Yes, I'm posting Ascendance series fan fiction on a Green Ember fan site. You'd think I of all people would follow the rules. But nope. Anyway, here's what happened when Sage had to go stay at the orphanage where Tobias was:

“And stay out!”

Apparently I had annoyed Mrs. Turbeldy one too many times. I don’t know what she was so mad about, it wasn’t the first time I’d stolen food from her.

I stood up slowly. She would get over it eventually, or at least she would when she realized that as she shoved me out the door of the orphanage, I’d taken what was left of her money along with her favorite pendant. But she was obviously too mad to notice at the moment or even tomorrow. I heard of an orphanage in Gelvins, that might not be a bad place to stay while things blew over here.

I nodded at the orphans who were watching me, tossed them a few coins, then headed down the street.

As I continued down the road in the direction of Gelvins, everyone ignored me or pretended to. Everyone avoided eye contact with me, hoping I wouldn’t ask for money. They had nothing to worry about, begging was beneath me. I preferred to be ignored. After all, the more I’m ignored, the easier it is to slip a few coins from their pockets. I scanned the people leaving Carchar until I found a person suiting my needs. He drove a cart loaded with hay, heading in the direction of Gelvins. I ran alongside the cart signaling the driver.

“What do you want?” asked the man gruffly.

“I just thought you might like to know that I’ll be riding on your cart. And I would like to ask you, would you rather me ride with your permission and pay you five garlins or with me jumping on the back and hiding when you aren’t paying attention?” I said.

The man turned an interesting shade of purple. I’d seen that color on Mrs. Turbeldy quite often.

“How dare you!” exclaimed the man. “You will not be on this cart no matter how much money you offer!”

“Well, I guess you chose the second option,” I said, dropping back behind the cart. The man watched me suspiciously for a moment then, as I ducked back behind a man carrying a large basket of corn, he turned back toward where he was going. I crept to the back of the cart, then slipped underneath the cart, hanging on tight or else I might get crushed by the wheels. As the cart left the city, I began to see fewer and fewer people until all I saw was just the dirt road. I climbed up onto the cart and as quietly as possible, I burrowed into the hay. Although a little scratchy, the hay wasn’t too uncomfortable. I fell asleep.

I awoke to the sound of people’s voices. I stayed quiet and perfectly still.

Amidst the various voices, I heard a child call out, “Say, mister, do you have any spare coins for Gelvins Charity Orphanage?” So, I’d arrived in Gelvins. I slipped out of the hay as the man yelled back at the orphan to leave him alone. A few people were around, sitting in shabby homes or walking down the dusty street.

“You nasty beggar!” shouted the cart driver when I emerged from the hay. He turned that interesting shade of purple again. I looked at him, shrugged, and tossed him a few coins. I didn’t want to give him the coins but I already had enough problems, and Gelvins was too small to hide in properly. Nevertheless, I smiled when the coins hit him squarely on the nose. I ran around the nearest house. The house was old, it looked about ready to fall apart but I found a safe route to the roof. I looked towards the road and saw the man shaking his fist in the direction I ran off but then picked up the coins and started moving again. When he finally left the village, I climbed down the side of the building.

The town of Gelvins was barely more than a cluster of unstable houses. The people looked overworked and exhausted. I’d have a hard time stealing anything from these people since they had so little already. As I walked down the street, I saw a few people who were richer but were obviously not from around here. I saw a building at the end of the street. Gelvins Charity Orphanage the sign said. As I got closer, I heard voices.

“Get out of here you worthless whelp!” yelled a masculine voice. “Why can’t you be more like Tobias here? He has a future; unlike some worthless vagabond I know.”

I approached the stairs and knocked on the door. Just as I did, it flew open. I jumped back to avoid getting hit by the door and the child being thrown out of it. The child landed on the ground and jumped to his feet. “I’m sorry, headmaster, sir. I won’t drop a pot ever again.”

“If you ever do, it’s back to the streets with you!”

