Kathera opened the door the Mistress of Novice's office for the first time since she had reported for punishment as a novice. It looked the same to her, neat and organized. Pursing her lips together, Kathera sat down abruptly in the chair and propped her chin in her hand. The Hall had voted, and Sapphira had asked her to take up the job of Mistress of Novices after Cayana's resignation. Cayana had been her mentor and teacher when the Brown sister had been a novice, and she could hardly imagine the Tower without the other Aes Sedai watching over the novices and Accepted. It had been so surprising when she was asked the take the position that Kathera had almost lost her Aes Sedai mask in favor of gaping like a fish. She could hardly fathom the idea of her being the best choice for the position. After all, she had left the Tower to explore for about twenty years! It was with amazement and shock that she had accepted, for Kathera had been too surprised to do anything else. Later, she had found she really did want the job. After all, it gave her a purpose, like the Brown Ajah never would again. The trusted her more now that she had a good standing in the Tower, but they would never rely heavily on her as they had in the past. After all, she had been Head of her Ajah and had abandoned the position in favor of travel.

Keeping watch on novices and Accepted wouldn't be easy, and Kathera knew it well. After all, she had played her fair share of pranks when she was an initiate of the Tower. Kathera couldn't help but chuckle at the image the Gaidin had made with his skin painted blue. Cayana had made her and her accomplices scrub pots in the kitchens for weeks, but it had been worth it to her then. Her initiates, for Kathera understood well that they were her novices and Accepted, for her position was alike to a mother's, would likely stir up more trouble than she had ever done in her days. Sitting up, Kathera began to hunt through Cayana's drawers to find the records of the current novices and Accepted. The other woman had assured her that they were well kept and up to date, and Kathera wished to gain some inkling on who would be giving her the most trouble and who would need a comforting shoulder to sob on.

Kathera knew well that one of the most difficult problem of her being the Mistress of Novices was how she always did her best to please those around her and make others think well of her, even novices and Accepted. It was a silly trait, and she had always done her best to squash it. However, it would be even harder now, for she would likely give out chores and punishments very soon, likely even today. It would be hard for her to see the disappointment and petty hate on their faces, but it was her duty and she would be forced to do so. After finally fishing the pile of records from the lowest drawer on the right in her new desk, Kathera laid the pile carefully on the desktop. The first file to come to her hand, surprisingly, was Adena Moren's. Kathera had acted as Adena's mentor for a month or so before her departure, and the novice had been a willful woman from Amadicia, filled with stories of Aes Sedai following the Dark One. It was hardly a surprise to find her still in the novice book, for Adena's opinions had always been strong ones.

Kathera skimmed through the report, noting without surprise the number of chores listed and the 'crimes' the novice had committed. Adena would be hard to handle, but Kathera would deal with her later. Nodding, she set the report aside and began to work through the novice book and the reports. There were more novices than she had expected, and fewer Accepted than she had originally hoped. Yes, her work was cut out for her. I will do my best with what has been given to me, and I will not abandon my duty. I have traveled as much as I ever will, and I doubt I ever will again. Kathera thought quietly to herself, before being knocked from her thoughts by a quick rap at the door to her office. "Come in!" Kathera called, though she was surprised that her duty was beginning so quickly.

Erin continued their conversation as they walked through the White Tower. "That was my brother, Robert," she said in passing over her shoulder. "I'll introduce you formally some time. He's the first soldier in the Westlands to hold the rank of Marshal General since the War of the Dragon." They continued down the corridor. "Our father was descended from a Lord of Tear, while our mother was a Cairhien heiress. We have extensive trading interests there, and they handle our commerce with Shara and the Seanchan." Erin was trying to put the young woman at ease by telling her details that anyone could find out without too much trouble. She considered for a moment, then continued with her conversation. "It will be all over the Towers before morning, so I suppose that it will do no harm to tell you. There's a Seanchan ambassador in Tear wanting a meeting with the Amyrlin and my brother. All the fuss and bother of an Official Visit."

They reached the door to the Mistress of Novices' office and Erin knocked lightly. At "Come in!" she opened the door and entered, Adena trailing behind her, obviously reluctantly. Erin inclined her head slightly in greeting. "Congratulations, Kathera Sedai," she said. "Cayana Sedai said that I could co-opt one of the Novices to assist me with my classes, and I have asked Adena to help me. With your approval, of course." Erin saw the other woman frown slightly. She had no doubt that Adena had many entries in the punishment book.

((OOC: I would say that Kathera knows of Erin, because that would be one of the things that Cayana would inform her about at her departure briefing. She may have already had a chance ot observe a class or two, also.))

