Sarinda din Rovan - Biography and Origin Story

You are invited to post your character bio's here.
Sarinda
Posts: 687
Joined: Wed Jan 12, 2022 3:10 pm
Location: Kalamazoo, MI

Sarinda din Rovan - Biography and Origin Story

Post by Sarinda » Sat Jun 25, 2022 3:44 pm

Character Biography

General Information:
Full name: Sarinda din Rovan
Age: Not publicly known; currently over 360 years old
Gender: Female
Preferred Pronouns: She/Her
Nationality: Atha'an Miere (Sea Folk), Clan Shodein
Place of Birth: At sea, off the coast of Aile Somera
Current Residence: The White Tower, Tar Valon
Clan: Red Ajah
Title: Aes Sedai, Red Ajah Sitter
Marital Status: Never married
Siblings: None
Children: None


Physical Description:
This Sea Folk woman is poised and graceful. She has deep chocolate skin, and tattoos adorn her hands. Black, tightly coiled hair flows to her middle back. Three gold earrings are pierced into each ear. Her face bears an ageless quality.

Height/Weight: Your height is 5 feet, 6 inches, and you weigh 130.0 lbs.


Background:
Sarinda was born at sea off the coast of the Aisle Somera among her people, the Atha'an Miere. As a youth, she served aboard the Wave Chaser, a raker under the command of her mother and Sailmistress Nalene din Tsoran White Star, and the wise counsel of her father Talam din Rovan Wild Wave, her Cargomaster. Although born to a family of station, Sarinda began like all her kin do as a simple deckhand. However, in her adolescence she became an apprentice to Relanna din Nestille Full Tide, the vessel's Windfinder. Her training required exacting discipline, demanding labor, and critical thinking.

There was a young man, another deckhand, by the name of Travor din Selen who fancied Sarinda, although she saw him as a friend. They were close, and she was affectionate to him and valued his kinship. But he began to...change over time, growing odd, at times paranoid and bordering on delusional. She grew worried about him but did not know what to think. One day, when there was barely a cloud in the sky and no wind to be felt, Sarinda saw Travor channel by conjuring a gust of wind. She was shocked, but in a moment of weakness, she did not say anything to either her mother or her mentor, allowing her affection for him to cloud her judgment.

Two months later, their ship encountered a freak storm that Relanna had not predicted, and Sarinda watched Travor, enraptured with the One Power, call lightning from the sky and strike dead another deckhand on our ship, the woman Nylene din Torem, one of Sarinda's rivals. Sarinda's inaction resulted in the death of another, and although she did not channel the flows, this lesson was seared into her mind: Men who weave the Power are dangerous, and even the most kind and well-intentioned of them can endanger innocent lives. The last she saw of Travor, he had accepted a shameful fate among their people by choosing to be thrown ashore on a barren island with no provisions or equipment.

The Pattern was not done with Sarinda. A few years later, she was among the shorebound with her father on the docks of Tanchico when an invading Seanchan navy established a blockade and assaulted the city, and their infamous damane wrought havoc on the ships docked in the bay. Sarinda watched her father die at the hands of another woman channeling saidar, and although she did not see what became of her mother or her Windfinder mentor, she assumed them dead or captive, too.

Sarinda managed to flee and traveled southeast as a refugee to the nation of Illian, where a twist of the Pattern led her to cross paths with an Aes Sedai of the Gray Ajah serving as a diplomatic advisor to King Stepaneos den Balgar. She recognized Sarinda's talent and quickly sent her north to the White Tower, where she signed my name into the Book of Novices.

In her time in the White Tower, Sarinda learned that she possessed a Talent in Weaving the Winds, referred to as Cloud Dancing among the shorebound. She found that she was adept at weaves of Air and Water, and learned to summon hurricane force winds or lightning as needed to fight back against the Father of Storms and his Shadowspawn. With further training, however, she discovered that she also had an unusual strength in Fire, a strength that Relanna had not been able to foster due to her own weakness in the Power.

Because of Sarinda's history and personality, she is passionate about learning to protect herself and others from the dangers of those who would misuse the One Power and threaten another Breaking of the World. She views herself as a "warrior scholar" and values the pursuit of knowledge for the purpose of strategic application. She similarly respects the missions of the Gray Ajah who first discovered her, as well as the Brown Ajah, who mentored her in the skills of field research. Sarinda's strengths include being a quick learner, dedicated to correcting mistakes swiftly and overcoming weakness, with a passion for sharing that knowledge among the other initiates of the White Tower so that they may all grow from the experience.


