Kaelyn was left alone, Lalaine departed quickly after escorting her to the Mistress of Novice's office. The door stood before her, its presence dominating in its height and structure, much like the Tower itself. She felt uneasy, and hesitated more than once in proceeding to knock on the door. Down the hallway she watched the novice slowly diminish from sight, taunting her to draw up her skirts and run. This was it, to step through the door now meant she would be imprisioned in the Tower, towards the novice meant freedom. At least she had thought, the novice was no more free than she was, white meant she was dedicated to becoming Aes Sedai. It was a foolish thought to think the direction the novice was heading would mean freedom. Even if she managed to escape the Aes Sedai, it would mean a life of fleeing their attempts to capture her. She did not want that.

Sighing she lowered her gaze and smoothed out her skirts scowling at the wrinkles that had developed from riding on the back of a horse. These clothes were all she had, the Aes Sedai refused to stop and allow her to purchase fresh riding dresses, and the rest of her wardrobe had been burned. Surely she does not expect me to be walking in like a queen! She began muttering under her breath as she turned her attention from her dress to combing out her hair with her fingers. Suprisingly it was smooth and still quite silkly from the last chance she had to brush it. Putting it in a braid had helped the situation muchly, keeping it safe from the wind.

Satisfied with what little she could do Kaelyn ceased her efforts, and stood looking at the door once more. "This is it. Not much of a choice either. To enter or to run both mean the same thing. Aes Sedai." She grimaced drawing her finger up and tracing it on the handle as if doing so would help her puzzle out what lay in front of her. Such a beautiful piece, yet its hard and rigid. Like them.

Drawing a breath she raised her hand and knocked on the door firmly deciding that this was what was meant to be. What am I getting myself into!

"Come"

If she has not been so prepared, Kaelyn would have jumped out of her skin at the command. Fear was long put aside, she was more calm than she had ever experienced and if her sister were present she would have been praising her for how bold she appeared. The door opened with ease as if welcoming her, revealing an Aes Sedai sitting behind her desk. Taking a few steps in she dropped imitating a curtsey she had seen so many other novices do.

"My name is Kaelyn Jaymareth, born in the land of Shienar. I have come in hopes of becoming a novice." She was proud with how calm she held her voice. She did not know what to expect or what she was expected of herself but she thought this was a good start.

((OOC: I'm sorry that the post is short and I hope I didn't write anything that your character wouldn't do or that is wrong. PM me if I have and I'll change it. Also, would you please put a link to your bio in your signature?))

For the first time in a long while Cayana had had a calm and nice day. She had only had minor incidents with the novices, she had had nice meals and Radgar had seemed to be in a good mood as well which naturally affected her own. For the moment she was reading through the last stack of old reports from the time of her kidnapping and she was close to finishing them as well as there was a knock on the door. "Come" Cayana spoke and looked up as the door opened.

Coming through was a young girl. She was dark haired, dark eyed and just the sort of girl Cayana expected to flirt with boys on a daily basis. She took a few steps then tried her best at a curtsy. Then spoke in a tongue so clearly bearing the mark of her homeland. "My name is Kaelyn Jaymareth, born in the land of Shinear. I have come in hopes of becoming a novice." Cayana smiled at the girl and spoke back. "Peace Kaelyn, I welcome you to the Towers, please, I must ask. Have you been tested by an Aes Sedai?" Once she had gotten an affermative answer she continued. "Please tell me how you came here and why while I write you down in the novice book." Cayana gave the girl an other smile as she rose to fetch the book from the table by the window. She returned with it and opened it and started to write as she listened to the novice.

The office was spacious, not really to her surprise as the massive wooden doors that marked the entrance already gave the impression. The walls were lined with shelves holding more books than she had ever seen in one building, all neatly lined up giving it an open quality. Yet no matter how much she tried to ignore it a presence in the room seemed to swallow its admirable qualities making it feel small. An Aes Sedai sat behind a desk her eyes fixed on Kaelyn as if trying to figure her out.

“Peace Kaelyn. I welcome you to the Tower, please, I must ask. Have you been tested by an Aes Sedai?”

Not knowing how to answer the last question Kaelyn quickly nodded in hopes to prevent displeasing the Aes Sedai. The woman looked at her with a smile on her face, and spoke with a kindly manner that startled Kaelyn. A smile? I did not even think they existed on those ageless faces. Despite herself Kaelyn relaxed, allowing the tension to drain out of her body. Perhaps this won’t be so bad after all.

