intro to saidar (open for female intiates)

[Liitha]

Liadin looked impatient on the group of students, this was not her favourite task, yet all dreadlords did their time repaying the learning they had rescived.  Ergo, when she was asked to work with the newest batch of trainees, Liadin reluctantly accepted.  Her superior had handed her the schedule and now she stood here in the classroom located rigth beside the libary, she was sure she could smell the books.

 

Everything about Liadin seemed to sing of rank, from her garb to the way she stood to the way she looked at people.  Right now, that look was trained upon a small group of young women, looking about in curiosity or anxiety.  So this was her class this run around, it would do as it had too.

 

Catching the girls' eye, Liadin waved them take a seat in a circle around her, waiting for her to finish whatever examinations she was making before saying, "Welcome to the Fortress.  My name is Liadin, and I'll be handling your training for awhile.  Before we get down to business, I want make something perfectly clear to all of you."  Liadin met each child's eyes, blue eyes seeming to bore into the very depths of their minds (or at least that's what she felt it was doing).  "Whatever life you led before now, whatever station you had in the world, whatever you were before stepping into this Fortress means absolutely nothing now.  Today, you start over, and if you survive- and I really do mean 'if'- you will be Dreadladies, sworn to serve the Great Lord."

 

Liadin gave the girls a moment to let her words sink in.  Some did not like the idea, and they often ended up irritating the older Acolytes, or even the Adepts.  They often didn't last a week.  Not even bothering to make sure that they new students understood, Liadin continued,  "Since we already know that you can channel, we can skip that part of the training and move right onto the actual work."  She setled down cross-legged in the circle, "I want you to close your eyes.  Now, leaving your eyes closed, I want you to picture a rosebud in your mind.  Nothing else, just the rosebud.  Imagine every detail, everything about it, picture it as if you were looking at it right here, right now."  Liadin gave the girls a little bit to allow the image to fully coalesce in their minds.  "Good, now I want you to imagine sunlight shining upon the rose, warming it, giving life, inviting it to open up.  As this happens, allow the rosebud to open at its own pace.  Do not try to rush it, just let it happen.  Don't worry if you do not succeed the first time, the second time, the fifth time, or even the tenth time.  This will become easier with time."

 

 

[Jehaine]

Despite having been tested as being able to channel -- whatever that was -- Rebecca had no clue of what was going to happen next. Looking around at the other students, she figured the easiest approach was to simply copy the general facial expressions of curiousity around her.

 

When Liadin signaled for it, she joined the others in the circle. The woman seemed to have a rank amongst the people in the Fortress, and she made a mental note to stay on her good side, at least until she could get a grasp on how 'the system' worked here. As Liadin looked her in the eyes, she pretended to gulp, eyes widening slightly before looking away until the Dreadlady's eyes had passed to the next initiate.

 

Though a bit reluctant to close her eyes and leave herself open to being attacked, she nevertheless did after the first students had. As ordered, she pictured a pure white rose, almost appearing to glow in contrast to the darkness that surrounded it. She wasn't quite sure about the sunlight part, and peeked through one eye at a nearby window for inspiration. Copying the sunlight shining through it, she imagined the rosebud again, and started to try to make it bloom.

 

Flowers had never been her area of specialty though, yet this was obviopusly a test of some kind, and she'd be damned if she was going to fail something this early. Picturing her rosebud as being fully blossomed, she was unsure on what to do, and simply started over again with just the rosebud, the sunlight shining in shortly afterwards.

 

If something were to start happening, she'd get it right sooner or later.

[Jelly]

Eimee sat down, avoiding Liadin's eyes. She didn't like this, not one bit. The thought of Channeling again, after what happened the first time.. she quickly banished the memory and focused on the task at hand.

A rose... Well, at least she liked flowers. That was one good thing in all of this. Eimee instantly closed her eyes and imagined a pretty blue rose, idly wondering what it had to do with Channeling. Sunlight soon shone down on it, and she watched in her mind, though not really believing the rosebud would open.

 

 

 

 

OOC: Sorry it's not very long, but I'm being nagged at to get off the computer  :D

[Liitha]

Liadin looked out the window, time was passing, a couple of students had got it once, she had silently made the round and told them to keep trying, others was still strugeling. She drew her breath and turned, "how many in here has been tested? come over here, the rest of you stop strugeling to much, you can not grasp saidar...be the rosebud, let the sun embrace you, warm you, open up to it, let it in" she looked at them.

