Nothing could faze Gloria again. She had seen through the worst, she had lived through the worst.
After her mother disappeared, her aging father was her only anchor, her emotional support.
They had weathered storms together, trudged through hardship side by side. Hard times had come, and harder ones had followed. Nothing good ever seemed to last.
They were poor, but not homeless.
Despite her young age, Gloria worked at the local bakery for minimum wages in their cramped district of Drakensmar.
Her father served as a coach, piloting horse-drawn carriages late into the night. The carriages weren't his. Neither were the horses.
Yet he was responsible for their upkeep, while giving a large cut of his earnings to the wealthy owners.
And then there were the taxes. The cruel specter always looming over them. Rent day brought nightmares like clockwork.
But it didn't matter.
