The school bus has just approached the large square in front of Triora's High School, as a crowd of students invade the school gates. It's like watching a flock of sheep entering their paddock, with the only difference that sheep are usually well-behaved.

Olivia and Tobia join the crowds and set foot into the school of the Ordinary, that they've been attending since they moved to Triora in August. The school is actually pretty nice, so the twins do not really mind going there, except for having to wake up so early as the Ordinary do. In Maleventum, in the South of Italy, where Olivia and Tobia are from, Sorcery School would not start until 10 a.m., and even though Olivia does not miss Maleventum at all, she does miss her morning routine.

Apart from having to wake up very early (yes, 7 a.m. is considered 'very early' in the world of witches and wizards), Olivia appreciates that teachers in her new school are not evil spinsters (they are just ordinary spinsters), as they were in her old school. Also, she loves the fact that from now on she would never have to be crucified publicly for 15 hours straight in front of school just because she didn't know a magic spell by heart, and neither did she miss being hung upside down in the potions' cellar after chuckling with a friend during black magic class.

In her new school, teachers would normally treat students with kindness and respect, and it was surprising for her to see that, somehow, it was the students who disrespected the teachers. Where she is from, students would never even think about talking back to teachers, unless they would want to suffer, I guess. The ordinary world seemed odd at times and, compared to the world of witches and wizards, some things seemed to work the other way round.

One thing that she has learnt to appreciate about the ordinary world is that ordinary humans have a soft spot for dogs: cute little dogs, sturdy big ones, they came in a thousand different ways. She knew that also in Maleventum the Ordinary would like to own dogs, but she never realized how much they really loved these animals until she arrived in Triora.

Olivia still remembers the first time she was able to pet a dog. It was an old lady's golden retriever that she crossed on the street on one of the first days after her arrival in Triora. The dog approached her on the street, the wagging of its tail was so cute, as was the old lady herself. Differently from people her age, the elderly in the ordinary world were usually good people. They talked for a while and then the lady told Olivia that she could pet the dog if she wanted to. She had never touched a dog before, because cats can feel when you've had contact with dogs, and they would refuse to even come close to you for a long time if you have touched one, which is exactly what her cat Felix did after she petted that dog. She just couldn't fight the temptation.

When Olivia returned home, not only did Felix stay as far as he could from her, but he stopped talking to her for almost a year. He would not even look her in the eyes and he would just live his life with the family as if she had never existed. Now, even if he hasn't officially forgiven her (in spite of Olivia's most heart-felt repentance), and wouldn't miss any opportunity to remind her how fool she was for petting that dog, Felix speaks to her again and seems to have left that episode in the past.

Olivia had always been surprised at how easily dogs will let you touch them and pet them (they are the opposite to cats when it comes to that). In Triora she even noticed that dogs are generally happy when they see a human (also different from cats), unless humans have treated them badly. In that unfortunate case, they would behave suspiciously and would try to avoid humans, which Olivia thought was pretty fair and possibily even too soft. She expected that they could at least bite them or bark at them, but what they generally do is run away instead, or try to hide, disapper from sight. The reason why they would not react against their human oppressors was still unknown to her, given that most dogs would prove to be stronger than humans if they wanted to (well, maybe not the little shaky ones she saw being carried around in women's bags, but most of the others would definitely be).

During her two years of life in the little town of Triora, apart from her apparently nasty interest toward dogs, Olivia discovered that to be surrounded by the Ordinary on a daily basis, talk and interact with them, was not so bad after all, as she had been brainwashed to think throughout her whole life in the magic community. In the last couple of months she came to understand that the Ordinary were pretty much like her and her family, minus the magical powers of course... and politeness... and common sense... and community spirit... it seemed that the Ordinary had lost all these traits through their most recent evolution.

Overall, the Capponi's have been able to adjust pretty well to living among the Ordinary. Back when they lived in Maleventum, they always heard stories and rumours about runaways settling up next to the Ordinary, and even befriending them, and they always considered that as a shame, at least until they became runaways themselves.

After leaving Maleventum, it became clear to the Capponi's that the institutional world of witches and wizards had become extremely corrupted, unjust and wicked. Suddenly, the truth struck them directly in the face, as a dazzling lightning does against a tree, leaving it half open after its passage: the magic society had become as treacherous as that same human society that their foremothers and forefathers tried to fight against during the Dark Times, back when the Ordinary used to burn wizards and witches at stake or drown them in rivers, for the only fault of existing, and practicing what they were born for: mastering magic.

The Capponi's was of course not the only family who was demanded to leave Maleventum. There had been lots of magic families who had to leave for several different reasons. Some were sent away because, in a way or another, they befriended the Ordinary, or fell in love with one of them. Others had to escape because they did what is likely to be the worst thing a witch or wizard could do: unveiling their true identity to the Ordinary. When such an episode occurs, known as Shameful Disclosure, the Supreme Order of the Sorcerers have to cast a Recordatio spell on the ill-fated ordinary human that discovered a witch or wizard's secret, in order to retract that memento from the human's memory.

