“This will need to stay on for three days, sweety,” the nurse said, as she finished wrapping Lil’s lower leg. “Don’t get it wet, so no baths or showers. And don’t remove it yourself— come back to see me so I can make sure it’s healing well.”

  Lil’s leg had gotten injured when a piece of wood snapped off and rebounded into her, as the massive branch smashed into the ground near us. All of us had some minor scratches and bruises from some of the smaller branches hitting us, but Lil’s leg was the worst.

  I had asked the men who brought us to the infirmary if they could at least clean up the soot cloths I had left behind in the fireplaces. I planned to return the other things later, after the storm, if someone else hadn’t come to get them first.

  We were all dirty and wet so we decided to head back to our rooms to get changed before supper. Fin and I had to help Lil up the stairs since she was limping pretty badly.

  “Would you like me to heal your leg?” I asked her when we were alone in our room.

  “Yes, please. It hurts a lot.”

  “Alright. Put your leg up here on the bed.” I placed my hands on an uninjured part of her leg, and concentrated on healing and wholeness, just like I had done many times before.

  “Oh, that feels so much better,” she said after a few seconds. But I kept them there for a bit longer, just to make sure. I stopped when I no longer felt any more energy draining. The other scratches she had on her face and arms were healed too.

  “You should probably leave the wrap on, or people may get suspicious. Who knows, you might be able to get out of some work for a few days.”

  “Oh, I like that idea!”

  The supper bell sounded just as we were finishing getting changed, so we went downstairs. I saw through the windows dripping with rain that it was dark and stormy outside. I hadn’t paid much attention before, but the interior of the orphanage was lit up by some kind of lights along the walls, but they weren’t candles. I hoped to find out how they worked someday.

  Fin found us while we were queued up to get food. As we were looking for a place to sit, Pemla waved us over so we sat down by our roommates again.

  “We heard you got hurt in the storm,” Jemma said. “Are you alright?” Jemma was not one to talk unless something important needed to be said. So I guess she considered this important.

  “Yes, we got hurt by a branch that fell off a tree,” I said. “Lil was hurt on her leg, so we went to the infirmary, but we’re okay now.” Fin and I showed them our scratches and Lil showed off her wrapped calf. It was comforting to know that she wasn’t hurting anymore.

  As we were eating, the headmistress came over to our table to check on us and see how we were doing. So, I rehearsed the same story for her.

  “Well, I’m glad to see that you are alright. However, when you are finished eating, I would like for you three to come to my office.”

  “Yes ma’am.” She had a stern look as she walked away. The others at our table gave us worried looks.

  A little while later we were seated in her office once again. I noticed this time the name plaque sitting on her desk said Greshlina. I didn’t know if I would need to remember that, but I tried to commit it to memory since we had already been in her office twice— and we hadn’t been here a week yet. This time, however, there were four other adults present, one of whom I recognized as a man who had helped untangle us from the tree branch after it fell.

  “First,” the headmistress said, “I want to know what the three of you were doing on the roof in this terrible rainstorm.”

  “I beg your pardon ma’am, but it wasn’t all three of us,” I said. “Just Fin and I. We were cleaning the chimneys in order to work off one of our demerits. But it wasn’t stormy when we first got up there. Also, we were using the ropes and harnesses for safety. It didn’t get bad until later.”

  “I’m glad to know that you were trying to be safe. But you didn’t think it wise to quit early when you saw the storm approaching?”

  “But, I was nearly done,” Fin spoke up. She gave him a disapproving gaze, so he looked back to the floor.

  “Jerisha, as the eldest you should know that safety always comes first.”

  My face was red with shame. “You are right— I apologize. We should have come down much sooner. It won’t happen again.”

  “Good. Now please tell me what happened with the tree. I understand a large branch broke off near you in the wind.”

  I swallowed.

  How am I going to tell this? How much can I admit and what should I keep secret?

  I knew this would happen eventually. I decided to just keep our stories as close as I could to what we had all discussed previously.

  “Well, a strong gust of wind broke the branch, and we happened to be right below it. There was no time to run. Fin and Lil, um… have a little magic, so I told them to use it to push the branch away from us.”

  “Have any of you had magical training?” one of the men in the room asked.

  “No, we’re all orphans.” I shook my head. “We were Theanon slaves before we were freed and were sent here.”

  “Preposterous!” another man exclaimed. “I saw how large that branch was on the way over here. You expect me to believe that two totally untrained children could move that? They haven’t even reached puberty yet! We all know that’s when affinities manifest.”

  “Headmaster, there have been a few documented cases…” a woman started to speak up, but he cut her off.

  “I still say what she said is preposterous. Just look at her! That hair plainly shows a mutation.”

  “Mutations don’t happen until long after training,” the woman argued. “Maybe she dyed it that color. A mage has to use magic regularly before even minor mutations start to develop.”

  The man I saw outside earlier spoke up for the first time. “I was running to help at the time. I heard her say something about magic, then she pointed at the branch. It immediately stopped falling and hung in the air for a second before moving away from them slowly, and then crashed to the ground.”

