Gilliam opened his eyes slowly. The first thing he noticed was how bad he felt, he felt like shit both mentally and physically. The second thing he noticed was that he was in an unfamiliar room, the layout of several empty beds along the walls had a very recovery room feeling to it. Before he could sit up or do anything he felt a weird positive feeling kind of from the side, this felt like the same kind of happiness he felt when Savia experienced positive things before.

It didn’t take many seconds before she crash landed on his face with a huge smile on hers as she repeated “Master! Master!” over and over.

Seems she noticed him waking. Though there was plenty of happiness through their shared link there was also a sub-tone of relief and worry.

Gilliam didn’t really know what to say or react to this, he was oddly fond of the idea of someone worrying about him this much but at the same time he felt a bit bad for her.

“Hello.” Was all he managed to reply with, though he did have a slight smile as he did.

Forcing himself to sit up, readjusting his position so he used his pillow between his back and the headrest he had a somewhat comfortable sitting position.

This forced Savia to fall off his face, as he expected that to happen she landed in his cupped hands as he sat up.

Shortly after he sat up and she properly got situated in his right hand she started rambling, Gilliam struggled to catch it all as she moved from topic to topic and spoke at an alarmingly fast rate. The best he could catch was that she was explaining the things that happened from her angle, which seemed to focus a lot around him. This made somewhat sense, they were the ones bonded, not everyone else. And though he didn’t know how her species were about everything the Familiar bond was somewhat unique in this.

The end of her explanation was a bit different, it seemed to be focused around after the event, after he passed out.

“Calm down, I can’t understand you when you speak like that...” Gilliam had to interrupt her, though he was interested in the whole story he was most interested in the parts after he blacked out.

“What do you mean you needed to protect me?” He didn’t catch it all, but she mentioned something about protecting him after he ‘fell asleep’.

“Master fell asleep, after helping. Savia protected master, other human took Master. Put master in room. Savia protect master!” She puffed her chest in pride during her explanation.

Oh no... Gilliam became worried. Though it’s good that she did her best to protect him, the fight was over as far as he can remember. And she referred to whomever took him to a room so... This was probably the people of the academy.

As he was about to comment on this the door opened and a young man in white robes came in, his badge had a silver disc, a white and red mark on it explaining him as a Fire and Light mage in the 2nd year.

“Oh, you’re awake, that’s great!” he didn’t seem too distressed though as he came closer he didn’t get too close, stopping a few metres away.

Given that Savia hissed at him, something Gilliam didn’t even know she could or would do, things fell in place. She had indeed protected him but she didn’t understand.

“No, he’s a friend, he just wants to help me.” Gilliam explained to the angry creature in his hand.

She looked up at him and immediately smiled both at Gilliam and at the healer.

The healer smiled a bit as a result of this, although there was a hint of defeat in there. “She was adamant about your protection, I suppose we can be lucky that her venom isn’t that strong and we have healers...”

There it was... one of her victims... She did explain that humans were too big to be in danger of her venom but it was still venom, even a bee sting sucked though it was harmless to anyone not allergic.

“I... I apologise for her behaviour, she just wanted to protect me from the unknown...” Gilliam couldn’t -not- take responsibility for this.

Though his teaching her about society was suddenly halted only hours after their meeting it was still on him to control the situation. A bit hard when unconscious but still.

“Don’t worry about it, the important thing is that you are doing well.” There was an honest gentle smile backing up his statement. “You just suffered from severe mana fatigue, you were out for two days.Though I’m told that the man you helped would not have survived without it, so I can’t really fault you for it. I would have done the same.” His smile turned from warm and calm to a more proud nature.

“Ah, that’s good. I’m glad he made it out.” Gilliam’s smile was more forced and painful. The man got hurt protecting him during... The fight...

Now that the topic was properly brought up it all flashed before Gilliam’s eyes again; the chaos, the blood, the death... He felt nausea creep up in his throat, he had never even seen a dead person before but this... this was just too much.

Those people didn’t deserve it, they were just trying to defend themselves, to defend their students, defend their fellow people, their world. Though Gilliam didn’t know any of them that well, he had just been here a few days after all, he still couldn’t excuse this. He realised that the mental image of piercing the demon with his spell didn’t even matter, it was an invader that deserved what came to him. The teachers and students did not.

This had Gilliam curl up a bit, Savia jumping from his hand in flight, only to land in his hair in stead. She clearly sensed the distress but didn’t know how to handle it.

