AN: Hi! So I've been trying to use the phone app more often as I'm away from my laptop, and I'm seeing messages on there that haven't appeared on the desktop site… and vice versa. I hadn't realised this was a thing, so I didn't know I had messages to reply to. Super sorry! I'll reply to everyone soon!

As always, thank you all for reading and for your reviews - it makes my heart sing 😊

First Day of a New Order

JANUARY 31ST

"Let us begin," Marcus said, announcing his arrival.

Holding Felix and Corin's report books against his chest, he closed the doors behind him and slowly made his way to his desk beside the fireplace. Some years before, Aro had redesigned some aspects of the coven to include work desks for all the masters in the office next to the guard hall. In practice, only Magnus worked there. Freyr used her sporadically but rarely sat down, it was just somewhere to organise rotas. Caius barely wrote a word from one year to the next so had no need of one - only Dora used the small writing desk in their quarters for infrequent letters to far-flung friends. Marcus had never even attempted to use his office desk having always preferred his trusty old table top in the library, near the warmth of the third fireplace along the wall, close enough to the windows for comfortable reading light, and surrounded by his second favourite books (as his first favourites were in his chambers). Aro complained they were all ungrateful, despite also preferring his desk at home.

When Demetri had joined the coven, Felix convinced him that the desk had once been a pale silver wood affair, but the blood of a thousand poor students had turned the wood deep, dark red under Marcus's whip hand. It had been a good six months until Marcus discovered why Demetri was so nervous under his instruction and it was not without effort that he convinced the boy that mahogany desks were supposed to have such colour.

Marcus caught Felix eyeing the book he'd placed down on the desk and tried to ignore the grimace on the boy's face.

The agreement between the masters, though it only really applied to Marcus and Magnus, was that the adults leading lessons and activities would be as strict as they dared with the coven youth until the dust had settled in the coven. Magnus often turned a blind eye to the exuberance of youth. Marcus was so blind he failed to notice at all. Both men agreed to take a hard line on any rule breaking, as standard, but their agreement on punishing disruption and silliness had been harder to achieve. Both relented eventually when Basileus made it patently clear they would have to deal with the little darlings mischief solo and expect no backing from anyone else until they toed the party line. It was as close to an argument with Marcus as Basileus had ever come.

Still, it wasn't natural for Marcus, and he wanted to help the nervous young prince - he only had distraction to offer.

"Felix, dear boy," he said. "Please set to lighting the fires. There's an awful chill this morning."

"Yeah, sure, okay," Felix replied, wrapping his hand around the back of his neck, squeezing tight. His grandpa had been the one to tell his father to back off only the evening before, and Felix had pissed him off before classes had begun. In four hours' time, Aro would read his report and he'd be pissed off, too. He would have both men gunning for him by nightfall.

"The rest of you can leave your report books over here," Marcus said, taking his trusty wooden yard stick and tapping the end against the desk top.

His young charges jumped back instinctively, having discussed the sharp sting said implement could elicit only a few days prior. Marcus noticed, naturally, and felt for the poor things. The little ones, especially, who he'd always had a soft spot for.

"You will find some cushions by the window should any of you have need. Bring them over to the fire, we could all do with warming up."

Though he was being kind, a good few of his older students thought he was a bastard for pointing out their suffering.

Turk saw Alec grabbing a few cushions to build himself a nest on the floor which he soon hunkered down in. The young barkeep wondered if he could get away with such a thing. Sitting on the hard floor would be impossible. The few seats available near the fire weren't much more comfortable having so recently faced the juggernaut. Despite what he'd told Basileus, he hadn't recovered nearly enough to sit still for two hours.

Odi appeared to be similarly contemplating his fate.

"Are you getting a one?" Turk whispered to him.

"I'd rather die…I think."

Carlisle took pity on them both and fetched an arm full of cushions. "Here," he said, thrusting one into each of their chests, keeping the last for himself. "I spend enough time in this library to know how uncomfortable the chairs are."

Seeing the older three take Marcus's offer without complaint, the rest of them followed suit, causing a ruckus for the old library master to divide.

Whilst he was distracted, Carlisle, after being so very nice with the cushions, ribbed Odi a little. "So," he said, taking the chair opposite Turk and Odi. "How did you get on with your mother?"

