First Place - Most Plausible
First Place - Most "RJ-esque"
(NOTE: This entry was unusually long, and has been broken up into several sections, because my HTML editor wouldn't allow me to present it as one piece)
(Continued From Part Two.)
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Aviendha sat on the stone bench inside the "bathing house," took a deep breath and tried not stare, not with much success. The bathing house was one spacious room, all white plaster walls and dark wood beams, with a smooth stone floor. Here and there, large stone sided basins, each large enough to hold at least four people, occupied the floor, rising to about knee level. Once the very presence of such much water, just for bathing, would have sent Aviendha reeling. No longer. She had grown accustomed to the Wetlander manner of cleansing oneself. She was surprised to find herself looking forward to a lengthy soak in a hot bath. Then again, she was still surprised to find herself in a Wetlander dress of gray silk, or traveling with women of the White Tower.
Judging from the figures of the dark-skinned women lolling in some of the basins, they were set about two or three feet beneath floor level. The woman Alise Holt, who Aviendha supposed was Roofmistress here, had told them that they were fed by a natural spring and that they had "wonderful, relaxing quailities," but she was skeptical. Although she was no longer disturbed, or even amazed by the Wetlander way of bathing by immersing oneself in a quantity of water, she knew she could never relax while doing it for an instinctive fear of drowing. It was besides concern. Aviendha was not gaping at the tubs or the water, rather, it was the women in those tubs, and their behavior, that held her unwilling attention.
A young woman of the _Aithan a'Meire_ was reverently scrubbing the all-but silver hair of the woman in front of her. In another pool, a woman, matronly seeming but still young, was running a comb drenched in fragrant oil through the hair of another. Aviendha was mortified. For her part, Elayne was doing a fine job of pretending that there was nothing unusual about what was going on before her, and Birgitte was as unresponsive as ever. Perhaps the golden-haired Warder had seen such scandalous activities, but Aviendha certainly had not! Just when she thought she had been numbed to the strangeness of Wetlander customs, another one threw itself in her face. True, no Wetlanders deserved that name better than the Sea Folk, but these women were washing each other's *hair!* Among the Aiel, it was considered an act of utmost intimacy for someone to wash another's hair, but it was only between a man and woman!
Birgitte sat next to her and began unraveling her long braid, while Elayne walked over to one of the great stone basins and dipped in a finger. Clucking appreciatively, she wove flows of Fire to warm the water to the point where steam was rising. To Aviendha's eyes, her first-sister's head was surrounded by a glowing nimbus and her flows were clearly visable. Aviendha began to doff her dress, as Birgitte was pulling of her boots. Elayne was already soaking in the tub, her ice blue dress hanging nearby on a peg, as she hummed a contented tune. The Sea Folk women, Windfinders all, were having a fine time, dunking one another, or splashing at each other, and lathering up each other's hair! Aviendha couldn't help but look.
Birgitte noticed her unease. "Come, Aviendha, it is not what you think. Among their kind, it is an act of sisterly affection, nothing more." She tossed her waist long hair over her now bare shoulders. "If you'd like, I can wash your hair," she offered.
Aviendha flung a hand to her own hair, a rich reddish brown, almost bronze thanks to a rinse Elayne had suggested and falling well past her shoulders. Certainly the longest it had been since she had wed the spear. "That will not be necessary!" she snapped. She corrected herself. "No thank you, near-sister." Birgitte only grinned and dropped herself into a basin with a chuckle. Aviendha was stepping out of her shift when the door slammed open behind her.
"Burn me!," Elayne exclaimed, holding her wet locks out of her wide blue eyes. Aviendha noted that she had flows ready to let loose what she guessed would be lightning. She admired her near-sister's speed and skill with Saidar. Birgitte was standing beside the wide open door, dripping wet, clothed only by her clinging hair. She held a glinting knife in her hand. Aviendha hadn't even seen her get out of the basin, let alone retrieve a knife. Aviendha felt rather clumsy and foolish standing there half out of her shift. She turned to the open door, and saw it was only Nynaeve, her face scarlet with emotion. Not anger though. Was it fear? Or concern, that might be the better word.
The short, brown-haired woman stalked into the room, her fine golden dress swishing. "Elayne, get dressed!," she demanded. "We just received word! Tylin is on her way here! The bloody Seanchan have attacked and have taken the city!" Aviendha knew that here, on this farm in Altara, "the city" meant Ebou Dar.
Aviendha was very proud of Elayne for her first question. "What of Mat?," she inquired while toweling off her limbs. "Has he reported in yet?" Birgitte chimed in with "and what of the boy, Olver?"
Nynaeve scowled. "No, nothing, for either of them. And there are hundreds of Kinswomen still there, Elayne, hundreds! Bloody Ashes, Elayne, the bloody Seanchan with their bloody filthy leashes, so get dressed and get back to the house, or do I have to haul you back by the ear in your bloody shift!" Not waiting for an answer, she stalked out.
