When I wake up, the healer is leaning over me and everything has gone quiet. I don’t even need to look around to realise that the battle has ended. And I highly doubt that we were on the winning side. I quickly touch my Bonds and feel that no one is at imminent risk, even if several are annoyed and some are still in pain.

  “Careful,” the healer tells me as I start sitting up. “You’re still significantly injured.” He’s not lying – I can tell that he’s worked on the internal burns caused by the lightning that poured through me, but my shoulder is a mess and I’m still missing a foot and half of my tibia. The healer tuts with a frown and looks up. “I thought you were intending on testing the young man, not crippling him, my lord! You know that I can’t regrow limbs by myself! And what you were thinking about using that sword in practice combat, I don’t know!”

  I turn my head to see Nicholas sitting in a chair that’s obviously been brought out for that purpose. He looks a little sheepish at the healer’s scolding, but unrepentant.

  “I was thinking that a proper test would introduce an element of danger.” Then he looks at my leg. “I…might have got carried away,” he admits. The healer frowns even more deeply.

  “I can see that. I’ll need to call in a couple of colleagues.” Nicholas looks reluctant.

  “That will take too much time – I want to start the journey to the capital tomorrow, and leaving him crippled for the journey reduces what we can use the travel time for. Can’t you take a couple of mana potions to give you the strength to regrow his foot?” Now it’s the healer’s turn to look reluctant.

  “I’ll need at least three Greater Mana potions and will be useless for a day afterwards but…if that’s the only option…”

  “Or I can just heal myself,” I interject, getting a little tired of them talking about me over my head.

  “What?” the healer demands, even as Nicholas gazes at me in slightly surprised calculation. “You can regrow a foot?”

  I shrug, feeling a little satisfaction at their surprise.

  “It will take a bit of time, but yes.”

  “You’re a Healer?” the healer blurts out, his white eyebrows almost disappearing into his grey hair.

  “Of a sort,” I agree.

  “But how do you have the Skills to be a Healer as well as a Tamer and a Mage?” the healer asks incredulously.

  “Jerry,” Nicholas reprimands him. The healer gets a mulish look on his face.

  “As you wish, my lord. I will keep my questions to myself. But if he’s a Healer, I would be willing to assess his Skills and guide him towards improving them. This world needs more Healers and fewer Warriors, if you ask me.” He sounds almost defiant about it.

  Nicholas’ forbidding expression softens. “Thank you, Jerry. Markus and I will discuss it and let you know.”

  The healer harumphs and then moves away from me to fuss over one of Nicholas’ Bound who seems to have been half-ripped apart. Personally, I would have put those injuries above my own, but then perhaps the internal burning was actually life-threatening – I can sense a lot of lingering healing magic that remains in my system.

  “Do you need anything? Healing potions? Mana potions?” Nicholas asks me quietly.

  “Either of those would probably help,” I admit. Nicholas pulls out a few vials from his Inventory. I recognise the green liquid as a similar healing potion to the ones I was given when I first transmigrated to the interim world. The other potions glow faintly blue – the mana potions, I guess. There must be a different process to create them than River uses – hers are usually green from the herbs which go into them and don’t glow at all unless I use Inspect. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome. I…Jerry was right. I shouldn’t have used my live sword in a practice bout like that, though I assure you that I only used its more…dangerous features with you. I wanted to know how you would deal with it, but it was unfair of me to spring it on you with no warning, and before we outfit you with weapons and gear which could counter it.” He’s quiet but he holds my gaze and I see the sincerity in it.

  “No harm done,” I say in the end, something inside me being soothed by his apology. “I know as well as anyone that battles aren’t fair. If I’d given up the first time I was outmatched by an opponent, I’d have died in my first days.” Then I eye him thoughtfully. “Did you even use any Skills in that fight?” If he did, they weren’t flashy ones. Nicholas gives me something which is the closest expression to a smirk that he’s shown me yet.

  “A few, but not many.”

  I can’t help but chuckle, a little painfully since I’ve released some of Sensation Management to feel my remaining injuries.

  “Well, good to know, I suppose. I look forward to a rematch when I’m better equipped and practiced,” I tell him with a hint of teeth. “Perhaps then we’ll be able to actually push you a bit.”

  “Perhaps,” he allows as he leans back.

  I take that as my cue to get started on my healing. I tip back one of the healing potions, my eyes going wide as I feel the pulse of mana hit my system. I have to work quite hard to force it to move towards my shoulder rather than my foot – I sense that it won’t be able to replace my foot so better not to have it try to heal the stump and cause more complications later. Once I’ve got control over the dose of healing magic I’ve been given, I reach out to my Bound to get a more detailed assessment of the situation.

