What We Do to Survive

“How could you! What did she ever do to you, you monster! I swear, if you hurt her you will rue.” She took a gasping breath. “You have no right to sit here and–”

I hated dealing with hysterical people. It turned calm, rational people into emotional wrecks, more prone to, metaphorically speaking, thinking with their hearts instead of their heads. Fortunately, that sort of person tended not to last very long at Avalon. You learned to control yourself and your reactions very quickly, or you never had a chance to do so. Even the most expressive people knew when to shut up and think, or they stopped thinking entirely very quickly. Permanently.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t default to my normal approach in this situation. I could still feel the powerful wards looming over me, ensuring I didn’t dare cast any sort of offensive spell. I also couldn’t just leave and deal with the situation later, I wasn’t going anywhere until I’d had a chance to speak with my Lea and that meant staying right here for the time being.

That left me with a very limited number of things I could do. I could try to talk to her, slowly calm her down and explain what was going on, but that required her to be open to the idea in the first place. Under the exhaustion and tears, she looked utterly furious with me, making that an unlikely proposition. I had no idea what I’d done in this case, there were several people who could justifiably be very angry at me over things I’d done, but this random stranger wasn’t one of them.

That led me to believe that this was, somehow, one big misunderstanding. After the number of those I’d had, I tried to be on the lookout for such issues, not that I was particularly good at it, and this seemed like an almost textbook case. She’d probably overheard something stupid about me brutalizing someone and was now interpreting everything in the worst way possible. Unfortunately, that only made the idea of talking to her even more futile. Well, for now at least. That left…

Without moving from my seat, I once again slammed the full weight of my mana down against her own, wincing slightly as the strain of today’s mana use slowly began to catch up with me. Between all the spells I’d cast during classes, the short fight, and the effort of suppressing my magic and the other concealment spells I’d cast, my core was getting unpleasantly sore. I still had plenty of mana, I wouldn’t have left Avalon in the first place if I didn’t, but the amount of pure mana manipulation I’d done today was coming back to bite me.

Just like the nurse had done earlier, she staggered slightly, catching herself against the doorway before her legs could fully give out under her. The effect wouldn’t last long, she actually had nearly as much mana as I did, though it was less dense and poorly controlled, but it was enough to shock her into silence for a necessary moment.

“I have no idea what you’ve heard, but I didn’t do anything. I came across a group of ruffians beating the poor girl in an alleyway and decided to offer a helping hand. Where have you been?”

I wasn’t really expecting much when I said it. I just wanted something to knock her off balance a little and hopefully start to clear up whatever stupid misconceptions had made her barge into the room ready to strangle me.

Instead, my words hit her like an out-of-control cart bouncing down a hill. She took a single shaky step forward and fell to her knees, shoulders shaking with loud sobs. She was mumbling something, but outside of individual words, I couldn’t make out what she was saying. “Should have… useless… stranger… hate me… terrible…” Still, as I stared silently down at her shuddering figure, I thought I got the gist of it.

This time, I was even less sure of what to do. I leaned back in my chair and tried to tune out the sniffling coming from the floor in front of me. Closing my eyes, I thought back to what the worthless little shits had been yelling before I’d shut them up. Between the slurs, the insults, and now this sobbing girl, I was slowly starting to put together a picture of what was going on.

From what I could tell, Lea and this sobbing girl had been in some sort of relationship, or at least people thought they had been. Then, this stupid cunt had done something to fuck things up and got Lea jumped in an alleyway, and was now coming back to beg forgiveness or something like that. I wished Miranda was here right now, but I hadn’t even considered bringing her with me when I decided to go out. She would know exactly what was going on right now and have plenty of suggestions on what to do. Ugh, I’d spent ages acquiring people to figure out social nonsense for me, and then when I need them, they're all too far away to be helpful.

I was still trying to figure out how to deal with the sobbing idiot (what would my family have done? Tea and a warm blanket… no, that wouldn’t work. How about…) when the door opened again to admit the nurse, Lea trailing after her on a new floating stretcher. As the nurse had said, she had been changed out of her torn and filthy dress and into some sort of temporary medical clothing. She looked so young in the baby-blue ‘gown’ they’d put her in, hair pulled back into a loose ponytail just like she’d always worn it when we were children.

The assistent nearly tripped over the crying girl by the door, but thankfully caught herself and the stretcher moved independently of her regardless. “Oh, miss, I– are you ok, miss? Did–” She turned to stare at me, eyes narrowed in a glare. Oh for gods’ sake.

I raised my hands defensively, “I didn’t touch her. She just… ran in here and broke down sobbing. I don’t even know who she is.”

I wasn’t sure that the nurse bought my excuse, not that any of it was technically a lie, but she didn’t push the issue. She carefully maneuvered around the crying girl to get to the bed at the center of the cramped room. Just like before, she carefully lowered the stretcher over the bed, then removed the floating bars so as to not overly disturb her patient.

“I’ll be back in half an hour to check on her. Try to keep it down please, let her sleep for as long as she needs.”

“Of course,” I whispered. “Thank you.”

