Fire Child - part 2

"I get to go to school?"

Maxwell smiled, inwardly breathing a sigh of relief. He hoped that keeping Garnet busy would soften the blow of having her life ripped out from under her. It was just as well. The Wise Man has ordered that her schooling start immediately. Maxwell reached out a hand to catch Garnet as she was now jumping up and down on the bed in excitement. For all the Wise Man's insistence that Named children were near-indestructible, Maxwell still did not want to risk the girl hurting herself.

"Alright, you little monkey, calm down a bit so we can get you ready."

Garnet paused in her jumping. "What's a monkey?"

"It's a funny-looking little animal that likes to jump on beds." Once he was sure Garnet had calmed down, he let her go and moved to rummage through a few drawers. "Now let's see if the Wise Man actually had the foresight to—ah! There we are." Maxwell pulled a few articles of clothing out and laid them on the bed.

"Hey," Garnet squeaked as she watched him, "I thought I lost that shirt! How did it get here?"

Maxwell didn't answer. The child's father must have been sneaking things out of the house in advance. Garnet had started to fidget again. "Sit still a moment and I can help you get dre—"

"I'm a big girl I can do it myself," she said defiantly, pushing Maxwell's hand away.

"Well, if you're sure."

"I know how to put on a shirt, Max!" She looked rather comical standing there with her hands on her hips, face screwed up into an expression that was presumably meant to look ferocious.

"Okay, okay," said Maxwell, backing out of the room. "Just let me know when I can come back in, then."

But he had barely shut the door when a piercing shriek sent him running back inside. "HELP! HELP!" As he flew back through the door, he had to stop himself from laughing. There stood Garnet, arms poking awkwardly through her sleeves, head completely covered and her belly in plain sight and she fought to pull the shirt the rest of the way down. "My head's too big," she squealed as Maxwell moved to help her. She took a dramatic breath as her head popped free, shirt now properly in place. "It's really hard to breathe inside a shirt!"

"Good thing I was here to rescue you then, huh?"

Garnet didn't protest as Maxwell helped her put on some shoes and brush her hair. Finally he led her out the door so she could have some breakfast. Her eyes wandered all over, taking in the size of the place, watching everyone who walked by with a look of mild apprehension.

"I'm not dressed like everybody else…"

"Don't worry about it. We don't have any robes small enough for you right now."

The concerned expression deepened. "Well we should get some 'cause the last time I was different from the other kids they threw rocks at me then mommy and daddy fought then I was here. I don't wanna be different. What if they take me away from you too?"

Maxwell froze for a moment. It seemed the Wise Man had left out quite a bit of information. "Those other kids were wrong," he said finally. "There's nothing wrong with being different. It just… makes some people scared because they don't know any better. Sometimes fear makes people cruel."

"That sounds like something Mommy would say…" Garnet paused, seeming to chew on his words for a moment, then nodded as if coming to a decision. "Right. So I need to be nice to Mr. Wise Man even if his friends are really scary."

"His… what?" Since when did the Wise Man have friends?

"The monsters."

Good lord, could she see them already? No wonder she hadn't wanted to spend the night alone. Bad enough she'd been through all that without the Wise Man failing to keep his pets at bay.

"Do you have any books about monkeys?"

Maxwell snapped out of his thoughts. "Hm? Oh, I can look, but I don't know if we have anything for someone your age…"

"That's okay," said Garnet brightly. "I can read big people books too. Mommy taught me."

"Okay, I'll see what I can find, then." He stopped in front of an open doorway, motioning her inside a room full of people. "Listen, I have something I need to check on. Will you be alright getting breakfast on your own?"

"Okay…"

"I'll be back. Just wait here for me if you get finished eating before I'm done. If anyone gives you trouble, you tell them you're with me, okay?"

Garnet nodded timidly and headed inside.

***

"You could have warned me, you know."

There was no time. Her cover was blown. Had we waited long enough to brief anyone she would already be in Lamprey's care, and you know how he is. Trying to pry a child that unusual from him… he'd have put up a fuss. By the time we got through the damned paperwork he could have done irreparable damage. Bad enough that fool Alaric let her see her mother's dead body…"

"You might have at least pulled me aside and told me about that."

The Wise Man waved dismissively. "I was in a hurry. Besides, the child kept going on about some stuffed rabbit. I was distracted. Why are you really here Maxwell, or are you just wasting my time?"

"You're really going to do this again? After what happened to the others?"

"Why wouldn't I? I mean, true, I would have preferred to wait and have a backup child… idiot probably had no idea his wife was—"

"She's four years old!"

The Wise Man regarded him silently for a moment. "Already attached, are we? While it's best to build her trust, you'll do well to remember that she is here as my subject, not your surrogate child. Do not let your attachment get in the way of my progress."

