by Jez Cajiao
Once Oracle was finished with her conversation with Tenandra, Jian and I were invited back into the wheelhouse, and while he took up his newly-accustomed station at the helm, I moved to the back of the room to start work on Tang, who was now laid on the captain’s bed against the rear wall.
Laid across the bed would be more accurate, I decided as I looked down on him, half curled up, as he was over six foot, and the average gnome was around three feet tall. His legs were folded up uncomfortably, and his neck was at an angle that I just knew was going to leave him in pain, but it was better than the floor, I reflected.
Oracle looked him over and muttered to herself as she used our new ‘Greater Examination’ spell in combination with our usual ‘Battlefield Triage’ spell.
“He’s healing well,” she said eventually. “I think one more round of healing, and rooting out the last of the mold from inside him, and he should wake up. He’s lucky you didn’t just heal him and leave it at that, though; the infection would have been a nightmare to clean up later…”
“I nearly did,” I admitted. “I was rushing and didn’t realize how bad it was at first, but then… well, I nearly did.”
“Then let’s fix it, shall we?” Oracle said with a wide, sunny smile.
“Let’s,” I said nodding and settling down next to Oracle. “I’ll work on the meditation; you work on the healing,” I offered, and she agreed, sitting in my lap, and reaching out to rest her hand on Tang’s forehead.
I sensed the weaves of magic she created as I slipped deeper into my meditation, visualizing the box around me. I activated ‘Peace,’ and the air around me began to twirl in a faint zephyr that sent Oracle’s hair swaying gently.
I worked on it for the next twenty minutes, occasionally losing focus as I sensed the faint tracings of the weaves Oracle used. The fire here, that burned away the mold and fragments of wood that were almost too small to see, the water that washed the wounds clean, and every other strain imaginable, as she rebuilt Tang’s insides.
Eventually, I released it, opening my eyes as I heard Tang let out a faint groan. I smiled and watched him as he tried to shift, then twisted, obviously attempting to get comfy.
That lasted for about two seconds, before his eyes flew wide and he looked about, before falling off the bed entirely.
“Whoa!” he cried, landing on his head, and sliding the rest of the way to the floor as he struggled to turn himself the right way around.
Being the good friend that I am, I sat and watched him, and I heard Jian start laughing as well, clearly relieved to see Tang back in the land of the living.
“What the hell happened?” Tang growled eventually when he managed to get himself back together and upright.
“We won,” I said simply, then let out a sigh. “But we lost Stephanos,” I finished sadly, and Tang blanched.
“No… dammit.” He sat down hard on the tiny bed. “I liked him.”
“Me too,” I said. “He saved me, and I wasn’t fast enough.” I swallowed hard against the lump that had appeared in my throat.
“He saved you?” Tang said slowly, and I nodded. “While I was where… asleep?” His tone dripped with bitterness. “It’s my place as your bodyguard to defend you, and Stephanos died because I got a damn splinter…?”
“A splinter that was nearly the size of a damn spear,” I exaggerated, and he shrugged.
“It was still a splinter,” he said morosely. “What about everyone else?”
“They’re all good; only Bane is still injured now. Well, and me…” I said, gesturing with my stump.
“And Stephanos’ body?” he asked, straightening up.
“Lost overboard to the sea. Whoever those ships came from officially, there were Drow aboard them, and they were in command.”
“Fuckers!” he spat, and I had to agree with him.
“Yeah, apparently, I’m pretty high on the list of people they want dead,” I said, shrugging.
“Believe me, that’s a long list,” Tang said grimly. He thought in silence for a moment, then met my gaze with steely determination. “There’s a settlement of High Elves somewhere on the far side of The Knife. I’d bet they’ll know where the Drow are coming from, if anyone does.”
“The Knife?” I asked, and he blinked before nodding and gesturing toward the distant shore of Dravith.
“The mountain range that runs from north to south along down the continent. I don’t know what it used to be called, and there’s about a dozen names for it now, depending on who you ask. I always liked ‘The Knife’. Kinda makes sense, seeing as it cuts down the middle of the continent. Sorry, I’m just used to everyone knowing some things.”
