The War Begins

Chapter 6 - A Ghost Opponent

Her arm twisted above and around his while she turned quicker than he thought possible, her hair covering her face. An impacted to his jaw came from her elbow and sent sparks flying through his vision. Then, sliding a booted foot between his legs she hooked his ankle and pushed his chest. With unbalanced feet, the shove knocked him to the stone floor. His vision winked and went black.

When his eyelids slowly rose minutes later he could feel warmth throughout his body and it felt as though a soft fire had been lit in his hand while tendrils of that fire caught his veins and traveled within him. The fire pulsed with a steady beat and concentrated on his head and hand leading him to send his mind into his body, looking for the source.

The warmth was tinged with a strength that almost burnt unlike his own, natural power. Separating from his body, his mind moved fluidly to the air above him and looked down. Because of the ties to mind and body in this floating state he could only see himself; others could be trained to look outside the body, but it took an inborn skill he didn't have. Delving into the thin line of sensation that his prone body still fed him, he peeled away layers until he saw only energy and magic.

A bright red brand of energy coated his body and veins. Tracing the flames away from his head he found the source at his hand, the warm almost pain was coming from outside of him, from someone else. Most of the magic wrapped around his head but didn't intrude into his thoughts and mind, focusing on the superficial aspects. It must be a healing spell, he concluded, one like no other he'd seen.

The red coalesced around thin fractures in his bones, flaring yellow. Magic probed around his skull, checking for injury; someone was worried he had hurt himself when he'd fallen. The spell burned away bruises flaring hot, but left the old injuries untouched. A highway of red energy flowed through his body with balls of bright light floating around his head, hand, and all the small cracks in his bones. Every vein in his body throbed with red light and energy.

Lowering himself into his body, he let sensation flow back to him with a gasp. Emotion crashed into him ripping him from his analytical floating. As sensation returned, he strained his senses to find the healer, and found a small hand gripping his. Blinking his eyes open once again, he found the woman kneeling by his side clutching his hand. Her eyes were closed in concentration as she fed magic through him, healing him.

He went to remove his calloused hand from hers but she gripped harder rather than release. A few moments later, her iron grip relaxed and the bright fire of her magic slid from him. The absence felt like a cool wash of water coming from the outer edges of his body and ending in his hand as she broke her grip. Taking a moment to take an inventory of her own body and reacquaint herself with the physical world, she kept her eyes closed, exploring with her mind. Bright purple eyes burned into his when they did open.

"You idiot," She snarled. "Don't you know leaving your body while an evaluation and healing is in progress is dangerous? You could have been trapped outside of your body!" she looked very close to violence once again as she yelled down at him.

"What the hell did you do to me?" He shot back in kind, moving to prop himself up.

"I knocked you down where you had the tenacity to hit your head and knock yourself out. I checked your health and healed the small fractures that you caused to your skull."

"That I caused? You are the one who pushed me with enhanced stregth!" Caine shot back. An ordinary fall wouldn't have cracked so much as a single bone.

"Yes, but you're the idiot magician who didn't comfort his own fall!" They were yelling at each other now. Glowering at her, he eased himself up and held out a hand to help her, even in this mood he was still a gentleman, but she scorned it and rose gracefully.