Lily

Violet grew up in New York. For as long as she could remember, it was just her and her mom most of the time with her father dropping by every now and then when he was in town. Angela Hope was a nurse, which usually meant odd and long hours but she worked in a fancy private clinic in a "good" part of the city, which instead meant slightly more regular hours and better pay.

She doesn't like talking about her past much. It is one the subjects that she actively avoids, but if she does open up, she embellishes her past, stretching the truth to make it seem like she was from a rougher part of town, growing up with an overworked and underpaid single mom but sprinkling enough of what it was really like to make it all believable.

To say she is bitter about her life before Faerie is an understatement.

Violet was in her second stint in juvie when she went to bed one night and woke up on the floor in a cell in The Regent's keep. She had a shocking head of white hair, and she couldn't pick up anything with her hands. Her reflection showed a pale imitation of herself, casting a dim luminescence of yellowish-green upon everything. She had become a ghost.

She was then told that she had been chosen for her skills and now she would be using those skills to serve the Regent. She would be his thief, retrieving whatever he asked her to at her own personal risk around Faerie, and whatever else she could find that would please him. She would only be able to touch and hold items intended for the Regent and nothing else. For her efforts, she would be allowed to be corporeal for however long The Regent deemed appropriate based on her performance and offerings.

For the next few decades, Violet roamed the lands in search of useful and impressive gifts for the Regent, even when he had not sent her to find specific items (or people) he wanted. The Regent's court was a cutthroat, backstabbing freakshow but Violet was used to this. Power dynamics, emotional manipulation, two-faced snakes and the like were all the things she knew very well. She didn't waste too much of her efforts in making friends (except those whose good will would benefit herself) but spent more of her time guarding herself and finding ways to leave the Regent's lands.

As time went on however, it became harder and harder to find new and fascinating offerings that would please her Keeper. The nail in the coffin was when she "let" a particular star escape before they reached The Regent's lands and returned empty-handed beyond a few handful of trinkets. She began to plot her escape, despite the Regent's warning that she would never have a body if she escaped while incorporeal. It was a risk that she could have to take, knowing that it wouldn't be long before he tired of her and would replace her with someone better.

It took a few more months before Violet found a couple of Changelings who were also looking for a way out of Arcadia. She tagged along with them, recognizing their usefulness.

Upon entering the Freehold, Violet was hesitant at first. There were a lot of rules to follow and staying in one place was going to be a new challenge after decades of being a nomadic thief around Faerie.

The transition into a regular human being was weird and uncomfortable. There were a lot of bruises and cuts where Lily bumped into things and accidentally cut herself when she forgot that she had a body now. Her keeper had been lying.

Violet Hope became Lily Burkhard, and never looked back (at Faerie or her life before that). She sees this whole endeavor as a chance at a fresh start where nobody would know about her or her story.

She found a job tending bar in a dingy little place outside Freehold that paid cash and didn't ask any questions about her background. Old habits die hard, and Lily has been a non-fixture in the Miami Freehold every since.