I’ve spent a large amount of time in hospitals, I’ve probably spent longer in hospital rooms than I ever did in my own childhood home growing up. The…magic that the doctors used alongside the medicine and various other things actually allowed me to sleep, at least, longer than I always do. I’m accustomed to only getting 2-3 hours of sleep a night for the past two decades, so to go five hours of proper sleep…my body almost reacted to getting proper sleep in the same way in which someone else would react to getting no sleep. They told me that they wanted me to stay for a bit longer, that they wanted to ensure my safety due to the severity and intensity of the curse I have, which…my first reaction was to deny needing to stay due to the fact I do not have the most well-paying job, but I am on my parents insurance for the next few months…only to be informed that the magical world of the U.S is quite different than the nonmagical U.S…that healthcare, college and other aspects are free…that for the time I’ve been there would only cost me maybe ten-twenty dollars or so and if my stay was deemed medically necessary…it’d be free. It's probably been a night or so that I had been there already and while I am comfortable in hospitals, there was the feeling like I should go back to my apartment but knowing how I am and…learning everything I have about…what I’ve been dealt, as much of my person that was telling me I needed to leave…I knew I needed to stay, so I agreed with them to staying.

The nursing staff also seemed to…probably something along the lines of pity, like someone feeding a stray cat or a lost puppy: they kept the door to my room open and they’d often bring me things like tea or various sweets which was probably only due to the fact that I am sure that I am quite underweight. One of the nurses also offered to get me a book from the hospital library for the time being, which I accepted because I quite enjoy reading. She was kind, seemingly unbothered by all of my various tics: she wasn’t bothered when I’d have to open/close the book six times before I opened it to the first page, or that I’d drum my fingers or picked at the bandages that were wrapped around my arm, there was a distinct…familiarity to the way she would react to me having those tics: she’d flick a finger and a soft curl of magic would pull my wrist away from my arm so I didn’t hurt myself further or stopped me from thudding the heel of my palm into my temple.

“Your sponsor is on his way” she asked

“Who…who is he?” I asked as I glanced up from the book, she had given me, I’ve gotten through a larger chunk of it than one would think for only a handful of hours of reading, I’m quite good at being able to take in masses of text at a rather rapid pace.

“He is an…interesting person” she said, pausing as she chuffed to herself before hanging over a small plate of freshly cut apple slices.

“How so?”

“Well, the hospital you’re in is connected to a medical school here in Rook, this is Angelstone Medical Complex…we’re connected to Knighthoarde University.” She explained

“Does he work here or in the school?” I asked

‘No, but yes at the same time.” She shrugged, “He mainly works as…a coroner.”

“…a coroner?” I asked

She nodded at that, “Angelstone as part of a university, is mainly associated with medicine, it’s one of the biggest medical schools in the larger magical cities…Paradise Academy while preparing all of us for being an adult, it’s medical school is one of the best, but any specializations…people enjoy coming here.”

“There was…that was mentioned in the packet” I said as I flicked back through the packet, “Paradise Academy…it’s like a college however everyone is there for five years from eighteen to twenty-three for most people…that teaches them everything and anything about their magic along with all sorts of other things too.”

“Yes, but anything specialized or people who don’t want to leave for the extended time Academy needs, they go to Knighthoarde. Your sponsor is a very, very notable figure at one of the other schools. There’s dozens of smaller schools that are as a collective Knighthoarde like Angelstone for medicine, Cypress for fine arts, Maple Park for law, Lakewood for Business, Silverleaf for modern arts and design, Sierra for engineering, the college of global progress, Granite Hill is the honors college, there’s Ocean View for interdisciplinary sciences, Edgeview for journalism and communication, Saint Natalia for liberal arts, Summers for teaching and lastly is Winterville for magic. Angelstone is the oldest and one of the largest.”

“…wow” I whispered, “It’s huge”

“Rook and other magical cities are not limited to physics when it comes to expansion or growth” she sighed, “Your sponsor is for the most part a coroner...I’m not sure exactly what his profession would be called; part coroner, part mortician…he’s helped with some classes he’s been a guest for, but never taught himself. He apparently hates the police department labs, so he has some sort of weight in the school so that he gets a section of lab all to himself. It’s in Willow-Weed Mortuary Science School.”

“Is he…like me?” I asked pausing to motion to myself

“I…seek…release…” a voice whispered as I chose to ignore it

“No, to be honest, you are the only person I’ve ever witnessed to have magic as you do.” She said with a soft shake of her head

“What’s his name?”

“Doctor Anderson Kuroki…he’s a dark elf.”

“…elf? Like pointy ears elf?”

“Any creature you have heard about or read about in TV, books, or art…we’re all real and we are people, just the two of us are. I mean, one of the most powerful people in the magical world is a sea serpent.”

“…a sea serpent?” I asked as my eyes flicked over a little as I could have sworn I saw a hazy shape move across the wall in an area where shadows couldn’t be.

“It’s…so…cold…” a voice seemed to emanate from that shadow in the momentary flicker I was able to see it.

“Kálmán Varga” she filled in, “He’s a warlord, there’s maybe three dozen or so of them; each of them half-archdemon, half-something else, he himself is half-human for the other half, but the magical half is that of the archdemon, Leviathan, he is the eldest warlord and therefor…he is probably not far from being the most powerful person in the magical world”

“…I saw an AD of his husband…one of the nurses mentioned that he gave up humanity for divinity”

“He chose to give up being human to instead be a god, the two of them had quite the issue with a divine and Varga gifted Anthony with the slain god’s divinity, so…human became god”

I just went quiet as I thought about everything I’ve seen about my life about that family: Kálmán Varga, Nickolas Andreas, Sammy Sovereign, Travis Nel, Sultan Ahmed, Cassandra Vita, Heather Greenspan and lastly, Juliana Vesta…those eight have always talked about their various other cousins who ranged in difference from the surgeon, Vladislav Marks or the chef, Zavier Griffith or someone named Princeton Brown who’s some sort of clock artisan over in England. Every single one of them…every single person in that family is half-archdemon and if arch-demons are real and gods are out there…what else is?