Back on campus, teachers and students clustered outside the arena on patches of icy snow in tight-knit huddles waiting for news about their loved ones. They comforted each other with reassuring pats on the back while some of the survivors stared into the distance, dazed and unseeing.

The images swirled before me in a kaleidoscope of chaos, meshing into one massive, indistinct blur. My psyche strained to filter the images, but only three ideas cut through my addled thoughts.

Peter. Bragda. Halden.

Gone.

Over and over, my mind replayed that horrible scene with the Shadow Riders: Lord Hesse's cruelty, Lord Darius' lightning attack, and Peter shaking as blood spluttered from his lips before his final breath. His last words tore through my mind like a tornado, and I stumbled to the ground.

"Leave!"

"Not without you!"

"Go!"

I vomited on the grass.

Empty and hollow, I found the strength to pick myself up. In a dazed fugue, I thought of Bragda. Her pain. Her bravery.

My worst fiscas had come true.

Our last words had been hostile, and I hadn't been able to apologize or say goodbye. She'd met her death without me. I'd refused to stand by her when she needed me most because of my stupid Healer oath.

I'm a fool.

While I was staggering along the gravel track to the dorms, Alicia raced towards me. She almost crashed into me and clutched me like I was a life preserver in the middle of a vast ocean.

"Oh, gods, Liselle! You're alive!"

I stood there, unable to speak at first, my arms held stiffly by my sides.

"Am I?"

She pulled away from me with a confused look on her face. "Where are the others?"

"There are no others."

"Of course there are. They must be in the injured unit. Come on, we have to help them!"

Injured unit?

Bragda.

As Alicia tugged me behind her in a frantic run, my soul dared to hope. Electric energy rushed through my veins as we raced up to the makeshift medical tents sprawled out across the amphitheater.

A giant crowd had gathered before the gates of the arena, pushing and shoving each other in a vain attempt to get closer. Warriors stood guard, heavily armed with full plate armor. As we tried to push past, two of them crossed their pikes to block our way.

"Sorry, only Healers have access to the tents," the taller one said in a terse voice. "Please wait here for news."

"Sir, we are Healers," Alicia said, pointing at her green ribbon.

"Of course, my mistake."

In the inner courtyard, armed soldiers swung open the metal gate to grant us access while more guards brandished swords at anyone who tried to push through with us. The place that had once hosted joyful celebrations had been turned into a makeshift army hospital. Three giant tents flapped in the breeze: one with a skull and crossbones, one with a red cross, and one with a green cross.

"We'll start with the minor injuries first," Alicia said, her voice brimming with hope.

Very few casualties had the fortune of being minor injuries. Even those patients looked ghastly. I choked on the foul air and cringed at all the people groaning, screaming, and crying. A third-year fighter begged for pain relief as he clutched his charred flesh, scorched to the sinew and bone by dragon fire. I rushed over to him, Alicia following close behind.

"Cast a sedative spell," I whispered. "Hurry!"

Alicia nodded and grasped the young man's mottled hand. Wispy tendrils of pure-white fog drifted from her palms and hovered around the Fighter's head. The young man went limp, and I helped prop him up on makeshift pillows made of hay on the bloodied cot.

"Thank you," he groaned before he fell unconscious.

"They're not here," Alicia whispered as she rose to her feet. "We have to check the other tents."

After a fruitless search in the major injuries tent, my heart thudded with dread. I steeled myself, drawing my posture ramrod straight. "All right, Alicia, let's..."

I couldn't choke out the rest of my sentence as we made our way to the makeshift mortuary. Mangled bodies lined in rows waiting for burial. Dozens of corpses lay in blood-soaked armor and bandages, their eyes glazed over and their contorted faces revealing their final moments of agony.

My fiscas had never done it justice.

As we passed these lines of death, I could barely breathe. With a shudder, I bent over and closed the eyes of the female Wizard I'd met in the hallway earlier that morning, recoiling at her cold, clammy flesh.

When an orderly rushed passed us towards the medical tents, I froze in terror, certain we would be caught. A tiny whimper escaped Alicia's lips. I jabbed her in the ribs to be silent, shoving a file into her hands. But the nurse rushed without even a side glance, too frantic to notice us.

There were too many people, too many casualties, too much destruction. Alicia's eyes welled up, and I couldn't keep my head from spinning. The smell of charred flesh and blood made me want to retch.

"I have to get some fresh air," I said, my stomach churning in protest.

We sought refuge in a corner to catch our breath, and I poked my head through a gap in the tent. I inhaled massive gulps for a brief reprieve from the stench of death.

You can do this, Liselle. You have to find her.

"They're not here," Alicia whispered, fighting to keep a sob from building in her chest. "The drakes must have burned them alive."

Squeezing my eyes shut, I felt a weight press upon my chest heavier and more painful than anything I'd ever experienced. A strained groan belched from the doldrums of my soul.

