“Emyr is going to kill me. He’s going to cut me up into a hundred tiny Corbin pieces and scatter then around like a macabre scavenger hunt,” Corbin was muttering as they flew. Liliana was resting on Lysander’s back, behind Corbin, Serenity in her lap.

“He won’t kill you,” Liliana murmured softly as she traced one hand down Serenity’s smooth skin. The Pseudo Dragon shifted slightly in her sleep but didn’t wake. Upon close inspection, Liliana could see Serenity had scales covering her body, but they were so silky soft she couldn’t differentiate them from skin.

“He’s going to kill me, Lili. Violently, slowly, in ways our minds can’t even imagine,” Corbin insisted, throwing his hands into the air in a great display of unnecessary dramatics.

“Just don’t tell him I got hurt. I did it to myself, anyway.” Liliana shrugged, leaning slightly away from Corbin’s wildly flailing limbs, trying to protect her newest bond from unneeded damage.

Liliana looked down at her forearm, her left one. On it sat a magical tattoo. A twisted mirror of the tiger on her right arm. This one was the form of a small Axolong, surrounded by flowing waters. Colored in whites and pinks, that stood starkly against the rich golden tone of her skin, darkened from her many days in the sunlight.

Liliana wondered how many more bonds she had in her future. How many more times she could easily split her soul into parts, taking from wild beasts who submitted to the bond to fill in the holes she rent in her own soul? Would her body one day be painted so thoroughly in magical marks that the very color of her skin was hidden?

Would she even recognize herself one day? The woman she became, the weapon she was forged into. Would the girl who had fallen into this world find herself in the body of a woman hardened by a world so unforgiving?

Would that girl even recognize the person she was now? Would she look upon the Liliana she was today and see herself in her? Would she fear her? Respect her? Would she understand the choices she had made, the sacrifices she’d had to perform? Not made in blood, but in herself. Parts of herself she’d let go, preconceptions, beliefs, morals, all laid at the altar of this new world that crushed those who were weak and naive, mercilessly.

Liliana didn’t know. Wasn’t sure anyone could give her the answer to the questions that ricocheted through her head.

She pulled Serenity closer to her, cradling the small creature delicately in her hands. She had expected some degree of kindness, purity, in the mind of a beast who was so dedicated to healing. Who abstained from killing.

She hadn’t realized how deep the innocence ran. Hadn’t thought any being could live so long and resist being tainted by this world. Her skin felt too dirty to even touch Serenity, and the need to protect her was almost overwhelming, despite the knowledge that Serenity was far stronger than her.

The need was not entirely one sided in its nature. Upon the completion of the bonding contract, both sides had unfettered access to each other’s minds. Serenity had seen all that Liliana had experienced in her time in this world, and before.

Something had blossomed inside of Serenity, something stronger than her attachment to her territory. Something almost maternal in nature when confronted with the barely healed hurts resting in Liliana’s heart and soul.

Had Liliana known all it took to convince the small, but powerful, healer to join her was showing off the battle scars of her trauma, Liliana would’ve opened with that. Serenity’s compulsion to heal was strong, far stronger than Liliana had assumed upon first glance.

Serenity was… good. In the most pure, undiluted form, such a concept could take.

Liliana could only hope that she would not taint such a pure soul.

“He will know Lili. I don’t know how, but he will. And then I’m going to die,” Corbin wailed, and Liliana sighed as she leaned as far as she could without falling off Lysander.

Her skin, her body, her soul still ached. Phantom feelings of fire and electricity ripping across her skin. Serenity had fallen asleep soon after the bonding, unfamiliar with such excruciating pain. Liliana wouldn’t have submitted to being carted around like some weak, fainting noble lady normally. But she didn’t trust her body to not fall right from the sky if she attempted to fly on her own.

Every second she was forced to endure Corbin’s dramatics was a second closer to her deciding the risk was well worth the reward. She’d have a few minutes of blessed silence before she fell and broke her body on the ground, at least.

