A New Beginning

Chapter 10 Healing

"What?" Izzy exclaimed. "How?"

"It's simple, really," Julian answered. "If she combines a healing rune with a time-speeding rune-"

I interrupted, "Except I don't have one of those."

Katerina came in from the supplies closet, carrying a couple bags of something. "You will. I can make an inventive dream concoction." She set the materials on the counter and began pulling out bowls and measuring spoons. She began to measure different ingredients precisely and dump them into the bowl. "It will make you fall asleep and when you wake up you'll have a new rune idea. At least, that's what it's supposed to do..."

"And if that's not what it does?" I asked skeptically.

Katerina just shrugged. Julian cleared his throat, clearly annoyed. He continued, "So anyway, after Clary has the two runes, then she'll combine them to get the instant healing rune."

Isabelle asked, "Why are we doing this? Are my present healing runes not working?"

"No, they're working fine, just extremely slowly. That was a bad fall you had," Julian answered. "I thought you wanted to get back to training?"

"Yes! Of course! It's just..." she trailed off slightly. "What happens to Clary if this concoction thing doesn't work?"

"We won't know until we try," Katerina admitted. She handed a vial of clear liquid to me. "You don't have to do it, if you don't want to." She was the responsible adult if anything went wrong, so she was probably more worried than she showed.

"Bottoms up," I muttered as I tilted my head back and swallowed the vial's liquid. My vision went black. I felt my body fall back onto Emma's lap and a single white line revealed itself to me. I memorized the precise swirls and curves and it slowly faded away.

I cracked my eyes open. I was on the bed in Emma's lap. Four worried faces looked down at me.

"Are you okay?" Isabelle asked me, reaching out to tuck a stray strand of hair behind my ear. I nodded and slowly set up. I felt no pain at all; I felt numb.

"Did it work?" Katerina asked. Julian looked excited.

"Yeah," I answered. "Emma give me your watch."

She unhooked the latch and put it in my hands. I grabbed my stele, flipped the watch over, and began drawing the pattern I had seen in my sleep. I turned the watch back over, and we all gasped as the second hand was rapidly spinning around the watch face. Excited yells filled the room as we all stared at the watch.

Mr. Blackthorn came in to the infirmary. "What happened?" he asked curiously. We all answered at once, excitement filling the room once again. "One at a time!" he shouted over the commotion.

Julian quickly explained, as I showed Mr. Blackthorn the rapidly ticking watch. He gingerly fingered the watch, amazed by the speed. "This is incredible. Clary, you created this?" I eagerly nodded, smiling like crazy.

Julian said, "So now that we have the time-speed rune and a healing rune, can you combine them Clary?"

"I think so," I answered, grabbing a pen and paper from the bedside table. I carefully took certain elements from each rune and made a single, intricate design. I held it up for the others to see.

"Looks good to me," Julian commented. I looked specifically at Izzy to see what she thought of my new rune. She looked pleased and excited about being able to train again.

"Is this safe?" Mr. Blackthorn asked, concerned about us.

"Pretty safe," Katerina reassured him.

I took my stele over to Izzy's wheelchair. She made it recline and snuggled into the bed that it formed. She flipped over onto her stomach. I pulled the neck of her t-shirt down a bit. I traced the time-speed healing rune onto the back of her neck and between her shoulder blades. I let my stele guide me as my powers absorbed my control over my hand. I finally stepped back to admire my intricate pattern.

Isabelle's skin absorbed my rune and she instantly sat up. "I don't feel any pain at all!" she yelled. She excitedly stood up on her casted legs and began to walk around the infirmary. She whooped and yelled, happy to be healed in just two days.

We helped her remove the casts and she immediately wanted to go train. Mr. Blackthorn insisted that we all go to bed early, though. "There's a council meeting here tomorrow morning. And it's going to be really early, so get some sleep. Emma, Julian: you guys are in charge of the doors, remember?"

"Yeah, we know," Julian grumbled as Emma sighed in irritation.

"Thank you for your great enthusiasm!" Mr. Blackthorn sarcastically called over his shoulder as he left the infirmary.

Izzy then proceeded to sprint all the way to her room, hair whipping through the air behind her, her elated whoops echoing through the halls.

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