Bragda, please! You have to be here!

Cruel and guilt-ridden, my conscience would not leave me in peace. If we'd left after the attack during the Induction Ceremony, she'd still be alive. She told me to go. And I'd said no. Now no one would be able to shut her eyes or press her battle ax into her hands for the afterlife.

You're a selfish brat, Liselle, my conscience hissed at me. You should have left while you had the chance.

"They're not here!" Alicia cried as she sank to the ground. "Oh, gods, Liselle! They're dead."

My soul felt disembodied as though this was a dream and I was viewing it from the outside. Alicia began to hyperventilate and cry.

"Alicia, shh! We'll get caught."

"We have to go back to the battlefield," she said, drawing a ragged, choked breath. "We have to find their bodies. We have to bury them."

"I was there. There's nothing left."

She grabbed me by the robes. "Please, Liselle! We have to go to the border. The Gatál will have to let us retrieve our dead."

"The border? That's a hundred miles away."

"I know how to teleport," she said through clenched teeth. "Now what's your excuse?"

"Hey, idiots!" Nurse Kaylar marched towards us with her fists clenched. "Don't stand around moping for the dead guys. We need your help!"

She pushed us in the direction of the operating area. Alicia and I gave each other fearful looks. "We've never performed surgery before," Alicia said in a tremulous voice, still catching her breath from her outburst.

"Do I look like I give an actual fuck?" Nurse Kaylar retorted. "Just do as I say and cast the spells the Guru Healer tells you to cast."

I raced after Kaylar, who strode purposefully towards the major injuries unit. "Have you seen Bragda? Is she all right?"

"She left in the wave before mine," Kaylar said in a clipped tone. "They held us back to look after the injured. I haven't seen her come back so that probably means--" Her voice cracked, and she cleared her throat. "Come on, focus on the living!"

"When do we start?"

"Now, you fool!" Kaylar's dark eyes flashed with anger. "We go in shifts. Two hours each. You go back to the Tree, replenish, and come straight back here until it's done. Got it?"

I nodded dumbly.

"I said do you understand?"

"Yes," we replied in unison.

"Good!" She shoved us into the operating theater. "Now get your asses in there. And your brains, too."

The rancid smell of bodily fluids, vomit, and blood made Alicia retch. My vision blurred and vertigo made my head swim. I'd already depleted almost all my mana during the fight.

"Why don't they use the infirmary, Nurse Kaylar?"

"Already full," she replied. "Well, don't just stand there. Help me stitch up this guy's stump with your mana before he bleeds to death."

"Just give us a moment to prepare our magic."

"Fine, two minutes. After that, you get in here and you don't leave until your shift ends."

Alicia clasped her hands over her mouth after Kaylar disappeared behind a medical curtain. "Oh, gods, Liselle! What is happening?"

"Hush, Alicia! This is what we're studying for. They need us." I gripped her by the shoulders. "Pull yourself together. You've got the best grades in the class."

"That's book work. People's lives are at stake. What if--?"

"You've got this!" I grasped her hands. "Please give me some of your mana. Quick!"

My manual receptors tried to engage with the recessed circular grooves on her palms. Her tendrils shrank away from mine though.

Alicia recoiled. "What in Hades do you think you're doing?"

"I lost all my energy in the battle. I won't be able to help unless you give me some of yours."

"A mana transfer? Are you crazy?"

"This is an emergency! People are dying."

"I've only ever exchanged with Marc."

"I'm not mating with you, Alicia. There's nothing intimate about this."

"But--"

"Should I go to the Tree for energy and let these people die?"

Alicia began to cry again, and I rolled my eyes in frustration. The Nurses hissed at us to shut up or leave.

Shaking her shoulders, I growled under my breath, "Get a grip and help me, damn you!"

"Fine!"

Her receptors filled with interstitial fluid until they hardened. She slotted them into the grooves on my palm, and her magical tendrils coiled around mine.

An unpleasant shock jolted through me like static electricity when we connected. We both grimaced but fought our way through it. Her mana trickled into my body like a tiny stream.

"You don't feel anything, do you?"

"I told you I have no urges. Now speed it up! We have no time."

She finally relaxed, and her magical energy flooded my veins like fiery acid. All of her emotional pain crashed like tidal waves upon my soul until I could hardly breathe.

"How can you be so cold?" Alicia whispered under her breath. "It's frightening."

"How can you feel that much and still remain sane?"

"That's all I can give," she whispered, avoiding my gaze in shame. "It helped me--getting some of your coldness." She pursed her lips. "Maybe we can do this."

I extended my hand toward her. "Come on, we have to help them."

Hand in hand, we raced towards the operating tables. We stood together, seeing and doing things no first-year student should have to experience.

Those were the longest twenty-four hours of my life.