Considering the harshness of the headmaster’s voice, staying on the streets didn’t sound much worse than living there for a long time. I stayed outside for a minute. Going inside right now didn’t seem like a good idea. I heard the boy scrambling on the floor, presumably picking up the shards of the pot he dropped.

“I finished picking up the pieces, headmaster, sir,” said the boy. “I’ll work extra hard to make up for the pot.”

“Yes, you will,” said the headmaster. “You will take extra duty on chores and you will have no meals tomorrow.”

“Yes sir, I’m sorry sir,” said the boy, and he opened the door next to me to carry the shards out of the orphanage. I slipped past the boy and entered the orphanage. The room was small. About the size of my orphanage but a little more run down. There were a few boys around the room sweeping the floor or doing other boring tasks.

“What do you want?” asked the headmaster harshly.

“Me?” I said. “I just want a roof over my head and a place to stay.”

“Not another one!” cried the headmaster, cutting me off. “Do you have any money or anything to pay for the food that you’ll be fed?”

“I do have some money,” I replied, “I’ll be happy to spare a few coins for the cost it would take to feed me.”

“If you are staying here, you will give me all of your money, Avenian brat.”

I shrugged and handed over the money. I could always steal it back later.

“While you’re here,” the headmaster said harshly, “you will listen to everything I say. Your money and your life are now mine. It may seem harsh but it’s because I know what’s best for you.”

I looked him straight in the eye. “I must be lucky to stay at this wonderful establishment. I tend to do whatever is best for me, so if your orders are really what is best for me, then we’ll have no problems.”

The headmaster’s face made me almost miss Mrs. Turbeldy.

“Arrogant boy, you’re just like the rest of your country.”

“If I’m arrogant for believing that I might know what might be best for me, then what does that make you, who believes he knows what’s right for everyone?”

The headmaster opened then closed his mouth. Finally, he turned to a boy sitting in a chair reading an old book. “Tobias,” said the headmaster sharply, “show this Avenian brat to his sleeping quarters, and give him the place on the end, that should teach him some manners.”

I doubted it would teach me anything, but the boy stood up and said, “Yes sir.”

He looked at me, then started walking to the doorway on the far side of the room. From the way he walked, he clearly considered himself the best of the orphans. When we made it through the door and started up the stairs, the boy, Tobias, turned to me.

“Are you crazy?” he asked.

“That depends on who you ask,” I replied calmly.

“Nobody stands up to the headmaster like that. That’s how you end up back on the streets. You should be more careful.”

I shrugged innocently. “The headmaster isn’t royalty, he’s a pitiful failure of a man who isn’t good enough to get any power so he lords over whoever he can. He can control the rest of you but he can’t control me.”

“Well, whatever your name is, you’ll end up dead one day. If not by the headmaster, then by whoever your master becomes.”

I didn’t disagree with him. We reached the top of the stairs and I could see two doors. We entered the one on the right.

“Here are the sleeping quarters,” Tobias said, motioning to a room full of pathetic cots. “You’ll be sleeping down there, on those blankets.” I saw where he meant. At the end of the room by the window, there were a few blankets a fair distance away from the nearest bed. It was supposed to be a punishment, but sleeping next to a window was what I wanted, plus some distance from the nearest person could help.

I went over to inspect where I’d be sleeping. Hardly the most comfortable bed I’d ever seen but it was better than sleeping outside so that made it worth it to stay here. Besides, it’d be fun to annoy the headmaster a little more. I grinned.

“What are you grinning about?” asked Tobias worriedly.

Instead of answering, I lay on the blankets. “Go back to your master, Tobias. I’ll be down shortly.”

