Participants: Jaice, Accepted of the White Tower, ex Atha'an Miere deckhand
Maeve, ex-Accepted of the White Tower, residing in Cairhien.

Background: Having finally met up with friends in Cairhien after two days of searching, Jaice was treated to a warm meal, a hot bath, and a change of clothes borrowed from her Saldaean friend. After telling her story -- without too many interruptions from Maeve, Diar and Celebril -- talk fell to the Ter'angreal that rested only a few minutes walk away, the one half of a pair that was responsible for Jaice's sudden and unexpected journey. Being that Maeve's project within the Tower had been on doorway Ter'angreal, she was excited at the prospect of being able to study one so close; and so, plans were made to venture to the old storage room the following day. Jaice however, was worried; she knew those at the Tower likely thought her dead, and as much as she enjoyed seeing her close friend again, the thought of the Towerfolk nagged at her. So she too put her project to use; and, with the help of Maeve's strength through a link she controlled, she sent a message on a strong weave of wind, with the hopes that it might reach Tar Valon. The rest of the evening was spent in recuperation from the exhausting weave, but the following morning dawned bright and cheerful.

Setting: Sitting Room: Moderal Residence, Cairhien

Winding her way down the stairway, and approaching the couch, Maeve does indeed look quite her usual self. "A good night's sleep did wonders, as usual." A wry smile upon that, as she takes a seat beside you and reaches out for a ripe apple anyhow, "I had almost forgotten how it felt to exhaust myself that way. You're rested too, I trust?" Grey eyes flick towards the stairs for a moment, her expression almost a touch worried, though as she looks to you again the smile is back in place.

Her pale blue gaze rests on the door to Celebril's room for the briefest of moment before Jaice nods. "I napped so long last evening I ended up waking up in the middle of the night. Shall we take a bag of these, so we don't have to come back for lunch?" Nicely done, Jaice. Change the topic. Shifting her weight on the couch, she pulls out a mesh bag she had pocketed just for the purpose.

If Maeve noticed, which she likely did, the... detour your attention took for a moment, she does not comment upon it at least, merely nods to your suggestion. "Good idea, Light knows for how long we'll be stuck there and --" she chuckles a little dryly, once again glancing the way of the stairs, "--I'd rather not run into Diar like this. He's been hopeless since we came to Cairhien." She doesn't elaborate on what that could mean, though it takes her a moment or two to find her smile again. "All set then, except for the fruit?"

Jaice has been popping apples, plums, and sweetfruits into the bag as you talk, and her observant gaze takes in your linen breeches and snug blouse as she slings the bag over her shoulder. "You look fine," she says obligingly. "We can't exactly wear silks to work in that dusty old room." As your graceful friend stands, you notice she too is wearing breeches and a breezy tunic, much like the sea folk would wear but lighter of fabric, softer of texture. "Cel found these in the market. Ready?"

Rising as you do, Maeve pushes a stray lock of hair out of her face, smiling wryly. "I know when I need to be practical, but Diar... he's been so concerned with appearances, you might think he plans to stick around Cairhien for the rest of his life." A light shrug, as if it really didn't bother her at all, and she starts to wind her way towards the door, "I sure couldn't stay here long if those blasted rules about no weapons remain in place."

As your friend follows you out, you hear her voice softly behind you. "Perhaps he does intend to stay awhile." Jaice comes along beside you then, the mesh bag swaying in her hand as she tilts her head to regard you. Then you're out in the street, and the Atha'an Miere is distracted as she tries to puzzle out her direction. "I'm a little turned around after all that searching... but I think it was this way."

"I've yet to learn how to find my way around, so I'll have to rely on you," is Maeve's not too reassuring reply, and the smile to go with it hardly makes it more so. About Diar, she makes no further comment, merely follows you along as you wind your way along rather more quiet streets than over the last days. "Looks like most everyone is at home, sleeping the feast off."

