Seeing Wilmaer's Blessings

In the healing tent an older witch stopped helping a patient with a few burns once she saw me enter, giving their care to another witch. She pulled me over to an empty bed and started to examine me. I thought about using my spiritual senses to see what she was doing but decided against it; since the rest of me was in a great deal of pain I didn't want to add my spirit into the mix.

"It seems you pushed yourself beyond your limits. Your auras, mana core, and physical body have experienced a lot of trauma. It's a good thing you have a strong spirit or that might have been affected as well." She said.

Shortly after, I saw Gunnar being carried into the healing tent and being laid down on the far side from me. I was a bit surprised to see the number one B ranker in the tournament, Buinr, carrying him. A witch began to look him over before calling to the witch that was helping me.

"Thourd, his internal injuries are rather severe." She said.

Thourd turned and looked at Gunnar for a few moments before turning back to me. "You're more than capable of taking care of him, Herleva."

"If you're the best healer here then you should be looking after my brother, not that mud shark." Buinr said.

I wasn't familiar with that insult but from the reaction of everyone else in the tent it seemed it was a rather nasty one in the north. A pressure could be felt in the tent as every witch glared at Buinr. Realizing he had turned everyone against him, he backed down. He must not have known they recently gave me a name.

"Just help my brother." Buinr said to the witch in front of him.

The mood in the tent remained tense as the witches returned to helping the wounded. While I didn't look in their direction, I could tell that Buinr was throwing me dirty looks every now and then.

After several minutes another woman entered the tent. From the stars on her collar I could tell she was a senior Union representative. She looked at Gunnar with a concerned scowl before turning to me.

"Wilmaer I am senior representative Ketilrithr. Due to your blatant attempt to permanently maim another combatant, you have been disqualified from the tournament. Your membership in the Union will also be reviewed." She said.

"That's not fair. Gunnar tried just as hard to hurt Wilmaer, he was just defending himself." Lariss said.

"I suggest you remain quiet unless you want to be thrown out of the Union with him." Ketilrithr said.

"Ha, as if that's actually going to happen." A boisterous man said from the entry to the tent.

"This doesn't concern you Stali." Ketilrithr said.

"It also doesn't concern you. The moment I saw you rushing off from Magni's side I knew you were going to try something. You don't have the authority to punish him and you know it." Stali said.

"As a member of the disciplinary committee I have every right to punish those who break Union rules. He was warned before the tournament what the consequences of his actions would be." She replied.

"Well I'm also a member of the disciplinary committee, so does that mean I can pitch that worthless sack of rats tails out of the Union." Stali threw a thumb over his shoulder towards Gunnar.

"How dare you try to blame the victim? Is this how Bodildr's dogs behave?" She said in feigned indignation.

"That's enough. This is a place of healing, if you want to fight head back to the festival grounds." Thourd yelled. "Besides, this festival is run by the Great Coven of the North. The final say on who is disqualified is up to us. You were just asked to help, not control everything. If you want to throw either of them out of your Union that's fine but know your place here."

Both of them quieted down and left the tent. Ketilrithr displayed her displeasure at the situation while Stoli had a large grin.

"Wow, I knew there was something special about you, but man, to think that two of the major factions would actually fight about you in the open." Adalgard said.

I remembered the names Magni and Bodildr from a talk I had with Lariss awhile ago. There were three factions within the Union, those two led the two largest while the current Union Master led a coalition of smaller ones to combat their influence.

"Just another thing to worry about." I mumbled to myself.

"I've done what I can in the short term. I'll give you some ointment for the physical wounds and a potion to sip for your auras and mana core. But I'm afraid you won't be able to fight for the rest of the day unless you want to cause permanent damage." Thourd said.

"Ah no. I was looking forward to humiliating you." Thelora said from the tent flap. Borhildr was also with her.

"I guess it's that bad. Your next opponent was going to be Thelora and since you're both on the same team it won't affect that at all." Borhildr said.

"I guess we'll have to spar at another time." I replied.

After I received my medicine we left the tent. In addition to Thelora advancing, I learned that Lariss scored high enough in this round to make it to the afternoon shooting contest. We made it back to watch the last of the A rank matches before lunch.

"So what's a mud shark?" I asked.

