The beaten body of Gregory was carried back into the camp in a way that almost resembled a funeral procession. Jte emerged from their tent and screamed upon seeing him, thinking him dead at first before she saw Valise hurry out of her own dwelling to rush to Gregory’s side.


    “Get away from him!” Fresh tears poured down Jte’s rosy cheeks. “This is all your fault!”


    Valise stopped in her tracks as if she’d been pped across the face with the venomous words. Unsure of herself, the gentle woman looked around to see if she was doing the right thing.


    “Woman, by the First, help him!” Algra entered the camp like an oing storm shortly after the others.


    “Algra, why?” Jte’s voice took on an almost pleading tone as she hopelessly asked how the orc could have let their lover be so badly injured.


    Both women felt their eyes meet and after a cool stare from the orc, Jte lowered hers first and rushed out to Gregory. Her cloak whipping around her almost naked body beneath. She saw his chest still rising and falling. His handsome face was broken and his bones didn’t seem to form right along his left arm and over his chest. Blood trickled from swollen lips and he seemed to be fighting hard to hold onto life.


    “Talina!” Valise’s voice cried out as she also rushed to Gregory’s side. The raven haired woman in question appeared almost out of nowhere momentster. “I need valin root, umber sap and my healing potions. They’re in-”


    Talina seemed to already know exactly where they were and with a flick of her own cloak, she was gliding back toward Valise’s tent.


    “Is he going to be ok?” Jte reached out and took Gregory’s hand in hers. She felt his fingers give a little instinctive squeeze that made hear heart almost leap into her throat.


    “I think so, but until I can begin treatment, nothing is certain.” Valise was all business as she moved the small candle holder from therge table within Gregory’s tent and had the Runts settle his body upon its surface.


    Despite her anger with Valise, Jte steeled herself and took a deep breath before wiping her eyes and looking up to the healer. Pushing aside her own pain and fear, she asked the only question that she could.


    “What can I do to help?”


    Valise looked up and saw that Jte had found some iron in her soul.


    “I need Emmet in here, now. And an extra pair of steady hands if you feel up to it.”


    Jte gave a tense little nod and then turned to rush off to find the wispy-haired elder out in the camp.


    Valise began her work then, examining the wounds and the breaks she could see before Talina returned with her supplies and she started putting the boy back together again. Jte returned with Emmet, who immediately was set to work in setting the bones along Gregory’s arm.


    The three of them worked for hours. After the sun settled below the horizon, Algra brought them fresh torches to work by and noted the worried look upon Valise’s face. She did not like that look at all. Gregory still refused to breathe properly, despite the dose of medicine she’d given him. Alchemy was a powerful craft when used correctly yet it couldn’t dislodge shards of bone from lungs without doing far more damage than it would heal.


    So it was that in the dark of night Valise and Emmet cleansed their hands and Gregory had his chest cut open. Jte was forced to leave as the sight of him being cut into finally broke her will and she dissolved into tears once more. Algra took her away and sent Talina to take her ce.Property ? 2024 N0(v)elDrama.Org.


    “You do know what you’re doing here, don’t you?” Emmet asked Valise as the razor edged knife sliced through the boy’s skin over the right side of his chest.


    “I have done it before.” Valise replied, though she did not borate on the matter.


    “Did it work?” Talina voiced the question immediately.


    “Yes, but then I had other advantages. This will be more difficult. Apply pressure there and keep it until I tell you to release.”


    Talina did as she was told. Her hands never wavered in the slightest as Gregory’s warm, red blood began to seep out over her fingertips. Valise worked with her little de for a full hour and made even the world-weary Emmet somewhat shocked by her skill and knowledge of human insides. Then, in the end, she began to fold the flesh back into ce and applied further alchemical concoctions before sewing up the wound she had made.


    Once she was finished, she let out a long breath and fell back to sit on one of the chairs beside the table, exhausted.


    “Release him.” On the blondedy’s orders, Talina and Emmet lifted their hands from Gregory’s body.


    “He seems to be breathing stronger,” the old man observed.


    “That is no longer the problem. I needed to use several different healing potions on him and there is a cost for that. Two aren’t traditionally used together because they have certain side-effects. The others are made with herbs that are fine in small doses but can be dangerous when used to such a degree.” Valise rested her forearms across her thighs with her bloodied hands hanging between her legs. “I did not know how else to…” she trailed off whilst looking over to Gregory with troubled eyes.


    “You did everything you could. Now our young friend here must do his part.” He then turned his head and looked toward the entrance to the canopy. “Algra!”


    It was mere moments before the orc woman stepped through, having to dip her head to slip beneath the entrance. Jte followed quickly behind, eyes still glistening and immediately fixing upon Gregory.


    “We have done all we can for now. His breathing is strong once more. This is a good sign. Valise is the most talented healer I have ever known.” Emmet turned to look at the woman herself, as did everyone else.


    Valise wasn’t just talented. She was damn-near inhuman in her knowledge and skill. Open exploratory surgery and treatment in the space of an hour? The greatest doctors in the empire couldn’t have hoped to aplish such a feat.


    Jte stepped out from behind Algra to take a wooden bowl from a chest of drawers at the side of the tent and dip it into arge barrel of fresh water. She took the bowl to Valise and knelt down before the tired alchemist to allow her to wash her hands of her patient’s blood.


    “I’m sorry I yelled at you. This wasn’t your fault.” Her voice was a little hoarse from crying, but it was honest.


    “No, it g’s.” Algra growled with the rage of a true orc. “Proving master. He put Gregory with worst pack he knew, then he set them against best to prove a point. He will regret using my…” She almost said “mate” but caught herself at thest moment. “Using Gregory to release his own spite.”


    “Now Algra, we can’t have you challenging the proving master. You still haven’t pledged yourself for Grolfir again. You’d be waging war on the entire camp.”