Gavenia's real name was Rebecca Pryde. She was the daughter of two influential, well off middle class mages who kept up appaerances to the outside world, but were quite dysfunctional behind closed walls. While her father was distant and verbally volitile, her mother was dominant and manipulative. She had to control everything; Gavenia's social life, study and carreer choices, even her hobbies and looks. She pushed Gavenia to be in a relationship with the son of one of the other influential families. Gavenia never had feelings for him, but they became good friends. (She did have a crush on his sister though...)
Gavenia's magical abilities were a disappointment to her family, so she was mosty ignored while all attention went to her older brother. When she became older, Gavenia slowly distanced herself from her family, trying to take control of her own life. It took her years to realize nothing worked. By that time she had already moved to another town. She worked with the police. Still, her mother tried to claim her for her own schemes. Gavenia took a desperate measure; she disappeared, changing her name and looks and moved far away.
In her new town, and under the name of Simone Williams, Gavenia joined the police again. She was fairly successful as an agent, and got into a relationship with Lorna Reilly, who worked at another devision. After a couple of years, her mother visitied town for work purposes. Gavenia got nervous. She could not focus on her job, distanced herself from Lorna and eventually bolted.
Now under the name of Gavenia Lennox, she settled in another town. Wanting to stay more under the radar as before, she started her own PI firm.
VERSION 2
Gavenia's real name was Rebecca Pryde.
She was the daughter of two middle class mages who were stuck in a toxic relationship. They kept up appearances for the outside world, but fought behind closed doors. While her father was volitile and barely involved in his family, her mother was dominant and manipulative. She had to control everything, and influenced every aspect of her childrens lifes.
Rebecca was the eldest. She took it upon herself to protect her younger sister Stacy from her fathers beatings, and comforted her mother. When she became a teenager, she started having problems, sleeping, and started isolating herself from other chidren her age.
Stacy was always their mothers favorite; an outgoing, charming girl with strong glamour magic who was destined to get the career in entertainment that their mother never had. Rebecca, whose magic was weaker and unreliable (due to her mental health issues) was of lesser interest, but that didn't mean she could do whatever she wanted. Her mother convinced her to become a baker; a skill she could use to earn money until she got married, and then she could put it to good use to feed her family.
When she grew older, Rebecca moved out and distanced herself from her family. Her mother seemed to accept this; she just came around when invited. But after two years, Rebecca started thinking about changing careers; she'd never liked baking. She thought about working with the police. Her mother disagreed, arguing that her magic would never be strong enough.
Rebecca moved to another town and started training to become a police agent. Her magic had stabilized, and she intended to use it to help others. At some point Stacy fought with their parents, and she turned to her big sister for help. Rebecca took her in and helped her to build up a life or her own. After a while, Stacy realized becoming famous was not as easy without her mother. She moved back in with her parents, and, reasoning their mother had been right about her, she started working to get Rebecca back with their family, as well. She used her magic to take Rebecca home and, after conferring with their mother, she also used it to get Rebecca engaged to the son of a befriended family.
Rebeccal was confused for a while. The working of the spell was so intense, that she had a hard time, seperating her own will from what her family members had put upon her. But eventually she "woke up". She ran away the same day. She changed her name into Simone Herbert and moved to the other side of the country. She got a job with the police there, and had a few good years. She got into a relationship with Lorna Reilly, who worked in another devision. Then the day came when Stacy's career took her to Simone's town. Simone got nervous. She was scared of her family, finding her. She had sleeping problems again, worse than ever, and she became overly vigilant, seeing her parents and sister everywhere. Which was problematic because, since Stacy was famous, she literally WAS everywhere. The mental health issues caused her to loose her fire magic. Since she would not talk about it, Lorna worried, but didn't understand what was going on. Then the day came that there was an incident with Stacy, and Lorna got involved in the case. Simone lost it; she packed up and left.
She changed her name again, in Gavenia Lennox this time. She moved towns a few times under the same name, working dead end jobs to stay under the radar. Her fire magic was completely gone now, leaving her with insignificant magical abilities.