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  The voice scraped across Alex's skull like static, or was that still the hangover? His eyes shot wide open. What happened? Had he died again? He tried to get up, but as soon as he did, his head burst with pain, and he let out an involuntary groan. He wondered for a moment why his voice sounded so high. Then he remembered his reflection in the broken mirror. He pulled his arms from underneath the lime-green blanket that was still partly covering him. They looked younger than he remembered, and most damning was that the scar he had on his left index finger was gone. His body really had changed, and not just into his own younger body. He had that scar since he had been eleven. A soft rustle of fabric brought him back to the present.

  "Welcome back," a soft voice spoke to him. He hadn't noticed the tall woman pull away the curtain around his bed because he was too focused on the changes to his body. "I don't believe we've met. My name's Fillonia, though people often call me Ms. Fillibaxter. Can I have your name?"

  The woman moved a lock of her auburn hair behind her ear. Her pointed ear! Alex didn't know why that was what surprised him the most. In the past twenty-four hours he had fallen into a sinkhole, seen the corpse of a sentient, anthropomorphic lizard, had a blade held against his neck, and his entire body had changed, but pointed ears was what settled it for him. He definitely wasn't on Earth anymore.

  "Uhm..., Alex, my name's Alex," he answered, trying not to stay too fixated on the woman's pointed ear.

  "Nice to meet you, Alex. Can you tell me what happened?" Fillonia asked. She sat down at the edge of his bed and placed her hand on his blanket-covered leg. Warmth spread through her touch, and he couldn't explain why, but he instantly felt comfortable around the tall woman. There was something motherly about her, something that made him trust her. He wanted to tell her what had happened. That he came from Earth. That a murderous man in black clothes attacked him. But he doubted she would believe him. It was better to play it safe and not scare away the first person who was friendly to him since arriving... wherever this was.

  "I don't remember," Alex started. Then he remembered reading somewhere that to make a lie more believable, you needed to sprinkle some truth in it. "I think I fell, maybe more than once. I feel strange, like I'm not myself."

  The woman had a gentle smile on her face. If she knew Alex was lying, she wasn't showing it. She let go of his leg and stood back up. "Don't worry, honey, you're safe here. Now rest. You'll need your energy to get better."

  With that, the tall woman left again, closing the curtain behind her. Alex let out a sigh of relief. The murderer wasn't in sight. He wasn't in a creepy cave anymore; he had a comfortable bed and a protective roof over him, and the woman seemed friendly and harmless. He felt like he could finally relax and process everything that had happened.

  Now that he was alone, he had time to take a closer look around the room. The bed he was lying on seemed like a regular, if somewhat outdated, hospital bed. What at first seemed like a lime-green blanket turned out to be a plain white blanket colored by the green light that illuminated the entire room. Outside of his by curtain closed off room, he could hear more voices and people walking about. He wasn't alone here with the woman. There were more people, a lot more people. Where the hell was he?

  Once again his eyes grew wide when he realized that when the man had knocked him out, he hadn't been wearing clothes. His stomach dropped. He looked down; his chest was still bare. How had he even gotten here? Had they brought him in naked? He lifted the top of the blanket and sighed in relief. Somehow he was wearing briefs. Although he would have preferred to be fully dressed, he was glad he wasn't completely naked anymore.

  It did mean someone had to have dressed him. Underwear doesn't just appear out of thin air, or maybe it did in this world. That wouldn't be the strangest thing he had seen so far. Maybe this was a super-advanced world with nanotech underwear. He doubted that was the case. From the little he had seen of the world so far, it appeared more medieval fantasy than futuristic sci-fi.

  With the panic of his lack of clothes settled, Alex looked around the room some more. At first glance, the place had looked like a regular hospital room, and judging by the amount of people he heard outside of his little curtained room, one of those large intake rooms. However, on closer inspection, he noticed some things that didn't add up. The first being the green light. While green light might be unusual, some green LED light bulbs could easily explain it. But that was the thing; no matter where he looked, he couldn't find the source of the green light. It was like the light was everywhere and nowhere all at once.

  Alex continued to look around the room, noticing more and more things that didn't make immediate sense, when a cool breeze fluttered over his bed. He crossed his arms over his bare chest as the sudden cold ran chills over his spine. Had someone opened a window? Where else could the wind have come from? He wanted to continue inspecting the room, but he had a sudden urge to crawl under the blanket and seek warmth. His eyes felt heavy. Closing them for a moment couldn't hurt. Fillonia had told him he needed to rest.

  Her husband immediately greeted Fillonia as she left the infirmary. Just seeing him made her relax. The large Drake had a curious expression on his face as he swung his arm around her. They walked back over to Varyn's office, where the rest of the board were still waiting.

  "So? What do you think?" he asked, his voice both calm and wild at the same time. On occasion, Fillonia wondered how she had managed to tame the beast inside him.

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  "I don't know what Zeth did to him, but even from the brief interaction I had with him, it was clear he went through a lot."

  "You know that's not what I'm asking, Flower. Do you think he's a threat to us?"

  "No, at least not right now. I felt no bad will in his words, but he's closed off."

  "Closed off?" Lukyn asked, letting go of his wife for a moment to look her straight in the face.

  She stopped dead in her tracks, or she would have bumped into him. "He either doesn't know what happened to him, or he has incredible mental fortitude. Even my Calming Touch couldn't get anything out of him."

  "Nothing?" The Drake asked, surprised. "That skill even worked on me." He stepped aside so she could continue on her way towards the office, walking beside her as soon as she passed him.

  "That it did, and look where it has gotten us," Fillonia said, an enormous smile on her face. She grabbed one of his claws and gave it a kiss.

