Getsemiel, part 2

[Drannin]

(OOC: Resist, Sareth! RESIST!!)

[Drusia]

"I... uhh... picked something up in the last town." He said, a grin spreading despite himself. "It was..."
"It was a... lucky purchase. The man who worked there didn't have a clue what it was." Under the gazes of Desiree and Rose, he lifted the amulet from beneath his shirt long enough for a short look, then pulled it off and stuffed it into a pocket. He tried to inject some sincerity into his voice.
"I made a mistake. Forgot I had it on. The... uhh... energy'll be drained soon anyway, I reckon."

"A necklace?" I ask, feeling slightly stupid. Rose seems rather alarmed about something. Is it magical? I suppose it must be, the way Eli is talking about it. "What does it do?" I ask.

-- Desiree

OOC: Sareth, you could talk about Brad infusing Lillith with Mana.
Brad's rock breaking Lillith's tide.
Or Lillith riding Brad's wave.

Not sure why I'm going with so many ocean metaphors.

[Alberich]

Tim set to his work with a passion, overexpending his power at first. Rose noticed and laid a restraining hand on his shoulder. He nodded, and calmed it down.

Hearing Desiree's comfort to the stranger, he slipped close to her between heals, and whispered. "They're Millenarian, not Californican." And he felt only the tiniest temptation to brush her hair or nuzzle her ear - a temptation he resisted. Eli and she were...well, they were. Forget it. Heal the faithful. Ease their pain.

His next patient was a young, strong fellow - a little young to be at evening services, thought Tim. Among the Orthodox, the older folks, the widows, the elder parents whose children had moved away, these were fond of extra services and time with the priests. Healthy young fellows like this attended services, but didn't usually go for extras. Well, no time to ponder it. Multiple breaks to both legs, so that an unskillful healer might leave him crippled, but Tim was not unskilled.

"This is going to hurt, friend. Be strong."

"May I sing? Will it distract you?"

"You may. Go right ahead."

The patient belted out a loud hymn - a simple one, but a stirring tune in a major key:

My shield is faith, temptation's bar -
My sword is hope, I'm safe in war -
My exercise is when I pray -
The faithful band, it wins the day.

Tim could not join in - he was moving flesh and knitting bone, but some others joined in, as encouragement to their friend or themselves. A careful listener would know when the pain surged, but the man did not scream, and was indeed as brave a patient as Tim had ever tended. He said so in a few quick words, and blessed him with the Sign. There was no time for more talk, for more hurt bodies waited.

The next was a child, not hurt so severely as the others, but once the life-threatening, severed-artery cases were done, children and women came next, for it was men's place to endure their wounds. This one was trying hard to choke back her tears and she asked for a song. This Tim could handle and he picked a song he knew well as he worked, one that had crossed seas and borders, though it changed clothes at every waystation...

"Turmeric the Troll and Basil the Basilisk were the very best of friends..."

[OOC: Because his nacre has been discovered in her shell? His bathyscaphe descended into her depths?]

[Graybeard]

[OOC: That was great, Alberich, thanks ... but at the same time, curse you, because I was never able to think about "Tarragon the Troll" without also thinking about "Puff the Magic Dragon," which is a song guaranteed to reduce me to a pile of mush. Also, don't expect to hear anything from Brad for a while (i.e., until the airship gets into battle or it's morning), and if you want to attribute the gentle rocking motion of the airship strictly to aerodynamics, it's your call. So back to Rose...]

Sister Rose frowned as she saw Eli conceal the amulet. What was that all about? One didn't have to be a Luminositan fundamentalist to be suspicious of mysterious sources of amplified magical power ... particularly if one had lost one's spouse to an overpowered magical artifact about fifteen miles from here. On the other hand, it did seem to be helping him cast healing magic, which was desperately needed, the more so since Luminosita's Essence couldn't be tapped very effectively in these parts. Rose herself was a proficient enough spellcaster to be able to get straight to the available magic of the world, without Luminosita, but most of the Calfornican clergy and other healers from the Church in town weren't so lucky. She decided to let it pass for the moment, but a word with Eli in the morning might be in order.

She moved from victim to victim, healing the most urgent injuries and relieving pain, until fatigue began to overtake her. Desiree, Tim and even Eli were looking tired too, and none of the patients were at death's door now; it seemed like time to shut it down for the night. She called the others to her. "We'd better go get some rest," she said. "I think everyone will make it through the night, and we can help them more in the morning, after we've recharged our batteries, than we can now."

If she'd been paying attention, she'd have noticed that one of the trim, blond men had been keeping a careful eye on Eli from the moment he pocketed his amulet. However, she wasn't, so she didn't.

[Jack Rothwell]

"A necklace? What does it do?"

Eli had regained a measure of composure in the aftermath of the euphoria from using bolstered magic. Even so, he made a promise to himself to take a closer look at the gift when time permitted. First things first though...

