A Dangerous Kind of Hope - Part 1

The air was fresh outside as Emery finally exited the House of Thanaturgy. The sky was blue and there was no rain whatsoever. He stepped ten feet away before looking back, mindboggled by how that building alone experienced a never ending cloud of rain above it. Magic could be used for some strange things, but this was a quirk he wouldn’t have guessed.

Emery still had chills after what he’d read and wasn’t quite certain what he should do. Part of him wanted to take the information to Silas after reading The Montclair Doctrines, but after reading The Unpronounced he wasn’t feeling like himself. He strolled down the street admiring the birds flying by and the architecture of the buildings on the street.

After a few blocks he ended up seeing his own apprentice location, the House of Sanguichurgy. Maybe a conversation with his old mentor would ease his mind. He approached the door when suddenly there was a burst of men rushing out the entrance on their way. There must be some sort of an emergency within the town.

Emery made his way inside and greeted several familiar faces along the way. Eventually he made it to the third floor and knocked on the door of the biggest office available. It was open so he stuck his head in and the man who named him top apprentice sat in a chair with a distinguished white coat wrapped around him and a badge clipped on.

“Hello there, Master Voss.”

The man was fixated on writing as the feather of his quill waved around. Emery chuckled at the staring match he was having with the piece of paper.

“Master Voss.”

Still no response from his mentor. Emery was beginning to get annoyed as he took a full step in front of the doorway.

“Hello!”

Finally the sanguichurgist snapped out of his trance and jumped in his seat before looking up. It took a moment, but after calming down he stood up with a grand smile on his face.

“Emery Hartwell, is that you!?”

The excitement in his mentor’s voice made Emery’s heart flutter. He stepped forward into the room with a wide smile of his own.

“It’s good to see you Master Voss!”

The sanguichurgist spread his arms and embraced Emery like he was family.

“Oh please, call me Aldren, but my goodness how long has it been?”

Emery could feel his discomfort from earlier fading.

“Well this war has been going on for 3 years and I went right into it as soon as I graduated from your mentorship, so just about that length since I’ve been able to visit.”

Aldren released the hug and took a step back resting his hands on his hips.

“That’s true, I remember you chose to take your talents to somewhere more aggressive while your number two Julian Veyrath chose to stay here and further his studies. I’ve actually seen him a few times over the years, but he seems to be a bit reclusive.”

Emery laughed at the commentary while his ego grew.

“I actually recently came across Julian myself, he was summoned to the frontlines for a rare case with a trauma patient. Quite an experience that was.”

Aldren turned his head a little and arched his brows with a thin smile.

“Were you meddling in his work again?”

Emery scratched the back of his head with a guilty smile as Aldren shook his head.

“Even out of apprenticehood you still can’t help but get in everyone else’s business.”

Voss huffed with a smile as he crossed his arms and stood upright.

“I have heard many positive things of your work on the frontlines though. The legendary battlefield healer who never gives up on his divisionmates.”

Aldren made a move out the door and motioned for Emery to walk.

“I’m proud of you Emery. You’ve always had the passion to help those around you without being too self-absorbed to get in your own way.”

Emery followed his mentor down the hall feeling nothing but glee receiving nothing but praise. He had made the right decision on where to go.

Just then a pair of doors at the end of the hallway of the second floor flew open. Multiple people surrounding a patient on a medical grade stretcher.

“Mr. Voss, his heart is currently failing! It’s presumed to be a heart attack.”

Aldren’s entire aura changed from a lighthearted old friend to an incredibly serious medic at the flick of a switch.

“Have you spoken with the patient’s family for any pre-existing conditions?”

The emergency medic nodded his head as he kept rolling the stretcher down the hallway.

“The family is downstairs and denied anything that could cause heart failure."

Aldren summoned a pair of scissors and cut the man’s shirt open. He passed his hand over the man’s chest and he stopped directly above the aortic valve.

“He must have some serious arterial blockage.”

Voss looked back at his former student.

“Are you coming along? I could use your talents in there.”

Emery looked around him for a moment before realizing he was being spoken to. He immediately ran after the moving stretcher.

“Are you sure? I haven’t operated on a heart attack in years.”

