I stepped out into the heart of the human district. Yes, the magical quarters and the areas where ordinary folks lived were kept strictly separate.
Odinary—that’s the name of the town where I grew up. Nothing special about it. Everywhere you look, it’s all gray: the cobblestones, the squat little houses, the rooftops. A splash of color came from shop windows, vibrant signs, and the occasional flowerbed. Here and there, trees grew in large clay pots.
It was even pretty in its own way, especially in summer and spring. Still, there’s no comparing Odinary to the magical districts. Over there, everything looked like a painting in a museum: evergreen gardens, enchanted lanterns, white castles, bewitched bakeries, and coffee shops. Even so, I could never quite get used to the over-the-top grandeur of Ankene, the city of mages.
Popping out of a portal in the middle of a street was never a good idea in a human town. For starters, people don’t like mages, and they like it even less when one of their own suddenly develops a magical gift.
Fear mixed with envy has never done anyone any good. In the past, people like me were hunted down or sold to dark mages. I’m sure even now there’d be plenty of folks willing to trade me for a hefty sum.
Grabbing my suitcase, I marched determinedly down an alley lined with trendy shops. People shied away from me as if I had the plague, but it didn’t bother me anymore.
“I should get Grandma some sweets…” I thought, ducking into a small bakery.
As I browsed the display, I felt someone practically boring a hole into the back of my head with their stare.
I turned around and saw Lloyd Henrikson with his wife. Oh, confound it all!
My ex-fiancé.
I hadn’t expected to run into him like this, dressed in my old, worn-out dress, lugging a battered suitcase. But when had things ever gone my way?
Lloyd Henrikson, the son of a wealthy factory owner, was someone I’d known since my teenage years. The first boy who kissed me, my first and only man. There he stood, so close, yet he felt like a ghost from my past.
Looking at his sturdy frame, broad shoulders, blue eyes, and full lips—almost girlish in their softness—I felt a wave of relief that I hadn’t gotten pregnant. I couldn’t imagine what would’ve become of me if I had!
My magical gift awakened right before our wedding. People had been buzzing about our mismatched union for weeks.
Of course they did—a girl as poor as a church mouse, working as a waitress, living with her grandmother. My parents died ten years ago during an outbreak of red fever. What a cruel twist of fate! If it happened now, I could’ve healed them with ease.
Before the ceremony, I thought I couldn’t possibly be happier. That is, until sparks shot from my fingertips and shattered every dish in the café where I worked. Even then, I didn’t believe it. But when a representative from the academy showed up at our door, there was no denying it.
I don’t know what I was hoping for—true love, maybe? How naive I was!
Lloyd didn’t even come to tell me himself. He sent a servant with a letter, curt and sharp, stating we couldn’t marry and that I shouldn’t try to see him. Just like that.
Taking a poor girl as a wife was one thing, but marrying a witch—as people started calling me—was quite another.
I gave Lloyd and his wife a slow nod before turning away. I quickly bought some pastries and chocolate cookies, then stepped back onto the street. My heart pounded wildly in my chest. No, I didn’t love him anymore, but something stirred deep inside me. Resentment. Yes, that’s all it was!
The walk to the house I shared with my grandmother was a long one. We lived almost at the edge of town, near the border with the desert. Only the forbidden district was closer. Housing there was the cheapest. Why? Simple—few people wanted to live next to the desert monsters that occasionally breached the protective energy barrier and attacked.
Long ago, a powerful force emerged in the desert that surrounds our kingdom to the west and east, spawning countless monsters. Massive, predatory beasts, resistant to magic and incredibly hard to kill.
A war broke out, and eventually, the mages managed to push the predators back and erect a protective energy barrier. You can’t see it, but it’s there, drawing a tiny bit of energy from every mage in the land to maintain its integrity. You don’t even notice the drain, it’s so small.
Weaving through narrow streets, I was so lost in thought that I didn’t immediately hear someone calling my name.
“Flora! Flora! Wait up!”
Blast it, Lloyd! What kind of day was this?
I spun around to face him.
“What do you want?” I asked bluntly.
He stopped right in front of me.
“To talk.”
“About what?”
“About us.”
“Us?” I echoed, incredulous. “What ‘us’? There is no ‘us.’ From what I can see, you didn’t stay lonely for long,” I said, nodding at the wide wedding band on his left hand.
“That doesn’t matter, Flora! I want you just as much as I did before!” He stepped closer, grabbed me in his arms, and pressed his lips to mine.
Revulsion surged through me. I tried to push him away, but it didn’t work. So I struck out with the power boiling inside me. He staggered back but didn’t fly off or fall like my opponents did in combat magic classes. I raised my eyebrows in surprise.
