Yukio's father brought her and her mother over the Top of the World from Minkai, to escape certain death after his liege lord was assassinated.
They first settled in Korvosa, where her father worked as a glazier. However, during the trouble with the Queen, Yukio's mother died from the Blood Veil disease. Due to this her father was let go and he travelled with Yukio to Diamond Lake to seek work in the mines. Her father worked long hours over many years. Yukio waited for him in a small cabin he bought with his savings, reading constantly from the library of books left behind by the previous owner, a historian of no small repute. Every day, after eating their meager evening meal, Yukio's father would teach her the Way of the Bow, the stillness of mind and spirit in that moment before the arrow is loosed. When she grew older, he fashioned a course through the hills to train her body and mind.
One day, when she was almost 19, he was late getting home. It was growing dark when she heard the wagon coming up the dusty track. Rushing out, she found her father prostate in the wagon, near death. "Cave in..." muttered one of the other workers. They had the grace to help her carry him to his bed, leaving without a word.
Yukio tended her father until dawn when he drew his final breath, his last words, "Be true to yourself and your memory of me and your mother."
With some effort she was able to bury her father behind the cabin and grieved in silence for a number of days. Finally, the rumbling of her stomach told her that she'd need to go into town to obtain some food. Checking her father's purse, she found it empty. Shaking her head, seems the other miners' collected a fee for delivering her father to her. Still, she didn't hold it against them....life in Diamond Lake was hard for everyone.
Leaving her makeshift bow and arrows hidden under her bed, she made the journey down the dusty track to Diamond Lake, hoping to find some work. Ignoring the occasional suggestive comment, and not so occasional insult due to her heritage, Yukio asked all of the businesses for the opportunity to work. She came away disappointed , though.
Passing a narrow alley, she heard a commotion and turned to see what was happening. It was a woman, beating assaulted by a much larger man. Hearing her father's last words in her mind, Yukio leapt to the woman's defense. Though her father's training focused mains on the Bow, he did not neglect her training in hand-to-hand combat. In a moment , she had the man on the defence, bloodying his nose and backing him up against a nearby wall.
"Ahem..." they heard from the alley entrance, "That wouldn't be one of Zalamandra's girls, would it, Corbin?" the man standing there asked. Corbin, blood streaming from his nose, gaped and stuttered. The man held up a hand, "Don't bother...you're banned. Now go...". Corbin gave Yukio a hate-filled look then scampered away.
Yukio began to help the bloodied and bruised woman to her feet, when the other man commented, "You've done me and Zalamandra a boon here. We always need capable people, and with the way this town is going, I think a chaperone for Zalamandra's girl's coming-and-goings might be in order. Come, I'll introduce your..."
An with that serendipitous event, Yukio gained some infrequent employment escorting Zalamandra's girls to and from the Emporium. Lowlife's that would intervene were generally dissuaded by Corbin's drunken description of her punch, "Feels like getting kicked by a mule!"
While it kept her fed, and she like helping keep the women safe, she was not satisfied...always on the lookout for another opportunity...