Jaice leads you through several side streets, and is forced to stop a few times to get her bearings, but after all that, she ends up only having to backtrack once before you arrive in Sunburst square. At this time of the morning, not many people are about save for the merchants in their stalls, and none of them are apt to notice the two of you wind your way to the back of an unused building. "Here it is," Jaice says softly, climbing rickety stairs to a slightly raised landing. "I don't think the owner is likely to pop in... I think you'll see why inside."

[Old Storage Room: Cairhien, Cairhien]

Clouds of dust are stirred up by your feet as you enter, and Jaice stiffles a sneeze with the back of one hand. "See what I mean?"

Coughing at first as you enter the room and stir up the layered dust of many years, Maeve is forced to take a moment to clean her eyes out, nodding at the same time to your words. "I sure do. This blasted room looks like its been abandoned since the Age of Legends." A snort, and a sneeze upon that, and she turns to you, her gaze having fallen for moment upon the large picture frame. "I guess that is the one?"

Jaice nods mutely, save for the coughing she attempts to get under control as she waves a hand before her face. "Light! Yes, that's the one. I didn't try touching it; I'm not sure what would happen. The one in the Tower was harmless, or so everyone thought. Touching it was like touching a... a picture frame. But I just got the sense this wasn't 'right'. It could be it's harmless, or not. What do you think?"

"If they're paired --" Maeve says after taking a few steps towards the frame, and considering it for a few moments, "-- then I would suspect that this one requiers channeling too. As long as we don't embrace the source, we should be able to examine it at least." Suspect, and should... very reassuring indeed. Nevertheless, she does approach it fully, taking a good look at what she can see without moving it, to begin with at least.

Jaice worries dubiously at her lip, her hands placed on slender hips as she studies the frame. "I suppose if it worked as the gate here... but then, that requires the trigging of the first, perhaps?" Sighing, she raises one hand to tug absently at a narrow braid. "But if it's broken... who knows. Of course, I'm not completely sure it is. That's why I wanted you to look at it too."

Carefully, though keeping her hand surprisingly steady, Maeve reaches out to touch the frame. "Well, if I disappear, I guess I'll end up back in the Tower," she says in a rather pale attempt at a joke, the moment before her fingers connect with the dusty frame. Nothing happens, at least not immediately. "I... I can't sense anything, not right now. Can you describe more what you felt?" She turns around, looking at you, her expression a little on the tense side. "Maybe it was because it had just beed used?"

"Perhaps," Jaice agrees, squatting easily beside the frame to study it a bit more. "It was... a lurching feeling, as I came through, and... and a bit of nausea, but not much. It passed quickly. It was a while before I took a look at the frame, or even noticed it. I was more concerned with finding out where I was." She pauses there, frowning at it, and she too runs a finger down its edge. "Just like the one in the Tower. But I tell you, there's... something..." She tilts her head to look at the back.

Kneeling down on the dusty floor, on one knee only, Maeve nods thoughtfully to you. "You felt the one in the Tower, you would be more likely to pick up a difference." A slight frown creep onto her face, as always when she feels lost, unaware of something, and she reaches out to touch the frame again, running slender fingers over it. "It has the feel of a ter'angreal for certain, the... oddity of the material, the slight sense of it having been changed."

A slight snort sounds from the other side of the frame, and a low chuckle follows. "Whomever owns this has no idea what it is," you hear Jaice say amusedly. "And they have no idea how lucky they are that this thing didn't react when they... erm..." A pregnant pause, and then you hear muffled laughter. "... tried to nail a painting to it."

Jaice tilts the frame a bit, and you can see scratches and nails denting the back. "Nicely done, wouldn't you say?"

"Oh Light!" Maeve exclaims, then laughs as well, not exactly stopping when you show her the back of it. It is amusing, a little anyhow, but mostly it seems to be a release of tension. Finally she stops, shaking her head. "Light... the stupidity. And how on earth do you get hold of a ter'angreal like this, without knowing what it is?" Again she shakes her head, then leans in closer to look. "Well, at least we know now what is wrong with it. A pity..."

