A green beam of energy shoots toward the stupefied wizard. I try to jump in the way, but Olvira grabs my coat, pulling me backwards. I don’t have time to get to him. I yell, but it comes out muffled, my horror garbling my words. I can only hear ringing in my ears after the explosion. Some of the shards from the crystal ball fly into Vithar’s body and propel him across the room. He lands as limply as a ragdoll and slides a few feet before coming to a stop against a table leg. Waves of the green energy now pulse from the remains of the ball. I see the glass shards still trying to fly out. They are pointed in my direction, but they seem to be hitting a wall. Something hits my head, but I don’t want to turn for fear that my gaze is what’s stopping the shrapnel. I hear a grunt that didn’t come from me and finally look behind me. Olvira’s teeth are bared in concentration. She's got a hand up, which is what's actually stopping the shards, and she keeps saying something. She smacks me across the face with her free hand, and suddenly, my hearing comes back with startling clarity.

“I’m losing it, go!” she yells.

I look back at the glass shards. Her hold is weakening as the blasts of energy don’t let up. The shards are gaining ground slowly against the wall of force. I run to bring her down as her eyes roll back. I won’t make it to her in time. Her barrier falters, but I dive, covering her body with mine. Her power is no longer holding back the burst of energy coming from the crystal ball. The biting sting of the glass shards rushing into my back propels me forward. When I collide with her, we fall to the floor and my vision goes black.

I'm unconscious. It's weird that I know that. I've been knocked unconscious before, but this is like a lucid dream. The ones where you realize you’re dreaming. It's even more weird that I feel warm air rushing past me. I can't see anything, but I'm reaching out, hands stretched out in front of me, trying to gain purchase on something. All of my awkward groping leads to nothing. An image of a red haired wizard appears before me. There is a silver haired man behind him and he raises a knife. He brings it down to sink it into the wizard's back, and I scream.

“Vithar, watch out!”

A searing pain gnaws at my back. The ringing in my ears has lessened, but it's not gone. My body aches all over and I’m in an unfamiliar bed. I sit up and look around. Someone is peeking from behind the door to my left. When I meet her eyes, she closes the door, and I hear footsteps running away.

“Master Duchesne! It’s awake!” I hear her yelling.

‘It.’ Yup, could've done without that. How I love being called an ‘it’.

I’m in an infirmary of some kind. I look down at the bed and see that there are some red spots under me, most likely from glass wounds. There are a few beds like mine lining the walls to my left and right. Some are occupied, and I try to focus on the person next to me, but the door opens. Olvira walks in, her face and neck covered in small cuts and bruises. It makes me cringe. This was my fault. I brought this to them, on them. She sits in a chair next to my bed and looks at me with weary eyes.

“You--” she starts, it comes out raspy and clears her throat, “You’re awake.”

“I’m so sorry,” I say, looking at her. She doesn’t exactly meet my eyes. “Master Duchesne, I did not know that was going to happen. I didn't know he could do that!” I say, my voice gets louder involuntarily. “Vithar . . . Is he, will he be . . .” I'll leave it at that. I don't remember everything that happened. Just that Vithar was hurt. Even my dream is fleeting now. She looks at the bed next to mine before turning back to me.

“Of course you didn't. You have the magical knowledge of a child. As for Vithar, well...he should've known better. He should have safeguarded himself, as I did the rest of the room. I thought I was teaching him a lesson. I had no idea of whom you had angered.”

I scramble for words, but can't find any that make sense. She just let him get hit by that?

“Is he going to be okay? Is he . . .” I want to ask so many questions, but it's not really the best time. I stare at his still frame. He either hasn’t moved since he was put into the bed, or someone just tucked him in recently. The sheets and blanket are pulled over him up to his chest and have been undisturbed. Much like Olvira, his face and neck are covered in cuts and bruises, but his are deeper. I wonder if their robes offer some kind of magical protection. His red hair is mussed with a darker red liquid. Blood.

“Hmm,” she says, staring as well, “I don't know yet. We'll see.”

Someone once told me that the training for wizards was meant to cull the weak. But this--I had no idea. While I’m studying his still body, Vithar convulses. It startles me so much that I jump out of the bed. This was a mistake on my part; all the cuts and gouges in my back start to burn..

