He knew mages couldn't be compared to regular humans, they spoke differently, acted differently, and ate differently. For the last thing, he was thankful for though, he had been feasting himself every meal whenever he could, he wasn't starved at the Ossege house but he didn't each much. Now, however, his plates were often filled to absurdity with fruits he had never heard of along with meats and plenty of bread, which was something he could get used to. Mages really were something of a different breed to regular men. He could see that as clear as day by the way the mages behind the castle practised. Magic. He could tell they were combat based by the leather armour that they all wore compared to the mages he found in the library wearing fine cloth. He himself was still wearing his novice robes a bit more comfortable than he had been the last few couple of days finally adjusting to the clothing. He was no longer tripping over himself which probably wasn't such a big deal to most but he felt a swell of pride every time he ran down a hallway without landing on his face.

"Well if it isn't Anon himself?" He suppressed a growl hearing that voice. He was having such a pleasant time too enjoying himself on one of the many castle balconies watching as the mages below shoot fireballs at each other below as if they were kids throwing snowballs in the winter.

"That's not my name." He sighed, he was no longer tired. He still struggled to sleep due to his magic sensing spells being cast in the dead of night forcing him awake. Feeling that tug was something he found was almost difficult to ignore, unlike the other novices who seemed unbothered and grown up with the sensation. To make it even better had no money to buy an elixir that could keep him asleep. Thankfully Clarisa Greenmist, the apprentice he had met in the nursery a few days ago had so very kindly offered her services. He needed sleep and she was practising putting patients to sleep with magic. There was a small chance that since she was using him as a test dummy he wouldn't wake up but she had generously waited until after she had conducted the experiment to tell him. Now he just went to her and she'd let him sleep in the beds they kept in the healing ward. She wasn't successful a lot of the time and he'd often get a headache, but it was better to suffer for a few minutes while she got her spell right than stay awake all night.

Thankfully since Vernia seemed to be combat mage focused and most combat mages were off on some stupid competition that she didn't cast much magic during the day and left plenty of free beds available.

"Of course, it's your name, you haven't told me anything else." Turning to face the voice he saw the same blonde-haired girl with blue eyes and an affinity for burning books. She didn't look much better than she did a couple of nights ago when he had his nightmare a few days ago. He was still suffering from those night terrors, of a man staving himself in a library trying to get a wooden doll to move. Those dreams becoming more recent than they had in years. Her eyes were still bloodshot and her hair sticking out of places it shouldn't be.

"You still haven't told me your name yet."

"That's weird? I could have sworn I told you it was none of your business." The boy glared at the girl. For someone who seemed quite adamant about wanting nothing to do with him, she sure had a way of finding him.

"What do you want?" He repeated going back to watching the mages spar down below. It was interesting, new and something that he knew most people would never get to see in their lives. He wanted to enjoy such a rare sight.

"I needed fresh air." She really did, she smelt like she hadn't bathed since the last time he saw her and just being near her burned his nose. Yet despite the smell, he didn't say anything as the girl decided to watch the mages down below next to him. The two sat in silence watching the duels below. "How are you finding being a mage?

The boy didn't answer this immediately. He honestly didn't know how he felt, he missed the Ossege household. He missed the planned out day, the structure to his life had been completely thrown away since he entered past those white marble walls. The lady and master Ossege often kept him busy with grocery shopping, cleaning or caring for Chelsea. Now he had all the freedom he ever not wanted. But, despite leaving his life behind he now ate high-quality food and lots of it. He did feel weird wearing robes but they kept him warm and if he ever did leave he probably could sell it for a high price. Did he even want to leave? Despite what some of the other novices mumbled while cleaning the dishes or taking out the trash he wasn't a slave. He could leave whenever he wanted and could even claim he was a mage. The only reason he wasn't already back at the Ossege household is that the mages would never let him take Chelsea back to her family. Unlike him, she was going to be a properly trained mage in their eyes, well not properly trained as it seemed those who didn't belong to a mage family were mostly self-taught. Regardless she would be better than him in a few decades. He simply had no plan for his own life, for now, his only plan was to let Chelsea grow up and let her become what she wanted. Maybe he could take her to the Ossege estate when she was old enough that the mages that guarded the gates would let them pass.

