Katiana was stunned into quiet obedience for the first two days of the long trip north on the river Erinin, unable to even complain about the small cabin she had to share with that whore of an Aes Sedai that had ruined her life.  The wedding dress she had worn onto the ship was packed away in a box and she wore the comfortable and soft, but horribly plain, blue dress that the Aes Sedai had given her.  By the time she had recovered herself, it was too late to do anything about the trip and she regretted only that she hadn't had the chance to properly say goodbye to the father she had loved so very much and the mother who had always been there for her.  Perhaps it was for the best, though.  They wouldn't have seen their beloved daughter, but this reviled creature who could wield the one power.

 

Long before they reached Tar Valon, Katiana had recovered her sharp tongue and by the time they put into South Harbor, the Aes Sedai who had started all of this was happy to be rid of the girl.  Handing her a note to give to the Mistress of Novices, she escorted the wildly complaining girl all the way to the tower doors and then abandoned her to one of the unlucky novices who was on greeting duty.

 

Katiana's eyes narrowed at the girl dressed all in white as if it were some sort of funeral.  Katiana's fury quavered at the thought that it was a funeral - for the life she had before.  This lousy chit wasn't the one who was at fault for Katiana's ability to channel, and she knew in her Tairen heart that girls who could channel must be sent away from Tear.  The despair that had wreathed her for two days threatened to swell again but she tamped it down with a fierce push of anger.

 

She drew herself up to her full height, looking down her nose at the girl as though she had managed the title she deserved and had chosen to come here of her own accord.  "You, girl.  You will bring me to this..." she glanced at the note, "This Mistress of Novices.  I have a note to her and it is of the utmost importance that I speak to her immediately."  There, that sounded properly commanding.  Just because she was going to have to live out the rest of her life among these witches didn't mean she couldn't be revered as Lady among them.

 

The novice was older than the girl who so imperiously demanded to see Larindhra Sedai, and if her guess wasn't mistaken, Miss High and Mighty from Tear of all places was going to become a novice as well.  While schooled to show respect and deference to all, the novice couldn't help the smirk that curled her lips as she turned to lead the way to Larindhra Sedai's office.  She announced arrival at their destination and began to tell the insufferable Lady that she would have to wait here until Larindhra was finished with her current visitor and called for the next, but was cut off as the girl moved forward and flung the door open.

The novice paled and then fled from the office door, praying to the Light that no one had seen that it was her that led this mischief to the Mistress's door.

 

Katiana strode into the room, put her hands on her hips, and addressed yet another insufferable witch-to-be clad all in white. "You, girl.  Out of the room.  I must speak with the Mistress."  The child was taller than Katiana by nearly a foot, and under any other circumstances Katiana might have been intimidated when she rose from her chair, but the smaller girl had the advantage of fury.  She grabbed Jerinia's arm and propelled her towards the door.

 

She tossed the note down onto the woman's desk, set her fists on her hips, looked down her nose at the witch, and spoke quickly. "My name is Katiana Lucia Carreras, and it would have been Lady Katiana Lucia Carreras Terava if not for the conduct of one of your Sisters." She said that last word like it was a swear all unto itself, akin to naming the Dark One.  "I am apparently to learn to channel and I won't have any argument about it.  I've given up everything in my life to come here and it would be nice to be shown a little appreciation for my sacrifice.  I'd also like to see the sister who brought me here flogged - her name is at the bottom of that letter, I've already opened it and read it.  For being in Tear and interrupting a very important wedding just because she insisted I could channel and must come here to learn.  It won't do any good now, the damage is done, but I feel it is the least you could do considering what she's done."

 

She dropped into the chair that Jerinia had been occupying and lifted her chin haughtily as she waited for this Mistress of Novices, a fitting name, to do her bidding.  She should probably request to be present for the beating that horrid witch would be getting, as well.  It would serve the woman right.

 

 

 

Katiana Carreras

"...So you see, i didn't intend to drop that book on Merian Sedai's toe."

 

Jerinia looked at her with a woebegone expression.

 

"It was an accident."

