It took two hours to finish healing the elder's daughter. The process started out slow, as I tried to what was wrong with her body and maximize my healing efficiency. However, after an hour of constant failure, I only had a rough understanding of the situation. I could tell that her body had two problems. The first problem was lack of cartilage in her spine. That was easier to fix - my healing magic could even regrow lost limbs, so I could regrow the cartilage with little difficulty. After that, her spine was as good as new. Her legs were the confusing part. For some reason, her body refused to send the correct amount of nutrients to her legs.

Why was that the case?

I had no idea.

It might have been some sort of quirk in how her digestive system linked to the rest of her body. It might have been a problem related to the biology of this world's humans. It could have been a problem with her digestive system itself. I had no way to figure it out. So after an hour of frustration, I gave up and threw more essence at it.

That did the trick. Once I started throwing essence at the problem, her legs started to heal. That made me appreciate, for the first time in a while, how powerful my healing spell was. I was capable of healing injuries and maladies that I didn’t have the slightest understanding of. Of course, there were some injuries that I seemed flat-out incapable of treating. Soul related injuries, and whatever had dropped Old Mo, were unhealable. However, most ‘normal’ injuries were fixable regardless of whether I understood them or not. This made it much easier for me to work as a healer when I want to.

After I started throwing essence at Maela's legs, I did my best to observe it. As far as I could tell, my healing spell treated Maela's legs kind of like how it treated a missing limb. It started out by rebuilding missing muscles and bone density, at the cost of ludicrous amounts of essence. The cost wasn’t quite as bad as when I regrew a missing limb, but it was close - which showed just how bad of a state her legs was in. Once her muscles, bones, etc. were rebuilt, I felt my ability link her legs up to the rest of her body.

That made me wonder whether I had actually healed the root problem. The biggest issue was that her digestive tract wasn’t sending nutrients to her legs. My healing magic had manually replaced those missing nutrients, but I had no idea whether the disconnect had been resolved. If not, she would have the same problem in a few days. However, as long as I was around and kept tossing more healing magic her way, she would be able to live a normal life.

It wasn't a perfect solution, but it was the best I could do. I still had no clue what the actual problem was, so I had no good way to fix it. Maybe in the future I would find a 'perfect' healing solution, but at the very least, I could treat the symptoms for now.

“I’ve restored your legs and spine as much as I can," I said after I finished working. "I think your spine should be in perfect working condition again. How does everything feel?” I asked.

Maela tried massaging her legs, gently at first, and then with increasing firmness. She smiled. “They don’t hurt at all! Are they… can I walk on them?”

“You should be able to, once you get reacquainted with your legs. Give it a try. Slowly, though. If it has been a long time since you last walked, your coordination probably won’t be great. Be prepared to trip and fall if you aren’t careful,” I said. "Actually, here - hold on to my arm. I'll catch you if you fall."

"I'll do it," said her brother. His eyes were alight with anticipation as he looked at his sister. I hesitated, since part of me felt like I should do it. I was the medical professional here, after all. But then, I smiled and stepped back.

I had incredible strength and reflexes. I could catch her in time. And Maela would probably feel happier if her first steps were done with the help of her family.

Maela nodded, and her brother helped her climb off her bed and to her feet. Maela leaned against the wall and held onto her brother’s hands as she took an unsteady, wobbly step forward. Her legs gave out partway through, and I stepped forward at superhuman speed and caught her. She looked at her legs again, and then started laughing. Her laughter grew louder and louder, until she started crying. At first, I thought she was frustrated, but then I looked at her, and realized she was smiling.

“I can feel them,” she said. “Balancing is… hard. I keep feeling like I'm going to trip over my feet. But I can feel my legs moving. They feel so much stronger than before. My back feels fine. My legs feel fine.” She reached up, and then hugged me. She buried her face into my shoulder for a moment, and then released me. "Thank you."

I smiled. Seeing Maela so happy made me feel good about healing her. Still, I had some advice left to give her as a doctor before I celebrated for her.

“All right, your legs are weak right now. I've rebuilt all of the muscles, but your body doesn't quite know how to use those muscles. I’m going to start you off with a bit of physical therapy so that your brain and your legs can get reacquainted. These exercises are the same ones I give patients who lose their legs in an accident and then have them regrown, okay? Try them for a few days, and then we’ll see what shape your legs are in and how the exercises are working for you. That'll also give me a chance to see whether your legs start shrinking and deforming again. I might need to apply healing magic every few days to keep you healthy." I winced. "Sorry. I know it's not perfect, but it's the best I can do right now."

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Maela shook her head. "It's still so much better than before. Even if I need a bit of treatment every few days... it's worth it. Thank you, Miss Miria. I haven't been able to walk since I was eight."

