Chapter sixty one

       John's P.O.V.

        The woman was not only severely malnourished but her body had gone through so much trauma that it was a miracle she didn't go into shock and die, a miracle I was fairly sure I could attribute to her beastman heritage. She was in such a rough shape that I was scared to even move her before I was certain that it wouldn't harm her, so I had to nurse her back to health and even with the healing amulet I enchanted ,it took more than three days to stabilize her enough to move. At moments it was definitely touch and go and it seemed that she might not make it but I did everything I could do , including making an intravenous apparatus with the bag filled with a solution of sugar and enchanted with the nourish and clean runes.

           One of the glaring weaknesses of enchantment magic is in the healing category, thankfully I have my own nanites to heal me when I get injured , but if I want to heal anybody else it would be a very slow process, as I was finding out now. The intravenous infusion seemed to help a lot though and her body started to slowly recover. In the end I judged her fit enough to move , her breathing was no longer hard and labored and her pulse and blood pressure were in acceptable ranges. I picked her up gingerly then teleported to Montreal.

             When I reached Montreal everything seemed to be fine, no indications that anything was wrong so I passed through the barrier and teleported to Steelbender castle. When I appeared in the front courtyard there was a loud shriek from one of the maids that just happened to be passing by at that instant and Michael of course came rushing out to see what was happening a few moments later. He stood there looking at me for several moments before it dawned on him what he was seeing.

            "Tom! You are alive? How is this possible? I saw you get dragged into hell myself! God almighty, you are alive! Come here you little miracle worker, I knew if anybody could get out of hell it would be you!"

            He was barreling towards me to give me one of his patented back breaking bear hugs, which I kind of missed, when I had to stop him with a wall I made. He just stopped before hitting the wall and asked perplexed, "Tom?"

           "I'm carrying an injured person here Michael , I'm also very happy to see you but the person I am carrying is in a very delicate condition. I need you to tell me where I can put her to look after her."

          "Your old room is still there , we haven't touched your wing of the house except to clean it since you disappeared. You can take her there."

         "Thank you Michael ."

         I carefully carried the injured woman to my room and set her down on my bed, which I was surprised to see had fresh sheets.

         "Michael, do you know anybody who knows healing magic?"

         "Who is this , what happened to her?"

          "I found her in the anarchist's dungeons, she looked like she had been tortured and starved for a long time. I don't know who she is but she looks a lot like Captain Truman, I'm betting she knows who she is. But as I was saying ,do you know any good healers?"

          "Yeah I'll have somebody call for one, you just wait here. I'll also have someone call for Clair , she'll probably want to be informed if this woman is related to her."

             Half an hour later instead of a random priestess , standing there at my door was Cynthia Blackthorn. 

           "It seems the news of your demise was greatly exaggerated . Lots of people will be happy you are not dead, and I am among them, welcome back Mr Tom."

             Although she was a little formal and stiff , she seemed sincere, so I replied,"Thank you Miss Blackthorn , and thank you for taking the time to come here personally. Can you please heal this woman ?"

             She simply smiled walked over to the bed and waved her hand, a very complex spell suddenly activated and the injuries on the woman disappeared , even her cat ears grew back.

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            "I will take your look of shock as a compliment Mr Tom , I have pressing matters to attend to but I hope to see you soon , Good bye and have a nice day."

              And before I could regain my wits she was already gone.

               Five minutes after she left Clair came into the room and immediately went to the side of the bed after she saw who the occupant was.

               "What happened? What's wrong with Emily? Why is she even here? She's supposed to be in Peru."

               "So you know this woman?"

               "Of course I know this woman, she's my sister !"

               "Well, you see Clair, I found her in an anarchist torture dungeon and I am sure she had been in there for at least a month , maybe even two. That's why she's lying there, she has just been healed."

              Clair looked like she was going to ask more questions when the woman, Emily I think, started to stir and groan.

           *        *         *

            Emily Truman's P.O.V.

           As my consciousness started to slowly return, I noticed a couple of things were different from the last time I came to. The first thing I noticed was that I was no longer in pain, which was a big deal for me because pain had become a constant companion recently. Now there was no pain at the top of my head where they cut off my ears, no pain all over my body due to numerous wounds that never healed properly, I did not even have hunger pains. It was such a liberating feeling after what I went through that I couldn't help but let out a groan of relief.

            The voices that were speaking over me suddenly stopped. I slowly opened my eyes, scared that this was all a dream and I would wake up back on the dungeon floor, starving to death. What came into my vision was the face I've been imagining and thinking about to stay sane through my whole ordeal.

            "Clair? Is that really you? I'm not imagining you?"

            She came closer and pulled me into a tight hug, "What happened to you Emily?"

            I couldn't keep my tears in anymore, after all the pain and all the suffering I went through I just let it all out, I told her everything from the very beginning to the time I was rescued , I told her everything while I cried into her chest. By the end of my story she was crying along with me and for a while we just held each other while we sobbed.

            After we finally managed to calm down , I noticed that there was a third person in the room, a man sitting quietly in the corner while we had our little family reunion. It was the man who saved me from the dungeon. I was sure that he was a figment of my imagination because an angel coming to save me from my little corner of hell doesn't seem very realistic, so maybe my mind cracked under the strain of the torture and now I'm hallucinating. There was only one way to find out.

           "Clair, do you see that man over there?"

            "You mean Tom? Yeah, he is the one who rescued you, he is sort of a big hero in Montreal .Which reminds me , how are you alive Tom? Last time I heard you were dragged into hell by a giant fiend."

           "Wait, he is real? He's not a figment of my imagination I created as I was dying in the dungeon?"

          The man in question smiled and said, "No I'm not a figment of your imagination, hello Emily its nice to finally meet you. My name is Tom."

        I just turned to Clair ,with what I am sure was a look of absolute shock on my face, 

          " He really exists and he really looks like that?  Are you kidding me?"

            Clair just started to giggle happily, " Its good to have you back Em ."