“That’s fine, and yeah, sounds logical,” I said. “Where do you think the High Elves would be, though, and what makes you think they’d help?”
“They hate the Drow; like seriously hate them. I’m a bastard offshoot, as far as the ‘High Elves’ are concerned; there used to be a few different races of Elves, but we all started from the ‘High’ or ‘Pure’ Elves. The Drow were Elves lured away into the darkness by Lloth and seduced, while others moved to the deserts, the woodlands, or the sea, and more. The High Elves refused to ‘water down their bloodline’ by intermingling with the other races and established their own exclusive cities on each continent. They’re generally purist stuck up assholes, but some are all right. If they know where a Drow city is, they’ll either be raiding it, at war with it, or looking to recruit adventurers to destroy it. Since you’re hated by Lloth, they’ll at least give you help to fight her.”
“And quests, probably…” I said, rubbing my chin in thought.
“Oh, hell yes, especially if you bring the gods back. They’ll probably even let you into the city, rather than shouting down from atop a wall at you. And that’s a hell of an honor,” he said sourly.
“You sound like you hate them?” I asked, and he shook his head, sighing.
“I don’t hate them, I just… well, my mother was a High Elf’s daughter. Once her grandmother’s people found out that my grandmother had fallen in love with a ‘Low Elf,’ she was banished. Forbidden to speak to any of her friends or family ever again. She was twelve at the time. She used to tell us tales about the ‘City of Light’, and every time she did, she’d cry. Made me want to teach them a lesson, you know? The Cataclysm came not long after she was banished and my grandfather died, leaving her alone to raise my mother. Eventually, a settlement of ‘Low Elves’ took them in, and the rest is history. She never knew if they all survived fine, or if they were wiped out. Hell, she’d never tell anyone where the city was, even after they’d done that to her.”
“What makes you think they’re still around?” I asked, and he grinned.
“Because every so often, a caravan shows up from them, and I know they don’t have any Airships at the very least, because they bring all sorts of stuff to try to trade for one. The city lords of Himnel and Narkolt both agreed that they’d never sell one under any circumstances, and neither will the gnomes, so…”
“So there’s at least three cities out there somewhere that we don’t know about, then?” I asked. “The ‘City of Light’, the Drow city, and I assume the gnomes have one?”
“The gnomes have a couple of villages way down in the south. Small ones, but protected to an insane degree, from what I heard. But yeah, two cities, at least.”
“Well, it gives us a target for the future to open up trading relations if nothing else.” I said hopefully.
“Yeah, well, if you ever go, I want a place on the team, okay, boss?” he asked and I smiled at him.
“Sure, Tang. Now go on; go get some rest or whatever. We need to concentrate on Bane next,” I said, standing, as Oracle gave Tang a hug and whispered that she was glad he was okay.
We moved below decks then, searching and eventually finding the room that Bane had been dumped in.
He was curled up on the bed‒again, a gnome one‒but Bane was clearly far more flexible than Tang, and
had his legs tucked up with his arms wrapped around his knees. He was covered in swathes of bandages, his skin was discolored, and there were swollen areas all over him. In some places, he had lost a huge amount of skin, while in others, it was blackened and clearly burnt almost down to the bone. Still other sections were peeling and raw, with the strange blackness that comes from cell death through extreme cold.
More than half of the tendrils that ringed his head were missing, clearly hacked away in bunches as they’d tried to make him talk.
I looked at him and I felt like a goddamn terrible friend.
He’d taken all these injuries for me; he’d been scouting ahead, been jumped by that little shit Joshua, and then tortured. He’d not told them anything, either. He was a hell of a bodyguard, and I’d find a way to make this up to him somehow.
I felt Oracle start to use our ‘Greater Examination’ spell, scanning him and building up a fully populated picture of his body, all the way down to a cellular level.
