Chapter 43: You can’t heal missing fingers!

We fly away from the capital and head northwest towards the camp where I last saw Selena and Kara.

Victoria calms down quickly and starts to enjoy the sights from the air. After a few minutes staring at the horizon, she looks up at me.

“Why are you helping me?” she asks.

“Your ears are cool, and that prince was a dick, so taking you away from there feels right,” I answer, but she grimaces.

“They’re a curse, but thank you,” she replies.

Like an actual curse? Do they have curses here? I haven’t read anything about curses.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but I’m curious about the ears and tail if you’re willing to explain,” I say.

“It’s fine, well, no, it sucks, but you’re helping me,” she says with a huff, “my ancestors supposedly had animal traits like me, they were largely captured and enslaved for them long ago. Eventually, those that remained had children with enough regular people that no one had animal traits anymore, but we’ve kept distinct hair colors and a higher aptitude for magic.”

“I heard that one of your ancestors closed off the northern port above the city states to stop countries from invading and taking your people,” I reply.

“Growing up in the city-states, I heard a lot of stories about my ancestors. I thought they were all fairy tales.. but I guess that’s wrong. And the church has taken an interest in us,” Victoria says with a pained expression.

“The church?” I ask, “Like the Human Divinity church?”

“They work with the Alarian Empire to run experiments on us.. the church uses these green gems to fill us with magic. Most people get better at magic or have their senses sharpened, or some even die. But I turned into this..” she says just loud enough to hear.

“Green gems..” I mumble to myself, like what I found up north? “Why is the church experimenting on you?” I ask.

“They don’t think of my people as human, and they probably just want strong slaves..” Victoria answers solemnly.

I didn’t love churches in my last life either, but I may need to blow this one up. I’ve been meaning to practice large-scale magic.. I wonder if I could level the holy city in one spell..

“What are you thinking about?” Victoria asks, pulling me from my homicidal daydream.

“Oh, nothing.. tell me if you want to stop and take a break,” I answer.

Victoria turns her head away from me and towards the forests and mountains below us.

“I’m ok, the view is nice..” she says.

We fly for a few hours before nearing the northern shores.

“Wha- is that the ocean? Are we at the northern ocean already?” Victoria asks excitedly.

“We are,” I answer softly, “the camp they were using is just ahead.”

I descend towards the camp where I last saw Kara and Selena, but I don’t see either of them. It’s midafternoon, so they could be hunting. I set Victoria down and look around the camp, but with such a frequently used camp, it’s hard to judge exactly when someone was last here. I turn to look at Victoria-

“Victoria, have you been to this camp before?” I ask.

“Um, no, I haven’t, I didn’t hunt this far away from home..” she explains.

“Ok, I’ll make us some food while we wait,” I say.

I start the fire in the center of camp and remove a few pans from storage. I doubt this girl has eaten that well since being imprisoned. I should make a nice meal.

Paddle horn steaks are skewered and placed a short distance from the flames to smoke while I prep two pans. The first is filled with animal fat and set over the flames, while the second is filled with compound garlic butter and lobster before being set aside.

I pull potatoes from storage along with a cutting board and a large bowl. I cut the potatoes into sticks and mix flour, seasonings, and water in the bowl to make a batter to dip them in. Once coated, I drop them into the rendered animal fat, move the steaks closer to the flame, and put the lobster pan over a section of the coals. Now I just let them cook.

I look up and see Victoria watching me intently.

“Are you ok, Victoria?” I ask.

“Um, I don’t recognize everything you’re cooking.. but it all smells really nice,” she answers shyly.

“It’s my favorite meal,” I explain, “and it’s fragrant so it may lure Kara and Selena back,” I add with a smile.

Fifteen minutes later, the fries are golden brown, and the steak and lobster look done.

I plate everything and hand a portion to Victoria along with utensils from storage.

Victoria’s ears poke up underneath her cloak, and her tail is wrapped around into her own lap. She takes the plate and places it down on her tail.

