Sunday November 21, 476 H.E.

Page Wing of the Royal Palace

In the month since Aranna had gotten attacked Newal had done everything in his power to avoid his siblings and The Lady Kel. Newal had only stayed in the infirmary 3 more days after talking to Kel and in that time; he was never awake while Aranna was, who returned to page training the week after he did. Already Aranna had tried to corner him several times but each time he managed to evade her. He was not exactly sure why he was avoiding his sister, he had nothing to be ashamed of, it was his actions that saved her life, but he did and after the third time she had apparently given up. Newal had the sinking feeling that it was the Training Master who had stopped her; he had heard her getting the same talk he had gotten. Lady Kel never approached him again on that subject, but the look in her eye every time he saw her said she had noticed that he had never given her an essay on the subject like she had asked. Though she might have also recognized that there had been no time for him to do so.

Before he had even left the infirmary, other pages, most likely out of the group of five he had recently fought, had started their typical pattern of making his life difficult. Suddenly the floor around the chamber pot was slippery, the sheets were itchy and his daily wake up calls consisted of ice cold water or small creatures in his bed but that all came to a crashing halt with a letter he received the day he was to be released.

Written and formally addressed to 'Page Newal of Pirate's Swoop' from King Jonathan, Crown Prince Roald, and Lady Knight Keladry of Northcliff was a summons at noon on October 30th for a 'court determining his morals and honor in regards to his continuing of training to the position of Knighthood in the realm of Tortall under their Majesties King Jonathan and Queen Thayet. The Challenge to his right to continue his train was given by a member of honorable nobility in regards to the events taking place October 24th with fellow individuals in training to become Knights; 4th year Page Tiadbold of Beachley; 4th year page Jehan of Faywald; 4th year page Bruno of Varre, 4th year Page Chinua ibz Achebe, and 4th year page Normand of Aldwinter. The judges of your moral fitness and honorable nature shall be the King, The Crown prince, The Training Master, The Kings Champion, The State Advisor, The Magistrate, and 3 Knights who have proven their Fitness.' The messenger an unlucky first year squire who was forced to serve a desk knight had 5 identical letters to deliver as well, did little to comfort him. Newal had stared at that letter a long time.

"The last page to have an Honor Court Hearing was released from his training and his inheritance" he had said before skulking off to deliver the rest of the letters.

On the appointed date Newal and the five other Pages stood before their nine judges. King Jonathan sat tall and proud his hair completely silver and his face was covered in stress and laughs lines he listened and watched unflinching, never moving and hardly ever blinking. Crown Prince Roald who sat to the right of the king lean slightly to the left, resting his chin atop his closed fist though his blue eyes were fully intent on the boys before him the resemblance with his father was clear though he showed more of K'miri blood of his mother and twitched with liveliness. Lady Knight Keladry sat to the left of the king her hair pushed back in a horse tail wearing her fief colors left no daught that the kind woman they knew was replaced by a hard, no nonsense knight her hazel eyes were hard but her disappointment in all of them, though not shown by any outward sign was tangible enough that he avoided her eyes . Sir Alan of Olau, was his uncle but he had never met him before and he gave no inclination that he knew that he was judging his nephew, Sir Alan looked a lot like his mother in facial structure though his red hair was clipped close to his head and he had a long scar running down the right side of his head that was puckered and angry and another that slashed through his left eyebrow and across to his right cheek over his nose. Sir Garth of Naxen was just as old as the King but the years had not been as kind to him, his shoulders were stooped, his skin waxy and his hair falling out in patches, every 5 minutes are so his was racked by quiet coughs that looked like they would rip him apart. Lord Falco of Eastdell was short and had boar like features, ruddy skin, and muddy brown eyes but with graying hair and a weight to his few movements that should both his power as a man but the power he held as the magistrate. Sir Watson of Masbolle a was clearly a knight in his prime sitting next to sir Garth but not what he would expect of a relative of Captain Dom, he moved in his seat and wiggled his leg as a man used to movement and action, his hair was blonde but short and had the strong features but a hawk like nose and brown eyes that were close to being cross eyed. Sir Merric of Terrsmont and Sir Anders of RoseMark could have been twins of middling height and short dark hair typical of a fighting man the only difference was Merric's beard and blue eyes and Anders brown eyes and wide forehead.

