After Alice was attacked by the Medea, her father (with her permission) withdrew her from attendance at Cylas until conditions improved. As well, because their summer home was being investigated for clues related to the surprise attack on the college, she had no other option but to return to her family’s primary home in the capital.

News of her sudden return to the capital was kept secret. First to avoid the endless deluge of questions it would elicit from friends and foes alike. But also to avoid the media speculation that would follow. She had a very public falling out with her family before attending Cylas and her returning home being made public would make her entire life more complicated than it already was.

To their credit, her family was being remarkably kind to her as of late. Usually due to societal expectation her family would pay her little mind, but with her surprise return there was no expectation of maintaining the ostracization.

While her father hadn’t been a shining beacon of positivity, he had raised no objection to any request she has had since she arrived. Normally he would be less than pleased to act on any suggestion she might have raised.

Her mother, Neia, was as quiet as she always was. She had visited Alice a few times, but there really was no need for words between them. She was the only person besides her dear teacher that she could connect with through mere touch alone. Unfortunately that was all they had to share.

Lorina, her older half-sister, also made an appearance. She shared a few kind words but nothing more. She and Alice were not close on account of Alice being born when Lorina was already an adult, but they remained on polite terms in private. She unfortunately was one of the few who has a responsibility to ignore Alice in public because of her station.

Sadly, her younger sister Edith could not come. She seemed to be attending some kind of Gala event in Greto Viel. Out of all her family, Edith was the one she was closest with. She had only had her proper introduction to society a few months ago so she was still on the circuit of meeting the nobility of the country.

It was a small comfort for her family to be so relatively kind to her, but even their best didn’t distract her from what she lost. She could not see the flow. The swirling masses of mana she had spent her entire life guiding herself with were now gone.

With it lost to her she lost the ability to function on her own. She couldn’t walk around by herself, dress by herself, eat by herself, or much of anything else. Pretty much the only thing she was capable of handling herself was resting in bed, even then her only sign to sleep or not was someone telling her that the night had come.

No matter who her family called for, no matter how many medea were brought to her side, none could explain why she was unable to sense the flow. As she herself explained she could feel the mana in her body being used when she tried to use Divination, but she couldn’t parse it. In a sense she was blind twice over. Deep in the recesses of her mind, she had an idea for why it was lost to her.

Alice then pulled herself up off her bed and navigated toward the bookshelf she knew from experience was in the room. After she guided herself along the wall she arrived at the shelf and passed her hand over the book’s spines. When she was younger and before she met her dear teacher she was taught how to sense glyphs.

Glyphs were a mystical aid to those who were blind or had poor eyesight. She didn’t understand the process fully, but it worked by having specially crafted ink pens dispense subtly different enchanted inks. The ink would fade quickly, but would leave the page enchanted with invisible patterns that could be sensed by those with mystical talent, by learning the patterns you could discern meaning.

It wasn’t practical for course work or note taking because of the difficulty of production. But it was useful for research material. It was something her teacher at Cylas used on occasion in lieu of verbal instruction.

The only ones she had on hand were the various children’s stories and a few books on magic from when she was younger. There was one story in particular that she was trying to find, the only one that ever made her dream when she was younger. It was a story adapted from an old fable that originated from Halth.

Then she found it.

“The Little One Lost in the Shade” - Author Unknown

The story revolved around a little girl born without being able to see. In retrospect it was probably in bad taste that this book was given to her. She could only imagine the hell she would raise if someone had the audacity to give it to her now, but she was too young when she first read it to make that connection.

As the story progressed the girl learned to trust her other senses just as much as one might see with their eyes and rose to greatness. She lived through many trials and tribulations until one day a fairy of the forest gave her the special sight of the fairies for her bravery. The first and only person outside fairies to be granted the honor.

It was the first in a long line of stories starring the girl, even into the modern day where new stories were being published. The fact that it starred a blind girl was part of the reason the story was translated into glyphs, specifically for people like Alice to enjoy it.

Alice owed a lot of what she had to this children’s book, as much as it was embarrassing to admit. It was the first story that she ever read to completion by herself. She had vivid memories of finishing it and running around her family’s home for days talking about it to everyone who would listen to her. It got to such a point that young Alice would mumble quotes from the book in her sleep.

When she discovered that she had the capability to read with glyphs and had such an enthusiasm for reading, it was decided that she should find a teacher that was capable of matching her excitement and energy. The solution was the same teacher that Neia found in her childhood. It was no easy task to track her down, entirely because she was not human, or at least she wasn’t fully.

Her dear teacher was once a woman named “Rhae Vaniel”, and she agreed to form a union with a creature of a different species named “Mizquen”. A species of mystically empowered water beings formed almost entirely from pure water. From then on the name Rhae Vaniel no longer applied to her being, so she went on in the world using whatever name was given to her. Hence why Alice called her “Dear Teacher”.

She went on to learn magic over her now very long life and eventually came into the employ of Neia’s Family. Though they were poor, her dear teacher didn’t care so she tutored the family’s children, giving them an education they never could have earned otherwise.

Years later, when Neia had grown up and married Alice’s father, there were complications that arose from Alice’s birth. It seemed either she or Neia would not make it. When her dear teacher heard of this news she offered her services once again. By using a ritual she could guarantee the health of both mother and child. However it would come at a grave cost. Neia would lose the ability to speak ever again, and unbeknownst to everyone involved, Alice would be born blind.

Several years would pass before her dear teacher visited the family again, only to find that the child she went to such trouble to keep safe had been born blind. Which marked the third and final time her dear teacher would help the family.

Instead of quickly solving the issue and leaving once again her dear teacher dedicated the rest of her life to teaching Alice the secrets of Divination. A very difficult and complicated form of magic with great power. Her reasoning was that if Alice could not see with her own eyes, she would need to see with her soul. If the world would not reveal itself to her, then she would reveal it herself.

It was late last year when Alice was informed of her dear teachers passing. She had lived for 153 years, and had helped three generations of her family through hardships. Alice swore that no day in her life would fill her with as much joy as the contented smile her dear teacher gave her when Alice informed her of her attendance to Cylas being accepted.

It was no exaggeration to say that without her help Alice’s mother would have remained a nobody, stuck in a rundown farming community in Farrin Felborough. Instead her mother used the gift she was given to pull herself up to nobility, she sacrificed her voice to make sure her daughter would live the life she always wanted for her.

Alice was much the same, she was given a gift by her dear teacher. She was given a chance to rise above what the world had in mind for her, and achieve the greatest heights she possibly could. Divination was that gift and she treasured it above all else. However, that was the problem. As she had used it as a weapon, and in anger.

It was so easy.

Just a flick of the wrist, and the problem was gone, another flick and the problem was buried. That was what swirled in her mind, the simple motion had no friction. It was as if it was as easy as breathing to abuse that power. That was what she was afraid of, that is why she thought it was gone. She was afraid.

She was afraid that she took her dear teacher’s legacy in vain. All the many years of kindness and selfless nurturing, all reduced to a single motion in her hand. No matter how much she tried to tell herself that wasn’t the case, she couldn’t lie to her heart.

Now she was left wondering if she would ever believe herself again.