"I'll leave Akamu's previous partner, Pekelo. Pekelo is young enough yet that she's more interested in a friend than a romantic interest. She also looks younger than she is, since she's so small. She is unusually short and scrawny for her age, though she hopes she'll grow some during puberty (spoiler alert: she really won't).
Pekelo also has very strange magic, in comparison to all the other mages she knows. She can't shield or manipulate the elements or bend light to create illusions. In fact, she can't see illusions at all. She always sees the true nature of a thing. When she looks at shapeshifters, she sees the shadow of their true form hovering around them. She can always find things she is familiar with, and sometimes things she's not familiar with. It's not that she knows where they are, they just sort of reveal themselves to her.
Her weird magic and her size are connected. You see, she's not fully human, despite looking like an unusually small islander. Her father was one of the small folk who live in the mountains and their people have an entirely different sort of magic.
Pekelo is naturally curious and a bit outgoing. She has no hesitation going up to strangers to ask them questions, but she's not the sort that makes a lot of close friends. She's gotten a lot of crap in School about her weird magic, so she doesn't open up to people like she used to. She'd love a friend who could accept her for who she is and who saw value in her magic."