The Headmaster stood at the window of his office looking over the courtyard. He smiled seeing the few students that stayed on during the last term reuniting with loved ones for summer break.

"Headmaster...are you certain you'll be alright?", a female voice said from his doorway.

"Mistress Hearthsglen, you need not dote on me. I think everyone here has earned some time for themselves."

Normally, Briarius ran a short summer term at the Academy, but with what happened this year, he decided to give everyone some time off. He released all staff to a vacation and he would tend to the groundskeeping himself.

"So, go and enjoy yourself. That's an order.", he said jokingly. It was rare to see that side of the Headmaster, but it did show at times.

"Of course...", Melody turned and walked to the outer office door, stopped and looked back as if she were going to say something, but didn't and left.

Briarius watched her walk to one of the portals he had set and step through. He closed the portal after her.

With Melody's departure, that left him pretty much alone at the Academy. Sha'uri left a little bit ago, closing the portals to Exodii behind her. Lyndra raised a fuss about leaving, but she too relented. Cadence hadn't been seen in some time... Renna...well...Renna was still here...to a degree.

Normally, Briarius would walk around the campus and secure everything, but since he had learned the Academy's full connection with him, he simply used mental commands to secure the grounds. He closed all portals and sealed the gates save the front gate and that would only allow people in who had no ill will...and only let them walk to the door of the main administration building and wait outside the locked door. No one could enter the Academy without him knowing it. He made one final mental check for other life on campus and when he realized that there was none out of the ordinary, he went to his quarters.

Another dawn at Ravensheart Academy.

It was a beautiful summer's day. The Headmaster enjoyed his rounds around the Academy. He didn't have to, but he liked his time walking around checking on the defenses. When satisfied, he lowered them for the day. He stood at the main gate as he did this and looked down the street. It had been some time since anyone had come to call or since he went calling on anyone. He hadn't even left the Academy since he returned from the rescue. He looked wistfully down the street.

The Wards in place around the Academy should have warned the Headmaster of an unknown intruder, but for whatever reason, it did not. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that the soul that was currently within the heavily cloaked skeletal shell was recognised the Undead creature, as Renna herself.

It limped and moved at a painfully slow pace towards the Headmasters office, despite the large hood that hung in front of its eyeless sights. One boned hand lifted, knocking against the wood that rattled the foundations of the skeletal frame, threatening to shake her apart. Magic, however, prevented that from happening.

She knew that her body was still intact, and she discovered through the rather simplistic grapevine down at the Watch that the last person to obtain it, was the Headmaster himself.

It was only know that her soul was strong enough to leave the protective black crystalline fortress back at Zarcurgis.

"Headmaster, good afternoon." The wraith's voice echoed distantly, the jaw of the skeleton parting and moving, despite the lack of flesh and lips to form the words effectively. She noticed his suprise, even if she caught the end tail of it.

As she moved inside of his office, her posture straightened and her movements became less lagged as he cast that charm upon the skeleton proxy vessel. "You look well."

"Normally I would not have that luxury, Headmaster. My physical form should have rotted away into nothing? It seems however for the first time, that is not the case.? She talked like that this has happened before, and apparently quite often at that.

The skeletal frame turned slowly to regard him with empty sockets, ?I don?t know how you prevented the Death Blight from consuming my body, but I thank you for it? I was not entirely sure if my body was still intact at first. Though? When I returned to Rhy?Din and discovered you had taken it, I figured you would try and cure the disease once you fully realised what it was. I suppose my suspicions are correct, considering your previous statement.?

Renna turned to look around the office, half expecting to see someone else other than the Headmaster within the school grounds. ?I am sorry to have troubled you like this.? She turned back to him, ?I appreciate anything you have done to save it. You have saved me a lot of grief in finding a new one.?

?I?ll start from the beginning.? She sighed as best as a fleshless entity could.

?The Blight has been around in my homeland for as long as I can remember, and I am sure there are many other variations of it in different dimensions. Where I come from, it is a very rare mutation of a disease that can render a living entity into a self aware, flesh eating Undead creature within a matter of hours.? Of course what Renna was describing appeared to be a simplistic version of what she had got, ?It is commonly contracted from the older generations of Ghouls or Zombies.?

Renna paused a moment, to let that sink in. ?It is easily treatable, if diagnosed quickly? Mine however, was forced upon me through magical means.? She lowered her head, ?A long time ago, I challenged a rather powerful Necromancer to a duel, over one of his items he carried around with him that would have tripled the Mana output of my own? He cursed me with a magically intensified version of the Blight that infected me beyond the physical form and into the soul itself.?

