Elise was always angry. She buried it well, distracting herself with focuses and smoking and drinking it away. But it was always there, lurking and waiting for an outlet. There was so much anger in her. Anger at the world, anger at herself, anger at the past, anger at that which could not be changed. It was old and stale but so great in quantity. It seemed strange that the anger she was feeling now was new and fresh yet distant kin to the old rage ever trying to claw its way into her heart. That new anger blossomed as she saw Willow's parents look at their child with disgust. Elise did what she always did when filled with wrath; she smiled. She smiled like a shark approaching a hapless fish.

"What is she doing here?" Willow's mother whispered to her husband.

Willow hung her head. She was retreating from the events around her. Bowing her head and letting things just happen.

"Actually, I would like to ask you that. What is she doing here? What was she doing wandering around the lows? It couldn't have been that she was cast out by her parents could it? It couldn't be. It must be a misunderstanding of some kind. Since no human parent would be that callous. So tell me do you have anything to say to Willow?"

Willow's father stepped up to the counter, marching across the shop like he owned the place. Like he owned her shop.

"Do not talk about things you do not understand!" he warned, a sneering expression plastered on his face "It is none of your business who I allow to live in my home and eat my food! It is not my neighbour's business and least of all it is the business of some shortlined destitute craftswoman living in the lows! I will not be talked down to by you!"

Elise was still smiling.

"Nothing to say to Willow? No apology for kicking her out? No words to soothe over the dirty looks you just gave her? You didn't even address her and you waste your words insulting me instead?"

"Please Elise, don't...it's...it's alright," Willow's shaking voice quietly begged.

Her head was still down but tears could be seen collecting at the corners of her eyes.

"There is nothing to say. I fed her, I clothed her and I sheltered her when she isn't even my own child! I have done more than enough!"

"Not this again, I've told you before that I've been nothing but faithful! She is yours. I have laid with no one else!" Willow's mother protested, her voice becoming almost hysterical.

The man spun around and yelled "Then why is her line so short! Why is she so magically weak? With our lineage that should be impossible!"

"Willow, could you run upstairs and get me a book; The Three Trials of Trevillion's Travels. It'll be near the bottom of a pile somewhere. You'll have to spend some time searching for it," Elise stressed that last sentence to ensure Willow understood what she was actually saying.

Grateful for any excuse to be out there Willow bolted up the stairs immediately. Not that her parents noticed, they were busy shouting at each other.

"You promised me we'd never have this argument again after she left!"

"Well, I didn't expect to run into her!"

Elise had been hesitant to let loose her anger on Willow's parents in front of their child. That one thought had been keeping her building rage in check.

"Now that's-" Elise began.

"Stay out of this. I don't much care to be judged by someone who doesn't know their place,"

Elise reached up and grabbed the man by the back of the head and rammed his face into the countertop. He retaliated with an uncoordinated swing at Elise. It wasn't able to land before Elise, still gripping the back of his head, rained down punch after punch into his exposed face.

"What are you doing!" screeched the man's wife as she unlimbered a short staff she kept on her back. "Get the hell away from him!"

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Releasing her grip Elise watched as the wife's husband tried to stand. But dazed from the blows his legs slipped out from under him. Blood flowed from his broken nose.

The woman's staff was surprisingly enough decent quality as focuses went. The channels had been burnt skillfully and the design was simple and elegant. They had gone for speed over versatility and only had a few spells to allow for faster casting, compensating for the main weakness of a staff.

Elise could feel the woman's spell thread winding its way through the staff. It was a kinetic impact spell from the looks of things. She could dodge or she could attempt to prevent the woman from finishing her spell. But Elise did neither. She was furious and wanted to make a point. So she let her cast.

