Pieces of Eight

Chapter 6

It was easy for her to send them away; now, it was familiar. Just the two of them. Taking a seat on the edge of the bed where Areli now lay motionless, if she closed her eyes, she could almost pretend it was another place and another time. But the thick scent of herbs hung in the air, and the crackle of magic lurked in the corners, and it shimmered across both of them in ways not typical for either of them. It was not in Tehraiza's nature to channel such strong healing spells. She had been born in command of one power, had learned several more, and finally, upon taking control of the temple, found herself able to access any and all she could fathom. Some still felt alien to her, like this one, and made her hands itch and her skin crawl and her spine shiver.

She refused to sleep just yet. She turned the hourglass religiously. She administered the medication on time to the grain, measured to the hair's breadth. She drew on a bit more of her power and Altan's to heal more of Areli's wounds. In between the four-hour dose and the twelve-hour dose, she decided to rest, and slept sitting against the wall. Altan woke her gently after another few hours, and she checked on Areli before going back to sleep. He only woke her again when it was time to administer the final dose of medication. As before, she used the vein in his neck, as Stamen had taught her ages ago. The veins in his arms had been too damaged by less benevolent needles.

Having gotten a bit more sleep, Tehraiza found herself recovered enough to heal Areli even more. Working tirelessly, she repaired the rest of his broken ribs and completely resolved the bleeding in his organs. Some of the deeper cuts and abrasions he carried had begun to weep and ooze; she chased the infection out, but then found herself nearly depleted again. Choosing to save her power for a more urgent moment, she instead gingerly, cautiously, tenderly, turned Areli onto his stomach and began to clean and dress and bandage the horrific mess of his back.

While she cleaned his wounds, he offered her no sign of life other than the rhythmic rise and fall of his back with his breaths. They were even now, deeper and more comfortable, and Tehraiza was elated to see such a sign. Though she would not let it on, she had feared for him greatly when they first found him. The thought had even crossed her mind that she might not be able to save him.

Now, though, dipping a clean cloth into a bowl of fresh water and wiping the blood off of his back, she was feeling slightly more optimistic about his chances. With the internal bleeding stopped, the cause of the seizures treated, and decent progress made on healing his wounds, he might just come around. Dipping the cloth back in the water again, squeezing it out, pink water splashing off the ends, Tehraiza continued to painstakingly work the dried and clotted blood away from Areli's wounds. There was more of his skin open than intact, she bemoaned, and she accidentally tore a bit more of it open when she caught a scab or a clot that wasn't ready to be removed just yet. The tiny pulse of magic she sent to stem the bleeding was inconsequential, and she felt far better for using it.

She had neglected to turn the hourglass; Altan teased her when she asked him how much time had passed. Being underground, she had no light through the windows to gauge the passage of time, either. Huffing once, she decided it didn't matter, and retrieved a jar of salve from a cabinet on the wall and took to smearing it across Areli's wounds in a thick, protective layer. He'd been absolutely savaged by whip and brand, and Tehraiza supposed the combination had worked in terms of adding more pain and preventing further blood loss. Her own blood still boiled to see it, though.

When her fingers came across a particularly-deep slash, one that had rent the flesh from the bone, Areli finally reacted. Just a soft, pained moan and a twitch, but it was a sign that he was beginning to surface after days of drowning. Encouraged by the sign, Tehraiza worked faster, the better to have the more painful work done before he had to be conscious to feel it.