1

It was an oppressively hot afternoon. For Vask Fillius it was too hot. He hated it.

Beneath his heavy pale green wizard’s robes, he was sweating, and he did not like it one bit. His ancient looking wide-brimmed hat hung low shading most of his face.

He gripped his gnarled elder wood staff tightly in his hand, the strange ruby-like stone embedded in the top. The wood of the branch wrapped around it a gentle embrace. He leaned on it as he strolled through the Wizard’s Quarter. He knew the place well and the ground was well worn with his footsteps over the years.

People made way for him as he passed by. They did not need to see his face beneath his pointed hat. They knew exactly who he was. He was a man to be feared. He was a member of the Wizard’s Council, the powerful governing body of the wizardry community. Some might argue that he was the most powerful wizard in all Verant.

He had reached the position by being ruthless with all people that opposed him in anyway. He was well known for not being above bribery, blackmail or out right theft. Dark whispers speak of kidnappings, dark rituals and murder. Vask knew that all of it was true and more that no one knew about.

He had lived over one hundred years. No other wizard had ever lived this long, he thought. How much longer? He did not know. Vask considered his longevity proof of his immense powers and loved the fear it inspired in his underlings.

Vask had always felt that terror was the greatest motivator. Dreams of money, wealth and power only got people so far, but if they really feared someone, they would do much more. They would go out of their way to avoid anything that they feared that much. Vask made it a point to be feared rather than loved. The stories of his exploits made him that much more powerful. In the wizard community it made him a legend. To the outside world, only the most important people even knew who he was and he charmed most of them.

Politics was helping him now more than anything else. He had sided with Xander Frey even joining the army as a war wizard and helping him defeat the Thaine family. This gave Vask much praise from the Imperial Palace and political clout which he was using to his best advantage now.

Besides, he had family ties to both the House of Frey and Thaine. His own house of Fillius was not as well known and he preferred it that way. He preferred that the outside world stay out of his business, it made it that much easier to do what he wanted.

Vask manipulate the Wizard Council the same way a con artist would manipulate cards being dealt to a target. Subtle and out of direct sight, it was all slight of hand. A threat here, some gold there and suddenly people started to see things his way. It made him laugh that people were so easily lead. The Wizard Council was the supreme power in the wizard world, just as the Emperor was the supreme power to the commoners. Vask had secured his seat on the council many years ago.

He needed all of this power and more for what was to come. He had enemies, people of dark and shadowy places that used powers that were beyond that of magic. Powers he would have trouble countering. These people had their own plans for the world and Vask was determined to stop them. What he needed was loyal and powerful henchmen to help him carry out this secret war.

Why did it need to be secret? He was afraid to start something out in the open. He was not ready yet. He was still gathering the god touched to his side. They would help in this battle. If he went to the Emperor or the Wizard Council with this problem of the shadow ones now, most likely would not believe him. He had already tested that out by talking to a few of the members only to have them disbelieve it. They simple could not fathom some power other than magic that could be out there without them knowing about it. His other fear was that his enemy would make their move immediately. That would be disastrous and would be something the Empire may never recover from. If these men with their strange powers ruled, the first thing they will do is eliminate the wizards from this world. They would suppress it like the Enki once did.

No, he needed more time and more of the god touched under his care before he confronted these men and made the conflict an open one. Right now, this was a game of chess and he needed to start thinking several moves ahead.

As he approached the base of the Wizard’s Tower near one of the entrances that surrounded the odd five-sided building, he came upon a group of wizards who scowled at him. Vask ignored them and took a moment to take in the gleaming black marble that was polished to a majestic shine. The marble had bright streaks of white in it that looked like lightning bolts. The peak rose to a dizzying height of well over three hundred feet. It was a school he had once taught at, but his version of dark magic made people unease and he was forced out of the profession. He would have been upset and sought revenge normally, but it had given him the chance to pursue other things. New knowledge on subjects most wizards could not even understand. Being a professor was boring in comparison.

The wizards he had been ignoring finally gain enough courage to approached him.

