A new chapter! Yay! *is enthusistic in an attempt to make everyone forget how long its been since the last chapter went up* Thanks to Sweet Sassy Sarah for looking this over.

Once again, the Ficship Competitions have begun. I'm encouraging everyone to head over to the forum and check out the nominated stories, as well as nominate some of your favourites. The competition can only run if people submit their favourite TP fics into the competition, and I know the authors will appreciate hearing about how much you liked their work!

forum (dot) fanfiction (dot) net/forum/The_Ficship_Competitions/54838/


It was obvious as soon as he entered the office that the Dedicate Superior of Stone Circle wanted something from him. Niko sat with his tea in front of him, listening as the brisk woman overrode his every attempt to remove himself from what he was beginning to think of as her clutches.

"Her name is Trisana Chandler. Her parents left her with us a few weeks ago, but it is not a good fit here; for us, or for the child. I would appreciate if you took her along with you to Winding Circle. She wouldn't be any trouble, I'm sure."

Niko took a sip of tea, trying to find a polite way to refuse. He had no time or energy to transport this girl, and the visions were still coming to him about children who may actually be in danger. "I'm afraid that I really cannot take her with me. I'm busy these days, you see."

He pursed his lips as she argued. "It would be along your way, Master Goldeye, you have said you are going to Summersea."

"Yes, it would be along the path I plan to take now," Niko said, looking down at his cup so she couldn't see the irritation on his face that he was keeping from his voice. Turning it a quarter turn on his saucer, he explained again, "but plans change, especially with what I'm doing now. I may end up nowhere near Winding Circle."

A door in an outer office opened and shut. The office door behind Niko's chair had been left ajar, and it opened even further as air flowed through the window behind the desk and through the office. Perfect, Niko thought. The better for me to make my escape. The image of one of the most powerful mages in the world running from the Dedicate Superior's office like a boy in trouble would have made him smile if he wasn't still being badgered.

"Regardless of what plans may change," Honoured Wrenswing said, tilting her head to meet his downturned gaze. "I know that you're already on your way to Winding Circle, and I need you to take this girl with you. Is that such a hard request to grant, Master Niko?"

Yes, when I am in a mood like this one, and want nothing to do with shepherding children, Niko thought, the images of the burnt villagers making him shake his head. Did news between temples actually travel quickly enough for Wrenswing to know of his work with young mages, or was she just desperate to rid herself of this child?

Why? A voice in the back of Niko's mind asked, but he ignored the question. "Send her later in the spring, when the trade caravans leave for Emelan. I'm on a very special task these days. If I have to change my plans suddenly, this child will only get in my way."

"We can't keep her," Wrenswing replied. She sighed slightly. Ah, now we're getting to it. "Her parents swore that she was tested for magic and found to have none, but… I don't know if she's possessed by a spirit, or part elemental, or carrying a ghost, to be at the centre of such an uproar, and I don't care. Winding Circle is far better equipped to handle a case like hers. They have the learning, and dedicates who are more open-minded with regard to unique cases. They have the best mages south of your own university. They will know what to do with her."

An uproar? What sort of… No. Niko cut himself off. He didn't care. This child was found, and there were others out there who needed him to save their lives. He had no time to be –

Suddenly, the roof above their heads was being pounded by something. There was a crash in the outer office, and both Niko and Wrenswing ducked their heads instinctively before getting up from their chairs to investigate. Calling power to hand, Niko pushed the office door open to survey the destruction.

At first, he assumed that the window had been broken by someone on the outside and that the plump redheaded girl kneeling on the floor beside her leather satchels was injured, but it took only a moment for his mind to take everything in. This was the girl Wrenswing was trying to get rid of, too much a coincidence that there was another girl of the age sitting in the office during their conversation. He had a moment of fierce annoyance that the Dedicate Superior had brought her, bags packed, without an agreement from Niko first, but he was interrupted as he noticed what was in the girl's hands.

She wasn't handling broken glass. She was holding ice. Niko looked from the hailstones to the window, and back to the girl.

The girl looked up and glared at him fiercely with pale grey eyes. Niko shifted the way he was looking, searching for the ghost or element in the girl. There was nothing, of course. Ignorant, harmful idiots, he thought, restraining himself from turning and shouting at the woman behind him. He couldn't see her magic, either, but he knew it would be there, somewhere –

"It's rude to stare." The girl's fury was evident in her voice, and Niko remembered the door swinging open. She had heard everything.

"You were tested for magic?" he asked, trying to control his anger at being so expertly manipulated by the Dedicate Superior. Very clever, to bring her into the office, and have her listen in, to guilt or shame Niko into agreeing to take her away.

"By the most expensive mage in Ninver, if you must know. And he said I haven't a speck of it," the girl replied bitterly.

Well, he was an idiot.

Turning back, Niko addressed the Dedicate Superior, "Honoured Wrenswing, I've changed my mind. I will be very happy to escort Trisana to Winding Circle Temple in Emelan." Trying on a smile through his anger, he held out a hand to the girl. "I am pleased to meet you, young lady."

Ignoring his hand, she stood up and continued to glare at him. "You'll change your mind before long. Everyone does."

With that, she grabbed her belongings and stalked from the room, the door slamming behind her.

"Thank you, Master Niko. As you see, we have been completely out of our –"

"Let me make this very clear to you," Niko said, turning back to meet the Dedicate Superior's eyes. She swallowed visibly. "I am not taking this child out of your incompetent hands because you manipulated me into it. I am taking this child away because you have obviously done enough damage to her, and it is time someone stepped in. I will also, on my return to Winding Circle, be discussing this incident with Honoured Moonstream and the Initiate Council representatives. Next time you push a young girl on a stranger because you fear her to be possessed by a spirit or ghost, you may wish to actually confirm she has anything of the kind!"

Niko grabbed his bag from the chair and walked from the room. The door slammed shut behind him. It was only when he was outside that he realized he had made an almost identical exit as his new charge.

It made him smile until he looked around and found that he had lost her, only five minutes into being responsible for her.

In addition, he would probably never be allowed in Stone Circle Temple again.

This was not shaping up to be his preferred sort of morning.