Serissa Tovan
| Serissa Tovan | |
|---|---|
| Ser-ISS-ah TOH-van | |
| Created by | Damien (Jasrin) |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Occupation | Novice |
| Affiliation | The Grey Tower |
| Nationality | Illianer |
Serissa Tovan is an Illianer Novice of the Grey Tower.
Description
Bluff-faced and far short of attractiveness, she nonetheless possesses kindly pale blue eyes. Her face is somewhat plump with leathery and rather careworn olive skin. Her black mop of hair is normally tied in a slightly wispy bun, with flecks of white beginning to show at the roots. Her body is quite stout, the look of a woman who has borne a number of children and has never managed to shed the excess weight. She has an ample and slightly sagging bosom, along with wide shapeless hips. Average in height for an Illianer, Serissa all in all personifies the kindly but somewhat homely features of a humble farmwife.
As a person, Serissa is determined, loyal, and fiercely passionate. She is a great believer in hard work and achievement through personal effort and exertion. Whilst she is kindly and compassionate towards the unfortunate, she also occasionally shows a harder side to her character. This is normally shown when she witnesses great injustice or when the weak or those she cares for are harmed or threatened by stronger folk. As such, she can be ruthless towards those she sees as having committed great evil.
Biography
Serissa brought down her thrash hard on the boys bottom once again. She had a firm hand from decades tilling fields and milking cows, and so however the lad squirmed he could not escape her grip. She had also practiced long at punishing wayward children with a lash of the whip, and no one deserved that better than this one.
"YOU - WILL - NEVER - THROW - ROCKS - AT - ANOTHER - CHILD - AGAIN." She punctuated each bellowed word with another crack of the lash upon his bare and now red raw bottom.
"OWWW!" he howled in pain and humiliation. Jakeb had always felt the hurt he inflicted upon others should never be exacted upon himself as well. "You wait tell my father hears about this! He'll put you in your place Serissa!"
"THAT'S - MISTRESS - TOVAN - TO - YOU." She thwacked him another five times. "And don't be thinking Tolrin will be able to wreak any vengeance upon me boy! HIS - ARM - ISN'T - HALF - AS - STRONG - AS - MINE!" Finally releasing the wretch from her heavy grip, she allowed him to scarper out of her farmhouse and into the fields beyond. I do be wondering what will be becoming of this village for all its poor discipline and bad behaviour. They had discovered Jakeb throwing sharp pebbles at Samril the boy he disliked just outside the farmhouse. The Illianer farmwife had soon intervened. Sighing deeply with the force of a groaning tree trunk, Serissa turned towards the child being tended to by her sister.
"It do be alright now sweet one," Yerinna told the boy. "We'll have you fixed up in no time." Serissa's sister had always possessed the good looks and grace of the pair of them. Perhaps it also helped that she had only brought one babe into the world during her life. Still, she was best suited to showing compassion and kindness to others and was showing it now as she dabbed the cuts on the boys forehead with a warm damp cloth. I do be feeling concern for the less fortunate as well, but they do be taking one look at my worn face and do be not looking for a hug off of me. Still she was not bitter about her homely features, for she knew well enough that all those folk made by the Creator had a multitude of talents and helpful attributes that they should be grateful for.
Serissa herself was a born leader. After her husband had died of an aggressively progressing fever, she had managed to salvage her family and the strength of the farm. Yerinna and her husband partnered in overseeing the running of the farmstead whilst they managed to hire two or three hands during harvesting season. It was hard work keeping the crops growing and Serissa refused to take inflated prices from her fellow village folk, although she was less hesitant in this respect when dealing with the travelling peddlers. She was far from wealthy, but she did get by enough to be able make certain her children were secure.
Of those she had four, the youngest having celebrated his Seventeenth Naming day a couple of weeks previously. Joshrin. And the three others: the girls Saleema and Tashana, and her eldest Rolfin who had just crept past thirty. Rolfin had a broad pair of shoulders on him and a strong hand, he took after his mother in respect to his hardy work ethic and commitment to the farm. She was confident that when her bones finally grew too old for the heavy work, that he would be well placed to continue the many duties that farm life demanded. And that did be giving Serissa comfort...
Placing her thrash safely in its traditional spot in the cabinet of her entry hall, Serissa reflected on the times she had used it in the past. As a high-standing member of the Women's Circle, the village folk knew that she reserved the right to use it on their wayward children. As to her own brood, Serissa had needed to use it rarely and irregularly upon them: and doing so had always pained her greatly. Still, they were good children really and now they had grown she confessed herself proud of them all.
