Treasures

My first week in my new home was coming to a close and I was starting to get used to my duties and my mistress. Seeing my family also helped me relax and master Trevor still hadn't returned from his business trip, so I was finally ready to bring my treasures out of their hiding place.

I tried on each of my pieces of Jewelry again and examined myself in the mirror. I had 2 pairs of earrings, 2 rings, and 2 bracelets, all birthday gifts from my father, given to me on each birthday since I was 12. The older ones were made of copper or bronze, but the last 2 were made of silver. I suppose father didn't want to give true precious gifts to someone he still considered a child. There were no necklaces. The collar already dominated my neck, leaving no room for anything else.

While the Jewelry was pretty, it was also the most useless of father's gifts. I could never wear it when it might be seen by humans, which left me with practically no opportunity to wear it at all, except when I was alone like I was now.

My second most favorite of father's gifts was my introductory guide to magic. Although it was very basic, and father's library contained more advanced texts, it was mine. It did give a decent overview of how magic worked and what could be done with it, including an explanation about how my control collar worked.

There were 4 essential magical skills:

Ethereal vision, which was the ability to sense magic. This was the most fundamental of all. Without it it was impossible to even use any magic. Almost everyone had it, if only at a very rudimentary level. At the most basic level it merely gave the ability to vaguely sense the presence of magic, but the higher the level the more details could be discerned. It was theorized that ethereal vision appeared almost exclusively in those who had frequent exposure to magic as children, although natural talent also played a role.

Spatial manipulation, which is the ability to split the magical power into strands and manipulate their shape. It is essential for the ability to weave complex spells. The finer the spatial manipulation, the more delicate the spell can be. My control collar required advanced levels of spatial manipulation to be able to precisely and efficiently stimulate the pain receptors in my brain when my master punished me. Fortunately father was a kind master who rarely used the collar, and even then only did so gently, barely giving me the equivalent of a slap on the wrist as a warning.

Elemental manipulation, which was the ability to transform the strands of magic into forces of nature. This allowed the magic to perform a wide variety of functions, and by weaving different elements together one could create a limitless range of effects with varying levels of sophistication.

Power, which was how much magic one could draw out of himself. Most people, even great mages, could only use a little bit at a time, which is why the art of magic focused on efficiency and sophistication rather than raw power. Most people had both very little power and very little control, and so could only perform small acts with magic, such as creating the spark to light a fire. Some could do more, like draw the heat out of water in order to freeze it, then redirect that heat to a fireplace to create a fire, but even then that usually required a significant amount of time due to the limited power they were able to use.

I myself had only the lowest level of ability across all categories. I could barely use a little magic to perform crude feats, using only one strand of energy with only one element at a time. This was the same as what almost all people could do. Only a very rare few could go beyond that, although rigorous study and training could slightly improve one's natural ability.

However, my favorite of all was my history book, Or perhaps it would be more accurate to call it a world book. It listed all the known countries of the world by region, and gave a brief summary of the culture, society, economy, government, religion, and history of each one. My favorites were the sections about the Diochi and South Austland.

The Diochi were a family of beast-kin who became very numerous. They made the humans nervous, so the humans started to discriminate against them and eventually enslaved them. The Diochi then rebelled, and with the help of great magic managed to escape and founded their own country close to the center of the continent, in a place that controlled major trade routes. They also founded their own original religion that denied the validity of all other religions and taught that humans and beast-kin were equal and that slavery was evil.

The authors of all the history books I've read, including this one, tried to belittle the Diochi, claiming that they made up their history and were nothing more than savage beasts who sought to control Diochia so that they can rob merchants like a troupe of brigands. Many empires sought to conquer Diochia over the centuries, but the Diochi took to the mountains and forests and stubbornly fought until they drove them out, even if it took decades.

The Diochi weren't made up only of beast-kin, either. There were many humans who joined them and who helped them overthrow invaders. The Diochi religion was banned in many countries as incitement to rebellion against the crown and the murder of innocent slavers. In those countries, which included my country of Prandia, anyone who was caught practicing the religion, much less preaching it, was executed as a traitor, and the humans who joined the Diochi were portrayed as enemies of mankind.

I wished I knew more about their religion, but father wasn't interested in religion and so had almost no books about any religious topics, not to mention that most humans simply dismissed it as a savage animal's superstition. I could hardly ask the priests at the temple either, as I'd be lucky if they ignored me. An animal taking an interest in religion and spirituality could be seen as a challenge to religious dogma and I could be put down as a dangerous aberration, like a rabid dog.

South Austland was the exact opposite of Arctland, the continent of my homeland Prandia. South Austland was the southern half of the continent of Austland, separated from the north by a vast desert. In there beast-kin were revered as humans who were blessed with the powers of animal spirits, and humans deliberately did whatever they could to produce beast-kin offspring. As a result humans were a vanishingly small minority and beast-kin were the ruling majority. All the authors I've read considered the region to be a dangerously savage den of beasts where humans were horribly oppressed, but that seemed to merely be their prejudice. They weren't interested in having any contact with that part of the world and potentially discovering that their beliefs were wrong. That would be too dangerous.

Northern Austland was in between. Beast-kin were free, but they were considered inferior and suffered from heavy-handed discrimination. It was still far better than how we were treated here. I didn't want to be worshiped like in South Austland, but if I couldn't be free as an equal like in Diochia then the life of a beast-kin in Northern Austland was still preferable by far to the life we led here. At least there they could own property, marry, and choose whom to work for, although I didn't really have much to complain about. Father always treated me well, my fears about Trevor have failed to materialize, and Liliana was wonderful.

Perhaps this life wasn't so bad. I didn't have to worry about any basic necessities like food or shelter, I just had to do the work of an ordinary housewife who had no slaves to help her. I could be happy with this life. That still didn't stop me from daydreaming about a life where I could be treated as a person, marry, have a family and home of my own, only do what I want and only be with whoever I want. A life with dignity and freedom. It might not be all that different from what I had now, but it would feel different.

I put my treasures away and blew out the candle. A single candle was all my cat eyes needed in order to see the pages as clearly as by the light of day. I was thankful for that, since night was usually the only time that I was free.