Participants: Jaice, Maeve

Background: After finding Maeve, telling her story and getting a good nights' sleep, the next course of action was to explore the ter'angreal that Jaice claimed to have transported her to Cairhien. Maeve was more than excited at this prospect; her Accepted project, when she had been in the Tower, was on Doorway Ter'angreal, and here was one just a few streets away! However, their discovery was a little more unusual... the two women had stumbled across something rather unexpected, that they could 'see' into the small particles of the wood, see into the ter'angreal itself. Now this could mean nothing; it was possible that everyone can see those lines and only said nothing about it because it wasn't deemed important, which Jaice privately thought was the case. Or, if the pattern was really weaving a strange loop into their lives, it was just possible that the two women might... maybe... perhaps... be able to make a ter'angreal themselves. If they were... well! That had not been done since the Breaking 3000 years ago, but surely you know Jaice and Maeve by now. They had to try.

Setting: Sitting Room: Moderal Residence, Cairhien

"My my, " Maeve chuckles as she crosses the floor to join you, "He really did hurry up. What a little hint or two can do." She sounds rather smugly pleased, and there's a light of excitement in her eyes as well. "I guess we ought to... dig into it then?" Kneeling down on the floor beside you, she looks up at the original frame for a moment, then back down at the new wood. "Though, in which end I wonder?"

"There's a whole stack of new invitations and gifts by the door too," Jaice says flatly. "I threw four out yesterday, and there's nine today. They don't take the hint." Hefting a smaller piece of wood, Jaice peers from it to the frame. "Perhaps we should try imitating a smaller bit first? Like a... chunk? To see if we can actually do it. I was thinking earlier it would require mostly Earth, but now that I've studied it a while I'm not so sure. Maybe... mostly spirit, some fire, a touch of earth? The 'bits' hardly seem related to the bigger object at all, once you stare at 'em long enough."

"Just throw them far away, so Diar doesn't notice," Maeve replies in a wryly amused tone. "We will likely be dragged off somewhere sooner or later anyhow, but for now it would be good to concentrate on this. You're right, " she then says after a brief pause, her tone more serious now, "We don't know at all what it will do... so testing out some weaves is the best way of starting." Leaning back against the couch, she frowns thoughtfully, staring at the wood. "We know that we can see the change, so it ought to work by... trial and error. Spirit seems reasonable, and whatever element is closest to the nature of the material we use?"

Jaice snorts softly, settling herself to a casual, cross-legged position on the floor beside the Ter'angreal. "Ever seen a water or fire ter'angreal? Hrm. I don't know, to be honest. I feel like I'm sailing through a heavy fog with this one, no idea where I'm going. But my guess is..." She trails off, peering closer at the frame. "My guess is a kind of... 'alignment' within the material. Is that right? Like... like it's been rearranged, but there's flows in there too, melded to it."

Maeve chuckles, shaking her head to clear an errant lock of hair from her eyes, "True. I guess..." She frowns once more, falling silent for a little as her gaze narrows, locked upon the actual ter'angreal. "The changes are... we can see it somehow, but they're tiny I think, not visible to sight. We seem to see into the material, we see the structure of it." Silence again, and then a tentative suggestion. "Earth... to find what we want to change? And the other weaves, to alter it?"

Jaice nods, her gaze going distant as the warm glow of Saidar surrounds her. A thin thread of Earth snakes before her, and she peers at the frame, then adds thicker lines of Spirit and Fire, all combining in an intricately delicate weave that has the narrow slice of Earth at its center. "Something... like that?" Holding the weave, she glances to you for confirmation. "It seems lacking, though."

Jaice contemplates the flow, and murmurs to herself, "Perhaps they need to be used separately."

Embracing Saidar as you do, Maeve is enveloped in the characteristic luminance, turning her attention to the flow woven by you. "Not so much Fire I think, it has to be subtle... Mostly Spirit, to change the nature of the wood." Frowning with concentration, she attempts a similar weave, a thread of Spirit and Earth interwoven at the center, and thin tendrils of Fire wrapped around it. "We can try separate too, but this... delicate flows, rather than strength at least."

Jaice nods slowly, abandoning her own weave as you experiment with yours. "Umm hmm. I like that one better." She copies it for herself, the weave coming easier now, and inspects the frame again. "Do you think perhaps that they'd use different flows depending on the purpose? I don't think this one used Air or Water... but I can't imagine they all wouldn't. Imagine having to design a different weave for each one." She lets out a slow breath, and narrows the flows a bit, until they seem more like the delicate weave of a finely embroidered tapestry rather than flows of the One Power. Drawing forth a small bit of wood, she eyes you cautiously. "Now to see if we can actually -change- it."

