The bright light of the sun blinds me. Blinking wildly, I try to get my eyes used to the light. I am still lying in the bed in the infirmary, but a screen has been set up around me. Behind it I can hear the moaning and groaning of other injured people.

How much time has passed since the incident at the lake and my out-of-body experience until I woke up?

I try to sit up in my bed and manage to lean against the pillows on the bed frame. My body feels strangely strange and stiff, as if it hadn't been moved for a long time.

»Now just keep still,« someone calls out angrily on the other side of the infirmary.

Someone else screams in pain and something cracks deafeningly loudly.

After that it is quiet, only a quiet sob fills the ward. The door is pushed open and crashes against the wall.

»Quick, we need hot water and bandages,« someone new orders.

»Put him here,« is the same voice I heard just now.

It seems there is a lot of activity behind my privacy screen.

How could I have slept with all that noise?

I throw back the covers and let my legs hang over the edge of the bed. My toes touch the cold stone floor. I slowly let myself slide down and test how much weight I can bear. I manage to stand up and also remain standing. My legs hold my body.

A thin white nightgown reaches down to my knees. It is made of a simple piece of silk and hugs my movements. It is held up by two thin straps, one of which is about to slip off my shoulder. I push it back nervously.

Carefully, I take a step and then another. After I am sure that I am not going to fall over again, I reach for the curtain and push it aside. My gaze falls on a full hospital room. In almost every bed lies an injured first-grader. Some are moaning and writhing in pain, others have already passed into the realm of dreams.

Four nurses are bustling around them, trying to calm them down and care for them. A student's gaze falls on me and he gasps in shock.

A nurse notices him and follows his gaze to me. She also holds her breath and stops in mid-movement. More and more people notice me.

I must make a frightening impression, standing here in front of my bed, the curtain in my hand, with pale skin, a white nightgown and loose silver-blonde strands hanging down.

I casually let go of the curtain and push a strand of hair behind my ear. This movement breaks the shock of those present and, despite their own pain, the first-graders start to rejoice and laugh wildly. They even clap their hands.

I don't know what to make of it and look to the nurses for help. Two of them rush over to me immediately, while the other two continue to treat my injuries. They each grab one of my arms and gently push me back onto the bed. Then they close the curtain. The mood behind it is already much better.

»How are you?«

»How long have you been awake?«

»What happened?«

They take turns asking me questions, but ask the next one so quickly that I can't answer the previous ones.

Selen, a mermaid with dark skin, blue eyes and blue hair, and Darya, a nymph with pond-green eyes, sea-green hair and light skin, have been at the academy longer than me and are two of our best nurses. They notice that I want to answer them but can't get a word in edgewise and interrupt their torrent of words.

»Excuse me, Your Highness,« Selen suddenly begins formally. »We didn't want to come at you like that. Your unconsciousness worried us all and we didn't know if you would ever wake up again.«

»We didn't even know why you suddenly fell unconscious,« adds Darya.

I nod. »How long was I gone?« I really need to know how much I missed.

»Not long,« Selen tries to reassure me.

»Only two days,« explains Darya.

She'll tell me what I want to know. Selen wants to take it easy on me, but I don't need that right now.

»Two days,« I think out loud, »that means today is the third day of the final exams. The second years are probably in the middle of fighting right now.«

»They started an hour ago,« confirms Darya.

Selen encourages her with a nod.

»Then you, Selen, should go back to the injured. You need them more than I do now. Darya is still with me and will help me.«

Selen wants to object, but Darya stops her and reminds her of her duties as a nurse at the academy.

She nods, says goodbye with a slight bow and disappears on the other side of the curtain, where the babble of voices immediately swells.

Someone said that the king and queen should be informed. I am taken aback. My parents have really come back and are watching all the competitions.

My attention turns back to Darya, who is still standing in front of me and looking at me carefully. She is waiting for a sign of weakness and discomfort on my part. But I am fine.

»I feel better. I won't pass out again any time soon,« I reassure her.