"Well, a lot of them were lost in the Age of Legends, right?" Jaice sits on the dusty floor, folding her legs comfortably beneath her. "It's possible most were found by people who wouldn't recognise them for what they were."

"I somehow thought eager Aes Sedai had gathered most of them by now, save for the ones kept in the Stone I guess." Maeve comments, rather dryly, though her attention is too much on the ter'angreal now to allow for any lengthy complaints about certain things. "I guess that leaves us with the question of what to do next, eh?" Glancing away from the picture frame for a moment, she looks up at you. "It would be good for you to bring a whole ter'angreal back to the Tower with you, wouldn't it?"

"It would," Jaice agrees thoughtfully. "Maybe they won't even kill me for being whisked away without asking first." The smile she gives you is faintly amused, but there's a worried look to those blue eyes.

"I'd go along to help you out, except that I think my presence would make it rather worse." Mostly a joke, though there's worry in Maeve's grey eyes as well, they're darker than usual, clouded. "I wonder... perhaps we can mend it somehow, without getting killed or whisked away to the Blight in the process." A flicker of hesitation on her face, then that stubborn look you've seen before. "I'll examine it with the One Power, from a distance." She rises again, stepping back a pace or two, and waits for you to do the same.

"Mend it?" Jaice snorts as she gets up, and shakes her head, sending the dozens of tiny braids down her back to swaying about her shoulders. "Don't be rediculous, nobody has done such a thing in over three thousand years." Her blue eyes watch you warily then, and she adds, "Still... don't channel at it? Just grasp the Source. Channelling at ter'angreal was what got me into this mess in the first place, and I don't trust that thing."

"I wonder if someone has even _tried_ in three thousand years," is Maeve's reply, her smile a bit wry and yet that stubborn look remains, that tilt of her chin betraying that she's considering something. Though, she does heed your warning, and while the soft, glowing nimbus of golden appears about her, she does not do anything more than hold Saidar, her gaze narrowing faintly as she studies the ter'angreal again. "It's... it's dead. I mean, I can sense something now... a wrongness, a lack of something."

"Exactly," Jaice says, nodding encouragingly in your direction. "It feels 'off'. I knew I wasn't imagining it." She sits on the floor again, watching you, and adds, "Knowing Aes Sedai, I doubt they haven't tried. It is well known women are not half so strong now as they were then; and if someone could fix these... well, we wouldn't have so many broken ones stored in the Tower basement."

Locked in concentration upon the ter'angreal, Maeve only nods to your words at first, a frown growing more prominent upon her face as the minutes pass. "It feels... very wrong, but I can't tell more from just embracing." A frustrated little sigh, and she looks to you again. "If you're right that whatever is happening in Tar Valon affected your weave, then a simple probe of Spirit ought to be safe. To... scan it sort of." If, ought... it's gambling, and she knows it, but she's too curious to let this just pass her buy.

Your friend's startled look is warning enough, but she suddenly gets to her feet, the glow of Saidar appearing around her. "No, don't. It's got -nails- in it, for Light's sake! I don't want my best friend stilled or dead, if at all possible. We... we just don't know what it'll do." Jaice spreads her hands, her dubious gaze falling on the Ter'angreal. "I know you want to study it, but there's got to be a better way."

Already uncertain, Maeve doesn't object _too_ much, though she does frown and tilt her chin up even more. "But--" she begins, then nods, reluctantly. "I guess you're right." Still frowning, she shakes her head and approaches the picture frame once again, holding onto Saidar still but making no move to channel at it. "I just think we could stare at this for days wi--" Abruptly she falls silent, leaning in even closer. "Light, Jaice... I _can_ see something. It's... it's like lines, lines which run all over it." Tearing her gaze from it, unwillingly, she looks back at you. "Come here and see for yourself. It's not woodgrain, it's far too orderly, and the nails... the nails _break_ some of those lines."

"It must be the grain of the wood," Jaice says, though she does frown curiously, and nears your side to see what you're talking about. Leaning in beside you, she peers at the polished surface. "Where?"

