Wheel of Time MUD

Sometimes flotsam from the River Erinin drifted downstream and reached the large, hungry wheel attached to the face of the Novice Rumor Mill. If one squinted in the right light, the wheel looked like an eye or a mouth as it digested these offerings; it swept them under the water for river fish and the initiates who should have known better to tend the Mill’s gnawing hunger. Or perhaps the wheel [i]was[/i] a mouth, sucking rumors from the chaos of its discarded excrement. Watch it swallow and destroy.

But everything here is a wheel or a mouth, a circle without end until we reach it. Like that story about Accepted Amarea. Did you know that she never really broke her block? No, I heard the Aes Sedai accidentally drowned her and replaced her with a lookalike. That’s why she parts her hair on the other side since taking the banded

Or how Accepted Aleera tricked a gaidin into carrying her into and out of Bandar Eban, her feet never touching the ground. They say she used riddles found deep in the restricted section of the library . . . like that fable about the queen who told stories all night long. She was supposed to die when the story ended, but

I heard Elmitsu can’t decide which Ajah to apprentice to because she’s colorblind—whenever you ask her, she starts explaining why she likes them all, even the Brown—and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t even know how to read. But there[i] is [/i]a blind Accepted, whom no one saw coming, named Helen, which reminds me of

Lys Sedai recently returned to the Tower. She is a Blue, but also a Seafolk—like Sarinda Sedai, who is a Red, but also a Seafolk. I saw them whispering in the corridor, and I think they got their chains stuck together because

Aelrena Sedai came back to the Tower too. Did she ever leave? I heard she was looking for a man, but I thought she could see the practice yard from her

Somebody said Kitiara Sedai’s gaidin was a zombie! BACK FROM THE DEAD. I met him in the Square, and I didn’t think he smelled too

The mill skittered to a stop, but the wheel . . .

The Novice Rumor Mill spat out bones. Weeks had passed since its last sumptuous repast, and now it suckled only on the gristliest of gossip, unripe nuggets like who’d fallen out of favor with Mistress Laras and precisely how many warders could fit inside Alanna Sedai’s tent.

That was, of course, until word spread of possible darkfriends within the White Tower. Surely it was a member of the Black Ajah who penetrated deep into the heart of the Blue wing, leaving a desecrated carcass for that poor Accepted to find.

Or maybe it was that strange man, spotted all over Tar Valon of late. He wore a red rose on his lapel and kept offering all the initiates strange fruit. The Novice Rumor Mill is not sentient, strictly speaking, but it still hopes that those girls didn’t eat that fruit.

Poison? Perhaps. Perhaps it [i]was[/i] poison that found so many sisters visiting the Yellow Solarium for a bout of indigestion in recent weeks. Or perhaps it was unsanitary food handling conditions from the many horses and chickens that seem to be roaming the Tower, even the kitchens.

What of the Aes Sedai? Largely absent to their many charges, whispers reach the Novice Rumor Mill that they concern themselves with . . . a rock. Maybe several rocks? Maybe a hard place. This last bit is a little fuzzy for the Mill.

But it keeps turning.

It was a busy evening in The Well if the Novice Rumor Mill bore any truth. There was -the body-m of course and the girls then just took the liberty to embellish even further. Animals in the Novice Quarters, a flock of chickens or was it an army of frogs? No, I heard it was a Domani Razor, fully kitted out in gleaming barding fit for battle. Magnificent! If stories are to be believed there was much drunkenness and many Novices and even Accepted might be having a rough time come morning. Perhaps this is why the stories kept seeming to grow.

The Novice Rumor Mill complained under the weight of its burden as if girls in white dresses dangled from each spoke of its wheel.

Most of those girls were chittering about the BODY Accepted Elmitsu found in the Blue Wing: some say the Accepted was inconsolable by the time Aelrena Sedai found her; others say, if a little more quietly, that [i]of course[/i] it was Elmitsu who found the body and [i]of course[/i] she won't shut up about it.

All anyone can say for sure is Elmitsu was later spotted leaving the Brown study whiter than those very Novice dresses.

Novice rumor mill
Inextricable threads spun
hemming every dress

Some say that Catisune's poetry class
had every initiate makin' an ass
trying to write newfangled verse
hard to say who's done it the worst.

I can't believe you didn't hear about how there was almost a tussle in Chloro's class after Jenda called Relena an ol' battleaxe and said she'd swing her at Draz for fun. They said Draz turned as pale as his cloak and just about faded into the wall.

Someone said that Elmitsu hasn't been seen for a few days and no one can seem to track down Rolfe either -- have the most interesting couple of this month of Nesan finally absconded from the Tower? Who can say? The entire Well wrote a card with their well-wishes for the new couple and a small contest was thrown to decide the name of the baby -- results pending.

There's a new novice in the Tower tonight, some armored girl who lived right outside the walls of the city stumbled in today with a Seanchan bug helmet on her head. It is obvious to everyone with two eyes and a nose that she is just some poorly-disguised invader and some of the greener novices have been chasing each other around with silver chains and throwing them over each other's heads.

