Sersaiyas Pive

Tieflings are not always welcome in every neighbourhood. Sersaiyas experienced this firsthand during her childhood years as her family moved a few times even before she could really remember why. As she grew older, she came to inherently understand the root cause of their inability to settle down for more than a few years at a time. Her parents were industrious people, quickly understanding the needs of the neighborhood they lived in and setting up a relatively profitable business that could keep their family afloat yet they fought a constant battle against human prejudice.
In the first months, their new venture would see moderate success, organically growing in popularity and even allowing the family of five some level of comfort beyond the bare minimum. As time went on, they would inevitably draw the ire of a few potentially less successful humans. Rival businesses would pop up close by, guards would increasingly investigate their wares, holding up supplies for days without any good reason, an insultingly low offer for their shop would be made but by then, they would be out of options, having to take the poisoned deal or be left with nothing at all. This cycle would repeat two times before they were forced to move to the most run-down part of town, a place her parents had tried to avoid with all their might.
The worst part? It only took the greed or ill-will of one or two humans to set the spiral in motion. Most folks gave a Tiefling a look of pity or even left a nib or two extra for the children. There was nowhere to go with the pent-up frustration.
In the end, her mother ran a small stall operating in the less well-off part of town, selling odds and ends depending on the needs of their customers while her father and older brother took whatever jobs they could get. Their stall mainly offered an affordable meal and utilities for the many day-laborers of the area. The profit margins were tight but this way nobody influential looked at their little business with envy in their hearts.
As the middle child, Sersaiyas grew up with a good number of set chores but more freedom than her older brother, Recius. Most of her daily work consisted of looking after her younger sister Sadani and helping out her mother in whatever way she needed. Whenever she had the free time, she would offer small services such as polishing shoes for a little bit of pocket change or trying to sell whatever she picked up in the area.
The years went by relatively peacefully from then on. Once the youngest sibling grew old enough, Sadani took over helping their mother while Sersaiyas moved on to produce her trinkets full time as well as retaining most house chores. It was around this time that her older brother managed to land a job at the guard, gaining a steady income but not enough to be able to afford moving out just yet.

Sersaiyas’ talents for the arcane were first picked up at the age of twelve by a traveling wizard who introduced himself as Bedin. While wandering through the small market of their neighborhood, looking for hints on an old ruin that he surmised to be located somewhere close to the city, he came across the stall of the Pive family. He initially did not pay too much attention to the trinkets offered next to the warm meal he ordered but after idly turning one in his hands to humor the shy Tiefling child that seemed to have mustered all of her courage to talk to him, he noticed the faint traces of magic imbued inside of it. They were neither particularly powerful nor the kind he was looking for but a certain sign of inborn talent. Out of curiosity, he handed the girl a bit of scrap parchment onto which he had inscribed the light spell a few days prior to testing his new quill. After briefly giving her an example cast, he told her to try and figure it out for herself.
The old wizard had expected the girl to struggle for a few days before potentially getting the hang of it on her own but when he returned later that evening, a small light was illuminating the stall, attracting curious customers that would have otherwise left for home. Fascinated, he bought another meal and sat down with the girl once more, inquiring how she had managed to cast the spell so quickly. Much to his surprise, she did not try to stammer together an explanation for him but admitted to being unsure how it had happened. She had tried for a while but had given up with a sour mood and returned to crafting her trinkets. When she had accidentally touched the paper, later on, it had lit up, resulting in the small ball of light they were talking under. Bedin smiled knowingly, thanking the girl and handing her a silver piece for her honesty, resulting in a wide-eyed little Tiefling that ran off to her parents
Over the next few days, he revisited the stall, testing her potential as well as teaching her basic math and how to read amps, quickly becoming a good acquaintance of the family as his educational value outweighed any reservations her parents may have had towards the odd human.
About two weeks into this relationship, he began to seriously consider taking the little Tiefling under his wing. Despite her lack of a proper education beyond the bare minimum, the young girl proved a quick wit and honest curiosity time and time again, to the point where he enjoyed the lessons just as much as she did.
After a few nights of discussion with her parents, they eventually gave in, allowing her to join him once a proper contract for her tutelage was made, including a modest salary and an arrangement of letters sent to the local minor arcana every two weeks. The old wizard was considered a lunatic by many even amongst the wizard community, so any potential societal consequences of picking up an apprentice with her physique meant little to him. All that he cared about was her natural draw to the arcane and a quick-witted mind that he could converse with during his travels. Even the greatest wizardly loner had to admit: Being able to bounce ideas with another person was immensely helpful when doing research.
Sersaiyas studied under his watchful eyes while accompanying him on his journeys to crypts, decrepit strongholds, and ancient, mostly elven, ruins, chasing long-lost knowledge for the next years. It was an exhausting but fun time for the now teenage Tiefling that came to a far too abrupt end as her master had to enroll her into the magus arcana as she turned sixteen.
Shortly before they parted ways in the capital, he had been chasing what he considered his magnus opus, a forgotten elven city that he intended on rediscovering. Such a monumental archeological find held the potential for numerous revelations and discoveries but also was inherently dangerous. Fearing to endanger his treasured pupil, he did not allow her to see his findings but instead gave his young apprentice a sealed letter, only to be opened once she graduated and under the circumstance that she had not heard back from him at that point.


