The bell at the academy rang this morning exactly as it always does.
Its ringing is the consistent and unvaried notation across the academy grounds, ringing clearly, concisely, and without any feeling for, or towards, a result. Students react to the sound of the bell.
As if to say, we're all back to normal, in as much as what occurred the previous night will not remain in our memory.
However, Lucien did not hear the bell.
He was caught somewhere between the ringing of the bell, and thoughts. Between the pressure of his own body weight against the lack of feeling associated with the hollow body.
Breathing is more than just the perception of conscious awareness of one's self.
Breathing is the act of taking a breath and releasing it in a fractured manner. Taking breath is the action, and releasing is the product. Each breath was agony.
There was also the feeling of weight on his torso.
Not pain. Pain was an absence and felt like a buzzing sound behind everything he knew and experienced.
The pressure on his body was not one of suffering but of restriction.
He had something like bands around his torso. An icy engraving of something on the surface below where he lay.
The taste of something metallic from the spell used to heal him, was fading and not nearly enough to feel.
When Lucien attempted to move, he felt a flicker of movement from his fingers, but not from anything else.
He instinctively did what his instincts had told him to do.
He focused on what was happening inside his head and body.
There was nothing impeding him. He felt no walls blocking him or pushing him back.
He had only nothingness.
The spot where he felt the wind answer him, the place where he witnessed the light in motion and the mana twisting around him, was void of anything.
There was no longer anything in that spot to be blocked. There was nothing in that area now.
Lucien did not feel a sense of panic.
He looked toward the heavens, not being able to see the sky, and he felt like a piece of lead dropped from a height.
This feeling would remain with him.
All of those events in the academy were slowly fading away.
Not gone; never gone, but pressed down.
Only whispers remained of what had happened before.
A Class A injured in areas he should have been.
How did this happen? No one will be able to say.
Ken saw the pattern before he noticed the guards.
Restricted halls were open too soon.
Teachers stood where they didn't have to be, watching their students rather than checking for threats. No names were given. No questions were asked.
Not a neglectful attitude. It was filtering.
"They aren't looking for the criminal; they are looking for witnesses," he said as he walked through the arch toward the hospital wing.
Ren experienced the same feelings as well.
The anxiety in the air became evident when a faculty member was walked into the room.
The mannerisms of upperclassmen were more secure in what they were when compared to their eyes.
Derian appeared to be silent while tightening his jaw and flexing his fingers.
Iryss observed and read through all log entries.
She had only been asked to read through the evaluation logs in a room by herself, with floating data sigils displaying Training Metric data, Mana Records, Anomaly Flag data.
She still chose to go ahead and review her evaluations.
The Mana Record for Lucien Valecrest showed no sign of being suppressed.
The evaluation showed no residual interference to the evaluation, no dampening curve to the evaluation, and no rebound spike.
The only thing found on the evaluation was a stopping at a sign that said, "Stop." It was not a sign of failure but rather that it had been artificially stopped.
Iryss closed the floating window of the logs, making a calm motion as she sat still.
There is no rule regarding this situation.
That gave Iryss more anxiety about being found out than she would be willing to admit to herself.
The Authority was present without announcing themselves.
Lucien felt them before he could see them, not through the connection with mana but by the change of the environment.
When a healer is ready to leave, they move themselves back first, while the air of the environment is still waiting for permission to move.
One of the two Individuals said calmly, saying "you are awake."
Lucien didn't answer.
"Your condition is stable," the other continued. "You will recover physically."
There was an immediate pause for what the two people had previously been told. Neither person reacted to the news.
Lucien did not respond to either of them.
There was a longer pause.
Lucien's Class A certification and status are retained.
There was nothing gracious about it. There was nothing just in it. It was simply to hold Lucien.
The restraining bands had already been buzzing as Lucien let out a long breath from his ribs as they began to ache in pain; the long period of silence was for Lucien's response. Lucien gave no such response.
When the two people left, the entire area felt much larger, and very much colder, and uncertain about why it was there.
Later, Iryss entered.
Her feet were planted solidly, as in attention, standing there against the stone. Her hands behind her back, looking straight ahead at Lucien; her eyes showed no sympathy or hate towards Lucien.
"Will you make it if this occurs again?" She asked without inflection in her voice.
Lucien angled his head ever so slightly toward her.
"Then I won't depend on something I can lose; there is nothing else to say."
There was a shift not in what was said, but in what had been expressed. It was a reconciliation: for the first time we witnessed her respect.
She acknowledged him by nodding and departed.
When Iryss left, Lucien remained alone.
He reclined upon the bedding and listened to the constant pulsation of the academy—the bells that tolled, footsteps that reverberated, and the continued efficiency of people living without care.
As it occurred for the first time, what had been given to him in power was not responding to him.
It was the first time Lucien comprehended how those two things are different.
The power he had in strength had never been force; rather, force had been the authority that allowed it.