I referenced a canon character in this chapter, guess who!

"-up, it's time to get up"

Gisela opened her eyes cautiously, still half asleep. She kept her head down reflexive, she didn't want to hit Ca in the forehead, again.

Wait? Where's Ca, Gisela thought, glancing around the room. It wasn't her room. Then it all came back to her, the ship, the serpent, the temple. She had finally be given away. She wasn't at the house anymore.

"You awake yet?"

Gisela sat up, jerking her head sharply. Sitting on the other bed was a girl with deep brown skin, contrasting with her peach colored hair and grey eyes. Gisela flondered, unsure of what to say. Last night she had just crashed, she hadn't thought much about the fact that she had a roommate or anything.

"I'm assuming you are", she said bluntly. "They left your change of clothes on your dresser, you should probably get dressed soon. Breakfast ends at eight trying to beg food off the kitchens is a pain. You were allowed to miss morning prayer this morning but I would not count on getting the same favor in the future"

"Thanks", Gisela said, unsure of what to say.

"I'm Iya. It's my job to show you around" the older girl said, somewhat stiffly. Gisela had the feeling that she had not been expecting this anymore than she had. She was also pretty sure that Iya knew her name, even so it was something that Gisela could do to fill the silence. She wasn't great with people but she had to try.

"Gisela, Gisela-", she hesitated for a second unsure if she could or not. Chiosca never said I couldn't, she reminded herself as she recalled her last parting with the women. It was funny, she had spent so long hating her name but now she was clinging to it. The power of familiarity. "Raimu". I wonder why she didn't use her last name…

"Right. First advice. Don't use your last name. A lot of us", Iya trailed off for a moment, "a lot of us are outcasts, we don't have last names. At least, not ones that we can use"

"Thanks" Gisela repeated. Any advice helped, with the mess she had already made out of her life she needed it.

"Right, now. Breakfast, I'll wait for you outside"

With that Iya left, Gisela had the feeling that the older girl was a very abrupt person.

There were no mirrors in the room. The night before it had been dark save for the same light. Now that light had been somewhat turned up, illuminating the small room. Other than the two beds and the dressers there wasn't really much. Iya had a few drawings hung above her bed and what looked like a… dream catcher? Gisela didn't see one of those in forever. She pushed down the pang of longing that the sight gave her.

There wasn't a mirror. Gisela tried not to think about how relieved she was. The chiton was pretty similar to the one that she had been wearing before save for the fact that the belt was grey and the fabric was a little rougher. It was quick to change out of her slightly ripped, still smelling of the sea chiton that she had been wearing before. She took a second to inhale, not quite meditating but trying to calm down before she had to face the day, to face the people.

Nowhere to go but though, Gisela reminded herself as she pushed open the door, heading back out into the hallway. Nowhere to go but through.

Iya set a brisk pace though the halls as she defitly navigated the turns faster than Gisela could orient herself. She wanted to ask about directions but… but she didn't want to be more of a bother. Iya was being nice enough to show her around after all.

The tunnels were pretty similar, old grey stone wethered smooth by years of feet going across is and a sense of age over the entire place. It was surprisingly dry though, the part of Gisela that wasn't dancing in her stomach was trying to figure out how it stayed so dry. She would have to ask sometime, just not now.

It felt like no time at all before they, after walking up a flight of stairs, entered a long hallway with, more, stone walls and an arched ceiling. There were also the ubiquitous magic lights, somehow even though Gisela had seen them quite a bit she still wasn't tired of seeing them.

There was one study wooden table that spaned the length of the room with seats set all along it. The table had serving dishes and Gisela could make out a few of the traditional foods, it was an odd comfort but somehow seeing something that she recognized helped to settle her stomach a litte. It wasn't much but it helped. It was something.

Switching her attention from the food Gisela shifted to looking at the people sitting at the tables, trying to figure out what she should do.

She didn't want to mess this up as well.

Maybe half of them were filled by teens in temple clothes, eating breakfast before they started their days. The other table was perpendicular to the first and raised, so it commanded a view of the entire room. Here Gisela saw adults sitting down an eating. One of them, a dark skinned women with sandy colored hair looked up as Gisela entered following behind Iya.

Gisela couldn't help but shiver slightly as her eyes meet the women's call brown ones in a momentary stare. That was something, Gisela thought, more unnerved than she already was.

"You're new so you will sit lower down on the table, don't go up past the first quarter without being invited by someone" Iya explained, gesturing to the table. "The head table is where the full priests eat, innates like you won't be sitting there for a while. Food is good, though someone like you might have to lower their standards a little", she continued. By the entranced there was a cart set up with simple plates, bowls and, other silverware. Grabbing a set Gisela followed Iya to the pointed out spot on the table.

