Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),
Hi! I'm here to leave a quick review!!
First Impression: This was a good end to this chapter. We started with that sweet meeting with Haka, but now we've clearly moved right past the fight and going on into the next phase with this move by Veris.
Anyway let's get right to it,
‘It’s time to go,’ Ms. Yera, the Serra-blessed nurse, said, opening the door. She looked at Gael adoringly. ‘I hope this is going to be the last time you end up here.’
Gael smiled and nodded. ‘I hope so to.’ His body still hurt, but most of the wounds on the surface had healed. He didn’t have to be worried of infection. ‘Thanks for the care, Ms. Yera.’
‘It’s my pleasure.’ Ms. Yera shook her head. ‘Honestly. You do know how to make friends with the staff. I heard from Ms. Welewa that you sometimes helped her organized the books in the library. You even helped me treating the student patients here when you had free time. You’re a remarkable student, Gael.’
Hmm...well that's an interesting line to see, I don't know if that's a good observation that this person is making there about Gael's character or not cause it sounds a little ambiguous. On the bright side though, we get a good sense of how Gael tends to interact with the teachers.
Gael maintained his smile. As he left the medical room after taking the special pass from Ms. Yera, he pondered over her words. It’s not surprising, really, he thought. My father’s a doctor, my mother’s a scholar. They always brought me to their working places. While he wasn’t from a Great House, House Xestari could be considered wealthy. His parents reminded him to treat everyone as equal as all of them were people at the end. He was glad with the way they raised him.
Hmm...this is an interesting point to put a reflection there, but it strangely does manage to make sense and as an added bonus it does tell us a little bit about the sort of background that he comes which just might be important in the times to come here.
Maybe Baris becomes a bully because of his parents’ influence, Gael thought idly, walking toward Serra dormitory. Although he had classes today, he had just been released from recovery. The special pass would give a reason to any prefect or staff catching him around the castle of why he didn’t go to class today. As much as he wanted to resume his study, he thought more rest would serve him better.
As he reached a corner, his eyes on the floor, he bumped on someone. ‘S-sorry!’ he said and looked up. A male student with a fair skin and light blond hair raised his eyebrows on him. He wore a sleeveless tunic, which he meant he was a Fighter student. Gael hadn’t seen Haka. Did the Combat class end early?
Hmm....okay, bumping into an unfamiliar face is interesting, you'd think maybe there aren't too many of those with Gael having been in the academy for some time now. I wonder if this is someone that maybe purposely bumped into this one.
‘It’s okay,’ the boy said, smiling. ‘Where are you going? I’m Veris, by the way.’
Gael expected - and wished for - Veris to walk away after saying ‘It’s okay’, but now that he asked Gael something, it seemed rude to ignore him. ‘Um, I’m going to my dorm. Serra House.’
Veris raised his eyebrows. ‘You have a House? I thought -’ The smile, now apologetic, returned. ‘Sorry. I’ve heard rumors.’
OOooh, well that's someone we know. This is almost certainly a planned meeting. It can't be a coincidence here...word must have gotten around by now that Ilami stood up for this one student...there's no chance this is a simple accident.
‘That I’m a Loner?’ Gael said dryly. ‘That I’m zero-blessed?’ Did all students now know he couldn’t use magic? Well, Natural magic, at least. He could still use blood magic after some practice. How about those people who came before the Naturals? Those old folks weren’t called Loners, were they?
‘It’s - I don’t mean it in an offensive way,’ Veris said, now walking alongside Gael. ‘I just thought it’s interesting to have no blessing. It makes you less dependent on it, doesn’t it?’
Hmm, well it does look like maybe Veris is genuinely curious about the questions he's asking there. Its hard to discern a motive for wanting to know all that and you can't jump to conclusions that its bad, but I have a bad feeling about this. It looks to be like an attempt at a conversation that can later be steered towards less friendly areas.
‘You can’t depend on it at all,’ Gael said, frowning. ‘Not to mention, I wasn’t like this at the first place.’ He cursed himself as soon as he spoke it. No one knew what really happened to him except for his parents and Mrs. Venaria. They told him to keep it as a secret. He didn’t know why. It wasn’t like people would get mad of him once they found out what happened to him.
‘What do you mean?’
The gears in Gael’s mind worked furiously. ‘Well, my parents are blessed, so I should be one too. It seems like an error. Serra might’ve forgotten about it.’
Hmm...well I thought Gael was a bit more careful than that, but hmm, he must be in a particularly talkative mood to almost come to the point of blurting out what looks like a very closely guarded secret there...well ...this is intriguing.
Why are you such a busybody? Gael thought, suppressing the urge to let out a groan. ‘Rumors travel fast, and those aren’t the good ones. I’m fine, thanks for your concern. Still a bit sore. Baris’s suspended for a while.’
‘I also heard Ilami saving you from them. Is it true?’
