Now, Chucky might like having a Req waived for Bennu.

Special planning boards are fun! And not just because that means I'm causing someone else to do more work! :devil:

Her head still ringing from the snapping of her weave, Elin formed the slicing weave of Spirit and Fire. It felt right, and the weave moved where she directed it smoothly, then she saw the first shield coming at her, slowly as if it were a cloud drifting toward her, seeking to block the sun and saidar from her. She sliced it cleanly, and then saw the club of air coming her way. It was moving slightly faster, and behind it, Elin saw another shield coming. Lining them up just right in her mind's eye, she sliced both weaves with a single motion. She wasn't sure, but Elin thought she saw a smile of approval on the Domani's face.

Next there were two clubs of air, coming from different angles at different speeds, with a shield coming a beat behind them. They were all still moving at a steady pace, and Elin was able to slice all three before they connected. Then she saw two shields coming from different trajectories, both flanked by clubs of air. The assault on the right was moving faster than the other, so Elin sliced those weaves first, and turned back to her left just as one of the clubs of air made contact with her gut. While it did knock the air out of her, Elin made herself keep to her feet, and she successfully sliced the remaining flows.

The club of air hadn't been gentle, but it hadn't hurt much more than her pride.

As she breathed, gasping air in and out while trying to maintain the dignity one expects of Accepted who wish to become Aes Sedai, Elin saw new weaves forming. Still only two shields, but they each had three clubs of air now, and they were moving at varying speeds. Suddenly, it occurred to Elin that if the Aes Sedai can weave and hold multiple attacks, she could defend with multiple slicing weaves. With a small grin of satisfaction, Elin wove two more fire-tinged weaves of spirit, and she set about defending herself.

When her defense showed itself to be effective, the attacks came faster. While she had three slicing weaves spinning in the air like mad, attempting to destroy all the clubs of air and, more importantly, the shields, some still made it through. Moving slowly, the clubs were enough to knock the air from her lungs. At speed, they almost knocked her flat on her back... but she refused to stop spinning her defense. At one point, a shield made it through, and Elin could feel the Power being denied her, so she pulled one slicing weave back from the defense line, and carefully used it to remove the shield that was blocking the flow of the Power into her.

Sweat was beginning to flow down Elin's face and back, but she would not give up. This was something she could do; something she would do. Breaking her block had taught her that there are times to give up, times when you simply cannot do what is asked of you... and then there are times when you must keep doing, even though it is hard. She knew that she would have bruises from the clubs of air, but she also knew that if this were truly a fight to capture a rogue channeler, it wouldn't be bruising clubs of air that landed on her body, but rather deadly weaves that would do much more than knock her off her feet.

Her money safely in the bank, Gera made her way to the White Tower. The buildings all throughout the city were glamorous, though some more so than others. Those that stood out had no equal in the rest of the world. Gera had lived in Cairhien with its fabled topless towers, but even those did not compare with the buildings of Tar Valon. Some mimicked crashing waves, mountains, and even animals. One she vowed to return to at a later date was a bookstore that looked like a cat curled and purring.

As she moved through the city, Gera couldn’t help but notice potential informants. There a lounging groom who looked just honest enough to keep his word, if paid for it. Here a maid shopping for produce with a light purse, and so selecting second best produce and unhappy about it. There a seamstress... seamstresses don’t need a reason to sell information, they just do it.

Making mental notes, she promised herself that she would come back once she was Aes Sedai to actually make those connections and buy them into her service.

At the Tower, she was shown to the door of the Mistress of Novices’ office. Outside the office, Gera steeled herself. If she went through with this, she would no longer be the head of her own life. She would not give orders, but would take them. Walking through the Tower, she had seen women wearing white, some wearing white with bands of color, and some wearing silks and other fine cloths. Those in white bowed to all others, and all bowed to those in silks or other fine clothing. Those with the bands seemed to be in the middle, which implied they were a rank one achieved after time in the Tower. She had headed her own web of informants for decades before leaving it all to come to the Tower, and throughout those years people died if they did not obey her. Now she would be back at the bottom of the heap, where she was before she was head of her web.

When she knocked on the door, she heard the command to ‘come’ and Gera pulled herself up and entered the office. For a time, she would submit... but soon, she would be an Aes Sedai, and she would be free to build a global network to rival any other informant web ever before seen. Soon.

