Rune mage

Chapter 52: healing

It was a long time before anything made sense.

I would come to and immediately black out.

Sometimes I could stay alert long enough to listen to the soft words of others. Sometimes the boy was curled in my cot with me. Sometimes I was sipping water or broth.

And sometimes I was alone.

I counted nine of us, plus three boys and the woman.

Someone had died.

Each time I counted, a habit upon waking, it was a fresh grief. Who had died? Not the sergeant, he had carried me. If I were well enough to think I could parse out who was missing.

It was a while before I was well enough.

I stood, startling the healer. "Are you...do you need assistance?" He asked, hovering at my side.

I pulled in my power to me. I was only carrying half of what I could normally carry. I pulled enough to give myself strength. "We need to bury Longslim," I said softly.

His eyes teared up. My gentle healer. "Are you well?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "We almost lost you. I used all of my power and twice used the reserve power you set for us. I still almost lost you."

I pulled him closer to me and kissed his forehead. "You have done well. Get some rest."

He watched me walk out.

"Boy," I said. I knew the lad was near.

He appeared at my side.

"Your powers have manifested young," I said to him gently. "I am grateful for your help."

He shook his head, tears pooling in his eyes.

He was a fresh mage, just coming to his powers. And his first magic had been to save my life. "You feel like a stone mage, but hotter. I wonder if there is such a thing as a volcano mage..." I shrugged. "If your power frightens your, I have already helped others your age with suppression runes so you won't accidentally destroy anything." I stoped walked and looked at him. "Would that help?"

He nodded, tears spilling out of his eyes and down his cheeks.

"Let's go find food," I said, suddenly hungry. "Then we will design what you need.

I had to stop twice to rest.

The boy stayed glued to my side.

I found my sergeant in the kitchen helping the woman corral the twins.

They all stopped when they saw me standing.

The woman started crying, relief evident by the way she rushed to me and hugged me.

My sergeant sat me down in a chair.

"Looking a little wane," he said. He set some bread in front of me.

"We need to bury Longslim," I said softly.

That set the woman to crying again.

I forgot that she hadn't always been here, hadn't been through death after death.

"A grave has been prepared," my sergeant said. "We can bury him now and you can rune a stone when you are stronger."

I ate a piece of bread. "We will do it when the sun is down."

I accepted hugs from the twins, and then they dashed off to tell everyone the news.

Before long, everyone was stopping in to see with their own eyes that their commander was indeed up.

I sent the boy to my study to fetch proper engraving tools.

My men had already found a decent stone.

My sergeant already knew Longslim's proper name.

I etched his name in and considered for some time what runes to place down.

"How did he die?" I asked.

My sergeant answered In the silence that followed.

"One of them had come to the kitchen, just as the captain had attacked you. Longslim stopped him from harming our cook. But he he paid with his life. Bled out in moments."

"We could not have saved him," the healer said softly from the doorway. "It wasn't like you, where you had time to work magic to stop the bleeding. There was no time. He did not suffer."

I etched runes of bravery upon his stone. Bravery and hope and clarity. Let any who stood upon his stone have hope for the future and the bravery to do what was needed, and some wisdom to see the path forward.

I looked down at the boy. He was mine in so many ways. It would be hard to send him along when the caravan returned.

Maybe I could keep him.

I sighed out a breath. "This stone has a feel to it. Let your magic take a small taste." When he paused, pale, I added. "I will not let your magic harm anyone."

I felt his magic hesitantly leave him. It felt so much like my brother's magic. Maybe stone mages felt like volcano mages when they were angry or scared. My brother hadn't been either regularly. Stone mages were known for their even tempers.

"The good news is, I have an elder brother who is a stone mage, and I know what worked for him. More good news is stone mages and rune mages work very well together. Get a feel for this stone. And when you're ready, ask it to follow you. We will see if it will obey."

I didn't think it would, but the lad was able to trail the stone behind him through the halls and out the door.

Longslim was wrapped lovingly in cloth. I looked at him one last time, and then he was lowered into his resting place.

"Here lies a man so brave," I said. "He volunteered for runes no one else would have, before most understood my magic. He scouted with me in darkness, and met every challenge with wit and acceptance. Here lies Jahna Oliver Tanner, son of a Tanner and his wife. He hailed from a land far from these mountains, and joined the army in the hopes that he could make a difference in this never ending war."

I paused. The men piled dirt upon him. "Like most of the men who were sent here, Jahna had errored in the eyes of the army. He confided to me once, in the darkness as we snuck around the lands putting down runes that would hopefully destroy our enemy and give us a chance to live, that for the crime of correcting an officer, he was sent here to die. Bravery is his trait. Bravery is not the absence of fear. Bravery is acting despite fear, and our brother Jahna did not lack bravery. Let any man woman or child who seeks clarity and bravery step upon his remembrance stone."

The men and I gently placed the stone down. I powered it up once so that everyone could feel it. Then I connected the charge rune, an intricate daisy, to the others so that it was always powered.

"Let me be brave," I whispered as I stood. "In remembrance of those that have been brave to their end."

"Let me be brave," my sergeant echoed.

The others echoed the sentiment and then we went inside.

My still healing body nearly collapsed the moment we were within. The fort made a little moan.

"I'm just tired," I said and pressed a hand against the wall.

"Let's get your in your proper bed." My sergeant said.