Phil Luna was an ambitious man. In the past he had ambitions of being the head of the family, however after his younger brother displayed unmatched talent his ambitions changed. He didn’t resent his brother David, in fact Phil felt that David made a far better family head than he could have. Yes, now in hindsight Phil could clearly see that he was much better suited for the role of elder in the family.

His current ambitions were to see his family dominate the other six mage powers and eventually rule over all mages. It was a nearly impossible dream, and one that would certainly span multiple generations of his family, but Phil was determined to see it made real. It was for this dream that he worked so hard for his family, and it was also for this dream that he searched so desperately for a cure for his newest nephew.

Lux’s condition baffled the Luna family, and the curse of Waning Moon the boy was afflicted with terrified even veteran priests. It was a curse that literally ate away at the child’s potential, restricting the boy’s mana pool to an absurd degree. Lux was essentially crippled in the eyes of other mages, and the physical weakness that the curse imposed all but ensured that the boy would not develop any substantial martial prowess.

What gave Phil and the rest of the Luna family a modicum of hope was that Lux was not alone in his circumstances, it would seem that a child was born from each of the three tamer families with the same sort of curse. Oracles and Seers decreed this as a sign of things to come, but in their usual cryptic fashion they revealed no more. Phil honestly wondered if that was because they could see nothing else, or if it was because they saw nothing at all. Then again there was always the possibility that those who foresaw the future could see everything they claimed and more, and merely enjoyed the suffering that giving cryptic non-answers caused those around them.

Regardless, that this curse was an event that served as a sign in prophecy meant that there had to exist a way to cure or remove it, that was simply how prophecies functioned. No prophecy would reveal something sure or set in stone, only things that were in flux and subject to change.

That of course did not mean that Phil had any idea in the slightest as to how he could cure his nephew, but there was hope. And as long as the possibility remained that Lux could remove the shackles of his curse Phil would aid the boy, after all there would be no harm in the family’s power base growing…

***

Kar was napping when her master’s newest conquest came into her lair. The elf had brought a young toddler with her, and the boy’s blood smelled of her master.

Kar immediately thought of the cursed son that so troubled her master, and as she did pity for the boy welled up in Kar’s still heart. She could only imagine the hardship that the boy would face, and the knowledge that he would never be equal to his peers would likely haunt the child until he died.

Lifting herself out of her cozy coffin Kar began to make herself presentable. She might not have bothered if her Master’s new playmate had only come alone, but the fact that one of her master’s children was coming to meet her changed things. She had to look presentable in front of the child, it would embarrass her to no end if one of her master’s children were to see her in a slovenly state.

Kar strode through her cavern towards a rather large wardrobe and picked out one of her many ball gowns. It was a tasteful red gown that her beloved master had always said highlighted the crimson of her eyes, it would do nicely for meeting the master’s newest child.

As Kar dressed she thought back to her first meeting with the masters two other children. Luke had been the first, and Kar could admit that she may have overreacted to seeing her master’s firstborn. Luckily Luke was too young at the time to remember how she had almost killed him in her enthusiasm, unfortunately Luke’s mother, Claire, still teased her about her actions on that day. Things were different with the second child, Alice had been born of a whore her master had taken a liking to and the child’s mother had not been the one to present the girl to Kar. Instead her master had come bearing the small girl in his arms and the entire event had an air of stiffness to it that Kar was not entirely comfortable with.

This time Kar would ensure that the first impression she gave would be impeccable. She would not let the master’s newest son overlook her as the master’s other children had. This time she would be the child’s favorite, not the old lizard or dumb bird. She would stake her pride as her master’s second pet on the matter.

Sensing that the elven plaything and her master’s son were almost at the cavern that served as her living quarters Kar adjusted her gown and prepared her best smile. This time she would dazzle the child from beginning to end, ensuring a positive impression of her was left in his mind from an early age.

***

Luke wasn’t sure how he felt as he looked at his baby brother and little sister. Lux had walked into his room in his clumsy and slow manner, and like a diligent minder their sister had followed right behind him. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, normally Luke would play with his younger siblings or read them a book, then again normally Luke wasn’t in bed with the pretty serving maid he had been eyeing for the last year.

