After a full morning of teaching, Serenity was feeling anything but serene. He thought it had gone fairly well overall, but it had been one thing after another. What he wanted to do was run some Trials solo to relax, but that wasn’t the plan at this point. He could run solo Trials once there wasn’t anyone doing an optional Trial that needed help.

Serenity almost decided to use the staff break room for lunch, but he hadn’t seen Lancaster and wanted to check in with him. Lunch would give him the chance to do that.

Serenity was well into his meal when he saw Lancaster and Echo arrive. They were both carrying weapons, so he guessed they’d been running a Trial, and it had taken longer than expected. He was about to wave at them to get their attention when he suddenly felt a wave of pain as something sharp was shoved into his back. He wasn’t sure if it hit anything else, but it had definitely cut a lung, because he suddenly found it hard to breathe.

“DIE DEMON!” It was a woman’s voice, but Serenity had no idea who it belonged to.

Serenity tried to turn to face her, but the movement made the still-embedded knife tear farther into him and he wavered a bit, suffering from pain, blood loss, and difficulty breathing. He could feel healing energy pouring like water from his reserve, but with the knife still in him it could only do so much.

[Pain Resistance Increased]

He started to try to turn again - right as another knife entered his back, skewering his other lung.

There were large amounts of yelling from all of the other people in the room, but he didn’t have much time.

He was only going to get one chance to do anything, so he surged to his feet, turned, and simply knocked his attacker away from him. He was glad that had worked, because he could already feel his coordination going as he tripped and sank to the floor. He hoped that would buy enough time for someone else to stop her, because he wasn’t going to be able to.

The world grew dim around him and he passed out.

“He’s still not breathing.” A woman’s voice. A girl?

There was a noise in the background. A Srrrt. Srrt. He wasn’t sure what it was.

Past that, he could hear people moving and talking but that was far away.

“He’s still eating. So he’s still alive. Dammit Serenity, don’t die on us.” A man’s voice. Familiar, but not important. There was food in his mouth, so Serenity gulped it down. Cooked meat?

Suddenly, there was a severe pain in his chest and he started to cough. He tried to turn over, but moving was nearly impossible until the man helped him.

Blood spattered on the floor as he coughed. Each cough made him feel weaker and weaker, until suddenly he’d cleared enough blood out of his lungs to start to breathe again. That didn’t make him feel stronger, but he stopped growing weaker. Eventually, he stopped coughing. His lungs still didn’t feel right, but he could breathe. He took a series of deep breaths, and started feeling a little better.

Just weak and incredibly hungry.

He opened his eyes and saw the blood on the floor as he tried to catch his breath. Something was very wrong with him, but he wasn’t sure what. He couldn’t think that far.

A strip of meat entered his vision, and he lunged for it. Well, he tried to lunge for it. It was more like a weak jerk that didn’t take him very far.

“Hold your horses, I’m bringing it to you.” The man’s voice was familiar. Lancaster?

Serenity looked up as he sucked the strip of meat down his throat. Yes, that was Lancaster. Serenity ate several more strips of meat before he felt strong enough to look at where the noise was coming from.

Oh. That was Echo, cutting the meat into strips.

He looked around the room and realized they were in one of the storerooms in the dining hall building - one of the rooms with a preservation enchantment.

It slowly dawned on him that the last thing he remembered was being stabbed - but not here. “What … happened…” That was all he could get out. His lungs were still sore, and any time food came close to him, it overwhelmed everything else.

Between bites, he gathered that his last attack had knocked his attacker past another table and against a wall. She’d been swarmed by people; Lancaster and Echo didn’t know what had happened to her, because they’d concentrated on Serenity. Lancaster had apparently picked up Serenity and carried him into the first securable room he’d seen - this storeroom.

He’d then pulled the knives out of Serenity’s back, hoping that he’d somehow be able to heal the obviously fatal injuries. Serenity had apparently woken up enough at some point during events to ask for food, which had sent Echo into the kitchen to grab what she could.

“We’re almost out of meat,” Echo said, “And I think I got everything they’d already cooked on my last trip.”

Serenity could see packages that held some of the ubiquitous small steaks ahead of him on the shelving. He started to go get them, only to be reminded how weak he was. “Raw … fine. Over there, just … bring here.”

He wasn’t even sure they’d heard until he saw Echo pick up the package, bring it to him, and cut the string tying it shut. “Are you sure I don’t need to cut it up?”

