It took almost an hour to reach Lysandra's shop. Usually, it would take less time, but I had to move slowly to avoid jostling my hand too much. The appendage in question began hurting within ten minutes, and even a somewhat careless step caused sharp, stabbing pains to radiate up my arm.

I finally reached the healer's door and knocked with my right hand, wincing as even that small, simple motion tugged at my injury. Then, I stepped back and waited, hoping to any deities listening that Lysandra was home.

At least a minute passed before the door opened, but it was not Lysandra that greeted me. Instead, it was Selene who looked halfway between irritated and surprised.

"Vayne?" Selene asked, poking her head out from the half-opened door and blinking as she stared at me, "What're you doing here?"

That was what I wanted to ask. It was hardly typical for an apprentice to be at their master's shop so late at night, but I decided it was hardly the time to pry. So, I shook my head and replied, "I injured myself. Is Master Lysandra home?"

"No, she's out," Selene replied, shaking her head, "And she won't be until tomorrow morning, most likely."

I took in her words for a few seconds, then began swearing. Selene looked almost scandalized, and I forced myself to calm down after a few seconds.

"Apologies," I finally said, "That was...inappropriate."

"Mhm," Selene's eyes drifted down to my arm, which I had still pressed against my chest, and she continued, "Is that the problem?"

"Yes."

"Hmm," Selene hummed, then opened the door wider and stepped to the side, gesturing past her.

I blinked, then thanked her, and stepped into the shop. My injuries would not heal themselves standing outside, after all.

The shop looked the same as usual, though I noticed a strange glass lantern on the front desk. It was rectangular and gave off a pale yellow light even though no flame was visible. I caught the faint mana signature drifting off it and made a mental note to ask about it later.

"So, what happened?"

I turned back to Selene, who had closed the door behind me and was about to answer when my thoughts stopped.

Selene wore thin, somewhat revealing clothes compared to her usual attire. She had covered up to some extent with a robe, but I could see her bare legs and feet peeking out from beneath it, which drew more attention than felt polite, and the collar revealed the upper part of her chest.

I turned away, my face flushing a little as I replied, "I broke at least one bone in my hand."

"Doing?"

"Testing a spell," I responded, "The first was a success, and I wanted to commit the feeling to memory. So, I tried it a few more times, and then the last attempt..."

"Hmm," Selene walked closer, then gestured to the curtain leading to the back room.

I nodded and walked in first, taking a seat at the table. Selene was right behind me, grabbing the other chair and sliding it close to me before sitting and holding out one hand.

A part of me wondered if I could, or should, ignore her. Selene was a more skilled healer, but as far as I knew, she was not magically talented enough to repair broken bones.

With a sigh, I lifted my hand and gingerly placed it in hers.

The would-be healer had remarkably soft and warm hands, which spoke to either status or a complete lack of interest in exercise. I was almost happy about that as if I had something over her. Then, I felt a flicker of guilt at the petty, immature emotion.

Selene held my hand with a feather-soft touch, turning it over as she muttered under her breath. She had me move a few fingers, prodded my wrist, and finally walked back into the main room to retrieve an elixir for the pain, which I drank while she explained what she had found.

"You've got at least two broken bones, specifically the bones in your palm to support your little and ring fingers. I suspect you have sprained your wrist as well, but I cannot say for sure. Master Lysandra will have to take a closer look, but without proper healing, it will be weeks until you can use that hand."

It was what I had assumed as well, though I did appreciate a more informed second opinion. More importantly...

"And she will not return until the morning?"

Selene nodded, "Yes."

"May I ask where she is now?" I asked, doing a decent job of making the question sound casual.

"Not mine to share."

That did not help much. I still suspected the healer was not quite as altruistic as she pretended, but secret meetings late at night during a weekday struck me as strange. Then again, it could be something more innocuous. For all I knew, she simply did not live at her shop and only arrived in the morning.

I decided that digging into possible schemes and other such matters could wait until I had two functioning hands.

"Can you heal me?" I asked after a few seconds, "Not wholly. Just...enough to get the process started?"

Selene glanced at my hand, and I swore I could see the temptation in her eyes. But after a few seconds, she shook her head.

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"No. I've only ever healed bruises and shallow cuts. If I make a mistake, Master would have to re-break the bones and reset them."

I almost wanted her to take the risk anyway, but I also knew that was impatience speaking. Since that same impulse brought me here in the first place, it may be worth ignoring tonight.