The healer had a sad smile, he clearly knew what was going on. Given the situation he had probably seen it a lot.

“Don’t worry about it. I know it’s not easy but consider the positives-” Gilliam looked to him as he explained, what could possibly be positive with this?

“-You saved everyone else, nobody was able to close that gate but you did. Though we cannot be sure there is a chance you saved not only everyone here at the academy, but the areas around the school as well.”

This... did help a bit, the situation was out of his control so changing anything was not possible, but he did indeed stop it from getting worse. Though not super heroic in a sense it was still very positive that it stopped.

“Besides-” the healer continued, again taking Gilliam’s focus, he walked to the door he came in from. “-I think there is someone who wants to speak to you.”

Opening the door and stepping out, he talked to someone outside of view. “He’s awake, fine physically, just mana deprived.” His smile was odd and honest.

It didn’t take more than a second before there was the sound of someone getting up from a chair fast enough to make it move and hit the wall. A few fast steps after and a man came around the corner into view. It was the soldier he healed to the point where he blacked out.

The man walked over with determination and without asking or even caring he lifted Gilliam from the bed and locked him in a tearful embrace.

“Thank you... Just... Thank you...” His words were honest, filled to the brim with emotion.

“I... You... You’re welcome...” Gilliam replied as he was literally dangling in the air through the hug. The man was quite taller than him and clearly incredibly strong.

Even though Gilliam was somewhat ‘under attack’ at the moment from Savia’s point of view, she seemed to behave at the moment and not attack. Perhaps now that he was awake the shared bond aided somehow?

The healer smiled at them, Gilliam saw him over the soldier’s shoulder.

“His daughter is a student at the academy as well.” Nothing more needed to be said, he just closed the door to them.

It took several very long and awkward seconds before Gilliam was let back on his feet. Still quite surprised at the situation he found it incredibly touching.

“Again. Thank you. I know you were just acting in the moment, doing your job or whatever excuses you might come with but... I cannot thank you enough. Not just for myself but... If there is anything I can do, anything at all. Say the word.” He looked incredibly determined. Like, adamantly determined to repay this.

“I don’t need anything in re*” Gilliam didn’t even get to complete his sentence, the guard interrupted him with metaphorical glints in his eyes.

“My name is Asol Kineh. My daughter is Rotia, your badge is bronze like hers so you might have seen her. Long red hair, better built than most her age?” He sounded like he really wanted to introduce her to him

Gilliam didn’t get to properly take this in, taking a better look at Asol Gilliam noticed now his face is scarred, clearly having some claw marks going across his nose and lips, the way they move seems like it might have gone into his chest as well.

A brief flash of his bloody body, armour slightly torn where the claws had shredded themselves into his body. Like a recording Gilliam saw him turn his body to see the wounds, channelling the healing into his body, bleeding stopping and wounds slowly almost closing before he blacked out.

“Oh, these?” Asol replied as he traced his fingers along them, breaking Gilliam out of his daydream. “I think they’re pretty cool, so don’t worry about them.” he sounded genuine but Gilliam couldn’t avoid the mental image of what he looked like after the attack.

Literally being shaken out of his thoughts, Asol smiled at him. “No, don’t go there. I know what you are seeing and it’s not pretty. In stead focus on the good things and take your time.” He had a sad smile on his face, there were quite a lot of those today. Asol had clearly seen his own share of things.

Both Asol and the healing mage did have good points, the positives are better than the negatives. Though this hit Gilliam hard, the positives did outweigh the negatives. And although it felt wrong to his core to weigh the lives of people like this against each other, the only thing you can do is your best, which is something Gilliam felt that he had done.

Not exactly out of his pit of despair he was in a better place, Asol honestly helped more than Gilliam could have foreseen. He seemed like a good man and great father.

“I think I’ll go get something to eat.” Gilliam said with only the hint of a smile, all things considered he was super hungry.

“That’s the spirit!” Asol cheered as he halfway pushed Gilliam out through the door and halfway down the hallway before he had to part ways. He had neglected his job long enough.

They parted in good spirits and though Gilliam still felt pretty bad he felt much better already.

Making his way to the mess hall he got weird looks from a lot of people, in the form of hushed conversations, conversations stopping once he gets close, people just staring or similar reactions.

It honestly felt uncomfortable, was this related to him saving someone or because he couldn’t save the others? The uncertainty made him slightly paranoid but at the same time, he went through the event like everyone else... It shouldn’t be that bad, right?

