No Reviews for my First Chapter? That makes me sad...

Even if you hate it, at least tell me! :)

Anyway, if anyone is reading, here's the 2nd installment.

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Chapter 2 – The Light

Jo paced around the perimeter of her quarters at an agitated pace, the young girl's legs stretching each stride as far as possible. She reached one end of her circuit and spun around to repeat the process, hazel eyes momentarily flashing towards the clock face above the head of her bed.

The trainee priestess staggered to a halt in shock. It seemed that she had gotten so caught up in passing the time that it had instead passed her.

The door to her room clattered shut behind her, but Jo was already around the corner, soft-soled shoes making nary a sound as she sprinted down the marble corridors. She wove through the church's hallways at breakneck speeds until reaching a turn from which a shadow of a man stretched across the floor.

The elder priest nodded his head to Jo as they passed, both walking in a measured and demure fashion. She returned the greeting and strode onwards calmly. With a surreptitious glance over one shoulder, the girl observed a last corner of gold-rimmed ivory cloth disappear through the library doorway.

Pausing only a second to be certain the scholar was not about to step back out, Jo grinned widely, and increased her pace once more, hurtling onwards towards her destination.

***

Jo's tutor glanced up with an amused twinkle in her eyes as she observed the girl's flushed features. However, she made no comment. Instead she moved straight on to the day's lesson and, this being the source of the youth's excitement, test.

"This is Matron Nightingale. She is suffering from a mild case of pneumonia."

The elderly woman sitting on a chair in the middle of the practice chambers smiled sweetly as she was introduced.

"Ah yes child, I'm afraid I spent one to many of these winter days taking the children on outings. They do so like walks in the brisk weather, but I'm afraid these old bones are not so tolerable of the season's climate."

She chuckled lightly, although it deteriorated swiftly into a cough. The matron covered her mouth modestly before continuing in slightly muffled, if no less friendly, terms.

"But I hear you'll be helping me out with that… well I don't rightly know your name."

"I am named Jolene Heresty, ma'am. You're more than welcome to call me Jo though, most do."

Fingers still baby-soft with youth and lack of wear wrapped about the leathery and veined geographies of the matron's hand. Jo slid the index and middle finger of her right hand down to the woman's wrist, pressing against the veins there. She felt her patient's pulse, immersing herself in its rhythm and extending her awareness through the older woman's circulatory system as she had been trained to do.

The trainee priestess moved with the flow of life blood, feeling it connect and support organ and muscle alike, then expanding her psychic being further to run the gambit of the human anatomy. Bones and tendons, she felt their strain; she danced with electrons and all the while her physical lips, without conscious prompting, repeated the complex chant she had learned only a week prior.

Standing impassively to the side, the priestess observed her student's work dispassionately, yet her heart brimmed with pride and her mind was fully confident.

At last Jo located it: the invader from which her mental presence recoiled instinctively. Knowing the disease, she could now map its course and remove it. She called on the Light.

A warmth and effervescence coiled lazily away from her fingertips before submerging into the matron's skin. A sigh escaped her lips, and a light smile graced the priestess's visage.

Yet Jo frowned, if only momentarily. She had directed the Light to remove the sickness, yet as in so many circumstances, the holy energies had responded by directing her in equal measure.

This was a sensation which the young healer had never shared with anyone. Thinking of the Light as sentient in any sense frightened her. To many of her order showed scorn and animosity towards those who revered deities and she had oft been instructed in the imbalance that was inherent in theistic theologies.

Jo would not be accused of heresy. However, the girl's attention was drawn away from such tumultuous thoughts by the voice of her tutor.

"The color is already returning to your cheeks, matron. You have done excellent work, Jo. I believe now would be an excellent time for you to take some time to visit the kitchens, as the staff within have a small celebration planned for you this day."

Hazel eyes lit with sudden joy.

"You mean I have passed?"

The priestess raised an eyebrow at the lack of formal tone, but could not stifle a snicker at her protégé's enthusiasm.

"You know that that decision is not made by me alone. Although, that is not to say that I have any doubts as to how your efforts will be judged."

"Then what..?"

"It is your tenth birthday, Miss Heresty. This is a notable stepping stone in your development, and worth remembrance."

"Oh…" Jo took a moment to refocus her mindset before finishing her reply, "then I shall adjourn to the culinary quarters at once. Matron… Mentor…"

With her last two words, she inclined her head to each of her companions before turning her back. She strode away with the poise of a noble and the humility of a slave.

However, as she left the room a thought occurred to the young girl; a birthday celebration might include pastries. With that realization, and the secrecy of a empty corridor, decorum was dropped in favor of speed.

***