Before darkness fell, I stopped by the throne room. There were no less than ten guards surrounding The Orb at all times. There was a locked door and several security wards and spells set up so that no one but the royal family was allowed to even touch it. But I was a Monrova, so I passed the security clearance after guards double checked that I was truly myself. If a guard took magic unsanctioned, the spells would drop him before he even reached the door. Once, someone had used magic to disguise them, pretending to be a royal. They did not live to tell the tale.
"Princess," an older guard said to me, nodding his head. Judging by the medals on his chest, he had authority over the other guards here.
"General." I nodded back. "I have need of magic. A generous amount today."
"Of course," another guard said, escorting me up to orb.
"Thank you, Officer." I placed my hand on The Orb, drawing out as much magic as I thought I needed. Magic had a warmth to it, filling your body with happiness and making you feel good. Magic was a drug kept under extremely careful clearance.
Magic was a fickle thing. Magic may have existed somewhere else for all we knew, but for us, The Orb contained all magic. For centuries, it had been controlled by the king under strict enchantments. No one knew exactly how The Orb came to be, or how much power it held. Some philosophers and scientists believed that there was magic in everything in this universe, but in extremely small portions. Since gold was the best known conductor of magic, scientists predicted that long ago, a huge chunk of gold conducted and centralized a large portion of magic, collecting for millions of years until The Orb became what it was now. There were always more questions, though. I myself had puzzled over the mysteries of it. Did it contain unlimited power? Did it regenerate? Did it become more or less powerful as time goes on? Magic was a mysterious thing.
There are things I, along with everyone else, did know, though. Magic was a fickle thing. Magic could be held and transferred, but it needed a host, whether it be the human form, the Orb, or gold. Gold was the best conductor of magic. It could hold the most magic for the longest amount of time. The human form, on the other hand, was a less efficient conductor. It only held magic for about a day, but that was all I needed. Magic flowed up my arms, and I kept it there for later use.
Magic could be used for almost anything. The guards probably assumed I was using this magic to make my hair sleek and shiny, or widen my closet to fit the new clothes I conjured. Magic could fix your performance at almost any task, could heal injuries, could transport you instantly, could change your appearance. Some people even kept lap-sized dragons whose life force was dependent on magic. The thing about magic was: the bigger the task, the more magic you need. Keeping a pet sized dragon would take a minimal amount of magic, but sustaining a dragon large enough to ride, fly, and breathe fire would take an unimaginable amount of magic. It was possible, but simply not done.
Most people used magic for small things like doing chores or instant travel, healing a headache, possibly to get a small bit of luck. Without gold, most people's magic wasted away within a few days if they did not use it. Magic was spread across the kingdom by the king, but allotments of magic were infinitesimal, smaller than they had ever been in history. The king awarded his closest followers with extra magic, so the nobles could use it for frivolous causes as the people on the streets died of disease and starvation.
Yet, people were still heavily dependent on that small bit of magic. Criminals were punished with jail or even worse, magic taken away for life. A lack of magic was the worst punishment. If you lost your right to magic, you were a normal person. Worse, you were poor and had to do everything all by yourself. People were scared to say anything against the king, ever, in fear that he would take away magic from all the peasantry. As the princess, I got as much magic as I wanted, which had wracked me with guilt when I was young. Then I began to do something about it.
I left the throne room, magic glowing in my hands up to my elbows. I would need it tonight.
That night, I changed into dark clothes. Black long sleeved top with black gloves to cover my glowing forearms and perfect nails. Tight black pants and tall lace up boots of broken in dark brown leather and buckles. All so I could walk through the city after dark. After I was ready, I pried back the panel in my wall, hidden behind the curtain, that opened into a servants' passage. It was mostly unused because everyone knew I hated maids going into my room from anywhere other than the hallway. I appreciated them knocking on my door because I was so easily scared when they just appeared in my room.