Eventually making his way into the hall he got in line like normal. One pair of students noticed him and started staring, then others did the same and it didn’t take long before most of them were either just silently staring or talking amongst each other in hushed tones.

It felt weird on several levels to be stared at like this by a bunch of young teenagers.

After a short while a young student decided to speak up. It was quite hard to find out if this person was male or female, there were more male than female there but it was not easy. The young boy had a 1st year pin with only the yellow field colored.

“Was it you?” he asked uncertainty.

Gilliam was halfway uncertain if he wanted to answer or not, but he hesitantly replied with a question of his own. “Was it me who did what?”.

Though it was without a doubt referring to the event but before he confirmed anything he wanted to just be sure what he admits to.

“Did you break the gate?” The boy had the same uncertain tone to his question.

Gilliam felt a bit relieved, though he halfway assumed this was what people were reacting to, he was incredibly relieved that it was a positive thing they were being all shady about.

“Yes, it was.” Gilliam answered honestly, he tried to act humble and calm but there might have been a little satisfaction in there.

“So, you were the one that sent that spear through both sides of the barrier, the crystal, the stone behind it and still reached the skies?”

He was... detailed, Gilliam himself didn’t even consider that to get through that far the spear had to go through both sides, so double the barriers. There was probably some stone in the arch as well, so... The boy was correct but it felt weird.

“Yes, I guess so.” This time he managed to act a little more humble, mainly due to the uncertainty of the situation. Given the staring from everyone around he was also not feeling entirely on top.

“Please, teach me that circle formation!” His composure and uncertainty broke, the boy instead broke out in a wishful hope. “I only saw three circles and the effect, I need to know!”

Gilliam realised this was going to be a trying moment. To get that over with as soon as possible he kept getting some food for himself and Savia. Though she didn’t eat much she still got her share which was just a random small piece of meat that had fallen off a larger one.

For himself he filled a bit more on his plate as he spoke to the boy, if he could keep focus between them perhaps others would not break in?

“I can’t properly remember it, I kind of just made it up then.... And ther..e...” As he completed his sentence he realised that he made it worse...

Had he pretended to know it and just not wanted to share it, then everything would have been normal. But to admit that he made up a three-circle array with sub-circles nested within, on the fly...

As expected, the boy in front of him was just baffled, like giving proof to your religious icon’s existence he was just the embodiment of confusion.

It only took a few seconds for an almost unanimous “What?!” to echo in the room as most people hearing this couldn’t believe it.

The fact that it was not dismissed as just bull, meant that... he already had a reputation or something.

Gilliam didn’t know who to curse, if this was a teacher, Asol or... No, it was probably just some students. They were without a doubt on the walls, some helping and some just wanting to watch, rumours spread but when you can say you saw something first hand it becomes a bit more believable.

“Wait, wait, wait.-” The boy finally returned to his senses and continued talking from there. “You made up that array on the fly?”

Damn it, he couldn’t lie now after just confirming it, but perhaps he could make it a little bit less amazing?

“Well, sort of. I did use a minute or so to get it properly set up.”

Balls... this was just more bragging.

Realising that eating alone wasn’t happening this round he placed Savia on the side of his plate and shoved her piece of meat over to her, she happily began eating without a care in the world.

Gilliam started eating as well as he just started walking towards a table near the door.

The young boy was still just as amazed. “Then you can create it again, or at least something like it, right?”

Oh, the boy was sharp. Annoyingly so.

This was true, he could probably do that, even though the pressure of the situation probably helped a lot. Desperation is a hell of a motivator, but even without that, given the weird knowledge of the runes he could most likely make something amazing by normal standards.

“I don’t know about that-” Gilliam realised he was about to admit that he had just started learning, but that would just have another reaction. “-It was sort of a panic moment thing. I doubt I can recreate it just like that. Sorry, don’t think I can help you.”

There, good, at least some truth.

“I don’t believe that. You were the one that made that explosion in the mountains as well, right?” The boy had a smug smile, like he got him on some blackmail thing.

And gods damn it... Gilliam doubted that Detia would share this as a teacher, she might but he seemed more likely that the young Aeris could have shared.

He wanted to deny it... but he disliked lying without a good reason. Instead he sighed loudly and simply nodded. Using his mouth for eating.

There was another reaction of most of the students in the room, though to Gilliam’s surprise this was more subtle and had them discuss amongst themselves. This made sense, the events outside against the demons were a good thing, he saved people and whatnot. The one in the mountain, they don’t exactly know what happened besides but they felt it. So the latter might be a bit more scary in a weird way, mainly due to the unknown factor.

