"Good morning, Tristan."

"Yes, good morning, Sidra," my mother's cousin answers.

I knew grandma hated me and held a grudge against my mother for fleeing her arranged marriage, even to the point of suggesting she'd gotten pregnant specifically as an excuse… what I hadn't expected was that it was to the extent that she wouldn't even let us borrow the guest yurt I know for a fact is empty, leaving us to fend for ourselves.

She's just a traditionalist, apparently. That's what mom said anyway.

Whatever.

It's fortunate that at least some of our extended family here is less rigid. One entire branch of it lives out here, further into the open plains and far away from the massive forests the rest of our kind here obsess over maintaining.

Or, well. My half-kind, anyway. I'm only half eldra, another of the reasons the traditionalists don't like me. 'Purity' or something, as if their bloodlines are anything special. I know for a fact that people of other races can get the same Skills, Classes… everything.

They're not special.

One thing they are, however, is observant. Many of the villagers were fast to recognize my scales, and apparently it's a faux pas here to cover your eyes…

So much for fitting in.

I kneel on the round carpet that fills the middle of Tristan's yurt after carefully rolling my bedroll alongside my mother's, where I'd slept. She'd left before the sun rose, before I'd come remotely close to waking, although I do vaguely remember her kissing my forehead and saying everything would be alright… I must have been half asleep.

It's a far better thing to remember than Nyx showing up to be generally terrifying and offer more favors I'm sure I'll have to pay back somehow.

Either way, I knew mom was leaving for the day, or at least the day. She'd already told me she was going, to try to get me admitted to some other school or whatever. Transcript transfers were more or less out of the question though, since the place she's going is apparently much more specialized than the general education I'd been receiving.

"Enny for your thoughts," my host asks, setting a mug of the weird cold leaf juice they all love here in front of me and kneeling across from me before taking a sip of his own.

"I… guess I don't really know," I quietly answer with a shrug. "I didn't see any of this coming… but I don't think anyone would."

He nods and motions for me to continue, so I do.

"At least they let us through enough checkpoints to leave, I guess. And getting here was easy enough… there was just so, so much paperwork, and the police escort…"

"Losing a home is never easy," Tristan says.

And he would know, too. He'd been run off by the family as well, largely due to the same thing – refusing an arranged partner. Although in his case, it was because he preferred his childhood best friend, a man who now works as a florist in the surprisingly modern city that sprung up around the main teleport station. Why Tristan lives here still, I'm not sure I'll ever understand.

The most likely reason he's still allowed in this town where mom isn't is that he didn't run off to spit out a mixed-blood bastard.

It's stupid.

It's so stupid.

After a long pause he simply says, "You'll be fine."

…

I should probably get used to how few words the people here spare. They get most of their communication from facial expressions, body language, even hand signals… a second language I have almost zero understanding of. When we'd first arrived and asked for help, I had no idea what mom and grandma were even saying, just that she took my hand and led me away with a touch of anger and disappointment showing on her face.

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Asking the others for help went about the same, until we got here.

…

…

…

It's far too quiet here. But… I know if I go outside, the villagers are just going to stare at me more.

This sucks.

…

I wonder how Judy is doing.

Nobody has just suddenly disappeared from my class before, or from my year in general… we'd always had warning if someone was moving. The closest we'd had was someone being sick for a few days, and even then we'd know from one of their friends.

And now I'm just gone.

I can't even message someone through my u-comm… they don't work for non-ascendants, and of course… no one else there was one.

Just me. Me and mom.

I grew up on a quiet, relatively backwater plane, far away from the dangers that necessitated ascendants or adventurers or anything of the sort. The government handled everything. On the rare occasion that it was actually needed, they kept a reserve of high-level adventurers to do the job.

Peacekeepers.

And I could have been one of them.

To be fair… I probably would have been one of them.

Throwing me out is their loss… or at least it's probably better to think of it that way, so I don't sink into depression if nothing else.

…

It's way, way too quiet here.

And Tristan isn't helping, just sitting there in silence and gazing thoughtfully at his mug, now half empty.

I sigh at the futility of it all. Maybe, hopefully, whatever it is mom is doing will work out. I'd have to make a fresh start, but… it's better than this.

Anything is better than this. I don't even have a book to pass the time.

…

Whatever I guess.

I scoot across the carpet, back toward my bedroll.

"Sorry. I guess I'm still kind of tired, so I think I'm going to take a nap for a while."

Tristan nods noncommittally, but something about his expression betrays…

It's the same thing.

The same thing that was on grandma's face, and the other villagers.

Because I'm not an eldra. I'm mixed, and to them the other blood is weaker.

They don't even see it as discrimination, simply a fact of life. Humans are magically weak. Humans have short lifespans. Humans are brutish, and clumsy, and inferior.

So I'm inferior too, at least to them.

Whatever. I don't even care anymore. I won't let myself care.

I throw out my bedroll and slide silently back into it, turning to the side and pushing a hand under my small pillow, the other shielding the light from my eyes.

Maybe shielding my tears as well.

***

"Okay, so that sucked," I whine as Izzy pulls me once again toward our sleeping space. "The last time I felt that awful was when I found out big sister had… had… hated me. All this time."

My second first wife gives me a sympathetic look. "I know, sweetie. I know. It's never easy, losing the safe things we always took for granted, things we never thought we even could lose."

And I know she gets it. She had that mortal lover however long ago, after all… and even though Izzy knew she didn't want to be immortal, that doesn't mean she processed it. It doesn't actually feel… real, until it happens.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that what ended up throwing Sadie's life into turmoil was stupid bureaucratic bullshit. It gets in my way too.

At least I know it wasn't just me though… Livvie took that whole mess pretty hard too, immediately teleporting off to her islands in the sky. I can feel her there too, massacring the big lizard monsters that roam its forests.

…

I wonder how Judy is doing.

"Dear? Are you…"

"Hm?"

My wife takes a moment to think before simply saying, "Nevermind. It's not important, I guess."

"Alright."

The maid stationed outside our bedroom door bows demurely, completely belying the fact that she and the other household servants here are unquestionably capable of seeking apotheosis themselves if they wanted to.

They keep refusing of course, insisting that their place is here serving my household. A pulse of pride washes through me at their undying loyalty.

Worthy. All of them.

After changing for our rest, once again the long way, Izzy and I slide into bed, nestling against each other. But with everything that's happened today…

I ease back my domination of her Mantle's effects.

It'll probably help me at least feel a little more safe after everything that'd happened.

…

I'm… probably going to sleep later than usual…

Sadie is a real person, actually real real, she doesn't simply disappear when I'm not joined to her…

And she's not just depressed but bored as shit.

Absentmindedly I pick a book at random in my dimensional storage, then snake a feeler down the hallway. I'm not entirely sure if it'll work since I've never tried to maintain a feeler this long, but I'm a goddess.

It has to.

***

I'm startled awake by a sudden impact to my face, leaving me whimpering in pain and holding my sore nose… which at least doesn't seem to be broken…

More startling yet though is the tiny gap in space above me, into which a shiny black tendril slowly retracts before the tear recloses.

I sigh. "What now?"

Why won't she just leave me alone?

It takes me a long while to finally fall back to sleep, but it does happen.

The morning comes far sooner than I'd have wanted, and I'm of course exhausted.

Also my face doesn't hurt at all.

I've thoroughly convinced myself that the most recent visitation was just a dream before I roll over in my bedroll and find myself face to face with the spine of a book.

A very thick book.

"A Treatise on the Nature of Mana and Its Consumption in the Context of Anima Channeling and blah blah whatever…" I whisper.

This is… some kind of textbook, I think? Maybe?

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