Lloyd gave me a nasty grin.
“That won’t work, my dear!” He tugged at a cord around his neck and pulled out a pendant.
I recognized the rune from a book on protective charms and spells. So that’s how it was!
“You came prepared, huh? But trust me, if you come near me again, that little trinket won’t save you. I’ll knock your lights out without magic. Just try me!”
“We’ll see about that, sweetheart. If you’re worried about money, no problem—I can pay you.”
That was the last straw. I gathered my magical energy, traced a strike rune in the air, and aimed it at his gut. Lloyd flew back, crashing into a wall, and slumped to the cobblestones with a groan.
“Shove your money where the sun doesn’t shine!”
He spat blood and glared at me with venom.
“You’ll regret this, you cursed witch!”
“Oh, I already do, Lloyd! I regret ever being fool enough to love you, let alone sleep with you. That was the real mistake!”
“You think so? Didn’t seem like it when you were moaning under me!”
“Go to hell! You’re no better than the other idiots who think magic is evil. And you’re a coward! You didn’t even have the guts to tell me to my face that the wedding was off. I truly despise you. Stay away from me!”
With that, I turned and nearly ran home. My lips still burned, and a tight, hot knot twisted in my stomach. No, I hadn’t forgotten! Not entirely forgotten how good things once were. But the past belongs in the past.
A small house with tiny windows, a patched-up, crooked roof, but meticulously whitewashed—that was my home. Just two rooms and a kitchen. A garden with fruit trees and a vegetable patch where Grandma and I grew our food. There were times when, without that patch, we would’ve starved. So I knew the value of land, no matter how little we had.
As I approached the door and reached to open it, Grandma stepped out to meet me.
Eleanor Franklin—that’s her name. A tall, dignified woman, still beautiful despite the deep wrinkles on her face. She wore a white blouse and a long blue skirt, her gray hair tucked under a floral scarf.
Seeing me, she clapped her hands, her blue eyes shining with joy.
“Finally, you’re home! I was starting to think they’d worked you to death at that academy!” She smiled broadly and pulled me into a hug.
“Hi, Grandma! They didn’t, but I’m not staying long.”
She stepped back and looked at me.
“But you wrote that you’d be working at the magical clerk’s office all summer and could visit on weekends.”
“Yeah, but plans have changed.”
“How so? They didn’t expel you, did they?!” she asked, horrified.
By the way, Grandma was the only one who celebrated my gift awakening. She said it meant her granddaughter could finally escape this godforsaken town.
“No, of course not! Come on, let’s have some tea, and I’ll tell you everything.” I shook the bag of cookies and pastries.
Grandma set the table, and while we ate, I filled her in.
“Well, Flora, it all sounds a bit odd, but you’ll get to see real elves!”
I nearly snorted.
I decided not to mention that I’d already met one.
“They say their cities are so beautiful, you can’t tear your eyes away. And this is their capital! What an opportunity! I’m glad you agreed, my girl.”
“I saw Lloyd with his wife…” I blurted out, desperate to change the subject.
Grandma pursed her lips. She’d never liked Lloyd, thought he was lazy and stupid. Now, it was clear she’d been right.
“That pompous jackass? Not long ago, he showed up here at my house. Practically got down on his knees, begging for your address. But you know me—I kicked him out. Spineless worm!”
She slammed her fist on the table in anger, making the dishes jump.
“Good thing you didn’t tell him.”
We spent the rest of the day tending to the vegetable patch. Over dinner, I answered a barrage of questions. Grandma wanted to know everything, from the subjects we studied to what I did in my free time. Sure, I’d written to her about it all, but she preferred hearing it in person.
“Are there any handsome professors?” she finally asked.
“Oh, Grandma! Even if there are, they’d hardly glance at me.”
She huffed.
“And why not?! You’re a beauty, they could paint a portrait of you!”
“I don’t think so. Anyway, I’m not an aristocrat or some wealthy person who just happened to get a gift. To them, I’m just a girl in awful old dresses who had the audacity to gain a bit of magic.”
“Don’t talk nonsense, my dear! Only a fool would think about such things when they look at you!”
I didn’t want to argue, so I changed the subject. We chatted a bit more before heading to our rooms.
My bed, covered with a pink blanket embroidered with blue flowers, an old tall wardrobe, a small blue rug on the floor, and a worn desk and chair by the window—that’s all there was to my room.
I traced a rune in the air, and magical lights flickered on under the ceiling. Feeling exhausted, I sat on the bed.
Grandma always says I’m beautiful, but I don’t see it.
