Character · Auren
Aelis of Dawn
Paladin-Commander · “the Mark of the Sun”
Born in 965 in Auren, on Farriers’ Row, below the Order’s stables, Aelis has led the Order of Dawn since 994. She is not tall; she is compact and broad-shouldered, with straw-coloured hair cropped with sheep shears, pale amber eyes “like old honey” and, across her chin, a thin white scar “like a second mouth held shut”. She has no Core: she is not a Weaver.
“I never believed the Clockmakers. I believe the light is waiting.” She believes in the Sun as in a person (“It was not born. It woke up”), and she is the one who proclaimed the Purification and led the Order to the Twilight Line.
On the Full Night she held the central mirror of the Zenith Rite and burned both her hands. She refuses to have them treated. She has declared Teo “taken by the shadow”, set a price on his head, and promised to perform the Rite again, “stronger”.
