Of Neither Side

The story revolves around a sixteen-year-old girl who finds escape from her banal universe (with unfavorable conditions at home) in a fantasy land. Here, she must pretend to be one of them. Under the guise of shifting from another city in the north, she joins other youth in a training institute - except... she has no magic. At first, this isn't too surprising. After all, around a third of all students fail to grasp their powers for a few months. But when she continues to struggle, her instructor senses something's fishy. However, her true talent shines in the most mundane thing: being a scholar. And again, she finds herself to be quite skilled in the arts of deception. After she begins to tire of... well, being a loser in this new world, she strikes a deal with an unlikely (and dangerous) force, earning herself rune magic. What comes next was not anticipated, though. He comes to her in a time of need and forces her to keep her end of the deal and support him in a war against the 'good' people. Now, she's stuck in a moral dilemma - does she betray her folk or risk betraying a dangerous force?