Pali was exhausted. He had been running around so much the past few days that even all the walking he had done over the summer hadn't prepared him for an adventure on a mountain. Thankfully, he would head back to the Kein the next morning and would return to teaching. He would also mostly be rid of the child.

Pali wanted to get right to sleep, but he remembered that he should contact Headmaster Ury and tell him he had a new student coming with him. He just hoped he could find the crystal that he needed to contact the Headmaster. With Salis having moved things around in his bag, he was not sure if everything was still in there.

He found it. It looked as if she had not even tried to hide it at all. He found it sitting at the bottom of his bag. Normally something as valuable as a communication crystal would be the first thing stolen but she might not have know what it was and considering she had only taken his food and left even his money alone told him she would have stolen nothing no matter how valuable. Well, he hoped that she would steal nothing.

"Headmaster Ury?" Pali said after activating the crystal. "This is Pali."

A few moments passed before the image on the crystal shook, as it was being picked up, and Headmaster Ury appeared.

"Yes, Pali. I am here. Do you have news about the Terran child you were looking for?"

"Yes, I found her in Porra-Kel. Unfortunately, she is not very trustful, so she ran from me down the mountain."

"She ran down the mountain?"

Pali then told the headmaster about how events had transpired from when she ran until their arrival at the inn.

"Hopefully she is reading the books I gave her and has not run away," Pali said upon finishing his story.

"This child seems to be a handful. Do you think she will behave enough to be worth bringing her to Kein?"

"I could not tell for certain, but she seems intelligent enough to stop before things get too bad."

"A Terran might be worth some trouble, do you not think?" The Headmaster chuckled. "But tell her we will not tolerate bad behavior, even from someone like her."

"I will gladly pass on the message."

"I assume you will make it to Kein in time for us to asses her placement."

"We will leave by carriage at dawn."

"Bring her to me as soon as you arrive."

"Yes, Headmaster."

"Sorris protect you."

"Thank you, Headmaster."

The Headmaster's face disappeared from the crystal. Since it was still not too late in the night, Pali picked up a book and read.

***

I awoke the next morning well before dawn. The books I had tried reading had bored me to sleep. Combined with my fatigue, I had not lasted long. I don't even think the sun had completely set when I fell asleep.

Now that I was awake I lit a candle since it was still dark outside and got dressed. I then picked up a book and began reading again. While I didn't care much about any of the books that had been given to me, I imagined that I would go over a lot of the things written in them so I felt getting a head start on it was a good idea and if I fell asleep again all the better.

A few hours later, just after I noticed light through my window, I heard a knock on my door. It was Pali.

"Good, you already look ready to go, but the innkeeper will bring you your morning meal before we depart."

Soon after I finished breakfast, Pali returned to my room. Since it was now time to go, I picked up the bag with my clothes and left the room. Pali already had all of his things so we went to the innkeeper and gave him our keys and then handed him a few coins.

Outside I saw that one of those levitating carriages was already waiting for us.

"Do you want to ride on the inside this time?" Pali said to me before getting in.

I nodded and stepped in.

When we had settled ourselves in, Pali signaled the driver in the compartment's front and we took off. Since this was my first time in one of these carriages, it amazed me at how smooth it traveled. It also impressed me with how fast it went after it had stopped speeding up. I didn't know exactly how far away Kein was from Stutra but it wouldn't take long to get there compared to the non-magical ways of transport.

I discovered that the ride was not as smooth as I thought it would have been. While it was not bumpy, because it wasn't touching the ground, the wind would easily push it from side to side if a strong gust came. I bet that one of these carriages would not be fun to ride in during a bad storm. Aside from this we often had to turn quickly to avoid the occasional wheeled carriages and carts.

Other than the wind and traffic, the ride was uneventful. Pali ended up falling asleep not long after we left the inn so I was left alone with the driver. Since Pali looked so defenseless, I couldn't help resisting the urge to take advantage of that and tied him up with my shoelaces.

Not wanting to stay inside the carriage with two men I didn't trust, and not wanting to be around when Pali woke up, I climbed out of a window and onto the roof, taking all my belongings. Since we weren't traveling at highway speeds, it wasn't windy on the roof and I got some reading done.

When it was what I thought a little before noon I saw a large town appear in front of me. While it wasn't as large as even some modest-sized cities on Earth, it was the biggest one I had seen yet on Calorin, being roughly twenty-five percent bigger than Stutra from what I could tell.

Instead of heading right into the city as I had expected, the carriage turned east just before we entered and skirted around the edge. When we reached the easternmost edge of Kein, the carriage followed a road almost due east for about five minutes before I saw several buildings come into view.

What I saw stood out from all the other buildings I had yet seen in Calorin. While there were several of the traditional round-shaped buildings being used, there were four buildings that differed from the norm. The first, while still having the round shape, was larger than any other building I had seen other than Sorris' Temple in Stutra. The next two were identical and shaped like a long oval and were the first multi-storied buildings I had seen on Flaern, having three floors each. The third was also three floors but lacked any roundness to it and looked more like something I would see on Earth rather than on Calorin.

As soon as the carriage pulled to a stop I jumped off of the roof, my legs protesting slightly since they were still sore.

Surprised that Pali was not awake yet, I kicked the carriage closest to where I thought his head would be. Soon after I heard a groan and the driver's voice telling him we had arrived. Not long after I heard a thump as if he had fallen off of his seat and onto the floor. It was then that I headed to the nearest building, the one that looked like it was from Earth, hoping to be out of sight when he exited the carriage.

Just as I was about to enter the building the carriage door opened. It was an untied Pali. He didn't look mad but gave me a look that said I should expect something to happen later. I had counted on that reaction so the look didn't mean much to me.

