Selene stepped out of Larindhra Sedai's office with a thoughtful furrowing of her brows.  Loraine Sedai was out of the Tower again, saving the world one brave action at a time, and her mentee didn't know how to properly read.  Azalia Switt had been excused from the class on using Saidar that her roommate and a number of the other novices were currently enrolled in so that she would have time to gain a basic working of reading and writing before she learned to use Saidar.  Selene remembered her own first class in touching the source and how Larindhra Sedai had assigned them homework of researching all of the women who had been stilled and why.  She'd spent long hours in the library alongside Sarena and Cara, understanding the past in the hopes that they would be free from the same fate.

 

She was able to find the Novice stuffed most of the way into one of the large cook pots in the kitchen, scrubbing away and whistling merrily.  Selene smiled softly to herself as she watched the girl work.  She'd met Azalia the very day the girl had come to the Tower and had immediately found herself fond of the sunny disposition and down-to-earth kindness. For Selene, who detested the mask of serenity that Aes Sedai were forced to show the world, Azalia's natural and honest expressions and mannerisms were endearing and refreshing.

 

"Novice Azalia, I've come to free you of your drudgery and teach you some slightly more refined skills."  She wore her smile openly and nodded her head to the kitchen's chief cook who was eying the Accepted with a small amount of suspicion as she led away one of her girls.  Selenessin had made fast friends with the cook when she was a Novice, but it seemed that as she grew up, she grew away from her old friends to one degree or another.  It was not only a matter of seeing yourself in a different light, the others around you saw you in a different light as well.

 

Selene led Azalia to the library, where the two of them would be spending a fair amount of time together long before she even got to working with Saidar.  There was a matter of Azalia's literacy, and as a girl called on to copy the notes of a great many Aes Sedai and who was seen studying in the library whenever she had a free moment, she was not at all hesitant to take on the role of training and helping her friend.  She'd hoped working with Azalia would help her get used to this whole Accepted thing and that by the time she was asked to teach her first proper class, it would not be near so intimidating.  That was the hope, anyway.

 

 

Selenessin Accepted

Azalia never really saw much drudgery in chores, but drudgery was a pretty big word so she rarely bothered to see it in much of anything.  Hopefully her time with Selene would help to remedy that situation.   Azalia was always happy to see Selene and, already a chatty person by nature, Azalia would normally have spent most of their walk to the library together chatting.

 

Today, however,  nervousness kept Azalia's mouth busy with the task of nibbling at her bottom lip. She only spoke her first words (after their initial, friendly salutations) when the two of them arrive at the huge room full of books that made up the library.  "Fantastic," she said, out of obligation more than anything else.  The Aes Sedai, and especially those quirky Browns and Brown aspirants, held this room in reverence.  They wanted you to use words like "awesome," and "impressive,"  but not phrases like "It smells like a box of dead trees in here."  They wouldn't laugh at that. Not even if you lead the way and slapped your knee.

 

Azalia knew how to read but she was mighty bad at it and her writing was even worse.  Whether or not she thought books were much ado about nothing, Azalia's spirit just couldn't sit right with being outright bad at something her colleagues placed such emphasis on.  She felt very fortunate that Selene was willing to take the time to help her improve herself.

Selene smiled warmly at Azalia's reaction to the library, she seemed not to hear any falseness or empty flattery in them.  Or if she did, she politely ignored it and took the words at face value.  More likely, Selene had just accepted the words because she'd expected the words.  How could anyone not be impressed by the great library of Tar Valon?  Selene herself had fallen in love with the place on that very first day she came to the Tower, when she'd come looking for a book that would tell her what it meant to be Aes Sedai, and what this Tower full of mysteries and daunting twists and turns would be filled with.  It was still the place that she felt the most at home in, the most at peace with.  With a warm cup of tea or cocoa and a good book, and Selene was as generous with the term 'good book' as she was with the term 'good friend,' she couldn't help but feel at peace.  Which was funny, considering how few books she'd had at the only home she'd known before the Tower. 

 

She led Azalia into one of the smaller depositories that was used by many novices as a study room.  There were a number of these throughout the library, and this one had been reserved by Selene before she came to fetch the Novice.  The room held books on every wall, as the whole of the library did, and another long shelf of books divided the area into two spaces not much larger each than her own room in the Accepted's Quarters.  She motioned to the partition on the left and moved forward after her. They sat down together at a table where parchment and quills were already set out.

 

"Most of reading and writing is simple memorization.  It's not a difficult task, it just takes a lot of work.  I already know that you are no stranger to hard work, and if I didn't believe you could do this and be very good at it, I wouldn't have accepted the happy task of teaching you."  Larindhra Sedai had technically asked Selene to do it, but one didn't really tell the Mistress of Novices no.  Even as an Accepted.  But whether she'd had a choice or not at teaching Azalia, there was no falsehood in her words.

