Finally the boredom had ended. It wasn’t much, but watching the little wisp of mana dodge the spirits that were trying it to eat was certainly interesting. Every time one of the small spirits tried to absorb it, it would dart away. This was unusual because these wisps of mana were made to be absorbed by the spirits for summoning, but this one was deliberately avoiding all that came near. Normally that small amount of mana would be too small for a being of his power to even take notice of, but the way it avoided the small fry that tried to absorb it was strange. The bored entity had never seen anything like it, so it decided to get closer to see more.
In a place where distance was measured power, the entity, who was one of the strongest beings in the Aether, easily closed the distance between it and the strange wisp. The spirits trying in vain to catch the wisp all sensed the powerful entity’s presence and fled. They did not want to end up destroyed by the much stronger being. The entity scoffed at their reactions; if he wanted to destroy them they would have no chance, even if they tried to escape. That was the nature of the Aether; the strong could do whatever they wanted to with the weak. However, the strong mostly left the weak alone unless they tried to take the large amounts of mana that came from the mortal realm. These concentrated pockets of mana were offerings, or bait depending on how you looked at it, to summon a spirit from the Aether to the mortal realm. The spirits would compete over these offerings, depending on how desirable the offering was. Naturally, the more powerful it was, the more powerful spirits it would attract. The strongest one that competed for the offering would absorb it, and be brought to the mortal realm to receive more mana in exchange for doing the summoner’s bidding. This was how it had worked for as long as the entity could remember. So why was this offering avoiding those it was meant for. It was truly curious.
The entity decided to see if the mana would avoid it as well. As it got closer, the mana acted the same as it has been all the time the entity had watched it and darted away. The speed of the mana was surprising. Something of that little power should not be able to move that fast in the Aether. But here it was, defying the laws of the Aether.
However, it wasn’t nearly fast enough to get away from an entity as powerful as the one that was watching it. The entity considered catching it. It was nowhere near enough to be worth being absorbed by him. In fact, it would cost more energy just to go to the mortal realm to fulfill the summoner’s demands. But it was just so interesting. The strange little wisp was something that the entity had never seen before in its whole life, which was longer than any mortal could remember. This was interesting enough to sacrifice the power, considering the entity had so much. And it was doubtful that the summoner behind the wisp was powerful enough to bind the entity, even if they could create something as strange as the wisp of mana.
The entity prepared to absorb the mana, when it realized that there was something even stranger about the already strange wisp. It had almost missed this small oddity, but there it was. Ever so slightly, the wisp of mana was growing.
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“Clean this up,” the handsome teen demanded. Tamyra sighed. She wasn’t responsible for the spilled drink, but resisting against her brother would make the situation even worse.
“Let me go get a rag.”
“Just use the rag you’re wearing. My shoe is sticky because of you, and we need to be even.”
Tamyra sighed a second time. Her brother Kelvin would take any chance he could to make her life more miserable. But such was Tamyra’s fate as a “powerless” child. She used the hem of her skirt to mop up the spilled wine, getting her skirt filthy with the grime from floor.
“Good. Be thankful that I’m so forgiving, or I would punish you even more.”
“If you were so forgiving, then you wouldn’t have made me use my dress,” Tamyra retorted in her head. Of course she would never speak those words out loud. Kelvin was capable of much crueler abuses than just making her clean wine with her dress. And there was no one to save her from him either. Going against Kelvin, the heir to the Vanthar family, was something only their parents could do. But they had no cares for a useless daughter like Tamyra.
Tamyra was born to a prominent and powerful human family of mages from the country of Zeran. Her father, Temlan, was on the Elder Council, the ruling body of Zeran. The Vanthar family was old and had produced many powerful mages, and her brother Kelvin was no exception. Tamyra, however, was.
When she was born, Tamyra nearly died. Her aptitude for generating mana was so low that her frail body almost gave out. To make matter’s worse, her parents had secretly hoped she would die. A powerless child was a stain on the household’s honor. They couldn’t hide her, as everyone already knew her mother, Valeria, was pregnant. Killing her outright would’ve caused a scandal, so they just hoped she wouldn’t survive being born. To their dismay however, Tamyra survived, and she became the laughingstock of the nobility. Thus, her parents shunned her, barely paying enough attention to her to keep her alive. Her status was so low that even the servants looked down upon her, blaming her for their mistakes and pushing unwanted tasks upon her.
This treatment paled in comparison to Tamyra’s brother Kelvin’s bullying. Being two years older than her and favored by their parents, he took every opportunity he could to make her life a living hell. He would destroy the few possessions Tamyra owned, break objects around the manor just to blame Tamyra, and call her all the foul names he could think of. When he was having a bad day, whether from not getting his way from his parents or from just being in a rotten mood, he would take his anger out on Tamyra, sometimes violently. Then one day when she was eight, it escalated to something far worse.
“Come on Tamyra, let’s play for a bit,” Kelvin sneered. Despite the friendly words, he had a sadistic smile on his face that did not befit his young age of ten.
“Please no dear brother. I am busy cleaning up,” Tamyra desperately responded. She used polite language as to not upset her brother. A servant had demanded she pick up the tools in the gardening shed. Menial work was much more preferable than what Kelvin had in store for her.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Do it after. You wouldn’t refuse your dear brother, would you?” came the fake pleading. Tamyra knew there was no escaping. If she tried to refuse, he would be even more brutal. He had the size advantage, as well as being a beginner mage, meaning refusing or running was out of the question.