Sitting down Gisela filled the plain, study bowl that she had grabbed with the off white porridge. Stirring it Gisela had to hold back her face of repulsion, she hated oatmeal and a of its derivatives, especially if they had raisins. Raisins made everything worse.

She turned her head to see Iya watching her expantaly, she wants me to refuse it. Gisela realizes, she expects I won't eat it and that I will do… what? She didn't know what Iya expected from her. I need to get along with her, Gisela reminded herself as she stared at the raisin studded white slop. I can't mess this up. Here goes nothing.

It was warm and slimy as she shoved it into her mouth as fast as she could while still being polite. It was like applesauce, the only way forward is though, she reminded herself as she ate spoonful after spoonful of the mixture, swallowing as best she could to avoid the raisins. She hated raisins.

She ate the porridge anyways. Even the raisins. She didn't want to make a bad impression.

"Where do I go after breakfast", Gisela asked directly as she chased the last scraps of the sticky glop down with her spoon. She was almost there.

"Power testing"

"I thought I showed my clouds yesterday"

"Yesterday you showed you could use magic, today they will break down your gift and see how it is best classified and where you rank on the scale. After that you will probably join one of the basic classes to make sure that your education is proper"

"I think I will be okay" Gisela said, trying to reassure herself, "I was doing well in school". A question occurred to her, "I won't be going back will I"

"No. Magic is important and a necessary part of Caelum, as well as being a gift from the gods, but it is not something to be squadored or ignored. You will learn here", Iya said with finality.

"Okay". I didn't get to say goodbye….

"You finished", Iya asked, pushing up from the bench.

"Yeah", I might as well be. She hadn't been hungry before but somehow that last thought had soured what little appetite that she had left.

"Just on time". Getting up Iya led Gisela to another small cart where dirty dishes were stacked, "chores rotate, you will get dishes eventually and I expect that you won't complain. You will do your turn like anyone else"

"I will", Gisela wasn't sure what else she could say to that as she put her bowl in its place, leaving it as part of the towering stack of dishes. She seachered wildly for some new topic, "do you know who will be doing power testing for me?". It was something to break the silence.

"I think it's Priest Senya, her affinity is water so she does a lot with people who have a hydrokinetic gift"

"Can I ask what you have?"

"Crystal", Iya said sharply. Gisela was about to ask a clarifying question when she saw the older girl's stern face and thought better. Abort Mission!

The rest of the walk passed in silence. Gisela didn't have the energy to start a new topic and it didn't seem like Iya was into suggesting one.

They arrive, not at another office like Gisela had somehow expect out into open air. Gisela could smell salt around around her, even though when she looked for the sea what she saw were the walls. I wonder if they were put into place after the last Strait War, they did attack the temple after all. It was something to think about, Gisela had always loved history.

"Priest Senya's here, excuse me" Iya said, pointing her head in the direction of the apoching priest.

"Okay". She wanted Iya leave as Priest Senya approached, she was walking briskly, somehow managing to almost run while still looking elegant. Gisela had to admit it was an impressive trick.

"Iya-", the priest said, stopping as she looked at Gisela. "I missed her didn't I"

"Sorry", Gisela said, not sure what else she was supposed to say. It's me that's supposed to be power testing, right?

"It is fine", Priest Senya said, waving her hand in negation, "Iya's control of crystal and the sounds that it can make are just quite impressive and I was looking forward to testing a theory I had about the composition of the crystal and the amount of water versus the strength of the wound but-", she seemed to realize that she had gone off topic, her pale skin flushed so hard she almost appereade red, "anyways we may get started on power testing now. I reserved the field so that we may work uninterrupted and I look forward to seeing what you can do with your gift"

"How should I get started?", Gisela asked, shifting her weight awkwardly.

"First I figured we would start with mediation, you do know how to do that right, your mother mentioned when she was talking yesterday"

"Sure". Meditation was easy, Gisela could do meditation anyday.

Gisela let her body relax as she closed her eyes crossed her legs, headless of the dusty court that she was sitting on.

In…

She stopped thinking Iya and how sharp she was.

Out…

She stopped feeling the itch of the dust.

In…

She stopped smelling the salty sea air.

Out…

She stopped hearing the rustling of the wind as it gusted through the trees.

In…

She stopped.

It was peaceful, calm and clear as she floated motionless and relaxed. She felt the engery around her and in her as she relaxed, just playing with it. It was warm as it trickled around her. She will some of it to take form in her hands. Opening her eyes she had a small ball of wispy, oddly warm clouds shimmering in her hands. Her magic, called on by her own two hands.

"Can you do anything with it", the priest asked, focusing on the clouds in Gisela's hand.

