Day of self-discovery

Maximilian dug into the chest and, to his immense relief, found a clean pair of underpants. The soiled ones in hand, he left his ascetic chamber of solitude for pre-breakfast exploration. He vaguely recalled seeing something like a laundry room when he had visited the baths yesterday. Luckily for him, it was too early for the courtyard to be populated and he made his way across without being seen. His memory turned out to be correct as there indeed was a laundry service at the basement of the main building, next to the baths. A small group of older women were busy around vats of hot water.
"Ah excuse me", Maximilian started as he stood inside the doorframe. One of the women just held up her hand with a tired smile so Maximilian handed the underpants to her and beat a hasty retreat - but he wasn't quick enough to not hear the giggles from them as they discovered the stains.

Canteen had some early birds already eating so Maximilian joined them. He had barely made a dent into his porridge when Will walked in. With an easy smile, the lanky youth joined him.
"Slept well? You look better than yesterday buddy", Will opened the conversation and Maximilian could only nod.
"Yeah. Yeah, I slept well and I did some... let's call it soul searching. Will, I want to apologize for my behaviour, I've been a bad friend", Maximilian answered but Will waved him off with his wooden spoon still covered in porridge, splashing some on the rough surface of the table.
"Don't mention it Max, I understand things have been rough, what with everything and all", he explained between swallows.
"Shall we go for the morning meditation sessions then", Max asked and Will nodded, still chewing.

The meditation was surprisingly exactly what Maximilian thought it would be. The instructor had the students sit on the courtyard in sunshine in a comfortable position and ran them through breathing exercises. Maximilian followed the instructions as well as he could and, after a while of calming down and focusing on himself, he slipped into a trance and-

entered himself

which was somewhat weird but Maximilian was even more astounded by the fact that there was a glowing golden orb inside his astral body. It wasn't a large one, about the size of tennis ball, with several short golden tendrils snaking their way into different parts of him. How he was able to view it from the outside, Maximilian did not know but view it he did. He could even touch the orb, which led him to the second discovery:
Just as Enki had promised in the dream, there were three other orbs - but these were even smaller and dull black in colour.

Dead or inactive or something else? He thought to himself.

Rest of the day was spent experimenting. While other students kept rehearsing for the Final Exam, Maximilian kept coaxing the golden magic to come out. He had hit a brick wall until, frustrated at his lack of progress, he slammed his left hand against the wooden table at the canteen a bit too hard and got a splinter. The golden magic, all swirling around inside him, surged as it finally had a conduit to enter and in a blink of an eye, the splinter popped out and his hand was as good as new.

Flabbergasted, Maximilian retreated to his room and repeatedly injured and then healed himself. The golden orb was obviously Divine Healing magic. It was only the midnight bell that roused him from the experimentations.

My laundry!

Maximilian rushed down to the courtyard and made his way to the basement laundry room. There he discovered an ancient hag, all alone doing inventory under the dim light of a single candle.

"Well now, how can I help you, young master?" The crone asked.
"Oh I, ah, I left a pair of underpants here in the morning", Maximilian stuttered. The ancient mistress of laundry merely nodded as she laboriously got up from her stool and waddled over to a basket.
"Here they are, young master, all fresh and clean for new adventures", she said with a smile.

Maximilian accepted them with a grateful smile and word in return, only to have an idea struck him before he could leave.

"Excuse me, could I try a bit of magic on you? I noticed your back seems to give you problems", he asked in his most polite tone. The hag gave him a long sideways look, until she finally nodded.
"Others have tried but if it pleases you, might as well go ahead", she answered and sat back down on the little stool. Maximilian stepped close to her and placed both hands on her head. He closed his eyes and focused to bring up the golden orb. It popped up easily enough and, with barely any effort, he guided the tendrils to reach out through his hands to enter her.

Wow

The moment the tendrils penetrated her skin, Maximilian could see her astral body and it did not look good. Carefully he guided tendrils of gold around her, touching an angry red spot here and a dark purple patch there, a crooked line was straightened, a sickly-looking moss thing was wiped away. As he finished and pulled away, the laundry woman stared at him in awe.

"I've never felt like this!" She almost yelled as she rose up and took several experimental steps around the room. Her posture was better and she moved with ease.
"And my hands! The fingers are not hurting anymore!" She was clearly over the moon with happiness.
"Oh, thank you young master, thank you!" She kissed him on both cheeks.

"You're most welcome", Maximilian responded with an easy smile before taking his leave.

Once back at the courtyard, he fist-pumped at the starry sky:
"I can do magic! Real magic!"