The winds picked up and a storm came over the town. Paley and Teerom stopped at an inn to wait for the weather to settle down. It was your average medieval inn, containing simple wooden tables strewn around and a bar on the other end of the room. Stairs were leading up to the sleeping rooms on the bar's left.
"It just had to be this bad tonight," Teerom groaned and leaned on a table, knocking some drinks over. "Ah, sorry, I didn't mean-" He froze when he saw three bulky men staring back at him with animosity.
He could tell they had their share of battles from all the scars on their faces and forearms.
"Oi, what's the big idea?" The leading man stood up. They were your stereotypical boorish drunkards.
"N-Nothing sir, I made a mistake. I'm sorry!" Teerom's cool act dropped yet again and he bowed submissively.
"Sorry's not gonna pay for my drink!" The leading man pushed his face into the table, making his hat fall off, and took a big swig of water before spitting out into the back of Teerom's head.
He was about to add a punch, but he was stopped by Paley's hand, wrapped around his forearm, clutching it so tight that everything above the wrist turned pale. Paley's arm was covered in the faint red glow of Strength Magic. The man looked at him with a sneer before it turned into confusion.
What he saw was a twelve-year-old child. But Paley's eyes said otherwise. "What's wrong with you?" Paley mocked with a freezing gaze as the man's hand started to turn purple.
"What the-" The man fell to his knees from agony. Paley was inserting small needles of dirt into the man's hand as slowly as he could.
"Let go! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" The man begged, even beginning to tear up at the agony of a thousand micro-needles piercing his bones.
"Apology accepted." Paley said devoid of emotion and let go of his hand, removing the needles too. He quickly looked around to see if he attracted too much attention.
Fortunately, they all seemed to care little that a 35-year-old man lay on the ground, whimpering, before a child.
"The hero's origins..." Teerom muttered to himself, his eyes lighting up like stars.
"You okay?" Paley used wind magic ( small amounts so that no one knew he could use magic ) to dry off Teerom's hair while pretending to wipe it with his cloak.
"Our roles should be so reversed right now," Teerom felt embarrassed. Paley glanced at the other men, who immediately took their friend and stumbled out of the inn.
"We should probably ask someone here how to get to the library or the city," Paley suggested.
"Right, I'm on it," Teerom scanned the room and found the hottest girl, who sat in the farthest corner with her friends, and meandered over to ask her. She looked Hijian (east-asian) like Bacha.
"May I make an inquiry?" He put on his most charming voice. "Buzz off," The girl waved the back of her hand at him, making him walk shamefully back to Paley.
"I failed," he said in a gloomy tone.
"Let me show you how it's done." Paley tapped his shoulder and began walking towards the girls. He whipped his finger and a small blade of rock formed, flying forward and slicing through one of her chair's legs and making her fall backward.
' That's not fair! ' Teerom thought as Paley caught the girl.
"Watch out, you could've hit your head." He said as he bought her to her feet and swapped her chair with one that was intact. "My, you're a gentleman for a kid." She commented and sat down gracefully.
"I try my best," He smiled at her - his eyes, as usual, stayed perfectly straight and static. "Well, kid, what's your name?" She petted his hair. "Paley, 'cause I'm unusually pale." He introduced himself. ' It's cause he's a child. It must be. ' Teerom reassured himself.
"I'm Yadalee," She shook his hand, "What's a kid like you doing in here anyway?"
"I'm headed for the library to begin working there. But I have no idea how to get there. Could you tell me?"
"Ah, I have no idea where the library is, sorry." She apologized.
"I know where it is," One of her friends cut in, "I work there too. Once you get to the south gate, find the bazaar and it's just a few blocks north. It looks like a big cylinder building."
"Thank you very much for your help, goodbye." He bowed and went back to Teerom, who crossed his arms and pouted in frustration.
"You played dirty."
"Still won," Paley replied.
The rain had begun to show signs of stopping and the first few traces of sunlight broke into the sky. They continued to walk through the town until they arrived at the end. There were three paths, one led to the main city, and the others led to smaller towns.
