Phantom Thunder

Chapter 27

It was like grief had taken a small chunk out of my life. I woke up in the infirmary with no idea what time or day it was. The last thing logged in my memory was Pluto. Thinking about it ripped through my heart like a blade, making tears leak from my eyes against my permission.

I sat up and my head spun. The white of the walls mixed with the sunlight steaming through the windows, causing the two mediums to swirl together. I heard the pitter patter like rainfall and saw Ms. Eilaen making her way across the clean floor towards me.

"What day is it?" I croaked.

"Don't worry child" she said gently. "It's been less than a day."

"What happened?" I managed.

Ms Eilaen pursed her lips. "You stayed by the boy until you bled out from that nasty cut on your leg and lost consciousness. Spark rushed you up here and demanded I help you immediately."

I'd forgotten about the injury in the adrenaline pumped state I'd existed in while fighting for my survival. It never seemed important.

"The funerals?"

"Don't worry child" she reassured me again, "you haven't missed it."

She took my wrist in her delicate hands and slid her slender fingers along my smooth skin. I felt a tingle dance along my arm and course up into my body.

I looked up at her. "You just gave me energy" I stated the obvious.

She nodded. "The energy you use to make weapons is the same as the energy that your body utilizes to heal, recover and function. By transferring my own to you it assists your recovery time."

"Can enough energy heal any wound?" The words stumbled off my tongue in a desperate attempt to be answered.

She pursed her lips and her eyes dropped to the ground. "There was no way you could have saved your friend. I'm sorry Ghost."

"Teach me" I croaked a desperate plea. I needed something to give me purpose, to hold onto, to prevent this from ever happening again.

She seemed to understand the state I was in and sat down next to me. "It's similar to making a weapon when the energy is just being transferred from skin to air. This is just skin to skin. However, the technique slightly differs. When you make a weapon you are packing as many particles of energy you can into a small space to make something solid. Transferring is more like sewing seeds on a fertile field. It has to be gentle. Let the energy flow. If too much enters the body of another you can completely burn the nerves in that part of their body."

For some reason I felt like that should faze me. It didn't.

"Try it on yourself first" she said and put her right hand on the exposed skin of her own left forearm. "Bring the energy to your hand, and then just let it slip through into your other arm. Start with a minuscule amount, then once you get the hang of it you can try it with more energy. But remember to keep it flowing. Once the energy comes back into your body it will be swept up in the flow of energy through your body, but if you overload it your body won't be able to circulate it. Your veins will burn and sever."

I did as she had done and placed my two fingers on the underside of my forearm. I felt the energy moving through me. Gently I guided a portion towards my right hand. I let it slip to the end of my finger. Then, as if it was a river with it's own flow it trickled from the skin of my fingers and sparked rather angrily across the skin of my forearm as it slipped through, back into my body.

"That was uncomfortable" I stated.
She smiled as if she was amused. "It takes practice. I've never seen someone get it first try."

"Why do they not teach us this at the Academy?" I asked.