“Now, I’m sure that all you cadets kept up your training over the break. Time to see how well you did. Eight laps. Go!”

  I could see concern cross some of my classmates’ faces—clearly they had slacked off a bit during the break. Without hesitation, though, we all started running, and I found myself in the top third. It was plainly obvious who hadn’t done any running over the past three weeks, since they were struggling a bit.

  “If I wanted incompetence, I would have become a secondary school gym teacher! Drop and give me forty!”

  This went on for another hour, being told to do various exercises and then berated for not doing them well enough. Since I was doing reasonably well, though, I at least didn’t get any of the direct attention that some of the other cadets got. Eventually, though, the sergeant had us get some water and line up at parade rest.

  “I hesitate to teach such slackers our next spell, but it’s an important one. Today, you’re going to be learning the First Aid spell. Now, this is a relatively weak healing spell—its primary use is to stop bleeding, though it can be used to relieve bruising and heal small cuts. With this spell, it is important that you keep a clear image in your mind of what should happen. Without a clear image, the spell will likely fail, but could actually make the situation worse.”

  He then went over the various times when it was and was not appropriate to cast the spell, then he quizzed us at random to test our understanding. When I was called on, I had to explain that it should not be used on a broken bone because it can complicate the healing process or even set the bone incorrectly.

  After a thorough explanation of the spell, he revealed the first of two carts, which contained grimoires for the spell. Once we had all learned the spell, he unveiled the second cart. It held what looked like hand-sized pieces of flesh.

  “These are simulated flesh. The spell will work on them—do not use yourself or other people as test subjects. Self-inflicted injuries will get you a psych eval faster than you will believe—don’t even consider it. Instead, we have these alchemical horrors. You can cut them, and they will look like they are bleeding. Take one and practice casting the spell. You might not get it this session, and that’s okay. You are authorized to use this spell only on these testing devices. We will certify you on the spell later on, at which point you will be allowed to use it on people when necessary. Take one and begin.”

  Once I had my fake flesh, I examined the spell in detail. It was more complex than Shield but less complex than Elf Shape, which didn’t surprise me.

  Taking a knife, I cut a slit in the flesh and focused on the spell. It kept slipping away, frustrating me. By the end of the session, though, I felt I was getting close.

  At lunch, Delroy asked Kolo, “Hey, you have some healer training, right? Any advice on the First Aid spell?”

  She nodded. “I actually learned it a few cycles ago. It’s complex, but if you notice, there are five somewhat separate parts to it. Focus on learning each one separately, then combining them. Once you get there, though, you’ll probably still fail. The hardest part is forming the mental image without dropping the spell. You’ll want to make sure you know exactly what you intend to happen before you even cast the spell so you’re not floundering at the end. I recommend refreshing your basic biology, since the clearer your image, the most efficient and effective the results will be.”

  “That’s probably why they don’t just give us all stronger healing spells,” Gathrok mused.

  “Exactly. There isn’t an all-in-one Heal spell because healing is too complex. Rather, there are hundreds of individual spells for various things. A complex healing could take dozens of spells cast by multiple healers all in the correct sequence, sometimes requiring days to complete.”

  Her explanation made a lot of sense, and her advice aligned with what I was already doing, though she clarified things a bit. I was eager to get to practicing, but first, I had class.

  Ethics and Morality was taught by an orc woman with senior commander bars. While I expected the class to be a boring recitation class, she actually started the session off with a short discussion about when ethics versus morality applied. There wasn’t really a consensus, but it was an interesting way to start the class.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  She then moved on to the lecture. Instead of telling us the navy’s perspective on the subject, she started off with an overview of various systems of thought underpinning different moral and ethical frameworks. She then informed us that we would be going into greater detail about everything she mentioned, and only then would we discuss the navy’s approach to such questions.

  It ended up being a really interesting class, and I was both looking forward to the content and dreading all the studying I’d have to do.

  My next class, Intermediate Conflict Resolution, was taught by the same instructor as I had for the previous term and continued right where the previous term left off.

