Life Giver

Casmir was woken to a subtle feeling of cold loss, followed by a blinding light snaking it's way into his eyes...

'Ah... I forgot to close the curtains again.' Casmir thought.

He had again been woken up by the morning sun as it pierced through the window, however this time, it had woken up Elena first.

Elena had reluctantly left Casmir's embrace resulting in him waking up, she had quickly got up and closed the curtain before wiggling her way back into Casmir's open arms.

"Haha.... are you sleepy?" Casmir asked her softly.

Elena simply grumbled back at him, she clearly wasn't a morning person.

Casmir suppressed his laughter at her response, he didn't want to disturb her further. Unfortunately for Casmir he couldn't fall asleep again after being woken up, he laid there thinking about what he needed to do today, occasionally he would simply watch Elena as she slept peacefully.

It was this short period, where he had no worries or complaint's, only the beautiful sight of a sleeping young woman, that helped him realise something.

Elena had total trust in him, she shared everything about herself with him and yet he kept something from her.

The Life Giver Orb, something that sounded as if it was from a fantasy book, yet it forced its way into Casmir's once simply life.

'I'll tell her... tonight...' Casmir decided in his mind.

He wanted to earn her trust fully, not just loan it from her attempting to reluctantly pay it back in the future.

He formed a plan, he would write everything he knew about the Orb down, drawing a few of the symbol's to help her understand everything, then this evening, he would tell her everything.

As Casmir was thinking, Elena woke up again, this time she complained at Casmir for not getting her some breakfast already.

"... ughhh.. Casmir.. get me some breakfast..." She grumbled.

Casmir could only awkwardly smile, she was his maid after all, that was something she would sometimes do for him. It seems like that relationship had now passed, Casmir didn't mind really, he hoped that they would help and rely on each other in the future, something as simple as breakfast was nothing.

In fact he didn't want her to be his maid anymore, truthfully it was merely an empty title so that people wouldn't concern themselves with her purpose in the household.

As Casmir thought about this more he got up, leaving Elena to lounge about, so that he could go down to the kitchens and grab some food while remembering to divert the hot water to his bathroom.

After he laid down her breakfast on a bedside table, he went into his bathroom and filled up a bath for Elena.

When he returned to his room, he tried to wake Elena up, she still didn't want to get up but this time Casmir had a plan. He sneakily undid Elena's dress that she had been wearing all night and relieved her of her outer clothes.

Elena didn't realise until it was too late.

"Ahh... Casmir!... my.. my dress!" Elena cried as she was shocked into fully waking up.

Casmir didn't respond to her as he took away her blanket, revealing a youthful beauty wearing only her pure white u.n.d.e.r.w.e.a.r.

"Haha... time for a bath Elena.." Casmir said as he wrapped his arms around her.

"W-what do you mean 'time for a bath'?" Elena said in confusion as she tried to cover herself up.

Casmir suddenly picked her up like a little princess, he was fairly strong for his age and Elena was very light so it wasn't a challenge.

Casmir took her through to the bathroom as she constantly protested, however when she saw the steaming bath she quickly realised what was happening.

"Casmir! At least leave so I can get changed..." Elena cried out.

Casmir laughed as he heard her, he had already gotten the bath ready and intended to help 'bath' her.

As he knelt down lowering her into the bath, Elena let out a pleasant m.o.a.n from the sensation of the warm water, Casmir then let go of her and simply knelt there admiring her.

Her white u.n.d.e.r.w.e.a.r was rendered useless at covering her s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e parts as they became translucent because of the waters effects.

Casmir leaned in closer to Elena.

"You're beautiful you know, you don't have to hide from me. I only want to appreciate you...." Casmir said softly.

Elena didn't want to be coaxed by his sweet words, she had only been with Casmir in this way for a short time, she didn't know how to act. She knew that Casmir was telling the truth and simply trying to ease her but she didn't want to show him everything all the time....

"Later... I-I'll show you everything this evening... but before then you need to do everything I say!" Elena said shyly but strictly.

Casmir smiled, he wanted to break down every barrier between the two of them.

"Ok." He said.

Elena was happy, she quickly ordered him to leave and fetch her clothes.

Casmir did as he was told, he collected some of her clothes from her room, she then wanted to bath alone so she sent Casmir away.

During the time Elena was bathing and changing, Casmir took the time to write down the information about the Life Giver Orb, he hid the information away before Elena left the bathroom.

They then had some breakfast before leaving for Heldan Academy as planned.

======

The Heldan Academy is one of many Universities in Ellaris, It is located in the Northern district only 40 minutes walk from where Casmir lives. Although it is called an academy, that is only because of it's history, it is a University in every way.

Casmir and Elena took there time walking to the University, it was early in the morning so they had plenty of time. As they walked, Elena explained to Casmir what she wanted to do at the university, she wanted to be accepted to one of the specialised course's ran by the Greenlight Association, hoping that she would be able to become a Qi Healer by studying under them.

The Greenlight Association is the predominant Association that Controls the teaching, training and Grading of the Qi Healer Class in the region.

An Association typically describes the organisations that align themselves with different Qi Class's, for example the Goldenbody Association aligns themselves with Qi Warriors, specifically Elemental's or other race's with similar Qi systems.

