Chapter 6

Tali sat at her desk sipping quietly from a mug of steaming coffee. A small pile of documents rested on the desk in front of her, calling for her attention. As she skimmed the pages, she sighed in resignation, telling herself to just get it over with, so she could get on with more important work. The workload was neither abundant, nor was she particularly bad at paperwork, she simply abhorred the tediousness of spending so much time at a task, which should be left to others.

She leaned back and spun around in her swivel chair with her mug in hand, and gazed out of her third-floor office window. The practice field in front of the building was buzzing with activity and through the open window, she heard the dull thuds of wooden weapon colliding with wooden weapon and the pained grunts of cadets being hit. It had been a while since she had given up on training with most of the other soldiers. The power she could draw from her body was matched by few in the city, and like herself, they too, were busy with all manners of work.

She wasn't much for bragging, but was completely aware of her own strength. Nothing would be gained from beating those weaker than herself. She sighed again, and pushed her chair around to face the desk once more.

The man in front of her had been waiting patiently for her to instigate the discussion. He was gigantic by most standards, towering a good two heads above Tali. His features were weathered with a scar spanning from his right eyebrow down past his lips creating an absence of facial hair in a narrow line. He had tanned skin and a full white beard, shoulder-long white hair, and a muscular body. His hands looked massive enough to firmly envelop another person’s head.

"Well, are you ready to talk?" he asked dryly, "You know I don't have all day, Tali."

"Yes, let's get straight to it." She leaned forward and put both elbows on the pile of documents. "I want to speak to you about someone I've met recently."

The man studied her with narrowed eyes, "Go on..."

"A boy was arrested when he tried to enter the city a few months ago. Did you know?" she inquired with a pleasant smile.

He frowned, “Should I know?”

“No.” She kept smiling and leaned back in her chair again.

“Is there a point to this conversation?” he questioned sourly, “If not, I’d prefer to spend my time elsewhere.” he admitted flatly.

“I want you to take him in, Sighart. I want you to groom him to become someone who will work for this city.” she told him.

Sighart was not exactly a young man anymore, but strength still radiated from him like heat from a flaming hearth. He was usually a calm and gentle man, but Tali always seemed to rub him the wrong way, and encounters with her put him in a foul mood. “Care to elaborate?” He supported his cheek on his knuckles tiredly, impatient to get out of the woman’s office.

“He arrived about four months ago, half naked and looking like he’d never had a bath in his life. He’s probably in his early teens by my guess. He refused to utter a word, so naturally, I had to keep him under lock and key until he said who he was.” she explained.

“… Naturally.” Sighart said with indignation, rolling his eyes expressively.

Tali paused to regard him with a raised eyebrow. “Well, as it turns out, he’s no one.”

“No one? What do you mean by no one?” Sighart asked.

“He called for me yesterday. To talk for the first time. He doesn’t have a past. At least not one he recalls. Apparently, he walked out of Raha four months ago, having spent his entire life within its depths. He said, that he’d never met another human before, and that he didn’t speak because he couldn’t.” she elaborated.

Sighart sat up straight, finally focusing his attention on Tali. “Did you believe him?”

Tali looked intently into his eyes. “I listened to his heart and his breathing and saw his eyes. He definitely did not seem to be lying.” she admitted, “I had my doubts about him, but the more I think about it, the more I think that he speaks the truth. It’s such an unlikely story, that I can’t help but believe him.”

“And you want him in my school, why?” Sighart watched the shrewd woman in front of him, trying to unveil her true intentions.

“Sighart, the boy has no affiliations – literally none. It’s perfect! If we can make him one of ours, we could stand to gain much. You and I both know that he can’t be ordinary, if he learned a language almost fluently with such little time – not to mention surviving in Raha alone for years. He’s bound to be talented with infusion to have done that.” Tali eagerly babbled, almost standing up in her excitement.

