The information flowed like a small cup of water into my mind, the spell couldn't find any of the diseases it was designed to detect which subconsciously made me smile.
“Good news I assume?” Calavia asked with her own soft smile.
“Yes, the spell didn’t find any of the diseases it was designed to find.”
“That is good news then. My turn now.” Calavia almost gleefully said as she started casting the spell herself. This time she managed to do the spell correctly and like with myself her right hand glowed like a small little candle. With just a moment of hesitation she placed her own hand against my head. Quickly her expression shifted, signaling she received the information for the spell like I did before.
“Good news?” I asked as Calavia remained quiet for a moment longer than I expected.
“Y-yes, good news. Just a little surprised by how that works.” Calavia stuttered a little as she answered me. I found her reaction a little odd considering I didn’t react the same way.
“Done already, you two?” Sana asked as she stepped away from Vel who seemed rather annoyed with everything at the moment. “Good job, both of you. I trust you are more than capable of casting the Lesser Injury Detection.”
“Of course, we will start right away.” I quickly answered and looked toward Calavia who was nodding along.
“Good to hear, I will be just over here with Vel should you need anything.”
Quickly Calavia and I started casting the spell on each other, Calavia went first and like before accidentally mispronounced one of the arcane words and the spell failed. I consoled Calavia and then it was my turn to cast the spell.
With steady and firm hands I performed the hand signs and spoke the arcane words, within just three seconds my right hand glowed again and I pressed it against Calaivia's head to make her the target of the spell. Within just a few seconds I received back from the spell that it didn’t detect any serious damage to the outside of her body which I took as the spell was working as it should be.
I smiled and nodded to Calavia who started her second attempt at casting the spell. This time she managed to cast the spell correctly and she followed my example once again and touched my head with her glowing right hand. Like before she seemed surprised by the results, like it wasn’t what she was expecting.
“Are you alright?” I quickly asked half worried she wasn’t well.
“I'm alright, just a little surprised by how the spell works. How do you remain so stable after casting these spells? I felt a little light headed after casting each one.”
“Light headed? I felt a little off when I received the information from the spell but that is about all I feel. Are you sure you are feeling alright? That doesn’t seem like something that is normal after casting a spell, let alone a simple tier one spell.”
“But these spells actually put information directly into your mind, I think I just need to get used to it before the symptoms start to go away.” Calavia said trying to make her symptoms look like nothing, but I wasn’t having that and pushed back a little.
“I think we need to tell Sana about this. Best case scenario this is just normal, worst case this is really really bad.” Calavia paused for a moment with her mouth open like she was about to say something, after a moment she closed her mouth and thought about it before nodding in agreement.
“Hey Sana.” I called over to the high elf speaking with Vel. “We need to ask you something.”
Sana gave a soft smile and nodded to an annoyed looking Vel before walking over to the two of us. “Are you both done casting the spells already? You know you can continue casting them as practice for a few more minutes if you would like.”
“Actually it is about something else.” I said and looked at Calavia. She looked far more worried than before, likely the reality of the situation was hitting her.
“I-” She stuttered out of nervousness. “I have been feeling rather light headed after casting each of the spells. Is that something we need to be worrying about?”
“High headedness? No, that isn’t anything to worry about. It's just a side effect of how the spells work.” Sana quickly waved off any concerns that we had. “Since spells aren't actual people they can’t think, they are however able to hold information and carry out instructions. The way they do this is similar enough to allow the transference to living creatures, however it is slightly different which forces our minds to work very hard to translate the information into a way we can actually understand it. That is why you are feeling a little light headed, in time and practice you won’t even feel it anymore.”
“Then why didn’t I feel the same way after casting the spells?” I asked without thinking. “I don’t exactly have lots of experience with restoration magic. I only started this apprenticeship around a month ago.”
Sana looked at with a mix of surprise and confusion for a moment before collecting her thoughts. “Well… you must be very talented in restoration magic then.” Sana sounded rather unsure of her statement but didn’t give me enough time to say anything.
“Anyways, now that we have that out of the way I think it is time that we move onto the next page and the spells that are listed there.” Sana quickly walked back to the table where she had left her own copy of the book and flipped to the next page leaving the three of us without much of a choice in the matter.
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Putting my questions out of my mind for the moment I did the same and looked at the page before me, On it were three spells. The first was a simple healing spell called Lesser Restore Wounds that targeted more specific injuries than the spell I knew of, the second was a disease curing spell called Cure Lesser Soft Voice that would cure the soft voice disease. This disease was apparently very common in poor places like the southern district and would cause the victim to feel a rough pain in their throat that would result in a soft and quiet voice. Given that the spell was only a tier one it likely wouldn’t be very difficult to cure.
The third and final spell on the page was called Cure Lesser Flaming Rash which would need to be casted several times to cure a victim of the flaming rash disease. This disease would come in the form of several red rashes that would appear in several places across the victim's body which was why the spell needed to be casted several times. These rashes would be very painful in a way that they would almost burn like they were on fire.
When we were all done we closed our books and turned our attention back towards Sana.
