Mary left her daughter’s room and closed the door behind her. She stopped and breathed out slowly, clenching her fist and releasing it a moment later. A habit she had since her childhood, one that she could not let go of even as she was about to turn thirty-six this year. Damn you, child. You and your tantrums, Mary thought as she shook her head, starting to walk toward her study.

Mary was the only daughter of the late Albert Shelford - an established merchant from Veer who cemented their family’s roots in the city. And as such, she understood what her own daughter was feeling now. It had never been easy to make something of oneself as a woman, not a hundred years ago and not now.

While not exactly wealthy, Mary’s father had been a hard-working man and an expert merchant. And as such was his fate to die on the job of a mishandled delivery of some labor animals. He did, however, leave a hefty inheritance to his only daughter - Mary. An inheritance that she did not really think about what to do at the time when her father died.

As her mother had passed away years prior, Mary was left alone with the vultures that the Veer high society was filled with. And pray on the weak the vultures did. At the time, she believed that many were her friends if they chose to spend time with her and give her various advice. Just before she was about to invest in a magic research project, as an eighteen-year-old girl, she had enough brains to double-check the idea behind the project.

That is how she met her now husband - Ricard. He was a brilliant researcher then, albeit underfunded, who earned his living by consulting on various projects in the Arcane order. The fact that he was not a member of the order intrigued her and was the main reason she chose to seek his advice, as she judged him to be unbiased and without a vested interest.

And right she was to double-check the information given to her by her good friends. It turned out that people she had known since her childhood had devised a scheme to cheat her out of money - plain and simple. It was a project that would never bear fruit, as Ricard pointed out, after a few minutes of double-checking the proposal she brought to him.

Mary was shocked and almost cried at the treachery in front of the man a few years older than her. Seeing this, he did not move to console her but did something unexpected. He asked if she would like to go for a walk in a park next to the Arcane Order research center. A silly proposal, she recalled.

Seeing as the man was adamant about his offer, as lame as it was, Mary agreed, feeling that anything would have been better than staying alone with her thoughts. So they went, talked, and bid farewells to meet the following day again. And after a few months of meeting, the unlikely happened - they married.

Mary smiled, walking through the dimly lit corridors leading to her study. No one was to oppose her decision then on that fateful day when Ricard proposed, as she was the master of her own fate, at least in that regard. Although it was funny as she thought about it now, she chose Ricard and his passion instead of leaving Veer altogether. A mistake she recognized years later, as the past was not easy to let go of, and neither did it want to let her go in turn.

Mary knew things that Claire did not and was not supposed to. Claire thought that everything was about her, as many her age think. Come to think of it; Mary was the same when she grew up and was forced to wake up only when she almost lost everything. If not for Ricard and his genius, they would not have met, and Claire would not have the comforts she did.

Money was a tricky thing. It was hard to earn but even harder to keep. Something Ricard amply displayed every day with his projects that were a token-sucking machine. Some thought it the other way around, though Mary knew better. Besides, contrary to common beliefs, money could not buy everything the heart desired. One such example was the aspect seeds in the North. Mary would have long ago given one to Claire and be done with it; alas, there were no guarantees.

As everyone knew, the integration ritual was imperfect, and a fairly large chance was left that the individual would suffer disfigurement or worse. As such, Mary did not want to lose her only daughter and chose more noble pursuits for her in Claire’s stead. Why Claire got this notion that she was fated to save the world, Mary could not understand.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

She sighed again as she reached her study and went inside after unlocking it. This was the only private room in the mansion, completely warded against spying. No one was allowed to enter, as it contained almost all Mary knew. She never could forget what her so-called friends did to her when she was young and foolish.

Ricard knew her as the young and happy girl, a girl that he had saved, though the truth was far from it. Mary had spent years behind the scenes, gathering information, making allies, and poisoning friends - all for the simple goal of getting back at the people who wronged her.

However, before she could do the deed till the end, she soon discovered that not all was as easy as it looked. Criminal elements had invaded the high society of Veer, having come from the capital and neighboring kingdoms. And soon, she discovered that these elements were actually the ones who had proposed to cheat her out of her position. The simple truth was that she was not special - she was just in someone’s way.

The more she dug, the more she discovered what would come to the kingdom of Morwhea. A carefully laid plan someone had developed years upon years of preparation and subtlety. A coup. First, she thought that she had gotten it wrong. There was no way that someone would have let the details slip and enabled her to learn the fact.

But the more documents she got a copy of, and the more money she paid in bribes to the coachmen, maids, and other people in need, the more she learned what would happen. Finally, Mary creased her brow as she locked the door behind her and sat by her desk, lighting the mana crystal in the lamp.

She listened briefly to see if anyone was behind the door and opened a folder Claire would inherit if everything went wrong in the end. First, however, Claire needed to leave Veer under plausible pretense so that Mary could stay and do what was necessary.

She took a magical pen and a journal engraved with magical sigils, bearing the crest of the Shelford family, and started writing.

Mr.Yung,

It has come to my attention that the timeline has been moved up. And what is more, a force was dispatched to intercept your plans in the castle Gloom as of this morning. Therefore, as it pains me to write this, I believe our enterprise is at risk, and steps must be taken to ensure secrecy and future success.

Awful as it may be, I believe the sect has been careless at this time, and we must lay low for a while. Please regard that to the young Serpent and give him my thanks for the support up to this point. I will complete my side of the deal when the time comes, as I am sure you will keep in touch.

I hope you get this message, as the paired journal will be burned on my side by the night's end. I hope you understand in case of future inquiries by the Guilders.

Your dearest,

M.

Mary shut the journal and put it back in a drawer, locking it away and mentally adding a note to burn it first thing in the morning. It is time for the game to move toward the culmination, she thought and got up, walking toward her bed.

Mary regretted nothing as she walked to the bedroom to sleep alone as her husband tinkered away in his lab. Their time in Veer would soon come to an end as they would finally be able to leave this cursed town and evade an inevitable war that was about to come. A war that she wanted no part of but had no qualms about profiting from along the way.

Come to think of it, I need to place an inquiry about this Ethan tomorrow with the Shadows, Claire scratched her brow, unwilling to deal with the spies and assassins’ creed again. Her time in Veer had called for many unsavory things, leading her to learn of the local dealers of some questionable services.

I refuse to believe that this guy just comes and appears at the same time as the grand summoning was supposed to occur. Maybe the King has discreetly dispatched one of his Knights? Mary thought, considering the possibility. It was not the first time the man would have played it safe rather than ignored the unprofitable but troublesome region that the North was.

For too long, the local nobility had been careless in dealing with criminals, thieves, and fanatics alike. A price had to be paid, and she was sure as hells, not the one to pay it. So what if the city was overrun by monsters by the end of the second month? It was not as if they did not have it coming.

Mary smiled as she pulled the sheets, laying down in her bed. She closed her eyes and imagined a world better—a world where Veer and its cursed nobility were no more.