The Past
For the longest time Zandelia had thought her parents were both possessed of a deep love for her, that they had died at the hands of the brutal slavers of Sunberth so that their hands could grasp around her budding childhood and warp it for their own ends. She had been half-right, her mother had loved her, Had taught her music and dancing, to enjoy life where she could and though she was little more than a fond memory now It was a memory untainted. Her father, however, was a different story.
It had been he whom had sold Zandelia to the slavers, along with her mother, for good gold and the promise of self-advancement. Her mother died when Zandelia was taken at the age of twelve, protecting her from the hired thugs as Zandelia watched the blood pool from her position under the bed. From there it was a brutal existence for many years. At first it was merely hard labour, a defenceless thing to hurl blows at when business did not go well for her 'Master'. Alone, pained, likely to die soon. That was they way until a small child entered the scene, even younger and far more innocent. Fallon. She took to being a protector, to save herself as much as the little one she cared for.
It continued in harshness for many years, the abuse turning to the sexual and more as her 'Master' grew older and crueller. She thought that she would be broken forever, likely would have been had she not had her charge. As it was, under circumstances that are still hazy to this day, they both won their freedom – she losing her eye in the process. Wandering the streets, feverish and delirious and having lost Fallon in the streets of Sunberth she collapsed and awoke some time later in the bed of a healer. It took many seasons to fully recover, the compensation required after losing her eye and the illnesses after meant that by the time she was fully healed her past life had been washed away as by a great tide.
It was a Nuit next, though she did not know he was of the undead at the time. He did not use her as thoroughly as her slaver owner, did not technically own her at all, but the damage Garret unleashed upon her was surely as damning. He taught her the ways of the sneak thief, the spy and the murderer – for his own ends and advantage. She lost herself for a long time, she still does not know exactly how long. He fed her lies about her father, even took her to his grave – a fake of course. Eventually she outgrew him and when she tried to strike out on her own he tried to stop her. The last she saw of him for some time was a crawling body in a burning shack.
She worked alone for a time, helping merchants sabotage their rivals and wives outplay their adulterous husbands. She assisted gangs and grew to know the Syndicates of Sunberth and the associated players. She never made it much higher than the middle ground, found it a bitter taste to her tongue after what she had experienced in her short but mostly horrible life. She had youth, she had experience but she didn't have the edge – couldn't seem to understand whatever it was. It was time to seek something new, to try to improve and she knew she wouldn't do so with a bloody boot on her back.
From there she travelled the world for some time, meeting other peoples and experiencing cultures that Sunberthians could only dream of. She returned to Sunberth after a year or so, determined to make something of herself and of the city which, though free, now seemed to be petty and smalle compared to the grandeur of cities such as Nyka and Ravok.
The Present
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