A/N: Okay! Here's the third chapter. Hope everyone enjoys. This one might be a little boring but it gets more interesting, I promise. Oh! And thank you everyone who reviewed!

These characters belong to Tamora Pierce. (with the exception of Arra. )

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The next time Arra woke she felt fully rested and hungry. Food was promtly brought to her and she was grateful. She asked the Duke healer how long she'd been there and he answered that she'd been here for a week counting when she'd woken before. Arra thanked him and he said she was free to go.

Arra grabbed her things and left the room. Somehow she found her way outside where she stretched and worked out the kinks in her body. Her shoulder was a bit stiff and still ached. From there she went to the open fields where the horses were kept and found Ghost. "Hey, girl." She called.

The mare trotted over to the gate and smelled her all over. Arra laughed and said. "I'm fine, I'm fine."

"She's been worried about you." A voice said from further down the gate. Arra looked to see who it was and found the girl with the cool grey eyes and another woman next to her with black hair and hazel eyes. They both walked over and Arra got a good look at the both of them.

The first she had seen before she found her name was Daine and the second she already knew. The perfect ivory skin, raven's black hair and full red lips pointed her out in a crowd. Arra bowed, a rule of hers to not get confused. If she's wearing breeches she bows and if she's wearing a dress she curties. "Queen Thayet."

They shook hands. Arra turned to Daine. "Thank you for saving me, if there is ever anything I can do just ask."

"It was really your mare here that saved you." She answered modestly. Queen Thayet smiled and changed subject.

"I think my husband wanted to talk with you." Arra followed them into a room with people already in it. She sighed and took a seat. "I suppose you want to know why I'm Nameless. Or perhaps why I have the Gift. Something like that."

The king's handsome face broke into a smile. "I gather you get asked that a lot. But no, if you wish to tell us than feel free but I have a proposition for you."

Arra decided to listen.

"Recently one of our Shang teachers left. If you are willing I'd like to ask you if you'd take her place. You'd teach in the afternoons to the pages and in the mornings you could be taught by whichever mage is open at the time. You could live here of course, a room would be prepared for you."

Arra thought about it. Live here? Where her fate had been plastered to? Could she live here for . . . however long and still escape what she had fought so hard to be rid of? "I accept." Though her words were final her mind still held doubt. Who was she kidding about 'however long'? It would take years to control her magic. "Call me Arra."

The king was happy to hear and soon after things were set up. She was given a room and such. Though over the next few weeks she did nothing but go to mages for teaching because the pages were on a break and wouldn't be back till later. The one mage she was sent to the most was Lindhall Reed.

Though learning to controll her Gift was hard, as she had tried to push it away for nearly all her life, calling it to herself was equally as hard. Once when she was coming to her class with him she dropped in on an interesting conversation he was having about her.

"The Duke Baird tells us soon after they healed her she went into a deep comatose. They couldn't even touch her because she had put up a magical shield." He continued on but Arra had stopped listening. The shield was something she had learned she did when she went into a coma. Sort of a protective instinct. Determining the man's tone of voice and the rest of the conversation she guessed she had a unique Gift. One she hoped they didn't trace to the 'unique-ness' of her grandmother's Gift.

When the pages returned, Hakuin Seastone, the Shang Horse, helped her fall into routine of teaching the pages. At first, because of her age and also because of her size no doubt, many doubted she was a Shang. They would challenge her after hours, and they would attract quite a croud when she accepted and threw them to the ground numerous times taking care not to seriously injure them.

Arra was glad to find that there were some female pages if not many. There was one, one of the older pages, named Fianola. She had brown eyes, olive skin and tight curls that fought against every pin and hold she put on them. If there was something she could tell it was that this one was determined.

For a while Arra thought maybe things would be okay. Everything went smoothly after she proved she was in fact a Shang. More backed off when they found out she was the Nameless Shang. Arra didn't know what the rumors said but they worked.

Everything was okay until Midwinter when the squires came back for a short while and Arra was met with her fears put into solid form.

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A/N: And there you are. In the next chapter Arra comes face to face with Liam.

Elfsquire90: Is Arra nobility or royalty? Well, I'm not going to lie. But . . . I'm not going to tell you either. You'll find out in a few chapters I think. If I told you now . . .well the story just wouldn't be the same! Lol.

Clair-a-net: why is she the nameless one? I said part of the reason in the first chapter, because she has the Gift. The other part you'll learn about later and if I know my story correctly, much later. what kingdom is she from? Hmmm. . . Lets just say her kingdom's not on the map . . .

A/N: And that's it. Please review!