The next day and a half passed uneventfully, and Tom sat down at lunch once more, his plate filled with plain, bland and tasteless food.

Happily misleading any hidden observers, he munched on something resembling a sausage. Today was an even day, so only healthy food was served. From what he could understand, everything provided had been designed to be nutritionally balanced. The labels all had an asterisk to denote that status. On normal days, only about a third of the dishes had that categorisation, and the children were always supposed to source half their food from those dishes. However, the lack of adult supervision still had its consequences. This was not the first time they had done this. They knew how a bunch of pre-teens would react, so the orphanage had the even day rule.

Bir next to him was pretending to gag as she ate the same sausage he had. It was all there was today for so-called food, and it was effectively tasteless.

He forced himself to giggle at her antics, and then he saw what was happening on the table across from him.

He froze.

A girl was eating with no hands, using magic. Her arms were pointedly at her side, and the fork hovered in front of her.

It dipped down, scooped up some vegetable mash and then rose again.

“Ta.” Bir elbowed him in the side. “Don’t ignore me.”

He shook his head to buy time to process what he was observing. There was nothing remarkable about the girl. She was eight or nine, slightly chubby, with dark brown hair, but she was clearly responsible for the telekinesis he was observing as her eyes were fixed on the utensil.

She had a spell or skill…

No, you’re better than that, he reminded himself. There was no need to guess, so he concentrated on observing if any mana was in play. There was nothing, not even a ritual, which meant what he was seeing had to be a skill – which was far more impressive than a spell would have been.

“Look,” he grabbed Bir’s finger than that been poking him and pointed at the girl.

They watched another two successful scoops.

“I want it,” Bir agreed.

Tom realised his group wasn’t the only ones reacting. There was slack jawed amazement on all the surrounding tables. The girl was obviously showing off the ability for the first time, because multiple people were pointing at her.

And no mana, Tom thought to himself in amazement. How could you pick up a skill like that?

He could see a pathway to develop an ability like that with magic, yes, but how did you do it with a skill? The fork dipped down and grabbed another mouthful, its user completely oblivious to the wonder she was causing in all the watching eyes.

There was a flash of energy some of which struck the fork, which destabilised it and caused it to tip forward and dump the collected mush down the front of the girl.

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She jumped to her feet, glanced down at the smear running down her uniform, and her face went beet red. “Corrine! Why would you?”

Tom’s eyes snapped over to the girl who had cast the spell to disrupt the skill. He recognised the back of her head even though from this angle he couldn’t see the white streak that originated from just above her temple.

“Because it was funny. And because you were showing off.” She spun and glanced significantly at their table and met Tom’s eyes. For a moment, it was like she was talking to him. “You’re not the only one to have gained skills and magic.”

The chubby girl stamped her feet. “I know. But.” She gestured at the food on her clothes. “This is your fault.”

“By the dragon! You’re upset about a little mess. For goodness sakes, the cleaning loop is right there.” Corrine pointed.

“You didn’t have to.”

“Fiona, what you did is inspiring.” Once more, she looked in their direction. This time their eyes did not meet, but it was like she was addressing the younger children. “It’s a very good utility skill, but it’s hardly the most impressive one around. You can’t even kill with it, and it’s not even the best in your age cohort. Sukarno’s camouflage skill is tier two.”

“So is my telekinesis.”

“Yes, but he got his last year.”

“Stop talking her down, Corrine.” An older boy snapped. “Getting a tier two skill as a child is super impressive.”

She glanced at the boy who had interceded:

“Here, at this academy, it’s barely middling. Not having anything stronger than that at fourteen is downright pathetic.”

The boy flushed in anger:

“I have multiple tier two hammer skills.”

“Sorry,” Corrine said quickly, raising her hands. “That’s not what I meant to say. I meant to say your lack of further progress is unlucky. I’ve seen how hard you train.”

“Of course I train hard. My parents tell me all the stories. I understand what we’re here for.”

“What are you implying? That I don’t have parents, so I don’t train hard?” she asked dangerously.

“Not everything is about you, Corrine.” The boy finished. There was an awkward pause and Tom wasn’t sure if the jab had been deliberate or merely poor wording. Then the boy smiled cruelly. “My parents also taught me not to be a bully.”

Deliberate, Tom concluded. He was trying to put her in her place, but Corrine didn’t react to the latest attack. Quietly, she just sat down and started eating.

“You need to talk to the psychologists.” The older boy continued, unperturbed. “The way you act out when the adults aren’t around can’t be healthy.”

“Mind your own business.” Corrine was glaring at the boy. “Unless you want to fight?”

“Just because you’re going to be a powerhouse doesn’t mean you can treat people this way.”

“Is that a challenge?”

“Corrine, not everything is about fighting.”

“Dragon, eat you. It very much is! And your defective attitude is why you’re so weak.”

The boy sighed and turned back to his food. Next to him Bir had picked up a fork and was clearly trying to make it levitate off her finger. Other children were doing the same. The confrontation between the boy and Corrine had been unpleasant, but seeing one of their members having gained the telekinesis skill inspired everyone to try to do the same.

“Skills seem easy to get,” Pa muttered to himself. He, too, was balancing a fork on his finger, but he did not appear as invested in the activity as all the other younger kids around the place were.

Tom stared at the other child in surprise. Those five words caused him to reevaluate the conversation through a new lens. What it implied was far more relevant to his situation than what had been explicitly stated. Apparently, most of the children developed multiple skills while they were still very young. That by itself was not so surprising, as Tom knew that natives would train their young and make sure they would earn a handful of lower tier abilities before maturity, but what was happening here seemed to be much more than that.

An expectation that the majority would gain a tier two skill or spell by age nine seemed ridiculously ambitious. Then A tier three or above by fourteen? That was just as preposterous. Several tier two skills with a single weapon being seen as normal? That was well outside his internal benchmarks. Tom was sure he was observing the impact that fate had on ability acquisition.

Tomorrow afternoon, he would be forced to go into one of the isolation rooms and then he would find out. He couldn’t wait.