The Magus Arcana was, and still is, many things. For some, it is a place of great knowledge, for others it is the empire’s way of controlling all magic, militarizing mages, and keeping them on a short leash. For Sersaiyas, it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Graduates enjoyed high social standing, much higher than what they could ever have hoped to achieve otherwise. With such stakes, the Tiefling took her classes incredibly seriously. Despite Bedin’s best efforts, her prior education was somewhat one-sided and thus still a little lacking in parts when she entered, causing her to fall behind her classmates initially. Through intense effort and the individual catchup classes of Petrin, the pupil of a colleague of Bedin, who studied a year above her, she managed to land a spot in the top fifty students of her year.
Naturally, this came at the cost of her social interactions and by the time the new year rolled around, she was left on her lonesome once again as most had already formed their friend groups and she had made barely any effort of talking with anyone in over a year. Petrin had chosen his school and rarely had the time to see her, something she perhaps regretted more than she had initially expected. In the first months, the Arcana seemed to become a bottomless void. Sersaiyas dragged herself from her little dorm room to class and back, studying during her free time and steadily climbing the class rankings. This dull routine would have continued forever had a classmate of hers, called Cithria Satsk, not stopped her one day, secretly visiting her room in the evening and asking for her help for the upcoming test.
Cithria Satsk was the catalyst for her re-emerging joy for both magic and studying. The daughter of middle nobility had perhaps played around a little too much in her first year and was hanging behind in her studies and needed help to not get into trouble for her grades. In return, she initially offered money, having noticed that most of her classmate’s stipendium was left untouched and sent somewhere by mail but the two settled on her helping the Tiefling get whatever study material she wanted and was not covered by the academy as well as introducing her to any potential friends. The latter took a few attempts but by the time the test came around, Sersaiyas had made a good amount of acquaintances. Starting from this years’ Golden Festival, the two spent their vacation days together unless Cithria was called back home. Cithria pays their teleportation fees out of her pocket without bringing the matter up.
When their third year rolled around, the two picked different schools, meaning they were not able to see each other during classes. Thankfully, Cithria had managed to switch rooms with one of Sersaiyas’ neighbors in the dorms, meaning they still spent most of their free time together, partly studying and teaching each other their different curricula but also simply being two best friends. Cithria’s family became more accepting of their friendship after witnessing their teamwork during the war games. Cithria had almost forced Sersaiyas to participate in the event initially but the Tiefling is glad that she did nowadays. While the Satsk see her more as a follower of their daughter, they have stopped asking their child to distance herself from her friend and even support Sersaiyas if it is on a matter in both of their interests.


Four years later, Sersaiyas finally graduated and broke the seal of her tutor's memento. Inside was a brief explanation of where he was headed and what he sought to accomplish as well as a warning to not follow him unless she felt fully prepared.
Her experiences in the war games had shown Sersaiyas that she was not particularly well versed in the practical applications of her knowledge just yet and so she decided to visit her family back in Omie for about a month, catching up with her parents and siblings. Once this brief window of happiness subsided, she said her farewells and joined Cithria at her company, taking drills until she felt confident enough to follow in her master’s footsteps. This was about half a year after her graduation.