Topic: Ashandarei

Valucia Sabet · Date: 2012-09-08 19:51 EST

A Start In Rubble and Ruins

Valucia Sedai stood in the courtyard of The Four Keeps. It was very simply named since it was a tower with a keep at each of its corners. But the place was in ruins, left over from some war or an by-gone landlord who sought to have something as strong as a warring king would have.

The wall the faced much of RhyDin City was still intact, but the other three walls were in various states of disrepair. Mortar had crumbled, allowing stones to loosen and the barriers to weaken. Beams had long ago rotted and were little more than formed, brown dust before her very eyes.

She stood in a dress she wore when she knew there was much work to be done. It was a grey and brown garment without its sleeves. About the waist of it was a belt but she hadn't bothered with a dagger, chatelaine, or coin since all of them would have been in the way. Earrings were not worn and her hair was pulled back into a tight braid that lay against the natural run of her spine.

The courtyard she stood in was overgrown. At the center was a fountain, but it was dry and full of leaves and dirt. Vines and weeds grew everywhere, having taken up residence where people had abandoned it. Bushes that still had a few flowers on them from spring were wild from not being tended to by a gardener's hands.

A frown pressed her lips pensively together and hands were on her hips.

"They won't harm anything. Just bothersome things."

The Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah turned slowly about where she stood to regard the one talking to her. He was a few inches taller than herself, and burly about the chest and wide at the shoulders. The man's hair was to those shoulders. But it wasn't the form that was obviously used to work or the workman's clothing of a tunic and britches that she noticed, but the three, thick scars that run down the left side of his face from above his brow to almost to his jaw. The left of his eyes was milky from damage suffered by whatever had left him scarred, but his right one gaze at her with green curiosity.

"Bothersome, yes. And soon to be rid of."

The man glanced about. "If you like it, but it'll take time." He snorted and shook his head. "A helluva lot of time, if you're asking me."

It struck her that he reminded her of something of a mixture of Dwarf and Tinker. She mulled over it mutely, uncertain why either would venture into her thoughts just to look upon the man.

"I had not, but welcome the information." Valucia paused to consider him before she continued. "I am Valucia Sabet."

"...know who you are, Valucia Sedai." He formally used her title, as if he had just called her Lady Sabet. After a long look about at the damage to the wall nearer to him than her, he turned around and eyed her. "I am Tomas Nur. Was sent in Seth's place. He said something about you already had a reputation for being 'cold and witchy'. Not sure what he meant by all that. Man's never met you, but his own admission."

"Rumors can be amusing things." Amusing was not the word she mean, but by her tone it was clear that she meant 'bothersome'. At the corner of her mouth, she smiled and gave him a polite nod. "And will you be sending someone else, in your stead, Tomas Nur?"

"No, Valucia Sedai. I will be overseeing the work that needs to be done. Can't do it all myself, you understand, but I'll make certain it's done and done right."

"Good. I am glad to hear it. Now, let us talk of conditions, payment and other things. Shall we?" By his nod, she continued. "You will be paid in coin at the end of every month. You may hire those and only those needed to complete that work. This place is for men to train and rest. I want them to know comfort when they rest and not have velvet and lace about." She could not imagine any Warder comfortable with the latter idea. Valucia shook her head and stepped away from him with the grace of a queen.

"The fountain obviously is not working. The walls are falling down. And in the quarters in the keep, as well as Warders' Hall adjacent to this, most of the ceilings are so bad that they all leak."

Tomas Nur made his way towards the Aes Sedai and looked at what she looked to, nodding when it was appropriate. He smelled of leather and wood, even a hint of iron as if he had been in a smithy for most of the morning. "Again, it will take a long time."

Valucia turned black-pearl colored eyes at him. "Speculate."

"Speculate? Oh, I'm guessing at least a year to finish them all." He cleared his throat and hurried on, but it appeared he was not nervous but simply wanting to keep the sharp side of her tongue from him. "Which one did you want completed first? The keep or the hall?"

She didn't even mention the home that was just a short distance from the hall. All stood at within Bulwark Cove and all were needing great attention. She would stay at the Red Dragon until most was finished. Already that had been quietly decided by her. "The Four Keeps first."

"As you like. I will get the men hired but will need payment for the supplies by morning so all that's needed can be bought and brought here."

"Of course."

"Valucia Sedai?"

Darkluster eyes turned to Tomas curiously and waited in silence for him to ask what it was on his mind.

"Are there more of you coming here?"

More of her. The smile at the corner of her mouth was made to linger and her voice gave no hint of irritation that she felt as he asked it of her in that particular way. "It is possible. I will make ready for them, in case they do."

"Just curious." The words were empty, if he had intended them to be an apology. Instead, he was made more curious by the lack of specifics.

The moment he was gone, she put herself to work in clearing the leaves and dirt from the tiered fountain. She did not often get her hands dirty, but she was no stranger to work. And there was much of it to do.

Valucia Sabet · Date: 2013-03-06 09:09 EST

Tomas Nur had come to her months ago. Though it seemed he had been recommended to her by another, she suspected there was more to the man who had called her by her formal title. In the months he had been at Bulwark Cove, he had kept as much to himself as possible. The weeds and vines had been cleared away from one of the remaining, standing walls; he had ? with the aid of a few others known to him and not to her ? hauled out bucketfuls of leaves, moss, and sediment that had filled the old fountain at the center of the Four Keeps? courtyard. The fount did not flow yet, but still cold and dormant as if ready for water to start flowing at a moment?s notice.

The Aes Sedai stood staring at it that morning. Cold, end-winter winds made their way over the two, tall walls of grey stone and into an area that was meant for sparring or large gatherings. The ground was dirt in four, large squares of it and hemmed off in large stones that were worn and pitted by many feet treading over it and weather from years gone by. The wind pulled a her layers of blue that were her dress? skirts and sleeves, as well as the long, heavy cloak she wore in the dead of winter months. The cowl of it was up but she hadn?t tied it, leaving it loose enough to be buffeted about by the stiff breeze that hit her at times while there.

In her hands was a large, handless cup of wood. Steam rose from it in a sporadic dance against the weather that she was otherwise ignoring. To think she was alone, she stood all the longer in the depths of her thoughts, so much so that the cupful of kaf threatened to go cold soon.

But she remembered it, in some distant, absent-minded way, and lifted it for a sip of the very bitter and undiluted drink. It should have been in a much smaller vessel and should have been lifted in a way that was a bit more delicate, but Valucia?s mind was not upon tradition or ceremony.

The traces of a dream, of knowing that at least one young woman within the land that had the spark of the saidar, to touch the One Power, were still with her. She could feel it, but it was as vague as very distant thunder. It meant that the girl was somewhere within the realms, but there was no way yet to know who she was or where.

Breath was drawn into her lungs, drawing up proverbial walls the second she heard a sound at the other end of the great, inner yard. She was not startled, turning to regard Tomas Nur from afar. He was seen making his way into the area, seated on a cart. He slapped the reins down lazily to the backs of two oddly-looking mules to insist them to keep going forward. The back of the cart was loaded down with stones and other supplies and the Aes Sedai smiled.

He nodded to her and looked at her with one eye slightly narrowed, wondering at Valucia?s smile.

The weather was cooperating enough, perhaps for a short time, for the supplies for the ruined walls to be brought.

She turned away from the waterless fountain and headed off in the direction of the Waders? Hall that lay between the Four Keeps and her home. There were as many things there to do as there were at the Keeps.