You bastard, Odi said to himself, but he swallowed it. As if suffering the indignity wasn't bad enough, let alone talking about it. He couldn't look Carlisle in the face despite knowing he'd suffered similarly with Atia a few times himself. Those times weren't recent and that made his own experience much worse.

Marcus settled the disagreements between Alec and Demetri, and Tanya and Irina, and retook his position at his desk, pulling his chair nearer to the fire, noting to Felix that he'd done a good job as it now crackled and popped beside him.

Felix nodded back with a small smile. As Carlisle, Odi and Turk had taken three of the four chairs available, and Irina had taken the fourth, dragging it as far away as she could whilst still being able to converse, Felix and Corin took to the floor with their cushions sitting behind Jane and Tanya with Alec and Demetri to Felix's left side and Kate to Corin's right.

Marcus surveyed their chosen positions and told Kate and Alec to switch places as he knew from experience that Alec and Demetri would argue with one another and told Irina to bring her chair closer. It took the girl three attempts, huffing more loudly each time, before he was satisfied. He set to greeting his young charges, exchanging pleasantries with them in the hope they would all relax a little.

Whilst he did so, Carlisle continued to press Odi. "Well, how did it go?" he asked.

Odi tutted in his direction and told him to shut up.

Carlisle grew a wry smile. "Caius told Aro he could hear you begging through the ceiling."

"He said what!"

All eyes turned to Odi, and he earned himself a stern eye from Marcus for the eruption - the old coven master was already growing tired of the purposeful disruption and decided being sterner than usual would be an easy accomplishment.

Once Marcus's eyes were off him, Odi repeated his question through hushed hisses, though he didn't leave Carlisle the time to reply. "Actually, forget what Caius said. Caius is a prick. Nothing happened. I'm fine. Forget about it."

He'd never looked less fine about anything in his life, which Carlisle helpfully pointed out. He was just full of help!

"I wish I'd ended up with Freyr," Turk said, shifting his weight from side to side. "I thought Magnus was trying to kill me."

"It sounded like it."

With a squint, Turk watched Odi carefully, praying his buddy was winding him up as he assumed Carlisle was winding Odi up.

Odi cursed himself realising what he'd said. "It was loud, Turk." He offered a tight smile and apologised, but the damage was done.

"Could you hear in the hall? No, you couldn't. Could you?" Turk slapped his hands to his face and groaned. "Magnus made me leave the door open. He said I was messing him about. I wasn't though, just stressed!"

Carlisle snorted, earning a stern eye from Marcus which he missed. "Scared, more like," he said to the barkeep.

"Aw, leave him alone," Odi said to Carlisle with a coy smile. He nudged his shoulder into Turk's. "It was his first time."

"Ever?" Carlisle ducked, hearing Marcus tut in his direction. "Ever, though? Not first time with Magnus, but first time, first time? First time ever on any level?"

"Not on 'any level'," said Turk. "I've been given the odd slap, and I got a few strokes "Properly, yeah." Turk shrugged - it was hardly a revelation. "I'm not a royal brat, so I have to behave myself."

Which made it all the more galling that he now had two new overseers, as though he was a troublesome child, who were his friends up until a few months before! Not overseers, Turk reminded himself. Dads, Odi had called them. Though he was quite tempted to think of Richard as the mother - a minor act of defiance that Richard would never know about. Looking around the group, that was something else that proved he wasn't like the rest - not one of them would be able to keep a thought like that in their head without it spilling out of their gobs. He could. He rarely had the sort of thoughts that could get him into trouble, let alone spoke to them.

Carlisle was still stuck on it being Turk's first time. He couldn't see how it was possible. To his knowledge, Turk had been in the Volturi for centuries - how had he gone so long without ever getting in real trouble? Was he having any fun at all? They would have to change that.

"Odi hasn't always been a royal brat, either, but I bet he's been punished loads," he said.

"Thanks a bunch, Carlisle!" Odi ducked, hearing how loud his voice was. Marcus noticed too, of course. "I mean, it's true, but thanks," he said quietly, as their first class was brought to order.

