CHAPTER FIVE: HEALING
The sun had arisen over the horizon by the time Ganyu had finished her third cup of coffee, making sure to pay the bartender the fee of ten mora before leaving. Her downing of the bitter and strong beverage had given her the boost she'd needed to prepare herself for the day ahead of her, having to somehow show her fellow co-worker that she was an absolute dunce, while also being at full attention while discussing the plans with Jean.
Less to say, she had her work cut out for her.
Having seen the entirety of the city with Amber the day prior, no directions were needed to reach the Cathedral, walking up the steps to the entrance composed of a pair of tall and mighty doors. Upon meeting said entryway, she pushed inward to the massive building's inner infrastructure, gasping at the sight.
Inside was two rows of elongated seats for occupants of the services, and a single long path to the end of the far side of the church. The massive room was lit only by the sun peeking through the stained glass windows that told stories of Mondstadt's history long before Ganyu was even born, and at the end of the farthest side of the mostly-open room was a person laid out on the marble floor.
Upon noticing the purple clad clothing and hair, Ganyu knew it was Keqing, to which she took the initiative to pace forward. Her heels clacked and echoed upon her approach, noticing that her colleague was in a sleeping state.
She was confused, up until she was met with the accompaniment of a blonde pigtailed girl, looking at Ganyu with a serious gesture.
"Welcome to the Mondstadt Cathedral, Ganyu of the Qixing," the girl greeted with joy. "I am Barbara, the main healer of the clergy, and I've been awaiting your arrival."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Barbara," Ganyu replied with a smile. "Do you mind explaining why the Yuheng is sleeping?"
"Ah, it's due to making the healing process go more smoothly," Barbara explained. "You see, her injuries are much more severe than we expected, and if her muscles aren't relaxed during the process, the healing will be less effective and will take hours to complete. With her asleep and her muscles untensed, the task will be done faster and painlessly."
"Painlessly?" Ganyu questioned. "There's pain involved?"
"Broken bones of this level require lots of work, meaning the process will involve antagonizing the injury. We always put patients of this level in a sleep state to avoid any discomfort, seeing we don't want the patient to feel anything."
"I see. Very interesting."
Barbara nodded, continuing with further information.
"There's no telling how long healing the bone will take, so we'll start with more minor injuries first, then work on the bigger ones. If you don't mind me asking, what exactly led to her being in this state?"
Ganyu took a moment to think of the best way to word the answer, seeing she wasn't sure if Barbara was part of Jean's plan. Eventually, she found a way to say the truth but keep it vague enough to keep the details hidden.
"She was blindsided by a massive explosion, and barely escaped an attack that would have severed her arm completely from her shoulder. I was lucky to find her when I did, otherwise she may not be here right now."
Barbara had covered her mouth with her hands in horror, but luckily didn't catch onto the whole picture. A relief to Ganyu as she awaited Barbara's response.
"That's horrible!" Barbara commented with sadness in her voice. "She's very fortunate that you were there to save her, otherwise her life would've been cut short. That would've been an unfortunate fate, but luckily, she had an angel come to her at just the right time! May Barbatos bless your heart and soul, Ms. Ganyu!"
Ganyu just nodded, finding the whole response kinda over the top, but she couldn't be rude to someone who was about to heal her only remaining colleague. Therefore, she just smiled and played nice like a good girl.
Following the exclamation of absolute joy from Barbara, one of the other sisters of the church called out to her.
"Sister Barbara, we are ready to start."
The young soul weaver winced at the calling of name, addressing Ganyu one last time before returning to her duties.
"I'll be right there!" Barbara responded to her fellow sister, turning back to Ganyu. "You're more than welcome to stay, but I can't guarantee how long it'll take."
"It's alright," Ganyu assured. "I'm willing to wait."
"Very well then. I'll do my best to heal her wounds back to full health!"
With that said, Barbara returned to the scene, checking if everything was in order to start the process. Ganyu knew she was in for a long wait, so she just took a seat and continued to watch the show, finding the whole thing interesting.
The nuns and Barbara formed a circle, Barbara in the middle and the other clergy on the outside. Upon the formation, the young healer positioned herself on her knees and closed her eyes, her hands embracing each other as well as she started to speak a prayer.
"Lord Barbatos, our heavenly protector and guide, please bless your injured child at my knees with a graceful recovery. Please give my sisters and I the strength to do this session smoothly and without any harm, and bless your child with great strength and might in the aftermath of her recovery.
