Not all people are born equal. This is a truth that even the humblest of laborers or lowliest of slaves could understand. Some people are born into nobility while others are born into slavery, some are born with innate talents while others are born with innate faults, some are born with the ability to channel and cast magic while others are blind and deaf to the arcane, and then there are those who are born with a unique gift from the gods while others are born with curses.

No, all people are not born equal. In fact the very idea of such a thing would be laughable, though all people do share a common trait. All things are born into the world weak. From the mightiest of dragons to the simplest of goblins, everything is at its weakest when it is newly born.

In ancient times there were a group of mages that exploited this universal weakness to collect and control powerful creatures, these were the first tamers. With both magic and monsters at their beck and call these early tamers soon rose in power until they reached the apex of society. Other mages feared and envied the tamers, nobles coveted the tamers newfound power, and even the gods themselves worried over the shift in their world brought about by the advent of tamers.

After a long period of war and death on a scale that had not been seen since the dawn of creation the three greatest gods decreed that the conflict must end. The three decided that the power of tamers must be limited and the number of tamers controlled if there were to be peace again. The god of the sun, the goddess of the moon, and the child of the stars all united their power to enact a permanent change on the world.

Each of the three gods chose a tamer of their own, bestowed upon them their own divine name, and blessed the blood that flowed through the three tamers and their future descendants. Having made their decision and marked their chosen survivors the three great gods launched a divine assault on the mortal realm. The three gods’ crusade purged the realm of all the tamers they could reach, and those tamers that had hid or grew too powerful to defeat were simply left to the mercy of times passage. It was a time of great upheaval and destruction, but in its aftermath the world was left in a new age.

Through the actions of the three great gods the ability to tame had all but disappeared in mages with the exception of three mage families. The Sol family, the Cele family, and the Luna family grew to be three pillars of unshakable might and history for all mages. These three families which were supposedly blessed by the three great gods were only matched by three other families and a single clan. The Yan family were the best of enchanters, the Hart family were warriors whose magic and martial might was legendary, and the Cane family were researchers who searched the depths of magic. Lastly there was the secretive Winter clan, a clan who prided itself on being untouchable and absolute in matters both martial and mercantile.

Thus the seven great powers of the mage world were formed, and these seven powers have been the summit of magic for millennia.

***

Ark looked out on the first ring of the abyss and felt numb.

He had begun his journey with hopes of finding the mythical mirror of truth, but after exploring each of the thirteen layers of the abyss that mortals could survive as thoroughly as he had those hopes had vanished. The rumors that the mythical mirror was lost in the abyss centuries ago looked to be untrue, and Ark had found no other clues as to where the mirror could be. Ark was trapped, his duty as the final guardian meant that he had to secure the mirror of truth, but his inability to even find rumors of the powerful artifact in the abyss meant he would have to start his search again from scratch.

The duties of the final guardian were thankless, difficult, and often dangerous beyond imagining. Ark was charged with the task of ensuring the survival of the world, regardless of the threat faced. He has fought the forces of the divine and infernal on numerous occasions, and once was forced to hold back the encroachment of an eldritch being from the depths of the abyss. In Ark’s thirteen hundred years of life he has faced more than even most gods could imagine, yet now because of a mirror that revealed concealed truths all of his hard work could be put into jeopardy.

It was like a cosmic joke. The world’s ultimate defender, defeated by an over glorified treasure hunt.

Ark adjusted his longcoat before looking back at the four beings he could trust above all others, his pets.

“We’re going back to Eden, I’ll need you all to search for any info you can find on the mirror…”

Ark glanced over his four pets. There was Del, the overlord slime who was always cheerful and ready to help. Hind, the stoic dread bear who would see through any order with deadly efficiency. Lara, the angelic seer whose prophecies had steered Ark clear of many dangers in the past. And lastly there was Tiamat the dragon queen of five elements whose power was only matched by her temper.

Each of the four nodded at Ark’s words, but the thoughts that went through each of their minds were unknown to their master. The failure of this expedition into the abyss was not a light setback, it meant that there was only two decades left to find the mirror before events were prophesized to spiral out of Ark’s control. Twenty years was not a large amount of time to locate and secure a mythical object that could be hidden in any of the five realms.

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Ark knew this, but there was nothing he could do about it. Lara could not see where the mirror of truth was hidden, and no amount of searching in the abyss had revealed anything new. Ark was a man of practical thought, he knew that the chances of his finding the mirror now were slim, but still he had to try. It was his duty to try.

Ark would also make all the preparations he could for the eventuality of not finding the mirror, because if what Lara foresaw of the next three centuries were to come to pass the world would need its guardian to be ready.

