Healing and Laura

After the spar was called to an end, Veronica rushed over to Azraeus and began examining his injuries. He had a few burns on his left arm and stomach but nothing too serious or painful, in reality Azraeus didn't feel much pain from these injuries due to his physique which was more resistant to damage. After checking that Azraeus wasn't in too much pain, Veronica rushed over to Harold who had been slowly walking over with a frown on his face whilst holding his shoulder. Veronica checked the burn on Harold's shoulder caused by Azraeus' laser and immediately began healing it as it was worse than Azraeus' burns.

"Azraeus, I think you can be given a silver combat ranking," Monet started, "your firepower is a bit lacking for a fourth circle but that's natural given the nature of the light element is more supportive."

Azraeus nodded his head at Monet, his focus fully on trying to understand how Veronica was healing Harold. It took a few minutes under her care for Harold's red and blistering skin to return to normal, there wasn't even a scar left. She then came back towards Azraeus and put her hand over his arm before slowly manipulating her mana such that it covered the wound entirely.

"Since you can use light magic, you should also be able to heal with it. Healing isn't actually that difficult, all you need to do is entirely surround a wound with mana before slowly converting into light element whilst imagining the wound healing and your mana will do the rest. The strength and speed of the healing is based on the amount of mana you pour into the wound."

Hearing that explanation made Azraeus reconfirm the idea he had during the spar, that Earth is really underdeveloped in terms of magic. It was all simply using pure mana or mana converted into the element, there weren't actually any techniques like those seen in works of fantasy, which made it all rather boring.

Ignoring his disappointment, he lifted his t-shirt up uncovering his stomach so he could attempt healing his own wound. He held his hand over the burn mark and slowly infused mana following what Veronica had said. He felt the slight pain of the burn turn into an itch as the wound on his stomach slowly started to heal.

Veronica, Monet and Harold were surprised that Azraeus was able to heal himself after only seeing and hearing the explanation once. Elise on the other hand was not at all surprised by Azraeus' learning speed, having already labelled him a genius. She was instead staring at his six pack that looked like it had been chiselled out of white marble, with a slight blush, internally cursing at her father for making her more aware towards him with all the talks of marriage.

It took about a minute for the burn wound to heal completely under the effects of light attribute mana. After which everyone left the room and headed towards the administrative wing of the building, everyone besides Harold who left on his own to sulk over his failure to humiliate Azraeus. When they arrived there Monet went off somewhere in order to get Azraeus his Golden Circle Id card. During that time, Veronica posed a request towards Azraeus.

"Azraeus, could you try to heal Lady Laura please, as you know I'm only a second circle light witch so my ability to heal will not be as good as yours. I know you've only just learnt how to do it but it would have a better effect due to your larger mana capacity."

Azraeus only looked back at her with a blank expression on his face, causing Veronica to become embarrassed at the lack of response. Elise quickly realised that Azraeus was just confused as to who 'Lady Laura' was so she quickly clarified for him.

"Azraeus, Lady Laura is the granddaughter of the chairman of the Golden Circle that Antonia told you about before. We suspect that she is a fifth circle witch but we don't know because we can not actually measure the quantity of someone's mana, we do know that she has the highest known mana quantity." She paused for a moment before moving on to explain the need of healing. "Unfortunately she is suffering from full body paralysis which appeared when she turned 15, the chairman tried both scientists and light magicians but we couldn't even find the cause let alone the cure. SHe recently turned 21 and is becoming more and more depressed at the fact she cant move anymore, so Veronica, and I, hope that you might be able to heal her. After all, you are the only known fourth circle light awakened."

Azraeus felt pity for this girl, to lose your freedom of mobility at the age of 15 was not something a young girl should have to bear, add on top that it had been six years and the cause was still not known, she wouldn't even have hope that a solution could be found like some who suffered paralysis. He was also surprised that Elise said she had the most mana, this meant she was firmly in the 5th circle unlike Elise who was only just in it. This made Azraeus wonder if there were actually a few fifth circle mages on Earth but no one noticed because they couldn't measure mana accurately resulting in them being labelled as top class fourth circle.

Monet had returned towards the end of the conversation with a black card in hand and a pin badge. Before handing them over to Azraeus he spoke up.

"Azraeus, I would also like to ask you to try healing Laura. I have watched her grow up and she is like a daughter to me so it pains me greatly to see her suffering like this." Before finishing with a deep bow.

"Ok, I can't promise anything but I will try." Azraeus replied, naturally he didn't particularly mind as, whilst he might be indifferent to the goings on around him, he still felt pity towards the unreasonable that had befel Laura. "Though I can't promise I will succeed."

"Thank you, just trying is enough." Monet said as he lifted his head up from his bow. He then presented the card and pin that he had brought with him. "Here is your Golden Circle card and pin. Please be aware that neither of them will be accepted as identification without the other. Thus let me lead you to Lady Lauras' home."

Azraeus accepted the card and slipped it into the pocket of the jeans he was wearing whilst sticking the pin on the jumper he had put back on after the spar. Azraeus, Elise and Veronica followed Monet as they were led out of the back of the grand mansion and onto the grounds where they followed a gravel path towards a bungalow surrounded by a grove of trees. Monet stepped up to the door and knocked gently, after a few seconds the door was opened by a middle aged woman who was wearing what seemed like a Victorian maid outfit.

"Is it possible to see Laura, Isobel?" Monet asked to which Isobel replied, "certainly, the young lady is not doing anything currently. Will these guests be coming too?" She asked looking towards Elise and Azraeus whilst nodding towards Veronica, a clear indication they knew each other.

