Some thoughts on how Valentine knows your characters.<br/><br/>Daumantas: About once a month Valentine receives a shipment of books. Most likely she has to order some of her ingredients from far away, especially ectoplasm, mutagen, and arcane minerals. I'm sure she got to know her postman, and as thanks for asking him to transport heavy and dangerous materials, she's probably played host.<br/><br/>Oda: Valentine has most likely hired Oda to collect materials for her alchemy. Her desire to be self-reliant might have caused her to insist on coming along at times. I also need to establish a lab for her somewhere and had written a tannery into her background, but maybe that's too much of a connection?<br/><br/>As far as childhood acquaintances go, Valentine had seven older brothers and not much of an identity for herself until her compulsory military service. Her father is/was a lumberjack and the rest of the family is much tighter knit with Nynsk than she.