by Eric Vall
“No, she’s been gone for weeks,” Sebastian said anxiously, and I heard his heartbeat begin to pound furiously in his chest. “I haven’t seen her in weeks, I thought she was dead. She never came home, and I couldn’t find any trace of her anywhere. Please just … ”
“I’ll be careful,” Shoshanne finished for him, and the Terra Mage nodded as the sweat continued to pour down the side of his face. The healer took one last steadying breath before she picked up one of her scalpels, but then she glanced at me while her blade was still poised above the red-head’s rib cage. “Please stay here for this. Okay?”
“Of course, I will,” I told her. “Do you want me to do anything to help?”
“You could help clear the blood away so I can see what I’m doing,” Shoshanne said as her brows crinkled nervously, and I came around her other side to grab a bit of gauze before I kneeled at her side.
The healer relaxed a little once I was ready, and I sent her a reassuring smile before she turned her attention back to the scalpel. Her hand was perfectly steady as she made the first incision, and as drops of blood beaded and ran down the mage’s ribs, I dabbed the excess away so Shoshanne could make her way around the degree lines on the Master’s rune.
She had one side outlined when the chains suddenly jolted, and all of us froze as we looked at the mage’s face. Her eyelids were fluttering wildly, but they didn’t open fully, and as her limbs continued to rattle the chains until the sound echoed around the entire infirmary, Shoshanne and I exchanged a glance.
Then the scalpel was swiftly slicing across the mage’s ribs again, and while Shoshanne put all of her focus toward making precise cuts, I sponged the blood away and watched Sebastian gradually turn green.
He muscled through a full-on panic attack as he forced himself to breathe deeply and keep his post, and he began checking the red-head’s pulse every three seconds like a tick. The amount of bloody gauze piling up on the table seemed to be nauseating him, too, but he looked determined to focus on nothing but his friend’s face to get him through the ordeal.
I began to wonder if we might have to send Sebastian to his own hospital bed to recuperate when this was all over, but somehow, his heart didn’t completely give out despite how erratically it was pounding in his chest. Even my nerves were wound up just watching the guy, and I couldn’t believe Shoshanne could focus on her work with all the rattling and frantic breathwork taking place at the table.
Finally, the healer grabbed a pair of surgical pliers, and with a firm tug, the outlined branding was ripped off the red-head’s ribs like a fleshy band aid.
Sebastian gagged, but he managed to keep his bile down with great effort, and after one last violent jolt against her restraints, the red-head fell perfectly still again.
“Make sure there’s no internal damage, especially to her brain,” I said at once as I quickly cleared the bloody tools from the table with my metal magic.
“Wake her up,” Sebastian demanded. “The procedure is done, right?”
“She’ll be sedated for another hour at the very least,” Shoshanne explained as she reached for her healer’s staff, but the young mage was shaking his sweaty head before she even finished speaking.
“Maybe your healing staff could help,” I muttered to Shoshanne as I eyed the frantic look on the man’s face. “You could try to ease the sedation.”
“Mason, it’ll take too much time to work through all of these mages if I have to wake up each one of them and then discuss their experiences and--”
“Just this one,” I told her. “Sebastian has helped build this place from the ground up, and he let us use his friend as a first attempt. We can do him this favor, yeah?”
Sebastian looked ready to collapse as he clutched the table to steady himself, and Shoshanne considered his trembling hands and shallow attempts at breathing for a moment.
“If her body can handle it, I’ll try,” the healer finally relented, “but if not, you’re both accepting my call on this one.”
Sebastian and I both nodded our heads in agreement, and the gem at the head of the healing staff began to glow a vivid purple as Shoshanne closed her eyes. Then she slowly moved the staff over every inch of the red-head’s body, and she nodded to herself now and then as she furrowed her brows in concentration. I thought I heard her breath catch at one point, but she just kept scanning until she’d made it from one end to the other, and then she returned her staff to the bloody patch of skin missing on the woman’s ribs.
