Intermediate Saidar~Atten: all who signed up

[Elyssa]

Lesson #1

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IC:

Elyssa waited inside on of the classrooms standing next to the door. She was playing unconciously with a strand of her red hair. It was much longer now than it had been in some time. One by one the student’s started arriving. Elyssa handed each of them a small rose and once everyone was there and found a seat, she began.

 

”Welcome to Intermediate Saidar. I am Elyssa Lliet, a sister of the Blue Ajah.” Elyssa said smiling.  “I hope that by the end of this class we’ll have gotten to know each other and of course learned something as well! We will be learning a lot of tough weaves in this class, so get lots of sleep each night. I’m not joking about this girls. Late nights chatting was something you could afford before, but this is not going to be a walk in the park, so get the rest, you’ll need it. Before we begin, I can only guess that not all of you know each other either, so why don't you shortly introduce yourselves. Who you are and perhaps where you come from." After everyone had briefly introduced themselves, she continued.

 

”First we shall practice creating a ball of light. You will have done this in Intro to Saidar already so this time we’ll make it larger and brighter. I’d like each of you to take hold of the source and then focus on threads of air and threads of fire. Watch me.” Filling herself with the power of Saidar, Elyssa pulled together thin strands of red fire, blue strands of air to fuel it and then, making a large bubble around all that with silvery threads of spirit suddenly to the mundane eye a ball of light appeared floating over her hand. With a mischievous grin she balanced the glowing ball above her hand for all the students to see.

 

”Notice how I only use thin strands of air and mostly fire though you must weave it together just so,” she wove them together one more time until the form was solid, then she let the students study her finished product for a moment. They looked as if they understood, the weave seemed fairly simple, even with so much fire, but she thought some of the newer girls might have trouble controlling and separating the fire thread. She released the source and looked at all her students.

 

”I will show you the rest of the weaves of this lesson and then you will practice with me to help you through them so don’t worry. Not everyone gets it right on the first try so never fear if you don’t. The next weave we will do is an Amplify Voice -weave. First I will show you how to make your voice louder.” Elyssa embraced the source and wove strands of air into a funnel shape, so when she spoke next, her voice boomed, “Did everyone see that?” They all jumped back in surprise and nodded.

 

”Now to make it higher.” She took air again and a bit of spirit, and she wove it to be like a net held out in front of her face to catch her voice and funnel through it. Each strand was pulled tightly. When she spoke, her voice was high pitched.

 

”Next is low” She took the same threads as before, and wove them thicker and with more spirit to let the strands rumble. Her voice came out low this time.

 

”And finally, to change it completely.” Elyssa took the same threads again and this time some water and even more spirit. “That’s it,” her voice sounded so unlike her own that they jumped back again, even though they were expecting it.

 

”The last weave is very handy when used with the disguise weave you may learn as Accepted or Full Sister in the Advanced Saidar class. Be creative and use different kinds of weave combinations to mimic voices of someone you know. It might take a while to succeed, but it is fun.”

 

”Now, I want you all to practice the voice tricks and the globe of Light until you get it right. I’ll be coming around the room so if you need help I’ll be right there.” Elyssa started roaming the classroom and gave pointers to some of the girls. When everyone had managed the weaves she continued.

 

“All right, that was all very well done. Please take out the flowers I handed you on coming to class. I’ll show you a weave called Keeping. This weave requires a lot of practise for doing it properly. It is used to preserve thing. It is often used with grain to keep it from spoiling. A lot more common use is preserving flowers so they don’t die. Now I can show you how the weave is made, but the effects will be harder to see. I picked some flowers from the garden to show you the keeping weave. You wont see the effects of the weave today or even tomorrow but in our last lesson you’ll notice that the flowers should look just the same as they do today.” Elyssa explained and embraced saidar. This weave was not so easy for her either. She wove fine threads of Spirit around the flower, adding strands of all other elements in it. The weave was complete.

