Douaga: the search for Brother Dalton

[Graybeard]

Therese looked worried, but she found a comfortable seat (a well-shaped tree, of course) and settled in to receive the ministrations of the healers. Sister Rose nodded. "That's best. We won't be going very far, not out of sight of that doorway." (Famous last words, she thought, but she would do everything possible to keep her word on that.)

In the event, she, Argus and Mordan didn't have to proceed more than twenty feet or so down a suspiciously well-constructed hallway before finding something important, and it wasn't connected to the bear.

Moments later, they emerged into the light, and she showed Sister Helen what they'd found. "A shoe, and it looks like one of ours," she said. It certainly wasn't anything of local manufacture. "Let me guess. Dalton wore this, right?" The look on the older nun's face was answer enough, and Rose let out a long sigh. "Looks like we're going to have to get deeper into this thing after all..."

[Drusia]

Therese looked worried, but she found a comfortable seat (a well-shaped tree, of course) and settled in to receive the ministrations of the healers.

I frown at Audie. Nerve damage is tricky work at the best of times. I tried to prevent it in the first place, but... well, it would be presumptious of me to assume that Audie rushed his healing and didn't repair the nerve properly. He is very enthusitic and very strong. Healing is delicate work, but he seemed to just... I bite my lip and try to focus on the task rather than laying blame. Time for that later.

"This is going to hurt," I warn Therese, kneeling beside her. "If you've lost feeling and movement, then there's a severed connection in there somewhere. We're going to have to... undo some of the healing to find the problem and fix it."

I turn to Anfisa. "Can you get a clean cloth for Therese?" I ask her.

I reach into my pack and dig out a small box. Inside is a gift from my mother - a flechette. I've never used it for it's intended purpose, but for this it will make a handy scalple. I turn back to Therese and run the flat of the blade up her arm. I watch to see when she flinches - that's will show me where she has feeling, and where she doesn't.

"Can you work on pain management?" I ask Audie without looking up. Hopefully Anfisa has found a cloth for Therese to bite on. When I start cutting, it is going to hurt.

-- Desiree

OOC: I have no idea if Audie is actually at fault here, but Desiree certainly thinks so. And, as to nerve damage, if we're making a thing of this, let's go all the way, eh?

[Alberich]

"Can you get a clean cloth for Therese?"

Silent in her misery, Anfisa fished out a perfumed handkerchief and handed it over.

Obviously this whole thing was going to end up with more physical intimacies between Desiree and Therese - it wouldn't surprise her if Therese was faking or had hurt herself extra on purpose, but there was nothing, nothing, nothing to be done.

"Can you work on pain management?"

"Yes'm" said the lad. He did.

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose bit her lip as she watched what was about to happen with (and to) Therese. Damn ... if we were back home, I'd either have medical supplies handy, or be able to compound something, like we did in Snamish. The memory of that event was still so painful that she had to force herself to move on to a different thought, or at least a variation on the one that was preying on her emotions now. Maybe one of the locals will know of some herbs that grow here and might help. But I don't.

As if on cue, the mushroom man chattered and ran off into the forest. Only a minute or two later, he returned clutching a rolled-up leaf, and spoke again, this time to Therese. The translator gadget picked up what he was saying. "For pain. Chew on this, won't hurt so bad."

He handed the anesthetic leaf over, as Rose remembered what Brother Miguel had told her, during a private moment after they'd first met Lillith, about his near-death experience. Could it have happened somewhere around here? She swallowed that thought too, and settled for a mantra of the church: Luminosita will provide.

[Alberich]

Audie put all his heart into his work, controlling the pain while the mushroom man went for herbs, and then healing wherever Desiree said to heal. But before it was quite over, suddenly drained, he buckled at the knees and fell to the forest floor, his head coming to a rest in Therese's lap. He was quite asleep. Whether the result was cute, obnoxious, or in the way depended on point of view.

[OOC: This is doubtless concurrent with whatever thaumic neurosurgery Desiree's about to describe.]

[Drusia]

Silent in her misery, Anfisa fished out a perfumed handkerchief and handed it over.
"Yes'm" said the lad. He did.
Audie put all his heart into his work, controlling the pain while the mushroom man went for herbs, and then healing wherever Desiree said to heal.

I don't wait for the Mushroom Man and whatever herbs he plans to give her. For now, I need her feeling - at least enough for me to tell where to cut.

