Madogan laughed.
"That's a lot of questions you ask, sir. Well, Elvira is a bit of an enigma, even to me. I know of how wonderful, intelligent, funny and beautiful she is, but I know close to nothing about her past. She told me her parents died when she was young, and that she grew up in the city of alchemists, Terramagnia. If you know anything about alchemists, you'll know that alchemists are the highest ranked practitioners of magic, and that there are ten 'degrees' an alchemist can earn, 1 being the lowest in rank and 10 being the highest. You'll also know that reaching the high ranks of alchemy is so extremely difficult, that the ones with the highest ranks are three people at level 7, meaning there is no one alive with the ranks 8, 9, or 10. Elvira told me that she studied and earned rank 3, and then left Terramagnia, but I don't have a clue why a girl would leave a city like that at such a young age. Especially not with her potential. You see, I met her when she was just 15 years old. I bet if she had just stayed a while longer, she could easily climb up the ranks, maybe even up to par with those in level 7.
As for Margharethe, she's more of Elvira's own project. Margharethe was a nun at the chapel in the capital of religion, Friedenburg, who studied to become a practitioning nurse. However, to do so, you must fulfill a 5 year practical program, and no one wanted to accept Margharethe because of her... Special properties. However, Elvira was very eager to hire Margharethe, and works hard to teach her everything she needs to know. Maybe it's because she recognizes a bit of herself in poor Margharethe, but how she found out about her in the first place I have no clue.
The island is also mostly Elvira's work. She's used her potions and magic to make it a suitable place to live for just about anyone. She even made sure to keep one lot of land empty, so that anyone who wanted to move here on their own could do so, but no one has... Yet.
Finally, I suppose there is one more person you ought to know about." He pointed to a hole through the wall into the kitchen, where a quite large woman was standing, stirring in a steaming pot. "That's Bellevue, the cook here at the inn. A couple of years ago, when we just got started and Margharethe wasn't around, her son got in an accident at The Wall. He was hurt really badly, even worse than you. I still remember it to this day... He was mostly a pile of meat and bones when we rescued him, but Elvira used her skills and made him as good as knew. Bellevue has felt an enormous sense of gratitude towards Elvira since then, and so she works her voluntarily for practically nothing."
Madogan took a big clunk of mead, and stood up. "Well, I ought to get back to work. Don't get into anymore trouble, now!"