*Places story there quietly and runs away in fear of being yelled at for being so late*


1720

The cold and the damp were the first things she noticed when she woke up. She didn't know why this surprised her, cold and damp were regular occurrences when one lives in a cave.

He woke up to the sounds of the babies crying. He groaned and rolled onto his side. He had come accustomed to the twins, a boy and a girl, crying in the middle of the night. He lay there in the darkness knowing that he wouldn't fall back to sleep.

She sat up in the darkness and let her eyes adjust to the blackness. She rummaged around until she found her robes. She put it on over her night clothes and stood up. After a stretch she quietly left the empty dorm. She didn't pass any of the Sofi. The Sofi, meaning the wise ones, was the name given to a polydinami when they had reached the state of all knowing.

He stood up and got dressed. He crept past the twin's room and saw the nurse caring for them through the door that lay agape. He reached the front door and slipped on his boots. Not long after he reached the lake. It was much quieter at night, so much more peaceful.

Polydinami meant many powers, to her it meant imprisoned in a cave and forced to study. It was a rare adept discipline only practiced deep in the Wicklow Mountains, practically unknown to most of the world. People who did hear about the adepts thought that they were nothing but legends. She didn't blame them the polydinami didn't stray far from their home in the mountains for fear that people would hunt them for their power and knowledge.

He didn't really want to practice magic so he sprawled out on the flag stones and just listened to the wind in the trees. The idea of gazing at the stars - no matter how nice or romantic it was - was incredibly boring.

She reached the sensitive's ward and woke him up. He mumbled and groaned about her choosing such an ungodly hour to train. She ignored him and led the way to the training hall. Deeper and deeper into the caves they went, colder and colder it got.

"T-this, th-that, t-these and t-th-those, th-is is the w-way the T H goes." He said out loud to the lake trying to quench his boredom. It was one of the phrases his older brother had sent to him to help with his speech. They were definitely helping, now he only had problems with the letters 'T' and 'W'. He took a deep breath and started again.

The fire lit torches were the only source of light this deep in the mountain they flickered in the dark casting long shadows. She instructed the dark haired sensitive to use his magic to read her thoughts. He sat crossed legged on the stone floor and she sat opposite him. Before he began she told him to go slowly the first time. Concentrating she watched him closely. She could feel her own magic begin to bubble inside her as the sensitive started. He closed his eyes but she kept hers open. He took a deep breath and became very still. She used her magic to enhance her eyesight so that she could see his magic. It was beautiful and colourful as it swirled outward from his head. Seeing magic and the way it moved was the most important use the Polydinami had for their own magic. It allowed them to see exactly what their subject was doing.

The sensitive's magic swirled towards her quickly far too quickly for her to register. So she used her own magic to make time slow down, another important use. With time moving slowly she could see where his magic connected to hers in tangled its self with hers. He used her magic as a channel to get to her brain. She let his magic into her head and closed her eyes so she could watch his magic work on her thoughts inside her brain.

Her mind was laid out in front of him as his magic explored her thoughts. Tendrils of his colourful magic wrapped around one of her thoughts and then it sent a magical pulse. The pulse quickly fired out of her brain down the tendril. She slowed time even more so that she could follow the pulse. It moved along the tendril back into his brain.

"So that's how you do it," she said to herself.

However he became bored very quickly and magic was the only form of real entertainment he had. He threw the fireball up and down, up and down, up and down.

She told the sensitive to stop. He did as he was told; the subject always did what they were told. She closed her eyes and played what she had just seen over and over in her head, until she knew how it was done off by heart. "My magic connects to his magic, his magic connects to his brain, my magic connects to his thoughts, his thoughts connected to my magic and my magic connected to my brain" That is all magic is really, seeing the connections.

Throwing just one fireball became tedious and boring so he added another to the mix and began to juggle them. He juggled them faster and faster until they blurred into red streaks in the night sky.

She took a deep breath and imagined what it must feel like to read other people's minds. What his magic would feel like. What her magic would feel like in his mind. She was ready she knew she was she was ready to try at least . . .

"SOLITARE!"

The harsh roar split her concentration, causing her to jump.

The flames burnt brightly against the night sky prancing like a playful kitten trying to catch the stars. There was the sound of little hands clapping behind him. He spun around unaware that he had had an audience. "Yay! Well done S'duggery! Well done! Again again!" His little sister yelled happily.

"HOW DARE YOU! Who do you think you are?! You, under no circumstances are allowed to take a subject! How dare you! How could you even think that you have the capability to, to even -"

The slap came in hard across her face giving her no time to react, followed by a sharp under cut to her chin. Her teeth clashed together catching her tongue in the process. The sensitive jumped and ran to the far wall frightened at the sudden outburst.

Her attacker grabbed her by the scruff and held up off the ground. It wasn't hard for a fully grown man to lift a seven year old girl. He brought her so close to his face she could feel the unruly hairs of his beard scratching at her. She had broken the rules enough times to know what happens next.

"Sorcha!" Skulduggery scolded. "W-what in eart-hs name are you doing here?"

"I'm watching you silly!" The little girl replied with a giggle. Skulduggery smiled down at her. Her dark curls fell around her round face, framing her smile and sparkling eyes perfectly. He crouched down and his little sister ran to him, throwing her arms around her big brother. Her hugged her close taking in her sweet smell.

It didn't take him long to batter her unconscious. When she woke she found herself back in her bed. She sat up quickly and was rewarded with a sharp pain in her head. Her lip was swollen and her limbs were stiff. It wasn't a bad beating, she'd had worse before. Slowly she stood up. One knee buckled, unable to support the full weight of her small body. Solitaire limped to the door to try and open it. It wouldn't budge on closer inspection she noticed a magical sheen covering the door locking it from the outside.

"Great," She mumbled. She hadn't expected isolation but then again she had taken it a step too far. Taking a subject to study after hours was a strict rule, but taking a subject who wasn't studied until a polydinami had reached the age of sixteen or seventeen.

"How do you do that?" She whispered into his neck. Skulduggery just smiled and whispered:

"Magic"


I'm not going to force feed you excuses and expect you to swallow them, so I'm just asking you to understand that this story is very long and i have spent a while planning it. It's all sorted and full of excitement, i even plan a trip to america! and unexpected run ins with the dead men and other characters from the books. So planning was fun.. but writting small boring chapters like this is not. I have been very busy with fourth year and shizz even though i thought this would be the year i could be updating more. I am very sorry please forgive me.

Now this chapter is only and intro to Skul's new friend. I had alot of explaining to do because i decided to involve an adept magic i invented. I regret it now. But basically The Polydinami are adepts who can use their magic to learn other adept magic and then sort of mimic it back when they need to. However they live in caves and are scared to leave the caves, in the wicklow mountain, which is offaly close to where Skulduggery lives... Anyways, if you have any questions DM me

They havent meet yet because that would have made the chapter too long they will meet soon! Let me know what you think your feed back is invaluable

:)