Eleanor's father, Elvon, was a famous fenva general whose experience, wits, and daring strategies left him more glory than most could ever dream of. After his successful career, he was bestowed with great wealth and prestige befitting someone of his deeds. And that should have been that.
Yet though Elvon had few troubles to plague him, his growing age concerned him. His life had been full of triumph and recognition, but there would one day come a day where his life would end.
Throughout all these years of battle, he hadn't once taken time to sire an heir. He had never felt interested in the concept of romance or family, which he made well known. Elvon was a firm man of action, practicality and resolve.
It would be a lie to say that his feelings had changed.
But now that his lifespan had reached the halfway point, it seemed paramount to him that his family name would not be lost to the ages. And playing on this insecurity of his, the goddess Kuruvansi, who had long observed Elvon's exploits from far, convinced him to father a child for her.
However, Elvon, knowing that deities desired children for their own ends as well, only agreed to the arrangement if he would be able to rear the child as he saw fit. Once his time on this earth had passed, Kuruvansi was free to do with them as she pleased. But she was to have no intervention up until that point.
For a man like Elvon, it was vital to him that his successor would be raised in his image alone, not that of the contriving powers beyond his comprehension.
And Kuruvansi, whom he believed saw the sound reasoning to this negotiation, agreed to his terms. She promised he would one day have an accomplished son to call his own.
Disappointment struck, though, when the child turned out to be a girl instead of the boy he had been led to expect. She was healthy and hale, but not at all what Elvon wanted.
He couldn't throw her aside at this point. He had been so sure he would have a son, he had taken careful preparations for the nursery, and in the days leading up to the birth, those who came to wish the mysterious mother well were told the same.
Reluctant and bitter, he kept the child, Eleanor, and properly married a fenva several years later. This time, they produced the son he had long sought.
Eleanor grew up in the countryside villa where Elvon had retired to, living alongside her stepmother Kiara and her stepbrother Elkoro. From an early age, she was fascinated with her father's military exploits and desired to become just like him. But Elvon only ever seemed willing to tutor her stepbrother.
Just like Elkoro, Eleanor's upbringing was strict, seldom giving her a moment to rest. But unlike Elkoro, she was relegated to studying other subjects. Elvon provided her with a written agenda of her day to day activities, commanding her to closely follow everything he had planned out for her.
Although Eleanor had begun exhibiting small signs of magical talent from a very young age, she never had the idle time to explore her gift.
But such conditions didn't bother her either. There was never a wish to know herself; after all, she was constantly told who she was by everyone in her life, so the answer was plain to see.
And truly, she believed her father knew better than her. He had worked so hard, painstakingly constructing an entire life designed to make her the absolute best she could be. So long as she followed his wisdom, she would be able to avoid the complications he had taken great measures to negate.
Under Kiara's watchful eye, Eleanor learned all the skills a respectable young woman of nobility should have. She learned how to cook, weave, dress well, serve guests, and be pleasant company for those whose lives had much more weight than her own. Ever hardworking, Eleanor held everything she did to the highest standards her parents set. She was never one to not deliver on a task.
From what she knew of life, everything in existence had guidelines. And because of that, everything would make sense in the end. When there were times things went unexplained, there was always someone eager to make sense of it for her instead.
That was the beauty of a careful plan crafted from a deep understanding of the rules.
As soon as she became of age, Elvon made the decision that she was ready to be married off. Within weeks, he located a potential husband he personally approved of. He was much older, and like Elvon, he sought an heir now that he was approaching his twilight years.
Eleanor was told she would not meet her suitor before the wedding. But as she had done for all these years, she listened to her betters and trusted in their decisions. Everyone had talked about the man with such enthusiasm, praising Elvon's excellent selection. The suitor was an influential, esteemed statesman, and Eleanor would never want for anything once she took his hand in marriage. Their coffers would always be full, their manor would be in the most idyllic part of the region, and their children would be beautiful and healthy.
Then, on the day of the wedding, just as Eleanor was making her way down the aisle, the goddess Kuruvansi herself would interrupt the proceedings.
