Children who are said to be too smart for their ages are often deemed precocious, and that was exactly the way Tezzie had been described all throughout her youth. To live in a city such as Balding while not possessing any noble credentials, some families—like the Amador family—had to find their merit through other means. Both of Tezzie’s parents had been university professors from the heart of Damia City, taking up research into the study of magic and the mark that had plagued Bion for many generations, yet once they had married, they’d moved to Balding in order to start a life. That was where they had their first daughter, Tezzie, and eventually their second, Tessa, just a few short years after Tezzie was born.

Tezzie had always been quick to pick up information; whether it was going from crawling straight to running, or understanding her first picture book, Tezzie studied with a voraciousness her parents could take pride in. It wasn’t rare to find Tezzie with a book, reading alongside Tessa, or sticking her fingers in different magical contraptions. Because while Tezzie did favor books, she never minded getting her hands dirty either. Balding City’s reputation for its jewels and mining had her fascinated at the way enchantments and magic worked. Building something from nothing. When she and her sister played pretend, Tezzie’s interest for creating sprawling cityscapes filled to the brim with different magical enhancements always wormed its way into their little games. This would be the kindling for her passion in engineering, as well as her prodigious study for magic. Always carrying a wrench on her hip, a pocketbook filled with notes, or a bolt in her hair. Fixing contraptions would become less of a hobby and more of an aspiration, and it was often the only thing her peers approached her for.

Building relationships with her peers was not as easy as tweaking the levers or pulleys to her miniature city. She didn’t pursue friendships with the same vigor or intensity as she did her studies. It wasn’t to say she disliked people; people, she knew, were a vital part to society. Only, Tez had an intensity about her that made her seem unapproachable, even sometimes to her own sister, and she did not adjust her personality for the others around her. Sometimes, the uneducated would accuse her of being marked herself, for nothing more than because she was “mean” then it must be so. This didn’t often end well, as Tezzie was not a stranger to following through on their threats if they wished to fight. She gained a reputation of being difficult to deal with, though none of her classmates could deny her ability with magic. At most, her peers sought her out for tutoring or if something broken needed fixing. Some may have called it a relationship born of equivalent exchange, not quite friendship. And as such, Tezzie spent her time most in the libraries of her hometown, or in Damia. After all, solitude wasn’t so terrible when you could never know who may be next marked by the Forlorn.

That was something her parents had stressed, at least her father did. Stay alert, have your wits. After all, the Queen and King of Bion were no longer known for their kind hand, as rumors of their strange behavior circulated up until the moment of their “unfortunate” passing. She was too young to have known it at the time, but her parents certainly knew. So, Tezzie kept her circle of friends small, and private, as a result. And she never shirked on her spell practice either.

Although she did not research the Forlorn as steadfastly as her parents had, the magic in particular that wrapped around the abhorrent creature—and its mark—did become a topic of study from time to time. It was one of the main reasons that, as she grew older, Damia City began to call for her. With a new Queen on the throne, Tezzie left Balding City in order to attend some of the region’s finest universities, pursuing a focus in magical engineering and working alongside the city’s technicians once she had graduated. If your teleporter is malfunctioning, or you’ve noticed some of the protective enchantments in your home to be a bit dim, this frog is your gal.