The Mage

A stretcher was brought to Yvonne, and the Touched lifted her to the former perimeter where the rest of the Untouched forces were gathered.

“Commander Walhel wishes for a report on the Wraith as soon as possible from all squadron leaders and Lady Barton,” one of the mages said, his voice marking no interest in the Touched or their conflict.

“Me?” Lirena asked, confused.

“Your input as the only Untouched to face these creatures will be invaluable,” the mage said. To her, he actually gave a slight smile.

It was not missed by any of the Touched. Yvonne turned her head away, the only way to hide the contempt she wore on her face.

“Carry this one to the medical tent for examination,” the mage said. His impassivity remained as he looked to Yvonne on the stretcher, the wounded additionally not among his concerns. “I presume all other injuries are minor?”

“They are,” Vanessa said, her face a mask of stone when speaking to the mage. The captain tilted her head toward the tent, and the two carrying Yvonne turned to carry their injured companion off.

Lirena rested a hand on Yvonne’s shoulder. “I’ll come check in on you as soon as we’re done, alright?”

Yvonne turned her head back to face her girlfriend, and easily managed a nod and smile from seeing her face.

The blacksmith sighed as she was carted away from the gathering. Laying back and being cared for was the last thing that she wanted from this expedition, but because of her own carelessness, she had ended up in this situation. She could only be glad that some of the damage was already healed.

If I’m going to do this again, I should probably find a better means to defend myself, Yvonne thought.

The medical tent was a tiny thing, taller than the tents that were issued for sleeping, but not much wider. Yvonne expected the smell of herbs or poultices, but as she was the only one in it, evidently nothing had been in use to warrant their use. Yvonne’s stretcher was taken to a cot that was already set up, and she was moved carefully onto it.

A gaunt, dour man walked up to her side and eyed her curiously. “What’s the damage?”

“Arms got a bit busted up in the fight,” Yvonne said. “Not in a terrible state, but they still hurt to move.”

The Untouched man sighed wearily. He waved the two other Touched men out of the tent, and they left with a salute that was not returned.

The physician walked over to a trunk of supplies and knelt down to flip it open. In it, Yvonne could see all of the equipment and supplies she had expected, including the wafting smell of the medicine within. Instead, he picked up a tome from one side and flipped through it lazily until he reached one page with a blue ribbon separating it out.

“Hold still, or the scan may be inaccurate,” he said. He began to trace a finger along something in the book she couldn’t see, at the page began to shine a dim light on his face. Yvonne watched as the light traced along her arms, and a moment later, it vanished.

Figures the first time I see magic up close it’s for something like this.

“Minor fractures. It shouldn’t take long to heal,” the physician said as he snapped the book closed.

“Don’t suppose there’s magic to speed that up, is there?” Yvonne asked. “I work a forge, you see, not having my arms is a problem.”

He quirked an eyebrow and moved to his trunk to get out small pieces of wood, a roll of cloth, and a small bottle of some liquid. “It exists, but it is a difficult spell to cast and reserved for the most dire needs,” he said as he opened the bottle. He scooped out a bit with a dull knife and began to spread the concoction on her arms with the flat of the blade.

And now I am to be treated as toast?!

Once done, he set the splints on her arm quickly and began to bind them to her arms with the cloth wrap. There was some pressure that Yvonne expected to feel, but her arms didn’t really feel much of anything at the moment. A side effect of the concoction, she assumed.

“Move as little as possible. You’ll be on bed rest for approximately two weeks,” he said, packing everything back into the trunk. “Given the state of your injuries, that should suffice to mend.”

“Two weeks?!” Yvonne cried. She lay back and let out a deep sigh. “No, I apologize. I’m just frustrated. Thank you for your help.”

The man gave the briefest of smiles from her acknowledgment and left the tent to do whatever it was that was needed of him.

His presence was soon replaced with man in the typical hooded robe of a mage.

“Pardon my intrusion,” he said in a gentle but monotone voice. “Might I have a few moments of your time?”

Yvonne shrugged as she lay in her makeshift bed. “Got nothin’ but time, I suppose.”

“Yes, though from the exchange I heard, you may not have been in any mood for visitors,” the man said.

“It’s fine. What’s this about?”

The man pulled back his hood, revealing a head of unkempt black hair that ran down his face. His beard, patchy as it was, was similarly uncared for, and his hazel eyes gave the same impression of dispassion as his voice. “Elias Guimond, Mage of the Second Circle.”

Yvonne looked at him for a moment. “Sorry, I’m not familiar with ranks. First trip out on one of these missions and your lot doesn’t come down to the Low Ward often.”

“I understand. There are five circles,” he explained. “Trainees enter on the lowest rung, the fifth circle. The first circle is reserved for a select few and serve the royal family most directly.”

“Ah. Then you are a pretty important person to be in the Second, I take it.”

“I am studious,” he replied simply. “I have made some important discoveries that have earned me some amount of renown, and I am surely in the process of many more.” Elias looked around the tent, then shrugged and took a seat on the physician’s trunk. “I heard from the Zoners about the Wraith. Quite an unusual ordeal.”

“Aye, nothing like what I was told to expect,” Yvonne said. “At least we pulled through.”

