Healing Hands

Despite the bloody field around us, the reunion with Ashley's unit was a joyful one. Mostly because a lot of us survived the recent battles despite how quickly circumstances kept changing for the worst.

I clasped Luca's hand with my own. We moved on to finger swipes and then fist bumps which turned into fading explosions that finally transitioned into high-fives.

This made me smile. It had been a while since we did our secret handshake—since before he was kidnapped. But then I noticed the new scar right below his left eye.

"Nasty papercut," I joked.

"Yeah..." he laughed in a pleased and not at all hysterical way.

It was a very uncommon sight to see when it came to Luca. He rarely laughed in the Fayne. And I wondered if something had changed for him since that night at the hilltop where his eyes could only reflect his inner sorrow.

Speaking of his eyes, they were rather busy looking over the people around us and lingering mostly on Pike's pixie features.

"What you looking at, bro?" I asked jokingly.

N-nothing," Luca, his face red as an apple's, quickly averted his gaze. "Glad to see you managed not to get yourself killed without me watching your back."

"As if I needed you to save me," I fired back.

Although I knew he meant it only as a joke, the truth was, his words stung. Based on my performance in our last two battles, I was good at commanding the unit and making up strategies that led to our victories, but I seemed to be lacking in the single combat department. Twice now I needed help to win my fights. This needed to be remedied, and soon, or I wouldn't stand a chance against a foe like Azuma anymore.

Luca noticed the change in my mood and asked if everything was alright. I brushed him off and told him my arm was just hurting. Although it wasn't the main reason why my eyebrows were furrowed but it technically wasn't unconnected to my mood. It wasn't a lie.

My right arm dangled at my side while sending a throbbing pain up to my brain.

"Looks broken," Luca guessed.

"You don't say, genius," I grimaced. "Call Ashley for me, will you?"

"Why do you want her?" Luca asked.

"She's a shieldmaiden. They're not as good as healers like Berrian, but they practice the healing arts too," I answered. 

While Luca rushed to get Ashley, I spent the time waiting by observing the scene around me.

Edo, with help from Luca's raiders, was rounding up enemy survivors and binding their wrists and legs with elf rope, ensuring they wouldn't be able to escape and call for reinforcement until we were long gone.

Thom's drow troops were watching our rear like I asked him to earlier. Their gazes swept over the hillsides as well as the sky above just in case more enemy drow decided to drop in on us while we recuperated.

The thought of enemy drow present in the Magesong army was giving my goosebumps goosebumps. I would have to warn Darah about this development as soon as I could.

I glanced over to Qwipps and Varda next. They were herding all the surviving swiftharts together to a spot on the field that was away from the bodies littering the ground. My light-green furred swifthart was among them.

It warmed my heart to see that my mount was alright and I figured that I should reward its recent valor with a new name once I figured out what I wanted to call it. Naming things couldn't be rushed, after all. I wouldn't want to regret calling it 'Taser Face' or something equally stupid after the fact.

While I ruminated names like 'Prancer' or 'Dancer' and 'Rudolph', Ashley arrived at my side with an overly worried Luca looking over her shoulder. Seeing him look at me the way I usually looked at him sort of annoyed me, and so I sent him away to loot enemy weapons and armor we could use or sell later.

"Luca's just worried," Ashley said as she inspected the black bruises on my right arm. She must have noticed how quickly I dismissed him. "He's probably not used to seeing you injured like this."

"I'm not used to seeing me injured like this," I grunted. The pain spiked as soon as I felt her fingers prod my arm. "Our enemies are getting tougher... and I feel stupid for getting baited into that sucker punch..."

"Well, I can't heal stupid, FYI... but you're right... this war is a lot bigger than our teenage brains can even wrap our heads around..." Ashley massaged my arm with her fingers. "Well, at least that's true of me and Luca. You seem to be doing fine in command..."

"Why don't I feel like I'm doing well... My brows furrowed even more and it wasn't just the pain causing my agitation. "How many did you lose?"

It wasn't like I was torturing myself, but as the unit commander, I needed to know how many more soldiers died because I asked them to stay behind.

"Five," Ashley whispered. "I'll give you their names later... I just... don't want to think about it for a while."

Wordlessly, I patted her on the shoulder with my uninjured hand. It was the only comfort I could provide.

"Well, you've got a fractured arm, Dean..." Ashley unclasped the vial of healing potion from her belt and offered it to me. "I'll bandage it while you drink this. It won't heal the arm but it'll strengthen you enough for the ride back so Berrian can heal it."

Ashley leaned closer to my arm so she could provide first aid treatment to it and it was only then that I noticed how nice she smelled. Despite the sweat clinging to her brow, there was a scent of lavender clinging to her clothes. I recalled this same scent was prevalent inside the training hall of the Shieldmaiden's Tower where we first met.

