The night fell, and the orphans prepared to tuck in for the night. Paley sat by the river with Rauba, talking about school. A gentle breeze washed over them constantly, keeping their shoulders loose and their heads clear.
They talked for about an hour, though it was mostly Rauba voicing her worries.
"Nothing bad will happen. I promise you." Paley lay back on the warm grass. They were in the middle of spring, meaning that all sorts of flowers sprouted here. But, Amoreviolas (Purple flowers) still dominated this part of the river.
"I know... I'm just scared that they'll hate me because I'm an orphan." She bought her knees up and rested her chin on them.
"Just ignore them. It's that simple. Besides, I'm here. So if anyone hurts you, tell me, and I'll-" Paley hesitated when he remembered Madella's lectures yet again, "I'll tell them to go away with a harmless threat." He resigned.
"Thanks, Paley." Rauba bit her lips nervously, contemplating whether to ask him something she'd been thinking of asking him, "C-Can you teach me fire magic?"
"Why? Haven't you already mastered it?"
"I thought I did, but after seeing you use it so effortlessly..." She felt embarrassed and envious that Paley was better than her at the magic she taught him. But it wasn't malicious envy.
"Alright. I'm going to the mana zone with Bacha tomorrow. Do you want to come along? While she picks herbs, I can teach you."
"Okay," Rauba nodded excitedly.
After chatting a bit longer, Rauba slowly drifted off to sleep. The stars were glimmering, and the night's cold soon hit them both, making Rauba shiver. Paley liked both the cold and the heat. He didn't have a preference in temperature or season. But, if he had to choose, winter would probably be his favourite.
He heated Rauba and carried her back to the orphanage with air magic. He took his time returning to his spot among the Amoreviolas and watched the stars until he fell asleep too.
The next day, he left for the mana zone with Bacha, Rauba, and Jurie - who wanted to tag along to see a mana zone for herself.
Paley flew them to the lake in about ten minutes. Jurie went with Bacha to explore the forest and look for herbs. He told them to stay in earshot just to be safe. If they wanted to go deeper, he would accompany them.
"Alright, where do you want me to start?" Paley asked Rauba. Jurie and Bacha scoured the sides of the lake, picking up tons of herbs and putting them in big white bags.
"How do you cast two spells at the same time? When I use Firebolt too much, I burn myself." Rauba replied.
"I don't know, I just- do it." Paley shrugged, "What do you find hard? Maybe I can help you there."
"I can't focus on casting two different spells at the same time. I end up putting too much or too little on one of them. Sometimes I forget to keep one of the spells active."
The reason why until now, Rauba hasn't suffered damage from using Firebolt is that she casts it away from her fingers which plays a major part in why her Firebolt is weak. She still feels the heat, but the fire doesn't make contact with her skin.
"Do you try and focus on them separately?" Paley faced his palms towards him like a surgeon.
"I guess," Rauba replied.
"That's where the problem is." Two flames burst into life on his hands, "If you look at one of the flames, you can't look at the other clearly. But if you take a step back, you can see both of them. In that same way, instead of splitting your focus into two small things, merge it into the bigger picture." He noticed Rauba's expression turn confused.
"To put it simply, you're probably focusing on the spells separately. But you should think of it as one big spell. Instead of thinking about it as a Fire magic spell and Protection magic spell, think of it as a Fire and Protection magic spell." Paley's explanation got through to Rauba; she clicked her hands together.
"I get it now!" She immediately tried to put his words to practice, making a thick flame burst into existence atop her palm. To his surprise, she managed to maintain a balance between Fire magic and Protection magic. But she looked to see his reaction and lost her focus.
The flame fell onto her hand before dissipating, burning her skin. She cried out in pain and put her hand under the warm lake water. It only made it worse. Her fingertips felt like someone poured strong acid on them.
"Hey, relax. Let me handle it." Paley bent down and wrapped his hands around hers. He'd forgot to learn the rest of Healing Magic, so he had to use raw Healing Magic on her. It took longer and left a scar, but the pain surrendered, and her hand healed.
"Thanks," She smiled shyly, "I wanna try it again." She quickly recollected herself and tried to cast the spell, but Paley stopped her.
"I've got an idea. How about I put a bit of Protection magic on your hands? I'll slowly reduce it until you can do it by yourself. What do you think?"
"Okay," She nodded determinedly.
They practised like this for nearly an hour before Rauba succeeded. Paley removed all protection mana now, but he didn't tell her to avoid making her nervous.
"I'll leave only a bit this time, okay?" He lied, still facing his hands towards hers.
