Disclamer: I don't own any characters or anything - all this is inspired by Karren Chance who all the characters and back story belongs to. The POV does flick between Chance's characters (3rd person) to Ava (1st person) who I created. Enjoy and R&R (:

Cassie woke with a start knowing that what she'd Seen had been a vision not a dream. There was no way it could have been anything else. Mircea was sat by her side in a flash rubbing soothing circles up and down her spine. She didn't find much comfort in his efforts which was somewhat unusual, but how could she go back to sleep after what she'd just Seen? She let Mircea gently pull her back down into the warmth of their quilts and snuggled closer to him nonetheless wishing for the vision to fade from her mind. But every time she closed her eyes she saw it again as if it were burned into her eyes. War. People fighting, falling. Vampires and mages alike went down as their adversaries beat them in their own small battles of strength and skill.

Pritkin. Pritkin was falling. He was losing a fight to a dark mage. That's what made Cassie awake with a strangled scream and tears in her eyes. Although he could be a royal pain in the ass and they rarely saw eye to eye she didn't want him dead. In some strange way they were friends.

"You can't tell him it could change the future." Mircea said in the morning.

"He's going to die, Mircea! Don't you think he deserves to know! I don't want to have another death on my conscience."

"He'll go into battle anyway. You know what John's like." He paused and led her back to the bed and sat beside her, "Cassie I know you want to protect people but your job is to protect them in the past not the future. If I could let you tell him I would, dulceaţă, but you have to think of the time line."

Cassie knew Mircea was right but she felt like she was betraying him. Letting him down. That seemed even worse because she knew Pritkin would do anything to save her. He would give his life for her just as readily as she would sacrifice herself to save him. But the one time she could save him without giving her life was the one time she couldn't do anything because if she did she'd be messing up the time line. That was the one thing she could not let happen. She could do just about what ever the hell else she liked but the time line was her responsibility.

"Come on, Cassie. Concentrate. A baby could have killed you by now." Pritkin said in survival training a couple of hours later. He was pretending to strangle her and she had to stop him by any means necessary. She wasn't doing very well. When she didn't free herself he said, "Miss Palmer, I cannot protect you all the time. If you want to die out there carry on as you are, if you don't I suggest you do something."

"Sorry." She mumbled.

Pritkin thought it strange that she apologise. Normally she would have sighed in frustration before carrying on or snapping at him or, well, something. Definitely not apologise. Maybe she'd had an argument with Mircea. Whatever it was he didn't want to get involved. Even though he'd become accustomed to vampires he still thought they were vulgar creatures. The only reason he'd adjusted was because he'd sworn to protect the Pythia. The current Pythia was Cassie. Cassie was going out with a vampire. It wouldn't be so much of a problem if she told him before she took her trips into the past but she often went at the drop of a hat and he had to be close so she could take him with her. So when she left in a hurry like that he was left alone with a vampire for company.

"Let's start again." he said hoping she would at least try to save herself.

Cassie was struggling not to cry. She knew Pritkin was going to die but she didn't know when. For all she knew he could be dead in a month, a week, a few days. She so very desperately wanted to tell him, warn him of his death but she knew she couldn't. Only the promise she made to Mircea as she left to meet Pritkin stopped her from telling him. She kept wondering what a world without John Pritkin would be like. It would definitely be a lot quieter and there wouldn't be a raving mad, blood thirsty mage on the loose to kill whoever got on the wrong side of him. But she'd be missing a friend. Beneath the war mage façade was a very private guy who had only just found his true place in the world and was, in some ways, still becoming accustomed to it. She almost let out a strangled sob when she remembered that he still didn't wear boxers – a habit from living in seventeenth century France.