 

“Now I’d like all of you to try the same weave I just made on the flower in front of you. Remember this is a tricky weave and it might not be come so easily for you.” The class began to practice and Elyssa walked to a table at the back of the class an placed a rose without a Keeping weave on the table. After everyone had managed the weave she told them to place the roses at the back and leave them there for later. “Remember to get a good night’s sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow!” Elyssa told the tired class and watched them all go.

 

OOC: Just write yourselves introducing yourself to the class, practicing the ball of light and the voice tricks and finally the Keeping. Feel free to write in Elyssa helping you. And Have fun! You have two weeks from today to post to this thread and then I will start the next class. I'll put the classes in different colors so we will know which the new ones are.

 

[Quisalas Selene]

Selenessin quickly gulped down the apple she had grabbed from the kitchen on her way to her next class.  Ziya Sedai had kept her late in her lessons of law and custom to discuss what Ajah Selene wanted to aspire to when the time came.  She was beginning to walk warily around the full Aes Sedai and hoped she would be able to make her mind up on the direction she wanted to take sooner rather than later.  She'd been late for lunch but the apple would serve until after Elyssa Sedai's class was over.  She was free for the rest of the day after this, although at some point she would have to go down to the stables and see Rao again.  It'd been nearly two weeks since the last time she'd ridden her mare and she worried the skills she'd honed during her youth would waste away while she was stuck in the Tower.

 

She took a deep breath before entering the class room and was startled to see the Aes Sedai standing just inside the door.  She bobbed a curtsy as she took the flower and murmured a properly respectful greeting as she took her seat.  Her mind was still preoccupied with the talk she'd had with Ziya Sedai, but she firmly pushed the Gray out of her mind as Elyssa Sedai began her lessons.

 

Elyssa was a Blue.  The Blue Ajah was one that Selene couldn't rule out as a possibility for her, unlike the White and Red.  And, well, the Yellow too, since Selene didn't have the strength in water to be able to heal properly.  That left Brown, Green, Blue, and Gray.  And she hadn't a clue which she should choose and didn't know how she would ever make the decision on her own.  She shoved these thoughts aside as well, trying to focus clearly on Elyssa and the lessons she taught today.  At the suggestion that they all introduce themselves, Selene flushed self-consciously a bit.  It was like her first day as a Novice all over again, where so much of what she did was getting to know her class mates.  She cleared her throat softly and stood, no sense in putting off what must be done.

 

"Elyssa Sedai," she dipped her head and curtsied again, "I am Selenessin al'Thorin and I was raised on a horse farm just outside of Four Kings in Andor.  I came to Tar Valon accompanied by my brother, Jasine, who is now married to the Mistress of Novices, Thera.  He's a Tower Guard and wants to be a warder, although certainly not my warder." She gave a self-conscious little laugh and smoothed down her skirts.  Uncertain if that was all that was needed of her, she kept speaking without really having an idea of what to say.  "I'm not terribly strong in the One Power, but I put a lot of effort into my studies."  Her voice trailed off and she sat down again, blushing lightly.  She didn't have to tell her whole life story, it was just an intro.  She was silent as the rest of the girls introduced themselves and had overcome her awkward moment by the time Elyssa Sedai had gotten to the actual lessons they were to learn today.

 

Selene was weak in fire, as most women were, but in air she was especially competent, and could handle spirit well enough.  She knew the weave Elyssa Sedai was beginning with, but she paid close attention to it anyway, jotting notes onto a paper almost out of habit more than a need to to have the reminder of them.  When Elyssa Sedai added water to the weave to change her voice to a different one entirely Selene felt a pang of almost regret at how weak she was with water.  That was something not at all common to women and she'd discovered already among some of the simplest weaves she learned as a novice that there were some weaves she could not form at all. 

