Quylla recognized many familiar faces among them. The adults who, in their younger days, had ignored her and her pleas had aged badly.
Their children, who had mocked and tormented her, now adults, turned their heads around in shame. There were even a few of her fellow orphans, and they all still carried the effects of prolonged malnourishment on one or more limbs.
Quylla, instead, looked like a queen. Her hairdo was perfect, her dress immaculate, and one of her jewels would have been enough to buy dozens of villages like Cerea.
"I don't know if you've heard, but I enrolled in the White Griffon Academy the same year as another commoner, Lith of Lutia, who's better known as the Supreme Magus Lith Verhen.
"I haven't become as famous as him, but I've come a long way from the starving orphan you all knew." She waved at her dress and mage robe. "Yet the biggest difference between me and Lith is another.