She remembered finding it out. It was when they'd accidently swapped bodies and she'd taken a shower. It was something that seemed traumatic at the time especially when his body decided having a girl in residence meant a certain part of his anatomy decided to butch up. Now, apart from that particular incident in their swapped bodies because as far as she knew he didn't know about it and she definitely preferred it stayed that way, they laughed about the whole event sometimes. Well, Pritkin cringed when Cassie brought up the whole Mircea kissing her thing. Normally not a problem but when she was in Pritkin's body…

"I don't know what Mircea has done, Miss Palmer –"

"Don't 'Miss Palmer' Me!" She threw his hands off her neck and faced him. "Mircea hasn't done anything! It's –"

He saw tears in her eyes. Normally when something was wrong she managed to control her emotions very well. It was something she'd had to do to stay alive. To see her like this… Something had to be very wrong. In a soft voice he asked, "It's what, Cassie? What's wrong?"

"I… I can't tell you. It's the time line. Someone… Can we just carry on?"

Pritkin merely nodded and re-iterated the pointers before resuming the lesson.

I was stood in front of my mirror tying my silky, dark red, wavy hair into a high pony tail when the alarm went off for school. Hum, school. School with the Circle training to be a war mage was a… horrible experience to say the least. Though I should be used to it since I've lived here my whole life. Most people got through the day without trouble or a shouting at from the teachers. I, however, was a special case. Having my mothers rebelliousness and a 'bad attitude' from my somewhat unknown father meant that I was perhaps the teachers' least liked pupil. Hey, I did the work without complaining and did it damned well. What more could they ask for? I hit the alarm and waltzed to class picking my ball cap up as I left the room.

There were still a few people milling around when I closed the door behind me but the girls knew the drill – when Ava comes out her room it's time to get a move on unless we want to be late. A few times I'd thought about getting up obscenely early or really late just to get them to stop thinking of me as their personal alarm clock. It would be fun to see them all scamper to their classes early though the rat-run corridors that people said were based on the tunnels of the oldest grave belonging to war mages. Nice to know our instructors had a bright out look on our futures. Bright enough to forewarn us of what awaited us if we died. As if I didn't feel miserable enough in this place as it was.

I picked up a breakfast of tea and toast on the way and had finished it all by the time I got to my first class – sword fighting with this new guy who called himself Jack the Ripper. I wondered if the real Jack the Ripper would appreciate that. I wasn't sure if I wanted to find out since I knew he was a Senate member for the vamps. The head torturer I believe. I thought about telling Jack as much but didn't get a chance to since his gaze turned to me.

"Why is sword fighting so useful Miss LeFay?" he asked. He sounded as much of a warrior as he looked. There was a calculated look in his eye that told me he noticed me daydreaming and didn't appreciate it and was thinking about ways to make me pay.

I stared back into those penetrating brown eyes, which were framed by the long black hair of a Japanese sword master, without fear. "In case someone sets off a nul bomb, you're in Faerie or you're fighting a nul."

"You won't be fighting a nul anytime soon. We drain them all remember, Miss LeFay. Were you conveniently absent when Nul 101 was in session?" the class snickered. I narrowed my eyes at him and took a deep breath. As much as this guy was annoying me, and had been for the entire three days that he'd been here (not to mention it seemed like Sophie (the old teacher) had told him to pick on me or something), I didn't think the admin staff would like it if I knocked him out. And, man, was he getting on my nerves. But honestly what chance did I have at even landing a blow at this guy's head when he was holding a sword. It wasn't just a wooden training sword either. This one was an elegant weapon crafted from the finest steel and most likely somehow enchanted to give a more lethal blow. I might be good but good enough to get past him? No. Unfortunately.

"I heard from one of our Senate members that the Vicious Vixen got a couple of nuls free. The Corps still don't know where they are. It's a possibility." I said instead.

He paused before saying, "You have a minor point." And carrying on with the lesson.

I'll admit sword fighting was a lot of fun now that we'd covered all the safety and strategy points that he insisted on dragging out. The point he made most was to make sure there was enough room between each of us to swing our weapons full circle without hitting each other. Did he think we were stupid? Okay a few people in the class really had no common sense but we weren't five for God's sake.

We began lunging and parrying to begin with, practicing against thin air to get accustomed to the movement and the weight of the wooden weapons. Apparently they had the same weight and balance as the metal weapons we would be using when we were good enough but I still thought that just getting on with the real deal was a better idea – it would give us a healthy respect for them sooner and, hey, it looked way cooler. And we wouldn't get splinters. I stopped to dig the fifth offending flake of wood out my hand earning me a disapproving question as to what I was doing. When I told him I was stopping myself getting a wooden hand he said,

"You wouldn't be doing that in a real battle. You'd be dead by now."