"The city's forward," Teerom read the sign and continued on the road with Paley. "You gonna put your hood down? It's bad for your hair, you know."
Paley sighed and pulled his hood off his hair, "If you say so."
The main city started to come into view after about ten minutes of walking. Paley had exhausted all of his energy and was now being carried by Teerom. A horse-drawn carriage came into view in the distance, giving Teerom an idea.
"We could ask them for a ride?" He suggested.
"No, I've got a bad feeling about them." Paley locked eye contact with one of the drivers as they passed by. The carriage came to a halt and a noblewoman called out to them from inside.
"Boys! Are you lost?" She got off the carriage, making sure that the curtains conceal the inside the whole time.
"No, we're headed back home," Paley answered before Teerom could. "No, we're not, we're-" He began, but Paley lightly slapped him to shut him up.
"Would you like me to take you? Where do you live?" She had a slightly condescending tone, unable to hide the fact that she was above them in class. But Teerom was far too oblivious to notice.
"We live-"
"We don't need a ride," Paley covered Teerom's mouth, "It's only a five-minute walk, thank you though."
"That's a shame," The woman's friendly gaze turned malicious, "I don't think you have much of a choice." She glanced at the carriage drivers and they nodded, whipping at the horses to turn the carriage around, but before they could do anything, Paley muttered in Teerom's ear; "Run,"
Teerom sprinted forward. Thanks to his fit build, he could reach a good speed while carrying Paley and managed to make it to the city gates. The carriage would take too long to turn and chase them, so they just gave up and continued towards the town.
"Why's everyone so hostile?" Teerom panted.
"I guess it's human nature," Paley momentarily had a much too cold look on his face as he stared back at the road behind them, unaware of the frightening tone of his words. The main city was surrounded by a high stone wall that protected the people from monsters - though there weren't many in this area.
"Identify yourselves," The two guards, who stood on either side of the open gates, tapped their spears against the ground. They weren't your normal metal spears. They were imbued with reinforcing magic, a cheap and effective way to create powerful weapons.
"I'm Teerom, he's Paley." Teerom introduced them cluelessly.
"We mean your citizen card."
"We don't have any yet, we're actually here to get them." Paley cut in and lied.
"Oh, yeah? You're moving to the city? Without any belongings?" The guards were skeptical.
"We're not moving in today. We're looking to move in next week after we pack up all our things."
"Did the Lord grant you permission?" ( the cities and towns in the countryside were small, so the lord would often approve citizenship himself )
"Yes, we were supposed to get a letter, but it appears it was intercepted." Paley continued on his onslaught of lies. The whole time, Teerom was flabbergasted by it.
After a moment of suspicion, the guards relaxed their spears. "Alright, come with me," One of them took them to a small stone room attached to the inside of the wall. "Wait here," He ordered and went in to contact the nobles directly under the Lord.
"Come on," Paley ran off after the guard went in.
"Wait!" Teerom caught up quickly due to Paley's terrible stamina. "How're you so good at lying?" He asked.
"No idea," Paley replied.
The city was like an entirely different world to them, especially Teerom. The smaller town's houses were made of wood and straw, but the houses here were built upon cobble foundations with tiled roofs. Hard gravel, clay, and stones made up the roads and there were people dressed in proper clothing wandering on them.
"Wow, I feel so out of place," Teerom pulled his cloak down to cover his dirty rags.
"Excuse me," Paley had already begun asking people, "Do you know where the bazaar is?" He asked a boy, around Jurie's age of nearly 16, wearing a woolly tunic.
"The bazaar? I'm going there right now if you want to come with me?"
"That'd be great." Paley signaled Teerom to follow. The boy took them to a crowded, wide street with stands and shops lining the sides. Large lamps hung from the giant red cloth that covered the top of the bazaar.
The boy left them and began shopping for food and clothes. "There's so much stuff," Teerom looked around in awe until a toy stand caught his eye. "I bet everyone would like some real toys." he stared at the figurines and moving toys made with magic.
"Wanna get some for them?" Paley asked.
"We don't have any money, though."
"We don't need money," Paley smirked and waded through the crowds of people to the stand.