“I don’t like this at all Fillius! I just hope you know what you are doing!” One of the men spoke up. He almost made it sound like a threat, but just stopped short of being outright hostile. He was late middle aged with sunken eyes and dark hair and complexion. He seemed the boldest of the group. The others just lurked behind him nodding in agreement.

“Nobody cares what you think, Decimus! If they did then you would be Grand Master of the Wizard Council, now wouldn’t you?” Vask snapped at him. His lips curled in an evil grin. It was hard to see with his long bushy grey beard in the way, but it was there.

The Grand Master was the leader to the Council. Coincidentally, Grand Master was a term also used to refer to a wizard who had reached the highest levels of power in all accepted fields of magical study.

“How did you get the council on your side anyway Vask? Did you bribe them or bully them?” Decimus spat back and the other four he was standing with all nodded in agreement.

Vask came in close to Decimus and spoke in a low voice. “You don’t answer to the council, do you Decimus? No, you answer to the shadowy cloaks high up in the mountains, don’t you?”

A look of shock registered across Decimus’ face for a moment, but he quickly suppressed it. “I don’t know what you are talking about!” He hissed under his breath.

“Sure you do, Decimus,” Vask said with a chuckle. “Sure you do.”

“Don’t forget that I’m still a Council member and I voted against this idea!” Decimus proclaimed loud enough for all to hear. He stood defiantly before Vask. “You haven’t bullied all of us yet!”

Vask laughed heartily. It was a deep gut laugh of someone very amused. When he stopped, he wiped his eyes. He stepped in close to Decimus and spoke in a much lower voice. “There is trouble coming Decimus! A brooding storm I wager! I would really hate to think that you might be caught on the outside looking in when it arrives. You and I have some unfinished business…”

Vask pushed the man aside and laughed his deep haunting laugh again as he walked pass them and into the imposing building.

2

Servia De Gallio sat alone in her cell as she had done for the past several weeks. Her blue eyes were red and swollen, but there were no tears. She was out of them. She did not have the energy. She was emotionally drained. Now she was just numb.

Occasionally, she would force back her long blonde curls from her face, but they would just fall back in the way again. She had no comb or brush, her hair was probably a mess, but she had no mirror to see it, so what did it matter? Her strawberry blonde curls were probably in a terrible state.

It was the worst place she could ever imagine. The cell was cold, damp and it smelled like musty old mildew and rotting food. The walls were dark with black stains of filth and grime. It was only a holding cell, but she imagined that the dungeon she would eventually be transferred to would be worse. She could only imagine it.

Servia had never been to the Pacilla. She never met anyone who had been to the wizard prison before. If it was anything like the school’s holding cell… She thought. She shuttered inside trying to put it out of her mind.

After the incident, the experiment as it were, everything else had been a blur. A student was dead, another seriously injured. The injured girl would recover, of course, if she had not already. That is what magic was for, obviously.

But the dead could not be brought back to life. As far as Servia was aware at least. If there was such magic, then it was not taught or even mention as being possible by any of their teachers.

After the accident there were meetings, interrogating and multitude of question. It fell like she answered the same questions over and over again in various ways and by various people. But maybe that was the point? She thought about it. Maybe they were seeing how closely she stuck to her side of the story. It could have been a test to find out if she was lying. She told everyone the truth, or at least the best she could remember of it.

There was a brief trial and she had heard there had been several wizard council meetings concerning the incident and her fate, but she had been told nothing. Well, that was not entirely true. Some wizard who had visited her told her that she was expelled from the school, but anything else was still being decided. She was not entirely sure if she was going to prison or not, but the boy who was killed, Garius Aquitaine, was from a noble house so she assumed that would be her fate was not good.

Servia sat on a narrow wooden bench which was also the only furniture in the room. She usually curled up on it to go to sleep at night. Rats and roaches sometimes scurried about. She often heard them in the night, although she could not imagine what they could possible be feeding on in this place. Feces perhaps!? The thought of rats rummaging through the chamber pot under the bench sent a shiver up and down her spine.

