The Saint's Power

It was the moment of truth finally. Sophia always knew the day would come, but she hoped that it would still be far enough away. After enough time of practicing with her magic teacher and understanding the divine magic placed within her, she would have to make use of her talents. She had to treat the injured or sick.

All of her experience with using the spells for healing or recovery were in very limited scale tests. She would treat injured knights from training or returning from beast thinning hunts. Helping to ease a cough or cold that gripped someone in the castle. They all worked well, but it was small scale and controlled. She hadn’t been out in the public yet, despite the announcement. They kept her in the castle even weeks after still preparing her.

Everyone expected her to have the great powers of the Saint. And from the tests, it was obvious that Sophia had been granted that. Yet the ordinary person just assumed they knew how to heal via wisdom from the goddess or some innate abilities. None of that was true. Until she could match the image of the Saint in the public's mind, she remained out of sight.

Five weeks of training hardly seemed like much in the way of preparedness, but she really didn’t want to go out. She already was something that she didn’t want to be. Staying in the castle reading and learning almost didn’t seem much different from her past life. It was tolerable. She wanted it to stay that way forever.

Now outside the tall imposing church, she wouldn’t be able to escape it anymore. The moment that she stepped in she was the Saint. There was no longer an escape for her. As much as she wanted to forget it all, they wouldn’t let her. She was trapped.

Sophia looked back, seeing Tolen and Noan with her. Tolen gave her a friendly smile and encouraging nod. ‘I can do this… Ust. Hui. How many are there? Can I heal them? I haven’t failed or hurt anyone, but what if I do now? I’m supposed to be their Saint. What if I can’t do it?’ Feeling the pounding in her chest, she braced herself for her future. The crowd that came to her announcement seemed in control, but they were loud and energized in a way that she had never known. Not even festivals looked so lively.

The door to the church suddenly opened. Sophia stepped back completely forgetting that they had a planned escort to take them to the clinic. As it had been explained to her, all of the recognized and visited clinics were run by the Church exclusively due to their ties with the Saint. There was a known underground clinic for those that either refused the Church’s teachings or couldn’t afford their treatments. Publically, the Saint could not visit such a place.

In the years without a Saint, the Church couldn’t ask for nearly as much, but now that she was present once more that would be changing. ‘He explained what to expect. Lots of sick people. They might try to approach me. If I stay with Mr. Tolen and Noan, they should keep me safe. I just have to stay calm. While a lot of strangers look at me expecting miracles of the goddess to visit them. How can I deliver that?’ Ust. Hui. Feur. She couldn’t embarrass herself for the Prince now.

“Saint Sophia! Welcome to the Herst Holy Church!” They were a young man with mostly clean white robes. The hem along the ground had dirt and grime built up both from failed washes and daily work. He had a warm smile and soft eyes even amongst the rough and messy hair. It looked like she had just pulled him away from work.

She politely bowed to the young clergyman. Judging from his attire, he didn’t seem that high ranked. ‘He seems pretty normal and safe. Maybe it won’t be as bad as the High Priest. Ust. Hui.’ He appeared to be a common Acolyte. “Good afternoon! Will you be escorting me to the clinic?”

He nodded eagerly. His energy at seeing the Saint nearly turned him into a child. It was rather adorable to see that it helped ease her heart a little. “I've been looking forward to meeting you since the announcement! Everyone is really excited that you’re visiting today! Many wish to see you, if that’s alright, Saint Sophia!”

“If I have time. But the sick and injured come first.”

“Of course! I’m sorry. We all have just been praying to Euthemia for the Saint. Some of us thought that we wouldn’t live to see you! I apologize, Saint.”

She smiled, feeling that adorableness starting to burn away in trade for zealous fervor. Sophia gave a rough nod to the excited man. “I’ll do my best…” Hanging her words a little she wanted a name to address the man.

“I humbly apologize for failing to introduce myself, Saint! I’m Arrent Chovel, a simple Blue Cloth of the Church.” He was nearly graveling before her. Each second became more uncomfortable for her. She was so used to the Prince and the knights. They treated her respectfully, but still just like a person. This was so different. ‘Is it always going to be like this visiting a church?’

Resting a hand on his shoulder, she tried to have him stop. “I’m not offended, Arrent. I simply didn’t want to be rude not knowing your name.”

“But of course! You’re too kind, Saint!” He started staring at her, becoming distracted. She didn’t know if it was the magical veil around her or just being the Saint that left him forgetting things.

