Then I am glad for you that thinks have worked out in your favor. ( She says, genuine in her kindness. ) The country I grew up in had a different perspective. There are... Bearers born with more power than others -- the details are complicated, I suppose, but there is only ever one of a certain aspected magic in a generation. And in Rosaria this individual leads the country, with marriages being made in order to ensure that they are born within the line of succession.

( A sigh, as she adds the meat to a hot pan, watching it sizzle in the oil. )

The eldest son of the Archduke failed to awaken any magical talent at all, and his mother turned upon him with a hate unlike any other. Her own son, her own flesh and blood -- she would have sooner seen him dead than love him. ( Oh, Anabella hated Jill, regarded her as a savage not worth keeping around -- not when Elwin would have had her marry either Clive or Joshua. But that was understandable. To hate Clive-- ) He still bears the scars of it even now.