Madeline Amber Brooke was born on the core planet Ariel, but spent most of her life out on the rim with her mother on the small planet Boros. Her father was a high ranking alliance officer who had little to do with his daughter aside from a few birthday greetings. Her mother was a generous relief worker helping settlers on Boros set up their communities.
Madeline and her mother lived in the small town of Aren. She had her mother's light brown hair with small curls on the end, but her mother said she had gotten her sparkling blue eyes from her father. Madeline was the only child in the community and was much loved by them all. She was a cheeky child and delighted in imitating the settler's rough accents and giggling at her own joke. Her mother always said she had a beautiful laugh that made her feel like she was flying. When her mother was working with the settlers to help them with their infrastructure, Madeline happily wandered around the town and talking to everyone in her toddler's lisp. She was the town's child as well as just her mothers, and as a child she loved being the centre of attention but was also modest and thoughtful.
Her incredible intelligence was apparent from a few months after her birth. By the age of three she could not only read and write, but hungrily read large novels and helped her mother with calculations. Her mother took such joy in Madeline's eagerness to learn and nourished her daughter's gift as much as she could. She set tasks for Madeline to complete and gave her books on every subject she showed an interest in. the settlers in Aren loved that their little girl had such talent, and the older citizens would often ask her to recite some fact or read to them, and give her a small chocolate as a reward.
Madeline loved to read; and her very favourite books were fairy tales. She read them over and over again, and her mother read them to her before she went to sleep. Madeline even tried her hand at writing one, and some nights she would snuggle up in her mother's lap and they would speculate what was happening in the characters' "happily ever after." Madeline would often daydream, wondering what it would have been like to live on earth-that-was, or what she would do it she found a lamp and was granted three wishes. She would tell anyone who would listen about the theory that the magic pumpkin was a preliminary illusion device and was the basis for all spaceship cloaking technology today. Anyone not from Aren would be stunned to hear this tiny toddler talking about the physics of a spaceship.
Madeline's happy life was thrown into disaster just two months after her fourth birthday. Aren was struck with a severe respiratory illness. Madeline's mother was busy on the cortex for hours trying to get help. Madeline stayed by her side, peering out worriedly. Half the population of Aren was wiped out in the first three days. Her mother tiredly went from house to house, coughing and offering her condolences. Madeline caught infection the day before the med ships arrived, the virus wreaking havoc with her tiny body. She was in intensive care for three days. Madeline's system never fully recovered and she became asthmatic. The day she woke up the nurse gave her some bad news. Her mother didn't survive.
The medical staff were unable to track down her father, and just like that Madeline became a legal orphan. Despite the love for Madeline within the Aren community, no one could afford to take the child in. Madeline was transported to a children's home on the nearby planet of Beaumont. With the combined blow of losing both her mother and her home, Madeline became enclosed and silent. She rarely interacted with the other children in the home and became bored with nothing to do. She took to waiting quietly outside the older children's school room, listening.
Her first few weeks in the children's house were spent like this, until the young teacher, Sarah, caught her staring wistfully into the classroom. Sarah asked her what she wanted, and Madeline asked for extra math sheets. Sarah soon saw Madeline's amazing potential and took her under her wing. Coming from such a large community Madeline latched onto the companionship. Sarah let Madeline into each of her classes and was amazed as she received top marks in all of them. The two became very close, Sarah hearing drawing the first laugh out of Madeline in a long time. Madeline even began jokingly calling Sarah 'mummy'. Sarah spent her extra time teaching Madeline more and more, but could see that this was still not occupying enough of the small girl's time. So for her fifth birthday, Sarah bought Madeline a violin for her birthday. Madeline was ecstatic; she treasured the instrument and played it at every chance she got. She fell in love the long sounds and the differing tones, and began to write her own music. She felt like the violin had given her a happily ever after. She became skilled at it so quickly it amazed everyone in the children's house. Sarah was delighted to see Madeline so happy, but knew that the meagre educational funds of the home would not allow Madeline to realize her full potential. Sarah began to look into institutions for the gifted, and called up enquiring about scholarships. The responses she got were negative; the colleges could not award full scholarships and the children's house could not afford to pay even the reduced fees. Disheartened and frustrated, Sarah had almost given up when she was contacted by a government sponsored school. They said that they would like to test Madeline; and if she preformed well they were able to give her a full scholarship and board. Sarah was relived, she agreed to have an examiner come to the house and test Madeline.
A man in a suit arrived carrying a briefcase. Madeline was sat in the school room and given the test. No one was allowed in the room with her aside from the examiner to oversee the test. Madeline enthusiastically made her way through it, revelling in the challenge. She completed the forty-two page test in less than two hours. The examiner smiled at her as he took back the test and told her she did good work. Sarah hugged her when she came out.
