Blue Cascades (attn Estel) (REPOST)

[Elyith_Sedai]

Ely stormed recklessly around the corner and into the hallway that housed the Novice Quarters. In one hand she held a sheaf of paper, which bore unmistakable marks of having been in her hand at the exact moment she reflexively balled it into an angry fist. In fact, Ely’s hands were still balled fists, squeezed until the knuckles turned white and red to match her face; flushed with fury and embarrassment.

 

The Quarters themselves were blessedly still empty. Of course, that was quite unusual in normal circumstances. So, without Accepted to punish her, or other Novices to tell tales, Ely felt quite safe to rip away the smoke from the air before her with a weave of air Estel had taught her. Estel. I’ll kill that woman! She thought recklessly, growling out loud and tightening her fists. She released the weave and attempted to labor on through the heavy smoke. However, within a few metres, this proved impossible, to Ely’s disgust, and she took up the weave the cursed woman had taught her once more.

 

Never, in her entire time at the White Tower had Ely ever felt so mortified! It had been so stupid to go back to her room for her precious homework-papers. If she hadn’t, then she would never have been spotted by Estel, rushing around wildly; panicking; past the point of tears.

 

From the moment Ely had arrived at the Tower, and probably long before, Estel had been the Queen of Pranks. Ely had even admired her for it. But this, this was not a prank Ely could cope with.

 

~*~*~

 

Ely rushed back down the corridor, chest heaving from both her pace and the dense smoke in the air. As she labored for breath, Ely wished she hadn’t gone back for her just-completed homework. Sure, Aes Sedai teachers wouldn’t forgive Novices for not having done homework though a fire raged through their Quarters, yet now that Ely had her homework, she wasn’t sure she would live to reach tomorrow’s classes to hand it in. The smoke was so thick and breathing so difficult, that the tightness in Ely’s chest was spreading. She began to panic. Tears rolled down her cheeks, mixing with the smoke to streak her soft skin. With the tears came the sobbing, and the sobbing made breathing even more challenging. She turned a corner to find the smoke was more than before. With a sharp intake of breath, Ely turned back the way she came and turned down another route. This one also had more smoke than her original path. Frantically running now, panicking more than she had ever done before, Ely tripped over her own feet. She raised herself from the ground slowly to peals of familiar laughter.

~*~*~

 

Ely felt ready to hit something… or someone. She should have noticed that the smoke in the centre of the Novice Quarters was thinner than the smoke in the two corridors she had run down. The warning issued had only indicated one fire, which would have meant that no two places could have an equal amount of smoke, while the spot in the middle had less. And had she ever actually stopped to ask where the fire was, or if anyone had actually seen it? No. No, Ely had to be one stupid ones, who took the entire thing too seriously, even returning to collect her homework before she fled.

 

Unable to bear the image of Estel’s hysteria at Ely’s state floating across her mind’s eye, Ely threw her door back so hard she was sure the handle would have put a hole in the wall. The Guild for the Prevention of Cruelty to Novices would want to make repayment for this prank. Ely knew she should support them, but this time, she felt a deep desire to dish out the payment personally…

[Elyith_Sedai]

Estel:

The door slammed behind the sobbing Accepted as she re-entered her room. Throwing herself on her bed for the last time, her sobs gradually weakened.

 

She had just returned from Nynaeve. Whatever had possessed her to admit to what she had done? Stupid idea. Now her bottom burned with pain from the Mistress of Novices' strap and her eyes were red and puffy from crying.

 

So much was happening, so fast. She felt helpless as she was swept along like a leaf in the wind. Orion's blinding, her raising, her feelings for Matthias. How much else could go wrong? What could she do? Would she ever have any control over her life again.

 

She was supposed to spend this night in prayer and contemplation but her emotional horseride was exhausting her. Even as she sniffled andthought about what had happened in the Rings, she drifted off into sleep...