Nalivey knew she was going to die soon.

Things had gone awry ever since her second evolution. Most of the so called civilized races like humans or elves had a deep hatred towards the evolved individuals of other races. Especially on her continent, she had heard rumors about intelligent monsters being accepted in society on other continents like Aikidora, should they manage to convince the nearest citylord of their usefulness.

Her continent had the highest population of monsters so it was inevitable most lost someone to a monster. As humans, elves and dwarves rarely evolved they were fearful and jealous of monsters that managed to do so several times in their lifetime.

When Nalivey had first evolved back in her tribe she had been elated as it would elevate her position in her tribe by leaps and bounds. She could now hunt five times as much as she could as a normal goblin. Hobgoblins were still weaker than the average human, so they were counted as goblins by the surrounding humans. The human town near her tribe was a very tolerant one, trading metal tools against the hunting produce of humanoid monsters.

About a year later, when she had once again been on a hunting trip, she had heard a terrified screech from above. All her instincts told her to run as far and fast as she could and hide. Her curiosity got the better of her however and she cautiously approached a nearby clearing to see what had happened.

As it turned out there wasn't much to observe anymore, the only thing she managed to see was the glimpse of a lesser dragon flying into the distance and something else tumbling to the ground, probably a part of its prey. Curious as ever Nalivey had chosen to investigate and set off in the direction of the crash.

After half an hour of searching she had finally found what she was looking for, a part of a singed wing as big as she was. It likely fell off when the dragon ate its owner. She didn't know the race of the beast it belonged to but the flesh smelled delicious and she hadn't eaten since the morning. Instinct took over, something that hadn't happened since her evolution and she ate until she was full. Afterwards she started to feel quite drowsy so she climbed a nearby tree and fell asleep.

When she awoke sometime later it was night she felt different, the world seemed clearer than before, her thoughts were more focused and her other senses seemed to have improved as well. Furthermore felt the same hunger she had after evolving for the first time. After satiating herself with the leftovers of the wing she had time to think about her new condition.

Even though she had no clue why, it quickly became apparent she evolved once again, which was both wonderful and completely terrifying.

On the one hand, she had never heard of anyone in her tribe evolving only a year after the first evolution, on the other she would have to leave her tribe and everything she knew, lest the nearby humans would wipe out her tribe as a warning for the surrounding monsters. She couldn't let that happen!

Decision to leave firmly set, she went to a nearby lake to inspect her new appearance, which was way closer to a human than before. She would probably continue to grow over the next couple of months like she had before so in a few months she would be able to pass as a human. A disguise wouldn't hold up to a close inspection but anything less would be fair game.

A year passed in moments notice. Nalivey had already stopped growing and could pass as a small human. She had been thinking about what could have caused her to evolve again, obviously the wing had something to do with that but she had had no clue why. Until now a year later she was nearly out of ideas but the last one seemed promising. That idea proved true and over the course of the next six years she managed to evolve twice more.

After her fourth evolution she looked a lot like a Human with slightly pointed ears and only a minimal green tinge left. After years of travelling the continent, ever moving to its midst by some unknown instinct she had finally been confident enough to try and live in a town. Once she had been accumulated to human life she approached a mage for an apprenticeship, something she had been interested in her whole life. Over the course of the next decade, she learned everything the Mage taught her, even Spells that were of no use for almost anybody because of the huge amount of mana they required.

After completing her apprenticeship, she left the town as a full blown mage and settled down in a small village in the human Kingdom of Ruzian where she had used an illusion to disguise herself as completely human, the peasants being way less open about anyone not human than the citizens in cities or towns.

For the next fifteen years she lived a happy life as the village healer until it got apparent she didn't age as they did. While that would not have been a problem a few years earlier, a new lord had arisen in the area, and he had an irrational hate against anything not human even elves, dwarves and beastmen. When she one day saw one of the villagers leaving towards their lord, she knew her time at the village was over. She had always known that would happen someday, but hoped it would take longer than this. Not wanting to kill anybody, Nalivey had grown to like the villagers she had healed, she left before the lord's men came to check the rumors of the unaging healer. Either would she be enlisted in his forces if she was declared a powerful human mage, something she had no interest in.

That would have been the most pleasant outcome. If they found her nonhuman heritage, she would have been attacked on the spot. After a few years of wandering towards the middle of the continent once again, she had settled in a village of monsters outside of any civilized kingdom's or empire's borders. Nalivey lived a peaceful life there and even found a mate. It had been the best moment in her life when she had noticed she was pregnant.

