A soft hand was carefully feeling the healed skin below his hairline when Zack awoke after a meager hour and a half of sleep.

“When did you get back?” He muttered, blearily peering up at his sister, and the stuffed bear Zelda clutched tightly in her free arm.

“Jean stopped by Edith’s after she dropped you off. I’ve been here ever since.” Now that he was awake, she stopped holding back and proceeded to poke and prod everywhere that he had been injured. “The healing seems to be the same as before.” She said, after satisfying her curiosity.

“Yup, my rib is almost fully healed.” He stood and pulled off the bandage, binding his previously injured stomach. “And as you can see, it also healed and fixed some of the damage from the last few years.”

The muscles of his stomach and arms were bigger and more pronounced than they had been the day before.

“There is something else.” He sat on the bed and pulled her close. “I got a new title and noticed something I had never paid attention to before in my Life Burner ability.”

Zara remained silent while he told her about both items and then moved on to everything Jean had said. “Putting aside the title, which will give you a nice head start, and the possible implications of your ability. What are we going to do about Jean and the military?” Her head was resting on Zelda’s fluffy top, nibbling nervously at her lower lip.

It was a question that he himself had been thinking about near constantly since she revealed everything to him. “We are going to stay here, and learn as much as we can, while eating as much as we want. For now, at least, I think we are safe enough. The military doesn’t seem interested in experimenting on us. I don’t think they even know you went through the portal with me.”

“Can we trust them?”

He laughed. “No. Jean was told enough that when she spoke with me, everything she said would appear as the whole truth. For now, we can depend on them to make sure we stay safe. If they ever learn more of our secrets, however, that could easily change.”

Zara glanced down at Zelda with a hint of longing in her eyes. “Are we going to sneak me through the portal?”

“Do you think you could even go through it?” Zack returned with a frown. “Has your status returned?”

She shook her head. “No, but when we went to see the portal the other day with Jean, I had the feeling that I could go through it then, if I wanted. I’ve been thinking about it since, and I think our race or title may allow me to go through regardless of whether I have access to my status. It’s just an idea at this point, and there is only one way to confirm it.”

He thought it over before replying. “Today is Holztag, and the last day of classes for the week. If you are serious about wanting to try, then we can go tonight to watch the area and make a plan. Depending on what we learn, we can either try during the weekend or wait until next week.”

“Do we go straight there after working tonight?”

“That would probably be easiest.” He glanced at the clock on the wall. “I need to get ready. Are you going to come to breakfast with me?” He had partially slept, and then talked through the remainder of the time he usually used for morning exercises.

“Will you walk me back?” Zara held tightly to Zelda as she made the request.

Zack rubbed the top of her head. “If you want me to, then, of course, I will.”

***

Zara got some odd looks at breakfast when they saw her carrying around George. Thankfully, no one approached them, and they were able to eat in peace.

“You are looking much better this morning,” Edith told him when he dropped Zara off at her place. Jean’s excuse of getting him some proper healing no longer seemed believable to her. She was a smart woman and knew enough to leave the matter alone. Some things shouldn’t be pried at, especially when the military was involved.

He winced, imagining how his classmates would react. “You wouldn’t happen to have some makeup or anything I could use to make it appear as though they are still there?”

“The best we could do with makeup is make it so heavy that people can see it. They will think it is covering the bruises they saw yesterday. If we do that then I can guarantee the nobles in your class will say something mean and derogatory. Can you handle that?”

He shrugged. “No worse than usual, and it will be better than the questions I would raise otherwise.” It would also have the benefit of explaining why no one had seen his bruises at breakfast.

Edith pointed to a seat at her table. “Sit, I’ll go get my makeup. I just hope they are still in a condition to be used. I haven’t touched the stuff for years, not since my husband died.” Her eyes dimmed at the mention of her husband, and she quickly left the room.

“She’s never mentioned that she was married before,” Zara whispered to him, glancing around the room curiously, as though a picture she had never noticed before would suddenly appear.

“Well, to be fair, talking about the past around us is a fairly tricky endeavor. I’m sure it would have come up eventually once she became more familiar with us.”

Edith returned a minute later with a large expensive container held in her arms.

“Uh, that looks expensive.” Zack immediately balked at the thought of her wasting the potentially pricy cosmetics on him. “Are you sure you want to waste them on something like this?”

She waved away his concern and set the container on the table. “I already said I don’t use them anymore. They are only going to spoil and become rubbish in that state. At least this way they can be useful one last time.”

He said nothing more and sat still as she and Zara proceeded to cake his face with the old makeup. The dry and clumpy mess was slowly worked into his skin by a giggling Zara. Edith would then smooth it out and make it appear as though it was hiding something and not simply caked on.

The two shared a look and stepped back at the same time.

“What do you think, does he need more?” Edith asked her young apprentice.

Zara laughed and shook her head. It was a sound that warmed Zack’s heart; it was a rare sound, or at least it had been. She had been doing it more recently.

He was handed a small mirror. “I look like one of those people walking the streets late at night!”

Edith’s jaw dropped, and Zara fell to the floor in a fit of laughter.

“At least it will keep people from looking closer.” He handed the mirror back with a smile and stood with a feigned grunt of pain. “I should get going.”

Tessa was standing in front of the dorm when he exited. Her arms were crossed and a near-murderous look pulling her lips thin.

“You weren’t in class yesterday, neither was Spencer.”

She fell into step beside him and looked closely at the makeup with a critical eye. “You look ridiculous!” Her eyes tracked across the spot where his skin had been torn open by the tree, widening in surprise when there was nothing there. “Who did your healing?” Her hand shot out and grabbed hold of his upper arm, stopping him.

Tessa was distracted by the muscles under her hand, and she released him in shock. “I saw his arms just the other day. Were his muscles that big before?” She muttered to herself in thought.

The muscles in his arms had been defined and strong from constant use in construction. A lack of protein in his diet had kept them small and compact, their size hiding the power they contained. The nutrition bars combined with his recent healthier eating had given his body enough material to work with during his healing.

The ability wouldn’t always have such pronounced results on his body. It was mostly because of how terrible his body’s state had been prior to entering the academy. Even in the normal world, his body had been in a state of healing, working to fix years of accumulated damage. The effects had combined to heal him in ways it wouldn’t normally.