Livia Maren.
After she had become Livia Maren. It's not like she hadn't wondered or questioned, pondered time to time, pleaded with the silence in her mind. Why had she become Livia Maren? What had gone wrong? What had happened?
But the strangest thing -no, the most terrifying thing – was she couldn't even remember who she used to be. Not her name. Not her face, her friends, family, job.
Nothing.
As someone or something scrubbed her mind clean.
All that remained was a book. Her favorite book "Shadows Over Vireholm".Why she read that book, how she read it and how she felt reading it.
And then there was memories that was supposed to be totally unfamiliar to her ,yet it all felt vividly familiar strangely
Memories of Livia. -the previous Livia. A woman she somehow knew, how she behaved- arrogant, rude and foolish.
They had different morals and values. They acted differently, they were different persons.
And yet she could remember Livia but not herself.
Now it didn't really matter.
Weather it was possession, reincarnation ,or if her previous life even existed at all. Because what mattered most now was Livia Maren's present and future.
There are two future lay before Livia – first is to die after thrown into the Northlands .
And the second one is to live as long as Madline wishes and get treated like a dog , get tortured anytime Madline wants, lastly die young because of these thing.
And honestly neither was desirable to her.
The two snake curses that extended to her waist was a binding curse that ensured the Maren family's eternal loyalty to the Feliste family – if she recalled correctly .
Originally the Maren viscount family an insignificant baron family from a small city .
They neither had too much wealth nor precious raw mines or vast properties.
So, the question is why did the Feliste family extended their to someone so insignificant? There's only one answer, even Livia knew it.
The Maren family's curse magic.
And soon they became successful re-creating and twisting curse magic. They even created their own unique formula .
Eventually, the small Baron family began to actively operate in the underworld. They mainly focused on selling the re-created curses with the exchange of large sum of money and cursing others.
One day, the Maren family got caught by a very powerful individual from the capital and the powerful individual happens to the Feliste family's head Henry A. Feliste.
But instead of informing the imperial family, Henry A. Feliste took it as a opportunity, he needed someone trusted follower to work behind the scenes for increasing his family influence more.
So he made a lifelong deal with Livia's family, providing them wealth plus entry in the capital, and unwilling to miss the opportunity the Maren family gladly accepted.
There were many terms and conditions for Maren family so that they can work under Feliste family. But suddenly Henry A. Feliste questioned how much effective their curse magic was, in the end he added another condition to prove and to never betray.
To prove their unwavering loyalty , The Marens did what was a unthinkable for any human -they bound their own child, Livia Maren; who was not more than four at the time with a curse.
A cruel spell, intricately tied to the will of Madline Feliste—Henry's daughter. From then Madline could activate the curse anytime, any place she wanted.
However, in the process Livia's family hid a crucial fact from the Feliste family's head. The fact that the magic power of the Maren family had been steadily declining for generations. It was only a few years after the deal was made then the matter came to light.
Why was Maren family's magic power declining? Some speculated that it was because they had been cursing others for their own benefit for so long. The Maren family desperately denied it, but it was a plausible theory.
But it did not matter to Henry, as long as they can still use cures magic and be useful to him as long as he wanted then Henry can always get rid of the Maren family later on.
In any case, Livia's family gave Livia away for money and influence. They whole family members even agreed.
And that was the story behind how Livia Maren became Madline Feliste's Dog. Livia even took pride in it.
"One sold their own daughter for greed and the sold one took pride in it."
"…What a messed up family…"
She would never understand, not even after a lifetime. Livia muttered with a forlorn expression, hugging her knees.
The point was, the problem Livia was facing was far more persistent and insurmountable than the story of ' Shadows Over Vireholm' itself.
"Why does even this kind of backstory exsit?"- she mumbled to herself while thinking about her future.