Fanfic:Black Wind Rising
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Ubriel had decided pretty quickly during her journey to the Tower that she didn't want to be one of those uneducated and surly warders that were only really good for banging heads together. Peach had helped her decide that she would ask the sisters of the Brown Ajah to help her find information on the history of warfare in the nations. So with the first of her free moments she had visited the Brown quarters and requested help with a course of study. She had not expected a job in the library to come from it. Upon reconsideration, she probably should have. Many of the newcomers to the Tower tended to want to seek chores in the Yards or getting into the good graces of a more experienced channeler. The library was often neglected.
So, she found herself in the library seeking the archives and the stack of loose papers that she had been assigned to neatly copy into the bound books of blank pages. First she had to sort them. This was not what she had in mind when she had sought an assignment in the library. But, it was her task and she was determined to do it well. She began by sorting them by relevant Ajah. A stack for the browns began to grow to disproportionate size while the blue and green stacks each only had a handful of notes. The Indigo stack suddenly grew significantly when she came across a report on the testing of a new cache of ter'angreal that had been discovered in a dilapidated barn. With the last sheaf of papers containing a thesis on the logic of Galen Mordren of Arad Doman, the sorting was complete and Ubriel began to organize the stacks. Setting aside the brown for later, she began sorting the blue.
She chose out a medium sized bound volume with a blue cover and began copying into it. The first page, she devoted to a content list and made the first entry. Placing a blotting page over the wet ink, she turned to the third page of the volume and began copying.
Zacharyn walked through the stacks and shelves of various and sundry literature. Aiel Customs and Culture? boring... Kandori Trade Secrets? meh... Ter'angreal During the Age of Legends? oooh Shiny! Zacharyn plucked the small leatherbound book from the shelf and kept walking.
Rounding a corner he kept looking for books along the vein of what he had found. He had amassed a substantial pile of various, seemingly unrelated books. Ore delving, ancient Ter'angreal, and books on several types of foundry techniques for pouring various alloy metals. As he stopped to reach up and grab another book, out of the corner of his eye he noticed someone arranging giant stacks of paper and she looked to be copying them into small bound tomes.
Upon taking a closer look at the new face in the library, he realized it was Bree, and decided to have a bit of fun. He sat his stack of books down and started to slowly creep around the shelf he had come from and get behind her. Slowly creeping, fifteen feet away, he tiptoed and little slower. Ten feet away, he slowed to nearly a crawl. Five feet away, he stopped entirely and took a deep slow breath. In the bassiest rumble he could manage he growled. "Drin'Far'Ji Bryne! What are you doing in the Library when you have the quarterstaff to learn!?"
Ubriel jumped from the chair where she had been sitting and simultaneously turned and hurled the new green bound volume straight at the voice that had startled her. It made a very satisfying sound as it hit Zacharyn squarely in the nose and fell to the floor. Her immediate irate anger at his mean attempt to scare her was subdued by the complete hilarity of the expression on his face.
"Zack! What the beans are you doing!?" She giggled and then became a little concerned as the Soldier's eyes moved in his still stricken face to focus on her. "Um, I mean, I am sorry. I was startled. Are you ok?"
"Gah! Bloody book! That hurt." Zacharyn moped into his chest. Seeing the look of surprise and the startled expression had been wonderful though. "I'm fine. Totally deserved it." he softly laughed to himself. What's got you in the library today? I really had imagined you'd be in the warder yards, badgering some old coot to show you how to twirl your stick." Zacharyn said with an amused look.
Ubriel grinned and retrieved the book she had thrown, quipping, "I should have known all you could imagine to do with a stick would be to twirl it." She ran her finger down the spine of the book, relieved to find that it hadn't been damaged by the impact.
"I have been assigned to copy these notes for the ajahs. If I do a good job, I am hoping the Browns will tutor me on the combat histories." She put her hand atop the stack for the Indigos. "You might be interested in this. The Indigos just finished researching a cache of ter'angreals they found. A fair few appear to have been decorative or ceremonial swords and shields." She waggled her eye brows at him.
