The ship's rocking stayed with her into her third day off the boat, much to her delight. Daphne loved the feeling, rocking from one side to the other like a drunkard, as though the world was simply floating on the huge and wonderful sea! But it wore off soon enough, leaving her slightly sad but still mostly bored- At-least before she had the rocking to accompany her in the meetings. Now it was just the drone of the insanely old distant uncle of her's, talking on and on about some useless thing like spell repairs.
The room was dark, an auditorium in some public speaking house even though no one was let inside without proper identification. She grinned, because her father needed no paper to get them in! The guards had recognized him on sight! But now, she wished she could get outside the cramped room, and showed so by bouncing in her seat. Childish for a ten year old, but she didn't care at the moment.
Daphne amused herself by mouthing 'blah blah blah' every time Uncle Demosthenes talked until her father noticed and told her in a whisper to stop it.
"This is a very important meeting, you should be glad to be here!"
"But it's so boring!" She whined in a whisper- young, yes, but she wasn't stupid.
He sighed, muttering, shaking his blond head. Finally he reached into his pocket and gave her a bracelet with a green jade bead hanging from it, putting a matching bracelet onto his own wrist. She smiled- a tracking spell! She hugged him, almost running off before he caught her by the arm, tapping the bracelets together and whispering "Don't go far, now, and stay out of trouble."
"'Kay!" And she was gone.
--
Outside, Daphne giggled at her father's worry, turning a cart-wheel and landing on her feet, perfectly. She took pride in her athletics, as her father made sure she did. She did another cartwheel, landing with her feet together. Going slowly, she bent over backwards, making sure she didn't fall, and carefully planted her hands while her legs lifted over her so she was standing normally with her hands on the ground.
"I did it!" She cheered. Daphne had been trying that for a good two weeks, too bad Alison wasn't there... Alison wasn't as good as this sort of thing, but she didn't even try so there was no rivalry! Needle-work, however, was Alison's forté. Echo ended up just murdering anything she tried to work on.
"Did what?" A voice asked behind her. She turned, startled by the sudden noise, and nearly fell over.
Black hair. Pale skin.
She stared at him. The boy just grinned and offered his hand. "Nice to meet you."
She took it, still staring. "Are you a dead person?" She asked, startled by his pale skin among the sun-bronzed Latinos.
The hand in hers suddenly stopped, and his face contorted in shock. "I- I'm not dead! I'm only Twelve!" He pulled it away. "Just because I look different-"
"Doesn't mean you're any less then everybody else. I know." Alison said the same thing often when Daphne made fun of her hair- too pale! Where's the color?
Now he was just staring... with bright green eyes. "How did you know I was going to say that?"
"My sister is blond."
"...Oh. From the north?"
"My father's from the north, but she was born here. I think. I'm not sure. She was born a year before me, so as far as I know..." Daphne drifted off.
"Hey, what's your name?" He asked suddenly, bringing her back down to earth.
"...Sorry, it's a secret..."
"Your's too?!" He was thrilled by the discovery. "I can't say mine either!"
Daphne grinned at him. "Cool! Where are you from? I'm from Rome."
"I'm from here, in Athens. Rome is a long way away, how did you get here?"
200 miles was hardly a distance! Daphne scoffed. "By boat, of course! It was so fun! The sea, the waves-"
"-The sharks that threaten to eat you if you go swimming~" The Raven-haired boy cut in. "The storms, the wind~"
Daphne laughed, and sat down without a second thought on the wet grass. Part of her was glad her outfit consisted of a white toga, the other despaired at what her father would do when he found out- or her mother. Oh well. Mother was back in Rome. Raven didn't seem to mind either way, because he joined her quickly.
"So you've been on a boat?"
"O' course. I'm an Elemental. You?"
"...I'm not sure, I think I might be an Adept because my sister is an Adept and my father is an Adept and my mother is an Adept and my insanely old uncle Demo-"
"I get it, I get it!" He exclaimed. "You're probably an Adept... Or a human."
Daphne died inside at the possibility. "...I hope not..."
"Why? If you're human, you get to be like everyone else and you don't have to keep secrets!"
"But I won't live very long and I won't get to do anything fun! That's not cool at all, Raven!"
"...Raven?!" Again he looked shocked, then bemused. "If I'm Raven, then you're Cocoa."
Daphne didn't get the reference. "What the heck is that supposed to mean?"
"Cocoa... The... The... Never-mind. I'll give you some sometime."
--
Two hours later her bracelet warmed slightly and Daphne glared at it. Raven laughed. "So you have to wear one of those two, huh?"
He pointed at his, which was amethyst. Hmm. 'First' Class's stone, called that because they were the oldest of noble houses, though not the strongest. Dad said they had a reputation for sitting around complaining about everything.
But Raven didn't seem to do much of that, unless she got onto the topic of parents. Oh well. He could deal.
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