Daughter of the Fire

By Adaia Swordmaiden

Disclaimer: …you know the drill...

Chapter 4: First day of school

Charlie soon turned up at the park.

"You really showed them," he said with a dry laugh. "But now they say you've got to go to Bloor's."

"What!" Adaia exclaimed. Charlie nodded. "Well there's no way I'm going!"

"Please, if you don't, they might think that we told you that you shouldn't and then we'll be in big trouble," Charlie said, half begging. "They own our house and pay all the bills. We don't have enough money." Adaia looked at Charlie, her eyes wide.

"What?" she said. "And your mother bought me new clothes and everything when you need your aunts to pay for everything else!" She suddenly felt a pang of guilt. "Ok. I'll go. But only because I don't want your family to get in trouble because of me." Charlie nodded, relieved.

"Thank you." They headed back to his house and Adaia immediately told Charlie's family that she was going to Bloor's. They all looked surprised but accepted it. They treated her a little more warily that night until she couldn't take it any more.

"Look, I'm not going to burn the house down," she said to them. "I was just so furious at how they were treating me." After that, she was treated as just a friend who was staying over. The week passed fairly quickly, a sapphire blue cape and a flute arriving in the mail from the aunts. After much suspicion and prodding and poking at the articles, Charlie, Paton and Adaia were satisfied that the flute was not going to blow up when it was played and the cape was not going to strangle anyone when put on.



Soon it was time for Charlie and Adaia to go to Bloor's. A taxi came and Charlie's mum and the two children all piled in. When they got to the school, Charlie's mum kissed him and said goodbye to them both before going back to the taxi. Charlie led the way towards the school, saying hello to various people on the way. A boy with shiny brown hair came over to walk with them.

"Hi, Charlie. Who's this?" the boy said as he came up to them. He turned to Adaia. "I'm Fidelio Gunn."

"Adaia. Pyro," she added, remembering the last name she had been instructed to use.

"She's a distant relative. She's staying with my family," Charlie said quickly. Fidelio nodded knowingly. A girl wearing a purple cape with short, spiky, red-dyed hair and yellow platform shoes came up to them.

"Hi Olivia," Charlie said. "This is Adaia Pyro. She's staying with my family." Olivia nodded knowingly as Fidelio had a moment before.

"Olivia Vertigo," she said, sticking out her hand to shake. Adaia grinned at her and shook hands. Then the four went into the school where there was no talking or laughing at all. Fidelio, Charlie and Adaia all went one way, towards the musicians' cloakroom, while Olivia went off towards the drama cloakroom. Once there, Adaia was shown her locker and then they all went into the oak-panelled assembly hall. After the assembly, Charlie and Adaia went off to their first lesson with Mr Paltry who taught wind. Once the lesson was over, Charlie led the way first to the cloakroom and then to a huge field around which children were running. Fidelio and Charlie ran together but they were going too slow for Adaia's liking so she went ahead on her own. After a little, she was joined by another girl with large grey eyes and long fair hair. Adaia grinned at the girl.

"Hi. I'm Emma Tolly," the girl said. "I expect Charlie's told you about me."

"Yeah he did. I'm Adaia Pyro," Adaia replied. "If you don't mind me asking, what's it like to be hypnotised? Manfred tried to do it to me but he said something about not being able to because of my eyes."

"Well, it's like you're half asleep," Emma said. "You don't really act like you anymore and when you wake up, you can barely remember a thing." She glanced at Adaia. "Oh, you've got a red eye. There's another boy in music called Billy Raven. He's an albino and his eyes are red. Manfred can't hypnotise him either." They ran on in silence for a little bit, thinking.

"You're endowed, aren't you? You can fly or something?" Adaia asked. Emma nodded.

"Yeah. I kinda turn into a bird and then I can fly. What about you? Are you endowed?"

"Yep. I can do stuff fire. I'm not very good at it unless I get angry."

"Charlie told me about that. You must have seriously freaked them out." By then they had to go back indoors for their next lesson.



After supper, Charlie started to lead Adaia in a different direction than everyone else was going.

"Where are we going?" Adaia asked as they hurried up a staircase.

"The Red King's room," Charlie replied as they came to a stop before a huge black set of doors. "All the endowed children work in there during homework time." They went in to find hardly anyone else in the room. Only Emma and a tall older boy with large eyes and electric yellow hair that stood up as if electricity was running through it were in the room. Emma grinned at Adaia as they came in. Charlie went to sit with Emma and the electric looking boy.

"Do we have to start homework straight away?" Adaia asked. The older boy shook his head.

"Not until Manfred and the others get here," he said. Adaia's face hardened and her eyes gleamed with dislike at Manfred's name, remembering how he had laughed at her threats before. "I'm Tancred Torsson."

"Adaia Pyro. I'm going to practice," Adaia replied, going and sitting in the corner of the room, starting her little practice of making the flame, moving it and making it grow. By the time Manfred arrived, a small boy who had white hair and red eyes the same as Adaia's right eye who was introduced as Billy Raven, a dark skinned boy called Lysander Sage, a long boy with long, floppy, mousy hair introduced as Gabriel Silk and a bunch of others whose names were not told had already arrived. Adaia just stayed sitting in the corner until the door opened and Manfred walked in, followed by the red-haired boy with the wolfish yellow eyes.

"Where's Adaia Pyro?" he demanded. Adaia stood up and walked over to the table, a flame floating by her shoulder.

"Here," she said carelessly, smiling at Manfred. He glared at her but she stared back so hard and fiercely that he eventually looked away. Adaia then quietly got out her books and began working. When the clock in the corner chimed 8 o'clock, Manfred said that they could go and then left, followed as before by the red-headed boy. "Who's that boy?" Adaia asked Charlie as they packed away their books.

"Asa Pike. He's a were-beast," Charlie replied. "He can turn into almost any type of creature after dusk." They then began to head back to the blue cloakroom, Charlie going off to one of the boys' dorms and Adaia going into one of the girls'. She had asked a couple of girls in the cloakroom and dorms and eventually found out which dorm and bed was hers. She quickly put her stuff away and got ready for bed. When she had just lain down, the girl on the bed next to her reached across and shook her elbow.

"You're one of the endowed ones, aren't you?" she asked her face curious. Adaia nodded and grinned at her. "My mother was endowed but I lucked out. What's your endowment?"

"I can do stuff with fire like fireballs," Adaia replied, sitting up. "I'm Adaia Pyro."

"I'm Mira Woods. Could you show me?" A couple of other girls had come over and were watching hopefully.

"Ok." She raised her hand and stared at it, a flame appearing quickly. The girls who were watching gasped as the flame floated up into the air and began to grow until it was the size of a small melon. Then it began to flatten out, becoming a sheet of fire and then a balloon that floated down towards the bed, extinguishing a moment before it touched the blankets.

"Wow!" Mira breathed. "That's amazing!"

"Silence!" a harsh voice said and the lights were switched out. The girls all scurried to their beds before the door closed and the dormitory was plunged into darkness. Adaia rolled over. Her little fire display had drained her of energy. The part where she had been transforming the fire was the real draining part. She had been able to do more and more every time but it was always so exhausting. A moment later, she was fast asleep.

A/N: thanks, Lyra Parry. the only reason I update fast is because I have most of this pre-written. I'll start thinking about an Inkheart fanfic. hands Lyra the customary cyber cookie