Hello, all! A pleasure to start playing here; I look forward to interacting with everyone!

Maryam stepped forward into the room and momentarily gaped. The room had a sense about it of great age, and it struck her that her mother must have come here as well. Swallowing the lump suddenly rising in her throat, she locked eyes on the woman behind the desk, the one who almost certainly had moved the door. Dropping into a deep curtsey, the young girl studied the woman's face. Strangely, she couldn't put an age to her. "Th-thank you for seeing me, Mistress of Novices Sedai. I am come from Kirgard in Murandy with a letter from my gram, and a question, if it pleases you, Aes Sedai." Realizing she was still squatting in the curtsey, Maryam rose and thrust the letter toward the other woman, and nearly shouted with a note of panic in her voice. Light, she'd felt so calm just a moment before. "Aes Sedai, what happened to my mother? Her name is Magrath Aldevwin and she came to the tower and we got a letter saying she'd died but it didn't say what happened and we got a bit of silver which was nice but not really necessary though it paid for me to take an apprenticeship as a maid and then gram..." Realizing she was gabbling, Maryam shut her mouth and blinked away the tears that were threatening to form.

The letter, seal still unbroken, says, "To the present Mistress of Novices, I am writing to inform you that the girl bearing this letter has been tested and has the ability to learn to channel. I have sent her to you because I wish to avoid any appearance of collusion or community with other women with the gift, and because she deserves a chance to learn. I beg for you to tell her of her mother, for while I have my suspicions, I could not bring myself to share them with Maryam. Please, Aes Sedai. This girl is the best of my life, and all I have left. I plead with you to grant her the same opportunity that I was not strong enough to bear. Signed in the Light, Ceilidh Aldevwin, Accepted of the White Tower."

((Ceilidh was an initiate a hundred years ago or so, and rose to accepted, but was not strong enough to become Aes Sedai, and so was put out of the Tower. Magrath was a novice 14 years ago, and about eight years after that, never came out of the arches her second time. If that's cool with you.))

As Maryam rode the bay mare onto the ferry that would take her across the Erinin, she stared up with wide eyes at the spire driving boldly into the sky, and the terrible smoking mountain behind. Light, the mountain dwarfed anything she'd seen in Murandy or any of the lands intervening. She jerked the reins with a start as the gruff ferryman growled, "Girl!" for the third time, then grunted in annoyance and then some concern as the mare pulled back at the bit. Relieved when the annoyed ferryman grabbed the reins from her and took control, she slipped off the mare, dismounting rather awkwardly, and looked up into the face of the man scowling down at her. A nasty scar pulled the side of his mouth down into a permanent frown, and Maryam realized that the fellow wasn't actually grimacing at all. Venturing a weak smile, she reached into her pouch and pulled out a silver Cairhienin mark, handing it over to the man.

"What's your name, girl?" The man really wasn't that hideous now that she saw him clearly. He wasn't. His face was lined, and there was that scar, but she wasn't some goose squawking from the nest. Clearing her throat, she took a breath, then yelped as the ferry slid out into the water, the polemen guiding it across the river. "M-maryam, good sir. Maryam Aldevwin, sir. And yours?"

The old fellow looked up at the mare and patted her on the neck gently. "Name's Cotter, Maryam Aldevwin. I reckon you're champing at the bit to be Aes Sedai?"

Maryam jerked her head back from the plume of smoke rising from the top of Dragonmount, and turned a startled glance at Cotter. "What? No. No. I do go to ask a question, that's all. I cannot channel the One Power, Master Cotter." Blushing at the thought, she swallowed and rather pointedly turned to stare back at the mountain. Cotter, never one for pressing an unwelcome conversation, concentrated on the horse.

Thanking Cotter, Maryam put her foot in the stirrup and mounted unsteadily, clopping off of the ferry and onto Tar Valon, relieved to be off the riverboat. Not turning to look back, she rode slowly up the road toward the Tower, staring with wonder at the beautiful town, Ogier constuction occasionally taking her breath away. Finally reaching the Tower stables, she dismounted, gave a coin to the stableboy, and took up her pack, striding up the wide walkway into the Tower, the seat of ultimate power in the world, and goggled. The room was... fantastic. Beyond belief.

Maryam was staring up at the masterful painting on the ceiling when she felt a tug at her sleeve. Turning a bit awkwardly, Maryam dipped into a deep curtsey, and murmured, "Good morning, Aes Sedai." Glancing up from the curtsey, she looked into the rather annoyed eyes of a short, stocky young woman in a white dress with an odd banding of colors on the hem, and smiled uncertainly.

The other woman sighed and began to speak, her tone denoting utter boredom. "I'm not Aes Sedai, girl. If you're here looking for your sister or cousin, go over there and talk to her." The young woman tossed her head, sending a sensuous wave of dark curls over her shoulder, and gestured to a graceful looking Domani in a high-necked green gown, then continued, "If you're here for work, go outside, around to the servant's gate, and speak with Carldrin Salmere. If you're here to be tested, you'll need to wait over there for someone to get you to see Pia Sedai. If you're here for a petition, you want..." The girl blinked in some surprise when Maryam interrupted the litany. "Yes, Aes... uh... ma'am. I'm here to see the Mistress of Novices. I have a letter I am supposed to deliver into her hand and stay present while she reads it, and I've a question for her. Is... is there a line for that?"

Three hours later, a short girl with a bold nose stepped out of the hallway, holding a clipboard in her left hand, the golden serpent biting its tail gleaming on the third finger. She glared for a moment back down the hallway, then looked down at the clipboard, and called out, "Maryam Aldevwin, come with me." Maryam rose, approached the girl, and curtseyed. "Thank you, Aes Sedai, I..." She stopped abruptly when the Accepted gripped her skirts, and frowned down at Maryam. "Accepted, Maryam. The dress means I'm Accepted, not Aes Sedai. You don't need to curtsey to me. Pia Sedai will see you now. Don't be afraid. It doesn't hurt." Turning, the accepted turned to walk into the hallway, and Maryam hurriedly rose, shouldering her pack as she followed, stopping in front of the plain door.