Chapter 1 The Pest Hunter
“Bloodlines have been guarded through noble marriages, hoarding high magic among the elite. That’s what the upper nobles want the lower classes to swallow. Yet, if a so-called pure-blood shows weak magic, they’re dropped as quickly as a mangy dog. Scooping up magical orphans and training them as nobles also keeps magic pure.” - Excerpt of the Ruby Queen Biography, 24th year of her reign.
Magic is rare among all citizens. Power never comes free. Whether born to the high houses or the gutters, any individual who summons magic must pay a precise price—life, blood, or memory, each a distinct currency within the arcane system. The cost intensifies with a spell’s strength. More ambitious enchantments become exponentially dangerous. The unique nature of this magic shows early for most: a flicker in the fingertips, feverish images behind the eyes, or a whispering ache in the bones. The Guild's examiners use artifacts crafted for this system alone—sand-filled hourglasses, calibrated to track power expenditure, and enchanted stones that glow with a mage’s unique resonance—to train and measure both raw force and precision. Without accepted Guild training, unregulated magic can drive a practitioner into collapse or madness long before true mastery. This uncompromising system is a fundamental law of the realm, shaping how all social classes view and hoard magic. For many, the cost of magic is inescapable. For nobles, it is a secret best kept unspoken.
A good morning in the slums was measured by what you didn’t step in—mud, trash, or worse. By that simple standard, Daisy's day had its best moment before dawn. Fog hung low, curling around splintered eaves and half-collapsed stoops like a gray blanket. It smothered the usual stink with its dampness. The quiet, heavy air weighed on Daisy, dulling any hopes she still dared carry at sunrise. Yet even beneath the fog and her exhaustion, something sharp remained: a wish not only for escape but for a future where she and her mother could survive beyond mere subsistence. Her central goal was simple. She needed to find a way out of the slums and secure a safer life for her small family. This hope was so delicate she kept it hidden, even from herself. Still, it glimmered every time she braved these streets. Daisy moved through the alleys with the care of a stray cat avoiding danger, always alert for chamber pots or magical objects flung from above. Her battered leather satchel, patched again and again, tapped softly at her hip with each step—a constant companion on her cautious journey.
The baker’s back door was blocked with a cinder block and a threatening sign scrawled in the proprietor’s best imitation of noble script. Flour-fine dust dulled every letter. Daisy bent, dragged the satchel over, and rapped the code against the wood. Two slow, one fast—a rhythm mocking the start of a noble parade, a pauper’s trumpet from the shadows. After a beat, the cinder block scraped. The door opened just enough for a doughy hand to beckon her inside.
She slipped in and let her eyes adjust. The storeroom looked like a graveyard, with rotting bread scattered and flour sacks piled up like drunken sentries guarding the corners—as if the heaps were careless guards watching over forgotten remains. The rats here were as big as terriers, with blunted teeth and a reputation for being mean. Daisy’s tools were simple—spring wire, sticky resin, and a nail-studded baton. She wound the wire tight, wishing for a moment she knew even a weak magical charm for protection. It might have scared off the rats or made her trap faster. But in the slums, wishes were useless. Magic was hoarded and became more legend than reality, so Daisy relied on stubbornness and sharp tools instead. She set the first trap by the sagging shelf and waited, kneeling quietly in the shadow beside a crate marked 'Yeast, Premium.'
“Be quick, rat-catcher,” the baker said, voice thick with yesterday’s grease.
A whisker twitched. Motion flickered. Daisy counted heartbeats: one, two, three. She snapped the baton. The rat gave no squeal—just shuddered, then slumped. Daisy checked for blood, wiped the baton clean, and moved on. Last winter’s fever pricked her memory—another illness, another rat, a missed kill. If she slipped, the disease would reach her mother first. Twenty minutes and four nests later, she bagged six rats. Her nerves stretched tighter with each strike. She stomped only once, a rat clinging to her boot. Flour dust coated her hair and arms, leaving her hands as pale as bone.
The baker paid her copper coins. Daisy counted the coins, spotting the shortfall, then looked up. He had already turned away, slicing dough, humming a noble’s anthem off-key. She clenched the coins until they left hot prints on her palm.
Outside, the fog dissolved to a fine drizzle. Carts rattled, children shrieked, and the grocer shouted after a street thief. Daisy’s breath misted in the air as she strode toward the avenue, mind tallying what meager coppers might buy: half a loaf, a swallow of cough tonic for her mother. Then, a commotion snapped her focus.
A noble’s carriage, gleaming black lacquer, rolled through the mud as if it had never heard of such a thing. Its wheels glowed. Faint blue sigils circled with each turn, each rim casting a halo as if an unholy sun had descended to these streets. The magic drove back the filth, pushing away slop and trash in an untouchable radius. For a heartbeat, the whole alley looked lit by some forbidden miracle. Daisy felt it burn her eyes. She blinked, gaze lowering. The scene was both mesmerizing and a sharp reminder of her exclusion. Beauty was cruel by the gulf it drew between those inside and the world outside. Daisy tightened her grip on her satchel, anchoring herself against that unwelcome distance. Beyond the glass, nobles believed the world outside their carriages existed chiefly to test their virtue. Their comforts felt justified as birthright. To them, the purity of privilege proved their worth. Filth belonged to those who had not earned magic's favor. Two guards flanked the carriage in uniforms with tunics shot through with silver thread. Both showed open disgust. To them, the slum was an infectious rash.
An old man with a matted beard and no shoes hobbled into the carriage’s path, hands out. The red-headed guard with icy eyes didn’t hesitate. He flicked his wrist. A ripple of greenish light tossed the beggar backwards. The old man hit the gutter, scraping his face on the cobbles. Daisy slowed, knuckles whitening around her bag’s strap.
The guard’s gaze swept the street, counting threats. It landed on Daisy. She knew he could sense her meager magic—probably not enough for a candle trick—and dismiss her in the same breath. But she didn’t look away.
The carriage passed. Its window uncurtained just long enough for Daisy to glimpse a child in silks—face pinched, eyes glazed from sleeplessness or too much sweet wine. She wondered how it felt to move through the city without ever seeing it.
The guards marched on. The beggar crawled to his knees and spat blood. Daisy watched until the noble's tail lamps vanished around the corner. As she stepped past him, she dropped a rat corpse by his elbow—a small, grim offering. It was not quite pity, nor quite charity. She knew the meat might buy him a day's survival or just remind him how people died here. Maybe it was defiance. Maybe she just couldn't walk by empty-handed. Without pausing, Daisy moved on.
The next stop was the market. The coppers in her palm burned hot. Bought with rat blood. And desperation. She clenched them until her knuckles whitened, as if the coins themselves carried the shame and effort required to earn them. A flash of metal—a knife or a hand in her pocket. Sometimes, before she’d even notice. Daisy hunched lower, a predator’s crouch, and cut through the rain-slick alley. A hush fell. Too sudden, as if even the morning birds had stopped, signaling danger coming. Her footsteps echoed farther than they should, the silence sharpening into a tense pause that prickled her neck, as if the alley itself warned her to be cautious. Even the rats, wiser than most, kept clear of these alleys after dawn. Something was coming. She kept moving, every sense stretched taut, uncertain whether she would reach the market or disappear into the quiet.
