For my latest Wheel of Time confessional, I'd like to cover Verin. Please note that there will be discussion of events from the entire series up to the end of Towers of Midnight.

I'm sure we all know how awesome Verin turned out to be, but how many of us expected that of her when we were reading through the books for the first time? When we first met Verin, she seemed very unremarkable, always lost in thought or taking notes in a notebook. She was the typical Brown Aes Sedai. Throughout the series, we get very subtle hints that there might be more to Verin than we realize.

Early in the series, we get that statement from Verin that is later contradicted by Moiraine. If I'm remembering correctly, we do not know the fact of the oaths being able to be broken by the Black. So, at the time, we probably all shrugged it off as a continuity error. Later in the Aiel camp in Cairhien, we see from Verin's point of view and the things she was saying and doing to the Aes Sedai that were captured after Dumai's Wells, along with the things she was thinking to herself. The thoughts were the most ominous part about it. Later in Far Madding when Verin gives a false name, her thoughts about why she gave her false name really start to make you suspect Verin of being of the Black. That makes you go back and question why Verin had given the dream ring ter'angreal to Egwene. I never could make the facts mesh. Later, we see Verin again when Mat finds her asking after Perrin and him with the charcoal drawings that she said a Darkfriend had given her. She gives Mat a sealed letter and makes him promise to do what the letter says if he opens it. The next time we see Verin after that, she is in Egwene's room and we learn the full truth of everything. Verin was a member of the Black Ajah, but to spy on them for the side of the Light, and she effectively listed almost every Black Ajah member in her notebook that she handed over to Egwene. Verin single-handedly outed almost the entire Black Ajah and warned that Mesaana was in the Tower without ever being suspected by the other members of the Shadow.

When we learned the truth about Verin, it was one of the biggest WTF moments I had ever seen in a book. I had to read the whole section a second time to make sure I read it right. Verin is probably my second most favorite Aes Sedai in the series just for how awesome she is, and for actually being an intelligent Aes Sedai instead of one of the squabblers.