A/N: Hi, this is Royal Lady here. Thanks for giving my fic a go, I'm a first timer with these long multi chapter fics… Please R&R.

Diclaimer: I am not Tammy Pierce… Anything recognizable is not mine.

Padraig haMinch frowned and scrutinized the slender dark haired girl seated on the other side of his handsome teak desk.

"I understand you claim no Gift."

"That is correct, my lord."

"You will receive no special treatment because of your sex. The presence of a maid does not count as a chaperonage. When another page is in your room, the door will remain open. I will tolerate no flirtations or involvements with other pages. You will bathe in the women's baths, due to the recent influx of female pages. Any tardiness or fighting will be duly punished. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, my lord," Jessalin Crow intoned. Padraig looked carefully at the girl's delicate nose, almond shaped eyes framed by long lashes and her full mouth. Boys would ignore the spark of determination in her very dark eyes and the calluses and knife scars on her hands, thinking she was an easy catch. They would dismiss the feather tattoos on her arms and across her back for a mark of eccentricity, instead of a betrayal of the breathtaking speed and strength of a part crow-girl. Padraig could only sigh, inwardly, with pity for those unfortunates who had to be taught their mistake.

Outside the training master's office, Nawat Crow pulled his daughter aside in a hug. Jessalin giggled.

"You must promise me you will not send any bullies home in boxes."

"Da!"

"Promise!"

"Alright, alright, I promise!"

After saying her goodbyes to her Da, a small woman with frizzy hair, in the uniform of the female palace servants and a ring of keys at her belt guided Jessalin to her room.

"Hello. My name is Salma, and I'm the head of staff for the pages' wing. We'll take care of your room, like making the bed and cleaning the dressing room. Mind you, we won't clean your weapons and armour and such like, that's what you're here to learn. We have fitted all this year's female pages' rooms with extra locks. The silver key is for the shutters. The brass one is for the door. After you turn the keys whisper your name in the lock. If anyone tries to pick the lock they will be sprayed with skunk stink. They'll think twice after that." Salma clasped Jessalin's shoulder. "If you need anything, even if it's a sympathetic ear, don't hesitate to come to me."

When they arrived, the room was in perfect order. The bed was made with crisp white linens. The heavy desk was tidy, with quills, ink, paper and sealing wax. The clothes press had all her favourite clothes in it. Her collection of knives hung neatly on the walls.

"Rather a lot of knives, don't you think?" Salma teased.

Jessalin grinned. "Well, that comes of having a knife happy ma and a crow- turned- man for a da." She bird-shrugged. "And a miss-spent girlhood in the Kyprish palace armoury and on the roofs of the palace."

Salma laughed. "Supper is at the next bell. Try not to be tardy."

Jessalin closed the door and shook out her second best shirt of black silk trimmed with black lace.

Upon the sound of the bell, all the pages emerged from their rooms. The training master strode down the hall.

" New pages, line up. Others, line up opposite. You have one more day to laze and get to know the palace. As I pass you, new pages, state your name and your family's holding. Any volunteers to sponsor the new ones step forward after they have done so." Padraig passed the first boy, a small skinny thing with bright red hair and copious amounts of freckles.

"Your name and fief?"

"Marcus..., sir... M-Marcus of H-Hollyrose." A tall youth with the barest touch of a summer tan stepped forward.

"If I may, my lord?"

"You may sponsor Lofren, Matthias of King's Reach."

Padraig passed onto the next page, a boy with mousy brown hair and dreamer's hazel eyes with 5 feet to his name.

"Kellan of Mindelan, sir." Padraig made a noise which would be labeled a snort on a less dignified man.

"I had the...pleasure... of working with your father, Conal. Don't worry; I won't hold it against you."

A slender girl stepped forward this time. She had her mother's smoky brown hair and her father's height.

"I am willing to sponsor Kellan, my lord."

"Then do so, Sarralyn of Mage's Tower."

Padraig continued down the line of pages and each was allocated a sponsor. In the group of new pages, five, counting Jessalin, were female. Parizade and Emmalie of Masbolle, twins, with snapping blue eyes and dancers' muscles, were sponsored by Iros of Kennan and Verlin of Blue Harbour.

Kiera of Queenscove, a small girl with her mother's feline features and muscles hardened from training with a Yamani naginata, or glaive, was sponsored by Darin of Tameran. Helena of Seabeth and Seajen was sponsored by Selena of Jesslaw. Finally, the training master stepped in front of Jessalin.

"Jessalin Crow of the Copper Isles."

The other pages started to whisper, and Jessalin could feel the furtive gazes directed at her.

