It had taken a while for my mark to form, it was mainly grey, but had stripes of yellow and pink with spots of blue. Overall it was a physical type mark which was good... if you were a girl. I had found out from constant lectures frim my father and condesending treatment from all the women in the manor that, in this world, women ruled and were considered better and stronger than men.
The rules for boys are a lot different from girls. Boys must be respectful to all women even if they are born of higher status. Boys must act accordingly around women of the same station or higher, boys have to wear clothes that are sensible unless ordered by their mother, elder sisters, father or wife. All of the female roles take priority over the male roles. So if my father asked me to wear a long sleeve coat but my elder sister ordered me not to wear a coat i must listen to my elder sister.
Boys did have basic rights:
-they can go to school
-they must be treated like a human being by girls unless they are in a certain scenarios and or situation.
Although it seemed that boys were alao considered the fairer sex here. So boys were considered weaker and dumber by girls.
That development lead me into a pretty bad situation. I wasnt considered valuable due to my mark blessing me physically rather than with mana, my mark also lacked a concrete shape therefore it was a weak mark. My position in my household instantly plumeted. I was basically considered at the status level of a slave. I had no redeeming qualities other than my cute looks which were probably going to fade as i got older.
At 5 years old i was considered no better than a servant and the day before my fifth birthday i was finally able to percieve mana. Its energy pulsing around me, pushing against my skin.
I instantly grabbed the books the maid had left my sisters, which they had given to me after finding them boring. The books detailed the theory behind mana absorbtion and mana cores. The knowledge that this book gave was different from the techniques and knowledge i had used in my previous life.
The was absorbed via the skin rather than through breathing and the cores had to be built in stages, starting at a vessel, then a mini proto core, then mini core, then a proto core and finally a normal core. The technique from my previous life forced you to turn the vessel straight into the core. Although both these methods seemed incomplete to me.
I decided to put my new knowledge and old knowledge together. I sat crosslegged and extended my senses, i took a breath and began to absorb mana, as i breathed i forced my skin to breath too. It felt like a thousand needles slowly stabbing into my skin. Mana flowed in. I circulated it diffusing it around my body.
Pain shot through every cell of my body as i absorbed mana, the familiar sensation of mana flooding into me did little to mask the pain.
It was like molten lava flooding my viens, every fibre of my being burnt with energy, overloaded and overfilled.
I gathered the energy in three places, forcing my muscle fibres to bend and break as i start to form three mini proto cores.
I carried on the painfull process of absorbtion, circulation and gathering until i could feel my mini proto cores becoming stable and concrete. I slowly stopped absorbing mana but continued circulating the mana i had already absorbed.
Eventually, the mana paths moved smoothly, the mana flowing freely and without effort.
I opened my eyes and felt something dripping from my chin. I reached up to check what it was. My hand came away red and warm, a nose bleed. The world span pain shot through my body, i had overworked it. My limbs were like lead, my eyelids drooped. I slumped sideways and fell into unconciousness.
I woke up relatively quickly, my body sore and aching, head pounding agressively. My lips were wet and tasted salty, it seems the nose bleed was still ongoing. I pinched the bridge of my nose and tilted my head forwards slightly. Eventually, the bleeding stopped. I wiped my lips with a rag and cleared up the blood on the floor not wanting anyone to find out. My sore body groaned in protest at my every move, my collar bone burned where my mark was. I checked my reflection. My large blue eyes stared back at me analytically, my short brown hair framing my angular face messily.
My mark was growing, spreading out into two parts either side of my collar bone, like thick inky wings.
My skin prickled uncomfortably as its form spread out unpleasantly. Tommorrow is the day they will check my mark, they check it the same time every year, tommorrow is my birthday.