At the age of five, I learned something surprising about my existence.

It was a pleasant day. I remember that I was wearing a simple wool dress, that my hair had been combed in two braids and that I was very happy. I had just returned from a magic class taught by Elbern and I wanted to show what I had learned to my family. John, my brother, was busy with some calculus homework, so I would show it to my parents first.

“Mom, Dad, look!“, I exclaimed, opening the door and running to them.

With them watching me, I concentrated and, in the palm of my hands, a warm and orange fire appeared. I extended the flames to my parents, displaying them with pride. Mom and Dad gasped by surprise. Then I made the fire disappear.

For my next demonstration, I went to the dining table, where there was an empty jar.

I climbed into one of the chairs, put the jar in front of me and conjured a stream of water that came out of my hand and fell into the jar, filling it. After filling it out, I showed the jar to my parents, who clapped their hands for me.

“Incredible, right?”, I exclaimed, coming down from the chair, “I already know the basics of the magic of fire and water! Now, I can light the stove or fill the basins whenever you need it, so don't hesitate to call me! And do you know what Elbern told me? That I learn fast and that I can go far!”

Knowing that I had the potential to become a powerful magician made me jump with excitement and the noise of my boots’ impact against the wooden floor was repeated several times. However, my parents were strange. It seemed that there was a concern in the back of their minds that was spreading and overlapping their happiness.

“Amaris, my daughter... That's wonderful, but...”, My mother, Ninfa, started talking, hesitantly. She looked at my father, Cyrus, for support.

“We have to tell you something important”, He announced, with an evident waver in his voice.

“Am I in trouble?”, I asked.

“No, no!”, Mom quickly denied it, “Come on, let's go to your room. Dad and I will explain it to you”

Mom and Dad, each held a hand of mine and took me to my room, but I could feel that they were holding my hands more tightly than usual. I swallowed it dry, afraid of what they would tell me.

As soon as we entered, my parents closed the door and I sat on my bed. Then they came and sat next to me.

“What do you want to tell me? Why do you have that weird look on your faces?”, I asked.

Mom shook my hand and, after taking a deep breath, began to say:

“My daughter, you are growing up and you are starting to meet people outside this house.”

I nodded my head. That was true. I was not very sociable during my first years of life and I was a more indoors child. If I spent time away from home, it was usually in the backyard. After Elbern started teaching me magic, I started to leave the house more.

“And you must have noticed that there are people who are very different from the others. Like Elbern.”

“It's because of the ears, right? Elbern said he's an elf, that's why they are long”, I took the tip of my ears and pulled them a little, trying to imitate Elbern's.

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“Just like Elbern, you are also different from the others.”

“What do you mean?”, I arched my eyebrows, confused, “I'm not an elf. I look like the kids in the city.”

“Exactly. You look like them, but you're not like them.”

“And how am I different?”

“Those children are human. You're not.”

This sentence sounded so absurd to me, to the point that I couldn't control my speech and said exactly what it comes out of my head.

“I am… not? It doesn't make sense! If I'm not human, what am I?”

My parents, although their faces expressed affliction, it showed that they were understanding. They already knew that my reaction would be that.

It was Dad who answered my question.

“You are a being called homunculus.”

Homunculus... at that time, I remembered everything I knew about them. In some stories I read, they had a master and did what they said like a golem, but they look like humans and were able to reason. In other stories, they were small humanoid creatures with wings, like imps.

But what would be the type of homunculus that my father is talking about?

With that in mind, I remembered once I heard him say this word:

“I think I've heard you say something like that, dad... Aren't Homunculus those little people who come from little tubes?”

Dad laughed a little.

“Some homunculus come from little tubes, but it is not a must. Homunculus are people who were made differently from humans. Humans are made in mom's belly, while homunculus are made in the laboratories.”

“Was I made in a lab?”

Mom and Dad agreed.

“If the only difference between me and the children is that I didn't come from mom's belly, then why did you have such a strange face?”

“You know,”, Dad took a deep breath before continuing, “When someone makes a homunculus, it's usually because they want a servant.”

“Servant?... Am I a servant?”, Without realizing it, I said what I thought.

My parents seemed to have been saddened by what I said, because they hugged me tightly and stroked my head.

“No. It never was and never will be”, Mom answered me.

“But if I'm not a servant, what am I?”

Dad got up from the bed and knelt in front of me, held my hands, looked me in the eyes and said:

“Our daughter.”

“But then why didn't I come from mom's belly?”

“Your mother and I tried, we tried a lot, but we couldn't. I couldn't stand to see your mother sad, so I decided to challenge myself and went after learning about the creation of a homunculus. It wasn't easy, it took time, but in the end I made it and you came into the world.”

I gasped with admiration. Dad had gone so far just to see mommy happy again, like the stories I had read before!

“As you can see,”, Mom continued from where Dad had left off, while caressing my hair, “You were made to be our daughter, so you were ‘born’ like a baby, but homunculus do not age naturally and you could not continue as a baby forever. So, from time to time, when you were sleeping, I used metamorphosis magic in you to look like you were growing up like everyone else.”

I looked at my arms and legs. They were the length and thickness of a healthy five-year-old child. I would never suspect that my growth was not natural.

However, I had a doubt about this revelation that I am a homunculus.

“Why are you telling me this now?”

‘Didn't it make more sense to hide this from me forever?’ It’s what I wanted to add, but I avoided it, for fear of hurting them.

Mom also got out of bed and knelt down in front of me.

“Because you deserve to know about yourself”, mom held my hands together with dad, “and because this is a secret that you need to learn to keep. If they find out, they will look at you with different eyes, they will think that you only serve to be ordered around.”

“But they have no proof that I was made in a laboratory, so how would they find out?”

“There are some ways. The most common method is poisoning. As homunculus are immune to common poisons, just give them something poisoned and see how they will react – Dad explained – So be careful with it. There may be times when you will need to pretend weakness.”

I nodded my head to express my understanding.

“My daughter, how are you feeling?”, Mom asked.

“Even though I'm not human like you, you're still my parents, aren't you?”

“Yes”, they answered at the same time.

“And you will continue to be my parents forever, won't you?”

“Of course.”

“Then I'm fine!”

In a quick movement, I tilted my body forward and hugged them both at the same time.

Relieved by my acceptance, Mom and Dad hugged me back. Now that I had better assimilated the information about myself, I was happy with this revelation.

While I was hugging my parents, I thought ‘A homunculus... how awesome! In addition to having reincarnated in a fantasy world, I gained such an amazing body! Maybe I can even become a mage whose magic surpasses that of a human being! I'm sure this new life will be better than the previous one!’