Erlem

The orphanage was ran by the citadel, orphanages were a great place to find talent that would remain loyal to the magestrate. Usually an orphan would be assigned to an upper level mage that matched the orphans abilities.

There were Three known areas of magic; arcane, elemental and autumn magic.

Two out of the three could be learned so long as you had the ability to use magic, the last, Autumn magic, was only usable by those born as autumn witches which was incredibly rare.

Autumn witches did not have to be born in Autumn to be autumn witches, ones soul had to be blessed by the autumn spirit. One would never know if their child was an autumn witch until the baby either grew their hair and its color was red, or their eyes changed from the grey that babies normally have to green.

Autumn witches could command both elemental magic and arcane magic, while also using Autumn magic while regular mages could only hope to master arcane and elemental magics. At the age of 6 all Autumn witches gain a familiar called a daemon. Not much is really known about the daemons other than they were subservient to their Autumn witch and had many uses.

Many of the great heroes and villains of Thre'as stories and legends were about Autumn witches, the red war was a story many little boys would go to sleep hearing.

The children at this particular orphanage were cared for much better than some in smaller villages or towns. Autumnveils elite were mostly mages and felt that the extra coin was well worth it if they managed to find even one autumn witch every twenty years there.

Even a single magical genius could help bring a new school of magic into the light of the citadel. Mages were not rare in Thre'a, its often said one out of five children are common folk, orphans were often overlooked and some young mages never get to go to the citadel and make a better life for themselves.

Often when discovered these orphans would be so grateful to the citadel they would join the citadels military or science departments and help further the power of the magestrate. Its long been the intention of the citadel to eventually remove the ruling family and become the new power in Thre'a.

The gate opened and twenty or so small children exited the gate single file. They came down the walkway that led to the street and stopped at the edge. Behind them came a silver haired witch dressed in maroon colored robes wearing a maroon had with gold accents along the brim.

The children were all wearing black robes with the orphanage crest on the lapels. The children all looked cleaned and well cared for, some of the smaller kids in the back of the line were fidgeting and horse-playing.

" gentleman, if we are done" the witch said smiling at the two boys " yes head mistress" the boys quickly hopped back in their places, arms straight like little soldiers. "Thank you boys, now onward"

She waved her hand and an umbrella materialize, the headmistress pointed down the street and proceeded to escort her little line of children down the street towards a large box like building.

The building was as tall as the last level and didn't have an archegate. The building was an elevator used to move common folk between the levels of the city. "Mistress Penelope." A small little girl, about seven or eight in age sporting brown hair, blue eyes and a tight bun tugged at the sleeve of the headmistress.

" yes jasmine?" The headmistress look at the girl softly " why are you out of line child?" The little girl shyly looked up, " well its Erlem head mistress." Erlem, that child, he was incredibly smart for his age, which wasnt a surprise considering he was an Autumn witch. He was also strong willed and mischievous. 'Thank the gods he didnt have a Daemon yet or she would have to have the citadel send extra help just to keep up with him.' Penelope thought to herself.

"What did he do now?" She almost chuckled out loud, Erlem was a handful but never really harmed anyone, sometime he was too curious for his own good, being above average intelligence would often lead to some some interesting events.

Just last week Erlem found a spell book and learned a spell to make objects like small dolls and even some pixie frogs dance. Except Erlem was a little too talented and ended up charming the whole orphanage to dance the highland waltz for two hours. The headmistress had to figure out how to break it while performing the lead in an impromptu rendition of a waltz scene in her favorite opera. Though honestly she may have let that happen because the children were indeed quite wonderful dancers.

"Well ma'am, he's not in line anymore" the head mistress looked, and sure enough he wasn't.

" Stanley " Penelope said in a soft voice " a boy of six, which if you didnt know he was six would have thought he easily nine or ten with dark skin and deep blue eyes stepped out of line and walked to the headmistress

" Stanley did you see where Erlem went?" Stanley shuffled his feet and didn't look at the headmistress.

" Stanley, where is he?" Stanley was Erlems best friend, usually where one was so was the other, in this case Stanley didn't go but obviously knew where his friend had gone. the headmistress had put a little more authority in her voice this time, she was not in the mood for any shenanigans this morning, you furled her brow and gave him a look that would have burned a hole straight through him if she had cast a spell.

"He went to the fountain headmistress" The shame in his eyes shone like a lighthouse light across the black waters, Stanley hated telling on Erlem and he found he had to do it often.

"The fountain! again! that boy is gonna get himself in some big trouble if he tries to ride those fish!" The headmistress turned and hurried back towards the orphanage "children follow me." She was steaming mad, she would have had smoke coming out of her ears if she was a fire mage that was for certain.

They turned down a small alleyway between the orphanage and a cluster of gates that held small apartments. At the end of the alleyway was an open square and more archegates that led to more apartments and smaller shops and pubs that sold various vegetables and spirits. At the edge of the square was a large concreted pond, easily three miles across and too deep to see the bottom. In the middle of the pond was a giant fountain. Three pale powder blue water-ponies made of sea marble with a large majestic looking blue opal water- steed on top of the triad as they spewed water in beautiful shapes above it. As the design would finish it would vaporize and drop a thick mist below.

Every few minutes you would see a water-pony jump through mist. Erlem loved to frequent this fountain and ride the water-ponies, which isn't a big deal so long as the larger more aggressive water-steed didn't see Erlem, otherwise it would try to chase him away . A water steeds giant long fins could slice the hull of a ship in two and sink it, a small boy would not survive an encounter with an angry water steed. The smaller females, the ponies, were more than happy to let the boy swim with them and ride on their backs in the water. To Erlem the risk out weighed the reward.

For the headmistress that meant having to save Erlem from the steed, and apologizing again to the towns secretary of public landmarks.