In a short while, they dashed back up the path to the sprawling "farmhouse," having dried themselves quickly with the One Power. Birgitte was still tucking in her blouse, and Elayne was coiling her hair in a neat bun, having neither the time to dry nor dress it properly. Elayne was unhappy about have no real time to "make herself presentable," but Aviendha would be stunned if she ever saw Elayne when she was "not presentable." Her near-sister was always well turned out and lovely. Even her silk dress was neat and crisp, showing no signs of hanging on a peg in a steam filled room. For her part, Aviendha's own hair was tucked up behind a pretty ivory comb, but her dress was a little rumpled with its lace-trimmed cuffs still damp and clinging. Thankfully, it covered her modestly, and was not in the revealing Ebou Dari style. She had taken to the Altaran fashion of wearing a gilded knife tucked behind her belt though. She had felt naked without a belt-knife, and Elayne had insisted that her old horn-handled knife looked awful with her new dresses.
The sun was just setting as they approached the "farmhouse" which was, in truth, larger than most inns Aviendha had seen. The farmhouse was three rambling stories of white washed plaster with a roof of neat thatch and a wide porch. It was irregularly shaped, from where it had added to over the centuries, and the roof reflected this, rising or falling in a series of erratic angles, presenting gables to every side. The cleared yard before the main doors was occupied by hundreds of women, milling and chattering. There was a palpable air of alarm, although none of the women present would allow themselves to show it.
A cluster of women stood just apart from them, mostly Aes Sedai, but Aviendha saw the woman Reanne Corly, as well as Alise Holt, and the Sea Folk Windfinders Patrine din Jubai White Wave, and the elderly Tirasse din Sunai Red Pearl. Of course, Nynaeve was there as well, speaking to them forcefully. Bright balls of colored light danced and swooned overhead as the women present channeled for illumination.
Two of the Kinswomen also joined that cluster, but Aviendha was unable to name them. She could size up another woman in moments, much as Elayne or Nynaeve could, and she could tell that although none of the women approached Nynaeve in strength, or Elayne or herself, one of the Kinswomen, tall and fit with pale yellow hair and a young, carefree face, was not so very far behind. Had she really been dismissed from the White Tower? She was more than the equal of most Aes Sedai she had ever encountered. Practically all the Aes Sedai she had ever encountered. Aviendha wondered how many women like that had been mislaid by the Aes Sedai and their shockingly short-sighted policy. True, the Wise Ones were just as demanding, but she couldn't name one so obviously gifted woman who was sent out from the Wise Ones' tents. Once the Wise Ones found you suitable, they would not let go, not ever, as Aviendha could reluctantly attest.
Nynaeve apparently had noticed their arrival. "Not before time!" Her knuckles were white as she gripped her braid.
"Elayne, we have been waiting for you," commented Aldeleas Namene pleasantly, as if she been waiting to be joined for a pot of tea, not to devise a battle-plan. "Nynaeve mentioned that you two have dealt with these Seanchan before." She appeared to have some difficulty with that word. "Your words would be appreciated."
"Aes Sedai, you must help us," put in Reanne Corly meekly, addressing Elayne and Nynaeve mostly. "I have hundreds of Kinswomen still in the city, and from what Nynaeve Sedai has been telling me, they are in direst peril! I am the Eldest, and I shall not abandon them this side of the grave, but I cannot do it alone. Please, won't you help?!" She paused and collected herself. "I need your assistence." The Eldest Kinswoman wore a simply cut dress of gray wool, but with a green silken sash tied about her waist. In fact, all the Kinswomen present were wearing colored sashes around their waists, blue, and green, all the Ajah colors, except maybe red.
Except maybe red sashes that was. A good many of the Kinswomen still wore their red leather belts, although some wore the belt _and_ the sash, yellow silk twined around red leather. Sumeko was one of those wearing both. Embracing the Aes Sedai once again, but clinging to her Kinswoman ways.
Aviendha noted Reanne's sash was the very same color green as one of Elayne's prized gowns. A gown that she hadn't seen in Elayne's closets since arriving. For the second time this evening, Aviendha was proud of her near-sister. Aviendha wondered how many dresses Elayne and Nynaeve had given up so the Kinswomen could hold themselves with pride near the other Aes Sedai. Reanne Corly was also wearing a plain cream-colored shawl over her shoulders and Aviendha wondered if Elayne had a hand in that too.
If Merilille Caendevin thought anything odd about Reanne's shawl, she didn't let it show. The haughty, pale-skinned Grey reached out and took Reanne's hand. The ring on her slim hand gleamed in the fading sunlight, making Reanne's hand seen naked by comparison. Perhaps that had been her intent. Aviendha suddenly felt the urge to have Merilille beaten for such an affront to Reanne's _ji_. The woman had no sense of honor, but Aviendha recalled that she was one of those treekilling Cairheinin, and such lowered her expectations from the woman.