Aldren went into the operating room and used magic to clean his hands and apply a pair of gloves.

“I’ll be handling the majority of the procedure. If anything, I’ll just call on you for backup.”

Emery accepted the job and did the same process of cleaning and gloves.

“Alright, the patient is currently unconscious, but we need to make sure he doesn’t wake up by chance. You know the process.”

Emery nodded and waved his hand in a circle over the man’s face. Sparkles fell straight down like specks of dust covering his face with a layer of oxygen and a magic that would keep him unconscious.

“Alright let’s take a look at what we’re dealing with.”

Aldren pulled up a screen just like Emery had done to show Mira the permalusions. He did his own wave above the man’s heart and suddenly the two of them had vision through the body. Emery looked up at his mentor, wowed by his talents.

“Master, I mean, Aldren, it looks like there’s several clogs in the arteries. I don’t think there’s a way we can expand them and clean out the plaque.”

Aldren paused and continued examining the visuals. He got closer and his magic zoomed in on what he was looking at.

“You’re right, I’m looking and these arteries are badly obstructed. This won’t be an easy job and he may not make it, but we have to try.”

Aldren removed his magician’s screen before turning around and grabbing a fleshcrafting pad.

“Emery, considering how long it's been I think I’m going to have to be the one to craft the arteries.”

Emery pulled back his lips, flashing his teeth and sucking in air as he shook his head until Aldren dropped the bomb.

“We don’t use it often, but I need you to perform the vital suspension.”

Emery’s heart sank. He knew it was coming, but he didn’t want to believe it. Aldren reassured him of his concerns.

“I know this wasn’t your strong suit as an apprentice, but you’re incredibly talented and have a lot more experience than before. Your talents have all improved greatly and this man needs your help.”

Emery closed his eyes and took a breath in. He held it for a few moments before exhaling.

“Alright, let’s do it.”

Emery took a solid stance with his feet spread to the sides, hands directly above the man’s heart and his eyes finally opened. Aldren summoned his scissors, separating them into two parts. The first half he used as a scalpel like Emery. He made 4 incisions, one above, one below and one on each side of the heart in a perfect rectangle.

Aldren used a form of defensive magic that created a perfect wall between the center and the parts he cut it from. He physically moved the slab of the man’s body and placed it in a magic container designed for preserving body parts in a pristine and clean condition.

Immediately after the portion of body had been moved, Emery began his job. Vital suspension was a spell that drained a lot of magic from an individual. Its ability was to form an enclosure around a specific region of the body and slow the biological collapse dramatically. It didn’t stop life. It stopped damage from outrunning the healer.

The goal was to preserve function while slowing the damage surrounding it. In this case, the heart still needed to pump, but the failing tissue around it could be held at the edge of collapse long enough for Aldren to work.

This was undeniably the most difficult spell in the operating room, but as soon as Emery began, his mentor trusted him wholeheartedly and detached the arteries to begin fleshcrafting. Emery stared at the disconnected areas that were now basically holes right on the barrier of his suspension’s cube. The idea that if he flinched even a little it could cost this man his life gave him chills.

As he focused he tried to remain clear headed, but something from earlier seemed to be gnawing at him from the back of his mind. Richmond Bellant was a thanaturge, so that was his approach when he was experimenting. Using the Unpronounced, a semi-cognitive being as the lead subject made sense for him.

The study was completely disturbing, but he had one intriguing theory that stuck with Emery. The idea of jumpstarting the body with the return of the soul. The wall he believed he hit was the method of jumpstarting. What if that wasn’t the only issue though. Maybe it was the timing?

At the end of the study, he noted that after he performed the ascension there was a tiny moment in which the body experienced a flicker of activity. He claimed it was possibly the soul passing through as a vessel to actually ascend from the Mesothan.

What if that split second was the right timing, and the body’s revitalization from its fatal wound was the jumpstart? He suddenly bit his lower lip hard enough to draw blood. He should have left it alone, but he couldn’t dismiss it. His heart rate sped up as his body was naturally strengthening the vital suspension.

“EMERY!!!”

Voss was yelling through a fog at his former apprentice to focus again.

“You need to let go of the vital suspension! I have to reconnect the artery so we can save this man, or his body will fail in other areas!”

