Wraith immediately flew from his shoulder when Ayrik stepped outside the Fortress and onto the green grass that seemed to defy the surrounding Blight. Smiling, Ayrik watched the young raven circle the training compound as he descended the stairs. Handling instruction of the basics of channeling was one of the few classes that were given to Adepts, and Ayrik often chose to teach the class. It allowed him to get a feel for the new recruits, to see how receptive they'd be to his manipulations, if need be. Besides, he enjoyed being outside.

 

It wasn't long before the new recruits began to arrive. When the last had made his appearance, Ayrik settled himself to the ground. "Have a seat, boys; you'll be glad of it, later." Coldly, without emotion, Ayrik shifted his gaze from one sweating student to the next. They were nervous to be here. "From this point on, you will forget whatever it was that you were before coming to us. You are now pupils of the One Power, and one day- if you survive- you will be Dreadlords sworn to the Great Lord." The speech was reminiscent to the one that Michael had given him when he had arrived.

 

Silence reigned while Ayrik allowed that to sink into the minds of the gathered students before continuing. "Okay, the first thing I want you to do is to clear your mind. Imagine a flame floating in blackness. Once you have that firmly in your mind, feed your emotions into it, leaving only a void. Calm is key. You must always remember that. Saidin will destroy the minds, bodies, or channeling abilities of any who cannot control their emotions. Remember that well." Again, Ayrik was silent, waiting until the telltale signs told him that they were ready for the next step. "Okay, now this is the tricky part. At the back of the void, you will soon sense what feels like a light shining right behind you. Stretch your mind towards it, but don't draw deeply upon it once you actually have it. Just allow a trickle in." As he finished speaking, Ayrik seized saidin, preparing to shield any student who didn't comply, or who couldn't control himself.

 

Ayrik Drayven

Adept

Jodeen had spent the night wandering around Shayol Ghul, with no place to sleep. Not a very cozy place, if I do say so myself. He was told by a passerby of a Saidin class he had to attend. Being instructed where to go he trekked off towards his destination.

 

Walking through a field, he looked around himself and realizing where he was, gave a sudden shiver. They said they could help me, didn't they? They said I could have power... His thoughts trailed off as he found the stairs that led to his first lesson of the One Power. He was the second last to enter the class, and took a seat with the other acolytes that sat around him. No one spoke.

 

The instructor, who had no given his name yet, told them of how to begin the channel of Saidin. Jodeen stumbled on the instructions at first, but then picked it up. He sought the void. He pictured a blue flame, shining brightly in the middle of his mind. Every thing he knew, everything he was he fed into the flame. The flame consumed everything he could think of; the inn, Mira, the arrival of Shayol Ghul. Just a flame.

 

It wasn't long before he felt a light, just as the man had said. He sought for it, reaching, and got a hold of it. He followed his orders, and slowly let it fill him; not to much, but not to little. He found that he wanted more, and more. He sought for a little bit more, and more...

 

He kept trying to grab more and his head filled with flames. He couldn't stop it, now, even if he wanted to. Saidin broke his defenses and poured into his body..

Weak-willed idiot, Ayrik thought to himself as he felt the surge of saidin in one of the students. There was always one that didn't seem to have the willpower necessary to fight to control of saidin, and it was pretty common for that one to be dead within a week. With contemptuous ease, Ayrik snapped a shield onto the boy, cutting off his connection to the Source like a closing sluice gate, though that was probably an overstatement. From what Ayrik had felt, the boy could only have killed himself and maybe caused some damage in his immediate vicinity, nothing to worry about. In such cases, it was normally left to the teachers of the class whether to shield the student or let him or her die. In his two years as an Adept, Ayrik had only let one student die, and that was more out of personal dislike than anything else.

