Opening his eyes, Lee awakens from his restful slumber. Rolling onto his back, Lee stares at the ceiling. Today is the day.

Throwing his legs over the side of the bed, Lee realizes that he slept in his robes. Experimentally, Lee sniffs his collar, not smelling anything but the smell of cloth. Impressed with the Self Cleaning enchantment, Lee has a thought. I hope Self Cleaning means it cleans me as well…

While standing from the bed and making his way to his table, Lee retrieves his lecture notes from his Hidden Cache, along with a delicious strawberry strudel. Plopping down into his chair, he reviews what he has written down. It was a lot. After reading through his notes, Lee comes to the conclusion that his lecture might be a tad long, especially if he has to reply to questions and give answers to clarify.

Using his Hidden Cache, Lee wills his pocketwatch to appear in his waiting hand. Instantly and without any fanfare, the metallic timepiece simply materializes. Checking the time, he sees that he has about two hours until noon, the start time for his lecture. Placing his watch back in storage, he takes out his mirror.

Inspecting himself in the small hand mirror, Lee finds that he appears much healthier than he had initially imagined. His gaunt face has filled out, making him look underweight but otherwise healthy. His brown hair is coming in nicely, still short, about an inch long, but growing all the same. A dark five o’clock shadow covers his cheeks and chin, hiding most of his slimmed facial features. And lastly, his bright, blue, glowing eyes stare back into him from the reflection. Giving himself a small smile, happy that he is recovering, he stores the mirror back with his other belongings.

Sitting at his table, Lee takes a bite from his strawberry strudel, feeling anxious.

What if I can't articulate my knowledge clearly? I wasn’t a medical student or anything like that; what if my lecture is terrible? What if nobody is able to create their own healing spell? What if…

A knock on the door brings Lee out of his negative thoughts. Finishing his strudel quickly, he stood and strode towards the door, opening it to reveal Anya. She is dressed in a gorgeous orange-dotted yellow sundress and a beautiful set of gem-encrusted earrings with a matching amulet. Before Lee can get out a proper greeting, Anya, who is nervously swaying from side to side, blurts out. “Did you put the spells into the spellbook?”

With his greeting dying on his lips, Lee hastily recovers. “Yes, I did it after talking with Nitis. Also, I’m sorry for being suspicious of the soul-binding enchantment. I believe I may have been rude to you.”

Anya breathes in deeply, then lets out a long breath of air while stopping her rapid nervous sway. “I wasn’t sure you were going to do it since you had doubts, and Thank you for the apology. It is accepted. I understand that this is all new to you, so it’s best to be more safe than sorry.” Nodding his acceptance, Lee waits for Anya to continue.

They stand awkwardly at Lee’s front door for a few seconds before Anya stiffly speaks. “Well... would you like to head to the consortium now to prepare?”

Suddenly feeling underdressed and wanting the awkwardness to end, Lee agrees. “Sure, let me grab my notes. I have some general questions to ask as we walk.” Leaving his door open, Lee wanders over to his small wooden table and stores his notes. Turning back, he exits his home and locks the door.

Once finished, he examines Anya's attire again and motions for them to begin their walk. “Let’s be on our way. Should I be dressed in something more formal?” Anya waves the question away. “No need; your robes are expensive and built more for function. Ms. Huldar has been telling everybody who enters her store about how she created the most fabulous set of robes for the Human Healer.” Lee side eyes Anya. “Ms. Huldar?”

Realizing that Lee is unfamiliar with everybody's full name, Anya laughs and answers Lee's question. “Sarum Huldar, the seamstress. The greedy one.”

Now completely understanding who they are talking about, Lee isn’t surprised. “Oh yes, the greedy one. She tried to charge me five gold.” Anya laughs again as she and Lee make their way through the bustling streets of Neldam. “I believe it. She’s always been like that. I don’t know why she covets money so much. She makes more than us at the clinic.”

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Realizing that his ‘job’ isn’t really that anymore, Lee decides to question her about his employment. “So, that advance you gave me when I first arrived, does that still need to be paid off?” Anya shakes her head with a smile. “No. You did more than enough to earn that money on day one. Now, with you letting us learn your magic, you probably won't need to work at the clinic.”

