When she was eleven years old, a mage named Solaris visited her master in Trumal. He spoke with her, oddly enough, asking her a lot of questions about herself. He visited again and presented her with a magic puzzle which he commanded her to solve. She wasn't allowed to touch it, but only to think of the solution. She thought she almost had it when the man stopped her and left. The next day, she was sold for the price of an adult and sent to the house of Solaris as apprentice.

Solaris taught her much about magic and Halaria found that the quicker she learned, the more comfort she was given. He also taught her about the Lord of Darkness and his destructive hate. He taught her to draw upon her hate to fuel her magical powers. By the time she was 16 years, she had her own quarters with all amenities and freedom to walk where she would at Solaris' behest.

His behest soon had her in the mines outside of Esirup where her knowledge of gems and rare minerals and the magic therein was highly regarded by the dwarves. The best magical gems, of course, always seemed to find their way into the hands of Solaris.

One day, Solaris came to Halaria on the road between Esirup and the mine as he did at times. She had been in town getting supplies and chatting with the jeweler there. She dug into the hidden compartment of her belt and brought out a small pouch which she gave to him. He held it in his hand a moment as if feeling the worth of its contents. He smiled at her and said, "You have served me well here, my pet. You will serve me elsewhere now."

He proceeded to tell of a group of adventurers in Esirup with whom he wished her to travel. Her task was simple enough: take anything of magical power that the group should come across and encourage them to find and obtain more of them. Solaris would scry her at will and come to her from time to time to relieve her of any items she had acquired. She would also do her best to encourage their hate and rid them of good in any way she could.

.

Out of habit, she fingered the ward against detection of evil her master had given her and contemplated her plight. Her eyes swept over the group, automatically glossing over the elf of Selûne as they had learned to do out of revulsion, and hovered over the half-orc. An orc is an orc she thought though this one is a mystery to be sure. How could an orc ever love an elf? More difficult to believe is why or how this elf could love an orc.

She had thought about it a good long while and the logical solution to the puzzle was that since all orcs are evil and the elf loved the orc, the elf must be evil too. That made it easier to look at the elf, but her music was another story. It set her teeth on edge and made her shiver. Halaria moved out of range of it once again as Galia began.

From her new vantage point she could see Kenor watching her. He loved her, she knew it, and she turned to look out over the pool shining in the moonlight and thought about the irony of life. Solaris would be proud of her success in manipulating a pledge of protection from a paladin. After all, if he should find out she is a servant of Bane, the Lord of Darkness, would he not have to break his pledge? If he did not break his pledge, he would knowingly be serving Bane himself! She smiled to herself.

Her eyes came to rest at the south end of the pool where Jenny and Arex rested. Jenny seemed nice enough, though altruistic to a fault it seemed. She asked a lot of questions too and Halaria thought that, of all those in the group, this sneaky cleric was probably the most dangerous to her cover. She does seem distracted of late though, she thought as she watched her talking to Arex. She would feel no qualms about pulling her aside and making her disappear forever if she ever caught on to Halaria’s task, and the fighter was no real threat as long as Halaria kept him in her sight.

Watching the two, she almost hoped Jenny would catch on as it would be a pleasure to destroy such goodness. Bane would certainly approve, but Solaris had made his intent clear and Halaria knew better than to cross him in any way. They were to bring him the pyramid artifact and he would deal with them then.

She looked at Celdour nearby sketching something in the moonlight. This foolish elf, so madly in love with her, had created a tiny doubt deep within her. The statuette he had given her had startled her. It had sparked something she hadn’t felt since she was a small child and still with her mother. The something was tiny, but she had immediately put it out for her own sake. Something warm and melty like that would only bring about bad things for her.