Flaming Trees (Battle Weaves for Janine)

[Jaydena]

Leaving her quarters Jaydena headed toward the Green Ajah Practice field, she was on her way to teach a battle weaves class, something she felt she had done so many times she could do blindfolded. Though it never paid to get to arrogant with the use of the Power. Walking down the back steps she made her way through the maze that led to the practice field for the greens, a large field enclosed on all sides with a 15 foot, 5 foot thick stone wall, she opened the gate and stepped into the area. She looked around to make sure she was alone in the area and stood still for a moment, enjoying the early morning light, the smell of the dew on the grass. She listened to the trees overhead and their leaves stirring in the small breeze and gave herself that moment of solitutude before the ratrace of the day. Focusing her attentions back on what she was doing she jogged over to the shed area, she had already been working out since before dawn and her muscles felt like well oiled machine. With her key she opened the shed and took out the straw filled trolloc shaped dummies and began to set them out through the field.

 

Gazing around she suddenly saw the new recruit walking through the gate, she nodded at the young woman, and began to speak, "Today and in the days to follow you will be learning Air weaves, we will do each element for as long as needed and then you will ask for acceptance into our ajah again." Giving the girl a grim smile she said, "I suppose you are ready to start?" Seeing her nod she said, "Well then let's begin." Embracing the source she turned to the woman and said, "This weave is a fairly easy weave and could easily be done by most sisters in the tower, in this weave we use Spirit to strengthen it. The higher you are in Air the sharper the weave will be. Now watch closely the weave we are about to do is called the Air Razor. Very effective for slicing off Trolloc heads."

 

Pulling out a thread of air she quickly wove the thread together with weaves of spirit using far more air in the weave, she sharpened the weave until it reached razor sharpness and then gave it a push with Air and watched as it neatly sliced through the straw trollocs she had set up a few moments ago. Turning back to the girl she said, "Now think about how effective that would be against a fist of Trollocs and try to realize why we must temper you like a great sword." Nodding her head at Janine she said, "I will show you the weave one more time and then it will be your turn to practice them." This time when she wove the Air Razor she went at a slower pace so the new sister could see her exact thread placement. Sending the air razor off once more she stepped back and motioned for the other woman to begin...

 

Jaydena Sedai

OOC: Air Razor (Air 2, Skill 7) – Higher strength in Air means blade is harder; higher skill, edge is sharpe

[Quibby]

OOC: Are there any weather-type weaves involved in this course?  I'm thinking that I might use this to have Janine discover that she has a Talent towards working the weather.

 

IC:  Examining herself critically in the mirror as she dressed, Janine put the finishing touches on her hair before examining her handiwork.  There was little finesse or style to what she did.  Instead, Janine settled for convenient and out of the way.  It had always gotten her by in the past.  The dress she'd chosen was a deep green, partially for her Ajah of choice- an Ajah that had refused her, much to her anger- but mostly because the color suited her.  It also changed the color of her eyes from a somewhat neutral blue-green to a brilliant emerald.  Satisfied with her appearance, Janine slipped her small belt knife into its sheath and left her room, nodding a polite greeting to the two other occupants of the apartment.

 

Janine, despite the urge to wear it at all times to prove that she'd succeeded, chose not to don her shawl before leaving the room.  It was a lovely day, and she knew that she was Aes Sedai, even if the Greens had not accepted her yet.  In her mind, the word 'yet' was always at the back of her thoughts.  She would be a full Green.  There was no way that they would stop her.

 

The directions that Jaydena had given her the day before played through Janine's mind as she walked towards the corner of the White Tower's grounds that was reserved for the Green Ajah's training.  A hedge maze stood between her and the tall walls within, but it was the work of only fifteen minutes and four wrong turns to get to the gate.

 

Stepping through, Janine marveled at the thickness of the walls.  Close to five feet thick, it would take a decent blow of the Power to damage them.  A sudden wave of anxiousness washed over Janine then.  She had been told that she would be strong in the Power, but they had never tested her to her full strength.  What if she...  With a shake of her head, Janine dismissed the thought.  It had survived countless hundreds or thousands of Greens before her.  It would survive her.

