Greetings! Thank you for all the comments and reviews, I've been having a great time reading them, they really encourage me to write more :)

Chapter 6: Fail better

Nova was in a state of mild panic. After she'd finished dressing Remi's wound and getting him seated in one of the large sofa chairs at the back of the reception room, as they called it at the tower, she realized that Elizabeth must be out. After all, ringing the bell to her room hadn't woken her, which it could, as the girl had herself found out a few days ago, nor gotten her to join them downstairs. This meant that, until Will or Owen came back, she was alone with dealing with whatever came through the doors of the tower. And, unlike usually, when they did expect a large number of patients, she knew that there wouldn't be anybody to help her.

"Are there any healers in your platoon?" Nova asked the resting Knight in the corner and Remi instantly perked up.

"No, Miss Nova," he told her. "We have a few people who can do basic first-aid, but nothing fancy."

"Alright," the girl nodded to herself. Indeed, she would be alone in this. She was sorting through the clean bandages and salves when the doors burst open, a stream of Knights coming inside. "Please, place the major injuries and those who can't move on their own on the available beds," she told them, but they were talking amongst themselves and not really listening to her. "Please, the major injuries on the beds-woah!" Nova caught a swaying young man, helping him to a bed and making sure his legs were on it, as well. She helped the Knight raise his lower limbs at the knees, so that the blood would pool into his torso, making his heart pump more into his head. That would at least keep him conscious.

She looked up from the man, to see that the Knights weren't really doing as they were told. Instead, they seemed to be arguing about the mission in semi-polite tones, their Captain not lifting a finger to help the girl. She frowned at the sight. Just as Nova was about to attempt, yet again, to gain control of the situation, as she'd seen Mary do a number of times, the door opened again.

"Hey, Nova!" Luck's familiar cheery voice rang out as the Black Bulls Knight brought in his sparring buddy, Magna, holding him up. "We need some patching up!" Nova sighed, feeling her irritation spike as an argument broke out between the two squads instantly. The Crimson Lions wasn't a very rude division. They were generally quite nice and listened to healers, but it seemed that even they had issues with the Black Bulls. Comments, masked in polite words, were tossed at the two newcomers, and Luck wasn't above shooting out a challenge or two, eager to continue testing his strength when the opportunity was presented to him on a silver platter.

"Enough!" Nova finally screamed out, causing all eyes to turn to her. "Silence!" when one of the Crimson Lions opened his mouth again, she put up a finger into the air, stopping him from talking. "No. speaking," the girl broke her words up, as if that would make them listen to her. "Everyone will major bleeding, big bruises, burns or unable to stand on their own is to get into a bed," nobody moved. "Now!" Nova clapped her hands together, the sound vibrating through the room.

"I think it's best to listen to our healer," finally, the Captain of the Lions spoke up, a small smile on his face. "There will be time for talking and issuing challenges later." And at those words, the Knights moved quickly.

"Luck, put Magna on a cot, as well, and grab that tray for me," Nova told the boy, taking a clean apron and tying it around her body.

"What?" the boy asked, tilting his head.

"I'm going to need an assistant, come on," Nova pulled on a pair of fresh surgical gloves, not looking to see if he had listened to her. But, as soon as she rushed over to the first, by the looks of it, most urgent case of bleeding, the blonde Black Bull was right next to her, tray in hand. He looked bored by his tasks, which continued to be assigned, but he listened to her well and followed orders without talking back.

Nova moved from one patient to the next, changing gloves as she went. There were two, a man and a woman, who had fought against someone who slashed. They had minor cuts and large lacerations, but generally everything was easy to treat, even without her magic. The woman who'd battled a fire mage had large burns on her arm and leg, for which Nova had to open her grimoire.

"Creation: OR," the girl murmured, letting her small blue book of spells float next to her in the air. A large dome of bluish color spread around the patient and the healer, enveloping Luck, as well. As Nova started removing the debris from the burns, her magic already applying disinfectant, painkillers and salves, the boy seemed to look around, taking his time to poke at the very edge of the bubble.

"So, this is your magic?" Luck asked curiously.

