Playing with puddles: Remedial Water (ATTN Jagen)

[Tigara]

Jasmyne sat by the pond in one of the Tower gardens waiting for her teacher to arrive. Appearantly some of the sisters were worried that she may have some sort of partial block when weaving water. She was sure she was just weak, but the Aes Sedai ALWAYS know best and when the Aes Sedai say jump, you ask how high. Yada yada yada. Not that those thoughts would ever be spoken. She felt at her short hair and recalled what happened last time. Remember Jasmyne, indifferent submission.

 

She didn't even know who was teaching her. All she knew was that she was fairly young. No idea what Ajah she's in. Great Lord, let it not be a White! She can't stand to be anywhere near Whites! Steps…someone was coming! That must be here teacher. She saw the Red shawl around her shoulders and sighed in relief. She stood and curtseyed as the Red got closer. "Good afternoon, Aes Sedai."

 

[Jagen Sedai]

Jagen carefully arranged her shawl around her shoulders. The red fringe, five inches long, was almost buried in the red of her Taraboner dress. Embracing the Source, Jagen weaved a bit of water and air in a useless weave and let it dissipate. A simple weave for her, but who knows if the girl she was teaching could handle it. She had several useless weaves that wouldn't do much of anything but if Jasmyne could make the weaves she would be ready to go for others more complex. Jagen's teaching style was pretty much to push a novice or Accepted as hard as possible, and that's exactly what she intended to do with this one.

 

As she approached the gardens she puased to eave a flow of earth, one of her weakest powers, to help a dying flower. Jagen may have seemed like a tough woman but she could be kind, too, and she did not put simple things like flowers beneath her notice. Really, for years she debated going into the Yellow Ajah, or the White--most people thought she would go White, with her personality--but in the end she chose what had always been deep in her heart, the Red.

 

She looked over to the waiting girl as she approached, taking in her appearance as she gave her curtsy. "Jasmyne, yes?" she asked. Beaded red braids clicking as she turned her head, she gestured toward the garden's pond. "Think you can work with this for starts? As long as you can weave at least one thread of water, I'll make it so you can weave more before you know it."

She let a grin go across her doll-like face, blue eyes shining. Taking a seat on the bench she arranged her skirt carefully. "Now before I demonstrate or direct anything, I want you to show me what you can do."

[Tigara]

She nodded at the young Red and embraced the Source. She hadn't even given her name! Somewhat rude, but it didn't matter all too much. She began to recall all she cold do with water, which wasn't a lot. Any weave she knew that used water, she began to do while naming them in a monotonous tone. "Create water..." as a small trickle came out of nowhere. "Dry..." she wove that onto where the trickle landed and it started to make an area of dry stone. "Freeze..." this one she directed at the pond and it started to freeze over. A very thin coating, but it was there. "Heal fatigue..." this one she aimed in no particular direction and let it dissipate. She didn't dare channel at the Aes Sedai without her saying to. "Healing..." She wove in the smallest amounts possible and let it dissipate as well. "Keeping..." she wove that onto a nearby rosebush. It was tended by Aes Sedai already, but she might as well keep it healthy. "And winds..." she wove and a strong breeze came past her. To her disappointment, her hair did not flow in the breeze. She loved that feeling. It would be a while before she could feel that again. "That's all I can do successfully, Aes Sedai."

[Jagen Sedai]

Jagen observed each weave carefully. Once the girl finished she stood and walked into the small bridge going over the pond. "Jasmyne, you are better than I heard, at least. And me, I am Jagen Sedai, so call me as such. Silly me, for thinking you already knew who I am." She almost smiled. Jagen actually liked teaching novices and Accepted, the latter more so since they knew more.

 

"I have a few weaves that will help you, just Air and Water ones. They're useless, just weave them in front of you and they'll disappear." Jagen let the Power fill her, easily surrendering to saidar after so long. She had come to understand over the years the position of the One Power over her until it was in her grasp.

