One

"It's not that demons are all powerful or even all that fearsome. They are a breed that has been dying out for centuries. Four thousand years ago during the war, that which created us, the witches, also caused the demise of the demons. The fairy's set forth a spell that stopped the demons from procreating. What you see today is the lack of hope for the future. We are the result of the fairies breeding with humans." RIIIIIING.

"Ok class, continue reading chapter 8 and I want a summarized paragraph over the reading ready to turn in at the beginning of class!" I raised my voice the longer my sentence was as the high school students packed and got louder. I would be lucky to receive even one summary from this class tomorrow. This group of students are my 'know it all' class, even if they don't know it, they still know more than me. Or at least, they believe this fallacy, further exacerbated by their parents.

As they walked out I heard a few, "Bye Professor Adira" from some of the more quiet students, but nothing from those that have a superiority complex.

I have several roles in this small community, as a witch that successfully completed my primary education, military service, and my secondary education with a doctorate in cultural studies and equity. We are long lived for the most part. Our primary education is similar to humans, we go through the same process with kindergarten to twelve grade. One large difference is that we first attend school at eight years old instead of five. The first eight years are devoted to family dynamics and family magic. Similar to a caste system, some families are more powerful than others, for that reason they are granted more in terms of rights and responsibilities.

These students from this class have forgotten that despite my family disowning me, I still come from the most powerful bloodline.

You can disown a witch all you want, but the fact remains that the powers they are born with are theirs, irrevocably so. Even if you make the head of the family so mad they burn their altar down. But, that is a tale for another time.

Once a little witch child turns eight, the day after they begin school. Similar to public education, no witch child has to pay for school, boarding, nor food. It is all provided by generous patrons. Even the students' clothes are provided for them during this time.

Parents are not allowed to send anything but letters. In return, they are given twenty-four hour access to the monitoring system found everywhere but bathrooms and bedrooms.

Military service after graduating primary education is also mandatory for all students. But, the families are granted a say in how long the student must serve. Some families speak up, some don't. To my recollection, my parents never accessed the monitoring system, and they never arrived at my enlistment ceremony. When asked if I wanted to join for two or four years, I told them I would serve for fifty years.

I rose in rank quickly. I didn't end at fifty years, I served for two hundred instead. I saw plenty of skirmishes and other dimensions during my time. I was ready to leave the military, and I had a feeling of accomplishment that I had only felt during those two hundred years. I felt needed, no…wanted. With my retirement ceremony I didn't expect any of my family members, so, I wasn't disappointed when nobody arrived. The ceremony was not lacking, and I had many people attend, those I served with or those that I saved.

The ceremony was grand, even without the most powerful family there.

After my enlistment, I went to the University of Craft, not the most prestigious university, but the only one that offered the equity program I desired. What other reason would I have served for two hundred years if I was not interested in all races and breeds to be treated equally? None. Which includes the demons.

With so much more experience than other college students, I didn't' have a lot of 'friends' or more accurately, I was unwilling to hang out with witches that were two hundred years younger than me. Not all the students were that much younger, but I wasn't interested in finding out who was similar in age to myself.

So, I studied hard, took more classes per semester than needed and graduated with my doctorate in six years. I was given a letter of recommendation by the dean of students and the chancellor of the university. I was the only student in their history to have graduated with full honors with a degree that should have taken twelve to fifteen years.

The older the witch, the more powerful they become. I didn't feel that completing my secondary education required so much hoopla, but the university disagreed with me. Instead I was in the limelight with magazines, newspapers and even had a meeting with the human leaders in the US, France and Germany.

Without using any of my family's connections, I rose higher than my cousins and my siblings, in fact, I could be considered even more powerful than the family head. I felt a bit embarrassed for the family that discarded me for such paltry reasons.

Oh well. Life, for the most part, was going well.

I landed this public education gig right out of university, then in the afternoon I teach at the local college. I also volunteer at the children's rec center.

I keep my hours busy.

One must be vigilant in this.

With more power comes more problems. I have not taken an aptitude test in thirty years, but at that time I broke the globe that assesses the strength of our powers.

No one has ever broken the globe.

The military hushed it up quickly, used a nuclear bomb as the reason it exploded and had the old geezers make a new one.

I was exempt from taking the yearly test after that. Even as a civilian, the military claims that I take the test on site. Instead I lounge around at home and wait to hear when I can live my life once again.

