It was a remark that created something of a sensation in the sensitive soul of Petal Mara. Her eyes swelled with unshed tears and she clutched herself with a shudder.

"Uh oh, now you've done it," Soo whispered cautiously.

"Hey, it was just something I overheard," Danique played down the matter. "If you've not heard anything it couldn't have been as dramatic as all that."

"Still," Petal sobbed. "A Greenvale girl, here in the dorm."

"We've got one of those already," came the casual and quite accurate observation of Pinky Ponsonby, though not unkindly said, for she liked the girl immensely.

"I must find out who it is," Petal declared, balling her tiny hands into fists of determination. Then she looked around her in growing perplexity. "Which suitcase did I pack my tablet in? Did anyone notice?"

A general shaking of heads was interrupted by the clearing of a throat in a corner of the dorm.

"You can borrow mine," Danique offered, waving a hand at the shelf next to her bed. Of course all her things remained unpacked still.

"Oh, thank you," and without further hesitation, for resolve was writ large on her pretty face, Petal Mara grabbed the small device, sat upon her bed and began tapping away at the screen in search of knowledge.

The porter arrived just then, making last calls for luggage.

"Not just now," Petal said distracted, eyes upon the tablet. "I'll call when ready to leave."

"Then we'll say our goodbyes," one of the other three girls said and a series of hugs and farewell comments ensued for they would all meet again in the new year of course. Pinky, Lyra and Soo followed their luggage out of the dorm and away to prepare for the long journeys each to her own land, leaving Petal perched on her bed deep in thought as she tried to find answers regarding the unknown girl, until a hand touched her shoulder that made her squeak in alarm.

"Danique! I thought you had gone too!" she gasped, taking a few deep breaths to calm herself. "I completely forgot you," she admitted in apology.

"You are such a nervous little thing," the other girl laughed. "You would never survive in Evernight."

"Why ever not? Is food scarce?" Petal made no secret of her fondness for cream buns and treacle-soaked bread.

Danique sat next to her and peered at the tablet in Petal's hand.

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"Mine is a land where fear is an enemy and we go through tests to prove our mettle. Not a merry place so I'm happy to stay here instead," she explained in a sombre voice.

"Oh, that's a shame," Petal sympathised. Her character was such she had an endless supply of sympathy for all she thought in need of it.

"Found anything yet?"

"I'm not brilliant with these things, so no, not really."

"Here, let me try," and Danique gently plucked her tablet from the Greenvale girl's grasp and began scrolling through pages of data regarding the school. "Here we go," she said after only a few seconds. "Virtual rollcall records for this academic year. Dorm allocations. There's me, there's you and there are the others. And who is that?" She showed the screen to Petal.

"Jinthia Darry," the girl whispered and her lower lip trembled as if the name held a powerful spell within its unfamiliar syllables.

"Know her?"

The response was a silent shake of the head.

"Jinthia Darry, aged eleven and a quarter, from Ballacoyle Estate in Gladsom District, Greenvale, and then there's a mark by her name," Petal then recited mechanically.

"Unable to attend at present," Danique confirmed, tapping the subnote to bring it up. "There! At present it says. So in future she may attend, but at present, that is, at start of term, she couldn't."

"But she's still not here!" wailed the Greenvale girl as if heartbroken at the absence of a long lost sister.

"Perhaps you might be able to change that," Danique smiled suggestively.

"How?"

"Is this Gladsom District far from your father's farm holdings? You could go visit and bring her back. If she doesn't want to come, you could kidnap her so we can all meet this mysterious invisible girl, Jinthia Darry."

Petal's face brightened with a pink and healthy shine at the suggestion.

"I could, couldn't I?" she said, suddenly even more excited about visiting her home, for here was a mission after her own heart, a mission of mercy to rescue the poor girl from whatever predicament that prevented her from attending the most amazing school on Winkel World. "Only," she pouted, a little deflated.

"Only what?"

"I'm scared. I mean, I don't know her and I've never been to Gladsom. It's one of those out of the way districts a little behind the times. Some of the barons there are said to be a little fierce."

"You came here to Mount Syzywyg by yourself, didn't you?" objected the Evernight girl, flouncing her cloudy black hair in a gesture of disbelief.

"Um no, my father brought me, and my mother and three cousins, two aunts and a very small brother who kept calling me Piggypants in front of Miss Plazenby when I was being presented," Petal confessed with a blush.

"Sounds a riot, your little brother," Danique admitted with a laugh. "So then," she said after a pause, "I guess I'll have to start packing after all."

"Whatever for?"

"To go with you of course," Danique said, rolling her eyes. "It sounds like you might need some moral and physical support in this search for the mysterious Jinthia Darry," and she jumped up and went briskly to her corner of the room where she began pulling things out of cupboards and drawers. Petal just watched her a moment, wide-eyed and mute with astonishment.

"But," she eventually said as things were thrown vigorously into a well-worn trunk Danique had pulled out from under her bed, "you don't live in Greenvale."

"Aren't visitors allowed then?" came a voice from within the trunk as the girl started laying things down in the bottom of it.

"Of course."

"Then," and Danique straightened up to look Petal full in the face, "we'll go to this Gladsom District together to search for our missing dorm mate. Besides I'd just like to meet one of these fierce Greenvale barons for myself and see how he matches up with a fearless Evernight girl."