Taroniah was the natural born daughter of a liaison between the king of marland and her mother, one of the queen's ladies in waiting. sadly, her mother died while she was still quite young and the king's master of arms, robard, and his wife, terencia, happily adopted her. the queen hated taroniah on sight as she represented her husband's infidelity, and although she was brought up in the palace like the other noble children, many of them treated her poorly because her official status what that of a bastard. she found she got on far better with the common-born children of the palace staff rather than with her noble-born peers.with puberty, her magical potential was spotted by the court magician, ratarthen, and the idea of sending her to a magical college in an outlying province of an allied kingdom appealed to the king. this was the ideal opportunity for not only getting her out of the sight of the queen but also out of the view of the court, who were already comparing the healthy taroniah with her young, sickly half-brother, prince patros, who was the official heir to the throne.so taroniah was bundled off to a magic school, the lightbearer academy. this is the account of her four years there and the things she learned about herself as well as what others learned about her.an abbreviated account of taroniah's last few weeks of her final year at the academy appeared in fantastical schools volume 3. this is the full account of her time at the school.