Citizen Vincilago Sahem Biography

In a land where women could charm the Dark One for his eyes, a man learns how to keep his eyes focused firmly on a pretty face, his ears sharp to peel the truth from what he wants to hear, and to keep his mouth shut. Oh, the temper burns hot under all that pressure, and men will fight over the slightest provocation, but better to lose to the strength another man than to the wiles of a curvy body. You never grow immune to women, but you learn to ignore them That's the only way I could do my job. I get paid to stare at beautiful women. No, not in the way you're thinking. Domani have a reputation, and they most assuredly live up to it in their homeland. Many husbands worry overly much about what their wives might be doing to seal that next deal. Not all of those ladies make empty promises, and many of those poor husbands cannot deal with not knowing. Or with knowing. But that is not my problem. I just tell them the things they don't want to hear but pay me to tell them anyway.

This is how I ended up thrust halfway into a barrel of water, lungs burning desperately for air while my arms flailed wildly in a weak attempt to free myself from a vise-like grip. Red and black spots flashed before my eyes like a mad Illuminator's display. Any moment it would end. I knew it. It wasn't the first time I'd felt death's feathery fingers, and I was to the point where her embrace would be welcome to the watery pain in my chest. A sudden sensation of flying, and I could breathe again. For the two seconds it took me to fly across the room and smash into the wall. The plaster of the dingy inn room cracked, but surprisingly neither my ribs nor my head followed suit. I contended myself with gasping in huge quantities of sweet stale air. A fine mist of plaster rained down on my upturned face, but I didn't mind the coughing. I'd lived with coughing for almost six years. It was not breathing I minded. The man was coming towards me again, but I was too exhausted to move out of his way. A huge giant, this beast was, easily headed towards seven feet in height and thirty stone.

"Oh, I'm not through with you yet, boy," he growled in a thick accent I didn't recognize. "Come, let us finish relaxing you so that you'll flap those gums of yours." Now I am not a small man, but he picked me up as if I were a goose. My legs were limp, not because I was trying to resist him carrying me, but because they simply had no strength. My nose was probably broken by the feel of it, and my lips had been split open. One eye had swollen nearly shut, so I could only get a partial look at the Beast as my head lolled up at him. I couldn't help but wonder who's honor he was here defending. I was working for three seperate clients at the time. Those vises he called hands wrapped themselves around my throat, and the spots returned behind my eyes. Apparently it was not my day for breathing. Or living, if things kept going this well. My hands gripped Beast's wrists, trying vainly to pry them away from my throat to no avail. But it gave me something to do rather than think about dying, so I tried harder. The light grew dimmer, and slowly everything faded.

The last thing I remember hearing before passing out was a woman. Her voice was also foreign, and it held a mix of pride, irritation and worry as she said, "Giles." Then nothing. I doubt I was out for very long, because when I opened my eyes again the sun was still in the same place it had been beforehand. The Beast - Giles - stood over me, and he looked even taller from where I laid on the filthy rug. Beside him stood a woman, not much shorter than I would've been standing. She was stunning in her own way, as different from the sultry women that filled Bandar Eban to the brim. She was dark and wore her mahogany hair loose, but it was her eyes that made me flinch. Unlike my own pair of dull green, her eyes were the green of a cat, bright and mischevious and unpredictable. I had watched those eyes over the past two days, wondering about where she came from. But with her arms pulled tightly under her breasts, I could almost feel her tail lashing. "Who are you?" she asked, her voice clipped and business-like. It took me a couple of tries before I could get my voice to work.

"Vincilago Sahem." I smiled weakly and tried to sit up, but Giles planted his boot in my chest to keep me down. "To what do I owe this pleasure, m'lady?" The boot pressed harder, and the coughing took over. It racked my body as only this cough could. Funny how, despite not giving into the plague that had hit Arad Doman hard six years ago, the cough refused to leave. It didn't manage to kill me, just age me. My eyes always look blackened now, and my dark hair has streaks of grey threading it. It's not right to seem like an old man before hitting thirty, but I'm mostly over it. Finally the Beast let me up. I rolled over on my side, panting and coughing and sweating. A light touch on the shoulder made me turn my head. Those cat-eyes were worried for a moment, and the concern surprised me.

"Is there anything I can do, Vincilago?" I waved her away. "Just keep that bear's hands off my neck and I should be fine." Giles grunted but remained where he stood.

"Who are you people?"

"I am Solisa Torvazande Sedai. This is my Warder, Giles." I had been in the process of standing when she answered me. I couldn't move up off my hands and knees. Instead I started laughing, just a chuckle at first, then into giant guffaws that took my forehead down to the rug.

"Aes Sedai. Oh, of all the bloody luck."

"You consider Aes Sedai unlucky?" Solisa made it a question, albeit a dangerous one. I sat back on my knees, smiling up at her with a wry expression.

"Only when I am fool enough to not know that is what I am seeing." I looked at Giles. "I understand now, my friend. You were just doing your job."

