Orphanage of Sınır Sapı

The orphanage of Sınır Sapı is a home for children in the campaign Zincirsiz ("Unchained"). An old barn near the square of Sınır Sapı has been fitted with bunks and cupboards, and children play in its yard. It serves not only the town but the region around it, and some forty or fifty children live there.¹²³

It is said to have been founded, and to be supported, by Tim, the governor's son. The innkeeper Kokarca Loui put the small number of children left in hunger on the streets down to the shelter and food it gives. Between the bunks a curtain hangs about every fourth bed, giving some privacy.¹⁴⁵

Don

At the door sits Don, an old man blind in one eye and lame in one leg, who works at the orphanage. He says he went of his own will to a war in the region and came back wounded; which war, and when, he did not say. By his account he began working there when Tim opened the orphanage, and Tim describes him as a local veteran without family who gets on well with children. He gathers the children and took an interest in the boy Mark.²⁴⁶⁷

The testing of the children

Looking for a boy who had been watching a captain's house, Jonathan River and Olaf came to the orphanage but did not find him. Jonathan, an orphan given his own chance at schooling, proposed testing the children for a gift for magic. Don did not understand at first, then left the decision to Tim, and said that the shared breakfast at about ten or eleven in the morning would be a good time. Tim gave his consent that evening, and preferred that it be done before the witch hunters came.⁸³⁴

The next morning the children were lined up one by one. Jonathan hid an enchanted stone under one of three cups, and the nine-year-old Mark chose it again and again. Behind a curtain, Mark focused until he sweated and moved a feather a little, but could not make light. Mark asked whether Jonathan would choose the school again, and Jonathan answered from his own life as an orphan and his wish for freedom. Jonathan wished to send him to the Archon after the quarantine, sponsored by Tim, and asked Don to teach him to read and write in the meantime; Tim agreed to the sponsorship.^91011712

While Olaf played a local ball game with the children, he pointed out the watching boy. When the boy would not say whom he watched for, Jonathan falsely told the keeper that he was a dangerous born mage who must be kept from light and tobacco, and Don took him away to a separate place.¹³¹⁴¹⁵

Before leaving the town, Jonathan asked Tim what would become of the children. Tim answered that he had set their care into the town's custom, and believed the people would keep it up.¹⁶