To Leave the Past Behind: Arrival of Jac (ATTN: MoT)

[demonspawn]

(OOC: I noticed my Bio approval and have started my into. Not sure if this is right)

 

Jac finally reached the City of Tar Valon, after what seemed an endless journey from Baerlon. And an even more arduous trek from Caemlyn.

 

The world certainly looked a lot smaller on a map than it was in real life. His meagre supplies that he had left Caemlyn with barely lasted a week and he had to rely on his, even more meagre, hunting skills to see him through the rest of the journey. In truth, Jac had lost count of the days he travelled after less than a week. One day merged in with the next as the repetition of waking, walking, trying and mostly failing to hunt for his next meal, then finally stopping to make camp for the night. He vowed that if he ever met the Merchants Guard, who suggested walking, he would give him... Well, he would probably give him a wide berth as the man was almost as wide as Jac was tall.

 

But all that was forgotten as Jac made his way to the bridge... Where he was brought up short... "Where do you think you're going?" A man in armour stepped out from the right hand side of the bridge into a circle of light cast by a latern. One hand rested upon the hilt of his sword, and jac was given the distinct impression that he wouldn't hesitate in using it. Jac raised his hands to show he had no ill intentions "Err... I'm going to... Train, um... For Warder?" saying it out loud like that Jac felt rather foolish, even more so when the Guard barked a laugh "Ha! And here's me thinking you were coming to sign the Novice books, you'd suit a white dress. Look a lot better that those filthy bloody rags you're wearing." Jac hadn't really given much thought to his appearance over the last couple of weeks and, he had to admit, had let himself go somewhat. "Well, I've had a bit of a walk to get here. And not the weather for it either, I came from Caemlyn and it's taken longer than I care for, too."

 

The Guard looked at him doubtfully "What... You don't believe me?" the guard paused before replying "I don't doubt that you've had a long journey, that's evident by your appearance, but... Well, if you had come here straight from Caemlyn you should have come in a bit further south. The road you have just walked up leads all the way back to Maradon. And that certainly isn't on the way from Caemlyn." Jac scratched his head as he looked back up the road, puzzled. "Well. Err... I did get a bit lost when I left the road for to hunt, and it did seem strange that Dragonmount was to the right of me." he turned back to the guard, who almost looked as though he was grinning, but under the light of the lantern it was hard to tell. "I just thought the map I saw must have been wrong, it was a bit old." The Guard seemed to consider this for a moment. "Tell you what, you go back into the town you just passed through, Jualdhe, and find an inn for the night and come see me just after first light. I'll take you in to see that you don't go where you shouldn't. Think you can find it without getting lost?" Jac sighed "Yes, it's up that way isn't it?" he said pointing North. "Hah! Just you be here, I'll send word so someone will be expecting you."  Jac turned and headed back to the town just as a patrol approached form over the bridge, and pretty soon he heard a roar of laughter as the guard told the rest about his getting lost presumably.

 

It wasn't long before he came upon a brightly lit Inn and went in. It was pleasant enough, with a welcoming fire and not too many patrons. He was approached by the Innkeeper who demanded payment up front for the room, due to his appearance most likely. And Jac could hardly blame him, he had after all lived and worked in a tavern for most of his life and knew that some people had to be persuaded to part with their coin more forcibly than others. He ate and drank heartily before retiring to his room, which was more than comfortable after his many nights spent with only the Stars for a blanket. The next morning he woke feeling refreshed, and washed as best he could before setting off once more to meet with his escort, who was there as promised. There were two more Guards with him this morning and one said "Here, is this your tracker come to see if he can be a Warder?" at which all three men laughed, leaving Jac red faced more with anger than embarrassment. "That's him, come on I'll take you through." Jac followed as the Tower guard led him through into the City itself. Jac could only stare in wonder at the sights of Tar Valon, which had only been hinted at in the dark the previous night when he had his first glimpse. Several times he had to be coaxed into moving again as he stopped to gawp at the buildings they passed, until finally they approached a yard where there were several young men. Most of these were about the same age as jac if not a bit older. They were practicing sword forms and doing much better than anyone Jac had ever seen in his life... Except that one time... That one time he would rather forget about. "You wait here and I'll let her know you're here. The name's Tel by the way." Jac turned not really having heard what the man had said "What? Oh! Sorry, Jac, my name's Jac and thanks. For the help and all." he shook Tels hand and turned back to watching the training session as he waited, as happy as he had felt in many a year.

