A month later, I stepped into the language school Marlin had arranged for me. The headmaster was a stately Veyran woman in her sixties, her silver-white hair swept up into an elegant chignon, a pair of wire-rimmed glasses resting on her nose.
When she scanned my placement scores, her eyes widened in genuine astonishment.
"Your foundation is remarkable! There's no need for you to start from scratch," she said, looking over her glasses. "Your listening comprehension is just a step behind, but your potential is boundless. Did you really suffer from complete speech loss for three whole years?"
I nodded slowly, forcing the words out one by one. "I... can... talk a bit now, but I'm still... rusty."
"Don't you worry about that," she reassured me with a warm smile. "We have all the time in th