 

In the courtyard within the walls waited Jaydena, who greeted Janine with a nod.  Without any further words, she began the lesson.  "Today and in the days to follow you will be learning Air weaves, we will do each element for as long as needed and then you will ask for acceptance into our ajah again." Giving Janine a grim smile, Jaydena added, "I suppose you are ready to start?"  Janine returned the smile with a formal nod.  No need to convey her excitement.

 

"Well then let's begin." A glow sprung up around Jaydena as she embraced saidar.  "This weave is a fairly easy weave and could easily be done by most sisters in the tower, in this weave we use Spirit to strengthen it. The higher you are in Air the sharper the weave will be. Now watch closely the weave we are about to do is called the Air Razor. Very effective for slicing off Trolloc heads."

 

The weave was relatively simple, though there was quite a bit of Air involved.  As Janine watched, Jaydena hardened the weave, tapering it to razor sharpness.  Then, with another snap of Air, she hurled it at the dummies across the yard.  The dummies didn't even budge as the razor passed through their necks, causing heads to fall.  Janine blinked, a touch of surprise crossing her face.  "Now think about how effective that would be against a fist of Trollocs and try to realize why we must temper you like a great sword," Jaydena said, nodding towards her handiwork.  "I will show you the weave one more time and then it will be your turn to practice them."  True to her word, Jaydena showed the weave again, slowly.  It really was a simple weave, but several 'simple' weaves had proven to be Janine's downfall in classes before.  Thus, she resisted the urge to throw the weave together in a hurry in order to impress Jaydena.

 

Which was just as well.  Her first attempt failed to keep the edge that she'd tried to weave, and the result was more similar to a club than a razor, knocking over the rows of Trolloc dummies and striking the wall behind them with a clanging sound.  After standing the dummies again, Janine wove the blade again, using more Air to force the blade to sharpness.  The results were much better.  The dummies still fell, but the blade passed through them instead of knocking them down.  It was a success in that.

[Jaydena]

OOC I will check just to make sure but I am pretty sure there aren't. It's to bad you didn't take Advanced because there are weather weaves in it, we could do it in retro though if you wanted to, I have the class written.

 

Air 2

 

When she believed the girl had practiced for a sufficent amount of time she stepped forward and said, “Now we will be learning our second air weave of the day, the weave is called Air Club, the club is a fairly simple weave but yet again deadly to our enemies. Each sister weaves their club differently, some choose to make it wide and short, some long and thin. Whatever works best for you is what you should do.” Embracing the source she wove a strange shape of air and then began to walk closer to her trolloc target. As she walked she began to talk, “The Air Club is a useful weapon in that it can be used to knock our opponent out if we have no need to kill them. It can however be used as a killing weapon if aimed correctly.” She reached the target and sent the club floating above her head at the Trolloc, she grinned as the Trollocs head crumbled into a heap. Turning back to the women in front of her she said, “This is a good weave if you need to face a single enemy and for whatever reason knock them out, maybe for questioning or to be sentenced. I want you to practice this weave until you have perfected it, when you are done we will break for lunch before moving on to the next weave in the series.”

 

Moving to the trolloc she did the best to repair his head and then walked over to the sidelines to watch her student practice and to answer any questions she might have. Taking a seat she saw her warder walking up with a two picnic baskets full of food, she grinned at the woman and the motioned for her to come over. She took a seat next to her as they watched the girl in front of them practice the Air Club. Jade was happy with her progress so far and looked forward to seeing how she developed into a green sister. Some women couldn’t handle their first battle, they ran away, sometimes women even went crazy, or killed themselves. She only hoped that this young woman had prepared herself throughout the years for what she would face as a sister. Being a green was in so many ways harder than any other ajah, to lose and lose again and still stay strong was not an easy feat for anyone...

 

Ooc- The club looks like an icecream cone, to qoute Taya Sedai. Air Club (Air 1, Skill 4)

 

Jaydena 

 

[Quibby]

OOC: I'd like to do that class, if possible.  Once again, sorry for the delay in posting.  Post got up just before vacation.

