3 A Despicable Family

After High Mage Saunders announcement, pure pandemonium broke out. Most people had never heard of a null before, the guests were confused, while those in the know such as Jayde's parents were horrified. How could they, being so outstanding produce something as useless as a null. Nulls were people without any magic whatsoever. Even the lowest slave had magic. The only creatures in Doha that were magic-free were the lowly beasts.

"Y...y-ou must be mistaken" Za'thul shouted out, stuttering for the first time in his life. This was a disaster. If High Mage Saunders was correct this would be the most embarrassing event in the Freehold clan's history. This would mean that their daughter was lower than a slave, a beast, you couldn't even consider her a human. Who had ever heard of a magic-free human?

"Clan Leader Za'thul, I have confirmed it twice, even used multiple crystals, there is no mistake, your daughter is a null," said High Mage Saunders.

High Mage Saunders then went on to clarify "Your daughter has no magic ability whatsoever, she is the first magic-free human born since ancient times" High Mage Saunders stressed human, as though he was doubting Jayde was human.

The guests were shocked, then everyone started whispering, the ladies tittering behind their hands, while some of the men were smirking, delighted with the catastrophe befalling the Freehold clan.

Elder Ebi, Za'thul's third uncle realizing that Freehold clan needed to act quickly, sent away the guests. After everything had quietened down, the elders were called into an urgent meeting with Za'thul. After hours of arguing it was decided that Za'thul would discard Shyenho as his main wife, she would be found guilty of adultery, to explain away Jayde's eyes, they would tell everyone that Shyenho had placed a spell on Jayde changing her eye color and that Za'thul had discovered this after investigating the matter.Za'thul would rather live with the mortification of everyone knowing that his wife had cheated on him, than having an abomination like Jayde as his daughter.

Shyenho was quickly tried and found guilty, even the Starglaze clan refused to interfere, they did not want to be associated with a childlike Jayde.Shyenho was dragged through the streets of Arvia, where she was beaten and stoned to death.Her name, as well as Jayde's, was removed from both the Freehold and Starglaze clan ancestral records.

Up until the day of her mother's execution, Jayde has no idea what was going on. After her Reading Day, she was locked up in her room. No matter how much she screamed and cried, no one listened.

On the day of her mother's execution, Jayde was made to watch as her mother was stoned to death. Her father had already arranged for one of the elders to cast a spell on her to change her beautiful amber eyes to black, as well as to make slight changes to her face to remove any similarity to him. Her beautiful clothes were confiscated as she was dressed in the rough tunic of the Freehold clan's slaves.

Shocked and confused Jayde tried to call out to her father, she was desperately seeking comfort from her parents. As she ran up to her father, he brutally beat her, shouting at her to get away, calling her a bastard, and many other words that she did not understand. After being kicked and punched a number times, her small body was filled with pain, blood dripped from her mouth and the numerous cuts on her body, one of the maids roughly pulled her away and told her to stay away from the family members, that she was a slave.

Her small body trembled as she watched her beautiful mother dragged through the streets of Arvia, while the crowd jeered and threw rotten vegetables and stones at her. Finally managing to escape from the slave holding her, Jayde ran up to mother, not understanding what was going on. All she wanted to do was hug her mom, but instead of hugging her, her mother's eyes were filled with hatred, it was like she was looking at a monster.

"Get away from me, you ugly monster, you are an abomination, you are not my child" her mother screamed.

With her hands tied, all Shyenho could do was try to kick her daughter.

"Give me back my daughter you bitch!" Shyenho continued to scream.

Struggling hard against the ropes, Shyenho tried her hardest to get to Jayde, all she wanted to do was strangle this child, tear her to pieces. In the time that she was imprisoned Shyenho had come to the conclusion that Jayde was a changeling, that someone must have swapped out her real daughter with this demon child.

Exhausted and with her strength and magic suppressed, Shyenho collapsed, still muttering all the time for Jayde to give her daughter back. The guards dragging Shyenho through the streets finally lost patience and started to drag her away.

In a final burst of strength, Shyenho shouted at Jayde "You have killed me, you murderous bitch!! You have killed me".

That was the last time Jayde ever saw her mother, but her last words were branded onto her mind and for years to come, they would replay in her dreams.

After the execution of Shyenho, Jayde was thrown into the slave pits, the slave pits were the most terrible place in the Freehold Estates.This area was for people who had betrayed the clan, murderers, and rapists. Hell on earth. It was widely known that is was better to die than to be thrown to the pits.

It was here, in these slave pits that Jayde was to spend the next 10 years of her miserable life. Beaten and starved Jayde slaved away from sunrise to sunset, if it wasn't for Old Man Zhek, Jayde would have perished within a couple of days of arriving.Old Man Zhek, took Jayde under his wing and tried his best to protect her. He taught her how to survive, were to steal the best food, how to hide from the guards and fellow slaves.

For 8 years Old Man Zhek guarded Jayde, but life was hard in the pits, and when Jayde was 11 years old, Old Man Zhek passed away, leaving Jayde alone.For two years Jayde struggled to survive on her own.

But fate was a fickle bitch and she had one last joke to play on Jayde.

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