Marcus informed them he had a message from his fellow masters and the creator. Corin pressed her hands into her stomach and held her breath whilst Irina looked on gleefully. He explained they were all to be treated equally in his class, and any other activity they completed, for that matter:

"Whether you're sons of gods, kings, masters, or guards, you are equal as young Volturi vampires."

"Son of guards?" Odi whispered to Turk at his side. "That would be you."

"Shut up," Turk hissed back.

"I bet daughters are still more equal than sons." Felix dropped his knee, stretching out his legs and jabbed Jane in the back with his boot. "They always are."

"That's not how equal works," Jane said, adding 'you dickhead' too low for Marcus to catch.

"What about prisoners of the state?"

Everyone groaned at Irina's predictable question. Corin made sure to look the girl in the eye whilst she did so. As she'd already brought herself to the attention of the creator, she might as well be hanged for a sheep than a lamb.

"You are equal as young Volturi vampires," Marcus said again, raising his voice for a second time in as many minutes. "And you will be treated as such. For better or worse."

There was one singular thought in the room: or worse…?

With no more explanation offered, those young Volturi vampires started paying attention to the library master.

Marcus hadn't planned on trying to teach them anything that session, or for a good few sessions. He wanted to talk with them, give them all the opportunity to air their grievances, to discuss, to debate.

It wouldn't have been so bad if they could have chosen the topic, but Marcus seemed dead set on talking about the mini mission and all it entailed. Odi and Felix tried in vain to make it a dissection of their stellar battle techniques. Marcus warned them both a few times before ceremoniously taking out a quill and a vial of ink.

Jane worked out what was going on before her brother did. "He's going to write in your book," she said, looking over her shoulder and laughing at the big oaf, only to find a comment written out in her book, too.

She wasn't too bothered, but Felix was. No one else had to suffer an emotionally unstable father like he did. Felix included his own siblings in that, as they weren't living with the same Aro. It was as though they had completely different fathers, in his opinion. Since his trip to his parents' bedchamber when they first returned from the mini mission, Aro was…being weird. He seemed to have a hair trigger reaction to Felix fooling around in his desperation to lighten the mood in the south tower. Sulpicia noticed and called Aro out, which caused the two of them to argue. Felix was sure he would suffer in the end, one way or another.

The evening before had been vicious, but the boy knew Aro's ire remained unsated. Aro also knew Basileus had restored Felix's health a little, too. Felix cringed remembering his father's comment to him that morning: 'I still owe you two strikes from last night' he'd said, 'so you had better come home with a glowing report'. Felix knew it was a phantom pain, but the back of his knees burned as he sat on the library floor beside his girlfriend.

"I'm not taking that book home if you're writing bad things about me," he said resolutely.

"Yes, you will, Felix." Marcus paused to dip his quill in the ink and wrote something else.

"Marcus, seriously." Felix got to his feet despite Corin trying to pull him back. "I'm in enough shit at home."

If he was aiming for a reprieve, squaring up to Marcus wouldn't work, but damn that boy, he tried it anyway.

Marcus looked him up and down, smiled sadly, and tried to write more!

Felix couldn't risk it. He snatched his book from the desk. Or tried to. Marcus flicked out his yard stick and cracked the boy across his knuckles.

A collective wince spread around the room as Felix yelped, followed by tittering.

"Jesus!" he said, shoving his hand between his arm and his side to squeeze the sting away.

"He will not help you in here, Felix. Retake your seat."

Retake my seat? You've just broken my fucking fingers! For one, that wasn't true, for another, Felix didn't dare say it. Neither did he sit. He turned a sour expression on his so-called friends, and his disloyal siblings, but they continued to laugh along at his distress.

"Felix…" Marcus said tiredly. He was thoroughly bored with the constant disruption and tit-for-tat arguments. Felix being, well, Felix, tipped the last of his patience down the drain.

Marcus may have been done, but Felix wasn't. "Tell them to shut up," he said when Marcus ordered him to sit down for a second time.

They only laughed at the boy harder. Marcus considered calling for their silence before Felix uttered 'fucking useless', in the man's direction.

Any pity Marcus felt completely evaporated. He took his yard stick and sliced it straight across the boy's behind. "Now sit down," he said, raising his voice over the din. The vast library amplified and echoed his order.

