The last two month had been really refreshing, Mary thought to herself, she had slowed down her magic training to have more time for her friends because they started doing some really stupid things whenever she went off by herself, managing to get yelled at two times in an hour.

The only time she could safely leave them was when they were sleeping, so her magic training was moved to the early mornings. She mainly trained two things, one decently successful, the other completely unsuccessful. She managed to increase her mana control by a fair margin, but was sadly entirely unsuccessful trying to enchant anything.

In the last week something was happening outside of the orphanage, all of the orphanage workers were talking about some famous nobles visiting the capital all at once.

As always she was up way before sunrise, enjoying the day waking up and planning to do some magic training afterwards. She had just started her training, when she felt foreign mana flooding the courtyard, it was really aggressive and tried disrupting her control. While theoretically capable of continuing, the presence she felt controlling the mana was terrifying and beyond her abilities to deal with, so she did what everyone would do, she absorbed her mana and fled, for the first time giving her all to reach the relative safety of her friends.

Andra Jonun was happy to see Branston Falconbridge again, she had known the noble for decades, but unlike him, she started to show signs of her age, and he was years older than her.

Last week she received a letter informing her he would visit her orphanage for his ceremony. Of course, as always he was throughout in everything he did, and was there way before sunrise, arriving with a beautiful carriage drawn by two Ehyvecs, a special breed of horses, they were the second evolution a horse got, these animals were probably the most valuable thing she had ever seen.

The carriage itself was equally impressive, while small, it was probably capable of travelling every terrain at speeds that would break a normal carriages axis ten times over, if she wasn't mistaken the axes were made of mythril one of the most valuable metals in existence. She walked him into her office, talking about days gone. They were just talking about the tests he sent her and he started asking questions about every child in Nandelia’s class, when suddenly he looked confused and then sharply turned towards the window facing the courtyard looking at the tallest tree.

“Who is this child and where did you get her?” he seemed shaken, something she had never seen before. She got up and saw Mary racing over the courtyard with an impressive speed.

“That's Mary, I found her on my steps around the time you fell, she was nestled in a basket together with a paper bearing her name and three gold coins, though I never saw coinage like that before.” she stopped when she saw he had stopped listening to her.

Today was the day, Baron Falconbridge was up early as every day. He would go and find an orphan to adopt today and add to his house tomorrow on his birthday. He let his stablemaster prepare his most expensive possession, a beautiful carriage built out of mythril and enchanted by the empire’s most talented enchanters. The carriage’s exterior was full of illusions, allowing it's inhabitant to change the appearance at will.

It didn't stop there, the interior walls were fully enchanted as well allowing everything from a three hundred sixty degree view of the surroundings to a closed up view on everything within two kilometers. Furthermore there were the mandatory enchantments increasing the structural strength, the materials durability and temperature inside the carriage. Additionally there were several enchantments that could shield the carriage and the mounts pulling it from harm and even a few possibilities to retaliate against eventual attackers.

It was pulled by two Ehyvecs, an evolution of the common horse, though a relatively rare one. These mounts were used by the royal guard and the richest nobles, they came out of the north, so it wasn't uncommon for a northern lord to have one in his stables as well. His two were brown with a black mane, their shoulders reaching one meter and eighty centimeters. The endurance of these beasts was scary, as they were capable of moving for an entire day without pause, needing only four hours of sleep fo be back to full strength.

He arrived at the orphanage after a short ride and was greeted by an old friend, Andra Jonun was the daughter of one of his father’s commanders, so they grew up together, she didn't like the way you lived in the north, and moved to the capital.

He started asking her about the class in question, it turned out their education was due to their caretaker being the daughter of a merchant.

Just as he wanted to get more specific he felt something he didn't think he’d feel in an orphanage, someone was casting a spell in the courtyard. He instantly turned to the window and started emitting his mana to disrupt any potentially dangerous spell and tried to catch the one doing it. What he saw rattled him to the core, as the mage was a small girl sitting in the highest tree, having a concentrated look on her face. Seconds afterwards she cancelled her spell and practically ran down the tree with a look of fear on her face.

"Who is this child and where did you get her?” he inquired, a bit shaken.

“That's Mary, I found her on my steps ...” he started zoning out after these words. He had been interested in the girl anyways, considering her test results.

It would have been really impressive enough that she managed to sense his disruption field at all, but somehow she even managed to sense the danger behind it.

But impossibly she had actually learnt to control her mana, a feat that needed month to achieve at minimum and that only with proper guidance. The girl had managed without, which probably meant she was a sorceress.

Though he had favored the girl before arriving at the orphanage, he knew knew he would adopt her, he had never heard of someone achieving mana control without guidance at such a young age.

“Andra, while I will still stay until somewhere around midday, like I originally intended, I will most definitely adopt Mary, so you can already do the paperwork you need to do.” He smiled at her.

