Mira

"You seem distracted child. What troubles you?"

"Nothing Master," I respond quickly as I look back at the heavy tome I'm supposed to be reading. I squint my eyes feigning concentration so as not to call attention to myself.

"You have been looking through that book for the past 40 minutes and I doubt you've read a word throughout the time. Come, you are distracting me with your loud silence, speak freely, your secrets are safe within my mind." Master Zhen admonishes. He has been my Master since I turned 16, teaching me to be a Mage and the reason I Awakened as early as 29 years of age. I am beyond grateful to him and I trust him with my life.

The man is over 200 years old but looks nothing over 50, a young 50 at that. The silver hair, scruffy clothes and ugly sagging hat are the only giveaway of his age but otherwise he is filled with youthful vigour. How does he even manage to look scruffy in a spider-silk shirt? Just looking at him scowl at me eases the weight of the pains of my life somewhat.

"I was gifted to the Barathians at 13 years of age. They treat their slaves fairly well considering...'' I memory comes to mind, I feel the phantom pain of those lashes still. ''but I think I was treated better than most from the start. I don't know..." I sigh heavily. "I am 32 years old now and if they had not invested in me I would still be a slave having to wait 8 more years for her freedom. I used to hear all the other slaves talk of their plans for when they get freed but most would really be too old for anything when released unless they Awakened. Then they would have maybe 200 more years? If that," I shake my head in frustration failing to articulate what I'm trying to communicate.

"Why did Master Barathian send me to you for training? Why did he bed me so often, or Mistress Barathian insists I bed her sons. I feel there is a pattern here. Why was I gifted to them to begin with? There are plenty of beautiful slave girls. What made me such a prize?"

At first, everyone told me I was beautiful with astounding hair, but there are plenty of beautiful slave girls sold to brothel owners and the 'beauties' don't usually last that long.

"Are you no longer a slave to little Marcus and his pretty wife Cecilia? A shrewd woman that, she always gets her way in the end." He mumbles something under his breath I can't hear.

"Anyways you know I like intelligent questions and I've been waiting years for you to ask these. Come," he says as he walks out of the library to his kitchen. Crysta is here making a pie as we walk in. Me bewildered, Master Zhen in his usual seemingly absent-minded way.

"I will take a cup of tea. Oh, and educate the girl about her heritage." He says as he sits in the corner and starts conjuring lightning creatures that chase each other across the floor. It looks like an insignificant parlour trick but it takes a level of power and control I know is still many years ahead for me.

"Ahh... so you want to know where you come from?" Crysta asks seriously as she prepares the tea without missing a step. After coming here almost every day for these many years, one would think I understood the dynamic of their relationship.

She is sometimes a servant but I have seen her scold master on a number of occasions. I would say maybe a wife if the man had any inclination towards carnal pleasure, he doesn't and from the nights I've slept here, I can conclude he sleeps alone if he even sleeps at all.

Crysta is a mystery as well. I have been learning to detect other Awakened by their mana signatures. It's relatively easy to do except on people with special skills or people with power well beyond my own.

Crysta has no signature at all but I have seen her snuff out one of the master's conjurations with a wave of her hand. She is either well beyond me in power, which begs the question, 'why is she a pseudo-servant', or she has special skills, which begs the question, 'why is she a servant?'.

"I thought I knew where I came from..." I respond after a moment.

To be honest it's the Barathian secrets I haven't been able to sniff out I'm more concerned about. I don't like to even think about my family. Crysta seems to see this as she places a kettle and pours tea for master and another for me apparently and another for herself.

Both sit at the table sipping tea watching me. It's infuriating but I know it's a test. There is nothing master loves more than questions, even some he has no answers for, especially questions he has no answers for now. I sit down and sip my tea, going over our conversation again in my head. Trying to find the thread that will lead me to answers.

'If you're not sure how to go forward, go back.' Master Zhen is sometimes fond of saying, so I shrug and repeat the questions I had to ask before, only now for Crysta. As I speak and speculate, I realise this is the correct course of action. 'If you don't ask the question, you are not ready for the answer,' is also one saying he repeats often.