"They're monsters that like to hide in mud to snatch their prey. But it's another way of calling you the worst kind of dirty cheat since they often prey on children." Lariss said.

Well then that was just a ridiculous insult, since it was his own brother that he was implying was helpless as a child.

With over an hour before the next matches we made our way around the food and craft stalls. Thankfully Borhildr had other matters to attend to. When we made our way to the Flask and Avils stall, Uhtric gave one look at me before pulling me behind the stall into their makeshift workspace.

"It was you wasn't it?" He asked.

"You're going to need to be more specific." I replied.

"Words been going around about an incredible C rank match. While your name seems to have been dropped from the story, there's a vivid description of your finishing move. A red glow covering your sword arm. You have that Lineage don't you?" He said.

"I inherited it from my grandfather. He liked to get around." I replied.

"Ha, I knew it. That was why you wanted the Osgar variation on your enchants. Quickly show it to me." He said.

"I would if I could, but the witch that healed me warned that using my auras today could cause permanent damage." I said.

"Damn brat, I was so excited. Once I get a feel for your specific aura I can customize the enchant. It won't improve it by much, maybe 5%, but it also won't take any additional effort. Your gauntlets are almost complete. If I didn't have to work on items for the festival I'd have them done by now." He said.

"Thank you. I can come by first thing in the morning to show you. And congratulations on gaining a blessing from the festival." I said.

"Ha, thank you. Just don't mention it too much around Vegaror. He's trying to be happy for me, but he lost to one of his most hated rivals." He said.

We left after that and wandered for a while before heading back to watch the last of the C ranked matches for the day. Since I had to forfeit, Thelora got a pass for this round. It was only prudent to watch the match of who was her most likely opponent, the 8th placement in the tournament Valchelin.

He was a spear user and was good at keeping his opponent at a distance. That would be a difficulty for Thelora who specialized in upclose attacks. But once she got past his defenses, she should have the upper hand.

Every hour the ointment had to be applied to my arm. I tried to do it myself but soon found the jar snatched from my hand.

"You're injured, let me do it." A blushing Lariss said.

She was very gentle and couldn't look me in the eye as she rubbed the cooling ointment on my wounds. Which was the complete opposite from Thelora who snatched the medicine the next hour and stared directly into my eyes as she sensually rubbed it in.

When the third hour came I was surprised when Adalgard grabbed the ointment and pulled me to the side.

"It's my turn, plus I need to have a word with Wilmaer in private." She said.

"Hey we didn't keep him to ourselves when it was our turn." Lariss stopped in shock as she realized what she had just said.

"Oh don't worry, this is just going to be a mindless chat about religion." Adalgard said.

While neither of them looked happy, they allowed her to pull me to a secluded part of the festival.

"You know you could have told me you were an initiate. What circle are you? I didn't want to ask in front of them because you seem to be keeping it a secret. But I just couldn't wait any longer to ask." She said after she was sure we were alone.

"I don't know what you mean." I replied.

She gazed into my eyes for a moment. "You really don't. But how?"

"You're going to need to use more words to explain what you want to know." I said.

"During your fight with Gunnar I clearly saw a powerful blessing from the Elder of Cold Sight. I use their minor blessing but yours didn't require any effort on your part so I knew it had to be a major blessing. If you're not a part of the Cult of the Court, then why do you have that?" She asked.

I didn't answer her question since I wasn't comfortable getting into everything with her at this moment. Instead I asked my own.

"Is there a way to hide the fact that I'm using blessings from the Elder Watchers? You're not the first person to notice and it could be troublesome if the wrong people find out about it." I said.

"There is but unless you can manipulate spiritual fluctuations yourself, I'd have to do it. Plus, blessings? As in more than one?" She replied.

Once again I ignored her question and cursed my slip of the tongue. Not that I was too worried, as one of their followers, she was the most likely to accept what I had to say about my experience.

I opened my spiritual senses and lightly pushed on the ripples around me. It wasn't enough to form any spell.

"That's about all I can do right now." I said.

"You really are a glutton for punishment. You already have a mana core. Using spiritual magic is going to be extremely difficult and painful. Is this something that the Elder Watchers want you to do?" She said.

"I have no idea what they want from me." I replied.

"Well then it's a good thing your fate has been twisted into mine. I'll be able to help you figure it out." She said.

I kept the fact that it was the other way around to myself.