The Magpie & The Raven

t w o

Caliope's natural place was her garden; outside, under the open blue, ankle deep in mud and forearms covered in grass stains. it was where she was happiest but, more importantly, it was where she found herself at ease.

And nothing had ever made Caliope more uncomfortable than her past experience at at her old finishing school. Except possibly this moment, right here, where she found herself standing awkwardly alongside Enola as the head teacher Mycroft had requested to 'fix' the girl paced around, inspecting the youngest Holmes.

Mycroft had requested (or possibly demanded, it was hard to tell) that Enola be accompanied during the assessment and, upon the revelation that she would have to be undressed and measured, Enola chose Caliope over Mrs. Lane to accompany her. Caliope suspected it was more for the housekeeper's sake than her own. Caliope had so desperately wanted to refuse but both Enola's pleading face and Mycroft's hard stare had rendered her useless to do so. Although she has instantly regretted it when she met the head mistress and had instantly had her posture corrected with several raps of the woman's cane to her spine.

Still, she couldn't abandon Enola.

So, she watched and she waited as the woman had her assistant measure Enola in near enough every place imaginable. Enola looked as uncomfortable as Caliope felt, although infinitely more confused.

Eventually, when her new teacher mentions 'hip amplifier's' Enola seems to have had enough, "Hips are just a function of legs, aren't they? What need have they of amplification?"

"Haven't you a clever little tongue? I shall enjoy that." muses the teacher.

Caliope tenses and shuffles imperceptibly closer to Enola's side, remembering the teachers of her youth and their preferred methods.

"I won't enjoy being imprisoned-"

"Enola-"

"In those preposterous clothes."

"These clothes will not imprison." Her teacher assures, almost smiling, "They will free. They will allow you to fit into society, to enjoy its numerous pleasures. To catch an eye, to attract." As the woman goes on Caliope can't help but think back to the look she saw pass between the teacher and Mycroft Holmes upon her arrival. To wonder if there wasn't some sort of ulterior motive here.

"At my finishing school, you will learn how to be a young lady, and you'll make many new friends." She may be smiling but it is a taught pull of lips across teeth, a painful resemblance of any other person's smile.

"I don't need friends. I have my own company." Replies Enola, genuinely confused. The teacher's smile begins to drop and Caliope raises a warning hand to rest lightly against Enola's arm, to try and dissuade her from upsetting the woman further.

It doesn't work.

"and I don't need to go to your ridiculous school." Enola spits out, ignoring Caliope's warnings, and hardening in mistimed, albeit well-deserved, anger.

In the heavy moment after where the headmistress's smile falls entirely and her lip twitches with her own poorly withheld anger Caliope shoots out a hand and latches onto the teachers wrist. the wrist connected to a twisting, flexing hand. Calliope may not be a fighter, or some great detective herself but she is adept at reading people and a master at using her own history to protect others.

"I ask you, Madam, not to raise a hand to Mr. Holmes' ward. Not when she is left under my watch. Not in this house. Not ever." She manages to keep the tremble from her voice and look the woman in the eye, even as her own eyes begin to water against her will.

Calliope may be a people reader, and a defender, but she's still not a fighter. So she doesn't realise how open she has left herself to attack by stepping in front of Enola and keeping her arms down, holding the teacher's wrist down. She doesn't see the other hand coming.