2 The orphanage

The mother's name was Madella, a kind, caring woman that everyone in the orphanage cherished as their real mother. Soon, Paley would also see her in the same way.

Jurie and a bald thirteen-year-old boy called Adimia showed him around. He was only a few months older than Paley and despite only coming up to his chest, he had quite an energetic personality.

They started with the cottage, which looked very medieval with the wooden walls and the roof made of loose straw. It had two floors. On the first floor were the kitchen and living room, both making up one big room. The kitchen appliances (simple grills and cupboards full of spices) were placed against the left-hand wall with a big round table in the middle. There was a fireplace on the other end of the room and a bit to the right was Madella's bed underneath the staircase.

Upstairs, you'd find a large room filled with beds and desks in between them, which the kids would store all their personal belongings in the drawer below the desks. The bathroom was a few paces to the right of the upstairs.

Next was the barn, which they never used, so it held no livestock and was incredibly messy and run down. The children used it mainly to play around in; it was a great place for Hide And Seek thanks to the animal pen gates and the planks above.

The church was much farther than Paley originally thought, situated nearly five kilometers away on the outskirts of the small town they neighbored. Jurie and Adimia didn't take him there since it was too far, though he could tell from the overgrown path that they rarely visited or got visits from the church or town.

"And here is the river." Adimia showed him the river he woke up on. Three of the youngest children were playing in the calm waters, splashing each other and racing to the other end.

"Don't go in the water with your clothes on, though, you'll make mother mad," Jurie added and began walking back to the cottage. "I'm gonna read for a bit, bye-bye." She hurried into the cottage.

"So, whaddya think?" Adimia asked Paley.

"About what?"

"About this orphanage, obviously,"

"It's... nice," Paley replied.

"Nice? That's all? Even after my great tour..." Adimia sighed, "Ah well, whatever. Come on, it's gonna be lunchtime soon." He led Paley back into the cottage to wait for lunch as he got to know the other orphans.

There were 7 orphans in total including Jurie and Adimia.

There was Teerom, the oldest of all the children. He was a craftsman, making things like chairs and fixing the walls if a bad storm hit. He was tall and well built with good looks to match.

Next was Reben. He was ten years old with brown hair and black eyes, matching Adimia's energy and enthusiasm. After him was Bacha ( the one who wanted to name Paley Ghost boy ). She was from a country called Yazen ( The equivalent of China ) but wound up here after being abandoned by her parents when she was a baby.

Lastly, there were Rauba and Amasha. Rauba was a shy seven-year-old with red eyes - that were almost as crimson as Paley's - and fluffy sheep-like rose hair that hung down to her hips. She also had a natural talent for magic – she was a Fire Mage.

Amasha was the only one with brown skin and he was quite the troublemaker. Often, he was somehow more loud and obnoxious than Adimia, but everyone loved his enthusiasm. He shot his hand up after Rauba introduced herself and began stating his name and his dreams.

Though, before Amasha finished introducing himself to Paley, Madella and Jurie plopped three large plates full of food onto the table in the center. Everyone ran over with their mouths watering at the glimmering shrimp and steak coated with all sorts of greenery.

Paley didn't follow them, watching awkwardly from the fireplace instead. Jurie noticed him and called him over. "You not gonna eat?" She walked over. "I..." Paley didn't know how to say that there weren't enough chairs.

"Come on, you gotta try mother's food. It's delicious." She brought him over and sat him down on her chair. "Where are you gonna eat?" Paley asked. "Right here," She sat on the ground next to him. The table was relatively short, so she could easily reach up and take food.

"Wanna make a chair with me later?" Teerom asked casually as he ate one of the steaks. Paley nodded and then took one of the shrimps. They were truly delicious with the tender meat's juice bursting into his mouth and covering every taste bud.

"Do you really not remember anything?" Bacha asked.

"No... Apart from a few bits here and there." Paley's expression darkened slightly.

"What do you remember?" Reben asked eagerly.

"I... Was scared... Angry... Hungry..." Paley answered hesitantly, quivering.

"Stop asking him, he obviously doesn't like it," Rauba said with a soft, quiet voice.

"Less about the past and more about now! Are you gonna have that?" Adimia pointed to the uneaten steak in front of Paley.

"No," He lied.

"Don't mind if I do then!" Adimia reached over and took the steak for himself.

After eating, Teerom took Paley to the back of the cottage, where there were a variety of tools hanging on the wall. "This here is where I make all our stuff; toys, chairs, the whole lot." He took a long chisel off the wall and sat down on a cut tree stump. "You gonna sit?" He pointed to the stump in front of him, which Paley quickly sat on.

