"Wake up, Rose. Time to train. See you downstairs in five."

It was Dimitri talking to me through my bedroom door. Not quite how I'd like him to wake me, but it was still nice to have his as the first voice I heard in the morning.

I moved to the bathroom, cleaned myself up a little, put on my nicest sweats and wandered downstairs. Walking into the kitchen, I saw everyone already gathered at the table eating. Ignoring everyone, but particularly my mother, I grabbed a piece of toast from the central platter and moved into the mudroom, holding the toast in my mouth as I quickly put my shoes and socks on. Scarfing the toast, I walked back into the kitchen and grabbed another piece, chewing it while I waited for Dimitri.

"You ready, Rose?" Dimitri asked, throwing down the last of his coffee.

"Ready when you are, Comrade."

"Are you training? We're not leaving until nine – can I join you?" It was Elizaveta. That chick just didn't know when she wasn't wanted.

"Perhaps Ayett could join you, too?" Stan suggested.

"Sorry, no. Rose and I are doing advanced training today." It was a veiled insult, but Dimitri delivered it so pleasantly, no one balked at the implication hidden within his words. "Let's start with a ten-mile run," he continued as we walked outside together.

We stretched for a few moments, me thanking him under my breath. And then we were off. It was a glorious morning. Cool enough that running was a pleasant way to warm ourselves. Usually, we ran the perimeter of the facility, but today my Russian God led me along the driveway, and we used the small pedestrian gate to exit the property, running along the roadway.

"You don't like her, do you?" Dimitri chuckled, meaning Elizaveta.

"Nope," I agreed, popping the p.

"Why?" he asked, looking at me sidewise as we ran abreast.

"Well first off, I didn't like how she just assumed she'd be a better fighter than me. Then I didn't like how Mom shares things with her that she won't tell me. Now just looking at her pisses me off."

Dimitri laughed, the corners of his eyes crinkling adorably.

"There must be someone you feel like that about?" I snapped defensively, feeling a little silly now I'd admitted my feelings.

A thoughtful look crossed his face.

"Yes. A guy called Nikita Makar."

"And…?"

"He annoyed me," Dimitri grumbled. "We were in the same year but different houses at St. Basil's. He was a good student, but very competitive. And arrogant. At St. Basil's, as well as our trials, final year grading is done on an elimination basis by house. Nikita was the top combatant in his house, as I was mine. All the way through our final year, Nikita taunted me that he was the superior fighter. It irritated me."

"So what happened?" I asked.

"I took him out in the final fight, and he's never forgotten it," Dimitri said with a satisfied smile.

I laughed, noticing Dimitri's grin. My Russian God was one of the least egotistical people I knew, but I guess even he had limits!

We ran for an hour before turning around and walking back toward the facility. It was five past nine when one of the Academy SUVs approached along the driveway. Dimitri and I moved to one side, Dimitri raising a hand in friendly greeting to my mother who drove and Stan who was installed in the passenger seat.

"There you go – they're gone," Dimitri said consolingly once they'd passed us and the vehicle could no longer be heard.

"Hope they have a great time," I muttered sarcastically.

"I doubt it," Dimitri chuckled. "Your mother is still upset with Stan about his comments, but is pretending she isn't. Stan is worried your mother will give him an unfavorable report, so he's taking it out on Ayett. Artyom didn't want two days and a night away from you, so is blaming his sister for asking your Mom for tips in the first place."

"Knowing that makes me feel better," I said with a little smirk. "So now they're gone, does that mean I can have a kiss?" I asked boldly.

He looked about us. We were surrounded by trees in every direction. "I think that would be alright," he laughed, pulling me against him eagerly.

The two of us stood wrapped around each other, lips joined tenderly.

Holding hands, we continued walking slowly back to the property. We could have run it, but now was more about spending time and less about actual training. We were probably a mile from the perimeter fence when we heard the sound of a car approaching.

Dimitri tensed, dropping my hand as we moved to the road shoulder. Unless Eddie or Meredith had disobeyed orders and decided to take the other car for a spin, it had to be the Alchemists leaving the property for some reason. They did it every now and again, usually leaving for four or five hours before reappearing. Other than my impromptu encounter with the young woman, and our visit to their building, it was the only sign of the Alchemists I'd seen.