"I would like to sponsor Jessalin. Her grandmother used to be a lady of Trebond, and I claim the right of kinship." The speaker was a tall girl, with reddish brown hair and a calm, confident stance.

"Well said, Elspeth of Trebond." The training master passed on to the next page. He was tall and had Stormwing feathers braided into his long blonde hair. Jessalin raised her eyebrow. Her cousin Rikki certainly had changed since she had last seen him.

"If I may, my lord?" Rikash began. "I have lived most of my life within the palace grounds, and am familiar with them. Therefore, is it not feasible that I should carry on without a sponsor?"

"Indeed it is. Your reasoning has spared one other page from having to sponsor a first year."

Rikash smiled politely and bowed. The training master nodded stiffly and strode away. The rest of the pages took their cue and left the corridor.

***

Elspeth offered her hand with a friendly smile. As Jessalin took it she was tugged upward gently as Elspeth tried to throw her. Jessalin countered with a leg sweep which Elspeth blocked. They continued the customary greeting tussle until both ended on the floor. Both got up and dusted themselves off before firmly embracing the other.

"El! Still in good form, I hope?"

"Really! What kind of Trebond do you think I am, Jay?" El playfully swatted at Jessalin's head, which she ducked. Rikki casually ambled over with Parizade, Emmalie and Kiera.

"The playpen has suddenly grown, or rather, will grow, rather violent," Rikki drawled. Kiro scoffed.

"The play pen will see you beaten, battered, broken and spat out back to front without the knowledge of the difference between right and left," Kiro said scornfully, whilst keeping an exceedingly serious expression upon her face.

Parizade, or Riza, as Jessalin could tell by her longer, chocolate brown hair, subtly indicated that Rikki was crazy. Emmalie, or Lee, subtly indicated her agreement. El cleared her throat loudly.

"Well? There's something called supper that is waiting." The other sponsors, who had congregated on the other side of the hall, sauntered over with expectant expressions. Rikki rolled his eyes and headed off in the direction of the mess.

Jessalin commented absently, "What did you do to your hair?"

"Oh, that. That's just a part of my new, improved unique charm."

"Smooth talker," scoffed Jay, cuffing Rikki lightly around the ear.

***

The pages collected their food and laid their trays on the tables just as the training master strode into the mess, accompanied by a familiar figure with the trademark Conté black hair and sapphire eyes. Taking their place at the table upon the raised dais the training master cleared his throat, attracting the attention, and as a byproduct of such, silence, of the pages.

"May we, by the strength of our endeavours and the steadfastness of our faith, bring honour in the face of great Mithros and the just Mother to our great country, we humbly pray."

"So mote it be," the pages replied in a hushed unison. Prince Roald smiled a genuine, if small, smile and bade them to eat.

The pages took this as a cue and plonked down upon the wooden benches, resuming their loud conversations. Elspeth introduced the other members of their group.

"Of course you've met Matt, Sarra, Iros, Verlin, Darin and Selena. The brunette sitting over there is Willow of Goldenlake," Elspeth paused for breath, and then pointed out and another pair of boys, "That's Marcus your yearmate, Haden of Tasride and Pathom of Goldenlake. Kieran of Nond and Avalon of Stone Mountain are over there. Every once in a while the Stone Mountain stock turns out a good one." Avalon had inherited all of the classic Stone Mountain good looks, but was skinny enough to be termed slender, but not underfed. He seemed unconcerned about the implication made about the Stone Mountain line, even looking shyly pleased, ducking his head to hide a faint blush. Marcus and Haden avoided their vegetables as if eating them would cause an instant outbreak of plague. Kieran was reading a very heavy looking book as Sarra battered Matt with a stick of bread.

An angry shout rang across the hall.

"You dirty little halfblood! How dare you taint our hallowed hall and break our traditions so irreparably, you foreigner hybrid?" the speaker snarled.

"Lucky for us, Marti's Hill, new blood prevents incest. I heard that your mother was also your aunt!" another boy replied cheerfully. Glossy black hair flopped over his forehead in a messy fringe against a backdrop of creamy skin. Big brown, almond shaped eyes hinted as to a mixed, Yamani-Tortallan heritage. Another page smacked him upsides the head and hissed, "Jun, you're a prince, you oaf, you don't need anymore enemies than you already have. Shut up!"

"Really!"

"Jun, I should think that you would at least try to live up to your name's meaning." Roald mused. Jun rolled his eyes.

"Conté, Marti's Hill, report to me after supper is finished," the training master boomed. Lord Padraig resumed his meal without further ado, and the awkward silence was broken.

