“What was that about? I don’t understand.” Wendel said, surreptitiously glancing back at the man literally laid bare on the countertop of this general store.

“Unauthorized use of an X-Class or greater enchantment, multiple times on the eastern seaboard. There’s no time to waste, have you teleported before?” She clutched his shoulders very firmly, standing directly in front of him, her black on black eyes like augers into his soul.

“What!? Well, once, you know, mandatory, with a scroll from the courtyard into the tele-reception chamber. One of the scariest events of my life.” He shuddered as he spoke. “They do their best to instill fear of it, you know. The whole, dying thing.”

“Yes, well, my options are incredibly limited. I am leaving this instant for the occurence, I can leave you here, but I fear you will die if I do. The choice is yours.” She sounded very grave.

“You have a scroll? That’s written to get us near where it happened?” Wendel was wracking his brain, trying to remember the words of lectures from years ago about the ins and outs of teleportation.

“What? No, don’t be daft. No one would write a scroll for some uncharted bit of beach.”

“So you’re just going to?” Wendel couldn’t even finish the sentence.

“Correct Wendel, so are you coming with me or staying here? You could slaughter the goats, I’m not sure what you could do for water, didn’t have time to find their spring. Maybe find a wheelbarrow? I don’t have time to give you advice.”

“I’ll go,” Wendel was horrified at the idea of trying to ‘slaughter the goats’ and what would I need a wheelbarrow for?

“Right, don’t let go of my arm, no matter what.” Wendel stepped next to her and gripped her extended forearm tightly.

Wendel was never a top student in any subject, Thaumatological Linguistics least of all. He understood the Language though, the need for perfect enunciation and understanding of every syllable in every Spell. The litany that Dr. Mendes spoke and the speed that the words flew from her mouth boggled his mind. He recognized maybe one in ten, but she was speaking so quickly there was no way to keep up. He understood the basic principles behind the spell, and he could have possibly made an inanimate object that was in one place he was looking at, suddenly be in another place he was looking at. He had done that before, it was part of an exam. Moving two living beings and all their gear across a continent simply should not have been possible. She spoke without pause for five, then ten minutes. He was beginning to wonder if she was even drawing breath.

Then there was darkness, and a cold that he had felt only once before in his life when he had flawlessly read the scroll that transported him to the tele-reception center. There were wards and wizards that worked round the clock to correct anyone inbound who may have misspoke, but still there were casualties.

The cold vanished, and he smelled the salty tang of the sea. It was sweeter here than the sea smelled in Two Lanes. He realized his eyes had been firmly closed, and slowly he opened them. Darkness was falling here, though it had still been early afternoon where they had been moments ago. The doctor was already walking towards the water purposefully. Wendel took a cautious step, and then broke into a light jog to catch up with her.

“That was incredible! You’re amazing!” He exclaimed, slowing to a fast walk to match her pace.

“Never, under any circumstances, are you to attempt that.” She spoke with such a grave tone that Wendel stopped himself from laughing by biting his lip. They covered the ground quickly, and closing the distance to the water. The closer they got to the water, the rougher the going became, massive boulders obstructed his path. Bodies and debris were strewn up and down the coastline. Massive pieces of wood that looked burned in many places, and corpses that were a direct contrast to those in Uriel. These people had died hard from the looks of things, some were burned to a blackened skeleton.

Wendel slipped on some seaweed and fell hard. His already injured hand came down on a knife-like edge, and in the fading light he could see he had cut it on a mussel that was firmly attached to the rock he had grazed. The salt mingled with his blood and it burned excruciatingly, momentarily driving all thought from his mind. The doctor seemed to have disappeared as he got to his now sand covered knees.

He looked up and down the coast, and finally saw her. She was kneeling near one of the bodies that looked as though it had not been burned. As he got closer, he could see that she had mirror in her hand, and was holding it up to the victims mouth. He trudged through the grainy soil cautiously, neither wanting to interrupt her or to be too distant in case whatever had done this was still nearby.

“He’s breathing, ever so faintly. Seems to be completely paralyzed though, no telling how he didn’t drown. Some are just lucky that way.” She spoke absentmindedly, as if to herself.

“Can you save him?” Wendel was curious to see if these circumstances would finally warrant the use of healing magic.

“You might be able to, can you cast a healing bloom?” Dr. Mendes sounded tired for the first time in his travels with her, and this more than the mangled corpses strewn up and down the coast in the setting sun set Wendel nerves on edge.

Wendel thought of his spellbook in his pack. He certainly didn’t have the incantation memorized, but he was sure that he could recite it flawlessly from his book. He had received top marks on that very spell. Finally, she’ll get to see that I can be useful. Feeling bolstered by this thought, Wendel dug out his book and flipped to the page. He began speaking the words, willing his mind to believe that this man would be healed, that all of his pain and suffering would vanish, he envisioned springtime in his mind as he said the words. He thought of flowers bursting from the snow, of flowers bursting in the fresh spring sunshine. The towering white pillar of energy he was summoning from his hands began to take the shape of flowers. Of every flower Wendel could imagine, and he finished speaking the words, the beam of light descended on the man’s chest.

Wendel felt tired, exhausted really. It was not an easy spell to cast, but he felt he had gotten it perfect. The effect should have been instantaneous. Wendel’s hands found his knees, and he looked up from his almost bent double position at the man on the ground. By all accounts, the man she be moving. He was not.

“That was impressive work, Wendel.” The doctor held her mirror under the man’s nose again, “Well his breath is coming a little more steadily, that’s something. We’ll have to get a medical team up here though, we can build a structure for the survivors, and in a half hour I should be able to ward it so they’ll be safe from wildlife until reinforcements get here.” Even as she spoke it seemed like her strength was returning to her, “I’ll ring the U right now, and let them know what’s going on.” She raised her left hand, and Wendel knew she was opening the channel to the University switchboard. “Strange.”

Wendel looked at the perplexed expression on her face with mounting worry. He had been expecting her to start speaking to someone at the U. “What’s wrong?”

“No one’s answering, going to try a couple of the admin rings, it’s late but they might still have them on. The dean might anyway.” She raised her hand again, and her brow furrowed. “This might be serious. Still, we have to take care of these people first, the U can take care of itself.”

The doctor stood, more slowly than Wendel would have preferred, but she seemed to be gaining her strength back much faster than he was. The spell he had cast was A-Class. He wasn’t even sure that there was a rank for the teleportation she had cast, and come to that, he was quite positive she didn’t possess a permit to cast something like that.

Before he could ask her about that however, the doctor had dropped into a crouch with catlike speed, and she gestured at him with her hands. He followed suit dropping down into a crouch, his heart fluttering in his chest like a caged bird. From the water, a hunched figure had emerged, and appeared to be dragging a body behind it. It was heading directly for them.

The doctor called out, “Declare yourself before you approach!”

“Me nem es Gobnait O’Clary! Cap’n o’ the Duress” The voice had a strange clipped sound to it, but there was not even a hint of fear, Wendel heard her name as ‘gub-net’, “Yeh lot gen’a stan’ there wit’ yeh fums in yeh arses or yeh genna ‘elp me save whets lef’eh’ me crew?”

Even in the fading light, Wendel could see the doctor smile.