Backstory

Inara Vesper Grym grew up in the suffocating shadow of a tragedy she was too young to fully understand but old enough to suffer for. She is the younger sister of Ash Grym , the 'Kinslayer' who inadvertently turned their parents to dust using a corrupted artifact. While Ash was exiled into the wilds of Coia, Inara was left behind in the settlement of Herthe, a town that viewed her with a mixture of pity and superstitious dread. To the townsfolk, she is 'touched' by association, a living reminder of the destructive power of magic.

Orphaned and shunned, Inara learned that visibility was dangerous. She adopted a philosophy of radical pragmatism: never speak unless necessary, never trust a promise, and always know the exit. She survives by scavenging the outskirts of the settlement and running messages for the darker elements of the local trade guilds—jobs too small for mercenaries but too risky for most children.

Every month, a pouch of silver coins appears in her meager hiding spot—a hollow beneath the floorboards of a derelict tannery. She knows they come from Ash. To the town, she claims to find them scavenging; in her heart, she wrestles with the knowledge that her survival is funded by the brother who destroyed her life. She hates the magic that defines her family's history and refuses to touch anything resembling magic, preferring the cold reliability of steel and silence.