One again, Aiya Yue had to turn her back on her people. The last time she fought with them, her mother had berated her for hours. Her father, Thune, just allowed this to happen, not saying a word either way. He only seemed to come to life in battle and in front of a crowd. He had been that way ever since her older sister had passed away. Scanning the guild members' faces, they were abandoning, she did not see any hope in their eyes. Her sweeping gaze caught on a young man who looked her age. He was dressed in horrid looking armor, but he seemed to have such hope as he looked at her and the rest of the royals. That hope was quickly dashed as they continued their guarded walk back to the gates. Watching another lose faith in their king and queen caused a twinge in her heart.

Her parents, Her sole guard, and the head of the royal assassin squad continued back into the walls. They were all that was needed to take care of the explosive throwing monsters. The rest would be left to the guild, regardless of what their survival rate would be.

As her mother would say, "Leave the small work to the riff-raff." She did not care about how many deaths their inaction was causing. Just like the Golems summoned by her mother, Aiya knew she was raised by a being with rocks in place of a heart. As they stepped through the portal and made their way back to the castle, the public actually cheered. Their minds addled by the blood magic her mother cast no doubt.

Aiya felt the magic work its claws toward her mind. Luckily she was able to beat back the mental invasion with her own mana. Being a prodigy had its benefits, but even so, she still had gaps in her memory, and every time she spoke up to her parents, her mom would spend hours "Correcting the problem" with a burst of controlling mana.

After years of this, she had learned to just go along with what her parents wanted. Her brother Logan did not seem to care. He did receive just as much glory and love from the people as her father. While he fought on the front lines and captured spirits, she was in her workshop crafting runes onto equipment.

In that aspect, she was a genius. Before she even went through the carving, she could see runes dancing through the air. As a young teenage girl, she thought she was going crazy. Bringing the issue to her parents, they were overjoyed. Apparently, they had hoped exposure to a mixture of Red and Blue mana would initiate this ability in her. While other children were out playing and enjoying life, she was forced to meditate in the cathedrals.

When she finally turned sixteen, she was afflicted with the same curse as everyone else, and she received the sockets allowing gemstones to connect to her internal mana sources. Right away, her parents also put ahead orb into place. The pain was immense. Her muscles swelled and threatened to rip the skin. This was partly why her parents were desperate to have her gain the ability to become an enchantress. Those who had unbalanced stats were fine until those stats reached a hundred points. Each category had a different blow-back and could only be corrected with their other stats attaining a value of fifty.

Lost in her thoughts, Aiya continued forward without looking and tripped on a playing child. Her teacher, guard, and friend Longwei gently grasped her arm to prevent her from falling onto her face. Nodding her thanks to her protector, she smiled at the child and motioned for them to step over to the side. Realizing her parents have stopped their march forward caused ice to form in her stomach.

"What if you caused the princess to fall, and she injured herself. You stupid wretch. Grab that boy." Her mother shrieked while releasing a pulse of purple mana into the crowd. They parted from the hiding child. The masses went so far as to applaud the action. Hollow eyes and smiling faces void of any negative thought or emotion saturated the area.

Walter Plutus, the head of the Pertyon house, zapped over to the child's place and picked them up by the neck. Small worm sized bolts ran down the short man's arm into his target, eliciting the young boy's squeals of discomfort.

Aiya wanted to do something, anything, but she knew what would happen if she spoke up. An extra limb broken on the offender for every word she would say in protest. She forced herself to turn her attention and heart away from the scene.

Nothing was happening. All would be well. Aiya just needed to not think about- A sicking snap exploded from her side, interrupting her attempt to distract herself, followed by a child's agonizing screams.

Like kindling, the arm of the adolescent offender was snapped. As the poor boy wailed, he was handed back to his grateful mother, who smiled and even thanked Walter.

Aiya felt sick. Her gaffe caused this scene. No. She looked at the passionately encouraging crowd, then to her mother. This was not her fault.