"That was our resident royal, Prince Jun the Bonehead. Reckless, impulsive, brave to the point of stupidity but good fun. He spends time with everyone at dinner, so he doesn't always sit with us. The only reason he doesn't sit with Estin and his cronies is because they can't go an entire meal without either starting a shouting match or a fist fight," El commented lightly. The others snorted amusement.

"Eat your-"

"Vegetables!" Riza and Lee ordered. The group laughed as Marcus and Haden looked disapprovingly at their vegetables, turning slightly green.

El only realised then that Jay had been carrying a bottle of suspicious, orange red substance. Jay plonked it firmly on the table, uncapped it and thoroughly doused her meal in the sauce.

"Ooh!" Iros reached over and did the same, shoveling a hearty mouthful into his waiting orifice. Jay blanched immediately.

"Oh, you didn't…" Iros was slowly turning redder by the second, fanning himself before spitting out the mouthful.

"Hot, hot, hot!"

"That's five X chilli hot sauce! Here!" Jay shoved a bread roll and glass of milk under Iros' nose, completely aware of his obliviousness to water's ineffectiveness at quenching the fire of the chilli sauce.

"What's...five X…chilli sauce?" Iros panted, red as a tomato, or, rather, a ripe chilli.

"Extra extra extra extra extra hot chilli sauce! Only Kyprish bred and born even touch the stuff, it's so hot."

The rest of the pages were roaring in laughter.

***

Jun sighed in satisfaction. As always, the meal served had been delicious and filling. The evening had only been marred by the dishing out of punishment. He made his way to the student library to borrow some books for light reading. While carefully sorting through the 'S' shelves, Estin of Marti's Hill and his cronies, Jarvis of Runnerspring and Rymon of Genlith grabbed him by the shirt. The three youths were more than a match for him in size alone if not skill.

"Halfbreed scum. We'll teach you to be disrespectful to your betters!"

"Wha-" He was silenced with with a brutal punch in the face. As the other pages rained blows he desperately tried to protect himself, retaliate, anything - his mind dimly registered that someone was still holding him, arms pinned to his sides. Suddenly the punches and kicks stopped.

"That's enough. Leave it," Estin commanded. Then he saw was the ground rushing up to him. He reacted instinctively releasing a massive shockwave of raw force, a product of his equally massive, explosive Gift. The three cronies were knocked flat as shelf after shelf toppled, in a domino effect.

***

El and Jay were about to venture in the way of the page libraries when the ground shook and the corridor trembled. Jay immediately flung herself down to the ground and brought El down with her. The tremor ended as quickly as it began.

"That doesn't normally happen," El said shakily. Jay did the mental twist that allowed her to See magical traces. Brilliant sapphire blue, so dark that it was almost black, limned in gold permeated the space of the corridor, steadily darkening as the corridor led away to various locations. Jay sprinted away, following the trail of magic.

"Hey, wait! What happened to following your sponsor?" El shouted.

The trail led to a desecrated library. Shelves lay on the floor and books, scrolls and papers were scattered everywhere. The nucleus of the blast hovered straight above a sprawled figure that looked like they had been badly battered. Three other figures lay just outside the epicenter of the blast, looking as if they had been blown off their feet.

El skidded into the doorway. For long moments she stood transfixed, mouth agape.

"Don't stand there gawping like a goldfish! Go get a healer!" Jay ordered.

***

Jun groaned as he returned to the world of awareness. He felt like he'd been tenderized like a piece of meat under a cook's hammer.

"Hello, prince of the pulped." This was young girl, tucked into a bedside chair and reading a red book.

"Is that Deviations from the common path?" He tried to push himself upright, but his left arm was pulped and his right was in a sling.

"Whoa ther, slow down! Bad pulp. Bad, bad pulp. One arm broken, three ribs cracked, both eyes blacked, and bruises everywhere," she tutted, " Out for fourteen hours. Back to your question, yup. Volume 4 to be precise. I have the whole set. Do you read it too?"

"You bet I do! I worship those books!" The girl grinned happily.

"Don't you just love number 114? It works a treat every time."

"You got it to work? I can never rig the knot right!"

"I'll show you. It's really very easy."
"I don't know your name, so, what's your name?" asked Jun, now thoroughly awakened and totally curious.

"The humble Jay Crow at your service. Now, back to 114, you need to do a quick release so that you can pull at a moment's notice, not a reef, since two pieces of rope are fiddly and I have a prejudice against reef knots."

By the end of the discussion, both parties had gained a tasty tidbit of knowledge, and a fast friendship, bonding over a mutual love of deviation from the common path.

So, like? No like? R&R! Love, R. L