"I think... maybe you'd use different flows depending on the use? And depending on what flows will be needed to activate it." Eagerly Maeve spins onto this thread further, forgetting the actual task at hand for a moment. "Maybe Spirit for those which non-channelers can use, and for others too, and Fire if it uses Fire?" As you pull the pieces of wood out, she's reminded of the current riddle to solve, smiling a little lopsidedly as she too adjusts her weave, making it a lacework of fine tendrils of power. "Guess we have to try it to find out; I don't think it will jump up and bite us at least." Even so, it is cautiously that she brings her weave closer to the surface of the wood.

Perhaps it is more out of the fear that nothing will happen at all that Jaice is responding to, rather than a worry that the wood will react unexpectedly. She takes a breath, and as you begin intricate work on one end of the plank, her flows follow along beside, her gaze so intent on the task that she probably would not notice were a parade to march through the room behind her. Delicate nudges, intricate weavings, and both to your surprise... the internal fabric of the wood begins to change.

"Light..." Maeve breathes out, quietly as if she thinks sound could disturb your workings. "It _is_ changing." A little more power pulsates into her weaving, gently nudging at the internal structure of the wood, making pathways in the material. "It is a little like making... channels in the wood, which will lead the Power you fuel into it. But that is only part of it." She speaks softly, almost awed by the reaction, and hardly dares to breath to disturb your concentration. "Not quite the same as the frame... but it is something at least."

Jaice doesn't respond for several minutes, and it could be wondered if she even heard you, so intent is she on the minute changes she is making in the fabric of the wood. Finally her voice sounds, a light murmur, as though her mind is only fractionally attentive on her words and mostly on the task before her. "I don't know if 'channels' is it," Jaice says, frowning at the work you're both doing. "It feels... deeper. Like wood isn't really made of 'wood'. Like it's made of something smaller, little bits, and it's that that's taking the channelling." Her eyes brighten as she comes to the end of the weave, and she draws back, letting out a breath. "Light, Maeve! Burn me, I think we did it. Just a little... and nothing like that other; but we did it." Just the fact that she swore shows how deep Jaice's astonishment lies.

Nodding to your words, even that cautiously done so as not to upset anything, Maeve then slowly leans back against the couch once more, dispelling her weaving as well. "Yes, you're right I think. It is changed, all of it." Frowning, she seems to search for the right words, twining a stray lock of hair between slender fingers meanwhile. "It is something... else, not wood, and whatever it is you can channel into it, and it will change your weave, make something out of it. Like... like a mold, isn't it? And you pour Saidar into it." Shaking her head, in amazement and a touch of disbelief, but smiling as well she looks at you. "I guess we actually did. I don't know what we did, but we changed it. We really did."

"I don't even know what to think, Maeve," Jaice admits dazedly, staring at the now-transformed block that lies between you. "It doesn't even look quite the same, does it? Smaller, smoother. Rounder." She bends over it, studying it with an inquisitive gaze. "I don't suppose it does anything; we didn't give it much direction in the weave. But imagine!" As though struck by a loss for words, Jaice pauses, and stares over at you. "What do you imagine this means?"

Grey eyes follow the path your gaze takes, falling upon the changed piece of... no longer wood. As Maeve finally looks away from the little miracle, whatever it might be, she suddenly chuckles wryly, wrapping her arms about her knees where she sits. "Well, Jaice, either we've just discovered how to make weird sculptures with the One Power, or... we've made some sort of ter'angreal." The amused tone of her voice sort of fades with the last words, as if she cannot quite believe that still, not even after this.

Jaice, even with the proof sitting before her, stares disbelievingly at you. "What are the chances of that, that we two would discover the ability to do something nobody else can? There must be... another explanation. Two at once? And -us-? No."

"The chances? I'd say none, at least if you had asked me only minutes ago." Maeve shakes her head again, and she too resumes the staring at the little piece of well... something. "But we did _something_ Jaice. You can feel it, it is changed... it _feels_ like a ter'angreal." Silence upon that, as she reaches out for the object, touching it carefully as if it could yield more clues. "I don't know, but we can't ignore the possibility, can we?"

"Everything tells me that this is a ter'angreal," Jaice says bluntly, fingering the end of the changed object before her. "Like that frame is. Everything except my common sense. But..." She sighs, facing you with a ruefully tired stare. "The Wheel has been weaving in awfully strange ways lately. Awfully 'convenient' ways. The bad luck in Tar Valon... my being pulled here... Celebril's finding me in the alley... the frame being -here- of all places, where you are; I suppose one could say that this is no stranger than the others."

"It all seems to be connected. Had you not come here, I would never have found that old frame... or discovered this." Running her fingers through loose curls of hair, tucking them in behind her ears, Maeve sighs deeply as well, rather wearily as a matter of fact. "Light, what a tangle, and something tells me it isn't over." Rather dryly she adds, studying you with a thoughtful expression on her angular features. "I have a feeling that common sense won't be any use to us for quite a while."

