Zendria Tarkahd

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Zendria Tarkahd
Created by Zendria Tarkahd (player)
Information
Gender Female
Occupation Aes Sedai of the White Ajah
Affiliation The Grey Tower
Nationality Domani

Zendria Tarkahd (born Taarlon Adenar) is a Domani White Oathsworn Aes Sedai of the Grey Tower.

Biography

"Aes Sedai, Aes Sedai, they're coming!" the villager came running up to her, grey rags flinging behind him in the wind. She pushed past the terrified man, purpose filling her ageless face. He was coming. He was coming. She embraced Saidar and prepared herself, glancing one way and the next down the dusty street of the terror filled town. Orgon Davenshar had declared himself the Dragon Reborn yesterday in the tiny town square, and Taarlon had arrived only hours later to a town filled with horrors. The weeping villagers had tried to explain the things he had done with the power, but after the first few paragraphs they always disloved into trembling tears.

Taarlon was not trembling, but she was afraid. It was not the first time she had dealt with a man gone mad from the power, but it was the first time she had done so alone. Always before there had been another sister there, at first to give guidance, and later to help her as she captured the ravenous dogs.

Taarlon stood in the center of the street here in Ghealdan, her dark red dress flinging out behind her with her black cloak and golden hair. Inside she was terrified, but she had long ago learned to face her fears head on.

She thought back to when she had first come to the White tower. A girl of 14 she had sobbed her eyes out for weeks on the road from her home in Arad Doman. The terrible White Aes Sedai had cooly told her that her tears were useless. She was a wilder proven to have formed something the woman called a "gateway" and the woman would have none of her tears. The Red Aes Sedai had been equally terrifying, heartily recommending that Derline, the White, shove a pillow in Taarlon's face to drown out her bawling. Oddly enough, it had been Arline Sedai, the Blue who had appealed to Taarlon's sad heart, telling her that she needed to find a cause to carry her through the long years ahead.

Taarlon had stormed to her bed that night and thought. There was only one thing she wanted...to be Domani. To love and win men. She loved men and she loved the attraction of seducing them with her newly earned arts, and then these women had ripped her from her life and brought her along this loveless trail to a world apart from all men. Bitterly she had sworn that night that she would never lose her love for men...and she would never allow anyone to use this awesome power that Aes Sedai seemed to have for anything other than good. She had found her cause.

Taarlon had come to the Tower expecting to become a Blue...or at least a Green, but her passion to prevent misuse of the Power had changed all of that. Early in her training she had been introduced to the cause of the Red Ajah and quickly she had seen that love for men could be combined with love of preventing misuse of power. She would devote her life to saving the world, and the misfortunate men who learned the power from the pain those men inflicted on both. It wasn't that she hated men...no. She loved them. That was why she chose to protect them. It wasn't that she didn't have a cause...no. She had an over-riding cause before which all other seemed to fade. She would protect the world. The Blues and the Greens were sad the day she chose Red. They knew Taarlon would be a powerful channeler, even as they knew that nothing they ever said would prevent her from her destiny.

Lightning cracked over Taarlon's head and she heard the creak of hinges as the villagers shut their shutters against the coming darkness of night. A fire blazed in the town square and she could hear the rumble of horsehoofs as Orgon Davenshar and his followers approached. Taarlon set her beautiful face into the cool, serene mask of the Aes Sedai and prepared the sheild she knew she would need.

In a way she was sad this was coming to a conclusion so quickly. She would have to return to Elaida much sooner than she anticipated, and she suspected that her former Ajah Head and current Amyrlin would not be any happier than Taarlon at that meeting. Elaida had sent her out to bring in Orlon in hopes that Taarlon would be gotten out of the way without any nastiness. Taarlon knew that, but even so she could not approve of the way her Ajah was handling the entire business with the Black tower....or the way that the White Tower was handling it, and she would not be silent. Taarlon may not be very old at 25, but she was the most powerful Red ever seen in generations, and she was not afraid to use that as political pull to get what she wanted. No, Elaida would not be pleased.