As they walked through the Tower, Erin made Adena privy to a bit of information she never would have expected from one of the witches. Light, but the difference between the Gaidar and the Aes Sedai was drastic, although they were both loyal to the Tower and, in the end, also to the Dark One, Adena found herself wishing that if she had to be here, that she would have been a warrior instead. Of course, if not for her ability to channel saidar she would not be here in the first place to know the difference. She let that train of thought go, it was pointless and would probably end up with her being upset with her ability to channel. That still plauged her daily, but she was learning slowly that there were more important things to focus on, things she was forced to think about. Erin told Adena that the man was her brother Robert, and Adena barely kept the surprise off her face. Light, that was one of the most wanted men in Amadicia? He had looked like a warrior, yes, but he had not looked like an evil man. Then again, most of the sisters did not either, and yet they were all sworn to the Shadow as well, looks were deceiving. Well, now she had a firsthand description to go with her information she sent to Amadicia. If she could ever get it sent, that was. She did not focus on that though, because Erin went on to explain what was going on. There was a Seanchan ambassador in Tear, wanting an audience with the Amyrlin and Robert. Again, Adena was rather shocked. Was there no end to the strange things that were to happen to her today? First she was approached during lunch by Robert Laurel's sister, the woman then told her that she could be a lady even in the Towers, and that she wanted help with a class. Then she actually saw Laurel himself, and now she learned that a visitor from Seanchan had something to say to the Amyrlin. Well, life in the Towers was not dull, that was certain.

Before she had much more chance to think on that, they arrived at the door to the Mistress of Novices' office, and Erin knocked lightly. Immediately, a slightly unexpected voice instructed them to come in. Erin opened the door and Adena followed her slowly through it, announcing her congratulations to Kathera Sedai on her new position, and eplaining that Cayana had given permission for help with a class, and she was now simply checking to make sure she had Kathera's approval as well. Adena did not listen to all that though, she was too busy thinking furiously about this Kathera witch. The woman had trained her for a very short period of time when Adena had first arrived, she had been insuferable and had done less than nothing to improve Adena's opinion of the Tower and its witches. Then she had disappeared for years, rather suddenly Adena thought, but she really knew nothing about the doings of Aes Sedai, but Adena had heard nothing about her at all. Then, just as suddenly as she had gone, it was announced that Cayana would be replaced as Mistress of Novices by this Brown sister, and that had been the first that Adena had heard about her being back in the Towers. She had not yet been to see this particular Mistress of Novices, having had no opportunity to get into any more trouble yet, and since Kathera had not been in charge of the novices very long at all. She did not doubt that the woman would have her in this office before too long though, if for no other reason than to feel her out and get an idea of how Adena thought, though in truth she could simply talk to Cayana about that, Adena had told the former Mistress of Novices more about how she felt than anyone else since arriving in the Towers.

It did not make Adena particularly happy that Kathera was the new Mistress of Novices, but she was rather glad that Cayana was out of the job. Hopefully, this would mean no more meetings with the woman, it had given her a good break from chores, but at the same time, it had been far too easy for the Green to get information out of Adena. She would certainly not let herself be that unwary around anyone else, no other witches would find out exactly what she felt about this place, not from Adena at any rate. She would keep her mouth tightly shut from now on, it was too risky and she could not be sure that even while she was saying how much she hated it that they were not playing some intricate mind game and brainwashing her. Adena could play the Game of Houses as well as was required of her station, but the game the Aes Sedai played was clearly much more sophisticated and deep than anything played in Amadicia by a young, unmarried lady, Adena could see that much even from her vantage point of novice, and the Aes Sedai did not tell the novices anything. Yes, if she wanted to keep her thoughts firmly her own, she had to be careful about what she said and did around sisters from now on, she had been far too lax in the past, and it was time for a change. And that meant that right now, she had to pay close attention to what was going on. When Erin finished telling Kathera what the two of them were there for, Adena offered a quick curtsy. Much more than she would have given when she arrived, and in truth it was very different from what Kathera had received the first time they had met- then it had been the woman using the Power to force her to bend her back and lift her skirts. It still was not really what was expected of novices to a sister, but even so with the comparison suddenly glaring in her mind the change made her angry. She was honestly not sure she had been this angry since before she ended up lashing out with the Power on Mirazhe. That was not so much a problem anymore, and so she let her anger run free, it felt good to allow herself this emotion again, it had been a long time since she felt anything not laced with desperation and she was not going to let this pass easily.