Jaice gives a low chuckle, flopping on the carpet to lie on her back next to the old frame. "All right, I'll abandon it then. We can make ter'angreal. Whew. Get that into my head. What's next? Do we try to make a copy of this?" She jerks a thumb in the direction of the frame, looping one arm under her head to support it.

Smiling, if a little faintly still, there's so much to take in after all, so much to accept, Maeve considers what you just said. "Yes, let's say for the time being that we can make them. A good start." Almost a flicker of amusement over her face at that, as things start to sink in to her mind the excitment builds again, though her suggestions are serious and thought-over enough. "We need more control first, we need to be able to produce the results we set out to produce. More tests, of all possible and impossible weaves."

Jaice nods as she props herself on one arm, the dozens of long corn-row braids tied in her hair dangling over her shoulder. "Agreed. Although we know we can change the fine material of it, we don't know how to change it to do what we want, yes? This," and here she gestures to the block of non-wood, "...is randomly designed. Perhaps we can use our model there to figure out how to make it non-random, to have a purpose."

"I do wish we had the matching one. If they are exact matches, we know for sure that is how they have to be." Maeve frowns thoughtfully, "I think it needs to be exact, but confirmation would be good. Aaah well --" she continues with a shrug and a wry smile, "-- no use wishing for what we can't have." A little more somberly she speaks, with a faint look of worry creeping onto her face. "I do wonder how much time we have."

"It is a long trip," Jaice reminds you, "And I do not think they would be overrushed to get here. Providing my message got through at all, they do know I'm safe, and that is not likely to change. They may assume I'm coming back on my own already."

Fishing a small, slender blade with a non-descript hilt out of one boot -- she clearly didn't get rid off all her weapons -- Maeve starts to pick her nails, locks of auburn hair falling into her face as she nods to you. "Let us hope our luck remains for a little more, we will need some time to work on this. These --" here she gestures towards the changed piece of wood " -- results won't convince anyhow, but rather lead to trouble for you."

Pursing her lips thoughtfully, Jaice regards the indicated ter'angreal-wood. "I suspect I'd only be berated for endangering myself," she agrees. "But if we had one -- that we'd made -- then perhaps. Whatever happens, I am not leaving until we figure out how to do that. I am sure it will be much easier to learn to direct these flows together where we can bounce ideas off one another than trying to struggle along on our own."

Despite the serious subject, and the many things implicated by your discovery, Maeve chuckles softly. "Not to mention keep each other out of trouble when one of us gets _too_ eager. It is very easy to think your own idea a perfectly brilliant one." From the look on her face, she's very likely to fall in that trap herself, as you surely know as well. And of course, she can't avoid thinking even further. "I do wonder, " she tentatively begins after a moment or two of silence, "If we can only copy, or if we can truly learn to create them as well?" A fainly sheepish grin almost, as soon as she has said that. "I guess we ought to take one thing at a time though."

Jaice lets out a breath at that thought, her brows arching. "I can't see why not," she says, though there's doubt lingering in those clear blue eyes. "Though it would be terribly difficult. We have enough trouble following the tiny patterns of this, let alone trying to make up some of our own. Perhaps there are general 'rules' that you follow to make them; commonalities, if you catch my meaning."

Closing her eyes for a little, and leaning back heavily against the couch, Maeve responds with a thoughtful 'Mmm' to begin with. "Light, all that concentrating nearly gave me a nasty headache, finely detailed channeling can be so tiring." Relaxing, she tilts her head against the cushioned seats behind her, a few moments of contemplative silence following. "If we had many ter'angreal to study, perhaps we could find the 'rules' somehow."

"I doubt a large collection of ter'angreal would be easy to find," Jaice points out dryly. "Short of those in the Tower basement."

A quiet snort, and a little sigh upon that. "Too true. Means you might have a shot at it at least, provided what we make, if we make anything, will impress the Aes Sedai enough. I suppose, " she adds in a dryly humourous tone, "I could always try to get myself an invitation to the Stone."

Jaice frowns at the floor, her patterned hands placed on slender hips in a stubborn gesture. "If they find out you can do it," she says thoughtfully, "They might want you back. But even if you say no; or even if they don't, you might be able to go just to study ter'angreal." Those blue eyes flick to you again, her brows arching. "It is possible, given how rare we both know this to be. Light knows the Amyrlin would jump at the chance to have more ter'angreal made."