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  This was swiftly getting out of control, so I raised my hand. “Excuse me. May I say something?” Everyone stopped to look at me.

  “I didn’t say I don’t have magic. I have an affinity for healing. And I can prove it, if you don’t believe me.”

  The headmaster blinked at me, pondering what I said. “That’s a little better. I would like you to do just that, but I still say what you claim happened today is impossible.”

  I looked at Headmistress Greshlina for guidance.

  “Jerisha, it might help everyone to know your affinity. But I will not force you. It is your choice.”

  “I don’t mind. Does anyone have a knife or something sharp?”

  “What do you need that for?” the headmistress asked, surprised.

  “You’ll see.”

  She opened her desk drawer and pulled out a small knife. “I use this to open letters.”

  I took it from her and cut a small slit on the back of my hand, and handed it back while the blood started collecting. I hoped it wouldn’t drip off, but I held my hand away from my dress, just in case. I concentrated on having my hand heal slowly while everyone watched. A few minutes later, with the wound all closed up, the headmistress gave me her kerchief with a smug smile. I noticed, as I wiped off the blood, all of my scratches I had received earlier were gone.

  She addressed the group, “It seems that Jerisha has shown a clear affinity for healing. And she healed herself, which I understand is much more difficult. I think that is enough for this evening. It is getting late and these three need to go to bed.”

  “Yes, well… something still doesn’t make sense, and I intend to find out.”

  “You may do that on your own time, Headmaster Meffinney. I bid you all a good evening.” She stood up from her desk, indicating the meeting was over.

  The headmaster was still muttering to the others as they left the office.

  “Well, you three have caused quite the spectacle in the few days you’ve been here. I do hope you will find a way to restrain yourselves in the near future.”

  “Yes ma’am.” I didn’t know what else to say as we left.

  “All who choose to help with the cleanup will have the opportunity to attend the fall festival this year. Also, any of you who still need to work off some demerits may use this as an opportunity to cover two of them.” We were sitting at lunch the next day. The headmistress was talking to everyone, trying to get volunteers to help with the disaster cleanup.

  “Those of you who wish to volunteer to help, please go to the grounds office. There you will be assigned to a workgroup and given your assignment. That will be all.”

  “I think we need to sign up. It will take care of two demerits,” I said to Fin. Turning to Lil, I asked, “How about you?”

  “Sure, I’ll come too.”

  When we arrived at the grounds office, there were a number of kids ahead of us, boys and girls. That was a little surprising, since some girls here didn't like hard work. Maybe they were interested in going to the fall festival. I knew that many towns celebrated in the fall, but I didn't know what they did here in Landholm.

  We were assigned to pick up branches with five others, three boys and two girls. Our supervisor, Aidix, was a tall man with little hair on his head, other than a nicely groomed goatee. He gave us each a pair of gloves and a durable apron to wear over our clothes. He had us work together to push a large wagon to our assigned area near the church. There were leaves, tree limbs, trash and debris everywhere, making it difficult to maneuver the wagon.

  I looked across the yard at the large branch which had nearly killed us. There were some men working on cutting it up, some chopping with axes and others using long, two-person saws. Not far from there, I saw a tree which had completely blown over, with its roots now sticking out of the ground. It was next to an academy building and looked like it had shattered some of its windows.

  For several bells we picked up branches and trash around the church. There were several rakes in our wagon, which we took turns using to make things clean. Every period of time someone would ring the bell announcing the time, which was why they were called bells. I had heard that so often before, I could almost ignore it, but not when it was so loud it made my ears ring. I could faintly hear some enchanting music coming from deep inside, unlike anything I had heard before. I asked the boy working near us what was making that sound. He said the instrument was an organ that was played by pressing keys on a keyboard.

  The boy I had talked to kept glancing at me as we worked. It looked like something was bothering him. Finally, he said, “So, um… M-my name is Bindrow. W-what’s yours?”

  “Oh, I’m Jer… Jerisha, I mean. But you can call me Jer.”

  “Jer. It’s nice to meet you.”

  Then he went silent again for a while. Fin came closer to us and was watching him out of the corner of his eye, and Lil was raking leaves into a pile close by. Fin picked up a heavy branch and threw it onto the top of the pile in the wagon, which was getting pretty high, while I carried a couple of smaller ones over and placed them in.

  “So, uh… I see you guys together a lot. Are… are you friends or related, or something?”

  “Yes, we're related. Fin and Lil are my brother and sister.”

  “Oh, that makes sense.” He looked relieved, for some reason.

  Another taller boy, after throwing his armload of trash into the wagon, came back and shoved Bindrow playfully. “Stop flirting already and get back to work!”

  Flirting? I thought we were just having a friendly conversation?

  Bindrow turned red and looked extremely embarrassed and didn’t say any more to me after that.

  It’s a shame. Thinking about flirting just made me uncomfortable. But it would have been nice to have a few more friends.