Felix rose to his tiptoes and bit the inside of his cheek to keep the expletives in his head. Marcus had unknowingly—or knowingly, as far as Felix knew—reignited the sting left over from his father, despite the blood Basileus had given him. The yard stick managed to cut across each of Aro's strap marks and welts came to the surface at the cross sections. He had to ball his hands into fists and press his nails into his palms - partly to distract himself from the pain, mostly to prevent himself from rubbing his backside and earning more jeers from his so-called mates.

When he trusted himself not to explode, he turned back to Marcus. "Why do you even have that bloody thing?" He gave the yard stick the disgusted expression he would have liked to give Marcus.

Marcus threw him a look that asked 'who are you trying to kid?'. "To keep you in all line," he said. "As you know well after all of these years."

Felix slunk back down beside Corin, gingerly retaking his seat and wishing he'd never got up in the first place. Everyone watched with smirks on their faces as he shifted uncomfortably on the floor cushion. Even his girlfriend was sniggering, for fuck's sake.

Marcus soon blew the chuckles from the room when he took his seat and began silently writing in one of their books. From their position, the attendees had no way of knowing who's book it was, so they silenced themselves immediately.

Sadly, the calm wouldn't last. Indeed, the only calm Marcus could illicit in the group was when he was writing in one of their reports - it was an utterly tedious experience for the man.

Petty squabbles between Felix and Demetri, Felix and Jane, Felix and Carlisle, Odi and Carlisle, Felix and Irina, Irina and Tanya, Irina and Kate, Irina and Corin, Demetri and Alec… others had more minor disagreements, too. Even Turk! And that was aside from the pratting about, as Marcus thought of it. It was relentless! In fact, Marcus would say they all had their moments, and he recorded every single 'moment' in their books, as had been agreed with the other coven masters.

Felix had been by far the worst - he always was, but Odi came a close second. Marcus wasn't surprised by this. Annoyed, but not surprised. Marcus's classes would run for two hours a day, four days a week - far too many hours to spend correcting the volatile class clowns behaviour and managing the disruption that followed from their fellow pupils. Though Marcus was generally predisposed to turning a blind eye to childish behaviour from the coven youth, he knew, for his sanity and everyone's, that Felix at least would need bringing to heel as soon as possible. Once the Prince of Volterra was under control, the rest would fall like a house of cards. With a heavy heart, he turned the page in Felix's book - between Basileus's notes and Marcus report, the boy had accrued three and a half pages of negative comments in the space of two hours.

Then he saw something that deeply offended the coven librarian.

"That is enough!" Marcus called out across the library. "Put that book down at once!"

Turk dropped the book tp his lap to the floor, recoiling from the item that caused the usually placid Marcus to shout in his library - which he never, ever, ever did, even before Didyme died when he had been fiercer in demeanour. Turk gulped seeing Marcus making a show of picking up another book—his he guessed—and with a flourish of his quill and a scowl on his face, began to write.

Turk hissed at Odi, calling him a prick for having tossed the book to him in the first place. Turk hadn't been part of the game, whatever game it was that had been momentarily amusing Odi and Felix.

Wincing, Odi mouthed back that he was sorry, and had the decency to look sheepish, which was more than Felix could manage.

There were still ten minutes to go but Marcus couldn't continue. He had a headache from the children and had need of the solitude his chambers would offer and his opium pipe, too, for good measure. He had planned to cover more debate than they'd managed, so, he decided, his pupils would have to complete a report of their on the subject of the mini mission in their own time, which they could bring to class the next day.

The poor dears didn't know what he meant. "At home?" Carlisle asked. "You want us to work at home?"

"Mmm, homework," Marcus said, liking the sound. "I would like you to each write about why you feel you went on your secret mission. Consider your reasoning then, and how you feel about those reasons now. The repercussions you expected versus the potential gain…"

He added so many things to consider that half the group wondered whether he'd want to know the colour of their socks on the night in question, too - it seemed to be the only thing left for them to put in their reports!

After some nudging by Tanya, Jane pointed out a glaring error in the man's request. "We didn't all go on the mission, Marcus."

