History
Lemma was born in windreach to an Vanthan man named Kave was visiting wind reach, expecting not to stay for long, but weather ended up trapping him in the city for a season or two. Kave was charming and told such beautiful stories and it wasn’t long before he had his fair share of admirers. One particular woman caught his attention. She was beautiful: Long, curled strawberry blonde hair, fair skin and a smattering of freckles. Her name was Gina, and though she was very beautiful, she was a Dek. She was afraid of his advances at first, unable to protest of course given that she was both subservient to guests as well as mute. Eventually Gina grew to trust him, and he was able to look after her. Being an outsider, he could not elevate her caste, however he could protect her from harm, he could let her sleep in his quarters, and he could help boost her happiness to the best of his ability. Eventually the two grew intimate, and Gina fell pregnant with twins. It was around this time that the snow cleared and Kave had to leave. He got into a fight with an Inarten of a high caste, for good reason, but none the less it was their word over the word of an outsider and he was forced to leave.
The offending Inarten had tried to take advantage of Gina, of course, he blamed Kave on starting the tussle. Kave tried to bring Gina with him, but she was quite sick, and was unlikely to make it through the mountains alive. Still Kave asked her to come. Gina refused. In words of pen and ink scribbled on the nearest bit of spare parchment, Gina told him that she could not leave her home- that she would never make it out there- that she hoped one day she’d be strong enough to come find him.
The twins were born, and the birth killed Gina. A commoner took Gina into the necessary to help her deliver. Gina passed away just an hour after the birth. Lemma was born healthy, though undernourished and smaller than she should be. Her twin sister Kyra was born with sever anotia and had no hearing in one of her ears. The two of them were brought up in the nursery, of course. Their mother wrote them both a letter before she died. The ink is smudged, and the penmanship is wonky. She then asked the chef to put them in two separate lockets. Kave had bought them both, one for himself and one for Gina, now they were for Kyra and Lemma. The two of the grew up in the nursery, and the chef who’d taken pity on their poor, pregnant Dek mother decided to take responsibility for them both. He made sure, when they were old enough, they knew who their mother was, and that they should unlock their lockets when they could read and write in Nari. Lemma was an early bloomer, and much smarter than her sister, who was very kind, but very slow and had troubles learning and taking in information. She was deaf in one ear, and had severe learning difficulties. Lemma soon realized this meant that she would become a Dek. Gina’s letter had told her how hard that life was and that she should look after her twin always. Above everything else help each other, care for each other, and never lay down and give up. Always keep fighting. So Lemma dragged her along on Bendi, sometimes falling behind on her own studies in an effort to MAKE her sister learn.
In her heart she knew that Kyra would never become an avora, so she tried to teacher her small things like baking and shop keeping. But it was obvious to the higher ups that she was going to amount to nothing. Still Lemma kept them from demoting her to the Drudges until she turned fifteen. Meanwhile Lemma was a very good at archery and hunting, good at glassblowing, good at falconry and top academically in her class. She found herself having two offers for apprenticeship, and because of this she began to distance herself more and more from Kyra. She found herself more interested in Arts than combat, so she put away her bow and talon sword and took up glassblowing, going on to create some beautiful things. Her sister helped out looking after babies in the nursery for a while, making it as a commoner. But they watched her, and as soon as she slipped up, they had their reason to kick her out onto the streets, so it wasn’t long before Kyra was fired.
Lemma never got the reason from her, maybe she was embarrassed and ashamed, or maybe they’d just grown too far apart. Lemma was compromising her status then by helping her sister. Terrible things happened despite her efforts. Lemma felt powerless to stop it. One day Kyra begged her ‘What if we ran away’
Lem told her no. She loved her life there, she felt important despite her lack of red hair she felt like an inarten and didn’t want to leave her home. She really relished in the attention she got from being good at her trade. The next few days no words between them. Lem went about her life. In a few days she felt bad, and returned to where her sister was sleeping to appoligise. The old chef who was housing her greeted her, and showed her Kyra hanging by her neck from a knotted together rope of clothes.
She couldn’t live on in that place after that. She couldn’t go on living her perfect life after finding her sister low enough to kill herself. She left the Windreach in the dust and vowed never to do anything for anyone again. To never care for anyone she couldn’t help again. To never put herself through the pain of love again. To live for herself and herself alone.
![[Note by Astator]](./images/note.png "[Note by Astator]")
