Badriyah was awake in bed long before sunrise, using the edge of a plate she had “accidentally” dropped on the floor in the kitchens the day before to carve shallow cuts along the inside of her upper arm, a place she figured few people would ever see in her life in case a scar was left, though she was now used to cutting shallowly which allowed her skin to heal over time and appear as flawless as it had before. Blood dripped onto her fingers in the black and white darkness, oozing, warm, a deliciously dark, rich color that stood out in contrast to the almost bloodless appearance of the skin around the cut. She quivered in relief as she resolved her longing through this form of mutilation. How good it felt to let out that frustration that had been building within her with every passing day since she had arrived! Light, how did I live before I did this? she thought, her eyes drowning in the sight of the blood, her nails scratching gently to keep it from clotting too soon and her mind in a detached state of utter satisfaction.

 

It was not long after that, when she had finally dozed in sudden relaxation that always gripped her after cutting, when an Accepted entered the room flustered and not at all happy at having been sent to fetch a novice. “Up!” cried the intruder, “Light knows why you’re still asleep anyway you spoiled thing! Two hours in the morning and here’s a lazy novice lying about as though she were in her father’s manor! Did you not hear me?” she bellowed, “Vera Sedai summons you, attend!”

 

Badriyah ignored the Accepted's raving and threw the sheets aside, leaving the accepted to gawk at the dried blood on her hands and on the bodice of her shift. She said emotionlessly, without looking at the other, “My father owned nothing, not a copper coin,” then, “You may leave now, you have done your duty and fetched me, I will be off shortly,” dismissing the other girl as though she were in a position to dismiss this one who was actually her superior. The girl huffed and puffed and scolded Badriyah excessively before taking leave of her. The young Murandian took little notice of the other’s anger as she washed her hands and face and combed her fingers through her wild brown hair. When she had finished dressing she quitted her cubicle of a chamber and started on a search for Vera’s room.

 

The young woman had been lying when she had told her intruder that she knew where the Aes Sedai’s apartments were, she had merely wished to be rid of an unwanted companion. She now strolled about freely asking directions when in need until she found Vera’s room. She was, perhaps, half an hour late by this time, but cared little and knocked on the door fearlessly, then took up a bored posture as she waited for the Aes Sedai to appear.

 

 

Badriyah

Where was she?

 

Hands clasped together, Vera looked at the spread laid out before her. Scones, sugar biscuits, tea, a little fruit for the occasional health watcher had catered themselves on cream white plates, and had patiently awaited their consumer. Who was now, unseen for the past quarter of an hour, for a meeting requested by an Aes Sedai, and not just an Aes Sedai, but she, her mentor. Vera struggled to understand this fact- she pleasured in taking the best out of people, she really did, and in each of her mentee’s she did so especially. She loved them all in her own way, or rather, loved them the way they needed to be, and disciplined them when they needed to as well. Vera, as a sister of the Gray, liked to believe she was fair minded, and so, when each little Novice had made her way into her life, she had approached each first impression with some deal of caution, but never without looking for the finest in the new initiate first. This Badriyah though, wasn’t giving her the best or the chance to assess her fairly. This Badriyah, was late.

 

Perhaps she had erred in her note to the Novice? She checked the calendar she had organised recently, which was proving so useful ever since she had gotten busier. No, no she was supposed to be in right at that time. Vera sighed. That made things difficult. She would have to think out how to teach her a lesson now, this Novice she didn’t know and had no insight on. Chores, no. They almost never worked. Lecture? Perhaps, it would depend on the girl who came clambering into the room, if she showed up today. Vera mused thoughtfully over what could’ve caused the Novice to be late, drumming her fingers on the table as she did, forming a vague rhythm to the motion of her fingers. She watched the sand fall through grain by grain, resisting the urge to drink the jasmine tea that sat awaiting her on the table. It was cold now, but Vera enjoyed it nonetheless. Still, she wanted to wait, keep the plates as originally placed until Badriyah was found and brought to her quarters. When Mierie came in askance over the platter, Vera told her exactly that, if in slightly less authoritative tones. Mierie had become a good friend of hers, or as good as friends are when one played master, and the other, servant.

 

“No, no, the food shall stay. What I need from you, dear Mierie, is something different. Find me my expected guest please? The Novice I am to mentor enrolled a few days ago, I believe. Her name is Badriyah, and…till now, she has wasted twenty minutes of my time. Send off someone, perhaps, to find her? No initiate would dare resist your tall and serene commands, Mierie.”

 

Well, maybe the Accepted, Vera noted mentally. Some of them had the tendency to become a notch snotty due to their Raisings, but Mierie had been in the Tower long enough to send any white dress scurrying, and certainly, make the banded ones follow with only a slightly slower pace as well. Mierie nodded with a small smile as she always did, and told Vera that she would go looking for this child herself. Immediately.

 

“Thankyou, Mierie,” Vera began gratefully, when sudden inspiration struck. “But no,” she continued with a rise in her voice, “I think I shall find my new mentee on my own, this once.” Rising, she gathered her skirts. The aroma of the jasmine tea floated up to her, and Vera breathed in. A smile with a hint of steel spread across her face, Vera left the quarters that had been readied for Badriyah. It occurred to her that the Novice could’ve been lost, that she could be shy and wide eyed in the bustle of the Tower, and she felt a slight pang as she remembered her first days as a Novice. It could well be, that this girl was not unlike who she once was.