Marcus nodded knowingly and brought a hand up to scratch his chin as he thought. "Girls," he eventually said. "Perhaps your reasons for abstaining will be as illuminating as their reasons for going."

That ruined Turk's plans, too. Although, he wasn't really invited, so perhaps…

"Turk," Marcus said. "You will write about what you knew, how you felt about knowing, and why you stayed silent on the matter."

Turk's shoulders dropped an inch. Odi's did, too, with his prevailing guilt.

"Carlisle, what would you like to write about?"

Out of all the young vampires, maybe even all coven members aside from the few favourite guards like Bard and Isolde who Marcus kept close, Carlisle spent the most time with the man. He felt—had felt—they were on a level, of sorts. Being questioned about possible homework topics ripped the shroud of ignorance away. He couldn't throw a fit over the injustice as his father had made his feelings clear—Carlisle had to play nice, or else!

As politely as possible, he said, "How about how, even when I did nothing wrong, I have been lumped in with this lot." See sense, Marcus, he willed through his eyes.

"Wonderful." Marcus moved to his desk, nodding. "Make sure you fully explore your reasoning from all perspectives."

Carlisle's mouth hung open. "Wha… n… huh? Oh, dammit!"

Marcus dismissed them then, sending them to the training grounds without their books which he told them he'd bring later. "I have a few more remarks to make myself before I pass them on."

Felix's plans to rip out the condemning page—pages—went up in smoke.

…

Out in the training grounds Eleazar waited for coven youth with Atia and Freyr - the latter pair teaming up together to run self-defence drills with non-gifted. As those with gifts were already running at full capacity, Eleazar made it clear he thought his roll was pointless.

The young ones couldn't let that pass up: "Well, you said it, brother!" Carlisle told him whilst the others guffawed.

It took Freyr and Atia some time to calm them down again. Even Turk, usually one to avoid annoying his elders, chuckled along.

After some back and forth between Eleazar and his mother, Atia finally had enough.

"You are here because you've been told to be here," she said to her eldest son. When he huffed at his mother's mild rebuke, she added, "You could always join the activities as a student if the role of mentor is not befitting to your station? Perhaps you would prefer that? Your attitude certainly suggests you would be better placed with the children."

Carlisle's ears perked up. "Please, please make that happen." He didn't even care that his dear mother had effectively referred to him as a child.

Eleazar momentarily vibrated on the spot. It was only his sense of pride that prevented him stomping a foot into the crisp January grass. He wasn't sure what annoyed him more - his mother's scorn or that the girls—his girls—were there to witness his 'telling off'. Irina hadn't looked him in the eye that morning, maybe through embarrassment of the night before or the general anger she appeared to live with, but all of a sudden, thanks to Atia, she felt able to grin right at him, soaking up his shame in place of her own. When Eleazar glanced in Kate's direction he saw she looked embarrassed on his behalf, and Tanya looked… he couldn't quite work out how she was taking all she saw. The look on her face made him uncomfortable though. One way or another, his dear mother had undermined his status in front of each of his girls - as their minder and his rank.

Reminding himself he was a grown man, he ground out, "If you have a gift, I suggest you follow me."

The gifted followed Eleazar to the far side of the training field, far enough away that his mother wouldn't hear his continued complaints. Work didn't suit Eleazar - he liked being a pampered prince, thank you very much! He would go so far as to say there was little point to being a prince without the pampering. His rowdy days ended not long after his newborn years, and though his father had ensured he was a capable warrior when occasion called for it, he much preferred a quiet life, a calm home, and as much relaxation as he could squeeze into a day.

Some years before, when Aro set up the coven's first payroll system, he had told both of his brothers that they would be expected to take on some—any! —duties around the coven in due course. Eleazar hadn't asked to be on the payroll - he was perfectly happy taking his father's money, but neither did he refuse the extra income. Thanks to his continued arguments with his father over his duties, or lack thereof, he found he would be working as a coven tutor without his payroll until he'd performed enough duties to payback the salary he'd already taken. It was, frankly, a travesty.

The supposed mentor flopped down and sat in the dirt. He supposed he should have been grateful the ground was still frosty and therefore not muddy…he should have, but he wasn't. Mud might have better suited his move.