A weight is lifted from her heart. She is still watching me carefully, but is no longer waiting for a sign. We are now ready to answer the others' questions.

»What do you remember?« she begins, switching to informality as naturally as if she had never spoken to me in any other way.

»It was night and I had just had a cup of tea,« I begin to tell her everything.

About Addison and Joyce coming home and their mood changing from happily giggling to frighteningly absent. About how I followed them outside and saw them all running to the lake in the same state and how I woke them up with my magic.

Darya listens attentively, nodding slowly and occasionally asking for details.

After that she tells me what she can remember personally. »I remember how I was making the final preparations for the competitions here in the infirmary when I suddenly heard a voice calling out to me. Her singing was so captivating that I couldn't resist it. I wanted to go to her and fulfill her every wish.«

Everyone had this vision. They saw the path they were taking and in their subconscious they knew what they were doing and resisted it, but once you had let yourself be drawn into the magic, you could no longer fend it off. But then they heard my voice.

What I said penetrated them so deeply that they were able to stand up against the spell. They felt the shock when my magic broke the cocoon deep in their souls. But the echo quickly faded and unrest spread.

Levi was the first to really notice me and it was he who caught me and carried me to the infirmary. He refused to leave my side for a long time, but when my parents arrived the next morning, he withdrew. Since then, he has come every free minute to check on me. Today, however, is the day he has to fight himself, which is why he will probably come later.

The final exams were not postponed, even though many begged for it. They were too weak and too distracted to fight. But the headmistress and the teachers were convinced that the competitions were a good distraction for everyone. They wouldn't find out what had happened until I woke up anyway. As if I knew that for sure.

Based on Darya's stories and my own experiences, I suspect some kind of combination magic. It is extremely rare, very complicated and requires a lot of experience. But it is not impossible.

A siren probably manipulated the Lux with her beguiling song and a sorcerer strengthened her spell. But I'm not sure. It seems as if one component is still missing for the spell to be complete.

I am so deeply lost in thought that I don't notice the sudden silence in the hospital room. It is a different kind of silence than when I woke up. That one was filled with amazement, this one is awe-inspiring.

Darya gets up from her chair and stands next to the curtain. She reaches for it and pushes it aside. This gives me a clear view of the people who are just entering the room.

My parents, the King and Queen of Lux, are making their way through the beds and the utensils lying around. Anyone who might be in their way quickly jumps out of the way. But they can't see anything for that right now anyway.

They're just looking at me, sitting here on the edge of my bed. My mother gathers up her purple, floor-length silk dress and comes running towards me.

»A princess doesn't run in public unless it's unavoidable,« one of Mother's lessons immediately springs to mind.

I smile.

This time it's unavoidable.

I slide off the bed and run towards her. We fall into each other's arms and sink to the floor together.

The skirts of her dress billow around us and I sit more on them than on the floor. My own dress still clings to my body. I feel my mother start to sob and I talk to her.

»I'm fine, Mom. I'm with you. You didn't lose me.«

She thinks of Lucca. She couldn't have handled the loss of another daughter.

My father comes to us and hugs us both. We sit huddled together like a normal family on the cold floor of the infirmary while the seconds pass and become minutes.

We have long since blocked out the people around us and they act as if they see their rulers hugging each other every day with tears of joy in their eyes.

My father is the first of us to remember his position and that we are not alone. He clears his throat and stands up. My mother only carefully lets go of me. She is afraid that I will disappear if she lets go of me too quickly. Finally we manage to sit up and disappear behind the curtain. Darya has already discreetly turned her attention to her work and gives us time to talk. My father maneuvers me back onto the bed, but lets me decide for myself whether I want to sit or lie down.

I decide to fold my legs under me and put a pillow on my lap. My mother puts a blanket around my shoulders and pays no attention to my protests, which admittedly were not very convincing. Then she sits down on the chair and my father stands behind her.

A painting of them in a similar pose hangs in the palace. In the painting, my mother does not look as tearful as she does now. Her eye make-up is smudged by her tears and individual blonde strands have come loose from her elegant braided hairstyle. This makes her look much more approachable than usual.

