The Phoenix Grail

by Helen Savore

  But they must all do what they could with what they had.

  “You have wandered for some time.”

  Moralynn spun around. Stretches of the Waterways went without walls, merely columns, but the myrial always managed to sneak up on her. Moralynn bowed her head.

  “Viviane, it is good to see you.”

  “Then there is something specific rather than vague you wish to discuss? I still cannot address the gaps you wish to fill, Moralynn.” Her head tentacles calmed as she made a single sideways blink. “I should not have jumped to that so quickly.” She offered a finny hand towards a more substantial portal and sat along it, like a bench.

  Moralynn joined her, careful to mind the slick surface and not fall into the portal. “I do have something to share, and a different question.”

  Viviane cocked her head, and her tentacles wriggled. “Well?”

  She took in a breath. How to say this? “I have recently found a new Smith.”

  “Another fae joins your cause? That Adhomai is no Smith.”

  “No. It is a human.”

  Viviane stilled. Her tentacles fell, and none of her fins moved, freezing in midair.

  Moralynn smiled. So Viviane did care about such things.

  “How?” Viviane asked at last. “Your apprentice Alexandrea is a rare specimen. How could there now be a Smith?”

  Moralynn tried not to react to Viviane knowing of her life and her people. She hoped it was indicative of interest, and over time perhaps that could grow into more overt aid.

  “I admit I am not sure. But he cut through rock without a mineral foci. And he destroyed one of Raebyn’s foci.”

  “Raebyn.” Viviane resumed her normal movement. “That cristiline is a pestilence upon all the lands. The Smith was seen with him? Could the Smith be a plant or somehow involved in that tricky one’s plans?”

  That thought had not occurred to Moralynn. She shook her head, sending it away. How could Raebyn influence a human—an unaware human—and why would he?

  “No, I do not believe it to be so. The encounter was brief and not pleasant.”

  “Of course.” Viviane trailed her foot along the surface of the ground water, sending out small ripples. “Why do you tell me this?”

  “You are a Smith. Is there something you could do?”

  Viviane closed her eyes, then blew out a puff of air. “I am a Smith, but as I told you, I am a Smith without a forge.” One set of lids opened, but a pale one remained. “I could not teach him, if that is what you wished to ask.”

  Moralynn stood. Perhaps she should not have come. “I was not sure, so I tried to speak carefully.”

  Viviane opened her eyes completely. “Yes, I appreciate your care. And your candor.” She stood, too, and backed away from the portal, but did not fleave. “What will you do with this Smith?”

  “We are training him to use his Life Shaping more consciously. He should know how to repair himself if more troublesome fae attack again.”

  Viviane put a fin to her mouth. “A Life Smith.”

  “Yes.”

  Viviane bowed to her. “I wish you luck with your new pupil.”

  Moralynn started to thank her, but before she could form the words, the myrial was gone.

  30

  “I appreciate your coming here.”

  Jamie had returned a week later, ready to face Drea and the monsters she called friends.

  He groaned. He needed to change his vocabulary. Still, Moralynn was a bit unnatural, and Adhomai was easy to get annoyed at.

  Drea said little at the door, quickly leading him through the house and out back. Apparently Moralynn had been waiting, and that wasn’t a good thing.

  Jamie tapped his forehead. “So, where to from here?”

  “We are here.” Moralynn motioned around the perimeter of the small yard and moved towards a dirt patch.

  They stood in Drea’s backyard, not quite out to the woods. So this wasn’t about checking out any supernatural portals or the like. A simple space, mostly grass, an area for gatherings and cooking outside. A small stone patio hung off the house, and the fire pit where they’d roasted many a marshmallow when they were younger wasn’t too far off.

  “No, I figured…” Jamie sighed, and dropped it. Moralynn’s face didn’t move a flicker. She would take some getting used to. He glanced at Drea, but she shrugged and walked away. “Are you leaving?”

  She turned, and her long hair caught in the light breeze. “I learned from Moralynn, and now you’ll learn from her, too.” She continued towards the door that led to the kitchen storage.