“You won’t have to worry about Emyr killing you if you continue to make a spectacle of yourself. I’ll slide a dagger between your ribs before Emyr ever sees you.” Liliana hissed, pulling a foot up to kick at Corbin, and nearly sent him over Lysander’s head.

The pegasus snorted, something bordering on amusement, if Liliana had to guess. The Pegasus was not one for much talking, the exact opposite of his tamer. Still, after a couple years being around him, Liliana thought she understood his body language well.

“All I’ve done for you, and this is how you’d repay me, Lili?” Corbin demanded of her as he barely kept his seat, recovering and turning around to face Liliana.

Well, it wasn’t like he had to direct Lysander. He didn’t even have reins for his bond. Liliana didn’t blame him, she thought Lysander more likely to bite off fingers than to take a bit.

“You haven’t done much for me at all. I have a multitude of memories of you lazing around while I’ve done all the fighting since we left the Academy,” Liliana told him bluntly.

Corbin gripped his chest, falling back over Lysander’s neck dramatically. Liliana watched, hopeful he’d fall. To her disappointment, he did not. Despite lacking wings of his own, Corbin had a remarkable sense of balance Liliana had only ever seen in acrobats and those with ridiculously high Dexterity stats.

Perhaps Corbin had been raised in a circus. She’d need to add it to the list of possible back stories for Corbin. Maybe his clan was raided in the middle of the night and his mother barely escaped, finding haven with a troop of traveling performers.

Despite his deceptively open personality, fooling any who saw him into believing he wore his heart on his sleeve, Corbin was an enigma that never failed to pique Liliana’s curiosity. Despite the time she’d known him, she only knew the Corbin he allowed them all to see.

His history, his family, his hopes and dreams. All were things he kept carefully guarded, expertly directing conversations far from such topics if anyone tried to broach them.

Liliana didn’t judge. She knew too well what it was like to keep your secrets locked away, where no one could touch them. Safe, so they could not be turned upon you. She wasn’t sure, though, if he hid them to protect himself, or if he enjoyed the chase.

If he liked seeing others try to uncover his hidden secrets like archaeologists digging through ruins. Pulling up the smallest, broken shards of pottery and trying to piece together entire cultures. If she pulled him apart, if she looked at his bones, what would she find engraved upon them?

Perhaps it was a test. To determine if those who he let near him were worthy of his friendship. Had he been scorned, hurt before by those he thought he could trust? Had he locked himself up behind thick stone walls, secretly hoping one day someone would be tenacious enough to scale the walls and bring light back into his life?

Emyr was utterly convinced Corbin was some kind of ex-spy, on the run from his country of birth after being raised from infancy to be a killer. Alistair thought he had narrowly escaped an arranged marriage with a woman three times his age, a match made by his destitute family, in a bid to regain their prestige. Marianne thought he had a tragic story, one of family and loves lost, forcing him to wander the world until he found a place to call home.

Truly, Corbin was the cryptid of their class. Differing theories about him abounding, but none were able to prove them. Maybe that had been his plan all along, to drum up interest and intrigue. Perhaps he had a normal life, with a loving family, and he simply wanted to remake himself into some mysterious figure for his career as a bard.

“I did plenty for you! You didn’t buff yourself, you know. And those monsters certainly didn’t debuff themselves,” Corbin huffed, voice heavily insulted.

“Sounds like something a lazy, good-for-nothing moocher would say.” Liliana raised a brow in challenge.

It was entertaining to banter with Corbin. He always indulged her and played up the act. Sometimes she could even manage to get him angry, though she still could never tell if his anger was an act or real. And sometimes, if he got angry enough, she could get him to duel her.

An angry Corbin dueling with her was one of her favorite things. With his bonds, he was the closest thing to a challenge she could get in the Academy. And when he was angry, he fought like it was real. With intent, rather than acting like it was a game.

Truthfully, he was one of her favorite partners for assignments, for those reasons. Emyr and Alistair were nice, as they could fight together without speaking. But she couldn’t take one without the other, most times. And she was always stuck feeling like the third wheel on a very violent date, since they never felt the need to disguise their relationship from her.

