After their success in stopping the gang boss known as Bo from tormenting their friend, Orin and Edward lay unconcious in the embrace of Michael. He handed their unconcious bodies to Cassandra, who took them back to the inn.
She made sure they lay on their respective beds and got proper rest. She also sat on the chair in their room after healing their injuries with her magic. As she sat in silence, she glanced at Edward's teeth, still fascinated, even more so after what he had done to Benny's magical gauntlet.
After taking a few looks, she went back to her chair and picked up a notebook she had ket in a lether satchel on her side, where most young girls her age would carry a tiny purse. The notebook contained several pages worth of notes regarding ways of using magic for nursing.
There were also headlines referring to surgical use of her magic, though with even more precision. That was something her skill level had yet to reach, as she preferred a surgical approach to magical healing, rather than regeneration.
Further into the notebook, there was a fresh headline that read [Curriculum]. The notes below showed that the headline referred to a spell of sorts that would allow her and Michael to observe the boys' progress. She would spend the next few hours brainstorming ways to utilize magic for such means.
After a few hours, a noise was suddenly heard from Edward. Cassandra quickly stood up and moved to check on him. She moved closer to inspect further, and she heard something that sounded like whispers.
"…S…Sis…ter…Where are you?…"
She was taken slightly back from hearing such whispers, as strangely, Edward's mouth did not move. And the whispers did not sound like his own, yet they still did. They sounded lonely, sad, angry.
She moved back to get a thermometer from her satchel to check Edward's temperature, in case he might have a fever messing with his head. When she turned back towards him, he was breathing more heavily and a tear ran down his right cheek.
As she moved the thermometer careful towards Edward's mouth, his arm quickly moved to grab her hand. Yet he did not grab her wrist by force, like she thought he would. Rather, he pushed the thermometer out of her hand while moving his hand into her grasp.
Shocked, and thinking he was fooling around, Cassandra moved toget hear hands to herself. But Edward's grip did not let go. After a couple of minutes of struggle, she decided to giv up and move her chair so she could still sit down.
Edward seemed to wuickly calm down and his mouth seemed to show a slight smile as his muscles softened up and he lay like a ragdoll. Cassandra assumed that she could move her hand from his grip, but feared that it might make him start breathing so heavily again.
As she sat there, she also checked on Orin, who lay in his bed calmly and resting properly. He woke up and sat up on his bed, confused about why he was there. After looking around himself, he caught glance of Cassandra in their room. He saw her and Edward's hands and stopped himself from chuckling.
"I promise, this is not what you might think. I was trying to check his temperature, cause he was breathing so heavily."
"He was breathing heavily? I was going to assume you two were having a moment, but I am afraid I have to believe you. He usually gets like that when he thinks a lot of his sister?"
"His sister?"
"Master probably informed you of our situation before meeting with him. Ed had a sister when we were younger. Her name was Ava. She was very overprotective of him when we were small. But she died when those Blackhoods broke into our houses. Ever since we turned eight, he had somehow cursed himself into constantly. hearing her voice in his head."
"That sounds horrible."
"Believe me, it was. We both had to deal with our own share of the grief. My younger brother was taken away by them when my mother was slaughtered. Poor Ed had to see Ava bleed out while both of his were dead behind her."
"…"
"Yet the strangest thing thus far, and the reason I am telling you this much is because a week ago, when we had first met you, something weird happened to Ed. He told me that when you had first touched him, he was unable to hear Ava's voice, which means you somehow temporarily disabled the curse."
"Disabled it?"
"Indeed. So I assume he is clinging to you right now to silence the distress in his soul. It pains me to have to rely on someone else for it, but you have saved our lives and you were a great help during the construction task."
"Geez, now you're sounding like master Mike."
"Yeah, I suppose I did talk a bit much. Well, I am going to Richard's hut to check on the aftermath. I leave Ed in your hands. Do be gentle with him, he gets nervous around girls, heh."
Orin put on his jacket and quietly left the room. Though he seemed slightly hesitant to leave Edward with somebody else.
"I can tell he's worried about his friend. They're almost like a pair of brothers not wanting to separate from one another.
Orin ran over to Richard's house, clinging to the pommel of the rapier he had given him. He had hoped that the memory he had of him and Edward defeating Benny was true, but he could not be sure until he saw it.
As he got there, he saw Michael standing outside the hut, seeming to speak something to a crow thatwas perched on his arm. As he saw Orin coming, he launched the crow off his arm and it started flying away.