"It can't be, it's too orderly. It's a pattern, all over it." Maeve insists, pointing to the section of the frame she was looking at, and the closest nail. "Like... like someone has re-arranged the wood." Frowning thoughtfully she looks between you and the ter'angreal. "It is a ter'angreal, and it was made, somehow, from what looks like perfectly ordinary wood."

"Well they -were- made from ordinary materials, from what I understand." Jaice frowns at the frame, peering at it as she prattles on. "It's just nobody knows how to--" Her words are cut off by a sharp intake of breath, her pale eyes widening in disbelief. "Light! It's there, you're right! Like... like it's been rearranged?" She traces a trembling finger down the edge of the thing, unable to hide the excitement in her voice. "I thought you were stringing me a line!"

A quiet 'whew' escapes Maeve, she obviously wasn't as sure as she pretended to be, and then a wide grin lights up her face. "Would I do that, Jaice?" Grey eyes find the ter'angreal again, as if she wants to confirm the discovery once again. "I can't imagine why I didn't see it before, on all those ter'angreal I studied. I guess... I didn't look for it." She shakes her head, amazed that such a discovery could so easily have been passed by. "I wonder what means. We both see them, so everyone probably does. But even so..." Her voice trails off, and she turns to you again. "With a... blueprint like this, why is it so impossible to make a new one?"

Jaice shakes her head dazedly, seeming unwilling to take her eyes from the frame. "We have to try," she says decidedly. "It's got to be possible... right? Maybe you're right? Maybe... three thousand years... nobody's tried?" She seems dubious, and glances at you questioningly, but... what other explanation is there? "Maybe we can see it, but can't make it."

Maeve rakes back some tousled curls of auburn, and rather dusty hair from her face, her expression a deeply thoughtful one as she considers the possibilities, and the implications if what you're dicussing. "Maybe... It can't hurt to try, right? We'd need a frame, one like this... I don't think we could fix this one though. Channeling at it would be too dangerous, and we'd have to experiment." Lowering her hand again, a smudge left behind on her forehead, she continues. "Think we could drag this with us home, without looking too suspicious? We need a copy of it, and it couldn't hurt anyone else to have it around."

"It would have to be exact," Jaice points out thoughtfully. "And you never know how the material will change once it's... you know... -changed-." She looks at you meaningfully, and continues. "Perhaps it was made with normal wood, and... 'shaped' that way from the inside. Rather than starting with that shape from the outside in. Am I making sense?" Sighing, she sinks to a seat on the floor. "It just feels like... it's made from the 'inside' first?"

"I guess we need to order a bunch of picture frames, or a heap of wood at least." Maeve considers your suggestions carefully, running a slender finger slowly along the surface of the frame. "You might be right, the change is deep... it's not just the parts of it. The whole thing is changed." Biting her upper lip thoughtfully, she continues to stare at the ter'angreal, as if trying to build a mental image of the whole of it.

"It's too bad we don't have the twin of it," Jaice says with a sigh. "We could compare them. But... we can both see where it breaks at the nails, right? And where it continues again. I'd be more in favour of finding out what kind of wood this was to begin with... and just starting with a heap of that. If there's not enough 'bits' within an already-made frame itself to form these patterns, it won't work."

Devious, and curious mind set to work, a sly smile starts to form on Maeve's lips. "So, we get it out of here... and clean it up. From now on this is a dear, dear heirloom... but alas, it's broken." Looking between you and the frame for a moment, her expression grows smugly pleased. "We so want to display it, but poor old aunti must not know it was broken, so we need to find out from what it was made, to make an exact replica. Know of any good carpenters in Cairhien, Jaice?"

The expression on Jaice's face as she looks at you could only be described as dry. "If I had known anything about Cairhien before coming here," she points out with a smile, "I wouldn't have had so much trouble finding you. But there should be some down by the markets, am I right? Here..." Standing, the slender woman pulls a cover sheet off one of the couches, and settles it over the frame. "If we wrap it in this, it'll just look like an ordinary -- if large -- parcel."