Anya realizes that she basically just implied that he was fired and hastily stutters. “Of… of course, you can still work there, though!”

Anya has grown to be a person he considers a friend. Owning a clinic to help those in need already put her into his good graces but over their many conversations, he has come to feel like they have many things in common. Deciding to let her know of his plans, Lee gives Anya a small regretful smile. “I think that after the lecture, it will be time for me to leave Neldam. I plan to head to the Kingdom of Thexis to spread the knowledge of healing and teach the spells inside the spellbook….” Pausing for a second, debating whether or not to speak of his new plan, Lee finishes his statement. “I think I'm going to try and repair the relations between the Dark Elves and the Humans too….”

Anya stops in her tracks and whips her head toward Lee, showing him a face of pure astonishment. Her facial range moved from shocked, worried, then to hopeful. “Did Nitis tell you of our history?” Lee gave her a slight nod. “He did. You have all shown me nothing but good. You saved me from the Shadowgrove, taught me how to survive, and enlightened me about this new world I found myself in. You’ve been trapped in this forest for too long.”

Anya wordlessly moves her mouth, a war of emotions playing across her face, trying to find the right words to say. Eventually, settling upon dejection, she responded with something that Lee did not expect. “Do not tell any others. Do not give us false hope.”

Lee understands that his goals are set very high and that perhaps he won't succeed, but he still has to try. He also understood false hope. Too many times had he been with his doctors, waiting to hear good news. Only to be told that his cancer has gotten worse, his life's deadline is speeding up. “I understand. Just know that when I'm gone, that will be one of the things I will work towards.”

Just as Lee finished, they arrived at the Consortium of Magical Scholars. Entering the large carved stone door, Anya led Lee to where his lecture would take place. A large stone room, similar in appearance to the college lecture halls he had been in while he studied business on Earth, with a slight de-elevation from the entranceway down towards a podium. Many chairs were lined up in neat rows on separate sides of a stairway aisle, enough to fit over three-hundred people. The ceiling was much higher than he thought it should be, reaching well over twenty feet tall. Up high around the walls, there are many different colored cloth and silk banners showing situations of figures casting different types of magic.

A red banner depicted a young female elf spewing flames from her outstretched hand, reminding Lee of a flamethrower from Earth. A blue banner had a hidden figure facing away, showing their back as they walked on a pond of water, sending ripples through the still surface. A long brown banner, easily ten feet in length, shows an enormous mountain with a rockslide in progress. At the bottom of the banner, a mage deflects large, tumbling boulders away from innocents around them.

Moving his gaze to the other side of the hall revealed the other three, now expected, banners. A white banner showed a scene of a male elf in flight, soaring slightly above the ground and through the Amethyst Willows of the Shadowgrove forest, whipping up the leaves that were settled on the forest floor.

I knew it! You can create a flying spell!

Lee took his time admiring this beautifully crafted banner in particular before moving on to the next. The yellow banner showed a young elven child wandering around a room with orbs of light, looking upon them with wonder. The final banner in the lecture hall was black, only showing a silhouette of a figure in robes looking over his shoulder. The figure's outline was done in white thread, making the figure easily noticeable.

Walking down the aisle in the center of the room, Lee made his way to the podium. It was functional, yet simple, and made out of wood. There was a spot to lay his notes and a small glass cup placed on top. Looking around the room, he noticed that he and Anya were alone. “Do you know when others should be arriving? We should still have around an hour and a half until the lecture actually begins.”

Anya, who had seemingly been in the lecture hall before, as she ignored the stunning colored banners around the room, made her way down to Lee at the podium. “People should start to show up anytime now. Just prepare your notes and greet those that enter. I’m going to the clinic to grab those that will learn from your spellbook afterward.”

Realizing he would be alone in this large empty lecture hall, Lee grew a tad anxious. “Remember, anybody from the clinic is welcome to learn from it, but I also gave you an allowance of five others that you deemed appropriate.”

Nodding with a wide smile, Anya began to walk toward the entrance they had just arrived from. Looking back to Lee from over her shoulder while showing a grinning visage, she said. “I have them picked out. Don’t you worry.”