 

Several minutes had passed when Jac heard a cough behind him. He turned and saw a woman behind him watching him."Good morning, you come to watch training?" Jac said before turning back to watch and continuing "I'm hoping to sign up myself if they'll have me. Apparently I'm to wait here to wait for the man in charge of training to see what I have to do first. Do you work here in the Tower?" At the lack of a response Jac turned to the woman with a cheery smile on his face... Which at the look on the womans face turned to a slight smile... Then a frown... Then something approaching outright panic as the woman "introduced" herself...

[Eqwina]

OOC: Yes! You are totally right in starting this thread! A great first post  ;)Good Luck with Thera :-X

 

The sun had just crested the shining white walls, but Thera had already been awake for hours. She’d taken some leisure time with Jasine before staring her morning run, and burned through a stack of papers requiring her signature and spent a quarter hour grooming her horse. All of that before the sun was well and truly up for the day.

 

Running her fingers through her golden curls with slight irritation painting her face Thera moved into to correct the child’s stance again. “How many times have I told you Albet? Back straight, arms bent..the other way around you’ll find a knife in your ribs before you can blink.” Watching until she was content the boy wouldn’t run himself through with his practice blade she moved on to another group; pausing just long enough with each to offer a few encouraging words or correct a form. Word had been sent that she was to keep her eyes out for a new recruit.

 

They were always easy to spot, most looked travel worn and stared around like bumpkins with hay in their hair. She always grinned when she thought of her own first day in the yards; she’d been a larger fool than most. She had worked her way to front of the practice yards before she saw the boy, and just as she predicted he looked as if he’d been run down by a horse and he was grinning at the sparing going on around him like a child on feast day.

 

Several moments past as Thera stood behind the boy staring hard at the back of his head; a few of the older recruits who knew Thera’s temper began to snicker and laughing. She even heard a few taking bets about how long it would take “for the Mistress to shorten him by a head.” Shooting the boy who’d madethat remark a sharp stare he went running without waiting to see if he’d win the bet. Sick of waiting and of being a distraction to the other trainee she coughed and waited for the boy to turn.

 

“Good Morning, you come to watch the training? I’m hoping to sign up myself if they’ll have me. Apparently I’m to wait here to wait for the man in charge of training to see what I have to do first. Do you work here in the Tower?’

 

Some of her other trainee’s, those close enough to hear, groaned and laughed. obviously seeing their predictions come to life. The new young man heard too because he turned around, his wide grin quickly fading to a sickly sight.

 

“I suppose you could say that I work here.” Turning to the trainees who had stopped to watch, Thera posed her question to them. “Would you guys call what I do here work?” Those that didn’t clam up and turn red in the face laughed and murmured all sorts of encouraging remarks. “Heh..if you call skinning children work.” “Cutting of heads is work”

 

“Not sure I would call herding sheep work” one of the Warders mumbled just as another winked at Thera and made remark about Jasine.

 

Turning her hard eyes back to the child, her heeled boot began to tap on the hard packed ground. “So boy, you think that only men are warriors?” Her voice was venomous and her eyes were fire. Thera didn’t give him time to answer “Do you think I am less capable than these men.” She gestured with her free hand, unsheathing her sword with the other. “Do you think I would not cut your head off as quick as they? And for less reason?..... If you believe any of these things you are sadly mistaken.”

 

The boys’ eyes drifted to her sword and back. Any fool could see he was nervous, but Thera did not sheath her sword, she simply let it dangle at her side the freshly shined blade glittering in the sun. “Cat got your tongue boy? Or don’t you have anything to say for yourself?”

 

Thera was always harsh with new recruits; it weeded out any who were too weak, but this time the child had given her the perfect opening to unleash a little anger. Most days she had to simply come off as angry and irrational to achieve a similar affect. Today her sharp tongue was warranted; if not exactly to the extent she was carrying it. The crowd of trainee’s they had drawn was growing thicker as they all stopped to watch the show. Even a few of the Teachers watched with open amusement, seeing the new boy put into his place.

 

If the boy ever spoke up Thera would save him the embarassment of a public display and disband the rest...IF the boy spoke.