“I haven’t tried this yet, but I think I can speed up the recovery like I did with Haragh’s dagger wounds,” the healer muttered half to herself, and then the gem began to pulse in a blinding hue that made it impossible to look directly at it.
I squinted through the piercing pain in my eyes to watch as the skin slowly began to regrow itself, and the process looked similar to how my skin had healed after Pindor’s attackers ended up melting my skin for me in the western woods.
First, the lower layers of raw flesh slowly built themselves over the exposed area, and then the upper layers started to crawl across the wound from all sides like a fire steadily burning across a meadow. It took about five minutes to complete the healing process, but when it was done, there wasn’t even a scar left behind on the red-head’s ribs.
“All of the systems of her body are functioning as they should,” Shoshanne told us when she straightened up again. “I caught traces of the tranquilizer in her bloodstream as I diagnosed her body, and I would guess she’ll be awake in two hours, but if you really wish me to wake her up, I can try to dilute the--”
“Yes, wake her up,” Sebastian insisted. Then he swallowed hard and seemed to realize how forcefully he’d spoken to the healer who just saved his friend. “Please.”
I tried not to smirk as I nodded to Shoshanne, and the healer’s staff glowed once more as she closed her eyes. She bit her lip until it was white while she tried to dilute the tranquilizer in the mage’s veins, and she shook her head in frustration more than a few times over the next ten minutes. Eventually, the healer seemed to figure out how to go about doing it, though, and after another ten minutes of effort, the red-head’s eyelids began to flutter again.
“Kat?” Sebastian asked in a hoarse voice, and he gently stroked the woman’s cheek with shaky hands. “Wake up, I’m right here. You’re okay, but you have to wake up. Please? Please wake up.”
“Remove the chains,” Shoshanne said as she stood and came around to the head of the table. “We need to get her limbs moving to increase her circulation. That’ll help.”
I sparked my metal magic and removed the chains from their mounts, and as I sent them to the pile on the worktable, I mirrored Shoshanne’s efforts in raising and lowering the mage’s limp arms and legs.
Sebastian continued trying to coax her back to consciousness, and after a couple minutes of effort, her eyes suddenly shot wide open in terror, and a shrill screech pierced my eardrums like an ice pick.
“Kat, it’s okay!” Sebastian yelped as the young woman lurched to try and run, but he caught her around the shoulders to keep her in place on the table. “You’re okay, they saved you! You’re safe, I promise. I’m right here.”
Shoshanne and I stayed poised to catch her as the woman’s labored breaths slowly evened out, and once she stopped looking all over in terrified confusion, she finally settled her gaze on the young man in front of her.
Then the two were welded together at the lips, and I raised my brows as the redhead’s legs locked around Sebastian’s hips. Suddenly, the two were groping each other like a pair of drunk teenagers on prom night, and Shoshanne blushed straight to her roots when Kat let out a lusty moan.
“Uhh … ” I tried as I realized how quickly this was all about to escalate, “if I could have your attention just for a couple minutes, we were sort of hoping to ask you a few questions about your experiences now that you’re not possessed. Anything you could tell us would be a huge help. What you saw, anything about the fortress yo
u’ve been at all this time, how you were abducted, or even the … ”
I trailed off when Shoshanne caught my arm and dragged me away from the table, and I was still stubbornly working through my list of relevant questions when Sebastian hoisted the redhead against him without releasing her lips for even a millisecond. Then the two stumbled their way out of the infirmary as Kat began moaning more urgently.
“Whaaat the fuck,” I groaned as I stared at the infirmary doorway. “That’s not helpful. We need to talk to her and find out anything we can about--”
“Yeah, those two aren’t going to be talking to anyone for a while,” Shoshanne chuckled. “So, can we agree we’re not doing any more personal favors in this infirmary? It took too much time to wake her up, and all it brought us was an empty table and no answers.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” I said with a smirk. “I couldn’t help it, though, that guy was at the end of his rope. You saw him. I was ready to start having sympathy panic attacks just being near him. Also, I get where he’s coming from. If that was you and me, I would definitely be dragging you off to have some life affirming sex. Probably for hours.”
