It was the second time I found myself in a sterile room, the walls white-washed, and surgical instruments neatly ordered and aligned. As my vision cleared and I was able to focus, I saw a healer diligently help herself to needed paraphernalia as she worked to repair the break to my nose.

The snap of cartilage as she used her thumbs to reposition and reshape the deformity back into the original shape brought tears to my eyes. Those tears the only reaction to the pain. I was afraid that movement or screaming would worsen the treatment and lengthen the process. And the Healer wasn't aware I was awake. She was focused on her tasks.

"What do you mean he isn't going to be expelled?" Tarrah demanded. The conversation between her and an Elder taking place in the corridor, but the invectives loud enough that even with the exam room door closed I could hear.

Tarrah's indignation both surprised me and filled me with warmth. She had just met me, and although she was my assigned Mentor, we hadn't really formed any kind of bond yet. That she would be outraged on my behalf had me thinking better of her. Her earlier attempts to defend and this outrage was comforting. I thought it possible we could become more than Mentor/Mentee, that we could become friends.

"You know who his father is, Tarrah, you can't really be surprised that the Discipline Elder was convinced that the attack was an accident, a bit of playful banter between Sect members," a foreign voice responded.

"With respect Elder Wol, that is bullshit," Tarrah responded in disgust. "I don't believe for one moment that Patriarch Amaya would agree to this. She may be in isolation, but if those idiots believe she won't find out about this, then they are as much a fool as Braun is."

I knew Patriarch Amaya was the woman who headed the Sect but had no idea who Elder Wol was. I was more interested in why they would give a woman the title of Patriarch instead of Matriarch than discovering the identity of the Elder.

The title had become gender-neutral over the years. There were still those that were addressed as Matriarch, but if there was only one person who stood at the apex of an organization, they were addressed as Patriarch. If the Sect had been headed by a man and woman, only then would she have been addressed as Matriarch Amaya. Cultivation had gone a long way in ensuring equality between the sexes.

"And no matter how you look at it, Braun is an idiot," she stated emphatically. "Trying to circumvent anti-theft wards that the Sect had been commissioned to install? That is more than idiotic, it is a betrayal to the Sect that supports him.

"And everyone knows that the reason he acts with such impunity is that you Elders allow it. You have made allowances for him you would never make for another Sect member.

"Stop letting his father and brother protect him. Stop letting them clean up after his messes. Let him face the world like every other Cultivator, with his own skills and knowledge. Or when he leaves these walls, he is not only leaving as an idiot, he is leaving as a victim, fresh meat walking. The first powerful person he insults won't allow him to pay reparations, they are just going to turn him into meat paste and loot his corpse."

"It seems like he isn't the only idiot. I think your position as core disciple to Elder Tye has gone to your head. No matter how highly placed you are, you are still not a Sect Elder. And even if you were, there are constraints that tie even our hands," Elder Wol admonished Tarrah.

"A position I hold because I have earned it. I don't care how angry you are, or who your Master is. I will levy the same fine against you as was levied against Braun if you don't shut up and start thinking.

"Braun's father and brother will need to worry about what happens to him once he leaves the safety of the Sect. They only have themselves to blame if, as you say, he is destined to become 'meat paste'. If they choose to coddle him, then they have to bear the consequences.

"As for this incident, you know they didn't get off without paying a stiff penalty. His father had to agree to pay all alchemical costs Jai will incur during training for a year. With someone else bearing the cost of supplies, she can evolve greatly in that time if she works hard and is lucky enough to have any talent at pill creation. It is even possible, if she is diligent, to make Journeyman rank within that year," he informed her.

"With these resources paid for by Elder An, she can spend more time cultivating and less time away from the Sect on missions."

"That only helps if she survives the year. You know as well as I do that Braun or his brother will take every chance they can to sabotage her. She will never be safe on her own. And when she has to go on missions? How much do you want to bet that some toady of Braun's or his fathers is ordered to follow along?" Tarrah asked.

The healer that had been working on me had remained indifferent to the conversation that we were over-hearing, but her ministrations were finally finished. She had noticed I was awake when she was cleaning the last of the blood from my face. Once finished, she had me take a healing pill that would increase the repair of the fractured cartilage in my nose.

"You should wait to hone the bones in your skull for at least a month. Allow the break to fully heal," she advised me as she began the process of cleaning, sorting, and returning order to the examination room.

"You may notice mild pain when you are cycling you Qi the first time or two but bear with it. The pain will ease with each revolution. If you can, add a thirty-minute cultivation cycle in the morning when you first wake as well. It will go a long way towards speeding up the healing process.

"In a month, have Elder Tye do a scan and make sure there were no issues with healing, no splinters of bone or cartilage that sheared off. If he clears you, then you can begin honing the bones in your face," she said as she finished sanitizing her instruments.

Opening the door, she gestured for the duo that had been holding a heated conversation in the hall to enter. "She's well on the way to being fully mended. I've advised her not to attempt honing the bones in her skull or face for a month. I will forward my advice to Elder Tye," she informed Tarrah and Elder Wol before leaving to enter another exam room.

"Jay? Are you OK?" Tarrah asked, she was the first through the door, her concern evident in her question as well as her feelings of guilt. I'm not sure what it is she felt guilty about, maybe she felt she could have done something to protect me. That she used her Qi to deflect most of the strike was the only reason I wound up with just a broken nose. It could have been so much worse.

"I've been better," I joked with her. "I think I might need to get a movement technique as soon as possible. Especially if you are right and they are going to continue targeting me."

She didn't appreciate my joke, her look of concern morphed into one of horror. I saw no reason to pretend to not have heard the discussion between her and the Elder. It might have allowed her to save face, but I'd rather be upfront and direct, considering she thought my life was going to be in constant danger.

She and the Elder who had entered soon after her were noticeably uncomfortable that I had overheard their conversation. The Elder did not look pleased. I wasn't sure if it was that they had been having a heated argument where I could hear, or that I had been so lacking in manners as to comment on it.

I guess even a broken nose wasn't motivation enough for me to learn to be mindful of my audience. This was the second time I'd opened my mouth and things had just popped out. My mother, in my other life, often accused me of having diarrhea of the mouth, shit comes out, explosively at times.

It was hard to argue with her when I consistently proved her right.