It had been a strain sitting in the stands. Aunt Desdemona was the senior family chief trainer and as such was able to regulate her aura, but I was so sensitive to the flow that even the trace leaks were pushing at my skills. While this was normally a bonus the stress and the headache did not seem to be worth it.

The first day had been boring, so very boring. These so-called heroes were useless. There were only two that had any power worth mentioning yet their arrogance meant that they would be useless to the family. Even I could see that. Also, the Imperials seemed enamored with them, which meant that we would never risk contending for such poor-quality additions.

By the end of that first day of the so-called training, Aunt had dismissed half of the nominees. I was the only one from my cohort that was left. I was not concerned, it was just the cost of family privilege that I was still here I was sure, By the end of tomorrow, she would dismiss me and the bulk of the others as she settled on those heroes that could be beneficial.

The next day was still boring, I had no idea why she was still considering anything. The only group that I felt any potential was the lone group of 5, the one that had been called Yellow 1. They seemed to be able to resist the trainer a little and were able to progress their base skills at least a little bit. It helped that they were a close-action melee group, with no real ability to Direct the combat, But they seemed to produce a lot of damage and were soon able to reach significant levels in their Active attack skills.

Because of their nature, I was at least safe from having to be the sacrifice from the family if we were able to acquire them. My skills were such that while I would be able to generate significant additional damage that is not what was needed to round out such a group. Either 2nd Cousin Debs, and or 3rd uncle Erbert would be the best choices to produce a group that did not quickly die during the first phases of the combat missions.

At the end of the day after a brief scare when Aunt focused her attention my way, Yet again I was not dismissed. It had been a hard day in that I had to be seeming to pay attention, yet I would much rather be back home, working on my skills. I so wanted to push my movement skill from common to uncommon. Instead, I was stuck here watching various incompetent ‘Heroes’ gaining skills at a rate that I would never be able to achieve with all my advantages.

I fully expected that I would not be required tomorrow, why add another damage fighter to what was clearly a team that had too many in that role. Yet when Aunt dismissed us, I was told that I could expect to stay at least until the first assessment. I was so shocked that I started to answer back to my Aunt. I was promptly slapped across the face even before the first syllable slipped through my lips. I was lucky that it was my aunt’s maid #3 that stuck me. If any of the rest of her retinue had stuck me I would have not just been knocked to the floor and my teeth loosened. I might well have lost my jaw.

The look that I received from the senior maid, nearly shattered my mind. It was clear that I had no choice in the matter. I had to assume that my Aunt was aware of something that was escaping me. I had only briefly examined the various candidate Heroes with my skills. Once when they had first arrived. And then through the course of the first day of training.

I knew that I would have to spend more time trying to determine why I was being held here.

The next day arrived far quicker than I wanted. I had to spend time healing, and as everyone knew that it was not a training incident but punishment I was not provided with any healing potions or a healer. I did have a minor skill in healing, It was so weak because I never bothered developing that channel. My skill set was focused on perception and speed, being able to spot a weakness, and having the speed to attack and then escape being hit. Even Ester who did have some more useful skills that had healing effects knew that she could do nothing.

Arriving the next I quickly looked at the two green teams that had those high powers in them. I could see why the imperial clan would be excited to recruit them, but they still showed every sign of thinking that were super-powered, Their arrogance shone brightly. The power flooded through them driving the acquisition of new skills and improvements yet, the trainers were easily able to narrow the skill sets that they were gaining. They certainly would have monstrous attribute levels and would shine in the areas where suppression was the goal, But when they moved to areas where the conflict was hot and heavy, their lack of skill would be rapidly exposed. I doubt that they would be more than useful sacrifices. The other members of their training squads were starting to fracture. It was very likely that these poor souls would die before even that point. The group that did not have one of the two was actually performing better, The trainer for this group was ensuring that each member learned an effective active skill.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Yet at the end of the day, I still could not perceive any team that would be worth wasting a family member from the principal line on. Maybe I was still here as window dressing. Certainly, that is what my cohort understood when we were selected.

I didn't even raise any emotion as several more members of the candidate pool were dismissed. I had learnt a harsh lesson. While I was healed, my channels were raw from the constant use of my skills. This was the time that I gained improvements. Two points of stamina, one of will. Of my skills, my passive focus gained 1 level which was unexpected, as it was particularly hard to improve. I had been seeking that improvement for months, it was not obvious why now. The 3 levels of Minor healing were not at all unexpected given what had happened to me.

The next day something happened to Red 1. While still behind the high-flying Green 1 and 2, by midday there was a stepwise improvement in their skills. While externally the improvements were not that great, something certainly had changed. I glanced around at who amongst the families that were leading their candidate pool selections. I realized that only our family still had someone with the power of Aunt Desdemona. Even the imperials only had a baron left supervising. Some septs had already withdrawn their participation as they either did not have the resources to waste or the potential to gain. Aunt Desdemona was many orders of magnitude more powerful than any other remaining member of the family'. One of those trace leaks of intent that I had endured since being forced to attend the grading flared and I released that it was the grouping Red 1, that my Aunt was focused on. Everything else had been a distraction.

At some point, the families had started to compete in the bidding and trading on which teams would be allocated to which families. The politics of many of the decisions escaped me. It looked like our family was going to be forced into running with the Red teams. It did not make any sense. Red 1 was now tickling my rare soul skill ‘Possibility’ It was not triggering a hot flare of power or even a strong sense of fate. This skill was the skill I shared with my aunt, it was generally despised by the families, but my bloodline valued it above any other rare skill. It had kept us alive when we had previously been written off.

I spent the rest of that day trying to understand why Desdemona was allowing us to be manipulated into the three red teams. There had to be something special that I could not see.

That night I attempted to discover what was happening via my family contacts, I knew that I was low on status for the main line branch. But I really expected to discover something. Yet nothing, worse than nothing, My senior maid was visited by my Grandmother's most junior aide’s most junior maid and told that I needed to shut up and be a good little member of the family. In normal situations I would be considered noticeably higher in rank than the aide let alone the maid, to receive a message in such a way, while not costing me status outside the family, clearly meant that I could expect to be a sacrifice to protect the family. And if need be, I had to shut up and die bravely or just die as a coward as I had no choice in the matter.

This was an eye-opening experience. For the rest of the night, I pushed my maids in the perception exercises that I normally spent a candle mark or two working on. On top of the normal training sessions that I was required to attend. Since It looked likely that I was being abandoned, perception might be the only way to keep me safe. Ester was training with me, but I was so self-absorbed, and now looking back for some reason that I could not understand I had created a gap between myself and my bond sister, for the first since she had been placed beside me in my crib.