"Hm," Rauba nodded and focused. In contrast to Paley, who closed his eyes when he needed to focus, she opened them wider to look at only what she wanted. She created a ball of fire and let it rest on her hand, protected by a simple Protection spell.
The fire burned through the Protection Magic slightly, but it didn't reach her hand.
"Nice. Now try moving the fire around." Paley instructed; she obeyed and turned her hand, letting the fire roll around it, "Make it into a smaller one and twist it around your fingers." That request was a bit too hard, but Rauba tried anyway, though she only managed to twiddle the fire around a few times before it fell into the lake.
She sighed, exhausted and disappointed, but Paley was proud of her. "Good job," He said, "You've got all of it down. You only need to practice now."
"Thank you- for teaching me," She bowed respectfully.
"You're welcome."
A few minutes later, Jurie and Bacha returned to them with half-full bags of herbs.
"Paley, can you sort these for me?" Bacha asked joyfully.
"All of them?" Paley looked into the bag, seeing at least twenty different types of herbs. The other bag was full of empty wooden jars that Teerom made. Paley now realized that he was going to have a really long Saturday.
Jurie requested to go deeper into the mana, and they did with Paley to keep them safe. They walked through the dense yet well-lit forest. Bacha stopped now and then, identifying a herb and giving it to Paley to put it in the correct jar.
While they walked, Paley and Rauba came up with an idea for a spell called Supernova. It's a Fire magic spell that involves blasting concentrated fire in every direction. They named it Supernova.
"These berries look appetizing," Paley noticed a bush with tons of red berries on it and walked over to it.
"We're going on ahead!" Bacha ran forward toward a giant rock.
"Don't go too far!" Jurie shouted and began picking the berries with Paley, "Are you sure these aren't poisonous?"
"They could be, but look," He pointed to an unnaturally empty area on the bushes, "Animals are eating these, so they can't be poisonous. But just to be safe..." He took one of the berries and rubbed it on his lips. If his lips became sore or red in half an hour, he'd know whether the berries were poisonous or not.
There was a bird's nest above the bushes, with the father and mother watching over the eggs. Paley decided that this was the perfect time to talk to her about her and Teerom.
"So, Teerom likes you." He said bluntly.
Silence.
"WHAT!?" Jurie shouted, surprised. She clocked what Paley said in about five seconds, "Y-You mean like *that* kind of like?"
"Love, even." Paley teased; she almost turned as red as the berries they picked.
"Love..." She repeated.
"He's a bit of a chicken, so he still hasn't confessed to you. I told him to wait until the time is right, but at this rate, no time will ever be right." He sighed.
"M-Maybe if I confess first, he'll do it? Not that I love him or anything!" She contradicted herself.
"What?" Paley made a confused face.
"Sorry... I just don't know how to react," She suddenly started squirming. Paley watched her, thankful that he wasn't in love with anyone.
"You know what, you've given me an idea." As Paley began explaining his master plan to get Teerom to confess, Rauba and Bacha stumbled upon something curious atop the rock. A small emerald-like gem was half-lodged in the stone.
"Woah." Bacha pried the stone out of its place and stared at it. The debris on it fell off, revealing the glowing, reflecting gem.
"What's that?" Rauba asked, staring at the stone with Bacha.
"I don't know." Bacha felt the stone get warmer, then slowly turn into a glimmering green gas. It all converged on top of her middle finger, forming a ring. It had small markings of leaves on the sides. A bright green gem rested on top, reflective Bacha and Rauba's faces perfectly.
"Is that a magic ring?" Rauba asked, staring at it.
"What's that?" Bacha tapped the green gem with her nail.
"They're rings that give you the power to cast a certain spell outside of your magic type. It takes way too much mana, so it's not that useful unless you're an Emperor or King mage." It was Teerom who told Rauba of magic rings. Aneros wore many because he was too lazy to remember spells.
"Paley would love this." Bacha ran back to Paley and Jurie with Rauba. Paley had just finished telling her his master plan, and she agreed to it.
"Paley," She tapped him on the shoulder, "Here you go!" Bacha handed him the ring.
"What's this?" He asked, inspecting the ring. He could feel unfamiliar magic emanating from it.
"A magic ring. It's for you."
Paley felt a gentle tug toward Bacha from the ring. He let it go, and it flew back onto Bacha's finger.
"I think it wants you to use it. Besides, I'm a Quimnia; I don't need magic rings," Paley said.
"But apparently the first one had a bunch too," Bacha argued.
"Hmph, I'm better than the first one," He joked and saw the sun beginning to set, "Come on, it's getting dark. We should start heading back." He made them get in a circle around him and flew them back to the orphanage.