Blue Embers [Lisa x Reader AU]

S4C7: Of Sound Mind and Sole

Minjoon's muscles ached. After he had passed the Test of Atlas, Yeji helped him back to his room, where she laid him in his bed. She had done everything she could to help ease the tensed muscles.

He hadn't felt it at once, it had taken a moment. The Oracle had lifted from his shoulder after a month. To Minjoon, it had felt like years. Yeji would bring him bread and water twice a day and fed him herself. There was nothing else she could do.

The weight lifted and his strength left him, which was when Yeji began to help him back. Khan had urged her to hurry. He wouldn't say why, but she could see the urgency in his eyes. If there was something that she knew, it was to never question her teacher. Not just because he was strong, but because respect was a must from the pupil to the mentor. It was the way in the Hidden Temple. Khan had also never steered her wrong. Even if it hadn't seemed like it, when he demanded something of her, it was always in her best interest. So she obeyed him with haste.

When she opened the door to his room, Minjoon buckled over and fell through the doorway. She could see his muscles tensing and twitching under the skin. The scar over his shoulder danced a grotesque and snake-like waltz. His eyes were wide and crazy. The pain was driving him insane.

Yeji knelt down next to him, resting her hand on his back. "Come on, Jooni, we need to get you on your bed, so you don't hurt yourself on the hard ground."

The worry in her voice and eyes was strong and apparent. Minjoon struggled to stand enough to walk with her help. His tense, heavy body rolled onto the soft bed. It was then that Yeji noticed that he was sweating. His clothes were soaked. But she knew that he wasn't sweating during the Test of Atlas or on the way here. So the clothes were saturated in only the short time they had been in his room. Yeji felt his forehead and realized that he was burning up.

"Okay, um..." Yeji panicked. "I'm sorry, please forgive me, I will be right back. I'm going to go get you something to ease your pain."

She ran from the room faster than she had ever run before. There was only one person she knew could help, so she ran directly to her.

It was an elderly Tibetan woman who was known for being an effective doctor using traditional methods. Some thought she was magical in some way, but Yeji had known the truth. The woman was familiar with how basic needs could be effective to treating most afflictions. The woman had learned this living her life in a small Tibetan village, where she cared for many of the inhabitants.

The small huts that were carefully built throughout the Hidden Temple darted past her before coming across the old woman's home.

"Amma!?" Yeji yelled the only name any of them knew her by, as that is what Shou called her, not wanting to barge into her doorless home. "Amma, are you home?"

The older lady pulled the dark multicolored blanket aside and revealed herself to Yeji. The woman's hair was white and pulled into loose pigtails behind each of her ears. Her skin was a light brown and wrinkled and although the sag of her skin made her look unapproachable, her eyes betrayed that. Despite being scarred by the all too familiar crosses, they were gleaming with kindness and life. She had a thick folded blanket hanging over her shoulders that was similar to the one that hung on her door and pinned together by a large ornate clamp. Long, Jade, and rectangular earrings hung from each earlobe and a beaded necklace rested on her neck.

"Yes, dear, is everything okay?" Her voice was reminiscent of a caring grandmother.

"No, I need your help." Yeji tried her best to gather her thoughts and speak clearly through her panic. "Jooni- Minjoon passed the Test of Atlas. He needs help, he's in so much pain, I don't know what to do. He's just laying there and buckling in pain, I-"