Nakor's Trial

[Covai Seriba]

Covai sat on the top of the stack of firewood leaning against the wall of the inn, munching on a roll stuffed with beef and cheese as he looked up at the clear blue sky. Storm Leader of the Black Tower he may be, but he certainly didn’t look it at that moment. Taking a sip from the wineskin at his hip, Covai washed the food down as someone came through the back of the inn.

 

Shielding his eyes from the sun, Covai took a look to see who it was. It was about time Nakor showed up. Covai had told the Dedicated to meet him outside the Inn after lunch. The man had been making good progress during his time at the Tower. Today Covai would be finding out just how good that progress was.

 

Whistling, Covai got the fellow's attention and waved him over. Rolling his eyes as the Dedicated saluted, Covai shook his head and motioned the man to relax. "Take it easy, I'm not hear to tear you to sheads or anything. Here.... catch." Covai took the winskin and tosssed it to the man. "Have a drink.â€

 

"All right, it’s time to see just how far you’ve come along in your training Nakor. You've now reached a stage where you’re deemed, and have shown yourself to be capable of handling each of the five elements of Saidin in simple circumstances, under supervision, having been shown what to do, step by step, in order, over and over, each day, on numerous occasions, at all hours... And its time to kick your training up a notch. But first some simple revision. "

 

Dropping from the stack of wood, Covai shoved the rest of the roll into his mouth and seized the source. Moving his hands as he worked, Covai shaped the earth to create a stone manikin roughly the same size as the Dedicated. "So you see how its done?" Covai asked the Dedicated standing opposite him. "Just grab hold of the earth, and push, pull, tug, squeeze or whatever" Covai shruggged "Until its in the shape you want." Wiping his hands of the matter as the Dedicated nodded, Covai released the source and motioned for Nakor to try for himself.

 

Finishing off the food in his mouth as he waited, Covai nodded his approval once Nakor had created his own manikin. The man seemed to have the right idea, but Covai doubted he had made many life sized objects before. "Well, now that thats over, I'll be showing you how to blow stuff up." Covai raised his eyebrows a few times in what looked like enthusiasim. Truth be told, he simply had an itch that was starting to annoy him.

 

Pushing the irritation from his mind, Covai reseized the source and stretched out his hand palm up, forming a thread of red fire. Twisting it into a circle, Covai gave it a little tug and started feeding more power into it, letting it grow in size and intensity. "Now this, is a fireball." Covai showed it to the Dedicated....by making it dart to within an inch of his face.

 

"Now, remember your mother telling you not to play with fire?" Covai asked as he walked a few paces away from the manikins. Nakor nodded stiffly as he followed, seemingly unimpressed with Covai’s stunt. "Ignore what they told you. Truth be told, there's something empowering about being able to set random objects of fire. Looks cool too." Covai commented as he spun around and sent the ball into the middle of the manikin, baking it where it stood. "See?â€

 

"Clear your mind and sieze the source" Covai instructed Nakor, becoming serious once again. "Now, single of the element of fire. There are two ways to do this. Either from a single thread and form it into a circle, or concentrate it all in one point. It works easier if you focus above the palm of your hand. Pretend it's a ball you're holding. Either way, once you've got the thread formed, Feed it until it becomes a sphere, a ball of fire. Dont worry about making it too big, or you'll burning your hand at this stage, just make it as big as feels comfortable to sustain. Then, once you've formed in, raise your hand with the flame just above it, to show me what you've done. Now try it. You have done this before after all"

 

Picking up an stone from the ground as Nakor’s fireball formed, Covai began rolling the stone in his hand as he nodded for the Dedicated to throw the fireball. Watching as the left arm and shoulder of the manikin hit, Covai was impressed with the charred markings left behind. The man was no weakling, despite his physical appearance.

 

"I'll be testing you later on your aim. Its harder than it looks to hit a moving target. But thats for later..."

 

Holding out the stone he had been rolling in his palm, Covai spoke "Watch.." Weaving fire wrapped in earth and a small trace of spirit into the stone, Covai waited until the stone started to almost pulse. Then, quickly throwing it between the mankins, he wove a shield of air around himself and Nakor in time to watch the stone explode, blowing a leg off the manikin and causing it to topple to the ground with a thud.