  That afternoon after class, I decided to take a walk in the gardens before dinner. As I was walking, I heard the sound of a group walking nearby. I didn’t think anything of it until I was grabbed from behind. I tried to escape, but the person holding me was bigger and stronger than I was.

  Suddenly, Ganthar Torlan, the dragon that had been bullying Kolo early on first term, stepped out in front of me.

  “Did you think I was done with you, elf bitch?”

  I had to resist the urge to growl at him, instead just staring at him blankly.

  “Oh, come on, you don’t have anything to say?”

  “What do you want, Torlan?”

  “I want you gone. Barring that, you need to learn to respect your superiors, and I’m just the dragon to teach you.” As soon as he said that, he slammed a fist into my gut. Sensing it coming, I managed to tense my abdominals, but it still hurt quite a bit.

  He kept hitting me. “How do you like that, bitch?” Then he grabbed me from the man holding me and threw me to the ground so he could start kicking me.

  Oh, how I wanted to shift so badly! Not that it probably would have helped—he’d just shift too and I’d still be fighting a much larger person, just as dragons. Instead, I curled up to protect myself until he finally slowed down. By that point, I was in a lot of pain.

  “Greenwood. Heal her.”

  One of his elven sycophants knelt down next to me and started casting spells to heal me. It wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough to take the edge off and heal most of my bruises and scrapes. I suspected he was using First Aid or something similar, he just had a lot more experience with it. Soon enough, I was feeling better, albeit a bit sore still.

  Torlan reached down and yanked me up by my uniform. “Get this, Juniper—I run this school. Your insubordinate, trash-loving ass better not get in my way again, or you won’t just get such minor discipline. I’ll make you truly pay. And if you tell anyone what happened here? Well, it’s not like they’re going to believe you without proof, and if they did, I have connections. Understand?”

  I just nodded, wanting him to go away. Thankfully, he shoved me to the ground and snapped his fingers before wandering off with his entourage.

  I wasn’t going to tell anyone what happened, though not for the reasons he suspected. No, I just didn’t want to risk bringing unnecessary attention to me. It would be disastrous if someone paid too much attention to a troublemaker and discovered my identity. I would keep my distance and watch out when I was alone.

  I made my way back to the dorms, ignoring the remnants of pain in my body. Unfortunately, the moment I stepped into my room, Valissa noticed something was wrong—probably the fact my uniform was dirty.

  “What happened?” she asked in a cold voice that promised harm to whatever caused me trouble.

  “Nothing,” I mumbled, then laughed, thinking about how annoyed my etiquette teachers would be with me.

  Valissa stepped away from her desk and placed her hands on my biceps, studying me.

  “This isn’t just a fall. Are you hurt?”

  “I’m fine,” I said, hoping she’d drop it, but she scowled instead.

  I think she figured something out when I struggled to make eye contact.

  “Who did this to you?”

  “No one. I just fell.”

  “I don’t believe you. Tell me the truth.”

  She forced me to look her in the eyes, and I buckled. “Torlan.”

  She slammed a hand on the door behind me. “Fucking noble trash. I’ll kill him.”

  “You can’t. He’s a noble and a fellow cadet—you’ll get expelled and probably court-martialed.”

  “Then you have to report this.”

  “Report what? He had one of his minions heal me. There’s nothing to prove what happened, so it’d be my word against his word, and need I remind you, he’s a dragon?”

  “Argh!”

  She stomped across the small room, clearly frustrated by the situation and also by the small room that made it hard to pace.

  “Fine. But at least let’s get you cleaned up.”

  I acquiesced and let her grab a new uniform and my toiletries bag and lead me to the showers.

  “Hey,” I said as we got back to the room. “Can we not tell the others about this?”

  She studied my face. “You really should, you know. They care about you.”

  “I know, but it won’t help them to know about it. Especially Kolo.”

  She sighed. “Fine. I disagree, but I won’t tell anyone about it.”

  “Thank you, Valissa.”

  She just shook her head.

  While I was still a bit sore, the shower had helped, and I was able to mask any pain I felt so that none of the others realized something was wrong. After dinner, I hid in my room practicing the First Aid spell before cultivating and going to sleep, hoping the next day would be better.