Tall, too skinny. No curves to speak of, no full chest or wide hips. The only things I thought were truly pretty were my eyes and my thick, long, chestnut hair.
Lloyd always said no one else had violet eyes like mine, framed by thick black lashes.
Clearly, that wasn’t enough.
So I had no intention of relying on my looks for anything.
Slipping out of my dress, I washed up and put on a nightgown. Grabbing a comb, I sat by the window, let down my braid, and started brushing my hair.
It always calmed me. From the window, I had a nice view of our little fruit orchard. The low fence around it let me see where the houses ended and the desert began in the distance.
The abandoned houses of the forbidden district, with their dark, gaping windows, spoiled the picture a bit. But if you ignored the monsters inhabiting the dunes, the endless sands looked like a dark, stormy sea—one I’d sadly never seen in person.
As the sun set, a chill crept in from the desert, making the house cold.
I was about to get up when I noticed a shadow near the gate. At first, I thought I was imagining things. Maybe it was just a tree?
Neighbors didn’t walk the streets at this hour; everyone feared attacks from desert creatures, which often struck at dusk.
I looked closer. No, it was definitely a person—looked like a man.
For a while, he just stood there, glancing around, then started rummaging in his pockets.
Finally, he pulled something out and waved his free hand, making the object glow. Small, more like a self-writing pen or a thin stick. Though the light was dim, it was enough to reveal a mask on the stranger’s face. I clapped a hand over my mouth and ducked down so I couldn’t be seen from the window.
What in the world?
I peeked out cautiously and saw that the man—a mage, I was sure of it now—was tracing runes with the stick. From this distance, it was hard to make out what kind.
Should I go out and try to scare him off?
Yeah, right! What if he’s a criminal? He could kill me, and that’d be the end of it.
No, better to report it to the Magical Oversight Service tomorrow.
“And what will you tell them?” I asked myself. “That you saw a shadowy figure near your garden? Very convincing!”
For a few seconds, a runic inscription flared in the air before fading, and with it, the man disappeared.
I waited a few more minutes, then decided to check the garden for any traces he might’ve left.
Throwing on a robe, I crept outside. It was scary, but I needed to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.
Reaching the spot where the mage had stood, I looked around. Nothing. Not even footprints in the dusty path. I closed my eyes and tried to sense a magical trace. We’d been taught how; it’s not hard—your inner magic naturally reaches for foreign energy. Nothing. I felt no magic at all. Maybe I wasn’t trying hard enough? I tried again. Same result. After the tenth attempt, I gave up.
If I couldn’t sense anything, what could I even tell the Oversight guards?
This was ridiculous! I saw him with my own eyes. After standing there a bit longer, I returned to my room. I’d check again in the morning.
But even when the sun lit up everything around, I found nothing. No magic, no footprints.
Of course, the guards have more experience than I do. Maybe they’d find something. I didn’t want to be a victim of some creep again.
So, after breakfast, I headed to the checkpoint between the magical and non-magical parts of town, where the Magical Oversight Service was located.
Half an hour later, I was there. The five-story building with columns and magical statues at the entrance stood out mostly for its contrast. Amid the low, gray shacks, it looked like a palace.
I took a step toward the doors, and the two statues instantly blocked my path.
Carved from white marble, they depicted warriors with swords. Those very swords were now pointed almost at my face.
“Non-mages are forbidden entry by law!” their voices boomed from both sides.
“Well, I’m a mage, so step aside and let me through!” I snapped.
“Touch the sword!” said the one on the right.
“Why would I do that?” I asked.
“Verification. Do as I say, or leave.”
Mentally, I’d already torn this place to pieces, but I touched the sword.
It glowed a bright green.
The warriors exchanged a glance, lowered their weapons, and returned to their pedestals.
“You may pass, human-mage.”
I just snorted at the label and headed for the doors.
Inside, the decor was no less grandiose than the exterior.
Leather armchairs and sofas, plush carpets, enormous magical chandeliers. Behind a massive desk to the right sat a duty guard. He looked about two hundred years old, like a mummy—no hair on his head, no spark of life in his eyes.
Glancing at me, the mage grimaced, coughed, and finally asked in a raspy voice:
“What do you want?”
So that’s how it is? No “Good morning, miss,” or “How can I help, mage?” I clenched my teeth.
“I need to report an incident near my home.”
The man gave me an unpleasant smirk.
“What kind of incident? Brewed a love potion and came to turn yourself in?”
“What nonsense are you spouting?” I exploded. “I saw a mage near my house last night. He traced runes and then vanished!”
“And I saw the queen naked!” the guard cackled.
