Christopher felt right at home at the Academy and the Mage district. He had the realization that he had become a full-time student. In the morning he studied the quarterstaff under Netello Brave, after which he spent the rest of his time reading and studying at the Academy.

Things were progressing well at both locations. He enjoyed his study sessions, sometimes even lucky enough to forget about his main mission of defeating the Blight, even if just for just a moment.

And he was still making progress during his morning practice sessions with Netello Brave. He now had the majority of the stances down, and his progress was mostly tracked by the number of whacks he had to suffer each morning. He even had some dreams of performing the stances in his sleep. In the dream a looming figure was standing over him, ready to administer punishment at the slightest mistake in his forms. He still preferred that dream over the nightmares of the Blights invasion.

He started to think that he was pushing himself a little too hard recently. ‘Maybe I should take a free day at some point, being stressed out of my mind is not going to help anyone.’ Or so he tried to reason with himself.

Christopher had also started to worry about the ridiculous number of bruises that covered his body. They were now a constant ache, and he needed a solution. He realized that there was an obvious solution on the fourth day since joining the Academy, right after another painful training session. He made this realization after one of his fellow students made a comment about some of the more visible bruises. Apparently, most of the other students received healing after every one or two sessions. He thought about visiting Latal again, but the Adenium Churches top healer would probably be better spent using her limited Soul Force on more serious cases. The Academy had its own Healing Pavilion where students were able to hone their Soul Healing. Maybe he could train there at some point as well. For now, he just hoped that they could do something about the deteriorating state of his body. He could already imagine it. Cause of death: succumbed to a lethal amount of bruising. That would be quite the unfortunate way for this to end.

The healing pavilion was located right next to a stately hospital. Just like many other structures, it was built out of a greyish metal, the entire structure softly glowing even under the sun. some more wiry tree variant with a lot of branches was lining the path up to the pavilion. The trees looked somewhat like what you could find on earth. The healing Pavilion had no real walls, it was more of a tent structure made out of some kind of thick beige canvas. Christopher stepped inside. The space was very open inside the giant tent, and he noticed that only Curtains and cloth allowed the patients some privacy. There were not that many people present at the moment.

Christopher approached the receiving area where they asked him for the nature of his injury. He had a good view of the entire tent, there were only five student healers present. Only one currently questioning a patient. He was soon referred to one of the student healers, this one operating section three.

The student was a pretty girl with a tomboyish appearance. Her brown hair was in a state of disarray, locks twisting and curling in every direction. She was seated on a simple wooden stool, twirling a metal rod around her finger with a bored expression on her face. She quickly stood up when she noticed him.

“Welcome, what can I help you with?”

“Nothing serious. My training has left me with quite a few bruises.”

“Alright, let’s see the damage then, pull up your shirt.”

“Right now?” he asked since they were still in the open.

“You want a partition then?”

“No, never mind” he pulled up his shirt, and the student healer looked rather shocked.

“Adeniums balls, you must be in some pretty weird shit to end up like this.” She said in a joking manner.

“Look, can you heal me or not?”

“Sure, as long as nothing is broken. Bruises are not exactly difficult to heal. It will take some time though; you are covered in them. That must have been some passionate sparring” she said, emphasizing the passionate with humor. Christopher let the girl have her fun, he was getting some free healing out of this after all.

“It was a rather one-sided affair I’m afraid.”

“Hey I won’t judge, as long as you were both consenting and willing participants.”

He had been slightly worried that a student might botch up his healing, Kata from the caravan had told him about the disastrous consequences of the badly trained using Soul Heal after all. It turned out that his worry was misplaced. He felt his aches fall away one bruise at a time. It took the healer around half an hour to get through all of the bruises, her face relaxing after the look of concentration that she had sported during the entire procedure. She wiped some sweat from her forehead. She had clearly expended a large portion of her Soul Force in the procedure.

“That should have solved the worst of it, how does that feel?”

“Much better, thank you very much.”

“And I suggest that you are gentler with your future activities.”

“I will pass this along to the other party, but I am afraid they are rather rough” Christopher joked back

Christopher did not seriously consider passing on this wisdom to Netello Brave. Someone from their group had complained about the hits once, and another whack was all the response that she had gotten. It was the same person that had not returned the following day. Some part of him thought that Netello Brave was just whacking them for the hell of it, how would they even know?

“Can I leave a tip?”

“We are not allowed to receive money here, but it is good experience for us.”

“My name is Christopher by the way, what is yours?”

“It’s Unna”

Christopher and Unna talked a bit more about their studies. He once again thanked the healer, leaving with his body in peak condition. He had lost the pains and stiffness that he had begun to internalize as normal. He would definitely return here again after another few training sessions.

——————<>——————

On the fifth day of his training sessions, he only received whacks for four out of the possible eighteen stances, although repeatedly. It was some welcome relief from the abuse that he had received from the dreaded cane. The fact that his healed body felt better and nimbler than it had in some time might have helped him. He felt as if he had those final four stances down as well by the end of it.

By now several students had successfully completed this first training section. Christopher was not quite there yet, but he had passed a few of the others and was no longer in last. He was now somewhere in the middle of the pack.

The students that had passed were led to a different part of the manor at the beginning of each session. The uniformed middle-aged attendant lead them there, while Netello Brave stayed to assist him and the others with their stances. He did not know what they were doing, but he occasionally heard desperate yells and he believed the splashing of water on occasion. After the hour of practice, those few always returned drenched and with looks of distress. It did not exactly motivate the remaining trainees to complete all the stances. Christopher and the others had asked their fellow trainees what was so horrible about the second stage of training, but received no real answer in return.

“You will see soon enough” said one of the girls with a pained grimace.

The others had been directed not to speak of it to their fellow students by Netello Brave. He said that they should be focusing on their own part of the training. Christopher spent some extra time on the stances that evening, since he felt that he was close to completing the first phase.

——————<>——————

On the sixth day of his training, his hope was proven true. He was able to go through all of the stances without the need for corrections. Netello Brave even spent extra attention on him, trying to find fault with any of his movements. It seemed as if the old man could find no further faults, and his body was thankful for the reprieve. This meant that he would be able to start the second phase of his training tomorrow. There he would join the six others that had also completed the different stances without being hit. He would have to say goodbye to the pink moss matt for a while.

Christopher’s skill with the bow also continued to show improvement. He was hitting the target more often, now managing to hit the target with three in four shots. Sure, it was from rather close and while standing still, but that still was progress. His confidence with the weapon was steadily growing, he would have to think about buying a bow of his own.