I am the son of Queen Elayne Trakand of Andor and Rand Al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn. I was not born with the power, although Andira, my twin sister, was. She will be queen some day and I will be her First Prince of the Sword. I am 20 years old, and have spent my life learning leadership and administration from my mother and her most trusted advisors, as well as family friends. I have often trained with the Royal Guardsmen, learning everything that I could from them about how to fight and lead men. I have learned logistics and grand strategy from the senior generals of my mother’s war staff and received special training at the hands of my uncle, Gawyn. The most important lessons that I learned, however, I learned from Al’Lan Mandragoran, the King of Malkier, when I spent a couple of years there.

My sister was sent to the Tower at the age of 14 to train to become Aes Sedai. That was six years ago. We write, but I miss her pranks. I keep thinking that I will wake up to find that she was just faking the whole thing and hiding all that time in the palace garden, playing with the squirrels or climbing trees. I remember when we used to get into squabbles just so that we could get grounded and not have to sit in court with mother. It was more interesting to be locked in our rooms than to be stuck in that place of oppressive ceremony. Andira and I always got along well. We rarely fought about anything for real. Most of our “fights” were over who came up with the best way to steal candied fruit form the kitchens or who could whistle the best imitation of a bird call that we just heard. It was a sad day when she had to go to Tar Valon. I don’t think that I could miss my mother as much as I miss Andy. I never had the opportunity to have real friends like common children have. Andy was the only real friend that I had. To everyone else, I was the eldest son of Queen Elayne. I was a political figure and far too important to be a simple friend. Everything I did or said was weighed carefully for hidden meaning and that tended to ruin most friendships that I tried. In the end, I really just gave up on finding friends who knew who I was and still accepted me as a person. Andy was the only person that I had to play with that would treat me as me and not as the son of my mother.

We were both stuck in the same situation and that made us very close. I remember one time when we were eleven. We got a rope and climbed over the garden wall and escaped to the city for a while. Eventually the palace guard found us and brought us home, but we had hours of fun just seeing what the common people were like and how they lived. We were scolded thoroughly for that, but I would say that it was well worth the scolding. When I pointed out that no one would have allowed us to go and see that without a large escort of palace guards in full uniform that would scare the common people and we would have not been able to see what they were really like, we just got scolded more. I was glad to see the good and the bad of the people to see that they were human. I understood them better from that day on. I even managed to enact a change suggested by one man talking to another on the street. It is a pity that I don’t know his name. His suggestion to repave Blue Swan Street and add a path along one side that was raised from the level of the normal street was a stroke of genius. Carts must pass on the lower portion, while only people may walk on the raised portion making it so that the people no longer have to dodge carts and wagons. Also, when the horses pulling the carts and wagons leave droppings, the people are walking elsewhere so they don’t have to worry for stepping in them. I told mother about it and she was impressed by the novelty of the idea. With the success shown on Blue Swan Street, other streets have begun to be paved in such a manner. Only a few have been done so far, the cost is high for roads that don’t need to be repaved, but over time the change will become more commonplace. I think that it will spread to other cities. Yet, with all of those common people out there, they are bound to come up with some good ideas, even if by accident.

There is now a way for the common people to suggest ideas that they have for improving anything and everything that the government has control over. These ideas are given anonymously unless specified otherwise by the suggester. The idea is written down (if the suggester is not able to write, a clerk will record the idea) and is then reviewed by a panel of the queen’s lesser advisors. They bring each proposal that has merit to the attention of the higher advisors who bring them up to the queen herself. Then the best are tried. It is a great way for the common folk to be involved in making their country a better place.

After Andy left, I sulked for a couple of months, dreading every moment without Andy there to talk to. We could always talk to each other when something was bothering us. Soon, Mother decided that I needed a change of pace to keep me occupied. I was sent to Malkier, where I learned from tradesmen and soldiers (including King Lan) the ways of the world and armies. They never really taught tactics or logistics, but I had the chance to experience the army from the vantage of most of the people who make it up. I got to be a cook and deal with the long hours of the cooks, I was a smith that repaired broken equipment, I was a leather worker, stable hand, soldier, scout, swordsman, armsmaster (who sees to the equipping of soldiers), and was exposed to the lives of many others while in the field. This experience made my later training all the more real to me, giving me insights into the reason that the strategies work and how important simple things, like an adequate supply of thread, can be. If there is no thread, uniforms and clothing cannot be properly mended. It makes for poor morale if your clothes are falling apart.

I spent two years in Malkier, before returning home to continue my training. That training continued until now, my twentieth year. It is time for me to gain the wisdom of experience once again. Now I am ready to strike out on my own. I have been involved with my duties since I became old enough to be let out on my own without an armed escort. I still am rarely let out without an armed escort, come to think of it. I have to insist on going alone to avoid it. I have had a talk with mother and we came to the agreement that it is time for me to get a view of the world from living in it. Her experiences traveling before Tarmon Gaidon helped mold her into the queen that she became. She learned a lot about people and herself that she might not have otherwise learned. It is my time now. I must go out into the world and seek my way. I must seek myself and learn wisdom from my experiences. This will help temper me into the role that I must play when Andy becomes queen. I must be ready to be her friend and closest advisor. I may even become her warder, although with the whole bond thing, that may not be the best situation once the two of us start looking to our marriages. I would feel odd with her personal life going on somewhere inside my head. We’ll see what happens with that.

Since Andy has been promoted to Accepted, she has been allowed to receive visitors and to occasionally visit home. I get to see her occasionally now. She has really grown up. She would probably be married by now if she weren’t training at the Tower. I have held off on marriage because I don’t want to be the victim of some loveless political marriage. When I marry, I want it to be for love. Some day I will find the right woman and marry. Hopefully she will not know my birthright and love me just for being me.

For now, I will go out and see the world as a man, not as the son of Queen Elayne Trakand of Andor. I will take men one at a time and treat them as men. I will have friends that treat me as a man, not as my birthright. I will live. And get away from that stuffy ceremony that always seems to be hanging around the palace. I will be able to sleep under a hedge beside the road again, like any common man might do. I will be able to walk into an inn and drink ale with a common merchant and swap tales of the road. I will be able to make friends who see me as who I am and not my political influence. I will be freed from my invisible chains for a time and be as free as other men.

At last my things are all packed. Now it is time to leave the palace, my home. The air smells sweeter and the light is brighter for some reason.