 

She weaved two finger-thick Water threads around an Air thread. It was fairly simple. "Show me you can do that, and then do it again, but this time add two more Water, like this." She let two more Water threads weave around the other and then let it fall apart. "Try until you get it. This will actually help you with freezing the pond, so when you get this, see how well you can freeze the pond after. I want you to keep trying until you can freeze half of it."

[Tigara]

Better than she had heard? What were the rumors saying? If Deanne was spreading awful things about her, Jas was going to shave her head, submissive or not! At least she had the sense to give her name now. Jagen. A nice name for a Taraboner. She starred in awe at the thickness of the Water threads Jagen was weaving! She couldn't make them that big! But, when Aes Sedai say jump....

 

She took the thread of air, which was very easy for her, and then tried to weave the Water threads. She wove them the way they were supposed to be, but they were more like yard sized. She frowned at her work as it dissipated. No, don't make eye contact with the teacher. Try again. She wove two more water threads which were...very fractionally bigger. This time she grimaced. She knew she couldn't make them that big. She didn't even know why she was trying. Let's try once more. Air thread like so then the two water threads, She was amazed! They were pinky sized! Her moment of triumph was disturbed by a dizzy feeling and a sudden splitting headache. "Ohhhhh, my head..." she moaned as she staggered a bit and supported her temples with her palms.

 

 

[Jagen Sedai]

Jagen let out a very soft sigh as Jasmyne reached up to rub her temples. If she was already getting sick and dizzy, however could the girl learn anything? But I cannot give up, of course. Neither can she.

 

"Alright Jasmyne, come here a moment. Sit by me on the bench." She moved aside and adjusted her shawl, looking to the pond. Hopefully they could work with that." Now I want you to try your 'freeze' weave again, but this time when you try, I want you to do thicker threads like what you just achieved. And if you're about to sick up, child, just turn around and do what you have to. Maybe when your stomach is empty we can really get working at this."

 

Inside she wore a smile, but outside she kept her face very straight. It didn't give her particular delight to 'torture' Accepted as such, but she enjoyed seeing their looks of 'please don't make me continue'. Of course, her method of teaching was not for amusement. She just wanted each girl to do the best she could and take a jump. They needed to if they wanted to become stronger. And really, the possibility of a girl burning herself out never crossed her mind. She wouldn't push them that hard.

[Tigara]

Jasmyne was sure her jaw dropped. The woman wanted her to sick up? She had never heard of any Aes Sedai teaching like that! Wasn't she worried about Jas burning herself out? Or losing control of the weave? Women grew in power gradually, not forcefully! But...she was the Aes Sedai. Can't have Larindhra thinking that her submissive attitude was all a scheme.

 

She took a deep breath and embraced the Source. She took the largest flows of water she could muster and wove the freezing weave. The water flows were just as big as she had before - pinky sized. She was so surprised that she actually lost the Source. The weave dissipated and she blinked a few time. She gave her teacher an unsure look and embraced the Source again. She wove again and once again, the flows were pinky thick! Her face was lit up by one of her few genuine smiles. We wove it into the pond and it started to freeze over at a considerably higher rate than before. She nearly jumped up and down with excitement. It was like learning to channel for the first time! She pointed excitedly as the pond was quickly being coated in a two inch thick crust of crystalline water. "Look! Look! Look, Jagen Sedai! I'm doing it!"

[Jagen Sedai]

Jagen actually raised her eyebrows at Jasmyne over her excitement. She was very tempted to ask her how old she was. "Jasmyne, you're acting like a new novice doing that. Control yourself. Aes Sedai don't nearly hop up and down and you shouldn't either."

 

She was happy for her to be sure, but she didn't need the Accepted to know that either. Jasmyne was happy for herself and that's what counted. "Alright, now let's try something else. We're going to make some rain. But I don't mean a light rain. I want you to try to conjure up a storm. Come with me, we're going to the top of one of the smaller towers for this on a balcony. hmm.. let's go to the Accepted Quarters for this to the top balcony, that is where I used to practice my weather weaves."

