[Content Warning: This chapter ends with a scene of attempted rape. It is important to the development of the MC, but I tried to keep it short and not go into details.]

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  “What’s going on with your hair?” Fin asked me one morning as we were washing up in a stream. I had stripped my top off and was in the process of rinsing my shoulder length hair out. We had no soap, but a rinse was better than the greasy tangle that my hair had been. We had not been able to cut our hair for a long time, so we both had longer hair than we had ever had before. Lil’s was longer, of course. But long hair looked nice on her. I doubted that was the case for me.

  I had thought about cutting it several times, but there were problems with that. We, as in the sves, were not allowed access to any weapons, especially sharp ones. Yes, I could find a cooking knife, but that was only when I was with a group of cooks helping to prepare a meal. Those were not kept sharp enough to cut hair, anyway. Also, no one really cared about the grooming habits of the sves, or even what we wore, for the most part. As long as we had some kind of covering, it didn’t matter if it had holes or was frayed. We were expected to repair our own clothes, or beg for some new ones from someone else.

  “What do you mean?” I asked Fin.

  “Well, it’s… it’s a different color. Sort of light purple.”

  “Huh?” I grabbed a bunch and pulled it around so I could get a better look at it. “It still looks blond to me.”

  “No, not there, near your scalp. It looks like the color changed only a little while ago.”

  “What, really?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Let me take a closer look.” I put my dripping wet head down, so he could get a better look. “Yep. I see it all over. All of the new hair growing out is a different color. But that part is still pretty short, about a fingernail’s length.”

  Why would my hair change color? Was it something I ate?

  I looked at Fin’s hair, but it didn’t look any different. Then I remembered. Mage mutations. We all knew that both Dad and Mom had mutations, though they still looked completely human. Dad was extra tall and extremely hairy, and Mom had some skin mutations, though she never showed them to us.

  “I really hope this isn’t it, but it might be a mutation,” I said.

  “Oh… Oh, that’s…” Fin said. “That’s not good, right

  “No, it’s not.” I lowered my voice, since we weren’t far from camp. “We can’t let them know we have any magic affinity. I don’t know what would happen, but if the stories we heard were even partially true, I’m sure things would get much worse for us. I don’t want them to separate us.”

  “So, what are you going to do?”

  “Well, I think I need a hat or something to cover up my hair.”

  More women covered their hair than men, but hats or other head coverings were fairly normal, especially since almost no one washed their hair often.

  I added, “Help me look for something when we get back. I’ll also talk to Lil.”

  It was actually Lil who brought me a square piece of cloth ter that evening. She found it while she was washing out some clothes and rags after dinner.

  I waited until it was windy and lightly raining the next day to put it on. That way it wouldn’t seem strange. I wrapped and tied it around my hair such that the only part peaking out was the bottom in the back. It would be a long time before my hair grew long enough to see the new color. I just had to keep it up and hope no one thought my scarf was too strange.

  Over the next few days, as we were walking up and down the narrow road through the mountains, I thought about magic a great deal.

  What even was magic?

  Dad had taught us a little about mana, which was what a magic user or mage uses up to produce a magical effect. I wasn’t sure what the difference was between a magic user and a mage. I thought I remembered Mom saying that a mage had earned a certificate or graduated from school or something.

  Each person had a limited amount of mana in their body. Once a person’s mana was gone the magic stopped. In fact, if a mage used up all of his mana completely, they would feel extremely weak and could even lose consciousness. Mana slowly came back, but I had no idea how fast that happened, or if it was different for each mage. Dad also said that mana could be stored in magicite stones. We noticed that when we held the stones in our hands, which changed color based on how much mana was stored.

  But I knew my null magic affinity was different. It almost felt like I had more mana when I nullified a magical effect, not less.

  But how much could I hold? What would happen if I had too much? Were there different types of mana, or only one? What were magical affinities, anyway?

  I had noticed some sparks between my fingers once after absorbing a lot of electrical shocks from Quack.

  Was that because I had been absorbing electrical mana, or just an electrical effect of his mana based on his affinity?

  I had far too many questions, and no way to answer them. But they still filled my thoughts as I walked with Fin and Lil. We couldn’t talk about these things either, in case someone near us knew enough of our nguage and overheard us.

  Speaking of those near us, we knew this was an invading army.

  But who are they? Where are they going? What are their goals? Do they want to conquer, ensve or destroy? I guess we will find out more once we reach their destination, whenever that happens.

  Part of me wanted that to be soon so we could finally rest. But another part of me was very scared of what would happen if we ended up caught in the middle of a war— never mind that we were stuck working for the enemy.

  Whatever happens, it won’t be good for us.

  That seemed more and more likely the farther we went. I could tell the soldiers around us were getting more tense with each day that passed.

  We should keep looking for a way for all of us to escape, hopefully before the fighting starts. Now that they trust us a little, we could probably run away and hide in the mountains, but we would have no pce to live. Is it better to be free and homeless or remain sves but have food and a few supplies?

