Xenophxi decided that the best course of action would be to take the little girl with him back to Granny Riz’s place. She would know what to do with the girl.

“Your parents must be worried sick about you.”

……………………….

Species: Human(???)

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???- It has been observed target is able to use abilities beyond human means. Target may or may not be fully human or could be of an entirely different species.

Skill: [Telepathic ability-???] [Unable to learn – More data required]

???- Target can use a certain ability to communicate telepathically with other beings. Nature and source of this ability is unknown.

Note:

Nature of communication seems to differ from target [Granny Riz’s] abilities. Further data required.

……………………….

A quick glance gave Xeno all the info he needed. From the note Xeno could tell that [VIKI] had developed and could better interpret the data from [Analyse]. He needed to look into it more in the future.

[VIKI] and [Psychometric] were the greatest tools at his disposal and while they seemed to be slowly improving on their own, Xeno was sure there were methods to significantly upgrade the two mods.

The girl’s face didn’t change but Xeno heard a voice in his head,

“I have no one… and I don’t want to go back to the orphanage sir goblin.”

Xeno felt the sadness from her and listened to her as she explained how she grew up in an orphanage. Due to her unique condition, she was mute and so the other children wouldn’t be friends with her, and the caretakers ignored her as well.

It was only recently she found ‘another’ way to talk to people but soon after the caretakers realised her uniqueness and she was taken away by some men. It was during her delivery to a buyer that Xenophxi saved her,

“Hey don’t worry kid, things will get better okay?”

Xeno helped her climb up a rock as she asked, “How do u know sir goblin.”

“I don’t, but I believe they will and it’s the thought that counts.”

The girl didn’t speak for some time and when they were close to the house the girl finally opened her mouth,

“Okay I’ll start believing too…”

Xenophxi smiled at the girl and let her into the house and called for Granny Riz.

“Granny Riz I’m back and I’ve brought a guest.”

The old lady was surprised to see the young girl.

“Who might this be Xeno?”

Xeno paused and realized he didn’t know the girl’s and name and she in turn didn’t know his name. Granny Riz chided him,

“You didn’t even ask for her name?”

It was after that the girl introduced herself as Isabella. Granny Riz made an early supper for the girl while she listened to their stories. While watching Isabella eat Riz spoke up,

“While I would love for you to stay with us dear, it would be best to send you to your sisters. Only a witch could teach another witch. You will never reach your full potential here with us.”

Xeno felt warm when Granny Riz referred to them as ‘us’. As he was feeling giddy he saw tears come out of Isabella’s expressionless face.

“Please don’t send me away. I can be good… I can do chores like cleaning.”

When he heard these words Xeno could guess it wasn’t her first time saying this sentence. Granny Riz calmed the girl down and took her hand gently while proceeding to explain who the witches were,

“Witches are women blessed with power and abilities most cannot comprehend.”

Unlike mages, witches were all female and their magic system was completely different. Witches could innately use magic without the aid of spells and incantations. This explained how Isabella was able telepathically communicate with others and her telekinesis.

Of course this alone wasn’t what made witches special. Most witches could form special connections with other realms. This allowed them to borrow the strength and power of beings beyond reason. There witches who could manipulate the elements with a thought and some who could cause darkness to blanket the skies with a wave of their hands.

This quirk of the witches was what made them dangerous. A witch with evil intentions could cause untold damage. It was this reason along with jealousy of men and their greed for the beauty of witches that caused witches to be hunted for the longest of times.

Years passed by and the witches rallied forming covens and soon the witch hunting was stopped. While there was still prejudice against witches the covens did their best to recruit young witches saving them from misfortune.

Witch covens have existed for the past three thousand years but despite their best efforts some children like Isabella still had the misfortune of being captured to be used as weapons or suffer even worse fates.

Listening to Riz talk about the witches broadened Xeno’s vision of the world. He should learn to read and write as soon as possible, there were many books sitting around in the house that could teach him more about the world of Verzun.

“I made some friends in a coven a long time ago. They will bring you to a place of learning and wisdom. You can achieve great feats there child.”

The witches would take at least a month to get here according to Granny Riz. In the meantime, Riz decided that Isabella would accompany Xenophxi in his lessons.

Seeing that the little girl was tired, Granny Riz let her sleep in her bed. After tucking the girl in, she came back and sat across from Xeno,

“Why did you save her Xeno?”

This puzzled Xeno greatly,

“Why would you ask that?”

Granny Riz’s face had a doubtful expression as she explained how there was no need for him to endanger himself with the rescue. He put himself at great risk for a person with no relation to him, it was stupid of Xenophxi to think he could get away with it and it was pure luck both he and the girl were alive,

“BECAUSE, it was the right thing to do, I wasn’t going to leave a MERE child tied down and let to suffer a fate worse than death.”

Why was this old lady asking him stupid questions? This was common sense. Xeno wasn’t some unfeeling bastard, he was human once and still had those emotions.

‘Is she going senile?’

All he got in return was a bout of laughter from the old woman. She got up and walked towards the garden and still giggling said,

“Oh don’t turn green with anger on me, it was about but a question.”

Xeno flinched at her words, the way she said green was almost as if she knew… that couldn’t be it though, and he even made sure that Isabella wouldn’t mention anything about him being a goblin to the old lady. Still the subtle reference to his race was only the beginning.

The next day, the old lady announced that she would teach something new to Xenophxi.

“Magic is used through the manipulation of mana. Whether it be witches or wizards, it is all the same. Only the technique through which we manipulate mana differs…”

The old lady obviously knew more about magic and was far more powerful than she let on, her lessons were deep and thorough and covered all the basics of magic.

Xeno passed a test of sorts yesterday when Granny Riz asked him the question, he could guess that the sudden decision to teach him magic was because of that little event.

Ever since that small conversation, Granny Riz seemed more open with him and they became much closer, but worryingly so did the rare jokes and elusive references to him being ‘green’.

If she knew, she never mentioned it and Xeno didn’t tell her the truth of him being a goblin. It was a topic both of them never touched and danced a fine line over. Xeno instead drew his focus today’s magic lesson.

She had already taught him all the basic principles of mana and the common methods of casting spells. Xeno was also made to study another language on top of his current reading and writing lesson.

This new language was used in incantations and Xeno was familiar with it as Granny often used it to do some menial spells.

Isabella accompanied him in these lessons. Even though Isabella didn’t need to learn all this as witches had a different magic system, Granny Riz insisted she sit on the side as the lessons would be useful to her in the future. In the month it would take for Riz’s witch friends to arrive, the knowledge she would gain from these lessons would aid her in the coven.

Mana was the source that fuelled all magic after all,

“Today we will learn about mana manipulation. I’ll teach a simple incantation and…”