"If, might... maybe." Maeve opens her eyes again, looking at you once again, her expression showing the unease of yesterday again. "You know what the feelings are towards anyone not part of the Tower. I cannot imagine they'd let me loose there... unchained so to speak." A slight smile, an attempt to chase the shadows away. "Maybe once you are raised, but you know that it is even frowned upon for a full Sister to have a ter'angreal in her possession, if ever so briefly."

Jaice snorts softly, that stubborn look coming her her eyes again. "Well they'd better get used to it. This is an unusual circumstance, Maeve. What ter'angreal the Tower has now is all they have, and all they'll ever have, excepting someone finding a trove of them somewhere. They're almost as rare as sa'angreal and angreal, and you know as well as I do they'd kill to have the ability back to make them. I intend to study this as best I can, and it'd hardly be in their best interests to stop me. Or you."

Maeve does smile genuinely at that, there's even a glimmer of silvery mischief in her eyes. "Well, seeing that you've made your mind up so firmly, I guess I better not object." Picking up the dagger she put aside a little while ago, she starts to toy idly with the keen and slender blade, twirling it between her fingers. "We'll see what comes of this. Change, that much is sure." Grey eyes stray from you, falling upon the stairway to the second floor, and a shadow seems to drift across her face again. "I guess I'll have to tell Diar soon, if he ever gets back from his.... hunting."

Jaice settles beside you, the tension slipping from her features as her pale gaze studies you quietly. "How do you think he'll react?"

"To our discovery?" Maeve snorts, trying to appear unaffected, for now. "He will not believe it at first, then make light of it. He does that with things he can't understand, because they make him uneasy. To what it could possibly lead to?" Silence there, for a time, and her expression darkens even further, her worries easily spotted in her clouded-over gaze. "If I go back there, for whatever reason... He will most certainly remain in Cairhien." That doesn't seem to have been what she intended to say, not quite, though she leaves it at that.

"If you are not there long," Jaice says quietly, "Or travelled between, would he accept you back? Or do you not mind his staying?" By her gaze it's obvious she knows you mind a great deal, but her expression remains carefully schooled.

"As long as all I do is... leave him in peace now and then, he won't mind too much. He --" Maeve frowns, shrugging as if to clear an unwelcome thought out of her mind, and a burden off her shoulders, and she does not fill that cut off sentence in. "He will disapprove of it, because he will think of it as the Tower using me, but he won't mind my absence too much." From her tone of voice it seems she believes he couldn't, in fact, care less.

"Are you sure?" Jaice frowns as her attention goes to the stairs above, and she shakes her head, only slightly. "I get the sense that he acts that way, that he makes a show of not caring about anything; but he has stuck by you a long time. I do not believe it would be easy for him just to fluff you off."

Maeve smiles, faintly and in a wry yet humorless way. "It's complicated, but much of it comes down to... obligations. I suppose that he still feels a bit responsible, and after I had to leave the Tower, he more or less had to put up with me." Staring at some point in the distance, she falls silent for a little, and when she does speak again she tries to sound more lighthearted about the whole matter. "He does care I suppose, just in his way. But if I found something else to do, he wouldn't step in my way and try to keep me here."

Jaice is quiet for a time, perhaps running your words through her mind, but when she speaks she seems even faintly amused. "Is that such a bad thing? Perhaps that indicates more of a respect for you than a lack of caring."

Looking over at the stairway once again, Maeve smiles wryly at your suggestion, pondering it for a little before giving her answer. "Perhaps so. I hadn't thought of it that way because..." Almost as if at a loss for words, unusual for her, she pauses, turning around to thoughtfully study you again. "Maybe because I want it to be more than... 'just' respect. I'd feel better if he did forbid me to leave, no matter how weird that might sound."

Jaice's lips curve just slightly, an understanding smile. "He doesn't seem terribly... demonstrative. Has he ever been different from what he seems now?"

At that, Maeve actually laughs softly, shaking her head with an almost amused look on her face, though one tinged with a bit of wistful regret. "He hasn't Jaice, not while I've known him at least. Oh, there are occasions... but Diar is Diar." With a bit of an annoyed snort, in the middle of all these other emotions, she adds rather dryly. "I've more or less given up on ever changing him. It's even less likely than us discovering how to make ter'angreal."

Jaice shakes her head, letting out a sigh. "As much as it might be nice, we cannot read minds; I suppose if he will not tell you what he's thinking of all this -- or of you -- or of a possible trip to Tar Valon, then perhaps it's best just to do what -you- think is right."

"Maybe I will do just that, Jaice, maybe I will." The reply comes after more silence, and more staring at the wall opposite of you, though Maeve does smile, if a little faintly, as she seems to at least partially have made her mind up. "Not that I know what I think is right at the moment, " she adds with a slight shrug, "But... I've got a while. Plenty of work to do, and--" a pause too with a nod of her head to indicate the pile of invitations at the door, "--more work, if of a different kind."