After Uric and Zoly left, Nate spent the rest of his day brooding inside the orphanage’s inner chapel.

  At first, he was content with watching the ceiling and reproach himself for his outer social ineptitude. Why did all his interactions had to end with him fainting or someone yelling at him?!

  Eventually, because mother Olga wasn't messing around with that cane, his butt began to ache sitting down and Nate was forced to mope while walking. Then, because he was who he was and the kids had left him alone with all manners of cleaning implements, he started mopping in earnest.

  From there, it didn’t take long for him to remember he had just acquired a new mystery toy and started experimenting with it.

  “Clean skill, huh… I don’t feel any different dough… Well, maybe de dust there came off a tad more easily but that could just have been my imagination… Oh! I know, maybe I have to activate it somehow! A…keyword, perhaps…? CLEAN! Wash Wash! Water and soap! Disinfectant powers activated! Mr. Clean lend me your strength! Banish all filth with one punch…! No? Nothing…? Then what about… Status! Open! Menu! Pause! Stats! Skills! Enter! Spacebar! Escape! Tab…!”

  “Ahem…”

  With a shrill yelp, Nate fell from his spirit bomb pose and the pew he was standing.

  “Oh dear! Did you hurt yourself? It wasn’t my intention to startle you!”

  In truth, his butt hurt the same now than before the fall, but even so it begun to fade when the golden light bathed the room.

  “God?!”

  “What?” Dana blinked.

  “Oh…! So, this golden light was a skill too… that time I thought I was dreaming…”

  “You thought, what…? No, why don’t we sit and have a proper conversation?” She sighed and patted the pew he fell from, “Your name is Nathan, correct?”

  “Y-yes, ma’am…” Nate obeyed, wide-eyed at the golden shine pulsing from the woman. He immediately lost all his reservations when he saw, from the corner of his eyed, the dirt inside a crack in the floor flaking away and disintegrating, “Ok, I need that. How do I get my cleaning skill to do that!? What am I missing?! Is it the tiers? Are the tiers of the skill or mine that are the problem…?”

  “By Selene, child! You can’t just throw someone all your questions like that. That is not how you have a proper conversation.”

  “B-but you all have this magic-like abilities I know nothing about, how can you expect me not to ask!?”

  She frowned for a second, and then her laughter sang through the domed chapel, her smile reminding Nate how young she had to be. She didn’t look a day over thirty, when you weren’t looking into her eyes that is. There was something there that made her feel even older than the other nuns.

  “Magic!” she breathed, “I never heard that one before. But now that I think about it is not a stretch to compare skills you don’t understand with the works of a magician.”

  “You have magicians here?”

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  “Yes, child, of course we do. There is one called Jeremy that sometimes performs at the nearby plaza. The kids love him! He does the most delightful tricks with the cards!”

  “So, this Jeremy guy can’t throw fire balls around?”

  “I don’t believe so. That would be mighty impressive for a Bronze skill… But enough dithering. We are meant to have a proper conversation here, remember? To that end, isn’t there something you should be asking me?”

  “Uh… like what, exactly?”

  “Like what is my name.”

  “But I know your name. You are Dana, the only other nun here. The one Uric won’t shut up about.”

  “Still, we have not been properly introduced yet. It is only polite for you to ask.” She replied with all the patience in the world.

  “Uh… fine, I guess…”

  “So?” she prompted.

  “Ahem… What is your name?”

  “Thank you for asking,” she beamed, “I am Dana Yorgam, but you can call me Mother Dana. Is a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance, Nathan.”

  “Y-yeah, likewise….”

  “See? Being polite cost but a few words and makes a world of a difference. Now I feel comfortable talking to you. Do you feel the same?”

  “I suppose…”

  “That’s good. Now that we are comfortable talking with each other do you mind if I ask you some questions, Nathan?”

  “Only if I can ask my own.” Nate answer after a moment of thought.

  “It is a deal then.” She smiled and lightly bumped him with her knee, “Why don’t you go first?”

  “How do skills work?” Nate fire right off, not missing a bit.

  “I don’t know. Maybe no one does.” Dana shrugged.

  “Seriously? It seems like something pretty important for people just to not care.”

  “Tell me Nathan, do you know something about wheat?”

  “N-no, not much. Why wheat? What does it has to do with anything?”

  “Well, seeing as agriculture is the base for our entire civilization, shouldn’t our main crop be something pretty important for people to know about?”

  “I… see your point.”

  “I’m glad you do, but now is my turn. Olga and Amanda told me what happened this morning but, how do you feel about it?”

  Nate froze, looking away, his face suddenly heating up.

  “I… messed up…” he said in a small voice.

  “Yes, you did,” Dana nodded, just a statement with no hint of recrimination, “but what do you think your mistake was?”

  “I don’t know, alright!?” Nate said, some heat seeping into his voice, “I have taken care of myself all my life! I am not supposed to be this helpless!”

  “Nathan, you are a child…”

  “No, I’m not…!”

  “Yes, you are. We wouldn’t be having this conversation if you weren’t.”

  “Well, I am a kid now, but I’m… not myself!”

  “At any given moment It only matters who you are in the now.” She lectured, “But, be that as it may, yours is not a problem of aptitude.”

  “What do you mean? I fumble everything I do since I came here!”

  “You fail, not because your hands can’t do the work, but because your eyes refuse to see what you are working with.”

  “Oh! Don’t give me the wise and mysterious act! What I am even supposed to get from that?!”

  “You are supposed to think and learn from yourself, and is not an act, I am verry much wise and mysterious,” she smiled smugly, “but, enough about that. Is your turn again.”

  Nate frown at her. He had thought of asking something about skills, but her words had thrown him for a loop. What did she mean when she said I refused to see what he was working with? Was she saying he wasn’t accepting his new circumstances or was it something else…? What was he missing?

  Nate changed his question at the last moment.

  “This morning I was cleaning this place with Uric and Zoly… Uricov and Zolydane. We were getting along fine, I supposed, but then I asked some specifics about Tiers and Zolydane got really upset, do you know why? Did I offended him in particular or did I step into a social landmine?”

  Suddenly Dana’s demeanor grew somber, but something in her eyes let Nate know he had asked the right question.

  “I am not sure what you mean by a landmine, but I heard what happened from Uricov and yes, your question was improper, but it did hurt little Zolydane personally as well... Do you really don’t know why?”

  “No, ma’am I have no Idea! Like I said many times before, I know nothing about skills and tiers.”

  “Verry well then,” she sighed, “I’ll explain, though I must admit I found the topic distasteful, so I’ll appreciate if you don’t interrupt me. I would prefer not having to repeat myself.”

  She flashed him the first thing close to a severe look he had seen on her face, and it was enough to make him swallow ice for spit but, even so, Nate nodded. Dana nodded back, and continued…