"NO!" Alexa cried out, rapidly sitting up in bed.
"Jesus Chri- hey, hey it's ok," Damien cooed, jolting slightly as she woke him.
Looking at her heaving back, he sat up and removed his arm from around her torso. Upon doing so, he noticed how damp it was, the poor girl sweating profusely from her head as she looked back at him.
The day had passed long ago, night having fallen and sent Kastra and him to bed. They hadn't expected her to wake until tomorrow with what the healer had said, yet it had taken them an extra hour to get to sleep, both laying closer to her than they had in a while.
Damien sat up and willed a dim light into the room, seeing she'd soaked clean through her white blouse. Her face seemed to be in a panic, so he started circulating the air around them to lightly blow through her hair. He rested his hand on her back and pulled her into a light hug, hiding her body while withdrawing the water from her clothes with his mana.
She sat still and held her hands up on her head as he took care of her, slowly regulating her breathing.
"You feeling alright? The healer said you damaged your veins pretty badly," he asked, pulling away from the embrace and fixing her hair so she could see.
She shook her head.
"Do I look ok? I'm-" she started, suddenly stopping her words and looking up at him while he did his best to keep a smile on despite the venom she'd spat out. "... sorry. My head is screaming at me and my entire body feels bruised, I'm not in the best of moods."
"I can tell," he joked. "If you need to let off some steam, I don't mind. I can shut up if you have a headache."
Kastra finally began to sit up from between them, rubbing her eyes and resting one of her hands on Alexa's stomach.
"No, you're fine. I-"
"I've always been a fan of my looks too, but what does that have to do with this?" he questioned with a smile.
"If you're going to joke like that, I'll retract my earlier answer," she responded with a glare. "It's not really a headache, it's more of a throbbing numbness. Everythings... foggy?"
He nodded. From what he'd read earlier and known already, that usually happened when someone overexerted their creation threshold. Your whole body would feel like it was in molasses while hurting literally everywhere, given that your veins ran everywhere.
"So... what was it like?" he asked, reaching over to scratch her back a little. "You sort of... went a little out of control at the end there."
She winced a bit before smiling a little awkwardly, brushing his hand off.
"It feels like pins and needles when you do that. Scratch my wings later, please. And it felt... it felt like I was underwater, to be honest. Like every problem I have and every other person's problems in the world didn't matter. It was... tranquil. A little scary. I was in control but... at the same time... Well, it felt like I wouldn't have allowed Eita to surrender. I wouldn't have killed him, but I definitely would have made him go unconscious if he hadn't managed to admit defeat," she said, hugging her arms to herself as she sat, staring at him worried.
He smiled and nodded.
"That sounds about right. You could have easily killed him with what you were doing, but it seems you came closer to killing yourself," he said.
"That's the problem with feeling as if my problems don't weigh on me... I knew I was going too far but just didn't care. My goal was to win, so I'd win before dropping the state. I've never heard of it being like that," she said.
"Me neither. I've heard with some of the stronger Mages, it was disorienting, but not nearly to that degree and it went away after the first few times. Maybe... you just need practice, and it'll go away?" he theorized.
"I hope. I don't want to do that again for a while though. I'll ask one of the teachers tomorrow morning. Or I guess, today," she said, checking her ring.
"Nope," Kastra chimed in, arms above her head as she stretched. "Healer said you were to stay in bed for at least two days."
"I'll be fine after a littl-"
"I'll make sure you stay in bed for both days, healer said so. It's supposed to hurt to move really bad. When you need anything just ask me for it," Kastra interrupted, brokering no arguments with her tone.
Alexa opened her mouth to argue the point, but a glare from the Fae seemed to stop that. She sighed and Damien smiled.
"How long until I'm better completely?" she asked.
"About a week and a half," Damien responded.
"Really? Isn't that fast? I... unless you..." she stopped, checking her ring. "You spent one hundred gold?! The extract is only about fifteen a bottle, how many did you buy?!"
Damien squinted his eyes at her complaint. It seemed he'd been ripped off.
'Perks of being a jerk, I suppose.'
"The healer said they were fifty a-"
"FIFTY?! That took so long to save! Who sold you it fo-" She froze, turning to Kastra as her tone turned icy. "It was Krieger, wasn't it?"
"Yep."
