Ice in their veins ((open))

[Maurelle]

Tyr sat quietly on the snow covered log, looking more like a wraith among the white snow than a man. Eyes the color of ripe chestnuts followed the movements of the others around the Farm. Tyr was not adverse to the company of others and quite enjoyed the odd sense of community that was present here, but went dealing with something new he preferred quiet. Learning how to deliberately seize saidin had been the first thing pounded into him-sometimes literally as they tried to teach him to do so despite distractions. An icy breeze cut through the unrelenting black of his uniform and ruffled the veil over his face. The musical tinkling of the medallions along his cheek bones soothed him. His eyes closed as he sought the emptiness within him that allowed him to touch the male half of the source. He felt at once like a rope walker he had once seen as part of a traveling show-balanced on a knife's edge juggling ice in one hand and fire in the other. Even the feeling of the bitter cold dissipated in that rush of power. But the taint was there as well. It almost felt like he had dipped himself in rancid olive oil-both thick and slick at the same time. The first few times it had been enough for him to loose his grip on the power and left him on his knees dry heaving. Now it just caused him to grind his back teeth.

 

Full of saidin, he sat there with his eyes closed. He needed practice. Tyr had gotten good enough over the past weeks that he could tell the different elements of a weave, but his replications were flawed. Anything involving more than a bare drop of either air or water were beyond him somehow. So he decided to work within his strengths-namely earth and fire. He rose and cleared an area of snow before sitting back down. Gently, he sent the thread of earth into the barren ground. He added more and weaved them together, sweat beginning to collect around his collar and across the bridge of his nose. He had never tried such a complex version of this weave. It was called shaping; a way to use the One Power to create earth creations just like kids did on the seashore. Slowly, the dirt around him changed shape until a brown dirt version of his sister stared back at him with dead earthen eyes. Pain at the sight of her had him using the weave to change the earthen sculpture into an olive tree. The corner of his mouth quirked up as he looked at the image of the plant he had centered so much of his life around.