Haze

My birthname matters little anymore—people who know me simply call me Haze. I was born into an unimportant May’Kar family. My family had little money for food so as soon as I was old enough I was apprenticed out to anyone who would have me.
My first master was a torch-maker. I spent two years coated in pitch before running away. My next master owned a livery, but in finding me ill suited for the animals he sold my services to Alfedro the locksmith.
Being Alfedro’s apprentice amounted to being a slave. He fed me well enough and the lodging was better than my previous accommodations of tar and straw but no bed or bread could make up for Alfedro’s cruelty. I scrubbed and cooked and cleaned and farmed but only rarely was tasked with oiling a mechanism or grinding a new key.
Alfedro had few books and all of them dedicated to his trade. I was a poor reader but I studied the drawings and diagrams of the locks at every opportunity patiently waiting the day I would escape his yoke. The day came when Afeldro was called by a wealthy nobleman to install a new safe. Alfedro was so flustered by the late arrival of the movers that he forgot to lock me in. I left with everything I could carry and a spare set of master keys—pausing only to grind a key to the safe Alfedro was now installing. That day I whisked away into the slums never to look back.
I made quite a splash in the thieves’ guild and was able to keep a roof and bread by selling spare keys and information on where they could be used. I bought my time and saved up to put together my own crew—though I had sold many of my stolen keys I had always kept one special key for myself: the nobleman’s safe key. This prize was mine. I gave no regard to the method of our robbery—we simply barged in during the night and stormed to our prize.
The silver and gems amounted to quite the hoard—with more than enough spare to buy a cart and a few horses swift enough to get us to the border lands of Aldoria. Only a day’s travel from the border we began to have trouble with the wagon—trust being in short supply I divvied up our spoils and under cover of darkness I left on foot alone towards Aldoria. After two days of marching I bribed a group of Road Wardens for a donkey and made my way to a ship and to Mardrun.