Rozemyne
The meeting did not get off to a great start. Along with her parents, Myne also brought Benno. She was worried her parents wouldn't be able to talk to someone as fancy as the priest Ferdinand. Her parents were great - loving, straightforward, honest, hard working people- but Myne had a feeling this meeting would call for someone who could negotiate and manipulate.
And she was right.
Ferdinand wanted to bring Myne into the temple as a blue priestess and her parents were not having it. They didn't want to give up their little girl to the church. Gunther was ready to fight Ferdinand after the priest said that it was no big deal for parents to give up their children. Effa managed to pacify him and keep the conversation going.
However, the High Priest had even worse news for them. He said Myne was too powerful not to be taken in by nobility, and that they would have to launder her identity. Ferdinand explained that he would have to find a family willing to take in Myne and treat her as their child. It would be best if they could avoid anyone knowing she was born a commoner.
“It is the best way to keep her alive and safe.”
With those words the fight went out of Gunther. He would do anything to protect his daughter. Anything. Including giving her up.
“It will take time to make arrangements. For now come by on Earthday every week to give mana, that should be often enough to keep your fever away. I will notify you when everything is ready.”
“Before you select a family for Myne there are some things you should know.” Benno said. He then went on to tell Ferdinand about Myne's products, and even showed him samples of paper and rinsham. The priest also examined her hair pin once he found out she had designed it.
“You have given me much to think about. I will have to reconsider the family I initially planned on having to raise her. Products like these are not safe with anything less than an archnoble. It may take longer than anticipated.”
Life was changing for Myne again, or Rozemyne as she would soon be called. One year and some weeks after she was supposed to be baptized as Myne, commoner child of the lower city, she would be baptized as the youngest child and oldest daughter of Elvira and Karstedt. Karstedt was Ferdinand's cousin and agreed to adopt her for reasons that Rozemyne never completely understood. She had been told them, had tried to listen as they went on about her mana levels and the influence her products would have. But the longer they talked about how she needed a powerful family to protect her, the more she thought that her father was protecting her just fine and how much she missed her parents and Tuuli.
Karstedt and Ferdinand both panicked when she started crying. Elvira ,who up to that point had been sitting quietly letting the men talk, went over and crouched in front of her chair. Elvira began to stroke the back of Myne’s hand and make soothing noises.
“There, there sweet girl. I know it's a big thing to ask, but can you stop crying for me little one?” She said, as wiped the tears off her cheek. “I know this is a lot. There have been some big changes forced into your life. More changes than you realize are still coming. I know it's scary. But you're going to need to be strong. Can you be strong for me?”
Myne shook her head and cried more.
“Can you be strong for your family?”
“My family?” Myne hiccupped.
“Lord Ferdinand told you that being adopted will protect you, keep you safe. But he didn't tell you that it keeps your family safe too.” She kept her voice quiet, barely above a whisper.
Myne just looked at her in confusion.
Ferdinand walked over and stood behind Elvira, forcing Myne to tilt her head to meet his eyes. “If you had been left with your parents it would have been only a matter of time before you were discovered. Benno was wise to hide you, and did well so far, but your identity getting out is inevitable. Once you are discovered, the chances of you being kidnapped would increase significantly, and whoever tries to protect you would likely be injured or killed.”
"Kidnapped?" Myne repeated, not believing her own ears.
Ferdinand nodded solemnly. “ Who you would be sold to first depends on if they took you for your Mana or products. But ultimately your mana would be the more significant factor for your worth. You would be sold to a noble, likely in another duchy, where you would be forced to-” he cleared his throat.
“You would be made the mistress of the noble you were sold to.” Elvira said, finishing for Ferdinand. Neither one said it, but the girl's status as a likely future omega also increased the chance she would be captured and sold as a breeder.
Raped. They meant she would be raped by whoever she was sold to, Myne thought. And considering the morals of the type of people who kidnap children, probably by more than one person on the way to her final fate.
Suddenly adoption wasn't sounding so bad.