Since he had caught me, I waited for Pali to catch up to me.

"That was a mean thing to do." He said to me. "Now that you are a student at this school, things like this will not be well looked upon."

Since I was curious about the building, I ignored his statement and asked him a question.

"Why is this building so different?"

Pali looked surprised, probably because I had talked without being expected to.

"So you noticed the building's design. As considering we built it according to what we have been told how Terrans construct their buildings. It is better suited for building extra floors than the traditional construction, which is why we used the design."

Just as I had suspected. The design had come from Earth. This meant that there were probably other things that had been brought over. This also meant that these people knew that it was possible that I could give them other things from Earth. The only question was if I wanted to give them anything. Maybe if I got something in return?

***

Pali and I entered the building.

"You will not be getting these back." He said, showing me my shoelaces. "Follow me."

Pali turned away from me and headed to a flight of stairs to the left of the entrance. Following him up, we exited on the second floor. We then walked the entire length of the hallway before stopping at a door at the end.

"This is Ury Turrel Ellis' office. He is the headmaster and you will have to get his approval before we will allow you to take part in lessons. If you treat him the same as you have treated me, I very much doubt that you may stay, so behave."

I nodded, after which Pali knocked on the door, stated his name and entered.

"Greetings Pali." said the most well-fed, although not fat, man I had seen on Calorin. "I am glad your journey was a safe one." He glanced at me for the first time. "And hopefully uneventful."

That last line caught my attention and the way he had looked at me. It was as if he knew what had been going on for the past few days. Since there were no phones or anything like that, I did not understand how he could know. The only explanation I could think of was magic.

"Thank you, Headmaster. The trip was mostly uneventful." Pali glanced at me.

The headmaster seemed to notice the glance. "We will have to catch up more later, but first we have other business to attend to." The Headmaster finally turned his attention fully to me. "Salis Terra, is what they call you is it not?"

"It is."

"That is not a Terran name. Would you mind telling me what your Terran name is, providing you remember it?"

"I am sorry." I don't want to tell you.

"Tell me, how long has it been since you arrived on Calorin and how old were you before you came?"

"Seven years since I came," My real age will forever remain a mystery.

"That long? It is surprising that it took this long for someone to find you, though Porra-Kel is not the most visited place." He paused probably because I hadn't answered about my real age, "Speaking of which, would you mind telling me what you did all of those years in Porra-Kel?"

I told him.

"That will be convenient for us you already know how to read and write." The Headmaster looked at Pali and then back to me. "I have one last question for you. I have been told that you were building things. We would be very happy if you shared anything you could about how to make things from Terra."

I shook my head.

"Not even if you were compensated?"

I wasn't surprised that he brought up me being compensated, but there were reasons I didn't want to share any technology from Earth.

"How does fifty gold minimum for every piece of knowledge sound to you? I could easily go up from there depending on what you tell us. You could become very wealthy"

Fifty gold!? Most miners didn't make half of that in a year. Maybe there was something… It was now I remembered all the poor and sick people outside the temple. There were things I knew that could easily help them. Even I couldn't ignore sick and dying people, could I? Could I be heartless? To be honest from what I knew about the reincarnation cycle the Calorin Deity supposedly used that I almost didn't care considering they would be reborn and forget their previous life, but it was fifty gold…

"Medicine," I said finally.

"Medicine? Does this mean you will give us the Terran knowledge about medicine?"

I nodded.

"Good! That is good news indeed!" The headmaster turned to Pali and then back to me. "I welcome you to The Kein School of Magic and Learning, Salis Terra. Pali will take you to your room and in a few hours one of our other instructors will perform your evaluation." The headmaster then handed Pali a sheet of yellow paper.

Had he just accepted me on just the fact that I agreed to give them knowledge?

"Thank you Headmaster," Pali said before giving a slight bow.

Pali and I left the room.

***

"Thank you for behaving," Pali said as soon as the door closed. "While you were not as polite as I would have liked, you did much better than you have been with me. Now I just need to show you your room and I can be rid of you."

Pali led me back to the stairs and finally out of the building. We then headed towards the farthest of the other three-story buildings and entered it. Inside I saw was a long hallway with doors lining both sides with another exit opposite us on the far side. The stairwell, like the Terran style building, had stairs to the left of the entrance. We were the only ones in it at the moment.

Pali looked at the sheet of paper the headmaster had handed him. He then began walking, looking at the numbers written on the doors to our left. About a third of the way down the hallway he stopped.

"This is the room we have assigned you. Since I have a feeling you will come into a lot of money soon, we can give you we can give you a better room on the upper floors. As you will have someone room with you in this room, and considering how sociable you have been with me, I imagine you will do just that…"

So I would have a roommate if I stayed in this room? That would be nothing compared to living in a small home filled with noisy children and farm animals. I also could think of better things to do with my money, so despite what Pali thought I would do he would be wrong. I just hoped the girl I would share my room with wasn't nosy.

I opened the door to my room and looked inside. It was a very plain room, only having two beds, some simple desks next to each bed, and two small dressers. The thing I was most happy about was that it was clean.

"I will leave you to settle down. Someone will bring you lunch and shortly after that you will be taken to your assessments." Pali left with an almost relieved look on his face.

Inside the room, I took out my few belongings and placed them on my bed. Not long after I had done, so I heard a knock on the door. I wondered if it was my lunch, but upon opening the door I saw it was Pali. He looked sorta embarrassed.

"I forgot to tell you. I will need the books I lent you returned to the library on the floor above the Headmaster's office in the Temple of Learning."

I shut the door and went back to my bed. Since I had not tried on all of my clothes yet, I did it while I was waiting for my lunch. I just hoped he hadn't been too horrible at guessing my measurements.