I took a deep breath of the sweet morning air. It was refreshing. I was atop the roof of Cedric’s shop, it towered over the other shops, giving me a panoramic view of the town. There were only a few ways I could describe it.

It was like the town and nature were having a tug of war, and the town was losing. It had been a long time since the town had won at anything. With each passing season, the forest would consume one or two more abandoned houses. Sometimes, as I wandered the town, I wondered if this town had been an philosophical experiment by the regional lord: if a forest consumed a town but no one heard it, does it matter at all?

“Get down from there, Aura!” Cedric shouted from below. Three years had passed since I first met him, and at some point or another, this had become our routine. And ever since Cedric first burst into my life, Mom had become much easier to negotiate with my leaving.

“Alright, alright, old man,” I said as I took another shot of morning air. The air up here really was unmatched. Then, I smoothly slid down the roof and landed onto the ground with a soft thud. Yup, the air up there felt much better.

“How many times have I told you not to go to the roof?” Cedric chided. If there’s one thing similar about Mom and Cedric, was their incessant scolding. “But I’m not hurt, am I?” I flapped my arms around to show to him my lack of injuries.

He chuckled. “You have a point.” But if there’s one thing dissimilar about Mom and Cedric, it was their tolerance. “Come on, go help your sister set up.”

“Yes Boss.” I gave him a playful salute.

He patted me on my back. “Come,” He said as he entered the store.

The store hadn’t changed much over the years. But if there was something different, it was the now omnipresent air of warmth. It felt like home. “I’ve got your breakfast ready.” And food. Food was good.

As I munched on the freshly baked bread, I helped Mia arrange the fur blankets onto display. Her weaving must be improving, because these felt heavenly. I couldn’t resist the urge to lay on one of them and leaned my head forward. “No, Aura. These are to be sold.” A smiling Mia pulled me back at the last second.

“But they’re nice,” I took another bite of my bread. “Exactly,” She took my bread.

“They’re for the people Uptown,” Mia bit into my bread. Suddenly, the fur didn’t feel so appealing. They were the rich, arrogant, and powerful residents of our community. But they were more like our masters, and we were dogs on their leash. They couldn’t care less if we died out. Well, maybe all of us but Mia. For some reason, they liked her handiwork.

Nonetheless, I had no doubt that in their eyes, everyone, including Mia, were rats, parasites in their eyes. She might just be a useful parasite to them. A healthy bacteria.

Everybody knew of them. At least, they would know of the Enforcers. They were the “Policemen” of this region. But all they did was boss us around as though we were cattle. And people didn’t like that. I’ve seen more than one Enforcer be beaten down in a alleyway.

As if on cue, a group of neatly dressed, mask wearing people entered the shop. They waltzed through the store, their cold eyes skimming through the array of items. One particular man was being excessively rude, kicking away items that lay in his way, forcing himself through already tight shelves, then muttering and cursing at the poor placement. It was as if he was actively trying to find reasons to be mad.

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“Brilliant morning, eh, fellas?” Cedric moved the muscles that made him smile. “Air’s quite refreshing, you should take off those dandy masks of yours.” He put emphasis on ‘dandy’.

“Shut it, Cedric. You know what we’re here for,” the rude man’s mask puffed some weird gas. Those masks always looked out of place in this medieval-esque world. Too advanced. Too weird. Of course, such technology might be commonplace Uptown, where the average person was richer, but down here? No, most could barely feed themselves.

I heard the female Enforcer sigh and unclasp her mask. “I’ll go say hello to the kids.” Leaving the still masked man to deal with Cedric, she strode over to us. She was the definition of confidence, smooth steps that held a indomitable pressure…yet easiness to them at the same time. She was what a Enforcer was supposed to be.

This was Kayla, and she was the good cop of the trio. It was quite funny, really, having a ‘bad cop’, then a ‘neutral cop’, then a ‘good cop’ to be grouped together. They were responsible for the checking of goods of shops, which was what they were currently doing. Karlo, the unnecessarily rude man, was currently having an one-sided argument with Cedric on how a book on herbs was illegal and dangerous for ‘Potential Poison Techniques’

“How’s the salary,” I asked. Kayla was never one to take offense from jokes.

