Almost immediately, the man’s legs went limp as blood dripped from the wound. It was in a similar spot to the wound which killed Elric, and his face flashed through my mind as I lowered him to the ground.
“MEDICAL SUPPLIES! WE NEED MEDICAL SUPPLIES!”
This isn’t something I can treat with medical supplies.
I knew that. It had taken a large chunk of his flesh away, including a part of his stomach. It wasn’t as deep as Elric’s wound, but it would kill him.
No, I knew what I needed to do, even if it was risky as hell. He was going to die anyway, so it didn’t matter if I failed. Without any preparation or plan, I needed to figure out healing.
“Everyone back away! I need space!” I yelled out, The crowd which had surrounded us dispersed and stood back. I quickly scooted over to the side of Elm on my knees. He was losing blood fast. Placing my hands out in front of me, I let them hover over the wound. Time seemed to pause as I began to channel pure mana, removing the natural energy of the light.
Ok, I know how to control my own flow. I need to extend it out to his body. I just have to feel it and shape it back to where it was… but I haven’t manipulated the mana inside another person. I have to be looking at it wrong.
I removed all the sound and distractions that surrounded me. All of my thoughts and focus was on myself and the body in front of me. I racked my brain, thinking of all of Elm’s lessons.
It’s an extension of myself. Mana wants to listen to me, as long as I ask. Our bodies do not create the flow within us. We simply change the flow that the world gives to us and transform it…
The image of Elm’s body began to enter my mind. I could feel it now, just as I felt the mana passing through magore back in the mines.
… and that means that the flow of mana inside of him and everything else is the exact same.
I reached out my hand, placing it closer to the wound. I soon felt the pure mana my hand was emitting connect to the flow of his as I tied the two points together in my mind, and my mana and Elm’s had become one. There was only one step left, and it was the hardest one.
I needed to manipulate his flow to reform that part of his body. I couldn’t visualize the part, only imagining the part of myself, but I knew that wasn’t enough. I needed to reform Elm’s body, not recreate a part of my own.
I think I need to call in a favor.
With my eyes closed, I made a silent request to the world around me.
Hey mana? Help me save this man.
There was silence, a lack of a response. That same voice that I believed I had heard before didn’t reappear. Even then, I could still feel movement within my body. I slowly opened my eyes to find the flesh in front of me reforming, shifting and covering up the wound. It looked as though time was reversing as the skin and flesh returned to its previous state. I continued to focus on maintaining the connection as the body healed and keeping it stable, and after what felt like only a minute, no wound was to be found.
“Huh.” Was all that I said.
I grinned as my consciousness began to slip away.
***
Alex watched as the Corithian slumped over and fell onto the dirt after pulling off what most would consider a miracle. For North, this was more or less a regular occurrence. Alex had come to expect that he would do insane stuff like this, and thus this moment didn’t phase him too much. It did, however, do that for everyone else currently circling the collapsed duo. Alex broke out of his thoughts when he felt Silva tap him on the shoulder.
“I never expected you to end up doing stuff like this. And I didn’t expect that one to be a healer.” She remarked, staring at North.
“Well, he wasn’t a healer up until a minutes ago.”
Don’t know how he figured it out, but he did when he needed to.
Before Silva could question his seemingly nonsensical response, they heard some groaning come from the ground. Elm rose his head, staring at the circle before noticing his now healed wound.
“Oh, for fucks sake.” He grumbled. He slowly began to sit up, where he noticed the passed out North lying face first in the dirt. “Of course he figures it out on his own.”
Is he angry about being healed?
“Elm, you ok? You lost a good bit of blood.”
“Yeah, I know. Healing up a wound doesn’t replace the blood.” Elm spoke before taking a moment to take a peek under his shirt, upon which he let out another deep groan. “Of course those end up disappearing too.”
Silva turned her focus away from the older gentleman to North. “What about him?”
“He’ll be fine. Healing wounds like this requires the healer to put some of their own mana into the other’s body, so it usually tires them out. It’s his first time managing to pull it off, and I can’t imagine he’s gotten too much sleep. He’ll probably be out for at least a full day, maybe more.”
Alex scratched a bit at the rust on his face. “So what do we do while our leader is out?”
“Leader?” Silva asked.
“I’ll explain later.”
“Well, we get to work. Start planning for the next part of the trip. Gather supplies, initiate people to the group, and all the other shit we’ve been doing when he’s been here.”
Alex gave the old man a wry smile. “And I presume you will take the role of interim leader?”
