Chapter 1 Useless Daughter

Valerie's POV

Seven years ago, I watched my mother breathe her last breath while I whimpered silently, hiding behind her huge magical mirror. Her killers laughed and disrespected her corpse before leaving, victoriously.

“Valerie! Do you intend on lazing around all day? How useless can you be?”

Irritation flickered across my eyes as I sighed softly. “Go away.”

“ Do you have any idea how much of a problem you've caused?” Lily thundered, heaving heavily.

I sighed and covered my ear with my palm. “You're yelling Lily, get to the point.”

She snapped and slapped my hands away from my ear, I rolled my eyes and casually dismissed the maids with a slow wave of my hand.

“How can you be this reckless? You destroyed an entire vineyard just because they refused to deliver your grape wine on time? That's outrageous, now poor old Darius has been pleading along with half the town that you should be punished.” Lily explained, angrily.

The cunning old man sold my wine to someone else so I had my guards set his entire vineyard and wine press on fire. To teach him a lesson.

“Are you even listening?” Lily yelled at me.

I glanced at him, totally uninterested. “Barely.”

I reached for the jug of wine laying lazily in front of me and drank directly from it. Lily muttered a few curse words under his breath but I didn't bother listening. The door flew open again, this time an aura of rage flooded the air.

“Valerie Kaelith Valecrest!” My father's voice boomed as he walked towards me; angry-faced.

“Hello Father.” I lazily greeted and resumed drinking my wine.

The air grew heavier with restrained anger as my father clenched his fists. With a casual flick of his finger, a pulse of invisible force shot across the room and split the table in front of me down to the middle, the two halves crashing to the floor and clanging shattered plates.

“You unfilial daughter! How dare you disrupt the peace of this town? Are you trying to ruin me? Why do you have to cause trouble all the time?” He growled.

Behind him was a petite figure with jade skin, trying to calm him down. “Lord Thaddeus, please remain calm, she's your daughter. Maybe she has a good explanation for what happened. Isn't that right Valerie?”

I snickered as I smugly smirked at her. Leona. The woman my father married after my mom passed away.

“I demand an explanation!” Father thundered.

As I examined my nails, a faint smirk tugged at the corner of my lips. “He got what he deserved.”

This infuriated father and I could see the Arcane force appear like a little ball of fire at his fingertips but Leona rushed forward and stopped him.

“Please don't punish him, she's just a child. If you use the Arcane force on him it might cripple her core and crush whatever hope of a spiritual transformation.” Leona begged, teary.

I scoffed at the pretense and fake sympathy. It worked on Father because he snickered and held back but didn't hesitate to cuss at me.

Everyone knows the story of poor Valerie. After my mother's death I cried so much that I fell sick, I almost died and the healer had to block almost all the energy meridians in my body so I could live. It came with a huge price; I might never be able to form a core or practice magic. As I grew up, I didn't have any magic aura or energy around me, no spiritual root either so my fate was sealed, to be a human forever.

“You good for nothing daughter! All you do is sit around, fool around with the maids, cause trouble and eat while your sister trains hard everyday, she's just seventeen and she has reached the peak mortal level, so she'll break through to spiritual awakening realm and become an immortal while you can't even establish a core, the bloodline of Blackburn is useless inside of you. Is this what your mother would've wanted?” Father bellowed, his entire body shaking.

“I don't care about spiritual awakening, your more useful daughter can achieve that.” I yawned.

The anger in his eyes was only rivaled by disappointment.

“Valerie, how dare you talk to Father that way?” Lily snarled.

“What Mother would think? She's dead. I guess we'll never know. Stick to your golden child Father, I'm fine being a lowly mortal.” I threw back, barely looking at them then I stood up, bored of the little drama.

“I'm off to play, don't bother looking for me.” I dismissively said as I walked out. I could hear my Father curse loudly while Leona and Lily tried to cool him down.

I found my way to the cabin in the nearby woods, stripped down to my underwear and soaked myself in the bubbling lavender scented bath. It was relaxing and warm, I threw my head back and the memory came flooding back.

I was ten years old, craving for sweetened candy my mother hid behind her huge magical mirror, I shoved many in my mouth, chuckling that she'd never find out as I watched her peaceful sleeping figure then two figures walked in, they said few words and slayed my mother in her sleep. I didn't dare breathe, for fear that I'd be caught but in the darkness I saw their face clearly, what would come to hunt me for years to come.

My eyes snapped open as I felt an emptiness, I looked down at my chest to see that the emerald green necklace I always wore had been snatched from my neck; my mother's only keepsake.

Only a faint scent of a powerful dark aura was left, someone powerful had been there. And they stole what belongs to me.

I shut my eyes tightly, gritting my teeth. My senses spread around, trying to locate my necklace and I found it three courtyards away from where I was. I snapped my finger and materialized there.

“You have something that belongs to me.” I calmly stated.

"An ordinary girl dares to block my path?" He thundered

"Give it back." I demanded.

The thief looked at me and laughed, a thick dark smoke emitting from him. “Fool, this is now mine. Scram!”

He raised his hand and unleashed a depressing blast of magic, a single deadly strike and turned around to leave but I didn't move, just before the blast could reach me, the air around rippled. Crack, Boom. The spell shattered in a split second then I slowly lifted my eyes, water still dripping from my wet hair.

“Did I say you could leave?”