Eliona's War 2: Veiled Healer

Chapter 58

Time Elapsed: 05:26:34

Severance sat against the wall. It felt cool against his burning skin and provided shade from the heat of the sun. This place was nowhere as dry and hot as the desert of the Lost Lands, but he still felt cooked.

His hair was soaked from the dunk he'd taken in one of the water barrels. It washed away the worst of the sweat and dust, but the uncomfortable gritty feeling remained. His coat lay spread out on a bench beside him to dry. That left him only in damp trousers and boots, but he was too drained to care much about it.

Leaning against the cool wall was the best thing in the world right now.

"Tough day?"

Severance looked up to see Dhin standing before him. He hadn't sensed the young clansman's arrival. That didn't come as a surprise, really. In the state he was, a meteor could have screamed out of the sky and flattened the nearby forest and he'd still not have noticed.

He let his head fall gently back against the stone. "Something like that."

"Yeah? What happened? Did the bigger twigs bully you?"

"No." Severance didn't even have the energy to roll his eyes. "Batin dragged me to the Lost Lands and we had a nice discussion about pain. For an entire hour."

And all that wasn't even enough to get him a 'Quest Completed' notification from the System. Who knew what it would take to get to that point? Batin had made it clear that they'd be meeting for an hour every single day that Severance logged in until he was satisfied. If that wasn't enough to give him nightmares tonight, Severance didn't know what else would.

It was silent. That was a bit unusual coming from Dhin, who always had some kind of quip ready, so Severance looked up again. Dhin was staring at him incredulously.

"Oh. I guess you didn't hear." Now Severance felt kind of stupid.

"Hear what?" Dhin slid down the wall and sat beside him, almost close enough for their shoulders to touch. "I mean, it's great that you're back and all that, but what are you talking about? Why would Batin...?"

Considering this was technically Dhin's fault to start with, Severance was more than happy to tell him. Maybe tomorrow, when Batin came for Lesson Two, Dhin could join them. It was only fair.

"Outsiders can't feel pain," Severance explained. "That's how they can fight through ridiculous amounts of crazy stuff without even flinching. They also heal fast on their own, even without a healer, and of course, they can't die. But you probably know that."

Dhin narrowed his eyes, but said nothing.

"Anyway, I'm not really sure how it works, but that last batch of Gifts kind of changed that for me." Severance picked up a tiny pebble and tossed it. It bounced off the ground once before it settled. "Maun and Batin took me to Ascendance to see how things went, and well..." he shrugged. "I almost got Vast killed because I passed out."

"You passed out? What do you mean?"

Severance found another pebble. He tossed it, too. "I took one of the Golem's lightning blasts. It hurt. A lot."

"Oh," Dhin said, but it was more of a forceful exhale than a word. He winced. "Oh. That's rough."

A third pebble flew into the air. "Good news is that I'll be prepared now if I ever break all of my fingers or get stabbed." Severance smiled, but it came out twisted and devoid of all humor. "Batin is very..."

"Terrifying?" Dhin suggested.

"Yeah." And thorough. That man never took half measures in anything he did. Severance had figured that out pretty quick.