Firemen, Noa realized, didn’t get nearly enough respect. Being as close to the fire as he was made him feel like his face was blistering under the summer sun━no sunscreen, not that he usually needed any to begin with, at least not in Seattle’s weather.
People who’d been burned or otherwise injured laid behind the well, no one able to tend to them until Noa and Eliaz’s arrival. Every able bodied individual passed water, and frequently rotated, those closest to the fire burning quickly without any protective equipment.
“Use [Lesser Assessment],” Eliaz said.
“Okay... Why?” Noa responded, kneeling beside a woman whose face had been marred. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to save Aether for mending?”
“We want to work on those in critical condition first, then move to others. Those not critical can wait for more aether,” Eliaz said, aether already shifting as the elf expended it on someone else.
The woman before Noa groaned loudly, competed by others nearby. Even a man periodically yelling, “Help!”
Casting [Lesser Assessment] on the woman before him, Noa found that she had a good dozen superficial wounds, and one moderate wound━the one on her face. He cringed. It looked severe to him, but otherwise, the rest of her was fine. Her heart rate was elevated, but nothing that seemed “critical”. Part of him wished he had any medical knowledge on burns, or at all.
System [Lesser Assessment] level 12 → 14
“I'm sorry,” Noa said to the woman, deciding to trust the system’s assessment and move on to the next person.
System [Lesser Assessment] level 14 → 16
This person looked worse for wear, and yet, the system still gave him the sense that the wounds were moderate. Sighing, Noa stood back up, looking at where Eliaz was at, attending to the man who was screaming for help earlier.
“Healer! Healer!”
Noa turned to the man running their direction, his face and forearms burned red, starting to lightly blister.
“The high prelate is in the fire!” he shouted.
“What?” Noa asked.
The skinny man gasped, collapsing to his knees as soon as he reached the area, Noa moving towards him. “The prelate,” he wheezed. “He's alive! He needs a healer!”
Noa raised his brow, looking towards the all-consuming behemoth they faced, wafting further over the orchards. “That's not possible,” Noa started, “Nothing could━”
The flames gradually parted like a sideways vortex, and at the end of it was Caradec, his robes being eaten away at the edges. Beside him were two figures, one laying on unburnt grass. Caradec motioned for Noa to come, and...
This is how I die, isn't it? Lured to my death by the high prelate, he thought. “This is dumb as hell,” he huffed, then ran towards the high prelate.
“Noa!” Eliaz called from behind, the rest of his voice being drowned out the further Noa got.
The flames stung at his skin as he neared them, not even in the open vortex yet. He coughed, hesitating before the red consumer. Lifting his shirt over his nose and mouth, as if that would save him from smoke inhalation, he put one step forward.
“Hurry!” Caradec yelled, though Noa mostly saw him mouthing it rather than heard it.
“Screw it,” he huffed out, then plunged himself into the vortex, half expecting the fire to start nipping away at his skin and clothes.
It... didn't? It was warm, but compared to a moment before, actually refreshing. Air filtered through the vortex, the smoke not even a problem. The sound was also suppressed.
“Quickly, ardent!” Caradec barked, scowling. Even scowling, the elf was as hot as Legolas.
Noa scrambled through the vortex, and at the end of it, felt a whoosh of air as it collapsed behind him. Instead, he stood in a bubble, Caradec holding his hands out, the weight of the aether he used apparent. The flames that nipped at his robes would, every so often, go out, only to return and burn away just a little more.
Caradec nodded his head towards the other two in the bubble, one of them perfectly fine, the other...
Noa grimaced at the missing arm. The woman over the burly man holding what looked to be the majority of her clothes against the bloodied stump, leaving her in a light petticoat and undershirt.
“Curses, boy, I don't have all day!” Caradec yelled.
“I don't have enough aether for this,” Noa argued. “I only have two aether stones on me, this would sap away...” He wasn't sure how much, but it'd be more than he had!
“My amulet, Noa, take it,” Caradec said. “There is an aether stone in it of deific quality. That will suffice. Just get him into at least walking condition.”
That was a tall order, but Noa got to work.
He grabbed the chunky amulet, Caradec having to momentarily lean down in order for Noa to pull it off. Turning around, he knelt beside the man, and cast [Lesser Appeal].
The aether strand moved to the wound, spread, then simply vanished. Nothing.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“It's not taking,” Noa said, raising his brow. How much aether could he risk from trying again?
“Talk to me, what did you try?” Caradec asked.
“[Lesser Appeal].”
“The wound is too severe. You have to do it manually.”
“Manually?” Noa asked.
“Yes. Do you have [Mend] yet?”
“Just [Lesser Mend].”
“Curses! Remind me to have Priest Armael train you on this,” he said. “You need to shape each strand of aether. Guide the skin to close over the wound. Eryl, uncover the wound, just partly. Work one spot at a time. You will need to manually seal the artery.”
“The artery?” Noa asked, his voice slightly higher.
“Yes,” Caradec grunted. “Fast as you can. Time is as limited as my aether.”
Right, no pressure, Noa cringed, pulling out a strand of aether.
“Ready?” The woman━Eryl━asked, her eyes red and puffy.
Noa nodded, and Eryl barely contained a small cry as the burly man gasped the moment she removed some of the clothing from his wound.
