OOC: this occurs sometime just after the "From the Fire" thread. :) Just something my chara promised Dawnrider's... so it's long before "Hunters of the Damned," just so you know. How long before? I was still the only Green Sitter and the Mistress of Novices as well, I believe. *cackle* So, that's where the references come from in all this.

IC:

The Hall was a large, circular room within the stone edifice of the Tower. The walls were arched with rows of seats and desks made of sung wood in two sections to the left and right of the front entrance. They were in a single row on the floor, and the low desk in front of each chair went to the floor in front with a panel. Three seats graced each section devoted to each Ajah. As if that weren't enough, however, the seats were adequately sized for the Sitters, comfortable, and upholstered with velvet fabrics in each Ajah's hue.

The lines of demarcation were clear in these things, and though each seat was the same as the one before it physically, the intricate network of pecking orders within the Tower itself graced the area in subtle ways. Inkblots here showed where someone had been sitting and scribing for years on end, since Sitters were often in their positions for a very long time. Worn floors there marked where lower-ranked Sitters of an Ajah had tapped or slowly twisted their feet beneath the cover of the desk in front of them in frustration or anxiety. One could generally tell where the senior Sitter of each Ajah sat by virtue of the lack of too many marks. The one with most authority, even if they were supposedly all equals, in the Ajah had no room for fidgets. She had others to take notes for her.

But she wasn't necessarily the mysterious Ajah Head. That might have been someone outside the Hall altogether.

The subtleties of Daes Daemar warred with the elegance that the Tower was known for. A large rolled-out carpet of white fringed with the seven Ajah colours stretched from the doorway to a large raised dais at the head of the room. The flame of Tar Valon was picked out in silver thread repeatedly from top to bottom of the carpet, as well. On the dais resided a large throne-like seat, but its desk was taller and more elegant than those the Sitters had. Behind the Mother's throne, ornate as it was, hung a banner on the wall of the Tower, the Flame once more on the borders of the tapestry, and the seven coloured fringe on it as well.

The walls had different sections of tapestries, but there was one of a member of each Ajah at her tasks. In between each one of the seven tapestries resided a holder for a torch or brazier, and on the flat ceiling resided a chandelier of crystal and white candles all alight. It was bright enough to light the entire room admirably with a clear white-hued light so that glowing orbs were far from needed. No windows graced the room. Such would have been unthinkable this far inside the Tower itself.

The desks resided around a lowered section in the middle of the room. They were easily gotten to from the door, and in fact had more than enough space between the fron of each desk and the edge of the depression so that walking was no chore if one needed to get to a farther section. However, two steps lead down from the door along the path the white carpet took, and it was as circular as the rest of the room. Three steps led up to the Amrylin's seat, but instead of a sharp blocky step up on the sides, it almost unnoticeably curved up after the last sections of Sitter's desks. One would, at first glance, look at the Sitter's sections from the door and wonder how the Mother's seat was so much higher when there appeared to be no evidence of an increase in height. From the section in the middle of the floor, the Sitter's were quite higher, and the Mother was a mountain of intimidation.

They wouldn't stand on the white carpet, however. Two Accepted would roll the carpet out just before the Mother entered, and then roll it back up once she had come to her seat. After they had shut the door and gone, wards on eavesdropping would be placed for the duration of the Hall's meeting and it would begin. No, the one in the depression would stand on the mosaic of the flame symbol of the Aes Sedai banded all around with the Ajah hues. They stood before the Tower, within the Tower, and on the Tower itself within the Hall.

It was something that Rio could see the sense of even as she stood there serenely. Her posture was relaxed, her thumbs hooked into her swordbelt, and her ageless face quite without expression or emotion. The Sitters were long used to seeing her walk into their meetings armed, and though they had raised a fuss about it, she had soothed them by making it peace-bound. Except for now, at least. The longsword sat on her section of the Green Sitters' desk, as it was only proper to come in front of the Hall unarmed and open.

Relatively, at least.

Out of the Green section as she was, Rio had left the entire thing vacant. Most of the Hall was still vacant, in truth, with at least one seat open for each Ajah, and two open at a great many of them. This was, of course, what the entire meeting was about.

"They are children still." Sabryna's voice echoed slightly, vehement and yet serene. A few of the other Sitters nodded sagely at that, almost frowning and yet not quite allowing for it to grace their features.

Rio shook her head slowly. "We have little choice. As it is, by bringing this issue forth to you for the Mother's perusal and the Hall's vote, I have literally negated my own Ajah's contribution to the voting itself. In all fairness, where is the wisdom in doing this? Had I suggested that we continue as we are at present, and the voting needed one vote to be placed into effect, the Green Ajah could not sway the vote either way. It would have been the same for each of your Ajahs." She motioned with one heavily scarred and calloused hand. "For any subject, I might add. Even where to direct the Tower funds."