Zacharyns eyes widened "You have my interest..." He said slowly and then he remembered his stack of books that he had sat down not far away. "I'll be right back!" he said, walking hastily to the pile of mismatched books on the floor. He hefted the stack of books up into his arms and made his way back to Bree.
"Sorry about that. I was actually just researching some ter'angreal like that. I do like what the Indigo's do. I'm just not sure I'm up to snuff for all the research part of it. The making of these things is really interesting. I can't imagine how one would be able to do it though." He said with a slightly washed out look on his face.
Zacharyn sat his stack of books on the table far enough away that they wouldn't mix with any of Ubriel's things and sat down on the same side of the table she was on. "Y'know I haven't even been through the one power basics course yet. I dunno why I thought I should come look up all the Ter'angreal I could find." He was looking through the book of alloy metals as he said it. "Sometimes I think being a channeler is frightening, even more so considering everyone knows that for thousands of years there's been a taint on Saidin and for some reason it just vanished." He started and looked around. as though he hadn't realized he had been going on in his monologue.
"Anyway! What's got you interested in the history of warfare?"
Ubriel smiled and started copying the first item on the stack for the Greens. "I don't know. I hadn't ever thought about it at all until I started reading about the battles. Suddenly I couldn't get enough of it. The strategy and planning and moves and counter-moves, it all seems so much bigger than my life. It's exciting. Then I got sent to be a warder and it just kind of feels like the Pattern is weaving me in this direction."
She glanced at Zack flipping through the Indigo stack. "You know, you have a history of being sought after for ceremonial metal work. Finding out you are a channeler, how did you not immediately think perhaps you have been using the Power on that metal stuff all along? What if you have been making ter'angreal swords for years and didn't realize it?!" She widened her eyes and nodded then the expression melted away and she went back to her copying.
Zacharyn took on sort of a scholarly dialect as he spoke "Ter'angreal by definition have to be what amounts to a machine, powered by the One Power. One does not necessarily need to channel into a ter'angreal to have it perform its task, but they all have some sort of... machination that they provide that has a power source based in receiving the One Power, and it being directed through the ter'angreal somehow." He stopped and pondered for a moment. "It could be though, that I was using the Power to aid in shaping and honing the pieces I made." He laughed again. "I feel like I've been cheating all these years now!"
Ubriel had moved on to the stack of Yellow notes, only four entries, and giggled at Zacharyn's musing. "I don't think using all the tools at your disposal could be considered cheating." She hissed at the page as a stray ink drop fell onto the side of the page. Blotting it with a piece of scrap paper, she turned it into a black and white symbol of the Aes Sedai and kept going.
"I was hoping that you would be willing to help me out in your free time. I wanted to alter my staff with some metal banding and tipping. Do you think you would be interested?"
Zacharyn took a last few moments to amuse himself with the thought of smithing with the One Power, and looked up. "I would be more than happy to help you! What exactly are you looking for?" Ubriel smiled and promised to bring him some ideas soon. With that they parted and she finished her task.
Ubriel walked out of her quarters and towards the forge with her drawings in one hand and her staff in the other. Zack had agreed to make some modifications to her staff several days ago and she was excited. Walking into the forge yard she located Zack and stumbled a step seeing him shirtless and covered in sweat, muscles rippling and hair slicked with perspiration. He really was very pretty. "Hey! I brought my ideas." She called out and walked a little closer but not wanting to get too close to the forge fire.
He walked over to her and took the drawings from her. She moved beside him to lean in and point at various items in the drawings. "I thought having a tipped end here would help counter weight the business end. This bit is a kind of winding metal reinforcement embedded into the surface of the staff. And here," she got excited and didn't realize her shoulder was pressing up against Zack's, "I was thinking it would be really great if there were a hidden short blade sheathed there that I could pull out in a pinch."