“About that. Such a strange creature must have surely required a tremendous amount of effort to defeat, yes?”

Yvonne felt the hair on her neck stand on end. A dangerous question.

“I was unconscious for a fair bit of it. I do recall the Zoners tearing chunks out of it with their weapons in what little I did see,” Yvonne said. “I’m sure you got more explicit detail from the ones doing the fighting.”

“Quite a bit,” Elias admitted. “But it all just seems… sadly anti-climactic. A Wraith takes a form never before seen on an expedition, yet the means to lay it low were the same? Plausible - we know so little about the Wraiths, after all. But I find that outside perspectives are always useful in uncovering purposeful details that seem mundane to others.”

Yvonne gave a small hum to pretend like she was trying to remember. I wish I knew better what the others said. My story has to match up!

More importantly, why is he pressing me about this?

“As I said, I can’t really recall much. I wasn’t involved after the thing knocked me out. It was just made of dirt though, not terribly difficult to pick it apart. Maybe some shovels would have helped speed it along.”

Elias looked at her for a moment and before finally standing back up. “Well, I suppose it can’t be helped. Not everything is as written in the old epics, is it?” He made for the entrance to the tent, then looked back at Yvonne on her cot.

The mage waved his fingers in the air, tracing a pattern. A dull light followed his motions, lingering long enough for him to finish, at which point the light grew bright for just an instant before it vanished.

“What was that?” Yvonne asked.

“A favor, though the medicine administered to you will probably keep you from recognizing it for a few hours,” Elias said. “Seek me out if you should remember any details after some rest. I am, as I said, a studious person, and this encounter interests me a great deal.”

Without awaiting a response, he left the tent, and Yvonne was alone again.

I feel the less I interact with that man, the better.

Yvonne laid on her cot and stared at the roof of the tent, feeling her patience dwindle as time passed by. She tried to twiddle her thumbs, but whatever was in the poultice was making her arms numb as it relieved the pain from the wounds, and she had been instructed to try to not move on top of that. As bare as the tent was, she couldn’t even tell how long she had been in there barring the hints of changing light from under the flap of the tent.

Her solitude was finally broken when a much more welcome visitor entered.

“Sorry I’m late,” Lirena said, her smile reaching from ear to ear. “They wanted a written account to turn in after we presented things, so I had to work on that before they’d let me go. How are you holding up?”

“My arms are dead weight and I can’t really move from this spot for a while. I’m bored out of my mind,” Yvonne replied. “But better since you arrived.”

“I have it on good authority that time spent with a lovely woman will do wonders for healing,” Lirena said with her usual teasing grin.

“How kind of you to arrive as my dose of medicine,” Yvonne shot back.

“Why, I was merely fulfilling my own prescription,” Lirena said with a wink.

Yvonne couldn’t help but laugh. “I fear Vanessa may have been right about us.”

“A good thing she has other matters to attend to at the moment, then!”

Beneath her elation from seeing Lirena, Yvonne wanted very badly to talk about the mage that had visited her, but the thin walls of the tent seemed a bad place for it considering the implications of the topic. For now, she was content to just spend time with her new partner.

The two wiled away the remainder of the day in idle conversation, until dusk began to show from underneath the tent. If the physician had cared to return to his post, he had not appeared to show it.

“I need to check in before nightfall,” Lirena said. “I suppose they’ll want you to be laid up in here for a while.”

“Hopefully not. The trip home will be miserable if I’m to remain in the cart with the medical supplies.”

“If that is what it takes to get you better, then you should see to it,” Lirena said, her voice stern but a caring smile on her face. “I imagine you’ll have no shortage of work waiting for when you get back home, and the sooner you’re mended, the sooner you can get back to it.”

Yvonne pulled herself up slowly and looked at Lirena. “Before you head off, there is something I want to ask you. A favor, really.” The blacksmith looked a little nervous as she hunted for the words. “If I go with you on another of these expeditions… I don’t want a repeat of this. Do you think… you could teach me to fight with a weapon? Enough to avoid being laid out again, at least.”

Lirena looked at her in surprise. “I thought you were a decent fighter.”

“Sure, in a tavern brawl,” Yvonne said. “I can hold my own against a person, but a Wraith seems… beyond me.”

Lirena clasped her hands together in delight. “Absolutely! Though if I’m called away on a mission, I may miss out some sessions.”

“Gaz can probably help fill in if the Commission isn’t called as well,” Yvonne said. “But I wanted to ask you first.”

“Then it’s a date. A strange date, to be sure, but I think that suits us fine,” Lirena said. She walked over to the cot and leaned down to give Yvonne a kiss, which the blacksmith happily returned. As the kiss continued, Yvonne felt herself being pushed back down into the bedding, until she was lying flat.

Lirena broke the kiss and placed a finger on Yvonne’s lips. “But none of that can happen until you’re better, so focus on that for me. Promise?”

Yvonne let out a small sigh. “If I must.”

“Good girl,” Lirena whispered in Yvonne’s hear, her voice low and soothing.

Yvonne felt something in her brain react that she couldn’t quite name, and it lingered in her mind long after Lirena left and silence claimed the tent again.