To qualify and be hired for a job with Fremont Energies is seen as a fine, prestigious thing. The general populace thinks quite highly of you. Your work comes naturally and easily, and after a relatively short stint of employment, you're released with a severance package fit to keep you comfortable for the rest of your life. What's more, you get to contribute your abilities to the betterment of society. This is the line of work that nearly all of those born with magic potential strive for today.

It seems wonderful at first blush... that is, until you realize the repercussions. Until you realize that the very land itself is being drained of its life essence, for mages must dip into this to create a cell. And that's not to speak of the ill effect creating mage energy cells has on the working mages themselves. When you realize what a toll it takes on the individual whose life energies fill the power cells, the "lifetime" compensation seems almost laughable. A lifetime of compensation... for a life spent as a shell of what you once were, bound by the legal and strong-arm power of the Fremont family business to keep your new-found shortcomings to yourself. In the end, mages who have worked filling power-cells are left no longer able to use their magic, with much of their personal life force left lining Fremont Energies' pockets. And all of this, to what end? To power electric lights -- pretty and convenient, yet for the most part, useless and replaceable. For cheap and easy heating and cooling.

These negative byproducts of the creation of mage energy cells are, of course, hidden from the average power cell user. They go on with their daily lives, unaware of the damage their creature comforts are dealing to their fellow citizens working for Fremont Energies and to the ley lines that are the life force of their country.

As for myself... I thought I was doing good for Pridd and for its people, thought that I had a job that meant something to society. However, unluckily for me (or luckily, perhaps), some hidden weakness in my body caused it to give out much earlier than the average mage's. Both physically and magically drained, no longer able to complete my work, I was unceremoniously let go from Fremont Energies without being given even so much as train fare.

Well, I don't need their ill-gotten hush money. I may no longer be capable of most work, but I had enough saved away to keep a roof over my head and food on my table. Someday, I hope to regain what I have lost -- my magic abilities as well as my pride in myself. My optimism on this front has begun to run thin after a few years of no results -- however, I've heard that there is somebody traveling the country, teaching magecraft to the people again. The true magecraft those in Pridd used to be born to, not the mockery of its former self that this country --no, that the Fremonts -- have let it become.

Perhaps there is hope for us yet...