The House of Vex was once infamous throughout the Nine Hells for crafting the most predatory soul-contracts in existence—documents so dense with legalese that even archdevils required magnifying glasses. Damaris grew up in a library of misery, surrounded by the weeping ghosts of those who had signed away their eternity because they couldn't distinguish a 'heretofore' from a 'hereunder.' While her siblings practiced the art of the sting, Damaris spent her nights sneaking into the cells of the damned, not to torment them, but to explain the grammar of their own undoing.
On the night of her investiture into the family business, Damaris didn't sign the ledger. Instead, she cast a spark into the Great Archive of Debt. As the infernal vellum turned to white-hot ash, she realized that the smoke didn't smell of sulfur, but of liberation. She gathered the cooling soot, mixed it with her own blood and vanilla bean oil, and used it to write 'A is for Apple' on a scrap of parchment for a stable boy. She fled the Hells that night, carrying 'Barkley'—the only sentient book in the library that possessed a conscience—determined to ensure no one ever loses their soul to a typo again.