Mary awoke early next morning and went into the wardrobe to find something to dress, she chose one of the dresses and hoped the Baron would keep his promise and get her some other clothes today. Whe. She left her room, Elaine appeared out of nowhere, asking her where she thought she was going.

“I’ll go outside and watch the sunrise as everyday!” with that she walked past her and towards the door, Elaine reached her quickly.

"Not this way young miss, there is a better spot in the garden.” She happily let Elaine lead her there, hoping there would be a tree to sit on.

They left the house on the opposite side she entered yesterday, and she followed Elaine through a maze of plants to a fountain, while the spot lacked a tree, it had benches and gave off a very peaceful atmosphere. Just before the first rays of the morning sun broke the darkness, Mary heart someone approaching, the person moved very silently, though more out of habit than trying to sneak. Soon after, a man emerged from the direction of the house, a smile illuminating his face as he spotted them.

“Looks like someone found my spot, I always liked the peace here. And who might you two be?”

“The young miss is named Mary, my lord.”

“And that's Elaine, she is my maid!” Elaine seemed to sink into the ground, being introduced to a noble.

“A pleasure to meet you both, might I inquire what you are doing here?”

“I always watch the sun rise, and Elaine showed me this spot. And you didn't tell me who you are!”

“I must apologize young Mary, I am Viscount Bearsted here to witness the ceremony of a friend, and piss off a few nobles in the process.”

He laughed. "I assume you are to be adopted, are you not.”

“Yes I am.” They sat in companionable silence, until the sun had risen fully.

“I assume you have not seen much of the world yet, young lady?” The viscount asked.

“No I didn't, and call me Mary.”

"Would you like me to tell you a few stories of the adventures I had with you soon to be father?” Mary nodded excited.

“Very well, you know we were all young back then, Branston, me and eight other noble children, we were bored by our lives and all the privilege we had, so unlike the other nobles we joined the guild like a normal person would, of course we blasted through the lower ranks without problems, and overconfident as we were took the quest to exterminate a lesser plantdrake, while officially a proper monster to hunt for advancement, plant drakes are the most dangerous of drakes, and adventurers are discouraged to kill them for advancement. They are mostly taken care of by stronger teams, as the rewards are astronomical. Anyways, arrogant as we were, we went off to hunt it.

When we arrived, we instantly searched the forest for it, and while we didn't manage to find it, it found us. When we arrived at a really dense part of the forest, we were suddenly enclosed by plants in all directions, and they continued to close on us from all sides, making an escape impossible so our mages summoned a wall of fire around us, buring all plants nearing us, while we were saved for now, we had to hope the drake would run out of plants to throw at us before we ran out of mana that was the first thing you should be wary of when hunting plant drakes.

We stayed at that impassive for a while, until Branston had an idea that probably saved our lives, he told the other mages to take over his part of the wall, and then commanded me stand in the middle of us and then cast a spell that raised me over the canopy so I could see the surroundings, what I saw was probably the most terrifying thing I ever saw in my life, it looked like the whole forest was coming to crush the little humans daring to enter its borders.

But I also saw the drake, near our position, and told them where it was, so soon after we had a small gap in the wall that allowed our ranger and Brantson to attack back, sadly we weren't the most balanced them, as nobles very rarely learn anything other than melee fighting or magic. We were lucky to even have a ranger at all.

The most dangerous thing when fighting a plant drake is their physiology as they take on some of the characteristics of the plants they control, not unlike wizards. So unlike all other drakes, a plant drake misses a point of weakness that can be used to kill it. To kill one you have to destroy enough of its body that it collapses due to loss of blood, though they do have a glaring weakness against any fire.

We managed to kill it just in time, as most of our mages used nearly all their mana in that fight. It taught us several things which I will impart on you now, as Branston seems to always picks the reckless, if talented individuals out of any group.” He looked at her seriously.

“Do you promise me to always keep these in mind?” She nodded seriously.

“Always have an escape route or plan! Don't fight an enemy unprepared or tired if possible! Always know what you are up against! Never underestimate your enemy!”

Those all sounded reasonable, though there was one thing she wanted to tell the old man before he vanished again. “I am not reckless, I only take calculated risks!” The old man laughed and went back in the direction of the mansion.

“It's high time we head back too, young miss, breakfast is about to start.” Elaine interjected.

“Let's go then, but afterwards you will show me everything in the garden!” Breakfast was just as great as yesterday's dinner, though they were had some losses, the Baron’s other children having serious trouble standing up early. The Baron’s wife was really nice though, asking her about her room and magic and morning and even how she had slept. She felt if they would continue to feed her like that she would just go plob. When she told them that they laughed and said she didn't need to eat everything, just the things she wanted to.

After finishing Breakfast she shot off, tracking down Elaine to show her around, she needn't have bothered, as as soon as she left the room the other girl appeared out of nowhere. The gardens were really too big to explore in one morning, so Elaine told her what significant thing she could show her. The one that instantly interested her was the falconry which, according to Elaine was the Baron’s sole hobby, where he kept and cared for a flock of falcons. Ten minutes later they arrived at a strange hill, home to all kinds of falcons, They ranged from really big ones to some very small ones. She spent an hour there just watching the beautiful birds.

They were off to somewhere else soon, to the trees Mary had spotted upon arrival. They would be really good to climb, but sadly she had no clothes fit for something fun like that, which seemed to greatly relieve Elaine. It had but a bummer to her mood though, and she set out to go into the library, where she searched for a book that sounded interesting and then settled down to read it. With seemingly no time passing at all, Elaine interrupted her for lunch, which was great again.