"You will be a long time healing the poor child with that makeshift cloth." The mysterious and strangely commanding voice interrupted her thoughts and Yerinna jumped up and brought her curative efforts to a sudden halt. Standing without any explanation in the middle of Serissa's entrance hall was the most majestic woman she had ever laid eyes on. Oh, she was pretty enough yet what most impressed the simple farmwife was the woman's bearing and he manner in which she radiated simple authority. Her healthy head of glossy flaxen locks hung far below her shoulders towards the middle of her back, and sharp green eyes seemed to flay each of them with a simple stare though the woman was not looking at them in an unkindly manner. It was then that Serissa noticed with a start that their uninvited guest was wearing a rather fine blue silk dress and several pieces of ornate but not overbearing jewellery. Had an important noblewoman just entered her farmhouse of all places...?
And then she noticed another curious oddity: despite the fact that this lady stood only several paces away from her, Serissa could not possibly have fixed an age to her. In truth, she looked young and fierce and beautiful... yet in some strange sense, those smooth cheeks seemed to have seen more life than immediately suggested by outward appearances. And the eyes... there was a wisdom and an experience within that gaze that was astounding. For all intents and purposes, she was seemingly ageless.
But the humble farmer did not have long to wonder what the meaning of all these peculiarities could possibly be for soon she was watching with awe as the stranger knelt down before the injured boy and placed her hands upon him. For a few moments, the boy gasped and jerked heavily in her arms as if he were being doused in winter-chilled water. And in that instant, his scars were knitting themselves together again until clean healthy skin lay where nasty wounds had lain before. The child was looking up at his benefactor with a look of bewilderment and near-worship.
"Aes Sedai," Serissa murmured, curtsying deeply in respect and no little fear. She had never seen one in the flesh before but after witnessing that incredible display, was certain that was what she was staring upon now. "You do us great honour by gracing us with your presence. Might I fetch you some of our fine sweetcakes or perhaps a pitcher of our famous wine...?" Light above, Serissa did not think she had ever behaved so meekly towards another person in all her life. She had always been the authoritarian one, who by the sheer force of her will could enforce justice in their modest village and be certain that the less fortunate were well seen to.
"Your courtesies are well appreciated, good woman." The Aes Sedai smiled at Serissa warmly, and somehow it eased the tension in the room seeming to fill it with light and a sense of welcoming and togetherness. "But there is truly no need for you to rush about on my account when I have after all intruded upon your privacy uninvited." Even so, the sister did not make any move to excuse herself and in fact strode closer to the two sisters as she spoke. "Forgive my presumptuousness. My name is Viranya. You might be able to assist me in some small way however... if that is what you desire. I cannot force you of course... but I am looking test folk in your small village who might have the potential to become Aes Sedai themselves one day."
And with those words, Yerinna began to shuffle backwards as if hoping she might escape the Aes Sedai's malevolent attentions. It was a sentiment that Serissa could well understand, for it was one thing to respect Aes Sedai and another altogether to actually consider joining them. The sister was staring at them both intensely now, seemingly committed to her task and unsurprised that they were hesitant. Yet something told Serissa that whatever they told the woman, they would find themselves acquiescing to whatever "requests" she made of them. And besides, Serissa did not merely feel fear at the notion... she also felt a strange and overpowering sense of temptation. Have I not done well as a humble farmwife? How much better might I help people if I were Aes Sedai...? She stepped forwards boldly before speaking:
"I will take your test Aes Sedai."
It turned out that the ability had been strong in their bloodlines. Her youngest daughter Saleema and her sister Yerinna were both mounted on horses alongside Serissa. Coming along as well were three other women of the village, apparently rather successful pickings for such a sparsely populated place. Viranya Sedai, who had later told them she was of the Blue Ajah, had advised them that soon an Asha'man would also be sweeping the area for men. Apparently they were not headed for the White Tower, but the Grey... it had grown larger and more influential than its rivals in recent years. All around her were beaming faces, scared but excited about what was to come. Yet Serissa did not smile... something Viranya Sedai had told her still troubled her.
"I am not sure it would be doing you a kindness to take you along," she had said, during a moment alone with Serissa. "You have the potential to learn, but you will be by far one of the weaker novices to train. You probably can go far enough to become Accepted, but Aes Sedai...? I have grave doubts. Imagine how you will feel when your sister and even daughter rise far above you? I hope you are prepared for a hard life indeed, child."
But Serissa had been insistent that she wanted to at least have the opportunity. When had she ever shied away from a challenge...? And yet still she did not smile. She had a feeling that life in the Tower for initiates was far more difficult than that suffered by even the hardest-working farmhands. And if the Aes Sedai's opinion was any indication, she had many decades of training to look forward to if she was ever to have even the slightest hope of being fully raised. Yet Serissa did not confess uncertainty or beg to be allowed to turn back. Instead she gently kicked the side of her mount and caught up to the others, with a look of stolid resolve in her kindly blue eyes.
Career History
- Novice