Her only comfort was her wizard’s robes, which she was allowed to keep even though everything else had been taken away from her. They were made from heavy purple velvet and were very warm. She pulled them tight around herself as she sat hugging her legs tightly against her chest. She rocked back and forth, her mind paralyzed with pain and fear.

This place was worst than the Abyss! She thought. It just had to be! But was it worse than the Pacilla? She wondered. She knew nothing about it. Most people did not. It was a secretive castle in a hidden location where all the wizards who had committed various crimes which were not capital by nature were put. She had no idea how the prison system worked. How did they keep powerful and crazy wizards confined and under control? She heard rumors that it was inside a crystal cavern where magic was nullified.

Servia had been living at the wizard’s school ever since she was eight years old. Many of the children came from far away and those with parents not that well off had to board their children at the school. The wealthy students had families who lived in Verant City. They lived at home when they were not in class. Servia was not that lucky. Her parents were middle class merchants. They had just enough money to send her to school. So, Servia had been living in a townhouse in the Wizard Quarter for almost eleven years now.

Now at the age of Nineteen, Servia had spent those eleven years of her life studying magic at what many wizards regarded as the best school in the Verant Empire and the second-best school in all of Gaia. Karnak was of course the best, but it was far away, the hardest to get into and the most expensive to attend.

Servia was unsurpassed. She had shown such great potential right from the beginning. What had gone wrong with her life? She wondered. How had she ended up here of all places? Her mind had gone in circles thinking about this question. She had spent days going over all the events in her life that had led up to this imprisonment. She was not even sure how long it had been. A few weeks at the very least. She could not eat or sleep those first few days. After that she just felt deadened and started to seriously reflect on her life.

Servia knew that she had been made into a scapegoat. The real perpetrators of the crime were also the main witnesses who had testified against her. It was these damn nobles! She thought. She was completely trapped. It was the most terrifying situation for anyone to be in. She still had not pieced everything together, but she knew that it all started and ended with a girl in her class named Catalina.

Servia’s story truly began when she was young. As a child she found out that she could use magic. Magic was dangerous to the outside world. The normal citizens of Verant went about their business without giving magic much thought. It was mostly used for tricks in a tavern. Wizards often put on shows to earn money. That’s the easy way. Learn a few tricks, maybe illusions or mind tricks. Specializes in one type of magic and a person could finish school in a few years, maybe five at the most. But Servia was too good for trivial tricks. She would not settle for being a simple fortune-teller or pulling rabbits out of hats for children. Or a sorcerer making potions for coin. She wanted to be a full-fledged wizard.

Wizards were powerful. They knew a full range of magic, potions and fortune-telling, although fortune-telling was sometimes seen as fraud even among wizards. Wizards had magical items like staffs and wands, sometimes they would have several. Servia had a wand and a staff, but both had been confiscated. She had no magical items at all in her cell. She had been stripped of everything that had been of importance to her.

Her cell was enchanted. If she even tried to draw a cipher or ward it was instantly dispelled. Not much of a surprise, she thought.

Servia’s real trouble began because she was often tutored privately and got more attention from the teachers than the other students. This created certain social issues which she had to admit was the root of her problem. She had a small circle of friends, none of whom had visited her since her detainment. She did not get along with any of the boys and only had one male friend, Rufus, who was a gentle and charming lad a couple of years younger than herself.

Conversely, she had made a lot of enemies, people who did not like her because she was better at magic than them. The teachers felt she was one of the best in the class which only served to isolate her further from the others. She was only a year away from becoming a full wizard which was faster than anyone else who currently attended the school. She was made to feel like an outsider to the rest of the student body.

She was also not rich like some of the children at the school. Verant was an elitist society after all. This even extended into the wizard world. Wealth and breeding were everything. Talent was secondary.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

There was one girl in particular who disliked Servia and that was Catalina Lyons. Catalina had a boyfriend of sorts, Garius Aquitaine. They were both from ruling families. In fact, almost all of the important families had several children each who went to school at the Wizard’s Tower when she really thought about it. Granted they were mostly horrible at it and usually specialized in tricks, but it was more about the presents of ruling families than anything else. It was like they were keeping watch over the wizards by always having their families involved in magic. They kept it all under their watchful eye.

