Finding Acceptance, Part Three: The Knower of Things

[Amarea]

The following story is based on a roleplay session between myself and Erulisse Sedai. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties on both our parts, we lost the actual log. I have reconstructed it in story form as best as I can remember and am posting this with Erulisse’s review and approval. Hope you enjoy!

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Amarea bustled into the hallway leading up to the Brown Ajah study and living quarters. She smoothed her banded dress with nervous hands and fought the urge to strangle someone. Her ma had instilled in her a sense of propriety, and the importance of bringing a gift of hospitality when meeting with people in positions of power over her. The Aes Sedai certainly were in such a position over Amarea, and so she made a point to never arrive to an Ajah's quarters without refreshments on hand. But on this particular occasion, when she sent a novice to restock the pantry, she received word that the larders were empty and would need to be restocked by visiting various merchants in the city. Amarea had been called to meet with Erulisse Sedai, a sister of the Brown Ajah whose reputation preceded her, and she lacked the sufficient time to restock the pantry and still prepare a light dinner. The whole situation made her groan with frustration.

So, it was an empty-handed and nervous Accepted who approached the Brown Ajah wing of the White Tower. Erulisse Avehelm was a petite, olive-skinned woman with dark hair, and she was just closing the door to the Brown Ajah living quarters as Amarea approached the hallway. The Accepted offered a practiced, if somewhat hasty, curtsey and immediately launched into an apology. "Beggin' your pardon, Aes Sedai," Amarea began to explain in her stilted Lugarder dialect, "but the larder was empty, and I didn't have a chance to prepare any refreshments for you. I was going to bring some into the study for our meeting--"

"We aren't going to the study," Erulisse stated casually.

Amarea's mouth clicked shut at the interjection, a look of confusion on her face. "Oh," she replied lamely, blushing as a feeling of embarrassment washed over her. "Where would you like to meet, then, Erulisse Sedai?"

The Accepted squeaked in surprise as without warning, Erulisse suddenly embraced the Source and channeled a complex weave of Earth and Spirit for Traveling. A thin vertical line of light appeared in the air before the two women, expanding into a rectangular doorway right there in the hallway and letting in a sudden gust of warm, moist air. The Brown sister pulled a traveling cloak around her head and instructed absently as she entered the gateway, "Watch the rock formations, it is slick when it rains here.”

Amarea blinked in surprise, but she knew better at this point in her training than to question a direct order from an Aes Sedai, and her curiosity was winning out over her sense of caution. The first thing Amarea noticed as she ducked through the gateway was the humid, warm air. Even at nighttime, with a heavy rain falling on her and her escort, Amarea was surprised at the sudden warm climate surrounding them. “Where have you taken us, Aes Sedai?”

“The Shadow Coast,” Erulisse replied, moving with a practiced ease across the rock formation. “Do try to keep up.”

Amarea looked down and steeled herself, hearing the waves distantly crashing against the shore below them. They were standing on a long promontory of jagged stone that extended out into the Aryth Ocean. Amarea felt a wave of fear rise up as she suddenly slipped on the rocks, and she carefully caught her footing before advancing further behind the Aes Sedai. It would do her no good if her potential future was cut abruptly short because she slipped on some wet rocks in the dark and fell off a cliff to her doom. From the light of the mirrored lantern in her hand, Amarea could see some kind of structure, a cottage perhaps, tucked away into the cliffside ahead of them.

The two women carefully crossed a narrow path of slicked rock and finally reached the cottage entrance. They lowered their cloaks as they walked into the foyer, and the wind died down once the door was closed behind them. Amarea gasped quietly as she studied the layout of the house. In contrast to its grim exterior, the foyer of the small cottage was warm and welcoming. Erulisse led the Accepted into a grand living chamber, and Amarea’s eyes drank in the beauty of the room. An olive tree, of all things, was growing in the center of the room, clearly well-tended. Amarea’s eyes reached up and fixated on the ceiling, where what seemed to be stones of polished onyx and precious stones were on display like stars in the night sky. In fact, she realized, she even recognized some common constellations.

