"Pardon me for asking, Mother, but who have you decided on this time?" Raon asked, and their mother’s smile became even more dazzling. If it grew any more brilliant, Titania would have sworn her mother’s signature illusion magic was playing tricks on their minds. She could already envision the glittering flowers blooming behind her mother, placing all of them into a trance.

Not that their mother needed her magic to put a normal person in a trance. With her all-natural wavy blonde hair, light green eyes, flawless pale skin, and perfect hourglass figure, Marcia Tarajan was easily one of the most beautiful women in the city. Whenever she stepped into a room, every eye turned to her – some out of lust, and the rest out of envy. But, like any fair rose, her mother had thorns – very dangerous ones at that. Many men had come to Marcia wanting the power and influence that came with the Tarajan name, completely unprepared for the true viciousness Titania’s mother was capable of. The men had loved it when the fair rose draped herself on their arms, twisted around them lovingly, not noticing her mother’s thorns until they lay dying at her feet.

It’s almost like mind manipulation, the way she uses her beauty and body to her advantage. And her magic certainly compliments her well.

Her mother’s powerful illusion magic, combined with an endless ambition and ruthless, razor-sharp intelligence, was the main reason the Tarajan family had risen to the heights they had. Without her, they would probably be where her first husband had left them. 

Marcia had single-handedly pulled the Tarajans from an average middle-class family to one of the top powers in the city, maybe even in the entire country. The government treated her with a cautious respect and were careful to stay on her good side, even if she forgave everything in the end. When she got angry, nothing good ever happened. Titania herself could attest to this – when she had wanted to go outside without a bodyguard one day, her mother had shown her, in exact detail, the worst possible scenario that could play out.

Titania had gone out with a bodyguard that day and every day since.

But despite all her faults, the Tarajan matriarch protected her children with the ferocity of a lioness. Whoever dared to so much as think to harm a hair on her childrens’ heads, they would soon find their own head rolling on the floor.

"Duke Lumiere, the king of the southern city. What do you think, is your mother’s taste not fabulous?" their mother declared, as if it was a marvelous choice and not an absolutely horrible one.

Titania needed a moment to process that information, making sure that Duke Lumiere was, in fact, the name she had heard come out of her mother’s mouth. When she refocused on the breakfast table, she found Raon and Cedric giving her a ‘say something to her’ look.

Looks like she was nominated to talk their mother out of another harebrained scheme.

You owe me one.

She shot a dirty look back at her brothers, while Chrysanthe noticed Raon and Drake leaving the room and whispered something in Emery’s ear, who silently rose from her lap and spoke to Raon and Drake, before all three left the room. Titania watched them go; this would be a coordinated attack.

"Mother, are you sure this is a good idea?" Titania asked hesitantly, hoping that whatever her sister had told them would be an effective distraction.

Duke Lumiere had made it his personal mission to bring the Tarajan family down, to stop them from overstepping their low-born limits and prevent them from spreading their ‘dirty blood’ as he called it, without much success. After all, the Tarajan were one of the strongest magic-user families in the city. This simple fact prevented a great many from acting against them. When coupled with their nasty reputation – which was not entirely undeserved – they carried considerable weight in the current world. Not even Duke Lumiere, the head of a prominent noble house, had an easy time going against them, but neither did the Tarajan have an easy time going against him; the Lumiere and the Tarajan ranked along with the Zhang at the very top of their society. 

Silence reigned in the room while Marcia thought carefully about her answer. She tapped her scarlet fingernails on the table in a steady rhythm before opening her mouth, then closed it again, shaking her head.

Now I need to convince her this is a bad idea, and make sure she gets something else to focus on, or else this will turn into a ticking time bomb. 

Titania noticed Cedric, still on top of the cabinet, trying to catch her attention from behind their mother. Once she was looking at him, he mouthed the word “pet”. She gave a tiny nod to show she understood, now all she had to do was wait until Raon. 

"He is Lumiere, and we are Tarajan. That would be rather problematic, would it not?” she argued, putting a trace of indignation in her tone.

Then, trick seventeen – appealing to Mother’s pride, followed by a well-placed distraction redirecting her attention to something else, downplaying her interest in the Duke."Anyways, Duke Lumiere is already married, and even if he wasn’t, do you really want to be with an old man like the Duke? Eldest brother recently brought a pet home, maybe that would serve as a better use of your time." 

Come on, mom. Take the bait.

"You are right, he is a bit on the older side. But what could have possibly caught Raon’s attention enough that he brought it home with him as a pet?" Mother inquired and Titania let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

It was far too early in the morning for this.

Sorry bro, looks like the pet is coming out now whether it likes it or not. Wait, come to think of it, Chrysanthe told Emery go get it with Drake and Raon, how did Sis even know that Raon brought a pet back with him…? No wait, I don’t even think I want to know that.

