"Now we wait and observe," Miss Philaxter said. "If your soul really is absorbing mana to build some kind of internal mana network, it should settle at some point. Hopefully, within the next few days and before classes start. In the meantime, I propose you come to me and Mrs. Fillibaxter once a day. While she will observe your wellbeing, I will observe how your network develops."

  Fillonia nodded in approval. "Sounds good to me. I will need to inform the rest of the board of the situation."

  The head librarian let out a deep sigh. "While I don't like it, I understand it is your responsibility. If it were up to me, the fact that Mister Vansteen is an Otherborn would not leave this room. The fewer people know about it, the better it will be for him. If word got out, I have no doubt there will be people coming for him, some to dissect him, others to worship."

  Alex swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. Worshipped or dissected, those were not categories he'd like to find himself in. He never liked being the center of attention, so being worshipped sounded horrible to him. Being dissected didn't need an explanation for why he would never want that. In just the past two days, he had died in a sinkhole, resurrected in a new world surrounded by cultists and assassins, and now they were talking about him being dissected. It was all just too much.

  "I hate that you're right," Fillonia said, her shoulders sagging, "but I have to tell them. They'll find out eventually anyway. It's better we inform them right now. We kept Alex here as a student to observe him. One of the other board members will figure it out sooner or later."

  "I understand, Fillonia, but do inform them of the risks of this news getting out," Miss Philaxter said before turning to Alex. "As for you, Mister Vansteen, do you approve of our proposal of daily check-ins?"

  Alex nodded; he figured that was the best course of action for now. At least until he figured out what that voice inside his head wanted. It was clear it was using the mana drained from both the Catalogue Stone and the small mana battery to initialize something. Could Miss Philaxter be right in that it was trying to form some sort of internal mana network to substitute the fact that he had no innate mana capacity? If anyone was able to help him figure that out, it would be her, and having a healer on standby could never hurt.

  "And what do I do?" Henry asked. The young Fairy had been keeping himself in the background during the entire discussion. His face still had that look of both curiosity and awe when he looked at Alex, but now there was also a tinge of worry mixed in.

  "You, Mister Rixtor, should be there for Mister Vansteen, teach him about this world. He has done surprisingly well for someone who knows nothing about this place. Help him understand. I trust you more in this role than your Kahrn friend," the head librarian said as she stood back up. "Is that something you can do for me?"

  "Of course, Miss Philaxter," Henry almost jumped up, eager to help.

  "Good," Miss Philaxter said, walking over to the door to her private quarters. "I suggest we reconvene tomorrow after breakfast. For now, we should let your body rest. Without more information, we don't want to overtax your body. It already absorbed a large portion of mana through the Catalogue Stone and the small battery. I also have some research I would like to do before we meet again."

  She opened the door and stood aside so everybody could exit her private quarters again. Once everyone was outside, she closed and locked it again. The group dispersed with Fillonia heading back to the infirmary, Miss Philaxter continuing her duties as the head librarian and Henry and Alex heading back to the Hearth. On their way out, the young Fairy made sure to grab the textbook he had left on the table. While less important than what had just happened, he still had a test he needed to study for.

  Fillonia stood outside the door to Varyn's office. For the past four hours, she had been going over how she was going to break the news to the rest of the board. She hated that she was so nervous. She had known these people for decades, but still. The rest of the board was already inside, waiting for her. Lukyn had wanted to stay with her, but she had urged him to go inside. Even to him, she hadn't told what the meeting was about yet. All they knew was that it had something to do with Alex.

  She had tried going over how everyone was going to react. Most of them would agree that protecting the boy was going to be the best course of action, but she knew that some of them would feel otherwise. She paced back and forth in front of the door to Varyn's office. It had been over ten minutes by now. If she didn't go in now, someone was bound to come check on her.

  As if on cue, her husband opened the door. "You alright, Flower?" He asked, his voice soft and concerned.

  "I'm fine. I'll be right there," she answered. The red-scaled Drake nodded and headed back inside. Fillonia closed her eyes, took one deep breath and followed him inside.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  "Here's herself. Took you long enough now," Marcus said as she walked through the door. Even after all these years of being around each other, his Greenmere accent was still as pronounced as ever. Everyone else's accent had faded over the years, but his stayed strong. Sometimes she wondered if he kept an eye on not losing it as a way to connect to his family back home.

  "Sorry, everyone," Fillonia apologized as she moved to sit next to her husband on their claimed couch.

  "Now then, Mrs. Fillibaxter, why have you called all of us here?" Varyn spoke up from behind his desk. The green-scaled Drake had decided to sit down for this meeting and was clearly ready to get this started.

