Cathak Ajilon
Cathak Ajilon
Ajilon was the third child born to the union of Cathak Arrani and Cathak Eravel. She was a precocious, observant children who found amusement and wonder in many aspects of her household, much to the frustration of her older siblings. Her teachers found her quick and inquisitive, focused on detail and consequence. She became an excellent Gateway player and because of this and her general disposition her tutors strongly suggested to her parents that she attend Ilicar Academy in Imperial City, thinking she would make an excellent politician. By the time she was ready for school, Ajilon had become an accomplished Gateway player and was gifted with one of the few possessions she holds dear, a bejeweled Gateway set from a favorite Cathak aunt.
At Ilicar Ajilon did moderately well in her studies questioning details and rationalizing advantages that were gained or lost. She took great pleasure in organizing the other children into study groups and teams, often bumping heads with a few of them. Her greatest opposition came in the persons of Mnemon Loric and Tepet Pellor. The three seemed always at odds the first few years of their schooling. It wasn’t until Cynis Haim took it upon himself to mediate one of their disputes that they managed to come away without snarling at one another. Two years later the four had become close friends. While the competition between the four was never-ending they did all they could to ensure that they were not bested by anyone else.
Mnemon Loric, unsurprisingly, was the first to Exalt though the others followed quickly on his heels.
At age 13 Ajilon returned from a combat lesson to announce to her friends that she planned to join the legion. Ajilon wrote to her parents to request enrollment in the House of Bells where her friend, Mnemon Loric, would be attending. Pellor and Haim were both destined for the musty halls of the Spiral Academy. All four families encouraged the friendships of their children, seeing advantage in each. Both graduated the academy in high standing and were immediately commissioned as officers in the Legion. Two ministries quickly snatched Pellor and Haim up. Throughout their schooling the four kept in contact as best they could but upon graduation sought the others eagerly.
While attending a party thrown by Tepet Pellor, Ajilon met Arakasi, one of Pellor’s older brothers, thrashing several younger Dragon-blooded at Gateway. Ajilon knew of Arakasi by reputation, but had never met him because Pellor distrusted Sorcery and was very intimidated by her brother, as were most who met him. Unable to resist the lure of the board, she challenged him to game after game of Gateway. Although he won the majority of the games, she bore him no ill will for her repeated defeats. Instead she found him fascinating, oblivious to the cloak of cold detachment and disinterest he wrapped himself in. Although they didn’t speak at all that night, she found herself drawn by his obviously brilliant mind, his daunting presence a challenge to her adventurous spirit.
She studied him from afar, even making a single visit to the Heptagram to see the fabled school of magic. The more Ajilon learned of Arakasi, the more she became determined to know more, to understand him. Her friends thought her rather deranged or enspelled, except that clearly Arakasi himself was as baffled as they. Ajilon became convinced that Arakasi would make an excellent husband and father, as well as a terribly powerful ally. Her mind made up, she approached her family, and proposed the match to them. Although not thrilled with the prospect of her marrying a Sorcerer, they couldn’t refute the value of the match to both strengthen ties with Tepet and it’s Legions in the days to come, and the usefulness of magic.
Arakasi was baffled, but flattered by the attentions. Always aloof and disinterested in Dragon-Blood society at large, he had never noticed the girl before, although she was no stranger to his family holdings. Her fascination with him and her seeming immunity to his daunting exterior did much to endear Ajilon to him. But he thought little of it until his family approached him with the prospect of marriage. In an abstract way, he had always assumed he would be married by his family, but the fact that a young attractive and intelligent woman had it in her mind to be his wife quite surprised the Sorcerer. This did even more to win both his trust and his ardor for the fiery girl chasing him.
The courtship and marriage proceeded relatively quickly, and within three years of their first meeting, the two were wed. Now more than slightly fond of one another, the two made a good match, each respecting and appreciating the drive and intellect they found in their spouse. His thirst for knowledge nearly matched her own innate passions, a fact she could appreciate, and her nimble agile mind never ceased to amaze him anew.
