40. Wounds
“ Y ou’re a healer,” Harrison said, his eyes wide with wonder like Aeden was some messiah. “That’s incredible, how did you do it?”
The two of them were back at the hatchery, where Nyra was safe in her pen, curled up in a ball, her breathing heavy as she rested.
Master Storme and Vegar had left, having escorted them safely. He hadn’t spoken another word to them along the way, and Nyra was able to walk as if nothing had happened. Other than the dried blood, there was no sign of any wound.
Aeden fetched a bucket of water and knelt beside her, where he took a cloth and cleaned her up as she continued to rest. Aeden himself felt exhausted, as if he had been on a run for miles.
Lyric appeared at the gate of her pen. There was no mistaking the panic on his face as he reached her.
“I came as soon as I heard. Is she okay?” he asked. “Who did this? ”
“Some second years. We were out in the training fields practising when they attacked us out of nowhere,” Aeden said, wiping the cloth over Nyra’s dried blood. He dipped his hand into the bucket of water, which turned deep red straight away. He then wiped over her hind leg again.
“I’ve never been so scared,” Aeden added. “I thought they were going to kill her, both of us in fact. They were so aggressive and hostile towards us straight away, all because of her wings.”
Aeden looked at the tidy bindings that were wrapped around Nyra’s wings. He desperately wanted to do something to help her. Maybe then they wouldn’t have to put up with this much grief from everyone at the academy.
“The Aer-Kin wanted to kill her because she can’t fly,” Harrison said as he fetched another bucket of clean water for Aeden.
It sloshed over the top, soaking his shirt as he placed it on the floor beside her.
“Master Storme came and chased them away, said something about them letting their Aer-Kin control them through the Weave. I didn’t even realise that was a thing. ”
“Aye, it is. Master Storme is probably the strictest member of the faculty, like he is made of stone. He was the same when he was a student. A bit like you, Aeden.”
“I’m nothing like him,” Aeden snapped. As much as he appreciated Master Storme stepping in to save them from the attack, he didn’t respect him. The man was aggressive at best, with not an ounce of empathy. “He’s a brute that clearly loves fighting.”
“He might be, but clearly he has a code when it comes to Aer-Kin, and he’ll follow instructions.
That makes for a good rider,” Lyric said.
“He might be all those things, but if not for him, I dread to think what might have happened to both of you. Please be more careful. No more training on your own. As for those students, yes, it can be a thing where a bonded Aer-Kin can assert influence over their riders if their connection to the Weave becomes more dominant or out of control. But I doubt Master Storme will believe that. Those students were likely already harbouring those thoughts about the two of you, which is why they were so easily influenced.”
Lyric stepped into the pen and put his hand on the top of Nyra’s head. “She seems to be okay.” He stepped to the side to take a look at Nyra’s leg where Aeden was still cleaning her. Harrison took the blood infused water and went to replace it again.
“How bad is the wound?” Lyric asked. “I’ll go and fetch my kit. It must be a deep gash for all that blood.”
“About that . . .” Aeden said.
“Aeden healed her while we were in the training field,” Harrison said. “Nyra had a gash down the back of her as long as my arm, but thanks to his magic, it’s gone.” He poured the bloodied water down a nearby drain. “Honestly, it was incredible.”
“You’re a healer?” Lyric said, echoing Harrison’s words from earlier. “And you managed to heal that level of injury, without any training?”
“It appears so,” Aeden said. “I don’t know how, so I can’t explain. I just felt a pull to the Weave. I could see Nyra in there, like she was mapped out by the stars.”
“This is incredible,” Lyric said as he continued to stroke Nyra’s head in a comforting motion. “And most unheard of.” He looked at the door of the hatchery and lowered his voice. “Did anyone else see this happen? ”
“Master Storme did, why?” Aeden asked, confused by the question.
“He is by the book, so he’s probably already reported this back to Director Vale. They’ll likely be keeping an even closer eye on you now.”
“Why? What’s so special about me healing Nyra’s leg? All the riders here have magic, it’s not anything special.” He plunged the cloth once again into the bloodied water as Harrison arrived with another bucket of clean water for them to switch.
“Because she’s a youngling, and although it’s normal for magic to start to manifest at this point, it isn’t normal to be able to connect and use it on such a scale as you have displayed, especially without any training. Have there been any signs before you used this magic for the first time?”