"Sir, I'd like to buy some toys," He asked the owner of the stand, a fat man with a neckbeard. "How much you got on ya?" The owner responded, taking into account Paley's commoner appearance.
"Mommy, I want that one!" A young girl pushed Paley aside, bringing her mother - a middle-class woman - to the stand.
"Which one would you like?" The man suddenly turned warm and fuzzy toward the little girl. 'Perfect,' Paley thought and waited for the mother to take her purse out and pay for a toy.
Paley swished his fingers down, making sure not to make any noticeable movement, and made the bottom of the purse rip open with a small rock blade.
"Allow me to pick that up for you milady," The man got out of his stand and began picking up the coins, notes, and various magic imbued make-up equipment for the woman.
"Thank you, kind sir," The woman's words made the man blush humbly. While they were distracted, Paley moved seven toys off the shelves with air magic, down onto the ground, and slid them into his cloak.
After the man finished giving the woman a discount and sending the girl off with three toys, he turned to where Paley was. He was long gone. When the man turned back to his stand, he saw that half of it had been wiped clean.
"Oi! Kid!" He got out of his stand again and began looking for Paley.
"I don't think stealing was the right choice," Teerom commented as they exited the bazaar and continued north towards the library.
"It's worth it if everyone's gonna be happy." Paley argued, "Yadalee's friend said the library's a few blocks north of here. So if we follow this straight path, we should get there, right?"
"Yes, we should."
They didn't. While following the path, they were distracted by a group of mimes, making their way across the streets. The group switched from rowing an invisible boat to being dragged along by an invisible rope.
Teerom and Paley followed them, intrigued and entertained by the mimes' creative acts. The group stopped in a large open area with a fountain holding the statue of the town lord on it and began circling it. They came to a sudden halt and leaned forwards, bumping into an invisible wall.
Paley and Teerom watched their supernatural act for nearly half an hour before remembering what they were there for.
"Now we're way lost," Teerom sighed, disappointed. "We can still ask someone about the library." Paley offered. "Yeah, but look at all these people. They look so high and mighty." Teerom felt like an ant surrounded by the middle and higher class of the town.
This was the city square, where everyone gathered to throw coins of appreciation for the lord into the fountain. They sat on a stack of boxes in front of a house being refurbished, gloomy, and defeated.
"Aha!" Teerom had an idea when he saw a pack of birds flying in the sky. "Let's fly,"
"Fly? With magic?" Paley saw where Teerom came from but didn't believe it would work.
"Yep, but just you. I'm afraid of heights."
"Even if I could fly, what about all these people?"
"Create a distraction,"
"I don't have unlimited mana, you know."
"Just try it. Go up, find the library, and come back down before anyone notices." Teerom urged.
"If I die, it's your fault," Paley joked and began gathering mana on top of his palm. He could use Air, Earth, and Water magic to some free extent, but he had completely mastered the basics of Fire magic. The dense mana sparked into a flame and he shot it towards the fountain in the middle.
The statue of the Lord - made of smooth, polished wood - went up in flames, gathering everyone in the square's attention. Paley ran behind the house being refurbished and put the remaining mana he had into a concentrated, yet steady, blast of air from his feet.
Teerom watched as he clumsily swung around in the air before reaching a semi-perfect hover. Luckily, there wasn't any wind anymore, so he didn't have to worry about canceling out any extra force. He quickly examined the area and found a large cylindrical building sticking out from the houses around it.
It had enormous windows in the shape of an arch packed tightly together around the building's second and third floors. There was a glass dome as a roof, letting in natural light during the day, and above the doorway, it said in big bold letters; ' Great Library of Lusitra '. They named it Great though it was probably one of the smallest libraries in the world.
His mana began to thin, so he quickly made his way back down just as it ran out. He would have to either eat something or sleep to replenish it. Only the former option was available since he could just steal some food.
Also, He needed to find some way to grow his total mana once he got back to the orphanage.
"Found it," He told Teerom, whose eyes were glimmering with a fanboy's excitement as his fairy tale hero, Aneros, also began his adventure with the ability to fly.
"Let's go," Teerom grinned and they began making their way in the general direction of the library.