I look around the empty classroom. This class that just left would be considered my gifted and talented students, those from powerful families. I actually enjoy my other classes. The students there may be a bit more rambunctious, and they never turn in homework, and often not even class work, but when they are learning, you can see and feel their powers seeking for more. Education is the only way to increase one's stamina and mental prowess, making your body more receptive to the innate powers within.

In other words, education is the only way to excel.

As a witch, human, fairy or demon.

At the thought of the demons, his form rose up in my mind.

I refused my betrothal, my family, my everything just for the dreams I have every night.

I wonder if the demon is real. The dreams began when I was five. I am two hundred and thirty seven years old, and in three months I would be a year older. That is two hundred and thirty two years dreaming of the same man, night after night.

At first I thought they were prophetic. I truly believed that the demon was trying to tell me something, or warn me. But he never did. He only listened to me talk while braiding my hair or humming a song to me if I didn't have anything to say. Instead he was my source of peace, a refuge that, even today, I relied on. I thought he was part of my power, my gift. But, that was not the case at all. I don't know what he is, but I do know that my powers do not rely on him.

Each family is born with innate powerful gifts. My family can produce witches that are similar to immortals. Some live centuries before they die, accumulating a lot of wealth and prestige in that time.

The head of our family has been alive since the end of the fairy and demon war. He was one of the first children born from a fairy and human, a hybrid that created the witches today. If the human side is stronger than the fairy side, then the witch is not as powerful. For my blood relatives, the fairy blood has always dominated the human side. Regardless of the influx of human spouses, the children always are born as witches. Not all families are like this. Typically a witch family has a couple of human offspring, but not ours.

My father, the head of the household, was the offspring of the king of fairies and a reckless human who fell in love with him. My father was born towards the end of the war, and he had never died. My mother has already died. My father only marries humans, who have a short life span. Typically one or two children are born from each marriage. My uncles are not from the king as my father is, but other fairies who took an interest in my grandmother after the king abandoned her.

So, the cousins I have are not as powerful as my fathers descendants.

Even knowing my bloodline, knowing that the fairy king is my grandfather, I was still discarded when I refused to marry that pompous ass of a fairy that my grandfather sent to me. That could have been remedied of course, but that fairy helped us discover something unique about my abilities.

When I was ten and the fairy came to the school to meet me a series of events occurred, causing me to die. Well, when I refused to marry him he threw a tantrum and stabbed me in the heart.

We can die from wounds, especially those made of silver. The handle of the blade was covered in mesh, but the blade was silver. Watching the pride on his face as I breathed my last breath was invigorating. I fully understood the greed and lust for power that the fairy had.

Watching the world turn gray then black was shocking, but I was not scared. Instead I felt at peace. Well, until I opened my eyes once more and found myself in a casket, being lowered. I may have been shocked, but when I opened the casket and jumped out, the family was scared shitless.

When my father told me only death could annul the marriage alliance, I killed the fairy that killed me.

I thought my father would be on my side, but sadly, that was not the case.

I witnessed my fathers full gush of power as the flames engulfed me, killing me once more.

This time I did not wake up in a casket, but in the woods outside our family's home. I returned to school as if nothing happened.

Since then I have died three more times. Depending on the type of death, I can reincarnate in hours or days. When my limbs were torn from my body, it took six months to reincarnate. The war and skirmishes from four thousand years ago still happen today.

The demons are a bit more impulsive and reckless now, no hope provides a secure boundary. They can no longer reproduce, so they kill every fairy they see, and often the witches too. The reputation I grew up hearing, and seeing regarding the demons was never directed at me. Instead they always ran from me, even during battle. All five of my deaths have been at the hands of the fairy, 'the good folk'. Those depicted as fun and merrymaking are neither.

They are the oppressors that I am trying to fight against while protecting as many witches as I can. The witches have been used as cannon fodder for far too long. There must be more for us to exist than soldiers for the fairy race to use. Soldiers or breeding cows,

My time in the service was more insightful than you could imagine. Yes, I was battling the demons that the fairy's told me to fight. Yes, I suffered wounds and trauma of war. But more importantly I witnessed the vast difference in power between the fairy breed and witches. Even our weakest witches were physically stronger than the fairy soldiers we fought alongside. Which meant there was something that the head of households were getting in order not to rebel, or being threatened with.

Either way, the witches were powerful, yet still oppressed.

I would change this, even if I had to die hundreds of deaths. Besides, it was only during my time of reincarnation that the man, the demon, was all mine.