30. Healing Touch #2
“Try not to bleed on the map,” Mistress Jara said with minimal concern for Rowan. “Your fingertips will soon toughen up. They say a master cartographer will catch themselves as much as a thousand times.” She sat back down at her table and continued whatever it was she was doing.
“It’s the one thing I’m not good at,” Rowan said. “This is so embarrassing. I’m just not good with blood, not good at all, it’s something I have no control over.”
“That’s okay, I can help you. Let me take a look at it.”
Rowan removed her hand, revealing an index finger that had blood smeared all over it – too much for Aeden to see how deep it was .
“Okay, I need you to suck your finger for a quick second. Your saliva will help coagulate your blood and slow the bleeding.”
Rowan did as she was asked before letting Aeden inspect it again. When he did, he could see a small laceration caused by the needle, like it had torn against the skin.
“How is it feeling?” he asked.
“It’s throbbing like crazy,” she said.
He didn’t know why, but Aeden held her finger between his hands, finding himself drawn to his Weave with Nyra.
He closed his eyes for a moment before finding her core and reaching out to it.
A flash of spectral light started drifting towards him, only a faint line, but a line nonetheless.
Much like when he had injured his ankle, it travelled towards his hands.
As the energy poured into him, he embraced it, feeling the comfort and warmth that his connection to Nyra often brought him.
The energy wrapped around his hands. He didn’t know what he was doing or if he had any control over it, but both his hands started emitting a soft, pulsating energy.
It only lasted a few moments before the tendril of light removed itself and drifted away.
He opened his eyes, disconnecting from the Weave.
When he opened them, he was met by Rowan’s soft green eyes. For the briefest of moments, he felt a powerful connection between them.
“What was that?” Rowan said.
Aeden quickly averted his eyes. “What was what?”
“Whatever you just did, my finger has stopped throbbing. ”
Aeden removed his hands to reveal Rowan’s finger. There was no mistaking the energy that still reverberated in his hands, but that wasn’t what drew his attention.
Rowan’s finger still had traces of wet blood on them, but when he looked more closely, he quickly realised that the cut at the end of her finger had simply vanished.
He had used the Weave to remove her injury.
“That’s incredible,” Rowan said.
“Shh,” Aeden said, not wanting to draw attention to himself.
“Have you done that before?” She was like an excited child as she spoke.
“Nope, that would be the first time.” He still didn’t know what exactly he had done. The whole thing had happened so quickly that he’d barely had time to realise what was happening.
He looked down at his own hands, sensing the crackling of energy within them. That energy quickly faded too, as fast as it had first emerged.
“Does that mean you know your magic has manifested?” Rowan said, her voice rising in line with her excitement.
Aeden shushed her again. “Please be quiet,” he said. “Everyone is already treating me differently because of Nyra. I don’t need them to because of this as well.”
“This isn’t something you should hide, Aeden,” Rowan said, bringing her voice back down to a whisper. “This is something to be proud of. Your power has manifested! You’re a healer.” She gave him a warm, proud smile which Aeden knew he should just accept.
Inside, though, he felt disappointed. This wasn’t what he wanted. He knew he was a Support, but there were a thousand ways his magic could have manifested. There were a thousand different types of magic that he would have chosen.
Healing was not one of them.
“What do I do now?” he asked. He had no way of controlling this, enhancing this. Was it just a fluke that he had been able to use it on Rowan? Even then, it was only to heal a slight cut, hardly something worth celebrating.
“I don’t know. Is there not someone in the faculty that can help you?” she asked, offering Aeden another smile. “Perhaps Mistress Plato could help. She is a healer too, after all.”
That was sound logic. Mistress Plato had already helped Aeden, and other healers in the healers wing were from the more senior students at the academy, refining their skills.
Aeden, however, couldn’t think of anything worse than being confined to the healers wing.
That was not where he wanted to end up. He wanted to be on the front line, he wanted to be out there on the battlefield showing his worth.
Sensing his head already spiralling, Aeden tried to focus on the map once again. “Come on, let’s carry on with the cartography.”
“Promise me you will get advice? If your magic is manifesting, you need to learn to control it. Won’t it help with your Weave with Nyra, too?”
Rowan was right, it wasn’t something that he should sit on.
He had to speak to someone about it, and there was only one faculty member that Aeden trusted.
That said, Mistress Plato had been warm towards Aeden.
If he got the chance, he would go and see her.
Perhaps she could offer him some advice about his newfound magic.