 

IC:  With a final push, Janine sent her woven blade towards the dummies, a satisfied smirk coming over her face as the heads tumbled off the few she'd targeted.  Apparently she'd pushed harder than she thought, though; as she watched, the blade struck the wall, sending off a few small chips of stone.  “Now we will be learning our second air weave of the day, the weave is called Air Club, the club is a fairly simple weave but yet again deadly to our enemies. Each sister weaves their club differently, some choose to make it wide and short, some long and thin. Whatever works best for you is what you should do.”  The sudden interruption startled Janine, who stopped to listen to Jaydena's description.  The bludgeoning weave seemed as if it would be right up Janine's alley.  After the brief introduction, Jaydena embraced saidar and wove... something.  Janine couldn't quite tell what it was that the older sister had woven, but she could see the basic how of the thing.  The weave complete, Jaydena approached the dummies, speaking as she walked: “The Air Club is a useful weapon in that it can be used to knock our opponent out if we have no need to kill them. It can however be used as a killing weapon if aimed correctly.”  By the time she had finished speaking, the full Green sister stood before one of the intact dummies.  The weave shifted, floating above the thing's head, and with a sadistic grin, Jaydena brought the club down, utterly crushing the dummy's head.

 

Janine found herself grinning, too.  It was a simple concept, really, but like most simple concepts, the idea of it had never crossed her mind before.  “This is a good weave if you need to face a single enemy and for whatever reason knock them out, maybe for questioning or to be sentenced. I want you to practice this weave until you have perfected it, when you are done we will break for lunch before moving on to the next weave in the series.”

 

Lunch was the furthest thing from Janine's mind.  Striding to the dummies as if she intended to walk over them, Janine wove a club similar in shape to what Jaydena had woven.  It had a nice feel to it, a sense of imminent weightiness.  With a shift of the weave, Janine swung the club... and immediately released the weave as a mass of air, of Air, moved rapidly towards her face.  The nerves that she felt were hardly surprising, nor were they anything serious.  The weave had swung differently than what she had thought it would.  It was not as... as natural as she'd expected.  "If at first you don't succeed," Janine muttered, setting her feet and weaving again.  This time, the weave came out narrower, but broader, like a frying pan or a boat paddle  With a mental swing, the paddle connected with the dummy, denting the thing's head in quite impressively.  However, it was unwieldy to Janine, too long and too flat.

 

Again, Janine wove, this time creating something that, in her mind, felt like a truncheon.  It swung nicely, but the impact didn't feel right.  The truncheon became a mace.  The mace became a flail.  Out of irritation, Janine tried a forge hammer.  The crushing damage dealt to the dummy's shoulder- a miss on Janine's part- was impressive.  It also felt right.  Again, the little grin touched Janine's lips.  "Well, dummies, it's time to show you who's boss." 

 

Hearing no protests, she moved down the line.

[Jaydena]

ooc- OMG I didn't get the topic reply for this, I am so sorry!! Quib I am working on making sure all the weaves are still correct in my Advanced class and then I will post sign ups. *hugs* Also after we do the last airweave, I will do these three at a time like we used to, just makes it easier for you.

 

Air 3

She looked the woman over carefully to make sure that she showed no signs of being overly tired. Being tired and using the Power wasn't always a good combination and they couldn't afford to lose any trained Sisters.  Jaydena decided that Janine looked like she was fine but the sun was already past it's half point in the sky. She smiled and pointed to the blanket on the ground as well as the meal all set up. "My gaidar has set up our meal for us here, so we should eat before it goes bad in this heat, it's relaxing and I often find that going back to the Tower during Battle Weaves can be distracting. You can't afford to get distracted and neither can I." Jade motioned for Janine to sit down and then took a seat herself, she watched as the young woman began to load her plate up with food and could only imagine how the recruit felt, she had been exhausted after her first battle weaves session and had fallen into bed fully clothed at the end of it. Jade shook herself out of her thoughts and began to load her own plate up with her lunch, when she was done she began to eat and kept a close watch on the woman across from her for signs of fatigue. Before long they had finished their meal and it appeared that she was capable of channeling still, so Jade stood and said,

 

“Are you ready to do the final battle weave of the day?” Hearing Janine's answer she walked away from their lunch knowing that her warder would pick it up for she was always a helpful warder. She headed over to the practice yard and reaching the correct area she said, “We will be learning something called a Air Shield, this is the first weave we will learn that is a protective weave and not a attack weave.” She embraced the source and wove the dome around herself, once the dome was tyed off she said, “This is an Air Shield, I want you to attack it the best that you can. See if you can undo it. Not necessarily with Air, but with whatever you can throw at it. It will weaken eventually, but I am sure that you will see it is a very sturdy weave. With proper maintenance it can hold through many hours of battle.” Jade watched as Janine hesitated for only a moment before attacking the weave with it around her, but only after her student had been attacking for many minutes did the weave even start to crumble.