He couldn’t get mad at his baby brother, after all Lux was barely three and didn’t know any better, but he certainly didn’t want either of his siblings around right now. He was about to lose his virginity for goddess’ sake, now was the absolute worst time to play babysitter.

Yet here he was, smiling at his baby brother and little sister as that lovely serving maid under the covers beside him decided that she was in the mood for more foreplay. A shiver went down his spine as he felt something warm, wet, and wonderful wrap around his manhood and Luke had to summon willpower he was unaware he had to keep from moaning in pleasure.

“L-LuX!”

He coughed and tried again, this time willing his voice not to crack.

“Lux, Alice… Why are you here?”

Luke was truly proud of himself for making that sentence, especially when the feline maid did something with her tongue that made him lightheaded as what felt like all the blood in him rushed to one area of his body.

Lux tilted his head in thought while Alice answered with a shrug.

“I followed Lux, I’m looking after him.”

Luke managed a nod, he was barely even able to process his sister’s reply at this point.

After contemplating what must have been a very deep motive Lux finally gave his answer with a carefree smile.

“Dunno!”

At another time Luke might have laughed at that, right now Luke was biting down both a curse at the gods and a groan at what Silvia was managing to do to him beneath the sheets. The rumors had been true, beastkin from the feline tribes were great at giving head. Although Luke had nothing to really compare it to, right now he was ready to swear this as the truth before all the gods.

Mustering what control he had left Luke looked at his siblings and tried for an understanding smile.

“So, would you mind leaving for now?”

Luke’s mind fumbled for some excuse or bribe he could give his siblings that would make them leave quickly without question.

“I can show you both some magic later on…”

It was hard to express in words the feeling of having his two siblings hug him while the beastkin maid took him down to the base with a series of playful bobs, Luke would never be able to describe what he felt in that moment to anyone least of all himself. What Luke did express was a playful outrage at the antics the maid had pulled after his siblings had left his room.

Servants heard the yowling of a cat in heat coming out of Luke’s room for half the day, none had the courage to tell him that his mother had been the one who originally sent his two siblings to check on him…

***

David sat impatiently in his VIP seat at the auction house. It tired him to no end to watch the wealthy elite of the kingdom of Avalon bidding on trinkets and toys, still he had to suffer through this for his daughter’s future. Alice’s potential had blown through every standard and test that had been put in front of her. The girl had the mana pool of an adept mage at age seven for Luna’s sake, and her aptitude in academics actually frightened her tutors.

His little girl was a prodigy and with her innate ability to tame she had the potential to be the greatest mage of the era. David could not put into words how proud of his daughter he was, but there were a few things that concerned him. Alice outright refused any sort of training or education to be the next family head, and the one marriage candidate that was brought forward for her left the room crying after being left alone with her for three minutes. It was clear that his daughter had a very clear idea of who she wanted to be in life already, and no one would shake her from her self-determined path. Not even he could get her to budge on some issues, and most of the Luna family had learned to just not push her when it came to the future.

David, like many others, hoped that she would change her mind in the future, but he also had a sinking suspicion that she wouldn’t. His daughter had always been a determined girl, and nothing short of Luna descending herself would change the girl’s mind when it was made up.

Still that wasn’t too big of an issue, his son Luke was shaping up to be a fine heir. The boy had a good head on his shoulders and knew how to make calm rational decisions instead of being blinded by emotions. Luke was a good son, and if not for Alice being his sister he’d likely be the pride of David’s entire family. David would be able to hand over the position of family head without worry if it were to Luke, and with such a capable heir in his first son he didn’t mind so much if his daughter was a bit more willful and unbending.

David let out a sigh as he looked over at Claire. She had been his earliest love, having been with him since childhood. The son they had made together was one they were both proud of, and he could show that pride to the whole world without shame. It would have been so much easier for him if Alice had been born from Claire’s womb as well.

