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"No, sir," Kel repeated firmly. "I don't want to go home. Your lordship."

"You do not want to go home." If she hadn't believed he could never be startled, she might have thought that he was now.

-First Test, page 124 of the Random House edition

Lord Wyldon stared across his office at the door the young girl had just left from. "She doesn't want to leave." He had gone into the meeting with the probationer believing that he was finally going to rid himself of the abnormality. While he would never stoop as low as commending those who had beat her up before the meeting he couldn't help feeling slightly relieved that he wasn't going to have to have the awkward meeting with her to tell her that she couldn't stay at the end of a long year. Now he didn't know what to think. "She doesn't want to leave." Was all he could repeat.

"What's that my lord?" His servant asked as he came into the room bearing Wyldon's usual cup of evening tea.

The knight's eyes focused on the man who had just entered. He shook his head and pretended to go back to the paperwork on his desk.

The servant ducked his head to hide his smile as he set the cup of tea on Lord Wyldon's desk. The knight nodded his thanks. The servant was halfway out the door when he turned back into the room.

"M'lord, you know she started it." When the man looked up he continued hurriedly, "She was defending someone who was being bullied." With that he slipped out of the room, leaving a dumfounded Wyldon in his wake.

Lord Wyldon slumped back in his chair, an action he did not engage in often. She had started a fight against three of her seniors because they were bullies. He shook his head; it was the most chivalrous act he'd heard of in a while. He just couldn't believe it was true.

It made him think twice about the idea that he was without a doubt sending her away at the end of the year. Before that moment in time there had never truly been a doubt in him mind. He just wasn't going to allow it when she would so obviously get herself killed in battle, however now this little section of his world view was shifting. It was a little bit too much for his conservative brain to cope with.

Such an act of chivalry was beyond most children's capability. Wyldon was under no delusions that the young nobles he taught every day were anything other than children at this point in their lives. As such they couldn't possibly have the mental and moral capacity to sacrifice their own pain to defend someone else. Surely not, unless they enjoyed fighting and the thrill that brought, but his mind reject that as well. It might be because she was a girl that he couldn't believe it, but, even if it was only in his subconscious, he had noticed her respect for the fight in the practice courts and he doubted she was just out in search for a fight. At any rate the whole situation started a long mental battle that wouldn't be solved for the man till one day many years later when he gave her a fatherly kiss on the side of the Vassa River.

More than anything he couldn't believe the probationary page had been able to shock him twice in one night. It was a feat most people didn't accomplish in their lifetime and the girl had managed to do it twice in one night! It was unheard of.

He shook his head and took a sip of his already cooled tea. Little did he know that this was just the beginning of a long list of surprises.