Ais

Ais
by botanicaxu
Family Spouse Mellis Children Melloni
Profession	Trackt
Residence	Kezare
Ethnicity	Kerztian
Nationality	Lossandin
Homeworld	Taldain
Universe	Cosmere
First Appeared	White Sand

“I serve justice, Lokmlen, and justice belongs only to the Sand Lord. ”

—Ais

Ais was a senior trackt in Lossand's capital, Kezare, on the Dayside of Taldain. She is married to Mellis and has one daughter, Melloni. She was raised in an orphanage.

Personality & Appearance

Ais has a very serious, somber personality, though she reserves a softer side for her family. She cares deeply for her family and colleagues. Despite an eighteen-year relationship with High Judge Heelis, Ais maintains an air of formality in the woman's presence. Her disposition seems weighed down by her inability to catch Sharezan, a fear for her family's safety at the hands of her enemies, and a sense of guilt at her lack of religious fervor. Ais also harbors extreme emotions stemming from a deep internal conflict between her duty as a trackt, her Ker'reen faith, and keeping her family safe. Most of the time she keeps these emotions suppressed, as she seeks a sense of control over herself.

Ais has brown, shoulder length hair, dark eyes, and tan skin. She wears earrings and a Kerztian headpiece set with a blue gem. She wears the black uniform of a trackt, with a black cape marking her rank. She wears a sword and zinkall when on duty.

“All my life I have only wanted control, yet it seems to be the one thing I will never obtain.”

—Ais, to her husband.

• Images of Ais
• 

  by Botanicaxu Portrait
• 

  by Julius Gopez On White Sand Volume 2 cover
• 

  by Fritz Casas On White Sand Volume 3 cover

History

Ais had been hunting the crime lord Sharezan in Kezare for some time. She believed that Sharezan's true identity was Nilto but had been unable to find any proof. A recent raid left eleven of her men dead or wounded, including her second-in-command, Jedan. This, paired with a threat directed at her family, left Ais discouraged.

“Do not be mistaken, Ry'Kensha. I protect you out of duty, not desire. I hate you. I hate your kind. On any other day I would have applauded these men's efforts.

You will try to curry my favor. You will attempt to become my friend. You will try to laugh with me, to prove to me that you aren't what I assume. You may even save my life.

None of this will change my opinion. You are all that is evil on the sands, Lord Mastrell. If the time comes, I want you to realize one thing—I would rather die than live with the shame of being rescued by your vile powers.”

—Ais, to Kenton, following the first assassination attempt.

Lady Heelis ordered Ais to follow, and spy on, the acting Lord Mastrell Kenton under the guise of offering protection. Despite her hatred of sand mastery, her sense of duty compelled her to do all in her power to protect him from the assassins who were repeatedly sent after him, though she privately supported their ideals. Ais traveled to deep sand with Kenton and Aarik to meet with Lord General Raagent, but was not near Kenton when he was attacked by a Kerztian assassin near the deep sand border.

While most of her attention was focused on protecting and observing Kenton, Ais continued to direct the efforts to locate Sharezan through Tain, her new second-in-command. In an attempt to protect her family, Ais asked Mellis to take Melloni away from Kezare until she captured Sharezan, however her husband was not willing to leave. Ais used High Judge Heelis' invitation to attend Lord Admiral Delius' party where he announced the Helm's backing of the Diem. Ais also witnessed Kenton's use of mastered sand to save the Lady Mason's workers when their building project collapsed. After which she provided Judge Heelis with an update on both the Diem and the Sharezan case, asking for guidance on the morality of her assignment; but she was reminded that the Hall judges the law, not morality.

Following the fourth assassination attempt on Kenton, at the restaurant, Ais stayed behind to search for clues as to who was sending the assassins (and get a look at the damage done by Jon Acron's pistol). Instead, she discovered an anonymous note from one of Sharezan's contacts asking for protection to testify against Sharezan.

When she tried to leave the Diem to go meet with the anonymous informant, Kenton manipulated Ais into allowing him to accompany her. After leaving a note to her husband at home, they went to an abandoned warehouse. When they heard somebody approaching with a limp, Ais assumed it to be Nilto and guessed that the meeting was a trap. They escape the warehouse right before it is blown up with napthani flame. Ais laments the setback in proving Nilto is Sharezan.

