The glances Lily got as she walked inside the Practice Hall of the Sanatorium were all but kind. If she weren’t holding Gentiliana Claudia’s hand, her father’s cousin and a part of the family in charge of the [Healer] caste, she would have already been spanked.
Adults and young kids alike, all older than eight years old – the minimum age required to practice healing – looked at her with deep frowns; there were limited spots for practice, and every new trainee took levels away from the other. Seeing that the new addition to the group appeared to be a little girl, nobody felt particularly kindhearted.
“Come, darling,” Gentiliana tugged on her sleeve when Lily had slowed down, intimidated.
The Sanatorium was a gigantic circular building where all the wounded could come and receive free treatment. “Aurora, I gather your father explained how this works, right?”
Lily was brought to a corner with several benches, and her Godmother sat her down, asking her several questions.
“Yes.”
“Ok, darling, do you mind if we go over the most important ones?”
Lily shook her head.
“What can you do with Light Magic?”
“Light Magic can cure wounds and broken bones and regenerate missing limbs.”
“And what can’t you do with it?”
“Cure diseases.”
For reasons Lily could not comprehend, Light Magic did not work on diseases. She had initially supposed that due to not knowing anything about biology and real human anatomy, these people were simply doing the wrong things. However, they used Light Magic to enhance the body’s functions, which didn’t make sense as that should have granted the patients a stronger immune system and, therefore, help prevent diseases.
“Cure disease and growths,” Gentiliana added, patting her head.
Cancer, right.
Lily wondered if perhaps her knowledge of modern medicine could help tackle the problems these people had not managed to solve yet.
“You know that studying is an essential part of healing, right?” Gentiliana asked, looking straight into her eyes. “Lucianus is so good at it because he’s always reading some strange books that say who knows what. The more you know about the body, Aurora, the stronger your magic will be.”
...
“In His glow,” the attendant said after jotting down Lily’s new name and letting both her and Gentiliana roam around the Practice Hall, free to choose their first target.
“In His glow,” Gentiliana replied and turned to her niece. “So?”
The small child stared with wide eyes at several small, fenced areas full of wounded cats, dogs, and even farm animals.
“A pig?” Lily asked in her high-pitched, childish voice, pointing at a massive pig with several gashes in its underbelly and a labored breath.
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“A farming accident,” Gentiliana sighed.
“Yes, but… not people?” Lily was confused.
“Oh, dear,” Gentiliana covered her mouth and laughed, “the Pope is very open to experimentation and training, unlike his predecessors, but we cannot just unleash a horde of untrained children on the wounded of the city. What would God say?”
Lily nodded, still staring at the massive pig.
“That piggie is actually badly wounded,” Gentiliana added, “we’ll have to heal it ourselves if no recruit steps up. He’s a bit too much for the kids to handle.”
Lily looked around and saw some teenagers imposing both their hands over the animals, trying to summon their healing power and, mostly, failing. Some could emit a slight luminescence from their hands, but it barely had any effect on the wailing animals.
“So, where do you want to start?” Gentiliana asked.
Lily had always had a soft spot for farm animals and had often chaperoned both middle and elementary school classes to various petting zoos.
“Piggie?” Lily said in her cutest voice, indicating the massive pig at the end of the room.
“Aurora,” Gentiliana reprimanded the little girl, “we should start with something small. If you get bitten by that pig, your mother is going to kill me.”
“Piggie? Pretty please?” Lily used her new, big, deep blue eyes she had gotten in this world and even tried to get them a little teary for dramatic effect.
“Ok, ok,” Gentiliana raised both her hands, “we can try. Your mother will never let me live this down, though…”
Her Godmother escorted her to the pig’s fence, and they both walked in before closing the small gate behind them. The pig had several big gashes all around its body and snorted softly as the two approached it.
“Now, has your father explained to you how to get the skill?” Gentiliana asked.
Lily nodded eagerly. Her eyes were glued to the massive pig.
“Then, I’ll give you a brush-up. [Minor Heal] is a skill that someone proficient in Light-Attuned Magic, or just Light Magic as most prefer to call it, can easily obtain by projecting their intent to heal someone. Then, the more you know about the Cursus Curarum, the stronger and more numerous your skills will be.”
Lily did not listen to a single word. Not one. Some of her best memories from her old life were of a little farm that her father had brought her to sometimes, before a goat had bitten her, leaving her with a few stitches, and her mother had banned them from going there.
Not waiting for the older woman to finish speaking, Lily simply raised her hands and focused on all she knew about healing. Her new mother had indeed explained that healing came from three things: intent, knowledge, and power. The intent was the intention to use Light Magic to heal, while knowledge reflected one’s understanding of how the healing actually worked. Finally, power was simply the raw output of Mana and its concentration density.
So, Lily summoned all the knowledge of wounds she had. After all, she had been a biology teacher with more than a passing interest in medicine—compared to the people here, she might as well have been a Nobel laureate.
She drew from her memories of biology lessons and anatomy textbooks and the countless visits to the hospital, where she saw wounds of all types being treated. She remembered sutures, stitches, how the body reacted to injury, how blood coagulated, how cells proliferated, how antibiotics and antiseptics worked, and the timeline of the body's healing process. All these bits of knowledge formed a complex map in her mind.
With that understanding, she envisioned exactly what she needed to do. First, she needed to stop the bleeding. That meant the magic needed to interact with platelets to accelerate the clotting process.
Next, she needed to promote the healing of the tissue. That meant stimulating the production of collagen, the basis of the connective tissue. After that, it was time to stimulate the immune response, starting with the promotion of chemotaxis – the movement of immune cells, such as leukocytes, to the injury site; that would trigger the release of cytokines, signaling to the immune system the need for localized inflammation.
And that’s where the healing process started.
Angiogenesis – the formation of new blood vessels from the existing ones to transport nutrients and oxygen to the wound site – was the most important part, together with the actual formation of new tissue. It was a delicate balance – too much could lead to unnecessary scar tissue, but too little would delay the healing process.
Lily closed her eyes, visualizing as much of the whole process at once as she could. She inhaled deeply and reached for all the Mana within herself since the piggie was pretty big.
In one moment, she felt a surge of energy coursing through her entire body, shaking her little frame and bursting out of her palms. In the next, she passed out.