Prologue
"Clarisse! Clarisse!" The shouting voice could barely be heard in the house over the thunder roaring outside. The lightning struck close as if Mother Nature herself was condemning me for the unforgivable sin I committed. How could a parent abandon her own child? I used to wonder that myself when I heard about other mages deserting their kin. If someone had told me that I would be one to do the same, I probably would have laughed in their face. Though here I am, drenched from the rain outside, walking through the dark hallways of my own home after doing just that.
"Clarisse! Where have you been?! The whole town has been searching for you for hours... You had me so worried." With the love of my life standing before me, I can barely look up at her. If I tell her the truth, I'll likely lose her forever. I would take any punishment the world sees fit for me, anything but losing her.
"Kaeli..." The drops of rain falling from my hair onto my face do little to hide the tears that seem to fall faster and faster. "Our baby..." I leaned into her arms, hugging her close as I prepared myself to say the words that would break my love's heart and soul. "She... She didn't make it. I'm sorry. I wasn't strong enough."
The thud the floor made as Kaeli dropped to the ground will forever haunt me. However, this was better than the alternative. Better than the truth. The child I delivered was not a mage at all, it was a beast. A beast that, for the sake of the world, needed to be put down.
I held onto Kaeli tightly as I recalled the past few hours. The moment I heard the crying start as my child took their first breath. The moment of joy that overwhelmed me at the thought that I brought a life into this world. The moment my happiness was shattered when I realized my child was not a mage. I panicked, using my magic to scroll through every medical record I could get access too online and absorb the information at superhuman speeds. Of course, the recent documents were useless, but I found something in the records from centuries ago. A medical file from what the world back then called a "male." The physical description seemed to match with the child I had carried for 9 months. I gave birth to a "male," something that had long died out thousands of generations ago.
Magic was bestowed upon the mages when these so-called males had died out. For them to be reborn now could only lead to disastrous consequences. Perhaps even a world without magic at all. I couldn't let society be brought down by something so small and meagre as an infant male. The moment I made my decision, the moment I knew this child had to die, I tried to do it myself. Those golden eyes that were clearly inherited from Kaeli stared up at me the entire time I held the knife poised above the chest of the infant beast. The beast continued to smile at me, as if to say, "you can't do it, not to me."
It was right. I couldn't do it, not on my own. To plunge a knife into the heart of any living creature was just not in my nature. Hopelessness caused me to stare out the window, praying for mercy and strength. The sunshine beamed down on a nearby forest as if beckoning me and guiding me to a solution. The forest was known as the Algar Woods, and many mages stayed clear of it due to the fact it was home to many feral tigers. It was like the universe was speaking to me, telling me that if I couldn't kill the beast then maybe I should let another creature do it for me.
Scooping the tiny being up in a blanket, I swaddled him with the skills I had learned and practised months beforehand. I made my way through the alleyways, avoiding everyone on the streets, determined to reach the forest before nightfall. I ran through each twist and turn of the town, ignoring the searing pain that my lungs were feeling. I had to do this for the sake of the world.
As I neared the forest, I slowed my pace to a steady walk. The hair raising on my neck alerted me to a set of glowing eyes following my every move. The eyes belonged to a body that was hidden in the dark of the forest, and though it watched me like a predator stalking its prey, it made no move to attack beyond a snarl when I crossed the threshold of the woods.
I gently laid the beast down on the ground. It had fallen asleep on the journey, and I was determined to not wake it. Though it must die, perhaps a swift death while sleeping peacefully would be a fair way to go. I could only hope the feral beasts would do away with the infant quickly. My goodbye was the only words the infant would hear before the inevitable death it would face.
As I left the forest and the beast behind, that is when the rain began to fall. As I got further away from the infant, the storm got worse and worse. Perhaps it was the world crying over the death of an innocent, perhaps it was just a regular storm. Either way, my sin had been committed. I was no longer fit to be a mother, and Kaeli would never again try for a child. If only we had known that the child I thought was dead, would actually survive and be the key to everything.
