Miranda, known as Mira to her friends and "Holy shit, I'm sorry" to her enemies, looked out over the courtyard of this House of Night. Quite a change from Seattle, but she was content to wait out her last year here. She knew she'd make the Change. Mainly because she refused to consider the alternative. The High Priestess, Neferet, was leading a group of fledglings toward her. One of them already had completed tattoos, the others only their outlines. Ah, the illustrious Zoey Redbird. It's surprising she wasn't spotlighted by a single ray of moonlight. After all, she was supposedly the most gifted fledgling to ever exist. It was all anyone seemed to be able to talk about here.

Mira almost threw up a little.

It was practically degrading how all the students seemed to defer to her. Bowing and scraping seemed to be the norm. Mira shifted, scuffing her boots against the cobblestones. It was a good space for a duel, not much cover and plenty of room to maneuver. The shuffling of other feet drew her out of her consideration. Nephrite seemed all too happy to introduce them. "Mira Robinson, meet Zoey Redbird, the leader of the Dark Daughters."

Mira crossed her arms and cocked her head. "Hi."

Zoey seemed almost angry about this but managed to sputter out. "Hello."

Neferet jumped in between them. "Mira is a transfer from Seattle, she's quite gifted."

Mira could see the sneer forming on Zoey's lips before she spoke. "How gifted?"

In response, Mira lit her own hand on fire.

They all jumped back, except for the black girl, who seemed unfazed. The sudden rush of water from a nearby fountain sent her back though, as did the brush of wind and slight rumble of the ground.

Neferet's smile seemed to glow. "She has an affinity for the elements."

"But not spirit, right?"

Mira turned to her, short brown hair swirling. "No, but I fail to see what spirit can do alone. I find spirit in the other elements, not by itself."

Zoey seemed to preen, secure that at least she was still the most special. "Nyx could help you with that."

"I do not worship Nyx."

A dropped pin could have been heard in the silence that took over.

"But Nyx-" Zoey tried to speak.

"I am not religious and never have been. Being Marked did not change that." Mira interrupted, unwilling to hear arguments she had already had.

Neferet's smile grew even wider.

"But you have to! You're a fledgling!" Zoey's voice had a whine to it, her fists balled up. "Everyone does!" And suddenly, one of those fists was coming at her. Mira shifted, grabbed her hand, and forced her arm behind her back.

She let a little fire into her breath when she spoke. "I am not everyone."


AN: So, I'm going to be fairly evil in this story. I've always found Zoey to be annoying, the books to be pushing the Casts religion, and all of the characters to be rather flat. Mira does not ask the elements to do anything for her, she doesn't wait for Nyx to intercede. And she's going to observing the books and jumping in when needed. I've always found asking the elements to do something rather lame, when there was such a rich way of fighting with them. Mira is, understandably, a huge Avatar: the Last Airbender and Legend of Korra fan and has based her fighting style on those.

TL;DR. I'm going make fun of these books and have a character fuck shit up for fun.