Beylvar and Daniel had been sequestered to the back of the house and almost nothing could be heard distinctly no matter how hard Lissette tried to hear. It was as if her own blood coursing through her veins was in league with each of her heart beats to block the sounds.
“Lissette,” Eliana repeated trying to get the girl’s attention. Second time was the charm in this case and Lissette tore her eyes away from the door to the hallway. “Staring will not help you see or hear, and,” she added, “I will be very surprised if you don’t find a way to wheedle all the information out of him later.”
Lissette had the good grace to blush and smile as she followed Eliana into the small kitchen. “Lissette, now that I have your attention, at least a little better, we need to talk as well. I have a favor to ask of you.”
Eliana asking for a favor was like finding a chicken with teeth, rare and possibly dangerous. The very idea of such a request had Lissette’s attention fully on Eliana now.
“Whatever they are talking about, and I do not know, when they come out of the room there is a task I need you to perform.” Eliana’s voice was quiet and serious, the normal twinkle missing from her eyes began to put Lissette on edge.
“Eliana, you know I would do anything for you, but you are making me very nervous.”
“I am sorry but it is about to get worse.” Eliana softened the last comment with a smile and a pat on Lissette’s arm. “When Daniel comes out, he needs to have the bruise on his face healed.”
Lissette stared at Eliana for several seconds waiting for the woman to continue. When she did not continue but sat watching, Lissette began to replay the words in her mind trying to see what she had missed. Then suddenly it hit her.
“What! Me? I can’t do that…you know healing can only be done between…” She stopped not wanting to say it out loud.
Eliana kept a light grip on Lissette’s arm trying to anchor her in a small way. “Are you going to deny that you have feelings for him?”
Lissette was trying to get her mouth to do more than move up and down and with no success. Finally she managed, “I have known him two days and hardly that. You know that even if I had those kinds of feelings for him, he has to share them, too, or it doesn’t work.”
Now Eliana smiled, “I think there will be no problem there. Beylvar and I have discussed this and he agrees it should work fine.” Her matter of fact tone was somehow even more upsetting for Lissette.
“You have been discussing us…US?” Her head was spinning through the ramifications trying to catch up.
“But if I can heal him everyone will assume we are – ma - matched.” Lissette managed to stammer it out but barely avoided the word she had started with.
“Lissette, no one will assume more than a match, but you know well that your parents had eyes for none but each other after they first met. Besides, if the healing fails all further talk will disappear.”
“Further talk! What do you mean further talk?” Lissette felt like she was on a hill with no clothes. “I have done nothing but try to help him understand what is going on. He seems so lost and confused. Anyone would have done the same.”
“And how many others have you taken under your wing?” Eliana patiently replied. “How many have you spent the day sitting next to on a bench in full sight of everyone so engrossed in each other’s company that Beylvar walked up on you unnoticed? And how many did you watch in council, while you fidgeted from foot to foot? And as soon as the council was over, who did you rush to and whose arm did you grab to hold him close to you?”
Lissette started to deny and protest but Eliana’s face would brook no false denials. It is all true and completely out of character, she thought. Why didn’t I notice the feelings myself? Why is this, said out loud, so unsettling? She thought it all through for a moment and with a sigh of surrender she managed, “I guess I got more of the elf blood than I thought.”
Before anything else could be said, Beylvar and Daniel entered the common room and Eliana nodded at Lissette. “We are ready,” Eliana said to the two as Lissette followed her from the kitchen into the common room. She exchanged a quick glance with Beylvar and the slightest nod of the head. In response, he relaxed the tiniest bit; the kind of change a few hundred years around somebody makes easy to spot.
Daniel wasn’t sure what was going on but the tension in Lissette was obvious. He looked at the faces and all were hard to read. “Ready for what?” He asked.
“Lissette is going to try and heal your bruises,” Eliana replied nonchalantly.
“You can do that?” Daniel asked Lissette directly.
“Sometimes a little and sometimes more,” Lissette answered without making eye contact with Daniel. “It doesn’t always work,” she added, “So don’t get upset if the magic doesn’t work.”
“It will work,” Beylvar said with a tone of confidence and a tiny bit of humor. The tone made Lissette blush slightly, though her body language spoke clearly to how awkward she felt.
Daniel was too excited by the possibility of losing his swollen purple cheek and to feel magic to notice the tone in Beylvar’s voice.
“What do I have to do?” Daniel asked with growing enthusiasm.
“I need you to sit still and close your eyes,” she replied. He did need to be still but she wanted him to close his eyes so he wouldn’t be looking so closely into hers. Lissette glanced over at Eliana, whose head was tilted and face wore a knowing smile, and then at Beylvar who only smiled.