A hand was indicated to the side, ?So you see, no matter how many times I create a new body for myself, the Blight will always be there.? Renna inclined her head to the side, ?And now that history lesson is over, Headmaster, I will get to the point of the matter. My magical strain of the Blight apparently does not seem to like it if soul-destroying weapons injure me in any way, shape or form. As you have seen on my third incarnation of my original body, I am missing a hand.?

?The Blight instantly starts to cannibalize the body and then itself. I was lucky to get out of my body in time, otherwise I would not be here now, and in this cadaver.?

"Examine me?" Renna visibly slouched at the suggestion, and then returned to looking upon the Headmaster fully. ?I am afraid if you are looking to cure this curse of mine, I must decline. For you see, it is because of this curse that I have survived for as long as I have? It grants each body I possess a sense of immortality... I accept consuming flesh, I have a taste for it, now. Loosing such a vital ability may just cause more problems than it is worth.?

She nodded, ?However, if you look for a means of strengthening the Blight against such essence damaging items, then? I may reconsider.?

"I no longer seek immortality, Headmaster. That ship has sailed... Once I had sought to rid of it, but have long since learnt to live with its vices and virtues. It is something of my past, much like the mistake of my birth." Renna moved towards the Headmaster slowly, and lifted a skeletal hand up to cup his cheek, drawing that skull close to his face.

She whispered now, "Redemption... I had myself burnt for this city. I am still trying to repay these people back with the wrongs I have done unto them. Removing the Blight will not bring back those people I killed... If you fear the Blight will infect the children I teach, I can assure you, it will not. My ward among other things, prevent this."

What kind of subject change was this? What is it with men and their desire to tell her how much they care about her? She was silent, the hand remaining quite there on his cheek. "I have promised to never harm a single mortal, innocent in this realm ever again. I live up to my promises Headmaster, despite my title. Why are you telling me this?"

"I am reminded daily by my daughter, Headmaster. I don't need a second reminder..."

That hand dropped back to her side, "However, I still do not want the Blight taken from me. It is a factor of my life I have lived with, and have grown to accept it."

"... Since I am intent on not having the Blight removed, may I have my body returned to me now?"

Renna turned slowly to meet the view of her own body, strewn upon an examining table. What a strange out of body experience she was having, at the moment. It was perhaps oddly enough, the first time she had ever looked upon her own body, from the outside. She moved out a hand to touch along the flat of her own stomach, then up past her chest and onto the lips.

There were some concerns that struck her in this moment of silence... As she dragged her finger across the fleshed forehead, the air turned icy cold, as if a legion of spirits had just stepped into the room.

"Creos n'alaquel, amin liy."

Suddenly, the bones of the walking skeleton crumbled to dust, as if the aging of thousands upon thousands of years had taken sudden effect. Within that quick transformation from bone to nothingness, the body of Renna that laid motionlessly on the table leant up, scarlet eyes rushing open.

Both of her hands lifted in front of her face, turning them over and over again in the air so that she could confirm these were in fact her fleshed hands. "Ahhh... So much better." She swung her legs to dangle over the edge, and slid down onto her feet, picking up the cloak left behind by her previous proxy, and slipped it on.

"Thank you, Headmaster." Renna turned, grinning at him. "However can I repay you?" The grin faded, and then, she shrugged, "But then again, I suppose no amount could ever repay the kindness and willingness of faith you have shown in me, and my attempts at redemption." She approached him, and gingerly lifted a hand to touch his face again.

But this time, she was able to feel it. "I need to know, however..." She half lidded those scarlets, the simple restraint of locking back the natural red glow of the black and azure veined flecked irises of her eyeballs, manifested a brighter glow that stood out from the rest of her face. "... How closely did you examine this body?"

"That is fine. I can reimplant now that I have my body returned to me. However, I may, or may not do that." She smiled and took the box, turning to walk off the stiff legs. Renna moved a hand out to lean against the examining table.

"Headmaster, please keep the information of my body to yourself. Or at the very least, do not write or talk about it. I keep my exact race a closely guarded secret. As well as my vessel's functions."

Renna smiled back at him, "Thank you..." The Betrayer turned, glancing down at her fleshed hands that gripped the box. "At least now I can return to teaching when the break is over." She turned then, and tilted her head to one side.

"I must take my leave now, Headmaster, I have some business to attend to, and it will make things a lot easier with my body returned to me." She paused, then continued with: "Speaking of which, I was meaning to ask you before this whole episode had occured, that would it be okay if I could enroll my daughter into the Academy?"

"Excellent," nodded, and aheaded for the door. "I hope your summer break is less eventful, Headmaster." Renna glanced over her shoulder as she opened the door, "If you need anything, you know how to find me, I'm sure."

With that, she left.