The topic of his prodigy daughter’s mother was one he typically avoided. To his closest friends and family Alice was the result of a drunken trip to a pleasure house, the only ones who knew the truth were his wife and his first pet. Claire wouldn’t tell another living soul about what had happened, and Ike would sooner drown the world in his poison than let a secret David had spoken of in confidence slip from his scaled lips.

Alice’s mother had been one of David’s oldest rivals and most bitter enemy, and his daughter’s conception was an act that he had not taken part in willingly. It was simply a humiliation that Mab had concocted and subsequently forced on him that resulted in an unexpected pregnancy on her end. To this day David didn’t know why she had kept the fetus, and knew even less why she had delivered to him the child to raise. It made little sense to him, and with Alice’s talent now clear he did not understand why Mab had not reached out to contact either him or their daughter. David could do nothing about Mab however, he would simply have to let his old enemy decide her next move. He only hoped it would be one he could counter.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

As the bidding for meaningless items continued in the auction house David’s mind turned to his final child. Lux was a unique case, and David did not entirely know how to handle the boy. His second son was essentially crippled magically and was certain to never have any physical prowess for combat, in this world that meant he would have trouble defending himself and would need to live a sheltered life. However the Luna family blood flowing through his veins meant that Lux almost certainly had the innate ability to tame, and with a pet of his own the boy would be able to protect himself to some degree.

The main problem with Lux was how limiting his curse would be socially. He could never be considered a potential heir as his curse was too obvious and crippling a weakness for him to lead the family as its head, and his small mana pool would limit his casting to an incredible degree. Even the boy’s quick mana regeneration speed and his shockingly high aptitude for the light and water elements were hampered by his limited mana. Without the curse Lux would be a genus mage and tamer, but with it David’s son would struggle to be average. Yet despite all that Lux was a cheerful boy who seemed to love life and treated everyone around him with kindness.

It almost hurt for David to be around Lux for too long, the pity and sadness he felt for his son only grew when he saw Lux’s smile. David knew that one day that smile would likely disappear, it would be crushed under the weight of the curse his son bore and the cold realities of their world.

As David mulled over that dark thought the words of the auctioneer finally caught his attention.

“And for our final item we of the Felmor Auction house are proud to present to you, our loyal patrons, a living churum!”

David’s eyes flashed as he saw the auction house’s slaves wheel out a cage, the creature inside was without a doubt the proto-evolutionary form of most angelic monsters. They must have found it as a new born or maybe hatched it from an egg, that was the only way to get the monsters in the proto-form stage of their growth.

“We shall open the bidding at twenty gold coins.”

David reached for the bidding placard he had been given at the start of the auction, this Churum would be going home with him today. Only the best for his daughter after all…

***

Ellia watched as her son played with the small winged crystal that his sister had taken as her first pet. Ellia didn’t understand much about the diversity or evolution of monsters, but her husband had made it very clear that this crystal creature with white feathered wings could grow to be quite powerful. If it evolved on the right path it could even become one of the strongest monsters in existence.

Being the lover of a tamer Ellia knew it was a dream for every tamer to own one of the eight strongest monsters as a pet. As such Ellia knew exactly what the eight monsters considered the strongest by tamers actually were. To tamers at the summit of the monster hierarchy there were only dragon lords, arch devils, seraphim, behemoths, djinn, apex slimes, elder krakens, and dread reapers. No other monsters could be considered greater, and to possess even one of those eight creatures would be to own unparalleled power.

Ellia could make a guess of what her husband intended for the winged crystal to become. Shaking her head as she watched her son and his sister at play she began to wonder, if all tamers dreamed of owning such mighty monsters as pets would her son share that dream? And if he did would he even have a hope of achiving it with his in-born limitation?

For the first time in a long while Ellia began to fret about her son’s future under the weight of his curse. She wanted only the best for her son, and she longed for his happiness above all things. The thought of him being unable to even consider the dream all his peers would be pursuing hurt her hurt, yet there was nothing Ellia could do.

As Ellia watched her son play her eyes fell on Alice, and for a moment resentment welled up in her heart. Here was a girl who had everything her son did not, yet she was merely the daughter of a common whore. How was it fair that her son born from her own womb, a womb her husband had carefully selected for its own pedigree and bloodline no less, be inferior to the daughter of a common whore? It made no sense to Ellia, and it seemed like a foul joke on the gods’ part to inflict such a debilitating curse on her own son when it could have so easily fallen onto Alice instead.