“Eliana,” Beylvar said, “I have need of your council. Would you take a stroll with me and hear me out? I don’t want our conversation disturbing Lissette.”
“Happy to,” she said, and as she headed for the front door she glanced back at Lissette with a look of understanding and confidence in Lissette’s abilities.
The look helped Lissette relax a little, as did the privacy, for what she was about to try.
Daniel had been sitting there with a look of anticipation at what was about to happen and hoping to learn about healing. He looked at Lissette and asked, “How do we start?”
She pulled her chair in front of his where she could reach and see him easily. As their eyes met and lingered she took a deep breath and let it out slowly with a small smile for him. “I am going to place my hands on you around your injury,” she said. “All you need to do is relax and feel the music. When we are done, the healing will leave you sleepy and when you wake you will be more hungry than usual.”
Daniel nodded and gave her a big smile. He watched her lean forward and felt her hands settle gently on his face. It was hard being so close to her, not awkward exactly,
he found her eyes almost compelling. It was hard to feel like he wasn’t just staring. He understood why she had told him to close his eyes, this was very personal space and it was hard to concentrate.
Lissette watched him close his eyes and felt a slight sense of relief. Now that she was aware of what was happening to her, it was all the harder to control. She realized how different it had been when her mother taught her to heal. The bond between mother and daughter was strong but this was different – wider and deeper at the same time. She pushed the thoughts of her mother out of her mind and focused on Daniel.
She began her song. As the tune built and began to flow, she felt the connection deepen. She could see the damage, the cuts and swelling where the gauntlet had caught him on that first day. She remembered the twinge she felt when she saw him get hit and smiled a bit as she wondered if that twinge may have been this connection starting to announce itself. What would have happened if he had been killed? She wondered. Was he my only connection or would another have hit me? I will never know but I don’t need to, she realized.
The more she relaxed into it the easier it felt. She sensed the swelling and damage now and began to picture it healing and returning to normal. Suddenly, the sensation intensified, like a blast of light in the dark. She could almost see under his skin in her mind’s eye. The jo
lt increased her clarity and a part of her realized Daniel had joined in the song. The picture in her mind showed badly focused pictures of odd shapes bunched together like eggs in a basket. She saw torn blood vessels that were so tiny, yet clear. She felt blood forcing itself past bits of purple and dissolving them and carrying them away.
The magic had taken hold and she felt a part of him. The connection was, on one hand overwhelming, and on the other it was irresistibly – right. Her eyes opened and she saw the color in his face looked better, more like a sunburn in the injured area and she knew somehow that was his blood fixing things. She had seen it when Daniel joined in. The intensity was so much more than what she remembered with her mother. And that is when doubt crept in.
Was the surge in intensity responsible for the intensity of her new feelings? Did Daniel’s incredibly powerful magic overwhelm her? Were his feelings like hers or did his magic change the rules for this like everything else he touched? Now fear had her in its grip. Fear that what she felt was somehow one sided. Daniel didn’t know about the matching and didn’t expect it. What if the magic had to be balanced to work? She couldn’t stop the questions swirling in her mind.
She watched him there for a moment and resolved to keep the changes in her under control till she could see them in him.
His eyes blinked open and he smiled at her. “I am tired,” he said, “just like you told me. Thank you for trying, whether or not it works it was a very interesting experience.” He rose a little wobbly on his feet and started for the bedrooms. At the door he stopped and turned back to her, “thank you, Lissette.” This time their eyes met and his lingered two seconds, three, then he gave her a warm, comfortable smile and went to bed.
NINETEEN
The next morning Daniel awoke early and was surprised at how much better he felt. He was also starving. Walking to the kitchen he found the others there already in quiet conversation. “Good morning,” he said before they had even looked up. Eliana looked at him closely for a moment and then smiled.
“There is warm bread in the oven, meat and potatoes in the pan and fruit in the basket.”
As Daniel crossed to the food, his path gave Beylvar and Lissette a chance to see his condition. The looks on their faces caught Daniel’s attention.
“What’s going on?” He asked.
“Your bruising is completely gone,” Beylvar answered. “Lissette is an even better healer than we thought.”
“Yeah,” Daniel agreed as he sat in the remaining chair. “All the soreness is gone. Thanks, Lissette.” He said cheerfully. He was surprised that she seemed to avoid eye contact with him as she mumbled that he was welcome. Confused but too hungry to be distracted he asked, “So what happens next?”
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Beylvar told him they needed to gather information and reactions after Daniel’s performance and Daniel should spend the morning getting to know some of his extended family. Lissette decided to stay behind and ‘help’ Eliana, which struck him as odd, but following his grandfather’s suggestions, he struck off on his own. He hadn’t gone far when Alan appeared.
