Penelope’s eyes widened as they finally settled upoown of Ceralde.

  Yule had suggested she wear the bhey had as a sort of cloak before entering town. She had asked why and was simply told that there were dangerous types who’d pluck up a little girl like her and sell her off as her eyes were a kind of rarity that would i buyers of sves, even if she was weird.

  He didn’t have to add that st part in, she thought sulkily, but she did as she was told.

  It was a bit shog to her that svery existed in this world and when she voiced her , Yule expihat it was very much illegal in Birain, but some fn nds still partook of such barbaric practices, especially of non-human races. That st part caught her curiosity and rather than expining, Yule just advised her to stay polite and alert as they entered Ceralde.

  Ceralde was a town by the sea. The closer they got to Ceralde, the more salt Penelope could smell in the air. She’d never seen the sea before (a fact she wisely kept to herself, in case she made Yule more suspicious of her cover story) and hearing the waves gently pping up the nearby shore and the salty breeze tig her nose made her feel unreasonably happy.

  “We are going to the beach, Kasumi. Don’t fet to finish all the chores while we’re gone.”

  This was something said to her very often since she was very young. Not just the beach, but a variety of other fuhat her sister got to go to with the rest of their family. It was always reasohat someone o stay home. Who would look after the house? Who was going to keep up the liness of the house? Dad was the patriarch of the family, so it was not up to him. Mom worked hard already, so she deserved to have time off. And her sister was a child.

  Penelope wondered what they were all doing now. Were they all having fun without her? What happeo her inal body? Was it buried respectfully by now?

  Don’t think about it too hard. That’s your old life...

  There was a soft, sad joy in seeing and being in a new pce. You are not where you once were, yet you will e to know and learn of somepew aing. Holy, now that she was truly here, with plenty of people milling about instead of empty night streets or the seemingly endless stretch of road, Penelope felt a little overstimuted. Everything was so new and she silently thanked Yule for keeping hold of her hand since she kept getting distracted by everything.

  There were several stalls open, selling all kinds of food and wares. Penelope was delighted to be able tnize some of the fruits on dispy. Peaches and apples! It was both a disappoi and a relief – wasn’t this supposed to be a whole other world? The thought was wry, but the feeling in her chest at finding such familiar things was reassuring, though this did bring up a certain problem she hadn’t thought about for a little while…as nice as it would be to have these items, they didn’t have money. While Penelope knew she could just draw the fruit ience, she felt like using her mana on making pieces of fruit may be something of a waste, at least until she got stronger. She was a baby level 1 and there were 99 other levels she could asd tht?

  At the very least, the people were different. That is, there were more races around than just humans, hammering the fact she had truly nded in another world. People with the heads of beasts, some with avian wings, and people tremendously tall and seriously small. The little girl could not pinpoint who or what these beings reminded her of, but they certainly added to the other world atmosphere for her.

  “Yule, I’ve never seen a person with wings before!”

  “That’s a Sylph,” Yule expined, tinuing to lead them both somewhere through the crowds out in the market.

  “And that person with a dog’s head?”

  “That’s a o, a subrace of Beastmen.”

  “Ooh!”

  “Really, what kind of try did you e from, exactly? Let’s hurry along.”

  “But I want to keep looking.”

  “Later, Penelope.”

  It robably a bit rude to be gawking, but this kind of thing was only seen in movies oh. Penelope thought she would have accepted it easily enough, but she still wound up ag like a sck-jawed tourist. Hopefully no one was offended by how amazed she was to see such people in person. At least she kept her hands to herself and didn’t reach out to brush up against the wing of a passing Sylph, as strong as the urge was.

  Right now, she turned her gaze towards the buildings and possible ndmarks. Many were made out of brid mortar, no higher than two stories, for the most part, with many wooden windows with simple gss pahe tohat Penelope would say was rusti nature, but definitely busy. There were only a handful of buildings taller than most of the shops and homes along the main street and the girl could only guess at their importance.

  It was around this point that she had a realization: while she could uand and respond in the same nguage as Yule (and, by assumed extension, everyone else in this world), Penelope couldn’t read anything on the signs that she saw. Oh, that wasn’t good. Literacy was an important skill. She couldn’t even figure out what each character or symbol happeo be. Would Yule be willing to teach her a few characters, if she asked? It would keep her out of future trouble from walking into the wroablishment, if she could read the signs.