“Good Afternoon Aes Sedai, I was told to speak with you regarding entering my name onto the Novice rolls.” She spoke the words, knowing they were bitter, but hiding it from her face. One did not show emotions like bitterness or irritation when one was making a first impression. Gera had a feeling this old Aes Sedai would have a significant impact on how quickly, and how pleasantly, the next few years passed for the new novice.

Gotta love making everyone happy.

(on a side note, I sent back Gera's strength/skill break down... is it OK if I post her arrival for the Old Biddy to receive?)

Well, it was more a case of "you do this job for us that's about 50 times the amount of work of 1 req and we'll give you credit for ... 1 req" ... it's the kind of heads I win tails you lose situation I like

Having heard your idea... I'm down for the extra work. It'll be fun.

Though, if Elin or Gera should happen to suddenly sprout a few extra skill points, I wouldn't complain....

... I'm guessing you're not going to need that special req we were going to offer you and a few others, then :P

Special req? If it's fun, I can delay... hold off on posting my final reply to teaching my novices. :devil:

Or just continue being an Accepted until it's done. I likes being special......

Gonna get some cookies! (I'm half-way done with my reqs for Accepted! Yay! 1 Solo post done, three posts into both teaching and taking a class... hee! Ama, you might want to get that Accepted Quiz ready for Elin!)

Watching Rochel Sedai weave the shield again, Elin knew she had the weave perfectly memorized. She also knew that she would never accidentally sharpen the edge of this weave... if she ever needed to sharpen that edge, she would do it deliberately.

After demonstrating the weave one more time, the Red sister marched out of the garden with the fluid grace only Domani Aes Sedai can manage. Every sister was graceful, yes, but Domani Aes Sedai were like Swans in a flock of geese. All alone in the garden, Elin practiced the shield, making sure that every time she wove it there was a rounded edge. Once she was sure that she not only knew the weave but could form it perfectly, Elin went back to the Accepted Quarters, where she found another girl in a banded dress. Monique was from Mayene, and she was one of the few girls Elin knew well enough to ask for help practicing shielding. Sure, she knew the other Accepted, but not well enough to allow them to cut her off from the source... except Bennu, but getting Bennu to come out of the Library long enough to practice this would be much more effort than Elin cared to expend.

Sitting calmly in Monique's room, Elin explained the lesson, and showed the other Accepted the Weave. Monique wasn't as strong in Spirit as Elin was, and she needed a few demonstrations to get it correct. Elin didn't show Monique the sharpened version of the weave.

Even with warning, Elin was able to shield Monique on half of her attempts, which surprised Elin. Thinking about that, she reached out, and realized why. Monique was significantly weaker in the Power than Elin. Which made Elin think about how to defend from such an attack. The shield was a dull weave, and if you sharpened it, you could accidentally still the person you merely want to shield. Perhaps, if the victim were holding as much of the Power as they are able, it would be too thick to cut off the flow with a blunt edged shield? Deciding to test her theory, Elin drew deeply on saidar, feeling it fill her up to the brim, she was holding as much as she had ever held before, and then some. A small part of her mind said that soon she would be as strong as some of the sisters... but when she was full to the brim with the Power, she asked Monique to shield her, and Elin felt the shield clanging against her connection to the source, but not cutting into it. After a few tries, she knew the results were sound, she had Monique hold as much of the Power as she could... and again, Elin realized how much less of the Power the other woman could hold. Once she had her shield woven, Elin slammed it against Monique's flow of the Power.

At first, it felt like she had hit a large bell with a metal hammer... but then she felt the shield cut into Monique's flow of the Power. Elin checked the weave and it was still blunt edged, but it was slowly inching through Monique's connection to the source. Elin could feel the change in how much Power Monique was holding. It was not easy shoving the shield into place, but Elin was doing it, and finally she felt it 'click' into place, completely cutting Monique off from the Power. The amount of concentration and strength that had taken made Elin think about what would have happened if Monique had been trying to defend herself. A weave that knocked Elin out of her chair would have broken her concentration, which would have left Monique free.

Releasing Monique from the shield, Elin pulled her into a hug. "Thank you Monique, you've always been a dear. If you need help with one of your lessons, just let me know."

Three days later, Elin found herself back in the garden standing in front of the Domani Red.

"I found only two ways to defend against the shield, Aes Sedai. If the one being shielded is much stronger than the shielder, they can simply hold their full capacity of the source which will naturally block shields from weaker channelers. If one had an angreal, they would have a much greater chance of being too strong to shield by most foes. The other defense I could think of doesn't really have much to do with the shield itself. If you were being attacked with a shield, you could simply attack your attacker. Distract them, physically attack them, and if you break their concentration, you will likely break their effort to shield you."