As Ellia contemplated these dark thoughts she grew to slowly hate the girl that her son was playing beside, but soon she felt that hate melt away with a simple gesture from her son.

She watched as Lux put a wreath made of flowers on Alice’s head, to the blushing girl’s dismay and protest, before sitting back and laughing.

“Thanks for always playing with me Allie.”

It was a simple and innocent display, and it made Ellia regret what she had thought and wished upon the girl. As she watched Alice stutter and blush while her son laughed and petted the strange winged creature Ellia realized that her son loved his sister and didn’t even seem to see the shadow others saw him standing in. While the rest of the family viewed her son with pity and compared him with his prodigal sister and exemplary brother, to Lux himself his siblings were just that, his siblings.

Ellia smiled at the innocence of her son and hoped he could hold on to that innocence for just a little longer, she dreaded the day when her dear Lux’s innocent smile would disappear.

And deep down, in a corner of her heart that Ellia would sooner admit didn’t exist her resentment for the girl called Alice began to fester…

***

Alice was not in a good mood, in fact if anyone who knew her saw her at the moment then they would see immediately that she was actually furious. To an outside observer Alice’s expression might seem carefree or even bored, but to those close to her the slight crinkling of her forehead, carefully controlled smile, and cold eyes told a vastly different tale as to the young girl’s current emotions.

There were very few things that could bring Alice to this level of anger, but in this case someone had found the simplest and surest way to invoke her wrath.

Alice had been training with her pet in the family’s private forest since before dawn, and when she had returned for dinner she had saw her brother for the first time that day. Lux had been bruised and bloody, but he still greeted her with a smile. Her brother had even refused treatment, saying that he could use this as an opportunity to practice his healing magic.

Alice wasn’t an idiot and nor was she clueless. She could see the pain behind her little brother’s smile, and she knew that what had been done had hurt Lux on more than just a physical level. Today someone had taught her brother a lesson in the cruelty humanity was capable of, and Alice was going to make sure they paid the price for teaching that lesson. She’d see them suffer ten times, no a hundred times the pain they inflicted onto her brother.

Then, only after she was sure they truly regretted what they had done from the bottom of their hearts would she be done with them. It would only be when Alice was sure that they were repenting that she would stop tormenting them, when they were truly repentant Alice would let them die.

As Alice walked through the long garden that separated the main building from the branch families’ housing a cold fire seemed to be lit behind her eyes. This would have to serve as a very clear example for everyone in the Luna family. Alice couldn’t be by Lux’s side all the time to protect him, but she could make very clear what the consequences would be if anyone harmed her brother while she wasn’t around.

That night three young boys from one of the higher branches of the Luna family suffered a young girls clumsy attempts at torture. With nothing more than a knife, magical chains, and a newly evolved cherub skilled at healing magic Alice made three of her cousins regret ever being born. After four hours of clumsy work, Alice had begun to become more proficient in causing the maximum amount of pain possible while not fatally injuring her victim. Two hours after that and Alice could be called passable even in the eyes of the imperial inquisitors who themselves were experts in the field of torture.

Servants had heard the noises and screams that resulted from Alice’s work, but they ignored it as they had been ordered to before she even began. In the end, the lives of three boys with mediocre talent and potential were inconsequential in the eyes of the Luna family when compared to the wishes of a prodigy like Alice.

The next day many would awaken and find the remnants of Alice’s work, and many more would understand the underlying message that she had sent.

***

Lara arrived at the Luna family holdings with a bitter smile on her face. Her beloved master had tasked her and her peers with discovering news of the mirror of truth’s whereabouts as he even now made preparations for their failure. Lara knew rationally that her master was making the right choice, yet it hurt her deeply to think that she had failed him. She didn’t want to accept that they could not prevent this coming conflict and thus lighten some of the weight of the duty that her master carried. Thus Lara had devoted herself for this last decade to searching for the location of that mythical item.

