Rain continued to pour unendingly and with great vigor. A strike of lightning ran across the sky above them revealing the tall towers of the academy that they neared.

They both reached the front black gates wary of any other people around. No one was outside thankfully. This kind of weather kept everyone indoors making for a blessing for a night such as this one.

He stepped into a large puddle settling on the sidewalk where it dipped a little. The hearths and lights inside the buildings around them poured out from the windows reflecting off the tons of water outside that they had no choice but to wade through.

Under normal circumstances, he would hate how much rain they kept having. He did not feel this way tonight, however. If anything, he felt immensely thankful for it for keeping people inside so that they could make it back to his room without being as easily noticed.

With a hand carefully placed on the wound at his side, he began to wince again. The cut he received earlier hadn’t been life-threatening as far as he could tell, but if it wasn’t addressed soon, it certainly could turn into one. Luckily, they were nearly to his room managing to so far make it there unseen.

When they reached the dormitory, Nelena opened the front door for him. The inside hall was dark and dreary. He always felt like annoyed at how dark they kept it in here, but it wasn’t so bad under these circumstances. He gladly entered and carefully walked along the smooth surface due to his wet shoes making such a simple task somewhat hazardous.

The closer they got to his room, the more the cut to his side hurt. He stopped for a moment as he felt more warm liquid spilling out of him.

He forced himself to keep moving knowing they were almost there. As he grasped onto the doorknob leading into his room, he felt some relief as it became opened and the two of them entered.

“Do you think anyone noticed us?” he said closing the door after she came inside.

She walked past him with water from her soaked dress beginning to settle on the floor. “I don’t think anyone did. But right now that’s not our main concern.” She hastily motioned around in his room searching for tools. She began grabbing multiple items that he kept on hand. She eyed him briefly as she kept grabbing things. “Start taking your clothes off.”

He took off his wet upper clothes piece by piece tossing them to the floor. He looked down to his side taking note of the cut.

Oh.

The cut went far deeper than he thought. It hadn’t felt so deep, yet he could not deny what his eyes saw.

She pointed over towards his bed. “Lie down for me.”

“Are you sure you can do this?”

“How hard can it be?”

That was not the kind of answer he wanted to receive.

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing Raelle.” As he lay down on the bed on his other uninjured side, she came over with the tools to begin a suturing procedure. “How is, say, your tolerance for pain?”

“It could always be better.”

She began to direct alcohol to his wound. While painful, he held up his own and knew that this would be far from the worst of what was to come.

“I needn’t say this to you but figured I would anyways. Try to not scream.”

He took a deep breath and steeled himself as she grabbed a needle. You can do this. How bad could it possibly hurt?

It could hurt quite a bit more than he expected. The natural inclination to scream registered strongly in his mind, yet he did not do so as she began pulling the needle through his skin to close up the wound.

The burning and flaring of pain intensified the longer the procedure went on. The pain itself became the only thing that he could focus on. Everything else disappeared. Any other concerns such as whether they’d get found out, or practically any other thing that came to mind. Only pain registered to him as he focused with all of his being to not scream or moan loudly enough that the occupied rooms beside him might become aware.

“How m-much more?” he said with a strained voice.

“I’m halfway done.”

“Only halfway?”

“Quit your whining. I’m trying to focus here.”

That’s easy for you to say. You’re not the one being operated upon! He kept those thoughts to himself knowing it wouldn’t be proactive in any capacity to say them aloud.

It was bad enough to receive the injury in the first place. Now he had to experience even more pain just to fix the problem inflicted towards him. There was something twisted in how that worked. That was just the way of things and all he could do was to accept the pain while knowing that it would eventually come to an end.

Under normal circumstances, they could go to one of the many magically attuned healers at the academy, but given what came of Artius, they couldn’t do such a thing. They had to take matters into their own hands and unfortunately, neither of them were experienced in healing magic forcing them to take on more barbaric methods.

Fortunately, the pain began to subside as she cut the thread and clapped her hands together. “All done. That wasn’t so bad now was it?”

He rolled to his back staring up at the ceiling. He cracked a smile. “I suppose it could’ve been worse.”

“See, now that’s what I like to hear.” She got up and began stuffing some of those materials away. “You’re going to need to be careful with how you move about. With an injury like that, it’d be easy for you to cause it to open again and become infected. I suggest applying alcohol or any kind of proper sterilizing agent to it regularly for the foreseeable future.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“I’ll be sure to.” She came to sit on his bed with a look of some relief on her face. He sat his head up on a pillow knowing he’d have to be much more aware of how he moved about. The last thing he needed to do was cause his injury to reopen. He figured the thought of having to undergo that procedure again ought to keep that from happening. “Thanks by the way for saving me back there.”

She hesitantly nodded her head.

“Feeling unsure about it?”

“I probably should’ve used a different spell. You know, maybe something that wouldn’t slice through his neck and just maybe blown him off of you.”

“Maybe, but what’s done is done.”

“And are you fine with that? I’ve…I’ve killed someone Raelle.” Now that they were back at the academy—hoping to have managed that without being seen by anyone—they both had to accept what all just happened to them along with the consequences that were sure to come. “I know,” she continued to say, “that everything is fine right now, but starting tomorrow, things may quickly get out of hand. And I don’t know what to do about it.”

“I know what we should do,” he said. “We both stay silent. And if anyone starts asking us questions we just tell them that we came here after the ball and that we don’t know anything about what happened to Artius.”