Sighart’s excitement was less pronounced. Unlike Tali, he wasn’t the type to nonchalantly deceive a little kid and train them to do his bidding for the sake of power. He much preferred to be left with his books and his training. He was the principal of the only school in the country, where one could learn infusion and alteration with the help of skilled warriors. He desired to see the young learn and grow to be decent and honorable, not as thugs in the pocket of some stuck-up lord.

Sighart was silent for a good minute, while Tali calmed down and awaited his reply quietly. With arms crossed, Sighart closed his eyes in contemplation, considering how he should tackle the problem.

Finally, he spoke, “Alright. I’ll do it.” he said, “He can attend. However… I will be the one to organize it, and the last thing I want to see are your goons sneaking about on my campus to keep an eye on him.” Sighard firmly stated with a finger raised for emphasis. He knew from experience, that Tali had eyes and ears everywhere. He was glad to not have her as an enemy, but it was still a pain to have her as an ally, too.

“Naturally, he will start out in regular classes, like everyone else. If he has the talent, he’ll climb the ladder whether you will it or not, like everyone else.” Sighart added menacingly.

Tali agreed readily, as if she had foreseen this exact outcome and planned accordingly.

“When can he start?” she asked

“Hmm, give me a week to get it settled.” he replied after a moment of thought.

“Fair enough.”

“Ah, one more thing, Sighart.” Tali hurried to say. “Can the boy live in your dorms? And if yes, when can he move in?”

“Of course, he can. In fact, unless there’s a good reason, it’s mandatory to live on campus. We have plenty of room for him right now. We prefer to have a few rooms too many, rather than too few rooms. That’s why our construction crew built a new wing three years ago.” One of the things Sighart loved to talk about was his school. Even if he wasn’t too fond of the person he was speaking too, he still liked to brag about his students and staff.

Sighart grumbled to himself, “Was that all? If so, I will take my lea-.“

A loud knock on the door interrupted him, and he instantly dreaded the prospect of having to stay longer.

“Enter!” Tali called to the visitor, and the door opened slowly, revealing a young man in uniform peeking into the room from the hall outside. He shuffled in and closed the door behind him without taking his eyes off Tali and Sighart’s imposing figures. He saluted his superiors and like a stranded fish, closed and opened his mouth continuously without a sound, as if looking for something to say.

“Well?” Tali snapped with irritation, annoyed at the interruption.

“Y- Yes, my name is Jos Baran, ma’am! I’m a new recruit. I came to deliver a message from Squad Captain Darrich, ma’am.” Jos said, awaiting the signal to continue.

“Go on.”

“As you ordered, we have detained all who sought to enter through the north-western gate. Two individual caught the Captain’s attention, and he sent me here to request your involvement in the situation.”

Tali instantly perked up. She started gathering her things to leave as she spoke, “Good work, recruit. How did they react?” she asked curiously, seeming happy with the outcome.

“Uh, well, the situation did not really allow for much of a reaction. We had to act with haste.”

Tali stopped dead in her tracks, head whirling around to stare at a suddenly bewildered Jos, whose nerves were not prepared to deal with the scrutiny under which he now found himself. He had been doing so well, and now the scariest person he could think of was glaring at him menacingly, looking about ready to pounce on him.

“What do you mean?” Tali almost whispered as her eyes narrowed and her brows furrowed. Her eyes almost seemed to glow with vexation, and Jos knew her to be powerful enough that he wouldn’t put it past her to emanate energy.

“W-w-well, one of them – a boy – had a few bad cuts on his arm, and the other was an older man. B-badly mangled, he was. A h-hunter for the king, according to the hospital staff, so we assumed it to be an animal attack.” Jos managed to stutter. His whole body was shaking quite markedly, and he felt like he couldn’t think properly, and his words would not come out properly. He was afraid. Curse the captain, who had sent him here on a bloody whim.

Sighart practically flew from the chair he had been sitting in and rushed to grab the frightened Jos by the shoulders. “One of the king’s hunters?” he exclaimed, panic evident in his voice, “What was his name?”