 

"You all are here because you have or will channel, or you can learn it, the former chategory may have problems if they have, they will have been sick in conection to this. Now the later will not, however doing this excersise will help them to achive channeling, in fact in the test you did take you channeled for the first time, thats what was tested for, so keep trying because you need to learn to channel on will now and will achive this with focus."

 

She walked over to the corner to see who she got there, "I want your histories, if you have never had odd things happen followed by sickness you may go back into the circle, however if you have had anything weird happen and then been sick after..." she let the word hang a litle to let them think. "If this has happened I want the details around it, there is something we call a block, this is often conected to some strong emotion, fear, anger, happyness or so on, and achiving this emotional state will make you channel. That however is not enough as it is a block in that you are not able to channel out of this emotional state, this hindrance need to be worked past, to do that we need to know what the block is conected too though." She cast a look over to the circle, she needed to keep an eye on them, if someone managed to conect without loosing it again she would need to shield them less they drew in to much and burned themself out.

[Jehaine]

Light, this is starting to get on my nerves.

 

Rebecca took a couple of deep breaths, calming herself down somewhat after trying to ride the sunlight like a buckling mare. after being satisfied she had mastered her emotions again to be able to decide which ones to show, she raised her hand in response to Liadin's question.

 

- "I've been tested recently, and i haven't been sick over the past couple of years."

 

Lowering her hand again, she remained seated in the circle, closing her eyes again to take a somewhat more passive approach. She formed the pure white rosebud again, and this time she simply decided to wait and see what would happen, just like what she did when M'bela tested her with that shimmering gem.

[Jelly]

Eimee glanced up, and upon hearing the instructions, walked over to the corner with a few others. She fiddled with the hem of her sleeve nervously while watching Liadin come over after a moment. She listened carefully, hoping to learn something, though didn't like the sound of a block at all. Eimee responded hesitantly. "I believe I Channeled a while ago, in defense of my father. I don't really know what happened. They were going to kill him, and I was so scared..it happened anyway, but I did try; if unintentionally... It was a killing blow with air." cutting herself off abruptly, she glanced at the others. She only hoped they didn't regard her as a killer now.

[Liitha]

Liadin looked at the girl who had spoken, "I guess you where feeling frigth then, and being afraid migth be the type of extreme feeling if you are afraid enough that will render you to channel" as she spoke her voice grew deeper, more gutural as she used a weave to alter her voice. Then she let a weave of altering her look setle slowly over her, so she grew taller, and then twisted towards a trolloc howering over the girl, at one point or the other in the transgression she was counting on the girl to be frigthened enough to channel. She had several shields ready, aware her act may well trigger more girls into doing the same and she had no intention of leting the room grow into turmoilt.

 

Liadan was asured in her skill it should be safe, she wouldnt need to hold the shields, she could throw of the illusion and the danger would be over, none of the girls was skilled enough to try and figth a shield activly, the cut from the source should shock them into loose any grasp they had on saidar, so for all the effect she could get she was sure she was safe, besides there wasnt that many girls with the spark in the room.

 

 

[Jelly]

Eimee stepped back with wide eyes as some sort of monster suddenly replaced Liadin. How could that be? she wondered fearfully. She couldn't fathom what it was; it's mix of human and animal features was unrecognisable..but she knew it would likely kill without a second thought.

In a split second, unaware if what she was doing, Eimee took hold of the Source and Wove Air in an attempt to push the thing away.

[Jehaine]

Rebecca was still sitting indian style, focusing on controlling her breathing trying to touch this Saidar thing, when several screams started to affect her concentration. With an annoyes sigh, she opened her eyes to see what was causing the disturbance and saw... Well, she didn't quite know how to describe it. It pretty much radiated malice though, which led to her springing into action, banning all thoughts of the Source from her mind as she focused on the now. She didn't know what this thing was, or where it had come from, but she knew what it needed to be. Dead.

 

Fear had been one of the first things her father had managed to beat out of her and her sister. Fear led to panic, panic led to capture, and capture led to death. Her father, as an assassin, lived by those rules, and with her and her sister helping him those rules applied to them as well. She saw a threat to her, and reacted by assessing the situation. The creature was large, far larger than she was, which implied it would also be quite a bit stronger, which in turn meant she had the advantage of speed over its bulky muscles.