Therese has several fresh, but faint scars from where she was just healed. Something went wrong in one of them. I trace the flat of the blade over each one, watching her react, or not, until I can determine where the feeling is being lost.

Sounds simple in theory, but the connections in our bodies don't always make sense. An injury in one part of the body can cause pain in another. Even fingers or whole limbs removed by a trauma can still, somehow, feel things. In this case, it means that the spot where she loses feeling isn't a straight line. If I just cut along the scar, I could miss the damage and potentially harm things more.

It's times like these I wish I could call upon Anilis for guidance. As much as I might pray, however, she can't tell me where to cut. For that, I must rely on Therese's body to show me.

There.

Every path I trace leads back to this point. It must be there. I take a breath. And then, without moving the flechette, I hand Therese the handkerchief Anfisa gave me.

"Bite that," I tell Therese. She does so, making what I assume is a face at the unpleasant taste of perfume on the cloth. "This is going to hurt," I tell her.

And then I cut open her arm.

Flechettes are very sharp. When they part flesh, one can barely feel it. At first. The cut I make is only half a dozen centimeters long, and not deep. It will take more than one pass to reach the nerve.

Therese tenses and I hear her moan through the handkerchief. I bite my lip and keep working. When her blood gets too thick for me to see, I blot it away with the sleve of my dress.

There it is. A tiny thread, just slightly different than the other bits around it. That's good... now to find the break.

I cut parallel to the nerve, folding the flesh back, careful not damage the nerve itself. Therese gasps, biting at the handkerchief. I expose that thread a couple of centimeters above and below the point where I estimated her sensation stopped.

And then, very gently, I run the back of the flechette over the nerve itself. Therese spasms and I have to pull the knife away to avoid cutting her. There are tears in her eyes and she's managed to bite her lip somehow even around the handkerchief. But not her tongue, which is point of the handkerchief.

"Hold her still," I tell Audie. He obliges, almost absently. He's working so hard to dull her pain. It just isn't enough. Which is good, really, since that's the only way I can tell when I've found the right spot.

I try again. This time Audie is ready - he keeps her still as she flinches. I watch for the moment she relaxes. There.

I test it again, just to make sure. Yes, that's it. It doesn't look any different. I take a breath, a long one.

And then I cut neatly through the thread. Therese shivers - she felt a little of that. Good.

Now is the time to call on Anilis. Finding the problem was up to me, and cutting the thread where the break was located. This part, she can help me with.

I call on her and reach out with my mind. The tiny thread is actually a bundled rope full of even smaller strings. Audie's healing had bascially tied them together in a knot. Instead, I need to thread them back together again, like splicing a rope together.

Time always gets a little funny when I do this. It seems to take me hours, but I know from the expressions of those around me that it was only a minute or two.

Once I've got the nerve woven back together, I give the area just a bit of gentle healing to reduce the swelling. And then, I cut Therese's finger.

Her finger jerks away from my flechette and she makes a little whimpering noise through the handkerchief. I grin, in spite of the bloody mess I've made of her arm. I think her eyes would be widening in surprise if she wasn't quite so nausiated by the pain. If Audie wasn't here helping, she'd have likely thrown up and passed out long ago, and I'd have no way to know if I got things right.

Speaking of which, no time to waste. I fold her flesh back into its proper configuration and let Anilis' healing power flow over it. Really, the wound I gave her was no larger or deeper than a minor sword wound. It's just that people typically don't go poking around in one's sword wounds for ten excruciating minutes. Not to mention that someone back home once described this sort of nerve repair as feeling like being lit on fire. Well, we're done now. The wound closes up and I do my best to minimize scarring. There, done.

Audie passes out in her lap, a Mushroom man gives her something to chew for the pain - a little late, but probably quite welcome. Even with all the healing magic, the area is going to be inflamed and the nerves are going ot be jolting her for a bityet. She spits out Anfisa's handkershief and chews the... willow bark of some sort? Similar? I hope? If it is willow bark, it will help with that swelling.

As for me...

"You should... sparkles..." my head drifts forward and -

"Ow!" My head cracks against something hard. Audie's head. Black spots join the sparkles in my vision and I press one palm to my eye to try to shut them out. It doesn't help.

-- Desiree

OOC: No, she isn't actually going to pass out. As much as she'd like to.
Also, I dare Anfisa to be jealous of Therese right now. :p Also, does she want that handkechief back?

