The pain ran like molten iron over Mirja's skull. She tried opening her eyes, but her eyelids didn't seem to be working.
"What happened?"
Whose voice was that? It rang heavy like cathedral bells.
"Here. Let me get her."
Someone lifted her up. She was being carried. Trying to ignore the pain and open her eyes, but to no use. She reached out for the power of her Nexus. But there was nothing left. It was all drained and her own link to the leylines seemed broken. Just like her.
"I got it. Put her down here."
Soft fabric touched her face and she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
Light. There was light. She was sure of it now.
"I think she's waking up."
The female voice was familiar, but she couldn't place it.
"Let me take a look," said a rough male voice.
She felt fingers touching her brow. Warm light flowed through her and soothed her aching nerves.
"She's coming to," the same male voice said again.
Mirja was able to slowly open her eyes. She looked up at an elderly man. She knew that face. She was sure of it, but her brain didn't allow for the connection.
"Mirja. Thank the Gods. I was so afraid I had lost you," said another voice and fingers ran over her cheek.
She shifted her gaze to the female voice. It was a redheaded young woman with a stern look only somewhat softened by compassion. Sigrid. She remembered Sigrid. She knew Sigrid.
"What happened?" the words came out like a croak.
"Ssch. You need to rest. Go back to sleep. I'll be here."
Mirja tried nodding but sleep took her before she could move.
The morning light struck the windows and multicolored rays played over Mirja's face. She opened her eyes. The pain had subsided somewhat. She looked around. Jarl lay sleeping on a couch and Sigrid sat in a chair, her head nodding off into sleep.
"You had us real scared there miss," said a man walking up to her.
Mirja tried to place the lanky old man. She blinked. He smiled a smile that seemed only to touch his lips.
"Master Olgric," Mirja said trying to push herself up.
"Oh. Don't get up for me. I'm more than happy if you stay in bed. Makes my job easier."
"Mirja!" Sigrid's voice had an urgency to it and soon Mirja felt a hand on her cheek.
"What happened?" Mirja asked and as she said it, she was sure that she had asked it before.
"You hit your head. Quite badly," said Master Olgric and put his fingertips on her brow.
Mirja could feel the energy penetrating her skin and sending small tendrils deep into her. She clenched her hands forcing herself still. She had always hated animancy. Especially animancy that affected her.
"It's looking better," the Master said finally and Mirja exhaled as his fingers left her skin. "I'll be back in a little while. Try to drink something."
Mirja nodded and watched as the Master left. They were in a room with white walls and everything seemed excessively clean. This must be the hospital wing of the animancy building. Mirja had never set her foot here and had wished that she wouldn't have had to.
"What happened?" she asked Sigrid in a low voice looking over at the still sleeping Jarl.
"You don't remember? Behind the ebony door. In the Lost Princes," Sigrid said in almost a whisper.
Mirja nodded slowly. She did remember the door. She remembered finally breaking the puzzle and passing through. She remembered ... no she did not remember anything more. Shaking her head, she looked at Sigrid.
"I remember opening the door. Then. Nothing."
The Sister sighed and smiled at her.
"The wraith. It was there. It struck you in the head. Hard."
Mirja nodded. It made sense. During the following half bell Sigrid recounted in detail what had happened after they had passed through the door. She pointed out every detail about the wraith that she could remember. The blood. The black blood. That she mentioned at least ten times. Mirja nodded along and tried to remember, but there was just a big blank spot in her memory. She got frustrated as Sigrid told her how she had tried raising a shield but that she had been too slow. Too slow? She had been practicing raising a shield a thousand times. She could do it in her sleep. She could do it in the blink of an eye. Not fast enough? By the seventh.
"I'm so glad you made it," Sigrid said kissing her hand.
Mirja smiled weakly and then fell back to sleep.
***
"I only took my eyes of it for half a heartbeat, but then it was gone. I ran out after it but then I remembered you and came running back. I had to make certain you were all right."
Mirja smiled. She felt her heart flutter at the stern woman's words. She couldn't remember the last time that someone had honestly cared about her like that. If it had ever happened.