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!! Typical. At least this means I'll be able to get my money back for what he overcharged," Alexa lamented, looking down. "Why didn't you stop him from spending that much?" she asked, pointing at Damien.
"He was getting upset. Krieger was being himself and haggling would have been hard without you. I don't know how to make threats to people as colorfully as y-"
She stopped speaking as Alexa covered her mouth with a hand while grimacing at the apparent pain she felt from just touching something.
Damien rolled his eyes at the usual scene. It helped get rid of the rest of the worry he'd been holding onto, at least.
He wanted to scratch her wings to soothe her, and himself, but knowing how sensitive they usually were, doing so right now might result in one of the most painful experiences of her life. Still, he was at a loss for what to do with his time until he'd leave for class.
'Maybe making breakfast is the best option here?' he thought, nodding to himself after.
"Well, I doubt we'll be going back to sleep, so I'll go make some breakfast for us. Any special requests, cripple?" he asked, dodging out of the way of Alexa's hand for her sake.
She smiled at him.
"Toast sounds really good. With lots of butter," she said.
"And milk," Kastra added.
"Anything actually substantial?" he asked, scratching his head as he stood up out of the bed.
"Surprise us, hubby," Kastra said with a grin.
He nodded and walked out of the room, down the hall and stairs. A relieved smile traced across his face, anxiety finally fading from inside his chest. She seemed just to need rest, and she'd be back to her normal self.
He'd have to try and make it to the classes he hadn't yesterday.
'Day two is starting out pretty good.'
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"YOU CALL THAT DODGING? HAH!" Layla yelled out, laughing at Damien's misery as he lay sprawled out on the ground, bruised all over.
'Day two is horrible.'
They'd started out in the same manner they'd left off yesterday: dodging large chunks of earth as they were thrown in their direction. She hadn't even warned them, everyone in class standing around like deer in a field, wondering where she was, when suddenly five of his nearby classmates were knocked off their feet by stones.
The Combatants had it worse than he did, taking chunks that were moving at almost ten times the speed as the ones headed toward him, but it seemed they still weren't hurting as bad as he was. The sadistic, crazy bitch of a teacher had figured out exactly how strong his body was even though he hadn't revealed that he'd ruminated when younger, and was sending the rocks with just enough force to give him extreme bruising, but not break anything.
Three more long hours of pain. Three more long hours of listening to her cruel laughter as he did whatever he could to reduce the amount of torture his body was being put through, dodging, hiding behind other students, jumping behind bushes... nothing helped.
"ALRIGHT, WE ARE DONE. You lot can heal yourselves now. If you can't, go to the infirmary. Don't go to your next class injured, though. If I get any more complaints from the other faculty about my students coming into their classes bleeding all over, I'm going to make it mandatory we start each class off by breaking our bones and healing them so we get better at healing. Feel privileged I'm letting you off early to heal, UNDERSTOOD?!" she shouted out in a threatening tone.
"YES MA'AM!" was the almost perfectly uniform response.
It seemed no one left in this class was willing to piss her off. Three more had quit today, bringing the total of masochists in their class down to twenty-six if he counted Kastra.
Everyone gathered themselves up and began filing out. He stood as well, working on fixing all his internal problems.
'Well, I'm learning how to heal faster, right?' he thought, trying to find the silver lining as he burst healed his wounded body at a visible pace.
Damien was the first to finish fully healing himself, quickly making his way north towards the main building while scrolling through a list of classes he could transfer to on his ring. He entered the building and moved through the many corridors, eventually arriving in front of the door reading Basic Spells.
He entered and looked around the room that was styled like a lecture hall, seats ascending upward and away from the center podium. People were still trickling out from the previous lesson as the teacher stood on a slightly raised section of ground, behind the podium and in front of the chalkboard.
Seeing an opening in the leaving students, Damien moved toward the center of the room by the podium to wait, watching the aisle for a cleared seat and opportunity to claim it.
"You look rather worse for wear, Damien," the teacher called out from behind him.
"Hello, Mr. Feival. Yes, I have Advanced Combat before this, Layla isn't the kindest to Mages," Damien replied, turning around to face the dark brown eyes and smile of the man standing behind the podium. "I can heal the damage, but I'm not too great at grooming myself yet after the carnage."
Mr. Feival was a bit of an older gentleman, seeming to be in his fifties, which could very well put him truly at closer to two or three hundred. He still had dark black hair, though his beard was beginning to turn white.
