"For an aristocrat, history is not only the past but also the future," that's how Vera Voss usually started her tutoring.

Many people find this science boring, some don't even think it's a science at all. But for her, analyzing dozens of sources and the discovery of truth were the most fascinating pursuits under the sun.

Vera gathered information all over the world: she consulted long-lived demigods, discussed history with centenarian church chroniclers, and even learned from magicless aborigines who deemed gods as parasites and were often attacked by the Churches.

Her unapologetic knowledge about this world was much appreciated among the nobility. It allowed her to rise to the top of the aristocrat's society in her twenties.

She gained fame for years to start working with aristocrats, and now her influence continued to grow exponentially. Essentially, Vera educated those who would lead this world in the future, so she thoroughly chose the most talented children from the most powerful families.

Her today's student was one of these chosen promising disciples to whom she transmitted her knowledge. His family had recently lost their patron god, and as a result, they had slightly diminished in influence. Yet, a few weeks ago, she had decided to have an exploratory meeting with him. Initially intended to last an hour, the conversation ended up lasting three times longer as they got carried away in their discussion.

Something about this boy hooked her. Vera Voss enjoyed conversations with this little aristocrat genuinely. He reminded her of her childhood self. At times, it was almost unbelievable that he had only recently turned five.

He didn't harbor any childish illusions about good and evil; he seemed to understand instinctively that the world is ruled by great benefit. Whatever is advantageous for the elites happens.

For the first time, she felt that she was not just educating an ordinary child; she had met a natural kindred soul, a genius akin to herself, someone she only needed to polish.

It is arrogant to believe that people who remind you of yourself are geniuses. And yet her arrogance was reasonable. She was the most prestigious and versed history tutor in the upper light. Besides that, at the age of twenty-six, she was also a beauty.

Just like herself, her appearance was extraordinary. She had pure white hair and the ruthless red eyes of a cat, which stood out vividly on her carefree face. Some of her students fell in love with her, but she never reciprocated those feelings.

The mansion of her today's student's family was situated in Metarit. This city had a rift node, most of whose dimensional passages led to the rifts located in the major cities of the Vital Church's domain.

The rift node was mostly used by the merchants to transport goods, which allowed Metarit to become the center of trade.

Though rich people could afford traveling through it. This allowed Vera to have many apprentices and teleport between the cities they lived in. Today, she used the rifts once again.

"Young lady, may I offer you a ride in a carriage?" said an old man. He was looking for wealthiest people among those who left the Nexar Hall, which was built around the rift node sometime in the past.

Vera ignored him, eager to take a walk around the city. The boy's family mansion was just half an hour away. The Nexar Hall was situated in the heart of the merchant district, though there were no markets around it. This part of the city stood out with perpetual moving carts and its multi-story stone warehouses which local enthusiasts loved to draw on at nights.

Every time she walked there, she chose a different route to explore new paintings. This time, it was the surrealistic image of a child with a demon inside she liked the most.

As she walked, the warehouses were replaced by the wooden mansions. Before, she didn't understand why nobles preferred their estates to be built of wood, despite the longevity and fire-resistant qualities of stone constructions. However, she quickly found a simple answer: prestige.

Stone buildings can be created relatively easily by using earth magic right on the spot, whereas to build a wooden one, you would need much more resources, time, and effort. As a result, wooden mansions end up being much more expensive, and it's this exclusivity that attracts aristocrats to them.

Sometimes Vera questioned why she wanted to get a room at the top. Why couldn't she stop gaining influence and leave this artsy noble society? Perhaps, she wanted to change it, educating those who will lead it in the future. Or maybe, it was just greed, pure and simple.

Metarit was nothing like other cities. Since it had a rift node in its center, sometimes it felt like it was twelve cities merged into one with twelve floors. Of course, only the richest perceived Metarit this way, as others couldn't afford traveling through the rifts often enough.

Moving away from the Nexar Hall, one would notice buildings getting more expensive and then, conversely, gradually cheaper.

Firstly, one would see huge and cheap stone warehouses, as the merchant district occupied the area right around the rift node. The fact that the city's center looked so tawdry felt wrong; that was the reason why local artists liked drawing on those grey and boring walls.

Continuing its movement, one would enter the noble area with its wooden architectural monuments. Young couples liked to have dates here, as this part of the city looked the most poetic.

Then one would see wooden mansions being replaced with the stone ones.

The outskirts were the biggest and the poorest part of the city. Stone boxes accommodated several families each, they were the only decoration of the landscape. Vera didn't like the outskirts; they somehow drained her will to live.

The other cities with rifts had the same layout.

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When Vera got to her student's family mansion, she was warmly met by the grey-haired chubby butler she was friends with.

