Katiana Lucia Carreras

Name: Katiana Lucia Carreras
Age: 16
Nationality: Tairen
Hair: Dark reddish-brown hair to mid-back
Eyes: Deep blue
Skin: Deeply tanned
Height: 5'1"
Voice: Smooth and deeper than you would expect for her size, often prone to shrill yelling
Other: Birthmark shaped like a cat's head on her left hip, towards the back. Curvy tending towards plump.
Special Skills: Left-handed, good with math, skilled (but not master) portrait painter.
Knowledge Weakness: Knows nothing about the White Tower.
Physical Weakness: Poor balance and partially deaf in her left ear from a sickness as a child.
Personality Weakness: Hates Aes Sedai and usually angry and indignant.
Personality: Overly mercenary, she sees life much as an accountant would, weighing the debits and credits and making most of her decisions based on what would benefit her the most. She's not uncaring of other people, just less caring. She considers it her right to be in a higher caste than most others and has trouble letting go of what she feels are her rights, not privileges, in life. She has had absolutely no interest in learning to channel and has only come to the Tower to be an Aes Sedai because her entire life has been ruined and taken from her by the fact that she can channel. She has a soft spot for animals and small children, and dearly wants to have kids of her own.
= Character History =
Katiana Lucia Carreras was born into the notably small caste of merchants in Tear that were wealthy enough to live in relative splendor, but not influential enough to deserve the title of noble house. She was educated with the goal of trading first and foremost, and she was a natural whiz with Math in particular. By the age of 14 she was engaged to be wed to a minor noble's third son, which would give the girl what she'd always wanted, a title. She was to be Lady Katiana Lucia Terava when she turned sixteen and wed the 29 year old Lord Anigo Terava. As the big day approached, Katiana was in a flurry of activity and glee. She had settled all the plans for the catering and wedding cake and the plans for the doves and the swans and there was even to be an Ice sculpture formed in the shape of two dolphins, bent together to form a heart. Her father doted on her, the only daughter in a family of four boys, and the excited girl was given a nearly free rein.
She had met with Lord Anigo several times since their marriage was initially arranged by their parents and she was pleased with the choice. Not too terribly tall, the man had thick black hair that had just enough wave to curl around her finger. His beard was well-oiled and shaped and made him look quite dashing. She'd even gone so far as to allow the man to kiss her twice now. She already admired him and she could easily see coming to have affection for him as well. Everything in Katiana's short life was going perfectly until the woman came into the Seamstress's shop while Katiana was doing the final fitting for her wedding dress.
The gown was beautiful, with layers and levels of gossamer mesh and silk, seed pearls and embroidery, with a bodice cut low enough for the young girl to feel womanly, daring and sexy. The heavily poofed sleeves were slit with the colors of House Terava, crimson and silver, and the whole thing shimmered like a moonbeam caught in fabric. So entranced with her reflection in the mirror, Katiana didn't even notice the other woman in the shop.
The woman had moved over to the seamstress and they were talking in low, hushed tones. Mistress Carlita handed the cloaked woman several tightly-coiled sheets of parchment and they talked together for several minutes as Katiana gushed and babbled about her dress and her wedding. The woman thanked the seamstress and with her business here done, turned to leave. She paused just inside the door and watched the young slip of a girl all dressed up and pretending to be a woman. As she looked at the girl, she thought about how the number of novices in the White Tower was dwindling, that they were dwindling. Making up her mind, she raised her voice.
"You, child. Come here a moment." Katiana spun around from the mirror and stared, aghast, at the middle-aged or so woman who addressed her in such a manner. Gathering up her skirts in tightened fists, she stomped towards the woman, unwittingly doing exactly what the woman had told her to.
"Now you listen here, I hardly look like a child, do I?" Katiana tossed her head, her loose dark curls flouncing about her as she stuck her nose up, trying unsuccessfully to look down at a woman a full head taller than she was. "I'll have you know that I am soon to be the Lady Katiana-"
"Fine fine, yes yes, I'm sure you'd have made a lovely bride, but you're not going to be a bride, child." The woman stepped forward, stared severely into the girl's blue eyes, eyes that most people found arresting and demanding, and whispered with a sharp severity. "You, my child, are not going to be married because your betrothed, if he is anything like the other insufferable louts they have for Lords in this Light-forsaken city detest women who can channel. Of which, you are one."
"I most certainly am not! I would know if I could channel!" Katiana shrieked, forgetting herself in her tone of voice and the seamstress heard her words clearly and gasped sharply. Uncertainty flickered in Katiana's eyes and she glared at the woman whose work she had just been so highly praising. "Don't you dare say a word of this encounter to Lord Anigo, Mistress Carlita. Don't you DARE." She turned her severe expression back to the woman who was apparently one of those despicable Aes Sedai and drew in breath to give her a tongue lashing such as she had never seen, but her breath escaped her in a startled huff. The woman wasn't there.
----
Katiana woke up crying from nightmares the next three nights and as the day of her wedding dawned she looked drawn, anxious, and weary. Katiana's aunt did a beautiful job with her make up, and you couldn't see the dark smudges under her eyes at all, although no amount of powder and paste could remove the thin worry lines Katiana had gained at the corners of her eyes. Her aunt tsked softly and chided the girl about already looking like an old maid and it only being the day of her wedding and Katiana could only smile weakly in response.