“Please tell me how you came here and why while I write you down in the novice book.”

“Forgive me for not saying so earlier, but I do not understand what you mean by being tested. The Aes Sedai that have escorted me here have whisked me away from what was left of my home without much of an explanation. They claimed that I had channeled, and in doing so have labeled me as a wilder. That term has been made a little clearer to me I wish Lalaine were here right now! , however I do not think it applies to me.

Kaelyn paused choosing her words carefully. She in no means wanted to insult the Aes Sedai, and begin her life in the Tower with a bad reputation. Instead she wanted a confirmation that she belonged, rather than secrets kept from her.

“I think there may have been a mistake. If I channeled as they have claimed, I should be able to feel the one power, and be able to reach it readily. However it does not exist, I don’t feel it reside in me and I can’t channel it at will. If I can channel I would have… No I did not kill my family… I didn’t! No. I just don’t think I have the ability you seek.

But it would explain a lot of things that have happened. The column of fire twice it has happened now. A tiny nagging voice in the back of her mind spoke out loud. It spoke the truth, she knew it but she shrugged it off. She wanted answers, straight forward answers from these people.

As the novice spoke Cayana was surprised, though she did not show it. The girl started stating she did not posses the ability to channel, something that Cayana knew for a fact by just sensing the girl was untrue. Still she heard the girl out. “Forgive me for not saying so earlier, but I do not understand what you mean by being tested. The Aes Sedai that have escorted me here have whisked me away from what was left of my home without much of an explanation. They claimed that I had channeled, and in doing so have labeled me as a wilder. That term has been made a little clearer to me, however I do not think it applies to me."

“I think there may have been a mistake. If I channeled as they have claimed, I should be able to feel the one power, and be able to reach it readily. However it does not exist, I don’t feel it reside in me and I can’t channel it at will. If I can channel I would have… No. I just don’t think I have the ability you seek." As Cayana finished writing she stood up and walked around her desk. Stepping down from the dais she stopped in front of Kaelyn. With the novice once more silent she gestured to the bench next to the back wall, next to the door out into the hallway. "Have you ever done anything that others, or you for that matter, would think as remarkable? Perhaps something moving at your wish, or exploding? Perhaps someone recovered remarkably fast?" She asked the girl just waiting for the girl to confess for something to have happened. "Have anything strange ever happened around you? Perhaps someone sharing your dreams? Someone obeying to you when they shouldn't have?" Cayana waited patiently, she would tell the girl she could channel, but this girl was clearly in denial, and being labeled wilder would only have happened if she had a block. Cayana wondered what this girls block was, and what she had done to produce it. Wilders did intrigue her, though she had never become one herself. Cayana would have, had her mother denied her permission to go to the White Tower as a young girl. Of course her mother would never have done that, she was far to aware of the risks.

(OOC: I know this is really long, but I wanted it to be intense and have a great impact. I hope it also really gets our plot moving)

Once she had finished speaking the Aes Sedai rose, gesturing towards a lone bench.

“Have you ever done anything that others, or you for that matter, would think as remarkable?....”

Kaelyn blinked taken back by the comment that ruined what composure she had held. Remarkable? She had done nothing remarkable, she had come from a farm in Shienar. A lone farmer who quietly lived life as she pleased, tending the livestock with her family and minding her own affairs. She was of little importance to anybody, a lord or king or even to these Aes Sedai, besides growing the food that ended up on their plates. She shook her head in denial, allowing the question to slip into non existence, it held no place in her. Closing her eyes she allowed the world and her troubles disappear, for a moments escape. No. she assured herself, struggling as new thoughts and memories hammered their way into her focus. There is nothing! Opening her eyes once she believed her thoughts were confirmed, she half expected to see the Aes Sedai studying her face intently. But that was not what lay before her. Instead fire ravaged the office, burning everything on sight. A column of fire clouded her vision, an eternal furnace that struck at something inside of her. Memories that she had tried so hard to build a wall against, were being held back by only a thread of her will.

“Has anything strange ever happened around someone or you?”

Blink. The Aes Sedai sat before her eyes fixed as if they had already uncovered the secrets that she hid behind them. They held a gleam that suggested they knew, held more knowing than Kaelyn would have ever felt comfortable with. A tiny shiver licked her spine, she felt like a story already read, regurgitating what ever information that was already known. Her eyes were a sea of calm watching her, as if she only existed, even the fire…the fire was gone. The office still existed, no charred ruins, blackened walls, or even a scorch mark was left to show that it had been there. There was no heat that had come from the fire, only a chill that was slowly creeping into her body. Memories. . Just nightmares She thought sadly her facing taking on the despair that was building insider of her. It was so real She had felt it, the eternal furnace and its immense heat that suffocated her lungs and burned her skin. She had watched it burn and blacken all the precious pieces in the room into ashy ruins. It had consumed her vision into its very existence, even now leaving gray patches blurring her vision. It was….only a memory. A memory that had seemed so real.