"Mistress Corly, hear me," she said, her tone icily condescending. "Although you are not our sisters, fear not, we Aes Sedai will not let your wilders, your women fall into clutches of these Seanchan." Reanne seemed enormously gratified by that statement but Nynaeve snorted loudly, and Vandene seemed displeased.
The ancient Aes Sedai put her arm around Reanne's shoulders and said most solemnly, "Sister, rest assured, we have failed you all once. It shall not happen again. It shall never happen again. I swear this under the Light." Her revential tone was puzzling at first, until Aviendha remembered that the middle-aged looking Reanne was centuries older than any of the Aes Sedai present, even the frail, white-haired Adeleas and Vandene.
"A courier arrived not an hour ago," put in the Kinswoman Sharive Sachemi for Elayne's benefit. She was one of the ones with only a yellow sash. "He was nearly dead in his saddle. He couldn't even open his eyes, let alone speak." With an admiring look at Nynaeve she added "untill Nyneave Sedai Healed him." Nynaeve did seem to have a flock of women in yellow sashes trailing her every step.
Merilille continued, as if she had never been interrupted. "A courier arrived, this is true, bearing word that Tylin Mitsobar was riding behind him, with a fragment of her army, many of her retainers and Teslyn Sedai. There is no word of Joline Sedai. He also said that these "Seanchan" took the city in less then one afternoon, and that they have been gathering up women in the city's squares and plazas. Apparently," with a skeptical glance at Nynaeve, " they are testing for women they may leash and force to channel." She paused for effect and then continued with a sweeping gesture "Well, we have more than enough women here to prevent that from happening. Each Aes Sedai, and perhaps a few of the more deserving Kinswomen shall command a full circle, and then we-"
Aviendha recognized that look on Elayne's face and knew she was going to enjoy this. Elayne drew herself up, slim, erect, and commanding. Her severe hairstyle made her seem more mature, less "girlish." Her blue eyes bore down on Merilille. "That will be quite enough, Merilille. You obviously have no idea of who it is we face." She turned away in as a clear a dismissal as could be. She raised her voice and adressed all the women present. "Fortunately, one woman knows the face of our enemy and can see it truly." Elayne walked a bit aways from that cluster before speaking again. "The Amyrlin Seat has encountered the Seanchan in the past and was present as they were thrown into the sea at Falme" Aviendha took in the gasps and astonished gazes on the Kinswomen at Elayne's words."We shall rightfully turn toward her leadership in this."
She lowered her voice once again. "Nynaeve, have you any slumberweed? We shall contact the Amyrlin as soon as we can be assured she can hear us, and plead for her assistence. Reanne, Alise, you may join us. As may you, Vandene. Sareitha, too, I think." Elayne glanced around and added "Adeleas, of course, as well as Iseulde." The named women all nodded, and a look of chagrin blosssomed on Sareitha's face. Young, and not young seeming, Sareitha was a newly raised sister, and was doubtless amazed to find herself named in that group to the exclusion of Merilille. Her big brown eyes flickered at Merilille, and then dropped to her russet skirts. The young Kinswoman that she had taken note of earlier nodded, allowing Aviendha to put a name to her. The woman Iseulde cracked her knuckles and tucked her thumbs behind her sash in barely concealed excitement, as if she was eager to dance the spears. Aviendha decided right there that she liked this Wetlander in the blue sash with the yellow hair. Merilille stalked away, her cheeks flush with color, but her face was impassive as ever. Aviendha was happy to see the treekiller Aes Sedai walk away.
Elayne caught the eye of a slender, young Windfinder, all in watery green silk, with only two gold rings at her ear. She gestured for the black-eyed girl to approach her. "Sister, how are you called?" she asked pleasantly.
"My mother named me Oranne din Sindal Silver Gull over salt and sea, Aes Sedai," she answered reverently. The Sea Folk girl was absolutely moony in her admiration of Elayne, even though she could scarcely be more than two years younger than the Daughter-Heir.
She watched as Elayne favored her with a smile. "Oranne, would you carry a message for me?" She waited for the girl to nod. "Find Renaile din Calor Blue Star and ask her to join us in one hour's time, in Mistress Holt's receiving room. Can you do that for me?"
"Yes, Elayne Sedai." The girl actually curtsied to her as she darted off, even though it was an unfamiliar custom among the _Athan a'Miere_.
Nynaeve appeared at Elayne's shoulder, and with a grim nod at Merilille, said tersely "and then, we shall see what we shall see. Egwene will send help, or I will eat my boots."
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(Concluded in Part Four; Return to Part Two)