Jos, accosted by another individual with power that outstripped his wildest dreams, had lost all ability to form words and could do little more than try to keep himself from wetting his uniform.

“Answer me!” Sighart bellowed.

“I… I-I’m not…” Jos stammered.

“It’s Maldr.” Tali interjected, “I asked him to take the boy into Raha to hunt. I must admit, I didn’t expect it to end like this.” Tali shrugged as she put on a jacket, that had been slung over a chair in the corner of her office. “I apologize.” She bowed to Sighart penitently.

“I’m not the one you apologize to, Tali.” he scoffed through clenched teeth and abruptly left the room, slamming the door after him, causing specks of dust from the wall to rain down onto the floor.

Tali gave an indiscreet sigh and went to get her gleaming spear from a wooden rack affixed to the wall. When she turned around she looked at Jos, almost as if she had forgotten he existed.

“Oh, you’re still here. Good job on the report. You are dismissed.” she smiled and patted Jos on the shoulder as she walked past him out of the door, leaving him standing alone in his superior’s office. He stood completely still, fearing that the smallest movement might call her back. His face was as blank as a piece of paper, and almost as white. Slowly his knees buckled under him, and the young man stumbled backwards until his back hit the wall against which he slid down onto the floor. He put his face in the palms of his hands and shuddered as the terror slowly unwrapped itself from around his suffocating heart.

“Ah shit, shit, shit…” Those auras had been something else entirely. A little more of that, and he was sure he would have fainted. It hadn’t even been two months since young Jos was accepted as a recruit and already, he had been thrown into the midst of predators. His brother, who was still at the College, and his father, who was a retired soldier both had grand expectations of him, yet here he was, scared of his superiors. Jos sincerely hoped he would never have to cross paths with those two monsters again.

Confusion tore through Raiel’s mind as he opened his eyes. His body was sluggish after having been artificially put to sleep, and trying to keep his eyes open required most of his concentration.

A muffled voice seemed to be continually speaking, slowly becoming clearer and clearer as he listened. He experimentally tried to raise his arm up from the bed and felt a stranger’s fingers grasp his hand firmly, helping him to keep his arm aloft. Curious, he let his head roll to the side to see Eryna’s face smiling brightly at him. Her lips evidently moved, but the sound seemed to echo inside his head, making it difficult to determine where it was coming from. He also saw the wound on his raised arm, which had stopped bleeding entirely, the surface of the injury now a dried, dark red crust of congealed blood. Tiny, almost invisible threads had been pulled through his skin from one side of the wound to the other, binding it tightly together. He tried to touch it with his other hand, but was stopped by Eryna, who gently pushed his arm back down.

He tried to speak to her, but his speech was slurred, and he found himself unable to think straight, phrasing and words escaping him as though loosely falling through his fingers like sand, when he tried to catch them. Eryna chuckled at his attempt, standing up from his bedside and walked over to a sink where she filled a large glass with water. She held it up to his mouth and a good amount of the liquid spilled onto his chest as he ineffectively struggled to swallow. His throat was parched.

When he’d taken the entire glass, half of it ending up outside of his mouth, he spoke again.

“Where… am…”

“We’re in the hospital.” Eryna answered him quickly, with a reassuring grin. “You’re going to be a little tired and disoriented from the drug, especially in these first few minutes after waking. You’ll be walking and talking properly soon enough, I promise.”

That’s right. She’d rudely stabbed him in the arm and then he couldn’t remember what happened. But judging from the stitches, she had done what she’d said.

She looked behind her to Maldr’s bed and an apprehensive expression appeared on her face as she leaned in close and whispered to him, “I think the man called Maldr will be okay, but there have been some unusual people stopping by to see you both.” she said, eyes wide open, “First, the principal. I almost never see him, since he’s busy with this or that. Sometimes, you see him around campus, and he always smiles and greets everyone, but today, he looked so… different.”

