Fiona was overjoyed. The mayor had told her that the Lord of Aschen was in dire need of helping hands. A mage rumoured to be quite important was coming and thus the estate of the margrave needed more servants. Unfortunately, the margrave did not need normal servants. No, for whatever reason a normal servant was not enough. Instead, the margrave had put requirements in place for the type of servants he needed.

The Margrave wanted the servants to be between twenty and forty years old. He also wanted them to have a talent for magic. In addition, the Margrave wanted the servant to be willing to learn a weapon or that the servant was already reasonably skilled with a weapon.

These were strange requirements, but they were not necessarily difficult to fulfil. The age requirement was quite normal, it had been similar when she had applied to work in the mayor's mansion. Besides, most people learned to wield a weapon at a young age. There were many reasons for this, the most important being that one needed a weapon to defend oneself from monsters.

Fiona knew that even Heidi was somewhat proficient with a weapon, a dagger, but it was still a weapon that could kill. She herself, unfortunately, was not so good when it came to handling a weapon. She had learned, but that had been years ago. Her homeland, Baelgia, was a small country. The trade alliance and the many nobles there managed to keep it peaceful enough that those who lived in normal cities did not have to fight for their lives. As a result, her skills were as blunt as the sword she had brought with her.

But the Empire was different, it was compulsory for anyone who did not live in the larger cities to be able to wield a weapon. There was the militia to keep the peace and protect the small town they were stationed in, but a small militia wasn't enough. They could not defend the whole town. Therefore, the adults had to help the militia when the worst happened.

If someone wanted to become her teacher, she could probably become reasonably good with a sword again. As far as she was concerned, she could probably beat a young and somewhat experienced mercenary, as long as they both did not use the power of their nodes.

Unfortunately, there was the third requirement. Not many had nodes related to magic. Those who had a node related to magic were mages and as such in high demand. Some worked as guards, were mercenaries or were employed by nobles or the royal family.

Fiona sighed. She had unlocked a node related to magic, pyromancy. Before her life went downhill, her parents had promised her that a talented pyromancer would become her teacher. Yet that had never happened. She had been forced to leave the country.

But that had not been the end of her misfortune, the execution of her family was not the only undeserved punishment the merchant had dictated. Her sister’s and her node had been sealed. It was doubtful if the curse had been legal but why should the court believe her? Her parents were seen as criminals, and as such the court probably assumed that her sister and she would lie.

Yet, even with her sealed node, the mayor still was forced to send her way.

Why? She did not know.

Fiona had informed the margrave and written to him that she had never used magic and that her node had been sealed. But he had either not understood her or thought that her letter had been a bad joke. He had merely expressed that he would welcome any capable person and would personally seek a solution. This was idiotic... eccentric... something no sensible person would do.

“There is still one year left before they will come and bring us to Aschen…” she thought and left the small mansion of the mayor. She greeted the two guards guarding the iron gate, and they politely nodded.

She still didn't like being treated as something of a monster. But considering that her race was often treated with contempt, this was... a good treatment. Fiona still didn't quite understand why people were so afraid of her race. Her race might look like demons, but only if one was not able to see the obvious differences. Demons were something completely different and not from this realm.

The sound of her boots echoed from the walls of the houses surrounding her and filled the silent street with sound. Immediately upon approaching the centre of the small town, sounds of different origins filled the air, drowning the sound of her boots. There were cries, screams, music and more. It was a lively atmosphere, akin to that of a festival. Yet there was no festival. No, instead, some mercenaries celebrated a successful hunt, others mourned for their lost comrades while others simply remained silent, waiting for the perfect task to come.

She nodded towards one of the mercenaries, a monia. Her aura was powerful, even more than that of her parents.

The monia, at first, seemed more interested in testing a new spell than looking back and acknowledging her existence. But to her surprise, the monia looked at her and nodded before focusing back on the man she was talking to. A small dwarf, by the looks of it, not a descendant of the forerunners, his build was simply too broad.

It was always nice to see others of her race. She had not seen many in the Empire. Maybe her race wasn’t welcome or her race was simply too rare. Even in Baelgia she had only seen some of her kind, enough to know that her kind existed but not enough to claim that her kind was numerous. Maybe even the surviving elves had greater numbers. Fiona did not know.

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

She halted for a moment before deciding to approach the small blackboard in front of the mercenary association. She needed the money, not urgently but Elise needed to go to school to have a future she herself never had.

Fiona glared at the board. It was filled with tasks suitable for civilians, ranging from watering the plants of a former alchemist to patrolling the sewage system. This was a task civilians like her rarely did in the border-cities. Much to the joy of everything that liked dirt, slimes first and foremost. Fortunately, most slimes were harmless. Those that weren’t usually did not stay in the sewers but moved away. This was rather joyful for the new mercenaries that still had not experienced real fights.

