Raised by my mother, Coldain, and my father Jasoin, I was raised from birth knowing that I would be Far Dareis Mai. Coldain was a Wise One of the Black Crater Reyn, and Jasoin was a blacksmith. At the age of six, I met Triehna, who was seven herself.
Triehna and I often sparred within Whispering Springs Hold with short staves which Coldain had forged for us, and padded well with strips of algode left from the clothier's cadin'sor. Triehna and I were rarely apart for several years, and vowed to become first-sisters when we were old enough that the Wise Ones would allow it.
When I was ten, and Triehna was eleven, Triehna went with her father to round up some sheep that had gotten away during the night. Neither Triehna, nor her father were ever seen, or heard from again. One year, to the day, after Triehna and her father left, I set out from Whispering Springs Hold on my own, with my practice spear, and Triehna's practice spear, but left the algode wrappings behind.
I left the hold and went north toward the Blight, believing that trollocs must have been the culprit of my missing friend. A young Far Dareis Mai named Ulhiel of the Shaido Aiel confronted me and suggested I should return to my hold. I stood tall, and warned Ulhiel that I would fight her if I must, but that I would continue to the Blight to avenge Triehna.
Ulhiel made short work of me, mercifully, only going so far as to disarm me, take my spears, and tell me I would get them back, if my mother chose to do so after she personally returned me to her. While returning to Whispering Springs Hold, Ulhiel was able to impress on me the importance of being patient in the Dance, and to accept defeat when there was nothing I could do about it.
When she and I reached Whispering Springs Hold, she decided to allow me to return to my home alone, but her lessons over those few days, I will remember forever. My mother did return my spears to me when I offered them to her to pay my toh to her, saying only that while I was rash, she saw much ji in my actions.
With my new lessons in mind, I continued training with my spears, and was awarded the oppurtunity to prove myself by the Leader of Spears, Ianna. When I was seventeen, and wed my spears two years later at age nineteen, and foolishly went north with some newly raised Sovin Nai and Tain Shari warriors. Expecting to find trollocs, we were surprised to find the Mountains of Dhoom nearly devoid of activity.
We found one fist of trollocs on the move to the west, so we followed them to the Dragonwall, and slightly west, where we watched a major battle between the forces of the Dark, and the Army of a wetlander nation. The Dark One's minions won the battle quickly, leaving only a few straggling people able to flee south. As we started returning to the Three-fold Land, I spotted one boy crouched on a horse, and I watched that horse fall. The boy could not stand, but still he crawled on south.
The men urged me to continue to return home, and stay out of the wetlander's affairs as we were not numerous enough to fight the trollocs and eyeless on lands we did not know. I could not allow myself to leave one soul, wetlander or not, to the trollocs if I could prevent it, not with the memory of Triehna in my head, so I made my way to the boy. I was able to tend to him well enough that he could walk, with help, a short ways each day. The boy named himself as Baijan, of Malkier, and was twelve years old. Six days into the journey I set out alone to scout the distance he would be able to make that day, and came upon a group of women.
I unveiled myself, hoping they could provide help to this Baijan, and approached the women cautiously. The women claimed to be on the way to this Malkier of which Baijan claimed to be from, and were anxious to find this boy, mend him, and hear his story of what happened to Malkier. I showed the women to Baijan, and upon hearing assurances that they could bring him to health, returned to the Three-fold Land.
Three years later, when I was twenty-two, when Turan had been newly raised as the Reyn Clan Chief, I went with him, and many of our warriors, to fight the Codarra, who were conducting raids on our livestock, thinking Turan to be a weak Chief. During the first days of fighting, Turan was made aware of the fact that Ianna, leader of Far Dareis Mai, his wife Jerinha's first-sister, and of course, his lover as well, was pregnant. Turan entrusted me with Ianna's safety on her return to Whispering Springs Hold.
The trip proved more dangerous than I had expected, as we came upon a Codarra raiding party on the way back to the Hold. Ianna and I fended off the small group due in part to luck, and in large part to Ianna's own brilliant skills in the Dance. When we finally returned to Whispering Springs Hold, Ianna stepped down as the Leader of Spears, and left Far Dareis Mai, to wed Turan.
Two years later, thanks in large part to Ianna's influence, I was chosen by my spear-sisters to lead the Far Dareis Mai of the Reyn Aiel. Three years later, word of my leadership spread, and when I joined Turan to Alcair Dal for a meeting of the Clan Chiefs, the position of Leader of Spears was not yet filled after the death of Ulhiel to a Shae'en M'taal of the Shiande Aiel. My fellow spear-sisters chose me to fill the vacant spot, as the leader of all Far Dareis Mai, and I accepted the honor, though not for myself, but for Triehna.
Today, I still lead the spears, my only ambitions, to bring honor to my spear-sisters, to my Clan, and to Dance until the day I join Triehna at the end of the Dance.
Brin of the Black Crater Sept of the Reyn Aiel
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