 

[demonspawn]

(OOC: Sorry 'bout the wait... I've had a fair bit RL stuff to do and meant to PM, sorry, but it slipped my mind... Sorry! I will be able to give this my full attention now... Did I say sorry?)

 

As the woman spoke, Jac's eyes flicked from the sword at the womans side to the steadily growing crowd, who were far too amused for Jac's liking. Light, what did I say? Alright, think. She obviously works here. She is good with that bloody sword of hers judging by everyones reaction. No... She can't be... But I bet she bloody is. Realising that he was just standing there gaping like a fish he tried to recall the last thing he had been asked.

 

"Cat got my.. No! Er no not at all, I... Well what I mean is... Erm" Jac cast a last wary glance at the, too bloody amused, faces around him of Warders and trainees alike before making up his mind. "You are the Master of Arms? or is it Mistress?". His question was met with a stony silence, if stony silence sounded like twenty-odd men, sniggering and making bets on how long he would last. He, unwisely, tried again. "Are you a mistress or is it still Master for you? I really don't know. I didn't mean are you a Mistress not like that." Later than was wise he shut his mouth. He didn't usually jabber away like a wool-headed fool, so he took a calming breath and tried to sound a bit more sensible

 

"Sorry, Jac al'Caar reporting for to sign up, er Sir?"

[Eqwina]

Her steady foot tapping continued, and the intense frown on her face never wavered, but inside Thera was laughing hard enough to split her face into. Stuttering and back talking the boy was causing his own embarrassment, more than she ever could.

 

"Sorry, Jac al'Caar reporting for to sign up, er Sir?"

 

Thera’s curls shook as she allowed herself a rich chuckle full of mirth. “Child, child, child….you have so much to learn.” She chided. Turning her attentions to the gathering crowd she fixed all of her trainee’s with a stare. “So, you have time in your training to stop and watch? Or is it suddenly that you all have found yourselves love struck? Either way there will be a stiff punishment for all of those that are not back to work by my count of three. One….Two…Thrrrr..” She had no need to finish, everyone hopped to grab their practice blades where they’d been hastily tossed aside. Those without practice to do took off at a run, perhaps hoping to be out of her sight before she could follow through with her threat.  Shaking her head ruefully she watched until the last one was back to work.

 

It was the slight foot shuffling on the dirt that drew her attention back to the new child. “Ah, yes. Well you needn’t think I forgot about you. You can call me Thera, I am the Mistress of Trainee’s and these are my yards.” Using her blade to gesture at the yards and its renewed bustle she arched an eyebrow at Jac. “And I am a woman, so Mistress or ma’am is far more appropriate than Master or Sir don’t you think?”

 

Shaking her head again she sheathed her sword and gathered Jac with a look. Leading him through the faces that had just witnessed his humiliation Thera took him to her office and ordered him into one of the chairs in front of her desk. “Now..you can tell me about why you came here, to the Warders Yard, to train.”

[demonspawn]

Thankfully, Jac's jabbering hadn't caused any noticable insult to Thera. Being allowed to call her that instead of the insistence of her title had also led to Jac feeling a bit more comfortable and at ease. As she led the way, leaving Jac with no doubt that he was to follow, he recieved a few greeting nods from the men there, some friendly, some merely out of politeness.

 

It wasn't long before he was standing the office of the Master, or rather Mistress, of Arms. He sat when ordered to, but before he could get too comfortable, Thera spoke“Now..you can tell me about why you came here, to the Warders Yard, to train.”

 

Jac grimaced slightly as Thera asked that question. He had hoped there would be no need to reveal that part of his past, and the hurt that was part of the baggage. He thought about not giving the whole story, or even just making something up about hearing "One too many Gleemans' Tales". Those thoughts were considered and rejected as Jac had a feeling that Thera would see through any story he came up with. So he told the truth unembellished.

 

"Well, I suppose I may as well tell the whole thing from the start. I apologise now if I start to ramble on. You may have noticed I do that." He smiled briefly before continuing "My mother and father used to travel around in a Wagon. Looked like a Tinkers wagon, apparently, not that I ever saw one, but we often got treated the same as they did. Anyway, I spent all my life in that wagon, until I was nine. We were heading towards Baerlon, where my father grew up, to spend my naming day there before heading off to see some of my fathers family. I think we might have been about a day out when we were attacked by bandits. I was inside the wagon when it started but I went out and saw my parents killed."

