The priest took a deep breath. “Listen carefully. This is what we’re going to do. I have already healed all of her more minor injuries. I will be honest with you, you and your friends had mostly done that already. What we have left is the infection and the nerve damage. Given the state she is in, we will need to heal both of those immediately. That requires us to build a healing cradle. Have you experience with those?”

Niall shook his head. “I haven’t even heard of a healing cradle before.”

“Oh dear, oh dear,” The priest suppressed a sigh and put a clearly forced smile on his face. “Not a problem. Not at all. It’s fine, I’ll show you. Just watch.”

As he spoke, the priest started to draw lines in the air with his fingers. Niall looked at him in confusion. The priest gave a small smile. “You’re looking in the wrong fashion, young man. Look as a Healer and observe with your Spirit as well as your eyes.”

Niall gathered his Spirit and pushed it out toward the priest’s hands. His work with Gwen to learn Water Sense made it simple. As his Spirit approached the priest, Niall could sense the lines the priest was drawing. They held the same calming warmth he felt when he was healing himself or others. As he focussed on them, it was as if he could see a warm golden line curving through the air as the priest’s fingers passed. With his brow furrowed he tried to understand what the priest was doing. It took a few moments before he understood.

“Got it? Good, good, good. Now you try,” the priest said.

Niall’s first try failed entirely. He forced down his concern and frustration and tried again. To his relief, after a few attempts, he caught the knack of it. As the lines were drawn, they were anchored in the core of Spirit inside him. Each new line drained his Spirit a little faster.

“I think you are ready,” the priest said as Niall released the last of the lines he had drawn. “Let’s save your friend. We’re almost out of time.”

As the priest watched over him, Niall used his Spirit to draw evenly spaced lines over Tate’s body. Tate had not moved all this time. Her breathing was so shallow now it was almost imperceptible.

“Good,” the priest said. “Now, just find a state of Flow where you can maintain those lines. I am going to draw my own lines to complete the cradle. It might feel a bit strange, but just keep concentrating. If you can, follow my lead”

The priest moved to one side and started to draw his own Spirit lines perpendicular to Niall’s. As each of the priest’s lines touched his, Niall felt the power of the Spirit flowing through each of his lines multiply. As their Spirits touched Niall was able to intuit what the priest was doing and was able to adjust what he was doing to aid it.

No more was being drawn from him but, as the lattice work formed, the combined power of the two Healers was exponentially more than each could have done alone. Niall could see why the priest wanted to use this two-Healer method.

The lattice complete, the priest looked at Niall. “How are you holding up?”

Niall nodded. “Fine, more than fine. It is easy so far.”

“Good. Now things are going to get tricky. Yes, they are. I’m going to move the cradle down so it wraps around Corporal Tate. That will start the healing process but it is going to draw on your Spirit hard. Just stay in a place of Flow and hold it for as long as you can. For as long as you can.”

Niall braced himself and watched as the priest gently pushed the lattice downwards. Even as he concentrated on maintaining his own strands, he could admire the skill the priest was showing. Niall could understand what the priest was doing but he had nowhere near that level of control over his own Spirit.

As the lattice touched Tate, Niall could immediately feel the pull on his Spirit increase. Tate’s body hungrily drank whatever Niall could share. Niall focussed on keeping calm and allowing his Spirit to flow out of him and into the cradle.

The priest was not done though. The lattice started to curve and shape itself around Tate. Within moments a glowing net was wrapped around her. The draw on Niall’s Spirit was starting to become uncomfortable but he kept focussed.

“We’re almost there,” the priest said. “We are healing her nerves, but we still have to do the hardest part. The corruption needs to be drawn from her body or all of this will be for naught. Do what I do, but just be sure not to let the corruption follow your Spirit lines back into your body. Let us go.”

The priest started to pulse his Spirit along the lines. As he did so, a black liquid that gave off a sense of rot started to crawl up the lines he had drawn with his Spirit.

“You have to help,” the priest yelped. “Now. I can’t do this by myself.”

Niall started to pulse his spirit as well. He had quickly understood what the priest was doing. Each pulse pushed Niall’s Spirit through Tate’s veins. It required active effort on his part, where previously it had been Tate’s Spirit pulling at him. Almost at once, he could sense the oily feel of the corruption attach itself to his Spirit. It was as if the rot had drained what it could from Tate and now wanted to leech itself onto Niall.

Niall gritted his teeth and kept up the pulsing. Each time he relaxed his pulse it would pull out increasing amounts of the black corruption that coated his Spirit. The corruption felt somewhat familiar. There was something about it that reminded Niall of the dire wolves. He pushed that thought aside and carried on.

“Almost there.” The priest was dripping with sweat as he forced out the words. It could only have been minutes later, but to Niall, it felt as if it had been hours.

“Done,” said the priest. “You just need to hold on for a few moments longer. Tate will be fine, yes, she will. We are the ones at risk now.”

As he spoke Niall could see the lattice was unwrapping itself from around Corporal Tate. It lifted back up to the air. Almost all of it was now coated in the black, oily corruption.

“We need to burn this before it can harm us.” the priest said. “There’s something not quite natural about it, a level of base awareness I have never experienced before. Focus on your Spirit and make the warmth turn into a blazing heat.”