The man gave out another groan, this time of mental anguish.
“Once I have a bit more blood in my system, sure. Feeling pretty damn anemic right now.” Elm took another glance at North. “Well, are you just gonna leave him there?”
Alex made a move to pick him up, holding him in front of his chest while his head rested on his shoulder. In this position, it was a lot more clear the difference in size between the two of them. North wasn’t the smallest, but he’d clearly been stunted in his growth due to malnourishment. Last he heard, North was 19, but he looked like he was barely 16. Perhaps if he had an actual childhood, he wouldn’t have been this easy to carry.
“I’ll put him in a bunk. Can someone grab me a blanket from the cart?” Alex made a quick request to the circle of people watching with intrigue
A member of the caravan raised their hand and promptly ran off to the carts to grab a blanket. Alex turned to Silva, and the two of them began to make their way to the male bunks.
***
“It’s been a while, Private.”
“We’re no longer in Nacilia. There’s no need for the formalities. Or are you adamant on me calling you Lieutenant Halcyon?”
Stolen story; please report.
The two of them smiled as they made their way through the camp. Alex was happy that his mental image of Silva that he’d held throughout the years was accurate. Compared to the rust of Alex, Silva’s curly long hair was a much brighter red. It brought images of embers to mind.
Silva took a moment to get a better look at North.
“So this is the person in charge of this whole thing? I know you prefer to follow others, but you sure chose an interesting one.”
Alex let out an emphatic sigh, shifting his hold to better carry North.
“North’s the one who started our own revolt. He asked me for my assistance, so I helped him recruit others in the camp. He might not look like much, but he’s got some interesting ideas and has the will to go the distance. Plus, he’s also got a light attunement and, as of a few minutes ago, can heal.”
“Damn. You’re carrying a real rare one.”
Alex smiled, reminiscing on the triumph of the revolt. “Yeah. For a Corithian, he’s not much of a coward.”
Silva’s mouth went agape. Out of all of the information, the leader being from Corith was the most surprising.
The two of them opened the door to the male bunks and spotted an empty one that looked more inviting than the others. Alex carefully laid North down on the bunk. Taking a look at his face, he could tell that he was in deep sleep. It would take a lot to wake him, although neither planned to try. They watched over him in silence for a bit until one of the caravan members came into the room with a blanket. After covering North, they walked out into the cold night.
“What’s with the older fellow?” Silva motioned over to Elm, sitting in a chair and chugging from a canteen.
Ah, he must seem a tad bizarre.
“Elm is North’s mentor. Took him as a magore technician apprentice in the camps before the revolt, and is the main person helping him learn his attunement. He’s a tad coarse, but he’s not the worst once you get to know him. I don’t know too much about his past. He knows a lot about magore tech, and was apparently pretty high up in the Arlin army, but I don’t know much else outside of that. North cares about him a lot, so I trust in the man.”
A lot better than that snake of a woman from Pluma.
Alex shuddered at the thought of Nicole. Manipulating North meant she now had a favor hanging over his head that she could cash in at any moment. Silva tapped him on the shoulder, breaking him out of his thought to draw his gaze towards Elina. She was standing near Elm, handing him a bread ration.
“Is that an Ireborian?”
“We have two of them actually. A woman named Elina and a man named Wanderer. Funny enough, Elina is more interested in killing the other ash-hair than she is in killing me.” Alex said, remembering the chaotic scene of the Irebor warrior with her burner pointed at the deserter. “The enemy of our enemy is a friend, right?”
Not like she has the best relationship with North at the moment.
The two of them stood in silence for a second, waiting to hear the other speak. They knew what topic was to come next.
Guess I’ll ask first.
“What happened to you? You know, after we got captured.”
Silva sighed before moving over to the wall of the male bunks, resting her back upon it. Alex followed suit and stood next to her.
“Same as you. They put the cuff on me, and I ended up getting dragged around the empire from camp to camp. Ended up in Boralis in… it at least has to be a year or two. You know how hard it is to tell time in places like these.”
“I do. I guess the life of a prisoner of war isn’t too complex. Any idea what happened to the rest of the squad?”
Alex saw a deep pain in Silva’s eyes at the mention of her squad, a pain which he understood very well.
“I wish I knew. Best guess? They’re either in the mines like the rest of us or dead. The mines outside of Boralis can be worse than this by a lot.” A flash of disturbed memories went through her head. Memories of horrid treatment, of abuse and painful conditions. The guard captain had full control of their lives and how much they would suffer on a daily basis. “I pray for them every now and then. Hope that they’re living a better life than me right now. Or are alive at all.”
