“Marten!” Hana exclaimed as she jumped down from the wagon. She grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back, although it was clear he had already finished what he intended to do.
“It’s alright, Hana. I deserved that,” I said, rubbing my jaw reflexively.
“You’re damn right you did,” Marten remarked under his breath.
“That doesn’t matter!” Hana said sharply, scolding us both. “We can’t be fighting when we have soldiers following us!”
“There won’t be any soldiers. At least not tonight,” I explained. “I’ll keep watch, just to be sure, but I think we’re safe to pull the wagon off the road and rest until morning.”
Marten and Hana shared a quick series of microexpressions that could only be developed over years of marriage, then looked back to me and nodded in sync. Marten returned to the front of the cart, while Hana motioned for me to follow her. “Lux, I’m worried about Lia. She was helping me tend to Marin’s injuries, but she passed out suddenly when she was fiddling with the strange device you handed her.”
I winced at the mental image. “That would be my fault. I’m sorry if I’ve caused you worry; Lia is perfectly fine, apart from being overtired. I’ll do what I can to make sure she recovers quickly.” I stepped in through the cloth flaps and lowered a hand to help Hana up after me. “If Lia passed out, that means that you treated Marin’s wounds yourself, correct?”
“That’s right,” she answered softly. “The cut on her arm should heal without issue, but I’m worried about the wound to her chest. Lia told me she would heal it once the bolt was removed, but she fainted before she had a chance.”
My face paled as I realized the severity of Marin’s condition far later than I should have. When I pulled back the borrowed shirt, I could see that her fresh bandages were already beginning to soak through with blood, and her caramel skin had a sickly pallor. “You did a good job wrapping this,” I murmured to Hana absentmindedly as I traced the makeshift bandages with my finger. “She’d be a lot worse off right now without your help.”
I let out a slow breath and closed my eyes as I channeled mana down my arm to inspect the damage beneath her wrapping. Marin had been extremely lucky, apart from being shot in the first place; the bolt had entered a mere two inches away from both her heart and her lung, avoiding any life-threatening injuries. The squared metal head had left a notch in the side of her collarbone where it had initially impacted, and I felt a pang of guilt as I finished my assessment. I should’ve just made you leave.
The healing rune inside my ring flashed, and a thin trail of sparkling green energy wound out from beneath her bandages and made its way towards her injured arm. Her bolt wound began to stitch itself together from the bottom up, removing any trace of the injury. I felt the gap in her collarbone fill itself in with new bone, and then the drain on my mana halted as the spell completed. Opening my eyes, I reached for the knot at the top of her shoulder and gently tugged it loose.
Hana sucked in a loud breath behind me as I began to unwind the bandage, but she made no move to stop me. With the tight strip of cloth removed, I peeled back the soiled pad of fabric that had pressed against the wound, letting out a sigh of relief when my eyes confirmed what my mana had shown me. Apart from the excessive amount of half-dried blood that stained her bare chest, there was no other indication she had ever been hurt. I quickly buttoned the top button of the overlarge shirt she wore, then sat back against a crate.
“A miracle from the Prime of Life,” Hana intoned with an awed whisper, checking over Marin’s condition herself.
“No, nothing like that,” I said, waving her away, “it was just a…” I trailed off, remembering the first conversation in which I had told Lia that all magic wasn’t a divine blessing. I don’t need that on top of everything else. “Uhm, regardless of what it was, Marin will be fine. She’s still missing a lot of blood, so we’ll have to make sure she drinks plenty of water and eats well over the course of our trip.”
The wagon rumbled forward slowly as Marten pulled ahead, and after a minute of travel he found a flat spot sufficient to hold us for the night. Before I left the wagon, I knelt down to check on Lia. Her hands were still clutched tightly around the mana needle and orbs, one of which was half full with a dull orange liquid. I gently extricated the equipment and returned it to my bandolier.
Observing her through Detection was a disquieting sight; her warm, golden aura was entirely absent, leaving her as a grayscale body against the neon backdrop of my mind. The rise and fall of her chest was easily noticeable, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that she looked like a corpse. I put a hand to her cheek to brush away a loose strand of hair and found her skin warm, which comforted me enough to move on with the night’s business. I knew that without my intervention, she would most likely sleep for at least a day, if not longer; for the time being, the fact was a blessing.
I followed Hana out into the roadside clearing. It was a clear, cold night as the sky faded from dark purple to black, and the moon hung low and full, providing us with ample light to work: Marten hitched the horse to a nearby tree, Hana sorted through a small bag of food to prepare us dinner, and I pulled three crates from the wagon to use as seats. We all came together when our jobs were complete and