"Just keep walking," Dimitri directed as their car approached. They were driving down the center of the road, but when they spotted us, the car moved to the other side, giving us a clear berth.

"Come on – let's run the rest of the way," Dimitri suggested once they'd passed.

We were panting by the time we returned to the property. Chugging down water in the kitchen, we went outside to spar for a little while. Dimitri pinned me first, then I him, but he won the final round.

"What do you want for lunch today, Roza?" Dimitri asked happily.

"Can you make me those cottage cheese pancakes?" I asked hopefully. Pretty much everything my Russian God cooked was mouth watering, but those were my favorite.

"Syrniki? Sure," he said with an indulgent smile.

"I think I might go upstairs and read a book for a while," I said, my eyes not meeting his. "Maybe have a little sleep."

If Dimitri had his wits about him, that would have been his first clue I was up to something. I never willingly read anything!

"Ok," he said, looking around to check we were unobserved before quickly dropping a kiss onto my forehead.

Upstairs I branched off, taking the stairs to the guys' wing rather than my own. Stopping in front of the room Eddie shared with Blake, I knocked softly.

Eddie answered looking surprised.

"Rose, what's up?"

"Not much. Saw the Alchemists leaving as we were running…"

Eddie was more switched on than Dimitri.

"And?"

"I thought I might go suss out their building a little while I know they're not there."

"Do you think that's wise?" Eddie asked, giving me a level stare.

"I'll be quick. I'm just curious about their security doors," I lied. Eddie lifted an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced.

"Just keep Dimitri occupied, ok? And if I'm not back by 11.30, come looking."

"Why wouldn't you be back?" he pressed, becoming more alarmed by the moment.

I shrugged and gave him a mysterious smile, backing out of his room and slipping back down the hallway and across the landing to my own. Locking my door from the inside, I pocketed the key and opened the window, checking the drop below. It was high, but not too bad. I was lucky my room was in the back most left corner of the house - directly above the unused ladies' sitting room. I slipped out the window, toes resting on the upper frame of the windows below. Carefully scuttling across a couple of feet, I grabbed a metal downpipe, climbing down the side of the building.

I was out, with no one any the wiser! I took off diagonally into the cover of the trees. I didn't want Dimitri or Meredith to spot me fleeing the building.

Once I was hidden amongst the foliage, I stopped to think. Just because we'd seen a car leave, didn't mean all the Alchemists were gone. Which is how I found myself beside the building on my stomach, peering through the foot high windows into the space I'd visited a week or so before. I inched along, carefully looking through each dirty pane. I'd started at the end where I knew the computer room was, ascertaining it was empty before carefully moving along and looking into the windows that opened into the large open room. It looked precisely as I remembered it, although this time there were no sheets over the tables. Instead, they were piled with hundreds of files. Taking my time, I made certain that there was no one in that room, either, before inching my way down to the windows at the other end. These were frosted, and I wrinkled my brow in confusion until I recalled the man saying the bathroom was down this end of the building.

There was the tiniest sliver where the window did not meet the frame, so I pressed my eye up against it – but all I could see was the part of the toilet where it met the floor. However, the lack of anyone's feet was encouraging. If there was somebody in the bathroom, they weren't making any noise, and they weren't seated at the toilet!

I tried to get my fingers between the window and the frame, but space was too tight. I needed something thin but strong. I was looking around for inspiration when I spotted a strip of metal that had come loose from the window trim. Threading it between the window and the frame, I pushed slightly and was staggered when the window opened an inch. Grabbing the frame, I pulled a little - easily lifting the window up. It was hinged at the top, so it was simple enough to lift it entirely to check the bathroom. As I'd anticipated, it was unoccupied.

I lay on the ground thinking about this latest development. While the purpose of my visit had been to see if there was any way of sneaking into the Alchemist's building, I hadn't expected to achieve my goal. But the window was open, the Alchemists were out, and most of those I lived with were in town or otherwise occupied. I wasn't going to get a better chance than this. So with the hope I wasn't going to regret it, I slid feet-first through the window, grasping the inner window frame before soundlessly dropping to my feet on the bathroom floor.

