Prolog: A Time of Disowning and Renaming

"I am not Pandora!" Trinity Stathis objects blatantly.

"It fits you!" Lela Conners insists.

"No it doesn't! Pandora was all chaosy and stuff! She caused problems!" Trinity points out defensively, "I don't!"

"You don't?" Melinda Dawson smirks, "So that 'shortcut' that we just took…you know, the one that not only took us an hour out of our way, but also caused us to get chased by a dog, annoying pixies, and took us through the back yard of an old man who obviously didn't want us there judging by how many hexes he sent our way before we managed to get out…that wasn't all 'chaosy' and problematic?"

Trinity, a short young woman with shoulder length, curly dark blonde hair and light blue eyes, glares at her friend, unable to refute the accusations. Her amused friend, Melinda, had long, straight, dark red hair and deep green eyes that almost always betrayed her emotions, despite how much she tries to hide it. The third girl had messy brown hair, dark blue eyes, and sharper facial features. Where Trinity looked much more innocent, Lela looked as though she were capable of anything.

The three girls, sheltered under a muggle bridge on the eastern outskirts of London, had just escaped from their deatheater parents and were determined to leave all hints of it behind them, including their names. They couldn't forget the things they had seen, the memories of everything they'd been through…the dark secrets and curses, but everything else had to go. They had no doubt that their parents would attempt to come after them, but they had decided any life would be better than what they had. Even life on the run.

"Alright, how about this…we pick names that we like to be used between us, and we pick names that fit us for other people. After all, if we don't want to be found, we are going to need more than one name. I pick Jaxon, and Lela's name has to be Calypso, because her last boyfriend was married." Trinity suggests, not pausing to wait for them to agree.

"Alright, I don't really care so long as all ties to my parents are broken. Between us I'm Naomi. For the record, I didn't know he was married." Lela agrees simply.

"You knew after his wife turned you into a snail." Jaxon smirks.

"That wasn't funny! It took you three hours to figure out how to turn me back!" 'Naomi' snaps in annoyance.

"Ok, ok! Not funny! I get it!" Jaxon agrees quickly, eyeing Lela's drawn wand.

Lela was still a little sensitive about that little occurrence, particularly since her parents had locked her in the basement for the rest of the night after that because she missed dinner. Her parents had been aiming to impress one of the other deatheater that night, so their daughter being strangely absent had infuriated them.

"Melinda's name should be Lorelei." Naomi suggests, still glaring at Jaxon.

"Why Lorelei?" Melinda frowns.

"Lorelei was a siren. Sirens lured sailors to their deaths. Sailors were men. Your last boyfriend died because your father got jealous. Therefore, you lured said man to his death." Naomi explains pointedly.

"'Said 'man' was a jerk." Melinda snaps.

"That doesn't change anything. He still died simply because he took interest in you." Jaxon agrees.

Melinda sighs. "Fine, I'm Lorelei. At least it's a pretty name."

"So what should we call you?" Naomi asks.

"Cadence." She replies after a moment's thought. "Call me Cadence."