 

Letting go of the shield, Covai faced Nakor to explain. "Grenade. Infuse something with enough heat fast enough and it will explode. That what the fire in the weave was for. The earth helps contain the explosion for a limited time as does the spirit. The weave can be done without spirit, but I've found it makes it a little harder to make the timing of the explosion reliable." Picking up another stone from the ground, Covai tossed it to Nakor.

 

"Take it easy to start. This is a very simple weave, but I don’t want you blowing off your hand just because you made a mistake. I don’t want you to try anything big until after five or six goes, and you're feeling comfortable with the timing. After that you can make something impressive." Weaving earth, Covai make a pitfall just beside the two of them.

 

"Toss them into there for now. That way if something does go wrong we're shielded. I suggest averting your eyes when it explodes as well. The last thing we want is a bright flash or flying dirt to blind you." Covai shrugged. "That or a rock could pierce through your head."

[Asfaloth]

OOC: You wrote Onyx instead of Nakor a few times so I took the liberty of fixing it for you. Thanks for helping get me through the training.

 

IC: After nearly a year at the Black Tower Nakor was growing more confident in himself but he still preferred to do his fitness routine at a time and place when he would be noticed by as few people as possible. He was the smallest man at the Tower and while he knew strength and skill with Saidin were more important here, it was still hard not to feel as though the others looked down on him for his size. That's why he was up and dressed a full two hours before the sun. He went to a nearby break in the wall that would someday soon encompass the whole of the Black Tower. Slipping through to the outer side of the wall Nakor stretched tired muscles and began to run.

 

He ran as close to the wall as possible, the flat black of his uniform aiding his desire to hide in the shadows. With a hood to cover the white streak in his hair, and the training he'd been putting himself through, he became a shadow. The chances of anyone seeing him were slim, the chances of being noticed if they did see him even smaller. He felt confident that he could just as easily conceal himself in daylight but this darkness afforded him more freedom.

 

He knew many here thought him lazy since they'd never seen him workout but the truth was that he had developed a body that, while small, was lithe and trim and packed with more muscle than his peers would believe possible. He knew they underestimated him but he was nearly to the point that he didn't care any longer. He was in the process of convincing himself that it didn't matter and that being underestimated would be a benefit someday.

 

These thoughts and more cycled through his brain as he circled the Tower ten times and returned to the house he shared with nine other Dedicated. In a clearing behind the house he completed his workout as he thought ahead to what the day would bring. In the last few months since he'd been promoted to Dedicated he'd had precious little time for training. Between teaching classes to Soldiers and accompanying the Ashaman on recruiting trips he'd been unable to join any of the classes along with the other Dedicated. He'd begun to despair of ever earning the dragon pin.

 

Last night he'd decided it was time he did something about it. He'd found Covai Seriba, the Ashaman in charge of training and explained his situation. Stating that it wasn't so much that he didn't like teaching classes or recruiting, rather enjoying both as he loved to help those both above and below him, he needed more. He needed training. He needed to become an Ashaman so he could serve the Dragon Reborn. Covai had agreed to teach him and had said for Nakor to meet him at outside the inn after lunch.

 

Nakor spent the hours from dawn until lunch in the infirmary trying to learn through observation the weaves that were used for healing without getting in the way. Lately he'd discovered a desire to heal that was nearly as strong as his desire to serve the Dragon. It was strange that he'd spent so much time learning weaves to kill and suddenly found a desire to heal that was stronger than any zeal he experienced with battle weaves.

 

Shortly before noon He made his way to the inn for a quick meal and then went around to the back to look for his instructor. Finally he saw Covai stitting atop a pile of firewood and waving him over. Nakor saluted and Covai laughed and rolled his eyes. Covai summarized his training thus far and then said that today would bring a change in the methodology of that training Then he shaped a manikin out of the earth and signaled that Nakor should do the same.

 

Nakor wrapped himself in the Void and reached to seixe the source. It was nowhere near the struggel it had been when he'd first come to the Tower but it still made his stomach turn to touch the Taint. He grabbed the flows of Earth as though they were skeins of thread and he a tailor, weaving them around and through the ground before him and shaping it into a manikin of a similar size and shape as Covai's next to him. This was mere child's play, he'd been making these for months now for use in the classes he taught the Soldiers. It was a little bigger than he usually made them but it took surprisingly little more strength or energy to accomplish.

