Olivia discovered early on just how few women there were at the farm compared to the number of young - and not so young - men. It was just the kind of ratio she preferred. Not that she was afraid of a little competition, mind, but it made it that much less likely that a jealous goodwife was going to confront her because she had allowed her husband to dandle her on their knee and perhaps steal a cuddle or two. Here, she was receiving all the male attention she could possibly want, not to mention work and all the alcohol she wanted at her fingertips. True, the majority of these men seemed to be suffering different levels of madness thanks to their affliction, but Olivia had no issue turning a blind eye to that and just lapping up the attention.

 

The inn was starting to fill up as the sunlight began to fade, black coated men of all kinds enjoying an ale or meal, or the dice game starting up in one corner. It still surprised Olivia that there was such...diversity among the farm. Not only did these men come from all across the world, but they were from every walk of life - commoners eating with merchants, farmers with minor lordlings. It was a bizarre mix. Emerging from the kitchens with two pitchers of ale in her hands, Olivia spied a man sitting on his own, one she had only noticed from afar previously. Whispers made her believe he must be a man of some position in the Black Tower. A man like that would have tales to tell, and must be in need of a drink. Running this place must be a nightmare. Olivia had seen three separate eruptions of temper since he arrival scant days before, and though they were doused quickly and efficiently, there was always an air of violence around the encounter.

 

Dodging a groping hand aimed for her backside with a smile and a wink, Olivia set down a pitcher on a table of rowdy men, before taking the other across the room to where the man sat. Aran? Arath? Something like that. "Well now, you do have the look of a man who could use a drink," she purred, bending to place the chilled jug on the table and offering the man a clear view of her cleavage enclosed in the low-cut yellow gown she wore. She smiled her brightest smile and pulled out a free chair beside him, her clear blue eyes twinkling as she met his. "I do be needing one too, it has been a long day. You do no mind?" Olivia blinked and looked for all the world that she was actually concerned about intruding, shrugging a smoothly rounded shoulder that caused her dark waves to tumble gaily down her back.

 

He do be a right handsome one, Olivia thought when he did not ask her to leave, her eyes raking over his profile and down to where the silver sword and dragon glittered on his collar. "I do no be having the pleasure of meeting you before now, my lord. Olivia Tamedo is my name." Cheek dimpling, she extended her hand to shake his outstretched one.

 

 

~Olivia Tamedo

Corrupter of the Ranks

Being a Storm Leader had its advantages, especially during a busy evening at the inn.  Few people were willing to chance sitting at his table, giving him the solitude he needed to think.  He was close to a breakthrough with his ter'angreal work, he was sure of it.  But something eluded him still.  There was something he couldn't figure out about metalic matrices.  Perhaps gold would hold a fire weave better than silver?  Maybe if he replaced-

 

Arath's thought process was interupted by a pitcher landing on the table, and a considerable amount of yellow framed bosom hovering at eye level behind it.  "Well now, you do have the look of a man who could use a drink," said the owner of that bosom.  Arath recognized her somewhat from the last few days.  She was a newcomer, and already a favorite among the men.  Already she had changed the attitude that many of them retained about Illianers.  She settled into a chair next to him and added, "I do be needing one too, it has been a long day. You do no mind?"

 

Arath shook his head, but didn't say anything.  He wasn't very good with women.  For all his experience with channeling and killing, women just eluded him.  And so he tried his best to ignore her.  It was difficult, especially with the view presented.  The feeling of her eyes on him didn't help either.

 

"I do no be having the pleasure of meeting you before now, my lord. Olivia Tamedo is my name."  She held out a hand, which he carefully took.

 

"Arath Faringal.  And I'm not a lord."  He definitely was not very good at this.  "Was there something I could do for you?"

"Arath, then." Olivia smiled, not put off by his lack of apparent enthusiasm. Likely he was just wary, or shy. She could handle that. All men were the same, deep down, and all men liked Olivia, eventually. Even if they got nothing more than the pleasure of her company. Bright and bubbly by nature, she'd never lacked for company. Save when jealous wives ran her out of a small village, anyway. "Do for me? Well that do be depending..." Olivia trailed off with a tinkling laugh and shook her head. "No, I do no want anything from you save the pleasure of your company."

 

Turning in her chair, Olivia reached across to a neighbouring table and grabbed two empty mugs. She filled them both with ale from the pitcher and handed one to Arath. "If I do be stuck here, it makes sense to get to know my neighbours, yes? Especially those who do be having some authority." Olivia clinked her mug against the one in Arath's hand. "To new friendships!" She declared, before taking a healthy swig of the brew. It was a bit rough, but Olivia didn't have discriminating taste at the best of times, and less so when she was drinking with handsome if reserved company.