Alas the world seemed to hate her, as every time her life seemed to move up, humans destroyed her luck once again.

This time they came as a huge band of adventurers that were hired to exterminate the village in order to expand their kingdom’s borders southward. Nalivey had wanted to fight as well and defend the life she had built up, but on the urging of the village elders she accompanied the other soon to be mothers and children. The hired adventurers had proven too much for the villagers as they had been spotted too late to mount an effective defense or flee.

She had been on the run ever since, the others originally with her being killed one by one, the humans saw them fleeing and had hit them with tracking spells she didn't know and would need time they didn't have to dispel.

Now several weeks later after giving birth to her daughter she was tired and knew her pursuers would soon catch up to her. While she was a mage of considerable strength and most likely could defeat any one human in physical combat, they were after her in great numbers and had tiered her out over the last few weeks. There was also her daughter’s safety to consider, as the girl was sure to die should she fight her pursuers now.

She took out her biggest treasure, a stone consisting of crystallized mana something her late master gifted her for completing her training.

She would probably die, so she decided to give her daughter the best life possible and cast an illusion that would disguise her only non-human traits, which were her ears and teeth. The spell was cast in a way it would use the ambient mana to recharge itself.

She put her daughter in a basket she had obtained from a nearby human village and put in all the human currency she had left and a note containing her daughter's name.

Then Nalivey used the mana contained in the crystal to cast a spell no human mage could cast by himself. The spell would transport her daughter to an orphanage located in the capital of the Edruin Empire, where her pursuers would never think to search for her daughter. She had visited the powerful empire once, it was located near the middle of the continent of Kidrin and after hearing of it's architectural greatness she had known she would have to see for herself. During her visit, she had noticed how humans were treated there and walked past many orphanages on her way to see the grand palace.

A teleport spell was an intricate piece of magic, requiring the caster to have an exact image of where it should lead. The only limiting factor of such a spell was the weight it should transport, distance being no factor at all. By imperial custom, any human without a parent would be allowed to grow up in a safe environment. As her daughter look entirely human with the spell she cast, she was sure to be allowed to grow up safely.

With tears in her eyes Nalivey finished the spell and with a last kiss on her daughter’s forehead, the girl vanished. She had foregone most of the things you would normally do in order to mask your casting as she was sure the huge amount of mana would stop a few of her pursuers, and give her a better fighting chance.

So she prepared to fight for her life once again, something she hadn't needed to do for a long time and hoped to never need to do again.

Grenvir Dhannu was having a great day. He, his team and several others took on a quest to exterminate some monster village at the edge of their kingdom’s borders. It was a really dangerous quest even for silver ranked adventurers like them, but immensely lucrative as they were allowed to keep all materials they gained.

The quest turned out even better than expected, they managed to kill nearly the entire village in their attack and while many of them died, that only meant more rewards for the survivors. He had spotted a few survivors fleeing their attack and cast a tracking spell on one of them. That one had most likely been a rare evolution as it looked almost entirely human. They had been hunting it for weeks now, killing all stragglers they came across, and slowly tiring it out.

By now it was most likely on its last legs and ready to be killed, he smiled at the thought of getting the reward for its corpse, which was enough to pay for the equipment needed to advance in rank once again.

Suddenly he felt a huge mana fluctuation from the direction his tracking spell was leading him. He didn't know what spell was cast, but it definitely was some large scale magic.

Deciding he wasn't going to risk running into a trap by the cunning monster, he told his team to stand down and let the other teams check it out. Several other mages told their teams to do the same. So shortly afterwards about half the teams continued, deciding a monster wasn't smart enough to prepare a proper trap.

Andra Jonun woke up, startled, wondering what woke her considering she had quite the deep sleep. Looking out of the window she saw the sun would rise within the next hour. Deciding she couldn't resume her sleep anyways, she started her day early. Shortly afterwards, she heard a child’s scream coming from the direction of the front door. With a sigh, she decided to confirm her worries, when she opened the door she could see an infant in a basket, the parents nowhere to be seen.

She picked up the parchment in the basket to look for the infants name.

“Welcome to the Crystal Fountain Orphanage, little Mary.” She said, picking up the girls basket to take her inside.