 

Rolling back, she drew the two daggers she had kept on her person at all times as she ended up in a low stance, and charged at the Trolloc. The pommels of her daggers were pressed against her palms, and the blades themselves stuck out a few inches past her fingertips. Making a couple of sidestepping motions to find an opening by catching it off guard, she lunged at the beast, intending to shove one of her daggers into its abdomen while it was still distracted by the girl in front of it.

 

After that, she'd jump back out of the reach of its arms to adopt a more evasive tactic, leaving her dagger stuck in the thing to retrieve after it would be dead, letting it bleed out a bit before safely making the killing blow.

[Liitha]

Liadin droped the illusion and let go the shield blocking the girl successfully from the source, they had solved one, the two others had not reacted and stood fearfully withdrawn in the corner. A sound behind her made her turn to see the charging of a foolish girl, air spun out and stoped her a feet away, Liadin looked at her coldly. "I belive the task was to reach the source, this is the fortress, you..." she put a finger to the girls chest, "are to be a dreadlady, if you at least had used the power as a weapon i could have forgiven it, but to stomp around like an untrained soldier, I'd like to hear the reason you are not focusing on the task at hand as it can not be that you are unable to." She turned and looked at the other girl, leting go of the shield. "Rigth you got a block you can overcome with fear for now, thats not good enough you need to be able to channel at will, I think we will need to find an adept to escort you down to the darkhound gallery between now and the class next week, if I am gonna see to keeping you scared out of your wits day and night to make you control your channeling ability, then so be it"

 

She turned "As for you, you need to let go of whatever fancies thats distracting you, you passed the test to be here, you can channel if you but focus" She reached into her pocket and grabed a stone on a chain, "Mayhaps this will help you, try focusing into it, mayhaps something closer to the test setting will allow you to gain control" She waited for a result as she slowly swung it back and forth.

[Jehaine]

Rebecca let out a surprised yelp when she hit... something. And that something apparently held her in thin air. The Trolloc she had charged at had apparently turned back into Liadin, though she wasn't sure whether or not that was a good thing in her current situation.

 

"I'd like to hear the reason you are not focusing on the task at hand as it can not be that you are unable to."

 

Rebecca used the time Liadin spent talking to Eimee to catch her breath, and try to see just how much she could move in her unseen bonds, wincing as they gave her preciously little space to move. Taking a deep breath (or as much as she was able to) she waited for Liadin to turn to her again before giving her reply.

 

- "I have never channeled before in my life. Prior to coming here, i didn't even know i could. I saw a threat, and reacted using something i was at least somewhat familiar with."

 

That was the truth, as simply as she could have put it. Not knowing the first thing about channeling itself, she knew she would not be able to depend on it yet, unlike her daggers. It was all good and well they wanted her to become a dreadlady -- whatever that was -- but she definitely wasn't one yet.

[Liitha]

"Nonsense the only way you would be here without the spark is if it was prove you had channeled, most often as said its tested by the use of stones, much like this so maybe it can help you focus" She had a sligthly milder tone now that the point was driven home, "What more is you have to trust your instructurs, your not here to learn a weapon, but to be honed into one yourself, and as already proven, against an alert channeler your steal weapons do you little good." She raised the stone again, and pendeled it back and forth, "Now focus girl, stop thinkging on things of no essence and focus as said on the task at hand, its the most important thing you can do now, as it will be for the years to come if you are to survive your training"

[Jehaine]

As the air around her appeared to thin again, Rebecca took the opportunity to take a deep breath. Sheathing her daggers again, she sat back down, looking at the stone again, trying to focus on it like she had for M'Bela.

 

- "I've been tested when i arrived here, but that doesn't change what i know, and what i know of channeling is very little. Too little to rely on, in any case."

 

Still, not wanting to appear defying, she sat down indian style again, and focused on the stone Liadin was holding. It confused her slightly how much the training appeared to revolve around being able to channel. Sure, what she had seen Tigara do was all great and powerful, but she sincerely doubted she was up to his level of experience, and she doubted making a small stone glow would be of any real use in combat.