Childhood Relationships:
Nalene din Tsoran White Star: Mother of Sarinda and Sailmistress of the Wave Chaser, the raker on which Sarinda was raised. Generally, Nalene had a very pleasant, warm disposition. She was hard-working, disciplined, and strict as necessary, but friendly. She laughed often, and she was very happily married to Talam din Rovan Wild Wave, Sarinda's father. However, when she was disobeyed or when something serious upset her, she had a fierce temper to match any man's. Presumedly killed during the Seanchan raid on Tanchico; otherwise, she would be long since passed away due to old age.

Talam din Rovan Wild Wave: Sarinda's father, and Cargomaster of the Wave Chaser. Talam was as rough and hard as Nalene was gentle and sympathetic. He demanded respect from those beneath him, and gave it only to those whom he believed deserve it. It took Nalene's soft but strong spirit to crack his shell, and he loved her as much as he loved the sea. Talam kept a tight reign on the ship, and he expected just as much obedience from Sarinda growing up as he did the other crew members: showing family favoritism in public was a serious crime among the Atha'an Miere. Sarinda spent most of her childhood working to please her father, who was only a little easier on her than the others, mostly because she reminded him of her mother. Killed during a Seanchan raid on Tanchico.

Relanna din Nestille Full Tide: Windfinder of the Wave Chaser, and Sarinda's mentor until she was sent away to the White Tower. Like Sarinda, Relanna had the ability to channel the One Power, although to a much lesser degree; if she had gone to the Tower herself, she would likely have gained the banded hem of the Accepted, but never the shawl. Still, Relanna had the ability to Weave the Winds - a Talent that the shorebound refer to as Cloud Dancing - and she recognized the Talent in Sarinda, too. Relanna discovered the spark in Sarinda around the time that it began to manifest in her, and her basic teaching helped ensure that Sarinda was not forced to endure the experience alone. As a mentor, Relanna was demanding, forcing Sarinda to work hard as she progressed as a Windfinder's apprentice. However, Relanna was always encouraging and sympathetic towards Sarinda, partially because she was secretly impressed with the extent of Sarinda's potential. Her whereabouts and status are currently unknown; she is presumed dead during the Seanchan invasion of Tanchico, but it is possible that she was collared as a damane and theoretically could still be alive today.

Elnora din Garon: Sarinda's best friend growing up. Elnora was like a sister to Sarinda. She was friendly, optimistic, and determined to one day become Sailmistress of her own ship. Elnora was small for a Sea Folk, even smaller than Sarinda, so she was often teased because of her size, but it only made her more determined to prove her worth on the ship. Presumedly killed during the Seanchan raid on Tanchico; otherwise, she would be long since passed away due to old age.

Travor din Selen: The relationship between Travor and Sarinda was complicated. They were friends growing up, to an extent, but Sarinda did not think much more of him than any other of the boys on the Wave Chaser. Travor, though, was fond of her since he was a small boy, and vowed to marry her one day. As a young man, Travor sought to impress her and gain her favor, which Sarinda never publicly acknowledged. She was sometimes annoyed by his determination and antics, seeing him as brash and foolish, but she did have feelings for him. Travor was equally determined in his goal to become a Cargomaster on his own Sea Folk vessel one day, which impressed Sarinda. She never told anyone else but Elnora, her closest friend, but she thought she loved him. She never had the chance to admit it before his ability to channel surfaced. Sarinda still thinks about him sometimes, and wonders what life might have been like for them if the Pattern had been kinder to him. Last seen left abandoned without food, clothing, or shelter on a barren island in the Aryth Ocean that Sarinda now knows could very well be the infamous "Isle of Mad Men." Presumedly long dead, but as a channeler he could theoretically still be alive today, if the taint or something more sinister did not claim his life.

Nylene din Torem: The one Sea Folk girl on the Wave Chaser whom Sarinda despised. For some reason, Nylene and Sarinda never got along, ever since the two were older children. Sarinda thought that Nylene was incorrigible, rude, and lazy; Nylene thought that Sarinda was stupid, envious, and manipulative. Worse, Nylene often accused Sarinda of receiving favoritism from her parents because of their rank. These grave accusations often caused Talam to work Sarinda even harder, which strained her relationship with her father as much as it filled Nylene with delight. Nylene herself harbored ambitions to become a Sailmistress one day. Killed by Travor din Selen when he wove the One Power and struck her dead with a bolt of lightning. Sarinda still harbors some personal guilt over her failure to report or stop Travor before this incident, although this has lessened since receiving mentorship under the Red Ajah.


