Sorel had leapt over to Kieran’s side with a surprising burst of energy and helped her to roll him into what Rowena hoped was a more comfortable position on his back.

“No!” With a start, Mattie shook herself out of her dazed terror and knelt down next to Sorel. “Help me roll him onto his side. If he throws up while on his back, he could choke.”

Rowena swallowed and helped them turn Kieran onto his side. Her friend was trembling and unresponsive, though she noted with surprise that the glowing orb he’d created just before passing out was still hovering in between them. The wound from the– wyvern, had Mattie called it?-- in his right shoulder was deep, and her stomach lurched as she peered into it and saw bone flashing through the blood and flesh as they moved him. Despite the motion, Kieran remained unresponsive.

“Heal him!” Rowena snapped at Mattie frantically, reaching out to hold the wound together as best she could. It was as though she thought pushing the edges together could make it all re-attach, undo the damage done during the brief but horrifying battle.

“No, I–” Mattie began to protest, and then caught Rowena’s eye and paused. Her reddish gold eyes were still glowing with terror, but she also seemed to understand her responsibility in this situation. She was, after all, a Healer.

Despite that, Mattie looked with uncertainty over at Sorel.

“He’ll die if you don’t,” Sorel said simply and directly, her eyebrow knitting together. The young woman looked worried, though for Mattie or Kieran, Rowena couldn’t be sure.

“Please,” Rowena whispered. She couldn’t help but feel like this was all her fault– this journey born of her need for justice for Tommie-- and now she might lose another person she considered to be her brother. “Please.”

“I haven’t been practicing,” Mattie said haltingly. She raised her hands up slightly, as though she felt tempted to start using an Ability, but did nothing.

For a few moments, she simply stared at the wound with a strange, almost magnetic expression rendered even stranger by her reddish gold eyes. After a moment, she swallowed, and nodded, looking quickly from Rowena to Sorel.

“Just– just go slow,” Rowena said, trying not to let her urgency and frustration come through in her voice. Mattie was not the type who would respond well to demands or pressure. She needed to be coaxed, like a nervous horse. “Let’s take some deep breaths together.”

Mattie nodded again and shifted so that she sat with her knees bent, resting on her ankles. “Shift him on his back and put his head in my lap.”

Rowena caught Sorel’s eye and the other girl nodded. With a heave they managed to pull Kieran up so that his upper back rested on the tops of Mattie’s knees, his head cradled in her lap. Kieran whimpered a little, but still did not wake up, a fact for which Rowena was grateful.

Sorel put her hand on Mattie’s cheek for a brief moment and the copper-haired Healer drew a ragged breath.

“Breathe in,” Rowena said a little shakily, and her own breath caught. She slowly withdrew her hands from her friend’s wound and pulled them up, staring at the blood that covered them.

She swallowed and upped her still active use of Calm Person, relaxing as the Ability flooded her body with just a touch of calm. That was better.

“Breathe out,” she commanded in a much calmer tone.

Mattie closed her eyes halfway, and complied.

Rowena’s mind raced for a few moments, feeling a little foolish. She wasn’t sure what to say, she just knew that Mattie needed her help. “Breathe in… alright, Mattie. You are going to heal Kieran’s wound now. Breathe out… You’re a Healer. This is what you were born to do. Breathe in… and think about Regeneration. Just… just go slowly, so so slowly…”

As Rowena spoke, trying to keep her voice as measured and calm as possible, Mattie reached her hands over Kieran’s wound and held them there. In low tones, she began to gently hum, a tune that Rowena didn’t recognize but that was calming and slow.

Sorel let out a small gasp as Kieran’s shoulder began to move slightly– or rather, the flesh inside the wound began to wriggle and creep. Rowena found it a little nauseating, like maggots writhing in a sun-rotting piece of meat, yet rather than destructive this motion was constructive– reconstructive, really. Bone and vein and muscle and skin began to knit together, the bones knocking against each other with creaking groans. Over the course of several minutes, the wound seemed to grow smaller from the inside out, until eventually it sealed shut.

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“Okay, that’s good,” Rowena said with a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Mattie.”

But Mattie’s eyes were fully closed now, and her brows were still tensed in concentration. She seemed not to have heard Rowena, or perhaps she had heard her but was unable to comply. The wound, which had gone from gaping to a thin red line, was now gradually building up with knotted scar tissue that rose angrily from the surface of his skin.