 

After another quick demonstration and some basic instruction Covai asked him to make a fireball to fling at the manikin he had made. And Covai was right, Nakor had done this before, several times in fact. Truth is he had even taught this lesson to the Soldiers but, as with the manikin, it seemed Covai wanted a demonstration of Nakor's current skill level before he would teach him anything new. Very well. Nakor held up his palm and concentrated as he sparked a flame and fed more and more Fire into it to make it grow in size. Just before hurling it at its target he focused and made it even larger then watched as it soared through the air. Unfortunately, when he should have been aiming he had been attempting to prove himself with the size of his fireball and so it hit the left side of the manikin instead of dead center as he had intended.

"I'll be testing you later on your aim. Its harder than it looks to hit a moving target. But thats for later...watch." Covai then threw a small stone toward the manikins and Nakor noticed it pulsing as it soared right before it exploded, sending bits of dirt and stone right at them, though they bounced off of the Shield Covai had raised around them.

 

"Grenade. Infuse something with enough heat fast enough and it will explode. That what the fire in the weave was for. The earth helps contain the explosion for a limited time as does the spirit. The weave can be done without spirit, but I've found it makes it a little harder to make the timing of the explosion reliable." Ah, finally something new in the lesson.

 

"Take it easy to start. This is a very simple weave, but I don’t want you blowing off your hand just because you made a mistake. I don’t want you to try anything big until after five or six goes, and you're feeling comfortable with the timing. After that you can make something impressive." Then Covai used the Power to open up a pit in the ground before them.

 

"Toss them into there for now. That way if something does go wrong we're shielded. I suggest averting your eyes when it explodes as well. The last thing we want is a bright flash or flying dirt to blind you. That or a rock could pierce through your head."

 

Now this was interesting. And right up Nakor's alley as he preferred any weave that showed the promise of being effective at a distance with none the wiser as to who was responsible. He took the stone Covai had tossed him and wove flows of Fire and Earth into it, heating the small stone from the inside out then added a small amount of Spirit as a holding source before throwing it into the pit. The explosion was deafening, and much louder than Nakor had expected from such a small stone. But he thought he had the idea now. This was rather fun. For his next few attempts he chose a larger stone and was pleased to discover his hypotheses ran true. The amount of Fire determined the size of the explosion, but more Earth produced more shrapnel, thus leading to much more damage than the Fire alone.

 

He played around with varying amounts of Spirit as well. To a point, an increase in Spirit led to an increase in time before the explosion. But, past that threshold, any more Spirit simply caused it not to explode at all. It was left with all the potential but none of the explosion.

 

This gave him an idea. Choosing another stone from the ground he used Air to raise it from the dirt and into his hand. For this test he wove into it a very small amount of Fire and Earth, just enough to produce an explosion, and an extra large amount of Spirit before tossing it down into the hole. Seeing that it didn't explode he allowed a smile to creep across his face. He knew Covai must think he had failed but so far it was going just as he planned. He used Earth to shape a foot from the dirt and sent it into the hole as well. This test would do with even a simple stick but he used the foot-shaped mud to better demonstrate the purpose of his new grenade. When the foot landed on the stone grenade he had just made, it proved his suspicion that these grenades instilled with extra Spirit still had just as much explosive power. He turned to see what Covai thought of his work.

[Covai Seriba]

Covai couldn't help but grin. "Smart arse." Truth be told it was a interesting version of the weave. Damn rude and dangerous, but Covai was already thinking of the potential the weave could have on the battle field.

 

Turning to the Dedicated, Covai decided to move onto the next step. "Okay, that was good. Now that you've shown some inginuity, I've got some questions for you. I want you to give me a way to kill a man using each of the five elements by themselves. Also, tell me how you can use each element to kill a man without leaving any trace that Saidin was involved. You'll soon learn that some situations call for tact, rather than brute force."

