Inari’s Gift

Once Cera awoke the following day, she decided it was best to give the village elder time to check with everyone in the village, and thus she would hold off on visiting again until tomorrow.  Instead, she decided to continue her seemingly eternal work on her soul, after brushing her tail, of course.

Yet again, she finished fixing everything in her view, and had to shift the view of her soul, finding it amusing how it seemed impossible to see the whole thing at once.  Then again, even in her prior life, she’d never found an end to the soul.  Instead, she’d relied on modified spiritual viruses to make large-scale changes.

Partway through the day, Falron called her name, catching her attention.  He had apparently begun having trouble lifting things, which reminded him that he hadn’t taught her about more refined telekinesis yet, and she’d forgotten to ask.  While she could throw things like her ice spikes and fireballs, she was unable to simply lift and move objects with it.

In the end, Cera found herself unable to figure out how to refine her telekinesis to such a level in one day, and eventually ended up having to go to bed, planning on continuing her work the following day.

The next day, Cera swiftly prepared herself for the walk to the village, grabbing her staff along the way, and began her trip as soon as she finished breakfast.  After an uneventful walk, she found the elder’s home again and knocked on the door, waiting patiently.

Not too long later, the old woman opened it again and gestured for her to follow her back to meet the elder.  The pile of paper on his desk had grown since her prior visit, but he wasn’t busy working on it this time at least.  Instead, when he saw her, he got up from his chair and headed to the desk, quickly withdrawing two pieces of paper.

As he handed them to her, he explained, “One person has a broken leg and a nasty cut, with an infection, and another has a deep gash on one of their arms, but everyone else seems fine for now.  Here are directions for you to follow to get to their homes from here.”

Cera took the papers from him before thanking him, stating, “Thank you, I will do my best to heal them as soon as possible.  Was the one with a gash on their arm stable?  The leg sounds like it needs attention right away.”

The elder nodded and replied, “Yes, she’ll be fine; she had someone sew the wound shut when she made it back home from her trip in the woods.  Was that all you needed today?”

With a nod, Cera remarked, “Yes, I’ll stop bothering you now.  I’ll check back every day; you can just leave the papers beside your door with a rock to hold them down or something, as long as it isn’t raining, that way I won’t bother you.  I’ve been needing to get more exercise anyway, and a trip here qualifies, so it is no issue to check.  Thank you for your help.”

She then quickly left, letting the man get back to relaxing, and looked down at the papers, looking for the directions to the most injured person.  After a swift walk, she found herself at a small cabin on the edge of the village and knocked on the door.  A moment later, a young woman answered the door, looking quite exhausted.

“Hello, I was told someone here needed healing.  Clearly, that isn’t you, given the extent of the injuries I heard of, so could you please lead me to them?  I don’t want to delay with such a bad injury,” Cera stated, her tail twitching behind her in agitation at the thought of how bad the wound would likely be, though her illusion did manage to keep it hidden successfully.

The woman nodded, turned, and led her into the cabin as she replied, “Yes, my father was cutting wood when his hand slipped and the axe went into his leg instead of the block of wood.  It’s horrible, I hope you can help him!”

Cera nodded, though the woman couldn’t see, and responded, “I’m not completely sure about the bone, but I should be able to get rid of the infection and seal the wound.  I won’t ask for payment until I know for sure how much I can fix, but I’ll do my best.  You might not want to watch, though.  The only way I know to get rid of infection right now is to cut it away.  Your father will need a large meal to help make up for the energy and nutrients it will take to restore the flesh, so maybe you could focus on that?”

The woman shuddered at the mention of cutting and shook her head as they entered her father’s room, stating, “I definitely can’t watch that.  Are you sure you have to do that?”

Cera promptly replied, “I’m not able to remove infection any other way but physically for now, but I promise I can fix the cut at least.”

She then turned to the man lying on the bed and asked, “Are you okay with that, sir?  I’ll have to cut away part of your flesh to remove the infection before I can begin healing the wound.”

The man shuddered before stating, “If you’re sure it will help, but if you can’t heal it, I swear I’ll find a way to make you pay.”

Cera nodded to the man as she replied, “I’m afraid I’ve heard of ways to help with infection, but none of them are fast, nor can I do any of them myself.  This at least will be fast, letting me put you a bit more at ease really quickly."

She then walked up to where the man could easily watch before forming a scalpel of ice and cutting herself, then healing the wound in front of him.

“Hopefully, that helps you feel a bit better about this.  You’ll also need a large meal to help replace what the healing will take from you, as well as more food than normal for a few days,” Cera stated, taking a quick glance at the man’s daughter, who gave her a nod and fled from the room.

