Kismet’s Tale

      Alden watched the magiborne enter. He lowered his head, not daring to meet anyone in the eyes.

Mr. Karlan looked at the magiborne with hesitation. “Thomas here is a rather shy person, so it would be best if you try to be patient with him.”

“I thank you for letting me stay here,” Thomas said to them. “I know that my presence...is infuriating for some people.”

Melia regarded him with patience. “Okay, we have a guest room. You go rest there. Umm, do you have clothing?”

Thomas nodded his head. He brought up his luggage. “I have my own clothes…”

“Have you eaten?”

“I have.”

Melia turned to Alden. “Alden, can you take the guest to his room?” She leaned in and whispered. “I hate to do this, but use the room farther apart from the little kids, okay?”

“Got it,” Alden nodded at Thomas. He took Thomas upstairs where the rooms were.

“Some of the kids share a bunk bed,” Alden said. “But we do have a guest room now and then,” he stopped, turned, and offered his hand to Thomas. “My name’s Alden, yours?”

“Thomas.”

“Nice name,” Alden accepted Thomas’s grip. “Wow, good grip, bud.”

Thomas nodded. “You feel pretty strong as well, usually they would find my handshake pretty...scary.”

Alden took his hand. “I mean your people are known to be so strong. Me? I think I was born strong.”

“You might have the blood of the magiborne, where were you from, Alden?” Thomas asked politely.

“I don’t know. I’ve been drifting from one place to another lately, so I don’t know now. Anyway, you must be having a rough time, with the war being over.”

Thomas nodded. “After the Holmian Alliance defeated the Demikins, we didn’t have anything to go for other than serve in the military. Some of us received proper pensions, but there are others who simply couldn’t have one because of their crimes.”

“And you?”

“I have mine...but I wanted to be free from military service after the war. I have enough of fighting.”

Alden had heard from the news how some of the magiborne were emotionally stunted. How they were ‘lacking’ something that made them complete.

They are able to lift five hundred kilograms easily, while the toughest could deadlift a ton if they could. But despite being physically superior, they were still susceptible to bullets and the appearance of a Vulcan in the field made them less harmful.

But a well-equipped magiborne with an exoskeleton and proper gear could turn the battlefield into a bloodbath.

“I hope you find peace here, at least for a moment,” Alden opened the door. “I mean, if Mr. Karlan’s visiting us, then it means that you’d be working in this orphanage before long.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Cuz that’s what happened to me. Melia, Nana, and Mr. Karlan thought I needed a place to be, and they gave me a job here. Maybe, we’ll be co-workers, no?”

Thomas looked at Alden strangely. “You’re a strange man, Alden.”

Alden nodded. He left Thomas alone in his room.

 

***

 

Mr. Karlan bid Melia a goodbye. Melia closed the door, and sighed.

“Is there something wrong?”

Melia raised the envelope. “Mr. Karlan offered us sixty-thousand florins if we let him stay.”

“That’s a lot.”

“It is,” Melia crossed her arms. “We can use this to fund some of the school supplies. Lila and Sven will be going to the central school as first graders soon, so it might help. What do you think of him?”

Alden led Melia to the seat in the living room. “He’s a military soldier, probably fought in the war. He told me that he wanted to get away from military service. He’s sick of it.”

“If he’s a magiborne, then I don’t expect him to be fond of military service...I, well, it should be good since we’ll have more men in the orphanage, and a magiborne living here should deter some thugs from trying something. What worries me is if he could adjust.”

Alden nodded. “I think we should think about this later. Or we could let Nana judge him. She knows what’s best for this orphanage.”

Melia laughed. “Of course she does, Nana knows best.”

The two went to Nana who had no idea about the new arrival. Since she was the Madam of the Orphanage, they told her about everything.

Nana dried her hands with the clean white cloth hanging on her belt. “I heard of the magiborne, poor children born to become fighters. Back then in ‘68, I worked with a few who were helping a few of the magiborne, saw how they treat the kids. Awful, it was simply horrible how anyone could stomach that. That was the last straw for me, thinking to myself, that if I don’t leave that facility, I’ll become worse than trash in the eyes. By Jove, I had to leave that place.”

“You’re going to accept him then?”

Nana smiled calmly. “Let me have a word with this...Thomas, okay?”

“Do you need help?” Alden said. He looked at Nana with concern.

“Please, no need to worry about me. How about you two clean the plates, and tell the kids to wash up and go to bed, no?”

“Okay, Nana,” Melia said. She turned to the dining room and called. “Paul, Lina, help me will you?”

She disappeared from the kitchen. Nana placed the cloth she dried her hands on her waist. She eyed Alden while smiling. “What is it, Alden? Worried about this old woman?”

“Course I am, Nana.”

“You spoke with him? I don’t think he’s a bad person.”

“A person, you called him a person?”

Alden raised a brow. “Why?”

“That’s good enough for me then. Alden, we call them magiborne, but those who have seen the atrocities done by the magiborne, people usually call them as subhumans.”

“Do you call them that?”

“Of course not, but seeing that you haven’t started calling him that, then it’s best that I should meet him.”