Significant Lifetime Events:
Written into the Novice book:
IC: 23rd day of the month of Tammaz, year 964
OOC: January 24, 2013

Attended Novice Orientation:
IC: 16th day of the month of Jumara, year 965
OOC: January 27, 2013

Advancement to Wearied Novice:
IC: 10th day of the month of Nesan, year 966
OOC: February 10, 2013

Completion of the Arches to Gain Acceptance:
IC: 1st day of the month of Shaldine, year 968
OOC: February 24, 2013

(Extended absence until January 1, 2022)

Advancement to Tower Accepted:
IC: 17th day of the month of Tammaz, year 1437
OOC: January 28, 2022

Started Apprenticeship with the Red Ajah (Talasia Sedai):
IC: 5th day of the month of Taisham, year 1438
OOC: January 30, 2022

Raised to the Shawl:
IC: 11th day of the month of Taisham, year 1455
OOC: May 18, 2022

Advancement to Elder Sister:
IC: 4th day of the month of Taisham, year 1460
OOC: June 18, 2022

Began first term in the Hall of the Tower:
IC: 21st day of the month of Danu, year 1460.
OOC: June 24, 2022

Advancement to Honored Sister (Master):
IC: 21st day of the month of Aine, year 1487.
OOC: December 5, 2022
Last edited by Sarinda on Tue Feb 28, 2023 8:24 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Sarinda
Posts: 687
Joined: Wed Jan 12, 2022 3:10 pm
Location: Kalamazoo, MI

Re: Sarinda din Rovan - Biography and Origin Story

Post by Sarinda » Mon Jun 27, 2022 12:40 am

Origin Story: “To Ride Lightning”

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose above the great Aryth Ocean. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.

Whipping past islands with harsh crags, over archipelagos and atolls, the wind blew east. Where it blew, the water churned and waves crashed, sending sea spray into the air. The wind crashed towards land, nearing the mouth of the River Andahar, where three-masted Sea Folk skimmers and rakers cut like blades swiftly through the water. The wind lessened as it headed inland, lessened but never died, towards the nation of Tarabon, by the port city of Tanchico. It whistled past bare-chested men, unloading fish and trade from far-off lands, and women wearing thin, clinging gowns with transparent veils draped across their faces.

Sarinda’s dark silk cloak rippled in the wind, and she reflexively hugged it closer against her ebony skin as she stepped off the gangway of the Wave Chaser onto the docks below. Summer had recently arrived, but the day felt unseasonably cool for her tastes. She looked up at the sky and frowned at the dark gray clouds blocking the sun’s rays. “A storm will come today,” she predicted. There was an ominous feel to the wind that nagged at her, and her eyebrows furrowed.

Sarinda walked in step with her father, a boulder of a man with hard muscles and a harder stare. Talam din Rovan Wild Wave ignored the wind altogether, stubbornly moving onward with discipline and purpose. Still, he gave a sidelong glance at her and harrumphed in irritation. He carried numerous quality fur pelts over his shoulder and a small chest in the crook of his arm, which she knew held exotic Tairen spices that were worth more than their weight in gold. “If it pleases the Light,” Talam said in his usual rough voice, “it will hold off long enough for us to make trade here. The Light shine on us here, and we can secure olive oil and these fringed rugs that the Taraboners are known for, and we will make a sizeable profit in Falme, if not Bandar Eban.” Talam walked briskly ahead, and as he did, the throng of people flowed and parted before him. Her father had been known to nearly bowl someone over once.

“If it pleases the Light, Cargomaster,” Sarinda inquired hesitantly, her voice breathy as she hurried to keep up, “what is my role in this trade?” She knew that she risked breaking of custom if she pressed him too hard in public; it would be improper to question the actions of a man at his station, no matter whether he was her father of the blood or not.