Was it wrong that he didn't feel that strong urge to return back to his servant life? He couldn't help but feel guilty that all it took was a couple of days to no longer care about being a servant eating bread for every meal. But he had become spoiled, he enjoyed the fine clothes and food that even the lowest rank of mages took for granted. He would stay, he would be a servant for the mages and maybe learn a few spells to pass the time as Chelsea grew up. He was technically a mage so while Chelsea would never know her real parents he could still be there for her.

"I suppose it's better than I expected."

"How are you going with the spell I gave you?"

"Haven't tried it, I've spent the last couple of days exploring and cleaning the castle. I was never schooled before or even heard of the word kinetic motion but It's not a hard concept to grasp, I've always been good at picking things up quickly. How's your mystery research?"

"Hit a dead end, well dead start. The thing I'm looking for is impossible to find."

"What are you looking for." He had asked but was met only by silence. She didn't talk only looking out into the distance as if fighting telling him the truth or just telling him to piss off.

"A way out of marriage." The boy turned to the girl, her red eyes looking out into the distance squinting from seeing the sun for the first time in ages. "My father wants to marry me off to a skilled mage, I used to have lots of siblings but my father won his fame by being an unparalleled combat mage, perhaps too good. Despite having lots of children I'm the only one currently alive. Most of my brothers and siblings simply died trying to prove our worth fighting flocks of harpies or trying to defend villages on their lonesome while far too young and inexperienced. My only siblings that are alive are not blessed so they were naturally disowned." The way she so nonchalantly said that the non-blessed children were disowned was concerning. Surely mages wouldn't just abandon children to fend for themselves due to something they couldn't control, right?

"Can't you just call it off or get a divorce?"

"My hand has already been offered, I could get a divorce but a divorce can only happen if they have a criminal record, they've committed adultery, illness, abuse, impotency, abandonment, addiction or finally if they both agree to it. There is no way I could get a divorce immediately since my husband. would probably want to actually marry me. By the time I'm able to get the divorce, I would have already been bedded on the honeymoon or made a mockery of for ignoring tradition. My father would have my head if I don't have a child. I'm the last of my line and even Mages with their long lives find waiting another eighteen years for another child tedious." She spat the word husband out as if it was poison. He was unsettled by how well she knew the marriage laws, the sheer dedication of researching something she hated must of been soul-killing. Had she really spent nights trying to find a loophole? How long had she been in that library before he saw her? She was only eighteen as well, with mages and their ability to ignore aging she could have been around thirty-five.

A slave. Not in the literal sense but it seemed even mage families had a dark side. The abandonment of none blessed children was something that seemed completely immoral to him. Even most nobles kept bastard children from mistresses. Although the forced marriages were nothing new, even magic couldn't stop that it seemed. Despite not having iron around her the boy could see the invisible chains that made her shoulders hunch over and cause her feet to drag.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Thank you." She whispered, she was no longer the girl that flung insults and burned books.

The two just continued to watch the mages below in silence. Nothing could be said, any attempt he tried to make the girl feel better would fall on deaf ears. She seemed as dead on the inside as she looked on the outside. So he wouldn't talk, only when she was done with the internal conflict and arguments she was working out in her head that made her brow occasionally twitch and bit her lip. He would only talk when she was ready and finally spoke to him.

He didn't know how much time had passed between the two in silence. He felt guilty not being able to grab the girl and pull her in for a hug but that would only end poorly and with a bloody nose. Eventually, the sound of footsteps rushing by dragged the attention of the two mages, they were fast and small, clearly in a rush. Zerin had rushed by only making a glancing look towards the balcony as he continued running past. He was a weird boy admittedly, surely he wasn't so hyper when he was that age.

Zerin did a double-take walking back after rushing past to look at the two mages. The girl who accompanied him didn't bother to turn around ignoring the boy completely ignoring him not even bothering to show her face. Zerin didn't seem to mind not being paid attention to, the boy looked exhausted. His face was red and he could barely stand on his wobbly legs.

