"Is That Possible?"

"It indeed seems that the girl really doesn't fit into not one but all of these groups. I can't read her blood."

Arveion sighed, "Is that possible?" He asks the healer in front of him. 

Earlier Arveion had brought her to the current room, with books on the floor, old shelves with potion bottles, broken wooden flooring, and a few grew-in plants, with a fireplace in the far end corner.

The man was called Ruan Undergore, known to be the best healer alive, who is currently a teacher to the upcoming sorcerers. 

"Ruan, are you sure about this?" Arveion clenched his fist and ran a hand through his hair. 

"I could sense it, Arveion, you know that my tellings are never false." Ruan walked around the room, taking a dusty book from the bookshelf. 

"But there is another way to confirm. Though I'm telling you, that girl does not fit into any of these groups, not even from wealth. It shouldn't be quite possible like you said since she was also chosen by the prophecy." 

"What is the other way?" Arveion looks at the nervous girl beside him. They were so close on the little chair that their skin was brushing together with any little movement.

Amber's shoulders tense when his hand brushed hers. She just wanted to get out of the chair.

Ruan walks over to his table and pulls out some equipment from under it. Ruan was obviously old, being one of the best healers alive but it hid it effortlessly. Literally. It had to be a spell he wears as his appearance was as a middle man, with brown skin, little to no wrinkles,  curly grey hair on his shoulders, and a white beard. His back still went through his spell to make him youthful and his nose was slightly crooked.

He pulled out a glass jar with a powdery substance inside, a circular wooden bowl and Amber gulped when her eyes met a knife.

Ruan lifted the knife and cautiously walked over to them on his wooden stick, "I'm going to have to need a sample of her blood." 

She turned to Arveion, her shoulders pressed his chest," I-I...don't like blood, Arveion. I don't want to." 

"You don't have to look, just look at me." 

She nodded, looking into his water color blue eyes. They were so beautiful. He was so beautiful.

She shook away her thoughts,' I need to focus.' She held her palm out toward Ruan, not breaking eye contact with Arveion. She got lost as he was the only current thing she could have, seeing his face close up she saw how handsome his features were. 

Her eyes scan his face, to his shaped eyebrows, his straight nose to his tan skin, and to the scar that hasn't fully healed on his lips yet. She felt like touching it. 

He stared into her eyes, his eyes scanning his face as well and remained on her lips.

"I'm cutting now." Ruan says and she winced when she felt the knife enter her skin.

Her body flinched and in pain and she could no longer look at Arveion, she turned her head to look at the knife being plunged into her palm but Arveion gently held her jaw, turning her face to look at him again.

Her eyes widened, he was so close now and her eyes stayed on him until she felt the knife leave her skin. 

"And...done." Ruan walks over to the table and takes the bowl, asking her to squeeze the blood into it. 

She winced once again at the burning sensation, when her eyes left Arveion she was reminded of the pain.

"Good...sorry if the cut was deep, the spell would only work if the blood was warm," Ruan explained and carried the blood back to his table. 

Amber squeezed her palm together and turned to Arveion. 

"Damn this shit hurts, did I tell you that I hate blood?" 

Arveion chuckled at that, and she smiled widely at him. He actually chuckled, not groaning or scoffing.

She then looks down at his hand, and a blush creeps up on her cheek. He was holding her hand! That was where the comfort came from. He also never broke eye contact.

He bit her and he followed her eyes when he continued to look, seeing that their hands were still entwined.

He quickly withdrew, returning to his serious stage of only glaring. She frowned, no longer feeling his warmth or seeing his eyes again but he turned his head.

His eyes only went over her when he saw her bleeding hand, ripping a piece of his shirt effortlessly to stop her bleeding.

He held her hand and tied the cloth, a weird feeling fluttering in her stomach by his gesture but she ignored it since he turned away from her again, his eyes trained on what Ruan was doing.

Ruan breaks a few plant leaves and grinds them into the blood, he shows the plant to them, "This consists of revealing magic and is known as the peaking plant as its root reaches out of the soil." The plant had slightly many leaves, the roots being most of the plant, growing widely even out of the bucket and a few rare was purple leaves with white designs.

He grinds two more leaves into her blood and then the wooden grinding tool again to uncover the jar. Amber held her nose when the jar was open, it smelled as if something died in there.

"And lastly this will thicken the blood to form the answer. Not literally." Ruan did two sprinkles with the tan powder and quickly covered the jar, "If it stays open it is said that all the dust will sprinkle out and return to the skeletons of the bodies squashed to make it." 

Amber's eyes widened, but he brushed her with a shrug.

"I'm jokin' with yah kid." Ruan laughs but then his face falls seriously again, "I think…"

Ruan grinds the blood once again and removes the wood just in time when the mixture explodes, in his face.

He stumbles back and Arveion, as well as Amber, rushes over to help him. His eyes were wide caused by the explosion and he then pushed them away.

"The girl doesn't belong to any of these groups nor could I sense any magic." Ruan's eyes were trained at the bowl in front of him, "I'm sorry, it's getting late you two have to leave now." 

He showed them out of the room but Amber didn't miss the black goo that formed on top of the table after, gushing and making a burping sound as it spread and dried out, staining the table. 

Arveion and Amber walked out of the room, and there was a tense silence that stood between them as they walked out of one of the last floors and back up the stairs to their rooms.

They walked together, their shoulders only brushing together, other than that there was no interaction. They reached the hall and her walking slowed when she reached her room.

"Well, this is my room." She stopped and gave him a lopsided grin. He only nodded and glared down at her.

The doors there were much harder to turn than at her home so trying to open them was a problem. She struggled to turn the door and jerked when her other hand touched the metal, instantly pulling that one away. 

She then suddenly felt a warmth on her back, and once again her heart fluttered when she turned around to be inches away from Arveion's face. His chest pressed into her back, and he put his hand over hers to help her push the door open.

She quickly stumbled into the room when the door clicked open, her cheeks flushed from embarrassment but also his gesture. 

She scratches her neck but before she could say thanks he walked off. 'Thanks, I guess.' She murmurs to herself and then closes the door. 

It wasn't too long after when she was reading that she heard a knock on her door. She opens it to see Arveion in the hall.

"Hey what are you doing here—" 

"Not to talk…" She got cut off when he lifted her hand in his and placed a box of bandages.

His hand stayed under hers for a while, "No need to thank me." He searches her eyes and then drops her hand, leaving her dumbfounded under the door arch when he leaves.

She stood there blinking for a while, and then a smile edged on her lips from his words.

'No need to thank me.' 

He acted very strangely today, her stomach fluttered once again but however she didn't ignore it this time as she might've actually liked it.