[Asfaloth]

"Well I'll answer with the easiest first," Nakor replied to the Storm Leader's question, leaving out that he'd be doing so to give himself time to come up with answers to the harder ones. "Despite being overdone, I'd still go with a basic inferno thread to burn the victim alive if I wanted to kill with just Fire and didn't care about hiding it. On the other hand, if I did want to conceal my presence, I discovered awhile ago that if one has the skill Fire can be used in a much more subtle way within the very blood stream. You can heat the blood to boiling until it bursts from within and floods the body. If done right there are no visible signs and it's completely undetectable.

 

"The next simplest would be Water. The not-so-subtle approach would be to draw water out of the air and encase the victim in it until they drowned. Personally, I think that's a bit sloppy as it leaves way too much of a mess to clean up. If I were to kill with Water I would rather draw the water right into their lungs, much less mess that way.

 

"Using Air by itself in a battle setting I would simply soldify the air above and around the chosen victim until they were crushed. If I were by myself in an assasination or otherwise stealth-related mission though, I would choose something very different indeed. As Soldiers even we are taught how to make a wall of Air. This is usually used in large scale settings and pranks but of course, it doesn't have to be so powerful to be effective. With less power and more skill much can be acheived. Tiny walls of Air can be used to block off the nasal passges and mouth of a victim, suffocating them with no marks or other clue as to how it happened."

 

Pausing a moment to quickly form another manikin Nakor continued, "Now, Earth. My preferred method if I were to kill with this element alone--at least in battle-would be Caltrops, like so." Nakor then caused several spikes to burst up from the ground, piercing through his manikin. "As for subtle? Well, I can think of several things to do with Earth in combination with others subtly but none with just Earth. I apologize Sir, it seems my training must have been lax."

 

After stalling Nakor had come up with some uses for Spirit that would hopefully be good enough. "As for Spirit? Well, I've always thought it would be fun to use a gateway to cut someone into pieces. Of course, Spirit could also be used to send someone to sleep. Yes, yes, we've all done it but with an added push that sleep could be made permanent."

 

Nakor waited patiently to see how his answers would be recieved. He was confident enough in himself ordinarily, but he needed to impress Covai if he was to have any chance of earning the dragon pin.

[Covai Seriba]

Covai nodded and scratched the back of his head as he looked at the Dedicated. "Vicious little bugger aint ya?" Looking at Nakor's damaged manikin Covai shrugged. "You got the first part of the question right, but I'd have to mark you off on some of your second parts."

 

"The whole point of making it seem that Saidin was never involved is so that the Black Tower doesn't stand out as suspects. People are suspicious of us as it is, and having someone crushed with nothing actually on top of them or drowning when water is nowhere near by cries of foul play." Covai tilted his head to the side slightly. "Makes sense?"

 

"Now I'll go through each of your ideas for the elements."

 

"With fire you've got the idea. The only point I have with your second idea is be careful when you do it. When somebody suddenly starts jerking and running round in pain from their blood it gets damn hard to keep a subtle thread like that going. You could easily end up piercing skin or leaving massive burn marks on their flesh. So be careful."

 

"Water, whilst you've got some nice ideas, for most Asha'man they are difficult to do. Our strengths lie with Fire and Earth. I doubt even I have the strength to encase a victim in water like you suggested. Besides, why encase the entire victim when their mouth and nose are the only parts you need to drown? Your second idea is not only more realistic, it also takes a lot less effort, assuming you don't miss where their lungs are of course."

 

"Air, I've mentioned is another element we're not particularly strong in. True, a Shield of Air is amongst our most common defensive weaves, but it still takes a good amount of effort to make one. And to tell you the true, a strong enough fire or earth attack would shatter straight through it."

 

"But thats getting side tracked. Your idea of crushing someone with air has merit, but actually summoning the strength in air on that scale is again, not something most Asha'man can do. In a battle setting a simple blade of air across the throat would be much easier."

 

"And your idea for blocking of the nose and mouth does hold merit. The main question for you is whether its easier to maintain three tiny weaves with pinpoint accuracy at the same time, or hold one bigger weave over their whole face. Like with the fire ball I showed you, they both work, its just a matter of preference."

 

"As for subtly with earth? How many times have you woven pitfall as a soldier? Its not that uncommon for someone to trip on a whole and bang their head on a, rather conviently place, sharp rock."

