- Age 0: Finch is born to Maeve and Nolan Tekial, the lady and lord of minor noble house in Oseshire.
- Age 8: Finch wakes up in the middle of the night to find an ominous figure hanging over her bed. It attacks her, leaving her with a scar across her left cheek and eyebrow. Panicked, she commands it to stop and leave. To her surprise, it does. A minute later, she hears screams from the living room. She leaves her room to find her father and sister murdered. Her mother is nowhere to be found. Because Finch had no immediate family to take care of her, she is placed in an orphanage in Acester.
- Age 11: Unhappy with her circumstances, Finch runs away from her orphanage and travels back home to Oseshire. She finds her old family home burned to the ground. With nowhere to live, she survives by taking up residence with a local thieves' guild. She's treated poorly by her fellow rogues, but, from them, she learns to accomplish her goals through sneakiness rather than direct confrontation.
- Age 18: Over the following seven years, Finch lives her life by working for various thieves’ guilds until something occurs to make it inhospitable for her - unfortunately, that’s all too common with her weak physical presence, odd demeanor, and mysterious magical abilities. After running from her last guild in Oistin, she fears they - and the monster - may be pursuing her, so she signs onto a traveling cart headed for Gruapchester.