A/N: 'Ello, everyone, welcome to my very first Tamora Pierce fic!! :D This occurs about a year after Lady Knight, and a year before Trickster's Choice (which I, um, haven't read ::cough::). I tend to skim and not read thoroughly when I'm deeply into a book, so please, if I get any facts wrong, correct me! ::grin:: Meg's a very different character from my usual girl – or Tamora's usual girls, come to that – but I like her anyway ::huggles her::

Disclaimer: Tortall and all assorted lands belong to Tamora Pierce. Meg, Sir Elris, and any other chars I introduce later all belong to me. They're mine! Allllll mine! Bwahahahahah!! ::cackle:: ::calms down:: Ahem. Yeaaaah.

So, here goes...enjoy!

:: Goldflame: Mage's Dream ::

Prologue

There was a timid knock on the study door. Sir Elris of King's Reach looked up from his paperwork and impatiently muttered, "Come in, come in."

The door opened slowly, and Elris's youngest child and only daughter, Megenne, stepped in, biting her lip shyly.

"Megenne?" Elris sighed and took a deep drink from the flask next to him before returning to his paperwork. "Come closer, child, so I don't have to strain my neck looking at you."

The girl did so, wishing her father wouldn't call her Megenne and wondering why he told her to come closer if he was just going to continue doing paperwork. But she kept her teeth firmly in her lip, not speaking a word of her thoughts.

"And do stop biting your lip," Elris added in a lazy tone. "It's such a vulgar habit."

Meg's teeth instantly retreated back into her mouth; a flush appeared on her pale face.

Elris actually put his pen down to stare at his daughter. "You're far too easily embarrassed and flustered, Megenne," he told her in a stern tone. "It's not ladylike to take everything so personally."

What if I don't wish to be ladylike? Meg thought, but the thought was in a tremulous whisper, and she looked down, trying to stop herself from shaking. She wondered if this was such a good idea after all – would Elris even listen to her, or take her seriously?

"Well, what is it, child?" Elris demanded, taking another swig and going back to his paperwork.

Meg struggled valiantly and bitterly against a harsh reply; if he was just going to work while she talked, it showed just how much he cared. But he was her father; what could she do? She was beginning to wonder if this was a good idea, but turning away now would only annoy Elris more.

"I..." she began; her voice cracked. Elris looked up at her with stern grey eyes; Meg felt her resolve shake as embarrassment filled her. She gulped a few times, very aware of her flush, then began again. "I...I w-...I wa..."

Her voice continued to shake as her chagrin grew. She didn't seem to be able to speak at all. Elris let out a sigh of frustration. "Spit it out, child."

The atmosphere grew more and more tense. Finally Meg blurted, "I want to be a knight!"

The silence that followed was the kind of silence that followed a priceless crystal vase shattering. When Elris finally spoke, Meg could barely supress a cry of woe at her timing; it was a tone filled with rage, fury, and laced with just a hint of drunkenness. "What did you say?"

Meg opened her mouth to repeat it, but the flask that was thrown at her and hit her cheek stopped all speech from escaping her. Crying out from pain, Meg clapped a hand to the bruise she was sure was forming there.

Elris got to his feet and strode over to his daughter, grabbing her wrist and twisting it sharply with one hand, then backhanding her across the face with the other. When she stumbled away, crying openly now, he said in a low, harsh, slightly slurred voice, "Go. Now. Get out of my sight." When she didn't move, he took a step forward. She began to run; he caught her by the hair and pulled. She cried out again. "In the proper fashion, Megenne!"

Shaking with pain, tears, and fury, Meg lowered herself into the formal bow made to acknowledge the head of the household and held it for five full counts. When she dared raise her eyes, Elris nodded in grim satisfaction. "You are dismissed. And never let me hear this nonsense about you being a knight again. You haven't the temperament for it, Megenne."

Meg was unable to speak, think, or do anything save obey. Once she had closed her father's study door, a yelp of desperate pain (both emotional and physical), as well as a fresh flood of tears, overwhelmed her, and she ran outside.