1:13 PM, 28th of December, 1728

  Lights flickered.

  First, everything was hot, and then it was cold.

  Alexander felt like he was back swimming in the lake that led to his salvation, only this time, he wasn’t making it.

  He was drowning.

  He was disoriented.

  Bringing his hand up to his blindfold, he yanked it down, the bright lights above his head leaving him to squint.

  His mind spun, his mouth was parched, and his muscles ached.

  What the hell had happened?

  The lights above his head were blocked out, and he looked up at a pair of blue eyes.

  “You’re finally awake. Took your time, you know.”

  “What happened?” His voice came out raspy, and he felt like he had swallowed an entire desert.

  “Just a little bit of poison, that thing was covered in it. That idiot Marvin should’ve never brought students along.”

  Alexander sat up, and Althea moved to his side. He looked around the white room, the IV to his side, the needle in his forearm. He was in the hospital.

  “How long have I been out?”

  “Just under two days. I couldn’t have one of my students die on me, so I went ahead and helped you out, too.”

  “What do you-” He lifted his shirt, something he must’ve been changed into while he was out, only to find that his wound was nowhere to be seen.

  “You can heal, too?”

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  “Oh, no.” She extended her forefinger and poked at his hip, only for an intense pain to run through his entire body.

  “It’s just here now.”

  Alexander raised his gaze up to her own. “You’re pretty scary, you know. You know way too much, you’re stupidly strong, and you have a bizarre set of abilities.”

  “You could call me a jack of all trades, yes. Either way, as I said, I just couldn’t let one of my students die, especially when we still have so much to talk about.”

  Throughout the entire conversation, Alexander still felt awkward in his speech. He would have to wait to respond to speak naturally, already hearing everything she said before she even thought of saying it.

  It was more intense now, too, now that he was seeing a little further ahead.

  “I do have to get back to work now, though. Your employer was here earlier this morning and wanted to let me know you don’t have to worry about coming into work for the rest of the week. One of the staff here accelerated the rate at which your wound will heal, so you should be fully recovered in a few days.”

  “Before you leave, can you answer a question of mine? How did you manage to get so strong? I want power like yours.”

  Althea, who was now standing by the door, looked back at him, a sorry look in her eyes, “I had a hard youth; it was simply required of me. Just follow the curriculum, and you should end up strong enough.”

  Alexander doubted those words heavily. The guards present at the fight against the Fallen Star Beast were all graduated scholars, people who finished the very curriculum he was now studying, and they didn’t stand a single chance.

  Lying his head back into the bed, Alexander dozed off, the lights in the room somehow not preventing his drifting off to sleep.

  -

  The room was dark, and night had likely come. Feeling able, Alexander stepped off the bed, dragging over the stand that held his necessary liquids with him, and looked out the window.

  He was on the second story, and as he looked down, he was surprised to find the streets nearly empty. The nightlife in the city seemed rather abundant since he had arrived, but tonight it was different.

  They were likely scared or in mourning, opting to stay home rather than go out for their usual night activities.

  Looking down at his arm, Alexander decided he was going to break the rules a little bit. He grabbed at the IV and slowly pulled it out of his arm, a small amount of blood trickling out of the puncture wound as he did.

  Luckily, they left his blindfold intact, probably at the request of Althea, so Alexander had no trouble navigating the building as he left.

  He didn’t want to wait to get stronger; he wanted to do it now.

  The gate to the campus was surprisingly still open, and although Alexander wasn’t entirely sure of the time, he knew it was much later than he had ever been there.

  He continued on to the courtyard he had been at only a couple of days before, and, as he expected, the swords were all still stored there.

  Grabbing one of them, Alexander left the school grounds again. They wouldn’t miss only a single blade.

  A large tree stood before him, and Alexander held the sword with both hands, blade pointed to the sky.

  He swung at the tree, feeling his heart beat in his hip as he turned his body and changed his stance.

  The blade connected, only chipping off a thin layer of bark.

  He got back into position and swung again, only this time, he stopped just short of the tree.

  He watched his future self make contact, he watched the bark fly off the tree, and then, once he had made the decision to stop, he saw it as if it had never happened.

  Because it hadn’t.

  He needed to grow used to this feeling. To be able to alter his choices only after he knew their outcome, and to be able to decide which outcome he wanted. He struck in every way he could think of, and stopped at every timing.

  For hours, he swung the sword, sweat covering his entire body, his side screaming at him in protest, the wound having opened itself back up, leaking blood down his pants.

  Only once he saw the sun break the horizon, painting the sky in a beautiful yellow and orange, holding the now ruined blade in front of him, did he decide he had come to an understanding.