"If that girl dies…"

"She won't."

"That's what you said about the last six," said Maxwell, trying to keep the impatience out of his voice. "And she's younger than the others were. I still fail to understand why it will be easier with a child… if even an adult can't withstand—"

"She's different. I can feel it. This child is not so dreadfully ordinary as the others. She has a much higher content of Named blood—"

"Didn't you try it with a pure-blooded Named One? Did she not die as well?" Still he tried to hold the note of accusation out of his voice. He was failing miserably.

"She resisted every step of the way. That is why it must be a child. Look at her eyes, man! I've never seen eyes like those, not in any Named child. She is bold, she is intelligent, but she is young enough to mold. You will have noticed, I think, that I chose to provide her a room instead of housing her in the lab? Her cooperation, combined with her resilience… that will make all the difference."

Maxwell sighed. "I just hope you know what you're doing."

"Either way it is none of your concern. She is an experiment, nothing more. If she dies, we will find another child. If something goes wrong and I see fit to dispose of her—" He ignored the sudden tightness in Maxwell's jaw. "I will do so and you will not raise a hand to stop me. But you need not fuss. I paid good money for that child, I am not losing her so easily."

Maxwell's curiosity rose in spite of himself. "You actually paid for this one?" Though the practice sickened him, it wasn't entirely uncommon in the world she had been plucked from, and it did give him hope that perhaps the Wise Man would be more careful this time. All the others had been kidnapped, or else "borrowed" from the Asylum.

"Before the child was even born, yes. The man is useless except for his connections, but his mother had some… interesting talents. As did his wife. He needed a little… persuasion to have a child at all."

"You don't mean they could—"

"Play the universe? No. Naturally I’d have taken her sooner were that the case. Certainly if I can find someone with that talent to pair her with once she's of age…"

Maxwell cringed visibly, trying to forget he'd heard that. Lab rat was bad enough, but to talk of breeding her like livestock? "So," he said, trying very hard to force the thought out of his mind, "what talents are we talking, then?"

"Surely you can guess from the Name we have on file what Renee's talent was? Her command over sound was most intriguing. Had she wanted to, she could have had armies at her command, held to her merely by the power of her own voice. She could sing in harmony with the Spiral with no effort, find the notes though she could not alter them. Combine that with Scarlett's ability to travel with no device, the family talent for persuasion… If the child has all of that, even if it isn't as strong, she would certainly be useful. It's as close as we can come to a Player without finding someone born with the talent. I do wonder, though… those eyes… I have never seen such eyes in a Named child, mongrel or otherwise. She is most unusual. But even if she isn't something new, she will be by the time I'm through."

***

"You don't have any pancakes?"

"Not this morning, no. We can only offer so many choices—you see how many people we have to feed? Everyone who doesn't have time to cook on their own, or the young ones like you who aren’t here with families. Everything we've got today is out on the tables." The robed woman looked down at the pouting face, smiling kindly. "Surely there's something you like out there?"

"But it's pancake day! Can't you make any? Pleeeeease?"

Having heard Garnet's voice, Maxwell poked his head into the kitchens just in time to see the earnest little face, followed by the cook's eyes going slightly unfocused. It only lasted a brief second, so he might have thought it his imagination except that the woman had suddenly begun to leap about, pulling things out of cupboards until at last she had everything together to start making pancakes.

Damn, why did the Wise Man have to be right? Though if he was right about this, perhaps he would also be right about the girl's survival. He had asked Maxwell to keep him posted. He would certainly be pleased about this.

Several minutes and a large stack of pancakes later, Maxwell led Garnet out to a table. Not long after, a dark-haired girl just a few years older than Garnet sat next to them.

"Hey, how'd she get pancakes? All I got was oatmeal."

"Good morning to you, too, Marilyn. Your father didn't come to breakfast with you?"

"Nope. He's busy." She was still eyeballing Garnet's plate.

"You want some?" asked Garnet, pausing between mouthfuls. "I never had any other kids to share with before."

"Who is this kid? I think I like her," said Marilyn as she grabbed a fork.

"This is Garnet. The Wise Man brought her in last night. Garnet, this is Marilyn Tiers. She lives here too."

"So what," said Marilyn thickly, now helping herself shamelessly to Garnet's plate, "they stick you with an orphan?"

"Manners, Marilyn. All you need to know is she's staying with us now."

"Okay. Can I show her around?"

Maxwell raised an eyebrow. "I think I'd better do that. You get into enough trouble on your own. You don't need an accomplice." Marilyn shrugged and got up from the table, having eaten more than her fair share of Garnet's pancakes, and left without another word. Maxwell sighed and shook his head.