 

It was then that she saw her. Instinct wasn’t required to mark her out- she was the only Novice in sight whose eyes were scattered over the Gray halls, intelligent, searching, but certainly not wide eyed. Impressed, maybe, but nothing like the girl she had been when she had walked through the halls. Dark tresses flowed down against milky white skin- her new mentee was an attractive one, who due to her interesting combination of skin and hair stood out as Vera stepped across to her.

 

“Are you looking for someone, Novice?”

 

She thought it best if she didn’t reveal her identity just yet. Let the girl make her first impression to just an Aes Sedai first, a Gray shawl who might know Vera Sedai her mentor. Then, once Vera had given her the fair last chance, she would choose her punishment.

 

~Vera

With eyebrows arched in slightest hint of irritation, Badriyah knocked on the door for the third time, hard enough to send a whisper of pain through her knuckles. Where was this Vera, her mentor? How long had she been waiting now? The young Murandian turned to survey the hallway and stepped away from the door to examine a wall-hanging a little more closely. She did not know whether ones who wielded the Power so often ever felt fatigue - she doubted they did actually - which made her wonder why the Aes Sedai was refusing to answer the door. Perhaps she wished to teach her new mentee patience? Was she busy communing with another? Or was it merely that she wished to express her authority over the new initiate she had been given charge of by making her wait until it pleased her to open the door?

 

I cannot allow myself to become irritated over such a small matter. I will be required to face far more trying tests in this place. Badriyah turned her face away from the scene depicted in the artwork, it would not calm her were she to allow herself to be sucked into an artist’s passionate world. Must this –

 

“Are you looking for someone, Novice?” The young woman’s thoughts were startled out of her by the calm, confidant tone of an Aes Sedai. She turned somewhat slowly to an emotionless gaze from eyes set in an ageless face framed by dark hair. Try as she might, she could not guess the origin of this woman by merely looking at her, not having communicated often with travelers from other nations in the wild, dangerous life she had led in Lugard. Badriyah replied without hesitating or stumbling over her words, “A gray sister: Vera,” and almost as an afterthought she added casually, “Sedai”.

 

 

Badriyah

Vera had always known that if she was ever to counter a girl like this one called Badriyah, she should be afraid. She had always felt there was good reason in this fear; sad though it was, she truly doubted her ability in handling such a person. Pain, curses, shunning and anger…these she could grapple with and then crush. Contempt though. Impudent, unveiled contempt was never something she could bear. She supposed it was linked closely with her Novitiate and her life before. All those haunting memories whose sorrow only one Red Sister had been able to heal, chapters of her life that while closed away, were never completely left behind.

 

Studying the newly inscribed Novice as she thought of her own, Vera greeted the frosty rage that settled down inside her. She was rankled, had already been so due to her life’s state recently and this Novice had sauntered into her life quite similar to the pebble. The pebble before the avalanche. Some could call it overreacting, but she had sensed it coming. She did not seeth; No fits of fury here, no use of Saidar to scare the girl witless, not even a shouting match. They were all a waste of time.

 

Instead, she chose to smile. “She is waiting for you elsewhere. I will lead you to her.” she said placidly. Without waiting to see the Novice’s reaction, she whirled around, bangs flying as she did. “Follow.” There was no hint of anger to her voice, but she was firm. She hoped that the Novice would do as told this time, for Vera meant to teach the child a lesson either way. Still, she would rather discipline her elsewhere, without half of the Gray Ajah present. For the first time in a long time, Vera raged.

 

 

~Vera Cadsanome

Gray Ajah

Frosty Rager :P

For an instant Badriyah could almost swear that the Aes Seai before her was at least a little offended by the way she had spoken, but then whatever she had been able to discern became utterly invisible to her to the extent that for a moment she had to wonder if that was what she had really read. The psychopath longed suddenly (and rather surprisingly) for the day when she’d be able to conceal things and fool people so well, a day she hoped would come. She would walk the world as an ageless goddess and do absolutely as she pleased with no care for others, just as she had before, but she wouldn’t have to take such great care to make sure no one found out about her killings. Ahh, what a day that would be!

 

The crazed girl was brought out of the fearful, blood-soaked world she envisioned so rapturously abruptly as her superior spoke, “She is waiting for you elsewhere. I will lead you to her.” and then, “Follow.” Badriyah waited and watched a moment before obeying, stepping along rather carelessly until they reached a door that led to a room the novice suspected lodged Vera Sedai; and was completely taken aback when the Gray sister escorting her turned the door handle and entered the room, leaving the door ajar for Badriyah to enter and then closing it behind her.

 

Such a fool, she thought about herself, That I didn’t automatically assume a woman lingering in the corridor so near Vera Sedai’s quarters wasn’t the Aes Sedai I’ve been looking for herself! though Badriyah couldn’t really decide whether or not she wanted her mentor to know how she felt about Aes Sedai. Perhaps it would prove to be a good thing, was what the young woman tried to convince herself of, though a whisper of unease hissed to her.

 

 

Badriyah