Chapter three –

Healing

Kathryn walked back to her little room and collapsed on to one of the two beds. Why were there two beds, if she was the only one there? And why were they forcing her to take medicinal and healing classes? She had always seen ghosts, but this was ridiculous! There were hundreds! Why, she wondered, did she have to befriend this boy, Seph? He already sounded whiny, just the kind of boy she hated.

Argus1, her faithful servant, who served her as a bodyguard from avenging spirits, and a butler, knocked politely and entered.

"I have your lunch, Miss Kathryn," Argus said respectfully.

"Thank you Argus," Kathryn said, without sounding very thankful. "Put it on the table"

"Of course Miss, whatever you say," Argus replied, with the humility she required of everyone who attended to her, excepting Hades, though he did not serve her.

"Go away now,"

"Yes Miss" Argus said. He bowed and left quickly.

A few minutes later, an Orc2 burst through the door and woke Kathryn up from a sound nap.

"How dare you!" She yelled at the Orc. Should she torch him or just singe him? She decided to compromise.

"Tell the others to knock before they came in," she said, and sent a sharp blast of fire from the tips or her fingers to scorch his legs.

"Now," Kathryn said, her voice like ice, "You can leave" The Orc shrieked and ran out the door. A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door.

"Please don't let it be another Orc; I hate them," she muttered, and said loudly "Enter." Argus slipped in and closed the door behind him.

"Miss Kathryn," he said "Our hunters have brought the boy, Seph. He is here now and is injured. On the Master's orders, you are to care for and befriend him. Turn him to our side if possible. You are to also asses his powers and the strength of them."

"That's all?" Kathryn said sarcastically.

"That's all." Argus said, completely unaware of the sarcasm in Kathryn's voice.

"Fine. Bring him in," she ordered. Argus went to the door while Kathryn averted her eyes as he reverted to his true, ethereal form. She knew that he would mind-speak to the hunters, whoever, or whatever, they were to tell them to bring Seph here. When the hunters arrived, Kathryn saw that they were three reincarnations of the original Sekhmet3. The reincarnations had the heads o lionesses and the body of a female human, but several times larger, they were worshiped in Egypt as gods. The original Sekhmet was the goddess of felines, but these were only shadows of their previous self. In their arms was a boy.

"This is Seph?" Kathryn asked them. The reincarnations grunted. She decided to take this as a yes.

"Put him on the bed so I can take a look at him, and then leave to bring me supplies. From the look of him, he'll need everything I can get. Go!" Kathryn said sharply. The reincarnations obeyed. They had to, for she had used Persuasion4 on them. Not too much, because using Persuasion was tiring and reincarnations had very little will of their own.

Kathryn shut the door behind them. Once that was done, she took a look at her patient. Seph's eyes were open and staring. He had a look of pure terror plastered on his face.

"From the look of him, the idiots probably got a Drevak Demon 5to knock him unconscious to they could bring him here," Kathryn muttered under her breath as she examined the boy. He was actually quite handsome, she thought, with his glossy black hair and gray-green eyes. He had an angular face with high cheekbones. He looked about 14, the same age as she was. No, no, no, no. Kathryn scoldedherself sharply; she could not allow herself to like him. She was only becoming his friend to convince him.

Kathryn heard a knock on the door.

"Enter," she said, thinking that it had better be the medicines and other supplies or she would probably be mad enough to scorch something. Argus entered, hauling a cart behind him. He pulled the cart in to the room and Kathryn saw that it was loaded to overflowing with medicines and any other supplies that she could possibly need.

"You did well Argus. You can leave now." Kathryn said formally and, for the first time, thankfully. Argus bowed and left, leaving her alone with Joseph and a huge cart of supplies.

Kathryn pulled off Seph's shirt and saw immediately that he had one very dangerous cut that could easily to kill him very quickly. It was a very deep cut that went diagonally across his chest. That one needed to be healed first when she actually started to heal him. But before she got to that, his other cuts had to be assessed. Kathryn took a second look at his chest and abdomen and saw that there was a smaller and shallower cut on his side. Seph also had a broken arm.

Kathryn went to the supplies and found the list that was always added by Argus when she ordered more than two items. Let's see, she thought, I need bandages, lots of them, and a Demonic Magic Amplifier6. Kathryn scanned the list. Holy Water, Chakra Magical Amplifier, Lightworker7 Magical Amplifier. Why would she need a Lightworker Amplifier? She would not even be able to touch it without being incinerated . . . . Aha! Demonic Magic Amplifier – section 2A. Kathryn reached into section 2A and grabbed a heavy, thick circle covered in aluminum foil. She pulled it out. Now for bandages. Kathryn went down the list again. Sage and Lavender Smudge Stick, Turquoise healing infuser, and . . . . Bandages – section 8C. She reached in and grabbed as many bandages as she could before running back to the bed with the Amplifier and the bandages.

Kathryn unwrapped the Amplifier and placed it on Seph's chest, right over the cut. She placed the bandages next to her as she sat next to him on the bed. Kathryn put her hands on the Amplifier as it sat on Joseph's chest. She started to meditate and fell into her magic. Kathryn went deeper and deeper inside of herself as she looked for her magic, and there it was! A seed of magical fire. She grabbed the end of it and tugged sharply. A thin coil of fire came to rest in her palm. Kathryn pulled harder and the coil thickened as she called for more than she ever had before. She took it and let it flow out through her palms and plunged it into Seph's chest. Then, as the flow of fire began to wane, she ran around the bed to his shoulders. Kathryn clamped her hands on to his shoulders. His back arched and she hung on to his shoulders to weigh him down as he twisted. Kathryn was able to hang on to his shoulders only because she had been trained and knew that healing had this affect on most people, so she was ready for it. So that was why Hades had forced her to learn how to heal, Kathryn thought.

Once Seph's eyes had closed and he had settled, she released his shoulders and got the bandages. Kathryn inspected her work, carefully examining Seph's injuries. The chest cut had gotten shallower, but was still bleeding heavily, and the cut on his side had started to scab over, but was leaking blood. Once that was done, she wrapped his torso in bandages. Then she staggered over to the other bed to sleep.

When Kathryn woke up, after three days, she was ravenous. She stumbled, bleary-eyed, to the dining table to find that Argus had thoughtfully laid out food for her. Kathryn didn't even think about using utensils, she was so hungry. Kathryn looked at the food, grabbed a bagel that was already smeared with cream cheese and stuffed it in her mouth.

"Hey, can I get some of that?" a voice asked. Kathryn whirled around. Seph was still lying on the bed, but his eyes were open.

"Why are you awake?" she said, surprised. How strong was this boy? It usually took at least a week for regular people to recover enough from a healing to wake up, and a few more days for them to be able to speak. The stronger ones took a week to be able to speak. And this kid was speaking three days after the healing?

1 Argus – a humanoid creature and has eyes all over his body.

2 Orc – a large green-black goblin with four arms and is very good with swords and in battle, hates anything supernatural. Orcs do not consider themselves supernatural.

3 Sekhmet – an animal with the body of an unnatural

4 Persuasion – the art of suggestion; called magic by some.

5 Drevak Demon – a small, black, shadowy demon that has long tentacles.

6 Demon Magic Amplifier – a flat, round obsidian disk that amplifies demon or demonic magic. Can kill Lightworkers. (see Lightworker)

7 Lightworker – a person or thing that is gifted with magic to be used only for good. For people who can see magic, she (he, it) is surrounded by a soft golden glow.