Corsanika Norskai is a striking human woman with pale blond hair worn in a thick, severe braid that reaches her waist. The braid is threaded with tiny black iron rings, each engraved with the name of a dead Norskai ancestor. Her skin is winter-pale, but not delicate, with the dry texture of parchment at her knuckles and a faint flush across her nose from years spent near hot forges and hearths. Her jaw is broad and powerful, and when she smiles, which is rare, her upper canine teeth show slightly over her lower lip, giving the expression an unexpectedly wolfish edge. She waits with her weight settled on the balls of both feet, never leaning against furniture, as though a fight or a decree might begin without warning. Her beauty is controlled and mature, sharpened by dark makeup around her green eyes. The contradiction is in her hands: elegant, ring-laden fingers, but blunt, heat-roughened palms and blackened nail beds that never quite clean.