It took Paley and Hig three hours to sell all of the Weynsoo. They split the money, 3:1, Paley getting three-quarters of it. Hig declined any money at first, but Paley insisted since he wouldn't have been able to sell it without Hig's license.
He returned home at 8 in the evening, excited to show everyone how much money he earned. Madella was cleaning the dishes with Teerom and Jurie at the time. Everyone else was upstairs. He burst into the cottage with a big bag full of gold coins inside it, exactly 98 of them.
"Mom, guys, look." He showed it pridefully.
"How much is that!?" Teerom and Jurie ran over and inspected the large bag.
"98 gold coins," Paley answered.
"Good job, Paley!" Teerom ruffled his hair. Madella watched with a smile, leaning against the counter of the cutting table.
"Can we all go to a fancy restaurant later?" Paley asked her, "I'll pay, of course," He added cheekily.
"Of course. I heard of an Illitoran restaurant in the city. Want to check it out?" Madella replied. Illitor is a country similar to Italy. It's known for its vast food culture and beautiful scenery. Additionally, it's the centre of Eri's trade.
"Illitoran?" Paley asked.
"It's really delicious food. We have to try it!" Jurie sounded excited.
"Illitor is also where Baddyu was born, during the renaissance," Teerom added.
"Are you guys going to a restaurant?" Bacha asked from the stairs.
"Yeah, you want to come too?" Paley asked.
"Yes!"
"Tell the others. We'll go on Friday." He instructed, and she ran up the stairs to tell the other orphans.
"Wait, they are really pricey. You might spend all the money you earned. Are you sure about this?" Jurie asked, recalling that Paley wanted to buy a piano for himself.
"Of course. If I run out of money, I can just kill another Weynsoo."
The next day, at lunchtime, Paley sat at a large round table in the Headmistress' office by himself. She walked in a few minutes later, startled by him.
"What're you doing here, Paley?" She walked around the table and to her desk, carrying a heavy folder of papers.
"I joined the magic club yesterday. They invited me." Paley explained himself. He was reading a biography on Libon Reish's life.
"The club's not on Thursdays."
"Oh. Right. I'll be on my way, then." He stood up and made for the door, but she stopped him.
"Wait. Take a seat. I want to talk to you."
Paley complied hesitantly and sat back down.
"What exactly are you?" She asked. The question puzzled him; did she think he wasn't human? "All of your grades reflect incredible levels of intelligence, and your Earth Magic is powerful. I've heard from Dillie that you can also fly. All this at the age of twelve."
'Dillie, you and your big mouth,' Paley bit his lip, frustrated. "You flatter me," He said, "but what exactly are you trying to say?"
"I'm trying to say that someone like you with so much potential shouldn't be wasting it away in Lusitra. You should be in academic places like Illitor or Pluassa, and maybe even the Academy someday."
"So..." He urged her on.
"So, I'm presenting you with an offer. Hillred school isn't even considered a proper public learning place, but I'm sure that if a more powerful school with a better reputation than ours sees your talent, they will accept you immediately. Would you like me to make that recommendation?" The offer *was* attractive to Paley, but at the end of the day, he'd have to leave everyone behind to accept it.
"No. I like it here anyway. Thanks for the offer, though." He bowed and left promptly. Mrs Lachi smiled and thought to herself: He declines an offer to study at a better school. To have a better life outside of our backward Lusitra. Now I know why you like him so much, Dillie.
When school ended, Paley invited Dillie to come to the orphanage with everyone to teach her the basics of magic. She accepted immediately and walked with the orphans.
"You're still wearing that?" Paley asked, noticing that she was still wearing the Awakening ring on her ring finger.
"Y-Yeah... I wanted to keep it for the memories." She half-lied.
"What magic type are you?" Adimia asked enthusiastically.
"Air," Dillie answered.
"Ha! Paley can use Air magic too!" Amasha laughed obnoxiously.
"Amasha, he's a Quimnia. Obviously, he can use Air magic, stupid." Bacha slapped the back of his head lightly.
"It's still impressive, though," Reben added.
"But he's still a Quimnia," Rauba argued quietly.
As the others argued on the right, Jurie stared distantly at the horizon.
"Are you okay?" Paley asked her.
"Huh?" She snapped back, "Yeah, uh, I was just... I was just thinking about Teerom." She said.
"You miss him?"
"A lot. I still have to get used to not seeing him all the time." She sighed.
"He's barely had any work lately, so you'll get to see him as soon as we get home." He tried to reassure her, but it didn't work.
"I know, but... Ah, whatever, I should get used to it soon anyway." She sighed again.
The orphans arrived home to Teerom sleeping on the stairs out of pure boredom. Jurie woke him up gently, and they hugged.
"Welcome home. I hope your day wasn't as uneventful as mine." He said, stretching and yawning.
"It was the usual. What's up? Why were you sleeping on the stairs?" Jurie asked.
Teerom groaned. "You see. Aleisar and the others haven't got a single contract since our first watchtower assignment. I don't know what's going on, but I've had to spend these last two weeks doing nothing! I'm so fricking bored!" He tried not to swear since Madella was upstairs, cleaning the dust off the floors while listening to music. (Teerom went out and bought her a pair of earbuds, which are just two pieces of rubber with a small runestone of Music magic inside.)
He noticed Dillie awkwardly standing next to Paley, holding his arm. "Hello," He waved.
"Hello." She bowed and retreated back to Paley.
"Ah, you're all home." Madella came down the stairs with a duster in her hands, "Why didn't you say anything?" She took out the earbuds and placed them on the table on her way to put the duster back.