  Fillonia cleared her throat and started her prepared speech. "Earlier today I was called into the library by Annaba. From what her Inkling told me, a new student had presented himself with headaches in her library twice in a short amount of time. I immediately suspected this new student to be Alex, so I headed there myself instead of sending one of my staff or students. Once I was there, she informed me that something else had happened. The student in question had drained an entire Catalogue Stone of its mana."

  Everyone in the room listened intently as Fillonia recounted what had happened earlier in the library. She told them about the results of her Diagnostic Scan and the short test Annaba had conducted with the small mana battery. Even from her brief description it was clear some of them were coming to the same conclusion as her cousin and Henry had earlier in the day.

  "Given the results of everything, Annaba proposed Alex might be an Otherborn," she ended her prepared speech.

  The entire room spoke up all at once. In the cacophony, she couldn't hear who was saying what, but one thing was clear, the board would not be in agreement about what to do with the boy. She could see the anger already boiling in Elyra as she pushed herself away from the wall she was leaning on. Meanwhile, Garrus' left eye went opaque as he checked on the academy's wards. And Marcus was just muttering to himself. What was up with him?

  "Silence!" Varyn shouted as he forced a wave of authority over the room, air rushing past Fillonia's ears. The pens on his desk still slightly moved from the power in his voice, and he was now standing up. "We will discuss this as a group, not as an unorganized rabble." With everyone calmed down for now, he sat back down and waited for the first board member to speak up.

  "Flower, if he drained two artifacts in minutes, what happens when he tries to drain a living creature?" Fillonia looked shocked as the first question came from her husband. "I'm not saying the boy will harm anyone, but we have to explore the possibility."

  "For once, your husband is right," Elyra spoke up next. Of course, now was the moment she sided with Lukyn. "That thing is dangerous. For all we know, it could be deceiving all of us. None of us knows what an Otherborn is capable of. It could be working with the cult, and we wouldn't know it. And even if it isn't, once they know of its existence, they will want it. Someone from another world is the perfect vessel for Praxthar himself. I say we get rid of it now that we still can."

  "For Helene's sake," Fillonia spoke up. She hated using the god's name, but she needed it for emphasis. "He's not an it, Elyra. He's a boy, a boy who is frightened in an unknown world and trying his best."

  "Mrs. Fillibaxter is right," Varyn added. "I say we protect the boy, but we must prepare for the consequences. Miss Nightsong is also right in the fact that we have no idea what an Otherborn is capable of."

  "If he's dangerous, I'll handle it." This time Zeth spoke up. During her explanation, Fillonia had deliberately left out that Henry was also there and aware of Alex's origin. She had hoped that would help the assassin stay calm and not lead him into making rash decisions. "I'm the one that brought him in, so if he turns out to be dangerous, it is my responsibility. However, I don't believe he is."

  "I've already updated the wards protecting the academy. Should anyone not on my approved list come anywhere near, I will be notified." Garrus added, his eye turning back into its normal shade of green.

  "Good, I trust you will notify the rest of the board as soon as you do, Mister Hightorn?" Varyn asked. The musclebound man gave a single nod in response.

  "If his body is building its own network of mana by absorbing the mana from other things, what happens when it completes?" Tamsin asked. The short Hearthkin was sitting on top of Varyn's desk. Fillonia didn't know when it had started, but lately it seemed she and their former leader had grown very close.

  "We don't know," Fillonia admitted. "Annaba believes it might stabilize soon, or at least she hopes so, but we are not certain. She let me know that she's looking into anything she can find on Otherborn while we monitor his condition."

  "If anyone can figure something out, it's your cousin," Lukyn added. "Meanwhile, I can look into the ritual the cult used and try to figure out why it created an Otherborn instead of summoning the vessel like they planned. Zeth has already provided me with everything he saw and heard before and after dealing with the cult cell."

  "Thank you for that, Mister Moor," Varyn approved. "The more information we have, the better we can prepare."

  "I will be keeping a close eye on the boy in case anything happens outside of class," Zeth stated.

  "As will I," Elyra added, the malice in her voice still there.

  "Mister Ghestalt, you have been unusually quiet during this meeting," Varyn said, looking at the bald Hearthkin. He was right. Marcus always had something to say during meetings, even if it was nonsense, but now Fillonia hadn't heard him once after that short remark he made when she entered. "Do you have anything to add?"

  "There may be others...," Marcus said, his voice low for the usually boisterous Hearthkin.

  "What do you mean?" Varyn probed.

  "For the past month, I have been hearing strange stories during my outings. Villagers talked of a stranger who spoke no tongue of this world. A few days ago, I heard a story of a scavenger team near the Stonehold Ridge. Said they found a crater with a body-shaped imprint. According to them, a boy with starry-eyes walked away from it. I had just dismissed it as tavern nonsense." Marcus admitted. He looked ashamed of not having revealed this information to the board earlier. Once again the room erupted into chaos.