4 An Unwelcomed Fate

Trying her best to ignore the priest's ever-watching eyes, Anura dashed back with Lily to the refuge of the mana plants. She was trembling as she held Lily's hand, drawing her away. But in contrast to Anura's fear, Lily's green eyes glowered at Zekiel even as they turned a corner. Lily's discourtesy towards the priest made Anura anxious. Shouldn't there be consequences for how rude she's being?

Finally, when the priest was a safe distance away, Anura's usually soft expression changed from fear to an infuriated scowl.

"Why does he always have to ruin my fun!" Anura frowns, glancing at Lily.

Nodding her head furiously in agreement, Lily replied, "I can't believe he managed to forget about me, I see him whenever my father delivers tea to him!"

Suddenly, Anura's stomach started to growl in hunger. Anura had barely touched any of the food in the banquet, and the effects were showing.

"Why didn't you eat at the banquet?" Lily asked, raising her brow. Anura had all that food available, yet she didn't take a bite. If it was Lily, she would have inhaled so much food that there'd be none left for even the king!

Anura groaned. "Other people's attitudes make me lose my appetite."

Lily snickered. "Well, in that case, want to come to the kitchen with me?"

"Yes!" Anura blurts out. She was dying to eat something, even if it was that flavorless slime mana gelatin that nobles always ate. Anura had a mostly savory tongue, so as they walked back her mind filled with different foods such as lobsters… and lobster meat burgers! Well, not much of a variety since all she thought about were lobsters.

Their pace slowed as they reached the Valeska tree. There, Anura walked towards her mom, who was meditating on a bench.

"Mommy, can I go to the kitchen with Lily?" Anura asked, poking her mom. "Please?"

Anura's mother opened her eyes and stood up. She thought for a second, looking between Anura and Lily.

The moon was shining high in the sky, and it made Silvia worry. Anura would have usually been asleep by now, and this banquet was messing up her sleep schedule. Anura was just a 6-year-old girl, so her mother had to refuse.

Lady Silvia sighed, "It's nearly midnight, we have to go back home now."

Taking Anura's hand, Silvia brushes the dirt from Anura's dress and dusts her off. If other nobles saw her this dirty, they'd talk bad about the Somas.

Turning towards Walter, she said, "Thanks for letting us visit Walter!"

Lily gave Anura a sad smile and waved goodbye. "Aw, that's a shame. Maybe next time Anura," Lily said, in which Anura replied with a nod.

Anura's stomach grumbled again, and she looked up to her mom sadly. With a sigh, Anura's mother started walking Anura back to the banquet.

"You can grab some food there when we go and find your Father, he's probably getting drunk with your Uncle again."

Eventually, they reached the banquet hall. Anura grabbed some bread rolls off the buffet table while her mother searched for her father and the rest of the Soma House. She was disappointed they didn't have the lobster burgers, maybe it was too much of a messy meal. Of course, at a banquet as big as this one, nobles wouldn't bother with food and much instead look their best. Sighing, Anura accepted that all they had were rolls.

Munching on the rolls, Anura turned and found herself face to face with a tapestry. It was a grand work of art, showing various acts of magic with a cloudy crystal ball in the middle of the tapestry.

Staring at it, Anura was mesmerized as she slowly worked her way through 3 rolls.

"Anura, we're going home now!" her mother called.

Anura snapped out of her daze, and she ran back towards her mother. As she did so, she dropped some rolls and stared at the ever falling bread saddened. Anura's mother found the rest of the House of Soma that came to the banquet and was continuously chatting, unaware of her clumsy daughter.

Following her family, Anura walked outside the banquet hall and reached the landing lot, where all the noble families parked their various forms of transportation. In the corner of the lot, lay an airship about the size of a small cottage.

This was one of the House of Soma's many airships, but this one was especially grandiose. It was trimmed with gold and fitted with a very luxurious interior. The House of Soma used this particular airship as transportation to fancy parties and diplomatic meetups.