 

Selene cleared her mind as the explanations ended and the exercises began.  She opened herself to the source and let the warm light of Saidar approach her and then fill her slowly.  She did not take as much of the Source as she could, she had learned better than that, but she drew in more than was strictly needed for these weaves.  She couldn't help that, really.  It felt too good to not take more.  She pulled air and then fire, weaving them together as Elyssa Sedai had shown them, and then surrounded that weave with spirit, holding the woven threads together into a ball of light.  It was larger than any she had made before and she concentrated on it a moment, dimming and brightening the glow by feeding more and less fire into it.  She dare not try to make it as bright as possible, her control over fire was fickle at best and she didn't practice with it as much as she did with air.  At least she was fairly sure that if her weave exploded shew could trap it in air before anyone was hurt.  Pretty sure she could, anyway.

 

The amplify voice weave was not difficult for her at all. although she had to tweak it a bit before she got the shape of the funnel right.  She had strength with air, but not the skill yet to make the threads respond to her in the way she wanted every time.  She got it on her second try and her delighted giggle echoed loudly into the room.  She blushed and gave her teacher an apologetic smile before playing with the weave again, lengthening the funnel so that a whispered word spoken into came out as a great breathy bellow.  She released the weave and wrote down a few more notes, intending to practice that one on her own to see what would happen to the voice if the funnel was shaped differently, with a sharper or wider cone, perhaps with ridges along the edges of it.  It would be fascinating to see how shape changed sound.

 

She struggled with all three of the weaves that changed the voice, asking after Elyssa to show her how to weave them together.  The weaves were new to her entirely, and she did not pick up on brand new things with the smooth ease that came to some of the other Accepted.  It took hard work and repetition before she managed to get it right, but she did end up being able to do each one of them.  When she managed the weave that changed her voice entirely, she played with it for a while, trying to mimic her Malkieri friend's voice.  It was a complete failure, she had no intuitive grasp of what changes would result from adjusting the weave, but she had fun in the trying and Jerinia laughed when Selene confessed to trying to mimic her.  When Jerinia asked if her voice really sounded like that Selene had to laugh and with a rueful smile, insisted that she was no where near close.

 

She didn't take the failure harshly, though.  She had managed the weaves and the intricacies of tweaking them would come with time and practice.

 

She worried at her bottom lip with her teeth when Elyssa Sedai explained the Keeping weave.  Without having even strength across the elements, she would struggle with getting the threads all the same size and strength.  She watched Elyssa's weaving very carefully and practiced forming it several times, calling the Aes Sedai over to her when she had a free minute to be sure she had the keeping right before she would place it on the pale pink rose.  She was exhausted and the sweet touch of Saidar felt more like the too-sweet touch of candy on a sore tooth or warm sunlight on an already too-hot day by the time she had the weave just right and set it on the flower.  She smiled a deeply satisfied smile as she released Saidar, surprised to find that even with as tired and worn out as she was she didn't want the warmth to go away, and sat back in her chair.  The world dimmed from the brilliance that holding Saidar for so long gave everything and she felt hollow without it, but too tired to keep the focus and concentration it required.

 

She placed her flower beside the others and gathered up her things, bobbing a curtsy to Elyssa Sedai once more before making her way out of the room.  She, for one, was going to tale Elyssa Sedai's words very much to heart and didn't intend to wake up tomorrow until the breakfast bells forced her out of it.  She was glad that she didn't have any other classes scheduled for tonight, Lillith Sedai's Old Tongue class had been given a week to study on their own before an important exam on it ended the course.  She knew the Old Tongue well enough that she wouldn't have to study for that, so she could devote most of her time to this class for a change.

 

Selenessin dashed off down the hallway at a trot to see if she could get something to eat before retiring to her room.

 

 

Selenessin al'Thorin

Accepted

[Jehaine]

Jerinia looked surprised when Elyssa said she was from the Blue Ajah. Though she was aware, like everyone that was training to become an Aes Sedai, that there was a Blue Ajah, its members seemed to enjoy spending a lot of time out of the Tower, perhaps even moreso than the Green Ajah's trips to the Borderlands. Perhaps there'd be a chance for her to ask some questions after class? Whatever the case, she gave herself a slight mental nod as Selene introduced herself, determined to actually stay on track in this series of classes.

