Astra's POV
It is expensive to be poor, worse when you're weak, and when you live in Nivarda, it is hell.
I knew that, because I live and was born here… in Nirvada.
I brushed the sweat from my brows with my sleeves and let out a weary sigh. Today had been more hectic than I had expected. When has it never been?
I dragged myself down the cobbled stones of the courtyard, my legs heavy from exhaustion.
I still had some hours to go before my shift at Valenreach, and yet, I was already a mess. My bones felt like stones, and my blood was a tired pool of liquid that felt almost nonexistent within me.
I longed for a bed as the blind longed for sight, and for both of us, that was way out of reach. When you are a magicless, lowly maid in Nirvada, every second could cost you a coin or two, and every coin was practically a retainer on survival.
I had a sick family to take care of and feed. My mother and father were bedridden after the outbreak that wiped out half of the city's magicless population. And as if things couldn't get any worse, my younger brother, Nathan, who usually assisted me, just caught the flu.
In Nirvada, disease outbreaks were as common as air itself. It persisted because people with magic were immune. And those without, like me, were the victims, the sacrificial lambs.
I looked up as the bells of Valenreach Academy rang across the stone towers and floating bridges in jarring notes.
Valenreach was the only magic academy in Nirvada. Unlike the other cities around, Nirvada only attained magichood about three decades ago, hence it's still developing magical academia.
And Valenreach, being the only school in the city, was reserved only for the highborns, children born of the elites. As was the ritual every day, the bells were to call on the highborn students to their afternoon trials.
"Move, rat." A shoulder slammed into me as I crossed the courtyard, sending the basket of clean beddings in my hands tumbling across the marble stones.
A shriek of terror escaped me. I leapt forward to catch the beddings, knowing any stain could cost me hours to make clean again.
Laughter followed me. Each note was a cruel reminder that I was a nobody.
The only thing that equated to magical strength in Nirvada was the level of gold coins in your coffers. If you have both in Nirvada, then you are king, and if you have neither, then you are lower than the ground itself.
I looked up to Nix and her gang, hoping to hell I could rip them apart, but I was too weak and powerless to.
I dropped to my knees, cheeks burning as I scrambled to gather the beddings, before Nix and her crew thought to step on them or they got stained by the tiny muddy puddles around.
"Careful," Nix sneered, towering above me in her silk robes. To taunt a magicless person like me, she made her robe glow with mana. "You might dirty the floor with your existence," she laughed again.
I didn't look up. It only makes it worse, just as defending myself.
Everyone in Valenreach knew the rules. The city was built in layers. At the top were the Highborns—mages, nobles, and those born with shining cores of power. Beneath them were the Midliners—traders, scholars, minor spell-weavers. And at the very bottom… Were people like me, Lowborns. Weak. Magicless.
The city made sure everyone knew their place in the hierarchy. While the highborns jollyride through the city, the middleliners cleaned up after them, and we lowborns cleaned up after everyone else. We clean the towers, scrub spell residue, haul enchanted waste so the higher classes never have to smell it.
I shoved the last bedding into my basket and stood.
Nix smirked. Her eyes shone with pure darkness. Her gang stood behind her, cheering her on and jeering at me.
She stalked closer to me, her body swinging with menace.
I stood my ground, tipping my chin up. I couldn't fight back, but I could still show her that I wasn't afraid.
"I see you've grown balls, rat." She giggled. She jerked her hand up, and a swirling mass of purple light appeared.
"What the nerve from a lowly rat like her?" One of her henchwomen chimed from behind. The others chanted something similar, chuckling.
Nix weaved the purple light in her hand into a blade, and laid it on my neck, as she bridged the distance between us to a breath space.
"I can slice you in half, and no one will question me. You magicless rats are worth less than dirt itself."
I still stood my ground, but I said not even a word. Defiance might not have me punished, but the wrong word can.
She raised the light blade high and then the bells rang again, louder. I could swear I felt it ring through my bones this time. I vibrated on the spot.
She slanted me a predatory yet wary gaze and dropped back. "I'll see you around, rat." She chuckled and walked back into the midst of her friends. The magical blade flickered off in her hand.
I had no idea I had held my breath until then. It crashed out of me in violent bursts. I doubled forward, clutching my chest.
She wasn't wrong. If she did cut me down, the least punishment she could face was to pay my family a couple of coins in reparation.
That was how much my life was worth as a magicless person in Nirvada.
I hurried into Valenreach castle before Nix could think of returning to make my life hell again.
I closed early because, it turns out there wasn't much to do at Valenreach, today. I strolled down the street for home, watching as the fading sun painted the cobblestones of the streets a pale orange.
A similar glow cascaded over the stalls on both sides of the streets. My eyes trailed over the loaves of bread on a table before a stall. The aroma was still sharp despite having been baked since morning.
I salivated as I checked my pocket. The little coins in them jingled. Only one glance was enough to drown my optimism.
I couldn't afford the bread. The coins I had were barely enough for Mother and Father's medicine, and I still have to think about food for the four of us, cheaper food…
"I swear it, there are crystal veins still down there. I saw it." A voice burrowed through my thoughts. Something about it made me freeze in a standstill. The part about crystals.
The only other thing important in Nirvada, except magic and gold, was crystal.
I turned around and spotted a couple of midline boys whispering in the alley, behind one of the city's supply sheds.
I ducked behind the wall before I was spotted.
"There are crystal veins still down there. Pure mana stones. We could sell them for a fortune," the boy continued, desperately enthusiastic as he whispered to his friends.
"Yeah, if the guards don't catch us," one of the friends quipped. "It wouldn't matter much if we were arrested or we end up with our throats in our hands. You have forgotten it was forbidden for a reason."
"The guards won't find us. The lower tunnels aren't patrolled anymore. The crystals there alone should be enough to make us rich beyond our wildest dreams. And about it being forbidden… it is all stories to make us fear. The dragon isn't real, and besides, we won't get close to that part of the tunnel, anyway."
Yeah! Just like everyone in Nirvada, I have also heard about the tunnels. But I thought it was just a rumor. Now, looking at the confidence and convictions with which the boys spoke, it sounded somewhat real. That could explain why the highborns locked the tunnels, and why they always seemed to have an abundance of crystals.
If the mana stones do exist in the tunnels. Even a tiny shard could buy me and my family food for years. Medicine. Warm clothes. Maybe even a place above the lowest district.
The mana stones could just be the way out that I had been desperately praying for.
Desperation twisted in my chest. I have to get to the crystals too. Just like the other boy said, if I can keep to the lower tunnels, confirm if the existence of the crystals, and get it and still not come across the dragon. Even if it was real, though most Nirvadians regarded it as folktales.
I leaned from the wall, and I hurried in the direction of the tunnels. I had to beat the boys to the stones if I wanted to get it. Once they got there before me, they could clean it all out. The midliners were as greedy as the highborns.
The tunnel gates yawned open before me, at the edge of the lower district, dark and eerie. A warning rune glowed red above the iron arch. "Do not enter," it wrote in heavy Nivardian.
Beyond it lay the old mining caverns.
I dragged in a deep breath, and I exhaled everything one last time.
I stared up at the warning rune once again, ignoring the words, the red glow brighter with each passing second. I had to do this, I reminded myself, I had to.
I waited until the guards weren't looking, and I scurried in like a rat, moving as fast as my legs could carry me and as quietly as possible, my heart pounding against my chest with a force that almost made it explode through me. I had to do this.