The novice rumor mill churned and spurted, turning out rumors, each more ridiculous than the last. It was a crude mechanism, not like the advanced Accepted rumor mill, which only churned out rumors that were absolutely, beyond the shadow of a doubt, true. Novice or Accepted, the rumors abounding all revolved around one subject: the novice Elmitsu and her recent ability to embrace Saidar unaided. The novices claimed Nevirha or Raeza had something to do with it, but the Accepted knew the truth. Everesta Sedai had beat the block out of Elmitsu when she found Elmitsu kissed Reil. What's more, Elmitsu was so scared that she actually shielded Everesta for a full two minutes! The Accepted didn't know much, but they knew enough to step lightly around Elmitsu.

The Novice Rumor Mill IS the water wheel, ever turning, filling and emptying and filling again, turning the mill and grinding the grains that feed the people of Tar Valon what they want to know. And today, there was much grain to be served.

Loudest were reports that some saw several novices being dragged off to a private room by Prya Accepted, who appeared more exasperated than ever about locating the foe of many, Myrtle the Mellifluent, who still remains at large on the Tower grounds.

It was also rumored that a small team of novices were discovered in the laundry, sewing a pair of pants for Reil Gaidin after Everesta Sedai loudly declared that her Gaidin never has had any pants, ever.

A distinct lack of meat pies has been noted in the bakery today, and some suggest that this is due to Laras having to dispose of the entire meat section of the larder after it was discovered that some of the old mares who had been removed from the Tower may have ended up butchered and cured with the other meats. Tigiria the weirdo continues to insist that frogs are edible, healthy, and abundant.

Lexiane loudly declared to any who would listen that yet again some one or thing has tried to stab her, as if anyone's after her tacky white dress. This time a very "crusty" trolloc. Others are beginning to think that she may be making this all up for attention and wonder if it was indeed her who sliced Penzei's palm.

Wait, wait I heard that Nevirha Sedai told Elmitsu that Rolfe's hand had been removed and the only way she'd have the Yellows re-attach it is if she broke her block. You didn't hear that?

The Novice Rumor Mill sputtered and moaned under the weight of its many new charges. Though absent the croaking of frogs and sonorous clip-clop of shaggy brown mares, one could hear a whisper if she listened hard enough: the whisper of new rumors escaping the well and drifting through the corridors of the White Tower.

Is it true that Raeza Sedai beat Elmitsu’s block out of her? Perhaps that’s why the girl returned from the Hall of Inferences whiter than a sheet, her own dress, and Raeza’s shawl. No, no—it was Nevirha Sedai. She tortured Rolfe in front of Elmitsu until she could finally channel. All anyone can say for sure is that Elmitsu’s dress is no longer burnt.

Another rumor that is totally, probably, true is that Damena Sedai made Lexiane kill all the horses. That’s why Novices can’t leave the island of Tar Valon—not enough transportation.

Some girls are even saying Tigiria tricked Everesta Sedai into doing her chores for her, but they aren’t saying that where Tigiria can hear. No, they are not.

Just ask Myrtle and her black eye.

The novice rumor mill churned and groaned, pushing out a constant slurry of whispers, each more ridiculous than the last. Did you know that Elmitsu and Myrtle aren't pillowfriends anymore because Myrtle burned Elmitsu's dress because Elmitsu kissed Reil? Had you heard that Lexiane shaved her head because she is Seanchan royalty and has been called back home to sit on the Crystal Throne? Hogwash, all of it. Novices are incredibly gullible. Accepted could always tell which rumors were true though. Like the brawl among the Brown Ajah. It all started because Catisune had dog-eared one of Danelle's books, and now the whole Brown Ajah was falling apart. Sides were being taken, the Aes Sedai who were fine with dog-earing fighting the ones who were against it. You could see it whenever the Browns got together, cold glances passing between them. There was a betting pool forming about which side would win, but the Accepted all bet that the Browns would forget about it when they found their next new old book buried some stack that hadn't been visited since the formation of the Tower. In the meantime, the Accepted stepped lightly around the Brown and rushed to get them more wine.

Accepted went about their very important duties in the Tower - shelving books, attending to Aes Sedai, and obviously NOT staring at the students in the Gaidin practice yard. Still, rumors from the novices reached their ears. Ridiculous, trite rumors about some Myrtle girl who was pillowfriends with Elmitsu who had kissed Everesta Sedai's Gaidin. The novices were so gullible. A novice kissing a Gaidin? Absurd! The accepted all really knew who was canoodling with Reil Gaidin. It was Aloisa Sedai. They had seen the two together in the Tower Square, and there was TENSION between them. The chemistry was palpable. Thankfully, the Accepted only listened to rumors they KNEW were true. And so the rumors multiplied faster than the shaggy mares that were to be found everywhere in the Tower these days. True rumors. Rumors sometimes about novices, usually about Accepted, and almost always about Aes Sedai.