“Stop, Mattie!” Rowena said urgently, worried that the girl’s Regeneration would end up costing Kieran his ability to move his arm as the scar tissue increased. Better than death, to be sure, but still– it was a slow motion horror that was unfolding before them as the gnarled reddish pink tissue grew.

“Mattie,” Sorel whispered softly, but seriously. She reached her hand forward to grip the side of Mattie’s head in a firm grip and give it a little shake. “Mattie, stop now.”

With a small gasp, Mattie opened her eyes, and looked into Sorel’s. She gave a little grin, and her eyes practically glowed with excitement. Rowena noted with relief that the scar tissue had ceased to grow as soon as she’d refocused her concentration on them instead of Kieran. “Did I do it? That was incredible. I think I–”

Suddenly, Mattie’s face went extremely pale and fainted, sweat beading over her face. Sorel gasped and lunged forward, barely managing to catch her before she fell back and hit her head on the large white stone behind them.

Rowena quickly pulled Kieran aside off Mattie’s lap, and pulled off her cloak to roll up and stuff underneath his head. She looked at her friend for a moment, and, satisfied that he was alive and breathing, turned back to Sorel and Mattie.

“Is she–?” Rowena asked hesitantly, hoping that she hadn’t made a decision that would simply cost them Mattie instead of Kieran.

“She’s alive,” Sorel said with a frown, worry creasing her brow. She scooted backwards until her back was against the tall white standing stone, and she tugged Mattie up to her so that the girl was laying against her shoulder. Her own face was also still sweaty, presumably from the efforts against the wyvern and the strenuous aftermath. “Can you bring me her bedroll?”

Rowena nodded and stood, walking over to where their packs were. The orb’s light didn’t cast quite that far, so she fumbled in the dark for a few moments before finding all of their bedrolls. “I’m not sure we should stay the night here, but I don’t know what else we can do.”

“We have to chance it,” Sorel murmured. “No way we can move these two.”

“And I can’t believe this orb Kieran created,” Rowena continued babbling, rubbing her hands together. “It’s still here even though he’s passed out. What do you think–”

Rowena stopped talking when she realized that the tall Shield was completely passed out against the rock, mouth slightly ajar and arms wrapped protectively around the copper-haired Healer. Mattie was curled up against her, head pressed into the crook of Sorel’s shoulder and collarbone.

Slightly alarmed, Rowena went up to the two girls and studied them for a few moments– their breathing was shallow, but steady. Deciding it would be more trouble– and potentially harmful– to wake them, she simply spread their bedrolls on top of them for warmth, and did the same for Kieran.

She pulled back the blanket from his shoulder and stared at Kieran’s wound for several long moments. It had been a long, deep gash and now was a mess of lumpy pinkish tissue. Still, it wasn’t bleeding and Kieran’s expression had relaxed significantly, so she presumed they were out of any immediate danger. They’d done the best they could, she realized.

Rowena herself decided she had to stay up to stand guard as long as she possibly could. Even though she was also tired, she wasn’t feeling anything like the overwhelming exhaustion the other three were experiencing.

Although she had been grateful for the glowing orb’s gentle glow, she was now worried that it might draw back the wyvern– or even something worse, though what could be more terrifying than that creature, she didn’t know. Hesitantly, she reached out and prodded at the orb, concerned it would either zoom away from her (a trick that would be very Kieran) or go out. It did neither, but also seemed to have no real substance; it just floated along as she moved her hand around it. She managed to sort of guide it along so that it hovered only a short distance above the ground near where she intended to sit. Then, Rowena shook out her own bedroll and went to sit on the other side of Sorel against the rock.

She guided the little orb closer to her and made a little pocket with her cloak so that she could tuck it inside. That way, the orb still gave her a little light, but wasn’t quite a beacon for violent creatures.

She looked at the sleeping faces of her friends, worrying. They each looked more than exhausted– they looked sickly and unwell. Kieran made sense due to the traumatic wound he’d suffered, but Sorel? Mattie? Even she had been suffering some ill effects over the last several days, ever since she’d touched the Heartstone. She’d figured it was grief over the loss of Tommie, the painful interaction with her father, and the anxiety of travel– and surely that was part of her distress– but she was beginning to believe that there was more to their Subclasses than she’d previously thought.

That was not her most pressing problem, however. First, Rowena needed to figure out just how she would keep awake during this long and dark night.