"Well if it isn't one of my dear students, Orin. I see you're finished resting, and I assume that Edward's still resting and Cass is with him. So, how does your first major side quest feel? Feel good, doesn't it? To help out a friend in need?"
"…Yes… it did. I have so many thoughts at once about it. Half of them are good, though the other half I have not a clue whether they are particularly good or bad thoughts."
"Would you mind explaining? I'm your teacher now, so I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to."
"All right. As we were fighting that big guy, I felt my eye acting up. It hurt so much, and my conciousness faded away. I saw someone in a field, and I just knew that it was myself I saw."
"Yourself…?"
"Yes, hough much older. I also could tell he was looking away at something. A stone of sorts, with something sticking out."
Michael's face twitched in a response of surprise to Orin's mention of the stone.
"And there was also a child, I think, keeping close to it, and reaching for it."
Michael started mumbling a little to himself
"It couldn't be… He couldn't have had a vision about it, right…?"
"Were you saying anything?"
"Don't worry about it. I'm just thinking out loud. Did you experience anything more.?"
"Yes. The older me told me to not let the monster within my eye consume me. Then I saw something open within a void of black smoke and I was ripped back to my senses."
Michael grew quite visibly worried from hearing what Orin was saying.
"Is anything wrong, Master?"
"Why must it always come to haunt me alongside my disiples?"
"What do you mean?"
Michael sighed and hesitantly starting speaking.
"A good couple of years ago, when I had just recently become as powerful I am and gotten the status I have now, I took on a student like you and Edward. He had an eye like yours, only on his left eye."
"An eye like mine…?"
"Exactly. He was a marvellous student. He understood everything so easily, like his body was tuned to be a perfect conduit for manipulating mana. But when he had become a proper mage, he allowed all his power to grow to his head."
"So you had to cut off ties with him? Maybe he knows something about my eye. Maybe we can find him and see if he can help me controll it."
"Unfortunately, that's not gonna be possible. I tried parting ways with him, as I had been given more duties as a dragon and he needed time to grow on his own. Though he had become too dangerous, and started massacring towns, being titled the vampire."
"Vampire…? Did he drink people's blood?
"That and so much more. Ruors were that he found a way to actually consume people's souls and increase his own magical power. So I actively searched for him to put an end to him. His skill in magic had grown too far for any high level mage to deal with him, so I had to put him down myself…"
"Put him down? Does that mean you had to kill him? Murder your own student?"
Michael looked away to wipe a tear away from his face.
"He was like a son to me, even though he had only been a student of mine for a few months. And rumor spread from a fellow dragon that he'd fathered a son of his own some time ago. A kid with a star eye like his father. That's the only reason I know of your eye. I only know of the evil that corrupted Xayden years ago…"
They both stood quiet for a couple of seconds as Orin pondered on what Michael had said.
"Do you think I will become like that too? Power-hungry and a ruthless killer?"
"…No, you'll be fine. You're my student, so it's my job to look after you. You and Edward will both be fine. Now, you should probably get in there. I bet your pal wants to thank you both for your help."
Michael pointed his thumb back at the hut and smiled. He then proceeded to pat Orin on the shoulder and walk back toward the town square. Orin looked up at the cabin and went to knock on the door.
A few seconds after knocking, the woman Bo took hostage opened the door. She was a young woman, looking to be in her late twenties. She also had a half-blonde, long hair and emerald eyes. She looked at Orin, who was still partially wounded and scarred from his recent fight.
"You're one of the boys who saved me and Melina, right?"
Orin stood still for a quick moment before deciding what to say.
"Yes, but-"
Before he got the chance to finish his sentence, she hugged him tightly with gratitude and started shedding tears of joy.
"Thank you so much! If not for you and your friend, we wouldn't be able to live like this again. We're so grateful. Truly, thank you!"
"Please, listen to me. I did not do much in that fight at all. It seems like I was mostly just a liability while Ed did most of the work."
"Ed? Oh, yeah, the other one."
"Yes, his name is Edward Shine. Me and him are companions and fellow students of our teacher, master Michael Stylus."
"Well that's certainly something. Mage apprentices at that age, huh? How about you both come visit us when that friend of yours is all recovered. I'll make you both a delicious meal as a proper thanks."
"That sounds lovely, mrs Hicks."
"Please, call me Madelen. Cut the formalities with us."
"All right then, Madelen. I look forward to our next visit."
Orin decided to take a stroll around town to pass the time until Edward would wake up.