  Is everyone OK? What happened after I fell?

  The other Binder called an end to the battle. Kalanthia is the first to answer. She sounds disgruntled, though whether it’s about Nicholas ending the battle, Nicholas giving her orders, or the fact that we lost by default, I can’t tell without digging deeper than she’d probably appreciate. We decided to oblige since you were ‘lost’ by the rules of this game. There was no point in fighting onwards.

  Her words actually warm me a little – they imply that potentially in another situation, there might be a point to fight further even if I fall and all Bonds are broken with my death. That’s probably something I need to discuss with them, actually. If I’d died in the other world, the rest of them would have probably mourned me, but life would have continued as usual. By the end of it, even the samurans weren’t so dependent on me that things would fall apart with my death. But this world is a different story. I’ll need to make sure that my Bound have measures in place to protect them if something happens to me.

  But you’re all fine? No serious injuries?

  The healer has helped most of us who were lost before you, Bastet answers. Not everyone is fully healed, but we are not in any sort of danger.

  Sirocco was dashed to the ground by a spare air current and taken out of the fight briefly before you were, but I gave her a healing potion and her wings have mostly knitted together, River informs me. I gave several others healing potions too, just to take care of the more minor injuries. A feeling of uncertainty drifts from her side of the Bond. Was that right? I know our supply of potions and ingredients is limited.

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  The well-being of our companions comes first, I reassure her. Besides, Nicholas has just given me a couple of healing and mana potions – I bet he’d be willing to arrange a stock for us. And hopefully we can get the recipe and the ingredients involved for you to learn to create them yourself. River sends me a sense of relief and appreciation for my words and I reply with a wave of affection – and guilt. It had momentarily slipped my mind, but the pregnant Pathwalkers probably shouldn’t have been in that fight. I’m just glad that I didn’t send them to face the griffin. If they had suffered the lightning strike I did, their eggs might have been cooked before being laid.

  But when I make an attempt to apologise, River refuses to hear it.

  We could have refused to fight, she pointed out. We are not helpless, not even when we’re pregnant.

  I know that, I agree wholeheartedly, but could you have taken that lightning bolt full-force? River is silent at that one. Just…if I ask you to do something that’s dangerous for you or your eggs, tell me, I almost beg her and the other two Pathwalkers who have been silent up until now, letting River speak for them. I’m not perfect and I make mistakes.

  We will tell you, Hunter agrees briskly. But no harm was done in this case. There is no point in worrying about it further.

  She’s right – I just make a mental note of the situation. Hopefully, next time I feel the urge to take one of my companions into battle while she’s pregnant, I’ll remember this and be more cautious. Redirecting my thoughts to touch everyone, I call for anyone else who’s still injured to come to me. I’m in a stable condition and I’m anxious to make sure that everyone is healthy. That doesn’t mean I want to move, though.

  Nicholas doesn’t say anything, but watches me silently as I heal one Bound after another. I give several of them small doses of the second healing potion – I reckon that it will do more harm than good when it comes to healing my foot since the dose of healing magic is hard to control with Flesh-Shaping. I keep Light Meditation going to improve my rate of mana regeneration, and twice take a mana potion made by River from my Inventory to improve the rate further. I’m saving the two Nicholas gave me for when I need to deal with my foot. I wonder what conclusions Nicholas is drawing from what he sees.

  Finally, everyone else is healed. I take one of the mana potions Nicholas gave me and my eyes go wide again at just how much mana gets dumped into my system – I have to scramble to not inadvertently waste half of it. I dig deeply inside myself, more comfortable now that I know all of my companions are safe.

  My collarbone and the slice Nicholas’ sword took out of me has already been mostly fixed with the first healing potion, as have the remaining internal burns. My foot is another question.

  Fortunately, there’s an easier solution to healing that than regrowing everything.

  With a thump, my foot and ankle drop next to me, brought over by Trouble who nudges at my hand in a silent demand for a caress. I chuckle and grant it, then take the cut-off limb. It’s cool, though not cold – no longer body temperature but not yet the temperature of the outside either. Pushing mana into it, I notice that there’s an odd accumulation of mana coating the flesh where the slice happened. I try to get rid of the film-like mana, but it doesn't want to budge.

