Title: Chosen

Summary: As the gods watch a girl with a strange, powerful gift, talk of war is heard in Tortall, and the mischief of a god has killed the King.

Author's Note: Thank you for reading this story. I hope you like it. Please review with ideas, mistakes you found in the story, approval, disapproval, or anything else you can think of.

This chapter is shorter than the last one, if anyone cares, but I think the next ones will be much longer.

Pheonixaurora0- Thanks for the review… Your story is really original too, you know.
Lady Rhian- Thank you also. Here's the next chapter:

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters, places, or plot ideas that were created by Tamora Pierce. I do own characters, places, and plot ideas (mainly the plot of this story) that you do not recognize and do not belong to Tamora Pierce.

Chosen:

Chapter 2: The Road to Corus

The Great Mother Goddess of Tortall looked sternly at the young god sitting before her. Although the deed he had done was one that should merit much more anger than she felt, it was hard to be angry for to long at the lesser god of mischief.

It hadn't, as it always wasn't, been entirely the fault of the god who stood before her. He had simply triggered the events that had killed the King of Tortall. 'Do you know,' said the Goddess thoughtfully, 'That this will ruin all the plans I had for my Chosen? It may in fact be the very thing that our unknown enemy was waiting for to strike. There are many that say the Prince Roald is too young to rule, and I am one of them.'

The god of mischief said nothing, so the Goddess went on. 'And Roald will not have time to deal with a strongly Gifted girl that comes to him asking for training- he will have to many other things to deal with. You will have to find some way to correct this mess. Until then, stay away from me, lest I should decide to be angry with you after all.'

'Very well.' The god scampered away, and the Goddess once again turned to her pool, whose side she had hardly left in the last fourteen years. It showed her a girl and a woman of middle years, plodding up the road on horseback, the road that would lead them from their small village to the capital. There has to be someone to train her, she thought, and if not… Perhaps I will send someone myself.

***

"We'll be in Corus be nightfall," Elyssa's mother said, trying to cheer both of them up. She and her daughter were very tired, and she, at least, was beginning to think it might not have been worth it, leaving all that they knew behind for a new place, that, at the very least, would except them. At least they would not attack Elyssa for her gift, or any matter like that- the King himself was Gifted, and mages were valued and powerful.

"Yes," Elyssa said, responding to her mother's earlier statement, if later than her mother had hoped. She wasn't as tired as the older woman was, and didn't need the reassurance as much as her mother did, and couldn't think of anything better to say to her than, 'Yes.' She knew her mother was worried, as she herself was worried, but she could hardly do anything about it.

Hours later, the sun was beginning to set, and Elyssa could make out blurred shapes in the distance- Corus, she decided. "Mother, look." She pointed toward the blurred skyline. "Is that the palace there?"

"I see nothing," the woman replied.

"There. Do you see the city? And see there, at the end…"

"What do you mean, city? There's not city there."

"But- don't you see it, it's Corus! We've almost reached it!" Her mother only gave her a troubled look, and did not reply. Can I see something that she can't? Elyssa wondered. Later, as the shapes grew clearer and easier to make out, her mother pointed to them and said,

"There. There's Corus. I don't know what you saw before, but-"

"That is what I saw before!" Something was definitely happening that shouldn't be. Was this some unknown aspect of her Gift? She remembered, as they prepared to leave, that her mother had heard her thought, and then, before that, the rocks that the girls had thrown at her, and how they had turned around in midair. If this was her Gift- it was not like anything that had happened before… And why was this happening now? Why hadn't it shown it's self before? I'll think about those things later, she decided. We're nearly in Corus; soon I'll have someone who will teach me how to use my Gift. I'm sure they can tell me what is going on.

NEXT CHAPTER: 3- Death of the King