“Hi, Alan,” Daniel greeted.
Alan paused and questioningly replied, “Hi?”
“Sorry, we say ‘hi’ or ‘hello’ a lot. It’s short and is used any time of day. I keep forgetting how much common language we don’t share.”
Alan nodded then looked at Daniel more closely and broke out in a large smile “Lissette heal you?” He asked grinning from ear to ear.
“Yeah, it was really nice of her. Doesn’t hurt a bit now,” Daniel said.
“I guess not,” Alan said around his building laughter.
“What is so funny?” Daniel asked clearly confused.
“If I had had any doubts about your story they are gone now,” Alan replied still stifling a laugh. “Do you know anything about healing?”
“It’s way better than waiting a week for the bruise to turn green and yellow and then go away.” Daniel was smiling back at Alan with that vapid smile that returns mirth without real understanding.
“Amongst young elves, healing can only be done by the parents.” Alan prodded.
“So - she is obviously not my parent… What is it you are beating around the bush about?”
“What is the bond between parents and their children?” Alan prodded again.
“Close blood ties? Beylvar told me Lissette and I were not related closely… What’s going on?” Daniel’s tone had reached the proper level of concern, bordering on panic, which Alan had been hoping for, and the straight face he was keeping was becoming painful.
“Parents love their children and the children love them back without question: complete love and trust.” Wait for it, Alan thought.
Daniel stared at Alan. He saw the twinkle in Alan’s eyes. He thought through the words. Then, suddenly, it hit. His eyes widened and eyebrows shot up as his mouth fell open.
“Lissette – loves me?” It came out as a blurt, and a cough, and a choke all at the same time.
“There it is,” Alan laughed, “You’ve got half of it now.”
“Three days ago she thought I was a weirdo, uh, a nut job, uh, uh, addled?” Daniel was frantic trying to absorb it all and find words. He could tell Alan did not know what they meant, and even more maddening, didn’t care. Alan’s smart-ass smile was not helping Daniel find his legs.
“Half?” Daniel’s brain was spinning. “What do you mean, half?
“So tell me what the healing was like.” Alan seemed to change direction again.
“She put her hands on my face and then started to hum, and then I think I started humming and I could see the cells and capillaries in my own face,” Daniel said while unconsciously placing his own hands where Lissette had placed hers.
“That’s it?” Alan asked with a smile not really concerned with what Daniel was describing.
Daniel tried to get his mental images in order and as the images came back to him the feelings did too. “Her eyes – I could hardly look away from her eyes. And when the song started I could feel her inside of me and I could feel inside her.”
“So what is the other half?” Alan asked.
Daniel paused, thinking back through the conversation, and the shock of the meaning of the healing. “You mean I have to be in love with her, too?”
“Have to?” he asked with a chuckle. “No, you don’t have to be in love with her – unless you want to be healed.”
“I have only known her for a couple of days,” Daniel protested. He just stared, his brain fully occupied, trying to assemble all the pieces. Lissette was amazing and made him feel – flustered most of the time.
“How do relationships work in your world?” Alan asked with a little more compassion.
“Huh?” Daniel replied still trying to get his feet under him. “Uh, you meet someone, you date, and you spend time with them, maybe live together for a while. You decide that they are the best person in the world for you and you get married and have kids. It’s kinda the package.”
“Similar to here then,” Alan said, “I don’t know what a date is, but the rest, Human. And do those relations last a lifetime?”
“No,” Daniel said, “about half come undone.”
“And how long does a really long marriage last?” Alan continued.
“Seventy-five years is about it and they are rare,” Daniel replied with his shock subsumed by the odd questions. “Where is this going?”
“You panicked over the idea of a beautiful woman being in love with you just because it happened fast. In our world we live for hundreds of years. If we had to rely on your method with those results how many former husbands and former wives would there be? We have enough problems with mixed up generations without adding in step brother and cousins. So the gods built in a way to keep our families stable. We have no doubts and no questions.
“If you think about it,” Alan continued, “it works really well. The courting, the coy games and flirtations the humans go through get sliced away by truth. For healing to work, she must either be your mother or your mate. Whether or not the mating has begun,” Here Alan could not suppress the smile as Daniel reddened again.
Suddenly Alan’s face was very serious and the change in countenance drew Daniel’s attention quickly. “What?” He asked.
“For us halflings, we never know if we have that ability or not. We wonder if it is an elf matching or a human attraction. With a human it can feel very strong and still not last. Elves are in or out.”
Daniel was thinking about what his grandfather had told him about Draskin and Arolwyn.
“But it can be one way with elves can’t it? I mean the match can be one way and not felt by the other?” Daniel asked.
Elves- the Book of Daniel Page 18