 

Jagen lead her from the garden here to the Accepted's Quarters, which was their own building. It had its own garden too, but not the one they were at. Jagen lead Jasmyne through the halls and up the winding stairs, to the topmost of the Accepted Quarters. She would have brought her to the top of the main Tower, but not only was it too far a walk for a simple lesson, but Jagen did not care for heights. When they reached the balcony, she didn't stray near to the edge. "Alright Jasmyne, let's see what you can do."

 

[Tigara]

Jasmyne was startled at her reprimand, and even more startled at why she had been reprimanded. She was aghast that she had nearly bounded up and down like some simple-minded chit - like Deanne! She quickly regained her composure and calmed herself. Yes, it was exciting, but she must not lose all all sense because of it. She resorted to novice exercises to calm herself. She was the rosebud...

 

She was sort of confident as Jagen suggested that she make a heavy downpour. She might be able to do that. She was certainly strong enough in Air and Fire, but she didn't know if she could get enough Water into it. She suppressed butterflies in her stomach as the followed the young Red through her native Accepted quarters. She had never been to this balcony much. She really had little need to since she was so hopeless with weather. She did earth. Earthquakes usually involved being on the ground, not hundreds of feet in the air.

 

She stepped out into the balcony and admired the brilliant sunlight. It seemed to be a shame to ruin such a nice day with a violent downpour. She took a few deep breaths, embraced the Source, and wove. Lots of air, a decent amount of fire, faint traces of spirit and earth, and then water. To her disappointment, she could only make two flows as thick as before. All the rest were her usual yarn-sized flows that did little. The cute little white cloud in the distance grew bigger and was suddenly a dark gray, nearly black. It began to drift closer and it started to shower. Enough to make things wet, but it wasn't a downpour. She grew determined. More flows of water were added into the weave, but the did little. She added more fire and it also helped in a minuscule fashion. She tried to force her water flows to be thicker and they started to grow. And they did! She pushed harder and started to feel nauseous. More and more, they grew, and more and more did her lunch want to escape her stomach. And it got it's way. She hunched over and emptied her guts onto the balcony, but got right back up and kept working on the weave. She increased the thickness of the flows of fire and natures fireworks began to flash every few seconds. Jagen Sedai had said she wanted a storm. She was going to give her one, even if it nearly killed her.

 

She looked over her shoulder at her teacher. "Is that big enough?"

[Jagen Sedai]

Jagen held up her hand as she wove threads together, thicker than the Accepted's before her, and got rid of the storm more quickly than it had come. "Yes, that is big enough. Let us go now into the city. For this next weave, you must be closer to the river." Jagen loved going out into Tar Valon--perhaps she could do some shopping and have Jasmyne hold anything she bought--but they really did need to be closer. Since Jasmyne proved she could handle a storm, maybe she could make some nice waves, too.

 

"I'll give you time to get yourself clean," she offered since Jasmyne had gotten sick, "and then meet you at the doors. Since we're going out, I need to run some errands. After your lesson you'll accompany me." Really, her errands were her need to shop for some new dresses, and maybe a bit of jewelry too, since all she wore now was her Great Serpent ring. As well she wanted to look into buying some new art supplies. Jagen loved painting in her spare time and wanted to get back into it now that she was at the Tower again. Something to keep her mind off of what was going on with the White and Black Towers.

Jagen took her leave and went to her room. She grabbed her purse and re-did the warding weave on her quarters before leaving. At the entrance to the Tower she saw Jasmyne waiting for her.

 

"All right, let's go. We'll do your lesson first. We're going to the banks of the river on the east side. I want you to make some waves. Some real waves. This is why I'm bringing you to such a large body of water, instead of using anything on Tower grounds. So prepare yourself."