"What do you know about the other humanoid races and their magical attributes?" Crysta asks, which is a question that takes me completely off guard.

I have no idea what that has to do with our current topic. I am well-read so I know a fair bit more than what master has taught about the world at large, but I'm no noble or rich merchant's daughter that has had a formal education.

And I have never left the kingdom. I can hardly imagine what life outside Sandoria is like, though I have wondered...

"There are many different races of humans, but all humans Awakened in similar ways, after extensive meditation and training to control the mind and bend it.."

"Wrong. What Master Zhen has been training you to do with your mind and the puzzles he made you accomplish is in preparation for your real training as a Magus, not things you needed to know to Awaken."

"What?"

I look at Master Zhen as the shock and horror of having to endure those mind-numbing, nauseating, but mostly sweat drenching exercises to Awaken, only to realise I don't need to know them to Awaken? Master Zhen shrugs.

"Everything I've taught you is necessary for a solid foundation in manipulating the energy of the worlds. If someone had bothered to prepare me as adequately as I have you..." He giggles lightly. "Anyways let me explain to you how you compare to other students and how the rest of the magical world in our kingdom sees someone at your level. You were a novice mage from the day they delivered you to my doorstep for training.

"You became an apprentice mage the day you Awakened. One day you will be a journeyman mage, also known as a magician when you manage to condense your mana and I deem you safe enough to be let out onto the world. You can then become a wizard when you stop dabbling in parlour tricks and actually learn the mystic language of power, godspeak.

"That's the foundation I have laid solidly for you with my training. You will be a wizard without equal in the kingdom in another 60 or so years if you live long enough." He says nonchalantly as he starts eating pastries.

"Why wouldn't I live long enough?" I ask the most important question first as dozens more threaten to come regurgitating out of my mouth simultaneously.

My mind is swarming with the implications. I of course already know about magical rankings, from novice, apprentice, journeyman, magister, master and grandmaster. I have always had a hard time differentiating between magicians, wizards, sorcerers and warlocks though. Non-magicians don't know and Master Zhen has never bothered to explain when asked. I know master Zhen to be a Master Magician, to think that wizardry is actually a branching path than his own, or maybe I'm jumping to conclusions.

The magical ranking in the human kingdoms is a novice, apprentice mage, magician, magister, master magician, grandmaster magician and archmage. To be an Archmage is to be ready to Ascend to a higher realm, but I know very little about Ascending still. I look at Master Zhen, another question already at the tip of my tongue with two more behind that.

"Answer Crysta's questions first."

"Right. Humanoid races... Well, there are the dwarves, elves, mermen, beastmen, Monkeys, mhmm... undines I think, nymphs, fairies, giants, gnomes, gremlins, satyrs, goblins, halflings, centaurs, nâga, minotaurs and the fae. Right, that's all I can think of at the top of my head." I say and wait for further instruction.

"Why did you leave the fae for last?" Crysta asks curiously. I didn't even think about it. Honestly, I know very little about the fae and the literature is very sparse on them.

"Not sure. Wasn't a conscious decision to do so, probably 'cause I know the least about them."

"What colour is your hair Mira?" She asks. This line of questioning seems very unusual to me.

"Orange... sometimes red in the right light."

"In your lifetime, how many humans have you seen with red hair?" I have to think about this before I answer. It's something I have occasionally wondered about. My father had red hair but I've never met his father. I've never met either set of grandparents.

Uncle Cato was my father's half-brother and he had black hair. But I have seen a few people with red hair on occasion around the city.

"Maybe 4 people, excluding me," I respond.

"Would it surprise you to hear that in our glorious city of roughly 250 000 souls according to the last census, only 14 are redheads?" Crysta leaves the kitchen and I'm left with my thoughts. Trying to piece together what it might mean that I have red hair, or why so few people do. I shake my head coming up blank on its significance.

Crysta returns with one of Master's maps from the study, I help her clear the table while Master Zhen lights a pipe.

