Mathis Nylander Axium Junior walked through the ancient oak door way into headmaster Alton's office.

The headmaster stood at the opposite end of the room gazing out the window stroking his long white beard. "Have a seat Mathis," he said waving to the chair in front of his desk.

Mathis made his way over and hopped up on the wooden chair warn smooth over the centuries of the other students just like him. Or maybe not just like him, in fact no other student in the world was anything like him.

Alton turned around strolled over and picked up Mathis file. "You have completed all of the courses the school has to offer and as such you will be receiving your diploma with the highest honors this afternoon."

Mathis felt that but hanging in the air and raised his eyebrow at the wizened old man.

"Ah, Yes you are very perceptive for someone of your . . . Age. In fact your age is the very reason we are having this conversation. It is common for children of your stature to make mistakes because they lack the wisdom that comes with life and time. In most cases a child of eleven such as yourself is not capable of doing any serious harm however this is not the case in your situation. If you were to make even one of the aberrations that are common among your peers it could very well change the face of our planet."

Mathis closed his eyes the headmaster was dancing around the point with his words. "So I am to be kept prisoner here because of these mistakes I might possibly make?"

"Oh, not at all. In fact I'm offering you a job as a teacher here."

"And if I refuse your offer?"

Headmaster Alton dropped the file and firmly placed his hand on it. "That is not an option. It be ill responsible for me to unleash someone of your magical capabilities and lack of experience on our world."

***

It had been months since that conversation with the headmaster and this was the first time sense that I had been allowed off campus. I walked through row after row of perfectly trimmed assorted fruit trees with my students following closely behind me. This was the start of their senior year and it was my job on this field trip to teach them the supposed intricacies of weaving an automatic harvest spell. A spell I had learned how to cast when I was five years old.

It would be a miracle if the morons that my students consisted of could properly cast the spell without cutting their own arms off. I swear for the life of me I couldn't figure out how half of them had passed their previous year. I knew for a fact the most popular one among them could barely read much less actually properly craft a spell. So much for quality public education. I murmur to myself. What made my job all the more difficult though was the fact that my students clearly seem to think orchard tending was beneath them. When in reality in today's economy they'd be blessed if even one of them got a job here at the end of their senior year.

We arrived at one of the road like streams running through the orchard. I walked out onto the water. Dozens of different types of fruit flowed downstream underneath my feet and I watched them as I waited for my class to gather at the stream's edge. "As you can see this orchard provides for most of the..."

Someone was coming. I glance skyward just in time to see the giant magical dome that covered the entire orchard ripple. Whoever it was, was at least decently talent to, in magic.

A rift less than ten feet away from me opened up. A woman with long flowing black hair clad in black leather stepped out onto the water. A smile spread across her high cheek boned face as her eyes lit on me. "Mathis son of Mathis Nylander and grandson of Archlend the devourer slayer I presume? It's a great pleasure to finally meet you and I must say it's about time they let you out of their little cage."

I'd bowed slightly. "I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage Mrs.?"

"Tara and I'm not married yet"

"Okay Ms. Tara may I ask why you interrupt my class?"

"Oh, listen to the little brat talk all posh." One of the boys standing at the streams edge jeered.

Tara rolled her eyes at the juvenile statement and looked down at me. "I have an offer for you."

"What type of offer?"

"One I dearly hope you accept."

"That depends on what it is."

"I will free you from your bonds of injustice and in return you shell become my spouse and help me carve out my own kingdom in the Badlands. Once you've reach of age, I will bear your child and as a family we shall make our new kingdom one to rival the eight."

"She is an anarchist." One of the girls in my class gasped.

Toric the popular boy of the senior year raised his hand. "Well I say we take her down then." A ball of fire blossom into existence in front of him.

Tara didn't even bother to look at him as she raised her palm forming a barely perceptible shield around herself. "What do you say?"

At that very moment one of the auto harvest spells carrying fruit collided with Toric's fireball and it blew up in his face sending him head over heels into one of the trees.

I sighed. I knew I should feel sorry for the kid and it was my responsibility to keep him safe but honestly any mage worth his salt should have been able to stop such a simple interruption.

The four girls in my class that considered themselves Toric's groupies screamed and dashed over to his side their faces comically scrunched in concern. I reached out with a thought and cast a spell that allowed me to see through one of the girl's eyes. They all too gingerly rolled Toric over; his eyebrows were gone along with most of his ridiculous goatee and he clutched his right hand in pain. As I suspected it was covered in first-degree burns thankfully though it was nothing I couldn't heal in a few seconds.

"I'm sorry Ms. Tara, it's a delightful offer really but I've got a student to heal." I said to the lady and started to trudge towards the fallen child when one of the four girls screamed hysterically, "How dare she hurt Toric how dare that witch hurt Toric."

