Chapter Text
‘Alira, Alira get up’ there were exactly two knocks on my door and these words followed shortly afterwards. I was still half asleep, but I knew exactly who that voice behind the door belonged to.
Edric.
My warder or best friend or both, whatever. Still half asleep, I decided to get up. I walked past the large wooden door with the carved patterns and mumbled in a sleepy voice
‘I'm already awake, I'll come down’.
There was no reply, but I could hear his footsteps slowly moving away from the door.
My room wasn't particularly big, but I still really liked it. Opposite me was my wardrobe, it was made of wood and had a small scratch on the side. On the other side of the room was a large wooden table with a round mirror on top.
The table was for getting ready, my absolute favourite corner. Behind me was my bed, it was big, at least two people could sleep in it. My duvet and pillow were yellow and had the same pattern as the wooden door.
Next to the bed was a small table with an even smaller picture on it. I love this picture very much, it had all the people who were important to me on it.
Before I could stare at the picture any longer, the thought came into my head that I had to hurry, as a sister I had a little more freedom than I did as a nun or novice, but I still couldn't be late. I opened my wooden wardrobe and took out my yellow dress.
I loved it, it was long and it had long sleeves, there was an embroidered pattern of flowers at the waist and the bottom of the dress looked like a summer dress.
It was yellow, like almost all my dresses, because I am a member of the yellow Ajah. In the White Tower, every Aes Sedai belongs to an Ajah, except for the Amyrlin, so they normally wear the colour of their Ajah.
I also reached for my socks, which were grey and had a floral pattern on them, and my brown shoes. They were a little older, but I didn't care because they still served their purpose.
After I'd finished getting dressed, I went to the table with the mirror in the centre.
It was shiny and looked like new, which wasn't the case when I was an Aes Sedai, which wasn't that long ago, but I'm still glad to finally be an Aes Sedai.
There were lots of hair clips and jewellery in all colours on the table, but today I wanted to keep it a bit simpler, so as always I reached for my heart-shaped necklace made of wood, which is particularly important to me, and a simple yellow hair clip that looked like a row of small flowers in a bouquet. The only thing missing was the gold snake ring with the yellow stone in the centre and my outfit was complete.
I took another look in the mirror, turned round and walked out of the door. It was particularly quiet in the corridor today, most people were probably eating breakfast. While I was thinking about eating, my stomach started to rumble.
I should eat breakfast too, so let's go to Edric.
As I walked along the long corridor, I heard a few doors slam, some voices from distant corridors and greeted some Aes sedai who walked past me. I get on quite well with many in the tower, but of course you don't know everyone, many are not here often or have been busy all the time, like the white ajah for example.
However, I've seen every face at least once, except maybe the new ones, but when you grow up in the white tower, you know one or the other. I don't have a real Aes Sedai friend though, actually I don't have any friends at all except for Edric, I think most of them are intimidated by the fact that I have such a good relationship with the Amerlyn.
Actually, the Amerlyn isn't allowed to do that, but I was there before Siuan Sanche became an Amyrlin, so that goes through indirectly, although of course I always have to be careful that the Aes Sedai don't notice everything.
Most of them don't mind as long as it doesn't affect the castle and siuan's professionalism. The only ones who have a serious problem with me and siuan are the red ones, but they're always complaining anyway.
For example, there are some that I don't get on with at all, most or actually almost all of them are so arrogant that I don't want to have anything to do with them. The worst of them all is Liandrin Sedai, I loathe that woman and she does the same to me. Luckily she's not in the castle at the moment, so the rest of us have some peace and quiet.
Before I could think any more about Liandrin and other things, a familiar smell hit my nose, the delicious odour of food. I walked faster now and my stomach was growling for everyone to hear. When I reached one of the rooms where there is always breakfast for the Aes Sedai and their guards, and in the other rooms there is food for the novices, servants and so on, I saw Edric already sitting at one of the wooden tables.
‘Good morning’ I smiled at him, he had already eaten because there was an empty plate in front of him.
‘There you are at last, I thought you were fasting’
I had to laugh, I didn't like fasting at all, I loved food far too much.
‘Oh come on, it didn't take that long, I hope you enjoyed it anyway’ I smiled and pointed to the plate in front of him.
‘Nice of you to ask, I thought it was delicious, as always’ he smiled now too.