“Please eat up while it’s hot,” I say, “do you want anything besides water to drink? I have a few alcohols,” I ask.

“Thank you very much, but water is fine,” she says politely.

She takes a bite of the steak first, then finishes cutting it and eating it as soon as a human possibly could. I’m not even sure she stopped to breathe.

“ohmnom..mm,”  Victoria moans.

Hearing people make food noises after trying what I give them always makes me happy, but it’s making it clear she’s been treated like shit.

She pauses for a moment after similarly demolishing the potatoes and looks up to me.

“I.. shouldn’t eat the shell?” she asks and points her fork at the lobster.

“Aha, no, you shouldn’t, it’s already open on the bottom so you can pull the meat out through there,” I explain.

Victoria flips the lobster and pulls the tail meat out with her fork. She slices off a small piece and slowly raises it to her mouth.

“Wha- it’s good!” she yelps.

Admittedly, lobsters look a bit weird. But they’re damn tasty.

“It’s called a lobster, they’re in the ocean not far from here, but you need to place traps underwater to catch them,” I explain. Victoria doesn’t answer, a bomb could go off, and I don’t think she’d look up from her plate.

But I sense something, two somethings, approaching camp from the south. It’s Selena and Kara. I was worried Victoria was going to be hiding out in my dorm for the week.

“Victoria, I think Selena and Kara are walking back..” I say.

Her face comes out of the plate and lights up as she looks at me.

“Really!?” she asks.

“Yep, they’ll be here in a few minutes,” I answer with a happy smile.

***
“Selena, do you smell that?” Kara sniffs the air and turns to face Selena. They’re walking along a trail back towards their camp with a number of birds in their packs.

“Hmm yea, maybe someone else came to the camp?” Selena responds with a tilted head.

Selena’s hair is bluer than normal and has grown far past her shoulders, but her piercing silver eyes haven’t changed. Kara’s platinum hair is longer, too, but it has just reached her shoulders. Both are dressed in well-used hunting clothes, and they quicken their pace approaching the camp, but Kara’s arm shoots out in front of Selena to stop her.

“Selena, whoever is using camp has a lot of magic. They might already know we’re coming,” Kara says warily.

“Alarians again?” Selena whispers, “Or maybe the fake old man is back?”

Kara closes her eyes to focus on the magic ahead of her.

“Two people, they both have a lot of magic, Selena.. you should stay here, I’ll check if it-“

“Will you idiots get over here already!? I brought a friend to see you,” I yell into the trees behind me.

Victoria jumps at my sudden yelling and turns to look in the same direction as me. Kara walks out first, still holding her arm out in front of Selena.

“See! It’s the fake old guy!” Selena yells while glancing at me. But her eyes turn to the cloaked figure next to me.

Victoria tears her hood down and jumps to her feet.

“Selena!” she yells. Victoria shed a few tears today, but her eyes have turned into waterfalls, and her whole face is turning red.

“Wha- Vic.. your head..” Selena looks over her old friend in shock, but freezes when she sees her silver wolf ears.

“I-I’m sorry for how I look..” Victoria stutters as her gaze falls to the ground. Seeing her friend in pain, Selena rushes up to her and wraps her arms around Victoria.

“I’m so happy to see you, Victoria,” Selena says gently.

“I-I’m hik.. ugh..” Victoria tries to respond, but only a whimper comes out. She leans into Selena and relies on her for steadiness.

I don’t want to interrupt an emotional reunion.. I turn to Kara to greet her.

“Been a while, Kara, how was the winter?” I ask, but Kara’s eyes are glued to the ears on the top of Victoria’s head, too. Feeling my gaze, she turns to look at me.

“Winter?” she asks with a cocked head, “right, it wasn’t that cold up here, so we were fine..” she continues and turns back to stare at Victoria again.

Yea they’re not going to talk to me until Victoria calms down and explains some things.

“Have you and Selena eaten? I can make another meal while you all catch up,” I offer.

“Um, that’d be great actually.. thank you,” Kara says, then walks over to Selena and Victoria.

