The sky was dark when Zack finally stirred. His entire body ached and bruises he didn’t recognize covered his body. Evidently, the boys hadn’t left without beating on him some more.

His left eye was sealed shut with dried blood from where it had hit the tree. The lower teeth in his mouth felt slightly loose, and his jaw pulsed painfully with the beat of his heart. He was in rough shape, and there was nothing he could have done to prevent it.

The words he had said to the sergeant when they first arrived echoed in his mind. He couldn’t help but laugh at his own ignorance.

Had he really believed, even for a second, that he could stand up to these people? They didn’t play by any rules and had attacked him as a group. He had no power on this side of the portals, and fighting dirty meant nothing against a situation like he had just been in.

Zack rolled onto his back, nearly passing out from the pain, and draped his arm over his eyes. Everything hurt, but the one that was the worst was undoubtedly his cracked rib. Even rolling over just then had pulled at the muscles in his stomach to an unbearable degree.

It took him several minutes to pull himself together enough to stand. It was more than enough time for him to mentally review his actions and everything that he had said. He couldn’t help but think that his mouth might have gotten away from him again.

The things he had said, without a doubt, had made the situation worse.

He needed to go through the portal soon. It was the only way for him to regain a sense of control. Without that control, or at least the belief that he possessed it, his mouth was getting worse.

He tottered away from the small grove of trees, unsteadily making his way back towards the dorms. There was no telling how late it was, but it was late enough that the paths were empty of students.

Zack was covered in a sheen of cold sweat when he pushed open the door to the dorm building a little later. Mentally, he was able to ignore the pain they had inflicted on his body. Physically, however, he was struggling to keep moving.

The constant tug on his injured rib and the general condition of his bruised body had made the brief trip unbearable.

A worried Tessa was sitting impatiently in the small waiting area near Edith’s door. She sprang to her feet and knocked on the door as soon as he stumbled into view. A second later, Zara burst through the door and ran to her brother. Edith hurried through the door a moment after her.

“What happened?” Zara noticed how he was holding the area above his stomach and stopped just before she would have tackled him.

His face paled, and he collapsed in front of them.

Working together, the three of them carefully dragged him into Edith’s and set about taking off his clothes. Zara protested the action a heartbeat too late. His shirt had already been removed by then.

Tessa stepped back with a gasp, while Edith’s eye narrowed into thin slits. Scars that no person of his age should have littered the visible skin of his stomach and side. The pale surface was a canvas for the thin precision cuts of a professional, and the long-jagged remains of monster attacks.

Zara ignored the scars and went directly to feeling the ice-cold skin and muscles beneath the many bruises. She wanted to know why he had been holding that specific area. She was very familiar with her older brother’s habits. He wouldn’t have been paying extra attention to that spot if it wasn’t something serious.

“Are you going to help?” She snapped at the dorm matron and teenage girl.

Tessa blinked and hurried to the kitchen to fetch some water and towels. Meanwhile, Edith opened a cabinet back by the door and pulled out a rather comprehensive first-aid kit.

“I watch over a bunch of rambunctious boys, things happen. Constantly.” She informed the young girl, who was looking curiously at the kit she was busy spreading out.

Carefully, Edith moved Zara’s hand to the side and felt at the spot she had been concentrating on. “I can’t say for sure, but the area around his lower ribs is all swollen. I think it might be broken or cracked at least.” Her finger traced a specific bruise above the rib that was a different color from the rest. “I’m not sure what to do about that. I’ve never had to deal with an injury like this before.”

“What about the academy nurse or doctor?” Tessa asked as she returned with a bowl of warm water and all the towels she could find.

“Call Jean McCleary first,” Zara burst out before Edith could respond. “She will know what to do.”

“The weapons training instructor?” Tessa was confused. What did their teacher have to do with the siblings?

The device Edith used to ‘call’ the teacher, and then the nurse, was based on a tech that had been invented shortly before the portals appeared. It was called a ‘Speaking Graph’ back then. The introduction of the mana crystals and then time had since changed and refined the idea.

The current iteration was called a ‘CryTel’ and consisted of two parts. The receiver, which was a metallic box with three sets of dials on the outside, and the transmitter which was held in the hand. Mana crystals were used to not only power them but also to form a connection between them and the device they were calling.

It was a luxurious, high-cost device that Zara and Zack hadn’t seen until they arrived at the academy.

Zack was still out cold when Jean arrived a few minutes later. Her lack of reaction to the boy’s many scars caused Edith and Tessa to raise their brows in shock. No matter who it was, those scars should have been a shocking sight. Her lack of of visible reaction could only mean one thing.

She had seen them before. Despite what the others believed, the scars had shocked her. She had always known they existed. Everyone in the squad knew about the scars covering both children when they were rescued. Despite that, they had remained hidden from view and now she knew why. A portion of those scars could only have come from the teeth and claws of monsters. Zack had indeed gone through the portal as a child.

Jean took over his treatment, muttering angrily the entire time. “Who did this to him?” She asked at last.

All three shrugged. They had no idea.

“Why are you here, student Ricerca? Last I checked, you live off campus!” Jean glared at her, not even hiding her suspicions that the girl had something to do with the attack.

There was a knock on the door right then that stopped her from answering. It was the nurse that Edith had also called.

The scowl on Jean’s face grew worse, but she didn’t stop the trained woman from approaching him. The secret of his many scars would get around eventually. If it came out now, it may even make some people hesitant to attack him. At least that was what she hoped as the woman gawped at them, her eyes filling with tears of sympathy.

“His ribs?” The nurse asked, after seeing how he had been wrapped.

“I think one of the lower ones was broken or cracked,” Jean told her. “It had the typical bruising pattern along with some swelling.”

“You did a good job on the wrapping,” She told them after inspecting it. “There isn’t much for me to do for him at this point. I can give you some medicine for him to take, or we can bring him to the hospital for a closer examination.”

“No hospital!” Zara told them firmly.

“Alright then, here are some pills for the pain, and a cream that will help the damaged skin to recover faster.” She hesitated and dug through the bottom of her bag. “He can also use this if he wants, it might help the scars fade some.”

“Thank you, nurse…?” Zara tilted her head; she had never gotten the nurse’s name.

“You can just call me Nurse Joy.”

“Thank you, Nurse Joy,” Edith gave her a relieved smile and ushered her out the door.

Zara continued to clean the blood from his forehead while they waited for Edith to return. They had cleaned the clotted blood, keeping his swollen eye shut earlier, but had also loosed the scab that had formed at the same time.

“I believe I asked you a question Ricerca,” Jean’s voice held a barely controlled fury as she glared coldly at the girl. “If I find out you had anything to do with this…” She let the threat dangle as Edith walked briskly in.

“I didn’t, I swear! I approached him at lunch. We talked briefly and were supposed to meet up outside of the mana tech building for our next class. He never showed up, or to our last class of the day, with Quinn. I got worried and came over to see if he was here but was stopped by Ms. Edith and Zara. I’ve been here ever since.”

“Do you have any idea who might have done something like this?” Edith asked her kindly, shooting a look at the teacher. “Has he made any enemies in the class that you know of?”

“Yes, and no,” Tessa replied with a waver of her hand. “There are plenty of students who don’t like him because of what he represents. As far as I know though, none of them hate or even dislike him enough to do this. He’s quiet and keeps to himself for the most part. None of us have interacted with him enough at this point to have formed a grudge.”