She was happy they were together, and still going strong, but she did not need to see her brother making out with his longtime boyfriend, who was also her best friend, every five minutes.

Marianne was always nice, but Liliana felt like the princess was hell bent on giving her gray hairs. She’d always run headfirst into a fight, confident Liliana would be there to keep her from dying. A good time if Liliana wanted an adrenaline rush, but overall, bad for her heart. Anya was hardly better with her penchant for charging in half cocked, but Anya could at least back her decisions up with raw power.

Basil… well. Things had gotten a bit odd between them after they briefly dated in second year, only to part on mostly amicable terms. There was still something between them, ghosts of passion past that refused to be laid to rest. They were still friends, and Liliana would run to his side in a second if asked, but it made spending time alone with him… awkward at best.

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Koth’talan was always good to go on assignment with, now that he had firmly decided Liliana was, in fact, his friend and ally. Their fighting styles complimented each other, even if he was more focused on strength than speed. But they would often butt heads on who got to be in charge, neither willing to relinquish the control, and they’d usually end up fighting most of the time.

Which could be fun, in its own right, but could also be inconvenient if they started fighting each other in the middle of fighting something else.

Koth’talan preferred to go out with Jasper Rathwater instead, as the boy would defer to anyone with a stronger personality. Which, truthfully, was anyone who wasn’t a new-born baby. He was also powerful, which made him a good choice for most assignments. As long as he didn’t get frozen with fear in the middle of one, but Koth’talan had always had a knack for calming Jasper that the rest of them didn’t.

Diana was too... hesitant, for Liliana’s tastes as a partner for assignments. Always second and third guessing any choice and decision. Needing to recheck any information they were given so many times it bordered on obsessive. Almost four years in the Academy and Diana still better personified a shrinking violet than a battle mage.

So Corbin was always her first choice for a partner for an assignment. As a Blade Singer, having a bard as her partner was beneficial as well. Her classes had always almost been perfectly crafted to mesh with a bard type fighter best. With Corbin’s music surrounding her, she could fight for longer, faster, and better than she could without him.

Luckily, Corbin was almost always willing to partner with her. As a strictly support class, he needed someone with combat prowess to ensure he could get through his assignments alive. His bonds helped, but Corbin needed the extra muscle. With Liliana adding her own might and bonds to the mix, the two of them were essentially an army all on their own. It meant they could usually take more ‘dangerous’ or ‘advanced’ assignments that usually required a full team by themselves.

“Fine, then next time fight without my help and see how far you make it, ungrateful wench,” Corbin challenged spitefully. Liliana raised her brows, lips splitting into a dangerous smile that was all fangs.

“Want to try that again, birdy?” Liliana hissed, leaning closer to Corbin.

“I feel that I’ve made some type of mistake.” Corbin gulped, looking between Liliana’s sharp fangs and sparkling eyes.

“I’d say so.” Liliana nodded, eyes locked on Corbin as she let go of her iron grip on her aura.

[Aura Of The Predator] billowed around them. Corbin shuddered minutely, and she felt Lysander almost miss a wing beat. She’d been told her aura felt like being hunted by a great beast in a pitch black forest. The heavy weight of hungry eyes on a back, the panic and exhaustion of running yourself to the bone, hearing the panting breath in your ear. The moment before jaws closed around your neck.

Her aura felt like impeding death, of being prey before a predator you couldn’t hope to overpower or outrun. Deadly.

“Alright, alright, I w-“ Corbin raised his hands in surrender, only to freeze at the same time Liliana did. A feeling like a bolt of electricity shooting through them drew them both up short, Liliana’s aura retracting immediately.

“Another distress beacon?” Corbin asked, unnecessarily.

For all off campus assignments, students were given a ring. If they were in danger, they could press the stone in it with the intent of requesting aid. Any other Academy students or personnel in the area would get an alert through the rings they held and a sense of direction to head in. The level of desperation behind the call for help would determine how strong a reaction others felt.

