Balthasar Cortese was an apothecary in Pelinore over two centuries ago.  He owned the shop on the promenade that would one day be occupied by Garnett Shaw before he left for Mag Mel. 

 

One day when Balthasar was out in the hills picking herbs for his potions, he was set upon by a pack of marroks.  He was saved by the Morgai Eve Cortese with he fell in love at once.  Lilith bade him farewell but he followed her all the way to Coldbrook.  Eve told him that was touched by his interest but she would not allow herself to become romantically involved with someone whom she would outlive by hundreds of years.  She placed a binding spell upon him and he was fixed to the spot whilst she vanished into the forest, her destination Grisandole.

 

Balthasar spent the next five years of his life to finding a potion that would give him long life so he could be with the Morgai who had so ensnared him.  Just when he was about to give up, he stumbled across some eternal roses in the garden of Castle Pendragon.  He ground the petals of the flower up and added the pulp to the mixture he had prepared.  The potion made, he drank it and waited for a sign of its success.

 

After a year, people began to comment upon how youthful he looked.  He compared his reflection in the mirror to his countenance captured by a memory card and realised his potion had worked - he had discovered the secret to eternal youth.

 

Balthasar made his way to Grisandole and found Eve.  When she was sure that he had indeed stopped the aging process, she consented to be his wife.  The two were married and lived a long and happy life on Grisandole.  Many years later, Eve gave birth to a baby girl and called her Lilith.  The two raised her in the citadel with other Morgai until one day, one the first day of winter in 1639, Eve died.

 

Realising that he could not live without his Eve, Balthasar succumbed to madness, eventually casting himself from the balcony of the cemetery where she was buried onto the jagged rocks below.

 

Lilith was raised by other Morgai until one day, there was no-one else left in the citadel other than the nasty woman who lived in the uppermost tower with the darkbirds.  Lilith left Grisandole behind and made her way to into Kolpia and from there to Cessair where she would eventually meet the great Morgai Gideon Grayson.