Aiyaela ni Mahrathen, Aes Sedai of the White Ajah

Biography — Writing History

Written By: Meg
Created: July 2010

Curriculum Vitae

  • Gender: F
  • Hometown: Tanchico, Tarabon

Channeling Information

  • Elemental Strengths (strong to weak): Spirit, Earth, Air, Fire, Water
  • Talents: Aligning the Matrix and Cuendillar Making

Physical Description

From her mother, Aiyaela had inherited her ash-blonde hair, worn in the traditional long, beaded braids, brown eyes, though they were the almond shape characteristic of Saldaean descent, and a rosebud mouth that walked the fine line of a pout whenever she wasn’t smiling. Her curving figure, bordering plump, was also a legacy of her mother, and Aiyaela swore it was because of the dratted dresses her mother made her wear. Her father, being a pure-blooded Saldaean merchant, had graced Aiyaela with a falcon’s beak of a nose which she made no bones about hating. Though she wasn’t conventionally beautiful, or even pretty, Aiyaela’s features were striking enough that she was memorable, and her face had enough character that she could be considered attractive.

Biography

If Aiyaela were to travel back in time to the summer she was nineteen, knowing what she knew now, she wasn’t sure she would do it all again. At nineteen, she was nothing more than a serving girl in her mother’s inn, located in the heart of Tanchico, Tarabon’s capital city. Her only plans for the future consisted of joining her father’s merchant caravan as soon as he returned from Saldaea, and spending the rest of the season traveling and learning the ways of a merchant’s life. Her father had mentioned the last time he returned to Tanchico that he was searching for a ‘suitable’ husband for Aiyaela to run the caravan; as she had no intention of spending her life running an inn and only seeing her husband for half a year at a time, Aiyaela would just have to become a merchant as well – far from the hardship her mother assumed it would be.

From her mother, Aiyaela had inherited her ash-blonde hair, worn in the traditional long, beaded braids, brown eyes, though they were the almond shape characteristic of Saldaean descent, and a rosebud mouth that walked the fine line of a pout whenever she wasn’t smiling. Her curving figure, bordering plump, was also a legacy of her mother, and Aiyaela swore it was because of the dratted dresses her mother made her wear. Her father, being a pure-blooded Saldaean merchant, had graced Aiyaela with a falcon’s beak of a nose which she made no bones about hating, a fierce temper easily roused, and a stubborn streak a league wide. Her quick wits were sharpened by an acid tongue and her keen intellect dampened by the fact that she didn’t think things through. In short, Aiyaela looked every bit a young Tarabon woman of the middle class, which hid the fiery passion of the Saldaean nature soaked into her very bones.

Though she wasn’t conventionally beautiful, or even pretty, Aiyaela’s features were striking enough that she was memorable, and her face had enough character that she could be considered attractive, even under several layers of road dust, which was enough to catch the eye of her father’s target, a young man several years older than her and just starting out in the world of merchant caravans. By the end of the summer and their impending arrival at Tar Valon, it went unsaid that the pair would marry the following winter, after the trading season.

Of course, one mustn’t forget that Tar Valon includes the White Tower, home of the ‘meddlesome’ Aes Sedai, and what Aes Sedai want, Aes Sedai generally get. In this case, when Aiyaela took some time to explore the city alone and most importantly, gawk at the White Tower like any other tourist, the Aes Sedai got the young Taraboner. A Brown sister by the name of Bronwyn Sedai approached Aiyaela, told her very matter-of-factly that she could learn to channel, and proceeded to turn Aiyaela’s life upside down.

In her five years as a Novice and six as an Accepted, Aiyaela grew and matured, as all Novices and Accepted do. Her time spent training in the Tower was much what one would expect and considered fairly uneventful. Lessons and chores dominated her days, though like any Novice or Accepted, she found time for love, heartbreak, friendships gained and friendships lost. Life lessons learned every time she turned around it seemed, and the harsher the lesson, the more it stuck with her. For Aiyaela, her contempt for the noble born led to one of the harshest lessons of all. Assigned to tutor a fellow novice, an admittedly stuck up snob named Polaine, Aiyaela slowly discovered that the girl wasn’t as bad as she had thought – as the Aes Sedai who assigned the punishment intended – but as expected, it was a matter of too little, too late. An unfortunate accident with a ter’angreal that Aiyaela had been studying resulted in the fellow novice’s death, though through no fault of Aiyaela’s. Emotionally battered, the young woman finished out her novicehood shortly after the incident, and the scars left behind helped influence not only her Accepted test, but the events that occurred shortly thereafter.

All throughout her time as a novice, Aiyaela’s closest friend was a young Kandori raised novice of a very troubled past named Daia. The pair was fiercely loyal to one another, until Aiyaela tested for Accepted. During one of the tests, Aiyaela caught her first – and current – love in bed with Daia. After the test she still believed it was true, and very harshly ended her friendship. To this day they remain bitter enemies, though Aiyaela occasionally, and more frequently, has her regrets over what was said.