Talam arched a thin eyebrow and gave a stern look, but he slowed his pace just enough for Sarinda to catch up with him. “Your Sailmistress” -- that would be Nalene din Tsoran White Star, her mother of the blood -- “has instructed me to take you, if it pleases the Light, so that you can observe and learn more about matters of trade and customs in these lands. If it pleases the Light, she believes it may broaden your perspective, and complement the training you are receiving from our Windfinder.”

The two Sea Folk stepped aside as a large draft horse trotted by, pulling a wagon filled with fresh fish, unloaded from a nearby ship owned by the shorebound. Sarinda wrinkled her nose, and not only from the smell of the fish. She despised horses, and gave this one a wide berth. The Light shine on her that she would never need to ride one of these beasts. She did not trust them. Sarinda looked back towards the docks, feeling a longing to run back to the Wave Chaser; being on land was agony. She looked ahead, towards the fortresses surrounding the harbor. They were on the Calpene Peninsula, the southernmost of the three jutting into the harbor and the closest to the bay. “If it pleases the Light, Cargomaster, are we heading to the King’s Circle?” She nodded to the large assembly arena among the buildings just north across the channel to the nearest peninsula. It was the largest of the three.

“No,” Talam replied dismissively, instead waving her on as he moved towards a smaller arena on the peninsula before them. “The Great Circle might be the smallest of the three,” he explained, “but it can still hold thousands of people, many of whom will offer a premium price for the goods we have in Wave Chaser’s cargo hold.”

Sarinda replied with a skeptical expression, but she held her tongue. She shivered as another cool breeze blew towards the shore with a whistling howl. She looked up at the clouds, frowning once more. At that moment, she blinked in surprise as she saw the shape of a large bird flit between the clouds and disappear as fast as she had seen it. Only, the bird was a pale grayish color, and at this distance, it would have to be extremely large. She had never heard of such a creature that would fit its description. Had her eyes deceived her?

Before she could ask her father about what she had seen -- Talam had a surprising amount of knowledge about the fauna of the lands where they traveled, more than many of the shorebound -- Sarinda heard murmurs and then gasps behind her. She quickly turned around, and her breath caught in her throat. “By my father’s heart,” she murmured.

Out at sea, a thick and ominous fog rolled towards the shore, like a wall of smoke creeping along the water’s surface. The wind howled again, but she knew this was no ordinary storm; she did not need her Windfinder training to know that much. “If it pleases the Light, all will be well,” she intoned like a prayer. “All will be well, and all manner of things will be well, if it pleases the Light.”

“Perhaps we should seek cover,” Talam suggested, placing a hand protectively on Sarinda’s shoulder, but he did not move, eyes still transfixed on the fog.

The fog rolled into the bay, and onlookers around her began to rush towards cover from the nearby buildings. One woman reached down reassuringly patted her crying child. “It will be alright, yes? No need for tears.” The young girl, no more than three or four years of age, still cried and cling to her mother’s skirts for comfort. The woman hushed her child and scooped her up, a worried look on her face as she made her way towards the Great Circle.

Suddenly, the bows of three greatships cut their way like a knife out of the wall of fog. Sarinda gasped. She had never seen ships of this kind before. They were three-masted, like a raker or a skimmer, but unlike any Atha’an Miere ship she had seen, they had ribbed sails that were sharply angled rather than square, bloodred in color. The fog dissipated almost instantly as they came visible, as if melting away in a scorching sun. An entire fleet of greatships came into view out at sea, fanned out in a line, already forming a blockade around the bay. The three greatships already in the bay slowed as they turned to face a line of ships moored to the docks. Including the Wave Chaser.

On the dock of the lead greatship, a line of women emerged from its hold, standing in pairs. Among each pair, one wore an ankle-length dark blue dress with crimson panels and silver forks of lightning bolts. Each such woman wore a silvery bracelet, connected to a chain that ended in a collar around another woman standing beside her, like a leashed dog. She had never seen anything like it.

Sarinda felt a terrible pang in her chest, and tingles across her skin, as the water began to churn.

She had only learned the basics from Relanna so far on how to embrace and channel the One Power, enough that she was beginning to sense saidar being channeled but could not see the flows like her mentor assured her she soon would. But she knew beyond a doubt that somehow, these leashed women were all channelers, all weaving the Power in concert to deadly effect.

Ships groaned, timber snapping, as a whirlpool erupted in the bay. Smaller boats capsized and were pulled under in moments. Larger boats wobbled as their decks flooded, fighting helplessly against the force of nature to stay afloat, but they, too, had their hulls breached from the force of the whirlpool assault. She distantly heard men screaming.

