Book 2 Ch 24: No Breaks

“It’s kind of like reaching out and squeezing something, but with your soul,” said Michael as he walked. He had been trying to explain to Lys, and Trina, the other diviners in the group, how to close rifts since they’d never done it before. “It was actually very intuitive once I was near one, but it wasn’t easy, and somehow the things from the rift can feel when you’re doing it.”

Trina looked afraid when he said that. She was young, maybe nineteen, short and slim with sandy brown hair. She’d been given a light breastplate, a spear, a buckler, and a dagger. She had no mercenary or fighting experience, but Gemini needed diviners for this job and she’d apparently leapt at the opportunity when she heard of the pay.

“Don’t worry, everyone else will be there to keep you safe. You just have to focus on the task at hand,” said Lys.

“I thought Gemini had worked on rifts before. Have you not closed any of them before?” asked Michael.

She nodded. “Last time was with the support of Swandian diviners, and I wasn’t ever needed, but this time there are so many sprouting up they had none to spare.”

Michael nodded, so they were at least familiar with the kind of danger they represented.

“Um, I heard you’re a healer too,” said Trina.

“I am.”

Apparently Lys had to practically smuggle Trina out of her village; they were so set on keeping their healer from leaving. For Trina’s part she didn’t seem all that upset to have left them behind.

“He actually has the most blessings that I’ve ever seen. He has two I hadn’t even heard of before.” said Lys with a frown.

“The gods reward proper worship,” he said with a smile. He’d tried not to proselytize too much, as he felt that watered down his message, but that was the truth. The gods had favored him for the attention he gave them. He imagined they’d do the same for others.

“So you say,” replied Lys, incredulous.

“With certainty,” he replied, carefully stepping over a root that had managed to protrude onto the road they were on. As they got closer to the Lake of Beasts, the greenery had grown thicker, to the point he was starting to feel like he was back in the woods of Stent again. Their destination was a small town that would link them up to a number of villages closer to or even on the lake. The Lake itself had always had a bad reputation for rifts, hence the name, and it lay between Swandia and Old Hume.

They’d had a few days to settle in and meet everyone. It was a good group from what he could tell. There were a few points of tension here and there, but they all seemed to mostly get along thanks to a strong foundation of people that had been there from the beginning. The twins themselves were well respected and for good reason from what he’d heard so far, though he had upset Tai when he’d told him about the ending of the Sopranos. He was just glad that Tai had been dead before Game of Thrones had started airing.

“So, how many people have you healed?” asked Trina.

Michael blinked, he’d been four layers of internal thought deep and had forgotten they were having a conversation.

“I haven’t really kept count,” he said honestly. “Probably several hundred, you?” he asked.

Her eyes widened. “You’re joking. Were you a healer in your old life?”

“Nope. Didn’t have the discipline to be a doctor.”

“Were they just cuts and bruises, or?”
“Uh, some of them were, but I healed just as many ruptured intestines, severed spines, and concussions.”

“When I healed my neighbor’s broken leg I nearly passed out.”

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“I have several strong Recovery titles and deeds that have helped to increase my Stamina. Between that and the gods, I have a lot of benefits when it comes to healing.”

She frowned. “Even with that I can’t imagine healing that many people.”

“You’ve been training since you joined Gemini, right? I bet you’re already a better healer than you used to be. If you just practice it on top of the training, you’ll get even better. After a march like this there should be plenty of people with minor injuries and twisted ankles.”

He’d gotten a similar amount of surprise when he’d explained his healing to people. Some of them had even reacted with outright disbelief. Being an exceptional healer was something he’d grown used to being some kind of healing monster was taking a bit longer.

After another two hours of marching, the town of Southwind came into view. The trees were so thick at that point that it actually kind of snuck up on them, and before they knew it, their fiftyish person group were back to walking on brick streets.