Chapter 4 

Eva Lemuria-6 years old

It has been a year since I've awakened and I still haven't used my magic that much. I have been told that I have a large amount of mana and that if I had awakened normally I would have been at a genius level. Now however for those who are sensitive to mana they see me with a dark outline. Apparently, its as if I'm walking around covered in gentle dark flames. Because of this and the usual problems with my appearance I have begun to avoid people even more. People see me as someone that's covered in darkness so I stick to the darkness.

I avoid everyone except my parents. A few of my old maids are still the same and take care of me, but I can't help but avoid them. As for my other family member, my brother, he avoids me anytime he even catches a glimpse of me. He truly believes that I'm a mana mutant. My parents have tried countless times to convince him that I'm not a mana mutant, but even I don't believe that so how can he believe it.

Right now I am with my family and others because my mother has been pregnant for nine months and is about to give birth. I don't know if it will be a little sister or a little brother, but I hope that they will be like my parents and see me as something other than a monster. I don't have my hopes up, but I can't help but have a small part of me that wishes they'll see me as just a sister.

My musing is interrupted by the maid coming in she has a happy expression so I can tell that everything has gone well. It's good that what happened to me didn't happen again.

“The queen has given birth to another princess. Congratulations!” Maid

“Kids come on let's go congratulate your mother. Eva and George behave. Your mother must be really tired and you wouldn't want your little sisters' first impression of you to be bad.” Father told us but seems to have been mostly looking at George. If I had to guess why it's because George has been looking at me with disgust, hate, and even a little bit of fear since he walked into the same room as me. This past year has been hard with George hating me so much. I think I've finally been able to ignore the stares from everyone but him.

We walk into the room and I look around. There are several maids in the room cleaning up. I stand in a corner so they can do their job because I know they will avoid me like a plague. Instead of getting my self-hurt from the looks they give me I would rather just keep my head down and have everyone ignore me. I've already learned how to blend into the darkness very well anyway. So I just stay in the corner and watch as the maids finish cleaning up and my father and brother approach mother.

Mother looks exhausted, but I can see the happiness as she holds the bundle in her arms. I realize that little bundle must be my new baby sister. I feel an urge to look at her but I quickly stop that urge. I would probably just scare her like everyone else. My own thoughts are just depressing me more than usual. I would rather be on my own right now, so I start making my way towards the door to leave. I keep my head down to try to avoid being noticed by anyone, but it seems I've failed.

“Eva sweetheart where are you going?” Mother questioned me from behind. I look back and see my mother and father looking at me with a concerned expression while George has the same look of disgust. It makes me wonder if he even still considers me his sister. “Eva come and take a look at your new baby sister. She's as cute as you were when you were a baby.” She looks at me with her usual warm gaze but I just consider whether I should take that last step to the door or go towards my family. My thoughts are interrupted by my mother's face turning into a pleading one.

I walk towards my family while trying my best to ignore George. I finally reach my mother and look down at the bundle in her arms, but all I say is “Blonder hair and green eyes huh?” That's right even my little sister is normal. She looks adorable with the little hair she has and here eyes that look around till they focus on me. She doesn't immediately start crying like I thought she would. Instead, she keeps staring at me and I'm not sure why, but it makes me feel comfortable.

“Sweetheart please don't worry about your differences. Look little Lora is looking at her big sister with such interest. Do you want to hold her?” Mother offers Lora to me, but I don't make a move. I keep looking at my little sister and then turn around. I don't want to end up scaring her. If  I avoid her then she won't come to hate me like everyone else around me. “Sweetheart where are you going? Eva, please come back!”

As soon as I'm out the door I slowly close it behind me and keep walking. I feel frustrated right now so I keep walking till I'm outside. It's around noon right now so I keep walking to the secluded building in the courtyard. This room used to be for training the royal family but George and I are apparently too young to start training. Even if we wanted to do something George hasn't awoken yet and my body is still too young for physical training. I walk in to take a look around at the enchantments on the walls. Apparently, these keep the building from coming down but I have no idea how. Maybe one day I'll go to the library to find out. I look towards the training dummy that has the same enchantments. I raise my hand and decide to let loose.

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I will my mana through my mana heart to my hand to form a small black flame in my hand. It feels barely even warm to me, but I know that for anyone else it must have an incredible heat. I throw it at the dummy and watch at the dark flames envelope it. It keeps burning for a while till it dissipates. I then raise my hand again palm out. I imagine lightning going down my arm then out my palm. dark lightning does manifest around my arm and makes it to my palm but it completely misses the target. I keep trying again and again. Every bolt misses its target. Finally, I feel my frustration well up and I scream and let out all my feelings. I feel the flames and lighting bursting forth from every part of my body. The entire room is filled with a sea of dark flames and a sky of dark lightning.

“AAAAHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhh!” I scream at the top of my lungs then punch towards the dummy. A blast of pure destruction rockets towards the dummy. I look through my tears at the dummy only to see the top half missing and a dent in the wall behind it. It makes me wonder if the engravings in this room have worn out. It was supposed to be indestructible.

I keep looking at the wall as I sit in my flames. I feel no discomfort from the flames or the static crawling on the surface. I'm just tired now from using almost all of my mana in my outburst. I'm pretty sure if anyone was around right now they'd confirm me as the monster they all believe me to be. I keep thinking about those around me and before I notice the flames disappear and one of the people I've completely forgotten about is behind me.

“Princess that's a lot of power you have there. I'm glad you came here to let out your frustrations.”

“Hiiii!” When I look behind me I see Shadow standing there with his usual average look and barely noticeable presence. He is fathers captain of the shadow guards. All shadow guards don't have names but the captain has always been referred to as Shadow while everyone else is given numbers. I know father was not happy to tell me about his secret, but apparently, I was causing him a bit of trouble. “Shadow I'm not playing hide and go seek so there is no point in coming to find me.”

“Princess his Majesty is the one who told me to come and find you. Your parents seemed worried about you and from looking around here I think they were right to worry.” He looks around at the scorched room and then he focuses on the dent in the wall. “Princess, you do know this room is enchanted to not break right? This room should have been fine for another hundred or more years.” Shadow

“I thought they were already old. Haven't they been here a long time now? How do they even work? Do you know?”

“They are old but enchantments like these are designed so they last a long time. These ones have only lived two-thirds of their life. They were engraved in specific patterns that create the spell to keep the room intact and these patterns are connected to others that draw mana out of our surroundings and use that as a fuel.” Shadow explains.

“So it's like the room is constantly using magic with the mana in the air instead of being like us that use the mana in our bodies?”

“Right in the simplest form. Are you interested in enchanting princess?”Shadow asks.

“Ehhh no not really I just wanted to know why the wall broke even though it wasn't supposed to, but it seems like its just because I'm a monster that the room can't contain inside," I say the last part mostly mocking myself.

“Yes, princess you do seem to have monstrous strength. It makes me worried for your future enemies. It makes me feel like you should have other options than just magic. So your father gave permission for you to have this.” Shadow then presents me a knife. No, it's not just a knife. It's that knife from the day I saved that mana mutant and the day my life turned upside down. I'm honestly conflicted about even reaching for the knife that's being presented to me. This knife would be considered a constant reminder of that day. Even though I still don't regret helping that girl it still had been a bad day for me. I still want to take it because I still feel an attraction for this knife that I had from the day I first saw it. It's a pitch black single edged straight blade. I'm not sure what the actual name for this dagger is but I can't help be drawn to it.

I finally take the blade from Shadow and even though it is still too big for me, I feel like it fits well into my hand. I swing it around, but I have no grace to my movements. I then get an idea. It's probably a bad idea and if I'm wrong ill definitely ruin my new dagger. I release my mana from my mana heart again and then I coat my dagger in flames. It works and seems as if the blade isn't heating up at all. I lightly swing it down and a small scorch mark appears on the ground. I then extinguish the flames and channel lightning into the blade. Instead of just being covered in black lightning like I thought would happen, my blade started to glow and seemed a little bit longer. I swing it down and thin cut forms on the ground.

Before I could continue experimenting I feel what little energy I had left in my body slip away. I fall on my butt and then lay down. I feel really tired and my body is sore. It's not even close to being like when my mana forcefully awakened so I'm still ok. I look over and see shade look at me with a completely blank expression. It's a little weird since he has such a plain face.

“Princess where'd you see that technique? The one where you added your elements to your dagger.” Shadow

“Eh um, well I just thought of it when I was holding my dagger. The idea just came to me out of nowhere. Did someone else already do that? Does the technique have a name?”

“Well, Princess yes someone else has already discovered this technique but its supposed to be hard to add your element onto your weapon. Some people can only layer their weapon with raw mana. The normal technique is called mana edge. Adding an element to your blade can be considered a subdivision of mana edge. Yours would be a lightning edge or flame edge. I'm impressed either way though princess. Now that you are like this we will have to wait to do your lessons until tomorrow. Excuse me, princess.” Shadow bends down and carries me over his shoulder. I believe that there are better ways to carry me, but I think he doesn't want to give me a princess carry. Apparently, Father has frightened almost everyone in the castle to stay away from his daughters.

“Well just take me to my room I guess. Also, when should I show up for training?”

“Don't worry ill come and pick you up tomorrow morning.” I can't see his face, but I have a bad feeling about this.