 

All this talk about channeling felt like... giving an illiterate man a book and expect him to know what's written in it. She had never before in her life relied on the One Power, had never even considered being able to use it. Assassins tried to avoid 'ifs' and 'maybes' as much as they could, it was what kept them alive after all.

 

She looked at the stone, focusing on it until she felt she was one with it, getting used to the rhythym of subtle pulses of light until she was almost one with them. Shutting out the voice telling her to pay more attention to her surroundings, she tried to be the stone... Until it weakly pulsed twice more before going out.

 

Blinking, Rebecca came back to the now. A quick glance over her shoulder told her the other students that had been outside the circle had not moved, and she looked up at Liadin's face, trying to detect a hint of emotion that would speak of her success... or failure.

[Liitha]

Liadin smiled, then placed the stone firmly in the girls hand "take that and practise untill you can do it on will, though make sure to be rested when you do, whatever you do when you feel that warm feeling, do not..and then i really mean it ..do not draw on it, the sun can caress a flower and make it bloom, but to much sun will dry it out, set it afire and kill it, the same is with saidar, the sweet nectar is leathal if you drink it, so whenever you feel temted to draw on it, push it away." She looked around on the class "something you all are expected to know by the next lesson, those of you who dont take this seriously wont be here next time but would rather have found an early grave."

 

She let silence hang in the air a moment "those who do will learn how to draw on it safely and learn of it different sides and how to draw on those, so that you eventualy can start learning in the tird lesson how to use it to ease your daily life for the time you will spend here learning to become a weapon yourself through the use of saidar."

 

"Any questions?"

[Jehaine]

Rebecca nodded, taking the small blue stone from Liadin as she offered it. She still didn't quite get what flowers had to do with strange portals in the air and making things explode. Or keeping herself bound in midair, for that matter.

 

The stone, she realised, would indeed make it simpler for her to focus. She had already seen what it was capable of doing, and would have at least some idea of what she would be able to do with it. Though she doubted making a stone glow would be enough to be considered a weapon by anyone's standards, fact remained that she would be able to do something with it, and from there on would be able to move on to... bigger things.

 

At Liadin's question, she said nothing. While she had thought of more than a few questions she would like to ask, chances were they were going to be covered in the next lesson, and she didn't want to risk killing what remained of her credit after just having attempted to stab her teacher.

 

As she slipped the stone into one of her pockets, she told herself this whole saidar deal had better be worth it in the end.

[Liitha]

ooc moving on to lesson 2 out of 3, jelly if you want to rp out the week inbetween or something then post on the fortress and we'll see about using either liadan, another nsw, or a npc adept to help you out, or i can potentialy use my PC if no one else of full rank want to use their pc to help you..but yeah if you want to do it for char development let me know and one way or another we'll figure something out ;)

 

A week was up and she was awaiting hers student patiently, by reports there had been no deaths this week, there where no place for fools or the weekhearted in the ranks of the dreadlords as such the week passed had been their first test to the acolyte. A test of willpower, and a mind who was clever enough to listen to reason and controll itself.

 

Leaning against the wall she started explaining of the one power, "First of, the one power consist of 2 halves, saidar the female half, and saidin the male half, you can not see webs and treads of the other half, however as females you should be aware that males can feel a female channeling. Also when trained you will be able to pick out another channeler of your own gender in a crowd, or someone who has been born with the spark, however through inverted weaves you can hide yourself, this is something you can learn once you become an adept." She took a moment pause to be sure all was caugth up. "Now further there is 5 elements, these will be illustrated to you later in the lesson, you will need to master these to be able to channel weaves, I understand that some of you may feel progress is slow." she smiled, "But these basic things you learn in this class is very important to know before you move on to more advanced classes, and I promise you that the preasure then will make you remember these first few weeks fondly. The thing is that channeling while a fantastic thing, where incredible things can be achived, can also be very dangerous if the basic nature of it do not come as naturaly to you as breathing, that is why these 3 first lessons takes time, by the end it need to be second nature for you. Loosing controll is not an option later on, once you learned more and understand more of the power, making a mistace will also have bigger ramifications, likelyhood is that quite a few of you will suffer minor damages from burns to headaches during your training." She looked around to make sure all had got the message "However if you use your wits, listen to what we say, and show patience and controll, then you will come out of this alive. While the basic may not seem much, even the simplest web of unknown patern may be leathal not only for the weaver but everyone in miles around where the web was trigered, so whatever you do, do not play with the power uninstructed while being intiates and not having a full understanding of the power, leave experimenting to those who have experience and the ability to estimate the risk, as well as the sence to do it somewhere safely remote and deserted."  After an hour and a half with theory she moved on to the practical part of the lesson. "Now as i said there is 5 elements, fire.." she channeled red, green, yellow, blue and white strands as he spoke to illustrate. "..earth, wind, water and spirit, each have a faint color but more then anything you should be able to feel almost taste who is who." She waited for a nod.

