Pies for the MoN

[Phelix]

OOC: Amadine, m’dear, we all wanted to say thank you for all the hard work you’ve been doing as the MoNster for so many unruly novices and Accepted. You’re a real gem, and you should hear about it every so often. So, this silly RP is a bit out of character... but it’s meant for you.

 

IC: Elin sat out in the garden, her novice whites neatly tucked to avoid grass stains, and let the sun’s warmth soak into her. It was a lovely, early spring day, and Elin had nothing to do with herself. She was near the end of her studies as a novice, she was sure. She could weave the Power just as well as many Accepted, and she knew that she had learned most of the novice courses being taught this year. Perhaps it would be her time soon to be tested for the banded dress.

 

Thinking about the process that went into earning that dress lead Elin to think about the woman who would walk her through it. Valeri Sedai had been almost more of a mother to Elin than her own mother had been. She held Elin when the novice had to cry out her frustrations, and she forced Elin to live up to the standards the Tower set when Elin needed a bit of steel put into her spine. These years in the Tower would not have been what they were without Valeri.

 

How to show that though? It wouldn’t be appropriate to just walk up and tell her that... Valeri filled that role for every novice in the Tower. Then it hit her. She could bake!

 

Before coming to the Tower, she had been one daughter in a family of bakers... she had recipes stuffed in her brains to cover any goodie she could imagine. Thinking about it, though, Elin realized the best option would be a pie. Something with a tender, flaky crust that would be perfect served cold. Elin doubted she could bake something and sneak it into Valeri’s office while still hot.

 

That was it. Her plan was set. Tonight, after the kitchens closed down, she would sneak in and bake an apple pie for the Mistress of Novices.

 

After waiting for the halls to grow quiet, Elin slipped out her door. Of course, other doors sprang open immediately, but Elin shushed them. “I’m just going to do something nice for Valeri Sedai.”

 

That seemed to do the trick, as the other girls closed their doors and let her go on her way.

 

The kitchen was immense. It had to be, to feed the entire Tower, but Elin felt a bit overwhelmed as she debated where to get started. Her mother had always told her to take each task in small chunks to make the bigger parts fall into line, so Elin began by gathering the ingredients she would need.

 

Spices, flour, water, fat, apples, sugar, starch, and more... then she gathered the tools she would need. Bowls, a pie pan, a rolling pin, and the knives.

 

Then she got to work. Peeling, coring, and slicing the apples into neat pieces that would cook evenly, then sprinkling them with spices, starch, sugar, and a titch of acid from a lemon. After stirring it all together, Elin let the mixture sit while she considered the dough.

 

The flour and spices mixed well, and then she kneaded in the fat and a bit of water. Forcing the mixture into a paste, then folding it over and over itself until it began to form layers. After measuring it for the pan, she cut the dough in two, and formed one piece into the pan, making sure to poke small holes all across its bottom to avoid bubbling.

 

She set it in the oven to bake, letting the bottom crust get a head start on the rest of the pie. After it was ready, she pulled it out and poured in the apple mixture. The juice from the lemon and apples had mixed with the sugar and starch to make a sweet syrup, and she made sure to spread that over the rest of the apples. She mounded the fruit high, making a hill of fruit in the pie pan. Once the fruit was tightly packed, Elin laid the remaining crust over the pie and began fusing the edges together using her fingers. She turned the edges into a lovely braid that looked almost like the embroidered vines on the shawls worn by full sisters.

 

At the center of the pie’s crust, on top of the hill of fruit, Elin placed a cut-out piece of dough in the shape of the Flame of Tar Valon. Using a small knife, Elin cut out small pieces of dough in the shape of leaves, all leading away from the central Flame. Taking the dough she’d just cut away, Elin made it into small vines to join the leaves.

 

This pie was all about Aes Sedai, the fact that Valeri was helping them all get there.

 

While the pie baked, Elin allowed herself a small nap... but when the scent of cinnamon tickled her nose, Elin woke herself, knowing the pie was done. It came out perfectly, the slices of apple just visible through the cut out leaves. Elin let it rest, sitting on the counter, while she cleaned up her mess, washing her dishes, and doing her best to erase any trace of her impromptu baking.

 

Then she carried her illicit pastry up the stairs, hoping there weren’t any owlish Browns out and about. There was one close call as she came around a corner just in time to see a shawl passing around the other side of the hallway, leaving Elin alone. She waited just a heartbeat to make sure the sister didn’t come back.