"No I wouldn't." I snapped. "I wouldn't be doing this in a real battle because I wouldn't be getting splinters due to having a metal sword."

He gave me his damn you're right again but I won't admit it look before walking off.

Huh, I thought. I might be the only girl in this class but I'm no suck up like the rest of them.

This class was the one for the gifted and talented students. Being the only girl meant I had a lot to prove since most of them thought I was only there to fill a quota but I was better then most of them and they damn well knew it just wouldn't admit it. The only person who actually treated me like a person was an easy going guy called Toby. His blonde hair was kept really short to keep out his muddy brown eyes but also exposed his freckles. To be honest he was a lanky teen who was still slightly uncoordinated when he wasn't fighting. When he was fighting though – as I found out the first time I was against him – he was a force to be reckoned with.

However I might think of the rest of the class as people I didn't doubt their fighting ability one bit. Every one of us in the class were virtuosos in the deadly art of being a war mage. We were people The Corps 'desperately need out there in the big wide world'. I didn't doubt that for a second especially with what happened to MAGIC a few years ago. They told us of its destruction to spur us on in our studies, give us more determination and (although they didn't tell us this) to give us a certain amount of fear of what awaits once we graduate.

Part of me couldn't wait to graduate I'd be away from all the people who'd looked down on me my whole life and away from the annoyance of my class mates. But that was also what scared me. Even though I didn't like most of the people I trained with we'd become a family. A really strong family who learned from each other and used each others' strength to become the best warriors we could be. Okay we had war mages all over the world but that wasn't much to comfort me. I didn't trust many people and I'd rather fight alongside someone who I know is going to keep me alive than with someone who might flee at a moments notice.

"Concentrate Miss LeFay!" my magic teacher snapped a couple of hours later.

The spell we were working was second nature to me though. The rest of the class had trouble controlling the ghostly knives we'd conjured but I was getting bored of the second lesson on this very fast. I didn't get why no one else could make their knives stab the dummy in the chest but I got it the first time I tried. Fed up with it I made the weapons disappear. "I've been concentrating for the last half an hour on this as well as thinking about other stuff. I'm a woman, Mr. Jones, I can multitask."

"Good answer, less lip and it would have been perfect." He patted me on the shoulder and walked away.

I rolled my eyes, called some more knives to my side and stabbed the dummy so hard the knife flew out the other side of it in a flurry of straw embedding itself in the wall.

Luka spun around, shocked that I'd almost cut his ear off, then glared at me. "Temper control woman!" he growled.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry." I waved the weapons away and paused for a few moments to regain my concentration and calm my state of mind. The hardest thing to do with animated weapons was to conjure them the rest was easy. Well, if I didn't want to injure anyone.

"LeFay, use shields as well this time. Lest see how far you can go."

Oh fantastic. I was going to have a class audience. Again. This is why most of the guys think I was a stuck up. They reckoned that I liked to show off, but in reality I was proving to myself that I was worthy to be in the class. I mean I knew I was good but I had this habit of telling myself that it was just a one time thing; that it's never going to happen again. At least I don't fall into the haze of becoming complacent and conceited. That happened to the only other girl who was in the class, Lucy, but she got moved down to the normal class due to 'attitude problems'. If one thing was for sure you couldn't be a good war mage and be 'swollen with pride'. When she'd been told that, in front of the entire final year group, I imagined her head swelling up to beyond the size of a football and eventually popping.

I shook my head and made my shields flare around me. I protected with fire and water making the sensation of them roar into life soothing. It felt like I had a thin veil of water coating and cooling my skin and a deadly wall of flame leapt up around me bringing a slight flush to my normal pale pallor. But they were just my mental defences that would stop a spirit shifting into me. My defence from magic and weapons was a shimmering wall of nigh on impenetrable magic. Immediately, I felt more secure with my shields in place. Whilst I knew that I was safe with the instructors around I had more faith in what I could do for myself than let them protect me.

