The power in Luna’s mind was unlike his own in that it was innate. While he’d had the stirrings and was accepted into another magical school at an early age, it wasn’t until he worked for more that he attained a place at the famed institution of Nyx and Aether.

She was sure to be listed in the Annex already, and though he told her to ignore the bird, he did wonder if it was someone’s familiar taking a look at the child with building strength. A crow. Typical and unoriginal, but good enough for uses such as this. It blended with the suburbs and he would be on the lookout for similar spies.

This was a secret he wouldn’t be able to keep from her for long. Sooner rather than later she would begin to display the signs herself and though he was wary of raising suspicions by calling too much attention, neither did he want her going overboard as seemed to be her natural bent. Her plans never had one or two steps; there were ten. The plan to get into the kitchen, for example, to search out the snacks which she thought must surely be hidden because how else could Ungle still be so massive with the portions Ant was feeding him? And while he agreed that it was suspicious, there was no need to wait until midnight oh-one exactly, or to take twenty minutes getting to the kitchen because she had to search out all the squeaky spots on the staircase. In the end, food was not found. There were no chips, there was no chocolate, and the new hypothesis was that Ungle either hid his stash elsewhere in the house or ate real food while he wasn’t at home. Since they could do nothing to prove the second, the first was the focus and she was devising a scheme to leave no cushion unturned in the quest for sweet and salty.

It wouldn’t be long before she learned how to make them get it for her.

“I can make them get me snacks?”

Of all the things to slip through...

“Study psychology. There are whole books about the way the mind works. In fact,” an idea was forming. It wouldn’t offer much but it was better than nothing. “Ask your aunt to take you to the library. I doubt there will be anything worthwhile but it will set the precedent.”

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“And I can prove I’m not as useless as Georgia.” Which was all she cared about.

“No, you won’t do that. Knowing how to read is one thing, but the last thing you want is for them to think you’re overly capable. That makes one dangerous.”

“How could I be dangerous? I’m four.”

“Even so. They will tell themselves the same thing for as long as they can but it won’t last. Though your aunt and uncle like to praise Georgia’s intellect, such as it is, they do not truly believe her to be anything special. If they did, she would not be enrolled in the local public school. No, they know she is average at best and that makes them feel safe. They can handle that. If you, the niece unknown until becoming an orphan, show yourself to be much further ahead of their own child, there’s no telling what they’ll do.”

“What could they even do?” she asked, skeptical.

“Send you away to live with strangers who aren’t related to you by blood. Make you a ward of the state. If they feel threatened, they will do it. The assistance they receive for your care is not enough to make them keep you.”

They’d seen the letters in a drawer as she searched for snacks.

He continued, “While living with them is not necessarily the best option in the long run, considering the way your aunt keeps an eye on you, it is best for now. Normalcy will be necessary in the future.”

Well, she didn’t know what all that meant, but he was insistent and it wasn’t like she had other plans. Her days thus far consisted of staying outside or sitting around. Ant gave her crafts to do and was still thinking of sending her to preschool, but Ungle was concerned it might be too much change after everything that happened, and Ant thought he might be right, so she was saved for now.

Ungle, for all his girth, seemed to be a nice person. He asked her about her day when he got home the same as Georgia and while he was surprised by how much detail she could get into once she got talking, he wasn’t upset by it.

“I don’t think you’re right about Ungle,” she told Donner. “I don’t think he’d be afraid.”

“We’re not chancing it.”

And that was that.