The Baron’s sons had managed to get out of bed too it seemed, as they joined them this time. The afternoon and evening wouldn't be fun though, as she had to learn something called ‘noble customs’ something which Elaine seemed delighted to be allowed to teach her. In the evening she would then have to take part in the ceremony to officially join the Baron’s house.

Noble customs turned out to be just as stupid and boring as she anticipated, though not very hard to learn, by the time she was sent to bathe again and get her new clothes, she already memorized everything Elaine told her, to the girls obvious delight. She was so happy she didn't even protest when Mary pushed her out of the bath again. The Mary’s intense joy, her wardrobe was now filled with clothing actually useable for the fun things in life. Before that could happen though, she had a ceremony to attend to.

Viscount Bearsted was having one hell of a day, in the morning he had met Branston’s newest family member, a cheerful girl named Mary, and by now the nobles in the capital must be fuming, seeing none of them had been invited to the ceremony, he could see the smile that thought brought on his face on many faces around him too.

It was about to begin, they soon would be officially introduced to the little girl. Afterwards she would be a Falconbridge. With him were another eight nobles, all showing signs of age like him, the invitation had been a welcome opportunity to see his old team again, he had just finished telling them of his encounter with the girl this morning.

“I’m so happy for them, they always wanted to have a daughter.” Cedra chirped in, she had always been the one to hold their group together in the hard times, with her cheerful and slightly stupid manner.

Even though she seemed stupid, that was just wore a mask she wore, that hid a fierce intelligence, something he needed more time than he liked to admit to find out. After another few minutes of idle chitchat, Branston’s butler interrupted their conversations and announced the main attraction of the evening was about to arrive.

When the door to the ballroom opened, they all could see Branston entering together with a small girl, contrary to the expectations of most attending she didn't seem fazed by those present at all. The girl had changed into trousers and a shirt, seeming way more at ease when not in a dress. She wore dark brown boots, black pants and a dark green tunic, all made of expensive fabric. Branston had, for once changed out of his normal clothing, trading the simple looking clothes, that were actually more expensive than any in this room, for something more fitting for the occasion, probably hearing on his sons advice for once.

His clothes were enchanted to draw the eyes to the wearer, an enchantment more seen on armor than clothing, the boots were of the finest leather money could buy, worked on by a master craftsmen. The trousers were black and kept simple, in order to draw the eyes to the tunic alwell. The tunic itself was a wonder of craftsmanship, while still in the custom dark blue Branston liked so much, the craftsmen had done wonders, adding a royal falcon, the crest of house Falconbridge on the chest. They walked straight to the central stage that had been built for this occasion, illuminated by all kinds of magic that had been added to appease the eye of the observer. Soon enough they reached the middle of the room, climbing the invisible stairs. They were followed by the imperial clerk that would witness and conduct the whole procedure.

“We are here on this Friday in the year of 639 EC to witness the addition of the girl Mary to the house Falconbridge. Do you want to join the noble house of Falconbridge with all duties and privileges that come with it?”

“Yes!”

“Do you want this girl to join your house as your daughter?”

“Yes!”

“Very well then, I hereby declare the girl Mary to be henceforth known as Mary Falconbridge.” That caused cheers among the present nobles, they all knew of the Baron’s talent to find rare gems among the orphans on the north, and wondered what the girl could do, now that he had all the capital’s orphanages to choose from.

“Let’s go greet the young lady into the circle of nobles.” He and the rest of his team went forth towards Branston and his new daughter, who had left the stage and went off in the direction of the buffet. Music had started playing once again, the musicians nowhere to be seen, either hidden by an illusion or actually created by magic altogether. Cedra shot forwards as soon as they got in range, cuddling the girl, repeating “So cute.” over and over again. When they arrived shortly after, the girls eyes locked on him and he got a betrayed look that said ‘Why did you bring the crazy lady?’ He chuckled at that.

Branston took pity in his new daughter.

“Now, now Cedra don't you think you should introduce yourself first, you know I invited you all to not traumatize the child, which you were just trying to do. Though I’d wager that will be very hard with this one.”

The girl was finally released.

“Hi, I’m Baroness Cedra Eaglesva, but you can call me aunt Cedra.”

“I don't want to, you are crazy!” That caused laughs in all those around them. After that they each introduced themselves to the girl, who unlike all other orphan’s he saw in this situation before didn't seem fazed at all by the high and mighty surrounding them. She seemed more interested in the music coming out of nowhere than all the nobles, somehow managing to ignore all the buzz around them. He went over to Branston.

“And why did you pick this young lady?”

Branston looked around for anyone near enough to eavesdrop, and then whispered.

“She is a sorceress and even taught herself how to control her mana without any assistance.” He told them, taking them by surprise, while all of them had learnt how to do so at a young age, they couldn't fathom how one would do so without guidance.

“And what is she doing now?”

“I think she is analysing the spell used to create the music, I got the impression she is somehow able to see mana.”

That was something completely unheard of, everyone who wanted to see mana, had to resort to spells enhancing their vision, something subpar at best. As most other nobles saw the girl wasn't scared, they came over to introduce themselves, so he and the others retreated, needing time to digest the revelations made to them.

The evening hadn't been half as bad as Mary thought it would be, the guests of her father, she liked how the word sounded, even though it was unfamiliar, all seemed nice enough, except the crazy lady that wanted to choke her to death at least. She liked the old man she met this morning most, and some others had been nice as well, though the Baron had only told nine people of her talent in magic, she thought it smart to do the same. Tomorrow she would visit the fountain again, ask about this magic school she was told about at breakfast, visit the Falcons afterwards and then climb the trees until lunch. Afterwards she would try out some of the shapes that she saw the evening. The rest of the day would be used to read in the library.