 

She worked with the Novice steadily that day, teaching her the proper penmanship and helping her expand her vocabulary.  It began with the atrocious way the girl held her pen.  It wasn't a blunt dagger to be stabbed at the paper in the hopes that something eligible bled from the parchment!  Azalia picked that up quickly, even if Selene did have to correct her again every time she picked up the quill after setting it down for any length of time.  Patience, she told herself, it will come in time..  It was not an easy process, but the time between them went quickly and each day when it was time to call a halt to their lessons, Selene felt like the time had gone by a little faster.

 

 

Selenessin

Ever the Optimist

 

Azalia picked up her quill, her first step on the long journey of self improvement, and slowly drew the long white, plume between her fingers.  The vanes were softer than a gentle breeze as they bent and slid against her skin. "Literacy is the leading cause of chilled birds' bottoms, you know.  I wanted you to be aware of that in all good conscience before we started."  She smiled weakly,  tested the point of her quill against her finger tip, and then dabbed her quill in the inkwell.  She set the dark tip of potential to the blank sheet of possibility in front of her and she opened her mind.

 

It was slow growing.  Just getting her letters clean and legible took weeks.  Azalia loved Selene but when she'd scratched out her umpteenth row of bastard letter M's (not at all like her sweet, behaved like her sweet lower-case "l"s) and Selene suggested that Azalia might want to try again. Azalia found herself thinking a good hearty stab to her elder's ear would be a better than another dip in the inkwell.  The image of Selene giving her lessons with quills jutting out of her forehead like moth-antennae was the only thing that got Azalia through the letter "W."

 

Writing left your fingers worn and creakier than mending fences in winter; nobody told you about that. Maybe they'd written it down somewhere, that be just like them those sick, literacy-loving dastards.  Reading wasn't so hard, once Azalia got used to sounding out things fuh-net-tik-lee in her head but spelling... It felt like you had to know every burning word on the planet before you knew how to spell.

 

There were times that Azalia felt like quitting and only the looks of trust from Selene's sweet, hopeful face kept her going. There were times she didn't know why she was bothering (Kati letting her borrow The Midnight Encounters of the Lady Beatrice D'Juantigo, and Dreams of the Thorned Rose had helped with that).  But, in the end, it was all worth it when she got to stop.

 

Because she knew how to write, burn it!

 

"Yes!" Azalia crowed as she slapped the thick sheaf of paper down in front of Selene. " A complete report on Lyndriil Sedai's Matters of Note in Regard to Pig Breeding and Pork Futures, correctly spelled, and grammared up right to the Moon and back again." Azalia folded her arms across her chest and flashed Selene a grin.

 

Watching Selene, her teacher of these many weeks daub lightly at the misty corners of her eyes as she flipped slowly through the pages made Azalia's smile fall away. "Wait, don't actually read it and weep.  I was being literary, not literal."

She laughed outright at Azalia's joke.  When the girl arrived at the tower, Selene wouldn't have placed odds that Azalia could tell you the difference between literal and literary, and now she was using them in one of her warm and witty quips.

 

Selene sniffed and flashed a bright smile at the girl.  "I'm just... really proud of you, Azalia.  I know it wasn't easy and I know it wasn't fun, but you've improved so much and done so beautifully."  She held up a random page of the report and showed it to Azalia, hoping the girl could see her own improvement with fresh eyes.  The lines were neat and tidy, with a well-formed hand that didn't get so flowery you could hardly read it.  Selene often had a bit of trouble with her own penmanship tending towards the flowery, with extra curls and coils where they weren't needed.  She tucked the paper carefully back into place and set the manuscript on the table.

 

She thought back on all the hard work Azalia had put into this, the complaining that came less and less frequently, and with more and more genuine humor.  She'd grown ever more fond of the down-to-earth swineherd's daughter during their time together and she wished she had some gift, or some memento to mark this day so that Azalia could look back on this when she needed encouragement and remember when she had risen to the challenge and overcome.  She decided to ask one of the Browns to have the report Azalia had written up to be bound into a book, and she would give that book to the girl as a gift.

 

She stood up and wrapped her arms around Azalia in a warm and close hug.  She was supposed to be the girl's teacher, but she couldn't help herself from being the girl's friend.  "Now that you're a lady, I think it's time you learn to be an Aes Sedai.  Much like the writing, it will not always be easy, but you now have a wealth of knowledge and experience within this library that you can turn to when you are in need of help.  And of course, I'll be there to help you along."  She smiled encouragingly, hoping the girl would come to view the quest for knowledge with excitement and eagerness instead of a dull kind of apathy.  “Most of your studying with Saidar will be hands-on learning, but there will be times when you would benefit from researching and familiarizing yourself with the history of the Aes Sedai and the application weaves can have.  What may seem a useless and unimportant weave could one day save your life if you utilize it properly.”  She got the feeling that she was losing Azalia with the long speech, so she flashes a warm smile to the girl and then turned to the door.

 

“Now let's go see if Cook has some honeycakes we might pilfer as a little treat for your job well done.”

 

 

 

Selenessin Sensei

Successful teacher!