"She isn't the kindest to anyone, my boy, and call me Finn."
Damien nodded and glanced over his shoulder, seeing the seats finally starting to open up. He had just begun to turn his body when the teacher spoke again.
"I've wondered this since hearing about your placement battle to get into Gold, but why are you here in this class? Surely Lemshire would have allowed you to skip it, no? You don't exactly have a need to learn chant-casting with the voiceless manipulation you boast."
Damien shrugged to the man as he replied, "I had hoped to learn messaging magic, along with a few other simple magics such as illusion and gravity manipulation. I don't exactly understand how to manipulate any of those things, so I thought perhaps learning a chant, or something else first might help me understand it."
Mr. Feival nodded and leaned down onto the podium with his arms, smiling.
"That makes sense. Easy to self-teach how to create a light or fire with mana, but to learn to do something abstract such as creating words that seek another being or shifting the very thing that holds us to Eleria are a mite harder," the teacher said, pausing to think for a moment.
His eyes lit up slightly and he continued.
"Very well, why don't I just give you the material we would have gone over for that? I'm sure this is all less than entertaining for you. If I give you the lecture plans I have, though, a brilliant mind like yours might just be able to piece it together for yourself and a bit of help from me. I myself am in a unique position to help you with all of this, being a chantless caster myself," he finished with a smile.
"Really? Why are you teaching Basic Spells if you don't need to use a spell to manipulate mana?" Damien asked.
"I don't need to, but sometimes it is necessary or helpful to use one. Think of it this way; During your placement fight, I'm told you launched a pillar of stone at your opponent before shooting poles out the side of it into his ribcage. You had to remain focused on that pillar to do that, didn't you, unable to move around and send another attack? Keep control of it?"
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Damien nodded and Finn continued speaking.
"With a spell, you can imbue the pillar with a set of instructions to have it do whatever you want once it leaves your control, allowing you to focus on other things, like sending a second one directly after the first. Now, once you learn to manipulate enough at once, it won't particularly matter, but it could be something interesting for you to learn and adapt into your fighting style. Starting a battle off with a pre-made and very confusing spell you don't have to focus on after the cast could very well give you an edge. But I'm getting a little carried away, that takes years," he said, looking around the room. "You should take a seat so I can begin the lecture. I'll have the material on messaging and a few other confusing magics ready for you by tomorrow," he finished, waving toward the stands/seats.
"Ok, thank you, sir," Damien responded, considering the man's words as he turned around.
Looking up, at the seats, he noticed most near the front were occupied. It seemed their small conversation had taken a bit longer than expected.
He moved up the staircase leading toward the back of the classroom and found a row occupied by no one else. Everyone here was a first-year student, and it seemed none were Celestial, so he expected them all to be Bronze or silver. It wasn't that making friends with those would make him feel like he was lowering himself, but he'd have enough on his plate with his other classes and didn't want to bother with the glances he was receiving. Half being ones of envy or apathy, the other half being looks of questioning or admiration.
Either way, they all had an opinion of him already, and he didn't care to find out who had which. He'd have to find a way to get Lemshire back for all of this.
"Alright, settle down. We'll be using the textbook today, so everyone pull it out and open it to page twelve."
Damien looked around, confused. He'd not been told anything about a book yet. Maybe... it would definitely be smart to get one today. He could look over the important parts at home before he got the lecture notes the following day. He'd have to skip out on lunch or cut it early to find the library and get the ones for the classes he was taking.
The class passed by in the same manner as the one the day before; uneventfully and without much intrigue for Damien. He'd spent some time fiddling with his ring instead, finding he could get it to receive commands such as to vibrate when class only had a few minutes left in it. It finally did, and within the minute he was filing out the door and headed on break for the cafeteria.
He hadn't felt much of anything through the bond for the day and assumed that meant things were going normally at the mansion, which was great. Alexa tended to be rash when it came to most things, especially when bedridden, so it was a good thing Kastra had stayed back and could control the Celestial. He hoped Kastra would always be the strongest out of them in the group since she tended to be the most rational, but knew that wouldn't be the case.
'At least she'll be the strongest mentally...'
Making it into the lunchroom, he sat down where Alexa had yesterday by Gallion, who was once again claiming her seat at the top of the red column. No crown today, but same elegant demeanor as always.