Making a spectacle of the whole event, she smugly revealed that that Eleanor was a neven, a child born with the ability to equally harness both vesera and lumena techniques. The nevenialla were viewed as outcasts by society due to their dangerously destructive potential, and many a neven had taken hundreds of innocent lives with them as they died, unable to harness their powers for anything good.
Though Eleanor had never displayed magical tendencies, the stain on their family's image was too much. It didn't matter whether she was a neven or not. Such an association couldn't suffer to be there in the first place.
The wedding was promptly called off, with Elvon furious at Kuruvansi's sudden interference. Yet Kuruvansi, who had been waiting to spite Elvon for all these years, was more than content. The insolence he displayed long ago, having had the gall to bargain with a goddess during discussions of their offspring, it was utterly unacceptable.
She had to put him in his place. And she had waited all these years to do so.
Just as Kuruvansi had intended, Elvon decided then and there that Eleanor was no longer his daughter. The girl's very existence was an abomination, an affront to his values. Storming off, he left her with her mother, never wanting to see either of them again.
Not missing a beat, Kuruvansi turned to smile fondly at her devastated child. The goddess' expression, gentle and coy amidst her chillingly beautiful features, somehow felt alien. Looking at her mother, Eleanor felt her heart skip a bit. It was hard to put it to words, but she knew that Kuruvansi scared her. Her very demeanour and presence felt unsettling, unlike anything Eleanor had experienced before.
The woman standing before her, who shared her flesh and blood, who had been vigilantly watching over her from the shadows all this time; she had a disturbing look to her. As if she was analysing a prey animal.
Though her intentions were anything but clear, she told Eleanor that she was to come with her. There was, and had always been, something waiting in store for her beloved daughter. Eleanor was destined to be great, and it was about time that her potential was realised.
Once they had returned to Resovinasis, everything Eleanor knew changed overnight.
Kuruvansi did not lie to the attendees of the wedding. Eleanor truly was a neven.
She had never dabbled much in magic as a child, but in retrospect, it may have unwittingly saved her life. The neven were common targets for violence, with many seeking to put them down before they inevitably lost control and caused terrible tragedies.
But due to one of the many rules set forth by Elvon, the usage of keirsi within the house was disallowed. So it came to be that not a soul had ever suspected her of carrying such monstrous capacity for combat.
Her enormous magical potential quickly became apparent to all. But just as quickly, the fenvasi began to keep their distance, wary of her unrealised neven abilities.
Annoyed with the insufficient attention towards Eleanor's gifts, Kuruvansi took Eleanor to Dusorolein, a hidden island where an organisation called Nuasorikos was headquartered. Their secret network was meant to train neven who hoped to do good with their lives. They could teach Eleanor how to not only conceal her powers when needed, but to use them in a responsible, controlled manner that wouldn't cause unintended harm.
During her time on the island, she made a variety of friends and allies. Most notable of them was a senior classmate named Solstice Sersanmavi. Solstice was a cheerful, bright individual and quickly took Eleanor under her wing soon after she began her training.
Upon her return to Resovinasis two decades later at Kuruvansi's behest, Eleanor was a stranger to everyone there. The strong, confident, and well put together woman who joined the guard seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
Even though there were whispers of the circumstances behind her mysterious arrival, her competence on the battlefield silenced those rumours soon enough. With what she learned from her time with Nuasorikos, she climbed the ranks of the guard as her mother suggested, triumphing over her competition with ease. Doubtlessly, she was a top notch strategist and sorcerer by every metric.
Yet despite her overwhelming success, some couldn't help but see her as odd. For all her natural talent, she seemed to have no ambitions of her own, content to adhere solely to tasks doled out by her supervisors. To truly know Eleanor Lonturuun's mind seemed an impossible feat.
Many felt that she was hiding something behind that dignified countenance. There had to be something she wasn't telling them.
The few who saw her as odd, Eleanor dismissed without a second thought. It didn't matter what they thought. She was doing what she had to be doing. That was the only thing she needed to know, and if she was sure of that, then she was sure of everything else.
Everything fell into place as it should, without need to think about what she may have or now desired from life. With her mother as the architect for her new story, Eleanor could continue to excel at the role she was given, resting assured that everything Kuruvansi intended to happen would effortlessly come to pass.