[Tigara]

Within seconds of Jagen Sedai holding her hand up, the storm was gone. The storm she had worked so very hard to make and she just waves it away. How rude of her! But they were going into the city! The city was a lovely place to visit. The people there actually wore other colors than white. White was becoming very boring and usual to her than any color would have been a welcome change. By the comment made, she suddenly noticed that she had indeed thrown up all over herself. It was....very disgusting. Praise the Great Lord, she got to change first! She ran down a set of stairs and flew into her rooms. She pulled her vomitous dress over her head and slipped a clean one on. She could clean it later. Had she had longer hair, she would have had to fix it before she left. That was one upside of having shorter hair. That and it was a lot lighter and cooler on her head. The only perks she could think of. But not even together could they outweigh the negative damper on her appearance.

 

She hurried down to the entrance and waited not but a few minutes before Jagen Sedai met her there. They were off to the river...to make waves! This would certainly be an interesting afternoon. The pair took off with Jagen in the lead with the short-haired little Accepted trailing behind. As they went along, she would examine the different stores and stalls. Tar Valon was such a diverse city, so there was nearly every kind of ware you could want. They arrived at the river in descent time and stopped. Jagen Sedai showed her the kind of weave she was to make. It was the simple wave weave, but about five times the size. With very thick water threads! Jasmyne embraced the Source and began.

 

She decided to start small and grow at a constant rate. She wove thr most basic form and the river started to ripple downstream. They started to grow into small half foot waves. She added more. Thicker flows. The waves began to grow larger, up to two feet and small crafts started to appear panicked. As the boats in the river noticed what was happening, they all made clear of the Aes Sedai and her Accepted helper. She added more water. Thicker flows. Her flows were now at their maximum size that she could, about her pinky size. The waves leapt up to a good four feet high. She added more flows, but she could not make her flows bigger, so the waves grew little. She had to make them bigger, but she had already maxed them out! And she had already vomited today, so she didn't think she could make them bigger. but she had to try.

 

She calmed herself to the point that she wasn't aware of anything but saidar. She reached out for it and pulled hard. It fileld her and she directed it all into her weave. The water flows stretched nearly to the size of Jagen's and suddenly a wave of at least fifteen feet burst from the river banks and soon after crashed into the far side. Speaking of crashing, the shock of that much saidar and the force of her weave had knocked her backwards. She pulled herself upward and nearly fell over again from the pain she had in her head. It was like nothing she had felt before! She could tell that saidar was still with her, but she was sure she couldn't channel a lick if she tried. She regained her balance, then quickly bent over and spewed stomach juice on the ground. She made certain none of it got on her dress if she was going to go shopping. She weakly smiled at her teacher who smiled back. "Let's go shopping."

[Jagen Sedai]

"Indeed, yes, let's go." Jagen actually pulled out a kerchief from her dress. "Keep it." She began to walk, expecting the Accepted to follow. She smiled softly. Another student reached and went beyond limits she expected of herself, so she reached her own goal as a teacher. Maybe she did push hard and was tough but it was to the girls' advantage as well.

 

She brought Jasmyne into Tar Valon and made her first stop at a seamstress from Tarabon. Jagen commissioned a couple of new dresses in noble Taraboner cut, a dark red one and a deep royal purple with accents of red and green, along with a couple new face veils she always wore. After that she visited a shop to get a few new slippers.

 

ooc: well g2g sorry, would have been longer but i'm going to be picked up right this minute. to boot camp, whee!

[Tigara]

She accepted the handkerchief gratefully and cleaned her mouth off. Not knowing what to do with it, she stuffed it into her pouch. She could find uses for it later. She followed Jagen to a seanstress she assumed to be from Tarabon. They had such a ridiculous accent, it was hard to follow the conversation at times. She saw the material and it caught her eyes. That shade of red was gorgeous. She made a mental note to visit this seamstress once she was Aes Sedai.

 

Jagen Sedai bought some new slippers and a few other odds and ends for Jasmyne to pack around. She didn't mind it all that much. Largely because it was nice and pretty things she got to admire while carrying. They came back to the Tower when it was just getting dark and she carried the load to Jagen's room and dropped them off. "Thank you very much for the lessons, Jagen Sedai, and for the outing. Good day." She bobbed a quick curtsy and was off.

 

OOC: Thanks Jagen! You rock my socks off! ;D