Gilliam decided to use this to just eat, he wanted out of here. Though, the more he thought about it the more he wondered if this was the Hero path that Angela mentioned, the so-called Prophecy.

To be honest, it might be, if more of these gates open then it fits the concept. Though the preferred outcome is that this never happens again but given how adamant and prepared the demons were... that doesn’t sound likely.

The young boy got a bit too close for Savia’s liking as it seemed he was about to ask for some teaching or whatever.

Flapping her wingarms a few times she took flight ending up between their faces, hissing with quite some ferocity for someone of her small stature.

“Savia protect Master, go away human!” She shouted in her tiny voice, the hissing was more terrifying than her statement.

This actually worked and the young boy took a step back, Gilliam lifted his hand to a platform letting Savia land.

“You don’t have to protect me against him, he’s friendly.”

Like before, her mood instantly swapped over to satisfied and happy with a large smile. Sitting down in Gilliam’s hand she slides herself over to hug his ring-finger, being the closest at the moment.

“You... can understand her?” The young boy asked, baffled and confused.

“... Yes? Can’t you?” To Gilliam Savia had always just been speaking English. Come to think of it, all the students, teachers, Angela... Everyone was speaking English the whole time.

He assumed it was some translation thing that had him think in the local language when he landed, which was V’idan according to the ‘learn a new language’ flyer in his room.

Whatever language they were talking he thought Savia spoke the same one, he assumed that either she knew it from before or the summoning ritual taught her since she’s sentient.

“N.. No.” The boy answered hesitantly. “The noises she makes doesn’t sound like any language I know, it sounds like forest sounds.”

He seemed adamant on this and based on the nodding of certain students around him this was apparently a true thing.

Things started making a bit sense, the local language, Savia, this might be why and how he knew the magical runes. If whatever has him understanding language is just letting him understand absolutely all language? Or at least a collection of languages?

“Oh, that is interesting, how many languages do you know?” Gilliam was now interested in the young boy a little, if he knew several languages this would be a good test.

“I know V’idan, Albionian, Alothian and some Draconic.” He looked proud of that, and to be honest, knowing about four languages is amazing so he was right to.

The redhead from Gilliam’s class broke in, based on descriptions of her; this must be Rotia, Asol’s daughter.

“I also know some Goblin and Orcish” she puffed her chest on this, based on the reactions of others this was apparently amazing.

“Ok, hit me, just say something random in different languages and I’ll see if I understand!”

Gilliam was a bit pumped now, almost forgetting the chaos and pressure from the room before. One could also argue that this kind of scatterbrain mentality might not be too good for a mage but such is life.

The two spoke to him for a minute, saying odd things about his apperance, about things in the room and just things about the weather.

Gilliam replicated it all in ‘English’.

“... Everything you have said now sounds like the same I’m speaking now...”

He was a bit confused, he didn’t doubt them that they were actually speaking in other languages, but to him it all sounded like English, perhaps a bit of odd grammar in some sentences but it was just more of the same.

“I think I need to check with a teacher about this.” He didn’t sound sure about things, and he decided to not mention the magical runes as that would most likely swamp him. But this was indeed interesting.

If all this was true, they were speaking in six different languages, adding Savia and the runes that make eight languages he just understands. Was this tied to his Heptagon gift? He had no idea, so he needed someone smarter on this.

Noticing that he had managed to eat his food during the tests this was a good time to bolt before they started asking for more things. Sure, it was a bit hypocritical or egoistic to abuse their knowledge in language and just bolt without giving them anything in return but... He didn’t know how smart it might be to just give them magic runes, given the power and versatility that came with just adding or changing a single rune with Jial before.

“Well, with that said, I think I’ll leave for now. Thank you so much for the tests, it helped a ton.” he smiled honestly and started for the door.

“You don’t think that’s rude?” The young girl he assumed to be Rotia stated, stopping him in his tracks.

“Oh, I do, though I don’t know what I can give back. I’m not teaching you magic circles or runes, so...”

He decided to just be upfront about it. It felt more honest than leading them on.

“I only want to master magic, anything you can teach me is good.” straightforward and honest.

The problem is that he probably knew more than Gilliam did in most subjects

“A date!” replied the young girl.

Gilliam looked at her with a ‘you what?’ facial expression.

“Ok, no, absolutely not-” Turning to her first. “You are like what, 13?”

She broke in and corrected him that she is indeed 14, this stopped Gilliam’ sentence and had him start over.

