Written especially for my loyal readers. Thank you, for the support.

Needles to say, Eleni's friends were not amused at her months of punishment work. When questioned about the reason, she couldn't be entirely honest. Telling her friends about Kyprioth's interest in a small page would cause more problems than it would solve. She had no choice but to lie and say that she had insulted Padraig, which, technically, she had.

At a most tedious pace, the weeks crawled by. Weapons practice with Sir Asher and Sir Morven. Their attitudes toward the pages had not changed one bit, and the humiliation continued. At times, Eleni would wonder why Sir Asher treated Pier with deverrence, especially considering his conservative attitudes toward women, but there were few clues to follow.

The Mithran priests hadn't changed either, although, if they had, Eleni would have been shocked. Varick and the older pages had said that they might as well have been made of stone for all the personality they ever showed. Still, any sign of emotion beneath their stoney exteriors would have gone far.

The one person in the palace who had changed was Master Radzimierz. When they had once had a failure of a magician teaching them, there stood a humbled man. Gone were his overly lavish clothes and his shining blonde hair. Clearly, Kyprioth had been troubling more than one poor fool. However, this was an unwelcomed change; at least the pages had been entertained by his appearance and idiocy. This new meek idiot bored the pages to the same level as the other lectures.

When Eleni's first Saturday of so-called volunteer service at the stables arrived, Lokejo had to force her out of bed. She had vowed to not appear at all, claiming that Kyprioth had gotten her in trouble and could do the punishment work for her. Almost forcefully, Lokejo managed to get Eleni out of bed and dressed. Short of dragging her to the stables, there was little more he could do.

The work itself wasn't the difficult part. Listening to a young stable hand proved to be her undoing. Teman Stieber, a young man of seventeen, had to be the most annoying person that Eleni had ever met, including Kyprioth and Schuylar. He was a bumbling idiot who could sense when his jokes made people feel uncomfortable or when they were going out of their way to avoid him.

When he first appeared at the stable around midafternoon, the older hands vanished, claiming other duties. Eleni didn't have the luxury of abandoning the stables; she was bound to the building until the sixth afternoon bell. More than once, she eyed the ropes in the stable, wondering if she could hang herself from beams without anyone stopping her. There was no way that she would survive three months of his blabbering.

If there was a way to kill a god, Eleni swore to figure it out. Kyprioth would pay her back tenfold.

However, although he was still annoying, Teman came to grow on Eleni as the weeks crawled by. She learned that he was slightly Gifted, the only reason he had been hired, and that he hoped to always serve the palace stables. He was loyal to his friends, and he considered Eleni to be one. He ofter thanked her for not abandoning him like the other did, as if Eleni had ever had a choice in the matter.

One thing did change was Alexander's attitude towards the other pages. Usually one to ignore the others, a preemptive strike to their detestation, something had changed over the summer. He no longer followed Pier's every order, he fought back, and publicly too. Eleni had felt an unexpected surge of pride at the sight of their most physical argument.

With the winter snows assailing and surrounding the palace, the pages had been restricted to indoor practice. Trapped as they were, it was only a matter of time before they developed cabin fever. Pier had heard enough of Alex's backtalk and challenged him a midnight duel in the regular practice yard. If they were caught, it would mean more than a few weeks of punishment work for each of them.

Although, it meant that they'd be punished, a few of the pages had snuck out as well to watch. For as long as any of them could remember, Alex had been at Pier's beck and call. Something had snapped in the young Tirragen lord.

Eleni barely caught the end of the duel, it had happened so quickly. She had been forced to wait until Lokejo had fallen asleep that night, because she knew that he would scold her for being reckless. It was true that she already had plenty of punishment work, but a part of her felt that she had to be there. Something was calling her to the yard. Try as she might, there was no way to ignore the feeling, and as the minutes went by, the more she felt that she had to be there.

She was not disappointed.

As she was running to the yard, she could still hear metal striking metal, and not too softly. They were striking to draw blood, no doubt about it. The very thought of what she would find made her touch her own sword for reassurance. She didn't know why it had been the first thing she had grabbed on her way out of her room, but she had felt as if it would be needed.

Rounding the last corner, the bitter wind blew at her exposed face, and she gave thanks that she had remembered to at least wear a warm cloak. Drawing the cloak tighter about her small body, Eleni's hands suddently went slack. The clash of swords had been replaced by dulled murmurs.

The scene before her should have been witnessed by more than the five curious pages who had gathered to watch. There, on her knees before Alexander of Tirragen, lay Pierina of Stone Mountain, the girl their instructors claimed to be invisible when armed with a sword. If they could only have seen what Eleni was seeing, they would have swallowed their past praise of the female page.

Swordpoint pressed against Pier's throat, Alex was speaking, but the wind was carrying away the words. When he turned his back on her and started to walk away, Eleni was inspired to walk forward. The inspiration must have come from some higher power, because it was definitely well placed.

Eleni's sword was in her hand and parrying Pier's. Without recalling how she had gotten there, Eleni was standing between Pier's blade and Alexander's back. Her frail body was the only thing shielding him from a vicious and crippling wound.

As Alex turned to see exactly what had occurred behind him, torchlight became visible from the nearest doors and shouting was heard. Apperantly, the wind had carried the noise of the duel to the ears of the palace guards. There was little time to eproach Pier's actions, before the guards were upon the three pages in the middle of the yard.

Their viewers had vanished long before, though, they were loath to leave the oncoming three-way battle. Thoughts of things that might have been would keep them awake all night, and chatting all morning. Indeed, the next morning proved tiring for Eleni, not the least because of her lack of adequate sleep.

Easily the guiltiest looking one among the three, Eleni received the brunt of the punishment. She had been the only page openly wielding a sword, Pier's having been sheathed before the guards could see it. Eleni had cursed her poor luck and the seething girl, but did not regret her actions. Truth be told, she was partly glad that he guards had arrived when they did. Eleni did not believe that she could have beaten Pier with a sword, not just yet anyway.

Padraig had not been pleased when a guard had woken him in the middle of the night, least of all when it was because of Eleni and Alexander. His hatred for both pages insured a long and degrading punishment. Pierina had been conviniently given the lightest punishment, because Padraig had thought it enough physical labor for a female page.

Though she had never thought that she would be jealous of such a sexist declaration, she still admitted that she would have preferred a lighter sentence. The only consolation was that Alex would share her punishment for two weeks, although Eleni had earned enough hours of punishment to last her until the examinations in the spring. The only good thing about the shared punishment is that it served as enough time for the two pages to reach a new level of understanding.

With much difficulty, Alex had thanked Myles for stepping in to parry the blow that he never saw. In time, the words that Alexander of Tirragen spoke to the Lioness' grandson lost their biting edge, and acquired a friendlier tone. Few believed him or his words to be genuine, but something inside of Eleni wanted to believe that that change would last.

At twelve years of age, Eleni Crow was wise enough to confess that she had formed a crush of the older page, even if the confession was only to herself.

There was an inking of what rumors would be circulated if it appeared that Myles of Pirate's Swoop had developed a romance with Alexander. Trusted or not, the palace staff was not known for being discreet about anything that appeared interesting.

Soon, Eleni lamented her choice to come to Tortall disguised as a boy.

It made everything more difficult. And she didn't like it.

Believe it or not, ladies and gents, I have just flown through the majority of her second year. I really want to get to the fun parts. The following chapters will have us moving through a bit of developing friendships and quite a bit of heartbreak. It should be positively wonderful! As always, review make my fingers type faster and my brain plot.