Three

Blinding bright lights flooded his vision as his eyes opened, casting a hostile sterility to the walls around him as he tried to see where he was. He reached weakly to his pocket, out of habit, to grab his phone, only to remember that his phone was shattered over by the Sundover Medical Building...and to find that he was not wearing pants.

The hospital robe felt very thin, and he was suddenly aware that he was in a hospital bed, the hard mattress unmistakable now that he was slightly more aware of his surroundings.

Black flowers next to his bed released a soft scent of cinnamon, filling his head with thoughts of home...well...Luna and Mark's home at least. She always smelled like cinnamon, and he was partially aware that's why he liked the smell so much.

Lately he'd not been enjoying it as much...but that was only natural he supposed. A flash of pain raced through his head and as he started to wince, he felt soft hands touch his arm, attempting to comfort him.

Before he could respond, he heard a sharp, concerned voice, "Take your hands off of him. I don't know why they let you in here, but we don't know you and I'm not going to let you cast some kind of magic on him."

Then, for the first time, he felt it.

A wave of pressure.

It carried an emotion on it, he could feel it the same way you taste a scent in the air before you eat something.

Concern...annoyance...deep anger.

He'd heard of people who could sense the different properties of mana, but he'd never been able to...but, somehow, he knew instinctively that this was what he was feeling. He could almost put a name to the sensation, and when he opened his eyes, he saw her.

Fierce and tiny, Luna was a force of nature when she was upset, and it didn't take that long of a look to see she was furious.

Though she never put it to use, Luna had intense potential for magic, and with large reserves of powerful mana, she could probably learn any school of magic she'd wanted.

Right now, with her hair practically whipping around her hair from the sheer force of it releasing, he was glad she mostly watched movies instead of studying.

The sense of her mana told him she was definitely upset with him, but right now it was focused entirely on the person who'd touched him.

Looking to his right, he saw a young woman sitting in a chair so close to his bed her body was practically touching his.

Bright hair that looked like molten silver lay completely still despite the waves of energy assailing her. Her eyes, a deep and dark shade of blue, barely reacted to the fury before her, and for just a moment, Auros felt like a mouse caught between a pair of lioness.

Mark put his hand on Luna's shoulder and said, "Luna, honey, this is the young woman who brought Auros here...you should be thanking her."

Her response, predictably angry, was largely unsurprising, "Anyone can bring in a hurt person off the street, I don't know why they let her in with him!"

Auros pushed himself up, the pain in his head subsiding somewhat, and said, his voice shaky, "Guys...where am I?"

The young woman answered before Luna or Mark could talk, "We're in the hospital, Auros. I found you in an alleyway...you seemed badly hurt."

Her voice was like flowing water, so soft and smooth he could barely follow her. Her stoic resolve in the face of Luna's fury had left him wondering what her mana would feel like, but as she spoke, he felt it, almost like her voice, but instead of flowing water, it was a river of energy, deep and confident, knowing it could be redirected, but never stopped.

As it flowed through him, he felt an unexpected sense of calm wash over him. It didn't take his pain away, but it felt far away, as though he was feeling a memory of the pain that had been wracking his body since he woke up.

Mark broke through his thoughts and said, "Auros...are you ok? We've been so worried."

Hazy on what had happened, he looked at Mark confusedly and asked, "Worried?"

"Buddy..you've been gone for three days. The only reason we even knew you were here is because this girl brought your phone with you and the janitor was able to get it working long enough to call your emergency contacts."

Marks voice was firm...but deeply concerned.

"Three days," Auros said, racking his brain for any kind of memory.

The only thing he could remember was a shining mirror.

Pain lanced through his head and for a split second, faster than anyone could see, his eyes glowed bright and intense red.

As fast as it had come, the pain was gone, but then he remembered.

Falling.

That sensation of weightlessness and the slight nausea of careening rapidly through the air toward the ground.

Then a blank spot and waking up here, in the hospital bed.

He looked away from Mark and said, "I'm sorry."

Mark's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, but before he could say anything, Luna stepped in and said, "What the hell is your problem?"

Walking to the left side of his bed, she reached down and grabbed him, hugging him tightly.

He'd expected her to hit him.

She whispered in his ear, "I was so worried."

He burned from his toes to his ears with shame, not for what he'd tried to do...but for not telling her.

Trying to push the feeling away, he hugged her back, weakly, and said, "I'm sorry Luna…"

He felt the young woman on his right place her hand on his shoulder and say, "You're in so much pain...aren't you?"

Luna glared at her and said, "Of course he's in pain, look at him!"

Accidentally making eye contact with her, Auros knew she wasn't talking about his physical pain...this girl had seen straight to the core of him in an instant and somehow, he thought, she knew what he'd done.