Each knight sat behind a long raised desk each giving their undivided attention to each of them as they gave a strait forward account of what had happened, there was no difference in any of their stories. It was clear that the older pages had attacked Aranna due to jealousy and anger at her being female and being better than them, at how all the pirates swoops could come in from the Copper Isles having never lived in Tortall but claimed the right to try for their knighthood based off their grandmothers claim to the honorable fief of Trebond, though both their grandfather and father were commoners. Each of the judges kept a perfectly blank face throughout all the pages had said. Once they had finished the room had gone completely silent but none of them moved and it was a long moment until King Jonathan spoke.

"Now that this court has heard the testimonies from each page, it is time to judge should these pages be dismissed from training or allowed to continue under the understanding that should their honor as a knight ever be challenged again, the consequences shall be dire."

That had been the first time Newal had heard the King speak the entire court, and suddenly he could understand why people said the king was sure to retire soon. Though outwardly he appeared the perfect picture of an elderly but dignified King, short silver hair, wrinkled face, blazing sapphire eyes, neatly trimmed beard, sitting up strait and tall that emitted an aura of dignity and respectability that made one turn to him for leadership. But his voice, though still strong, showed an unmistakable tiredness; a man who had done and seen too much. He felt a sudden twitch in his ear, almost like a bug and flown into it and a quick pressure against both eardrums. After a second the king spoke again, but this time he could not hear the words, each of the judges started shifting and talking, careful to cover their mouths so he could not see their lips, but still he could not hear anything. He tugged o his ear in confusion and saw a few others of the boys do so as well before Tiadbold smacked them.

"It a spell against hearing you fool, they are making their decision"

The next five minutes seemed like an eternity to Newal and a chocking panic gripped him. What if they choose to dismiss him? He could not stand the look on his family's face if he was kicked out, he had spent a long time dreaming of this. He would not be sent home, they would have to kill him before he left, and he would become a knight no matter what he had to do or who he had to beat. His thoughts continued and he barely noticed that all the movement of the judges had stopped and the pressure on his ears had subsided.

"-final, there will be no further deliberation, Being a Knight is more than fighting, or leading other individuals into battle, Being a Knight is about protecting those who need it, answering the call of your country and defending it through thick and thin, against all physical, emotional and moral abuses." King Jonathon was standing and looking at each page in the eye before he continued "That is why, if these judges have decided that your actions have reflected a lack of morals, you will be released from page training and sent home at first light tomorrow."

Newal tried to swallow the fear that clung to his throat as the King sat and Lady Kel stood. " This Court has decided that based on the actions last Sunday, that 4th year Page Tiadbold of Beachley; 4th year page Jehan of Faywald; and 4th year Page Chinua ibz Achebe, shall be dismissed and escorted home tomorrow morning at first light, do not attend any further classes today, do not attend meals with the rest of the pages, pack up you gear tonight and be in the main court yard at first light with all your belonging."

Newal released a breath of air he did not know he was holding, he turned just slightly to watch an angry red faced Tiadbold slap the hands of the King's own men who was following him out the day, Jehan had gone extremely pale and seemed like he was almost about to vomit. Chinua accepted the hand the soldier placed on him as he walked out the door almost completely blank faced. Suddenly lightheaded he turned back to face the Lady Kel.

"As you the remainder of you 1st year page Newal of Pirates Swoop; 4th year page Bruno of Varre; and 4th year page Normand of Aldwinter, for the rest of today you we go on to the rest of your duties, however, none of you will have leave until midwinter celebration, and until that time during your punishment hours from fourth bell to the dinner bell on Sundays you will spend it cleaning the weapons and chainmail in the armory. Carry –"

It was with a heavy heart that Kel closed the Book of Pages, compiled by Lord Wyldon, it held the name of every person who had tried for knight hood in the last 40 years, their knight master and important event during their knighthood and finally their death dates. Registering Tiadbold, Jehan and Chinua as being dismissed from training was harder in many ways then having dismissed them. She leaned back in her chair and started fingering with the necklace around her neck. None of those boys were truly bad at heart in her mind, she could still remember their first day at the castle and how scared they were. But they could not continue training if they were willing to attack another page just because that page was a female and they were jealous of her skills. At least the boys had not lied about their intensions; there would have been more serious consequences. Their dismissal was a necessary evil, it had been Tiadbold and Jehan to come up with the basic plan, but it had been Chinua, the person she had seen so much hope for as a strategist that had come up with the final plan to attack her. The other two she was not worried about both Normand and Bruno they were merely followers and would not have come to the conclusion themselves. She was more worried about Newal. He was extremely protective of his sisters and his violent way of protecting them had nearly killed Normand and his male parts may never recover.

