"Opaline!"
A strict male voice cut across the garden just as Opaline Asrephath hooked one leg over a thick branch and leaned farther through the leaves.
Opaline, age seven, did not have many friends. She used to have quite a lot of them, but ever since she awakened, her parents had made sure the children of the other wealthy families understood that Opaline was no longer at their level.
Without any one left to play with, Opaline settled with watching the neighboring children play in the lane beyond the estate wall.
Today, they were chasing each other with wooden staffs, yelling loudly enough to startle birds out of the hedges. As she watched them, Opaline laughed at the sight of one little boy tripping over his own feet and falling into a flowerbed.
She might have laughed longer if her father had not called again, sharper this time, his patience already gone thin.
"Opaline! Down. Now."