 

The boy looked a bit dazed and confused, as if he didn't know what had just happened. Fixing his eyes on him, Ayrik said coldly, "Wrong, boy. Don't cave in and let it flood into you. You have to fight saidin to control it. If I hadn't shielded you just then, you would have probably have burnt yourself to a crisp. I've seen it happen, and if the man's screams were any indication, it was more than painful. Get your head where it belongs, or you won't survive the week. Now try again."

As Ayrik cut the power from Jodeen; he tried to grasp out to reach it again. But he couldn't reach it, he could sense the power; but he couldn't touch it.

 

Jodeen sighed, and listened to what his instructor had told him. He would be more careful, yes; but he wanted to learn. He needed to learn. I want it. I want all the power, I want to feel it again! But his thoughts were drowned out in Ayriks' lesson. It seemed he didn't care if Jodeen would of died; which was probably true.

 

Jodeen cleared his head once again, and formed the flame. Into it he fed his desire, as he had before. Everything he fed into it, without fear of what had happened before. Just in the corner of his eye, he saw; or senses, he wasn't sure at this point, the bright light. He reached for it, but couldn't grasp it.

 

He reached again, and it felt like a thousand needles pricked into his brain; the flame disperses and the light dissipated into nothing. Jodeen looked to the ground, and groaned. The same groan he would give when his mother sent him to his room for doing something wrong. Not my mother. A traitor. The thought angered him, and before he could stop it he saw the light again. He reached for it, and grasped it; slowly. He let it trickle into him, this time. Not drawing to much. Not for fear of killing himself, rather for fear of having it leave him again.

 

He felt a tingling in his fingers, and looked down and stretched out his hand. All his senses, they were enlightened. He could hear things he normally could not; and the colors. Oh, light, the colors all seemed to stand out as if they were jumping at him. He flexed and unflexed his hands. I'm doing it. For the Great Lord of the Dark, I'm doing it! I'm.. channelling...

 

He thought he was disappointed. He never thought he would be a male Aes Sedai, or whatever the world called them today. He didn't know much about politics, but he knew that the Dragon Reborn was here. He hadn't been bothered that much inside his small town, save a few Whitecloaks and floating Aes Sedai. Dirty Aes Sedai. They should all die, they're all liars and traitors. Traitors to the Great Lord.

 

The thought made his stomach churn once again. How could he go from a simple stable boy in an Inn to a Dreadlord of the Dark One? He knew it was right; he felt complete having this power surge through him. It was right. It is right.

OOC: Just a note, don't assume that you know the name of another character unless it's been told to you in the writing somewhere. In most cases it probably won't matter so much, but it's a bit more important in this case. You'll see why in a moment.

 

IC: Except for the one incident with the one, things went smoothly. However, Ayrik was rather certain that the one who had managed to demonstrate so well the dangers of a weak mind in the struggle for saidin would not be returning to the class. However, he did have to teach nonetheless. As soon as the last student had managed to achieve saidin, Ayrik said, "Okay, now that you've all got hold of it, we're going to practice letting go. Do not, and I mean do not, simply let go of saidin. That is one of the easiest ways to end up burnt out or dead. What you will do is push it away with your mind and release the void. Then you will do it all again. Understood?"

 

Ayrik left them to their work, silently studying each of the students, wondering how many would survive even this first small step. The Shadow did not coddle its servants, and these would eventually learn that. After each of the students had demonstrated an understanding of the concept, Ayrik said, "By now, you've all noticed that filth on saidin. That's the taint, the result of the Great Lord's counterstroke against the Dragon in the War of Power. If you survive your training, the Great Lord will grant you protection from its effects." Ayrik allowed that thought to settle before continuing. "Now, I want you to practice this for the next week. Some advice, if you care about your lives. Do not try to do this while you're tired, physically or mentally. Saidin has a nasty tendancy of lashing out when you're at your weakest, and it'll be a question of whether it kills you or merely burns the ability to channel right out of you. You all saw me shield this one..." Ayrik pointed at the one whom he meant. "That was the last time that you'll ever see that happen. The Shadow does not need weak-willed soldiers. If you find yourself in such a state that you need to be shielded, you might as well just pray for death or stilling, whichever seems the more merciful to you. Meet back here in one week, and we'll see who survived among you." As the students made their way away from the grass, Ayrik whistled and held out his arm for Wraith. The raven landed smoothly, its head swiveling to meet Ayrik's eyes as the two reentered the Fortress.