Kathera looked up to see both Erin, a woman that was teaching classes on nobility, and Adena enter. Erin congratulated her, and Kathera gave her a nod and a smile while she waited for the other woman to make her presence clear. After all, she had hardly expected Erin to enter with a novice such as Adena. Frowning thoughtfully, the Brown sister thought over Erin's request, then favored them both with a beaming smile. It was good to see that Adena was settling in more, and having some initiative to do something other than sulk and unnecessary chores. Perhaps Adena believed that Aes Sedai were servants of the Dark One, but some action other than misbehavior was a joy to see. Adena had never settled very well into the Tower, so it was rather strange to see that she was the one Erin requested. However, Adena had been a noble lady, though it was still odd that Erin would wish to have someone of Adena's temperament help her teach. Adena would not likely be a wonderful teacher, but Kathera had found that as long as students were interested, most teaching habits could be overlooked, and Adena was likely to only act superior. Such a thing was something that Erin, perhaps, could help cure her of, and Kathera was only too quick to give Adena a chance to begin to understand the running of the Tower. After all, she was the Mistress of the Novices, and it was in her interest to see novices succeed.

"Of course! I would be glad to let Adena out of her chores for the time the classes will take. Just be sure to send me a note when there is going to be a class, so Adena doesn't get in trouble for not showing up for her chores." Kathera smiled slightly at Erin, and then turned to face Adena, who offered her a small curtsey, though it was a deeper one than the time that Kathera had tried to teach the novice. That had not been a success, for Kathera had been forced to ignore the child for almost five minutes before she could even try to begin the lesson. Anyways, Adena had a block, and Kathera was at least partly sure that it was something to do with the way that Adena did not wish to channel, as well as having to be angry. It would be a wise decision to schedule a block breaking class with Adena, though the sister highly doubted that Adena's problem would be fixed with only one session. After all, Cayana had been having such meetings with Adena for years, and while Cayana was a better teacher than Kathera had ever been, the novice still had a block. Kathera thoughtfully shuffled through a few of the papers strewn across her desk, and looked over the classroom schedule for a moment before she addressed the novice.

"Adena, would you please go to classroom eleven tomorrow after your chores for a block breaking session?" Kathera remembered the classes, however, and looked to Erin. "That is, unless you have decided to schedule a class in that time." It was possible that Erin already had a class then, but Kathera doubted it. After all, it would take a bit of time for Erin to brief Adena on what the subject matter of Erin's classes was. Adena's block would not be an easy one, but perhaps if they went over the issue that had made her create a block for herself, they would make some progress on the matter. It always took a long time for novices with blocks to work their way out of them, but Kathera was patient, though she didn't think that Adena even wanted to be able to channel freely. However, Kathera would do her best to teach the child to the best of her ability.

After all, the sister wanted Adena to like her. It was Kathera's worse fault, for she judged herself on what others thought of her, and was always to eager to make someone think highly of her. She had wondered if Mother had known about it when she had asked her to become the Mistress of Novices, but highly doubted it. After all, what sane woman would make a person such as Kathera in charge of the initiates of the Tower if she had known about it? In the end, though, it didn't matter. Kathera would do her best to teach Adena, and that was all she could do.

"Thank you, Kathera Sedai," Erin said. She turned. "Adena, please await me out in the hall. I will be with you shortly." She waited until the girl left, and turned back to Kathera. "I want to show her that we are not such ogres as she may imagine. No doubt she has been raised to believe that channellers are the very worst servants of the Dark One. Plus I hope to show her that people should be judged on their talents and worth, rather than on birth as she's been taught at home. It's a lesson that most nobles don't even come close to learning. From what I've been she's extremely stubborn and set in her ways. I would like to hope that a different approach will change her mind." She paused. "I think that it has been quite a shock to her to see how many here are low-born. And Robert says many of his best officers come from the commons because they don't have as much to unlearn."

((OOC: *runs back in* Sorry this took so long, and sorry it's so short :())

Kathera did not take long in agreeing to Erin's suggestion, saying that Adena would be allowed out of chores, and then asking Adena to report for block breaking the very next day. Well, apparently she did not want to look like she was being easy on anyone. Adena had been doing block breaking almost every day for quite a while, but Kathera would have to know that, how could she not? Perhaps Kathera meant to teach her herself, but Adena did not think that was likely, surely the Mistress of Novices had more important things to do than actually try to break someone's block. Then again, surely the Mistress of Novices had better things to do than to sit and talk to a wayward novice every day also, but Cayana had done that too. Well, whatever the case, Adena now had a block breaking session to look forward to. Light, but she did not want that at all, those were worse than the chores sometimes. Erin thanked Kathera, and asked Adena to wait out in the hall, saying that she would be out shortly. Adena suppressed a sigh, novices were always being told to wait out in the hall, but it meant the same in the Towers as it did if you were to be asked that anywhere else in the world: they wanted to talk about you, but did not want to tell you, and did not want you to hear it. There was nothing Adena could do though, so she just dipped another small curtsy and stepped out into the hall to wait.