"Be-b-b-best buddy." He wheezed out, he had taken a liking to calling him best buddy due to his lack of a name much to his displeasure.

"Do you need a second?" The younger boy furiously nodded coughing up his lungs as he tried gasping for breath.

"I-I-I was in the nursery talking to Clarisa. I wanted to help with the general magic exercises and reading to the kids but a mage came in. She had big brown fuzzy hair and tons of golden brackets."

"And you felt the need to run through the castle trying to tell me about this?" The boy sure was over-eager to share but even this seemed like too much effort for something so minuscule. A strange-looking mage wearing rich accessories was nothing new.

"No, she came into the nursery looking to adopt a child to start her own family."

"You can't possibly mean." Dread saturated his words. It couldn't be possible. He had been how many children were in that nursery, to pick the only one he would die for would be insane, improbable.

"The mage in charge of the nursery wasn't there but when he gets back I think she's interested in Chelsea."

"She's mine! They can't do that!"

"I don't know but she was expressing interest in her, she was playing with her in her crib-." He didn't have time for this, it was rude of him to force himself past Zerin but he just didn't have time to apologise. Zerin would understand, for all the hyperactivity, the boy was kind and would forgive him for his rashness.

Thankfully the boy had spent the last couple of days learning the layout of the academy and while there was still plenty he hadn't seen or learnt he had started to remember the paths to the nursery which he visited frequently. His feet and instincts carried him more than the signs that lined the walls, by the time he made it to the familiar door with the words nursery engraved on it he was already out of breath. His lungs burnt and his face was red but he didn't dare slow down as he had sprinted down halls and went down staircases in a few leaps.

Despite the burn in his lungs and every step causing his muscles to groan, he pushed past the wooden door opening it with a loud thud. A bit dramatic admittedly but he could smother himself with a pillow later tonight, he was busy.

"Oh Chelsea's father, good you are here." Clarisa like Zerin had adopted her own name for him. Clarisa and the boy spent more time together than anyone else did, at least for him. The novices besides Zerin, the rest generally stayed away from him due to his age. There were novices in their teens but they were more focused on kissing mage's arse to become an apprentice which generally didn't work in their favour unless they weren't part of a mage family of their own.

"I heard Chelsea is getting adopted. Is that true?"

"They are in the nursery right now, I'm so sorry but I think it's too late."

"It can't be." He refused, he had no qualms with staying out of the way of the mages, in fact, he preferred it that way. Fade into the background was what he was always taught as a servant to do unless called upon. Chelsea was the only thing that had kept him grounded, if he was to lose her he wouldn't know what he would have left to do. Most of what he did here was clean and care for Chelsea. Without her, he'd lose half his life which while admittedly pretty pathetic it was something he wasn't willing to part with.

When he entered the next room where all the babies were he was greeted a sight that had him seeing red. A mage with big brown fuzzy hair and tons of golden brackets talking to Mage Dominic over Chelsea's crib. Dominic was currently holding a clipboard writing on whatever he held in his hands while the female mage had Chelsea in her arms.

"Put her down." He didn't shout, but the words that escaped his words were harsh and sharp neither the less.

"Boy?" Mage Dominic raised a brow. "Well, this certainly complicates things."

"Damn right it does!" He marched up to the two mages. The female looked more entertained than offended by his intrusion and shouted as if it was the funniest thing she'd seen all day. "What do you think you are doing with my child?" The healer didn't bother to answer the question and the boy certainly didn't one as he was a few seconds away from slapping that stupid clipboard out of his old hands.

"Your child?" The older female mage asked.

"Yes, my child." It was only when he stood next to the woman he realised he was a foot shorter than the older woman. Her height towered over him but he just looked her dead in the eye forcing his chin up at her not daring to look away.

"Greenmist you said that this child didn't belong to any mage family." She continued.

"She doesn't. The child is an interesting case. This boy is the one that managed to sneak past being discovered. He claims the child as his own but it was before he became a mage. The record of these two families is considered null due to the rule that all novice children himself included losing any non-blessed familial affiliation. It's a controversial case as the boy is blessed but that was before he was welcomed into the order. Since he has no name or established mage family it was decided just to consider the two separate." The boy couldn't believe the words he was hearing from Dominic, he certainly wasn't close to the man he didn't think he would so easily betray him. bastards. All mages were bastards. He hasn't met one that wasn't a selfish pretentious prick.