I looked at my phone. 11.10. I'd foolishly told Eddie to come looking if I wasn't back by 11.30, so if I wanted to do this, I'd have to be fast. Padding as softly as possible, I made my way through the main room toward my goal - the computer room I'd seen previously. Knowing my luck, it would be passworded – but I was hoping their remoteness might have made the Alchemists as complacent with their digital security as they were with their physical lockup.

I slipped into the room, closing the door all but an inch. If someone was here in the building, I didn't need to advertise my presence. Wiggling the mouse on the table, the monitor immediately illuminated. Well. That solved one problem!

A browser window appeared, looking as though it were attached to an intranet. Staring at the various options listed, not a lot of it seemed applicable, so I thought I'd try the most obvious first. The 'search' box. I carefully typed in 'Rosemarie Hathaway' and pressed the enter key. A spinning icon immediately appeared, indicating a search was being executed. It seemed like hours, but a minute or so later a list of search results appeared – the first of which was my name followed by my birth date.

It looked like Stan was right – they did keep data on each of us!

I clicked the link, wondering what to expect. The icon was back on the screen again before the screen refreshed. When it did, there was a page with my most recent St. Vladimir's ID photo, my location (listed as 'The Auman Residence, Wyoming' – I guess that's what these dudes were called), my cell number and then a long list of links. Reading through them, I could see they were links to reports, files, and documents. Clicking on the first, it was Mom's recent report from the property. I was listed as one of the Novices on site, hence the link to my page.

Returning to the previous screen, the link counter suggested there were over eight hundred entries associated with me. Hell – the amount of data these guys must have was mind-boggling!

Since the links seemed to be reverse chronological, an application to register my birth would likely be near the beginning. I scrolled to the bottom of the list where, sure enough, there was a link titled 'Registration of Birth.'

It all seemed too easy. I clicked in any case, pulling up a scanned copy of a document. Even at first glance, I recognized my mother's small, neat writing. This was no sanitized computer generated birth certificate! This was a copy of the original registration of my birth. If what I wanted was documented anywhere, it would be here.

Grabbing my phone from my pocket, I snapped pictures of the screen, scrolling through to where a heading annotated 'Father's Details.' And my heart stopped. It actually stopped in my chest for a moment. Because there, neatly documented with twelve letters and a space, was a name. Ibrahim Mazur.

I took more photos of the screen with my phone, exiting back out to the main screen. My fingers were actually shaking as I typed 'Ibrahim Mazur' into the search box. A list of names came up, his the first. I clicked again to access his file. If the search icon had whirled for what seemed like a year with my search, it was a millennium for Ibrahim Mazur's. But eventually the screen refreshed, and there he was. The man my mother claimed was my father.

It was a small photo, but there was no doubt in my mind we were related. My hair was all his, and staring at the color pixels that made up his likeness, I could see a reflection of my own features in his. Truth be told, I looked a lot more like Ibrahim Mazur than I did Janine Hathaway! I snapped a picture of the screen, noting with interest there were several addresses listed under 'place of residence,' and that there were also over fifteen thousand links associated with this man. I had no idea whether this was an inordinately large number of records; somehow it seemed like it might be. I was about to start scrolling to get some clues about how Mr. Mazur fit into the Moroi world when my heart stopped for the second time. Out in the main room, I heard a mobile phone ring. And then I heard it answered.

"I'm feeling heaps better, thanks," a disembodied female voice said. "Tell Mom not to worry."

There was a pause before the voice continued.

"I'm upstairs grabbing a file, and then I'm going back to bed, I promise! Don't forget to pick me up some chocolate!"

I quickly exited out of the computer system, turning off the screen. Standing in the darkened room, I peered through the crack in the door. I couldn't see anyone in the main room, but the voice had sounded close.

Unbidden, echoes of my mother sounded in my head – telling me how important this mission was, and how professional we needed to be. All of a sudden, breaking into a secure Alchemist facility to find out about my father didn't seem like such a crash hot idea!

