It had been two years since Rinaye had settled into her new home. Now, she was a fully grown three year old kid. Such magnificence. Edna was her same old self, appearing uninterested in absolutely everything. Nina was still cheerful and Sabrina was still in denial about how she felt about Nina. It was very entertaining to Rinaye. It was about this time when Rinaye started to learn to read. The language of the country she lived in was actually very similar to English. Letters represented sounds, and those sounds put together made words, and those words made sentences.

  Rinaye loved the children's story books here. It gave her a lot of insight about the religion and mythology of the world. Because of these stories she also now knew that this world had MAGIC! She had grown up reading and watching shows in which magic was a regular part of life and now she would get to experience it! She learned about the two goddesses of the world, the sun goddess Sol, and the moon goddess Alune. Sol was the one that people worshiped the most and the one that gave humans the ability to use magic. Allegedly. Something about the stories seemed a bit too happy-go-lucky to Rinaye, but that's a different story for another time.

  Sol was in charge of the geological features of the world. This included magical crystals found in places known to be greatly exposed to natural magic. These crystals were this world's equivalent to batteries. The cheaper ones were one time use, and the more expensive ones were rechargeable. Alune was in charge of the living ecosystems. The forests, the oceans, anything with living creatures. She's known as the patron of beasts and demons. But of course humans don't count as animals! They're superior!

  ...

  Rinaye felt bad for Alune. She probably did most of the work and her sister got all the credit. Who knows what the inner minds of goddesses contained, it was an enigma. What she did learn, is where the innate magic that human use came from. Evolution. Yup. All creatures in this world can use magic. It just takes a really long time for a species to develop the ability to use the magic in the world around it. That's why you don't see squirrels shooting fireballs, they didn't evolve that way. The same reason humans don't have bushy tails. SCIENCE BABY.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  She read a lot. Everything she could comprehend, she read. There wasn't a library in the South Annex, but there was a little office stacked with books. Anything she could reach, she read cover to cover. Old newspapers, cheesy magazines the other maids read for fun, random open letters on top of any random surface. She once uncovered a secret relationship between a maid and a stable hand by reading those. It was rather hilarious, the cheesy romantic slop that they wrote to each other. She would also often play in the garden, sculpting the dirt into various shapes and scenes. The dirt was also where she practiced her letters.

  She liked living here, it was nice. People took care of her, she didn't have to worry about food, and she was able to keep herself entertained. She could read and play. She finally got to learn how to braid hair. She never learned because her hair was always too short. There was even a music room in the annex where she could play some tunes that she remembered. Even if the only songs she ever learned were memes, they weren't here! She could play as much annoying video game music as she wanted without anyone telling her to stop, saying that it's "overplayed". Movie themes along with Beethoven were fair game!

  But soon, this little paradise would come crashing down.

  _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  A letter had come to the duke's office. It was from his "friend", Vissier. It told him all of the good news that had happened. His daughter woke up, a new harvest just came in, his investments were high. But it was mostly about his daughter.

  "It's amazing!" The letter said. "She just woke up one day! We even figured out why she was asleep for that long. A mage came in to look at her condition, had he said that she had the highest mana capacity he'd ever seen! Apparently, when someone has that much potential, they can fall into a deep sleep to cope with the amount of power flowing through them. She only woke up because her body finally learned to cope with it. The best part is that she's already a prodigy! She can't move very well due to being in bed for three years, but we've seen her using magic to help her move around! Anyway, here comes the point to my letter. I know you have a daughter, right? You were always talking about how excited you were for Celia to give birth. It's such a shame I never got to meet her. I'm now looking for a playmate for my daughter, and I was thinking that your daughter would be perfect for the role. I'll compensate you of course, I know your family is always busy. Let me know what you think!"

  ...

  "I guess that blight will be good for something after all."