Ais traveled with Kenton and Khrissalla's party to Lraezare to find Lord Merchant Vey. As a representtive of the Hall, Ais witnessed Kenton's discovery that the ledger wasn't money owed by the Diem, but rather money owed to the Diem by the office of the Lord Merchant. She also witnessed Kenton forgiving that debt, as it was perpetuated immorally. She then witnessed Lord Delius' removal from the office of Lord Admiral, and the legality of his ownership transfer of the merchant fleet he had his son maintain. During the assassination attempt on the ship returning to Kezare, she was locked below-deck with Baon and could not protect her charge, but successfully lobbied to, at least, give the dead assassins a proper Ker'reen burial.

Ais travelled to the Tower to help locate the missing Lord General, despite Gremt's insistance that the Tower did not want to involve tracts. She discovered blood in Raagent's room and noticed the missing shalrim sheets, and deduced that he could not have been removed from the grounds with so many guards. When they investigate the wine cellar, a place most Daysiders avoid because of the darkness of a lightless cellar, She discovered the Lord General's corpse and realized that he showed signs of the type of torture that Sharezan prefers. Ais then realized that Raagent must have been her anonymous informant since he was also limping due to injuries incurred during the deep sand hunt.

After returning to the Hall, Tain informed her that he had found Sharezan. Tain handed her a zinkall and asked her to join him on the raid. When Ais asked how he figured it out, Tain said that it was Lokmlen's confession that gave it away. When they arrived in the alleged hideout, Tain raised his zinkall to Ais' head and revealed himself to be Sharezan. A shocked Ais admitted her surprise at this revelation and that she had suspected Nilto. Ais tried to use the zinkall he gave her to kill him, but it puffed and failed. Sharezan laughed at the fact that she had trusted him when he gave her the weapon, but that if it had been Nilto she wouldn't have trusted the weapon. One of his men knocked Ais to the ground and, knowing that Ais had a raging emotional conflict inside her, Sharezan gloated to her about the "project" he had planned for her.

“Duty? Or Family? If I waste any more time, all of them will die.”

—Ais, racing away from Sharezan's warehouse.

Sharezan told Ais that, due to her work, his operation in Kezare had been fatally compromised and that he would soon be taking some time off, but he wanted to indulge in a hobby of his before he left. He told her that he had Lokmlen plant a firetrap in the orphanage in which Ais was raised and that he was also going to attack "a more personal connection"; she wouldn't have time to save both. Then, leaving her with this dilemma, he ran off after instructing his men to hold her for one minute and then let her go.

When they released her, Ais ran into the streets in a panic, breathing erratically. She desperately searched for and found a trackt on the street and, between gasps, told him to go secure the orphanage and search for a firetrap. Then, out of breath and dejected that she condemned her family, she stumbled to her house. When she neared the house she heard a loud banging sound coming from inside; in a panic and afraid of what she would find, she ran upstairs. When she got inside she saw Tain, holding a sword, being thrown through a wall by Kenton. Kenton, holding Tain immobile with mastered sand, told her that Mellis and Melloni were safe and that this "assassin" was about to kill them. Kenton then explained that he had come to warn her that she might be a target of the assassins who had killed Raagent. When Ais told him that this attacker was really Sharezan, Kenton moved to kill him; however Ais stopped him, saying that Sharezan must face proper justice. Ais thanked Kenton, despite believing that doing so would make her a heretic.

After her run-in with Sharezan, Ais decided to leave the trackts, but Lady Judge Heelis asked her to remain on duty one more day until after the council's meeting about the Diem. Heelis then asked Ais to attend Kenton's duel with her. Ais reluctantly agreed. After the duel, when the Taishin voted on whether to disband the Diem, Lady Judge Heelis gave her vote to Ais, claiming that because she was biased for the Diem—then the Hall's vote should be cast by somebody biased against the Diem, because she wanted Kenton to prove that he could win over even the people most firmly set against him. Ais recalls her outburst at the Lord Mastrell after the first assassination attempt, but reasons that he saved something more impoertant than her life—her family. And he did so while abiding by her terms. Ais decided to vote to maintain the Diem, making the vote unanimous and saving the Diem.

Ais departs the arena feeling that she has now betrayed both her family and her god. Realizing that the assassins had to have been controlled by somebody with access to the Diem, she returns in time to hear Kenton's confrontation with Elorin and tells Kenton that she can attest his actions were in self-defense.

Now a civilian, Ais tells Mellis that she wants to travel to Ker Kedasha. Mellis insists on joining her, no matter how Lossandins are treated in Kerzta.

Trivia

• In the original, prose version of White Sand, Ais was male, and Mellis was his wife. This was changed to make the character more interesting.

Notes

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