"Climbing the ladder with it will be... interesting, unless one of us keeps a lookout while the other discreetly floats it down." Maeve chuckles, but goes about helping you to wrap the frame up, finding a piece of discarded rope as well to tie it in place. Not the most elegant parcel, but dear old auntie probably won't mind too much anyhow. Whoever she might be. "I guess that's it for here and now? And perhaps, a change of clothes before we go out shopping? So we don't look like thieves at least."

"You're right, we do look pretty dusty." A small giggle escapes Jaice as she plucks a bit of fluff from your hair, and she makes a mild attempt at brushing herself off, to no avail. "But the carrying it down is no problem. We can float it down but still -act- like we're doing all the work, am I right? Although..." She peers closer at the frame, and shakes her head. "Hrm. I think it's safe to carry it with Air. Just so long as we don't channel -into- it."

"I am glad someone is thinking," Maeve replies with an amused smile, though she does look as if she's mentally scolding herself for not having thought of that. "Well, what are we waiting for then?" Rising, she starts to dust herself off with her hands, but switches to fine tendrils of air instead, making her appearance a little more presentable. "I do wonder what... they will say though." No doubt about who 'they' are, not when she gets that look which is a mixture of determination and worry.

"The men won't be pleased, will they?" Small clouds of dust brush themselves off Jaice as she worries at her lip. "And it's not like they won't know what this is. Celebril doesn't even like -talking- about these things."

"Diar pretends he doesn't mind, but..." Maeve sighs, brushing the last dust off herself, well... the last she can get rid of at least. "Ever since I told him of what I'd done to him, he will have nothing of the One Power happening around him. He mistrusts it, and he mistrusts the Tower even more. Nothing could displease him more than me doing anything which possibly could benefit the Aes Sedai." She pauses, then frowns and gives her head an annoyed shake. "I will just have to deal with it, I am going to do this."

Jaice reaches out to grasp one edge of the frame as it floats up to meet her. "Surely they can see the importance of this? I mean, imagine! If it were possible? I shouldn't get my hopes up. Probably we'll just end up making a very ugly picture frame and that's all. But..." Her eyes light, and she tugs the frame to float behind her as she makes for the door.

Grasping the other side of the frame with one hand, and with unseen coils of air to keep it steady, Maeve nods to you, worry once more fading before excitement at your words. "It would be... incredible. It should even keep the Aes Sedai busy enough not to think too much about your disappearance, if you came back and actually could make ter'angreal. Or, at least copy them." What _she_ will do, if she proves able as well, she doesn't comment about as you move towards the door and the ladder, and then carefully start to make your way down with your price.

"You haven't thought of one thing," Jaice says quietly as she makes a show of hefting the large frame down the stairs. "If we -can- do this -- and that's a big 'if' -- they will want to examine you just as much as they will me."

"Examine?" Something in Maeve's voice suggests that she _had_ thought of that, and only avoided mentioning it, likely to keep her temper firmly in check. "I am not some... some thing to be examined, and they were the ones who sent me off." She snorts, very much determined, and almost smugly she adds, "And I'll be only too happy to tell them that." But there's a nuance of worry and uncertainty in her tone of voice, she's far from as sure as she sounds.

"Fine," Jaice readily answers, her words saying the opposite of what her eyes are bluntly telling you. "You are right. If we do copy this, and it -works-, then we would be the first to do so since the Breaking. You, specifically, because you noticed those lines. I do not know that I would have caught that." She shrugs then, readjusting the frame in her arms as she steps to the ground, waiting for you to do the same. "Any Aes Sedai would be fine with letting such a find slip through her fingers, right?"

