Brightening White Flowers

9. Wellsgrove

I remember what Harisa taught me about healing. She told me that every second counted in a healing but she also taught me that spreading my power out and letting the person's body help in the healing can make it so that I can save more lives when it comes to widespread disease or injury. I close my eyes as I breathe in deeply to brace myself and protect my soul from the suffering. As I exhale I plunge into the energy world and open my eyes. Past this man I can see the life energy in many individuals as I wait.

Hardening my heart, I turn to Markus. "Bag." He holds the bag out to me and I take it; immediately I start to dig through it until I find the three packets I am looking for. Plucking them out of the bag I hand just the packets to him, "Find somebody and dump these packets into a cauldron of heated water. If anybody asks they are ginger, chamomile, and elder flower."

Markus nods and goes on his way, taking the strange boy with him for the time being. As Themis is about to walk out the door I cannot help but to look at his energy. His life energy almost thrums and appears more silver than gold. I tuck that away to ponder over later as I go back to looking in my bag. Finding two more packets and a jar I hold them in my hand as I place my bag on the ground next to the bandaged man. Next, I locate a mortar and pestle and get to work grinding the wormwood and calendula. Once I am happy with their texture I mix them with the honey and hot water to make a syrupy poultice.

I make my way back to the bandaged man with the mixture in my hands. I breathe in deeply then bend down to his ear, "Hello, Mister. I know you are resting but I am going to try to help you." Now I carefully remove the bindings from his injuries and hiss quietly as two long and deep wounds are bared open to me. Both of these are red and swollen but the wound that runs from his thigh to mid-calf has started to yellow and leak pus. A clean bucket filled with steaming water is nudged towards my face; without thinking I dip my hands in there to wash them then I shake my hands out until they no longer drip. After that vinegar is put into my hands. I give a small smile to whoever is helping me and am surprised to see Themis.

His strangely light eyes watch me as he whispers, "Your guy is helping to pass out the tea you made."

I nod then use the vinegar to wash out the infected wound, the guy groans loudly in his sleep. I murmur comfortingly to him as I continue to clean the wound until there is no more pus left visible in it. After that I grab bandages from a nearby end table and fold them into a pad. I take a brush given to me by Themis and use it to apply the poultice I made onto the pad. The man does not move as I apply the pad onto his lower wound. He does not even stir as I wrap a new bandage around the pad tightly to keep the poultice on.

"I am sorry for what I am going to do next but I need to stop any infection from spreading." I wipe his chest wound with the pre-mixed vinegar solution, he groans every time a slow careful stroke pulls at his wound, pulling him into hovering on the edge of consciousness. Once he is cleaned to my satisfaction I spread more poultice on a new pad and gently press it to his chest wound. His only response now is to twitch his fingers. After I am done I send just a tiny bit of my power into him, just enough to encourage his body to kick start the healing process again.

I shut my link off to him once his body does just that, encouraged by my portion of life energy and the extra power imbued in my poultice to fight to live once more. I take just a second to whisper encouragement into his ear then I move onto the man next to him. He is also badly injured with the claw marks across his chest and arms discharging foul smelling pus. He is also sick. My mouth settles in a grim line as I start his healing by offering a tiny bit of my power to him just to keep him alive and asleep long enough for me to give him a chance.

I know not how long I work on him or the next or the next one. I do not know how many humans I worked on either as I refused to count how many sick and injured they had. All I did was connect, heal, then disconnect from the prone men and women in this communal building that was probably used for enjoyment before they had to use it to contain all the suffering in one place. As I disconnect from the sick woman in front of me, thankfully no injuries this time, my mind fumbles to center itself. I also feel empty as I close myself off completely from the energy world. I use my sleeve to wipe the sweat from my brow but grimace as I feel the sleeve wet. Looking down at my black sleeve it takes me a moment to realize that it has blood and who knows what else on it. I try to turn from the woman but my body sways. I grimace as my legs collapse from under me. Miss Hammon catches me though with Themis just watching me nearby with an awed look on his face.