Disclaimer: If, in the long time since I updated, you somehow forgot that I don't own anything except my characters, allow me to remind you. If not, well, yeah.
Chapter 20! This is my longest story yet, although that isn't saying much. I'll be sad when it's over and it won't be long now. I'd say we're at least two thirds of the way done. I have no idea what I'll write next, but that's another problem for another time. Anyway, reviews.
Wizard: I know. It's probably going to be like that for a while, because I'm sort of going through a bunch of people that he needs to meet to give him a chance to develop both his personality and his relationship with Lirain. I know it must be a little boring to read, but there aren't too many to go. And the midwinter twist will be action packed and completely implausible, so don't worry. I'll have some fun with poor Treet soon.
Tenshi: She's not bad, I quite like her myself. And dishwashing officially stinks, although I don't do it for a living, thank goodness.
Fireblade: Yeah, he is. I was trying to stay away from the Talia wallowing in isolation for months and months plotline. And hmm…that's not a bad idea. In fact, it would fit in nicely with my planned wild adventure…
Violet Rush: Oh, I guess I didn't make that clear enough. He isn't destined for Rith. Or rather, he might have been, but circumstances conspired against him. I'm sticking to what little canon there is on his character, he's with Sera all the way.
Chibi Chingo: Thanks!
Dragonborn: Thanks for the review! As to your first two criticisms, you're entirely right, I did fudge the facts a bit, although I didn't notice at the time. I'll have to call it artistic license, I'm afraid. As to your point about Lifebonds, however, I firmly believe that there is no one particular way they "work" because that seems to me to be part of the magic.
Anyway, I'll stop rambling and try to actually write something. Hopefully I'll manage to update this soon…
I hope you guys don't think these bits of exposition are way too boring. I know it's really slow now, and they are all mostly the same, but I sort of feel like they have to happen? If anyone gets what I'm trying to do?
Yeah, I don't know if I like this chapter. It has some very good parts and some equally awful parts, in my opinion. With that, I'll leave you to form yours. Enjoy!
Chapter 20: Compacted Healers
Lirain snuck up behind Treet, who was, once again, engrossed in something that looked dry enough to need the entire Terilee poured over it in order to make it palatable. Well, it looked as though she was sneaking up on him, anyway. She knew better than that, and she didn't know if she could do it anyway. Something to try when he trusted her a little more, she thought with a slight grimace.
She stood over him and sent a small burst of Empathy that would have roughly translated as 'I'm standing behind you and I'm very happy to see you' had it been in MindSpeech or even regular speech.
Treet looked up and grinned, then tried to stifle it. With a grateful look in Lirain's direction, he shut the book and shoved his page of notes into his pocket. "I take it we have another appointment to fulfill?" He asked. "At least I got to have lunch this time."
"You aren't supposed to spend all of your time in the library, you know," Lirain said, glaring at him in mock seriousness.
Treet looked shifty for a minute, trying to cover it by rising in a great flurry of his slightly large robes. "Well, research reports and all."
Lirain looked skeptical but let the matter slide. As they walked down the hallway, she recalled Rith's words about slowly getting him used to her affection for him, if it could be called that. She extended her considerable Empathy as she simultaneously extended her hand in his direction, both actions as natural as breathing to her.
She firmly quashed the impulse to project 'don't notice what I'm doing' vibes and slowly inched her hand closer.
"Actually, we're going to finish up with these introduction or interview type things today," Lirain said. "The Heralds have a new Yeargroup that they're about ready to start and so the powers that be want your Yeargroup in harness in time for some of you to join them in classes. Healers are easy to find anyways, they're always in the same place, the House of Healing."
She paused, her hand almost touching Treet's. "I prefer it this way anyway. It gets me another afternoon off of classes."
Treet opened his mouth to say something, but Lirain seized the opportunity and gently enfolded Treet's hand in her own, continuing to chatter gaily as if nothing had happened. "Not that I don't enjoy lessons, of course. But lessons are lessons, and afternoons off, well, aren't."
Treet froze for a moment, almost telegraphing uncertainty. He kept walking, but he quickly looked up at Lirain to see what she was doing. When he saw that her face was carefully blank, with no sign of aggression or planned entrapment, he relaxed into the gesture. He didn't really care why she had done it, just the fact that she had was enough to make him feel more together than he had in weeks. He relaxed his hand and daringly closed his fingers around hers. She turned her head and smiled, but made no other acknowledgement.
They reached the House of Healing too soon for Treet. Lirain, too, seemed reluctant as she untwined her fingers from where they had been lying in Treet's. That could as easily have been his imagination, of course.