  For the moment Penelope pyed a mental game of image association. After all, words were aype of artform and she was a lover of all art, so she should study the shapes of each character for the moment and link them to anything she saw.

  For instance, she saw a series of fn characters over a shop whose wares she could see from the window. Colorful fabriside, o dispy of clothes. So, she thought, this might be a clothing store or even a tailor’s shop. Yes, yes, she could easily deduce things like this, if she remained observant. o bother Yule just yet with prying questions as he reoccupied taking them somewhere in town. Seemed as if he wasn’t sure the location of where he o meet his tact was within Ceralde and he did not seem ined to ask around. The older boy even looked around with great suspi on his face, frowning heavily. A good amount of people moved out of the way of the gre he gave off as he walked hand-in-hand with her.

  You know, if I were them and Yule wasn’t making such a sourpuss face, the moment I saw two kids walking around I’d help them out.

  “Say, Yule, where are y to go?” Penelope asked, still looking at the hanging signs and the shops associated with them to figure out what they might be.

  “I’m looking for a shop,” he replied, eyes roving around intensely. “There I will meet who I’m supposed to and we get you looked after, too.”

  Looked after? Yule sidered what would happeo her? That was a nice gesture of him. Penelope had been w what she would do and had sidered sleeping outside of town again, ient, but if she could have a proper pce to rest, it could only be her.

  “What are they like?” she asked.

  “Weird…not as weird as you, but weird.”

  Kid really likes using that word, huh?

  Another shop passed beside them; a person was cutting hair irimming quickly and expertly. Above the door a sign hung and Penelope quickly memorized it, guessing at the exact w that could have been used; would it be a salon or a barber shop?

  “Well, weird how? Do they like to eat little kids or something?”

  Yule’s hand tensed around her and she couldn’t help, but to balk, her mind spiraling with all kinds of spiracy theories.

  What the hell?! Say something, dummy! Don’t leave me hanging, thinking I might walk into a child eating monster’s den!

  Trying to keep her calm, Penelope said, “Oh, that ’t be it, right?”

  Silence.

  “Right?”

  He said nothing.

  “Riiiiiiiight?”

  Yule pointedly chose not to look her in the eye, which did nothing to assuage her worries. Memories of when she first spotted him at night by the olive tree and the variety of theories she had about his presence came to mind. Though he was ed up now, he was still pretty raggedy in appearance, pared to her. Had he been foolihis whole time? Garnering her sympathy just so he could take her to some dastardly person ready to grab her and sell her off?

  Whatever she was thinking must have been obvious on her face as Yule’s own expression turned perplexed.

  “Whatever you’re thinking, it’s definitely not that.”

  “How would you know?”

  “You’re so weird,” Yule breathed out in exasperation, suddenly letting go of her hand. Bei of his firm, but gentle grasp left Penelope reeling for a few loops until she realized he let go of her because she felt unfortable. Guilt and fusion sprung up to repce the paranoia. Yule poi a sign she did no a building just at the end of the market street. “Here it is. Try not to act so suspicious, all right?”

  On sed thought, Penelope decided tuilt out the proverbial window.

  Penelope looked up at the sign, then at the window dispy. The inside of the store was dim, with a huge sele of books that she could see he window. Was this a book store of some kind? She entered after Yule did, eyes peeled and on high alert.

  A little bell rang as they opehe door. Penelope looked up briefly, seeing the bell held afloat, not by a string or metal or anything. It simply floated gently in the air, waiting to be struck by some uhing whenever someoered the store. She wondered if some kind of magic was doing this. She could smell a spicy st; it reminded her of amon. The walls had shelves upon shelves of books. A few tables were in the middle of the main shop room, with odd and strange traptions and kniacks. At the very back was a desk and ay high backed chair.

  “What is this pce?”

  “This is a magiy dear,” spoke an older, female voice.

  Yule had no surprise as a woman in deep green robes came to greet them, appearing as if from thin air. Penelope was startled, yelping in surprise.

  The woman, with dark hair drawn bato a bun and curious brown eyes looking at the two of them behind wire-rimmed gsses, tipped her head in a small greeting.