“When I brought you to be tested in the Three Arches,” Erulisse said, “and Sheriam said that she believed what was seen within the ter’angreal was not real, I said that her belief must give her some comfort.”

Amarea nodded, settling into a comfortable lounge chair opposite the Brown sister. “And I suspected from what you said that you did not share Sheriam Sedai’s beliefs.”

Erulisse gave a small smile but did not respond to the implied question. “What do you know about ter’angreal, Amarea?”

“They are items made from the One Power that have very specific uses,” Amarea replied thoughtfully. “Some require channeling to activate, with various activation requirements or methods. Some do not require the One Power to activate at all, but instead need to be interacted with in a certain way.”

Erulisse nodded, explaining, “The Three Arches used for the test for Acceptance are known for their ability to show the woman who enters through them potential visions of what was, what is, and what will be. I have a theory, however,” she continued with an eager tone, “based on anecdotal experience, that the Arches work by showing different worlds, different possibilities, akin to what one might perceive from the alternate realities that you can visit through portal stones.” Erulisse studied Amarea with a weighing expression. “Are you familiar with the portal worlds?”

Amarea shifted uneasily in her chair. “No, Aes Sedai,” she admitted. “I have heard of the portal stones, but I have never used them or seen them activated.”

Erulisse responded by embracing the Source and deftly weaving, mostly threads of Air with a hint of Fire. Before Amarea’s eyes, an image appeared of a seven-spoked wheel, slowly revolving in the air before her eyes. “This is a theoretical model of the Wheel of Time, Accepted. It has seven spokes, to represent seven distinct Ages, and it turns as it weaves the Great Pattern. Now, we believe that no matter how many times the Wheel turns, it has two distinct ends: the point of Creation, and Tarmon Gai’don, the Last Battle.”

Erulisse channeled again, altering the weave slightly, and suddenly ribbons of light cascaded around the Wheel in circular patterns. “Some scholars believe, however, that there are an infinite number of alternate realities that occur in parallel to ours. I have visited a few of them myself, and they are accessible through the use of portal stones. A different world thus would exist for every different choice, every possible reality, that has occurred or will occur. In every world, they would all have the same beginning and the same end, but each reality would be distinct.

“Now, I believe that the Three Arches can show you different vantage points of the Pattern. Imagine if it showed you the Pattern from this time and space.” The Brown sister reached out with her finger and pointd into a blank space in the air within the weave representing the Wheel. “Along this thread, a certain alternate reality would exist, and you would now be able to experience the Pattern from that reality.”

Amarea blinked, absorbing the Aes Sedai’s words and trying to keep her mind up with the theory so she could understand its implications. “I…think I understand, Erulisse Sedai. But I have a few questions. May I?”

Erulisse nodded sagely, motioning the Accepted to go on. “Certainly, dear.”

“Well,” Amarea began, “Sheriam Sedai said that sometimes people are injured in the Arches, but have no visible injuries upon exiting them. And other times, they might be gravely injured, or might actually die and never leave the Arch. How does your model explain for these different possibilities?”

The Brown sister smiled and replied, “I believe it may have to do with how much affinity, or personal connection, the user has to the alternate reality. For example, imagine a reality in which the Amyrlin Seat makes a ruling that affects the diplomatic relations between Tar Valon and another nation. Now, imagine a different reality in which you yourself are the Amyrlin Seat, and that you are in a version of the world in which you have personally made this ruling. You may have more affinity to this version of that world, and thus it may wear at you or draw you in differently.”

Amarea sat quietly, contemplating that idea. “What do you think the original purpose of the Arches was intended to be?” she asked. “You know, by the channelers who created it.”

“Oh, I believe their intended use is the same as how we use them,” Erulisse shared. “To test the women who enter them. The similarities across the experiences of the woman who have gone into them, to see realities similar to one’s past, present, and future, and our fears associated with them, are too great to logically suggest otherwise.”