“It's nice to see you again, you should come visit sometimes.”

Normally, he would observe the children that did well in the tests he sent, but for the first time, he didn't have to do so, his candidate immediately showing herself, even if unintentionally.

Mary thought it smart to stay in bed until the others were up too, even though the feeling she got earlier had vanished after only a second, she was a cautious person and decided she would not be alone today, the scary thing could still be around after all.

They went to breakfast together for the first time in months, where something really unusual awaited them, Andra was waiting for them together with a huge man, he reached about 185 centimeters in height, had a fairly slender built and was wearing really fancy clothes, the only thing she could see about them was their color, his boots were a dark brown, his pants a lighter shade of brown and his shirt was in a deep blue, it was really hard to see any details, as he was full of magic that obstructed her view of him. They were probably enchanted, the one thing she had failed to do even once for the last two months.

“Good morning everyone, as you surely have noticed, today is a special day, we have the honour of a noble wanting to conduct the ceremony here. For everyone who doesn't know what that is, it's an ancient tradition of a noble adopting a child every twenty five years. Do welcome Baron Falconbridge!”

“Welcome Baron Falconbridge.” they intoned as one.

“The Baron will stay here until late afternoon, honoring one of you by taking adopting you!”

While eating, Mary couldn't help but glancing at the man several times, while she was sure she knew the name from somewhere he was different from everyone she knew, unlike every other person in her life, she had no idea how to deal with this person, somehow she wasn't able to get a read on him at all. Over the course of the last year, she discovered her ability to judge people was tied together with her magic, as everyone had some mana, which was influenced by the persons personality. That she couldn't get a read on the noble, meant he had enough control over his mana to not give away anything.

The Baron started walking through the rows of tables, occasionally stopping to ask a question to one of the others. When he stopped at her table, he was just about to ask a question when she remembered why she knew the name.

“Why did you lose your noble rank?” she blurted out before she really processed what had happened.

Baron Falconbridge started wandering in the mess hall, randomly stopping to talk to some of the children. When he got near the girl, he was just about to ask another question when he heard something he didn't really expect.

“Why did you lose your noble rank?” he started her dumbfounded, while everything grew quiet around them, the surrounding children staring at her with horrified expressions. He stayed silent for a few moments before laughing out loud, some children had an innocence about them that he couldn't help but envy.

“If I answer that question will you answer mine truthfully too? And what's your name?” he asked her.

“Of course! I’m Mary.” He cast a dome of silence, a spell that stopped sound from entering and leaving the confines of the spell.

“As promised I’ll answer your question, though you have to promise to not tell anybody.” a nod.

“I lost my rank because the emperor wanted to make a point for the nobility, and I was at hand.” The girl had started looking around in wonder as soon as all sound faded, seeming fascinated by his magic, after he finished his sentence, she extended a strand of her mana completely absorbed by her actions.

When the strand touched his shield, she suddenly flinched back and whispered.

“You’re it, the monster from today's morning!” all wonder vanished and was replaced by caution. Though he thought nothing would surprise him when regarding this girl, he once again was proven wrong, as she managed to remember his mana signature from the short contact at the morning.

“What do you want to know scary man?” she asked defensively.

“I’m sorry if I scared you earlier, but I thought someone wanted to attack me, noone in an orphanage is able to cast spells normally.” She eyed him with several emotions in her eyes, until curiosity won out.

“You felt that, nobody here can feel mana!”

“Yes i did. But you still owe me an answer!” he got an excited nod.

“Where did you learn to control your mana?”

“I teached myself, in the two most boring months of my life!” the girl got more interesting with everything he learned about her, seeing as she was in a mood to answer his questions now, he asked her something that he noticed when coming near her.

“What does the spell on your ears do?”

“Do you promise you won't tell anyone and will I get a question as well?” he agreed.

“I think it's an illusion that changes my ears.” she continued without pause.

“Now my question, why are you hiding yourself, you would be way easier to judge if you didn't hide your mana and not nearly as scary too!” she stared up at him expectantly.

“What do you mean with ‘hide my mana’?”

“I can judge a person by his or her mana instinctively, and you are the first one I met that is capable of hiding his mana, though now that you are not on the other end of the room I managed to anyways, with some time and effort, and you aren't as scary anymore!”

“Thank you for the interesting conversation young Mary, but I have to move on now.” she pouted.

“But I wanted to ask you so much more!”

“Later perhaps, but i really have to go now.” He continued his walk, the naivete of the girl was something to work at, you couldn't go around and tell everyone you were not human, at least in the empire, eventually he came back to Andra, she looked at him disapproving.

“Happy with what you did, do you see how many of the children you scared?”

“That was necessary, and it was really enlightening, I want to speak to the girl’s caretaker and then we’ll be off.”