"She's nice! She didn't throw rocks at me or anything!"

"How many times have you had rocks thrown at you?" asked Maxwell, looking a little unsettled.

"Just the once. But I only ever saw other kids one time before I came here and they said I was wicked. Nobody here called me that yet."

"Yes, well," he said grudgingly, "you're a bit safer here than you were out there, I suppose."

Distracted, Garnet pointed at something near him on the table. "Is that my monkey book?"

"Ah, I almost forgot." He slid the book toward her. "I couldn't find you a book just about monkeys. All I've got is an encyclopedia volume."

Her eyes lit up as she opened it. "This is a really big book! There's an M on the outside. Does that mean there's more of them for the other letters? I bet I can look up anything in these!"

"Not quite anything," he said with a chuckle.

She had already located the page on monkeys and was reading eagerly. "There's a picture… it looks like a little person with fur and a tail! Hey…" She looked back up at Maxwell and frowned. "It doesn't say anything in here about jumping on beds!"

***

"And here I was worried she'd be stunted from the trauma. So her first day of lessons went well?"

"So I'm told. We may need to let her do a bit of self-study and jump ahead. She wants to be around other children, and she's already running circles around her current instructor. He said he had to take her along to the library—ran out of material already and had to go for more. She just wants to read it all and ask questions after."

"Marvelous! This may not take as long as I thought. Where is the child now?"

"I left her in a classroom with some of the older students."

"Surely not Boehring's—?"

"No, no. She's not quite there yet. She's with… what's his name? Daniels? He's got Tiers's daughter in his group. Basic astronomy. She was interested."

The door burst open and the Wise Man whirled around, Maxwell following suit. There was an angry pulse of dark energy, and the woman at the door shrank back.

"Sorry, sir, I know we're not to come bursting in uninvited but… well… Daniels said to come to you at once. The new girl… there's—there's been an incident."

Maxwell felt the bottom drop out of his stomach, and the darkness around the Wise Man seemed to deepen as he spoke. "What kind of incident? If she has been harmed…"

"No! Nothing like that! It's… well… she sort of set the classroom on fire."

There was a measured pause before the Wise Man's laughter began to fill the room. As he reached up a gloved hand to wipe his eyes beneath the hood, Maxwell rushed forward.

"Set fire? What happened? Is everyone alright?" He remembered the girl's comment about candles from the night before. But surely she hadn't just started it on purpose?

"Nobody's hurt. They're trying to put it out now."

"Trying?"

"Well, water's not exactly getting rid of it…"

He really wished the Wise Man would stop laughing so he could think. "Water's not—what happened!?"

"Oh, I've changed my mind, Maxwell. I think I may like children after all. This one's entertaining."

"What happened?" Maxwell said again, ignoring the Wise Man for a moment.

"Well, one of the older kids teased her for being short, I guess. Daniels told him to cut it out, but she got upset… He said the desk just burst into flames out of nowhere. He tried to pull the girl to safety and his robes caught fire… seems she's the only one who didn't get burnt at all." The woman stared, bemused, at the Wise Man, who was positively howling with laughter. Finally he seemed to get a hold of himself, motioning Maxwell to follow him as he made for the door.

"Come on, then, let's see about getting the fire put out. Daniels isn't running about half nude, is he?"

"Not anymore, sir. He went to fetch new robes."

"Good. Nobody wants to see that."

***

"I'm really, really sorry!"

The fire had now been put out, and everyone had left the charred classroom except for Maxwell, Garnet, and the Wise Man, the latter of which had bent down to speak to the child.

"Has this ever happened before? Things catching fire near you out of thin air?" Garnet shook her head. "This is the very first time?"

"Yes, and I'm really sorry! I didn't mean to!"

"Oh, calm down, child. You're not in trouble." He stood and turned to Maxwell. "Well I certainly didn't expect her to Illuminate her first day here. Perhaps the trauma had the opposite effect from what I had expected. We may have to explore that further with other subjects." Maxwell did not answer, but the Wise Man ignored this and turned back to Garnet. "Do you know what this means?"

Garnet shook her head, still looking nervous.

"It means you, my dear, are my new best friend, and I'll be checking in on you from now on."

"I have a friend?"

The Wise Man resisted the urge to fling the child off him as she ran forward and seized him round the middle (or at least, as close as she could get to it, short as she was—mostly she just clung to his leg, which was rather a nuisance as it had pulled the robes tightly to one side of his neck). "I want her taking as heavy a course load as she can handle," he said to Maxwell, prying Garnet off as nonchalantly as he could. "Private tutors, whatever it takes."

"What are we having her specialize in?"

"Everything."