With another sigh she decided to first wake up one of the orphanages new caretakers to take care of the child. Afterwards she started the paperwork for adding another orphan into her care, when the caretaker excitedly came in and told her she found three gold coins in the infants basket.

“Thank you very much Nandelia”

Andra said, wondering who the girls parents were given they put a fortune into a basket of such poor quality. Gifts like that were normally given to the child once it left the orphanage, as the empire treated all it's human citizen the same and any child dropped off like this was guaranteed a save life for the first eight years of their life. She took out another new form and completed it with the ones already on her desk.

She really hoped the girl’s parents were fine and would one day return to their daughter.

Grand Duke Falconbridge was no happy man.

He was currently sitting in his grand hall waiting for the Emperors soldiers to come and escort him to the emperor for questioning. Behind him clear to see for everyone was his family's coat of arms, a Royal Falcon, that proudly stood upon a dead griffin twenty times its size. He had been informed that a detachment of the royal guard had been sent to fetch him. Soon enough soldiers bearing the sigil of the royal guard stormed into his hall. A Colonel of the Royal Guard declared loudly.

“Grand Duke Branston Falconbridge, you are hereby commanded to present yourself to Emperor Vibius Blythe immediately!”

“Of course Colonel, I suppose you and your men will escort me there?” he answered. He only got a confirming grunt.

15 Days later Capital of the Edruin Empire - Palace

After what could have easily been the fifteen most unpleasant days of his life, Branston Falconbridge finally arrived at the capital. Not even giving him time to refresh himself the Colonel escorted him directly into the Emperor's private library. After properly bowing to the man he stood straight waiting for the Emperor to address him.

“Grand Duke Falconbridge I welcome to the capital, I do hope you had a pleasant journey?” That didn't bode well as the Emperor didn't actually care for anyone.

“Considering the circumstances, no, definitely not your majesty, may I ask why your men stormed my castle and transported me here without so much as an explanation?”

“Well, you know, I heard a rather nasty rumor about you.”

“And what would that rumor entail my Emperor, it must be really nasty to stop a grand duke from performing his duties?”

“It seems like you are a traitor Grand Duke, some birds told me you wanted to get yourself you own little kingdom, abandoning the Empire, taking my resources and workers with you.”

“I would never even think about something like that my Emperor. I am well aware, there would be nowhere to hide, we are, after all the most powerful Empire around I wouldn't want to risk my position here just to be the king of an insignificant temporary kingdom!” The Emperor smirked.

“Yes that would really be the height of stupidity, wouldn’t it. Unfortunately for you, these rumors have been around for some time and I have to do something!” Falconbridge smiled internally, the Emperor was doing just what he had anticipated.

“You intent to make an example of me not based on evidence or suspicion, but just to prove you are capable of hitting even the strongest of your subjects, don’t you?” He protested loudly.

“As it happens, I do, you just happened to be very successful over the course of the last years. You are in luck though, I won’t kill you and you will even continue to be a noble.”

“My Emperor, I assure you these rumors are completely unfounded, one of my rivals wanted to get rid of me and invented this rumor, wanting to get my position as the Grand Duke of the North. I am one of your most loyal subjects!” He protested again.

The Emperor ignored it and called for his personal scribe.

“Let it be known that Grand Duke Branston Falconbridge will from here on be known as Baron Falconbridge,. Furthermore all of the Barons possessions outside of the capital will be sized by the crown after a month has passed.”

After the Scribe left the Emperor turned to Barnston again. “See to it Baron, to move your most valued items to the capital this month, otherwise you might lose something important. And I know that there are many nobles lusting after your position, but they won't get it, as there won't be a Grand Duke of the North from now on, the empire now only has five Grand Dukes!”

“Thank you for your generosity, my Emperor. I hope sacrificing me will help the empire!” Seemingly satisfied with the answer the Emperor dismissed him with a wave of his hand. Falconbridge bowed another time before leaving quickly. He had to start moving some important goods a well as relocate his best and most loyal retainers to the capital before the vultures the Emperor would appoint to his former position realised what he had happened. His work for the next month was set.

Luckily he could use the Teleportation Circles to travel back to his castle, bringing workers and guards to his land to transport everything he needed to the capital. Sadly the Circles could only transport away from the capital the Blythe Dynasty being as paranoid as they were. So he would have to make the journey back towards the capital again, though this time he wouldn't be hurried along by the royal guard.