As they entered, she nudged him gently. "I ought to remind you, I think I mentioned this before. The first Healer we're going to see, Healer Trent. He may seem a little, well, intimidating at first. He's naturally rather dour. He treats people who have life-long illnesses. Oops, here he is. Remember, don't let him scare you." She gave Treet's hand a final squeeze and moved away, rather pleased with herself.
Trent was short for an adult, his head almost level with Treet's own. He held himself with such authority, however, that Treet was convinced that he towered over everyone in the room. When he spoke his voice was resonant but low, and he seemed like the type that was eternally displeased with something. Not in a way that signified arrogance, but simply as a sign of a perpetual drive for perfection.
He squinted a little at Treet and then stuck his hand out, tilting his head to the side a little as he introduced himself. "Healer Trent. Disease specialist. Want the speech?"
Treet was amazed. Trent certainly wasted no words! Treet nodded silently, figuring he might as well, although he wasn't sure he would want a teacher as, well, DOUR as Trent was. In this case, Lirain's word had been accurate to perfection!
"I work with people who have long-term diseases. Some of them, I can Heal, but most of them, I can't. A lot of my work is slowing down the disease or confining it to one area of the body. It's hard work. Diseases are fighters, they live to spread, even more so than other illnesses. Sometimes you can spend all your energy on one only to find that it is expanding again as soon as you loosen your grip. For all that, I find it rewarding, and we need all the trained help we can get."
He nodded once. "Any questions?" He asked, in a tone indicating that it would be wise to answer in the negative.
Treet shook his head again, and Trent turned and left. Never mind dour, brusque was more the word that came to mind now.
Lirain joined Treet, steering him across the room and smiling a little. "Don't mind Trent. He's a little…hmm…introverted? He's really quite amicable once you get to know him. I've seen him sit up all night with an ailing patient who was in the last stages of something nasty and didn't even know he was there. He pours all his energy into his work and expects the same of everyone else. Little appreciation for the art of social contact, that's Trent." She laughed a little, wiping away her former somber expression. "Don's a sweetheart, though. You'll like him. The entire Collegium does. It's often he gets called away from his real job to deal with the children that come in, he has a touch for littles. There he is now, in fact."
Treet looked up to see that they were approaching a desk. Just beyond it, a man with short, tousled hair was kneeling down next to a small girl. Her thumb was firmly in her mouth and she was hiding behind a woman who was probably her mother, given the resemblance.
Lirain motioned to Treet to look in the other direction before the girl spotted him. He could barely hear the thread of conversation. The woman was apparently trying to convince her daughter to come out and "let the nice healer see what he could do for her cough". The girl was having none of it.
To Treet's bewilderment, the girl wasn't dragged off by her ear as someone in his family would have been if caught refusing doctoring. Of course, they rarely had actual Healers, being insular in the extreme, but the old woman who did the Holding's herb craft wouldn't have stood for a little refusing to take her medicines!
Don nodded and started to speak to the little girl quietly. To Treet's further amazement, after a few moments, she shook her head bashfully and stepped out from behind her mother. Don extended his hand and the girl popped her thumb out of her mouth and shyly placed her hand in his, allowing him to lead her deeper into the House of Healing, her rather shocked looking mother trailing behind.
Lirain sat down on one of the unoccupied benches, motioning Treet to sit next to her. "He'll be back in a while," she said, yawning. Late night lessons and curiously disturbed sleep had left her lethargic and tired, although not quite so much as she made out.
Blinking slowly, she let her head hang down towards her chest, then gently leant towards Treet, pillowing her head on his shoulder.
Treet stiffened as Lirain appeared to fall asleep on top of him. In reality, she was carefully monitoring his reaction, but she feigned sleep rather convincingly. Treet forced himself to relax, breathing as deeply as he could. He began to forget that she was another person, never mind on his shoulder, and simply observe her beauty. The thick tresses that fell on his robes reached just below his shoulder, short as they were. Their emerald color was just a few shades away from that of his pale attire. As she breathed, her breath made her hair sway and dance across Treet's chest and he thought she looked utterly angelic as true sleep smoothed the mischief from her face. For the first time, Treet saw her not as someone with vastly superior training and knowledge, but as a young adult his own age. He relaxed still more, careful not to let Lirain's head slip.
Don's emergence and his cheerful farewell to the girl and her mother from before penetrated Treet's trance like the other noise in the room had not. He started a little, wondering what to do. Lirain was, of necessity, a light sleeper, and even Treet's small movement catapulted her into wakefulness. She shook herself a little, ridding her mind of the last blur of sleep and looked up at Treet fondly, caught in an unguarded moment. Treet smiled then confusedly realized that he had had a girl sleeping on him for the better part of a Candlemark, judging by the time candle ensconced just above him. Slightly confused, he coughed a little. "I think that's that Healer we were looking for?"