I winked at the healer, and she blushed to her roots.
“Well, waking her was the right thing to do,” Shoshanne said as she looped her arm in mine, “but I would be a very inefficient healer if I was as much of a softy as you.”
“Oh, I’m a softy now?” I clarified as I cocked a brow. “I thought I was an out of control killing machine. Which one is it?”
“Both,” Shoshanne giggled, “and I’m finding the combination incredibly attractive at the moment.”
I grinned as the healer shoved me back to pin me against the edge of her worktable, and I gladly let her slip her tongue between my lips even though I could hear Aurora’s impatient sigh come shortly after.
Chapter 7
“I thought we were working as quickly as possible?” the half-elf said pointedly, and I chuckled as I came up for air.
“We did,” I assured her. “We’re just celebrating our first victory.”
“You already removed one?” Aurora asked eagerly as she came over to join us. “Where are they? Will they be awake soon? We should find out any information we can get about the fortress, how they were abducted--”
“Yes, Mason was of the same mind,” Shoshanne muttered.
“What did they say?”
“Unfortunately, the patient left before we could get any answers,” I sighed, and Aurora’s emerald eyes flared.
“What?” she demanded.
“Yeah … that’s on me. She kinda knew that mage from the village who helped us out with building, and they had some pretty urgent things to work through.”
Just then, Deya entered the infirmary with three loaded stretchers at her back.
“Actually, they’re making love in the trees not far away from here,” the elf giggled.
“I know, I heard,” I muttered, “but that’s alright, because we can just move on to the next patients, and these ones are not leaving without answering some questions first because Shoshanne’s making all of the calls from now on. No regrets about Sebastian, though. If any of you went missing for weeks, I’d lose my fucking mind. I honestly can’t believe he didn’t pass out during the operation, he was so wound up.”
“I thought he was going to punch you when you brought those chains over,” Shoshanne said as she glanced sidelong at me.
“Me too,” I chuckled, but Aurora rolled her eyes.
“Well, then let’s get on to the rest of the mages before any other lovers show up to steal our witnesses.”
“Do you want me to stay by you this time?” I asked as I glanced down at the healer still wrapped in my arms, and Shoshanne bit her lip.
“I suppose I need to let you get other things done sometime today,” she mumbled, “but you’ll still be here right? You’re not leaving for Jagruel right away?”
“Of course, we’re not,” Cayla answered for me as she strolled into the infirmary. “We aren’t going anywhere until you’re completely taken care of, and I mean this in more ways than one.”
A coy grin curled at the corner of Shoshanne’s lips as the princess came over and left a kiss on her cheek, and I heard a few Terra Mages chuckling to themselves on their way out.
“I just stopped by Flynt’s Pub to let Raynor know the first batch has arrived,” Cayla informed the healer. “He offered to come by and help out, and I took him up on the offer since I thought this might make you more comfortable.”
“Oh, thank the gods,” Shoshanne sighed with relief. “I really don’t enjoy being the only healer around for this.”
“You’re doing an amazing job,” I assured her, “and from what I can tell, you won’t have any issues keeping the mages restrained while you work, whether you have help or not.”
“That’s true, but you’ll need to adjust the chains so I can somehow secure them while you’re away,” Shoshanne pointed out, “and I’ll need to keep some Terra Mages on hand to help bring in the bodies when the snatcher returns. I can’t move them all by myself.”
“Your Terra Mages have already been hired,” I told her. “They’ll be here daily at the same time starting tomorrow, and they’ll come by between their training sessions to help with the other deliveries.”
“See?” Cayla said as she nudged Shoshanne. “We wouldn’t leave you alone here without making sure every little detail is handled.”
“Starting with a clean water supply in here,” I decided. “Did you have any luck finding Odin?”