Opening the gate, he greeted her, "Welcome, Ver." The arrogant tutor embraced him with a wide smile on her face. He winced, discomfort evident in his expression, as he wasn't fond of others hugging him. However, he neither pulled her away nor said anything.

They saw each other every couple of weeks, yet every time, Vera embraced him tightly, as if they hadn't met in a year.

"Glad to see you, Reg." Her words were not merely a formality, they were sincere.

"Have you managed to get involved in a new bizarre story?" the old butler asked. Due to his responsibilities, he couldn't leave the mansion for more than a few hours. For that reason he enjoyed listening stories about her journeys and researches.

"I didn't but there is someone who did."

"You've got news for me again?" Reginald wasn't surprised. Vera often shared with him what the family's intelligence service found out a week later.

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Vera nodded, "A couple of days ago an entire noble family was abducted. The servants and the guards did not notice a thing. Family members simply went to sleep and the next morning the maids discovered the loss."

Reg smirked, "This time, Ver, I was one of the first to learn about the incident. You see..."

The subsequent conversation was not meant for prying ears. Reginald took her to her room. The nobles were supposed to rest after travels, even short ones involving rift use. She considered it foolish, but desiring to immerse herself in their society, she preferred to live by their rules.

After spending a couple of hours in her room, reviewing notes from past research, Vera headed towards the classroom, where her favourite student was already waiting for her.

Like any magician, he was a descendant of a deity, and as such, he had hair of an unusual shade. All the gods were handsome, and their progeny inherited their greatness, each adding something unique to it. The boy was happy to see her, and this expression added to his charm.

"Hey, Lady Voss," he jumped out of the desk.

"Hello, young Lord. Sit back down." Noble formalities were a jest for both of them; they preferred directness.

"How was your week?" the boy asked. Without waiting to get the answer, he continued, "I finally began learning magic!"

"Your eyes are full of enthusiasm. Does this mean that I am not your favorite tutor anymore? Now it's the one who teaches magic?"

"You will be my favorite tutor if you don't assign me a book today," he smiled charmingly.

"I will assign two then." Without paying attention to his dramatic sigh, she continued, "Without further delay, let's start our lesson."

The boy had already recovered from her verbal stab and smiled again.

Vera spoke, "Have you read 'The Origins of Magic' I gave you? Summarize it for me."

The boy's face immediately changed from happy to one of suffering once more. "The Realm Rupture made humanity face extinction," as he spoke, his voice became more and more overdramatic, "but then the gods have descended from the heaven to save us, inferior beings. They kicked asses until there were no more. In the end they shared a grain of their power with us, lesser mortals." The boy fell to his knees, obviously helpless in his awe. "The gods gave us magic," he whispered.

Vera Voss smirked, "Drop the act, young Lord. Now stand up and tell me what you really think about this."

The boy laughed and got comfortable on the floor. "I find it pretty funny that only the god's descendants have the gift of magic. I wonder if it was a way to make more women sleep with them."

"It's a popular theory among the magicless aborigines." Vera answered. "Could you secretly be one of them?"

Suddenly, she remembered something that made her smile. "Actually, in those distant times, many nobles offered their wives to the gods so that their families wouldn't lose in power. Do you know what is the funniest thing about this?"

The boy raised an eyebrow, "You tell me."

"Usually, the gods publicly rejected this shameful offer because most of the noblewomen at those times were ugly."

The boy burst out laughing.

"Be quiet, young Lord. We are supposed to discuss history right now. I don't want anybody to have questions," the teacher reigned him in. "Is there something else you would like to discuss?"

The boy calmed down, still smirking. "Yes. The book says that before the advent of magic, the status of a woman in society was much lower than that of a man. Why is that?"

"After the Realm Rupture and before the coming of gods the world was a much harsher place. Survival required strength." Vera sat down at the desk. "Since women are physically weaker then men in general, they were dependent on men. Thus, women usually had no influence. Because of that they were considered to be second-rate people and the longer mankind lived in that post-apocalyptic world, the deeper women's low status took roots."

The boy looked surprised. "Today it's hard to believe that. And how could magic change that? Did people become more civilized?"

Vera grinned, "I think that they still didn't. It's just that magic gives you much more power than physical strength does." She took some notes out of her bag. "Also, since only a woman can bear a god's child, they were the founders of many magical families. All together, it gradually eroded the old prejudices."

The rest of their lesson went in a similiar way. They discussed various points from the book, their historical accuracy, and the consequences of the emergence of magic.

At the end, Vera stood up from the desk and said, "The theme of our next lesson are the theurgies." She handed two books to the boy. "These are the 'The Encyclopedia of the Theurgies' and 'The Occurrence of the Theurgies'. I'm sure that you can find them in your family's library, but my versions are more complete."