 

________________________

 

The week was up, and Ayrik had returned to the grass outside, awaiting his students. Word had reached him that two of them would not be returning, though Ayrik had already known. Gossip travelled fast through the Fortress, and he always had his ears open for such news. Already, he could guess to the identity of at least one of them.

 

Slowly, the students arrived, either alone or in pairs. Ayrik was surprised to see the weak-willed buffoon from the previous lesson return. As soon as the correct number- less two- arrived, Ayrik spoke up, a touch warmer than the previous lesson, though still not amiably. "Well, I see that you've survived your first week, which means you'll be sticking around for a bit longer. My name is Ayrik Drayven, and I'll be teaching you for the rest of this course, and I might handle some of your classes in the future, too. I guess that you already know, but if you look around, you'll see that we number two less today. Two of your colleagues managed to kill themselves over the past week. You can see the crater over there where the first did it." Ayrik pointed across the compound to a blackened hole in the ground, barely two meters across. Once he had heard about the mishap, Ayrik had asked that the hole be left until this lesson; he'd take care of it afterward. "The other burnt himself out after two days, and I just received word this morning that he hanged himself in his room last night. Let them be a warning to you. Now let's continue."

 

The next hour and a half was spent on discussing the One Power, its history and the theory behind it. Some of the students may have known a thing or two, but by the end, each would have heard enough to give them a better, though still basic, understanding of it. "Now, as I mentioned, there are five elements within the One Power: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit." As he spoke, Ayrik drew upon saidin pulling the various elements apart- green, yellow, red, blue, and white, respectively- for the students to see. "Each has a faint color and, as you'll soon discover, a unique feel. You should almost be able to taste the difference, though that's probably an illusion.

 

"Now, I want you to seize saidin and just hold it for a moment; if you have problems doing so now, you've either got a block of some kind, or you're just hopeless." Ayrik waited until he felt saidin in the students before continuing. "Okay, now I want you to do what I do." Slowing the process down, Ayrik once again drew each of the five elements out of saidin, allowing each thread to fade before drawing out another one, and allowing the students to find the same thread as he held before continuing to the next. After he was certain the students understood the concept, Ayrik drew out two threads and twisted them into a spiral, then released it before making two others. "This is your homework for the week. I want you to make spirals like these. Make them in different combinations. This will help you to determine which elements are your strong ones and which are your weak ones. It will also help familiarize you with the various feels of the elements. Once you feel strong enough, try to make more at once."

It had been a long week for Jodeen. He nearly killed himself at his first meeting, proving that he was basically worthless. No. I am not worthless, I will work hard. Harder then the rest.

 

He spent nearly the entire week grasping and releasing saidin. He had to learn, he had to control it. He fought it all the time, constantly. It tried to overcome his body, every time. But he never let what happened the first day happen again. By now, after an entire week of grasping and releasing the Power, he had control over it. He could call upon it, not with ease mind you; rather he knew it was there. Waiting, and the sickness that came with it. That must be the taint, which everybody speaks of so.. fondly. He didn't relish that thought.

 

He entered the classroom as last week, alone. A few of his pupils had taken friends. Friends is not what I need now. Right now I need training. Bloody tower. Bloody witches. Bloody tower of witches! He had heard that two of his colleagues were dead. This didn't shock Jodeen, merely he had a meek look on his face that showed he wished to learn. He needed to learn.

 

Much of the class, Ayrik, he had called himself, was devoted on lectures of the different kinds of Power. Five kinds he explained, Fire, Earth, Water, Air, and Spirit. Jodeen knew of fire and water, but he didn't know he could control air and earth. But what in the light did Spirit do?