 

"Now as for sending someone to sleep with spirit, Dalinar and Sheckid are the only ones, besides maybe Andar, who I know of that are skilled enough to put people to sleep with spirit. Just know that a weave can be done isn't the same as knowing HOW to do it. And I'm a bit surprised to hear you say you've done it. Just who was it you used the weave on?"

[Asfaloth]

The Storm Leader made several salient points as he tore through Nakor's answers. And yet, it seemed at least a few of them had impressed the man. That was good. In fact, it was very good. Covai was the second highest ranked Ashaman here at the Black Tower and if Nakor could impress him he knew he'd earn his Dragon pin. But he also knew that Covai did not impress easily. If he was to succeed this day he would have to be very careful how he answered the man's questions, and how he performed.

 

"Who did I use it on? Well, truth is I've used it several times on roommates to insure a good night's sleep for myself. Please don't be mad Sir. I learned back when I was a Soldier. iw as working in the infirmary and saw the M'Hael use the weave to ease a patient to help him heal. I thought at the time that the weave would be extremely useful and set about teaching myself how to do it based on my observations."

 

At this Nakor saw a spark of anger in Covai's eyes and hastened to add, "Oh, I didn't practice on people Sir. I never used it on another person until I was sure I could do it correctly without hurting anyone. I started off practicing on rodents in the forest. The first few attempts ended poorly but eventually I got it right. Still not trusting myself yet though, I began practicing on larger and larger animals. When I was able to do it successfully on not one but two horses I knew I was ready to show the M'Hael.

 

"I planned then to demonstrate for him so he could test me and make sure I would not hurt anyone with the weave and then I was going to volunteer to help in the infirmary so he and the other healers could save their energy for Healing and leave the sleep weave to me. But that meeting never happened. The night before I planned to meet with him one of my roommates was talking incessantly. I'm ashamed to say I lost my temper and used the new weave I'd been working on before I could stop myself. I'm just glad that it was that weave and not something else, though that was probably only because I'd been working on it so much lately.

 

"Suffice to say the weave worked and I no longer saw the need to meet with the M'Hael. Besides which, the next day he was too busy to see a Soldier like me and by the time I could have met with him I'd lost the nerve. Since then I've used it only rarely and only when absolutely neccessary. Even then I've kept myself to doing it only when others would benefit besides just myself."

 

Having confessed his trangression and explained himself as best he could Nakor waited to see how Covai would respond.

[Covai Seriba]

Covai gave a mental shrug at the Dedicated's explanation. Truth or not, it didn't really matter. Everyone had their own secrets, and these men couldn't be expected to become weapons without a little experimentation now and then. The Creator only knew how many of Covai's experiments had gone wrong during his earlier years at the Tower.

 

Releasing the source, Covai sat down on the ground his arms resting on his crossed legs as he nodded for Nakor to do the same. Looking the man straight in the eye, Covai spoke what could be the final question he had for the man today.

 

"Now tell me, just why is it you should become Asha'man? What gain will there be to the tower, and what gain is there in it for you?"

[Asfaloth]

What an interesting question. Why did he want to become an Asha'man? He hadn't been prepared for this question at all. He had been expecting instead to simply prove he'd finished this portion of his training and then go from there. And yet, it wasn't all that hard to come up with a response once he gave it a moment's consideration. "I want to become an Asha'man so I can serve the Dragon Reborn. Yes, I know I serve him now, but with the rank of Asha'man also comes the freedom to serve in the ways I feel best suited to my unique talents and abilities. It would also grant me the oppurtunity to teach, train, and recruit others to serve the Lord Dragon."

 

There was more to it than that though. How to explain what he needed to say. How was he to put into words the deep-seated need he had to serve and to better himself, to rise in rank and authority the way he would have done had he stayed home? "The tower will gain the leadership skils and training that I was granted and practiced in long before coming here. The Tower would have my abilities at their full potential, available for whatever purpose the leaders like yourself saw fit."

 

"For myself, I would gain the rank and authority to lead men into battle as I was trained to do from a young age, albeit a different kind of battle. Within the responsibilities that come with that rank though I would also have more freedom than I do now to pursue training and to study Healing."