"So how is our little muse doing today?" Gallion asked.
"She's fine enough, just a little worn out and in a lot of pain. She way overstressed her mana veins during the duel; she'll be out for at least a week and a half," Damien responded.
"What did she even do to stress them that hard? She was never the type that struck me as stupid enough to burn herself like that for a simple duel," Gallion questioned with a cocked eyebrow, looking down.
The look made Damien felt like hitting him. Not because he deserved it, just because of how perfectly he played the part of prince or king without even trying. Or perhaps he was trying but either way, Damien couldn't tell. It was like he was born into the role, and it was irksome.
"She used her communed state for the first time. It hit her much harder than she'd expected, and she sort of lost control of her ability to hold back," Damien said.
"She communed?" Gallion questioned, sitting upright in his chair quickly.
"Yeah, about a week ago now. The second the fight ended, she passed out."
"So, the strongest water mage to attend this academy in as far back as I know, communes while knowing that the first few times using the knowledge gifted by the gods will cause no slight amount of disorientation for strong mages, especially for those who are veritable prodigies in their magic, yet she thought, 'Oh I'll just use it in an uncontrolled environment, what's the worst that can happen'?"
Damien thought about what Gallion had said for a few moments before ultimately nodding his head with a wry chuckle. Gallion sighed in response.
"Well then. I suppose that is true to her character. While she isn't stupid, airheaded or dense definitely fits. Just look at the mess you're in," Gallion said with a wave of his hand.
"I was hoping you'd clear that up for me while she attended actually, but instead you only corrupted Kastra. What gives?" Damien asked while ordering himself the sandwich he was never able to finish the day before.
He appreciated how easy Gallion was to talk to, just as he used to be. They hadn't even known each other for more than a few days in total, but already Damien felt like he had a place at this table, and those around him didn't complain that he sat next to their fearless leader. It was a group he'd love to get to know once he had the time.
"You're both adults. Figure it out yourselves. I'm not some naughty nun that goes around fixing sexual problems for everyone," Gallion said. "Here I was, thinking you'd appreciate being able to be the one to corrupt her. She's only had eyes for you since we first met anyway, I'm sure it'll turn out fine."
"Whatever man... I actually had a question for you, though," Damien said, remembering he needed to leave sooner than later. "Are there textbooks I'm supposed to have picked up?"
Gallion tilted his head.
"Your faculty member at orientation should have given you a list. I heard you had the Dean? I'm surprised he didn't just take you to the library to get them."
"Ah," Damien said, realizing why he'd never gotten them. "We ran out of time before we visited the library. Can you tell me where it's at?"
"Sucks to suck, my friend. It's on the northwestern corner of the grounds. Just head out the rear entrence there and head west," he said, pointing over his shoulder, "and you'll be pretty close to it. Should be about where Alexa sparred Eita yesterday, but on the opposite side of the building."
"Thanks," Damien said, mentally drawing a picture of where it should be in his head and confusing himself.
Damien's sandwich lifted out of the table and he grabbed it, standing up a moment later. He pushed his chair in and nodded at the Elven male sat next to him, who smiled back up in response.
"Oh Damien," Gallion called out in a singsong voice as Damien was passing him. "Cunt alert."
Seeing Gallion's finger pointed over Damien's left shoulder, he turned around and saw Gianna was walking to intercept him at the back door with a smile on her face and a spring in her step. When she saw Gallion pointing at her, that smile turned into a glare.
Damien sighed and moved for the door quickly. She was headed for him, so getting away from Gallion would be in everyone's best interest.
"Hey, wait up! Where are you off to?" she called out.
"I'll wait up once I'm outside, I don't want to be in the crossfire between you and him," he called back, picking up his pace as he heard words of distaste being exchanged behind him, wondering just what the hell their problem was with each other.
He walked out the door and waited a few seconds before she showed up, once again, all smiles.
"So where are you headed?" she asked again.
"Going to the library to get books. Apparently, I was supposed to have them already, but I haven't picked them up yet," he said, pointing in the direction he believed the library was.
"Oh, ok. Do you mind if I come along?"
"Don't you already have yours?" he responded, eyes narrowing slightly.
The girl seemed awfully excited to go to a library and retrieve books with him. It was more than a little suspicious. He wasn't bad looking per-say, but certainly not as good looking as some of the other gentlemen around him. And from what he knew, she basically had her pick of the Celestials, being from one of the more powerful families. Why exactly was she trying to spend so much time with him?