More channeling. Sarinda watched with horror as flames erupted in the air like an Illuminator’s nightflower, fanning across the unlucky ships still floating intact in the bay.

Talam threw his entire armload of pelts to the floor, tossing the Tairen spice chest without so much as a second glance to the pile of dried herbs that scattered in the wind. “By the nine winds and Stormbringer’s beard,” he cursed. “Nalene!” He ran like the wind itself, feet pounding on the docks as he sprinted back to the Wave Chaser. “Nalene!”

Sarinda found herself running after her father, but she knew in her heart that they were too late. She wailed as flames roared along Wave Chaser’s sails and charred the deck. Tears streamed down her face as the water roiled, splashing over the raker and sending men and women, her friends and family, sprawling into the bay. Others dove off the Wave Chaser as he groaned, whined, and then snapped. Water rushed into him, and he began to slowly overturn in the water. Talam fell to his knees, voice hoarse from yelling in anguish, and he beat at his chest with a fist as tears ran down his face.

Something snapped within Sarinda. Her screams, first fueled by sorrow, now turned to rage. Turning her gaze towards the greatship and the leashed women, she instinctively surrendered herself to saidar. A torrent of power, the One Power, flooded into her, and in that moment, she found clarity.

She began to Weave the Winds.

Relanna had told Sarinda that her Talent to control the weather was unusually strong, even among the Atha’an Miere, and that some day when she was fully trained, she had the potential to rise to the station of a Windfinder to a Wavemistress, perhaps even the Mistress of the Ships herself. Sarinda was not yet fully trained, but what she lacked in discipline today, she made up with resolve in spades.

Sarinda wove cables of Air and Water, thicker and thicker, even larger in size than the rigging used for the sails on her mother’s raker that was already sinking into Tanchico Bay. Drawing more deeply from the True Source, she directed the cables with a cry into the heavens. She swirled the flows around each other, creating her own cyclone of Air and Water, and as she did, the clouds rumbled and turned gray, then black as night, blotting out the sun. Through the center of her swirling weaves, she wove a single ribbon of Fire.

The women must have been able to sense her channeling, even at that distance. One wearing a silver leash around her neck turned and pointed towards the docks, shouting something that Sarinda could not make out.

The woman did not realize that she was already dead.

The hairs on Sarinda’s arms stood on end, and she felt a physical tingling throughout her body as the air suddenly crackled and hummed. She did not flinch as a bolt of lightning struck the woman dead on, dropping her sizzling corpse to the greatship’s deck. Thunder roared as two more flashes of lightning struck, wreaking havoc on the ship and sending more of the women flying. Sarinda channeled even more Air, and a violent storm erupted, fierce winds blowing across the greatship and hurling dozens of soldiers into the bay. Only then did she notice the men were wearing helmets that looked like monstrous insects’ heads, as if they were peering through some beast’s mandibles. She shivered.

Sarinda felt someone channeling. Another bolt of lightning struck down at the ship, but she frowned as it stopped without warning in the middle of the sky, as if striking an invisible dome now shielding the ship. One of the women wearing the lightning-panel dress lifted her hand, and a leashed woman turned her attention towards the decks again. Sarinda gasped and scrambled backwards, eyes wide with panic. Saidar slipped away in her fear, leaving her utterly defenseless as the ground began to erupt in a spray of wood, earth, and fire. Just as the weave neared her, Talam leapt and barreled her over, and she gasped in pain as he flung her to the ground, yelling her name.

Her vision flooded with darkness as her consciousness slipped away.

-=+**+=- -=+**+=- -=+**+=- -=+**+=- -=+**+=-

Sarinda stirred with a groan.

She thought she was dead, at first. She coughed feebly and tried to move, but she felt crushing weight across her entire body. She was entombed in debris made of wood, paving brick, and dirt. Screams and weeping still echoed from somewhere, and she thought she distantly heard steel clashing on steel. An alarm was finally sounding, bells ringing in the distance, for all the good it would do. She was unsure how long she had lost consciousness.

Not daring to touch the Source or channel, not knowing how many more of those strange leashed women might still be alive or nearby, Sarinda strained and finally pulled her arms and shoulders out from the wreckage enough to free her legs one at a time. Miraculously, none of her bones seemed broken, and although she had a few gashes along her forearms and face, none felt serious.

