Soraya Nekova was born into a family of sorcerers called The Sisters of the Ashen Veil. Every woman for generations has possessed the natural gift that allow them to partake in their funerary magic. Even her older sister, Nereza, had the gift.

Each year the sisters tested her. They assumed with time the gift would show up when it was supposed to. They continued to mentor her as if she was part of the coven. Soraya spent her childhood convinced if she just worked harder that she would eventually feel the connection to the arcane that the sisters felt.

But it didn't come.

Every child of the Ashen Veil begins by learning to serve their community before they are entrusted with sacred rites. They prepare meals and fetch water for long vigils, chop wood for hearths and funerary pyres, carry messages between elder sisters, tend the sick, clean shrines, gather herbs, prepare tea, and assist in washing and dressing the dead. These are the duties of apprentices, meant to teach humility and compassion before a young witch receives her veil.

As the years passed, the girls who had grown up beside her completed their initiations and joined the Sisters of the Ashen Veil, while Soraya remained behind. She found herself trapped in an endless cycle of chores that were meant for children. She tried to be content, reminding herself that every task mattered and that serving her community was an honor, but a quiet seed of resentment took root.

Soraya loved the women that raised her. They praised her reliability and thanked her for the countless tasks that kept the Ashen Veil running. Though every compliment was meant sincerely, they only stood to remind her that she was not one of them. She smiled through gritted teeth and accepted each compliment while the shame of resenting the people she loved slowly hollowed her out.

Unable to bear the weight of it all, Soraya left home and enlisted in the army. If she could never become a Sister of the Ashen Veil, then she would prove her worth another way. Years of hauling water, splitting wood, digging graves, and carrying the dead had already made her stronger than most new recruits. Military life refined that strength into discipline, teaching her combat tactics, and the mastery of heavy weapons.