“Not enough,” She smirked as she sat down.

“It’s nice to see you, Mia.”

“It’s nice to see you too, Officer Kayla.” Mia dipped her head.

Kayla shook her head, causing her short, dark brown hair that was streaked with countless gray strands to flap from side to side. “Drop the formalities, you know I can’t with that stuff.” She fished her hand into a pocket and produced two round, colorful pieces of candy. “Here, you two must be working hard.” She had this motherly smile tugging at her face.

Without hesitation, we swiped them and plopped the sugar-packed delicacies into our mouths. Normally, we couldn’t even imagine procuring such candy. Not only was it expensive, especially down here, simply finding a store that sold it would be a challenge in itself. Uptown residents didn’t like dealing with us.

The door creaked as a group of boys entered the store. They took one moment to observe the situation, presumably decided it wasn’t worth it, then bolted immediately afterwards. “They’re getting earlier,” Kayla said with a frown.

“Yeah…I tried telling them that I wouldn’t, but they won’t listen,” Mia threw her head back and sighed.

“At least you’re saying no, now.” Kayla put a piece of candy in her mouth. “I remember when you let them walk all over you.”

“…sorry.”

Kayla arched a brow. “No, what’s there to be sorry about? They should be the ones to apologize.”

“You could deal with them.” I promptly said.

“And end up like that guy over there?” She gestured towards Karlo, who was tormenting Cedric by reading sections of the Herbology book to him. “I’d rather not.”

“That’s two separate things,” I muttered.

She ignored my statement and looked out the windows. “So, how’s your mom?”

“Better,” I replied bluntly. There really weren’t many words to describe her wellbeing.

Kayla sighed, “Learning from your mom, eh? You’ve got her attitude.”

“It would’ve rubbed onto me in some way or another.”

“But not your sister, eh?” She glanced at Mia.

“She’s an angel. Angels are different from humans.”

“True. Angels are different from humans.” She let out a hearty chuckle. One so similar to Cedric’s.

“Uh, can we get to the point, please?” Mia murmured as she fidgeted with her clothing.

“Ah, yes,” Kayla coughed, then swapped into a professional tone. “Under the Freedom of Sales Act I am hereby obliged to search the wares of Mia Sterling for illegal and potentially dangerous possessions.”

And unlike Karlo, she was at least professional whilst doing her job. She only took a few minutes to carefully search through the diverse collection of blankets and clothes. “Looks good to me,” She concluded, her tone softening.

“Now, I better go get Karlo off Cedric’s ass.” The planks groaned as she stood. “Tell your mom I said hello.”

Then, she moved stealthily through the shop, grabbed Karlo by the collar, ignored his complaints, and led him out the door. The other Enforcer, whom I hadn’t even bothered to learn the name of, trailed closely behind.

I could hear Cedric’s sigh of relief. “What took you guys so long? Another fact on how dangerous a Wisther is would’ve killed me.”

“We got candy.” I replied.

“Oh, what kind?”

“Sweet.”

“Nice.”

He took out a smoking pipe and puffed. I couldn’t believe this big friendly giant was a mage. Once, he’d slipped up and had told me of his magic. Magic. He’d never shown it to me, but he was so confident when he said that word that I didn’t doubt it.

And those blue stones, what were they? Some some of magic crystal? Mia did ask Mom whether I would be a mage when I was born. That was one memory that remained fresh in my mind. So they probably had the resources and opportunity, but Mom refused it.

Then it struck me. Three stones. Three children. Three mages? I might be wrong, but it was not entirely unfeasible. I’ll need to gather more information on those stones from Cedric, then…then… stea- no, borrow them from Mom.

I sighed. When would I get to use magic? I wanted to be slinging around fireballs, conjuring earth barriers, calling down lightning like Zeus… But I couldn’t lie, my current life was smooth. And I’ve enjoyed living the most these seven years. I never wanted it to go away, but deep down, I knew becoming a mage would rip it to shreds.

“Here comes the flood,” Cedric commented as a storm of footsteps assaulted the door. A number greeted Cedric, presumably out of respect, before they began roaming the store.