Nasnan Aliph

My name is Nasnan Aliph. Nothing is very special about me, and that is true for most of my history. I grew up in Radan, part of a loving family and learning to become a married housewife like many girls from our village. I visited the village festivities and danced around the maypole, flirting with boys and men.
One day, a man came into my life and changed it.
There were three of them on that path home, and it was already late at night. I hardly remember what I was doing outside at that time. It?s all a blur now. The men were jeering and jesting, and were obvious in their desires. I don?t want to think what would have happened if he had not interfered.
I was curled into a ball as he took the first man, and I didn't want to see the rest. It was a huge man, a whirlwind of swords as large as my forearms, at least. He took care of my assailants effortlessly, and I ran back into the woods before he could focus on me.

The experience had shocked me and invoked an irresistible urge to never let something like that happen again. I took to training myself, asked people for lessons in wrestling and sword fighting. And I looked for clues who the man was that had saved me. I found out that he was a Low Lord of Radan, and that he had founded a school.
I learned more about Lord Inukai and his school and a new purpose entered my life.
A year after my first encounter with Lord Inukai I presented myself at his school. I had to fight one of the teachers to gain a place there.
I lost.
I thought it was all over, that now they would tell me I should go home and lay down my sword, marry a man like a good Radan girl should. I winced despite my split lip. The teacher helped me up and nodded once. An attendant took me to a sober room with a washbasin and a bed. I was accepted in the school and the first hurdle on my path was taken.
I soon learned I was progressing faster than many men in the school. I was placed in the elite student?s class and had to work hard to keep my place there.

Ever since, I've lived in the School. It?s a school he found on the Mori'gil Estate after he was made a Low Lord there. It?s not a bad life for men and women. The school is a place where women get a chance to be more than the married housewife, the mother of a baker?s or weaver?s children. For them, it's a chance to be someone.
Still, it is in my nature to be demure. I do not like to be in the centre of attention, and I never have to be. It is enough to know that my Lord Inu'kai is pleased with my services. I owe my life to him, so it's only a small service that I give him my life. It is filled now, a life of servitude. I am at the shoulder of my Lord and stand with him through many trials. But I know, I alone, that I am not just a woman in service.
I am a woman.
And without Lord Inukai, I will be nothing.