»How are you, Micah?« my father asks me.

I'm slowly getting tired of hearing this question, but I'll be asked it many times before this whole thing is finally over.

»I'm fine, father. I feel better,« I answer him.

He nods reassuringly.

But that's not enough for my mother. «Are you sure? You should lie down again and rest. It's not easy to get over something like that.«

»Something like that, Mom? Do you know what exactly happened?«

She shakes her head and looks at her hands folded in her lap.

»Your mother is just worried about you, child. Like all of us,« my father interjects.

Now I lower my gaze. »I know, father. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cause you any grief. I didn't mean for this to happen.«

»We know that, darling.« My mother grabs my hands and squeezes them gently.

When I look up, I see tears in her eyes again, but she bravely holds them back.

»Can you tell us what you remember? You know, every little detail can help us find the guilty and punish them according to our laws,« my father urges.

I nod and tell him everything that happened that evening, a story that I will probably repeat many times. My parents listen attentively.

»I believe that, even though it seems very unusual, some kind of combination magic was responsible for the spell. A sorcerer or a witch and a siren who together wanted to make my classmates drown themselves. But for that to work, a third magical creature would have had to be involved. I just can't remember which one,« I finish my story.

»We have already come to that conclusion,« my father confirms. »A siren and a sorcerer or a witch have conspired against us. We had your classmates that you saved questioned and they all told the same story. Based on that, however, we were able to identify the third party behind this spell. We suspect a will-o-the-wisp is behind it."

»A will-o-the-wisp?«

They nod.

»Wisps are creatures of energy. They mislead other living beings,« my mother explains to me.

»I know what will-o-the-wisps are. So you assume that a siren bewitched the residents of the academy with her singing, a will-o-the-wisp burned an image of the lake into their minds and a sorcerer or a witch strengthened these spells?«

They nod again.

That makes sense. This three-way combination of water, energy and fire can be very powerful.

»But why wasn't I affected by this spell?« I ask my parents.

My mother looks up at my father for help.

»We don't know, little one. Maybe because you're a creature of energy...« he tries to explain.

I remember that the Laimas at our school were also manipulated by the spell and point this out to my parents. »They are also creatures of energy. Wouldn't that have meant the same for them then?«

»Maybe you're just more powerful than your classmates. You don't let yourself be talked into things as easily as they do,« my mother suggests.

My father nods in agreement. I lose myself in my thoughts.

Is my magic really strong enough to ward off such a powerful attack without me noticing?

»We should go back to the competitions and announce that you're on the mend. That will encourage everyone,« my father decides, giving me another thought.

»I'd like to come with you. They need every available bed here to treat the injured.«

My mother shakes her head. »No, my dear. You need to rest.«

»Mother, please. I've been resting for two days. I want to talk to my classmates, watch their fights and see my friends.«

»Now all that's missing is that you want to compete yourself.«

»But I want to fight. Maybe not today, but definitely tomorrow.«

»No, that's out of the question,« my father booms in a deep voice.

He uses this voice to talk to rebellious council members or disobedient generals.

It's quiet again behind the curtain. Everyone is now listening intently to our conversation.

I straighten up and look him straight in the eyes. »Father, I'm old enough to make my own decisions, to know for myself whether I'm strong enough or not. Besides, I'm their student council president and that means I always have to set a good example. Not to mention that I'm also their princess, their future leader. I cannot and will not diminish their trust in me by shirking my responsibility to take the final exam.«

There is absolute silence. You could hear a leaf fall.

My mother looks at me proudly, but I just stare at my father for the upper hand.

Finally, he gives in and nods. »You're right.«

Behind the curtain, someone exhales loudly. Someone starts to applaud and others join in. By the time the nurses can restore calm, the cheers have filled the entire infirmary.

My parents smile and I can't help it either. It fills me with a pleasant feeling that my classmates can forget their injuries and applaud me. I admit that I enjoy being celebrated by them a little too much.

Darya comes into our little group with a dress and a box.