The Tent of High Healing

Prologue

"No."

No he would not let her die. Not as long as he was still alive.

"No." His voice echoed of the white Ashrah stone walls. As his body was pressed against hers, against the bed she lay in. Her body suspended between the sheets, tangled in a web of tubing and wires. The tube in her throat full of mucus, showed a rattling pattern on the screens.

The high healer blinked. "But she cannot continue on like this. There is no life left in her."

"I will stand before Death itself before he comes to claim her. I promised her I would never give up. I intend to keep that promise."

The high healer stood there in silence. Looking like the embodiment of the goddess of healing herself, Selwyn personified. Her skin radiant and glowing. While his wife lay there, pale as the sheets that draped her body.

"She is right in front of us plain as day. She is alive. She is breathing. Her heart is still beating. I can hear it. And you dare tell me she has no life left in her?"

The monitors beeped. The pulse on the screen slowed to a near halt. 50... 40... 30... 20...

"I know we had hoped that she would recover. But she has past the point of no return. There is nothing left we can do."

"Nothing left we can do?" His voice quiet.

"Or nothing left you can do?" He snarled.

He pushed himself from his embrace. Stood to his full height, looming over the healer. Like a lion standing over a mouse.

"You would stand here and do nothing? Let my wife die?—MY WIFE!" Grief etched into his face. Grief that had lived there for the past year as this cancerous disease ripped through her. Destroying the woman he loved. Eating her from the insides out.

"You who assured us that she would walk out of here?" He thundered. "This place is a mockery. You walk around in your blue robes, with your magic and your science. Pretending you have all the answers. Pretending you hold the key to life and death. Pretending that you--that you actually care."

"If I may—" the healer started.

"I've had enough of your silver-tongued words and your empty promises. Remember this day as the end. You do not serve the goddess Selwyn, you are abominations of Her. Messengers of Death. Sheolings. (Shadim??)

The healer's face paled.

"If she dies—I curse you—I curse all of you. Save her. Even if it means someone else dies."

"We do not deal in the trading of souls at the Tent of High Healing." The healer blazed. "We have sworn an oath to do no harm."

He threw his arms up and roared. Something in his voice changed, as if it was coming from somewhere deeper, somewhere darker. "I call upon the gods to curse this place. To curse these healers. To make them suffer as those in their care suffer."

Thunder clapped and black smoke began to fill the air, coming from between the cracks in the Ashrah stone. "I curse you. I curse all of you. Starting with you."

The black smoke began to thicken in the room until the healer could no longer breath. Until her eyes stung and she began to choke.

"A life for a life." His voice echoed as she collapsed to the floor.

The numbers on the monitor flashed, 10... 20... 30... 40...