"Ohhh my dear daughter, it's so good to finally be able to meet you in person."
A man was in front of me, claiming to be my father. He was being called 'the Duke' by the overseer and my mother, but I don't know anything else about him.
He had a gaunt face, with black, cold eyes and dark brown hair. His clothes were disheveled, and his manners seemed rather unrefined. Is this man an actual Duke? He looked more like a misplaced ruffian than a noble.
"H-hi... I'm Aurea Annes." I say, putting on a shy front.
"Aurea, my dear. I'm your father, as you might have surmised from the situation. I'm Duke Addlington, but you may call me just Dad."
"Yes, Dad." I keep playing the good, shy girl while suppressing the laughter inside of me. That guy's an addled egg indeed.
"Please, come closer, my little Aurea. Come, come." He looked exactly the kind of man with candies who roams around schools, and our mothers always tell us not to get close. But in this case, I had no escape, so I just did as he told me.
I reached the table and noticed that there was a kind of white slate on it. I looked curiously at it.
"Now, Aurea. Can you please put your hand on that white slate? I want to see something?"
"Why, Dad? What does it do?" I do my best to look afraid, though I probably already know the answer... and it's a bad one.
"Oh, it won't do anything to you, don't worry. It will only tell us your magical affinity."
I KNEW IT. I'm busted. There's no way I can avoid this right now.
"Magical... affinity?" I try to gain time as my mind races through the options in front of me. I sense my composure cracking, so I quickly pull an illusion spell with a silent incantation.
It's a very subtle spell that just changes a bit the refraction of light through the air around my face, helping me put the front I need.
But the Duke doesn't give me the time. In the instant it takes me to cast the spell, he stands up and circles the table to stand at my side.
"Don't worry, my dear..." He murmurs, taking my hand on his, and circling my shoulders with the other.
The touch sends a feeling of dread and revulsion down my spine, which I try hard to fight. I need to play the part of a good girl, an obedient daughter, so I compose myself once again.
"That's good. Now go, put your hand on it, I'm right here at your side, nothing bad will happen."
He steps back, which relieves me. But at the same time, I know that I can't escape. I don't know any combat spells, and my 7-year-old body is not very useful in any way. So I take a deep breath and put my hand on the slate.
It immediately turns from white to purple and shines, piercing my eyes like a strong flashlight. I close them and hear the sound of something breaking, and the smell of burnt wires fills the air.
When I manage to open my eyes again and look around, the Duke is staring at me dumbfounded, and both the guard outside and the overseer rush into the room.
The slate is shattered, and the table it was over is with some slight burn marks.
"You... this is... I've never seen such a magical power in my life."
"What happened, Sir?"
The overseer asks for an explanation, while the guard rushes silently to stay between me and the windows, and my "father" babbles at me, trying to form a coherent phrase.
"Andrey, Mutton. Get this girl back downstairs, and put on a good collar on her. The anti-magic one. She'll be too dangerous without it."
All his gentle demeanor from earlier was washed away in an instant. 'This girl', father? I thought that I was your adorable little daughter, I muse to myself.
I also noted that Andrey was the overseer and Mutton the guard. The overseers never told us their names, so we just created our own nicknames for them. Now I know the name of one.
I let them take me back downstairs, without resisting, and without worrying. I already knew the trick that would turn this into an advantage.
You see, the table with the collars was a complete mess. Collars were over each other, often entangled, and one couldn't tell what kind of collar it was just from where on the table they would be, or anything like that. The only way was through sight.
And sight was my realm.
As soon as we started walking down the staircase, I started gathering the mana and weaving the incantation in silence. I was walking in front, with the two blocking any possible attempt to flee, but this was in my favour.
The moment the table came into my field of view, I triggered the spell.
Now, for any onlooker, the anti-magic collar would look like an ordinary one, and one of the ordinary collars would look like the anti-magic one.
The other two arrived at the hall right afterwards. Then Andrey picked the collar that looked like an anti-magic one and put it on me.
I saw the way it worked so many times already, because of Mom and Cambucy, that I knew exactly how to make the gem shine, to complete my illusion perfectly.
Unsuspecting, Andrey took me back into the room, where Mom came running to hug me, crying at the sight of the collar.
It was only when Andrey left the room that I smiled and told Mom what happened and what I did, showing her that I still could use magic.
"Aurea... you... Oh my Goddess, you're so smart! I'm so proud of you! I was so scared that I would lose you... I love you so much."
And on and on she went, speaking disconnected phrases in between all the sobbing.
"The best thing is that now they think that they've neutralized the danger in me. Which will make them lower their guard the next time."
"What are you planning on doing, Aurea?" Mom asked me, wide-eyed.
I just winked at her and stated, with a candid smile.
"The honorary kitsune strikes again."