I heard the sounds of hushed voices around me, their movements causing slight gusts of air to rush past my exposed chest.
Where the fuck am I? I wondered with my eyes still shut.
I wanted to open them, but try as I might, nothing I did would work. That's when I realized it was because my face was covered by a thick piece of cloth. I tried to say something, but it came out as little more than a muffled grunt. My voice was weak, my ribs still hurt, and I had no idea where I was, or what physical state I was in.
All I knew was that I could feel mana circulating within my body as easily as it was to breathe. I recalled my conversation with Essentia, and everything that happened after, but the few moments of consciousness I had before I blacked out were still a little fuzzy.
"H-Hello?" I managed weakly, feeling my voice scratching in my throat. "Oh, he's awake!" I heard a strong, unfamiliar voice exclaim from somewhere to my left with a quick rustle of clothing. I tried to move my hand up to pull the cloth from my face, but I was quickly met with some form of resistance, like I'd just smacked my arm on a plate of steel.
Huh? Am I a prisoner or something? I thought I saw my brother running toward me, but if I've somehow been captured, then I'm in a much worse situation than I initially thought, I wondered, trying to figure out what was going on.
I knew I was still in the fifth stage of Wraith mana and was about to use a spell to break out of my predicament, but just before I cast anything, I heard Mom's voice coming from a few meters away. "Welcome back to the land of the living," she said wryly before helping me get the cloth off my face. My eyes burned with the sunlight that bore through the open balcony to my right.
I flinched away from it, but when I was able to see again, I saw Mom and Ysevel standing beside me wearing strange clothing that I didn't immediately recognize as being Caegweni, though it was rather similar. "Mom? Ysevel? Wha…?" I was cut off, my voice immediately muffled by Ysevel's shoulder. I smiled weakly and pressed my face into her neck, allowing the moment to last as long as I could.
"I'm so glad you're alright," she said with a light sniffle as she pulled away. Her eyes were filled with tears, but there was no denying the look of relief she had. Mom's eyes welled with tears as well, and I could tell at a glance that she'd used the wry comment from earlier to try and fight them back.
"Me, too. What happened after I blacked out? Better yet, where in Kavrass are we?" I asked, using my limited ability to look around the room. It wasn't Caegwen, that much I was sure of, and it most definitely wasn't the dark, stoney complex of Narin. No matter where I'd tried to place the location in my mind, I simply couldn't.
"About that, I believe it would be best if we let him explain," Mom said, stepping aside as a tall, pale man with mismatched eyes and long, flowing robes of red and white stepped into view. His hair was neatly swept back, save for a handful of strands, but his features were sharp and his slitted-pupil gaze piercing.
"H-Hello… sir? I'd offer you a proper greeting, but I'm a little stuck right now," I said, trying to lift my hands again, only to hear them knock against the metal plate with intricate, geometric designs inlaid with gold that I noticed reached the middle of my chest. "Ah, yes. My apologies, but it was all we could to make sure you didn't die during treatment," the man said with a voice that reminded me of the one from earlier.
"I was that close, huh? Well, sir, I, uh… I don't know how to thank you for everything you did," I said awkwardly, but I was relieved to hear a low rumbling chuckle coming from him. "To say that you were close would be an understatement, but I'm sure that being in the fifth stage was what saved you," he smiled, giving a brief gesture to my chest.
I struggled to look down, but when I tried to, the metal plate that was covering my body suddenly retracted, reminding me of the slits on Kalia's face. I realized, very quickly I might add, that the only clothing I had on me was a tight-fitting piece of fabric that I couldn't identify. My eyes widened at the sight of it, but as my eyes shifted to the rest of my body, I realized what he'd meant.
"Oh," I said, somewhat disappointedly. My body was riddled with scars, some nearly as deep as the first one I had on my back, while others were already fading into thin, white lines. There was one, large scar from where I'd pulled Mideia's claw from my chest, and I realized he'd only missed my heart by about a centimeter.
"You'd lost a lot of blood, and without the medical advancements we've made here, you might have actually died. Your friends' wounds weren't as severe, but I did leave them in Aurae's capable hands," he continued gravely.
"I-I see. I'm forever in your debt, sir," I said with as much humility as I could muster, but he held up a hand to stop me. "Nonsense. If anything, we owe you a great debt," he said, offering me a slight dip of his head.
That slight dip is something I've only ever seen Aurae do when she thanks my mother for something. It must mean he's of a much higher status than he's letting on, I thought idly as I returned the gesture.
When I realized that wasn't enough, I tried to sit up. Ysevel stepped forward again to help me, but I was pleasantly surprised to see my ribs now merely felt bruised rather than shattered. As I looked around the room, I realized that this place really was far more advanced than anything I'd ever seen.