They did not hear from the institution for another six months. Sarah became concerned; she tried to contact them but received busy signals. They eventually got back to her, apologizing for the delay and explaining that they had been having technical difficulties. The told her that Madeline's test results qualified her for a full scholarship, and that she could arrive next month. Sarah ran into Madeline's room to tell her the good news.
Madeline was taken to the academy just after her sixth birthday. A car arrived outside the home, and everyone had to say goodbye to her there. The driver said that the school had found it best with young cases not to prolong the separation by having family come with them to drop them off. He reassured Sarah and the head of the Home that Madeline would write and receive letters, and that she would return to them when the term was over. Madeline was excited to go.
Four months passed, and the promised time of Madeline's return did not come. Sarah tried to contact the academy but was repeatedly told the number did not exist. The head of the house told her to stop; that she was still receiving letters and that Madeline was obviously alright. Sarah eventually gave up.
In the Academy, Madeline had been operated on twice and was given 'treatment' almost every second day. At various times doctors and nurses would work with her, teaching her to be ambidextrous and recognise symbols on the side of a card that was not shown to her. They often had to sedate her during these sessions as she refused to go, yelling that it hurt and that they were going to make her 'see things.' She began to have gaps in her memory that always originated with her being taken into one of the rooms. She stopped playing her violin and became enclosed. The girl that had once been so trusting of people learned to become suspicious and terrified. Her young mind could hardly comprehend what was going on, and why they were hurting her. she had been taught my her mother and the fairytales she loved so much that people were good, and the bad ones were defeated. It was beyond her comprehension why these people weren't. She couldn't process it. That and the pain that came almost every day were the reason Madeline taught herself to close down and become nothing. Nurses would find her in corners, unblinking and unresponsive, but she could not maintain it for more than a day. There were times when she wanted to remain like that forever.
Some time after she was brought to the academy Madeline was given a room mate. The nurses brought her in while Madeline had been trying to sleep. She watched them lift the other person onto the bed. Madeline was scared of her room mate and exited the room before the other woke the next day. That day the nurses caught her and took her into one of the treatment rooms. When she came out Madeline was locked in her room, and could not remember what had happened. Her forehead was hurting and she began to cry. Someone asked her what was wrong, and before she knew it another girl had taken her in her arms and was whispering comfortingly to her.
River was Madeline's first ray of light, from that moment the two bonded. Madeline had almost forgotten what a friendly person was like. River talked to her and got her to open up, even convinced her to start playing her violin again. She told Madeline stories and often protected her from the nurses. Once when the nurses had taken River, Madeline closed down again, until she woke up to find River talking to her. River hugged her and said that she understood why Madeline did that, but that she couldn't let herself get lost because of them. She told Madeline that no matter what had happened or where she was, no one could take away who she was. River taught her things to think of so that she wouldn't need to close down and shut everything out. The two began to call each other little sister and big sister, along with other nicknames. Madeline knew that the treatments were getting to River too; there were moments when she'd jerk suddenly or begin to mutter about unrelated things; sometimes Madeline would hear her scream in her sleep. But she always tried not to show it around Madeline. Madeline couldn't think of ways to help her, so she would often just sit with her after the nurses had taken her. The nurses noticed the girls' relationships, and the doctors devised a way of showing them a false image of each other. The figure would tell them to trust the nurses, and that it would be okay. After they had both been fooled by this, Madeline and River devised a code that would enable them to tell when the images were real or not.
River had been at the academy for two years when she came to Madeline and told her a story. She told Madeline that she had a brother who was a wizard, and that he was going to come free her; but Madeline couldn't tell anyone. When River was out, she told her, she was going to come get Madeline out too. She promised Madeline that. Then she hugged her and told her it would be okay; that she was always here with her in her heart. Madeline held onto her, not wanting to let go. Then one day the nurses took her away, and she never came back.
Madeline was worried, because River had been taken by the nurses when she disappeared, and Madeline wasn't sure if that meant her brother had taken her out, or the treatments had finally killed her. She tried to tell herself that he big sister was okay, that she'd be coming for her, but as months went by Madeline began to fall into despair again, refusing to eat and fighting against the nurses when they came for her. Madeline forgot the strategies River had taught her, and closed down now for weeks at a time in her depression, not responding to noises, touch, pain. She continued to try to convince herself that river was coming, often yelling at the nurses that she was coming for her as though by saying it out loud she would convince herself further . When they broke her violin, Madeline finally gave up, because she had nothing left to live through.