Chapter 6: Goddess

The next few weeks passed moderately peacefully for Adalia. It seemed that Adalia's lesson to those five boys had stopped any future plans of physical assaults, but they kept on verbally attacking both girls; although in Adalia's case they did it very quietly.

Their reluctance to abuse Adalia pleased her thoroughly. She kept an ear out for attacks planned on Kula, and quickly turned up (seemingly accidentally) at any place the boys ambushed her, with hilarious consequences. The most popular consensus to her appearance was to run away as fast as possible.

These regular happenings were a favourite topic of discussion for her little group, as well as the pranks that Nathan and Charlie pulled off; sometimes getting off scott free, and other times being caught. Adalia regularly joined in, but her job was to divert any unwanted attention, wether that be servants or nobles.

The lessons became progressively harder, and as she struggled to get all of her bookwork completed. When she gained extra punishment work, it made it even harder to finish all of it, which inevitably led to more work. She just stood in the classes and accepted all of her punishment work, which was what all pages were expected to do.

She became extremely bored as the weeks passed into months; the practical work was interesting, but a large part of her day was occupied by the homework. She almost wished that the boys would make another attempt to pound her, just so she could see some deviation to her monotonous schedule.

Excepting her boredom, she started secretly changing into her crow form and flying around the palace grounds. This led to interesting eavesdropping, and she put together a picture of the direction of the palace gossip and which people were 'involved.' She also had the birds-eye view of the pranks that were played between the men of the Own and the Riders. She even happened upon a kind of complaint group of those nobles that were conservative. Much of her entertainment came from convincing the crows to drop small missiles of dung on them whenever they met outside.

One night Numair and Daine caught her out.

They were strolling along some paths near a popular fountain, and Numair just happened to look at her. His eyes widened and he laughed. Without telling Daine, he gestured for Adalia to perch on his arm.

Interested in what would come of this, she glided down and alighted on his arm.

Daine noticed the crow flapping down, and she glanced at Numair, "Last time I checked, you didn't have wild magic. How did you get that crow to perch on your arm?" She stretched out her arm to Adalia, who ignored it and hopped onto Numair's head.

Numair laughed and said, "Is she really a crow?"

Daine quickly opened her mouth, meaning to say 'yes, have you checked your eyesight lately?' When Numair cut across her and said, "Look closely." She gave him a reproachful look and closed her eyes.

Opening them, she was now able to see Adalia's unique essence; the human and animal intertwined.

An astonished Daine just stood there, and she asked Numair, "What is she?" She was distracted as she heard a soft female voice brake into her thoughts, "Good evening, Lady. I am Adalia of Pirate's Swoop."

With this communication, she suddenly remembered all that Numair had told her a month ago, that one of the pages was half a crow.

She was looking at Adalia, who gave her a crow-shrug and addressed Daine again; "You must excuse me if I don't shape shift back, I do not consider it fun to be caught in the middle of the palace grounds naked." Her voice was teasing, and Daine broke into soft giggles, remembering her own experiences with that drawback.

Numair was looking at them both expectantly, and Adalia addressed Daine again, "Could you tell him I say hello?"

Daine related the message, and Numair said hello as well.

She sat on Numair's hair for a while, talking to both of them. Throughout this exchange she subtly messed up the vain man's hair.

They all heard crows bawling in the distance, and Adalia cocked her head. She let out an answering caw, loud enough that both the humans jumped, and then quickly took flight off of Numair's hair, remarking to Daine that it sounded like mischief was afoot. When she was out of reach, she turned to hover on the spot, and mischievously told Daine, "Thanks for the chat. Tell Numair his hair looks nice."

Daine related this comment, and they looked confused. Out of reflex they 'looked' (Numair touched, Daine looked) at his hair, and Adalia was rewarded with a half-hearted shout of anger directed at her, as Numair discovered the condition of it.

Cackling to herself, she joined the other crows. There seemed to be a rather large disturbance. They were all circling around the tallest woman she had ever seen. Her skin was perfectly white, setting off slanting emerald eyes and full red lips. Her hair was unbound, falling loosely below her shoulders in black, snaky locks. Adalia was so surprised to see this woman, whose face was too perfect to be quite real, that she lost her grip on her crow form.

She just managed to land on two feet, her hair cascading over her face. She quickly became conscious of the fact that she was naked, and at this the woman smiled at her, and gave Adalia her own cloak.

Adalia swiftly wrapped he cloak around her body, thinking rapidly, trying to remember if she had ever seen this woman before.

"No, my daughter. We have never met." The woman's voice was husky, and Adalia could only think that it sounded like a strange mixture of waves crashing against the shore and rapid winds whistling through canyons. Knowledge struck as she remembered her mother telling her of her own experiences with the Goddess.

Adalia addressed the goddess, thinking it a good idea to be polite, "Good evening, Goddess."

The woman just waved her hand and said, as if continuing an earlier conversation, "I am pleased with your progress."

Adalia blinked confusedly, "Progress in what, Mother?"

The Goddess caught the confusion in Adalia, and she carefully continued, "Your own self-imposed task; to stop the injustices caused by the Conservatives. Your own talents will impress them into changing their stubborn ways. There are already only a small amount left, you will only need to give them a push in the right direction."

The Goddess looked at Adalia closely, seeming to want something from her. Adalia realised that she wanted her word to try to complete the task, and resonded, "It would be my pleasure, Mother." She then gave a little bow, very conscious of the fact that she was only covered by a cloak.

The Mother nodded her head majestically, and replied, "So mote it be."

The Goddess reached out her hand and drew Adalia's purple eyes to meet her own dazzling green.

After what seemed and age, she let go of the girl, who hardly noticed when her presence faded into a memory. Her head was spinning from what she had seen in those eyes.

She sank until she was sitting on the ground. Once her head stopped spinning, she glanced around at her surroundings. She was in the Royal Forest. Once she had made that observation, she also became aware of her nakedness. She forced herself to her feet and took a large leap into the air, changing back into a crow before touching back down.

Somehow she made it back through her window and slumped into bed after putting on a night shift.

Just before slipping into sleep, she thought absurdly 'and I wanted something to happen.'

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Disclaimer: I am not Tamora Pierce.

I hope you liked that chapter! Keep reading, I promise much more fun!

Next Chapter: New Lessons