You don't remember your birth. The écu are warriors and disdain recordings of anything other than , but your birth was special. The Princess-Major of the Écu Imperial Legion Arcana was believed to be infertile but in the Third Year of the War of the Deep Canals messengers flowed out from the headquarters. Swift footed dust elves and tireless écu runners carried the message across the dominion to the other members of the Écu Imperial Clan, the Aedui, with the news, and with a recording of the laying. The very fact that the Princess-Major Brielle Aedui Vitus was gravid had been kept secret from all even through numerous state appearances and meetings of the Écu Imperial War Council. The recording, all copies of which were intended to be destroyed, was kept by your mother in a rare display of sentimentality. So you had the distinct displeasure of having your mothers explanation of sex and birth accompanied by a recording of your laying in the form of a hand mirror.
Your mother was laying on a couch, heavily padded, and has a rather dreamy look in her eyes. Your family's dust elf slave, Variel, once described your mother's eyes as chips of jet floating in an stormy green sea, but they are largely covered by her drooping eyelids. She breathes steadily under the effects of the drugs the Medicus had given her, and she is wearing a loose white gown that clings to her body, shoulders bare and displaying the polished brown scales there. The recording is looking directly at her as she looks at it and chuckles slightly before speaking to the Medicus in High Écu <<I don't know why they don't hand this stuff out like candy.>> That line elicited a blush from your mother when she showed it to you, which seemed strange to you, since this was in your mind the least embarrassing part of the video. Your mothers face contorts slightly and she lets out a rush of air <<Oh Gods. I think...>> She shudders and the Medicus rushes to her side. The dress clings enough that you can see the rounding of your mothers breasts and the pot-belly that hides your egg. Your mother begins to pant and the Medicus instructs her as she spreads her legs, pushing the dress up and revealing her pale swollen stomach, a line of bristly hair running down from between her breasts to her mons pubis. According to Variel, it's not much different from humans or elves down there. Your mother would have been quite angry to hear the old eunuch say that, but he was determined to give you his own brand of education.
Her tail is tied down on the couch by fur lined bands, and you can now see why. Her face changes from a look of dreamy pleasure to one like a soldier having his leg amputated as her tail begins to strain against its bonds. Her labia distend and you can see a yellowish something, streaked with red fluid, begin to push out. The laying itself, your mother's first, takes a while, and at one undignified point, your mother, Princess-Major Brielle Aedui Vitus, Beloved of the Empress, Bearer of the Corona Verre, shits herself. The less said about the rest of the proceedings is better, but the last of the recording is a charming recording of your mother asleep, her body and tail curled around your new egg.
Your hatching went unrecorded, and like most Écu not destined for the Legion Histoire, unremembered. Your first memory is of tail-wrestling a neighbor boy and winning. Your mother said she disapproved, but she had something like a smirk on her lips nonetheless. It is a good memory. Sadly, many of those that followed are less so, and your mother was less and less a part of them when she became Princess-Duchess-General of the Écu Imperial Legion Arcana. Despite the new estate, you missed the older smaller home you lived in before your mother's promotion, and she was merely a ghost in the house. She was there for all the days that were supposed to be important, but none of the ones that actually were. Instead you had your many tutors and servants to take care of you, and only Variel to actual care for you. At the age of 14, as was traditional, you received your full name, Brielle Aedui Justina. You felt the same, and as you stared yourself in the mirror you looked the same.
The sheet of reflective glass, framed in polished bronze, showed a pretty young écu lady, still growing, athletic in the way écu are even at a young age, through both blood and culture's imperative to physical excellence. As was the fashion at the time, you wore your hair long, pulled back in a tail that covered the polished mahogany scales that begin at the top of your head and cling to your back, shoulders and tail like steel-hard butterflies clinging to an indicum tree on the plains. Your eyes, much like your mothers, were all green around black pupils, without the funny white ring the elves and other races have. Lips cover teeth that are needle sharp and a tongue that when unrolled reaches out at least a foot. Budding breasts, and the beginnings of your woman's hair between them and upon your stomach, legs ending in flat feet, all clothed in a simple white tunic with green embroidery at them hem, trousers, and sandals. Many comparisons are made, by unwise folk, between ecu and humans, but the tails, scales, and few other differences set them apart. That and their military empire.
You briefly wonder why you're thinking about this three years later. Your mothers worries aside you are a fully grown woman, and with the eruption of the Weave around you in the past few months you're no longer living at home, instead moving into the dormitory of the Arcane Auxilia Camp. Ever since the reign of Emperor Jean Nero, all citizens of the Empire, écu or not, have had to train with the Auxilia before the legion. You are dressed in a flattering, but practical, lemon colored tunic with a neck cut low to showcase the assets you inherited from your mother, and brown trousers. You sit on the bed, bare feet grazing the cool stone floor as you wait for the other volunteers to arrive. You're nervous. You're heart is beating like a poorly trained drummer. The dormitories are not separated by gender, and the stories you've heard are enough to make you blush and your blood race. You saw a popular drama recently with dear Variel about just that thing, although set in the Medicus Auxilia and the heroic lead had made your heart race and your skin quiver in anticipation. A sudden noise brings you out of your reverie and you turn to the door where you see the first of the other trainees, a...