Aela certainly knows she exists.
There has never been a doubt in her mind. She has known since the moment that greatness existed that she was destined for it. Aela doesn't know the shape or the shade or the how yet; but those are the specifics, things to be sorted out when the moment finally arrives.
She just makes sure that she always arrives and thus is always ready for the moment.
This one starts as nothing spectacular. It is another day but there is still promise for it because Aela has decided to walk this way. She has chosen her path and she chooses her steps without being told where to go or what direction to take. (There are storms bred into Aela - generations of windmakers and she is the daughter of a cliffdancer - and so the girl carries freedom in her flowing stride.) Aela is glancing him over - this stranger that chooses to emerge from the shadows - because he answers her with a surety that she has only encountered from very few. Her whiplash of memories seems to change nothing about his indomitable nature. He steps closer but there is nothing coming from him; there is nothing for her to see.
The golden girl has gotten too sure of herself. Aela didn't expect him to crumble into sadness or fall into a rage as some do. He was far too stoic for that. But she had wanted a tremor of... something. She likes the visual reminders that her gift is a powerful one and that Aela - a mere slip of a girl - is the one to make them react as they do. But her dreams of leaving another knock-kneed and trembling will have to wait for another day (or at least, for someone who is not @[Eight]).
She makes no motion to come closer to him. Aela simply peers up at him from beneath her thick lashes. Despite his lack of luster, he carries a presence with him. She can feel him in her mind - not prying but drifting through like a breeze. (Some part of her bristles against it - a brief but brilliant spark - but Aela isn't daft; the mindreaders and Magicians have taught her that this is the easiest way to communicate.) The dark stallion asks her a question and for a moment, Aela merely looks at him like he ought to know the answer.
But the girl rolls her slender shoulders, coming to understand the power that roils off him in waves. Even if she doesn't know what (or who) he is, like calls to like; Aela understands the power of him because of the untapped potential with her. My future, she tells him, somewhat toying with the Magic in front of her. Do you know where I might find it?
so this was started with bourbon the night before and ended this morning with a PSL - enjoy.