The inside of the castle smelled like old stone and something faintly metallic.
People moved in a single line toward a white orb sitting on a pedestal near the entrance hall. One by one they placed a hand on it, waited, and then kept moving. Most of the time nothing happened. The orb stayed white and dim and the armored man standing beside it waved them through without a word.
"What is that thing?" I asked.
"Innate talent orb." Lia kept her eyes on the line ahead. "It changes color depending on what kind of talent you have."
"What counts as a talent?"
Zoe answered without looking up from the line. "Spell casting, sword mastery, blacksmithing, healing. It measures how naturally you learn something and how powerful those abilities become when you use them."
I turned that over. 'So it's completely different from what we have. They don't get a unique ability.'