She took another bite of her toast while she waited for Raon, Drake, and Emery to return. For all she knew her brother had brought home a giant tarantula to join their family.

Another scream, or more of a screech pierced through their house, loud enough for everyone to hear and now Titania was truly worried, a bad feeling rising inside her. What had her brother brought home? A six-legged armored monstercat? A baby dragon? A phoenix? A T-Rex? Maybe even a carnivorous zebra-striped unicorn?

Right when Titania was considering getting up to tell Raon to put the pet away and make up a girlfriend for Cedric instead, her eldest brother strode into the room holding the ‘pet’ out in front of himself like a cat.

When she saw what he was holding, Titania’s mind blanked out for a moment, needing a moment to process what it was seeing. 

That is… well… it’s very much like Raon. At least it’s not something potentially world-ending.

"Brother, seriously?” she said, exasperated, while her sister clapped her hands almost squealing in delight and Cedric let out an appreciative whistle, even Mother let out a short giggle.

"What, don't you like it? If not, do you want me to throw it out?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. She would have laughed if she didn’t know he was dead serious. He truly didn’t understand the problem with his decision to bring the thing in his arms home.

"No!" Titania burst out, "that's even worse, now let… him... down."

Her brother obediently set the human boy on the floor. He appeared to be nine or ten years old, and had straight, filthy black hair that grew past his shoulders. Titania thought he had Asian features, but it was tough to tell from the layer of dirt coating his face. His clothes were nothing more than dirty, stinky rags. Past the curtain of dark hair, the boy’s dark blue eyes glittered in defiance, anger, and determination. His feet and hands were bare, and Titania saw that nails on his hands were ripped. Glass splinters were embedded in one of his feet, and it looked like his foot was healing over the splinters.

"Drake," she commanded in a flat voice, "bring me a healing potion from Chrysanthe’s room. Cedric, pass me Raon’s scalpel. Chry, spare the snide commentary, please." Her tone was dark. If she didn’t already know that no one in her family knew what the problem was, that for them this was perfectly normal, she would have long since labeled them mad. But they were just different, and were made into what they were by circumstance. The only difference between them and her was that she had gotten lucky.

Crouching down to his level, she handed the small boy what was left of her toast. He eyed it with a suspicion no child should have, at least none that young, his gaze darting from the bread to her while she gave him an encouraging smile. He stared at the bread for a moment, clearly tempted, then backed away slightly while looking frantically around the room for a possible escape route. 

"My sister is offering you food, what kind of pet refuses that?" her eldest brother glared harshly at the boy and tried to kick him, but Titania gave him a look and shook her head.

No.

Her brother stopped himself and she smiled at him. 

Thank you.

The boy flinched under Raon’s gaze before he snagged the toast out of her hand at lightning speed and bit into it. His eyes widened for a moment and he devoured it as if he hadn’t eaten anything in days – he probably hadn’t. When he finished, he looked at Titania with much less animosity, though he was still cautious.

"I suppose it could be suitable for me in the future," her sister said, crouching down in front of the boy who rushed back into a corner and stared at her in worried confusion. Chrysanthe giggled, and the similarity between her sister’s and mother’s giggle sent shivers down Titania’s spine jet again. "No worries little pet, I have no interest in children, I might like them pretty, but I also like them willing, clean, and above the age of twenty - which you are clearly not." 

The boy tried to get as far away from the eldest Tarajan daughter as he could, and at that moment a potion was placed next to Titania. She nodded thankfully at Drake.

"Are you sure you want to waste a potion on this stinking pet Raon brought with him? I mean he might be presentable if cleaned, but right now he certainly is not worth the effort," her mother asked with genuine confusion in her voice. Titania frowned, some might think her mother was being cruel, but she truly didn't know better, none of them did. They didn't see humans as any more important than animals if they didn't have a relationship of some kind with them. 

"Mother, first of all, it is ‘he’, not ‘it’. He is a human, not an animal. Second, human life – and all life, for that matter – is valuable. He should be treated as a human, and since Raon took him here, the least we can do is take care of his injuries. It's the sensible thing to do." 

Her entire family looked at her as if she started speaking gibberish while she could almost feel the pity in Emery and Drake's gazes; the two of them knew what she was talking about and understood that it hadn’t even crossed her family’s mind. 

"I mean… a pet should be well groomed and uninjured, no?" She tried to say it in a way they would understand, and they did understand that more than human life having value. 

"As you say then. You truly are the only one of us who understands other humans, Titania, you are what others call sane." Her mother sighed. "I wonder why you are the only one, maybe it is part of your oath magic, but I am happy at least you have a shot at living a normal life." 