 

"Okey now grasp saidar, it by now should give you no problems, then i want you to try and copy me." Slower this time she pulled on saidar and ever so slow separated the treads one at the time and leting go of one tread before taking another. As well giving time between each to allow his student to copy what she did. When she was sure each student got it down she grasped two treads and spun them around eachother into a spiral, then let go and did two others. "This is what i want you to use as practise untill next week, make spirals, make them in difrent combinations, and as you get better practise making more at once. Geting comfortable with drawing on the difrent elements, as well this would learn you which elements you find yourself stronger and weaker in." She smiled.

 

"Any questions?"

 

[Jehaine]

Rebecca remained silent during the entire explanation, the small stone she had taken to using as a focus still in her pocket. So far, saidar had been gaining points in her favor by enhancing her already well developed alertness, though a small voice in her mind kept telling her that nothing came for free. If saidar had such massive advantages, the hook that would undoubtedly be attached to it would be proportionally large as well.

 

Five strands appeared in the air, and Rebecca imagined the white rose forming in her mind, opening her up to saidar. 'Surrendering' still felt a bit too close to 'giving up' for comfort, but it had been a small victory that she no longer needed to close her eyes to begin touching the Source. No longer needing to ignore her surroundings when starting to channel had been another positive point for it.

 

She copied Liadin's moves as accurately as she could, taking care not to make her threads slip from her grip. She listened to the assignment, realising that 'weaving' might be a more accurate description than she had at firt imagined. Still, this would be taking her another step closer to channeling, and even though she intended only to use it to supplement her skill with blade and bolt, it would still help in finding the limits of her capabilities.

 

She raised her hand.

 

- "What happens if one of us stumbles on an unstable weave by accident?"

 

Lowering her hand again, Rebecca waited for the woman to answer her. Given her warning to not start experimenting, and her assignment to practise moving and combining threads on their own, the dark haired Cairhienin believed there would be a chance -- although slim -- that a certain combination could get out of hand before someone would be able to intervene.

 

 

Rebecca

Thinking someone is going to explode this week.

[Liitha]

Liadan smiled, "If you all keep to instructions that will not happen will it now? The spirals is perfectly harmless as training objects. And well we do not nurse you, its likely as said you may suffer some minor damages through training before you learn your lesson to actualy fully listen to your instructors, most of you anyway." She took a good look around the classroom. "But I sugest looking around you on the faces, and remember them, remember the names of eachother, because the likelyhood is not all will survive the training due to foolishness. So use that memory to aid you once you hear of a death, then think back on their face and them being in your class as a wake up call to not being negligent. Dont experiment with weaves, dont channel when tired unless with an instructor, do not draw on the sweet nectar of saidar untill your bursting. Follow those simple rules, even when they do not seem simple, and you should be safe."

 

She turned and looked at a strawdoll, making a small fireball, and fired it into the doll. "Afterall for all the restraint and hardship of doing as told, once your trained as a weapon then the handfull of years spent learning it.." she turned back, "..will seem nothing compared to the abilities you gained, and the centuries you can use to practise them if you play your game rigth." She tilted her head sligthly and looked bemused, this was a point not often pressed to inform new initates on, and that most upon hearing for the first time was surprised about. "You see your abilities will give you chanse to live long enough that those few pesky years in training will seem a drop in the ocean."

[Jehaine]

Rebecca nodded to confirm she understood the answer. Given that the spirals were considered harmless, she could afford to test where the limits of her ability lay without having to worry about the more serious of consequences. Bruises and headaches she could easily handle.

 

To prove her point, Liadin created a small fireball and tossed it at a straw doll. From what the black haired girl had managed to catch, the weave was exponentially harder than the spirals they were supposed to be making, but she thought she managed to catch the basics of it fairly well.

