Okay, this is a weird situation I'm in. I was a 40-year-old woman called Aurora, a hard-working underachiever nerd from Earth, and I died in a café while petting a cat and waiting for my coffee and chocolate. I don't understand how I died, but it looked like something was tearing apart the timespace itself right before my last moment. The next moment, I was in the body of a newborn baby, in a weird world with beastkin and elves. But my mother is a regular human, so I think I'm human myself, but there aren't mirrors here, so I'm not sure about my appearance. My hair seems to be fire-red, though, the same color as my mother Lillian's. I hope I've also inherited her golden eyes. Actually, if I inherit her face and body, I will be able to call myself gorgeous un-ironically. That would be great if I only weren't a slave. Yeah, there's that part, my mother is a slave, therefore I'm a slave as well.
All seventeen women in this big room are slaves, including me. The number keeps changing because sometimes a woman is taken out never to come back, and sometimes another is brought in. I'm the only child in here, having been born inside this room, and I've never left it in the three years I've been in this world. All the adult women have collars, but I don't. I think that's because magic collars are too expensive to have children-sized ones, and also because nobody expects a three-year-old girl to be able to escape a slave den. Well, they aren't wrong, you know. There isn't much my body can do in the state I'm in. But I've decided that I'll break free and save my mother and everyone else.
In my past life, I was very fond of occultism and mystic practices. I used to meditate and joined several different mystic orders. I've studied the magic of Earth, a sterile task if you ask me, and I found that most of them were charlatanism, and even the ones that were real practices didn't bring results besides some peace of mind and control of my emotions. Since the first day of my life as Aurea, I decided to keep practicing meditation daily. The biggest difference of doing it in this world is that I was able to feel... something. I don't know how to describe it, but there is something inside me, an undercurrent of energy, condensed like a gem deep inside me. I've been trying to tap on it since I first noticed it on my first birthday, and sometimes I felt it just beyond my grasp. Today is one of those days, but I'm not giving up.
I'm lying in the bed I share with my mother, while she chats with her friend. My eyes are closed, and my consciousness is completely turned towards my core. I can feel it, like a dammed river waiting to be let free. It's right there, a dimmed light, waiting for me. I reach for it with all my might, stretching my consciousness just a bit more. I need to get to it, to understand and control it. I breathe deeper, focusing, concentrating, diving more and more inside my own self. Something is blocking me from reaching it, like a membrane that separates it from the rest of me. But it is part of me, I wail in my inner world, it can't be separated, isolated. I tear the membrane apart with sheer willpower, releasing the flow of energy that was blocked.
The energy rushes through my body, so quickly that it takes me completely by surprise. It has all colours, like a beautiful rainbow, but the most prominent of all is purple. It sends electric jolts throughout my body, but it doesn't hurt. On the contrary, I'm filled with happiness and a sense of power.
The energy rush keeps coming, in bigger and bigger waves. It's overwhelming. I feel like drowning in the flow, and I try to focus it, to contain it. Doubts and fear cross my mind as I feel everything fading away to black.
I open my eyes, and my mother is at my side, looking at me worried.
"Aurea? Goddess blessing, you are awake now."
She hugs me tight, clearly relieved to see me awake.
"Huh? Did something happen?"
I ask her, thinking that I've never seen her worried like this. Did I pass out?
"You were unconscious for half a day, darling. You-"
"You shone with a weird light, and then the magic lamps on the ceiling stopped working, Aurea. It took us a bit of effort to convince the overseer that we didn't know what happened."
My mother has started explaining, but was interrupted by her friend, the cat beastkin lady, Cambucy. It looks like I successfully unlocked whatever was inside me, and that it caused quite a commotion.
"I'm sorry," I say, lowering my head. "I think I might have activated something inside of me."
My mother gently pets my head. "There's nothing to be ashamed of, Aurea. Now, tell me everything about that thing you think that you activated."
I look into her eyes, and tell her about how I was feeling this undercurrent of energy inside me, and how I forced through some barrier that was blocking it.
"Hmmmm." My mom, Lillian, puts her hand on her chin, thinking. "What you are telling me seems to be what is called a Mana Core. It's something every living being possesses, but very few have it so strong that it can be activated. Normally, they activate naturally during puberty, but you forced the activation of yours at this age. It's ten years too early, my dear."
She says those words while looking very worried, so I can't help but shrink in place, fearing for what could happen.
"Is this... a bad thing? I just wanted to be strong so I can set us free." I start crying and sobbing. I try to stop it, but my body doesn't obey. The old lady inside of me is embarrassed by this display, but the body I'm living in has its own emotional reactions.
My mother holds me in a gentle embrace, trying to soothe me. "Don't worry, dear. It's in fact a great thing. I've never heard of anyone awakening their magical power at this age, which means I can start training you right now. I'm sure you'll grow to become a very strong girl."
"You should control yourself, though." Cambucy butted in again. "If the overseers notice that you have that power, they'll put a collar on you and sell you very quickly."
My eyes dart from my mother to Cambucy and back again, betraying my conflicting emotions. I want to train and learn to use this power, but I don't want to be sold. And I... wait, wait, wait. Stop right there, Mom. What do you mean you'll train me? Do you know how to use magic?