Another day dawned in Terry's New City.
Diego woke groggily to the sound of his father and sister arguing downstairs.
"You're a young lady! How can you dress like that?"
"Father, what century are you living in? Leiner has opened up now."
"So what if it has? Aren't the king and his ministers still ruling Leiner?"
"A girl your age should be learning how to manage the family's affairs. You were doing perfectly well in that accounting course I enrolled you in, but you just had to go off and learn dancing instead. You'll be the death of me!"
"Do you have any idea how popular Lady Sophia's classes are? I had to pull strings just to get into the first training class. How could I pass up this opportunity?"
"Opportunity? What opportunity are you after? Snagging one of those young Atrelin mages?"
"You wouldn't understand even if I explained. What good would it do to snag a penniless lower-tier mage? Becoming a huge star, famous across the planes-that's a real future!"
"A future? I think they're just swindling you out of your tuition!"
Diego cautiously peeked out. Sure enough, his twenty-something sister Lacey was dressed to the nines, arguing with their father Moberon with her hands on her hips like a peacock spreading its tail.
As Diego looked over, he caught sight of a slightly stout middle-aged man wearing an exquisite, richly decorated, but somewhat dated nobleman's robe.
Time had left a few marks on his face, and his hair had thinned, though it was still meticulously combed. Every gesture carried an affected air quite unlike that of an ordinary commoner.
That was his father, Moberon, a former scion of the nobility.
Having lost his fief and ancestral property, he had now fallen into the commoner middle class.
Yet