All of the Wizard Council members were related to ruling families in some way. Of course, there were a few wealthy students who were quite good at magic. Unfortunately for Servia, Catalina and Garius just happened to be two of them. A natural rivalry developed between Catalina and Servia, but Catalina was not someone who liked to play fair. Catalina was underhanded, she like to sabotage Servia whenever possible. She also loved to torment her with practical jokes.

Servia knew that there was even more to it then just petty jealousies over who got the most attention from the instructors or whose family had the most money and power. Servia knew that she was the first one to really develop as a woman. The female instructors would call it blossoming, but whatever they called it, it was not very pleasant. She certainly did not feel flower-like either. They made a big fuss about her getting her first menses or courses as it was said in polite conversation. The other women never called it anything vulgar like the red tide. That was commoner speech. What the teachers and old girls were really talking about was menstruation, the first true sign of womanhood.

Of course, Servia also developed larger breasts as she grew older. Larger than the other girls which made her more popular with that boys, so it went without saying that this irritated some of the girls even further. Servia saw them as nothing but a curse. The boys did not really care for her before she developed into a woman and then afterwards, she felt that her breasts were all they seemed interested in. She caught the boys staring at them sometimes and it made her feel really embarrassed and uncomfortable. She wore loose fitting robes to try and hide her ample bosom, hoping it would keep the boys at bay.

It was not that she hated boys. She found some of them attractive enough. She just did not care for any of the boys in her class. She wondered if maybe she just knew them too well. She thought them to all be blackguards, but were they? Was she being too harsh? She had a lot of time lately to questioned her own motives. Sometimes she did not like what she found.

As if all this was not enough to deal with, Servia had gone though some emotional and sexual confusion in the last few years which only served to compound her problems. The problem was she preferred to be around the girls. Not just any of the girls, but there was one girl in particular that she had a genuine fondness for. She had the glorious name of Valerio. It sounded so musical to Servia’s ears.

Valerio was a beautiful doll-like girl in Servia’s class. Servia made sure that they quickly became friends. Valerio had a prefect complexion, the sweetest smile and gentle disposition. Servia recalled the feminine way that Valerio often tucked her long golden hair behind her ears. Even in her cell the image still gave Servia goose bumps! Servia found herself often getting lost in Valerio’s emerald eyes when they were deep in conversation. Servia loved the way those eyes glittered the sunlight. She often wore a pleasant flowery perfume that still warmed Servia insides when she thought about it now.

Being a teenager was hard work. Servia had to control her impulses. She spent every moment she could with Valerio, but this only served to tease herself further. She longed to reach out and touch Valerio’s soft hands, to caress her pale skin obscuring her blue veins just beneath. She almost seemed more Elf than Human. Servia even found herself daydreaming about kissing this girl on the lips! These thoughts crept up and startled her. She tried desperately to banish the images from her mind. Yet they always crept back in. Why did such thought always come back to her!? They are a curse to me still! She lamented.

Girls were supposed to like boys. That was the natural order of things. That was what they were told by the teachers. They were lies and they knew it even as they told such a thing. This was the Verant Empire and as it was well known, the wizards were a strange lot. Sometimes girls would like girls and boys would like other boys. This was not a class thing either.

The former Empress Evangeline was well known for being a lesbian and everyone knew the story of her infamous servant Mistula of Bandor, it was a part of Verant history and legend. As Servia grew older, she realized that there are many people in this world who do not always follow the social rules. Still, the vast majority of the public follow the social rules and scandalize anyone who did not. Once again Servia found herself an outcast.