 

As instructed, he grasped saidin. Much easier then last time. He felt the sickling feeling curdle his stomach, and he felt like sicking up for a moment. He closed his eyes and pushed the sickness out, the pain and hurt that it caused. As he opened them, he could feel misery and pain in the room. Colors shot out at him, and time itself seemed to slow.

 

Ayrik pulled the different threads apart. Few he could recognize, he recognized fire pretty easily; as it shot out at him seemingly. He recognized air, as well. Though he did not know what he was looking for; he knew. The others seemed to blend in with eachother, though if he concentrated he could feel the water thread.

 

He felt different strands being woven together. He could feel a few of them, but most of them seemed to just mix in together. The day went on with him showing different spirals and threads together. Few he could pick apart, mostly those with the fire thread within it.

 

----------------------------------------------

 

After going back to his room, he began reciting the entire days lessons in his head. He counted and tried to remember every spiral that Ayrik had named. He embraced saidin and was careful not to have another mistake happen as last week.

 

It was the first time he had opened a weave. He remembered how Ayrik had done it, and it seemed to almost happen on it's own. A thread of fire spun infront of Jodeen, swirling throughout his eyes that no one else but a male channeler could see.

 

He wanted to be strong, but not stupid. No point learning how to kill without actually getting the chance to kill. He didn't want to leave the fire strand, incase it could like.. attack him. He knew better then that, but he wanted to be safe. Half leaving it and half paying the closest attention to, he tried to mimic what he just did. Nothing really happened.

 

Several times he tried to mimic his attempts with the fire, with no success. He finally let his mind wander, but not letting saidin gain one inch on his constant attack with the Power. Until he felt something, not the Power; another strand. He tried to picture what it was, and it almost tasted like some of the stew he had back in his town near Tar Valon. What was the name again? How could he forget what town he was from?

 

A strand of air appeared and and almost by instinct, he knew how to call it again. He forcefully controlled the two strands and entwined them together. The strands seemed to pause for a moment, and began almost dancing together. Jodeen smiled to himself, only to force the grim frown back on.

 

He untangled the two strands, and made them disappear. He wasn't to sure how he did it, but he remembered doing it and remembered how to do it again. He did this several times, air and fire was the easiest ones he could pull out. Water seemed to almost not come at all. Several hours into the night, hundreds of failed tries and a handful of accomplishments he finally tired himself out for the night. He would try again tommorow, and the next day. And the day after that. He would learn to harness every power. He would.

As the students gathered themselves again the next week, Ayrik waited quietly, feeding Wraith as he waited for the students. When the final one had arrived, Ayrik started the lesson. "Okay, I want all of you to demonstrate your progress in spinning your two threads together." One by one, Ayrik observed the students in their weavings, moving to the next student as each one met his satisfactions. After the last student in the line had completed the test, Ayrik said, "Very well, we're ready to move on. Now, I'm going to demonstrate a few simple weaves with saidin, and I want you to recreate them."

 

Pulling a candle out of one of his pockets, Ayrik set it on the ground before seizing saidin. It took a miniscule amount of the Power to do any of these weaves, so Ayrik didn't draw anywhere near his potential. The students would, by now, be able to tell how much of saidin he held. By not drawing his full strength, he could keep them guessing. But that wasn't important. Using a simple weave consisting of Fire, Ayrik lit the candle, then used Air to blow it out before lighting it again. "Now, it might take a few times to get the weaves right, but that doesn't mean that you can be careless. If you make a mistake, you never know what the weave will collapse into."

 

After each student had a chance to light and blow out the candle, Ayrik moved onto the next weave. Water and Earth were woven into the ground, creating a mudpile. He wove it again, this time going slower so the students could see the weave better. He once again allowed them to work the weave themselves. Once satisfied, Ayrik moved to the last weave.