  “My, my, my,” she began, voice filled with intrigue. She came out from behind the chair and moved forward to i both of the children. Penelope felt extremely nervous under her i stare.

  “What do we have here?” the womahed with a curious smile.

  “My name is Minerva Riverthorn. I am…Yule’s aunt.”

  The woman introduced herself to Penelope with a broad smile as Yule quietly stood off to the side. A quick expnatio all around, about who Minerva was and who Penelope was, though maails were omitted on both sides.

  “You say you were traveling?” Minerva had inquired.

  “Yes, I am,” Penelope had replied, smiling.

  “…”

  “…”

  A silence, followed up another line of questioning that gently got sidestepped.

  “So, um, Madame Riverthorn…”

  “Minerva, please.”

  “Madame Minerva.”

  “Just Minerva.”

  “…”

  “…”

  It went something along those lines when a question no one really wao answer came up. However, Penelope did learn some solid information about Yule and Minerva, gleaned carefully from listening to the right parts of their versation. All the years of carefully listening to the words of people who had no problem hurting her in order to avoid flict paid off, in its own sad way.

  Minerva Riverthorn, the sister of Yule’s mother, was a mage who had long been living far from the rest of her family. She was sidered strange by practically everyone in her family, aside from her sister, because she chose to stray from the path her family normally took and became indepe store owner. She relocated to Ceralde some years ago in order to get away from everyone’s nagging, too.

  They were seated in one of the bas, after Minerva locked the store door and put up a closed sign. The area was homey and well lived-in; several bottles and other odds and ends littering the walls. Were they something like potions? Penelope couldn’t help, but to look around curiously and in quiet amazement. Her eyes must be so wide. Yule seemed used to this space, though, as he had prepared drinks after being prompted by Minerva and he found things easily.

  Well, it’s to be expected, if he walked all the way from the capital to Ceralde, Penelope thought, drinking a juice prepared for her, he must have known the way. What a smart kid. He must be the kind of kid who excels in school.

  Minerva smiled at her curiosity, rather than frown at it, though Penelope was too preoccupied to notice her gentle expression.

  “Have you never been in a mage’s home before?” the older woman inquired, looking clearly amused.

  Penelope shook her head. “No, never. It’s so…”

  “Cluttered?” Yule supplied.

  “…iing,” Penelope finished.

  “Do you know much about magic, Penelope?” Minerva asked.

  “Only a little,” came the ho answer. enelope knew of it was that it existed and that her own magic, which she learhrough trial and error. And who knew if there was more than what she had already tried?

  “Do you know about the basic principles of magic, my dear?”

  Penelope shook her head. Minerva chuckled, while Yule just huffed impatiently.

  “Well, how about a quick little lesson, then?” Yule groaned, while Penelope was simply charmed by the idea. Her friend may have possibly heard this lecture before, but she had only been in this world for less than a week! Anything she could learn would only help her further in her life in Iraloné. After all, Penelope had no idea why Yule had even brought her here. Obviously, for nothing nefarious, since Minerva seemed niough, but she did not hold out hope that she would remain with Yule for much longer. He was with his family, after all. He need not keep being by her side anymore.

  From past experiences, she knew better than to expeything sting.

  People used her and then dropped her. That was just how it was.

  A small smile entered Penelope’s fad she nodded in agreement. “Yes, please.”

  There was an odd, small silence as Minerva sidered the little girl in front of her, before beginning her lecture.

  “All right, then. So, magi Iraloné is divided into three categories: Divine, Natural and Unnatural.”

  “Unnatural? Does that mean it’s bad?” Penelope asked, surprised at these terms used. This wasn’t the archetypes she was used to hearing in passing and Unnatural Magic sounds a little menag.

  Minerva tinued her expnation, “Not at all. No oype of magic is either ‘good’ nor ‘bad’. It all depends on who use it. No, these cssifications allows us to carefully assign magito clearer definitions of what they are capable of doing. For instance…”

  The mage held up her hand, palm upwards, muttering a few words and a ball of water came into being above it. It gently remained aloft, like a solid bubble, some particles floatily and disappearing into the air.