Eryna glanced over her shoulder before she resumed speaking in a hushed tone. “Now, there’s a really scary lady here. She said she’d wait for you to wake up, but I’ve got a bad feeling about her, Raiel.” Raiel immediately knew who she was referring to, but he still hoped he was wrong.

“Ahaa,” A familiar, female voice sounded from directly behind Eryna. Eryna gasped and whirled around, only to stand face to face with Tali. “So, he’s finally awake.” Tali said smoothly and stepped around the girl to look at Raiel.

“How are you feeling? Quite a bad one, eh?” she remarked as she carefully inspected his arm.

“I’ve had worse,” Raiel retorted with narrowed eyes and a sneer before he pulled back his arm, which still felt powerless and immobile. He hoped she did not notice the state he was in, although he could hardly imagine that cunning woman not recognizing such an obvious fact. “Why are you here?” he questioned.

Tali’s face lit up. “I come bearing wonderful news!”

Raiel’s brow creased into a frown at the unexpected answer. It would likely be anything but wonderful. “What news?”

“I pulled some strings, so to speak, and was able to get you into the College. A most exceptional opportunity for a young man such as yourself!” she said with grandeur

“… College?” Raiel didn’t recall the word.

Eryna’s glowing face peeked out from behind Tali, and Raiel saw her giggle gleefully. “That’s where I go, too! Now we can see each other!” She paused with a sharp intake of breath, a sudden realization striking her, “Ah, no, I didn’t mean it like that. Just as friends, you know.” She corrected herself nervously. Raiel really had no clue what she was talking about, so he just nodded his head.

“Do you know what a school is?” Tali asked, causing Eryna to raise her eyebrows in confusion.

“Yes.” Raiel said. He had, on a few occasions, heard some of the people from the marketplace complain about their children’s scholarly performance in school, and he had gleaned enough from those conversations to put together a basic definition of a school. A place where humans went to study and receive instruction in various things.

“Well, college is a synonym for school. It’s basically the same thing.” she elaborated.

“I don’t know what a synonym is either…” he noted.

Eryna broke into the conversation and explained. “When you have two words that do not sound similar but have similar meanings, they are synonyms for each other.” she said proudly, having seemingly forgotten how scary she thought Tali was before.

“Exactly so.” Tali added with her eyes closed in irritation. “To get back to the matter at hand: I’ve secured your admission into the College, a school with an impressive reputation, and one that is known for its wide variety of classes, subjects, and academic fields.”

When Raiel had heard about schools, it had been one of the things he really wanted to try. It still was. However, when Tali offered it so generously, he could not help but be suspicious of her true intentions. Yet, he also could not come up with a good reason to decline her offer. There was obviously the quite likely chance that she had an ulterior motive, but even so, it would be a great chance to learn more about society and the world and thus better arm himself to deal with Tali in the future. Sound logic, if he had to say so himself.

Additionally, since meeting Komren, and now Eryna, too, he understood that there were also humans who were nice. If he could find more of those, he felt like he wouldn’t have to be so worried. He wanted friends who could support him, who could help him understand when he didn’t understand, and with whom he could enjoy his days.

He let Tali hang for a bit, while he pretended to think about his decision. She eyed him with hopeful expectation, and it felt like a tiny victory to have tricked her into thinking he wasn’t sure about whether he would go.

“I accept.” he finally told her.

“Excellent! I knew you would make the right choice!” she exclaimed. “Unfortunately, it will be a week’s time before you can start your classes. However, tomorrow, you’ll be taken to the campus outside the city walls. You’ll be living there from now on. You’ll even get your own room. Please do your best in your studies and learn a lot.” she said with a smile, which he thought didn’t fit her usual demeanor very well.

“For today, you should rest and recover as much as you can, okay?”

“Yes.” he said expressionlessly.

“Good good. I’ll see you soon. Oh, and you should probably take a proper bath before tomorrow.” And with that she turned on her heel and left, leaving no time for him to say anything.

He was a little stunned at this more than unexpected turn of events. This friendly approach was one of the last things he thought she would try, and he didn’t know how to feel about it.