It is in your name and light we pray."
With the prayer finished, Barbara began her work, starting by summoning elemental energy that radiated a blue glow that came to full formation in her palms. Once the energy had been concentrated to the source that she'd lead it to, she started to hover her hands over Keqing's body.
Upon the light of the energy gracing Keqing's flesh, Ganyu watched in amazement as her mild cuts and bruises started to fade away as if she'd never been hurt in the first place. It was a mesmerizing sight to watch, but Ganyu knew these wounds were only the start; the more severe wounds were going to be much more of a challenge.
After one session of Barbara hovering the energy over Keqing, her cuts, bruising, and burns, were no longer existent. Barbara allowed herself a break to regain her energy for the more tedious damage she was yet to attempt, taking deep breaths and receiving support from the other present clergy.
After about five minutes of regaining her energy and strength, Barbara moved to the next target area; the laceration in Keqing's right shoulder.
She unwrapped the guaze bandaging, being careful to go slow and not antagonize the wound to where it could falter to a worse state. Upon meeting the last layer of the wrapping, she gasped at the size and severity of the gash. Luckily, her ease with undoing the cloth bandage had kept the scabs that had formed from peeling off, preventing the bleeded from starting again.
There was visible signs of the frostburn that had been caused by Ganyu's effort to save her colleague's life, the ends of the blood vessels that had been cleaved open appearing black in color. It wasn't anything serious, seeing it was a common tactic to use heat or cold to stop bleeding, and frostburn was no different. It did the job and had allowed Keqing to make it to Wangshu Inn alive and somewhat-well.
With the wound in full light, Barbara summoned her elemental energy yet again, focusing it to her palms. Just like before, she proceeded with hovering the energy over the wound and started concentrating heavily.
Eventually, the light radiating from her palms started to illuminate a brighter glow, meaning she was pushing more energy into the process, and from the looks of it, was starting to affect the laceration.
Slowly, the frostbitten blood vessels started to return to their usual state of health, and the scabbed skin started to close up and reattach as if time were in reverse. With one last push of energy, the once-gash disappeared completely, and all that remained was healthy skin with no sign of any prior rupture having existed.
Ganyu was amazed at the sight, but could see that the effort had taken a lot out of Barbara. She was bent over and breathing very heavily, struggling to catch her breath from the amount of strength she'd just had to exert to do the job.
"Sister Barbara, are you okay?" questioned one of the fellow nuns.
"I'm…fine," Barbara responded, struggling to speak. "I just…need a second…to catch…my….breath…
"Please, Sister, don't wear yourself down," spoke another of the clergy. "This last injury is going to take even more energy than the last. Are you sure you can handle this?"
"Yes…I just need a minute…to regain…my strength. After that…I'll…be ready…to go…
Even Ganyu grew worried for the young soul weaver's safety. She knew all to well about the price of overexerting yourself, seeing she'd done so by accident many times while working overtime. She wanted to speak but didn't feel it was her place to, so she just kept quiet and allowed the session to go on.
Barbara had taken ten minutes to recover from the previous healing process, having returned and spoken another prayer before initiating the next healing session. Back on her knees and ready to go, Barbara channeled her elemental energy to her hands yet again, moving them to the target area.
Prior to the start of the process, the clergy had removed the leggings, and upon seeing the wound fully Ganyu had been sickened. The "broken bone" had been more than that, seeing it appeared that her bone had broken through her skin and was hanging out looking like a jagged dagger.
While it had made her feel sick, the type of "sick" she'd felt was shock and sadness rather than nausea. The sights of the Archon War had made Ganyu numb to something like a compound fracture, having seen people get impaled, heads chopped off, limbs severed, and all sorts of other injuries that would give any clean soul PTSD as a result.
She hadn't known that the injury classified as a "broken bone" had been this bad, and nearly made her cry at the sight. Just how much pain had Keqing suffered before she had saved her from it? Ganyu couldn't even imagine the amount of strength it must've taken to survive that night.
The blue light radiated brightly yet again as Barbara started to push her strength into the elemental energy, the process seeming not to even affect the injury. Ganyu was proven right upon Barbara having to stop, her strength spent and her body exhausted from the process.
"Sister Barbara, you won't last," spoke the same nun. "Please, you need to rest. If you continue, you may potentially cause yourself injury."