 

Jac closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as the pain came flooding back. He took a deep breath then asked "Miss... Thera, you wouldn't have a drink would you?" She nodded and in a moment Jac had a small cup in front of him. When he drank it down in one he coughed and spluttered as it was, clearly, not water. "A-heh... Hooooooo... Sorry, I'm not used to anything stronger than Ale." He waited for her laughter to subside before carrying on from where he had left off.

 

"So, as I left the wagon I saw my father grappling with one man, as another killed my mother where she stood. Somehow my father had overcome the other man and ran over... Only to suffer the same fate.I would have followed them, to meet the Creator, but for the woman who turned up. She shouted something, I can't remember what, but The man with her didn't hesitate in dealing with the remaining bandits. Well, after that she took me to a tavern in Baerlon and left me in the care of the Innkeeper, Tom. I lived there until just two months ago when I came here. He gave me this..." Jac unbuckled his sword and placed on the desk in front of Thera. The slight curve of the sword was not concealed by the scabbard it was in... Nor was the quality of the workmanship.

 

"That was Toms fathers sword. He told me that his father was a soldier and left him with his uncle after his mother died, giving birth. Being a soldier, he couldn't cope with a baby. He never knew what became of him until the same woman who brought me to him, came to him one day. He had apparently came here to train as a Warder and eventually Bonded. He Bonded an Aes Sedai, who it turns out, was the woman who saved my life. He gave his life protecting her and she gave that sword to Tom, to show that his Father had never forgotten him." Jac smiled as he remembered the man who raised him, and the pride he had shown in the telling of that story to Jac.

 

"So, here I am... I want to Learn and to be a Warder." His face took on a determined look as he finished his explanation. "So when you ask why I want to train, I can only say this. I have no thoughts of revenge as my parents killers are long since dead and gone. But I owe my life to an Aes Sedai. I owe Tom for raising me as his own. I owe my parents' memory. But most of all I want to prove to myself that my life was worth saving. If that is not enough, then I'll thank you and be on my way Misstress Thera."

 

He didn't mean to end with anger in his voice but it was there all the same. All he could do was to wait and see if he had gone too far.

[Eqwina]

Sitting down at her desk and leaning back in her chair Thera listened to him unfold his tale. As he spoke it was obvious that he didn’t harbor any ill will towards her for his rough treatment. Some took her attitude as offence and it caused any number of issues for them later on. She was glad this boy would not be one such.

 

"Miss... Thera, you wouldn't have a drink would you?” She considered for a moment sending him to fetch the water, as there was none in the room but instead she pulled out a small thumb size tot and poured from her flask into it. Normally she didn’t condone trainee drinking, but his name wasn’t in the books yet and it was obvious his story was hard for him to tell.

 

If that is not enough, then I'll thank you and be on my way Misstress Thera."

 

Thera leaned forward with her eye brow slightly arched and a dangerous gleam in her eyes, but her voice was quietly calm. “I will ask you to moderate your tone when you are around me. Some things will not be tolerated.” Leaning down into her desk she pulled out the trainee’s roster, but didn’t pick up a pen just yet. “You will learn that there are something you must never do. One, stay away from the novices and accepted, you may find out that the Mistress of Novices has sharper teeth than I do, and not even I can save you from that. Two, you are not to leave Tar Valon without permission, and Three, never speak out of turn to me. If you let your tongue run away too freely you may found out how tough I can be.” Picking up her pen she signed the boys name in ink and sanded the page.  “Do you have an questions?”

[demonspawn]

As each point was laid out by Thera, Jac was starting to realise this was not going to be easy, nor had he expected it to be. He had no intentions of becoming involved with a novice or accepted... Whatever they were. But what got to him was the revelation that he was not to leave Tar Valon except with permission. Never in his life had he had such restrictions placed upon him. Only time would tell how that would sit with him. But Jac was anticipating being too busy in his training to even notice.

 

"I apologise for speaking out of turn Mistress Thera, but the death of my parents is still a thing that stirs an anger in me. As for bothering Novices and... Accepted, was it? Well, I don't even know what they are. Other than that, I would just like to know what happens now?"