“I suppose, but I’m still uneasy about it, to say the least,” the man replied before sinking fully into the bed again and continuing, “Best get to it before I change my mind, healer.”

Cera then let out a short laugh and stated, “My apologies, I was so focused on the need to heal that I forgot to introduce myself!  My name is Cera, and I’ve been staying with Falron while he helps teach me.”

Before either of them could have second thoughts, she disposed of the scalpel she’d used on herself, setting it on the bedside table to melt, then formed a new one and advanced toward the man’s leg.  Cera was unable to resist shuddering as she saw the wound, pus leaking from several areas, despite the clear attempts to clean it.  Fortunately, the break in the bone seemed relatively minor.

She shook her head and focused back on actually working instead of observing and began carefully slicing away the infected areas, keeping an eye on the man who had his eyes closed.  He didn’t react much, so she assumed the blade was sharp enough to not be very noticeable, which had been her goal.

A few moments later, she pulled the last of the infected flesh from the wound and set it on the bedside table along with the scalpel.  She then put her hands on either side of the wound and focused, using her skill from her prior life to infiltrate her mana through that of the man without letting his own mana react.  Once she’d saturated the wound with mana, she followed the same procedure she’d used on herself, with a minor tweak to prevent scar tissue from forming, which she hadn’t needed on the tiny cut she’d made on herself.

Slowly, the wound began to shrink as the edges began to rapidly regenerate, the man grunting at the odd sensation.  Quite some time passed before the man’s daughter returned, staying outside the doorway, but just in Cera’s sight as she turned her head toward the noise.

“Ah, do you have a rag?  I can clean up the mess before you come in,” Cera remarked, then waited as the woman left again.

Removing her hands from the sides of the significantly smaller wound, Cera left the room to find the woman holding out a rag with a worried expression.

Cera nodded in thanks and stated, “I already got the worst of it done, just let me clean up really quickly.”

She then put her words into action and swept back into the room, picking up the infected flesh and melting blades from the table, then scrubbing it with a bit of water condensed from the air.  Once she finished, she took the rag to their trash bin and disposed of the remains before taking the bloody rag to the kitchen.

As she returned to the man’s room, she saw his daughter helping him eat some stew, and she sat down in the living room to wait.  Some time later, the woman returned with an empty bowl and thanked her, remarking that the wound looked far better now.

Cera simply nodded before returning to resume her work.  She estimated that she could fully seal the wound if she pulled the extra mana from her body, and decided to do exactly that.  After a while, she managed to get the cut to fully heal over and began to focus on the bone beneath.  Unfortunately, it was far harder to heal, though she was making slow progress.

As she worked, she spoke to the man, finally bringing up payment, “It looks like I can heal the bone, but it will take multiple days of work.  If you want me to do that, I’ll charge six steel coins, significantly lower than I would elsewhere, as I’m also learning more while doing this, in addition to this being a village with less money than a town.  Alternatively, if you want to heal the break on your own, only three steel coins.  If that is too much for you, we can come to an agreement on alternative payment, or over time.”

The man shook his head before remarking, “If you can heal the bone, it would be worth it to me.  I’ve got quite a bit of savings, but I’d have to spend a lot of it for others to take care of my family while I can’t.  But what did you mean by ‘alternative payment’ if you don’t mind answering?”

Cera let out a short chuckle before replying, “I’m glad you’ll be able to handle the cost.  I actually need to practice something related to healing, but significantly different, and was wondering how I’d manage it, since it is somewhat dangerous.  A much reduced version could be used without much danger, so being allowed to test it on you would work in place of money.”

With a shudder, the man responded, “I think I’ll stick with paying money, even if you say it isn’t very dangerous.”

Nodding, Cera stated, “I’ll only take half the money before I fully heal your bones, as that will take a while.  For now, I’m almost totally out of mana, and I use a special method to store more than normal.  I won’t be by tomorrow, as someone else needs help too, but afterward, I’ll stop by daily until I’m done.”

The man shook his head in response before saying, “Even just this is wonderful.  I know infections can kill, and was really worried when my daughter brought up how bad it was.”

He then shouted for his daughter to bring three steel coins, and they waited a few moments for her to arrive.  She seemed worried by the price, especially when the man stated it was only half, but nodded when he explained to her his reasoning.

Cera then told the woman she’d be by the day after tomorrow to resume work on the bone, then left to return home.  As she left, she noticed it was well into the night already, as she had worked all day long.  Fortunately, she could see quite well in the dark and had no trouble making it back.

Falron was already asleep when she entered their home, so she quietly made herself something to eat before heading to bed herself.

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