"It gave me a boost." He answered. "It's just a trinket really. Some enchanter with a lot more brains than the man who sold it to me figured out a way of infusing the crystal with energy. It's triggered when I cast a spell. Like I said, it'll be drained soon. Probably."

He stood up and began to make his way to the next patient.

"I think I'll give using it a miss for the rest of this little task." He said.

[Alberich]

Tim resisted stopping now - he wanted to keep going 'til he dropped, both for the sake of these people and as a way to blot out the defeats and frustrations of the day. But she had to have authority -- though he vaguely remembered disapproving for some reason -- and on top of that she was probably right. He looked around. He looked where the Millenarian priests were looking.

Then to Rose - "May I...one more...please?" - for he saw there was only one more woman wounded, and no children at all. The men could suffer through the night. She shouldn't have to.

[OOC: Hmmm, then, how do the Californican kids sing it? Naah, not theirs.]

[Graybeard]

"May I...one more...please?"

Sister Rose raised an eyebrow. Tim was looking rather wobbly. He doesn't realize that he can't tap heavily into Luminosita's Power here, she guessed, and he's drawing on personal energy more strongly than he should. This could be trouble if he overexerted himself.

On the other hand, who was she to deny him his validation as a priest? Good priests went out of their way to tend their flocks. (Bad ones, of course, simply went out of their way to be comfortable.) To all appearances, Tim looked like he was shaping up to be one of the good ones. He should be encouraged to keep that up. And there was another thing, she realized as she scanned the people left in the temple. Ah, that one needs help ... which will be convenient. Next, she checked her own state. Would she have enough personal energy left for more spell casting after she did another heal? Or more accurately, before she did one? Yes, she should.

"Go ahead," she told Tim. She smiled wryly. "If you keel over, we can always stuff you into the wagon to get you back to the temple. Do be careful, though, and don't overextend yourself."

She turned to a young, blond man who seemed to have something wrong with his back. That would be tricky. Spinal injuries were harder to address magically than burns and broken bones and bleeding and shock. Still, if he could move his legs, she should be able to do something for him ... but before starting, she put up her Empathy magic, just in case.

[Alberich]

The young woman was too well-fed and freckly to be attractive, but that didn't matter. The rules were the same. A sprain, a pulled muscle, bruises and swelling - these were more painful than serious, but she'd sleep better without them, and the menfolk could hang on 'til morning. Tim set to work. And just as he finished, he collapsed into her arms, unconscious. Luckily for him, Harker was nowhere nearby to capture this moment on paper, let alone edit reality to fit his tool-badgery sense of humor.

"Thank you, Brother!" said she. For the healing, of course. No, really, of course.

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose finished up just in time to see Tim sag into the arms of the woman he'd healed. Well, I saw that coming, she thought, but of course, there was nothing to be done. She turned back to the man she'd helped. "That should hold you for now," she said. "See if you can get to a full-blown healer in the morning, though, and don't lift anything heavier than a glass of water until then."

The man smiled back at her, and she didn't need the Empathy to know his gratitude was genuine. "Wow. Like, totally, thanks, ma'am." He hobbled gingerly off, leaving Rose amused; obviously it wasn't just the Calfornicans who had the distinctive accent of Getsemiel.

There'd been another fit, blond man watching who hadn't had that accent, but she had no way of knowing that.

She turned to Eli and Desiree, who also looked to be at a stopping point. "Let's get sleeping beauty here into the wagon," she said. "I still need to help with a service back at the Calfornican temple, sad to say, and morning will come soon enough."

The question, of course, was: would the airship come back by morning? She tried to put that thought out of her head as the group headed back to the temple.

[Drusia]

"They're Millenarian, not Californican."

I give Brother Tim an annoyed glance. "I know that," I hiss at him, "I wanted them to think I was Californican." These people clearly don't like outsiders. "If they think I'm a Californican," I add at his blank look, "they'll see me as harmless - a known annoyance rather than an unknown threat."

Really, why is this so hard to understand?

Anyway, I turn back to Eli.

"It gave me a boost." He answered. "It's just a trinket really. Some enchanter with a lot more brains than the man who sold it to me figured out a way of infusing the crystal with energy. It's triggered when I cast a spell. Like I said, it'll be drained soon. Probably."

"I didn't think they sold stuff like that around here," I say cautiously. I'm not sure what else to say. I mean, I think that sounds strange, but I can't be sure - Rose will know better than I will what's avaliable in these parts. It just... doesn't seem like a place where you can just pick up a magic boosting necklace from a random street vender.

Then again, it also doesn't seem like a place where a bunch of magical mines would get left either. I shake my head, blinking back tears, and move on to another priest. The triage seems to be down to minor injuries now - my patient's injury would probably heal on it's own, but this will help it along and hopefully prevent infection.

"Like, just be cool and relax," I say, casting the spell.

-- Desiree

OOC: Um, please assume that Desiree's comment to Tim was BEFORE he went to heal that woman, and passed out. Otherwise it would be kind of silly. ^^;;