Noa Nyskovos
| Noa Nyskovos | |
|---|---|
| NO-ah Nis-KOH-VOHS | |
| Created by | Daniel Booth |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Occupation | Accepted |
| Affiliation | The Grey Tower |
| Nationality | Saldaean |
Noa Nyskovos is a Saldaean Accepted of the Grey Tower.
Description
Noa Caspian has long, straight, brunette hair that flowes down to her hips. Her green eyes are dark as jade, and she often times has been said to have them brighten up and sparkle similar to emeralds. She is typically dressed in the deep red and merigold of her late husband's House, avoiding the Silver and Blue of her brother's House at all costs. This will change though, as she will be in Novice White ere long. She has facial features similar to Sydias Caspian, though softened and more feminine; the only outward sign that they share any relation. Do not mention her blood relation to the First Reasoner however. They are not currently on good terms. She still blames Sydias for her son's death, and his face resembles her favored dead sibling's face, Sydias' twin brother Stephyn. She misses him terribly, and being near Sydias brings back too many painful memories.
Noa is a Noble through and through. Sydias may have fleeting moments where he seems like he could have been nobility, but Noa remembers her life in two Houses where Sydias acts more on instinct than memory.
Biography
THE PRESENT
Sometimes you must swallow your pride and except things as they are destined to be. Sometimes you must embrace what the Pattern has chosen for you, even if it pains your heart. Noa Nyskovos knew this, and this was what now led her to the rugged path leading to the massive walls surrounding the Grey Tower. Sydias Caspian, her older brother, lay on the other side of these walls. Just two years ago she had sworn she would never speak to him again, would never enter his lands. So much had changed since then. She had changed.
THE DISTANT PAST
Noa Caspian had grown up in the noble House Caspian in southern Saldaea with her older twin brothers, Daivon and Stephyn. They were ten years older than she was, and had always cared for her. Mom and Dad were always so busy with running the House and keeping track of the goings on of Saldaean politics, so she looked up to her older siblings as surrogate parents. Stephyn was the brash and daring one, while Daivon preferred to keep to himself.
On her fifth year of life, on the fifteenth name-day of the twins, a commotion was raised in the house. She did not know what had happened, but the two boys were very upset about something; something about a meeting that the boys were not party to, likely the planning of their Name-Day Celebration. She paid it little mind at first, but within three hours a strange man came to the door. Mom and Dad kept bowing and cowering before him. They called him Master. They called him Arturos. He would become a figure head in the lives of all Caspian children. She would learn humility and regret.
A SHORT TIME AGO
It had been nearly six months since Aidean had been murdered. There was bitterness that grew in a motherÕs heart. Granted, Sydias had not actually swung the blade that ended her sonÕs life, but in her mind it was all the same. He was in charge of her boyÕs safety in TelÕaranÕrhiod, and he had let her down. She had cut ties to House Caspian, shedding her name of Noa doÕCaspian tÕNyskovos down to a simpler Noa Nyskovos when she watched in horror as her sonÕs head rolled out from the bed sheets and onto her cold stone floor without ever seeing the blade that had done him harm. Had her green eyes been red, they would have burned SydiasÕ soul right out of his eye sockets.
Her husband, Ralbatore Nyskovos, had never understood what happened to Aidean. The poor fool still thought the boy was his son. She had been at least a month and a half pregnant with the boy before they met and wed, and she had been unable to bare anymore children since. She was so young then, and the things his father had done had left her far from innocent.
She had been out in the courtyard gathering flowers to place on her boyÕs grave when she heard the commotion and screams from the manor. She dropped her basketful of flowers and hiked up her dress as she ran. She twisted her ankle and fell; smashing her face into the hard dirt and scraping her face up. When she was able to stand and put a bit of weight on her ankle, she hobble-ran the rest of the way to the entryway and then up to where her husband had been sitting in his study. When she opened the door, blood covered six sides of the square room and bits of flesh had splattered against the beautiful furniture.