 

When she arrived at Valeri’s office, Elin stretched out her senses to see if there were any wards on the door. There was one... but it seemed like it was designed to alert someone inside if there were guests outside the door. If that were the case, then anyone inside already knew Elin was here, so there was no use hiding. Carefully, Elin opened the door and slid inside. There wasn’t anyone inside.

 

Breathing a sigh of relief, Elin set the pie in the center of the desk... and realized she couldn’t just leave the pie without explanation. No one just ate food that was left for them... especially not the Mistress of Novices... who knows what foolish novice might try to Prank Valeri?

 

Taking a piece of thick paper, Elin wrote out in the blockiest letters she could: Valeri Sedai, this pie is a small token of thanks for all you do.

 

Hoping that was enough to disguise her role in this pie fiasco, Elin quickly snuck back to her room knowing that she still smelled of cinnamon and baked apples.

 

The next morning, the breakfast tables were abuzz. Valeri hadn’t been angry... she had asked around, and several of the novices were wondering who had done such an odd thing. Elin hoped the others would follow her cue and make something nice to show Valeri how much they appreciated her.

[Kelitor]

Ykoria swept rapidly along the spiraling halls of the White Tower, her white skirts swishing out behind her with the speed of her passage. She, like all the Novices and Accepted, had heard the story of the pies that had shown up anonymously. And everyone starts babbling like geese about how they could one up the anonymous baker Novice, she thinks with a snort.

 

Fortunately, Ykoria Eranyame, of Mayene, and daughter of the trusted servants who kept the First's library, was much more intelligent than some of the girls out there. She sniffed at the thought as she rounded a bend. While there wasn't anything she had against altruist, (she had read more than enough philosophy to know that it was one of the bindings of civilized society) she didn't understand the pies. It was a good gesture, but one that would have landed the perpetrator in deep trouble if she'd been caught (no one would believe a Novice claiming to have snuck into the kitchens to altruistically bake a pie for someone else!).

 

Thus, Ykoria thought with a smirk, I'll do something more useful.

 

Ykoria, having last been to the Mistress of Novice's study a week ago to receive some news from home, had noted that she had begun the laborious task of copying the massive Novice book into folios, which would be filed in some Depository of Tower records, alongside, most likely, thousands upon thousands of identical folios. She'd managed to bring up the question to an Accepted, rumored to be wishing to choose the Gray, who taught a class on the laws of Tar Valon. The Accepted had absently told her that Tower law required the Mistress of Novices, whenever the Novice book neared filling, she was required to duplicate its contents for redundancy in record keeping.

 

And so, Ykoria saw her chance! That ancient tome was enormous, and it was just poor luck that Valeri Sedai was Mistress of Novices when the book finally neared filling. There were thousands of entries in the book, probably dating back at least a century or two. There was much Ykoria could learn from the book, mainly the ages and origins of her superiors. She let her smirk grow into a satisfied smile as she neared the door to Valeri Sedia's study.

 

Like most doors in the Tower, it wasn't kept locked, there was nothing in there that anyone would want, or dare, to steal. The only item that might be worth altering, the punishment book, was kept locked out of sight when the Mistress of Novices wasn't using it.

 

So Ykoria slipped into the room quietly. Closing the door to a crack, she glanced out of it guiltily, to make sure the course was clear, then imagined herself opening, a flower to the sun. At first, nothing happened, but then glorious Saidar flooded her. Forbidden, but nothing that Novices didn't do anyways. Nonetheless, she hurriedly lit the desk lamp with a careful thread of Fire and released the True Source, just in case.

 

And there it was, the Novice book, lying open to a page near the begging, marked at the place where Valeri Sedia had paused, her copy close by. Ykoria smiled contentedly as she sat in the chair across the desk, turning the Novice book and pulling it towards her and pulling out her ink jar, setting to work.

 

It was, she found, long, tedious, and boring work. But it was work that she'd been raised doing, and her hand flew across the page in a strong, clear hand. She only paused when she found a name she recognized, to commit it to memory. Finally, a few hours later, Valeri Sedai's place in the Novice books markedly advanced, and the folio much fuller, she capped her ink jar with a smug satisfaction, blew out the lamp, and hurried out to sneak back to the Novice quarters.