Lightning Strikes

18

Alright, just a few more chapters to go. I've been putting off working on anything original due to another fic that I'm starting (this one's PJO, I guess). Expect that to be up after this story ends, and expect it to have a very different feel to it.

Jaz came out of the meeting around two hours later choking back tears. She passed by Aru and ran straight up toward her room. Aru chased after her. "Jaz, what's wrong?"

"I've been banished," Jaz informed her. "Courtesy of the royal family. Carter, Sadie, Zia, the gods, et cetera. And that too permanently. I'm so dead."

"Why?" Aru asked. "Can't you go back home?"

"There's no place for a magician in the normal world," the healer sighed. "And I didn't part well with my parents. They don't want me back either."

She broke down into tears. "I can't even go to the 365th Nome! They're treating me worse than a common criminal."

Aru stroked Jaz's short, blonde hair. "It'll be okay, Jaz. You'll be fine."

"How?" Jaz asked. "Where do I go, Aru? To the streets?"

"I'll take care of you," Aru offered. "I wasn't bluffing earlier. I swear they'll take you at the museum. We could really use a healer. We have Mini, but she can't actually heal, all she can do is talk about being a doctor."

"You meant that?" Jaz looked up at Aru. "Really?"

"Yeah," Aru said. "I swear it. As long as you are alive, you have a place at our house."

"Thank you, Aru," Jaz sighed. "I'll tell you what happened in there later."

Kara woke up about six hours later as promised. Aru had been waiting for hours with bated breath. It wasn't that she didn't trust Jaz — she had no right not to, considering just how much the girl was sacrificing to save Kara. It was just that she knew just how powerful all of the demons could be. The Sleeper had been hard to fight, sure, but that was partially because he was her father. On the other hand, these demons were most certainly not related to her (or were they?). However, they had all been vanquished in difficult fights by various gods. And here she was, trying to defeat all of them.

Aru looked at her sister carefully, making sure that she was alright. Jaz had said that it would take around another two hours for Kara's memories to completely return, and Aru hoped that it would work. If it didn't...she had no idea what she could do.

"She'll be fine, Aru," the disgraced healer said. She threw a few glowing vials of potions into a leather satchel before dumping several amulets in.

"I'm sure she will be," Aru said, in a way that made it clear that she was simply trying to convince herself. "By the way, are you supposed to be taking any of that?"

"No," Jaz confessed, smirking. "Definitely not. This is going to make life a lot more difficult for the next chief healer. I really do wish them the best, but they'll have to start experimenting in order to find solutions."

"Really, why?" Aru asked. "Aren't there are manuals for this kind of stuff?"

"For those?" Jaz pointed at a rack of multicolored potions. Aru noticed that none of them were glowing. "Yeah, definitely. Those are all very traditional, simple potions and amulets. Walt is good at making those, so we'll be just fine. But what Keisha and I used to work on were these."

Jaz gestured to the potions that she was dumping into her bag. "Only Keisha knows how to make these, and only some of them, at that. But she was always afraid to use them. I suppose I can see why now."

"Not everyone can be as self-sacrificing as you," Aru complimented. "Really, I mean that. I appreciate what you've done for us as a family."

"Don't thank me yet," Jaz warned. "Jinxes things. Let's go ahead and watch what happens, okay?"