As a child of Malek, one of the most remote and irrelevant towns in the Northern Var, she should have been more impressed with the capital. Natalia Astria - Talia, to those she knew - might have oohed and aahed appreciatively at the tall metallic towers erected in the Inner City her carriage was headed towards. Instead, she wrinkled her nose in disapproval at finding that what she’d read of as the smell of piss in the streets was only too accurate. Leyres wasn’t only notorious as the largest capital on the entire continent, it was also known as the only place not yet equipped with modern plumbing.

She sighed, hoping that the inner city would be a little less archaic.

Despite knowing of the stench, she’d had to come here. Opportunities like this didn’t knock twice. Still, her departure had felt wrong; it was so sudden, for one. A delegation had come at dawn to the house of Astria and told her parents that the King and his mages had selected Talia to be Blessed by the court. A thesis she’d submitted in her course of studies had made her qualify, they’d said.

Before she knew what was happening, her bag had been packed and bundled up at the back of their carriage. She was to leave within the hour.

“But, wait,” said she, suddenly pulled from her confused haze. “I can’t go yet.”

Everyone stared at her, waiting for the reason why such an event ought to be delayed, according to her. “I need to say goodbye to Xandrie.”

Her sister had left that morning after finishing her chores; she wasn’t likely to be seen again before dark, if she could help it.

Alexandria, her sister, had been born without the ability to summon the elements to her and without the gift of spelling herbs, either. She had no magics of any kind, unlike the rest of their esteemed family, and so her role within the household was that of a maid, or perhaps a slave, as Talia knew she wasn’t paid. It wasn’t fair, and although their parents didn’t seem to realize it, the way they treated her had destroyed their family. How could she love her mother’s kiss, knowing that if she hadn’t been gifted, she would be sweeping floors and cleaning toilets, all the while being insulted?

As expected, her mother laughed and her father frowned at her. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

She sighed, knowing that she wasn’t about to win this argument. Like any other argument her family ever had concerning Xandrie. This time, she almost understood them. The Blessings were too important an occasion to really consider any delay.

Close to a hundred years ago, their father’s own father had been called to be Blessed. The mages of Leyres named him the “Great Healer of the West,” and that was why, these days, the Astria were renowned as the best mages of the surrounding lands. She had to go, and now, if that was what the King of the Var had decreed.

Rather than attempting to plead her case, as she knew she wouldn’t win, Talia turned to their elder sister and asked, “You will tell her I’ll miss her.” Aleria inclined her head in agreement.

Aleria was a great beauty, but a cold one. Her long golden hair, endless lashes and perfect skin had her labeled as ‘the pretty one,’ and Talia had grown to understand exactly what that meant. She was the Astria no one paid any mind to when she had anything to say; people smiled and nodded, quite content to simply look at her, rather than listening to anything coming out of her shapely mouth.

“And I’ll miss you too, sister,” she added, sad that surprise flashed in the beauty’s emerald eyes. “I’ll bring you both something from the capital, I promise. Nothing expensive, mind. I don’t have much saved.”

Talia’s jaw nearly hit the floor when Aleria unlocked the purse tied to the brown leather accessory belt at her hip and removed a few coins from it. Golden coins, too.

They both got paid equally for their work at home, but Talia easily went through the bulk of her money every week, struggling to save so much as a copper mark. There were hungry children to feed in the streets, and cold beggars to dress, too. Never had she come across anyone needing her help without feeling the need to stop and see how she could be of assistance. She just couldn’t help it.

Aleria was much better in that regard. She needn’t spend money on clothes, for their parents showered her with tons of gowns, eager to show off the perfect specimen of feminine allure they’d created. She needn’t spend money on books, for there were plenty at home. So, her purse was always full.

Still, Talia never knew her to be so generous as to so carelessly give away ten golden marks - enough money to feed a farmer for a whole year.

“What will you have me buy you with that?” she asked, reasoning that surely, her sister meant to send her on an errand.

Aleria shrugged. “Please yourself. You deserve it.”

Such words of praise rarely passed those lips. Talia knew to cherish them. “I’ll see you all soon, then,” she’d said, two days ago.

It still felt wrong, somehow. Something bothered her, a voice whispering in a corner of her mind that she should have bid farewell to her other sister, as well.

Xandrie was going to have a miserable few months while she was away. Aleria was silent, and their parents, bitter, towards their magicless middle daughter. Talia had heard them say it out loud, right in front of Xandrie: she shamed them, tarnishing their good name.

“Here we are, miss. The Inner City of Leyres.”

Thick and high silver doors opened slowly, as if in great pain, and the moment the carriage passed through the gates, the pungent odor she’d endured for the last hour disappeared; kept away by strong spells.

Talia forgot all her worries as she felt it. Pure, undiluted, almost palpable magic, resonating right under her skin. Never had she encountered quite so much energy all around her, not even when her entire family had been performing a spell in cohort.

Down to her bones, she knew she was exactly where she ought to be today.

Xandrie would be alright; she was two years her elder, and when things were hard at home, she broke out of Malek easily enough. No doubt in a few weeks, when she returned home, nothing would have changed at all.

So she told herself, ignoring the feeling at the pit of her stomach. Meanwhile, miles from Leyres, Guards were approaching Xandrie with an array of weapons, attempting to kill her for consorting with demons.

It was good that Talia hadn’t listened to her instincts and stayed home, or her sister may never have become Queen of one of the two Dragon Kingdoms.