondering why this woman compared Aes Sedai with politicians, but when no clear answer came to her, she tried to forget it.

 

“My name is Rosheen Tahn Sakhr. I’m a Tower Guard, which is what you become once you’ve completed the first stages of your training. After that you can choose to get bonded, and serve one Aes Sedai alone, or you can choose to remain a Tower Guard, which means that you will serve the White Tower as a whole.” The Light willing, Dovaen wished to remain free. She had escaped her oppressive life in the Borderlands to become a free woman, and being bonded to an Aes Sedai meant living under someone else's rule.

 

But I have months, if not years, to decide that, a voice of reason in her mind told her. “But this kind of talk is for a later time. What’s your name?”  Rosheen seemingly dismissed what she had said before, as if trivial.

 

"I am Dovaen Ianura, formerly of Kandor, but I wish to forget that life." She felt her words were a touch to dramatic for a first introduction, but her words were in the air now, and there was no way she could take them back. Rosheen took Edara by the reigns and began leading the horse. "Oh, how rude of me!" Dovaen exclaimed with mock surprise, "This is Edara, one of the few things I have brought with me and wish to keep."

[silhouette]

Rosheen couldn’t help but smile when the young woman, the aspiring Tower Guard blurted out a bit of her history. Everyone had a story. Everyone had a reason to be there. That was what made them so good at what they did. It was what bound them together in one single purpose. None of the Tower Guards and Warders had ever arrived for the same reasons, but by the time their training was done, they were united as one army, with but one goal. “I’m pleased to meet you, Dovean Ianura, formerly of Kandor. I’ve been to Kandor a couple of times. It’s a nice enough place, but it has nothing on Tar Valon.

 

She patted the horse on the side again. “And I’m pleased to meet you as well, Edara. I think you and Nikos will get along quite nicely, even if he is an old grump. Who could ever resist such a beauty as you?” The gates to the warders yard were right in front of them now. “Look lively, Marie!” she called out to the guard on duty. “If Brand catches you napping there will be trouble.” The woman guarding the gate grinned at Rosheen, but she did straighten slightly. No one wanted to get scolded by the Captain of the Guard, after all, and Brand Ryota could scold quite nicely. Not as well as Ginae Auvriani could though.

 

“There we go. Why don’t you have a chat with the Mistress of Trainees while I find a stable boy to take care of Edara?” she pointed at Ginae’s office. Just go in there, state what your business is, and ask her if you can have me for a mentor while you’re at it.” She gave Dovean a wink, before going in search of a stable boy. Entering the yards for the first time was always special. It was the start of a new life, and the end of an old one. Rosheen felt that Dovean would come to like her new life a lot.

 

~Rosheen Tahn Sakhr

 

ooc: I think we can end this thread here, and pick up a next one for your next WS.