Emery snapped back out of his mental thread. He released his magic and pulled his hands away as Aldren reattached the arteries and waited to see the heart function again. Several moments passed as the heart stayed passive.

“Sir, what’s-”

Aldren put his hand up, and Emery shut his lips. They continued to stare for another twenty seconds. Time felt almost as slow as it would in vital suspension.

*Ba-dum*

Aldren let out a big breath of air as he dropped his head back and closed his eyes. His hair hung back as he raised his wrist to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

“That was probably the longest suspended latency I’ve ever seen.”

Emery tilted his head with one brow slightly raised.

“What does that mean?”

Voss looked at his former star pupil and gave him a blank stare.

“Do you really not remember from your studies? No wonder you used to be so bad at this. There’s always a period after vital suspension where the affected systems have to return to their natural function. ”

Voss motioned for Emery to return to the table and pointed at the heart beating once more.

“You held the suspension for longer than necessary while you were wrapped up in your thoughts. Quite frankly I’m not sure if it was good because it helped maintain the suspension, or bad because you held it too long.”

He turned to the magic container from earlier and with his powers freshened his gloved hands up. He grabbed the rectangle of flesh and placed it back above the man’s functioning heart. Voss used suture magic to close the man back up.

“What made you so distracted?”

Emery recounted his thoughts from earlier.

“I may have gotten lost in some conspiracy theories I suppose.”

Aldren pursed his lips a little, staring at the medic.

“Well I know you work for the kingdom so it can be hard to avoid those, but don’t get too wrapped up in them. It’s rare any of them hold merit.”

Emery stood still as he watched his mentor finish the job.

“What do you do here when a patient doesn’t survive?”

Aldren walked out the room and Emery followed after.

“Well we used to send the patients to the House of Thanaturgy, now we usually send them to the Houses of Ascentia instead. Why do you ask?”

Aldren called over to an apprentice medic to finish the process and get the man to his family. Emery watched as he recalled his days carting healthy patients and preparing them for return to their families.

“Well I was just wondering why you don’t have someone on staff that could perform the process of Ascension. It would end the time the individuals have to spend in the Mesothan a lot sooner and allow them to pass on.”

Aldren paused mid-walk and looked Emery straight in his eyes.

“Have you been studying thanaturgy?”

Emery’s face turned red with guilt. He looked away briefly before turning back and holding his gaze.

“Only for work. I’ve been dealing with some strange circumstances and thanaturgy has had some of the answers I was looking for.”

Aldren shook his head very slightly as his lips curled in.

“Emery, be careful with what you do. Crossing paths with other disciplines is highly frowned upon. People like Julian have to get exclusive permission to do it.”

Emery lifted his hands up waving them near frantically.

“It’s all by the king’s approval!”

Aldren’s look softened as eyes relaxed and a smile grew on his face.

“I just don’t want to see anything bad happen to you, or the name you’ve made for yourself.”

Emery slowly lowered his hands as Voss took off. He continued to watch his mentor walk down the hall. There was a weight on his shoulders he could feel more than he’d ever noticed before.

A piece of him wished he could return here and teach with Aldren, but he knew he had responsibilities. Emery ran down the hall and caught up to the medic.

“Hey, it was wonderful to see you and it put my mind at ease after some experiences earlier today. I appreciate your time, but I actually have somewhere to be right now.”

Aldren placed his hand on the side of Emery’s shoulder.

“So soon? That’s unfortunate, we barely got to catch up due to the patient.”

Emery nodded his head with half a smile on his face.

“I know, but it was an honor to watch you work again. Take care.”

Emery walked off toward the stairs, but turned back quickly.

“Sir, please be cautious over the next couple weeks. Things are questionable right now. It’s important you stay aware of your surroundings.”

Voss narrowed his eyes and nodded his head.

“Oh and is there any chance you have a spare cloak I could take? My last one ended up in a bit of an accident.”

Aldren pointed at the end of the hall to a coatcheck room.

“B 53, but be careful with it, that’s not a standard cloak like what you usually wear. I’m sure you’ll notice though.”

Emery gave a wave and checked the coat out before exiting the hospital.