“Finally,” Olvira says, “Child,” she says toward the door, “Get me the remnants.” She watches me as the girl walks in with the remains of the crystal ball we used. “Calm yourself, demon,” she says, standing up. She gestures for the girl to lay the pieces at Vithar’s feet. Her offhand comment made me realize I was starting to get worked up. I'm blowing on smoking twigs that I do not want to turn into a fire here. I take a few deep breaths and snuff out the fledgling flames inside.

She waves her hands over him, speaking softly.

“What are-” I start, but the girl shushes me.

“Wait for it,” she says. I watch, enthralled as the Archwizard’s motions become more stuttered and her words become more aggressive. Like the words don't want to be said and she's forcing them out. Vithar's body starts to seize again, and his back arches up at her apparent urging. The green energy I'd seen come from the ball now pours out of his mouth. She brings her hands together and starts a swirling motion. The energy follows her trained path and forms a sphere, getting larger as more is siphoned from his body. When the last wisps of it assimilate into the sphere, he lets out a long sigh and his muscles stop contracting. Olvira contains the energy steadily and looks at me.

“This,” she nods at the ball of swirling green between her hands, “This was meant for you. Had it hit you instead, there would be nothing left of you. The reason it stayed inside of him is because it was searching for demon blood to combust.”

I swallow loudly. Magic is fascinating, but it should also be used with a healthy amount of fear. There's a lot that I can take physically, but magic is a different ball game. It's like how Superman could fist fight just about anyone, but when it came to magic, he was just your average pud. Speaking a few more words, she closes the distance between her hands, and the ball shrinks until it implodes. “Since he was not the target, it didn't kill him. But, he was wounded greatly.” She leans down to him and touches his head. “You may think that our methods are harsh. But this,” she waves her other hand across his body, “This is what happens when we are unprepared. And it will be a good lesson for knowing one's own strength. It is a necessary trial. He will make it through.” She turns to another person in the room whom I hadn’t noticed until now. How long has he been there? She whispers to him, and even though he’s across the room, he nods and walks out.

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“What was that?” I ask.

“That,” she says, “was none of your concern. She straightens the sheets on his bed and I notice that the pieces of the ball are gone. I decide not to ask. She nods, claps her hands, and steps away from Vithar.

“Get dressed,” she says. “Our business here is done.”

My clothes are neatly folded and waiting for me on a bench at the foot of my bed. I slide off slowly to avoid aggravating my back and pick them up. There is a room at the far end of the infirmary that I walk to in order to change. There are so many beds in here, but only a few are taken. I try not to stare until I get into the room. It's dark inside, and I pat the wall to my left until my hand finds the light switch. The bulb flickers a few times and hums when it stays on. It's a simple bathroom for the infirmed. There's a bath in one corner with a toilet about two feet away and a sink and mirror on the other side of the small square room. There's a foldable chair in the bath, I assume, for people who can't stand or need to be bathed by others.

I turn my back to the mirror and twist my neck around to see the damage. The skin surrounding the bandages is an angry red and there are red spots showing through the white. There is fresher red on top of a maroonish brown. I wonder how long these bandages have been on. The clothes I came in should have the back of them shredded, but they must have been mended somehow. I put them on slowly and check myself in the mirror one more time. No red isn't seeping through yet. I flick the switch off and return to the bed I was in, grabbing the sheets as I do.

Olvira, who was waiting for me, watches me. “I can assure you we have no use for those. If we wanted your blood, we could have taken it while you slept.”

I feel the immediate need to check my arms for needle marks, but fight it. I can check when it wouldn't be so blatant. Instead, my cheeks get warm, and I set the sheets down. Olvira opens the door and we leave the room. There is a sea of people who were clearly not expecting us to come out yet. Some try to turn and walk like they just happened to be passing by at that moment on their way somewhere else. Whispers run rampant, and a few bolder people even point at me. Olvira looks at everyone disappointedly, then turns and goes back into the room. I follow, unsure of what I’m supposed to do and, I suppose, not wanting to be the new animal at the zoo.