“Mister Arrent?”

“I’m so sorry, right! Please, follow me.” He closed the large wood door that led into the main chamber of the church. Quickly, he rushed ahead to direct them towards a smaller building attached to the church. It had a far less ornate design lacking the statues of Euthemia or any of the iconography of the Saint. There was just a simple circle with an eye inside, the mark of the Goddess.

As Sophia walked closer, she could see that it was mostly a wooden building with only stone as the main structural supports. It definitely was built after the church with less focus on its presentation. A very practical building if it didn’t also look worn down. Even the white stone columns had become gray or even black with age.

She had only seen clinics from a distance as a child. Without the Saint, her mother never visited them. There was nothing any of the clergy could do for her, she seemed to understand that. So they stayed away. This was her first time seeing what the clinics were actually like. It was feeling more grim than the picture painted by Prince Henri.

By the door, she could hear painful wet coughs and cutting dry coughs coming from the open windows. Distant groans and gasps clawed up her body, freezing her. ‘Mother… No! Ust. Hui. Please… Out of my head!’ Her heart raced, nearly jumping into her throat. Sophia tried to swallow the best that she could. She could nearly hear voices calling to her.

Suddenly, a hand reached out for her. The pull of something familiar finally tore her away from the trap. She looked to see that it was Noan. He was looking straight at her, the look in his eyes having seen something. “Are you feeling well?” he asked softly while Arrent was ahead at the door.

Counting her numbers, she found enough focus to ease the thumping. “Thank you, Mr. Noan. I am now.”

The Blue Cloth looked back seeing that he was alone at the door. There were several steps extra between them than normal. “Saint Sophia?” She rushed the rest of the distance to catch up.

‘I can’t let my anxiety stop me. People are hurting. Ust. Hui. I need to hurry. Move!’ She clutched her hands together even though that honestly did little for her. The distant voices were almost like ghosts haunting her. The lessons and prep weren’t the same as the real thing. ‘Did the other Saints have to deal with this? Most of the Saints were just commoners like me. They all had to do this. I can do this too! How did they get over how scary this is? Does it go away? Ust. Hui. I don’t want to be frightened all the time, please!’

As much as she wanted to wait, the door opened with Arrent completely oblivious to her. Sophia was only barely holding it together thanks to Noan’s intercession. But it was already building back up. She could hear the beating of her heart once more. Ust. Hui. Feur. ‘I just need to heal them… Then it’ll all be over and I can calm down…’

A few more clergy members appeared before them, their gray clothes completely stained and impossible to purify. And despite their rough appearance, the same glow of excitement at her arrival came over them. It was even more intense than Arrent. They rushed over to Sophia completely blind to manners or status. Their words became a soup in her ears as their hands reached out to touch her robes, already becoming stained for the slightest contact.

Any one of the nobles she met probably would have taken great offense to it, but Sophia couldn’t even take it all in. The clinic became an ocean for her and her without a boat to stay above water. Unable to swim, she quickly was drowning in a multitude of voices. And at the distant back drilling in her mother’s voice unable to be closed out.

Ust. “Hui.” Fuer.

Quickly, Noan and Tolen stepped forward. “Please, the Saint is here to see the sick and injured.”

“Oh, yes, yes! So, so very sorry, sir knights! Saint Sophia! We’ll show you immediately the most in need!”

Noan rested a hand again on her. It became a comforting anchor that she didn’t know that she needed. She silently thanked him as they walked together forward. The pounding of her chest was only calming enough that she could manage it with slow and careful counting.

The clinic was mostly one open chamber with numerous cots laid out packing in the sick as tightly as possible. It looked like the clergy members that attended them could barely even fit around. Everyone was coughing or moaning in pain of some sort. She never had seen so many ill together. Only her mother and they looked similar in suffering to her after a month. ‘There’s more than I thought… They can’t fit! How can I help everyone? And in what order? Ust. Hui.’

But they kept walking her deeper into the clinic. Further to the back was a wooden wall that partitioned part of it loosely. The main aisle through the middle remained wide, but it did give a little shelter from all of the rest of the patients. It didn’t block out any of the suffering. It sounded even worse like a couple might be in deep pain. She knew from how strong and rough it sounded, that they weren’t close to dying, but there was something wrong within their body and it had to be causing so much suffering.

