Description: Mirella is short and slight of build, with a modest outline of feminine curves accentuated by a trim waist. There's an impression of intrinsic sleekness and precision about her appearance, from the subtle grace of her gait to the rich smoothness of her ink-black hair. Lacking the sun-gilded warmth that's often bestowed by balmy southern climes, her skin is instead as pale as a sheet of aeterna, drawing attention by way of contrast to doe-like eyes of dark blue-purple duskstone hue. Natural lilac shadows faintly tint her lower eyelids, visible against the pallor of her delicately pretty face.

Personality: Quiet and soft-spoken, with a servant's ability to blend into the background when it's convenient, Mirella does little to draw attention to herself until such a time when making her presence known serves a specific purpose. She's not particularly expressive and she's certainly not effusive, but she's capable of maintaining a respectful manner and engaging in polite conversation when required. Even then, though, she leans toward brevity of speech, sometimes even to a cutting extent.

Mirella is a woman with a preference for cool efficiency and pragmatic thought. She's not incapable of forging friendships or expressing warmth of emotion, but it's not the norm for her to do so. In essence, life has shaped her into a somewhat stoic and cynical figure, but she's entirely at ease with that.

Background: The only child of parents impoverished by her father's gambling debts, Mirella was born and raised among the roughest and most dangerous streets of Caina, where she survived by dint of quick feet and the ability to squeeze her scrawny frame into dark concealing spaces. To earn coin, she worked as a menial servant in the households of merchants and minor city officials, cleaning their homes and running their errands. It wasn't the most satisfying work, but it put silver in her palm and a bit of food in her belly. Her wages kept the debt collectors and their blades away from the door of the Fiorelli's house, at least.

Mirella unexpectedly blossomed into graceful good looks when she reached adolescence. It was thanks to this turn of fortune that she found employment with a bored socialite named Vanesa Cattaneo, who promptly set her pretty new attendant to the task of spywork. With careful stealth and keen perception, the girl quickly developed an ability to blend into the social circles and lavish parties of Caina's decadent upper classes, always on the hunt for exciting gossip to bring to her mistress. In turn, Vanesa taught Mirella things that would have otherwise been out of reach to a scrappy little urchin: lessons in dance, musicianship, and polite comportment, but also instruction in more academic subjects, such as the basics of alchemy, and how to research topics ranging from the mundane to the occult. Like her mentor, Mirella dedicated herself to the Faith as a mirrormask, keen to model herself after the glamorous social matriarch in every aspect of her life.

Upon Mirella's twenty-fourth birthday, she received a great gift. Thanks to a surprising generosity on the part of a certain V. Cattaneo, it came to be that Giovanna Fiorelli was given enough silver to clear her husband's debts for some years into the future. Moreover, Vanesa furnished her protege with the coin to take a ship to Arx -- but only on the understanding that Mirella would use her time in the city as a whetstone to sharpen the edge of her talents. Since then, Mirella has established herself as a minister of Caina's ruling family (House Inverno) and also as a merchant dealing in cloth, jewels and other luxurious goods. It's not a bad start, all in all.

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