Now all I had to do was focus on the shields as well as the ghostly knives at the same time. As singular entities they were easy to control but I hadn't tried controlling both at the same time. This would either go well or it wouldn't. I let the knives hover around me whilst I found the all important balance in power. It was like being on a very finely tuned set of scales; just a fraction one way and it would all tip over. Although this time it could result in someone's death not wrongly measured flour.

"In your own time, LeFay. No one actually wants to go at the end of school." Arnold, my closest rival, said.

"Hey I've never done this before, give me a break. But since you asked I'll take my time." I could feel his unhappy gaze centred on the back of my skull, but I didn't let that phase me. Instead I almost laughed.

I re-found the equilibrium and tentatively let the smallest knife inch forward. Finding it easy I let it go forward a bit faster and faster still until it was going forward at amazing speed and the other knives were begging to be let loose. I let a second and third knife free and they happily sank themselves into the dummy. Then I let a fourth one loose. I almost dropped my shields and had to recall it so I could find that fine balance again. When I'd established it I let the two remaining knives loose and soon the dummy was nothing but a few floating pieces of straw and a pile of burlap rags on the floor.

"Anything else, Mr. Jones?" I said dropping my shields and letting the knives disappear.

"No you're free to go. Everyone else has an extra half an hour."

I walked to the door but remembered what he said at the start of the year, 'No one leaves this room early. No exceptions." I turned round. "You thought you had me there didn't you. What's the catch if I leave?"

"You'll have become complacent. Your choice. I know how much homework you have to do, it would be good to get a head start on it."

I envisioned a long night only kept up by espresso coffee. I'd be tired in all the classes tomorrow and I would probably fall asleep in potions earning a detention after school which would last until lights out. That meant I wouldn't be able to catch up with the missed sleep. "I'll take my chances." I said and got back to work. Far better to be tired for the next few days than be labelled lazy.

"I'll be firing magic at you at the same time. You sure you want to do this?"

"I'll take my chances."

By the end of the lesson I was battered and bruised and wanted nothing more than to go to bed after a long hot bath. Unfortunately I didn't want to be in detention for not doing the work that was going to keep me alive. Okay the staying alive thing was more of an incentive than the detention but I didn't particularly want to go to one either.

"Ava-Marie got beat up in class even though she had shields!" I heard someone whisper. A fountain of giggles erupted from the group of people who planned to block my path.

"Is it true? Ava-Marie?" a guy called Ross asked. He was a solidly built guy who was about six inches taller than my five feet and seven inches. Nothing about him was welcoming right down from his angry sneer to his clenched fists. Although he looked like he could take on a fully trained mage he was perhaps one of the most hopeless magic users in the year. He had the muscle to back himself up but not the guile or ability to use magic to a significant degree to make him a real threat. If I wanted to I could have thrown him ten feet down the corridor without blinking.

"My name is Ava." I said forcefully. "Whilst that is true your comrade has failed to point out that I was using magical knives and holding mental defences as well as magical ones. I'd like to see you try that, scrimp." He wasn't technically a 'scrimp' but he was close enough. And it was always a sore spot for him.

"Hey back off!" Arnold said stepping right into my personal space and holding my gaze.

"Or what? You're gonna hit me?" that was his other flaw – he'd never hit a girl. Even me.

I sensed magic begin to flare around somewhere to my right. Instead of bothering to bounce it back I put up a shield and let it bounce off. I side stepped Ross and carried on my way.

The lights of the clinical corridors began to flicker and fade – a sign that someone overhead was practicing casting wards again. I honestly didn't know why they didn't just use fire torches with the amount of times the interference fuddled up the electricity. An echoing laugh came down the corridor bouncing off the white walls. It was the laugh of a young child which made no sense. The primary school students weren't allowed in this part of the building. Oh, wait, I was doing it again. The laughter was from the primary school area I was just forgetting to filter out the sounds from far away. I had super sensitive hearing something close to a vamp's, but no one quite knows why. They said it was something to do with my heritage, my father to be precise. One thing was for sure though – I'm not half vampire. It's physically impossible.