 

She made a mental note to test it herself after getting a decent mastery of the spirals, though for safety's sake she'd be doing that on the practise range outside. It sounded like a better alternative than setting her room on fire trying, anyway.

 

 

 

Rebecca

Not contemplating arson.

[Liitha]

ooc the *restrains her wording* tread did not notify me of a new replay...i am so sorry, jelly just double post when your back, i'll be posting the last lesson so that Jehaine can get her req done, be aware to check the weaves list, remember at acolyte level you only got a tird of your asigned scores ;)

 

Liadan aranged the object she had brough in piles for each student while she waited for them to attend the last lesson, as the week was up. When they all was present she tested what they was able to do first, looking at the spirals and nodded in aproval. "Very well lets continue by learning you to do something constructive, a simple weave of each element." She grasped saidar and drew on fire first, up of her own pile she took the candle, she put the tick blocky candle on the floor infront of her and used fire to light it, then put it out with a puff of air. As she finished she told her students to try the weaves, explaining it migth take a couple tries to get the webs just rigth as she had done it. Then setled back to study, only instructing with help was needed, and the class went on. Using earth and water both, she made a mudpile in a big flowerpot that she fished out of her pile. She went the round helping the students to adjust the web's before continuing the lesson. Lastly she had her student pic the flower from the pot, and showed them how to weave keeping around it, where she used mostly spirit but also a tad of each of the other elements, such learning the her studnets to use them all togheter.

 

"You now learned some very basic weaves, but still usefull ones at times, even small weaves can come in handy at times and should not be forgoten. Ligthing a candle like that put that to some paper or wood and you can have a base to make a fire, as well put it out with air after if need be either if small by blowing it out, or later on you may learn how to quelch it with water. A muddy ground is slipery and if expanded can be a good way to slow down pursuers, and keeping can be used on food as well to keep it from roting. All these things usefull at moments that you in time wont come to think of using them, less for if you lost the ability find how much you come to rely on them, which is another lesson to not forget how to rely on yourself without saidin. So please keep your flower as a reminder. And now that you know the basics you can go on to choose other channeling lessons where you will learn more complex weaves, start by choosing those where you will need the elements your strongest in, because you have not yet fully developed your strength, and as such some weaves you may have to wait on learning, while some you may learn but never be capable yourself of performing"

 

With some final words she indicated that the lesson was over unless anyone had any questions.

 

 

[Jehaine]

Rebecca looked intently as the basic weaves were shown, trying to absorb every detail of it. Sitting down, she placed the candle in front of her, touching saidar and forming the spiraling threads she had been practising that week. From the five, she allowed all of them save for the one representing Fire to drift off and fade away, wrapping itself around the candlewick and growing stronger as she guided more of saidar into it. The candle started to smoke, and softly catch fire.

 

Satisfied with the results, she formed the spirals again, this time leaving nothing but Air. The thread moved, wrapping itself around the candlewick again, cutting the flow of oxygen the flame needed to keep burning. While it wasn't quite the puff of air Liadan had intended, it suited its purpose in dousing the flame, and given that her teacher didn't find it necessary to correct her as she did others it was all good in her opinion.

 

Next came a flowerpot. She stood up to get one of them from the pile in a corner of the room, placing it on the ground in front of her as she prepared the weave. Earth and Water wove together, merging in a way before disappearing into the dry earth in the flowerpot. This time, Liadin did give her a few pointers, mostly about how she should spread the weave over the flowerpot rather than focusing on a single point, but ultimately the flower was sinking away in the muddy earth.

 

Judging by the looks on her fellow students' faces, the Keeping weave was the toughest one, using all five elements. Gently taking the flower from the pot, she placed it on the table in front of her as the five elements combined. Since she was strongest in Spirit, she chose it as a base, before having the other elements flow around it, forming a small net that was to cover the flower on all sides. This was the most time consuming, as even a small part missed meant a weak point that could make the flower welt.

 

Intent to have her flower not wilt within days to show her failure, she actually wove Keeping around it twice. As she stood up however, her knees wobbled and she almost fell on the floor, out of stamina from the amount of concentration that had been required from the detailed weave she had made twice at the end of class. Still, a perfectly healthy-looking flower lay on the desk in front of her, and she took an empty flowerpot from a less fortunate student to take to her room with her, already thinking on where to place her first trophy.