54 Guilt

The trio slowly made their way back to the academy remaining silent until it was broken by Sagar speaking out to Talia, "Talia, are you alright?"

This was mainly a probe made by Sagar as he knew what was most likely bothering Talia but just wanted Talia herself to vocalize it. Hearing his voice Talia herself seemed to want to retreat further into her body than she already had and it's not like it would do anything as Sagar had a clear view on her face. She continued to remain silent so Sagar questioned again in a softer tone, "Talia, are you alright? I won't know until you tell me."

His continued questioning helped out a bit as Talia let out an answer that was almost incomprehensible even to Sagar who was carrying her. Sagar leaned in a bit into Talia signaling that he couldn't quite hear what she had said but before she didn't repeat what she said instead she started struggling to get out of Sagar's grasp. Complying with her Sagar quickly put her down making sure that she could properly stand before releasing his grip on her. Umbra let out a bit of a chuckle seeing the two interact in a silly interaction.

Talia turned away from the two and started to dust her clothes bit but didn't turn around after finishing. Her body began trembling a bit and Sagar thought she might collapse again so he got a bit closer to her in case such a thing happened. Umbra instead approached her friend and took Talia's hand within her own to try and comfort her. Feeling someone's touch Talia seemed to release whatever she was holding and began to cry silently only making noise when she had to take in sudden breaths.

Hearing her start to cry Sagar also went up to Talia and grasped her other hand, he gave Umbra a look and the three of them began moving again. Umbra and Sagar waited for Talia to calm down while they continued to make their way to the academy grounds. Sagar didn't pay attention whenever he was traveling her just how far away the academy was taking the trio almost two hours to make their way back. The guards at the entrance of the academy were still the same one's as before so seeing not only the students who had left come back safely but also bringing back another student who was unharmed they breathed out sighs of relief.

They quickly questioned the students to see what they had left for and Umbra along with Sagar told them including the information about how Mr. Stoor was the one who went to retrieve them. One of them sent out a follow-up report on the one they made earlier while they other told them to go to the medical center to get a check-up, especially Sagar as he was the only one who seemed to be visibly injured.

Before they had arrived Talia had already stopped crying and was instead being silent not putting any input in the conversation. She only started speaking as the trio were making their way to the medical center simply letting out, "I'm sorry."

Talia continued talking without giving Umbra and Sagar a chance to respond, "I put our lives in danger by casting a spell I thought I could control.", she paused for a second drawing a deep breath, "That's not what I wanted I hope you could forgive me."

She hung her head down refusing to look at the two of them out of shame. The two of them looked at each other letting out a little sigh before Umbra spoke to Talia while placing her hand on her shoulder, "It's alright don't you realize that we didn't hold it against you in the first place, plus we made it out just fine so just learn from this and be glad that nothing bad happened."

Talia began to shake her head in defiance, "No, I mean look at Sagar he got hurt because of my carelessness."

Umbra and Sagar couldn't really refute this claim as it was true that Sagar was harmed because of Talia's spell. Normally Sagar would have healed this sort of injury right away after finishing his fight but he didn't as to not reveal that he was capable of using healing spells, plus his vitality stat was fairly high so the injury would have healed just fine after a full day.

"Talia, just trust me when I say that I've suffered worst injuries than this. You were even there when I fought Klaus and I was in a more banged up state than I am now."

Shaking her head again Talia retorted, "This is different. I'm the one who did this to you.",pausing as she was about to cry again Talia continued, "It doesn't matter what the degree of the injury was the fact that it was caused by me losing control of my spell is what is important."

Sagar walked over to Talia pulling her into her into his embrace firmly telling her, "It's fine like I said. I know you'll not do it again don't beat yourself up over it okay."

Joining the two in their hug Umbra made sure to be careful of Sagar's injuries while telling Talia, "Sagar's right Talia."

The three stayed like that for a time before Talia calmed down seeming to return somewhat to her usual self, "Fine, just don't come crying to me later when you get caught up in one of my explosions again."

With the atmosphere letting up between everyone they made their way to the medical center and got a quick check-up. The two girls were fine while Sagar was treated with some healing as not only was his back singed but some of his muscles and bones were slightly damaged probably from when he exchanged attacks with the golem but he didn't feel them at the time. The check-up took a while and by the time the three were able to leave, the day was pretty much over so they went to have dinner and went back to their rooms.

Arriving back to his room Sagar showered and jumped into his bed quickly falling asleep. Unexpectedly he ended up in the dream void he ends up in sometimes. He hadn't had this dream for this past few months that he had been here at the academy and it was the most amount of time he's had between these dreams with the previous times they would happen at least within a couple of weeks of each other. This led to Sagar thinking that him approaching the figure on the light side of the void that ended up stopping the dreams entirely but now it seems that wasn't the case.

Another thing different this time around was the fact that instead of the void being split between the light and dark sides, all that remained now was the dark. All the malicious aura now covered him continually poking his body from all sides submersing him in the killing intent that Sagar had always felt in the previous dreams. Guessing based on the fact that nothing had happened to him yet the feeling the area gave off was just something that was normal rather than warning him to not approach.

Like last time Sagar walked towards the figure that was fully immersed in this area taking what seemed to be hours before he got anywhere close to it. Instead of facing away from him like last time this figure was fully facing Sagar so he was able to get a good look at it. Everything about this figure was the complete opposite of the previous one with the formal clothes being soaked in blood. The of the jacket covering the figures body like a straight jacket, the straight jacket was now fully broken exposing the figures body which couldn't be looked into. All you would see looking at the figures chest unending darkness just like the void they were currently residing in. The chains that previously surrounded the figure were now all broken laying loosely across the figure's body along with the locks located all over the floor around the figure, the weight now gone from them. The top hat had completely vanished leaving only a loosely bandaged head with a red light leaking from where it's right eye was supposed to be.

Noticing Sagar's presence the figure's body started to shake a bit almost like it was letting out a hardy laugh. Before Sagar could talk to it a raspy voice came out of it seemingly similar to what previous figure said but less broken, "I am --ou.... t--u -rt I..."

Similar to last time before Sagar could figure out what the figure was saying he was quickly thrust out of the void. Waking up in the morning Sagar realized that he was covered in sweat but discarded that thought to think more about what he had just seen.