Disclaimer - I don't own Corus or Tortall or anything , they belong to Ms. Pierce along with everything else - except the characters that I've made up.

This takes place a looong time after Kel and Co. Currently, girls are pages, no longe put on probation but still there aren't many. This is my first fanfic, so please R/R - Flames are fine (just not to harsh. ^^)

Gwynna

"Useless! Completely useless," Gwynna's father's words rang in her ears as she quietly flipped a page in her book. They should at least learn to argue when their two rooms away from me, the girl thought to herself as she gave up on reading, shutting the book with as least noise as possible and blowing her candle out, climbing up into her bed. Shutting her eyes tight, she tried to block out the shouting from the other room, trying to imagine having the skills and grace of the knights in her books. I could go off an be a page, she thought fleetingly, brandishing the thought as soon as it came. "We should just send her off to the capital and let her see what those silly fantasies really involve. Can't even marry her off to the townfolk!" With this the girl succumbed to her tears, burying her head under a pillow, trying to sleep to escape her trap.

Gwyn's lip quivered more and more as they started to reach Corus, glancing periodically at the guardsman accompanying her. "I- I- I don't think I can do this," she finally squeaked to the man, who rolled his eyes and continued onwards. She simply sniffled as she continued through the towns, hardly aware of all the bustle around her, not really caring at this point.

She was shoved - okay, well maybe not shoved but in her opinion - into a room, staring down at the floor, not wanting to look up into the rumored icy gaze of the training master. "Hello Gwynna," a soft voice greeted her instead, sounding in a low range tenor. Finally the girl glanced up, hazel eyes brimming with tears, she glanced around the room which was full of…books… And the man sitting behind a desk looked by no means like a training master. In fact, he was rather…scrawny to say the least. The man peered over thickly rimmed glasses at the young girl, "You are Gwynna, are you not?" Silently she nodded, waiting to be sent to some other room, filled with swords and weaponry instead of books and scrolls. "And you have come here to become a scholar, yes?" Jaw dropped and she simply gaped at him before realizing she was being rude, quickly snapping her mouth shut and nodding in confusion.

Does anyone ever bother to tell her anything? By the Goddess, why didn't her family mention that she wasn't being sent to Corus to become a page and be beaten up by all the boys and terribly embarrassed? Hmph. "Well then," the man said, noting something down in a book and flipping it shut, "Come with me, please…"

Other chapters will follow. I know you're all just dying to find out what happens to Gwynna. ;)