Barbara couldn't answer, only breathing heavily and on the verge of collapsing. Therefore, Ganyu took that as an opening, seeing she wanted to help Keqing in any way possible. After her complete lack of sympathy at Wangshu Inn, she owed the Yuheng more than just an apology,
"Excuse me," Ganyu started, catching the nuns' attention instantly. "What is it that she needs to proceed? I'm half-adeptus, so my strength is much more resistant to exhaustion than a humans."
"Ms. Ganyu…please…don't worry…about me," Barbara trailed.
Ganyu shook her head.
"Sister Barbara, I want to help my colleague as much as you," Ganyu clarified. "Over-exerting yourself isn't going to help anyone, so please, allow me to lend some strength to you to finish the job."
A long moment paused before Barbara finally answered with a nod, her stubbornness finally breaking.
"Alright. Please do what you need to do to lend me your strength, Ms. Ganyu."
Ganyu nodded, getting up from her seat and walking over to Barbara's position.
"Whenever you're ready to start channeling your energy, I'll begin," Ganyu assured, receiving a nod from Barbara.
Once she was given the green light to start, Ganyu placed her right hand on Barbara's right shoulder and focused on channeling her energy to her palm. Upon the energy flowing from her core to Barbara's body, Ganyu's eyes began to glow a bright and radiant blue light, Barbara's energy now focused and beginning to move towards Keqing's wound.
Upon finding the injury and starting the process, Barbara grew surprised by the effects of Ganyu's adeptus energy. The injury had instantly started to heal at a much faster pace than she'd expected, and the amount of energy Barbara was using didn't even feel tiring.
It was as if she weren't even doing anything, and upon the torn flesh closing and appearing as if nothing had even happened, Barbara finished the session by reverting her energy back to the core of her vision.
Ganyu followed with the same action, her eyes returning to their non-illuminated state and reverting her hand to her side.
With the session now complete, Keqing's sedation was halted by the clergy, and with a groan of sleepiness from her mouth, she opened her eyes.
A lot of the bloodshot nature of her scleras had dissipated to Ganyu's relief, her many hours of resting having helped the most in that case. Aside from the visible dirt and ash covering her body, the Yuheng looked back her usual self, and that was something Ganyu could smile at.
"W-where am I?" Keqing questioned drowsily. "Ganyu? Is that you?"
"Yes, Lady Keqing," Ganyu obliged. "It's alright, we're in Mondstadt."
After departing from the church, Ganyu had decided to take Keqing back to her temporary home. It was only a temporary stay until Jean could arrange Keqing her own personal abode in the city, but Ganyu didn't mind regardless. After all, she'd known Keqing for a long time, so it wasn't like she was letting a stranger in to potentially rob her possessions.
Keqing had also wanted to have a long-awaited bath, seeing she was still littered with debris from that night and wanted to get the remnants of anything from that cataclysm off of her for good. Therefore, Ganyu had allowed her privacy, and to kill some time, had decided to go sightseeing.
Even if there was a potential threat lingering amongst Teyvat, as a half-adeptus, she'd learned that you can't allow things to stop you from enjoying the good things in life. The Archon War had been a time of constant dread and sadness, but on the days when the sun actually had shone through the impact of the war, she had made sure to admire it, knowing it could have potentially been her last chance to experience happiness.
Therefore, knowing this could be her last chance to admire the sights of Mondstadt, she took that opportunity. No messenger or someone like Amber or Kaeya had come to lead her to the Knights of Favonius Headquarters for further planning on the situation at hand, so there was literally nothing else for her to do.
She started by taking a stroll up to the Cathedral's courtyard to admire the statue of Barbatos, the Anemo Archon. It was massive in height and was accompanied by a company of bards and nuns at its base. A variety of tunes were being strummed by said bards, all of them being unfamiliar to Ganyu's ancient memory.
She was more familiar with tunes of Liyue's culture, having been born and raised in the geo nation. However, the music was calming and melodic to her ears, seeming as if it were being played and sung by the Anemo Archon himself whenever a breeze met the area. It was graceful and peaceful, giving her a sense of momentary bliss in the courtyard.
After the statue, she moved further down into the city, finding many shops that she hadn't been aware of. Not far from Good Hunter was a trinket shop named "With Wind Comes Glory" that sold a variety of artifacts, decorative knickknacks, and other things like gemstones and fossils. Ganyu had decided to stroll in and just look around to kill time, having no currency that was required to purchase anything being sold.