Now that a stranger asked him about it, he felt slightly embarrassed having a girl rescuing him. It wasn’t like he minded it - anything to avoid the torture - but people snickered when the girl was the one who saved the boy, not the other way around. Despite that, Ilami deserved the credit.
Well...that's...a sad truth sometimes..okay, let's not get into that in this review. Anyway...well, so the rumors certainly travelled and I suppose we can almost confirm why thi is going down...this is certainly going to make things interesting, although of course it depends on whether Gael notices anything odd here or whether Veris ends up making a friend somehow.
Gael nodded. ‘Yes, she saved me. Thank the gods she was passing by at that time.’
‘What do you think of her?’
Why do you want to know? Gael thought. He didn’t want to voice it out, though, worried about what he would sound like. He needed to overcome this worry of people judging him. ‘She’s fine, though a bit harsh. She understands the academy quickly; I guess being the principal’s daughter helps. She promises to teach me how fight and I promise to teach her how to make advanced Natural spells.’ Urgh, I tell to much.
That's a bit more information than he asked for. Don't make it easy for him Gael, come on, you have to be better at keeping information than this if you're going to be a main character. Well uhh, this all but confirms a few things, let's hope that maybe Veris isn't simply being a spy here.
Veris hummed, his eyes distant. For a while, silence lingered, and Gael wondered what was the boy thinking. He had an interest on Ilami, that was for sure, but why? Now that Gael had considered Ilami as a friend - more so when she had Aleveri to heal him - he should treat her accordingly, which meant he had to be careful if someone like Veris wanted to know more about her.
‘We’ve arrived at your dorm,’ Veris said, tilting to the door of Serra House. ‘You know a lot about Natural spells, eh? I think we have something in common.’
Oh that was a bit of thinking followed by a very specific direction there....Veris is almost certainly trying to make a friend of Gael...for what reason I cannot tell, but I don't know if its going to be good. I don't suppose its necessarily bad either, but I feel like Felaris is going to use him as a source of information on Ilami.
The last part grabbed Gael’s attention. ‘You mean, Natural magic in general? I’m also interested in blood magic, you know. I spent years learning old and modern Esteese as well as Natural language.’
Veris chuckled at Gael’s enthusiasm. ‘I’m not much of a linguist, but everything about the Naturals intrigue me. They establish themselves as deities, after all. I focus on their magic and religion, Nerecia.’
Well at any rate, even if Veris is faking something, Gael seems to be having some genuine fun talking to him so maybe this is going to be a good thing after all. Maybe Felaris will learn that Ilami isn't responsible after all and not try to kill her.
Gael nodded as Veris spoke. Finally, someone with whom he could share his passion. He did wonder about Nerecia a fair bit. He turned to the dorm’s door and mentally scratched his head. Should he invite Veris in? He did plan to rest so maybe he shouldn’t? The soreness of his body reminded him he wasn’t fully recovered yet, and with a heavy heart, he surrendered to it. It was time to say farewell to -
Let him in, the voice whispered, making itself known again.
Why? Gael thought.
Ooooh, well, I love seeing these thoughts here and now the return of the voice...ahh, the sheer spookiness of it is one thing entirely, but now to see that it can somehow see and know things that even Gael himself doesn't...well it just kicks things up several more notches here.
He is necessary as an intermediary between Ilami and Felaris.
Gael frowned. Who’s Felaris? What does she have to do with all of this?
Veris grabbed Gael’s shoulder and turned Gael to him. ‘Gael? Are you okay?’ he said, frowning.
‘I -’
Let him in. Trust me.
Well, the voice is either good at being persuasive or Gael really trust it cause that is a big move to make to change your own decision as a result of something that just creepily pops up like that.
Gael paused before he let out a heavy sigh. Then, he put on a smile. ‘I was just thinking. How about you come to my room? We can talk about the Naturals more there.’ He looked around. A few students passed, signifying that most classes hadn’t ended yet. Haka should still be in his. ‘I think I need company.’
‘Coincidentally, I have nothing else to do,’ Veris said.
Gael opened the door and the smell of salt and seawater greeted them. Veris blinked before he resumed his composure. They entered with Gael leading Veris. You’ll better not be evil incarnate and set me a trap, Gael thought to the voice. While he had some worries about why it wanted him to spend more time with Veris, he couldn’t help but be intrigued with the reason. It seemed like his curiosity was the only thing that overcame his worry.
Hmm, well Gael doesn't really seem to know the voice...huh...this little detail keeps on getting more and more interesting as we go along. I wonder if the things it asks of Baris are going to eventually get worse. Well for now, we end on what appears to be a pretty intriguing point and teensy bit of a cliffhanger. I can't wait to see where this goes next.
Aaaaand that's it for this one.
Overall: Overall, it looks like our short little break for the characters is over and its about to be business as usual for everyone with potentially more threats starting to slowly crop up around them. I am excited to see where this goes next.
As always remember to take what you think was helpful and forget the rest.
Stay Safe
Harry
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