Our Second World book three: Personal Truth

Chapter 14: Nephinae

The next time I opened my eyes, I found myself staring up at the ceiling of my room with a dull headache, and no clue as to how I got there. Memories of the test came flooding back to me, and I sat up quickly. Not the smartest move on my part as it made me incredibly lightheaded, and it took a few moments for the room to stop spinning. When my vision returned to normal, I noticed Azariah sitting in a chair next to the bed, leaning partially on it. She looked like she was sleeping. I watched her lay there for a few minutes before I realized she was staring back at me.

"You're awake!" She gasped. Standing, she moved closer, put her hands on my cheeks and stared into my eyes with a worried expression," how do you feel? Can you see ok? Your hearing's fine?"

"Yeah. Everything's norm—ouch!" I felt a jolt of pain when Azariah put her finger on my head under my ear. It caused the hearing in my left ear to go quiet for a few seconds before it returned to normal.

"Oops. Sorry," she pulled her hands away," anything else hurt?"

I shook my head," nothing."

"That's Good."

"Where are Emiko and Luna?" I asked, realizing they weren't anywhere in the room.

"They're downstairs with the others," Azariah replied," Riniya wants to go over your test results. Of course, I'm against it, but I suppose I've made everyone wait long enough."

"What do you mean?"

"...when I healed you, I also used pain soothing magic that made you sleep for two days. It wasn't my intention, but your body was exhausted after healing your injuries completely," Azariah sighed," I'm sorry I couldn't prevent the scarring. It was all I could do to properly heal the injuries at the time."

"It's...ok. You did what you could."

"But I could've done better," she answered.

"I don't really remember what happened, so I'm not sure what scars you're talking about anyway," I said.

"Hold on a second," Azariah left my room in a bit of a hurry, and returned a few minutes later with a silver hand mirror. She then, rather reluctantly it seemed, handed it to me.

I took it and looked at my reflection. On the left side of my face was a thin line running from just above my eye to the base of my ear. The place I felt pain from when Azariah touched me. In addition, two lines sitting side by side ran over my left shoulder near my neck. My nightgown didn't cover them entirely, but I could guess that a normal shirt would. Moving my arm up or to the side hurt slightly, but other than that, I couldn't feel it.

"You know what? It might be a good thing I don't remember what happened. These look like they'd hurt," I joked, wincing slightly as I accidentally stretched my shoulder while handing the mirror back to Azariah.

"Well anyway, we should get you dressed. The others are waiting downstairs," Azariah said, standing again.

"Alright. I think I can manage that," I answered, pushing myself to my feet. I wobbled slightly at first, but soon regained my balance and walked over to the wardrobe to get changed.

Once I was done getting dressed, I found that my earlier Guess was right; my shirt covered almost all of the scar on my shoulder. Only the tips were visible, and not by much. As for the one on my face, my hair covered it relatively well. Together, Azariah and I walked downstairs. Riniya and the others were sitting in the living room; everyone seemed surprised to see me.

"Hi everyone." I said, sitting down in the space between Haren and Silver on the couch.

"I'm glad you were able to join us, Nephinae," Riniya said, standing," now that everyone has gathered, I'd like to explain the results of the test." A grin spread across her face," congratulations, everyone. You passed, but things will only grow harder from here on out. Now that you've finished your training, I will be sending you back to the princess. Coincidentally, the ship taking you back to the mainland will be arriving today. Soon, so pack your things and meet me on the beach where you first arrived. Take no more than 20 minutes, Alright?"