Before I could stop her she tore off the locket around her neck and threw it Tara with all of her might. The locket was enchanted with a simple self-defense spell designed to cause and attackers spell to implode on itself when thrown. And wouldn't have done a single thing to Tara because she wasn't forming or charging a spell, but as it flew out over the water it collided with the main spell governing the streams.

The world screamed and the stream beneath my feet erupted violently spewing fruit and water hundreds of feet in all directions.

Instinctively I channeled a shield around myself then reached out through the water and forced it to flow around my students.

The explosion lasted less than ten seconds but in that brief amount of time it leveled almost an entire acre of trees. My students stood there gaping like addled brains trying to figure out what had just happened none of them having evenness foggiest clue that one of their own number had just caused hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of damage.

Tara floated up lightly into the air. "Are you sure you don't wish to accept my offer? You know Alton will never let you go especially after this."

Her words rang true. This was just the type of mistake he had been talking about before, no matter how I try to explain this, this was going to be my fault. The headmaster would do everything in his power to make sure that I never left the campus again. She was right if I stayed the rest of my life would be already decided for me. All of my genius and power would go to waste teaching teenagers that would never respect me especially made all the worse by the fact that I was not allowed to discipline them in any decent way.

Tara must've been able to see what I was thinking through the look on my face because she said, "If you bond with me the headmaster's seal will be instantly broken and you will be free."

I close my eyes and took a deep breath. "Fine but if you ever cheat me or cheat on me I will level the full power of the Axium blood line against you."

She raised an eyebrow. "Cheat on you?"

"Yes. I may be too young right now to enjoy your womanliness but when I do come of age I want my wife to be whole and unspoiled."

"Fair enough." She held out her hand.

I reached out to take it but at the last second pulled back. "Wait, I must warn you, a bond with me will be far more potent than normal."

She lowered her own hand. "Just how more potent are we talking?"

"We will share memories and even thoughts."

She stared blankly at me until one of the school students shouted, "The which is still here! And she's attacking our teacher."

Tara gave the school student a scathing look then turned back to me. "I have nothing I wish to hide from you anyway. So such trivialities don't matter," she said and took my hand.

I agree to the offered bond and the world faded away as our magic's reached for each other. My small body burned with exhilaration as I felt both hers and my magic race up our arms and entangle like long-lost lovers. Than her magic entered through my fingertips and flow down my palm into my. . .

XRenia ripped the memory circlet off and dropped it to the floor. "Wait Mom you not telling me this is how grandpa married grandma are you?"

A smile spread across XRenia's mother's face. "Yes dear that's exactly what this is," she said as she picked up the circlet.

"You can't be serious, he bonded with her just like that?"

"Yes dear that is exactly how it happened. And I married your father in much the same manner."

She had never heard of such a thing before bonding was an ancient and powerful magic that was typically done only after an elaborate wedding ceremony and the two lovers were alone in private and definitely not something done with a complete and total stranger in public.

XRenia stared at her mom in confusion. "Why are you showing me this n. .ow? Grandfather has finally found someone he wants me to marry hasn't he? Who is he and what's his name?"

The smile on her mother's face faded and she strode over to the couch by the Terrace and sat down. "Come sit with me sweetie."

XRenia sighed she knew this day would come eventually, her grandfather always said he was going to arrange her marriage no matter how adamantly her father told her he wouldn't let him, she knew his father would have the final say. She mosey on over to her mother and plopped down. Truth be told she didn't expect it to be all that bad, her father was the greatest man to ever live and her grandfather the second. Both of them loved her like she was their prized jewel if they had finally agreed on a man, he must be one fine specimen of a human being.

Her mother put her arm around her. "Sweetie it pains me to tell you this but on your eighteenth birthday you're going to be officially disowned and banished to the continent of Thaxium where you'll need to start your own kingdom."

XRenia pulled away and shot to her feet. "What why?"

Her mother turned away, "Because with you becoming of age the combine magical power of our family rivals that of any army and thanks to your little show last week all of the eight other nations are on edge."

"All I did is killed two giants!" She protested.

"Yes, and you left a crater the size of one of the great lakes destroying acres of usable land."

"Yeah but no one was using it. Those two giant had seen to that."

Her mother sighed. "And your complete and blatant disregard for national boundaries hasn't helped anything either."

"I still don't get what's the big deal about that. Other mages fly and teleport all over the places as they please I can't for the life of me see why I can't."

"Because it has caused undue attention and even now as we speak nations are securing their borders. If we don't do something drastic that proves to them without a shadow of doubt we don't want to expand our land there will be war!"

"Well then let there be! Father and grandfather can easily wipe out anyone that dares attacks us."

Her mother stood up and walked over to her. She placed her hand on her shoulder and looked into her daughter's eyes. "They could but they be forced to kill thousands of enemy soldiers in doing so."