“So that’s how it has to be,” she said looking down to the floor.

“What else can we do? Our lives will be ruined if anyone finds out.”

“But it was in self-defense. He was right about to kill you.”

“That’s true,” he said with a nod, “yet do you think that anyone will believe us?” He didn’t outright say it, but due to her way of killing him, the idea that anyone would accept their story of self-defense was laughable. Telling the truth would only ensure that both of them would either be imprisoned for life, possibly even tortured to death, or simply executed for killing the son who came from an immensely powerful noble family. There was also the fact that she used magic against another student. Sorcerers and sorceresses were strictly forbidden from using magic against one another, especially as they attended the academy. Given all that transpired, there was one path forward that Raelle knew they must walk.

Raelle motioned his legs around the bed to dangle off of it. He positioned himself so that he sat directly by Nelena to her left. He took her hand feeling the warmth of it in his palm. She looked into his eyes with plenty of doubt and concern in them.

“We must carry this to our graves,” he said softly.

She began to grip his hand more tightly. That face of hers full of doubts went away instead to become full of resolve. With him declaring those words to her, she knew in that moment, that he would hold to his word and she would as well. “So it shall be.”

“We’ll get through this. We’ll just have to be careful. People are going to ask questions. But, what matters is how we answer them.”

She let out a sigh. “I never thought that my life would turn out this way.”

“Nor I. Yet here we are.”

“I already know that if either my mother or father found out about this or if I were to tell them the truth of it, they’d gladly toss me to the wolves. In all honestly I’d much sooner expect an actual wolf out in the wild to come to my defense than either of them. Would your father do the same to you?”

“I don’t really know or care.”

“Then it’s just us then.”

She came to nestle her head against him. While accepting of her situation, she no doubt had plenty of fears much like himself. He fully expected that they’d end up questioned. It was well known that he and Artius didn’t get along. There was also the possibility of Artius’s friends knowing about him going out to seek Raelle specifically out. Still, he’d keep his lips sealed and deny, deny, deny.

I went to the ball and returned with Nelena to the academy having never encountered Artius whatsoever. Keep the story simple and consistent. Act normally and carry on with business as usual. Outside of those things, the only other difficult thing to explain would be his injury. He’d try to keep it secret, but it could become uncovered especially if someone forced an inspection of himself.

I’ll have to come up with a genuine excuse for it just in case. While he hadn’t come up with one yet, he’d keep working on it just to try to cover every potential area that might be used against him.

“Don’t worry,” he said trying to calm her nerves. “We’ll get through this. Our lives don’t have to be ruined because of this moment. And heck, who knows. Maybe it’ll even be a bit easier now by not having him constantly harassing me.”

“He wasn’t the only one though.”

“I’m less concerned about them than I’ve ever been for him. He was a thorn in my side since the first day I came here. And truthfully speaking, I don’t relish his death, but I struggle to feel remorse considering what he tried to do to me tonight.”

“Yes, he was truly a rotten person.”

He felt bad for Nelena. The last thing she needed in her own tumultuous life was to kill another person even in the rightful self-defense of another.

The reality was that Artius was supposed to be someone he dealt with personally. Instead, she ended up wrapped into their affairs and ultimately in danger of her own life completely falling apart.

He also doubted that this would be the end. The killing of Artius will cause all sorts of problems at the academy not just for them, but for others as well.

She gave him a quick kiss and stood up. “I suppose I should probably go.”

“Actually it might be better if you stay here.”

“Why?”

“It can help in our cover story. You should probably even be seen leaving my room in the morning to fuel rumors.”

“I’ll get in trouble for staying in the men’s dormitory overnight. You know that.”

“Better to get in trouble for something like that than for the other thing.”

She pressed her hands to her hips pondering it for a few seconds. “I think it’ll be better for me to just go. Besides, I need to change into something less wet anyhow.”

“If you say so. Just be careful.”

“I will.” She began to leave his room. He wanted her to stay but at the same time, he wouldn’t want to demand or force her to.

Raelle found himself all alone. He went ahead and got out of his damp pants. He motioned over towards the window to look out as it rained. It kept pouring outside covering every sidewalk in at least an inch or two of rain.

Within the pane of glass, he saw his reflection staring back at him. Those eyes being reflected back revealed a man who knew his life had become much more complicated. Navigating things was going to become harder, especially if people demand answers from him. But he knew what must be done in keeping silent and providing good enough answers that would cause anyone to think otherwise towards either him or Nelena on having anything to do with the fate of Artius.

He knew full well however, that just because you make all the right decisions with any given plan, it doesn’t mean that it will all pan out.

At least in the meantime, he’d continue his studies, expand his array of magical abilities that he had been working on, and fit in as best as he could for that was all that he could do. He could always run off he supposed but doing so would be fruitless in his opinion.

He was, after all, his father’s son, and with that came certain obligations and expectations. It didn’t matter how much he detested his father, he still carried out his father’s wishes in having him work towards becoming a powerful sorcerer of renown much like himself. Father had already achieved much by gaining a position by the king’s side in their council, but that was in his father’s own words, a mere stepping stone towards true greatness.

Raelle pulled away from the window reexamining his sutured injury. It still hurt, but not as much as it did. He was just glad that given everything that transpired, he came out on the favorable end since while this life of his was quite cruel, it was still better than being dead like Artius.