That night we met our roommates: Jemma, Heathry (not the same girl we knew in Hampston) and Pemla. Jemma said she was our room leader, but was otherwise surprisingly quiet all evening. Heathry and Pemla were close friends from Durin, a place I had never heard of before, but not too far away, according to them.

  Heathry and Pemla were very talkative about themselves and many other things. They had been here for several years after a disease killed their parents and siblings. Yes, that was a heartbreaking tragedy, but we all had tragic stories. This was an orphanage, after all. They said Jemma had been in orphanages her whole life, but didn’t go into why. I glanced at Jemma, but she just nodded in agreement.

  They wanted to know everything about us. So we stayed up late talking about the invasion, how we ended up as slaves and a little about our more interesting adventures, like the roc, waspids and Fin’s direwolf. I did most of the talking, since I wanted to make sure we didn’t reveal too much.

  I told them I had manifested as a healer, and, obviously, my hair started changing color. I wanted that to be firmly in everyone’s mind— see, there’s nothing suspicious about me. My hair was halfway down my back by then, definitely growing much faster than before it changed color. I wasn’t used to having long hair, so I mentioned thinking about cutting it, to at least get rid of the blond tips. They all yelled at that idea and strongly disagreed. Heathry said it looked amazing like that.

  We didn’t talk about Lil or Fin manifesting. That may not be a big deal here, but I wasn’t sure yet.

  “These tests will assess your level of understanding in each of five different subjects: history, reading, writing, mathematics, and magic. Adiffen is here to ensure there will be no cheating. Answer the questions to the best of your ability. If you don’t know something, it’s best to leave it blank because you have very little time. But don’t dawdle. I will be back to pick up your tests when the lunch bell rings.“

  It was our second day at the orphanage. We had been brought over to the academy administration building that morning to get our class schedules. But to do that, they first needed our assessment test results.

  During the test I kept glancing up and seeing the boy, Adiffen, watching me. But each time he quickly looked away. It made me extremely nervous to be stared at like that. He was tall and skinny, with red hair, freckles and some very sore looking pimples— cringe.

  Does he think I’m cheating? Do I have something on my face or in my hair?

  I kept casually checking myself but didn’t feel anything out of place. By the end, I knew I had done horribly. I had to leave many of the questions blank, since I knew very little of what was asked. I was sure Fin and Lil had done worse.

  We had never gone to school before, but our mother had at least taught us to read the few books we had at home. We had only done a little writing because we didn’t have much to write on. As for math, I knew basic arithmetic, but nothing advanced or with big numbers. I knew next to nothing about magic and history. I don’t know why she never taught us about them.

  But at least the school knew what we needed to learn: everything.

  After the test we ran to get lunch, since we had to eat back in the orphanage, not in the academy building. When we rushed into the assembly room, we were assaulted by the level of sound from the many conversations all trying to talk over each other. As usual, we each picked up a metal tray and loaded it with lunch, which was soup, bread, and fruit juice to drink.

  Lil was just ahead of me and Fin behind, as I began wandering the room looking around for an empty table and hopefully our new roommates. I noticed a girl sitting at a close table looking at me, but she quickly looked away, nodding at a boy in front of her. I didn’t think much of it, however, until Fin yelled behind me.

  “Watch out!”

  I turned to look at him, when my foot hit something and I started falling forward. Fin grabbed onto my dress from behind, stopping me from falling forward, but my tray started slipping from my hands. Lil blurred into motion, steadying my tray and restoring what she could before I lost everything on it. Unfortunately, there were several liquids on my tray. These splashed out in a high arc, all over Lil and a large boy seated nearby.

  “How dare you!” he yelled, as he quickly stood, looking extremely angry and intimidating. He stood a head taller than me, with long dark hair and narrowed eyes. He had some impressive muscles too.

  “I’m so sorry.” I said. “I don’t know what happened.”

  “He stuck out his foot and tripped you,” Fin said, pointing to the boy next to him.

  I looked down just as a foot disappeared back under the table. The boy it belonged to had a grin on his face but pretended to ignore the confrontation behind him.

  “You think you can get away with insulting me like that, girl!” the tall boy yelled, spitting out the last word in disgust.

  “It was an accident,” I said, even though I was starting to change my mind. I didn’t want a fight. I had hit a few people in my life, but I always preferred making peace if at all possible.

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  “Please, I’ll go get a rag to clean that off of you,” I said as a final peace offering.

  His eyes opened even wider. “A filthy rag? That’s it!”

  He swung his arm back, obviously preparing to pound me, when Fin stepped in front of me. Fin didn’t have his tray, so he must have set it down somewhere. I was preparing to yell at Fin to move away, when the large boy swung hard at my face, trying to go over Fin, who was a lot shorter than him. But Fin blocked his arm upwards, then punched the tall boy in the gut. As he doubled over, Fin also hit him in the face.

  The boy fell backwards on the people and table behind him as the entire room erupted in yells and screams.

  I just stood there, too stunned to think. Kids were getting up all around us and fleeing from the room. As the room started emptying out, several ladies were able to make their way over to us.