The cheering of the large gathering crowd made it worse. If the people did not stand for this, because of the magic shrouding their minds, then this would not be possible.

Walter moved to strike the child's mother for the final dose of punishment when everyone in a twenty-meter area began to bend. As if their weight doubled, they struggled to stand. Longwei had grabbed Walter's arm, and his dull grey eyes burned fiercely into him.

The tall black-armored man whispered something into the ear of the short golden clad man that caused his face to turn sheet-white. Continuing their march forward, releasing the area's gravitational increase, her guard even shot a stare as sharp as daggers at the queen. Of all of the people present, Longwei had a level that was rumored to be the highest.

His class of Warp Paladin was a testament to that. Using a mastery of Black mana unparalleled in the kingdom, each of his strikes pulled everything around them. He fought barehanded, but that was no impediment. Aiya had seen him personally crush monsters from a considerable distance by just closing his hand. While his full power was a mystery to her, and he was loyal to the king and queen, he witnessed he made it known if he did not like something. She always wondered why he followed those weaker than him, but she was not in a place to question his principles.

The only other that came close to his strength and age was the legendary Archer Fredricka, the kingdom's Imperial archer, and the Akhult Noble house head. Every Archer employed by the kingdom was trained by her personally, and they were exceptionally talented. Her and Longwei had a rumored level greater than seventy-five.

She knew her father and mother were leveled closer to fifty, but even with her gifted rune sight, her mana concentration was purple, limiting her ability to see others' levels and stats.

They made their way back up to the castle without incident. Aiya thanked the gods for that. Walter left to go tend to their house's matters as they reached the gate leading to the courtyard.

A space as ample as the market place stretched out before the castle itself. The plateau it rested on higher even than the eight cathedrals set into the mountain.

Aiya hated living in such extravagance while orphans were residing outside of the walls. She only found that out while spying on conversations that Walter had with another noble. He spoke of them with such disdain. Aiya hated him with all of her being.

Her parents walked her to her workshop. Robotically her father kissed her on her head. His expression, neutral now that they were out of the eyes of the crowds.

"The crows need new pendants. With last month's festival, they have five members that are dealing with increased blood pressure. One of the five is practically catatonic," Her father spoke softly. All majesty was gone from his voice, and although he vocalized in monotone, she knew it was an order. As he turned to leave, Aiya noticed the glint at the back of his head as his hard parted slightly, but her mind was foggy when she tried to remember what it was.

Her mother had taken Longwei to the side and was berating him about something or other. With a wave, she disappeared.

Now, away from her parents' eyes, she put her head against the wooden door to her workshop. The rough wood hurt, but she pressed hard against it anyway. She would not allow herself to cry.

The heavy footsteps of her guard gave away his attempt at an undisruptive approach. For a moment, she thought the old man might attempt to comfort her, as he did when she was a child. Her hopes were of no use.

When he reached her, he simply turned and surveyed the area. Always on alert for assassins and those who would do her harm. As if the dwindling populous of the kingdom weren't obedient cattle. Try as she might, she could not remember why she thought the citizens were dwindling.

"How old do you think that boy was." Aiya turned and leaned against the door, refusing to take the bite out of her question. This man had power, real power to evoke change, and he did nothing. Her relaxed posture was a direct contradiction to the rigid stance of Longwei.

"You should not worry about things that do not concern you." His face slate, and his voice rough.

"Yet it concerned you when Walter was going to hit the mother" Aiya struggled to keep her voice level as she walked to stand in front of the man. "How is it that you can show kindness there, yet you allowed him to break the child's arm. You know he will likely never be able to set it correctly. The boy will now basically be a cripple." She punctuated her sentence with a Purple mana sufficed punch into his armor. Despite her small frame, the blow pushed him back a fraction of an inch. The impact she made resounded down the stone hallways.

Looking down into her eyes, Aiya was surprised by the pain that flashed into his gaze.

"The boy had transgressed. He will heal from his injury. I was not permitted to interfere. The woman did nothing. So I put a stop to that man." He spat the word man as if applying it was an insult to the term. After answering her, he then went back to scanning their surroundings.