I prepare a second course of the same meal while the girls talk. There’s a lot of hugging and even more crying - this is a good time to be on dinner duty.

***
Victoria, Selena, Kara, and I sit around the campfire as it nears dark.

“Old man, you said you hunt bandits, right?” Selena turns up from her plate and asks me.

Bandits, Alarian knights, you name it. It’s really made my time in the capital more enjoyable.

“I do, hunting is fun,” I answer proudly.

Selena looks to Victoria with sad eyes, then back to me.

“Would you consider the church bandits after what they’ve done?” she asks.

“Hmm.. I’m not sure, but I’ll be spending some time in the holy city this summer and can look into what they’re doing,” I reply.

Victoria sat in silence while Selena and Kara were eating, but she perks up at my answer.

“Would you take me with you?” Victoria asks with a serious expression.

Based on the look in her eye, she’d go on a rampage. She’s got a ton of magic, but I don’t think she’s that practiced.

“There are two problems with taking you,” I answer and return her serious gaze, “first, you stand out, and second, you’re not strong enough to kill everyone in the church. Both of those things can be remedied, but you won’t be ready by summer.”

Despite the rejection, Victoria perks up even more.

“How can I stand out less?” she asks with bated breath.

“It’s simpler if I show you-“

I reach my right arm forward and make a small circle of light refraction magic around my hand, making it disappear.

“Wha-“ Victoria stammers. Kara looks surprised, but Selena recognizes the magic.

“It’s a type of magic that bends light, creating a sort of illusion. The larger the object you’re trying to hide, the wider the circle of magic needs to be. I can put this spell into some spell stones and clip them to your ears and tail. You should have enough magic to keep them activated all the time,” I explain.

Selena stares at my missing hand for a while before commenting-

“That’s the bubble you put around us when we flew up to the mountains.. I didn’t realize it made us disappear..” she mumbles.

“It’s how I get around without attracting too much attention, but I’m guessing people from the city states can tell that I’m using magic?” I ask and look across the three girls.

Selena and Kara look me up and down.

“You already put off a ton of magic, I don’t think I would’ve noticed any difference if I didn’t see your hand disappear,” Kara says while Selena nods her head in agreement.

“Right, then I’ll make 8 spell stones on clips that do this,” I respond, then look to Victoria, “you’ll need to practice keeping them activated with the magic that you’re putting off. Among other things..” I add with a sigh.

“What do you mean?” Victoria asks quietly, looking slightly offended.

“You don’t seem to have much combat or magic training. If you want to fight the church that the whole world worships, then you’ll need to learn a lot,” I explain.

If I really focus on her magic, it’s hard to see anything else. She has that much, but she’s meek.

Victoria leans forward and looks at me with wide eyes.

“Can you teach me?” she asks.

“I don’t know, I’ve never tried to teach anyone to use magic the way I do,” I say with a shrug, “precise control of magic is the basis for most of what I can do, it’s also what everyone else seems to be bad at. I’ve always assumed that’s because they can’t see magic very clearly, but none of you seem to use magic like I can, even though you see it..”

Victoria and Selena watch me intently while I explain, but Kara locks her eyes on the ground.

“Our ancestors were strong like you, but we’ve lost that strength over time,” Kara says.

Selena turns to Kara before looking at me with a curious expression.

“Old man, how did you learn to control magic so well?” she asks.

I jammed it through my whole body starting at two weeks old, but I probably shouldn’t say that.

“I think you’d die if you copied my methods exactly,” I explain, “but maybe you can do something similar.”

I reach into the woodpile near the fire and hand the girls a few small sticks.

“Common knowledge would tell you that pushing magic into things makes them break or explode if you use enough,” I say, “but if you temper and control your magic output, you can strengthen objects like those sticks.”

I take a small stick myself and push my magic into it. I run a line of magic through the center, then in a circle around the center, and finally, one more circle around that. I toss the stick to Selena when I’m done.

“Try to break that stick,” I request.

