By Kayla Matt

Nyx is the caster who appears in Prodigy of Rainbow Tower and is the titular prodigy.  Her power is immense and she is a dangerous opponent.  Along with this is a temper that she tries to keep in check since a tantrum can take out half a village.  Many people have looked at her as a supporting character, but she’s on par with Luke Callindor.  In fact, there are times where she’s more of the main character than he is.  Her themes are rather interesting and I always hope I do them justice since one or two of them are hard to include without pushing her into ‘the crying woman’ cliche.

Building a Family

Nyx started a theme among the main characters in my book.  She began calling Luke her little brother and Sari became her little sister.  As an orphan, Nyx had her adopted parents, but she still seeks to surround herself with a makeshift family.  Possibly a fear of being alone, which hasn’t come up since nobody has an issue with this.  In fact, the other characters find it endearing and use the connections for strength.  In this way, Nyx has turned herself into the matriarch of the heroes and the one that all of them would protect above the others.  Now, she says that Sari is the heart of the group because the gypsy keeps everyone happy and smiling.  If that’s true then Nyx is the soul because her creation of a family is what helps bind these characters too each other.  I’m now realizing that this is what I’ll need to work with in the 7th book when the final champion appears and needs to phase into the team dynamic.

Weapon or Woman?

One of the biggest forces in Windemere is Gabriel the God of Destiny.  Nyx is one of his special projects and she was born to face a coming darkness.  Keep in mind that I said face and not defeat, so it’s not confirmed that she’ll win.  Anyway, with Nyx’s incredible power and this finely crafted destiny, she occasionally feels like she’s nothing more than a living weapon.  Her desire to make a family stems from this idea because a weapon wouldn’t have loved ones.  Still, she has worries about her identity and what others consider her.  I’ll admit that it isn’t an in your face issue because it’s a hard one to set off.  Her friends don’t talk her like she’s a weapon, so this is more for when Gabriel appears or another character has an unfortunate slip of the tongue.

By Kayla Matt

Life After Destiny

All of the champions are destined to face a coming darkness who is named at the end of Allure of the Gypsies.  As previously stated, this doesn’t mean they’ll survive and the heroes are quick to realize this.  Nyx actually figured this out before she ever appears in the story, which she reveals is the reason she doesn’t talk about her future.  In her mind, she could be nothing more than a cow being led to slaughter.  This is a woman with the power to take out an army and she knows there’s a possibility that it might only be so she can die destroying this enemy.  You can see Luke talking about life after adventuring and Sari dreaming of wandering the roads, but Nyx requires some prompting.  Many times she’ll go along with what the others say to avoid their attempts to cheer her up.  The truth is that until a certain character shows up to fluster her, Nyx feels like a dead woman walking and has never given a thought to her life after the final battle.  This ends up being a major point for her and I’m still not sure what will happen to her when she begins dreaming of a life after destiny.

Tough for a Caster

This is a minor theme and I’m not sure how to describe it.  Some people contact me about how Nyx takes hits and keeps on fighting.  Apparently, there’s the idea that a female caster has to go down in one shot.  Luke the male warrior can carry on with broken bones, but Nyx has to collapse from a backhand?  That’s not in her character.  She’s in the fray, so it’s hard for me to rationalize her coming out unscathed or falling so easily.  This leads to a few scenes where she’s physically pounded on and she comes back with a vengeance.  One scene in Prodigy of Rainbow Tower comes to mind where she’s badly hurt and refuses to give up.  Not going to spoil that because it’s one of my favorite scenes and I know a few people who read my blog are reading this.  Anyway, I never went along with the fragile caster for Nyx, so she’s going to be taking some major beatings and possibly earn a few scars by the end of this.