 

They sat in awkward silence for a few moments, with Arath seeming in no rush to break it. Whether he wasn't comfortable with it Olivia couldn't tell, but she certainly preferred men to speak unless they were otherwise engaged. "I do no know about you, but I do be finding it difficult to get to know someone when we do be silent," Olivia said with a playful smile. "Was your day as long as mine? I feel like I scrubbed every pot this side of the waste today. That do no be the most exciting day. How about you? I do no claim to understand anything of what-" Olivia waved a hand vaguely to demonstrate, "-you do be about with the power and such, but I do be good at listening." Olivia took another strong pull from her ale and set it down on the ring of condensation it had left on the table. It was already going to her head, a pleasant buzz, but Olivia did not want to become totally legless with drink this night. She flashed another winning smile, dimple flashing. "And, I do be interested."

 

 

~Olivia Tamedo, Civilian

Arath settled back into his seat and took a long drink from the mug Olivia handed him.  He wasn't sure if he actually believed her; most people wanted to know as little as they could about what the Asha'man did, but she seemed earnest enough.  And she had a nice smile.  "I spent the better part of today working on a problem which may not even have an answer.  And the only people who could help me are three thousand years dead."

 

He fell back into silence for a moment, using the mug as an excuse.  "Do you know the most frustrating part of ... what we do?" he asked suddenly.  "It's not the taint, though Light knows how awful it is.  It's having to puzzle out every single thing we do.  Some of it is easy enough.  Fireballs and earthquakes are surprisingly easy to figure out.  But making something ... it's like trying to weave a massive tapestry without a pattern or a loom.  Only you're blindfolded, and have to sew with your feet."

 

Taking another drink, Arath let out a deep breath.  "It's interesting, don't get me wrong.  But Light, is it frustrating.  It's like Saidin is just a naturally destructive force."  He paused for a moment, wishing he could take that last bit back.  Hearing about the destructive nature of the One Power was probably the last thing a new civilian needed to hear.  "It isn't so much that Saidin wants to destroy everything, it just ... I guess it's like everything else.  It's much easier to smash everything than to create anything."

 

Shaking his head, Arath laughed into his nearly empty mug.  "Here I am sounding like a dry old philospher.  It can't be very entertaining for you I'd imagine."

Olivia let Arath speak, sipping quietly on her ale as the words almost burst from him. She wondered idly if he had been looking for someone to speak to and she had finally presented an opportunity to him. An interesting thought. Olivia liked watching him talk, his features becoming more open and expressive as he was swept up in his conversation. The topic did make Olivia shiver inwardly, but that was certainly understandable. Ignoring the fact that the vast majority of men at this black tower could channel was like trying to ignore a giant boil on the end of your nose. You could pretend it wasn't there all you liked, it was still staring you in the eye. And hearing it as being destructive? Tainted was bad enough, the elixir to certain madness, but to destroy as it went? Horrifying to think of, but Olivia carefully tucked those thoughts away in a dark corner of her mind and focused on the rest.

 

Arath's fingers were quite long, she noticed, as they curled lightly around the mug in his hands. Long and tapered, elegant. Like craftsmen's hands, or a fine musician. "A dry old philosopher? Hardly!" Olivia patted Arath's hand as it rested on the table top lightly with her own before withdrawing it back to her mug. "I do be having to admit to a sort of morbid curiosity about saidin. All I do know is what my Ma told me to scare me as a youngin, and it right worked too." She dimpled again and shifted infinitesimally closer in her chair to Arath's side. "But then all the best tales do be exaggerated."

 

Olivia idly twirled a lock of hair around a finger, her expression contemplative. "What were you trying to make? I do no understand the power but I do be curious as to what you were making." Olivia turned her large blue eyes on Arath and smiled prettily, enjoying the way his lips curved up at the edge in the beginnings of a returning smile.

 

 

~Olivia Tamedo

Arath fingered the silver sword pin on his collar for a moment, wondering how best to explain.  He'd been working with Saidin for so long that he often forgot what was common knowledge, and what was completely foreign to non channelers.  "You've heard of angreal before?  They're very rare instruments which make a channeler stronger than normal.  A fairly average angreal could double the strength of the man who wields it.  A strong one could make him many times stronger.  But they're very hard to find now.  Especially for men.  The Aes Sedai have done a fairly good job of destroying them I'd imagine.

 

"Anyway, that's what I've been trying to do."  He pulled the silver pin from his collar and turned it over in his fingers.  "This was supposed to be an angreal, but it ... it's flawed somehow."  Reaching through the 'anti-angreal', Arath drew on Saidin.  Blessedly clean Saidin.  Only the barest whisper of the taint remained, but a great portion of his strength was gone along with it.  "It makes you weaker, rather than stronger.  But it has the interesting side effect of filtering out the taint.  I've been trying to make another one, but there's just too much I don't understand about it all."  With a sigh, Arath released Saidin.  He found it much harder to do so lately, now that he often used the flawed angreal.  The taint had always given him a reason to release the source quickly, but with the taint removed, he found himself tempted to hold it all day long.

 

Arath glanced over at the pretty Illianer woman and noticed in suprise that she was right next to him now.  Hadn't she started off almost across the table from him?  Suddenly unsure of what to do, Arath tried to turn the conversation around and get her talking instead.  "So I spend most of my days locked in my basement, trying to recreate a science lost an age ago.  What kinds of things do you like to do?"