I smiled, and then impulsively rubbed her head. Even though she wasn't my sister, she kind of reminded me of a little sister. "That's what I'm here to do. Now, let me walk you through the exercises I want you to do..." I started giving her a list of different exercises to help rebuild her coordination and strength.

The elder’s son grinned as he helped his sister back to the edge of her bed, where she started massaging her legs again. She didn't seem to be sore, or worried about them. She just seemed to be reveling in the sensation coming from her legs when she poked them.

“I appreciate what you’ve done for my sister, Miria,” said the elder's son. "Are you sure you don’t want payment? My father and I have been looking for someone who can heal her condition for years. We’ve offered as much as we can afford, and while it’s not enough to hire the expensive doctors, it isn’t a small sum of money either. You deserve some form of compensation for what you've done."

I shook my head. “Right now, we’re trying to build friendship with our new neighbors. I want the people here to treat us like members of the community. That’s all.” I smiled. “But we’ll start charging for medical services next week, so don’t take the free healing for granted. Okay?”

His face changed to one of worry. "How much will it cost per healing session?"

"Not too much," I said. "I'm not going to charge you some crazy, extortionate price. I admit, I still need to figure out the local currency, but it shouldn't cost too much more than a regular medical treatment."

The elder’s son relaxed and nodded. “That should be fine." Then, he hesitated for a moment. "How about you stay for dinner? My parents will want to meet you. Maela's condition has been on our mind for a long time." He grinned at me. "My mother will probably make a celebratory feast when she sees my sister walking around, and you definitely don’t want to miss her herbs and mutton stew. It’s rare that she’s in the mood to make it, but it’s delicious.”

I felt my smile widen. Dinner with one of the families in this town sounded like an excellent way to get to know people more.

“Sure."

It took another hour before the elder and his wife got home, while I walked Maela through her physical therapy exercises. The elder was a man in his late forties or early fifties, but he had muscular arms and calluses on his hands. He was surprisingly robust and fit for a man his age. He wore a suit, indicating that he didn't do hard physical labor anymore, but I suspected that was a recent development.

The elder’s wife looked to be in her late forties, and had smile lines in the corners of her eyes. She looked like a young version of a kindly old granny that would feed you excessive quantities of baked goods. I liked her at first sight.

“You must be the new healer everyone has been talking about.” The elderly man glanced at his son, before his eyes darted to the room upstairs. “How did it... Did you…”

I smiled. “She can recover the ability to walk and live a normal life. She'll need to work at it, and she will need occasional healing from me... but I can fix most of her problems.”

The elder and his wife both dashed upstairs without another word.

Ten minutes later, they emerged from their daughter’s room. Both of made hand signs that I vaguely recognized. My Zannan hand signs were shaky, but I knew they were conveying gratitude. After that, I received two more invitations to dinner.

The food was fantastic. It didn’t feature fish, but the food was almost enough for me to change my favorite food.

Almost. There was no beating the taste of home, after all.

After dinner, we had a few glasses of some sort of fruit juice. It tasted a lot like strawberry juice, although the texture was far more pulp-y. It wasn’t my favorite, but washed down the stew nicely. It was a fun night, and the elder and his wife invited me to come back anytime I wanted. I counted that as a win.

The next week was peaceful. Trish and I continued healing people, although we switched from free to paid healing after a week.

Everyone started to settle into their new life. A week and a half wasn’t enough time to completely build a sense of community, but things were moving along on that front. Most of the townsfolk smiled when they saw a member of our group, and the elderly took a particular liking to Anise. We were starting to pick up more Zannan hand-signs and words. It was beginning to feel like we were actually home.

Finally, near the end of our second week in town, the news I had been expecting and dreading came when we read town’s daily newspaper.

We learned the fate of the Zelyrian continent.

The Zelyrian continent hadn’t completely collapsed, the way I had feared. However, most of the nations near the front lines had disappeared.

The strange black void from the skies had spread. Those who heard the sounds emanating from the voids mostly died. Large chunks of the sky had also collapsed during the catastrophe, heightening the devastation.

About two thirds of the continent was now a death zone, including most of Damilius and all of Verne. The country that was least impacted by the disaster was Ennalia, which was perched on the Northeastern tip of the continent. There were also some bits of Damilius left, on the southeastern tip of the continent. However, there wasn't much left of the former Zelyrian continent.

That damage exceeded what I had expected. So many lives had been lost. It didn’t sound like the Worldstriders had fared any better than the humans in this disaster. Both sides neared extinction in all of the affected territories. The disaster had broken the continent.

And with the news reaching our town, that meant one other thing.

The Zannans now knew that their former oppressors had little power left. Damilius could barely help itself now, much less control its colonies. The crisis I had felt brewing would erupt soon.