Once all the novices were present, Elin clapped once to bring their attention to her. “Welcome back, girls. To begin I want to reiterate something: You must always have an Accepted or an Aes Sedai supervising you while you channel. We are there to protect you and make sure that you do not over extend yourself. If you break this rule, you will be sent to the Mistress of Novices.”

She paused for a moment, and then picked up a stack of papers off the desk. “Girls, each of these pages has a woman’s name on it. Some were novices, some Accepted, and a few were Aes Sedai. Each and every one of them burnt themselves out while channeling.”

As she let that sink in, she passed the pages out to the novices. “Each of you will take your sheet and do some research into the situation surrounding that woman’s burning out. Please make sure to turn it in at our next class. If you fail to turn in the assignment, you will be assigned a visit to the Mistress of Novices.”

Watching the girls look over their assignments, Elin had to smile grimly. It was a harsh lesson, but one they had to learn.

“Now, please put your assignments away. We are going to work on a technique that will help you all learn control, which will help you avoid the fates you will be investigating.” She settled the stack of extra papers back on the desk, and turned back to the girls. “Please pay attention. Every one of us has an inherent limit on how much of the Power we can hold. When you first learn to touch the source, you will only be able to hold a small portion of your full potential. To make sure that you don’t draw too deeply, you have to practice letting go of the Power.”

The girls seemed to be taking it well, so Elin continued. “This technique is called pushing and pulling the source. Open yourself, just like we did last lesson with the rosebuds, and let the source fill you. Once you feel as full of the source as is comfortable, push the Power away. Don’t let it go entirely, but push it as far away from you as possible so only a trickle is still flowing into you, then pull it back in to full.”

OOC: RP your reaction to the assignment and the idea that novices like you have burnt out simply for not having enough control. Then RP push/pulling the source. I’ll reply to “end” the lesson, and post the third lesson as soon as everyone has replied, or Friday... whichever comes sooner.

Elin watched with a pleased expression as each of the girls touched the source, held it tightly within themselves, and invariably lost it. Yes, she even included Nanna in the category of "girl." While they had been novices together for a short season, now Elin was Accepted and Nanna was still a Novice. The two ranks were not allowed to be bridged with friendships. If Nanna was able to become an Accepted while Elin still wore the seven color banded hems, then they could be friends again, or once they both attained the shawl. Despite the gulf between them, Elin felt a deep warmth settle into her heart when she saw the older woman's smile at succeeding. Nanna's face was made for smiles, even if it hadn't had much practice in using them.

Once they had all held the source successfully, Elin called them back to Attention. "Girls, you have all now held the source, felt its warmth and light inside you. You must now remember my warning about not channeling without supervision. Doing so can be very dangerous. Right now, you can hold the source, feel it filling you, but you are untrained in doing anything with it and do not yet have the control to be trained. That is why our next lesson will be on controlling the flow of the Power. Channeling without control has lead to accidents and deaths in the past."

Pausing, Elin thought about her next words very carefully, unsure if it was the right time to share them. "The Tower does not find every girl who can channel or even those who can learn, but many of those girls born with the Spark are left where they are to cope on their own. Three of every four girls born with the spark dies because she cannot learn to control the Power on her own. Those girls go from embracing the source to wielding it, and they do not learn to control how much they use, or how they use it, and they often draw too much, burning themselves out or killing themselves. Others do not learn that control, and instead their body takes in too much of the Power, in uncontrolled times and amounts, and they cannot stand it. They succumb to a wasting illness, a fever, that no medicine or weave of the One Power can Heal."

"If you do not learn control, the One Power could easily kill you." She paused, hoping that made an impact on the listening girls. "When an Accepted or an Aes Sedai is present, they can observe your use of the Power, can help you know when to pull back or when you've not yet reached your limit. If needs be, they can either cut you off from the Power or distract you so you lose it on your own. Accepted and Aes Sedai have the experience to know when such actions are necessary, and that my girls, is why you must only channel with either an Accepted or an Aes Sedai supervising your work."

"You all did well today, girls. I look forward to our next class, and I hope you all are able to enjoy the sun outside during your free hour today."

OOC: Lovely posts everyone... Seeing as you've all replied, I'll get lesson two up ASAP. It's right here!

