TBATE| The Demon of Elshire

Chapter 1 - Reminiscence

Growing up, I'd never really had a motherly figure present in my life. I'd heard from my father that my mother had died immediately after giving birth to me and my twin brother. Apparently, she was an elf, which I could tell the rest of my family, especially my stepmother, didn't quite approve of.

I'd heard that when she was pregnant, they had a special deviant mage, capable of determining the genders of me and my brother, thus our names were pre-planned. My brother's name ended up being the human name Lucas, while mine...well, the mage ended up getting the genders wrong in the end. And so I, a half-elf boy, ended up with the female Elven name: Firae.

I knew my father didn't quite like that a member of the prestigious Wykes family ended up with an Elven name, especially a female one, but he at least respected my late mother's wishes...something I wasn't quite sure he was capable of.

Sometimes, it seemed like he didn't bother with a name change as a means to bully me. Both my brother and myself were always seen as lesser because of our non-pure lineage. And while this made my brother deeply resentful of our mother, I saw my human lineage as a stain on my very existence. After all, who couldn't despise humans after being forced to be a part of the Wykes house for so long?

However, despite all the hatred I was surrounded with, especially from those of my immediate family, Lucas included, I'd always maintained good relations with my elder half-brother, Bairon.

For whatever reason, unlike our calloused father, he cared for the two of us as something more than a tool. Even Lucas in all of his anger and entitlement was treated decently enough...sometimes better than he should have been.

Bairon Wykes cared for us as more than potential political power, he was the brother to me that Lucas never was. At least, while he was still around.

He was the only person who actually taught me or my twin brother anything actually useful in regards to magic, although, it wasn't much.

Throughout most of my time at the Wykes household, my brother and I had been educated by our personal assistants, and it was plain to see that our parents didn't exactly care about us, at least not just yet. It was painfully obvious that they were holding out for one of us to awaken before they spent any actual resources on us.

You see, when two kids are born as twins, the magic potential doesn't exactly get divided up and placed evenly into the two children. Nor do the twins both get the amount they would normally get. In nearly all recorded cases of twins born to mages, one child typically awakens at a normal age, while the other is generally mana-less.

So when my twin brother awakened on our 8th birthday while we were on a carriage heading back home, it caused a massive influx of mana that destroyed our carriage in its entirety.

I was heavily injured, and the two guards assigned to that carriage, in particular, were put out of commission.

I'd been quite literally thrown out of the carriage, and my stepmom, who was in the one behind us, didn't even bother coming to my rescue, deeming me a lost cause.

I'd just barely made out the sight of her running over to my brother to make sure he was okay, before she passed a glance at me, and left with the one remaining carriage in proper condition.

I told myself that I'd never forget that look she gave me.

It was one of utter disgust, and as I lay there on the side of the road, my consciousness fading, I truly believed that would be the last thing I'd ever see.

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A/N

I heavily dislike how this chapter turned out, but it was in a different style than I'm used to. I promise future chapters will flow a lot better than this one did.

I'm a firm believer in short first chapters, so this one doesn't even crack 1,000 words, but future chapters will be longer fyi.

If you were confused about the pronunciation of MC's name, I pronounce it, (Fear-ay)

Lastly, I plan on uploading about once a week.