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Several days of heavy riding left the girls tired night after night. Combined with the conditions they found themselves sleeping in, there was little time to study the a’dam that Elayne had taken with her when they had fled Falme. The collar and bracelet never left her saddlebags, but after a few days Elayne noticed that Egwene kept her distance from them, even despite being so buried.
But finally, the conditions arose again once more for experimentation. All three, in the same room once more, although this inn had managed to pull an extra bed out from their storage, so there would be no need for sharing.
When Elayne first pulled out the a’dam, Egwene treated it as though she had pulled out a sword or perhaps the Dark One himself. It was only once Elayne reassured her that she wouldn’t have Egwene wear the collar again that she began to calm down.
“Don’t worry. I was thinking that the best way for us to study this is for us to trade the roles around. I had you wear it so that I could learn how to use it, but now that that’s done, I mean for Nynaeve to wear it this time.”
The oldest of the three growled at Elayne, making clear what she thought of that plan. But Elayne seemed disinterested in her disagreement, as she turned to Nynaeve and said, “It can be only for a short while. But you would be an interesting case to study, right? Since you can only channel when you’re angry, it makes me wonder how this would affect you.”
Nynaeve growled again, but it was halfhearted, and she soon hung her head in defeat. “Alright. But make it quick.”
Elayne stood up and crossed the room until she was standing before Nynaeve. She already had the bracelet of the a’dam around her wrist, so she reached around Nynaeve’s neck and fastened the collar around her.
“Can you try channeling?” Elayne already knew the answer, but she wanted Nynaeve to try anyway.
But Nynaeve simply shook her head. “Not at all.”
Elayne thought for a moment about what to do. Then, suddenly, Nynaeve winced in pain. Then, when the pain didn’t go away, she practically doubled over. Elayne began to feel the slightest bit of saidar in her, anger boiling up as much as it could.
But before that anger could boil too far, Nynaeve’s eyes grew wide. A nauseous mood overtook her and she very nearly threw up on the spot.
Elayne nodded at that, calmly, almost coldly. “Interesting, interesting.” In the days between the last experiment and now, she had asked Verin to borrow some of the Aes Sedai’s extra notebooks, under the guise of keeping a journal of her experience. She was rather proud of that, a lie suitable for an Aes Sedai. She would in fact be tracking experiences in there, but perhaps not the ones that Verin might have expected.
Elayne picked up the journal off her bed and began to write. There were already a few pages of notes from her time with Egwene, but she knew that she would have much more to write about tonight, especially if Nynaeve let her go as far as she wanted.
Well, Elayne thought with a smile, it wasn’t like Nynaeve could really stop her. Egwene, perhaps, might stop her, instead. But it seemed like Egwene had no desire to get close to the collar, even if she was not the one wearing it.
Once Elayne was done writing down her notes, she had a thought. She reached around her wrist and began pulling off the bracelet. “I remember a thing Egwene mentioned. Can you walk around while I’m not wearing the bracelet?”
Nynaeve glared at Elayne, but still stood up and began pacing around. She had no issue, it seemed.
Elayne nodded, curiously. “Alright, and what if you try to pick it up.” Although she did not see, because she was looking the other direction, Egwene’s eyes shot open. She opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it again. She understood what Elayne was trying to do, or at least had some kind of guess. And if she was right, it would be better to stay out of this.
Nynaeve walked over to where Elayne had set the bracelet and tried picking it up. She managed to get her hands around it before a strained expression appeared on her face. But Nynaeve wasn’t going to give up so easily. She began walking with it, carrying it. She didn’t have a destination in mind, but she was able to keep walking like that for almost a minute before she collapsed. By that point, she looked so ill as to be on death’s door.
Finally, Elayne walked back over to her. She leaned down to pick up the bracelet and placed it on her wrist, then smiled at Nynaeve. “You may stand.”