“So, you’re 14, that is 12 years younger than me, you’re about half my age. Absolutely not.”

He could tell this hurt her feelings a bit, but he couldn't confirm if it was just because of the no to the date or if it was the flat out refusal. At the moment he decided to not go further than this. If nothing else it sets a precedence to everyone in the room so this wouldn’t happen again.

“And you-” he turned to the young boy. “-I don’t know as much as you might think I do. Study the magical runes, there is more to be learned there than you think.”

Though he had no proper basis for the latter comment it was based on the interaction with Jial. Since his speciality was magical circles he would have a decent grasp of it, and if he was that baffled with just a few new runes then this should be a good hint for them all.

This time Gilliam left without being stopped, there were attempts from both of them but also from seemingly random students in the room wanting their own questions answered.

“I am Rotia Kineth-” The redhead girl introduced herself as she had followed him and did her best to keep up. She was doing fine but her legs were shorter so she almost had to jog.

“-You saved my father, he was probably waiting for you before, you can’t miss him, he's huge.” She smiled proudly as she introduced her father.

“We’ve met, a nice fellow, it seems like you have a good father there.” Gilliam honestly, and with a tiny bit of envy stated. His own parents weren’t the loving kind. “He lifted me up in a hug.” He added at the end.

“That sounds like him.” She giggled. She intended to say something else but was interrupted by the young boy.

“My name is Jedark Suiaerl. I might only be a wizard but I intend to become a recognized name. With that in mind I would love for yo*” His introduction was simple and reminded Gilliam that he needed to re-read the hierarchy of the different mages.

Though, Gilliam didn’t let him finish as it was clear where he was going with this.

“I’m not taking you as an apprentice, nor am I teaching you magic or anything else of the sort. That’s what you are here at school for.”

Speeding up he wanted to outpace them, but it seemed that both of them actually had pretty good stamina.

“Don’t you have classes to attend? Please leave me alone.” Gilliam pleaded to the duo tailing him.

Jedark replied with a questioning face. “There aren’t any classes, haven’t been for a few days. You didn’t know this?”

Rotia broke in and answered for him. “He’s been asleep for two days, of course he didn’t know!” in a very matter-of-factly tone of voice.

Leaving them to discuss between each other for a minute Gilliam realised that he had stumbled on an active melee sparring. There was a large temporary-looking ring made in the grass where two students were fighting with wooden swords.

This was being overseen by the only adult in the group, he didn't look too tall, around 170cm(~67inch) or so, he looked slender but in very good shape. His black hair should have reached his shoulders had it not been for the ponytail he had it fastened in, his stubble hinted that he’s not a super kempt man.

Currently wearing what looks like a green tunic thing with darker green stripes, black pants and shoes. Some belts held everything in place. At his hip was a sword that looked very flat and wide, the pommel was a hexagon shaped ring, its crossguard was two curved crosses sticking out on each side.

“Oh, if it isn’t the hero!” he shouted out as he noticed Gilliam. This had the students in the ring focus on him as well, stopping the sparring in its tracks.

“Is the hero here for some training?” he spoke in a somewhat grandiose but clearly fake for the fun of it kind of way.

“To be honest... It was not my intent but... I could probably use some training.”

Gilliam realised some of the mentioned things before, Jial stated something about in certain cases if you cannot use magic or if the swing of a sword is faster than a spell, the spell could be considered useless.

“Someone give the Hero a sword, and we’ll see where he is. The name’s Kintas.” the trainer made a flourishing bow, overdoing it to the point of almost becoming obnoxious.

“Oh, so you’re the one that stalled the bossdemonthing.” Gilliam stated as a student handed him a wooden sword, it looked much like what Gilliam would define as a longsword. Even though he seemed to remember that it was never a proper thing, the media liked that term.

“I doubt I can do much against you, then. I think this is my first time holding a sword.” Gilliam smiled sheepishly. He was ready to have his ass handed to him.

“Yes, but don’t say that, we could have a prodigy on our hands, you got magical gifts, perhaps you also got something for weaponry?” He smiled, looking stupidly cocky about himself.

Gilliam waved the sword a bit to get a feel for it then took a stance that felt natural.

Kintas eyed him with an impressed expression. “Whenever you’re ready.” he challenged Gilliam, standing completely relaxed without any hint of a stance or aggression.

Gilliam was apparently to take the aggression, inhaled and exhaled deeply once he felt a tiny spark. Wanting to capitalise on this he darted forward, aiming to see if he could at least land a single hit.