 

Larindhra dropped her head in her hands for a moment, then raised it wearily and leant back in her chair with a resigned sigh.  “I know, Jerinia – it always is. I sometimes think we should let you loose on the Shadowspawn in the Blight; you cause more harm with good intentions than ten Darkfriends could, doing their worst.” She threw up her hands in resignation. “I know Merian asked me to punish you, but I confess I don’t know what more I could do that I haven’t before. It’s not like you mean to get into trouble …”

 

“Something new … Jerinia, have you ever analyzed what you did that led up to where … things went wrong?” A mute shaking of the head confirmed her suspicions.  “Well, let’s try that then. You will write me a … “

 

The door was flung open, cutting Larindhra off in mid-sentence. She almost gaped as a young girl flounced in, ordered Jerinia out and actually manhandled her to the door. A quick flick of her hand sufficed to send a goggle-eyed Jerinia stumbling away. One eyebrow rose (always a danger sign to those who knew her) when the girl tossed a letter on her desk. Her face grew ever more expressionless as a diatribe such as she had seldom witnessed issued forth from the …. little miss. Finally the girl seemed to wind down, judging from the way she plonked herself down in the chair recently forcibly vacated.

 

For a few seemingly endless moments Larindhra regarded the girl, her face a frozen mask, her eyes dark chips of ice. Katiana began to shift in her chair, but still Larindhra only looked at her. When the girl started licking her lips nervously, Larindhra wove Air, Fire and Spirit to form the Mist of Mirrors. To the girl, it looked as if Larindhra was slowly growing taller and taller, till she loomed impossibly, her eyes seemingly flashing flames large enough to set her alight. A second weave of Air and Fire made her voice boom loud enough to hurt the ears.

 

“You dare speak to an Aes Sedai in that way, child?  You … dare?!”

 

 

Larindhra Reyne

Mistress of Novices

 

She'd grown bored with this staring match, was this woman going to have the impertinent Sedai who brought her here flogged or not?  As she came out of herself slightly and noticed more the way this Mistress of Novices was staring at her, rather than just that she was, she started to get a little nervous.  She hadn't been completely spoiled as a child, she could remember the few times her mother had told Katiana's nurse to use a switch on her to teach her some pointless lesson or another, and Larindhra had an expression very much like a disapproving nanny readying a green branch to be drawn across her backside.  She chewed her lower lip lightly and debated trying a more diplomatic approach with the woman when she began to... change.

 

Katiana was up out of the chair and hiding behind it before she could even blink.  She didn't even know how exactly she came to be hiding behind the chair, but the witch loomed larger and larger and the booming voice could be heard even with her hands clamped tight over her ears.  Light!  The witch is going to kill me!  Panicking, she shouted back at the woman, "You ca-can't hurt me, I'm not a d-d-darkfriend!  You can't do anything at all to me, I w-w-walk in the light and you've ta-taken oaths!" She stammered her words, trying now to crawl under the chair and failing to fit in the small space at all.  She wound up with her head and shoulders under the chair and her rear end sticking up behind her.

 

Unable to see the woman at all now, with her arms crossed over her head trying to protect her from the lightning and fire blasts that would surely come next, she insisted again. "You can't hurt people who aren't darkfriends!  I'm not afraid of you!"  Brave those her words were, she huddled under the chair quaking and thinking every colorful swear she'd ever heard at the Sister who interrupted her wedding.  These Aes Sedai should be honored by her decision to join them, they should most certainly not be threatening her and treating her like.. like a darkfriend!

 

She knew what little the Sister on the boat had told her had to be true, she'd spoken of the oaths and everyone, even a merchant's daughter from Tear knew about the Oaths and that Aes Sedai could not lie.  She began sobbing beneath the chair, blubbering out the same words over and over again. "You can't hurt me, I walk in the Light!" and when she dared to peek out from under the chair again the sobbing started over anew as the Witch still loomed larger than she ever could have been, scaring the girl witless.

 

Katiana Carreras

Thinking about respect

The bottom so conveniently sticking out from under the chair was a temptation that Larindhra was too furious to resist. “You obviously did not listen attentively enough to whomever told you about the Oaths, child. Let this be a lesson to you to unstopper your ears in future.” Thus saying, Larindhra wove enough Air to form a thin whip, which she used three times with enough force to bring forth a fresh set of shrieks.