 

Despite the Blight outside the Fortress, the grounds inside were well-kept, and there was a flower garden against one of the walls. Rising from his spot on the ground, Ayrik plucked one of the flowers, a yellow lily, from its stem, then sat down in front of the students. "This one's a bit trickier, as it will involve all five elements, but it's still rather easy." Spirit was the main component of the weave, but there were traces of all the other elements in what he finally set onto the lily. "Now, each of you will go pick one of the flowers and perform that weave on it. You'll bring the flower back to your rooms and observe as it stays the same as when you set the weave on it.

 

"Now, these are all really basic weaves, but don't let their simplicity fool you. Even the simplest weaves can come in handy. The weave for lighting that candle, when set on paper or wood, can be used to start a fire." Gesturing to the mud all over the ground, Ayrik said, "Mud is slick, and if you're being pursued, it'll force your pursuers to slow down. And Keeping? That can be used to keep your food from spoiling on long trips. These things are simple, yet you'll be amazed at how much you come to rely on them. The greatest lesson that you can walk away from this class with is to rely on yourself. Learn to do things without saidin, otherwise you'll have problems for the rest of your lives." Waving his hand, Ayrik added, "Now, unless anybody has anything to ask, you're dismissed."

 

Jodeen entered the class with a few other students. Around six now had been killed and burned out, that left less then five students remaining. He could tell that this class was nearing an end. He could grasp saidin, and spin basic weaves with ease now. As the thoughts drifted him, Ayrik pulled a candle out of his pocket.

 

He lit it on fire, which Jodeen had done a few times around. Just as fast as he lit it, he drew the flame out with a weave of air that Jodeen could see. Jodeen could feel a trickle of the power in Ayrik, something that he learned he could do a week earlier.

 

As the students casually strolled to the candle and lit and blew out the flame, he watched and waited. Jodeen was the last to go up. He seized saidin, letting a trickle of the power flow through him. Spinning a quick weave of fire, he tried to light the candle. Failing horribly and nearly lighting the grass next to the candle on fire, he could feel the stares and snickers behind his back. Without a moments pause he tried again, hitting the candle but not hot enough for the wick to actually catch.

 

He didn't bother waiting, and began at it again. He would do it, he had to. On his third try, Jodeen let a bit more of the power flow through him. Feeling more alive, he spun a quick weave of fire and threw it at the candle. The wick caught fire, and the flame was a bit better then Jodeen had expected. Bigger then most of the students, to. He appeared shaken, and quickly wrapped the flame with air to put it out. This, however, did not take three tries. He was strong in air, he knew by now, and quickly smothered the flame to nothing.

 

Ayrik demonstrated the technique of creating mud, and preserving flowers.

 

Ayrik had explained that each of these things that they taught him actually came in use in everyday life. He memorized the weaves in his head, and how he spun the different threads back together.

 

Immediately after Ayrik had shown them the flower thread, he offed to get two flowers. One for later, so he could try it when he didn't remember all the way. He memorized the weaves from Ayrik, and after several tries and less then an hour, he had spun his five-tied weave into the flower.

 

Ayrik dismissed the class, and Jodeen trotted back to the fortress with a second flower in hand.

 

When he reached his room, placed the flower on his table and seized saidin almost instantly. Remembering the weave that he saw Ayrik spun; or atleast a general remnant of it, he tried to preserve it as Ayrik did. Failing for nearly two hours, he grew tired and stopped trying. For fun, he lifted the flower in air and danced it above his head, trying to remember exactly how Ayrik had done it.

 

Shaking his head and sighing, he let go of the flower to the table. When he remembered the one thing he forgot; spirit. He was never very strong in spirit, but it was the most important thing in this weave. It was late, and he was preparing to go to sleep, though.

 

He walked back to the table where the flower was sitting after being dropped from the air. He concentrated, and pulled all decently strong weaves and tied them together. The weave disapeared, and he could feel something almost growing inside the flower. He knew what it was, it was that same feeling of the flower that Ayrik had done. Smiling to himself, he left the flower on his table and went to get the few hours of sleep that he could manage.