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Born in luxury, Juli has spent her entire life living on the family estate just a few miles north of the great city of Ostenso. She is the sixth of seven children, only her twin brother being younger than her even if only a few minutes. While their coming into this world was by no means intentional they were welcomed and well cared for, given all the love and care from their parents, their siblings and their nursemaids. Not only that but Juli also received her very first personal slave only weeks after her birth. One of aunt Idressia's slips had, by pure coincidence, giving birth to a little girl the same night that Juli was born. As such aunt Idressia decided that Juli should have this newly born as her personal plaything from her early youth. Both mother and child were transferred from the mayoral estate in Ostenso to the home of Juli's family so that the two babies could already get used to each other, the slip's mother returning to Ostenso the moment the baby was weaned.

While the slip was intended to be a living toy, a doll, the relationship between the two girl and Juli's twin brother, Idressus, took a whole different turn as the three formed a sort of gang, even speaking their own weird, secret language. Together the three of them would play for hours on end, roving through the estate and the surrounding grounds.
When the twins were old enough to begin their education Juli insisted that her slip, who Juli decided was named Tish, would come with her to her teaching so that she would eventually become a proper assistant instead of just another generic slave. When her brother started his separate 'boy' lessons her insistence on bringing Tish only became more fierce. As her behaviour quickly deteriorated when Tish was not allowed to attend the lessons her parents quickly decided that the slave girl would indeed partake in the lessons, despite the protests of several teachers. The only lessons the slip was not allowed to take part in were Juli's fencing lessons as they did not want a slave to know her way around a sword. The result of this was that Juli secretly gave Tish fencing lessons in her free time, using wooden spoons from the kitchen in place of swords.

Her luxurious life was shook hard when Juli was 12 years old. Her sister, Melia, had apparently long cherished blasphemous ideas and had helped several halfling slaves escape the estate and even some neighbouring estate. Her father and eldest brother tried to catch her but before they knew it she had fled with mother's help. Father blamed mother, as did the inquisition. They took her to interrogate her on what she knew about her daughter's actions, of which she knew nothing. When she came back mother wasn't the same. She wasn't physically hurt but she was broken, a husk of the loving mother she used to be. Father didn't care for her any more. He and Marcellus, the eldest, were too busy saving what remained of the family's name after it came out mother had been questioned and why. Torbin, the second oldest, had joined the Asmodean clergy only a few years earlier and now he broke all contact with his family in order not to damage his own career and Michaelus, the last brother, went out to hunt down his wayward sister. That left only Juli, Idres and Illiona, her eldest sister, to care for mother and Juli and Idres were only children.

At first Juli resented her mother for taking away her undisturbed life and forcing her to take care of her. She spent many hours away with Tish, pestering the slaves and servants. later, when her schooling started to come to a close and she approached her 16th year she slowly started to better understand mother as her anger finally started to fade. Suddenly she found herself sympathising with the deeds of her mother as both the blame she had laid on her and the blame she had laid on Melia started to fade. Besides, who could blame Melia for running away seeing her intended was such a dud? This change of heart came just in time as suddenly the care for mother fell squarely upon the shoulders of her and her twin brother when her eldest sister married a Jeggare and suddenly moved all the way to distant Korvosa.

During the years after it became very clear that Juli was not one for caring for the needy. She helped where she could but somehow she always fell short and instead it were her brother and Tish who took care of mother. Michaelus had still not found Melia and had married a Leroung girl and their first was under way. Marcellus actually already had two children, as did Illiona. Nobody knew anything about Torbin except that he was a rising star within the clergy. Father had taken some wench as his mistress and had put a bastard in her as well. As if the family didn't have enough trouble.

When her 21st year came up and she was supposed to soon wed her intended, a Napaciza, Juli couldn't handle it any more. Her family was making a mess of things and father and Marcellus could only do so much to keep their standing. Their even were rumours of the archduke giving the duchy to some obscure bastard grandson of his after father had passed, demoting Marcellus to some nobody count near some backwater. She could not leave her family in a situation like this, especially not to take the hand of the idiot they had found for her. Together with Tish she quickly got to work and arranged for her intended to have a hunting "accident". The Napaciza's loved their hunting and him getting attacked by some oversized beast that shouldn't even be on their grounds was the perfect solution to the problem. It succeeded and while he sadly did not perish he was forever crippled and as such no longer a proper candidate for marriage.

As a reward for her work and as a thank you to her friend for so many years of service Juli arranged a contract that would more or less set Tish free. She'd still be required to work for Juli for the rest of her life but she was no longer property and any children she would have would also be free to do as they pleased. They would all be offered a job at any future estate run by either Juli or Idres but they were free to refuse that job as well. In addition Tish would now get paid a small amount from the family coffers every month to do with as she pleased and she got her own room in the servant's quarters. It took some trickery to get father to agree with the latter two parts of the contract but his mind was too occupied with the family issues and the issue of his bastard son to pay proper attention.

Now, 1 year after Tish became her own woman, she came to Juli with some rumours of upheaval. Apparently there was rebellion brewing in the city of Remesiana. This was no surprise as the place was filled with outdated nobility from before the civil war and they all wanted their prominence back. The good new was this city was within the borders of Sirmium, the archduchy her great uncle ruled, and as such she could probably push around some people there. She asked Tish to stay behind and help Idres take care of mother as well as send a message if something happened back home. Meanwhile Juli left for Remesiana to find out if she could perhaps quell the dissent before it happened and win back a little favor for her family.

When she arrived in Remesiana she quickly found the rumors weren't true. The slip that had been the origin of the rumor had simply tried to force action upon his owners, hoping to get away in the chaos that would ensue if the manor was stormed by the dottari. Instead he found himself hanging upside down from a rope while Juli dug into his mind. It was a skill that only surfaced just over a year before as she suddenly started to hear her father saying something about how he suspected she had arranged for her intended's accident but when she looked at him he wasn't speaking. Since then she further experimented with her skill on slaves and actually used it to determine what her friend would want from the contract she was setting up for her. Right now it was very useful to force the idiot slave to spill the beans. What he also told her, and that was actually far more interesting, was that there was something brewing in Longacre.

Longacre was just a few miles westward and it was within the Heartland, Thrune lands. If she could prove herself in the eyes of the Thrunes and maybe even the queen that would be even better. The last thing the slip divulged before her passed out was the name of one Cimri Staelish. Apparently this Staelish character knew more about what was happening.
Shortly after Juli sent a pigeon from Remesiana back home, saying that Remesiana turned out to be nothing but she was now heading for Longacre as well as that any future conversation would be done via Ostenso.