Liz sat behind her desk excited. Lesser had begun teaching in her academy a year ago and would continue for a while. In that year he had picked out various talents in both magic and ki and raised them well. 

As a teacher he was surprisingly competent, despite his occasional bad habits of messing with the other teachers he did his job well. He had also brought in various talents from around the continent to her academy raising her prestige and the respect her academy had. 

But the reason she was excited was not solely due to Lesser’s surprising work ethics. It was due to the talents he promised to bring in this year. First was Fang Fae, she had met with him once and Lesser praised his potential and battle sense almost endlessly. But that wasn’t all there were others various hidden gems that Lesser had found here and there. 

This was important to her because he had grown tired of the political games of nobles and wished to separate from the kingdom and become a separate power altogether. Her academy had to cater to the whims of various nobles and she grew tired of losing talents because they were superior to a Nobel child. 

The final straw that broke the camel’s back was when a young girl with an almost ungodly talent in healing was killed because she overshadowed all the noble children when she had come from the poorest slums. With her talent she would have been able to be something great in life and she was such a kind child too. 

But her life was ended simply for being a commoner. These happenings reduced the day that Lesser showed up, after all no one would be willing to commit a crime such as murder in an area where he lived. 

That would be like signing your own death warrant. But he would not be there forever and the next generation would face the same things. But if she had various talents that supported her school in the future and in the not too distant future she could break away from the kingdom. 

In truth she really wanted to call back her old group of friends and just take over the kingdom. But that would not be a long lasting solution. Instead she made various under the table deals and had almost completely purchased the land around the academy. 

Added to the fact that the academy was at the very outskirts of the kingdom she would have no problems. But a kingdom would not so easily let go of such a prestigious academy. In order to do what she wanted she needed strong and influential instructors and students on her side. If they threatened to quit then the only thing left of the academy would be a building and some land. 

The whole institution would be lost and that was not something the kingdom could make up for. On top of that most of the land now belonged to her making it so that the kingdom owned only about a third of the academies land. 

Though it was most of the important parts. Eve the town in the academies surrounding paid more respect to her and her instructors than the local government. Her intentions were not to overthrow anyone but she couldn’t stand the way her students were being treated simply because of their birth. 

*    *    *

Bell walked along an almost deserted road alone. She had just turned sixteen and was at the age where most girls would be considering getting married but she had no such thoughts. Because of circumstances she had to constantly travel, alone. 

She no longer trusted anyone. During her childhood she lived in the slums and while poor was fairly happy her family was safe and healthy. Then someone told her she had talent and invited her to learn more. 

Benefits were given to her loved ones and she thrived in her new environment but then those same people that gave her hope for a better life went and killed her family. She didn’t find out about this until they came to kill her. They said she stood out to much, that she was just scum from the slums that shouldn’t live. 

That she had offended the good people, the worthy people, of the world with her existence. With those that she had seen as her savior so turned against her and her family dead all Bell felt was dread. They attempted to kill her, they stabbed her repeatedly and tossed her into a group of wolves and left. 

But they didn’t know, they couldn’t have known that she had already reached the level where she understood a very powerful law, a law that kept her alive as long as mana was available. She was born as a fire deviant, she was known as the holy light. Because of her extreme healing abilities she was able to survive. 

With no one to trust and nowhere to return to she left the kingdom and set out to find a way to get some form of revenge. unfortunately she had no offensive magic and had yet to think of a way to get her revenge. She had considered plenty of things. And even had thoughts of selling herself and her power to some greedy man in return for her revenge. She understood how great and attractive her powers were and knew that some would do anything for them. 

The only reason the others had not understood was because she had not shown her full might. As long as one was not killed immediately it was impossible to die in her presence, or as long as she didn’t run out of mana. But that was still enough to entice almost anyone. Right now she was heading towards the dwarven kingdom and would only need about another three days walking to reach it. 

She had heard that the blood elf resided in that kingdom and rumor had it that she married a dwarf. Although she wasn’t sure she thought that as long as she was around it would even be possible for her to keep someone in their peak condition. If she offered to make her husband just as long lived as her Bell thought that the blood elf might be willing to destroy a kingdom for her. 

She had heard rumors that the blood elf had once destroyed a kingdom because the nobility there had looked at her funny and while that might have been an exaggeration it was still worth a chance. As she was walking she heard a loud sound almost as if boulders were smashing against each other. 

If two people were fighting she might get the chance to do some healing in return for a sum. she wasn’t dumb about what she was planning either she wore a thick robe that covered her entire body and head so the other party wouldn’t have any funny ideas. When she reached the commotion what she saw astonished her. A boy who couldn’t be older than her was fighting a large earth tiger. 

The mana beast wasn’t unusual in the general area but they stayed in a more rocky area and would generally stay more than a week’s walking distance from any main road or city. They were so close to the dwarven kingdom’s capital that Bell was somewhat shocked. Until she saw that the tiger had multiple scars on it’s body, as someone who treated plenty of wounds in the slums she knew what these were from, whips. That meant that someone sent the earth tiger to kill the boy. 