 

Holding her hand up to show Janine to hold off on the attack weaves, she dropped the weave for a moment and spoke, “Janine, did you notice how it is crumpling in on itself. This is because I’m not repairing the weave or maintaining it, because I tied it off, it is relying upon itself.” Seeing that the recruit understood she said, “Now I want you to make the weave and tie it off, I will begin to attack your weave. When it begins to fall apart I want you to weave it again but this time I want you to maintain and repair it as we practice. I would like you to see the difference it can make it the amount of time your weave will hold. To repair the weave you will need to feed strength into it whenever it begin to fall apart.” Nodding at her student she instructed her to start weaving the protective weave. She began to attack the weave and waited to see what would happen…

 

Jaydena Sedai

Ooc- Air Shield (Air 4, Skill 4). This one requires less skill than Air Razor, but greater strength with Air than both previous Air weaves we did. Remember to end this part as though you have spent all week practicing differe Air Weaves, then the next week will start with the next element and last all week as well.

 

 

[Quibby]

Janine was tired, plain and simple.  From the earliest days at the Tower, initiates were taught that channeling the One Power was an exhausting task, and their training went on to prove it.  Twenty years of working with the Power, though, was not enough to make a half-day of channeling unfamiliar weaves any less strenuous.  It was a relief when Jaydena called a break for lunch.

 

Sitting on the spread blanket, Janine rummaged through the basket, gradually filling a plate as she did.  As she ate, forcing herself to eat slowly in order to have the most possible time to rest, Janine thought back on the last weave she had worked.  Even as she had settled on a comfortable shape for the weave, something short and blunt, it had altered as she continued to attack the dummies.  The overall shape stayed the same, but as Janine pummeled one target into oblivion and moved to the next, she remembered altering the way it was woven, almost as if she was testing swords to find one with the right balance.  The last dozen targets, though, had been all the same weave.  A sense of balance to the person, maybe?  A White would probably be able to say better.

 

All too soon, lunch was over, and Janine and Jaydena were once again back to work.  "Are you ready to do the final weave of the day?" Jaydena asked.

 

Are you kidding me? Janine thought wryly.  The woman must have some idea how tired Janine was; after all, logic dictated that she would have gone through the same training regimen.  Out loud, though, Janine replied, "I am."

 

Jaydena nodded, then continued.  “We will be learning something called a Air Shield, this is the first weave we will learn that is a protective weave and not a attack weave.”  A defensive weave, then.  Janine forced tiredness to the back of her mind, focusing all her attention on the older Aes Sedai as the the glow of saidar sprang up around her.  “This is an Air Shield, I want you to attack it the best that you can. See if you can undo it. Not necessarily with Air, but with whatever you can throw at it. It will weaken eventually, but I am sure that you will see it is a very sturdy weave. With proper maintenance it can hold through many hours of battle.”  It took a couple seconds for Jaydena's words to fully sink in.  She wanted Janine to attack her?  Logic muttered that there was no chance that Janine would hurt her, otherwise she never would have practiced this weave this way.

 

Then the little voice in Janine's mind that had been grumbling since the day she was raised said, Do it.  Show her why your treatment is so unfair.  Saidar filled her then, and Janine smiled slightly.  She had always enjoyed some of the more violent weaves.  Weaving Air, Janine sent a powerful gust of wind at the shield, feeling no surprise as the twigs and rocks that the gust had picked up bounced off the barrier between them.  She tied the weave, leaving the wind howling, then struck with the Air Club she had just learned, again feelign no surprise at the apparent lack of progress.  Raising her right hand, Janine tried another weave, a simple ball of Fire.  The flame fanned across the invisible barrier, yet did not seem to affect it.  Earth to draw stones from the ground, then Air to hurl them had the same effect.  Finally, Janine simply threw every little trick in the book at the shield.  After several minutes, she could see her attacks beginning to have some effect.  It took a conscious effort not to draw up a storm and hurl its fury at the shield.

