Kialandi

Ah, sweet Kia… the first forsworn than I can comfortably call "charismatic". Kia was charming beyond anything our ragtag band of outlaws had come to know. Kia was pleasant, sweet, well-mannered, and kind. There was an innocence to Kia that most of us could only recall in our earliest memories, and some not even then. But woe unto the person that mistook that kindness for weakness! Beneath those golden locks lay a truly remarkable brain, and a core of tempered steel. To understand exactly why, I must relieve history of one great misconception, as it was Kia's fondest wish to one day do: Kialandi was a woman.

She was born to a particularly wealthy merchant in Teirm. Her life was privileged indeed, she had her every whim provided for. Until, of course, those whims turned to education and self-improvement. Her father had very strict ideas about her future, had picked her husband out within days of her birth. She longed to pursue her studies and to seek answers to some events in her earliest memories (the early signs of magic.) Her father dismissed her out of hand. She did manage to persuade him to bring her along to the feast hosted in the visiting Rider's honor (good opportunities for networking and all that).

This proved to be the greatest possible victory of her young life. **** chose her as soon she walked in the room, though he waited within his egg to see if she would come to claim him. She wanted to touch the egg, but her father refused. He even went so far as to raise a hand to her. Or at least, he attempted to. In an explosion of shell pieces, the raucous hatchling dove for the young lady and perched, snarling and smoking, on her shoulder.

Her father railed against the Order's precepts for hours. As a rider, neither she nor he had any choice in the matter: her training must begin immediately and would not conclude for many years. The egg couriers tried everything to make him understand, but he was too firmly entrenched in his view to see his daughter as anything more than his ticket into nobility. Kialandi did not bother to argue with her father. Instead, she packed what few things she could, sloppily chopped off her hair, and left for Vroengard to make a new life for herself.

She chose to socialize as a man, even though it was not her truer self. After a lifetime of people's expectations and limitations, she opted to live free of it all. In this new persona, she sank deeply into her studies, discovering a talent for magic and a fascination with the healing arts. She became a decorated medical student and she was widely respected by her elders and her peers. In all that time I believe exactly one person called her out on her clever ruse.

And what an evening that was!

A simple, passing remark at a dinner party tipped her off that I suspected her secret. She looked utterly stunned. Many of our peers were content to accept that world as it was given to them; they were small people with small concerns. I, however, could not help but notice the eccentricities of that strange, beautiful 'young man' that, when added together, led to a very simple truth. After this little confiding, we spent the rest of the evening discussing the finer points of healing, a field in which I was sorely lacking and that she generously offered to tutor me. I did not comprehend then how much this conversation meant to Kialandi. (It is tragic how low a woman's standards can sink when they've only ever been exposed to the worst sort of idiots.)

She proved to be nothing if not loyal.

She flew out to join us as soon as she was able. She had plenty of her own (perfectly valid) gripes with the order, though even she admitted that she would have followed me without them. She was loyal to me, not just to our cause. Her prodigious skill in healing proved an invaluable tool, especially with a reckless Morzan in tow. Even frigid Siyamak took a liking to her, again out of purely academic interest. But, more than any of that, Kia possessed a singular talent that no other in the thirteen performed half as well: she was likable. This seems simple enough, but it was a breath of fresh air to our taciturn and bombastic band. She smoothed over disagreements, soothed tempers, unbruised egos, persuaded, beguiled, bewitched, and outclassed any situation until it ended up falling her way. The woman was the definition of the iron hand in the velvet glove. She could also be a bit of a snob and more than a bit of a prude, though these were tempered by her unrelenting positive attitude.

Kia served us well, both as a spy within the order and then in a more hands-on capacity at the end of the war. I chose her and Formora to attempt the recruitment of Oromis, though I am not surprised that they were insufficient to the task. Once she distanced herself permanently from the riders she finally began to grow out her hair and dress more comfortably, often in a deep shade of blue. She also took it upon herself to form a sort of "club within a club" out of the thirteen's female members (Formora, Idril, Eltereth, and herself). She was the most outgoing of the four, and was also the only one that got along well with each of the other three. She calmed Formora, drew Eltereth out of her shell, and was so skilled with the little devil that we called her "the Idril Whisperer". Through the first half of my reign, she single-handedly directed the center of medicine in Uru'baen, though it was in its infancy in those days. She still faced a (frankly ludicrous) barrage of sexism that irritated her greatly, but she commanded respect by her mere existence. If she had managed to live longer, I think she could have worked out solutions to the unconscionable disparity between the various classes and their access to care.

Alas, she did not.

Kia was a giving person. When I asked her to fly into the Beor mountain range on a dangerous and very likely fruitless mission some fifty years after our war, she didn't hesitate. (This task was of a highly personal nature. Had I been in a more stable state of mind, I never would have sent her... but it is pointless to dwell on such things now.) I never saw her again. I know, from what little Morzan could piece together of the scene, that there must have been a battle between her and some opposing force. I can only assume it was Brom or one of his lackeys that arranged the ambush. Kia was a talented mage conceptually, but in an outnumbered duel she never really stood a chance. Bad luck and poor planning ended Kia, through no true fault of her own.

There are many aspects of Kialandi that I do not understand. I know that I can never comprehend what it's like to live as a woman, slotted into a life that doesn't fit you because it's not the one you chose (or would choose). But, even more than that, I can't imagine the mental gymnastics it would take to be shown repeatedly how awful the world can be, then still put forth the effort to find good within its every facet. I know that, even in her disguise, she kept in touch with her father for the remainder of his days. He never changed his opinion of her, always referring to her as a spiteful and ungrateful spinster, even when it was her medical knowledge that eased the pain of his twilight years. And yet, when asked, she always spoke kindly of him, as if theirs had been a nurturing, healthy, respectful bond. I can't decide whether to be impressed or to pity her… Of course, were she here, she would humbly refuse either. Then I shall simply say that I was honored to know her, and I am lucky to have the privilege of missing her.

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Another lovely example of one tiny character thing giving birth to a whole new dimension in development. I had a character whose name was very similar to Kialandi, so without even thinking I switched the names early on. Cut to me re-reading the series later to find a pronoun discrepancy! What to do? Invent a convoluted reason why both versions can be true, of course.~ R+R if you're into that!

For my folks who are curious about gender stuff: In Kia's case, this journey could best be described as a "disguise" she was afab (assigned female at birth) and identified as such throughout the process, regardless of how she presented. This was inspired largely by the story of Agnodice (a greek physician that, if you haven't heard of, you should totally look up because she's hella cool!) I did toy with the idea of her being trans, but it never felt like a natural evolution of her journey. I'm totally down to have some discussions bout it in pms, if ya'll can handle the subject like grown folk.

Hiya Rat~ Glad you like it! :3