Those deep ocean blue eyes didn't seem to hold any secrets...but he felt that her gaze could lay his soul bare for anyone to see.

It was an odd feeling for him...going from the feeling that he didn't matter, to being in a small room with three people who clearly felt he did.

He wished he could see why.

Luna let him go as a doctor entered the room, saying, "Mr. Auros 'no last name given', you are a very lucky man. I don't know what happened to you...but you were in near hopeless shape when this young woman brought you in."

He gestured at the girl on Auros's right and continued, "Your recovery is beyond remarkable. In the shape you were in, no amount of magic or technology was going to restore you to full health...but it seems like you'd already started healing even as you were being brought in. I don't know what kind of enchantments you have, but you must be very wealthy to have that kind of protection."

Auros gave the doctor a blank look and stood silent.

Auros was unemployed...and had been for almost a full year.

Something was definitely going on though...the doctor was right about one thing...there was some kind of luck gathering around him. Whether someone surviving a three hundred story fall in a failed suicide attempt was good or bad luck, Auros didn't know, but it was luck nonetheless.

Mark and Luna didn't know what had happened, and he didn't need to say anything, just keep it to himself...so he figured that was at least lucky.

The doctor checked his monitor and said, "Looks like your mana count has gone up as well. That's interesting."

Pushing keys on the monitor and writing notes, he kept going, "Its not uncommon for someone who survives a severe trauma like yours to gain mana, though we're not sure why. Be careful though, the new mana count is going to alter the power of your magic and remember, if you run out, even though you have more, you will still die. Not even your enchantments will bring you back from that."

He could have slapped himself.

Running out of mana.

Why hadn't he thought of that?!

Instantly he knew why. He was always so damn dramatic, even killing himself far away from anyone who'd recognize him, he had to be special.

Casting spells until his mana ran out would have been too easy, too plain.

People die from burn out everyday, but Auros had to be unique.

He sighed and tried to shake the thoughts away.

The doctor was droning on about burn out, even though everyone knew how it happened and the symptoms.

He was definitely not feeling the symptoms of burn out though. He wasn't lethargic or having trouble thinking, definitely didn't feel like casting would give him any kind of trouble.

If anything, he felt like every few minutes, with those surges of pain, he was getting little races of extra power.

Maybe surviving suicide was the answer to the age old problem of increasing your mana reserves.

Probably not.

Luna tapped the doctor on the shoulder and asked, "When can we take Auros home?"

The doctor scrunched up his face and thought for a moment, responding, "Based on his recovery? Probably tomorrow evening. Right now I want to monitor him and see if we can get him to talk about those enchantments that healed him. They could change the course of medicine."

Luna rolled her eyes and said, "I don't know what healed him, but I can assure you, he doesn't have any enchantments like what you're talking about."

The doctor shrugged and said, "Its always worth asking. In any case, you should all probably go home soon. He needs his rest."

A voice in the back of Auros's head whispered, "Tried to get some rest, couldn't even do that. Failure."

Ignoring the thought, Auros said, "Yeah...I don't want you guys to lose more time because of me."

Mark sighed and said, "We came because we wanted to be here for you, Auros. Though...I do think the doctor might be right, Luna. Its going to be dark soon, and Auros will probably need to sleep."

Putting his hand on Luna's arm, Mark motioned for her to finish up.

She gave Mark an annoyed look and turned to Auros, asking, "Are you sure you'll be ok? I can stay."

Auros nodded and said, "Yeah you go on home...I'll be ok here."

Luna leaned in and hugged him one more time before sighing softly and walking with Mark toward the door.

As he opened it, she asked, "Aren't you leaving too?"

The girl beside him, almost forgotten, said, her voice practically a whisper, "No...I think I'll stay here with Auros."

Before she could start arguing, Mark put his hand on her shoulder and said, "Its fine...I don't think she's going to hurt him. She brought him here...if she wanted to do something, I think she'd have done it by now."

Luna visibly took a deep breath and said, "If you do anything to him, you'll regret it."

Mark gently pulled Luna out of the door and the doctor said, "You've got the alert button on the bed if you need anything." He gestured to the young woman and asked, "Would you like me to have a nurse bring you a cot?"

She shook her head and said, "I'm ok with the chair here."

The doctor nodded and left, and for a few moments the only sound in the room were the beeps of the monitors and as the door closed, the sound of typing from the nurse's station nearby.

The door closed, clicking shut, and the girl touched Auros's cheek, gently running her fingers along it as she said, "I'm sure you have some questions."

Auros shrugged and said, "Not as many as you might think."

The girl sat down and put her hands on her lap and asked, "What do you want to know?"

"I guess first off would be your name," he said quietly.

She smiled, a soft gentle thing, and said, "You named me Yohai."