Chapter 2 The Shields Familiar Scar
We get him onto the patient cot in the back room.
Suki helps me ease him down, her movements careful in a way that reminds me she knows what it's like to be hurt and helpless. The stranger's hand stays locked on his shield even unconscious, fingers white-knuckled around the rim.
Suki pulls her own coat over him while I clear space beside the bed. "I'll get blankets. And water."
She slips out, and I'm left with an unconscious man and a shield covered in patterns I wish I didn't recognize.
Don't borrow trouble. Assess the patient first.
I call on Soul Mending, holding back the strength that could reach deeper.
[SKILL ACTIVE: Soul Mending (A)Capabilities: Repair soul-level damage. Stabilize dying entities.WARNING: Extreme mana cost.Having the skill does not mean every injury is safe to repair. Start with keeping him alive.]
I let my healing magic sink into him, gentle, just enough to map the damage without pushing into anything I shouldn't touch. The physical picture comes quickly: dehydration, exhaustion, malnutrition. Days on the road without proper food or rest. His body is shutting down from simple neglect.
That's fixable. That's easy.
What's underneath it isn't.
Soul damage. I can feel it like a bruise on the edge of my awareness, deep and systematic. His core abilities are there, buried under layers of deliberate scarring. The same kind of scarring I carried for years. The kind that makes ranking systems read you as nothing.
My hands want to shake. I don't let them.
Cali jumps onto the table beside the cot, her eyes fixed on the shield.
Cali stays clear of his arm, leaving room for my hands. "What can you feel?"
"Soul damage. Bad." I pull back from the examination. "The seal on the shield matches the work that was done to me. Same technique. Same structure."
Her claws catch in the cloth beneath her when I draw back. "The same person?"
"Maybe. Possibly someone trained the same way." I don't want to jump to conclusions. Matching technique doesn't prove matching hands. "I need him awake before I can do anything more. This kind of damage, you don't poke at it without consent."
Suki returns with water and blankets. We tuck the blankets around him, and I use a little healing magic to steady his faltering body while she dampens a cloth for his forehead. The water can wait until he is awake enough to swallow.
The stranger stirs.
His eyes open, grey and haunted, and he immediately clutches tighter at the shield.
I lower myself beside the cot so he can see my face without lifting his head. "You're at Royal Health, in Cranstonia. I'm Gregori. Suki brought the blankets. That's Cali."
His gaze darts between us, looking for the threat. Looking for the trick.
"The shield." His voice cracks, and he pauses to wet his lips. "You cannot touch the shield. Please. I know it does not work, I know it is broken, but I cannot watch someone try to fix it and fail again. I cannot."
Something in my chest twists. I know that desperation. I lived it.
I take my hands off the cot and rest them on my knees. "I won't touch it unless you ask. What's your name?"
His eyes settle on my empty hands. "Luca."
I bring the cup close enough for him to see it. "Can you manage some water, Luca?"
He lets me help him raise his head and takes a small sip. "I walked here. Heard you fix things." He keeps his other hand on the shield. "Six years, and it still won't answer. I keep carrying it. Don't know how to put it down."
Six years carrying something that used to define him. Six years believing he was broken.
I know exactly how that feels.
"Luca, I need to tell you something." I settle onto the edge of the cot, giving him space but staying close. "I had something similar happen to me. Someone sealed my abilities, made me look worthless. I carried that for a long time before it ended."
His fingers tighten around the cup. "You were sealed?"
I help him lower the cup before it spills. "For years. Cali helped me when I had no idea what to do. I can't promise a cure yet, Luca. But I believe you."
Luca's hand trembles on the shield. For a moment, I think he might cry.
He rubs his thumb over a dent in the shield. "They said I was defective. My abilities didn't register properly."
I remember standing there while people discussed me as if I couldn't hear. Had anyone once wondered what it cost me to keep showing up? I keep my voice steady for him. "They were wrong about you."
Luca rubs the worn strap between his fingers. "I wanted to believe that. It still won't work."
Cali moves then, doing something I've rarely seen her do with strangers. She walks across the blanket and settles beside Luca's hip, a small warm presence against his side. She doesn't say anything. Just curls up like she belongs there.
Luca looks down at her with confused wonder.
Suki pulls the blanket clear of Cali's paws. "She charges us for that," she tells Luca. "Usually fish."
I set the cup within reach and adjust the pillow behind him. "Rest a bit. I'll be close if you need me."
Luca slides the shield higher on his chest when I move. "You'll leave this here?"
I move the blanket around the metal instead of trying to shift it. "Right there."
He nods slowly. Some of the tension bleeds out of his shoulders. Between the warmth of the blankets and Cali's presence and simple exhaustion, his eyes start to drift closed.
I wait until his breathing evens out before stepping into the hallway with Suki.
Suki keeps her voice low as she eases the door partway shut. "He watched your hands the whole time."
I look down at them. "I noticed." I know what it takes to let someone near you after that. He came anyway.
She stays beside the door, listening for any movement inside. "I'll check on him. You can tell Lyra when she gets back."
I pass her the water jug from the bedside table. "Thanks. He might want more when he wakes."
Suki takes it toward the kitchen. She doesn't need instructions about watching over someone. She has been doing it for us for a long time.
The workshop is quiet when I return to it. The music box still sits on the shelf, waiting for its owner. The open lid casts a small shadow across the shelf. Everything looks normal, peaceful, exactly like it did this morning.
But something has shifted.
I sit beside the bench to wait for Lyra. When Cali comes out of the back room, she heads straight for me.
Cali steps carefully over my legs and presses against my stomach. "He's asleep. I couldn't move my tail without waking him."
I make room for her, grateful for the excuse to keep my hands still. "You stayed."
She pushes her head beneath my palm. "He was warm."
I scratch behind her ears. Of course that was the reason. She stayed beside a frightened stranger because he was warm.
[PATIENT UPDATEImmediate stabilization: Complete.Sealed abilities: Not restored.Further treatment: Pending.The patient is resting. His healer is sitting on the floor worrying. One of you has the right idea.]
Cali settles her weight against my arm. "Next time, old man, sit in a chair. This floor is cold."
I pull the customer chair closer with my heel. "You could have sat up there."
She digs her claws gently into my trousers when I start to rise. "I'm here now. Stop moving."
The door opens, and Lyra steps inside with her shopping bag. "Gregori?" She finds us beside the bench and puts the bag down. "What happened?"
I keep one hand on Cali so she doesn't slide off my lap. "A man named Luca came in. He's sleeping in the back. Someone sealed his abilities."
Lyra sits beside us and takes my hand. "Like yours?"
I turn my hand under hers. "Same kind of damage. I don't know who did it."
She stays close enough that I can lean against her. "Has he eaten? I can warm something for when he wakes."
I shake my head against her shoulder. "Only water. Thank you." Why hadn't I thought of food? I was still stuck on what I'd found.
Lyra brushes her thumb over my knuckles before standing. "Call me if he wakes before it's ready."
In the back room, Luca sleeps with his hand on a shield that hasn't answered him in six years.
If someone else learned how to do this, there might be others. People walking around thinking they're worthless because someone made them that way.
How many more people are out there carrying something nobody could fix?
I don't know yet.
But I'm going to find out.