Silvermoon Mage's Tower

Shoshannah Daratranzanoff Morningstorme made her way through the grand halls and up extravagant stairways of the Tower. The Building itself was located in the complex grounds of Silvermoon Keep. Even from the outside it was a very tall, gray stone building. Inside was even larger and grander. There were magical porters to help get from floor to floor, but only groups of floors and some places were restricted to certain people. For example, acolytes could only access libraries and facilities on the first dozen floors. Novices could access others. Mage Tiers were also part of the restrictions. 

Only their mentors or the First or Deputy Mage could grant special access to some areas. Shoshannah, better known as ZsaZsa, was only a mid Third Tier Mage Apprentice. She should only have access to the first fifty or so floors, but her mentor is her aunt Raven Darovan, the Deputy Mage, or Second Mage, of the Silvermoon Mage's Tower. So she had access to more places granted to her by her mentor.

ZsaZsa was an existence that was recent in Emphyralis. She was the child of a Dragon and an Earthborne. Earthborne were new to Emphyralis. They more accurately called Daoine Sidhe. They are a type of fae, born of nature. Their homeworld, Cruinog, was becoming more and more inhospitable to them. It was to the point that fewer and fewer women were being born, or even if they were born, died shortly after. In desperation, the Earthborne sought a new hope for themselves.

About a century before coming to Emphyralis, their oldest and most powerful Seers, the few elderly women left of the Earthborne, sacrificed themselves in seeking the answers. The answer was Emphyralis.

They spent the next century seeking out the help of other magic users on Cruinog in order to find a way to send them over. Finally, a group made it. In the last few years of the Dragon Wars, when the Earthborne came, the Dragons welcomed them and gave them a new home in the Eternal Mountains called New Bienskurr. In gratitude, the Earthborne helped the war effort since their men were powerful.

Not long after, a few male Earthborne found mates from among Dragons. ZsaZsa's father was one of these males. In general, the children of Dragons and other races rarely reflected the other race except, perhaps in their humanoid forms. The children of Earthborne and Dragons were unique in several small ways, but one major way.

Earthborne had several abilities, the ability to shapeshift into animals was one of them. Dragons could only naturally shift from their humanoid and Dragon forms. Children of Earthborne were able to shift into Drakes, with the ability of Drakes to cut through time and space on a singular plane in order to travel almost instantaneously. To date, every single child of Earthborne and Dragons had this ability. ZsaZsa was no exception. She was an Amethyst Dragon, and thus, her Drake form was also a miniature Amethyst Dragon. However, unlike having to go through her Changing Age, her ability to shift into a Drake manifest at the usual time an Earthborne gained their own ability, around twelve or thirteen. 

Her aunt Raven was fully Earthborne. She was actually her grandmother's younger sister, but her grandmother died in childbirth, barely giving life to her father. As for her grandfather. After losing his mate, he became one of the Laghdaithe, or the Fallen and was eventually hunted down and killed. Aunt Raven was born much later.

The Fallen were what the Earthborne men could become after a long time without a mate and the earth no longer able to sustain them.

This is where the Earthborne get their namesakes. They are earthborn fae. They were born of the earth and the earth is supposed to nourish them. They would bury themselves in the soil to sleep and replenish their energies. Otherwise, they lived on the blood of animals. They were hunters by nature. They existed this way for thousands of years but at some point in their long history, the earth could no longer sustain them and the blood of animals could no longer feed them.

They had to start feeding on the blood of humans, but their gifts allowed them to do so without harming humans. However, as the energy of their homeland became less and less, the weaker of their race, the women, began to be born less and less.

Earthborne were not meant to be solitary creatures and they mated for life. Hundreds or thousands of years of loneliness made many of them either kill themselves or sleep for long periods of time.

Some became the Fallen. 

Since feeding on humans was already wrong in their opinions, killin while feeding was even worse. However, the fallen would become addicted to it. Humans started to call the Fallen vampires. Earthborne eventually adopted this moniker as well. They would take it upon themselves to hunt and kill the Fallen. Yet, because they were also creatures who fed on human blood, humans would see no difference between the two and would often hunt the Earthborne as well.

ZsaZsa's grandfather...no one knew what to think. To voluntarily become the Fallen was almost unheard of. He also attempted to kill the newly born child but he was stopped in time. Similar tragedies are what drove the Earthborne to seek a solution outside of their own world.

However, the very existence of children like ZsaZsa created what some among the Earthborne refugees see as a new problem. The eventual extinction of their race because the children of Dragons are always Dragons. Some among the new leadership want to forbid marriages between Earthborne and Dragons.

Others argue that that was why they came to Emphyralis, to give themselves a new start. Even if it's not the same as before, their race would still live on in bloodlines and memories.

But these things were not something ZsaZsa was concerned with at the moment. She already existed. Her parents were already married and expecting a new little brother. 

She was in a hurry to get to her aunt's office. She knocked perfunctory before entering. Her aunt's office was more like a small library with many books on shelves, tables, chairs, and a desk. Raven was at the desk writing something down.