A Wandering Soul

Talking with Angela was an interesting experience.

On one hand she was rather brilliant and had several well researched examples and arguments to support her opinions and she seemed open to new knowledge when it was presented to her.

On the other hand, she was rather stubborn and even though she accepted my arguments that didn't mean she was willing to change her viewpoint. We spent a couple hours arguing over my opinion on how every toad is a frog but not every frog is a toad without really coming to an agreement. Part of me suspected she liked leaving topics like this unresolved so she could come back and restart the argument later. It seemed like something she would do.

It certainly helped pass the time though.

While we continued arguing the finer points of biology and it's magical implications Arya was declared fit enough to be released, though she decided to remain close by, and we had managed to get Eragon to the point where he wouldn't die if left unmonitored for a few minutes.

That didn't mean he was healed. Even with my help his wound remained heavily cursed and a closer examination with a Structural Analysis spell revealed that part of the spirits that had made up the Shade had grafted itself onto his soul. Something I wasn't sure if either of us would be able to do anything about.

Angela had seemed stumped when I mentioned the issue and none of my available repertoire focused on that kind of healing. The thought that I could study the interaction between the lingering curse and Eragon's soul popped up and I had to forcefully put it aside. I could be curious about studying the phenomenon after he woke up and if he didn't mind me poking at his soul.

-o-

Not long after I left the house behind and went back to the medical tents.

We had done everything we could for Eragon but others still needed healing. And sitting around waiting for him to wake up wouldn't help them.

Angela stayed behind, the effort gone into healing the young Rider had exhausted her supply of materials and potions so she needed to build up a supply again before she could continue. Luckily for a couple dozen warriors, I had no such limitation. Unluckily for several, I wasn't a miracle worker.

I ground the heel of my palm into my tired eyes as two assistants carried away my latest patient. One of the large horned Urgals, a Kull, had shattered the poor man's leg to the point I needed to amputate it. He would live, my healing eliminating the possibility of infection and ensuring the wound was sealed, but his career as a warrior was over.

I wearily motioned for the next one but instead of another patient a nervous looking woman in dark green robes walked up to me.

"Pardon me, Lady Alexandria. I apologise for delaying your work but could you spare a moment?"

"First off, don't call me that." I sighed, then waved at one of the stools nearby. "And sure, what do you need?" I was simultaneously grateful for the break and annoyed that my flow was broken but I could still be polite...ish.

"Y-yes Lad-, erm, ah…" the woman floundered, so I decided to throw her a bone.

"Alexandria or just Alex is fine. I really don't know where that 'Lady' business came from."

"But you… ah, I see." Leona comes to what I'm fairly confident is a wrong conclusion but I don't care enough right now to deal with it. "In that case, Alexandria, would it be possible for you to make more of those healing items? I realise you have already been beyond generous with us, but…" she trailed off.

"Is something wrong with the ones I gave out?" There shouldn't be. They might have been made in a hurry and rather crudely, but I did make sure that they would be sturdy enough for constant use for a few weeks at least before the mystic codes burned out.

Leona frantically waved her hands in front of her. "No, no! The magic items are working superbly! In fact they have been a tremendous boon to our efforts! It's just…"

I raised an eyebrow as the woman paused again, avoiding eye contact entirely.

"...would it be possible to convince you to create more? The ones you gave us...there just isn't enough…"

I closed my eyes and started cursing silently. Of course the handful of mystic codes I created in a few hours weren't enough to help an army get back on their feet. Especially because the most they could do was stop bleeding and stick flesh back together. That left plenty of other issues healers needed to deal with.

"Okay, that's something I should have thought about before now." I turned to look at Leona. "Who ordered you to come speak to me?"

The woman looked confused. "Ordered…?"

Well that was a surprise. I half expected her to be the lackey of one of the other healers that was too proud to admit they needed more from me. That or this being a scheme to weasel more knowledge and resources out of me without actually asking.

Leona simply asking because she saw a problem I could deal with more effectively showed she had a good head on her shoulders. That, and my building fatigue was making me paranoid. I would need to find time to sleep soon. I was already somewhere in the realm of two days without sleep and that didn't seem like it was going to change soon.

"Well if no one ordered you, you officially have more sense than half the healers hear at least. No one else decided to come to me and mention the lack of tools was an issue." I snagged a nearby messenger and sent him running to get someone to deliver the materials I needed to make more mystic codes and motioned Leona to follow me. "In fact, I'm drafting you as an assistant for that alone. I'll need someone to make sure everybody knows how to use the mystic codes while I'm busy making more."

"A-assistant?! Bu-but there are so many others more skilled than I am, I'm just a hedge witch who barely finished her apprenticeship!"

I did notice she seemed rather young, early twenties at a guess, still that just meant she should be easier to work with and I could offload simpler tasks without feeling awkward about ordering someone who looked significantly older than me around.

"Good, then I won't need you to unlearn a bunch of superstitious crap that has nothing to do with healing." I said shortly. "But there is a more important reason I'm picking you. Out of all the healers and magicians helping with the wounded, even the ones I gave those codes to, you were the only one to realise I hadn't made enough and bothered to talk to me about it. Congratulations, you've got the job."

I ignored the sputtering of my new assistant and started heading to where I told the messenger to send the materials. Once they were delivered, I started the process of making more mystic codes similar to the ones I handed out while figuring out what other features would be useful now that an army wasn't knocking at the door.

Infection was at the top of the list. No matter what there would be plenty of germs and filth getting into wounds and even light infections could be a real drain on the healer's already limited resources at the scale we were dealing with.

Something to fix broken bones was also high on the list. I probably wouldn't be able to directly heal them but making sure breaks were correctly aligned and getting the process started shouldn't be too hard.

So while I started on those I began to narrate what I was doing and why to my assistant.

Not how to make a mystic code. Obviously that would mean teaching her how to use mana, then teaching her how to apply that to enchanting objects.

No, I explained the reason why I was making something to deal with infection and the processes that included both magical and mundane. I also let her know I fully expected her to share these lessons with the other healers which caused her to immediately fumble for a notebook and start scribbling furiously.

After each completed mystic code, I would send Leona out to deliver it to the healers and have her teach them how to use it. Once the two new codes were finished I showed her how to use those and had her teach them as well.

Time kind of blurred together after a while. Between my already apparent lack of sleep, the fact Farthen Dûr was in the middle of a mountain, and I didn't have a watch, I basically lost myself into a mindless cycle of crafting, teaching, and occasionally eating when Leona brought something in. This wasn't the first time I had gotten absorbed in my work like this and it probably wouldn't be the last either, but when I finally felt like I was in a good place to stop - definitely not because I was so tired I missed hammering the mystic code I was working on and hit the table three times in a row - I discovered that I had been up for five days straight. A day and a half for the battle, then two and a half days healing or crafting.

Roughly one hundred and twenty hours. A new record.

I decided that would just have to be good enough. The healers should have plenty of codes to use and Leona could handle things for a little while.

As I finally laid down to sleep I couldn't help but feel I had forgotten something incredibly important, but nothing came to my exhausted mind. Hopefully I would remember in the morning.

With that final thought, I closed my eyes and was out in an instant.

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