Titania took the scalpel from a shadow Cedric was controlling. "It's fine, now little boy, we need to take care of your injuries, and that won't happen without me cutting out those glass shards and healing the injuries afterwards. I will try to do it as quickly as I can and apply the potion to heal you right away, alright?" The boy huddled deeper into his corner, eyeing her as if she was some dangerous predator. 

She moved closer and he hissed at her. 

Suddenly Cedric jumped down from his perch on top of the china cabinet and landed next to the boy, coiling his shadows around his limbs. "How dare you!" he spat and wrapped the boy in shadow magic until he couldn’t so much as twitch a finger.

"It's fine," Titania said and looked at the young boy who was now helplessly floating in the air and trying to somehow escape her younger brother's shadowy clutches. "He only hissed at me, Cedric. He’s just scared." 

She moved closer to the boy, who Cedric set down after a brief moment of hesitation, let down again before stepping away.

I didn't think I'd need my magic this early in the morning.

"I promise I will do nothing that isn't for your future welfare today." She spoke, her magic stirring and surging outward to bind her to her word. The air gave a small tremble, announcing the oath was complete. 

Oath magic was an innately powerful type of magic, it cemented an oath with magic and imposed consequences if the oathmakers broke their word, including the user. A promise made with oath magic was nigh unbreakable, only a stronger oath mage could overwrite the magic. Since Titania currently the only living oath mage, any oath bound with her magic was completely unbreakable. In the past, oath mages had served in high positions in courts and some businesses, since their magic removed some of the cloak-and-dagger maneuverings of one’s enemies. 

The boy noticed the tremble and the faint change in atmosphere caused by the magic. That was one of the many nice things about oath magic. If done in the favor of someone that possessed magic, or at least the potential to possess it one day, they would know the contents of the promise no matter what obstacles were in the way. Even the monsters knew and trusted a promise made by oath magicians.

The boy stilled in front of Titania and looked at her with fascination. She smiled; it was always nice to see this expression on other peoples faces once they realized what kind of mage she was, her kind was so rare that although a lot about them was known and their abilities highly valued, no one ever expected to meet one of her kind. She slowly got closer, ignored the bad smell and took his small foot in her hands. They were distressingly thin, nothing but skin and bones. It was a wonder he could even walk, especially with the glass shards. 

Taking the scalpel, she carefully but quickly cut around the glass shards so she could pull them out with a pair of tweezers Drake had brought back with him. Whenever pulled a shard out, she immediatly rubbed a small amount of healing potion on the area, watching the flesh stitch itself together before moving on. During the entire process, the boy was careful not to let a single sound of pain come from him. It reminded Titania of Raon.  

When she was finished, she handed Raon his knife back and rose to her feet. Taking a step back, she looked at the boy and, stretching out her hand, introduced herself.

"I am Titania Tarajan. What’s your name?" The boy flinched backwards at her last name before looking at her with dark blue eyes filled with a strong will and powerful curiosity.

His small hand took hers and he hesitated a moment before opening his dry lips, "Dex. Just Dex," he said. Behind them, Chrysanthe started to laugh. Her eyes danced again with the same dangerous instability of their mother. 

"It seems, little sister, that we have gained an interesting new addition to the household," she giggled, and the rest of the family nodded in agreement. "Do you claim him?"

Titania smiled at her sister. That had not been her intention, since mother was already off the Lumiere track she  might as well, it would help protect him long-term, and the others understood something like ‘claiming’ better than they did the value of life. 

"If that is what it takes, then indeed, I claim him," she answered, and their mother nodded in satisfaction. 

"It’s high time you took yourself a servant," Marcia said with glittering eyes. Titania swallowed at her expression. It was moments like this all of them knew to be careful around their mother. "Remember well, little boy, we are not just anyone. We are the Tarajans. We do not give out charity, we make equal exchanges. Pull your weight and you may find a place here among us." 

The boy looked at them with wonder, fascination, and determination, all mixed with hope. The look of someone with nothing to lose. 

"Then I promise I will be of use," he said. Titania needed a moment to reign in her magic that reacted to the words ‘I promise’. She looked at the boy with a smile and patted his head. 

"Be careful with promises in this house, we will hold you to them and if not them, then my magic will," she warned him and moved toward the table. "Now, another piece of toast for you and after that, a bath and new clothes. Drake, if you will." 

Nodding to the family butler, she turned to her family. “He is mine,” she declared, and they all understood what she meant. Dex was officially off-limits for them now. 

“Titania, don’t you have school today?” her mother asked and raised a pointed eyebrow and waved at the clock. “Leave the boy to the butler and Annie.”

RainingSky

At this point again thanks Yuuk1 and to another person for reading through it and correcting.