He slowly got out of bed, letting Eryna help him to his feet. Looking down, he was garbed in a weaving robe, made of a thin, beige fabric. He walked around the room a little to get the feeling back in his legs. He felt the effects of the sedation drain away gradually, and he went to look at Maldr.

The man was breathing normally and looked to be in comfortable sleep despite the bloodied cloth wrapped around his torso.

“He was lucky to live.” Eryna commented from behind him. “If you hadn’t carried him all the way here like you did, he would likely be dead by now.” Raiel was glad that Maldr wasn’t dead. He wasn’t sure if he liked that man, though.

“Do you have a place where I can clean up?” Raiel enquired.

“Yep! We have showers down the hall.” she beamed. “Let me show you. Come on!”

“Showers?” he asked, as he followed her out of the door and into the same hall he’d been in earlier. It felt like everything had happened yesterday, but from the sun still shining through the windows, he knew it couldn’t be more than a few hours ago.

“You’ll see.” she laughed.

She led him past many closed doors and a few open ones, through which he could see other patients in various stages of health. Some were bedridden, like he himself had been just moments ago, while others were joyfully chatting with nurses and other patients. This was a very busy building.

They passed the turn they’d taken when they first arrived, and he could just barely see the reception desk down the hall in the distance. It was a very large building, too. Larger than he had thought it to be when seeing it from outside.

When they reached the far end, Eryna stopped in front of the last door.

“This is the shower room. You can wash in there. Just pick a booth and go ahead. And over here:” she directed his attention to the door opposite of the shower room. “We have the bathrooms. When you enter the showers, you’ll find fresh towels to dry yourself with inside.”

“Thank you.” Raiel nodded.

When he made to open the door, Eryna grabbed his shoulder and looked at him with a wicked grin. “There’s something strange about you, you know. Will you tell me about yourself?” she asked with interest, but then hurried to add, “Not right now, though. I have to see Nurse Sakano. She told me to come as soon as you woke up, so I’m already late.” She yelled a goodbye as she rushed back the way they came. He scratched the back of his head in wonder of her funny behavior

The shower room was steamy from the many people using the hot water regularly and Raiel could hear the water running in a few of the booths. Directly to his left upon entering the room, he saw a stack of neatly folded towels and brought one with him to a booth with no sounds coming from inside.

He pulled on the door, and it opened with a small click. Stepping inside, he found a single valve on the wall and a showerhead protruding from the ceiling. He wasn’t sure what to do with it, but when he pulled or pushed the contraption, nothing happened. When he tried turning it, he was startled by the sudden rush of cool water washing over him. His body and his clothes were instantly drenched, so he undressed, and threw the robe to the side.

Quickly, it grew warmer and warmer and he started to enjoy the experience which used to be nothing but a chore. His arm burned slightly in the hot water, but the sedation still seemed to have an effect, and the sensation was little more than a buzzing numbness. A bar of soap had been placed on a small wooden shelf hanging from the valve, but it smelled terrible and itched in his nose. He decided to let it be.

After the warmth had spread throughout his body, he felt fuller of energy, and turned off the water, using the towel to dry his hair and skin. The towel was the softest thing he’d ever felt. It was amazing.

With no clothes to put on, he held the towel around his waist to cover himself, and ran to his hospital bed. He received more than a few appalled glances as he jogged half naked through the long corridor. When he got to his room, he was happy to see a fresh robe waiting on the bed. He did, however, decide to not wear it, and simply slipped under his covers wearing nothing.

His backpack was tucked under his bed, and reaching into it, he found what he was looking for. He pulled out his two books, made himself comfortable with his head on a nice, soft pillow, and read the picture book again. He could never get enough of that book. Although it was a bit under his level now, he found immense joy in reading it every single time.

He managed to read it a couple of times before he eventually gave in to exhaustion and fell asleep, completely relaxed for the first time in a long time. It finally felt like he was making progress.