 

“For your information, the three Oaths are as follows: Under the light and by my hope of salvation and rebirth, I vow that I will speak no word that is not true, that I will make no weapon for one man to kill another, and that I will never use the One Power as a weapon except against Shadowspawn, or in the last extreme of defending my life, or that of my Warder, or another Sister.”

 

“Now, if you have any kind of brain, something which at the moment I am sincerely doubting, you would realise that those Oaths leave me quite a bit of room! Do you think I could not paddle your bottom till you are still snivelling a week from now, child? How sure are you of what I can and cannot do, now?  Well? Get out from under that chair and stop your caterwauling!” Larindhra emphasised her command with yet another smack to Katiana’s bottom. She allowed the weave that had made her appear twice her normal size to dissipate, but the glower on her face would suffice to frighten the wits out of many Aes Sedai, never mind a young girl fresh from home.

 

Katiana did as she was bid and scrambled out from under the chair, trying to regain both composure and save face.  If all Larindrha Sedai was going to do was paddle her, then she could deal with this.  She'd been paddled a fair number of times as a child, she'd had a bit too much fire and opinion to escape childhood without scolding.  She set her expression into one of determined hatred and forced herself to face the woman as she gingerly sat on the edge of the chair.  She refused to give voice to the cry that wanted to accompany her sitting, but from the way she bit her lip sharply as she eased onto the chair it was clear that what she did caused pain.

 

She couldn't ask the wretched woman for forgiveness, her injured pride wouldn't allow it, but with smoldering silence she nodded that she would be good and stared daggers at the woman as she returned to her regular size.  If the Mistress thought she had been broken with just that little display of tantrum, she would be sadly surprised.  Katiana could match glare for glare with the best of them and even the throbbing heat of her rear couldn't make her school her features.

 

"I am surprised that you do not consider physically assaulting a Tairen noble as using a weapon, but I suppose that first oath leaves room for interpretation of the word truth as well.  You women," she bit the word off with distaste, "are well known for your misleading words and deceitful intent.  Obviously if you can flog a woman who has graced you with her presence as a new Aes Sedai, there should be no issue with punishing the woman who brought me to you."  Her voice cracked and she cleared her throat, humiliation and anger fueling her words when she would have been much better off had she held her tongue.

 

 

Katiana Carreras

What?  That's respectful, right?

Larindhra watched the spirit return to the girl’s face as the vitriol once more issued forth from that sulky mouth. Spirit was good.  An Aes Sedai needed plenty of spirit, as did a novice, but a novice had to channel that into something other than giving lip to an Aes Sedai. Larindhra very much doubted that Katiana would learn that lesson quickly, or easily. She would have to leave the child in no doubt of the consequences to her attitude right from the start, or some of her Sisters might take matters into her own hands. Forcefully. Larindhra hated having to dress down another Sister for mistreating a novice. Much better to avoid any reason for needing to do that.

 

She waited for Katiana to finish, regarding her with an extremely cold stare. “Let me set you straight on a few matters, child. You will address me as Larindhra Sedai. You will address any Aes Sedai you encounter with the same honorific. You will address Accepted, the girls with banded white dresses, as Accepted, and treat them with the same deference. You will moderate your tone when you speak to me, and you will not glower, pout, or glare at me. You will curtsy when you see me, when I give you a command, when you leave my presence. The same goes for any other Aes Sedai, or Accepted. You will treat your fellow novices with respect. You will treat the Tower servants with respect. I do not care if you are of a noble family, or if you were born in a pigsty. All initiates of the Tower enter here as equals. What you become eventually is solely up to your own abilities and potential. Do I make myself clear enough?” She did not give the girl a chance to more than open her mouth.

 

“I will ignore what you just suggested about the Sister who brought you here, but if I ever hear you speak in such a disrespectful way about her again, or any other person, you will spend the following two months scrubbing the privies. That will be after a dose of the strap every day of those two months. As it is, you will be cleaning her rooms for the next month. That includes scrubbing the floors, dusting, tidying, and whatever else she feels needs doing. You will not quibble over it, or skimp the work in any way, or that will be two months.”

