What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. After the death of her father and all her siblings during The Great Plague, Emalee became co-owner of her family's bakery alongside her mother Emily. The bakery itself had quite a history. Originally constructed as Woodwatch's premiere brothel, an "internal dispute" amongst some of its most powerful clientele forced the establishment to close. Emalee's rakish father, a prominent well-to-do merchant and frequent customer, purchased the brothel, much to Emily's displeasure. While she tolerated his polygamous relationships Emily demanded he convert the business into something more respectable rather than reopen it. Emalee's father decided his wife was "far too nosey" and turned the brothel into a bakery, putting Emily to work. Emalee's father named the bakery "Bare Buns" much to her mother's chagrin. The bakery catered to the lowest classes in Woodwatch and Emalee's father hired a handful of female bakers to "knead dough". Emalee saw her mother ashamed on many occasions when customers came in and asked to see the ovens in the kitchen. A poor woman, Emily simply carried on and tried very hard to make "Bare Buns" an honorable business.
Growing up, Emalee saw the relationship between her father and mother as being a business partnership with each half having their assigned duties to fulfill. Consequently, Emalee has little interest in boys even though other girls her age are falling all over them. Wholly uninterested in knowing her paternal side of her family, Emalee has asked her mother about her maternal side, however Emily refuses to speak about it. The only maternal relative Emalee knows of was her grandmother Emilee, who passed during the Plague. As long as Emalee could remember, her grandmother was barking mad, claiming to be a banished princess and heir to a throne. No one took Emilee's claims as legitimate, though her possession of a tarnished silver crown stripped of all its gemstones gave the story some validity. While Emily would not speak of the crown, Emalee's father said that Emilee was a former handmaiden and stole it. Since the theft could not be proven, she was banished. When Emalee asked community members they said that they knew of a silversmith commissioned by Emilee to make the crown and the story was completely fabricated.
Emalee always liked to think her grandmother was telling the truth and that she was long lost royalty. When younger she and her grandmother would pretend holding court, Emalee taking etiquette lessons from her elder. She also learned how to sew in order to someday make a dress fitting for a princess. These fanciful childhood moments helped make an otherwise difficult reality easier. Then, shortly before her grandmother's passing, Emilee gifted the crown to her granddaughter. For a time, Emalee tried clear her grandmother's reputation, using the crown as proof, however Emalee was never able to make much progress. After Emilee's death, Emalee gave up trying.
After the death of her father and siblings, Emalee took over running the front-end of "Bare Buns" while her mother remained in charge of the kitchen. They dismissed all of the staff who actually didn't bake and tried to clean up the shop's reputation. Tired of dealing with the seedy citizens of Woodwatch, Emalee hatched a plan to rebrand the shop. Naming it "Court of Cookies", Emalee turned the front end of the shop into an upscale establishment that pays homage to the House of Fennim with a nobility theme. Dressed as a 'princess' and wearing her crown, Emalee works very hard making sure that every customer feels like royalty. She has even made attempts at getting the attentions of the nobility, some who regard the shop as 'flattering' while others see it as an 'outrage', calling it the "brothel bakery".
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Emalee is a tall teenaged girl, more likely in her early teens by the youthfulness of her aquamarine eyes and beaming wide grin. Long locks of wavy amber hair, similar to the golden grains of the harvest, cascade down both of her slender shoulders. A mere commoner, she wears what is typical for her class, the first layer an off-white woolen dress that hangs down to her feet. Over that, she wears a short hemmed sleeveless grey woolen tunic. Around her hips hangs an off-white cotton cloth, an apron of sorts, though its cut to be tear drop shaped in an attempt to look more posh. On the front of the apron, the outline of a giant grain of wheat embroidered in yellow thread, advertising her profession as a baker. Pats of white flour and cornmeal adorn the sleeves and front of her dress.
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