There are rules to living at Kamar-Taj.
Not very many, of course. Or, at least, not so many that America can’t keep them all straight.
Some of it is schedule - trainees normally wake up around dawn, then there’s training in the courtyard, then there’s time for independent study, and between all of that is breakfast, lunch, dinner - America always makes time for snacks, carries them in the folds of the new robes that they’ve given her, and eats them between meal times, even when Wong gives her a strange look for doing so. Some of it is limited access - there are certain books she isn’t allowed to read in the library because she hasn’t learned enough yet (and there are certain books she can’t read because she doesn’t know the language), which is fine with her because she doesn’t really like the sit down and read this book aspect of learning. And some of it is on places she isn’t allowed to go - mostly it’s other people’s rooms without their permission, although she’s not allowed to run through the kitchen and snatch up rolls or apples anymore (or try to make her own pizza, because she’s really bad at that).
In most cases, the rules make sense. The schedule is...well, it’s a bit like school, isn’t it? Only America hasn’t been in a school since Utopia. It’s just an adjustment. Having books she can’t read is fine, because eventually she’ll get to a point where she can read them. And for the most part, the places she can’t go are like that, too (with the exception of other people’s rooms, and she’s fine with that because it means other people can’t go into her room without permission either, and she likes that).
But a few days after America moves into Kamar-Taj, Wong makes an announcement - an entire wing in the area being reconstructed is to be entirely off-limits. Not just to America, but to everyone. The rest of the trainees bow to their Sorcerer Supreme, and America follows suit, but she can’t help but glance over to the abandoned part of the temple and wonder...why? No one is going to go over there anyway. It is dangerous.
What is he hiding?
---
In the weeks that pass, America’s paths through Kamar-Taj bring her close to the forbidden wing. Not by necessity, maybe, but in those times when she’s supposed to be in the library for independent study, America likes to wander. She’s always liked to wander. It’s basically been her entire life for the past.... Ever since she lost her moms. She’s had to explore to understand the universes where she found herself.
Kamar-Taj is smaller than a universe, smaller than a planet, and America gets to know it really well.
Other than. You know.
America doesn’t go past that wing very often, at first. She’s determined not to go there under any circumstances. It’s off-limits. She finally has a safe place to stay. She has more than one set of clothes, she has a reliable source of food, she has people who care about her, and she doesn’t have to leave! All very, very good things!
Except there is a wing that isn’t entirely constructed that’s off-limits when it shouldn’t be. It’s like telling her not to go into the forest after the sun goes down. The immediate response is what’s in the forest? Never mind that she never would have gone there before. Now she wants to know.
Sometimes, when she passes by, America hears something. She can’t be quite sure what she hears, but it sounds like someone. Once, she even gets close enough to the first door to press her ear up against it, but then someone else starts to pass by, and she jumps away from the door immediately because no, she was not going where she’s not supposed to go, she’s just standing around, she wasn’t listening, no, siree--
It doesn’t matter. The other trainee calmly places a hand on America’s shoulder - which she shrugs off immediately; she’s not a kid - and leads her back to Kamar-Taj proper. Where everything is safe and wonderful and not forbidden.
America scowls, and she glances over her shoulder back at the door, and she squints, and she peers, and it doesn’t matter because there’s nothing really there to look at, just a door closed to everyone outside, and she wonders.
---
It’s late - or perhaps it’s early - when it’s dark out, America can’t really tell - when she snaps awake, heart pounding, hands clenching tight to her bed sheets. She’s not supposed to dream - she doesn’t dream - but she feels the sense of something niggling the back of her brain, something that she can’t quite grasp. She shakes her head, but that feeling doesn’t go away.
Her room in Kamar-Taj usually doesn’t feel small. It’s just right for her because she doesn’t have much to clutter it up with. But right now, it feels miniscule, like the walls are getting closer together, and it’s all she can do to pull her jacket on before escaping.
The courtyard is empty in the dark, and a cool breeze helps her calm. America scuffs a sneaker along a scorch mark. They’ve done a good job cleaning everything up here, but some things won’t change without more than sweeping brooms and picking up clutter. She shivers and pulls her jacket closer about her. Not that it helps.
The breeze whips harsh all at once through the parts of Kamar-Taj still under construction, and it sounds like wailing.
It’s late - or it’s early - and there’s no one else around - and America glances over to the wing where she isn’t supposed to go but she’s been getting closer and closer to anyway. She looks around again, just to make sure, because surely someone is going to stop her. That’s how this sort of thing goes, isn’t it?
The wind howls as America turns towards the forbidden wing, and that’s probably an omen of some sort, but she’s never really been an omen sort of person. She takes control of her own fate. (That’s a lie. She tends to run from that sort of thing. Fate. Omens. Half of the time, she gets really scared and then her powers kick in and...that’s not supposed to happen anymore, so. And if it does, she can find her way back.)
America glances back over her shoulder when she reaches the door. Still no one. She reaches for the doorknob and finds that it’s unlocked. That’s weird. She kind of expected it to be locked. Like, really, the least they could do with a forbidden area of Kamar-Taj is to lock the door, but apparently whoever is in charge of this sort of thing (she suspects Wong, but this doesn’t seem like a slip he would make) trusts everyone else here to abide by the rules. In all honesty, that makes her feel bad, like she isn’t just breaking the don’t go into the forbidden wing rule but also she’s somehow going against the whole morality of Kamar-Taj by betraying the trust of whoever left the door unlocked, but then she’s already turning the doorknob, and the door is already opening, and she slips inside without another thought.
At least she shuts the door behind her. It started shut, and it’s ending shut, so no one will know, right? Right.
America looks around. It’s just a room. Just a normal room. It looks just like any other room in Kamar-Taj, maybe a little better, given the whole reconstruction thing. She doesn’t see anything that would cause it to be forbidden.
Weird.
Then she hears it. Something. Someone?
America shivers, but she takes a step forward anyway. She doesn’t see anyone. It can’t be anything too bad. Wong wouldn’t keep anything terrible at Kamar-Taj. That’s just--
“Hello?”
Her eyes narrow, and she squints into the room. “Is someone there?” A moment and then, perhaps foolishly, “You need any help?”
