Coax out the Petals ~Maev~

[ashara]

A sigh. "You're going to get caught, you know."

A smile. "Oh, I know. But not very soon. And that's enough for me."

 

She left it at that. A hurried glance at the mirror on the wall; her eyes met with the usual, and then the relief providing unusual. Her short black hair against brown eyes, good enough, she was still alive. Her favourite white shirt hanging loosely off her arms, stark against the black breeches. A thrill of pleasure at old things renewed, she swept out after bidding her sister adieu. The morning had lifted clear after a night of damp showers, sunny and in her reasoning, perfect. She had known what she had to do the moment sunlight had streamed through the windows, casting strange lines over their bids, over her face and eyes as it called for to wake.  It was not a sudden coming to- she had simply...risen. As Lucrecia slumbered in her cot, she had dragged herself off the bed and taken out the hidden clothes once more. Today, Tirzah Behen was going to masquerade as a Trainee.

 

She had done it very carefully. Well, as carefully as a Novice who laid out plans to saunter around the Yards pretending to be a person she was not, could. First, she had gently prodded Accepted she studied under, giving them helpless tears or grim lines of stubborn refusal to comprehend when they would drone about the Tower. When they would give up, she would present them with questions. What is it like, in the Yard, Accepted? Do you think if I hadn't been so badly fortuned in life, I...I would've made it? Such questions had slipped out as easily as breeze lifted skirts around a woman's ankles, and they had almost always brought her success. Yes, she would've gotten in, but she shouldn't be so weak now. Yes, the Trainees had a difficult life.

 

Yes, Tower Trainees do wear black and white.

 

It had been a moment of great pleasure for her, when she learnt that. Success! her mind had cried, and she'd wiped away a tear as she simpered beneath the Accepted's solemn gaze. Now, as she slipped out, moving out through corridors, she grinned. Finally a chance to use a lathe again. Maybe meet some Trainees, befriend some mates akin to her. The planning excited her. A match perhaps! Some good spars to refresh her memory.

 

Smiling widely now, she pushed past the brambles and bushes, neatly weaving her way out and into…the Yards. She had seen it before once, but the sight had been a hurried glance rather than the relaxed, thrilling study she was allowed of it now. Not many people were around as yet, as the sun still resisted rising higher, but there were enough to have her remain inconspicuous. Breathing in some fresh air, she began to run some laps.

And then one more. And then just one more. At first it was a slow jog, building up in speed as the wind caught her hair and clothes, gently whipping them in the other direction as she began to enjoy herself. When she was done, her cheeks were a touch pink underneath the heavy tan and her hair if not dripping, covered well enough in sweat to see she had exerted herself well. Espying a small cluster of trees and shade a few paces away, she moved to it and once there, settled herself comfortably against the tree’s bark. Tirzah felt at peace. Again, she breathed in some air.

 

~Tirzah

Novice of the White Tower

[SerenaMorrigan]

Maev's legs stretched out long before her, as she ran the usual track of the Yards. Deeply she breathed in...and out. Her mind always seemed to clear the moment she sought the inner peace that came with her morning jog. Tall and lithe, the Shienaran Trainee moved quickly, smoothly and light on her feet. Her height may have made any other woman either too studious in appearance, or incredibly clumsy. For some reason, movement had always come easy to her.

 

Breathing in an extra deep breath, Maev longed to be able to run slightly longer than she was alotted. Soon,her thoughts would be replaced by the monotonous anger, rage and worry that she focused mainly on her parents...No, not parents....Shein Kiyosa and Delaine, the people that took her in when she was young and for lack of a better term, abandoned. The familiar cold ball of tension clasped at her heart and seemed to expand in her chest.

 

Shaking her head and running a tanned hand through her short white-blonde hair, she grasped a chunk of it in her fist and made as if she might pull it all out. Her mentor had warned  her about feelings, and mentioned training her mind with some silly symbolism of a Flame and a Void. Something about feeding all her emotions into it. It sounded like a bunch of drivel to her. She would be a fierce warrior one day, but it had nothing to do with her emotions.