I walked down the gloomy stairs into the damp, dusty air. Night was my least favorite time, but I endured for the sake of freedom. I pulled my black cloak over my head, letting it trail down past my feet and pulling it around my arms. It covered my blonde hair which was pulled back into a tight bun at the nape of my neck. I secured a mask over my face. Black as the rest of my ensemble, it covered the area around my eyes, nose, and down my entire right cheek. It had subtle silver swirls over it, forming into points near my temples and on my cheek.
Around here, no one cared what you wanted to wear. People with higher magic allotments could change their face into anything they wanted it to look like. Nearly everyone believed I had altered my normal face with my unlimited magic, but the truth was that my heritage consisted of generations of marriages based on one thing: beauty. I was a prized show horse born into the box of conventional beauty. Not that I minded. Plenty of people used magic to make themselves perfect, sometimes even basing their face off of mine, which was seriously creepy.
With perfect people walking around the streets, no one really wanted to look like themselves. Soon, people's true faces became a secret. They donned cloaks and masks so that everyone could look exactly how they wanted, magic or no. Often they were more colorful, but I went with black. The acceptance of masks was extremely beneficial for my own plans. I could have used a lot of magic to disguise myself each night, but that would be a waste. Now, when I wore the outfit, I became a different person. Even a princess could blend into the crowds and shadows of the city.
A wolf in sheep's clothing. Or perhaps a sheep in a world of wolves.
I picked up a small crate of apples and slipped out of the servants' door without raising any suspicions. I did this often, so I had my own routines. I had spent a lot of time figuring out what worked and what did not. Figuring how to get out was much easier than getting in.
I took my usual way through the city. Lots of small backroads used for transportation of food. I stopped here and there, trying to draw minimal attention to myself while improving a few lives in such a small way. I gave out a few apples to the starving along the streets. Once I saw an ailing dragon sitting on the lap of a bereft owner, pleading with people on the street. The dragon was such a small thing, with lime green scales and wings that would be unable to take flight. I crouched down next to them, placing my thumb on the dragon's head and sharing a drop of magic. The tiny thing perked up, walking around as the owner thanked me. Sometimes people just ran out of magic. Dragons and on occasion a magical wolf, suffered dearly because of the city's poverty.
I eventually made it to my destination. A small, deserted restaurant at the end of a dead end street. Most people could not afford to eat out, so this diner had gone out of business and no one had come back to claim the land. I went in and headed straight for the kitchen. Where the pantry used to be was a dark hole with stairs leading down into it. I walked down the stairs carefully, glad I traded heels for boots. I set down my crate and walked in darkness down the hallway until I found what I was looking for along the right wall: a door handle. I opened the door and blinked at the soft light before walking in.
There was a fair amount of people in the large room. Floating orbs of light dimly illuminated the space from the high ceilings above. Doors and hallways branches off of this space, going off in all directions. The hallways were perfectly cut out of the dirt with smooth walls and dark oak doors. The work of magic made all the tunnels perfect, and exactly the same. I had tried to explore all the pathways one day and discovered an expansive network of tunnels that seemingly went on forever. Created to deceive, I had gotten lost more than once in all of the spiraling tunnels, identical doors, and rooms built to be exactly the same.
I heard more than one person call out in greeting, "Hey, Scrap," or just nod their head at me. I had been around since I was a kid, and by now I had built a reputation, along with more than a few friendships. One friend stopped to talk, informing me at the end, "I heard Capo wanted to talk to you." I thanked her, and cleared out, heading to The Boss.
I found him in the Command Room, where he seemed to live most of the time. He wore a hood and a dark green mask, paired with an ever present snarl. He was probably around forty, as far as I could tell with his mask on, which made him one of the older people here. The Magia needed people fit for difficult, physical tasks, which left us with a lot of younger people more suited to taking orders than questioning them.
Capo was staring at a map of the city on the wall, stuck with red push pins all in a congested area. "Hey, Capo," I said.
He looked over at me. "Scrap. There's an assignment for you, go talk to Maeve. Meeting later, after you get the job done."