"It was like mist. I even felt the air chill around my hand as I struck it."
Mirja saw how Sigrid's mind went back to the struggle with the wraith. She had taken to calling it by the same name as Sigrid did, although she knew that it was certainly not a real wraith. If it had been, they would both be dead. But she did not tell Sigrid that.
"Did you save any of the blood?" Mirja asked weakly.
Sigrid nodded and rummaged through her pockets bringing out a small vial with a black liquid inside.
"Good. I'll have it looked at once I can go back to the laboratory," Mirja said trying to sit up.
"You're not going anywhere right now. Master Olgric said you should spend at least another day here for observation. Then another one in bed. Understood?"
Mirja looked up at the redheaded woman. Her face reminded her of the look her mother gave her when she found her outside after curfew. She nodded slowly trying not to make her head fall apart.
***
"Welcome back Mirja," Mistress Lorelee said as Mirja sat down at her bench.
Mirja nodded to the Mistress and took up her notebook. She saw at least a dozen of the other students looking at her. She had been gone for over a week. Her head hurt like the fires of the underworld, but she could not spend another bell in that bed knowing that the classes at the College continued without her. No. She had dragged herself out of bed. She had prepared a slight sedative on her own and taken about three times as much as the books recommended. But now she was here. And she would not miss anything.
"Let's pick up where we left off," echoed Mistress Lorelee's voice up from the podium. "Flicka's Law. The maximum available amount of power from an ejaculation is proportional to the square of the pleasure experienced by the man," Lorelee said her chalk hitting the blackboard in a staccato that exacerbated Mirja's already painful headache. "Therefore. Always, always try to deduce a man's fetish. It is the best way of obtaining the highest amount of power. Let's look at this example."
Lorelee's arm moved rapidly as she drew out the equations that explained the relationship between power extraction and extraction method.
"Now. What is the most efficient way of extracting a given amount of power from a man?"
Lorelee looked around the room. Her gaze stopped at Mirja for a second. Normally she would be happy to answer but as she had missed the last week and had not had time to visit the library yet, she wasn't absolutely sure about the answer. And it galled her.
"Anneli."
Mirja looked over at the dark-skinned girl whose pen still was scraping out notes. She looked up.
"Fellatio?"
Lorelee sighed and shook her head.
"Although you may think that your mouth is good for everything, that is not the case. You should be careful about opening it without thinking."
There were a few giggles that the Mistress ignored. She looked around the room once more. All faces were turned down onto their notebooks.
"It depends on the subject," Mirja said finally.
"Thank you," Lorelee said with a wide smile. "Did you all hear that? It depends on the subject. The most efficient way of extracting power depends on the subject. Never forget that. Even if you are a master at Fellatio, Anneli, it may not be the optimal solution for every subject. Understood?"
The dark-skinned girl nodded and then as Lorelee turned her back towards the class she glared at Mirja. Mirja just shook her head and continued taking notes. Lorelee went through the details of Flicka's Law and then lightly touched upon the channeling of generated power before the class ended.
"Mirja," Lorelee said beckoning her with well-manicured fingers as the rest of the class noisily exited the auditorium.
Mirja slowly headed down to the podium. Her body was far from recovered but she did her best to not let it show.
"Are you ready to get back to work? I have a client for you. A very important client."
Mirja hesitated for a heartbeat before she nodded.
"Excellent. I rely on you far too much you know," Lorelee said with a wide smile.
***
"How are you doing?" Sigrid said as she entered the room.
Mirja smiled weakly at the Sister. If she was being completely honest, she was exhausted, but she had not wanted to show it to the other students, or to Lorelee. But those simple words from the stern redheaded woman made all the aches come back.
"Tired," she said looking over at Jarl who was studying diligently over by the table.
If you had asked her at the beginning of the year how many hours the spoiled nobleman would spend head bent over a book, she would have said less than ten. Now he spent at least five hours a day like that. It was amazing. She had heard from the other students that were majoring in Elemancy that Jarl was by far the most proficient of them. Another surprise.
"Come," Sigrid said and took her hand.
Mirja let herself be led to the bed and soon she was tucked in and before she knew it, she was asleep.