 

The sun had already peaked over the horizon, spilling its glory out over the Yards and gleaming off of the columns, spires and turrets of the White Tower. Maev was not interested. Instead of being able to sit and enjoy such a glorious sight and be greatful of where she was that day, she snatched up a lathe and headed for a semi-secluded place in the yards. A copse of trees seemed to be a wonderful place to hang out and practice.

 

As she ran towards the cluster of trees, her feet hardly made a sound. If they had, however, they might have disturbed the only other person that had found her little get-a-way. Biting the inside of her cheek an shaking her head, Maev's silver-blue eyes scanned the resting soul. "Not again." She mumbled.

 

Maev had  made the mistake of attacking a Tower Guard in her first week of being at the White Tower. She had thought he was a slacking trainee. She would NOT make the same mistake twice.

 

Tilting her head to the side, she looked down at the person leaning up against the tree. "Um... Is there somewhere else you might rather be right now?" Gazing down at what seemed to be a male trainee, Maev towered over them and couldn't quite make out a good description. "Like, training? Or...just something?" She didn't want to be mean, but this was the only time of the day that she had to herself, and she wanted it to be just that. By herself.

 

 

Maev Kiyosa

Tower Trainee

Mentee of Aran

 

 

[ashara]

She had heard the steps; a foot crunching on fallen leaves well before a shadow cast itself ahead of the walker. Tirzah did not turn as yet. If caution was to be practiced, then getting up and running away at lightning speed would hardly be the smartest way to go. The person had obviously seen her, her white shirt would be the first thing any eyes would be drawn to in a shelter of plants and trees. It was only when the still unknown figure came and stood right before her, her vastly taller frame blocking the sunlight from Tirzah that she felt a tinge of fear cross her heart. Although her mind tugged at her will, ordering her to look up, Tirzah’s eyes remained rapt on the blades of grass rising near the stranger’s feet. The stranger was a Trainee too evidently, because she found herself studying somewhat dust laden black breeches, almost exact replicas of her own.  Of course, it would not be unlike a Tower Guard to wear black either, black was just that perfect kind of not-colourful hue that attracted all sorts of people, but something-gah, how she hated pinning things on instinct- told her that this shadow-caster here, was no Tower Guard.

 

When she heard the words though, a not so cordial greeting coming from a definitely feminine voice, Tirzah looked up. She hid her wonder as well as she could, between her usual façade of contempt and interest, but her eyes wandered up and down the towering manifestation of what could only be someone out of an Aeil legend. Silver blue eyes, sun woven flaxen hair framed a face that spelled out ‘tough cookie’ almost as well as her own. On the inside, she felt a bubble of amusement rise and thrive, but she kept her outside safely thoughtful, as if considering the other’s words.

 

Fingers running over her chin and face distractedly, giving an onlooker the impression that Tirzah was deeply in thought, she spoke. “I could be doing something, yes. I could even be doing something, somewhere else. I could be a great multitasker…” at this point her lips curved up in a smile, and her eyes glimmered openly with laughter. “But I’m not. Sorry about that.” Softening herself a little before she angered the other, she continued before the Trainee got a chance to speak. “I would’ve left on any other day if I thought I was intruding too much on another’s space, but I’m new and don’t know the grounds very well.”

 

[SerenaMorrigan]

Holding her head in the tilted position, Maev frowned slightly and chewed on her lower lip as she studied the possible Trainee below. The voice that came out amidst the snide remarks was a little higher than a younger mans, but something told her she was staring at a female. Not wanting to be rude, Maev did not press that particular matter. Light, nothing but bad could come out of that conversation!

