With a small grunt, Pale stretched her leg out over her bed, then began to flex it, trying her best to see if there was still anything wrong with it. After a few seconds of no pain, she turned towards Cynthia and gave her a nod.

  "Nothing feels out of the ordinary," she reported. "Excellent work."

  Cynthia merely gave her a nod. "That's good. If you feel any kind of sudden pain or discomfort, come find me immediately. I'll get you fixed up."

  "How likely is that to happen?"

  "Not very; magic tends to be pretty thorough about this sort of thing. A broken leg is easy enough to fix, too. Still, I want to be sure it's healing the way it should." Cynthia stood up from her bedside, dusting herself off in the process. "I wouldn't expect anything to have gone wrong during your healing process, but again, keep an eye on it for now and try not to do anything too strenuous for the time being – at least a few days. Think you can do that for me?"

  "Sure," Pale confirmed. "Thanks again, Cynthia."

  "Mhm."

  As Cynthia turned to walk out of her dorm room, Pale couldn't help but visually trace the scar running over her eye. Cynthia had been severely wounded in the attack, and while it had been easy enough to fix the more minor aspects of the injury – the bleeding and cut, for one – her eye itself had somehow been damaged, and unfortunately, that was apparently something that even magic couldn't fix. As far as Pale knew, Cynthia was now completely blind in one eye, and had a nasty-looking scar across it as well. The healers had offered to at least patch up her scar, but for some reason, she'd refused. Pale didn't know why, and Cynthia hadn't offered an explanation to anyone as to why.

  For their part, neither Pale nor any of their other friends had seen fit to pry into it. Something about it was clearly very personal to Cynthia, and nobody had been willing to peel back that particular scab just yet.

  The sound of the door to her room opening and then closing snapped Pale out of her own thoughts. She hurriedly pulled her pants back on – having had to lower them so Cynthia could take a closer look at her injured leg – and was just finishing zipping them back up when the door to the room opened and Kayla stepped in.

  "Cynthia told us you're all clear," she reported.

  "Mostly," Pale replied with a grunt. "I'm on light duties for the next few days, according to her."

  Kayla's brow furrowed. "I don't understand why you can't just use one of those… what did you call them? Injections?'

  Pale crossed her arms. Kayla was speaking about a series of medical devices Pale had on-board her ship – small syringes full of a very potent healing medicine that she'd been using since her arrival at the Luminarium. Truthfully, Pale had been tempted to use one on herself, but had held off for a variety of reasons.

  "Because I don't have that many left, for one," Pale told her. "I didn't exactly have a massive stockpile to begin with, anyway. And now I'm wishing I hadn't used so many this early on."

  "You can't make more?"

  Pale shook her head. "That would require specialized equipment that doesn't exist on this planet yet. I could do it, of course, but that would take a lot of time, which we don't have, obviously."

  "Mm… I suppose you're right."

  Kayla took a seat on the edge of Pale's bed, then let out a sigh. "...I take it Cyntha didn't tell you anything about her scar?"

  "No, and I didn't ask."

  "But-"

  "Kayla, whatever the problem is, she'll tell us when she's ready," Pale insisted. "I don't think it's worth the risk of antagonizing her over something that's obviously this personal to her."

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  Kayla pursed her lips, but nodded. "...Yeah, you're right," she conceded. "I just wish she'd talk to us, you know? I mean, at this point, she almost reminds me of you back when you first arrived here – all closed-off to everyone but Cal, all of a sudden…"

  "Give her time," Pale insisted.

  "I know, I know…"

  At that, Pale stood up, pausing only to slip her handgun back into its holster at her belt line. Her weapons had initially been lost during the final stages of the attack when she'd passed out, but they'd been recovered and returned to her after a few days. For her part, Pale had been quite uncomfortable with just her knife at her side, especially given the severity of the attack on the school and town.

  She'd managed to make it through the assault with just her pistol, rifle, shotgun, and knife, but it hadn't been easy; there had been a number of close calls, not to mention her fight with Sven.

  As the memory of Sven crossed her mind, Pale couldn't help but scowl. Sven Greymane had been the leader of a group of Barbarians to the north. His men had launched an assault on Kayla's home village and taken her father hostage; the two of them had attempted to rescue him, but had failed. All Pale had succeeded in doing was wiping Sven's camp off the map with an orbital bombardment. Naturally, Sven had wanted revenge, and to that end, had thrown his hat into the ring with a local Duke from the neighboring kingdom, the Otrudian Empire – the ones responsible for the attack.

  She still wasn't entirely sure how Sven and the Otrudians were connected beyond a vague sense of how they'd found each other and launched into what they believed to be a beneficial relationship, but at this point, it didn't matter – Sven was dead, and the Kingdom of Zaniel, where they were located, was soon to be at war with the Otrudians.