Tobias gave me one more worried glance, then he headed back downstairs. I turned to the window. It had a lock on it, probably to keep kids from sneaking out. I quickly pulled the thin shard of pottery that I’d swiped from the boy when I had pushed past him. I carefully broke the end of it on the windowsill until it looked like it fit in the lock. After a few times of breaking the shard and then trying to use it to pick the lock, I finally succeeded. I opened the window and looked out to see there was nobody around. Poking my head out a little further, I could see that there was a thin ledge between this window and the one next door. I carefully climbed onto the small ledge and made my way over to the other window. Looking inside, I saw what looked like a storeroom. The window wasn’t locked. Obviously the headmaster didn’t think that anyone would be stupid enough to enter the room from the second-story window. He was in for a surprise for how stupid I could be. I closed the window, made my way back to the sleeping quarters, and climbed back through the window. I re-locked the window so nobody would be suspicious. The lock was poor enough quality that I’d be able to go out that window whenever I felt like it as long as I had something to pick it with. I slipped the shard in a crack in the wall close to my bed, then I sat on my bed, thinking.

“Hey! New kid,” called a boy from the entrance to our room. “Come on, it’s time to eat.”

I stood up slowly, stretched, and followed him down the stairs.

“Fair warning,” said the boy, “the headmaster isn’t happy with you. The only reason you’re still here is because of the bag of money you gave him. But if you make him mad one more time, he’ll be able to justify throwing you out and keeping your money. So be careful. What’s your name anyway?”

“Sage,” I said. “What’s yours?”

“Harley.”

“Tell me, Harley, what’s behind the door next to our room?”

“Nothing much, just the storeroom for all the food. The door’s locked though.”

“Is it the same kind of lock that’s on the window?” I wondered if I could use the shard on it instead of climbing around the outside.

“Nah, it’s a higher quality one. The lock on the window isn’t what keeps people in, anybody could break it easily. But nobody wants to be there if the headmaster finds broken lock pieces on the windowsill.”

We entered the main room of the orphanage.

“Avenian,” said the headmaster, “you should’ve come back with Tobias. What were you doing?”

“I needed time to confess my sins,” I said.

“Of which there were many, I’m sure. No wonder it took so long,” he replied.

“Fortunately, being an arrogant tyrant of a pathetic orphanage wasn’t one of them.”

The headmaster looked about to explode. “How dare you speak about me that way!” He screamed.

“I didn’t say anything about you,” I replied calmly. “It’s not my fault if you see yourself in my words.”

I picked up a bowl and received food from the boy serving some sort of stew. I followed another boy to the other room, leaving the headmaster with his rage. I entered a room with tables and chairs which all looked like they’d fall apart any second. I sat down and started eating. I didn’t care about making friends or enemies here, I just wanted to sleep here tonight and tomorrow night, and have a few meals. Harley sat next to me.

“You just made him mad again!” he said. “Did you even listen to what I said?”

“I tend to not listen to advice,” I responded.

Harley sighed. “I hope you aren’t planning on staying long.”

“I’m not,” I said forcefully, then changed the subject. “So, Harley, where does the headmaster sleep?”

His eyes widened. “Why do you want to know? You aren’t going to… to… kill him in his sleep?”

I laughed loudly, earning a few looks from the boys around us. “No Harley, I just like to know where all the rooms are.”

Harley looked at me suspiciously. “He sleeps in a little room off the side of the storeroom.”

That was annoying. It’d be hard to get any food from the storeroom if the headmaster slept next to it. Also, I wouldn’t be able to steal the key to the storeroom without him noticing.

“What are you thinking?” asked Harley.

“I’m thinking that this watery stew isn’t enough to live on. And that the headmaster needs to be taught a lesson.”

“Whatever lesson you teach him,” Harley warned, “he’ll teach it to you twice as hard.”

“I learn half as fast as the average person, so that’ll make us even.”

“You’re crazy, Sage.”

“I’ve heard that a lot.”

We finished eating the meager food and the headmaster sent us to bed. I slept well in spite of the headmaster’s intentions to make me miserable by giving me the worst bed.

The next morning, we awoke to the wonderful sound of the headmaster yelling at us. I cursed his mother’s grave as I sat up and stretched. The headmaster chose to ignore it. We ate breakfast, then the headmaster gave us a little schooling but it was so boring that I didn’t pay attention. It was clear that the headmaster wasn’t worried about educating anybody, he was just wanting to keep the boys out of trouble. Nobody there could read except Tobias and that showed no signs of changing. I fell asleep during the lesson but the headmaster gave up trying to keep me awake after the third try. The midday meal was moldy bread and meat that had gone bad a few days ago. I planned on leaving the next day so I decided to leave my mark on the orphanage.