“I wonder if there is more to them than that,” Amarea thought aloud. “I mean, if some choices, some outcomes, are more common than others, then those themes would be seen more often across visions. I know that it is against our customs and traditions,” she blushed, “but if you systematically interviewed and documented what every person saw who entered the Arches, by studying the similarities and differences across their visions, could you determine which realities are more likely? Which choices are more likely to be made, and which futures more common?”

Erulisse frowned. “I do not believe anyone has ever conducted such an investigation. What I saw in the first arch was personally unpleasant; what I saw in the second and third arches was cosmically unpleasant.”

Amarea’s blush deepened as thoughts of her own visit into the Three Arches came unbidden to her mind. Her mother, casting Amarea out and accusing her of abandoning her family. The Hand of Light Questioner, the Seanchan, and a man referred to as an Asha’man. She remembered their faces as if looking upon them right then, and their words were seared into her memory. “So were mine, Aes Sedai,” she replied quietly. After a long pause, changing the subject, she asked, “What about the World of Dreams, Erulisse Sedai? How does that place, and the visions there, relate to this model?” She nodded at the floating image of the Wheel of Time from Erulisse’s weave.

“I do not know,” Erulisse admitted. “Perhaps any one model cannot perfectly explain all of the things we know about the Pattern, and Tel’aran’rhiod. Perhaps the world is far more complicated than that.”

Amarea grew quiet again, silently contemplating everything Erulisse had shared with her. After a while, she asked, “Aes Sedai, so much of this information you’ve shared is very philosophical and logical. Beggin’ your pardon, but did you ever consider pursuing the White Ajah? And if so, why did you choose the Brown Ajah instead?”

Erulisse smiled fondly, a distant expression as she leaned back in her chair. “I was quite interested in the White Ajah for a while, Amarea. I think I could have found a home there, and I had several White sisters that I respected. But in the end, I chose the Brown Ajah because I always wanted to be the knower of things. I enjoy learning things, collecting things, figuring out information just for the sake of knowing it. The Brown Ajah, and the sorority I found there, provided the best possible fit for that passion.”

The Accepted smiled softly at hearing that answer. “I enjoy learning things, too. When I was a novice, and I used to gather wood for the lumberjack in the woods southeast of the city, I used to take idle notes on where the trees grew. It seemed like they flourished in some areas, and not in others. I took notes on every area, every clearing, where I found the evergreen pines growing. It seemed like there was a pattern to it. I never quite got to the point where I could identify the pattern, in part because I felt that the worldly experience I was gaining from the task had plateaued and I had outgrown the activity. But I enjoyed the simple act of studying the world that way.”

“And do you think that is something the Whites would do, or more of the Brown Ajah?”

Amarea frowned in thought as she considered the question. “Beggin’ your pardon, Aes Sedai, but from what you have shared, I think it depends on what is more important. The White Ajah might be more interested in my logic and process for studying the pattern in the trees, while the Brown Ajah might be more focused on my conclusions and their implications.”

The lesson ended as abruptly as it had begun. Erulisse looked to the Accepted and said with a smile, “I must leave for now, so I will escort you back to the White Tower. But keep up your studies, and continue to reflect on what you are most passionate about. It will help you find a home in the right Ajah as you continue your journey towards the shawl.” Erulisse channeled briefly, releasing her weave, and the Wheel of Time model evaporated like mist on a sunny day. She wove Traveling again, forming another gateway back to the Brown Ajah wing of the Tower, and led the pair of women back into the Tower.

Amarea shivered at the sudden chill of the air and offered another practiced curtsey to Erulisse, but the enigmatic Aes Sedai was already moving deeper into the Brown Ajah wing. “The Light favor you, Aes Sedai,” Amarea called out after her before turning and making her way back to her own living quarters. She was surprised to hear the bell for Last ring deep in the White Tower. She knew she should try to go to sleep, and she had another long day ahead of her tomorrow, but she predicted that sleep would elude her for some time.

[Chloro]

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