Ark would ensure that the world survived what was coming, one way or another.

***

Alice Luna was the second child of the acting head of the Luna clan, David Luna. Alice was a straight forward girl, and even at the young age of three she was beginning to display the signs of genus. All in the family agreed that she would be a prodigy.

Yet today was not about her, today was about the newborn that the moon elf laying on the bed before her held close. The boy was her new younger brother, and Alice was still trying to figure out why the crying lump had gathered all the attention of the grownups.

To Alice her new brother didn’t seem all that impressive. He was small and only seemed to know how to cry, Alice was honestly confused as to why everyone in her family seemed so concerned over the baby.

If it were only excitement over the birth of a new son of the Luna family then perhaps Alice could have understood, but the nervous looks and the number of priests and elders that had been moving in and out of the room seemed ridiculous to the little girl. It was only one small baby after all, Alice didn’t think it deserved all this attention.

Her new brother seemed to agree as the growing number of people surrounding him sent the baby into another round of distressed crying.

A hand on Alice’s shoulder caused the girl to look up at her father. Her father had a strained look on his face that the girl didn’t understand.

“Alice, come with daddy for a moment.”

Alice took her father’s hand as he led her out of the room and down the hall. As the two entered her father’s study Alice began to sense that something might have been wrong. For a long time her father and the other elders had seemed happy and excited about her new brother, but now that he was born they all seemed upset. Alice didn’t know why her family was upset, but her father’s mood was beginning to upset the girl.

Her father crouched down and looked at Alice eye to eye, as he placed a hand on her small shoulders Alice’s father began to speak.

“Alice, honey, your little brother is… He won’t be as strong as other boys. He’ll need someone to look out for him where his mother and I cannot. I want you to look out for him, can you do that? Can you take care of your little brother?”

Alice was a straight forward girl, and when her father asked her to do something she did it.

“Yes Daddy, I’ll take care of him good.”

***

Ellia looked down at her newborn son and felt the warmth of love rise up in her chest. He was a precious miracle, a blessing to her entire world that was gifted to her by the gods themselves. Granted her husband had played a rather large part in things, but given her race’s low birth rate and the lessened chance that coupling with a human had brought on top of that…

Ellia was a moon elf, and as such having a child with a non-moon elf would lead to the child being either half light or half dark elf. Given that her son’s skin tone was light and pale instead of dusky and dark it was fairly obvious he had inherited the light elf portion of her genes.

Ellia stroked her son’s head and cooed at him as she tried to soothe him, but the boy continued to cry. It was clear to her that the large number of people crowding them was upsetting the baby, but there was nothing she could do about that. Ellia was very clear on her place in the Luna family, she was merely a slave that had caught the family head’s eye. While David may treat her as a second wife, the reality was that she was nothing more than his favorite mistress. Still Ellia was content with that, as even a mistress was entitled to certain rights and privileges in the family.

What mattered more to Ellia was the treatment her son would face within the family. Initially her child should be considered a legitimate son of the Luna family and even a potential candidate for the next family head just by virtue of who his father was, but now that may not be the case. Ellia wasn’t stupid, she knew that the fact her son was born cursed would mean he would be treated differently. Instead of an heir, the family would look at him as a cripple at best and a burden at worst. Her son would have to struggle twice or even three times as hard to accomplish what his siblings would be able to do with ease. Life would be difficult for her child, this was a fact that Ellia knew and accepted in her heart.

The reality of this issue and the potential trouble it could bring did nothing to lessen the love she felt for her newborn son. In fact, she may have loved him even more in spite of the curse he’d been born with. In Ellia’s eyes her son was the light of the world, the brightest and loveliest thing to ever exist.

“Shhh… Shush now little one, Mommy is here. Mommy won’t let anything hurt you…”

 Ellia looked down into her son’s bright, grey-blue eyes and whispered to him soothingly.

“I think I’ll call you Lux, because you are the light of my world. Yes, Lux La Luna, a fine name for my perfect little boy…”

Ellia heard the conversations around her, she couldn’t not with how franticly the elders and priests were speaking, but she didn’t let what she heard bother her. So what if her son had been born with a unique curse and so what if neither magic nor prayer seemed capable of removing it, none of that could change what she felt for her child. Even if her child may not be able to do much more than cast simple spells and even if he struggled to tame, Ellie knew deep within her heart that her son would overcome whatever he faced in life.

And if he could not… Well, Ellia was keenly aware of the protective nature of her husband’s pets. Surely one of them would be willing to sweep away any hardship or danger the son of their master may face…