Aiyaela’s time as an Accepted was characterized mostly by teaching, especially teaching the new novices. Unusually patient with the newest girls to the Tower, Aiyaela taught countless novices how to embrace saidar, and helped countless others break their blocks. By the time Aiyaela was ready to be tested for Aes Sedai, her twin loves of teaching and researching ter’angreal had given her no doubt which Ajah she would choose: the Brown.

The newly raised Aes Sedai settled very quickly into the lifestyle of her chosen Ajah, though she never quite achieved the Brown personality. Content with her new life, Aiyaela continued her research into ter’angreal with the vague hope of cataloguing the remaining ter’angreal in the White Tower; a lifetime work, no doubt, but such is the life of a Brown sister. She also taught a great deal more, and to the Accepted as well, even going as far as to allow a few to help her with her research at times.

Aiyaela spent only a few short years in the ranks of the Brown sisters.  Through the machinations of one member of the suspected but never confirmed Black Ajah, one Brown Sitter was found dead and the other two very ill – poison was suspected – and all evidence pointed to Aiyaela. During the Black sister’s coup, Aiyaela was stilled, though not executed. Instead, she was held captive in the Tower’s dungeons, drugged and used as an example to all Novices and Accepted.

Of course, since evil never prevails, the Black sister was found out, the two Sitters recovered, and Aiyaela was given full pardon. Upon her Healing and reinstatement as Aes Sedai, she requested – and was granted – an Ajah change. Gone was the light-hearted Brown sister, bent on a lifetime of research. Instead the woman who emerged from the dungeons was withdrawn and silent; anything she had to be happy about melted away with her ability to touch saidar and though the source was once again hers to command, everything else from her previous life wasn’t. Why she changed Ajahs Aiyaela still isn’t entirely sure, except that she couldn’t go back to Brown. During her infrequent lucid moments while imprisoned, Aiyaela would think about the events that led to her unwarranted demise, and the more she thought, the more her thought patterns themselves shifted towards rationality and logic. The logic – or lack of – behind her arrest, and the rationality of her situation became the very pillars she focused her entire being on. They were all she had at that point, and all she lived for was the need to prove her innocence. When she emerged from the basement of the Tower and welcomed back into the arms of the Aes Sedai, Aiyaela knew that emotionless logic and methodical rationality were now her way of life. For her, it was easy to request to be allowed into the White Ajah.

As life settled back into the familiar patterns and people tried to forget the horrific events of the past year, Aiyaela struggled to find some sort of balance in her life. Though balance wasn’t achieved until much later, a distraction arrived in the form of a Gaidar by the name of Garnet Ayriel do Jin a’Lucien. Rather, the distraction came in the form of a letter from the Gaidar; the woman herself had disappeared shortly before Aiyaela’s incarceration. Long time friends, Garnet had been teaching Aiyaela hand to hand combat since Aiyaela was an Accepted, and a close friendship blossomed out of the regular lessons.  Aiyaela wasn’t sure what had happened to their friendship, or why Garnet had left the tower; the entire time she had been imprisoned and quite a bit of time before that seemed blocked from her memory leaving only a blur of faces behind. Whatever had happened, the result was that once Aiyaela was free, the only person she had left in the world – she thought – had left her with only a note to remember her by.

After only a matter of days, Aiyaela finally turned to the only other person in the Tower she thought she might be able to trust: long time friend Symoane Sedai. She had been in the Brown Ajah with Aiyaela, helping the younger woman settle into life as a full Aes Sedai just after her raising. Symoane was a lot like Aiyaela when it came to handling the Novices; Aiyaela felt Symoane would be a perfect replacement. Luckily, for once everything worked out accordingly, and Aiyaela resigned her position as assistant to the Mistress of Novices and left the Tower entirely, heading for Murandy. And Garnet.

As people travel through life, they begin to bank a cache of secrets. Nobody can live life without at least one secret; it’s part of human nature. For Aiyaela there are many secrets, but only two large enough change her life if they were found out. One was her relationship with Garnet. On again, off again lovers, before Aiyaela was imprisoned and Garnet had left the Tower, Aiyaela had fallen in love with the other woman, hopeful the feelings were returned. Only one other person knew, and the other secret was known to her as well, because she was the person who transferred Garnet’s warder bond to Aiyaela. Neither secret could end her life, but both would make Aiyaela and Garnet’s lives very uncomfortable if they were found out.

Spurred by concern for her love, Aiyaela rushed to Murandy, arriving at Garnet’s estates in the dead of winter. Falling into the role of Aes Sedai advisor for Garnet, Aiyaela helped the woman, now a widow and pregnant, and settled into life in a noblewoman’s household. For the next fifteen years, Aiyaela regularly traveled through Murandy keeping peace among the constantly warring noble families and acted as Garnet’s advisor. In private though, the pair resumed their relationship and settled into a comfortable and – for once – quiet life together.

Then again, if Aiyaela were to travel back in time to the summer she was nineteen, knowing what she knew now, she would do it all again. If Garnet and her daughter Keziah were the reward, Aiyaela wouldn’t have to think twice. Everything was worth it, as long as she had Garnet.

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Writing History

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