"You smell nice," I said, without thinking, while I took the small vial from her. "Um, I mean, you smell like lavender?"

"I use lavender oils when I take a bath... the Shieldmaidens believed it helps us keep evil at bay and attract other fairies to our cause," she answered coolly like she didn't mind my earlier compliment.

I managed to say, "You have time for a bath?" right before I chugged down the contents of the minor healing potion she gave me. She was right. It wasn't enough to heal my broken arm but it did make it hurt less.

Ashley gingerly dabbed an herbal-type yellow paste onto the bruises on my right arm. I remembered seeing the same kind of medicine used on Thom's wounds after his fight with Luca.

After she'd applied the paste, Ashley got up and went away to look for something. She returned a minute later with part of a wooden spear's pole that was short enough to use as a splint for my arm. Before she placed it under my arm, Ashley wrapped the wooden pole in a piece of cloth she'd taken from one of our dead enemies.

"Is that even clean?" I asked worriedly.

"You'll live, Dean," was her response.

Ashley placed her splint under my arm then secured it there with a roll of cloth bandage she'd pulled out of one of her belt pouches. When she was finished with my bandaged arm, Ashley used my belt to make a makeshift sling that would keep my arm in place until Berrian healed it.

While she was providing me with excellent care, Luca dropped in and returned my falchion to me. I thanked him profusely for this boon. I was way too giddy about my falchion's return. So giddy, in fact, that Ashley had to tell me off for fidgeting around too much.

Once Ashley was done with first aid measures and Edo was finished tying up all loose ends, our group with our newly acquired swiftharts—twenty-one in all—left the battlefield and traveled the route our caravan had taken in hopes of catching up to them. We managed to reunite with them a mile or so away from the battle, right before Aura's convoy would cross into a narrow pathway between two hills with steep cliffs.

Cheering rang out from the soldiers who stayed to protect the convoy—with Shaqs' yells being the loudest of the bunch—as they saw us approach. But the clamor quickly died down when they noticed the five dead bodies of our comrades that we carried over the backs of our new swiftharts.

Luca and I reunited with Aura at the front of the convoy. She took one look at my arm and immediately sent for Berrian. They had me sit inside one of the wagons so Berrian could treat me properly.

"I wasted most of my spells on our other wounded but luckily for you, Commander, I still have one healing spell in reserve," Berrian said as he inspected the bandaged arm. "Shieldmaiden Ashley did a good job splinting the arm. Makes the recovery much easier. I will have to remove it to heal you, however."

Berrian used my own shadowblade dagger to remove the bandage and splint Ashley made for me. When he was done undoing all the hardworked she'd put into my first aid, he placed both of his hands on my arm. Warmth flowed out of him like a heater that had just switched on.

"May the light of Idunn, the blessed golden moon, shine down on this wound and restore it back to health so that this soldier of the Fayne may fight once more..." Berrian chanted like a prayer. He finished his chant by calling out the name of his spell, "Healing Words."

As golden light—not unlike the glow of the golden moon—wrapped around my arm, it was accompanied by a soothing heat similar to the feeling I get when I activate Fool's Insight. It flowed into and through my arm, overwhelming the throbbing sensation of pain until it was no more. After the golden light dispersed seconds later, the throbbing in my arm was gone.

Berrian leaned back while looking exhausted. His brow dripped with sweat like he'd just finished a marathon. Yet he was smiling at me when he said, "You're healed now, Commander."

Slowly, I lifted my still bandaged arm. It moved at my command without any complaint. I twirled my fingers and felt no pain.

"Nice job, Berrian," I said gratefully. "I know you're out of healing spells but," I glanced over at the frightened kids who'd backed away to further into the wagon when I was put in here. "I don't suppose you still have it in you to help them?" 

"It's true that I am out of healing spells but..." Berrian followed my gaze. His smile turning into a frown at the sight of the kids. "I believe I can manage one last spell tonight provided I can use one of the mana potions you've got stashed away..."

"Get one from Edo. He's got them kept," I said right before I jumped out of the wagon.

Berrian followed me out and thanked me for my generosity because he understood just how precious a resource our mana potions were. The fact that I was allowing him to use it for purposes not involving our unit's survival showed him just how important this issue was to me.

"This is priority one, Berrian. If we can save these kids then this night wouldn't be a waste at all," I said.

He nodded in agreement and trotted off to Edo's position near the back of the convoy.

Luca and Aura, who were idling outside the wagon and waiting for me, walked over as soon as I was done speaking with Berrian.

"What do we do now?" Luca asked.

"Should we proceed to the checkpoint as planned?" Aura added.

I looked up at the night sky. It would be hours before dawn but there were new things to consider now.

"Yeah... let's head back to the camp Zarz set up. We need to get those kids out of dodge... and I need to let Darah know what we're up against... things are definitely not what they seem," I answered ominously.