After the tribunal, I was transported for treatment.
"Transported" was the academy's polite word for being carried through the halls on a floating stretcher while half-conscious, shirtless, and surrounded by enough armed healers to make me look like a captured war criminal.
So much for keeping it quiet.
They took me to a hospital-like room and kept me there for most of the day. For the first hour, several masked strangers poked, prodded, measured, and thoroughly violated what little pride I still possessed as a human being.
"You're being dramatic," Sleazy said.
"I am not being dramatic. They defiled my body while I was naked."
Lazy floated above my bed, sprawled across the air with his face buried in his arms.
"They performed a standard physical examination."
"One of them touched my ass."
"To examine the damage to your lower back."
"He could have asked permission."
"He did."
I paused.
"He should have asked more sincerely."
Sleazy covered his mouth, failing miserably to hide his laugh.
"You also screamed when they brought out the thermometer."
"It was too large."
"It was a normal thermometer."
"They have magic. Why did they even need one?"
Lazy lifted his head slightly.
"Medical redundancy."
"Organized humiliation."
Both of them sighed at exactly the same time.
Why were they acting like I was the crazy one?
All the healers had actually done was examine the injuries Bloodrend had repaired, check my bones and reflexes, and make certain nothing inside me was about to rupture.
Apparently, repeatedly being torn apart and forcing my body to heal through stolen blood was medically concerning.
Who knew?
They found old fractures, strained muscles, several improperly repaired tears, severe dehydration, mana exhaustion, and a mild concussion. One healer described it as an alarming amount of physical stress for a single student.
I described it as Tuesday.
They gave me water, several bitter medicines, and enough food to make up for the five days I had spent starving on the branch.
I ate everything they gave me.
Somewhere between the second bowl and the medicine, I remembered Carlos saying that he was starving.
I finished eating anyway.
Once the examination ended, two Support attendants escorted me back to my dormitory. William's instructions had apparently been taken very seriously, because they remained outside my door after making sure I was inside.
I was not to leave without authorization.
So, medically speaking, I was healthy enough to be imprisoned somewhere more comfortable.
Spiritually speaking, I would never recover from six masked strangers discussing my naked body like an interesting research specimen.
Sleazy still insisted that I was overreacting.
He was wrong.
Knight tapped the bottom of his sword against the floor, silencing the argument. He had been standing near the window the entire time, patiently watching us destroy what little dignity remained after the tribunal.
"Enough."
I lowered the blanket just far enough to glare at him.
"Your wounded pride is not our most pressing concern," he said.
"It is in the top three."
"It is not."
"Top five?"
"No."
"Agree to disagree."
Knight's eyes narrowed before shifting toward Sleazy.
"Regardless, young man, we must decide what to do about her."
The humour drained from the room.
Sleazy's smile disappeared.
We all knew who Knight meant.
Grand Professor Tias.
The woman who had smiled while arranging my transfer into the Combat Tower.
The woman who knew Carlos had been meant to reach the fruit.
And, most importantly, an executive of Manus Fati.
"What is the plan, young man?" Knight asked. "Or do you not have one?"
I scoffed.
"Of course I have a plan."
"Well, would you care to—"
Knock.
Everyone fell silent.
Another knock followed, patient and evenly spaced.
I looked toward the door.
"Did one of you order pizza?"
Sleazy clicked his tongue.
"Damn it. I was going to say that."
The knock came again.
I pushed the blanket aside and climbed from the bed.
"It's probably one of the guards. Maybe they heard me talking to myself and finally decided I need professional help."
Bloody appeared near the door, his red eyes narrowing.
"Does this not feel strange to the rest of you?"
"It is a knock," Sleazy said. "They are rarely fatal."
"No, he is right," Knight said. "Something is wrong."
Lazy slowly raised his head.
His eyes moved across the walls, the ceiling, and finally the door.
"The ambient mana has changed."
I stopped.
"What does that mean?"
He did not answer immediately.
That was not reassuring.
The knocking continued.