Sarinda moved to push a final piece of debris out of the way so that she could stand up, but as her hands touched something warm, she froze, her heart sinking.

Sarinda rolled over the body and prayed that she was wrong, but her plea went unanswered. Talam’s eyes stared up at the cloudy sky, unblinking in death. Shards of wood the length of her arm had pierced his ribcage, and his skull was sunken from a blow to his head.

Sarinda turned away from the corpse and began to sob as bile rose up her throat, and she retched, emptying her stomach onto the street. Unbidden images of her father flashed through her mind, memories of him teaching her how to swim, of being thrown giggling into the air and being caught in his strong arms. She thought of her mother, a brave and peerless soul, and her brilliant mentor Relanna, both of whom were very likely killed or captured. She wept, losing all sense of time, as the weight of her grief threatened to drown her like a tidal wave.

The sound of footsteps fastly approaching jarred Sarinda back to the present moment, and she forced herself to choke back her tears. But when she peeked out from behind a cracked open crate, she was relieved to see no soldier or leashed woman, but a single horse, who neighed as it tried to navigate the debris. It pranced away for a moment as she quietly stood up, snorting nervously, but it settled quickly and stood still, watching her with large glassy eyes.

Sarinda saw that the sun had not moved much since she had last seen it. The greatship she had assaulted with the Power was half sunken in the bay, but not fully capsized, and the other two greatships had moored already and were unloading large exotic beasts the likes of which she had never seen or imagined, that she could only assume must be foul creations of the Father of Storms. Above the city, she saw several of the large bird-like creatures she must have seen before the attack, but now a group of them were flying in formation; against all logic, each had a rider mounted on its back. They were far larger than the horse standing beside her, with leathery gray skin and an impossibly wide wingspan. She shivered involuntarily and silently prayed to the Creator for a blessing of safety.

Steeling herself, Sarinda clenched her teeth and forced herself to look back at her father’s lifeless body. There was no time for proper burial rites, but she could not leave him like this, either. She gently placed a hand on Talam’s chest and pulled back the collar of his vest. There around his neck, hanging on a beaded leather cord and tucked under his shirt, was a smooth blue pebble. She had given it to him when she was just a babe, so young that she was not even sure if the memory was her own or a recollection Talam had told her. In all her years, she had never seen him without the pebble around his neck. For as hard as he was on her in public, Sarinda knew that her father had loved her with all his heart.

Wiping tears from her eyes, Sarinda removed the cord and placed it around her own neck. Gently, reverently, she pulled Talam’s body over to the edge of the docks. With a push and a quiet splash, his body fell into the bay and began to slowly sink into the depths. “The Light illumine your soul,” she intoned somberly, “and the waters take you peacefully.”

Sarinda had no time to lose. If she lingered here, she risked certain capture, or death. She turned to the horse and crossed her arms, scowling, hesitating. She knew she had no choice, but for a moment, she considered how swimming across the bay to the mainland to avoid detection must surely be easier and safer than riding this beast.

She approached the horse, wincing in anticipation as she gingerly reached out for its reins, sure that it would try to nip at her or rear back in fright. To her surprise, the creature simply blinked and trotted forward, nuzzling her hand. Perhaps this one had at least some type of training, and she did not risk immediate death climbing onto it.

Sarinda threw herself onto the beast, and to her surprise, it tolerated her scrambling unceremoniously up into the saddle tied around its torso. She awkwardly threw her arms around its neck, clung with all of the might remaining in her, and took a shuddering breath. “If it pleases the Light,” she begged it, “go, take us away from here, please. I need you to run like lightning.”

She yelped involuntarily as the horse sprang into a gallop and clapped a hand over her mouth, but somehow, amazingly, no one gave chase. “The Light illumine me, and see me safe to my journey’s end,” she whispered, hugging the horse’s broad neck. She looked up and followed the sun west; she would need to give the city a wide berth, but once she got away from it, she could double back east and south, back towards the Sea of Storms. If the Light shone on her, she could find passage to Ebou Dar, or Illian.

“If it pleases the Light, all will be well,” she intoned once more. “All will be well, and all manner of things will be well, if it pleases the Light.” She did not try to wipe her tears away; she could not do so without losing her grip on the horse, regardless. All she could do was repeat her prayer, over and over, until her throat was raw. The Light shine on her that it would be enough.

Post Reply