  “This is oype of Natural Magiatural Magic is defined as magic that be drawn from the existing world around us, as it already is, in some shape or form. Such as water. Other examples be the earth, the wind, pnts…magi be drawn the world around us and is quite abundant. It ever e from nothing and everyone is born with a natural capacity for it intuitively. In my case, I have a preferenaniputing water.”

  Minerva closed her hand into a fist, popping the water bubble and allowing the water to flow from her fingers and disappear.

  Then, for her demonstration, with a few words the mug of tea that she was drinking from began to lift slowly into the air.

  “The sed cssification is Unnatural Magic. It is call this because it was magic that was researched, studied and created by many different mages over the years. Some call it Refined Magic, as it takes what is found in Natural Magic to be made into something else entirely. The best way to expin it is if it ot be done or found iural world, then it is sidered a type of Unnatural Magic. What I am doing right now is called telekinesis, which is a refined form of Natural wind magic, which manipute objects that I am looking at, without using my hands. There are a much rger variety of spells to be found in Unnatural Magid they are something you must learn in order to have them in your owoire.”

  “And what about the third one?” Penelope piped up.

  Here Yule finally said something, “Divine Magic is the domain of the gods and those they favour only.”

  “That’s right,” Minerva said, “Whereas the ic cssifications require a base, Divine Magic does not have that requirement. However, the way to attain it is nigh impossible for most. For instance, in Birain, it is widely known that those reborn in this world are blessed by Tulilith, oddess of rebirth. And they are capable of Divine Magic. Making something from nothing. In essence, mortals gain the power of Creation, which is a domain exclusive to the deities of our world.”

  “How do you know that someone has Divine Magic?” Penelope asked, doing her best to hide her rising worry and ay.

  “Well, the temples of this world possess magical devices to determi one way or another, but what usually gives it away is an ability to heal,” Minerva expined, looking a little perplexed at the younger girl. She leaned closer to Penelope, making her jump a bit. “Do you know someone who do that, Penelope?”

  “Erm…”

  Minerva was so unfortably close that Penelope could easily see her refle in the mage’s dark eyes. The girl didn’t know what she was trying to see or if this was some kind of intimidation tactic, but she squirmed from the proximity. It just simply brought back very horrible memories of older people getting too close and doing terrible things. Nothing good ever got to being close to others like this. Uo help it as the sileretched, she closed her eyes and braced herself as words came tumbling out of her mouth.

  “I-I’m sorry!” Penelope blurted out.

  Did she tell the truth or did she lie? Divine magic…it sounded much too close to what she did. But no, she had to use items to make her magic work, so that couldn’t be it, right? Penelope was mentally reasoning with herself as she tried to e up with something else to say, other than an apology. What did she even have to apologize for? But, even if there was nothing to be sorry for, that was often her go to rea to stressful moments. If she said sorry, people would leave her alone, right?

  Was that why Yule had looked at her so weirdly before? Penelope struggled with the suffog panic rising in her.

  Yule came up between them and guided Minerva’s face away from Penelope’s.

  “e on Aunt Minerva, don’t be rude to her, she helped me out on the way here. Be nice.”

  Minerva pced her cheek in her hand, looking somewhat trite, though fused seemed to match her expression more. “Oh, am I? I’m sorry, my dears. Talking of magic just gets the old blood going, hahaha. My apologies, Penelope. I just love magic, you know? It’s all so fasating. So…you don’t have to look at me like that.”

  Penelope had no idea what kind of expression she was wearing, but she turo Yule who just nodded calmly. Though there were the flutterings of nervousness still, she just nodded slowly.

  “But well, I do have to say, it’s very lucky that you helped out my impolite nephew. So I do owe you a bit of gratitude. So, my dear little Penelope…how about you stay here with us?”

  Somehow, Penelope was vinced into staying with Yule and Minerva. Not that it was really hard, she had no pce to go, nobody local to vouch for her and definitely cked in funds. When she agreed to stay Minerva seemed unreasonably happy that she did, sweeping her up and swinging her in a hug. Yule gave her a very sympathetic stare when this happened, but did nothing to help.

  Probably because he knows how Minerva is with kids and knows better than to get too close.