“I assume that everyone is done reading the spells?” We all nodded in agreement. “Very good then. For the occasion I have procured some test subjects for the three of you to try the spells on before moving onto actual patients.” With a wave with a wooden wand three loud thumps sounded on the table. We all turned to look and found there were three of these ball shaped flesh things attached to wooden poles.
“These here are what we mages at the guild like to call flesh testers. These are made from the flesh of high priority criminals and are used by young mages such as yourselves to test out spells on technically living targets when it is needed.” Sana explained with a disturbing lack of emotion considering what we were looking at.
“This first flesh tester will be used for testing Lesser Restore Wounds.” Sana said as she brought out a dagger from her robe and gave a quick slash to the flesh tester. It started to bleed only a little before Sana quickly casted Lesser Restore Wounds and healed its wound. When she was done she left the dagger on the table next to the first flesh tester and moved onto the very next one.
“This one will be used for casting Cure Lesser Flaming Rash.” Looking at the flesh tester I noticed there were several red rashes across its entirety that looked rather painful. If the flesh tester was still a person I would have expected some screaming from just its appearance alone. Without waiting for us to speak Sana casted the Cure Lesser Flaming Rash spell on one the larger rash and within just a few moments it disappeared and was replaced with healthy looking flesh.
However before stepping over to the next flesh tester she reached into her robe and brought out a small handful of vials containing what looked to be some sort of identical potions. She left all but one on the table next to it and slowly poured the contents of the potion onto the flesh tester. Somehow the ball of flesh was able to quickly absorb the potion without any mouth or other orifice and where the rash that Sana cured another took its place.
With Sana walking towards the last flesh tester I noticed this one looked rather different compared to the others, this one had what appeared to be a hole just large enough to be someone's throat.
“This last flesh tester will be used to test out the Cure Lesser Soft Voice spell.” Sana picked up the last flesh tester and brought her hand towards the hole and opened it up wide with her fingers. It was an uncomfortable and almost sickening sight but it gave us an opportunity to see what the Soft Voice disease actually looked like. The sore and painful looking tissue that made us this artificial throat gave both Calavia and myself a little nausea.
Thankfully we didn’t need to look for very long and Sana removed her hands to cast the spell. With just a few seconds a small ball of light was enveloped by the flesh tester and Sana showed us the inside of the hole, like the other two there was now a normal looking throat without any sore looking flesh it once had.
When she was done Sana brought out more identical potions, taking one she poured the liquid down the artificial throat and within just a few moments it was absorbed and looked similar to how it did before.
“Who wants to go first?” Sana abruptly asked us in an almost cheerful voice.
Vel looked mostly bored and annoyed with the situation while Calavia and myself shared a mixture of confusion and worry at her tone.
“I will go first.” Vel quickly stepped forwards with a slight scowl on his face. “Might as well get this repeat test done and out of the way sooner than later.”
“Very good then, come right up Vel.” Sana said with the same cheery tone as Vel stepped to the first flesh tester. Like I had seen him do many times before he used the Lesser Restore Wounds spell to heal the wound in just a handful of seconds. When he was done Sana walked right up too and picked up the first flesh tester and looked it over.
“Very well done Vel, I don’t see a single issue with just my naked eye.” Vel didn’t react to the compliment he was given as Sana casted a few diagnostic spells I didn’t recognize.
“Very good, very good. Now to the second flesh tester please.”
Stepping over to the second flesh tester Vel casted the Cure Lesser Flaming Rash spell on the largest rash he could see, though unlike Sana the rash didn’t go away within a handful of seconds. Perhaps due to his lesser skill the rash lingered around for nearly fifteen whole seconds before it left the flesh it once covered clean and pristine. Like before Sana quickly walked up to the flesh tester and casted a few spells to look at the recovery.
“Very good Vel. A bit more strength behind the spell needs to be recommended, but otherwise I would say you did a very good job.” Sana said as she placed the flesh tester back down onto the table and lightly pushed Vel towards the last one.
Using his left hand Vel held the artificial throat open and casted the Cure Lesser Soft Voice. Like before the spell took a bit longer to cure the flesh tester of the disease but it eventually did work and Vel handed it over to Sana to take a look at.
“My words regarding more power behind your spells still stands, but you did achieve the desired outcome so I will give you a pass.” Sana smiled and patted Vel on the shoulder. Vel pretended he didn’t notice and walked back over to Calavia and I to wait for the testing to continue. When she was done with her examination Sana went back to each of the flesh testers and reinfected or harmed them as they were needed and looked back towards us.
“Now that we have one of you done, why don’t we move onto another. Who wants to volunteer?” The eagerness Sana showed was not shared by either Calavia or myself.
“I will go first.” I abruptly stated as I stepped forwards. I looked back to Calavia and gave her a small nod, hopefully she could use the little extra time to mentally prepare herself for when it was her turn.
Like Vel before me I stepped up to the first flesh tester with a cut down its side. I raised my hands and started casting the Lesser Restore Wounds spell and my right hand glowed slightly, I touched the wound and slowly the wounded flesh slowly mended itself before my eyes. It was in its own way beautiful to look at and when the spell stopped working the wound was gone I ran my hand across where a small scar had formed.
“Great job Arthur.” Sana said as she stepped beside me and took a look at my healing. “You did very well for your first time. Now onto the next one.”