The Orphanage

Kael begins journeying to Rio's house, cheerfully greeting everyone on the way, few haphazardly respond in kind, but the rest either give him dirty looks, insult, or throw things at him out of anger, as to them there is nothing good about waking up in the morning.

He accidentally greets a gang, and they chase him around for a while before he loses them.

He finally makes it to Rio's house, knocks on the door and after a few seconds Rio's little brother Benji answers the door. "Hey there little buddy, is your big bro around?" "Hi Kael! Yeah he's inside, I'll go get him!" "Ah, kids, hahaha, he has no idea."

Rio shows up "Ay!" "Ay!" They greet each other, "Hold on lemme get my bag." At the same time Rio's mother passed by. "Good morning mama Rio." "Ugh." she responds dismissively and walks away.

"Nice." "Don't take it too personal." Rio tells him. "I don't, come on let's go see Layla."

Layla usually wakes up late, but this morning she awoke from a nightmare that had her looking shook. It quickly fades as she calms herself.

She gets up and peaks out her room, making sure no one was passing by, then rocks herself inside. She pulls a book out from under her bed, along with two candles, placing them in the middle of her room. She sits and opens the book, reading its contents in a foreign language, she speaks in a hushed voice.

After reading a sentence it lights up both candles.

Happy with the result, she opened to the next page, and read, ..., this time making the flames grow brighter, almost reaching the ceiling.

Opening another page, she read once more, ... ... This time her furniture began floating.

But suddenly she heard a knock on her door. *knock knock knock*. This startled her, making her lose focus and drop her furniture on the floor, making a loud thud.

"What was that?" The person on the other side of the door asked. "It's nothing." Layla answered. Quickly hiding the book and candles, arranging herself and opened the door.

"Hey handsome, good morning." She says leaning on the door frame. She is referring to her older sister Ellana, who looks particularly masculine, mostly due to her build and short blonde hair. "What was that noise?" Ellana asks. "Uh, I was redecorating." Layla tilts her head and smiles.

Ellana looks around from the door and notices that the room remained the same except for her chair that had been moved from the left side of the room to the right, and her bedframe was clearly broken,with her sheets scattered and the scent of flames lingering in the room as though she was trying to mask a smell. Still, Ellana chooses not to interfere. "Breakfast is ready. Get dressed and come downstairs." "Okay." Layla closes the door in relief. Then opened it again and said, "I'm gonna take a bath first!" After that she goes to the dining where her parents and sister are almost done eating.

She takes her seat and begins eating. "Ahem!" Her mother, Yelena, directs at her. "Good morning my dear loving parents and thank you for the food." She says with a sarcastic smile and keeps eating.

Mid snacking she strikes a conversation, "So when's the wedding?" She asks her sister. "Next Thursday." She responds plainly. "By the way does this mean you have to give everything to your son-in-law." She asks her father, Joel. "What, no! just half." He says the last part softly.

In the village, it is mandatory for every family to have two children, no more no less. If a person refuses they will be forced to mate or unknowingly impregnated, while the man would be imprisoned and replaced with someone else. If a family already has one child and gives birth to twins, one of them will be executed. According to the Elders this is done to manage resources. It is encouraged for everyone to get married between the ages of 19 to 22. If a family is better off and one of them gets married to someone from a poor family, they are mandated to split their wealth equally. The exception to these rules are the Elders and their families, as well as anyone they vouch for.

"Well, that's what happens when you have two girls, maybe that's why she looks like that." Layla says referring to Ellana who looks like a guy. "Layla!" her Yelena scolds her. "Hey, I'm just saying you could have kept trying-" "That's enough." her father dismisses the conversation. Layla finally backs down.

When done with half her food, she slyly puts it in a bag, makes her way to the front door and opens it, to a shocked Kael and Rio who were just about to knock. "Let's go." she says walking past them.

Kael and Rio look at each other then follow her.