She turned to face him and grinned broadly, really proud of her ideas.
Zacharyn took the pictures from her and began looking them over. "Hrm... Well I can definitely add the butt ends, the reinforcement on the sides of the staff can be done... but that's going to take a while. I'll have to carve troughs in your staff for the metal to sit in, and I'll have to add cross pins diagonally to make sure it's all held together firmly." He took a moment looking it over and thinking about the process. "You realize this is going to make your staff much heavier?" he asked not really expecting an answer. "I can do this, but I'll have to make a special clasp for the hidden blade. That may take a while." Do you have any questions?" He asked, starting to get excited over the idea of making this new weapon.
Ubriel tilted her head to one side and peered at him, "I want your 'special' work. The kind you are famous for. Should I get a new staff specifically for this? I don't want to have to stop practicing forms for an extended period. What kind of metal do you think it should be and is there a trick to getting your talents to kick in?" She stepped aside and turned to face him properly. She was already thinking about what kind of wood her secondary staff should be made of.
Zacharyn tossed his head back in laughter. This bouncy little girl in front of him was absolutely vibrating over the prospect of a shiny twirly stick. "You should have a back up stick, this is probably going to take 2-3 days. I'm going to make it out of steel, because it needs to be ready for combat and anything else will be a bit too brittle for the type of damage you're going to drag this thing through. And as far as any talent being in it. I'm not even sure there is any, but I'll be sure to make it just as beautiful as any ceremonial sword or polearm I've ever made, with the added bonus of being combat ready" He winked at her and turned to walk into the forge with his new toy over his shoulder.
Having relinquished her staff to Zack, Ubriel needed a new one. She had a strong desire to make her own weapon so she secured a pass from the Mistress of Training and headed out into the forest near the Tower with Peach. She found a suitable branch and went to work shaping and working the wood while Peach grazed happily on underbrush. "Don't eat too much of that junk, Peach. You will get a belly ache."
This new staff was slightly longer than her old one and was made from a branch of hickory wood. It was slightly heavier as well. If she was going to be slinging a heavy staff, she may as well start getting used to it. The shaping and general smoothing took most of the afternoon and she was happily fatigued as she rode back onto Tower grounds. Brushing down Peach before she fed her and put her in the stable, Bree was thinking about possibly carving the new staff. "It's a really hard wood though. I don't know if I can even make a dent in it if I tried." Peach whinnied at her and flicked her tail.
"You are probably right. Maybe I can find a way to stain it instead." Bree finished brushing the horse and carried her staff to her quarters. She leaned it in a corner and stood staring at it for a moment, picturing different patterns of staining on the length of it.
Finally having achieved a mottled stain on the new staff, she finished a practice with it in the Yard. It had a good weight and a good balance. The greater weight was giving her a small ache in the backs of her upper arms and she spent several minutes at the end of each practice rubbing them and doing stretches to keep her shoulders and arms from getting knots in them. That evening, feeling accomplished, she walked to the mess hall to find some supper. Having retrieved a tray containing a sandwich and a leafy salad with fruit in it, she scanned the people dining for familiar faces. Her face split in a grin finding Zack sitting alone. She hadn't seen him in two days and was pleased to have the chance to badger him about his progress.
"Hi!" Ubriel sat across from him at the table and began to babble about the new staff she had harvested. Then she asked, "So what is the news about our little project?"
"Ahh, I'm glad you asked. I finished with your staff a few hours ago. After you finish eating we can go get a look at it!" Zacharyn said. "I think you're going to be quite pleased. I took an artistic liberty once I realized something about the metal I was working with. Good steel here in the Grey tower. Hehehe." Zacharyn grinned broadly.
Finished... Ubriel gaped and groaned inwardly. Then she sighed and sat to eat. Well, he is famous fo excellent weaponry. Liberties? After she finished eating, she followed Zack and pelted him with questions. "What did you discover? What artistic liberty? What are you talking about? If you messed up my staff, I'm going to require you to start over." She gave him the best version of a serious and mean face that she could muster while walking and being laughed at.
