The Last Hope

14 - Healer

SONG FOR THIS CHAPTER - Hold Me, The Sweeplings. Linked above! If you enjoy the chapter please vote, it means a lot. Also, I actively encourage commenting and am trying my best to reply to any as quickly as I can. Want a chat? Don't be shy!

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"Get him on the couch!" Lincoln yelled at Keenan, who was still stood holding a limp Felix in his arms. His usually cheerful expression drawn in seriousness, in concentration.

"Not the couch! Don't you know how hard it is to spell blood out of velvet?" Mona griped; Mercy shot her a look. "Oh fine!" She caved, rushing through to the shop muttering, "I love that couch."

Lincoln helped Keenan carefully deposit Felix onto the sofa, Keenan keeping his glowing hand on Felix's leaking wound the whole time. Mercy rushed to them, dropping to her knees beside Felix's head. The dagger she'd been gifted clattered noisily to the floor. She paid it no mind as Felix writhed in pain. "Oh Fee, I'm so sorry." She gently stroked his matted hair back from his forehead. The bruising on his face had already faded, Keenan explained to her that the least serious injuries all took less time to heal. Lincoln took a step back from the sofa, studying Mercy carefully as she flitted around Felix.

Mona burst back through the old wooden door to the shop, a bundle of sage burning away in her hand. The scent of it filled the room, covering up the metallic tang of blood. She crossed to the sofa, waving the bundle over Felix's unconscious body. "What are you doing?" Mercy's voice was shocked and a little concerned.

"He's been in contact with the Grunts, they could have cast any manner of enchantments or curses over him, to track him, wound him, make him become a pain in our asses. I'm removing those spells before they're able to get the upper hand on us." She continued to move the burning sage over Felix's body, hovering just above, all the way to his feet and then back up to his head. She was still wearing her 'Mercy imitation' clothing as she'd called it, her long golden hair now free of its braid, fanning in every direction as she leaned over Felix.

"It's a simple transformation enchantment," Mona had said earlier that evening, after convincing Mercy there was another way to get Felix out of the Grunt's custody. Mona then proceeded to have Mercy to stand still as stone. She paced around her like a lioness, stalking. On her fifth revolution, Mona had transformed, and Mercy stared into her own eyes as Mona – now Mercy - took a bow. "Do my eyes really look like that?" Mercy had asked, startled.

"What do you mean?"

"I've just never noticed the violet before."

"Strange." Her curious look dissolved as she waved her hand, "as long as you stay close and, in the shadows, our scents will be too similar for the Grunts to tell apart."

"Our scents?"

Before Mercy had been unable to question her further, Mona had ushered them all to Lincoln, who had jumped them in pairs to the outskirts of the shipping yard, far enough away that the Grunts wouldn't have been able to sense their magic before Mona cloaked them.

Back in the room, Mercy watched as Keenan carefully peeled Felix's sports shirt off his sternum, crimson still rushing out, staining the couch. Felix screamed bloody murder, eyes popping open in agony. "Oh, this is not good," Keenan muttered to himself, panicked.

Alarmed, Mercy twisted to him, letting go of Felix to grab Keenan, "what's not good?" she asked desperately. Keenan met her eyes for a second, without answering he glanced over her shoulder to Lincoln. "Can you find the scissors?"