Why did this have to be happening to her? Why did these things always happen to her? Dark green eyes stared at the shattered shards of elegant pottery strewn across the soft rug and Railynn felt panic rising in her chest. Of course with her luck this would have happened in the headmistress' office. The most frightening of the many frightening full-blood elves and she had just broken her vase. She was in so much trouble, she was going to be tossed out into the street and being that she was only a half-blood she would be hard pressed to find anyone willing to give her a chance.<br/><br/>It had been a hard life for the young halfbreed, one full of insults and shame. She had grown up in an orphanage and come to the academy at seventeen. Not permitted to attend classes, she was employed as a maid, cleaning for long hours on exchange for room and board. Still, she was allowed monitored access to the library and had ravenously devoured almost anything that she could. For the last twelve years that had been her life, quiet and uncomplicated, but lately it seemed if something could go wrong it had. She had made a hobby out of moving nimble and unseen through the halls but had somehow turned a corner and ran headlong into a group of students,  making one drop her books. Not only had derogatory shouts followed her down the hall but she had received a formal reprimand from one o the instructors. She had almost burnt her quarters down when she had knocked a candle over only a few days after that. What was going on with her?<br/><br/>Shaking her head she stopped worrying about those past incidents and got back to the task at hand... Worrying about what to do with the broken vase. Slipping to her knees, slim, shaky hands fathered up the pieces of shattered pottery. With a growl of fear-tinged frustration he shoved her auburn hair back out of her face. Maybe, just maybe, she could fix it. Taking a deep breath, Rai focused on she case, picturing it whole once again in her mind. The incantation flowed from her mouth, harsh inflections couples with deft movements of her hands. The half-elf watched the pieces shiver slightly on the floor only to let out a fearful squeak when cracks started to spread over the surface. Shit!!! Oh gods, she was doomed! Her hands bunched in the simple black skirt that she wore.<br/><br/>She crawled around, trying to lay out the pieces so that they were roughly where they needed to be to reform properly. Wiping her damp palms on the front of her white cotton blouse she focused again. Trying hard to block out all other distraction, Railynn focused her whole being on the task at hand, lamenting that she had not inherited the ease that most elves had with wielding magic. She was very careful this time, sure to say each syllable right and do the precise gestures. Full lips curved into a smile seeing the cracks from her first attempt mend as though they had never been.<br/><br/>She finished the incantation and sighed, disappointed to see that the vase was still in several pieces. She pouted, scratching anxiously at the pale, freckled bridge of her nose. This was not good. There was a world of difference between running into a student an destroying the headmistress' property. Her head hung in defeat. She knew there was no point in trying to hide what had happened nor trying to just leave. There was magic here that could be used to find the culprit. There was also magi here that would mend it in a second without any real effort. Elves had their rules though and it was the principle, she thought bitterly. The use of magic was very draining on her but she took a deep breath and prepared to make another attempt to mend the vessel. It was very draining for her though, and she crawled back on all fours. If this sapped the last of her energy the last thing she wanted was to collapse on top of the vase she had tried to fix.<br/><br/>Taking a few calming breaths, the short (by elf standards) woman pushed everything from her mind. She ignored the way her knees ached from her kneeling on the hard, wooden floor, the sounds of birds chirping outside and the musty scent of books. She had never needed something to go right more than she did right now.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>