In the outskirts of a small town, Hester was born in a barn to her mother Ruth 50 years ago. She is from a place of dark landscapes, deep forests, and tall mountains. The sun rarely shines through the dark clouds that cover her home valley, so she grew accustomed to living in the dark. For 10 years, Hester grew with her mother Ruth and her brother Levi, finding her home in numerous sheds, barns, and alleyways. Eventually, in her tenth year of life, her mother got a job as a cook at a soup kitchen and managed to afford a small shack for them all to live in. They were happy for a few months. Until Hester’s sorcerous powers started acting up. Her mother had prayed the curse of their bloodline had skipped a generation, but Hester began to see visions of a black hound following her everywhere, causing her to grow more and more paranoid. She was always cold, trembling and teeth chattering even when the heaviest of coats was lent to her. She would often receive strange looks in town, as the family’s curse was relatively widely known due to her mother having grown up there, as well as many generations before her.

One night, she woke to the hound standing over her mother and brother. Terrified, Hester grabbed the candle by her bedside and chased after the hound with it into the night. She grew cold in the wilderness, though. Trudging along barefoot until the snow stung, then tingled, then… made her feet grow numb. Hester returned to the shack then, having felt she had chased the hound away. But in the distance, she saw a plume of smoke rising from where her destination was. In the end, Hester’s home had caught fire with her family inside while she was out chasing the hound. All she could do was watch and take in the warmth of her everything turning to ashes. And even then, in the heat of the flames that claimed all she loved, she felt cold. It was then that a man appeared behind her, telling her that she would be blamed for this, being a witch and all, and that she should come with him, for he ran a place where witches like her could be kept safe. Hester reluctantly agreed, and thus was taken to where she would call her home for the next 40 years. She knew not where exactly it was. Somewhere out of the dreary town many generations before her had called home. To a building, cold and sterile, where they didn’t treat her well. A Sanatorium.