Niall did as he was instructed. It was hard, but fortunately he had the priest’s example to show him how it was done. He had almost nothing left to give but he dug deep. Slowly his Spirit started to heat up then, as the temperature rose faster, the corruption on his Spirit started to move as if it was agitated. The more the temperature rose the more it moved. Niall could start to feel it trying to push into his own body and the sense of being in the presence of a dire wolf increased.

He maintained his focus to try to keep it out. Despite his best efforts, a black tendril started to rapidly slither its way up a strand of his Spirit towards his body.

“Don’t let it touch you.” The priest’s words were hissed out.

Niall opened his mouth and let out a roar. He pushed the last dregs of his Spirit into the lattice. Just as the tendril was about to reach his body the corruption on the lattice shuddered and then burned away in a bright flash. The lattice itself disappeared. With nothing left to give Niall collapsed onto his knees panting. He was utterly spent. There was no energy left in him to either think or move.

He sensed the door opening and the room flooding with people. Someone gently lifted him to his feet and led him out of the room and into the fresh air.

Niall stood swaying and blank-eyed outside the Temple and squinted into the late setting summer sun. Somehow it was still daytime. He felt it should at least be the middle of the night.

A firm hand came around his shoulders to steady him. “The Priest has got her, lad. The lass’ll be fine now.” Niall turned to see Elder Everest standing next to him supporting him.

Niall looked at him for a moment and blinked. “Good,” he said eventually. He gestured weakly at the corpses of the dire wolves piled in the back of the cart. “We got the...the...”

“It’s OK,” Elder Everest said. “We can see. Thank you. You need to rest. Come with me, there are rooms for you in my Inn. On me. You’ve more than earned it.”

“But what about...?” Niall waved at where Huff and Tierra were slumped on a bench outside the Inn.

“We’ll look after them as well. Don’t worry. I don’t know what you did, but they are in much better shape than you.”

“OK. Yes. Good.”

Niall allowed himself to be led into the Inn and upstairs to a small bedroom. The arm around his shoulder was reassuring and he allowed his eyes to shut even as he walked. Once inside he barely managed to strip off his armour and sword belt before he collapsed on the bed and allowed the darkness to claim him.

***

He could not tell how long he had been asleep but he woke with a start to a loud bang.

Niall sat bolt upright in his bed to see Huff standing with an armful of armour in the middle of the room. His sword and shield were lying on the floor

Huff gave him a sheepish grin. “Oops. Sorry. Butterfingers.”

“How long have I been asleep?” Niall winced as his stomach gave a loud rumble. “Sorry.”

“That’s telling you it’s time for breakfast. Yesterday. You’ve been asleep for over a day.”

“A day?” Niall swung his feet out of bed. “What am I thinking. I’ve got to check on the Corporal. Where are my boots?”

Huff put the armour down and held out a restraining hand. “Easy. She’s fine. It was close but we got her here in time. With your help she’s pulled through. The Priest says she’ll need to take it easy for a few weeks, but she’ll be back shouting at us soon enough.”

“I still want to see her though.”

“She’s asleep and she needs the rest. Get washed and dressed, have something to eat then I’ll take you to her.” Huff gestured at the armour he had brought in. “I’ve cleaned your armour and Elder Everest had your clothes washed while you were out. I’ll see you downstairs.” With that, Huff left the room, shutting the door behind him.

Niall stood up and looked around. The sheets on the bed were in a state. Someone had changed him into a night shirt while he slept but the sheets had suffered from the blood, sweat and dirt on his body. He ran his hand through his hair then decided to ignore it for now and headed to the wash room.

Someone had anticipated him waking up and there were several buckets of hot water with a towel and soap waiting for him. Removing the blood and the grime from his body and hair took all of the hot water and several more buckets of cold. But, the feeling of being clean was worth it.

He examined his body as he washed. Even though his chest was strapped with bandages, he did not have any physical wounds so he carefully unwrapped himself. His ribs appeared to have completed their natural Healing while he was asleep but stuck out from his body. His body as a whole seemed to have lost a lot of the muscle that he had put on over the past months.

Before he left the washroom, he paused as he caught sight of his reflection in a bucket of water. His face was gaunt and drawn, the flesh had melted from his cheeks. It was as if he had been deprived of food for weeks. He shrugged. It was what it was.

Back in his bedroom, someone had, thankfully, already changed the ruined sheets while he was washing. He intended to dress quickly but it took him longer than usual. Despite his extended sleep, he was still bone weary, but he forced himself to move as quickly as he could.

As before, everyone looked up as he entered the common room of the inn. Despite the hour, it was far busier than his previous visit. There was a general sense of cheerfulness and relief that had been absent when he was last here. He was greeted by respectful nods and raised tankards rather than the suspicious looks of his first visit. Niall blinked in confusion then scanned the room.

Huff sat at a table with Tierra and waved him over as soon as he entered. He pushed a plate of food under Niall’s nose as soon as he was seated down. Niall grimaced as his stomach growled loudly in response.

Huff chuckled. “No need to talk. Get your laughing gear around that. Sausage, eggs, bacon, beans and grits. Breakfast of heroes. And, you know what, that’s exactly what we are. Particularly you.”