Called back to reality for the second time in as many minutes, Lirain looked around. "Oh, yes. He looks like he's not too busy right now." She stood on the bench and waved, ignoring the odd glances some shot her way. Don grinned, recognizing her and assuming that the Trainee she had in tow was Treet. He threaded his way towards them and Lirain gave Treet a small shove. "Go on, now. You know I'm not allowed to be with you by now, so you'd better intercept him or he'll have forgotten that rule and want to gossip. He's bad as a girl that way." She grinned.
Treet wandered dreamily in that general direction and, unbeknownst to Treet, Lirain watched him equally dreamily. This did not go unnoticed by Don, but he said nothing.
When Treet reached him, Dom smiled welcomingly, his honey brown eyes lighting. His voice was low, like Trent's had been, but it was rather like balm on a bruise, soothing rather than acerbic. It flowed, honey soft, like the Terilee in springtime.
"I'm Don. I do illnesses. Coughs, colds. You might say I'm a souped-up village hedge witch." He laughed a little at that assessment of himself. "As you may have heard from our darling Trent, the things that invade our bodies are some of the hardest to get rid of and by the time people come to a Healer, they can be well progressed. If you study with me, you'll learn how to use your power to burn them out, basically. Sounds far more violent than it is, I assure you. The greatest risk is that you become infected yourself, but most of us manage well enough and you'd have the best of care if you did fall sick with something you couldn't Heal yourself. We lose patients sometimes, but no more than any other branch, on the whole. Just something those of our calling have to learn to deal with." A sadness in Don's soft eyes showed that it was not so easy as all that, but he continued. "We see a lot of children. People who won't bring themselves in here for a burning fever will go to any lengths to see their little darlings safe." The sentence could have been malice from anyone else, but from Don, it was simply fact.
Treet nodded thoughtfully, something he seemed to be doing a lot of. Suddenly, the wail of a small child was heard, and the rising entreaties of a female Healer struggled with them for air space. Don smiled briefly. "My unofficial duty calls. If you need anything else, you can always find me around here. Follow the wails."
With those flippant words and a swish of his robes, Don was off at a rather amazing speed, leaving Treet rather shell-shocked. Lirain came up behind Treet, silent as ever. "I told you Don was a sweetheart. The brattiest littles turn into absolute paragons of virtue around him. It's like a Wild Talent or something."
Treet smiled. Don had certainly seemed affable, but Treet couldn't imagine doing so much work with children.
Like some kind of possessed whirlwind, Lirain was off again, leaving Treet little time to contemplate what had happened that day so far. Robes flying, she dragged Treet into yet another corner of the House of Healing, catching up with a dusky woman obviously on her way out for a lunch break. Her dark, curly hair bobbed slightly in the wind that blew from the open door, but she listened readily to Lirain's introduction, after which Lirain pointedly stepped back and Treet stepped forward.
Ria, as this Healer was called, lead him gently away from the door they were blocking and sat down with him on yet another one of those ubiquitous benches.
"I guess you've learned by now that we all have a little set piece we do for the Trainees we meet," she said wryly.
Treet smiled timidly at her and nodded. "Useful, that," he ventured.
"Exceedingly. Since you realize that, I'm sure you won't mind listening to mine," she said with a wicked grin.
"I'm what's known as a general Healer. We do anything and everything, really. Substituting in a pinch when someone of the correct specialty can't be found and taking care of things that aren't serious enough to warrant a specialist. We don't meddle with Rith's patients, overworked though the poor woman is, but that's about the only sphere we stay out of."
Treet winced a little at the name, but said nothing.
"We're also the ones that get sent out roaming and assigned to temples and such like. Being stationed with a village isn't so bad. If you're one of the ones that want to go back home to be stationed near your parents, I'm the one you want to train under. Otherwise, well, I'll leave you to decide whether Healing the tiny sniffles of the nobility is for you," she ended sarcastically.
Treet smiled to himself. It would be a raider-less winter on the Border before he decided to be stationed with his family. Not that they would have him, he thought with a small sigh of regret. He turned his attention back to Ria, who was just finishing up her speech.
"As I'm sure you've heard at least fifty times today, if you come up with any questions, Lirain can find me, or you can. I'm always around. This whole rigmarole is more to actually meet your possible teachers rather than to learn a whole lot, I suspect. Wise of the Circle, that. Now, if there isn't anything pressing, I was just heading out for lunch."
Treet nodded at the clear dismissal in her tone and wandered off to find Lirain, trying to put off his immanent choice of teacher. He would be up half the night trying to decide, vacillating between one and the other, he just knew it.
