Yupp, Skill Focus helps a lot there. All right, description and history of Mialla for public consumption. I'll PM you the character sheet, Cassandra.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Mialla</div><div class="spoiler_body">Her voice rang, clear as a bell, rivaling any nightingale's, drowning the noise of the inn's common room. It covered the din of conversation, the clatter of tableware, the heavy thumping of mugs being set down. In the far corner, a pair of brawlers stopped and turned their heads to listen, their bout momentarily forgotten. The owner of the voice stepped forward on the stage, a slip of a girl barely old enough to be married off, wearing a floor-length, longsleeved dress of green-dyed linen. She wore her chestnut hair hair short, in a slightly unruly pageboy cut; not a ravishing beauty, but cute.<br/>For a few moments, she just exercised her voice in a wordless, joyful tune, the leaping tones conjuring the image of a babbling forest brook in springtime; as that tune wound down, she paused and took a breath, seeming to notice for the first time she was on stage. "Good evening, good evening." Her speaking voice was as melodic as her singing voice, easily commanding the attention of the room. "My name is Mialla; I will be entertaining the esteemed guests with song tonight. If there is any tune you wish to hear, please ask - I will be happy to perform any song I know." She fell silent, allowing the room a chance to consider that, before her voice rose again - this time in a lower register. Her voice pronounced the slow, almost clumsy syllables of ancient Dwarven with grace; it was a drinking song, and she managed to turn it from the heavy, hard sounds of Dwarven throats to something suitable to hear over a casual dinner. She followed this with a ballad from a far-away land, translating the words on the fly as she sang. By then, there were requests, and she started pointing at guests, gesturing for them to call for further song...<br/><br/>Indiscretions happen - that is a fact of life. Often, they have consequences. This was the case when a travelling elf charmed his way into the chambers of the count's daughter. Her pregnancy was too obvious to conceal, and her father deemed evidence that the girl was not merely fertile, but carried viable offspring to be more important than getting rid of the bastard. There are days Mialla is not convinced this was, precisely, favorable fortune.<br/>Mialla was fostered out to a distant relative the moment it was practical to send her on a lengthy journey; she was to be raised there as one of the ladies at court. Her uncle presented and raised her a distant relative from the back country of his domain; this afforded Mialla ample opportunity to study proper etiquette, and dabble in various fields. Not feeling especially wanted here either, she took to making friends with the staff and sneaking off every opportunity she got - into the surrounding fields to enjoy spring and summer, into the town market, whereever her feet carried her. Then she learned that she was indeed no longer needed... her uncle was attempting to arrange a marriage for her. She left the castle the same night, and has made a living as a travelling songstress since, moving from town to town and village to village whenever she can find a place in a caravan - she knows better than to brave the roads by herself. She arrived in Kirborg a week or so ago...<br/></div></div>