Milena's father provided well enough for his family, she did not want for any necessity. It occurred to her that there were nicer parts of the city where the rich or important lived. Milena asked her father once if they could live in one of the tall stone houses inside the walls. He avoided the question by asking the young girl if she wouldn't miss her friends and she squealed to make sure everyone within range knew that she loved her friends very very much. The truth was they could have afforded one of the tall stone houses, but a smart thief, or at least an honorable one, did not live amongst his targets. And anyway, the outer city life treated them just fine.
Her mother was a frail woman, at least what Milena remembers of her, and she was hardly a woman flowered when she saw her last. Frail of mind would be more specific. She remembers the dark-haired woman sitting at the window for long days, forgetting that it was cold and she needed a blanket, forgetting stew in the pot. Given that and the amount of time Milena spent running around outside the humble home, there's not much else to recall. Once, or maybe twice, she told the girl she would have to be very good because she was going to need to take care of a baby brother soon. But Milena never did get a brother. She remained an only child.
There eventually came the time when she began to understand what exactly her father did for a living. He stole. He stole from the people in the tall stone houses and he stole from places far away when he was gone for days and sometimes weeks. These were called jobs, heists, plots, grand schemes. And Milena knew that if an adult got caught stealing, his chastisement was a lot worse than it was for she and her friends. She asked him after his friends left, if he ever got scared or sometimes even if he missed them when he had to be gone for awhile. He liked to ask questions back instead of answering a lot of times. The points he made were always confusing at the time.
A few years after that started one of her father's friends, one that visited quite frequently, made an appearance while her father was gone. Lexas Barrow took her away and she doesn't remember now how he managed to convince her to leave her poor mother. Milena accused him when she was older of kidnapping, but he explained what her young self had always suspected, that something was wrong in her mother. She couldn't take care of a young girl by herself, he claimed, and her father was not coming back. He was dead, of course. Caught and executed someplace that was not home. Lexas had promised that if anything happened to his friend, he would take care of his daughter, and the only way he felt he could do that was by arming her. Arming her with the skills to get by in the world the only way he had known, the same skills her father had lived by himself.
The second half of her childhood was dominated by the guild. Lexas spent a lot of time with other members when he wasn't fulfilling contracts. Whether it was at the inn or a home or someplace else more secret and he often took Milena along. Some members came to enjoy her presence, others claimed it was no place for a child, let alone a girl. Either way, many skills she acquired came not just from Lexas, but from them, whether they liked her or not. But even the ones who viewed her as their sort of shared daughter were not immediately prepared to back her when she wanted to truly join the Guild. That was necessary. Someone couldn't just walk in and attempt to join. There were tests of skill, a proof of loyalty and understanding, and most of all, the recommendations of current members. It took almost two years, but she finally got her supporters when she was 22.
A man grown could join the Guild, it was not uncommon for 17 year olds to waltz in and pledge their hearts and sticky fingers. They would have laughed at her if she had tried much earlier, and they laughed at her when she did, but not mostly because she was a woman. There had been women in the past, but as it had been described to her by naysayers, those women knew what they were doing and they weren't messing around. They were the kind of women who could not be confused. After telling her this, one man offered to marry her, saying she could whelp a few children and that would give her something better to do. She refused. Milena's character offered a more innocent outlook, a friendly one, cheerful, even, but she was also determined and she had always admired her father. Her mother had been no role model.
She did everything right, though there was still hesitance to allow her membership, but despite that, they let her in. She had been very proud and remembers wanting to give all those who'd had their doubts a smirk, but stayed quiet. That was six years ago, and since then Milena has matured into a quieter, independent sort. Actually being a part of the Guild, she became aware of true motives and character. There were many scoundrels crawling underfoot. Not everyone was honorable or brave or anything she'd come to think about her father or even Lexas Barrow when she was a girl. She learned to guard herself and not to put faith always, even in friends.
A short time ago, nearing the end of a complicated strife with the second man who raised her, it was revealed to her that she failed. Lexas and she had been turning in different directions, nurturing different views on the Guild, the city, and everything. He was the only one she loved and fully trusted, but he admitted to her that her father had wanted to leave the Guild. That he had never wished for his daughter to grow up in any part of it. Which meant her goal since he died of being like him and making his memory proud was all wrong. Their argument ended when Lexas met his own demise. And now there's only the girl.