Eydrith's voice was crisp and yet thoughtful. "But is it wise to allow Sisters only newly Raised to the shawl to have such important positions?"

"There is a reason we choose Sitters after a certain age," Shel'aura murmured with a nod of agreement towards the Yellow Sitter.

Rio's thumb moved back to her swordbelt. "Then we must guide them. None of us can say that we were never at their level of inexperience, and yet we are at our present levels regardless. So long as the elder Sitters remain, they will be the senior members of the group." She looked faintly wry at her own words. "Sitters are equal, but we mustn't forget that our first duties are to the Tower's benefit, and that means guiding our younger members in the ways of the Tower."

They had already been arguing--or, rather, debating since Aes Sedai simply didn't shout at each other much--on the topic for most of the morning, each Sitter stepping forth to bring out the pros and cons of each. It was an aspect of the Greys that each of them had to develop and foster, in truth. Jaimyn had simply excelled at it, of course.

"That sounds oddly as if you're suggesting we manipulate the new Sitters," Jaimyn nodded with an open frown.

Rio turned and pointed at the Brown section of the Hall. All three seats stood as bare as unfleshed bones and were just as stark to the eye. "We have no choice," Rio calmly stated. "We must either choose the unready and guide them, or continue as we are, not fully represented and therefore weak in a time where we should not be weak."

She shook her head and held up a hand to forestall the beginning grumbles. "There are older members within each Ajah. If they're willing or able to take up the Sitterships, then ask them first if it makes you feel any better. But our numbers are not what they used to be, and as such we have to either choose those few who remain or else those who have newly come."

"You sound as if you fully believe in this, Daughter," the Mother, Qirien, stated gently from her dais.

Rio turned and looked up at the other woman. "I do, Mother, and even if the Hall votes this down, I will go through with it for my Ajah," she evenly replied.

Squawks of outrage echoed through the Hall as some of the Sitters took a bit of offense at her words and they began their protest instantly about the unseemly behaviour. Qirien, however, raised her hand and silence fell after a few moments, though the fuming atmosphere remained. "Bold words, Daughter." It was both a warning and, unless Rio was mistaken, a compliment.

Rio, for her part, nodded once slowly. "If they are, then I'm unrepentant of them. I mean to have Sitters to sit with me in this Hall so that my Ajah is represented effectively." She shrugged almost apologetically. "And this is from one who has been a dictator of her Ajah since she took the Sittership."

Qirien watched her for a long moment, then lifted her gavel and pounded once. The sound was an audible crack on the tension of the room. "We will vote. The discussion is ended," she announced firmly as she laid the gavel aside.

Rio stood on the Flame and hoped she wasn't about to burn eternally for her suggestion.

*~*~*~*~*

"Did they say when they would arrive?" Rio asked the Novice as she perused the note in her hands.

The white-clad girl shook her head a bit. "No, Aes Sedai," she murmured. "It came by pigeon."

Of course, Rio sighed internally. Your weariness is showing, dolt. "Thank you, child," she murmured, turning away. "You may go."

The Novice did so with a deep curtsy, shutting the door to Rio's study softly behind her. Rio tapped the note on her palm slowly as she frowned pensively. Ogier were not known for leaving their stedding for long periods, if at all, but Rio had requested something of them. She hadn't been certain whether or not she would be traveling to them, or they would travel to her, but the letter--all four small pages of it--had assured her that Jarim son of Galhee son of Malatai had wanted to peruse the Library of the Tower anyway and would bring her object with them.

Most of the letter had dealt with how the present had been made, in true long-winded Ogier style. They have it to me, at least, she smiled a bit. A year after I asked for it, mind, but they have it to me. I did ask them to be swift, though. A year is swift for an Ogier, and hoping for faster than that was quite silly.

She slipped the note in one of her drawers and sat down to wait patiently. They had said he would be there that day, and she knew enough to know that even though Ogier might take a great deal of time with things, they would hold to a promise when given.

*~*~*~*~*

She closed the door behind the Novice as the girl led the stooped figure of Jarim out towards the Library with wide eyes. In her hand resided a missive to Dawnrider Gaidin asking him to attend her as she had something to give to him. She kept it secret and smiled as she turned around to face the newly-wrapped object residing on her desk. It stretched quite some way across it, long as it was, and as she came near it, she simply stroked one covered side of it with her fingertips. "I do hope you enjoy this," she murmured to his absent figure.