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

‘He was probably betrayed by someone too.’ 

Surprisingly the boy was able to repel the tiger’s claws and bite attempts with his bare hands. This furthered her thoughts that the boy too had shown too much and someone wanted to get rid of him. In truth her assumptions weren’t all that wrong but she was also jumping to conclusions. 

She had lived in a happy family home and always had companions around her. In this last year she knew what it was like to be alone and frightened. In this boy she saw a kindred spirit or at least forced herself to. Looking closer to the boy's appearance he wasn’t human, the ears gave that away but his build was fairly big compared to the thin elves. And his ears were a little too short being only half that of an elf’s. 

‘From the gray hair and short sharp ears he should be a half elf.’ 

The tiger and the boy seemed to be at a stalemate and neither one gave any ground to the other. After what seemed like an internist of watching and hoping the boy wouldn’t get injured at that time the tiger took notice of her. Seemingly frustrated with the boy it ran to kill her first leaving behind the confused boy. 

All Bell could do was sigh, it was unlikely that the beast would be able to kill her but it also meant that she would feel extreme pain. The thought of escaping didn’t even cross her mind, there was no way she could outrun an earth tiger. 

Accepting what was to come she closed her eyes and readied her heart for the pain. But after ten seconds nothing happened, then twenty seconds passed and while she could hear the roars of the beast only feet away from her the pain never came. Slowly opening her eyes she saw that the boy had appeared next to her and stopped the Tigers claws from digging into her flesh. The boy then turned around and frowned. 

“Dieing here would be pointless and even if you want to die I was playing with this thing first.” 

What he said made no sense to her. Playing? He was playing with an earth tiger? The thing was obviously trying to kill him with all it had so there was no way he could be playing with it. Then she looked at his face and understood. He had a face of indifference the tiger could do nothing. 

“Well I guess I'm done with it though.” 

Saying that he grabbed one of it’s paws and threw it fifty feet until it hit a tree and ran away. 

“Why didn’t you kill it?” 

This was something she had to know. 

“No reason, it’s eyes reminded me of something I had seen before and it was a small rebellion on my part.” 

Bell looked at the boy with a dumb face then remembered her purpose in finding the trouble. 

“Umm I can heal you if you have any wounds, by the way i’m bell. What's your name?” 

The boy looked to the his left and a small scaled creature appeared out of thin air and proved himself on his shoulder. 

“I'm not injured and my name is Fang Fae.” 

“Ahh sorry to ask and I know it’s a bit personal but are you troubled by the nobles of this kingdom?” Before he answered he looked at the small creature. 

“... Sort of but it’s nothing I can't handle and my father is the high general while my mother is Luna the blood elf. They haven’t tried anything until now why do you ask?” 

As. If hit by lightning Bell was shocked at the information she had just heard. The blood elf’s son? Why worry about getting the blood elf’s husband’s attention when she had found the Blood elf’s son. From the start she was ready to sell herself to someone as she could not think of any better ways to achieve her revenge but if hat the boy named Fang said was true she could at least sell herself to someone her age. 

In her mind thoughts of being kindred spirits lessened and thoughts of ensuring Fang to her cause instead appeared. She took her robe of and showed off her good looks. She considered herself fairly good looking, at least better than average. Her blond hair swung down to her waist and she had good proportions for someone her age. A slim waist and nice face to look at. Sadly however Fang didn’t seem to respond to her good looks. 

With that she asked fang if he really was the blood elf’s son, it wasn’t something she could believe so easily. And although he seemed a little troubled he showed a few things that signified that he was the son of the high general and the high general only had one wife, the blood elf. Without any regard for Fang and if he wanted her to travel along or not she followed him while telling him her story. 

Contrary to her expectations she didn’t get any a huge sympathetic response from him. He did show displeasure toward the people who wronged her and said that a group of people once tried to kidnap his younger brother but he did not make any heroic declarations to avenger her family. 

‘That's normal though, it’s not like I can expect anyone to act like that.’ 

Instead she seemed to gain more sympathy from the scaled creature that was always on Fang’s shoulder. as a last effort she was going to become Fang’s possession but that was when she knew for sure and without a doubt that he was the blood elf's son. For now she would just follow him. Either way she could still make the other offer to the blood elf after some time and leave Fang’s company.

*    *    *

From afar a dwarf was holding a whip looking down at his tamed earth tiger being handled like a house kitten by Fang. 

“Useless cat and how is the boy so strong. Could it be the general’s blood? The other one is reported to have almost unlimited potential and ridicules strength as well. No matter i’ll just report my failed and receive my punishment. Ahh there’s no way that’s going to happen. Lass follow them” 

Under him was a large lion almost twice the size of the earth tiger. And behind him followed seven female lions. He was one of the greatest tamers in the lands and although he was a dwarf he pledged his loyalty to only money so when someone paid him to kill a boy he didn’t hesitate to take the job. Even if he was the high general's and the blood elf’s son, to him all that mattered was the money.