Servia revisited the painful memories from two years ago. It was Yule and Servia’s friend Rufus, stole two bottles of wine from the kitchen in the tower dormitory while the cooks were distracted. That was Rufus. He was always looking to pinch something from the tower servants. It did not even matter what it was sometimes. He liked the danger. He liked to steal just for the thrill of it. Rufus was a born rule-breaker. He did not feel like they applied to him. But that day Rufus stole the wine purposely. It was Yule and he wanted to celebrate with his friends by getting drunk.

Servia, Rufus and the few others all shared the wine that night. The wine was strong and made Servia bold. She was normally a timid sort of creature, but flushed with alcohol, she approached Valerio. They went to another room where they could be alone. They started talk. Servia led the conversation into matters of love. They had been friends right from the beginning when they first met, but now Servia let her true feelings come to the forefront. Servia got closer. They embraced. The next thing Servia knew, she got her chance to kiss Valerio for real! Servia’s heart leapt! She was swimming in passionate emotions. Valerio’s lips tasted sweet like honey. Servia just melted in her arms, but than a moment later Valerio suddenly pulled away. Someone had walked in on them! They were caught in the act!

Servia could not remember all of the details. Valerio was embarrassed. The moment was lost and never recaptured. Eventually the other students in her class found out about it and the whole experience just added to the outsider feelings that Servia had developed over the years.

Valerio remained friendly enough but kept much more distance from her ever since. What Servia and Valerio had done was not a crime and it certainly was not uncommon in the wizard world, but that did not matter much to Catalina. When she found out about the incident, she used it to tease and mock Servia whenever possible. Servia the lesbo she was sometimes called. Servia felt completely humiliated once again. By now I should be used to it! She thought. It seemed like her entire life had been one long nightmare! She had no idea at the time just how much worse it could get, but she was about to find out.

3

Servia had been brewing a potion for class. She had walked across the room to prepare the final ingredient. The teacher was out, having been called into a faculty meeting. The students were left on their own. Catalina, who was in the class at the time along with four others, quietly slipped a powder into Servia’s cauldron while her back was turned and then quickly moved away.

Servia never found out exactly what it was, but she was pretty confident that it was some type of sulfur derivative. It should have simply bubbled up with a bright orange dye that would splash all over Servia, ruining her robes, staining her skin and marring the desk chair and anything else it might have touched. Servia knew it was just the kind of juvenile prank that Catalina would delight in pulling on her. She and Garius would have had a good laugh over it and Servia would be reminded once again that she was an outcast.

There was just one problem.

Servia had made a miscalculation in her recipe. She had read it wrong and had put ten times as much Fire Bane as was required. That in itself would have been fine. When she added her own ingredient, Murkwood, to the mixture, it would not have turned out properly and the potion would have been ruined, but no one would have been hurt. If she had used the right amount Fire Bane, then the sulfur compound that Catalina added would have had the desired effect of creating an orange mess.

Instead, the whole mixture flared up and then exploded into a brief, but powerful ball of fire. Garius was killed instantly. Catalina and two other students were injured. They were badly burned and thrown against the wall. Servia had been walking over to the cabinet to get the Murkwood. She was thrown out the open door as she crossed in front of it. She was winded and dazed, but only suffered minor injuries.

The immediate result was that the school took swift and decisive action. A boy from a very prominent house was killed. Servia was taken to the holding cell pending an official investigation by the Wizard Council. Catalina bullied the others into lying for her. They claimed Servia made the mistake in her potion. They accused her of mixing the wrong ingredients. Her accusers were all wealthy. Their families gave generously to the school. Servia was the only one who was punished. She faced a trial before the Wizard Council. The trial was in private, conducted at the school and had nothing to do with the outside government or justice. The wizard community always looks after their own people. The Wizard Council was always seen as heavy handed, but they felt that they must be in order to safeguard the general public and make them feel at ease with wizards.

She was numb throughout the whole trial. She did not understand the charges which kept changing or what her rights were!? Too many witnesses testified against her. The Council made all of their decisions in private.