Eleazar didn't know what to do with his so-called students. It hadn't occurred to Eleazar that he should have thought about this when he'd been given the role, mainly because he'd assume he'd find a way to talk his father out of forcing him to participate.

The gifted stood before him, blocking out the sunshine. Jane and Kate watched him expectantly. Alec yawned next to Demetri who kept trying to prod the younger boy away. Felix and Odi had been quite looking forward to Eleazar's class. They expected it would be a chilled interval between the boredom of the library and the no-doubt arduous activities Aro and Caius had arranged. Chilled was one thing, Felix thought to himself. Stood like lemons around his uncle was quite another.

With a little prodding from the others, Felix stepped forward. "What do you want us to do?"

Eleazar clicked his tongue a few times and took in the young rabble before him. "You pair," he said to Odi and Demetri. "Start things off with a race. Ten laps, follow the curtain wall. Winner decides next task."

Seeing Odi wince, Eleazar enquired what was wrong with a race. "You're usually up for it. Are you still sore?"

To an eruption of laughter, Odi felt his face flush with his venomous blood. "Shut up!"

Eleazar dragged his grumpy ass to his feet. He pulled Odi back a step away from Felix. A warning was on the tip of his tongue until he saw the embarrassment on the kids face.

"Just run out of sight," he whispered in Odi's ear. "Then find somewhere to take a break for a while."

With a click of his fingers, Eleazar sent Demetri and a grateful Odi off on their run, which turned out to be more of a light jog followed by two hours chilling with Sadie who was guarding the back gate.

"Felix," he called to his nephew. "You can use your strength to fetch me a jug of bloodwine." Before the boy could complain, he added, "And get one for yourself. Put it on my tab."

The bruin bounced off happily thinking the activities wouldn't be so bad after all.

And then there were four. Eleazar looked at the younger three - the twins and Kate - and scratched his chin. Two of them had rather painful gifts to deliver…how could he train them without victims?

"We're going to try something new," he said, an idea forming in his mind. "I want the three of you to stand in a circle and hold hands."

None of them were pleased with such a request. Jane's complaints were the loudest. "Uncle El, we aren't babies!"

When he narrowed his eyes and made a step towards the girl, she muttered a 'sorry' and thrust out her hands for the others to take hold. Felix was right about their uncle. He had lost his playful side since taking on the Denali girls. In an honest appraisal, Jane knew she benefitted most from having the girls in the coven. She and Tanya had become firm friends, and it was a friendship Jane had never had before, and she doubted that she'd ever have again if Tanya left for any reason. Eleazar was a reason she could see for losing her only friend. He wasn't happy as anyone could see, and his unhappiness correlated with the Denali girls arrival. She would take his scorn on the chin knowing suffering moodiness was worth the reward.

Eleazar bobbed his head at Jane and waited for Kate and Alec to join her, reluctantly forming a small circle.

"Good, good," he said. "Now, Alec, work up your fog so it only covers you."

They waited while Alec complied, standing in a mist, smiling.

Eleazar told him to keep the fog contained to himself and moved onto the girls. "Kate, you will blast your gift through your hands to Jane and Alec, and Jane, you will concentrate your gift on Alec and Kate. We'll see which one of you three is the strongest."

He saw he'd won them over when all three grinned at him. Jane couldn't believe it! She could actually use her gift properly! She beamed at her uncle, and apologised to Kate who would definitely lose this game.

It was a rare day any of them were invited to use their gift. The twins were categorically not allowed to use theirs without invitation, which rarely came, especially since their father stopped taking them on missions.

Kate had never faced such restrictions in Sasha's home. When the girls would bicker, argue, even fight, Sasha simply retreated, floating away like an ephemeral being who was above such things. Kate used her gift in most fights with her sisters, particularly Irina. She only resisted when Irina would mock the girl for needing to resort to her gift, claiming Kate couldn't look after herself in a fair fight. Kate would start off in those fights with her fists, her claws, her teeth, but she would soon be over-powered by her elder sister. Kate tended to end the fight with the pulsing shock of her defensive gift and Sasha would drift back into their life not long after to tend their wounds calling them 'silly girls' whilst she complained about their ruined dresses and unkempt hair.

