filling in canon: sge oneshots

the best kept secret

(Kidnapping Day, Gavaldon. Fifteen years before Agatha and Sophie's turn.)

"Maybe it's bears." said Callis dryly, bouncing a fussing Agatha on her knee. Honora snorted, but the lead Elder waved her off.

"We eliminated the bear theory years ago, Ms Wardwell. It's undeniable that the School for Good and Evil is the children's destination."

"I was joking." muttered Callis, but no one heard her.

She knew where they were really going.

They were sitting inside Gavaldon's dim, leaky town hall-- and by they, she meant everyone. The entire village had turned out to discuss the recent kidnapping, and the stamp on the boxes of just-delivered storybooks.

Anya and Estra were the kidnapped children, this time. Callis hadn't known either of the girls, but she'd seen sweet-faced Anya singing at the school's recital, and seen Estra skulking in the shallows of the lake, sloshing about and throwing mud at passers-by, tricking toddlers into coming towards her and then trying to throw them in.

The obvious choices, really.

Mr Deauville held up the box, and Callis, peering past people's hats, caught sight of the stamp--

Undeniable.

She cringed and turned away, putting her arms more securely around Agatha, who wriggled and babbled and tried to pull Callis's rings off, displeased at being restricted.

"Where's my Anya gone, then?" sobbed a voice from the front. "What is this school? What will they do to her?"

Everyone else murmured and rustled and a few people rolled their eyes, but Callis didn't.

She was right to cry.

"Anya will have undoubtedly gone to the School for Good, Mrs Ford." said Mr Deauville gently to Anya's weeping mother. "She will be educated alongside the children of great heroes, trained to become one herself. A Princess."

Agatha had gone quiet, chewing Callis's scarf and staring solemnly with her big eyes at the bookseller. Callis gently prised the slimy fabric out of her mouth, expecting her to start crying again, but she didn't.

"It sounds lovely." said Vanessa, voice soaring loudest over everyone's. "How magical."

Callis glanced over and saw Sophie bundled in a stupid pink ensemble in her arms. An angelic child.

Too much so.

Agatha quiet in her little black coat, had clamped her small hand around her mother's thumb, but still seemed oddly enthralled. Around them, there were mumbled agreements. Training to be a Princess didn't seem so very bad. In fact, it seemed very fine indeed.

Anya's mother didn't look very cheered.

"Will it be dangerous?" she asked, voice flimsy.

"Surely not." said Mr Deauville. "Schools are schools."

Callis's face darkened and she looked down at Agatha, who was still oddly quiet.

"And Estra?" Mr Aaltonen's low voice rang from the back of the hall. "You mean to tell me that my girl's gone to this... Evil school?"

An uncomfortable pause.

"It would seem so." said Mr Deauville nervously.

"And what do they do there?"

"Train to become villains." said Callis quietly, without thinking. "Witches. Warlocks. Spies. Wicked Queens."

Heads turned to her.