"Do you remember how to use magic?" Teerom asked and Paley shook his head. "Then from square one, we start." He sat up straight. "To use magic you gotta focus on the magic inside of you- the feeling inside you." He couldn't find the right words to describe the warm, cold, light, and dark essence that filled his body.

Paley caught on immediately. Usually, you'd have to concentrate on something that you don't even feel: like trying to feel the force of gravity acting on you. The majority of people have to wait until they're twelve before they can begin using magic – when you turn twelve, you go through a sort of Magic puberty where you gradually begin to discern mana. Half the time, you don't even notice it's happening.

To Teerom's surprise, Paley learned how to channel magic energy through his body in around four minutes. "Damn, you should ask Rauba to teach you. You're a natural." He said as he positioned the long chisel on top of a perfectly squared block of wood.

"Anyways, for wood carving, you don't need much magic, it just makes the process way easier." Teerom's hands gave off a soft red glow before he pushed the chisel down the side of the wood, cutting straight through it like a knife through butter. "That's Strength Magic. One of the two basic Magics that everyone has. Pretty much, you just concentrate a bunch of magic on your hands and the chisel." He handed Paley the chisel, who immediately began transferring magic to his hands and the chisel. Their glow was much brighter than Teerom's and when he pushed it down, it fell straight through and wedged itself in the ground.

"Yep, you should really get Rauba to teach you," Teerom commented and inspected the perfectly smooth edge of the wood. They spent around twenty minutes polishing up the general shape of the chair, rounding off the sharp edges for maximum comfort. Teerom even added some flower patterns on the back, asking Paley to not tell anyone that he made them.

Paley already began inscribing his name at the top as all the other kids had with their chairs. "Paley doesn't start with a 'Q'" Teerom said, pointing out the scruffy letter under Paley's knife.

"Ah, sorry," Paley smoothed the 'Q' off with a file and cut a 'P' instead.

"Handwriting needs a little work, but at least half of it is visible, unlike Amasha's,"

They finished making Paley's chair and placed it next to Teerom's. "It fits right in," Teerom patted him on the back and walked over to Jurie, who was reading a book by the fireplace.

Rauba began coming down the stairs and Paley quickly approached her to ask her to teach him magic.

"Hey, Teerom said you can teach me magic." He said.

"I know the basics." She swayed her head side to side; she spoke in near whispers.

"Do you think you could teach me?" He asked.

"Depends. Do you have an affinity towards Fire magic?" She replied.

He shrugged.

"Hmmm," She thought for a bit before brightening up with an idea, "Come with me, I've got the perfect test for you to check." She hurried out of the cottage, plucked a handful of grass from the ground, and came back in to put it all on the table in the middle.

"Try and move them all." She sat opposite him, watching eagerly.

"But how?" He only knew what Teerom taught him - transferring magic into objects to reinforce them.

"If you're an Air Magic type, you can move things without touching them. Can you guess how?" She seemed enthusiastic about magic, throwing away her shyness and becoming more outgoing.

After a long moment of thought, Paley answered. "By moving magic into the air around it?" He asked unsurely.

"Exactly! Try it." She leaned forward on the table, watching the grass blades.

Paley stretched his hand out toward the grass and focused on his magic. Magic is like an essence flowing through your body. People who have more of it aren't necessarily stronger if they can't bring out much of it. Paley could bring out all of it.

The wind quickened at his fingertips and swooshed around the entire table, throwing it up against the ceiling. Luckily, it didn't break and Paley could set it back down with a gentler wind, but Rauba's mouth hung wide open from shock. Teerom and Jurie saw it too, staring with pure surprise.

"What!?" Rauba exclaimed quietly. Paley looked at his hands with a feeling of empowerment.

"Did I pass the test?" He gave her a small cheeky smile.

"With flying colors!" Her excitement died down quickly after Adimia and Reben came in to see what the commotion was about.

"What's going on?" They asked fervently.

"Paley just threw the table with magic!" Jurie said.

"Show!" Reben demanded.

"Sure," Paley did as requested, except this time only the grass was flung into the air. Controlling the magic essence required a ton of concentration and clear will to perform, so with all the noise that Reben and Adimia made, he could barely focus.

"Not the grass! The table!" Adimia's shouts bought the other kids over and Madella, who had been washing everyone's clothes with Madella in the river.

They made him try over and over again for about three minutes before Rauba snatched him away and ran off with him down the river and into the thin forest beyond. Paley was exhausted after just five minutes of running, so he slumped against a tree to catch his breath.

Rauba, on the other hand, was far too impatient to be tired and quickly bought him to his feet.

"Come on, let's teach you some magic." She said.