"No, only a fool would think that. But I don't care too much if they'd get a touch upset with me, I am not their favourite person anyhow." She tries very hard to sound perfectly calm and nonchalant about the whole matter, though fails rather thoroughly, finally saying with a sigh. "Maybe... maybe if we let them think it was all you? You do see the lines, after all." A pale smile, as she sets her feet down on the ground as well, raking back a stray lock of hair. "Well, we have to succeed first, before I start worrying."

"You're right, we could be getting ahead of ourselves. I always did jump ahead in experiments whenever you were doing my lessons at the Tower, remember?" Jaice casts you an apologetic glance, and starts toward the street with you. "And we do not know that everyone does not see those lines, and simply don't think to mention it. If not... I do not like taking credit for your work... though I must admit you might be the luckier of the two of us in that regard."

"If taking credit for my work means I end up back in the Tower again, as whatever they might have in mind, I won't regret missing out on that chance one bit." With the frame between the two of you, you move down the street, Maeve occasionally lapsing into thoughtful, troubled silence. "I always did feel... cheated, because I had no talent. Such an odd twist of fate of this should prove to be it, and for it to be discovered like this. Had you not come here..." She smiles, though somewhat faintly. "Well, the Wheel weaves... We'll see what comes of this."

Jaice seems to be muttering to herself, and you can hear her words faintly. "... Wheel seems to be weaving mighty strange patterns lately..." As she makes her way to the street with you, she quiets. It would not do for passers-by to hear talk of the Tower and ter'angreal.

The two weave through the streets, passing through the market on their way back to the Moderal residence.

Luckily, as you do return to the house, it seems rather quiet. At least neither Celebril, nor Diar is in the sitting room. Maeve seems quite relieved to notice this, though her mood remains a touch subdued, troubled even. "Well, guess we don't have to explain ourselves at once. A bit of luck at least."

Jaice smirks, but it doesn't seem a terribly amused expression. "Just because the storm is not over the ship now, does not mean it will not be soon. However. We do have one consolation... likely they're frightened enough of anything to do with the Power that they won't just throw it out the window."

Jaice adds thoughtfully, "Perhaps we should ward it, just in case?" Light knows, sometimes men have a habit of throwing things about just when they are the most feared of it.

A dry chuckle, then a thoughtful nod. "Diar wouldn't risk attracting such attention, by throwing anything out of the window; but just in case let's ward it." Maeve glances in the direction of the stairway, frowning just a touch. "He'd better not object too loudly, and if he waits with hiring servants until we're done, just so much better."

"When did that carpenter promise to deliver the wood?" Jaice leaves the warding to you, placing the now-empty mesh bag back on the table. "It was good we found him as he was closing up. I hadn't realized the day passed so swiftly. A whole day! Staring at that."

Embracing the source once again, Maeve weaves tendrils of Spirit into a warding attuned to herself. It isn't quite the way she was taught, the silvery flows are twisted in a different pattern as she forms the grid to cover the frame. "He thought he could have it ready for tomorrow, amazing what dropping a name or two can do to speed business transactions." Maeve smiles wryly, tying the weaving off. "There. It won't harm them, but it will alert me, and give off a slight humming sound. It should make them think twice about throwing it anywhere."

Jaice makes her way toward you, leaning to study the frame through the weave. She hadn't released Saidar since picking up the picture back in the storage room, and the warm glow surrounds her still. "They won't be able to drag us away from this thing," she half-jokes, casting you an amused blue gaze. There is excitement there too, the promise of adventure that always comes to her eyes when she's involved in something new. Particularly something as extraordinary as this.

Seating herself in the nearby couch, which is close by enough to allow a good view of the ter'angreal, Maeve snorts. "I somehow doubt they will even try, not Diar anyhow." Just a touch of acidity in her voice, though her expression betrays no real annoyance as she makes herself comfortable, leaning back against the soft padding. "He's too busy making... aquintances among Cairhienin nobility. The female half of it at least."