"And you were doing yours," Giles said. "Who paid you to do it?" I wiped my dirty face with my grubbier hands.

"Not someone I know. He wasn't local, but I've done plenty of work for travellers. It's usually foreign wives fearing their husbands will run off with some local hussy, though. This gentleman...I couldn't place where he come from. I'd had dealings with a couple of others like him before, but they don't pay me to ask questions about them, so I don't."

"Describe him."

Giles left no room for arguement and I grudgingly obliged. Partially because he'd beat me until I barked like a dog, but partially because I have some respect for Aes Sedai. Tough women are much more interesting than a beautiful one if you ask me. A pretty face in a place like Arad Doman isn't worth two coppers. A bar of steel under all that velvet though....A king would be so lucky to find that. When I finished, Giles and the Aes Sedai gave each other a knowing look.

In what I imagined was her politest voice, Solisa asked, "Did he have anyone with him?" I shrugged.

"Not that I saw, but it's a habit not to look." Giles snorted, but Solisa waved him off.

"Tell me, Master Sahem, have you ever followed any other women like me?" Of course I started to tell her no, because I couldn't even place a country to her face and I'm paid to remember what people look like. But then I realized she meant others as in other Aes Sedai. Honestly, I had never met one until now, and the stories told about them are often so outrageous that I'd always discarded them outright. Now, though, I had to wonder. There was something odd about her features. It was as though time had not really touched her. Any man would've guess her age somewhere between twenty and fifty years, and they would probably have been wrong.

"Yes," I admitted reluctantly. "About seven, eight months ago. This one was much shorter, about average in height, but still having that timelessness to her face. Definitely Saldaean by her features and attitude. After I studied her habits for a week or so, I reported them all to my customer." I licked my lips nervously, not liking where this conversation was headed. "She disappeared later that day." Something popped, and from my position still on my knees I looked up at Giles. His meaty hands had clenched into fists, making his knuckles crackle like chestnuts on a fire. He was reaching for me, and I braced myself for another choking, but to my eternal and grateful surprise, he stopped. He turned his shaggy head towards his companion, face twisted in confusion.

"What about a woman," Solisa ask, then proceeded to describe another woman I assumed was as Aes Sedai. After I told her no, I didn't know her, she rattled off a list of maybe fifteen more women. None of them sounded remotely like any of the ladies I had tailed in the past four years. She seemed midly impressed that I would remember each one in detail after all this time, but hey - that is what I get paid for. The craziness of the day - which had begun so normally it was hard to remember that I was still in the same Age as three hours ago - was catching up to me. My cough returned as it often does when I've been nearly drowned, beaten and throttled. My eyes watered terribly, and I bent over double as I tried in vain to get my body back under control. But the thick, rasping hacks kept right on racking my lungs. "Here," Solisa said, touching my head lightly. I guess it was lightly. I really wasn't paying her much attention because my brain felt like it might shoot its way out of my mouth. But something crept along my skin like an autumn fog, and I shivered. It grew worse, and I looked up at the Aes Sedai in startled fear. She shook her head and stepped back. "You've lived with this far too long, Vincilago. I can't rid you of it overnight. You would need weeks...months...of treatments to repair the damage that's been done to you inside." She pulled herself straighter, and inclined her head toward the door. "Come, Giles. We're through here."

"Wait!" I blurted as the pair began to leave. Giles was wearing his glower again, and Solisa arched a slim eyebrow. I flushed, embarrassed because my manners are normally much better than that. Still, I had to ask. "Are you saying that there is a possibility I could be well again? That you could rid me of this?"

"It is...possible," she replied, seemingly reluctantly but the little satisfied smile on Giles' face made me wonder. "The only real place that might Heal you is Tar Valon. I doubt a man such as yourself would find living there comfortable. Especially once my Yellow sisters learn you aided in the capture of one of our own. Still...," she drawled the word out, not doubt enjoying at my squirming. "If there were some way you could repay the White Tower, for both the wrong you've dealt it and the treatment you'd receive, I'm sure we might be able to work out some sort of arrangement." She smiled that cat-like smirk of hers at me, and left. Well, I did what I could to put her and her veiled promises out of my mind. Honest - I did. And it worked wonderful until the cough would come back, late in the damp winter evenings when the air felt like breathing soup. It became harder and harder to fall asleep. I would lie in my bed, staring up at my ceiling and wondering if I could be my old self again. But at what cost? I would likely not be able to come back here, to my home and my life. Then guilt would tickle my nose, reminding me that I had sent at least one good woman to her probable death. Did that mean that I did owe the Aes Sedai something for costing one of their kind her life? I didn't know. I still don't know. But both the temptation to be fully healthy again and the need to make penance for my actions overwhelmed me. Frankly I think I held out longer than I'd expected. It's taken me six weeks to follow after Solisa Sedai. I suspect she will do her best to make me whole. If only I could see what the cost of it will be to me. In the end, I sincerely hope the cost is worth it.