"Yeah," the girl replied, brows furrowed as she fished out a particularly stubborn piece of rock in the wound.

"Does it do anything?"

"Disinfects, freezes, cools, heats, applies salve, and so on," Nova told him absent-mindedly.

"Can it be used in battle?" Of course, he was interested only in the application in a fight. If there was one thing which Nova had learned about Luck, it was that he valued battle prowess above everything else.

"I haven't tried," the girl shrugged, tossing her instruments on the tray and washing out the wounds again. The arm looked pretty bad, but she thought that she could save it.

"You need to try to use it in a fight," Luck commented cheerily. "Otherwise it's useless." Nova's patience had run out, though.

"Look, Luck, not all of us want to be the first to fight," she told the boy with a sigh. "I just want to patch up people, okay?" The boy's head tilted again to the side, as if processing her words.

"Alright," he shrugged, but what Nova didn't know was the fact that he had already processed the information well. There were fighters and there were healers in his mind now. And, despite Nova being weak in battle, she was strong on another front. A battle which he couldn't fight himself. She was strong when it came to saving lives.

"Holy crap," Will whispered under his breath, stopping short at the door of the tower, watching the flurry of movement which was happening. He had his gathering gear on, brown baggy slacks with multiple pockets and a green shirt with no sleeves. A bag full of harvested herbs was slung over his shoulder, heavy and jingling with multiple jars inside. There was a wide-rimmed hat on his head, as well, shielding him from the harsh summer sun of the Clover Kingdom, which was infamous for giving sunburns.

But, what he walked in on wasn't at all what he expected to find after his long harvesting trip through the surrounding fields and mountains. Warm in the setting sun, Will had expected a calm, quiet tower to welcome him, as the newcomer, a girl he had judged would do well in their field, was a rather reserved person. Nova spent her free time in her room, reading, studying or sleeping. Will most certainly did not expect to find this.

The reception room was full, almost all of the beds occupied with various Knights, the majority seemingly from Crimson Lion. What surprised him was the lack of yelling and magic spells flying about, as they usually did. Instead, all of the Knights were calmly waiting for their turn to be treated chatting in hushed tones, and, from what he could see, most of them had already received quite a bit of treatment. There was a boy following Nova around, a new blonde kid who had joined the Black Bulls just a month or so ago. He seemed to had been tasked with assisting the young girl.

What shocked Will the most, however, was Nova herself. She wasn't trembling in a corner, not sure what she should or could do. He had been worried that she'd never even attempt to step out of that comfort zone and join them as a healer. But, what he saw was a completely different young woman. Nova moved with confidence, didn't hesitate even for a second, and she had such great concentration that she hadn't even noticed him standing in the doorway. She was working on the Captain of the squad now, Will could recognize the nobleman easily, treating the deep cuts on his arms.

Instead of interrupting, the senior healer decided to watch, taking in the extent of Nova's magic and knowledge and planning out how best to proceed with her tutoring. He slowly placed down his supply bag, making sure that the cube-shaped container didn't announce his presence with the jingling jars, and then leaned comfortably onto one side of the doorway, taking in the actions of the newest apprentice.

"By herself?" Owen asked, looking at Will over his glasses. The two healers were in the room their leader typically used for treatments, sitting at the desk and drinking tea. Will had been rather eager to present a new brew which could dull the pain quite well, while not being addicting. It was a mixture of feverfew and St. John's wort, a nasty concoction, though effective.

"Believe me, I would've intervened had I seen the need to," the younger healer said, raising his hands in surrender. "But, she was on top of the whole room full of injured Knights. And her magic! You should've seen the brilliant application of it! She creates a dome in which she's got a sterile environment that aids her in her surgical process," Will gushed, eager to explain the whole thing to Owen. "It's not a healing spell or anything, but it's something I've never seen before. If Nova manages to get that thing to do even more complex actions, except disinfecting and applying salve, it could change the way we practice medicine forever!"

"Indeed," Owen nodded, his fingers going to his chin as he considered the new information. "It wouldn't mean forcibly multiplying cells, but actually helping the body heal through natural processes. We wouldn't be shortening the lives of our Knights, but could extend them by a few decades."