I nodded and walked away. It was always like that with Capo. Succinct was his way of life. Unless he hated you, and then he would yell at you. I was yelled at a lot in the beginning, when I had no idea what I was doing, but eventually I learned. He liked things a certain way, and now I believed he trusted in me and my abilities more than most because of my knowledge of his likings.
I was already late because of the conversations I had on the way here, so I followed his orders as fast as I could, jogging to go talk to Maeve. She was one of the most colorful of the Magia, packing a bright blue mask and blonde hair box braided with matching blue streaks. She never wore a hood, and I could see why, with hair like that. Her skin was even paler than mine, but she liked being creative with her appearance and decorated it with glitter and sparkles. Contrasting the bright colors of her hair and skin, she had black eyeshadow that could be seen even with the mask on. She was so bold that she even went by her real name.
Nicknames were a part of anonymity and also, they were fun. You got to be whoever you wanted to be, even though someone else picked out your nickname. Nicknaming new initiates was a fun part of this job. I tried to go easy on the newbies, but some others were not as kind. Once you received a bad nickname, you were stuck with it. In the beginning, I hated being called Scrap, but gradually got used to it. My nickname was not the prettiest, but who would expect that Scrap's real name was something as fancy as Guinevere?
Maeve was easy to spot from across the room, even in the middle of a bunch of people at desks talking with each other. Planning people were the men behind the curtain when it came to missions, but usually did not go out on them themselves. The thought of that sounded terribly boring to me, but they seemed happy enough. Maeve had her nose stuck in a clipboard, jotting down notes and check marking things with a determined expression. I came up beside her and bumped my hip into hers. "Hey there, Mae. A little birdie told me you have a job for me."
She smiled widely when she saw me. "Good old Scrap. Late again," she teased. She looked at her clipboard, finding my job. "You're going to a lord's house today. The usual deal, take what you can. Try and find me something nice." She winked.
I laughed. "Greedy. I'll see what I can do."
"Oh, but you're going with a tag-along, too. A newbie. I know how you feel about being a godmother, but she needs to watch an expert like you out in the field," she added.
I shook my head quickly. "I can't. You know I can't. Remember last time I was a godmother? That was so awful."
"That was a year ago. You can do it now. Just learn from your mistakes. You're pretty high on the food chain here because you've been here longer than most, so there's no way for you to not be a godmother. The other Heads think you can do it. You'll be great." She patted my shoulder.
I sighed deeply, mostly for dramatic effect. "Fine. Direct the newb over to me when they get here. We need to move out, quick."
"Oh. And you're taking Blade with you, too," she added with a sly grin.
I groaned. "You're seriously trying to kill me."
"Girl, I am doing you a favor. That is one fine piece of man, and I'd be totally on him if I wasn't already in love with someone else. I know for a fact that you haven't had a boyfriend in way too long, you need someone and he's, like, way hot."
"He's an infuriating, stubborn, idiot piece of boy," I corrected her.
"Who you should totally be in love with. I ship you two," she said matter-of-factly, drumming her short nails on the clipboard. It was like she was deaf. She only heard what she wanted to hear, and tried to see things happening where there was less than nothing. I loved her to pieces, but she was both blind and deaf.
"And I suppose your matchmaking has nothing to do with why you assigned me and him together. Again! I hate him." I pointed at her. "I hate him, and you'd better stop with your matchmaking."
"You need him. He's good with his swords and all that...pointy weapon-y stuff. I bet he's really good in-" She changed her train of thought when I glared at her. "It's good to have someone from the Department of Weapons, just in case. And if that happens to coincide with the fact that I know you'd be good together, then it's just a happy mistake. You'll thank me someday." She blew a kiss and sauntered away with a wink.
I half groaned, half laughed at her fruitless scheming. The word no was not in her vocabulary, so I would have to deal with Blade, just for tonight. I shook my head and started walking to the room dubbed my unofficial office. Mostly, it was a room for my random assortment of trinkets and training supplies. No one went in there unless they were looking for me. It was a sanctuary of silence, something I did not get often. On the way, I tried to figure out a way to not bang my head on the wall while dealing with a newbie and Blade. I was unsure that a way even existed. This would not be fun.