 

Larindhra gazed impassively at the furious face before her. “I suggest you start controlling your features within the next few seconds, or you will also be doing extra duty in the kitchen after every noon day meal. That will be apart from your normal duties there. Now, as a rule, I do not use physical punishment when something else will do. However, should your … attitude not show immediate improvement, you will also see me before breaking fast every morning for the next week. Maybe starting your day with a dose of the slipper will help. Now – are you quite over your little temper tantrum? Can we move on to your future in the Tower?” The last was delivered in a very bored tone, as if the answer held no great import to her.

 

Larindhra Reyne

Mistress of Novices

 

OOC: Looks like this will go to more than 4 posts. You don’t mind, do you? Larindhra is having SUCH fun!  ;D

 

OOC: I never mind going long in a thread! :)

 

"Yes, Aes Sedai." Her words were cold, but without the whine and sulk that they had previously shown.  She did manage to school her expression, but there was no mistaking the blind contempt in her eyes.  She rose to her feet and bobbed a very quick but precise curtsy and then sat on her chair again, primly and still as stone.  Inside, she was more furious than she had been in her whole life, even more so than she had been when that Aes Sedai had first told her she could channel.  They would treat her like a servant, teaching her to use this one power and how to behave just so, and no doubt how to become such a good little Aes Sedai, controlling the world and pulling strings that they had no right to touch.

 

The audacity of the woman, making her take care of the very woman who had brought her here!  Well, Larindhra Sedai would learn all too quickly what a horrible idea that little penance had been, and both she and the sister in question would regret the decision to force Katiana into close proximity with her and give her the chance to exact her own revenge.

 

Katiana nodded very stiffly when Larindhra asked if they could move on.  She wanted nothing more in the world than to be out of this office as soon as possible.  If she had to stay in the presence of this woman much longer, she would end up earning every bit of her penance by making things worse.  She could only be expected to force this calm for so long.

 

“I’m so glad,” Larindhra replied very dryly when Katiana nodded in response to her question. “I’ll just enter your details in the novice book, then we can get you started.” Larindhra carefully entered Katiana’s full name, place and date of birth as detailed in the note. She would not put it past the girl to claim titles not hers. She took her time about it, carefully blotting the ink and allowing it to dry before closing the book and placing it just so on the left hand corner of her desk. From the corner of her eye she observed the tightening of Katiana’s mouth, and the brief flare of temper in her eyes, but the girl remained perfectly still. Good.

 

At last she looked up. “Let’s get you some new clothes.” The little storeroom attached to her office held a set of novice clothes in almost every size imaginable, but Larindhra handed Katiana a set just slightly too large for her. The Tower used every means to its disposal to break a novice down, then build her back up better than before. “Take off everything you’re wearing and put these on, then give me all the clothes you were wearing. You may hand your jewellery and any other valuables to me for safe-keeping, or keep them in your room, but you will not wear them – is that clear?” She waited for Katiana to change and hand her the clothes she had been wearing, then motioned for her to follow. This ceremony usually took place a day or two later, to soften the blow slightly, but Larindhra deemed it best to make the point clear sooner rather than later.

 

She led the way to a small little courtyard, where she explained what the little ceremony meant. A simple Weave ignited the clothes Katiana had handed to her. As they burnt to ashes, she intoned: “Katiana, your old life is behind you. What you were means nothing, only what you can become. A new life awaits you in the White Tower. May the Light bless you and guide you to become all that you can be.”

 

They walked in silence to the Novice quarters, each enveloped in her own thoughts. Only once she has shown Katiana into a room, did Larindhra speak again. “Each novice is assigned a Mentor to teach and guide her. Yours will be Thanelle Kelwgar, Aes Sedai of the White Ajah. I suggest you mind her just as much as you would me.” With a final nod, she set off, but not back to her office. Thanelle might see this as a challenge, but then, she might also blast Larindhra for lumping her with this brat. Larindhra suspected that not even her own position as Mistress of Novices would deter Thanelle if she decided on the latter – the woman had a viperish tongue. Squaring her shoulders, Larindhra set off towards the White Quarters.

 

 

Larindhra Reyne

Mistress of Novices