ÒNo! This can not be!Ó She screamed and wailed in agony, at first not seeing the message on the far wall: ÔOnce a Caspian whore, always a Caspian whore
THE DISTANT PAST
On her thirteenth Name-Day, Arturos came to knock on the door again. Two young men stood with him, both with raven-black hair. The Man with Green Eyes kept his hair cropped short, while the Man with Ice-Blue Eyes kept it long and flowing behind him like a mane. The eyes of green were afire with orneriness, but those eyes of blue were as cold as death. Mom and Dad greeted them as Sydias and Letum. She did not know these names, but she thought she knew those faces. She was unsure of herself. Arturos said that the time had come for Noa to start her training.
The Man with Green Eyes turned and aimed a hand towards the air a few paces from the house, and a doorway to another place opened up not far from them. Arturos said it led to one of his homes in a land far from here, a place in Cairhien. She wasnÕt given a chance to pack her favorite belongings, only barely given a chance to say goodbye to Mom and Dad. Arturos offered her his hand, and they left her house and headed for this gateway that had spun open out of mid air. A new chapter in her life was about to begin.
Three months had passed. Noa had been given an instructor to aid her in embracing saidar. She was not permitted to learn much, but she was told she had to at least learn to embrace the Power without it killing herself.
She found comfort in her time talking to The Man With Green Eyes, the one that Arturos named Letum. He called her sister, and she was willing to believe it was so. The Man With Blue Eyes went by the name Sydias, and he never called her his sister. He barely afforded her the time of day. Yet he looked identical to Letum save for those eyes and the length of his hair.
A knock came at her door, and she stood to open it. She wished she never had. Arturos was there, a look in his eyes. He moved in on the young, helpless Noa. She closed her eyes to avoid the embarrassment and painÉ
THE PRESENT
Tears strolled down her face as she rode her tan mare down that long and winding road into the Grey Tower. Her deep brunette locks shrouded most of her face. She had no desire to be here, but the Aes Sedai to her left had plans for her. The woman was an Illianer named Sofina Sedai. Her accent was very thick and almost annoying to Noa. The woman was dressed in a deep lavender colour, something about her Ajah. Noa ignored this.
There had been a silent tension that had grown with their approach to the Tower. Finally Sofina put voice to it, "We do be nearing the entrance now, child. Why do you look so sullen? Your brother Sydias has finished his training to Asha'man in the years since being here. Do you no wish to see him again? He do be the White Ajah Head. He do be First Reasoner. Fortune prick me, that do be something to take pride in."
"Daivon died years ago."
"I do beg your pardon?"
"Sydias is not his birth name; anymore than Caspian is a name I will continue to bear. I am Noa Nyskovos, and my brothers are both dead. It is best to let ghosts be, Aes Sedai."
Sofina only frowned, but for an Aes Sedai it was a thunderhead. It promised penance for speaking to an Aes Sedai so decisively. "Fortune desert me, the Grey Tower do be the safest place for you. The White Tower do be in civil war, and no one does know which faction do be stronger. You do throw kindness in the face of the Tower, a sanctuary for children like you."
Once again silence took the two women. They rode on, each in their own thoughts. Noa knew not what was on this womanÕs mind, yet feared it dealt with her. Her thoughts were on this place before her, the man within who had ruined her family, and the place behind her with the man who ruined everything else she had loved.
At long last, Noa breeched the silence. "The man you call Sydias is a lesser evil in my mind than that of the Dreadlord I am fleeing. I only hope that I can stand to look on his face. It resembles Stephyn's too closely."
The Tower Wall came into view. She felt a sense of warmth as they approached. This would be her new home. The gate went up and the guard allowed them entrance. A short distance further, and she would be at the Tower itself. Further still, and she would find the offices of the current Mistress of Novices, Serrah Sedai of the Blues. There she would sign her name in the Novice book and await the long journey ahead.
Career History
- Novice
- Accepted
