School Years

Nia originated from Terintelptin, where she was raised as the youngest daughter of a baron. Since she had a number of older siblings who were expected to take over the family's agricultural trading business, her parents didn't have high expectations of her. They sent her away to Galsboro Royal Academy, a boarding school which was prestigious enough to sound impressive in conversation, but wasn't so expensive to put much strain on their family. Eleven year old Nia held enough resentment for being ignored most of her life that she was only too happy to start over in a place where no one knew her. Her years of being raised with the adage "children should be seen and not heard" served her well; she was quick to make observations on her classmates and carefully approach them with offers of quiet friendship. Nia spent more attention on those in whom she saw some potential, but still retained polite relationships with the rest of her class so that there was no apparent favoritism. She spent her first year worried that her classmates would catch on to what she was up to. By the start of her second year, she started to become confident in her role of "the nice shy kid" in her class. No one had any good or bad reason to single her out, and the most openly headstrong classmates had all made their stances to be noticed. Nia kept up her grades by befriending one of the most studious girls in her class, and her social life quietly thrived with many friends who were open to invitations for outings or who often thought to include her.

Most of her school years continued smoothly in that way until she was almost sixteen. A boy from another class had mistaken her quiet nature for subservience and began trying to pursue a relationship with her that she wasn't interested in. Nia had built up her reputation too thoroughly to make a scene of refusing him and sought another way out. While returning to the school grounds with a group of friends, she spotted a group of strangers near the gates who appeared to be sightseeing. They didn't appear to be interested in enrolling at the school and were likely just passing through. Nia abruptly made up her mind and pretended to fix her hair while actually loosening the ribbon she wore. As expected, it fell near the group and one of the boys picked it up in an offer to return it. Nia played off one of the more outlandish rumors that frequented the school and the exchange led to a subtle verbal agreement of marriage. She half thought that it wouldn't work, but her friends had been so interested in that particular rumor lately that they immediately agreed to its validity.

She was in even more luck as the boy who had been caught in her deception believed her almost immediately. His companions were quick to protest, but he talked them all into a compromise. Nia got to experience the first date of her life with a boy she had never met before, accompanied by people whom he claimed were his family, but looked nothing alike. Away from her school and friends, Nia found herself a little out of her depth and floundering to keep up. Rather than be upset, she honestly thought it was more exciting to not truly know what she was up against. Rob turned out to be fun, fast-paced, and interesting enough that she didn't protest when he offered a kiss at the end of their impromptu date. Nia was able to return to school and, armed with a story with witnesses to her new engagement, she no longer had to face problems from boys being too forward with her.

The one thing that Nia didn't truly count on was how seriously Rob meant to take their engagement. She would have been content with the single date and allowed the whole thing to be forgotten, but Rob made a point of scheduling visits to see her. He even surprised her with a proper engagement ring, which she accepted with cautious agreement that there wouldn't be any marriage happening until after her graduation from school. On almost every of Rob's visits, at least one of Nia's friends felt the need to tag along with her to make sure that she wasn't being taken advantage of. She didn't have the heart to tell any of them that she had orchestrated the whole ordeal. Even if she did, she would have to admit that the boy she had meant to trick had wound up turning the tables on her and she was developing an honest interest in him. Her relationship with Rob also opened opportunities to begin forming friendships and alliances outside of her sphere of influence at her school.

Nearly a year after meeting Rob, Nia finally sat him down to confess that she had arranged for their first encounter and to accept whatever he demanded in return for having put with with the deception. Rob's only condition was that they only call it off if she had no interest in him, since he didn't want to make her uncomfortable or upset when he had every intention of sticking with the relationship. It wasn't long after that when he presented her with rough plans to start off a company together, using both of their connections and abilities to make it happen. If they hadn't already been engaged, Nia would have proposed to him at that precise moment.

Adulthood

Nia and Rob were married almost immediately after she graduated. Their first steps together were to finally launch their fledgling shipping business. Between Rob's charisma and Nia's quiet manipulations, it was almost too easy to use their connections to establish all of the opportunities they needed. Rob proceeded to oversee the company from the front lines while Nia arranged all of the legal points. In almost no time at all, they had taken such a powerful foothold in the shipping industry that smaller companies were reaching out in attempts to be affiliated with them. While Nia's family didn't reach out to her directly, they did send an official request for an equal partnership. She took great pleasure in politely declining the request on her finest stationary and sending the company's fastest ship to deliver it.

While she was juggling a newborn and excessive amounts of paperwork, Nia's daily routine was interrupted by one of her closest friends being held hostage by terrorists. While on the surface she calmly listened to their demands, she inwardly seethed at the audacity. She caught Rob right after he had received the same message and quick coordination had him on the way to help lead the rescue while she pulled the contact information of her mightiest allies. The rescue was a success, the suspects apprehended, and Nia saw to it that the harshest possible punishment was delivered as fair trade for what had been done to her friend.

Trivia

Her full name is pronoucned as seh-vehr-chee-OH-nee-uh BRIT-zuhm.

Relationships

Rob [ love interest ]

River falls for Zeph very slowly and at first dismisses it as a crush. By the time she's fully admitted it, the two of them start a cautious relationship that's rocky with miscommunication for years, but ultimately successful.

River [ best friend ]

The two of them start out in the same general friend group and over time develop into close friends. River is one of the last to find out about Nia's curious engagement and ends up getting involved with Rob's group after looking into it.

Brinlea [ daughter ]

Nia's oldest child, who has more ambition than brains. Nia has not quite been able to turn her into the master manipulator that she was at Brinlea's age.

Anthony [ son ]

Nia's youngest child, who has all the intelligence and manipulative ability of both his parents, but very little ambition.