Bright sunlight pierced his eyelids, slowly waking him up from a deep slumber. Ren opened his eyes to a white ceiling.
"You're awake!" Lena's relieved voice startled him. "Are you feeling ok? Did the instructor heal all of your wounds?"
Taken aback by all the questions, Ren nodded. "I'm fine, I think." He looked around to try and figure out where he was.
He was laying on a bed, in a small, white room. Looking out the windows, he could see one of the smaller courtyards of the academy. Lena was seated in a chair next to his bed. She seemed worried. "How long was I out?" He asked, sitting on the bed.
"Less than an hour. How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine." He carefully lifted his right arm. "Battlemage Fiora's skills are amazing." They really were extraordinary. Usually after getting beaten up that badly, even with healing magic it would take a few days to fully recover.
"I'm glad." Lena smiled. "I'll let them know that you're awake." She darted off as soon as she said that, leaving a confused Ren behind.
He sighed and carefully moved his shoulders, even his cracked ribs were healed completely. Though, remembering the torturous pain made him shiver. He could still feel it, although faintly. Right where his heart is, the pain still echoed.
Suddenly sensing quite a powerful mana source, he turned to the door. A blonde man, followed by Lena entered the room. Battlemage Fiora was nowhere to be seen.
The man was tall, almost as tall as Yu. He looked a lot like Lena, with his bright blue eyes and similar facial features. He didn't carry a weapon with him, though from the way his mana moved around them, Ren was sure his conduit was on him. No one could control their mana as well as he did without their conduit.
"Glad to see you're awake." He smiled, then glanced at Lena. "I hope my mischievous little sister didn't wake you up."
"Daymon!" Lena protested. "Stop calling me that!" Her face was slightly red.
"No, she didn't." Ren glanced at the two of them. Daymon was grinning as Lena pouted. "I didn't know she had a brother though. It's nice to meet you." He bowed his head.
"No need for that. You're… Ren?" Daymon looked at the small notebook he was carrying. "I'll have to examine you before we can let you leave. Standard procedure with broken bones and such." He smiled and shrugged.
Ren just nodded. Even with Battlemage Fiora's powers, it was better to be safe than sorry. Healing magic wasn't completely accurate after all.
"Alright, Lena, wait outside." Daymon pushed her out of the room and closed the door before she got a chance to argue. Right afterwards, they heard faint cursing from behind the door. Ren couldn't help but laugh at the mental image of the serious and overly apologetic Lena, cursing at a closed door.
"She's a handful." Daymon mumbled. "I'll have to ask you to take your shirt off." His tone shifted from joking to professional in an instant.
Ren simply nodded and removed his robes and shirt. Magic, while useful, wasn't completely reliable. Healing magic was no different. Just like how a broken leg's pain can make a simple scratch go unnoticed, it was possible for small wounds and scratches to go unnoticed while healing broken bones or dislocated shoulders.
"I heard you were, uh, flung across the northern courtyard." Daymon said as he pushed Ren's hair aside. "Look at my finger, please." He created a bright light at the tip of his finger, then shone it right into Ren's eyes. "Instructor Fiora said you apparently didn't hit your head, but I still wanted to be sure. Your eyes are focusing just fine, so I'm happy to say that she's right." He smiled and took a step back, then froze in his tracks.
"What's that?" He was staring at the mark on Ren's chest. "I don't recognise that glyph." He put his left hand in his pocket. His mana shifted ever so slightly.
"I don't know." Ren touched the mark. "It's been here ever since I can remember." He glanced at Daymon, who seemed to be on edge. "As far as I know, it's not harmful. To me or others." He added after a short pause.
"I see." Daymon slowly leaned forward to examine the mark. "I thought it was a glyph, but maybe it's not, I don't recognise it…" His mana shifted and a single strand of it extended towards the mark.
"Please don't." Ren pulled himself back and covered it with his hand. "It doesn't have anything to do with my injuries, so you don't need to trouble yourself with it."
Daymon hesitated, then finally nodded. "If you say so." He continued with his examination.
"You seem fine. Your wounds have healed completely and so did your ribs. But…" He paused, then suddenly poked Ren's waist. "Are you even eating enough? You're way too slim and you don't seem to have much strength in your muscles."
Ren flinched as he put his clothes back on. "I'm eating enough," He quickly said. Daymon's overly concerned attitude was making him feel awkward. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to respond to him.
"Are you sure? You're also really short, like," He raised his hand to the level of his chin, then, after a short pause, lowered it. "You're this short. Are you sure you're fifteen?"
Ren finished getting dressed and got off the bed. A moment of silence followed as they both stared at Daymon's raised hand. It was right over Ren's head.