 

- "I'm Jerinia Zaralyn, from Malkier. My dad sent me down south to see if i could channel, and i could. Heh. Umm... Larindhra Sedai says i've got a great potential for Air and Fire, though i'm fairly hopeless with Earth and Water. I also kinda end up getting in trouble a lot, though none of it's my fault. Not really, anyway."

 

Her voice trailing off much like Selene's had, she ended in a small cough before sitting down again. Looking at her desk, she reassured herself with the thought that this time, there was no parchment lying on it like back when she was still a Novice. What a disaster that had been...

 

Anyway, on to the training. The weave Elyssa showed first had Air and Fire in it, two of the elements she had good control of. Practising a couple of smaller balls of light first, she thought on the assignment. They were supposed to make a larger ball of light. So, she should be making hers as large as she could. Channeling (for Accepted standards) large amounts of Air and Fire, she wove them together into the biggest ball of light she had made to date, looking pleased at the results.

 

However, she had not been blessed with an equally large talent in Spirit, and pretty soon the ball began to change shape slightly. Jerinia frowned, trying to correct it but ended up overcompensating, causing the ball to begin shimmering even faster. She stood up from her seat, focusing more on reinforcing the weave, but the places she needed to 'patch' were starting to pop up faster than she could correct them. The weave of Spirit, honestly too thin for a ball of that size to begin with, was unable to keep holding it together, causing the light captured in the ball to expand outward, no longer held back by its bonds.

 

*FLASH*

 

The flash from her own ball of light against saidar-enhanced eyesight caused her to stumble back. Blinking, she rubbed her eyes to regain her sight but ended up backing up against her desk, sending it crashing against the floor with her landing on top of it. She remained lying there until the lights dancing across her vision subsided again, after which she'd start cleaning up the mess she had made. The desk didn't seem to be damaged all too much though, nothing a small weave wouldn't fix... Probably.

 

On a stern glance from Elyssa, she shrank back in her seat, and proceeded to try the next weave. Clearing her throat, the weaves of Air and Spirit that came next were far less powerful, and the funnel seemed almost diminutive in comparison to Selene's, but her voice managed to carry enough to make herself heard across the classroom. Even the somewhat embarassed undertone of it.

 

Not being one to be bothered long by failure -- she'd just need some more practise with Spirit, that should fix it! -- the weave to lower her voice was a bit stronger, and for a moment her voice sounded as an almost Ogierlike bass. She was about to weave the last one when she heard something that looked a lot like her own voice, and looked at Selene, who was grinning widely at her. Sending her a grin in return, she tried to imitate her friend's voice in return, feeling as if she likely was doing far worse than Selene had done.

 

Though it took her a few tries, she believed she had at least gotten close to what her voice more or less sounded like, but also felt she was at the limit of what she could do with Spirit. Having already pushed her limits once before, she decided not to risk it and simply work with what she had, being her strength in Air and Fire. Finally, she picked up the small flower, trying to form the Five Threads like she often had during the time she spent teaching Novices about channeling. She was glad she had, it gave her some channeling experience, and right now it came in quite useful too.

 

Remembering what Elyssa told them, she added some extra power to the thread resembling Spirit, and started wrapping them all around the flower. Though she didn't know the exact weave, she just figured she'd keep on wrapping the flower in elements until it would be sufficiently protected. After having continued until she got at least a decent layer of every element covering the flower, she released the Source, looking up to Elyssa again.

 

- "Umm... Mind if i ask what the Blue Ajah stands for, Elyssa Sedai? They seem to be away a lot, and it makes it hard to ask..."

 

 

Jerinia

Hi.

[Elyssa]

Lesson #2

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IC:

Ely smiled at her students as they came into class. When everyone was there, she started the lesson.