No one had explicitly told Kate she couldn't use her gift without invitation, perhaps because they thought the girl was too placid to require such instruction. As far as Kate was concerned, her gift was hers to police and she would deploy her powerful sting whenever she deemed it necessary. Still, the game Eleazar had constructed on the fly was appealing. The whole known vampiric world feared Jane and Alec's gifts above all others, and she relished the opportunity to test herself against them.

"When you hear someone scream, stop," Eleazar told them, and waited for them all to give him a verbal response that they understood him. It would be important that he had their agreement should something go wrong, and he had to face his father or brother for any harm that came to the young coven members.

"Are you ready?" Eleazar asked. All three bobbed their heads and set to smirking at who they believed would lose. "Go!"

Eleazar turned to retake his seat in the dirt and came face to face with Corin looking down, wishing the dirt would swallow her whole. Eleazar had forgotten the girl was even there. He hadn't noticed she was there at all, actually. What on earth could Eleazar have Corin do? He mused about her running his gift on him - a couple of hours lying in the grass feeling content didn't sound so bad.

Whilst he took his time musing, Corin's anxiety grew. "I'll do anything you want, my lord," she said, head bowed. Eleazar was about to tell the girl to relax a little when the anxiety inside her belly forced her to continue talking. "I know I'm not getting on with Irina very well - I've tried though, honestly, I have. And I mean no disrespect to you, my lord. We just don't get along, that's all. If I fail in these classes, will I be thrown out of the Volturi?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Eleazar held up his hands and patted the air. "Calm down and use some of that gift of yours on yourself."

He gave the girl a minute to compose herself before he continued.

"You aren't the only one who has screwed up recently," he said. "Irina doesn't get on with many people, including me more often than not. It's not a problem unless you go out of your way to make it a problem."

Corin chewed on his words for a while. She hadn't looked at the Volturi prince since he'd turned to face her. He could just about see his black buckled shoes from her bowed head position, and she realised with her stomach all a flutter, that his shoes were moving closer. A firm finger hooked beneath her chin, and she allowed him to pull her head up. It still took him clearing his throat until she gave him eye contact.

"Irina is difficult," he said, carefully. "Don't goad her and you won't bring yourself any shame. No different to your interactions with any other members of the coven, yes?"

Eventually she nodded her understanding. "Yes, my lord." Her fears weren't entirely quelled, however. "But the classes," she pushed. "Will I be evicted…or worse?"

"No." Before Corin could protest, Eleazar said, "For one, you are Felix's girl so you're going nowhere, but even without him in the picture, the Volturi aren't in the habit of throwing away talented young vampires."

"Young…" Corin gulped. "That's the problem, my lord. The guard is getting older and older. Guards my age are few and far between. There used to be more of us, but so many have been sent to outposts. Or killed off for being unruly, or…just because."

"We haven't killed off young guards for a very long time, Corin."

The girl looked at the younger ones in their torture circle and then back to Eleazar. In a voice barely above a whisper so Jane, Alec and Kate wouldn't hear, she said, "Lucy?"

"Aha."

Eleazar went back to scratching his chin. He knew the official line on Lucy was to make no official line. 'Let the guards come up with their own answers,' Aro said at the time, 'neither confirm nor deny'. He had to tread carefully.

"What happened with Lucy will never be repeated." He sounded as certain as he could when making such a sweeping claim. Corin didn't look too convinced, so he added, "The Volturi may make mistakes, but we learn well from them. You don't have to worry about your place here."

An ear piecing scream ended their conversation. Eleazar flashed to his three youngest 'students' and pulled them apart.

"Who was that?" he asked. "Who won?"

Kate caught her breath, a small smile of disbelief forming on her lips. "Me!"

Eleazar took a step back. "Really?" Kate wasn't insulted by his obvious shock - she felt the same herself.

"You don't have to go on about it!" Jane snapped, shaking the residual sting from her fingers. "I'm rusty, that's all. I don't get the chance to practice very often."

Covering his mouth, because if Jane saw him chuckle, she'd burn him, Eleazar suggested they go for round two. He didn't have to ask twice - all three eagerly joined hands again and did their own count down.

Leaving them to it, he took Corin to Atia and Freyr's self-defence training.