Selena catches it and starts trying to bend it. The stick is half a meter in length with the circumference of a pinky finger; it shouldn’t be very sturdy. She places one end of the stick on the ground and another on the log she was sitting on, then kicks down on it firmly.

“OWW,” she yelps, but the stick doesn’t budge.

“If you control your magic properly, you can strengthen your body the way I did with that stick. The problem is if you do it wrong, you’ll probably kill yourself,” I explain while looking at Selena, who’s holding her foot and grimacing.

Kara and Victoria stare at the stick, bewildered. Victoria breaks out of the trance first and turns to me.

“How does using magic to strengthen objects relate to flying or making things disappear?” she asks.

“It doesn’t.. but if you can use magic precisely, you can multiply your speed and strength many times over. Elemental magic, healing magic, and spatial storage magic might still be difficult to learn, though,” I answer seriously.

If they can’t see the fog in the air, I don’t have high hopes for spatial or healing magic.

“Take the sticks and practice lining the inside of them with magic. If anything explodes, I’ll heal you,” I say. “Selena, I can heal your foot if it still hurts,” I add, and she hangs her head.

“Yes please..” Selena mutters before walking over to me and placing her foot on the log I’m sitting on.

I manipulate my magic and the fog to create healing magic and fill her foot with it. The bones seem fine, but there’s a lot of bruising. I spend a few moments healing it before looking up at her.

“All set,” I say.

“What exactly was that?” Selena asks while looking down at the remnants of the healing magic in the air.

“The healing magic?” I ask and raise my eyebrow.

“I haven’t looked that closely at healing magic before.. but it sort of swirled around..” she answers with a hand to her chin.

“Healing magic and spatial magic rely on the energy that’s in the air all around us, to me it looks like a slight layer of fog – can you see it?” I ask.

Selena looks at me, then at our surroundings, before shaking her head.

“I see a fog..” Victoria says and raises her hand.

No shit, she’s going to have potential. I pull my gaze from Selena and look towards Victoria.

“You’re the first person I’ve met who can see it.. you should be able to use rare magics with practice,” I say, “but you should all practice with the sticks first, everything starts with precision.”

Selena returns to her seat, and the three start their practice. Victoria breaks pieces of her sticks every time magic leaves her body. Selena’s pushing such little magic out that it’s working to strengthen the stick, but it would take hours to have noticeable results. And Kara-

BANG

The stick in her hand explodes and sends her index finger flying at Selena’s face.

“AHHHHHHHHH MY HAND!” Kara screams and jumps to her feet.

“Kara!!” Selena screams with a horrified expression that's covered in blood.

I jump to Kara’s side and grab hold of her wrist.

“You need to relax, sit down while I heal it,” I say gently.

“Relax!? My finger is gone! You can’t heal missing fingers!” Kara screeches.

“I can, just sit,” I respond forcefully and push down on her shoulder.

Kara swallows hard and sits back down while grimacing. Selena watches on with horror.

I manipulate healing magic and fill her entire hand. Multiple fingers are also broken. I should heal those first.

“This is going to hurt..” I say and grab one of the sticks I gave to her, “Put this in your mouth and bite down on it.”

I start healing the broken fingers-

“AHHHFFFKK,” Kara groans through the stick.

“Bear with it, the hard part is almost done,” I explain. I finish healing the broken fingers and start weaving the healing magic into the base of her missing finger. Magic accumulates, and her missing finger grows back layer by layer until skin and a nail appear.

“Good as new,” I exclaim with a large smile and put my hands on my hips.

Kara lifts her hand in front of her face and stares. She’s still biting down on the stick, and her eyes are watery from the pain, but she just looks confused.

“It grew back..” Kara mumbles, causing the stick to fall out of her mouth.

Selena still looks horrified, but Victoria seems excited.

“I’ll be able to regrow body parts,” Victoria says to herself.

“Keep practicing, I can stay tomorrow too, but after that I need to go home and check on Sante,” I explain.

The girls practice for a while until it’s pitch black and time to sleep.