  “Drea?” He jogged over, but she’d already gone inside. Instead, Adhomai appeared around the door frame.

  “Ah, I see we have not yet begun?”

  Jamie’s eyes narrowed. Drea left him alone not just with Moralynn, but with Adhomai?

  “No. You’re helping?”

  “Of course not. I do not have the skill. I had hoped to watch.” Adhomai’s lips pulled into a smirk. “You should feel honored that the Phoenix Sparked wants to teach you personally.”

  Jamie felt a pull beneath his feet. He spread his legs to keep balance, but the ground continued to shift.

  Moralynn held up a palm. “I am here now, you will learn. These are not useful questions.”

  He spun and bent in a mock bow. “So, what are the right questions?”

  “I have not had to assess a new Druid in…”

  “Certainly not one so… mature?” quipped Adhomai.

  He noticed Moralynn glancing Adhomai’s way, too, and calmed down. They were all out of their elements, weren’t they?

  Adhomai lifted himself off the door frame. His feet curled into the remains of grass before finding a wooden slat chair and taking a seat.

  “I am sure you taught Alexandrea from childhood,” he said while he fussed with the armrests, attempting to lean the chair back. It would not change the fact he didn’t fit. “It would be interesting to see the effects of some accidental experience.” He snarled and slapped his palms. The wood of the chair grew, lengthening and curving to accommodate his full height. “Ah, that is much better. I will have to thank Alexandrea for keeping such natural materials at hand.”

  Jamie shook his head and faced Moralynn again.

  Moralynn nodded. “Tell me about the times you have healed.”

  Jamie’s stomach sank. What was it that Drea had said she suspected based on recent events?

  “I don’t know. Drea thinks I did something with Gwen. Her injuries didn’t look right, she wasn’t bleeding, but it seemed…” Jamie winced. “She was still bleeding, wasn’t she? And somehow only her skin wounds were healed?” He circled around and threw his fists into the air. “No wonder.”

  His eyes shifted to Moralynn. At least the breeze gave her some movement. It caught her coat under the armor and ruffled the ends. He shook his head. “I’m not sure what I did. I visualized where I believed the bleeding came from, and then she was better.”

  Moralynn cleared her throat. “And what about when last I saw you?”

  “When was—” He stopped talking. Drea, crushed, under the rocks. He did not want to remember that image, but it came to him. He had found her, had finally found her, realized what his old friend was hiding and getting answers to everything that had haunted him. Then that beast tried to take it all away. He could not just let her die.

  “You helped me, though. You told me to focus feelings at her.”

  A smile blossomed on Moralynn’s face. “Empathy can be a conduit.” She bowed her head and a lock of her hair fell forward, obscuring one eye. “It is more about understanding.” She tucked the hair into her coif and extended her hand towards Jamie. “Alexandrea told me you are trained as a doctor?”

  Jamie ground his teeth, but forced a smile.

  It was months ago; he shouldn’t be overreacting about this. He was on the cusp of bigger problems. “Trained, mostly. Never practiced. Why does that matter?” He pulled the smile wider, trying to af
fect casualness, although he wasn’t sure it mattered with these people. “I spent years studying, not be able to do much. This magic looks much more effective.”

  Moralynn grabbed his shoulder. “This Shaping is rare.” Her eyes closed. “Even before, most villages did not have a Shaper, let alone a Druid. And now…”

  Her eyes drifted, and Jamie followed them to Adhomai.

  He didn’t notice; his face tilted up to the sky.

  “We can save history lessons for later.” She let go of his shoulder and stepped away.

  “So, it’s rare. I’ll learn it; I’ll do it.” Jamie tapped his foot. “That’s why I’m here.”

  Moralynn tilted her head. “But you chose not to be a healer, a doctor. Why do you want to now?”

  His dug a knuckle into his palm. A paramedic was still nothing to sniff at, but he wasn’t sure it was worth explaining to Moralynn.