Alex scratched again at the rust on his face. Seeing him repeat that same tick was comforting for his old squad leader.
“You haven’t changed much.”
Alex gave Silva a side glance.
“Neither have you.”
Both of them gave out a soft chuckle, reminiscing on the past.
“What made you follow him?”
Alex contemplated the question for a while, hovering over those simple words. It shouldn’t have been a complex question, yet he had found himself stuck on it.
“At first it was the light attunement. When he showed me that, I think something in me shifted. It reminded me of my time in the squad, feeling the power of my own fire. But after that, I lost a bit of hope. He might be creative in some scenarios, but he wasn’t the best with planning. And when I came to him with that, and asked him what we were fighting for, he told me that he was fighting to protect the memory of his people. And that if they could erase his hometown, they could erase Nacilia too. After that, I could see that he had the will in him to actually push forward and make the decisions necessary for leadership. But…”
Silva leaned forward, away from the wall to get a better look at Alex’s face. “But what?”
Alex suddenly bolted from the wall and turned to her, hitting his chest with his left fist just above the heart.
“But if you request, I will follow you. I know I said this isn’t Nacilia, but I made an oath. If the time comes and you call upon me, I will be there.”
Silva took a moment to study him, confused by this shift in resolve.
“That sounds a bit traitorous, don’t you think?”
Alex steeled himself for the next painful words.
“I do trust North. I know that he is going to go to insane lengths to fight for others. I mean, he’s one of the fastest learning mages I know of. He’s figured out concepts in weeks which would take some people years to master, and he’s only getting better. I know that he is a good person with strong beliefs. It’s just… he’s naive. He spent most of his entire life in a middle of nowhere village in Corith, and the rest in the mine. Even if he can be creative on the fly, he’s not the best at making long term plans. So if you ever feel the need to take control of the situation, I’ll be on your side.”
Silva gave him a doubtful look. “You’re lying.”
He was lying. Not in the way that he said he supported North, or that he would support Silva in case she called upon him, but in how he viewed the Corithian. With how he looked and how he acted, he could only really view him as a kid. He wasn’t even that much younger than Alex, yet he hadn’t been given the time to develop. The role of leadership had been thrust upon him, and despite the pressure, he’d managed surprisingly well. Even then, he was only barely maintaining control and was close on several occasions to having everything fall apart.
“Yeah… he’s young. He’s only 6 years younger than me, but-”
“He’s 19?” Silva blurted out. She had clearly assumed that he was younger from his physical appearance.
That’s part of my point.
“Last I heard, although I have no idea if Corith’s got a different calendar than us. But you see what I mean? He can be a great leader. Some of these people put their full trust in him, and not without reason. But I don’t know how long that can all hold up, and I don’t know when something is going to fall apart. What’s coming next isn’t simple raids or skirmishes. He wants to liberate as many camps as possible, and that means war. And although I want to believe he could pull through, I can’t do that without knowing there’s a plan for the future. Which is why I believe that if things get worse, you should step up.”
Silva scoffed, still struggling to deal with the deluge of information.
“Why not have that old soldier do it? You said he’s experienced.”
Alex shook his head, taking a side glance at North's mentor. “Elm’s not interested in leading a rebellion. If the Corithian tells him to take control of a smaller squad, maybe. But he’s not interested in taking over what North is doing. I know you. I know you can lead, because I’ve seen you do it before. You’re the only person I trust to do this.”
Alex was begging his squadmate, the woman to whom he had entrusted his very life, to save them from a disastrous future. There was no façade to hide his emotions.
He was afraid. Afraid of a future which had replayed over and over in his mind ever since they took that first step out of the camp and into the unknown. The fear that gnawed at him every time he saw North make an error in judgment. He was sure the others felt it.
Yet here in front of him stood an answer. A person who had both the resolve to lead others and the experience to back them up. In the darkness of Boralis he had found a person he could hold onto, one who could point towards a clearer future. It wasn’t something he could just let go of.
North had given him a path to follow. That didn’t mean that he was unable to choose another.
She moved away from the wall to face Alex, then beat her left fist against her chest, just below her neck.
“You have my word, Private Marbel.”
“At your orders, Lieutenant Halcyon.”
Under the cloudless night sky in a destroyed mining camp, two mages from Nacilia made an oath. They would betray the man who was sleeping peacefully in a bunk only a few steps away from them.