AN: Well shit. There is another outbreak on-going in my city, right during the time my students are supposed to take their finals so we again had to scramble to hold online revision classes and tests. I was so busy these days that I lost all motivation to write this chapter until this morning. A bit of a filler chapter, but I feel that it's necessary before the Piggot meeting and power testing section. Dialogs still feel like ass though, so I hope it isn't too bad.
When Lux heard about the person named Panacea, she hadn't known what to expect. The brief description she was given by Lev, the person bringing her breakfast, had sounded so incredible: the ability to mend almost all wounds and cure any disease with a simple touch was something she had only heard of in the tales about the mythical Starchild. Even the best Illuminator healers had only achieved such status through their affinity with the blessed relics left behind by the Protector. For someone of mortal blood to possess such power - she wondered if the healer had been blessed by one of the Targonian Aspects themselves, or whichever deities governed this world.
The real person was ... not the awe-inspiring, larger-than-life demigod figure she had imagined.
Panacea had come in with Miss Militia a few moments after she had finished eating, donning red and white robes with a hood on. There were several symbols on the girl's attire that she had seen on the box of medicines hanging on the wall, red crosses, and twin intertwining lines. And again, she had a large scarf covering her lower face. Lev had laughed so hard he had trouble breathing when Lux asked about their apparent custom to have figures of authority concealing their faces, though their brief chat had been pleasant enough she didn't feel much sting from the joke at her expense.
"Hello, Lux. I hope your stay has been pleasant so far." The older woman said, again with her eye-smile. "This is Panacea of the New Wave. She's here to perform the medical check I mentioned last night."
"It's a pleasure to meet you. I hope it isn't too much of an inconvenience." Lux bowed slightly, deferring to her old etiquette training. "My name is Luxanna Crownguard, but you can just call me Lux."
"It's nothing. I have other patients to take care of on-base today since apparently, someone thought it would be a good idea to tussle with a rage dragon with nothing but bugs. May as well get it over with in one go." Panacea said dismissively.
A ... rage dragon? She had never even had a glimpse of lesser wyverns supposedly harassing the farmland surrounding High Silvermere, let alone dragons roaming the land. Lux had only heard a second-hand tale from her brother about how the prince led the soldiers stationed at Wrenwall to slay the ancient beast Yvva after a long and brutal battle, its enormous skull brought back to the Capital as proof of their triumph. She shuddered to imagine any sane person would willingly 'tussle' with a dragon except for Galio. The marbled colossus had been all too willing to recount his tale of punching dragons out of the sky.
Panacea had pulled down her hood and scarf as they exchanged greetings and introductions, revealing a rather plain, freckled face, frizzy brown curl hair, and a somewhat tight expression. Lux did notice the girl staring at her face with her eyes slightly widened but opted to ignore it. She followed the instruction to sit down on one end of the single bed as Panacea did the same on the other. Miss Militia simply opted for one of the folding chairs.
"Do I have your permission to heal?" Panacea said, taking one of Lux's hands.
"Ah...yes?" Confusion must be evident on her face as the healer not exactly smiled but shifted expression to something more assuring.
"It's just formality really. Don't think about it."
Lux braced herself, half nervous and half curious for what was to come. The simple healing spells she had learned from the fugitive mages didn't have any particular feeling to it except a faint trace of the element their magic had an affinity for. On the other hand, the Protector's blessing she could feel on the relics, even though she had no affinity for them herself, was something simply beyond magic, something she could not comprehend fully like a color completely outside of the normal spectrum.
"Hmmm." The girl's eyebrows furrowed ... and lifted her free hand to touch her chests. Lux almost yelped in surprise at the sudden gesture yet looking at the serious contemplative look on Panacea's face, she didn't know what to say.
"You said that she had power, right?" The question was probably directed at Miss Militia rather than her. "Well, she isn't your regular cape that's for sure. I can't detect any Corona Polentia on her brain. There is a large gash on her heart, but it doesn't seem to cause any harm. No internal bleeding or anything, just a blank spot her blood does in one way and comes out another, almost like a chunk of her heart is just invisible to my power."
A chill ran down her spine at Panacea's word. She knew what it was, the phantom pain still fresh in her mind. A nauseous feeling welled in the bottom of her stomach.
"Is something wrong?" She could hear Miss Militia's worried voice from the side. Her words went unheeded as Panacea pressed harder. Instead of the faint feeling of water washing over her body as before, her power instead felt ... chilling. Waves of chill spread from where Panacea's hand touched her chest, rippling and overtaking her heart and mind.
The sensation disappeared as soon as Panacea let go of her hand and Lux let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. There was a loud, resounding noise as Miss Militia rushed from her seat to hover over Lux, her hand reaching for somewhere on the bed's side.
"Can you tell me what's going on?"
"I ... I'm not sure." The healer stuttered. "I tried to analyze the thing around her heart a bit more, and then ... and then she had a seizure and a mental breakdown on top of each other."
"I'm okay. Your magic ... it just felt really weird." Shaking her head slightly, Lux tried to get rid of the cold hazy feeling.
"Felt weird?" The healer echoed in confusion. "Normally my patient never feels anything from my treatment."
"Maybe it's some kind of power interaction?" Miss Militia supplied, though she didn't sound certain herself. "You did say that she doesn't have the conventional cape physicality. Maybe her power reacts badly to being inspected?"
"Might be. I've never heard of any case 26 with such a strong reaction to cape healing though. Anyway, the good news is that she doesn't have any infectious disease or is a carrier of one. Her immune system remembers a few I've never seen before, but it shouldn't be a problem." Panacea paused to turn to her, expression turning thoughtful. "The bad one is your respiratory system is very weak. No, that's not the right word. Hmm…vulnerable? Yes, yours is very vulnerable. It's simply not used to our, ah…industrial air I guess, which explains the coughing fits and breathing difficulty. I can alleviate the symptom somewhat, but your body will have to adapt to it on its own. I recommend wearing facemasks if it gets too bad, but things should settle after a few days."
Most of the technical-sounding terms Panacea used simply flew over Lux's head, but she could sort of understand that girl had confirmed she wasn't carrying any sort of plague. She did see Miss Militia in the corner of the room taking out her 'phone' and spoke something she couldn't make out, though the woman eye-smiled at her when she noticed her looking so maybe it's all alright now.
"Aside from that and the abnormality in your chest, your body is perfectly healthy. Above average, actually. Sturdy bones and firm muscles. No sign of malnourishment or onset of obesity. Balanced hormones and well-developed che…ahem." The girl blushed slightly. "Nevermind that. I can give you a clean bill of health for now."
"I will let them know to lift the quarantine then," Miss Militia said, "And schedule a more detailed check with our facility."
"It's nothing. If there's nothing else here, I'll be going. Gotta take care of your new Ward next."
"She's not a Ward yet, not officially anyway. I don't think either her or her father are in the right state of mind to make that decision for now." The older women turned to Lux. "I will have to escort Panacea now. Do you think you'll be alright?"
"I'll be fine, I think."
"Just...take it easy and rest for now. Please call the guards if you feel something wrong." Miss Militia frowned. "There is supposed to be a social worker coming in this morning to help you settle in but they had some ... accidents, and with how it just went I think we will have one of our medical staff as a substitute for now. Director Piggot would like to have a meeting with you in a few hours but I can speak to her if you don't feel well enough."
"I think I can make it, but thanks for the offer."
With a nod, Miss Militia followed Panacea out and closed the door.
Lux let her body fall onto the bed. That was ... certainly a chain of events that happened.