The sextet began in the city of Mirrorglass, where six performers were hired to entertain a collapsed noble house's last feast. The house had not paid its debts, the guests were armed, and the feast was already being used to negotiate marriages, assassinations, and a transfer of property. The performers understood at once that music could do more than charm a room. They could steady a panic, redirect a conversation, hide a threat, or make a lie feel like truth. Their founder was Kaelith Voss, a glamorous elf harp-player with a talent for reading vanity as easily as sheet music. Kaelith convinced the others to remain together after the feast, arguing that ordinary touring meant poverty, while exclusive patronage meant access to power. They chose to become not a band, but an event. Their first patrons were so rich that other nobles began competing to host them simply to prove they could. Thus the Lament of Velvet was born, a troupe whose invitation became a social weapon. Their earliest years were defined by audacity. They survived an attempted poisoning by turning the banquet into a performance so emotionally devastating that the conspirators exposed themselves. They escaped one border state by smuggling documents inside instrument cases. They accumulated favors, debts, secrets, and eventually a reputation for making powerful people feel admired while quietly extracting whatever they needed. The watershed moment came during the Fire at the Gilded Conservatory. A rival ensemble tried to destroy them in a blaze meant to look like an accident. The fire killed dozens, ruined a cultural landmark, and ended the old age of public patronage. The Lament of Velvet survived, but the event changed them. They stopped believing they were merely performers and became keepers of survival, leverage, and controlled spectacle. The truth of who lit the fire remains disputed, and every answer damages someone important.