Quickosity... interesting concept. Thanks Raeyn.

And Chikara... I use a laptop. If you nail my keyboard to a wall, my computer is toast! :cries:

I might be quick, but you've got a lot of depth in your posts. I've got a lot of respect for that.

Acck ... he just let me know that too. Was brain dead when I posted this up. Fixed now.

I see that commentary inserted about activity! :shakes fist:

I was tempted to say that Elin graduated to Accepted in three years like Mo and Siuan did.

Cheeky!! You need sometime in the MoN's office me thinks

Well, you'd best be quick... I don't think Elin will be Accepted for much more than a week or so.

Oh... no more flesh-toned ajah!

Buuuuuut.... back on point, lovely arches Chikara! Excellent work.

*smells nummy treats and sneaks in while everyone is chatting*

No sneaking!

True dat... I'll probably wait until Gera is Accepted and Elin is an Aes Sedai before submitting Avanna.

I double dog dare ya!

OK... Character #3 will be Avanna Trefol, born into a Tinker troop, and eventually an initiate of the Tower aspiring to the Red Ajah. I'll make up a reason for her to do so later. :P

congratulations Phelix! well done! :D

Thanks Mystica! :D

Oh heck no. Fianna's Tinker. She'll be *Yellow*. I'm not quite that insane. :)

 

My third character, the Salidaran, will go one of the other colors. :P

Hehe... that makes sense.

I'm really tempted to make an angry tinker that goes Red.

Steel maps sound a bit... impractical.... *ducks*

I doubt I could get Bennu killed in Tear... now, imprisoned and cast out of her family in shame? I might be able to organize that happening... but Elin would totally be there to bust Bennu out.

And Chikara, I know what you mean! I've been sitting on Gera for a couple of weeks now. I wanted to at least get Elin out of White before I put forward another character. I wrote a Dreadlord Bio but no one from the Dark side has gotten back to me, so I figure I'll just keep going with my White Tower initiates.

And if you made a Red out of a Tinker... I would be so thoroughly impressed.

Just knowing that the source was blocked from her had Elin feeling nervous. When she had first realized that it was not her dead twin brother channeling for her, and in reality it was truly herself channeling, Elin had lost the ability to touch the source. She had had to fight through the block, and did so with Kathleen Sedai's help... but this feeling of being shielded was very similar, and had her stomach in knots.

Elin nodded, listening to the Red's words, focusing on them to keep her breakfast where it was meant to stay, and she felt the difference as the soft knot in the shield turned into a hard knot. Once it was hard, Elin's mind was able to wrap around it, sink in between the threads of the knot. She knew, and Rochel Sedai's words supported this, that with enough time, she could probably burst the knot. Almost to herself, she whispered "A very useful tool indeed." She didn't just mean the shield, but knowing how to beat a shield as well. Suddenly the shield was gone, and she could feel the source beckoning her, but she had not been given leave to embrace the source, so she resisted and continued listening.

Her eyes bulged at the sharpness of the threads of Spirit and Rochel's explanation. This was the weave to still or gentle another channeler, and now Elin knew it. She now knew perhaps the greatest weapon one could wield against another channeler, something that would take from them their very desire to live.

"Now then child, do you have any questions about any of this?"

Elin thought for a moment, then asked "Rochel Sedai, if the Shield is a weave like any other, it can be slashed or blocked with Spirit too, correct? Are there other ways to fight off a shield?"

*sprinkles Novice Speed on the cupcakes* Yum!

I'm 99.9% sure that Elin is going to be a Red, and I'm debating requesting the Dreamwalking Talent for her. I've talked with Chikara about a jaunt down to Tear with a Brown and a Red to go investigating the Great Holding... maybe take a step through a twisted doorway. Sounds like fun, no?

On top of that, I just submitted a Salidar Novice, and Elgee posted her for Cross Checking. Gera will be a Blue... there's just no other Ajah that fits her quite right.

A Warder,and it's been over a week.

 

 

 

That does sound long. All I can say is sometimes things happen. I managed to submit my application right before the major site upgrade that just happened, which meant new registrations were blocked... it took almost a full month to get registered and approved to RP.

Just be patient and ask polite questions... it will help.

I still have to have rp when Miahna meets the MoN - can I still jump in on the class, or should I wait for another?

Well, when I asked Amadine if I could teach the class, your character was one of the novices we specifically mentioned... so, as soon as you've introduced yourself to the MoN(ster) come take the class.