"Right?" Will stopped talking, his mind obviously blown by the new information he'd received. Then, Owen chuckled, making the younger healer give him a curious look.

"When Julius told me he's sending me a new healer, one who can fix people without destroying their lifespan in the process, I'd laughed," the healer said. "He'd told me that this girl, merely fifteen, would decimate healing as we know it and make it into something entirely new, and I had been skeptical. Even when Nova herself had told me about her medical practices, I'd been dubious. However, this is, indeed, a gamechanger."

"What do we even do with someone like her?" Will asked, frowning.

"What do you mean?" Owen's question had little malice to it, and more of a curious note.

"I mean, her magic is so unusual, as are her methods," the young healer elaborated. "So, how do we teach her? And, what do we even teach her?" The apprentice looked to his mentor, lost as to what they ought to do next.

"Pour everything we know into her head," Owen told him after a brief moment of silence. "Pound the knowledge we have spent generations learning and see how she connects it and implements it. The girl has the potential to make conclusions and think up applications that we haven't considered, as we rely on healing spells the majority of the time. With her restrictions and our knowledge, we could actually realize the full potential which Julius talked about."

"See one, do one, teach one?"

"See one, do one, teach one indeed," Owen agreed, smiling at their motto.

"No, no, no," Will shook his head, exasperated. Nova was proving to be an eager student, but not one who could follow his methods as much as he'd hoped. "You weave the healing magic into the instrument before you plunge it in. Then it transfers to the salve while you're mixing it, making it more potent."

"But, my healing spells are very weak?" Nova asked, looking up at the healer with wide eyes, a blush on her cheeks.

"Alright, how would you modify it to be able to make the salve yourself?" he asked, letting go of the pestle and mortar and sitting down on the tall chair. The two were in the common area, Will teaching Nova how to mix the most basic of salves herself. They each had a large cup of coffee next to them, breakfast forgotten in favor of teaching and learning. The morning rounds to see how their patients were doing proved helpful, seeing as one Knight had developed an infection. The others, though, were doing rather well and could be discharged within the week, according to Will's estimate of their conditions.

"I would buy it from you?" Nova asked, sounding a little unsure, making Will shake his head again.

"What if you were somewhere you couldn't reach me?"

"I'd find someone with teleportation magic."

"What if I were dead."

"I'd find someone else who could make the salve."

"Dammit, Nova!" Will's hands came down on the table hard, making the girl jump in her seat. "You need to know how to make this salve yourself! No outside help!" he realized that he'd scared the poor thing, shaking his head and extending his hand to grab hers on the table. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell. It's just, you were doing so great yesterday! Now, all that's left is to learn and adapt. So, think. Nova, think how you can make this salve your own."

The girl's wide eyes slowly went from fearful to a blank look, telling Will that her mind was racing, trying to find a solution. He watched her as she frowned, smiled, shook her head, then frowned again, and finally went into a daze once more. He was certain that her brain would catch on fire if she attempted to think about it any longer.

"Alright," Will said, his voice tired, making Nova snap out of her daze. "Let's call it a session here and leave that question to be answered until the end of the day. Feel free to hit the books or the basement." The girl nodded reluctantly and then started packing up the ingredients they had used and washing the utensils before storing them in their proper spots. "Now then, breakfast." Will grinned at the newcomer and she eagerly smiled back.

"Eggs?"

"Eggs."

"You're free to go," Nova said to Magna, yawning through the words. The fire mage laughed at her face, unable to hold himself back.

"Gosh, Nova, you look tired!" he said to the girl, who just groaned.

"Will has been on me since the morning with training," she replied, jotting down the information about Magna's healing process into his chart, before looking up at him with tired eyes. "I won't be having any free time soon, seems like."

"At least you're getting stronger, so that's a plus," Magna, ever the optimistic one, smiled at her. "Did you have a chance to do any research on that scalpel and whatever that God of Curses healer you like so much?" Nova chuckled at his mistake.

