Disclaimer: I do not own Circle or Magic. Tamora Pierce does. I borrowed Faerena from Kuro-neko16 (a very good friends of mine) but the rest or the character's you don't recognize are my own.


Auuuuuuuuggggggggghhhhhhhh I seriously hate myself right now for making you guys wait so long for an update. Whacks herself mercilessly on the head multiple times OW! Okay that kinda hurt, well here's Chapter 2 under breathow

Chapter 2

Um…Hi?

Daja woke when the carriage hit a particularly large bump in the road. Sunlight streamed through the small window. Not hearing the sounds of the twins slumber, she looked over to their corner to see Nia sitting alone re-reading a book on architecture that Daja gave to her for her most recent birthday.

Hearing Jory's voice, Daja assumed that she sat in the front talking to Frostpine. She jumped three feet in the air when Jory squealed. "We're here! I can't believe it! At long last we are actually here!" Nia quickly threw in a book-mark to save her place and ran to look out the opening in the front of the enclosed space.

Daja attempted to do the same, but her blankets tangled around her legs, causing her to fall face-first to the floor. Luckily, her students were too excited to notice. Yanking off the blankets, she hurried to look out the window as well, a large smile flaring across her face as the familiar wall grew closer and closer.

"Frostpine!" one of the gate-guards called out in a greeting. Daja recognized him as Dedicate Flamethrower. "Hello Dedicate." Daja greeted from her position. "Well Shurri bless me. Daja Kisubo!" he exclaimed. "I dare say you have grown. Come out of that confining carriage and let me get better look at you." Daja smile and the brown haired man, and obliged, stepping out into the mid-day sunlight.

The young dedicate held her at arms length. The other guard wore the green Habit of the Earth Temple, Dedicate Glennvalley.

"Alright that's enough Flamethrower, give me back my helper, I need to get to my forge." The Dedicate laughed deeply at the man's impatiens, and gently nudged Daja back to the carriage. "I assure you, Kirel did a perfectly good job taking care of your precious forge. You have near nothing to fear." Flamethrower waved to the carriage as it passed through the gate.

"It's the "near" part of that sentence that has me worried." Frostpine mumbled, focusing on the winding roads that gave Daja's home its name.

"Can we go to Discipline first?" Nia piped up from behind the seat. "Daja got a letter from Sandry saying that they added on to it. I'm really eager to see what they had done." Daja smiled at the quieter twin, whose magic resided in carpentry. "Well I want to see the kitchens first and meet Dedicate Gorse." Jory is a chef mage.

"I will drop you off at Dicipline first, as it is on the way to my forge, and Daja is hopping up and down so much that I fear for the horse." Frostpine laughed, and a light blush spread across Daja's cheeks.

"I too wish to see how Lark and Sandry are doing." The big man smiled at Daja who had grown on him, like a daughter. Daja smiled back, giggling in a very un-Daja like manner as butterflies erupted in her stomach.

Ahead of the was a white washed stucco house, which (she was glad to see) still had a straw thatched roof. When Sandry said they added on, she wasn't kidding. There had to be at least more than two more rooms on the first and second floor, and indeed, there was now a tower protruding from the top of the building.

As they got closer and closer to Dicipline, they could hear assorted voices. A few were female and there were male voices as well, but those were mostly just laughs.

Daja hopped out of the carriage before it even came to a full stop, closely followed by two very eager students and a smiling smith mage, as they went through the gate and followed the voices to the back of the house. Turning the corner of the now very large house, they were greeted with the spectacle of a boy, not much older than Daja with curly brown hair, holding a thrashing red-head over his shoulder (AN: No it is not Tris…yet).

"TURRET HAKOR IF YOU DON'T PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW, BY THE NAME OF MILA, I PROMISE YOU, I WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE A LIVING HELL!" the red head resorted to pounding on the boy's muscular back. Apparently these two had an audience. There was a group of teens sitting against the wall of Rosethorn's work room which jutted out from the rest of the building, so that they were facing Daja and the others.

"Carr! Help her out." A girl golden-brown skin and glossy black curls managed to choke out in between laughs. "I'm not even getting close to them; I'd rather not get clobbered by Kurelliss, if you know what I mean." A boy with honey colored hair and cornflower blue eyes, folded his arms in protest.

Two girls away from him there was a boy with wavy black hair that reached his ridiculously long black eyelashes which rimmed eyes as blue as the first boys. "Fine, but at least get off of Sandry's foot! It's making my own get numb." He reached over the girls in between them and smacked the other boys ankle, making the pretty blonde girl with green eyes next to him blush.

Daja had a sneaking suspicion that the dark haired male was Rayne, the empath (hence the reason why he felt his foot going numb when no one was on it), the black haired girl Lamari (she looks too much like Lark not to be), the blushing blonde Vereya, the dark blonde boy Carter (Sandry's brother), and the relieved looking girl…Sandry? Wow, she really did change. Her hair was longer, worn down (not in the two braids she parted from Daja in) and the same honey color as Carter's, and her cornflower blue eyes twinkled with mirth.

Her cream colored dress fell just below her knees, and the sleeves were short, exposing lightly tanned arms and legs, one ankle hidden under the male version of her.

"Sorry San," he apologized, rising a little so his sister could take her foot back. "It's quite alright. But did you forget that you don't have to get 'clobbered by Kurelliss' in order to save her?" he looked a little clueless, resulting in Sandry sighing in exasperation. "You mean you forgot you are a Telekinetic again?" she laughed at her brother. "Oh, don't take it personally Sandry; he's been forgetting a lot of things lately, like the fact that he was supposed to help me out at the forge last night. Remember? You were supposed to put some bars in the fire for me and give me the tools I needed?" a tall fair-haired young man came from around the other side of the house.

"Kirel? Shouldn't you be at the forge?" Sandry questioned the good looking smith. "I got Dedicate Heatseeker to watch over it for a little while. He's a lot more responsible than me." He explained sitting down next to Lark who just came out with a chair and her knitting.

"I guess I really have to start worrying now." Frostpine grumbled just lous enough for Daja to hear, causing her to burst out laughing. "Hello? Who's there?" Lark questioned. It was then that Jory, for some really strange and odd reason decided to shove Nia just enough for her to fall into view.

"Um…" Nia glanced at her teacher. "…Hi?"