  Whether we were free or sves, the risk of death was high, especially knowing about the invading army. Either way, the war was going to affect us.

  What is the best choice, when both are equally bad?

  I thought about our country, Landria. I knew we had a king but not much about him, other than he hated null magic, for some reason. I had heard he was pretty old. I didn't know if he had any children or heirs, but I assumed so. The kingdom was divided up among dukedoms, each with a duke and/or duchess. Our previous home near Hampston was in the Vandenwal dukedom. Landria’s armies were somehow divided up among the marches, which I think were simir to dukedoms.

  After two weeks of travel through the mountains we finally got a narrow view of a valley down the winding canyon we were in. We weren't close enough to see cities or towns yet, but I thought I could see a rge body of water in the far distance.

  After another day of walking, we stopped in a wider area. We were still in the foothills and couldn't see the valley from there. Quack made us set up tents as if we were going to stay a while. The soldiers helped too. They were nervous but also anxious to do something besides traveling.

  Like before, there were many different camps because of the number of soldiers. Luckily, we were supporting only one of those.

  We actually camped there for a few days, while the leaders were pnning and soldiers preparing for battle. Our jobs as sves were to support them, mainly food and cleaning, like we had been doing all along.

  On the third day we had to get up before dawn to prepare breakfast of cracked wheat. The soldiers seemed excited as they quickly ate, in spite of the poor food. They were assembled and marched away before we had the dishes cleaned up and put away.

  Quack had Fin and me hunt for firewood to keep busy. We were even given small axes to use and left on our own for a while. I thought again about escaping, but we couldn't leave Lil. Any escape pn had to include all of us.

  The soldiers came back that night extremely happy, cheering and patting each other on their backs. We served a te meal for everyone, but they all lingered around the campfires talking, singing and drinking— lots of drinking

  Eventually, I tried to make the three of us leave to go to bed. Quack was alright with Fin and Lil leaving but made me stay to help. My job was to tap kegs and to serve beer all evening. At this rate we were going to run out soon. Maybe they were no longer worried about that.

  As the partying wound down, many soldiers fell asleep on the ground, wherever they had in down or colpsed.

  Even Quack was drunk and fell asleep after a while, so I decided that was my signal to go to bed as well. Since it was so dark, I had to go slow and be careful and step over several rge lumps in the path on the way to my tent. As I rounded several taller tents, a hand reached out from the darkness and grabbed me by one arm.

  “Aoguni fi muki, zprbra!” he said. I could smell the horrible stench of beer on his breath. “Oqo keie sbang qil sbang gku iueuekidri? Ouni yski waki ate it ac eluobeoaki.” I wasn’t sure of everything he was saying, but caught a few of the words, like girl, where, going and tonight. Whatever he was thinking, he was very confused and drunk.

  I tried to pull away from him, but he only held on tighter. Fear gripped me also, so I used my free hand to shove him away from me. That worked for a second, as he staggered backward, almost falling into a tent.

  He grinned at me and said, “Sbang soni aoguni aiili moiioiue emueki et.” I was already turning to run away, when he grabbed me around my neck. His hand was rge enough to get a good grip, then he reached around with his other hand, grabbed at my shirt and ripped it down the middle, exposing my bare chest.

  I tried to yell or scream but his grip was too tight to allow much air. I was filing my arms at this point, facing the wrong direction to do much, when he pulled me closer to him and tried groping my chest, leaving some nasty scratches.

  Then he loosened his grip on my neck, “Oaiafr xena? Gku sbang um zprbra icau aisce?” he asked.

  “Aisce!” (Boy!) I finally gasped out. My neck was extremely painful, so I could barely be heard.

  He released my neck but quickly backhanded me, making me fall to the earth like a ragdoll. My ears were ringing and I could see stars dancing in my vision.

  But he wasn’t done.

  He reached down and picked me up with one hand and pulled his other back with, I was certain, the intent to kill or maim. Whether he had a body forging affinity or not, this man was rge and strong. There was nothing I could do physically to defend myself. I honestly don’t know what I was thinking, but I was desperate at that moment, so I pulled hard on my magic and had only one thought.

  Stop!

  I couldn’t actually see his arm move, since it was dark and it was so quick. But I surely felt it, the rush of air and the intense feeling of collected energy. His hand had come to a finger’s length from my face but stopped hard, as if he hit a stone wall. I heard the shattering of bones in his hand, and shortly after his screams of pain

  At that moment, I was finally freed from his grip. Wasting no time, I turned and fled into the darkness. I was running blind between tents. I had no idea where I was at this point nor where my tent was. I tripped a few times over tent ropes or who knew what else, and went tumbling to the ground. I would swear at least one of those was a sleeping drunk soldier. Getting up each time, I continued running.

  Getting away from danger was my only thought.