 

Jaydena raised a hand, then, halting Janine's weaving.  The shield vanished, and Jaydena spoke.  “Janine, did you notice how it is crumpling in on itself. This is because I’m not repairing the weave or maintaining it, because I tied it off, it is relying upon itself.”  That made sense, but Janine found it rather frustrating.  Perhaps if she had brought her whole strength to bear on striking at Jaydena, rather than the shield, it would have been different.

 

Unsurprisingly, Jaydena had Janine weave the shield next, which she did, applying as much of her strength to it as she could manage.  Tying it off, she awaited Jaydena's assault.  She didn't have to wait long.  Hammers of Air beat themselves against the shield, and flames roared across it.  Stone and ice pelted the shield, and after a couple minutes, Janine found herself picking up the weave again, pitting her will against the slowly collapsing wall.  Slowly, the massive dent she had been fighting forced itself back out, bringing the smaller dents with it.  Yet Jaydena's assault continued.

 

Janine could feel every impact against the shield, and she focused on those impacts, making the shield harder at those points.  As the attacks shifted, Janine's focus shifted with them.  The shield stood up to the attack much better, but there was a side-effect.  Janine could feel her tiredness in defending from these attacks building.  It wouldn't be long before sheer exhaustion would defeat her.

 

And that was when Jaydena called a halt to the day.  Janine couldn't remember ever being happier to return to her blankets.  Her fellow Green aspirants in the shared apartment area smiled sympathetically when Janine staggered in, greeted them shortly, and closed her room door behind her.  She barely made it out of her clothing before collapsing in exhaustion onto the bed, dress lying neglected on the floor.

 

After a fast breakfast, Janine returned to the practice grounds, lingering tiredness fading fast.  Jaydena was already there.  "Are you ready to continue?"

 

****

 

"...and that concludes the Air weaves," Jaydena finished.  Janine smiled softly, despite her tiredness.  A week solid of working Air, one of her strongest elements, had proven to be less difficult as the week wore on, but it was still tiring to do.  However, there was a small thrill of accomplishment.  She was one step closer to being able to claim her place as full Green Ajah.  That alone was worth fighting for.

[Jaydena]

Earth 1

 

Jaydena walked down to the training field in her favorite work out clothing, she hadn’t felt like much like wearing a dress today so she was wearing a pair of tight black breeches with embroidered vines up the side seams, knee high emerald green boots, a tight rear length green vest and a billowy lace cuffed pale green shirt. It wasn't a dress kind of day, with the erratic winds and occasional sprinkle. She had added a jaunty hat green velvet hat  to her head with a emerald brooch on it for the fun of it and was carrying her staff of rank, with the leaves twining down it. Heading down into the yard she saw that her student was already on the scene, in fact practicing the Air weaves she had learned the week before, as she approached she gave her a nod of respect. Janine was doing very well, she was already getting reports of her dedication and passion from many of her members and the fact that she stood here doing weaves was just a further sign of her dedication. The girl nodded in return to her and spoke, "Good morning. I am ready to start something new." She smiled at her and then spoke, “Good morning to you Janine, you are doing well. If you are indeed ready to begin, let's get started on the days practice. Today we will being working on Earth weaves, for the next while we will be concentrating on these weaves, until you can do them in your sleep and feel the need to mutter about them behind my back, hating me for being such a taskmaster and making you do them. Some of these weaves may be hard for you to do if your not strong in earth, if you need an angreal please by all means ask, I have one on my person that I brought for you. It is not a weakness in soul to be weak in Earth, it's a man's element and it's not normal for a woman to be strong in it."

 

Walking farther into the field with Janine at her side she continued, “The weave we will be learning today is, Riven Earth the use of this weave is to rend the earth around or in front of an enemy, it can be used as a excellent distraction when you need to gain time to retreat.” Embracing the source she faced the open part of the field and wove a arrow shaped weave with a slight amount of spirit and reinforced with fire at the tip, without the fire it would have had disasterous effects on the ground it hit. Once the weave was formed she sent it off with a quick burst of air and watched as it hit the targeted ground and explod the ground it hit. Turning back to the student she smiled and said, “Well your weave may not cause that kind of damage since I’m one of the strongest Aes Sedai in earth currently within the Towers but none the less it will do the job required of it.”

