Asha'man Dekahda Volna, Daughter of the Queen Rigalain, was born in what is now called the Age of Legends. As a young woman she belonged to a scientific research organization called Brothers and Sisters of Enlightenment. This loosely organized society dedicated its work to enhancing the quality of life of the people and protecting the world against Shadow.

It is while there that Dekahda and her colleagues discovered a way to travel into the future and the past by using the Time Vacuoles. This discovery and the Prophecies enabled them to learn that in the future Saidin will become tainted by the Shadow, which will significantly lessen the Light's chances of victory.

While researching the Time Vacuoles, the Brothers and Sisters of Enlightenment discovered that there might be a possibility that placing a man who can channel inside the Time Vacuole may temporarily cleanse the taint out of him. This is because the man would be placed outside of Time and the Pattern, where the taint does not exist. He will "learn" the feel of Saidin without the taint and will be able to channel for a short period of time without the taint when he returns from the Vacuole.

Dekahda and her colleagues understood that their discovery was unproven and largely theoretical, and only a temporary solution to the problem of the taint at best. However, living without the taint may just help delay the deterioration in the male wielders' of Saidin minds and bodies, thus perhaps their maddness would be delayed long enough for them to live till Tarmon Gaidon.

Because of that, Dekahda was sent to the present time. She was to be the messanger, baring a small message of hope from the past to the channelling men of the present. That is how she found her way into the Black Tower and became its first female Asha'man.