Birthdays, nothing special by themselves, to some it's a step onto the path of adulthood, to others a momentous occasion to celebrate and be overjoyed. To me, it's just another year my godmother has tried to kill me, and no, I don't mean small little accidents, I mean full-blown assassination attempts.
"Seriously, who the hell tries to stab a kid after they get out of the toilet?" I say while looking at the severed arm on the floor. I'm only five years old, and I doubt Evangeline or her husband wants me dead that damn much. Maybe their daughter, but she started this mess first. I just showed her I don't care about giving her spoiled butt attention, next thing you know, she tries to stab me. "She needs some serious mental help, cause there's no reason maids should be leaving her room bloodied and limping." I thought to myself with some concern.
Whatever, Mary's strange habits ain't my problem, though I am worried about Liza, and, strangely, her parents aren't. It's like most days, they are waiting for her to die so they can go back to praising the ground Mary walks on. Whatever, I need to go meditate to purge this poison. The only good thing about this is that I don't need to handle the cleanup. Still, this happens way too often in their home, and the fact that they are so eager to clean up the proof of the attack has me suspicious.
My room is, unfortunately, close to all of theirs, and that's gonna make it difficult to use mana without giving it away that I can. Thankfully, it's just a plain room, and the maids don't usually come by and clean it. But I can't shake the feeling that someone has been in here, especially now, the picture of my mother and father holding me was missing a few months ago, and is suddenly here in a box, but I never put it in here.
No idea who could have been here since I don't have mana sense yet, which makes training in secret a higher necessity than before. After tidying up the room a bit, I sat on the bed in a lotus position and began emptying my mind. It was a difficult process since I had a lot on my mind, but then I thought back to my mom and the weird symbols I remembered her drawing all the time, and the strange words she would speak.
Suddenly, something clicked, and I began to understand more. The words clicked in a way they shouldn't have, what they meant, and the purpose they served. "From the brightest star to the deepest void, mana permeates throughout the realms, blessing them with the ability to change the very nature of the world." That voice, Mom?
Suddenly, the world warped around me. I saw things more clearly, heard things at a distance that seemed impossible for a child. My sense of smell changed in a way that boggled my mind; I felt like I could tell the exact details of the organic items around me. That's when I noticed runes and seals of various designs littered my room, and from vague interpretations, I could tell they were for monitoring and draining something.
They knew. They knew I could use mana, and worse, I just let them know how close to manipulating it freely. "Okay, looks like they were hiding more from me than I thought, but how am I gonna hide my progress while letting them monitor me?" My mind is spinning as I try to think of a way not to expose more than I already have.
Wait. The maids have a way of erasing their presence; it can't be too hard to mimic, can it?
"Two Years Later"
Okay, I've picked up on their trick, but I made sure not to hide it completely after last time. Two months into using it, I messed up and triggered whatever alarm they had on me; if it weren't for Liza having just snuck out, I would have been caught. She helped cover for me, don't know why, and I don't care, I've got more important things to worry about. But I'm not heartless, I'll visit and see what she needs help with, but that's as far as I'm willing to go.
"I gotta work on improving my senses, I know their little attempts help me grow, but it's not enough anymore." I helplessly thought to myself. Magic might have the answer, but I'd have to be careful with how I use it; one wrong move and they might try to kill me. Yes, big surprise, but with mana sense active, I was able to hear the Winchesters talking, and it looks like they have been trying to kill me for years. As for how I heard a conversation, I was nowhere near; mana speaks to us all, but only a few can listen.
But with their attempts to accidentally remove me, I have to wonder if they were responsible for my parents. The motive is the only thing I don't get, but going through what's left of my mom's old things and referencing news reports, I should be able to figure it out.
"Water, Generate, Pierce."
Luckily, we were outside, and she hit nothing important, but that was embarrassingly easy to dodge. *BANG* And there goes most of that lovely cherry tree in the garden, but it's not surprising Mary was always the overachiever. Poor thing never took the time to aim. "Stay still, loser, it's time for target practice!" She shrieked out.
"Don't your parents have a custom-built range near the manor?" I asked, not really interested in her answer. We used to be inseparable, but one day that all changed, and she suddenly started acting like the brat she is now. Not that it matters anyway, the only person here with morals is Liza, and that's a term I use loosely.
"Oh shut up and stop dodging, coward!" She yelled back at me like her words mattered, me a coward, like her father, who poisons me regularly but won't be in the same room as me, the mother who either hurts me or pays others to do it. But sure, I'm the coward, not the person who suddenly changed and is trying to hurt me for no good reason.
"You know if you wreck the garden, your mother is going to be angry, right?" Casually pointing out the damage she's caused since the fight started. "Shut up and go down, you bastard!" She said while swinging wildly. "Haste!" She shouts out, almost as if she's trying to demand the mana to do as she wills. "She's still too slow to hit me, but if she doesn't slow down, she's gonna hurt herself." I think to myself as I watch her get faster and faster.
I look around for anything that could help and spot her father, eating a sandwich. Watching us with an amused smile, then it clicks, he put her up to it, and if that's how he wants to play it, then fine, I'll play.
"Festinare!" Casting my own version of haste, I quickly moved to counter her, with only one objective in mind: to make them understand that I am not a training dummy.
*CRUNCH.*