Then we started work, ignoring the sounds of the gnomes and my team moving around the ship, and the occasional argument between the researchers or Hannimish and my people.
Only once did I have to get involved, and then, when I was interrupted by a shrill complaint so loud that it actually managed to get to me through my meditation, I was so furious, I stormed out of the cabin and literally kicked the door to the adjoining one off its hinges. I hauled one researcher, and Grizz, who’d been on guard at the door of my room, grabbed the other squabbling human. We dragged them both outside and dangled them over the side of the ship, as I seriously considered just letting go.
“I am trying to heal one of my closest friends, who your group tortured to the very fucking edge of death… each and every god damn sound you make is making that harder… so give me a single goddamn reason I shouldn’t shut you both up right now! Permanently!” I screamed at the man who was turning purple in my grip.
“Ah, uh, my lord Jax…” Hannimish attempted to soothe me, standing to one side, rubbing his hands, and licking his lips nervously. “Perhaps… I mean to say… please…”
“You want me to let them live?” I snapped at him, and he nodded quickly. “Then they’re your fucking problem! Make them be quiet, and make them useful, or I swear, they can swim from here!” I snarled, yanking the man I held back over the railing and dumping him, gasping and wheezing, on the floor before storming off back to the cabin where I’d left Oracle working on Bane.
“Tempting, wasn’t it…” I heard Grizz mutter behind me and I snorted my agreement, returning to the cabin, too worried and stressed to speak further.
Healing Bane was easily the most complex series of spells and physical work we’d ever attempted, in part because the specialty of ‘Reconstructor’ was exactly what was needed here, and that was why we’d had to find Nerin in the first place.
Fortunately, Oracle had learned some things from her, and we had improved our own spells since then, so while we were neither as quick, nor as skilled, as Nerin, we could at least manage the basics.
We stopped for meditation several times over the next few hours, running myself almost dry each time, before taking a break, but after three hours, Bane’s internal organs were fully repaired.
“How the hell has this taken us so long?” I huffed to Oracle at one point, exhausted.
“More than half of his organs were either dead or dying,” she said pointedly. “The rest were damaged in practically every way possible; he had frostbite, severe burns, and had lightning bolts poured into him. His teeth were shattered, and most of his bones fractured, at the least; then in the rapid healing you’d had to do to save his life, you’d basically plastered over the cracks. We’ve had to rebuild those areas, rebreaking and healing sections, which always takes far longer.”
“I know, it just…” I said, gesturing generally.
“It just seems like it should be quicker?” Oracle offered helpfully, and I nodded.
“I’ve been healed enough times, and it’s usually far faster than this…”
“It is, because a stab would, or a broken bone is one injury, even when you’ve had dozens of bones broken, beyond that it’s usually been a case of just bruising elsewhere or minor cuts. Here, there wasn’t a single part of him that didn’t desperately need healing. Believe me, we’re doing amazing.” She looked at me consideringly. “You know, you’ve let me take the lead on healing generally, especially in the more complicated situations…” she started, and I nodded.
“It’s been for the best.” I admitted.
“Well, you’re not going to learn anything if I keep doing it.” She pointed out.
“Wait, what?”
“You’re taking over,” she said simply. “Take over Bane’s healing, and you’ll learn a lot more,” she said again, stepping back. “I’ll cast the spells, but you guide them; that way, we can still do this despite the… hand… issue.”
I grunted, but accepted that, yeah, it was probably the best way to do it. I settled down to meditate until I was full again, then used the ‘facilities’, which were basically holes that led straight out to the sea far below and resulted in a damn chilly arse, before starting to work on Bane again.
I got comfortable and felt Oracle as she cast the spells, although I didn’t feel her in the way I wanted… then she handed the reins over to me somehow, and I started to work.
I sank my ‘senses’ into Bane’s body, starting with his kidneys, liver, and his major organs, following the arteries round to each organ, checking and slowly repairing them where needed. I concentrated on repairing the larger injuries first, then moved to smooth the surrounding tissues, relaxing them, and soothing away the swelling. That, in turn, reduced the strain on the overall system that was forcing nutrients through the swollen and damaged areas.
