Mistra grew up on a small farm, with a few neighboring farms around the area. Slavers raided the community when Mistra was 15, killing the older members and taking the younger ones, including Mistra's sister Jenra, as slaves. Mistra escaped the raid solely because she had gone out the day before searching for a missing sheep; she returned to find the buildings burnt and the slavers long gone.
Mistra tried to follow the slavers, but with no money and little experience she quickly lost track of them. She forced herself to steal food to survive, and learned to move silently and pay attention to her senses. Six months after the raid, she finally found a merchant who had done business with the slavers and knew where they had sold slaves in the past. Mistra was reckless in trying to steal the list from the merchants office, however, and was caught. The authorities ignored her explanations and calls for justice, and sentenced her to three years in prison. While in prison, she became friendly with an older woman who had been incarcerated for witchcraft. She refused to give Mistra her name, but taught her many things that should not be spoken of in public company. After two years of instruction Mistra made a pact with Mirkeer, taking the first steps towards future independence. Mistra served out the remaining time of her sentence, unwilling to complicate her search for her sister by being wanted by the authorities herself. Instead, she used her time to continue learning from the old woman. The day after she was released, she returned to the prison and asked to speak to the old woman; the guards had no idea whom she was speaking of, and when they let her look through the cells, the woman was nowhere to be found. Mistra returned to the merchants office, successfully stole the records of the slavers travels, and is now trying to search for leads as to their whereabouts. She is in Holscomb to track down a bounty hunter who is traveling to Rappan Athuk. This bounty hunter took into custody a corrupt Guard Captain, who had been allowing the slavers passage through his territory. The Captain was executed for his crimes, but the bounty hunter may have more information.
The pact Mistra made with Mirkeer had a visible effect; her hair turned from an unremarkable brown to a deep black, with a small braid of silver running through it. Mistra plays it off as being the result of a childhood accident, but it has drawn unwanted notice in the past. She keeps her pact hidden, and when she has to use her powers openly tries to play them off as a young sorcerer's abilities.
