"Avien!" A voice rang in my ears as the light slowly faded, giving way to a more familiar location. I blinked, attempting to regain my focus on the world, a ringing in my eyes encompassing my hearing. As my vision finally adjusted to the surroundings I was greeted by the sight of the infirmary at camp and the concerned faces of Lilith, Viktor, and the nurse, Faith.

"Hey guys..." I said, my voice extremely hoarse.

"Don't you 'Hey guys' us! You've been unconscious for over twelve hours!" Lilith shouted, punching me in the arm.

I winced, just then realizing how sore my entire body really was "Ow! Sorry, but I didn't exactly plan to black out while fighting a gryphon"

Lilith blushed at the comment "Oh, by the way, thanks for saving me. I'm pretty sure if you hadn't jumped in, I would be the one in here, not you..."

"Yeah, you're probably right, and don't mention it, I felt it was only right that I save you, considering what I did..." I said, hanging my head in shame.

She placed her hand on my shoulder "Avien, that wasn't you, you had no control over that, you can't blame yourself..."

I sighed, she was right, but it was still my body and I wasn't strong enough to resist it being taken over by him. I looked down, realizing I was in a gown, obviously they'd had to remove my shirt to heal the wound. I looked around frantically trying to locate where my jacket was, but I couldn't find it anywhere. "Where's my jacket?!" I said, a bit of panic in my voice.

Faith was the one who answered, saying "We had to remove it to operate on you, it's in the back. If you'd like me to, I can go get it for you"

I nodded, calming down a bit knowing that the jacket was okay, though I suppose it would still have the tear where the gryphon had attacked me. To my surprise however, when Faith returned with the jacket, it was completely fine, no holes or tears of any kind. She handed me the jacket and I quickly slipped it on, immediately feeling a sense of warmth.

"Alright, well I'll leave you all to talk, call me if you need me" she said, walking off to attend to the other patients.

I looked up at Viktor and Lilith "So, how exactly is my jacket completely fine, I was pretty sure the gryphon tore right through it?"

"That's easy, it's the camp emblem!" Viktor said, pointing to the golden seven on my jacket "It's not just for show, it's also an enchantment that repairs anything it's bound to"

I smiled, it was good to know that no harm would be coming to my jacket anymore, assuming I actually had any of it left "That's really good to know"

Viktor looked at me, inquisitively "What exactly makes that jacket so special to you?"

I looked down, still able to feel the sting of my hand from that horrid nightmare I had just endured "Oh... it belonged to my mother, she left it for me when she..." I stopped, trying to form the words.

Lilith looked at me, sympathy in her eyes "Avien... your mother, is she dead?"

The question cut through the air, creating a stillness to the within the infirmary that was practically deafening. I gulped, nodding in response to her question, finding no other actions I could physically take right now. I jumped when Lilith came over to me and gave me a warm hug, I wasn't at all expecting it.

"I'm so sorry for your loss, I know how much that kind of thing hurts..." He voice was soft and caring clearly, she had experienced impactful death in her life as well.

"How did it happen?" Viktor asked from behind Lilith.

She released her embraced and stood next to him, awaiting my answer "I... it was me..."

They both exchanged nervous glances before looking back at me "What do you mean?" Lilith asked.

"W-We were walking home one night and there was this man, he wanted to take me, but she wouldn't let him. I blacked out, but there was a flash of purple and I'm sure you can guess what happened next... When I looked behind me, there she was, on the ground with a hole in her chest..."

They looked down, clearly thrown off by the statement "And that's why you wear her jacket? To remember her?" Lilith asked.

I nodded in response "It's my way of honoring her and making sure I keep the promise I made to her..."

Lilith reached down and pulled something off of her ankle, showing it to me "This bracelet was a gift from my mother, it's supposed to grant me good luck in times of need, I treasure it more than anything" In her hand was a silver bracelet with an intricate line pattern and ruby directly in the center of the band.

Julian then pulled an item out of his toolbelt, a golden wrench "This is my most prized possession. My brother Gabriel gave it to me when I was nine, said that even though nobody else believed in me, he thought I could be something great one day and he gave me this wrench as a symbol of his belief..." I could see tears beginning to fill his eyes as he pocketed the wrench.

I looked at them, marveling at how lucky I was to have met these people, who knows what my life would be like had I been found by anyone else. We sat there in silence, simply respecting the mood, speaking right now would be a disservice to everything we had said. We just needed to sit here and let the silence stay for at least a little longer.

The silence was broken by the door slamming open, revealing the figure of Julian, his brow furrowed. "Lilith, Viktor, Avien, you're going to need to come with me"