Hannah stood at the gates of the tomb.
Her heart was pounding, she was on guard.
Waiting to see, to hear.
But nothing.
Then suddenly there was a loud noise.
Wood cracked.
Vibrations and the sound of flying stones.
Hannah froze.
Part of her wanted to go and see what was going on.
But the part that won out was the part that chose to wait.
Attentive to every sound.
The seconds seemed long.
Time refracted.
All impressions became more intense.
And suddenly, no more noise.
The large doors of the tomb opened.
Hannah ran down the steps.
Soon, she was faced with a scene that seemed unreal.
The wall at the back of the crypt was torn open.
Rocks had been flying everywhere.
The coffin Hannah and Lug used to sit on was in pieces, a few bones could be found, scattered on the floor.
And blood, lots of blood everywhere.
But the most shocking thing was Lug.
He was sitting on the floor, his back against the wall.
He was covered in blood.
His fists were shredded.
He had open wounds all along his arms.
His right leg looked blue, or violet, full of bruises, the flesh was swollen.
His eyes were open, but he didn't look conscious.
The Wise One was crouched beside him and looked like he was speaking to him.
But when Lug saw Hannah, his eyes came back to life.
"Hannah... This is... What am I doing here?"
His voice was weak.
"What happened? What did you do to him?!" Hannah asked the ghost, with restraint.
She knew how to keep things in perspective, even in moments when it would be easy to get carried away by emotions.
"He did this to himself." replied the Wise One.
Then he stood up, and motioned for her to approach.
"Take him home, I stopped his bleeding. Once on his bed, use the healing techniques I taught you. The *why* can wait."
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Hannah looked at the Wise One angrily, then nodded and began to help Lug to his feet.
"Don't take him to the hospital." he added.
"You want him to die?" Hannah replied, this time there was clearly anger in her voice.
"No, his physical condition is not the main problem. If you take care of rebalancing his energies, his wounds will heal quickly. Trust me, this is the best solution for everyone." The Wise One emphasized the end of his sentence.
Hannah was tired of trusting him.
"Whatever, I'm taking him to the hospital." she replied.
"Hannah, Lug has exceptional vitality. But that vitality depends on his psychic energy, the best thing to do is..."
Lug raised his bloody hand and cleared his throat.
"Hannah, do what he says..." his voice was almost inaudible.
Hannah held Lug by the waist, his arm, reddened with blood, resting on her shoulder.
She could feel his body sticky with dried blood and sweat.
His face gripped with pain with every movement he made.
She looked at him for a moment, a feeling of pity mixed with sadness assailed her.
Then she began to help him up the stairs, without saying anything.
Lug's right leg was in no condition to walk, so he moved forward with one leg.
It took them about 20 minutes to get to his house.
She put Lug in his bed and started to disinfect and clean his wounds.
Lug thanked her.
Hannah took the opportunity to ask him what had happened in the crypt, but he had already fallen asleep.
When she had finished cleaning up the blood, she brought a chair to face the bed and sat down.
She placed her hands on Lug's navel and forehead.
She closed her eyes and stayed that way for almost an hour.
When she finished, she got up and left the house.
Lug alternated minutes of being awake with hours of sleep.
Hannah came to take care of him several times a day.
It took two days for him to fully wake up.
When Hannah came in at dawn on the third day, she was surprised to see Lug sitting on his bed.
He turned his head toward her, as he saw her come in.
"Hannah, I'm sorry to..." he began to say before being cut off by an excited Hannah.
"Lug, are you awake? How are you feeling? Do you remember anything?"
The questions came thick and fast.
Lug started to laugh.
Then he made a face as he held his ribs.
"Careful, don't move too much. You have broken ribs."
"Uh, I felt it. I really didn't miss huh."
Hannah sat down next to Lug.
"What happened?" she asked.
Lug crossed his fingers.
"It's all a bit of a blur. I think I got my memory back after the Wise One did his little magic trick."
Lug paused, before continuing.
His gaze was fixed on the wall facing him, absent-minded.
"All of a sudden I lost consciousness. Everything went black. And I think I was somewhere else, I had hallucinations."
"So you don't remember what happened to put you in that state?" Hannah asked confused.
"No." Lug said dryly.
Hannah stood up.
Her face closed.
"Yes, wall yourself in silence. After all, I'm only good for treating you, right?"
She said icily.
Lug looked at her for a moment, he didn't expect this reaction.
He watched her put on her coat and leave, slamming the door.
No sound came out of his mouth.
He knew Hannah had a temper, but he still didn't know how to talk to her.
Maybe he needed to get up and try to catch her.
But he didn't.
"Hannah is a storm of emotions, best left alone." he thought to himself.
Instead, he made another decision.
He closed his eyes, rearranged his energies, then opened his eyes again.
He could see the psychic energy.
Turning his head, his gaze met Gavan's.
The ghost raised his eyebrows, which could be translated as: "I told you so."
Or perhaps, "Nice to see you alive again."
Gavan's expressions all looked the same, it was sometimes hard to understand him.
Either way, these two men were glad to see each other again.
Lug opened his mouth to say a few words:
"I didn't have time to tell her that I was happy to see her again."
"No, you should have aimed for something more romantic. Something like: Forgetting you allowed me to fall in love with you a second time." Gavan replied.
"So cheesy old man. SO CHEESY. You must be happy to see me, to say such crap." replied Lug.
"I always knew you'd make it. But... are you going back?" asked Gavan.
"Yes, I realized that I can't back down anymore. I have to see it through."