"What nonsense. Chelsea is mine, had always been mine and that doesn't change because I entered this stupid academy late. I couldn't give a rat's arse about what is on some stupid sheet of paper when my blood flows through her veins, is that not proof she is mine!" A lie, he had embarrassingly claimed Chelsea as his own but the lie should work in his favour it seemed.

"Well according to the documents that aren't the case. Any relationship that isn't a mage family is invalid. Now run along child, the adults are talking." The female mage said.

"Mage Greenmist you have to know this is bullshit."

"I understand your frustration but please refrain from cursing near children." The boy didn't apologise only giving the old man a heated glare.

"Oh, my apologies oh great mage I didn't realise that my child getting stolen for the second time was such an inconvenience to you. But you are right, me swearing truly is the greatest injustice that is happening right now. Let me kiss your boots." The boy gave a mocking bow to the mage. He knew it wasn't smart to be coy with the healer. He was probably going to regret it later when he had a broken bone or infection but the boy believed he was understandably livid. Greenmist didn't look at the boy with rage nor resentment at his words, his tired eyes only washed over the child that was young enough to be his grandchild.

"If you were raised a true mage you wouldn't have such a loose tongue boy, if you really care about this child then you'll admit you have no claim over her. A child should have no parent as..." The older female let her gaze wash over him, the boy gave her a look with eyes that sang with hatred but she didn't seem bothered. He was a mere child throwing a hissy fit to her. "Uncillvilised." He couldn't help but think of the word bitch.

"Why are you even here seriously? Why is she here? There are literally so many babies without a family in this room. Take one of them, better yet have one yourself. Wouldn't you want to have your own mage family with members carrying the same blood?"

"So typical of a child raised in the filth then an academy. Blood means nothing, some people do not wish to go through the waste of time that is childbirth, the only thing that matters for a parent is to raise a child with knowledge, love and most importantly legal documentation. Which you don't have." Her smile, her damned smile which most would consider beauty to most was the most revolting thing that the boy had laid eyes on. How he wished to tear out those annoying white teeth. He had never hit someone, never been in a fight and he never wished to. he was a servant, not a fighter. But at that moment where her lips met her eyes, he felt the urge to leap across the small distance between them and tear out her throat.

"Is it that you find childbirth necessary or is it that no man who has functional eyes would dare lay with a woman so grotesque?"

"You whoreson."

"Enough!" Greenmist shouted waking a few children much to his displeasure. Another child to put asleep. "I am the acting healer and I will not have my nursery turn into a house of childish insults and barbs." He looked at the boy, yet for the first time the boy didn't feel guilty about his actions, he didn't feel the urge to apologise for his behaviour as he usually did. "Mage Racheal Redkin has every right to claim this child as her own." She smiled at his words as if her victory was already assured. "However, this situation is definitely under irregular conditions. I will speak to the other healers when they become available to come up with a conclusion. It should take around a fortnight at best, a month at the latest."

"Why wait so long? This boy has insulted me and the newly formed Redkin family. He wants to settle things, then let's do it how a mage would. How about it novice? A duel tomorrow when the sun hits the horizon in the afternoon."

"You can't be serious." He had seen mages duel. He couldn't even cast a single spell he would be easily decimated. A duel was a farce, it would be a one-sided slaughter and she knew it. "That's the most stupid and unfair idea I've heard."

"Oh, idiot boy." He hated her voice. "You don't think the healers will grant you the child, do you? I have registered my own magic family, I have the financial and educational support. With me, the child gets a guaranteed master and a life that isn't spent cleaning the mess of other mages like some peasant. If it comes to the healers, they will go with me cause I'm the best option the child has at a future. I will win, the only reason I even offer a duel is a mercy to you to give you even a shred of a chance and to save me the wait of a month."

"You bitch."

"I'll see you tomorrow on the sparring fields."