Chapter Thirty-Seven

It all felt like some form of twisted dream after a while, a theory that was helped when he discovered he was lying in his bed, looking up towards the ceiling of his chambers when he opened his eyes.

That faint hope was dashed however, when an Asuran voice to his left piped up, "Headmaster! You're awake! Finally! Let me get Ouda."

Ouda was the adjunct directly under Coran in the pecking order of Atal Ra, and was the Asura who normally handled the day to day operations of the Academy… he became Acting Headmaster when Coran left the premises on that fateful expedition.

He turned his head towards the door to his chambers as it swung open, pushing himself with a fatigued grunt to a seated position as Ouda appeared. He was rather tall as an Asura went, which made him rather easy to identify even to someone not familiar with the peculiarities of their appearance. He kept an order, well-maintained manner, which suited him well for administrative duties.

"It's good to see you back with us, sir." Ouda said flatly. Had Coran not known Ouda particularly well, it might have been hard for him to determine the sincerity of those well-wishes. "I'll be honest when I say I had pretty much lost hope you were going to return at all. Then when your party stumbled out of the unknown cavern… we weren't certain any of you were going to make it."

"How… long were we gone?" He asked, the time warping effects of the Seer's chamber leading him to wonder.

"You were comatose for three days, headmaster." Ouda answered. "As for your time away… that was almost seventeen days to the second."

Coran let himself sag back to the mattress. "Anything new to report from Ascalon?"

"Your father, King Adelbern, is furious… not that I understand that is anything new. Apparently, his recent ire stems from your unapproved use of 'his officer personnel' for whatever 'near-crazed scheme' you were concocting. I was loathe to officially declare any of you dead for precisely that reason."

Coran nodded; typical Asuran protocol dictates that any official's status be changed from "missing" to "presumed dead" after ten days. Had Ouda made that official declaration, there would have been no telling what King Adelbern would have done in his state of rapidly deteriorating sanity.

"When do you suppose you will feel fit to return to duty, sir?" Ouda abruptly asked. The Asura did not particularly like being Headmaster… he performed well enough, but felt too detached from the actual functions of the academy for his tastes.

"Actually, Ouda, as much as this might pain you, I fear I will need you to continue in your role for an indeterminate period of time." Coran said softly. "I have a task set ahead of me that will require my full attention with no concrete timetable."

"I assume you found something troubling on your expedition?"

Coran scoffed, and stared back up towards the ceiling. There was no way he could describe his experience in a way that would do it justice. "Troubling is far too kind a word, Ouda. I'm not sure anyword would suffice in that regard."

* * * * *

"Yes, headmaster, she awoke shortly after you did. The rest of the expedition is slowly recovering as well." The nurse attendant outside Devona's ward said, her relief readily apparent.

"Thank you." He gently nudged the nurse aside, and swiftly slid into the ward.

Devona immediately turned towards him once she heard the door open. He found himself in rapt admiration of the woman that he was so damned lucky to be bonded to. To face the maddening power of the Seers and their dark god not once, but twice, and to appear completely normal as if nothing at all had been amiss... he knew he would not be able to muster that sort of composure.

Kneeling before her bedside, that's when he saw the crack in her armor… a pained, tormented gleam in her eye that belied the horrors she has seen to this point. He quickly pulled her into an embrace, and could only manage two words.

"I'm sorry."

She returned the hug, and could feel the tears dripping onto her shoulder while the Prince released his regret. "I am so sorry I put you through this. I drug you into that place... forced you to see the heart of your nightmares again…"

"Coran… you had to. I had to. Now we know what we face, and that we have to stop it." Devona answered.

"Yes… but please don't feel slighted or insulted if I don't ask you to make a return trip when the time comes."

The warrior laughed wanly, and with a forlorn voice said, "Don't tell anyone, but I wouldn't complain in the slightest. Courage is one thing… this is entirely another."

Any further commiserating was cut off by a knock at the door. The nurse stuck her head inside, and said, "Ummm… headmaster sir… the Charr has urgent news for you."

It was a simple process of elimination to know who the Asura was referring to, since everyone in Atal Ra referred to Grazz by name. Coran pulled away from Devona, glanced at her for permission, and her nod allowed him to say, "Alright, send him in."

Not even a blink of an eye later, Pyre Fierceshot pushed his way through the door. "When I was told you woke up, and you weren't in your chambers, I figured you'd be here. The mouse and I captured a Shaman that got a little too close to the dig site about four days ago. He's stewing in the hold right now, and I figured you'd want to try and pry some information out of him when you feel up to it."