I was exhausted, sore, and far beyond my daily allowance for ominous interruptions.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm coming. Stop knocking so—"
I opened the door.
Grand Professor Tias stood on the other side.
The same velvet coat hung from her shoulders, its chest covered in medals. Her blindfold remained fixed over her eyes, and her curved horns framed her head like a crown.
Up close, I finally understood how tall she was.
She towered over me, easily six and a half feet, with a slender figure that looked deliberately constructed rather than naturally grown.
Her pleasant smile remained.
"Good evening, Student Kamrik."
My hand stayed frozen around the doorknob.
For one stupid second, I only stared at her.
Then I saw what lay behind her.
The two Support attendants who had escorted me back were sprawled across the corridor.
One had collapsed against the wall with his head hanging at an impossible angle. The other lay facedown several feet away, one arm twisted behind her back so far that her fingers rested against the opposite shoulder.
Neither moved.
There was no blood.
No sign of a struggle.
They simply looked as though someone had reached inside them and rearranged the parts required to live.
My breath caught.
Sleazy appeared beside me.
The colour drained from his face.
"Close the door."
Tias's smile widened.
Then she moved.
I never saw her hand touch me.
Something struck the centre of my chest, and the world folded.
BOOM!
I flew across the room, crashed through the wooden bedframe, and struck the outer wall hard enough to fracture the stone. The impact drove me several inches into it before gravity dragged me down across the shattered mattress.
For half a second, I felt nothing.
Then my body remembered pain.
My ribs screamed as blood flooded my mouth. I tried to inhale and heard a wet rattle inside my chest.
"Ghk—!"
Blood dribbled from my lips and splattered across the wreckage beneath me. My arms refused to respond, my legs twitched uselessly, and the room spun so violently that the ceiling and floor exchanged places.
The ghosts stared at me.
Even Bloody looked shocked.
Sleazy spun toward Tias.
"What the hell is she doing? She never exposes herself like this without a reason!"
Knight's sword appeared in his hand.
"Move away from him!"
He charged, but his spectral blade passed through Tias without resistance.
She did not acknowledge him.
Of course she did not.
She could not see them.
Lazy remained near the far wall, staring around the room. His usual exhaustion had vanished.
"She claimed the ambient mana," he said.
The door swung shut behind Tias with a soft click. A thin pressure spread across the walls, windows, ceiling, and floor, coating every surface without producing so much as a spark.
"This room is still physically inside Valthrune," Lazy continued, "but its mana no longer reports to the academy's wards."
Sleazy went pale.
"That level of control belongs to an archmage."
"Normally," Lazy replied. "She has had three centuries to compensate."
The room had not moved.
It had simply stopped belonging to the academy.
It belonged to her now.
Tias stepped over the wreckage with slow, patient movements, as though she had not just thrown a wounded student through his own bed.
"Young people," she said, "really should be more careful about opening doors to strangers."
I coughed, and pain tore through my ribs.
"You…"
Blood ran down my chin.
"You knocked."
Tias paused.
Then she laughed softly.
"That is true. I suppose this is partially my fault."
"Partially?"
My left arm finally responded. I pressed my palm against the floor and tried to rise, but something shifted inside me that absolutely should not have shifted.
I collapsed again.
Bloodrend stirred beneath my skin, darkening the markings along my arms.
Bloody crouched near my hand.
"Call it. Summon Bloodrend and open her throat."
"No," Knight said.
"She attacked us."
"She attacked him."
"Same thing."
"Do. not! Sleazy snapped. "If he summons that blade, she will break whatever remains!"
He looked toward Tias, his expression tightening.
"She is here personally. If she wanted him dead, she would have sent someone else."
Tias continued walking until she stood over me.
I forced air into my damaged lungs.
"The room…"
I choked on the blood rising into my throat.
"The professors will see what you did."
Tias gave a thoughtful hum.
Nothing more.
Somehow, that response was worse.
"Was this…" I coughed again. "Was this part of my medical examination?"
"You could say that."
She nudged a broken piece of the bed aside with her boot.
"Let's call it my own personal examination."
