Lyrenaís father was a military man before he retired, but failed to become a great officer as he had always dreamed. He, therefore, wished for a son to achieve this ambition in his place. When Lyrena was born he resented his only child because she was a girl. Home life was not unpleasant, but there was an undercurrent of hatred in the house which Lyrena only began to notice as she got older. Her father thought her to be unintelligent, slow and weak. At sixteen, in a fit of rebellion, she set off from their small home in Quartz Heights and went to a locksmithís shop owned by Apula. Lyrena admired her shrewd business sense and, seeing her as a role model, she learned to pick locks. Although Lyrena enjoys the serenity of locksmithing, she canít help but feel guilty for disappointing her father and abandoning her mother. She is only young and had a great deal to learn, but one day she hopes to prove her father wrong.