Fanfic:The Frail
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Covered up to her neck in blankets, Elia Darrow closed her eyes as the door to her room closed shut. It had been four days since her experimentation with the Power had launched her clear across the room, and she was still getting over the injuries. The first two days she had spent in the Infirmary, Healed but completely drained. She had slept through most of it, from what she herself could recall, but her brother said she was conscious at points. Once she regained full awareness, she asked if she could be moved to her room, and the Yellows were happy to have the bed freed up.
She had received a couple of visitors in these last two days. Rav was in two or three times, and he had spent part of the first night watching over her. She had still been too tired to protest, but she fended off his uncharacteristically overzealous watchfulness last night. Sinead had been in too, sitting cross-legged on the floor, although that still meant they were at eye level with one another. The door that had just closed had been her fellow Accepted and friend.
Weakly, Elia reached out towards the table behind her bed, and fingered the cause of all of her plight. The Great Serpent ring, symbol of the Aes Sedai, seemed to be made of gold, or at least had a golden sheen. As she turned it over with delicate fingers, she wondered why it looks so ordinary. For a number of nights she had woven the five Powers into it, to make it a ter'angreal. Or at least, practice for when she succeeded. The last time she had held onto the ring, it had been a matte ochre, not gold. Part of the process that turned something ordinary into an object of Power transmuted it. This ring should have been glassy, or coarse like stone, or glittered like a rainbow. But it was none of those, nor anything else special. In fact, she could have placed it beside any other Great Serpent ring and not known the difference.
Curiosity piqued, she turned onto her side, pulling some of the blankets free from the mattress. Was it the same ring? If a sister had found an odd-looking object, she may have discovered that it was a ter'angreal, and sent it to the Indigos to study or lock away. Elia turned the ring over in her fingers, looking for anything that marked it as hers, or marked it as not hers. It looked just like she remembered it, and slipping it on, it was made for her finger.
The red-haired Shienaran rolled onto her back and sighed loudly. She knew what she had to do, in order to prove to herself, one way or the other, if she had succeeded or failed. Forming the image of a golden rosebud in her mind, light shone upon it, just as saidar sang temptingly to the Accepted. As the bud opened to the light, saidar filled Elia, with all of its sweetness and life-affirming glory. She didn't hold onto much of the One Power, she already felt her concentration being tested, so she wove quickly yet carefully. Thin strands of Spirit probed at the ring, in the same way she had inspected Ravak's ter'angreal. She felt... nothing. Grumbling, she wove Air instead, and prodded at the ring. Again, there was no sensation of the ring being anything other than a ring. Maybe someone had switched it out for another. Water replaced Air, then a mix of Fire and Air. There was no resonance to be found. There was simply nothing.
Her concentration was being pushed hard, just channelling the little she dared. Pressure was building up in her temples, and whether she wanted to or not, she would soon be unable to touch the Source, yet alone do anything. She made a twisted weave of Air, Fire, Spirit and Water and enveloped the ring. It floated free from her grasp, hovering a couple of inches above her, as she poked and prodded. Still, she felt nothing at all from the ring. She couldn't even sense the ring, although it was clearly there.
"Nothing." She made a belaboured sigh, and let the ring drop onto the bed. Placing it back on the bed, she curled up on her side, facing the wall. All that effort and energy expended, and she didn't even know what she had accomplished. She closed her eyes, trying to ignore the headache that pushed against her thoughts.
"Nothing?" Elia turned over, and instantly regretted the sudden movement. Her head swelled in pain and her vision swam, but she grabbed onto the ring. She had literally felt nothing, as if the ring didn't exist. She peered at it, looking for some indication of change. It was a ter'angreal, although possibly a ter'angreal without purpose. The Indigos had to have a place to put unsuccessful ter'angreal, but Elia was ecstatic just to have made something with the Power. Zae Sedai had to be right, about having the gift to create ter'angreal. She slipped the Great Serpent onto her hand, balled her fist, and hugged herself around it. It was a start! Such an important first step! In spite of the pain, Elia drifted to sleep happy, and her dreams were filled with the wondrous potential she had just unlocked.