She nodded and quickly disappeared. I stood up and walked over to Lea’s unmoving body, gently brushing a strand of hair out of her face. She looked… so very innocent. Even nearly a decade later, her face still had the same girlish charm I remembered. Still, there were certainly some differences. She had… grown up in all the right places, her slender figure filling out with muscle and curves that were unquestionably all women.

I frowned slightly as she shifted slightly and her dress rode down on her chest, revealing part of a faded scar along her collarbone. She certainly hadn’t had that the last time I’d seen her. It looked like it must have been quite an injury, though the extent was hard to know given the power of magical healing.

I glanced around furtively, then subtly cast a diagnosis spell designed to reveal lingering damage. I doubted the wards inside a hall of healing would have issues with medical magic. My eyes widened as the spell began to dump its results directly into my mind. I hadn’t expected much, it wasn’t a particularly powerful spell after all, only capable of detecting old injuries with physical signs over a certain level, but this…

My mind was flooded with information and I twisted the spell, recasting it with a slight modification to the part that displayed the results. Phantom lines lit up all over Lea’s skin, clustered tightly around her breasts, buttocks, and thighs and never extending past what would typically be hidden by clothing. The exposed line I could see by her neck was one of the thickest, but certainly not the worst of them.

My teeth ground together, my jaw clenched painfully shut. My eyes flicked between Lea and the other girl before I discarded that thought. No, this wasn’t her doing. Probably. If it was though– No. I knew who’s work this was.

I wasn’t sure how long I stood there, finger still resting motionless by her hair and my other hand clenched into a white-knuckled fist. I looked up only when I heard quiet footsteps and shaky breathing move up beside me.

“I’m sorry, I was distraught. Might I know your name, good mage? Assistant Arabela tells me I have you to thank for bringing Leana here. Do you think you could tell me what happened?”

“Orion,” I said without looking, “And I already told you. I was just walking around when I saw some thugs beating her in an alley and recognized her. She needed a healer, so I brought her to see one. Simple as that.”

She didn’t seem to recognize my name, though I didn’t know if I should read into that at all. Orion was a rather common first name, and even if Lea had mentioned me to her, I doubted she would have connected tiny Orion Hunter to the person standing beside her. Still, telling her I recognize Lea seemed to have put her on guard. Interesting.

“Very heroic of you, mage Orion. Leana is a classmate and a close friend, I dread what might have befallen her if you had not intervened.”

“I’m sure you do.”

“Excuse me?”

I didn’t reply for a minute, then asked conversationally, “So, are you the bitch friend, the twat-eating whore, or someone else?” She spluttered in shock as I continued, “Such a tight nit bunch of students you have here. Tight enough that six of them decided to go out and rape a lesson into their classmate.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the shock on her face morph into a smooth mask that was quickly wiped away by icy fury. Even her mana responded to her emotions, the placid puddle that was her core turning into a slightly less placid puddle. “Who… They dare! I’ll… I’ll…”

I mentally adjusted my opinion up a notch. She did seem to genuinely care for Lea, so whatever had happened between them seemed like it might have been a mistake? Some sort of miscalculation? I didn’t have enough details to say anything for certain. She even felt slightly less pathetic now than she had before, purpose suffusing her body and leaching into her mana.

“I’m glad to see you care.” I said after another pause. “So, who are you, exactly, and how do you know Lea? I do not believe we’ve met.”

She straightened her back and turned to face me properly. “Ah, my apologies. I rarely have to introduce myself these days. I am Adonia Earthshadow. As I said before, Leana is a close friend and classmate here at Lightcastle. I assure you, those who did this will face the consequences of their actions. I swear it.”

I finally turned away from Lea, letting the spell over my eyes fall away as I studied this Adonia. It was a good introduction, and I actually did recognize the name for a change. Earthshadow was another military family, with the current patriarch serving as the Lord Commander of the Xernian army. From their ages, that made her either his daughter or a niece. That wasn’t just an empty statement then, she actually did have some amount of power in this part of the world. Still, the seriousness in her words was slightly undercut by the dark bags under her red and puffy eyes.

My mind drifted slightly as I looked her over. Looking past the signs of her tears and recent issues, she was rather beautiful in the classic Xernian style. Her long, dark hair was shiny and pulled back in an intricate braid that ran all the way down her back. Between her family, looks, and modest potential, she could be very… useful. I would move against him eventually, and it would be important to have support in the area when I did. Even better, I could ensure she did right by my Lea, no matter what issues currently stood between them.

It was only unfortunate that she was a Lightcastle student. That made things much more complicated than if she had just been a random noble’s daughter. Spontaneously thrashing a few idiots was one thing. Kidnapping a student would have to be done very carefully…

“Close friend and classmate, hmm? It sounds to me like–”

I felt movement under my finger and my head shot around fast enough that it would have hurt without my physical enhancements. Lea stirred slowly, arms tensing at her sides as she arched her back and stretched. Crystal-blue eyes opened slowly, blinking several times as she turned to look up at us. “‘Donia? Where… who…” Our eyes met. “O… Orion?”