A strand of the enemy's spell thread rushed froth from the end of the staff. Once it touched something physical the spell would discharge and all of the force would be delivered to that point. Elise used a single strand of thread, pulled not from her available spell thread but pulled from her internal weave. She was ripping out a tiny piece of her soul. Whisps of smoke emanated from her fingertips and from around her eyes, accompanied by the pungent odour of burning flesh. The targeting thread from the woman's staff was cut up by the strand of Elise's internal weave. Without a target, the spell fizzled and failed.

When two spell threads collide the weaker spell thread would dispell. When spell thread collided with internal weave the spell thread would always be severed. Few people were cognizant of the fact that that remained true even if you ripped it out of yourself and were using bits of your internal weave to cast spells. That wasn't unusual though, people tended to prefer getting stabbed to casting with their internal weave. Stab wounds were less painful and easier to heal. As far as Elise knew she was the only one crazy enough to try using it in a fight. It was useful but she would never tell Willow about this little trick, she didn't want her apprentice picking up her bad habits.

The pain was so familiar, the fear of it had gone long ago. Repetition had dulled her to it. Piece by little piece she destroyed herself again and again. Yet when she looked in the woman's eyes and saw the confusion and fear now dwelling in them she felt like it was worth it. There was nothing quite like stopping someone who arrogantly thought themselves your superior in their tracks.

"Are you going to listen to me now? Because if I have to do that again I'm going to nail your hand to the wall with a thrown knife,"

Elise glanced down at the husband. He was still dazed and bleeding, slumped against the counter

"Get up!"

"Do you have any idea who we are or what we can do to you?" he mumbled as he climbed uneasily to his feet, blood soaking his face.

"Why is that you think coming to the lows without bodyguards was a good idea. And you think you can afford to be disrespectful to the people around you? This is not how this place works. I guess you figure since you've got relatively long lines everyone will shrink back in fear. Neither of you has ever been in a real fight and it shows. Oh, boy does it show. Either learn to fight or learn to show some respect. Hell, there's nothing wrong with doing both. But doing neither is asking for something bad to happen to you down here,"

The two customers stood and stared at Elise, one stood considerably less steady than the other. Elise smiled back as she turned her full attention to the man.

"By the way, I wonder how much does a person like you know about recessive genes and mutations? Not much I'd wager. There's so much physical resemblance between you and your daughter. Yet just because she's not all that powerful you refuse to accept that she's your flesh and blood?"

"With our linage-"

"Linage, linage, linage. You repeat that word like if you say it enough times you'll actually be related to somebody important or the tall tales your parents told you of your ancestry will come true. You are nothing and you have come from nothing. Just like everyone else,"

Elise turned back to the woman who was still staring at Elise in shock, unable to process what had happened. That lack of adaptability would get her killed if she was ever attacked.

"As for you. You were willing to cast aside your own child for a chance at marital happiness with this guy. This guy! Why? He's not worth it. In fact, neither of you are worth it. Both of you disgust me. You know I have noticed Willow constantly obsesses about failure, she does it quite a lot. Now that I've met you I know why; you've done nothing but fail her. It's all she's ever witnessed,"

The man spat at Elise. A mix of blood and saliva splattered against her face.

"You think you can humiliate me and my wife and get away with it? I am going to destroy you for this you know. You care so much for that girl you claim is my daughter? Well, I am going to destroy you both. I will tear down this shop. I will touch everything you care about. I will come back with a focus superior to anything you could have crafted and use it to tear you apart!"

Elise smiled her terrible smile. A focus better than anything she could craft? That would be quite the gift. But she knew better, it'd be a shoddy piece of firewood with channels so sloppy you could tell where the focus smith stopped burning channels to take breaks.

"I look forward to it. Now get the hell out of my shop,"

The pair didn't wait, they retreated out the door. The faint sounds of their voices talking about finding nearby healers faded into the noise of the city around them. In the silence left in their absence, a gentle creaking could be heard from the top step of the stairs as the person standing on it shifted their weight. Blood stained the counter and a small pool had gathered on the floor in front of it. As the anger cooled Elise studied the scene left behind.

"I should not have done that,"