Looking around the lot, Anura noticed that all but one other noble house had left. The House of Zvonimir was on the right, linking their pristine carriages to white oxen. The oxen were a unique type of oxen called puremight oxen.

The oxen could use pure mana to increase their bodies' strength and heal faster, much like the House of Zvonimir. Healing and Mana Enhancements were the specialties of the Zvonimirs, and they used pure mana to do it.

Anura thought the House of Zvonimir was strange though, as they had a questionable obsession with pure mana, to the point where they disliked all other types of "tainted" mana. Nevertheless, they still worked for the kingdom, so they stayed in a noble house despite their zealous behavior.

Turning back towards the ship, Anura walked up the boarding ramp that had descended from the grounded airship.

Inside, Anura's father and other members of the Soma House were starting up the wind funnels. Airships couldn't be used by just anyone, as they required an immense source of wind energy, but the Somas could. As their house focused on wind. All the airships the Somas traveled on are powered by the Somas themselves.

The airships were also handy as the Somas lived high up in the mountains. The only other path to the residence was a treacherous mountain path. Hence the Somas usually descended and ascended on airships.

There were some airships that the Somas owned, which didn't need a Soma to actively run it. But those relied on magical imprints, and imprints required a permanent sacrifice in power, so they were guarded carefully.

As the airship rose up, Anura tried her best to not look at her family members powering the airship. She always felt ashamed about her unhelpfulness. Despite her family's kindness to her, Anura felt that everyone, except her mother, looked down upon her.

After some time, Anura decided to go out onto the balcony of the airship. She stared at the cloudless skies, especially at the moon, which cast shadows over the dock.

Anura stayed on the balcony, looking at the land below her as the ship flew past.

Taking a deep breath, Anura tried to draw the mana in the surroundings into her own body. In the past, multiple teachers hired by the Somas had tried to help her use magic, yet all their attempts proved futile.

Mana existed everywhere, and you had to draw it into your own body to use it. Yet Anura couldn't. Anura could feel the mana, yet whenever she tried to draw it into her, the mana rejected her.

The mana ran away like how everyone else did once they learned about her magical plights.

To make things worse, when her family tried to forcibly inject her with magic to activate her magic, they discovered that her mana channels were utterly non-existent. There was literally no place Anura could store mana in her body.

Every single human being had a unique mana channel that grew based on their bloodline. Mana channels take a specific form which allows Humans to each use their unique type of magic. The Mana channels change the drawn in mana and allows the human to expel the changed mana to affect the world around them and subsequently use magic.

Some people have mana channels that don't change the mana, but they still have to suck in the pure mana to expel and use it.

No one knows how bloodlines exactly formed in the first place, people know the power they bring. Bloodlines can merge to bring powerful mutations, or they can merge and bring disastrous results.

As Anura continued her useless attempts at pulling mana, the airship neared a mountain.

The Mountain was Mount. Ephesus, a mountain with a peak that reached the clouds. Right below the clouds on the flattened peak though, sat the House of Soma's manor. Surrounding the manor, were multiple buildings. The buildings were Soma's various facilities and servant housing.

With the airship nearing the manor, Anura went back inside the ship quarters to prepare for the landing.

As Anura's father stopped the air funnels, Anura heard a loud crack.

Then the screaming began. Rushing over to the windows of the airship, Anura saw what caused the noise. The Manor of Soma was collapsing, and the ground the manor was built on was cracking. An earthquake was occurring.

"GODDAMMIT!" yelled Anura's father.

Everyone on the airship ran out to the balcony to assess the situation.

Suddenly, it started to rain. The sky was clear just a few moments ago, and now the area near the mountain was filled with thunder clouds. The glistening rain droplets fell from the skies gently onto the passengers.

Anura's father created an air swirl with a great heave that gently brought the airship down on the ruins of the crumbled residence.

Walking down, Anura noticed some debris near her. What stuck out the most, however, were two circular pieces of metal. As she looked closely, she realized that the metals both had imprints.

