Wychling

Chapter 15

"You owe me your life. So, I think I'll be hearing your story first, Suma." Ulrich put a twist on the name. Tal could tell he had an opinion at the choice of moniker and didn't particularly approve.

~Sod him~ she thought.

She had given him a fine name. Ja....Suma had even said so. Usually she would have bitten back at that, but she was far too curious to hear this story herself, although she also didn't want the Wild Man to know how brief her time with Suma had been, as if it lessened her claim to him.

~Like a child. I saw him first! Petty Tal. Petty~

She imagined she had whispered that thought to herself, but Suma's eyes swung to her, looking strangely guilty. She hadn't realised the mental communion went two ways. This was going to take some getting used to.

~You'll have to speak for me Little One, while you clean the wounds. Don't worry too much about the stitching...these will make fine scars. Finer than I deserve in my foolishness~

"Yes Suma." She said with her brightest smile.

Trying to reassure him that there was nothing to be guilty about, and that she knew what she was doing. She wasn't at all certain that he bought either, but she took the needle and gut twine that the Wild Man offered from one of his many pockets before he folded his arms and leant on the wall.

She began to relay what was said word for word as Suma had instructed, and soon she was lost in her task and not consciously listening. Her hands being guided by his mental nudges as she figured out how to close the wound so that the ends of skin would heal together. He occasionally rumbled in pain when she cleaned the wound with alcohol-soaked cotton, or pushed the needle through a tough bit of skin but he never moved, nor twitched, not once.

~I travelled here from the Deep Woods because word reached a nearby Coven that an unknown power in the west had created a foul new magic. Creatures were roaming the world after their minds had been stolen. Abominations. At first, we didn't believe the rumours, it sounded like the usual accusation against a hated enemy; a raid catching some fool unprepared being explained away with magic, but then one of them was found wandering on the Great Plains, close to the borders of the Great Forest~

Tal lost herself in her delicate work, repeating the words in her head as they were given to her. She fell into a rhythm, her deft hands weaving Suma's skin back together as gently as they could, while her voice carried around the tower. She wondered how much was Suma's direction and how much her own, but it seemed to be giving him something besides her prodding to think about, which was all to the good.

"Many are the wandering tribes, and they are different as flowers from one another. The first people that found the abomination thought he...it was a sick tribesman. Left behind by one of the less charitable peoples. They took him in and gave him clothes, built him a fire, washed him...finally when the creature still hadn't moved or registered their presence, they brought him to the Healing Wych of their tribe."

"She tried to scry his mind to discover more about his malady, but as soon as the magic reached him, they both...went mad. He dragged her to the ground, then launched himself at those nearest as she lay writhing on the floor. Men, women, and children fell before him. He didn't...he maimed many and seemed to feel any pain or discomfort as the warriors of the tribe dealt him grievous wounds. He ripped throats out with his bare hands, used his teeth even as they sunk axes and spears into him. He didn't slow much even when he was gutted. He finally stopped when a warrior broke his spine with a tomahawk."

"He didn't die, he just... couldn't move. The Wych screamed for days. She was a very talented healer by all accounts, but after her magic touched the abomination...she was never the same. After the madness receded, she couldn't perform any complex magical task. She lost much face with her people and her apprentice took over as the Healing Wych. She became a lost wanderer within the tribe, a shadow of herself. No longer a healer, she had no place, and made no place for herself. After a few weeks, she took her own life...it's not certain if it was an after effect of the magic or if she had the tendency already and it was exacerbated by the situation."