Nynaeve glared at her, then stood. But she didn’t do anything else, and it took Elayne a few moments to realize why. “Oh! You don’t need to stay in place. You’re free to move around until I think of something else.”
Elayne returned to her notes. As she did, however, Nynaeve walked over to look at what she was writing. Elayne jerked away, nearly spilling her ink in the process. Nynaeve blinked, clearly discomforted, before stepping away.
“With all this studying and research, perhaps you'll find yourself in the Brown Ajah before long,” Nynaeve said. “Maybe so much travel with Verin Sedai is having some effect on you.”
Elayne stopped writing just long enough to consider that. “Perhaps. But I don't care to get caught in books or lost in libraries. I merely seek to understand that before us. It's practical, you see.”
From her corner of the room, Egwene responded, “I'm sure Verin Sedai or any other Brown Sister would say their research was practical, just the same.” She stood up and began to approach, despite her discomfort.
“Perhaps, perhaps,” Elayne muttered. She finished writing down her notes, then turned back to Nynaeve. “Now, I was able to make you feel great pain, correct? Like so?”
Egwene saw Elayne light up with saidar just moments before Nynaeve keeled over as though she had been struck in the stomach.
“Light, yes. You can do that. But I would rather you didn't.”
Egwene watched the glow fade and vanish. She took a seat next to Nynaeve and grabbed her hand, doing what she could to comfort the older girl.
“So while I can do that—”
“You didn't need to demonstrate,” Nynaeve growled, through gritted teeth.
“So while I can do that, I wonder what else I could do with it. Egwene. You experienced pain like that before, right?” She consulted her notebook, which included some statements Elayne had taken from Egwene about her experiences wearing the collar. She had been reticent to say anything, but anything was still better than nothing, in Elayne's eyes.
“Yes, I did,” Egwene replied.
“Did they ever do anything else similar? Could I use this to create sensations other than pain?”
“Not often, but…”
Just as soon as Egwene spoke, Elayne lit up with saidar once again. And once again, Nynaeve reacted in turn, although this time it was not to keel over in pain. Instead, rather like a beast growling, she began to purr like a common housecat. After a few moments, she slumped over towards Egwene.
Once Nynaeve was touching Egwene, she began to clutch at her, grabbing at the other girl’s dress. Nynaeve’s head came to rest on Egwene’s shoulder. It didn’t seem altogether different from when she had been in pain, but Egwene could tell the difference.
Egwene was initially unsure of what she should do, but eventually she decided to wrap her arms in kind, turning Nynaeve’s impulsive reaches into a hug.
It hadn’t been all that long that Elayne had held the pain against Nynaeve, but she was kinder now, letting whatever feeling it was now take its time to soak in. Eventually, however, she let go, letting Nynaeve recover.
Egwene paid attention to the ways that Nyneve moved as she recovered. There was a moment where Egwene felt her tense up, feeling some kind of lack that had been filled moments before, but it was fleeting, and soon enough, Nyne was able to sit up on her own again. She was breathing heavily, as if tired, and from the expression on her face, it was as if she had run all day, not ridden.
“Light. Even when you are being nice, you are cruel. Are all rulers like you? Two Rivers is better off without a queen like you.”
Elayne frowned. “My mother has always told me that a ruler must be as ready to be kind as cruel, but to offer generosity as well. Did you not enjoy that?”
“I…” Nynaeve’s breath hitched. “Light, I don’t know. But unless you mean to torture me, I wish for us to stop tonight.”
Elayne smiled. “Alright. That's good enough for me. I certainly have enough thoughts from tonight to fill some more pages.” She stood up and crossed to the other bed where Nynaeve and Egwene were sitting, then worked to take the collar off of Nynaeve. She returned it to her bags, stuffing it down deeply so that it could not be easily found.
Then, she pulled out her notebook one last time for the night and went about trying to summarize everything that had happened. All the while, Egwene did her best to console Nynaeve, although the whole time she knew that if the older girl had wanted to, she was certainly angry enough to channel something bitter at Elayne.