Then I moved onto the next one. I rebuilt teeth, coaxing minerals to regrow over the remnants of his old teeth, then smoothed them out and polished them to a gleam.
I soothed nerves and regrew tendrils, and I returned his skin to a glossy black and grey sheen, even as I subtly repaired the patterning of the skin.
Hours passed in a fugue of concentration and focus, stopping only to slip into meditation, then back into the fugue state.
I slowly worked him over, going from one area to the next, hour after hour, until I finally finished with him, the last injuries in his brain were ones that had hugely concerned me when I found them.
He’d begun to bleed into his brain at some point, but because it was a clear fluid, not blood, and it’d actually served to speed his neural network up tremendously, the spell hadn’t tried to heal it, and Oracle and I had totally missed it.
Once we found it, we realized why Bane was still unconscious, as every signal sent in his brain was essentially repeating over and over again, rattling around in the mental equivalent of a computer overload.
Oracle helped me with it, and we judged what we thought the problem was, and starting to force the substance to be absorbed into Bane’s surrounding brain tissue.
It was the most terrifying part of the entire healing, as I was morbidly convinced that at any second, I was going to erase his mind.
Eleven hours after we began, he finally stirred, and I almost collapsed with relief when he spoke quietly, in a very raspy voice.
“W… water…?” Bane croaked out, and I summoned a fountain right next to the bed for him and helped him roll over to immerse his face in it.
He drank and breathed down the water for several long minutes before leaning back and letting out a sigh of relief.
“Jax?” he asked quietly, and I nodded, knowing he would see it. Just because he didn’t have any eyes meant shit to a creature that had evolved for life underwater.
His sonar, or ‘Worldsense,’ as he called it, was working again, and I reached out as he held one hand up, grasping his cool, rough appendage in mine.
“Where are we?” he asked, and I shrugged.
“At sea. Or over it, anywa
y. We found the Gnome’s ship, and we’re headed back to the fleet. We’ve even got Mal as an escort,” I said simply.
“We won?” he asked, and for the second time that day, I had to bite back tears.
“Yes, and no,” I said, the pain in my voice clear. “We beat every fucker they threw at us, but Stephanos…” I said, breaking off. “He…”
“He died,” Oracle finished softly, taking over from me. “I was still on my way back, and I saw the fight. Stephanos stepped up and protected Jax from a Drow, giving him the time to recover, and the Drow killed him.”
“Are we safe now?” Bane asked quietly, and I nodded.
“As safe as we ever are,” I said.
“That good, eh?” he said, a low sub-sonic thrummm echoing around the room as I pulled him upright and hugged him.
“Damn glad you made it, mate.” I told him quietly, slapping him on the back.
“So am I,” he said simply.
“About what happened…” I started awkwardly, releasing him, and stepping back.
“The asshats tortured me, and I imagine you killed them for it?” he said and I nodded fervently. “And that prick, Joshua?”
“Oh, he’s dead,” I said grimly. “I did that one myself.”
“Then thank you,” Bane said sincerely. “Now, I find I really, really need some food…”
“Hah!” I said, barking out a quick laugh. “Always thinking with your stomach my friend!” I gestured to the door. “Come on; I’ll help you find some food.” I said, walking with Bane to make sure he didn’t collapse.
Each step he took was shaky, and he could barely climb the ladder to the upper deck before collapsing in exhaustion, but with my help, he managed to get to the wheelhouse. We got him some food, and I left him to rest in the bed at the rear of the room as I stretched out on the floor, closing my eyes in utter exhaustion for an hour.
Mal had caught up a few hours ago, having ignored the black ship at first, in favor of chasing down the merchantman and boarding it.
He’d basically looted it senseless, and being the sneaky amoral bastard that he was, when a pair of Drow appeared in the crew, ready to wreak havoc, he was paranoid enough that he’d been waiting for something. The pair had sprouted a dozen arrows a piece before they’d made it three feet.