Before she realized it, Arrent and the clinic staff stopped. She was in the furthest part of the clinic surrounded by eight people laying on cots. There were three deeply injured blood dried in their bandages. It was difficult to know exactly what happened to them, but it looked like it might cripple them. And the other five were in different stages of sickness. None of them had the same thing that mother did, but it was still unmistakeable.

They needed help. They needed the Saint.

“Who would you like to see first, Saint Sophia?” Arrent asked so innocently and it seemed completely innocuous even to Sophia. But the moment the question came out, she looked around at all eight. Each suffering in different and dire ways. They all urgently needed help.

“Ust. Which one…” She caught her voice even as the thought continued. Her eyes darted around quickly trying to make a choice. ‘So many eyes… Everyone needs me! I need to see them all. But I can’t. Who do I pick? Who? Please help!’

Noan stepped in front, breaking her light of sight for everything. “Who is the most severe? Saint Sophia will see them first.” He turned back half a step to look at her. Sophia gave him an appreciative nod. With warm grace he smiled and let the three clinic staff direct them to an ailing woman half covered in bandages and darkened skin.

Helping her over to the side, she knelt down at their side. They were barely aware of her presence seeming almost asleep, but rather in a nightmare of pain that tied them into a waking dream. ‘I don’t even know what’s wrong with her. But Mister Jolsi said that the spells he taught me didn’t need specifics. It might not fix everything, but it would greatly improve the quality of life.’

All of the soldiers and knights she practiced on were completely healed. But none of them were severely injured or diseased. ‘Will this work? I’ve never healed someone so severe? Can magic really do anything? It doesn’t make any sense! But I should trust Mister Jolsi. He said it would work. Ust. Hui. I’m the Saint. This is what I need to do.’

Sophia tried to just focus on her magic. She knew nothing more advanced than what Mister Jolsi taught her. It would just have to be enough. The mana began to circulate within her body as she visualized the formula. Each spell had a different construction necessary for a correct cast. That had been the second part that her teacher impressed upon her. The first was her control of her mana, which far exceeded anything from his experience. And she needed to stop blowing up his room.

She treated the spell construction of the formula like practicing for an exam or research. It was different from words or theories, but her method remained the same. They only let her out once she mastered creating the formula. Though now with a suffering woman in front of her, it was making her mind lose focus. “I just need to help her.”

“Saint Sophia,” Noan said softly.

Realizing that she was whispering aloud, she stopped herself. ‘Ust. Hui. I need to control myself better. I have to be a proper Saint. Everyone is watching me. Everyone is expecting me to be a Saint. Mother. Ust. Hui. Please work. I can’t let it fail. Everyone needs me.’ Her hands tightened under the pressure.

‘I want to make everyone better…’ Suddenly, the magic array she constructed rapidly expanded out while her eyes held close. Rainbow streams of magic flew into the air even as the staff and her knights tried to approach. However, they hit something like a wall. It didn’t force them back, but it slowed them down. None of them could reach in time to touch Sophia. She was completely cut off.

Her magic filled the entire clinic breaking through any window or seam nearly becoming blinding. Their voices raised up being drowned in deafening light.

Silence.

“Saint Sophia?” several of them called out.

In moments it all faded away and Sophia gasped out. They could finally approach. Noan and Tolen immediately went to her side. “Saint Sophia, are you feeling okay?”

Sophia blinked, not completely sure why Noan sounded so worried. She looked at him, but then immediately to the woman. The stress lines from pain in her face had faded away. Even the color in her skin had cleared up. “How is she?”

The room was oddly quiet. The staff and even Arrent hurried around to the patients in a panic. After checking on all eight, they looked back to Sophia as she was standing up. Arrent looked completely in awe at her. “They’re all healed, maybe even in perfect health!”

She blinked, looking around and then Noan for some answers. “But I was only trying to heal the woman.”

Noan shook his head. “Saint, I think your spell encompassed the entire clinic. You healed everyone with a single spell.”

“How is that possible?” she said aloud before covering her mouth. Sophia looked around at the church staff, if she had ruined everything. But it seemed like they might not have even heard her. They were completely in wonder of the miracles of the Saint. Suddenly patients unable to even move were sitting up or even standing wanting to approach and thank her.

Quickly the day was absorbed with numerous endless gratitude and promises of deeper devotion. Sophia couldn’t remember every word or face that she met. And Noan and Tolen carefully kept everything managed.

Sophia left the clinic finally understanding one thing. She was the chosen Saint. No one would ever see her the same again. Her life ceased to be one that she could guide.