 

”Hello everyone. In today’s class, we will be learning more advanced elemental control. No doubt today you will be very tired when we are finished but you will have learned a great deal. However, to do this, we will be going out to the tower garden so please follow me." She stood and walked towards the door. She led all of the students through the tower halls and out into the garden. She first took everyone over to the big pond in the middle of the garden.

 

”First we will learn control of water. Now water, as you will recall from Introduction to Saidar, is one of the three threads females work easier with. However this doesn’t mean it will necessarily come quickly and easily to you. Do not fret if that is the case. Many Sisters have to take their time working with water, so if you have questions or need to see something a second or third time, please ask. Now, not surprisingly, this involves the water thread and sometimes a bit of air depending on what you want to do with the water. These weaves I show you next, affect the weather so using Air is quite natural. Watch closely as I create a little whirlpool here in the pond.” Ely took the water thread and wove it around a section of water in the center of the pond. Then, using a touch of air, she pushed it in a circular motion, causing a swirling mini whirlpool.

 

”Now I will do another simple weave to create waves. Watch closely now.” Ely took water and air again, weaving water around a section of the water and using the thread of air to make the whole body of water move resulting in a visible effect.

 

"This weave is much more easier if you use more air and make only the upper part of the water move. In that case the waves aren't as big or effective, though, as the whole mass of water isn't moving. As you can see though, there are benefits to each."

 

Next, she led the class over to a large maple tree. “Now I will show you control the patterns of wind. Watch carefully,” she told them. She embraced the source and channeled a great deal of air. It was fairly easy, because air was her strongest element, but it was very intricately woven together. She summoned strength and whooshed some leaves off the tree in a great gust of wind making them dance all around the novices. She then released Saidar with a grin of pure pleasure and explained to them, “It takes quite a bit of strength to make strong winds, when you practice, do not make it any stronger than I just did or you’ll hurt yourselves.” she warned them. "Remember that all these weaves are NOT be used on a large scale, as results could be devastating to farmers, villages, almost anyone and everyone. Affecting weather causes nasty side effects you have no control over when your weaving is through.”

 

”Now. I want you all to practice each weave at least until you get the hang of it. Keep your weaves small so as not to hurt yourself or your environment.” Ely watched them group up, and stood in the garden’s center, waiting to see who might need help.

 

Ooc: Practice 2 kinds of weaves from those listed above - for the sake of things in the future you all learned each weave though. Remember having problems can be fun and feel free to npc Elyssa helping you to better understand! Tell us how it feels to channel, what your body does, what a person who doesn’t channel might see you looking like and of course what you like and don’t like doing. Have fun with it though!

 

OOC2: Sorry this took so long for me to get up I'll be better about it in the future. I will wait till the two of you have posted and then make the next post

[Jehaine]

Jerinia looked around as they were taken outside, enjoying the view. It really was a nice day out, she noticed, and not for the first time she was glad for the limited permissions of leaving the Tower itself without needing written permission for it. True, she still couldn't visit the Warder grounds to see the rumored skill of the Warders with her own eyes, but simply being allowed to go to places like this was good enough in itself.

 

As the lesson began, she watched intently, eager to make up for her mistake in the first lesson. She studied the weaves as Elyssa showed them, a bit worried since they were about Water after all, and the element was one of her weakest ones. Hopefully, her strength with Air would compensate for it, though she made a mental note to be a bit careful this time around. She had almost burned herself out once before, and didn't want to end up testing her luck again.

 

She stepped forward, first reproducing the small whirlpool Elyssa had made. Though the weave she ended up with resembled that from her teacher's example accurately enough, the whirlpool was quite a bit weaker. Weaker to the point that the threads appeared to be about as thin as she could make them, and it was mostly her skill that kept the thing going.