After everything is cleared away we unfold the map on the table and I admire the level of detail that has gone into drawing it. It's beautifully choreographed onto strong nylon clothe type of material and has a glossy finish I assume to prevent water damage or to keep the ink bright and prevent fading. It's a big 2 square meter map that covers the entire coffee table like a cloth and drapes at the ends when fully unfolded.

"This is a map of the current size of the kingdom and its bordering lands. Note the shape. What do you notice straight away?" Crysta asks as she moves back to give me an unobstructed view.

"It's big." I immediately notice. The kingdom has been in constant war with all its neighbours since before the death of King Horis. The kingdom of Sandoria has been conquering or annexing its neighbours for centuries.

First, it was just fighting with other human tribes and civilisations. The Mayans who relied on their terrains and engineering fell, the black men of the Induku Tribes who are still unravelled in the use the spear and shamanism, the Highlanders who were few in number, to begin with, but were almost unrivalled warriors and probably the most tragically, Orientia just to name a few.

Orientia. An empire of sword-wielding perfectionists whose culture and ways are still a mystery, as every last one of them seems to have disappeared with the death of their emperor. It doesn't sound like much but when over 500 000 people somehow manage to vanish as if overnight... It leaves questions.

Their disappearance also resulted in a period of 30 years of peace as the kingdom had no immediate enemies and was busy trying to annex the vast vacant lands that are now the Dukedom of Orientia.

After the peace there were probes into human kingdoms further away, my father died in one of those probes fighting the fucken' Barbarians in a skirmish. Then we discovered the other humanoid races as we reached the coast and other wild places.

"It's irregular," I say as I notice the huge portion known as Central Province where two of the biggest cities in the known world are. Central Province acts as the seat of government for King Magnus, where in the old city Capital the kingdom is governed and the dukes, duchesses, earls, barons, princes, princesses and court nobles meet every year.

With Central in the middle, there is then Woodlands Forest to the south, Stormhold Dukedom to the east, Eddington to the west and Muslia to the north. All almost in a perfect circle around Central.

After that, the territory spreads irregularly. There are portions of lands we engulfed within our borders but never annexed into the kingdom and other lands we skirted around completely. This results in a big but irregular territory and the map is colour coded so these distinctions are easy to see.

"The only reason we managed to conquer the other kingdoms is because of magic. We have the most accomplished mages in the world, or at least that's the assumption," Master Zhen adds then leaves the room. "I'm going to take a nap." He yells over his shoulder, which is code for meditation or whatever other experiments he does in his secret private lab. I've learnt that the dimensions to the house a mage personally builds himself can be flexible.

"Look here, where the Highlands are." I follow her finger as she traces it along the map.

"This area here is where the kingdom couldn't go any further northeast." She pauses as if to make a point.

"The Highlanders were not all killed off and their lands annexed into Sandoria. Many Highlanders simply disappeared and it was among them that we saw the first red-headed humans. The Highlands are under fae protection you see, and we didn't know what that meant at first. But once we started gaining significant ground in the highland offensive we noticed soldiers started disappearing in ones and twos, it happens in every army of course.

Then whole troops of soldiers started vanishing, even Awakened soldiers and magicians. The offensive came to a halt with half the Highlands under our control but they were more than we could swallow. Even a lot of the land we managed to conquer is still disputed land.

"The big shock came when some of the missing soldiers started returning. Some having aged decades. Some had been missing for months but swear they were only gone a moment. Others came back carrying red-haired babies while others returned in the company of redhead young men or women whom they swore were their natural born children. Not all were redheads mind you, but most. Your father was one such child."

My mind is reeling, I'm reviewing everything I know about the fae, everything that happened to me during my slavery I'm seeing in a different perspective. Is Mistress Barathian a benevolent slave owner or the most manipulative creature this side of Gaia? Who am I exactly, what am I...

"The reason you are such a coveted commodity is because you have fae blood. And the fae are so far without equal in time and dimensional magic, and they are the first truly immortal race we have come across. So the hope dear Mira is for you to live up to your fae heritage and tap into those innate magical abilities for the Barathian House, if you do, likely you will find yourself gifted to the Crown."