“Follow me. Let’s go enjoy this beautiful day outside.” Kelvin demanded. Tamyra’s heart fell. Kelvin was mean to her inside the manor, but he reserved his true cruelty for when no one was watching. The two left the manor and went to a pond that was tucked away behind some neatly trimmed hedges. Tamyra followed behind her brother.
“Hurry up! You walk way to slow. It’s annoying.” Kelvin stopped and walked towards her. When he got close enough
“Walk faster or you’ll get more.” Tamyra quickened her pace.
The two arrived at the pond. The hedges around it meant that any who looked at the pond from the manor could not see the two children.
“Alright let’s swim,” Kelvin proclaimed. He then proceeded to strip down, revealing a swim suit underneath.
“But I don’t have anything to swim in,” Tamyra complained.
“Swim in what you have.”
“But my other clothes are dirty. Please this is my favorite dress.” Tamyra liked this dress. Her parents barely gave her anything, so all of her clothing was hand me downs from servants. She was currently wearing a dress that had a lace frills on it. For someone who never got anything nice, this was a treasure for her.
A nasty grin spread onto Kelvin’s face. “Then swim naked.”
“What?” Tamyra asked in disbelief.
“You heard me. Take off all your clothes and jump in.”
“Bu-“
“Now!” Kelvin cut her off. The look on his face made it clear that Tamyra had no choice. Tamyra resigned herself and began taking her dress off. When she got down to her underwear, the look on Kelvin’s face changed from haughty to something more sinister. Tamyra shivered.
“Take the rest off,” Kelvin demanded in a low voice. Doing as she was told, Tamyra peeled off the rest.
“Get in the water.” Tamyra did as she was told. She slowly walked into the cool pond, causing her to shiver again. Kelvin just stood on the bank watching.
“Are you getting in?” Tamyra timidly asked.
“Shut up!” Kelvin hissed. He had a strange expression on his face. Tamyra didn’t know what to do, but knew that Kelvin seemed more dangerous than ever before. She waded in till her feet no longer touched the ground, and sat there treading water. Kelvin just sat and stared. They sat there for a while, with Tamyra being too afraid to ask Kelvin if she could leave. Thirty minutes passed, and Tamyra’s small body started to get cold. After another fifteen minutes, she started to feel strange.
“Please,” she croaked, “Can I get out? I’m cold.”
“Bear it,” came the cold reply. Another fifteen minutes passed, and Tamyra was visibly shivering. She began to feel light-headed, and her treading started to slow. Kelvin noticed her head getting closer to the water and did nothing about it. Tamyra began to lose strength and her head dipped under the water. She fought to keep her head above water. As she gasped for breath, she called out for help to Kelvin. But he just sat and watched with the same strange look on his face. Tamyra desperately swam to shore, gasping in relief when she got out of the water. Falling to the ground exhausted, she noticed Kelvin walking over towards her.
“Who said you could get out!” he hissed in a low voice. His face was darkened with fury and another indescribable emotion.
“I would’ve drowned,” Tamyra gasped, still not having recovered from the swim.
“Next time listen to what I say!” Kelvin began kicking Tamyra repeatedly. Tamyra started crying out in pain, but no one could hear her. Finally he paused. Tamyra turned her head, with tears in her eyes and whispered hoarsely,
“Please.” Kelvin’s face distorted, and he gave her one final kick. Then, without saying anything, he put on his clothes and left. Tamyra laid on the ground, bruised and cold, until the gardener found her and brought her back inside. She was sick for a week, with someone coming in to check on her only at meal times. However, this time her parents had noticed this, and sent Kelvin away to be tutored by a wise mage till he was old enough to attend Eltmar Academy, a school for powerful mages.
With Kelvin gone, Tamyra was free from his torment. However, the events of that day had left a scar on her heart. She no longer desired to become a part of the family. Tamyra wanted only to protect herself from Kelvin, as she knew one day he would return. She would learn how to become useful to her family, and they would protect her. That became her one true goal.
Because of this, Tamyra was either always reading or always working. She became adept at household chores and fixing items. Unlike her family, she learned how to do things without the aid of mana, which made her very observant to different solutions for problems. However, she couldn’t solve her biggest problem; the lack of mana. Without it, she could never become someone who could stand up to Kelvin.
Though Tamyra had the mana generation of a snail, she had the brains of a genius. Since no one cared about her, if she made herself scarce, she had a lot of free time. Her parents were so ashamed of her that they didn’t even bother with tutors or schooling of any kind, adding to her free time. Thus Tamyra had to learn from observing and self-study. From watching her mother and members of branch families, she learned etiquette and manners. She practiced all night on how to walk, talked to herself to get formal speech right, and even danced by herself. The family had an extensive library, and Tamyra spent hours reading books pertaining to mana and mana related technology. There were many possibilities in the research of mana, even if she couldn’t really use it. She could come up with new vehicles, machines, weapons, or parts. If she could somehow make herself useful, maybe her parents would consider her their daughter and protect her from Kelvin. Tamyra desperately held on to this notion as she learned all she could.