"Just a bit," she replied. "I managed to find some books in the basement about the Surgeon of Death. The majority of information is what I already know. He was a man who lived about two hundred years ago and he invented a lot of the surgical procedures which are overlooked today. He preferred healing through working on the wounds, instead of regenerating cells."

"How's that different from the healing we get here? It's just slower," Magna asked, frowning.

"Well, when you get healed by a Magic Knight, your wounds simply close, right?" Nova asked. When he nodded, she continued. "The Surgeon of Death realized that the magic used to do so made the cells in the body replicate at a faster rate. Essentially, that means that you're shortening your lifespan every time you get healed, bit by bit."

"You mean it's killing us? The healing which we get?" Magna startled.

"Technically, yes," Nova sighed, trying to explain to the best of her abilities. "It's a slow process, but the cells in the body aren't meant to replicate that quickly. Let's say you break your leg, okay?" Magna nodded again. "The natural process would be your bone healing itself over a span of a month or so, slowly mending in a new way and giving you perhaps issues with mobility."

"Like, a limp?"

"Sometimes," the girl nodded. He was getting it. "But, what the healing magic does is fix it to be as good as it was before. So, it forces the bone to heal unnaturally fast and give you full mobility."

"And that's bad?" Magna frowned.

"Not necessarily," Nova shrugged. "Some of the injuries would be fatal if left alone to heal. But, the minor ones could be fixed through natural means, with only a bit of help from surgeons. That's what the Surgeon of Death was working on. A way to heal without decreasing life expectancy."

"So, a better way?"

"Again, not necessarily. Magic Knights are combatants," Nova smiled when Magna looked completely confused by her explanation. "What I mean is that a lot of them die in battle. So, healing magic or no healing magic, the life expectancy for a Magic Knight isn't that long." The girl finished up with Magna's chart, closing it. "Hence, his methods weren't implemented much. But, they shouldn't be disregarded."

"Where does the people controlling scalpel come in, though?" the fire mage asked, waving his hands. "I get the methods and all that, but that man also used the scalpel which clearly allowed you to control a man."

"That's a different topic entirely," Nova leaned back in her chair, tired. The training with Will had exhausted her. And, still, she didn't have the answer to his salve problem. "While the Surgeon of Death was a great healer, he also had a more problematic side. He enjoyed experimenting with cursed objects. The scalpels he used are proof enough. I only have one, and it's rumored that he used five of them, blades of different sizes."

"So, if one can control a human, the others could do something different?"

"I suspect that," Nova nodded.

"Wild," Magna laughed, getting up. "When you catch a break from your training, be sure to come by the Black Bulls. Luck hasn't stopped talking about how he wanted to try fighting against that weird magic of yours."

"I'll be sure to do so," Nova grinned, waving goodbye to the young man. When the doors closed, she sighed, leaning back in her chair once more. She was dead on her feet. Or, more like, in her seat. With Will's newfound obsession of beating his knowledge into her and her usual workload, she barely had enough time to eat, much less do the research she actually wanted to do.

Nova reached for the front pocket, sitting on her left breast, where her book was safely tucked in. She unlatched the clasp and pulled the thick blue list of spells out of the leather confines. She hadn't thought much of it when she'd received it. Small, thick and kind of unseemly as it was, it had been a general laugh in her village. Now that she thought about it, her grimoire was kind of like herself. The girl traced the pattern in golden veins on top of the soft blue cover. They formed the symbol of the Kingdom in an unsuspecting, almost hidden way, showing where she belonged. With a tired sigh, she opened it.

Nova thumbed through the pages, familiarizing herself with them entirely and committing them to memory. Creation spells, mostly, for her tools. The OR, her most favored chant. She needed more. There were so many blank pages. So much potential. She's seen her father's grimoire once. It had been full of pages written in a language she couldn't read. Her mother's, a pale pink one with silver webbing, was filled with fortune-telling spells. Her blank pages simply showed how little she'd discovered about herself.

With a groan, the girl rose from her chair, picked up her grimoire, and stuffed it back into her breast pocket. She grabbed the pile of charts on the left side of the desk and got ready to make rounds. It was time to check on her patients before she clocked out for the afternoon, lest she pass out from exhaustion.

