A/N: I do not own Magi, the same goes for the rest of the story. All rights go to respective owners. Thanks for checking this out. :)

Edited 3/26/18

No human could comprehend death to its full extent. It was an idea too surreal for those who only knew life, and would continue to elude human understanding. Yet, humans continued to try to understand what exactly existed beyond death, and that fascinated her.

The human mind fascinated her as a whole, which was why she decided to specialize in psychiatry when the time came to pick her specialty. It was so fragile and easily broken, yet with the right kind of personality and courage it was nearly invincible. Human emotions were ephemeral: they were always changing so often at little whims.

She hated that about humans. The funny thing was...well, that aspect was what she loved about humans as well.

Perhaps that, among a multitude of other reasons, was what had driven her to jump off of that bridge on that cold, bitter day. Life was bland. There was no meaning to her life, and frankly there would be no one who would mourn her absence anyways. Sure, they might act shocked about her disappearance after a few days of no word, but they'd move on. Her life was just that insignificant in the midst of a giant world. She didn't care what really would happen after her death: all she wanted was for the suffering to end.

No more voicemails. No more pitying looks. No more people who could drift away from her and leave her alone again. And...no more...of that horrible sinking feeling...

Her feet tipped forward, and she could hear a shout of alarm echo across the bridge as she felt someone rushing towards her. There was no more hesitation in her movements as she let herself fall forward, gravity taking its course as she spread out her arms, taking in her last breaths of cold, winter air.

When she had first hit the water, her first thought was: it's cold.

She hated the cold.

She hated water, too.

.

.

.

It's dark...it's dark...so dark...

.

.

.

There is light... a small beacon that is drawing everything towards it.

.

.

.

Her eyes opened, but she could see nothing but warm blurs. She felt herself being hugged by something warm before a drop of salty water splashed on her cheek.

...tears?

She hated water. That thought echoed through her head, and later she would laugh at the irony of it all. She hated tears almost as much as she hated water. Somewhere near her, a loud sound resounded, but she still couldn't discern what was around her. Her eyes drifted shut…

...and she fell asleep in the midst of desperate sobs and planitive whispers.

"I'm sorry, my dear Yamuraiha. My daughter."

.

.

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"Mother, that baby servant has wandered into my bedroom again!"

Queen Irina the Third of the kingdom of Musta'sim looked up from her cup of tea, staring exasperatedly at her son as the boy pouted and crossed his arms. "Nicholas, please do refrain from shouting. We are indoors, after all," the woman chided, her green locks falling to her waist as she thoughtfully took in this news.

The new servant was around a year old, now. They had taken her from her family almost as soon as she was born because she was the daughter of their most talented magician in the kingdom. "Yamuraiha" was the name the magician's wife had wept over as the baby girl was carried off. Queen Irina had to put an attendant in charge of watching the girl (a servant, watching another servant of all things!) after several complaints from her son.

For heaven's sake, that girl was much too active. Her daughter, Dunya, hardly did anything but cry and sleep to the royal guards' relief.

"What did she do this time?" Queen Irina asked patiently, raising her eyebrows questioningly as the green haired boy flushed all the way to his freckles. Nicholas, the crown prince, was not more than five years old. Even so, he already was showing promise, attending business meetings with royal finesse. However, Queen Irina couldn't figure out how that baby had managed to provoke her perfect, well-mannered son into such an irritated state every day. She wished she knew: Queen Irina didn't want her precious son to grow up so fast, even though she knew his duties required him to.

"She was annoying me," he mumbled. "I just locked the door to the library for a while and she started flipping out, grabbing some of my stuff and hiding it in the staff's kitchen. The staff's kitchen, mother! Do you know how much my clothes have gotten dirty from that small adventure?"

"Nicholas," his mother said sternly as the boy obediently shut up. "If you wish, we can summon a servant to wash your clothes."

Her son brightened. "Why don't we call a magician up instead? I've heard of their amazing powers, mother, and they sound amazing! I want to become one when I grow up—"

"Nicholas!" Although her voice was quiet, there was now a dark intensity to it that made her son gulp in fear. Sighing in defeat, Queen Irina leaned back a little more into her throne as she explained, "The magicians are not what they seem. If you recall from your history lessons, they were the ones to bring a plague to our country. It is outlawed to practice magic in our kingdom, and that is why I do not want you to speak of this again."

Nicholas took in this information thoughtfully. It seemed like his head was beginning to clear, because this time he asked with a much more logical tone. "What about Yamuraiha? Isn't she the daughter of one of our former magicians?"

Queen Irina's eyes turned cold as she stared at her son. "Nicholas, my son, I suggest for you to stop before you try my patience."

"But Yamuraiha?" Nicholas pressed.

Queen Irina saw the determination and curiosity reflected in her son's eyes and sighed, relenting, "...we are keeping her here for now to judge whether or not she has inherited her parents' aptitude at magic. If we find that she is able to use magic, she will be executed like her parents. If she is not, then we will treat her as any citizen of our country because we do not discriminate by background, unlike that damn Magnoshutatt."

"Execute?"

"Yamuraiha shall be killed immediately if she displays any form of magic," Queen Irina expressed solemnly, closing her eyes. "Now, that is enough questions. Hurry along now, Nicholas. I believe your violin lessons begin in fifteen minutes."

Queen Irina made a shooing motion as she watched her son scurry out of the door with a heavy heart. She had hoped he would not get too attached to their newest servant in case they had to kill her. But nothing could be done: magicians brought nothing but harm.

A/N:

Edit 3/26/18: This story begins slowly, in an almost slice-of-life fashion. I promise that as the story goes on, plot happens and canon will be screwed over.

An extremely short chapter for a lot of stuff that is about to come. There will be a few changes to Yamuraiha's backstory (e.g. Her family serving the Musta'sim family for generations=magician father now + Magnoshutatt being an independent country and the revolt being caused by nobles), mainly for creative and plot purposes.

Nicholas, Dunya's brother, is an OC. We never got much backstory about her in canon. Yamuraiha's childhood in Musta'sim will be explored more.

Please review. ;) I'd love to see your thoughts on this.