Oracle (Book I)

The Sybil and The Sable

Merlin was sitting at the back of her Basics lesson. Caprice didn't know why when she had never seen him there before. She glanced at him a few times but otherwise didn't know what to do. He didn't look her way at all. And Professor Starstaff said he was a senior, Caprice thought. Of all the lessons to sit in on, why Basics?

A pleasant surprise came at the end of Nobles' lesson when Bossa stepped into the room and waved at her. Caprice quickly gathered her things, listened to the homework assignment, then met Bossa by the door.

"I came to rescue you," Bossa said.

Caprice smiled. "Thank you very much."

"The Roost is throwing a little party on our next day off. Just a casual thing."

"Thierry and Ripley told me," Caprice said.

"You've been buried in books and neck deep in notes. Even Nezzy might take her nose out of those musty tomes for a breather. So you come, too. Relax a little."

With Nezzle's lessons after their regular lessons, she had been preoccupied for a while. Caprice laughed. "The last one was fun. I think I will. Go to the party, I mean."

Professor Nobles stepped lightly into the conversation.

"Is that so, ladies? Perhaps, I'll drop by myself. Teachers don't usually intrude on student affairs outside of your lessons but we're known to join in the fun from time to time."

Bossa hitched her lip at Nobles, rolled her eyes, and walked away.

"Come on, Caprice. Luncheon'll be calling our names soon."

After what happened in this very room the last time she spoke with Professor Nobles, Caprice didn't have any inclination to remain in her presence for longer than a lesson. Bossa obviously hadn't forgotten it either.

"Miss Bilberry."

Mouth turning in distaste, Caprice faced Skyla Nobles. The woman's expression was only a little hurt again. The look on her face was more akin to someone looking down at a poorly trained mongrel she was doing her utmost to housebreak.

"We're not all bad, you know."

Caprice thought of the Whitehares and the village full of slavers that she had come from. She thought of that and seriously doubted the white witch's words.

"As you like." With that, she joined the last of the students going into the hall. She wanted to get as far away from that disgusting, condescending smile and those pitying blue eyes as possible. Bossa was talking to someone a few feet away in the crowd, waiting for her.

Though she didn't really care for Professor Nobles at all anymore, Caprice considered what she'd just said while she watched Merlin walk in front of her. It distantly reminded her of her maternal grandmother.

She didn't know her mother's mother very well. She had passed either before Caprice was born or before she could remember her. But Caprice did remember her mother scoffing sometimes while repeating something her own mother had apparently always said: People you hate either don't know or don't care. Get along in the world and the world get along with you. No place for anger and pride in it.

There were so many different kinds of people here at Oracle. Maybe the world was bigger and greater than the suffering Caprice and her family had experienced at the hands of the Whitehares. Perhaps there were good white people in the world just as well as the bad ones like the slaving snakes of the village. So much of what she had once thought was impossible had come to pass within these walls and on these grounds. Standing alongside the Whitehare children as equals and learning to read and write were among those impossible happenings. Caprice thought her heart was far from closed but she was assuredly distrustful of whites and didn't go out of her way to seek them, not even now that she was a proper student like so many at Oracle. Perhaps all she needed to do was hold out her hand in friendship and she would find that not all of them were as bad as others.