A/N: I'm not particularly happy with the English in this story, but this is the best I could manage after several years of working and re-working the first three chapters.

A/N 13/08/2021: edited

Onyx

I was born on the planet Tenebris, in the Magix Dimension.

Tenebris was a small planet, largely forgotten by the rest of Magix because the people never left their home world and it was not a place friendly to those who landed there. Tenebris was a very dark planet, only having sunlight for two hours a day. Because of this, the people of Tenebris were very pale, with dark hair to help them keep warm and blend in with their surroundings. The land was mostly covered in mountains and forest, so the Tenebrian's made their home inside the mountains. Children were prevented from travelling outside the caves before they were five, and never alone before the age of fourteen because it was very dangerous in the woods.

Due to the need to protect their children, Tenebrian's were taught how to fight with sword, bow and spear from a young age. And then, when they were seven, they were taught to harness their Magic. It was very rare for a child of Tenebris to be born without magic, so rare in fact that it had been centuries out of mind since such had occurred. Written into their old laws, it's said that if such a child was to be born, one without magic to protect themselves with on their harsh planet, then they were to be taken to the planet Earth where it was rare for children of magic to be born; and in the last centuries, no magic born had been found on Earth. Their seventh birthday was the day chosen to take the child to Earth because they were old enough to look after themselves, no longer needed their parents, and it was the final age at which magic would have shown itself.

The hierarchy of the Tenebrian was very simple. There was the King, who didn't inherit his throne through birth as it is in many other places. Rather, he ascended to the title by being the strongest male warrior. This is because it is the King's duty to protect the people and hunt for their food. Whoever the King chose as his wife would handle the organisation of the women and children, health care and education. The King was also the judge, if a dispute arose within the colony, then it was the King's duty to decide who was right, who was wrong, and what the consequences were.

There had been a few times in their history where the strongest warrior in the tribe was a woman, and when such happened the Queen chose a husband who was not a strong warrior so that he could handle the organisation of all social care and activities. They weren't a prejudice tribe; they didn't see woman as inferior to men, it just happened that man were biologically stronger than woman. Biologically, their muscles could grower harder and larger than that of a woman, which meant they could shoot an arrow further and swing a sword harder. It was only because of this biological difference that had seen that it was a King who ruled as warrior, and their chosen Queen was never one of their warrior women. For their society to work, their two 'overseeing' rulers could not both be warriors, because then much of the day to day running of the clan such as cloth provision, education and health care would struggle under that King's reign.

Below the King and Queen, there was the Senior Warriors. These were the most skilled or experienced warriors in any sector such as guard/protecting, hunting, training and scouting. This was a long-time carer which takes up time, and so no one with children could ascend to Senior Warrior until after those children reached the age of fourteen. Woman who did not have children, and were looking to ascend to Senior Warrior, could not have the future potential of having children before they raise to the rank because having children once raising to the rank would see them being forced into retirement. Typically, such women claim to be maidens on reaching that point.

Then you had the Junior Warriors who aided with hunting close to home, manual labour, internal guard rotations, and various other activities. They were also the internal police for the tribe, with the Senior Warrior's acting as their legal monitoring and the King and Queen acting as theirs.

Outside of the Warriors, there was other professionals which had ranks equal with the Junior and Senior warriors. There were the Healers, who were constantly busy healing children and warriors who were hurt out on trips or during training; the Professors, who passed on and taught the various subjects to students and were master of that knowledge as necessary, and also taught classes of children; the Potion Makers, who made remedies as needed by the tribe; the Record Holders, who documented the planets and people's history; the Trainees, who worked under a Junior who was working to become a Senior in any discipline. Then there were the Carers, the ones who looked after the tribe in all other areas.

I was born to Senior Warrior Thal and Senior Potion Maker Gem in the year 1993. They gifted me with the name Onyx because of my jet-black eyes, and midnight black hair. Although my kin all had dark hair, my hair was the darkest they had seen in close to three hundred years and I was the first person to have been born with black eyes, instead of dark brown or green as was normal for the rest of the population.

For the first three years, I was treated like a normal child. Taken to the classes to learn speech, writing and history. But when I turned three and still had not demonstrated any sign of magic, my family began to worry. They started my physical training early, hoping that the strain would bring out my magic. When two more years past and I still had not displayed any sign of magic, the rest of the colony knew. They believed that I was born void of the gift of magic which was why my features where so dark. I didn't have the spark of life that gave them their colour and light.

The children teased me, the adults pitied me, and so I retreated to the library to get away as often as I could. There were no stories of anyone in the tribe being born without magic, so they didn't know how to react to me. Especially since the tribe had evolved since that law had been written into the books. Even if there had been something written, there was no guarantee that those guides would have applied to my situation and their reactions would have changed.

My parents waited until my seventh birthday, just as the law dictated, before taking me to the King to be taken to Earth. The King was kind, he did not make it a ceremony as it was written in the laws; he merely took my shoulder and brought me to an ally. He offered me a smile and left.