  It didn't take them long to get to the office, and the mood immediately turned sour again when she saw Elyra was waiting outside the door. The blonde-haired woman was the youngest of their group by far, and Fillonia still didn't understand why Varyn had taken her in. Did he really feel that guilty for not being able to stop the cult in time for her brother's killing? They had all felt bad, but their leader seemed to take all the guilt on himself.

  "Satisfied?" Elyra asked, the scowl never leaving her face. "Can I destroy it now? Get this whole deal over with?"

  "Stop it, Elyra," Fillonia responded, her voice slightly raising in volume, "That's a young boy you're talking about!"

  "My brother was a young boy!" Elyra retorted. "That thing is a vessel for an apostle of Praxthar!"

  "I'm sorry about your brother, Elyra, but you can't jump to conclusions on anything even remotely related to the cult." Fillonia tried to calm down.

  The door to Varyn's office swung open and the green Drake stood in the opening, a stern look on his face. "All of you, inside, now!"

  Fillonia was glad Varyn had interrupted the conversation. While she knew she would be fine with her husband right behind her, the young girl still scared her sometimes. She knew that if she wanted to hurt her, there was nothing she could do about it. Fillonia might not be defenseless, but her Power Pearls focused more on utility and keeping others alive.

  All three of them followed Varyn back into his office without protest. The rest of the board was patiently waiting inside. The head of the academy leaned back on his desk as he waited until everyone was inside.

  "So, Ms. Fillibaxter, what have you concluded?" he asked, the genuine interest in his voice clear.

  "First of all, I have no idea what you've done with him, Zeth, but the boy is clearly dealing with some trauma," Fillonia answered, looking straight at the black-clad man, who seemed unfazed by her question, "However, I have come to the same conclusion as he has. The boy either has no idea how he got there and who the cult of Praxthar is, or he has some formidable mental resistance."

  "Why are we relying on people with minor mental abilities when it comes to figuring out whether or not this vessel is hosting an apostle when we have one of the most formidable Mind Weavers among us?" Elyra once again let the anger inside her get the best of her as she blurted out the question, looking from Fillonia and Zeth to Tamsin.

  The short woman with black curls answered before anyone else could. "Because, dear, I don't need to use my skills to know the cult's ritual failed, and the vessel isn't hosting anything. That much was clear from the moment Zeth had given his report this morning. It was all of you who wanted more certainty."

  "And what is it you suggest we do as our next move, Ms. Reel?" Garrus asked as his left eye turned opaque for a moment. Fillonia didn't know how he did it, being able to follow important meetings like this, all the while constantly checking the wards around the campus.

  "First, I'd like to know where the boy currently is." Tamsin said, looking to Fillonia for an answer.

  "He's still in the infirmary. I put him back to sleep after my visit. He should be out for at least two or three hours. Even without my skill, I doubted it would have taken much for him to fall back asleep," she responded, sitting back down on the couch. Lukyn was already back on it as well. She didn't know when it had happened, but she and her husband seemed to have claimed that spot during their meetings.

  "Good, that means we have some time to come up with a plan," Tamsin continued. "While the boy clearly isn't hosting an apostle of Praxthar, there is without a doubt something unusual about him. Since a new year of students starts their classes next week, I propose we keep the boy here, enrolled as a student."

  "You wanna keep him here?" Marcus asked, his bushy eyebrows raised high.

  "Yes, what better way to keep a close eye on him? We're all teachers here, we'll see him every day."

  "If you want to monitor it, why not put it in the dungeon?" Elyra gnarled, "I'm not teaching that thing anything."

  "Yes, you will," Varyn snarled back, before turning to Tamsin. "I'm in favor of this proposal. The boy hasn't given us any reason to think he might be a threat, so we shouldn't be treating him as one either."

  "If the cult figures out we have a potential vessel of an apostle on our ground, I doubt they will let him go without a fight," Garrus said, his left eye turning back to its usual green color, "In either case I've strengthened the wards around the campus."

  "Good thinking, Mr. Hightorn," Varyn praised Garrus before turning to Zeth. "Would the cult have any clue we have the boy here?"

  Zeth shrugged, "I've left no survivors at the cell and disposed of the cocoon, but I can't say with certainty that no other cells had knowledge of the attempted ritual."

  "That's all you could have done," the green-scaled Drake said with a subtle nod. "It comes with some risk, but I propose we enroll the boy in the academy so we can keep him under close observation. All those in favor, raise their hands."

  Without a doubt in her mind, Fillonia raised her hand. Right next to her, she could feel Lukyn's hand go up as well. As she looked over, she could see both Varyn and Tamsin had their hands held up as well. Which made sense; they had been the ones to propose enrolling Alex. Her gaze shifted towards the four remaining members of the board. It had been established that for any motion to pass, at least six of the eight members needed to agree with it. That meant they would need at least two more people to raise their hands.

  She knew for a fact that Elyra wouldn't raise her hand, and Zeth usually remained impartial to most board votes. Her attention thus shifted towards Garrus and Marcus, the largest and smallest members of the board, who for some reason always stood next to each other during meetings. Fillonia always had to hold down a chuckle when she saw them standing next to each other.

  Marcus seemed hesitant, his hand hovering between raised and not raised. Looking at Garrus, she could see he was doing some internal risk calculation before deciding on his stance. After what felt like an eternity to Fillonia, the muscular man finally raised his hand, which seemed enough to convince Marcus to raise his as well. A wave of relief washed over Fillonia.

  "Good, seven out of eight members approve, motion to enroll the boy has been approved," Varyn declared.

  Seven? Fillonia's gaze flicked over to where Elyra and Zeth were standing. To her surprise, the black-clad assassin had his hand raised as well. Something that earned him a betrayed look on Elyra's face.