"Well…" Daymon hesitated, then suddenly laughed. Annoyed, Ren tried to walk around the man, but he quickly blocked his way. "So," He grinned. "You're in my sister's class."
"Yes?" Ren took a step back. He could still feel his mana from before, touching his body and searching for wounds. It wasn't a pleasant feeling.
"She said she twisted her ankle because she tripped and fell." Daymon's tone suddenly darkened. "Do you have anything to add to that?" His smile had disappeared.
Ren took another step back. "No." Well, he thought to himself, he did have a few things to add, though Daymon probably wouldn't want to hear them. "Can I go now?"
"Well, you're all healed up, so yeah." Daymon said as he glanced at the closed door. "But I'd like to know how Lena twisted her ankle that badly." Now he seemed genuinely worried. "She's been training with her quarterstaff for years now, she wouldn't randomly trip and fall."
Ren sighed; he could see Daymon's point. Lena's posture and movements were, as far as he saw, fluid and well trained. But she lacked the experience. "Who did she spar against? Before she came here, I mean."
"Our mother." Daymon smiled. "Mom taught her how to fight."
"Just her?" Ren took a deep breath. "It's not really my place to say this but… She's inexperienced. She underestimated her opponent and disregarded the terrain." He hesitated. He couldn't read Daymon's expression. "I don't mean to disregard her training or anything, but I don't think she ever learned of other styles of martial arts or even got to spar with people who trained in them."
"I see." Daymon suddenly smiled. "Thanks, Ren." He motioned to pat Ren's head, but Ren quickly pushed his hand away.
"And yes, I AM fifteen. I'd appreciate if you stopped acting like I'm a small child." He took a deep breath to calm himself. "If we're done here, I'd like to go to my class."
Daymon laughed and nodded. "Sure, go ahead."
Ren quickly grabbed his sword and left the room. Lena was standing outside, with a look of annoyance in her face. When she saw Ren leaving, she quickly sprinted behind him. "Hey, wait up."
Ren quietly sighed. His thoughts were a mess, he couldn't really focus properly. To make matters worse, he could feel the mana of everyone in the vicinity. His little exchange with Daymon had left him exhausted. He really didn't want to have to explain everything they talked about to Lena as well.
"You're still so pale." Lena's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. "Are you sure Instructor Fiora healed you completely?"
"Yeah, your brother made sure of it as well."
"I'm glad, I was really worried before." She smiled, then glanced out one of the windows. "Oh, it's almost time for history class to end. Next class was…"
"Professor Doran's class." Ren mumbled. "His class will cover everything about the outside."
"Yeah. It's bound to be interesting, right?" Lena said while flipping through a small notebook. "Our class materials will be given in the classroom I think."
"Yes." Ren pointed to a rather large set of doors. "That's the class. Come on, I'm sure Aiden and the others will be here soon."
"I thought they'd be here already." Lena said as she pushed open the doors and entered the large lecture hall. A huge blackboard decorated one of the walls. There weren't many desks and benches for students to use. The back half of the lecture hall was filled with… stuff. Ren could see different sized skulls, bones and claws carefully laid on the long tables. There were shelves filled with scales, fur, and animal skins.
"Wow," Ren whispered. "That's an impressive collection." It couldn't have been easy –or cheap– to gather all of these things.
"Yeah." Lena approached them and carefully inspected one of the skulls. "I think this is a crawler skull. These are fairly rare, since most warriors just smash their heads to kill them and magic users tend to blow them to pieces."
"You seem knowledgeable." Ren was actually impressed. He couldn't tell what creature most of these things belonged to.
"Well, my family does run the only major arcane store in the entire city." Lena smiled. "Dad taught me how to tell different creature's parts apart. I was pretty good at it, though Daymon is much more skilled at it than I'll ever be." Her smile slowly faded. "Mom always used to say that selling the body parts of these creatures was wrong. She'd say that, while they were already dead, their soul still remained in this world. She always claimed that those who had a high affinity to magic could be able to sense that soul, even communicate with it."
Ren chose to remain silent. He wasn't quite sure of what she was getting at. He had never heard of something such as souls remaining behind. Yu would have known if that were the case, and he'd have told Ren about it.
"By the way, how did you know that Lord Aiden and the others weren't here yet?" She placed her quarterstaff on one of the benches.
"I would have sensed them if they were." Ren shrugged. He continued to inspect the stuff on the shelves. Most of these things were in pristine condition, though very few of them seemed damaged. He could sense tiny amounts of mana in some of them.
"Hey, Lena?" He glanced at her. "Usually stuff like this is cleansed before they're sold, right?"
