I was not entirely sure what was going on.

Part of the problem was the world around me was slightly spinning and blurry, which was never a good sign. I shouldn't die from blood loss, but passing out was looking more and more likely.

Another part of the problem was the deafening ringing in my ears, so hearing what those around me were saying was getting hard. Again, just had to take a second and feel my numb body, and I knew the cause. Both facts I was finding increasingly hard to care about.

Maybe I did care deep down, but I was finding it hard to dredge up the emotion to do something about it.

On the bright side, I was having less trouble standing now than when I could actually be considered healthy.

Whatever the situation was, I followed Kanieta, who led me up onto the stage again. If she wanted to hurt me, I wasn't in a position to argue, so being amicable seemed like my best option.

After some words and questions, most of which were asked by an angry wolfman and a delicate-looking woman, who I couldn't quite tell what her animal was, constantly throwing looks at the wolf. The whole time they talked, we stood in the center of the light, waiting to get this over with. Even I could tell from their postures that whatever this was would end in Kanieta's favor.

Off to our side, the old rabbit — actually, is he a hare? What's the difference? Probably doesn't matter. — was looking into the darkness like none of this mattered, patiently waiting.

Without warning, the old beastkin turned, and a young male that was at least a head taller than me and a few times wider stepped out of the shadows. His face was square and blocky, with a strong jaw and black hair. What really caught my attention was the two horns that should be on a bull sticking out of his head.

They were long enough that should he tilt his head down and charge me, the horns would slam through my chest and out the other side. Not that he would have to go to such lengths. Every plodding step he took shook the ground, and his hands looked big enough to grab my head and squeeze it tight enough to pop.

The monster of a beastkin walked to the center of the pedestal, then bowed low to the old maybe-rabbit beastkin before turning to Kanieta and bowing again, but with a noticeable difference in depth.

"You called for a healer?" Rumbled the big beastkin.

"Thank you for coming, Healer Strat. Normally we would leave any wounds sustained in the Conclave until after, as tradition demands, but we have found ourselves in an interesting situation." The old beastkin rasped. "Faction Leader Kanieta claims that this Olimpian was the target of the forbidden Soul Harvest Spell. We need you to use your magic and look into his body to find evidence of whether his soul was attempted to be ripped out or not."

The large beastkin flinched back at the words, and a look of genuine remorse came over his face. He looked at me, and he bowed his head before raising it, a look of compassion overflowing from his eyes.

Slowly he raised his hand and rumbled, "If you will take my hand, I swear on my mana I will heal all your pains."

I didn't even need to try. I could feel Healer Strat's emotions radiating from his body.

It was like being next to Bark again. There was no deceit or convoluted machinations taking place behind his eyes. He was not healing me because it would gain him something. Anything that he acquired would be incidental.

No, he was offering his hand. Offering to heal me for one reason and one reason alone. He was a Healer.

Seeing others in pain, harmed by the ravages of our world, hurt him. If I was a mindless animal lashing out at all who approached, he would still be offering me his hand to help me.

My hand moved on its own without my conscious thought. Because I knew, deep down, that this beastkin's intimidating appearance meant nothing. He would never hurt me.

The large hand, tough and calloused from years of hard labor, closed around my own with gentle firmness. I could feel the controlled strength of the Healer's body. At any moment, he could squeeze with all his strength, smashing my hand to mush.

It was a fact the beastkin radiated knowledge of with every action.

Every single one of his movements, from the shifting of his shoulders to the shuffling of his feet, was slow and controlled. As if squeezing my hand faster than a crawl would cause me to shatter like a delicate vase.

The Healer's other hand settled on top of mine, sandwiching my hand between his.

He gave me a broad smile, and I noticed a faint scar across his mouth from the center to the left side of his jaw. But more than that, he was the first beastkin I had seen that didn't have at least canines or outright fangs filling their mouth.

Sucking in a long and deep breath that I could swear ruffled my hair, he slowly let it out. At the same time that he breathed out, I felt a smooth and cool energy enter my body through my hand.

The energy traveling up my arm was like a warm breeze washing over me on a chilly day. And in its wake, I felt relief.

It was more than my wounds healing. I could see those closing on my arm as the energy passed through my body, and it caused the sharp pain wracking my body to vanish, but the energy flooding from the Healer was doing far more.

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When I first woke up in the Medico Ward, an invasive bone-deep pain suffused me. No part of my body didn't hurt like my bones were slowly being smashed.

The healers treated me, and the pain lessened, but now I knew it never really vanished. I had just been ignoring it by using a small portion of my mental energy to suppress the pain.

It wasn't like I had enveloped my mind with mental energy and suppressed what I felt. No, this pain wasn't so simple.

With every step I took, it was like I had to push back a thousand needles covering my body by pressing into them. Or like a kite was attached to every hair, and every time I moved, I dragged it behind me.

But the pain was inside, something deeper. Something that was never meant to feel pain, so there were no internal limits. No protection other than my mental energy that was acting as a buffer. Not that it could completely stop the feelings, because even as the mental energy stopped the flood of pain, droplets got through.

