Chapter 20: Chapter 20

Liora's POV

“You can just use your powers to heal her, what’s the big deal?” Kysen argued, and I sighed softly behind him.

We were currently at the infirmary and the two healers on duty refused to heal me with the powers. They keep insisting on just giving me some balm and just wrapping it up.

Why?

“Well, like I said, we’re burnt out. We need to rejuvenate,” One of them said, and the other just shrugged.

Well, that was the reason they made up.

Translation? ‘Get that useless thing out of our sight, Green forbid we treat the freak.’

They just did not want to treat me.

Like I said, most people disliked me, my very existence even.

I could feel Kysen getting pissed. Again. No one liked to see angry Kysen. I was surprised they even had the audacity to defy him this way.

I knew he was about to lose it. And I was getting tired of the whole back and forth as well. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands.

“You should-” My hand wrapped around his arm, stopping him midtrack.

He turned slightly, and I whispered “Let me handle this,”

His jaw ticked, before he stepped aside for me.

“It’s fine, ladies. I get it, you’re tired. I’ll just let my mother know when I get home, so she can call for a home session.” Their faces fell.

“Oh! Don’t worry, I'll make sure to let her know that I couldn’t do it here, because you guys were too tired to help. We all get tired, don’t we?” I said, my smile as wicked as it could possibly be, before it fell completely flat.

By now, they were as pale as they could be.

“Come on Dravon, let’s go” I said, turning around sharply.

Almost as soon as I turned around, they stopped me.

“Wait!” The first girl yelled, and I turned to her with a questioning brow.

She swallowed. “We can help,”

I crossed my arms over my chest. Oh really?

“Can you now?” I asked, and she nodded eagerly. The other one smiled hopefully too.

But they were both shaking with fear.

I hummed as I tapped my chin thoughtfully, “Nah, I think I'd rather just stick to my plan”

She started to beg, “Please! We’re sorry, we shouldn’t have done that-”

“The infirmary is no place for discrimination,” Kysen suddenly said, cutting her off, “And that is what you both have done here”

“I’m going to make sure you’re both punished duly. You should count yourselves lucky if you don’t lose your healer robes.” He added, and I shrugged. Deserved. No matter what, the first thing you do as a healer is heal. It’s one of the first rules of conduct. And they broke it.

Their pleas fell on deaf ears, as I sat down, and stretched my hand out for them to heal.

One of them was already in tears, and had to go to the backroom, while the other one, barely pulling herself together, wrapped her hand around my wrist softly. I watched as her fingers trembled slightly, and I almost felt bad for them.

She did her thing and we left. My wrist felt good as new.

“You were so mean,” I said to Kysen, accusingly, as I rolled my wrist.

He raised a brow, “You were worse”

I cracked a laugh.

“Fair,” I said.

“I didn't know you had it in you,” he said and I smirked.

“It’s a recent development,” I said, and he hummed in response.

For some reason, I felt bad for those girls. I hated how it kept bugging me.

“Hey, do you think we can avoid them losing their healer robes?” I suddenly asked, and he tilted his head to the side, studying me.

“I- I just… Okay, I know they were wrong and they deserve to be punished, but that’s a little excessive, no? I think they’ve learnt their lesson, and with a little suspension or something, they should be okay…” I trailed off.

I couldn't decipher the look on his face.

“Or not…” I added, and he chuckled. I looked at him in question. What was so funny?

“You probably would never admit it, but, you’re so thoughtful, Altharos” he said, and I rolled my eyes.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.

“Hm, of course” He said and I bit the inside of my cheek. I hated how he could see right through me.

“It’s do-able. They won’t lose their robes, don’t worry, but I can't promise they’ll get just a suspension. It's not really up to me” he said and I didn’t show it, but I felt so relieved just by hearing that.

“Hm,” I hummed nonchalantly.

The walk back to the classrooms was so long. Velaryth was huge, and the infirmary was so far from the classrooms. By foot.

We could easily fly back to get there faster, but, for some reason, we didn’t. And we walked so slowly.

“You almost lost control earlier,” he stated and I sighed, as everything unfolded in my head.

“Yes,” I admitted.

“It’s okay, Liora. It just means we need to train harder and faster,” he stated and I sighed again.

“Thank you for showing up when you did,” I said, “I don’t know what would have happened if you were even a second late,”

“Nothing would have happened” He said it with so much confidence, and I shook my head.

“I would have killed him, Kysen,” I said, stopping in my tracks.

“That’s not true, Liora. You held on that long, you would have been able to stop yourself. You almost lost control, you didn't actually lose it.” He argued, and my words got stuck in my throat.

He sighed, “What really happened?”

I sighed yet again, before relaying the events to him, right from the moment I stepped into the class to the moment he found me.

After everything, he just stared at me for a while, studying me, before he finally spoke.

“You’re changing, Altharos,” he said, and I frowned.

“Is that a good or bad thing? For the record, what happened today wasn’t my fault and-”

He cut me off, “It’s a good thing. Henrik deserved what he got. People need to know not to mess with you. Because you never fought back before, they think you’re weak. But you’re one of the strongest people I know. Both physically, and mentally. A force to be reckoned with really.”

I blinked. I didn’t know how to react, or even respond to the things he said.

“Uhhh…” I trailed off, and he cracked a smile.

“Come on, let’s get to class. We have the next one together, no?” He said, and I just nodded slowly.

He tugged me by my hand, and I followed, before I remembered something and I stopped in my tracks again.

He turned, “What’s wrong?”

“My mother,” I suddenly said and he raised a questioning brow.