Aeden sighed. “Yes,” he said as he wiped away the last of the blood on Nyra.
“When Nyra and I bonded, I had injured my ankle from my fall. She didn’t fix the injury entirely, but she helped make the pain more bearable.
Then a few days ago in cartography, another student, Rowan, cut her finger with a cartography tool, and before I knew it, I had healed it. ”
“Did she tell anyone?”
“I don’t think so. I asked her to keep it a secret. I didn’t want anyone finding out I had healing as an ability.”
“Why not?” Lyric asked. He moved to Aeden’s side to inspect Nyra’s leg. Now that it had been cleaned, there was no sign that there had been any injury at all, not even a faint scar. He studied it for a moment before saying, “Why ever would you want to keep your powers manifesting quiet? ”
Aeden thought about it. For a moment, he felt bad for saying it out loud, but this was as safe a space as any to discuss it. Lyric and Harrison were definitely two people he trusted.
“Because I felt ashamed of it, okay?” It felt good to get it off his chest. It had frustrated him from the moment he had discovered it.
“Why in the heavens did you feel that?”
“Because it’s not me, my personality, my skill set. Being a healer is the last thing I wanted. If I was to list all of the potential powers I could have had, healing would have been the last one.” His voice was raised, his frustration clear, but it felt good to actually talk about it.
“I, for one, am glad that it’s healing,” Lyric said as he brushed his hand over where Nyra should have had a huge gash from the fight.
“Imagine what would have happened if you didn’t.
Not only the scarring, the time for healing, the risk of infection .
. . You removed all of it in one go. Our healers would be hard pressed to heal an injury so severe without leaving the slightest scar behind, and that’s with years of training and attunement to the Weave. ”
“I’m grateful I was able to heal her, but that doesn’t mean I have to be happy with my powers. I would’ve been better suited to something else.”
“And why’s that?” Lyric asked, still not understanding Aeden’s tone.
“Because I want to prove that Support riders can fight. Because if Support riders could fight, perhaps my parents wouldn’t have been slaughtered in the Battle of Weir.”
“My boy, you just said it yourself, that battle was a massacre. No amount of training could have prepared them for what happened that day. I am truly sorry for your loss. It’s terrible losing one parent, let alone both at the same time.
But your powers, the magic you can wield . . . There’s so much potential.”
“For me, or for the academy?” Aeden snapped. He didn’t mean to sound as confrontational as he did, and he immediately regretted it when he saw the deflation on Lyric’s face. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to. It’s just a lot to take in.”
Lyric waved it away like he wasn’t bothered, but Aeden was worried that he might have upset him.
“That’s okay, you’ve been through so much,” he said.
“As you said, it’s a lot to process, but please don’t ever beat yourself up over your magic.
This power that you have, the abilities that are manifesting, they are a gift, and you should see them as such.
Take it from someone who doesn’t have a power to draw on. ”
Aeden sighed as he stroked Nyra. She was fast asleep, and for the moment, her worries of the world had faded into nothing more than a background thought.
“The bond you two have already is far stronger than I have seen in a long time, if ever, Aeden. It’s unheard of to be able to wield magic to such a degree, so early on without so much as a training session.
What you have is raw. Imagine what it could do when you have refined it, when you are more attuned to your bond.
It has the potential to be simply incredible. ”
Aeden looked up from the pen. He had been that focused on Nyra that he hadn’t noticed the silence coming from the rest of the hatchery. He raised his head to look at the hatching and whelping pens on the opposite side. “Why is it so quiet?” Aeden said. “Where are the hatchlings?”
“Oh, they are out back in the field. They need to stretch about, they need to tire themselves out. That’s where I was when you got here. Why don’t you come and see them? Gives Nyra a chance to rest up whilst it’s quiet.”
“No wonder she’s sleeping so peacefully,” Aeden laughed. “She gets grumpy when her sleep is disturbed.”
Lyric laughed. “I can relate to that. Come on, follow me, I’ll show you the rest of them.”
“The rest of them?”
Lyric laughed again before heading out through the door. “It’s easier if I just show you.”
Harrison’s face lit up like he was the cat that got the cream as he eagerly followed Lyric out of the hatchery without giving Aeden so much as a second glance.