[Alberich]

When she saw Desiree falling forward, Anfisa sprang into action to spare her lover an injury. Sadly she was not able to stop a slight crack of one head on another -- and a sting of guilt pierced her at that fact -- but she was able to prevent the half-elf healer from falling any further. Taking a seat close to Therese, she provided Desiree with a lap of her own, took a bottle of water, and wet her second and last handkerchief. Speaking softly and not to much moment, she gently dabbed at her beloved's brow hoping to soothe the pain and ease the exhaustion. Much as she would've done for a Gorielian noble who'd taken a lump in a fight. It wasn't medicine but they always seemed to like it.

Audie's only response to the crack on the head was to nestle into place in Therese's lap, smiling dreamily. How lucky for him that there were no artistically-skilled perverts around to make something of it.

[OOC: Oh, don't you worry, she's up to that challenge. Scented handkerchiefs and jealousy go so well together, don't you think?]

[Graybeard]

Desiree wasn't the only one with spots swimming in front of her eyes.

Luminosita's Nethers, Sister Rose thought, her own vision none too good. I'm glad I'm not the one doing that ... or receiving it. She was quite a good healer for a non-specialist and knew it, but there were things that just required full-blown Healer (capital H) skills to do ... and steeling oneself to knowingly inflict pain as a healer, for the greater good of the patient, was one of the things she'd always had trouble with. "I'm, uh, I'm going to be in the mission if you need me," she mumbled, and took Argus by the hand to head inside, feeling a bit guilty at leaving friends in a situation like that, but not so guilty as to stay and witness Desiree's procedure and Therese's pain.

Besides, there was work to do.

"I wish Miguel was here," she murmured once they were inside. "He's our big Divination and Forensics expert, as you'll recall. But he isn't, so we'll have to do our best to see what we can get from this shoe." She smiled faintly. "At least we have that gadget we picked up in Kiyoka to help."

And help the gadget did. By the time Desiree and Audie were finished with Therese, Rose and Argus had learned two important things. One was that the shoe indeed had been on Brother Dalton's foot recently; how recently they couldn't tell, but the general time frame was consistent with it having been dropped during the kidnapping. The second thing was that the shoe's mate, and therefore most likely Dalton, couldn't be detected within the gadget's range, which should cover all of the village and a bit more. There was third thing as well: the gadget placed a preservation/warding field around the shoe, so that it could be used for further divination and location-finding later. That might be important.

"Well, let's see how Therese is doing," Rose said as they gathered up. She shuddered. "I just don't like to see people I care for feeling pain... and that extends to you, of course." Another faint smile, and she permitted herself the luxury of embracing the man and gently massaging his now-healing calcified shoulder before they went back outside, where Therese was starting to come around.

[Drusia]

Taking a seat close to Therese, she provided Desiree with a lap of her own, took a bottle of water, and wet her second and last handkerchief. Speaking softly and not to much moment, she gently dabbed at her beloved's brow hoping to soothe the pain and ease the exhaustion. Much as she would've done for a Gorielian noble who'd taken a lump in a fight. It wasn't medicine but they always seemed to like it.

"Thanks," I sigh, my head aching. The water feels nice.

-- Desiree

[Graybeard]

Therese was regaining her senses as Sister Rose and Argus emerged from the mission. The narcotic leaf had left her fully conscious, just as it had Brother Miguel twenty years earlier, but unable to move a voluntary muscle, or even to feel the sensations in her extremities -- at least once the leaf had taken effect, although she'd certainly felt them in her arm while Desiree and Audie were working on it. Now she was regaining control over her arms and legs, and most importantly, the hand that she'd been previously unable to sense. She experimentally flexed her fingers, feeling a twinge of pain shoot up her forearm to where a surprisingly tiny scar had formed. But the fingers worked.

She took a deep breath, trying not to disturb the snoring youth whose head still rested in her lap. "I -- I think I'll be okay now," she said. "That wasn't the worst pain I've ever experienced." (This was probably untrue.) "We should get back to finding out what happened to your priest -- what is it?"

Rose had been told, during her military days, that she could adopt an imposing command presence when she felt like it. A glare didn't come naturally to her sensitive face, but there were times to haul it out and this was one. "No, Therese," she said. "A delay of an hour or two, or even a day, won't be the difference in this mission." (I hope that's true. I think it's true.) "Right now, you rest until the people that healed you tell you it's okay to move on." Her face and voice softened. "And look at them, too. They need the rest almost as much as you do." She shook her head gently at Audie. "He's so cute..."

Like the son I dreamed of having, but never had. Yet.