Disclaimer: Own? Me? Nahhh…

A/N: Hullo, all. Long time no see… And for all I know, long time no see in the future. This is the bit where I say, sadly, no guarantees on update speed. If anyone is actually interested, that is. AU's seem to get… mixed receptions. I've been in a bit of a writing funk for a while now, wanting desperately to write but never having both inspiration and free time at the same moment. Well, best of luck if you do decide to read this; I promise it'll get finished someday, hopefully within the next century but… we shall see. As for the actual story? It's very AU… Fantasy, which I can't say I've attempted before… Magical Mage Miranda and all… As well as fledgling mage Andy and all the possibilities that entails. Some bits may be a bit darker than my previous things, as in… some magical or medieval-type violence, blood and screams and the like, but infrequently. Also, M rating is… future tense. Distant future tense. They really need a separate tense for things that are realllly far in the future. Ahem. I'll stop on the rambling author's note now.

Ever yours,

~Menzosarres.

Prologue

"We must kill it, Valise. You know the laws. How should it look if I made an exception for this… this creature?"

The sobbing woman clutched the wailing bundle to her chest. "Richard! Stop! Listen to me, please! How can you even let such words pass your lips? You are my husband. She is your child. Your daughter. Only yesterday you rocked her to sleep in your arms."

Richard allowed his face to show regret, sadness, but still hardened against true guilt. "Valise, Valise! You cannot do this. Yesterday, we didn't know that she had magic." He hissed the word out between clenched teeth. "I have not created this safe haven just to have it destroyed by my own child."

He took a step closer to his wife, reaching his arms out for the squalling child, but Valise stepped away, backing into the wall. "No!" she cried, voice breaking. "Take her powers away, get the magic out of her, but you cannot kill her, or… or…" hers tear-filled eyes cleared with intent. "Or you will be killing me as well. I will not lose my firstborn to magic. Magic has taken enough from me."

The fight went out of the man; his shoulders slumped and he allowed himself to fall to his knees before his wife. "You know that cannot be done. It takes many mages to bind the power of another, and even if I were to allow such magic into our town, my people would never accept me again. Look at what we have built here, Valise. We are the only town in the entire Kingdom that is safe from magic's reach. We've truly built a refuge here. This was our dream, our parents dream." He reached up, and although she flinched away from his touch, she allowed his fingers to rest atop hers on the bundle of cloth and child.

"Please, please, please…" Valise murmured, over and over, begging, voice broken, heart seeming ready to pound out of her chest, to break free just to get closer to the tiny, steady heartbeat of her daughter. "There must be something we can…"

"Valise."

"Wait, please!"

"Valise!"

"Wait!" Her eyes suddenly sparked with passion, glinting with hope. "We don't need to bind her. Not if she can never learns of the power."

"What are you saying? Have you taken complete leave of your senses? How could she not know she has magic? Untrained magic is the most volatile of all."

"Hire a Cloak. Open our walls to all of the Cloaks who have been seeking refuge for so long. Fill the fiefdom with them, and hire one to be our daughter's nursemaid… teacher… governess."

Richard was frozen for a moment. "You… you were the one who… you always refused the Cloaks. You were the one who would not allow me to take in the Cloaks as refugees. You said they…"

"I know what I said," Valise spat. "And I still don't like it; but their magic is certainly the lesser of two evils. You… you may have been right. Is an utter negation of magic truly magic in and of itself? And… any enemy of the mages should be a friend of ours. Cloaks have been persecuted more harshly by the mages than even we have. I've changed my mind. Besides… the crown has been at peace for too long. They are starting to notice us here, with no wartime distractions. They see us denying their mages entrance. We could not truly defend ourselves from magic if a Great Mage came here now. With Cloaks in our Refuge… their magic will be useless. Worthless."

Richard stood slowly, staring down into the wide eyes of his daughter, who had stopped crying somewhere in the last few moments and now gave a happy gurgle, stretching up a chubby fist towards his beard, her favorite plaything. She looked so small, so harmless. But he had seen the will-o-wisps floating above her cradle. He knew what that meant. In the world apart from their small sanctuary, she would be sent to one of the schools, taught to use magic as a tool, as a weapon. She would be consumed by it, like the rest of their kingdom.

Even if she was a weak mage, she would be worth more than the common folk, worth more than her father and mother, because they did not have magic. But here… here in the Sachsvere Refuge… there was no place for her, not truly. If a child was born with magic here, it was culled. Before it could become corrupted with power. Everyone would grieve with the parents, and life would go on.

But he was Lord of Sachsvere. He was a good lord. He had done his people only good. He… he should be able to take this one thing, this one small thing for himself. If he killed this child, he was not only taking away one life, but he would be taking two. He had seen his wife when she returned from the birth, seen the fear, even then, in her eyes, tempered by the love for this strange child. She had grown attached too soon.

He had heard her at night, murmuring the girl's name, even though it was not to be given until past the first half-year, past the time when the magic might manifest. Drea, she had whispered. After her grandmother. It was a beautiful name. And once something has a name…

"Please," Valise whispered again, eyes bright with a sort of madly fervent hope. "She never needs to know."

He hung his head and sighed with resignation. "You know I've never been able to say no to you, my love," he finally whispered, defeated.

For a moment, as the words sank in, she stood still. Then, she gave a cry of joy, stepping forward into her husband's waiting arms, their star-touched daughter pressed gently between them.

"I'll send out a notice for the Cloaks tomorrow. It may draw the attention of the mages, it may even bring outright hostility, but once the first Cloaks arrive, they won't dare to attack for fear of an outright uprising. I'm sure they will come; anything would be preferable to the slums they are forced into now. Until a suitable nursemaid arrives, however, you will have to stay in the rooms with her. The people already suspect… after the birth… If you could have only made it home sooner… If you hadn't stopped by the damned Elian Falls…"

"It will be alright," she cut him off, not wanting to dwell on her own cursedly early labor… the damming circumstances of her birth… "It will. I know it will. The birth is behind us now."

With that, Valise took her leave via the door to the child's room, not hearing Richard's parting whisper.

"That birth will never be behind us."