So, I sighed and nodded, "Understood. I do not suppose I could stay here for the evening?"

Selene snorted, then stood and gestured towards the bed in the corner, "Make yourself comfortable."

I woke hours later, just as the sunlight began creeping underneath the curtain. My hand, which Selene had wrapped up to keep it immobilized, had begun aching several hours earlier. Sleep had been restless at best, as any movement whatsoever sent sharp, stabbing pain up my arm.

With nothing else to do but wait for Master Lysandra, I closed my eyes and went over my magic in my head. If I was stuck here, I could try and figure out what went wrong with my spells.

My three-part magical combination had worked, granting me increased weight and allowing me to exert greater force. However, it was an unstable mixture. Was that a result of poor control or inexperience? Possibly, but far likelier was that something was wrong with the concept itself.

Then again, it had worked for a brief period. Why had it suddenly fallen apart? I could think of a few possibilities, and the only way to be sure was to run more trials.

I was halfway through mentally brainstorming tests for said ideas when I heard the shop door open. Footsteps clicked along the wooden floor, pausing by the front desk for a few seconds before approaching the curtain. The cloth slid to one side, and in strode Master Lysandra.

The healer wore the same flowing robes she usually donned but of a far higher quality. They looked made of silk, smooth, flawless, and dyed a rich purple shade that spoke to Aranth-produced materials. Gold decorations edged the sleeves and danced across the shoulders and chest, and I spotted jewelry hanging from her neck and earlobes. Her hair was tied up and back into an intricate braided bun, revealing a face covered in near-flawless makeup.

In short, she looked less like a healer and more like a noble playing at one.

The woman crossed the room in a few long, smooth steps, pausing just a few feet away with a frown on her face. She looked down on me but did not speak. So, I took the initiative.

"Good morning, Master Lysandra," I started, pushing back the blanket and moving to stand, "I apologize for—"

Lysandra held up one hand and shook her head, and I stopped at her unspoken command. After a second, she held out the same hand, palm up, and moved her fingers in a "come on" motion.

"Hand," Master Lysandra said quietly.

"I—" I started, and Lysandra shook her head.

"Hand," she repeated, and this time, she commanded in an order that brooked no arguments. I still debated protesting, then sighed and moved my wrapped-up hand over to hers as carefully as possible.

Slowly, Master Lysandra unwrapped the bandages to reveal my injured hand. It had swollen overnight, turning a puffy, angry red coloration with bits of yellow where I had bruised my skin. I winced as even her careful motions tugged on my injured fingers, and I had to blink away reflexive tears.

Lysandra had the same light yet firm touch as Selene, moving my hand this way and that. However, there were differences. Lysandra was faster, yet her examination seemed more thorough. At one point, I felt a strange, almost tingling sensation, and there was just the faintest wisp of mana in the air, which vanished before I could focus on it.

Finally, Lysandra released my hand and sighed.

"Selene diagnosed you already?"

"Yes, Master Lysandra," I replied. Politeness seemed appropriate at the moment.

"Good. She's going to make an excellent healer someday. As will you, so long as you don't repeat this little accident. Now, onto your injury. A broken hand. Three breaks, one of which I doubt Selene caught. A sprain in your wrist. And an impressive assortment of contusions. All in all, not horrible but certainly unpleasant. Would you care to tell me what happened?"

"I would rather not if it is all the same to you," I replied, meeting the healer's eyes.

Lysandra stared at me, and I felt her mana shift. It was not a threat, yet the simple movement drew my focus to her full strength.

She was not the most powerful mage I had met in my life. In fact, she might not even be within the top five. But a child could smush an ant just as easily as an adult, and I was far closer to the insect in this scenario. I doubted she would, but it always set me on edge when I irritated a far more powerful spellcaster.

Her mana spread out across the room, and I felt it settle onto the room. It seemed to be a spell not wholly unlike my Traveler's Armor but wider and more...diffuse, maybe? Flexible? Something near to that.

The moment that weight settled onto us, Lysandra said, "There. That will block any sound from leaving this room, as well as prevent most spying magic from anyone below my stage. Furthermore, you have my word as a healer that whatever you tell me within this room will stay in this room. No one, Selene included, will know the specifics."

I almost refused again, but then again...

"I was testing a spell to increase my physical strength, pairing it with two more spells," I explained, "It was a combination I had tried quite many times before, but today I had a breakthrough. I was testing my punching strength on a tree, and my armor spell failed at an inopportune time."