I tried to stand again, but my legs folded beneath me before I made it halfway up.
Tias raised an eyebrow.
"Well. It seems I damaged you a little more than intended."
"A little?"
I coughed blood across the floor.
"You turned me into wall decoration."
She sat on what remained of the bedframe.
It immediately cracked beneath her.
Tias looked down at it, then surveyed the shattered furniture, fractured wall, and blood streaking the floor.
She sighed.
"We will simply have to repair you before you answer my questions."
Her head tilted.
"And find somewhere more comfortable to sit. Your room is rather messy now, isn't it?"
What a bitch.
She clapped her hands once.
"Attendant."
The word came out flat and monotone—a command that expected obedience before it had finished leaving her mouth.
The door opened only wide enough to allow someone through. The pressure across the threshold bent around the newcomer without breaking, then sealed itself again.
A figure dressed entirely in black stumbled into the room, stepping around the bodies in the corridor.
Chains had been wrapped around their wrists, ankles, and torso so tightly that every movement came with the soft scrape of metal against cloth.
Something covered their head.
At first, I thought it was a mask.
Then I saw the teeth.
A dark, gaping jaw had been wrapped around their skull like a blindfold, leaving no opening through which they could possibly see.
The attendant staggered forward before collapsing at Tias's feet, their forehead pressed against the floor.
"My lady," they murmured in a wet, warbling voice. Their entire body trembled. "My life is yours."
I stared at them.
"What the hell…?"
Tias placed one gloved hand against the attendant's head.
Their body collapsed inward.
Bones folded beneath her palm with a series of muffled cracks. Their shoulders widened and flattened while their spine twisted, their arms sinking into their sides as skin, muscle, and bone lost all distinction.
The attendant did not scream.
That made it worse.
A low moan leaked through the jaw-shaped mask as they softened into a wet mound of living flesh. Their chains sank into the mass, and the remnants of their clothing vanished beneath it.
Then Tias began to mould them.
Her fingers moved with casual precision, pressing and pulling as though she were shaping clay. Four thick limbs emerged from the base and hardened against the floor. The centre hollowed into a seat while the attendant's spine stretched upward into a curved backrest.
Bone surfaced beneath the skin, forming pale supports along either side.
The jaw-shaped mask sank into the top.
Its black teeth remained visible.
Still open.
Still breathing.
Within seconds, the person who had crawled into my room had become a warm, twitching chair made from living flesh.
My stomach lurched.
I would have vomited if blood had not already clogged my throat.
"Disgusting," Sleazy whispered.
There was no humour in his voice.
"She still does this in this timeline."
Through Soul Diver, I had already learned what Tias's Origin Spell could do.
Flesh Manipulation.
At her level, the name barely described it. She did not merely control flesh.
She rewrote biology.
Knowing that was one thing.
Watching her turn a person into furniture was something else.
The newly formed chair shifted beneath its own weight.
Something inside it whimpered.
Tias wiped her gloves against the scraps of black fabric that had once belonged to the attendant.
"There. Much better."
Then she looked at me.
"Now all that remains is repairing you."
Her smile turned silky.
"Then we can begin."
I tried to drag myself backward, but my legs refused to cooperate.
"Stay away from me."
Tias ignored me.
She bent, slipped one arm beneath my knees and another behind my back, and lifted me from the floor as though I weighed nothing.
Like a toddler.
My broken ribs shifted inside my chest.
A strangled groan escaped me.
"Careful," I wheezed. "Some of those pieces are supposed to stay connected."
"So dramatic."
She carried me toward the chair.
The flesh rippled as we approached, recognizing her and reshaping itself in anticipation. Tias lowered me onto the seat, which yielded beneath my weight and wrapped slightly around my legs and back to hold me upright.
It was warm.
Body warm.
A faint heartbeat pulsed beneath me.
I tried to throw myself off, but my body could not manage it.
"Comfortable?" Tias asked.
"I would rather sit in shit."
"Wonderful."
I looked down as the flesh twitched beneath my hand.
"Are they still alive?"
