[Power, Peace]

  Before Lu could pick up the injured man and take him to the Journeys End in search of the only other healer he knew. Opal and Mossbeard portaled in from the bookstore.

  “Opal thank Fortuna, I went to the clinic but it was closed. Hal here has managed to stop the bleeding but do you think that you could heal him, please. His friend was drunk and stabbed him by mistake.”

  “Yes, Lu.”

  Opal walked to the other side of the patient and started to pour healing magic into the man.

  “Is there anything I can do Lu?” Mossbeard asked.

  “Maybe just portal to the pub and tell them, Opal is attempting to heal the victim and if the guards are there tell them I’ll be up to swear out a complaint about the man who stabbed this man here. As soon as we know how this man makes out or they are welcome to come here if they prefer to check on his condition.”

  Opal continued to pour magic into the man, she heard all that was said, but she didn’t let any of it distract her from pouring magic into this man's chest. Once she hit the thirty percent magic level she paused the healing and started gathering magic. She did just as Rose had taught her she wouldn’t disappoint Rose again, by going below thirty percent, nope Rose was just about the greatest person in the world, well her and Ruby who’d made all sorts of sacrifices for her. The gathering took longer than the pouring out of magic into a sick or injured person. But she would heal this man if it took all night she’d make Rose proud.

  Ruby portaled in, let out a gasp when she saw Opal kneeling down beside a man covered in blood. That silly little shield lay on the man's chest.

  “What can I do to help?” Ruby asked.

  “Nothing, thanks, just be here for Opal, when she’s done.”

  Opal had finished gathering; her magical level was back to ninety seven percent and she started pouring her magic back into the stabbed man again. Even though the room was silent, she knew that everyone was watching her, but she didn’t let it distract her. Draco often moved and talked while she was trying to concentrate on her lesson. He told her that just because she was concentrating on a task, that didn’t mean that the world could or would stop around her. If she could learn to ignore him and concentrate then when she was tested in the real world, she wouldn’t have any problem focusing.

  She was close to thirty percent again. She slowed her healing at exactly thirty percent, she started gathering again. It was harder to concentrate on the gathering then on the healing. The passive gathering was more boring, just a lot of arm waving. But it was effective. She told herself again, she would heal this man and make Rose proud. Rose had tried to do a nice thing for her and Mossbeard today it wasn’t her fault that the house was evil. No she’d tell Sparky when she saw him next. He was always so hard on Rose.

  She had almost gathered enough magic to start the healing process again. She felt that she was getting close to healing this man, very, very, close. Rose portaled in, she smelled like a campfire. She and Ruby often smelled like a campfire for days at a time when they lived in the wagon. Opal thought she’d liked living in the wagon, but now realized that the reason she’d like the wagon was because she was with her sister. She much preferred living here in the tower with Ruby and Rose and Lu and Draco and Mossbeard and everyone else.

  Draco portaled in. She heard him whisper to Rose, “Are you all right?”

  Rose replied, “Draco, I did it again, I put Opal in danger. If Sparky hadn’t figured this out, I might have dragged her back into that house tomorrow. I don’t know what Ruby is going to say. She might tell Opal to stay away from me. First I let her get lost in that picture and today was even worse.”

  “Don’t worry, you have a lot of power but very little experience, anyone could have been lured in there. Maybe deep down you knew something was wrong with the place and that’s why you made them draw instead of collecting like you were. You were the target anyway, you had power that the house would love to get its hooks into. I can’t even picture the hellscape that the house would have created if it could have tapped into your Bibliomancy powers. Anyway it’s over and done and lesson learned. Don’t worry about it. Opals not letting it bother her, look at all that healing energy pouring into who is that?”

  “I don’t know, I just arrived a minute or so before you. I’m sorry I just portaled away out there, I thought I was going to cry and I just couldn’t do that on top of everything else that went wrong today. Do you think I should try and track down that, Michael Brown, he was actually pleasant today. But he’s been living in that house and moved out today, he was moving to Duskhaven.”

  “Yes it probably would be a good idea, you should bring Opal. Sparky said she saw two magical fields that you hadn’t noticed. If he has anything from the house, it’ll need to be destroyed. Sparky can give you some null magic bags. You might have to jump him to a fictional world and force him to tell you if he brought anything with him. You can’t trust him to tell you the truth if he’s being compelled. Force would be the only way.”

  Opal had just about completely healed the man. She needed to get to Ruby and tell her what happened before Rose did. Ruby has to know that this was not Rose’s fault, she didn’t want Ruby to tell Rose to stay away from her. The man was healed.

  “He’s all healed now, he should be fine. Ruby, could I please talk to you in the our bedroom please.”

  “Sure, Opal.”

  Lu said, “thank you so much Opal. I owe you big time anything you want just name it.”

  “It’s okay Lu, you don’t owe me anything, healing that’s my job and magic is to help people, I learned that from Rose.”

