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[Thrax]

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Elana pulled her young daughter toward her closely, encircling her with both arms. Standing in the doorway of his home, Mauric faced off against two hooded men. "You cannot do this! I won't let you take her from us!" he declared, though his tone belied a certain lack of confidence in his words.

"It is the law in Papua now, healer. All children her age are required to attend class. No exceptions. It is only a few days a week. There is nothing to worry about. She is under our care and protection" one of the men replied, stepping inside the house to take the girl.

Mauric pushed him back outside. "I do not like this at all! Her mother and I can teach her all that she needs to know. She is too young to be leaving us and besides, we do not know what she is being taught in those classes. No one has told us a thing about it. She will not be going I tell you!"

In a sudden rush, one man shoved Mauric backwards. He tripped and fell. The other man grabbed the child from her mother's arms and hurried out the door with her. The woman screamed and reached for her but was backhanded by the one who had pushed her husband down. Mauric tried to rise but was clubbed senseless before he could get up. As the two men with the child disappeared into the darkness of the evening, the parents lay moaning in pain, bruised and bleeding on the floor.

The child cried for her parents as they hustled her down the dirt road. Not far from the house, one opened a magical gate and the three stepped through it quickly.
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The skull-helmed man watched as his new students filed past him into the building, the Rectory as it was called. At first they were terrified at his appearance, but their looks of horror changed to curiosity as they heard, in their head, not their ears, the sound of a soothing, pleasing, kindly voice, welcoming them by name to school. They just knew they were in for a fun, exciting time. So despite the scary dark man and the spooky surroundings they began to calm down and even look forward enthusiastically to what might lay in store for them in the days ahead.