"Theurgies are the abilities granted to magicians by their ancestral god, right? My father showed me his one." The boy wanted to boast about his knowledge. "In the blink he merged four butterflies to create a multicolored one. She was so beautiful!" Vera patted his head.

The young Lord took the books. "Thank you, Lady Voss! I'll try not to skip through too large excerpts." He smiled, gratitude in his eyes. Vera nodded sadly in reply. She knew that today the boy's bright smile will be put to the test. All she could do is to make it less sudden.

Before leaving the room, she said, "Your father is preparing," she paused, trying to find a proper word "a surprise for you. Don't be afraid of it, okay?" The door closed before the boy could ask something. Vera hoped that the boy's fantasies about what awaited him would be scarier than the truth.

The young Lord was excited. He was a bit terrified, but also intrigued.

He went to his room to read the assigned books.

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The evening drew closer. The boy was watching the evergreen garden from a window as a covered wagon approached the mansion. It was surrounded by a large number of guards. What could need to be guarded that strictly? There were too many mysteries that day.

As the hours passed, the boy attempted to start reading the assigned books, but he couldn't focus on them. What could his father's surprise be that might scare him?

Perhaps, it was a trial of some kind? Could his father make him fight a beast of some kind? But the boy was too weak for that; he only recently started learning magic. Could it be a puzzle then?

Maybe it was time to bind him with a magical artifact? Perhaps, his father wanted to introduce a new teacher to him? But why would he be terrified then? Could this new tutor not be a human?

Why had his father told Vera about the upcoming surprise? If he hadn't, how did Vera know?

Time passed, and the boy's guesses got more and more strange.

Maybe soon he will meet his ancestral god who will awaken a theurgy in him and then he will become a demigod?

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. A second after it opened. Behind it his father was staying. "Greetings, son," his father said, his voice resolute and otherworldly, "I need to talk with you."

The young Lord flinched. "D-did I do something wrong? Why do you sound like that?"

His father continued, "Recently, you reached the age of five. This means that by the traditions of our family, you are destined to face the test, which will reshape your personality."

"What kind of test?" the boy asked in a high, trembling voice.

Without an answer, the father approached his son, and something shrank inside the young Lord.

"You, my son, are about to learn the harsh, dark side of being a noble. Get up and follow me."

The boy obeyed timidly. Together, they left his room. Walking in silence, he squeezed his father's hand tighter and tighter, feeling a unique mix of curiosity and unease.

Soon, they reached the stairs. As they descended into the depths of the mansion, the air grew heavier with tension. Strangely, they didn't encounter a single servant. Time either dragged slowly or leaped forward quickly. The boy couldn't tell as he was going through his guesses in his head.

A test? What could it be like? How could it show the dark side of the nobility?

The deeper they went down, the stronger each of the boy's feelings became. He sensed the sacredness of this moment, it was joyful in some way.

Everything around him felt alien: his silent father, the absence of servants, even the magical luminaires' shine was somehow cold.

They reached the family's dungeon, and the boy heard the growl of an animal. It was clearly coming from the only illuminated room in the end of the passage.

As they walked through the underground, it became louder and louder, eventually turning into a roar of a furious wounded beast.

Was he right? Was his father going to make him fight? The boy's heart sank. He wasn't being led to the slaughter, was he?

They turned right and entered the lighted room. It was hot and stank of something.

There were no monsters there. It was a human who made those unnerving noises that touched something ancient at the depths of the boy's soul. His naked body was covered with burns. Yet his bottomless blue eyes, eyes of the warrior, glowed brighter than the red-hot tongs in the hands of the executioner staying in front of him.

The boy was somehow sure: if the man would break out, he'd kill everyone who would try to stop him from escaping.

The man's hands and legs were recessed into the wall behind him, so he couldn't move a finger. Was this done to prevent him from using magic?

In the corner of the room a woman and a boy were lying, both naked. For the first time, the young Lord saw a naked woman. Something inside him stirred, but quickly subsided because of the oppressive atmosphere.

The lying boy had sapphire-blue eyes and hair, just like the wounded man. Although unlike the man, horror was evident in the boy's wide-opened eyes.

In the other corner of the room the young Lord's mother was staying. Her gaze was grim.

"What is happening here?" The boy thought. He was shoked by this dark underground spectacle.

Suddenly, the father spoke. "This felon," he pointed at the warrior with furious blue eyes," is the descendant of the demon, who killed our god, the Lord of Life Inzournate. It happened five years ago, soon after you," he turned away from the wounded man and looked at his son, "were born."

"They," the father continued, looking around at the prisoners, "are the recently abducted Nocturne family."