The lessons and training began to Adaline's dismay. She spent hours at the library trying to learn history and politics. The librarian was impressed by her knowledge on the former and forced the latter on her. She was not at all interested in it but pretended to be only to fool herself for some time. When asked how she knew her history, she felt a tinge of sadness, for it was the General who taught her everything. She remembered the times that she and Simon quizzed each other every night before heading to bed.

The only time she was able to be free was at the outer pavilion where she could work on her powers with other Summoners. It was hard to control her powers at first because she didn't know how to bring them about. She needed a trigger for it and realised that maybe the Darkling was right. Maybe her first instinct was to protect. She imagined someone getting hurt and that caused something to happen. Either the earth shook and caused problems for everyone, the wind took speed, the water in the lake rose up or a mystery fire started to burn.

It had been two weeks since she started living in the Little Palace and in that time, she wore a white dress every day, but on occasion, she would wear the Grisha colours. She had refused a kefta but that didn't stop her from mingling with everyone. She seemed to get along with them but preferred to talk to Freya and Irina.

The Fabrikators did not have much knowledge to part to her. But she still showed interest in their work. The Corporalki taught her how to stop and start someone's heart and taught her the anatomy of a human body. Those lessons made her fearful. 

The Etherealki seemed to find her intimidating. Irina, who was the only one that talked to her apart from Freya, told her the reason for it. "They think you are the Darkling's....girl."

"What!" Adaline almost spit out the water that she was drinking, but it ended up going down the wrong pipe. She started coughing to get it out and hitting the top of her head as tears threatened to leave her eyes.

"It is just rumours. I wouldn't worry about them."

On her first day, Adaline had the worst experience. She had to move between the classes in a very short time and found herself tired most of the time. She didn't want to pay attention to anyone but forced herself to.

Entering the lunch hall inside the palace, she did not know who to sit with. She may have been wearing the Grisha colours every other day but that didn't mean that she belonged with anyone. Her eyes searched for the set of granite ones but found the ebony chair that was designated for him to be empty. She scolded herself for trying to find him for help but what could she do? Everyone listened to him and she couldn't turn to anyone else.

She decided to move between the Orders and if anyone had any problem with her, she would deal with it then. One more problem that she faced was her age. She was older than most Grisha and felt strange being around them. The knowledge that they received through the years was being dumped on her in a matter of a few weeks.

She had weapons and physical training early every morning and was surprised but glad to see Maxwell and Carolyn being her trainers. "I'm sorry he has asked you to babysit me." She told them.

"Well, as long as I get to command you, I don't mind it," he replied, which made Carolyn punched his arm softly, as if to ask what he was talking about. "I'm kidding!"

"We love training people. Don't we?" The Heartrender prompted.

Once they took a break, Adaline decided to act upon the odd behaviour of Maxwell that she had noticed the previous day when she was talking with Irina and decided to use that opportunity to talk to him. "If you like her, you should just tell her."

"What?" He started to panic and that was exactly what she wanted. She put the knowledge given by the Heartrenders to use when his heartbeat started to increase. "I don't like Irina. I never said that I did."

Carolyn laughed heartily. Adaline shrugged. "You just did." She pursued her lips and nodded at him falling for her trap.

"Did you just trick me?"

"I may have."

"Adaline, you may have just done what I have been trying for months!" Carolyn praised.

"Why, thank you!" She bowed down.

"What do you mean by months?" He asked.

Carolyn looked at him questioningly. "It cannot be more obvious that you like Irina."

Though they were becoming friends, the trainers did not go easy on her when it came to the training. Maxwell had her run around the entire compound of the Little Palace twice. Adaline would complain about it later on but she was glad about it, because she had a plan in progress. Her plan of getting people to trust her and her acceptance of being a part of the royalty was working. Everyone seemed to accept that she was going to be a part of their daily life and decided to not pay attention to her unless it was necessary.

In this entire time, she did not see the Darkling, which only made her plan easier. While running, she noticed a certain opening in the compound that somehow left into the deep woods that surrounded the backside of the palace.

When she asked Freya for mysterious tales, she replied, "The woods seem to be haunted."

"That's rubbish."

"It may be. It may not be. But there are noticed of people that have gone missing and the last place they were seen at was near the edge of the woods."

It was a long shot but Adaline had a plan in her mind. She only needed a fool proof one along with other details that she had to obtain without inviting any form of suspicion on her. She gathered information about the patrolling of the guards by staying up late. She noted the timings down and confirmed her thoughts about the perfect timing. They were not sooner or later by even one second.

"The Darkling's orders." She rolled her eyes at their loyalty to one man.

The next week was a crucial one. She had made sure not to eat much but that was a red signal for many. "Are you alright?" The Grisha next to her asked as she played with her food.

"I'm fine, thank you." She answered with a smile.

"You really need to eat more."

"I'm good."

She refused to eat sufficiently. It didn't matter how many luxurious items were placed in front of her. She needed to get out of there. Her body was bruised all over and pained like it never had. It didn't seem like she was being trained at all because her powers were leading her nowhere. It only drained her energy and she didn't feel like eating either.

Freya sneaked a couple of pastries into her room one might while she was looking out the window, just thinking about the possibility of going back to her home.c"You don't want cake?" She asked, her voice filled with sorrow.

"I don't feel like having it." But she ended up taking a piece.

Adaline was playing her luck, and it was a damn good game.

*******
A/N on 29th April, 2021
Haha all your "not yet" comments for Adaline being the Darkling's girl is having me laughing.
What if I tell you it is "not ever"? 😏