A/N This story is set about a week after the name day of Numair and Daine's baby in Trickster's choice.

Disclaimer: as much as I would like to be able to come up with this all on my own I do not have the creative genius of Tamora Pierce

A Little Introduction

24 year old Carlynne was standing looking out of her window in her bedroom thinking about what she had been told just moments earlier.

"We have decided that we will see if Master Numair Salmalin will take you as an apprentice because we have trained you as far as we can and he can deal with your unique magic better than we can."

She had bowed and said, "Yes, master. I will go if you think it would be best."

Carlynne thought about the past 16 years that she had spent at the Convent and then the City of the Gods. She had always been amazed that her mother had put up the money to send her to the convent to do as she dreamed. Carlynne had shown a great ability to do magic that her mother had recognized as a dangerous yet wonderful gift.

At the convent the noble girls were rude to her since she was a commoner from Galla. She adjusted over time to not having friends. Carlynne started to be the best in her classes, which made the noble girls dislike her all the more.

Leaving her mother and two year old sister had been almost unbearably hard at the age of 6, even more so since she didn't know if she would see them ever again. She didn't know if her sister even remembered she had an older sister. Now she thought after her apprenticeship was over she would go find her family.

Daine was bouncing her daughter while sorting through the letters that she and Numair had received.

"Hey Numair, there is a letter here from the City of the Gods.Do you think they want you to teach a set of classes again?" She hollered to Numair through the door way into his study.

He stopped his work and walked over to where she was holding the letter.

He opened it and held it so they could both read it :

Master Numair,

We have a 24 year old young woman here who has spent 8 years at the convent and 8 years here at the City of the Gods training. She still after all the years of training needs help with some uncontrollable aspects of her magic. We think she has a strong gift like yours and some other magic similar to your wife Daine's. We cannot deal with it but as you have more experience with unusual magic we were hoping that you could take her as your apprentice. We can send her down with another group, and she is far from helpless, The group will leave as soon as we get you reply. If you would grace us with a reply soon we would appreciate it.

The Masters of The City of the Gods

"Well, that was not what I expected." Numair sighed.

"What do you think. Numair?" Daine said with a slight frown as her baby started crying.

"I am not sure. It sounds like she needs my help. What do you think?" Numair asked

"I think you should help her. It wouldn't be fair to her to not be trained further. Life right now is less hectic since Ashley has stopped shape shifting" Daine replied.

"I think you are right. I was hoping for a little more of a break before we started working again." Numair said with a sigh.

"So was I, This little girl is enough work for me. I guess we will have to wait for a break some time else Do you want a bird to fly your message back?"

"Yeah that would be really nice"

Carlynne was doing some meditating when she was startled out of her trance by a light knock on the door. She said "just a minute" as she struggled to get up. It was a messenger he said

"The Masters would like to speak to you right away"

"Okay." Her voice was level and calm, but inside she really was nervous.

As she followed the messenger to the masters council room she had all sorts of crazy thoughts about what she could have done wrong going through her head.

Carlynne hesitantly knocked on the door leading to the council room. She heard a stiff come in.

She walked in and curtsied low. As she rose from the curtsy, she could see there were three masters she recognized as the head of the training.

"Carlynne, Master Numair and his wife have agreed to have you come and study with them. This is the best option for you to be trained fully I hope that you will choose to go to study with them."

"I think this will be my only choice. Masters when should I be ready to leave?" Carlynne spoke quietly.

"The group we will send you with are leaving tomorrow, because there has been word of snow coming to make travel difficult." Another master responded.

"I will be ready." Carlynne said with her voice wavering, and then sank into a deep curtsy. She was shocked that she would have to leave the area she had lived in for 16 years.

"Good luck with your further training."

"Thank you, Masters for your help" With another curtsy she walked out and headed to her rooms where she had lived for the past 6 years.

Through out her eight years at the City of the Gods she had only been required to change rooms after two years. She had lost control of her, what some people called, odd magic causing plants to grow through the halls of that wing of the city creating a boundary that stopped the other students her age from following her and teasing her.

That was the first time Carlynne really realized that she had an odd gift. She knew she had the normal gift that could light fires and do other small tasks, but the thought that she had anything else beyond the normal had terrified her.

A/N so tell me what do you think? Should I keep going or drown it?