THE MOMENT
It was obvious, even to Tyson himself, that he'd done something unusual. A crowd gathered around as whispers filled the air, but no one was talking to him. That suited him fine, he was focusing on making the pain go away. The black, festering wound on his leg shrank as green magical energy filled it in. The magical injury still ached and likely would continue for a while, but he'd be able to walk just fine.
"What's going on here- OH MY GOD!" the proctor yelled as the wound closed completely. "Was that a healing spell??" He asked and looked around at the other students for confirmation. He got enough nods to take action, and he grabbed Tyson's hand. "Come with me, right now," he said.
"Keep an eye on them," the proctor ordered another faculty member to watch the students, then he gestured at Tyson. "This young man just cast a healing spell on himself," he added as an explanation. Tyson caught a surprised, and worried expression from the other teacher as they walked out of the gym.
"Am.. I in trouble?" Tyson asked. Most people automatically assumed his intelligence was lacking on hearing him speak, and the questions he asked helped those assumptions along. But, in his mind, it was easier to ask than make assumptions that were just as likely to be incorrect. The sudden change in tone did get him thinking he'd done something wrong, but maybe the healing spell itself was unusual. He hadn't really seen anyone else use healing magic or talk about it much outside of a couple of classes.
Tyson never considered himself dim, yet it was easy to see how much brighter the other students were. He sometimes had trouble keeping up, and it felt nice to think he might have found something he excelled at.
"Not exactly...," the proctor shook his head with a stern tone. "But, this is a serious matter," he added as they reached the principal's office. They walked right in, and the Principal seemed to be expecting them. Tyson guessed the message got to him faster than they walked.
"Do you know why you're here?" The Principal asked. Tyson shrugged and shook his head.
"I used healing magic?" he gave his only guess. The principal gave a stern nod.
"Magic by its very nature is dangerous. And, I'm sure you can imagine that a school teaching such a dangerous curriculum needs a solid foundation of rules."
"Is it a rule I can't learn healing magic?" Tyson asked. Despite touching on it briefly a couple of times, classes that taught healing magic weren't available to him yet. He never considered keeping his talent for it an explicit secret, but it never came up in conversation.
"I suppose by some definitions it is," the Principal nodded. "By virtue of it being available to senior students and not freshmen. But that's not why you're here," he said. "You used healing magic, and -," he intended to continue, but Tyson interrupted.
"You just said that's not why I'm here!"
"You're not here because YOU used healing magic...," the proctor who delivered him to the Principal tried to clarify the situation. "You're here because you USED healing magic."
"What?" Tyson asked. He took time to give each of them a confused expression. Something about his expression must have been funny because the Principal laughed.
"When you say it like that, I can understand the boy's confusion," he said. "Let me explain it a different way. As I said, we deal with dangerous forces. When in that position, the thing to do is to establish solid learning foundations. The issue isn't that you used healing magic on yourself, it's that you needed to. If you'd set up the proper spells beforehand, you wouldn't have gotten injured. Your defensive preparations before the sparring exercise were lacking, and it's not something we take lightly here. You'll need to come in for a few extra sessions on Saturdays to make sure we drill it into you."