Ailys Grayson
Description
Ailys stands tall for a woman, with a slender frame and relaxed bearing. Her midnight hair often is held back in a braid, but when it is "down" it is a riot of spring black curls that grow as much up as down her shoulders. Ailys's skin is a smooth light brown with an even complexion. Her eyes are a soft dove gray color, framed by thick black lashes; large and expressive with an earnest, sometimes solemn look to them. Her mouth is wide and her smiles bright, showing off perfect teeth that contrast well against her dark hair and dusky skin. Ailys carries herself with poise and grace, but also a measure of intent curiosity thinly veiled by propriety.
Personality
If there were two words to describe the former princess, they are 'earnest' and 'patient'. Mature beyond her years from the start, she demonstrates remarkable temperance and composure at all times, cut only with the sweetness and joyfulness of one truly treasured by her family. Ailys has rarely lost her temper or even frowned, except perhaps while reading a medical text in poor lighting. She possesses an intense calm, and is sincere in all that she does.
A pall was cast over the joy and light Ailys once exuded, however, since the Sack of Bastion. But both are still there, with new underpinnings of steeliness. Somehow, observers note, the former princess's temperament is nobler than ever before.
Background
Princess Ailys Grayson, daughter of Prince Rodric Grayson and Lady Daniela Bisland, was born with all the patience and composure that her oldest brother, Ainsley, would prove to lack. Those present for the event later joked that she came out of the womb with more poise and grace than even the most veteran of diplomats. So, of course, it is to everyone's dismay that she refused to become a politician, instead applying those gifts to perfecting her bedside manner in the field of medicine.
She knew early on that she would need to learn how to mend flesh and bone; after all, her siblings were always getting hurt in their training. Providing assistance in those moments came naturally. She instinctively tended to cuts and scrapes. It started with Ainsley but soon encompassed all of the children that trained under her uncle, Duke Gabriel Bisland, as well.
By the age of ten, she was watching a sparring match between two hot-headed young men, no adults in sight, that ended with one of the boys getting a particularly bad knock to the head! Ailys calmly took control of the situation, seeing to the injured party before getting her uncle's physician involved. Said physician was so impressed by her handling of the mishap that they took her on as an apprentice. From that day on, she received expert instruction in the healing arts. By the time she reached the age of majority, she was deemed competent enough to act unsupervised.
Ailys garnered an impressive reputation as both a trusted healer and a much beloved Grayson princess, devoted to both roles with humility and the utmost decorum. That is why it came as such a shock to the people of the Crownlands, in the shadow of the Sack of Bastion, she set aside all titles and noble privileges to live as a commoner. 'Such a sensitive soul,' the scholars wrote, cherishing her all the more for it.