"Yeah, I guess I do," she said, shoulders and wings drooping a bit.
It looked sad and hurt his heart to behold. She was so expressive it was endearing.
'Maybe she just has a crush. There's no harm in letting her tag along, at least...' he thought, caving to her expression.
"I could use a guide though, I'm not exactly sure where the building is. I've never been there before," he said with a smile.
She perked up immediately and nodded, leading them in a different direction than he'd decided to head toward. It seemed letting her come along was useful, at least.
"So why do you and Gallion hate each other?" Damien asked as they set off, his curiosity overwhelming his better sense of judgment to stay out of it.
Her wings drooped a bit again and she said nothing for a few seconds, seemingly gathering her thoughts before responding.
"It's a bit of a long story. He and his father used to live on Hylyu and... well, long story short, we had a falling out and they left shortly after. He's... a lot different than he was back on Hylyu. More confident. But also... well I don't want to bore you. It's not a fun topic, anyway."
"Na, it's fine. I just was curious, if you'd rather not talk about it, that's ok too," Damien responded.
It wasn't ok. Damien badly wanted to know what had caused such an intense fissure between the two. They were like oil and water whenever he'd seen them together, not to mention that hearing Gallion used to act differently than his current pompous self was more than a little interesting.
It wasn't his place to inquire, though, and she seemed more than happy to change the topic once he gave her the option.
They moved along a cobblestone pathway, snaking through trees, benches, and grass, passing by the front of the main building. The winters chill bit at his exposed skin but his mana clothes were warm enough to counteract it. Truly magical, the Fae clothing seemed to keep his body at a constant temperature. If he was moving around vigorously, it would let cool air in. If it got cold, it would trap warm air inside. Whenever it was damaged during Advanced Combat, it would repair itself with a little mana inserted into it. He'd caught more than one envious stare from those that had to visit the academies seamstress to fix their uniforms every other day, as they were only provided with two free of charge.
After a few minutes of walking, they finally came upon what was hands down the tallest and most impressive building Damien had seen since coming to this world. Unlike the Victorian styled buildings that dotted this country, the library came off as completely modern, looking like a large obelisk. The square structured building rose into the sky in a domineering manner, painted the color of grey rain clouds.
They moved up to the building and stopped before the main entrance, a set of huge glass double-doors.
"Here you are. One giant, strange looking library! Come on, I'll give you a tour," she said, grabbing his hand and leading him toward the doors.
He thought to yank it back but decided against it for now. The girl would need to be told to keep to herself in the future but he'd let her indulge for now. She was helping him, after all.
Gianna led him near the doors and they opened by themselves, like two sliding glass doors from Earth, only instead of sliding to the side, they split horizontally in the middle and slid down into the ground and up into the obelisk. It was most likely powered by some form of mana and was overly impressive, being the second of many things the structure blew him away with, the first being how large the building itself was.
Stepping inside and looking around was the third. It was HUGE. Looking up gave him an unobstructed view to the ceiling of the tower, stopping at the clouded sky that was visible through the pointed roof. It stayed open like that until you moved about two-thirds of the way through the building forward, or if you moved to the right or left fifty feet. There looked to be around twenty floors above him, all having a U shape, positioned as if he were looking into the U from the top. Staircases were set to his right and left on each leg of the U, leading to the next level.
Gianna had called it weird, but to Damien, the building felt warm and familiar. It reminded him of a home he hadn't been to in ages.
Moving into the library, he saw that it was mostly the walls that were adorned with a plethora of books. There were no bookcases that he could make out, and most of the internal floor space was covered in seating. Not only chairs and tables, though. There were couches were spaced around with coffee tables in front of them, regular table seating, what looked like bean bags, and large open areas where some people just lay on the ground itself reading a book either held or hovering above them.
Directly in front of his body was a counter of sorts that blocked his way further into the building, while a glass wall prevented him from moving directly left or right. Moving slightly to the right and forward to get around the counter would have been easy, but the large man standing behind the desk and glaring at him with his arms crossed seemed to suggest that would not be permitted.
Gianna moved directly up to the counter, dragging him along.
"Hi Rodrick! We nee-"
"Name and rank," the man said, glaring down at Damien and ignoring Gianna completely.
