Anouk's mother's family had been staunch practitioners of Invocative Magic for generations in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Her grandmother has made a small fortune as some gimmicky Seer who could speak to the dead and read fortunes whenever a new wave of tourists came to town. Like her mother, Christine Pierce spent hours each evening attempting to converse with the dead. It was frowned upon by the other practitioners in their region - generally something not done - but the woman persisted. She met Anouk's father while he was attending to some business with the American branch of his company. Their tryst had been brief and meaningless, but resulting in a child just the same. His family had alternated back and forth between Natural and Ceremonial magics for centuries. When Christine showed up at his apartment in Brissac, France with only a nap sack and a seven-month-sized belly, his family took her in under compromise that once the child was weaned, Christine would return to The States and never return. Throughout her pregnancy, Christine continued her mad practice of communing with the dead, promising them a body to inhabit in the form of the fetus within her. Frederic never found out who or what exactly the woman made contact with, but was glad enough when his daughter was born, healthy and not possessed.  

               As promised, Christine moved back to Louisiana and only contacted Anouk when she needed financial support. Beyond that, Frederic married a non-Magician who gave him twin sons when Anouk was 12 - just two years after she began attending Rookhaven. She spent most of her earlier years in the library, learning whatever she could about the magics she had no mastery over, searching every corner and turning every stone. Obsessed with her mother's undertaking and held securely down by insecurities put in place by her paternal family, who insisted that she would go mad from listening to spirits like her mother; she researched all she could. At night, she suffered from terrible nightmares where something else controlled her, where she hurt those closest to her. Surely, it was all in her head. Just insensitive parents filling her mind with nonsense. There was no evidence of any likeness in any books in the Rookhaven Library. Over the years, she relaxed and let go a bit. Her nightmares persisted, but she led a relatively normal life. Anouk maintained friendships and went on holiday with them when class was out, her grades weren't the best, but they kept afloat and she was rarely in trouble. Yes, overtime the threat of her mother lessened.  

          Once her A-Levels were completed, Anna attended and graduated from Le'Atelier Des Chefs, a culinary academy in Toulouse before returning to her father's home and taking a job at her step-mother's event planning company. There she experimented with creating baked goods and small plates for potential clients as they planned their parties. Anouk stayed doing this for two and a half years before news reached her that her mother was ill. Once again, talk of demons coming to collect "what was owed" filled her ears.
         With substantial financial aid from her father, Anouk was able to place Christine in a home for the elderly. At the Chateau De Notre Dame, a highly rated (on yelp) facility that specialized in the care of former castors, her mother recieved the care she needed. It was at this point that Anouk decided to move to the States, finding a small apartment mere blocks from an old church that hired her as an event planner. The St Louis Cathedral in the old French Quarter of New Orleans, LA, was exactly the sort of place she felt home in - quiet, sacred, ignored by the rest of the world. It was the perfect place to lose herself, trying to ignore the night terrors that had pestered her since infancy, while attempting to breathe life back into the old structure.