She nodded. "The cleansing is done by the Inner Keep, for a fee or course. They're only given to us to be sold after the cleansing is completed. Why do you ask?"
Ren shook his head. "Just curious." Once her attention was elsewhere, Ren took a closer look at one of the parts he could sense mana in. It was a skull, no larger than his fist. It had a beak and three holes, which probably once housed the creature's eyes. He couldn't quite make out the species, but it probably was a bird-like thing when it was alive.
He focused his attention on it, trying to sense the faint traces of mana. Was it Professor Doran's mana, or was it traces of wildmagic? He couldn't really tell since there was so little mana left.
"Say, Ren." Lena's voice once again pulled him from his thoughts. "How did you learn to fight like that?"
"My master taught me," Ren touched the hilt of his tachi. "I'm still only at intermediate level though. It was foolish of me to accept Battlemage Warthorn's challenge."
Lena remained silent for a short while, then softly spoke. "Ren, did you use magic during that fight?"
Ren laughed. "No, if I did, then he'd have used it too. And I don't think even Battlemage Fiora would be able to fix me up if that happened." Warthorn wouldn't even need to move a muscle to kill him if they had used any magic at all.
"Then, how did you move like that?"
Ren paused. "What do you mean?"
"You can't just somersault over someone's head and keep fighting like it's nothing. Especially if that person is almost twice your size!" Lena shook her head. "Besides, when you stepped on his shield, it was almost at your own height. There is no way you jumped that high, then even higher, without the help of some sort of agility increasing spell."
Ren just shrugged. "I'm short and thin, that means I'm small and fast. Less body weight and all that. That and years of training lets me do stuff like that." He had used his mana to achieve even greater results, allowing him to jump much higher or move much faster in the past. It was useful, just not against someone like Warthorn.
"I still find it difficult to believe." Lena mumbled while fiddling with a few strands of hair. "How do you know Instructor Warthorn?"
Ren flinched. He couldn't just tell her that he lived in the Inner Keep. "I met him through my Master. I didn't know he was an instructor though." Technically, it wasn't a lie. He approached one of the windows and looked outside. He could still feel Lena's questioning gaze on his back.
"They're coming." He suddenly said as he faced the door. He could feel several people's mana. Three… No, four people. As he felt a piercing pain in his forehead, the door swung open and the four people entered the room.
Aiden, Mirielle and the two girls he hadn't been introduced to yet came inside. Aiden and Mirielle both ran towards him as soon as they noticed.
"How are you feeling?" Aiden asked, quickly looking all over Ren. "Did Instructor Fiora heal all your wounds?"
"I'm fine, Mirielle, could you perhaps…?" He touched his temples. Her mana was just as violent as before.
"Oh, right, sorry." Mirielle masked her mana and Aiden quickly followed. "It's going to take a bit to get used to it." She smiled. "I'm glad to see you're back on your feet. You seemed pretty badly injured before."
"Battlemage Fiora's skill exceeds her reputation." Ren touched his previously dislocated shoulder. "It's still a painful process though. They healed Lena's ankle too, so no harm done there either."
"Oh, I'm glad to hear it." Aiden nodded and smiled at Lena, who was silently watching this whole exchange.
"By the way, where is that other person?" Ren asked. "The black-haired girl?"
"I'm not sure, she was talking with Instructor Warthorn, last I saw. Aiden sighed. "Though she-"
"--Is here." Ren cut him off. He could sense her mana, as well as the mana of the Professor. His mana was weak, even weaker of that of most of the Class II students. Her mana on the other hand, was icy cold. Ren shivered and wrapped himself in his cloak.
"Huh?" Lena quickly glanced at the door, which once again swung open.
The Professor entered the room, followed by that black haired, slender girl. He walked to the black board, while she silently joined Ren's group. The twins glanced at them with what Ren thought was envy.
"We meet once again, students of Class I. I have introduced myself yesterday already, but I will do so again, nonetheless." With an emotionless expression, the Professor continued. "I am Kelvin Doran. You shall learn of the outside world in my classes." He sighed and approached the confused students. "Now, please do introduce yourselves."
"Of course." Ren stepped forward. "I'm Ren."
"Mirielle Farshow."
"Aiden Condor."
"Lena Nirei."
"Ophelia Ashthorn," One of the twins spoke. "Persephone Ashthorn." The other immediately continued. They simultaneously bowed.
The black-haired girl stepped forward. "I'm Iris Londe Andor." She slightly bowed her head.
"Andor?" Mirielle whispered. "Wait, doesn't that mean she's the-"
"Yes, she's the Crown Princess of the imperial family."