My name is Evay and I like my name. People have told me it sounds like a girly name but I always thought it rolled off the tongue pretty nicely nevertheless. My family’s surname “Maver" was never very high in the social ladder, but it did give me identity. Sometimes when I had nothing to hold on to I would remember my name. It was something I had that I actually felt content with, and something that no one could take away. Yeah, it’s depressing, but I felt like that all the time. If I had power it would be different…..

As I was sitting in the town library I had snuck into, I began to absorb new information that I hadn’t known before. I couldn’t read very well but I had some literary skills, and I already knew a little bit of our empire’s history, but I wanted to know more.

We lived in the Taegan empire, which was formed 200 years ago—very young in comparison to all the other empires around us. Our first emperor was the man that had gained independence from the Sugul empire, by defeating their emperor in combat. After that our line of powerful emperors kept us on the global stage, and our current emperor was currently the most powerful emperor in the world….From what I saw we weren’t that economically powerful, and we weren’t the largest in size, but it seemed that no one could compete with our leader—he was what made our empire great.

As I opened up the book further I saw a picture of the emperor. I couldn’t read his name though—since it was written in a fancy font that was too complicated. I did see his picture. He was young, maybe only 20 to 22 years old, with a head of dark black hair—shaped like spikes—slightly longer in length. His hair covered one of his eyes but the visible one was golden in color. He looked to be fairly tall with a proper-athletic build, and he donned a subtle smile on his face.

By all accounts he looked like an emperor, as he adorned his red and gold robes that draped him in long cloth—flowing all down his body. Our emperor was showered with flattering descriptions and pictures of his various royal robes were plastered on nearly every page in the book. His rise put our nation into relevance, and the newspapers made him seem like… well, a god.

I guess we’ll never know what he’s actually like.

I wasn’t looking for this. I was looking for power and how to get it. I always wondered how regular humans born like me obtained powers that made them into living weapons. If I could just get that power….

I grabbed an old looking leather book and finally found what I was looking for. I stumbled across a chapter titled THE HISTORY OF COMBAT.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Boom.

Liquor. This was the substance that apparently gave humans the abilities of gods. A plant that was discovered nearly 5000 years ago contained nectar that when consumed, gave the person who drank it a certain skill. The liquor would modify the already existing muscular, nervous, and skeletal systems in the body. Working with the consumer’s specific genetic makeup, each person would have a unique ability.

I wasn’t quite sure what “genetic” meant, or a bunch of other words, but it kind of seemed to make sense. Peasants could never afford this liquor as there was a limited supply in all empires, and peasant’s bodies were usually not even compatible with liquor—which explained why we were so low on the social ladder. Is there even a chance for me?

I pushed those doubts out of my head—If you throw away your possibilities from the beginning you won’t be able to see what you can be. Or I’m a complete idiot, who knows? I gulped and read on.

There wasn’t much more on liquor but there was more on the social ladder. The slaves and prisoners were the lowest class, followed by the peasants, me, then what the book called “rejects”, then the middle class (or the average person), the chosen warriors, the governess and politicians, and then the nobles. The emperor wasn’t a class but he was the highest figure in our empire.

Apparently each class was stronger than the previous one—with the exception of the governors and the politicians—and as a result, higher classes were better off. A world built on strength was possible as those who were most powerful were able to obtain the best things in life through intimidation and strength.

The nobles were apparently the closest in terms of power to the emperor. They were kept in check by the emperor though, and this kept the balance of power. How strong does this man have to be in order to keep all these nobles in check? I stumbled across the pages with the descriptions of the various nobles.

Taegan was split into regions—four to be exact. The Bondas region, the Hable region, the Relen region, and the Villona region. But only one caught my eye—it was the noble who controlled the Villona region. His name was Wyren of house Venon--the man who I had met in the street just two days ago.

I was angry. Angry that this man killed my family, bought my home, taunted me, was so high and mighty that he probably thought of himself as some god…

My teeth clenched, my fists tightened as my knuckles turned white. I stared daggers into his photos. The nobles had recently gone and bought land that would provide living space for their peoples, and me and my family just happened to border the Villona region. We had been victims of this specific plan. Us peasants had no say, our lands were taken from us and that decision was final. I wanted to get stronger. Even if I never climbed, even if my goals were ridiculous, even if my body wasn’t compatible with liquor, I needed to kill this noble. I needed to kill him….I really needed to kill him.

It was dark now and the cold chilly air draped itself around my entire body. There wasn’t really a good place to sleep but the library bushes seemed like the most ideal place.

I laid down, rested my head, and closed my eyes as I waited for my body to drift away to sleep.