 

Stepping back from Janine she waited for her to begin practicing the weave, walking over to the wall with her long and graceful stride she squatted down and looked the girl over. She was doing well there was no doubt about, however she has seen more than one woman act confident through their battle weaves and then get themselves killed the first time they were on the field of battle. Sighing she stood up and headed over to the shed where she pulled out some more straw Trollocs. When she was finished she wove a air cushion and tyed it off before sitting on it to observe her recruit doing her best to become one of her dedicated green sisters. Reaching into the bag she had brought with she pulled out a glass bottle, with a cork in the top, wrapped in cloth to keep it warm, full of hot chocolate and began to drink out of it...

 

Jaydena Sedai

OOC: Riven Earth requires Earth 2, Fire 2, Skill 7.

 

Earth 2

 

When the recruit was done she released the weave hoding her cushion and headed over to the young Sedai, checking her face for any signs of fatigue she decided the girl was doing as well as could be expected and began the next weave. Nodding to the Janine she began to speak, “The next weave we will be working on is called Grenade, as you will I am sure, this weave can be very effective in the correct environment. I have used this many times during a fierce battle, not only does it inflict pain it is also a great distraction when dealing stupid trollocs. The Fades don't fall for it but that's fine, we have other way's to deal with them.” A fierce gleam lit her eyes as she thought of past battles and the smell of blood and death. Looking back at Janine she cleared her throat and pushed the thoughts of the long ago days out of her mind.

 

Reaching for the source she used her talent for delving and delved into the earth until she found the kind of rock she was looking for, she also noticed large areas of water and other minerals near it. Her talent could be very useful at times and she had even used it to find gems and gold for the White Tower many times in the past. Pulling the rock out of the ground she pulled it back toward her and then began to weave threads of Earth and Fire into it to form the intial charge, then making a fine net of earth she wove it completely around the rock and matched it up with the inner threads. The rock began to glow with a slight red and brown, several colors of that hue and began to emit a crackling noise that meant the weave was ready to be sent forth.

 

Shooting it as far as she could with a thread of air she watched with a sense of satisfaction as it exploded into many pieces, shooting rock bits in every directions. Looking out onto the field she smiled and remembered her own Battle Weaves with her ajah head Mandi Sedai, to say that she had been looking forward to the earth section of battle weaves would have been a major understatement. The class had been exciting and had made her even more sure of the choice she made so long, to become a Green and to fight the shadow until she died doing it. Turning back to her student she said, “Isn’t it great being a Green?” She chuckled at the womans response and then instructed her to begin. Nodding her head in satisfaction as she saw Janine begin to try the weave, she headed back over to the wall to watch her practice...

 

Jaydena Sedai

Ooc- Grenade (Earth 2, Fire 2, Skill 28

 

Earth 3

 

When Janine was done with that weave she stepped foward and looked over the damage done to the field. She reached into the ground with her talent again and delved, feeling for cracks and fissures, she straigtened the ground out as best she could and turned to Janine so they could move to the next weave, “This weave is known as Pitfall and requires a marginally greater strength in Earth than the last two weaves. Basically it amounts to creating a hole in the ground. Your ability and strength determines how big that hole will end up.” Embracing the source she quickly wove a narrow net of earth, strengthening it with Spirit on the surface of the ground in front of her. She let the weave settle and then pinched the middle of it downwards, into an arrow point. The ground began to fall in toward the weave and was very strong because of her strength in Earth. Jade tried not to cough as the dust rose up into the air around them.

 

Once the dirt has settled you could clearly see a large pit in the place her weave had settled, she smiled as she gazed down into her hole and said, “Sisters methods of weaving are as different as the sisters themselves, and sometimes the weaves are almost unrecognizable in the way they are laid down. Yet they all have the essential properties of the Pitfall weave. The Earth reinforced with Fire, the middle of the weave being the strongest point and so being the point best suited to drilling into the earth… and so on.” She turned away from the hole and said, “I didn’t use my full strength on this weave for I could have torn the ground in front of us apart and that wouldn’t have done at all. I think you can imagine how this could be used in battle. You may begin now, again if you need a angreal I will lend you one.” She headed over to her bag with the angreal inside and waited for the new recruit to begin...

 

OOC: Pitfall requires Earth 3 and Skill 5.

 

Jaydena Sedai