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Upon her adolescence she knew that she wanted more from life than to tend a small seaside shop and engage in trade. She longed for a life of excitement and intrigue, a life of travel, something. When she was sixteen she agreed to accompany her aunts on a trading journey to Bandar Eban, a city that seemed a world away. Once in the thronged Domani capital Suraya experienced a taste of the life she craved, wealthy and powerful transacting in the trade-halls and canopied bazaars, fleeting glimpses of scandalously clad ladies and proud martial lords, and once she even encountered a Prince of House Daide who winked and tossed her a pearl.
She knew that she was never going to return to Gerzain, so she persuaded her aunt Rayad to allow her work as a clerk in her small lumber factor's shop, and there she met and fell in love with Hasan, a carpenter. They planned to marry until Hasan was caught up in the patriotic fervor and the King's call to arms against the traditional enemy, the vile Tarabonners. Leaving her with title to his house and coffer of gold, he left to fight for King and Country.
Suraya never saw him again nor was sure of his fate. Reports she was able to piece together said that he was slain on the coasts near Bin Lamierin in Tarabon, or he drowned when the Royal Fleet was taken by a storm. Despondent, she again sought fulfillment by travel, so she purchased a small coach, and engaged a maid and footman, and proceed about the long journey to Caemlyn, then to Cairhien, and finally to Tar Valon. Eventually, she enrolled as a novice, kept the maid, Tima, in service with her, and transferred her small house to her footman for her have upon her return to Arad Doman.
In time, Suraya acquired an affinity for the dispassionate White sisters, so able to seclude themselves from their emotions and their desires, and work serenely about their callings. When she deemed ready to be Raised to the Shawl, she chose White. During her lengthy residency in the Tower, she taught Reasoning and Ancient Philosophy, although she is known to have a wild streak, carrying on a passionate love affair with the Saldaean Ambassador to the Tower, Lord Adram t'Savedra ni Zadnere of House Zadnere.
Suraya currently holds a Seat in the Hall for the White, and is curiously active in her interest in the politics of Cairhien, as her closest friend in the sisterhood, Carmara Belantes, is currently the advisor to Queen Healle of House Cordaevell. She is in the upper echelon of Aes Sedai potency, very strong in Air and Water, as well as having a surprising adeptness in Healing. In her exploits as a young sister, she took part in an explosive battle in a campaign to subdue a False Dragon, Amil Farad, in Tarabon, greatly impressing her sisters with her valor. Her warder is Roel Bernoiven, a slim, intense Cairhienin. She remains a close friend of Simoene Alvaewhin and is an icily bitter rival of Malinde Alleron, another Sitter for the White.
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Wheel of Time setting © Robert Jordan
Copyright © 2001-2003 Hèlene Duvalle, Diane Alexander