Vita’s little ‘paladin’ had felt like being struck with a full lightning bolt. This one didn’t feel as severe, but it still wasn’t good. It wasn’t a ‘take your time, we’ll be okay. Just might need a bit of help’, it was a ‘we’re not actively about to die but we probably will in the near future,’ kind of call for help.

“I’ll run ahead, I’m faster. Take care of Serenity.” Liliana handed off her newest bond as carefully as she could.

The need to run, to get to the students, the children, in danger, almost robbed her of her critical thinking. Serenity roused slightly from her sleep but quickly succumbed once more, still mentally drained from the pain of the bonding. Liliana empathized. She would have been nigh on useless if she didn’t have the experience she did with bonding.

“Lili, you can’t. You’re still hurting. You could fall, you could die.” Corbin grabbed her arm with a tight grip, his other hand cradling Serenity close to his chest with the care only another tamer could ever show.

“And those kids could die if we take too long. I’ll call Polaris back to me, and send Lelantos on ahead of us in case it’s too much for me alone, but I can’t wait on Lysander to get there. You know I’m faster, and even a few seconds can mean the difference.” Liliana broke out of his grip with a harsh twist of her arm, Corbin’s delicate musician’s fingers too weak to hold her down if she didn’t want to be.

“Fuck,” Corbin cursed, shoulders slumping in defeat. He knew he couldn’t talk her out of anything she’d put her mind to. She was too stubborn, and strong, by half.

“Don’t die, Lili. Or I’ll never tell you my secrets,” Corbin bargained as Liliana stood on Lysander’s back, unaffected by the swaying of the pegasus’ body as he flew. Bright wings made of light burst from her back as [Wings Of Radiance] activated.

“Guess I can’t die then.” Liliana grinned wolfishly at Corbin before she stepped back and off Lysander, body twisting so her head was pointing at the ground.

Her wings heaved, pushing against the wind of her fall and gravity itself. Her wings were constructs made of light, but they connected to her body through her shoulder blades and Liliana could feel them straining, the muscles burning slightly as she swooped up in the air and took off like a shot.

“Polaris, to me. Lelantos, to the beacon. Now.” Liliana sent the order over her bond, feeling the kitsune and tiger respond back with affirmatives, sensing them changing their directions to follow her instructions.

Liliana pushed her body faster, hoping she could get to the students in danger in time.

Status Sheet

Name:

Serenity

Age:

25

Level:

302

Species:

Axolong

Genus:

Pseudo Dragon

Rank:

3

Health:

7,540

H-Regen:

75.40/1.1sec

Mana:

46,690

M-Regen:

488.4/1.1sec

Stamina:

2,750

S-Regen:

27.5/1.1sec

Magic Power:

49,360

Magic Control:

50,297

Experience: 1,870,260/9,180,900

Vitality:

754

Endurance:

275

Strength:

155

Dexterity:

3,569

Wisdom:

4,669

Intelligence:

4,884

Speed:

1,900

Charisma:

155

Unallocated Stat Points: 0

Affinity

Life

81%

Water

73%

Light

61%

Mirror

50%

Blood

32%

Soul

20%

Quintessential Skill

[Restoration] Lvl 243

[Healing Waters] Lvl Lvl 211

[Light Of Life] Lvl 187

[Aura Of Life] Lvl 166

[Mirror Call] Lvl 73

Skills

[Identify] Lvl 323

[Stealth] Lvl 320

[Swim] lvl 320

[Dodge] Lvl 316

[Mana Manipulation] Lvl 310

[Camouflage] Lvl 304

[Consume] lvl 243

[Tracking] Lvl 220

[Poison Resistance] Lvl 219

[Enrage] Lvl 121

Spells

[Heal] Lvl 342

[Liquidation] Lvl 340

[Cleansing Waters] Lvl 331

[Soothe] Lvl 324

[Life Manipulation] Lvl 320

[Water Manipulation] lvl 319

[Reflecting Waters] Lvl 311

[Ease Pain] Lvl 302

[Blood Regeneration] Lvl 284

[Water Dragon] Lvl 133