"I made a wall once but…"

"That was when the serpent attacked, right"

"Yeah". Gisela stopped for a moment, unsure of if she could ask her question. This is power testing, if not now then when? She reminded herself, gathering courage, "it seems much weaker now" she said looking at the wispy clouds in her hands. "Before it stopped a serpent, now it's just clouds"

"That happens when the first time you use magic is under stress, you overloaded your limits then and pushed to what you needed. Training that way can be effective but finding scenarios that are just dangerous enough to allow one to overcome their insttvice limits is dangerous so it is not advised"

"So there are other ways of awakening magic", Gisela said, paritly aware of the fact that she was going off on a major tangent. She liked knowing things, she didn't forget easily.

"Of course, magic awakened through stress is strong but so is magic awakened through time. Through careful meditation and exposure to other magic. Wither way takes a strong will to call on the deities gifts but imminent life threatening danger is not a necessity" she said dryly. "Anyways how big can you make your clouds"

It was odd, asking the clouds in her hands to grow. It felt like a matter of will of asking, "will you grow" and feeding it more energy. She had done this with Anjay on the boat so it wasn't hard, not really.

The cloud expanded from being cupped in Gisela's hand, it seemed to both flow and float at the same time as she allowed it to grow until was roughly as big as her. On a whim Gisela tried to get it to shape itself into a person. Results were mixed. It vaguely had a blobby body with a blobby head but it was less of a person than the clouds Gisela saw passing over head.

So cloud shaping needs practice, Gisela noted as she tried to manipulate her creation, unsure of what to call it in her head.

"Not bad", the priest said. She shifted her hands, changing into a stance with her legs spread slightly apart to balance as she seemed to draw water right out of the air. She would… Gisela thought, trying not to be annoyed as the show off shaped her water into a person. And not just any person, it was a scarily accurate model of Gisela save for the color and lack of hair. "You will get there", she said, trying to be comforting.

The rest of power testing went similarly, really it was a lot like working with Anjay had been. She advised Gisela on shapes she made and tried to suggest new shapes to try.

After about an hour of shaping clouds Gisela was starting to feel a little dizzy, each cloud on it's own didn't take much energy but they added up.

"Let's take a break now"

Gisela tried not to sink to the ground to obviously, she was pretty sure that she failed. "How am I doing", she couldn't help but ask. Even if she wasn't sure that she wanted to hear the answer.

"Not bad. You only came into your gift a couple days ago so the fact that you have as much control as you do is impressive. I also noticed that you can meditate, you taught yourself I assume?"

"Yea", here goes nothing, "why do you keep calling magic the gift? I mean sometimes you call it magic but other times you say the gift or you just said "came into your gift" and I was just wondering what that was about? I mean I have read a bit about The Quiet One before but I still feel like I don't know enough and I don't want to mess up and-", Gisela saw Priest Senya raising an eyebrow, obviously waiting for Gisela's tirade to stop. She felt her face flush as she shut her mouth with a audible click.

"We will teach you what you need to know Gisela, when I was new I made plenty of mistakes and I was fine. You will be too, you would have to do something awful like betray The Quiet One to get excommunicated from the temple. You are not just a follower of Ubphine but them as well and they protect their followers. As for your question, magic, even when it may not seem that way, even when our society thinks otherwise, is a gift. Our deity gave it to us so we could protect and aid those around us. It might not seem like we are always wanted, nor that our magic is important but it is. We all have our gifts for a reason and they are nothing to be ashamed about". She said the last part for forcefully then the rest. It was obvious how much she believed in philosophy.

"Thanks"

"If you have questions ask them. It's what you are here for after all", Priest Senya said with a slight grin, "now I think you have rested enough, you should recover faster here because of the Deity's blessing"

"The Deity's blessing?", Gisela asked.

The Priest seemed to debate with herself for a second before opening her mouth, "we don't spread it around much so you can't tell anyone outside but magic recovers faster here. There has been so much magic here for so long that it has sunk into the place. We call it the blessing of The Hidden one"

"Why does it matter", it's interesting sure, but why does it matter if people find out.

Now she seemed even more uncertain, "it's possible to, in a place like this, absorb The Blessing into a lacrima and use it. Doing so it desecrating a temple and will be punished with lethal force but even so it is not something that we spread around."

"Has it happened before?", Gisela asked, morbidly curious.

"Once. To the temple of Ycius. A mad man attacked the temple without precaution to take the blessing."

"Did he escape"

"Yes, and he took the temples fire with him. They are still recovering from that disaster". The mood lay heavy over the two of them before Priest Senya shook her head sharply. "Enough about that, back to work"

Gisela didn't bother to reply, instead forcing herself back up. She did feel better than she had before, even if she felt morbidly curious about what had happened to the man. Nothing I can do now, Gisela reminded herself, forcing herself to stop focusing on things that she couldn't change and instead think about what she had to do- her magic.