"Yes, I have brought along Lady Elise who came today to register this Lord Azraeus, a fourth circle light wizard." Monet gestured towards Azraeus. His reply left Isobel stunned for a moment as she realised they were there to attempt to cure her young lady. 

Isobel, in her excitement rushed forward a few steps and grabbed Azraeus' hands on her own before pleading, "please, please heal the young lady."

Surprised by the sudden physical contact Azraeus recoiled a few steps and quickly pulled his hands free from Isobels. Noticing the shocked expression on her face Azraeus forced a smile whilst replying.

"Sorry, I was surprised. And yes, I will try healing Lady Laura but I can't promise it will work."

"My apologies for surprising you, and it's ok, just trying is enough."

Off to the side Elise watched this interaction and quietly affirmed her thoughts that Azraeus consciously or unconsciously tried to avoid contact and interaction with people. She already knew he grew up in an orphanage but that didn't explain his aversion towards people, leading her to wonder more about what had happened to him before they met.

* * *

The four guests were led through the bungalow by Isobell towards the room where Laura lived. Along the way Azraeus took note of the style of the house and its decor and wondered if English mages had a thing for the Victorian era based on the manor house and the butler/maid outfits Monet and Isobel wore.

When they arrived at the room Isobel knocked on the door before and told the owner that they had guests, she then opened the room and allowed everyone inside upon receiving an Ok from the monotone voice inside.

The large room had few decorations and ornaments but in exchange had a large window, looking out towards the grove of trees in exchange for a wall. Facing the window wall was a single bed similar to hospital beds with a mechanism to raise the back and feet controlled by a handheld device.

Lying on the bed was a girl who looked to be in her mid twenties, she had long pale blond hair that reached all the way down to her butt and a round face with exquisite features that looked like it had been taken straight out of a painting. She appeared to be quite short for a woman, if she stood up the top of her head would only come up to the centre of Azraeus' chest and she had small breasts. Azraeu suspected that her body's development was stunted when she was paralysed resulting in her looking like a beautiful girl in the midst of puberty. Resting on the bed were her hands, which had slender and dainty fingers which when paired with the rest of her appearance and ghostly white skin made her seem like a doll. This doll-like look was especially highlighted by her eyes, her irises were a beautiful emerald green but that beauty was marred by the dead look in her eyes. She sat there dully staring towards the distance, as if not noticing she had visitors.

"Young lady, a light element wizard has come to visit." Isobel said, barely containing the excitement she felt. In contrast to her excitement though Laura's reply was as dull as her eyes.

"What's the point, it won't help."

"No young lady you don't understand, this time he is a fourth circle light wizard." Isobel rushed up towards Laura and grasped her hands as if to show her excitement. In response to her, Laura's head snapped towards the four guests at such a speed that Azarues thought she might get whiplash from her hair. 

"Really, you're really a fourth circle light wizard?" Her eyes immediately locked on the only person who could be the light wizard as she knew her uncle Monet's element was fire.

Azraeus simply nodded in response. He could sense the desperation she had but he could also see the traces of fear flash across her eyes. For Laura, this might be har last chance, she had tried science, that hadn't helped, she had tried light element awakened of the 1st 2nd and 3rd circles, they had not helped. She had been waiting, hoping and praying that a 4th circle light awakened would show up, it was the only possibility she had left to cure her paralysis. That's why she was so excited, that her prayer had been answered and her hope had shown up, but it was also why she felt fear, if even a 4th circle light wizard wasn't enough she might lose the will to live entirely. If a healer of the highest current circle couldn't help her then there might be no help at all, it would be better to just give up than keep hoping for a miracle.

Azraeus understood all this from looking into her eyes, she was similar to him in that she had been pushed to the edge of losing hope, albeit at a much older age, but unlike him she had not been pushed over the edge yet. He suspected that he was a double edged sword, if he could heal her then she could return to a normal life she had been dreaming of for the past 6 years, but if he couldn't, she would go to an extreme just like he had. This realisation turned his pity for her into empathy, for the first time in a long time he felt the desire to do something. It wasn't like the interest he had in magic where he just wanted to see how it worked, this time he felt like actively moving to make something happen rather than his usual stance of passively observing as things happen. As the first step to that he used appraisal on her.

[Laura Lastania:

- Age: 21

- HP: 49/49

- MP: 119/119

- Element: WInd

- Status: Paralysed via realm suppression

- Note: The granddaughter of the Golden Circles chairman. Has awakened a small fragment of her wind spirit lineage, due to her nigh perfect affinity, granting her a great boost in mana. Is suppressed by the realm for exceeding the limits resulting in full body paralysis.

]

Azraeus sucked in a cold breath at her status, there was a lot to take in but the most shocking thing was that this girl exceeded 5th circle, having mana of 6th circle. In fact if she had just a bit more she would be a low level 7th circle, it was no wonder she was considered to be the closest to the 5th circle. Due to the methods used to measure mana capacity being so primitive, the other awakened would only know she was better than all the other fourth circles, they would not know how much better, perhaps they think shes in the fifth circle or on the cusp of it, but it seems the current measuring method was useless at the top of the fourth circle and above due to having no reference.

Her status also displayed the cause of her paralysis, it was in fact suppression caused by exceeding the realm limit in terms of mana capacity. Azraeus deduced that she had awakened the portion of her heritage on her 15th birthday but instead of it giving her a boon as it should it resulted in a curse. This further solidified the drive Azraeus felt to help Laura, he already empathised with her feelings of hopelessness and the pity he felt for seeing a genius being held back by that very genius. Thus he opened his mouth whilst still locking eyes with Laura and asked:

"Can everyone leave the room please."