  “What happened here?”

  A bunch of us started talking at once, some saying I started it, but“You three and you two, to the head mistress’s office, now.” She indicated Fin, Lil and me, as well as the girl who had looked at me and nodded before this all started, and the boy who Fin accused of tripping me.

  others were backing me up. But there were too many voices to make much sense of what happened.

  “Silence!” one of the ladies yelled, holding up her hand.

  Everyone stopped talking. The other lady had gone over to the table where the large boy was still laying and groaning, blood flowing freely from his nose.

  “This one needs to go to the infirmary,” she said, as she started to help him get up.

  I was about to offer to heal him, when I realized that was probably not the best idea at the moment.

  “You three and you two, to the Headmistress’s office, now.” She indicated Fin, Lil and me, as well as the girl who had looked at me and nodded before this all started, and the boy who Fin accused of tripping me.

  “We haven’t eaten lunch yet,” I complained.

  “Then you shouldn’t have started a fight,” she said.

  I was about to retort when she gave me a fierce look. There was no winning this argument. I grabbed my bread in a bit of defiance as I set my tray on the return table. I grinned and winked at them as Fin and Lil did the same.

  “Good heavens, only their second day,” the Headmistress of the orphanage said, shaking her head as she reviewed the papers on her desk.

  “Well, since the three of you are new here, I will explain some things to you. At Wentook Orphanage and Geffen Academy there is a strict policy of no unsupervised fighting anywhere on the campus. The guilty party earns five demerits on the first offence. There are far worse penalties for repeat offenders. If guilt cannot be determined satisfactorily, both parties earn the demerits. All demerits are recorded on your records. You must work them off by doing special jobs. Each service department head maintains a list of such jobs to choose from.

  “You may be wondering about that word ‘unsupervised’. If both parties get prior approval, there are occasionally controlled, supervised fights. Examples would be challenges, duels, competitions and tournaments.

  “I have interviewed each of you, but one. Unfortunately, I’m told it will be some time before Zanidor can be interviewed. But my current assessment is that he, Jerisha and Finneren are at fault. You two will receive demerits. Since this is not his first offence, Zanidor’s punishment will be more severe than yours. Let this be your warning.

  I knew all about being innocent but presumed guilty. I had dealt with Quack for nearly half a year. I also knew how to do dirty, hard work, so that didn’t bother me at all.

  She excused the other two, who walked out with smirks on their faces, but asked the three of us to remain.

  “Here are your work assignments and supervisors,” she said, as she handed each of us a paper. “Be sure to check in with them this afternoon. Everyone has a job at Wentook. You are expected to do a good job, to the satisfaction of your supervisor, or you may earn more demerits. If you feel you are being treated unfairly, you may talk to the department head, or, as a last resort, come see me. I am very busy, with over 100 children to manage, so please only come to me after you have exhausted all other means.”

  We reviewed our work assignments on the way out. I was to help in the laundry and clothing area, Lil in custodial and Fin in grounds keeping. I decided we would all go together to each of our areas so I would be familiar with each other's jobs.

  We first went to the custodial office. We found Mira there just coming back from cleaning the girl’s washroom. We each gave her a hug, even though that was probably our first time doing that with her. She said that she was very glad to see us also. It was nice seeing her friendly face. We spent a few minutes getting caught up. She was living nearby in a dormitory for campus workers. She was especially happy to learn that Lil would be helping with the custodial work. Lil’s supervisor, however, was a dour looking man named Rendic. Mira rolled her eyes at us as he was talking to Lil about the strict cleaning standards he required. We also learned that Lil would sometimes be working in other buildings on the campus besides the orphanage.

  Next we went to find Fin’s supervisor, Thoundra, in the grounds area. Mira’s boss, Chiany, told us to go out the back door, down the path until we came to the greenhouse. The grounds keeper’s building was attached. When we arrived, there were men and women coming and going. Eventually, we found Thoundra, a pleasant looking woman who looked like she had been rolling in the soil. She laughed when she saw our eyes looking her over.

  “I just love dirt!” she exclaimed, with a big smile.

  “You must be Finneren,” she said, as she patted him on the back. “I heard about your fight. You must be pretty strong to take on a big kid like that.”

  That was surprising as it hadn’t been very long since it happened. Fin grinned, but looked a little worried at the same time.

  “You can call him Fin,” I said. “We all do. Hello, I’m Jer, his br… sister. And this is Lil, his twin. Fin was just protecting me. We take care of each other.”

  “Close family, good to hear! But let’s not hear about any more fights, yeah? Unless it’s a duel. In that case, I know who I’m going to place my wager on.” She laughed again and winked.

  Our last stop was the clothing area. I discovered that my supervisor was Sister Hearna, and was dressed in a religious habit. She was soft spoken and talked slowly, pausing to think about each phrase before uttering it. She said she mainly served in the nearby church, but also volunteered to help in the clothing and supplies area. She was quite pleased to know that I had some experience with clothing repair and alterations as well as cleaning and pressing. I learned that I would also be working in other dormitories on the campus sometimes, since each had a laundry room.