Eçłípsė

6

When Gavriel finally came to his senses, he woke up in a room full of other people.

His neck and shoulder hurt like hell and he had a feeling of wanting to throw up. Someone stood beside him, looking at him.
He turned his head to look at the person.

He was met by the warmest smile he had ever seen, a head covered in fluffy blonde hair, like a cloud of wheat. His eyes had an impression of looking at, not irises, but pure honey. His whole appearance practically screamed "nice".

Gavriel hissed when the petit little guy started rubbing ointment on his collarbone.

- That hurts, you know.

Honeyguy smiled again.

- That just means it's working.

- Who are you?

- I'm Aleksander, but everyone calls me Sasha. I'm also one of the new recruits.

Gavriel looked at him doubting he could even last a second against the teachers with his frail arms and innocent face. Sasha didn't seem to have any bruises either. For the moment he put the matter aside and focused on more urgent things.

- Where are we? And why are you taking care of me?

- We are in our home for the rest of our training time. Here's where we're all gonna sleep. And I'm taking care of you because we're gonna be roommates and the healers are drowning in work.

- You're my roommate?

- Yes, along with the girl over there, but she's not willing to talk with me.

Gavriel glanced at the girl standing by herself in a corner of the crowded, hectic room. She looked hard as steel. A scar disfigured her otherwise pretty face, making it look rough.
It started at her left eye and then went diagonally across her face, twisting her mouth into a grimace.

When she noticed his stare, she gave him a face of disgust and he quickly turned away from her piercing eyes.

- I heard her name is Amanda.

- Really?

The name didn't seem to particularly suit her.

- Done!

Sasha looked naively smug, like he had managed to score a goal in a kids soccer match.
Gavriel found that his collarbone didn't even hurt in the slightest anymore. He touched it with the tip of his finger, it was as though it had never been broken at all.

- Is that, Royal healing potion?!

No other medicine could have so much effect, but the ointment was designed exclusively for the nobles.
Sasha fired away one of his bright smiles.

- Welcome to Ibex, where everyone are treated as equals.