“Right here,” the young Flumen Mage muttered from the doorway, but he kept his eyes on the unconscious mages all chained to the tables around the room. “This is … ”
I nodded my agreement when the kid failed to find a suitable phrase, and I gestured for him to come over and join us before I turned to Cayla.
“Would you mind locating some Defenders who could stand guard for us?” I asked her. “I formed a lookout tower on the southwestern edge of the infirmary, and there should be about twelve Defenders to choose from at the training fields right now.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Shoshanne said with a smirk.
“Yeah, I do, or I won’t be able to sleep for a week,” I admitted. “Now, you’ll have Defenders guarding the infirmary, Ruela guarding you, Big Guy guarding Falmount, and Stan to do some backflips and lighten the mood.”
“We’ll need to choose carefully to fill the post,” Cayla said as she considered the idea. “In the short term, the Defenders need to be capable of countering anyone who might put Shoshanne at risk, but if the Master does discover what you’re up to here, we’ll have to be prepared to keep a whole troop of his soldiers at bay until we can organize our forces. How about an Ignis, Flumen, and Terra Mage all armed with your revolvers and shotguns? Reloading time might be a weak point for them, but we could leave a small supply of rockets up there as well. Since the bazookas won’t function if they try to operate them, the Defenders could throw the rockets from that height and cause a detonation if need be to buy us some time.”
“I love where your head’s at,” I informed the princess, and I pulled her into my arms to admire her deadly grin. “If you can find me three Defenders with aim as lethal as yours, I’ll finally feel comfortable about leaving Shoshanne for the week.”
“That’s a relief,” Cayla said with a pointed look. “I’m not sure who is stalling more right now, you or Shoshanne.”
“It’s a solid tie,” I informed her as I sent the healer a wink, “but I’m running out of details to obsess over, so once the guards are in place, I’m gonna have to seriously focus on saving the ogres.”
“Then consider it done,” Cayla purred, and she trailed her slender finger down my chest before she sauntered out of the infirmary.
“You sure know how to make a woman feel invincible,” Shoshanne chuckled. “I won’t have to worry about anything while you’re gone, except how to stay warm at night, of course
. I’ve gotten spoiled relying on all of our body heat lately.”
“Hmm,” I said as I furrowed my brow.
“Well, that’s not okay,” Aurora snorted.
“We’ll fix that as soon as the fountain is handled,” I assured the healer, and she gave an exasperated sigh as I motioned for Odin to follow after me.
I led the Flumen Mage to the half moon fountain in the corner while Deya and Aurora followed Shoshanne to help sterilize her tools and prepare for the next procedure.
“We just need to pull up a spring of water from under the ground, and then figure out how to keep the supply constantly cycling so it’s sanitary,” I explained as I glanced at Odin over my shoulder. “Have you been practicing your magery?”
“Constantly,” the young mage assured me. “I was actually working on that question you had for me, about how the possessed mages might be using water in their attacks, too. Yesterday, I managed to draw half a tree’s worth of water to me just by summoning it from the trunk, and judging by what an Aer Mage friend of mine told me, I think that would be enough water to fill about ten mages’ lungs.”
I stared. “Shit … that’s not good.”
“Yeah, I thought the same thing,” Odin said with a wry smirk. “It’d be easily accessible to any of the possessed Flumen Mages no matter where they’re working in the foothills, too, because it’s mostly wooded in this region.”
“That makes sense,” I agreed. “A Flumen Mage actually drowned a friend of mine just the other day in the western woods. There aren’t any water systems in that area, so he must have used the trees to do it.”
Odin’s eyes widened, and then he shook his head as he looked down on the empty fountain in front of us. “I used to think our connection to our elements made us the most useful, but now it seems more like we’re the deadliest citizens in Illaria.”
“We are deadly,” I replied, “but the Master is leaning toward that application of our powers rather than the useful side, and that’s where we can trip him up. We’re applying both, starting with this fountain.”