A Meeting with the High Officiant 3

A split second later Dathius plunged the dagger toward her heart. It struck the shield, twisting out of his grip. Then it skittered away along the floor.

Sky looked at the High Officiant. He was livid.

"Lower your shield." He ordered. Sky merely looked at him. From the corner of her eye she saw Dathius chasing the dagger around the room. The lounging creatures had shifted again. Now they weren't even feigning to relax.

As Sky looked around trying to figure out where the next attack would come from pain lanced through her forearms, hands, lower legs and feet. She looked to her left. Syn was surrounded by the blue glow of water magic and the yellow glow of air. Looking at her arms, which suddenly felt very wet, she saw that they were covered in the blood that was running down them in thick rivulets. From her elbow down, in the places where her veins were supposed to be were lines of small, whitish-pink crystals. They marched all the way down her forearms to her fingertips. She swayed and looked at the rapidly growing puddle of her blood on the floor.

"Lower your shield and Rashall will heal you." The High Officiant said. Sky blinked. Her fuzzy mind knew she didn't need to be healed. She simply needed sleep. She swayed again as her eyelids fluttered.

"Mal!" the willowy female, Rashall, said sharply.

"Lower your shield!" The High Officiant ordered. Distantly, Sky felt anger rising up in her. The liquid light pumped through her veins. She blinked. Everything was getting dimmer. She couldn't sleep here. She needed to get back to her rooms.

"Agogaisviralde." She muttered tiredly. Breaking her shield, she stepped through the portal and into her rooms. "Fin." She panted. As she sunk to the ground, her last thought was of those creatures crushed like insects, not dead, just in pain. The liquid light exploded from her, taking with it the last of her energy. Darkness descended.

***

Sky opened the door to her rooms and heaved a tired sigh. She'd awoken in the infirmary, in the middle of the night, with a blood-soaked sheet covering her from head to feet. In the dim light, she'd found most of the infirmary's beds were full of sleeping creatures and no one was awake to tell her where her shoes were. Consequently, she made her trek back to her rooms barefooted.

She was still exhausted but she herself was also drenched in blood, so her immediate plans were a shower, then sleep. Luckily, it was Aelus so she could sleep in.

Sky took her shower and went back to sleep.

***

She was dreaming about relaxing in a hot spring she'd used once, until the shissakhan, whose home it was, came back. A shissakhan was a half humanoid snake race of Lesser. This one had the upper half of a beautiful, brunette woman. Her lower half was that of Poisonous Veech. Sky had had to run quick when it returned. However, before that it had been quite nice.

She was dreaming of the tranquility and warmth of the gently moving water on her skin when Vaeryn's voice cut across the soft rustling of the leaves.

It said, "This is the effect of the inconstant healing rate." Sky looked around for its source but nowhere in the trees could she see Vaeryn.

"So you're saying she did this herself?" Instructor Drakkon's voice asked. The clearing grew fuzzy. From far away, Sky heard a hiss.

Vaeryn's voice was clearer as it answered, "Her body did this. Sky has no control over it." The hiss came again from directly behind her.

Sky sat bolt upright, and a ball of air exploded from her. It slammed through her headboard and rent a chasm in the wall.

Blinking, Sky saw her familiar bedroom furnishings surrounding her. Across the room from her footboard stood Vaeryn and Instructor Drakkon. Vaeryn was smiling slightly and Instructor Drakkon had an eyebrow raised.

Sky flinched and said, "I thought it was the shissakhan." Instructor Drakkon's other eyebrow rose. "Wh-What are you doing here?"

"I was told to clear out your things, since you were dead." Instructor Drakkon said coldly.

Sky frowned, "I heal like a creature. But anyway, I should get up. I need to go to town today and pick up clothes."

"What about class?" Vaeryn asked.

"There's no class on Aelus."

"It's Alontil." Vaeryn replied. Sky simply stared at them for a minute. She had lost three days.

Slamming her fist into the bed, she snarled, "Godsdamnit! Apparently, I have to get ready for class."