A/N: "what magic has touched" or aubrie's villian backstory

Set when aubrie is around seven years old


"Ma-bar-iiiiiiii," Aubrie stressed, waving the hound doll in front of her younger sister. Adelaide simply stared back with her big, round eyes, entirely still for a moment before reaching for the mabari doll with her pudgy hands.

"Puppy," she insisted, her voice a shrill whine.

Hiding the mabari behind her back, Aubrie stubbornly shook her head. "It's a mabari, Addy. Say it. Mabari!"

At the doll's disappearance, Adelaide burst into tears; Aubrie shoved the doll into her sister's hands, moving to hug her and do all she could to placate the now-shrieking three year old. The governess' room was right next to theirs, and the last thing Aubrie needed was for her to come in and see that her pupil hadn't been working on the reading she should have been doing.

As Adelaide's cries softened to whimpers and then quiet, contented cooing as she played with the mabari doll, Aubrie heard her mother's quiet voice drift down the hall outside their door.

"–have to. We could find a tutor this time, couldn't we?"

"We can't risk it," was her father's reply. "You know this is what we have to do."

As their voices and footsteps grew nearer, Aubrie left Adelaide with the mabari and scrambled to her feet, launching herself onto her bed and flipping her book open to a random page. Pretending to be immersed in her reading, she barely glanced up when her parents entered the room.

"Aubrie, sweetheart," Lady Trevelyan called from the doorway, "we need to talk about your magic."

"I've been careful about it," Aubrie promised, making a show of bookmarking her place.

"We know. And… we just thought you'd like to be able to– to learn to control it properly." Her father beckoned for her to follow him into the front hall. "There are people who can do that."

As Aubrie slid off her bed and padded after her parents, she asked, "Like a school?"

Her mother gave a small hmph. "That's one way to put it, I suppose."

They entered the front room and were met by a tall woman clad in thick armor with a flaming sword emblazoned on her chest. "Greetings, Aubrie," she offered with a slight bow. "I'm Ser Walton, and you'll be accompanying me to the Circle." The knight's voice was heavy with a Starkhaven accent, prominent enough that even Aubrie could pick up on it.

"Where's the Circle?" she asked, taking a step to the side to hide behind her father.

"They're all over," Walton answered. "We'll be going to the one in Starkhaven. Now come on," she urged, "and don't worry about bringing anything. It's not a long trip and we'll take care of everything at the Circle."

"Go on," her father prodded, taking Aubrie by the wrist and leading her over to the knight. "You'll be fine, and they'll teach you all about magic."

Aubrie slowly followed the strange woman, wondering if she'd be home in time to finish her reading so her governess didn't get angry with her. "Tell Addy to take care of the mabari," she called, repeating herself until her mother finally nodded and promised she would.

As the door to the Trevelyan estate closed, Lady Trevelyan turned to her husband. "Maker forbid we lose a third child to magic. What have we done to deserve this?"