Aiya balled her fists in frustration. Purple mana flowed effortlessly from the environment, expanding her muscles. The air was rich with the resource due to her mother's blood magic. She calmed down and released her pull. If she took too much, mother would be alerted, and she did not want another "Correction session."

"One day, I will be queen, and things will be different," Aiya spoke to herself more than Longwei.

Looking at the man as always, she noted their similar features. He looked like her more than her own father, mother, and him being the only two full-blooded people from a distant land.

In his rumbling voice, he responded, "You will have to gain more power than your brother then. Now, please get to the order for my crows. Your father was not kidding when he said one of them was in danger," with that he clamped his mouth shut.

Aiya huffed in frustration. Longwei was the leader of the Royal guard called the black crows. They were hired out to nobles and frequently accompanied them out on missions to dungeons. Once again, she would be stuck making trinkets to deal with the downside of being a color puritan. Flinging open the door to her workshop, she was hit with her personal enchantress alcove's dusty smell. The wonderful familiar scent gave her comfort the likes that she never found anywhere else.

Flipping her hammer off her back, she carefully set it down, the weight had cracked the stone floor in the past, and she didn't want a grey guard poking around her stuff while doing repairs.

Her mother controlled minds and gave simple sentience to mounds of rock, her father and brother solely enhanced their muscles. Aiya had different abilities. She still could perform similar feats to the men in her family; in fact, she was allowed to fight in the coliseum once a week. Her strength enhanced muscles just as powerful as her brothers, but she could take things further. With her gifted sight of runes, she could manipulate the mana through her, into a tool, and then burn the rune into equipment.

"I am already stronger than my brother. He just has more battle experience!" She said as she slammed the door closed. "I will catch up soon enough." She continued to Longwei through the door. Unsure if he heard, but knowing he was unlikely to respond, she turned and sat at her desk.

The Large rectangular room was sparsely decorated. The pendants and jewelry stacked messily on one side of the desk. The woman's enchantment wand lay on the center. The small window set into where the stone wall met the ceiling made the room feel like a prison, but she knew it was only set up that way because distractions could be deadly while she was working. High concentrations of mana flowing into metal could be disastrous.

Thinking of disasters, she looked at her tool. Organic material wrapped in onyx tipped with ruby. Hairline cracks were already forming in this wand from overuse. Her secondary class could not do anything with tools. She would have to visit the small artificer shop that catered to her needs. While she could work with armor and weapons, only an artificer could create the tools and items with their comparable gift. Two halves to a coin they were. Unfortunately, that shop usually reeked of animal parts and the man's unwashed body. Aiya's nose crinkled at the thought of another visit there.

Pushing the memory of nose burning smells aside, she got to work. Pulling the mana from the air was trivial at this point. Her Red, Blue, and Purple body gemstones supplemented her Purple mind orb in the process. The hard part after she pushed the mana into her tool. She then had to physically trace the rune from the air after catching it. Holding a pendant in her left hand, she moved and caught the rune with her tool. Pressing it lightly against the metal, she then traced it as the ruby on her wand burned it into place. Armor made a person more durable and "increased" their stats, but the only real way to stave off the centurion curse, other than using your points, was an enchanted item. Aiya held the successfully crafted item up as her limited inspect activated.

Durability pendant. High-grade material. + 25 Durability.

The near priceless equipment was nothing to her. Continuing, she made four more replicas and cracked open her door to hand them to Longwei. With a whistle, he summoned a courier and sent the items to his compound. The sweaty young man was aided by yellow mana, but he must have been a lower noble, or even commoner. Aiya smiled at him. Returning the greeting, he rushed off quickly after collecting the items. Aiya returned to her shop and closed the door to the rest of the world.

As she sat at her desk and looked at her wand, her eyes drifted over to her war hammer. Tomorrow was the one day of the week looked forward to. Tomorrow she would be allowed to fight at the coliseum.