“Madeline, you have the ability to be an extraordinarily powerful Warrior, let’s start there. Florian Quinn told Professor Hutton about the conflict inside the gates, he mentioned that you cast a shield to protect him from a thrown knife.”

  Madeline searched her memory, finding it fuzzier than it should have been. “Yes,” she agreed. She did remember that. “It sort of worked, it didn’t stop the knife but it redirected it. Oh my god. The Pure. Is the Pure okay?”

  Taran nodded her head. “Yes, the Pure had no lasting damage, treated against infection just in case. It’s a resilient animal that’s seen far worse than an errant knife before and is bred to do it again. There is no need to have concern over its safety. Now, do you remember anything else?”

  "I remember being overcome with, well, everything," Madeline said, voice increasing gradually in speed. "The weight of the air, the different smells of the grass and the flowers, the light from the stars in the sky and then I started feeling dizzy and like I needed to run and sprint and dance and tear my clothes off and fuck and-," Madeline squeaked and clapped a hand over her mouth, eyes bugging out of her head when she realized what she'd said. "I apologize, Professor."

  Taran waved a hand dismissively. "No need, dear. Is that all you recall?"

  "Well, I told Florian I needed his help and then my memory gets spotty," Madeline mumbled, still embarrassed by her outburst.

  "Yes, I do believe your asking for help alerted Mr. Quinn to the seriousness of the situation," Taran chuckled. "That boy does seem to have your back. I sure hope you have his back also, child.“

  “I saved his life,” Madeline protested.

  “And he saved yours,” Taran added. “Teamwork, yes? Trust, I believe your Professor Herbert is fond of saying. When it comes time to form teams, the Academy always prefers those who come together organically. Chemistry and trust are things that best bloom without administrative oversight and cannot be faked nor forced. I’d suggest nurturing your connection with Mr. Quinn. You both just may end up needing each other.”

  Chemistry? Trust? To Madeline that was all fine as a theoretical concept but as a practical matter…

  How would that conversation even go?

  Absolutely not. No, she’d keep her secrets.

  “I’ll keep that in mind, Professor. Thank you,” Madeline said instead.

  “Is that all you remember?” Taran asked, more wrinkles on her face appearing as she quizzed.

  Madeline took another moment to make sure she remembered nothing else. She blanched when parts of Florian telling her about his home troubles floated to the forefront but if she could do nothing else for him in return, she’d keep this secret. “Nothing else, Professor.”

  Taran heaved a great big sigh and adjusted her position on her stool. “Well. Your power level, yes, that‘s the place to start. See, Madeline, when you cast the shield spell, as best I can tell, you didn’t actually the spell which is why the knife only redirected. You cast a glimmer.”

  Seeing the look of total confusion on Madeline’s tired face, Taran waved her hand dismissively again. “This is advanced information that isn’t necessarily critical, but it’s your life, child, and you deserve to know. Best as the texts tell us, a glimmer is an expression of extreme power that exposes itself in inexperienced magic users - such as yourself - in times of extreme want. All that means is that best I can tell, your desperation to cast the shield and save Florian’s life produced the physical manifestation of what the shield should be.”

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  Madeline’s jaw slowly dropped further and further until it hung open. She snapped it shut.

  “That power then flooded into you all at once, and as the inexperienced Warrior that you are, you had no idea how to handle it. Hence the immediate but short lived feeling of running and sprinting and dancing and what did you say, dear? Oh yes, tearing your clothes off and fucking,” Taran chuckled when she saw Madeline’s embarrassment. “Couldn’t resist, please forgive me. I know it might not be believable looking at me now, but I was young once.”

  Madeline powered through it. “So, I didn’t cast anything?”

  “No, dear. But I suspect you’ll find it easier to cast now. That first one is always the most difficult as it is in most things. Anyway, all that energy you drew had to go somewhere and usually it gets expelled via the physical manifestation of the object you created - a fireball or in this case, a shield - but since you didn’t actually cast…”

  “It…internalized?” Madeline scrunched her face, trying to follow the thread Professor Taran laid out for her.

  Taran’s face brightened. “Indeed, it did. Very astute. That’s when you started feeling the additional symptoms, the ones that made it impossible to walk, to talk, to remember.”

  “So that’s when I…died?” Madeline said, voice small. She didn’t fear death, necessarily, but she feared dying without taking her parent’s killer to the grave with her.

  “Yes, after Florian transported you to the castle and met Professor Hutton who then floated you to me. I must confess something,” Taran winced and Madeline got the distinct impression she had something she had to say but not something she wanted to say. “Ah, just say it, Maybel, keeping things from her doesn’t help,” Taran said under her breath.

  “Professor?” Madeline asked.

  “In a way, dear, I let you die. It was the only way. The texts say this type of event is fatal in every event, one hundred percent of the time without exception. Now, casters as strong as you come along, oh, once every hundred plus years or so which makes the sample size awfully small but alas. The issue I faced was simple. Where can all that energy you inhaled go? Your guess is legitimately as good as mine on this one, child, I had no idea how to draw it out of you and surely not in such a compressed time frame. Perhaps with enough time I could have found a solution but I had minutes, not weeks.”

  Madeline shifted in her bed, sitting up a little straighter. “So you did nothing?”

  Taran tapped her scepter against her knee. “Not exactly. I hypothesized, correctly, that the energy would dissipate upon your death, exiting your body as it no longer had a host to consume. So, we waited and then - forgive me for boasting - thanks to my own prodigious skill I was able to bend the barrier of the afterlife and place your essence back into your body. Again, you must forgive me for my immodesty but the truth is that I may be the only person in the entire realm with the ability to do that.”

  The confusion on Madeline’s face didn’t let up. How could it? Taran let her die then - from the sounds of things - caught her soul? That’s what she asked next.

  The nurse from before waved to Taran, trying to tell her something unintelligible from this distance.

  “Crude, but ultimately correct. Ah, you know, this is too much information for one time. Let’s wait a month or two, let what I’ve told you sink in, and then I’ll explain the rest. You’ll also know more by then and the next part may make more sense. Plus, you look tired and I have other patients I need to check on. Another complicating factor would be your friends might simply break down the door if I don’t let them come and see you, it appears they’ve been clued in to the fact you’re now awake.”

  “Yes, Professor,” Madeline agreed readily. She didn’t know how much more information she could retain, anyway.

  With a warm smile, Taran rose from her stool, grunting with the creaks of age, and handling her scepter stiffly.

  Moments after she left, a red-eyed Talia burst inside and ran to Madeline’s bed, launching herself into Madeline grabbing her in a hug that bordered on violent which Madeline returned plus interest.

  “You’re…squeezing…my…guts…out…,” Talia wheezed and Madeline released her hold, unaware that she’d been crying into Talia’s chest, the remnants of her black makeup staining the white smock her raven-haired friend wore.

  “Oh no, Talia, I’m sorry,” Madeline said, wiping her eyes, pointing to the stains.

  “It’s okay, I’ve been crying for three days now,” Talia said with a smile.

  Willow and Hayden emerged, allowing Talia and Madeline’s moment to extend privately, Willow all smiles, her auburn hair styled into curls Talia surely called ‘fun’, Hayden a little more gaunt then Madeline remembered, with her observant eyes swollen but she remained alert, taking in the small details of the bed, the room, but critically the flowers on her side table. “Those are nice,” she commented.

  “Oh, do I have a story for you all,” Madeline said, finally allowing a smile to spread across her face.