She loosened up as the day wore on and real concerns replaced the phantom worries that the Aes Sedai would show up and spoil everything. Before too long, Katiana was in the waiting room beside the entrance to the garden where everything was at the ready for her wedding. Katiana's mother had just finished lacing her into he corset that would be worn under the dress when there was a discrete knock on the door. Katiana's heart leapt into her chest but she forced herself to be still and calm as her mother went and answered the door. She was only there for a moment before returning, a faint smile that looked forced in place. "Nothing for you to worry about, Katiana my dear. I'm sure it'll all be dealt with in short order. Now on with your dress."
And so Katiana found herself wearing the dress that she'd been wearing when the Aes Sedai had shown up and ruined her peace of mind, waiting at the door. And waiting. And waiting. She moved to the window and checked outside for the millionth time. She could see everyone in their seats, the local clerk who was to officiate her wedding, her friends as bridesmaids and Lord Anigo's chosen groomsmen. She bit her lip, smudging the lipstick, and worried at it. Where was Lord Anigo? She looked up at the sun and sighed, it was already a good hour past when the wedding was to have happened and she could only imagine how badly the dolphin ice sculptures were melting.
Her heart leaped into her throat as there was a single hard knock on the door and then it was swung open. She recognized immediately Lord Anigo's manservant, Esteran, and her stomach tied itself into a tight little knot of fury as she saw the Aes Sedai from the dress shop behind him. She hissed out a cold "How dare you show yourself here?" before they could even speak.
It was Esteran who spoke, his usually friendly and respectful voice suddenly cold and distant. "The Lord Anigo Terava has bid me come here and witness this... test. To see whether or not you can... channel." He couldn't keep the contempt from his voice when he said the last word and Katiana silently swore to have him flogged and then dismissed as soon as she was Lady and he was in her employ. The Aes Sedai moved silently over to Katiana with a look that was almost... apologetic? The nerve of the woman! Katiana glared furiously as the woman pulled a stone on a chain from her neck and held it up before Katiana. "Focus on the stone and concentrate child, this should take only a moment and then you can be off to Tar Valon with me."
Katiana gaped openly and then scowled, turning her attention to the stone because she knew the impertinent Esteran would refuse to leave until she had done this little.. whatever it was. Katiana's mother just stared, hands clasped together against her bosom and her face an expression somewhere between disbelief and horror. Katiana knew only rage and anger. She hated this woman and all that she stood for and she was so mad that she had to go through this whole farce anyway. Whatever it was that this woman was playing at, Katiana knew that she couldn't channel and would never want to. Who would? Especially when she had Lord Anigo to make her a Lady and give her the life she had always dreamed of. She focused on the jewel that the Aes Sedai dangled in front of her. It really was a beautiful stone, similar in quality to the sapphires that adorned the necklace Lord Anigo had given her when she accepted their parents plans for them to be wed. The first of many jewels that she would be given by her Lord during their time together. It took a surprisingly short time for the test to be complete, but it felt like ages of useless delay to Katiana. Then suddenly there was a faint spark of light in the stone and the Aes Sedai dropped her hands, startling the girl from her reverie. Her severe tone and clipped words sealed Katiana's fate neatly. "Whether you like my kind or not, you know that I can say no word that is not true. This child can channel."
Her mother's outcry was lost to her as Katiana's knees buckled and she dropped in place, landing amid a puddle of the beautiful wedding dress, her hands limp and her gaze unfocused. It was gone, it was all gone. She would never see Anigo again, she would never marry, she would never have children. Softly, she whispered to herself, "Today was my birthday. It was supposed to be perfect." Tears filled her stark blue eyes and further blurred her vision and she never even saw as her mother fled the room and told her father, oh he would be so disappointed and sad, the dire news. The whole gathered audience heard her mother's incredulous announcement and Katiana's grandmother fainted amidst the gasps. The festive air of the wedding that was never to come turned quiet and sad, grieving for the girl that was as lost to them as surely as if she had died.
Fearing backlash, the Aes Sedai got Katiana to her feet and out of the manor quickly. As they moved through tear, they made quite a sight: a cloaked woman leading a dazed girl in an expensive wedding dress through the streets of Tear to the river harbor. They boarded quickly, it was apparent this ship had been given orders to be ready to leave. Before they were even below in the cabin, they had pushed off from the pier and set sail.
Katiana was stunned into quiet obedience for the first two days of the long trip north on the river Erinin. The wedding dress she had worn onto the ship was packed away in a box and she wore the comfortable and soft, but horribly plain, blue dress that the Aes Sedai had given her. By the time she had recovered herself at all, it was too late to do anything about the trip and she regretted only that she hadn't had the chance to properly say goodbye to the father she had loved so very much and the mother who had always been there for her. Perhaps it was for the best, though. They wouldn't have seen their beloved daughter, but this reviled creature who could wield the one power.
Long before they reached Tar Valon, Katiana had recovered her sharp tongue and by the time they put into South Harbor, the Aes Sedai who had started all of this was happy to be rid of the girl. Handing her a note to give to the Mistress of Novices, she escorted the wildly complaining girl all the way to the tower doors and then abandoned her to one of the unlucky novices who was on greeting duty.
Category:Biographies
Category:White Tower Bios
Category:Novice Bios