  With a mental shrug, I just remove the two millimetre wide slice of flesh which contains the mana and let it slough away to drop on the gravel. Reaching my magic to where the wound was in my shoulder, I notice a touch of that same odd mana there too. Is this what Nicholas was referring to earlier when he ‘reassured’ me that he’d only used the most dangerous aspects of his sword against me? Making wounds hard to heal definitely qualifies and I haven’t seen this in any of my Bound.

  I finish fixing my shoulder just as I dealt with the film of mana over my foot – disconnecting cells from the lump of foreign mana and then pushing it out of a small hole I create in my flesh. Healing the last of my shoulder wound is simple after that. Then, pushing more mana into my foot, I deal with the cell death which has already started and warm the flesh so that it’s at body temperature once more. I also regrow the two milimetres of flesh that I discarded – that’s easy enough to do and will hopefully avoid my gait changing as a result of losing a little length in that leg.

  Next, I focus on where I previously sealed the wound on my leg. Interestingly, there’s a small film of that same mana that I detected on the cut off piece, but here it’s already disintegrating. I once more remove and regrow the flesh that’s imbued with it. Then, opening up the seal, I carefully control my blood so it doesn’t leak out – now not in a fight, I can concentrate on things like that – and position my cut-off limb in the right place.

  Thank goodness for Sensation Management – I would probably have fainted long before now if I didn’t have it. As it is, with my sensations dialed down to one out of twenty, I feel an uncomfortable grating and sliding, but it’s not painful. I reconnect the blood vessels, the bone, the tendons, the ligaments, the nerves. I do have to relax Sensation Management a bit to make sure that the nerves are connected properly, and the flash of pain that goes through me when I do makes me hiss. But everything looks correct, both from my outside and inside views. I test the movement of my foot, bending and stretching it, curling and uncurling my toes, and then, finally, standing up slowly to put my weight on it.

  “Fascinating!” I startle a little, not having realised that the healer had come to watch. “How did you overcome the coating that Lord Nicholas’ blade leaves? It’s known for making wounds particularly difficult to heal, and limbs impossible to reattach.” He shoots a look at the lord in question who once more looks a little abashed. “Which is why he shouldn’t have used it so irresponsibly in a battle such as this!” Well, I guess that answers my question as to why the healer hadn’t thought of reattaching my foot himself. And it also confirms what I had been suspecting.

  I shrug and indicate the two small lumps of flesh lying on the gravel near my feet.

  “I just got rid of the flesh that was imbued with the foreign mana and then regrew it.”

  “A clever idea,” the healer praises. “Though requiring a delicacy of manipulation that, in my experience, is very rare.” He turns to Nicholas again. “You must let him study with me. He clearly has a gift.”

  “He, is right here,” I interrupt before Nicholas can open his mouth. “And he can speak for himself.” Perhaps it’s not the best reaction, but I’m tired from emptying my mana pool several times to heal all of us, and I don’t like being talked about as if I can’t make my own choices.

  “Of course,” the healer replies apologetically. He sends an uncertain glance at Nicholas. “Still, it is more a question of scheduling – presuming you are interested in exploring more of a Healer’s gifts?” he adds abruptly, perhaps realising that he still hasn’t actually asked me if I even want to learn more. Of course, I do – everything I can do is self-taught based on a lay-man’s knowledge of biology. I’m sure that an actual trained Healer would have plenty to teach me. But I would prefer to be asked all the same.

  “I would be interested,” I agree, mollified.

  “Excellent. Then, Lord Nicholas…?”

  “Assuming you’re willing to undertake the journey to the capital with us, I will make sure his schedule includes time with you Jerry, yes,” the lord agrees. With a satisfied-sounding grunt, the healer bustles off again to continue healing the griffin – it seems that the big beast is harder to heal than the others as Jermaine has been working on it for a long time now. “Are you well now?” Nicholas asks me directly.

  “I’m healed; all my Bound are healed. So, yes.” Nicholas nods.

  “Good. Now, are you well enough to fight?”

  I hesitate for a moment there. I’m physically well, but my mana is still a bit low – I haven’t had time to regenerate it again. I tell Nicholas just that.

  “Then we will test your physical prowess next. Our sword battle was only enough to tell me that you are unpractised with those, which I knew from your lack of Swordsmanship Skill. Though it did indicate that you are able to take a surprising amount of damage. I would like to see what you can actually do with the weapons Skills you have, and then after that to see more of your capabilities with magic.”

  I sigh – it’s going to be a long day, isn’t it? But I understand why he needs to see these things – how can he offer me advice or training if he doesn’t know what I’m capable of doing.

  “Alright,” I tell him, pushing myself to my feet. “What’s first?”

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