Nava's childhood was hardly extraordinary - the second child of a Ilfirian family, her days were spent on the farm, her nights in her dreams. Seemingly, she was charting a familiar course for a young woman...until her older brother was killed in a street fight that got out of control. While such a thing is hardly unheard of for a young man in the empire, it left her family with a bit of a predicament...having already committed to send a child to the army, they were left with little choice but to turn to Nava, her younger brother not yet of age, and so off she went, to learn the ways of war.
While she had never dreamed of becoming a warrior, the young woman took well to the profession, learning quickly and standing out from her peers. She quickly rose through the infantry ranks and was soon promoted to the ranks of the cavalry, despite her common birth and lack of formal knightly training. Were it not for fate's intervention, she would likely still be counted among the ranks of the army...
As it turns out, however, not all commanders are as worthy as their fellows, and such was her luck to be placed under one whose incompetence was exceeded only by his cowardice. Still, he was the commander, so dutifully she followed orders...even when he foolishly split his forces and sent her unit to their apparent deaths, along with many of their fellows in arms.
The battle lost and most of her comrades killed, she and the few remaining retreated, only to be captured by their commander as traitors. One by one, she saw her friends executed, awaiting the feel of the blade at her own throat, but when a surprise assault on her weakened army threw the camp into chaos, she saw her chance, and she took it. She managed to escape the encampment, and the battle, and rode away, as fast as her horse could carry her, hoping and praying that she would be forgotten, or listed amongst the dead, able to live her life without being on the run...