Editing Eldramin (section)

== Chapter 12 ==
''Fannara''

The rest of the night was a blur of activities that stretched way too late. Two nights in a row of not getting enough sleep was definitely taking its toll on both me and Ari. Neither of us regretted any of it, but it was a strain. 

I was excited somewhere under the exhaustion. I knew that at least. The healing class was getting more interesting. The last class I had attended covered healing without using your hands in any way. It was extremely different from what I’d been taught at the academy, but it worked so much better. 

Arienna had convinced me to drink some of her coffee, insisting I needed the energy. I had hesitantly taken a sip and then downed the entire thing in less time than I should have. It worked, though. A little too well. 

I held in comments and laughter for most of my first two classes which much difficulty. 

Finally, Healing was next. I sped down the hallways of {building I LEGIT STILL HAVEN’T NAMED IT LIKE AH}, trying to get seated before I did something weird. Up three floors, down two hallways, and then it was the sixth door on the left. I was still struggling with getting to know my other classmates, but it seemed the night before had gained me some popularity of sorts. 

A brown-haired girl sat down next to me. “You’re the one who beat the guy team last night, right?” I looked at her in surprise. 

“Um, yeah, I guess?” She smiled. 

“That’s awesome. Our floor did awful when we had our activity night.” She stuck out her hand. “I’m Elara.” Her hazel eyes twinkled with excitement. I shook her hand.

“Nice to meet you, Elara. I assume you know my name.” 

She nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, you’re Fanera.” I tried not to cringe at the butchering my name.

“Yep, I’m Fann''ar''a.” I tried to make the pronunciation clear but didn’t want to seem rude. Even on Alithos, where Fannara was a fairly common name, most people couldn’t say it right. 

The bell rang and class began. 

“Now that we’ve studied the more advanced areas of healing, we’re going to move on to the lesser-known areas. These are much harder to master, so if you don’t get it right away, that’s perfectly normal. Most healers spend years studying these techniques.” I swear, I could never remember the name of this teacher. She was Eldran, clearly, with light blonde hair that was basically white. I felt horrible that I didn’t remember her name. 

“I, of course, know how to do it, but you all have so little experience that I don’t expect you to get it now, if ever.” Well, I didn’t feel horrible anymore. “The idea itself is fairly simple, but the execution is much more difficult. In normal healing, you draw energy from yourself to heal yourself or someone else. However, for our purposes, you want to swap the energy, resulting in either a pain trade or a wound trade, if you have strong enough magic.” She narrowed her eyes at us. “Seeing as only a few of you have gold magic, I doubt any of you could achieve a full wound swap.” 

It was physically painful not to roll my eyes at her. This woman was so full of herself, it was obnoxious. I sometimes forgot how self-centered she was, but then I would go to class.

Elara let out a huff next to me. “I can’t ''stand'' her,” she muttered under her breath. I gave a small nod in agreement. 

[I am currently having troubles with the magic, so, hopefully, at some point, there will be more explanation of what in the world is happening. In the meantime, ignore the short chapter and vague everything.] 

Our professor continued talking about the techniques used in both pain and wound trades. It was honestly very interesting. I found the material fascinating. I just didn’t like the teacher. 

We weren’t allowed to try out the methods taught to us that day, which was a bit frustrating. Even if I couldn’t do it, I still wanted to try. Instead, I just focused on the pounding headache rampaging through my skull. They had died down for a while, but they were getting bad again. I wondered if it had something to do with the change in environment. That would be a little weird, seeing as I had been on Lathra IV for nearly four months at this point. 

Class finished, and I headed off to lunch. I was so tired; I wanted to get as much rest as possible before my next class. 

I headed off to my dorm, figuring we probably had something resembling food in there. Lo-and-behold, we did. Some cut up fruit in a cracking container, a random box of cereal, and an unholy amount of granola bars. 

Settling with a granola bar, I sat cross-legged on the floor, trying desperately to stay awake. I glanced at my telecom. There was still had about an hour before my next class and I gave in to what my body was urging me towards. A nap. 

Opening a window to let some air in, I curled up on my bunk and, after doing my best to set an alarm on my telecom, fell asleep. 

☙❦❧

''I can hear the shrill cry of a baby as I wander the halls. I don’t recognize the place, but somehow I know where to go.'' 

''The crying gets louder and louder as I keep going. I pass closed doors, locked shut with golden locks. Everything in this building is beautifully made, like it should be a palace, but something about it feels like a prison.'' 

''I stop in a hallway where letters are scattered all over the floor. They’re covered in strange writing, completely illegible. A little boy runs over to the pile of letters and places a new one on the pile.'' 

''“What are these for?” I point at the letters.'' 

''The boy looks up at me, and I stifle a scream. Blood is seeping out of his eyes like tears. A forced smile wedges his face into a strained expression. “These are for the Lost Ones.”'' 

''A dread falls over me at the name, but I’m not sure why. “Who are the Lost Ones?” The blood coming out of his eyes quickly starts drying and cracking on his face. His eyes and hair go black and he slowly begins walking towards me.'' 

''I try to back away, but it’s like my feet are glued in place.'' 

''Dark figures melt out of the doorways and begin creeping closer. Closer. Closer. I’m completely surrounded by them now, all of them have black, lifeless eyes.'' 

''In one haunting voice, they say, “We are the Lost Ones. Betrayed by our king and chained to our queen. We serve the total eclipse. We clip the wings of the traitors. None shall destroy us, for we are already destroyed.”'' 

''Their hands all reach out at once, sharp nails dig into my skin. It feels like my veins are being flooded with tar as my limbs lose their will to move. I can’t protect myself from them.'' 

''The darkness begins to swallow me whole. Just as I begin to-'' BEEP. 

I woke up from my very unpleasant dream in a very unpleasant manner. To my surprise, it wasn’t the alarm I had set on the telecom. I had slept through that one. 

The loud ''beep'' rang out from the hallway again. I groggily slid out of bed and tapped my telecom against the door, opening it. Or it should have opened it. I pushed on the door, but it didn’t budge. 

I pressed my ear against the door, trying to figure out what the beeping noise was. I heard a very muffled announcement. 

''Attention all students. The campus is going into lockdown due to reports of a threat. This is not a drill. Get to the closest safe room and stay there until further instruction. We thank you for your cooperation.'' It repeated three times and then the beep went off again. 

I jumped to my feet and ran to close the window. It was still open from when I had taken my nap. I froze before I even raised a hand to the diamond glass. 

I could see students running into buildings, their faint shrieks of panic wafting up to my room. But that wasn’t why I froze. No, it was something much bigger. 

There was a dragon on campus, and it did not look friendly.