Jaice's expression falls just a bit, your words reminding her of the man staying in the next room. With a gentle rustling of fabric and a fluid motion, Jaice stands to sit on the couch next to yours. "They are... confusing, yes? I don't know what to make of Celebril," she admits reluctantly. "At times... he seems a great friend. And others, he gets mad at me for -- for something I can't help! For being involved with the One Power, and... getting in trouble, and... all this." She waves a wave-tattooed hand vaguely in the direction of the ter'angreal, and her gaze lifts to yours. "He kissed me last night."

Much preferring to listen to your worries than to dwell on her own, Maeve eyes you thoughtfully as you begin to speak, though that expression changes with your last confession. Grey eyes widen a touch, and a single, slender brow arches. "Oh, " is all she says at first, then a slight smile comes to curve her lips. "I shouldn't be so surprised I guess. He did look very... protective. But you're surprised?" She tilts her head faintly, studying you with an inquisitive, but not too curious-seeming look on her face.

"I... I don't know," Jaice admits. "I guess not, now that I think back on it. He means a lot to me, Maeve -- so much. There's so many 'ifs'. Did you know he offered to travel with me when I finish my training at the Tower?" Jaice nods to herself, distractedly, and continues with an imploring glance. "What if I let myself get too involved, and the Tower finds out? They'd arrange that I never saw him again, I'm sure. Or... or if I ruin it somehow?"

Leaning rather heavily back against the cushioned seat, Maeve considers your words, grey eyes resting upon your face, thoughful and clouded. "He would not make such an offer lightly, I think. I don't know him as you do, but he seems to be that kind of man." A slight pause, that rainy gaze searching your expression, without becoming too invasive. "Only Trainees are, unless the rules have changed since I left, expressively forbidden to associate with Novices _and_ Accepteds. The reason I got into trouble," here she frowns more darkly, "I did let it affect my studies at times. Not as much as it might have seemed as, mostly I was... unsure about what I was doing there. If you keep your work up..." That's the practical side of it, but she's yet to comment more upon your feelings, not wanting to presume anything. "You have a few days now. Perhaps... to find out?"

Jaice bites her lip absently, her fingers working at the folds in the fabric of her breeches. It is these unconcious actions that are more telling than her expression, more indicative of the indecision in her mind. "I suppose. I am more worried about... about messing up, somehow. You know, for the first time since studying at the Tower, I have thought about Bonding? I always assumed I wouldn't, that it wasn't necessary. I couldn't see the point. But the other day..." She shrugs, her voice trailing off. "If he hadn't come -- well. Let us just say that I now see the point. I do not know what is in store for us. Things are happening too quickly."

As always the mere mentioning of Bondings colour Maeve's mood with just a tinge of unease, though she almost surpresses it, with some effort. "He seems very... dedicated to you, Jaice." A faint smile, "Watching over you like you were a fragile piece of porcelain." There's more than a hint of concern to go with that smile though, and while she doesn't ask about 'the other day', it is obvious that she hasn't missed the reference to it. "Men... some men anyhow, they react very strongly to the slighest hint of vulnerability, and slip very easily into the role of saviour and protector. It is very nice at times, though it can get just a touch... difficult." Lacing her fingers together in her lap, she purses her lips, thoughtfully, and adds after a moment or two. "You might be right to be careful though, just because of that."

Jaice plants her chin stubbornly on one upraised fist, shifting position on the couch. "I don't want him to think I'm going to break to pieces at the slightest hint of wind, no."

Maeve cannot help but to smile amusedly at that suggestion. "Not you Jaice, never that. But..." Her expression grows just a touch sly, though the somber mood remains, if a little faded. "Sometimes it is a good way of reminding them that we're around. They seem to have a certain need of chances to show their strength, to be a steady presence to lean against. However, I think that Celebril will learn soon enough that you've got your spirit quite intact." A little dryly, and with a glance over at the frame, she adds: "Like when you discuss that one."

Jaice's worried expression does lift at your wry tone, particularly after the mention of the Ter'angreal. "You have a point." With an impish grin and a shrug of one shoulder, her final quip brings the conversation to laughter and idle chatter. "If we fashioned it into a mirror perhaps they'd like it better."