Now that I was aware of what I was doing, the casting shielding my mind shuddered and began to brake apart. As the first tendrils of agony touched my mind, shock and fear overwhelmed me, preventing me from reforming the shielding with my willpower.

It was a pain I had only ever felt once and never wanted to feel again.

I was helpless. Only able to resist, and in doing so, make the result better. I could feel my soul being reshaped. Refined. On some level, I knew what they were doing. But even as the pain filled my mind, scattering all thought, it was lessening.

From my elbow down, the pain was no longer there. I felt normal. No, better than normal.

It was a shelter from the storm ravaging me, and I huddled around the flickering flame of respite. It might have been small, but it was something I could focus on.

A warmth like I was slowly sliding into a hot spring began spreading over me. It wasn't fast, but it was constant.

I got lost in the sensation that was steadily creeping up to my shoulder. Then the energy spread into my chest and across and down my other left arm before the warmth turned and started traveling down my torso.

Time became meaningless to me as I basked in the growing absence of pain. There were some prickles of discomfort, like the pain one feels after finally releasing the urine filling their over-stuffed bladder, but I knew it was passing. That I had finally found release, and any discomfort I felt was insignificant next to the bloated misery that was constant before.

Once all but my head was healed, for healed was what this had to be, the energy started moving up my neck.

The heat turned to pressure, and as the soothing energy encroached closer to my head, the more it felt like something was going to burst forth from my mind. Or just explode out my ears.

"Relax," Rumbled a deep voice. "Release your defenses. Let your energy go."

But I'm not… I thought in confusion, oh.

Even as I was healed, the mental energy in my mind was stiffening. It was like a muscle clenching. In some deep part of myself, I just couldn't believe I would be free from the pain. That it was all going to come crashing back, sweeping my mind along with its corrosive currents, never to return.

Slowly, I relaxed the energy, and the warm healing continued like a wave lapping at a wall of sand.

Eventually, the soothing warmth worked its way around the edges of my mind before squeezing inward.

It was a continuous fight with myself. Every second, I struggled not to surge outward with my mental energy, pushing back the foreign power. I knew I could.

I had far more power. And my mental energy felt denser, like a bone that had been broken so many times that it was far more than it was ever supposed to be.

But I also knew that if I resisted, I would only cause myself more harm. And that if I wasn't fully healed, everything that was fixed would more likely than not be undone with time, like a knitted blanket that would unravel if not tied off.

So I suppressed my instincts.

Though it felt like my head was slowly being buried under trickling sand, I pulled my energy into my core.

Occasionally, a part of my energy would lash out, pushing the invasive power back, but I would quickly rain it back in. And any lost ground from that part of the healing energy was quickly made up.

The whole time, the rumbling voice tried to be soothing. Encouraging. And it somewhat achieved its objective, as the deep reverberations lulled my mind into a kind of meditation.

Eventually, the healing energy pressed against my core for a moment, and I felt a jolt run through me, then the healing energy vanished.

Opening my eyes, I saw that I was sitting before the large beastkin, who had a couple new people behind each of his shoulders, our hands still clasped together.

Then it felt like a rush of blood surged through my body, and everything tingled.

Back arching and leg kicking out, I fell off the stool I was on and started convulsing on the ground. My mental energy exploded out of my core and surged around my body.

Even as I lost control of the energy, it felt far smoother than before as it traveled. Like I had always been sliding around on dirt, and now I was finally on the ice. And it was having far more effect on my body, causing my muscles to clench and my arms and legs to kick out.

Reaching out with my mind, I gathered my will to grab hold of the mental energy. I expected nothing to happen. For it to be like all the times I tried to do it over the last month. I expected to have my mental hands fumble around as if they had an inch of wool around them, unable to accomplish any fine manipulation.

But the moment I thought of my energy stopping — I couldn't even say I was reaching out with my will as it really was more of a thought — the storm in my body froze, and my convulsing stopped.

My heart beat loudly in my ears for a moment, then the world started coming back to me.

“…conclusion, Healer Strat?"

There was nothing for a moment, then I felt a sigh brush against my face, and the two mountains pressing against my shoulders lifted. "If that wasn't the result of a failed Soul Harvest Spell, then I shudder to imagine what it would look like. While his body was covered in small lacerations and punctures, there was relatively little internal physical damage. But it's a miracle he still has a mind. With every movement he took, the ambient mana would push against his soul and try to rip it from his body. It would be like a cloak being blown about in a strong wind. There were some signs of healing, but it was only minimal. If he was left untreated for much longer, his soul would have been ripped from his body, left to wander the world, leaving a mindless husk behind."

No one said a word. Until Kanieta spoke up, a tinge of guilt to her words, "So, are we in agreement Elder Jolten cast Soul Harvest on this man? Or will you only believe the Healer if you cast the spell yourself to witness the aftereffects firsthand?"

"No Faction Leader Kanieta," rasped the old rabbit, "This is more than enough."