Orlon was rounding the corner now and above his head streaked a white flag. White? What in the world was that for? He was too far away for the sheild, but she stood her ground, arms crossed and chin raised high. He was coming at full speed with perhaps 100 men at his back. Far more than Taarlon had expected, and far more than she could deal with so long as she had him to handle also. Elaida had sent her to die.

A tiny piece of her mind hoped Orlon was surrendering. A tiny piece. She would never hope in absurdities. And now he was in earshot and so she projected her voice with the power and firmly ordered, "Halt, Orlon Davenshar, and face the Justice of the White Tower!"

Spinning her sheild with care she settled it down on him...suprised he was not seizing the power already. His entire force came to a thundering halt only a span in front of her and she struggled to hold her face serene as he dismounted. Quickly she bound him with air and addressed his group.

"Go back to where ever you have come. Orlon Davenshar is now in the care of the White Tower and we alone will deal with him."

"Remain." Orlon snapped, addressing the first of his band to respond to her. "Hear me, Aes Sedai and you will not be hurt."

Hurt? Who was he to threaten when she obviously had him sheilded and bound?

"Listen to me Aes Sedai, the taint is gone."

Gone? It had to be a ruse. But was it?

"You don't need to sheild me. the taint is gone and there is no more danger for these people...I felt it leave only yesterday...it just...disappered." The disbelief was so evident in his voice that she almost believed him.

"Don't play your games with me, False Dragon! I am Taarlan Aes Sedai and I will bring you to Justice."

"You can't." he said calmly.

"It seems I can." she responded smoothly.

"There, my dear Aes sedai, you are wrong." another voice came from the crowd and two men jumped down from their sleek geldings. Both were dressed in Black with odd cords, one with a Blue cord and the other with an Brown one. Were these men from the Black Tower? They must be...but that would mean they could channel. How was she going to deal with two more channelers?

Keeping her face smooth she tried frantically to sheild the pair, but obviously they were already holding the power. At once her bonds on Orlon vanished and she felt a smooth sheild slip between her and the power. Frantically she battered against it, keeping her face a mask.

"Who are you and what do you intend to do with me?"

"We are from the Grey Tower and we intend to do nothing to you, only to bring Orlon with us. He is right. The taint is gone and we are taking him to train."

"Grey Tower?" she spat "What is that supposed to be?" Tiny beads of sweat were starting to form on her face as she fought off the panic.

"A place where male and female channelers both come to study." the man in Black said.

"Leave her Aerid, don't make this foolish woman another of your causes." the other man in Black said.

"If not a cause of mine, then perhaps you'd like to study her?" he responded.

"Perhaps I would," the one with the Brown cord responded, looking her pretty figure up and down, "but not under these circumstances."

The thunder cracked again, and as the lighning struck, one man wove something that looked like one of taarlon's "gateways" and as the lightning's light faded away he, the other man in Black and Orlon all disappered through the gateway, leaving only Orlon's followers and the Townspeople with Taarlon. Cursing, she made her way through the spattering rain to the town's shabby inn.

Morning came to find Taarlon pacing in her room, having never slept. She could not return to Elaida without Orlon...not in her present political state, and all her tears and curses had presented any reasonable plan to replace that. She could hardly join the rebels...she disagreed with their cause, and even if she hadn't she would be the only Red there, fighting her entire Ajah in the true White Tower. Becoming a renegade might save her skin, but she could hardly do anything of use in that state. After long thought only one plan had presented itself to her. She would go to the Grey Tower. If they would take Orlon, they would take her, and perhaps somehow she could find a way to carry on the Red Ajah's ideals in the only place it ever would have a chance of surviving in.

Drying her tears and putting her Aes Sedai coolness firmly on, she stalked out of her room, ignoring the glares of the townsfolk (how quickly they turned on her once the danger was past!)and mounted her horse, heading the direction of her nearest Eyes and Ears to try to find the location of this Grey Tower.

Career History

  • Novice
  • Accepted
  • Aes Sedai of the White Ajah
  • Sitter of the White Ajah