Chapter 5 - Part 1

The wooden floor creaked as Master Wielder Omnelia paced around the classroom, while some students listened quietly and others snickered in the back she voiced her thoughts on the importance of the natural sciences in Wielding. The fair haired woman was adored by the faculty. Even the ever cynical Master Rwoy seemed to transform around her. As she passed by the warm smell of spring lingered in the air, displacing the cold scent of old parchment and ink, that filled every room in the castle, imbuing the classroom with a comfortable and welcoming atmosphere. Just perfect to steal some shut-eye during a heavy snow storm. Haiden's lids threatened to drift him away from the last class of the day, becoming heavier as Master Omnelia's words flew over him. The daily nightmares he once had had stopped when he arrived at the Academy, but that one constant tug at the edge of his consciousness always remained, always lingering beyond his reach. A constant reminder that something was missing, forgotten. Luckily, Haiden had something more important to occupy his sleepy mind, or rather, someone.

It had happened four days ago, a day before the End Cycle. Haiden's heart had stopped for a brief second before trying to escape his chest when he saw Tasgal on the ground bleeding. He dashed to his side the moment the event fully registered in his mind. The man that had stabbed Tasgal looked at Haiden with wary eyes, but didn't do anything to stop him, instead he ran away leaving Haiden alone with the wounded man.

Tasgal whimpered in pain as Haiden put his hands near the wound on his bare flesh. He had no time to coax him to relax, his mind was on fire. In panic, Haiden grabbed the blade firmly with one hand and pulled as hard as he could, releasing it from Tasgal's side. He spazzed with pain so intense his scream was stifled by a sharp intake of breath, his glossy summery blues rolled into his head and the wound now gushed blood. Realizing his grave mistake, Haiden cursed his foolishness. He needed to move fast and concentrate on the healing.

Master Rwoy was right, it was more difficult on an adult, it took what seemed like forever to pinpoint what exact cells he needed to imbue with his fios. He never thought he would be grateful for the practice he did on Mara. Yes, the girl suffered, but because of her, Haiden now had the tools to possibly help Tasgal. Pushing the dark thoughts aside, he concentrated on the emergency at hand. Eventually, Haiden jump started the healing process sending a constant flow of energy and the wound stopped bleeding, but by the time he had managed to do so, Tasgal had long passed out from the heavy loss of blood. Tasgal was freezing to the touch. He was dressed in only a pair of leather pants, his torso exposed to the chilly winds of winter. Haiden could not afford to use heat cloak as to not disturb his concentration on the healing. Even with more layers then Tasgal, he too felt the numbing cold. Despite the freezing weather, beads of sweat slid along his face.

Haiden held his spell for Creators know for how long, his hands started to tremble slightly - the first signs of fatigue - before the gravel crunched under two pairs of footsteps. The dirty blonde man who stabbed Tasgal, stood before him accompanied by an older man, with long brown hair pinned tightly to his back and robed in black, just like Master Rwoy. The older man looked confused at Haiden, examining the situation with is warm brown eyes.

"I haven't seen you in my class, before, have I?" the man stated calmly. Haiden just looked at him with wide eyes, exhaustion made visible by the darkened circles under his eyes.

"Not the time for small talk, old man! Aren't you going to help!?" he snapped. With that the man sat down next to him, unshaken by the dying man. He removed Haiden's blood caked hand from the wound and replacing it with his own. Static prickled Haiden's skin and waves of pulsating warmth emanated from the man. Liquid light flowed into the wound like gold, Haiden closed his eyes and saw the radiating flow of fios, it had such intense power yet calm and precise. It sealed the wound shut without even a seam visible. His skin was still bloodied but the old man just wiped it off with a cloth he procured from an inner pocket and the wound was simply gone, as if it was never there. Relief washed over Haiden, but Tasgal remained unconscious.

The older man turned out to be the Healing teacher for second years and up. He had taken Tasgal to a place called the infirmary, similar to the sanctuary where Haiden first woke up and was taken care of while in a coma. White, clean walls surrounded them; it brought Haiden a mix of feelings, good and bad. The bed, chairs and everything else in the room was a shade of white. There, the older man, which introduced himself as Master Coner, examined Tasgal.

"He'll be just fine." he said to Haiden. Allowing him to fully relax; the danger had passed. "If it weren't for you, he would have bled to death." the man stated.

