Chapter 4 What the Seal Remembers
Luca is pulling weeds when I find him.
He's crouched beside one of the herb beds, his shield propped against the low stone wall within arm's reach. His movements are careful, methodical, like he's afraid of damaging something. He has left his coat inside for once.
I crouch beside him and start working on the next row. "You don't have to do that."
He doesn't look up, just tugs another weed free and sets it in the pile he's made. "I wanted to help. You've fed me for days. I can pull weeds."
Fair enough. I reach for a stubborn root that's wrapped itself around one of the border stones. The Wall rustles nearby, its vines swaying in greeting.
The Wall lifts a trailing vine clear of Luca's small pile of weeds. Through the bond, I hear: LUCA HELPING. WALL APPROVES.
I pat the vine. Luca has started leaving things where he expects to find them tomorrow. His coat on a hook. A cup beside the bed. It makes me quietly happy.
We work in silence for a while. It's comfortable, the kind of quiet that doesn't demand filling. Luca seems calmer out here, more settled than he's been inside. Maybe the open sky helps. Maybe he just needed something to do with his hands.
Luca stops with a root between his fingers. "Can I ask you something?"
I put my handful of weeds down. "Go ahead."
He pulls another weed, not looking at me. "When you said you'd look at the seal. You meant it?"
I sit back on my heels and brush dirt from my palms. "I meant it. But only if you're ready."
He's quiet for a long moment, his fingers working at a stubborn root. "What if it makes things worse?"
I think about all the healers who tried to help him before. All the failures. All the times he let himself hope and got nothing but more damage for his trouble.
I keep my hands on my knees. "Only a look. If anything feels wrong, tell me and I'll stop. We can stop before then too."
Luca finally looks at me. His eyes are wary, but underneath that, there's something else. The same desperate hope I saw when he first collapsed by my gate.
He brushes the dirt from his palms and reaches for the shield. "Okay. Let's try."
We move inside to the workshop, where the light is better. Luca takes the patient chair with his shield across his lap, and I pull up the customer chair across from him. Close enough to reach him, far enough to give him space.
Cali jumps onto the workbench as I bring the chair over.
Cali settles beside my tools, leaving the sharp ones well behind her. "No showing off, old man."
I wait for Luca to turn toward me. "I'm going to put my hand on your shoulder. Is that all right?"
He nods, his jaw tight.
Lyra pulls a chair beside mine. Close enough to help if I need her. I am glad she stayed.
[SKILL SELECTED: Soul Mending (A)Target: Previously detected soul damage.Seal: Still active.WARNING: Extreme mana cost.An A-rank skill is a tool, Gregori. It is not permission to force your way through whatever you find.]
That A used to feel like a promise. Looking at Luca, I wish it were one.
I rest my palm on Luca's shoulder and let my magic reach the damage I found before. His strength is still there. I can feel what is holding it back.
When I try to follow the edge of the seal, it pulls tight against me. I ease away. It loosens again.
Why would it do that? I try once more, slower.
The resistance pushes back.
I should stop. I promised I would be careful, that I would only look. But I'm so close to understanding. If I can just see what's hiding under that resistance...
I press a little farther. Cali knocks her paw against my wrist. "Enough."
Pain explodes through my skull.
Cali claws my hand off Luca as I jerk backward. Lyra catches my shoulders before I can slide off the chair and lowers me to the floor.
She folds her coat under my head. "Gregori, look at me."
I try to answer, but my tongue won't cooperate. The world is a blur of color and pain, and my head feels like someone's driven spikes through it.
[SKILL INTERRUPTED: Soul Mending (A)Seal: Active.Restoration: Unsuccessful.Backlash detected. End contact.You pushed. It pushed back. Now you are on the floor. Please do not attempt to win the argument from down there.]
Thanks. Really helpful.
Cali plants herself beside my hand, pinning it with both front paws. "Leave it there."
Her claws sting when I try to move my fingers. I leave my hand still.
I manage to croak something that might be words. My vision slowly clears enough to see Luca still in the chair, white-faced with fear.
Luca half rises from his chair, dragging the shield with him. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that would happen."
"Not you." I force the words out through the pounding in my skull. "The seal. It's got some kind of defense. Pushes back when you try to examine it."
I close my eyes against the throbbing. Stupid. I was so stupid. I promised him I'd be careful, promised I'd just look, and then I pushed anyway because I wanted to understand.
"I'm sorry, Luca." I open my eyes and look at him. "I went further than I said I would. That wasn't right."
He stares at me like I've started speaking another language. "You're apologizing to me?"
I keep my hand flat beside Cali. "I promised I'd only look. Then I pushed. You didn't do anything wrong."
Something shifts in his expression. The fear doesn't disappear, but something else appears alongside it. Something that might be trust.
Lyra helps me sit up slowly. The room tilts and then steadies. My head still throbs, but the worst of the pain is fading.
Cali butts her head against my knee, her earlier anger softening into something like concern. She doesn't say anything, just stays close.
"What did you feel?" Lyra's voice is steady, but her hands are still gripping my shoulders. "Before it pushed you out?"
I press my fingertips to my aching temple. "There's a trap. It fights back if you try to loosen it. That might explain what happened to the other healers."
Luca's hand finds his shield, fingers tracing the worn grooves. "So it can't be fixed?"
The hope in his voice, fragile and desperate, makes my chest ache.
I look at his shield because I can't bear to dismiss the hope in his face. "It means I can't force it. I need another way."
Luca folds his arms over the metal. "You got hurt helping me."
My head throbs as I shake it. "I got hurt ignoring a warning."
Lyra squeezes my shoulder. "Can you stand?"
I brace a hand against the floor, then stop when my stomach turns. "Not yet."
We wait until my stomach settles. Then Cali moves away and Lyra helps me to my feet, keeping her arm behind my back.
Luca watches me with those careful eyes. "What happens now?"
Good question. I can barely stand. Another attempt right now would be for my pride, not his sake.
I lean against the chair until my balance settles. "Rest first. I'm not trying again like this."
He doesn't look convinced, but he nods slowly.
Lyra keeps her arm around my waist. "Bed. Tea. No arguments."
"No arguments." I let her guide me toward the doorway, then stop and look back at Luca. "I'm not giving up. I want you to know that."
Luca catches the edge of the chair as if he wants to stand too. "You still want to help?"
I think about the years I spent believing I was nothing. The isolation, the despair, the slow erosion of everything I thought I was. Someone did that to me. And someone did it to him.
I steady myself against the doorframe. "Yes. When I can do it properly."
Luca looks down at his shield for a long moment. When he looks up, his eyes are bright.
Luca lowers the shield back onto his knees. "Thank you."
It's not much. Two words. But from someone who's been hurt as badly as he has, it means everything.