Vella Rowanhart is not particularly proud of her bloodline. She loves her parents and siblings; that much has always been obvious to anybody who knows her. To anybody who knows her, her devotion has never been in question. Not since she spent years as a child studying magic with the hopes that it would be enough to bring Lenore home.
She's the big sister. It's her responsibility to take care of Lenore, and she wasn't able to no matter how skilled she became at magic. The wards around her uncle's estate were simply better than her. They were designed by a team of skilled magicians and reinforced year after year. In essence, that meant that Vella never had a chance of breaking through them.