Lara did not know how the mirror would begin the sequence of events that would lead to mass death and hysteria on an almost global scale, but she did know that it was the first sign she could see. With prophecies and all other dealings of fate the first sign of things to come was the easiest to settle or remove, and by doing so it was often possible to waylay the entire future that was set to come to pass. Sometimes this could be as easy as telling someone to turn left instead of right at a certain time, other times it could be as difficult as preventing a child born of two separate opposing factions from ever being conceived for all eternity.

In this matter Lara was finding that the locating and subsequent removal of an ancient artifact of immense power was tipping towards the “impossible to prevent” end on the scales of fate. Typically preventing a world ending event was as simple and easy as her foreseeing a threat and her master heading out to kill or subdue it before it becomes a problem. This locating a random item thing was new to Lara, in fact it was new to all of Ark’s team.

Lara sighed as she began to walk down the road. She had her wings concealed in the astral realm and her eyes covered by a ribbon so she should not panic any of the mortals, but she could do nothing about the natural aura of holy grace her body gave out. In the end coming to the land of tamers while expecting not to be recognized for what she was would be insane, but there was nothing else Lara could do about it. The last informant she had met with had pointed her to someone in the city of Lunar Rest, at the seat of a tamer family’s power base.

She would go, because of course she would as otherwise she could miss vital information on the mirror, but she knew it would be a hassle. Lara’s master had been around during the purge Sol, Luna, and Cele had decided to wage on the tamers of old, and her master had laughed at their demand that he relinquish his power or die. Then the killing had started, and it took only a day before the army of angels the three gods had sent for them had all perished. It wasn’t hard to imagine that the decedents of a chosen picked by one of those so called “great gods” would hold a grudge towards ancient tamers like her master, and it would be hard to pass herself off as the pet of any known tamer from the three gods’ blessed families given her race. Ultimately though, Lara wasn’t worried. No mortal could match her master, of that she was certain, and few could pose a threat to her even on her own.

Contemplating the old times, Lara still remembered the words of her master at that ancient time of battle and death.

“We do not serve the gods, but the world itself…”

As she whispered the words her master had once spoken Lara felt a tingle run down her back and her wings flutter in the astral realm. She had killed many of her kin on that day the army of angels came for them, and through quite a few of her actions which could be considered blasphemous had fallen as an angel. She didn’t regret it in the least, and when her master had called her cuter without the halo…

Lost in the memories of the past Lara walked down the road oblivious to the woman she had just passed by.

***

Mab turned and watched the seraph that had just walked past and debated whether or not she should do anything to the angel. She could feel her pets and their minions yearning for her to act, but in the end she decided it was better not to.

Mab couldn’t afford to make a scene, couldn’t afford to draw attention, not when her plans were so close to fruition. Besides, the seraph had obviously been tamed and gods’ knew who her owner was. Any tamer who had survived the purge that those three damned gods had carried out was a monster in their own right, and no good would come of provoking them. Mab could still remember some of the legends of ancient times, those mages and tamers whose very names would send lesser beings running in fear.

Yes, it was better to simply let the fallen angel go. A smile came the Mab’s lips as she imagined the chaos that angel would bring to her current incarnation’s good friend and rival, just imagining the look on David Luna’s face when he discovered a seraph was walking around in his city was almost enough to make her laugh. Still it would likely do the man good, he always was one to be too stiff around the edges and this surprise was sure to loosen him up some.

That or cause him a heart attack…

“Well, it would be a shame to lose such a fun person so early into this life. I suppose I could give him some sort of warning, though it would have to be indirect…”

As Mab contemplated this her delicate fingers played a rhythm on her full cherry lips. The woman did not stop walking nor even alter her pace as she contemplated the issue before her.

“Mmm… Well I suppose I do owe the man for tipping the scales of fate in my favor and gifting me an apprentice... Very well, I’ll send one of the pleasure demons to his city to warn him, they are always gifted at subterfuge and intrigue…”

Mab walked with a joyous sway as she announced her decision, she was all but skipping. This would be a very good century for her, a very reliable mirror told her so…