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The sun peeks high in the sky in her first memory of the world, only shaded by various linens that formed the tent above their head. Small gust tossed sand and dust across the plains this way and that way while she sat in the lap of her brother, both content to listen to their grandma making them their favorite spiced tea.
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“Your mother and father would rather you be… ignorant of my stories.
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“But why is that?” She could feel brother’s voice seeming boom even though he wasn’t talking that loud.
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“The stories I have to tell are cruel. She rather you two stay naive and stay away from the city everyone speaks of. And your father rather you two no get fragile pipe dreams.”
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She was too young to understand, so was her brother. They have never seen the inside of Eso, the town nearly everyone has left to live in aside from those that were too stubborn to leave. They were among them, or rather their parents where. They were left to lead nomadic lives due to it.
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“But… they’re out right now. Dream away, my babies. I’ll tell you whatever you want, but you mustn’t tell them.” She spoke as she turned and handed the small cups over, the cinnamon and clove seeping into their noses, bringing them into a state of comfort they always called home.
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They listened to their grandmother’s tales, good and the bad always. Demanding for more, wishing to know this life that she would only tell them of. Their grandma didn’t speak so completely ill of the mega-city. It was all in discovery and going along their goals in life she told them. That their family was the few of the mutants that escaped when Eso condemned them for using magic unlawfully. They were naturally from Eso, but her tellings of these stories scared her children so bad they refuse to believe the Eso has changed. Even in their seclusion, people have talked about the changes that have been brought on since those events, yet her children condemned their old home. A home that her grandbabies never had the chance to discover.
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The rest of their family (or rather the whole nomadic group they all called family) instilled survival only. Dreaming of a life that was better was considered a time waster as their life amoung Valor’s wilds just was better for them all. There was no need for absorbent use of magic or need for technology where that placed their feet. What was needed there was wit, will to live and adapt, and ultimately work ethic. There was no time for silly things that belonged to the world they didn’t live in.
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Living in that life as young as they were was no easy task, threats coming and going in various ways. She had her own rough times, between sickness and failure, that she managed through. Even in her young teens, she had a brush with not being cautious enough on a hunt and having a hulking bear over her in seconds. Her luck spared her on that day being as she didn’t hunt alone at that time. Everything had a cost to learn out there, she realized. It was always life or death, even for the simplest thing.
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Still, they stole as much time they could with their grandma. The woman taught them to read with the books, educated both with her stories and actual knowledge. The old woman knew they wouldn’t get the taste of deciding what life they wanted to have. After all, their family only wanted to understand survival. But only surviving was no life. She believed they deserved better. At least a choice in what they wanted.
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And choose they did when the years passed, growing to be adults. Their parents were ready to step down from their position of leaders, her brother chose to stand in their place. But, much to their parent’s chagrin, he said he’d like for them all to visit Eso at least once, if not to find homage there, it was to see if there was an easier way to get their needs out of the way. So they can enjoy life for what they made of it. They had nothing to buy things with, but they would figure things out as they were too use to bartering.
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Razivia supported her brother’s decision, as she wanted to see it too. There was some that reveled in the same fear their parents had, but the majority wanted to see it, at least once. Their visit did bring to light to them all the changes that Eso has done for itself, vastly different from the stories their grandma told them from when their great grandparents and she had to run from the place. It even caused even their parents to relent unwillingly that things could be better with the assistance of trading with people.
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But when they went to leave from their visit, Razivia felt a gut instinct to stay. To make a home here and start a different life. It wasn’t like she couldn’t keep doing the survivalist thing, but her grandma always said that she was the biggest dreamer, her mind was meant to be in Eso in some way, shape, or form. As well as her grandma stood there next to her right then, while still doing well, how much longer would she do well out there in the wilds with their family? Her grandmother’s age was finally showing after all these years and a part of Razivia said that she too should stay, with her. In case something should happen, after all.
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This ordeal did lead to a massive discussion her parents in no way shape or form to leave either of the two in the city by themselves, but it ended up boiling down to Razivia could help them, she could run supplies to them and they trade with her whatever she wanted or needed, especially since in her time outside the city, she proved skillful with sewing clothing, furs, and leather for them. She could have an income and come to their aid. And as well, talk of their grandmother’s age broke them all down to leaving the pair to find their way into the city and gain their footing together. Who better to help than the woman that held all the stories of the place’s past they heard of.
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While they have seen the brilliance that Eso regained, it was very quickly that they found it’s downfall. The city’s slums they were made to move into for their start was nothing but a wreck. Life was no less harsh than it was in the wilds, yet it didn’t put the two ladies out. They were going to stick it out. Razivia had the drive to survive in anything, after all. Even if it means a whole new environment that she wouldn’t play a fool to. It wasn’t long though that someone noticed that the seamstress was more than she seemed, that she was skilled in a lot more than a needle and thread when someone tried to cause her trouble at her new started shop. This someone began to spur an interest in her for what was known as the Grimm Troupe. A group she knew little of until the person approached about it, giving her just enough info to find herself a way to talk to someone about being one of them for further reform of the city. And in her taste, it was much needed for what’s she’s seen. If she can help that cause, then she had no problem in lending her hand so she can spend her free time in peace with the spiced tea her grandmother still made for her.