  “I never didn’t want to be a doctor. I simply couldn’t.” Jamie’s head fell. Even though he now knew the phantoms weren’t hallucinations, he still couldn’t go back and practice. He’d considered it, running away from all this madness, pretending he didn’t know. But he knew he would eventually spot a phantom.

  He was a runner. He couldn’t run from this. Could he stay on track long enough to run towards something this time?

  A bare foot joined his, and he looked up.

  Adhomai gave him a stern glare. “This was not the spirit that faced Raebyn.”

  Jamie took a step back, almost stumbling over an uneven tuft of grass. “I had to do that.”

  The moment the words left his mouth, he realized it made little sense. Had to? Knowing or not, he’d threatened an assailant, armed with only his hands. It was Drea, and it wasn’t Drea. She was helpless; she couldn’t do anything in that moment. He couldn’t just leave her there. He couldn’t have left anyone there. His mind flashed to the tea shop, and how he’d barked down the Chief.

  I don’t leave people behind.

  Adhomai’s lips curved. “You must learn these skills for those who cannot.” He placed one hand on Jamie, and the other on Moralynn. “My Lady Phoenix Sparked, stop bothering him about his previous avocation. It does not matter now, and it obviously upsets him. He is willing to learn, so teach.”

  Jamie opened his mouth, then closed it. He turned away. Adhomai let him go.

  Moralynn was not done. “It is not your place to interrupt.”

  Adhomai held up his hands, but stopped talking.

  Moralynn pointed to the ground. They were back over the large empty patch of dirt. She dropped, resting on her knees, and took off her gauntlets. “It begins with knowledge.”

  She waved her open palm over the dirt, and as she passed it became a smooth surface. She patted it. “Look.”

  Jamie plopped to the ground, leaning over his own crossed legs. Moralynn stuck a finger in the ground and drew. “There is a space here…” She etched out starting from the head, and worked her way down the body.

  “Wait, I know this. You’re drawing the skeletal system.” He pointed to the leg. “That’s a femur.”

  She nodded her head. “Then let us start with the next structures. Look to this connection here…”

  A minute later he interrupted again. “Muscular system.” He caught her eye. “You’re trying to tell me about anatomy of the human body? I know that.”

  Moralynn let her hand rest, then let it fall to her lap. “Then tell me what you know.”

  Jamie smacked his forehead. “Everything I know about human anatomy?”

  “Yes.”

  Jamie’s eyes flew to the horizon, squinting at the sun. “That could take hours, days. That would be to just go over all the systems. Do you mean treatments and procedures as well? Direct or preventative? Diagnostic?”

  He rocked back, lying down in the grass. The clouds sometimes calmed him, but now they were example figures. “Where to start? How to stabilize a patient so they don’t hurt themselves worse? CPR? You probably don’t know about that, do you?” He tilted his head. Not only Moralynn, but now Adhomai started at him. “Seriously?”

  Moralynn nodded.

  Adhomai chimed in. “First comes knowledge.”

  Jamie sat up and began drawing. “There are ten systems: skeletal, muscular, circulatory…”

  A good time later Moralynn held up a finger and Jamie paused his explanation. He was discussing waste removal in the lymphatic system. The sun had moved several inches in the sky and peeked coyly from behind the tree line.

  “I suspect you may use your life shaping differently.”

  Jamie slapped his thighs. “What is the point of learning if I need to do things differently? How did you even come to realize that?”

  Her eyes tilted up at Jamie, but she did not speak.

  Right. Calm, respectful. Jamie was learning she did not take to outbursts well. He sighed and settled himself. “Why do you think that?”

  Moralynn drew her hands over one of Jamie’s drawings of the circulatory system. “I can guide my shaping to stimulate certain areas, increase or decrease flows. However, I am not sure where it is going or what it is doing. I’m trying to get into the general area, but I let the body figure out the rest.”

  That answered nothing, but when she didn’t continue, Jamie nodded.

