"Hazelle," Briar's mother said, her excessively powdered face in her hands, "I have two things to talk to you about."

"Mother.." Briar trailed off as her mother's exasperated watery-blue eyes stared into her amber ones.

"Firstly, Don't be a whore and shack up with peasants." Her mother's bony hand collied with Briar's face. She hadn't seen her hand coming, and she felt then rush of blood to her cheek.

"If one of your brothers get one of the rabble pregnant, we can sweep it under the rug, but we can't hide a child out wedlock if you have one. You will sully the lineage for generations!"

Briar stared at her mother in shock. She knew a lecture was coming but her pupils were unnaturally small. Her mother must have been sucking on her pipe in the private smoking room in her chambers. She couldn't go to a public opium den with the 'rabble', she had to be elitist and posh while wasting her husband's money.

"Okay Mother" She sighed, there was no point arguing with her when she was like this. She somehow became sleepy and solemn and crazy and delusional at the same time when she smoked, making her unbearable to be around.

"If I ever catch you doing it again, I will skin you alive, Hazelle!" Her eyes were oddly vacant, side affect of the drug.

"Second, "She said, "You need to attend training. I hired an instructor for you. You have so much power and you just let it sit inside you. You need to train to learn how to control it. Your siblings attended training to master their crappy, dilute powers, It's your turn."

These words sent Briar's facade crumbling down. Her strategy was to ignore her power because, frankly, she was afraid of it. The royal family of Norton was descended from Temis, The first Queen. It wasn't enough that she was the first Queen, the founder of a nation,  she was also gifted with an almost ungodly, even for the Fae, amount of magic. Water magic she blessed the line with.

All her siblings had got a diluted, small amount of magic, as it got weaker through the generations, but Briar had a lot. Almost as much as Temis herself. Her parents considered it a gift, she considered it a curse.  When she was younger she couldn't control it, but now her method of controlling it was locking it up inside her where it couldn't burst out.

"Go to the training courtyard after your changed out of the beautiful dress you dragged through the  slime of the slums. You need to learn how to harness it, NOW!"

Another side affect of her mother on opium, erratic behaviour. She went calm suggestions to do this now in the span of 5 seconds. It was too bad she was almost always on it.

Briar trudged back to her chambers, the dress dragging on the floor pathetically. The hem had a huge cut in one section where lots of the tulle was falling off. Briar could not wait to get out of the confining cage of the corset and into the free flowing clothes she loved to wear. Frilly, fancy, corseted dresses were not Briar's preferred attire.

She walked into her dressing room, already tugging at the dress. Her servant, Maggie, walked into the room. Maggie had curly black hair and rare green eyes, with the same  sun kissed skin tone Briar and her siblings had. In short, she had the Norton look. Tanned skin, either brown, hazel or rarely green eyes and black or brown hair, straight, wavy or curly. In Norton you would very rarely see red or blonde hair or blue eyes. Dark or pale skin was not commonplace either. It was always very obvious who the outsiders were.

"Maggie, I need a tunic and pants for training. Please   no corsets!" Briar said smiling, half joking. Maggie had been her wet nurse as a child and continued on as her servant since then. She was around 30ish, and she had 4 daughters, one daughter, Josy, was Briar's age. Josy and Briar were old friends, as they were raised alongside each other until they were seven, when Maggie wasn't needed to be around all the time. Maggie's other daughters, Saphya, Nalane and Elye, were all younger than Briar and they were Maggie's pride and joy. Maggie considered Briar her own daughter. Briar knew her so well, Maggie and Josy were some of her only friends, as her Mother deemed most girls unsuitable because their blood wasn't pure enough. They only escaped her mother's  scrutinising eye because they were her servants.

"Of course, Miss Briar," Maggie said in a motherly tone, already pulling Briar out of the corset She took a deep breath, getting used to the feeling of actually breathing. Maggie then pulled out a simple black tunic and pants. Briar pulled them on and thanked Maggie. It was time to train.