The Recordatio spell belongs to Dark Magic though, so it is going to require a sacrifice to function properly, and the Supreme Order has decided to determine it in the loss of all magic powers of the guilty witch or wizard, who is then going to lose all memories of his or her magic life, and will simply turn into an ordinary man or woman. And if that witch or wizard has family, that punishment will be extended to all its members.

Some friends of the Capponi's were ordered to withdraw from the community because their son was a Deviate: he wanted to live like an ordinary boy and had already put the magic community at risk many times, because of his non-chalant and dangerous behaviour. His parents had never been able to change his mind over that, and for the sake of their child and theirs, they preferred to leave Maleventum than have their son face the consequences of his deviation. Also in that case, that family was forced to abdicate their powers, lose all memories from their past and relocate far away from the city, to start a whole new life as part of the ordinary human society.

As far as the Capponi's were concerned, the Supreme Order showed to be more merciful toward them, because even if they endangered the well-being of the magic community, they did that to save the life of a human, and it was determined that all precautions were taken in order to minimize the risks of menacing the community.

It all happened on a warm summer evening in August. That day, after coming back from school and work, Tobia and his mother went out to look for some herbs. They used to go out in search of herbs every other evening, so that Cornelia, Tobia's mother, could work on her potions and elixirs. Back in Maleventum, Cornelia worked as a magic herbalist, and she liked to pluck her herbs herself, in order to collect the healthiest and most flourishing ones.

Tobia used to enjoy wandering in the fields with her mum, and help her find the best herbs. He was probably going to work as a magic herbalist too, if only that evening they hadn't found an old human lady lying on the grass, exhausted. Tobia immediately called her mum from the other side of the field, and they checked the lady's health. She probably had slipped and hit her head badly on the ground, and Cornelia and Tobia knew that they could not leave that old lady alone. Nobody knew that she was there and, seeing her old age, she would have probably not been able to return home safe by herself. She definitely needed help.

Despite knowing what might happen when you interfere with the lives of ordinary humans, Cornelia immediately started grinding some herbs in her mortar, while Tobia tried to revive the lady by offering her his water, and talking to her while holding her hand. Tobia's sweet voice was able to lead the lady back toward consciousness, but the old lady was so weak that she couldn't talk at all, she only managed to drink some water from Tobia's flask.

When Cornelia's magic ointment was ready, she put it all on the lady's forehead and on her neck, she then proceeded to draw a triangle shape with her finger on the lady's forehead, while mumbling a magic rhyme with her eyes closed. After a few seconds of pause, the lady opened her eyes as if gasping for air, and she immediately put her hands on the ground as if trying to stand up from her lying position.

Cornelia did not even give her time to understand what happened, that she proceeded to have the lady fall asleep by sprinkling a magic dust all around her. It was a mix of magic spices that is able to make anyone fall asleep, for at least an hour or two. During that time, Cornelia and Tobia dragged the lady back to town, where all the Ordinary lived. They laid her down on a bench, where she could then be assisted and taken home. Tobia and her mum were careful not to attract attention and be noticed, and they actually thought they succeded in their secret rescue operation, at least until a couple hours later, when they got home from the fields.

That night, Cornelia and Tobia told the family about the lady they had saved in the fields. Olivia agreed that it was the right thing to do, and that she would have probably done the same if she had been there; on the other hand, Tobia and Olivia's father, Cosimo, was not so condescending. Cosimo immediately revealed his blunt disapproval about Cornelia and Tobia's actions. He told them that what they did could put the entire family at risk, and that they should never do anything like that again. Ordinary humans were not to be trusted, nor addressed to, let alone helped and carried home. Cornelia and her children tried to make Cosimo realize that if the lady had been left alone, she might even have died, but Cosimo could not hear any of their explanations: the Ordinary had to be ignored, no matter what the circumstances were.

A couple of hours later, two deputies of the Supreme Order knocked on the Capponi's door. They were carrying an official written communication addressed to the family: they were all rejected from the community, starting immediately. The crow standing on the shoulder of one of the two deputies had seen everything in the fields that evening, and had reported its testimony to the Supreme Order, which decided that the Capponi's should have to leave.

The Order decided that the Capponi's magic powers would not be taken away, since Tobia and Cornelia acted in good faith, and were careful enough to take all possible precautions and pass unnoticed on their way to town. But in spite of their good deed, they should have never helped the old lady, since every close contact with humans means to put the community in danger, 'no matter the circumstances'.

The day after the visit of the two deputies, the Capponi's left Maleventum and headed toward the only place they knew they could go to. Cosimo had inherited a big palace from some ancient relatives he barely remembered from his childhood. It was located in Triora, where Cosimo's ancestors were originally from: a small picturesque medieval town in the North-West of Italy, right on the border with France.