He could barely restrain himself long enough to ask one thing, “Please … don’t watch.”

Then he was lost in the joy of simply swallowing his food. As he finished one package, another was there for him. Eventually, he realized he was eating far faster than he could heal - or, at least, faster than he could rebuild muscle. His energy storage was overfull and that sensation was finally enough to counter the sheer hunger that had kept him eating - although he did finish the package that was in front of him.

He looked up to see a pile of empty packages and Echo cutting another one open. “I - You can - I’m good.”

She turned to look at him, knife in hand, and suddenly he realized just how much she resembled a warrior princess, for all that she was dressed in the simple clothes provided during the Tutorial. “Are you sure? You still look half - no, at least three-quarters-starved.”

That made Serenity look down at himself, and he realized just how bad the situation was. He did indeed look terrible - at least, as much of himself as he could see. Everything was skin and bones, with very little muscle and no sign of fat at all. He hadn’t even been sitting on his own - the warm presence behind him, helping him to sit upright, was Lancaster. He was covered in blood - he wasn’t sure how much of that was from his food and how much was his own.

He could still feel the energy pouring into him to rebuild muscle, and realized that his body must have eaten itself to try to stay alive.

“I - yeah, it takes time to heal, I may have to eat more later but I have enough for now.” His voice went to a whisper as he said what he’d been thinking in the back of his mind out loud for the first time. “I can be human again …” He didn’t realize he was still speaking.

He also didn’t see the way Echo and Lancaster looked at each other after his words.

There was a pause, then Lancaster said “Well then, let’s get this cleaned up. Echo, can you take the trays back to the kitchen and get a wet towel? We don’t need much, just enough to clean his face and hands. I’ll take care of the packaging and watch Serenity while you find out what’s going on in the other room.”

As they took care of things, Serenity found himself falling into the warm, comfortable darkness of ordinary sleep.

[Surviving a near-death experience while concealing your secrets with the help of your friends has been Noticed. Your ability to inspire loyalty has been Noticed. Additional Paths are opened. Many Paths are closed]

That was an unusual Notice. Having Paths closed without consciously making a choice was unusual. Serenity hadn’t done anything, so he suspected it was the fact that his friends had not only acted to save his life but to protect him by - as the Voice put it - concealing his secrets that had done it.

For a moment, he wanted to know just what Paths had been closed off to him by their actions, but then he realized that it must be only Paths that could, by their very nature, not inspire that kind of loyalty. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been closed.

He was better off without them as options, whatever they were.

He opened his eyes to his room in the instructors’ quarters. Lancaster was sitting by the bed, reading. After a moment, Serenity started to wonder where he’d found a book.

Serenity looked down at himself. He was still in his bloodstained clothing, but as far as he could tell, he looked basically like himself. He didn’t feel like he was healing anymore, either. So it must be done.

He did feel a little hungry, but when he checked his energy reserves weren’t gone, though they were very low.

I wonder if there’s any way to get that added to my status, so I can see it without having to manually check?

[Status updated]

….Of course there is.

A quick glance showed that he was Low on healing. His status had also updated to show his current mana and stamina as well as his maximum … which didn’t really do anything for him right now since they were all full, but might be helpful in the future.

The overwhelming feeling right now, on thinking about it, was that he itched all over. Probably from the dried blood.

As he started to get up, Lancaster looked up at him. “You doing OK now?”

“Yeah, I think so. Going to take a shower, I’m covered in …” Serenity gestured at himself.

“Probably a good idea. Mind if I borrow this?” Lancaster waved the book.

“What is it?”

Lancaster turned the book so that Serenity could see the title: An Instructor’s Guide to Integrating New Worlds. “It was sitting by your bed. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you haven’t had time to read it yet.”

“Didn’t even know it was there. I’m sure I’ll need it back - I’d like to read it - but yeah, you can read it first.”

“Great. I’ll let Echo and Rissa know you’re ok?” Lancaster sounded a little uncertain.

“Does Rissa even care? … No, I’m sure you’re right. Go ahead. Oh, what time is it? I promised a couple students I’d meet them after dinner.”

“You’ve got time. It’s only been a few hours. Echo and I will be at the combat arena, come find us before dinner and we can talk while we head to dinner. Echo’s been finding out what happened while you were unconscious.” Lancaster walked out the door before Serenity could reply.