However because Qi warriors are a very common and broad Class, they are one of many associations in the Area.

The Greenlight Association is the only Qi Healer organisation in the Heldan republic and so it is tightly connected to most Universities, they use them to find people who can be trained as Qi Healers and train them.

Elena hoped to be accepted onto a course run by them so she could become a Qi healer, she was a bit older than most students but this wasn't uncommon, many people would change paths in their early lives.

Elena wasn't worried about not being accepted, Gloria had personally written her a reference and seeing as she was an associate professor at Heldan Academy, it was all but guaranteed.

Eventually the pair made their way to the University, it occupied a large area of land with multiple Campuses and designated area's for different subjects. People from across the Republic would come to Ellaris to study at it's Universities, with Heldan Academy being one of it's best, huge amounts of people would live nearby or on campus.

As the pair passed the old cobblestone wall which surrounded the entrance, they started seeing more and more people. Compared to the variety of people you would see in the city the variety here was vastly more diverse.

Many young people from various strange animal race's walked by, elemental's of all shapes and size's dominated in terms of numbers but one could even find some extremely rare race's in the crowds.

There were even people flying about, some by their wings but other's seemed to be moving without explanation, these people were likely wind attribute Elemental's or other even rarer species, they could natural fly and were often skilled at it.

Eventually they reached a small plaza with a fountain, this was where the two would separate, Casmir needed to head to the admission's office while Elena needed to head to the faculty building, as her admission wasn't a typical admission.

"I'll see you later then Elena, you'll have to tell me about what course you get later." Casmir said with a smile, he had no doubt that Elena would be fine.

Elena on the other hand was more worried about Casmir, she didn't want him to be stuck in a lower teaching class or something similar, he had good grades but lacked any Qi cultivation.

Before she could start lecturing him, Casmir pulled out his recommendation from Gloria, it was signed by her and everything, typically he wouldn't need this but because he was signing up for a dual course he might be rejected without Gloria's recommendation.

"It's fine, don't worry Elena" Casmir said having already guessed her concerns.

Elena's worries were put to rest as she saw Gloria's recommendation.

"Ok, ok. I'll meet you at this plaza later, if I can't find you by 1 o'clock, I'll head back home." Elena said.

"Sounds great. I'll see you later then." Casmir replied as he started to walk away.

Casmir turned back to watch Elena fade into the crowds.

As she disappeared, he then focused on getting to the admissions office, it would likely be busy today as it was the last day for admissions.

It took him 10 minutes to walk to his destination and as he arrived he recognised a group of three people, he decided to walk over to them and say hello.

"Balon, guys. I didn't expect to find you all here today, did you all wait until today as well?" Casmir called out, drawing their attention.

There were three people here, all friends Casmir recognised from his previous schools. Casmir was mainly home schooled but he went to school at least one day a week, until a few months ago when he passed all his courses.

The first person to recognise Casmir was Balon, he was a human with short black hair and naturally bronze skin, he was from one of the Oriental regions. Strangely tall and thin for his background he seemed a bit odd, however when placed in such a diverse place, he was all but strange.

Balon was a good guy, he liked sports and wanted to be a Qi Warrior, he was already Grade 1 advancement 2.

The other two were a twin brother and sister pair, Harry and Alona.

They were both Elemental's, Harry took the form of a reptilian man with the face of a Chameleon, which apparently he liked because of it's small beady eyes, a human shaped body and scaly green skin. He wore a seemingly well kept white shirt and smart trousers however this clothing was in fact part of his body.

A light green colour also vaguely surrounded his body, this aura represented his affinity to plants.

Alona also had a light green aura surrounding her, however she took on a much more pleasant form.

She had a face similar to a humans, with pale white hair that shimmered with a green tint, her upper body resembled a young woman's wearing a green dress. Her lower body however was like a snakes, light green scales coated her lower body that was coiled around itself as she stood there.

Her appearance resembled someone from the Lamia race, a human-reptilian sub-species.

When the trio saw Casmir, they all called out in greeting.

"Hey Casmir." Harry said happily.

"Hi." Alona said shyly.

"Oh, Casmir, yeah we all waited until today." Balon responded, he was the most familiar with Casmir.

"I thought you were going to the Hammond institute... maybe I'm misremembering." He asked curiously.

"I was going to but I recently had a change of heart, I'm going to sign up to come here." Casmir said.

As he looked around, he realised that there were a lot of people gathered around outside the admission's office, so he questioned Balon about it.

"Oh, the office doesn't open for about 10 minutes yet, most of the people here are simply early." Balon replied.

Casmir nodded in understanding, he decided to wait with his old friends and chat for a little while.

As they were talking he found out that coincidentally Alona wanted to be a biologist, she would likely be in one of Casmir's classes. Harry was going to apply for a course studying plant life, apparently he wanted to inherit his family's Herbal nursery.

Meanwhile Balon was also applying for Qi studies, Casmir might also see him in another one of his classes.

After a few minutes of talking, eventually the admissions office opened, an Elemental with a fiery aura, an imposingly muscular body and the head of a tiger walked out in order to organise the new students.....