"Soooo, why are you awake?" Kael asked. "This IS very unlike you", Rio added. "Oh you know, sweet dreams, not so sweet dreams, you never know what you're gonna get, unless your name's Kael." She responds. "Noted" Rio responds. "Oh don't worry, I have a feeling it'll get better, trust me." "Well if it isn't the 200th time you've said that this week. And it's only Sunday." Layla says deprecatingly. "This time I mean it, honest." "Mhmm." Layla adds. Rio then asks, "So how's your sister, is she still getting married to-" "That selfish, conniving, prick on legs, Morel? Unfortunately he is in fact gonna penetrate my sister." Kael and Rio glance at each other worriedly. Layla goes on, "I can't believe that bastard's gonna get away with it. He gambled away all his money then somehow got an Elder to force the marriage so my dad can pay back all his debts. I mean I can't even get mad, he's just exploiting the system. It's just so scummy." Kael turns to Rio, gesturing for his to change the subject. "*Ahem, we're almost there." Rio does his best.

They reach what looks to be an abandoned house at the Eastern edge of the village. There are some children playing outside, and as soon as they spot the trio they stop playing and excitedly run up to them. "Hey guys, you're finally here." "Yeah, we were waiting for Layla to finish her makeup." Kael says jokingy. Only to get smacked on the back of his head. "I don't even wear makeup!"

They all go inside the building and meet the clerk in charge, Neva. "Welcome, would you two like to adopt a child?" Gesturing at Rio and Layla, to the amusement of Kael, lightly laughing at the side. "Zip it!" Layla turns back to Kael who rushes to the wall. "We're just here to visit the kids again." Rio converses with her. "Alright, this way."

She leads them to a hallway where children of all sizes are running back and forth, she then leads them to the children's playroom. It was a large room, though it was cluttered with an excessive number of children and could barely contain them all. The trio begin sharing food amongst them, Layla gives a few kids her leftover plate of food, Kael gave away several plates of food, while Rio gives a few dozen.

His friends don't question how he could carry that much food while walking normally as they already know he's freakishly strong. they take the moment to look at the kids, appreciation written all over their faces. "We ARE gonna need those plates back." Kael tells Neva. "Of course." She laughs and thanks the trio for the food.

"You have no idea how much this means to them. I don't know why the higher ups have stopped funding us, almost everyone has quit and the others rarely show up anymore." "That's not really surprising." Layla states. "Don't worry we'll always show up to help out."

As the others converse Kael looks around, looking for someone in particular. He turns and asks Neva, "Where's Elliott?" "He should be at the back with the others." "Alright." He takes three plates of food and heads to the back of the building.

The other two stay to keep feeding and entertaining the children.

The reason for there being so many orphans is that many people can't bear the physical and mental stress of the nightmares and choose to end it all. The nightmares get worse as everyone gets older.

However the assets of the deceased would be claimed by the higher ups and Elders without explaining what they do with it. Only promising that the assets would be returned to the orphans when they turn 18. But very few orphans actually reach the age of 18.

Kael navigates his way to the back of the building. In front of him is a dead patch of grass that some children are playing with a ball on.

They spot and call to him, "Kael you're back." "Come play with us." He gives them two plates of food as he says, "Maybe later. Have you guys seen Elliott?" On of them tells him, "I think he went into the shed a while ago." "Okay thanks."

He approaches the shed, then he hears murmurs coming from inside. Barging in he yells, "Elliott!"

A young boy with brown hair is seen in a fetal position shivering violently on the ground with his eyes wide open.

The other kids noticing Kael's actions rush to the shed as well.

Kael goes over and picks up Elliott, "Elliott, Elliott wake up!" The kids ask, "Is he okay?" Kael ignores them and gets some water, pouring it onto his face.

Elliott wakes up and looks at who is currently holding him. Not recognizing him at first, he tries to get away, screaming, "No, no please, don't take me!" Crying and yelling desperately.

Kael grabs him tighter, "Elliott it's me." Elliott calms down a bit finally recognizing him. "Kael?" He hugs him tightly. "I saw them, the shadows, they were coming for me, please don't let them take me."

Kael says nothing just hugging him back.

After a while, Elliott falls asleep with his eyes open. Kael carries him out of the shed and into the house with the children still following him.

While the children were playing with Rio, Layla talks with the Neva. "I heard what happened to your husband, I'm sorry for your loss." Neva responds, "Thank you." she says with a smile, but doesn't elaborate, Layla could already guess the cause of death but chooses not to say anything on the matter. She goes on, "I'm surprised they haven't given you a husband yet." Neva scoffs, "I doubt they give a damn about me or this place."

