Chapter 2

Outside the kitchen at the church of Lumia

The boy was strolling along the garden paths inside the church when he noticed a few kids who were in an age group of 10-15 gathered near a tree. He got curious about what they were doing and went to ask them.

“Hi, what are you guys doing?”

“Hmm, he’s the new kid that the priest told us about”, said one of the kids in a low voice

“Let’s call him to play too”

“No, we don’t know who he is or where he is from. Not even the priest does”

“He could be a refugee from the war”

-

“Hi, we are playing elemental touch. Would you also like to join?”, asked one of them abruptly ignoring the others

“Sure, but what is elemental touch?”

Elemental touch is a game that most children in Hermathera played and was widely known. As such the kids were even more cautious when this boy didn’t know the game.

“We all take turns to draw runes from the bag that Prent is holding and have to find the corresponding elemental runes that are hidden by the game master who is Prent in this round, Prent on the other hand will have to determine which elemental rune we have by guessing and if he gets yours right then you lose”

“Oh, by the way, I’m Rayn”

“These are Iven, Prent and Ursla. We are kids who grew up in the church orphanage and have lived here most of our lives. What about you?”

The group had 4 people from the oldest being 15 named Iven followed by 13, Prent and then 12, Rayn and finally the youngest at 11 was Ursla. The 4 of them were kids from the orphanage run by the church and had been there most of their lives.

“I am @#$!/, Nice to meet you”

“Wait, what is your name again?”

“@#$!/”

“Hmm that’s a little hard for us to pronounce is there any other way we can call you?”

“Ah I see, in your language my name translates to the number ‘One’”

“That’s great then we will call you Kein. The number “One” in the Gustak language of Stakish is Kein. That is where I am from” Rayn smiled at Kein and pulled him into the circle for playing elemental touch

The days slowly passed by as Kein the new member of the orphanage grew up. He would usually study about the country that he was in when he was free or be with his group of friends. A few years passed by and now Kein was 15.

The country of Hermathera’s churches conducts a coming-of-age ceremony for everyone who turn 15years old. The ceremony was nothing fancy, just a trial of virtue followed by an aptitude test for elemental bearing.

Iven had his ceremony before Kein had met him and noticed that Iven could use beginner level Ice magic. Iven had left the orphanage a few years ago to become a mercenary for the adventurer’s guild. Similarly, Prent and Rayn also had their aptitude tests done in the past years with Prent being an Earth elementalist and Rayn being a person blessed by the Light. Rayn was a special case as she did not have any specific elemental bearing but was a person blessed by the goddess of light Lumia, this allowed her to cast healing magic and other divine attribute magic that are rarely found outside of church members.

Ursla and Kein were going to have their ceremonies at the same time since Kein’s age was uncertain but seemed closest to Ursla, so the priest decided it would be convenient.

-

The day of the ceremony, at the courtyard of the church

“Hey, Kein hurry up or you’re gonna get scolded by the priest again”

“Yes, yes, I’m coming”

“What element are you hoping to be aligned to?”

“What? I don’t really have a preference. What about you?”

“I hope I have a water affinity cuz Prent keeps bragging about how Earth is the strongest. Water will show him who the real boss is”

“If you say so”, replied Kein with a tired look