"You wouldn't have even heard them over your classical music," Teerom said.
"Can you listen to any kind of music on that?" Jurie asked, inspecting the earbuds.
"Pretty much, but you gotta buy it." He explained.
"You have to buy these discs." Madella pulled out a flimsy metallic circle from her pocket with glowing inscriptions on it. She noticed Dillie, "Hello, who are you?" she asked.
"I'm Dillie. Nice to meet you." She greeted, bowing again.
"Madella." Madella smiled politely.
"What're those letters?" Paley asked, intrigued by the mana the inscriptions gave off.
"I think they're runes." She gave the disk to him, and he touched the runes gently.
"Cool."
"Jurie, what music do you like?" Teerom asked.
"I don't know, but I heard some bards playing in the city district, and it sounded good." She replied.
"Okay. I'll go and try to find a disk of bard music. Does anyone else want me to get some for them?"
"I want one!" Amasha raised his hand.
"You listen to music?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No. I heard it once. My friend showed it to me. It's called Heavy Metal." Amasha seemed to like it, so Teerom agreed to get a Heavy Metal disk for him. "Okay, I'll try and buy one for you." He said.
"Can I have one too?" Rauba asked, "There's a singer called Flambullia. Everyone at school talks about her."
As the orphans made their requests, Paley grabbed Dillie's hand and took her outside.
"Want to start learning magic?" He asked her, standing a few meters opposite her. Dillie nodded, excited.
"You're an Air magic type, so you should begin by feeling the air around you. More specifically, the link between your mana and it." She didn't seem to get it, "It helps to close your eyes and take a deep breath."
"Okay," She complied and took a relaxing, long breath with her eyes closed. She waited for about twenty seconds, but nothing happened. "I can't feel anything." She said, still keeping her eyes closed.
"Alright, try to visualize the air flowing around you then." He instructed. The first step to using magic is to be aware of your mana and how it interacts with the world. This makes it easier for you to use a spell effectively.
Dillie imagined streaks of white travelling turbulently around her and finally felt the link between her mana and the element of Air. "I can feel it!" She said.
"Now picture a small ball of air in front of you. Nothing else."
"Okay..." She did it and felt her mana bend to her will and move to the ball of air she was imagining.
"Open your eyes."
She slowly opened her eyes to see a small, translucent ball of air.
"Good job," Paley smiled coolly and pulled out a book on Air magic, "There are a bunch of basic spells in here. Find one that you want to do and do it your way." He gave it to her.
She flipped through the pages quickly and found a spell called Aerlus - a simple blast of air. "This one?" She pointed to the page, and Paley nodded. "Go ahead. Make sure to visualize it and transfer your mana to your hands." He said.
She took a quick breath and pictured the blast of air forming at her hands, then filled her hands with mana. A blast of air shot towards Paley from her hand. He blocked it with a Protection barrier, not moving an inch.
"That was powerful. You're a natural at this." He complimented, making her blush.
"Thank you." She smiled.
"You can assign a word or sign to a spell to make your mana automatically perform it for you. For example," He stretched his hand upwards, "Firebolt," He said casually. A small ball of fire shot into the sky, dissipating quickly.
"Okay..." Dillie thought of a word to assign to the Aerlus spell, "Konji."
"Konji, huh? Is that Hijian?"
"Dijinian," She corrected.
"Okay, to assign a word to a spell, you need to say it while you perform the spell. It takes time because you need to repeat it a few times. So take as long as you need to." He erected a pillar of earth, "Do the spell on this." He flew up and sat down on top of it.
"Konji!" She tried to do the spell, but nothing happened.
"Remember to visualize," Paley reminded, and she tried again. "Konji!" This time a small blast of air managed to ruffle his clothes. "Konji!" "Konji!" "Konji!" She kept doing it until it was strong enough to be visible.
"Much better. Now try putting more mana into it, but condense it. It makes the spell stronger. I want you to make a crack in this pillar." Paley instructed, and she nodded, continuing using Konji.
After a while, the orphans came outside and watched Paley teach Dillie. She was out of mana and out of breath. Paley even taught her to use Dyaahn breathing, but she couldn't concentrate enough mana into Konji to make a crack in the pillar.
"Do you want to stop?" Paley asked from atop the pillar, twiddling a ball of flame around his fingers.
"No. Just a little bit more." She put her hands back up to try again. The sun had begun to set, so Paley decided it was time for a break.
"Take a break. Eat dinner with us, and you can try again later."
"Okay..." She began walking. Paley jumped down and assisted her into the cottage. She sat down on Paley's seat, noticing the haphazardly erased 'Q' before Paley's name, and caught her breath as he began cooking dinner with Madella.
"You can cook?" She asked.
"Yes," Paley replied and cooked up a variety of fishes decorated with fresh greens with Madella. Dillie was impressed by their synergy in the kitchen and more so by the ingredients that flew around them.
"So, are you Paley's girlfriend?" Reben asked suddenly from behind her.
"Huh!?" She nearly jumped out of her seat in a panic, "N-No, I mean- no, yeah, no." She said, agitated, looking over at Paley, and making sure he didn't hear Reben's question.
"But you cling to him like this!" Amasha held Reben's arm, mimicking how she held onto his arm when she entered the cottage.
"Why *do* you cling to him like that?" Bacha sprung up from behind Reben, her eyes filled with suspicion and envy.
"Come on guys," Adimia approached with his eyebrows furled upward, "Give her a rest. They're not girlfriend and boyfriend." Dillie thought he saved her from the overwhelming number of questions, but he did the exact opposite.
"They're married!" He picked her hand with the Awakening Ring on it up.
Her heart dropped.