I waited for five minutes, not trusting myself to judge the time accurately, so checking on my phone the whole time. Deciding it was high time to get going, I took a deep breath and slowly opened the door. Finding the upper floor deserted, my relief was monumental!

I walked to the closest door, reaching out for the handle only to pull back in horror. It was a key operated dead bolt, and the red on the indicator panel suggested it was locked. I tried anyway, but as I suspected, there was no getting out through this door without a key. Trying to suppress my rising panic, I walked silently across to the other external door only to find it similarly armed. That left three doors; the one to the bathroom, the one to the computer room and the one that presumably led to the garage.

Checking the final one it, too, was deadlocked. I was shaking as I realized I was trapped.

Knowing I needed to refocus and regroup, I moved into the bathroom, carefully shutting the door almost completely behind me. There was just a toilet and basin in this room, so there must be another full bathroom elsewhere. That being the case, I was hopeful anyone left here wouldn't come upstairs to use this one.

I looked up at the window I'd come through. Situated directly under the ceiling it was high - but if I stood on the basin, I might be able to get up there. I already knew the window opened outward, but taking a closer look, I could see there were heavy metal shutters that opened inward. Also hinged at the top, these were sitting flush against the ceiling. I couldn't tell how they were held in place, but they looked fairly secure.

Recognizing the windows as my only chance, I took off my shoes, tieing the laces together and hanging them around my neck. The soles of my shoes would no doubt leave marks on the basin or the wall, and I couldn't afford for anyone to know I'd been inside.

I tried to work out how to do this. The unlocked window was on the left, whereas the basin was beneath the window on the right. By far the easiest would be if I could unlock the right-hand window. Carefully climbing onto the porcelain washbasin in my bare feet, I fiddled with the lock to no avail.

Ok. Plan B, then. My second plan was to lean as far as I could to the left, grabbing the window sill of the unlocked window and then hoisting myself up and through the opening. It would be quite a reach, but I hadn't done years of chin-ups for no reason! With a bit of luck, I should be able to manage it.

Balanced precariously on the basin, I reached carefully to the left, my fingertips just finding purchase on the metal sill. I pulled and swung as much as I could, lifting myself up and pushing the window open with my head. I'd just managed to get my shoulders through the opening when disaster struck. My shoes had somehow shifted around to my back and bumped the heavy metal security shutter propped open against the ceiling. With an almost bone-splitting thump, it fell downward. It would have completely secured the window, had I not been in the way.

While the shutter made no noise as it fell, it winded me badly, and it was all I could do not to cry out in surprise and pain.

I was part inside, part hanging out the window. My head, arms, and shoulders were out, but I was supporting all my body weight with my arms – gripping the window ledge for dear life. For a moment I rested my head on the ground outside, drawing shaky breaths in and out as I tried to regroup. Panic was not my friend, here. After a moment, I tried to pull myself forward, but the pressure from the metal shutter made it impossible. I tried to reach a hand behind me but quickly appreciated that I'd be unable to lift the shutter. It was just too heavy, and if I tried I'd likely slip back inside, and my one chance of escape would be lost.

I was starting to freak out when I saw the most welcome sight I'd ever seen; Eddie approaching cautiously through the trees.

"Eddie," I whisper hissed. "Help me!"

It was a moment before his eyes fell upon me, but he was at my side in an instant. Sizing up the situation, he sat beside me, holding the window open and pushing the shutter with his feet, but as soon as he did so, I started to slip backward. I'd been holding on for so long the strength in my arms was all but gone - the pressure of the shutter on my back all that was holding me in place.

"We're going to need another person," Eddie said.

"Then go! Quickly! There's someone home here," I whimpered pathetically.

Eddie's eyes nearly bugged out of his head, and with a single brief nod he took off at speed toward our house. My arms were shaking, and I seriously thought I was going to have to let go when I saw Eddie returning. But my heart sank when I saw who he had with him. He hadn't fetched Meredith to help. No. In his haste to assist me, Eddie had brought Dimitri!