 

At first, the Trainee sounded alot like the man she had met in her first week of training, Aran. That had not been pleasant. The way that this person before her sounded like him, just so happened to be the tongue-in-cheek comments. It seemed that everyone at the White Tower had a strange sense of humour about them. Not that she had spoken to that many people. Maev kept to herself, and indulged only in her training.

 

"Well, Peace favour you, then." Maev was about to turn on her heal and leave, when she decided that she really had not gotten to know anyone in Tar Valon. She had not been willing to give anyone a chance. Was it because she was shy? No, she had never really considered herself as such, before. She had been put in situations in the camps of the Shienaran Warriors and had never felt odd. Was that because her father had been close by? Surely not.

 

No, not my father. Shein.

 

Turning back to the Trainee, Maev breathed in deeply and spoke,"Well, how do you find time to rest when there is so much work to be done? Work and training." It never occured to her that others might rest when there was a slight break between chores and training. Another thought occured to her, and although she thought the soul before her was slightly odd, she figured she would do for them what no one had done for her when she arrived.

 

"You said you're new? I'm fairly new as well. Perhaps I could show you around. Atleast to the places that I'm aware of." Maev turned slightly, the sun outlining her silhouette and where the sweat she had produced that morning, made her clothes cling to her form. "By the way, I'm Maev." She held out her hand to the person before her.

 

 

 

 

Maev Kiyosa

Tower Trainee

Unsuspecting...

 

 

[ashara]

She watched the contrasting emotions glide off the other’s face, and with it she went spiralling too- succumbing to unnatural quiet that came with her rare moments of marvelling. What to do?… three words that Tirzah imagined were uttered every five seconds by someone in the words of Light and Dark alike, were now written all over the contours of the face before her, which was urging dismissal as much as it was insisting that she stayed just as she was, until…further notice. It was the look that she glimpsed in the other’s eyes that made her turn away though, and while the silence away. A look representing every inch of the word ‘memory’, just as it gave justice to sorrow, or resentment.

 

Tirzah decided to get comfortable. She stretched her legs out while leaning against the tree, and began to wipe off the sweat with the cuff of her shirt. Such a nice white shirt… and her action was something that would’ve made her mother scream. Even as the image entered Tirzah’s mind of her mother’s mouth dropping open in the gape of gapes, she continued her task with unhindered efficiency. When the Trainee turned back looking much more prepared to play with some social skills, Tirzah Behen reckoned she must seem far more presentable. Not that it mattered, but, you know…(and even if you didn’t, she was sixteen and troubled! Adolescence was an age that shrouded everything.)

 

It was her actual words that caused Tirzah to scuttle from remotely alarmed to amiably surprised, and for a few moments the only thing that took toll and rang sensible in her mind was to take Maev’s offered hand, and shake it politely. And so she did, while wild improvisations on Maev’s question flew to mind. It was a simple question, and one that didn’t require much more than a simple answer, though. When introductions were offered, she responded with a smile. “And I’m Tirzah, Maev. I’m not sure whether it’s nice to have met you or not as yet, but you’re awfully tall-not that that’s relevant- and are offering me help, so I’ll take the risk.” She grinned.

 

“Places you’re aware of? What would those be? A little tour sounds like just the sort of thing I need to get familiar with this place, so thank you for the offer.” Lucrecia’s reproachful gaze hung heavy over her shoulders as she stood up, and touched her cheeks in brief red flush. She took to the unwanted reflex spontaneously, and fluttered her lashes a little. “Could we stay away from the spots where everyone is, if possible? I don’t really like too many eyes on me all at once.” Glancing back up at Maev, she gestured at herself. “I might seem a bit…odd. You on the other hand seemed to have been sensible enough to keep your mouth right out of the whole thing. Thank you, for that.”

 

Eager to change the topic before Maev could give it more consideration, Tirzah weaved her mind elsewhere and with it, her outrageous talk. “How long have you been here then? Was there a particular reason you found yourself joining the Guard, and its Trainees?”