Bree and Zacharyn arrived at the forge rather quickly and walked into a storage area in the back. "Here let me bring it out in the light so you can appreciate it properly." Zacharyn brought the staff out covered in a long bolt of linen. “I think you're going to be happy with it.”
Zacharyn slowly pulled the cloth away from the staff starting from the bottom up. The staff had been lacquered, that was new. Black lacquer, covered the length of the staff now, and then suddenly the light caught on the steel. It made clear the fact that the steel was blue; dark almost navy blue. The butt of the staff was the dark navy blue on the sides, but set into the metal at the point was the Flame and Fang. Milky Quartz and Jet. Leading upwards from the butt was a spiral all the way up length of the staff. The same navy blue, up to the very tip.
"Now here's what was the tricky part." Zacharyn proclaimed, beaming proudly as he twisted the end of the staff and pulled out a pin releasing a dagger hidden in the end. "It's not a super quick release, but it will keep an enemy from grabbing the end of your staff at some point and taking the dagger for himself." He explained replacing the pin and twisting the hilt of the blade so that the swirl of metal lined up with the rest of the staff.
"So whatta' you think!?"
Ubriel squealed in a long high pitched giggle and held out both hands flexing her fingers while bouncing quickly from one foot to the other. "Yes! Oh Light and Creator's goodness! Yes! I love it!" Taking the new and improved staff from Zack she skipped off a few feet and hefted it in both hands. She got a feel for the weight and began to swing the staff. She was in awe. It felt lighter than she remembered, even with the addition of so much metal. She began twirling the staff through her favorite walking flourish and the staff felt almost as light as a feather. Advancing on a post with hooks on the sides for holding water buckets, she squared off with it and performed a series of attacks that landed solid blows against the post. The last attack was a thrust with the butt end.
Stopping and examining the damage, she gasped as she saw the indentations and splintering where her blows had landed. The last was a pronounced imprint of the Flame and Fang symbol. With eyes widened in disbelief she turned back to Zack and waved him to come closer. Pointing at the damaged post she said, "Now tell me that you don't have some kind of Talent going on when you forge stuff." Planting the staff in the ground by her foot she said, "I think you need to talk to the Indigos and find out what they have to say about it. But make them something pretty of their own. They can't have my staff." She paused and bounced, "Oh! It needs a name! What should we call it?"
Zacharyn went from giddy at Bree enjoying his latest creation, to stern and respectful. "Naming a weapon isn't generally done, honestly. A weapon that is called by a name is usually one that has either seen many battles or was given a name by some art collector in a castle somewhere." He nodded softly to himself, as though he'd had an idea. "I have however heard stories of some Kandori warriors who felt like their sword was more than just a sword and that it had told them a name for it. Of course, that could just be lonely blight border watchers talking to their swords. If you want my suggestion though, it's smooth and deadly, with damage being dealt bluntly and quickly. Al'doondieb could be a name that a fancy art collector would give it."
Ubriel squinted at Zacharyn as he explained about naming. She felt sure he was about to tell her no in a resounding and final way. Then he made his suggestion and a smile blossomed on her face. "OOO what does that mean?"
Zack raised one hand and gestured expansively. "The Black Wind," he said in a gravelly and low rumble.
Ubriel laughed with delight and repeated, "Al'doondieb." She lowered her voice to a mysterious and dangerous whisper, "Al'doondieb." Then with a boisterous authority, "Al'doondieb!" Then she giggled through the word, "Al'doondieb. I love it!"
She threw her free arm around Zack's middle and squeezed. She was about to let go and step away when she felt both of his arms encompass her and give a little squeeze back. She felt a strange and unaccustomed tingle in her middle that she remembered from their time together in Illian. Sighing deeply she did let go and backed away thanking him again. Saying good night, she walked back to her quarters alone save for Al'doondieb and all of the grand adventures she imagined she would have while wielding it.