“No!” she blurted at the Aes Sedai’s question, her eyes wide and head shaking fiercely, “It couldn’t have been…the fire…it came by other means. How could something so cruel have come from me…something so evil.”

Kaelyn stopped knowing she did not make any sense. The truth had always been there, she had known it but had run and buried it behind her. Now it lay before her clear like the sun and that everything, everything that she had seen in her past was beginning to make sense. Closing her eyes she breathed embracing a sense of healing that coursed through her veins, engulfing her body and heart. It was almost a relief to stop living life as if nothing happened…to stop running from something that she had feared most. The truth. The truth that she now accepted. She possessed the ability that held dominance in the world, that brought respect, and fear. She had been both blessed and cursed. She knew that she would carry the burden of killing her family through the rest of her life, haunting every step and every decision she would ever make. She could not control it, she did not know she how she had ever done it, but running from the tower now meant she could be endangering others. It was now her duty to learn.

Slowly she opened her eyes images clouded her vision.…

“No!” Kaelyn whimpered as a wolf snatched her dress hem and pulled in the opposite direction, in jagged shaking motions. Her crawling efforts were in vain; she whispered the last Shienarean blessing and curled up in a fetal position as if she could be safe as a babe in a mother’s womb. She had never been so scared, so helpless in her entire life. She was far more than afraid.

A sickening wave of heat was the only sign that let her know she still lived. Squinting her eyes as if day had come instantaneous in night, Kaelyn could just make out a column of fire that was so close she wondered how it had never seared her in half. Along with it came a smell of burning flesh, of seared hair, of death. The fear of what it was scared her more than the wolf, or what was left of it. In a last ditch attempt Kaelyn scrambled to her feet and ran, ran till she once again collapsed in complete exhaustion, only to find the column of fire behind her gone.

Blink.

An unbearable heat stirred Kaelyn bringing her out of the dark consciousness that she had seemed to walk in for what seemed like ages. It was overwhelming and stifled her breathing pattern as it burned her lungs. Even her flesh seemed to burn and then rage cold as she struggled her way back to reality. It seemed too familiar, the heat, the smell. Opening her eyes her fears were confirmed. A massive column of fire stood where her home had once. There was nothing left now, only splinters bared witness to its realness.

Blink.

“Father?” The column of fire stood before her raging with such light that it almost burned her eyes.

Blink.

“Trina?” Nothing was left, but ash and dirt, and a heat so intense that she had to step back. “Where are you?” It burned, burned into her soul, into her flesh and carved an image that she could never forget.

Blink.
The concerned face of Trina looked at her, with a gaze so intense that Kaelyn felt her sister was looking for something more. “What’s wrong sister? If there is anything I can do for you, anything at all in which I can help. Please tell me.” Her eyes pleaded, but she held a smile that brought a small joy into her grief. Leaning forward she hugged her sister with what ever strength she still possed.

Blink

A small white flower lying among the grass drew her attention from the Aes Sedai. It was of the purest white she had ever seen, quite out of place among what lay behind her. Drawing herself into a kneel she stretched out a shaking hand and gently picked it up to bring it closer to her heart. It was the flower she had given her sister earlier that day.

Blink.

That Aes Sedai once again came into her vision still watching her, eyes still sparkling pools of calm. Unshed tears were threatening to spill over, yet Kaelyn held them back. She had to be strong now. Especially in the White Tower.

“A column of fire,” she announced her voice steady yet wavering a bit, “It was a column of fire that burned, and created utmost devastation. It happened twice, the latest before I was taken here was the largest the size of this room, perhaps larger. It consumed my home, my enemies and what was left of my family. I had never meant for it to happen that way, I was trapped, and felt as if I had been drowning. I had never felt more helpless in my life when those creatures cornered me in my own house.”

((OOC: Never appologize for writing a long post. Ever. Especially not when it hightens the RP story and feeling. *hugs* I'll get to this as soon as I can, unfortunatly I have gotten a little swamped. :/ It's the reason I have not been overly active at all. I promise I'll get to it as soon as I can though.))