The Healer and the General

Part 29

After the male collapsed, Sotie immediately ran to Demi's open arms. She had dropped the bow earlier. The pregnant female shook and looked like she would start crying any second.

"Somebody move the body." Demi's calm voice filled the room's silence. "And you," she pointed at one of the kids, "Sit Sotie down, get her a blanket and water." The female was definitely going into shock. Sotie reluctantly let go and leaned on the young female, who started leading her towards the desk.

Demi went back to work on the injured male from before. Voices resumed, and eventually, the chaos and noise came back to the tent. The battle seemed to die down, then suddenly she felt the world around her come alive. Rumbling, cracking, and screaming were only some of the sounds that came from outside. Deep down, Demi knew that it was Eric and his magic, but she never expected it to be this powerful. In her childhood, Demi had seen a fair share of earth-based magics, but Eric's was something else, or at least by the feel of it, it was.

The ground beneath her seemed to quake with anger, and Demi's own magic shot toward the source. Without letting it, her energy flowed out of her, and into Eric. Demi didn't necessarily not want to do it, but she hadn't meant to, at least not consciously. Her subconscious recognized the magic and its user as her other half, even though Demi didn't know it yet.

She kept on working, never stopping for more than a minute. Her legs ached, but her mind was still fully energized, and her magic wanted out of its cage. It wanted to fill the injured, to heal them, to end their pain, but Demi kept it in check. Barely.

By the time the sun had started to set, all of the wounded had been tended to. Some were allowed to go to their own homes or tents, while the rest had to stay for extra care. Demi's hands were covered in blood, and there was no fresh water to clean them off in. Her eyes landed on the bow, still on the ground, and she felt like she was suffocating.

Demi had killed somebody, the realization hit her like a brick. No remorse, guilt, regret, or other negative feelings hit her, because the male was gone. There was nothing she could do about it, and it's not like he hadn't deserved it. But there was a feeling of knowing that blood was on her hands, literally and figuratively, not that it was a relatively new feeling.

And for some reason, this realization came with a reliving of her childhood. Not the Ura period, but before that, when her mother and she lived in a beautiful building on a hill, where the breeze from the ocean was always coming in through the windows that were rarely closed. But despite it's calm and peaceful appearance, it was a living nightmare, an inescapable hell.

"I'll be back in a few minutes." Demi abruptly said to no one in particular. She walked briskly out of the tent, however even in the open space, she felt the presence of death. Lady Death had followed Demi all her life, never nearing her, rather those around her. Death and she were good friends, she did the heavy lifting, while the quiet widow did the rest. But Demi had promised a long time ago that she'd stray from Death's side, that she wouldn't go back no matter what happened. She'd promised her mother all those years ago that she would never again be the weapon and monster that Demi's father had made her into.

But now that promise was broken, and Demi wasn't sure what to think of it. What would her mother think? She might agree that in the situation the male had to die, but how would she feel about the guilt that Demi felt, or rather, didn't feel.

Knowing it would be stupid to go deep into the woods, Demi only strayed to the river. She fell to her knees and scrubbed at her hands furiously. As her thoughts swirled around her mother and past, Demi felt tears come to her eyes. She didn't have the energy to wipe them away, so they stayed there, dropping as they became heavy enough. Like rain falling from clouds.