Just then Kael comes in with Elliott in his arms and a worried face. Neva rushes to his side asking what happened. "It's the nightmares, their getting worse." she places her hand on Elliott's head. "What do we do?" she asks Kael, but Kael has no answer.

Neither of them know what to do. Kael hands Elliott over to the her, "Make sure to keep an eye on him, tell me everything he does whenever he wakes up next time we come here." He looks around, "We'll take care of the kids" Neva understands, "Alright." then takes Elliott upstairs to sleep and watches over him.

Kael turns around and looks at Layla with a pleading smile, which she immediately understands to be her cue. Sighing she goes to a group of children and begins telling them funny stories, Rio continues lifting the kids up in the air and simulates them flying, while the other kids impatiently wait their turn. Kael then goes to play tag with the kids outside.

In the evening they say their goodbyes to Neva and the kids then leave the orphanage. They make their way to the back of Kael's house, next to the garden.

"Well that was exhausting." Layla says as she lays on the grass. "At least they didn't barf on you." Rio tells her. "Oh yeah remind me not to touch you for the next three days." "I took a bath." "Doesn't matter." They go back and forth until they notice Kael sitting silently, staring at nothing.

"Hey, stop acting like your dad, you're making us worried." Layla tells him. "Sorry I'm just thinking about Elliott." "You can't keep worrying about everyone, just focus on what you CAN do." Kael, thinks for a moment, "you're right. I'll focus on the Dreamscape, and see if I can find something in there." "That's the spirit, but first, the gathering." she sits up excitedly. "Huh?" "You still haven't told us what happened in the death cult gathering." "Oh right." Kael recounts his experience in their church. Telling them about the existence of the gods of time and sand from other lands, and other things from the outside world.

"Wow it sounds amazing. But do the people outside have nightmares too?" Rio asks. "I never really thought of that, but I think so. Maybe not as much as here bu-" "Yeah yeah yeah, did you get any new spells for me to try out?" Layla cuts him off and asks with pleading eyes. Kael responds, "They don't just hand out spells or Grimoires in every gathering, there'll be another one next week, but you pay for this time." "I have money." She says reaching into purse. "Wait, last time how much did you spend." She asks. "Oh about 33,000 Rani for the book and 1,000 for each spell." Layla puts her money back into her purse. "It's so expensive." "Well what did you expect?"

"Where did you even get that money?" Rio asks. "I've been saving." Kael answers.

"You could've told me before, how am I supposed to pay you back." Layla asks somewhat furiously. "You don't have to, just pay for the future ones cause I'm pretty much out." Kael tells her.

"Oh, okay... then why'd you only gimme a candle lighter and a bed levitation spell??" "Hey, I gave you a candle 'brightener' too!" "They are kind of lame though." She says hiding her actual excitement over having real magic. "That's how it works,it starts off lame and when you gain a better affinity the better your magic will become. And plus, it is recommended you get a medium to heighten your affinity. Maybe one day if we ever leave this village, we can look for a nice god for you, or maybe some ancient being to lend you some power." Kael explains while Layla looks at him with a frown, knowing that'll probably never happen.

Kael continues, "You know you could come with me next time, to pick the ones you actually want, instead of me just picking the not so dangerous ones." Layla's eyes brighten, "There's dangerous ones." "Calm down girl." Rio stops her. Layla looks at Rio and frowns. Rio continues, "Isn't it already dangerous enough that one of us is doing something like this? You are aware that the Elders are constantly keeping watch right." "But I can't keep relying on HIM to give me spells. Layla states pointing at Kael. Kael tries to defend himself, "I...don't think they even have that." Failing miserably. "Besides, you can't be the only one taking stupid risks." Layla adds.

Kael and Layla then look at Rio as if asking for approval. "Hey, if you guys think you can safely go in and out without getting discovered by someone who's gonna report you to the Elders and not get exiled or executed, then sure, I won't stop you." He says with a smile and a thumbs up at the end of the sentence.

They both stare at him with wide eyes.

Kael regains his composure, "Then it's settled. Next time you're coming with me. Remember to wear something that doesn't stand out." "Right." Layla says trying to hide her excitement.

They continue discussing and telling lighthearted jokes, then Layla and Rio then say their goodbyes.