First Childhood"You know," Samura pouted, "this wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I lent you my powers."
Tris just smirked. "What, you thought I was just going to bring you back fully-formed so you could torment my dad? No, this way is much better. Now you'll be like part of the family."
Samura: "You don't think he'll mind just taking in an extra child who appeared out of nowhere?"
Tris hesitated. "Frankly, I don't think he's going to notice much of what's going on around here. He's been pretty out of it since . . . since mom passed."
Samura paused. "Oh. I'm--I'm sorry."
Trish just shrugged. "Come on, you'll feel more like yourself once you pick out some new digs."
Samura stared at herself, wide-eyed, in the mirror.
"Someone's in love with her appearance," Tris teased, thinking her vain.
Samura considered doing something different with her hair, but in the end she decided that nothing else looked quite right. After a few hundred years with the same style, she couldn't seem to recognize herself with any other.
She straightened out her outfit, smoothing out imagined wrinkles and picking a spec of lint off her shoulder. Apparently, she was still neat. Old habits die hard, it seems.
Which was exactly why her new childhood thrilled her. Who would've thought she'd experience something so new after so many years?
After all, she'd never been a child before. That was just the way it was with dynasty founders.
She suddenly wondered what other things she could experience, now that she didn't have to worry about all those dynasty rules.
It was liberating.
Tris just shook her head in bemusement. Was this the red dragon she'd been so terrified by in her dreams?
But while the others took to their beds at night, Samura stayed awake.
Rocking. Plotting.