“Does the headmaster have anything that he can’t bear to lose?” I asked Harley after we finished eating.

“He has a necklace that his mother gave him that he always keeps on him,” said Harley. “Nobody talks about it but it fell out of his pocket one day and he spent hours cleaning it.”

Before I could thank him, the headmaster came into the room and ordered all of us outside. On my way out, the headmaster spotted me.

“Avenian!” he shouted. “You will scrub this floor until it shines.”

“Yes, your highness,” I said.

The headmaster grabbed and shook me. “You think you’re clever, but you’re nothing more than an arrogant Avenian. You insist on defying me, I am trying to help you have the best life you can.”

“You keep telling yourself that,” I replied.

The headmaster glared at me and roughly shoved me away. “Finish this floor, and if it doesn’t shine by this evening, you won’t be sleeping here tonight.”

I had no intention of cleaning the floor but I acted like I would. The headmaster claimed he had a headache and needed to lie down, which I’m sure had nothing to do with me. As soon as he left, I dropped the broom and looked for Harley. I found him outside on the front lawn.

“I thought you were cleaning the floor.” He said when he saw me coming.

“I have a job for you,” I said.

Harley looked at me questioningly.

“I need you to get all the boys inside a few minutes before we eat tonight.”

“Why?” asked Harley. “That seems like a strange request.”

“I have my reasons. Just make sure that they do, it might be bad for them if they don’t.”

He gave me a confused look but he assured me he would do his best. I then went back inside to wait for the headmaster. As the boys came in, I checked a few things. There was only one other door that locked from the inside. The windows were all too small for a grown man to climb through, even if he broke the window. I checked the locks on all the doors, all of them seemed to use the same key. But the key was the one the headmaster kept that key on him at all times.

I heard a shout from upstairs.

“Where is it? Where is it?”

The headmaster charged down the stairs and stood directly in front of me.

“Where is my necklace?” he shouted.

“What necklace?” I asked innocently.

“You took my necklace, now where is it?” he shouted at me, shaking me again.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I saw a necklace on the ground outside near the bush,” I said.

He rushed to the door and looked out. “Where? Where did you see it?”

I slipped the necklace, which I’d taken when he shook me earlier, into my hand. I threw it out the door into and into the street. The headmaster saw it and gasped. By the time he ran into the street and picked up his necklace, the door to the orphanage was shut and locked. I twirled the key in my hand as the other boys stared at me in shock.

Harley began to laugh and after a few moments, several others joined in. I noticed there were a few, such as Tobias, who didn’t laugh but most of the boys did. A different boy protested since he didn’t like locking the headmaster out but he was promptly silenced by the others. It was clear that several didn’t like the idea, but nobody would dare be the one that opened the door to find the angry headmaster there.

I motioned to a few other boys to follow me up the stairs. As we headed up the stairs, we heard the sound of pounding behind us. The headmaster wouldn’t dare to get to help though. He had too much pride to admit that he was bested by an Avenian orphan.

“You stole the key and the necklace?” asked Harley, laughing.

“The headmaster should know better than to get close to a thief.”

I unlocked the door to the storeroom. The room, although not full of food, had enough to feed many more boys than those in the orphanage. As the others started to fill their arms with food and carry it down to the others, I went into the headmaster’s room. After some brief searching, I found my bag of money. After taking out enough money to pay for my meals, I left the room to enjoy a large meal with the other boys. I would sneak out tomorrow through a window and head back to Mrs. Turbeldy’s orphanage. Hopefully, I’d steal a few coins to make up for those I spent. Maybe I’d grab some chocolates so she would accept me back without too much of a fuss. But for tonight, I’d eat my first good meal in months, I’d be surrounded by boys who regarded me as a hero, and I’d hear the delightful noise of the headmaster’s pounding on the door. He may be right that he knew what was best for my future, but hearing his desperate pounding on the door lifted my spirits in a way that no harsh treatment ever could.