Miledha
| Miledha | |
|---|---|
| Mi LEE tdah | |
| Created by | Kanamai Hukini (player) |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Occupation | Drin |
| Affiliation |
|
| Nationality | Aiel |
Miledha is an Aiel Drin of the Grey Tower.
Description
Miledha is seventeen years of age when she arrives at the Grey Tower. She has reddish blonde hair, cut into the typical tail of the Maidens of the Spear, and stunning sky blue eyes. As the Aiel do, she stands tall for a woman at five feet, nine inches. Miledha comes to the Tower dressed in Cadin Sor and soft leather boots. She is an expert at blending into the surrounding countryside and it can be quite disconcerting to see her rise from ground where there was seemingly nowhere to hide.
Miledha is willful and unused to the ways of Wetlanders. She calls them by all of their names but sees no use for titles. Miledha has been sent to the Tower against her will. She is very honest and her sense of Ji'e'toh is strongly engrained. She does not try to break the rules of the Grey Tower, but where they conflict with what she has been brought up to or stand in the way of good sense, she breaks them first and pays the Toh later.
Miledha has brought her spears and buckler with her. She has some skill in unarmed combat and knows how to use a bow with accuracy. An enemy may never see her knife before it slides between his ribs. After one little incident with a sword in her earlier years, she has come to the Tower with typical Aiel disdain of the weapon.
Biography
Miledha tossed her sungold hair defiantly, staring coldly at the Wise Ones. "And if I will not go?" she demanded. "I am Far Dareis Mai. I have no wish to go to the Grey Tower and learn the ways of the Wetlander Warders."
"Then, will you be da'tsang, Miledha of the Taardad" We have seen it in the Dream. You are the one chosen. Do not question the decision of the Wise Ones. You will go to the Grey Tower and a young channeler will come to us in your place. You will train until you are Gaidar and she, until she learns the ways of the Wise Ones, knowing the Threefold Land and able to be an ambassador between us. You will go, Miledha, Far Dareis Mai, and return to us if you wish, when you are raised to the third rank. Or you may bond an Asha'man for the rest of your days. It is your choice."
"I am not da'tsang! I have Ji!" Miledha gripped her spear tightly in one hand and her buckler in the other. "You send me among Wetlanders!" She spat the word distastefully at the Wise Ones. "They are weak and foolish, following the desires of their flesh and putting their own interests before that of their people. Would you have me learn those ways? They carry swords. Would you have me deny my honour to pick up a sword as the Wetlander Warders do?" Miledha threw a spear deftly at a large poisonous lizard creeping out from behind a rock. With a venomous hiss the creature fell dead before it could take another step.
"Pack your things. You won't need much. The Grey Tower will provide you with food and clothing," said Selna calmly. "You have tonight to take leave of the Maidens and at dawn tomorrow, a Gateway will open, taking you to the Tower."
"A Gateway! I will not go by Gateway. My legs are strong. If I must go to this Grey Tower, I will walk!" With that, Miledha stormed off to the tents of the Maidens, muttering her dissention all the way. Her face drew tight and cold as the stone at midnight. White clothed Gai'shain stepped smoothly out of the way, lowering their eyes mildly and placidly going about their tasks.
"Let her walk then," commanded Neridha. "She shall have the respect of choosing our ways right up to the Gates of the Grey Tower. I will send Dearn and Louin to accompany her. The Tower can wait another three months for her arrival. Walking will help her mind settle and give her time to prepare for her future. I will write a letter on our behalf to pass through to Ashfalcon Asha'man, explaining why she will arrive later than expected. He is Taardad. He will understand."
Born of Jhorde, brother of a chief and Sela, who had given up the spear to live as his wife, Miledha came to her existence in the Nine Valleys sept of the Taardad Aiel. From the moment she opened her lungs to scream her arrival into the Threefold Land, she was a strong willed and contrary child. Miledha woke when her mother wished her to sleep, refused to eat at mealtimes, and often disappeared without trace, only to reappear by herself as if nothing had happened, after hours of frantic searching had been to no avail.