"He almost bled to death because of me," Haide said as a twinge of guilt sneaked into his gut, he was the reason for Tasgal's lack of attention during his training and even more his actions made him bleed even more profusely. "Why isn't he waking up?" he asked, nearing the white bed on which Tasgal now laid.

"The spell you've used. It's not perfect, it used a lot of his energy and he will need time to recover; only time will tell how long." he said watching Haiden reluctantly moving closer to the bed, his hand brushing Tasgal's as a worried frown tormented his face. "You're a first year, right?" the man asked and Haiden nodded and pulled his hand away. "I've never seen a first year capable of indirect healing before..." he trailed off, waiting for Haiden to continue. He felt obliged to do so, and started explaining how he came to learn the spell. To his surprise Master Coner was quite understanding and praised Haiden for his achievement. However, looking at Tasgal, unconscious in that white bed didn't make him feel like it was an achievement, more like a baby step.

Haiden, had visited Tasgal everyday, morning and after class, keeping him company while reading up on his classes. During this time he had discovered the luxury of breakfast, thanks to Master Coner. Up until now he ate only when the opportunity arose. Being well acquainted with an empty stomach he never thought about regular meals; as such he never asked for more than he was given. Because of this, Haiden wanted to make sure that every morning Tasgal had the option to eat his breakfast, when he would wake 'the fuck' up, as Haiden liked to kindly put it. The trips from the dinner hall to the infirmary quickly became his daily routine

As soon as Master Omnelia noticed the hourglass had ran out, she announced that everyone was free to go, allowing Haiden to bolt out the door along with his classmates.

Haiden's boots trotted on the polished stone floor of the corridor weaving through the crowd of students he had avoided ever since the first day. He ran through the inner courtyard raising his heat cloak. The courtyard was now covered in white pristine snow, the yellow leaves of the massive tree that peaked through in places made for a breathtaking view, but Haiden didn't have time for such nonsense. He quickly pushed through the snow and entered another set of corridors.

As soon as he set foot inside, venomous echos reverberated through the walls of the corridor. It hit his ears with malice. This forced Haiden to slow his pace to a silent walk, the voices were coming right from where he was headed.

"You worthless piece of shit!" someone said, a few loud thuds immediately followed by grunts of pain.

"Careful, Bras. Don't want the Yeva'ah to rub on you, do you?" another voice warned.

"Who cares? Lemme hit'im too, Bras. I want in." a third voice added.

Vertigo overcame Haiden as soon as he heard the word 'Yeva'ah'. His first instinct was to run the opposite direction, which he was planning on following, but as soon as he turned around the whimpers of a soft voice begged for the three men to stop, making him freeze in place. Pity swelled up in him as the men just laughed at the tearful pleas of whoever was the subject of their amusement. Even louder thuds ensued after. The woman in the plaza popped into his head, his feet as if they had a mind of his own, turned his body back towards the voices. He swallowed in dry.

Creators sake! This is a mistake! he told himself. Turning around the corner he saw three young men surrounding someone with long flowy blonde hair. He saw one of the young men ready to land another kick and instinctively reached for his fios, with static flowing through his hands he created a partial shield protecting the person lying on the floor. The young man didn't notice the slight shimmer in the air as the shield formed and his leg recoiled backwards with a jerking motion making him lose his balance resulting him landing on his ass.

"What the fuck!?" the young man yelled. The other two laughed at their friend.

"What's the matter Petry, did you fall for this dirty Yeva'ah?" one of them said laughing.

"S-shut-up! Something pushed back my leg!" Petry responded.

"Let's show him how it's done, Kob." as soon as, who Haiden assumed to be, Brass said, they reddied their kicks only to be met with the same fate as Petry.

"Told you, you idiots!" Petry bragged.

"I suggest you three leave now if you know what's good for you." Haiden said, finally pulling away from the corner.

"And who the fuck are you?" Brass asked.

"Nobody,"Haiden answered not wanting to reveal his identity, however there was something familiar with the three of them. "Just walk away, and leave my friend alone." he warned.

"Your friend, huh? You got some nerve, don't ya? Yeva'ah lover!" Kob mocked. Haiden visibly flinched at word Yeva'ah, it made him sick to his stomach.

"And what are you going to do, nobody?" Bras taunted, a wicked smirk took over his face. He wanted a fight.

"I don't want to hurt anyone, please let him go." Haiden asked.

"Make me." Brass stepped forward, his chest puffed trying to intimidate Haiden. At that moment he knew he couldn't reason with them, however he didn't want to hurt the three young men, as much as they deserved it. He chose to only use his shield and stepped forward.