Servia felt it was unfair. There was no justice in anything that had happened to her. She did not deserve the unjust treatment from her fellow students who tormented her even though she had never done anything to them. She did not deserve the unfair trial and harsh judgment of the council who took Catalina and her friends’ words as the truth even though it was a complete lie. Servia felt that no one else in the world could have ever been as wrongly treated as she had!

That had been Servia’s side of things. What she saw, what she experienced. But she could not have known what was actually going on out in the real world over the last few months.

She was completely unaware that her case and trial were public knowledge. That discussion had gone on late into the night, not just at the school council or the Wizard Council, but at the highest levels of government.

She had no way of knowing that the Imperial Council had discussed her case, that the Emperor himself had an opinion on it or that they had even vote on what recommendation to make to the Wizard Council. She was also completely unaware that she was god touched, her face seen in the fire by a high priestess. And although she was vaguely aware of who Vask Fillius was, she had no clue that he was about to become her new mentor.

4

So here Servia De Gallio sat in complete despair under the assumption that she would be spending a lot of time in prison. Left to dwell on her thoughts and feelings of being trapped and hated for something she never did. The dungeon of the Wizard Tower was cold and empty. There were only a half dozen cells and she was the only occupant. Submissively, she sat alone awaiting transfer to The Pacilla.

Suddenly there was a noise coming from down the hall. She sat up. Was that another prisoner coming in!? She wondered. It was the only interesting thing that ever happened around this place. There had only been one other prisoner brought here earlier in the week, but he left a few days later.

The footsteps were coming down the hall towards her cell. She could tell there were two people. She got excited. Her heart was pounding. Was this it!? She could not be leaving now! She thought. Did they hand down a sentence? Yet the footsteps came right up to her cell door!

She began to panic as a wave of anxiety overwhelmed her. This was just not fair! She screamed in her mind. She was so young! When she was finally released, she would be old! She felt like her life was over, her career as a wizard, at an end. Her distant dream of being on the Wizard Council one day, evaporated.

Keys rustled in the door.

Tears welled up form inside her. She did not like her hands being tied up! That was the worst part! She thought. The helplessness that one feels when their hands are bound behind their back!

She covered her face afraid to look.

The door swung open. Two men walked in. All was silent. Servia De Gallio trembled on the bench. Fearing to look, she peered through her fingers. One man was the burl warden of the prison. The other was a tall old wizard in a pale green robe.

These aren’t prison guards! She thought. What’s going on here!?

The wizard turned to the warden and commanded. “Leave us!”

Suddenly the two of them were alone. The door to the cell left wide open.

Servia lowered her hands from her face and stared up at the imposing figure. He looked familiar somehow. She did not know him personally, but she had seen him around the Wizard Quarter before. She was sure that he was fairly well known.

“Are you Servia De Gallio?” The wizard said in a gruff voice.

“Yes,” She replied in a timid one.

Was he a Council member? She wondered. Was that it? Did he sit on the council!?

“Do you know who I am?” He asked her in a strong voice. It boomed filling the small cell.

He seemed so tall and imposing. He leaned on his knotted elder staff. Embedded in the top was a ruby-like stone. His robes billowed out around him. His eyes hid beneath his wide brimmed hat. It abruptly dawned on her who he might be!

“A-Are you V-Vask? Vask Fillius?” Her voice trembled.

Vask chuckled deeply. “They were right. You are very intelligent.”

She guessed right! It was Vask. She had heard about him. She knew him to be a powerful Wizard Council member. She had heard some bad things too. She was told by some to stay away from him, but she had never met him until now.

By the Gods, how he radiated power! She screamed inside her head. She could feel it filling up the room. She kept her lips tight and said nothing.

“Do you know what I do for a living?” He asked. He relaxed and gave her a sweet grandfatherly smile.

“I don’t know. I think you’re on the Wizard Council. We’re you at my trial?”

Again, he chuckled deeply. “Ah yes, very intelligent indeed! That’s what I like to see in a young wizard such as yourself!”

“I’m not a wizard,” Servia replied despondently. “I haven’t finished the training.”

Vask laughed. “Of course, you are my dear!” He told her. “You don’t need a piece of paper to tell you what you already know.”