She seriously disagreed with the choice to admit all four of Aly's children to page training at once. Her own children were two years apart and that was close enough for her. Yet she was not surprised that she had gotten multiple children from that group. Since she had taken over as training master just about 8 years again and female pages became more common she had seen more and more family groups represented in the pages. Now it wasn't all that uncommon to see a daughter and a son from the same house or even two or three. It was good in some ways, there were more nobles training to be knights then ever in living memory, a new wind was built in the palace especially for the 56 pages now 53 and 39 squires currently training to become knights. But it was bad in others that now families were sending children they never would have dared to send before, emotional disorders, the ugly daughters, the troubled preteens, all the ones previously swept under the rug come out of the wood works and showed up on her doorstep. She turned away a one or two before they even showed up but she still had to weed a few out before they could become squires.

Kel stood and put the book on the shelves feeling and hearing all of her joints stain and pop. She was getting too old for this, she had had too many years behind this desk, her children had been young when she got the job, but now her youngest was 8 and her oldest was almost done with her page training. This midwinter the first group of pages she had trained were becoming Knights, having completed their squiring, there was a total of ten and three girls, plus one of her nieces and nephews, Madison and Lachlan would be going into the chamber and already the conservatives were howling that none of them would achieve success because she had trained them, she was beginning to ache to return to the field but she had, rather foolishly, just promised King Jon and Prince Roald 5 more years. Kel no longer bothered to avoiding being blunt, most of the time she was tired enough to just say what she meant just to be done with it, more often than not now every time Dom was home they argued and it was perhaps the most backward argument she had ever be a part of. It was her stopping Dom from retiring to marry her, which not twelve years ago she had promised to do so, the diamond ring hanging on the thong around her neck, next to her pregnancy charm was proof of that, but something stopped her each time, that told her that he would get bored doing nothing all day. Yet right now the last thing she wanted to be was drag herself off to her quarters to either find Dom, still angry over their earlier argument, or a cold bed signaling that his company had gotten called to repair the damage done by bandits in the northeast part of the country, and at that moment Kel was not really sure which was worse. Kel sighed checked her office one more time and left.

It was with a heavy heart that Dunie moved her queen across the board and in front of her king and watched as Jet's knight took her out and placed the queen with a pile of her other chess pieces, which consisted of about half her pieces. She glanced at the tiny pile of his pieces…three pawns and a horse. She glared at Jet across the chess board, his eyes were dancing and his lips were pulled up in a small smile.

"I hate you….Play again?"Jet broke into a full on smile and he re set the board.

Jets constant silence had thus far lasted the entire time she had known him, but she had become used to the silence and had come to be able to recognize what he was trying to say in just his eyes and facial expression, the only sound she had ever heard from him was a small chuckle which had come from a month and a half of extraction. Which had only come once Edlin had gone on a long rant about something or another and Kalisa had tackled him into a wall in mid sentence…? It had been the funniest thing she had seen in her whole life.

Now that page training was in the middle of November Dunia had fallen into a specific pattern in her life that she found she loved more than anything, the training the knowledge, the challenge, the feeling that she had every night when she fell into bed; weary, exhausted, covered in bruises and sores, her knuckles scrapped from fighting and hand tired from holding a pen; she loved it all.

The only thing that she did not like about the page training was how distant it made her and her siblings. Aranna completely avoided all of them accept for Newal who since his honor court had done everything in his power to never be in the same room with them. Even her and Junia were more distant even though more often than not one or the other of them would fall asleep in each other's bed like they used to do when they were younger, Junia just missed the being a spy part of it too much and would spend some of her time writing coded letters to grandfather. Personally after seeing a lot of what he did she lost interest, ma always let her and Junia help and let them do the more fun part of the spymasters job, hiding and locking all important documents that were boring some place they could not gain access to but if anything Junia had become more interested and suddenly the smallest thing between them turned their silenced uncomfortable and it quickly filled up with talks about training and Kalisa's and Edlin's usual bickering, Thomas's anger problems and Jet's constant silent sarcasm. Yet the time they both spent training prevented them from working it out and so it sat, though they both still managed their morning flight around the grounds to watch the all the earliest morning activities.

i am really sorry it took so long, but i recently remembered it and i loved the story line so i picked this back up, because i did not want to do homework... as per usual... sorry it took so long... but i am pretty sure i got the next couple chapters planned out adn those should go pretty fast, and plus i wrote the beginning of a chapter that will take place much later but it was supposed to be the end of this one but i keep forgetting about puberty... i am 16 so i am used to the dirty jokes and harmones adn what not of highschool, i forgot newal was only 11 and suddenly i had be checking out pretty girls...my bad i was about 2 years early, oh wellll.... entil the next time i do not want to do homework

Updated 1-3-10