  Minerva loved children – perhaps a bit too much. At first, it kind of made her leery, but after helping out Minerva with the shop, the woman just seemed the type to be very enthusiastic about kids, their futures, about making a pce that was safe for them to learn magic. The mage had expihat while everyone had the potential fiot everyone had the capability to hohemselves further or even afford it.

  “Truth be told, magical education is for the rich, or at least financially fortable. Tis a sad truth, so whether it’s a child from the local area or from the upper csses, I want to be as encing as possible. Especially to those in need.”

  It was…truly bizarre to Penelope, meeting someone so gung-ho about kids without the worry that they were probably on some kind of offender’s list. Eveeachers for preschoolers she had known from her former life were nowhere near as eic or it was simply a fa?ade to get them through the day. Goodness knew Penelope had faked it a lot as Kasumi when looking after her little sister when she was just a toddler. Though the amount of time Kasumi had raised her sibling robably not normal, all things sidered.

  Well, there were a few reasons for why someone who loved children didn’t have her own.

  “Nellie, I just brought some herbs in, you help Minnie mash them up?” The person asking was a tall, sleek aiful jackal-headed o. Though slender, she was not oo be uimated. Her graceful form hid great strength. thia Riverthorn was Minerva’s life partner, a female o whom had met her decades ago and they’d been together ever since. thia was a warrior who did all kinds of odd jobs. Actually, her proper title was Warrior and Adventurer, which brought her all over the p Ceralde and the surrounding area; her work was through the Adventurer’s Guild, which was expio Penelope as more of a temp wency the way things were run.

  When Penelope heard about the guild, she got her hopes up, thinking she could go on amazing adventures found on some notice boing up to rip off a quest she could take without cheg in with ail she fihe job. However, when thia came in after Penelope settled in, she gave the most dry expnation of the process, which really reminded Penelope of the wencies in her past life.

  Filling out a form with your abilities, a at the guild matches you with jobs that matched your abilities best and then they have the person posting the job interviews you before hiring you at a premium, so a part of the wages goes to the guild. Yes, yes, it definitely sounded like a temp agency…

  Penelope went over to thia, accepting the basket handed over to her. It was filled with many herbs hand picked by the older female. With her hands free, thia could waltz right up to Minerva and give her cheek an affeate li greeting, with the other woman swatting her partner pyfully on the arm with a light ‘thia, the childreg!’. It was both cute and a bit embarrassing to see, and Penelope privately squealed at the dispy of affe in front of her, so she set to work oask given to her.

  Vasiliko was an herb abundant around Birain and is the main binding ingredient in almost all potions used by every day people. In order to use it, it had to be mashed up using a mortar ale. It had a very strong, aromatic st to it and was safe to eat. It was essentially like the basil pnt from Earth in terms of leaf shape and taste; the only differehat Penelope could find was that the leaves were blue in colour.

  Blue is Tulilith’s favourite colour, I guess, Penelope mused while she gathered what she needed for her work.

  When she decided to stay, Penelope had insisted only after Minerva agreed she could work for it, which seemed to surprise the older enelope had once lived a very precarious and stress filled life before, where the threat of being thrown out was alresent. Even though she had been the one making most of the mohe fear of no longer having a home always had a stranglehold of her. And in her current homeless position, she had to make herself useful. Because if you’re useful, people won’t throw you out. She had to work until she could figure out something more perma.

  So wheed with being Minerva’s assistant with small tasks, she readily agreed. And she got to work first day, grinding up herbs. There had been a whole storeroom of Vasiliko ready for her and she was told to grind up the herbs. Seeing what she had to do, Penelope had stayed up all night grinding and potting the results of her work. Minerva had been both upset and impressed by her crazy work ethic.

  “I am gd for all your hard work, but children should be sleeping at night, not staying up until dawn!” Minerva had told her.

  Though Penelope had internalized this as ‘you are a dumb child who did not uand what was asked of her’. She had silently promised to do better ime as to not upset Minerva.

  The sed day thia had e home from a job and they finally met. Hoping maybe Penelope could rex a little bit, Minerva had asked the ale to take their guest out with her for herb gathering. Maybe let the girl py in the flower fields while thia did the herb gathering. Of course, when told where they were going and for urpose, Penelope unfortuhought she was asked to help thia look for herbs, too, and attempted to in the flower filled fields where thia left her for a bit. It was only after an hour of gathering, thia returo Penelope going mad trying to find ahat would not normally be found among the blooms, almost in tears. It was decided that Penelope would not be allowed to go on jobs with thia, either.

