| Sherin | |
|---|---|
| Title |
Sister of the Fifth Order |
| Member of |
Fifth Order of the Faith |
| Culture | |
| Family |
Unnamed (mother) |
| Book(s) |
Blood Song |
Sherin was a sister of the Fifth Order of the Faith, the order of healing, whom Vaelin meets during the week long exchange with brothers and sisters from different Orders.
Appearance and Personality
Sherin is slender, with dark curly hair, and a youthful pretty face, though her eyes hold a wealth of experience well beyond her years. She is an especially skilled healer who surpasses even the Aspect's skill in many areas. She cares deeply for the people she helps. The other brothers and sisters of the order respect her, but also resent and envy her skill, which make Sherin quite closed off.
History
Sherin's mother was a thief and a whore in Varinshold; she never knew her father. At the age of eleven, her mother stabbed a man who caught Sherin picking his pocket. Her mother was arrested and hanged, leaving Sherin a orphan. One day, a sister of the Fifth Order found her, and brought her to the Order house. Her Mother was freed from prison by King Janus and turned into his spy. She changed named after Vaelin Al Sorna chose not to kill her and became the Lady Veliss in Cumbraelia.
In the Fifth Order, Sherin learns to be a healer, and after graduating serves all over the Realm, including a year spent as Fleet Lord Merlish’s personal physic. In the order house in Varinshold, she keeps herself isolated from the others, many of whom envy her special skill at healing.
Blood Song
In the traditional week long exchange with brothers and sisters from different Orders, Vaelin is the only brother of the Sixth Order to choose to be placed in the Fifth Order. Aspect Elera Al Mendah assigns him to Sister Sherin.
Many of the brothers and sisters of the Order are warm and enthusiastic to meet Vaelin. However, Sister Sherin proves a taciturn individual, who gives him menial jobs, fetching and carrying, cleaning and laundry work. One day a criminal called Gallis is brought in for help by the Realm Guard. While Vaelin is out of the room, Gallis stabs one of the guards, and holds a blade to Sherin's throat. Vaelin returns and instantly saves her. Unfazed, Sister Sherin calmly continues to heal Gallis's wounds. Afterward, Sherin slowly becomes more amiable with Vaelin, and began to impart some of her knowledge. Vaelin begins to have increasingly strong feelings for Sherin.
When Vaelin saves Aspect Elera from would be assassins, he succumbs to poison on one of their blades. Sister Sherin treats him with a risky treatment of Joffril root. During his delirium Vaelin tells her she's beautiful. In the end, Vaelin's strength gets him through.
Afterwards, the two would not see each other for many years. She spends time serving in Fifth Order missions in all four fiefs of the Realm, and also the Northern Reaches. She has also been working on a compound which may offer some hope of a cure for the Red Hand.
However, when she responds to a call for help from the healing house in Warnsclave, she is taken hostage by Hentes Mustor, the usurper of the Fief Lord of Cumbrael. She is taken to the High Keep in the mountains to the north of the fiefdom. She was held prisoner for seven weeks. Hentes visits her most days, and seemingly struggling with the voice in his head that he believes is his God.
With war between the Realm and Cumbrael, Vaelin's force infiltrates the keep thanks to a particularly skilled climber. Vaelin confronts Hentes himself in the Lord's Chambre. He is shocked to see Sherin held hostage, and drops his weapons. Hentes seems torn between the voice in his head, and guilt for killing his father. In the end, Hentes seems on the verge of giving up, but Brother Barkus arrives and seeing Vaelin unarmed, kills Hentes with his axe. Sherin and Vaelin enjoy a brief time together again, exchanging stories about their experiences over the last few years. However, Vaelin eventually must leave to bring Brother Nortah to justice.
Years later, the Unified Realm goes to war with the Alpiran Empire, invading the northern coast to annex the rich ports. Sherin speaks out against the war as founded on lies and contrary to the Faith. The King and the Fourth Order arrest the famed healer as a traitor to the Realm. She is imprisoner briefly in the Blackhold, but Princess Lyrna takes her into custody in the palace.
Brother Frentis comes to Varinshold bring Sister Sherin to help with a breakout of the Red Hand plague in Linesh. She is allowed to go, but must remain a prisoner. Vaelin is shocked to see Sister Sherin brought from the ship in chains. Enraged, Vaelin beats Brother Commander Iltis, and might have killed him if Frentis hadn't hauled him away. He orders the brothers of the Fourth Order to be imprisoned, and burns the King's instructions for the prisoner without reading them, announcing that the King has ordered Sister Sherin to be freed. Sister Sherin's treatment for the Red Hand proves successful, and within two weeks the city is opened again. Sherin and Vaelin soon develop a relationship. However when the orders come for Vaelin to be handed to the Emperor, he sends Sherin with Ahm-Lin, the stonemason with the Blood Song, and his wife away on a ship. They were last seen sailing towards the West
Tower Lord
Vaelin has tried to see Sherin using his Blood Song, but it has now been three years since he's been able to see her. In his last vision of her, she is at a great height, as if she stood atop a mountain; and that she had been happy.
Queen of Fire
Although Sherin is briefly mentioned a couple of times, she does not appear. Vaelin takes Lady Dahrena Al Myrna as a new lover, although she worries that Vaelin still has feelings for Sherin.