Serrana Bahira, Glazier and Self-Taught Sorceress
The Bahira family lived in the small desert town of Vasilla in the eastern region of Driazhek. The town only numbered fifty or sixty at any given time, and Serrana was the youngest member of a family of five. The elder of her two brothers was set to inherit the family farm (the Bahiras cared for the bulk of the livestock in Vasilla), and the younger of the two brothers had enlisted two years prior in Driazhek's army. Serrana, meanwhile, was left to try to choose a craft and make a living off of it. From a young age, Serrana always had a fondness of fire - one that her mother was convinced was unhealthy - and as such, she eventually apprenticed under Vasilla's lone glazier, learning the basics of glassblowing and crafting.
The young glazier became increasingly enamored with the idea of learning magic as travelers - and the battlecasters that attended the army units that passed through as well. Her family seemed of varying opinions on the subject of their youngest daughter taking up the arcane arts, but Serrana continued to show constant interest in learning such things, and eventually, on her sixteenth birthday, as her parents realized she would not be swayed from this, instead purchased for her a book of magic - one that taught her the Inferno spell. Their choice was tongue-in-cheek, as it would give their daughter the ability to not-so-subtly use the flame magic to repel those who might harm her (or try to be an unwelcome suitor). Serrana, however, was not only thrilled to get this new chance to learn how to use magic, but to use a spell that would be infinitely more fun than simple flinging of flame about.
Serrana continued her apprenticeship as a glazier, becoming quite capable of at least basic glassmaking, as well as a few of the slightly more complicated techniques, though she clearly had much to learn as yet. When she wasn't continuing to learn her craft, she practiced the spells in the book almost nightly - and when mixed with the life of a young woman in her mid teens, Serrana spent almost every minute from dawn to dusk in some endeavor or another.
After a time, the young glazier had learned all she could from the simple book, as well as from her apprenticeship in the local glassworks. Serrana saved up enough coin to purchase another book of magic, and eventually she set out with the next caravan to Fort Driazhek. The aspiring sorceress, with her budding skill in fire magic as well as her existing knowledge in glassblowing, was able to get another apprenticeship with little difficulty through a master glassworker that knew the one that originally trained her in. A couple of years later, she was an established journeyman in one of the more prominent glassworks in Fort Driazhek - enough to make a living, though certainly a far cry off from expert or master rank for sure.
In the meantime, the young woman never stopped studying her magic. Serrana studied regularly several times a week, practicing to master the Inferno magic that she had originally started out studying. She knew she should look at other spells eventually, but this was the one she had - the one she could afford - and thus she made sure she studied the Inferno inside and out as best she could.
"What she could afford" eventually did strike a chord in her mind, however, and the young sorceress tried to figure out how to alleviate that problem. Serrana wasn't destitute, but she was far from rich, and the glazier knew that unless she found a better way to fix that, her magical prowess would stagnate. The fire apprentice did come up with something that struck as a distinct possibility... Her use of Inferno magic could be coupled with another of her talents - dancing. Serrana walked the streets of Fort Driazhek for a number of nights, trying to find a place where she might find an opportunity to spend a few nights a week possibly serving or entertaining, and eventually was given a chance to work for the proprietor of the White Sands Restaurant - where she quickly found a new niche, performing regularly as she refined both her dancing talents as well as her magical ones, intertwining the two in both a way to practice her magic and make a bit of extra coin. This particular job was still somewhat new to her, but it had gone well so far, and she'd finally been able to start saving a few coins here and there, managing to buy a newer bed that, while not fancy, was free of fleas, and the floor now had a new rug on it. But foremost in her mind was the constant saving for that next magic book. Those studies weren't going to pay for themselves, after all.
Eventually, Serrana was going to have to marry. Who, she didn't know, nor much care right now. The fire apprentice had recently reached her 19th year, and while she certainly didn't mind the new attention that her moonlighting job carried with it, her first love - at least for now - was her magic, limited as it may be.