Noa pressed the aether against the wound, spreading it out, thinning it. The worst part was that it didn't snap into place like [Lesser Appeal] would do for him. He visualized the healing, and as he did, the aether vanished. It didn't work.
Damnit!
He hissed, trying again. Pulling out the aether, he channeled his inner Grey’s Anatomy, or what few clips he'd seen of the show. The bleeding oozed, and he envisioned it coming to a stop. The power was, fortunately, intuitive enough for that, and the bleeding in the area stopped. No skin covered it yet, but it was a start.
He reached his hands out, covering Eryl’s bloodied ones. “Let me take over,” he said.
She merely nodded, removing her hands.
Noa removed a bit more of the cloth, and when he did, he could feel the scabbing that'd already started to form ripping up, allowing more blood to spill. Doing the same as he did before, he staunched the blood flow, and moved on bit by bit.
System [Lesser Mend] level 79 → 80
System [Lesser Mend] level 80 → 81
System Class [Mender] level 15 → 16
One of his aether stones depleted, the man groaning as he removed more. Finally, the artery was exposed, blood spilling like mad. Gasping, Noa pushed the fabric back against it, holding the blood soaked rags there like they'd actually do something.
“Damnit!” he cursed, pulling out a strand of aether. I should have readied the aether, he thought, and pushed the aether towards the wound, he uncovered the artery, envisioning the power clamping down on the major artery and sealing it closed. Amazingly, it did just that.
“He passed out!” Eryl cried out, a blood dyed hand covering her mouth.
“Damn! How do you expect him to walk out of here?” Noa hissed, shaking his head.
The bubble wavered, heat stinging at Noa’s face. Cardec growled, shaking his head. “I only have so much aether left, and you were the only one who braved the opening I gave.”
“Can you make another?”
“I'm nearly out of aether. I should reserve what remains for when we're actually leaving,” Caradec huffed. “And we couldn't risk moving him until the bleeding was stopped.”
“Curse you both! Stop talking and work!” Noa jumped at Eryl’s exclamation.
“Yes ma'am,” he said, continuing with the wound. Just stopping the bleeding the rest of the way entirely depleted his second aether stone, then dipped into Caradec’s deific aether stone.
System [Lesser Mend] level 81 → 82
System [Lesser Mend] level 82 → 83
System [Lesser Mend] level 83 → 84
All the cloth was removed, leaving the wound bare and open, a grotesque sight that looked torn, not cut nor burnt. Noa pinched at the skin around the wound, then pulled, seeing how elastic it was. There was definitely some leeway, which he knew would at least shorten the healing process━that required dipping deep into Caradec’s aether stone.
System [Lesser Mend] level 84 → 85
System Class [Mender] level 16 → 17
The bubble shrunk, Noa flinching as fire shot out at him.
“Share the aether stone, Noa,” Caradec said, stepping closer. “Put it on the ground in front of me. I can pull aether from there.”
Noa nodded, placing the amulet between him and the high prelate, yet he still needed to touch it to pull aether. Well, so did Caradec, who took off a shoe and put his foot against the amulet.
System [Lesser Mend] level 85 → 86
System [Lesser Mend] level 86 → 87
“Almost there,” Noa said, the skin healing over the wound. It wasn't pretty, but at least it was doing what it needed to.
“Almost out of aether!” Caradec hissed.
Noa looked at the aether stone in the high prelate’s amulet, its glow significantly dimmer.
“Curses!” he shouted.
“Finish up as quick as you can, but once we're down to the last of it, I'm taking it all,” Caradec said.
Noa focused, forcing the skin together and tethering it with aether, painfully slow in his work.
System [Lesser Mend] level 87 → 88
System Class [Mender] level 17 → 18
System Aether depleted.
Caradec released a guttural snarl, the vortex opening back up.
“I need to focus. It's up to you two.”
Noa moved to the other side, grunting as he grabbed the man’s arm and heaved. When the flames threatened him, he heaved quicker, aided by the woman. They stumbled forward, Noa’s form already shaking under the weight. One quaky step at a time, he pushed away from the bulging fire, hissing as the temperatures grew.
Caradec moved behind them, and ahead, people were still passing water back and forth.
“Help!” Noa called, his voice reaching none of them.
“Run, Noa, run!”
Noa stammered forward, struggling under the weight of the man he dragged along. His legs, while pushing him forward, could not stop the bulky man from starting to slip from his grasp.
Come on! he thought, straining to cling on and adjusting the man in his hold.
I'm... going to have to leave him, he thought, the vortex crashing behind him, and shrinking ahead. He hissed as fire bit at his elbow and singed at his hair, and coughed as smoke hazed through.
Then he tripped.
“No!” he coughed out, crashing to the ground with the burly man, the woman dragged down with them both. “Uuugh!” he cried out, pushing up.
I should have ran, grabbed help, he thought, the shrinking exit closing. This is it.
“I'm sorry, ardent,” Cardec grunted, looking exhausted by the expenditure. “I can't hold out any longer!”
The fire blazed out, cutting through the center of their bubble, then barely was pushed back, but the aether noticeably thinned in the air. This was it.
I'm going to die.
The bubble trembled, slowly collapsing.