Dark Magus Returns

The beaming sun through the curtains landed on Charlotte's face, warming it slightly. She lifted her hand, scratching her cheek, with her leg out from the sheets, and slowly opened her eyes.

Her body felt more tired than when she went to sleep, which just went to show how much her body needed to catch up on, how rough it had been for her.

"Hey!" Sunder called out. "You're finally awake, don't worry much, we were all like that when we first came here, it just goes to show that you're like the rest of us, which makes us feel more comfortable."

Looking in the room, Charlotte realized that all of the others had left, apart from Sunder, the teenage boy. He then turned around and when he looked at Charlotte he rubbed his eyes a few times.

"Am I seeing things, but has your hair changed colour? Is it orange now? It's brightening up the whole room!" Sunder said.

Charlotte quickly grabbed her hair, and even pulled out a single strand, seeing the orange colour.

"Oh no!" she thought, as she quickly cast her magic, and right in front of Sunder's eyes, he saw her hair change from orange to black.

"What the... what the... are you a Wi-!"

Charlotte leapt from her bed and jumped right on top of Sunder. The two wrestled for a bit until eventually Charlotte was on top of Sunder, having pinned him down, and having her hands covering his mouth.

"I'm not a witch, but you said it yourself, right? We all have our things, our secrets that we're running from... and I like it here, I like all of you guys, so please don't say anything about this, okay?" Charlotte pleaded, her eyes were watering.

All of the tension had practically left Sunder's voice, as he realized even if this woman could change her hair colour, she was still just like them after all, so raising his hand he gave a thumbs up, and slowly Charlotte lifted her hands from his mouth.

"I won't ask you about what I just saw," Sunder said. "But I'm finding it hard to breathe, can you get off me."

Embarrassed, Charlotte quickly stood up and folded her arms. Trying to change the subject, she brought up something else.

"Where is everyone, where did they go?" Charlotte asked.

"It's pretty late, it's 10 am, I thought you might want to have breakfast together. After all, tomorrow, I'm not going to be here anymore."

That was right, Charlotte remembered Sunder saying that he would have been here a month, and that was when the Church claimed it was time for them to go.

The two headed to get some breakfast, and after eating they continued in the limited areas, but that's when Charlotte noticed something: there was one person she hadn't seen.

"Where's little Harper?" Charlotte asked, already wondering if she could squeeze his cute little cheeks. She was too shy on the first day since they hardly knew each other, but Harper was such a sweet boy she was sure that he wouldn't mind.

"Oh, I asked Carl about that; he said that they found someone to adopt Harper, so he's no longer here," Sunder replied.

Charlotte looked around; currently the two of them had wandered outside, and were just walking on the gravel pathways outside the church. But there were still staff walking to and from the main town covered in orange clothing.

"Wait, when would that have happened?" Charlotte asked. "He was sleeping with us in the middle of the night; did they find someone this morning then?"

"I guess, I didn't actually get to see him, but it's good he's with a family now anyway; we should be happy for him," Sunder replied.

"But adoption is no easy thing, someone would just come in the morning and take him, and on top of that, weren't you and Harper close? Wouldn't he even come to say goodbye to us? I understand not me, but what about the others?" Charlotte asked.

"We weren't close," Sunder replied. "You have to remember I've been here the longest; Harper was here for an even shorter time. It would be hard to develop that big of a bond, and he's a kid, so they see shiny things and run toward them."

"So I'm not that bothered about it. I can tell why you're worried though, with me going tomorrow, and Harper gone. You're going to be left with the other two, but don't worry I'm sure there will be more at some point." Sunder smiled.

Charlotte gave a smile back but the moment she looked away she couldn't get the thought out of her head that it was so strange, but maybe Sunder was the one that was right. Maybe her life and being part of Alter had made her just overly suspicious of everything. For the rest of the day she was unable to keep her guard up, and when she had met with Carl in the church and asked him about Harper, he had given the same answer as Sunder had. Charlotte tried to dive deeper, asking if she was able to meet him and go to see him, but the Rylon religion claimed that they didn't hand out information like that, as they had to do right by the people that wished to adopt him.

She understood, but still everything felt so strange to her. With that hint of suspicion, everything started to look suspicious to her after.

Which led her to head into the town where she had first been approached by Carl. Returning here, she was on guard once again, but thankfully Sunder had decided to come with her as

well.

"It's been a while since I've been here," Sunder said.

"You mean you don't leave the church ever? It's not against the rules, so why not?" Charlotte asked.

"Because I have no money, there's no reason for me to head out; what can we buy, what can we get? It's just useless at that point, and I'm mostly focused on recovery as well," Sunder said, tensing his bicep and showing relatively well developed.

In the end, Charlotte had decided to go around, and she had a specific question in mind. Something that was bugging her. Something so generous, why hadn't she heard about it

before?

Being part of Alter, they had a vast amount of knowledge at their hands, so she continued to ask, and each person they approached said the same thing.

It was then that even Sunder started to get nervous.

"Why do you keep asking people if they know about the Rylon religion and their program?" Sunder asked with a shaky voice.

It was then that Charlotte saw an old man, a beggar on the corner; she knelt down and asked the same thing.

"Hey, we don't have any money, but we do know that the church just out of town, the Rylon religion, can give you food, shelter, and coin. Did you know about this?"

The old beggar wafted his hand.

"I have heard of it."

It was the first person who had answered this way.

"But when I went there, they turned me away, saying that it wasn't something that they did. They gave me some water, but that was it. I went back a second time, but they refused to even

give me water."

"For someone like me, it's too far a journey to go just for water."

Sunder, hearing the answer, and hearing all the answers from before, was starting to shake slightly. Even he felt something was up.