Turned easily to the right path with words, Miledha's two older brothers despaired at the number of times their willful sister refused to obey until a switching by one or other parent changed her mind, often for the same reason it had been applied earlier the same day.
"Must you always learn the hard way, little Sister?" Louin sighed. "Will you never learn the way of ji'e'toh for yourself?"
"I will be Far Dareis Mai when I am as old as you," the seven year old child replied. Her own words sealing in her heart as clay hardens in the sun, Miledha held to that goal throughout her early years. She followed Louin relentlessly, borrowing his spears whenever he laid them down, until he made a set for his sister and taught her how to use them. While other girls her age made beds and tiny tents for dolls, feeding them with carved wooden spoons and putting them to bed before dinner, Miledha threw her spears at targets and ran behind the Maidens whenever they were close enough to follow.
As Miledha approached her tenth nameday, an armed man wandered foolishly into Taardad territory. Surrounded by Spears, he shocked the Aiel by drawing a sword. His trial was swift and merciless. Naked and with one waterskin, the man was sent to carry his sword back to the land of the Treekillers from whence he had come. Miledha never really understood why he had dared to enter the Threefold Land with such a weapon. Surely even the Wetlanders knew better than that.
Hour after hour, she followed behind, watching for the weak legged Treekiller to fall and die. He continued in the full strength sun, turning redder by the hour and barely looking back. After a time he cast aside the only thing that weighed him down, the sword that had sealed his doom. Wide eyed and fearful, Miledha's eyes searched for tiny movements to be sure she was alone. Satisfied there was no one to catch her, the young girl crept tentatively towards the hated weapon and took it in her hands. As it glistened in the sun, a dangerous thrill surged through her entire being. So this was why they carried swords. Slicing it from right to left, a euphoric newness filled her and she became bigger inside, more than alive. Gasping with sudden realization of what she was doing, Miledha prepared to hide it, hoping to come back another time and play with the forbidden sword.
"Drop it, Sister. Now you have Toh for this deed!" This time it was the elder of her brothers, Mannadin, who had followed unseen to protect her from any danger she might face. "Come, we will tell the rest of the family and find a way to restore your Ji."
Silently, resignedly, Miledha walked beside Mannadin. He was almost fully grown and towered above her, his light gold hair bleached from years under the sun. Her brother strode with ground eating pace, his soft boots making no sound on the hardened earth. Miledha had no fear of what her parents would do, only a deep sense of shame for doing that which was strictly forbidden.
Miledha was among those who welcomed He Who Comes With The Dawn. Her fourteenth nameday was well past and she had been accepted to train with the Maidens. Far Dareis Mai carried his honour and although she was too new to be given great responsibility, she watched and carried water, learning the ways of the Maidens and ready to dance the spears if an enemy should threaten their charge.
She was there on the night of the Shadowspawn when lightning split the sky and rain fell, for the first time in her memory, drenching the land in proof of He Who Comes With The Dawn. There had never been so much water in all of her years. Times were changing. The world could never be the same. Traditions shattered as the Chief of Chiefs practiced with a sword. How could he claim to lead the Aiel while doing something so fundamentally borbidden to their culture, The world was changing and with it, the ways engrained so deeply into the mindset of the Threefold Land's people.
Years passed and Miledha grew to full strength, running with Far Dareis Mai and dancing the spears whenever there was a threat to their way of life. She was one of the swiftest and one of the best at concealing herself where there seemed no place to hide. The Cadin Sor melted into the subtle browns of the Threefold Land as easily as creatures disguised themselves with their skin colour, surviving from their enemies another day. Miledha was glad of the life she had chosen. There was joy for her in running with the Spears. She loved to learn the ways of fighting with her hands and feet and to aim her arrows at a distant target, pulling the bowstring to her cheek. The sound of the string snapping back and the arrow whistling to rest exactly where she had aimed, was satisfying to her ears. Though many had given up the Spear for a husband, she knew she never would.
It was shortly after her seventeenth nameday that a whiteclad gai'shain came with a message to her tent.
"Miledha of Far Dareis Mai," it read, "you are summoned to the tents of the Wise ones."
Career History
- Drin