Tias glanced at the chair as though I had asked whether a piece of furniture had been properly polished.
"Of course."
My breath caught.
"Why?"
Her eyebrow rose.
"A dead body would decay."
Sleazy stared at her with open disgust.
"Monster."
Tias levelled her face with mine.
I forced the next question through the blood coating my throat.
"Why didn't you kill me?"
For a moment, she simply studied me.
"You should be grateful that we still require information from you."
Her smile sharpened.
"Otherwise, you would already be dead."
The answer frightened me.
But something hotter pushed through the fear.
Anger.
"Then why did you hit me so hard?"
I tried to bite her when she reached toward my face. My teeth snapped shut just short of her finger.
Tias paused, then laughed as though I had done something charming.
"Oh. You still have some spirit left."
Her gloved fingertip touched the blood running from the corner of my mouth. She examined the smear before slowly rubbing it between her fingers.
"Besides, even if you were hurt…"
Her hand pressed against my chest.
Pain erupted beneath it.
I choked on a scream as my ribs shifted. Bone scraped against bone while the fractured pieces moved beneath my skin, dragged into alignment by an invisible force.
My punctured lung expanded.
Torn tissue pulled itself together.
"…I would never allow you to die."
She smiled.
The chair tightened around me while something inside it began to cry.
"AGH!"
The process lasted only seconds, but it felt as though she had reached into my body and repaired me with her bare hands.
Because, in a way, she had.
When it ended, I lay trembling against the flesh chair, sweat soaking my face. My breathing worked again.
It hurt.
But it worked.
Now that the blood had been cleared from my airway, I finally threw up.
"Oh."
Tias calmly sidestepped the projectile vomit aimed at her, then patted me on the back.
The gesture disgusted me.
I had never felt so violated in my life.
After I finished emptying what remained of my lunch, I slowly raised my eyes toward her.
"W-what do you want?"
"Ah. There is the question."
She smiled and clapped her hands together.
Behind her, Knight looked as though he were boiling inside his armour, his anger growing hotter with every second he was forced to stand there and do nothing.
Bloody was fuming too, though less at his helplessness and more at the sheer audacity she had shown.
Sleazy remained beside me with a distant look in his eyes.
Probably remembering.
Lazy had gone silent.
His gaze moved from Tias to the Bloodrend markings along my arms, then toward the sealed walls. One hand rested against his chin.
He was calculating something.
Judging by his expression, I was not going to like the answer.
Tias placed both hands on my shoulders.
"Well, allow me to explain your situation, Kamrik."
She leaned closer. Despite the blindfold, I could feel her staring straight through me.
"What happened to Carlos?"
"I already told you—"
"You are not allowed to speak yet."
Her right hand dug into my shoulder.
The bone shifted beneath her fingers as she slowly forced the joint out of place.
I tried to scream, but her other hand clamped over my mouth.
"You only speak when I want you to."
The playfulness vanished from her voice. What replaced it was cold and thoroughly cruel.
Her fingers tightened.
The bone slipped farther.
"I will ask again. What happened to Carlos?"
Then she paused.
"Actually…"
Tias tapped one finger against her chin as though correcting herself over some minor detail.
"We do not care about him specifically."
Her smile returned.
"We only care about where the gifts went."
"W-what are you talking about?" I shrieked through the pain.
Tias tilted her head.
"If you wish to keep that arm, stop pretending ignorance gives you permission to ask questions."
I was about to answer when Lazy spoke from above me.
"Kamrik."
I raised my eyes toward him.
"There may be a way out of this."
His expression was completely serious. There was no exhaustion, irritation, or indifference left in it.
Only certainty.
"But you will truly hate it."
The sincerity in his eyes frightened me more than Tias's grip.
"What this will do cannot be undone," he continued. "There will be no turning back afterward."
His gaze hardened.
"Do you understand?"
I gave a shaky nod, making it appear as though I were answering Tias.
Lazy watched me for another moment before lowering his hand from his chin.
"All right."
His voice was quiet.
"Don't hate me for this."