  The two adults truly had to sit Penelope down and expin to her that she stress so mu the jobs they gave her.

  “You are still young,” Minerva said, holding the girl’s hands. “And yes, while reciate the help, we are not going to make a child work herself silly.”

  “Yeah, Nellie,” thia had agreed, putting a hand on Penelope’s head for a caress, taking note of how the child fli the touch, “just be a kid. It’s not big deal if you just do as kids do.”

  It was quite a shog talk, to the point where she sort of cried a little, surprising both Minerva and thia. Penelope didn’t say anything, because it was hard t out any words. They were strangled ihroat, uo push past her lips. They couldn’t even form in her head. That was how much her mind iraling. She didn’t uand what was going on, so she could not yet process the words being spoken to her nor what she really should say.

  In the end, Penelope mao push through her best er service smile and nodded in faux uanding.

  It was se being told she could be a kid, when iy she had the soul of a fully grown adult. She felt ridiculous for the hurt and relief she felt.

  “It’s okay to take things slow, okay Penelope?”

  “If you want to take a break, go ahead.”

  Both Minerva and thia said these a lot to her over the st few days of her stay.

  And the more they said it, the more she began to feel fortable…

  So of course she wao work hard. Of course she wao make them happy, because they were being so kind.

  But she did her best not to go overboard (even though the urge was there, just to show how helpful she could be).

  However, there was clearly some problems still. Minerva teet that Penelope was rather short for her age. Not in a malnourished, g in nutrients sort of way – most of she had not yet hit that magical growth spurt hat would let her shoot up like a weed. At least when you pared her to the willowy Minerva and the tall thia. Though only a few years older, Yule clearly outcssed her i, too. How was this a problem? Minerva had a habit of putting things on higher shelves and spots after she finished using an item.

  As thia never helped with the potioion side of Minerva’s business, Minerva only kept one of each tool within the shop. This included the mortar ale set used for crushing and mixing herbs. As the st person who used it, Minerva had unsciously once agaihe tools Penelope oo high for her to rea her own. Why not get a stool to get it? There was none! Minerva and thia were tall enough to reach everything! Why not a chair? Penelope’s former life (Kasumi) was taught o step on a chair, because she may dirty or break it!

  And she hated b Minerva to get it for her. At her st t, she had asked two times today. It was silly, but Penelope had developed a personal rule as to never ask anything of anyone more than three times, lest you annoyed or upset them. This number came to be as it was the safe number of times she could unicate with her mother (who would yell at her for being iive and stupid) or her father (who would sh out after the third time). This was a self-preservation tactitil she learned how far she could push the boundaries between herself and her new panions, Penelope had to be careful…

  She o preserve the third time in case something more dire happeer that she needed actual help with.

  In the ba where the workshop enelope was generally alone. Minerva kept to the front of house, dealing with ts, while thia was either out or in the private rooms, away from the business of the shop. Yule did pop in occasionally, but she generally did not see him in the workshop. So she came to a solution.

  Nobody was looking, so she could once again call upon her special brand of magic! Penelope was still worried about the otations of what she was capable of, but had decided not to think too hard on it. If she used it sparingly, it would be just fine. Nobody would catch her. And if she didn’t leave the shop often, she wouldn’t get caught by the representatives of the temples either. The idea of being ected tious fanatics (acc to her owal image) was not appealing at all.

  Penelope brought out her paper and charcoal from her bag, pg herself on a chair where she could easily see the mortar ale on its high shelf. She could see and easily sketch them out, knowing the form she needed. Deg she only for a little bit, she drew a quick sketch of the items, watg as they maed in that same golden light. Good, she thought. She hadn’t lost her touch! If all went acc to pn, her fast sketch would result iools disappearing before the end of the day.

  Now that she could get to work, Penelope went over to the pile of gathered herbs to get started, yet a voice cutting through the silence of the workshop stopped her iracks.

  “Hey, what did I just see?”

  Penelope turned and saw Yule standing there, arms crossed and looking at her critically.