Ferdinand kept Myne in the temple to begin her training, assigning her attendants and tutors. It would be impossible to hide her away completely, but there were fewer eyes and they were easier to turn away. The High Bishop tried to get close to her a few times, after all she was the supposed daughter of an archnoble, even if she was a sickly one sent to the temple to die. The connection might be useful.
Ferdinand intercepted all these attempts, keeping Myne in near complete isolation. She was allowed to write letters, which she did daily. Letters to Benno and Lutz about business. Letters to her family about how much she missed them and what she had done that day. And for practice, letters to Ferdinand, so she could learn proper noble composition.
After six months of training, she was moved into the Linkberg estate where her training continued. Now under the watchful eyes of Lady Elvira, Rozemyne’s behavior was further refined.
Ferdinand visited often, which pleased Elvira greatly. It also had the unintentional side effect of catching the interest of Ferdiand’s half brother, who was also Karstedt’s cousin. Soon Lord Sylvester was also a frequent guest.
Rozemyne did not like when he visited. He was exhausting, so high energy, and he always had a thousand questions, or wanted her to do some trick. And no one ever seemed to stop him from doing whatever he wanted.
On the day of her baptism, when she once again turned ten, and still looked maybe eight, hundreds of people gathered and watched as Ferdinand tested her mana and they exchanged blessings.
All went well, until the gathering afterwards where she was supposed to greet the guests, when an older man rushed to the front of the room and swept her into his arms yelling something about a granddaughter.
Myne, now baptized Rozemyne, promptly fainted.
For the next three years Rozemyne continued her training. She rarely left the estate, except for the winter playroom and to donate mana to the church. She also had few visitors, all of which could technically be described as family.
Lord Sylvester -or, to go by his title, Aub Ehrenfest, which explained why no one told him no-, made frequent visits. More than he should, Rozemyne guessed, based on the reactions of the adults. Rozemyne suspected he was skipping work to see her, but as he claimed to find her endlessly fascinating, it was difficult to keep him away.
The other frequent visitor was Lord Bonifatius, her new grandfather. She had been passed off as being born of Karstedt's dead third wife, but that she was sickly so had been hidden away in the temple. When Ferdinand had joined the temple, Karstedt asked him to raise her. They claimed that when it was determined her affliction could be cured, Karstedt decided to bring her back to noble society.
And she could be cured. Ferdinand said it would take soaking in a potion called jurevefor at least a month, possibly a whole season, and it would take the next year to make it. Bonifatius was furious when he found out what her cure would entail, since it meant that at some point his precious granddaughter had been near death and she was not treated immediately.
Ferdinand recruited a group of knights to help gather materials. He chose ones that wouldn't be missed if he had to dispose of them later, so it was mostly med and laynobles, and then had them sign contracts binding them to keep silent about the missions.
Of the eight knights recruited, all but two of them had broken their contract, before the last ingredient was gathered, and from what Ferdiand’s scholar could learn, the foolish knights did not even manage to pass any damaging information on before the magic of the contract killed them.
The first of the remaining knights was a beta laynoble named Damuel, whose quiet demeanor and nearly nonexistent pheromones made him fade into the background.
The other was an omega medknight named Pheodore. Usually being an omega, even a male omega, meant his value to his family should be high enough that he would not have been considered for this task, but Pheodore had an unusual and unsavory history. Born of an affair between two blue priests, he was adopted by the main family to eventually become a wife or mistress for the benefit of the family.
Then his family offended Lady Veronica. Not enough for them to be executed, but it was enough that no Ehrenfest family would touch them. Unless he was able to find a marriage partner in another duchy, his family line was going to end with the current generation.
With the help of Bonifatius, his own retainers Eckhart and Justus, as well as the rapidly shrinking group of knights, Ferdinand and Rozemyne were able to gather the ingredients needed for her treatment.
Four months after collecting the last ingredient she was cured. She still had much growing to catch up on but she finally had no more mana clumps.
Bonifatius proclaimed that he would oversee her fitness and recovery, until she was as strong a knight.