The bunk bed was never comfortable. It was hard, most often than not, but I didn't notice. I was so used to it. One would think familiarity should translate to comfort, but I did not sleep soundly still. I never did these days.
At dawn I awoke to Fae fluttering about the huge dormitory that all the workers of Lady Uma shared, piling on bunk beds when night came and it was time to sleep.
Fae stretched and yawned from the tops or bottoms of bunk beds as roosters crowed in the distance, excited, like they were every morning. There was nothing to be excited about, if they but knew. It was always another day of work, work and work. You might have to change employees, but it was still work nevertheless.
I took a while to orient myself with my surroundings, background sounds- feet stamping on the wood floor, wings beating against the air- making it almost impossible to go back to sleep.
I got up slowly and tapped the roof of my bunk bed. Sage gave a grunt of annoyance.
"Are you awake, yet?" I asked her.
"No," was the short response.
"We have to report at the kitchens in just a little time," I told her. "We should freshen up."
"What are you so excited about?" Sage returned. "You're leaving today anyways."
"I don't want to," I said. "Will you miss me?"
No response. I heard soft snoring.
In the light from the windows around the wide room, I saw silhouettes of Fae flitting about, carrying bundles of clothing to dress up.
I made to move from the bed and felt some light weight behind me. My hair had come undone. I couldn't seem to find my hairpin.
My pale hair rubbed my back as I searched for the hairpin. If someone had taken it earlier, it should be close by, now.
I saw the pin on the floor, by the bed stand and took it up. I studied the small carving, almost inscrutable on the back. Produced by Fae and Fae.
They were a Fae group that specialized in making objects that one did not want to lose. I figured that bit in my growing years at an orphanage.
Stones were rare among the common folk and so expensive. The children at the orphanage had always been a rough crowd when they were younger and there were always hands trying to grab my hair pin to exchange for some fast coins. I was the perfect bully victim, of course.
But no matter how many times they took- stole- the hairpin, it came back. It did. I would just find it around me. The thieves got tired. I found out later on that if I had an item marked 'produced by fae and Fae', except I willingly gave such an item out, I would always find it.
Retrieval magic was quite helpful. It was benign magic and so was allowed in the empire.
I wound my hair behind me around the pin and was leaving the bed when Sage trudged down the small ladder from the top bunk of our bed.
"Is the witch awake yet?" She asked. "She should have come barrelling in here asking what we were still doing lying in our beds and not preparing for work."
Witch was a derogatory term in the empire and Sage knew- but she couldn't care less. She despised the lady. Witch/wizard magic was gray magic and so was outlawed. Anyone who identified as such was targeted by the city guards or Imperial knights and brought to face judgment.
Magic could be three, and only three things: Benign, Grey or Malign magic.
Benign because it was used for good, so to say: growth or controlling animals; aiding crop production; the hunting and capturing of animals; the safeguard of items. And then psychism or mood magic- knowing the moods and feelings of persons in order to best understand and deal with them.
Benign magic was magic that looked and seemed helpful at face value. Hence Retrieval Magic- like the production of items like Fae and Fae did; Flora Magic which dealt with elemental magic on the soil and plants, and agents that affected such like wind and rain; Fauna Magic which dealt with hunting, control and capture of animals; and Mood Magic which had to deal with understanding people's moods and feelings- an application of this was Fae Psychic saloons where through studying your moods, a Fae hairdresser could tell what exactly you would want for your hair- were labeled benign.
Benign magic was encouraged in all the kingdoms of the Empire.
Not same for Grey or Malign magic.
Grey magic, according to the description in the law books specifying the restriction on magic, was magic that was used for good or bad based on who was paying. It had as much capacity for good as for evil, but given the natural instinct of people, the evil capacity would be explored still if it were made lawful, hence the ban.
It was mostly sold and bought at the Emporium- an illegal market for magic. Grey magic was magic that had the capacity to deceive or create ambiguous realities or expressions of reality. It specialized on illusions and the creation of hallucinations; modifications or shifts in reality. The magic category specified under this heading in the books were: Shifter magic- certain elves were able to shift into other creatures and animals; a deceit in and of itself; Barrier magic- the creation of magical, yet invisible barriers around people or structures; and magic possessed by Witches and Wizards. They could create potions and drugs and fumes of serious capacity that could plunge whole cities into hallucinations and illusions; potions capable of turning friends into enemies or enemies into lovers. The basis to this type of magic classification was deception.
And finally, Malign magic: Magic said to be evil in and of itself; said to cause destruction and death; to cast spells and curses and create confusion and pandemonium. The basic motive behind the force in this type of magic was maliciousness and evil. At least that was what the law books said.
Magic under this include: Augmentation Magic- magic used to support physical weapons, derive and transfer blasts of pure energy, lethal to whoever was victim; Conjuring- Magic- that summoned phantoms from the netherworld; and Sorcery: magic that was used to cast spells, but unlike Wizardry, the practitioners needed channels like wands made from strong twigs and branches of certain trees. Wizardry allowed the casting of spells with just the lips, without using channels.
Conjurers may or may not use channels.
While the system was discriminatory and classist, magic was not. Across the races, talented people spread across the kingdom. The Elf race had Augmentation, Shifting and Barrier magic. The Fae had Mood, Flora, Fauna and Retrieval magic and the humans had Sorcery, Wizardry, and Conjuring.
I was a conjurer. I had forbidden magic.
It took a while to come to terms with that: the fact that I had Malign magic; that I had no idea how to use it even though it had manifested severally; that the only thing I knew about my magic was that whenever it manifested even in the slightest way, the tiny sapphire stones on my crystal hairpin glowed like they had an energy vibrating through them.
That was why I never gifted the hairpin. It was connected to me and my magic somehow. I wasn't going to let it go until I found out how and why.
I would always find it if it were to get lost or stolen. It had its own security feature. It was bound to me except I let it go myself.