The Capital (6)

"I don't remember much about my mother." Caroline started. "I was around five when she died, so I only have a few memories of her singing lullabies before I slept, or scolding me for running to fast in the crowd."

Caroline smiled a little at the memory.

"After she was gone, one of her friends took me in. She's the owner of a bakery downtown, and she's taken in plenty of kids like me off the streets to help her with her work. It was nice. She gave us plenty of food and a place to sleep, and all we had to do was tend to the shop."

It sounded a little like child labor to me, but I couldn't say that.

"It was only recently I started to wonder who my mother was… because my body began going through changes."

Was she talking about puberty?

Damien caught my confused look, "For demi-humans, puberty is the same. We all go through intense physical changes. But it's also the time we learn to change into our animal form."

I nodded in understanding.

"Yes," Caroline agreed, "But I assume because I am of mixed blood, the night of my transformation was not complete. I only woke up with a tail and ears, that was it. I hadn't morphed into a full wolf."

Caroline paused, and her face contorted with pain.

"What's wrong?" I asked, concerned.

"The next part of the story… is a little painful for me to recall."

"It's okay, take your time."

Caroline took a few deep breaths before continuing. "I was afraid. I didn't understand what was happening to me, and I didn't know who to turn to. There was no one there to tell me what was happening was normal, to be expected. So I went to the only person I felt I could trust. The bakery owner.

That was my biggest mistake."

I gulped.

"She was more than just shocked. She was appalled. She cursed at me, calling me demon-spawn, and told me to get out of her shop immediately. She beat me until I left. I experienced much of the same as I wandered the streets, my ears and tail still showing. It took me days before I figured out how to hide them again. I haven't brought them out since."

My face darkened. It wasn't just demi-humans, but humans too. Both sides had some deep-rooted prejudice against those of mixed blood, but I just couldn't understand why. Was it because the two races themselves were at odds? But there was barely any record of communication, how could they hate each other without knowing each other?

I was snapped out of my thoughts as Caroline continued.

"After that, I wandered around the slums for days, picking up food wherever anyone left it. I was sure I was going to die. All I could think about though, was my mother. I thought, if I was the way I was, she must have been different. I started sneaking into book stores to read whatever I could find on demi-humans, but there was little information."

I nodded. Even the library in the Hessian estate had been the same.

"I decided I needed to know more. I needed to know where my mother had come from, and why we were so hated by everyone. I needed to know especially if there was a place I could go back to. A home." Caroline's voice wavered with the last sentence, and Damien avoided her eyes.

"I searched for a while for someone willing to give me a job. That's when I stumbled across a mercenary guild and they hired me to waitress at their pub. I worked hard for months, all so I could save up for this." She gestured to the grimoire.

"But in the end, it was all for nothing. I would not be any more welcome in the land of demi-humans than I am here in the human empire."

Mary reached out and grabbed Caroline's hand, then squeezed it gently. Caroline looked grateful.

"But since that's the case," she suddenly put on a brave face again, "I will go to the demi-humans. Even if they decide to kill me, I want to go. I will make them acknowledge, that I, this child of mixed blood, lived. I may not have lived well, but I lived. I will make them acknowledge that I am a living, breathing being. And they may not choose to spare me. But maybe, just maybe, when they do kill me, it will weigh heavily on their shoulders. Just maybe, they will feel a twinge of guilty conscience. If they see the girl they have told to die, and look her in the eyes."

Damien gawked at the little girl in front of him. She was so resolute, so prepared to die, all because she wanted to make a point. She wanted to leave behind a legacy. And maybe she would have if it wasn't for me.

"You aren't going to die." I said.

Caroline turned to me with uplifted eyes.

"We will go to the province of the demi-humans, and we will stand before the council," I turned to Damien, "And if after hearing us speak, they still decide Caroline deserves to die, I want you to tell them this Damien."

Everyone stared at me, breaths held. I think Mary knew my intentions, but she didn't want to acknowledge it.

"When I take over the Hessian throne, I will declare war on your people."

There was a round of shocked silence.

But there was no other way.

I would protect Caroline. Not just because it was her, but because this matter concerned the fate of all children with mixed blood. It was wrong. The discrimination they faced, all because of the circumstances of their birth that they could not control. It was going to change. I would make sure of it.

First, I needed to find that information guild. I had to take my family out as soon as possible and assume the position of Duke.

Things were getting serious, and I wasn't planning on sitting idly by.

Just you wait, wolf clan. I will make you eat that pride of yours, then shove it up your ass.

You will know the horrific power of a golden spoon!