Lan Mandragoran

The war against the Aiel found him near Tar Valon, at the head of a mixed force of Borderlanders and Domani soldiers, exhausted men on snow-covered ground within sight of Dragonmount. Command sat on him as plainly as his sword. He walked his camp, took the measure of his men, and answered orders from lords above him without letting either weariness or doubt show through. When emotion pressed too close, he set it aside with the ko'di, the old meditation that let a man stand inside stillness and act from it.

His obligations he treated as absolute. He had given his word to remain until the war's end, and he kept it even while privately doubting that the Aiel were truly Darkfriends. He measured himself by what he had sworn, not by what was convenient.

On the roads of the Borderlands he traveled in small company, most often with Bukama Marenellin, an older Malkieri who had been beside him a long while. He was watchful there as he was in camp, slow to take strangers at their word and quick to notice when someone slipped away with a purpose they had not named. He offered courtesy without offering trust, guarded the privacy of those in his charge, and faced what unsettled other men, even the open workings of an Aes Sedai, without giving ground.