  "Pale."

  Pale turned towards Kayla, who was staring at her. Pale shook her head.

  "Sorry," she offered.

  "What were you thinking about?" Kayla asked, unperturbed.

  "What makes you believe I was thinking about something?"

  "Because you always stare off into space and get this weird look on your face whenever you're deep in thought. Trust me, it's not hard to tell. So, what was it?"

  "Nothing."

  "Pale-"

  "I mean it, Kayla," Pale insisted. "I was just reflecting on some of the things that happened over the past few days."

  "Like what?"

  Pale frowned. Kayla had certainly gotten bold over the past few weeks. In the past, during the early days of their adventures together, she was much more content to simply let issues lie where they fell. Not anymore, it seemed.

  Then again, perhaps that was what it meant to truly be best friends with someone. Pale herself had never experienced friendship before coming to this planet, Sjel, so to say it was all new to her would have been an understatement.

  Just another adjustment she'd have to keep making, she supposed.

  Reluctantly, Pale let out a small sigh. "Just trying to see how Sven fits together with the Otrudian Empire."

  "Didn't he tell you that himself?"

  "He told me he essentially fell in with them almost by chance. I don't know if I believe that, though."

  "No offense, but does it matter?" Kayla questioned. "He's dead now. If what he said wasn't actually the truth, then the reality of the situation, whatever it happens to be, followed him to the grave. As far as I'm concerned, there's really no point in worrying about it right now."

  After a moment of hesitation, Pale gave her a nod. "...I suppose you're right."

  Kayla flashed her a small, reassuring grin. "Try not to dwell on it too much, Pale. Sven's gone, after all." She rested a hand on Pale's shoulder. "Anyway, now that you've got a clean bill of health, let's go look around. I think I saw Professor Virux out near the front gates."

  That got Pale's attention. She perked up slightly at the thought of getting to speak to her teacher. Like her, Virux was an Alteration Mage – together, they were both some of the very few who were active on Sjel. Alteration Mages tended to keep their magical Affinities a secret out of fear of people trying to exploit them, and Virux was no exception; nobody had realized what his Affinity was until he'd told her, not helped by the fact that his class of choice was history rather than any kind of practical magical application.

  Of course, perhaps that had less to do with his desire to keep his Affinity a secret and more to do with the fact that, as a Dragonborn, he was more inclined to the historical than not. Being long-lived certainly had to spur his interest in such a subject more than not.

  In any case, Pale gave Kayla a nod, and then the two of them rose to their feet and exited the room, looking for Professor Virux.

  XXX

  As Pale stepped out into the hallway, she couldn't help but look around, one hand drifting to her holstered pistol as she did so. The Luminarium was still in ruins, she knew, but this particular building had fortunately been mostly untouched,.

  "Everything okay?" Kayla asked.

  "It's fine," Pale reported. "Just… still a bit on-edge."

  Kayla's face fell, her ears flattening against her head. "I know what you mean. It just doesn't quite feel like home the way it used to before the Otrudians attacked, does it?"

  Pale nodded. "I've heard a similar thing happening with people whose houses have been broken into and burglarized. It's like… no matter how much you may continue to live in the house, or whatever changes you make to it, it will never feel as safe as it did before. The sanctity has already been violated."

  Kayla shuddered. "Yeah, that makes sense, unfortunately…"

  Pale pursed her lips, then motioned for Kayla to follow her. "Come on. Let's go see if Virux is still out there."

  Kayla nodded, and the two of them set off together, aiming for the front courtyard. They walked for several minutes, taking care to avoid the more damaged sections of the school as they did so. The bodies and blood had been cleaned up already, of course, but the memories remained, unfortunately, particularly for Pale.

  Being a computer had its perks most of the time, but this was the first time her eidetic memory had truly backfired. She could still remember seeing her fallen classmates lining the halls, even watching several of them die in front of her because she simply wasn't fast enough. The thought made her blood boil.

  A sudden hand on her shoulder snapped her out of it, and she turned to find Kayla staring at her with concern.

  "Hey," she said. "Are you okay?"

  "I'm fine," Pale answered instantly, gently shrugging Kayla's hand off her shoulder.

  "Are you sure? Because-"

  "Kayla," Pale said. "I will be okay. Let's just keep going."

  Kayla blinked, but reluctantly nodded. Pale sucked in a breath before continuing on her way.

  She wasn't sure what was coming over her, truthfully – she'd never felt as apprehensive or on-edge as she had now, and all she was doing was wandering through her old school.

  Whatever was happening to her, it was alarming. But at the same time, it wasn't something she could afford to dwell on.

  Not when she was about to get herself involved in another war.