Alden stood in the light of the kitchen, watching her go out. “Should I accompany you?”

“Please, you’ve asked that already, Alden. I’ll be fine, so be a dear and help Melia okay?”

Alden could see that she was sure so he shook his head, and let Nana do what she wanted. It wasn’t safe, but Nana knows better than the two of them. He just had to trust Nana in getting to know Thomas.

 

***

 

Alden finished everything up in the kitchen when Nana appeared. She held a courteous smile on her as she went to get a glass of water from the water dispenser. Nana drank the glass of water without a break. She then washed the glass, and turned to Alden.

“He’s fine. We’ll let him stay here, Alden.”

“Anything that I should know?”

“He’s just a strong young man who wants to find himself a new path in life. It’s best if we let him try and find a new life for him here. Although we did agree on dyeing his hair blond so the kids wouldn’t be afraid of seeing him.”

“If that’s your choice, Nana. Then I can agree to it. How about Melia?”

“She’s fine with it now. I told her the reason.”

Alden nodded. He watched the kitchen for a moment before heading upstairs to his room. It was a rather simple room — with a bed, study table, a ceiling fan, and a low circle table next to the bed. The closet was on the corner of the wall. On the rack was a bolt-action hunting rifle that Nana had given him when they encountered a boar problem four days ago. He was adept at using firearms, so he had assumed that he was a natural dead eye when it comes to guns.

That’s arrogant, Alden thought. He twisted on the bed, and laid his back down. He closed his eyes, and before long he thought to himself how he could still not remember much of his time before the boat. He still had to wake up early in the morning to get bread and eggs for the kids.

Alden slept.

It was always strange that he had no dreams. It only felt like he would lose consciousness, and wake up the next day. He didn’t have dreams.

The sun’s beam hit him in the face. He raised his forearm to block the sunlight, and went out of his room while holding on a towel and clothes. The hallway was still quiet and other than the room on the farther side of the hallway, most of the kids' lights were still turned off. So he trotted to the bathroom, knocked just in case, and entered when there was no one in. After a short but efficient bath, he changed his clothes, threw his old one in the laundry, and got out of the bathroom. He saw Thomas carrying a hair dye and a towel on him.

“Yo, good morning,” said Alden.

“Hello, uh, Alden,” Thomas said. He stopped in front of Alden. “I will be staying here in this orphanage for the meantime. I hope that we can get along despite my traits.”

“Nana said it’s fine, so no need to think about it. Well, we might actually get to start on that farming bed that we always wanted to go with.”

“Yes, Mrs. Nana is a wonderful person,” Alden found a rather natural smile at Thomas. It was hard to think of Thomas as an uncaring and emotionally stunted ‘magiborne’ when he made faces like this.

“Okay, are you coloring your hair?”

“Yeah, I think adults are mostly fine, but kids might not be eager to see hair like this.”

The loss of pigment in their hair was one of the signs that the magiborne was strong. Alden didn’t know the specifics other than it was because most of the nutrients in their bodies were mostly on their physical body.

I wonder why they always say that they are ‘incomplete’, Alden thought. He had heard that there was something lacking in the bodies of the magiborne, and despite the older magiborne being stable, most of them were incomplete, and were ruined. Like they are missing the right components to make them whole.

“Oh, right, how about I helped you out?” Alden offered.

Thomas nodded. “If you would, then please do.”

Alden went inside the bathroom after Thomas had finished washing himself. He helped Thomas dye his hair brown. His shoulder-length hair needed trimming so he thought of cutting his hair short to which Thomas agreed. After that, he let his hair dry and went back to his room.

“Thank you for helping me out.”

“No need,” Alden waved his hand, “the dye should stay up as long as you don’t wipe it with a dye removal. These products are water-resistant, but not really great when encountering other chemicals.”

“That’s good then.”

“Just apply it when you need to recolor your hair.”

After that he left Thomas alone, went back to his room for a moment, took his wallet, and checked on his florins. He took the pocket notepad with him, left the area and went downstairs. Melia was already up, and she was staring at the documents and bills that Nana had spread.

“Up so early?” Alden said.

Melia turned to Alden. “We need to take into account the work needed to be done. Some of the kids are ready to go school so we need to make sure that they stay healthy.”

“Look, I was discussing with Thomas about how we should open up the backyard, and start that farm bed you always wanted Nana. With Thomas around, we could probably clear it in a day or two.”

“That would be wonderful,” said Nana, rather delighted.

Alden turned to Melia. “If Melia lets me take a day off from the office?”

Melia traveled her gaze from Alden to Nana. Seeing that eager look on Nana’s face, it was easy for Melia’s resistance to go down. She hardly could refuse Nana when she’s eager. How could she resist her when she wanted something?

“Fine, we don’t have any paperwork either, and we’re not short on florins either, so it should be fine if you clear the backyard,” Melia checked one of the papers on the desk. “Are you heading out?”

Alden nodded. “I have to make sure that we get an early bread. I heard Miss Anna is making a sale on block five.”

“Go on, just don’t stare at Anna.”

Alden shrugged, and left for the bakery. Alden had always wondered why she kept on warning about Anna. Not that he had any thoughts about Anna at all.

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