I felt magic itching at my fingertips and hissed:
“Listen, you miserable old goat! Either take me to your superior right now, or I’ll smash your blasted desk to pieces!”
“And you’ll get a hundred years for assaulting a guard. Get lost while you’re still in one piece.”
The mage waved his hand, and I was yanked toward the doors, which swung open on their own. I was flung onto the street with such force that I fell to my knees, scraping my hands.
The statues descended from their pedestals again. Their swords glowed red, and black wings sprouted behind them, blocking the entrance.
Great, just great! Getting to my feet, I brushed off my dress and bag. My stockings were hopelessly torn—no magic could save them! There was a hole in my skirt, though that could be mended.
I stormed off toward home, fuming.
I’m sure this hideous old man doesn’t talk to aristocratic mages like that! Of course not! Their families have held power for generations, and for them, magic isn’t a gift—it’s just a fact of life. They’re born with it. I wanted to turn back and hurl something heavy through the window of that dump.
But what would that change?
Back home, I spent the day helping Grandma. She was making jam for the winter. I’d offered countless times to do it with magic, but her response was always the same.
“What’s fine for you, my dear, feels strange to me. It’s not that I’m scared, but I don’t like your magic.”
I just sighed in reply.
That evening, we had a visitor. I was weeding the garden when I spotted a burly man in a blue military uniform embroidered with runes.
“Excuse me, are you Flora Killy?” he asked, studying me with blue eyes.
Not tall, but not shorter than me either. And what shoulders he had!
“Yes, that’s me. Can I help you?” I asked, not stopping my work.
“Yes, you visited the Magical Oversight Service this morning.” He paused, clearly choosing his words.
“Yeah, and they threw me out like some vagrant!” I snorted.
“I apologize for that. Sometimes Mr. Tsepes has… episodes of uncontrolled aggression, if you will.”
“Then why keep him there?”
“He’s a veteran, you see. Fought against the desert monsters. Anyway, I’m here because you reported seeing a mage near your home.”
So I was right—the mage at the desk was ancient. The war ended a hundred years ago.
“Yes, I saw one last night, around nine-thirty. He was standing by the gate, tracing runes with some kind of stick.”
“Can you show me where?”
I nodded, and we walked to the spot where I’d seen the man.
“I tried to sense a magical trace or find footprints, but there was nothing.”
The guard examined the area for a long time, first trying to sense magic himself. Then he pulled out a magometer and scanned everywhere with it.
“I’m sorry, Miss Flora Killy, but there’s nothing here. If you didn’t imagine it, then this was either a very powerful mage or just someone’s prank to scare you. Do you have any enemies?” he asked.
“Me? What enemies could I have? Do you see where I live? Who could I possibly bother?”
The man paused for a moment.
“True, but you were kidnapped once, and not everyone approves of you gaining a gift.”
“How do you know that?”
“Don’t be alarmed. It’s standard procedure. I checked your records.”
“Wonderful! If you don’t mind, I need to get going.”
“Wait, miss, take my card, just in case. It has the coordinates for my communication crystal.”
For a second, I thought the guard was eyeing my figure, lingering on my legs peeking out from under my tucked-up skirt. I tugged the fabric back into place and took the card.
After saying goodbye, the guard opened a portal and vanished into it.
Grandma rushed out of the house.
“And who was that handsome fellow?”
“Grandma, all you care about is handsome men! He’s a guard.”
“Guard or not, what shoulders he had! And I saw how he was looking at you!”
“Don’t be silly!”
“Who’s being silly? It’s high time you got married!”
“No, thanks. I’m fine as I am.”
Grandma threw up her hands.
“Listen to her! ‘Fine,’ she says. I’m not a mage—I won’t live two hundred years! I’ll die without ever seeing my great-grandkids. Oh, woe is me, woe!”
Here we go. This would drag on for a while! I grabbed my hoe and got back to work. Arguing was pointless.
No more fiancés for me. I’ve had enough!
I don’t know, maybe someday in the future things will change, but for now, men didn’t exactly repulse me—I just didn’t trust any of them.
The next two days flew by far too quickly. I wanted to stay longer with Grandma. After saying goodbye, I grabbed my suitcase and headed to the border between Odinary and Ankene, where I could open a portal.
It was still very early, and the town was asleep. Only a few bakers were kneading dough, and milkmen were delivering their goods to shops.
Reaching a large gray building, I opened a portal and, selecting the right coordinates on the map, transported myself to Frost Hollow Station.
My transitions weren’t exactly smooth yet, so when I arrived, I barely kept my balance and dropped my suitcase. Thankfully, my things didn’t spill out everywhere. Picking it up, I looked around.