Legends of Tomorrow - Under The Surface (Nora Darhk)

Nora's alternative education

A/N: Warning for controlling behaviour of Mallus and mention of magical abuse and past ECT (Electroconvulsive therapy).

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If she were a normal girl she would be in high school. If, if. She would be picking electives and after-school clubs – her father might've been proud of debate club.

But she's not a normal girl, never has been. Her life until her parents died feels like it was an illusion, a glamour cast over what they really were. Oliver Queen ripped off the face presented to the world, left her raw. Here she is, her new protection one akin to bandages wrapped too tight, making it hard to breathe.

She doesn't learn science, instead alchemy. The Order's priorities are so very different, but she knows this has her father's approval. She devours history books, the one subject in common with her old pursuits. She ignores the swell of fascination as she reads the texts, this isn't for her. Mallus needs time broken, she might as well know it thoroughly to ensure it's so.

She traces practice runes in the sand, never completely formed as they shift, never used pre-emptively. Art is only taught in so far as she can draw what she must, she knows now no paper is spared for inconsequential things – she still feels the itch in her fingers as she thinks of drawing something she wants to, but the intent alone hurts, an effective deterrent after the punishment she'd found unexpectedly. They can't touch her physically anymore, she is for Mallus. ECT would cause her to forget what she needs to know, a detriment to her education, but there are so many spells they can do to deal damage that doesn't last. At least it doesn't last to see - how she feels, how she crawls in her skin at remembering them, is another matter.

She repeats their incantations with her hands bound behind her back, power called imprecisely at first. As it rises right it bubbles within, but is never released – they don't trust her to obey yet so she is going through the motions, without the acts needed to cast. They make her pull it down inside herself, then they make her sit with it until it subsides, a different torture than before. They want her to know magic inside and out, readying her for his will. His vessel must be perfect, who she was is not something they care about, only who she is to be shaped into before her shape is him.