Haiden felt static flowing from two of them, they were preparing something. He quickly threw a shield over himself that blocked two force blasts and a ball of fire. Bras' smirk turned into a scowl as he ordered the other two to teach Haiden a lesson. They began to throw a barrage of force blasts at Haiden, slightly pushing him back, not being able to do anything but shield himself. This was nothing compared to what Master Rwoy threw at him and he felt his own lips twitching into a smile. He enjoyed looking at their desperate faces while they threw whatever they could at Haiden. The real problem began when Bras decided to step forward.

"Let me show you two, useless idiots, how it's done." Bras said. Haiden could feel the menacing static coming off Bras. It was intense. Haiden's lips flattened in concentration to prepare himself for what was coming, feeding more fios to his shield. Bras held a hand up and droplets of water condensed in mid air, coalescing to form a long pointed shape. All the moisture from the room just disappeared. The air was dry to the point that it parched Haiden's mouth and his eyes stung. The long pointed shape of water instantly froze into a crystalline icicle the length of Bras' arm hovering above his head. With a wicked grin on his face, Bras lowered his hand and the icicle went flying like a javelin at an incredible speed towards Haiden. It shattered upon contact with Haiden's shield in a spray of shards and snow. The force behind it was much greater than both of his goons combined, as soon as it struck Haiden's shield he was launched backwards landing on his backside. His shield wavering for a second before he quickly reinforced with more fios.

Fuck! That was close. If he hits me with another one of those I'm a goner, he thought swallowing dry. He waited, shield up, ready. But another ice javelin didn't come, instead Bras sent a weaker force blast his way, his goons following suit after.

They continued to uselessly bombard Haiden's shield with force blasts which Haiden was able to withstand. Nothing as powerful as the spell before came and soon the fight became repetitive and their force blasts weaker. This went on until distant footsteps sounded through the corridor.

"Shit! It could be a Master Wielder!" Patry said gasping for air.

"We need to go!" Kob added.

"Shit!" Brass cursed. "I'll see you around, nobody!" he said turning the opposite way the footsteps were coming from and ran. Haiden sighed in relief taking a hold of his trembling hands to calm down. He wondered for how long his shield would have lasted until it became just as weak before a small whimper grabbing his attention. Sprawled on the floor, with blonde hair stuck to a bloody face was a man, no older than him.

"A-are you alright?" Haiden asked, he carefully pulled the man upright. His first thought was to try to use indirect healing to help him, but decided otherwise as he remembered Tasgal sitting unconscious in a white bed.

"I'll be fine, thanks." the man said with hardened breath.

"You don't look so good." Haiden said.

"Neither do you, but I didn't say it to your face." he retorted.

"That's no way to talk to the guy that just saved your life!" Haiden snapped.

"Well no one asked you to. You have some sort of saviour complex, or what?" he said looking Haiden dead in the eye. His crystal pale eyes were shocking. "I'm fine, let go!" he jerked his arm free of Haiden's and tried to pull away from the floor only to land on his knees a step further.

"Look, I don't know what your problem is, but you need to be treated for your wounds. I'm heading to the infirmary any way. Let me help you." Haiden said in a firm voice. The man just sighed and nodded, reaching out a hand to Haiden for help.

Those shits called him a Yeva'ah, maybe he's like me. he hoped. The prospect of having someone he could talk to without having to hide throughout his years at the Academy gave him a flicker of hope. Maybe he didn't had to ignore a part of who he was for the rest of his life.

"I'm Haiden, by the way. What's your name?" he asked, trying to make conversation.

"Maree." he replied in a flat bored tone.

"Nice to meet you, Maree. What year are you in?" he continued.

This is going better than expected. he thought.

"I'm in the same year as you, dumbass." Haiden didn't see Maree's face but he could feel the over exaggerated eye roll.

That's why those asshats looked so familiar, he realized he had seen them in class the other day.

"Right." Haiden said and awkward silence fell between the two until they got to the infirmary. They were greeted by a lovely stocky woman, one of Master Coner's assistants that took a liking to Haiden and his willingness to help with the more menial tasks.

"Oh dear!" she exclaimed seeing Maree's bloodied face. "Come on, sweetums. Let's get you a bed and look at that pretty head of yours." she said ushering Maree behind a white curtain leaving Haiden alone.

"It seems you're making it a habit of bringing men in." a familiar voice called from behind in a playful tone.