"What about me what about my life?" XRenia countered throwing up her arms. "Are you saying that enemy soldiers' lives are worth more than mine?"

"Sweetie it's not just about the countless ensuing deaths." Her mother caught her right hand in hers and lovingly stroked it "If we went to war the destruction of such battles would be catastrophic. Right now the land is bountiful and all the people of the nine nations are prosperous war would change that in a heartbeat."

She tore her hand away from her mother's. "So you're going to banished me instead?" Her mother try to reach for her hand again but XRenia stomped onto the terrace and shouted back through the curtains. "And to Thaxium no less? Why on earth there?"

"You know why sweetie."

Indeed she did. It was the only continent left not occupied by one of the nine nations. And there was good reason for that. It was the ancient land in which the Devourer was born. The genetic abomination spawned by science and magic absorbed all who had opposed it growing stronger with every mage that it consumed. If her venerable forefather and founder of their bloodline hadn't outsmarted the beast killing and claiming its power for his own the creature would have extinguished all life on the planet. Thaxium however still bore the scars of that fight. From what she understood it was mostly a desolate wasteland that only barbarians live on and because of the great rifts in the land the lay lines had been destroyed. Any mage would find it nigh impossible to use magic there even her godly powers would be greatly diminished.

Her mother joined her on the Terrace and XRenia glared at her. "You know I'll be weak there!"

She nodded and swallowed hard then met XRenia's eyes. "I know, and that's why I also want you to get married before your banished."

"You what?!"

"The land were are kingdom now stands on used to be known as the Badlands and they were in much the same state that Thaxium is in now. If your grandfather and grandmother hadn't had each other they would've died on numerous occasions. We are being forced to banish you but we don't want to send you to your death dear. So I want you to find a man and get married before your birthday. The magical bond that the two of you form will enable you to survive."

She gaped at her mother unable to speak.

"Dear I.."

XRenia held up her hand cutting her off. "Let me get this straight you are not only banishing me you also want me to find a man and get married all in only one week?!"

This time her mother didn't answer.

"Why in the world didn't you tell me about this earlier? And wasn't grandfather supposed to arrange my marriage. Why isn't he now?"

"Your father was desperately trying to find another option but it is either this or war. And if your grandfather tried to arrange a marriage now of all times it would be seen as an undeniable proof that we are trying to consolidate our power."

"Won't it be the same if I do it?"

Her mother shook her head. "If you get married on your own with such short notice we can easily play it off as young love."

"Young love? Young love? How could you do this to me!" She said slamming her fist down on the railing. At that moment she became acutely aware of someone else watching. She spun around and screamed, "How could any of you do this to me!"

The curtains blew open and her grandfather, grandmother and father appeared in the room. She glared vehemently at all three of them. "How!" She demanded.

Her father slowly advanced towards her. "I tried everything in my power sugarplums honestly I did. But your banishment turned out to be the only way that any of the other nations would sign a peace treaty."

Peace treaty? They must've been discussing this for months and not a single one of them had bothered to mention a word of it to her. Rage, anger, confusion and mental anguish slammed into her like a sledgehammer. Without a word she turned and threw herself into the air.

As her magic bore her up and whisked her away she heard her mother say to her father, "Let her go, give her time."

Give her time? She thought. Time is exactly what she had needed. Now there was only a week before what she had thought was going to be one of the happiest days of her life but instead turned out to be the day she was going to lose everything.

She poured everything into her flight. The world roared as a sonic boom exploded around her and still she put on more speed until the air around her burst into flames.

Immediately her lungs screamed from lack of oxygen and the flames licked at her singeing her clothes and burning her skin. She could've easily stopped this with a simple shield spell. But the physical pain was far more endurable than the thoughts that tried to batter their way through it. So she kept flying letting the torment of the physical world seal away her thoughts.

She flew until she reached the western border of their kingdom, she was originally planning to fly straight all the way around the world like she had done so many times before but to her surprise a magic wall barred her way. A wall? She thought in alarm. There's never been a wall here before. She careened to a stop half a mile away from it and reached out towards it with her magic. Immediately she felt the presence of hundreds of mages and their hostile attitudes towards... towards her? She drew back in shock the wall had been erected by the bordering nation.

She hovered there in the air with her arms crossed. The wall itself was of no consequence to her. If she wanted she could have easily torn the whole thing down with barely any effort at all. But it's presence and the hostile nature of those who crafted it, hit her like a ton of bricks.

Maybe things were far worse than she thought. As she let this realization washed over her some of the things her mother said came back to her. Maybe this all was her fault maybe she had been too flippant with her powers.

Her stomach growled pulling her out of her thoughts. She looked around down at the ground and her eyes fell on a small town she had visited just last month. If her memory served her right there was a shop in it that sold some of the most amazing bean buns.

She turned and flew towards it as she healed her burns and made sure her clothes were at least presentable.