  The man on the floor started to come around, and Ruby and Opal left the room. Lu couldn’t believe that the man hadn’t died, he’d bled a lot, but Hal was good to his word he’d stopped the bleeding. Lu wasn’t sure he’d have been alive when Opal had arrived if it hadn't been for Hal. The man started to sit up.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “Take it easy mister, how do you feel?”

  “Fine, what’s all this blood all over me?”

  “You were stabbed by that man you were drinking with all day in the pub.”

  “I don’t remember that.”

  “Well you both were pretty drunk, don’t you remember arguing all day.”

  “Yeah, I remember arguing but I don’t remember getting stabbed and my brother would never stab me.”

  “No, I think he planned on stabbing me, but you fought him for the knife. Let’s get you to a bed, tomorrow if you're feeling alright, we’ll go to the guard house and you can make a statement.”

  “No, I’m not letting my brother stay in a cell all night. I’m fine, I’m going to get him released, right now and you can’t stop me. The guard will believe me, I don’t have a mark on me and I’m stone cold sober. Where the hell am I anyway?”

  “Fine, I’ll take you to the guard house myself.” Lu said.

  Lu flipped out her portal wallet, grabbed the man’s arm and portaled them both to the guard house. Nora was seated at the front guard house desk.

  “Lu, we didn’t expect to see you tonight. Who’s this someone else in the knife fight?”

  “No, this is the man who was stabbed, Opal healed him. Now he claims that he wasn’t stabbed at all, but if it hadn't been for Opal, this man would probably be dead. If this man won’t press charges, I will.”

  “I want to see my brother, this was just a misunderstanding.”

  “You can’t see your brother, he’s been throwing up since we brought him here and we can’t locate the doctor.”

  “Nora, I’ll go get Opal, we’ll be right back.” Lu was worried, she’d tried to hit that man as softly as she could. Did she cause some kind of internal injury? Stuff like that always happened in the mystery stories that she loved to read. She portaled to the tower, Rose was cleaning up the pool of blood that lay on the floor.

  “Rose, I think I seriously hurt the stabber, I punched him in the stomach to disarm him and Nora said he’s been throwing up since they brought him to the station. Is Opal still in with Ruby? Would it be dangerous for her to try and heal someone else so soon after healing the stab victim. No, as long as she has magical reserves she’ll be fine.”

  Lu and Rose ran to Ruby and Opal’s bedroom, knocked and threw open the door, Opal had been crying, that much was apparent.

  “Opal sweetie, could you please come to the guard house, the man who stabbed the man you just healed got hurt when Lu tried to disarm him. Would you please try and heal him.”

  “Yes, Rose.”

  Ruby said, “Rose, could you stay here and talk while Lu takes Opal, to her patient.”

  “Yes of course, Ruby.”

  Lu and Opal, portaled to the guard house. Nora escorted them both to the prisoner's cell, the patient lay on a cot. A bucket of puke and blood by his size. Opal didn’t let on that it smelled horrendous. She understood that Lu felt responsible for this man’s injuries. She started pouring magic into the man, she hadn’t refilled her magic reserves. Draco had warned her about always refilling after any magical feat, you can never tell, when you may need that extra bit of magic. By the time you need it it is often too late to do anything about it.

  Well, she had to talk to Ruby about what happened today before Rose told Ruby that it was all Rose’s fault. Rose never took the credit for the things she did, she always credited someone else for the things that went right, but she never blamed anyone else whenever something went wrong, nope she always took all of the blame on herself. Opal had noticed the weird, reddish magical field, she should have asked Rose about it at the very least. But she hadn’t said a word because she thought that a game with Rose and Mossbeard sounded like fun. Now maybe because of keeping her mouth shut, she might have ruined everything.

  She continued to pour magic into the patient, she felt guilty for not refilling, so she drained her magic to twenty five percent before stopping to refill her magical levels. The gathering was frustratingly slow. She’d tell Draco tomorrow morning that she needed to speed up gathering, maybe they could focus on that during the next week. Finally she was back to ninety seven percent. She started pouring her magic into him again. Three more cycles of healing and gathering, and she finally started to feel the magic not rushing so fast into his body. He will be healed soon. She was glad, twice he’d thrown up trying for the bucket, but managing to still get a lot of vomit and blood on her shoes.

  She wasn’t going to make the same mistake so when her levels hit thirty five percent she started gathering again for the last time. As soon as she hit ninety seven percent she poured the last required ten percent of healing magic into the man and he was healed. He sat up with a start.

  “What are you doing to me?”

  “Opal healed you, when you came at me with the knife, I punched you in the stomach, I’m sorry I hit you harder than I intended.”

  “My brother, oh god I stabbed my brother, he isn’t dead is he?”

  “No, he’s fine. Opal healed him as well.”

  Nora who’d been standing by the cell door the whole time said. “Wayne Greesley, you are under arrest for attempted murder. You’ll see a judge tomorrow. You might thank the girl who spent the last two hours healing you.”