"...Desta needs - or, could really be helped by - having someone that knows that spell that that guy used, around.  All the time.  I'm good at books.  If they'd let me, I could probably learn it."

...There is no amount of precociousness and rulefollowing that will convince policy on the orphanage's reference copies of spellcasting tomes to be bent, even as Alicia is otherwise rather tearing through every bit of knowledge she can get her hands on.  Nor will even a carefully-saved five-year-old's market allowance usually permit independent purchase of such tomes.

(Even if it did, it would be too dangerous to permit such a thing to be learned here; the Royal Academy has quite stringent standards for novices' practice facilities for a reason.)

...Hope springs eternal, nonetheless.

Regardless - the elevator arrives back at their floor, Giselda grabs the next handful of kids, and Desta and the others are left to find seats -

- under the watchful supervision of an elven woman, whose irises gently shimmer like aurorae.

...She'll leave introducing herself for later.  Lunch waits for no woman.

Opal, as she usually does, places herself a few seats inwards from a corner, to be a social buffer between - Alicia and Desta, this time - and everyone else.

...Alicia puts her plate next to Opal's, and then quickly grabs some paper.  'Would you like the corner seat, or can I have it?'

She can take the second seat from the end, sure. Presumably Alicia will move her plate when she goes for it.

Yeah, she will.  'Thank you!'

She eats at a steady pace, not making any attempt to socialize with the other kids.

Alicia eats quickly, though still thoroughly, not socializing either -

- and Opal has already gotten around to saying all that she needed to say about current events, to the people who needed to hear her, earlier, so she mostly just exchanges a few polite nothings, and collects some papers.

...Well, that should be more ominous than she thinks it is.  (But that sixth sense in the back of her mind is insisting that there's nothing wrong, there, and it has never been wrong before.)

When it looks like everyone is about to finish their lunch, a casual circuit of the room allows her to place a neatly-folded sheet of paper with Desta's name on it next to her plate; it's written in a particularly crisp hand.

Desta

Hello.  My name is Niriel Cethena¹.  You can call me Miss El, for short.  I take care of everyone who lives here in the afternoon, until it is time for dinner, baths, and sleep. 

Speaking of sleep, Miss G has paired you with room 3 for lunch.  If you don't find a group you like better, that will be your bedroom, here.  We try to make sure everyone shares rooms with people they want to share rooms with.

Every afternoon, we go outside for a while, unless the weather means we can't or shouldn't.  Usually, we go to the playground.  We will go to the playground with another group of children like this one.  (Sometimes we go other places.  When that happens, most of us call it a 'field trip', even though we are not usually going on a trip to see fields.)

This afternoon, you will be getting some new clothes.  The quartermaster - the person whose job it is to keep track of all the stuff we use - will send someone up here who makes things out of cloth, and they will make sure you have all the clothes you need, and hopefully clothes that you want.  Think about what colors you might like, and what sort of clothes you want, though I'm sure the tailor - the person who makes things out of cloth - will be able to help you if you have any questions.

She doesn't get very far into the letter before she folds it back up, sets it as far from her as she can comfortably reach, and stares at the far wall, clearly distressed.

...oh.  Blast, she put some of those things in the wrong order.  ...She doesn't think that she can be the source of comfort Desta needs in this moment, either, not after having been the proximate cause of her distress.

....Opal would like to offer Desta a hug.

Opal will have to get Desta's attention in order to do that, and Desta startles a little when she notices her trying, but she accepts the hug. Clings, a little. Sobs, quietly.

...oh.  Oh, she thinks she knows what this is.

(She grew up here.  But she's seen others that didn't.)

There will be a lot of hug.  Maybe even soothing pats.  Her plans for a welcome letter get unceremoniously pushed off.

Now that she's started crying she's not sure she can stop. Or rather: she can't stop. It's not even getting better.

The hugging will continue until morale improves.  If it looks like it's going to take a while she might try moving them to a bedroom.

Yeah that might need to happen. She's trying not to cause a scene but she's not really succeeding at it.

...She doesn't know how Opal came across this sense of - far too much responsibility - but blast it she can't let it break her.  And it probably will, if she doesn't intervene - she can see the way Opal is trying to hold back her own tears.

Once Opal has gotten Desta out of the middle of the shared space - with the scene it could have been veiled from its putative audience by powers arcane - she's going to knock on the door.

"...Opal.  I think you know what this is, and I think you know it's not something you can make better.  You've done everything you can.  May I try?"