Whispers in the dark. Slowly telling her to touch, to cut, to carve. She needed to slash. Place me in their bodies. Take me for your own. Take me and take them. I will take them all for you. I will give you their minds. I will give you their souls. I will give you the world. So many promises. So many pleading promises whispered in the dark.

Don't you want to see their blood? Don't you want to see their faces twisted in agony? Don't you want to make them kneel in front of you with a simple flick of your fingers? Don't you want them to respect you? Respect for the surgeon you are. Respect for the healer. Respect for the great magician. Respect for the surgeon. RESPECT FOR THE SURGEON OF DEATH!

Nova shot up in her bed with a gasp. Her head was pounding. In the very front of her forehead, it was like there was a small drum being beaten by a mischievous imp who grinned with every thump. Her heart was pounding, too.

Respect for the Surgeon of Death.

The words from her nightmare were still fresh in her mind, eerie and haunting her waking thought. She wasn't the Surgeon. She was merely a healer, not yet even out of apprenticeship. But, it seemed that she had been viewed as some kind of a successor of a technique.

She threw her legs over the side of her bed, wincing when her calves ached with the movement. While she'd been allowed to walk without the use of the cane, she still felt pain occasionally. Slowly, Nova rose and walked out of her room and towards the living area. She grabbed a glass of water and mixed in some herbs to help her with the pain. Will had prepared her a concoction of them to use when needed, placed into a well-labeled jar.

When she drained the glass, she headed back upstairs, slowly taking the steps one at a time. Her room was dark, only the soft moonlight coming through a single large window to illuminate the inside. Nova walked to her nightstand and opened the top drawer, taking out the cursed scalpel from her pouch. As soon as her fingers touched it she felt the tendrils of magic wrapping around her skin, beckoning her to pick someone, anyone, and make them kneel to her prowess.

But, Nova wasn't in the midst of battle. She wasn't stressed or in a hurry to help a dying comrade. Her mind was clear.

"No," she told the mana, brushing it off with her own. "I don't want people to kneel in front of me." Still, the mana beckoned her. It was relentless. However, Nova was just as stubborn. "You have a new owner and if you won't listen, I'll make you obey me."

She took a few bandages out of the pouch and grabbed her writing kit, along with a lantern, and headed downstairs. The basement wasn't lit at all, and she needed to light the oil lamp before entering. She found the section she needed fairly easily. There were numerous books stored away which described sealing rituals.

Nova picked out a large title called Sealing cursed objects for commonfolk and thumbed through it. She found a nice and simple rune spell in a few minutes and got to work. On the bandages she wrote the runes, imbued them with her magic, and sealed with blood. Then, she picked up the scalpel and wrapped it in the sealing cloth, following the instructions of clockwise seals and chants as she did.

As the bandage rolled around the blade, she could hear the whispers getting more and more distant, before being silenced completely. The hold of the dark, beckoning mana on her skin was gone. Her headache remained, but she was certain that she wouldn't experience any more nightmares from the scalpel.

"I hope you've learned your lesson with this," Nova told the blade with a sigh, before lowering her head on the table, just for a few minutes.

That's all for today folks! I hope you had as much fun reading this as I did writing it :)

Reviews:

Guest:
Thank you so much for the lovely review!
I understand your feelings completely xD I was actually browsing for a nice Luck fanfic, and when I saw how little there was in the section, I decided to make one of my own xD
Hope you'll keep enjoying it!

Kadienewberg:
Thanks so much for leaving me your thoughts :) I thoroughly enjoyed reading the input :)
The Bulls will be coming soon, in about… mmmm 3 or so chapters? For now, I want to build up Nova's position at the Capital a bit and just have her feel at home :D
Gordon will definitely get another friend xD

AmericanNidiot:
Hahahahhaha trueeeeee! Luck is definitely on the line between off his rocker and Einstein xD At least, that's how I see it? :P
Oh, I can't wait to write those scenes . I already have so many ideas in my idea stash xD
Hope you enjoyed reading!