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However, the man’s heart brightened when his son was born. «I will raise him to be a true warrior, a great hero. That’s right!» Alas, the son died at the age of six, poisoned by a local shaman for two apples stolen from her garden. The grief-stricken father was left with only his daughters. And he turned his dreams to one of them… Lyra. «My heir is dead, but my daughter will be great.» The man devoted all his energies, and his mind – not so weak, by the way – to raising her.

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Young Laira grew up unusually tough, cheerful, and brave. Fighting was part of her life – she could beat up not only girls, but boys as well, including those older than her. Sometimes, though, she got her own ass kicked.

And she made a lot of enemies! Evil tongues, venomous jokers, high-minded denouncers and denouncers. In another, quieter era, Lyra would probably have been smeared with soot for misconduct. But it was the time of the Great Troubles, when the Talaisha dynasty had finally died out and many powerful clans, sects, adventurers, and other forces were vying for the Imperial throne. The Kuzuni kingdom was ablaze with civil war, mercenaries and brigands roamed the roads, and foreigners swarmed everywhere. In such conditions, of course, traditional values had fallen apart, and morals had decayed… The Empire’s northern fringes had suffered little from the war so far, but the general «decay» had touched them as well. That is why in most cases she got away with her antics.