“I know I’m going to the Pacilla,” she said.

“This is so sad, that you have ended up here,” Vask said. His tone changed completely. He sounded genuinely sympathetic. “This isn’t a place for a young Lady to be.”

Servia’s heart was pounding in her chest. Just get to the point! She thought. But outwardly she said nothing. She continued to sit on the bench trembling and staring up at this powerful man.

“How badly do you want to leave this place? To be free again?” He asked.

“My Lord, are you serious!?” She said. Her heart leapt into her throat. She had trouble breathing she was so elated at just the thought of it. Was it possible? Could she get out of here? He was a Council member…

“Of course, my dear!” His smile widened. He opened his arms invitingly. “What if I told you that I could get you out of here? That you could come with me rather than go to the Pacilla?”

Servia’s tears were welling up again. “By the Gods!” She exclaimed. “My Lord, I would owe you… my life! My service! Whatever you desire!” The words felt dirty even as the fumbled from her lips, but she truly meant what she was saying. Her mind was spinning like a top at what he was offering. She could be free! Suddenly he was the greatest man in the whole world to her. Her savior! She got off the bench and knelt down on the filth floor, grovelling at his feet. It was the most humiliating thing she had even done, but she did not care at all right now! She just wanted out of this hell!

“My child! Whatever I desire!? Really?” The old wizard said slow and quietly.

Servia stared at the ground unable to look him in the eye. She did not want him to see the tears of shame. She would say the words, but she would not look him in the eye. It was too humiliating. Her voice sound meek and distant. “Whatever you desire from me, my Lord. I’m all yours, even my body… if it pleases you.”

Vask smirked. “Not to worry child. If I was looking for sex, I would just buy a pleasure slave!”

Servia was somewhat relieved. It was the worst of her fears. What she was offering amounted to slavery anyway. She tried not to think about it. The mere thought of it made her feel sick. She would do whatever was asked of her, if it meant she could get out of this place. She had no other choice at the moment.

“I have an offer for you. I’m a very powerful man Servia De Gallio and I’m in need of a very loyal servant. Someone I can trust. Someone who is intelligent and can carry out orders without much supervision. Can you be that person?” He asked her.

“Without question, my Lord! I pledge myself to you,” she knelt down and kissed the hem of his robes, just like a loyal slave would do.

“In that case I’m here to offer you absolution. I can wipe your record clean. I can train you privately. I’m far more powerful than any of these other wizards here at the tower. What I could teach you…” He seemed to struggle to put it into words.

“My Lord, you are the greatest man I’ve ever met!” She bent low to his robes to hide the tears that embarrassed her so much. “I would be humbled and honored to do whatever you wish!”

“Swear loyalty to me above all else,” he commanded.

“I swear it, my Lord!”

“Kiss the ring,” He held out his free hand. He had a large ring with a red stone glowing in it.

She grabbed his hand and kissed the ring. With each action she felt even more like a slave, but she never hesitated.

“Very good, my pet,” he said with a sinister smile. He patted her head. “You’re my apprentice now!”

“Just like that!?” She said bewildered. Was it that simple!? Could they just walk out of here after all the trouble that had been cause, her trial, her sentence just vanished like the waving of a wand!?

“My child,” Vask said with a deep laugh. “Don’t you know? I’m Vask Fillius! I can do as a like!”

He grabbed her by the arm and hoisted her to her feet. He was strong for such an old man she thought. She trembled. Her stomach ached. The endless adrenaline rush was making her feel like vomiting. She tried to control herself, but it was very hard to remain steady on her feet.

Just like that they walked right out of the cell together. She did not look around nor did she look Vask Fillius in the eye. His hand was tight around her wrist dragging her along with him.

Somehow, she still felt like a prisoner. Or was she a slave now? How did the law work exactly? She wondered before realizing that this was all going on outside of the law. She tried to push the thoughts aside and focus on following Lord Vask.

They walked past the warden at the end of the hall and out of the school dungeons.