 

She stood up from where she had been kneeling, and wiped the sweat from her brow. Any more attempts at the whirlpool and she'd be out for the rest of the day. Looking at the pond as a whole, she softly shook her head before turning to Elyssa. She had managed to make a very small, very weak whirlpool, but anything larger -- like a pond, for example -- was well beyond her capabilities. She could make a weave similar to it, but it would have more in common with stirring the pond with a giant spoon of Air than it would resemble the weave Elyssa wanted her to try.

 

- "...I'm sorry, Elyssa Sedai. Water is one of my weakest elements, i can't manage anything larger than that whirlpool just now."

 

Coughing softly, she turned her attention to the tree, her mind on the flows of Air. She could do that, at least. Watching the leaves that had danced around her and Selene earlier, she made a weave of air, intending to make them dance much like Elyssa had. It took a few tries for her to get the hang of keeping the leaves in her weave, but after a few minutes of practising she had started to get pretty close to what she had been shown. With a pleased smile, she stepped back again, her ordeal with the Water based weaves forgotten already thanks to playing with the leaves using Air.

 

 

Jerinia

2 in Water, 8 in Air

[Jehaine]

OOC: *poke* *pokepoke*

[Elyssa]

OOC: I'll post it up tomorrow sorry got busy and neglected you all

[Quisalas Selene]

Selene wasn't sure if she could manage even the whirlpool of water.  She chewed at her lower lip, worrying as she watched Elyssa Sedai and then Jerinia work with the weaves.  With both she and Jerinia so weak in water, this would be a less than impressive show of weaves indeed.  All girls were supposed to be weaker in Fire and Earth, but Selene was just as weak with water.  She'd also neglected practicing with the elements she wasn't very good with as well, she just found it so disheartening, so her skill wasn't up to snuff with water either.

 

Air, however, Selene could do.  And had done.  She'd been spending entirely too much time, including time when she had been a novice and wasn't supposed to be practicing on her own at all - playing with air.  The ease at which she drew on the element still brought a happy smile to her face.  Air was the element she felt most precious and dear, when she had been doing her very first Saidar classes and had found out she was so weak in water, she had worried she would be weak in air as well.  She made the waves as Elyssa Sedai had shown them, using more air to compensate for the lower skill in water, and made frothy little whitecaps that lapped across the surface of the pond.  One of her fondest tricks was shaping air into forms and she tried this with the foam at the edge of the waves but couldn't form it when it was mixed with the water.  At an arched brow from her teacher she let the waves subside and decided that her first experience working on this scale probably shouldn't involve so much creativity and exploration.

 

She formed the whirlpool, managing a larger but less controlled whirlpool than Jerinia did.  She struggled with it for a short while, trying to refine it and form the weaves more skillfully and improved some.  She wasn't entirely hopeless with skill, but she needed to practice more with the water.  Practicing something she would never be very good at made her frown, but she tried not to let it discourage her.  There was plenty of good she would be able to do, her strengths would be augmented by her lesser skills, not diminished by them. 

 

She laughed in delight at the leaves dancing around them, showing no interest in the serene decorum of a proper Aes Sedai.  She was still many years off - hopefully forever - from being able to completely mask her emotions and for as long as she could get away with it, she would continue to give herself over to joy and happiness whenever possible.  There just weren't enough reasons to laugh - you had to when you could.  She smiled brightly as Jerinia made them dance and then it was her turn and she realized she hadn't paid attention at all to what the weave actually was, so caught up in enjoying the effect.

 

"Elyssa Sedai, can you show me again?"  The Blue Sister came over to her and showed her the weave, putting further emphasis on telling the girls not to try to do too much.  Selene formed the flows of air easily once she had watched them attentively and she added strength until she could manage no more of it with her skill.  Her windstorm was relatively brief, she hadn't the endurance to keep it up for as long as Elyssa did, but it was powerful and precise.  With a little careful manipulation she even managed to keep the dancing leaves from tangling in her long hair.

 

She turned the proud and delighted smile first to Jerinia and then to Elyssa Sedai once she had completed the challenge.

 

 

Selenessin

3 in Water, 8 in Air