Every morning there was so much food to choose from that I could hardly make up my mind. I stood in front of the counter with my plate and slowly wobbled back and forth. When I finally made a decision, I reached for the scrambled eggs and two slices of bread. back at edric's, I sat down on the ornate wooden bench.
After I managed to take three bites, a novice came to our table, I think her name is Melianne, when she arrived she curtsied briefly and then said
‘Excuse me for interrupting your meal, but I have to tell you from the Amyrlin that she wants to speak to you, it seems to be important’
I looked at her and then at Edric, we exchanged a brief look of astonishment, then
‘Thank you for the message’ and smiled. She curtseyed again and a few seconds later you could hear the door slam shut.
‘I'm going to finish my lunch, Siuan can wait’ I whispered to Edric with a laugh, if someone else had said that, it wouldn't have been funny, I value my privileges very much.
A few minutes later I was ready and we set off
‘what do you think Siuan wants from you’ Edric said, I was wondering the same thing but hopefully it won't be bad.
I only replied with a short ‘I don't know’
We had already arrived in front of the large wooden door to the hall.
I glanced back at Edric to make sure he was there and seconds later the door opened with three strokes of Leanne Sedai's staff and a soft creak of wood on the cold stone floor.
When we both entered it was so quiet I thought you could hear my heart beating. I wasn't afraid or worried about why Siuan wanted to speak to me, but entering the hall was always a little intimidating.
My slow steps kept getting a little louder the closer I got to the Amyrlin seat.
I wandered off for a moment and looked around the large hall, everything was empty.
There were exactly four people in the hall and two of them were Edric and me. The fact that the hall was so empty only confused me even more, usually there was always at least one person from each Ajah sitting here, standing still.
I looked briefly at Siuan and bowed, my word ‘mother’ breaking the silence.
It was quiet again and Siuan, who was sitting in front of me on the Amyrlin, inhaled and exhaled strongly before she spoke, as she did every time. She didn't do this out of malice but because she wanted to express her calmness and authority.
When I was little I always thought I had done something wrong when she did that but luckily it was just an annoying habit.
‘Alira Sedai, you and Edric may leave the castle and Tar valon today for an important task.
I had already doubted that I would be able to experience this again.
A small spark of joy spread through my chest, after all the writing down of plants and studying more, I was quite happy to get out of the castle and the city again.
I really liked the yellow ajah, but even after the three hundredth plant, even the most ambitious had doubts about what it was all about. I looked at Siuan again, and then looked at Edric. Apparently I was smiling because both of them suddenly turned the corners of their mouths upwards slightly.
‘What kind of task, Mother’,
The funniest thing about the fact that I called an Aes Sedai and Siuan Sanche mother was that she came pretty close to the term in private as well.
She was like my mum. No, actually she is my mother.
Although we never attached much importance to the term, she always was and I love her with all my heart.
But sometimes it was also exhausting, considering that the Amyrlin wasn't allowed to have any personal feelings towards anyone, so after Siuan became an Amerlyn it became a bit stricter when it came to being together in public. Well, what else did they expect, that you could tell a seven year old at the time that from one day to the next you only had one mother instead of two because she had become an Amerlyn.
I had never thought much of Siuan wanting to do that but it couldn't be helped, all for the mission that only my two mums knew about, how ironic.
‘you must travel to the village of Jarra, according to some of the inhabitants, trollocs have been sighted there, check if they are still there and if they are, let us know immediately, no fighting alone, Alira’
the look she just gave me sent a brief shiver down my spine, sometimes Siuan could be scary and so serious. What was even more frightening was why Trollocs should have come so close to a village and who had discovered them.
‘Edric and I will be on our way immediately, mother’
I then added even more quietly with a wink
‘and no going it alone, I get it’.
She smiled briefly, I bowed and walked out again faster than I had entered the hall.
Edric walked behind me and once we were far enough away from the hall, he asked
‘Why did she give us the task and not blue or green, do you think she wants you away from the castle for the day?’
I stopped and looked at him, his brown eyes narrowed a little. I had to laugh for a moment
‘I don't think so, I think the poor woman had enough of my whining, I told her at least once a day that I finally wanted to have a task outside again, she always said that I had chosen the wrong ajah but apparently she had some mercy’.
He nodded with a smile and we went straight to the stables,
I wondered if trollocs had really been discovered near the town, or if someone was just spreading rumours again. Whatever it was, I was glad to finally be able to leave these castle walls again.