She closes the door behind me and it changes just like before. She opens the new door and looks in. “No,” she says, and does it again several times. She nods when she opens the door a final time and walks out. I follow, stop, and spin in a circle a few times. Mostly because we walk out into the main hall. Which is weird because we walked out into a hallway full of people only a moment ago. This place is a maze. I see a couple of people running toward the way we came with bandages and a gurney. Accidents must happen here a lot. They take a hallway that kind of just appears, then closes behind them. I look back at Olvira and realize that she kept walking so I catch up and follow quietly, wondering how they learn to get anywhere in this place.

“They overestimated you,” Olvira says, breaking the silence that was being as we walked.

“What?” I ask. We're almost to the giant front doors.

“That blade was left for you to scry yourself. They were unsure of your prowess. This will now go one of two ways. They will think the spell succeeded and that you're strong enough to brush it off. Or they'll think that you're smart enough to have someone else do it so that, if there was a curse, it would happen to them.”

I get goosebumps from the second possibility. Some supernatural beings are so ruthless, and I would hate to be grouped in with them.

“Do you think that's what I've done? That I meant for someone else to take the blow for me?”

She snorts and lets out an actual laugh. It's kinda like a kick in the nuts to hear how little she must think of me. Or punch in the gut if you don't have those.

“Mikael, as I said before, you have the magical knowledge of a child, and not one who knows of its true existence. Either that, or you're a fantastic actor but, I think I know which is true. We were kept relatively safe by our Oath. The energy exploded out because it kept rebounding between Vithar and the intended target, you. Once it happened so many times, it detonated. Vithar as the caster took the biggest dose, but it was a miniscule amount compared to what it could have been." She continues through the halls while giving me this lesson, ever the instructor. "You have a card to play now, though. Until they find out that you're still alive, they may think you're dead. So you may be able to continue your search unhindered until they find out. They will think of you as an actual player once they do. Things will only get more heated from here for you.”

“But they saw us scrying them, wouldn't they know it wasn't me?”

She considers for a moment then stops and turns to me. “No, the spell was a response to scrying. A reaction spell. They could just feel a presence intruding on them. And the incubus seems to be something that wouldn't simply leave items of his behind. What time is it?” It was an odd way to end her statements, but I automatically look at my watch.

“6:57.”

“Hmm,” she squints her eyes and looks up for a second then nods. She makes some movements, like the ones she did at the doors before, and speaks a few words. The barriers on the doors abate again. They open for us, but she just steps aside and waves a hand out the doorway. I walk out and turn to her.

“I had hoped for more. I feel like this showed me nothing, but that is not a slight to you. Thank you for your help, Archwizard Duchesne,” I say with a bow.

“Showed you nothing? Then you weren't looking. Good luck in your travels, Mikael." She returns the bow and the knife that I brought. "If you live through what you are about to encounter, maybe we can teach you a few things. It may help with your abomination.”

I tilt my head to the side and squint a bit at the poorly veiled insult.

“You have strong demon blood in you. With some training, you may be able to bind it instead of ignoring it. Take care that it does not consume you or when next we meet, it may be on the field of battle.”

With that invitation and also a pretty blatant threat, the doors close. I'm left standing on the pathway with the same expression on my face. This situation keeps escalating, and I just wanted to be left alone. She basically just told me that there's no turning back now. But oddly enough, I think I'm okay with it. If I get involved, I could die, yes. Or I may keep a lot of people from harm. I'm not normally a martyr, but as I've said before, I don't like it when humans get mixed up in supernatural affairs. It rarely goes well for them.

The heat from inside is slowly dissipating now that the doors are closed. Pulling my jacket tighter around me, I look up into the flurries of snow. it's gotten so much colder out. I shuffle through the accumulated snow on the ground and make my way to my car, and it's covered as well. I must have been out for a few hours and missed a snowstorm. I reach up to wipe off the layer on my driver's side door and, as soon as I touch it, the binding between Olvira and I wears off. The power of the Oath ripped away from me, giving me a portion of my own power back in return. I get dizzy and almost fall. Catching myself on the door, my stomach roils. Its contents–mostly bile because I keep forgetting to eat–come up and make a new home on the ground before me. I wipe my mouth and kick some snow on top of it and get into my car. The decrease in temperature makes it harder to coax the vehicle to life. It eventually turns over, and I wait for it to heat up before I drive away.