Damien glanced over for a moment to see her face scrunched up, then turned to Rodrick again. Hopefully, Gianna wouldn't make a scene at being ignored. Damien was just trying to make friends here, not enemies, with all the staff, especially considering they were all extremely adept in their fields.
"Damien Tearen, Gold rank," he stated as Gianna moved back to his side with a frown.
The man stared at him for a few moments before holding his hand out, palm up.
"Ring," he demanded.
Damien pulled his ring off and handed it over to him. He felt slightly uncomfortable doing it, but Rodrick was a member of the staff.
He stared at the ring for a few moments before holding it beneath the counter. Once the man was done, he pulled it back up over the counter and handed it to Damien, giving him a nod and motioning for them to both pass to the right of the counter from their perspective, or to his left, before once again crossing his arms.
"Thank you," Damien said as he passed, this time dragging Gianna along as she glared at Rodrick.
"I'm going to tell Ms. Moonrose you're being sour again," she whispered with a grin, right as they were passing by.
That got a reaction out of the man as he uncrossed his arms and turned toward them, face indignant. Gianna seemed to be in a hurry and they were out of ear-shot before long though.
She led Damien directly to the far wall of the library to a section with a sign reading Course Texts above the books. Looking at the shelves, it seemed there was a single textbook for each and every course offered at the academy.
'Only one?'
"So you have Advanced Combat, Basic Spells, Beast Handling, and Advanced Manipulation, right?" she said, looking at him.
"Yeah," he replied, watching as she dropped his hand and reached for the Book on Advanced Combat.
"The teachers have to write a book specifically catered to the lessons they are teaching, so each one is unique and crafted specifically for the class," she said, pulling the book out of its slot as another immediately faded into view, as if by magic. "This one was written by Layla, so it should be inte-" she started, stopping herself as she opened the ornately decorated cover to a random page and was greeted by nothing but white paper. "Hah, that was a bit unlucky, maybe..."
While she mumbled to herself, Damien couldn't stop staring at where another book had immediately replaced the previous one. It had literally faded into view once the other one had been removed, prompting him to wonder if they were mana born objects or actual books.
"That... actually isn't that surprising," Gianna eventually said, closing the thick textbook and putting it back in place where the previous one rippled out of existence immediately, allowing the new one to take its place.
Damien continued staring, flabbergasted. Gianna saw his glassed over face and chuckled.
"What, you think it would be like a normal library where you have to insert mana into the shelf for a new copy to appear? Everything is automated here," she said with a smile. "Though, the illusion magic makes it look fancy."
He looked at her as his mind processed even more information. Not only here, but elsewhere books just appeared when you took one out. He was thoroughly impressed once again.
"No, it's just... Nothing. Shouldn't I have a copy of that?" he asked, pointing at the book she'd placed back.
Gianna shook her head in response with a complicated expression.
"It was blank all the way through."
'That makes sense at least,' Damien thought, chuckling.
"How high up can I go?" he asked, pointing skyward.
"Gold takes you just above the halfway point up the tower. Platinum takes you the rest of the way up but you aren't allowed to access the old records on the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth floors. Only Diamond students can touch those, though it's not that interesting from what I've heard. Other than that, the twenty-seventh floor is completely off-limits. Only the faculty has ever had access to that section and I've only heard rumors of what's up there, old notes and maps and the like. You have to receive permission from Dean Lemshire or the Council to be allowed in."
Damien looked upward and imagined the last floor, covered in dust and untouched. He was never the most avid of readers in his past life but something about books or scrolls being forbidden sparked his interest like no other. Perhaps hiding his talent wasn't the best idea after all.
He explored the library a bit more before gathering the tomes he'd need for the three other classes he had, ignoring the one Layla had 'written'. Once done, Gianna and he both headed back for the front entrance and was once again stopped by Rodrick who waved his hands over the books in Damien's possession before nodding. Damien thanked him and moved toward the doors which once again split open in the center, but this time, split into four pieces which all disappeared into their respective corners. He stopped once again to marvel at the sight.
"Ooooh. That's my favorite one, what a perfect way to end our little excursion," Gianna said from beside him, once again grabbing his hand to lead him out. "Come on, you're going to make us late to class with all your gawking," she laughed out with a radiant smile, dragging him forward as he turned back around to stare as the doors closed.
'Truly, a wonder.'