Fangirl

Chapter 17 Martha

When consciousness returned, I found myself in a well-lit ward of the academy's infirmary. The windows were wide open; the leaves were rustling in the breeze, the birds were singing, and the sun was glorifying the beautiful summer day.

I was placed in a spacious bed designed for patients who were to spend some time under the care of the physicians. Lots of flasks and beakers around. Nothing special.

I had come out of my magical sleep a few days after the competition figuring that should be enough to convince everyone around me of what they could see with their own eyes in the arena.

As soon as I woke up, the healers rushed into my chambers to check on my condition. They asked me a lot of questions about how I was feeling, checking my memory, my ability to establish cause-and-effect relationships, my reaction speed, and other similar attributes of a healthy bender.

I answered without too much haste glancing around with a foggy gaze until I was asked how I'd got here.

Then, extremely carefully, I was reminded of the past event and congratulated on my victory. I smiled at the news not immediately reacting to the mournful look of the healer having this dialog with me. Next, he sadly had to inform me that my opponent had died.

After waiting for the appropriate amount of time, when I first turned pale, then was about to cry, he tried to comfort me having said that, unfortunately for everyone, accidents sometimes happen when the seventh point of the magic channel opens.

I bulged my eyes as naturally as possible and dropped my jaw.

'Yes-yes, my dear,' the waterbender smiled kindly at me and took my hand. 'I hasten to congratulate you first: now you are not only the first lady-winner of the elementalist competition, but also a newly minted master-mage. And forget about the accident as soon as possible. It's an unfortunate tragedy, but there's nothing that can be done. Try to accept it.

He paternally stroked the back of my hand and added, 'You've spent the last five days in a magical sleep as is often the case after opening points. Too much energy drained you of your strength, but you're doing well now and on the mend.'

The healer left the room giving me time to realize what had happened and gather my thoughts. Little did he know that all I wondered was how Phillip got all of that. Had he gone home? Was he thinking about me?

As for the events mentioned, there was nothing to take in.

Nikita, for his mortal sin, was punished as he deserved. He had harmed Phillip, he could eventually try again, and there was only one way I could keep my airbender perfectly safe.

I could do it quietly and discreetly. But such a skeleton in my closet was no use to me. Not only did I need to punish the firebender, but I also needed to demonstrate my power.

When I tried to show my power secretly letting Nikita know about me with a handshake, he didn't get it and went after Phillip anyway. I needed everyone in the academy to understand that harassing Phillip was a bad idea, since I was his girlfriend.

So, not only did I get even with Nikita, and, by the way, I made it look like I wouldn't get any complaints. The papers I signed had a list of cases that could be fatal for the competitors, one of them being the opening of the seventh point of the magic channel. As for my true intention, I warned all of Phillip's possible detractors that it was better not to mess with me.

The competition had come at just the right time. I knew enough about it, as I did about many other things at the academy, but I wasn't interested in useless ostentatious events.

I read the papers signed by the competitors in my first year, out of interest. The list included cases of exceptional circumstances when a participant could part with their life. These cases were extremely rare, and therefore students cared little about them. People always considered themselves lucky to be bypassed by misfortune or bad luck.