“Sorry, Lily,” Ardi said, out of breath.

  Ardi was lying in an infirmary bed. He had an I.V. attached to his arm and wrappings around his chest.

  “You don’t have anything to apologize for,” Lily responded, looking at Ardi with unsure eyes.

  “You too, Meimei. You almost lost Lily because of me.” Ardi looked towards Meimei who was standing beside Lily holding her hand.

  “You have nothing to apologize for, this was not your fault at all.” Meimei responded in her typical perfect fashion, not showing a hint of hesitation.

  However, Lily felt Meimei’s hand tighten around hers. Lily smiled at Meimei, trying to silently reassure her that everything was okay.

  “It was odd, you know,” Ardi said, pausing between each word.

  “I am sure I was dead, and yet there was nothing. No afterlife. No heaven, no hell. Just nothing.” Ardi trailed off towards the end of his sentence.

  “Well, you obviously weren’t dead,” Lily said with a laugh, lightly slapping Ardi on the shoulder.

  “Right,” Ardi said, trying to force a smile.

  “We are making the rounds to check on everyone while it is still visiting hours. I promise I’ll be back if we have time!” Lily said, pointing towards the clock that hung over the infirmary door.

  “Yeah, go say hi to everyone for me.” Ardi nodded towards Lily.

  Lily and Meimei walked away from Ardi, towards the door. Lily turned around, giving Ardi one more wave with her free hand before exiting the room. The couple headed towards the female infirmary. Manrin had not suffered any severe injuries and had already been discharged. Lily and Meimei were planning to head by the male dorms of Greenclaw last, as it was conveniently on the way for Meimei to return to her dorm. Lily and Meimei walked into the female infirmary, opening the privacy curtain at the entrance and stepping into the recovery area. Lily looked around for a second before spotting Rel. She had suffered the most damage out of anyone in the group. A priest stood over her, humming a hymn while applying slow acting healing magic.

  “How is she?” Lily asked nervously.

  Both the priest and Rel’s eyes were closed. The priest stopped humming and opened his eyes, looking at the couple.

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  “She committed a major taboo and suffered the backlash. The gods rejected her plea to ascend to godhood. Beyond that, she will have a lot to answer for when she awakens.” The priest spoke calmly.

  “She only did what she did because we thought we would all die otherwise,” Lily responded to the accusations of Rel’s misdeeds.

  “That may be true, but it was still a foolish and blasphemous thing to do.” The priest turned his gaze away from the couple and back to Rel.

  Rel was lying in bed completely naked with wrappings around her entire body. She might as well have been wearing a dress made of medical wrappings. The wrappings were tinted brown as old blood seeped through and dried. The backlash from a failed ascensions was typically death; it was likely only due to her spell being interrupted that she was alive.

  “Will she be okay?” Lily asked.

  The priest shook his head.

  “If she survives, she will carry scars all over her body. It is also likely that she was cursed by the gods. We won’t know what the curse is until she has healed more, and we can bring in an exorcist or curse expert.”

  “I see. Thank you for watching over her and continuing her treatment.” Lily gave a slight bow to the priest and the priest bowed his head back.

  Meimei and Lily walked out of the female infirmary and back to the hallway of the recovery wing. Lily looked down at the ancient stone floors and sighed. An arm wrapped around Lily’s waist. Lily looked up to see Meimei smiling at her. Lily wrapped her arms around Meimei in return.

  “You did everything that you could.” Meimei whispered into Lily’s ear.

  “I know, but it wasn’t enough,” Lily said with some pain.

  The couple stood in silence for a few minutes, wrapped around each other. Lily had much on her mind, and Meimei was as loving and caring as always. Lily couldn’t help but feel that she didn’t deserve such a perfect girlfriend. Uneven footsteps began to echo down the empty stone hallway, coming closer to the couple. Lily and Meimei broke their hug and looked towards the sound. An old man was approaching them. He had on blue and black robes, a sign that he was some sort of administrative official for the academy. The old man made his way towards the couple, stopping once you he came into speaking distance of them.

  “In trying times, it is always a relief to have a friend to share a shoulder with,” the old man said with senile joy in his voice. The couple gave a quick giggle at his slight misunderstanding.

  “What can we help you with sir?” Meimei asked with great finesse, giving a slight courteous bow.

  “Ah yes.” The old man reached into his robe and pulled out a piece of pearl-white paper.

  “Lily Bergstrom, on behalf of the administration of Brookewood Magic Academy, I present you with a certification of platinum prerequisites.” The old man handed the pearl-white paper to Lily, who stared back at him.

  “I didn’t think our dive would count,” Lily said innocently.

  “Well, though you had help in coming back up from the dungeon, based on our magical recordings from your ranking cuffs you did defeat the True Lich.” The old man smiled at Lily.

  Lily nodded her head.

  “Thank you, the others will be very happy to hear this.”

  “Yes, I am off to deliver their prerequisite credentials to them now.” The man gave a slight wave to Lily and Meimei before limping off.

  “I guess it wasn’t a complete loss then,” Lily said to Meimei.

  Meimei gently smiled back at Lily before hugging her again. They decided against seeing Manrin right away.