  “You, on the other hand, have a clear understanding of the internals.” She continued to trace the diagram. “You can directly impact an area. It sounds like the incident you mentioned earlier. You knew precisely where to look.” She poked her finger into the dirt, twisting it. “I think your concern should be to learn how to guide this additional sense and realize you do not have to wait for the traditional remedies.” She touched her dirty index finger to his left palm where he had hit it earlier. “Learn to not only diagnose, but cure, in an instant.”

  Jamie lifted his palm. He thought she healed it, but realized the injury, though small, remained. It was like an overlay; he saw the physical, but could also sense deep within the tissue.

  So it wasn’t just knowing. It might start with knowledge, but it was also about acting.

  After talking in circles for hours, he was surprised he had learned something. “Tell me more. How do you see it?” He shook his head, stumbling over the words. “How do you guide your magic? I mean Shaping.”

  Moralynn smoothed the dirt again and redrew a human figure. “Based on what you have said, I would say the circulatory and the reproductive is where I start.” She drew a circle around the groin and heart, with lines spanning out through the system. “There is a flow that allows life energies to recover.” She tapped the groin. “You draw from the pool of life”—she tapped the heart—“and shove it into the flow to send energy towards the areas that need repair.”

  Jamie looked at the figure, but wasn’t couldn’t see He mentally redrew a more complete person and tried to imagine this flow. It made a kind of sense from what he had done so far. When he was desperately trying to help Drea it had been like a push, throwing anything her way to help. Jamie tried not to think about the area that Moralynn kept referring to as the well of life.

  But this was not how it had worked with Gwen. That had been more pointed.

  “I think I did this, or more like this, with Drea by that rock fall. But not other times, if I really was healing then.”

  Moralynn tilted her head. “Hence why I said you are different. Starting with life, life finds a way. But starting with knowledge”—she tapped the figure again—“that will let you get to the heart of things.” Moralynn dipped her head again.

  Jamie wondered if that was her equivalence of a smile. But there were better things to ponder than Moralynn.

  Doc Morgan.

  The ghost of his disappointment had stopped him from reaching out to Drea. For weeks, months, Jamie believed he had betrayed Doc Morgan’s memory, dropping out of school, only being an emergency responder. Maybe he had learned all those things for a reason.

  Jamie made a fist and realized he didn’t feel th
e pull from his little stunt earlier. He couldn’t help but smile at that. “I need to figure out how to do this.”

  Moralynn stood, brushed dirt off herself, and pulled her gauntlets on. “We will need injuries to practice on.” Her upper body swelled as she took in a large breath.

  “I volunteer,” Adhomai returned. “Moralynn, you cannot instruct and be hurt at the same time.” He thumped his chest, setting his armor to rustle. “Let me be torn asunder, I trust in your teaching of the boy’s abilities to set me back to rights.”

  Moralynn put a hand out in the air, halting Adhomai’s progress. “While I appreciate the support, Adhomai…” She crooked her other hand towards Jamie.

  He stepped forward. “Yes?”

  The pungent, musty smell of leather blossomed as Moralynn’s gauntlet slapped his cheek.

  Jamie closed his eyes and tried to shift the pain, rotating his jaw, but a new sting burst on his opposite cheek.

  “Ow!” His eyes flew open and his hands leapt to both sides of his face. “What the bloody hell are you doing?” While he spoke, Jamie realized there was no swelling beneath his fingers. He pulled them away and retouched the wounds, except there was none there.

  “Small things are too fast, hit him harder,” said Adhomai.

  Jamie held up his hands. “No, don’t!” He looked to Adhomai, for speaking, but no, Moralynn was the threat, it being her gauntlet. He circled in the spot to face her and took a step back. “What’s your fiddling problem?”

  Moralynn flexed her fingers. “It is easier to heal oneself.” She shook out her hand and stared down Adhomai.

  He muttered, but walked away, settling into his reshapedchair.

  “Healing is a tremendous and unique gift.” She twisted her left arm behind her back, and held the right forward, with palm facing forward at a downward slant. “However, if you want to learn to defend against the fae, it will take more than Life shaping.”

  Finally something useful.

  Then Jamie regretted thinking that. Healing was good. He tilted his head and brought his hands into fists. This was active, more his style.