Furthermore, the imprints were familiar, Anura had seen her father make these herself. The two pieces of metal were what powered one of the mini airships the servants used. They were supposed to be sitting in a funnel, which spun after the imprints were activated.

Looking around, Anura noticed that the wreckage looked suspiciously like one of the mini airships. Why would one of these airships be outside instead of inside the hanger? Servants were prohibited from heading down the mountain this late.

Looking up into the sky, Anura let the raindrops fall onto her face. To her surprise, instead of the tiny drops she was expecting, the rain grew more robust, and large globs of water began forming and falling.

"Well, well, well, the last of the Somas has finally arrived, it seems!"

Looking down, Anura's eyes widened in surprise. Standing before her and her family, was Lady Diana of the House of Gwyneria. Behind Diana were various members of Gwyneria and, most surprisingly, the noble House Fraus. The House of Fraus, which controlled dirt, and the earthy ground.

"What is the meaning of this?" Anura's mother yelled, curling her hands up into fists. None of the Somas currently had their weapons as they had just returned from the banquet, and they couldn't fight.

The opposing side was different; they all held their selective weapons, ready to attack at a moment's notice.

"Meaning?" Lady Diana chuckled, her eyes burning with enlightenment. "We should've destroyed your pathetic family of peasants long ago. Who knew that we would find evidence of your plans to rebel against the king."

Anura, shocked, staggered back. Why would the Somas rebel? There has to be a mistake! She's lying!

With a wave of her hand, Diana suddenly condensed a ball of water in front of her. With a flick of her finger, the ball shot forward towards the head of Anura's mother. Anura's mother, Silvia, quickly dodged it. Silvia could use magic to accelerate herself, and she used it to its maximum potential.

Silvia quickly dashed forward towards Diana, aiming to punch her in the face, but alas, there was a slight problem. It was raining, and with rain, came water. A ball of water enveloped Silva's head, and she collapsed, squirming from the lack of air.

She was suffocating.

"MOTHER!" Anura cried as she ran forward.

Suddenly the ball of water dissolved, and the wind started blowing away the raindrops.

Raising his hand up, Anura's father started to attack, and so did everyone else.

Members of the House of Fraus stomped, and the earth started to rumble.

Anura stumbled as she tried her best to get away from the battlefield.

"Oh, trying to run, are you?" Lady Diana suddenly turned her attacks towards Anura. "You will never match up to my daughter, I have no idea what that fool Zekiel sees in you. You'll pay for even appearing in the presence of the house of Gwyneria!"

Diana smiled devilishly, raising her dominant hand as the rain surrounding Anura turned into sharp icicles. Diana laughed, "Oh, you pathetic thing." The icicles spun at a massive speed right above Anura's head. Preparing to release the icicles that would soon pierce through Anura's body, Diana slowly lowered her hand.

Anura's dad suddenly sent a gust of wind towards Anura, surrounding her and creating a shield. The wind enveloped her, forming a spherical shape, and Anura started to float away. Through the gusts of wind, Anura saw the fight clearly.

The Somas were losing. She watched as one by one, her family members were shot down. Their screams and cries rang in her ears.

"STOP!" Anura cried frantically, smashing her arms into the wind wall that protected her. "PLEASE STOP!" she yelled, tears pouring down her small cheeks. But... it was too late.

A blade pierced through Anura's father, and he collapsed. Anura's mother wasn't doing any better.

With her last breath, Anura's mother mouthed something. It wasn't audible, and Anura couldn't hear it. Staring at her parents, Anura started to cry. Her parents glanced back at her, tears staining their kind faces. She heard one last scream before the earth sunk, taking her mother down. Then Anura's mother was constricted and crushed to death.

Anura's father then cried outreaching his hand towards Anura, and the wind ball, carrying Anura zoomed off into the distance.

The speed was too much for Anura, making her head spin and ears bleed. Her vision blurred and darkened, then she fainted.

Nobody would have thought that the weak little girl would change to then be, the enthroned.