Thankfully, the next morning the skies were clear, which meant that Jonathan's plan to try and secure a bolt hole for the kids in the woods behind the orphanage was a go.

Everyone gathered in the yard after breakfast.

"Okay," said Jonathan. "I don't want anyone getting lost in the woods, so we're going to split into groups of four and five, and to start we're just going to explore the forest as far as we can go without losing sight of the orphanage. Once we've got a feeling for what's in there, then we'll figure out how to explore deeper more safely."

Kylus raised his hand. "Sandra and I should be in different groups. We won't get lost, and we'll be able to find one another if need be."

"What? How do you figure?"

Kylus actually looked embarrassed, which was a shocker. Jonathan didn't think he'd ever seen that particular expression on the exuberant boy's face. "We can communicate over distance with illusions that only we can perceive. We can also attach them to stuff, so we can mark trees for one another."

Jonathan just stared. "You can what?"

Kylus shrugged. "Sorry for not telling you earlier. Originally, we didn't really trust you, and then—well, it never really came up. Anyway, it's a twin thing."

"Illusions that are only visible to one another is normal for twins?"

Ethan shook his head with exasperation. "No, it's just these two. I've never heard of it from anyone else. Kylus and Sandra don't like to tell people about it, though, because some people took advantage of them before they joined up with me and Bethany."

Jonathan looked back at Kylus. "Can you and Sandra do any other magic? Anyone else with a secret magical ability I should know about?"

Kylus shook his head. "No, that's it for us. I mean, talking to Sandra is alright and all—" she punched him in the shoulder, and he danced back to the other side of Ethan "—but we haven't figured out how to do anything else, and no one has really taught us much."

"You need to talk to Mr. Geiller about this—don't give me that look, he's helped Abigail a bunch, even if he isn't very nice about it, and he's in this together with us. Even if he isn't very nice about it."

"You said he wasn't very nice twice."

Jonathan waved that away. "Point is, he really likes unusual magic, and I'll bet he'll be able to help you. So tell him!"

Kylus frowned, but Sandra unexpectedly spoke up. "Alright, we will."

"How long do your illusions last?"

"Several hours!" said Kylus. "Originally when we realized that we could stick them to things and not just send them to one another, they didn't last very long, but we practiced a bunch and now—"

"Alright, alright, I get the picture. We'll need to regroup at the orphanage by lunchtime at the latest, anyway, so sounds like that will make this a lot easier. Now, anyone else have any magical abilities they need to share with the class?"

Everyone shook their heads, though Bethany looked pretty upset about it.

Jonathan had a thought and turned to Ethan. "You never did tell me what your ability was, Ethan."

Ethan grimaced. "It's—not really relevant to exploring in the woods. I'll tell you about it, but do you mind if we do it later?"

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Jonathan stared at him a moment, before nodding. "Fine." He really hoped this didn't come back to bite him, but probably Ethan didn't want to talk about it around the other kids. He didn't think Ethan was likely to endanger them after his screw-up with the Petty Baron, so he'd let it go for now.

"These woods aren't going to be dangerous, are they?" asked Ethan, with a nervous look at Bethany.

"I don't think so? I've never noticed any animal activity, at least. Or human activity, for that matter. I've never had a chance to explore them, though, which is why I want to make sure we don't venture too far in initially. Abigail, do you know anything about them?"

Abigail shook her head. "The headmistress wouldn't allow anyone to go in the woods, although some kids would go a little ways in sometimes. I don't know if that was because she thought it was dangerous, or if she just didn't want anyone getting lost, though."

Jonathan looked around at the kids with curiosity. "No one knows what these woods are called? Or anything about them?"

Ethan shrugged. "They're not part of Eldridge."

Right. This was a world without the Internet, and these were a bunch of presumably under-educated orphans. Not that surprising that they didn't know much about the nuances of local geography.

"Okay, well we'll play it safe, like I said. I don't actually know if these are woods; maybe it's just a copse of trees. I'm just guessing that it's larger, because there doesn't seem to be anyone living out here and I've never seen any traffic along the road. Have you, Abigail?"

"No, just the wagon from Eldridge."

That was honestly pretty weird. Why was there a road if no one was using it? He needed to remember to ask Mr. Geiller about the local geography when he had a chance.

"Okay, so everyone knows the plan, then? I want Ethan to lead one group, and I'll lead the other. Everyone else, divide yourselves up…"

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As far as Jonathan could tell, the forested area extended quite a ways. After exploring the edges of it without losing sight of the orphanage property, the two groups reconvened and then split up once more. Ethan's group had Bethany and Yanni in it—along with Sandra—and since the younger kids were getting tired after tromping around in the woods for thirty or forty minutes, their group decided to travel a ways down the road into the forest to see what they could see.

Meanwhile, Jonathan and the rest of the kids pushed a little further into the trees.

The forest reminded Jonathan of some of the woods back home that he'd hiked through at different points in his life. The area nearest the orphanage was pretty easily navigable. There were some sprawling ferns and other undergrowth, but nothing impassable; it was comparable to what he'd expect to find next to a well-maintained hiking trail. As they pushed further into the woods, however, the undergrowth became simultaneously less dense—likely thanks to the increased density of trees—and paradoxically much more impassable. Several thickets of what appeared to be blackberry bushes or similar blocked their progress, including one they had to circumnavigate almost all the way back to the orphanage's yard to get around. In one place a tree had fallen, and the explosion of plantlife around its trunk made it difficult to traverse. Jonathan was very thankful for Kylus, because he was pretty sure they would have gotten lost or turned around in short order.

Unfortunately, they weren't able to find anything that looked very promising, and they returned to the orphanage sweaty and with plenty of plant life caught on various parts of their clothes.

Ethan and his little group had beat them back and were playing in the orphanage's yard, but Ethan headed over toward Jonathan when he and his group straggled out of the woods.

"Anything note-worthy on the road?" asked Jonathan as he came closer.

Ethan shook his head. "Not particularly. It's not much of a road, either. I don't think anyone has maintained it for a year or two, and the forest is starting to reclaim it. We stopped when we came to a creek. There was a bridge, but I didn't trust it. The creek looked like it was running parallel to the orphanage, though."

"Really? We didn't come across anything like that, but I don't think we got particularly far into the woods, honestly. We mostly spent our time getting around fallen trees and blackberry thickets. I think we saw most of the area nearest the orphanage. I think after lunch I'll take one of the twins and anyone else who wants to go, and see where that creek you mentioned leads."

"Sounds good. I'll stay here, if you don't mind. I don't think Bethany is going to be up for another outing today."

Jonathan glanced over, and sure enough Bethany was a far cry from her normal bundle of energy. "Alright. I'm going to go frantically do some of the dishes, so can you bring everyone in for lunch in about thirty minutes?"

"Will do!" said Ethan, and returned to the cluster of children.

"Ugh, I'm going to have to do a bunch of laundry, too, aren't I?" said Jonathan to himself, as he trudged indoors.

He really, desperately needed someone to help out around the orphanage, but for now…the dishes awaited.

The dishes always awaited.