Her final stop before returning to confront Keqing had been the other local tavern, The Cat's Tail. She'd made plenty of new friendships with the cats roaming around inside and outside the establishment, and had met the bartender, Diona, during her visit. Less to say, their first meet had started out quite awkwardly, but upon Ganyu stating that she wasn't there to drink herself drunk, they had gotten along and become friends.
She'd tried to keep herself there for as long as she could, but eventually, she knew she had to go back to her practical home to face the music. Reluctantly, after a good hour, she finally took her leave from Mondstadt's sights and returned to her abode.
Upon opening her door, she found her coworker sprawled out on the provided bed, passed out. She'd hoped for her to just stay that way, but upon closing the door, Keqing shifted her body and began to stretch awake. Her colleague sat up and opened her eyes, dressed in some new clothes that were clearly too large for her. Apparently she'd found Ganyu's spare attire and decided to give it a fitting.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you, Lady Keqing," Ganyu apologized.
"No worries," Keqing replied drowsily. "I need to get up anyways."
Ganyu was defeated. Fate had clearly put her here, and there was no stopping it now. Therefore, she just let out a long sigh, to which Keqing spoke up.
"Ganyu, is there something wrong?"
Ganyu shifted her eyes and moved to Keqing's bedside, sitting down on the edge of it.
"I…I need to say something to you," Ganyu started slowly. "Something important."
Keqing was clearly confused, but she just allowed Ganyu to continue her confession.
"Okay…what is it?" Keqing replied.
Another long sigh escaped Ganyu, her head hanging and sorrow painted on her face.
"You remember that morning at Wangshu Inn, right?" she started. "Before I left for here?"
"Yeah," Keqing responded in confusion. "Why?"
Ganyu decided to just rip off the bandaid, otherwise she wouldn't get anywhere in her current predicament.
"Well, after you thanked me for saving your life, I didn't say anything, nor did I really put any consideration into how you felt after the destruction of our home. I didn't think clearly, when all along it was clear that you were just as hurt as me, and…you were looking for comfort in your grieving."
Keqing's expression shifted, having not expected this to be what Ganyu had to say at all. She had been expecting something in reference to the situation at hand, not herself, and that was enough for her to allow Ganyu to keep speaking.
"I realized this last night when I finally cried for the first time, and the reason why I didn't see it was because we always were so different. However, after I realized that we and Baiwen are all that's left of Liyue Harbor, I realized that the devastation of losing our home hadn't just affected me, but all of us.
In the end of that disaster, you were lost and hurt, and I didn't realize it. Instead, I just treated you as if it were any other day, when, in reality, you were looking for comfort. Someone to vent to; a shoulder to cry on; someone who would understand the pain you were feeling; someone like me."
Keqing had caught onto the cause of Ganyu's sorrow, and she could see that it was clearly heavy on her consciousness. Therefore, she tried her best to mull down the situation, putting her hand on Ganyu's shoulder in comfort.
"Ganyu, it's okay," Keqing calmed. "You're right, we always were opposites, and it's not your fault that we're different. Everything happened so fast, so it's natural that the impact on both of us didn't become immediately clear to you, so please, don't blame yourself for not realizing it."
Ganyu lifted her head at the kindness of Keqing's words, allowing her to continue.
"The past is the past, and there's no need to dwell on it. I'm alive because of you, and you've given me a chance to live a longer life. That's something I am eternally grateful for, and will never forget to my last breath. So, please, let the past rest, and focus on the future."
Ganyu shifted her gaze to Keqing's own, her expression slowly starting to change to a more positive one. Keqing smiled as a way of showing that she'd already forgiven her, and upon that comforting assurance, Ganyu's lips curved into a smile of her own.
"Alright," Ganyu agreed. "But let me at least treat you to a meal."
"If you wish," Keqing agreed. "I hate to see you go hungry though, seeing I'm aware you don't eat things like meat."
"I'll be fine" Ganyu insisted. "Qilin aren't very gluttonous, so I can spare one meal."
Keqing shook her head, refusing to just gorge herself in front of her colleague like a hungry beast.
"Not a chance, Ganyu," she enforced. "If I am going to eat, you're going to eat too."
Ganyu knew it was pointless to argue with Keqing, so she just came up with an idea that would solve the issue altogether.
"Alright, then get your shoes on," Ganyu ordered, getting to her feet.
"Where are we going?" Keqing questioned.
"For a walk. You're going to pick some flowers for me to eat."