"I see..." Lysandra glanced at my hand again, and her smile returned, "Good."

"Good?" I echoed.

"Yes," Lysandra gestured towards my hand, "That sort of injury comes from someone punching something. Or someone."

"...and you assumed it was a 'someone' situation?" I guessed.

Lysandra chuckled, "I'm not a fool, young man. I've done some digging since you showed up on my doorstep. You've gained quite the reputation in a short time."

I knew as much but could not help but ask, "Is that a problem?"

"Yes and no. I don't believe in refusing students for what they have done in the past, within reason. I will not, however, abide by my proteges running about and getting into fights, then looking to me to heal their wounds."

Again, I paused for a few seconds before asking, "What about the ones who break their hands making idiotic mistakes?"

"I might be able to help with those," Lysandra replied, and I relaxed as she held out her hand again.

Lysandra's eyes drifted shut as she took my hand into hers, and she continued, "I won't be able to heal it entirely with just one session, and you'll be tired for at least the rest of the day. Are you okay with that? If not, we can treat it without magic."

I was about to agree, but something occurred to me, "Ah, Master? What about that whole 'wellspring of life' idea? I have not seen much of it in my readings, but I have to admit it is a little worrying."

"An excellent question. Your wounds are minor enough, and the healing is limited enough to not cause an issue. Just don't make a habit of breaking bones and expecting me to fix them."

I digested her words before nodding, "Okay. I would prefer the magical healing, then. Thank you."

The truth was I would have almost definitely asked for it even if the cost had been higher. Getting a chance to view healing up close was good, but experiencing it first-hand might be invaluable.

Lysandra nodded but said nothing. For a time, nothing happened, but then, I felt it. The first sign was that same tingling as before, almost like my hand had fallen asleep and was starting to regain feeling. It started off weak and diffuse but soon grew stronger and more focused around the places where I had broken bones. After a few minutes, that tingling had changed to sharp pins and needles, not quite enough to be truly painful but undoubtedly uncomfortable.

Rather than focus on those painful sensations, I focused inward and reached out with my mind, trying to feel the healer's mana.

Mana, dense as water, ran through my hand in thin streams. I felt it weave throughout my flesh, encircling bones like threads. A half-dozen of these wrapped around the broken halves of one bone in particular, the one supporting my ring finger. I watched and felt as it slowly and incrementally pulled the fracture together again, resetting my finger into its proper place.

The instant the two halves of the broken bone touched, mana streams began flowing into the material. The pinprick sensations shifted once more, becoming a mixture of a strange, intense heat and bone-deep itching as if something crawled under my skin. I nearly reached out to scratch my hand but caught myself at the last moment.

I cast my attention across the rest of my hand and found the same process repeated in several places. Mana wove through flesh, tugging damaged tissue back into its proper place before sinking into my body and encouraging repair and regrowth. Lysandra did not push so far as to perfectly heal anything or even do more than seal shut the worst of it, yet it remained remarkable for two reasons.

First, the precision and control required boggled the mind. I considered myself a decent mage with excellent control for my age, yet I doubted I could control one-tenth of what Lysandra manipulated with apparent ease. Reaching that stage within the next few years was possible, but I was nowhere close yet.

However, the second reason was far more interesting. Lysandra's mana felt...placid. Docile. Harmonious even. My Aether felt untamed, like a force of nature bound within my body, but hers? It was like the energy worked with my body rather than against it. I knew this was an illusion, as no one's body wholly accepted foreign mana, but it was a phenomenon worth investigating further.

Finally, after at least twenty minutes, Lysandra opened her eyes again. Despite the protracted healing session, she looked and felt no worse for wear. In fact, I could not find any hints whatsoever that she had expended any mana. I, however, could not make the same claim.

I moved to stand and half-stumbled as the room around me swayed. Master Lysandra caught me by my good arm and smiled as she said, "Easy does it. Magical healing takes it outta you, as you should recall."

"Right," I nodded, "I knew that. Lingering pain. Soreness. Fatigue. Oh, and—"

As if on cue, my stomach began to growl. I glanced down, as did Lysandra, and the healer chuckled.

"Tell you what, why don't we grab you something to eat? Then, since you decided to get here so nice and early, we can start our work for the day."

For once, I found myself desperate to avoid training with her. I wanted to note every physical and magical sensation and cross-reference it to my hypotheses about magical augmentation.

Then, with an internal sigh, I smiled, nodded, and stood to follow Master Lysandra.