MOGHEDIEN
Moghedien was an 'advisor for investments', a profession that no source explains… it is recorded that she was cautioned a number of times, and even disciplined, for violating its ethics and the laws surrounding it.
- excerpt from 'The Forsaken'
Almost before she had finished reading the message in her hands, Lillen Moiral was making the necessary preparations that she had known she would need a long time ago. In fact, that was not entirely accurate; she had made the necessary preparations when she had realised she would some day need them, and now it was simply a matter of putting them into effect. Lillen had never put off a contingency plan any longer than she had to. She had always been fully aware of the risks, and she refused to be a victim of circumstance when she could see the danger coming.
Even in the old days, before she had found her current master, she had had plans like this in place in the event of the worst coming to the worst, and back-up plans in case they failed, and back-up plans for the back-up plans. Her changing situation had simply meant she had needed to step them up slightly, and be more prepared. There was no emergency that she had not thought of in advance, no unexpected event that she had not expected. When it was her life at stake, Lillen was meticulous to the last detail. After all, she wanted to stay alive, otherwise she would never have gotten into this in the first place.
It had not been easy, these last few years, working her way into a position of trust among Lews Therin's administration. Espionage was a risky business, one that she didn't like to involve herself in, yet one into which fate had cast her, and with good reason. She trusted no one else with such difficult and delicate work, yet she hated the constant danger in placed her in. Now her fears were starting to come true, but she had to stay focused. It was up to her to save herself, now – her master would not lift a finger to rescue her if she was captured, except to make sure that she gave nothing away, and he had only one way of doing that… She swallowed, trying not to think about it. Concentrate.
Lillen hurried to the open window and climbed through, her feet feeling for the ladder she knew must be there. Carefully climbing down – no need to ruin a perfectly good plan by breaking her neck, after all – she lightly dropped into an alleyway and took a moment to get her bearings. As much as she hated it, she had to rely on someone else momentarily, but it was not as if she could be everywhere at once. The message would have been sent to one of her other contacts in the city, the diversion would be set in place. Wouldn't it? A useless thought. If it wasn't there was nothing she could do, she would be as good as dead already. She only had one chance, and she had to make it.
Quietly creeping down the path, she leant against a wall and waited. Didn't they understand that she never wanted this? They left her no choice! Every way she turned, she had felt them trapping her, tangling her up in their plans. She would not be a pawn to their foolish games, knowing there was no chance she could ever reach the top. Every time she had tried to branch out for herself, gain some kind of advantage on the road to advancement, they had found some reason to knock her back again. She wasn't going to stand for it. She controlled her own destiny. If she couldn't achieve anything by improving herself, she would do it by destroying others. And although it had taken some time, she had finally found someone who would led her do exactly that. Her new master.
Suddenly, a huge explosion a few blocks away knocked her off her feet, and she fell to the floor. A smile crept its way across her face, and she wanted to laugh exultantly. It was working! She shook herself mentally. No time to waste. There was only one route out of the city that she could use, and she was trusting to luck that the explosion would distract enough of the guards that she could get through it. She scurried away, looking for the path, trying to get through the gathering crowds unnoticed.
Yes, they had tried to tangle her in their scheming and intrigue, but now she was the mistress. Under the Great Lord, of course, but to run of the mill Darkfriends, what difference was there? Now she was the Spider, spinning her own web, and those caught in it would feel her poison. Poisonous hatred that filled her bones, made her unscrupulous, vicious, uncaring – and dangerous. There was nothing she couldn't do. She was all-powerful. This was the feeling she had dreamed of, the one they had tried to keep her from! Oh, they called her a coward, laughed at her for being cautious. But they knew that if they stepped over that line, if they stepped into her web, they would find out just what a coward could do. And those who didn't know soon found out, the hard way.
There it was. Her route to freedom. Of course she had known she would be given away eventually, but with the right preparations, there was no development that could not be overcome. She was about to make her way through the gate to the small sho-wing she had hidden just outside for such a circumstance when she saw that one uniformed man still remained. Apparently the sabotage and the explosion hadn't caused all the guards to leave their posts. She could use the Power to get through, perhaps use Folded Light to pass unnoticed, but who knew what attention that could attract? For all the uses the Power had, one of its biggest weaknesses was the over-reliance some people had on it. The sort of lack of lateral thinking that would allow someone using unconventional tactics to never even be suspected…
Lillen silently sneaked up behind the guard and pulled out a length of wire she had stored in her dress for just such an occasion. Couldn't let him see her face, of course – chances were every guard in the city had been told to watch for her. From out of the shadows, she reached, neatly wrapping the cord around the man's neck, and pushing her knee into his back, she pulled as hard as she could. The guard tried to cry out, but couldn't get the sound through his constricted throat. He struggled, but eventually Lillen felt the man's energy fade, and he collapsed against her. Quickly, she dragged the body out of the way, where it wouldn't be noticed straight away. Just long enough for no one to suspect until she was long gone.
She made her way through the gate and found the sho-wing, concealed under a tarpaulin in an abandoned lot. No one else knew that she knew how to fly, but then, it was facts like that which allowed her to do such things unsuspected. Climbing in, she noticed that some of the man's blood had spilled onto her hand. She dabbed it away absently. Soon she would be away, flying back to her home away from home, to Shayol Ghul…
Moghedien has been described as an out-and-out coward who scoffed at those who took open risks, but at the same time envied their achievements and hated them… yet those who discounted her too far usually lived to regret it. Many people did not…
- excerpt from 'The Forsaken'