According to Heinz, the boards in the association building, a rather large old refurbished warehouse, were filled with tasks that were almost impossible to accomplish by a mere civilian. Most of them were issued by the mayor. Those involved culling the numbers of the monsters in the few weak nests or helping to hunt demonic beasts.

Only capable mercenaries or those who were fools and wanted to make a name for themselves took these quests. There was nothing to stop them if their common sense did not work. There was, strangely enough, no clear hierarchy in the association. Many people worked in the Association, the headmaster, the scribes and the mercenaries. But while the scribes had some kind of ranking based on how long they had worked, there was no clear distinction between the mercenaries. Mages and knights had a rank system similar to that of the army, the Association had nothing of the sort. Maybe there was one, maybe the scribes themselves had agreed on an internal ranking, no one knew.

Fiona had heard from Heinz that the Mercenary Association in the Empire was vastly different from that of his homeland, the Greater Anglian Commonwealth. In his homeland, the Mercenary Association, or Royal Guild, had by far more power and controlled parts of the oversea-colonies.

The young woman stared at the old wooden board and saw a rather new task. It was issued by an alchemist that had retired and was now living in the city. He needed someone to teach his youngest daughter the basics of being a merchant. That was something she was capable of doing. She had learned enough from her parents to perhaps succesfully start her own business, although Aschen and Wolfsteyn were not near a port. Most of the things her parents had taught her would be rather useless.

How much money had she saved? Two gold marks? That would hardly be enough to register Elise and pay the admission fee. The rest of the money would certainly not be enough to rent a room for a long time or to buy a house. Therefore, any opportunity to earn money was something she welcomed with open arms. She looked at the payment. Five gold marks? That was more than enough to live without worries for a few years.

She longed for the time when money had been something that had been there when she needed it. But this had been long ago when her parents still had lived and when the name Anker had had some weight. Thus, she grabbed the paper and decided to head to the alchemist’s mansion.

After a rather pleasant conversation with the father of the girl, who had a by far better character than the mayor, she had accepted her new job as a teacher. The man also had been kind enough to also give her a small ointment to help heal the small injury on Elise’s arm. A result of her daughter’s curiosity getting the better of her.

After much hesitation, she and Heidi had decided not to use a spell to heal her. Pain was a pretty good teacher, albeit one that should not be booked too often. But experiencing wounds and expecting them to be healed immediately was certainly a rather unhealthy attitude. Fiona thought that perhaps she and Heidi had spoiled her far too much.

Fiona reached her patrons' small inn an hour later and opened the door. She missed the old days when the inn had been filled with guests. Her eyes wandered to the table and Fiona immediately caught sight of Heidi and Elise reading a thick book. A book that no child should like to read. But Elise had been an oddball from birth. She often did things that most children would not do. Her kind was strange enough with their obsession with magic .... something she didn't have herself. But it seemed the girl had an obsession for knowledge and hopefully only knowledge. Fiona's own sister had been hard to tame when it came to her obsession for knowledge, magic and combat. An unfortunate and rather risky combination.

“Mommy,” the little girl exclaimed in surprise and darted towards her. Fiona lifted Elise up and hugged her.

“How was your day, Elise?” she asked and took notice of Heidi’s grin.

“Great, granny started teaching me magic. I don’t really understand it but granny’s magic is beautiful. I like the white orbs…. and her hands glow. Granpa accidentally cut himself with a… large knife and granny fixed it by saying a few weird words and with weird glowing letters.”

The energetic girl stopped speaking before asking, “So, can you also teach me magic, mommy?”

Fiona shook her head, “No. I am not able to wield magic…”

“Do you think that I will be able to use magic like granny? I also want to fix wounds… or spew fire from my hands.”

Fiona smiled and said, “Maybe.”

She also wanted to use magic, but she could not. Fiona quickly shook her head and added, “No, you certainly will be able to use magic.”

“Really?” the little girl asked.

“Yes.”

“No lying! Lying is bad!”

“I am not lying,” Fiona replied. She laughed and patted Elise’s head, “And now continue your lesson with Heidi. I am going to be a bit busy.”

“But mom, how was work?” Elise asked, “The mayor… is he nice?”

“Yes and no. He is like a tiny version of Heinz with by far more talent in management, but he is also rather… weird,” she said and laughed.

Fiona took the small vial of glass out of her bag and handed it to Heidi before saying, “I got this as a gift.”

“Wonderful. I did not want to heal her wound. But I guess normal medicine is fine,” Heidi said, “I need to tell Heinz that he should not leave his weapons lying around.”

“No, no,” Fiona said, “Elise told me that she found it in a drawer and that it fell on her. It isn’t the fault of Heinz. Just tell him to move his old weapons into the basement.”

She headed upstairs into their room and after searching found what she had looked for, a vial of holy water. She hated using it. It was painful but if she did not use it for more than one week, the curse sealing her magic would grow stronger and perhaps even consume her life. Fiona did not want to die. For the sake of her revenge and her child, she needed to live. And thus she headed to the bathroom.